Long Live the Hud

This may not come as a shock to you but I have never really cared for News Year's. When I was in school it marked the end of bliss and the return to torment. As I got older it became an uncomfortable reminder of mine own mortality. When I had a job I generally tried to work, thus at least keeping my mind occupied.

I still remember 1999 sitting in a dark, sad, little apartment in Cary, North Carolina with a large, dirty, rather smelly fellow who was snoring loudly in the next room, listening to all the joyful, drunken sounds of party attendees, wondering what evil I had committed in another life to be where I was and why News Years was always so very depressing. also wondered if other poeple felt this way and that is why they drank on New Years Eve.

That is, until I made watching this movie, a New's Years Eve tradition.
It is a rather dark comedy about a naive Mr Norville Barnes, who unwittling becomes the Present of Huducker Industries. Long live the Hud. Mr Barnes has an idea, you know, for the kids.
I won't spoil anymore of it, but recommend you watch it.

You know what this movie teaches me? Well not a damn thing, but every year it reminds me of something Warrening Hudscker said "Failure should never lead to despare, for despair looks only to the past in business and in love, the Future is Now."

As 2008 comes to a close and old mother earth begins at least one more journy around the Sun, I will be, once again, listening to those drunken party goers, hopeing that maybe, just maybe, this year will be a little more giddy, a little more pleasent, a little more exiciting. I hope it's your year. Hell, if it's not we alway have 2010.

Party on, Party on.

A Final Christmas Thought

I really like Christmas, the lights, the music, the TV specials, "It's a Wonderful Life", the pure, and unashamed commercialism of it all. It is fantastic. Until the day after Christmas. Then it all just becomes annoying and tiresome. However, I felt it prudent to post a few thing about this year's holiday.

We were "blessed", by which I mean harassed, by absurd quantities of snow. Red loved it. Here she is with the old man.
We had a great time playing horse and sled. Guess who was the horse?
Smiley got a new cooking set that looked like Mom's but only about 1/4 scale. He was a little confused but enjoyed it all the same.
One tradion we have is to make gingerbread houses with real gingerbread. Red's spent a lot of time helping Grandma by eating as much frosting and decorations as she could.
This year I went with a "Christmas at the Bastille" theme. It is not my best work but not my worst. You can see the battlements and an armed red gummy bear at the top.
The Gummy Bears in the fortress were red (representing the Revolutionaries) and they hate the green gummy bears (The Royalists), so here you can see where they have impaled some of the green Gummy Bears as a warning to others. It is not as good as "Christmas in the Trenches of Petersburg" but I am rather pleased with it. I think it is very festive, and historical.
So we also go downtown to see the lights. Here is me and my sister with a what Jesus and his family would have looked like had they been Navajo or Eskimos I couldn't really tell.

Until next year I wish you a Happy Holidays.

More Wedding.

In the restaurant the below sing was posted twice. Does it bother anyone else that washing you hands has to be a State Law. Now on to pictures of the kids. They are fantastic.

Smiley is quite the ladies man isn't he.
Red had a great time.

Yet Another Wedding

My dear reading I wish to apologizes for making you wait so far long for a new, excited post to read. It has been a very busy few weeks. Apparently my place of business expects people to actual work during the holiday season. This is simply incomprehensible. The happiest time of year only comes once a year you know. I think I am being punished, as my unique analytical skills have become suddenly very popular.

Anyways enough of that kind of boring talk. No one whats to read anything with the word analytical in it. My brother in law also got married. Here is a photo below.I know what you are thinking, and no, he is not a polygamist. That is my wife on the left. I just like pictures more when she is in them. He also did not get married at a Chinese restaurant. Though this option is always so tempting. This was at the wedding lunch. Due to my resent disillusionment with Mormonism, I opted out of the ceremony. Last time i went to temple wedding I got a rather bizarre lectures on priesthoods, powers and dominions by one of the temple workers.

It was a pretty fine lunch. We were a bit early so we hung out with these charming statues. I hate snow. Nasty stuff, always wet, cold and so very tiresome, but I do like this statue I wish I had a pair at the end of my driveway.
This sign indicated that the resturant was closed, due to the aforemention luncheon.

I suspected Ben was trying to take a photo of me taking a photo, so I stuck first. He failed to see it coming.

These are some of the other poeple at my table. We were by far one of the more attrictive groups.
The wood thing in the middle of the table spins. It was hard not to play with it but I was successful. Nearly every thing was very good. The had some very good shrimp. (Please note the use of bolding) The also put raisens in their ham fried rice, not a choise I would have made. I am unable to describe the senseation, except by saying it just seemed wrong. I will leave that taste to your imagination. Plus who ever is the head cook is really into green beans. He uses green beans in the same manner most people use salt. He puts it on nearly everything.

Anyways the bride look lovley and there were not any major problems. I will post more pictures in the future, but for now, dear reader, I must say good night.