Pretty Snow and Ice Courtesy of My Little Norwegian Friend

The teenager who used to catsit for us in Norway emailed me some photos of the frozen Gjovik landscape. So pretty! Much nicer than what we have going on in New York--we got over a foot of snow, which was gorgeous. Then the temperatures soared up into the 40's, so now we have slushy, muddy puddles everywhere. Yuck!

The Prison Barbed Wire in the Background Makes the Photo Even Better!

Washington D.C.

Our trip to D.C. was fun--we got the required touristy stuff out of the way on Friday...we saw the Washington monument:
And the Capitol Building:

And the White House Christmas tree--unfortunately the President had just landed, so the park the tree was in was blocked off for a few hours. Lots of people milled around waiting for the gates to open, but it was really cold on Friday, so we snapped a picture and left for the comfort of a warm restaurant!

On Friday, we also went to the American History Museum--I was really excited to see Kermit the Frog and Oscar the Grouch on display--I had no idea that the original Oscar was orange! His color change was explained away with, "He lives in a garbage can and rolls around in muck, so he turned green." I was very disappointed that the first ladies' inauguration gowns display was temporarily closed, but at least I also got to see the ruby slippers from 'The Wizard of Oz" and Julia Child's kitchen.

On Saturday, we went to the Spy Museum--best museum EVER! I usually have a 1 1/2 hour attention span at museums, but we were at the Spy Museum for almost 4 hours and I was enthralled the whole time. We saw some really cool, high-tech spy gadgets--the lipstick pistol was my favorite!

The weekend was mostly about good food and drink, though--from Lebanese tapas to homemade noodles in Chinatown to pitchers of sangria and margaritas to French toast, oh my, did we ever eat and drink! Thank goodness we walked miles around the city, or else I might have had to ask for a seatbelt extender on the flight home!

Speaking of the flight home, we missed it! We got to Dulles, checked in, and went through security with about 30 minutes to spare. We went to our gate, but a flight to New Hampshire was boarding, so we went to the bakery next to the gate for a drink. We heard announcements for Binghamton, Savannah, Providence, but nothing for Syracuse. We had seen a sign saying that flights close 10 minutes before their scheduled departure, so we went back to the gate 20 minutes before our scheduled departure. We sat at the gate for a couple of minutes, and then decided to ask the gate agent if the flight would be on time...he told us that our flight was closed and our seats had been given away to other people! We were completely floored--it had never been announced, and we were there in plenty of time! Also, our bags were on the plane--don't airlines usually passenger-match and page people who have checked luggage but haven't boarded the plane? The gate agent obviously realized he had screwed up, as he offered us 2 free round trip tickets to anywhere in the continental U.S. for our inconvenience! We ended up getting on the 10 PM flight to Syracuse, and arrived home at 11 PM instead of 6 PM. Our bags were waiting for us at the airport, and now we have free tickets, so this morning, I am very grateful for all the craziness, but yesterday, when I was so tired and just wanted to get home, I really wasn't feeling the gratitude!

Catch Up

I haven't written in weeks--everything has been kind of crazy, but life seems to be calming down a bit now. Kevin has been at his new job for a week and seems to really like it. He will be traveling to Bath, England in mid-January for work, and then to Chicago at the end of January. I'm planning to accompany him to Chicago--I'm so excited! We lived in Chicago when we were first married, so it will be fun to wander around the old neighborhood--we lived in West Loop, which was "up and coming" when we lived there, but I have heard it has arrived now! Hopefully we'll get a chance to eat at my favorite restaurant in Greek Town, see Millenium Park and "The Bean," which were built after we left, and reconnect with old friends.

We're also going to Washington D.C. this weekend...I have heard that their Christmas decorations are gorgeous, so I'm looking forward to seeing them. I have never been to the Smithsonian, so that is high on the list of places I want to go. Kevin bought a guide book, so hopefully by Friday, I'll have a plan. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

I definitely need a little mini vacation--I have been so busy with all the holiday events and fundraising at the shelter. I love it, but it will be great to have a weekend off. This past weekend, I was helping with our Pet Pictures with Santa fundraiser when the local news showed up. I wasn't really expecting to be on TV, but publicity is always a good thing, so I gathered my thoughts and gave a quick interview. My mom called later last night to tell me that she had seen me on the news. I asked if I had stumbled over my words or said anything stupid, and she replied, "No, you sounded fine, but I'm guessing if you had known you were going to be on TV, you would have made more of an effort with your clothes and hair." Um, ouch! Oh well, hopefully the majority of viewers were more interested in my message then in my messy pony tail!

One Of These Things Is Not Like The Other

At Long Last, Kevin's Head

He Is Going to Be Insufferable Now!

Kevin has been away from home on his last MASSIVE business trip since the beginning of October. Seriously, 5 weeks abroad is insane, and if anyone at his company is really wondering why he resigned, they need look no further than his itinerary. He's flying from China to Norway right now, and he called me on the way to the airport to tell me about his Asian farewell dinner. He received so many gifts that he had to buy another suitcase to haul everything back. I asked him what kind of presents he was given, and he answered, "A tea set, a traditional Filipino dress shirt, a little Chinese good luck charm, and, um, a statue." I asked him about the statue, and he replied, "Um, well, it's kind of a statue of me." That's right, his coworkers in China took a photo of him to a sculpter. And now Kevin is lugging his own bust home... He will probably receive another farewell gift or two from his coworkers in Norway, and as awesome as a clay homage to his head is, I'm kind of hoping that the Norwegians choose to honor him with chococolate instead! I know the statue is a huge honor, and it was very kind of his Chinese coworkers, but seriously, how will I ever be able to top it? This Christmas, as he opens his usual dress shirt, sweater and book gifts from me, he's going to be all, "Yeah, the sweater is a nice color, but do you remember when someone commissioned a statue of me?"