This picture of Brandon and Santa is so endearing. Please note that Brandon is young enough to sit on Santa's lap, yet his legs are as long as Santa's.

Brandon was always quite a bit taller than most kids his age throughout all phases of childhood, and I'm guessing maybe this Santa was a shorty. And also, Santa looks like he might be drunk. I'm just sayin'.

Even though it's not a creative stretch to take photos of a cute dog, he's a great subject as I try to learn more about the various settings on my new camera. As you can see by the blurred paw, Koda appears to be shooing me away in the last picture, as if to say, "Enough, woman!" I snapped a few more quick shots, then let him bask on the couch in peace.

Brandon was walking through the orange aisle at SuperTarget yesterday when I- standing about 10 feet away- saw a blonde smile at him. I went up to him to tease him, when he said, "Umm, Nicki? I have a stuffed batman in my hand-held Target basket. He accidentally fell out of the basket in the frozen cookie dough aisle, much to the delight of everyone standing around me!"

I learned yesterday that when choosing between Superman, Spiderman, and Batman, apparently Batman is, apparently, the coolest.

Every once in awhile I get an urge to go on a shopping spree, and since I actively avoid using credit cards these days, I often satiate this urge by visiting a thrift store where I'll buy $6 worth of lovely crap. Today's goal was to to find jars for my art desk, so Brandon came along with me to peruse the thrift stores and antique shops on Broadway. First of all, let me just say that my boyfriend is wonderful! He's not into antiques, but he will go along with me and pretend to be interested in looking at old cookie jars and lunchboxes, which I find terribly attractive. Sometimes I hit him on the butt and am like, "Oww!" as we're walking in the vintage dishware aisle. No, seriously. Boyfriends who go with their girlfriends to antique shops are Hot.

The reason why he said he'd tag along on my trip to Broadway is because it's a very colorful neighborhood. And by colorful, I mean that we'll pass several blocks of antique shops and high-end furniture stores followed by a block with peep shows, tobacco shops, and adult book stores. Love the city! In any case, I was on a quest for glass jars, so when we spotted the store you see across the street in the photo above, I thought- jackpot! The place was called Hooked On Glass. They carried tons of high-end glass pieces and not the 99 cent old peanut butter jars I was seeking, however, considering some of the shops we saw today, I was quite amused when I downloaded this photograph and zeroed in on the sign. Click the photo to enlarge to see what "Hooked on Glass" morphed into, thanks to the Broadway street sign. Too funny.

Anyway, I really do enjoy life in the city. It's "colorful," yes- but it is a good kind of colorful, too. You never run out of things to see and do, and there are so many neat specialty stores. Even if I never visit 10 % of those stores, I think it's cool that they exisist in my city. For example, I thought of my parents today when we saw a restaurant that specialized in Czech food, then we later passed a store that specializes in supplies for making outdoor ponds. And I found a new lovely shop that sells craft supplies- the good stuff like Sublime Stitching patterns, neat handspun yarn and funky clothing patterns. It's fun to have those types of things at your fingertips.