tequila night! and a little bit more.

i worked really hard to get all of my christmas cards out on time, i hope everyone got one. typing is tough. here's my set up:


here's what claire has been up to for weeks.


and tequila night.

lovely lori.


trying to look like we're having fun when all we can think is "why the heck is it 38 degrees out right now?!"


classy people and the ugliest beard ever partaking in the the evening's namesake.


af's flare.


photo of photogs.


at this point i put my camera away. i know there are many more pictures on af's camera(s?). it seemed like a mellow night. parents were there! but the parents left. and it got way more crowded, sloppy, violent, and loud. the evening ended in bloodshed. and i hear possibly a broken bone. vatos locos forever. can't wait for next year!

other tidbits:

i got a new job!! kind of a mini-promotion with the same company. i'm happy! go me!

i invited the usual christmas eve crew over for christmas soup last night (a day early), since ma deserted and left us soupless....
everyone said i made the soup perfectly. i don't think so. it was missing something. something big. ma's love.

grandma called tonight and read me (you guessed it) the night before christmas. i have this great pop-up book that i read along in with her. my book is pretty old so some of the pop-up and actions don't work as well as they used to. i looked online to see if anyone was selling an old copy of my book...it was on ebay for $60! see, i told you it's a great book. i'm just going to try to repair my book.

oh, bea.

turning on?!? i love it!
i'm pretty sure i only have one friend who will appreciate this. but it will bring him so much joy that i'm willing to annoy everyone else who unwittingly clicked play.

december fun

went ice skating last week, no pictures of us on the ice but here's what me and z would look like if we were snow men and women, respectively.

game night at the miller/bossi's on friday. and here she is, the lady of the house, singing with her eyes closed, killing us not so softly with her song.

why the singing happened. for people who don't drink anymore, they have quite a liquor cabinet.

a couple of holiday messages from an intense game of pictionary (yes, the "x3" is completely illegal, yes those are boobs, and yes that's a tamale).


then to the cooper's 40th (!) annual taco party. this is david cooper. he still thinks i'm 12. funny because i notice that he's getting older. snap!

boys feeling strong after one or two tacos.

9 deep....not feeling quite as strong.

christmas witch front.

christmas witch back.

free one night stand?

yesterday i got offered a free one night stand on the way to court, and two free boyfriends for the night while i was on my lunch break. i must have looked GOOD, these guys were planning ahead!

i'm boring right now, it became evident just an hour or so ago. sorry about that. i'll try to get more interesting soon! like now:

interesting fact: 273
in the second world war, every italian soldier in north africa carried his own personal espresso machine.

interesting fact: 571
The ZIP in zip code stands for 'Zone Improvement Plan'.

interesting fact: 44
my grandma has read "the night before christmas" to me on December 24th every year as far back as i can remember.

also there is no theory of evolution, just a list of animals Chuck Norris allows to live.

claire

i'm definitely a dog person, but a few cats have gotten through to me over the years.
i've loved this one since i was 14.

after almost 13 years, i'm still not sure if she knows it's attached.

word of the day

tarradiddle \tair-uh-DID-uhl\, noun:
1. A petty falsehood; a fib.
2. Pretentious nonsense.

"Oh please! Even in the parallel universe, tarradiddles of this magnitude cannot go unchallenged."
-- "Taxation in the parallel universe", Sunday Business, June 11, 2000

christmas time!

my somewhat embarrassing collection:

for juni

thank you so much for the baby guppies!! i think they are happy here, see for yourself...

omb

i can't believe i forgot this.
(setting: my cube, 5pm friday, i should have left an hour and a half ago, i got distracted by pipes)

old man bill: woah! hey there! you scared me for a second, i thought you were supposed to be on jury duty?
me: i am, the judge had a meeting, he gave us the day off.
omb: i see. so....(wait for it...) how's life in the big city?
me: pretty good.
omb: i think sony sold my email address to some guy in hong kong.
me: oh? what makes you say that?
omb: well, you see, i keep getting these emails from this guy, he's trying to sell me a filter for my camera.
me: what kind of filter.
omb: let's just put it this way, if i had one, you wouldn't want to be sitting there.
me: what are you talking about?
omb: x-ray vision.
me: what?!
omb: yeah, it's some sort of heat sensing thing, but you know, certain parts of the body are hotter than others. he sent me all these pictures of what the filter is capable of. it's like "ok guy." but if i got caught having one of those i would get in big trouble.
me: oh my god! what?! bill! that's really weird and creepy! (insert uncomfortable laughter)
omb: yeah, i have to find out how to get the guy to leave me alone.
me: yeah. (insert more uncomfortable laughter) well, i'm going to go now. have a nice weekend...

looking strong canada, keep it up!

i got up super early today and drove out to sacramento to provide countless inspiration for thousands of runners at the CIM.
i was there to support one runner in particular, dear ryan, i saw him at the 10 mile mark and he looked great. i saw him again around 18 and he wasn't looking so good. but he crossed the finish line and got his medal just about at the pace he expected, so well done!! hahaha. anyway, here are the first guys to cross the 10 mile mark:


as much fun as it was cheering everyone on, bloody fingers and all (cold, dry, windy weather + lots of clapping = sad hands), it KILLED me not being able to jump in there and join them. why the heck do i want to run!? i hate running! but for some stupid reason i can't stop. i'll be running the CIM in relay fashion next year, anyone else who wants to join is welcome. and i'll be signing up for whatever the next bay area race it. i'm a junkie.

(fyi: half marathon in sf on super bowl sunday, and in santa cruz on april 8...i'm just saying.)

maybe my proudest moment so far

went to the knockout to see here, here tonight...wow.


he made me cry, that's how proud i was.
i love you chris, more than almost anyone. of course except taxi. bff.

also, a drunk bro just peed in my big bougainvillea. i opened my window and said "i'm sorry, but did you just pee on my plant?" his friends all started laughing. he said "no, i swear i didn't!" i asked why his pants were down, he said they fell. one of the girls with him said she's my neighbor and that she likes my hair. i've never seen her before. i asked next time the guy's walking past that he please refrain from peeing in my plant, and offered that someone shat in my other plant recently and i'm still pretty bummed about it. he said "you're cute." i said "i know, weird right?" and shut the window.

thanksgiving weekend.

flew to slc for thanksgiving with the family. ryan was there early but couldn't stay for the festivities, leaving me with tristan, keath, and shannon....

went to snowbird, no snow yet, but it was 10 degrees at the top of hidden peak.


game on.

had a lovely house guest with an ultra sensitive stomach.
saw coolbreeze for a little bit.
rowe birthday bonfire.
class of '97 post party crashing late night.

daniel visited, we walked down to union square and admired macy's gift to the city. it's pretty down there, but the tree is so bright it hurts. saks looks nice, i like the snowflakes. neiman marcus has a huge tree inside. i miss and love my dear daniel.

pheromones?

i'm on fire the past couple of weeks. muni drivers love me. trolley drivers? forget about it. random street dudes? all over this.
it's starting to creep me out. here's the past few days:

on the trolley monday the driver started talking to me right when i hopped on. it was a full train, people had to interrupt him to ask for their stops. a little embarrassing.

on the trolley on wednesday the driver walked up to me after i got on the train and whispered "you're beautiful." he didn't whisper it quietly enough so that the people around couldn't hear, they all laughed. then he got the other two trolley operators to come over and they huddled in the corner looking at me and smiling all weird. he asked if i was cold, i said "no, i'm perfect," bad answer. he kept making comments and everyone was laughing the whole way home.

walking down market on a break from thursday's jury duty bobby started chasing me. i heard him yelling behind me but i was in a hurry and he looked creepy so i just kept walking. he walked with me a few blocks, asked if i was married, i said yes and he got mad and called me a liar. asked where i was going in such a hurry, i told him i was on my way to the court house. "i'm trying to seduce you here on the street and you're worried about getting back to the court house?!"
yep.
"whatever, i only talked to you because of your boobs. and i'm not sorry for that."

walking home from jury duty thursday afternoon i met deryl. he's going to win the jackpot any day now but he needed me to wish him luck (over and over again). he also wanted me to know that he looks a lot better when he shaves and has on clean clothes. and that he stays at the america hotel ("right there, you know, the america!"). and he lives with his EX-wife. 671-4309. or something like that. EX-wife. they were only married a month and then they got it annulled. i'm to look him up when he wins the jackpot. he doesn't drink or do drugs, he's very up to date on his current events, and he's a conspiracy theorist. we talked for half an hour...sometimes it's hard to just walk away.


oh! it's my birthday, time to go open up my presents!! woot!!

house warming photos:

miss claire
cookies
chris
hostess
roberta, wendy, ma, f. leilani
co and long lost megan
marissa with cheese, mandy with pretzels, chris with curls

for leslie part v

and then af came home.

ryan, lori, brandon, arnesti, and i rode bikes to the y'all, we totally beat moy-toy's mega man car.

smiles (and holy crap my forehead is huge)

z and jason

lori and brandon "we're leaving at 12:30" huneke.

squished af sandwich on sweet bread

moy's harem

the half shot i didn't need. you're welcome lori...

remember the time when lori ate arnesti's face as punishment for his lies?

for leslie part iv

didn't really do halloween this year, i'm still a little bummed.
but at work i put this together and looked like i got in a fight with the other engineers in the supply closet. one girl had a triangle ruler in her head, another had a highlighter. i had a meeting that day with a guy who's yard i plan to rip up so i can bury some pressure reducing valves, so i went for something a little more subtle.

for leslie part iii

the first foggy day

for leslie part ii

to distract myself from doing the things i should have been doing, i spent a good amount of time cooking the past few months. cinnamon rolls, lots of cookies, soups, chili, vegan mac and "cheese," and plenty of other things that i ate but don't remember. one of my more recent favorites? the PERFECT vegan pumpkin muffin, here in all it's glory:

for leslie...

went to salt lake city for a day last month, took a walk around temple square. couldn't go inside the gates because taxi wasn't allowed...i guess not all visitors are welcome.

mom, kev, sheryl, and taxi learning about the first slc settlers.

cool statue.

my big face and the temple.


then went and saw mom and kev's new place...

kensington avenue

the house...and ma's new benz!

ma knitting, talking on the phone, and cuddling taxi