Happy last day of 2006!

We spent the day in Napa with our friends Phil and Lisa.
We had lunch at Dean and Deluca. Yummy sandwiches. We actually got our food there and then headed to a little park to eat.
Afterward to the winery William Harrison, which we have started to frequent. We did some tastings there. Phil bought a bottle of wine. The guy there gave us a free tasting pass to another winery nearby, Balletine. I liked their wines and bought a couple of bottles. Our third stop was (always our last stop) Andretti Winery. We had our free tastings and Phil bought a bottle of port.
Afterward we drove back to our place and hung out a bit.
Now Curt is watching football and I am watching Lifetime/Law & Order: SVU marathon on USA. About 9 p.m. Curt and I will meet up in the living room and watch something mutual--likely a movie on demand. We decided to stay in tonight--much safer. (And yes, we are getting old!)
Tomorrow morning friends are coming over for Crepes and Calendars. There is a local bookstore that has a major calendar sale and then crepes for breakfast. After that whoever wants to stay to watch football and eat munchies are welcome to hang out at our place. (I made salsa and a cheeseball.)

Merry Christmas!

Hope you all have a great holiday. The top pic is our Christmas tree. The lights are on--but you can't really tell. I am proud of our tree. The bottom pic is a close up of Sputnik--an ornament my dad made as a kid. So, it is definitely an antique. :)
Curt's parents and grandma are here for Christmas. We had a Christmas Eve feast last night with shrimp. Afterward we opened our gifts. People were very generous. I got some nice stuff. Today we have mostly been lounging. I am getting ready to make enchiladas, rice and beans. I already made the salsa. So we are munching on that. We had tamales this morning, which my mom made and overnighted to me last week. Thanks Mom! We really appreciate the good grub.

Earthquakes

We just had a 3.5 hit. I was in the kitchen and everything started shaking. Ugh! There are always little earthquakes. But in the past few days they have been a little bigger where you can actually feel the boom and shake.
I was still at work Wednesday night when a 3.7 hit. I was standing in a co-worker's cube and it hit. She screamed and grabbed me. We are on the 12th floor and our building is on landfill. I just hope I am not there when the Big One hits. Actually I hope I am no longer in the Bay Area when the Big One hits.
When I came home from work that night Curt asked me if I had felt it. Then he told me he thought the quake was me running the car into our house. NICE! And thanks!
Last night when Curt and I were already in bed a 3.7 hit.

Here is a map and listings of the recent quakes in the Bay Area. I check it regularly.

What a compliment!

I went grocery shopping this morning. I got ID'd for the beer I bought. After the cashier looked at my ID she told me that my face is much thinner in person. I thanked her for the compliment and told her I had lost about 15 pounds.

I took pics of our Christmas tree--but for the life of me I can not figure out how to get the pics onto the computer from our new camera. I will have to ask the expert husband of mine. It is obviously operator error.

Onyx gave us today through Tuesday off! Woo-hoo. So I did grocery shopping this morning. I will attack the spare room this afternoon. And cleaning of the house tomorrow before Curt's parents and grandma arrive.

Safeway Club Scraper

So today and yesterday I had to use my Safeway Club Card to scrape ice of my car windows. Craziness!
Yesterday I took the day off. I left the house around 9:30 a.m. and there was still ice on the windows.
It is great to run errands when everyone else is at work. I got lots of stuff done and quickly. Most of you know I hate shopping with crowds. So I get Christmas shopping done early. My engagement ring needs inspection and cleaning every 6 months to maintain the warranty. I have to go in June and December. UGH! I went to the mall yesterday and it was super easy. I also stocked up on Clinique.
I had a great weekend--3 day weekend. Friday night we had Cheesemas with Phil and Lisa. We went to their place and ate yummy food (I brought my chips and salsa). We walked to a street in their neighborhood where there are lots of lights and decorations on the houses. Very cool. Saturday we got our Christmas tree and decorated. Sunday my friend Alex came over. We had lunch and walked around and then did some baking. We made chocolate-covered peanut butter balls, peanut butter cookies and banana nut muffins. Alex is a whiz covering those pb balls with chocolate.
Yesterday I ran a bunch of errands and finished my last knitting project (which I mailed off today).
Now back at work for 3 days. Then 5 days off. I have the 22nd-26th off. Onyx is very generous with its holidays.

15 pounds baby!

So last week was a sad week, I had gained a little weight at my Weight Watchers weigh-in. (Musta been all that beer I had in Phoenix.)
But today at my WW weigh-in I lost and made my first WW goal.
I have 9 pounds to go for my goal--and that is my new WW goal. Once I do I will go on a maintenance plan and then become a lifetime member.
And this morning I thought my pants were much looser.

Ewwwwwww

a used Sephora lip gloss for $1

That is one of the items Tori Spelling sold at her yard sale over the weekend. Talk about gross. If you want to read about the other stuff she sold, go here.

I was born to play the tamborine

Onyx's holiday party rocked!
We had a nice dinner, raffle prizes, dancing, photographer and of course open bar.
My friend Mia and I left early on Friday. (We were both on the holiday party planning committee.) We got our toes and nails done. After that we headed to the Claremont hotel. Mia and her husband got a room. So the two of us got ready there. We had a little snack, bottle of champagne and got ready.
We checked on raffle prizes and soon after that the party started. I was surprised to see my handsome husband in a dark suit. He looked very dashing.
We had a nice cocktail hour where I handed out parking vouchers. The the dinner started. It was good food. And I didn't actually gorge myself. I also stayed respectable and didn't get sloshed like last year. At the end of dinner our CEO, Hollings, said a few nice words. Then Graciela and I helped the executives pick names and give out the raffle prizes. I won a USB port. I wouldn't have minded the roundtrip airline tickets and hotel, or mini camcorder, or the wine bottle opener or the wine and cheese basket or one of many gift cards. Oh well, at least I got something.
After the drawing was the dancing. The DJs had fun props: hats, light-up glasses, blow-up guitars, beads, etc. We also had a great photographer with props, too.
Anyway, it was a nice evening.
Oh, I almost forgot about the tamborine part. Part of the props were maracas and tamborines. This is when I realized I have not been following my true calling: the tamborine. Man, that was fun. And I was good! :)
My weekend was very productive: ran some errands, got a lot of knitting done (still working on Christmas gifts), wrapped some Christmas gifts, got packages ready to send out. Whew!
Pictures from the party TK!
OK, back to work.

Spreading some holiday cheer!

Hoops & Yoyo have an important message on opening gifts for you.

Enjoy this groovy musical Christmas message.

Happy Holidays from Onyx!

I am on Onyx's Holiday Party Planning Committee. Our annual party is this Friday at the beautiful Claremont Resort. We will have great food, drinks, photographer, DJ, dancing and raffle prizes.
We were also in charge of the annual holiday gift. We went with the new iPod shuffle. It was a huge hit--even for people who already own an iPod.
The new shuffle is cool. Curt has pretty much claimed it. But I am content with my Nano.

***

I am also in charge of Onyx's Kris Kringle gift exchange. So far 31 people have signed up. I am so excited. We are picking names tomorrow. And exchanging gifts next Thursday. I am planning on having some yummy treats at our gift exchange.

As my nephew James would say ... I'm Back!

Was in Phx. this weekend for Leah's baby shower.
Had a great visit. Saw lots of friends and missed a few friends. Sorry guys! I will be back in town after the baby is born.
Let me just say Leah is super cute pregnant. I got a couple of really good pics of her. Will post those soon.
I am getting ready for bed. I am exhausted and have to go back to work tomorrow.
Boooo!