How To Spend a Perfect Evening

I'm afraid I stayed up a little too late to post yesterday! :) I woke up about a half-hour ago after some odd, but unmemorable dreams.

Yesterday morning I was woken out of a nasty dream about work by my Dad who needed help moving donated food from his church to a local food bank. It took up most of the morning, and I forgot to eat until about 1 o'clock, when I made chicken noodle soup for Meg who wasn't feeling her best. We watched "The Diva that Wouldn't Die" and "The Love Bug" from 1969. She had just found the latter at Fred's the day after Christmas, so it was a lot of fun to watch straight through. After that I had a bit more of a snack and we played Phase 10 while she was on the couch.

My perfect evening started about 4:45 when I took Mom out to dinner to Coho's Cafe in Redmond. This is the fancy place that my coworkers and I go for people's birthdays. Oh my! We had their delicious seafood bisque, scrumptious salads, and Mom had a crab, cheese and artichoke dip with flat bread and I had a pair of chicken tacos with spicy sauce (my favorite). We then shared a small, rich, dark chocolate lava cake to finish. It was right around 6:30 when we left, and we straightway got on State Route 520 to go to the Seattle Symphony downtown. Traffic was light (as it was a Wednesday night) and we parked in an overflow garage across the street from Benaroya Hall just after 7pm.

The program started at 7:30 with a few choral waltzes by Bhrams. It is like nothing else to hear the symphony play live. No recording can capture it. This was a very short program... it felt like it was over in just minutes... but it had to be at least a half-hour. Following a short intermission, they began Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in D Minor. This was an hour long performance of pure joy. Often times I closed my eyes to focus. I was surprised how gently it started out! And often times it was very soft. It is a symphony in four parts. Between each you could hear a chorus of coughs ring out from the audience... quite funny. The last movement was the famous Ode to Joy melody. It started with just the basses and cellos, grew to include the violas, then the violins before the brass, winds and percussion brought it to a climax. Later on the soloists and choir joined in with the original lyrics, sung in German. Both the German and English is printed in the program, and I was surprised how vastly different it was from anything I was familiar with. It's so much fun to give a present of an evening out... best idea I ever had. Not only does my Mom love it, but I love it too! And it really only works if you go together. :)

Not only this, but I was home in plenty of time to talk for the rest of the night with my best friend.

I am Happy. Thank you for everything, Lord.

Jp

Flyin' By

I'm lovin' break! But it goes so fast!
It's even less than a week left now...

I am proud of myself for doing some things I wanted to already. I finished one of the books I'm almost done with and I did a lot of work on my site. I stayed up really late on Sunday night... about 4:30 am... organizing pictures on my laptop. They had been getting out of control again and I re-did some. I had filed by date on some folders instead of by topic. Well, I got it all cleared up and I really enjoyed going through them. I get a lot of pleasure out of looking at old photographs.

So I slept in til about 10 on Monday morning. Didn't have breakfast until Noon. At 2 pm I visited my friend Chaya who is house/dog sitting for someone who lives right on Greenlake. We took the dog for a walk, the 2.8 miles around the lake. I took my camera, and we had a good conversation. You should have seen all the ducks! Hundreds of them! I love that place!

We got back to the apartment and I pulled out my laptop and we looked at pictures of mine from around the house and neighborhood, and from various trips to Yuma, California, various aquariums, and China. It was so much fun... some of these I hadn't looked at for months and months. And she always says such nice things about my pictures. It was a good time.

I had to leave right at 6:30 though, because my family was going out to dinner at Outback Steakhouse in Kirkland at 7 o'clock for a farewell celebration for Zac. I ended up beating them there and reserving the table. It was fabulous! I had a 6 ounce steak and 3 ounces of lobster and a baked potato with sour cream. It was a special they had... and it was special! My poor brother was very sad to leave though. We dropped him at the airport around 9:30 this morning. He did have a wonderful break though! He was with us for ten days!

After getting back from the airport and getting our stuff together, Meg and I drove off to Carnation to ride our horses today! Roo was a brat! He gave me a little trouble with his back right hoof during picking, and after trying to turn back to the pasture a couple times, he bucked for a few seconds when we got to the gravel path. Thankfully, I was on my McClellan saddle which has a high pommel and cantle. After that incident though, he was fine. We even did some trotting and I think that took some of the vinegar out of him. It was a lovely time, just my sister and I... just like old times. We stopped at Quiznos on Redmond Ridge on the way home for a quick little dinner (yum!).

Upon returning, the other half of the FC came over and took Meg over to his house for dinner and such. Mom, Dad and I had a discussion Sunday morning about having more family prayer and Bible reading, so tonight we had our first Tuesday evening time together. We started in Colossians and did a bit of praying, especially for my brother. We then put in "The Thin Man Goes Home" and I think it was one of the best ones. Nora is so funny all the time! I love it!

This break is going great! I've met with friends of mine each day this week! :)

Jp

Wheeee!

Ooh! I saw my friends tonight! We've been chatting back and forth on Facebook about meeting tonight for dinner and then a few games of bowling. This little group of us used to be a small Bible study that met back in 2007... and before that we were all members of the University Christian Fellowship at the U of Washington from 2004-2006 (that's when I was there at least).

So anyway, I was worried it wouldn't work out because I wasn't hearing back from anyone on Facebook. But this morning I checked my *email* and sure enough, there had been lots of chatter about it. :) So we ended up meeting at the Elliot Bay Brewery in West Seattle for dinner, and then drove a mile or so to a bowling alley where I first bowled 124 and then 140 and then 90, successively. My right arm and left leg had got sort of worn out by the third go-around.

It was a marvelous time! It was fabulous to see Jen and Cam, here from Australia, and Denise and Andrew back from New Jersey. Becky and Danielle still live around here, but I hadn't seen them in a long time either. What wonderful people!

Other than that, I had a good talk & prayer this morning with my parents after they got back from church and after lunch with the family, I worked on my aquarium website, like I had been planning on doing! Only there's a little more work to do. Need to add more pictures.

What a marvelous day this has been.

Jp

After a Break

Well, my Christmas was both fun and relaxing!

Breakfast was as incredible as ever: I scrambled so many eggs for our full house that they almost spilled out of the large frying pan and required constant turning to avoid burning. We had fried red potatoes, spam, bacon, sausage, waffles from scratch with strawberries, and several jugs of orange juice! It is our only real meal of the day. I had a snack of sorts around 7 pm.

Other than open presents and eat, I didn't do much. And today I went shopping with my sister in the morning (late morning:) and we had a lovely time together. I have also been able to arrange meetings with friends for both tomorrow and on Monday. I am loving the rest I'm getting! Mostly the mental break from working.

And tonight, I just finished that history of Germany that I have been taking on trips with me since December 2007... "A Mighty Fortress" by Steven Ozment. I really enjoyed the modern, post-war part and the part about Bismark and Wilhelm that I didn't know much about before. I think this illustrates my reading problem... I don't do it enough! I am looking forward to being stuck with books while in the Navy. It might help me become much better read. :) Gosh, this book had been to Hawaii, North Carolina, California and Oklahoma! And some in between.

On to something else tomorrow!

Jp

Happy Christmas Eve!

All my love to all of you!

Jp

Getting it Done

I think writing my last post helped me decide how I wanted to spend today. I'm feeling pretty relaxed and not fidgety yet. Mom and I finished the cookies tonight! I haven't wrapped all the presents yet, but that's okay! There's still one more day til Christmas!

And last night was wonderful! As I was checking my email when I was getting ready to leave work last night, there was one from a local aquarium who had checked out my website and loved it! Wheeee! There's nothing like a totally unexpected compliment to make a day feel great. This will definitely help motivate me to work on it this break... "wow, people actually do look at it!"... :)

Last night Mom and Dad cooked a wonderful steak dinner as well, and even though there was a little family friction about some stuff, we actually sat at the table after dinner and talked about it. I love it when we can calmly talk about things!

And after folks took a break from each other (we broke off and did different things - my parents and I watched a movie - The Man Who Came to Dinner) we all re-gathered at 11 or so and sang carols and did our advent ritual of picking ornaments for the felt wreath. I shocked everyone by picking the ballerina (hey! the Nutcracker was good!)

I think I might finally be giving up my other Christmas anxiety about not feeling excited enough for the big day. It's been a long process, but I think I've discovered a happy medium. Let myself feel what I want to. I used to think I should always have that kiddish glee, even when I got older. People always say that you should try and stay young... (in some ways :) But that doesn't mean you should force yourself.

HEY! I'm done with work until January 4th! Holy cow!

Jp

It's That Time of Year

...when I feel restless... I worry about wasting my time off by watching dumb things on TV and by staring at the Internet... and when I do waste time, I feel worthless. It's sort of a Holiday Anxiety. When I finally relax and get over being worried about it, it's usually the day before it's time to go back.

I'm the type who wants to be doing something important most of the time, but who usually wears out early and ends up being extraordinarily lazy, and usually doesn't like it.

Well, what do I want to do? After wrapping gifts and finishing cookies, I want to enjoy Christmas... I don't want any family friction. I "want" to workout and lose more weight (although I don't really want the "work" part of "workout"). I want to add on to my websites... read a book or two... and maybe write a fanfiction. Oh! And I keep on forgetting about playing my horn! My old French horn teacher is having a "horn party" next Tuesday... open for all to play horn! :) That will be fun!

Ooh, last night Mom & Dad & I watched a French movie from Netflix... "Joyeux Noel", made in 2005. It's about German, Scottish and French soldiers who came together in no-man's-land on Christmas Eve, 1914. Really well done. Very beautiful... the story centered around a German tenor who was drafted. When singing for high German officials, they sing Bist du bei mir, which I loved when I played it for horn lessons, years ago. I'm going to buy this, I think.

Gosh, I can't wait for tomorrow afternoon & evening.
Jp

Welcome, Winter

The new season greeted me with pounding rain! And a boat-load of stuff to do at work... they're trying to get another set of books shipped out the door... today!

Jp

And we just finished decorating the Christmas tree by putting on the ornaments... because we were all finally available! This is our first year with a "faker" as my brother calls it... I like it, though!

Nuts and Pasta

Slept in again! Except it wasn't quite as weird hours... only 8 this time!
By the time I got up, it was more like time for lunch than breakfast.

We had to head out to go to the Nutcracker in Everett at the Performing Arts Center pretty much right afterwords. We were meeting my Aunt (who arranged it) and Grandma and a few of my Aunt's cousins. It was a "ladies night out". Both of my sisters were in the car with Mom and I and my niece... and there were a few flares of hot tempers (they're not known for getting along) because we weren't quite sure where it was held at :) We did make it to the place in plenty of time, but I was wondering if this was going to be any fun at all :(

I needn't have worried! The show was absolutely fabulous! It was a small-ish theater, but had plenty of seating for the full house. The cast was fewer than what you would see at a professional ballet, but they didn't let you notice. They were very talented! The costumes were well done, but not overly done. I loved the snowflake and flower costumes... simple, but very pretty. The snowflakes had loose, floppy-white netting with a close-fitting top of white and silvery-blue. The flowers had skirts in pieces that reminded you of flower petals. And they only had eight dancers for those dances! Wow! Good job! Good choreography! This was put on by the Olympic Ballet Theater based in Edmonds.

But the thing I liked best is their adaptation of the story. Clara never changed into a young woman: she stayed a kid the whole time and only observed everything that happened, occasionally being let in on the dance (like in the fight with the mouse). There was a snow king and queen... and there was a king and queen of the Kingdom of Sweets as well. The later were professional guest dancers that were, as Ted E. Peck would say, "Fantastic!". Drosselmeyer was there throughout it and he was the one who led Clara to the Kingdom... she never ran off and became romantic with the prince (I hate the ending when they do that). The version I am most familiar with is the 1977 adaptation by Mikhail Baryshnikov and Gelsey Kirkland that we had taped off TV and watched a thousand times as kids... and of course, they did that in that one. So I had a wonderful time at the show today. It felt original and honest and it was a lot of fun to watch.

For dinner we drove south to Lynnwood and ate at the Old Spaghetti Factory. I had spinach and cheese ravioli and spaghetti with meat sauce in a half & half dish. Mmm. My niece was a darling the whole night long and it was a good time with everyone.

Tonight, however, is an all-night-long LAN party that my brother is having with seven of his friends... and it is *loud*. They're either loud in the garage, right below my room, or louder playing Guitar Hero in his room down the hall from the garage. I'm gonna try and sleep tonight.
:)

Jp

Quickie

Well, I didn't take a nap. Mom told me to go run to wake up, and it pretty much worked. Just a half-mile though, because I'm not feeling my very best and it's very wet out.

After getting back inside, I baked all the sugar cookies! And now it's time to go get Zac from the airport! Yay!!!

I don't know when I'll be able to get on IRC tonight... we'll see.

[we ended up watching "Star Trek" together on Zac's projector to string popcorn when we got home - I was pleasantly surprised... but I'm not a "fan".]

Jp

So I'm Tired, Am I?

Gosh, on Friday I slept in as long as I could before going to work. And then I worked for four hours... had a great sandwich with that tomato I bought at Fred's this week... and between bites, and opening a Christmas package... I talked to Grandma Leeds (who has a foot of snow in NC), Dad (who was getting on a plane to come home), and Zac (who I just talked to again, who is in Phoenix right now on his way home). I then had to fly out the door to go meet the Navy for my 2nd meeting this month (two are required). Apparently I was the only one in the DEP who took my recruiter seriously in writing out what I think Honor, Courage and Commitment means to me. My recruiter wants me to take a leadership role in the DEP.

By the time I got home it was already 3:30-4 and I played Phase 10 with the FC. They beat me pretty badly, and I got in an ungracious mood. While this happened, Dad returned, then Mom, and we were going to start baking some cookies for my brother, but then we had dinner. Gosh, I was so tired; and I had a headache. I decided to go to sleep right away (and it was only 7:30PM).

I woke up a couple times... an hour later, midnight or so, and again at 4:45. I thought at first it would only be a nap, but I really needed to rest. The second time I wondered if this was such a good idea... and the third time I stayed up for about an hour and laid down for what I thought was going to be an hour or so. It turned out being around four hours. Didn't wake up until 10, and didn't get up for another 20 minutes. I slept very deeply and dreamed long, complicated dreams; at least 3 or 4 of them. I think it's around thirteen hours of sleep... and I'm enjoying sitting down to write this. :)

So I've had my Saturday morning breakfast, and Dad and I played Backgammon (and he killed me with a double 5). I think I might tear myself out of my chair and bake cookies now... after I take a brief nap.

Jp

Just Another Day

I kept myself very busy at work today... lots of things needed putting away and spiffing up. And I successfully stopped myself from eating any of the many leftover treats from yesterday. Had a quick lunch because my Dad needed to get back to a meeting before he took off for business trip to California this afternoon. Just a pit stop really... no time for even our usual Backgammon. So I really kept eating to a minimum :) A day of recovery :)

And Mom took off this morning to pick up her nativity collection from her friend at Mt. St. Helens (and won't be back until tomorrow) so directly after work, Meg told me to come over to Jason's house with them to share dinner and a fun evening together. Jason's Mom and family were in and out, but we had a lovely chicken stew to eat and then after everyone got back and after talking and such we sat down to a great game of Rummikub, which I won! :)

I went home around 9:30 and took care of Doggie-Boy. Other than that, I've been going through junk on/in my desk, as it had gotten out of control. I am happy to report that it is much better now. I don't have to dig to find a pen. :)

Oh, Jason gave me good advice tonight for visiting the Boston Navy Yard... with that and Linda's advice for Rhode Island, my plans are really coming together for that big New England trip... I think it will be fabulous! The trip will include a lot of naval and maritime history, as well as my original intent of hitting all the states and Revolutionary War sites in the north. It seems as if everything is falling into place! Truly, the Lord blesses me all the time!

Jp

Food, Feasting & Festivities

Both yesterday and today I had lunch at work... and gift exchanges!

Tuesday was just for my little group in the Quality Data Center. Our boss made a tortilla casserole that was very tasty and not too hot. We each got one gift for the person we drew out of a hat (figuratively speaking - there aren't any magicians in my group). My coworker loved the necklaces I got for her! :) She wore one right away, and one today!

Today was a huge potluck and anonymous gift exchange for the entire Quality department... about 30 people. There were some really nice dishes surrounding the glazed ham that my boss's boss brings each year. Pastas and potatoes and bread and chips and so many desserts! Yikes! Do I feel full and a little lazy too.

Need to get back to working out! :)
Jp

[this evening we watched Pixar's "Up" again... gosh, I love it! :) and yesterday (Tuesday) I mixed up the first batch of Christmas cookies! yay! and we also finished the fourth season of Foyle's War... what a stellar show! sad there's only one season left!]

It Was a WENNderful Night!

Thirteen folks all at once! More than even my first chat! It took fifteen minutes just to say "hello" to Linda, James, Rodney, Mike, Emma, Meg, Jason, Michelle, Cammy, Kathleen, Samuel and Erich. What a wonderful time! I think I want to watch the episode again before Christmas though :) it's hard to soak it all in while chatting! ...I think I could listen to Gil and Maple singing together forever and ever... oh yeah... and Betty and Maple... just love their voices! It's such a classy episode!

Today just flew by! I got to work a little early because I knew I needed to put some data books together. I didn't finish until quitting time!

Mom and I went to Fred Meyer tonight for some presents I needed for tomorrow's staff gift exchange and we found the Playmobile nativity set and Mom got it for her collection. It's so cute! Especially love the animals! The only set we had growing up was the zoo... which was very neat!

Gosh! It's time for bed! I can't believe December is half over already!
Jp

Happy WENNmas, Everybody!

It is one of the most wonderful times of the year... :)

So this morning I went to church, and this afternoon we had a great lunch together...

And as the family got into watching Christmas movies for the kids... I came back to my room to mess around with pictures... taking pictures with my webcam... and looking at old pictures that I've practically forgotten about.

What fun that is! So I ran across my couple pictures from Owensboro, from June last year and decided to put them up in my exceedingly short post about the trip... which was only my 2nd post ever. :)

Jp

All This Waiting is Driving Me Mad, Defense Attorney Benton

Waiting for my friend to get here from Florida this Friday, waiting for my brother to get here from Arizona the day after that, waiting for an idea to come to me about something I'm attempting to write, waiting for Christmas itself... waiting for tomorrow night... :)

And I had my own share of waiting around on Thursday night... some I didn't mind at all, and some that was... driving me mad. The way the tests were set up there were a couple hours for me to sit around and read! I read in the end of Deuteronomy for a while: about the blessings for following and cursing for disobeying God's law that he had just finalized with Israel. And then after reading something this week about death, I thought a bit about why God punishes sin so severely. Sin is really just rejecting God ways, as God is perfect. I suppose I wouldn't want sin to be let off if it is bad... I just have difficulty thinking of sin like God does: "abhorring" it. That's a rather stronger feeling than I've ever had about it (I'm a redeemed sinner). But I think I need to.

But after that bit of study that only lasted through the final itself (until 5), I then got out 'Bridge to Terabithia' and finished it, not without tears. What a good one! At that point (around 7), I had another 45 minutes to read in my Bluejacket's Manuel. It's a little dry at this point: all about tying knots and seamanship. I'm reading the whole thing so I am familiar with where to find things if I need it again.

I did enjoy not being a student though. All those students I watched over had to write three long essays about ethical philosophy, ending with "What is it to be moral?" Yikes! They were either writing for a solid hour, or switching writing and staring at the wall. :) And when I was reading in the lobby, I could see into the computer lab. Later on I noticed a young man with his head in his hands in front of a computer with a mostly blank-looking Word document open. Ouch.

Meg then came and picked me up and we went to get her 'other' at the UW. Unfortunately, he was in a meeting that went way over... by like another hour and some after we got there. That drove me to be a little mad, as it was Dad's birthday that day and we wanted to go have cake with him. But it ended up working out okay.

Friday (yesterday) was very low key. It was so mundane that I barely remember anything I did... well, I had breakfast, had a headache, picked up my room, watched "Don't Act Like That", and planned a huge trip to New England for sometime next year in order to see friends, all the little states I've never been to and most of the northern Revolutionary War sites. :) According to Google, it would be about 1,200 miles of driving in all, visiting 15-16 different sites. Ambitious? yes. Insane? I hope not.

Jp

Life & Times

I had a rather slow day at work yesterday... non-conformances on my program again! Dad and I had a good time making a quickie dinner together, playing backgammon again, and then watched another Nazi-thriller, this time from 1944. "The Conspirators", with at least three actors from Casablanca. I liked it a lot! The message boards on IMDB aren't very kind to it though... "what do they know?" :) And then my Mom came back safely from her long drive... and I had a lovely talk with Mike.

What a lovely thing that I have a day off work today! I am helping out Meg by proctoring one of her final tests in Kent that the college scheduled at the same time as the one in Auburn that she'll be handling... and I got to sleep in til 9 am! I've had a breakfast, and just a plain old nice time with my Mom and sister.

I had a bit of a shocker this morning, though. The Marine who is in this poster emailed me this morning! A friend had told him about the poster I got at Zac's graduation! I feel very honored!

As he said, 'Semper Fi'.

Jp

As Long As I Can Remember

I don't think I can ever remember it getting this cold. It's been in the teen's all week long. It was a balmy 25 degrees at 5pm yesterday... but this morning it's 16 outside. :)

Look how weird last year's December was and this year's is! Ten days of snow! Only ten? It felt like so much more because it stuck around for so long.

Jp

Japanese Maple

Results from my efforts on Sunday, as seen from the house.
Jp

Turning it Over

Last night I realized that I didn't like very much how I was acting... barely pulling myself out of bed in the mornings to get to work, spending too much time on the Internet; not doing the things that matter. So last night I choose to change. This morning I made myself get up in time to take care of myself and my room before having to fly out the door.

Mom went down to visit her friend near Mt. St. Helens today, so I was alone at home for lunch. Dad had a meeting at work. I realized that we had to fend for ourselves tonight for dinner, so I planned it out. I got some hamburger out to thaw, so when I got home at 5:15, it was ready to go. I mixed up the cornbread, browned the hamburger, and cooked the chili and tomatoes and spices. It turned out just like Mom's! It's not quite rocket science... but it was a complete dinner for both Dad & I and the Fun Couple, whenever they get here, and I don't get to do that very often. :) Dad and I played backgammon during dinner, and then stuck in "All Through the Night" (Bogart, 1942) for a little after-dinner relaxation. What a fun Nazi movie! Had never seen it before, but it felt so familiar... Nazis behind every corner with a shortwave radio. I think Rupert did a marvelous job re-creating the predictable but lovable 1940's Nazi-catch'em stories. Even though it interrupted the beauty of season two, I like what he did with WENN.

Jp

Remembering Then

The #1 google image search for "Pearl Harbor" today, from a math academy in Illinois. I don't think I've ever seen it before...
Let's never forget...

Jp

Brrr-utiful

Nineteen degrees this morning... But a pastel morning in Willows Valley: frost covering the open grassy fields and perfect peach melting into a rich, light blue above the mountains. Ahh. :)

Jp

Sunday Lights

Today, I woke up late... :)

It was a nice slow day with the family. Nice big lunch (snack for dinner) and after I unexpectedly arranged a surprise through Facebook for next Sunday, I spent the rest of the evening putting up Christmas lights (finally!) on the big Japanese maple and on the windows, doors and garage out front. It was dry again today (otherwise this would have been postponed - because a great deal of crawling underneath the maple is required, and this is very uncomfortable when a cascade of drops fall on you when you shake a drenched branch) and it was very cold too! I needed both gloves and a beanie hat. But with those on, it was very nice and chilly outside. Very fun December weather.

I came back inside and put up the lights in the upstairs windows... two in the living room and one each in the two bedrooms (one's mine! :) My niece and nephew "helped" me put them up; and they were very cute. We finished out the evening with singing some carols in the living room. It's great to have little kids who are excited for Christmas! They're just starting to be the most fun ages! :)

Jp

I Feel Like a Lazy Bum

Today I had big plans: spend the morning stringing Christmas lights and then spend the rest of the day at Husky Stadium. And I did none of them.

I spent the morning journaling things that have been pressing on my mind... the sort a person likes to keep to themselves... and then having a leisurely breakfast with my sister and parents. My brother-in-law-to-be soon came over, and then we all went to check out a church for the wedding later next year. They "officially" got engaged yesterday... with kneeling and ring and kissing and all. I took some pictures for the family... especially the family that lives on the East Coast that have never seen him before.

Last night was... wow. Monk ended. Beautifully, too. Trudy's daughter is a 26-year-old single woman who blogs... Now I don't do this professionally, but I really felt a connection with her. :) Especially how she so quickly warmed to Monk. It was like they were really father and daughter, although technically, they weren't. How wonderfully beautiful!

Now it was a beautiful day here today, but I really didn't feel like getting cold (and blinded by the overhead sun) by putting lights outside... and I didn't want to go to the football game and possibly prolong my cold (which is almost gone now), so Mom and I went out to lunch at Panera Bread in Redmond, and then to that new Roland Dahl movie, Fantastic Mr. Fox (which I had never read... yet). They say it was pretty true to the book, and based on the other books I've read by him (The BFG, Charlie & Chocolate Factory, and Danny: Champion of the World), it seemed pretty darn good.

So it was a nice, relaxing day, and I watched the glorious second half of the Husky game on TV, where we just beat the No. 19 team in the nation... get this: 42 TO 10! Wowzers! Last season we were win-less... this season almost half & half. And what a way to finish! So I'm still here at home: warm, sitting down, and feeling like I don't have a cold any more.

Jp

Week's Winding Down

I tried drinking orange juice to help the cold go away, both yesterday morning and today. What's the worst that could happen? I could have more vitamin C? And so it's been getting much better! What do you know. I still have to blow the nose a little, but in general, things are on the mend.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas... Mom's been putting stuff up little by little this week. Pictures, garlands, and today, she's getting out the fake tree for the first time. Last year it was on sale after Christmas (like a quarter of the original price) and so this will be our first fake tree ever. And Mike, I got your package yesterday! I tell you, those Post Office people know what they're doing! Thanks very much, too. It looks (and sounds) like a lot of fun listening!

This afternoon I went to the University to print some pictures. It's pretty much the last time I could go in when they're open before the break for the holidays. It's fun to walk the same halls again! Just a little bit familiar... even using the printer settings came back very easily.

Oh, and the final Monk tonight! After eight years... we'll know what happened!

Jp

Good Mornin'!

First real frost... used the heavy-duty scraper this morning.
Brilliant, full moon last night and this morning in the pale blue sky.
... and 30 degrees. Brrr.
But right now, the sun has just bathed the valley in permeating gold.

Jp

Just a Few Notes

So far this week, it's been crystal clear and very nippy and cold out.
Not a cloud in the sky... what a change from last week! I can see Jupiter from my room, right now... "here's lookin' at ya." :)
And houses have started to spring Christmas lights here and there. Welcome to December!

On Monday night, Mom & Dad and I watched "The Pride of the Marines" from 1945. It was a bio piece on a guy who was wounded at Guadalcanal... and it was very good! It turns out that his sweetheart (who was very sweet and cute indeed) later stared in The Sound of Music as the Baroness! Couldn't believe it! and she was so nice... :)

It was really weird being back at work... I thought a lot about the Navy; and my recruiter called to catch up that evening. He is pretty much all healed up from his spleen surgery, so that's good to know. We have our monthly group meeting tomorrow night... even though they're rather boring, I'm looking forward to it.

I came down with a little head cold last night, and today has been pretty runny. The cold medicine does help keep the runny down though. Thank goodness for that!

It's abnormally early to bed for me tonight!
Jp