Looking forward to Christmas...

It's less than a week before I am back home with my family. I can't wait! I haven't seen everyone together since August and I miss them. The only person I've seen is Christine, who came to visit me on her way back from Phoenix about a month ago. We had a blast! I think she liked Chattanooga. I've been getting into the Christmas spirit by putting up decorations, sending cards, baking and helping plan the Christmas party for the office. Things have been really busy lately and am looking forward to taking a break at home...
I have some really cute pictures of Peanut Butter wearing a santa hat...I will post them here soon.

smart furniture

so we have a lot going on at smart furniture... we recently got our 2nd round of venture capital funding and we're quickly expanding the company and making improvements in all areas. it's a really exciting time right now and we're busier than ever. although we haven't made any changes to our website, it seems like the number of catalog requests, orders and new visitors to our site are increasing. that's a great sign. people love the smart furniture system – the look, the concept, the platform – and i don't blame them. i bought smart furniture for the look, not realizing how 'smart' it really was. no tools, wow! :) after purchasing, i was impressed with the quality of customer service i was provided...alissa was really helpful in answering my questions and i find it so ironic that we now work together and have become great friends. on october 1st, i'll be celebrating a year working with smart furniture. this is the best job i've ever had... it's got great atmosphere, nice people and so much potential. i've learned so much and i look forward to our road ahead...

weekend in asheville - 7/28-8/03/06

last weekend, stephen and i celebrated our 1 year together as well as his birthday by taking a roadtrip to asheville, nc. we had a great time! it was our first time visiting the city and we found there were so many things to like about it. the most amazing thing was asheville's landscape – the blue ridge mountains stretched out as far as the eye could see. we hiked along the blue ridge parkway and saw many beautiful flowers, trees and waterfalls. we also visited the biltmore estate, built by george vanderbilt in 1895. the amazing four acres of floor space is still the largest privately owned home in america today. it was incredible. the bele chere festival was happening, which drew about 500,000 people. we went to see train play and tasted samples of food from asheville's delightful restaurants. downtown asheville is flooded with fabulous local shops that exemplify the strong artistic culture here...i highly recommend asheville for a weekend getaway...

happy birthday stoner!

yesterday was rolling stone's 2nd birthday. i can't believe she's 2 years old already! i'm so proud of her – it's been 6 months now since her accident and she's 100%. she's still graceful...still has the same kitten-soft fur...still loves to play with her crinkle ball...still jumps 5' high...still cute as ever. we had a kitty birthday party and the attendees were peanut butter, stoner, stephen and myself. we gave the kitties birthday cake (which was actually a sample of some special food - which they LOVED), played with the crinkle ball and played on the patio. we all had a great time and stoner happily licked her chops and basked under the setting sun as she gave herself a bath.

yesterday was also christine and jake's 2 year wedding anniversary. after speaking to my sister online, it sounded like they had a nice little celebration. i'm glad they were able to manage it, as jake's schedule seems pretty hectic and unpredictable. congratulations on 2 years to my sister and brother-in-law. i love you guys!

my beautiful kitties

i just want to show them off. they're my babies and i'm proud of them...

a weekend of tennis

stephen and i were glued to the tv this weekend watching the championship matches of wimbledon. both the women's and men's finals were scheduled early in the morning. by british tradition, breakfast at wimbledon consists of strawberries and cream. so what better way to celebrate and enjoy a match than to eat local strawberries with fresh whipped cream in your pyjamas? amélie mauresmo (france) defeated justine henin-hardenne (belgium) in the final. she played AMAZING in the third set and she deserved it, she played awesome. the men's championship match was also a captivating one. it was filled with great rallies, amazing serves, groundstrokes, angles and drop shots as roger federer (switzerland) beat rafa nadal (spain) to take the crown.
i'm going to include the simple and delicious recipe for strawberries & cream. i served them in a new dish i received from christine in april and was really happy with how it looked!

Start with the fruit: you should buy them the day before, then throw them in the fridge. Keep them intact rather than slicing them up. Either the night before or immediately before serving, rinse the strawberries to remove any possible nasties from them. Take a knife and decapitate the little tuft of green vegetation at the top of each strawberry. Next, the cream: this wonderful stuff is known formally as chantilly cream. Here's what you'll need to make it:

1 cup of whipping cream
3 tablespoons of powdered sugar
½ teaspoon of vanilla extract

In a bowl, whip the chilled cream until it stiffens up from a liquid into little peaks. Next, add the vanilla and powdered sugar slowly while you continue beating the cream. Voila!

i've also included a photo from the patio, we had a stormy afternoon and in the evening, the sun decided to peek through the clouds. it was really pretty.