Happy New Year!

I am still in California for a few more days. It is lovely here and we are enjoying the sun! Our Christmas was relaxed, delicious and full of good stuff! I am making the most of my freedom...Topher is back in Seattle. That's the hard part...

Cheers!

X-mas

It's 3:00 am and I'm waiting for my ride to pick me up and take me to the airport. I'm going to California this morning, Heather is already there. We're gonna spend x-mas with H's Mom in Santa Barbara. I'm pretty excited about it actually, but right now I'm tired.

Merry X-mas everybody! Hope you're all having a fun and relaxing holiday.

Tonight is our Friday...

Though Topher is still at work for another hour or so. The long awaited dog update: this morning I hung out with Cali, a beautiful gray pit and my plug for the week is Higgins! He is an amazing sweet cutie pie. I am starting to think that the Pit Bull-Labrador mix is perfect. This morning was my last dog walking shift for a month! I am going to miss it! Hopefully I will still be able to volunteer there with a work schedule...there's always Matchmaking, which I did yesterday. This includes major cuddles with puppies! There are so many puppies at the shelter right now, including a Bassett Hound, Coon Hound, Pit Bulls, German Shepard mix and a Blue Healer...it was so fun! (I can not wait until we get a dog!)

I continue to catch up on movies and relaxing with my knitting....so far, films of note:

1. Stevie (Sad, but very good)
   
2. Diabolique (A classic)
   
3. Everyone Says I Love You (I forgot how enjoyable this movie was!)
   
4. Slither (for horror fans, plus Nathan Fillion!)
   
5. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (Oh, the childhood memories....)
6. Elf (I resisted Will Ferrell for long enough...)

Tonight I bought a bunch of produce from our neighborhood grocery store, which I try to support as often as possible, but they do not carry a lot of "organic" produce. I spent a significantly less amount than I would at one of the more fancy stores...and now I am rambling on and on, but check out this mushroom....

Anniversary!

Topher decided that today was our Anniversary... or at least the celebration, we decided over dinner that we can change the date to whenever we want. He took me out to Ototo Sushi and also gave me some beautiful earings from Bouncing Wall. Now we are home and are going to watch Cannibal the Musical or Super Troopers.
Today I got a very unexpected package from knit.1 magazine. I won the Fall cover kit! I received this yarn and get to make a funky hat after I am done with all the Christmas funny business I have got myself into...

Life is good, FYI: I am over my sickness. Finally. Now I have to go and eat Newman-O's and drink Red Beret...

My update

My new favorite dog at the shelter is Blue, if we had a bigger house we would have a dog! I have been knitting a lot, still not sure if all the Christmas presents will get completed on time. We have been feeling a little under the weather...something is going around. My WA teaching license finally showed up and Topher has been working a lot of catering. I miss him, but I get more knitting done and have been catching up on movies I have not seen. (Surprisingly, there are quite a few!) Now it's time for yoga! Cheers.

I googled Topher S. Hines and got this:

Update!

We havent written in the blog lately. Dont worry though, we're fine. The snow and the rain came through Seattle but our little hillside apartment was unaffected. I did get wet walking to the bus stop though.

Today was my day off, so we ran some X-mas errands and then went to a nursery and bought a poinsetta. It was a great big nursery that sells alot of Christmas trees. There were reindeer there. Heather thinks reindeer are cute. I agree. Although they are shorter than I thought.

Those of you who read this blog to hear about our culinary adventures should know that Heather made mushroom risotto last night and was really tasty. I dont know if she'll post the recipe here. I think she should keep it a secret. This morning I made some hashbrowns and a tofu scramble. My friend Tony once asked me lots of questions about how to make good hashbrowns at home, and I didn't really have any answers because I never made hashbrowns at home, I always made them at work, but now I know whats up. There's two things that make good hashbrowns at home: 1) Boil the potatoes before hand, then peel 'em and chop 'em up. 2) Use a big heavy cast iron skillet and plenty of salt and pepper. (If your cooking them for somebody who likes a spicy hashbrowns, use crushed red pepper.)

Tonight we're going to go to see the Seattle Supersonics play a basketball game against the Los Angeles Clippers. I've never been to a real basketball game before. I'm looking forward to it. Heather has been to lots of basketball games, she's gonna yell and tell me whats going on.