An Orange Christmas

For the first time in several years, we stayed home for Christmas. Usually, we're either with Tim's family or my family (odd years with Tim's and even years with mine). But since my family decided to be out of town for both Thanksgiving and Christmas, that gave us the opportunity to stay at home.


Tim got the toilet paper. I got the paper towels. (12/24/06)

But the twist this year was that Tim's family came to visit us, at least the ones from the desert (Tim's sister and nephew stayed back East this year). They drove over in their RV, which they parked at a campsite not too far from here. To make things more comfortable for Tim's grandma, we put her up in the spare bedroom.


The spread. (12/24/06)

On Sunday evening, we had a nice hors d'ouevres buffet, consisting of a variety of meats, cheeses, and other tasty treats. Tim's Mom made her potato salad that I love. Afterward we opened up presents, always with the oldest person starting off and then working our way down (since Tim's nephew wasn't with us, I was the last one this year!)


Since it's not an odd year, we brought out the fake tree. (12/24/06)

The following day, we cooked a turkey breast, stuffing, mashed potatoes, the whole works, which we followed with a few rounds of cards, which was a lot of fun.



Grandma Jean's imitation of a reindeer. (12/24/06)

I can't say it was the most exciting Christmas we've ever had, but it was very nice. We might try staying home more often!


Playing cards on Christmas Day. (12/25/06)

The Hat - World Famous Pastrami

I had another Southern California first. For the first time in my life, I went to The Hat for a pastrami sandwich. We went there because we were taking my co-worker Kurt to lunch for his birthday, and that was the place he picked.


The Hat - World Famous Pastrami. (12/06)

The Hat is a regional Southern California chain known for having the best pastrami sandwiches this side of the Hudson River. The family-owned chain originated in 1951 when it opened a walk-up restaurant in Alhambra. Today there are 10 locations.

The signature dish is the Pastrami Dip, featuring a half-pound of pastrami soaked in au jus. So that's what I ordered. We also got an order of fries and an order of onion rings to share among the four of us (and we still had a ton left over!)


The pastrami sandwich was fantastic at the time. (12/06)

I have to say, the sandwich was delicious as I was eating it. But to be honest, I didn't feel all that hot the rest of the afternoon. It felt like I had a brick of pastrami sitting in my stomach (and in a way, I kind of did). I don't know if I'd do it again, but I'm glad I had it at least once.

Edward Scissorhands, The Stage Adaptation

Remember Tim's Birthday Party? The birthday gift he received from our pals Dana & Eric were tickets to Edward Scissorhands, a stage adaptation of Tim Burton's classic film. It's playing right now at Los Angeles' Ahmanson Theatre.


The poster just outside the theater. (12/16/06)

It was a unique show, with no actual dialogue or lyrics. It was simply dance and instrumental music, some of which was original, with other parts based on the original Danny Elfman score (I liked the Danny Elfman stuff, which was instantly recognizable, but the newly added music from another songwriter seemed rather incongruous).

The stage adaptation was created and directed by Matthew Bourne, who had a lot of acclaim about 10 years ago when he debuted an all-male staging of Swan Lake (it was featured in the film Billy Elliot).


A pic of Dana and Eric from our 2004 cruise to Alaska. (07/04)

Although Edward Scissorhands was a fun show, and we enjoyed it, I wouldn't exactly call it the greatest theatre event we've been to. But we had a good time. Thanks Dana and Eric!

Tim's Fender Bender

Here's something that's not so fun. Tim's car was caught in a bit of a fender bender while he was at work. The car was parked, and thankfully Tim was not in the car at the time. Apparently one of his co-workers driving a Ford Ranger hit another co-worker's Camry, which in turn bumped into Tim's Envoy.


The yellow Ford hit the blue Camry into Tim's Envoy. (12/15/06)

Fortunately Tim's car sustained the least damage. It looks like it's pretty much cosmetic damage (the other cars had to be towed away, since they were no longer drivable). Even still, I have a feeling we're dealing with at least $1,000 worth of damage.


The damage. (12/15/06)

Fortunately it was really easy to establish that the first driver was at fault, so at least we won't have to worry about paying the $500 deductible.

Christmastime at Disneyland

One of the things I missed the most during our Disneyland annual passholder hiatus last year was the holiday fireworks spectacular: Believe ... In Holiday Magic.


The crowd on Main Street waits for the fireworks. (12/14/06)

We finally caught the fireworks show tonight (for the first time in two years). Good thing too, because since we only had the less-expensive Southern California annual passes, we only had one more weekend to go before we're blocked out until just after New Year's Day.


It's snowing on Main Street. (12/14/06)

Christmas at Disneyland is a great tradition, because not only is it a great fireworks show, but they even make it snow on Main Street. Okay, I'm happy now.

Darn that Julie Andrews

A couple of months ago we purchased tickets to a benefit concert at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood called "Honoring Julie Andrews." It had a line-up of Broadway stars who were all going to sing songs that Julie Andrews made famous (since Dame Andrews no longer actually sings herself due to her throat surgery gone wrong). And one would expect Ms. Andrews to also be there.


It would have been a nice show. (12/06)

They do these tribute shows quite often in Los Angeles. They're almost always taped to be turned into TV specials. And the Julie Andrews event was supposed to be tonight. But unfortunately we got a notice last month that the event was permanently canceled.

Although Ticketmaster refunded the cost of the tickets, it really ruffles my feathers that the $7.50 processing fee was non-refundable. Thanks a lot Ticketmaster and Julie Andrews! :(

Company Christmas Party 2006

We had our annual company Christmas party this week. It was your typical company event, with lots of good food and drink, presents for the guests, and the long laundry lists of awards. Although I invited Tim, he decided to sit this one out, since he only knows a couple of people I work with (and all of them were the people organizing the party, so they didn't have much time to socialize anyway).


James with manager Dori and Sonia from Venezuela. (12/05/06)

I always enjoy a good Christmas party, since it gives you a chance to socialize with all your co-workers without having to talk about work stuff. Plus, we combine the event with our week-long training symposium for 30+ international sales reps from across the globe.

The reps are always lots of fun. I've always enjoyed getting to know people from other countries. Because many of them come from Latin America and/or Spain, it gives me a chance to practice my crappy Spanish. The other fun thing is that many of these reps bring unique gifts for the company, like a bottle of expensive sake that our Japanese representative brought along.


A really good rice sake. (12/05/06)

This year we also had karaoke, which was lots of fun. I of course dazzled everyone with one of my karaoke favorites: Orange Colored Sky by Nat King Cole. I also led a group number to Neil Diamond's Sweet Caroline.


"Y volver, volver .... vol-ver!" (12/05/06)

To close the night, all the reps from Latin America and Spain got up and we all sang the mariachi classic: Volver Volver. It was fun.

Disneyland with Scott, Tim, Flyer and Fryer

I don't think we've ever talked about our friend Scott in the James & Tim Blog. He's an old buddy of mine from the catalog company I worked for a couple of years ago (I was a copywriter and he was in the technical support). Even after we each had left the company, Tim and I would still hang out with him and his girlfriend Erin, mostly getting together for food and nights of DDR Max Revolution.


Scott on the Disneyland tram. (12/03/06)

The reason you don't see much of him in the blog is that at the time we started it in early 2005, Scott and Erin had just moved to Ohio for a well-paying position. Well, as things turned out, Scott is single again and now living back in California. And since he also renewed his Disneyland annual pass, we figured it would be a good opportunity to have some dinner and catch up. It was nice seeing him again.


"How YOU doin'?" (12/03/06)

I was excited because I would also be able to see Flyer, the 2006 National Turkey. This is the turkey that the day before Thanksgiving received a "pardon" by President Bush. The annual pardoning of the National Turkey has been a tradition since the days of Harry S. Truman.


Flyer gets his pardon. (11/22/06)

Starting last year, the turkeys have been flown directly from the White House to Disneyland where they would serve as honorary grand marshal of the Disneyland Thanksgiving Day Parade, after which they can be viewed at Santa's Reindeer Round-Up, a special holiday-themed area of the park.

After serving as the honorary grand marshal of the Disneyland Thanksgiving Day Parade, Flyer was put on display in the Santa's Reindeer Roundup part of Disneyland. Joining him was Fryer, the back-up turkey that they keep on hand in the event the main National Turkey isn't behaving.


Flyer at Disneyland, along with back-up Fryer. (12/03/06)

You may remember that I wrote in the blog last year that I really wanted to go see Marshmallow, last year's National Turkey. However, since we had just let our Disneyland annual passes lapse for one full year, I wasn't able to see Marshallow at the 2005 Disneyland Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Finally, in 2006, I had my chance. Thanks Scott for coming along!

Find James at the Gym

I've finally made the plunge. Yep, I've finally come to the realization that just going to the gym a couple of times a month and doing 30 minutes of cardio isn't exactly doing the trick. So I took the financially-painful step of hiring a personal trainer (a move inspired by our friend Jeff who has gotten some awesome results from his personal training program).


Where I've been spending more time lately. (11/19/06)

There are three main reasons for doing this. One, I wanted to develop a more effective workout that will help me lose weight. Two, by setting up appointments with a trainer, I'm much more likely to show up for the sessions and far less likely to create excuses not to go. And finally, because it drives me crazy to pay for something and not use it, I'm much more likely to take advantage of the program.

Since November 6, I've been working out with a trainer 3-4 times a week. Each session consists of 30 minutes of weight or resistance training, followed by 30 minutes of cardio (whereas before, when I was doing it on my own, I was only doing cardio). The reason for the weight training is to increase my lean mass, which will actually cause me to gain some weight at first. But they explained that with more lean mass, I'll increase my metabolism and burn more calories, which will make it easier for me to lose weight in the weeks to come.

The first week or two was painful. Literally. I would have muscle pain and stiffness for days afterward. Now that I've been doing it for a couple of weeks, I don't.

On one of my first sessions, the trainer had me do some sit-ups (the type where he holds your feet down and you lift yourself up). I don't even remember the last time I did a sit-up. Junior high, maybe? The first time the trainer asked me to do them, I managed to do a whopping four sit-ups. Within a week I was up to 27 sit-ups!


Some inspiration. (11/16/06)

To help motivate me, Tim put me on a program. For every 5 lbs. I lose, he's going to give me one new Cube World block (those little interactive blocks with stick figures that live inside, and when you connect them, they interact with each other). I got two of them just for signing up with a trainer. Although I haven't lost any significant weight yet, I am feeling better and healthier. So that's good.

Well now that I put this on the blog and told everyone I know, I guess I have to show some results now. Stay tuned.