Shortest Day

Although my readers know me well, there are still many things that may come as a surprise. One of them is that I'm all about that bass.

OK, we used to listen to shitty music too. Paper Lace's "The Night Chicago Died", for example.

The holidays are upon us and I'm working on my list of grievances. I'm also thinking of setting up a cookie exchange with my local readers.

We had a pre-holiday celebration in the big city with the #1s last night. We stayed at their Corona Heights pied–à–terre. Surprisingly, they didn't charge us. It was available since their tenant had recently moved on.

We had a fine meal at Canela. Check it out.

http://canelasf.com/

#1 chose a great Tempranillo. I like wine, I just can pick anything except Zinfandel. We had an array of tapas. The Tortilla Espanola, Serrano ham flatbread and gambas were the highlights, but all were good. The owner came by and chatted with us for a while. My wife mentioned my semester in Spain. The owner was likely in diapers when I was there.

After dinner we were off to ABV, a hipster bar. We were untroubled by the fact that we were thoroughly out of place. Their cocktails were good and Mrs. #1 took a picture of them. Let me know if you want a copy. #1 took a series of coasters that said "Thank you" from a few domestic and international locales. The one from Detroit said "F@#$ off"

http://www.abvsf.com/

This morning it was back to domestic bliss. I went grocery shopping and spotted a car sporting elves ears. These were fastened to the rear windows, as you've probably seen with Giants or Niners flags. The car passed me on Hillsdale and when I got a little further up I saw one of the ears in the roadway. Vincent van Gogh came to mind.

Morning Person

By 7:45 this morning I was doing 12 grueling laps at the outdoor pool in temperatures below 50 degrees. What did you lightweights do? After that it was off to the post office to mail the Christmas letter to a broad cross-section of my readership. If you don't have one in your mailbox by the end of the week, you're off the list.

"How was your weekend DJ?" Thanks for asking. It was pretty good. TCG invited me over for a boy's night Friday but I decided to cocoon. TCG used his computer humor on me when I declined by writing the following:

IF (TIME>=8:00PM or (IF (DAY=FridayEvening))) THEN RUN_PROCEDURE(NO_DJ))

That guy is a hoot.

Yesterday we got the tree done. All I have to do is the heavy lifting. Wifey does the decoration. Last night we went to two parties. We tend to flit about. First up was a bunco party at the neighbors up the road. I've never played it before but I caught on quickly, even though it requires a great deal of strategy. After that we were off to The Banker's house for a holiday party. I got a chance to check out his sweet new master suite, done by the same guy who did my kitchen. TCG and #1 were also at the party, but avoided me for some reason.

I see Johnny Football will be starting the 10am game today so I plan to plant myself in front of the tube. I won the weekly pool last week, good for a Jackson. Maybe I'll make it two in a row this week.

More To Follow

SB2 got out of the hospital yesterday and we kept him at home until Sunday evening. He's back to himself, watching Imagination Movers and telling us what to do. He'll finish off a round of antiobiotics and will be fine. We'll pick him up again next weekend.

I got a robust 2 hits since my post yesterday. One of them was from my daughter, who we saw play at CSUEB last night. That is Cal State East Bay to the uninitiated, formerly Cal State Hayward. Its right across the bridge from my lovely planned community.

I'm 9 for 14 in my football pool this week. I did not see the Niners going down to the Raiders as a few savvy, aka lucky, contestants did. I currently rank 42 of 46. I guess you could call it a lost season if I cared.

I saw the news that President Obama has acid reflux. You'd have it too if you were dealing with the obstructionist Republicans for the last 6 years.

It looks like Chris Brown & Karrueche Tran have broken up again. He sure sounds like a swell guy. I need to research where the name Karrueche came from. Maybe she has celebrity parents.

#1 and wife are in Tokyo, which makes me think of that line from a Blue Oyster Cult song. "Oh No, there goes Tokyo..."

A Saturday Morning

I am up at 5am on a Saturday morning. I just cranked out the majority of the Christmas letter that most of you will be lucky enough to receive so I thought a post might be a good idea. You might say "when is that ever a good idea?".

I spent the majority of the last two days hanging out with SB2 at Peninsula Hospital. He's been admitted with pneumonia but we expect him to bounce back soon. I've been doing the day shift and wifey the night shift. He was much perkier yesterday. I'm hoping we bring him home today. More to follow.

When I woke up this morning the Christmas lights were still on. I thought I had re-set that damn timer properly after this week's FC power outages. Apparently I thought wrong, I am technologically challenged. I plan to replace the boat anchor I have composed the vast majority of my posts on very soon. I consulted with SB1 on that topic. He told me I should perhaps seek guidance from the Digital Prophet. I'm wondering where he gets these ideas.

I read recently that a 90s teen heartthrob has started his own religion. I think we need more of that. We do not have to limit it to 90s heartthrobs. If Abe Vigoda started a religion, I'd consider joining. Re the link below, I'm not too into crystals but I can support the colon cleanse part.

http://www.sheknows.com/entertainment/articles/1065929/details-about-andrew-keegans-full-circle-religion

The pool has just opened so I should be over there now. Instead, I'll wrap this post now and start working on the grocery list. I'll get over to the posh club later. It will be cloudy all day so that will keep a lot of people away. I don't like people when they take my lanes.

For the sake of the mundane, I thought I'd let you know that I'm listening to the Counting Crows station on Pandora and I just participated in a sponsor activity.