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I can’t help myself. Ever since I was a little kid I have always LOVED jigsaw puzzles. I started this one a few months ago, but gave up when I couldn’t even figure out the edge pieces. Now that Elise is here to help me (and has been officially deemed the Puzzle Maven) we’re giving it another go around. It’s 5000 pieces of nature with Neuschwanstein Castle in the middle of it. And it is hard.

Elise might kill me before we finish this puzzle. But we’ve given ourselves a February 25th deadline so I foresee some late nights ahead of us. Also, if we finish the puzzle and find that we’re missing a piece I might actually cry.

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Have you ever wondered what the track of the Stevie Wonder hit, “Boogie On Reggae Woman” looks like? No? Really?

Well I’m here to fulfill the curiosity you didn’t even know you had.

I have been looking at this for the past two hours straight and I can’t say that it’s making me any more familiar with this song than before I started editing it. And before I started editing it I had never even heard of it, so that shows how much progress I’ve made here tonight.

(37/366)

Battle wounds from my knife fight yesterday and an unfortunate run in with a razor today. Geesh, and it’s only Monday…

(36/366)

Well.

Today has been some day. Let’s not focus on my team’s loss in some big football game tonight. Or my loss to a knife earlier today. Or this head cold that has finally reared its ugly head. Or the three bloody noses I had today.

No way.

Let’s focus on that picture up there.

I’m not sure really where to start. How about the fact that he’s wearing a Colts t-shirt? Actually, I’ll give that one to him. At least the Super Bowl was playing in Indianapolis, nevermind that the Super Bowl was only a far-flung dream for them this year. And the expression? I guess he’s flexing really hard. But the best part? Yeah, it’s those things on his arms. Some say it’s because he’s training a falcon. A falcon we never saw. Other say he got creative with some old boots. I’ll let you decide.

Second, lets focus on the cake. That’s the chocolate macaroon almond torte thing Elise and I made yesterday. We nibbled on some scraps as we were assembling it, and let’s just say that the sum of all parts was totally worth the effort. It was slightly chewy and almondy and chocolaty and we still have half it left. Which is good and bad.

We can also talk about the obscene amount of food we had at this party. For a party of 11 adults and four kids, the food we had consisted at least of: chips and salsa, ranch dip, onion dip, artichoke dip, salmon dip, hummus (possibly two kinds), mango salsa, potato chips, crackers, potato skins, stuff mushrooms, pigs in a blanket, stuffed cheesy bread, 7-layer dip (that was really 10 layers), kale chips, and deviled eggs. And I’m probably forgetting a bunch of stuff.

Third, let’s focus on the company. It was awesome. It was Elise, Mel, Gayle and Zack, Andrew, Liz and Josh, Aly and Jackson, Betsy, Amy and Dave, and Sophia and Seppe. It’s such a fun group of people to hang out with. And it proves that while some people may be hesitant about mixing their friends, it seems natural that if you like Group A and you like Group B, then Group A and Group B should like each other too.

I think Aly liked the cake.

And Jackson seemed to be having a Zen moment with his.

So, even though my team didn’t win and I can’t breathe out of my nose right now, I would still call this evening highly successful.

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Tomorrow we’re going to a Super Bowl party and I was put in charge of the desserts. So naturally I turned to Elise to come up with something. We made a chocolate stout cake and an almond macaroon torte. This is going to be a classy Super Bowl party.

(34/366)

Tonight we had Shabbat dinner. Andrew pretty much brought home the entire meal with him and whipped up the whole thing in under a half hour. It was impressive. We’re not big wine drinkers, but we always break out a bottle when we have Shabbat dinner. This was tonight’s bottle of wine. It was a Merlot. I’ve never been a big fan of red wine, but we often have that with dinner on Friday evenings and it’s starting to grow on me.

And the name. Let’s discuss this.

Yes, that is my name. Kind of. Except it’s pronounced more like See-mee instead of Sim-me (which is how you pronounce my name). But I would say 40% of the time, when I tell someone my name, that is how they think it’s spelled. I work with a guy who thinks that is how my name is spelled and pronounced and will call me See-mee at least 5 times in one conversation. Over and over again. See-mee. See-mee. See-mee. One time I swear he was calling my name for a good minute and a half before I realized he was trying to get my attention.

My first college roommate was a girl named Agnes. She was from Simi Valley, CA (where this wine is from). I’m pretty sure that’s why we got placed together. “Oh, a girl from Simi Valley and a girl named Simmie. Perfect!” Someone was having fun in the housing office that day.

Anyways…back to dinner. It was a delight affair with chicken, homemade cranberry sauce, broccoli, and Caprese salad.

I would like to point out how nicely spaced the food is from each other. We wouldn’t anything touching now, would we?

Also, there is a website called www.simicakes.com, just so you know.

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It’s Groundhog Day and we’re watching the movie Groundhog Day. We’re timely like that (as is CMT).

Apparently Phil saw his shadow today so we’ve got six more weeks of winter. Except so far this year I think we’ve had about 36 hours of winter. Seriously, I haven’t even worn my mittens. I sort of lost them.

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Have you guys heard of The Thoe????

I LOVE The Thoe.

The Thoe is a toe thumb. The Thoe is also totally a real thing.

When I was little, my favorite exhibit at the Boston Museum of Science was this tiny little display about The Thoe. As time has gone on, the exhibits have changed and been updated, but The Thoe exhibit is still there, right to the right of the entrance to the exhibit about how babies are made.

It’s a four foot by six foot window with a bunch of plaster models of hand deformations. Then, in the bottom left corner is a tiny, ancient TV playing, probably a VHS of a story of a man who lost his thumb in some sort of accident. It was decided that it’s easier to live without a big toe than without a thumb, so doctors cut off his big toe and sewed it back on where is thumb should be. Apparently it work as a functioning thumb and he’s doing just fine. (I could only find a link to this article about a guy who had this done in 2011, but the video I watched was definitely from the early eighties.)

It was, and still is, my favorite exhibit at the Museum of Science. I’m not sure what it is about The Thoe, but I’ve always found it particularly fascinating. Andrew recreated The Thoe for me (don’t worry, he didn’t cut off his thumb) tonight. If he had to have a thoe, it would look super weird because he has a giant big toe. I guess all we can hope for is that he is careful with his thumb placement when using sharp objects.

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That’s a pretty nice invitation, eh? That’s right. I would know. I have been looking at this thing for the last month and a half. I’m never quite sure how it happens, but once again this year I got roped into doing this dinner invitation design. It’s a pretty neat concept though. You pay some money to go to a lovely dinner with a semi-prominent local celebrity. Funds are raised. Plates are filled. Conversation is had.

I’ve been working on the design, and the redesign, and the next redesign, and then the last redesign, oh, and then the for-real last redesign, and then the that’s-it redesign, and then the oops, we-had-a-last-minute-change insert for a while. But the inserts are inserted, the envelopes have been stuffed, and the stamps have been stuck. I’m glad to see them go.

And while it has been a bit of a hassle at times, it’s also been a good learning experience. For instance, I learned how to draw a candle in Photoshop. Of course, that’s the only thing I can draw in Photoshop, so be on the lookout…candle drawings for everyone!

Also of note, this is the 31st day in row I have posted to my blog. This is unprecedented and quite frankly I’m impressed with myself. And just think, you have eleven more months of empty plates, airports, and space heaters to look forward to. (Hmm…I wonder what a year’s worth of spacer heaters would look like.)(I think there’s probably a bad joke in here somewhere, but I can’t think of it right now. Suggestions welcomed.)

(30/366)

It’s nice to be able to leave work now and still see some light in the sky. Both because I’m leaving work earlier and because it’s staying light later.