countdown

This invitation is in 3-D. If you don't have 3-D glasses, put a book or something between your eyes and try to space out and you can sometimes do it.

THE 27th ANNUAL NEW YEAR'S DAY OPEN HOUSE AND HANNAH'S BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION
Please stop by! Bring your kids and your friends! Extremely casual!
January 1st, 2009
from 1:00 in the afternoon
98 Riverside Drive

the countdown begins

I mean, if you were planning a big party in two days wouldn't you just decide that right now was the time to refinish the living room floor?

window dressing

pleading stupidity

Worked for me. When I sent in my $65 parking ticket with proof I had paid the metered rate—displaying the paper receipt upside down like a total blond—they waived the fee.

holiday letdown followed by. . .

tree of the wolf children

Not sure where this falls in the spectrum of environmentally desirable objects, but hey, a very merry to all!

ever everest

Had the unexpected pleasure yesterday of entertaining Russell, Himalayan mountain climber and star of Beyond the Limits, a Discovery docu about climbing Everest. Interestingly, since his clients tend to be mid-40ish financial types, he has experienced no falloff in bookings due to economic woes. If anything, business is better than ever. Next May is booked out, with 70 people on the mountain, including Sherpas and guides and the docu team and 2010 is mostly booked. Russell has moved to the Nepal side of Everest this year after difficulties with the Chinese over permits and this year's Olympic flame debacle, which forced him to cancel the expedition on the Tibet side.

the hatters

Must be the season of the guest. The hat family left today at 5 ayem and the next group arrives directly.

politically incorrect

The Bodega Christmas Carol
We actually got the words wrong. It's supposed to go
Feliz Ramadan
Feliz Ramadan
Feliz Ramadan
Prospero ano inshallah
etc.
Please sing along with the (politically in)correct words.
(BTW, Ramadan is not til next August)
(Is nothing sacred? In a word: No.)
(I don't know whether it makes it better or worse to know that this song was penned by a Fox News producer who has spent a lot of time in Iraq and Afghanistan.)

group sex

Do you want world peace? This is real important. If you want world peace, love and understanding, tomorrow is the day for ultimate bonding among all the peoples of the world. And we are planning to do that the way almost all animals on the face of the earth do it but the way that monkeys and people do it best and most, to wit: have sex.
Yes, folks, it's the Third Annual Global Orgasm for Peace!
It is pegged (!) to the winter solstice which occurs at 7:04 EST tomorrow. To find out when to climax in other areas check out the Global Orgasm website. You have a two-hour period (6 to 8 am EST) to join with the Whole World and Make Love Not War.
And remember, you can fly hetero, homo, solo or any and everything else you can think of—invite your friends!—the important thing is to get off. It's not too late! Start now! Set your alarm!

the baker street irregulars

The kids kick off E's annual party with a bit of merry merry. This is the politically correct Christmas carol of the week; tomorrow, the incorrect one.

as the snow really fell

This photo is not in black and white. Left the truck in Erin's driveway, went to Providence with Wolfen, heard from Johnny that he could not drive me, got on the train this morning and caught glimpses of the parking lot that was I-95.
One fellow traveler tried to get off the train after her plane flight to Cleveland had been cancelled (failed and got out at the next stop to reverse direction), another got word that her parents had just been in a 12-car pileup and wouldn't be able to pick her up (they were ok except that when she got out of the smashed car the mother slipped on the ice and hurt her back), and a child traveling alone from school in Boston had to meet her mother in New York rather than her father in Stamford. I would like to know how those stories turned out. But all I can tell you is that a passerby, a cute personal trainer, lugged my overheavy bag through the slush from the subway for me and at last I was home, where I will hunker down and stay—at least for the moment. Yelapa in January is looking good.

as the snow melted

We met in Woonsocket to check out the building H and C are planning to buy. They looked right at home: H on the pink couch with her iPhone with the office and C gazing out the window at the sign reading "Bienvenue a Quartier Francais." Sorry, don't know how to do the accents.

as the first snow fell

Changping made me dinner: asparagus and mushrooms, eggs and tomatoes, hong shao beef, sauteed potatoes with vinegar. And then we went to sleep to be awakened in the night by the sound of snowplows scraping the road outside. Thank fortune I had put concrete block in the back of the truck the night before. And then—but I'll tell you tomorrow. . .

familiar site

In the morning this building was on two flatbed trucks; by afternoon it was as you see it, with the rafters raised. It's a kit barn that comes precut—just match the colors and the dots and nail. Fortunately the day was extremely clement (unlike today, as the poor crew puts on the roof). Erin was on hand to cheer on the crew most of the day (and worry about trucks getting stuck in the mud), Flip left work early to check it out before dark, and Wolfen and Chris showed up unexpectedly. When they expertly began covering stacks of boards with tarps, the contractor said, "Your whole family seems to be into construction!"

game over

The jigsaw puzzle is done, the presents are wrapped and I'm headed up to watch Erin's barn get delivered—and not incidentally to get rid of the truck for the winter.

and this is different how?

IF TODAY IS YOUR BIRTHDAY
December 13, 2008
From the look of your birthday chart this will be one of those all or nothing years, when you either rise to the challenges that life sends your way and emerge victorious, or give up altogether and dream wistfully of what might have been. It's up to you.

satisfaction?

This lovely form, which was sent to me by someone who shall remain nameless but her name begins with an H for Hagridden like me thanks very much, may come in useful for some of you who, perhaps inspired by holiday excesses, long to begin exercising but simply need a chart to mark things off on to really jumpstart yourself. Feel free to use this one.

body maintenance

Yes, damn you, I am walking for half an hour or so a day. In the rain. I do the situps. I prepare healthy food. I take my vitamins. I drink plenty of water. I go to the eye doctor and the dentist. I sonic clean my teeth and floss (mostly). I get my eight hours. Oh yeah, and shower and wash my hair and slather cream all over my dry skin and get pedicures and wax and do my nails.
I just have one question: When do you have time to do anything else?

jersey christmas

You kind of wonder what these people wear when they hang out at home. Gold lame tube tops? Brocade smoking jackets? Velvet leggings? A lot of makeup? Furs in midsummer? And what kind of cars do they drive? Cadillac Escalade? Corvette? And to them I say, there's a guy who is making it snow in the Time Warner center every weekend evening. Wouldn't you like him to come to your house and make the whole thing look more seasonal? And by the way, do you need Help?

PS You have to click on the pic to see what's going on behind the fence.