S.W.I.

Sewing While Intoxicated... well, not really. This bottle finally got emptied after about a YEAR, and I don't drink Jack...lord knows how it got anywhere near my sewing machine, but I saw this and just LMAO. Doesn't that just say it all? Um, bad sewing day? Ha! Posted it on Wardrobe Refashion, but it's good enough for the rest of ya's, too. :)
Love, love, LOVE these long weekends. Three days full of family, food, football, and friends and I still have another day to go. Yea!
For Thanksgiving, the DH and I went to Lake Zorinsky to jog with the annual ORC Turkey Trot Fun Run crowd. Uh, how 'bout "Not-So-Fun Run"? It was cold and windy and I was just not feeling the running love that morning - I was slow and grumpy. Ugh.
For the big meal, we drove over the river and through the woods (otherwise known as "down Q Street") to the in-laws'. The DH's family holds the Guinness Book record for faster holiday meals EVER. Seriously, we drug it out as long as we could and we were still done in less than an hour. The rest of the afternoon/evening/night was spend on the couch watching movies, digesting. Good times.
On Friday, poor DH had to work, so the extra Husker ticket went to ML. What a game! A 57-yard field goal in the final minutes of the 4th gave us the lead and an intersection with seconds left sealed the deal. Woo-hoo! Go Big Red!
I did get to spend some time with my beloved - we made it out to the DI-FI show at the Roxbury later that night. Nothing like some death metal to cap off Black Friday, huh? Rock on.
This morning's run was much more fun - met up with ML, and a couple of friends at Elmwood Park for a jog, then we checked out the new all-natural Blue Planet Grill in Aksarben Village. Organic, fair-trade caramel-vanilla latte, anyone? Ooh, me, me! We've definitely found a new breakfast spot.
To continue the green-ness, I hosted a "Green Clean" party this afternoon. Not much of a party, with only 2 of my original 5 guests in attendance, but it was fun nonetheless. Rebecca, Christina, and I mixed up some laundry detergent, tub & tile scrub, wood floor spray, and an all-purpose cleaner while munching on Oreos and sipping our coffees and tea.
Sigh, and now I'm all alone, pondering the rest of my evening... What to do... I'm felting some sweaters in the wash, but I have so many projects on my list that I'm in a bit of a craft overload paralysis. Ack! Maybe some dinner would help...or another one of those bottles up there...

Warning: Don't drink and craft!

If you weren't at Club Roxbury tonight, you missed a great show!  Tonight was my DH's band CD release party.  So awesome.  :)  Congrats, honey, you did great!  Just waiting for him to get home so we can finally get some sleep!  I'm too old for this... ;)

always learning

Typical busy week.  So busy in fact, that I haven’t had a moment to blog about last week!  It’s been all work and meetings – making up hours from an unexpected day off last Thursday and then heading straight to a My Closet meeting, or a Girls Nite Out meeting, or a dance class, or a My Closet shift…  Phew.  I’ll be really happy when Girls Nite Out is over.  It should be a really great event, but the meetings take over my “date night” with the DH. L  Plus this has been one hellish week at work – one emergency after another.  Will the fun never stop?!? TGIF, that’s all I can say.

 

So…last week.  Last week was a “learning week”.  I finished up the continuing ed course I was taking at Metro, a Network Security class.  Pretty interesting stuff – a good refresher course on  a lot of subjects, plus some new info that was not covered in my master’s program.  Practical, definitely.

 

 I also learned how to make a fresco – a wet-plaster painting.  If that definition does nothing for you, how’s this:  the Sistine Chapel ceiling is a fresco.  Basically, you apply the plaster, and paint it while its still wet; the paint chemically bonds with the plaster.  The Young Art Patrons (YAP) group at Joslyn sponsored a free class last Thursday night.  Now, my fresco is nothing to brag about.  In fact, I’m sure that most kindergartners would mock it openly.  I am still debating over whether to hang it next to the painting that our DOG made during “doggie fun days” at the park (dipping his paw in paint and smearing it on some paper) or giving to my toddler nephew to hang in his bedroom…

 

The learning fun continued through the weekend at the Tribal Dreams Festival in Lincoln, a three-day tribal belly dance workshop.  I took 6 90-minute classes, in which I learned some interesting combos, some killer exercises, and some thought-provoking presentation methods…and got really sore and tired.  Oh, and broke.  The shopping there is phenomenol.  Fortunately, my regular shopping adversion doesn’t extend to belly dance gear, most of which is handmade or used…  or just so fabulously sparkly that I can’t resist.

 

I really love to learn.  That is probably apparent from my constant buying of how-to books, regular search for dance and craft classes, and recent decision to go back to school.  That’s right, I said back to school.  Eek.  The connotations with being a “non-traditional” (i.e. “old”) student are not exactly flattering, but I’m trying to paint this in a just-another-chapter-in-my-life-story kind of light.  I received notice last week that I am enrolled into Spring ’09 graduate courses through the University of Missouri.  So this next chapter begins on January 18^th, 2009…

 

TADA!!!

Yallahween 2008
Originally uploaded by -Greyson-
Jay took some incredible shots at this year's Yallahween. As a slacker, I fully admit I hadn't had a chance to look until today... What? It's only been like 3 weeks... :) Oops.
This particular photo is the DH blindfolded and bound, while the beautiful mystery woman dances around him...

Shivering for the camera.

Thanks to ML for sending me that pic. Don't we look happy? No? :) Probably 'cause we just hiked up a very steep hill. Sunday morning, the DH, my dad, and I picked up ML and headed to the Mt. Crescent ski slopes (well, it's as close to a ski slope as Iowa is going to get) for the 16th Annual Bagel and Beer Run. The race is sheer torture, but there are bagels, beer, and chili afterward, and you get a nifty "I'm a Drinker with a Running Problem" shirt, too. My ankles are killing me - running downhill is just as bad as up - and I was pretty sore yesterday, but it was still fun! :)

To add insult to possible injury, the race day dawned COLD. Actually, the whole weekend was like that - Saturday's Husker game was both cold and windy, so I guess we should be grateful that the breeze had died down by Sunday morning. Nonetheless, I had two layers on the bottom and 3 on top, and regretted not adding more. There were some completely insane folks in shorts. I hope they survived.

Thoroughly enjoying my gov'ment holiday today. Off to find the components for "low-carb eggnog" as I have somehow been roped into making for the DH. Must be love.

Can we build it?

Yes we can! According to ML, that's from Bob the Builder, but fortunately the Democratic Party claimed victory nonetheless. ML, the DH, and I ended up at the Democratic election night party tonight, and happily watched as Barack Obama won by a landslide. Phew. Hopefully the guys in my office will shut up for a while (doubtful, but one can dream).

From the scene:

The DH and I; ML;

Our good buddies Rafal; and Ron

one of those surreal moments

You know what makes for a surreal moment in life? Belly dancing in front of your second-grade teacher. Magdalene and I did a set for the Shriner's banquet in Kearney last night (quite the fiasco getting there) and the whole place was swarming with people from my childhood. Folks from my church, teachers, people I worked for, friends of my mom's, kids I babysat! Eek.