Refreshing Change

Two years ago on Thanksgiving Sam was in intensive care and last year he was too ill to even get out of bed so it was a refreshing change to have a Thanksgiving holiday with all of us together and Sam well.

Stephanie got home Tuesday night after taking her roomate and some other friends to the airport on her way home. Sam's father and grandmother joined us for Thanksgiving and it was a really lovely day with everyone contributing to a wonderful meal. Andrew made the stuffing, Adam was in charge of the cranberry sauce, Sam was on candied yam duty and Stephanie took charge of the turkey. The kids always feel compeled to name the turkey and this year he was dubbed Ezekel. After dinner we all played charades, which is always hilarious with this bunch.

Sam hadn't yet seen THE GOBLET OF FIRE and the rest of us were up for seeing it again so we went to the movies Friday and last night we had the LAFSC holiday party but for the most part we've just relaxed and enjoyed being together.

iTrek

A friend of mine who is clever with graphics came up with a fun idea for Star Trek fans who love their iPods:

http://www.spreadshirt.com/shop.php?sid=7814

Dressing A Galaxy

Today Adam, his friend Ryan, Andrew and I all went together to see the exhibit Dressing A Galaxy-The Costumes of Star Wars. Very cool! The exhibit has been running at the Fashion Institute of Design in downtown Los Angeles since mid-September and it's ending Dec. 10th. I don't know if the exhibit is traveling to other cities after Los Angeles but if it does, and you enjoy Star Wars, costuming or props it's well worth a visit.

Everything in the exhibit is on loan from Lucas Arts and the costumes were from all six movies, although I'd say only about 20% of the costumes came from the episodes IV-VI and of those, only the costumes from the main characters were included. From episodes I-III even the costumes from the minor characters were included and even those were gorgeous. I love exhibits like this because up close you can see all the little details you can't appreciate onscreen.

I liked the way the exhibit pieces were organized and they were spread through several large rooms. They only admitted 25 people each half an hour so it wasn't too crowded although once inside you could stay as long as you liked. In addition to the costumes Luke's Full Scale X-Wing Fighter, some props and make-up masks were also included in the exhibit.

Much to my surprise I actually managed to navigate through downtowns confusing maze of one way streets to FIDM and back out again without getting lost. I think that's a first for me.

Another Year Older

Adam and I have our birthday's two days apart. His is November 13th and mine is the 15th. I remember when he was born and we brought him home from the hospital on my birthday. Best birthday I ever had but this years was pretty darn nice.

I hadn't been able to find someone to cover for me at the rink Tuesday night, plus I had a LAFSC board meeting to attend so we decided to go out to dinner last night (Wednesday) instead. But on Tuesday I decided to heck with it I'm going to do something just for me so after getting a little work done in the morning I caught the early afternoon matinee showing of Pride and Prejudice. I've always loved Jane Austen and P & P is a novel I revisit at least once a year so I was very curious about this adaptation and I enjoyed it immensely. The casting was perfect and I was so pleased that they included a lot of the best dialogue right from the narrative.

Stephanie had let me know that she was planning on getting some skating in Tuesday night so we met up to have a quick early dinner before heading for Pickwick and it was so nice to just sit and chat for a bit. It felt like old times.

Then yesterday Sam shocked me by coming home early with the most beautiful little vase of flowers and a gift. Sam has a lot of good qualities but he's not the most thoughtful guy around. His usual method of gift shopping is to run out at the last possible moment and just grab something, anything and then look sheepish when the sweater or slippers or whatever he's picked up is several sizes too big or too small. So the fact that he'd actually taken off from work a bit early and obviously taken the time to pick out something he thought I'd really enjoy was just the loveliest surprise.

We had a delicious dinner at Kings Seafood House where I stuffed myself with crab cakes and fried shrimp. Sam and the boys shared a bunch of different kinds of sushi (sushi is not my thing but they all love it) and the New Orleans BBQ. I also decided to indulge in martini. I'd never had one before, and I don't drink much so I had a bit of a buzz when we got home.

Yep, I've got to say it was a very nice birthday indeed.

Heck of a Game

Andrew had a heck of a game yesterday. He went 3 for 3, two doubles and a single with 3 RBI's and five stolen bases. They won 11 to 4.

With one game left in the fall season his batting average is .714, his on base percentage is .825 and his slugging percentage a whopping .950.

Turning 14

Adam turned 14 today. To mark the occasion he wanted to go shot some pool at Yankee Doodles and tonight we're going to dinner at Yamato's. Yamato's is a Japanese style place where they cook your dinner at the table which will be fun.

Thanks to my sister Ann I was able to track down the football jersey Adam has been wanting and he's having a blast with the new Nerf gun we got him. I have a feeling though that I'm going to lose rather badly later when we try out his ESPN Sports Trivia Challange Game.

Catching Up

We've been a pretty busy bunch this last little while, there has been a lot going on for everyone.

The boys have been busy with school work and their usual activities. Fall ball is on the homestretch for Andrew, two games left.

Last weekend was Occidental's homecoming game. They won by a fairly wide margin and remain undefeated. Adam had really been looking forward to the Oxy homecoming activities and watching his first college football game and I'm still not sure how he didn't explode considering how much food he consumed at the BBQ. Andrew had a game so Sam and I split forces, he took Adam to Oxy to meet up Stephanie and then we all connected later on.

Several household projects needed tending to, so that's been my focus lately, that and work. I had a little break last month, not too much to read and review, then I had five come at one time. Two down, three to go and my column's done so I'm actually a couple of days ahead of schedule.

Saw both Everything is Illuminated and A History of Violence. Both excellent movies in their own way. We've already got our tickets to see The Goblet of Fire in IMAX on opening day. I haven't yet seen a Harry Potter film in IMAX and based on the previews this one looks to be even more visually intensive than the first three.

This past Sunday I got together with a bunch of my USS Angeles friends and we made up holiday packages to send to the soldiers we've adopted in Iraq. I took the first load to the post office yesterday and will take the remainder tomorrow so they should all arrive around the first week of December.

Sam's currently off at the annual VNU president's meetings but he'll be back home tomorrow night.