Hi all,

Hope the weekend is going well for you. I can't believe Saturday's pretty much over. Kind of a bummer.

It's been quite the day though. Loved every minute of it. Well for the most part.

My good friend (from high school and Undergrad) Helen was in town, and we spent the majority of the day together. I only get to see her about once a year, and I don't realize how much I miss her until I see her.

We had a long leisurely lunch at my favorite Italian restaurant, Bravo. We were there for over 3 hours :) We outlasted quite a few tables too ;) But it was so nice. I can't remember the last time I've had that long of a lunch with someone. Especially in a time where all my lunches are pretty much limited to an hour, requiring a quick drive there and back, with quick chow down eating. Minimal time to enjoy the eats and the dining experience. I'm all about the experience :)

If I can't convince you to check ot Bravo, then maybe the focaccia bread with special sun dried tomato olive oil might sway you ;)

So good.

Anyway, we also got to do some light shopping around the outdoor shopping mecca adjacent to the restaurant. The stores were busy, but not silly busy. So we'll see if the economy's really turning up.

Today I had a doctor's appointment, and the nurse that I was talking to said that she thought that all of the reports of the economy getting better were all just hype to mislead people into believing the economy's getting better. She was saying that all of the places that she had gone shopping were no busier than normal. Huh. Maybe I'm shopping in the wrong places? I've definitely noticed increased traffic, but I don't know if there's an increase in buying.

Anyway, enough political stuff. Back to the visit...

So after the shopping mecca (including a trip to the Gap of course) we went to the city home to chill and exchange Christmas gifts. And best of all...

We went curling afterwards. :)

One of the guys at work (the one who invited me to join the class) was getting a group of people together to play a few ends of curling. It turned out that he was having trouble filling 2 spots, so he asked if I would be interested. I wanted to get Helen to try it (and she was interested in trying it), so everything worked out well.

We curled for about an hour and a half and went home. It was so much fun - I think she enjoyed it. We did well too. The score was 9 to 5!

So yeah, that was that.

After getting home, I was kind of saddened when I saw a Christmas card / letter from one of our long time family friends. I was very happy to hear from them, but I was kind of bummed when I saw the picture that was enclosed. That's when I realized that my parents and their friends are getting older.

The mental image that I have of our friends is from many years ago, when they lived relatively close by and we still saw them on a regular basis (mostly during the holidays). I guess my mental image just never got updated (since I haven't seen them for a while) so I was surprised when I saw them in the picture. My brother and I are kind of named after their kids.

They always give neat and thoughtful gifts. They are the ones who sent me that really nice bag as a graduation gift. I still have that bag in my closet, because I think it's too nice for me to use. I know, it sounds stupid, but I guess I'm not sure exactly what I'm saving it for either.

I guess it just reminded me that for the most part I'm comfortable with my own mortality, but not anyone elses.

-Kirk