Goodby 07!

The year 2007 is about to end. Nancy and I will see the old year out, and the new year in, by joining some friends for dinner tomorrow evening. This has been our custom for several years now. Our friend, Les Marr, takes care of the reservations and there are usually about a dozen people in attendance. In past year's, after dinner, all of us would go over to another friends house, Dan Sofia, to celebrate New Year's. But Dan has moved from the area and now we just say our "Happy New Year's" to everyone at the restaurant and then leave for home to usher in the new year quietly. In all honesty, I'm not sure everyone in the group actually stays up until midnight. From what I gather, some are already in their pj's and tucked in bed before the Times Square ball reaches it's destination. All of this comes with ageing, I suppose. Nancy and I are not exceptions to the dynamics of ageing, of course, but we'll still be awake at midnight. We're use to staying up late. I've not heard whether or not Dick Clark will be hosting from New York this year. Maybe not. It's been difficult for him the last couple of years.

We're eager for the new year to begin. Two thousand and seven has been great - in fact every year since retirement has been splendid. But there will be lots of interesting things happening in 08 - like the presidential election, CES in Vegas (by the way that's next week), B Street Theatre and of course, several gatherings with the guys for our monthly Friday Night at the Movies. Here's hoping that it's all good and that everyone remains healthy in the coming year. Happy New Year to All!!!

Exercise Routine

I've just started the ninth month of my treadmill exercising. The challenge hasn't changed. It's still that of finding the will power to maintain the five day a week schedule. Energy wise I've gotten use to what it takes to complete the routine. Discipline wise - it is still very challenging. I'm now doing seventy two minutes - and according to the treadmill calculator, I burn around four hundred and eighty five calories and a little over sixty carbs each session. The distance is just a little under four and a half miles. My speed is nothing to talk about, but that isn't really my goal. The objective is to maintain a cardiovascular program that will help me maintain a certain weight and to keep the quarterly lab test numbers where they should be. So far, so good.

San Francisco Zoo

Since Christmas day there has been a considerable amount of coverage given to the recent incident at the San Francisco Zoo. This is understandable in light of the magnitude of such an event. My wife and I, along with our granddaughter, visited the San Francisco Zoo some time back, I think it has been a couple of years now, and I do remember seeing the tiger exhibit during our visit. Actually, it was my first visit to that zoo. As a result of having walked around the very area where the mauling took place, it is a bit surreal trying to comprehend what a person would do if such an animal were on the loose and chasing her or him down. At the time of my visit it certainly was not something that crossed your mind while you were walking the grounds. That now, has changed.

The details of exactly what happened are still unknown, but it is pretty clear that a twelve and a half foot fence is not enough to safely enclose a tiger and still protect the public from its predatory nature. Fortunately, however, it was enough on the day we visited - and for several decades prior to that. One thing is certain though. This situation will cost the zoo a significant amount of money, no matter what the outcome.

This will be an interesting story to follow.

Movie of the Week

The best movie from this week's exercise films was "Rounder". This is a really good role for Matt Damon. If you have an interest in how a professional card player thinks and the methods that are used to psych out opponents - then this is a movie that you will like a lot. The viewer will also gain insight into male bonding and the influence that male friends have over one another.Very entertaining throughout the entire movie. A thumb up from this reviewer.

Happy Holidays from The Singing Christmas Animals

Nancy got a nifty gift when she purchased some Hallmark Christmas cards. Check out the video:

http://s178.photobucket.com/albums/w275/jimdaviselkgrove/?action=view&current=Hallmark-SingingChristmasDogs.flv

Christmas at Kristi's and Brandon's House

Nancy and I had Christmas dinner with the grand kids today. Kelly, Nancy's daughter and Kristi's mom, fixed a wonderful meal - turkey, ham, potatoes, dressing, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, macaroni and cheese, deviled eggs, and I could go on, but you get the idea. We had banana cream, pumpkin and berry pies for dessert. What a feast!

It was Baby Brandon's first Christmas. He had a good time crawling around on the carpet and playing with all the wrappings left from opening the presents. T-Shirts, with his picture, were worn by Kristi, Kelly and Nancy (see blog pictures) at the Christmas gathering.

Kenneth brought his ferret, Digger. He was calm most of the evening and actually napped for awhile (Digger - not Kenneth).

The traffic was heavy going to Fairfield, but not so bad coming back. Kelly made Nancy and me some plates with food from the dinner meal - you know, so we could have second helpings when we got home. We ate it all. We're stuffed - but happy! We've had a great Christmas!

Got to check the paper for tomorrow's big sales. I may have to get up early to seek an after Christmas bargain. We'll see...

Merry Christmas to All

Nancy and I had a very enjoyable, albeit rather quite, Christmas eve. That's how we like it. We watched a Christmas show that I taped several years back (2000) - a Christmas musical performed by the Purdue University Choir. It's the best Christmas musical that we've seen and each year I think we enjoy it a little bit more.

We opened our gifts to one another a little later (see blog pictures) and afterwards we just sat and talked for awhile. We'll be going to Kriste's tomorrow for the annual Christmas dinner in Fairfield. I'll be taking my Sony camera with me, so I'll be posting some Baby Brandon pictures upon our return.

Christmas Decorations

Our Christmas decorating is about over. I'll be adding Christmas lights to the backyard tomorrow, on Christmas Eve. We ran out of blue outdoor lights, so today Nancy had to track some more down at Walgreen's. The interior decorating is done. I've posted a blog picture of our Christmas Village. It looks pretty good this year. Nancy used some different cotton that looks a little more like snow than what was used previously.

Nancy and I will exchange gifts on Christmas Eve. Then the next day we'll be going to Fairfield, for Christmas dinner at Kristie's house. It's Baby Brandon's first Christmas. I'm sure that there will be lots of toys from Santa. I'll post some pictures of Baby Brandon with all of his gifts.

Notable Movie

I've discovered one movie, from the ones that I recently viewed while exercising, that I would consider notable enough to comment on. There's others worth mentioning... but this is the one that comes to mind at this time. It's titled "Laurel Canyon". This movie kept me interested through the majority of the story, primarily because of the music and as the below Internet review indicates - it takes some interesting twists and turns:

Newly graduated psychiatrist Sam and his fiancee Alex move to Los Angeles for Sam's residency, into Sam's mother's house in upscale Laurel Canyon. Only problem is, Sam's mother is still there, supposedly finishing up a record that she's producing for the band of her new boy toy, Ian. She seems more interested in smoking pot and drinking than actually working, though. Alex doesn't mind, but Sam is quite upset. Alex starts off focused on her work (finishing a dissertation on genomics), but is soon distracted by the rock-'n-roll lifestyle going on around her. Meanwhile, Sam is equally distracted by beautiful Israeli intern Sara.

The actors make things believable and the setting reminded me of some happenings commonly associated with the sixties and seventies. I can relate to that.

You might want to check it out, if you like movies of this genre.

Friday Night at the Movies

We had a good gathering at our monthly Friday Night at the Movies. Nancy prepared a great holiday meal (meatloaf) and Dave brought a terrific dessert. It may have been a rum cake, we're not sure... but what ever it was, it was a scrumptious dessert. Tom gave Nancy and me an animated Santa to add to our collection. This one reads a Christmas story aloud.

After dinner we took a tour of our neighborhood Christmas decorations. Some of the houses in our neighborhood went all out this year. When we returned, Tom updated us, via a Photo Story slide show that Wendy prepared, on the goings on in China in relation to Wendy getting a fiancee visa (she got it and will be arriving to join Tom in just a few months - that is really great).

Tonight's movie is titled "Sweet Land". It's an uplifting movie about a German woman who immigrates to America and soon realizes that it will be quite a challenge for her to gain acceptance in a very devout Christian agricultural community. The story takes place right before the great depression and reflects the economic realities of that era along with the anti German undertone that prevailed at the time. The saga proved to be heart warming and the viewer ultimately sees the true ethos of what has always made America so different from any other country.

Everyone seemed to have a good time tonight and our gathering contributed to the continual promotion of friendship that is always the goal of every Friday Night at the Movies meeting - no matter how heated our discussions become. It's the only way I know to build an affinity among people with very diverse backgrounds. Sometimes you have to take some risks when addressing controversial topics. And that is what we try to do at our meetings. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Christmas Carolers

Our neighborhood kids were out caroling tonight. They did a terrific rendition of Jingle Bells. Their parents waited supportively out by our lamppost (notice the blue lights in the lamppost globes shown in the blog picture) while the kids stood at our doorway and energetically entertained Nancy and me with their heart felt Christmas carol. It was great seeing these enthusiastic youth demonstrating the spirit of the holidays and expecting nothing in return. However, we wished we had some Christmas cookies to give to them, but unfortunately at the time we were fresh out.

Nancy and I have finished our Christmas decorating with the exception of still needing to put up a few lights in the backyard. Tomorrow evening we will have the guys over for our monthly Friday Night at the Movies gathering. Nancy has a great meal planned (meatloaf with all the trimmings) and I will be serving may famous chili. More on that later...

PC Users Group Meeting

The "CES Boys" got together for an evening out. We went to the Plaza Hoff Brau for dinner. Afterwards we took a short drive over to the PC Users Group meeting. I didn't hear any complaints about the dinner meal. We all had something different - chicken, turkey, beef... it was filling and reasonably priced.

The PC Users Group Meeting was sparsely attended. It's hard to get people to come to meetings during the holidays. The presentation provided information about the new Microsoft Publisher software. It's a very versatile program and it will now save your documents as a PDF file - you know, just like Apple has been doing for some time now.

The blog picture shows Dave and Tom standing in front of the huge LED lit Christmas tree that is in the lobby of the building where the PC Users Group meetings are held.

Christmas Decorating Continues

As you can see from the latest blog picture, Nancy is still doing her Christmas decorations. The fireplace is done and our Christmas Village should be finished in a couple of days. I've still got to put colored lights in the globes of the front yard lamppost (the weather hasn't been very accommodating of late to complete that task) and I still need to run a few lights around the shrubs in the back yard. After that, we're done!

iPod touch Features

As mentioned on my blog yesterday, I indicated that today I would write a few early observations regarding my new iPod touch. I've read a lot of reviews about "touch", some more favorable than others, but I do have to agree with the reviewers consensus that the screen is, as you would expect, very prone to dust and fingerprints - but it's not all that big a deal - just wipe them off from time to time and move on. After all, it is called the iPod touch...right! You'll see the evidence of this situation, when you view the pictures I posted of my iPod touch to the right and at the bottom of the blog page.

The most important feature of the iPod touch, in my opinion, is it's Wi Fi capability and the Safari browser that controls surfing over the Internet. In a word, it's "great".It is the best browser that I've ever used with a handheld device. There is a slight learning curve to getting use to the keyboard and to "stretching" the web pages to make them larger or smaller, but other than that, it is very intuitive.

The ability to play You Tube videos is a big plus. The one's that I viewed played exceptionally well. I'm a big fan of You Tube, so this was a deal breaker feature for me. I've passed on purchasing other PDA type devices because they could not effectively display videos from You Tube. I also like the synchronization to iTunes and a feature which allows you to use your regular iTunes account to search and purchase videos,pod casts and songs from the Apple iTunes site via Wi Fi. I make purchases from iTunes rather frequently. I don't think that you can do this with the current iPhone. Maybe it will be included with the next generation iPhone that will be announced in January at Mac World. As long as you have access to a Wi Fi connection, you have access to the Internet and since this is a flash player it is almost as full function as a desktop computer. Remember, I said almost. There are attachments and certain java script programs that won't open, but all in all, this is a very versatile device.

In some ways, this little gadget is like a magnet. You'll see it setting on the table and you can't help but think about picking it up to do some quick web surfing (no waiting for Windows to open) or to just run through the menu . The keyboard is good enough to compose emails and the screen displays web pages, photos and videos at a quality that is said to be less than the one on the iPhone (although they have the same size screen), but better than what other similar devices offer.

The fun factor when using the iPod touch is high (that was one of my criteria for making a Christmas purchase) and the quality is better than I expected, especially for the price. I've only had it for one day... but at this point, I give it a thumbs up rating.

Early Christmas Gift

I usually buy myself some sort of an electronic gift for Christmas. By doing so, it rekindles the feeling that I use to get at Christmas when I was a kid growing up in Louisville, Kentucky. There was usually an exciting gift that came with each and every Christmas (except for the year that I got the world globe - which I still have) and the pleasure of receiving such a gift carried over into the new year. I always liked that feeling at this time of year, so just to make sure that it happens - I buy my own special gift. This year, after some product comparisons and some online researching, I decided that I would purchase an iPod touch. The "touch" is a rather unique product and one that fulfills the excitement factor, at least for an electronic gadget, quite well. I made the purchase today, primarily because of a sale that Best Buy had over the weekend. I've just started to check out my new iPod touch, so I'll provide an overview of the product at tomorrow's posting. My initial reaction, after a cursory run through of the Wi Fi capabilities, is that this is one really neat device. More later...

Apple and CES

CES is only about three weeks away. Last year Apple made an impact at Vegas CES, even though Jobs was no where in sight. Apple has their own new product kickoff each year at Mac World in San Francisco. Even with the thousands of electronic products that were at CES, probably the one that garnered the most interest, in regards to making it's 2008 debut, was the iPhone. You couldn't see one at CES, but that didn't curb peoples interest. There was as much buzz about the iPhone as there was about Microsoft's Vista, or any other product on display. Of course Bill Gates makes the initial keynote speech each year at CES, but it would be even more of an event if Stephen Jobs were to also show up (just like in the PC/Mac commercials).

This year Gates has the Service Pack 1 for Vista to speak about, but if Microsoft has any other significant software or hardware products on the horizon for 08, I'm not aware of it. Jobs will be announcing the second generation iPhone to his followers at Mac World. The big news is that the new iPhone will be 3G compatible.

I'm looking forward to checking out peripherals as much as anything at this year's show in Vegas. Archos may have a new an improved device and there will be some other gadgets that could be compelling must have items. There are also some new chips making their debut in o8 and several advances in HD TVs. It should be an interesting show. Can't wait to see it!

Wallpaper for New Computer

I decided to keep my wallpaper consistent for all of my computers. The new HP desktop computer (running Vista Home Premium), that was purchased from Staples a short time ago, now has the same artist as do my other computers. Each computer's wallpaper has a different painting by my favorite American artist - Edward Hopper. You can see a picture of the wallpaper (Nighthawks) that is on the HP to the right and at the bottom of the blog page.

Christmas Hats for All

Hats are in for the holidays. And as you will notice from the pictures to the right and at the bottom of the blog page, everyone is included when it comes to wearing the appropriate head gear - even Maxwell and Horace. Nancy found just the right sizes for them at the Dollar Tree store (not an easy task with Maxwell's ears and Horace's bald head). The hats are a perfect fit for both. Now they are in style for the upcoming holiday festivities. Happy Holidays to all - from our well dressed friends - Maxwell and Horace.

This Week's Movies

The exercise routine should be enhanced this week, with some interesting movies to watch while doing my hour and ten minutes on the treadmill. I'll be viewing:

Namesake

Sweet Land

Waitress

Looking for Kitty

The Score

Last Kiss

Laurel Canyon

I'll provide a short review of any movie from this list that I think is exceptional. I haven't seen Laurel Canyon in it's entirety yet, but so far it is proving to be a very interesting film. I may purchase it from Blockbuster.

Bear Table

Our Christmas Bears are now on display. Nancy placed the last ones on the hallway table this morning. You can see a picture of the bears, to the right of the blog page.

Christmas Tree - Winnie the Pooh

This year, Nancy decided on a Winnie the Pooh theme for our Christmas tree. Our great grandson, Brandon, is a big fan of Pooh...hence, the theme. You can see a picture of this year's tree, located in the living room, to the right of the blog page. We're only decorating one tree this year as Horace Housemen, the butler, now occupies the space formally used by our second tree. As they say, change happens!

Paul Carter's Christmas Gathering - Second Video

Another video, taken at Paul Carter's home during his annual Christmas gathering, can be seen at the link below.

http://s178.photobucket.com/albums/w275/jimdaviselkgrove/?action=view&current=PaulCartersChristmasGathering200-1.flv

Paul Carter's Christmas Gathering - Galt Lighting of the Night

Paul had lots of people arrive at his home tonight for the annual Lighting of the Night. He did a superb job of preparing for this gathering. Lots of preparation went into making this an especially memorable event. As always, the food was delicious and plentiful. Paul is a very good chef. His barbecue chicken was excellent and the steaks were juicy and tender - with a great barbecue sauce adding just the right flavor to the meat. Most of the guests brought something for the buffet. The desserts were impressive, many of them homemade. Nancy and I especially liked the almond ring that Paul's sister-in-law prepared (see blog picture to the right and at the bottom). Very creative - and even more delicious than a commercial bakery might make.

We enjoyed chatting with the many folks that we had not seen for some time. And of course, the Christmas parade is always an added bonus for this event. The parade passes right in front of Paul's house. Very convenient! Luckily the weather was more accommodating than usual this year - no rain.

We had a great time at Paul's gathering! Thanks, Mr. Carter, for all your hard work. It certainly was a gala holiday affair. You can see a short video of the Galt Lighting of the Night Parade by clicking on the link below.

http://s178.photobucket.com/albums/w275/jimdaviselkgrove/?action=view&current=GaltLightingoftheNightChristmasPara.flv

San Francisco - Christmas Carol

We departed, for what has now become an annual trek to San Francisco, around two o'clock yesterday - to see "A Christmas Carol" at the ACT Theatre near Union Square. The weather was a factor, since it rained heavily for most of the trip, but it actually made it feel more like Christmas. Better than a warm sunny day, for this type of an outing. We walked around Union Square and went into a few stores. While checking out the sites, we found a new restaurant that we really like. We probably passed it a few times during prior visits to San Francisco, but this time we decided to check out the menu that was posted in their window. Nancy zeroed in on the corn beef and cabbage (one of her favorite meals) and I saw that they served large steaks - so it was an easy choice - Johnny Foley's Irish House, here we come! It proved to be a good decision.

The decor in Johnny Foley's is old style San Francisco, meaning it probably looked the same way as it does now, some fifty or more years ago. Being an Irish pub, as well as a restaurant, it had more than a few beer drinkers around the large bar. The restaurant's seating area was almost an afterthought. Nevertheless, the noise wasn't overwhelming, like in many bar restaurants, and the food was top-notch. Nancy enjoyed her corn beef and cabbage and I had a fillet, with a side of mushrooms. The steak was tender, large and cooked to perfection. We capped the meal off with a delicious bread pudding for dessert and vowed that we would return next year for Christmas, if not sooner.

We did swing by the new Tad's during our walk down Powell Street. It has been renovated, but the menu looks the same. The new price for a complete steak meal is $13.49 - a little higher than before the remodel, but still not a bad price for San Francisco. I guess the CES boys and I will have to make a visit before too long.

The performers, all of them and especially the children, were great in "A Christmas Carol". We had very good seats, as I went online early this year to make reservations. The play is a great way to jump start a person into the spirit of Christmas.

The rain was really coming down as we headed home around nine thirty last night. The drive home wasn't too bad, but you had to take precautions. We counted four accidents, as we traveled down a busy I-80 East. People don't want to slow down, even in the heavy rain with low visibility. We just took our time and got home around eleven thirty at night. We were a little tired, from having gotten up early in the morning, so a good night's rest was in order. Got to get ready for a big weekend.This weekend we will be spending time with our friends and enjoying a couple of Christmas buffets. It should be a lot of fun.

The pictures from San Francisco are posted on the right side of the blog page.

Update - Christmas Decorations

Nancy is moving along nicely with the Christmas decorations. Kelly came over today and together Nancy and Kelly decorated the living room tree. It came out looking great - they did a good job. There's still more to do with the tree, so I'm holding off on the pictures, for now. However, you can see the animated Santa table that is finished. The picture is posted to the right. I'm doing some remote wiring, so everything can be started together. The Musical Christmas Carousel is also in place - above the Santa table. I'll show more of these decorations on my blog, after I record the video of the Santa's and the Carousel. It's kind of neat, because you can start all of them by using a remote control. That way you can have music and animation together... if you choose. Cool technology!

Exercise Movies

Below is my list of exercise movies for this week:

Factory Girl

Old Joy

Secret Window

Tape

The Prestige

Time

My favorite movies from last week were Owning Mahowny and 12 and Holding

Updates regarding this week's movies will be made at future blog postings.

Christmas Lights Are Up

Our grand kids came to our house today - to put up the outdoor Christmas lights. They did a good job. We didn't do anything too elaborate this year. We've got some icicles hanging from the roof gutters and some colored lights spread around in various places - shrubs, rose bushes, our big tree, etc. It all looks pretty good. Next comes the indoor Christmas trees and all the interior decorating that we usually do. It will take the rest of the week. We'll probably do a little each day.

It should really start to feel like the Christmas season this week. On Thursday, we drive to San Francisco to see "A Christmas Carol". We finally got a Fas Trak transmitter - so we don't have to go through the Benecia-Martinez and the Bay Bridge toll booths. Actually, Nancy got it for us - at the Costco store in Vacaville. With the new device we can just zip past the toll booths, by using the Fast Track lanes. The transmitter will charge our account. That will save some time.

While we are in San Francisco we plan to check out the new "Tad's" restaurant. I'm really curious about the changes. Tad's had stayed pretty much the same for about fifty years. It will be interesting to see what they have done to the place.

Teriyaki Time

The eventual discovery of a restaurant that has been in one's neighborhood for some time, but for some reason you just never got around to checking out, is kind of a neat thing. Particularly if you also discover that the meal prices are reasonable and for the most part healthy (at least compared to fast food offerings). Oh, and it helps if the meal is also tasty, right! We've recently found such a restaurant and it goes by the name of Teriyaki Time. It has been given and excellent review in the Elk Grove Citizen, actually it's been some time ago, but since we don't subscribe to the Citizen, we missed the review. Probably If we had read the article earlier, we would have ventured over to the restaurant much sooner. Nevertheless, we now enjoy Teriyaki Time's chicken and beef on a regular basis - at least once a week. It is very convenient to home and there is usually only a short wait to get served and to have your takeout packaged and ready to take home. The service is very good.

We have other restaurants in Elk Grove that offer good meals for take out, but none match the price and convenience of our recent discovery of Teriyaki Time. Hopefully, we won't get bored with their meals (that can happen). It's kind of nice to be able to agree on a quick takeout meal, without having to go through the laundry list of options for the dinner meal. I snapped a cellphone picture of the article that was in the Elk Grove Citizen about Teriyaki Time and posted it to the blog. It's too small to read, but I felt like posting it anyway. Good job, Teriyaki Time - and please accept our belated welcome to the neighborhood!

Movie Comments - 12 and Holding

Nancy and I watched and interesting movie tonight. The title is "12 and Holding". Michael Cuesta directs this very unusual and offbeat film about the ordeals of several children who are living in extremely dysfunctional situations. They devise very adult solutions to their dilemmas (both individually and collectively), while they try to find a way out from the complex scenarios that could easily challenge a person twice their age. The child actors are exceptional in their roles and after only a brief time watching the movie the viewer begins to see the young cast members as being much more mature than their chronological age would suggest. This movie is very different and really accentuates the talents of it's youthful cast. Nancy and I liked it very much.