Here is a shot from the baby shower I attended today. I usually hate baby showers. I have even skipped a few that were for my important friends in the past (they understood).

This gathering today, however, was done quite tastefully. There was no gift opening (which is the worst), and both male and female friends were there, mingling evenly. The conversation didn’t revolve around babies, either. Even the mom-to-be told me she was tired of talking about the baby and asked me to have a conversation on any topics but that.

During our nightly park visit with K-dog, it was windy and cold with a lot of stars above us. When the sky is clear, like tonight, we’ve found that it’s actually very dark on the ground level. We can’t see much of anything.

When the sky is covered with cloud, it reflects the lights from the city back to us on the ground, so we see more. Something we’ve figured out by coming to the same park almost every night.

My frustration continues with the new toy. It reminds me of the time I tried snowboarding (I’m a skier, ever since I was 3 years old).

This is not so much about my love of squid ink pasta sauce (although I am crazy about it). This is more about the camera that took it.

It’s my new toy, and I’ve been playing with it all evening. I haven’t been maneuvering it well. I have read most pages in Users Guide. I read numerous blog posts about it. I’ve been looking at what other people are achieving with it, on Flickr. And right now, I’m a bit frustrated. I will continue trying tomorrow.

And yes, I do eat pasta with chopsticks at home when I can’t be bothered to grab a fork.

Each of those boxes (apartments) is populated by at least one person, who has his or her own life stories and thoughts and dreams.

I always imagine those things as a huge thought-bubble above the person’s head. The bubble is much much bigger than the person. If there are two people living together, their lives and thoughts and dreams (their thought bubbles) collide and bounce vigorously. Then I imagine this whole building full of people walking around with their own enormous thought-bubbles bumping into each other, trying to co-exist.

This is where we throw in the mail when they first come in. We are supposed to clear it out every few days. My box is on the right. P’s is on the left. Clearly, I don’t expect anything good in my mail.

When I’m done for the day, I come to bed and this is what I see. A half of the bed is already occupied by P. The half of the other half is taken by K-dog. I squeeze myself into the remaining area, and slowly try to stretch out gradually, to reclaim the bed that used to belong only to myself.

It’s snowing all day. And it’s Saturday. Normally this park in our town is very quiet. We only see joggers, walkers, and dog walkers. Today, kids and adults with colorful outfits and plastic sleds took over the slope. The air was filled with laugher, excited shouts & screams. Wintery happiness like this makes me smile.

I wanted to go closer to feel the excitement and see the smiles, but I was tethered to the dog with fear issues. He didn’t let me. What a party pooper.

We are fortunate to have some really good restaurants within walking distance. I was taken out to one of them tonight by P for belated birthday dinner. Deliciousness overload.

– After-work dinner with a good friend of mine, her husband, and their cutie-pie 2.5 year old daughter.
– A 45-minute walk with the super-excited dog in a park.
– Drinks with 2 high-quality people at a bar on the hill.
– Snow (1 of my 2 favoritest things in this world) falling steadily meanwhile.
– P later joining and writing this on my car.

What I saw this morning, on my street. I don’t have an off-street parking space so this is what I risk every day.

My new car (a year old) has already been scraped, dented, cracked several times. I haven’t even fixed the latest damages in a while. What’s the point, I say to myself. Someone’s going to damage the body again anyway, sooner or later…

Baby rush around me continues. Probably because I have not had, and won’t be having any kids of my own, I find it a bit intimidating to go into those stores, but I had to today to get baby shower gifts. I normally get stuff that is not on lists, at small local stores or online, but this time, I felt lazy and just went with the registry.

Purple purple everywhere. I wonder what that color represents, for the business. It sure didn’t calm my nerves.