Happy Valentine's Day

I came downstairs this morning to find these:


When Bob came home from work tonight we had wine, hors d'oeuvres, and these:


Cups made of white and dark chocolate filled with mascarpone and raspberries, drizzled with honey (and no, I didn't make them myself). Mmmmmm...

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy New Year!

Bob and I rang in the New Year (and our third anniversary) cozied up in front of the fireplace with a smorgasbord of food (crab cakes, stuffed mushrooms, baked artichoke Parmesan dip and crackers, etc.), wine, champagne, and even a small version of our wedding cake (raspberry filling and buttercream frosting - yum!!).

And, of course, a new Playstation 3 game. We're such romantics.

Here's wishing you and yours a healthy, happy, prosperous 2009!!

A different kind of Christmas

In reaction to this country's increasing culture of mass consumption and thoughtless waste, my family decided to change things up a bit this Christmas. Instead of buying each other "stuff," we chose instead to give gifts that give back. The only rule was the gift had to benefit someone or something.

When all was said and done, my little family: helped save seals in Canada and elephants in Sri Lanka; sent two girls to school in Afghanistan and educated 100 girls in Africa; donated to the U.N.'s World Food Program; gave a family a beehive for their livelihood; started two youth-soccer leagues in Mexico; supported services for the homeless; contributed to the education of a girl in Thailand in danger of being trafficked; contributed to the Courage Center and a veteran's organization; helped plant trees; supported an equine-therapy program for disabled children; and more.

My mom gave me this sweet little elephant family to represent a contribution to a conservation organization that actually makes paper out of elephant pooh. :)

We had a truly wonderful Christmas, and will probably continue this giving tradition next Christmas. It was actually much more satisfying than getting stuff. We spent the day at my sister's house and had a delicious dinner, played games, and visited with my Aunt Maureen and her husband Jean Paul who came all the way from Ottawa.

We spent Christmas Eve with Bob's family, which was also lovely. His mom makes the best lefse, and after we stuffed ourselves with all sorts of goodies we all headed over to his Aunt Paula and Uncle Bernie's house for more food and merriment. It's always so much fun catching up with everybody. The gift exchange was ... um, a bit surprising this year (I'm trying to be diplomatic so his family won't disown me), but we somehow ended up getting a frozen turkey (we're vegetarians), a stoneware cappuccino station for me (I don't drink coffee); and a garden-motif platter and salt and pepper shaker for Bob (?).

Each year we pick names and are asked for a gift list (this year's list: slippers for me, a cozy throw for Bob). But much like children on Christmas morning, we are sometimes still surprised by what we get.

So continuing the spirit of gifts that give back, we donated the turkey to a local food shelf.

Merry Christmas!

This is Whistlepig

You may recall an earlier post where I mentioned that woodchucks are also inexplicably called whistlepigs.

Well, after that post, Bob's new band – inexplicably – decided to name itself Whistlepig. The band formed last year and consists of four members, two of whom are former colleagues of mine at the newspaper. They made their public debut at a Halloween party throw by Dan, their bassist. Bob is the lead guitarist, and he sounded pretty damn impressive, even if I didn't recognize any of the songs they played. And more importantly, he looked hot while playing.

We both went as characters from "Kill Bill." He was a Crazy 88 and I was Elle Driver, member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad (played by Darryl Hannah in the movie). I was pretty happy with our costumes, which were very last minute.

Here are images from the movie:

And this is us:

And this is our friend (and drummer) John Sucansky as a frighteningly accurate version of the bad guy from "No Country for Old Men" and his wife, Sarah, as Mrs. Lovett from "Sweeny Todd:"

They grow up so fast

Today Bob celebrates his LAST YEAR in his 30s ( He loves it when I emphasize that. Which I've been doing all day). Can you believe it?

For his birthday I got him a private flying lesson, which unfortunately had to be rescheduled for Friday due to the weather. He will spend an hour up in the air with an instructor and will get to fly the plane himself for part of it.

I'm actually taking a lesson, too, but mine is for work. I'm doing an article on a local air field, which is how I found out about the lessons. Knowing that Bob has always wanted to learn to fly, I knew it would be the perfect present. Plus, he already has the Maverick-esque Ray Ban aviators, so the lesson is really just a technicality.

Meanwhile, keeping with the aviation theme, we celebrated his birthday with dinner at Doolittle's Woodfire Grill (they have blue crab cakes to die for), where we asked the waitress to take our picture. I noticed she was pointing the camera a little high, but I figured she knew what she was doing when she adjusted the lens and said, "I like a tight shot."

Here's how it turned out.

Umm, yeah. At least she recognized that the vast expanse of wall was the important part of this photo.

Anyway, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SWEETS!