We had quite a spread – and a LOT of wine (I think everyone brought a bottle). I got a platter from a local Asian market that had egg rolls, shu mai, bbq pork, and gyozas, and rounded it out with chow mein, mixed vegs, orange chicken, and seven flavor beef – a rip-of from Wild Ginger. Mir was nice enough to bring over fried rice – try as I may, I cannot get fried rice right! Mir told me that I can come over sometime and have a hands on cooking lesson.

My super busy neighbor was even able to make it over, which was awesome.  Even though our doors are six inches apart, we hardly get to see each other and she’s great company. And everyone took leftovers! Add that to the list of reasons my friends are awesome. I’d gotten some chinese take-out boxes while I was at Uwajimaya that were both appropriate and rightly-sized.

Anyway, I’m glad that my little Lunar New Year Dinner has grown – the first year it was only me before I decided it was a good excuse to get the girlfriends all together.

First of all, Oseia is super fun to hang out with, so I want to steal him for some auntie time whenever possible. But the clincher is that he is also easy. I mean, crazy easy.

Mom and dad hit the road while he was napping, so he woke up to only find Lollie (that’s me) in the house. Mir had let him know that they were leaving for the weekend, but still, I’d imagine that it’s still a shock to wake up and find your parents missing. He sat down next to me on the sofa, assessed the situation, then turned to me and asked, “Lollie, where’s Mommy? To which I replied, “Mommy and Daddy went to the beach for the weekend.” He thought about it, it registered, and he got a bit sad. But he bit that bottom lip, let the tears well up for a minute, then said, “Lollie… play train?” Sure thing, kid, that’s what I’m talking about. Fight through the pain.

He also found dinner for himself (yes, he’s that easy). Granted it was yogurt, strawberries and sandwich meat, but he was happy. And for the record, it ended up being my dinner as well. We did lots of playing talking about lamommalaqueen (Lightning McQueen), then got his jammies on and read a few books before bedtime. I told Oseia that we could read one more book before he went to bed and once that was done I simply said, “Okay, time to go night night.” He got up, walked into his room and got into bed. I simply followed, tucked him in a gave him a kiss goodnight. Fabulous.

The next morning at 7:00am I heard the pitter-patter (a.k.a. stomping) off little feet searching for mommy and daddy. He’s two, so I don’t fault him for the short-term memory. So I yelled where that I was in the computer room and he bounds in a jumped on the futon and off we were for our morning adventure. That boy can play till the cows come home and has an awesome imagination.

Katie came over at 11:00am for a group excursion to the Aquarium, where we had a little adventure in the precursor to Snowpocalypse 2012, but that another story. The real story is Oseia – he was so excited to go see the fishes, but once we got there everything was scary. Luckily Katie has a pass, so she can take him back over and over again until he gets comfortable. We were able to see the new otter pup who was less than a week of and a big, adorable fluff or fur. Below are a couple of pics just outside the otter area, where you can see that the snow has really started to come down. I am a bad auntie in that I did not bring him any kind of snow protection, so you’ll see that he wearing my hat which it was too big. When the three of us would walk together, he’d have one have holding mine and the other holding Katie’s and the hat would fall down to his chin, covering his eyes. He’d just keep walking along, blindly, knowing that his aunties had him safe and sound.

When she got home, Mir asked Oseia is he had fun; this is her transcript of their conversation:

I asked him if he had a good time with you and he said, “no, Lollie keary cockapus”. You should hear him tell about the octopus incident it’s hilarious! It goes a little something like this, “Keary cockapus, I say Lollie! Lollie! I say Kayee, Kayee. Keary cockapus.”

Which is actually pretty accurate, haha! Katie and I were trying to encourage Oseia to look at the sleeping octopus, but he was totally cool on that because it was too scary. He did kind of plead with each of us to not have to look at the octopus. But we were excited. He won’t be scarred for life, I’m sure. But WTF, Oseia, what about all of the train track building, the dancing, the riding around on my back like I’m your own personal horse?? You focus on the one scary thing. C’mon man!

Just means I need to steal him again sometime soon.

Last week we had a double header for basketball and shortly in to the first game I jammed my index finger on my left hand. It smarted, but I didn’t think much of it.

During the second half it started to throb. Crap. So I wrapped my upper knuckle before the start of game two. More than halfway through game two I looked down and my lower knuckle had increased in size by about 50% and was starting to discolor. Oh, joy.

I RICE’d when I got home, and decided that I needed to give it some stability overnight. Alas, I found myself sans finger splint. Enter: home waxing kit. Yep, what you see below is a stick from my wax kit cut-to-size and some first aid tape. Thank goodness I had the first aid tape – using multiple band-aids would have been a pain in the arse and using duct tape would have been painful.

My finger is now on the road to recovery and, thanks to my mini-MacGyver move, is only slightly misaligned. Grrr…argh…battle scars good.

Like when Rachel Maddow schools the gents on how babies are conceived. Spectacular.

Or when Riley goes on a rant in the toy store – you go girl!

And it introduced me to Miss Representation – I’m going to have to find a way to do a screening party, or maybe I’ll get my hands on copy and have it move around my peeps like I did when my auntie got me Street Fight.

December was crazy fun, but kinda kicked my ass. Fun of social engagements and other holiday festivities, I had basically zero days to be a vegetable. I am making up for that on Jan 2 – make no doubt about it. I will be in my sweats all day watching football.

Today, however, I am doing my annual NYE cleaning and am so happy to be getting my home back in order. My place has looked like a tornado whipped through it for a couple of weeks, but I am making good progress and my house is starting to have the distinct smell of Method cleaning products – which is a sure sign of the impending new year.

As I was pondering my goals, resolutions, and slogan for 2012, I decided to revisit what was going through my head as we entered 2011 (good thing I have a blog!). Here’s how I did:

Standing Mani’s Resolution:

• I think me and the middle-school ladies missed three standing mani’s – not too bad!

Feeling Pretty: Meh – not as great on this one, but improvements were definitely made.

• Regular bikini waxes – check!
• Pretty underthings – kinda check? I found cute ones that I like, but they aren’t “sexy”, but consistently cute and comfy is still pretty fantastic.
• Fashion Intervention – full-on fail. I still need one.
• Full length mirror – check! But ugh. It was both a blessing and a curse.

As a reminder, my new year’s formula is to make:

• Goals: Measurable goals regarding health, wealth, and career.
• Resolution(s): Feel good thing(s) that really have no impact on my life other than to bring me happiness
• A Slogan: the theme for the year

My resolution for this year is to take more weekend trips – whether they are small road trips or extended weekend visits to see friends or family out of town. I shouldn’t put my effort only into longer trips, because 1) I end up losing vacation because I forget to take it or can’t squeeze it in, 2) the mental resets will be good for me, and 3) I have so many people around the U.S. that I’d love to go see in their native element.

As for the slogan, you may have guessed from the title of this post that it’s “Live. Laugh. Love.” Shall I break it down for ya?

Live: Don’t get me wrong, I feel like I do quite a bit of living and my life is quite awesome, but this will be a good reminder to slow down and enjoy the moment. Sometimes I’m more intent on “doing it all” rather than just enjoying a “some of it all.” This is not to say that I won’t still attempt to fit in every possible activity, it just means I will be more thoughtful. I obviously don’t have the details all worked out, but it’s something to keep in mind.

Laugh: I do it a lot, but I need to do it more. Ya know that laughter that hurts your gut, where you can’t breathe and you’re crying a bit. This is my reminder to not take things too seriously.

Love: I love my peeps dearly, and this is my reminder to make sure they know it through my words or my actions. Life is too short.

And there you have it! Don’t forget to have some black-eyed peas tomorrow for some luck.

Happy New Year to you all, and I promise to try to be better about blogging in 2012!

Love,

CFox

My experience with guns (well, weapons in general) is quite limited. When I was but a wee lass, we’d take turns shooting my next door neighbor’s bee bee (bb?) gun at soda cans. I was a good shot, but not sure that I ever found it fun. Then I went on a shooting hiatus until roughly a decade ago when visiting a friend’s dad who lived up in the hills in Leavenworth. The men in that family owned a myriad of guns, and I shot my fair share. The put clay pigeons way up in the trees (he drove up the hill in a tractor to place them; how awesome is that?) and we’d brace ourselves on a tree stump or log and fire away. It was then that I discovered that I am not a fan of handguns. AT. ALL. I was great with the rifle, pulling it into my shoulder I felt in control of the damage I would potentially cause. The handgun was a different story. Holding it out in front of me it felt too separate from my body; I had less control. And I could see it. All I could think of was that it was designed to kill people. People. It didn’t feel right.

Yesterday a friend took me to the shooting range. He is a gun owner and thought it would be fun. He’s a handgun owner, but I thought I’d give it another shot (pun intended). I figured that perhaps it’s like food, where maybe you didn’t like something before, but the passing of time has brought along a different palate. Anyway, we went and we shot. I loaded clips, learned how to put the clip in and chamber the first round. Also, unintentionally, I learned how to jam a gun. Repeatedly. And while I’m actually still a pretty darn good shot (I shot better than my friend for the most part – mwhahaha!) I never felt comfortable. It just confirmed that I’m not fan of handguns. However, I did have a fun time and now, if I am ever in a situation where I am the passenger in a car that is being pursued in a high-speed chase and the super hot guy that is driving the car, who is totally built and shirtless and maybe a little sweaty even, looks at me calmly and asks, “Do you know how to shoot a gun?” I can reply, “Yes.”

I arrived midday and found my hotel quite easily, then set out to explore the city. Much to my surprise, I loved it! Maybe it was coming off the Bleh of Bern, or maybe it was that this was actually a living, breathing CITY, but I was in heaven. There were a myriad of shops, of course, and I did my obligatory wandering, even purchasing a cardigan from Promod, a store I enjoyed very much that is not available here in the U.S.

But Lausanne is a college town and had a strong artistic and intellectual vibe. It struck me as a closer relation to Seattle than Pullman. I will never forget the first time I visiting friends at WSU – upon entering the city you are greeted with a sign that says “Welcome to Pullman – Washington State University.” The college and the city are one and the same, whereas in Seattle, the University is but one piece of the city’s identity. Lausanne seemed to be influenced, yet not enveloped by the presence of the learning institution.

There were festivals galore: jazz, dance, art, theater – take your pick! I wandered into a couple of large buildings (former houses?) that were home to multiple artistic experiences. In one room there would be a guitarist performing for a group of 20, in another room there would be someone doing spoken word, another seemed to be a book discussion with the writer. Now, I didn’t understand a word of it since it was all in French, but I took in the atmosphere regardless and wished there was something like it back home.

The biggest treat for me was finding out that Lausanne is the home of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Olympics Museum. So I took the long walk down a big hill to the waterfront and took myself to the museum. Sadly, they did not allow pictures inside the museum, but it was wonderful! The first room starts off with a brief history of the Olympics, telling that the modern Olympic games first took place in Athens in 1896 after Baron Pierre de Coubertin was founded the IOC) in order to foster education, understanding and mutual respect between nations via the common “language” of sport. I have to say, I got a little emotional looking at all of the torches from 1896 thru present day. They showed a video of some of the voyages the various torches had taken, including the one from Barcelona in 1992 when the disabled archer light an arrow with the torch and shot it into the sky to light the Olympic flame.

Moving upstairs, one side of the floor was dedicated to the Summer Games, the other side to the Winter Games. I got to see both a luge and bobsled up close and personal, and they had lots of outfits that were worn by athletes and man, some of those folks (especially the bobsledders) are teeny. And figure skaters? Fugettaboudit. But it was fascinating to see the “tools of the trades” that each if the athletes use during competition.

The museum had lots of interactive exhibits, and I did every single one of them. For example, in one of the exhibits you press a button and an item would light up in the room (like Wilma Rudolph’s shoes) and they would play a video of that athlete’s story at the games, and the adversity that they’d overcome. Another exhibit had a touchscreen table that had puzzle pieces scattered about. The user would match the puzzle pieces, and a video would play showing an instance when the Olympic athletes overcame tension between their nations – essentially they rose above the conflict and were able to work together as athletes… like when German competitor Luz Long advised Jesse Owens to jump a few inches before the usual long jump take-off spot to avoid any challenge to the legitimacy of his jumps. Owens took his advice and qualified for the finals; where he went on to win the gold. Long personally congratulated Owens right in plain view of Hitler.

I had to leave Lausanne too soon, but I really view it as a happy accident and glad I ended up there for a couple of days.

It’s sad to say that this small, intimate group if not the craftiest bunch in the world. The construction of the gingerbread homes lacked a certain something, and the end result was caved in wall and roofs that slid off. Thank goodness for mega blocks, which served well as a stable surface to use in helping the roofs to “set” properly.

There was one overachiever in the group whose house stayed together, all candies remained in place, and even had some intentional icicles. But the good, the bad, and the ugly – we shall all remain nameless.

I totally enjoyed myself, but next year we’re doing gingerbread cookies – screw the houses.

We also got my tree up (for the first time in years) and the stockings were hung by the chimney with care. And one of my holiday films (The Holiday) has already been knocked off the list. Yay!