Can I just ask what is with this upside down christmas tree thing? Suddenly, this is a big trend this year, and to me it just sounds stupid. I mean, what's the point? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

Had a GREAT Thanksgiving with my sister, bro-in-law, and very tall and skinny adolescent nephew. I'm still having trouble believing he's old enough to be an adolescent because I have pictures of me holding him as a baby. And I wasn't that young in these pictures. Yeesh! My bro-in-law brought homemade rolls and two, count 'em, TWO sweet potato pies (both of which were gone before the end of the weekend, and out of both I only had one bite. Literally). We had dinner at lunch time and spent the next few hours laying on the couches, watching my dog and the dog we're keeping for a friend over the holiday play and wrestle and, very oddly, french kiss each other. Go to my sister's diary to see a photo of that.

In addition to lots of girl on girl doggie action this weekend, we also bought and put up lots of holiday decorations. I love that we have a hodge podge of both christmas and hannukah decorations (though, quite frankly, the christmas decorations outweigh the hannukah decorations by far. They just don't make many cute hannukah things to put around the house). Non also worked more on the dog house in our back yard (or the "doggie condo" as it has been dubbed). My parents are coming to stay with us for the holidays, and they keep joking that we're going to have them sleep in the dog house. At the rate it's going, that's not so far-fetched. This thing is going to be made better than our own house. This weekend, Non insulated it, put drywall up, and roofed it. All that's left to be done is the mudding of the drywall (yes, he's planning to do that) and the putting on of the roof shingles. Then we get to paint it all colorful and doggie-like. Look out, Snoopy... there's a new dog in town.

The weather here has been really bizarre. In the last few days we've gone from the biting cold in the mid-20s to windy/rainy and mid-60s. Today we have an icky, warm wind. It feels like Mother Nature is breathing on you when you go outside. Eeew. My sinuses aren't happy about the abrupt change, so I wish it would just pick a temperature and stick with it for a few days.

My company is flying me back to California for our annual meeting in a couple of weeks, which will be nice. I'll be there for two and a half days, but I really only have two evenings of free time, so I'm trying to carefully plan who I'll see. Getting together with Non's family is a given, but the friends I'll choose to set up a dinner with is up in the air right now. I'm waiting to hear back from a friend to see if she's available, and if not, it's on to Plan B. I have Plans through E right now, so I'm fairly confident that I'll have plans of SOME kind when I'm there. I'm flying back on a red eye and arriving home at 5:30 on a Wednesday morning. When I told Non that he said, "two words: Super Shuttle." Ah, the romantic splendor of marriage.