Lights at the hotel de ville, Paris, December 2005.

Taking a page from Kimberly McK's book, let us rejoice in the first day of December.

Snow fell today, not too much, but big fat flakes that frosted everything. It made for easy driving and a magical day if you weren't expecting to do any yard work. Kids dragged their friends out for a quick snowball fight and it made for some impromptu, if not micro snow people in our neighbor's front yards.

TH and I went Christmas tree shopping in the snow, not something that happens too often in the Emerald City. In our running of errands, we found parking downtown on the first go and everyone we had contact with was in a great mood. Why? because this snow will lead to rain and we'll be back to the Seattle damp, chill gray of December.

Right now, our house smells great --a fresh wreath is on the door and the tree is now covered in lights. Soon garland will festoon our porch and holly on our plate rail. Tomorrow afternoon, we'll see a covey of kids trying their hand at decorating sugar and gingerbread cookies. I'm sure the adults will also jump in do much the same. TH is relaxed and reading a book, something that has not happened in a while, she's also enjoying the first day of December with peace.

The holiday season has really started to kick in here chez f&f. Its not so much the shopping, the card writing, but the need to catch up with our friends who we see in spurts, some more than others, but miss dearly because life has been hectic. Sometimes, just the simple act of getting out of the house to visit sometimes seems monumental especially when you have deadlines looming and gardens to tend.

More importantly, for us, this year, its a time to be thankful that things are coming to a close in a positive way.

I hope the same for you.

nm

grace under pressure

TH, nuff said.

nm

deck the halls

The Koloa School tree, LIH airport, November 2007.

Things that can't be recycled, being made into ornaments, seen in my brief stay at the LIH airport last night. Nothing like smelling pine mixed in with some gentle tropical breezes. There were at least thirty Holiday trees decorated by different schools in the county. TH and I spent a time between flights (Shut up) admiring them all.

Wish I could have stayed, but I'm off today again.

nm

recovery

I can now walk down stairs like a normal human being.

I am down to two advil a day.

I am doing a normal workout.

I do not cringe when thinking about getting out of my chair.

I cannot believe that people who are not athletes feel like this every day.

I will try my hardest never to be in that situation.

Love your body, its the only one you have.

nm

Knackered, completely bone tired.

Anyone have any great ideas for a boy christmas present?

nm

To do

Alaska, June 2007.

• Freaking because I haven't sent out Ernest's holiday greeting and shameless plug for Presidency
• Turn in my FSA paperwork, realizing that I'm not quite sure what my taxable income really is
• Made my Holiday shopping list and actually stick to it
• Finish planting the bulbs (shut up)
• Wondering with my friend B, what are appropriate gifts for our service/trades people
  
• Figuring out if I really care about renewing my Admiral's Club membership for the following year, especially since there isn't one in Seattle and I am not flying that much
• Deciding when to stop making cookies for Sunday, are twelve batches of sugar cookie dough and six batches of gingerbread cookies enough?
• Trying to decide if my Italian SIM card still works and is it worth using it versus Tmobile roaming
• Figuring out if I can write some donation checks this year
• Gathering my taxable donations and getting them ready and out the door for this tax year
• Wishing she could make Ernest a deduction
  

nm who needs to let the bullets go

blister in the sun

What can I say, today's Seattle Half Marathon could not have had better conditions.

Sunny, calm, foggy in the right places and it is done.

I PRed it, but I can't tell you what my time is since the server is down. Next year, I'll be doing some serious hill work.

I missed J, but she was with me in spirit.

Shout out to TH and Ernest who met me in the Arboretum and provided moral support and an eggnog latte for the last six miles and for toughing it out and meeting me at mile 12.9. Ernest provided everyone a little joy at the end.

Shout out for the Team in Training angels who were at Madison and the Arboretum providing gummy bears, pretzels, peanut butter and jam sandwichlettes and oranges and bananas. You rock.

Ditto for Mr. kiss by the freeway.

On my way into Memorial Stadium, the Violent Femmes' 'Blister in the sun' was playing on the loudspeakers. I started singing along with them. I love that song, it brings me back to my college days and I cannot tell you how much it made me happy to run into the stadium and to my chocolate milk.

At mile two I realized that I every step I take is a blessing. My body hurts a bit, but I did it, I walked/ran 13.1 miles today and enjoyed most of it. It made me realize my body is something that I have taken for granted in my 20s and 30s and with the aches and pains of my early 40s I have learned to respect and listen to and realize that I can no longer abuse with poor nutrition.

I spent time today loving my body, all its lumps, bumps and small crows feet for the fact that it got me where I wanted to be -- the finish line.

nm

if I hadn't bought the finishers tshirt already

I would be in bed tomorrow morning instead of standing around in a corral wishing that I hadn't had any coffee.

Wish me luck, its a crap crap hilly course and if I break 3:40 I will be a rock star.

nm

Friday wrap up

Orangey goodness, June 2007.

The Dow stayed in the green, so did NASDAQ. A little miracle.

Three dinners down, one to go.

All shopping I did today was on etsy.com. No malls were pillaged by yours truly. Tomorrow we'll hit the University bookstore to look for some baby shower present books and then off to hit etsy.com and mighty goods again for some inspiration.

I'm a Secret Santa twice this year. One is easy because my recipient is female and I have a clue. The other is male and I haven't a clue, but I'm not going to succumb to a gift card to Starbucks Coffee quite yet.

Secret Santa gifts are really more fun to get than anything, you get a set price, some clues about the recipient and then you are off to create something interesting and fun that they'll remember all year.

Tomorrow, we're going to pop downtown to pick up my race packet. I'm so not ready for this race but I'll go and I'll finish and know that I met my goal this year of seven half marathons walked. I just got this month's Northwest runner and now plotting my race strategy for 2008. I'm looking for a few boutique races and maybe one new state! I know the J. has some long term plans for some long ass days, but I'm going to also start looking at running a half sometime in May!

off to bed

Thankful

For what I am thankful, November 2007.

I am thankful that I live in a place with clean water, clean air and relatively high standards of safety.

I am thankful for amazing and lovely shelter that we have.

I am thankful I live in a country that allows me the freedom to express my opinion and with citizenship allows me to chose who I vote for. I am also very grateful for the ability of free movement between countries thanks to citizenship.

I am thankful for my family and especially now that we are all together in the same zip code. I am especially thankful that my parents are healthy, active, irritating and still together and are resilient to change. I wish I were.

I am thankful for TH, and her patience and love for the last sixteen odd years. It hasn't always been sunshine and lollipops.

I am thankful for my friends, both local and worldwide who keep me sane and keep me laughing.

I am thankful for Ernest the puppy who keeps us all busy and reminds us daily that life is too short not to check out the neighborhood and stop and smell each hydrant. He is thankful that he lives in a country where a basset hound can dream of running for president and in some places, probably win.

I am thankful every time I walk a race that every step means I am alive, healthy and grateful that I can push myself to do this.

I am thankful that I have a career, which sometimes I bemoan, that is still an amazing one that exposes me to amazing technology and people.

I am thankful for the abundance of fresh, local and organic food that graces our table and the farmers that produce it.

I am sometimes embarrassed that the things that I worry about include petty trivial things such as will my upgrade clear to Chicago and why didn't my hotel stay post, when others work sixty hours a week to make sure they can pay their car insurance and keep their kids warm.

I am thankful for you all.

Dinner on the fly, November 2007.

For those of you utterly tired of recipes for swiss chard gratin, chipotle braised rutabagas seasoned with epazote and pumpkin sweet potato gratin served with a froth of nutmeg air, I bring you eating something else the night before Thanksgiving.

Originally, our thought was to go to the local really better than you would think Chinese place next to MM, but then life got the better of me. I looked in our nearly bare fridge and came up with a dinner that will be a keeper for a while.

I'm not a big fan of ready made food, nor am I a big fan of making foods that others make better than me that are available in the ready made format. One of these foods is gravy, but you can deal with that tomorrow. The other is alfredo sauce. I can't imagine having such ingredients on hand and honestly, we don't use tons of it. However, one local company, Cucina Fresca does a great job and we have been seen with the very lovely reusuable jars in our shopping basket. One leftover lug of saffron pasta from Wedgwood's La Pasta, some smoked halibut kindly gifted to us by MZ, fish smoker extraordinare and the some fresh parsely snipped from the garden and we had a dinner that made us both happy and used some awesome local ingredients.

For some the combination of the smoked fish and saffron may seem odd, but honestly, it worked, the woody, sweet flavor of the halibut played nicely off the sweetness of the saffron and the alfredo just held it together. If you can believe it, we're out of parmesan reggiano as well, but this dish didn't need it. The flavors stood on their own.

I can't really give you a recipe for this, I already did. It was a total throw together a meal meal and it worked. I can't wait to make it to the market on Saturday to buy more pasta and recreate it.

For those of you still looking for holiday recipes, remember, stick to the classics and it will all be okay.

Happy Thanksgiving eve.

nm

Wishing for a moment it could be July again...

It has really been a day that seems like a week. Leaving early tomorrow to hide in the basement is sounding better by the nanosecond.

nm

You know you are a frequent flyer when the first thing that comes out of your mouth, but not what is necessarily on your mind when you friend tells you her father had a heart attack is "when do you want to leave?".

Seriously, maybe having a stash of miles and the knowledge of how to use them isn't such a bad thing.

Here's to hoping that R doesn't have to use that ticket.

nm

Thankful for a sunny outlook for next Sunday's Seattle Half Marathon.

Wowed by ACT's The Women.

Pleasantly surprised by Cafe Presse.

Wolfing down leftovers of C's rendition of Shauna's cauliflower with smoked paprika and cocoa.

Lusting after my brother's iphone. Not that I need a gadget, I just love the google map application and the great camera.

Very thankful for the fact that I'm done with stuffing for the year.

Wondering if going to Tunisia for three days is worth a flight, a trip to the airport and hiring a guide or should I stay local and see parts of Lazio I have never been.

nm, wondering if video killed the radio star

Bah, the fridge is full up again.

nm

Friday means

According to blogger and flickrer KimMcK, it means clean out your fridge day. You know why, to get that 18 lb beast in amongst the bags of cranberries, the celery and the brussels sprouts that you always make and end up in the dogs dinner.

I cleaned mine out a few weeks ago while TH was in Hawaii. Its pretty clean now, we have methodically been eating chard, pork chops and eggs to make room for goose, fennel and hubbard squash.

I can see to the back, this is a good thing.

It really doesn't take too much time and if you are really clever, you can photodocument it.

nm

Must dash, doing something beyond stupid today.

At least I managed to post for National Blog Posting Month.

I'll be back tomorrow, so please don't fret and no, I am not bringing you back a pineapple.

smooches,

nm

wordless wednesday

After hearing that Caesar Milan is coming to see him next week.

nm

See you later

TH says five minutes and then stop computing.

I'm not even going to spend three.

Consider the persimmon and discuss.

nm

looking back

Ernest getting guidance on rewiring a lamp, November 2007.

2005 -London for the Remembrance Day weekend. I think I was not by myself, I cannot remember. Yes, I was with TH. G-d, is my memory so bad.

2006- London for Remembrance day weekend with 150 flyertalkers. Definitely not with TH, but still had a blast.

2007 - Seattle for Remembrance day weekend, weekend spent keeping Ernest amused and alive, raking leaves and dealing the minutae of life.

2008 - I'm hoping for a middle ground, a bit boring and a bit exciting at the same time.

nm