Halfway Through November Already

October is over for another year . . . Boo Hiss : ( But now it's HOLIDAY SEASON!! I can't believe it's been a month since I last wrote. I think my last blog wore me the heck out but it was absolutely worth it. In the intervening month, things have been semi-busy.

Ed's birthday was probably the most exciting thing that happened. I took the day off and we relaxed around the house and then went to dinner at Sports Zone Pizza (his choice, not mine). After dinner I stopped at Walgreens to get him some Starbuck's Caramel Macchiato ice cream, and then home to open presents. I had made Rolo brownies the night before and popped some cookies in the oven when we got home from dinner.

Later in the week we went to O'Haru with my parents. It was the first time I had ever had Japanese food. It was pretty good. Both Ed and I had cream cheese wontons and tempura. Of course I've had cream cheese wontons millions of times at Chinese restaurants, but never tempura. It was ok. I had vegetarian tempura and Ed had shrimp tempura. I only wish there had been more mushrooms!! I only got one. Oh, and I had the appetizer tofu soup. That was yummy. Those of you who know me know I'm not much of a food explorer so that was a new adventure for me. Afterwards we went back to my parents' house to open presents and have German Chocolate cake and ice cream. Ed got some great gifts and seemed to have a good time, which was really the important thing to me.

I've been trying to take lots of pictures lately. I have set up a site of web albums (http://picasaweb.google.com/118412076507433432326) and for my Facebook friends I have posted them there also. I am working on chronicling "my Ukiah", in other words, Ukiah as I see it. I am hoping that someday I will move out of the area. I thought the pictures would be a good thing to work on in the meantime as I absolutely cannot move right now. As a bonus, when I move I will have all those pictures to look back on when I miss my hometown, as I'm sure I will. I am really enjoying the process of making the list of things I want to capture, taking the pictures, uploading them, and sharing them with family and friends. It's been a real creative outlet for me. I'm still learning all the cool things my camera does. It takes fabulous pictures on full auto, but I can make it do all sorts of other things and I've been reading the manual and trying to do something new each time I go out. I am enjoying the feeling of being at least a little bit artistic!

Other than that it's pretty much been business as usual. Today is the last day of a four day weekend for me. I took the Friday after Veteran's Day off. It was SO nice to have an extended weekend. I took pictures, visited friends, ran errands, washed my car, weeded half of my front yard only stopping when I could hardly move anymore. I'm really looking forward to my next "vacation" between Christmas and New Year's. TEN WHOLE DAYS!!! Whew!! It will be so lovely to just relax and do whatever I want and not worry about work. Tomorrow is back to the grind, but it's only ten days till Thanksgiving, and another four day weekend!! I love the day after Thanksgiving because it is Christmas decoration day. Yay for Christmas Trees!!