HNY

Hoping everyone has a spectacular New Year. I saw this photo of fireworks over English Bay in Vancouver, B.C., and it made me miss the West Coast a bit. English Bay is beautiful -- I love Vancouver. Maybe a summertime visit is in order.

No. What am I saying? If I'm going anywhere cool in 2008 it's Italy.

Pawleys marshes

Decided to head south this afternoon to check out Pawleys Island, a little resort town about 40 minutes down toward Charleston. The afternoon light was so pretty, so I went to the marshes to take some pictures and stopped at Huntington Beach State Park for some more. Actually, I was hoping to see the alligators on the freshwater side of the park, but they were not to be found today. I saw big blue heron and some brown pelicans, though. Gorgeous.

Also, finally found a place I would take visitors to eat. This little Italian cafe/pasticceria with panini, perfect cappucino and homemade, real Italian dolci -- sweets -- like a pastacciato, a tiny little pie with a dense, shortbread-style crust, and filled with Italian pastry cream. I'm making the yummy sound right now just thinking about it.

The Bear of Friday

Awwwwwwwwww. There are few things cuter than baby bears. Or really baby animals of most any kind. Not so much baby snakes.

So, now Pakistani officials are saying Bhutto died because she hit her head on the SUV's sunroof. Suicide bomb goes off, five shots are fired, but it wasn't an assassination? Just a stupid accident? I don't buy it. Alternately, the Pakistani government says Al Qaida is claming responsibility. I don't trust our own government to report the truth, let alone Pakistan's. I'm just saying.

The Dream Police

Robin Zander got me out of a speeding ticket this morning. I knew he had magical powers.

Betsey and I went for a drive so I could show her some of the places I've been house hunting, and I didn't realize the speed limit had changed, and, of course, there was a county trooper waiting. He came up to my window smiling and said "So, you'd rather be at a Cheap Trick concert?" He'd obviously read my license plate frame.

But then he said, "So, you'd rather be seeing Robin Zander than a cop, huh?" My answer, of course, was that I'd rather be seeing Robin than doing pretty much anything else, so, you know, no offense, but yeah.

It's unusual for anyone to know Robin. Usually when people think of CT -- if they ever do -- they mention Rick, sometimes even Bun E., but never Robin (not that I understand THAT).

Turns out I was quite a bit over the speed limit, but he gave me a warning and some real estate advice, to boot.

It's a Cheap Trick Christmas present!

I triple-dog dare ya...

...to have a great Christmas. Sure, I've created a slight breach of etiquette by skipping the triple dare and going straight for the sinister triple-dog, but hey, it's Christmas.

I hope everyone wins a major award and gets their holy grail of Christmas gifts.

Just don't shoot your eye out.

And don't forget to let your lamp blaze forth in unparalleled glory!

The Bear of Friday

I just had to share the Friday Bear. Don't you want to cuddle it? I do. Seriously, that makes me a little weak to look at.

I finished two interesting books this week -- one is "Thunderstruck," by Erik Larson, the man who wrote "Devil in the White City." I love nonfiction that's written like fiction. It's about turn-of-the-last-century England, Guglielmo Marconi, who invented the wireless, and a murderer who might not have been apprehended if not for the wireless. Marconi was an interesting, though selfish and socially inept, man. The other is "Dry" by Augusten Borroughs. What an incredible memoir. He's a great writer, and "Dry" is the story of how he nearly drank himself to death, lost most everything that was important to him and finally got sober. It's sad and poignant, and ends on a hopeful, somewhat happier note.

I'm so excited because Jen got me a Netflix subscription for Christmas. I can finally get caught up on all the stuff I've missed in the past 20 months, including "Shoot 'em Up" and "Gone, Baby, Gone."

Betsey's coming over from Columbia on Christmas Eve, and requested that I cook corned beef, which I used to do sometimes for her when we lived in Chicago. Certainly not a traditional Christmas dinner, but hey, it's company's choice. Though I'm thinking I'd better have a backup plan in case there are no briskets in the stores.

Also, I have an appointment to go see three houses tomorrow out in Conway, which is about 10 miles inland, over the Intracoastal Waterway. Homeowners out there pay much less for insurance because they are less likely to have hurricane damage. Plus, they are less likely to find reeking, vomit-soaked college students passed out in their front yards during Spring Break.

My geeky heart weeps with joy

Glorious be the day! Peter Jackson is making "The Hobbit," which means LOTR dorks like me everywhere have something to look forward to. Actually, two somethings, because it's apparently going to be two movies released in 2010 and 2011. Actually, can't they just start NOW? They still have all the costumes and most of the sets. It's not like the wilds of Australia suddenly became suburbs.

Maybe they're just planning to spend the coming year creating Smaug the dragon. Woo!

Yahoo news has a short piece on it here.

Unfortunately, there's no Legolas in "The Hobbit," but there's plenty of Gandalf. Please, someone protect Ian McKellen between now and then. Because if he's out for any reason, they'd probably replace him with Michael Gambon, who plays Dumbledore in the "Harry Potter" movies. If he replaced Ian McKellan, Gandalf would be as lame and boring as Dumbledore is now.