So Much Snow!

Snow from the morning of the 22nd, and bunny tracks!

Blowing and drifting snow from an all-day storm caused white-out conditions across the state on the 23rd.

Another five inches on Christmas Day!

Christmas Eve with Steve and Ron

For years, Steve and Ron co-organized a Christmas Eve dinner gathering at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse in downtown Minneapolis. We try to go whenever we're in town on the 24th -- it's always a blast.

Here, we have to tease Lukas a bit. He took the initiative to order wine on his own -- shocking! -- because he didn't realize that ordering the wine is usually "assigned" to someone at the table. Sounds goofy, and it was, but we laughed really hard. This is the moment that the table behind us started shooting us dirty looks. :)

Mason can't believe that the waiter didn't pour him any wine! (Maybe we were racous enough, already?) The table behind us continues to have less fun than we are having.

Barb, Rob and Steve.

Steve finishes the last of the good wine, which Allen and I had previously succeeded in hiding from him.

Merry Christmas!

Dec. 22 Holiday Dinner

We had such a nice time hosting a pre-Thanksgiving dinner with friends and family that we decided to do it again for pre-Christmas. The meal was a bit more casual this time: with beef stew and salad instead of ham.

We'd hoped to have both Ds there, but LMS2* was really sick, so couldn't make it. :( But we had lots of good company with Sarah (whom we literally hadn't seen in years -- she's wonderful), ETC, Mr. Wohlwend, and Pat and Sam.

Present time!

And Sam finishes the stew. :)

* Here's how my FIL explained "LMS" to Sarah that night: "'LMS' is 'Lovely Mrs. Sorenson.' This one" -- he points to me -- "is number three, Dawn is number two and my mom is the first one."

B-Day Fun

For the first time in a few years (thank you, William Mitchell, for some less-than-lovely finals-week birthdays), I had an awesome birthday! We started out with brunch at Hell's Kitchen (Mom will remember another birthday brunch there from a few years back) with Cathy...

... and ETC ...
... followed by a little Christmas shopping downtown.

Then (odd timing, I know) we had the AwesomeNeighborsTM come over to take a few snapshots of us to use for our Christmas cards. (I looked through lots of photos from the last few years, and there are very few of M and I together -- mostly because either he's holding the camera or I am.) I think we're leaning toward using the photo below; now I just have to get around to ordering the cards.

Photo time was followed by nap time (how could a good birthday NOT include nap time?!?), and then present time. As you can see below, I was wayyyy excited to get another Bachman's GC this year. Thanks, Dad and Bunny!

Then we had a lovely dinner at Al Vento before meeting up with the AwesomeNeighborsTM for karaoke at the Cardinal. M's performances were the highlight, mostly because he didn't know the words to either of the songs he sang: "Nine to Five" with Sarah (during which he just mostly yelled "NINE TO FIVE!" a bunch of times)...

... or "Private Eyes" with Tim.
Good stuff!

Christmas Sweaters, Part 2

Arriving at Christmas Sweater Party Number 2, at the AwesomeNeighborsTM. It's always nice to attend parties so close to home or, as some of us prefer to say, "stumbling distance."

Poor Radar was so freaked out by all the people that he just ran around in a big circle the whole time. Granted, that is his standard M.O., but he's usually doing it in the backyard.

Like Zach and Becca's, Sarah and Tim's outfits were steaming hot cup of Christmas crazy.

Check out that sweater sleeve. Know how I know you're gay, Tim?

The daily carpool gang. :)

Christmas Sweaters, Part I

The first "Christmas sweater party" we hit last Saturday night was at Zach and Becca's. That being the week of the Command Center Dress Rehearsal for the merger at work (I wish I were kidding), I didn't get around to picking up tacky Goodwill sweaters like I'd hoped, so M faked it with a Cosby sweater (I thought I got rid of all of them, but he must have hidden this one) and a holiday-compatible scarf of mine.
Meanwhile, I tried to go Disney-Christmas with a (faux)fur-lined hood.

The host and hostess, on the other hand, were delightfully tacky.

Uh, don't ask.

Becca holds the prize for best outfit: a big honkin jug of pretty bad wine. Her sister, standing nearby in the crazy green satin, won the award.

Off to the next party!

(Beautiful) Spoiler Alert!

I adored "Lost in Translation" -- just loved it. Was it slow, as M thinks? Sure. Did it misrepresent Japanese culture, as its critics attest? Probably. I don't know. But was it a stunningly moving and beautiful film? For me, absolutely -- not least because of the last scene, featuring Bill Murray's famous and mysterious whisper to ScarJo.

Right after the film came out, I remember lots of hubbub as everyone speculated about what he actually said. Sophia Copolla, the film's director, swore she'd never tell, but related that her teenage niece hoped that Bill's character was giving Scarlett's his e-mail address. Most of the speculation seems to have faded away in the three-plus years since the movie came out, but I've always sort of thought that, no matter what he said, it probably wouldn't be as satisfying as not knowing.

Flash forward to 2007. Someone ("vid22dotcom" to be precise) did some "digital processing" (pretty vague, but okay), was able to isolate and decipher the sound of the whisper, and posted to YouTube a video revealing what was actually said. To their credit, there's a lot of labeling around the video to avoid ruining the moment for those who don't want to know and would prefer to leave the mystery intact.

After stumbling across the video earlier today, I debated about it for a moment and then jumped in. I fully expected to be disappointed.

But you know what? I'm not -- not at all. It was as lovely as I'd hoped.

So, do you what to know? :) If not, do not play the video below. But if you loved the movie and are curious, I think you'll find his words to be nothing less than fitting.

T-Day Dinner -- Later

After dinner, Ron served up a home-made cheescake with pumpkin-caramel topping. Mmmm!
Sam and the iPod, both recharging. :)

Pat, Sam, Steve and Ron headed home, and we stayed up with M's parents. These photos were during the "What was the best concert you've ever seen?" conversation -- I think D&D said theirs was Iron Butterfly.

Then we woke up the next day to Donn's amazing eggs benedict with crab, which -- to steal one of his catchphrases -- did not suck. :)

Thanksgiving Dinner at Our Place

We flew out to Seattle in early November to do our traditional "no-parents" Thanksgiving with Phil, Mike, Laura and Addie, but as the actual T-day approached, we thought it might be nice to have a few people over for a small meal.

Originally, we were thinking of just M's parents coming over to have some wine and a really simple dinner (like home-made pizza), and maybe sleep over so they wouldn't have to drive home late. Inevitably, it turned into a little more than that: after we invited Steve, Ron, Pat and Sam, I got a little carried away. Shocking, right? :)

So the weekend before, I polished all the silver, planned the meal and went food shopping, and hung all the Christmas decorations.
We planned to have everyone over on Wednesday night, so I worked from home on Wednesday, which gave me the opportunity to get the oven going in the afternoon for the ham. Yes, ham -- neither one of us is very fond of turkey, and ham worked out perfectly for my all-Southern Thanksgiving menu:

• Peach-glazed ham,
• Kentucky cranberry conserve,
• Green beans sauteed with onions and bacon,
• Corn pudding,
• Home-made bread (thanks, Ron!),
• And delicious crispy potato casserole (thanks, Pat!).
  

And of course, Sam got to lick the bacon pan.

More Snow Pics ...

... because Dad seems to be getting a kick out of them. :) This is the view from my office window this morning around 8:30 a.m.

And here's what it looked like around 4:45 p.m. as I was leaving tonight.

December 4 Snow

After digging ourselves out from the ten or so inches we got over the weekend, another five inches arrived yesterday during rush hour. Our AwesomeNeighborsTM said it took them two hours to get home last night -- that's a drive that usually takes about 20 minutes. I'm convinced that the only transportation in the Cities last night was the train, which M and I took home after he worked late and I went to a Pilates session. We overheard people saying that buses were taking an hour to move six blocks. Here are some shots from this morning.


Maybe it's time to bring in the hammock, huh?

But wait, there's more! We're slated to get two more dumps of snow this week: Thursday night and Saturday night. While it will probably complicate driving to various holiday events and parties, it's also wonderful to have snow for December, which hasn't always happened here in recent years.

Kitties, Not Scabs

Have you been following the Hollywood writers strike? Have you been watching the growing YouTube assortment of videos in which celebs express their solidarity? (The most buzzed-about seems to be the "Speechless" series, such as this one featuring the couple that Stephen Colbert refers to as "Filliam H. Muffman.")

And have you ever wondered to yourself, "Gosh, is there a viral video about the strike that really speaks to me as a person? You know, one that features the things I like most?" For me, that would include, say, things like:

• Cute kitties, especially LOLcats,
• Otters holding hands,
• And David Cross.

And, as it turns out, someone who feels passionately about the strike must have magically known my innermost thoughts. Lo and behold, I'm pleased to share what I will always think of as "A Very Sparklegirl Writers Strike Video" (props to ETC for the link!).

December 1 Snow

After a couple of "flurry events" that brought falling flakes but no accumulation, December 1 brought us the real thing. Here are a few photos from about 10:00 a.m. Saturday morning, towards the beginning of the snow that fell all day.

Now that the Twin Cities have mostly dug themselves out, we're slated to get another five or so inches today. Should be particularly interesting in that this will be the first real snow scheduled to arrive during a rush hour.

Flashback to Fall: Photos from Early October

Now that we've had our first big snow of the year, I'm realizing how delinquent I was in posting photos from the fall. It really was a lovely autumn in Minnesota.

Here's George showing his first fall colors.

Our beautiful birch tree out front.
We really should have made time to get to these leaves earlier in the season, but at least the fire keeps the patio palatable even in early October.