2012
Hello, 2012!
The week between Christmas and New Year's is always a crazy one for me.
I spent Christmas Eve and Day with my family. Picked my sister and the kids up on Christmas Eve to do our usual Christmas Eve afternoon and evening at my aunt and uncle's house, with my cousins Lauren and Tim and their two kids. Fun as always. My nephew Vinny got the money he asked for for Christmas, and since the Mall across the street was open til 6pm, we walked over there in the brisk (but not seasonally cold) evening air. It was nice to have a walk with him and just talk about whatever game to mind. Amazing that he is 14 now. When we got back to my aunt's, we all played our traditional "gift-pass" game. My aunt buys and wraps small $2-3 gifts. I read "The Grinch," and every time I say "Grinch" or "Grinchy" or any variation, the gifts get passed to the left. Even Kaylee, the youngest playing at age 4 (Michael isn't even a year old yet) gets into it and laughs hysterically.
I stayed at my sister's overnight, of course. We opened presents at midnight since my (soon to be ex) brother-in-law was picking the kids up in the morning to have them for the day. Once they left, I took my sister out to a well-deserved breakfast and then in the afternoon we visited other cousins for a few hours.
The Monday after Christmas I headed into NYC to spend 36 hours or so with Dave and Roxy. Dave and I hit The Mysterious Bookshop where I picked up Lawrence Block's The Night & The Music (a signed edition), along with an old Fu Manchu book I was missing, and scored a copy of this year's free Christmas story written by Jason Starr. Monday night the three of us saw THE ROAD TO MECCA at the Roundabout Theater Company. Jim Dale, Rosemary Harris and Carla Gugino in a three character drama from Athol Fugard set in rural South Africa in the 1970s. Fantastic all around. Absolutely highly recommended if you get to NYC in the near future and the show is still playing.
Tuesday during the day, Dave and I took in a matinee of TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY. Gary Oldman, John Hurt, Colin Firth, Ciaran Hinds, Toby Peters, Mark Strong, Tom Hardy, Benedict Cumberbatch... just a fantastic cast (and my first exposure to Hardy & Cumberbatch, honestly). It's a slow, methodical, meticulous movie, but it is never boring. Absolutely deserves Oscar nominations and wins.
Wednesday I headed to Oneida NY for the traditional New Year's gathering of college friends. I always go up a day or so early to get some quality quiet time with brother Jon, Cindi and Xavier (and to increase the odds of spending time with Jon's parents, brother Brian & new wife Amy, neighbors Ann & Tim and the Dibble boys, etc) before the rest of the gang arrived. I of course brought a snowstorm with me, which had Ann yelling "Stormy, get back in that car and go home and take this with you!" until the next day when her kids were all gone snowboarding, and then she was thanking me. haha Margaret, Scott, Jared & Morgyn and Peggy & Max all arrived on Friday.
Jon & Cindi and I took in a Thurs night showing of Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol. I thought it was decent enough fun, Jon didn't really enjoy it at all. Simon Pegg is funny as always, and the stunts were over the top. Jeremy Renner is serviceable, but nothing in this movie indicates why he got those Academy Award nominations for Hurt Locker and The Town (not that I really expected it to). Cruise allows the film to show his age, and also to imply he's passing the torch to Renner and company. If I had to rank the franchise, I'd say from best to worst it's 1, 3, 4, 2.
New Year's Eve of course was fun. Even though I told everyone not to get me presents, Max gave me a Slinky and the Witt kids gave me a four pack of Marvel Comics pint-glasses. I enjoyed watching the kids open their presents. I gave Max a Pirates of the Caribbean Lego set that he finished in about 20 minutes, gave Morgyn a Disney Headbandz card game that we adults enjoyed as much as the kids did, gave Xavier a Munchkin Vampires card game deck, and gave Jared a sketch pad and colored pencils. Also gave brother Jon the newest King book on audio for his 40th birthday.
Drove home today. No bad weather, although some flurries below Albany for a little while. I'm beat. Now that it's close to 1am, I should consider heading to bed. Good thing I took tomorrow off as a recuperation day before going back to the office on Weds! And just in case I pull one of my "sleep all day" deals tomorrow, I've already scheduled this week's interview to post over on www.anthonycardno.com. It's my interview with young Canadian actor / charity spokesman Austin MacDonald. Here's a photo of the young man in question:
Photo Credit: Colin Cregg.
If you're reading this after 8am EST Tuesday, go to my site and the interview should be up.
The week between Christmas and New Year's is always a crazy one for me.
I spent Christmas Eve and Day with my family. Picked my sister and the kids up on Christmas Eve to do our usual Christmas Eve afternoon and evening at my aunt and uncle's house, with my cousins Lauren and Tim and their two kids. Fun as always. My nephew Vinny got the money he asked for for Christmas, and since the Mall across the street was open til 6pm, we walked over there in the brisk (but not seasonally cold) evening air. It was nice to have a walk with him and just talk about whatever game to mind. Amazing that he is 14 now. When we got back to my aunt's, we all played our traditional "gift-pass" game. My aunt buys and wraps small $2-3 gifts. I read "The Grinch," and every time I say "Grinch" or "Grinchy" or any variation, the gifts get passed to the left. Even Kaylee, the youngest playing at age 4 (Michael isn't even a year old yet) gets into it and laughs hysterically.
I stayed at my sister's overnight, of course. We opened presents at midnight since my (soon to be ex) brother-in-law was picking the kids up in the morning to have them for the day. Once they left, I took my sister out to a well-deserved breakfast and then in the afternoon we visited other cousins for a few hours.
The Monday after Christmas I headed into NYC to spend 36 hours or so with Dave and Roxy. Dave and I hit The Mysterious Bookshop where I picked up Lawrence Block's The Night & The Music (a signed edition), along with an old Fu Manchu book I was missing, and scored a copy of this year's free Christmas story written by Jason Starr. Monday night the three of us saw THE ROAD TO MECCA at the Roundabout Theater Company. Jim Dale, Rosemary Harris and Carla Gugino in a three character drama from Athol Fugard set in rural South Africa in the 1970s. Fantastic all around. Absolutely highly recommended if you get to NYC in the near future and the show is still playing.
Tuesday during the day, Dave and I took in a matinee of TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY. Gary Oldman, John Hurt, Colin Firth, Ciaran Hinds, Toby Peters, Mark Strong, Tom Hardy, Benedict Cumberbatch... just a fantastic cast (and my first exposure to Hardy & Cumberbatch, honestly). It's a slow, methodical, meticulous movie, but it is never boring. Absolutely deserves Oscar nominations and wins.
Wednesday I headed to Oneida NY for the traditional New Year's gathering of college friends. I always go up a day or so early to get some quality quiet time with brother Jon, Cindi and Xavier (and to increase the odds of spending time with Jon's parents, brother Brian & new wife Amy, neighbors Ann & Tim and the Dibble boys, etc) before the rest of the gang arrived. I of course brought a snowstorm with me, which had Ann yelling "Stormy, get back in that car and go home and take this with you!" until the next day when her kids were all gone snowboarding, and then she was thanking me. haha Margaret, Scott, Jared & Morgyn and Peggy & Max all arrived on Friday.
Jon & Cindi and I took in a Thurs night showing of Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol. I thought it was decent enough fun, Jon didn't really enjoy it at all. Simon Pegg is funny as always, and the stunts were over the top. Jeremy Renner is serviceable, but nothing in this movie indicates why he got those Academy Award nominations for Hurt Locker and The Town (not that I really expected it to). Cruise allows the film to show his age, and also to imply he's passing the torch to Renner and company. If I had to rank the franchise, I'd say from best to worst it's 1, 3, 4, 2.
New Year's Eve of course was fun. Even though I told everyone not to get me presents, Max gave me a Slinky and the Witt kids gave me a four pack of Marvel Comics pint-glasses. I enjoyed watching the kids open their presents. I gave Max a Pirates of the Caribbean Lego set that he finished in about 20 minutes, gave Morgyn a Disney Headbandz card game that we adults enjoyed as much as the kids did, gave Xavier a Munchkin Vampires card game deck, and gave Jared a sketch pad and colored pencils. Also gave brother Jon the newest King book on audio for his 40th birthday.
Drove home today. No bad weather, although some flurries below Albany for a little while. I'm beat. Now that it's close to 1am, I should consider heading to bed. Good thing I took tomorrow off as a recuperation day before going back to the office on Weds! And just in case I pull one of my "sleep all day" deals tomorrow, I've already scheduled this week's interview to post over on www.anthonycardno.com. It's my interview with young Canadian actor / charity spokesman Austin MacDonald. Here's a photo of the young man in question:
Photo Credit: Colin Cregg.
If you're reading this after 8am EST Tuesday, go to my site and the interview should be up.