Weekending

Friday was my last day of work at the company that I've been with for three years.  It was an interesting day, to say in the least.  We drank champagne with lunch, and I shocked myself by crying when I finished packing up my desk and said goodbye.  Three years is a long time with this company, and with an average of 11 people in the office throughout- I was really close to a lot of my co-workers.  I had many reasons for leaving, and I know that all of them were right.  So while I felt sad about leaving people- I also felt (and still feel) very hopeful, and excited about what's going to come next.  My new job starts tomorrow.  I took an accounts payable specialist position with a large environmental science and engineering firm in downtown Seattle.  It will be a change of pace and I truly can't wait to see what kind of impact this has on my life.  Forty hours a week is a long time to spend at a place that doesn't make you happy, and it's a short amount of time to spend at a place that really does.

After work on Friday I had dinner with some of my favorite people. We toasted to the future with a cheap bottle of champagne poured into mismatched coffee mugs.  Perfection.

Saturday's culinary adventures consisted of mouse ear pancakes and butternut squash soup.  Renee came over to make soup with me, and after tasting and adding to the soup over and over again- Renee finally threw in half a stick of butter.  It was perfect.  I didn't think to take any pictures of the soup making adventure, but I did take one of my mouse ears!

Last night was a very rainy and quiet art walk in my neighborhood.  We poked into a few galleries, drank hot cider, and picked up a few tiny treasures from Lucca.  Afterward Renee and I made a pit-stop at Ballard Market for bulk Halloween candy and cash, and then headed out to Ouch My Eye for Hot One Inch Action!  We weren't quite sure what to expect when we got there- and we ended up having an absolutely awesome time.

It is essentially a juried button show, as well as a chance to mingle and trade buttons with other attendees.  Fifty artists have their buttons on display, and $5 will buy you a bag of 5 randomly selected buttons.  From there it's a bit of a mad dash to trade with anyone in the room, in the hopes of collecting all of your favorites.  Towards the end of the night the coordinators were passing out more bags to keep things moving, and after a few hot trades I ended up with a great little collection.

Today is going to be a bit more serious.  Lots of accounting homework and (attempting!) a six mile run with my aunt Fran.  She somehow convinced me that I'll be able to run a 10k with her two weeks from now, so I have some serious training to do!

Also- don't forget to go leave a comment on my Identify That Creature! post!  You don't need to get any of them right to be entered to win.  I'm going to randomly select an entry this coming Thursday (10/14), and the winner will get a little package of something special handmade by me, as well as another little something.  And for the record- no one has gotten the first one right so far!