Thanksgiving came and went:-(.. and our 4 days off is almost over..how sad. Back to work but 4 weeks and we get to do it all over again so something to look forward to. As usual we had dimsum in the morning then an amazing dinner with family at my GooGoos.. we had 2 turkeys (so I can have leftovers:-)), prime rib, fried oysters, fried mushrooms, egg rolls, stickey rice, 2 salads, chicken wings, spareribs, potatoes..Chinese style thanksgiving:-).. oh and noodles..can't forget the noodles.. I made a strawberry cheesecake.. it went over well I think.. but our stupid oven wouldnt work on thanksgiving day and Brian was going to bake cookies for Jordan to take to Jenny in Boston.. he and Kit took off at midnight after dinner to go see Jenny ..so we took them over to GooGoos and made them there..worked out okay.. and today it decided it will work so go figure..stupid Kitchenaid - sure looks nice but living up to its name.. Anyhow, got done with dinner, got home around 10:30pm.. Jessica, Jaime, and Kelley did the midnight shopping thing.. We decided to stay home and not deal with it after spending 2 hours in traffic last year. Instead we set our alarm for 5am so we can go to Home Depot and get Brian the Rigid Tablesaw he's been wanting to get..well he really wanted the Bosch but Rigid is good too not to mention they had the black Friday special on it for about 200bucks off retail.. woohoo.. so alarm goes off, he decided, nah, too tired to get up.. so Stanley gets up at 6am (our usual time) and he wakes us both up so we decide to jump in the car.. we get in, see a big empty hole where the Rigids were and a guy carrying 2 out and 2 more on someone's cart..darn we missed it.. Brian kicks the empty cubby..but wait! there are 4 more says the salesman..woohoo! we loaded it, got some coffee..home before 7am so we decide to go out and shop! First time in a long time I actually shopped on Black Friday and it wasn't too bad..we got some gifts and some stuff for ourselves too:-).. The rest of the holiday weekend, I chilled and Brian did a bunch of housework.. cleaned out his garage for his new saw:-), put up more insulation under the crawl - house is so much warmer now..especially the kitchen, amazing difference.. and hung lights.. I'll have to take a picture of that some day..just sad that this whole holiday went way too fast

Oh Markane, I was going to take photos of the food for you but oops, got there, hungry, ate and forgot..haha..so heres a picture of what I did with the leftovers instead..turkey pot pie...mmmm..not bad for my first pot pie.. Enjoy!

new Rigid tablesaw.. not sure what it does but Brian promises me very nice bookcases, a coffee table, maybe an entertainment armour..hmm..we'll see:-)

Very late but here are some photos of the progress on the siding from a month ago:-)

conduit and junction box before.. ick:-(

voila, all gone.. we filled that space in with more siding..just like it was never there.. also got rid of row of conduit on the other side by doing this:-).. happy happy

tada! done.. just needs paint.. a plant to hide the junction box...done

A picture from our after Halloween bash at the Red Rock.. Evil HR Fairy:-)

some pictures of the awesome suite at Red Rock.. didn't get very good photos so these are the only 2 that came out.. the big window has amazing views of the I guess the Red rocks? who knows.

Wow, has it been almost 2 months? So as expected we didn't finish the siding..the cold, wet season came on us sooner then we thought so its next spring. We are missing just 1 side! so close but it'll be great when its done next year. We need to finish the one side, paint and redo the trim. At least I chose a paint color.. bought the paint too but never got around to it.. oh well. Electrical got done..went the cheaper route. I may regret it again one day but it was too much money to shell out and plus now the back looks good which was my main concern. The other stuff.. well like JOhnny said, nothing a couple of plants wont hide:-). Actually main reason we didn't do it is because we couldn't get the electricians to agree on what was code.. yes we can move the meter by the gas meter or no we can't.. and if we did it and the city says no, we're out of luck..given that, we decided not to. Got some of my uncle's electrician friends to come out and m ove the junction box in the back under the crawl and got rid of a bunch of conduit which helped quite a bit..still an ugly meter and breaker box outside with an elbow sticking up but I'll get over it..think big tall trees..yes, next year. 100 bucks for trees or 2K for electrical work.. I like the trees..hehe..
What else has been going on.. lets see..lots of travel. BC, then went to Vegas, did the regional mtg thing.. so hectic but it was great. I had a suite at the Red Rock.. oh my goodness was it gorgeous. Brian came down and while I was working he got to enjoy the suite and the pool and the gorgeous weather..80s durign the day. Then my folks plus my 2 aunties came down and we moved to the strip. Shopped, ate and did the Mandalay Bay spa.. it was awesome. They've never done the spa and I think they enjoyed it.. we had a great time. Got me a new purse which I have yet to decide if I'll keep.. then came home, 1 day off, then back off to San Diego for 3 days. This time we stayed at the W Hotel.. awesome! most comfortable beds I've ever slept in in a hotel.. so spoiled.. thats 3 awesome hotels in a roll now that I've stayed in and loved.. no more Marriots..haha.. and Thanksgiving is next week. I am making my usual cheesecake and some salad..can't wait. Can't believe the year is flying by. I love the holidays and I'm going to try to slow down and enjoy it:-)