November 26, 2006
things i love
truman's squirminess makes picture-taking a challenge. but it also makes him even cuter.
the other one's kind of cute, too. and a little squirmy.
here are the two TKs, sharing a moment on truman's very favorite spot in the house.
it's beginning to look a lot like....
tonight we had our annual christmas tree trimming party. my mom always tells me that this "seems awfully early to put up the tree," but TK and i are totally in love with christmas, and we view the day after thanksgiving as the marker for when it's ok to decorate the house, put up the tree, and crank up the frank sinatra christmas album.
it was way too cold to get the tripod out and take a photo of the outside of the house, but take my word for it that terry did a lovely job hanging lights on the front of the house and the side porch. nothing absurd, just white lights outlining the garage door and then going along the railing around of the deck that wraps around the house. very festive, especially in the snow. and it brightens things up considerably for late night dog walking ...or for 4 p.m. dogwalking, during these increasingly short winter days....
so here is our very christmasy living room, plus a view of the art we relocated from the dining room. (don't be alarmed by truman's crazy eyes -- i promise it's the flash.)
and since we forgot to have someone take a family photo before everyone went home, this is as close as we came. if you look closely, you'll see that truman and i both got dressed up for the evening.
(maybe the photo's too dark to see it, but t is wearing antlers, a la the grinch's dog. cesar milan would love me.)
new art
my parents are trying to downsize their lives a little bit, which means, luckily for us, trying to find homes for some art work. they recently sent us two big boxes of 18th-century japanese woodcuts that were in our childhood home for as long as i can remember. now they're in my dining room.
also currently in my dining room (for the keen-eyed observer) is another artful gift from ma and pa mandala.
this creche belonged to my wonderful uncle jon, who died of AIDS 15 years ago. he and his partner spent a lot of time in mexico and loved to buy art there. the pics don't do it justice, but i've always loved this piece, and am so happy to have it in our home.
November 23, 2006
thankful
happy thanksgiving.
it's a very cold and very beautiful day here in anchorage. fog last night means beatiful hoar frost frozen on the trees behind our house. very scenic. one of the little rewards mother nature gives us when it's incredibly cold out.
we're having thanksgiving dinner tonight with our friends steve and jara at steve's parents' house. so we slept in this morning and just finished making our requisite turkey day side dishes: grown-up sweet potatoes (bake 'em, mash in food processor with OJ, rum and cinnamon, then warm in oven. yum); noodle pudding (like kugle, if you know what that is. smells like cinamon toast. yum.) and this silly jello plus sour cream thing i like.
it seemed especially important to make all 3 of these this year b/c i spent yesterday afternoon in the dentist's chair and was unsure whether i'd be eating anything more solid than noodle pudding. as it turns out, i still feel like i was punched in the face, but my teeth don't hurt. but now i have all my favorite side dishes anyway. :-)
so now we're just lounging around the house enjoying a rare quiet and lazy morning. on saturday we'll put up the christmas tree and start listening to a lot of frank sinatra christmas music. have i mentioned how much i love this time of year?
November 19, 2006
who knew?
who knew someone was reading my blog in berlin? i got a phone call last week from an old friend there, courtesy of google. what a small and crazy world.
not much to report from these parts. knitting wise, i'm currently working on a seed stitch scarf using a pink-orange-brown-etc self-stripining noro silk blend. it's pretty, although a lot of the stripe colors aren't colors i love -- they're the colors i couldn't see when i bought the yarn. so it's a lot more pink than orange, which i'm not crazy about. but it's good to have a project, in any event.
as i write this, we're hosting about 8 friends and one fussy baby for sunday night football. don't tell, but truman and i snuck away for a few minutes away from the football and the yelling and the crying....
