Festive

I guess it's starting to feel like Christmas, even though outside it feels more like early November. Not that I'm complaining; I keep hearing people say, "We're saving money on heat," and I can certainly get behind that.

There are always a decent number of houses in my neighborhood that decorate, and if I get ambitious I might go out and take some photos. But I was out with the dog the other night and happened to be across the street from our house, where we don't typically walk at night. After I brought her back inside, I went back out to get a quick pic.

That's SAR HQ on the right; the upstairs neighbors started decorating last year, after that apartment transitioned from having three unrelated single residents to a couple, with one member who's quite enthusiastic about the season. (There are also lights in that small square window above the mailboxes, but they weren't turned on.) Our next-door neighbor decorates every year, and I welcome the display, as much for the added brightness it brings to our block as for any other reason.

Last Minute Treats

Forgetting about, and then putting off, buying Halloween candy ended up paying off: almost everything at CVS was $1.88 a bag, and they still had a decent selection.

In the Audience

The Mrs.' graduation went just fine, though of course it had to be 80 degrees yesterday. The ceremony was indoors, in a building that is used as a hockey arena, which would lead one to think that it should be easy to keep it cool inside, but that wasn't the case.

It was just barely comfortable enough, but sitting on a flimsy plastic chair for two hours is less than ideal. To our right we had a guy who sneezed raucously through the entire ceremony, and immediately behind us we had a fussing baby that I suspect was the child of someone receiving a degree, as the people caring for it were substantially older and were probably its grandparents.

The actual issuing of diplomas took only about 35 minutes, and the enthusiasm of the graduates kept things buoyant after I almost nodded off a few times during the speeches.

Welcome to Castle Guinness

It must be getting close to St. Patrick's Day:

Also while at the liquor store, I noticed that Rolling Rock now comes in tallboy cans. Seems like a desperate grab for some of the PBR crowd.

Perspective

I hope all of you who celebrate Christmas had an excellent one. We ate ourselves silly and spent some time with my family. My cold is slowly departing, and since it's kind of unpleasant outside, it's a perfect day to stay in and watch movies.

I was a bit down on the holiday season this year, due to the setback of being laid off yet again. I wasn't able to bounce back quickly into another job as I'd hoped, and consequently I had to lower my expectations for giving and receiving. The Mrs. is still in school full-time, so we decided we didn't need to give each other anything.

Maybe I had to choose the more prudent path and forgo buying myself a Nook this year, but I can still roam used bookstores and find books I want to read for less than their ebook counterparts. Other big-ticket items can also wait, plus I have a pile of stuff that I can sell.

Ultimately, I realized that I have everything I need, and quite a bit more. Whatever else there is, is a bonus. Like the J. Crew gift cards I got from my family...

Closed on Thanksgiving

Yeah, TWiA did not happen this weekend, in case anyone was wondering. It'll definitely be back next weekend.

At this point I'm pretty sure I don't have to mention that you should not go shopping on Black Friday, right? So it totally goes without saying that you shouldn't go shopping on Thanksgiving Day either, unless you're doing it on your computer. Besides, the Patriots are playing the Jets in prime time on Thursday, so why would you be doing anything else instead of watching that?

Anyway, I got an email today from JCPenney CEO Ron Johnson that reads, in part:

...and yes, we're going to start our Black Friday—on Friday.

I know that some retailers are opening on Thanksgiving this year. But spending Thanksgiving with family is one of America's greatest traditions. Since jcp was founded on the Golden Rule, I'm proud to honor this tradition by keeping our stores closed on this special day.

I hope our customers and employees all enjoy a wonderful holiday with loved ones.

Thank you, Mr. Johnson, for doing your part to respect this holiday. Look, I understand that some people don't enjoy holidays for whatever reasons, and not everyone gets along with their family members. But there also have to be some limits to the lengths retailers will go to to separate people from their money, and the effect these policies have on their employees.

I keep hearing that working on these Thursday-night openings is voluntary, and there may be employees who do want to work those shifts, but having spent more than a decade working in various retail settings, I know too well that "voluntary" often means "compulsory." I think retail employees deserve to have the Thanksgiving holiday off, and I think that staying away from stores on Thursday night is a simple thing you can do to show your support for that belief.

Too Soon?

There's a house around the corner from us that's already fully decorated for Halloween. I know the mornings have been getting brisk around here, but it seems like it might be more reasonable to at least wait until it's officially October. Then again, I've seen reports of Christmas decorations starting to show up in stores...

Christmas Question

What does it say about me that the only Christmas music I own (bought from iTunes) is "Fairytale of New York"?

(...and just as I was about to sit at the computer and post this, I saw on the Mrs.' facebook that Lisa had posted about the same song. Have a merry one, Lisa...)

More Candy

After I wrote about some of favorite holiday candy treats the other day, I realized that, while deserving, all the attention didn't need to be focused on See's.

Each year I eagerly anticipate the arrival (and subsequent discounting) of dark chocolate sea-salt caramels, nestled in their metal tins at Crate & Barrel. The price has climbed a couple of dollars since last year, but if you can score a tin or two after they've been marked down, they are well worth it.

New this year, and similar but just different enough, are dark chocolate covered peanut butter "bites," also sprinkled with sea salt. These come in a much smaller package (7 ounces, vs. a pound for the caramels) but they also cost less. As it turns out, both are already marked down, but if you can wait they'll go lower.

Seasonal Thoughts

I make an effort to avoid repeating myself in here, but I'm still in the midst of a deadline week, so it seemed like a good idea to revisit a few semi-connected, seasonally relevant thoughts from years past:

Thanksgiving Comes First: credit to Jim Sullivan for starting this one. I offered my thoughts on it a few years back, and Lisa weighed in more recently. There are some houses in my neighborhood that even have Thanksgiving decorations in their yards, which I really appreciate. (I ought to go for a walk and take some pictures, huh?) And let's remember to give props to Nordstrom for their ongoing policy of waiting until after Thanksgiving to roll out the holiday decorations.

Black Friday Blackout: again, something I've shared my feelings about in the past. There's no justification for putting yourself at risk of bodily harm by venturing out to a mall or big-box store the day after Thanksgiving. I like a good deal as much as anyone, but shopping online is so much easier, and I bet you could accomplish at least 75% of your list that way.

I would also suggest you consider visiting a neighborhood shopping district near where you live: check out what's available right in your community, and help support a small, local business instead of contributing to the bottom line of a huge corporation that doesn't really need it.

Buy Some Pie: I neglected to mention Pie in the Sky last year. Community Servings is a Boston-based nonprofit that provides nutritious meals to hundreds of residents in the area who are ill and unable to take care of themselves. Each year they sell Thanksgiving pies to benefit their programs. I've been ordering pies from them for years, and volunteering for a few as well. You can order pies right here.

Days Off

Reflecting on the holiday weekend, we were pretty busy and had fun, but it wasn't particularly relaxing. Saturday we got haircuts and then drove down to RI to my mother's for some grillin' and potato salad and such. Sunday evening we were invited to dinner at the home of friends, Monday we were invited to lunch at the home of some other friends. We had some down time earlier on Sunday and got to sleep in all three days, but that's about it.

Oh, and we saw Bad Teacher last night, which I enjoyed. Bridesmaids was more overtly funny, but this movie was certainly not a disappointment. It's worth it for the car wash scene alone, and Lucy Punch, the British actress who played the adversary to Cameron Diaz's character, was really good too. BTW, bonus points to the producers (or whoever makes such decisions) for using the classic Rockpile song "Teacher, Teacher" during the opening credits.

Normally I would have taken off the Friday before a long holiday weekend, just to make it a longer holiday weekend, but New York beckons yet again—we're heading down Friday morning, and since I'd already planned to take three days off I didn't bother with the Friday. But Labor Day weekend will definitely be stretched to four days.

Festive Attire

I was watching the fireworks show on TV, and noticed that many people were wearing festive, red-white-and-blue outfits. I don't begrudge anyone who enjoys dressing up like this, but my only sartorial acknowledgement of the holiday was a red polo shirt.

Also, you would think there would have been one person in the staff of the production who would have noticed that a guy with the build of Michael Chiklis should not be wearing a black three-button suit (I thought those had faded away, but I guess not), and definitely should have told him not to button all three buttons, and ESPECIALLY not the bottom one. It's all Alec Baldwin's fault.

Dinner Plans

Things are going to be a bit minimalist for Mother's Day. My brother has to work and my sister is going to be away on a vacation she planned before realizing Mother's Day fell on the 8th and not the 15th, so it's just going to be the Mrs. and me taking her out.

My mother typically puts a fair amount of thought into where wants to go, and we've had some very nice dinners in years past. This year she ultimately decided she wants to go to the Outback Steakhouse. I haven't been to one of those in probably 15 years or so, coincidentally while visiting my parents when they used to go to Fort Lauderdale for the winter.

I'm not going to complain or give her a hard time about it—it is her day, after all—but I'm not much of a steak eater. I seem to recall that they also had a decent selection of seafood, and was going to look over the menu, but their site doesn't want to show it to me. Why is the online menu thing so complicated? Either make it a PDF, or pay a college kid to figure out how to render it in HTML.

Setting the Table

Easter isn't a major holiday for my family, but we still go to my mother's in Rhode Island for dinner. A couple of weeks ago I was talking to my mother on the phone, and she said, "I don't think I'm going to make a ham this year."

I was thrilled, because no one really likes ham all that much. So I asked what she was planning to make. She said, "Chicken parmaesan." Good answer, mom.

In the morning I have to get up and head down the street to the Italian deli, and wait in line for some arancini to bring with us. We also went to Trader Joe's tonight for wine.

The most important thing about celebrating holidays: you should spend them with people who are important to you, and you should eat and drink well. Salute...

On to the Next One

I'd hoped to do a nice end-of-year wrap post, but I got distracted and forgot, leaving me only a few minutes before the ball drops.

I'm getting to the point in my life where marking the end of another year brings a tinge of sadness along with the optimism of looking forward to what's to come. I'm not entirely sure why, but it's been there, just below the surface, for the past week or so. I think it's just a part of aging, and the fact that this year was somewhat shittier than others in lots of ways, for lots of people.

But while I felt it was important to note that, I won't be dwelling on it. I'd rather think about the future, plus my life now is better than it's ever been. I hope that's true for all of you as well. Happy new year; I'm sure the best is yet to come.

Holiday Plans

Our holiday is going to be a bit different this year. Last year, the Mrs. had to work, so I took the train to my family's house. She has to work again this year, and due to some other staffing issues, she was asked if she could work a double shift. It's not like a regular work day anyway, it's more like someone just has to be present and conscious.

The double shift means I can't go to RI by myself again, because there wouldn't be anyone here to take care of the dog's needs. So we asked my mother if she would consider moving dinner to Friday. She agreed willingly, and as it turns out, my brother, who is a restaurant manager, has to work the closing shift Thursday night, so he would have had to leave in the middle of Thanksgiving dinner anyway.

So my mother and sister will go out to dinner somewhere tomorrow, and not have turkey. As for me, I'll be enjoying some down time and solitude, watching the football game, and working on some of the other stuff stored on the TiVo that the Mrs. isn't interested in watching. And walking the dog.

My Fourth Blogaversary

Yes, it's true: I started this blog four years ago today. That's a long time--the length of a presidential term, or the interval between Olympic games (never mind the alternating winter and summer thing, you know what I mean).

When I began, I had no idea how long my motivation would last. As it's turned out, the blog has become its own source of motivation. The process of thinking, observing, and critiquing, and the writing that emerges, encourage me to do more. And I'm at the point where I actually have a small but fairly steady audience (hi!), which acts as another form of motivation and encouragement.

True to form, I debated how to spell "blogaversary." I could have gone with "blogiversary" because that's closest to "anniversary," but that "i" in the middle didn't look right. "Blogoversary" reminded me too much of "Blagojevich," and I'd rather not be reminded of that. I know that "blogaversary" has its faults, but it feels like it shares something with "bloggah," which has the right local flavor.

Each year I look back and reflect on how the blog has evolved, and I'm sure that will continue. But for now, I just want to say thanks to all of you for stopping by to visit.

Charmed

I wasn't sure what to get my mother for Mother's Day, so I texted my sister to see what she was doing. She said she was getting her a charm for this bracelet she'd gotten a couple of years ago. It's an easy and reasonably-priced gift, one we've chosen in the past, so I figured we would get her one too.

The company that makes these bracelets and charms is called Pandora (not to be confused with the internet-radio site, which I bet the jewelers wish didn't exist, because it means they can't have the pandora.com URL). The charms and bracelets are threaded, which makes them easy to add and rearrange. They are carried by a number of jewelry stores, and they now have a couple of free-standing stores as well. So after looking at their web site to get an idea of what we thought my mother would like, we set off for the mall on Saturday to get a charm.

We got to the mall around 6:30 PM and spent a few minutes looking at jewelry in Nordstrom before heading out into the mall. The Pandora store is located just outside the Nordstrom in this particular mall, and as we walked across the area just outside the store, we could see that there was a line of people waiting to get into the Pandora store. It stretched down a side corridor and was about 30 people long. (Someone in Nordstrom told me there had been a line on Friday as well.)

I know it was the last minute, but I still had no idea these things were so popular. We had been in this store once or twice before, and I had purchased a charm for my mother for Christmas, but I had gone to the store in the Prudential Center on my way home from work, and had done it at least a couple of weeks before the holiday. Apparently charm bracelets are a big deal for those of the mom persuasion.

My first inclination was to come back later, but the Mrs. went and stationed herself in the line right away, so I figured I had no choice but to join her, seeing as it was my mother we were shopping for. Clerks from the store were walking along the line, passing out catalogs so those waiting could decide, or at least narrow down their choices. There was a lot of cell phone activity as people called spouses and siblings to discuss which charms to get.

The Mrs. buttonholed one of the clerks and he confirmed that the style we wanted was in stock, so at least we knew we weren't wasting our time waiting. Once we made it around the corner and into the store, it didn't take long to make our selection and finalize the purchase, but in all it had taken about 45 minutes from the time we got in line. But hey, Mother's Day is only once a year, and mom is worth at least that much time.

Chance of Showers

The sun made an appearance today here in Santa Cruz. It's been raining pretty much constantly since before we arrived, so it was a welcome change. However, the wedding for which we're here is tomorrow, and while forecasts earlier in the week promised a decent day, things are not looking as promising now. The ceremony is supposed to take place on the beach, but a backup location has been arranged.

Goodbye and Hello

Time to say goodbye to 2009, and to the decade as well. The passage of time definitely seems to accelerate as you age. Ten years ago I'd been married just over a year, and had spent the previous year working for an e-commerce company, where the notion of getting paid for my attention to detail and the opportunity to learn a bunch of new skills seemed like it was about to change my life.

That job lasted into early 2001, and a year after that the company had folded, but my life did change. Because I started with the company when it was so small, I was in close proximity to its founder, and consequently I learned a trememdous amount about almost every aspect of running a business. That job, and the one I'd had previously, led peripherally into my eventual next full-time job, which ultimately led to the job I have now. And working at that e-commerce company a decade ago is how I met A Proper Bostonian, a friendship I feel very fortunate to have (even if she is a crazy cat lady).

Life does change, usually while you are not noticing it. But the important things tend to stay the same. Last year we were supposed to spend New Year's Eve at the home of my college roommate and his wife, but it snowed that day and the Mrs. did not feel comfortable driving to their house and back (they live pretty far out in suburbia) so we ended up staying home and watching 80's movies on TV. But our friends invited us again this year, and the little dusting of snow we got today isn't enough to keep us home this time.

Happy new year to all of you out there. May 2010 be full of good things for all of us.