The Christmas who says Ni
Posted by Gypsy on Dec 28, 2009
Christmas tends to be the same thing for me every year: dealing with airport security, making sure my bags aren’t overweight, waiting out ridiculous delays, happy hellos and tearful goodbyes, and lots of alcohol to make me a little more relaxed for take off. Sure, there is time spent with family, too, but often that gets overwhelmed by the stress of holiday travel. So it was with that in mind that I decided this year I was having Christmas in my own home. If family wanted to spend it with us, they would have to do the traveling for once. And because they are so awesome, my family was up for the challenge.
To kick off the visit right, before my parents and sister arrived we picked up a tree so it would be ready for decorating on the first day. It was then we realized we were sadly lacking in an angel or star for the top of the tree. So we improvised and used something that was a little more our style: a Knight Who Says Ni.
Of course, to match his herring, we decorated the rest of the tree in blue and silver. This part was done once my family arrived and was conducting as usual: with everyone helping at first and by the end only my mom working on it. Personally, I love the look of a tree but hate the actually work of it. Someone needs to start a service that does all that for people who are lazy like me. Until then, I just need to keep my mom around for the holidays.
Most of the trip was spent doing what most people do around the holidays: eating and last-minute Christmas shopping. And really, why not? Everyone was on vacation and needed to relax. Since they were here for a full week, though, there were a few things we made sure we did. Most importantly was the required trip to In N Out. I would’ve taken photos to commemorate my parents first trip to the SoCal jewel, but honestly I was too busy digging into my own double double with just cheese and spread to pay attention to anyone else.
We also took a trip downtown to explore the USS Midway. The Midway is a decommissioned Navy aircraft carrier that has since been turned into a museum. As I had already visited the Midway once before, it wasn’t new for me, but I did get to see a few things I missed out on the first time around, including the ship’s brig and the bridge, where the navigator makes the decisions. I have to say the view from up there is positively amazing and it must be ridiculous impressive to sit up there when the ship is out to sea and all you can see for miles is ocean.
However, no trip to California in winter is complete without a visit to the beach. Since it’s December, it’s still a little too chilly for swimming, but it’s not too bad for a walk. The beach we ended up at was just south of Oceanside as we had gone up there to grab a bite at a Chinese place I love. Luckily for us, it was a perfectly sunny day, which kept it from feeling too chilly and offered some great photo opportunities.
However, the real fun was hosting my very first Christmas. I really dropped the ball on taking photos of this, but picture, if you will, a perfectly roasted tenderloin, creamy mashed potatoes and amazing buttermilk biscuits. Add in some gravy, veggies and apple pie and it was probably one of the best meals I’ve ever cooked. At least somewhere in the top 10.
Alas, all vacations must come to an end. The day after Christmas, after a week here, my parents and sister had to fly back to freezing cold New York. It was really awesome to have them come visit and I had a really great Christmas with them here.
Now it’s time for a nap. I’m still recovering from all that laziness.
Summer Fun Part 9: Dead bodies and cute animals
Posted by Gypsy on Sep 29, 2009
With Drena off for home and Andy off work for the week, it was time to start thinking of what we wanted to show Andrew while he was in San Diego. During our travels the week before we’d seen billboards announcing that the Body Worlds exhibit was at the Natural History Museum here. I’d seen it on a trip to New York City a few years back, but neither of the guys had gone to it. So I gave them two choices: Body Worlds or the Zoo. Dead bodies or cute animals. Boys being boys, I think it’s pretty obvious the one they chose.
So off to the museum we went. the exhibit is actually kinda cool for the most part, though there are parts that I find disturbing. Regardless, it’s a really educational experience. And, after seeing the smoker’s lung, makes me glad that Andy and I are going to quit smoking soon (more on that in another post). The museum happens to be located in Balboa Park, so once we were done there we decided to walk around a little. I’m really glad we did, too, because even though I’ve driven to this area of the city dozes of times I’d never actually walked around here. I definitely want to go back as there are a few more museums down here that would be interesting to check out.
Since we’d already done the dead bodies, the next day it was my turn to decide the plan and I decided it was time to see cute and cuddly animals at the San Diego Zoo. I’ve been to the Zoo a bunch of times but I always enjoy going back, if only to see my favorite animal, the Western Lesser Panda. This panda might not be as recognizable as the black and white ones, but I think they are much cuter. Unfortunately, the little guy was chilling in the shade away from the heat that day, so I wasn’t able to get a good photo like the last time. But at least I was able to see him. And of course afterwards we went to see the Giant Pandas. There were only a couple of them out that particular day, but that is because one of them was pregnant at the time and had been pulled from the exhibit. Since then, she’s had the baby, but they won’t be back for viewing until the cub is five-months old.
The most exciting thing about this trip to the Zoo, though, was seeing the new elephant habitat. The first time I’d ever gone to the San Diego Zoo, back in 2004, the one thing that upset me about it was that it seemed like the poor elephants didn’t have any room. Totally not true anymore. Now they have a huge area to run around in. And because they have more space to roam, you can get a lot better photos of them.
Of course, we didn’t just see the bears and elephants while we were there. We covered almost the entire park, including the reptile house, the African animals and the Arctic animals. Due to the heat, though, a lot of the animals were resting in the shade. So it wasn’t the best trip to the Zoo ever, but it was still fun.
For our last day of touristy events before Andy had to return to work we hit up the one place everyone must go to when visiting San Diego: Sea World. We’d planned this for Saturday so that Charles and Daniel could join us. Luckily for us, military gets in free. Unfortunately, that meant Andrew still had to pay, though at least he got to pay the cheaper rate for being with us. We basically did all the same things we’d done the last time, including seeing the Shamu show, the dolphin show, petting a stingray and checking out the arctic animals. We didn’t get to pet the dolphins, though, because they were being a little shy, but otherwise it was a pretty enjoyable day. We also got to check out the sea lion show, which was just really funny.
This really concluded our visits to the typical tourist spots of San Diego. After three days of being on the go in the summer heat we used Sunday as a day to relax and recover. And figure out all the fun stuff Andrew and I were going to do the rest of the week.
Summer Sleep Part 8: SDCC, the aftermath
Posted by Gypsy on Sep 22, 2009
If you’ve ever been to a comic-book convention you know that it can take days to recover. There is just so much being crammed into a weekend that by the end of it feet are sore from walking, exhaustion has set in from waking up so early to get in line and brains are just fried. Ben and his crew left Monday morning and were quickly replaced with the lovely Drena, who had opted to stay in town a few extra days to get some quality time in with Andrew, Andy and I.
The initial plan (created long before Con) had been to do some touristy things around San Diego, but by the time that day arrived we were all too tired and no in the mood to deal with the sun and heat. Instead, we decided to do one of my favorite indoor activities: shooting. After seeing photos of my PPK, both Drena and Andrew wanted to try shooting it. This was actually the first time Drena had even seen a real gun before, so shooting one was a very new experience. Even so, she actually did a great job, though I got the feeling after that it might not be for her. Though she definitely did enjoy watching everyone else shoot.
Andrew, on the other hand, took to it quite well. I think it has something to do with all that testosterone men have.
The rest of Drena’s time in San Diego was spent in total relaxation mode, with all of us sprawled on the couches watching season 1 of Dollhouse as I’d picked up the Comic Con exclusive edition over the weekend. Perfect way to end a busy weekend if you ask me.
Summer Fun Part 7: San Diego Comic Con
Posted by Gypsy on Sep 6, 2009
Honestly, only one really eventful thing happened at Comic Con, and that happened on preview night. The real fun times of the weekend happened at various other points in the weekend during the part where everyone just hung out and had some fun. But during the actual Con, most of my time was spent in various panels and getting loads of stellar swag.
For us, Con weekend began Tuesday when our guests started arriving. The babydollhouse (aka my crib) was going to be packed with six people total: Andy and I plus Andrew, Ben, Amiee and Leigh. Andrew was the first to arrive. Andy chose to greet him by immediately trying to kick his ass. Andrew may be a skinny guy, but apparently that gave him the advantage. Andy is a stubborn bastard, though, and ultimately won only because eventually Andrew got bored.
Late that evening Ben and his crew arrived and the weekend officially begun. Wednesday was a pretty chill day since Con didn’t begin until that evening with preview night. On the way to preview night, Andrew and I made a run by the airport to pick up the totally awesome Drena. Seriously, best part of Con was seeing my friends. But for Andy, the best part of Con was just about to happen. Backing up a little, part of the day had been spent pouring over the schedule to figure out plans for Con. Since Andy had to work the first two days, there were some things he was going to miss, the biggest bummer for him being the Thomas Jane signing Thursday morning. THe plan was to send me to get his copy of The Punisher signed for him. As we were walking around the Con floor, though, I happened to glance at a booth and see Thomas Jane just standing there chilling. I immediately grab Andy and ask him if that’s really Thomas Jane standing over there. He seemed unsure for a second them beelined over there, where he was able to get not just an autograph but a photo with him, too.
Most of the weekend’s meals were either eaten at my house or involved snacking at Con just to save money, but we also did a big dinner out the second night of Con weekend. For our dining enjoyment, we hit up Dick’s Last Resort, a theme restaurant in the Gaslamp District whose gimmick is essentially acting slightly dicky to customers. We had quite the crew with us as in addition to my houseguests we had Drena, James, Adam D., and Charles along for the ride. The food was good but the atmosphere was even better. At one point about half of us had hats with crazy things written on them (mine said “the reason men drink,” the waitress had clearly met me before), I had a balloon penis strapped to my wrist and Drena may or may not have been fellating it. That’s what happens when you get half a drink into her. Dick’s is really the perfect restaurant to go to with a group of people, especially a group like us.
