It's The Most Wonderful Time...

This year I'm just not in the mood for Christmas.  I want to be in the mood.  I want to be excited about Christmas.  I want to think about things that are pretty, shiny, sparkly, and whimsical.  I want to enjoy the prospect of being able to start again with a new year, and, maybe, unlike year's past, a new me.

Last week, my company had one of the many holiday parties scheduled for this year.  This one was department-specific, and happened to be in good ole' New York City.  In my mind, New York is quintessentially Christmas, and visiting the "city that never sleeps" at this time of year usually gets me to feel more holiday-ey.

The stores are all decked out with unbelievable displays, bars and restaurants are filled with people gathered with friends, the Union Square holiday market is in full swing, and Times Square and Broadway are filled with tourists catching shows and having dinner before making the pilgrimage up to 48th St and 5th Avenue to catch a glimpse of the world renowned Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree.  That larger than life fresh cut tree that's draped in millions of twinkling lights, looking over an ice skating rink where new loves hold hands trying not to fall down with an audience of thousands looking down upon them and parents try to teach their children how to glide across the ice with ease.  Opposite the plaza from the tree, stands Saks Fifth Avenue, whose facade is lit up with decorations that blink to a chorus of classic Christmas carols.  To get to 5th Ave from the tree, you have to walk through a canyon of lit up angels with trumpets in hand, making you feel like all this grandeur is just for you.  It really is magical.

So, since I haven't been quite up to the holiday madness this year, I decided that I'd meet up with Greg after my work holiday party on Friday, and we'd go up to Rockefeller Center to see the tree to get me into the Christmas spirit.

Well, all I can say is, it was kind of disappointing.  I don't know what happened.  It could have been the fact that I had imbibed quite a few glasses of wine and was more on the drunk side of sober, or it could be the fact that I'm getting older, or it could have just been the crowds of millions constantly bumping into me as I tried to take a peek - but the tree just didn't do it for me this year.  I took a few pictures with my phone - but as stated above - I wasn't exactly stone cold sober (and the people were bumping into me) so all my pictures came out kind of blurry - but here's the "best" of them:

Not so impressive, right?

Here's a picture taken off the official Rockefeller Center website (gives a much better illusion of the "magic" that the tree brings to life):

And here's an even better picture taken by some random person, whose picture I found doing a quick Google Image search:

In my mind, that is the tree I should have seen.  I think our first mistake was trying to see it from the side rather than from the "Angel" point of view - meaning we entered Rockefeller Center from south of that canyon rather than facing the crowds heading directly into that area.  I'm all for getting away from the crowds, but that seemed to be the fatal flaw.  We didn't even really see the angels, and we also didn't see the Sak's Fifth Avenue facade - leaving my holiday spirits in the same rut they were in to begin with.

I have a few more days to get my act together and get my Christmas spirits high.  I just found out that my Mom won't be working on Christmas Eve, so hopefully me, my sisters, my brother-in-law's, my Mom, and my nieces can all gather at my sister's house early on Christmas Eve to sing carols and drink holiday sangria together.  And if holiday sangria can't do the trick, I really will be worried.

Happy Holidays!

Porch Progress

Lots has happened on our front porch since my last post related to our renovation.  Greg and I have spent pretty much every weekend working on the dang thing, but at least we're making progress.  Totally worth it, right??

Here's a picture from last weekend, sometime on Saturday evening when we had finished installing roughly 60% of the deck joists (notice the nicely re-faced and re-supported piers that the framing is resting on -- those were a bear and took a lot of time, making it look like we had made no progress for several weeks).  Also, you can't see it too well here, but we also re-surfaced the exterior concrete foundation wall that is below the porch, and also replaced the window that lets us see out under the porch from our laundry room area.

Renovation Nation

Since we bought our house in 2009, the front has looked kind of like the picture below.  OK, so we re-did the roof, and it's a bit darker now.  We've also gotten rid of most of the small bushes around the front, and the large tree limb hanging down across the front yard was cut down to let in some sunshine.

Even with these minor changes, the front of our house leaves a lot to be desired.  Honestly, I have never been a fan of our screened in porch.  Some people (ie. my in-laws and my grandmother) seemed pretty fond of it - and tried convincing me more than once to consider keeping it intact.  But the awkwardly large roman-esque columns seemed very out of place for our small, relatively simple bungalow-style house, and if I was taking those down, I was definitely NOT going to keep the screen.  Yes, it can be argued that screens are good for deterring critters, but really, all it did for me the past three years was make hanging Christmas lights on the house a challenge (which I won by simply cutting an access hole in the screen, therefore rendering the critter shield pretty much useless).  But I digress (as usual).

Ever since we moved in I've been telling Greg that we need to renovate the front completely, open up the porch, and give our home a little bit of curb appeal.

For Love of Family...

It's been a long time since I've blogged...but I have a good excuse for my naughtiness.  I was studying for the Professional Engineer's Exam - an 8-hour, 100-question all engineering test that required all my time, energy, concentration, and will power to prepare for.  So, forgive me for not having the ability to think about anything other than chemical formulas, Bernouli's equation, or proper sizing of wastewater treatment systems for the last few weeks.  Yeah, my life was pretty darn exciting for the entire month of March.

BUT...like all things, good and bad, that day has passed, and now I am able to go back to my normal, witty, charming self.  I know you were all missing me so much!

Words, Words, Words

I have been dealt a lot of lip service recently.  Most notably at work, which I don't want to discuss here, as there's definitely rules about posting information related to work, which can get me into serious trouble here.  Which is not the goal of this blog.

So, I will try to think about positive things that have been happening and let you in on some of it from here.

First, and pretty important, is that Greg and I have FINALLY gotten our behinds in gear and we've been working out.  Consistently.  Which means twice a week for us.  Which is pretty lame if you think about it too much.  So stop thinking!  It's a really big deal for us, who have, for lack of a more creative description, become total couch potatoes.  Our routine goes something like this:  wake up, go to work, get home from work, make dinner on a good day (or, order pizza on a bad day), sit on the couch to watch all of the ridiculous TV shows we are addicted to, shower, go to sleep.  Rinse and repeat.  Anyway, we were in desperate need of a change to prevent becoming "THOSE AMERICANS" you know, the ones who are 500 lbs and have to be lifted out of their beds with a crane.  (OK, I'm exaggerating just a bit...but our lifestyle makes me realize how it's possible for people to actually get to that point.)