It’s been a long time since New Year’s Eve was a circled-in-red day on the calendar. The idea of packing into some hotel ballroom for a warm glass of champagne at midnight and 10 minutes of kissing strangers is a vision of hell. We had an impromptu gathering at our house in Ann Arbor to welcome in 2004, and that was fun, although the year that followed didn’t play out all that well, and only underlined the idea that less is more on December 31 of any year.
If I had more money to travel, it might be fun to greet the new year in an exotic locale, Guam or atop Mt. Fuji or someplace with cheap firecrackers and new customs. File that one under pipe dreams. Truth be told, one of the best New Year’s Eves I ever had was when I was a kid, and we went next door to celebrate with the neighbors, and the lady of the house made me one apple beignet after another until I couldn’t eat any more. She was Dutch and said it was traditional. Powdered sugar was better than champagne to a 10-year-old.
The problem is the expectation of fun, of course. Even an optimist can find it hard to be merry when you’re expected to be, and after a string of underwhelming years I just gave up. Now our custom is to make a nice dinner, open a better-than-average bottle of wine, pop in a better-than-average rented movie, switch over to Times Square at 11:55 p.m. and go to bed 20 minutes later. Now that I think of it, that was one of the more memorable nights in recent memory, watching “Spartacus” and finishing 19-whatever laughing over the oysters-or-snails scene.
Whatever your plans are tonight, I hope they’re fun and safe and whatever you’d like it to be — oysters or snails.
So, then. Bloggage? Not bloody much. Having completed my entire four-item to-do list yesterday, we celebrated by seeing “Avatar.” I walked in irritable, having inadvertently chosen a 2-D screening time and unwilling to wait three more hours for the next 3-D, and got more irritable as we sat through 15 minutes of ads and 15 minutes of previews of movies I’d forfeit a kidney to avoid (“Clash of the Titans,” anyone? “Release the kraken” — are they serious?). I spent the time thinking how many people I know are calling it “Dances With Blue Cats,” and assuming this was another waste of an afternoon.
Two hours later I was yelling, “Go, red dinosaur!” and reflecting that I hadn’t had this much fun watching the totally predictable since “Star Wars.” Funny how that goes — you watch the setup and reflect that the characters couldn’t be more crudely rendered if they were drawn in grease pencil, the story all but lit with neon signs, and yet you’re still completely entertained. It’s the journey, not the destination.
We’re going to have to see it again in 3-D. No, we won’t. 3-D Imax. Then I never have to see it again.
Actually, what amazes me about special-effects bonanzas like this is how the actors do it. It’s one thing to summon up emotion in a kitchen, another thing in a sound stage, another thing entirely while dressed in a special suit, sword-fighting in front of a green screen. I heard an interview with James Cameron in which he described who played the flying dinosaur Zoe Saldana leaps onto in the course of demonstrating warrior skills to her humanoid pupil — some grip big enough to endure take after take of being leapt upon by a skinny actress. Movie magic.
It’s probably just a pepperoni pizza repeatin’ on him, but the year closes out with a reminder the reaper was busy in 2009, and most of the names on his list were in boldface. Get well soon, Rusty. Because it would be bad karma to wish for a painful…fail, wouldn’t it? Bad. Karma.
Welcome to whatever new readers we’re getting today; we’re ending the old year with a small honor. This blog is included in a Detroit News feature on notable local sites, which I had to stay up late to read. My husband always washes his hands of these things, a wise move. There aren’t many rules in our lively comment section other than: Be interesting. And be aware, the content isn’t usually so lame. Every blogger gets a glide pattern once in a while. In another two weeks this blog celebrates its ninth birthday, plugging along more or less five days a week. It’s worth what you pay for it, and I hope it surprises you from time to time.
Happy new year to all, and fingers crossed for the good kind of surprises.
ROgirl said on December 31, 2009 at 7:17 am
Happy New Year. This has been a tough year and I hope that 2010 ushers in better times for all.
On a completely different subject, gaak. Pink slime (fat scraps) treated with ammonia and added to hamburger meat used by fast food companies, grocery stores and the federal school lunch program.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/31/us/31meat.html?hp
If this doesn’t put people off prepared hamburger patties, then nothing will.
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basset said on December 31, 2009 at 9:11 am
We generally keep it pretty quiet too… maybe we’re just getting old, or maybe it’s that I’m getting up early tomorrow to see if I can “harvest” one more deer before the season ends. The more I see of that factory-food stuff, the more I want to eat game.
Heard “Avatar” described as “a Roger Dean painting brought to life,” Dean being the artist who did all those trippy Yes album covers back in the 70s. Does that sound anywhere close?
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coozledad said on December 31, 2009 at 9:27 am
We’ll just keep it simple this year. A little Vladimir vodka, maybe a suitcase of Natural Light. Hopefully the neighbors will keep their doors unlocked.
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Chris said on December 31, 2009 at 9:35 am
Congratulations on the mention in the mainstream media. But it has added to my melancholia at the end of the toughest year in my more than 20 years as a newspaper guy. I don’t know if most of my colleagues will ever catch up. Only a newspaper Web site would publish a story about blogs in a community and not link to the damn blogs.
Happy New Year, everyone. Here’s to better times in 2010.
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alex said on December 31, 2009 at 10:02 am
ROGirl—
Saw that article this AM and just about puked. My New Year’s resolution is no more hamburger.
To ring in the end of the aughts, we’re roadtripping down to Indy for a schmancy dinner with another couple at some faboo place downtown, then seeing a cabaret show. Funny, I used to think Indy was the world’s biggest hick town. Living in a much smaller hick town these past five years has given me new perspective.
A happy new year to all here at NN.C!
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MichaelG said on December 31, 2009 at 10:21 am
Grind your own, Alex. It’s better anyway.
I was wondering about links too, Chris. I mean I can cut and paste but why should I have to?
ROgirl said it. It’s been tough but let’s hope for better in 2010. Happy New Year, all!
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4dbirds said on December 31, 2009 at 10:48 am
Happy New Year all. We too will spend a quiet night at home. If we make it to midnight, we’ll have a beer or a mimosa.
I hope all your dreams come true in the coming year. Unless they are in direct competition with mine. lol.
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Jeff Borden said on December 31, 2009 at 10:52 am
I can’t imagine too many people aside from investment bankers who felt 2009 was anything but a year to forget. It was wall-to-wall ugly. I come from a long line of pessimists –our family motto might as well be “it can always get worse”– but I also think we’ll see some improvements in 2010.
There’s a lot going on in Chicago tonight with the CTA offering rides for one-cent to help keep more drunks off the road. But the Arctic chill will drive temps to about 9 degrees with wind chills in the sub-zero range,which makes standing around waiting for a 15-minute fireworks show more than problematic for us. We’re staying in with a batch of great spaghetti, some crunchy bread, several bottles of good wine and a stack of watchable DVDs. I’m not sure we’ll even make it to the ball drop moment.
I think this is an evening that belongs to the young. Years ago, I’d have been aghast at the idea of not being at a large, noisy party with a date. Now, I share Nancy’s disdain for the whole process. Tomorrow, I expect to read about at least one innocent who was killed or seriously wounded by a fool who fires off a pistol or a rifle at midnight. These cretins apparently are unfamiliar with the laws of gravity and what will eventually happen to that big slug of lead when it fails to escape the bounds of Earth.
If you are going to be out tonight, be sensible, folks. As the old copper on “Hill Street Blues” used to advise after the daily briefing, “Let’s be careful out there.”
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Julie Robinson said on December 31, 2009 at 10:57 am
The DH made the same Star Wars comment after seeing Avatar. We did get to see it in 3D Imax and in that form it’s not for those who are prone to queasy stomachs.
Most of the ads before it played were for the military, so they obviously hadn’t watched it first.
These days I rarely even make it to midnight. Pathetic.
BTW, we experienced no extra security in the West Palm Beach airport on Monday but it was still a miserable trip home. Our first flight was delayed so long we missed our next flight, and the next one was 3 1/2 hours later, and then it too was delayed. So many hours sitting in airports. I recommend the Fluxx card game for such occasions, it did help entertain us.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on December 31, 2009 at 11:00 am
“Sherlock Holmes” was a very pleasant surprise (the Lovely Wife and i were braced for disappointment, and halfway through i thought they were about to live down to my expectations, and then it snapped back into action movie excellence), but it was hard to top the two-seconds-worth entertainment value of Liam Neeson saying “Release the kraken” in the trailer for “Clash o’ Titans” — it was almost enough to make me think about watching the movie just to see that line in context.
At least one movie this year will have giant squid where they’re supposed to go . . .
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Sue said on December 31, 2009 at 11:15 am
This was such an across-the-board horrible year that I can’t imagine anyone not wishing/praying for a better 2010. It got to the point this holiday season that I was afraid to open Christmas cards to find out what had happened to people during 2009. Death? Check. Lost limbs? That too. And these are the ones who are sending out cards. I didn’t hear from a lot of people this year. Hells.
Nancy’s warning to new readers about content got me thinking about when I finally got my sister to come on board here. She kept talking about how smart everyone was and I said “ahh, just wait. Food or something disgusting will come up soon”. Sure enough, roasted brussels sprouts and sick-child-puke stories appeared in short order. So, welcome, everyone! The spectrum is covered here.
Happy New Year, everyone. Get the hell out of here, 2009.
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Jeff Borden said on December 31, 2009 at 11:25 am
I recall the first “Clash of the Titans” with great fondness for the wonderful creatures created solely with stop motion photography by the incomparable Ray Harryhausen. His genius has been supplanted by technology, of course, but it was genius nonetheless.
The movie that looks like the odds-on dumbest flick being previewed is “Legion.” Apparently, God is going to send many nasty, angry, army angels to wipe out mankind or something like that. The posters are evil sillier. A muscular angel with wings clutching a stainless steel machine gun of some sort. Yeeeeesh.
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nancy said on December 31, 2009 at 11:42 am
To those who complained: The DetNews story now has links. I know a guy, and he made a phone call.
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Sue said on December 31, 2009 at 11:52 am
Wait, Rush has a heart attack while innocently vacationing in Hawaii, at the same time the President “happens” to be there too? I smell a conspiracy here, big time. Orly Taitz, get on this pronto.
Either that, or… why is Rush stalking the President?
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Deborah said on December 31, 2009 at 11:58 am
I’ve still got my job (I think that’s a positive), my architect husband still amazingly found projects in the Chicago area (where architecture work has been scarce), everyone is healthy (knock on wood), took some fun trips (Finland, New Mexico as usual). So I guess this hasn’t been as bad a year as expected. But we’ve certainly had better ones stress-wise.
We always stay in on New Year’s eve, don’t like driving with the drunks. This year we’ll watch the last disk of the second season of Mad Men, my sister-in-law gave us season 1 and 2 for Christmas. That’s what we’ve been doing nearly every night while we’ve been here in Abiquiu.
Happy New Year to all!
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MarkH said on December 31, 2009 at 12:14 pm
Sue, Nancy Pelosi was there, too, along with Sarah Palin. The conspiracy theories have just exploded.
OTOH, I’d like to share one of my favorite websites. For all things national (or, international) defense, it’s a great source. Why today, though? For those looking for something different to imbibe this New Year’s Eve, some new ammunition:
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/
Does that predator-drone photo make anyone else think of a flying Gort?
Like most of you, counting my blessing this day. Among other things, made it through ’09 with a loving family and still employed. Happy New Year, everyone!
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Jeff Borden said on December 31, 2009 at 12:14 pm
Clearly, Hawaii is the hot spot for rightwing idols. Recall, She Who Must Not Be Named was having a fine old time out there until those goofy paparazzis photographed her with an old McCain visor cap with his named inked over in black, which was her attempt at going incognito.
I certainly hope Rush makes a full recovery. We need the big oaf to keep reminding people of just how ugly conservatism has become in the past decade or two. Plus, he’s getting married again this summer. I’m certain Marriage Number Four will be the one that really sticks.
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alex said on December 31, 2009 at 12:15 pm
It just struck me this instant that it’s been ten, TEN years since Y2K New Year’s. I still remember it like yesterday. I and a group of old friends convened from all over the country in Miami at a posh place in Coconut Grove, where both Madonna and O.J. Simpson were said to be living at the time. On New Year’s Day, we headed to the Isla Morada on Marathon Key and had the whole place to ourselves. It is (or perhaps by now was) an old motel with cute little cabins and a beautiful beachfront. Good golly but life’s whipping by much too quickly.
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LAMary said on December 31, 2009 at 12:55 pm
I used to go to a party at Gladwin Hill’s house every New Year’s eve. Being an old journalist, he had a remarkable collection of friends from all over the place. He died sixteen years ago, so since then it’s been spotty, mostly at home. The year the ex moved out I went to a great party in Venice (CA, not Italy) and I don’t think I could top that one. A friend flew in from Ireland to be my date and the evening ended with Buddhist monks building a giant bonfire.
This year it’s probably roast chicken and an apple cake, sparkling pomegranate juice and some movie on the tube. We have to be up early to see the B2 flyover at the beginning of the Rose Parade. It comes right over the house, which is quite a sight.
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paddyo' said on December 31, 2009 at 1:20 pm
My gal said to bring a little half-split of bubbly tonight, when we’ll celebrate ultra-low-key with a dear and determined friend of hers who’s been trading head locks with cancer this difficult year. We’ll toast early — hey, it’s already 2010 SOMEwhere — and call it a decade.
Ten years ago, when I was still a National Newspaper Reporter, I spent the dreaded night-before-Y2Khaos at one of the most un-digitally-threatened places you could imagine: The Border Inn, out on “Loneliest Road in America” U.S. 50 near Baker, NV, where they celebrate New Year’s twice. We did it once for Mountain Time in the Utah half of the building, and again an hour later for Pacific Time on the Nevada side (the more fun side since it has the casino). I remember toasting somebody’s blue heeler-border collie mix outside in the high-desert chill . . .
Ostensibly I was there to monitor survivalist types who were stockpiling everything in advance of the dark hordes who would sweep the land when the digital infrastructure collapsed. While there WERE a few of them around, they were in their desert compounds, not an isolated roadhouse in a seldom-traveled spot on the map. My real reason there was to celebrate with old Baker friends who live smack in the middle of the Great Basin, surrounded by sagebrush, pinon and juniper, jackrabbits and not much else. Absolutely sublime.
Happy new decade from Colorado, everybody . . .
PS to MarkH — Somebody should paint “Klaatu barada nikto” on the side of Flying Gort . . .
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Joe Kobiela said on December 31, 2009 at 1:21 pm
B-2 fly over, (as Homer would do,drool drool)Will be in Ypsilanti at 7:00pm and Cleavland at 8:15 should be home by 10:00pm,unless that trip to Key West I bid on goes thru, current temp there is 77. Wife is in N.H. with the youngest daughter helping set her up in her new house, she is flying back to the Fort Tomorrow and yes Iam picking her up in a plane. This will be the first time in 27yrs we wont be together on New Years. It will just be me and Baxter the half crazed Golden Retriever.
Blue Sky’s and tailwinds to all in 2010, you guys make my day
Pilot Joe
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Jen said on December 31, 2009 at 1:32 pm
Oooh, the Key West trip wouldn’t be a bad way to end the year, huh, dad? You should take your daughter with you! 😉
Unless my dad takes me to Key West with him, ha ha, my hubby, his sister and I are going to friend’s apartment to play games with a group of people. I bought Bacardi Mojito stuff (cheap, but good for a party) and hot chocolate, in which we can pour peppermint schnaaps, which I suspect will taste very, very good as the temperature drops tonight.
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annie said on December 31, 2009 at 3:34 pm
Our most memorable new yr’s eve was one many yrs ago when we were 1st married. A co-worker invited us to join them & another couple at a fancy restaurant. They picked us up & drove us the 45 min there to a mediocre but expensive meal enlivened by the slowly but steadily simmering argument they were having. By the time they’d drunk enough wine, the fight escalated into shouting, the waiter came over to ask us to quiet down or leave, the woman ran into the bathroom, the other couple left, the husband ordered more wine & since they were our drivers, my husband pleaded with him to stop drinking and he told my husband to fuck himself.
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Deborah said on December 31, 2009 at 3:49 pm
“Y2Khaos”, that’s a good one Paddyo’.
Where was I then? Where else but Abiquiu, NM (we lived in St. Louis then, moved to Chicago in 2003). We had just seen the land on New Years eve day that year that we purchased a couple of days later. We had 4 views we liked, would have been happy with any 1 of the 4. The 7th property they showed us had all 4, it was a no-brainer. Later that night we celebrated our find with home made margaritas in the doublewide we were staying in. Had a hangover on the first day of 2000.
We got married later that year on our land, no buildings, no power, no water with 100 guests from all over the world. Since then we have bought quite a bit more of the surrounding acres to buffer ourselves from possible bad neighbors. The neighbors turned out to be great, all but one klinker.
Hard to believe that was 10 years ago.
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Colleen said on December 31, 2009 at 3:49 pm
We were going to go out, now we are staying in. It was the Y2K NYE that changed my life, even though I didn’t know it at the time. It was during the festivities in the Fort that my then single husband turned to our mutual friend and said “set up that dinner with your co-worker”.
And here we are.
2009 had nice moments, but overall…I’m over it.
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beb said on December 31, 2009 at 4:20 pm
In Detroit, as opposed to Grosse Pointe, the new york is celebrated with people firing off their guns. Since there are a lot of guns in Detroit this can get pretty noisy. OK, fucking scary, actually. We give thanks that we live in a brick house.
I guess all those conservative pundits who declared the Obama was vacationing in some sort of alien land – you know, Hawai’i – must be right because Limbaugh was vacationing there, too. And you all know that Limbaugh likes to vacation in foreign lands, though usually places where a fist full of vigara gets you something.
Happt New Years, y’all!
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Little Bird said on December 31, 2009 at 4:51 pm
This year’s celebration will be movies at the boyfriend’s house (we’ll call him Rooster) with delivery pasta, wine, and a bottle of champagne from Trader Joe’s. We figure staying away from Chicago streets on the “Night of Sanctioned Drunkeness” is the safest course of action.
Hope everyone has a good New Year’s!
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Jolene said on December 31, 2009 at 5:30 pm
I’m back in DC after my sojourn in ND, which, as you might recall, involved dealing w/ the stuff of my parents’ (mainly my mother’s) almost 63 years of life together and, come to think of it, of years before that too, as they were both the inheritors of still older stuff from their respective families. Lots of sentimental moments, but, mainly, lots of stuff. Do your kids a favor. When you reach 75, start getting rid of stuff. When you reach 80, get rid of some more.
Lots of work, much of it done by my younger, fitter siblings and all made more manageable by the formidable organizing skills of the sister who is an engineer. Every family should have one.
Had a tight connection in Minneapolis and have still not been reunited w/ my suitcase. That’s getting to be a problem, as this computer is about to run out of juice, and the charger is in the suitcase.
Happy New Year to all. If I get my power cord, I’ll check back in later!
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whitebeard said on December 31, 2009 at 6:27 pm
Our New Year’s Eve celebrations have usually been low-key although we went to celebrate in Times Square one year just for fun. I had high hopes for 2010 but a meeting planned next Tuesday with the surgeon who will remove my colon cancer (discovered by a colonoscopy the day before my Christmas Eve birthday) is having a definite dampening effect.
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coozledad said on December 31, 2009 at 6:34 pm
whitebeard:I hope everything goes well.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on December 31, 2009 at 7:09 pm
Whitebeard, you and a far too young mother of two friend of mine are both in my prayers for Tuesday. Hang in there . . . tell ’em not to leave anything hanging out.
Hawaii — home of the Dec. 30, 2009 Bilderberger reunion? Bohemian Grove West? Illuminati-A-Go-Go? I’m lovin’ this one in a faux-paranoid sort of way.
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nancy said on December 31, 2009 at 7:45 pm
Yes, Whitebeard, best of luck to you. What is happening to our NN.C community? Let’s hope next year is better.
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Deborah said on December 31, 2009 at 8:45 pm
Whitebeard my thoughts are with you going into the new year. Here’s for the best…
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Dexter said on December 31, 2009 at 9:28 pm
Whitebeard, I wish you well. You’ll be in my thoughts as you approach the big day.
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MarkH said on December 31, 2009 at 9:48 pm
Wow, Whitebeard. Nothing else to say but what others have already said. Thoughts and prayers in your direction, friend.
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Dexter said on December 31, 2009 at 9:52 pm
New Year’s Eve…New Year’s Day…I recall as a kid when Dad would bring home cans of peanuts and sacks of candy and lots of bottles of soda , and always a bag of Wayne Bun candy bars and we would eat a home cooked meal and the entire evening was very festive and lots of good will ruled our household. About ten in the evening Mom popped up a helluva big pan of corn and we always stayed up and “hooped and hollered” as the old folks called it at midnight. It was the second best day of the year, not beating Christmas but edging out the 4th of July.
I 1968 I was ready to welcome-in 1969 and I picked up the family chihuahua to pet good-bye,and the little fucker bit my ear and blood ran down and ruined my shirt, and I had a throbbing ear and an old shirt on when I drunkenly kissed someone’s wife at midnight, and we were 19 years old and life was full of adventures to be had. A few short years later, already a war veteran and a divorced man, I was so shaken and scared of myself I went to a bar in Fort Wayne on New Year’s Eve and drank straight orange juice to avoid a D.U.I.
I learned my lessons about drunk driving from observing others’ fates and I was careful to not get caught by monitoring my intake, years before I quit.
My kids had the most fun by banging pots and pans with spoons, just like their mom did in the 1950s. The youngest one is getting married Saturday…big deal…yeah, I have rented a tuxedo, you oughtta see me…I think I could audition for the Luca Brasi role if they remake “The Godfather.”
http://foreignerinformosa.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/04/08/luca_brasi.jpg
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MarkH said on December 31, 2009 at 10:10 pm
Ha Ha, you changed that, Dexter; you had Clemenza first! Whatever…
Could be me in that photo, too, though…
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MichaelG said on December 31, 2009 at 10:35 pm
Geez, Whitebeard. I’m sorry. We’re all behind you and Moe and you’re in our thoughts and prayers.
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4dbirds said on December 31, 2009 at 11:26 pm
Thinking of you Whitebeard.
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moe99 said on January 1, 2010 at 1:27 am
Ah, Whitebeard, you’ve joined that club that no one wants to be a member of. Thinking of you, and praying for a good outcome on Tuesday. Please let us know.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on January 1, 2010 at 9:21 am
Merely bragging on behalf of some proud parents next door — when you watch the Rose Parade today, i hope they show the Ohio State drum major do some high tosses and behind the back between the legs catches and such. This is his last turn today as OSU drum major (senior, second year as lead DM), the best cabin counselor i’ve ever had work for me at church camp, and just an all around, all American good guy. I’d love for the Buckeyes to win this afternoon (ha! not gonna happen), but i’m watching today for Josh and TBDBITL in the parade and halftime at the Rose Bowl.
Go Bucks!
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beb said on January 1, 2010 at 11:48 am
Best wishes, Whitebeard.
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Rana said on January 2, 2010 at 2:13 am
Sending good thoughts your way, whitebeard.
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Dexter said on January 2, 2010 at 12:15 pm
Been a couple days as my daughter has had my computer tied up printing last minute place-mat settings for the big wedding today…well…time to put on the tux and walk her down the aisle. Big day. Shortly after they will be bound for Cozumel for the honeymoon.
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brian stouder said on January 2, 2010 at 1:40 pm
Whitebeard – here’s wishing you and yours strength. Now that I’m surely past the half-way point of my life, I’ve wondered when the fabled ‘mid-life crisis’ will come, and just about concluded that it won’t…. presumeably until a medical alert of some sort comes along.
Dexter – just fyi, when you said
My kids had the most fun by banging pots and pans with spoons, just like their mom did in the 1950s –
I laughed out loud. We did EXACTLY the same thing at New Years, when I was 5 or 6 (1967 or thereabouts), in good ol’ southeast Fort Wayne.
I read a news article bout an unHappy New year north of Fort Wayne. If you follow the relationships in the piece, it appears that a sort of “wife swap” had occurred at some point in the past, and the shooter wanted a do-over.
http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20100102/LOCAL07/301029970/1002/LOCAL
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Deborah said on January 2, 2010 at 7:42 pm
Dexter, congrats to your daughter the bride and to her groom. It’s great to see positiveness in the midst of all the negativeness of the new year. Here’s hoping the newlyweds have a long and satisfying life together.
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Deborah said on January 2, 2010 at 8:18 pm
Packing for our return from Abiquiu to Chicago tomorrow. It has been a mixed trip this year. The place we stayed is one we’ve never been before, don’t think we will be repeating this one. It’s been very cold, lots more snow then usual, while it’s beautiful it makes for more stress which is not welcome at least not piled on top of the work stress of 2009. Hopefully our house will be built soon and then it will be perfect. Since we changed the design again pretty radically this may not happen as soon as I would like. Oh well.
Not looking forward to passing through security at the airport tomorrow but we are planning ahead with plenty of time to get through.
I have a routine physical scheduled for Monday morning, here’s hoping everything checks out A-OK.
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Dexter said on January 3, 2010 at 2:54 am
Holy shit, did we ever have a great after-party…everybody (not me of course) was doing shots of tequila and schnapps and dancing to all the old songs of my daughters’ lives played by a D J in a hotel ballroom. My newly-married daughter’s friends all have husbands or boyfriends and they really know how to party. It was great, and then the bride was too tuned up to make it to her room so her friends packed her into a chair on a luggage rack and wheeled her to her room on it. It was one of the funniest damn things I have ever seen. When the bride and her sister and best friend all were on the dance floor doing the “Dancing Queen”, it was something to see. Well…what a way to start the new year, damn…and I didn’t fall down walking her down the aisle and a few old ladies even said I looked good in my tuxedo. Ha!
Tomorrow the real world takes me back into its clutches…but this holiday has been wild.
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LAMary said on January 3, 2010 at 5:10 pm
We’re watching Grosse Point Blank on cable and noticed that my son’s high school is playing the role of the school John Cusack is returning to. That school has been in more movies, tv shows and commercials than Vito Scotti.
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Dexter said on January 3, 2010 at 6:54 pm
I have no idea where I got the idea this was a famous TV-stand-in school or how I know this…anyway…is it Crenshaw High School?
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LAMary said on January 4, 2010 at 10:45 am
It’s John Marshall High School. It was in Grease and in the Hot for Teacher video, and more recently the Audi SUV video. They’ve got a website, so you can see photos there.
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sfmike said on January 9, 2010 at 8:49 pm
I had the same experience with “Avatar,” expecting to dislike it while hating the entire moviegoing experience until the film actually got going, and then being thoroughly surprised and amused. For what it’s worth, a friend saw it in both “Real 3D” at a regular theater and an IMAX 3D, and much preferred the former. Imax is too large and queasy for the subtlety of what Cameron is doing with 3D, which is to make it a standard part of moviegoing rather than a series of stuff-flying-at-your-eyeballs tricks. I’d say he succeeded.
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