Thanksgiving was a huge (and by huge I mean enormously fattening) success. I even made the pumpkin pie this year, thanks to a coworker's recipe, and it came out shockingly well. It's amazing what a thrill one can get from the simple act of creation -- in this case, baking.

My newest addition to my nutcracker collection is a Jester, signed by Steinbach himself. VERY cool. The jester was the unofficial mascot at EWS, thanks to Revels.

We also were treated to a delicious meal at a decadent new restaurant in Colonial Williamsburg -- the Fat Canary. I adore their insignia, which I'll post shortly.

We're finally being plunged into our 'winter' here in California -- I'm freezing today!! The local weather report has today's temp at 53 degrees...have I grown SO thin-skinned?? They'll make a cali-girl of me yet...Steve pointed out that only in California does winter mean that everything turns green. And it's true. The famous tall grass coating the rolling hills of California that gave it its nickname -- the golden state -- turns a lush green during the fall thanks to the cooler temps and added precipitation.

2 weeks from Thursday Steve and I will be on a plane to the East Coast. I can't believe it, and I can't wait. In the meantime I'm throwing myself headlong into the gauntlet that is Christmas shopping...so much stuff, so much cost, so hard to make a decision...

Just another example of how great CTDN is: both Christmas Day and New Year's Day -- standard holidays from work -- fall on Saturdays this year. So our CEO decided not only to give us Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve off, as per our policy, but the Thursdays before as well, since ordinarily we would get two days per holiday.

Now tell me, what company follows that logic?? And yes, they're paid holidays.

I was going to take the Thursday before Christmas Eve off anyway, since I'll be in CT. What this new announcement means, though, is that Thursday won't count against my personal vacation time. And my first week back from said vacation will be a 3 day week.

Fa la la la la, la la la RA!

While doing data entry, the brain is driven to create random and crazy things to compensate for the tedious orderliness of entry after entry.


This time, unfortunately, there were victims involved.
Anthony pointed out to me the really beauty of this picture -- it's a visual pun.
He's drowning in life savers. :o)

Sometimes, particularly on especially stressful days, I am struck by just how weird it is to be human, in light of all the arbitrary and bizarre constructs we have set up around ourselves. Some of it seems real -- finding a mate, or a meal, for example -- but some of it, especially the work world, with all of the anxiety and neuroses that have nothing to do with physical danger, is just so bizarre.

How the heck did all of humanity get me to the point where I'm trying to speak as quickly as I can about dental plan websites to a manager who is trying to get an appointment in before the plan year is out?

This is a nifty hippo holder that I found at a second-hand store. I think it's from the 70s. It tends to hold my post-its and pens, though here one of my coworkers has fed it a persimmon. ;)

Click on the word "persimmon" to relive my first experience with one nearly a year ago.

This year marks the second election I've ever been able to vote in, and the first time that I educated myself on the state and local issues as well as the presidential race. I watched two out of the four debates (the first and last presidential ones); donated money; read the newspaper, newsletters, and email forwards; and all around did my darndest to stay informed and involved.

I must say, it's a hard pill to swallow when you put so much of your mental energy into something and then your candidate doesn't get elected or your measure doesn't pass (but what a thrill when it does work out...stem cell research, for example). It's startling to see, every four years, just exactly where your opinions stand among your fellow countrymen, and where your city/town, county, state, and region stand. The vote seems to me to be just as beneficial as a national poll as it is an election.

Steve and I spent some time last night at dinner discussing where else in the world we might want to live. We went over the roster -- Europe, Russia, Asia, Africa, Central and South America, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the Caribbean...but the truth is, no matter who is in power, there's really no place like the U.S. once you're used to it.

In the end, we decided that if the Continental U.S. drove us crazy, we'd move to Alaska or Hawaii. We figured six months of winter and a ratio of 7 men to every 1 woman, or volcanoes, tsunamis, and mice infestation might take our minds off the powers that be...

...at least until the next election. See you in two years. *Sigh.*

Did YOU vote today?

Everybody's doing it.

I will have done my part to effect change in my local, state and federal governments at approximately 4:45pm PST today.

If there's anything George Bush's presidency has unequivocally and inarguably done, it's been to rally an unprecedented national interest and involvement in politics in all previously apathetic demographics. For him or against him, you're talking about him.