Holiday Scenes Around Town

Holiday Scenes Around Town
Originally uploaded by skillj.

Happy Holidays!

A Quick Update Before the Year End

There was a wedding in Toronto.

Another GSB event...people turn out in full force even when it's out of the country!

There was a wedding in Chicago.

We clean up good, don't we?


Arsh ran the Chicago LaSalle marathon. Congrats, Arsh!

Green Acres is the Place to Be!!

We took a vacation to the Finger Lakes area in upstate New York. It was beautiful and of course Wolfen had a good time. It's the land of wineries and Mennonites. We stayed on Lake Keuka. Too bad it was too cold to take advantage of being right on the lake. No cable, no cell phone and no internet. We did take advantage of the wineries, though.


The lake in the morning


The "backyard" of where we stayed


A waterfall in Watkins Glenn State Park


Walking along Lake Seneca


Me and The Wolf


Outside a winery...Do you think that's a working wine barrel?

Randomness

I found this out in blogland. I bolded the things I've done.

01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink
02. Swam with wild dolphins
03. Climbed a mountain
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid
06. Held a tarantula
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
08. Said 'I love you' and meant it
09. Hugged a tree
10. Bungee jumped
11. Visited Paris
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise
14. Seen the Northern Lights
15. Gone to a huge sports game
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables
18. Touched an iceberg
19. Slept under the stars
20. Changed a baby's diaper
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
22. Watched a meteor shower
23. Gotten drunk on champagne
24. Given more than you can afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
27. Had a food fight
28. Bet on a winning horse
29. Asked out a stranger
30. Had a snowball fight
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
32. Held a lamb
33. Seen a total eclipse
34. Ridden a roller coaster
35. Hit a home run
36. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
39. Had two hard drives for your computer
40. Visited all 50 states
41. Taken care of someone who was drunk
42. Had amazing friends
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
44. Watched wild whales
45. Stolen a sign
46. Backpacked in Europe
47. Taken a road-trip
48. Gone rock climbing
49. Midnight walk on the beach
50. Gone sky diving
51. Visited Ireland
52. Been heartbroken longer then you were actually in love
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger's table and had a meal with them
54. Visited Japan
55. Milked a cow
56. Alphabetized your cd's
57. Pretended to be a superhero
58. Sung karaoke
59. Lounged around in bed all day
60. Posed nude in front of strangers
61. Gone scuba diving
62. Kissed in the rain
63. Played in the mud
64. Played in the rain
65. Gone to a drive-in theater
66. Visited the Great Wall of China
67. Started a business
68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
69. Toured ancient sites
70. Taken a martial arts class
71. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight
72. Gotten married
73. Been in a movie
74. Crashed a party
75. Gotten divorced
76. Gone without food for 5 days
77. Made cookies from scratch
78. Won first prize in a costume contest
79. Ridden a gondola in Venice
80. Gotten a tattoo
81. Rafted the Snake River
82. Been on television news programs as an "expert"
83. Got flowers for no reason
84. Performed on stage
85. Been to Las Vegas
86. Recorded music
87. Eaten shark
88. Had a one-night stand
89. Gone to Thailand
90. Bought a house
91. Been in a combat zone
92. Buried one of your parents
93. Been on a cruise ship
94. Spoken more than one language fluently
95. Performed in Rocky Horror.
96. Raised children
97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
98. Created and named your own constellation of stars
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn't stop when you knew someone was looking
103. Had plastic surgery
104. Survived an illness that you shouldn't have survived
105. Wrote articles for a large publication
106. Lost over 100 pounds
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback
108. Piloted an airplane
109. Petted a stingray
110. Broken someone's heart
111. Helped an animal give birth
112. Won money on a T.V. game show
113. Broken a bone
114. Gone on an African photo safari
115. Had a body part of yours below the neck pierced
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
118. Ridden a horse
119. Had major surgery
120. Had a snake as a pet
121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours
123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states
124. Visited all 7 continents
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
126. Eaten kangaroo meat
127. Eaten sushi
128. Had your picture in the newspaper
129. Changed someone's mind about something you care deeply about
130. Gone back to school
131. Parasailed
132. Petted a cockroach
133. Eaten fried green tomatoes
134. Read The Iliad - and the Odyssey
135. Selected one "important" author who you missed in school, and read
136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
137. Skipped all your school reunions
138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
139. Been elected to public office
140. Written your own computer language
141. Thought to yourself that you're living your dream
142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
143. Built your own PC from parts
144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn't know you
145. Had a booth at a street fair
146: Dyed your hair
147: Been a DJ
148: Shaved your head
149: Caused a car accident
150: Saved someone's life

Right On!

I got to travel to the Seattle area for work this past week. I actually stayed in Bellevue and had to work at our new store in Tulalip. None of this is close to Seattle when you don't have a car. And by the time we got out of work at night, everything was closed anyway. I'm not exagerating...all restaurants in Seattle close between 9:30 and 10pm. One night we drove into Seattle and found the only bar open that still served food, Il Bistro. (Thanks to a woman who was standing in front of her own closed restaurant having a smoke.) Thank goodness they served real food, not just "bar" food. We had the hugest mussels I've ever seen and they were quite tasty. From the highway, I saw the Space Needle. We walked by the original Starbucks and the market where they throw fish...here is a pic of it...the only pic I got from my "Seattle" trip.


Oh and the title to this post? It's what Seattle locals say instead of Cool!

Visiting the Big Apple

My friend, Michelle, came out to visit last week. And we got a lot done! This was her second visit out here with me so I tried to find different things to do.

We had East-West tea at Takashimaya (a Japanese department store on 5th Ave).


We went to see the Graffiti exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum of Art and had brunch at a cute place on Smith St(Her last visit we never left Manhattan.)



We also had the famous Frrrozen Hot Chocolate at Serendipity.


We went to Strawberry Fields in Central Park. (I gave her a beginner's knitting lesson there.)


I almost forgot! We went to see Avenue Q on Broadway. It's like Sesame Street for adults...very fun.


And of course we shopped till we dropped! I guess next year, we'll head out to Queens?

Oh Baby!

A few weekends ago, Ken was in town and we went to see another friend who recently had a baby. Baby D is so sweet, maybe because she slept most of the time we were there and I might feel differntly if she was raising cane during our visit.Baby & Mommy
After that visit, we stopped in FAO Schwartz and saw Beyonce with her sister Solange who were having family time with Solange's son. That has to be the best celebrity sighting I've had so far. No one was bothering them, so I refrained to even though I had my camera with me, around my neck even...(I was being a tourist for the day). But if Jay-Z had been with them, I might have had to say something then.