here comes the rain again!

What started out as a little dinnertime prayer walk resulted in a run for cover! I'm trying to dry off a little bit before I have to go back out to the reference desk. Too bad I'm at work or I would have stayed out in the downpour. It's 60 degrees here... one day of a break before we go back to snow, snow, and more snow. I look like a wet poodle right about now.

We had a really nice Thanksgiving. Luckily I was feeling better and managed to cook a turkey, stuffing, corn casserole, garlic rosemary mashed potatoes, fruit cup, apple crisp... and Justin pitched in with his famous gourmet green bean casserole. Jerri brought over some homemade rolls, pumpkin pie from scratch, and her family's traditional macaroni salad. There were nine of us... me, Justin, Kevin, Tim, Jerri, Jerri's friend Jean who was visiting from Oregon, Peng and Xiaolei, and Carrie who unfortunately couldn't stay for dinner. I'm afraid that my inner Martha (as in Stewart, not Mary And) comes out at holidays. I love cooking, and I love setting the table. I was giggling like a little girl at the though of using my great grandmother's china and her cute little teacups. It was a bit frightening. I'm not sure if I'll ever understand my love of dishes, but such things are sometimes best left as a mystery!

Gretchen and I went Christmas shopping on Friday and I managed to get 90% of it done. It's a good thing we didn't go early... there were rumors of fist fights and carjacking at Wal-Mart in the wee hours of the morning. Nothing like the Christmas spirit I tell you!

Friday night Jerri's friend Jean had us over for a party. It was nice for me to be somewhere where girls were in the majority for once. :-) It was fun to catch up with Jeff & Kim and to get to know Jean and Xiaolei better. It was Jerri's birthday too, so Jeff and Tim came out of hiding in the back room for a few minutes to eat cake, then disappeared into the virtual world of Tiger Woods Golf again. Random whooping was about all we heard from them most of the night.

Saturday night Justin and I attended our first murder mystery party. It was a 50's theme; Justin had to dress up as a greasy mechanic and I was a chick named "Barby Q." (pic here!) If I get any pictures I will put them up. The highlight of the evening was Andy's impersonation of a drunken Russian rocket scientist, followed by a stellar karaoke performance a la Britney Spears. Just when you think you know Andy... he never fails to surprise! Speaking of karaoke, it took a few hours but we were finally treated to a number by Justin. His heartfelt rendition of that unfogettable classic Christian hair-metal hit, Stryper's "To Hell With The Devil," was something that words can't really describe. Even better was when Denise misread Stryper as "Stripper."