ich bin ein auslander

all packed up and ready to go… did a last minute shopping spree today; guess we were feeling flush with christmas cash. anyway, happy new year to all.

Christmas has come and gone, and I am well pleased. All that remains - paying the bills, working off the holiday food consumption, and returning the gifts that don’t quite fit or whatever.

All in all, it was a pleasant enough holiday. Christmas eve we drove down to my parent’s house in the OC while Wendy made a ton of phone calls - family, friends, etc - on the mobile… got down, my sister/boyfriend/2 gigantic dogs where there, had a great meal, ate a bunch of really fattening food and saw some of the extended family. My dad actually had to work and didn’t show up until after 11pm… spent the night down there and opened presents christmas day. then we came back home for a brief break and to drop off the christmas booty before heading back out to have a late lunch with the other side of my family out in north hollywood at some bizarre austrian/swiss/german restaurant called the matterhorn. more fun with the extended family there.

post christmas day we had planned to go see return of the king again, but we got a call from a friend who was dealing with a collapsing studio ceiling thanks to the heavy rains, so we swung by there to see if we could help out. luckily nothing much had happened to his space, although the adjacent studio was looking at probably millions worth of damages to space and equipment. off to greenblatt’s for some food and wine and worst case scenario talk, then continued the holiday drinking over depressing dvds.

since then, it’s been pleasant downtime and the occasional foray to finns with friends or people dropping by here to pass some time.

next? well, we’re either heading down to san diego for a quick visit to a friend or blowing that off completely, and we’re leaving for vegas in just a few short days for the new year….

Getting ready to head down to the parents for xmas eve…. hope everyone has a good holiday. last night was fun… a few people dropped in, made some homemade eggnog and mulled wine and ended the evening attempting to talk wendy down from throwing molotov cocktails around venice to watch them blow up. not the best idea, i think, what with the increased terror level.

anyway, it was fun - and now the family, which won’t be.

saw it last night… really, really enjoyed it. possibly the best film of the year, in my opinion…

anyway, the holidays have come, running around like crazy… horrible shopping trip today, but i think i’m done so i won’t have to run the gauntlet again. anyway, happy holidays to everyone. not sure if i’ll blog again until after as i probably won’t have much to say.

Last night was a bit odd… last night out with Andy as he headed back to Toronto today, not returning to mix until after the new year… ended up at Quincy Jones’ private christmas party as andy’s a&r guy owns the club. We were the only white folk there. That was fun.

So, we quickly took our leave and headed off to Barney’s Beanery for really, really bad food and some beer. Much to my delight, they now carry Monty Python’s Holy (gr)Ail Ale. And it’s even good!