Weekend Update

Both Katie and I have been suffering from some kind of cold; Katie seems to have gotten it first and then passed it on to me. It's the kind that involves a sore throat and lots of congestion. Katie has gotten over hers but I'm still fighting mine. Hopefully it will clear out within the next couple of days. It's mostly an annoyance but has forced us to stimulate the economy with Kleenex and Tylenol Sinus purchases!

We watched a few movies over the past few weeks: Slumdog Millionaire, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and Valkyrie. I would say that "Benjamin Button" was my favorite; it is themed on the idea that time is the destroyer of everything and I find that to always be a powerful motif. That movie mixes things up a little by having someone age backwards, which of course inverts the typical life experience.

Friday night we had a nice dinner at the Cottonwood Grille as part of Telemetric's annual holiday dinner. Katie got to meet some of my coworkers and we both got to meet their various family members. Of course we both got treated to a good meal as well! It was a well done corporate event; no cheesy party games or requirements to pay your own way.

Despite my ongoing cold, I went snowshoeing on Saturday with Dan (pictures and trip report forthcoming). We had a great trip, although the cold and wind didn't play that well with my runny nose and sinus pain. We spent the night in Jackpot, Nevada, one of those Nevada border towns in the middle of nowhere that cater to people in other states wanting to gamble. Some of Dan's coworkers were partying down there so we met up with them, hit the buffet for copious amounts of food, then went to their suite to watch the NFL playoffs over a few drinks. Dan went on to play a little poker but I was too tired and went to bed early.

We returned to Boise around mid-day Sunday and Katie and I had a quiet afternoon and evening together. I'll probably have to go to bed early again since this cold isn't moving out as fast as I'd hoped.

This upcoming weekend Dan and I may make another snowshoeing trip to Jackson, Wyoming, if the weather holds. While this frequency of trips may seem excessive, this time of year is Dan's only reprieve from coaching his daughter's softball. Thus we tend to put these trips together when the weather turns nice.

The weather in Boise (and really all of southern Idaho) has turned rather pleasant, almost spring-like. Most of the valley snow has melted and the nice weather is expected to last through the week. Can't complain about that!

One final update. Katie got a rude announcement Friday; NYK Line is laying off all temporary workers within the next month or so. Like everyone else, the shipping industry is seeing the effects of the global recession. Their office uses a lot of them so they will be way short on manpower pretty soon. If the official word is to be believed, Katie's job is not in any immediate danger. However their office has been training some people from Manila, Phillippines, which sounds an awfully lot like a "globalization" (aka outsourcing) initiative to me.

Goings on...

Nothing too eventful has been going on at the Vickery abode. Last weekend, I went hiking on Saturday and on Sunday we watched the movie Australia. We both liked the movie, which is a very watchable (if a little overly dramatic) historical epic. The Hollywood elements are a little overdone... but that's the movies I suppose!

This weekend we have mostly been doing Christmas shopping and getting cards and packages ready to mail. Yes, we do wait until the last minute! Hopefully once we get things mailed in the next day or two we'll have most of our work completed.

For those that haven't heard, we will be spending Christmas in Vancouver with the Shepherd clan. We will likely drive all night (cue the Celine Dion song) from Boise after I get off from work on the 23rd. Since I have a new job, I have little time off to use and thus we are forced into a compressed trip. Of course, if I had stayed at Micron, I'd be forced to take 2 or 3 weeks off for Christmas. Choices choices!

Boise did finally get some real winter weather this weekend. So far the winter has been mild but it looks like it will be snowy and icy for the next several days at least. Hopefully things warm up before our upcoming trip!

Our house on Sunday:


View down the street:

American Thanksgiving Weekend

Katie and I both enjoyed our four-day weekend! Of course we wish they were more common!

On Thursday we went to Gary and Bonnie's for a most excellent turkey dinner. Bonnie's mother Frona was in town from Colorado, and we all enjoyed the fine meal prepared by the two of them. I think the biscuits were my favorite dish, but that's just the "carb addict" in me!

On Friday we did some "Black Friday" shopping. We were hoping to get pedestals for our front-loading washer and dryer, however we were informed that Sears discontinued the color used for our set. No dice! Disappointed, we either wisely or foolishly we went to the Verizon Wireless store to look at phones; we ended up walking out with each of us owning a fancy new phone: the LG Voyager. So far they've proven to be very nice despite some initial usability difficulties with the touchscreens. These phones allow web surfing which I'm still trying to figure out.

The rest of the weekend was generally uneventful. I watched some football and Tivo recordings. We talked about putting up Christmas decorations but decided to wait until next weekend. Katie has been doing some Christmas baking (an amazing variety of treats) so its definitely starting to feel like Christmas!

Weekend Happenings

Last week, I started my new job. Things are going very well and I'm very happy with the new environment. I'm still getting settled and I will likely author a more comprehensive post about the new gig some time in the next couple of weeks.

After my first day of work on the 18th, we went to see Quantum of Solace (since Katie hadn't seen it yet). Of course I was more than willing to see the flick a second time since I will never turn down the opportunity to watch a Bond flick (well, maybe A View to a Kill). We both enjoyed the flick but it made for a busy evening since we both had to be at work early the next day..

On Thursday, Katie went to the airport in the morning to fly up to Vancouver and receive her belated birthday present from her sister Megan. You might ask, what gift requires receipt in person? A ticket to the New Kids on the Block reunion concert at GM Place! For those that don't know, Megan and Katie were both rabid fans of this "boy band" in the late 80s and early 90s. My understanding is that each planned to marry members of the band and are thus fans for life. At any rate, Katie had a great time at the concert and also seeing everyone in Vancouver. Maybe I'll convince her to write a blog post about her mini-vacation??

Since I was home alone until Sunday evening, I watched some guy movies and (of course) football. I finally fired up the Netflix "watch instantly" feature and found it to be an excellent way to watch movies due to having recently acquired a wide-screen LCD monitor. Since it's hard for more than one person to watch something on the computer monitor, it's perfect for fare which I know Katie would hate :-) Movies watched:

• Revolution OS (a documentary about the Linux operating system which definitely appealed to the computer nerd in me)
• Helvetica (a suprisingly interesting documentary about the litle-known world of typesetting and its crowing achievement, the Helvetica font)
• Snakes on a Plane (a very average action/horror movie punctuated by four absolutely hilarious scenes)
• Solaris (a cerebral sci-fi movie which I found to be very interesting despite dragging at times)

Today was a pretty typical day at work for both of us. The good news is that after two more days, we have a four day Thanksgiving weekend!

Weekend Summary

Katie and I have had a pretty quiet weekend. On Friday, Katie got home early and finished carving pumpkins. We set them out in the evening and had roughly 20 trick-or-treaters show up, the last arriving at about 8:45pm.

The weekend promised to be rainy and we made no real plans. On Saturday, I put out Fall fertilizer to take advantage of the coming rains, which did indeed arrive later in the day. After that was done, we went to Applebee's to use the $10 gift certificate we got due to Katie complaining about the vacuum being used during our last visit. We then went to the local movie-plex to watch the comedy Zack and Miri which was pretty funny in the low-brow kind of way. After that, we went home so I could watch the Gators beat up on Bulldogs on TV.

On Sunday, we met Gary and Bonnie for breakfast/lunch at Addie's in downtown Boise. After that we went grocery shopping at the local Fred Meyer. Katie spent the rest of the evening reading and baking while I proceeded to watch football and Tivo recordings.

In summary, it was a nice, quiet weekend. One more week of work before our trip to Florida!

Weekend Summary

It seems Fall has officially arrived here in Boise. The weather has cooled significantly and we got some rain for the first time in two months. Alas, no hiking this weekend!

On Saturday, Katie and I indulged and got the 'all you can eat' chicken fingers at Applebee's. That was pretty much our only food of the day! We also saw the movie 'Burn After Reading'. It is a dark comedy and Katie and I both enjoyed it.

Today we met Gary for lunch at Cracker Barrel. Bonnie was out of town visiting her Mom in Colorado so it was just the three of us. After that we did our weekly grocery shopping and I watched some football and mowed the lawn.

One final note: we made more progress assembling our mythical dining room table, so we will probably be ready to announce its completion soon!