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As a kid, I hated going to the Como Conservatory. I mean, how much fun is it to look at pretty flowers and plants? For a kid, not much. I wanted to run, to play, to go next door and see the animals at the Como Zoo. Well, as an adult, I find that I enjoy it much more than I used to.
Here are a few of my favorite pictures;
A testament to the hardiness of Minnesotans, during the month of December, there is a parade Wednesday-Sunday evenings down Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis. It does occasionally get cancelled due to snowy, icy, or cold conditions, but that’s unusual. The Holidazzle Parade is marked by brightly lit floats and characters. Most of the floats are of storybook characters and settings. The princess and the pea (sponsored, this year at least, by a mattress company 🙂 is one of my favorites.
This year, Andrew and I were joined by Dave, Jen and Kira, Kevin and my parents. It wasn’t too cold out, though Andrew pointed out that earlier this month we got sick after a trip to Minnesota and Wisconsin. Perhaps this would be reason to get sick on this trip. I took a few pictures, but they didn’t really turn out.
Afterwards we rushed up to the Marshall Field’s 8th floor auditorium. The display this year was Charlie and the Chocolate Factory — each year they put up a display, usually based on a children’s book. The display was quite fun, though crowded as always (though in the past, it wasn’t nearly as busy after Christmas, so I was hoping it wouldn’t be too bad).
Though, more fun that the display itself, was watching Kira. She was on Dad’s shoulders, and started to imitate some of the characters. One of the displays showed the winner of a golden ticket raising her hands above her head, so Kira raised her hands, too.
We went up to Cox Farms this afternoon to pick out a Christmas tree. I grew up with real trees in the house for Christmas, so for the years I spent in New Mexico as a poor undergrad and Maryland as an even poorer grad student, I really missed the smell of pine during December. (Though we did always have a Christmas tumbleweed in NM, and I put up a 3-foot fake tree in my MD apartment, it just wasn’t the same.) So, two years ago, after my first year as a “real world” employee, I decided to ditch the 3-foot fake tree and trade it in for a 5-foot real tree. I can’t see myself going back any time soon.
It snowed on Friday, so all the trees in the lot still had crunchy bits of snow in their needles. When we got our tree into the house, we threw bunches of towels around the base to catch the drippings. Ares promptly curled up on the towels, and stayed there until they got too wet. The tree dripped enough water that I didn’t need to fill up the stand with water last night (though I tried, and nearly overfilled it in my enthusiasm).
Today it was dry enough to decorate, and once again I was able to find places for all my ornaments. It doesn’t feel at all sparsely decorated, but I think this means that I need to collect more ornaments and continue getting larger and larger trees each year!
(That’s Ares sitting on the package. He didn’t like that I used up all the room under the tree for presents and stuffed toys.)
After a long day at work, I met Andrew at the Greenbelt Metro station so we could go to the Old Greenbelt Theater to see Winged Migration. The plan was to go to the Chinese restaurant next door for dinner afterwards, but half of the restaurant was taken up with a private party, so the line was fairly long. When I suggested that we head back to Vienna, and go out at someplace closer to home, Andrew happily agreed, suggesting that he might be in the mood for Lucciano’s.
It took about 5-10 minutes for us to get seated, and while we were waiting, I noticed that he was wearing his suit pants. I asked why, thinking it was a bit weird, but figured he just needed to laundry. He just said that he wanted to be a a little dressy for tonight, since we were going out. Of course, this just made me feel a bit slovenly, since I was wearing blue jeans, an oversized t-shirt and ragged fleece shirt. Sigh.
After we were seated and ordered, I went to the ladies’ room. On my way back, I noticed Patrick on the table (note on Patrick — he’s a stuffed puppy, pictured below, that Andrew gave me for Christmas 2001. I still sleep with Patrick every night, and he follows me around the house when I’m stressed or sick or just in need of a companion when Andrew isn’t around. He’s my favorite stuffed toy.) Lots of things started going through my head, the foremost of which was, “Jeez, did Andrew think I had that bad of a day? Did he think I really needed Patrick to pick up my spirits? And if he did, why didn’t he bring him out sooner?”
Patrick the proposing puppy.
When I sat down, I gave Andrew the, “what’s this all about?” look. He said, “Patrick is concealing something under his front paw.”
I pulled up Patrick’s paw, and saw a box of Godiva Chocolate. Looking further, I came across the box. The ring box. While I was pulling out the ring box, Andrew said, “Patrick and I have something to ask you. Will you spend a lot more time with us?”
I think I said “yes”. I know I pulled the ring out and put on it. I nearly started crying, but forced myself to keep it together.
An after-the-proposal-note: After dinner, we were waiting for the check, and the manager came by. He looked questioningly at my hands clutching the box of chocolates on the table, and Andrew indicated that I hadn’t been wearing the ring before we came in that evening. The manager said that he was going to remember this, and anytime we came in together, he was going to make sure we got that table. He’s the kind of person who might just do that, too.
Along with my pun’kins, a large spider web and some lighted bones, I left out some trick-or-treat books for the kids tonight. These books are all registered with Bookcrossing, so it will be fun to see if anyone journals the books in the coming weeks.
The books were actually a big hit with the kids. Most of the kids stopped to look at the books before ringing the doorbell (though the first two kids that came around didn’t know that I had candy as well…oops). The books were gone with the fourth or fifth group of kids to come around. Andrew and I are going to remember this for next year — there is a used bookstore nearby that has a bunch of the Goosebumps books for just 50 cents each, so we’ll probably stock up next year and leave a bigger selection).
These are the books I released (with their Bookcrossing journal link):
Here they are all laid out:
I always have carved pumpkins for Halloween. I don’t remember when I started, but I remember each year, we would go out an pick out a pumpkin for each of us kids. Then, when my brothers were too old/and or had moved out of the house, Dad and I would go and pick out a couple for me to do. When I moved out on my own, I continued the tradition, only missing the year that I was trapped…er, living in the dorm (but I did decorate the door for Halloween — it was a way cool sarcophagus made from tag board that actually opened to reveal a mummy inside).
Andrew and I went out a couple weeks ago to Cox Farms, just up the road, and picked out two pun’kins for me to carve. Here’s the results of my handiwork (thanks in part to Pumpkin Masters):
(They’re fuzzy because I took them without a flash, and my hand jiggled a bit when I took them.)
I dressed up in costume, as a vampiress:
But, I put the costume on before dinner, complete with fake nails, so I had a bit of trouble eating the wonderful pizza Andrew made.
I estimated that we had just about 70 kids this year, which is about the same as last year. The cutest costume was a little kid, about 4, who was in a full-body lion costume. There were a couple Hulks, many witches, a couple fairy princesses, a football player (I think he was just wearing his uniform from school, though), a ninja, a clown, and so many more that I just can’t remember.
A very fun night!
I just realized that I’ve had Ares for just about 7 years. I no longer remember the exact day that he came into my life, but I do remember that it was the Thursday before “49ers” — Tech’s equivalent of homecoming. (It used to be a drinking fest, with a keg on a truck, but that was before my time. In recent times has toned down quite a bit.)
I’d been living at Bob’s house since January, and my dorm-roommate from my first semester at Tech was living in the dorm again (after being out for a semester). She had been given a kitten by her boyfriend. Yeah, that was thoughtful — especially considering she was living in the dorm again, where pets were taboo. She was going home for the weekend, and wanted to find a home for her kitten before leaving. I was worried that she might leave him at a shelter, so I took him home with me. (Later that year, she left town with my microwave and cube refrigerator, never to be heard from, by me at least, again. I suppose she saw Aries as payment for the appliances she took. Of course, I’d never trade him back, but I missed my microwave when I moved out on my own to Maryland!)
Bob wasn’t too happy having another cat in the house. He already had three of his own (Little Cat, Daisy, and Evil Cat (a.k.a. Milinka)), and was hoping to reduce the number of cats in the house. But the new little bundle of black fur was cute, and soon won Bob over. (Melissa didn’t need winning over — she liked the little guy from the beginning.)
At first, I thought Ares was a girl, based on the word of my ex-roommate, so I named him Eris after the goddess of discord. When he went to the vet the first time, I renamed him Ares, which sounds a lot like Eris, so the little guy wouldn’t get too confused.
He’s been a bit of a handful after he went through puberty. He started marking because I got him fixed just a bit too late…sigh. I was convinced that I would never find anyone who would put up with this behavior, but Andrew and I seem to be coping. Fortunately, Ares has seemed to claim the basement as his territory, and doesn’t really mark the rest of the house. That means that the basement is questionable on any given day, but at least we only have to clean up one floor.
Fortunately, his good qualities far outweigh his bad one. He’s fluffy (not exactly long-haired, but not short-haired either). He likes to cuddle on cool days. He purrs a lot! He loves to be in the bathroom with me when I shower in the mornings, and frequently I’ll hear him purring on the other side of the shower curtain when I turn off the water. He’s a talker — meowing even as he purrs. He likes to have his tummy petted (rare in a cat). He loves to have his fur petted in all directions (even more rare in a cat).
Sigh. I love my little guy. I can’t believe he’s 7 years old, though. Sometimes he still seems like a tiny kitten to me.
I nearly fell over when Andrew said that he wanted to go to the craft show with Stef and me. I figured he’d be bored out of his mind, but he did want to look for a magazine basket for our living room, and thought he’d keep an eye out for gifts for his mom. So, Stef, Andrew and I went off to the Craftsmen Classic Craft Sale at the Dulles Expo Center this weekend. I spent way too much money, and only came home with one gift (unless you count the rest as a gift for myself).
Stef and I mostly led the way, with Andrew trying to keep track of the both of us. Stef was looking at pottery, natural wood items, and jewelry. I jumped from jewelry sites to wood furniture and painted items to anything that caught my eye. I hoped to find a cute outfit for my niece, since her birthday is in a couple weeks, but the lady I’ve bought from in the past was not at this sale — I think she might be at the one next month, so I can get a Christmas present.
The most fun item I found was a CD rack painted with stars and moons, by Sassafras Designs. This, I thought, would be the perfect thing to keep my data CDs in for my thesis. After traversing the rest of the sale, I dragged Andrew back, and we picked it up. He also got me a clock there, which was what had drawn me to the booth in the first place.
In the end, I don’t think Andrew was too bored, and I walked out with a fun haul. Andrew also found a nice basket and some hazelnut hot chocolate. Stef bought a few things, too, but I forgot to make her show me everything….oops, what kind of girl friend am I??
Here’s a picture of the CD rack, complete with my data CDs:
We decided to skip last year’s Renaissance Festival, because we’d burned out a bit the previous two years. But this year, we were ready to go back! Mushi brought along a new costume that she had sewn, and the rest of us wore our old costumes.
We didn’t end up spending as much time at the shows as we have in past years. I was worried that this would bore Andrew, but he seemed to have a good time shopping with us. The shows we did see were Renaissance Man: Stand-up Tragedy – Act I and Hilby the Skinny German Juggle Boy. I recommend both shows, but particularly Hilby. I think the best part of his act were his facial expressions — they reminded me a bit of my brother David when he and I used to practice funny faces together in front of the mirror. His finale was on a 9-foot tall unicycle, juggling a knife (with gum on the end that he was supposed to grab at some point and chew), a plunger and something else (can’t remember).
Melissa had never seen a joust, so we also went to one of the three jousts. The MD Ren Fest’s jousting arena is far from ideal, though. It’s only about two-thirds as long as it should be, causing the riders to have to stop short at either end. Of course, I love watching the horses — I’ve been a horse lover (though without the means to actually have horses, or the time to take care of any) for as long as I can remember.
Much of the day was spend shopping. We bought Andrew a print of an old map, which even I thought was really nice. The map is done in the shape of a lion, with the eastern-edge as the lion’s back (so north points to the right). We also got a new lamp for our guest room — the base has stars and moons carved into it, so will fit in with the decor perfectly. I got a new barrette for myself at a brass dealer, with a fairy and moon on it.
Mushi and I also catapulted frogs in one game, and threw knives at another game. Though, frankly we weren’t playing to win anything — just for the joy of throwing things.
I took only one picture the entire day — here is Mushi getting burned at the stake:
Which one of these isn’t stuffed?
(Actually, she had been curled up with them a minute earlier, which made the picture a whole lot cuter. But then she heard Duncan coming up the stairs and had to see what was going on.)
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