Prickly Pear Bloom

Christmastime is upon us! I am not sure if that is good thing or a bad thing. I do know that we put up twinkle lights on our pergola on Sunday. Well, they don’t ACTUALLY twinkle, but I really like to call them that, ok? We had a little Christmas Vacation moment after the hanging when we went out on the sidewalk and stood arm in arm and admired our work, it was fabulous. And now, our home has just a little bit of Christmas spirit, which is saying something, since we haven’t gotten a tree in…oh, I don’t think we have ever gotten a tree. I might have put up the mini tree one year. What I’m saying is, this is about as Christmassy as it gets around here, at least for now.

I sent my Christmas card to print last night, I hope my family and friends like it. I am going to proof it on Friday morning, and hopefully have the lot of them next week. I sent my first Secret Santa gift out today, to - oh, I can’t say yet. But I love it all, I made a sweet little CD sleeve for a Christmas mix disc, and I will get a picture up just as soon as I take one.

I have been working on an annual report for Mike’s class for the last 3 weeks. It is for American Eagle Outfitters. Here is the front cover and back cover, and the glamour spread from the project. The glamour spread has a vellum page that overlays the top portion of the right half of the spread, and can turn.

New brew:
Capitol Brewery has a new limited brew out right now called Vintage Ale. We got a couple 4 packs, and it is fantastic! Sorta hoppy, but not too much, sorta malty, but not too much, sorta tastes like there are some odd grains in there, and it’s an unusual color, sorta yellow but copper. I have never seen, nor tasted anything like it, and I love it!

Happy Christmas!

Two or three years ago, I went to see the Barenaked Ladies in Chicago for one of their Christmas shows, with my friend, Amy. After the show, we found a smallish group of people waiting in the alley next to the theater, hoping to meet the band and get some autographs and pictures. We decided to wait as well. After what seemed like forever, when we thought we couldn’t get any colder, all of the boys came out and we did get to meet them. I didn’t have a camera though, but a woman in line next to us was kind enough to take my picture with Ed and Steve and she said she would email it to me. I gave her my email address and waited to hear from her. Unfortunately, I never did, and I never got that picture.

I have seen the band play on a number of occasions since then, and last year came inches from meeting Ed again before the show in Chicago with Nate, but right before I was up, Fin whisked them away to start the show. I have always felt very fortunate to have been able to aquire very fine seats, and to have met them on that cold night in Chicago, but I still wish I had those pictures.

Last night, they played at the Coliseum here in Madison. Unfortunately, Nate was unable to go with me, since it is ye grand ole hunting weekend, so I took my friends Melissa and Mel to join me in our fourth row center seats. The show was grand, the boys were fun as always, and Mel gave me the pic that she picked up from my feet, although now I can’t remember if it was thrown by Ed or Steve. Thanks Mel!

After the show ended at 10:30, Melissa and I walked around outside the coliseum and found a small group of fans waiting patiently to see if the boys would come out to chat. We waited and waited, it got colder and colder.

Someone came out at some point and told us it might be around 20 minutes. More than 20 mintues later, we were starting to lose our motivation, it was so cold, and dancing around wasn’t helping to keep us warm, and Melissa decided to go get the car and bring it around so maybe we could each sit a bit. She had been gone a few minutes, when Kevin came out at about 12:30.

In the end we met Kevin, Ed, and Jim, and I got my pictures:

Ed is wearing quite the stylish scarf! Cute, yet manly.

Jim snuggled right up with me, probably to keep warm. He was so willing to just sit and chat, and not in any hurry.

Kevin is just so talented that he made this picture blurry.

The expression on my face in each of those photos proves that I was way too excited for my own good.

I got home at about 1:30, tired and cold to the bone, but so happy. It was so worth it!