Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Super Busy Week

I'll be back sometime....once this is over!





Thursday, February 07, 2013

Disney December and other stuff

I kicked off December with a handful of holiday parties - one at this guy's house. Is it tacky that I took a photo?  He made a brief appearance to help open or close at door that was stuck.
Lovely evening with some lovely ladies.
I left early to head somewhere else, and now I can't remember.

A Monday night at the Viper Room with Ryan Darton.

Quick bite at 800 degrees, followed by a second Toy Bombs show in Santa Monica. I like Mondays like that.

Disneyland helps me get into the Christmas spirit. I entered a lottery for annual passholders to get seats at one of their Candlelight Processionals. It's a musical program with a guest narrator each evening that reads the Christmas story from the Bible. I'd heard it was great, and I feel lucky that I got seats. I took 3 friends (all of whom had to have annual passes) and we had a nice evening.

Our guest reader - Kurt Russell.

We got off Big Thunder right as fireworks went off.  So nice.

Lucky for me, Taylor and Courtney were at Disneyland for their annual company trip, and it perfectly coincided with the night I won tickets to the Candlelight service. Hotel sleepover!



Mmmm.. beignets. I ate them twice over on my visit last week.



I grabbed a ticket to see Biffy Clyro at the Satellite.  They're kinda heavy for my tastes, but I do like some of their stuff. And my whole life, I've always wanted to run into Gary Lightbody when he's in LA (I already met him, remember?   I follow him on Twitter and knew that he was in LA for a few weeks.  I'm waiting for the show to start, and I see a tweet pop up on my phone from him - he said he was about to catch Biffy Clyro. What?! Two seconds later I looked up and watched him walk in the door.  Did I chat with him? Nah...he's out to have fun. But it was cool.

Best present ever in the mail, from Jacinda.  What a lovely surprise! And no, I won't tell you what it is.

Ah...I'm so glad I found a ticket to Alt-J! Definitely a sold out show, and it was super great. Took me a few listens to get into the album, but it's one of my favorites from 2012. Gospel choir on stage, a Kylie Minogue cover with a Dr Dre slant, a bit of Bollywood, and lots of energy.  Really great night. 



A quick dinner one night at ink.sack. I found that on the wall.


Tuesday, February 05, 2013

Another Utah Thanksgiving

It's been years since I spent Thanksgiving with my parents (sorry, mom and dad!) and this year was no exception. Off to Utah I went again, ready for a traditional Thanksgiving feast, since I really missed all that stuffing and green bean casserole last year.

I had an early start.

Adam picked me up at the airport and we spent the day together.  Quick work email check at his house, nap, then off to lunch at good friend Niki's restaurant that opened.  Last time I saw the place, there were holes in the ceiling and bums living out front. It's open for business now!
Niki preserved some of the original wallpaper from the 1920s, when this building was a chicken rotisserie.

Funky seating - Niki and Mike designed it!  She also designed the wood panel along the wall.

Nice thing about knowing the owners - you get to sample all their fresh sodas.  Raspberry hibiscus, cream soda (which I don't even really like, but this was good!), bitter lemon, and ginger ale.  I ordered the raspberry with my meal, but I'm still thinking about the lemon. It was amazing!

Funeral balls with a garlic aioli, these carrots (not on the menu) were sooo delicious, and I had a short rib sandwich.  Really, really delicious. I was pleased at how good it was.


Adam opted for the jalapeno and egg burger.

Niki brought us some Utah scones to try, with raspberry jam.  Yum, yum. Definitely worth a visit if you're in downtown Salt Lake.

After our bellies were full, I wanted to see some snow.  Up to the canyons.


Adam drove me down to PG and dropped me off at little bro's house and all was well.


I decided to be nice and try to take Max on a run. The poor thing wouldn't leave the year since he's used to his electric fence collar, and he was afraid of the shock.  Finally, finally, I got him to leave the yard and of course he didn't come back for hour, after he took a nice big mud bath.



Pre-thanksgiving moon.

Thanksgiving morning I got up to help Courtney and Taryn make food for the day.  I was on acorn duty - they're sugary delights!

I love that the Wells family lets me crash their holidays.



These girls were crack ups. I think we told knock-knock jokes for an hour.


Time for the annual reading of gratitudes, and guessing who wrote them.



Movie night.  Adam and Nick came, the whole Wells clan and spouses, fun times. Except Life of Pi - meh. We all split into three movies, though Life of Pi > Twilight.

Yuki!

Post-Thanksgiving sushi with cousin Daniel. It was all you can eat, and I've never seen anyone eat as much sushi as he did. Wow.



Courtney and I hit Black Friday sales at new outlet mall. We were pretty tame in our purchasing.

Here are some pretty sky photos.




We did a night with the lights at the temple. Cold cold!





Hot chocolate break with baby Davis.

Candy windows at Macys.


Mexican dinner with the Wells gang.





Turkey dinner run up the mountain. Need an energy boost?  Grab Max's leash.





Working from home with Max. 

Last day in Utah, I went to church in SLC with Adam (though I was tempted to check out the midsingles ward with 800 people - doesn't that sound ridiculous?).  We hit up the Messiah that night and laughed our way through trying to sing along. Hysterical. We sat next to a lovely man who struggled right along with us - his wife was in the choir and is a most excellent singer; he humored her by coming along to try and sing.


Better luck to us next year - I'll practice!

2023 Recap

Oh, hey there. It's been awhile. I disappeared for a bit. Everyone's doing their 2023 year in review today, and I figured I'd ju...

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