HAPPY INAUGURATION DAY!!!

After celebrating my birthday in California we kept the party going with a fun and festive Inauguration Day Brunch with as many people as we could convince to go to work late. There were 10 of us total. We had a huge, beautiful brunch that would have normally gotten a lot of attention but on this day no amount of homemade food could distract from the heady history being made. We were all glued to the TV. No one talked. There was a little misty-ness and we hummed a long to the National Anthem.

Most of our guests left in the next hour or two but I stayed glued to the TV for the next 14 hours.

I called mom first thing in the morning, as the scones were going in to the oven. She tends to sleep. The phone rang. She answered and without saying hello, "you're bothering me!" At least I knew she was awake and watching. I told her I'd call her after the cemerony, which was still an hour away. I called later in the afternoon. Mom picks up the phone, "stop interupting". After that I decided we could catch up on Wednesday. I later heard my cousins got the same response. I guess none of us wanted mom to miss it and thankfully she didn't!!!

Happy Birthday Month!!

HOLY COWS - WHAT A FUN BIRTHDAY!


Aaron and I spent my birthday weekend in California. We were invited to a wedding reception but spend an additional 3 days there. I expected California to be totally stuck up and boy was I wrong! Everyone was really nice and very helpful. It was a great birthday. Mostly it was nice to have 80 degrees, sunshine, and a breeze. As I type, it's back to snowing here in Seattle. Our bults started to sprout after the last snow melted. I don't know what they'll do now. Stay tuned!


Out and about on my birthday. I take HDR with me whereever I go...



We ate at all sorts of local Greasy Spoons. Home fries everyday. YUMMY!




Check out the giant pine cones?!

Air Force One at the Reagan Museum.

Never too far from Boeing; wheels from Air Force One

Aaron and Ronny. Together at last!

Sunset at Robert H Meyer State Beach (a little traveled beach on our way home from the Reagan's).

Sunset at Seal Beach

Nixon's birthplace

Aaron's mustang.... SO COOL!

Inauguration Count Down

Aaron surprised me tonight by decorating the house for our Inauguration Brunch on Tuesday. Like the new table, pictures don't really do it justice.

See you back here in just five days.

Real Live Grown-Up Furniture!!!!

In an effort to make our house more homey I've really been pushing for "unpacking". My idea is to actually take everything out of the box its in and put it somewhere in the house! Aaron is onboard with this concept and that's why two weeks ago he suggest we go furniture shopping to get some nice shelves and various things so we can start putting out some of our pictures, books, art and alike. You know: the stuff that makes a house a home.

We headed out to the furniture store where we saw a beautiful Indian rosewood dining table. We've seen them before but they are always in castle size; not ity-bity-cute-little-house size. After 2 1/2 years of looking one appeared. Unfortunately, a dining table wasn't on the shopping list. It's the one thing we had and were reasonably happy about. Lucky for us the furniture store had an unrelenting high-pressured sales women who even did us the favor of calling us at home....twice. We lamented it all afternoon and measured and remeasured our dinning nook. Then: we caved. A week later we were picking up our new fabulous table, chairs and dresser for Aaron. I mean, once you're buying why not justify it by getting at least one thing that was on the list in the first place? As a bonus we were able to get it in one minivan trip. Amazing.

LOADING THE VAN

THE VAN ALL PACKED UP


TESTING OUT THE TABLE!! Pictures don't do it justice.
Trust us - it's BEA-U-TI-FUL

CHECK OUT THE GRAIN

AARON'S NEW AWESOME DRESSER

Not Too Married for Mystery Dates!!

Last Saturday we had our first Mystery Date since last spring. We relized the last time we had a MD we ended up engaged by the end of the night. Although this wasn't quite an monumental it was still really fun: Seattle's own Gay Bingo. It's a monthly fundraiser for the Lifelong AIDS Alliance. The theme was Studio 54 (think gay disco). We knew we did something right because Aaron and the Queen who hosted the evening both had the same belt. He's SO fashion forward....

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009!!!!

Happy New Year!!!

What do homemade marshmallows + homemade graham crackers + fancy chocolate = ? If you say pure gooey goodness you'd be right!!! We rang in the new year with our friends Jack & Anastasia, games, and homemade smores. We made marshmallows during the big winter storm and took our first stab at graham crackers about an hour before we were expected for dinner. It was a super fun way to welcome 2009. I think a tradition may have been born!

This morning (it was technically still morning) we woke up and went to Seattle Town Hall to see two live recordings of NPR's "Says You". It's a radio game show about words. Aaron loves it and knows most of the answers. I give him 100 points. Me? I'm more of a "Wait, Wait: Don't Tell Me" contestant. That one is all about current events.

We're back at work tomorrow so, sorry, no time to make resolutions (unless it were to be to 'work less'). Hope everyone had an equally good time. Happy 2009!