Happy New Year!

We had a nice, quiet New Year's Eve, like we've had for the last several years. We used to go to a friend's house, but I like that we stay home now. We had our little ritual feast--fondue, olives and pickles, spinach dip. I would have gotten shrimp, too, but we had had quite a bit at Christmas and we didn't really need it. Bob got the atomic clock that my folks gave him for Christmas a few years ago, and we toasted the new year with Martini & Rossi Asti Spumante, which we like better than champagne, at midnight.

Bob had to work on New Year's Day. Normally we stay home and don't even leave the house that day, but I decided to go out and get a few groceries--bread and potato chips and milk. I also decided to go to 888 International Market, the Oriental grocery store. I had never been there before, but I know someone who goes there quite a bit to buy fresh seafood, and I had been wanting to try it.

I wanted to get some red envelopes as part of this class I'm taking. I thought they would probably have them there, and they did. I put three Chinese coins into one of the red envelopes and put it in my wallet to attract abundance. I also put three coins, tied with red ribbon, under the front doormat to symbolize money entering our house.

I wandered all over the store yesterday and only bought the red envelopes, but that was all I really needed. They also had a lot of Maneki Neko good luck statues, and I would have liked to buy some, but I have several already and don't really need any more. But they were really cute.

 

I have a few that I bought at Disney World at the Japanese store. This first one above is on my desk at work. I also several several at home. I bought them at first because of Doña, but now I just like them. I like this one better than the ones that I saw yesterday, because the coloring is a little more subtle. Although maybe that's because it's a few years old. I like the ones with their eyes shut best.

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The "what I'm reading" page has been updated.

Little Altars

I've been neglecting my little altar. I notice last night that it was dusty, so I took everything down and washed it. I put new cornmeal in the rabbit's dish, clean coarse salt in the salt dish, and new sand (I have a baggie full of Siesta Beach sand from the last time we were there) in the sand dish sitting in the woven basket.

Everything sits on top of a little dresser, maybe intended as a jewelry box, I'm not sure. The drawers hold a crystal pendulum in a Chinese silk bag, matches, Chinese coins, and candles.

On top, there's a statue of Ganesha, the Remover of Obstacles, along with an amethyst Buddha and a Native American bear fetish that Bob brought back for me from a trip to Minnesota. There's a tiny "sand castle," along with some shells from the beach in Sarasota, a carved rabbit in the dish with a cornmeal offering for protection, and the salt in the pale blue lotus cup is for purification, as well as a reminder of the ocean.

 

Christmas Trees

I am not the most emotionally stable person at the best of times, and the holiday season makes it that much worse. I try, but I'm not always able to be in good spirits. Christmas decorations do help, though! This tree was at the little cafe/bar across the street from our office. I don't normally participate in the Friday afternoon happy hour, but I did on Friday. I had one drink (a Bloody Mary), then got a Diet Coke for the road and headed home to Bob.

The second tree is in our common area at work. We had a "family lunch" at work on Friday. We're doing that about once a month, where one of the teams cooks lunch for the whole company. My team was on point last week; I made spinach dip (it was a big hit!), Aaron made tomato basil soup and Julia made vegetable soup, and Joey and Aaron teamed up to make grilled cheese sandwiches. Nicole made brownies for dessert. It was a great lunch and a lot of fun.

I think part of the fun was the interaction, i.e., the "short order cook" aspect. It wouldn't have been nearly as much fun if we had all just brought casseroles or something. I don't know what we'll do next time, but I'm sure we'll think of something interesting.

The third little tree was sitting on the kitchen counter at work. I don't remember it from last year, but it must have been on display somewhere, because it was apparently in the closet. Actually, for some reason I think this one started out as mine. I can't remember why, though. I just sort of vaguely remember feeling a little regretful that I had given it away, but I don't remember the circumstances.

I do have another little tree that I'll set up on my desk in my office this week. We never set up a tree at home until a lot closer to Christmas, since we will probably have a live tree. We leave it up until Epiphany, January 12th, so we don't want to get it too soon.

Later: I meant to mention that I kicked off the Christmas movie watching season with "Love Actually" on Sunday. Perhaps not the best thing to watch, since it always makes me cry, but in a good way. I also watched Men in Black 3, which didn't make me cry.

Thanksgiving/Birthday Weekend

I kind of like having my birthday around Thanksgiving. Sometimes my birthday is on Thanksgiving, sometimes it's a day before, or a day after, but either way it usually falls somewhere in the four-day weekend, which is nice.

My sister was going to her boyfriend's house for Thanksgiving along with her daughter and her husband, and my other sister, who lives in Denver, was going to her husband's family, and Bob had to work. So it was just my brother and his family and me. I was originally going to go over to his house, but since it was just the five of us, he asked my parents if we could go over there, and they agreed. They don't really want to go anywhere anymore, and also don't want to have a whole houseful of people, but it worked out all right.

We bought over all the food, and cleaned up afterwards, so they didn't have to do anything. We got to eat, and talk, and didn't stay very long, and it was really nice.

The rest of the weekend I just kind of did what I wanted. I got a pedicure on Black Friday, and did a very small amount of shopping. I went to Kohl's for the sole purpose of spending a $10 coupon that I had gotten in the mail, and I went to JoAnn and bought supplies for Christmas gifts using their Black Friday coupons, and that was about it.

I had lunch at Noodles & Co. with a free coupon that they sent me, got my free birthday Starbucks drink, got a free small sundae at Culver's ... that was a lot of fun!

On Monday Julia brought doughnuts in to work for my birthday, and about a half dozen of us went out to lunch. Dan bought my lunch. All in all, it was a pretty good birthday week!

Vacation

We went on a mini-vacation last week. Even though I never really worried about it before, I have been a little more cautious about posting that we're gone. I did post a few photos, though. We went to Lake Taneycomo, and stayed at the condo of a friend of Bob's, right on the lake. Bob fished and I slept, read, and knitted a tiny bit, not much. I mostly read.

I read a book a day:

Say You're Sorry, by Michael Robotham
The Vanishing Point, by Val McDermid
Face of Betrayal, by Lis Wiehl
Heart of Ice, by Lis Wiehl
Don't Breathe a Word, by Jennifer McMahon

They had a big, squishy, long leather couch, and I laid on it so that I looked out the sliding glass doors over the lake. I'd read until I got sleepy, then just fall asleep and take a little nap, then maybe wake up and read some more. It was heaven.

In the mornings I would sit on the deck with a glass of lemonade, and read out there, then when Bob came in from fishing, he would make me breakfast. Sometimes he would cook dinner--hotdogs or pork chops on the grill--and a couple of times we went in to town to get groceries. We went in for dinner a couple of times--once to Long John Silver's and once to Golden Corral.

That was pretty much the extent of the week--reading, eating and sleeping. It was perfect! I really had a great, relaxing time. Bob had some trouble with the boat motor, so he wasn't able to do as much of the kind of fishing he wanted to do, but it all worked out.





Today I am grateful for:

1. Getting a new phone at work
   
2. Finding a pattern that I want to stitch (I'll show it when I get a little bit done)
   
3. Leftover pizza for lunch (again!)
   
4. Getting to go on vacation
   
5. Lots of books to read!