Wow

As I was lying (laying? Okay, okay, is there a direct object? No. And I am doing the action so it's definitely lying. Thanks Grammar Girl (December 17th, 2009 podcast)!) in Shavasana tonight, I thought about the coming year. The first half is definitely shaping up to be a little crazy.
End of January/beginning of February - Elderhostel at work.
End of February - more than likely going to be in Guatemala
March - milestone birthday for me!
April - hopefully going to the Poconos for Gran's 80th
May - Becca's getting married!
June - well, if all goes as planned, I'll be having a Very Odd June (Gardiner Fridays are going to be fun)
July - Laura's getting married!
After that, who knows?

New Year's Resolutions

I don't like resolutions. Mostly 'cause I can't keep them. So I'm not going to make any for the new year.
Okay, that's a lie. I'm going to shoot for the same things I've put on the list for the past few years "which are as follows and I quote"

• Try to be a nicer person (not working so far, but it's always worth a shot)
• Try to get out more (already working on this one-have organized a bar crawl on Friday. For all four bars in Gardiner. BTW, this does not include community projects. This means going out with friends, not hanging out and watching TV but actually going out.)
• Attempt to eat better and exercise more. (I actually like exercising, it's going to be the eating better that will be hard.
• Get better at saying "No" (Actually, doing really well on this one. May actually be going overboard)
  

Good luck to me and to everyone else that has goals for 2010. Let's go out and make it a good year people!

Thanksgiving-Part Two

But, yes, I was able to get quite a bit of goodness in me. All day long. It was wonderful. After Trudy's delectable appetizers, it was time to head home for some more Christmas movies. Thought I could play some Wii at Carrie's but ended up getting sucked into Holiday Inn. Have decided that the movie is long, racist, and much more charming in black and white.
Then, was the inevitable crunch time as I realized that I should have put the potatoes on "15 minutes ago" and hadn't even THOUGHT about the ham in awhile. But it all came together. Even with me distracting poor Allie from her hard work on getting some excellent gravy. Dinner was awesome. There was great conversation, some dancing to Mariah Carey and lots of people chipping in to help wash dishes. Just thinking about the day gives me a happy, sappy inside glow. Christmas, you're gonna have to work hard to stay my favorite holiday.
I forgot to include this picture in my last post. This is the planning that six of us sat down to figure out how we were going to feed 23 people in our tiny little houses. We were women with a wipey board and a plan. In my world view, we gave people options. The youngest person there was 24. if they were unhappy with the options given, they were darn well old enough to do something about it themselves. Why should the hostesses have to worry about more than what we had planned? This is what I have learned from years of eating with my mother and her friends. And you know what? They're right.
A view of my tablemates. You can't really see Jen or Josh, but they're there. Jen is behind the wine and Josh's hand is grasping his mug.
Trying to get a good brother/sister shot to send home to Mom and Grandma. This is about the best one. Thanks Mariah!

Thanksgiving-Part One

Oh my lands. This was the best Thanksgiving EVER! It's hard to beat this kind of day. It started at 6:45 when I stole Carrie's car and went up to get Michela (pictured at left, helping to get labels on the beer, another picture of said beer, best brew from Gardiner Gals Basement Brewing IMHO, is on the right and a little down from here. It's only missing Trudy, the one who stirs the beer with love, something I, apparently, am incapable of), one of the Italian interns in GIS. We came back down and people started filtering over to Carrie's for breakfast and the Macy's Day Parade. Have to be honest, the parade was not as good as usual. Better than last year, but still not great. It might help if they actually showed the parade. Seriously, no bands, no batons, just some silly balloons and lots of people promoting themselves and their shows. Doesn't make me enjoy the show. At least we didn't have to listen so some interminable prattle from two women about a vacation they had taken together like a billion years ago. The food, of course, was excellent. There were breakfast casseroles galore as well as brown-sugar covered bacon and mimosas. Yummers. At one point there were 15 people in Carrie's tiny little apartment.
At 1o, the parade ended and we were off to the annual Gardiner Turkey Trot. I think I talked about this in my blog from last year. Someone puts an ad in the Newsletter and people just show up to walk around the triangle formed by the park entrance, the border to Gardiner, and the employee road. Going around once is approximately equivalent to 1 mile. People show up, bring donations for the food pantry, and then proceed to walk for as long as they feel like. Michela, Allie (plus Ruffers), Mariah (plus Sadie), Emily (plus Callie) and I (plus Corso) all went to do the trot. Altogether, I think there were about 20-30 people there (I'm bad at estimating stuff like that). I only did the first three-quarters at which point, I warned Michela, who very nicely took over Corso duties for me, that he might slip free as his collar was loose, but not to worry because he knew where the house was and would go "home." I then made sure that Corso knew that I was leaving and showed him that Michela was on the other end of his leash and then scampered off to rugby. About three yards later, Corso indeed skipped out on the Trot and promptly went back to find Josh. Smart puppy. What did I know? I was enjoying myself down at the school. Plus, he made it safe so, whatever. Rugby, as always, was totally fun. There were about 16 people down there playing. I made a try (touchdown)! Granted I kind of sat down (you have to get the ball on the ground past the goal line to make a goal) but it totally counted. I also got beaned in the head. At least it was the back of my head and not my nose like happens with most balls of the sports variety. It was then back to the house. Emily, Mariah, Aaron, and Allie had started watching Love Actually since our house was the designated Christmas movie watching place. Josh was upstairs watching Die Hard. At least it fits in with the Christmas movie theme. Once I got cleaned up, it was a trip up to Trudy's where appetizers were set out to whet people's appetites/keep them from gnawing off their arms. There was a gigantic spread of olives, pizza, edamame, crackers, spreads and so much goodness it was hard to take in all at once. All that goodness! How could I get it in me?

'Twas the weekend before T-Day

Last Saturday, five of us decided to go up to Bozeman to get some Thanksgiving shopping done. Before that though, a group of us lined up at 7:50 to get in to the Shaggy Bear Sale. This is a sale that's held either the Saturday before or after Thanksgiving. This year, obviously, it was before. A group of women get together and sell items that they have collected throughout the year. Generally they fix up chairs, grow plants, or make food items (Irish cream, pancake mix, dog biscuits are some examples) and then sell everything in the Scout House, which is about a block down from me. The sale starts at 8:00. Even 10 minutes early, we weren't the first ones in line. By the time the sale opened, there were about 25-30 people in line. That doesn't sound like much until you think that the general population in Gardiner this time of year is supposedly around 800 people.
Then, Allie and I went to wake up Carrie Guiles and the three of us traveled up to Livingston to drop off Ruffers. It was the three of us in Carrie's Element as well as Carrie's dog Eddie. Ruffers was so excited, he decided that sitting on my lap would be a grand way to spend 50 miles. He made a great arm rest. All the better to play my DS. I'm really loving "Henry Hatsword." Why am I writing this post when I could be playing?
Oh well. We dropped off Ruffers at Allie's aunt's house and Allie switched over to her aunt's car. The four of us re-grouped at Nova in Bozeman, meeting up with Emily and Mariah. An excellent brunch was enjoyed by all. Then the cars split up. Allie and her aunt were off to Rosauers (grocery store) and the mall, Emily and Mariah were off to the dog park and Carrie and I hit the library, Lowe's and Staples/Target.
While Carrie was going into Staples, I decided to run in to Target to get some of those Solo cups that you can write your name on (the ones that have little blackboard thingys, not the regular cups on which you can use markers). At first I wasn't going to go into a store so Carrie tossed the keys on the dashboard. Walking back, I met up with Carrie, who realized that her keys were, indeed, locked in the car.
We first tried to get Eddie, who was locked in the car, to high-five the locking mechanism. He was too confused to help out so we started to reevaluate our options.
Luckily, the passenger side window was open. Carrie said, "Jessi, look in the topper, what's up there?"
"Well, there's a sleeping pad, sleeping bag... um, a jacket..."
"Sleeping bag? That's my tent! pull that down"Yes, Carrie managed to open the car through her own ingenuity, saving time and money. This is what happens when you own the first five seasons of MacGuyver.
But the day didn't end there. Carrie and I met up with Em and Mariah at Costco. The two of them were like kids in a candy store. I guess they don't get to buy in bulk too often.
Then we headed off to Livingston to visit the dog park. It is just a track with a big field but, being in Montana, it is absolutely gorgeous. There were probably about eight people there and about 15 dogs. That seems about typical for this area.
On the way to the grocery, Allie was making some noises in the back seat. Carrie and I asked what was up and she said that she was having some shooting pains in her chest. Carrie immediately pulled over and we tried to call a "Dial-a-nurse" but couldn't get ahold of one. So we continued on to the grocery. When we met up with Emily, she had the number for the nurse so Allie called. After hearing what was going on, the nurse told Allie to sit down immediately and have someone call 9-1-1. Well. We finished our shopping and started back to Bozeman. Luckily, Carrie has a phone book in her car so we were able to determine that the emergency clinic was closed before we got too far. The next exit took us back to Livingston so we took Allie to the emergency room. Carrie and I settled in for the wait. It was only about 2 hours. I'd say, for an emergency room visit, that was pretty short. It turns out that her pain was caused by an inflamed intercostal region (spelling is probably way off but it's basically the space between your ribs). But the cute doctor was relieved that we had bullied her into coming because, he said, it could have been something much worse. Got home around 9. It was an exciting kick-off to a very full Thanksgiving week.

Fall

Ah, Fall. The time of year when the elk are in town and the pronghorn hang out in front of the building. At least most of the craziness (read here, male hormones) is gone and they aren't charging everything in sight. Unfortunately, they are still sharpening their antlers on anything they thing might be useful. Including the hood of Carrie's car. Oops.
Loved the Halloween. They do a Parade at the school, which I didn't know until this year. All of the grade school kids parade in their costumes, and then they have a fair for the rest of the afternoon. Where the heck was this when I was in grade school? Totally and completely unfair.
Then, Allie (downstairs neighbor) and I had about 50 kids come by the house. We both hang around outside so as to make sure we have the least amount of candy left over possible. The candy was followed by sushi at Carrie's. A wonderful night was had by all.

Lately

So I've been kind of of whiny lately. It's hard not to be when it's snowing. In October. The beginning of October. This is going to be a long, hard, freakin' winter. So you have to find ways to amuse yourself. Kids are always good as a distraction. And sometimes parents need to get rid of them for awhile and leave them in your tender mercies. MWA HA HA
So Ben and Izzy came over to Carrie's house and we had fun.
There was Wii-playing, pizza eating, and nail painting. Of course, this included Eddie. He's such a pretty, pretty princess.

Walking back from the K-Bar. Pizza good.

Check out those nails!