I have a reputation for NYE's of epic fail. The worst being one where we went to a party thrown by a couple whose marriage imploded at the party, wherein he discovered she was cheating on him. (We did not know this at the time.) They spent the whole party screaming at each other. Everybody else pinged to what was happening earlier than us, so made their excuses and left well before midnight. So if we'd left the whole party would have bailed, so we and our one other friend spent the holiday perched on their kitchen counter, watching the ball drop on their tiny kitchen tv, trying to give them space and yet be supportive. Miserable. They divorced before the next year was out.

So, IME, any NYE celebration that does not end in divorce is a win! Which makes tonight's quiet night with the folks, and with the SO already asleep, fine with me.

We did have an excellent dinner. Dave is testing out new appetizers for future parties, so between him and my mom we had:
- spicy shrimp wrapped in snow peas
- sweet bell pepper boats with shrimp cream cheese filling
- golden gai be (chicken wings)
- chicken yakitori balls
- Merriman's wok charred ahi

And for dessert, pecan liqueur cheesecake. All yum.

Oh shit, news is telling me that a local pumping station lost power due to the wind, hence water. Which is really close to me. So I'd better go pee now.

Cardboard and kids are for the win: [link]

I have no Thin Man, but I DID get to see the latest Leverage ep on surf, etc. Yay. That was a nice surprise as one never knows when something will show up there.

My supper was lovely and I'm about to do the wash up with a glass of sparkling cider.

Netflix gave me Hidalgo today. Is is a good NYE option, or should I go with an old standby?

Damn, Liese - great menu!

I should disco-nap before heading over to a friend's party, even though I know I won't make it to midnight.

Damn, Liese - great menu!

Heh. And sticky rice, of course. The ahi turned out great. We called my mom from in front of the Japanese grocery to tell her they had some nice sashimi and did she want us to buy some.

Oh right! I should find some place to get sashimi tomorrow.

Liese, are you at your mom's place or have you made it home yet?

Kat, I just showed DH the cardboard rocket and he wants to know why we don't have one.

Cash, you should get one. I'm not sure more than one kid can fit at a time, but damn, it's fun.

They also carry the nicest toy kitchens I've ever seen.

Speaking of kitchens, K told me we can't give N his toy kitchen (currently in two 60 lb boxes in the dining room) until their birthday in March. WAH.

Lori, Marukai should be open tomorrow.

mac is down, I am headed that way soon - tomorrow we have plans with one of mac's friends and parent to the Planetarium and Museum of Natural History.

Tonight I am loading up the downloading queue - many of the LPs I want to get rid of are not on LALA (I think many are oop or never on CD, but they are torrents/torrented/available as torrents - you know, out there on the internet machine. And mac is almost done with some of the cartoons I had downloaded last year, so I am re-stocking for him also. Seems like a good thing to do overnight.

K told me we can't give N his toy kitchen (currently in two 60 lb boxes in the dining room) until their birthday in March. WAH.

OH! So you got it! Cool! Maybe you can stealthily set it up in the garage? (I can feel K giving me the stinkeye now.)