Tuesday, December 13, 2011

And everything had been going so well…

...sick again. Not fun. Have stayed away from work for two days so far, here's hoping I make it in tomorrow...

Prior to all this current terribleness, everything had been going so well. The tree was further decorated, much to my and Adam's satisfaction. We tried really, really hard to be good Americans and spend money on ornaments, but we could not find (after serious mult-store searches) anyone selling basic white and red ball ornaments. Luckily a joke lead to an answer- we used selected yarn balls from my copious stash to decorate our tree. And Christmas was saved. Yay!

Also- popcorn chains are ridiculously easy to make and very pleasing. Highly recommend it. Don't make them the first couple days though- the spell of popcorn will dominate the delightful oder of tree. The 'ornaments' themselves are really simple and fun. All you do is take a ball of yarn, wind it up, use a yarn needle to pull the tail through the body at some point leaving about 3-6 inches dangling, and then wrap the tail around a branch. No hooks, no mess, no waste.

Click the image and then zoom on Picasa for all the fantastic details!

Continuing with the holiday theme, the most excellent Katie organized and provided for year two of the now annual epic gingerbread house making. She made and cut pieces for, like, twenty thousand houses. Most couples shared one of the larger houses, cooperating to make something beautiful.

It would be too much to ask Adam and I to do the same. We both made a mini house and, following Adam's most insightful lead, made them 'weird'. His gingerbread man SMASH! idea was divine and my squid-emerging-from-house followup was not really on par. I also took on the task of decorating one of the spare houses, with which I took a more traditional approach.

There were many interesting houses and different takes on the classic. We had the decrepit house, the butter mint igloo, there was a beach with tent scene, and several classic houses. Last year I experimented with different shapes- tried to make some dice, not sure what I'll try for next year... maybe a gingerbread boat, modeled after Andy's? Hmmm...

Sadly, our houses looked better then they tasted. It turns out fruit loops, crispix, and gram cracker just really don't age well out in the open air. The twizzlers used for the squid however has proven to remain remarkably tasty as the days go by.



The awesome didn't stop with that however! Work had a sort of offsite day last week where we all took a segway tour through Golden Gate park. Woah. Just... woah. Way more cool then expected. And I've been to Golden Gate several times. Highly recommend it. We did a tour with a guy who was super chill. $45 is the minium for 1.5 hours and if it wont break the bank, go for it. A group tour is probably best. Segways look ridiculously stupid but are in fact ridiculously awesome. When queried about the experience after being on one for under a minute my response was (and remains) : It's like riding science




... there was even MORE awesome to be had before I fell ill, but this post is getting too long, so I'll save it for part 2...