2014 Trots In

The Year of the Horse arrives, and we might actually make it to midnight this year!

Hanks Makes Banks

We went and saw Saving Mr. Banks. Can't go wrong with Hanks, Thompson and Giamatti. Great film.

Rightful Owner

Time to head home and get our puppies back, and so we return the guest bed to its rightful owner, Gauge the cat and thank her for her nightly purrformances (couldn't resist a cat pun.)

Toyed Out

Some in the group were overwhelmed by this flurry of activity.

Iced Over

Today we made people to live in the houses constructed yesterday. Highlights include Tron gingerbread man (far left - credit Lonnie), Spider-gingerbread man (top - credit me), and Grievous Facial Wound gingerbread man (bottom - credit Payton) the result of a tragic glitter spill. Mari and Amanda were more concerned with making cookies that actually looked like they belonged with Christmas.

Gingerly

With Payton under the weather we stuck with inside activities like the classic gingerbread house construction.

Chimney Stuffer

He must have screwed up the lists this year, I don't remember being this good.

Treeson

The first night was spent relaxing and waiting for Santa.

Southern Stockings

We've made it to Grayson to enjoy Christmas with the Irelands.

Reread

I've mentioned Goodreads before. They sent out an e-mail with a list of all the books I've read this year, not something I've really thought about before, but it was surprisingly interesting to go back through them and remember things. Always nice when a service offers up something unexpected but cool.

Laserdog

This was supposed to show how cute the three of them were, all lined up begging for food from Mari's dinner. Then BAM! Laserdog attacks. Nobody expects the laserdog attack.

Home Slice

A short indie game with an interesting concept. It all rests on the strength of the story. There's no puzzles, no action, you just wander around a very detailed house picking up objects and going through drawers trying to figure out where your family went while you were away on a trip. It works too. More of an art project than a game really.

Really FedEx Friendly

I think we need an intervention. And to buy the FedEx guy a truss.

Speaker

We got a new VOIP phone system put in this week at and they needed someone to redo all of our canned "Thank you for calling, our options have changed, blah, blah, blah" recordings. Through some kind of rigged informal poll I got voted best voice of JIS and was suckered into the job (I personally thought a woman's voice was more appropriate, but nobody listened.) So now when you call JIS, much like James Earl Jones and CNN, you get me saying "This is JIS." I won't let the fame go to my head. Much.

Trafficking In Snow

Winter is upon us and pretty much every way into Nashville is a total mess this morning. It took two hours to get into work.

Part Finder

Another of those small reminders of how times have changed. I needed a replacement drive for a failed tape backup unit, the tech found the part number but there were two different options depending on the size of the tape slot. In the past this would have been a comedy of trying to describe the part I had and compare it to something else and hope the tech understood what I was talking about. Now I just snap a picture with my phone and e-mail it to him. Done.

FedEx Friendly

Christmas is nigh.

WOTM

Closing out 2013.

Minionated

The Irelands headed home today, Lonnie has to work tonight. I had forgotten to mention they brought Minion with them. Minion and Tara were almost instant best friends and they played constantly through the visit. The old girl is wiped out today.

Freezing, Burning, Eating, Building

Lonnie and Amanda wanted to see Catching Fire, so Mari and I took Payton to see Frozen. However Frozen is a much shorter movie so we went to a later showing and killed time in Barnes and Noble where Payton built this. Frozen was pretty by the book, but still enjoyable. Then of course, Thanksgiving leftovers.

Black (Olives) Friday

Delayed Turkey Day With Action Payton™.

Pupsgiving

The Atlanta Irelands are coming up today but we've decided to do Thanksgiving tomorrow. In the meantime, I'm thankful these two are now friends.

Crystalized

Mari and I have been married for 15 years. 15! And every year just gets better. Our wedding song was the right choice. Today we made a promise that we're going to celebrate 50, and I have no doubt. You probably think love is what will sustain us that long, and you'd mostly be right. But also: robot bodies. 

Hungry Fire

We went to the second Hunger Games movie tonight, Catching Fire. It was really good, maybe even better than the first.

Almost Worth Remembering

Took me a while to finish this one, called Remember Me. Really interesting story with a great lead character and unique game concepts like remixing memories. Unfortunately marred by clunky game play and bad mechanics.

Buddy Movie

My department gets Veteran's Day off, so I spent it watching a few movies with my recliner buddy.

14 Legged Race

When it starts pouring rain mid-walk you get thee hyper active animals and a house that smells like wet dog.

Copper View

Lunch with a work friend, Micky, at the Copper Kettle. Always a nice view of the city from here, this picture doesn't really do it justice.

The Real WOTM

Somehow I lost my mind and took another picture of September's wolf. Not sure how I managed that but oops. Here's November's. For reals.

WOTM

Closing in on five years of Metro. Hard to believe it's been that long since I left the Scene.

Going To Jersey

We went to see Jersey Boys at TPAC this afternoon, wasn't our favorite show but it was still good. Live theater is always something special.

Halloween 2: The Return

There was bad weather on the 31st that cancelled most Halloween related events, so we expect some delayed candy seekers tonight.

Nobody Knows The Trouble They've Seen

Jailed for Halloween to prevent them from eating any Trick-or-Treaters, scary beasts that they are.

Of Coming Home

Madison and Tara. It was hard to get a better shot, they were all running around so much. I couldn't even bribe them still with treats.

The Best Part

Bringing the puppies home from Abby's. Mystic.

Had To Be Done

Of course, before we left I had to get my pretzel. Or rather my sweet wife got me one because I hadn't managed to yet.

Historic(ly expensive) Breakfast

We didn't have a lot of time time before our flight and my folks' train so we decided to go have breakfast and look around the famous Waldorf Astoria. The inside is impressive and the breakfast they offer is good but holy hell was it shockingly overpriced. Like more than we paid for dinner, and we really splashed out for dinner, overpriced.

Luna Piena

Another repeat. This was so good last time we had to go back. If possible it was even better this time. The staff, the food. I think this is my favorite restaurant in the world. We were a little worried it was empty when we got there, but it was Sunday night and we think New York people eat later than we do because it filled up as we were finishing.

Central Park

We did the full tour through the entire park, it was peaceful with the sound of the horse's steps adding a nice touch. It looked a little different than last time.

One Horsepower

After the river tour we headed to Central Park. My mom had always wanted to do the carriage ride. So we did.

Land, Sea, And Air

The Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum. Aboard the air craft carrier the Intrepid and home to a SR-71 and the space shuttle Enterprise.

Liberty

Back to the Water Taxi to complete the "hop-on hop-off" guided tour. We stayed for the rest of it, which included them taking us right to the shore of Liberty Island for a great view of the Statue of Liberty. I will also always remember the tour guide's tip for remembering the order of the bridges on the East River. BMW. Brooklyn, Manhattan, Williamsburg.

Local Cuisine

After the memorial we were standing on a street corner checking our phones for some place to eat when a very nice local woman stopped and asked if we needed any help (who says New Yorkers aren't friendly?) She pointed us to George's.The food was good, but the best part was eating here felt like we were acting like locals, surrounded by locals, instead of tourists. Sounds weird but I like that kind of thing. Also I used the word local a lot in this post. Local.

Pools

The 9/11 Memorial. While I deeply respect what happened that day I'm not big on clinging to this event myself, I find those that do tend to lean towards hatred and paranoia and we need to move on. That said I still wanted to go to the spot it all happened and see the memorial because it's a keystone event in world history. Once you get inside it's very peaceful and pretty and well done. Unfortunately I think it's still under construction, or at least I hope it is, because right now getting in is a mess. We didn't have much of a crowd, so I can't imagine the chaos on a busy day.

Balls

...well, you know, to be ensured luck in your future. And yes, I know it's made of bronze.

Brass

Then on to the Charging Bull, where you must rub the nose, the horns and...

No Relation

First stop, Castle Clinton in Battery Park. Not much to see really, just a quick walk through.

Skyline By Water

Here's a shot of the city with the new One World Trade Center standing out in the middle.

Water Boarding

We took a chance on the Water Taxi tour given Mari's dislike of boats, but it was the only tour package we could find that included timed entry to the 9/11 Memorial. It turned out to be no problem, the crew was excellent and made it fun, we didn't have any problems.

Magic Pavement

After the Guggenheim we just walked around a while, the streets of New York are the only place I know where I actually look forward to wandering around on foot for block after block. We ended the night with a forgettable dinner at Dos Caminos. Probably the only restaurant in the city I've been underwhelmed by so far.