HOLIDAY WEEKEND IN A NUTSHELL

Woke up Thursday morning and ate five chocolate chip cookies for breakfast. I had actually turned some of that cookie dough into cookies and I had to test them. Then I did 30 minutes of cardio, took a shower and left about noon for South Orange County and my stepsister Susan's house.

When I arrived everyone was over at the park playing football - a family tradition - except for Nana and mom who were watching the Dallas/Chicago game. I joined them - another family tradition.

About 3:00 everyone came back from the park and took showers and we prepared to eat the big meal. There were 17 of us total, once my brother arrived. Thanksgiving dinner was turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry jelly, zucchini casserole, salad, creamed onions (yet another family tradition) and rolls. We sat down to eat about 3:50 and finished eating about 4:10pm.

At about 5:00pm we turned on the disco and started to dance - yes, you guessed it, another family tradition. The entire family was up on their feet for Y-M-C-A, and then my stepsister Susan and I resurrected the Pony and the Jerk for Mony, Mony. After that interlude we had pie an event that resembled a host of locusts descending on an unsuspecting pumpkin patch. The pie was too close to the sink filled with soapy water and it slipped in and got washed. We rinsed it off and it was good as new.

More dancing.

I was home on the couch nursing a migraine by 9:00pm. Had wakeful sleep all through the night and decided that I really need to assess my sugar issue. It's just not worth it. Woke up about 9am and called to get directions to Rancho Las Lomas in Santa Ynez. Peg, Ron and Emily were there for Thanksgiving with her family and they had driven down with Ben their 70 pound Golden Retriever puppy. I started my day with a heart friendly egg white omelet. No sugar. Took off about 10:30 and arrived a little after 1pm. For some reason traffic was crawling between Thousand Oaks and Ventura. Like 10m.p.h. crawling. It took forever.

I handed off Emily's birthday presents that I didn't take to Disneyland with me the previous weekend because they really didn't need to haul back 20 Nancy Drew books circa 1968 on the airplane. She also got a Word-A-Day calendar because Em likes words as much as I do. Peg and I headed into Solvang to run a couple errands and then we were going to go have a snack.

I had never been to Solvang. It's kind of like Disneyland only with a lot more tchochke shops. We decided not to have a snack there because it was full of tourists so we headed over to Los Olivos. As we drove past all the wineries it occurred to me that THIS is where the movie Sideways took place. I recently saw Sideways after I found out that the guy that wrote it based the characters on Julian and Roy whom I know from Extreme Winetasting. I have never wine tasted in Central California but I'm seriously going back to do so. Los Olivos is a cute little town that will probably be overrun when the movie gets nominated for an Academy Award, and I'm predicting it will. It's that good.

Had dinner with the family up at the Rancho and then headed home. I rolled in about 11:30 and fell into bed exhausted. I had driven over 400 miles in the last 2 days.

Saturday was all about cleaning the house. It was raining and cold outside so that worked out well. Saturday night I got dressed up and went up to the HOB on Sunset to see Matt's band Wax Apples open for The Blasters and X. The bartender made me a very delicious margarita and the Apples started promptly at 8pm and rocked their set. The sound at the HOB is great. I stood too close to the speakers and had a bit of deafness in my left ear by the time they were done. So I got a second margarita so I wouldn't think about it.

I lost my friends and wandered up to the Foundation Room to look for them. Gale force winds were blowing on the smoling porch outside - I wasn't sure if I was drunk or if the wind was just really strong. It was probably a little bit of both because I am a lightweight when it comes to alcoholic beverages. Anything after one and a half drinks is a pretty serious buzz. I eventually made my way back downstairs and found my peeps whose numbers had grown to include Dave who I met at the last Wax Apples/X show. Dave is cute. Dave is a paramedic who has a masters degree in philosophy. Dave wanted to make out and I thought "why not". It was fun. Because he's cute. And smart. And we were both buzzed so it was a lot like making out at the high school dance. Before he ran off to get his place in the mosh pit he said, "thanks for making out with me." Dave is also polite. At the end of the evening Dave was removed from the premises by security because he didn't have the gold sparkly wrist band required to get up to the Foundation Room and he kept making a run for the elevator. Dave doesn't handle his liquor all that well. Those of us with the sparkly wrist bands went up to X's dressing room and hung out until it was quite late. I got home about 1:00am and didn't wake up yesterday until 10:30!!!

I was that tired! I never sleep that late unless I'm sick or exhausted.

Yesterday I did nothing. I wore my big snuggly robe and laid on the couch in my clean house napping with Pete and Molly all day. It was a perfect day.

And that's the weekend in a nutshell.