My favorite blogger, Fosco, recently visited NYC, and he had what sounds to be a fantastic dinner at Jean Georges.  (Fosco is one of those people whom I only know through blogging, but I think if we’d be friends in real life, too.) I’ve blogged several times about dinners at Jean Georges, and although my camera is a little fancier than Fosco’s, Fosco’s writing talent makes his entry about the experience much more satisfying.  Maybe I should just follow Fosco around, being his blog staff photographer.   Fosco is an academic, so I’m sure the pay would be excellent.

A few weeks ago, I wrote an entry speculating that Hermie from “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” was perhaps gay. Then, on Christmas Eve, look what I spotted on TV! It’s good to see that Hermie has come out. You go, Hermie!

Speaking of Christmas Eve, here’s a picture of our tree that night. Why are there so many presents?! Every year, we say that we’re going to go easy on the presents, and every year, it looks like we have six kids.

This year, AEJ definitely won the prize for Most Surprising Gift. Ever since we visited Graceland back in 2005, I’ve been obsessed with the white monkey sculpture that Elvis had in his TV room. Here’s a shot — it’s on the kick-ass mirrored coffee table.

I’ve wanted that sculpture for years. Every couple of months, I go online, searching for a copy. Somebody emailed me out of nowhere a few weeks ago (after seeing my blog entry about the monkey), telling me he had a copy, a gift from a wealthy old woman in San Francisco. I was excited for him, but this didn’t help me, since he wasn’t about to part with it. So imagine my shock on Christmas morning when I opened this!

That’s right — TWO monkeys! Each one is a little smaller than Elvis’s, but the one on the right is an exact duplicate other than the size. They’re awesome. I have no idea how AEJ found them.
Knowing that I had been wanting the monkey sculpture, but unable to find the exact copy, AEJ’s mom got me something just as fun — a crystal monkey. Loki loved the box…

… and the foam padding, too.

AEJ also got “Fallout 3” for me for Christmas. Holy crap, I love this game, and I can’t stop playing it. We’ve played 35 hours since Christmas, and I can’t get enough. It’s one of those things that screws with your brain, though, so now when I’m out of the house and I see things like a stranger’s desk or a fire hose case, I want to search it. Between the two of us, we also got “Animal Crossing – City Folk” for the Wii (AEJ is playing that as I type), “Boom Blox” (really fun — thanks to Kevin for recommending it), “Star Wars: The Force Unleashed” (super fun, wielding that kind of power), and “Little Big Planet.” The only real dud to us: Little Big Planet. The reviews were great, but the controls suck. It looks incredible, but it feels like it’s laboring to be cute, whereas “Animal Crossing” accomplishes that effortlessly. If anybody wants to buy a barely-used copy of Little Big Planet for PS3, let me know!

Gotta run — Fallout 3 is calling!