Because it's Halloween...

Ha ha!!! We had a record 14 or so trick-or-treaters at our house tonight. 15 if you count the dude from the Sierra Club that was canvassing. We never seem to live in the right neighborhoods. Huh. Here are some more awesome animals in Halloween wear:

Guinea-saur

Greyhound Cheerlead

Rice Krispy Cat (and other cat torture)

Don't you hate it when...

Don't you hate it when:

• you come back from vacation relaxed and the feeling has disappeared within less than a month, or even a few weeks?
• poor time management by others ends up affecting you and your ability to get things done well?
• the week is dragging... and it's only Wednesday?

I'm totally having all three today.

Good distractions.

Our weather is in limbo right now. It's cold, wet, and winter is setting in. In a month or so, we should be skiing again. Until then, I need some serious distractions to keep me from getting restless. Here are a handful of good things that are working for me at the moment:

• Extras on DVD.
  I love Ricky Gervais. We were late catching on to this, but now that we have, we both love it! TV characters haven't been more pitiful or awkward since The Office (UK). And the celebrity cameos are genius.
  
  
  
• New music.
  Ingrid Michaelson, Stars, Spoon, and more. They're all good, too.
  
  
  
• The Gocco printer.
  I reinvested some of my Maida Vale money over the weekend and purchased one of these babies. Silk-screening in home. The possibilities seem endless. I'm hoping that its arrival will blast creativity through the house next weekend. Shawn's having his wisdom teeth removed, so there should be plenty of time at least. =(
  
  
  
• Refinishing bookcases.
  We've been rehabbing a 1950s-style bookcase that I nabbed from my mom years ago. Shawn stained it a rich espresso color yesterday. Totally can't wait until it's finished so we can add it to a little nook in our kitchen. Before and after pics to come once it's completely done...
  
• Guitar Hero III.
  It's already been shipped to our house. We've had the second version all of two or three weeks and are ready for more. The tracklisting is amazing, too. It even includes a Bloc Party song. What?! Can't wait to rock that out.
  
• And about that skiing.
  Yesterday, we bought season passes that will give us unlimited access to a resort that is 45 minutes away. In addition, we get five visits to our favorite spot right next to Mt. Rainier. Sweet!
  
  
  

New bag.

How cute is my new bag? Found it in Ballard last weekend...

Resolution update.

I can hardly believe it, but the end of the year is rapidly approaching. So, I've been thinking about the resolutions I made way back at the beginning of 2007 (view here):

Increase my income.
This one can be checked off the list! If our mortgage was even close to what we were paying in Indy, we'd maybe even be rolling in it. Ha ha.

Lose 10 pounds.
This is a tricky one. My weight is constantly fluctuating within a 10-pound range. After our trip to England, I was feeling quite trim (thanks to all of the walking we did each day). Now that we are back into our regular routines, I am feeling slightly frumpy again. As a result, this resolution has now wormed its way back onto my to-do list. Argh.

Do more good.
My job has allowed me to contribute in a more positive way on a day-to-day basis. From a financial standpoint, we usually make our charitable contributions around this time each year. To push this resolution way off the list, I'm hoping to increase the amount we contribute by 25%.

Figure out where we want to live.
We bought a house eight months ago. So, we figured out where to live in Seattle. That being said, it still doesn't feel like home most days. For many reasons, this resolution is still hanging over me. And it's probably the one I needed to figure out most of all... Double argh.

Our weekend (in a nutshell).

Milky tea, caramel apple cupcakes, Guitar Hero, and fuzzy kitties (sometimes stalking us while perching on the stairs). Rain and more rain.





I don't feel like the weekend was terribly productive otherwise. One thing that's bogging me down lately is meal planning and grocery list-making. Anyone know of a good trick to make this part of life easier? Maybe a method or even a software that I could try?

Somebody's one...

We've been back in Seattle for a few days now. Had such an awesome trip home... Chicago for S's bday was a total blast. We ate, drank, danced our booties off, and played Tetris. We have so many friends living there now, so it was a treat to get to hang out with quite a few of them all at once. In Indy, we celebrated Aubree's first birthday (which is actually today!) as well as my stepdad's 50th. It was a party weekend! Also got to visit the zoo with our niece. It was her first trip there. She seemed really into it and basically passed out halfway through. It was a little overstimulating, I think...


S's 35th in Chicago: With all the ladies...


Aubree's birthday party


She worked that cake like nobody's business!


We saw actual meerkats at the zoo! They were awesome.


With Beth at the zoo...


Teeth! Happy birthday, baby girl!

Preshat.

Quiet on here this week because our lives have been... un-quiet. Friday night, S came down with severe abdominal pain that landed us in the emergence room. After doing a scan to rule out appendicitis and filling him with pain meds, he was discharged early into Saturday morning. He battled some pain on Saturday, but by Sunday, was feeling much better. A visit to the doctor on Monday determined that he had somehow caught a nasty stomach virus that lead to additional problems. Things have been looking up ever since as he's pretty much back to normal now.

We've also started taking Italian classes once a week again. So, last night brought another round of Italiano followed by a trip to Neumo's to see Michael Ian Black and Michael Showalter. What a great show that was! It was pretty sweet to see two members of The State in person. We had seen Michael S. already and knew he would be a blockbuster, but last night he tried out a new bit on us about Scrabble. Using a PowerPoint presentation, he did a play-by-play of a recent Scrabble game he was involved in. He started out the skit by putting down regular words and eventually built up to absurdities like "penissockser" and "preshat". He also showed us a definition of "reshat":

preshat: The stuff you were doing before you took a s#@!.

Loved it.

Otherwise, we're heading to Chi-town to celebrate S's 35th birthday tomorrow. What an old man he is now! =) We'll be home for a very quick stop over the weekend, too, to celebrate Aubree's 1st birthday. What a big girl she is! Can't wait to see her and give her some big hugs...

Slough.

Totally forgot to mention how random it was when we pulled into Slough station on our way back to London from the Cotwolds. Slough was used as the homebase for the UK version of "The Office". So, we had a good giggle over that!

Our weekend is going to be low key... and I'm looking forward to that. =) We're hoping the Cubbies can pull out some magic tomorrow since they aren't faring too well thus far. Keep your fingers crossed!

It may be the rain.

Or it may just be that everyone is annoying today.
No matter which way you cut it, I am grumpy.

The Manor.

Meerkat Manor took a very sad turn in last week's episode. Does anybody other than us watch this show? It constantly surprises me to see how amazing, yet just how devastating, nature can be.

PDX.

We had an awesome time in Portland this weekend. Nathan came along with us for a day of shopping, eating, and wine drinking. Saturday night ended with a trip to Ground Kontrol, where we spent hours rockin' their old school arcade games. It made me feel like I was in 8th grade again! After we got back to the hotel, we indulged in some yummy new cupcakes (one was green tea, another pb&j) that were standing in as "birthday cake". The triple coconut was to-die-for.

Before heading back yesterday, we popped in to Portland's Kennedy School for brekkie. It is a refurbished old elementary school that has been converted into a hotel/restaurant/bar. It was swell to see space like this repurposed rather than torn down. The decor was funky, too, with loads of bizarre murals, interesting lamps, and mosaics everywhere.

So, yeah, 33 got off to a good start. Thanks to everyone for the well wishes...