benefit #151 of working at a school: the snow day!!! yes, i got the call this morning just before 6am, how awesome is that?? chicago got dumped on last night, and so here i am snowed in. it's great. i was kinda wondering how i would finish up all my xmas crafts & cards, wrap presents, pack, and clean the apartment all in one day. and then i was given the gift of two full days to get it done! hell yes.
altho truth be told the weather may bite back: 70% chance of snow on sunday, the day we are scheduled to head up to minnesota (the forecast up there is, i believe, a low of -12 or something that day). holy coldness! don't get me wrong, i enjoy winter, i really do, but sometimes it does make me miss new mexico. like, it's harder to want to make the effort to stroll down the neighborhood to do some last minute shopping when you know your feet are going to get soaked!
soo. my holiday break just got another day longer. i'll be in minnesota sunday through the following tuesday. my schedule is pretty packed during that time, especially monday through thursday, but give me a call if you're there and want to get together! on tuesday, jim and i will be bussing back to chi-town to meet up with ben & brian for a new year's extravaganza. i'm hoping that howard and erin will make it down from wisconsin as well (hint: you must come!) our friend from NM, ingrid, will be in town with a few of her friends, and rebecca is likely, but not certain, to be flying in from new york. meghen & justin have offered to have the party on new year's, which is great because our place is pretty dang small. and joe carter's going to visit the 4th-8th, so we will have lots of company here. which is amazing!
i really look forward to seeing family & friends in the coming weeks. & the much-needed break couldn't have come at a better time. stay warm everyone and i'll see you on the flip side!
19 December 2008
16 December 2008
new lens
wanted to bump that last bloggin down cos i havent written in a while. full speed ahead. i dropped 'underworld' after all (the book i wrote about a while ago). it was going nowhere slowly. i wanted to like it, i really did. there were some little golden nuggets in there but it was too much slogging through the mucky muck to get there. on to bigger & better things: i am now happily reading trickster makes this world: mischief, myth & art by lewis hyde, while joe reads 'the gift' by the same author and then we will swap. much better.
here's some first shotz from tha new lenz of our happy family. this is under low light. the lens is capable of mad bokeh (which is some sort of fancy terminology that makes me feel like a pro when using it). we also are not using a tripod, when all i hear these days is that you MUST use a tripod or everything you do will be crapola.
the bull head photo illustrates the shallow depth of field & that bokeh i was talking about (the blurry crap in the background).
la dolce vita is a super amazing wonderful film that we just watched. we almost finished our xmas gifty crafty thingamajig tonight. olive is sick. we thought she was getting better with the pills & all but today when we got home today she barfed all over the place. so i dunno. does she look sick in those photos?
i am getting way anxious for the holiday break!
here's some first shotz from tha new lenz of our happy family. this is under low light. the lens is capable of mad bokeh (which is some sort of fancy terminology that makes me feel like a pro when using it). we also are not using a tripod, when all i hear these days is that you MUST use a tripod or everything you do will be crapola.
the bull head photo illustrates the shallow depth of field & that bokeh i was talking about (the blurry crap in the background).
la dolce vita is a super amazing wonderful film that we just watched. we almost finished our xmas gifty crafty thingamajig tonight. olive is sick. we thought she was getting better with the pills & all but today when we got home today she barfed all over the place. so i dunno. does she look sick in those photos?
i am getting way anxious for the holiday break!
04 December 2008
late november/early december
had a nice, relaxing, family-filled few days over thanksgiving up in ely. flew in on wednesday and celebrated my birthday that night with my mom and brother's family. mom made a good meal and we had some fancy desserts. yum. joe was there that night & left olive at my mom's house, she stayed there with my sister-in-law, andy, while the rest of us headed up to ely for a few days (andy had to work). joe went up to pequot lakes to visit his parents.
my cousin maggie's baby, cole and my nephew, reece
in ely we stayed at my aunt julie's house, which is an awesome place, and thankfully big enough to accommodate more than 30 people and several dogs for a few days. it was great to see everyone again, i don't see them nearly enough. there were lots of little ones this time. had some awesome wild rice soup the first night, my aunt was kind enough to make a vegetarian version for me. then friday was the big thanksgiving meal, which was really good. i ate way too much up there!
the turkey, which i did not eat.
one of the thanksgiving tables.
we went shopping in ely thursday night, i had wanted to get some steger mukluks but they were more expensive than i remember them! played a new game, blokus, which is actually really super fun. it's kinda like tetris. also played boxers or briefs, which is much like apples to apples. it was snowy up there, the first real snow i've seen this year, altho we've had some in chicago this week.
my cousin melissa's baby, max
we drove back to the cities saturday and joe came back down too. we went out with jim to dinner and met up with brian later for a few drinks. it was really great to see jim again--i think it had been a few years since the last time i'd seen him. we are planning to do new year's here in chicago this time with those guys and some other super cool people so i really hope that works out.
my birthday was tuesday, thanks to everyone who called, sent cards, texted, emailed, etc. it was nice to hear from all of you! i worked and then joe and i had a 3 hour, 5-course meal with wine pairings with each course at a fancy pants vegetarian restaurant called green zebra. it was really really good. and so fun to be able to pick from anything on the menu for once! this is what i ate:
Roasted Beets, wasabi gelee, cocoa nib foam, chippy
Sweet Onion and Garlic Soup, truffle cream
Potato Tots, sunny-side up egg, nicoise olives, heirloom tomatoes (the eggs were tiny sized...quail? perhaps hummingbird?)
Savory French Toast, saffron, carmelized fennel, sultana raisin vinaigrette
the dessert was a pumpkin tarte, I can't find it listed on the website tho. each of these were paired with a different glass of wine, so by the time i was finished i was feelin pretty good :)
that was way fun. joe ordered me a camera lens, the same one i posted a photo of below, it is due to arrive on monday. i am very excited about it & hope to go on some photo hunts once it arrives.
looking forward now to xmas break, need to start thinking about/making gifts. baked some white chocolate/cranberry/almond cookies last night. tonight, joe and i made a pear/carmelized onion/gorgonzola pizza that was pretty stellar.
oh, and my brother got me season 4 of project runway so i've pretty much been doing that all week. fun stuffs.
my cousin maggie's baby, cole and my nephew, reece
in ely we stayed at my aunt julie's house, which is an awesome place, and thankfully big enough to accommodate more than 30 people and several dogs for a few days. it was great to see everyone again, i don't see them nearly enough. there were lots of little ones this time. had some awesome wild rice soup the first night, my aunt was kind enough to make a vegetarian version for me. then friday was the big thanksgiving meal, which was really good. i ate way too much up there!
the turkey, which i did not eat.
one of the thanksgiving tables.
we went shopping in ely thursday night, i had wanted to get some steger mukluks but they were more expensive than i remember them! played a new game, blokus, which is actually really super fun. it's kinda like tetris. also played boxers or briefs, which is much like apples to apples. it was snowy up there, the first real snow i've seen this year, altho we've had some in chicago this week.
my cousin melissa's baby, max
we drove back to the cities saturday and joe came back down too. we went out with jim to dinner and met up with brian later for a few drinks. it was really great to see jim again--i think it had been a few years since the last time i'd seen him. we are planning to do new year's here in chicago this time with those guys and some other super cool people so i really hope that works out.
my birthday was tuesday, thanks to everyone who called, sent cards, texted, emailed, etc. it was nice to hear from all of you! i worked and then joe and i had a 3 hour, 5-course meal with wine pairings with each course at a fancy pants vegetarian restaurant called green zebra. it was really really good. and so fun to be able to pick from anything on the menu for once! this is what i ate:
Roasted Beets, wasabi gelee, cocoa nib foam, chippy
Sweet Onion and Garlic Soup, truffle cream
Potato Tots, sunny-side up egg, nicoise olives, heirloom tomatoes (the eggs were tiny sized...quail? perhaps hummingbird?)
Savory French Toast, saffron, carmelized fennel, sultana raisin vinaigrette
the dessert was a pumpkin tarte, I can't find it listed on the website tho. each of these were paired with a different glass of wine, so by the time i was finished i was feelin pretty good :)
that was way fun. joe ordered me a camera lens, the same one i posted a photo of below, it is due to arrive on monday. i am very excited about it & hope to go on some photo hunts once it arrives.
looking forward now to xmas break, need to start thinking about/making gifts. baked some white chocolate/cranberry/almond cookies last night. tonight, joe and i made a pear/carmelized onion/gorgonzola pizza that was pretty stellar.
oh, and my brother got me season 4 of project runway so i've pretty much been doing that all week. fun stuffs.
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