Ladies Who Lunch – The T Room

Let the annual Christmas luncheon begin!  All the SoCal coworkers convened at The T Room in Montrose for a lovely meal and delicious teas. The new White Christmas tea was a big hit…very light and flavorful.

Yes, I do like tea ware. I can’t help it!

The women who run The T Room are always so welcoming. And look at this spread!

My former office-mate, OneL, and I. Miss chatting with her daily, but not driving down to the office is pretty fab.

Peachy brought her daughter. She was born two months after I started working there, so I always know… She’s about to turn 16 already!

Secret Santa gifts abound. Fun tokens of our appreciation for one another.

Feeling lucky to have found such interesting work (I am an info geek, I admit it) and such a compassionate company to work for.  The only things missing were the lovely faces of the other two staffers who are in Massachusetts and Toronto!

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Happy Holidays!

There!  I said it!

There have been harvest feasts like  Thanksgiving since way before Europeans stumbled into North America. Likewise spring celebrations of rebirth and fertility.

Winter festivals probably began shortly after folks figured out that the days stop getting shorter and start getting longer on the winter solstice. Religions hang their banners on these astronomically and agriculturally significant dates because lives really did depend on figuring out when it was safe to plant or about time to hunker down for a lean season.

I love the lights, the candles, the symbols of various faiths that celebrate stories that have comforted and guided groups of people for centuries.

Call me an atheist softy–my spiritual feelings revolve around nature rather than organized religion–but I think it’s important to stop the tumble of our daily lives to express gratitude, and love and wonder at the continuous unfolding of the universe.

Here’s to the best of our faiths and philosophies rising to the surface in the dark midwinter.

Happy Holidays.

How to wish SallyKitt a Happy Birthday Jan 16th!

“I am flattered and encouraged by all the wonderful messages I received today!”

This is from an entry I made over on the goal-setting site, 43Things. I was invited onto the team to wish myself a happy birthday today! This is my report on how to do it for oneself.

How I did it: Signed up for the goal. Responded to everyone who wrote to me.

Had a very productive day at work, which felt good.

Offline, I didn’t get bummed out that we might not feel up to celebrating on my birthday. Good thing, because it turned out that we went to our favorite sushi bar for a wonderful dinner. Tried several new rolls, drank hot sake, chatted with others at the sushi bar a bit. Hydra told them it was my birthday so our chef made me a really gorgeous tempura ice cream dessert, and everyone sang happy birthday. There were more calls of happy birthday as we left.

Lessons & tips:

Don’t focus on what you haven’t done by your Nth birthday. What good’s that? (And there are the hours between midnight and dawn for that anyway!)

If you are a bit of a regular at a restaurant, consider going there rather than a new place for your birthday meal. It really was nice to have the sushi chefs who have made us great meals all year long celebrate along with us.

Don’t set the bar for satisfaction too high. Really enjoy everything that comes your way.

Tell people it’s your birthday if it matters to you. Pouting about no one noticing is no fun for anyone!

Resources:

My husband, my mother, my sister and brothers, my online friends at 43T and Facebook, my co-workers, my brick-and-mortar friends who called or emailed or sent cards.

It took me 1 day.

It made me Happy & warm

If you’re interested, you can see how we celebrate on 43 Things..by sending virtual gifts!

See more progress on: Wish SallyKitt a Happy Birthday Jan 16th!

Oh, and yes! That’s Hydra’s gift to me. The new Photoshop Elements/Adobe Premiere 7 software…which I used to enhance the photo, of course!

There’s Got to Be a Morning After – Sunday 5/18/2008

Yeah, we stayed up late last night talking with our friends after the celebration was over. And then went to our own room at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Arcadia.

They had all kinds of cute little notes like this around the room.

This is part of the courtyard within the hotel. We enjoyed the complementary breakfast served on the other side of the pond in the company of our friends and their family. Really lovely way to start the day.

This ramp was the scene of an interesting bit of playfulness with B’s wheelchair (she’s recovering from another foot surgery months after her car accident.) B’s husband and previously married son were involved, and that’s all I’m saying!

We said our goodbyes and headed homeward.

Yeah, that’s a helicopter landing next to Angeles Forest Highway. A motorcyclist went down around an inside curve. We saw the helicopter going in for a landing and waited with a few other drivers while they loaded the rider up and flew him out.

Another rider, who hadn’t been with the group that included the downed rider said, “Why do we see so many Harleys wrecked?” They weren’t riding Harleys.

The guy was really lucky that he was riding with others who could call in the accident, and that there was a landing pad right there.

Happy Anniversary! – Wednesday 8/8/2007

We went to Vincent Hill Station in Acton to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary. Yikes. It’s astonishing to think we have towels that are older than Lindsay Lohan. Thank goodness they are better behaved.

Don’t judge! These crab stuffed mushrooms were actually much better than they look. In fact, they were the best part of the meal.

Vincent Hill Station looks better in the dark when the interior glows with firelight, which it has been when we’ve gone there before, for my birthday. The service was actually very disappointing and the food was just okay.

I think the combination of the France trip and watching Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares (which is miles and miles superior to his trashy Fox-TV series Hell’s Kitchen) have spoiled us for prepackaged or frozen foods at high prices.

The flowers Hydra brought home with him. Cheery!

Pre-Peepapalooza Excitment Abounds – Thursday 4/5/2007

Momalisa brought in cute plastic bunnies stuffed with mini-M&Ms and Peeps sucker-rigns for each of us! She’s been off sweets for lent, but that doesn’t stop her from spreading the joy.

My friend TorontoM started Peepapolooza years ago, when she worked side by side with the rest of us, before moving to the new office in Toronto. It involves capturing unsuspecting Peeps, gathering coworkers and ritualistically microwaving the Peeps into utter sugary submission.

Seriously, you have not lived until you’ve consumed a hot Peep.

I will be posting the results of our own Peepapolooza sometime after we actually do it on Monday. Until then, if you want to experience it for yourself, here are instructions. (I like that “How to clean a microwave” is a related link on this page!)

Dude! When I went looking, I discovered Peep Jousting on Wikipedia. This truly twisted event must be added to Monday’s event schedule!

Rose Parade : Part 2 – Monday 1/1/2007

Light in leaves on the side street in Pasadena where B&J parked their car. A resident assured us that we could leave it there while we went to view the floats. What a pleasant town.

I got a kick out of seeing this on the sidewalk. Yeah, I get a kick out of odd things sometimes. But you see this used in various motifs in the Craftsman architecture and decor that is so prominent in Pasadena. Like, in ceramic tile patterns or as newel posts.

I like this one because it has easily recognizable components. Limes, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, beans, etc. This is from the viewing area at Pasadena High School.

Up close and personal with a Native American headdress.

The sky was so gorgeous that day!