Happy New Year

Happy 2006!

Kevin and I had a wonderful evening at Steve and Catherine's house in Auburn. The rest of the "gaming" gang was there, and a few of us extras as well. It's a nice time. We've done it for the past few years. Occasionally we talk big about "going all out" for New Year's, getting dressed up and going to some big party in Tacoma. But it never happens. We are all quite happy to get casual, play games, eat sausages from Uli's, and hang out. A few babies were there for the festivities, one dog as well. It's not a big drinking crowd, so things stay low key. I made Rachel Ray's pumpkin polenta with chorizo sausage. Wasn't a big hit, but my feelings weren't hurt in the slightest as I made it more for myself. This is NOT a crowd of adventurous eaters. So now I have leftovers for work tomorrow! And a few people who tried it, loved it.

I did get a lovely surprise from Steve Cook. He's become a very savy shopper on Bidz.com. Mostly in the jewelry section. Pretty amazing deals, just shows how crazy the markup is for gems. But he found a rocking deal on a charming pair of garnet earring. Knowing how I love garnets because they are MY BIRTHSTONE, he got them for me for MY BIRTHDAY. A wonderful, very unexpected surprise. So thank you so very much Steve. The real thank you note will be in the mail soon, because my momma raised me right.

Kevin's folks visited us this morning before church. They brought me a BIRTHDAY CAKE (hint hint) and taught us about our new convection oven. I napped, Kevin played his computer game. I took two nice long walks with the dogs. At some point I'll remind him about doing the floors. We bought my BIRTHDAY PRESENT, a cookbook by another of my gay boyfriends, Ted Allen from "Queer Eye." I'm also trying to find a very specific electric teakettle, but nobody has it. So we'll order it later on. The house is clean enough before I got to work, and Kevin starts tech week on Monday. Leaving me all alone tomorrow, on MY BIRTHDAY.