A Look Back

Ana’s top 10 Good Things for 2008
10. DVR
9. the 11th day of Christmas Raffle
8. Slot Machines
7.meetups
6. blogs
5. Wii
4. The Swedish & Polish
3. Sasha, The Breedon’s, The May’s, Eli, and my Mom all came up to see me.
2. Turning 40 in Vegas (thank you Craig)
1. New York City (thank you Craig again)

Christmas Morning or snowApocalypse 2008

Here's some pics and videos of our Christmas Day Fun!

went to the park and let the dog run free......

And the last one

MERRY CHRISTMAS ALL!

Can honestly say that after 2 weeks of snow I've had enough!

It's really coming down now

Yes, that's Craig on the Grill, right after that it started coming down again.

Where on day 5 of the snowApocalypse 2008

will post more pics later. Our poor pooch was overcome and had a nervous fit in the garage.

He has since recovered nicely and hopes to be able to continue on his walk soon.

Twilight and more Cake

Well its been a fun week for everyone in Western Washington and I thought I'd share some of my snow pics.

yes Its been snowing on and off for 5 days
Craig, Andrew and I have been snowbound since Wednesday and going a little stir crazy.
so, If you get your Christmas pressies a little late this year it's not my fault. I could not make it out to the post office.

I'm very sorry, but it's very nasty out and they say it'll be worse tonight.

With Hurricane winds and power outages.

Oh my!...... I'll keep y'all posted.

Here's the picture from out Christmas party last week

http://www.pacificcolorgalleries.com/SC/index.cfm?fuseaction=PictureLogin&eid=8334866&fn=RobertTPhotography&iCnt=11

Since I'm snow bound I did manage to finish the first three books by Stephanie Meyer in her twilight series

Twilight

New Moon and

Eclipse

I thought they where cool. I mean if I where 13 yrs. old I would be going crazy about these vampire books but they where quick fun reads and I cant wait to read the fourth installment and see what happens in the teenage love triangle of Bella (the human) , Jacob (the werewolf) and Edward (the vampire)

its totally sappy but quite engrossing and enjoyable

I also read
"I was told there'd be cake" by Sloane Crossley and I can tell you right now I don't think I like it. I think its a bit stupid.

This list of essays reads like a list of interview for a new friend position.

I think I'll answer the questions that she answers in the book

1.Tell me why did your parents name you Ana Maria?

Oh I see, you where named after your mom's sister, that's nice oh you say she used to go out with your dad how unusual.

2. Do you have an embarrassing collection (besides porn) that if you died your mom would say what the hell?

What? you keep cadbury chocolate eggs and almond m&m's and whoopers in your underwear drawer!! All year long? No, I'm sorry that doesn't qualify as disturbing at all.

3. Did you have an imaginary friend growing up?

Morgan was her name you say and she could do magic spells

Very Witchy I wonder if in a past life you lived in King Arthur's Court?

4. Worst Boss

When I worked @ the Westin in El Paso

my married boss would come on to me every single time we where aloneI mean come on to me like he hadn't seen a woman in 30 yrs. all tongue hanging out andand octopus hands, I was young and flattered but he was so old and gross

well it keeps going on and on ....

and I'm bored so I'm done with this installment of my 40th year.

Hey If you want to answer the 4 questions above why don't you do so, in the comments area

i'd like to hear from you

If I don't post anything else soon I'd like to wish you all a

Merry Christmas and a Safe New Years and I do think about you once in a while

Let me eat cake!

Happy December and Guess What I'm 40!!

I think Craig's getting tired of hearing me tell strangers on the street my age. I guess I'll stop. No one seems to think it's as big a deal as I do.

AnyWho

I'd like to wish my lovely sister a happy Birthday (its December 1st) and to let her know I love her lots.

I did alot this past week and it started with putting up the Christmas tree. Thanks to the help of Lillian and Norman.

Ha! I put you in my blog.

I also put my Christmas lights on outside. I'll post pictures of it soon. It looks really cute.

Friday night we spent it with Mago (Mans and Gosia) they had people over and we did some "Christmas Caroling".

Saturday woke up late to much "Caroling" finished up my book of the week which is

"In the time of the Butterflies" by Julia Alvarez

I highly recommend this book if your lacking some GIRL POWER in your life.

This is a powerful tale of four sisters that help end the tyranny of a dictator (Trujillo) in the DR (Dominican Republic)

It will leave you wanting more so.... rent the movie.

I did.

Of course its not as moving as the book, but its good. Salma Hayeck and Marco Antonio look so young

James E Olmos does a good job @ being the villain. I recommend that if your going to read the book don't watch the movie until afterwards.

To continue my Saturday.

Then we had our company Christmas Party @ the Boring I mean Boeing Future of Flight.

Nice Venue. Bland food. went home @ 9pm.

Now for Sunday.... The most fun day of my week

I laughed and laughed till I peed in my pants.

(Yup my bladder is shot now that I'm old, Depends here I come)

Went out with the wild and crazies ( my meetup group)

We had the ugliest Christmas Sweater, White Elephant gift exchange and Red Whine night

I thought I had seen it all. But these poor sweaters.

I had no IDEA what ugly was until last night. The one that one first place. Lit up and had two women having a fist fight over presents....No Joke.

Anyway I had a great time and look forward to when I get to host them next month on January 9th.

by the way keep your eye on the Vegas post. I'm not quite done with it yet. Will add stuff to it soon.

Only 16 more Shopping Days

Merry

Merry

Blog you later

Ana

Welcome to "Lost Wages"

As we touched down on Las Vegas, Sunday Afternoon, those where the first words out of our flight attendants mouth, Welcome to "LOST WAGES" and I thought to myself lets get the party started .......Woohoo!

Checking in @ the Bellagio was easy, This is the view up @ the front desk, it's about a mile of glass.

Also if you go to Vegas always ask to get you a mini fridge. It's very important to have somewhere to store your water. Oh who am I kidding it's to store the Champagne! Up in our room. I thought no big whop, big tub, separate shower, nice bed and two big chairs. But then you open up your curtains (electronically of course) and you see the fountains, the Eiffel tower, Paris and all the people and you switch the t.v. on put it on channel 22 the music and the show are just spectacular....( I will be using the word spectacular alot in this blog). Also for some reason we never could get a non-blurry picture out of our window. Either the photographer was drunk, or the camera is broken.

I think the fountains are the best part of this hotel. We saw a couple of showings of the water show and then off we went to wander. At this point we did not have a game plan...bad idea, always have a game plan when you leave your room, or you could be wandering for hours we walked and walked and walked up the strip for a very long time... getting very hungry.

We got back to our hotel room very late had a very nice sushi dinner at the Bellagio's Yellowtail Restaurant. I did not know how good sushi would be in the middle of the desert. But I was impressed.

Another tip I'd like to point out now is that female hotel employees don't belive in alot of clothing. Studies show that the more skin men see, the more they want to spend.

DAY 2 will post tommorrow.

Two Meetups and the Golden Girls of El Chuco (El Paso)

I want to start this weekends blog sending an apology to my subpar layout. I will fix this next weekend. As soon as I figure out what I'm doing!?!

Next is a shout out to a great pair of gals in el Chuco. If your reading this just play the Golden Girls theme in your background and pretend I'm singing it to you. I want to say that I'm here for you, if you need, and to offer some sarcastic remark on the state of the world if you want. Call me, loves you.


Secondly I'd like to thank my neighbor Gosia for not only kicking my ass this past week, but offering her ear for me to bend. I want to know what the neighbors think of all the grunting that goes out in your garage. I still cant believe that you push me enough to burn 600 calories, four times this past week. Your awesome.

So, lets get on with the rest of the week.

Well on Thursday night I went to the Bonefish Cafe http://www.bonefishgrill.com/ in Bothell.

Which is not far from where I work I had a meetup with my wild and crazies. (http://women.meetup.com/467/)

I had a great time talking football, drinking raspberrytinis and eating saucy shrimp. It truly was a happy hour or two. I'm always happy to see old friends and meet new ( I guess that's why they call it meetup). I had never been there before and I really loved those community tables @ the bar. It was a friendly place, with friendly servers and I loved the food and drink. A bit pricey but well worth it. I spent $24 (including tip) on my two drinks and happy hour appetizer, it did fill me up and the drinks where nice and potent. I'm starting to feel like fodors. So I give that place three stars.

Next.

Friday, I did not feel like going out that night( even thought we where invited to the Parlor)and so I stayed home and read the last of my fantastic book I was working on. Yes, I checked it out of the library and it was called

AUTHOR: Pérez-Reverte, Arturo.

TITLE: The queen of the South

CALL NO: FIC PEREZ-REVERTE BARCODE: 2021588211

DUE: 11-19-08 DATE CHECKED OUT: 10-22-08 04:48PM

I highly recommend this book, very entertaining, the author is truly a Spanish poet. I don't know what to think of the heroine, but it was a fantastic tale told fantastically about a Narca and her rise to the top. I know its fiction but the tale is so well told you can hardly believe it not be real.

Saturday I had another meetup http://rubberstamp.meetup.com/419/ this one was my crafting one here's the pictures of what your getting as your Christmas cards this year.

and lastly I want to recommend a movie that I saw last Sunday after I had posted my last blog..

I want to start by saying that I've not seen any of the oceans 11 movies I'm not into brad or george clooney fan but I swear if you want to laugh out of your pants go see

"Burn After Reading".

Smart, Funny and totally not what I expected (Not that I expected anything out of them).
See ya next week.

Tacos de Carne Asada, una Cerveza Helada y Craig Sonando su Campana

Craig and I just got back from REI, Half Price Books, tacos, and the beer store.

The REI part....
I now, know what I want for Christmas this year and it entails me getting dressed up as a Ski Bunny from head to toe. Even though I'm only a spectator, I want to be decked and it's only going to be around $500 to make me look this way....
starting with Columbia Sports The Rogue™ Parka
Style #SL7706 in black or red I've not decided.
Can you see me out in Whistler BC walking around in the snow without falling? Yeah me either ..
But I figure If I'm going to see some ski jumping might as well be in style.

The Beer Part...
I love beer. And that's part of the reason I will be eating snow in January.....Yes I know I'm a riot
Anyway this beer store is heaven
It's in Redmond and is called Malt and Vine


link http://www.maltandvine.com/


had the very yummy Dick's Belgian Tripel w/Raspberry it was so delicious and not @ all fruity and just about as good as any Belgian beer I've ever had.
4 out of 5 stars in my book


Can someone please explain to me why beer on tap is so much more delish than the stuff you take home in the bottle?
Anyway I wanted some of this amazing beer to take home which is not available in a bottle and guess what? Craig had an old water bottle in the back of his car that we used as a growler, Doug filled it right up for me and now I've got some amazing stuff to drink tonight when I go to Mans and Gosia's tonight for Desperate Housewives.

and finally The tacos and 1/2 price books part.... well that part was not as exciting as the other two parts but I did see a
2009 weekly planner @ 1/2 Price called
the Procrastinator's SOS Planner: 2009 Desk Calendar... I thought that was quite amusing, but I'll get that tomorrow.......Just kidding I added it to my amazon wish list.
in all the shopping excitement
I've already forgot what the tacos where like...

One more funny thing to add about my week
I don't know if you guys know anything about college football but it appears that Craig's uni Texas Tech is doing amazing this year. So Craig went out and bought a saddle tramps bell and has been going around Yelling and ringing his bell all week. I'll try and post a pic next week of Craig in his underwear, runing around ringing his bell ......

Well this is my first ever post drop me a line if you've had a good time.
Well guys I'm signing off have a happy sunny Sunday and I'll see ya next week