Rock, Paper, Saddam!

Ok, I know I posted this two and a half years ago or so, but given recent events, I thought it was relevant again. Besides, it's just so friggin' funny!! Oh, and I just needed to blog something...

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!!

Merry Christmas to all. Peace. Love. All that jazz.

Sound Like Anyone You Know?

The new Internet addictions I think half (at least) the attorneys suffer from the Crackberry addiction. Our friend Kristin suffers from blog streaking. I do suffer from one of the afflictions listed, but I'm not saying which...

It's Jurassic Park Time!

Virgin dragon prepares to give birth. I love the quote from the guy at the zoo, "[W]e certainly won't be naming any of the hatchlings Jesus." Too funny! Don't know why not, though. Actually, I do know. Damn PC. I'm sure they don't want to offend anyone.

OH! Speaking of out-of-control PC... What the $%&* is up with Chicago? They are afraid that non-Christians will be offended by advertisements for a Christmas movie? At a Christmas festival??!? Now, I'll be the last one to object to someone trying to keep organized religion out of somewhere it shoudn't be (e.g. schools, courts), but at a friggin' Christmas festival? Puh-Leeze!! Next thing you know, cities will take away people's freedom of choice by outlawing food that they deem unhealthy, like foie gras and trans fats. Oh, wait. They've already done that...

The Christmas Spirit is Here!

Six days to spare and we finally put up our little (artificial) tree! It may not be much, but it's ours. :-) Next year, we'll have a bigger place and, hopefully, we'll have a real tree! I'll have to remember to put a picture of it up here. So far, we're doing pretty well. We got all (I think) of our Christmas cards out. We've gotten almost all of our gifts. Chrissy has even wrapped several of them. I've even got one of hers wrapped! I'm still trying to nail down some details for the actual day itself. In any case, two more days of work, three days off, then the big day! WOO HOO!!

I'm Not Right

I am having way too much fun with this. I came across it on IMDb, where there was a link to it. I was crackin' up!! I must have sent out about 10 of them by phone or email...

Mei Lan!!

Atlantapandababy finally has a name! Her name is Mei Lan (roughly translated - Atlanta Beauty) and she's the third cutest panda baby ever! Of course, the cutest being Tai Shan (Peaceful Mountain). And the second cutest being Su Lin ("A little bit of something very cute," though doesn't it sound like a Romulan Subcommander?).

Miscellaneous Thoughts

This fiasco with the SD Senator Tim Johnson is ridiculous. Why does the governor get to appoint a successor? This is regardless of party. At the very least, if the gov gets to pick, he should have to try to pick someone from the same party whose platform aligns with the person who was elected by the people! Then that appointee should be ratified by Senators from the elected's party. Something like that. Or another election should be held. Otherwise, the will of the people basically counts for nothing, simply because someone, through no fault of their own, got sick.

Golden Globes. Congrats to Heroes for its nom for Best Drama and to Masi Oka for his for best supporting actor nom. And, wow! Michael C. Hall was nominated for Best Actor in a TV Drama for Dexter. Yaaayy! He absolutely deserves it for his incredibly nuanced, subtle performance.

Finally, I think I'm actually getting in to the holiday spirit a little early this year. Eleven days away, and I'm actually feelin' it (despite last weekend - a whole other story). Usually, it's not until at least the week of. Still not ready to start listening to Christmas music 24/7, but I don't think I ever get to that point.

Interesting Developments

Well, there have been some interesting events on a few different fronts. First off, I got an interesting email the other day from someone I hadn't seen in years! Denny! Of course, that name may not mean anything to anyone reading this, but he is a friend of mine from my days at the bank. He and Kelly (another friend from those days - she's a teacher) and I hung out on a semi-regular basis. Our favorite thing to do was to hang out at Kelly's, make Chef Boyardee pizza and watch Silence of the Lambs. I know, a bit odd, but then again, so am I, and by extension, most of my friends. So apparently, he was checking out MySpace the other day, and found my page. Now, if you go to my page, you'll see, there's nothing earth-shattering there. I mostly have it so that I can keep up with my niece & nephew, and a few movies/tv shows. So the fact that he found it, and that I actually checked it and found his message, is pretty amazing. I can't count the number of times I have told Chrissy about some crazy shit that he & I would talk about, joke about, or do, so I'm enjoying catching up with him.

On the TV front, Dexter only has 2 episodes left. Don't know if that's for the season or for the show. Sometimes cable does strange things with shows, so I don't know if the show is just a one-season show, or if it will go on, or if even the ratings merit a 2nd season. I know the quality does. It is better than 99% of what is out there on network TV. I know I look forward to it more than I do Lost. Dexter's sister is dating a doctor who just happens to moonlight as a serial killer, just like Dexter does. Only this guy is a few steps ahead of Dex. But from the previews at the end of Sunday's show, it looks like Dexter figures it out before the end of the season. Can't wait to see how he handles it! He handled Rita's asshole ex pretty well. Oh, snap! I just realized as I typed this that Rita's daughter is named Astor, and Dexter's captain is Capt. Astor. That can't be a coincidence. Does Rita have some connection to the captain? Hmmm....

But even more so than Dexter, my current fave is Heroes!! This show is sooo good! It is everything the first season of Lost was (emphasis on the past tense). Chrissy got a little squeamish the first episode or two when a couple of deaths by super-powered serial killer took place, but the story and characters are so good, she got hooked pretty quickly. There were four jaw-drop moments in Monday's episode, in no particular order: 1) Seeing that Peter's flash forward that he is the exploding one, 2) Eden's death, 3) Hiro v. T-Rex, 4) the Haitian speaks! Speaking of the Haitian, what is his agenda? Claire will play along, I suppose. Though it would be interesting to see get mind-wiped, re-discover her power and re-approach Zach to help her out. I hope she strikes up a new friendship with him. I think he was good for her and I'd hate to see him get cut out entirely.

Brandywine River Hotel

Wow. We just spent the four days before Thanksgiving at the aforementioned Brandywine River Hotel in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, for a belated anniversary trip. It was a gorgeous hotel in a beautiful area. We had a King Jacuzzi Suite and even had a real fireplace! We had to use Duraflame logs, but hey, it wasn't gas.

We went the Brandywine River Museum, which showcases the art of N.C., Andrew and Jamie Wyeth. We had a special treat at the museum - a tour by Andrew's only grandchild, Victoria Wyeth! She does occasional tours there, and we lucked out that she was doing one the afternoon we were at the museum. It was really neat. She will sit down with her grandfather and he will say to her, "Ok. What painting do you want to talk about?" Then he will tell her all about what it means, what he was thinking, how he did it, everything.

We also went to Winterthur, which is an estate formerly owned by Henry Francis du Pont, who amassed one of the largest collections of Americana, more specifically furniture. When he had gotten his hands on pretty much every type of furniture made in America at the time, he began buying furniture made in other countries to be sold in America. In 1951, the house became a museum and the family moved into the "cottage" where they now run a store. They had the entire building decorated for the holidays (a bit early for me - bah humbug) and it was beautiful. Oh, they had a visiting exibit of costumes from period movies. Very cool.

Last, but definitely not least, we went to Chaddsford Winery, where I got to taste pretty much their whole range of their wines! I think my favorite was the '05 Pinot Noir, which I took to Thanksgiving dinner at Mom's. Actually, I think my real favorite was the '02 Merican, but that was $40/bottle, so I didn't get any of that...

Guess that's all for now. I'll try to see if I can figure out how to post some pics of everything. Oh, and Happy Birthday to Rob!