The Christmas Season

It's been awhile since I've done a post, and part of the reason is that I've been insanely busy. It's the holiday season! I've been shopping (as you saw from the shopping trip post) and traveling (which you saw from the LA post) and running around Queens and the city like a maniac since I got home.

So now that I'm at work and things are quiet for the moment, I've got the ipod out and I'm listening to one of my favorite Christmas albums - "John Denver and the Muppets: A Christmas Together". Now I know a bunch of you just said "Good grief" in your heads, and go ahead, say whatever you want. But this album is awesome - and it's always been a big part of my holiday season. I've decorated the family tree, wrapped Christmas presents and looked out the window at snowy evenings to this album.

Plus come on - who wouldn't want Beaker on their Christmas album?

Hollywood!

Hey guys, sorry it took me so long to get this post going, but it's been sort of busy since I got back to work. Taking off a million days didn't really help matters - but it was totally worth it! So as you know by now, I took a jaunt to Los Angeles for the weekend, to stay with Eric and Alex in their house in the Hollywood Hills. Eric was nice to enough to pick us up at the airport, and it was nothing but sun and mid-seventies the whole time we were there, as you will see from the sapphire skies in the photo. Eric and Alex have a great house in the Hollywood Hills - their street and the exterior of the house are pictured here. Actor John Rhys-Davies - better known as the dwarf from "Lord of the Rings" used to live there, which I thought was pretty cool.

Anyway, Matt and I had an awesome time visiting LA. Neither of us had spent much time there before, so it was really cool to get out and see the town. We had dinner with Paula - an author I know from my company on Friday night, at this cool Italian restaurants where the waiters all sing. Matt and I spent a day wandering around Santa Monica - which is the area you see with the palm trees - just gorgeous. We shopped and had lunch at a restaurant overlooking the beach. We kept saying we'd forgotten that it was December! Alex was awesome enough to take us hiking in Topanga Canyon on Sunday, which was fun, beautiful and invigorating. And Eric took us to the Grove on Sunday night - a cool outdoor mall that is all decorated for Christmas - complete with huge trees, Santa and his reindeer, and fake snow all through the streets.

Matt and I also got to hang out with James - a friend we met on our first trip to Europe six years ago. We hadn't seen him since he'd been to New York three or four years ago, so it was awesome to see him. We also met him at the Saddle Ranch where we got to watch people ride and fall off a mechanical bull. Nice!

So to finish off this post, let's do the list of awesome quotes from the weekend:

IS THAT QUEEN LATIFAH? HOLY FUCK!

Um...there's some kind of green algae growing in the Brita water pitcher...

Yes Obi-Wan Kenobe - you are wise beyond your years...

The bartender lost my credit card! I'm going to have to cancel my credit card!

Could the entrance to this stupid dome be any harder to find? Jesus!

Hey you guys mind if we sit here? (Alex, talking to a table of pigeons outside in and out burger). Thanks!

Thanks to Eric, Alex and Dale for letting us crash at their awesome place, and thanks to Eric and Alex for taking us cool places in LA! Hope we can do it again soon!

The 7th Annual Christmas Shopping Trip (We think)

I know that many of you have been anxiously awaiting the update on the annual Christmas shopping trip, so please accept my apologies for the long wait. A long weekend in Los Angeles (post to follow) sort of got in my way of writing it. Anyway, Kelly and I went last week on what we figured to be the 7th annual Christmas shopping trip. That's what we did on the car ride up - try to figure out how many years we'd been doing this trip. So the conversation sounded something like this.

Okay, when was the first trip?
The year I bought my ex the Movado.
Right. Then there was the year we stayed in the room that was thirty miles out of the way...
and smelled like an ash try threw up in it!
Yes! Then there was the year I had a migraine...
and the year I had a sinus infection...
Yup - that was the same year we first stayed with our family...
and ate in the same Friendly's restaurant, twice in the same day, and at first didn't even realize it.

We basically accounted for all but one year - there must have been one year where everything went so smoothly that we barely even remember it. Oh well. But anyway, here are some of the other quotes from this one:

Jenn, this store is really expensive. You are going to choke in here.

Hot dog for the road!

This room smells like an ash try threw up in in too! This room is the runner up to the the other room that wins the worst smelling room ever award. If the other hotel burns down, then this room could step up an fulfill that room's duty as the worst smelling room.

In the elevator in the hotel, two middle aged women with a million packages get on. "Where are your packages?" They ask us. "In the car." Kelly says. "I suppose we should have left ours in there." one of them said. "No, no," the other said. "We have to look through everything and see where we are." They got off, and Kelly said with a wistful sort of smile, "They are on the same trip that we are, you know that right?" I nod and say "Yeah, that's us in twenty years!" then we shake our heads and say "Amateurs! You don't need to take all the stuff out of the car!" You do what Kelly and I do - write it all down at dinner, figure out what and who you still need to buy for, and plan that for tomorrow.

Reindeer mat! And glasses! Kelly's getting dumped!

Christmas carols! Rebekah got her annual annoying message with the dogs barking jingle bells, and Drapo was treated to a message of the chipmunk christmas song.

I'm cute. Put me in charge. Happy bunny!

Last but not least, Kelly telling the employees at Target as she pays for her stuff, "I work at this shithole, so I get a 10% discount."

Thanks Kel for another fun shopping trip. Can't wait for the next one! :-)

National Novel Writing Month: Update

Whew. It has been a whirlwind couple of weeks, and if you keep up with this blog, you will soon see why. November was a heck of a busy month - one of the reasons being that I was participating in this writing "contest" - National Novel Writing Month. This blog post is to update you on the status of it - and the status is: I won! The objective was to write 50,000 words in thirty days - or, a novel in November. The subject of my novel was about angels, specifically one guy who wants to become an angel who brings people to heaven after they die. I completed my story on November 29th, and I think that my final word count was 50,011. It was a really fun and challenging experience, and I'm glad that I made the effort to do it. It showed me that I can write every day if I really put my mind to it. Many thanks to Drapo for bringing it to my attention!