Berries in the tree and Blackberries

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I love getting to spend time with family and only wish we were able to spend more time together. Geographically, we all live pretty close, but it is still a treat to get together.

Yesterday we bought a new (artificial) Christmas tree and decorated it and the interior of the house. The tree has berries and small pine cones in it, making it look a little more natural. I am so glad to have a new tree. The one we had before was a lot smaller, and we didn't replace it last year because we wanted to see how Smokey reacted to a christmas tree before investing in a new one. It is not pre-lit, so I had my first experience of putting lights on the tree. Growing up, I'd help my dad but that was mostly keeping him company and untangling the strands. It looks so great! It is 7'5" tall, so with the topper it is to the ceiling and is very full and takes up the entire corner of our den. I'll have to post photos later. This is the earliest I've decorated for Christmas, but love that we'll get to enjoy it for so long.

Our other splurge yesterday was getting new phones. We now have blackberries! Kevin had been needing to get one for work, and we took the plunge, so we'll be learning how to use those over the next few weeks. It will be great with both of us having the same phone (different colors), so we can both learn from each other :) I never really learned to use his old phone and would try to text for him but it was tough. The full keyboard will be fun, but man the buttons are tiny!

Happy Thanksgiving

I'm posting this a little early. I only work through a half-day on Wednesday (thank you President of my school!), and don't plan to be around a computer a whole lot until after Thanksgiving.

Happy Thanksgiving! I love this holiday, it is an opportunity to get together with family and friends and to take time out to realize how much we have to be thankful for. I know that I often take for granted how much I have to be thankful for and how good I have it. This year especially has shown me how much I have to be thankful for - going through Hurrricane Ike and seeing what really matters and seeing people pull together to recover from it. This year has also been a time of watching the economy tank and and seeing the effect it has on everyone. A short list of what I have to be thankful for:

• good health
• supportive family and friends around us
• my wonderful husband, Kevin, who puts up with my moods and my craziness. Even after over four years together, I often wake up and wonder how I met (and later married) such a wonderful man.
  
• having job that I like and that provides me with the means to live comfortably. It seems that every day I hear about more companies doing layoffs, and am very fortunate to have a job that I enjoy and that is fairly stable. I am so glad I took the plunge and changed jobs last year, the job market is one of the many things effected by the economy.
  

If I listed everything I was thankful for, my list would get very long...but those are my big ones.

This week we'll celebrate Thanksgiving with Kevin's family on Thursday and my family on Friday. We're lucky that all of our family is fairly close by, so we can drive to both celebrations.

Thanksgiving is usually the kickoff of the Christmas season, but every year it gets earlier and earlier. Right after Halloween I already saw Christmas stuff up in stores and heard Christmas Carols over the radio at the store in early November. I hate that! I love Christmas, but hate that it takes over all of November and December, and not for the right reasons, but mostly for the stores to have more time to push their products on us and telling us that this is the perfect gift. I love the decorations and the songs, but hate that it becomes a rush to get a gift for everyone on the list. I have to remember "Jesus is the Reason for the Season" when I get caught up in the search for the perfect gift. Spending time with the people I love is the best gift I can give and receive for everyone on my list.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Cool weather and Dr Pepper

Work is crazy right now, so I haven't had much time to post. I have to get what is my "never-ending project" done today. I've had TWO meetings about it this week and not regular meetings, no video conference meetings, which are a pain for IT to set up, especially on short notice (sorry IT!) I hope to get it done and off my plate today but have this feeling I'll be almost done and what they want will change again.

Good news - its Friday and next week is a short week....and it is cold outside, yay! 51 outside now and the high is in the mid-50s, which means I get to wear my coat! I bought it for our trip to Kansas City last year and I love it.& Its a dark gray, wool, 'pea coat' sort of cut. I like the cooler weather, especially when it comes with sun, but I know that it doesn't make me ready for true cold -- I don't know if I could live somewhere with snow. I love snow, but I think I love visiting snow...in any case, I am glad to have some truly fall/winter weather finally. Houston has very strange weather, sometimes we'll wear shorts on Thanksgiving (or Christmas) and it just feels wrong. I am glad we went to Ren Fest last weekend, because though I like the cold I don't think I'd want to spend all day out in it...unless I'm skiing :)

Totally unrelated, but its happening this weekend so I thought I would post it. I've been hearing about this on the radio because they love Guns N Roses, I personally don't care about their music, but do like Dr. Pepper. DP said that if Guns N Roses came out with their new CD this year, they'd give a free Dr Pepper to everyone. The CD is coming out, so they are making good on that promise, but the catch is you have to get the coupon this Sunday. Kinda sounds like a scam to get your info to get on their mailing list, but its a free DP and an interesting promotion.

Article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27350676/

DP website: http://www.drpepper.com

I love DP, but try not to drink as much soda, and when I do drink soda it doesn't taste as good as I remember it. Hopefully, I'll be able to just kick the habit completely.

Ren Fest

The cold front came through on Friday night, so it was chilly and clear on Saturday, a perfect day for Renaissance Festival! Kevin and I went on Saturday and had a great time. We watched a few shows and did a lot of people watching. My favorite show was Sound and Fury, a trio who do "Fakespeare", short plays that are funny, but very PG-13. We also met up with my friend Stacy who was there with friends.

My favorite part is seeing all the people and the costumes, you really see costumes of all kinds - fairies, pirates, queens, kings, gypsies, the list goes on and on. Its actually hard to tell who works there and who is simply a patron enjoying the day, the costumes can be that good. There are plenty of people who don't go in costumes, like me and Kevin. I'd love to dress up, but never make the time to put together a costume, or like this year think I'd be too cold in a costume. The strangest costume I saw was a Star Wars Stormtrooper in a kilt (it was the Scottish Highland themed weekend so the kilt actually makes sense). We also saw a guy carrying around a fake rifle, not sure how that fits into the Renaissance. Every time I've been I've seen a guy dressed as a centaur (half man/half horse) - I think he lives there - and this time I got a picture with him. Kevin brought his camera and had a lot of opportunities to take pictures.

It was a *perfect* day to be outside and enjoy the fall weather.

Blender Fiasco

Yet another kitchen fiasco from yours truly. I can't even call it cooking fiasco because I didn't get that far. The other day, I was going to attempt to make pesto, but in getting the blender out of the cabinet I caught it on the oversized lunch bag I had in the cabinet and the whole thing tumbled out and broke :( Our brand-new, fancy, schmancy blender. I cleaned up the glass, and was just mad at myself for letting it happen. I figured I could remedy this by using the old blender we never got around to getting rid of (why couldn't I have broken it instead?), but then saw that the fresh basil I had was 1) probably not enough, and 2) slimy - thanks packaging that I can't see through. I wanted to pick out my own, but HEB had about every other kind of spice in bulk, so I went with the pre-packaged in the produce section, never again.

I was clearly not meant to make pesto, so I abandoned that plan and went to plan b (invented on the spot) of making the Mongolian Chicken that we had a spice packet for. Turned out pretty well for being a plan b but it is so salty we probably won't have that for a while, at least until we figure out a better way to make it. The oversized lunch bag is now in a closet, far from the kitchen, and yesterday morning when I went to throw out the broken pieces, I cut my finger....not too badly, and I bandaged it up, but just one more haha from the blender.

In happier news, this was my first week with fitness release time and I love it! I am impressed that I remembered my clothes each day and was able to get out of the office and over there each of my three days. I did almost forget my gym back there yesterday, but realized it as I was walking to my car and hightailed it back over there, not that I think anyone wants to steal my clothes but would not be good to leave it there overnight.

I left work at 4pm three days this week (M, T, TH) and went to the gym, changed clothes and worked out there until 5pm. Monday I took a class and T and TH I did the treadmill. I like getting to workout on work time and it should help me to be consistent in my workouts. I did get up W and do a little bit of weights, but did NOT get up today. Its perfect time since the weather and the daylight are reflecting that yes, it is winter.