84 Hazards

As I was walking out the door this morning, I got a phone call from a co-worker to let me know that she was calling out sick. It wasn't a big deal, because today was only a half day at work. I think the doctors were all going out to play golf in some sunny destination. Not really, they had some conferences to attend. Anyway, back to the story...

So I was cruising along on I-84 when I looked in my rear view mirror & all I saw was some guy tailgating me so badly that I could only see from his steering wheel up! I was easing off the gas & onto my break when I felt a bump & I lost control of my car. I spun 180 degrees, sliding into the median where I came to rest point up the slope, toward traffic. I tried to drive the car up the embankment to no avail. I was lodged in by the snow. I walked up the slope to the side of the highway, where to my surprise, 2 other people stopped to see if I was ok. No one was able to get a tag number off the car that bumped me. Right after he did it, he hit the gas & took off. Jackass.

It cost a small fortune to get my car winched out, but I got to hang out with a very cool NYSP officer. He was sharing his funnier tales of the highway. There are stupid people out there! He was amazed that there was no damage to the car. The way he figured it, the car was so close when it hit me that the force wasn't as bad.

I went to work for a couple hours, where I was completely out of it. I just came home with a huge desire to crawl back into bed for the rest of the day. Which is what I plan to go do now.

Sunday Downs

NY Giants vs. Philadelphia Eagles

This is gonna be PAINFUL to talk about, but I'll try my best to get through this. The first half was close enough to keep me from getting completely concerned, but I wasn't happy with the Giants' performance either. First came head coach Tom Coughlin's decision to take the ball against the wind in the field. This also meant that the Eagles would get the ball to start the second half. Why give them that advantage right from the get-go? The next sign of weakness came from an unexpected source.....QB Eli Manning. His passing looked terrible, and even turned into an interception that gave the Eagles the first touchdown of the game. Following that, we had kicker John Carney, one of the best I've seen, miss an important field goal not once, but twice in the game. The only saving grace was our defense, who managed to hold back the Eagles, and keep it close.

Sadly, the steady decline on the Giants as a whole to a free fall in the second half. The Eagles started a short-passing game that our defense never bothered to counter. The Giants tried sticking to a running game that the Eagles defense saw coming constantly. The Giants only made 2 out of 11 or 12 3rd down conversions the entire game. And when the Eagles pulled way ahead in the 4th quarter 23-11, I knew it would take a miracle to get us the win. We had very little time, and needed at least 2 touchdowns to get the win. Of course, we couldn't pull it together, and suffered defeat for the forth time in the last couple of months. What a shame.

The Giants didn't look like the championship team we became last season throughout the last half of this season, that's for sure. Of course I'll still root for them next season, but I would hope that they start working on their weaknesses instead of just their strengths, and hoping that it pays off. Needless to say, I wasn't in a good mood after this game.................

-Joe

Back To Basics

We arrived back in Newark at 5:30am. It was such a bummer to realize that our vacation was over & tomorrow we have to return to the real world. I must say, right now, I'm not really a fan of the real world. It's so cold & uninviting, which is not what I'm in the mood for. I spent the better portion of the morning doing some unpacking, straightening up around the house & taking down the Christmas decor. I'm sad to take it all down & box it away for another year. The gloominess of that, combined with the fact that our vacation is over, is bothersome.

Last Day

And so today is the last day of our California vacation. We spent some time reading on the porch before the clouds overtook the sun & it began to turn colder. Perhaps it's just preparation for when we get home.

Our flight departs at 9:55pm from LAX. We're taking a red-eye to Newark, where we land at 5:49am. My parents will be picking us up & driving us home to Bushkill.

We spent the morning with Nana, who has developed a bit of a cold over the past few days. Rusty picked us up at 3:00pm. We ate dinner with him & Alice at a great little outdoor Mediterranean place in Glendale. Joe ate lamb kabobs (icky), while I ate mixed berries & rice with grilled vegetables. It was really delicious for our first experiences with that type of food. After a brief visit to see Rusty's "vacation house", we were off to the airport.

Now we sit here, all checked-in on an over booked flight. Once again we're going to have a whole aircraft separating us. I want to ask a flight attendant if we can sit together once everyone is on the plane.

Our terminal is dark & desolate right now, save for a few other passengers waiting to get on the same flight as us. I guess I'll wrap this up for now, drink the last of my Starbucks & snuggle next to Joe for a quick nap.

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Disneyland New Year

Well, we spent the first day of 2009 I the "happiest place on earth". Rusty picked us up to go up there, but only Joe & I went to the park.

Our longest wait was at the Indiana Jones ride. It had been closed for a good chunk of the morning, so when it opened, we all ran to it. It was Joe's favorite ride of the day, followed by Space Mountain & Big Thunder Rolling Railroad. Of course, he lead me on the Star Tours ride, which is related to Star Wars. His inner child definitely came out yesterday.

We went on all the big rides, except for Splash Mountain. We didn't go on that because the sun was starting to set & we didn't want to walking around at night time freezing to death. It was nice to spend the day with just Joe. Oh, about half way through the day I got fired from job describing the rides because Joe thought I was unable to describe the difference between "roller coaster type rides" & "ride rides". I was trying not to tell him too much, so that he could see for himself. Oh well.

So far, I think today we'll relax for a little bit. After that it's off to walk around the beach.

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New Year's Eve

Since we're going to a party tonight, we decided to take it easy today. We're going out to lunch with Nana, Vikki (her HHA), & Rusty later this afternoon. We haven't eaten at any chain restaurants since we got here, but we went to the Macaroni Grille because Nana really likes it there. It's also close to her house, so if she had any distress, we could bring her home right away. Lunch was really good & to add to the ambiance we were seated right next to the fireplace.

Once we got back to the house, Joe took a nap & I just read a book. It was nice to have the down time today, especially since we've been fairly non-stop since getting here.

The party was at Julia's beach front home in Hermosa Beach. I absolutely love her house, the views from it are amazing. For those of you who don't know, she is the girlfriend of my cousin Bogie. We had a great time!

We had intended for Joe to be the one to drink last night, but when I was offered a drink known as "the flirt" (a type of martini) I was the one to be drinking. Many of those & a few champagnes later...the night is fuzzy for me, but oh so fun! I haven't been drinking like that since the day of our wedding! *giggles* Of course, Joe was manly & drank a few beers. He hustled some pool with a drunken partner, Jeff. Jeff decided that we have to come back next year so that Joe can help him win more money. Oh, Jeff also kept refilling my drinks so that Joe would stay to play more pool games.

Well it's off to Disneyland now...

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Yo Ho Ho & A Bottle of Rum

Rusty came by early this morning & surprised us. Normally we've been calling him around 9am with our intended plans of the day. We're going on a boat tour of LA Harbor.

We thought that we'd be off for Catalina today, but the cost of the round trip boat ride has gone up to almost $100 per person. It doubled since I was out here last year. Now there is also a requirement that you book the trip at least 3 days in advance. I'm a bit sad since that is my favorite place in California & really the only place I had my heart set on going to.

We're using today as the "educational portion" of our vacation. We went to the San Pedro fish market, where Joe ate a seafood combo with chips. Other than the deep fried squid, I've got no clue what else was on his plate. After that we took a 45 minute ride around the harbor on a double decker boat. I took a lot of pictures of seals & pelicans. In that same area we saw the Maritime museum, as well as the Lane Victory ship.

To kill some time before dinner we went to Rodondo Pier at sunset. I took some amazing pictures. Then it was off to a sushi place for dinner.

Joe loves sushi, but he even tried some new stuff too. It was my first time trying sushi, so since I don't eat meat, I tried a veggie roll for the first time. I didn't like it, but I didn't not like it either. Sake is pretty interesting, though. I tried it without realizing that was alcohol. Rusty may have had a cup too much of it because he got really talkative. The yummiest thing was the fried ice cream, also known as tempura ice cream. I can best describe it as ice cream wrapped in a fortune cookie.

Now it's late & time to settle in for the night. I hope Joe doesn't get fishy farts from all the seafood!

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