In Love ...

Well ... almost.

I don't really subscribe to the doctrine of love at first sight, but the opening scene of the first episode of Californication almost took the cake. I got the 1st disc in the mail yesterday and watched the whole thing while attempting to clean my house. Very funny ... between this Weeds and Dexter, Showtime really has a pretty awesome line-up. I can't get into the Tudors and haven't seen the L Word, Brotherhood or the new show, Crash, so don't have an opinion on those. Can't wait for Blockbuster to put the next disc in the mail.

On a different note ... going to the Ravens game in a few minutes and all I hear out my window is the wind so I am sure this is going to be a fun one.

My Christmas

Is it considered a tangent when you start with it?? Anyways ... here is a package I received in the mail from Hawaii (Click to make it bigger and read the bottom). Thanks Uncle Lance & Aunt Karen, it's hanging on my chimney until I have a complete house:



After the adventures of searching for lunch ... this is how the rest of my day went:

• Watched program on how beer is losing market share in the alcoholic beverage industry and what brewers are doing to combat this with my Mom and sister
• Watched "Prince Caspian (2nd chapter of the Narnia stories), again with Mom and sis
• Aunt and Dad got home; Aunt went to nap, Dad left to let a dog out somewhere
• Started cooking roast (not me), finished Caspian movie
• Dad got back, started "Nightmare Before Christmas" after unsuccessfully finding something interesting to watch on TV
• Opened gifts (we only do stockings and got/gave mostly giftcards so it didn't take long)
• Ate dinner
• Sis' BF showed up
• Started playing Loaded Questions (more below)
• Finished playing Loaded Questions (Dad won)
• Went home (with a stop at Blockbuster)
• Watched Mummy movie (third one, with Jet Li) while hanging laundry and cleaning up
• Passed out

Loaded Questions is an awesome game but I have to warn against playing it with family. The basic idea of the game is that everyone writes down their answer to a question and the person whose turn it is has to attribute each answer to one of the players. There are also reversals where everyone has to write down what they think the person whose turn it is will answer. The game is great when you have a lot of creative people or are aided in creativity through some fluid means (not that I know what that means). "Why the warning," you ask? One of the questions was, "What is the most expensive item you have stolen?" ... my dad was guessing among answers like, "an office stapler" and "a binder." Shit, I am not going to answer that question honestly ... I was in college ... and a teenager growing up in boring ass Columbia ... now, I'm not saying I am (or was) a kleptomaniac at any point, but I won't deny acquiring a keg or 2 through unscrupulous means over the years or maybe some other random things like 5 gallon tubs of ice cream from the school cafeteria or one of those newspaper things on the street corner (OK, that wasn't me ... but when I showed up at DT and Snuggles' apartment ON CAMPUS and was able to get the Sunday paper in their living room ... it was pretty funny) or just something more significant than office supplies. [See, I can go on a tangent at the beginning and end of a post] Just remember, you've been warned about playing with family ... otherwise, it's an awesome game.

I'm Going to Miss You in the New Year

I woke up determined yesterday morning. "Determined to do what?" you ask ... to get some form of burrito-type food for lunch. Thankfully, Columbia provides with me every possibility to get this food and my Mom happens to live in Columbia.

On my way home I headed to my favorite of the main four (Chipotle) and they had some clever sign on the door indicating how the Silent Night is overlapping into a silent day and they will be closed (Chipotle definitely has the best marketing team of the four). Next stop ... well kinda, I didn't pull into the shopping center but looked from the main road to see that Q'doba was also closed. Across the street from that shopping center housed a Baja Fresh, but I couldn't see it from the street and had to pull in. I drove by another empty building and continued on my quest. On the way to the next stop I had to drive by the Dog Pub and noticed 4 or 5 cars outside and made a note in case I was unsuccessful in my mission. The final stop was California Tortilla ... again I was faced with an empty store. Instead of heading back to Dog Pub, I parked and decided to get sushi at the place next door to Cal Tort.

After a call home to see what they wanted, I placed an order for some edamame, an eel & avocado roll, a shrimp tempura roll and a California roll. While waiting for the meal, I thought about this competition coming up and starting making a (mental) list of all the things I am going to miss when I start and about how (if I am successful) I won't be able to go back to the way it used to be. So basically ... I wrote all this just to say:

"Chipotle ... you'll be missed!"

Oh, and I got a Chipotle giftcard yesterday and am making it a goal to use it before the 5th.

On a different (and sad) note

Does anyone know anything about this? I think some people from the area read this and I was shocked when I saw this headline. The woman was only 22.

Happy Holidays

Since I doubt I will write anything tomorrow, I figure I should say Happy Holidays to everyone out there.

Since it is a half day at work I will be heading to Mahaffey's for 30-cent wings and a couple beers before finishing up my shopping and heading to my Mom's for dinner tonight. I think I want to bring my PS3 and the Dark Knight to her house so I can watch it in all it's high-def (and IMAX) glory on my 57 inch TV with surround sound, both of wich are too big for my house and have essentially been donated to my Mom.

Breakfast in My Pants ... Really

Saturday night I went to a friend's house out in the 'burbs for a small holiday get together. Being that NFL Network sucks and made the Ravens game on Saturday night, I decided to ignore everyone until the end of the game ... or at least until Le'Ron McClain reached his 82nd yard on that last play after introducing the Cowboys' safety to the turf, face first.





After the game was over, I had some fun playing Scene It on the host's Xbox and realized that it was much better than any board game or other DVD game because it came with buzzers and everyone answered with those, instead of yelling out the answer. It was kind of like playing trivia at a bar/restaurant with those keypads. After a little Rockband we decided to do our white elephant gift exchange.

This is where the title comes into play. One girl brought a gift in the most awesome bag ever and I had to have it; no matter what was inside. I didn't care if there was a brick in it (like the gifts I prepared for other exchanges), I was going to have it. Since there were not a lot of people and most didn't seem used to this type of exchange, there was not a lot stealing going on and I ended up with it pretty easily. The contents of the "Santa Pants" included a very awesome smelling bag of coffee, some strawberry pancake mix and some strawberry syrup. I don't remember the brands, but it all seems like high quality stuff.



Everyone else got stuff too ... I am sure they were good gifts, but I was too fixated on my breakfast pants to notice. Someone did get a couple DVDs that sparked a long conversation about movies and ultimately ended with someone putting on Love Actually. I'm not exactly sure how we got to Love Actually, but there were points in the conversation that talked about the multiple interconnected storylines of Crash (with Thandie Newton and Don Cheadle not the creepy movie about people turned on by car crashes) and something about Keira Knightley. Anyways, this movie contains one of my favorite sappy scenes in movies I wouldn't admit to watching ... and yes, I watched the scene multiple times to find a decent version on youtube:

"Bad Idea" Personified

Friday night I met up with my friend Shelley for some drinks at the local watering hole. We hung out for about an hour before I had to head to my friend Amy's (and her roommates') "40 Ounces of Holiday Cheer" (or something like that) party. This turned out to be the worst idea I have had in the last 6 years (in terms of drinking decisions). For those of you unfamiliar with the process ... too bad, I'm not explaining ... the pictures will give you an idea. I now have to agree with my buddy Newman's philosophy, "people should not drink malt liquor." I also will add that if one decides to ignore Newman's words of wisdom, one should not forget to eat dinner (thankfully I did have a couple pieces of Shelley's 'dilla from the bar) and have half a dozen beers at the bar before doing so.




Yes this is blurry, but so was I at that point ... it's an artistic shot conveying the perception of the subject.