Christmas in New Jersey

Moorestown, NJ
December 25 - 29, 2011

As per tradition our family traveled east this week to celebrate Christmas with my mom’s family. It was fitting that on the celebrated day of Christ's birth I saw one of the most amazing sunrises I've ever seen. I wasn't able to get a great picture of it through the plane window but the photo below provides the general idea of the scene surrounding Mt. Hood.



Our travels Christmas day were quite smooth and we even got in a little early allowing us to join our cousin at her place for Christmas dinner. The highlight of dinner was the newest addition to the Thornburg family. “Santa”, as the kitten is currently known, is a super cute three month old orange tabby. On the 26th we had our traditional celebration at Granny’s house. A very nice time appeared to be had by all. On Tuesday Jason, Joyce and I made our usual trek to the Franklin Mills Outlet Mall. The mall was actually pretty calm this year. We left without witnessing a single domestic violence dispute. Wednesday mom and I went shopping with Ben and Leah at the Cherry Hill mall. Nobody bought much of anything but we had fun people watching. After finally having some Jersey pizza for dinner back at Granny’s house, a bunch of us went bowling. Jason and I both played pretty well. He rolled 186 and I had a 213. Thursday morning I was up early to catch my 6 AM flight. I came back a few days before the family, so I’d have a day at home to wrap up end of year business before taking off for the Rose Bowl.

I'm off to LA in two days!
Katy

18 Hours in LA

Today I was in LA for a quick business meeting. The meeting went well and will hopefully lead to some exciting changes in 2012. In the evening I went to the Joshua Radin and Sara Bareilles concert. Getting to the concert was a challenge because there was a murder on Sunset Blvd. which closed many blocks adjacent to the Hollywood Palladium and caused ridiculous traffic even by LA standards. I was told previously by a friend that Sara has a potty mouth in person. She most definitely swears, A LOT, but she is pretty funny and undeniably talented. All in it was a packed but good 18 hours in Tinseltown.

Next on the travel schedule is NJ for Christmas and then back to LA for the Rose Bowl!

Until then,
Katy

Matty D. and The Eagles

I was up super early this morning to catch my 5:45am flight to Portland before grabbing a connecting flight to Seattle. After riding the light rail into downtown, I was to the Sheraton by 10:30. I checked in, ditched my stuff, and walked to my appointment with Dr. D. After my appointment I went to lunch in Nordstroms and then bought a couple shirts my mom had requested I look for at Macy’s. I then took my bags back to my room and bundled up for the Eagles vs Seahawks game.

This was my first Seahawks game in Qwest aka CenturyLink Field. The Eagles looked as terrible as they have played all season. They not surprisingly lost the game 31-14. Other thoughts from the game:

• Guys who want to have their picture taken with the SeaGals are remarkably skeezy looking.

• NFL players are huge. On the whole they really are gigantic men (Chad Hall excluded).

• The pace of the game felt incredibly slow. That’s what watching Duck football all year will does to a person.

• Seattle fans are rabid. They didn’t sit down the ENTIRE game. And I was in fairly expensive seats.

• In person (as opposed to on TV) I actually found Any Reid’s black jumpsuit to appear slimming... no, seriously.

I’m up early again tomorrow to make it back to Eugene in time for the inaugural Pac-12 Championship game.

Until LA in a week,

Katy