A rousing game of Kremlin

Matt had a few guys over to play this strategy game. I left for most of the evening but I guess it was a good time although I heard some complaints that the game ended too soon...Ian.

Cat Sheow!

Matt here...Kristi let me write about one of my favorite topics...cats. We went to our 2nd ever Cat Show on Sunday with Bendrea. If you haven't been, you are missing a good time. For $3 and 2 cans of food for the homeless, you get some serious entertainment. Many breeds of cats are there to see...Bengals (shown above), Abyssinians, Burmese, American Shorthairs, British Shorthairs (see below).

Unfortunately for their owners, cats like to get out of their cages at the first opportunity and hide under the tables that their cages are on. When this happens, the announcer yells, "Cat Out! Please keep all doors closed." You can imagine the drama, can't you?? Everyone stands still and raises their hands if they see the feline fugitive. When they find the little guy, the announcer joyously yells, "Cat Got, Cat Got!" Everyone sighs a sigh of relief and the show goes on after much laughing and clapping.

Did you know that a fresh cake is offered on the hour for the attendants?? Unfortunately for the cats, the judging involves a little too much poking and prodding for their tastes. One cat gave several warning hisses and cries before they took a swipe at the judge who was trying to extract him from his cage. Ah, the stories (and scars) that a veteran judge must have. If you enjoy cats at all, look for the next international cat show at a 2 to 3-star hotel near you!

Riverdance

Matt surprised me with tickets to see Riverdance. It is their farewell tour and I had never gone to see the show but always wanted to. We went Saturday evening and had a wonderful time. There was so much talent and energy on display-it was amazing. Matt even enjoyed it.

Oh, and I didn't get a chance to blog about it but my sweet husband made me breakfast in bed on my birthday. Waffles, fruit and coffee in my Bears mug-yum. I could get used to this I think:-)

A new car!!!!

Just kidding. We went to the Auto Show Friday with Bendrea. It was fun to check out all the vehicles without the pressure of a sales person. While Bendrea searched out the best minivan and/or Lexus Matt and I checked out the mini cooper (s0 cute) , all the new Jeeps and my favorite, the Honda Element. I think this will be our next vehicle. Of course, we are waiting for one of our cars to die. Whose do you think will die first: my 2000 Alero with 110,000 miles or Matt's 1990 Jeep Cherokee with 175,000 miles? Either way, I think we have awhile before we purchase but it was certainly fun to look!

The drying rack...

I have had a dilemma since we moved into our house with an abundance of hang dry items and no good place for a drying rack since our laundry room is also Olive's area. The result has been clothes hanging over the tub and shower constantly-UGLY. I have been eyeing this drying rack that actually looks cute when not in use (a plus) so I finally ordered it. It came on Friday and Matt installed it yesterday. Sweet, laundry drying organization...it's a good thing.

What do your recommend for a sinus infection?

I have some serious sinus pressure. I don't think I've ever had a sinus infection before. Any words of advice?

The date...

I must apologize to my loyal readers (all 3 of you) for being out of blog-world for awhile. I came down with a serious flu/cold/sinus infection and it has knocked me out this week. I'm still not totally better but I'm getting really sick of the E channel so I thought i would do something more productive...

Matt took me out to Bugatti's in West Linn last Friday night. This restaurant was not to far away from our house when we lived in Lake O and we always meant to go but never made it there. It was delicious! I highly recommend their chicken marsala-out of this world. Then, we went to a chick flick! What a guy...he is willing to sit through girly drama even though I won't sit through the sci-fi/fantasy stuff he likes. Anyway, we saw P.S. I love you. Neither of us knew much about this movie going in ...I don't want to spoil it for anyone but I left feeling depressed. It had some cute parts though. Anyway, it was a lovely date with my husband. I'm told we have another one next weekend-yay!!

I have a hot date on Friday night…

...with my husband. He told me not to make any plans. I’m very excited. I love to be surprised and I love spending time with my sweetie. He seems to be going to some effort to make plans…but the funny thing is that I really don’t care what we do. If he told me on Friday that the plan was to eat PB&J at home and play Risk, I would love it. I just love the fact that he asked me and that he wants to spend time with me and that he is taking the time to plan something. It makes me feel special. What a great husband I have.

Presto Pesto!!

Last night I used my new food processor Matt got me for Christmas (how did he know I love kitchen appliances?). It worked great. We made some yummy pesto over whole wheat pasta with a green salad for dinner. Delish! Thanks sweetie.

Matt's Murmurs - Bad Man of the Year

Well, it's a new year. At New Year's, there's always a lot of reviewing to rehash all that happened in the previous calendar year. Well, my Bad Man of the Year award goes to Clay Bennett, the chairman of the ownership group of the Seattle Sonics. In 2007, he filed his intention to move the Sonics to Oklahoma City. For the past 2 years, he has pretended to try to keep the Sonics in Seattle but never really had any intention in doing so. Here's a quote from one of his ownership cronies: "We didn’t buy the team to keep it in Seattle; we hoped to come here (Oklahoma City). We started to look around, and at that time the Sonics were going through some ownership challenges in Seattle. So Clay, very artfully and skillfully, put himself in the middle of those discussions and to the great amazement and surprise to everyone in Seattle, some rednecks from Oklahoma, which we’ve been called, made off with the team." Bad Man of the Year for 2006 was Howard Schultz (owner of Starbucks) who sold the Sonics to this group, presumably knowing that Bennett wanted to take them away. It was pretty obvious.

As a Seattle native and fan for over 20 years, I hope for a last second breakthrough to keep them in Seattle. However, I'm not optimistic, so as a tribute, I painted this plate for my soon to be departed Sonics. Notice that I was sure to paint SEATTLE Sonics. Not only will the team be gone to Oklahoma but how can I even root for a team owned by these guys once they move?? Answer: I can't. I guess I will have to become a Blazer's fan.....

Surprise!!

We went to a surpise party for Amanda last night. The big 3-0! I think she was shocked.
It was fun to get to hang out with these girls. Meg (in the middle) is my friend from college that moved to Portland first and she was the only person I knew when I moved out here. Monica (on the right) was our 3rd roomate at the Hawksbeard (our apartment) and quickly became a great friend. Amanda (on the left) also from Illinois, moved out here about 4 and a half years ago and moved into the Hawksbeard as I was moving out to get married. ahh...the hawksbeard. we had some good times there with quirky neighbors, late night chats and Oscar(monica's cat). Love you guys!

The results are in

Ok, so the story behind the two polls at the right...

The first one proved my point that memorizing your driver's license number is a male thing. We had a friend that got pulled over and didn't have his wallet with him but he had his driver's license number memorized and he gave it to the cop and he didn't get a ticket. I said "who has their driver's license number memorized?" and matt said he did. When I checked with some other friends it seemed that men are more likely than women to memorize such useless information so I just wanted to check my theory.

The second poll is because we went to C.A.T. (a no-kill shelter for cats) last week to get some gifts for our cat and cat-loving friends and while we were there we checked out all the kittys. There were so many cute cats that need a home. It is tough because Olive has been an only-cat all her life and she is pretty spoiled. We were debating how she would handle having another cat around. I guess we decided not to get one for now but I think we are going to volunteer at C.A.T. If you know anyone looking for a feline friend, I recommend this place.

Happy New Year!

We spent the evening at Bendrea's with the Smythes also. Andrea had an impressive spread of appetizers and some wonderful cupcakes and a hot cocoa bar. Unfortunetly, I have not been very good about taking pictures lately so you'll have to wait until they post some on their blog. Thanks for a great evening, guys.

Payton (their dog, as in Walter Payton) was kind enough to part with a Bears Jersey that was too small for him and Olive was delighted to recieve it...can't you tell? Actually, she managed to wiggle her way out it within minutes but at least we got a few pics.