Only 2.5 miles left!

I forgot to mention that I woke up early this morning, grabbed my bike and headed to the bottom of Belmont Ave. (where it meets Lakeview Blvd) because the Seattle Marathon (Half and Full) was crossing there...and I wanted to go and cheer on some friends that were running the Half: Marissa, Asayo and Matt H.! For the half marathoners, I stood somewhere between mile marker 11 and 12, right at the top of this long hill (I think their last) and the point in which they can turn and see the city of Seattle again and their ultimate destination, EMP (the finish line). It's a torturous spot because it's one last hill so late in their race, but the sweet smell of the finish line is so close with that beautiful view right around the corner. I was lucky and found Marissa and Matt but sadly never saw Asayo! I'm so bummed since Asayo was just a few minutes behind Marissa...I can't believe I missed her! In any case, congratulations folks! You all did a great job! I'm in such awe because I'm terrible at running and can't fathom the idea of doing a marathon or half-marathon. Here are some pictures I took this morning, and here are a few of Marissa and Matt!

Christmas tree -- lit up!

I went out today to Costco and Home Depot and got a bunch of white lights, then I came home and finally decorated the tree! Pretty simple with just a few ornaments but it's a good start! The only decorative ornament is the one I gave Matt last year to symbolize our first Christmas together...which I hope to continue as a tradition to symbolize each year. Here are some pictures!

Our first tree

Since we were around for Thanksgiving, I thought it'd be a good opportunity to finally hunker down and get a tree. After a bit of persuading, Matt agreed to getting a tree...and we didn't have to go very far---we just drove 5 minutes to the Dunshee House, picked up a 6' Noble Fir and brought it home! After much fussing around with getting it set up in a tree stand, we finally had it upright!I had some very basic decorations and threw a few lights on...but I'm not a fan of the multi-colored lights...so I'll spend tomorrow shopping around for some good tree decorations and go with a classic all-over white light. Otherwise, we're pretty happy with the tree---our first! I'll post more photos once I get it finally decorated.

Thanksgiving at the Sousas

By Thursday, my food poisoning symptoms were lightening up--I still felt pretty weak but I took a good shower, snagged a lunch nap, donned on some nice clothes and makeup (somehow dressing up always makes me feel better) and got the spirit to help Matt complete making our first ever home-made Thanksgiving dinner together in time for Jigna and Matt to arrive and enjoy it with us. The result was something we were proud of! We had taken out our fine china, set out the nice candlesticks on the table and laid out one moist turkey in addition to some delicious sides dishes. For Jigna, I experimented and made a Truffled Butternut Squash and Wild Mushroom Risotto---I heard it was good as it was a bit too complex for my stomach at the time. I also made classic mashed potatoes and a Green Beans with Sliced Shallots and Almonds dish. Matt made his favorite Portuguese Stuffing (with spicy chorizo) and totally owned the turkey. On a whim, we got inspired watching some episode of the Regis & Kelley show and ended up brining our turkey overnight with a concoction of apple juice, bourbon, brown sugar, peppercorn and water. We then put a nice rub of salt, pepper, paprika, sage, thyme, onion powder, olive oil...stuck it in the oven for about 3 hours and then we were done! Dinner went well and we were satisfied. Yay Turkey Day!

To add to the day, we all went over to the Shahani's for dessert to congratulate Kabir and Noreen on their engagement---woo hoo!

Food poisoning sucks.....

Ugh....shortly after lunch yesterday, I started feeling terrible. I ultimately left work a bit early, around 4pm, and ever since have been completely wiped out: food poisoning. I know it with the telltale signs of...well...signs that I'd rather not describe in this blog. I was up all night tossing and turning. Ugh. I really hope this goes away soon....

Meanwhile, I attended quite the monumental concert over the weekend----New Kids on the Block! I'll admit that they were the first concert I ever attended (I think in 7th grade?) and I jumped to buy tickets the minute I knew that they had reunited and were touring. So on Saturday, I along with 3 girlfriends (Suzanne, Amanda, Katie), headed down to the Tacoma Dome to scream our heads off like we were 13-yrs old again and it was a blast. The stadium was filled with a bunch of 30-something year old women...ha! I even wore the concert t-shirt that I bought in 7th grade (and I wasn't the only one wearing an old school t-shirt) Here are some video and pictures I took from the night....

One of my favorite moments from the Capitol Hill Obama Block Party.......

.....was when I started walking up Broadway to find Ajay in the crowd and Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" started blasting from Neighbours. This got the crowd all riled up and it just put a smile to my face.

Obamania + Star Spangled Banner

Here are 2 videos I took last night:

Panorama of the crowd

Singing Star Spangled Banner

An election to celebrate

I can't believe the amount of celebration last night! I mean, I can believe it....but it's still incredible to me to see such passion and excitement from an ELECTION! As mentioned in my last post, I was at Kabir's to celebrate and watch McCain and Obama's speeches, waiting for Matt to get out of class and join us. When he was finally free, he called and was like "um..I'm not sure if I can leave our place". I was like "what do you mean?" Apparently, a "parade" of people was marching up on Pike St at the time, right in front of our building. I soon convinced a chunk of folks from Kabir's place to head over to Cap Hill to see where the party's at...and man, a LARGE crowd took over the corner of Pike & Broadway, only 2 blocks from where I live. Apparently, it was a convergence of 2 crowds: one that came up from downtown and another that came from northern Broadway. It was a controlled crowd of excited and happy people, waving flags, openly drinking beer, shooting fireworks, singing "The Star Spangled Banner" and "My Country Tis of Thee", and giving hugs for Obama hugs. Asayo took a number of great pictures with her phone which I'll post later when I get them, but here's a few from my phone....and the rest are courtesy of The Stranger:

Me & Sri with "Obama"

Matt and Ajay
Kabir and Noreen

GO OBAMA!

How can I not blog today? I just got home (7pm) after work and have been eagerly awaiting election results. About half an hour ago, it was announced that Obama took Ohio---woot woot!!! Suffice it to say, us Sousas voted for Obama this year. Matt went to the booths this morning while I cast my ballot last week via absentee ballot. I'll be heading over to Kabir's in an hour to watch the rest of the results with friends...and hopefully we'll be toasting in champagne shortly after. It is so exciting, if anything, to see the fervor for voting and for the election this year. I've never seen such excitement and it makes me so happy to see so many around me care so much. I was most excited to see that after many many weeks of talkin' to and lecturing about it, my boss decided to cast his vote for Obama as well (I will duly thank Greg for pushing on that).

As usual, I always find it interesting to see how different the results are per network. Here's how it is right now (7:07pm PST):

Obama	155	195	207	199	207	206	207
McCain	17	75	135	135	129	83	129

Although Kansas was naturally going to go McCain, it still makes me so happy to see that little bit of blue around Douglas County (go Lawrence!!)


Go Obama!!!