It's Black Friday. We spent the day in Bethlehem, both at Christkindlmart/Main Street and on the South Side. People were basically not out and about, though we could see a swarm at the mall on our drives over and back on 22.
Thanksgiving was nice. Nothing too strenuous, with a late - by Thanksgiving standards - meal that was elegantly simple and traditional. Jenelle's pan gravy made the meal again and we enjoyed apple pie and whipped cream to top it off.
Michigan and Minnesota are back it on BTN; Blue is up 5-2 with a period to play and I'm not going to blog through the chance for some maize-tinged glory this year.
It was a lazy weekend, no question, but this is the last chance for that until after the holidays as guests and travel will keep me busy in the interim. We celebrated by finishing the kitchen lighting project, cleaning the garage, and checking out a local Italian bakery that had been on our radar for a year but we hadn't tried.
It was also the end of college football season for Michigan and me. There's been a fair amount written on the winged-helmet section of the internet of the sentiment that we should be thankful that's over. Shenanigans. I'm not particularly upset that there isn't a bowl game - all streaks have to end - but I'm always disappointed when the team hangs it up for the year regardless of the date. State will be in a New Year's Day bowl and PSU is Pasadena-bound so I'll hear plenty about it and be sad, but mostly I'm jealous that there's not one more game.
Low. Ri. Der. It was late when I got into the truck after work and NPR wasn't doing it for me, so I found a different kind of War on the radio and that worked better.
We worked at home last night, sawing and gluing and mounting and ironing and hanging. Tonight we were too tired, though, so after some mostaccioli we crashed. And by crashed I mean we read books and The Economist and listened to the music channel and 'awwwwwwwed' at the cats for a few hours. Good stuff.
Perhaps, along with the stock market & the cost of oil, there's some great force conspiring to diminish the length of my evenings. Tonight we went to the library, did some printing and cutting and what-have-you, made and ate dinner, and played laser-light with the cats. That's it. Back in the day I remember having hours upon hours of time for reading long-winded nonfictional tomes about coal or railroads. Now I can only rarely muster time to write about their subjects, let alone the contents of their pages.
I should say something about the balance of the weekend... we did a cut, flatten, and frame job on a Mystic consignment find. Jenelle needed to take a trip to Pennsburg to try on a dress and we made an adventure out of that, but other than that we just kinda putzed and enjoyed a quiet windy day.
The week is ovah and I am glad for it. I spent too much of the day doing paperwork and then started the evening trying to get said paperwork to a UPS dropbox - which proved harder than you might think. Then south for house dressing from a certain Swedish retailer, home for Photoshop learning (tilt-shift photo fakes? what?) and bed.
posted at 11:00 PM - comments
Thursday, November 13, 2008
The nice campus security lady at EHS informed Ryan and I that basketball is over, effective last week. So I'm home with Jenelle and The Office and that's cool, too. It's been a busy week at work, but as has been the case busy-ness means progress. In the evenings we've actually been shopping for a gym since park/outside-after-work season is pretty much over. Never been much of a gym guy, myself, so the most difficult decision has been whether to do this at all rather than which choice to make.
posted at 8:50 PM - comments
Monday, November 10, 2008
It was a momentous weekend in the grand scheme of things. Robin and Jake arrived from Atlanta on Friday and we had a great few days getting to know him and them. Such an occasion deserves a picture on a grand scale:
Friday evening we kicked it at home and toasted the newlyweds. Saturday was kind of dreary and, after hearing so much about markets in Georgia, we set out to see the PA equivalent: Zerns. After what Jake termed a 'top 5' blooming onion we continued south to the shadow of the cooling towers in Pottstown, then home for stew and some football and a not-too-late night.
Sunday was the city. We saw downtown pretty extensively: rhombutans in China Town, City Hall, Brooklyn Bridge, Ground Zero, Battery Park and the Statue, Wall Street, Broadway, and O'Hara's Pub on a good recommendation from Jake's brother. Then Chelsea Market for wine shop and Thai market; north on the subway to the Park and midtown and ultimately Times Square as seen above. The day wrapped with the best canoli on Mulberry Street and dinner back in the valley with Robin & Jake. It was all great fun and really awesome to meet Jake, who fits right in. We're already looking forward to the next time a weekend works out with R&J.
Election night in a new swing state, this time swinging blue again as PA has done before. We were reminiscing about 2004 earlier; Ollie was brand new and would come home to Jenelle's place in South Lansing in three days. Grad school was fresh and new. Everything was simpler and more confused. But one party had a huge margin and broad control and a mandate - hmmmm.
posted at 9:58 PM - comments
Monday, November 03, 2008
Posting once a week is a sad habit but is better than posting every 10 days so here goes:
We observed a week-shortening long weekend over the past three days to zip to Michigan for Laura & Robert's wedding. Between (liquid) nailing, sanding, caulking, puttying, and painting at home and a marathon meeting at the LMT center on Wednesday there just wasn't much week to write about by the time we packed the Vibe with luggage, CDs, and a case of hostess gift for cousins.
Friday really started at Krazy Jim's for lunch, then ramped up with a great visit at UHS where Jenelle Miss Gray was is a rockstar. We saw everybody but Johnny D and really enjoyed it. Two closest friends joined us for dinner and we may see them again soon; in the meantime hooray facebook. We stayed with Scott & Rayna at their place in the woods, envying their barkyard and darkness. Saturday we mozied north for gift shopping and Bronner-ing and Bavarian lunching before changing 'like peasants' and watching the wedding. We saw Megan and Wyl at the reception and got a great chunk of time with Laura - not sure how - and plan to see all again in ATL one of these days. Sunday was home, home, home all day.
Friday, November 28, 2008