Year of the dog that bit you

Happy New Year! Sunday was the Chinese New Year, celebrating the start of the Year of the Dog. Chris and I went back to North Carolina for a quick weekend trip (yes, it's a long trip to make for a two-day visit) so that I could be a "good Taiwanese daughter" and spend the New Year with my mom and Manfred. We ate a lot (I love my mom's cooking), played mah-jongg until 2 AM on New Year's Eve, and attended a Taiwanese club New Year event with food, music and dancing. It was easy to find Chris at the event -- he was the "occidental tourist". But he was great -- he ate everything we put in front of him, played mah-jongg like a master and sat through a 3-hour all-Chinese program of entertainment. This is his second time to visit North Carolina, and we have yet to introduce him to an English-speaking resident. He's heard rumors of these Carolinians with southern accents, but so far he's only met Taiwanese and German speakers during his visits.

While we were in North Carolina, we left Cowboy with Cindy Hill at the Mystic Mountain Retreat. What a great place! Cowboy had a wonderful time playing with the other dogs, hanging with the horses, and sniffing at the llamas. The best part was how Cindy took such good care of us. She sent us updates to let us know how Cowboy was doing (it was his first time away at camp and I was worried), and when we picked him up, she gave us photos that she took of him during his stay! I'd like to stay at Mystic Mountain -- I wonder if she takes human boarders?

Now that the Chinese New Year has passed, the next big event is the Superbowl. Seattle is going crazy with bandwagon fever, but I'm still holding true to my Steelers roots. There are a few of us at my office -- in fact, Brian's taken to walking around the building swinging his Terrible Towel. One amusing thing is that it's very rainy right now, and 95% of Seattle owns one of those standard-issue yellow and black North Face jackets. The town is painted black and gold. Go Steelers!

The Girl with the Chocolate Fountain

veneer tr.v To conceal, as something common or crude, with a deceptively attractive outward show.

Mary-no-moor

I think we're going to have to "Just Say No" to Marymoor dog park. Everytime we go there, we seem to come home with a new Cowboy disease. First it was giardia, then roundworm, then giardia again, and now it's an eye infection. The poor boy -- if it's not one thing, it's another. And in spite of it all, he's still a happy bouncy puppy. What a gooooooood boy!

(Gosh, when I look at that picture, I understand why people used to laugh when they saw Cowboy. Check out those ears!)

Sad day

Steelers 34, Broncos 17

It'll be Steelers vs Seahawks at the Super Bowl. At least I'm not torn about which team to root for this time.

Game time

Chris just flew back to Denver to go to the game tomorrow. He is SO excited and nervous. He said that Denver is plastered with signs stating, "This is Broncos country", and as the plane was descending, the pilot said, "Welcome to Denver, home of the Broncos! If you're from Pittsburgh, we hope your team does well...but not too well." I think he should have said, "If you're from Pittburgh, please let an attendant know and we'll be happy to show you to the nearest exit." Not that I'm picking sides or anything (Dad!), I just think it would have been funny.

thunk

Chris and I took our first dance lesson last night (the dance lessons are a concession he is making to me since I've been such a patient and tolerant Broncos widow all season). While Chris is a better natural dancer, I am more comfortable with structured dance. It's really fun to watch him concentrate on the steps -- he sticks his tongue out when he's really concentrating. It makes me laugh...which makes me mess up...which makes him mess up. He finally got tired of it and spun me into a wall.

Cowboy Puddle

He melted

Houston, we have a problem...

What a football weekend! Chris is very happy. Seattle is very happy. My dad is very happy -- he is from Pittsburgh and lives deep in Steeler country. And my brother may be happy too, since his geographical allegiance lies with the Carolinas (and my mom and stepdad live in North Carolina). Do you see the problem I have here? Although everyone is happy now, something's gotta give next weekend...

Countdown to Saturday

GO BRONCOS!!

On Saturday, the Broncos play against the New England Patriots in the AFC Divisional Playoffs. For the sake of Cowboy's nerves, Chris' happiness, my sanity, and all that is good in this world...please let the Broncos win!

"Getting old ain't for sissies" -Bette Davis

"Who you callin' a sissy?" -Marley

It's been a busy week! On Tuesday, Gary and Valentina were in town and we visited with them at the Red Door. Wednesday was the Rose Bowl, which we watched at the Beauparlant's while enjoying the Salt Lick BBQ they had flown in from Austin.

Friday was my birthday. Am I at an age when I am supposed to demurely hide my actual age? If so, then it was my 29th birthday...for the fifth time. A group of us got together to celebrate in my favorite way: eating massive amounts of sushi at Todai. After all, what's a birthday without raw fish? After sushi, we headed to Von's for martinis. Sachin met us there for a couple drinks and to listen to Chris and Reynold break down every possible AFC/NFC playoff scenario. Then we were off to Bada Lounge to catch up with Phuc, meet up with Paul, and finish off the night.

Saturday, we attended Johanna and John's wedding in Black Diamond. It was a lovely ceremony, followed by a great reception at The Canal in Ballard. Johanna was beautiful and John was impressive on his crutches (he broke his ankle over the holidays). We were especially impressed with the band, who played everything from Frank Sinatra to Usher. We were a little abashed to find that our table (the ex-Accenture table) was the "rowdy" group. Normally this would not be a surprise, but at a function attended by so many Australians it was unprecedented.

Sunday was ski day at Stevens. We dropped Cowboy off at his doggie daycare at 6:45am and headed to the mountains for some fun. The weather was warm and clear and the snow was decent (assuming that crunchy ice with a light covering of granulated ice is "decent"). Chris thought the snow was awful, but he's a Colorado boy used to powder. To a girl raised on the icy slopes of the Bavarian Alps and the East Coast, it was just fine.

Now it's back to work for me...

New Year 2006

We had a great time celebrating New Year's Eve with friends. We started the evening at a Pimps-n-Goldiggas party in Newcastle. I was thoroughly impressed with the outfits, especially Mark and Rebecca's matching leopard prints and Harriet and Carrie's "Li'l Digga" and "Big Digga" ensembles. Even more impressive, judging by the amount of time we spent at the table, was the culinary feast that the Donaldsons prepared -- chicken, beef, scallop, prawn, and cheese fondue, followed by a chocolate fountain for dessert. Although my favorite was the chocolate fountain, I was pretty fond of crispy fried "popcorn" scallops too. We cooked them with precision and care using the following procedure: forget about the scallops after placing them in the boiling oil, rescue them once they are tiny fried nuggets of scallopy goodness, repeat. Margaret, Meg and I established our positions around the fondue pots early in the evening and only moved when it was necessary to get refills of our key lime martinis.

After we'd been sufficiently pimp'd and goldigga'd, Newcastle-style, we headed back to the city. We picked up Travis and met up with Reynold and Amy at Justin's to watch the fireworks. Justin has a great view of the Space Needle from the deck of his building and we enjoyed toasting the New Year while watching the display. We were then off to Marcus' Martini Heaven in Pioneer Square, where Jon met us for our first martinis of 2006. Usually a night at Marcus' ends with Chinese food at the Honey Court, but this time we were so filled with fondue and chocolate that we passed on the opportunity to gorge on honey walnut prawns at 3AM.


Happy New Year!