A Final Look at 2010

Now that I've been writing this blog for a while, I sometimes like to look back at what I wrote at the beginning of the year. I want to see if I kept my New Years resolutions. So I looked back at what I wrote on January 1st of this year, and it seems I only mentioned three things, and I accomplished two of them.

I wanted to take the family on a decent, US vacation that wouldn't make us go broke. I had mentioned either Mt. Rushmore and Yellowstone, or Disney World. We ended up going to Disney World (and New Orleans), which was pretty nice. We managed to save some money on the attractions by going to a loathsome timeshare meeting, but it all worked out pretty well in the end. The kids got their day at The Magic Kingdom, and another day at the Hollywood Studios. If we go back again, we'll have to do the other two parks (Epcot and the Animal Kingdom.)

My next resolution was to get over my anger issues towards my brother. To be honest, I've barely thought about him this entire year. We did send him a Christmas card earlier this month. As expected, we didn't get anything from him. He can keep the feud going for as long as he wants. I don't really care. I've moved on.

The third one was more of Christy's resolution than mine. She would like for me to talk a little less about our personal life on the blog. But I still do. If I didn't, that would just leave me to talk politics all the time, and the few readers that I have here don't seem to really appreciate my liberal rants, although I fully intend to keep ranting when I feel the need.

This year started pretty well, with us moving into our new house and discovering what it's like to actually own a house. My fears of insane electric bills didn't come to pass. I think our biggest bill for one month was $130, and that was because we had the heat on all the time. Our house has very good insulation, so it always tends to stay warm (or cool) even when we're not using the A/C or heater.

Life went along pretty well until we had a death in the family in the late summer. Christy's father seemed to think that life no longer had any meaning for him, so he killed himself. That was a bad time. Christy crashing our new Toyota Corrolla was also a low point during the year.

In better news, David (in Taiwan) got married in October, so let's hope the third time is the charm for him. Probably the biggest highlight (for me anyway) of the year was seeing Roger Waters (of Pink Floyd) performing "The Wall" in November. I can't even really describe how awesome that show was. Looking back, my only regret now was that I didn't see it more than once. He's going to be filming his upcoming shows in London next year, so I expect we'll get a blu-ray of the concert soon. Most likely he'll be filming the show where David Gilmour makes his surprise cameo.

I've been on Facebook now for about a year and half, and I'm having some odd experiences there. Just recently, I've come across three people that I knew decades ago. Two of them became "Friends" and one of them blocked me from ever seeing his profile again. The first one, a girl named Abra, who I worked with back in 1991 at Crown Books. David (in Taiwan) and I were managers of that store in Grenada Hills, CA, and she was one of the cashiers. The second guy, Kerr, was a kid I knew back in something like 1977 when I was in elementary school. He looked totally different. He was a guitar player for a heavy metal band, with long hair and a long beard, looking like a roadie for Motorhead. I sent him an email saying "Is this the Kerr who used to go to Imperial Elementary school in Downey back in the 70's?" He replied "I am." Then I asked him if he remembered me, and I haven't heard back from him since then (this was about two weeks ago). Finally, I discovered another old friend from elementary school (and high school) named David Sandvigen. We were pretty good friends back then, so it surprised me when he not only rejected my "Friend" request, but blocked me as well.

What the hell? I thought. Had I done something to piss him off 20 or 30 years ago? I couldn't really remember. I didn't think I had. I saw his picture, and he had become morbidly obese, and with a goatee, he looked like a gangster from the Sopranos, or a Martin Scorcese movie.
"Maybe he feels ashamed about his appearance?" my wife suggested. Could that be it? I really have no idea, but why even register on Facebook if you don't want people to see you? That didn't really make sense. My only guess is that maybe he wants to distance himself completely from the past. It's just a bit odd when people I've barely spoke to in years want to be friends, but someone I was good friends in the "non computer" world don't want anything to do with me. C'est la vie.

There didn't seem to be any big superstar deaths this year, nothing close to last year, when we had Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett at the same time. The only big shocks for me this year were Gary Coleman and Corey Haim. And Abe Vigoda is still alive.

So, that's it. My last blog for 2010. Happy New Year to everyone!

Christmas 2010

Pictures: 1. Sara and Kyle at the Gingerbread house. 2. Sara and the Ice Angel. 3. Christmas morning, and the kids are excited. 4. Kyle shows off his Thomas toy. 5. Sara and Kyle dressing up as reindeer.

The Nutcracker in Austin

I took Sara to her first ballet yesterday (and my first too) at the Austin Symphony Hall to see "The Nutcracker." I'm not much of a ballet person myself, but Sara loves it. I guess most five year old girls want to be a ballerina, so this seemed like the best time to go. Even though I only bought the tickets a few days prior to the show, we still somehow managed to get front row seats, which was pretty neat. We could see the expression on each performers face, and, though not necessarily a good thing, we could also see just how tight those leotards were on the men.

As expected, as you walked through the doors of the theatre, one of the first things you notice is the souvenir stand selling Nutcrackers. Sara wanted one, but these things were ridiculously priced, ranging from $25 for an average sized Nutcracker, up to $50 and $100 for the larger ones. I've seen the $25 Nutcrackers for a buck at the Dollar Store, so there was no way I was going to fall into that trap, so Sara was just going to have to be disappointed.

The show was nice (although I think Sara liked it more than I did), and the orchestra did an excellent job with Tchaikovsky's classic music.

Photos were not allowed in the theatre, but I did manage a few with my cell phone, which is why most of these pictures look like blurry crap.

Pictures: 1. Outside the Austin Symphony Hall. 2&3. Blurry pictures from "The Nutcracker" 4. The Orchestra warms up. 5. Sara poses in front of the overpriced souvenirs.

Sara and Kyle Meet Santa!

Yes, it's that time once again where Santa Claus starts making appearances all over town. This time he showed up at the hospital where I worked, so I invited Christy and the kids to come down to meet Santa.

Sara and Kyle still believe in Santa. You've only got a few years where kids still believe in this stuff before they become disillusioned. Christy and I use Santa Claus a lot lately to keep the kids from misbehaving. We tell them that every time they do something bad, Santa will bring them one less present for Christmas. So if they were going to get 7 presents, now they will only get 6. It usually works. We tell them that Santa can always see what they're doing with his magic snowball. It's actually kind of hilarious the things you can tell kids and that they will believe.