Nifty Fifty

Friday, December 2, 2011

Woke up Friday morning achieving some sort of milestone from what they tell me - 50 times riding this beautiful blue ball around the sun!

Sharon was so thoughtful about this year's birthday.  Knowing I have a desire to get back into drawing and painting, she was able to find one of the paintings I did for someone in 1980!  Apparently I was commissioned to do this acrylic painting for the Hick's back in the day.

Sharon also made arrangements to try to find me a studio space to rent but after I looked at it, decided it would be way too much work.  Awesome presents!

Friday also happened to be the LWS Christmas party.  The company put us all up at the Embassy Suites in Lincoln for the night, with dinner at Wilderness Ridge Lodge - very nice!  I happen to know the sales manager at the Lincoln Embassy Suites and asked him if he could pull some strings for an upgraded room.  He was able to bump us up to the Presidential Suite!!! Thanks John K!

I took the afternoon off so Sharon and I went to Lincoln early.  After checking into our amazing suite at the hotel, we got some coffee and the paid a surprise visit to Ben at Bailey Lauerman.  Ben was thrilled and we had a great time touring the agency and meeting his creative team, including a brief visit with Jim Lauerman himself.  I told Jim that back in the early 80's I painted some of the billboards for his campaign for Lincoln Airport Authority while employed at Imperial Outdoor Advertising.

After seeing Ben we decided to take in a movie.  We watched the new George Clooney flick, The Descendants, very good.  After the movie we went back to the hotel and had a drink with Leanne & the gals, and also the LWS group.  Had a very good meal at Wilderness Ridge then it was back downtown to Brewsky's for Leanne & my joint birthday party.  Ben and Hannah met us there and we had a lot of fun.

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Awoke in our huge suite to a drab, rainy morning.  Managed to walk down to Starbuck's for latte's, then back to the hotel for breakfast.  Then the snow came... and came... and came.  Sharon was scheduled to work at Habitat so I caught a ride home with a coworker.

I spent the day scooping and cooking pizza crusts.  Sharon had a precarious drive home in the snow but made it safe and sound - thank God. We watched "Return to Me" and had a nice evening.

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Sunday was "Let's Get the House Decorated for Christmas NOW" day.  We de-junked, cleaned & rearranged the house, and changed out all the fall decor for winter.  It was a huge amount of work but we knew with Sharon's work schedule we had to do it or it simply wouldn't get done.

Celebrated our accomplishments with a glass of wine and a mushroom and onion pizza.