Exiled Update #3 - SPECIAL CHRISTMAS ADDITION #2

My two favorite 2008 Christmas Memories are indicative of the awesome life I lead, one in which I have family who are interesting and constantly coming up with something else to challenge your concept of "normal"

Lets start with this young man. This is Kevin. Kevin is now seven. Kevin speaks the truth. After we opened more presents Christmas afternoon at the Morgan's, he was standing in the middle of the floor, gyrating like some of sort of excited atomic particles you see in animations. I looked him in the eye and asked him, "Whats so exciting???!!" He looked me right back in the eye, took both my hands, pulled me close and yelled, " I HAVE NO IDEA!!!! HAHAHAHA" Remember in The Shining when Jack busts through the door? That was the same gleam Kevin had. Pure, unadulterated madness and glee. But not the insane kind. Thanks Kevin for reminding me what being a kid at Christmas is all about!


And here is my dad. He explores his world much the same way infants do, by putting things in his mouth. When they were here in CA last, he wandered down the street and found this Mexican place called Poncho's, where he had goat soup and menudo, and NEVER shut up about it. We finally lied to him and told him that Poncho died of Tuberculosis just so he'd stop asking us if we'd been there yet. After Christmas we told him his last present was that Poncho was, indeed, alive and well so far as we knew. Dad and I strolled the 8 blocks down Stockton Blvd., where much to our gustatory glee, the goat soup was hot, and the beer cold. I had a a burrito, but dad (seen here gnawing on a goat knuckle) had the soup. Viva la intestinal parasites!

Exiled Update #2 - SPECIAL CHRISTMAS EDITION

Christmas 2008 was a blast!! My parents came out from Maine to celebrate with us, and it turned out to be the best possible combination of fun and relaxation. Fortunately Sarah likes having people over, and it was a real pleasure to have people here. This first picture was of the day we went up to the Christmas tree farm to pick out our beautiful yule plant! Totally awesome huh?
After attending mass Christmas Eve (groan) we came back to the house to decorate sugar cookies. Like everything he does, my father became equal parts obsessed and crazy with this project. He managed to find some 5 year old spray frosting and went nuts. He has problems. As always, my lovely Sarah couldn't wait to enjoy the snacks....


We sort of lost the camera during the present opening frenzy Christmas morning, so we don't have a lot of those shots... .what I do have is my parents zoning out playing Grand Theft Auto on my new Xbox that I got for my birthday. I am going to leave it up to Sarah to post pictures from her mom's house with the whole family.

The next post will include my two favorite 2008 Christmas moments. DON'T MISS IT!!!!

Exiled Update #1

Hi there blog-o-nauts. I am going to make a better effort at blogging during this new year. I am hoping to follow my sister-in-laws example, check out her blog at the Week Weekly, and blog with some sort of regularity.

With that in mind, here's a few of the pictures from the rest of our Yosemite trip a couple of weeks ago! The second day we went hiking it started snowing like mad! The weather was reasonably warm however, so we pressed on. Just as we started off on the 7 mile loop trail around Mirror lake, we spot not one, but TWO bobcats! They were wicked hard to photograph, but here's a couple.

The lighting was terrible, so these were the best ones I got... they were big and fluffy, and not much concerned with our presence. The rest of the hike was punctuated by heavy bouts of giant flakes and short breaks of blue sky. Here are a few pictures... I was getting all artsy fartsy with a couple.



And finally, here is Sarah & I, the happy hiking couple, enjoying the snow and fresh air and time together. I love my wife, especially when she takes me on super fun birthday trips to Yosemite!

Yosemite Or Bust!

So very sorry for the blog hiatus. After Obama got elected I basically was having a joygasm.
Well my 33rd birthday has come and gone, and Sarah took me to Yosemite for three days to celebrate. Neither of us had been there before. At least I have the excuse of not growing up here... We made reservations for three nights at the Yosemite Lodge, which lies at one end of the Valley floor. Our room was right next to the bar, and underneath Yosemite falls, the best of both worlds!
The whole hotel was done up Christmas style, and Sarah's wishes were granted when the snow finally came and made it a super winter wonderland! We enjoyed coming back to the bar for hot alcoholic drinks and Scrabble battles by the roaring fire. How fun! There was also some slight misunderstanding involving snow and Sarah's face.
Our first day in the park found us taking the shuttle bus to the trail head for Vernal and Nevada falls. It was a brisk 40 degrees and the skies were clear, though I knew something was up when the shuttle driver wished us good luck, mumbling something about the "Agony of da feet..." *hahaha* This trail starts right off heading up up up! The views were amazing though, and only a few people hiking that day!



The pictures above are of the Vernal Falls, the top of which was a mere 600 steps from the base, at one point crawling along the wall on this totally awesome bit of trail....
The climb was totally worth it however, though it turned out we were a mere halfway towards our ultimate goal, the top of Nevada Falls! At this point we'd climbed about 1000 ft, with another 1200 to go! EEP! The next couple of pictures from the top of the Vernal Falls.



This next picture is Nevada Falls.... seems close enough, right?

WRONG! Man alive, getting up to the top of this thing was BRUTAL. But totally worth it... the next 1200 feet of climbing occurred in just a mile or so. OUCH! It might have been the low oxygen levels in my brain playing tricks on me, but this whole Yosemite park place really did live up to the hype!


We did finally make it to the top, where the sun was shining, and we had the whole place to ourselves. It was warm enough to wear only our tshirts, after requiring hats, mittens and a couple layers of fleece in the morning. We enjoyed the scenery and had some tasty snacks!



That last picture is of Liberty Cap.... I guess if you were insane you could climb up that too, but we decided to call it a day and descend back to the valley floor for dinner and drinks! We were about halfway to Half Dome too.... but these pictures that follow was about as close as we were going to get on this trip!


More in the next post... including Bobcats, reflecting lakes, and SNOW!!!

I finally voted for a winner!

For the first time since Clinton I've voted for a winner! I seriously had formulated plans for moving to New Zealand if the American people couldn't wake up and do the right thing this time around. I don't think Obama is a saint or my personal saviour, but I do think that he is a person who lives in the same world as I do and will honestly try and make things better.

And we totally got a hologram from CNN. I am sure it is just a matter of time before this gets used in an "adult" fashion. Zippity doo daa!

The sad thing about this election though, is my discovery that some people whom I thought were smart, rational people, turned out to be avid Palin supporters. I say Palin only, as I respect John McCain but disagree with him. Palin on the other hand, is a moron, and if for some reason you think she actually was qualified to be the vice president, I can come to only one conclusion: You are mentally retarded and need to stop breathing because you are simply an oxygen thief. ***A few provinces of Dumbfuckistan petitioned the US for admission to the Union. They are now ex-Real Americans according to the Oxygen Thieves***

Free Flu Shots Cause Harm

I was at a free flu shot clinic recently when I had the most amazing thing happen. I was mingling with the crowd, announcing that free flu shots were available, asking people if they'd had theirs yet. I approached one young man, African American, and asked him if he'd has his yet this year. He said "no" and asked me a question about the shot, and before I could answer it, his girlfriend (presumably?) said, and I am not joking here, "Oh no! Uh-uh! Don't you take dey medicine, you ain't gots no idea whats in it. They says its good for you? Remember that's what they told the Indians." WTF??? Just further proof ignorance is alive and well, and knows no race, color, or education level boundries. These were college students......

I think we all know about the blankets with small pox. No one can deny the horrible outcome of the US's brutal policy towards the native inhabitants of this land. This exchange however, reveals the real danger in a sophomoric level of knowledge. These kids know just enough to categorize everything in their world into narrowly defined stereotypes. This WILL NOT work out well in the end I think. I guess it's all just one great big conspiracy. And that makes me The Man I guess. *sigh*

**NEWS FLASH***

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA SOLD TO MEXICO!

In a stunning display of financial acumen, the United States offloaded Southern California to the Mexican government today. After months of undercover negotiations, the final ceremony took place at an agave farm high the hinterlands of Jalisco. The Mexican Deputy Minister of Food Safety and Plumbing Code was on hand to meet with Condaleeza Rice and disgraced republican lobbyist Jack Abramhoff (released for this special occasion) and to present a check.








Things had been going pretty well up until Condi accused Sr. Ramirez of "having a chicken dick" After this setback, the U.S. had to settle for $15.43 for all of Southern California. The people who live there think its a pretty raw deal, but quite frankly the Adminstration thinks its off-loaded a real pain in the ass part of the country. Now Paris Hilton is Mexico's problem, not ours.














Some of the locals were asked to comment on the development. Thad Winters, a 19 year old community college student had this to say: "Whoa! No kidding bro? Like, that's no joke? Right on! That's totally sweet. Can I still wear my douche bag outfit and walk around with an unearned sense of entitlement?" Another brainless Hollywood moron had this to say, "Oh, you mean that country to south were I get my coke?" Attempts were made to locate anyone in the area who had a job of any redeeming quality, but it seems all the teachers and biologists were actually at work, not rambling the streets shopping for fashionable pets.

The following list is graphical representation of just whats so great about GETTING RID OF THIS PLACE:






Okay, so the TMNTs aren't so bad, but the rest of them will be good riddance to bad news. Since southern California is basically a miserably polluted desert, it will be a great fit as the new northern border of of Mexico. We'll keep the valley and water to ourselves, and you SoCal'ers are welcome to move north. Oh, by the way, in exchange for an apology for Speedy Gonzalez, Mexico agreed to let us use Los Angeles as a nuclear test range. Turns out even they think that place is hopeless! ADIOS AMIGOS!