We saw The Two Towers last night - great flick. I don't think I can wait until next year to see the Return of the King. Oh well, I'll have to tide myself over with Phish on New Year's ;-)

I hope everyone has a merry Christmas and gets everything they wanted from Santa. Time to make my yearly pilgrimage to Church...Kara and I were talking about protesting, but it didn't go over to well with my mom.

Ann and I did a wide variety of things today. We bought some toys for my baby cousins at Henry Bear's Park in Arlington. Then we ate lunch at Carberry's. After that, we tried to see The Two Towers, but were shut out. We decided to see Die Another Day instead - yes, it was pretty cheesy, but entertaining and worth seeing as a matinee.

Later we went to Anna's Taqueria in Davis Square for dinner. We then met Doug and Kristen at The Burren where the Tarbox Ramblers were playing. Excellent Guiness, excellent music, excellent company. All in all, a great night. If I don't post between now and then, have a great Christmas!

One of those gifts could be yours...

Saw a great movie tonight: Igby Goes Down. It stars Kieran Culkin, Macaulay's younger brother, as "a Holden Caufield for the 21st century" (that's my attempt at a lame movie review quote like they put on the posters). It was a great black comedy, especially if you enjoy seeing rich people behaving badly. The best part was it only cost us $6 each at the discount theater.

By the way, Trent Lott should resign. Not that it is that surprising that he is a racist, but I expect politicians to at least make an effort to lie.

Dubya's plan to prevent forest fires? Sell the trees.

So, it's December and it's certainly cold enough! There's already snow on the ground here.

I had parent conferences today. Here's a captured moment... perhaps we shouldn't laugh, but it's too perfect. There's a young man in one of my first grades, who we shall call "Charlie". Charlie is a very nice, smart little boy. He's a good reader and he likes math.

He does have a pretty severe speech problem..."father" sounds like "fah-wo", "try" sounds like "twah", "that" and "there" sound like "vat" and "vere", etc. A lot of the kids have trouble understanding him and thus, don't like to work/play with him. Charlie sees the speech/language pathologist at school to work on his speech.

During the conference, his mom and dad are INSISTENT to me and the other teacher that Charlie has no speech problems whatsoever, his speech sounds perfectly normal to them, they can detect no problems and are NEVER confused by anything he says. They ask about discontinuing the speech therapy, which we recommend against.

Towards the end of the conference, his mother turns to me and asks, "So, who is Charlie's new friend Woggy? Which first grade room is he in? I hear so much about him from Charlie and I would love to set up some time for them to play."

The young man in question is named Roddy, not Woggy.

When they heard Charlie's new friend was actually named Roddy, there was some serious blushing, but they still insist that Charlie's speech is as clear as a bell. Arggh.

On another note, we had a very nice Thanksgiving in New York, lots of family fun and good food, and, as a special treat, we got to see our friend Liz (at the tail end of a concert by the band Luna - they were pretty good -Dan), albeit briefly, but it was worth it, since she's now far away in San Fran.

Is Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale the best beer in the world? As I sit here and sip, I have to think that the answer is yes.

Mark my words - I will make a pilgrimage to Chico. It's one of the five pillars of beer geekery.