2015-01-01 - Thursday - Gas prices

Karen and I went to BJ's and were amazed that the price for gas has dropped below $2.00 per gallon. It's nice to see it drop for a change.

When we left PA prices were still $2.50 per gallon.

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2014-12-31 - Wednesday - Lunch, sticks, and stick figures

Wednesday I went to lunch with my friend Joe. He stopped coming to Clayworks and I don't get to see him too often so we try to get together for lunch once in a while. As always, it was good to see him and we caught up over some sushi at Ru San's buffet.

While I was waiting for him in the parking lot I noticed the back window of the minivan parked in front of me. I really enjoyed the stick figure stickers.

Stick parody.

When I got home later I noticed that our annoying silver maple tree had dropped some more branches. It's always dropping something since it's very weak, fast-growing wood. This time it stuck in the ground and looked like some marker.

Binkley checks it out.

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2014-12-30 - Tuesday - Pots

We made it back to Charlotte after our holiday trip and settled back into the daily routine.

Tuesday I made some simple pots, but I have some plans for them. Stay tuned.

2014-12-26 - Friday - Christmas with David

On Friday we went to my parent's house to exchange presents with my brother David.  Afterwards David and I went to his favorite Thai restaurant, Bangkok Thai Cuisine where they draw little pictures on your plate in sauce. We both had the crispy eggplant and it was very good.

Later we went to his friend Mike's house where they have a jam session on Friday nights.

Like I said, it was a happy Christmas.

My plate.

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2014-12-25 - Thursday - Christmas

Christmas afternoon we opened our presents at my sister-in-law's house. It was a giggle-fest.

I hope your Christmas was as happy as ours was.

Meredith, Stephanie, Audrey, John, Justin, and Ryan.

Meredith and Stephanie.

Meredith is a bit camera shy.

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2014-12-23 - Tuesday - Leo

On Tuesday Karen, Stephanie, and I drove over to Hackensack, NJ to visit my buddy Leo and his family. We went to lunch at The Crow's Nest. It was a nice seafood restaurant not far from his parent's and sister's home. We had some great conversation and caught up with current events.

After lunch we took a ride over to Leo's and my old hometown of Bogota, NJ. I showed Stephanie my old house, Leo's old house, my grammar school, our high school, and several other landmarks. I don't know if she was impressed, but it sure was good to see some of the old haunts.

Leo and Stephanie.

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2014-12-22 - Monday - Casa del Toro

Monday I went with my brother to see the last Hobbit movie. The movie was very good but it left me feeling a bit sad as it was the end of the saga. David and I have been seeing the middle earth movies together since the first Lord of the Rings release in 2001. In years without a middle earth release we have seen other movies like the magical Hugo in 2011, but there was always another Tolkien movie on the horizon. Not anymore.

[sigh]

Time to move on to other things, but definitely the end of an era.

After the movie we went to Casa del Toro for a nice meal and one of our favorite appetizers: the deep-fried avocado. You can get it stuffed with veggies or ground beef and it has lots of cheese. If you like avocados, you really need to try it.

Fried avocado (from their website).

The poblano peppers in the Chile del Mar were pretty spicy that night so I ordered the tres leches cake to put out the fire. It was amazing and I had to take a photo of it as it was so festive.

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