Sir Grump Munch

January 13, 2005

Post-Holidays, Pre-India

Hello, long time no contact. I had a good holiday season, got most of my holiday cards out on time, in fact most even got there BEFORE Christ's Mass. That's partially because this year's were pretty simple, not a lot of checking off boxes and writing long notes, I kept it simple on the Gocco tip. 2 layers outside, one inside, no bells or whistles. Here's a sample of this year's holiday card, for those of you who didn't get one or just want to see the images with the clarity that the Gocco loses.

My best present this holiday was the Juiceman II Juicer I asked Vanessa for. I got to meet Jay Kordich in 2001 when I worked at PETA and I've wanted to start juicing ever since. He's an amazing individual, as awesome and intense in person as on television. The juicer which bears his name is everything I expected, it works well, it's a bit of a pain to clean, but they all are I suppose. Surely has me buying a LOT more produce and reaping a lot more of the food value of those fruits and vegetables. I may end up getting some kind of a backyard composting barrel to make good use of all the pulpy waste that is a leftover. Here's a shot of the first glass I made, the recipe was a little over the top for my first attempt, but I give you fresh carrot-apple-parsley-celery-ginger juice.

Vanessa's dad stayed with us for almost a month, he was in town on business. He's a great guy and wasn't bothersome in the least. It was a pleasure to have him here and we welcome all friends to visit sometime. Her mom and sister also came for a few days around the holiday, so we had quite a full house here for a while. I went home for a long weekend at Christmas, exchanging pirate-themed gifts at Casa De Maniotes in Hammond on the way in. I saw some friends but not others. It was great to spend some quality time with my grandparents on both sides, as well as some cousins, pa, and other relatives. This was my first trip home after my dad sold the house, so I stayed with the Hackenbergs in Lawton. Odd feeling not to have a "home" to go back to, in the physical sense (though there's always hospitality and a roof over my head somewhere).

The big news is that we're FINALLY going to India, after a year of talking about it. We're leaving monday the 17th, flying Alitalia via Milan to Delhi, and coming back on the 31st. No, we're not going anywhere near the tsunami action, and we're not going to help out with relief (sorry!). It's partially a business trip for me to visit the LML (Stella) factory and some of our other scooter-related contacts in India, but mostly it's for sightseeing. It will certainly change my outlook on life, and I expect it to be two of the most challenging, eye-opening, shocking, enjoyable, intense weeks of my life (with a ton of great food!). I will take a few hundred photos and post a gallery when I get back, don't worry. In the meantime, if you want to see just how common Vespa-style scooters are in Indian life, check out some of the photos of India here. A bunch of pirates from my home state took those photos no less. Hopefully the weather will be a lot better there than it has been here, as illustrated by my snowy scooter.

The new Scooterworks website is coming along and should be "live" sometime in February after I return. More details later.

Did I ever mention how brilliant The Office is? It's my favorite thing to watch right now, I bought myself the DVDs and can't seem to tire of watching them. Many thanks to my co-worker Liz for turning me on to this series, it's absolutely, insanely good. Vanessa doesn't like it because she thinks it's too depressing and can't stand David Brent...she gave up on the series in episode 4 of the second season, as he was beginning to give his motivational speech to the group. I know it's painful, but it's totally worth it. And this The Office tribute website is full of great stuff.

Posted by pj at January 13, 2005 11:52 PM