A good start to a great holiday.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Christy, bless her heart, worked all day Wednesday on the feast, and Thursday prepping and baking. We had pumpkin and pecan pie, sweet potatoes with sugared pecans, MP, homemade stuffing, and of course, turkey.
My parents got really sick before the trip so they couldn't make the 9 hour drive, which we all felt horrible about, but are glad they are better now. Jinnie and her fam came over which was wonderful. Bloom was in a cranky mood all day but still managed to power down a bunch of turkey.
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I ran the Turkey Trot at 10:15am on Thursday too. This is a 4 Mile race. It was awesome. Lonely, but awesome. I did a timed race which took me 36:34. my best time yet. Running on pavement is sure tough on the knees compared to a treadmill. Next race is Dec. 11. The Jingle Bell.

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It is now officially Christmas music time! I let the tunes fly on Friday and Saturday. I think Christy is already sick of "Jingle Bells" and "It's the most wondeful time of the year."

I hope you all had a wonderfull day.

Dig In!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I hope you are giving thanks and sharing with your friends and family.
I also hope that you get well soon, mom.

I am leaving now to run my 4th Turkey Trot at Wash Park. I will be alone this year, as my friend and running partner, erica, is out of town.

Christy is hard at work, already, preparing for today's feast. She prepped and cooked for 12 hours yesterday and is in front of the stove again.

Gearing up for the Turkey/Get Well Soon Mom!

Hey all. HAPPY THANKSGIVING WEEKEND to you! We had it all planned out. Christy's table was too small to host the Gannon/Welliver clan (who'da thunk?), so about a month ago we went to the Furniture Room to get a new table. Well, they screwed the pooch on that one. I highly recommend NOT ever using them for any of your household furnishing needs. They have a customary 120-Day "leeway" period in case the furniture is not in stock, which it rarely is. You also have to put down 30% of the total cost IF it is not in stock. Well, our salesperson, Daniel, said they had two sets in stock. We took a few days to decide, and when he called to confirm if we wanted it, he said they do not have any in stock but that 30 units were enroute. He asked me if I would still like to place the order. I told him yes, and he said there is a 98% chance of it being here by Thanksgiving and the 2% is only b/c they had a delivery truck get carjacked. He assured us this, twice. Anyway, then I got a call two weeks ago from Daniel that just to confirm the chairs will be in this week, but the table....not until after Dec. 1. HA! That won't work. So after many calls and talks to Tony, the customer complain specialist slash receptionist, we are getting a loaner table.

So then, today, after Christy has spent $$$$ on all the fixings and meticulously arranging and preparing the dinner list and recipes, making the entire meal from scratch..sans rolls, my mom is sick and they cannot make the trip out here. We are all really bummed. I made cute little placeholders with each of our names on them, and Christy got a Wild Oats free-range, antibiotic, organic turkey. We are sad my mom is so sick, flu and bedridden as of 3:00pm today, but it's not going to be the same, AND poor mom is SO SAD too. Get well SOON mom. I just hope she will be ok. Well, anyway, we will make the best of it, but poor parents are stuck in SD without their granddaughter and kids. This all stinks. But the good news is that the 5 of us will be together tomorrow and I am also running the annual United Way Turkey Trot, sans my running partner Erica who is on her way to Iowa with her boyfriend Jeff.

Red Desk

Well, since freelance has been taking over my life ( after work life/ weekend life ) I have been using my desk alot. This desk is not your ordinary utilitarian desk. It was purchased on a whim drive-by "yard" sale, basically two goth kids moving to Portland that didn't have any room left in their Hyundai Accent. It was not that sturdy, nut brown, but just the right size for our apartment then. Fast-forward five years, and one nice computer chair tossed in the trash later, (I have been using one of our kitchen chairs), I needed to give the desk some TLC. Not to mention that most of my motivation was because my neck is a mess from bad ergonomics, so I decided the legs needed a good chopping. I borrowed our friend Jeff's circular saw, and trimmed 1.5 inches off the legs. Perrrrfect. Then I got out the fire-engine red paint and three coats later, a new desk. It has really added some color to the office ( as you might expect ), and also injected the inspiration I needed to get through these last two websites. Thanks red desk. And thanks for Christy accepting this beautiful "period" piece.

David Schwimmer: No snob. A real nice guy.

Last night at the DIFF, we had the pleasure of getting tickets to meet David Schwimmer. It was a new program for the Film Festival called One on One. The room was filled. David answered questions from a moderator for the first 45 minutes and then fielded questions from the audience. What a great guy. I had my doubts about how "real" of a person he would be, just because movie stars are perceived as big-headed. But once he started talking, you could tell he was a genuinely nice guy with a good heart. He spoke a lot about his stardom on Friends and his acting process, or lack of one. We were amazed at how down to earth he was. He talked about how he and his Friends didn't really change, but that people changed the way they acted around him. I wish I would have just recorded my schpeel that I gave my coworkers and put it on here. I didn't think Christy would really want to see this star, but when we were walking out, she said " I could easily fall in love with him." So there you have it. The only thing Schwimmer has over me, is his $125M in the bank. Like my coworker Nancy said "Schimmer ain't no Gannon." Thanks Nancy.
Here are some pic highlights.

A few more pics.

Halloween 2005.
Bloom in leaves! ha! how cute!
Living Room.

Some Highlights from The Past Few Weeks.

I have been swamped at work and with freelance. I apologize for not posting. Here are some highlights.
Bloom and Jinnie came to visit. She tried to get into Jinnie's boots.

Halloween 2005. We pulled out last year's costume again. Fun night.
We painted our Living Room. It's a chocolate milk brown. Lovely.

How to Rake Leaves

First, get a nice rake, and some grip gloves.
Then rake into nice big pile.


Lay down blue tarp.
Rake leaves onto blue tarp. Pile high.


Bring all ends of tarp together.


Haul to compost pile.


Relax...with dogs.

"Beef-It's What's for Dinner" Ruined Carmen.

We saw Carmen tonight. The music was wonderful. But there is a lesson to be learned about selling the rights to your song. We immediately turned to each other and said " Beef...It's What's for Dinner" when the orchestra started. I tarnished the scene and moment, but we were still awed by the actor/singers (or what DO you call them?). Loved the opera, it was my first one. A big THANK YOU goes out to Kristin at work for the tickets. We both enjoyed it tremendously.

My favorite...

radio station K-Lite.
Playing Christmas Music all day all the time until Christmas.
Coming soon...Christmas Countdown Clock.

too much work not enough time

we started working on the living room today.
i am excited to get it painted before Thanksgiving.
but, even with tica trying to help sand the walls, and bite the sander chord.
i am so boring right now that i cannot even do a blog entry.
freelance is so busy these days, along with work that i just need a week to concentrate on freelance to get it out of the way.
ok, goodnight and talk soon.