how'd it get to be 2009 already?!
So uh yeah, Happy New Year!!
This is the longest vacation I've taken in a while. I did a criminal lack of work over the past couple weeks, but that's ok. I can catch up this coming week.
dancinghorse did a great job of summing up Xmas here, so I'll just point y'all there. Santa was quite nice to me, too, so yay.
I came back home on Monday (with a smooth travel day that I feel rather guilty about after following warsop's travails over the weekend :}) and wojsvenwoj and I turned right around and left again on Tuesday afternoon. geoffroi came down from Boston and we all carpooled down to our friend The Famous Jane's house outside of Philadelphia for New Year's. Outside of the New Year's Eve festivities, the trip was three days of sleeping, lazing, playing with Gracie The World's Second Coolest Dog, and watching movies. We had a great time.
On NYE we had tickets for Erin McKeown and Garrison Starr's late show at the Tin Angel in downtown Philly, with a dinner reservation beforehand at the downstairs restaurant, Serrano's. My outright loathing for Serrano's goes back almost 15 years -- it is way overpriced for what you get, and yet if you want a seat for the show upstairs you're forced to eat there, as a dinner reservation is the only way to guarantee a Tin Angel table. For New Year's they had added the extra dimension of a six-course $75 prix-fixe menu, which they hadn't warned us about beforehand and didn't even reveal the price of until we specifically asked. Our reservation was for 8:00, yet they were running massively behind from the first show's seating (the show upstairs was even held half an hour to accommodate as many people as possible) so we didn't get to our table until after 8:30. But we figured the late show didn't start until 10:30, so we'd be fine. Hah. It was literally 25 minutes between each course, and there were *six* of them. We ended up having our dessert brought upstairs, and even then we missed Garrison's first couple songs despite the fact that the late show was held until after 11.
It was absolutely ridiculous -- you'd think they'd never been open on New Year's Eve before, but the place has been around for decades and they do this every year. I figure they must've had only 2 people working in the kitchen, and they did only have 2 servers working the tables. To top it all off the gratuity was included on the bill, so we couldn't even leave a 2% tip to make a point. Ugh. So I'll just warn everyone within reach of Philly once again, avoid Serrano's at all costs. Even if you do end up standing way in the back at the Tin Angel, it's worth it not to have to deal with that godforsaken restaurant.
But all that stupidity aside, Erin and Garrison put on a good show, and it was a lovely way to ring in the new year. geoffroi put up some neat video clips here.
We slept in on New Year's Day, and didn't accomplish much until it was time to crash Jane's annual family party for a while, then we went to the movies. We saw Slumdog Millionaire, and it was wonderful. I highly recommend it to all -- what a great film.
Then we went back to Jane's and watched my new DVD of The Golden Compass (beautiful movie, but they forgot to film the final third of the book) and crashed.
Other movies seen over our time down there: The Dark Knight (wow, it's everything everyone has said, and more) and Grand Theft Parsons, the hilarious true story of how Gram Parsons' road manager (Phil Kaufman, the famed "Road Mangler") fulfilled his promise to burn Parsons' body in the desert rather than let him be buried in the family plot in Louisiana. Johnny Knoxville, of all people does an amazing job as Kaufman, and the movie also gave me a manifesto, so it's win all around. :) I need to get that one on DVD.
So anyway ... we didn't get going overly early this morning either, and were on the road headed north again around 1:30 pm. We pulled into New Haven at 5, and here we are. Tomorrow the holidays officially come to a close with a friend's post-holiday party, and Sunday I actually have to work, so it's back to reality for me with a thud.
Happy 2009 to everyone!!
This is the longest vacation I've taken in a while. I did a criminal lack of work over the past couple weeks, but that's ok. I can catch up this coming week.
dancinghorse did a great job of summing up Xmas here, so I'll just point y'all there. Santa was quite nice to me, too, so yay.
I came back home on Monday (with a smooth travel day that I feel rather guilty about after following warsop's travails over the weekend :}) and wojsvenwoj and I turned right around and left again on Tuesday afternoon. geoffroi came down from Boston and we all carpooled down to our friend The Famous Jane's house outside of Philadelphia for New Year's. Outside of the New Year's Eve festivities, the trip was three days of sleeping, lazing, playing with Gracie The World's Second Coolest Dog, and watching movies. We had a great time.
On NYE we had tickets for Erin McKeown and Garrison Starr's late show at the Tin Angel in downtown Philly, with a dinner reservation beforehand at the downstairs restaurant, Serrano's. My outright loathing for Serrano's goes back almost 15 years -- it is way overpriced for what you get, and yet if you want a seat for the show upstairs you're forced to eat there, as a dinner reservation is the only way to guarantee a Tin Angel table. For New Year's they had added the extra dimension of a six-course $75 prix-fixe menu, which they hadn't warned us about beforehand and didn't even reveal the price of until we specifically asked. Our reservation was for 8:00, yet they were running massively behind from the first show's seating (the show upstairs was even held half an hour to accommodate as many people as possible) so we didn't get to our table until after 8:30. But we figured the late show didn't start until 10:30, so we'd be fine. Hah. It was literally 25 minutes between each course, and there were *six* of them. We ended up having our dessert brought upstairs, and even then we missed Garrison's first couple songs despite the fact that the late show was held until after 11.
It was absolutely ridiculous -- you'd think they'd never been open on New Year's Eve before, but the place has been around for decades and they do this every year. I figure they must've had only 2 people working in the kitchen, and they did only have 2 servers working the tables. To top it all off the gratuity was included on the bill, so we couldn't even leave a 2% tip to make a point. Ugh. So I'll just warn everyone within reach of Philly once again, avoid Serrano's at all costs. Even if you do end up standing way in the back at the Tin Angel, it's worth it not to have to deal with that godforsaken restaurant.
But all that stupidity aside, Erin and Garrison put on a good show, and it was a lovely way to ring in the new year. geoffroi put up some neat video clips here.
We slept in on New Year's Day, and didn't accomplish much until it was time to crash Jane's annual family party for a while, then we went to the movies. We saw Slumdog Millionaire, and it was wonderful. I highly recommend it to all -- what a great film.
Then we went back to Jane's and watched my new DVD of The Golden Compass (beautiful movie, but they forgot to film the final third of the book) and crashed.
Other movies seen over our time down there: The Dark Knight (wow, it's everything everyone has said, and more) and Grand Theft Parsons, the hilarious true story of how Gram Parsons' road manager (Phil Kaufman, the famed "Road Mangler") fulfilled his promise to burn Parsons' body in the desert rather than let him be buried in the family plot in Louisiana. Johnny Knoxville, of all people does an amazing job as Kaufman, and the movie also gave me a manifesto, so it's win all around. :) I need to get that one on DVD.
So anyway ... we didn't get going overly early this morning either, and were on the road headed north again around 1:30 pm. We pulled into New Haven at 5, and here we are. Tomorrow the holidays officially come to a close with a friend's post-holiday party, and Sunday I actually have to work, so it's back to reality for me with a thud.
Happy 2009 to everyone!!