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Thursday, November 29, 2012
Christmas Mail
It's weird to me to think that it's almost December and Christmas is really not all that far away. I have been working diligently on my Christmas cards and mail. The international card batch was finished on Sunday this past weekend. On Saturday we went for a hike through the woods and a late lunch. Then Sunday I had a nice relaxed day at home writing my cards. Managed to get all the international cards done.
Then yesterday, Wednesday, I was off since I am working on Saturday this week, and was able to get my US/Canada cards done. In the morning I had a check-up appointment at the vet with our cat Oliver. And the afternoon was spent writing the rest of my cards plus packaging up all my gifts (13! - the US Postal Service should be pleased with me) I need to mail out, both internationally and domestically. I spent a good whole day on that, probably from about 11:30am till 9pm.
Of course the cats were "helping" and happy to have me home. Poor Oliver was fairly exhausted after his trip to the vet (he DOES not like the car) and curled up with me for the rest of the day (at least he doesn't hold a grudge). They did bloodwork on him at the vet (he is 15 years old) so I am waiting for the vet to call me with the results. I am really hoping it's nothing serious.
Haven't had the time to put up any Christmas deco around the house. Maybe this weekend but since I am working I will have to see. Might have to wait till early next week. Already have all the decorations up at work as one of the girls in my department did all that last Saturday when she worked.
Mail Update: Owe replies to: Celia/MA, Nina/WA and Caroline/Scotland.
Posted by Hanna at 12:40 PM in Holidays | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Friday, November 23, 2012
Thanksgiving Post
Happy belated Thanksgiving to all my US friends!
Had a nice and relaxed holiday. After sleeping in spent the morning and early afternoon in my PJs on the couch with the cats drinking tea and writing letters (got 4 letters done! - yay). Had a yummy turkey + Swiss cheese panini on a cranberry/walnut foccacia bread. Definitely a nice relaxing way to start the day.
Had reservations at 5pm for dinner at the Hopkins Inn. (went with Mike's sister & nephew and our friends John & Jana) Super yummy meal. It was pretty funny that at our table of 6 people not one person actually ordered the traditional turkey dinner. :) I had the Wiener Schnitzel which was delicious as always of course. And the fun part just like last year was getting the traditional Thanksgiving side dishes (mashed potatoes, stuffing, vegetables, etc.) Plus my favorite Toblerone Sundae for dessert. So all in all a very nice meal.
When we got home we watched the "Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" special on TV and then caught up on some other recorded TV shows afterwards. Today we are at work but I am hoping to be able to take the weekend off which would be nice. Been working a lot of Saturdays lately so it would be nice to have one off.
Mail Update: Letters went out today to: Lotte/Denmark, Charles/TN, Carmen/Malta and Jessica/DE. Owe replies to: Nina/WA and Caroline/Scotland.
Posted by Hanna at 12:33 PM in Food and Drink, Holidays | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Sunday, November 18, 2012
Almost Thanksgiving (in unrelated news: yay for Gingerbread Lattes)
So next week is already Thanksgiving. I really don't know where this fall season has gone. Everything has moved so quickly it seems. Normally the stores used to start all their Christmas decorations/promotions after Thanksgiving but this year it seems like November 1st after Halloween tons of Christmas/holiday stuff started popping up. The one thing I am happy about are Gingerbread Lattes from Starbucks. :) They had their "Buy 1 Holiday Drink Get 1 Free" promotion this weekend and I was happy to get my first Gingerbread Latte of the season. :) I do like the Pumpkin Spice ones as well and had a few but the Gingerbread ones are definitely my favorite. :)
Had another busy 6 day week. The week kind of went by in a blurr, partly training a new employee (this is try number 3 in replacing someone and knock on wood maybe the third time is the charm) and partly preparing for the Thanksgiving holiday next week. I am sure next week will be very busy at work as well. I am looking forward to the actual holiday. We will be going to dinner with Mike's sister and kids at the Hopkins Inn. Went there last year and really enjoyed it so I am looking forward to it.
Yesterday after work we went to see the movie "Lincoln". A really good movie. Today we slept in and didn't really do much. Met up with our friend John at TKs for a few hours. Then we went to Starbucks for my Gingerbread Latte. Now we are home and just relaxing. Will catch up on some recorded shows. And later on the American Music Awards are on so we will probably watch those.
Mail Update: SO behind on my mail. Owe replies to: Lotte/Denmark, Charles/TN, Carmen/Malta, Nina/WA and Caroline/Scotland.
Posted by Hanna at 04:48 PM in Food and Drink, Holidays | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Sunday, November 11, 2012
Elections, Snow, James Bond and more
Been meaning to make a post forever this week but somehow it just hasn't happened. I wanted to make a post on Tuesday night or Wednesday morning after the election results came in but somehow that never came to be. So I'll just have to summarize everything here real quick.
Basically Tuesday night was election night and I can't even express how happy and thankful I am that Obama won his re-election. I really don't know how I would have made it through 4 years of Romney. All that anti-women, anti-environment, pro-rich people stuff. I try not to be that political on Facebook and/or in my blog. But I'll say that I was definitely very, very happy that Obama managed to win. We spent the night at Two Steps watching the election results come in. One of the bartenders we know pretty well was there and we ended up staying till almost midnight watching the results.
Wednesday turned into a snow day for us here in Connecticut. At first they had said it was just going to be rain, then just a little bit of snow but in the end we had about 10 inches. Made it through it as always. But I definitely wasn't ready for that yet.
On the other end of the spectrum this weekend was super beautiful. All the snow has melted. Today we had 65F (18C) so we ended up going for a nice walk to enjoy the beautiful weather. Walked along the Quinnipiac River Gorge Trail near the Meriden/Cheshire, CT border. Then afterwards we had a late lunch at the 121 restaurant at the Oxford, CT airport.
Tomorrow is already Monday again. Not looking forward to it. At least we had a nice weekend. Saturday we had to work till about 1 but then we went to the movies with John & Jana in the afternoon to see the new James Bond movie "Skyfall". Then dinner afterwards.
Mail Update: Owe replies to: Lotte/Denmark, Charles/TN, Carmen/Malta, Nina/WA and Caroline/Scotland.
Posted by Hanna at 06:30 PM in Food and Drink, Outdoors | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Sunday, November 04, 2012
Crazy week, aftermath of the storm, upcoming elections etc. etc.
So we made it through the storm. All in all it wasn't too bad here where we are in our part of CT. Don't get me wrong the storm was still pretty epic and we had a lot of down trees and wires which meant no power for a lot of people. About 60% of Danbury lost power. Luckily we didn't at home or at work. Especially work was a big relief. Last year during hurricane Irene and during the blizzard in October we lost power at work both times. So definitely could have been worse.
Work was a nightmare all week nonetheless but that was to be expected. A lot of areas got affected pretty badly, especially at the coast and also near the Hudson in NY. Lots of flooding, power outages, destruction etc. So that meant lots of issues for our deliveries plus customers without power etc.
Still can't complain of course when you see the destruction of some areas in NJ and NY. We are really lucky that we weren't in those areas. So just have to be thankful for that and deal with the aftermath of it all. Things will slowly go back to normal as they always do.
Next big thing coming up is of course the presidental election on Tuesday. Let's see how it goes. I am really, really hoping that Obama can hold on and win. I am trying not to think about it too much. Guess we will find out on Tuesday.
Not too much else new. No big plans for today. On my second cup of tea already today. It's definitely getting towards winter weather now, much colder outside than it has been.
Mail Update: Owe replies to: Lotte/Denmark, Charles/TN, Carmen/Malta, Nina/WA and Caroline/Scotland.
Posted by Hanna at 02:25 PM in Weather | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack