Rambling Through the Holidays...

Hope everybody had a great Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/Festivus!! We had a nice quiet holiday here in NYC once again...we'll get to that day in a bit, but I feel like its been a while since I actually blogged (good job, Jen, for keeping it going....I was worried our blog was going to fall apart like the Neals apparently has)

So lets get caught up on some stuff meandering through my mind these days...

-- We're trying to blaze through Broadway these days. Tons of shows are closing early and shutting down due to the poor economy. So we went and saw All My Sons with John Lithgow, Katie Holmes, Dianne Weist and Patrick Wilson the other day...good show...Lithgow's always good in these settings, and Katie Holmes did well for her Broadway debut...although I think the highlight for Jen was seeing Katie carry young Suri out of the theater after the show...though she wasn't very happy with the Nazi-esque security guard that wouldn't let Jen stand near the guardrail because I left our printout tickets inside....after everyone had left, we went looking for the guy to give him a piece of our mind, but he had fled the scene, probably because he knew we were coming with a SMACKDOWN!!!

-- Anyways, we're off to see Young Frankenstein this weekend, and I've managed to talk Jen into seeing Spamalot next week before it closes (we're getting big time cheap tickets). That will make a grand total of EIGHT Broadway shows for us since we've been here...I've got this grand plan to buy frames for the Playbills and hang them up...we'll post pictures when it happens...

-- Speaking of Nazis (boy there's a segue), we went and saw Valkyrie last Friday. Pretty good movie, and I really am coming back around on Tom Cruise after "Tropic Thunder" and his appearance on Kimmel a couple of weeks back (where he played "Touch The Head), but he couldn't even attempt a German accent for this flick? In fact, no one apparently could...its a movie about Nazi Germany, and I think I counted 2 German accents...who knew there were so many Brits and Americans in the Nazi Party Germany in the early 1940s??? Having said all that, the movie was still pretty good...

-- I don't know about you, but as an anti-Yankee fan, I can't wait for this July when I'll get to watch a 420-pound C.C. Sabathia laboring through a 95 percent humidity day at Yankee Stadium when he's 6-and-8 with an ERA over 5....yeah, that was worth 180 million dollars...I mean, anytime you offer a guy 160-million, and he leaves the deal on the table for a month PRAYING that some other team will offer him something close because he doesn't want to come to New York, then you have to throw him an extra 20-mill just to get him to come play for your team, I mean, you have to do that deal.... BWHAHAHAH!!! Man, I love the Yankees when they overreact...between Sabathia and A.J. Burnett, that money is just wasted....

-- Speaking of the Yankees, Brian and Katie Neal were in town for the holidays, and Katie put together a surprise 30th birthday party for Brian as well that Jen and I were able to go to...since he's the ever optimist, I think he liked the gift I got him....

-- I'm fairly certain Al Davis is now no longer able to competently run the Raiders because after watching his performance in the "I fired Lane Kiffin" press conference, I'm pretty sure Al is now a sea monster....

Well, we've reached the halfway point of this entry, so lets take a commercial break....

"Saaaaaaaaaved byyyyyyyy zerrrrrrrr-ohhhhhhh"

"Now for a limited time only you can get amazing zero percent APR financing on any Toyota"

"Saaaaaaaaaved byyyyyyyy zerrrrrrrr-ohhhhhhh"

"That's zero percent financing on 11 different models. No other car brand can make this offer. So hurry in now and see how much zero can save you on a Toyota."

"Saved by zero! Saved by zero!"

(by the way, that was from off the top of my head. We're coming awfully close to the point where I'll be a week away from driving to a Toyota dealership, buying a new Toyota with zero percent APR financing, driving off the lot, then yanking a 180 and speeding straight through the windows of the showroom at 80 miles an hour while I lean out the window yelling "Saved by zero!!!" Toyota folks, you might wanna shut down the ads...I'm not kidding. You know why we havn't seen John Cougar Mellancamp in, like, 2 years? Cause some guy has him trapped in a trunk in his basement dressed like The Gimp from Pulp Fiction after hearing "This is our country" for the nine-millionth time. Time to tone it down Toyota...we get it. Zero percent APR financing....heard you.

AND WE'RE BACK!!

-- I really wanted to root for Brett Favre this season, but that did go out the window as soon as the Pack dropped from the playoff picture, so watching the Jets collapse and Favre play like the old man he is was strangely enjoyable. I tried to warn Jets fans that this was coming, though even I didn't think Brett would crap the bed the way he did in the last five games (2 TDs, 9 interceptions) to lead the Jets from a sure playoff berth to on the outside looking in...now one day later, the Jets head coach is canned, and New York gets to spend the next six months doing the same "is he coming back, is he retiring" dance that I went through the last 3 seasons...good times!!

(by the way, if you're keeping track, I've done a complete 360 on my feelings for Favre. I hope no one injured their neck keeping track of those mood swings)

-- Christmas/Hanukkah was wonderful this year. I got some very nice sweaters and a great RL polo from Jen along with tickets to the Upright Citizens Brigade show (which we went to last night)...and great gifts from my family like the SportsNight DVD set from Sister Jen and the Jeff Pearlman book about the Cowboys from Mom and Dad...and a whole host of other stuff...its funny, when I was younger, I used to dread unwrapping a present to find what I called "the dreaded Sears box." Now? I'm more excited to get clothes than anything else. Does this mean I'm growing up?

-- Speaking of clothes for Christmas, I had asked my folks for a Sac State sweatshirt as a gift for reasons that continue to elude me...I guess I feel more of a tinge to represent my college experience out here since no one in the world has heard of CSUS out here. Or maybe its because I'm currently trying to lead the Hornets football team to the national title on NCAA Football 2009 on the Wii....or maybe its because I look good in green...I don't know...anyways, I got the sweatshirt and wasn't planning to wear it that same day, but when Chris and Shirley came over Christmas Day for dinner, Chris said "guess what I got for Christmas?" and he took off his coat to reveal a Sac State Hornets t-shirt!! Well, that changed my dress plans for dinner...I think we look rather good, don't you....

-- Christmas dinner consisted of delicious turkey cooked by Jen, with cranberry sauce and green bean casserole, and Shirley brought delicious lasagna and made lumpea as an appetizer, which I think I ate about 7 of....

Overall, its been a great few weeks and we'll see what the new year brings!! Happy New Year everybody!!!!

Mike