Monday, November 29, 2010

This Year, I Will Best Winter; Not the Other Way Around

I have winter beat this year! New coat and new down comforter and duvet. After half an hour and lots of help from Lily the comforter is in the duvet and on the bed.


600 fill power -- take that cold winter weather!

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Thanksgiving Holiday

I had a lovely Thanksgiving holiday with my family in Connecticut.


I went down on Wednesday, so make my annual trip to Connecticut Valley Hospital where both of my parents work. I went out to lunch with Mom and her co-workers -- a bit of a celebratory meal in honor of their intern for the past twelve weeks who was leaving. After lunch, I attended one of the group sessions on the ward. I have visited a number of time now and know some of the clients and like making a brief visit.

After that it was off to Bethany to go to the Gold's Gym in New Haven with Greg. That gym is the fittest gym ever! It's about 95% men with gigantic muscles. They look so fit that they inspire me to work out hard. Plus, practically everyone there is friends with Greg and super nice.

On Thursday, after briefly watching the parade and another trip with Greg to Gold's Gym, Mom, Greg, and I headed over to Aunt Geraldine and Uncle Jimmy's for Thanksgiving. Dozer, the puppy, now six months and eighty pounds went with.


He wanted to celebrate the holiday with his buddy, Sophia, Aunt Geraldine and Uncle Jimmy's eleven month Golden Retriever.



The house was decorated for the holiday.


The table was lovely.



The turkey was big. We had Aunt Geraldine's famous stuffing. She also made my favorite (!), baked apples.


We had loads of fresh vegetables. The corn, squash, and broccoli were from the garden, as was the pumpkin for the pumpkin pie! Aunt Geraldine made a mini one for me to take home. So cute!


After dinner, Greg and I went to visit Dad and Lisa. It was a brief visit but nice, and I was going to get to see Dad all day Friday.

Friday, I drove up to Glastonbury to see Dad early. We were on a mission to find me a new winter coat that would keep me warm but not making me feel really puffy. I am anti the puffer coat. I have had, for the last eight years, a winter coat that is puffy but as of late it has not been super warm, and I never really liked it's appearance.

Dad and I started our search at REI, where we spent an hour and a half, had me try on dozens of coats, and emerged with nothing. There were a couple of coats that were okay but nothing worth spending all the money for.

We regrouped for lunch, me exhausted. Dad suggested that we try Nordstrom's. We decided we had to just run in and run out avoiding what was sure to be a crazy shopping situation. (As a note, there was next to no one in the REI in the morning.) Arriving at Nordstrom's we found the main coat section. Lots of nice dress coats, but that was not what I was looking for. We wandered upstairs to see if, in fact, we ought to find another store when I noticed that there were coats in the upper floor active-wear section.

It was there, after much searching, that I found this coat! Just what I wanted.



It's a North Face jacket and super warm seeming but looks cute, like a pea coat. I love it! Thanks, Dad!

After the visit with Dad, I headed back home to Seth and Lily.



Lily is such a model. As a quick note, I flipped over our comforter. What do you think of the light side?


I think that the darker (main) side goes better with the wood, but it's fun to have something new. Soon, we'll be putting on our duvet and down comforter -- Thanks Mom! -- for heavy winter.