It's All About Me...

New Year

It has been a crazy holiday season and we are finally going back to our regular routine. First there was the windstorm the week before Christmas which put the entire Eastside into almost complete standstill. Trees and power lines went down and over a million homes lost power, including us.

The morning after the storm, we found part of our neighbor's tree on our driveway: 20+ feet of the top of the tree came down and landed less than 6 feet from our car! It blocked the driveway in front of the garage, so I took the wagon to work. West Lake Sammamish Parkway was closed and it took me almost an hour to get to the hospital, only to find that there was no power and the place was closed. I hung around for a little bit and helped cleared some of the debris off the parking lot. It took me another hour and a bit to get home. Dan got back shortly after I did; we packed up the car and headed north for the weekend. As he kept telling everyone: there is no power in this country, so we're outta here!

We had a good weekend: we had power at the apartment, did Santa run and visited the Kirste-Yees and Kontogiannis, saw both parental units including having dim sum at Kirin and seeing Leonard and family... By the time we got home on Sunday, our house was nice and warm and the power was back. We were amongst the lucky ones as some people were without power up until Christmas!

The week before Christmas was a short one for me and I had 4 days off that weekend (even though I had to go into work for treatments on Christmas Day). Dan's parents came down to visit and we had a nice relaxing time. We also bought ourselves a plasma TV and the console/hutch for it before the in-laws arrived, so we spent a lot of the weekend watching movie and TV, just admiring our new acquisition! I was fighting a bad cold which developed into bronchitis the whole time, but I still had a good weekend nonetheless.

The 'work week' after Christmas was a bit of a write-off for me: I worked 2 days after Christmas and then we were off for our ski-trip in Big White. We drove up to New Westminster on Wednesday evening and headed to the interior on Thursdays morning. There was white-out condition with high winds on Wednesday in Big White, but by Thrusday, the clouds had cleared up and it remained beautiful during our 5 days there.

We had a great time playing in the snow and hanging out with Hock Lai, Sue and the kids. We also saw Hock's friends, Jon and Roishin and their kids again. The snow condition was awesome and we had a great time snowboarding. I didn't head up the 'the cliff' with the boys, but I think it was a wise choice as I had a lot of trouble going through the trees.

We went snowshoeing on our second full day there and took Gander with us. He had a great time frolicking in the snow and was a trooper even when he had to 'swim' through chest-deep powder. He also was a rock star when it came to being off leash most of the time even when there were people skiing past and dogs on leash nearby. I was really proud of him and the kids loved playing with him.

While we were there, we joined the feeding frenzy: we put an offer on a condo that is planned to be finished by the end of this month. Almost everyone we met during those 5 days were either putting on offer or something or seriously considering buying sometime up in Big White. We are now in the process of getting also the financing and legal paperwork together. We are heading back up again this weekend to meet with a banker. We shall see how things pan out!

Things are getting back to routine at work. It is tough to see an empty desk next to me: Mary is now officially gone and we have yet to see if we will get a new doctor. We are busy enough at the moment and are not rushed off our feet, so it is very likely that we will function as a 4-DVM practice for a while. But honestly, busy is good for me as we will have to start paying a new mortgage in the not-so-distant future!!

Just when we have a new financial responsibility to bear, I decided to pursue a 'passion' that I've always had.... and of course it will cost money!! Ever since I was young, I have a thing for 'collecting' books. I do my best to buy the same 'version' of books by the same author and even when I buy used books, I like to see that they are in decent conditions etc. etc. I have never collected first editions or know much about real book collection, but a few books I read recently was about the book trade and watching Antique Roadshow and similar shows sort of piqued my interest in starting to collect books for real. I will start small and collect signed first editions of works of contemporary writers that I like and see where it takes me (hopefully, not the poorhouse).

posted by Anne-Gigi @ 4:29 PM