01-14-05

Earlier that night

After I washed out the bleach

Before you ask me what I use to bleach my hair you should know that I TOTALLY SCREWED IT UP and now I have a yellow-whitish bleach blob in the front/middle of my head akin to Lamahl from Kajagoogoo. And now I have to buy some ash-blonde hair dye to try to repair it. I honestly only meant to shine up my roots, and now I have dime-sized spots of dark in the midst of my glowing fake-o blonde. In the front only. I'm glad Mom got me that hat. • link

01-13-05

Dommi lovin' life with Colum

I'm SO not used to this

Some of the wine

Watching Napoleon Dynamite AGAIN

Jason visits

Shane is locked in the 2nd bedroom

I've been cooking and cooking. And baking. I don't know how Bonnie does it. My two trips to Costco are done, and I figure I'll need to go again at the end of next week. I took a half day today to finally get a conjugal visit some sleep. Tonight we see a show with Kraig. I'm glad tomorrow is Friday. Saturday we head up to Vancouver for a Hot Hot Heat show!! We will stay at Shane's by ourselves as Shane's whole house is living in ours. • link P.S. Greg & Corinna found out they are having a boy!

P.P.S. Dave just walked into this room from exiting the shower, and said "Don't mind me" and I said "Is this a test?"
P.P.P.S. You wish you were here right now.

01-11-05
Too much good stuff.
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01-10-05
Chez Dayment

My roommates this month: Sean, Colum, Dave, Shan, Pete, Shane

Groceries. And meal-planning. And groceries. The mind boggles. Looks like Sean will have a most excellent schedule - opening days, home by afternoon. A bit early for him, but after a couple weeks I hope he'll adapt. Maggi took me Costco tonight - Amy takes me to Costco again tomorrow afternoon. The fridge in the garage is plugged back in and stuffed. Banana cake tomorrow night. I am in my element. • link

01-09-05
Heather's Surprise Going Away Party
Exceptionally planned by Naomi, enjoyed by many at Buca Di Beppo.

Heather's surprise

Our host Naomi

Those I could fit in one picture

Meredith

Us looking like a married couple

Buca Di Beppo is one of those places where you overeat EVERY TIME. Even when you walk in and set a mental ration for yourself, it never works. Then the rest of the night you're uncomfortably stuffed. But man, while you're there, it's SO FUN. Heather walked in and cried on the spot. It was so emotional. I wish her the very best in New York, and we will miss her greatly. It was a lovely send-off. Tonight two more men join our household - Uncle Pete and Shane's roommate and bandmate Shawn, who will hereby be known as Shan (when Sean, Shane, and Shawn are all together, Shawn becomes Shan). This means that we will have seven people living in our house through January. This is exceptional, yes, but we still don't know Sean's "new" post-holiday/permanent schedule at Kinko's, although they are threatening nights -including both weekend nights, which means I wouldn't see him until we move to Vancouver.

He's seriously considering quitting if that's what they insist he works. I mean, really, we'd see each other MORE if he moved to Vancouver now and came down to visit on the weekends! But hopefully they'll work out some sort of compromise. I'll keep you posted. Anyone have a Costco card that can take me shopping? The kitchen can't hold us anymore, and it's time to start menu planning and meal-swapping. It's going to be crazy. And if you haven't seen the front page - The Holiday Vacation Pages are up! They only took about 12 hours to do! • link P.S. SNOW!

01-08-05
Girlie Potluck and Napoleon Dynamite

After all that knitting the boys had to let off some steam

While the girls act impressed

It was our get-together to exchange Christmas gifts since we've all been too busy since mid-December. Maggi got each of us magazine subscriptions (we each got different knitting magazines so we can exchange amongst ourselves), Heather made all of us some hand-dyed yarn, and Meredith got each of us knitting binders for storing patterns, plus patterns, plus a coupon good towards one sweater frogging (where you buy an old sweater and carefully take it apart so it ends up being balls of yarn to knit something new with it). Sean graciously models the t-shirts I had made for us - I ordered three from Mikey, and not only did she turn them out in one day, but she also threw in an extra one for me! So if you *ever* need t-shirts made, once again I recommend North Shore Shirts. Tell her Daymented sent ya. After Napoleon Dynamite the boys played with our new bench press in the garage, then played cards for a bit. I was wiped out and slept for ten hours last night. The boys are all spending the night at Jason's tonight to give us some alone time. Very nice.

I am working on the vacation pages today - I should have them up by tonight or tomorrow!
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01-06-05
Break out the Bubble Wrap
A little package arrived in the mail - Sean informed me it was my last Christmas gift. I am a very happy (tangerine!) girl. (Work friendly links *unless* your boss is standing right behind you.)

Above: Dave reads Us magazine while Shane does paperwork. Also: Colum and Dominique. Dommi is in heaven with the current living arrangements. Left: note Dave's belt. You know you're a carpenter when you're using an electrical cord to hold up your pants. Below: Rita's reaction when you say "Rita! Wanna go for a walk?" Also! Chris Brown! Visited us at JA today! He's been snowboarding/playing in the snow for three weeks. It was great to see him. And on the bottom: Todd W. got these motorcycle pants and HOLY COW are they ever a piece of work. It even comes with a multi-page owner's guide. They are not messing around.

Chris Brown!

Modeling

V.I.P.

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01-05-05

Here's Rob, Tom, Molly and I at Bick's (thanks again, Tom!). Beware of the Chipotle Salmon, they aren't kidding - it'll clear your sinuses. Molly just moved to Seattle and I look forward to hanging out with her - before this I hadn't seen her since she was a baby! And I was eight! I was good Sunday - I didn't load up my social schedule and actually took the time to unpack and do laundy and readjust. I put on my baby jane shoes this morning, though, and there was sand in them. *sigh*

Then Monday - just one day after returning home - my house is loaded back up again. With BOY STUFF! Doc boots and tools and skateboards. Cuuuuuute. We are already gung-ho with Settlers and Euchre and I already took a nap Tuesday after work to make up for the lack of sleep. So even on the weeks where I leave a big gap of nothing social? The social just comes to me. (Today Cary at work said "You know how some people have six degrees of separation to everyone? You have, like, TWO.")

Ladies (and some gentlemen), they COOK. And they clean! They rushed home Tuesday night with LOADS of groceries so they could clean up and cook us dinner. But there were three guys bustling about my kitchen trying to unload the dishwasher and NONE of them could figure out where everything went, including Shane, who spent the majority of 2002 hanging out here. But I will give Shane props for burying our dead fish (an old guy) and changing the litterbox. And they made a lovely curry*.

*I say that as: If I were one of those freakshows out there that eat curry, I would say it's lovely.
Seeing them actually using kitchen tools was adorable. The hard-boiled-egg slicer (for slicing the mushrooms) was a big hit. And it took Shane about five tries to figure out our can opener. And Colum's saying "how long should I steam the rice for?" while I point to the steamer in his hands that has the steam times for everything PAINTED ON THE SIDE. "Oh. Right!" I think they had a pretty good time cooking in a kitchen with more than one pan.

Monday night: Colum, Shane, Dave, Sean

Caitlin & I this morning

Colum is a cobbler. HE MAKES SHOES. He's Irish- like he still has the accent. And he's Canadian. I'm thinking of selling lottery tickets for a date with him. I figure a buck a piece should cover this month's rent.
I don't know what Dave does because I saw his eyes and dismissed whatever he had to say. Except for the part where he mentioned that he sews, and would be interested in learning how to knit.
IT'S LIKE DISNEYLAND HERE PEOPLE - BUT WITHOUT THE LONG LINES.
Although you do need to use caution while opening cupboards as you may be impaled with a cookie sheet flying off the shelf where you keep your drinking glasses.
The picture on the right is for my Mom, since she got me the hat I wanted at J Crew and I knitted a scarf to match while I was in Atlanta. And Caitlin was wearing a reddish orange sweater so she had to sit with me. It's an ensemble picture. You understand.
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P.S. You don't need to leave a comment about the hottness of Rob unless you feel it's really necessary. But honestly, you guys, it'd just be redundant. I won't even mention his sleeve tattoos.

01-04-05
Perhaps you're wondering what's taking me so long. So let's re-cap, shall we? Here is last year's trip, and here is the year before.
This year, we upgraded my memory card in my camera, so there's 500 pictures instead of the usual paltry 200+.
Since I've been back, Tom Roebuck took me out to dinner (with his daughter Molly and cousin Rob, pictures forthcoming), I slept a whole night through (for the first time in like a week), and Shane and his two (HOT) friends (no Uncle Pete) moved in.
Did I say HOT? Because I meant to say HOT.
And I think I've convinced one of them that he needs to learn how to knit. Thank you.
Pictures forthcoming of the HOT too. But first I have these vacation pages and DAMMIT for all the time I'm spending on them, I expect all of you to read EACH and EVERY word. Then write an an essay (true to form - five paragraphs with opening and concluding paragraphs) in the comments.
Or not.
But sit tight because I'm here (yayyyy!!). And I've missed you.
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