Awesomeness

I am having a fantastic day! So thought I would haphazardly update the blog and wish everyone Happy Holidays! I've posted my final grades and the only gradegrubber seems to be the kid who got an A in the course but *still* wants to talk about the A- he got on the final. Same kid who thinks his 5-page "essay" on three pre-assigned sources should be published somewhere. I declined to suggest my blog to him. Goodbye Fall '09!! I hardly knew you.

We had an advent tragedy a week and a half ago. Monty, when he was home alone and free, found E's calendar and carefully ate all the chocolate goodness out of it, leaving only chewed up paper and bits of foil scattered around the apartment like an advent murder scene. A little ways down the hallway, I found an empty bottle of Cherry Tums so the little feller must have gotten a tummy ache from the insane amount of choc he ate and then took steps to remedy it. Apparently he'd heard that chocolate was bad for dogs too. E was distraught! She and Montoya almost broke up, it was amazing. While I took the Monster out to have chococherry diarrhea, E immediately went online to order another calendar but lo! the only ones left were uber-lordy. So now we have inspirational nativity quotes to read in filthy ways instead of just Santa ones.

I'm upset about Brittany Murphy! Seriously, wtf?! 32 years old! Wtf.

Has anyone seen Humpday? I can't decide whether I liked it and found it amusing or was annoyed and unsatisfied. Maybe it was the slightly Canadian quality of the whole thing. Thoughts? I'm also outraged and fascinated by the supreme overlaps between The Closer and Prime Suspect and would like to discuss.

Other things: I'm absolutely loving the Guardian's series on people who ruined the first decade of the millenium. Jessica Simpson, The Black-Eyed Peas, George Clooney, Harry Potter... true. I would have picked Seth Rogan instead of Michael Cera and I'm disappointed that the L Word hasn't made the list but maybe that's asking too much of the Guardian.

I know it's a rookie error to turn your blog into a photo album but fuck it, I've got a backlog and if not now, when??? Without further ado, I offer pics from the neighborhood that Montoya and I took when we were out for a walk in early Oct:
The pic of Camden Yards I took when we went to the Orioles game w/ B & I:

Jess & Anita came for a visit around Halloween which was AWESOME and these are pics that Jess and I took when we went for a walk to the harbour that day we got tanked by like 1 pm and decided to go for a walk (I have no memory of these):

The college tour, complete w/ the library FatBoy experience:
Mojito-fueled pumpkin carving night:

Guess which one is Jess' and which one is mine. The Klassic one in the middle was done by librarian friend.

And Anita's weird-ass awesome pumpkin:
Trip to the aquarium:
The jellyfish were supercool.

D in repose avec le chien:
Ultra disappointing trip to Ace of Cakes place (which is really close to the apt):
E's birthday duck (soon to be followed by E's Christmas duck):
AND I'm delighted to deliver the first menu from our now montly Restaurant Club with B&I. November restaurant was in DC, at the Birch and Barley:
It was absolutely GORGEOUS. I wonder if Balto selection will be able to stack up to the DC offering! We started the evening with some delicious beer of symbolic value:
Unfortunately, we had to cancel December Restaurant Club due to snowfall, but hopefully I can make a better report in January.

So our fall was actually pretty awesome!

Bring on Christmas!!!