on friday night I had a birthday dinner at my house for my favorite neighbor: meat loaf, mashed potatoes, creamed spinach & apple pie (too busy to take pictures!)

we occasionally encountered some misbehaving cats over the weekend:

i baked a loaf of bread & made whoopie pies:

we enjoyed the bread on the patio during an overcast morning:

i bought two new lamps for our bedroom and put existing lamps in the guest room (new lamps not shown):

spent a lot of time in my office/work room:

we went to Pacifica to watch the Red Sox vs. Yankees as well as the Patriots game. We stopped at the beach along the way….

we ate turkey chili & cornbread muffins

-we watched Fargo

-i went for a hike

-i played on the internet (til 3am!)

-i tried clothes on for our trip

-we went shopping for a jacket

-i bought some magazines

-i didn’t sleep as much as i wanted to

Now I’m off to make one of my favorite soups & watch Martha on my TIVO. Happy Monday!

had a little help from my 13 year old baking buddy:

xoxoxoxoxo, tracy

today at work I went to my coworker’s house to take pictures for her Real Estate brochure. The best part (besides getting away from work) was meeting her “kids.” The dog is Siena Cha-Cha and the cat is Madison. It’s the first Scottish Fold cat I’ve met. Their ears are silly.

i also fell in love with this flowery plant. It’s a Jewels of Opar plant.  Perhaps one day I’ll have one in my backyard….

When someone asks you to help them with something and their explanation of the action takes longer to explain than the action itself. This is not the best time management. They clearly could have finished the task already. This is especially annoying when the task is making a phone call.

example:

“Call this person, tell them this and this and this….ask them this and that and that…and if they ask this…say that….etc!!!” I sit there thinking “Do you want me to dial, and you can just say that to them?!!!???”

weekend included:

• a trip to SF to assistant photographing a wedding
• dinner with the neighbors (twice)
• playing with my new camera
• having coffee with a new, delightful friend!
• eating Indian food, Gyros, Falafel, Chinese food all from our favorite places in the Bay Area
• organizing & straightening of the garage/laundry room
• shopping for fabric for the couch & chairs
• making chocolate/almond biscotti
• enjoying the last few days of summer..but daydreaming about layering clothes
• compiling all of my clothes to donate to goodwill
• thinking about all of the soups that i’m going to make soon
• playing “name that tune” with the neighbors on our back porch
• packing (mentally) for our upcoming trip
• Oh! and last thursday we saw Patton Oswalt & Brian Posehn at Cobb’s on Thursday (so funny my throat hurt from laughing!)

People on the internet:

Say hello to my new camera. She doesn’t have a proper name yet. Once she does, you will be properly introduced. She needs a complicated/devilish name because it wasn’t easy getting her.

I ordered her (or should i say one of her relatives) through Amazon thinking she would come in a few days. I received an email from them saying it was due to ship in October. Blasted! This would not arrive in time for her to make her maiden voyage on our trip to Spain at the end of September. Can you imagine the stress this caused?? My wonderful husband tracked her down at a camera shop in San Francisco.

When I called Amazon to cancel the extended warranty, I made the mistake of telling them I was going to purchase it in person. I bought the camera at a local shop and returned home to cancel the camera order through Amazon. To my surprise, it shipped!!!! What is with that? Did they expedite my order because I threatened to buy it somewhere else? Now, I will have to deal with the returning process. Either way, I’m glad I have her. Stress no more! She will make her maiden voyage soon.