There's A Christmas Party At The Home of Dr. K...

Merry Christmas!

Here are photos from our Christmas party. Soooooo much fun! Great food, great people, and for once we were able to get through the singing of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" without a hitch, thanks to the creative sign idea of Your Humble Observer's mother.

The Prettiest Sight to See is the Holly That Will Be On Your Own Front Door

It may not be a winter wonderland, but Fresno and my home is the only place I could fathom spending this holiday. Hats of to Your Humble Observer's mother who managed to decorate every nook and cranny of the home. God bless you with the Christmas spirit and everything that you do!

Here is a sampling:




Big Christmas party pictures to follow...

Writing On The Wall - WWJB?

Yes, oh ye Mr. Prius-Owner-Man, please tell me! I'm sure you have a lot of enlightening things to say. What, with this incredibly thought-provoking statement you're making...?

...if only in my dreams.

One man, a plane, and exploration of the depths of his soul. From NYC to FAT. A journey in song.

The past week has been rather nerve wracking for Your Humble Observer considering the snow storms moving through the Northeast. Nonetheless I kept faith that come Saturday I would be airborne toward home. I knew that if I could just get off the ground from JFK, I'd be golden. (A set-up such as this one can only be foreshadowing the exact opposite. Keep reading, I bet it gets interesting.)

12/20/2008 (all times Eastern)
0800 - Saturday morning found Your Humble Observer alert, awake, and oriented x3 , ready to fly home. The weather had settled down and all indications were that there would be no problem leaving New York that afternoon. "Oh there's no place like home for the holidays..."

1300 - I arrived at the airport 3 hours early, just in case. I realize that you're always gambling flying this time of year, and I accepted the risks and consequences of doing so. Things are looking good. "It's the most wonderful time of the year..."

1525 - 30 minutes prior to boarding, we found out the flight would be delayed an hour. No problem! I had 2 hours in between flights in LA, and I figured they'd be able to make up time in the air. Still cheery! "Have a holly-jolly Christmas..."

1755 - 2 hours after the flight was originally ready to depart, I was still waiting for the slowest cleaning crew in the history of vacuums to get done with the plane so we could board. Starting to get a little worried, "But as long as you love me so, let it snow..."

1830 - As the plane is taking off, all indications are that we will arrive in LAX literally 5 minutes AFTER my flight to Fresno is scheduled to depart. Yikes! Still have hope!!! "Run, run, Rudolph. Santa's gotta make it town..."

1837 - The captain comes on to inform us that the plane is facing 200 MPH headwinds, putting our arrival time a firm ONE HOUR after the original arrival time. "They should never give a license to a man who drives a sleigh and plays with elves..."

1838 - I begin to doubt that I'll make it home tonight "I'll have a bluuuuue Christmas..."

2359 - As we prepare for arrival at LAX the flight attendant mentions that there is a connecting flight to FAT at gate 44J. HURRAY!! "Joy to the world..."

12/21
0014 - Disappointment once again, as I find out that the "connecting flight" is actually the flight at 7 am the next morning. "You better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout..."

0100 - The ground shakes as all restaurants, cafes, Starbucks, bathrooms shut their doors at once as the terminal closes down. I'm left with a terrible chicken sandwich from Burger King as they had run out of LITERALLY everything else. "Siiiiiiilent night..."

0352 - I'm sitting here finding clever ways to amuse the readership (and myself), awaiting 0745 Pacific to arrive so he can go home. "Want a plane that loops-da-loop, I still want a huuuuuuuuuuuuula-hoooooooooop..."

I want the readership to know that during the course of today's events, I never gave up (until the Burger King incident), I stayed positive, never got frustrated, angry, snippy, or pissy at any time. I maintain my Christmas spirit to the last.
"Have yourself a merry little Christmas, let your heart be light. From now on our troubles will be out of sight."

And what's the moral of this story? No matter how bad things start looking:
1. There is nothing worse than a Burger King Chicken Sandwhich
2. There's always worse... Denver

Christmas Sights/Long Overdue - The Home Front

I've been promising photos of my apartment for 3 months now, so I figured I would just combine this post with images of my apartment decorations. While normally I would have only taken pictures after thorough cleaning and tidying, this time, I'm over it. So here's the pad, in all it's glory.
The entry way into my humble abode...
...where you are promptly greeted by Santa.

Off the main entry is the kitchen. No Christmas here
Next up is the living room. Not much to look at, but it's comfy enough for me. Note the cute garland above the window. This is also where we find...

...my beautiful Christmas tree. This year I decided to go a little off course and decorate with very earthy colors. I went with a beautiful brown, white, and gold theme. Normally I'm not in favaor of straying from traditional Christmas colors/themes, but I happened to fancy this one.

Writing On The Wall - Because Grammar Is Soooo 1800's

Oddly enough, the most disturbing thing is not the writing, but the image of the baseball umpire giving carotid massage to James Bond and Peter Pan's Shadow.

Christmas Sights - The Hood

Here are the decorations from a typical Brooklyn/Queens avenue. The symbol in the middle changes depending on the persuasions of the neighborhood, but the design is fairly constant.

These pictures in particular are from 4th Avenue and 86th Street in Brooklyn.
The first picture says "86th St. Bid Welcomes You" Now, I realize that makes no sense, but I think they were going for some variation of a welcome message. "A" for effort, not so much for execution.

Treks & The City - Episode #3

September 6, 2008

Windows To The Spirit

Part of the joy of spending Christmas in New York City is being able to walk around in a true winter wonderland. From the heart of Jamaica Queens to 5th Avenue in Manhattan the season is alive and it is breathing Christmas at 20 breaths per minute (terrible med student joke, I apologize)

Part of the Christmas tradition in this city is the department store window displays. The stores all pick a theme and set up displays in consecutive windows that are meant to dazzle the eyes and warm the soul. Some are fun, some are cute, some traditional, and one in particular that's just straight frightening.

A couple friends and I decided to take the walk, beginning with Bloomingdale's and ending up at Macy's in Herald Square (34th St. & Broadway). The night ended up being as magical as it gets, with people walking around, trees, lights and decorations everywhere, and to top it all off, the first snow-fall in the city. I was practically giddy...I even clicked my heels at one point.
Many pictures were taken, but I've picked only a representative sample as this post would be a mile and a half long were I to include all.

Stop 1 - Bloomingdale's (59th St. & 3rd Ave)
A cute, simple display based on the songs from a Tony Bennet Christmas album


Stop 2 - Bergdorf Goodman (58th St. & 5th Ave)
Excuse my French, but what the HELL? In case you're wondering, no you're not hallucinating, those are two polar bears boxing, a walrus photographer, and a wolf announcer. What about this says Christmas?


Stop 3 - Saks Fifth Avenue (48th St. & 5th Ave)
A fun display describing the life and times of a snowflake wanting to be more than just a regular old snowflake and trying to express his individuality.



Detour --> Right across from Saks is Rockefeller Center with its amazing Christmas display. We were momentarily (or perhaps longer) sidetracked by the allure of the Granddaddy of all trees (see below).

Detour --> Dinner near Rockefeller Center, then a short trip through Times Square...just for fun.

Stop 4 - Lord and Taylor (38th St. & 5th Ave)
An exercise in elegance; very classy display with traditional themes.


Stop 5 - Macy's (48th St. & 5th Ave)
Another fun and cute display inventing creative stories about how various elements of Christmas, such as snow, tinsel, etc. are made.



Favorite Display Award - Lord and Taylor for their beautiful, innovative design and use of traditional Themes

Most Fun Display Award - Saks Fifth Avenue for their cute snowflake story

Most Innovative - Saks Fifth Avenue. Because it takes some creativity to take a new story and turn it into a living creation in window form.

Scariest/Least Relevant Award - Bergdorf Goodman. First off, your name reminds me of Lyme Disease. Second, scary looking animal/human mutants don't quite give me the warm fuzzy feeling I'm looking for.

All in all, lots of fun, and I can only hope I get a chance to do it again...

The First Snow

Ok, so this wasn't the first time it snowed during my time here, but it is the first time it stuck. Photos are from just outside my apartment building.