Christmas was a blast - we even got some white, in the form of a Christmas Day thunderstorm (complete with hail). Most of the items I received were flat enough to stuff into bags and carry on the plane, but a crock pot should await my return home.

The prime rib was fantastic, and the long visit with my sister - someone I hadn't seen in some seven years - was great. All in all, a wonderful holiday with friends and family.

1:51 pm | Comment (0) | Print | Categories: Adventures, Holidays

Yesterday morning I flew back to California for the Christmas holiday. I took a direct flight from Dulles to San Francisco on Virgin America, where I flew on a First Class upgrade. Though the flight was slightly delayed due to being overbooked and too heavy (some bags were even left behind), flying First Class was the best experience with flight I've had. And who can complain about a dedicated security line, a dedicated check in line, and a nicer lounge chair than I have in my living room? Certainly not I. And, being direct, I missed the mess in the Midwest.

My mother picked me up along with my brother, and we headed up to San Francisco where we visited Macy's, Neiman Marcus, Crate & Barrel, Apple, and other stores downtown. We finished the day off with a great dinner at the rooftop Cheesecake Factory, which is on top of Macy's. There we had outdoor seating (something you can only do in California in December!) and a wonderful view of Union Square Park.

Tomorrow we have a Christmas party planned, followed by a week of shopping and celebrating. I've bought my train tickets for when I head back home, and I'm looking forward to a great vacation. For those I'll see tomorrow I look forward to it; the rest of you I will see soon!

6:11 pm | Comment (0) | Print | Categories: Adventures, Holidays, Travel

Last night we got our first snow here in Washington. Though we'd had a few flurries in November, this was the first snow to either accumulate or make the streets wet. Some cars (like mine) that hadn't been moved in a while accumulated a quarter-inch or so, which was a perfect reminder to me that I needed to purchase an ice scraper - a task I performed last night.

Friday night my church went to Build-A-Bear and built stuffed animals to give to Toys 4 Tots. We then went back to the Fullerton home to watch Across the Universe, a musical built around many Beatles songs.

In two short weeks I'll be home for Christmas, and I'm looking forward to seeing many of you while I'm there!

9:54 am | Comment (3) | Print | Categories: Holidays, Washington, DC, Weather

I started the month in New York City, and ended it with a fantastic Thanksgiving meal surrounded by great friends. November is always a great month, with it's long holiday, the change in the seasons, but the absence of the December pressure cooker.

These buildings are big!

The Empire State Building from Madison Square Park.

Everyone is content!

Our feast.

10:13 am | Comment (0) | Print | Categories: Adventures, Holidays

Signing of the Declaration of Independence. John Trumbull, Oil on Canvas.

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. - That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, - That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. - Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. - And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

- John Hancock

New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

11:22 am | Comments Disabled | Print | Categories: Holidays

So...I'm another year older. Yesterday was my actual birthday, but I was busy and didn't blog.

Odd day, actually.

Internet was down at work. Had to go home to work. Then, we had thunderstorms last night (as seems to be so common around here). Enjoyed the day though.

The interesting thing about birthdays is after the fact they represent a lot of work - thanking those who wished you a great day, sending notes to gift-givers...not that I didn't mind the well-wishes and gifts, or wouldn't want them next year.

Anyways, to all the well-wishers, thank you. I think I got most of the texts replied to and the facebook wall posts answered, but if I forgot anyone, it wasn't on purpose.

I'm a year closer to a quarter century, at which point I'm fairly certain I will indeed be old.

10:07 am | Comment (1) | Print | Categories: Holidays

6:23 pm | Comment (1) | Print | Categories: Contemplation, Gratitude, Holidays

3:40 am | Comment (7) | Print | Categories: Holidays

JibJab thought the year was rough too. They put together a little ditty that I think is hillarious and I am posting here for you to enjoy. Continue Reading...

2:38 pm | Comment (3) | Print | Categories: Holidays

Well it's flu season and I have it...I think I caught it from work or something. Small fever, runny nose, headache, oh the fun of December! I'd ask my mom for some chicken noodle soup but somehow after spending five days in a box it just wouldn't be quite the same...

But I guess the good thing about having it now is that I'll be healthy for Christmas! Home in 10 days!

3:17 pm | Comment (4) | Print | Categories: Health, Holidays

Three weeks from now I'll be home for Christmas...

Oh how I can't wait!

4:05 pm | Comment (1) | Print | Categories: Holidays

I spent my first Thanksgiving ever away from home this year, and I thought I would take a moment to recap how it went. Claire and I helped Mike and Debbie's kids make butter using a really neat ice cream ball on Wednesday. Then after coming home, we I made rolls. Here are some pictures.
Continue Reading...

7:50 pm | Comment (5) | Print | Categories: Adventures, Holidays, Washington, DC

Tom the Turkey from the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (www. nyctourist.com)

10:20 pm | Comment (4) | Print | Categories: Contemplation, Gratitude, Holidays

7:41 pm | Comment (1) | Print | Categories: Adventures, Holidays