One more Christmas video

I had to put up the Jingle Bells video, too. Maggie's medley is pretty epic, but the reason we started filming in the first place was because her Jingle Bells rendition was great in its own right.

Downtown LA

A few weeks ago, I spent a day downtown with my friend, Zach. He knows pretty much everything about LA, so he makes a good tour guide. We had free passes to the Grammy Museum, so the goal was to (a) take the subway in LA, (b) go to the Grammy Museum, and (c) use these $20 coupons we had for Border Grill downtown. Everything else was bonus. Here are some of the highlights:

This is actually not downtown, but from a recent hike. Proof that fall exists in LA, too. At least in this one spot.

I took this photo for David Camacho because, even though Camacho is actually a common name, I only think of David...

The Bradbury Building - site of many movies, including Bladerunner and 500 Days of Summer.

Grand Central Market downtown.

Angels Flight. According to the plaque, it's the world's shortest incorporated railway. It just goes up the hill, but was a pretty entertaining use of a quarter.

Christmas Past

Given the holidays and the omnipresent Christmas music, I've been thinking of a particular memory from Christmas dinner a few years ago. I thought I'd post the video so that you can either share in the memory if you've seen it before, or witness its splendor for the first time.

I present to you, my niece, Maggie, at age (almost) 3, performing her holiday medley.

Prop 8

I am so glad Ted Olson is on our side of this case. Also, this hearing is seriously hurting my productivity level today. (I'm currently watching the Prop 8 hearing live-stream through C-Span online).

Thanksgiving!

I was going to go on a day-after-Thanksgiving-hike, but turns out that my head is about to explode from all the mucus within (nice image, huh?). So instead I put up my Christmas tree and laid in bed all day. Sort of an ok way to spend a day off work. Would be better if I could breathe... I'm hoping to get rid of this thing by tomorrow, though, and take up the hiking then instead.

In the meantime, I will share my turkey day festivities with you. I hosted for a few friends, and everyone brought food to contribute to the day. I brined the turkey for the first time, using a brine recipe from Pioneer Woman. I also followed her roasting instructions, which made for way crispier skin that I usually end up with. I don't really like turkey, so I have no idea if this method was better than prior ones I've used, but my friends seemed to think the effort was worth it. I kind of think it's fun, so I'll probably do it this way again.

Anyway, here are some pics from the day:

Hair on Fire

Short post:

Friday night I went out with some friends to Bar Marmont. Adam Duritz was there. And a tall blonde woman whose hair caught on fire.

That is all.

Simplifying and Un-simplifying

Today I cancelled cable. I have never in my life not had cable. For the last 6 years, I've only had "broadcast cable" meaning that I get the basic broadcast channels plus things like CNN, ESPN, and Discovery, but it's still about $20/month for something that I turn on maybe 2 or 3 times per week. If that.

So today I bought an antenna and a converter box, and I cancelled the cable. A few weeks ago, I had switched my internet to something cheaper, too. So I used to pay $45/month for internet and cable, and now I pay $15/month for internet and $0 for TV.

Of course, as soon as I save money on one thing, I end up spending it on something else, but regardless, it feels sort of good. I got new dishes. Most of them were a Christmas present from my mother, but I bought a few place settings. I'm hosting Thanksgiving, and I'll have new dishes and silverware to use for the meal. The silver is old - a gift from my grandmother. The dishes are the Maison set from Crate and Barrel. I'll take pictures at Thanksgiving, mostly because my mom would be so upset if I didn't.

This is an incredibly boring post, but for some reason, these kinds of things just make me excited.