obligatory new year's post

Trying to get one last post in this year.

I don't do new year's resolutions cause one should make a commitment to something at the time they are ready to, and commitments don't always coincide with January 1st.

We had to go to plan E for new years, which is stay at home. I'm on my second bottle of wine wishing that I had a second bottle of the first one cause I'm not as thrilled with the second. But that's still not stopping me.

This last year was good. I didn't have anything too bad happen to me directly (knock on wood), but my sister, mom and dad....well, there was a lot that happened, but they still have their health. Now that I think about it, the ovarian cyst wasn't a good thing, but it all was good in the end, so I guess when shit like that turns out well one changes their mind about it, right? :-)

Hugs to you all and I hope you have a great 2009!

Posted by jennj at 08:59 PM | Comments (0)

this about sums the holidaze up

Yay! Cookies!

Posted by jennj at 10:51 AM | Comments (0)

merry christmas!

It was a small christmas here at the Jumplett abode. We had nbh's mother and brother over and our friend C was able to make it down from NH for xmas eve and day. We had breakfast, opened pressies, went and saw The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and then I made a lamb dinner with acorn squash, mashed potatoes (nbh doesn't like squash) and rice. It's been a good day.

Nbh bought me a black pearl necklace that I've been wearing ever since. I got him a camera to replace the one I lost in NYC. I got a lot of blu-ray DVD's and a couple of cookbooks.

And for the next three days I'm gonna veg out, cook, watch DVD's and do very little.

Hope you are having a good holiday!

Posted by jennj at 09:09 PM | Comments (1)

driving between snow storms

At 7:30 last night, nbh and I looked at each other and decided it was time to pack up and head home. The thought of driving (I do the driving) back today during a snowstorm did not thrill me. And while we could have just skied all day and then gone home Monday (maybe....who knows, there's snow for the forecast Monday morning too), I knew I had some work appointments and a busy day. If only I had taken my blackerry....hehe....

I've been watching the snow since about 8:30 this morning and it hasn't stopped once. I think we made the right decision, even though it meant getting home around one a.m.

I'm baking cookies, putting stuff in stockings, nbh finished hanging up some lights for me, we're cleaning in preparation for house guests and just having a good, lazy day. And I'm TOTALLY working from home tomorrow.

Oh, and taking the ski lesson yesterday was totally worth it. He helped us out with some things to improve our skiing in powder, as we had powder to ski in (instead of the east coast ice) due to the Friday storm.

Posted by jennj at 04:08 PM | Comments (0)

jenn proof dessert

We're up in Stowe, VT for a ski weekend. It's really snowing out, so we'll have some good stuff for us tomorrow. We're going to take a two hour private lesson because it's always good to take opportunities to improve.

This evening we went to a lovely, cozy restaurant across from the Inn called Harrison's. Highly recommended. Anyway, nbh and I were talking about dessert. I said, "I want dessert. Hopefully they'll have something I like and not cheesecake." nbh, "Or Tiramisu?" me, "Yeah." Waitress comes over to tell us our dessert choices, "We've got a wonderful homemade cheesecake with chocolate chips, and then there's the regular cheesecake and we've got Tiramisu.." I started giggling. The upshot? We didn't get dessert.

Anyway, the forecast is for snow pretty much all weekend. We may end up snowed in. So instead of just skiing in the morning on Sunday and heading home, we could end up skiing all day. The inn we're at has room for us on Sunday if we have to stay. This could get interesting.

Posted by jennj at 08:06 PM | Comments (0)

aw, man

Majel Barrett Roddenberry passed away. I met her a number of times and she was a very nice lady. RIP, Majel.

Posted by jennj at 06:43 AM | Comments (1)

alert: snowglobes are a terrorist threat

When I was down in San Antonio last week, a co-worker from there gave our vendor visitors "Welcome to San Antonio" snow globes. The TSA confiscated them on their way back home (more than 3oz water). haha....

Posted by jennj at 03:17 PM | Comments (0)

neglectful

Hello blog. I've been ignoring you. Sorry. Just been busy.

I'm taking the day off on Wednesday so I can ski with some friends. And then nbh and I head up to Stowe, VT for a ski weekend. Whee!

Getting things ready for mamacita (mom-in-law) and torojefe (bro-in-law) to visit for xmas and new year's.

lalalala.

And is it just me, or has The Daily Show not been as funny lately?

Posted by jennj at 07:14 PM | Comments (0)

reconnecting with family

My aunt Barbara called on Sunday. It's been three years since we last talked. I didn't know my aunt Barbara very well growing up and to an extent still don't. Neither my birth mother or birth father's side of the family were about being close to each other. Sure, when I was a kid, my birth-father would pack my brother and I up and we'd head up to the western part of Montana (gorgeous!!!) for two weeks during the summer. But we would only really see grandma and grandpa. Not our cousins, etc. Sure, maybe we'd see them for a day if they came to town, but for the most part it was just the five of us. We had fun, but it wasn't really about reunion. Change the words Montana to Minnesota, remove the word gorgeous (ha!), remove one grandpa (died before I was born) and you've pretty much got the same situation on my birth mother's side of the family.

Over the years I've occasionally wondered how come I was different from my birth parents and brother. Where did I get my resolve? Where did I get that you don't harm other people? Where did I get my laugh? Etc.

Fast forward to four months before my wedding: I get a call from my aunt barbara letting me know that my birth father has died. We discuss and decide we need to meet up in Seattle w/my brother to take care of the body, etc. So Nbh and I head out to Seattle. We meet up with my aunt and after a few minutes of talking with her it hits me: My god, THIS is where I get it from. She's AWESOME (yes, I'm awesome too). It felt good, let me tell you. So we kept in touch. And then three years ago, it stopped. I don't know who stopped reaching out to whom, but considering my track record with keeping in touch with friends, it probably was me.

And then I get the phone call from her Sunday. She had a stroke three years ago. She was hospitalized for four months. She's still got paralysis on her right side and she has a hard time speaking. But we started up where we left off as best as we could. And it's like no time had passed. I had forgotten that one of her daughters lives in TX (husband is on 3rd tour of Iraq) at Ft. Hood. I consult a map and it's within driving distance of Austin!! Guess where I fly into on tomorrow? Austin (my final destination is san antonio). So I get my cousin's contact information, called her yesterday and we're meeting for lunch tomorrow! This should be fun!

Posted by jennj at 11:26 AM | Comments (2)

forry, rip

In case you haven't heard, Forry Ackerman died. He was a very nice man and I loved visiting the Acker Mansion. RIP.

Posted by jennj at 07:37 AM | Comments (1)

your movie monkey

Hey everyone (all two of you!)! A good friend of mine has started a movie review blog, Your Movie Monkey. Go over and say hi!!

Posted by jennj at 11:02 PM | Comments (0)

i guess the proofreaders don't like to cook

So, one of my projects has a global newsletter. They decided it'd be fun to publish a recipe from one of the countries involved in the project in each issue. First issue? They posted the ingredients, but not the instructions. Yes, it was distributed before they noticed it.

*smacks forehead*

Posted by jennj at 02:49 PM | Comments (0)

jason statham hates me

Nbh joined me on a futile quest: go see Transporter 3. I knew it wasn't getting good ratings, but dammit, I enjoyed the other two and jason statham is hot.

But apparently JS decided he hates me. Cause while there was some fun action scenes, the rest was godawful. The actress in the movie is such a bad actress that when his character does a striptease for her character I'm actually offended that he's taking his shirt off. And that pissed me off. Cause a JS striptease should not offend me. Yet, it did. And that's just not right.

Now I'm going to have to watch The Bank Job or Italian Job as an antidote. And I've got a busy week, so it's not like I have TIME to do this, JS. What did I ever do to you?

Posted by jennj at 10:10 PM | Comments (2)