You're probably wondering where the rest of the Key West photo essay is…..truth be told, I am too. I'm also wondering why I dragged my ass all the way to Tigard to an empty office when I could have worked from the comfort of my couch and watched movies at the same time. Evidently I am one of two employees of the entire H&K work force that decided to show up today. Lucky me, at least I won't be getting any stupid e-mails today.

The weekend in Seattle was the drunken drunkard-fest I expected. The game was fun, after which Rusty and I wandered around the city on foot (and in our Seahawks rain ponchos, always fashionable) and stopped in the nicest hotel in town to drink more (!) and eat a dozen oysters. It is reported that I told a strange woman at the bar that I had a "fucking asshole dog" and that I told the Roommate "My joke is 7. Isn't that funny?!?!? 7!" or some such thing. Evidently he didn't get it. I also reportedly fell down once, and if the sore elbow is any evidence, I guess I did. In spite of all this fun and booze when Christmas morning rolled around it didn't really feel like Christmas; I woke up with a hang over (that part felt like Xmas) and then ate the biggest chicken fried chicken dinner at the 5 Point (for breakfast, mind you) with Miss Sarah, Rusty and Jonesy----this after having already eaten 3 tangerines and one orange. This gorge-fest was followed by a nice uneventful drive south back to Portland. The most amazing thing about the weekend was that Rufus behaved himself, except for the growling-in-Jonesy's-face-while-he-slept incident. Other than that he was mommy's little angel.

Yesterday I cooked a 20 pound turkey and had dinner ready and waiting for the Roommate's arrival home from Canada. We ate, drank champagne cocktails and opened presents----and then it finally felt like Christmas. I got a lot of great presents (shopping spree at an art supply store from Rusty and Sarah and sea-monkey boots from the Roommate!) but I guess the best present of all would have to be my great friends, who are pretty much my family here in the Pacific Northwest. God bless us, everyone! Next stop is New Years Eve and then jumping on that resolution list. I am bound and determined to have a better '07 than '06 was, cause this year kinda sucked.

Hope you all had a great Christmas! Only a few more days and we can put the holidays behind us. Hang in there, baby.