Dinner Out with the Hunters

Picture this: Saturday night in Seattle, and Kelly and Bill have a sitter for Gwyn, their two and a half year old daughter (who, I might add, is brilliant). We have dinner and margaritas at the Cactus and, by 8:00 p.m., we're all tired and full of food. Like any respectable couple with a child and a babysitter, they decided that we couldn't go home just yet...I mean, we're talking about a Saturday night with a sitter! We left the restaurant and headed to a wine bar in Ballard for a bottle of wine and a chocolate dessert. We still only made it to 10:30 p.m...not midnight, like we told the sitter. That's the difference between living large in your 20's, and living large in your 30's.

glassybaby

The line at 8:30 a.m.Laurie and Kelly
Inside the sale
Our new glassybabies

glassybabies are vibrantly colored, handblown glass candle holders. Many are opaque when unlit, and then beautifully illuminate with a candle in them. They are not cheap, but since each one is a work of art, we -- and all other glassybaby lovers -- look past the price tag. Because one can never have enough glassybabies, we traveled to their annual seconds sale. It was impressive! The sale started at 10:00 a.m., but we arrived at 8:30 and took our places as 19, 20, and 21 in line. Since Mike was feeling a little under the weather, we sent him to get coffee and breakfast, while Kelly and I braved the 30 degree weather. At 10 minutes to 10:00, with over 130 people in line and the line snaking out the front door and down an alley, they let us in. Glassybabies were everywhere! Our m.o.: grab as many as we could fit into a box, and then find a safe corner to light each one so that we could make our final decision. After 40 minutes of grabbing glassybabies, lighting them with tea lights, and grabbing more, we settled on 14 new glassybabies. Kelly grabbed 8. It was a very successful trip and, with our strategy perfected, we were already talking about the colors we plan to target at next year's sale.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Birthday Cake at the Pioneer

Outside of the Sun Valley Lodge

Champagne at the Duchin Room

Today is my Mom's birthday. To celebrate, we went to Sun Valley for the weekend. The weather was great -- sunny on Friday and Saturday, and snowy on Sunday. We watched the Paul Tillotson Trio perform at the Duchin Room, had dinner at the Pioneer, and shopped around the shops in Ketchum...a true Sun Valley experience! Happy Birthday, Mom...hope it's a happy one!

Hank OD's

Like any good junkie, Hank's panty addiction landed him in the hospital on Thursday. After not eating or drinking for nearly 2 days, we figured out that he must have something "stuck" in his tummy. Sure enough, the x-rays showed a mass in the lower intestine. When we checked him in, he was very dehydrated. After giving him some IV fluids and prepping Hank for surgery, he miraculously pooped out the panties. The discharge report reads: "Once intravenous fluids were administered, the patient defecated underwear." We're trying to figure out whether he needs to go to puppy rehab, or if this is an addiction that he can kick on his own.

Snow, snow and more snow!

Boise has been hit with a ton of snow this winter. Here are a couple of photos from our back deck.

A Morning Run in the Sun

On Sunday, I ran the P.F. Chang's Rock 'N Roll Arizona Half-Marathon. The weather was beautiful...sunny with highs in the upper 60's. My official time was 2:19...not quite as fast as I would have liked, but I was running with a broken toe and the temperatures were much warmer than the temperatures I have been running in for my training. Here is a link to some finish line photos.

http://www.asiorders.com/go.asp?28755133

Happy New Year 2008!

One of our (perennial) resolutions is to lose weight, so we started off 2008 with the YMCA's New Year's Run. Mike, Hank and I ran with our friends Samia and James. It was 16 degrees outside, so we were lucky the sun was out. After the run, in an attempt to dispose of our new resolutions, we shared a pizza for lunch, had some ice cream for dessert, and then napped on the couch while watching college football games for the rest of the day. I guess there is always 2009 to tackle that "lose weight" resolution. Here's to a happy and healthy 2008!