The Long Weekend

I had a long weekend, that at times felt very long, and other times just felt like a normal 2-day weekend that was going too fast. Between Thanksgiving preparations, Thanksgiving, decorating for Christmas, baking cinnamon ornaments, seeing friends, and working on some grad school stuff, it was a more or less productive weekend. (Don't get me started on the soul-sucking experience of the Gilmore Girls Revival).

On Friday we learned of the passing of Uncle Carl, the jolly soul who brought Uncle Carl drinks into our lives and holidays every year. And 2016 has been a year. AJ lost his stepfather in June, then his grandfather a few weeks ago, and we just lost Uncle Carl on Friday. We decided to take some peaceful time away and we went walking around a nearby lake with Anana and fed the ducks and geese.

When we were going through photos later, AJ showed me this gem he had taken weeks ago. Sometimes, when I'm ready to sleep, the light is on and I'm too tired to get up to turn it off, so I just keep an eyemask on in my nightstand that I'll put on instead. And how much do you love Khaleesi's foot in my face?

Usually Sundays are spent with AJ's friends watching football, but the crazy weather and rain made it all weird and no one wanted to leave their houses. AJ is generally up and at 'em before 9am, ready to get to where he needs to go for the 10am kickoffs. I woke up and it was past 10 and he was still sleeping, so I woke him up to let him know. I went to the bathroom and when I came out again, he had pulled football up on his phone but fell asleep again with it on! (Don't tell him I posted this).

Sunday was spent around the house, although I did take Anana for an adventure, and we walked to Trader Joe's where I picked up vegetables to make bone broth soup. However, I was then craving soup (which needs to slow cook for 10 hours) so I also bought stuff to make tortilla soup. AJ and I cut vegetables together and made the soup while he download The Mighty Ducks at my request, and then we ate soup inside on a rainy day and watched that good ol' 90s classic. I didn't end up falling asleep until almost 1am, so I am operating on low fumes today...

Thanksgiving 2016

Thanksgiving, which normally passes quietly for me, was exhausting this year. AJ and I hosted it at our place, and in anticipation for this, I even took off Wednesday from work to make sure that I could clean and prepare for everyone. I ended up having to run a ton of shopping errands in-between, and because Anana waited so patiently and well in the car while I did that, I also took her to the dog park, only to find out they are closed on Wednesdays, so I took her for a long walk around the nearby park.

On Thursday, I was tired and my arms and fingertips hurt from all the deep cleaning! But, Thanksgiving was nice, and I was very happy for the warm weather since we were eating outside.

It was a very nice evening with wine overflowing and football on the whole time, and we somehow ended up with tons of food and wine, like probably more than we started with. (How does that happen??) After absolutely everything else was clean, our butchered bird was left out on the counter since we were exhausted and still wanted a chance to dig out the wishbone, but by Friday morning, we learned that Anana had other plans and somehow got that thing down and annihilated it on the kitchen floor. Oops!

No pictures from anyone that I'm aware of, but it was nice to have everyone who came! I think I'm done hosting for another few years...

Los Angeles Friendsgiving

This weekend was exhaustinggggg and by this weekend I mean Saturday, and I was so tired from that, that Sunday I couldn't bring myself to do anything, which was find because it was a rainy day and I stayed in and did laundry and read, and now I am exhausted from not having done anything.

AJ was in Denver this weekend, so I was on my own (well, with the animals) and Saturday I got up early for bootcamp (which was hard - 2 people walked out early!) and then I went up to LA to hang out with Anja, who is back for another 6 weeks to research at UCLA. It was nice, we hung out on Montana Street in Santa Monica and then went grocery shopping together, ha! The sunset was beautiful that evening, everyone was instagramming it, from Riverside to LA to Orange County!

Then from Westwood I drove to Rancho Palos Verdes for the LA Friendsgiving! Last year there was a taco man (in addition to all the usual Thanksgiving fixins) and this year there was a paella man! UH-mazing.

It was beautiful, and fun, per usual. Lots of good food, endless desserts and drinks and even gum and mints, good music, everything!

Here is the back of my head

Sunday was me with the animals

And in the evening I went to pick up AJ from the airport, and I was circling around, I got a text from a friend congratulating me... although I had no idea for what... turns out I won the weekly football pick 'ems AGAIN!! My third time this season!!!! There's still a game tonight, but everyone chose the Raiders, so it's all a wash, and I won! So exciting. Nice way to start this short week!

Cousins

The only reason I have to highlight the cousins right now and gloss over grandma is just because I don't have any pictures from the party yet!

Saturday we celebrated the 99th birthday of my maternal grandmother, which happened on November 6. At this point, we are about 6 1/2 weeks away from her seeing the world between 1917 and 2017! Frickin wow!

The party was great, and in huge part to the wonderful turnout of the event! That was how I remember Christmases being as a kid and they've slowly dwindled, so having everyone around was so fun, especially all of the out-of-towners!

So after the festivities, a lot of us were able to get together and go bowling and hitting a few key bars in the area, which was so much fun! And we even lasted until midnight so we could sing Happy Birthday to Cherisse.

Now we're all back in our respective locales between California, Oregon and Texas. Womp womp! Til next time...!

Election Day

Presented without comment.

November!

Good morning to a world where it is now November. That means Election Day is upon us, which is far scarier than Halloween. I just don't even want to hear it anymore, from anyone, about anything.

But anyways, AJ and I had a nice Halloween last night. We turned on my little light-up door hanger, put on Hocus Pocus, and gave out candy to the occasional trick-or-treater. Not as many as I was hoping for, but still some. I wish I would have known it would be that light, I would have given the ones who did show up like 5 pieces each. Now I need to gouge myself on candy this whole week. Oh wellsies.

I tried to get Banana to be festive... and I had already packed away her Rufferee costume, so I tried to have her wear my mask... but she wasn't a fan.

So excited it's basically the holidays now!