Thanksgiving Bonus!

Thanksgiving in list form:

1. Watched some Thanksgiving football. Booooooooooo Cowboys!
2. Greeted arriving family by staying planted in front of TV set (this was due to a cat the size of Nebraska taking sleeping on my femurs... and laziness).
2-1/2. Change of plans in terms of those in attendence: Cousin Becky sick, scratched; Bobo, apparently was slated to come, but no one told me. She arrives with giant metal walking stick, which I don't recall seeing before. She looks good, but frail. She says I look very different with a beard and is delighted to see Nebraska sized cat.
3. Discussed issue of dying trees in my Uncle's neighborhood. Apparently some idiots planted trees on top of wire and burlap. The tree roots can't grow through it and they will die. Community is to vote on what to do about it (replant trees? let them die? somethings else?)
4. Ate turkey and things. Tonight's spread was less impressive than previous Thanksgivings, but no less delicious. I also managed to not eat so much as to make myself nauseated as at previous two Thanksgivings. Only fruit salad and barfday cake (in honor of my sister) for dessert. This was disappointing. No pie. What? No pie? No. No pie. Surely you jest! No. I don't. No chocolate either. Only fruit salad and barfday cake, and if you wanted, leftover asparagus from the dinner.
5. Laughing at my sister's bizarre decision making--for example, purchasing of sound system, including subwoofers 5,000,000,000,000,000 times bigger than an elephant, for her car before finishing the payments on her car. Her car now generates earthquakes and reverses time.
6. Gift giving and receiving. My sister received a bottle of beer and money, I think.
7. Blogging. Everyone is gone now. So I blog. For you, my adoring, invisible, imaginary audience.

by popular demand...

...and by "popular demand" I mean no one's request, here's some crap I've designed over the past long while...

random crap for this website:

LaVar, you know the way to a man's heart...

The Washington Post reports:

"[LaVar Arrington] addressed the [Redskin's] defense Saturday during a team meeting, thanking teammates for their support and urging them to remember their original passion for the game, when they played without compensation [in college]. He told them to forget individual gain, and disregard whether he would be starting. 'It's not about me,' Arrington said he told the players. 'It's about this team.'"

my photo's ate my homework

Click on the images for larger versions

Utah:


Salt Flats


Arches--Delicate Arch


Zion--Emerald Pools (lower)


Zion--Angel's Landing


Bryce Canyon


Wedding:

It's a girl!

I have a new sister and her name is Suzanne. I guess it's kind of a miraculous conception in that my Mom was never pregnant with her. Someone was though, and my brother married that woman's offspring. I gave a toast that seemed relatively well received, and those of you who remember prom (junior and or senior) have an idea of what I may or may not have done on the dance floor during the Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now). Pre-wedding pictures are TK.

Utah was rad. Read Ducore's blog for the lowdown. Here are some pictures for your pansy asses:

Zion NP

Salt Flats (covered in an inch of water)

More TK.

An Almost Office-Free Week: Home / Pizza / =w= / Michigan

Home

Last Friday I hit up the Chassid-run "Chinatown" bus for a ride down to my hometown: the suburban wasteland that is Silver Spring, MD (how I love it so). While home I spent some quality family time with just about everyone in my immediate and close-extended family. In preparation for my brother's wedding I went suit, shirt, tie, and belt shopping with my dad. It was probably the least painful shopping experience I've had with another person, which is expecially surprising considering what we bought was fancy and I tend to be kind of an ass about that stuff. I also managed to grab some camping supplies for Utah, and a couple of other sundries thanks to the brilliance of department stores and their acres of affordable clothing.

2 Amys

Sunday evening my family met up with Jacob and his fiance in DC to indulge in some D.O.C. pizza at 2 Amys, which apparently has been getting some rave reviews from DC area food critics. I was fairly impressed. It was classic, neapolitan style--yet-to-be sliced, dinner-plate-sized, with a paper-thin crust. We got a little experimental and tried the Santa Brigida (sauce, cheese, cherry tomatoes, arugula) and the Norcia (sauce, cheese, salami, roasted peppers, grana [a type of cheese]) along side two of our standbys, a Margherita with pepperoni and a Margherita with peppers and onions. (Yes, I realize that some of these pizzas fail to follow my rules regarding toppings. In my defence, I always say that even bad pizza can taste good and sometimes even faux-pizza can taste good too.) The crust could perhaps have been made a little crisper on the bottom. As it was it didn't stand a chance of holding up the weight of the toppings, and we had cheese, salami, and peppers sliding every which way off of the pizza. The other major drawback was a dearth of sauce (though it would have made the whole ordeal of trying to pick up a slice that much more difficult). The ingredients themselves were fresh and delicious, with the pepperoni being slightly on the sweet side, and the arugula wilting somewhat from the pizza's heat so as to adhere better to the cheese underneath it--a nice little trick. All four pizza's edge-crusts were light and puffy with a sweet, butteriness to balance out the sea salt that the D.O.C. rating requires. Overall I was quite pleased with the spread placed before us. And they have root beer! Go forth and eat good pizza DC-Metro-area dwellers!

=w=/foo fighters

Monday evening I attended what looks like will probably be my last Weezer concert of the year. After arriving late (shock horror) due mainly to my poor planning and to an enjoyable dinner with Ben and Anna, Ducore and I failed in our attempt to sneak onto the floor of the show. My jury-rigged tickets didn't quite match up with the format of the Patriot Center's tickets. Well, we still caught a good 70 minutes-or-so of Weezer's set, which included a cover of Song 2, an audience member joining the band to play acoustic guitar on Undone, and two of my favorite concert tunes: Why Bother? and Surf Wax America. It was a bummer to be stuck in seats as the energy level is never as high as it is on the floor, but they put on a pretty good show. My eardrums were then ruptured by the Foo Fighters and Dave Grohl's fits of screaming. Monkeywrench was good.

MI

Wednesday through earlier this evening was spent in Ann Arbor, MI. Traveling to and from there was pretty awful between cancelled planes and our ride to the airport getting in a accident, but other wise it a was fairly good time. A few of my co-workers and I got a nice little tour of one of Edwards Brother's printing and binding facilities as well as a rundown of their process from when they receive finalized files from us to when they ship a book out. It was pretty interesting. I gained a new appreciation for their sales rep. Thursday night we all went out to drink and play pool at a local establishment. It seemed that everyone except for myself--boyscout that I am--got drizzunk. Well, Claire Vlach popped by later in the evening, and she was also sober. Claire seems to be doing well, by the way, and by all accounts (her's, I mean) is enjoying the urban planning program at Michigan. Please see her link in the sidebar.

Che Fu

Yes, Ben, There is a God... and His Name is Mark Moss-Gibbs

The formerly sorry, good-for-nothing, over-paid, primadonna, 'Skins are 3-o. They're making up for all their pathetic 4th quarter losses of the past decade. Is Joe Gibbs a genius or just a good luck charm? I don't know. The fact remains that we are still atop the NFC East after a quarter of the season has been played out. The last time this happened we went to the Superbowl. I don't forsee that happening this season, but it finally looks like a distinct possibility before Gibbs' second tenure is over.

Also, 'Skins fans at the bar I was in broke into a chorus of "Hail to the Redskins" after we scored that field goal in OT. It was too weird, yet heartwarming. "Hail to the Redskins/hail victory" indeed.