Yes, I'm Alive!

Whew, talk about a long time since the last update. I've had my reasons, I swear! This is gonna be a longish update, so extra cookies to those who read it to the end. :)

I'm writing this from home, because I've been sick for the past week or so with the flu. I think I'm finally getting to the end, so I should be up for going to work tomorrow. I don't know why, but I always manage to get sick during my vacation. It sucks.

Return of the King

I didn't catch the Wednesday midnight showing for this, but we watched it on IMAX the Friday after it opened. It was soooooo good. The ending was a bit overlong, but I didn't really mind. About an hour and a half into it, Marc asked me what time it was. I showed him it was 10:30 (the show had started at 9). He was like, "ohmigod," and sunk into his chair. I thought he was going to throw a tantrum right there. He whispered to me, "I don't think I can take another 2 hours of this!" Luckily, the movie really picked up the pace at that point, and he survived. ;)

I've seen it twice so far, need to see it at least once more. I've finally watched the extended version of The Two Towers, and I wish they would've left a lot of the footage in. But I guess 4 hours is a long time to sit for a movie. ;)

Merry Christmas!

Marc and I spent the first half of our first week of vacation finishing up our Christmas shopping. We always say every year that we're going to get it done early, but I don't know who we're trying to kid. At least this year we managed to not have to shop on Christmas Eve. I'd say that's progress.

Marc and I exchanged presents early this year. Again. I blame Marc, he has no willpower. I think we exchanged them on the Sunday before Christmas. That's 1...2...3...4 days early. He got me a pair of tickets to the Lion King at the Orpheum in SF, and I got him these M&M ornaments and these fender strakes for the RX-8, which are these expensive 4 little pieces of metal. But they're pretty neat looking.

Christmas Eve, we had dinner at my parents' house. We spent Christmas day with Marc's family, and Christmas night at my aunt's house with my family. All in all, it was fun and relaxing, and it was good to spend time with family.

Stupid Flu

The Saturday before New Year's I started to feel achy all over, and I knew I was getting sick. We were leaving for skiing on Sunday, too. That Saturday we took Bandit to take his second herding instinct test. He did much better this time, as he was a lot less hesitant and more cooperative than last time. I'll have the video up tomorrow. Jan decided that he's ready, so we're going to start taking actual lessons soon. Fun!

Sunday morning we left for skiing with my brothers and my cousin Henry. We stayed at the Horizon Casino Hotel in Lake Tahoe, and Monday morning we went to Heavenly to ski. It was snowing like CRAZY. Only a couple lifts were open since the winds were so heavy, and we ended up leaving halfway through the day because the weather just got so bad. Plus, I was feeling pretty crappy from my cold. On Tuesday, we skiid a half day in the afternoon, which turned out to be really nice, as the weather was clear and the snow was perfect. We drove home that night, and I promptly passed out when we got home.

Anyways, that about wraps it up, the rest of my week was pretty much spent in bed, which sucked. Now I'm better and I think ready for work, which also sucks. Oh! I forgot to talk about Harvey. I'll have to put that in my next update, it's bedtime now. :)