Great food at Shaun's

I had a great meal last night with the AIA Atlanta Tour Committee at Shaun's Restaurant in Inman Park. It was our end-of-the-year thank you dinner for all of the volunteers this year. The flatbread appetizer was tasty, as was my diver scallops entree and chocolate tart dessert. A little on the expensive side for me (but I wasn't paying), but definitely worth it if you want to treat yourself: http://www.shaunsrestaurant.com/

Milestone for Mysti

My good 'ole car Mysti reached a milestone today on the way into work. At 9 am EST on the North Ave. exit ramp, she rolled over to 100,000 miles! I got her with about 20,000 miles in June 1997, after coming back from Paris, so it's been just over 10 years that I have had her. (Incidentally, DH's new car Nixie that we got at the end of March this year rolled over 10,000 miles earlier this month - love the Civic!) 100,000 and still ticking...

Happy Turkey Day, Everyone!

I hope everyone enjoys a good meal with family and friends. Drive safely, too. We will be having turkey and yummy pies at DH's Grandmother Clo's house. (No animals were harmed in the making of the above greeting...)

Snack dogs

I will be the first to admit that I do not take to "snack dogs" well - you know, the small, hyper, yippy, need-to-make-up-for-my-small-size kind of dogs. (I believe I first heard this term from David's cousin Dawn, because they would be a snack for her huskies - kidding, of course!) I am more of a working dog fan, like retrievers (although *some* fall into the dumb/hyper category), labs, border collies, corgies (they're the smallest I go), and of course Great Pyrenees (like my dog-niece, Bailey). I do, however, have to say that Jennifer's friends, Danielle and Jonathan, have two of the nicest Chihuahuas I have ever met (and may ever meet). Here's a cute photo of Leia (aka Baby Girl) and Brynn. They're so cute you just want to eat them up! (Just kidding!) We dog-sat some while we were in Charlotte this past weekend. Here's also a photo of Bailey with her "Wanna Biscuit?" ears on.

Speaking of snacks, there's going to be some of my favorite snacks this coming Turkey Day at David's grandmother Clo's house - can't wait for one of her homemade pies! She makes the best meatloaf and biscuits I have ever had too, but her lemon chess is the absolute best!

Fun in Charlotte

We are having a great time visiting Jennifer in Charlotte. Last night we met up in Greenville at The Handlebar to see the Mad Tea Party (out of Asheville) and Asylum Street Spankers (out of Austin TX) - great show and venue! Christina is a master at playing the musical saw. Also, the food and service up front was fantastic too. I highly recommend giving them a try if you're in the neighborhood.

Today we shadowed Jennifer around a little with her job and did some Christmas shopping. Looking forward to a yummy dinner tonight - I think we are trying Indian!

Escape Artist

Here's Thoth, looking to escape out the front door again. David and I were cleaning house this evening, taking things outside to dust off, etc., and of course Thoth had to take the opportunity to sneak out the front storm door (not latched all the way) and wander out into the darkness (and wetness - it actually showered a little this evening!) without his reflective collar on, of course. Guilty as charged! Luckily he is not very good at "running away" from home, and we found him in our next door neighbor's yard.

We're visiting Jennifer in Charlotte this weekend, meeting her tomorrow night in Greenville to catch two bands that we like very much, playing at The Handlebar - Mad Tea Party and Asylum Street Spankers! Yay!

Leaf blower

The leaves have started to fall. Last fall, DH and I finally gave in to buying a leaf blower after 3 falls of raking leaves in our yard by hand. I don't know what took us so long! I am really loving it now, and although I am disappointed that I have given in to using "demon electricity" (as one of our favorite bands, Asylum Street Spankers, refers to it), it saves me a ton of time and makes me feel like I am keeping up with the Joneses in our neighborhood. Don't get me wrong - I still don't think we'll be getting that "Yard of the Month" sign any time soon... (Speaking of the Spankers: Do you have neighbors that like to use their leaf blower/chainsaw at 8 am on a Saturday morning? Check out the Asylum Street Spankers song, "Leaf Blower" - it is hilarious!)

The drought has wreaked havoc on some of our plants and trees in the yard. I can tell now which branches on trees have died, etc. But I don't think we have lost anything major. Spring will tell. Here's photos of one of our hydrangeas and one of our dogwoods (red) with our across-the-street neighbor's yellow tree in the background.

Shop 'til you drop

So Cyndi and I hit 3 dress shops today to look at wedding dresses for her and bridesmaid dresses. I think we both agree that we shopped 'til we dropped today. We did find a few promising dresses, so at least we have a few picked out that we can show the others. Time for bed!

Canstruction 2007

Okay, so we didn't get a prize, but I still think our Canstruction was really cool! Go Aqua Teen Hunger Force! Here's a photo of me with our masterpiece at the gala this evening. In all, the whole Rosser gang did a great job - not only did we field a team (go Captain Becky!), we also had 4 other employees in leadership roles organizing Canstruction Atlanta 2007. Great job everyone!

On another topic, I have the distinct honor of being Matron of Honor (that makes me sound old!) for my friend Cyndi's wedding next summer. We're going dress shopping tomorrow! Yay!

Wire Wrapping

Thought I'd show off two of the wire wrapping pieces that I have made. I learned how to make these two bracelets at classes held at Bead Bayou, a bead shop up in Cumming, GA, that I discovered through my friend Val, who is extremely crafty and actually showing some of her jewelry at a friend's art gallery this holiday season. They were both not to difficult to make, as the pattern was repetitive on both and once you got started were easy to move along. I had fun making them, and even made the first one again for my sister's graduation gift!

Canstruction build-out went well this evening. David and I were able to help construct Master Shake and Frylock before giving up our shifts to other teammates. I'll post a final picture of our masterpiece after we attend the award gala tomorrow night. Keep your fingers crossed that it stays standing tonight for the judging tomorrow morning!

Temperatures

Brrr! It's starting to get cold here and the temperature is supposed to drop to "unseasaonable" freezing temps tonight. I am really starting to miss Hawaii now! In talking with my cousin's in-laws who live in Oahu, I was surprised to learn that it never gets hotter than 95 degrees there, year round. Must be nice. Here's a nice photo that my sister took of me and David at my cousin's wedding with the sunset. (Ignore the ugly fence.) Really missing that weather!

Speaking of weather, here's the nerdy bit of info for the day. We had a Lunch 'N Learn with Owens Corning about their rigid insulation today and they told us about a handy calculator online if you ever need to calculate the R-value of a metal stud wall with insulation assembly - cool tool for us architect-types - check out this Oak Ridge National Laboratory site. Okay, enough of the nerdy stuff.

Build-out for Canstruction is tomorrow night, and I am very excited! Look out for the final photo on Friday...

Canstruction under construction

Today at work, my coworkers and I who are participating in Canstruction did a practice build-out at the office. The final build-out will be at Underground Atlanta Thursday night, with the opening gala on Friday night. We're building the three characters from Aqua Teen Hunger Force (from Adult Swim on Cartoon Network) - Master Shake, Frylock, and Meatwad. It's going to look pretty awesome - here's a preview photo.

Lena also posted her Hawaii photos today: http://picasaweb.google.com/heungl/Hawaii102007102707.

Testing 1, 2, 3...

I thought it was finally time I tried this blogging thing, since I realized this week that I have a few blogs discovered over time that I really enjoy reading, and for some old friends, it's been the only way I've been able to keep up with their lives recently (sad, but true). So here's my attempt at keeping friends updated about what's going on with me. Here's our handsome cat, Thoth, sporting a very dashing bandanna that I made for him recently. (Does making accessories for my cat make me a bad cat mom? I didn't make him wear a Halloween costume, but then again, he IS a black cat...)