The weird grey zone between Christmas and New Years'

So I'm back in SF after spending Christmas home in Vancouver. It's strange to be back since I'm not taking the days between Christmas and New Years' off this year. So essentially, I'm back at work with no one really here working, and caught in this weird grey zone that exists between these two holidays.

Why a grey zone? Well first of all, what the heck do you greet people with? You can't say "Merry Christmas" because it's over. And you can't say "Happy New Year" because it's not the New Year yet. So I end up asking people if they had a good Christmas. Or "holiday" to be more PC. But then it just get awkward when you feel like you have to tell the other person about your holidays.

Then there's the matter of the Christmas decorations. Poor Eddy (my Christmas tree) is still standing tall, but I don't know if I should be keeping him lit, or just gently letting him wither until Epiphany (Jan 6th)? (...which in case you didn't know, is the official Christmas tree take-down day.)

Anyway, maybe the solution is to just sleep through these 5 days next year... ;-)

Many "firsts", meeting Mr. Darcy, *the* tree, Uniqlo, and fedexing a cow by early AM

Just got back from another whirlwind trip to NYC. This time, I got to hang out with Regina and even met up with our two-time floor-mate Derek from good ol' Huntsman '03. Fun times had by all...let's see...some quick drive-by style highlights:

Many Firsts
- Wayne's first NHL game live and in person. The Devils lost though.
- Me and Regina's first "Christmas"-themed photo -- see below.
- Me and Regina's first dinner under $150.00 in NYC. Okay, take out or room service don't count.
- Regina's first Irish car bomb.

Meeting Mr. Darcy
Okay, so we didn't so much meet Colin Firth as we did just *see* him during intermission at The Vertical Hour. Bill Nighy and Andrew Scott were brilliant. Julianne Moore...not so much.

*The* Tree
We did it. Sucked it up and walked 8 blocks to see the darn tree at Rockefeller Centre. Took our first Christmas tree picture together and had a good laugh about the tree being fat and unshapely this year. :-)

Uniqlo
Giant. Japanese. Clothing. Store. SoHo. Cheap Japanese denim and cashmere. Go there.

Fedexing a cow by Early AM
Don't remember how the joke started, but Regina and I were laughing about a cow, and me getting her one for Christmas and shipping it by Fedex Early AM service. Anyway, you had to be there. That's what we talk about at 11pm while standing in a 30 minute line at Starbucks.

Anyway, on that random note, here are the pictures!

New York City - December 2006

There goes my chalupa addiction...

E.coli bacteria at Taco Bell. *sigh* Guess I'll have to stick to Popeye's. Link

Swiss journey days 2-5: epilogue

So the trip to Switzerland passed by faster than you can say 'Toblerone', so instead of just trying to recap everything, I'll send you straight to the pics. (See link below.) It was a pretty amazing (if not a little crazy) trip, which almost concluded with me purchasing a very very expensive timepiece at the duty free section of the Geneva airport (thanks for being the little angel-guy-thing on my shoulder who stopped me, Wayne). In any case, Switzerland was beautiful and I highly recommend it. Like I told my parents: "It's like Vancouver. Only without the Asian people." :-)

Switzerland - November 2006