Happy Birthday Cousin Ron! Sounds like we missed a great party in Burbank over the weekend. Of course, every gathering with Ron and Pam is a great party, so I'm not suprised. The USC Trojans were kind enough to give Ron a 49-17 victory over Illinois in the Rose Bowl as an early present. We watched the game until we fell asleep on the couch - I think it was 49-10 at that point, so we only missed the next (and last) Illinois TD, and the subsequent penalty for lobbing the ball into the Trojan marching band. We think we saw Ron at the game - he was sitting with a bunch of people wearing cardinal and gold, so it was a little hard to tell.

[Go Trojans!]

Our New Year's celebration was quiet. We headed down to our shore place on Friday and just hung around, watched movies, played games and generally were completely lazy. We did get out and walk on the beach a few times -it was pretty mild weather, if a little breezy. On Saturday we went to Circuit City and bought a new TV set - we're going to give the old one to Gary's kids to use.

We watched three new DVDs over the weekend: Pirates of the Caribbean III, The Bourne Ultimatum, and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Of all of them I enjoyed the latest Harry Potter the best - the book itself is a very tough read and I think they did an admirable job of fitting most of the necessary story into the film. Bourne was pretty good action, but not as involving as the first two outings. And PotC III was just long and needlessly hokey. I think that the introduction of 97 new characters during what one hopes is the last film in the series was a trifle, um, stupid, especially since it made the film approximately five hours long. Well, I may be exaggerating a tad.

We drove to Cape May for dinner on Sunday evening at the Ebbitt Room at the Virginian Hotel. It was very nice - we had tuna tartare and foie gras as appetizers and I had a blackened cobia (fish) while Gary enjoyed the venison for an entree. Unfortunately, it was pouring rain, so we didn't get a chance to walk around town, but it was decorated so nicely for the holidays.

Laurie called on New Year's Eve to ask how to turn on a laptop computer. [Yes, she did.] She was borrowing her brother-in-law's and was not sure how to get it started. After that we chatted for a while about skiing, telescopes and barnacle snacks - about what one would expect from us. Also talked to Mom - they had gotten back from Ron and Pam's and she was getting ready to go back to Montana for a month starting the 3rd. Gary made clams casino - yum! - and our now traditional broiled lobster for dinner.

New Year's Day was also quiet - while we missed the band of rain showers that delayed the start of the Mummer's Parade (oh, darn), it was quite windy. We fiddled around the condo and I finished my second jigsaw puzzle of the weekend. I'll have to send them to Mom so she can do them too. We headed home in the late afternoon, petted the kitty, unpacked the car, petted the kitty, put stuff away, petted the kitty and snacked on leftovers for dinner. While petting the kitty.

[Apparently she missed us.]

Thank you to David for nominating Diddakoi.com for Best Humor Blog of the Year. Who knew? As they say, "It's an honor just to be nominated."

[And it is.]

And finally, I can take down the "SAVE YOUR CORKS" message. Cousin Jody is sending me another box with about 1,500 corks, so combined with all the corks that arrived at Thanksgiving, plus the ones that Jeff and Lucia have and the huge box that Professor Stephani brought down from the Cornell wine tasting class that should put the total over the top! Now I have to get gluing! Thanks to everyone who contibuted to the grand endeavor - I'll post some photos when I get the next section finished.

[DON'T SAVE YOUR CORKS!!}

Quote du jour:

"One resolution I have made, and try always to keep, is this: 'To rise above little things.'"

John Burroughs (1837 - 1921) US author, naturalist

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