Running With Blue Sponge

Saturday, December 25

Riding to Florida on Christmas

We're in NC. I'm wearing the new sweater my mom gave me this morning.
Love it!! Thanks mom!

Christmas On the Road

We had planned to go Florida tomorrow by driving 5 hours south to
Greensboro, NC, flying on cheapo Allegiant Airlines directly to Punta
Gorda, FL. Mother Nature had her own idea. Greensboro is predicted
to get 6-10 inches of snow by tomorrow. We decided not to chance
driving out if our way to Greensboro just to find a canceled flight.
We left this morning right after opening presents. We're missing
Christmas dinner, but we spent last night and this morning with my
mom, sister, and her girls.

At 2 today we're just north of Richmond and hope to make it to
Georgia, and miss the worst of the weather. We did stop in and checked
on Maude very quickly. She got a turkey and gravy dinner, which is
more than we got. We are munching on a bunch of cookies my mom made.
Mmmmm!

The Reason for the Season

Friday, December 24

Some of the Walton's Homecoming Reposted

I posted this last year, but here it is again. This is one of our favorite Christmas shows that we watch each year at Christmas. This predates the TV series and the cast is a bit different. Patricia Neal is amazing as Olivia Walton. It might be that she reminds me of my grandmother, but I love her. Richard Thomas still plays John Boy -- in fact all the kids are the same as the series cast, but only Ellen Corby, who plays the grandmother, did the series of the family adults.

Shane and I use many of the lines from this show in much of our everyday conversation. For example, if one of us suggests we should buy something, the other person usually says, "That's the first thing I'm going to do once this Depression is over!" (Olivia was referring to a getting a phone.) "Favorite line: What were you doing in your room John Boy with the door locked?" I realize this is a long show, but it is worth it.

UPDATE: Some of the links no longer work, but you can still see parts of it. Sorry.

Sunday, December 19

A Christmas Song Dedicated to Shane and Me

Shane's step brother and his wife are a little bit insane in a fun way. Trent is an amazing professional trumpet player and his wife, Laurie, also is very musical. They collaborate on an album of holiday music each year, and this year they dedicated a song to Shane and me. I had suggested they do a Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme duet, and they took that suggestion and ran with it. They also redid the original album cover of the Steve and Eydie holiday album. We almost wet ourselves with the result. These guys are Hell airy ass! It is so fun to listen to the other tracks with Laurie's attempts at playing trumpet and them cracking up. Thanks Trent and Laurie!!!! Listen to their song dedicated to us below! Also, download the whole album (this one is free) and other albums by Trent at http://trentaustin.bandcamp.com or click here. Enjoy!

Christmas Tree at Rockefeller Center

This was as close as we could get. The crowd was crushing and starting
to get a little scary. I'm not claustrophobic, but it was very
crowded. Very.

The Evening Show & After

We liked Time Stands Still much better than Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson. Seeing Laura Linney live was amazing. The whole cast was awesome. The subject matter was a bit depressing, but it was a good play. It was much better than that Bloody Bloody silliness.

We went out to a piano bar at Don't Tell Mama, which we had gone to the last time we were in the city. Before, it was a sparse crowd of die-hard theater lovers listening to show tunes. Tonight, there was a big crowd of loud, obnoxious straights talking over the music. It was so good before and so not good tonight. We're back in the room after a wonderful day despite some disapointments.

Getting ready for bed and hearing lots of car horns outside our window. Yikes!

Saturday, December 18

Dinner at Wolfgang's

Dinner with Wolfgang

We had diiner at Wolfgang's Steakhouse in Midtown. They tricked us by having the lunch menu outside on display. We suffered sticker shock once we got inside, because the prices were substantially higher--Substantially. I had the salmon and Shane had a filet mignon. It was good though. Not sure if this restaurant is associated with Me. Puck. I saw no sign of him.

Free Concert by the Gin Blossoms

We happened upon a free concert by the Gin Blossoms, who were taping a segment for Fox News's New Year's Eve Show. We were right near the front and should be on camera, so look for us on December 31st on Fox News (I never ever thought I would write that sentence!). I wanted to give Shane a big kiss while on cam on Fox News, but he wouldn't go for it. The trio of bimbos...I mean reporters (2 blonds and a brunette--i didn't think they hired non-blond spokes models)introducing the band looked like vacant-eyed Miss America contestants. The Gin Blossoms sang Hey Jealousy and a couple other songs... Very cool. I'm not sure why the band would agree to appear on The evil Fox News, but they did talk about their recent trip to Iraq and how happy they were that things were winding down over there. That probably will get cut though, since it is outside the Fox News talking points.