The After Party

After the official Christmas Party comes the After Party.


Just like last year, we headed over to one of the girls' houses to hang out and have "fun" ( think....Presidents and A$$hole$) until it was time to head out on the town.  By town, I mean St. Paul.  And by St. Paul, I mean Grand Ave. And the only thing on Grand Ave that has a DJ and dancing is, of course, The Wild Onion.


It wasn't fun as last year and I could blame it on my lack of sleep Thursday night.  I was falling asleep by midnight and we still have 2 hours left to go.  And it's also probably because I had that expectation that it's was going to be just as fun because other "fun" people would be there. But everyone else were big snoozers.  No big party groups.  Nobody cute to talk to or dance with.  Just private parties sitting in their booths, talking and drinking their red wine.  ♪ La la la la la .♪



Moving on.  We planned on spending the night at Crystal's house.  We brought our sleeping bags and pillows and were more than content with just sleeping on the floor.  When we got there C.'s husband, Joe,  had 3 blown up mattresses.  One of each of us.  And of course, one of us would take the couch.


Then in the morning, we got up and he shoveled off the mountain of snow off the driveway ( the association "sucks" per C.) so that he could get us McDonald's for breakfast.  Yet he didn't want our money to pay for it.  While we were eating, C. asked him where he got the air mattresses.  He said that he picked them up on the way back from dropping us off and blew them up while we were out.  And then when it was time to go, he dug out each of our cars....4 total.  And then dug out one of us again when she got stuck trying to get out of the guest parking and onto the main road. 

To describe J., I'm speechless.  How C. got so lucky to find this guy is beyond me, but they make the sweetest couple.  He was our sober-cab, he dropped us off and picked us up ( in the middle of a
snow-storm ).  He was our bed-maker, breakfast-getter and our AAA ( triple A ).  He just did those things because he was a nice guy.  In the words of Dana: "I Want One."

PD Christmas Party

This has just been an odd weekend to end an odd week.
I know I usually talk about work, work, work.  But I try to fit in fun time here and there.

This week at work was just a tiny bit stressful.  Having lunch on Friday with the girls we realized that we all thought that, and we agreed that the reason behind it was PMS.  We all were somewhere within it's phase.  Everyone had an attitude.  Everyone was pissed off.  Everyone was snippy.  I couldn't wait for the week to be done with.  I don't know how the 2 men doctors deal with so many women.  I'm going nuts and I AM a woman.

Having such a week made Friday afternoon/evening that much more fun.  It was our PD Chrismas Party.  We had a bowling/pizza party at Flaherty's and it was a competition between Roseville and Maplewood.  This was our first year of not going to a sit-down restaurant and just eating and talking.  We really didn't know what to expect. 

This was Maplewood's third year but first competition.  They had "teams" with matching puff paint shirts.  They had trophies they gave out.  They ended their day earlier so that they could get more bowling time.  They had 2 full hours ( from 4-6pm) while some of us from Roseville only had 45 minutes.  The trade secrets of how to get the max bowling time in weren't shared thus making the average scores for Maplewood higher.  Since they had almost 3 times as much bowling time and could rely on more than one score.  My score of 103 didn't count but my 69 did. 

Oh well, there's always next year.  We're gonna bring it.  It was the perfect way to release the stress and pent-up steam from working all day/week.  We might have to start a bowling league instead of just fuming at each other.

Yummy Treats

I'm home.  No worries about the roads or the weather.

The cookie exchange was a success.  Nine ladies showed up, one had to cancel last minute.  Some I knew, most I didn't.  But with a little coffee, apple cider and a cinnamon roll, and we were all friends. 

Now I have nine dozen cookies of different varieties to share throughout the holiday season.

Candy Cane Sugar Cookies

Cherrie Cookies

Peanut Butter Blossoms

Peanut Butter Pretzels

Peanut Butter & Ritz Sandwiches

Rice Crispie Marshmellows

Snickerdoodles

Spritz

Sugar Cookies

Ouch! ( Saturday, December 4, 2010 )

Pre-note:  I'm still Up North.

I just had to hand write 10 recipe cards for the cookie exchange.  I had forgotten that recipes were supposed to be included.  Whoops.

And I think my hand just fell off.

I don't know how I did it all those years in grade school.  I could never do so much penmanship ever again.  But in today's world, I suppose it's all about typing on a computer....like a blog.

I'd like to give a shout out to Mr. Miley.  If it weren't for him, I wouldn't be able to type either.

Snow Plows ( Friday, December 3, 2010 )

Pre note: I wrote this post Up North on scratch paper...with an actual pencil.  My parents still live in the stone-age and don't have a computer.  Therefore, I had to wait 'til I came home to post.

Four to nine inches of snow and eleven dozen cookies.

Mom may tell me to stay home for Thanksgiving because the roads are bad but a "little" snow isn't going to stop me from getting rid of eleven dozen cookies.  Saturday my mom's neighbor had a Christmas cookie exchange that my mom, sister and I decided to participate it.  So I had to make it Up North.

The roads in the cities were horrible.  It took me an hour to get to Hwy. 10.  One 5 cars could make it through a stop light before it turned red again.  Once we got on the highway, we were cruising at a speed of 45 mph.  Half way to my parents we got caught behind a snowplow and going at a max speed of 25 mph.  It was a two-lane highway so passing it was definitely not an option.  I'm a firm believer in Stay Back Stay Alive.

Another reason why we had to stay such a far distance behind was because the snow was so light, as it was pushed to the side, the wind picked it up and swirled it around.  It was like driving in a blizzard even though it had actually stopped snowing.

So a drive that should have taken 90 minutes actually took over 3 1/2 hours.  I'd rather drive in a tornado (as I did this summer) than to drive behind another snow plow.