I get presents in the morning...wheee!

The other day Peetie, Sandra, Kristin and I decided to make gingerbread houses. I was very much looking forward to this and was especially pleased to see lots and lots of candies to decorate them. We had three kinds of Teddy Grahams, Christmas M&Ms, normal M&Ms, mint Hershey Kisses, Twizzlers, little red candies, sprinkles, pretzels, and a number of other things...you get the picture. But unfortunately for me, I never really got to use them. Why? Because I couldn't get stupid piece of crap graham crackers to stand up. The other three were off making beautiful mansion homes with balconies, multiple levels, snow covered walls, a waterbed, a teddy graham impaled by a Hershey Kiss, etc. And I was still stuck loading on the sugar paste trying to get my walls to stay up. Eventually I got so fed up, I pounded the whole thing into the ground with my fist. I call it Earthquaked House. Peetie even placed a Teddy Graham under the rubble so it had more of a story. Am I the only person who has trouble with gingerbread houses? If you have a story like this I would really appreciate hearing about it so I'm not the only incompetent one.

Annie, Sandra and I went to Memorial Church for a Christmas Eve service thingy and afterwards we had planned to watch a bunch of Christmas movies like Rudolph, and Charlie Brown Christmas. But when we got home, we couldn't find Rudolph and then it turned out our VCR wasn't even plugged in. So instead we watched South Park's "A Very Crappy Christmas" with Mr. Hanky the Christmas Poo! We were so in the holiday spirit.

Another activity I associate with being home is reading the local police blotter, of which the best stuff comes from Atherton, though Palo Alto has it's moments, too. Here's a sample:

• VANDALISM A 37-year-old man was arrested after allegedly smashing a front window at Stoa Restaurant, 632 Emerson St., with a bag containing protein powder and running off. Police caught up to him about 12:15 a.m. Friday on the 900 block of Emerson Street.
• Atherton: someone fell out of bed and needed help getting up.
• ATHERTON First block Melanie Lane, 5:16 p.m.: A resident called police after a golden cocker spaniel ran into her house and jumped on a guest.
• ATHERTON 200 block Polhemus Ave., 3:51 p.m.: Vandals moved a large decorative rock. (A thank you to this site)

My eyes are droopy and I'm super excited to open presents in the morning. So Merry Christmas to all (except those who don't celebrate it), and to all (except those I don't like) a good night!

Too tired to come up with a title

It's only 11 o'clock and I'm exhausted. I wonder if my ongoing jet lag is psychological since I'm not bothering to change the time on this computer which is telling me it's 2am.

Annie is home now and has had a couple great quotes already:

• On Sex in the City: "Watching that show makes me morally nauseous."
• On our neighbors' two kids who are 8 and 6: "Chris and Laura are coming over to help me decorate my little tree. I think they really like mini things. They're like little Japanese children."

Sandra is home now too! We got together today and dipped strawberries in melted Ghiradelli milk chocolate chips. I highly recommend this activity. It's one of my favorites.

I don't have much interesting news. I've been doing more of the same ol' Palo Alto stuff...I went to Piazza's twice again today and I went downtown and ate at Peninsula Creamery the other night. Ice skating is schedule for next Sunday the 26th so if you're in the area, come!

Oh! There is a winning brand in the egg nog taste contest! The prize (bragging rights that I chose it) goes to the Fully Fattening Clover Stornetta 100% Natural Egg Nog. I have only seen this brand at Piazza's so good luck to those of you who don't live in Palo Alto. So far I've drunk (drunken? dranken? Usually I know these things...) a quart.

Home Sweet Home

Well I'm home and happy. This is so cool getting to write a blog entry from my own bed at home. I must say again that I heart my 4 lb lap top.

I have a suggestion for you all: Fly JetBlue. And when you get to choose which snack you want, get the chocolate chip cookies. They are the best packaged chocolate chip cookies I've ever had (and I'm an expert). If you don't like chocolate chip cookies, get them anyway and mail them to me.

I'll be spending my next two weeks doing as many Palo Alto things as possible. So far I've:

• gone to Piazza's...twice. I had to fix the major lack of food in the house. Ok fine, I mean lack of Jane-foods such as tuna, trans-fat peanut butter, two kinds of egg nog and instant breakfast.
  
• gone to Stanford Shopping Center...twice. Nothing drastically new there except for a Kate Spade store and Banana Republic redid their store and closed off the side entrance.
  
• worked out at the Y. I am not letting those egg nog calories get the best of me!
  
• watched a car changed lanes between two eighteen wheelers on the highway. It then proceeded to change lanes again just as a van on the other side of it was moving into that same lane. I thought for sure I was about to witness an accident, but it ended up ok. I got a look at this car and it had a bumper sticker that said "Palo Alto resident. I drive safely."
  
  

Still on the to-do list is ice skating at the Winter Lodge, walking downtown and spending at least an hour in Borders, eating at Peninsula Creamery, and making cookies and egg nog. Let me know if you want to partake in any of these activities with me.

I just solved a mystery! I believe in two spaces after periods, just like you're supposed to. And I type that way naturally. But for some reason with my blog, when I reread it, there's always only one space after periods. And now I've figured out that this happens when I spell check. Blogger doesn't even give me a choice and it doesn't warn me. Not only should people have the freedom to put however many spaces after periods as they like (being dumb isn't a crime), but Blogger automatically makes it the wrong number. Bastards. Well I'm not gonna spell check after writing this last paragraph. Take THAT Blogger!

It's about time!

I'm finally updating! I know it's been a long time and to say I was too busy would be a lie. I just kept putting it off because I didn't know what to write about...there's just too much and I don't want to bore people. If you want a good recap of my trip to Boston, check out Jackie's blog. Most notable moments include:

-Stealing fancy paper towels and soap from the Four Seasons Hotel so we could be somewhat sanitary at our less than desirable Farrington Inn.
-The scary bedside doll lamp that we had to put in the closet so that peetie could sleep.
-A special lighted ice cube that was put into my drink at a karaoke place.


We also went to New York (which isn't covered in Jackie's blog). Moments include:

-seeing a horse with a cop on it fall in the middle of Times Square. (both horse and cop are OK)
-smelling mashed potato scented candles at a shop in the Palisades Mall.
-getting lost in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

I spent this past weekend at Bucknell where I got to pretend I was in college once again. I went to the BUCC dodgeball game where I unfortunately didn't get to play, but the foamy mats right by the court made up for it because I could flip around. I learned that gymnastics uses very different muscles than what I've been using at my muscle fitness classes. Two days later and I was still sore. It brought back memories trying to get out of bed after the first day of gymnastics season.

For those of you who care, I get home (as in Palo Alto) next Wednesday night. I'll be around for two weeks so call me if you want to see me.