Gonzai Gallery

Well, whaddya know - we have a white Christmas. Can't remember the last time that happened, but almost an inch of snow fell today, just enough to touch up everything. Nice. Unfortunately it also touched up the roads, a friend didn't even try to come after she barely made it home, and the family was late.

I've got a decent haul: the Kindle, of course; series 2 of 'Luther'; Dr Who's 'Christmas Carol' special; Cards Against Humanity; a party game called 'Martini Time', how appropriate; some books and some accessories for the Kindle. Promptly spent time playing backgammon with No. 1 nephew on the Kindle. Mom's haul included a book written by a certain meerkat-ish author (thanks for the signed nameplate, she loves it!) and a ton of Keurig-related things to include the machine itself. I don't drink much coffee, so I've never been inclined to invest in one; but the family is crazy for theirs and felt Mom should have one. Fortunately they did include a lot of tea for Mom and cider & chai for me. The boys were very happy with their games (Carcassonne, Ticket to Ride USA, and various card and Star Wars games), Janine loved the necklace & earrings and Mike is intrigued by his annual sampler CD.

The dinner was crazed; we did the usual pickup of a complete dinner at Safeway, but for some reason half the stuff was frozen solid. The turkey's juice overran the pan and caught fire in the oven, fortunately just smoke. The mashed potatoes needed over twice the recommended time to cook because they were an ice cube, and Mom forgot the vegetables until after everything else was cooked, so by the time the veggies were ready most things were cold :/  But it was a darn good turkey and mashed potatoes, and I suspect we'll be eating it all week.

Phew. Need bedtime. After I let out the hysterical dog.

Yes, it's true. I saw a movie in a theatre today. We saw 'Tangled'. Bizarrely loud, but cute and amusing. Loved the horse, of course, esp when he did the dog imitation. Then we went to lunch at a Chinese restaurant, naturally, seems the place next to the gym just added sushi. Yum yum time. Then when we go home, we watched 'Horton Hears A Who', finished season 1 of Glee, saw some bits of the original Star Wars trilogy (must have been a while since I've seen it, as I didn't remember a lot of it) and now it's the Dr Who Christmas special. Whole lotta relaxing going on, just in time for snow. Yay.

I have been to a whopping 2 baseball games this year. Down from 106 five years ago. So last weekend I decided that, darn it, I'm going to a game Saturday. Erm...the forecast for tomorrow is for 100 degrees, high humidity and a heat index of 106. Ah yes, also 'Code Orange' air quality, meaning don't spend significant time outdoors.

But that's not even why I'm backing out of tomorrow's game in Bowie. Somewhere along the line, someone wasn't paying attention, and tomorrow's game is double-booked, promotion wise. It's Star Wars Night, which might be amusing were the costumed characters not dying of heat stroke. It's also Christian Faith Night. Yes, at the same time. I will stay home, oh yes. 

Well, failed to reconcile the Vista vs ITunes situation, but at least I managed to convince ITunes to rip CDs again. Slowly but surely, my music collection goes digital. I was able to update my website for a change, and even posted the one new piece of art I've done in the last few months that worked out. That would be Pushing Daisies' Emerson Cod - usually I either go quick and use pencils, or do reverse drawing (white on black) but given the emphasis on color in 'Daisies' I decided to do Emerson in full color. So here goes my first attempt at a cut, Emerson's bottom right:
I screwed up the BSG tape, so I'll try again with the new ep today, I taped it again last night. Finally saw Revenge of the Sith for the first time. Yikes, but someone needs to not let Lucas write/direct. Better than 1 & 2, at least. Meanwhile I have got to stop watching the Capitals - they're terrible when I'm watching, but (apparently) quite good when I'm not.

The dog show was all right - they had something called 'Meet the Breeds', which rocked. 4-5 dogs of different breeds were in a small area and you just walked right in, met the dogs and talked to their owners. Lots of fun for everyone, good for photo-taking, just a great idea. And we found some orthopedic shoes that Mom is just loving, she'd better love 'em for $70 (I paid). But the place was so huge we really couldn't take in the whole thing, and the first people we met weren't very nice, so it cast a pall on the day. My run-in was with a woman who had a total hissy fit because I had a camera with me in the general vicinity of her and her dog. She felt I was there to photograph her dog, put the pic on the web and claim I owned the dog.(!) There's paranoid, and then there's her. Rule refresher: spectators are encouraged to bring cameras and take photos. And there's pros taking photos all over the place. Get used to it. Afterwards the restaurant we were going to turned out to be not open yet, but we found a nice Irish pub and had burgers while sitting on a couch watching rugby. Very cool.