The End of America by Naomi Wolf

Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights says of this book, "You will be shocked and disturbed by this book."

I'd say that he's spot on.

The parallels that Wolf draws between our current administration and other Fascist governments of the 20th century are chilling.

Yes, I used the word other in the previous sentence purposefully.

I have long been concerned about things like the suspension of habeas corpus (see Political Theater, Discouraged and America, Love it or Leave it) and the attempt to provide immunity to the telecom companies who acquiesced to the administration's demands for warrantless wiretaps.

Unfortunately, situations like those Wolf describes, while making me angry and incredulous, also make me feel small and powerless.

I do feel compelled to share this book with people.

Be warned, if you are on my gift giving list, you will likely be receiving a copy.

You go, Brattleboro!

Some of the good citizens of Brattleboro, Vermont signed a petition to add a ballot measure instructing the local police to arrest Bush and Cheney for crimes against our Constitution.

Now, the local Brattleboro police have no authority to do such a thing, even if the ballot measure passes.

And I'll bet the supporters of the ballot measure know it full well.

But, that's not really the point now, is it?

The point is that Bush and Cheney have committed crimes against our Constitution.

Can you say warrantless wiretaps? Can you say habeas corpus? Can you say waterboarding? Or federalizing the National Guard?

Bush and Cheney are fearmongers who have used their fearmongering to their own gain, to increase their power and control far beyond that allowed under our Constitution, in a democracy with a balance of powers.

And far too few people are calling them on it.

So, to the people of Brattleboro who are willing to take a stand and use their ballot boxes to make a statement condemning and drawing attention to this sad state of affairs, I say, "Right on!"

Know that, while there are blowhard Bush supporters out there who are currently bombarding you with ignorant emails and telephone calls, there are also more rational, reasonable people who support what you're doing and see the wisdom in it.

Image Credit

Blizzard

Last night I experienced something I don't think I've experienced since I lived in DC.

DC is not particularly known for its snow removal. I can remember a number of snowstorms where everyone else had abandoned the streets while I, with my Chicago winter driving skills, tooled around. The boulevard wide streets were empty, with blowing snow and drifts. The car would softly plow through the piles of snow built up by the wind. It was a joyful experience, made more so by the solitude of it.

Although it had been snowing all day yesterday, last night during the State of the Union speech, the wind really kicked up (up to 70 miles per hour mountaintop, 45 miles per hour in town). My parents who had been trying to fly home to Chicago all day were about to get shut down. I had come home from work a bit earlier and had shoveled our front walk. At about 8:45 pm, their flight was finally cancelled so I, being the dutiful daughter, ventured out to pick them up and take them back to their place.

I opened our front door to find snow basically piled against the door. The entire walk had filled in. I struggled through the wind, broke the handle off the driver's side back door of the car and tried to clean the car off. The snow blew back on almost as quickly as I removed it.

I slowly drove to the airport in whiteout conditions and brought my parents safely home.

And then, I drove around Aspen.

Many times.

We've driven around Aspen during snowstorms before and it's always beautiful. But this time, there was a difference.

Unlike DC, Aspen is pretty proficient at snow removal. But this storm had blown in (literally) so quickly that the plows were woefully behind.

And it was fun. Driving through the drifts, feeling the car softly make its way.

This morning, I walked to work in 2 degrees, but slogging through the snow drifts kept me warm. My GPS which is no longer mine :-( puts the distance at exactly one mile. I left the house just as it was barely starting to get light and the beautiful half moon lit my way.

I was surprised that the Aspen School District didn't cancel classes today. Whether that's because the roads were cleared enough for the buses (questionable where I was walking) or because the school has already used up all of its allotted snow days for the year, I couldn't say.

Then when I got to the office, I was able to watch the snow removal crews at work on Main Street (see photo). It took an amazing 5 dump trucks simply to clear one block's worth of snow.

Behind the glitz

I have an ambivalent relationship with Winter X Games.

I love the glitz, the lights shining from Buttermilk, the energy, the attention.

I like having "our" X Games athlete, Kevin Connolly, come stay with us. I like hearing the behind the scenes stories he brings back from the venue.

I like seeing the buses from Rocky Mountain National Park and Vail tooling around town.

I watch the coverage. Sometimes I even brave the crowds to venture out to Buttermilk.

But . . .

The X Games crowd contains a significant percentage of riff-raff. Lots of drunk jerks. Last year, riding the bus at noon was very eye opening. Amazing how many "kids" were out of control that early in the day. I don't envy the bus drivers.

This year's X Games brought 72,500 people to town (remember Aspen has a year round population of 6,000), many of whom are people who would never venture to Aspen otherwise.

Town gets trashed. It was better this year since the in-town concerts with such big names as John Legend weren't repeated but still our parking lot here at the office was strewn with beer and soda cans and various other litter and the ATM vestibule at my bank was disgusting (see above).

And to top it off, this morning Steve and I discovered that our car had been burglarized. Since the car was snow covered, we didn't realize that anything was amiss until we opened the door to be greeted with papers strewn around and the center console and the glove compartment gaping at us.

We lost my brand new GPS, a CB radio, four car chargers for various devices and a few other cables.

Gotta love X Games . . .

Sweet Sixteen

Wow.

Rachel turned 16 today.

As my mom remarked tonight, 16 years ago, we were all quite nervous.

And look how it all turned out . . .

But she is a teenager. We argued a couple of times today and each time she tried to play the birthday card: "You have to be nice to me! It's my birthday!"

Each time she tried to play the birthday card, I played the mother in labor card.

And the mother who just spent a weekend in Denver and a lot of money card.

My hand trumped her hand.

Atonement

Confusing.

That would be the first adjective that comes to mind.

Sad.

That would be the second.

And yet . . .

I keep thinking about it.

I find that oftentimes that's the mark of a good movie. That idea first struck me in connection with Silence of the Lambs which I saw on Valentine's Day and hated when I walked out of the theater but then thought about non-stop for the next week.

Atonement's not quite that thought provoking but it does stay with one.

I'm glad I saw the movie before I read the book because I think the movie profited from my not knowing our destination.

While not light-hearted entertainment, I would recommend it.

Now I'm off to read the book . . .

The Rolling Exhibition

Kevin Connolly has quite the cool ongoing project.

He took his X Game Silver medal money from last year and traveled around Europe this past summer. While there, he traveled 15 countries and took 32,000 photos.

32,000 photos of people staring at him.

The photos being sort of his way of staring back.

Quite intriguing.

Next summer, he wants to turn the project into a documentary, delving into the stories that he finds people make up about him and why he's legless.

Boohoo

So sad.

But that's the breaks.

Literally.

Kevin Connolly, our house guest again this year and last year's silver medalist, didn't qualify for the X Games Mono-ski finals because he broke his bucket frame today on his first qualifying run.

We were all looking forward to a whole weekend of X Games action, qualifier today, qualifier tomorrow, practice Saturday, and finals Sunday.

I guess we had a little chicken counting going on . . .

Steve was going to take Monday off so that he could take Kevin and Fritz into the Bowl. Kevin would have no problem hiking up as long as someone could carry his bucket.

But now they'll be heading home tomorrow.

The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory

While this book picks up just a bit after The Other Boleyn Girl leaves off, it doesn't manage to carry over the engrossing storytelling.

Whether this is due to a fatigue with the genre/period/family or whether this is due to a lesser quality product is hard to say. I have read 5 other books by this author.

Gregory presents the story of Henry VIII's fourth and fifth wives from the perspective of these two wives and the sister in law of his second wife in alternating chapters.

As always, I found Gregory's work interesting for her take on the internal life of historical characters but I tired of her characters' narration midway through the book. Enough so that I skipped to the final chapters to see where Gregory was taking us.

At this point, I'm not feeling like I'll be reading a 7th book by Ms Gregory . . .

Juno

Delightful.

Ellen Page is wonderful as the smart, sassy, knocked up teenager with her head on straight.

This movie never condescends as it covers the time frame from when Juno pees on the stick to just after her baby is born.

Only one word of caution: it's rather uncomfortable seeing this movie with your parents . . .

Ummm . . .

According to SiteMeter, I've had 28 visitors to my blog today.

I usually don't have 28 visitors to my blog in a week.

Today, the majority of my blog traffic is being driven by yesterday's mention of a certain actor/singer who is most well known for portraying the main character in the play reviewed yesterday.

At least half of the visitors have come directly from a moderated Yahoo Group called Friends of (the certain actor).

Ok, I'm a little weirded out by this.

Exercise in Nostalgia?

Jesus Christ Superstar

What a fun afternoon.

From the start, it was clear that the music was very familiar and much loved by many present.

When Ted Neeley appeared, the crowd erupted. The staging was specially designed to enhance this reaction but still, there it was.

While I'm extremely familiar with the original recording, having listened to it untold times, I had never seen the live theater production. I enjoyed it as much because of my appreciation for the music as for the performances.

Corey Glover as Judas Iscariot and Tiffini Dodson as Mary Magdalene shone and Craig Sculli's portrayal of Pontius Pilate was a pearl.

It was cool from the perspective of nostalgia to see Ted Neeley live but, while he did a remarkable job for his age, the role is really one more suited to a younger man.

My only other complaint is that the ending of the play was marred by the crucifixion scene which was too long and overdone.

That and the fact that the girls were in Row B while I was in Row V.

But that just gets back to the cool mom thing . . .

Sweet Sixteen

I'm a pretty cool mom.

At least that's my considered opinion.

Rachel and I both love Jesus Christ Superstar. So much so that we went to see Deep Purple recently solely because Ian Gillan was the voice of Jesus.

So when I got an email that Jesus Christ Superstar was being performed in Denver one day only, I immediately bought 4 tickets and told Rachel that she could take a friend.

Only Rachel couldn't choose just one friend. She couldn't choose between three friends.

So, since it's Rachel's Sweet Sixteen, I bought two more tickets.

But Steve has to work.

So I'm in Denver with Rachel and her three friends to see Jesus Christ Superstar for her birthday.

And since Monday's a school holiday, I'm in Denver with Rachel and her three friends for two nights and three days.

Just me and four teenagers . . .

I rock.

Spamalot

Excerpt from Las Vegas: "Broadway West?" by Victor Gluck


John O’Hurley, Nikki Crawford and the Las Vegas cast of Monty Python’s SPAMALOT
at the Grail Theater at Wynn Las Vegas
(photo credit: Carol Rosegg)

The Las Vegas version of Monty Python’s SPAMALOT which opened at Wynn Las Vegas on March 31, 2007 is even more fun than the New York version. Recreated by Tony Award- winning director Mike Nichols and choreographer Casey Nicholaw, this somewhat shortened version (which includes all but one of John Du Prez and Eric Idle’s original musical numbers) has eliminated any repetition that appeared in the Broadway version. In this “ musical lovingly ripped off from the motion picture Monty Python and the Holy Grail ,” Idle’s book now seems faster and funnier. The production team is exactly the same as the New York production (Tim Hatley, sets and costumes; Hugh Vanstone, lighting; Acme Sound Partners, sound design; David Brian Brown, hair and wig design; Gregory Meeh, special effects design), so that the show has the same look.

The Las Vegas cast does not have as many recognizable names as the New York show did when it first opened, but the new cast is just as much fun. John O’Hurley, best known for his role as J. Peterman on Seinfeld and as the ultimate champion on Season One of Dancing with the Stars, is a stalwart King Arthur and has a fine singing voice. In the role of “ The Lady of the Lake” which won Sara Ramirez her Tony Award, Nikki Crawford has all the requisite requirements for this larger than life role. Harry Bouvy as Sir Robin, Justin Brill as Patsy, J. Anthony Crane as Sir Lancelot, Randal Keith as Sir Bedevere, Edward Staudenmayer as Sir Dennis Galahad, and Steven Strafford as Prince Herbert all give able support to the inspired fooling. Monty Python’s John Cleese continues to play the Voice of God.

Steve and I saw Spamalot in Las Vegas on Wednesday, January 8 at the Wynn Hotel. We almost skipped it because we were so exhausted from our spur of the moment 12 hour drive but since I have wanted to see it since we were in New York in 2005, I insisted that we go.

It was very funny and immediately made us forget our exhaustion.

The play is based almost entirely on Monty Python and the Holy Grail with other Monty Python influences thrown in for good measure. They referenced the silly walks and Always Look on the Bright Side of Life. The Lady of Lake scores with quite a large part when all she merited in the original movie was a reference.

My only concern was that since it was obviously gussied up for Vegas, I was worried that the New York version might be better. The review quoted above put my fears to rest.

Now I feel superior since I clearly saw the better show.

Phew

I got to work this morning and one of my co-workers greeted me with, "Have you seen the paper yet? Front page! But, it's not too bad."

Ugh. Cue the stomach ache.

But I was pleasantly surprised. Absent a couple of minor errors, the article was very positive. The reporter really seemed to get the message I was attempting to convey.

He even said, "But Xxxxxxxxx took great pains empathizing with other businesses and demographics — from teachers to the Laundromat — that face similar troubles."

Glad that's over.

But you never know when some reaction is going to come out of left field . . .

Uh-oh

I'm gonna be in the paper tomorrow.

I'm not sure how that's gonna go.

I hate being interviewed by reporters, mostly because of the lack of control. I'm saying a, b and c but only c makes it into print.

We're dealing with an issue of being priced out of the market in Aspen. We need to find new space but, as we explore available space, we're finding that either we can't afford what's available or zoning shuts us out.

We provide an invaluable service to both locals and visitors and there's a possibility that we won't be able to maintain an office in town.

We're not the only ones in this boat and I don't want to say that we're more deserving than other businesses.

Hopefully, I conveyed that to the reporter with whom I spoke today.

In addition, the economics of my industry are rather dense and hard for the average joe to grasp. As I often say, 95% of what I do shouldn't be necessary. But it is.

And today, I had to try to educate a reporter while also trying to sound like I know what I'm talking about and trying to not say anything he could quote out of context to make me look stupid or arrogant.

We'll see how successful I was . . .

My prediction

I was listening to the Iowa Caucus results on January 4th and the thought came to me totally unbidden that John McCain is going to be our next president.

We'll see how prescient my unbidden thoughts are . . .

(I also recall saying in 2000 to Steve when he was all doom and gloom after the election that Bush wouldn't be able to do too much damage in 4 years.)

Homeward Bound

Woke up this morning, still slightly dazed from our meal last night.

Dallied around our room for a bit, enjoying a cup of coffee and the view and then left Vegas at about 8:30 am to drive home.

10 1/2 hours later, here we are.

Great weather today and it's such a beautiful drive. I just love driving I-70 through the San Rafael Swell. It's easily the most scenic stretch of I-70, a highway with many scenic stretches.

And I got to play with my new toy, the TomTom One. Such fun.

And now we're back home where it's cold, clear and snowy and it's all good.

Alex

Tasting Menu

Marinated Yellowtail and Osetra Caviar with Coconut-Cucumber Custard
Charles Ellner, Cuvée Prestige, Champagne, Epernay, France 1998

Roasted Sea Scallops with White Asparagus, Pink Grapefruit and Sea Urchin
Domaine Morey-Coffinet, Bâtard-Montrachet, Grand Cru, Burgundy, France 2004

Seared Foie Gras with Sweet Onion Compote, Savoy Cabbage and Black Truffle Consommé
Weingut Zilliken, Saarburger Rausch, Riesling, Auslese, Mosel-Saar-Ruwer, Germany 1983

Daurade ‘Royale’ with Rhubarb, Caramelized Endives and Spiced Red Wine Syrup
Oriel, Alma de Llicorella, Priorat, Spain 2001

Japanese Wagyu Beef with Fava Bean Purée, Candied Shallots and Bordelaise Sauce
Tua Rita, Giusto di Notri, Tuscany, Italy 2003

Passion Cheesecake with Graham Crumble

Strawberries and Mascarpone Cream with Brown Butter Cake and Strawberry Sorbet
Klein Constantia, ‘Vin de Constance’, Muscat de Frontignan, Constantia, South Africa 2001

The Restaurants at Wynn Las Vegas feature signature items based on seasonal availability.

For Restaurant Reservations, please call 702.770.wynn or 888.320.7110

Chef Alessandro Stratta

Jenifer Witte, Pastry Chef

Steve and I went from low end to high end today.

After visiting the Carpinteria Bluffs, home of the Carpinteria Seal Preserve, this morning, we flew back to Las Vegas. We drove straight from the airport to the Fremont Street Experience and what an experience.

It's a sort of mall that's located on Fremont Street, the location of the original strip in Las Vegas. It's a fairly innovative way of saving what would otherwise be abandoned old casinos and the slot machines in the casinos themselves were crowded with chain smoking, leisure suited middle aged to elderly. At one end of the deal, it's a basic ghost town of a shopping center with empty storefronts. As you walk into the center of the old strip, things get a bit more lively but not more upscale.

We went to see all the old neon and since we arrived just at dusk when the lights were all being lit, our timing was good. We sat outside upstairs at the Golden Nugget and had a drink where we could watch all the neon do their dances. There's also a light show on the new dome but we didn't stay long enough to see that.

From there, we went back to Paris Las Vegas and checked in again. After watching the Bellagio Fountains from our window and changing for dinner, we walked up to Wynn Las Vegas for our reservations at Alex, the Wynn's premier restaurant and winner of the Mobil Travel Five Star Award 2007, AAA Five Diamond Award of Excellence 2007, Best New Restaurant 2005 - Esquire Magazine, and Best American Chef - Southwest, James Beard Foundation.

And Alex is the high school buddy of one of Steve's friends and co-workers.

Wow.

Spendy it was.

But, oh my.

We did the tasting menu which varied only slightly from the one above.

Wow.

Our new weathervane

Drove to Solvang for breakfast at The Belgian Cafe. I hadn't been there since I was about 13 or 14. It's so tacky but it was fun to see it again.

We were on our way to Los Olivos when we missed our turn and ended up at the Rolling Hills Garden Center in Buellton where Steve and I found our dream weathervane which is now being shipped to our house.

We drove on from there to Los Olivos where we started our wine tasting at the Los Olivos Cafe and Wine Merchant. We moved on Alexander and Wayne, then Daniel Gehr. My favorite was the Reisling and the Fireside Port at Daniel Gehr. Neither of which I bought.

Not sure what that was about except that I was very tipsy by the time we got to Daniel Gehr.

Topped it all off with a massage and sushi dinner.

I officially feel like I'm on vacation.

Santa Barbara

Shopped. Hiked. Ate.

and stopped a drunk driver.

Such a day.

Went to Paseo Nuevo in SB to buy shoes so we could hike.

Hiked up Cold Springs to a view looking down on Santa Barbara (and the Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier in the harbor).

Went to dinner at Trattorio Vittoria where we laughed and ate really well.

Then when it was all just about over, I watched a really drunk guy stumble out the door, get into a Volvo right outside the front window of the restaurant. and proceed to hit both the car in front of and behind him as he attempted to exit his parallel parking spot. As it was clear that he was going to be quite the danger on the road, several members of our party, along with the son of the restaurant owner and the owner, after much cajoling and threatening, prevailed upon the drunken individual to leave his car and take a cab home.

Jeffrey loves it when he gets his good deed for the year taken care of in January . . .

California, here we come

In an effort to make the most of our room upgrade, I dragged myself out of bed at 6:30 am, took a jacuzzi, then showered and packed.

I watched the workmen clean the Bellagio fountains and headed downstairs to get some in more people watching.

Steve and I walked over to the Bellagio so I could show him the Chihuly ceiling installation in the lobby and we had a really good cafe breakfast over there.

Next a quick flight and lunch and window shopping in Santa Barbara.

We checked out Chris' dojo and The Brooks Institute, then headed to Carpinteria.

We watched the sunset from the patio outside Jeffrey's office, then spent the evening imbibing and playing dueling iPods. It was like being back in college. Such camaraderie. Jeffrey really likes having us around 'cause we're "so normal," I guess compared to all the not normal people he deals with in his life as a high powered music industry lawyer.

Vacation rocks.

Change in plans

Flexibility.

It helps to be flexible.

We were booked on the third flight out in the morning so to increase our chances of getting out I put us on standby for the first flight when I checked us in online the night before. I noticed that the 8 am flight out was already cancelled but the 7 and 9 am were still on.

We got to the airport at 6 am and promptly walked past the mob at the ticket counters. That should have been a clue but I was feeling all smug that I had been so organized.

Not so fast. The first 5 flights of the morning were all cancelled with a likelihood that nothing would get out all day. I called United and we had been rebooked on later flights so the reconfiguring commenced. We could wait for our rebooked flight but it was likely to be cancelled. We could drive to Denver to catch our new flight to Vegas but the roads were probably bad and we might not make in it time. We could simply regroup and try again tomorrow, thereby missing our non-refundable theater and hotel reservations in Vegas.

Or we could drive . . .

Perfect excuse to use my new TomTom GPS.

So we drove. Vegas is 9 hours away from Aspen in good weather. Santa Barbara is 6+ hours away from Vegas in good weather. Just after 9/11, we drove to SB rather than take our booked flights when all was still chaos in the skies. It wasn't so bad.

Of course, this time we did have weather to contend with. The roads were pretty gnarly. We saw multiple cars and SUVs in ditches, one a pick up on its roof after pitchpoling down a gully. The roads first cleared west of Cisco, Utah, 180 + miles from Aspen. We then had intermittent snow storms until we got to I15, 350 + miles from Aspen.

We left Aspen after 7 am, mountain time. We arrived in Vegas before 6 pm, pacific time. We were wiped. But it was worth it. We upgraded our room at Paris Las Vegas to a suite with a view of the Eiffel Tower and the Bellagio fountains. We forced ourselves to rally and get our butts over to the Wynn to see Spamalot. We laughed uproariously. It was quite entertaining, even in our almost comatose states. We walked down the Strip back to our hotel.

And then, at midnight, having been up for 21 hours, I proceeded to book round trip flights from Vegas to Santa Barbara and call Travelocity to arrange for a refund on our original tickets.

So, we're leaving the car in Vegas and flying to Santa Barbara tomorrow. It'll necessitate extending our vacation an extra day but we'll get an additional night in Vegas out of it too.

Hmmmmm (or should I say Ommmmm?)

GRAND AND BATTLEMENT MESAS- GORE AND ELK MOUNTAINS/CENTRAL MOUNTAIN VALLEYS- WEST ELK AND SAWATCH MOUNTAINS- NORTHWEST SAN JUAN MOUNTAINS- INCLUDING THE CITIES OF...SKYWAY... ASPEN...VAIL...SNOWMASS... CRESTED BUTTE...TAYLOR PARK...MARBLE...OURAY... TELLURIDE... LAKE CITY 310 PM MST TUE JAN 8 2008

...SNOW AND BLOWING SNOW ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 5 AM TO 11 PM MST WEDNESDAY...

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN GRAND JUNCTION HAS ISSUED A SNOW AND BLOWING SNOW ADVISORY...WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 5 AM TO 11 PM MST WEDNESDAY. THE WINTER STORM WATCH IS NO LONGER IN EFFECT.

A STRONG WINTER STORM WILL BRING SIGNIFICANT SNOW TO THE MOUNTAINS OF CENTRAL AND SOUTHWEST COLORADO. 6 TO 12 INCHES OF SNOW CAN BE EXPECTED BY LATE WEDNESDAY EVENING. IN ADDITION... WINDS FROM 20 TO 30 MPH WITH GUSTS REACHING 50 MPH OVER THE RIDGE TOPS WILL CAUSE BLOWING SNOW...DRIFTING OF SNOW AND REDUCED VISIBILITIES.

A SNOW AND BLOWING SNOW ADVISORY MEANS THAT VISIBILITIES WILL BE LIMITED DUE TO A COMBINATION OF FALLING AND BLOWING SNOW. USE CAUTION WHEN TRAVELING...ESPECIALLY IN OPEN AREAS.

We're supposed to be flying out of Aspen at 9:15 am tomorrow.

I'm just going to sit in the corner and meditate . . .*

No, actually our plan right now is to go to the airport early in an effort to increase our chances of getting to Vegas in time for our theater tickets. Including our flight, there are three flights scheduled for tomorrow which would enable us to make our connection in Denver. Of course, it's not unusual for all the flights in a day to be cancelled when it's snowing.

We'll see.

But hey, whatever, I'm on vacation.

*you do realize that I don't meditate, right?

Steve shoveled

Quite the get-up, huh?

Then we lit a fire

Then it snowed all night and all day
and this is what it looks like now . . .

with another foot of snow.

More perfect weather

You know those godawful storms which are abusing California and Nevada right now?

As of this morning, we had had 28 inches in the last 48 hours.

It snowed all day today too.

Tomorrow, Patrol will have its third early day in a row (they go in early when there's a lot of snow to do avalanche control work).

I went out for a half day of skiing today. I was part of the crack of noon club and still managed to ski Kessler's, Mushroom to Hyde Park to Y12, Mushroom top to bottom, Soddbuster, No Name, Moment of Truth and Lower Stein (where I took this photo).

I'm wiped.

Now, just so that you know that our perfect weather isn't always so perfect, on Wednesday, we're supposed to fly to Vegas for 24 hours before continuing on to Santa Barbara (my Christmas present). We have tickets to Spamalot in Vegas on Wednesday evening. However, Weather.com says that we should expect snow showers on Wednesday. Snow showers usually mean no flights. No flights could definitely throw a wrench in our well-laid plans.

I'm just going to be very zen about the whole thing . . .

New Year's Resolution?

I don't do New Year's resolutions.

But I did hear the other day that women who share their resolutions are more successful in keeping them.

So, in that spirit (the spirit of obligating myself and guilt), I'm going to share the fact that, having successfully completed NaBloPoMo, I am now going to attempt Blog365.

Hmmmm.

We'll see how it goes . . .

Rules:
- Blog everyday for 365 days.
- Feb.29th is a Free Day and will be the Blog365 day of rest!Thanks Leap Year)
- You do not HAVE to post to the same blog as long as you post everyday.
- No internet? Write your post locally and post it once you are back on the grid.
- Computer Broken? Grab some paper and do some old school blogging.
- A post is a post, not everything has to be in writing. Photos, YouTube videos, and the like are all considered content.
- Have fun, because that's the whole point!
Note: If you post offline work, consider changing the date on the post to reflect the day you actually created the content

Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress by Susan Jane Gilman

My mom passed this book down to me after she finished reading it.

She said it was cute and I might enjoy it.

It was and I did.

It's interesting, yet perhaps predictable, that my expectations tend to be lower for books which I chance upon in this manner.

Expectations, while unavoidable, are dangerous. It's too bad that we can't experience every new book, movie, musician, TV show, etc. with a clean slate.

But that's not what I'm talking about here.

Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress is a memoir of a woman growing up in New York City in the 70s.

This book was enjoyable and mildly amusing. Through most of it, it was a quiet smile or a slight chuckle, although I have to admit that I laughed out loud several times as she was discussing her experiences as a new ex-pat in Geneva.

Gilman self-effacingly describes her foibles as a misfit in a way that makes it hard not to relate to her, even if your experiences do not mirror hers.

The Walker

Although boasting a fairly stellar cast (Lauren Bacall, Lily Tomlin, Kristin Scott Thomas, Willem Dafoe, Ned Beatty and Woody Harrelson), this movie just sort of limped along.

Harrelson plays the gay companion of wives of the Washington powerful who gets sucked into a murder conspiracy.

Harrelson's performance is interesting for its curiosity factor, the macho man playing against type, but the movie is weak.

I saw this one the same night that I saw Charlie Wilson's War (which coincidentally also featured Ned Beatty) and The Walker suffers in comparison.

Charlie Wilson's War

Tom Hanks produces. Mike Nichols directs. Aaron Sorkin writes. Tom Hanks, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Julia Roberts star.

And it's based on a true story.

Yep, it's all that.

It's rated R and there's a bit of nudity and a bit more violence but it is called Charlie Wilson's War and he was a playboy Congressman who directed the CIA's covert support of the mujahideen in Afghanistan in their fight against the Soviet Union.

So some nudity and violence are practically unavoidable.

Happy New Year! - how's that for an original post title?

It's been a hectic week, as expected with all the family in town.

Some of the highlights:

Getting up at at 5 am on Christmas Eve to decorate the cookies in my last post.

Getting a trip to Las Vegas and Santa Barbara for Christmas.

Taking a family portrait on Christmas morning. Christmas morning when we got up, it was snowing. Now that's all well and good except we had plans to do a professional family portrait outside as a 70th birthday gift for the parents. After a number of phone calls back and forth, we opted to crash the Hotel Jerome and make the best of it. The staff at the Jerome was extremely accommodating to this group of 13 who just kind of showed up and we got some excellent pictures, inside and out.

11 of us skiing at Snowmass on Christmas day.

Girls' spa day at Remede on Wednesday topped off with lunch at Olives (Harold Ramis was there) while the boys skied Highlands.

Thursday, a trip out to the T Lazy 7 for a sleigh ride, steak bbq and dancing to celebrate the parents' 70th birthdays (one at the end of January and one at the beginning of July) while we were all together. We surprised them with passes to the Food & Wine Classic in June.

Friday, the party started breaking up. Bob & Lisa left for California.

Yesterday, Brian & Miriam left for London. Dinner at Boogie's Diner with two sets of fireworks afterwards. We watched the first set of fireworks from my parent's and Rachel, Ellie and I watched the midnight set from the shower.

The other news is that December 2007 is officially the snowiest December on record. The previous record was held by December 1983 with 117 inches. December 2007 topped that by two inches. Pretty remarkable after the slow start we had.