When I saw Mom this weekend, she surprised me with these lovely coffee cups. I love the smaller, European cups as opposed to the giant mugs that we use day to day. I also love how they stack.

Seven hours after driving through dense fog from Kansas City, I made it home just in time to play with the pups for a few minutes before settling in for the Oscars and the red carpet. Aren't they adorable? Yeah. It's good to be home.

Today Mom slept in until 10 a.m., while I woke up at 5:45 a.m. So around 9ish, I was too bored to hang around any longer and took a walk around the Plaza for window shopping and coffee in the drizzle. Besides the architecture, there are sculptures and fountains at every turn of this area, and so I snapped a few shots to share.We mostly shopped all day (hello lovely score of a blouse for EIGHT DOLLARS) but then met up with my best friend from high school (also my prom date) and his FABULOUS wife for dinner. It's always so much fun to catch up with these two -- particularly when it comes to movies and television. It's a nice reminder that there are other addicts like me out there.

Well hello, Kansas City. Today I drove down to KC to meet my mom for a girls shopping weekend. Mom needed a break from Wichita, and we thought it would be fun to get a hotel on the plaza. There was a predicted ice storm in Kansas, so I called mom as I was leaving Minneapolis to make sure we were still on. It was 7:30 am, and she answered perkily and said of course we were still on. I told her I was leaving, and she said, "So am I!" Considering I live 7 hours away, and she lives 3, I was concerned that she would be stuck waiting for me, but she insisted she was going to stop at a few antique stores on the way up.I got to KC at 2:30, checked in, and she was no where to be found. I showered, shaved and dressed before she arrived. Needless to say, my mother takes antiquing to an entirely new level.After arriving, she laid down for a nap after settling in, and I only had an hour of daylight left, so I ran out to shoot some images of the architecture. I know many of my Minneapolis friends have never been to Kansas City, but the Plaza will always hold a special place in my heart. A few times as a kid we would come up here for back-to-school shopping (which was supreme as there was no Gap or Banana Republic in Wichita). There were horse-drawn carriages, fancy food and the sidewalks sparkled with glitter. Now what pre-teen girl wouldn't think that was awesome?

Tonight I got home from work around 6:30, ate dinner, packed a bag for my trip tomorrow and collapsed into bed for a 2 hour nap before heading out to the Triple Rock to catch the Smith Westerns. Our timing was perfect.We left the house at 10, arrived at 10:30 and the band went on around 10:32. They played a 40 minute set, and now 2.5 hours after leaving the house I'm about to crawl back into bed after seeing a show, shooting photos, editing said photos and posting them online. Hear, hear to short shows when the photographer has a head cold! The band sounded good, but they weren't the most dynamic on stage. Love the albums, but I'm not sure I need to see them again live. That's the twitter review for ya.

Another Wednesday. Another deadline. Another long day at the office. Actually though, it was a good day. I have had a lot of photo and illustration assignments out this week, and three of them came in today and they were all *fantastic.* I love it when that happens. Sometimes I get to work with the most amazing and talented people. Actually, most of the time I get to do that.Anyway, this photos is of the dying irises that my deskmate Cindy got for Valentine's day. I'm not sure what this says about me, but I might love taking photos of dying flowers even more than living ones. Something about the way they curl up and the texture...

I bet you thought I was talking about the wine, eh? Well, I'm sure it is delicious as well. But what I really love is the label designs that these bottles have. One of my favorite things about hosting a big party is all the wine we end up with afterward and how it introduces me to new finds. I can't wait to break into these... but I'll have to ween myself off all these cold meds first.

The snow just didn't let up today. Every time I glanced out the window, it was comin' down hard. So finally around 3:30 I grabbed Ms. Margaret and told her she had to come play with me in the snow for a quick break. Isn't she adorable? It was the perfect way to escape the computer monitor for a bit. And yes, it's 9:15 pm now, and it's still snowing.