Happy Groundhog Day!

It has been quite a while since I've lasted posted here. No real reason, other than a powerful combination of busyness and laziness.

The last few months have been great. A quick recap:

For Thanksgiving Skip, Sam and I rented a house in Prescott, AZ. We had the full on turkey dinner, watched a lot of dvds, and basically spent a long weekend in our pj's eating and lounging. The house we stayed in was very warm and cozy, but what really kicked it up a notch:

Kids, those are 8-track tapes. And they worked, to varying degrees. Fan. Tastic.

December brought my usual extended winter break. I had three weeks off and did very little. It was great. Skip took me to Florida for my birthday, aaaaw. My brother spent a few days with us, it was very nice to see him. While in Jacksonville, we saw Marc Broussard again. I'm telling you, people, go see him.

Liz came to visit in mid-December. While she was here, it was cold and rainy. There was even snow in the mountains. One day it was warmer in Chicago than it was in Tucson. I felt so badly since she came here fleeing winter. There were several cold and gray days in December which I guess is typical winter in Tucson. It was nice to wear sweaters for a while.

For Christmas we stayed in Tucson. We had a lot of travel planned for early 2009 so we spent some lovely quiet time at home. It was really nice. Sam once again donned the festive head gear:

Doesn't he look thrilled about it?

We kicked the year off with a hike with Jeff and Jill on a gorgeous New Year's Day. I much prefer starting the year like that than I have the last 36+ New Years in sub-freezing temps. Skip's doing at lot of hiking as he prepares for his big climb in March. I didn't join him on this particular hike, but oh, the poor dog:

Not bad for a rain-coat made out of a garbage bag on the fly. That dog is a good sport.

In mid-January we headed to New Orleans for a trade show - FenceTech2009! It was my first time in New Orleans, and we had an amazing time. We stayed in this ridiculous house in Uptown, so pretty.

We spent most of the days at the Convention Center, but did get to see some of the city, had some beignets, and many, many, many drinks.

This weekend we went to San Diego to celebrate Jill's birthday. We rented a house on Mission Beach. Gorgeous.

We pretty much spent the weekend at the house (um, did you see that hot tub?) with a few walks and brief excursions to mix things up. There were lovely dinners, many many many cocktails, and even a french pirate.

Sign of the times - just a few condos for sale in this building in downtown San Diego:

We also had a SuperBowl party, as so many of us are Arizonans. There were Cardinals t-shirts, lots of temporary tattoos, and a good deal of heartbreak when they lost. Oh well.

Aside from celebrating Jill's birthday, Skip and I got to spend time with my cousin Terri and her husband David. We had a very nice visit, having lunch, sightseeing from Point Loma, and a lovely sunset view at the cliffs. Just fantastic.

It was awfully hard to leave San Diego this morning.

We're home for a few weeks, then we're off to London in late February. After London is North Carolina, then Chicago, then possibly Detroit. Like I mentioned, lots of travel this year. It's exhausting, but wonderful.