We attempted to travel to my beloved Pensacola this past weekend but alas, it was not to be. Thanks to another unnamed airlines, their plane's weight restrictions and stupidity of it all, we ended up going to Orlando instead. While I was quite p.o.'d not to see my parents and friends, we did end up going to EPCOT after an almost 3 year hiatus. It hasn't changed much, but it still remains my favorite theme park at WDW. We ate sushi and Moroccan yummies, mainly shwarma. We rode Mission Space and did not die and I was delighted to see that Figment had returned to the Imagination ride.

Here is a picture of us that my mother thinks does not represent our sadness of not getting to go to Pensacola:














I have a new very phlemy neighbor at work. He's supposed to be cute and appears to be sexually ambiguous, but the birth control glasses have never done it for me. So he remains annoying for now.

Last week was our departmental Holiday party. It was quite possibly the worst party I've ever attended. It was at a cigar bar/tavern and this was probably because everyone in our department who was planning the party smokes. While I don't care if they smoke, I do hate my clothes smelling like an ashtray for a week afterwards. The food was mediocre at best. Tortilla chips. Dip. Mozzarella sticks and chicken wings. I honestly expected a better venue and a better spread for all the hub-bub they kept making about it.

Listening to headphones for almost 7 hours a day really blocks out the noise of this one person in the cubicle row one over. She is always talking about food someone ate or random bits of pop culture. I wish my CD drive wasn't broken because then I could miss out on more of her gems of wisdom.

My cousin M. the Elder is here this week with his girlfriend. They have been taking the train into the city every day because that's all there is to see here in Chicago. It's all within a mile radius of the Loop. Yep, that's right, nothing else to see here. To be honest, if it were up to me to give the grande tour of Chicago, I would spend a day doing what they have done in three. I try to avoid the Magnificent Mile at all costs but I could spend a month at the Art Institute and never get bored.
I would much rather spend my sightseeing time in Oak Park, Wicker Park, any of the "Parks" really. And I like Evanston too.

So his girlfriend is okay. I had never met someone, except maybe from a foreign country, who did not know what a Deviled Egg was. Especially a someone from Tupelo Mississippi. She is also in a sorority. While I feel that these are okay for some people, I detest Greek Life to the point that an ex-boyfriend's joining a frat was the catalyst to him becoming my ex-boyfriend. Am I overly harsh? I've had about 20 years to change my mind about sororities and fraternities. And I stand by my earlier decision.

I sum up their visit with us with this lovely quote from Ferris Bueller's Day Off that you can probably finish:
"My sister wears too much eye make-up. People think she's a -."

It very quiet right now. Except for the strange and overdone conversation about celebrity baby names I overheard earlier, work has been light to non-existent today. Right now I am having trouble with my CD drive on my computer. First it was the flashdrive which caused me to break my flashdrive thingy and now I have lost info that no one will ever know about. Now my CD drive has been claiming that there is "no disk in drive" when there most certainly is.

So for now I'm sitting at my desk like a dummy wearing headphones with no music coming out! It's keeping my ears warm but then again this furnace called an office is keeping everything quite toasty.

I worry about the swan outside my window now that the pond is definitely frozen over. The sun glints off the ice like the sun glints off of a glass office building creating a glare that is quite excruciating on my computer screen. I guess I could take control of the window shade and get some shade, but where's the fun in that?

The advising people that sit around me have take it upon themselves to dismantle one of the "official" library cubicles, creating "pass-through" areas or windows for some of the more landlocked cubes. While I cheer their need for help and sunshine, isn't it a bit odd to hang windchimes where there is no wind and where chiming is probably frowned upon?

And on another note about sub-par chocolate, we had yet another chocolate fountain at work yesterday. This was for the office building "Holiday" whatever you call it. I detest these fountains. Not only do they expose people to chocolate that is less than good, I think somewhere someone has dipped their entire forearm into one of these things and the thought of that just drives me to cringe. Plus, they are a huge bottleneck that backs up a line that should be moving much faster. People dip everything under the sun under one of these fonts of choc. I think I even saw someone dip chocolate under the chocolate. Is this overkill?

I had a yummy salad for dinner. It had mandarine oranges and chicken and it was so tasty that it didn't even need salad dressing. Right now I'm working on a menu for Friday night Shabbat dinner that won't shock anyone or present any weird food to my cousin and his lady-friend. I'm also working on making better prep for giving out food gifts to my neighbors this year since they all gave us cookies last year. I'm making mini-bundt cakes and cheese straws. Would you like to have this as a gift?

I'm also trying to pick out a decent picture of me and the husband to put in our Holiday cards. One where we're not soaking wet is preferrable. Since our entire trip to Kauai in July revolved around a rainy hike, another hike where we cavorted in a waterfall and snorkeling, there aren't many options from that trip. My Hong Kong pics have been mostly disappointing. I think it was mainly the weather and the fact that Target near my office has no freaking clue how to develop pics in a timely manner. (I dropped them off last Wednesday and I am still missing two sets of prints). So for now, I do not consider this trip in the running to represent our year of travel. It's down to Australia and Kauai.

Bond is back baby!
Originally I had wanted to see the new James Bond movie in Hong Kong but was disappointed to find out that it didn't open there until well into December. Finally saw it last night and was delighted. Delighted to see Daniel Craig in a bathing suit. Delighted to see Karlovy Vary in the Czech Republic (masquerading as Montenegro) Delighted delighted delighted.

I was also delighted to find a friend who likes Bond maybe as much as I do to see it with. Well, I don't know if ninjagirl really likes Bond as much as do. I've always thought I bordered on an unhealthy obsession with Mr. 007. At least for a girl who would only be cast as Miss Moneypenny on a good day and even that is stretching it.

For some reason SAOU is not closed today, but there is NO ONE IN THE OFFICE! The parking lot is 3/4 empty. I could not get my car out of the driveway this morning because of this amazing "Winter" storm. Actually the Weather Channel just had these big graphics that said "The Storm" which I though was pretty neat and then all of the meteorologists started talking about how they were all weather nerds. my response was, "duh, you work at the Weather channel!" So around noon Martin dorve me to work. He had actually tried to get to work earlier, but there was a road closed and then there were horses walking in the road and it just seemed too crazy.
Outside of my window at work is quite beautiful. there is a lone swan that floats in the pond and I wonder how cold he is. I think swans have down so he must be fine just floating and bobbing in and out of the water.
I think I should maybe invest in some more substantial snow boots than my old motorcycle boots. They keep my feet warm but are hell to stand in for two hours while shoveling snow.
With the cold weather and snow our pool now looks like a giant shave ice.