marcusharwell.net

Awoke to a bit of snow still on the ground and 34 degrees. I got yer White Christmas … It was a terrific haul, though. Plenty of goodies to go around, and I think the pragmatism prize went to my lovely sister-in-law, who probably got a bit more “need” than “want.” Not that they’re mutually [...]

You know you’re in Vegas, when… You can see the top of Kevin, my cashier’s head. The lady ahead of me in line had a cart piled with stuff, and as Kevin handed her the mile long receipt he joked, “here’s your novel.” She didn’t get it. I felt a bit sorry for him. I [...]

We were scheduled to leave Tuesday morning after getting a good night’s sleep before we headed out to my parents’ place in Henderson, NV, but said, “screw it.” A quick check of the iPhone showed traffic was light, there were no reports of the 15 being closed, and I just wanted to get the driving [...]

Following the fiasco of the mall, I decided to fall back on the time honored tradition of internet shopping. It didn’t save me any time, of course, even though we decided to keep the list small, just buying stuff for the family members who would be with us in Henderson for the actual face-to-face exchange. [...]

We hit the local supermall, The Americana, because we’ve got nothin’. No ideas, no theme yet, nothing bought. The only real decision I made tonight is not to wear a thin t-shirt out at night to an outdoor mall. Wind knifed through my unbuttoned flannel shirt, causing me to spend the evening clutching it closed, [...]

It was mostly boring (except for a brief period just after lunchtime, when I was helping Dennis edit, from opposite coasts). WeHo, of course, is short for West Hollywood, and I almost always enjoy a chance to go, having lived there for a few years. Not that I’m so very far away now, 8 miles [...]

It started rolling in this evening, obscuring the conjunction of the Moon, Venus, & Jupiter, and making everything look flat and close, like a movie set. It’s spooky to be out in the mist at night, where sound is muffled and you feel like anything — anything at all — could come out of it. [...]

We waited until the last minute, as usual, to make no decision on where to go this year. We had a few invites, but we had tentatively planned to buy a turkey and cook it ourselves. We’ve got masses of stuffing left over from last year, and we really needed to do something with them. [...]

I was fully prepared to cringe my way through. I’m not the target audience for this movie, but as musicals-for-tweens go, it was watchable (geez, damn with faint praise much?). I’ve only seen bits at a time, channel surfing over Disney on my way from Comedy Central to the Cartoon Network. But HSM 3 is [...]

Enjoy this while it lasts. I won’t be surprised to be paying four bucks again to haul my surfboard out to the beach next summer.