Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Crazy days

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend!

Our cup ran over in terms of food, folks and fun, but I think everything came together nicely. Wednesday afternoon I left work at noon to pick up Geoffrey and meet up with his sister and cousin at Noble Fish for lunch. Noble Fish is a store in Clawson, Michigan that is 75% asian mart, 25% sushi bar. There are teeny tiny tables in the back for dining in, mostly tables for two. We decided to order our sushi to go, but thankfully a table opened up once the order was ready - I have no idea where we would have been able to take everything except all the way back to our house. I love shopping at Noble Fish - I just wished we were heading back home so I could have picked up some green tea ice cream and sweet red bean topping.

Thursday continued the furious cleaning and sorting that was supposed to have been happening all month - but at least I didn't need to pull an all-nighter this year! Thursday was my and Geoffrey's fifth wedding anniversary. We made brunch and exchanged cards and gifts. Geoffrey was really sweet and decided to give me a traditional anniversary gift by giving something made of wood - in this case, a Scottish Love Spoon. I was very surprised and touched. He picked out one with a heart at each end. It's carved from a single piece of wood and it's just lovely. According to one website, this type of spoon is referred to as Love Grows - "Cast a spell on the ones you love - this spoon symbolizes how love can grow"


Photo from Scottwebstore.com

I can't even believe it's been five years since our wedding day and almost 14 years since we met in 1993. Like all couples, we still have our bad days and our good days, but I love each day and I love my Geoffrey with all my heart (all together now, "awwwwwwww....")

But there wasn't a whole lot of time for kisses and cuddles, since we still had a turkey to cook (which we didn't start thawing until the day before - oops!) And a few more loads of china to run (we used our wedding china for the first time since we got married!). Geoff's family came over around 4, and his cousin Marcie stayed over so we could take her to the airport the next day. Well, with her flight being at 6 (the poor thing had two other connecting flights to get home), we decided to pull an all-nighter. I shooed Geoff and Marcie down to the basement to catch up and watch "Wallace and Grommit" and I cleaned up the kitchen and made Turkey Carcass Soup (no joke, that's what the Betty Crocker Cookbook calls it). Very domestic, I must say. True to form, I fell asleep in the car on the way home.

Friday was a bit of a blur, and Saturday I had a dress rehearsal for Handel's Messiah at the Cathedral before racing home to prepare for a dinner party with our friends. It was also a chance to get caught up on birthday celebrations (mine, Sara's, Doug, Sonia, and Steve.) Unfortunately, Patti and Ann Marie (who is also a November birthday) were not able to make it, but Patti called from her mom's house and we were all able to day hello.

Dinner was a delcious pasta with Italian Sausage, tomato and basil with grated parmesan cheese. I love thowing things together and having them come out well. Sara made a hilarious and tasty cake roll, shaped like a log (at our request, to celebrate our fifth wedding anniversary - get it? Wood anniversary, log cake? HAHAHAHA). Bad jokes about giving wood were abundant. We'll all get together for New Year's, so that will be fun.

The concert on Sunday was standing room only, and it was quite a rush to know I actually sold 20 tickets! I almost never manage to sell tickets, either because it's on an odd Wednesday or because I don't send out notice until a week before the concert. The Cathedral looked lovely and Geoffrey took some really good shots:

Liza's 2006 Handel's Messiah Flickr Photoset

Monday was an honest to goodness do-nothing day, and now I am back to work. It wil probably be a few weeks before I can properly sit down and chronicle life in general, so I hope all is well with you and that you are staying warm and cozy.

^_^

Sunday, November 12, 2006

November 11 already????

Ok, that's just a little messed up - I mean, it was just my friggin' birthday! But it's true - I've been home from Indy for three weeks or so and Geoff's been to Edmonton and back (for pics of Geoff's adventure in the Great White North, go here).

It's been so crazy that I've I'm still way behind in my e-mail message replies - just ask anyone who sent me an e-mail requiring more than just a sentence or two. Honors students get to register three business days before everyone else, but there were a whole bunch of technical difficulties and students who hadn't had the chance to see me and all sorts of crazy fun that meant very little downtime for me once I got back from Indianapolis. Between November 1 and November 7, I responded to over 350 e-mails and my lead peer advisor, Craig, cranked out another 100 or so.

Still, I guess it's better to be busy than not, and the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday should be fun. Geoffrey and I will be celebrating our 5th anniversary on the 23rd, so it will be turkey and pie for our celebratory feast. We have plans to get together with friends that weekend and I am singing with the Detroit Archdiocesan Chorus for Handel's Messiah on the 26th. If you live in the Metro Detroit Area and want to hear an amazing work in a fantastic space (the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Detroit), this is a performance I highly recommend.

Other than that, the house is overflowing with pet hair and unsorted paper receipts, I am trying to keep at least two brain cells firing at one point in time, and I have new pictures posted on my flickr site http://www.flickr.com/photos/kodamakitty

On one of the photos, I mention really loving the newest version of iPhoto (v. 6.0.5). I must admit, I am a total amateur but I love what I see in my photos and iPhoto helps me bring out that vision. The amount of tweaking you can do to a photo in edit mode is astounding, yet simple. It *almost* makes me want to go through all of my other pics and redo them...um, maybe not.

Ok, I am off to bed.
^_^

"Good morning, and in case I don't see ya, good afternoon, good evening, and good night!"
-The Truman Show