Sunday, November 25, 2007

Dusty the Snowman

The Thanksgiving weekend was very low-keyed for us. We went out Thanksgiving for dinner at McCormick and Schmicks, a very nice place that had an excellent turkey dinner. Most of the rest of the time was spent cleaning, since my sister Kittie and her husband David are coming down next weekend to go to Disneyland. (I get four free tickets per year to both Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure since I'm in the news biz).

So we dusted and dusted and dusted some more. Things weren't particularly dirty or unkempt, just dusty. With all the little dust bunnies we generated, we could have made a snowman.

So that's about it for now. Next week's entry should be much more interesting, since it will have pictures of Kittie and David and, I'm sure, at least one of Mickey in a Santa's hat.

Monday, November 19, 2007

East Is East and West Is West

The Premier Edition of The Hollywood Reporter (as in East Coast edition) was launched on Nov. 2. Since then, I have been working a Sunday-through-Thursday work week with at least two press deadlines every day. It's not as crazy as it sounds and, again, sometimes it is.

In that same period of time, I've been adjusting to the new schedule: On Fridays it feels absolutely wonderful to have the day off (although I went in this last Friday to cover for David D., whose wife had a baby on the 11th). But when Saturday night rolls around, I have the sinking feeling of having to work on Sunday. It's not too bad, though, since I can drive into work without the rush-hour traffic to contend with, and I don't have to be there until about 11 a.m.

Steve's doing fine, except for a hacking cough that comes and goes. We both have the Friday after Thanksgiving off this year, but decided to stay close to home, since my sister Kittie and her husband Dave are coming down to visit and head to Disneyland the next weekend, so we're taking the holiday weekend to clean house and -- just maybe -- put up the Christmas tree (no promises there).

And, because no blog entry should be without a photo, here's a shot of a coin-operated, accordian-playing mime outside the Pompidou museum in Paris. I dropped a two-euro coin in the hat and got maybe 30 seconds of music. That's the French for you.