2007 kick-off

hello, hello, hello….and welcome to aught seven. here’s the update that you, my faithful readers, have been waiting for. please note: this post is about eleventeen hundred words long so you have that to look forward to.

first off, can we talk about how thrilled i am that 2006 is over? not so much my favorite year – there were definitely some highlights – a new condo, a new (and very cool) kitty, great fashion (ha!), some good tv, trips to NY, DC, AZ, TX, CO, Germany and many, many trips to WA. overall the bads far outweighed the goods and i was more pleased than ever to remove the ’06 calendar from my wall and place the clean slate of ’07 in plain view.

before we begin on all things 2007 let’s recap where i’ve been while you’ve been thinking i was MIA. after my last post, i pretended to take some time off work to celebrate the holidays – that was really a funny joke b/c i worked pretty much full time getting ready for the event whose plane ride has provided me with ample time to give you this update. i was able to host some family members in the teeny tiny condo over the holidays – three people + one bathroom + one broken back = too small of living space. i did get a Christmas tree for the first time in 3 or 4 years and it pretty much crowded out the remainder of my living space in the condo. two days before my break i had “fudgetastrophy 2006” the moment when i decided it would be a good idea to make fudge for my co-workers and neighbors for xmas treats so…at approx. 10:30 one night i embarked on a fudge making adventure only to end up with a disaster, fudge all over the stove and kitchen floor, a never ending growing marshmallow mess and fudge that really ended up being like ganache.

for 2007 one of my goals is to re-focus on my love of cooking and all things fancy food. i started on it a bit early as you might remember from this post, but decided to take it a bit further on xmas day. i made my holiday guests a delicious-o meal (if i do say so myself) of home infused pomegranate vodka martinis, garlic mashed potatoes, seared flank steak with a red wine, mushroom and bleu cheese reduction and my fabulous green beans. for dessert we stuffed ourselves with pears in red wine sauce and vanilla ice cream followed by kahlua in our coffee and homemade bailey’s courtesy of rosie – yum! in this new year, my hope is to encourage all those around me to enjoy at least one link-made meal per quarter. i hope some of you can make it.

just two hours after my xmas houseguests were dropped off at the airport, i got a call from a couple seattle friends looking for a place to stay so T and a new friend T swung by and picked me up for drinks and fun in the neighborhood.

reality check: i officially think this post now sounds like a year-in-review xmas letter and since i don’t believe in these things and would never send one i guess you can say that it’s seeped in and appeared on my blog.

i brought the new year in with an unexpected bang this year (wherin i may have unexpectedly kissed a boy - but we won't discuss this here). T & T were still in town and another friend K had arrived from Sacramento. Our friend G had a fun little soiree at her house and T, T & i ended up becoming the official party. my legs hurt for the first three days of the new year. (i guess that’s what you get for waving your ass in the air for approx. eleventeen hours on the NYE). i’m hoping to receive some pictures from the evening and may post here. apparently, i spent a good hunk of the early hours of jan. 1 doing something on the floor and i KNOW my famous patented dance move came out more than once – oh dear! gueessing these folks won’t be having me to any of their parties in 2007.

i’ve spent this week frantically preparing for this trip and knowing i was immediately going to go MIA again. i have at least one major work trip planned for every month in the first half of this year (so overall i guess it’s good y’all don’t know where i live in case you’d gotten some crazy stalker symptoms).

2007 already has a mantra – open and optimistic. i’m hoping to really embrace this in regards to oh-so-many things so when my negative nancy rears her ugly head remind me, okay?

i’m also hoping some of you out-o-towner punks will make it to the great pdx this year – would love to see your cute faces in my area.

2007 also brings the promise to share many funny stories in the form of frequent updates on this blog – you can expect that even with the open and optimistic I’ll still manage to make a fool of myself, quite possibly more than usual.

so readers, welcome to the aught seven – hope your holidays and new years were fruitful and that you’ll remain loyal to my shameless ramblings on the old “no kool-aid here.”