Pampered Chef Party

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Those who know me, know that I would never call myself a "Chef". So, I don't really have any business being at a Pampered Chef party, but I got an invitation and was happy to spend some lovely time with the ladies this afternoon.

We cooked some decadent strawberry puff pastries and had a great time chatting. I mentioned to the girls how much I desperately need time with them since I am surrounded by geeky tech guys all of the time. And one of the things that I shared is that it seems that the more I hang out with techies, the more I become like them and become kind of an introvert. I've always been very outgoing but have kind of come into my geek "shell" over the past decade.

Sometimes I have to remind myself of the more girly side of me and specifically tell myself to NOT mention geeky things like Star Wars and algorithms in front of the ladies. :) Luckily for me, these girls take me just as I am and put up with my geekiness. Today was a great time and left me feeling very refreshed and ready for the week to come...with the geeks. :)

Buster

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I looked down at the calendar today and noticed that today is January 22, which is the anniversary of when we lost our Grandma Buster last year. I've thought about her a lot over the year and have really missed her. Everytime I think about her, this is the picture that I remember the most. She had the best smile and had an infectious laugh. And I remember feeling at her beautiful memorial service that she had made a great impact on everyone in her life.

Although it just isn't right to not have her in our lives at this moment, I like to think that her legacy continues to live on in the Sweigarts. CJ and I miss her dearly and are honoring her memory today by talking about our favorite Buster moments.

And to our family that is hurting today because of the loss, CJ and I would like to give you a long distance e-hug. If you are comfortable doing so, please add a comment to this post and share one of your favorite Buster memories with us.

We love and miss you dearly Buster!

Camera Fun

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The other day at work, Ciege sent sent me a link to a great deal he found online for a really good digital camera. I've recently taken an interest in improving my digital photography skills and had expressed wanting to invest in a new camera and he was listening. Although one day I would still like to purchase a spendy $600+ SLR camera, this camera was very affordable and has some of the best specs on just a regular point and shoot camera out there.

So just yesterday the camera came in the mail and I've been taking pictures of EVERYTHING imaginable. I'm so excited with my new toy and can't wait to learn more about the manual settings on it and get really fancy. But for now, I'm just feeling spoiled and loved.

Here are some samples from my camera fun...


This is a picture of Bachie's favorite toy ever. When you squeeze the monkey, it sticks it's tongue out at him. I like to torment him with it by making the tongue hit his mouth but not letting him lunge at it. It really is more enjoyable than it sounds...trust me!


And here's my sweet little baby. I've been calling him "Horn" lately. Don't ask me where it came from. It is embarrassing all of the different nicknames that I call him. But as I've always said, "You don't pick your nicknames, they pick you". And luckily this sweetheart will respond to anything I call him.


Here is my underwater froggie at work. He is great and does lots of cool things in the tank while I'm working hard. He is the best little desk pet ever. There used to be a Beta fish in there with him, but he killed it because it was hogging up all of the bloodworms...or at least that is the story I tell everyone who comes by the desk.


Here's the Ciege at work and me trying out my "Sepia" setting on the camera. I'm not sure why he has such a serious look on his face, but I think he looks adorable. Notice that he has a headset on. This is how you will normally see him at work, on conference calls. He's working with a project team in Chicago so the guy is ALWAYS on the phone. And a lot of the time he is pacing the office area instead of sitting at his desk while he's on the phone.

Stay tuned for more random pictures...

This is where I was when...

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Yesterday when our nation elected the first ever African American President into office, I was sitting at my desk at work, headphones on, watching it live on my computer while chatting with my Facebook friends about the event. Wirestone hosted an "Inauguration Breakfast" here at work and encouraged us to watch so I had a guilt-free time watching this historic event. We had a conference room with a bunch of treats and a big LCD with live coverage but the room was so packed, I opted to watch at my desk like a true antisocial tech geek would do.

I thought I would post my thoughts about yesterday because it was such an impactful event to me. Let me first start by admitting that I didn't vote for Obama. Although I did come very close. I would identify myself as a Conservative Republican in general, but the party has just really let us down over the last few years. And the more I think about some of the issues, it is difficult to align myself with one party or the other. But there are a few issues that are very important to me and Obama happens to be on the opposite side of those issues. So for that reason, I couldn't bring myself to vote for him and ended up voting for McCain who I didn't really like at all. But I was really torn about my decision, and I have to admit that when Obama won, I was a little excited.

But yesterday wasn't really about the issues for me. And it really wasn't about if Obama was going to bring about change. Because what I saw yesterday was a country that was already in the process of great change. In my short life, I have never witnessed anything like this on a political level. I've never really believed in nationalism just for the sake of it, but I can tell you that yesterday I was really proud to be an American. It was moving to see the incredible numbers of people gathered to watch the Inauguration and I can't remember a moment when our country has been this united. There have been very few moments when I have been "proud" to be an American, but this was one of them.

Yesterday was a win for our country on so many levels. I love to see that we're finally getting beyond our ugly racist past. I love to see Americans excited again about Democracy. And most of all I love that for that one moment yesterday I wasn't feeling cynical about politics. We have been let down time and time again by our leaders and it was so nice, at that moment, to be overwhelming proud and behind our leader, and hopeful for change. And if yesterday was any indication of what the next four years will be like, I'm ready for this "change" that Obama brings.

Weekend Recap

Friday - We worked a little late (7pm) and then we went home and relaxed on the couch with some movies we rented from Netflix. We were somehow very exhausted from our work week so we found ourselves falling asleep and took the opportunity to get to bed a little early.

Saturday - We enjoyed breakfast out with my Mom and "D". We originally had planned to take them to "Donnie Mac's Trailer Park Cuisine" restaurant for breakfast, but that place doesn't open until 10:30am, so we ended up at an equally trailer-park'ish place called the "Chef's Hut". We enjoyed some old fashioned biscuits and gravy, a very low scale atmosphere and ambiance, and great conversation with Mom & "D". It was fun to see them and hang out, however I must confess that I was a little cranky that morning. I just felt pretty rusty until about noon on Saturday.

When we got home from breakfast, I got busy cleaning the house which included hand washing the world's biggest mound of dishes. We've got a broken dishwasher so not only is doing the dishes a bigger chore than usual, I am procrastinating it twice as much as usual.

We've determined that the DW is broken and we're not in the mood to hassle with fixing it, so we need to look for a new one. But the fact that we haven't already purchased a new one is really my fault because I am procrastinating that too. :) I always feel that I have to do a full blown consumer reports study on anything that we buy, so it is always a tedious process to buying a new appliance. Maybe that is something I should work on next week... :)

After some household chores, we settled in for the evening with a Papa Murphy's pizza and some yummy apple pie. We've agreed to "treat" ourselves once per week if we're good about eating healthily during the week. And we did pretty good this week, so Saturday was our cheat day. Craig, Nona, and the kids dropped by our house because they were in the area so we played a little Playstation 3 NBA, and visited with them for about an hour or so. Afterwards, CJ and I snuggled and watched another Netflix movie online.

Sunday - Today has been a relaxing and lazy day. We didn't get up until 10'ish even though I had set the alarm clock to wake us at 8. We (I) snoozed that alarm for a full two hours and then eventually drug our sorry selves out of bed for the day. We relaxed all morning in our PJs and then we got dressed and went over to Nona & Craig's for some football...which ended up turning out to be watching an old Elvis movie.

Oh, and one more thing...Today is my Uncle Mark's birthday! Happy Birthday Uncle Mark! :)

Rare Treat

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I just love Fridays. I love the anticipation of the weekend almost more than the weekend itself! Fridays are most certainly my favorite day of the week and I loved the mood around the office today.

Also, today was a great day because I had the rare treat today of having lunch out with my close friend Kendra. I had so much fun catching up with her and hearing about her great adventures. She is the busiest person I know so it is always a lot of fun to hear about what she has been up to. The only downside was that I was on a lunch break so I didn't get a chance to spend nearly as much time with her as I wanted, but it was great to reconnect with her after the holiday craziness.

The Sweigart's plans for this weekend are to cherish every moment of it, relax a lot, have breakfast tomorrow with my Mom & "D", watch some great movies, do some computing projects, and catch up on the remaining chores that I have been procrastinating. I can't wait! :)

Snowing again?

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This is the worst winter ever! Ciege and I are not snow people at all. We're definitely not the type of people who appreciate the "four seasons". I admit that I enjoyed the white stuff during Christmas, and even enjoyed making the snowgloo, but enough is enough already! I can only be optimistic about the snowy cold bad driving madness for so long. :)

But at least Ciege is always willing to shovel the drive for us in the morning before work. For now I'll take comfort in that.

Sweigart Gift Exchange

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Since we spent our Christmas in Seattle this year, we decided to postpone our gift exchange with Craig's immediate family until New Years day. Nona made "Mama soup" which is a yummy cheesy potatoey soup, and DL played the role of "Santa" and handed out gifts to each of us. Joseph got "Guitar Hero" for the Wii, so the family spent most of the day playing and relaxing. I attempted a Gingerbread house which even with a kit turned out pretty sloppy.

But we had a great time with the family and it was especially fun to have an extra Christmas celebration this year. Here are some pictures....

Bachelor opened the yummiest bone ever! This candycane bone had meat woven in it and Bachelor loved it. Unfortunately it caused him to have terrible gas for days!

DL gets a much needed mouse pad for the home computer.

Theresa gets a new MP3 player.

Ciege gets a funny bobble head doll of a local news celebrity. (and lots of other goodies not pictured)

I get a great desk/stand for my laptop. (and lots of other goodies not pictured)

Nona gets a new popcorn popper.

Joseph gets the Guitar Hero game.

And here is the sloppy Gingerbread house I made.

New Years 2009

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We had a great time ringing in the New Years with our friends Sean & Kendra, and Phil and Nicole, and Sarah tonight.

Sean and Kendra held a great little get together at their house and we spent the night snacking, chatting, and playing a very competitive game of "Nertz" card game. We loved it and had such a great time. We had so much fun that it is after 3am and I can't yet fall asleep so I thought I'd get right on this blog post.

We're very excited to be welcoming a new year this year. It seemed like everyone else we hung out with tonight felt the same. Although I've had worse years (by far) than 2008, I'm excited to start a brand new year. I love new beginnings. And eventhough I always fail at my "New Years Resolutions" in some way or another, I will always make them. I think it is important to continue to create goals...try again if you fail until you eventually succeed. So I've got some resolutions on my mind tonight and I'm hoping that this year I might do a little better at following through on my goals.

Here are some pictures from tonight's celebration:










Happy New Years Everyone!