I didn't get home until really late last night because for starters, my flight was delayed leaving Portland by half an hour. That wasn't too bad - we made up a lot of time in the air. However, once we landed, the baggage claim at LAX was a mess. I generally don't check baggage but because of Christmas and gifts and everything, I had to. I waited over an hour for my bags after watching about 90% of the people on my flight collect their baggage and happily go on their way. I finally went down to United's baggage center where the people were not very understanding. ("It says here the baggage for that flight was at carousel #4. Have you been to carousel #4?) Eventually, they told me my bags had just gone down the shoot - only an hour and 15 minutes after my flight landed - and they seemed unconcerned with the slowness and curious as to why I had gotten impatient. I was also starving, so after stopping to grab something to eat, going home and unpacking (I can't leave a bag unpacked), I didn't get to bed until after midnight. Then I worked 10 hours today. 10 very, very long hours.

Now, Wally and I are home relaxing. We have no plans for the evening but to stay inside and away from all the people flocking to Pasadena for the Rose Parade tomorrow. My plan is to get up tomorrow early enough to leave town while everyone is still at the parade (and thus, parked). For now, I'm getting ready to hit BestBuy.com to buy a TV.

Wally and I hope you all have a safe and sane New Year's. Here are our resolutions for the New Year:


EditThis's List
1. Eat healthier
2. Lose the 10 lbs I've gained since summer
3. Read more (it was a super slow reading year for me)
4. Go somewhere I've never been before
5. Take a snowboarding trip
6. Work out more often (see #2)
7. Write something that isn't this blog
8. Spend responsibly
9. Run another 5k and a 10k
10. Take care of my will

Wally's List
1. Be better about getting in the car, even if I don't want to
2. Do not eat my dinner while leaving my pills in the bowl untouched
3. Drink water without dragging it through the entire house
4. No more fleas this year!
5. Be cuter

I spent yesterday afternoon out at my dad's with my sister. He lives in a small outer suburb of Portland called Beavercreek. Because he has a small amount of property he is able to keep some animals. Besides Sara, his trusty Blue Heeler herding dog, he has two horses and about 13 head of sheep. It was too wet and cold for me to go visit the animals so I don't know if he still has chickens or any other animals left.

Yesterday evening I met up with my old friend, Melanie, and we grabbed some Mexican food then, inexplicably, went to Dairy Queen for sundaes. That's right - I had a stomach full of chips, salsa and quesidilla and topped it off with ice cream. I felt like I was going to hurl. Melanie looked great - she'd lost about 40-50 lbs since I last saw her in August. She had slipped or ruptured a disk in her back and had backed out of surgery a year ago opting to try and rehab it instead. Over time she received several epidurals for pain which she thinks may have also acted as an appetite supressant. She hadn't even been trying to diet! I wonder what I could do to hurt my back bad enough to score some epidurals...? Nah - I'm sure the pain wasn't worth it.

In case you've noticed the lack of photos with this post, it's the first official post from my iPhone. I'm sitting in Portland's airport waiting for my plane to board!

Last night, I drove 82 miles north to Centralia, WA to meet up with my friend, Randy. Randy and I used to work in radio together and hadn't seen each other in about 15 years. I hadn't even talked to him in ages before he and another friend, Dale, recently called me to tell me a mutual friend of ours had passed away. Since I already had plans to come north for the holidays, we decided we should all get together and catch up. So I met Randy in Centralia and we drove together another 20 miles or so to Olympia, WA to meet Dale, who had driven down from Seattle. Randy called another old friend, Eric, en route and he and his wife came out and we all had dinner at a great pizza place up there. It was great to see everyone and rehash old memories and to hear how everyone had grown up over the years. I met Randy and Dale when I was 18 and look at us all now:

From left to right that's Eric, Randy, Dale and I. Dale still works in radio at KZOK in Seattle and Randy works in advertising.

On the way back to Centralia that night, in completely random conversation about TV, Randy mentioned something that had never occurred to me, and at first I thought he was bullshitting (until I checked IMDB on my iPhone). Am I the ONLY person who didn't realize that Michael Chiklis ("The Shield") is the same guy who played the father on "The Commish"? I mean, I actually used to watch "The Commish." So when Randy brought it up, I sort of thought, "Oh, they're both bald, so they must be the same actor?" I felt like a complete ass when I checked the internet and found that what he said was true. I'm usually the one who knows those random facts. I mean, why bother to watch "The Commish" ever if it's not going to benefit you in the future?

It just occurred to me the other day that because I made a lot of 10-99 income this year (I was paid without taxes being taken out of the check) that I may need to buy a big ticket item that I can write off to offset those taxes. A call to my accountant (who happened to be on the ski slopes - oops!) confirmed this. Because of what I do for a living, things like televisions are considered a write off. So Rob and I are headed over to Best Buy today to check out their flat screen TVs. Anyone who has been to my house to watch a DVD knows I'm desperately in need of a new television. It might seem odd, considering my industry, that I still own a 32" standard def 4:3 tube television. It's time to get into the 21st century and buy the flat screen I've always wanted. I hate to do it, but it's on my tax guy's advice! Anyone have any advice? LCD or Plasma? Brands?

Later today, I'm driving up to Centralia to meet with a friend I haven't seen in probably 15 years. From there, the two of us are driving another 30 miles to Olympia to meet with our other friend who is driving down from Seattle. I spent a few years right after high school in Olympia trying to go to college (briefly) and worked with these two guys at the radio station I used to work at. It will be good to see both of them and the only downside is having to go to Olympia.

I saw my friend, Jennifer, yesterday. We had lunch then went back to her house to hang out. She told me how her husband, Mitch, has been playing Guitar Hero III but has been stuck on the Tom Morello guitar challenge for weeks and can't advance past it. He's been pretty frustrated because until you beat the challenge, you can't unlock more songs to play. I told her I had SO already beaten that challenge, so she asked if I could do it again so that Mitch could play more songs. After not playing the game for about a month or so, I was able to do it in two tries. And yes, I am proud of that! Apparently, Mitch was ecstatic when he got home. Jen also tried to get me to play Dance, Dance, Revolution which, I am proud to say, I suck at. I can't dance, so it doesn't surprise me that I'm no good at a game about dancing.

This morning, I went and met a friend for bagels, our usual meet up when I'm in town. It snowed again this morning, and it was the first time I've driven in snow in forever. At least it was melting as it hit the pavement.

My mom and I then ran over to the mall so she could look at the mattresses on sale at Macy's. As it turns out, the mattress she sleeps on is 30 years old (!!!). I can't believe she's been sleeping on that. I suppose at this point, anything will be an improvement for her.

This evening, my sister is coming over and we're going to make cranberry bread. My grandmother used to make it at this time of year and my sister has been doing it for ages to carry on with tradition. Every year, each of us gets a bag of cookies and cranberry bread. I wanted to take some home for a certain someone who is babysitting Wally while I'm gone, but she didn't have any extra, so she's going to show me how to make it. As it turns out, cranberries are hard to get ahold of right now. She called all over the place this morning and finally found a place that had one bag! Yummm...cranberry bread.

It is freezing cold here. Not literally, but pretty close. I think it's 36 degrees out right now. I kept complaining about being cold yesterday, so Jen gave me two Little Hotties hand packs which I opened up and put in my jeans pockets. I'd never used them before. I'll tell you, after a few hours, they got really hot and were still hot when I went to bed, so I threw them under the covers and they kept me warm there, too. I think I need a whole body suite stuffed with Little Hotties.

Yesterday around noon, right in the middle of Christmas breakfast, it started to snow outside. Big white flakes fell heavily for around an hour then turned into sleet and finally just rain. It's the first time I've seen snow on Christmas Day in years. I can't remember the exact last date, but I think it had to be around the early 90s. It was a nice surprise for the holiday considering it doesn't snow that much here. I spent the rest of the day looking longingly at Mt. Hood in the distance wishing I was up there snowboarding on new snow.

Christmas dinner was lots of fun. We broke from tradition (usually Chinese food) and had pizza this year. Not Domino's pizza but GOOD pizza from a local pizza joint. Then the usual - open presents, play games. We played Apples to Apples and I actually won a round. Whoo-hoo!

Late, as everyone was leaving, I headed over to Robert's parents' house where he, Reid and I chilled in the hot tub for an hour. The three of us have managed to get together on Christmas Day like this for the last several years, except for last year (the tonsil nightmare).

For Wally Wednesday, I'd like to repost this photo from last year around this time when he first became friends with his now BFF, Stryder. Look how tiny little Stryder was! Now he's 50lbs of muscle and love.

If you think Wally is spoiled, think again. This is my mom's 29lb cat Moby who is spoiled beyond belief. Have you ever seen such a big cat?

Merry Christmas!

Wally and I hope you all have a safe and happy holiday!

I had heard nightmares about traffic and lines at LAX so I left my house over 3 hours before my flight this morning. There was no traffic getting to the airport, and we had no problems getting to the terminal. Becuase I had checked in online (why doesn't everyone do this?), it ended up taking me literally only 20 minutes to check my bag and get through security. This left me with nearly 3 hours to hang out in the terminal and wait for my flight to depart.

Considering how annoyed I am on a day to day basis with the general population, it should have come as no surprise to me to see people in the airport behaving like selfish assholes. The terminal was full when I arrived but two flights were set to depart 30 minutes later and it cleared out then. I found a seat and sat down, settling in with a book to read. As we got closer to departure time, more and more people arrived to settle themselves in the terminal. Several people, mostly young-ish girls, decided they absolutely had to do one of the following things: A) talk loudly and incessantly on their cell phone for the entire two hours they were waiting for the plane, B) lay down across several seats to try and grab some shut eye, or C) in addition to option B, one girl decided she also needed to watch Grey's Anatomy on her laptop at full blast without headphones.

As the terminal got more and more full, none of the people laying down had the decency to get up. Of course, I couldn't resist taking photos with my iPhone because if you're being a public jackass, there's no reason you shouldn't be a jackass on the world wide web.

First, here's the annoying girl laying down watching Grey's on her laptop. See the two empty seats at her feet? Even when some people crowded into those seats, she wouldn't get up. In fact, she stayed in this position until she got up to board the plane.

The second girl decided she needed to take a full on nap and spread out across three seats.

I ended up having to sit in the open space at her feet and even though she continued to bump me with her feet, she never got up. She was pretend sleeping. I realized that the bench was a little uneven and every time I got up or sat down the whole thing shook, so I took great pleasure in doing that often so she could glare at me. I guess I was inconveniencing her.

While all these people were laying down (there was at least one more girl across three seats), all the seating spaces had filled up, and many people, including those with small children and senior citizens, couldn't find a place to sit. Thankfully, some decent people got up so they could sit down. For instance, at the head of the annoying girl kicking me was a family of three shoved into a single seat because she wouldn't sit up.

Finally, came this douchebag who took up an entire row of seats and went to sleep, only to be finally awakened by a courteous traveler who let him know the flight was boarding.

I'd like to point out that our flight was just past noon, it wasn't in the middle of the night. Nor was there a giant snowstorm that had displaced all these selfish, sleepy travelers for days so that they might actually be in need of rest. Nope - just your regular 2 hour flight to Portland out of LAX. All of this is annoying and rude in itself, but it happened on Christmas Eve. What the hell has happened to people?

I stopped by my local Bank of America ATM this afternoon to deposit a paycheck and noticed that the ATMs had been replaced with newer models. I have to admit, the new ATMs are pretty cool. For starters, you no longer need an envelope to make a deposit which is a blessing in itself. All too many times the envelopes are all gone and I have to just shove my check through the slot and hope it makes it to my account. Now, there are two slots - one for cash and one for checks. You put your check in the check slot like you normally would (but sans the envelope) and it scans the check and is able to read the amount without you having to enter it on the keypad. When you get your receipt, there's a tiny scanned copy of the check there for you. For once, B of A has done something right. Now, if they could just turn down the volume on the ATM keypad so everyone in a one block vicinity doesn't know how may digits I'm taking out.

I had a party to go to tonight but I think I'm skipping out. There's just too much stuff to do. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that 3 hours in advance is enough time to get through the crazy lines at LAX tomorrow.

There is no rest for the weary right before the holidays. Even though everyone else at the company I work at gleefully left work last night to head into their two week holiday, because of my wanky work schedule, I am stuck here today and tomorrow. As you can imagine, it's a little hard to be motivated right now and I find I'm working at a snail's pace.

I had dinner with good friends last night and it was good to see them before the holiday. I agreed to go to kickboxing this morning with Dani since I keep blowing it off with the holiday and wanted to get in at least once before I head out of town. Getting to work out together was great, but unfortunately, I didn't get into work until 12:30. This day feels like it's lasting forever.

I seem to have a million things to do before I leave town. Working this weekend is not helping. A friend's blues band is in town tonight playing in Burbank and I really want to go by and say hello and listen to him play, but it's just not going to happen. I'm also supposed to go to an industry party tomorrow night. It's a great party I go to every year, but I think this time, I'll have to get in and get out in about an hour so I can take care of things at home before catching a plane on Monday. Don't even get me started on what LAX is going to be like on Christmas Eve.

I hope everyone else is having a more relaxing time heading into the holidays, instead of running near full speed, as I am. Is it just me, or has Christmas really snuck up this year?

I realized today when I woke up this morning, sore again from snowboarding, that I'm getting old. I was quite an athletic kid, and I don't remember ever consciously thinking, "Whew! Man...I'm so tired. I got up at 6 to go to school, went to a two hour soccer practice, came home and rode bikes and played baseball in the street with my friends, did homework then got to bed late. And man am I sore from that volleyball during gym class!" No. I hardly recall being tired, fatigued or sore. But after boarding for several hours yesterday, I came home and couldn't do anything else productive with my day, took a long soak in a hot tub, went to bed early and woke up this morning with that thought running through my head: "I'm old."

If I were to slip in my kitchen tonight, hit my head, and die in a tragic slobber accident (that's what I'd be slipping on) I can only imagine what the CSI guys would come up with because of the bruises ALL over my body, either from boarding or from the wrist slash I took last week that left a bruise on my arm. "Jeez, Captain...she's clearly been abused. Look at all the bruising and the blunt force trauma to her ass!" At which point the experienced investigator would say, as he pulled off his mirrored glasses, "No...she's just a crappy old snowboarder."

Time to get to bed. Kickboxing class tomorrow. After which I will feel tired. And old.

Snowboarding at Mountain High today was great. Even though there were a ton of people up there, it seemed that most of them were not on the run Madeline and I kept going down, so I got a lot of good practice in. I've been able to board on my toe edge, and then on my heel edge, but have had problems being able to transition between the two - this results in "carving" which is essentially typical snowboarding. Today, while working on my transitions, I figured out something key which helped me learn how to carve. To put it simply, I'm goofy. I had my board set up regular (left foot forward) because all of the basic tests for footedness suggested I was regular. But coming down the mountain, I found the only easy way for me to carve was by doing it with my right foot forward (goofy). After coming back from the mountain, I took my board in and had the bindings reversed, and am now looking forward to getting back out and trying the new stance out.

I don't have any photos of me carving down the mountain today because I lost my camera last time I went boarding. However, the boyfriend of the goalie on my women's team has been taking photos at our games, and I finally have a few where I look like I might know what I'm doing. Here's just a couple (I'm in black with the red helmet):

That's right - I'm trying to shoot on goal from nearly behind the goal line. I always hold on to the puck too long and find myself in this position. Ironically, this goal went in.

This is me racing into the zone. I geeked this defenseman and the next one that shows up, and sadly, was unable to put the puck in the net.

Damnit, damnit, damnit!! I went out to the mail box today to discover I've been summoned for jury duty in January. I've only been called one other time and I never had to report. I guess I should count myself lucky since I know people who seem to get called every other year. I have to admit, it is my goal in life to never, ever have to serve on a jury. Since I don't get paid when I don't work, being on jury would be a major financial drag for me, even if it was only for 3-4 days. Here's to hoping I don't end up having to serve.

I have the day off and have spent the majority of it running around trying to get things taken care of before I leave town next week. I went to REI to get a gift for someone and ended up buying myself a new pair of shoes. Happy Christmas to me! I had to buy some last minute presents, do laundry, clean the house, play with the dog, get ready for snowboarding tomorrow, etc. I'm still trying to catch a kickboxing class tonight before heading off to the work holiday party.

When I finally managed to make my way through traffic last night and got home, it was pouring rain out. Wally was all too happy to go out and play in it. I stood outside in a rain jacket for 20 minutes throwing the ball for him, and he kept running after it, tail wagging, big happy look on his face. Half an hour later he wanted to go out AGAIN! He seemed to happy I finally obliged. Now he's nice and soft from being out in the rain. This isn't the greatest photo (since I no longer have a real camera), but you can still see his smile.


If anyone wants to get me something for Christmas, please make it a new A button for my laptop.

It's only Tuesday but everyone at work, including me, seems more than ready for the winter hiatus. (Also known as the industry standard mandatory two week layoff, fuck you, you're not getting paid for this holiday). Friday is the last day this place will be open until Jan. 7. I'll be working Fri-Sun to finish out my odd week, have Christmas parties to go to on Wed. and Sun., Christmas shopping that still needs to be finished (it really snuck up on me this year), and snowboarding on Thursday. I'm then catching a plane to go home on Christmas Eve. I'm sure LAX won't be busy AT ALL on that day! Although I'm super sleepy I'm going to try to go to kickboxing tonight, even though I probably won't be able to throw a punch with my left hand due to the sprained thumb. I plan to tape it down on Thursday when I go boarding so I don't hurt it again. None of this seems particularly smart, does it? But it feels like all I've done for the last couple of weeks is sit on my ass at work or sleep and I need to get out and do something.

I read today that this actress has joined the cast of an upcoming Indie film to also star Madmen's John Hamm. According to the article, "She plays the wife of a small-town police chief (Hamm) determined to discover the truth behind the mummified remains of a boy who was murdered a half-century earlier." While the film already doesn't sound that appealing to me (and how many more indie horror films do we really need?), I am sure that she will ruin it, just like she ruined the 2nd season of Nip/Tuck for me. Although she's apparently really British, her accent reminds me of the fake or exaggerated type used on soap operas, and it's a shame she'll be sharing the screen with the exceptional Hamm. Perhaps I'm just prejudiced because Wally once received a deep puncture wound bite in his neck from a certain actresses sketchy rescue dog, and he hasn't been as playful with other dogs ever since. I'm just saying. (And yes, she was apologetic, but still...)

This morning on my way to work, for the second time in a week, I saw what appeared to be a pair of flesh colored testicles hanging from the back of the truck in front of me. I remembered to look it up on the internet, and as it turns out, that's exactly what they were. Previuously, you had bogus bullet holes to put on your car. Now, you can just give it it's own set of balls. If your SUV is feeling a little emasculated, perhaps by the Hummer that just drove by, you can buy a pair at Truck Nutz for $8.99. You can get them in numerous colors, including chromed, as well as a lit pair, just in time for the holidays. Please tell me this is only a fad, because I'm now even more concerned with the decline of civilization.

We're having a blood drive at work today. There's a big truck from USC out in the parking lot. The last couple of times there have been blood drives in my vicinity, I'd been tattooed within the previous 12 months making me ineligible for donation. This time I went out, filled out the paperwork and gave a small blood sample so they could test my iron level. It needs to be 38% to donate. 28% is anemic. Mine was at 34% - not anemic, but a good chance that I would pass out if I donated. I still got a free $5 Starbucks card and a USC Blood Donor t-shirt for my attempt.

Singer/songwriter Dan Fogelberg died today after a battle with prostate cancer. He was only 56-years-old. Fogelberg was never really my style, but it saddens me to hear of his passing, especially at this time of year. One of my favorite holiday songs is his "Same Auld Lang Syne," inspired by a meeting with an old girlfriend at the grocery store on Christmas day after seeing a performance of the 1812 Overture with his mother. (Listen to the melody of the lyrics of the first few lines, and you'll hear the similarity).



I had an 11:15pm hockey game last night. That's when you know you're really dedicated, by the way. Before our last game, we had been undefeated, but we lost to a team we were tied for first with. The team we played last night was also at the top of the standings. In fact, they team we lost to has lost to them twice already this season. It was an important game and we expected them to come out strong. Unfortunately, one problem with having games during the holiday season is that everyone is busy with parties or out of town. We had only 6 skaters confirmed and a substitute goalie. Thankfully, 3 other guys showed up at the last minute, so we had nearly two lines. Also fortunately, the other team's bench was shorter than ours. For the first three goals, every time we'd score, they'd score within a minute or two of us. It was really frustrating. Finally, fatigue began to set in with them and their goalie got tired, giving up the game to us 9-5. It was a good way to end the last game of the 2007 year. We'll be back in January looking for more wins.

With the usual two week holiday break coming up for the entertainment industry, nearly all scripted television shows have stopped production. I just read there are only two shows still shooting, and my old show just shut down this week. The daily cache of shows on my Tivo gets smaller and smaller with every passing day. I must admit, I already miss my TV. It looks lonely, sitting on its stand, dark and cold from having not been watched for days. Its screen is dusty and I believe it looks sad. Or maybe I'm just reading too much into it. Here's hoping the writers are able to reach an agreement early in the New Year so I'll have more glorious new episodes to watch, especially Lost and 24.

It's a busy but boring weekend. My women's team played their last season of the calendar year last night. We won. I believe the final score was 7-2. For the second time this season, I had a player from the opposing team take a total dive on me. I was reaching around her with my stick (playing the puck) when she decided to drop all of her (considerable) weight on my hand/stick, throw off both her gloves, and make a gutteral sound to imply she'd been tripped or shoved. It was some of the worst acting I've seen, and I worked on a show with Jon Bon Jovi. I looked up at the ref with a look that said, "Come on, you're not seriously going to call that?" He didn't. I wish he would have called a diving penalty, though.

I read on the net the other day that Pierce Brosnan is being sued by a photographer (read "paparazzi") for pushing him in a Malibu parking lot in October. The photographer, who was following Brosnan and shooting photos the time, said he "was not invading the actor's privacy," and that Brosnan "suddenly and without provocation" (yeah, right) shoved him in the chest. My favorite part is where the photographer says that the shove caused him "severe physical and emotional pain and injuries, including bruised ribs." I get so tired of these photographers completely invading the privacy of celebrities, and then crying like little girls any time any of the subjects of the photograph get upset and strike back. I can't imagine what it would be like to have people following me around all the time taking photos and lurking in the bushes. It's hard to know, since I wasn't there, but I highly doubt Brosnan's shove was sudden OR without warning. The paparazzi need to man up. If your job is to invade the privacy of others and annoy the living shit out of them, you should not be surprised by the consequences.

In other entertainment news, it looks like one of my new shows is going away. Though NBC's freshman show Journeyman was able to complete all 13 of its order for the season, the network passed on the deadline to give the show a full season pick up. So while it hasn't "officially" been canceled, it's highly unlikely the show will return. I really liked this show and thought the time travel story was really starting to open up. Unfortunately, the show last posted a 1.7 rating/8 share. If you missed it and wanted to watch the series, you can still view episodes online at NBC.com.

In other time travel-ish news, BBC America's Life On Mars has finally returned for another season. The show follows the life of Sam Tyler, a police detective who gets hit by a car and put into a coma. When he finally wakes up he's still Sam Tyler, he's still a detective...but it's 1973, and he can't figure what's happened. Is he dead? Still in a coma? Or something else. Check it out if you haven't watched it.

My 24 hours in Big Bear was a lot of fun. My friend, James, has a beautiful little house up there with a great view of both Bear Mountain and Snow Summit. Here's a photo from his deck.


And after a day snowboarding, here I am taking a nice long soak in the hot tub.


I would show you more photos, but sadly, it appears I lost my camera somewhere on the slopes. If any of you were appalled at the $100 cost of my glasses, I'll spare you the cost of the camera. Oh, and I think I sprained my thumb. Yeah...good times.

How the hell am I supposed to get out of bed in the morning when it's cold and I have this big dog cuddled up next to me? Since it's colder in the house, Wally has taken to sleeping on the bed for the entire night, which he never does when it's warm out. The upside? A nice warm dog to keep me cozy. The down side? It is super hard to get out of bed.

While I was in line at the grocery store today, I noticed the little Asian guy behind me who was on wife duty - he'd been sent to the store to get a box of maxi pads. I could tell he'd been specifically sent because for one thing, it was one of only two things he was buying. The second tip off was the coupon that he had with him for said product. I was amused to see that the camouflage item he'd put next to the box of pads in order to try to disguise what he was actually there for was a giant jar of salsa. Those two items were all he had. I wonder what he had planned?

Despite the fact that my "a" key seems to be dying on my laptop and I have to keep backing up and hitting it again, I was having a pretty good day off. Until I accidentally drove over my $100 sunglasses. Don't ask. I'm one of those people who really doesn't do well without sunglasses. Unless it's dark, I usually have them on. My eyes have always been very sensitive to glare, even on cloudy days, and I feel naked when I don't have a pair to drive with. I used to be really good with glasses and might have a pair for a couple of years before losing or breaking them. However, this was the second pair in a year. I am not pleased to have to go out and buy another pair. Thankfully, I have new goggles to wear while snowboarding tomorrow. Yippee!

Work is becoming a real drag. Every day or night when I come in here, I sit down, turn the computer on and think to myself, "I so do not want to be here right now." Then I realize I've been feeling like that for weeks. It's not this job in particular, it's just sitting in an office, working for the man on a clock. I've come to miss being able to work at home sometimes and wish I could get a job that would let me do that all the time. Not only would it save them money, I'd be more productive. At least today is my Friday. Tomorrow, I'll run some errands and get some stuff done and then leave at night for Big Bear where a friend and I will hit the slopes on Thursday. Yay! That makes the week a little easier to get through.

Photos were released today from the upcoming Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I must admit, Harrison Ford has long been one of my favorite actors (though he hasn't done anything exciting in a long time). He looks well, if not quite a bit older, in the photos, and even though I don't want to be, I'm dying to see this film. I've also come to like Shia LaBeouf as he's gotten older and am hoping the movie won't be horrible. I never bothered to see Indiana Jones 3. Does anyone think it's worth it? It may be time to watch all the old ones back to back.

Michael Vick, the former NFL player asshole who admitted to killing at least 8 dogs while involved in an illegal dogfighting ring, has been sentenced to 23 months in prison for his offenses. In my opinion, it's not nearly enough time, but at least he's doing SOME time behind bars for his odious acts. I think they should just leave him in a big pen with 100 very hungry dogs.

It's been a rather slow day today. I slept late knowing I have to work until 1am, but I slept REALLY late and didn't get out of bed until around noon. It will be hard to flip my schedule around for an 8am start time on Friday. In the meantime, it's my Thursday and I'm battling with footage on a show at work. I'll be looking forward to my first two consecutive days off in a month when I head to Big Bear Wednesday to snowboard with a friend who has an investment property there. I'll get to try out my "new" 5 year old board bought off a co-worker for $100 last week. Wish me luck!

John Lennon
10/9/40 - 12/8/80

Yesterday marked the 27th anniversary of the death of John Lennon. It's taken me about 25 years, but little by little, I find myself warming to Yoko Ono. In a letter posted on her website yesterday, she wrote, "I miss you, John. 27 years later, I still wish I could turn back the clock to the Summer of 1980. I remember everything - sharing our morning coffee, walking in the park together on a beautiful day, and seeing your hand stretched to mine - holding it, reassuring me that I shouldn't worry about anything because our life was good." It's hard not to be moved by a woman still so thoroughly touched by the death of her husband over a quarter of a century before.

She went on to say, "This day of John's passing has become more and more important for so many people around the world as the day to remember his message of Peace and Love and to do what each of us can to work on healing this planet we cherish. Let's: Think Peace, Act Peace, and Spread Peace. John worked for it all his life. He said, "there's no problem, only solutions." Remember, we are all together."

I continue to be moved by Lennon's message and "Happy Christmas (War is Over)" remains one of my favorite Christmas songs. Here's hoping for more Peace and Love over the coming holiday and the years to come.

Someone e-mailed me this video the other day, and every time I watch it, I'm completely mesmerized. It's of a guy mountain biking with his buddy on a wicked downhill run, and he's wearing a helmet cam.



These guys had to know the trail like the back of their hands because there is certainly no room for error here. After watching this, I find it hard to even say I "mountain bike," when clearly all I do is peddle to the top of the mountain and then gingerly head back down the same way I came.

Another video received this morning via e-mail. Hilarious, especially if you're "that guy."

Fridays are always hard. Since I only had one day off this week (Thursday) and worked the night shift the night before, I slept until 11am yesterday. After running some errands, it was already dark, and before I knew it I needed to be in bed. The problem was I hadn't even been up for 12 hours so I couldn't fall asleep. Which made it hard to wake up this morning. Which made it harder to be alert and functional at work today. I just got home and think I need to take a nap, because I have a hockey game later tonight. At least most of the Jews were off the road tonight, resulting in an easier commute. (I think...it's Hanukah, right? Usually no traffic = Jewish holiday).

Seen in the headlines today and yesterday:

Kiefer Sutherland starts jail term
Ray Liotta pleads no contest to reckless driving
Vivica Fox spared jail time in DUI case
Warrant issued for Daniel Baldwin

I've seen more over the past week, but I forgot to write them down. Remember when there was only ONE badboy of Hollywood at a time? Now it seems like everyone with a television or film contract is driving drunk, beating people up, and doing stupid things in general. And not just crappy wanna-be celebs like Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie. People with some amount of talent. Well, I'm speaking of Kiefer and Ray, clearly. What the hell is up with Hollywood and the DUI? (And doesn't Kiefer take a nice mug shot?)

Centralia, Washington lays off Interstate 5 roughly halfway between Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington. I used to have to drive through there on the 5 going home to visit when I attended college in Olympia, WA, which is about 30 miles north of there. The abundance of low laying fields results in some flooding nearly every time there's heavy rain and the water surges in any of the three nearby rivers. I've seen the town flooded before, and remember driving through it on the 5 with nothing but water on both sides of the freeway. The city was hit hard this week with rain and flooding, closing the interstate until sometime today. Here is some of the devastation there.


I wonder which is worse - water or fire?

It finally happened. I sat down in front of the tv this morning to eat breakfast, click on the "Now Playing" list on my Tivo...and it was empty. I'd think it was June if I didn't know Christmas is just around the corner. I can only assume this is the result of the writers' strike taking its toll on my primetime lineup. That and the fact that Weeds and Calfornication are done for the season and Tuesday nights look thinner than they used to. Thank god for television on DVD. For some reason, I recently have no energy or attention span to watch a full length film on DVD, so TV on DVD is the perfect solution to my newfound ADD. Right now, I'm burning through Season 1 of Dead Like Me. For those of you who didn't see it before its cancellation in 2004, here's the low down. Georgia Lass (George) is an 18-year-0ld disenchanted youth in Seattle. While leaving the crappy temp job she's just been fired from, she is hit by a burning toilet seat from the MIR space station. It hits her like a bomb and her short life ends. Due to complicated circumstances, George now becomes reaper, one of the undead who snatches souls from the soon to die so they can move onto the afterlife. It's a dark, interesting show quite unlike most of what is seen on television these days. If you've never seen it, I highly recommend renting a season on DVD.

It's Wally Wednesday! When the little guy is at work and I can't find him, I know someone somewhere must have food. Wally does what I refer to as passive-aggressive begging. He doesn't beg in the traditional sense, whine, or try to get at your food. Instead, he looks at you sadly with those big brown eyes and is such a good boy you can't resist giving him something off your plate. One of my co-workers snapped this photo over the weekend while he was eating lunch and Wally came to visit:

The day is nearly over and I just realized I haven't blogged yet today. Probably because I don't have much to say, other than that the Kings fulfilled my bad day last night when they fell to the Edmonton Oilers in a shootout. Matthieu Garon was in goal for the Oilers, a former King who never did us any good. But last night, he stood on his head and stopped some amazing shots on goal, then shut out the Kings during the shootout. It's annoying when you let a crappy player go and they perform better somewhere else. As KingsFan commented yesterday, if had played like that for us, we never would have let him go.

A friend at work (who is my exact height) just upgraded to a new snowboard/bindings package over the weekend, and has offered to give me a great deal on her old board. This is great, since I've been wanting to get a board but don't want to spend $400 on one before I figure out if I actually like snowboarding that much. I've been looking online and boots and helmets and such. I had no idea snowboard boots cost as much as f-ing hockey skates! I'm on a mission to find a decent pair that isn't too expensive, since the one thing I DON'T want to buy used is boots. Who wants to put their feet in someone else's smelly boots?

When I went to work yesterday morning, it was cold out. The temps were in the low 40s. This morning, it was super cold in my bedroom and I didn't want to get out of bed, but when I finally took Wally outside, I found nice, warm weather. In fact, it was 80 when I was driving around in the afternoon running errands. What the hell?

Today was one of those days where things went wrong right from the beginning and never really got better, at least until I left work. I won't go into the details of all that went wrong at work, but it was a really unpleasant day and I'm glad it's over. Tonight I'm going to see the Kings/Oilers game with some friends and we have 100 level tickets, so it should be fun. I expect the Kings to lose because it will be the perfect cherry on top of this so-far crappy day.

With the writers still striking and the holidays looming, there isn't a single place to look for work right now. While I'm grateful for the Home and Garden work, seeing a sixth straight month of cutting it has not made me happy or excited. A co-worker has been working on his own independent film for a couple of years now. It's called "Stan."He's poured thousands of dollars of his own money into it and finally has the majority of it shot. Unfortunately (or fortunately for him) he and his wife just had a baby daughter, so he's too busy to pay any attention to it right now and he wants to get it cut. I've volunteered my time because I liked the script and I like him, and I'm desperate to edit something with actors and dialog and a story with a beginning, middle and end. He should get the film to me sometime in the next couple of weeks so I can dig in. Here's the link to the web site where you can view the already cut trailer.

I was reading Bean's Blog (now known as Strongly Worded Letter) the other day and he was talking about how much more he likes Coke than Pepsi (which he referred to as Devil's Pee - pretty appropriate). I grew up with Pepsi in the house, but when I got older I acquired a taste for Diet Coke and now I don't really enjoy any other sodas, other than the occasional Root Beer. In fact, I have never drank coffee, and for most of my adult life, I have woken up with a can of Diet Coke to get me going. Believe me, you do NOT want to see me in the morning if I can't find a Diet Coke anywhere!

Another friend who also reads Bean's Blog was telling me how the best tasting Diet Coke is the one with lemon in it. I wholeheartedly disagree - I like pure, classic Diet Coke. We had an e-mail exchange that was quite lengthy, especially considering the subject matter. It seems like people are really die hard about the type of soda they drink. I once worked with a guy who would ONLY drink diet Mountain Dew Red and was always sending our PA's out to get more.

So what's YOUR poison? Diet Coke? Pepsi? RC Cola? Tab? ( Can you believe they still make Tab?)