Hello, and Merry Christmas!

Just a brief update from Amandaland: I was not particularly nice this year, but Santa was generous anyway. Many thanks to friends and family for the lovely gifts! (Highlights include a breadmaker, fishnet tights, some beautiful photos, and CDs and DVDs from my wishlist.) As far as gift giving goes, the most memorable gift I gave this year is a cowboy-oriented quilted wallhanging for my uncle. Yet another of my projects finally completed, yay!

Regarding homebaked holiday treats...well, that didn't really happen this year. I baked sugar cookies a few days ago, and made chocolate pecan fudge today. However, the dinner menus were pretty good. Christmas Eve we had mesclun salad, cream of watercress soup with pan-seared scallops, gnocchi with sun-dried tomato sauce, lemon sorbet as a palate refresher, a main course of green beans and roast beef tenderloin with porcini mushrooms, and upside-down German chocolate cake for dessert. Christmas dinner was planned as a big meal, but we ended up simplifying to just green beens and roasted Cornish hens with wild rice stuffing. Loads of leftovers!

It's been a full day, it's going on midnight, so I'll end this post. Hope you all had a wonderful, happy and healthy Christmas!!!

December 22, 2001

In my neighborhood, Santa travels by fire truck! A few days before Christmas every year, the local volunteer firefighters dress as Santa/Santa's helpers and drive a couple of trucks through the neighborhoods to hand out candy canes to kids. Most years we miss this because we've traveled to Ohio for the holidays, but we spent Christmas at home this year and so we saw Santa on the fire truck. For an added bonus, this year my friend and her daughter were at my house baking cookies when Santa arrived, so we rushed outside and took a few pictures.

It's the little unexpected niceties such as this that I really like about the holiday season!

December 16, 2001

We're in full-blown holiday mode now! The tree is up and decorated, the gift shopping is 90% finished and 60% wrapped, and festive menus are being planned.

This afternoon we tried to gather up the pets for a photo in front of the tree. At one point we had all three cats poised to pose, but 2/3 of them fled the scene when we tried to add the dog. Sooo...it's just Toby and Mia in this photo.

Happy holidays, everyone!

December 14, 2001

Long time, no update! It has been a very busy past couple of weeks here at Camp Cheezwerks, and not particularly newsworthy. Updates will be happening more frequently for the rest of the month, so please check back soon---I promise not to disappoint! In the meantime, here's a picture of a few coworkers at the company holiday party on Thursday, December 13th. Whee! For those of you who haven't read my bio, I work in the research department of my company, as do all coworkers pictured here.

November 29, 2001

Howdy, kids! We just got back from several days in the Windy City---yes, Chicago! Had a fabulous vacation, despite the fact that Sean was stuck working at a conference most of the time. I spent most days on my own, and met up with folks for dinner in the evenings.

Daytime highlights include finishing reading Bitch (funny story: on the flight to Chicago I sat next to an Asian business man who asked me *what* was I reading, and why?!), walking all the way to Nordstrom and a few other shops for holiday shopping, touring the Museum of Contemporary Photography (my favorite piece was a video of a bald guy bashing his head against a microphone), and visiting the Art Institute with Sean one afternoon. The photo above is a lion statue---part of a pair---that was in front of the Art Institute.

Evening highlights were dinner at Gino's East (where patrons sign their names on the walls and decorations), the turtle cheesecake at the Chicago Chophouse, and too much wine at Tutto Italiano! Also enjoyed the crazy taxi rides at dangerous speeds...

More pictures of the trip are posted on the Adventures page. Email me if you need a login and password!

November 22, 2001

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Hopefully everyone had a safe, happy and completely satisfying Turkey Day... The above is a picture of my family, taken right after dinner this evening. Everybody is here except for Matt and Great Aunt Elaine.

November 15, 2001

Oh, looky! We got a new car! And it's a CUTE car, too!

A few weeks ago, we received the not-so-sad news that our 1993 Grand Caravan (a.k.a. the "Geezermobile") would be expensive to repair and probably wouldn't last much longer anyway. Thus began the newest chapter in Cheezleton Car Shopping.

In 5.5 years of marriage, Sean and I have owned:

• A 1985 Honda Accord hatchback
  
• A 1987 YELLOW Dodge Reliant station wagon (the "Cheez")
  
• A Honda Magna motorcycle, which spent a lot of time alone
  
• A 1997 Chevy Cavalier, no options, no toys, no fun---an "early marriage poverty" car (which we still have)
  
• the aforementioned 1993 minivan...silver on the outside, maroon on the inside, very "alien autopsy".

November 5, 2001

This truck passed by Sean while he was driving home from work, and he was able to grab the camera quickly enough to take a picture!

Now would be a good time to explain how this website got its name. For those of you who don't know, "cheezwerks" came from a family joke. While growing up, my brother and I used to criticize our parents for their cheapness, or "cheeziness". When they did something that was obviously cheap, we called it a "cheezwerks production". I always said that if I had a business of my own, I would call it "Cheezwerks Productions". Well, I don't have a business, but I have a personal webpage.

November 4, 2001

People always ask us how the dog gets along with our three cats. We always answer that Toby doesn't get along with the two younger cats, but he has a strange friendship with our oldest cat, Mia.

This evening Mia slunk into Toby's crate and settled down for a nap. Toby didn't bother her until he had a spat with the middle cat, then he crawled into the crate and attempted to snuggle with Mia...I guess he wanted someone to lick his wounds. Mia is a tolerant cat, and she put up with Toby just long enough for me to find the digital camera and take this picture.

October 31, 2001

Happy Halloween!

We finally found time to carve our pumpkins last night. I had no concept when I strted on the little pumpkin, but it worked out to be a cat face...sort of. By special request, Sean carved an American flag (very proportionate, he used rulers and guidelines!) instead of the Celtic design that he prefers.

Bring on the trick-or-treaters!

October 28, 2001

It's the Amandaland Weekend Update!

Our new digital camera (a Nikon Coolpix 995) was delivered on Thursday, so Friday night we set up a makeshift photography studio and tried out the camera and some of its features. Sean took the picture posted here...email me if you want to see more pics from that experimental session. (By the way, we are now selling our other digital camera, a Hewlett Packard C200, complete with case, software, cables for uploading, etc. Make us an offer...)

On Saturday we spent most of the day working on the mundane chores of life, and then watched movies ("Quills" and "From Hell") with friends in the evening.

Today we took the poodle for a walk around Centennial Lake and were extremely embarassed by his noisiness. Usually he's so well behaved...but then again we usually go hiking in the woods rather than plodding around a heavily-traveled asphalt path.

It's after dinner now and we're finishing up some of Saturday's mundane chores. Woo hoo!

October 24, 2001

For those of you who are riveted to this site waiting for the latest update, sorry for the delay! I've been a little busy this week finishing a quilted wallhanging (see photo, send compliments).

Let's see...what else is new in Amandaland this week? Well, I picked up pumpkins on Sunday, but haven't carved them yet. On Monday I went to Borders for coffee and general browsing, and purchased a birthday card and gift for a friend. Tuesday evening I finished the wallhanging. Tonight we stopped by the local coffeehouse, then I spent too many hours parked in front of the computer. Now it's time to exercise and listen to old CDs!

October 18, 2001

On the road between home and work, there is an assisted living community. It's rare that I see anybody coming in or leaving from there, but occasionally some of the old folks get out for walks along the road.

Yesterday at lunchtime I saw an old man with a small suitcase standing out by the curb. The road is not on a bus route... If someone was coming to pick him up, wonder why they didn't pick him up at the door?

October 16, 2001

Here it is, the actual handmade quilt that we gave to my cousin for a wedding gift. Fits a queen-sized bed, as you can clearly see in the picture. It was a hell of a lot of work, including 7 hours of handsewing in the car as we drove to Ohio the day before the wedding.

So THERE, I finished a project.

I'm currently working on a very vibrant wallhanging that will eventually occupy a large blank wall in the top floor stairwell of my house.

October 14, 2001

We just returned from a weekend in Columbus, Ohio. The featured event this weekend was my cousin's wedding. Traci and I are the same age and although we sometimes saw each other only once a year at Christmas, we have kept in touch through letters, email and phone calls. I was her matron of honor, which involves a lot of "dress fluffing" and holding various objects for the bride during the ceremony. It's a very serious responsibility.

Traci and her groom, Jeff, met four years ago while chaperoning a high school trip out west. They got engaged this year around Valentine's Day, and eight months plus loads of wedding preparations later, they finally made it to The Big Day.

Traci was radiant, Jeff looked very happy, and the wedding came off without a hitch. It was good to see all of the relatives again, especially for such a happy occasion. One unique idea was that the reception tables were named for significant symbols and events from Traci and Jeff's lives, and the inside the table name cards they had written the stories behind the table names. Another cool thing was that we received daffodil bulbs as reception favors.

We brought along our digital camera and managed to get a few pictures throughout the weekend. Here are two of my favorites: Traci and Jeff in front of a stained glass window in the chapel where they were married, and my brother Matt and me after the ceremony.

Congratulations, Traci and Jeff!

October 11, 2001

Of few of my Emode test results, in random order:


• My theme song: "Groove is in the Heart", Deee-Lite
  
• My color: Brown
  
• What breed of dog am I?: Chihuahua
  
• What "Friend" am I?: Rachel

October 9, 2001

A note for the clueless: apologies seem much more sincere when (1) they're delivered right after the incident instead of days later when you finally get around to it, which was probably at someone else's suggestion anyway, (2) they don't contain the word "but" followed by an explanation of how I caused your behavior, and (3) you don't try to downplay the seriousness of the offense. That's not an apology, that's simply defending your position.

There's a whole lot more I'd like to say to you, but I think I've wasted enough of my time. In fact, 9 years.

October 8, 2001

The horrible knowledge I accumulated over the course of the weekend has led me to seriously reconsider my criteria for "friend". I'm so disgusted with so many people that I know.

October 2, 2001

Okay, here's a picture that my friend Sharon took of her daughter and me at the Renaissance Festival on Sunday. Yes, I know my eyes are closed. I thought the kid is cute enough to warrant posting the picture.

Sunday was a nice day; the rest of the week has been an uphill struggle. First of all, I've been sick since Sunday night with what I thought was food poisoning, and that's starting to get scary. Then this afternoon, while feeling a rare compulsion to do what's right, I stepped back so that two friends can figure out on their own if they should pursue a relationship with each other. (What I *want* to do is basically the exact opposite of "what's right". I guess I'm demonstrating maturity here...frankly, it sucks. ) Finally, this evening I got the news that my mother's father died, and although I have major fun events planned for the weekend, I know that the right thing to do (see? there it is again!) is to travel to OH to attend the funeral and provide moral support to my mom.

That's about all I can handle this week; please, no more challenges.