Christmas and Snow and Stuff

Christmas morning was spent opening presents, then heading on over to my parent's house. My little sister made our traditional breakfast of orange rolls, and I helped by cooking up the sausage. The snow outside was really deep! Luckily, it was still snowing and was not as icy as the previous days, so it was a bit easier to get around in. Above is a pic of my sister outside taking pictures of the snow (and taking a picture of me taking a picture of her taking a picture...)

I'm still a little sick, and am sad about the fact that we've had the most snow that I can remember in recent years, and I was too sick to go out in it and play. Both Chloe and I had colds, so we didn't go out much. We've been hanging around the house, we went shopping at Target (looking for a Cobalt Blue DS to trade for Chloe's pink one that Santa brought), and we've been playing video games. Below is Ray playing on the Wii on Christmas Day.

I bought a new video game for the Wii called Animal Crossing - City Folk. From the TV commercials, it looked pretty stupid, but some of my friends had been talking about it. It's actually really fun, and there's lots to do. One of the favorite things to do for Ray is go fishing, he's good at that, and he earns a lot of points. I like fishing too, but also decorating my home and shopping. One fun thing that we did was go "Time Travelling" by changing the date on the Wii. We went back to Thanksgiving Day and did the mini game that day and got some pretty hideously pink and purple furniture as a reward. LOL!

I have the week off, and have gotten as far as making a to-do list. I actually DID go grocery shopping today, so I think that counts for something. ;) But I want to spend the week doing some organizing around here, as well as having some down time with Chloe.

Snow and Ick

I was bored yesterday, did nothing much but nap and just lay on the couch because I was feeling so icky. I got a little bored at one point, and woke up the kitty by making noises with my iPhone application of LightSaber (makes realistic Lightsaber sounds). She was a little startled. So I took her picture - that's me laying on the couch, and BL sitting on Ray's computer chair.

Below is a shot of the snow yesterday afternoon. It snowed more during the rest of the day and overnight, so it's even deeper now.

Sunday

<- Qwest Field today; you can see the snow falling, and where they had to shovel the snow from the yard markers.


Well, I've been a bit under the weather the last few days. I thought I was doing better, so I went into work on Friday and went to the parties, but it definitely caught up with me today. I spent most of the day on the couch alternating coughing and sleeping, while Ray went with a friend of his to see the Seahawks game, as they wanted to see Brett Favre play. They got some excellent tickets from a long-time season ticket holder that wasn't going to make it to the game, due to the snow.

Ray said it was a great game, and said it was so weird to have it snowing the whole time. Above is a picture that he took from their seats. It was Mike Holmgren's last home game, they won, only the die-hard crazy people were there, and most everyone stood up the whole game (and some threw snowballs at the hapless Jets on their way to the locker room). Sounds like a fun game!

It was snowing too hard, and traffic was too bad to come home right away, so they stayed downtown for a bit to wait it out.

For me, I'm wishing that I would have stocked up on NyQuil when I had the chance. Ugh! I hate being sick.

Breakfast at the Georgian Room

We went to breakfast at the Georgian Room this morning. The Georgian Room is at the Fairmont Olympic Hotel (formerly the Four Seasons Hotel), which is about a block away from the hotel we stayed at. It's a gorgeous place, the people are really helpful, and the food was amazing.

I had some kind of vanilla waffles with glazed strawberries and whipped cream, and sausage. Mmmmmm...!

Ray had an omelette, a bagel, and their juice of the day - which was a kind of mango juice.

I felt a little silly taking pictures of our food, but I'm glad I did, because it was just so good! (and pretty!)

Friday - Parties

Ray and I went into work on Friday, even though it was still snowy and I have not been feeling well. My firm's Holiday Party was at noon, and Ray's was at 6. We had been planning on staying downtown overnight at the Vintage Park Hotel. We did the same thing last year, and it was a lot of fun.

There weren't a lot of people at work on Friday - the snow was pretty heavy on the Eastside and to the North and South, as well as being pretty slick downtown.

The picture above is of my Holiday Party at Benaroya Hall (which is across the street from my firm's building). Usually, it's so packed that it's difficult to move around, and there are long lines at the food tables. This year, there were a lot less people there. They had great food, catered by Wolfgang Puck. I ended up staying for about an hour or so hanging out with some of my friends, then going to the hotel to take a nice, long nap.

Ray's firm party was held at the Columbia Tower Club at the Columbia Center, on the 76th floor. His firm is a lot smaller, and had more of a family feeling. They had a catered dinner, open bar, contests, and dancing.

I've always heard stories of the women's bathrooms at the Columbia Tower Club - they were supposedly floor to ceiling glass windows with an awesome view of Seattle from each stall. Below is a picture from one of the stalls - not floor to ceiling, but definitely a great view! Each stall had their own sink. My pics of the stalls were quite popular with some of the men at the party - they had all heard of the famous toilets and wanted to see!

Ray bought a new kilt to wear to the party - below, I caught a pic of him is taking a picture for some of the girls in his office who were posing together.

All I Want For Christmas...

Ok, it's not all I want for Christmas...(lol), but it would be nice if BL would stop attacking the Christmas tree skirt this year! When we put up the tree, I carefully put the tree skirt under the tree and smoothed it all out, and have had to fix it quite a few times since then. I finally have given up. Maybe she's playing with the embroidered bird?

The pic above is from last year, when the tree skirt and BL evidently had some kind of truce. She would just sit on it, under the tree, like she was some kind of Very Special Christmas Gift.

Downtown Seattle on Saturday

Yesterday, we met up with some friends that were visiting from Portland. We had been planning on going to Leavenworth, but there was too much snow and ice to make it up there safely. We decided to go to the EMP (Experience Music Project) museum instead.

The pic above is one of the fabulous gingerbread houses at the Sheraton this year. Every year, they have a display of gingerbread houses for charity. This year's theme was "Superheroes", and the house above is full of ordinary heroes doing extraordinary things every day.

After looking at the gingerbread houses, we took the Monorail to the Seattle Center and went to the EMP. Even though it's been here in town for years, I've never actually been in it. Chloe and I really enjoyed the science fiction exhibit. It had many movie props that were really cool to see.

We went to the music part of the museum after that, and saw the exhibits on guitars and the "Northwest Passage" showing Northwest bands and trends. Ray and I decided that we were born too late - it looked like the kids from the '50's and '60's were having the most fun! Louie, Louie, anyone?

For lunch, we went to the Pike Place Market, and had a a really good lunch, can't remember the name of the place, though!

Well, gotta go...Survivor's starting!

Snow!

After having the "Storm Watch" for the last few days, we woke up to snow today. It wasn't very deep, but it was very icy. They said on the news that this is the coldest that it's been for almost 20 years. Ray and I went out to do a little shopping, and almost did not get back up to our place because it was so icy.

I think out of towners make fun of us because we can't handle the snow. What happens is that it snows, then thaws a bit, then turns into ice. The next day, if it's still cold, it's still ice. Add the many hills that are around this area, and you have a scary situation. It's just not possible to stop on a hill safely at a red light on the ice. I have a small car, so I really don't like driving in the snow and ice. Fortunately, we don't usually don't get a lot of it.

At least we have power! I'm hoping that the East Coasters without power get theirs on soon. I have a friend that lives in Massachusetts that has been without power for a few days now, and I'm hoping she's warm and is going to be powered up soon!

Haunted?

We've been having high winds and rain today. Right now, it's pretty windy and *loudly* windy outside. The lights have flickered a few times. After one of those times, the new Farm ornament (that I wrote about in my last post) "Moooooed" twice! It's not hooked up to any lights, the tree didn't move, or anything, so it was kind of strange.

When Ray came home, we told him about the strange moooing. Later, it gave a one-off moo again, out of the blue!

New Ornament

Ray and I got this new ornament for our tree this year. I love the Hallmark ornaments...I always thought I wouldn't like them because they were so commercial, but they have such cute little ornaments that actually mean something to me. I add to my stash every year from Hallmark.

This year, we saw this little Fisher Price Barn in the Hallmark ornaments WishBook. I used to play with one of these little barns when I was little, I don't remember where (I know my family didn't have one), but maybe my neighbors? Or someone we used to visit? I LOVED this little barn when I was small...it MOOOOOED when you opened the doors, and this little ornament does, too! I told Ray we had to have one, and he agreed wholeheartedly, because he used to have one, too. He even sent one to his folks, to say how happy he was with the memory of this toy.

What's so cool about this ornament is that it "MOOOOOs" when you open the doors. How cool is that?!

Robin Williams Show

Ray and I went to see Robin Williams last night at the Paramount with some friends, Germaine and Mike. We had pretty good seats, as Ray and Germaine bought the tickets as soon as they went on sale a few months ago. We all went out to dinner first at the Daily Grill and walked over to the Paramount afterwards. It was a great show - I laughed so much my face hurt. It was hilarious!

One funny bit was about his experiences in Seattle while he was here. He commented that he was sorry to hear the Sonics had left...and if we want to keep the Seahawks, all we need to do is paint a goal line around the city. They'd never cross it! OUCH!

Anyhoo - fun night with friends. Laughing is always a good choice.

Got the Tree up

Chloe and I put up the tree the weekend after Thanksgiving, but we didn't decorate it until this morning. We're getting better at putting together the tree, I think it only took us about 1/2 hour to get it up. Chloe sorts the branches, and I put them in the base. We totally booked this year!

We got the ornaments out of storage and Ray helped us put them up this morning. I really enjoy going through them and remembering when we got them and Christmases past. The finishing touch is always candy canes all over the tree.

Pretty!

Wii Fit

I've been feeling kind of tired lately; it's been dark outside a lot, and work's been busy. I thought I'd try getting a little bit more exercise, since I've been such a slug lately.

Of course, I turn to my old friend the Wii Fit. With going back to work, it's been hard to get motivated to get any Wii Fit time in. I hadn't done a "body test" for 44 days (according to the Wii Fit balance board). It first asked me if I'd seen Ray lately, and how was his posture? I said his posture was great. Not getting a rise out of me, it next said "Good to see you again...Chloe!" Awww...Boardie, you old kidder, you!

It was nice to see that I'd actually lost 3 pounds in those 44 days (though it was probably all muscle!)