First, I want to say goodbye to 2007. I don’t do New Year’s resolutions. I do those on my birthday, because that’s really when my New Year begins. This year, I didn’t make any, because I accomplished pretty much everything I wanted to do before I turned thirty-one. For 2008, though, I would love to finish writing my novel and short story series… and maybe sell them someplace and do that for a living. I think I could be really good at writing.

Second, more stuff from Anaheim! We began our day late. We went to Tiffy’s! Those of you who’ve gone to AX with me know how awesome Tiffy’s is. Well, Julia got indoctrinated into the Tiffy’s coolness because we had our brunch there. We both ordered the chicken fried steak, and yes, Todd, I thought of you. Man, I miss the gang sometimes… and I miss AX being in Anaheim even more. All the memories I have of all those years spent wandering around the convention/hotel row, and driving around to the various places we’ve been, I just miss that kind of fun. However, there’s also something to be said for spending some quality time with the wife, and somehow I don’t think having everyone here would be conducive to that one bit. The good news is, we have some more pictures for you!

We went to Downtown Disney shortly before all the NYE hoopla began. This is a shot of the sign near the hotel entrance, right next to the ESPNZone (obviously to the right). We ate there and the food was awesome. Started with some chicken tenders, then we both had classic burgers with that addictive chipotle mayo. I love chipotle mayo. The fries were good, and Julia had a sour margarita that cost nine bucks, so I made her drink it all. Tap, they had mojitos! Julia took a shot of me pointing to the drink menu. That’s when I texted you that you should have come with us. Anyway, upstairs, they had this Dave & Buster’s like arcade, but with all sports games only (of course). I played air hockey, where Julia kicked my ass; basketball, where I kicked hers; hockey, where a cardboard goalie blocked most of my shots; and a driving game, where it’s clear to me why my wife has no license.

More tomorrow!

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We made it down here in less time than I thought. We took 101 all the way down, because I realized that we do take 5 and the reason behind that notion is that it’s usually for Anime Expo… and we always go down the same day as pre-registration. Well, you have to leave early in order to make it there in time to get your badges. Otherwise, you’re waiting along with the other late schlebs on the first day of the convention, and instead of actually enjoying the convention, you’re sitting in the sun, baking. This is not the case, here. We’re here for a vacation, not a convention, so there’s no need to rush.

It was nice, taking our time in the car. We stopped once for food, twice to stretch our legs, and no times for gas. Yeah, we made it down on one tank of gas and no one was more surprised than Julia. I, on the other hand, was pretty sure we were going to be fine. Anyway, we got in before 3:30pm (better than the 4:30pm we originally thought). The GPS crapped out before the second rest stop, and it was pretty pissed that we didn’t take 5 down. Finally, I think it gave up, because Julia said that it said, “Continue,” it a rather indignant tone. I was quick to point out that I didn’t think it had the ability to feel indignant about anything, but when I thought about it, I thought maybe she was right. It ran dry of battery a little more than half-way through the trip, so it didn’t have to worry about it, but we sure could’ve used it to tell us about LA traffic.

Before I go, I want to share some pics we’ve taken already!

These two shots are the views from our room. We specifically asked for a Disney view, and we got it. The weird thing is that while here, I feel like I need an Anime Expo and the gang with me. I love this Hilton, but it feels empty without 7 people in the room. The other weird thing is sleeping on a California King-sized bed instead of our smaller full-size at home. It’s huge! We’re looking forward to the fireworks show at 9:25pm tonight. They even provide like a little wicker couch that you can turn around and face the window so we can snuggle up and enjoy the show.

More later!

Current Mood: happy

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Y’know, there’s something to be said of watching so much of a particular series that it starts to become second-nature.  It happened with Star Trek, it happened with The West Wing, it happened with Babylon 5, it happened with Stargate SG-1.  And now, I just can’t get enough of Stargate Atlantis.  I’m sure you guys (those of you who’ve watched this series) know why.  I think, though, that my wife is starting to really get sick of it.  Just as she does when I start in with either The West Wing or The Office.  But, at least she likes The Office, just not to the point where she wants to keep on watching and rewatching…

Anyway, for the trip down to Anaheim, I have decided to give my wife a break and not watch TV all the way down there.  Instead, I’ll be indulging in a little music.  I’ll write more after we check in.

Current Mood: awake

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For the second day in a row, I got to leave a little early from work.  This is good for me, because when it happens, I’m usually carpooling with the guy who’s on call.  And since he’s on call, staying until 7pm as usual doesn’t make much sense since he’s the one who’s catching all the after-hours calls anyway.  Also, I’m the backup oncall person, but I get to go off the grid starting tomorrow, so the third guy in the chain gets to move up one because I’m turning off my phone for the next six days and not giving a shit about it.

We’ll be leaving early Sunday morning at around 5am, because someone wants to go down US 101 instead of taking I-5 like normal people.  I’m not entirely sure why one would take 101 all the way down, considering how much of a state the roads are in when you get past San Luis Obispo.  So, we might compromise a little bit by taking 101 for part of the way and then 5 the rest of the way down, but I’m not sure where on 101 to turn off, because 101’s kind of boring until you go past Solvang and hit the coast.

Anyone have any suggestions on that?

Current Mood: pleased

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It feels like Tuesday night, but it’s actually Thursday.  I love short weeks!  Tomorrow’s Friday and then after a day spent getting the car ready, we’re off to Anaheim for a few days.  I’m looking forward to it.  I also love that I only have to work one day next week.  Of course, this means I need to work hard to clear my plate tomorrow as much as possible so nothing gets dropped while I’m out.

I was reading some other posts today, and I came across a flocked post by someone who will go unmentioned for the sake of privacy (it was flocked).  The general milieu of the post concerned voluntary sterilization and I was pondering the idea myself.  As you may or may not know, I am childfree.  So’s my wife.  I intend to stay that way for the rest of my life.  I don’t need children fucking my shit up.  I fuck my own ship up perfectly fine.  I need no assistance from ugly bald creatures that drool and manufacture more shit that should be physically possible for a being that size.  I just don’t need it or the so-called wonderful experience of parenthood.

Parenthood’s not that great.  I’ve seen failure in that area enough to know that if I suck at it, I’m not just hoarking my life… I’m hoarking theirs as well.

And this isn’t an invitation to persuade me from the childfree lifestyle, and I swear the person who tells me I’ll change my mind shall be drop-kicked off the planet by someone wearing steel-toed shitkickers.

There’s a lot of shit in this post, isn’t there?

So, anyway… yeah… I’m looking forward to my vasectomy.  And anytime… anytime I might have a smallest inkling of reconsidering… all I have to do is go to the mall and watch breeders and fuck-trophies and realize that I made the right choice.

Again, this is a declarative post, not a cry for help.  I’m just declaring my intent, here.  If I wanted advice, I’d ask for it.

Current Mood: blank

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And holy shit, did I have a pile of work to do. You know when you leave work for extended periods of time, the work doesn’t get done on it’s own… no matter how hard you wish it would. I had a bunch of open cases I had to close or update, and then on top of that, my boss kept giving me more shit to do. I mean, hi… I have like thirty-two other things to do, I don’t need you handing me six more, okay? And for shit’s sake, if you are handing me something, could you at least open a damned ticket for it, first? Is that so hard to do? The ticketing system is hard enough to use (I wish we had SugarCRM so bad) in the first place, but by giving me random shit, I gotta suffer ticket creation on top of it.

Anyway, I closed twelve today and gained six. So it’s like that frog-in-the-well story, but in reverse.

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A lot of people at work took advantage of the fact that Christmas and New Year’s allowed for two three-day weeks in a row. The director of my department is taking this whole week off and won’t be back until the 2nd of January. I, on the other hand, opted to take the 2nd and the 3rd off for when we go down to Anaheim and check out the Disney scene during the New Year’s. So, I’m looking forward to that. But this also means that I’ll have about three days to close as many cases as I possibly can before the end of the year, so the group’s statistics won’t be too horribly skewed when they do the month-end (and year-end) reports. I already did a poll of the report right now and if they closed it tomorrow, I would have like twenty-one cases open and that’s not good.

I kind of wish I could’ve taken a two week vacation, but I haven’t really accrued enough time off. One of the crappier aspects of starting a new job is that your balances are pretty much zero. By the time you need to take off, you’re going to be owing time off to the company. Or seeing if your boss is generous enough to let you slide off the books and then make up the time later, which is what I’ve done in the past when I had ultra-cool bosses that I worked for. Unfortunately, my current boss is quite by-the-book when it comes to PTO, so I can’t really skate with time owed or under-the-table time. He wants it to be all documented, which is fine, considering that this is his first managerial gig ever. I can empathize with his need to keep to the regs.

In other news, I enjoyed my Christmas at home. I got to hang out with my wife and Tap, and I wish every Christmas were that much fun.

Current Mood: exhausted

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This is the third Christmas that Julia have spent together since we started dating, but the second since we married in April, 2006. As I sit here in the overnight hours of Christmas Eve, having enjoyed Julia’s orange chicken dinner that she made specifically for the occasion, I’ve come to realize that I’m really very happy in this relationship. I know, this is probably something I should be considering on something a little more appropriate, such as an anniversary, but the truth of it is that I thought of it today. And it wasn’t because I got some awesome food to eat, either… though that was a bonus.

I think there are times when it hits you like a ton of bricks. Maybe you’ve been in a relationship for so long that it becomes like second nature, or maybe you’ve been in it so long that you begin to take the other person for granted. You know, I never believed in the whole taking the other for granted. I think it really has a lot to do with the fact that you let someone become such an integral part of your life, that you become accustomed to their presence as a matter of fact, rather than simply ignoring them. How many of us can look at our respective SOs and say that we don’t appreciate everything they do for us? That’s not taking them for granted. That’s recognizing that they make a major contribution to our lives. And so, I try to take a moment each day to remind myself how lucky I am to have her with me. I try to tell her that, when I can. At least once a day, if not then twice the next. A simple, “I love you,” or perhaps, “I’m very happy that we’re together” can do a lot to communicate that to her.

So, on this night, as she’s sleeping in the other room, I want to take a moment to tell her here, in front of the Internet, that I love her. And I do appreciate everything she does for me. And that I’m thinking of her always, but moreso for Christmas. After all, I’ve been told many times that it’s the thought that counts.

But just in case… I hope she enjoys Mario Party DS as a small token of that love.

Current Mood: good & grateful

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I picked up Todd today, he took the train in from Sacramento and I had to meet him at the station a little before noon.  He liked the Excelsior model I put together for him and then he passed out his gifts to us.  I got a $50 gift certificate to Amazon.com, and Julia got the complete set of Azumanga Daiou DVDs.  So, now I know what she’ll be watching all the time in the coming days, weeks, and months.

He was pretty exhausted, having stayed up all night wrapping presents (because he’s a procrastinator like me), and then slept sparingly on the train down. I had him take a nap in our bedroom, because holding a conversation with him was pretty pointless when he would just start nodding off without warning in the middle of a sentence.  It was like talking with a narcoleptic.  Once he napped, though, he was a lot more livelier!   Tap cooked dinner, using chicken, broccoli, potatoes and red wine.  It was awesome.  After dinner, he had to go over to his brother’s house so he could prepare for the family Christmases (2) before he heads back to Sacramento on late Christmas Day.  It sucks I don’t get to hang out with him more often.

Current Mood: busy

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Every once in a while, Julia goads me into making gingerbread cookies.  Gingerbread is the first kind of cookie I ever made in my life, because my dad loves gingerbread and so I learned how to make it so I could bake it at will.  I came up with a great recipe in middle school that I learned while taking Home Economics, but in the course of moving over nearly twenty years, I lost my notebook that had all my cool recipes in it.  So, instead, I will part with the recipe I’ve been using lately.  If you’re willing to do this, then feel free to take the recipe.  After all, it’s on the internet…

Gingerbread Cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups dark molasses
2/3 cup cold water
7 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt

Put brown sugar, shortening, molasses and water into a large bowl and mix.  Then add everything else except flour and mix once more.  Add flour and mix until you end up with the dough.  Then chill for 2 hours.

Roll dough into quarter-inch thick slabs and cut into shapes with a floured cutter or knife.

Heat over to 350 and bake for 10-12 minutes.

Done!

Current Mood: creative

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