November 30, 2002 25 days until Christmas! Since I last wrote, things have gotten much more Christmasy around here! (I was going to say "Christmasier", but I think that's even worse than "Christmasy" :-) My apartment is all decorated. I have my porcelain village up on top of my entertainment unit, and then my nativity and skating pond on my dresser (they are not necessarily meant to be part of the same scene), and lots of other stuff all over the place. I also have a gingerbread house on my table! It's not quite done yet....I'm just letting the roof pieces dry before I add the final touches, but it's almost there. I'm pretty happy with it - not 100% satisfied, but it's much better than last year's. :-) My desk at work is a Christmas oasis. :-) I earned the nickname "Christmas Stacy" my first year at Zurich, and people at ING have started calling me that too, though nobody ever told them about it. Hmmm.... I was also asked if I wanted to decorate the reception area at work. I can't imagine why they thought I would want to do that. :-) So, I did! It was fun! I've also been doing some decorating to my hair. :-) I had it cut pretty short last night, and then dyed it black. So it looks just a *little* different! I actually really liked the cut, until I dyed it. I don't think that the cut goes quite as well with the dark hair. But I'll play with it and come up with something I like, I'm sure. The only thing I'm missing is a Christmas tree, and I don't actually know if I'm gonna be able to afford to get one. :-( But perhaps, as a final resort, I could just get a little one to stand on my table. I need *something* to put my ornaments on! Tomorrow is December!! November 20, 2002 5 weeks 'til Christmas! Well, this month's contest certainly wasn't as much of a challenge as last month! I knew it right away. Which I guess is good, it means I won't spend countless hours searching for it. :-) I'm determined to win one of these times! This week is going pretty fast. Mostly because things are really busy at work. I have Friday off, so I am going to spend the weekend decorating for Christmas! Yay! And then on Monday I will decorate at work (I figure the 25th is waiting long enough). And then I can listen to Christmas music at work too! (I've been listening to it at home for months already ;-). I can't wait. I got my Internet hooked up on cable on Monday. This has resulted in me leaving it on for the past 48 hours because I'm always in the middle of downloading things when I should go to bed/work. Tonight I'm actually going to turn it off, I swear. I found this screen capture from Alexei's appearance at MuchMusic back in....when was that, May? Oh, and have I mentioned how thrilled I am that he's not that critically injured? Anyway, I'm in the background....I circled it for your convenience. :-) November 16, 2002 This week has not been a very good one for me. :-( I am not going to New York next weekend. I am not going to Europe next spring. And I am not going skating tomorrow. :-( :-( However, there are only 39 days until Christmas, and I *am* going home for Christmas, so that makes me feel a little better! Plus, hopefully we can do our skating excursion next weekend instead. I am also baking cheese buns at the moment, which is exciting. :-) Yay to Tanith and Ben for their second bronze medal of the season, this time at Trophee Lalique! They even placed 2nd in the original dance! Congrats! I've started working on a family tree, for fun. I've been able to trace my mother's mother's family back to the early 1700s, when they were all living in Rieneck, Bavaria, Germany. I am actually German on 3 sides (well Russian German on 1 of the 3), so maybe that's why I want to learn German so much! :-) Thank you Roger for sending me the answer to the contest! It was driving me crazy!! :-) Have a good weekend everyone! November 9, 2002 Okay, so it might be a *little* early for a Christmas theme, but I felt like it, so you'll just have to deal with it! :-) This week was alright - yesterday at work I went to an "education reception" for everyone who had achieved a professional designation during the year. Which includes me. :-) I earned my "General Insurance Essentials" designation. Wow! *sarcasm*. Anyway, it was at the Royal York hotel, which was nice! There was fun food and cookies, and free drinks, and we all got gifts, so it wasn't that bad. :-) We got an ING bag/briefcase thing, and an ING ballpoint ben. Since I wasn't expecting anything, that made me pretty happy! I was upset for a good part of the week because my bank was being stupid. But I have found another bank that is much nicer to me, so I just may start using them! :-) I can't wait to see Alias tomorrow! I feel so bad for Jack. I mean, sure he brainwashed his daughter, and then nearly blew her up, but he was only trying to help! ;-) I'm disappointed that Bram & Alice was cancelled, but not overly surprised. They should give Roger his own show! If anyone can help me out with this contest, please let me know! November 5, 2002 50 days until Christmas! I am more excited than usual because I have my flight home booked! Thank goodness for seat sales! It also may allow me to take another little trip this winter....but I won't say anything about it just yet, I don't want to jinx it! Since I last wrote I have received *more* birthday presents - a sandwich maker from Laurie (no more frying on the stove for me! :-), and a new VeggieTales DVD from Krista! Excellent! It is called "The Star of Christmas", and the premise is that Bob and Larry (going by the names of Cavis and Millward) and producing a musical called "The Princess and the Plumber" in London in the 1880s. Gee, I can't imagine why I enjoy this show, can you?! The director's commentary is hilarious too, I have to add. This past weekend was spent watching a lot of skating - Skate Canada was on, plus they were still showing stuff from Skate America, plus they had last year's World Pros on (which I missed the first time around). I did NOT need to see Philippe Candeloro skating around in his underwear, thanks anyways. I don't actually have a lot of Christmas shopping to do. Most things are already decided. But the stuff that I do have to get, I'm gonna wait until just before Christmas, and go to the mall to get it. It's simply something you have to do at Christmas time! And Laurie will be coming down to visit me before I go home as well! Lots of stuff to look forward to in December! Previous entries Back to Main Page