so, posting will no doubt be light in the next week or so (from my side at least) as i get thursday and friday off from work and will be in the full throes of all the holiday activies. i've got fun stuff planned for the next few days: tomorrow evening my family, my uncle's family, my grandparents (who are in town from laramie, wyoming) and tommy and i are going out to dinner at l'auberge chez francois to celebrate my grandparents' 80th birthdays. this french alsatian country inn in great falls, va, is apparently THE place to go for fancy occasions, and its food and service are supposed to be out of this world. and i'm thrilled to be celebrating my grandparents' birthdays with them - they are totally amazing people and wonderful grandparents, even though i don't get to see them as much as i would like since they're out in wyoming. my grandfather, francois dickman, is the american-born son of two belgian immigrants who were french professors at the university of wyoming. he got his master's from the fletcher school of law and diplomacy, and went on to serve in WWII and the korean war. he then became a foreign service officer, first being stationed in colombia (where my uncle was born), and later serving as ambassador to both the united arab emirates and kuwait, in the late 70s/early 80s. he's fluent or near-fluent in french, arabic and spanish, and overall just informed on just about everything (including miniature ship building and wyoming history), even though i really don't think he enjoyed his grandchildren until they could hold conversations with him :) AND he thought the iraq war would be a shitstorm from the start.

my grandmother is the daughter of otis hoy, who was a chinese-american who moved from san francisco to cheyenne, wyoming in the early 1900s (god knows why). she graduated from UW with degrees in agriculture, home economics, and food and nutrition, and then met my grandfather and traveled with him all over the world - and from what i understand, being the wife of a diplomat is essentially like being a diplotmat yourself. when my grandparents moved back to laramie in the 80s, she became heavily involved in community service and volunteering, and won the Laramie Community Service Award in 2003. plus she's just about the most amazing chef that i know.

so, anyway, happy birthday grandma and grandpa! look how cute they are! (without fail, my grandfather has that befuddled look in photographs, like, "what is this camera thing you point at my face?".)

in other news, i really want this breadmaker so i can make this panettone recipe. if you've never had panettone, you are doing yourself a disservice - it's an italian (milanese in particular) cake, made exclusively around the holidays, and it's just delicious. look! there's even a wiki for it!

and in other other news, i woke up with a cold this morning, and even though i've already popped several zinc tablets, i still feel crappy. so i'll sign off for now.

happy holidays!