ok, if you move your head back and forth in a spasmodic circle while looking at this photo, you’ll see a christmas tree. um, no, really. go ahead. try it and see.

that’s right, folks, in case you haven’t noticed, it’s christmas time. this holiday season will promise to be pretty wild for nicole and i, so in the interest of getting all our ducks in a row, we put up our new christmas tree over the weekend. might as well enjoy it now, since we’ll be in paris over the holiday itself. we bought the young plastic tree for a reasonable price while out in the boonies visiting my parents for thanksgiving. the lights came with the tree, which i think is swell. i was hoping that, besides the lights, the tree came with gifts for everyone, but hey, whatcha gonna do. that’s why it’s a reasonable price, i guess. anyway, nicole received a lot of new ornaments last year as gifts, so the tree looks pretty good.

isn’t that great? christmas trees are, like, awesome blossoms for santa.

later, i was taking artsy close-up shots of the tree, exaggerating my picture-taking poses for my own personal amusement (nicole wasn’t home at the time). well, the only picture that actually turned out halfway decent is one with a rather ordinary ornament. hey, at least you get a closer look at those snazzy complimentary lights. sexy, aren’t they?

even chloe couldn’t resist the urge to be a part of the holiday cheer. look at this well-calculated pose from our dog.

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i was going to upload a new set of photos from sheila’s recent visit, but nicole somehow lost them during import. well, that’s too bad, of course, but there’s a silver lining. we’ll have plenty of opportunities to snap more pictures when sheila moves up to chicago at the end of the month!

that’s right, sheila accepted a job at nicki’s hotel. she’ll arrive up here on the 30th (the day after we return from paris) and will be staying with us in our guest bedroom until she sets herself up with her own place. we’re happy to help her start a new and exciting chapter in her life. it’ll also be cool to hang out with her. i look forward to playing the host, welcoming her, and showing her all the cool things chicago has to offer.

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we’ll be working on our save-the-date mailing soon.

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ooh, and our engagement pictures are in the works. we took a look at the proofs and chose the three we’ll use in a single frame for attendee autographs. i’d love to post the proofs here, but since i don’t own the copyrights, i probably shouldn’t. after researching the question a little, i’ve decided i don’t want to find out the hard way that i shouldn’t have done so. nicole has a professional connection to the photo studio. i see no reason to risk any ire.

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i’ve been gearing up for our paris trip by reviewing our french discs. lori gave us a disc called ‘one day french’ that is somewhat cheesy, in a fun way, yet contains a lot of useful sentences beyond the basics. we already had a 10 lesson set over 5 cd’s (roughly 30 minutes each lesson). quite a bit of each lesson is a cumulative review of previous lessons, which is good for nailing words into our head, which has been quite helpful. i’ve been keeping up with it much more consistently than nicole, but she also had the 5 disc set for a long time and has already been through the later lessons that i haven’t yet even heard. so far, i’m doing well. part of the problem is that my memory is very photographic. i see words when i speak. everything of french i’ve learned from these discs has been by listening. i find that more challenging. although the fruits of the challenge might taste good if i end up engaging in hopeless conversation with a local parisian, cos i’ll likely have a better ear for hearing keywords i understand. on the other hand, i won’t be able to read many signs or whatever. and if i do see a word, say on a menu, i won’t necessarily have a visual frame of reference on how to pronounce it. hmm, yeah, i still need to spend time on an online french educational tool. that’ll help me with that kind of thing, i think.

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she works every saturday up until we leave. this saturday will be especially irritating, because she is MOD. the ‘manager on duty’ actually stays at the hotel overnite. the only perk is that i get to stay too. i mean, that’s okay, i guess. i don’t spend time downtown as often as i used to, so i’m happy to take the opportunity. plus, the bar next door to her hotel has boddington’s on tap, which is a rare find. it’s a beer eric turned me on to. good stuff. it’s a manchester ale that i find to be rather smooth.

anyway, i certainly don’t envy her right now, cos today is day 5 of a 14 day stint with no day off of work. after that, she’ll have 1 day off before returning to work for another six days. the six day pattern will repeat once more, then she’ll work for 4 more days before paris. um, er, or at least i think that’s how the math goes. it looks right, staring at my calendar. so yeah, she’ll need that time off…hehe, just in time to fly 8 hours!

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oh yeah, i almost forgot. there are a few new photos of the dog in ‘the chloe file’ on our photos page.

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that’s all for now. i probably forgot some important detail, but that’s okay. i don’t even know if anyone will read this post all the way to the end.