was kind of disappointing. I thought we were going to see it on TV first, but the producers decided to go for the money and like a moron, I ponied up. It had its moments, but sometimes felt like the writers just learned to curse for the first time, exchanging a joke opportunity for an expletive.

Ready for the holidaze. Got a satisfactory pile of stuff for the kids and most of it wrapped today. Just one morning errand tomorrow and I'm good. I even created a pie today and met with some success there too.

Multi-generational Avatar expedition is set for the weekend. I'm taking number one son and my dad said he wanted to have a look. So, we're taking in a Boxing Day showing.

It's the second christmas since my Dad-in-law passes and my mom-in-law asked if I would do the carving honors on Friday -- that was his big thing. Felt myself gulp a little while she was asking. It reminded me a bit of the scene from the West Wing when the President was explaining why he was sending his assistant to carving knife stores.

Fearless employer gave out grocery store gift cards this week and I had a grand time cruising the isles getting name brand stuff.

Caught Elvis Costello's talk show Spectacle on the CTV last week. He and the Imposters had Bono and the Edge on, the performances were a lot of fun.

Finally have something resembling my own speaking voice back after dealing with a really bad cold that as it morphed gave me a pretty good jazz dj voice.

Today was day one of a six day weekend. Best part about going back on Tuesday is that it will be good and quiet for the remainder of the week. Although, I managed to get a Polar Bites sponsor yesterday. That's a good party in February, a month full of high occasions.

Candlelight service tomorrow night, think my soul could use that.

Have a good holiday, peeps.

It's probably photoshopped, but still pretty funny

Read nothing but bitching in one form or another yesterday. "We had tougher storms and still went to work/school/whatever." Yes, we have and I think my point was be glad you didn't have to be out yesterday. As I write this now, it is 16 degrees outside and not much warmer in my office, but watching the wind & snow have at it yesterday, I was glad the kids got the day off and didn't have be chasing buses and their mom got the day too. The topper for me was getting the phone call a little before 7:00 a.m. that I got a day too. Somehow I stopped caring that I couldn't see across Delaware Ave.

Yeah, sure we've battled bigger storms, but I'm glad we didn't have to, by last night it was just cold. I had to pick up a daughter from a friends house, disturbing my car from the nice warm garage. Got a slight thrill driving my unspoiled car past snow mounds that had cars at their bottoms. It was real easy to find mine in the Wegmans parking lot when I made a quick stop on the way home.

I'll leave you with this one thought: the person who invented the "necksock" for Columbia outerwear is a frickin genius and deserves a better cut of whatever royalties they are currently receiving.

Stay warm, peeps

well, not really, but a Facebook note that I wrote about Memorial Auditorium's deconstruction which lead to a rambling blog was chopped up and incorporated into Aud-ieu:Buffalo Says Goodbye to the Aud. Through historical photos and current ones of the tear-down, my piece is culled from in four different sections. The book comes out next week, but you can see it online at:



It's the book in digital, page turning form.

Nice ego boost headed into the weekend.

Wonder if the marriages of Volker, Masierz and Stachowsk can be invalidated.

I didn't see the entirety of the President's address last night. You knew something had to be coming along the lines of what was announced.

I read the text of it this morning to avoid the contaminants of both Fox and MSNBC and if President Bush had been that declarative in 2003, I don't think we would have had the polarization that we have seen in the intervening years. I'm not sure how I feel about it entirely. I think had it predated the Iraq enterprise, the climate might be a lot different now. Coming out of 9/11, the protests for coming into Afghanistan and taking care of what was thought to be needed probably would have had minimal dissent.

It's interesting because some extremists on both sides are grumbling about costs. Now, we worry about the finances? Some people will do anything for a soundbite. As nothing appeared to be changing with the status quo, it seemed like the President had two choices, pull out completely or wrachet things up to get this done. To pull out would not be easy and would mean we were just pissing away resources. I'm not in love with the alternative, but he inherited two fights that weren't staged very well to start with, and at least there is a goal, a plan that doesn't involve banner hangings and photo ops, but a definitive goal. There is no good in any of this, but that seems as pragmatic an outline as you are likely to see.

Being a pacifist/coward, I'm not the possessor of the most grand of military minds, but after watching Desert Storm nightly on television, I've often wondered if we are using all we have in such items. It used to be derigeur to show footage of a bomber pinpoint targeting the desired target. I don't know if the guys on the ground are getting that same sort of support, something that occured to me for reasons passing understanding. Neither Iraq, part ll or Afghanistan has seen that.

The things we choose to care about....

You know those people aren't real keen on the holiday season. I think I'm becoming one of them. In between wandering out to watch the runners, I had my thanksgiving morning in front of The Godfather. The ex hinted at "we have to talk" about going to the various grandparents house at christmas time. It used to be struggles about economics and it seems like the drama intensifies and I'm already tired of it.

I am so off the charts full of black friday stories disguising themselves as news. The only thing more annoying are the people who think that is fun or part of the tradition. I sit here positive that by the late news some poor bastard in East Buttcrack, Alabama will have bought it when he got trampled in the flat screen line at Walmart.

I found a little holiday bliss during the Springsteen concert Sunday night when a couple xmas songs got played, but just all the crap you have to go through with the holidays currently, it was a small window. I already cyber shopped for the girls and will do likely for number one son this week.

I'm not sure when one holiday got to bully all the others and become a season. I don't particularly have a bone to pick with Christmas itself. I like the Christmas morning brunch the kids, their mom and I have. That is nice, the rest is kind of disposable. I didn't go to my in-laws on christmas day for a couple years and was going to not go again until people said "You're not Coming?", but I think I may revert a little so the ex and her partner don't feel awkward. It was good to hear that my folks are finally over stuff and invited her for Christmas Eve, so I guess progress is being made.

The inherent awkwardness and stress have aged me. I used to measure the season by how many showings of A Christmas Story I was up and building stuff, but even then it was work. I always want the option to bring the world to the kids, never works out that way. I know a lot of things, just none of them overly lucrative.

After the separation/divorce, you deal with that and "What's everybody comfortable dance?" that is done with amiably separated folks.

Holidays are a lot of mental work and I don't have much use for any doorbusters.

This makes me chuckle

This is an onsen (hot spring) in Kanagawa Prefecture. This is a wine hot spring. This year, they used Beaujolais Nouveau wine. This picture was taken on the grand opening of this particular bath and it was the day of the newest release of the wine itself. Apparently this onsen also has green tea baths, sake baths and coffee baths! I think this may also qualify for the "only in Japan" title!





There are too many jokes been written in my head to transcribe here