12/23 - What Vamp saw at lunch

Lil' Gal reeeeeally wanted me to bring an inflatable Halloween skeleton head ball to work today, but he did not fit in my bag.  (And would not have been a discreet pal at our team lunch!)  I was able to negotiate bringing the smaller Vamp with me instead.  Phew!

We had lunch at an Indian restaurant for Falgoon’s last day,  Here’s one of the pictures we saw.

Look at the holiday trolley car!  Ding ding!

And then I worked until 6:15pm.  :(   Now I'm looking forward to a great Xmas weekend with the critters!

12/21 - Smith intercepts the Interceptors

Smith the dog (I know, but Lil' Gal said he was a dog, so just go with it.) saw an Xmas tree up on a balcony and was afraid it wanted to jump into the street.  (Holiday depression is a real issue, people.)  He barked, “Woof!  Woof!  Woof!”  (Translation: "Don't jump!")  It must have worked – the tree stayed right where it was.  Good work, Smith!

These funny little cars are used to give people parking tickets.  Do you think they are legally parked here? Smith is on the case.  But he can’t write a ticket.  He doesn’t have a ticket pad.  Or a pen.  Or hands. Woof.

Smith and I had dinner with Rosemary.  As we walked around the Mission, we found a swing hanging from a tree.  Smith couldn't resist.  Whee!!

12/20 - Green Elf eats a cookie

It’s busy at work today!  To keep Green Elf and Cutie Bird out of all the papers on my desk (and away from the Xmas cookies), I told them to go hang out somewhere else. Looks like they found a good spot on my cubicle wall.

Jeanine thought Green Elf looked a little thin, so she tried to feed him a date square.  Isn't she nice to share?

12/19 - Giraffey and Rachel bond over cookies

Giraffey likes antlers... Even if they’re reindeer antlers on a car!

Rachel came by to check out the cookies I brought in for my work friends.  Both she and Giraffey like the green Xmas tree ones.  (The date squares are my favorite.)

12/15 - Ghostie Glasses spies tiny elf shoes

There was some kind of photo shoot going on.  (The umbrella is to help aim the lights onto the model they’re photographing.)  Ghostie Glasses wanted to be in the picture and be famous, but he was upside down.  Whoopsie.

Don’t these shoes look like something elves would wear?  And look!  It’s Pooh Bear.  He looks like he’s thinking about wearing some Ghostie Glasses.

Sad Ghostie Glasses update:  This is the last we'll hear of GG.  Since our last posting, he'd lost the glasses part of himself in a tragic dismemberment by Lil' Guy.  Upon his return home tonight, he was ripped in half (also by Lil' Guy, who is becoming more of a Big Guy each day).  RIP Ghostie Glasses.  May your haunting be happy.

12/12 - Cutie Bird takes Mario with Raccoon Power under her wing

Mario with Raccoon Power looks suspicious.  Do you think he’s going to try to take the presents under this Xmas tree?

My new new desk (it’s musical chairs around here these days) comes with a basketball net.  Cutie and Mario hung out for a while in it, pretending they were basketballs.  Sillies.

Health update: Some people have a Christmas cactus that blooms once a year.  We apparently have a Christmas cold.  What a wretched thing to bloom at this time of year.

12/09 - Cutie Bird sings like a chipmunk

Cutie Bird screams, "It's Beaker!" Beaker screamed back, “Meep Meep!”

We heard the Alvin and the Chipmunks Xmas song at lunch (it follows me everywhere), and Cutie Bird started chirping away.  She has a very sweet voice!

Early Xmas for me:  Lil' Gal said I can keep Cutie Bird at my desk!!

12/08 - Cutie Bird wants to build a nest in an Xmas tree

This one was so pretty, we stopped in our tracks to take a picture of it.
(Lil' Gal made Cutie – isn’t he cute?)

My new work building had a nice breakfast for all of its tenants this morning.  There was even a lady playing Xmas songs on a big fancy harp! Cutie and I are bringing these cookies home for you!

12/05 - Ping is still hungry

We went to lunch with friends today, and Ping hung out with the utensils.

Candie, Ping, and Gio were posing for my picture, and I guess Ping heard “candy” and thought of dessert.  He tried to bite her finger!  Bad Ping!

Our Xmas tree is ready for decorating!  Let's give the kids some eggnog and see how long it takes them to break an unbreakable ornament!  (4 minutes)

Derby update:  We made the local paper!  Look for a tiny bit of my stripey blue sock on the right-hand edge of this photo.

11/29 - Red Titanium Dragonoid finds it fantastically foggy

We couldn’t even see the train station until we were right next to it!

We had lunch with JRo and Adelina today and called ourselves the Alumni Association.  There won’t be any minutes from that meeting…

What are these pretty pretty reindeer doing?  (Actually, don't tell me.  I don't think I can handle it.)

12/24 - Cookies for Santa

Today, I made cookies and decorated them with the kids.  Lil' Gal was intent on putting every sprinkle available to her on her cookies.  Lil' Guy was intent on eating as much of the sprinkles as possible.

And then, we almost forgot to leave them out for Santa!  Whoopsie!
Happily, Lil' Gal remembered and Xmas was saved.

12/23 - Red Froggie goes last-minute shopping

No work for me today!  Yippee!  I did get to visit 2 grocery stores to get all the ingredients for our Xmas feast, however.  Here's Red Froggie at Trader Joe's.

Here we are at Safeway.

12/21 - Eggplant and the "Meeting Pirates"

Eggplant and I found this comic on our desk. Wouldn't meetings be much more fun with pirates in them?  YARRRRRR!!!

We saw this nice Xmas tree (and David) when we went out for lunch. David and Joanne sent you some presents!  We can open them when it's Christmas!

Mommy's work PC is not happy today.  Happily, Eggplant always is.

12/17 - Bubbles is a party pony

Bubbles and I headed in to work this morning with a veggie lasagna for the potluck, only to find major BART delays.  In fact, we stood on a platform for over 2 hours, unable to go into work or back home.  Finally, we got on a train with hundred of others and got to the city.

I got to work in time to have half a meeting and then head out to the team holiday party.  Here we are at a grocery store on the way, admiring chestnuts and those weird Buddha's Hands.

Here we are at Jackie's stately home, enjoying the feast.

One of Ashley's "Apples to Apples" cards said Bubbles!  Here they all are.

12/15 - First casualty of the season

Lil' Guy climbed the Xmas tree today and broke a few ornaments, including this one.   We have two of them -- they were the toppers on our (first) wedding cake, and we've used them to decorate the Xmas tree for 8 years since.  Hopefully super glue will come to the rescue.

Dana brought in some stickers for you!  Littlest Seahorse will bring them home for you.

12/06 - Ian finds penguins in a mini Xmas tree forest

The penguins say "Peek a boo! Happy holidays to you!"  Ian says "Oink."

This year, our office doesn't have a big Xmas tree.  Instead, they've lined the hallway to the elevators with these little trees and poinsettias.

12/03 - Littlest Seahorse is excellent with numbers

Silly Seahorse slid down a triangle block while I had 3 meetings.  Whee!! (Two of the meetings were at the same time -- 8am!)

Littlest Seahorse realized that we have an example of poor QA work on my very calendar...  Can you find the number 12?  Can you find it again?  Whoopsie!  What number should the first 12 have been?
8, 9, ??, 11, 12 

We window-shopped on the way back from lunch. Which was eaten outside of the office!  With a friend!  We got to breathe fresh air!

11/29 - Olivia thinks it's beginning to look at lot like Xmas

This is the building across the plaza from ours.  What a big tree!

Olivia and Linda found a perfect pink flower at lunch.  Linda says, "Hi!"  Olivia says, "Oink!"

11/23 - Zebra sees someone that says "Ho ho ho!"

Zebra found a stripey-tailed friend in the window of the art store.  We waved hello, and then went in to work.

Guess who we saw at the food court today?  I guess even Santa gets hungry.  He left in a black limo driven by an elf in a Santa hat!

11/23 - Look, Mommy! No hands!

Giraffe came back to work with me today.  Ate lunch, we nibbled on leaves (mine was a salad) and noted the new Xmas tree in the food court.

Later, we learned about the importance of hygiene and keeping one's hands clean.  Poor Giraffe.  He has no hands!  (I washed mine, for the record!)