Well we brought in the New Year in fine style. We went to Kat and Steve's to celebrate. They had lots of great food. Steve is a fantastic bartender - whipping up great Mexican Martinis and fancy girly drinks (for Stepan) with ease. At midnight, we popped Party Poppers, sampled the champagne they plan to serve at their wedding, and did the requisit first kiss. One of the best things about their party was the mix of people who attended. A very interesting group.
Our Almost-Annual New Year's Day party was a raging success as well. I made a white wine punch (yes, we're still using the wine from our wedding), used the china to set out the Texas Caviar and spiral sliced ham, offered 2 dozen of our home-made tamales, and set out our remaining Christmas cookies. Stepan made some wonderful bread and most everybody brought along another little something for the buffet. We had a great mix of people there including old friends, co-workers, and neighbors. All in all, a fine party - enjoyed by all.
Last night, we saw T2 at Dale and Elizabeth's. They've done something technical to their television connection that produces a much sharper picture than what they had last week when we watched the first Terminator movie. Their setup in now a near perfect example of what a home theatre system should be.
While I really enjoyed the movie, the best part of the whole evening was getting to surprise Jonathan at bedtime. He wasn't told that we were coming over since we weren't sure we would make it before he went to sleep. When I got there, I peeked around his bedroom door and his face just lit up when he saw me :-)
Epiphany is officially tomorrow, but the church celebrated it today. In true Catholic tradition, my church puts up the Nativity on Christmas Eve, but leaves off the wise men until Epiphany. The whole manger scene is quite beautiful and just as elaborate as some of the displays we saw in Europe.
Another ceremony my church offers at this time of year is a kind of self-serve house blessing. After mass, you pick up a prayer sheet and piece of blessed chalk. Then at home the family gathers at the front door, you read through the prayer service which includes a reading from the Gospel of John (1:1-3, 14). At the end, you take the chalk and write "20+G+M+B+03" above the door. Stepan was kind enough to indulge me in the blessing ceremony and Homer always is willing to hang outside with us. So our house is now officially blessed for the coming year.
Along the same lines of starting off the new year right, one resolution I occassionally think to attempt is to actually observe all the Catholic Holy Days of Observation by actually going to mass. Sadly, I never seem to think of it in time to go to mass on Jan. 1 which is the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. Maybe since I've writen it down this year, I'll be more prepared for it next year - though we'll probably still be in the Czech Republic on Jan 1 04.
Stepan and I are going to walk the Cowtown 10k with Mom at the end of February. We were hoping we could take Homer with us as well, but they don't allow pets on the course. Anyway, we went for a training walk (with Homer) this afternoon at the Barton Creek Greenbelt. It was a gorgeous day and we did an almost 6 mile, round-trip hike in a little over 2 hours. Homer had a great time though in addition to being very tired this evening he also seems to be sore - he's walking fairly slowly and very stiffly. Poor thing. Maybe his bath will make him feel better.
Stepan has finally made the move to Movable Type. He has included a trackback link that looks interesting. I wonder if I should add it to my blog as well.
Thanks to the event counter Stepan installed on our wedding website, I've been able to keep track of exactly how long we've been married. Since today was our 100 day anniversary, I surprised Stepan at work at 2:30pm, and convinced him that he should come play hooky with me...it didn't take too much convincing either.
I was hoping for a nice sunny day. My original plan was to pick Step up at work with Homer and go to the Greenbelt, but it was cold and grey outside. Instead we took a walk through our neighborhood park then went to a movie.
Not sure what we'll do now. I pretty much suck at planning stuff like this...though on the way to @hand I thought of plenty I could have planned for if I had just given it some more thought. Hopefully, I'll be better prepared for our 1000 day anniversay.
I'm exhausted. I've been working way too much this week. Mainly, it's because I'm finally making the switch from a Mac based program to a PC based program for my intersection illustrations. I like the new program a lot, but until I build up my libraries everything is going to take me that much longer. The upshot though, is that I can do a lot of this work at home now. But what really, really blows is that I'm exhausted right now and Step and I are suppose to see the opera Dead Man Walking tonight. I've been looking forward to seeing it for ages....I just hope I'll be able to stay awake!
This was a phenomenal production! As always, the Austin Lyric Opera did a fantastic staging job, but the story and music were beautifully executed/arranged as well. The final scene, when the criminal is executed, was very compelling...the entire theatre was quiet - no music, no singing, not a sound from the audience. Then a recording of a medical heart monitor started which continued until the hearbeat flatlined. The show ended with a simple hymn that ran throughout the show:
He will gather us around, all around.
He will gather us around.
By and by.
You and I.
All around Him, gather us around.
Part of me wonders if this opera was so appealing because it was in English and didn't require as much attention to the supertitles as foreign language operas do. But it also dealt with a very contemporary subject...
As intended, I left the theatre in contemplation of the death penalty. Since I've always considered myself to be against the death penalty, it did nothing to change my convictions. On the other hand, it did a very compelling job of addressing the concerns and portraying the anguish of the victim's family who advocate for the death of the convicted.
I seem to have so much to say about what's going on in the world around me, but no time to formulate my thoughts into a coherent blog entry. So stay tuned, one day in the far and distant future, you may see an entry here about That Guy's foreign policy (I'm against war with Iraq), the economy (cutting taxes on dividends will do absolutely nothing for my bottom line), education (we need to adequately compensate our teachers and not force them to "teach a test"), and the environment (have you hugged a tree today?).
These are slogans I've heard about through friends or the newpapers from the recent peace rallys...
Let's Bomb Texas - They Have Oil Too
- as a native Texan maybe I should be offended by this one, but it does an excellent job of illustrating the real reason The Administration wants to bomb Iraq
I Trust No Bush But My Own
- a woman was carrying this one
War Begins with W
How did our oil get under their sand?
Did I miss any good ones?
Yesterday, Stepan and I went to a baby shower for our good friends, Archie & Jessica. Everybody had a great time and our contributions of Stepan-made foccacia bread, Jfer-made brownies (2 varieties), and fruit punch were well appreciated. However, our best contribution to the event was an advise scrapbook I put together for the expectant parents. I took polaroid pictures of all the guests as they arrived and instructed them to take a sheet of paper (provided in green or yellow) and write anything they wished for the shower scrapbook. It could have been well-wishes, or parenting advice, or just a simple drawing. Towards the end of the shower, I took my glue stick and the left-over colored paper and pasted each polaroid next to that persons words of wisdom into a very nice scrapbook I picked up at the Paper Place.
Kudos to my cousin Debbie first coming up with this idea at our Grandmother's 80th birthday party.
This weekend I was listening to an NPR reporter interview crewman aboard a deployed Navy ship. One item that stuck out was the necessity of 2 minute Navy showers. To conserve water a shower consists of turning on the water for one minute to get wet, soaping up with the water off, then turning on the water for one more minute to rinse off. This obviously doesn't allow any time for the water to heat up! ... I wonder if they would let a body go European all week so they could save up their water minutes to enjoy a nice long 20 minute shower on the weekend...?