This one's for Bryan

LL and I are Crest people. In fact, we always get Crest Multi-care (As a side note, I don't understand the variety of toothpaste specialties...like why should you choose between "fights plaque" and "fresh breath"? I figure "Multi-care" means that they went ahead and just threw everything in, right?).

Anyway, our friend Bryan (who we just stayed with in New York for New Years) recently got a job at Colgate. Now he doesn't really care what kind of toothpaste we use (well, except maybe in the sense that we are representative of average consumers whose aggregate choices ultimately determine the fate of the Colgate-Palmolive Company...but we weren't thinking of that so much). But since we brought our funky Crest Multi-care all up in his Colgate-funded bathroom, I figured we could maybe give old Colgate a try. Fortunately, Colgate has a "Total" care variety, so we avoided having to choose between gingivitis, plaque, bad breath or whatever other mouth horrors abound. Honestly, I think that if they didn't have a "Multi-care" equivalent, it would have been a deal breaker for us.

So, here I am, standing proudly with my Colgate Total. We still have a tiny bit of Crest left, so it might be a day or two before we get to try it. But I'll let you know how it goes! Aren't you glad to have that to look forward to?

Movie Night: Watcher in the Woods

Last night Liz and Bart came over to see Watcher in the Woods. It's a Disney movie and it's supposed to be scary, but really it's mostly just perplexing (I'll try to give a summary in just a sec). The whole idea for this shindig started when LL's brother Lawson alerted the rest of the Box family that there was a DVD version of the movie available AND it had an alternate ending involving aliens. Apparently they used to watch this when they were kids. He also said the movie wasn't as scary as it was when they were five.

So...the movie is about this family that moves into a creepy house in rural England. There are two daughters. The older one keeps seeing visions of a blindfolded girl, and the younger one frequently channels some otherworldly spirit and write things backwards on mirrors. She's a lot like the little kid in The Shining. Eventually, they decide that they need to solve the mystery of what happened to the blindfolded girl, which involves rounding up three of blindfoldilocks's childhood friends from 30 years ago and reenacting a seance. It generates a lot of wind and some flashes of light and shatters some windows, but the girl is rescued and reunites with her mom. She hadn't aged at all because she was frozen in another dimension. In the alternate endings, the ultimate outcome isn't any different, but they expand on the rescuing mechanism and actually show this dopey puppet-alien-skeleton-thing take the older daughter to the other dimension where she pulls blindfold-girl out of a 1980's computer graphics festival.

Anyway, we made chili and put out a vegetable platter (I got a new knife for Christmas, so I'm intent on chopping as many things as possible. For the platter, the knife got its first taste of beets and jicama! Very exciting). We also made gingerbread for dessert, and Liz and Bart brought over some cornbread. Yum!

First, here's the vegetable platter and the DVD box. Scary, isn't it? It's actually Betty Davis in the er...twilight of her career. She has terrible wispy hair that sticks straight out in all directions, except in the alternate endings where it is nicely styled.

Oh yeah...So when we were in Roswell (during our cross-country drive at Christmas), LL bought herself a little blue alien t-shirt, and I didn't get one. BUT, it turns out (unbeknownst to us) that my brother drove through Roswell that same day and bought me a souvenir and gave it to me for Christmas. So now we have the option of theming out when we watch movies involving alternate alien endings.

This is Bart at the end of the night. He's ready to go. They walked over in the rain (troopers).

And here's Liz, also getting ready to head home. We offered to let them take our car, but they opted to hoof it. They had umbrellas.

And, alas, here is what awaited me in the kitchen this morning. Booo. It's honestly not bad, plus we have leftover chili. In fact, I'm going to go find the leftover chili right now!

Meeting Scarlett!

Today we drove into SF to visit our friends Shannon and Megan, who just had a new baby girl named Scarlett (well, she's 4 months...so, you know, pretty new). We met her for the first time today! We also got to check out their new apt, which is super cool.

So this is LL and Scarlett. There was another picture where LL's eyes were open, but Scarlett was blurry in that one. Sorry, LL.

Here's Megan (and Scarlett), LL and Shannon all heading out for a picnic in Alamo Square.

Here's Scarlett at our picnic. Alamo Square, as you may recognize, appears in the opening credits of Full House. There were also a bunch of tourists taking pictures. People asked us (because clearly we looked like knowledgeable folk) which of the houses was 'the one' that the Full House gang lived in. We told them none...no house in San Francisco has a living room as large as the Tanners.

This is Chino, S&M's dog. He could afford to act tough because the leash wouldn't let him anywhere near the rottwieler. In fact, this picture kindof deceives you, perspective-wise. Chino is not much bigger than the basketball. Luckily, they pretty much ignored Chino, who actually lost interest pretty quickly himself. Dogs.

Here we are at the end of the picnic. Doesn't this park have a sweet view of the city? It's only 4 blocks from S&M's apt. We're pretty jealous!

Hopefully we'll be able to move into the city this year and live near a park. We think this will make our visitation stock go up so that maybe people will come see us.

LL and Caleb

NOTE: These Posts have been shuffled a little bit. Alert blog reader Ted (smartest intern ever) informed me that I can effectively rewrite history if I want and change Post dates at will. So I have make sure they are all in chronological order. Schwew!

Today**, LL went to Dallas for some work training, which I'm sure was thrilling for everyone involved. But, while she was there, she got to see her new cousin (er...once removed) Caleb just a couple days after he was born.

This is LL, holding Caleb, and Lynette, Caleb's mom.

We've also got this close-up of Caleb taking a snooze in Leslie's (LL's mom) arms. He's little!

** See how it says "Today, ..."? Well it's not really today. It was like 10 days ago. But Ted has unshackled me from such constraints. I'm even thinking of showing you all how I predicted the score of yesterday's Giants/Packers game way back in December!

Back at the house, trip recap

Today is our second day back from our big Christmas and New Year's trip, meaning it's the first day where we're somewhat in sync with everything. We stumbled out of the gate a little: I forgot to set the alarm clock for this morning, and LL hopefully messed up something too so that I don't look like the only slacker. But before we get too far along in the New Year, I thought I might summarize all that Team Daigle accomplished over the past two weeks.

Just a warning...we watched High Fidelity last night, so I keep thinking in terms of lists. Sorry. Maybe you can read this in John Cusack's voice, though that's sortof pointless since he has as indistinct a voice as I can think of. Here goes...

1. We brought the Xterra to a body shop for repairs and got a rental car to get around in (note that damaging the Xterra by trying to run over a Prius has not been listed as an accomplishment).
2. Drove rental car to auto parts store to get battery and windshield wipers, and installed them on the Jetta.
3. Drove Jetta 2,200 miles across country.
4. Between Dec 24 - Dec 27: a) replaced Jetta's cracked windshield, b) got Jetta inspected in Texas, c) got Jetta registered in Texas.
5. Left Jetta with LL's Dad in Dallas and flew to Laguardia via Midway.
6. Had awesome New Year's in Brooklyn.
7. Flew from JFK to SFO, where we caught the BART to the Caltrain station, where we caught a train to Palo Alto.**
8. Unpacked and washed all our clothes.
9. Returned rental car and got Xterra back.
10. Took down Christmas Tree, yet again recovering all 24 glass icicles (boo-yah), 6 strands of lights, etc. Hacked tree in half per curbside pickup requirements.

** While technically correct, item 7 is a gross simplification for the utterly painful experience that the BART laid on us. The whole two-week trip, up to this point, was smooth. Flights on time, no line at the Travis County Tax Office to register the car, very little road construction considering the mileage we covered, etc. I guess we should have known what was coming...the travel gods never let you off this easily. Well the last 15 miles of our around-the-country trip took more than 2 hours. I blame the following two things: 1) an unforgivable lack of signs explaining that, as of Jan 1, 2008, the BART would no longer go from the airport to the Caltrain n station, and 2) ...well, I guess the signs are the only problem, but it was so egregious that it just seems like more things.

Anyway, all in all, we rode in cars, planes, subways, half-assed subways (stupid BART), trains, and airport trams. I'm a little sad that we didn't take a ferry in NY since that would have really rounded out the list, leaving only obscure things like pedi-cabs, horse-drawn carriages, litters (which would be sweet), space shuttles, etc.

New Years Party

The New Year's party was at Amy and Nisha's place. They also live in Brooklyn, but pretty far from Erin and Bryan's where we were staying.





Here is Bryan in transit with drinks. We eventually got a cab, but they were hard to come by. Basically, getting a cab is usually no big deal as long as everyone doesn't need one at once. But on New Years, EVERYBODY needs a cab, so you really have to fight for one.



One of the first fun surprises of the night was the appearance of Danny, who is Fish's brother (Fish is a friend in Austin, and he makes the best fried chicken on earth). Danny is an architect in New York. He was clearly overdressed for our humble gathering, so he only stayed for a bit before getting on the subway and heading to something worthy of the sweater-and-tie look. It was great to see him though.


Our party was great...I'll have to post all the pictures on Picasa soon. When midnight finally rolled around, we walked over to Prospect Park (Brooklyn's "Central Park") and counted down and watched a fireworks show.



The fireworks were pretty good. I took a lot of pictures and most of them look stupid. This one isn't the best that I took, but it's zoomed out and you can see the crowd gathered around the park entrance.

There was a large Christmas tree-shaped light display at the spot where we stood to watch the fireworks. This is a picture of LL in front of it, still recovering from the New Year's kiss I gave her. I hope that dreamy look is one of twitterpation and not the result of all the really awesomely stinky cheese we were all eating that night.

Anyway, back at Amy's the party rolled on. I got this really cute picture of Erin. Somehow, she is perfectly vertical in reference to the camera, which isn't vertical in reference to anything else in the room. I don't know how this happened.

These two pictures go in sequence. In the first, Erin casts her line across the room toward Wade, who chomps down on the hook. In the second, I believe Wade is trying to recreate one of those pictures where the fish jumps out of the water for a split second in order to pose for a bass fishing magazine photographer. Supposedly this routine comprises a dance. Both Erin and Wade are from Liberty, Texas, and it was nice of them to share their local rituals with the rest of us.

I think this picture was taken around 4:00 am. I can't belive how long the party lasted.

Finally at about 6:00, we made our way back across Brooklyn to Erin and Bryan's. LL and Erin are dwarfed by a trash pile that I guess will get picked up someday. Even though it was so late, getting a cab was still almost impossible. Luckily, we got a ride and everyone got where they needed to safely.

Happy New Year 2008!

A fine day in Manhattan

New Year's Eve was a busy day. We sort of officially kicked things off when Team Amy (Amy, Andy and Wade) met up with Team Erin (Erin, Bryan, Clay, and LL) at our strategically chosen rendezvous point (the Dunkin' Donuts in the subway station beneath Rockefeller Center). We then proceeded on a speedwalking tour of Manhattan. The first place we stopped was at Amy's law firm (Venison and Elks...no that's not really what it is, but it sounds a lot like that).

This is Amy's super-swank office where she works every day. Here, I asked Erin and Amy to pretend to be working. They are both lawyers, meaning a real meeting might look sortof like this (minus the Red Sox cap...only Yankees caps are allowed in NY law firms), but Erin works in a different firm. So if this had been actual work, the photo you just observed would have been accompanied by several hundred pages of legal agreements intended to make sure Erin does not use Amy's copy machine.

The next place we went was the Museum of Modern Art (aka "the moma," pronounced MOE-mah). But unfortunately, we could only get three tickets. It was decided that Andy, Wade and I go, since we had never been. We tried not to laugh too much at the patrons who gazed searchingly at, say, a plain white canvas (yes, there were some). But there were a few things I liked. Here are some where my pictures didn't come out too badly.

I don't know what this is supposed to be, but it looked cool in person. Of course, had the Moma been vandalized the night before and half of the paintings graffitied, I would not have been able to tell.

This is just a wire-frame stick figure and its shadow.

This is also just a hanging "wind chime" kindof thing with its shadow below. I like it because it reminds me of recursion (in the dorked-out mathy sense), but the recursion breaks down quickly if you scrutinize it...I like that about it too (that it's not too patterned). I also think that you have to build something like this from the bottom up (make the lowest-hanging pieces first), otherwise you will never get the balance right.

This is one of those things that just looks cool. I don't really think you're supposed to read much into it. It makes me think of the Jetsons. Or of a martini. Depends on the day.

After the Moma, we headed over to FAO Schwarz. It's the huge toy store where Tom Hanks plays Chopsticks on the over sized piano in the movie Big. That piano is still there and a couple of pros were playing Chopsticks when we walked in. They're bound to hate that song by now.

There was a really big Harry Potter display. We didn't buy anything, but we did try on some hats.

LL is being sorted (I'm sure you reconize the Sorting Hat) and I'm just smiling like a dufus.

This picture is of the shadow of LL and I falling across the Strawberry Fields memorial for John Lennon in Central Park. The memorial is right across the street from the apartment where he was killed. But that's not why the area is famous...

...It's famous because it is where Erin and Bryan got engaged. Astoundingly, Wikipedia doesn't say anything about Erin and Bryan and pretty much focuses on the whole Lennon part. If I get a chance I'll edit the Wikipedia page to more fairly reflect the significance of this place. Here, E&B relive the moment, looking just as in love as they were at the age of 12.

Let's see...we saw a whole bunch of other stuff on this day too. We walked around the West Village and the East Village. We also visited Ground Zero. At the moment, it's just a gigantic construction site. One thing that's really amazing is the sheer size of the empty space left where the WTC buildings were.

Here I poked my camera through the fence and took a picture of the construction. These guys are working hard, even though it's New Years Eve.

After that, we walked through the oldest parts of the financial district. Here, LL and I pose in front of the NYSE on Wall Street. That's right...it's a One Way street. In fact, it's also narrow and crooked, not that I'm trying to overanalyze it or anything.

Thai food

We spent all of this day in Brooklyn. We started at Emily and Jordan's for mimosa's and ended the day just a few blocks away at a Thai restaurant. The Thai place was BYOB, so we stopped and bought some wines and beers. It actually rained a little too, so we were doing our best with the few umbrellas we had.

This is LL at the restaurant. She ordered Pad Thai because she orders Pad Thai at every Thai restaurant she visits. It's her way of sizing the place up.

Here is Andy. There wasn't much light, so I needed to hold the camera really still and use a long exposure. Basically, I can't belive that I had the camera still enough for this to come out.

This is just a shot where I put the camera on the table (thus avoiding failure at holding the camera still again) and let it take in the place. It was a really nice little restaurant.

After dinner we went to a bar called Abilene not far from Erin and Bryan's. We just went because Amy and Andy (they are siblings) are from Abilene, TX. Plus LL and I went through Abilene on our drive across the country a few days before, so it gave us a chance to reminisce.

So here is Andy giving his approval of Abilene. You can see the camera flash reflection on the glass door. Unfortunately, the glass door was not all that apparent to several patrons during the night who thought they were just walking through a curtain and went head-first into the door. It was really pretty funny...we'd be sitting there talking and hear a 'bang!' and look over at the door were some poor guy would be getting riduculed by his friends for just having head-butted the exit.