27 December 10

Inserts from the Harry Potter: Film Wizardry book I got for Christmas. It is truly delightful, almost like a pop-up book for adults; it is so full of little surprises like this.

26 December 10

I got a new mouse for Christmas! The scroll button on my old one had been broken for months, and the tracking was starting to go too. It's pretty amazing to scroll again without using the arrow keys. Also, look how cute it is!

25 December 10

Kenny, looking dapper on Christmas Day while playing with a magic trick Riley gave him. I actually have the best family and I love them all to death.

24 December 10

Spent Christmas Eve day sleeping late, wrapping the last few gifts and playing on tumblr. Jeff and I went to his mom's place for dinner; this was some of the food we ate. We then went to my parents' house and had some wine and popcorn and 'watched' How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and went to bed at the respectable hour of 2 a.m.

23 December 10

Roommate gift exchange! This is Jesse with the socks I gave him (I also gave him some cufflinks made out of typewriter keys). He gave me the new Coupland novel and Sarah gave me a necklace she made out of crystals and a bullet casing. Awesome!

22 December 10

I helped Jeff split up some of the rum pot to give as gifts. Delicious, boozy gifts.

21 December 10

Iain and Steph came over so I could give them their Christmas presents. We ate dinner with Jeff and Jesse, and then... this happened.

20 December 10

After work I went to Dennis's to exchange Christmas gifts. I came home and wrapped a few other gifts, and woke Theo up with the click of the shutter when I took his photo.

19 December 10

It was a strangely warm day for late December and I walked to the grocery store wearing only a jean jacket and a scarf over this. Later I went to Malloreigh's for a Christmas baking exchange, where we all chatted over tea and delicious vegan goodies. She also gave me a gift: a zine she and Kaylie made of recipes of theirs, along with a little bag of nutritional yeast and a box of fenugreek leaves :)

18 December 10

After the hockey game, I met up with Iain and Steph and others for sushi and then theatre sports on Granville Island. Always a good time, and man do I love having Iain back in town!

17 December 10

Sarah hosted a Solstice party (a few days early) at our place. It was a fun time full of booze and food. I don't think any glasses even got broken, which usually happens at our parties.

16 December 10

Imagine my disappointment when, upon opening this box at work, it contained only a bunch of bug spray and fly paper.

15 December 10

This isn't that great of a photo, but how often do you see a plane ridin' down the freeway in pieces?

14 December 10

Alice triumphantly displaying our baker's dozen from Voodoo Donut. Sarah took us there after a delicious dinner at Navarre (and a trip to Fred Meyer for bottles of pinot noir to bring home). In the daytime we went to Powell's where all of us spent over $100 (I don't know if it's even possible to leave there and spend less) and got caught in a rainstorm when we tried to leave, so we sought refuge in a café/cinema nearby for warm sandwiches and soup. After dropping off books and leaving Alice to study and shower, Mom and I headed out to Macy's and Nordstrom Rack, where basically, this was me.

13 December 10

The street below our hotel room at the Benson. We spent the day shopping at Lloyd Centre, which was noticeably less horrible than the previous year, largely based on the fact that a) we had the granny cart and b) it was a weekday. Then we had a most delicious dinner at Pazzo, and continued boozing in the hotel bar. A group of old dudes bought us a round of drinks so we got nicely liquored up and then proceeded to raid the mini-bar in our hotel room after the lounge closed. Drunk on a Monday, awwww yeah.

12 December 10

Driving along I-5 in the fog, to Portland with Alice and my mom. We didn't stop for lunch and then we all felt too ill to eat much dinner.

11 December 10

It was my staff Christmas party at the Cascadia Hotel on Hornby, which was a surprisingly good time. I wasn't expecting to drink because I had no money and the bar was paid, but people kept giving me tickets for glasses of wine...

10 December 10

After work I met up with Alice and we went to Felisha's to drink eggnog&rum make a gingerbread house. It started off pretty good but then Raffi showed up and basically went crazy. Then he kind of destroyed it and Felisha considered just throwing it out the window but didn't want to attract rats.

09 December 10

For the first time in the history of cookoffs, I forgot my camera. So here is a shitty iphone photo of Malloreigh's drink - a warm vegan caesar (made with V-Go instead of Clamato) with olive and celery garnish. She served it with a faux-egg salad sandwich, and won. My last-minute decision of jasmine tea with amaretto was picked for best drink.

08 December 10

I went to the game with Steph, Tams, and Val. At the gate they told me I couldn't use my camera during the game because the lens was too big. But I snapped a couple at the end.
The game was awesome; in fact by the time it got to OT I wouldn't have even been upset if they lost because it was such a good game. But I'm glad they won because there were some really obnoxious Ducks fans in our row. Who actually likes the Ducks? I always assumed people just went to games in Anaheim because they basically give the tickets away down there.

07 December 10

Preparing for the cookoff. Jeff put the dough together while I was at work because I literally had no other time in which to do it. I rolled and baked them after coming home from yoga in the evening. If I were to make them again, I'd use all white flour instead of half white/half wheat, because while they were flaky and buttery, they were not as light as you'd expect from croissants.

06 December 10

My recipe card box.

05 December 10

Amanda's birthday present for me. She told me not to open it at the party, but to wait until the morning with a cup of coffee. It made sense after I opened it, because it was delicious homemade poppyseed biscotti. She and Laryssa stayed the night and in the morning we chatted over coffee and toast. Upon getting dressed I found a Tom Waits record in my underwear drawer, and when I brushed my teeth I found Plants & Animals tickets in the medicine cabinet. I love Jeff.
I bummed around during the day and then when Jeff came home we went for dinner with my parents at La Brasserie, a thoroughly delicious French/German restaurant on Davie Street. I had the venison. It tasted like a campfire.

04 December 10

Amanda and her peacock-themed outfit at my birthday party. It was a lovely party with delicious food and many gifts of booze and hugs from friends. Every time I host a party I am childishly afraid that it will just be me and like two other people standing around in nice clothes in front of a table of food, but happily that hasn't happened yet.
The rest of the photos can be found here.

03 December 10

This shutout victory made me happier than their previous two games in which they scored seven goals apiece. Let's hope they can have some similar glory when I go see them against the Ducks on the 8th.

02 December 10

01 December 10

My dad and Sharon came over and we sat in the kitchen talking over wine and cheese while Sarah and Jesse got ready for the steampunk ball.

30 November 10

Another boring photo from work. It's the only time I see daylight during the week.

29 November 10

28 November 10

Jeff and I walked up to Companion Books so I could trade some things. We saw this precious/pathetic snowman on the way there; this is basically what happens to snow in Vancouver. I picked up this book of 365 aerial photos and a copy of Cormac McCarthy's The Road, the latter of which is pretty bleak and uncomfortable to read. Good though.

27 November 10

I finally reorganized my books and it didn't even take that long. I really thought I had more.
In the evening times, Steph came over and I made us dinner and we watched Six Feet Under, just like old times.