Friday, December 29, 2006

Highs and Lows of 2006


This year went flying by.

I have been working on my high/low list for 2006 and this is what it looks like as of this moment. I have tried to put them in chronological order, they are not in order by how HIGH they were or how LOW they were. I may add to this, but for now, it is pretty much set. I encourage everyone to make a list like this or a list of accomplishments so you can see all that you have done in the past year, it is fun!



HIGHS
  • Went to Vietnam with Mom and Dad
  • Visited my Vietnamese Mother
  • Adopted Bay-Lee
  • Started a consistent Yoga Practice
  • Got over my fear of horses through hypnotherapy
  • Started taking riding lessons
  • Beach House summer gathering
  • Spending time with Emily in San Francisco
  • Spending time with Mom in San Francisco
  • Returned a dog tag (brought back from Vietnam) to its original owner
  • Read a lot of great books
  • Took some cool art classes
  • Learned the art of mehndi
  • Took a solo trip to Malta
  • Cappuccino in Malta
  • Visited Sicily
  • Saw my Grandfathers old house in Malta
  • Found family in Malta
  • Malta renewed my faith in God
  • Malta in general
  • Started dancing again (ballet)
  • Thanksgiving Beach House
  • Angela is pregnant!
  • Became a member of the Maltese American Social Club of San Francisco

LOWS

  • My best friend Marley died but he is now in kitty heaven
  • Slipped into a deep depression and didn't know if I would be happy again
  • Got thrown off a horse during my second riding lesson
  • I was way too gluttonous

Resolutions Anyone?


Do you all make New Years resolutions?

I always do, and most of the time I break them.

This year, maybe I will make some New Years goals, the sounds better to me for some reason.


Here are just some of mine, hey, there are some things a girl has to keep to herself:
  • Drink more water
  • Try to work 8 hours a day (I have been cutting them short lately with long lunches)
  • Drink more champagne
  • Recycle more than I already do
  • Do something creative every single day
  • Update my Blog more often

These just scratch the surface and are pretty easy, so I think I will be OK keeping up with them. I have some others that are a little more challenging but I don't want to post them because if I don't keep to them, I will be the only one that knows. HA!


Cupcake Crime!

It being the end of the year, I decide to live it up a little and get myself a cupcake for dessert after lunch.

Well, I get to the office and unload my car and as I start to walk away the spaceship looking plastic container in which my cupcake is nestled starts to take off and before I know it, it crashed to the ground. Like butter on bread, you know it landed frosting side down, poor little sprinkles got mashed into the concrete by the lump of sugary goodness on top.

I decided as soon as it fell it was a message from God telling me I shouldn't have the cupcake anyway, thanks God for covering my ass in times of weakness.

Here is a photo from the scene of the crime.


Thursday, December 28, 2006

Happy Holidays

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, etc.
I had a nice and mellow weekend to celebrate Christmas.
Saturday night (Dec. 23) Tim and I did our traditional outing to see the San Francisco Ballet's performance of The Nutcracker. It was wonderful. I got to see two of my favorite dancers dance in the same evening, which doesn't happen sometimes in a full length ballet. It was marvelous. I always get the chills when I see incredible talent right in front of me on stage. I brought my binoculars and felt like it was just me and the dancers in my own little world. It was an amazing night. After the ballet we went to Mel's Diner to get something to eat. All dressed up at a 50's diner is always fun! We went home with dreams of sugarplums dancing in our heads and our bellies full of food.
Christmas Eve, Tim and I went to see Rocky Balboa with his cousin Katie and her husband Mark at the new theatre downtown and then we went to lunch and hung out at our place until about 9:00 PM. We just sat around and talked, the guys played video games and Katie and I sat on the couch chatting it up. She is pregnant so there is a lot of exciting things going on with them. The rest of the evening was Tim and I sneaking around to fill stockings so we could try and surprise each other in the morning.
Christmas, Tim got up and made coffee, etc. I slept in until about 10:00 AM. I called my Mom and Dad and spoke to them for a while and then called friends that I hadn't spoken to on Christmas Eve to wish them a Merry Christmas as well. We ate a pannetone with coffee for breakfast and opened our gifts. We had a lot of stuff to open this year, it was fun, we felt like children. The rest of the day, we snacked, watched TV and hung out and then realized we didn't have any food planned for dinner so I had to make something out of nothing, which, I should mention, I am pretty good at.

Tuesday, back to work, ugh, not fun at all.

Wednesday, took the day off, bad allergies that wiped me out. My jaw is really sore for some reason, I think I slept on it weird or something. The power went out in our house for a couple hours due to the storm winds whipping through the city so I went to Target to make a return and came home and made a Holiday Binder to refer to for next year. Can you say, "DORK?"
Anyway, I am working on finishing up my highs and lows of 2006 list. I have yet to decide if I am going to publish it or not. I know, another dorky thing I am doing. I have to be able to look back and know that I accomplished something. I don't want to waste any time on this planet, there is too much to do in so very little time.

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Mom's Kitchen















This photo reminds me of me of baking with my Mom at Christmas time. I don't know how she did it, but I remember she made SO many different kinds of cookies. They were kept in the basement on top of the chest freezer each kind in a tin or tupperware container of their own. My brother and I would to ask how many we could have and then would go down with a napkin and come up with our favorites. Honestly, I don't know how she did it.

Mom, what was your motivation? I need a little of that.

These are the cookies I remember:
  • Merry Christmas Cookies (cut out and decorated)
  • Thumbprint cookies
  • Gingerbread Boys
  • Russian Tea Cakes
  • Springerle
  • Peanut Butter Cookies with a chocolate star
  • Fudge with walnuts
  • White fudge with cherries and nuts
  • Truffles rolled in cocoa powder

I cant remember anymore, but that is a LOT.

On top of the cookies and candy, she made chex mix and strung popcorn and cranberries for the tree PLUS her and my Dad made a gingerbread house and us kids would decorate it.

She is Super Woman!

Katie's World

First I would like to give a shout out to my sister Emily, yesterday was her 22nd Birthday. Happy Birthday Em, I love you and miss you so much. You make me laugh and always know the right thing to say when I need your help, feedback, etc. I hope you had a wonderful day and everyone spoiled you rotten. Hope your finals went by smoothly and you are enjoying your time off before school starts again. You are one step closer to graduation!
I love you!

Wow, I can’t believe that Christmas is this coming weekend! I need to get my shit together and send out some packages. I didn’t even do my cards yet! I am not sure what is wrong with me; I was planning on making the cards and cut things out, but didn’t finish them. I haven’t been very busy, I guess just lazy, like always. My ballet class ended last week so now I have one additional open evening a week until class starts again twice a week in January. I am waiting for confirmation from the school though.

I have been thinking back on the year 2006 and may put together my Top 10 Highs and Lows of the year. I don’t know if I have 10 Highs or Lows though, so it may be just 5 of each. I have a couple weeks still and have not yet decided if I am going to post it. I may embarrass myself too much, but what the heck, right?

Tonight Tim and I are going to make Chex Mix and fudge to send to the Somera’s and Lemke’s for the holidays. It should be fun; there will be some laughing in our kitchen tonight for sure. Once the music starts playing and we start mixing it up, there is no telling what will happen next. Either Wednesday or Thursday I am going to see Grease on the big screen at the Castro theatre. It is sing-a-long Grease so if anyone wants to come with me, let me know. Otherwise, I will be singing “grease is the word” by myself, which will still be fun. I can’t wait to hand jive!

Thursday, December 14, 2006

Setting the night on FIRE!


















Well, it was a night to remember at the Maltese Club last night. Most all the women were in red including yours truly in red pants and matching red jewelry from my Grandma's jewelry box. Dinner was prime rib (which I didn't eat), pasta and a twice baked potato and what is a Maltese dinner without bread and wine?
I sat with Rose, here on the left, looking fabulous as always. She is the sweetest lady ever and what a fire cracker! She is totally fun and can eat anyone at the club under the table. She clears her plate all the time and asks for more - a woman after my own heart.


After dinner, we had the gift exchange. I was feeling like I didn't have quite enough so I went our before arriving at the club and bought some note cards to add to my french snowflake soaps that were in a really nice box. I put them together in a gift bag and added them to the pile of gifts. There were 40 of us, I was number 39 and Rose was 40, how funny! When I approached to get my gift there was only 2 things left a gift and an envelope (gift card). I let the little girl, Gracie, help me pick so I took the gift. It was a handbag, nice, I like handbags. Rose goes up and takes the last thing and it is a Trader Joe's gift card, CRAP, I should have taken that one! Anyway, it was fun, but the excitement was just about to ignite.



















Rose came over to check out the purse that I got and when we unwrapped it from the tissue paper the paper landed on one of the votive candles that were set on the table. The corner of the paper started to flame and the next thing I knew, the entire piece of tissue was a blaze! As the ladies tried to slap the flames out with their hands, I realized I was just sitting there watching it burn wondering if the plastic table cloth was going to catch. I literally was staring at it like Cindy Brady in the episode where she is on TV and cant stop staring at the red light on the television camera. It was so weird. As the women were starting to get concerned about the blaze, Marlene, who was behind me grabbed a cup of water and threw it on the tissue and with the hiss of a steam engine, it was out, but the excitement was not over. Once the flames were extinguished, large pieces of tissue that had turned into ash, the size of quarters but as delicate as butterfly wings came raining down on us as we looked at the sad burned tissue paper on the table as it rested in a pool of water. All dressed in red and jewels the ladies who were trying to snuff out the flames looked at their black soot covered hands and tried to gather themselves. I have never seen a fire put out with such panache and grace in my life. It was amazing! There is nothing like being the new person and lighting the table on fire let me tell you. EVERYONE there knows who I am now! One of the younger members claimed I did it just for attention and the others said maybe I was too hot for the club. We laughed and the incident was forgotten.

The rest of the night was nice. We sat and talked about next year and who the chairperson was going to be for the Women's Committee. No one volunteered so the President, John Stellini appointed a woman named Nimfa (spelling) and guess who is her second in command? ME! Yeah, it will be fun. I love the ladies of the club and they all told me that they are happy to have me as one of the people in charge, they are looking for a change and think someone like me could help out with that. I am looking forward to it.
Anyway, that was my night.

Today I am only at work until about 1:15 PM as I have to go and get a filling replaced. Ugh, do you all know that I am totally scared of the dentist? Well, I am, and I don't want to go, but need to get it over with.

Stay Tuned.

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

GIANT Update

Again, it has been a while and time has FLOWN by.
Phew!

OK, so last week was a little of a blur. Monday was fine, you know work, all the bosses were here, etc. On my way to work on Tuesday I suddenly realized that I was supposed to have jury duty the entire week. You just basically call in and the computer tells you if you have to show up. I call the city and they tell me, my group hasn’t been called yet and to keep calling the rest of the week. So, I have to go and tell my boss that I messed up my schedule and forgot I may have to go into jury duty. He was cool about it, I mean, really, what can you do…nothing. So, sure enough, I call on Tuesday evening and I have to report on Wednesday morning at 8:30 AM. I was supposed to get my biopsy results at 8:30 and now I have to report to jury duty. I called the doctor and they said just to call them when I can come in. I get to jury duty on Tuesday morning and wait in the room with all of the other unlucky people. Just as I fall asleep, they start calling names, it is now about 10:45 AM. My name is called and we all go up to one of the court rooms. The judge introduces herself and gives us a run down of the case, and starts listing names for the jury box. Then I hear my name, crap! I get to the box and then when 24 people are in place, we have to all answer some questions that are being passed around on a laminated sheet of paper. Name, neighborhood you live in, how long you have been a resident of San Francisco, education, occupation, if you live with any other adults what is their occupation and have you ever had jury duty before and when. After all of that, the attorney’s ask questions that may pertain to the case, does anyone have anything against the police, etc. bad experiences with the police, good experiences with the police. Does anyone not have a drivers license, anyone been incarcerated for driving under the influence, etc. They weed out the outspoken and I remain seated. Great, I have been picked to be on the jury of a traffic case that should last no more than 3 days. First of all, I don’t get paid from my job for it and they don’t give you an opportunity to tell them any of that. Well, I am in, I mind as well enjoy it. So at 11:45 AM they tell us we can go and come back tomorrow (Thursday) at 9:30 AM and the trial will begin. At this point, I am excited to be in the civic center and have the afternoon off. I make my way over to the adult immunization clinic to see if I need any shots for India. Oh, I forgot to mention that, yes, I am going to India at the end of February. I walk into the clinic without an appointment and just my luck, they can take me. So I get a polio booster and a flu shot, nice. I love watching the fluid from the syringe go into my body for some reason, I know, weird. When that is done, I walk over to the main library to use the internet because I don’t have my oral surgeon’s phone number and maybe he can see me this afternoon now that it is open. I get his number and call and sure enough, they can take me at 2:00 PM. I walk from civic center downtown, nice size walk and a little hilly so when I get there, I am sweaty and gross. I need to clean up, my doctor is very nice looking and I don’t want to look like I just “fell off the turnip truck” as my Mom would say. As a matter of fact, my doctor is HOT. I blush when he is looking in my mouth. Ha ha! How much do I love drooling and bleeding all over my doctor…so embarrassing. Anyway, he comes and gets me and first tells me that he is not going to put me in an exam chair, he needs to talk to me in this little private room on the side. He offers me water; I ask if I am going to need it. I mean, what on earth is he going to tell me? So, he then tells me that the biopsy came back stating that the thing he removed was a piece of bone which is very rare. He then admits his love for me and takes me right there on the table, oh, I mean, he then admits that he was a little scared that it was going to be bad news and was relieved when he got the results. So, I was happy and walked out, checked out the kittens in the Macy’s window from the SPCA and got myself a cookie and cappuccino at Neiman Marcus, sat and read my book for a while. I made my way back to Macy’s where Tim picked me up. Before he got to me I called Angela since she had tried me while I was in the store. We spoke for a while and she told me her sister has skin cancer. It rocked me. I felt sick all night. It was a weird day. I mean, I find out I don’t have cancer, but then find out someone very, very close to me has a sister who has cancer. I bring up a photo from my internal brain camera of dinner with her sister years ago, I remember her face and what she wore. I remember that she was cracking me up all night. I know she will get through this, I just feel awful though. Geeze, I would rather it have been me who had to go through that and not a 28 year old beautiful girl. Ugh, things happen for reasons we will never know. She is in my prayers and I know she is going to be fine. Tim and I go out for dinner at Max’s, I pick at my food. We go home; I have a good cry in the bath tub alone and go to bed. I sleep like a baby.

Thursday, I get to the court room and wait for everyone to get there. Why in the world can’t people be on time? You know, the two people that were late were in the Army, if they had been in the Marines they would have been on time! Ha ha, just kidding, well, kind of. So, they start the case and the entire thing in a nutshell without all of my personal input was, there was a man driving with a suspended license and he did not believe that it was suspended. The cop came in and someone from the DMV came in and it was obvious that the man had been notified. The twist was, you knew when he took the stand that he wasn’t right in the head, however, we couldn’t take that into consideration since it was not mentioned in the courtroom and was not on record. He was found guilty. The trial lasted a day and I was back to work the next day. Oh, one additional thing, I did have a nice lunch at Max’s (yes, I ate there again). I had a big salad and a glass of wine and sat next to a very vivacious 70 year old who was on her way to the symphony. She told me retirement is great and we got to talking and she knows one of my neighbors and was also familiar with the newsletter my aunt use to print when she was out here in the early 70’s. She was a librarian and was really active in the women’s movement. Super cool lady!

Friday, I went back to work and tried to catch up. It takes forever. Friday night I went to see my dear friend Sara’s calendar on display at San Francisco Center for the Book. It was an entire calendar show, it was fabulous and Tim and I did some Christmas shopping.

Saturday, I ran errands and then it was Apache time! We had to ride inside because it was pouring rain outside and thundering. The horses in the stable were acting very strange that night due to the weather, one kept knocking his foot against the side of his stall. Apache did really well. Learning the mechanics of a horse is not easy. Learning his idiosyncrasies is the hardest thing in the world. He bolted once, I just held on. I love him so much. We shared an apple after my ride. I would take a bite and then put it in my hand and he would eat it while I took a bite for myself. I love to spoil him. I walked him back to his stall in the rain and he slipped on one foot, it freaked me out, but I calmed when I realized he really didn’t even notice he slipped. When we got to his stall, I went in with him and took off his halter and kissed him on the nose and told him he was very good and I loved him. I shut the door and hung over the gate for a while and talked to him while we ate carrots.

Sunday, we put up our Christmas tree and cleaned house a bit so we could make room for the holiday décor. I usually change out my dishes and everything but didn’t do that this time. It was too much. Maybe next year. Our tree is plain and simple just like I like it. Bay-Lee is having fun trying to figure out why we have a tree in the house which is cute. He keeps trying to get on the table with the little tree but he can’t fit up there anymore.

Monday late afternoon after an offsite meeting in the city with AG (my boss). I went to SF MOMA to check out the Phil Collins video art installation (not Phil Collins from down under, the other one from the UK, the artist). He put up ads in Istanbul for a Smith’s Karaoke night and he filmed it. It is hilarious. It is like a train wreck, I got totally sucked in. It is worth checking out and good from some laughs. I also went to check out the Keifer exhibit, it was almost too dark for me, if that is it all possible. Lack of color and made me feel empty, blank and dark. It is called Heaven and Earth. It is interesting to read about his work though. My favorite besides the Phil Collins thing was the Alexander Girard exhibit, he used to design for Herman Miller, so things were very modern and colorful. It was a really nice way to finish off the day.

Now it is Wednesday. Tonight is the Women’s Committee Christmas Dinner and Gift Exchange at the Maltese American Social Club. Phew, that was a lot to get out. It should be fun. I am taking my camera, I hope to get some good shots.

I will be better about writing more often. Sorry to all my blog fans of which I am sure there are thousands, NOT!

Love you all!
The Maltese Kat

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