tan me

happy turkey day to all! we just spent a delightful weekend with willy, toots and their li'l chipmunk in mesa, arizona, where the weather was in the upper 70s, the sky was pure blue, and the view from our house looked like this:

yes, we were enjoying cocktails at this moment...what better way to enjoy the view?

one night we decided we wanted to check out this pizza joint in phoenix that gayle (of oprah fame) had visited on her trip 'round the US to find the best 'za. pizzaria bianco is located in downtown phoenix near the ASU campus, and supposedly is the the absolute best wood-fired pie. willy suggested we get there early to get a table. when we arrived at 5:20, we thought we'd be in for a 1, maybe 1.5 hour wait, which we could easily kill at the wine bar next door. sadly when we put our names in, we learned it was a four hour wait. wha? four hours?

we didn't get pizzaria bianco za, needless to say. but, nello's in scottsdale was a delighful substitute, AND we didn't wait in line. huzzah!

it was sad to get on the plane to head home, especially after sitting by the pool for three days, but imagine the system shock we received when we arrived back in portland and had snow on monday. bah.

thanks so much to the gebys for the best, most needed weekend and the fantastic hospitality. i can't think of a better way to spend thanksgiving with our two best friends. we miss you two (and a half) and treasure the time we get to spend together, short as it was!

in other news, happy birthday to my ma today! cheers to you on your year ahead!

gettin' all cultured n stuff

quick thanks to my buddy tcb for inviting us to his delightfully non-stuffy, totally fun art salon last evening. aside from the fact that his house is a work of art on its own, mickey and i were also envious of and hugely impressed by all the art he and his fabulous wife have collected and created themselves. while talking with some of the artists featured at the salon (friends of t's), one asked me, "so do you make any art?" i tried to talk about my amateur painting attempts, and settled on knitting as my artistic outlet. i guess it's something.

check out some of t&j's photos. can't find his flickr, but maybe he'll send it to me.

thanks t!

awol

been working hard this week, late nights, whatnot. nothing too horrible, many things have slacked in the past week. blog posting, obviously. cooking another. sleeping, optional. knitting, fuggedabahdit. seeing the husbot, only in the car when he's picking me up from work.

needless to say, i'm thrilled to be home before 7 and done working by 7:15 tonight. in fact, so excited to be home at a decent hour, because i just had a chance to see TV, and noticed a commercial for the movie "the holiday" with cameron diaz and kate winslet. you better believe i'm going to see that. looks a little like "love actually" and melikes that movie, and not in a guilty pleasure kinda way.

here's looking forward to a little R&R this weekend, and to a short week next week. it's finally the holiday season, my favorite time of the year!

small victories for women and america today

observations today on election day:

• puzzling news: how did the CNN folks all end up with the same skin tone? cakey tan looks miserable on all except james carville, who looks only slightly less like an alien than normal without the pallid skin tone.
  
• funny news: love the wonkette drinking game for tonight's festivities. wish i could have participated.
  
• good news for america: santorum. gone.
  
• sad news for america: katherine/katie "bodysuit" harris lost. what, oh what will we make fun of now?
  
• wack-job news: a dude on cnn just now said his conservative listeners are concerned about a "wild eyed, flaming liberal" political scene in this country, lead by pelosi. huh?
  
• good news for women: speaking of that wild eyed, flaming liberal, how 'bout the first woman speaker of the house. and might i say, she's triple the hot that dennis 'puffy' hastert was.
  
• fabulous news for women (hoping i don't eat my words as i upload this post): in oregon we are defeating the parental notification bill for abortion, and it's looking good that the good folks of south dakota will defeat the abortion ban.
  
• iffy news for wyoming: babs is winning by 400ish votes. so close, yet so far from defeat.
• best news for me: protest vote against bush? -- pshaw, not us oregonians. while the rest of the nation is still swingin' red (despite results tonight), i'm living in a state that is so solidly blue, solidly, beautifully blue.
  

all in all, small victories, nothing that surprising, no major changes will occur. but, tonight, i'll turn my lappy off and dream happy dreams that, for today, we're a nation that has risen her head above the fog of conservativism and realized we've headed in the wrong direction.

winter has come early

the fact that it has rained around 3 inches in 24 hours (not counting the other rain we got the rest of the weekend) means only one thing: the *@!%# basement is leaking again. at least misery loves company -- a&k's basement next door is facing similar issues. the only good thing about their house is they don't have carpet and paneling on the walls.

i guess instead of going to new zealand in february i should have poured a new driveway and sealed the basement walls. what do they say about hindsight....

on the brighter side, because it's so horrid outside, i have been getting a ton of knitting done! can't post here what it is, as it's a gift for a reader, so i don't want to spoil the surprise. without giving anything away, let me just say i love cascade pima silk yarn. so soft and gorgeous, and despite being mostly cotton, it doesn't split and has great stretchiness. i'm a convert!

stay dry and warm my friends! i'm headed to SF tomorrow where it's supposed to be dry and partly cloudy.