Merry Christmas

Making More Cookies

You can't have enough cookies at Christmas time. Here's Ed filling up a sheet of chocolate chip cookies to put in the oven and bake. 

A Trip to Branson

My dad, Ed and I took a trip down to Branson. We stopped off at a place called Dick's 5 & 10. 

It had some really "interesting" things to buy. 

Here's a few pictures of what was there. 

Making the Chocolate Chip Cookies

My contribution to Christmas, chocolate chip cookies. I add an extra half bag of chips to make them even better. 

Must Get My Valentine's Day Cards

It's only seven weeks away. Must get my cards before they are all gone. Because it's only seven weeks away. 

Saw this in a store by my dad's. 

The New York Trip

Final pictures of the New York trip. Actually these are the from the start of the trip.

Here’s what happened. Stu and I caught the midnight bus up to New York. No problems on the way up. I actually got some sleep. We arrived in New York on time just at 5 am.

Now New York may indeed be the city that never sleeps but it does take a nap. And this was definitely nap time especially 5am on a Sunday morning.

We went to Macy’s and saw their windows. Then we headed up to Rockefeller Center. There were maybe a total of ten people there. Got some spectacular shots of the tree and decorations around there with no one in the picture. It was so very cool. There were some brave souls out and about. I helped out a couple of tourists from Australia by taking a picture of the two of them.

Then we walked up 5th Avenue toward Central Park. We stopped off at the 24 hour Apple Store. There were actually people at the Genius Bar being waited on that early in the morning. The decorations going up were fantastic. Once we hit the Park we walked west on 59th Street. We walked to Columbus Circle and then headed up to Lincoln Center. By that time the sun was just coming up.

Decorations Around New York

This is a little more about the snake in the last few pictures:

In the international arms race known as Holiday Window Dressing, the jeweler Bulgari went one step further this year. Rather than putting baubles and decorations in their selling space, they had metallic, light-up snakes (which apparently are the brand’s “legendary symbol”) installed across the façades of their flagships in New York, Rome, and Tokyo. Here in Manhattan, the Cut tagged along exclusively as they installed 52 iridescent scales, each one more than three-feet tall and lit from below with LED lights, on Fifth Avenue.

This is just soooo cool. This is on the side of the Bulgari

Decorations in New York

Some more decorations and a few other things from the trip.

2Political Episode 94

 






2Political Podcast Episode 93 is now available. You can listen to it or download it from the podcast site, 2political.com. You can leave comments there as well as download or listen to any episode (you can access the five most recent episodes from the list on the right side of my blog).

We begin today talking briefly about Linda Ronstadt at the 2013 National Book Festival. Then, on to a darker topic: The GOP Shutdown of the US Government. We’re annoyed.

Jason wonders how a junior US Senator from Texas became Speaker of the US House—because that’s what it looks like. The Republicans began their shutdown with no exit strategy, which was incredibly stupid. But are they crossing the line into treason? If they destroy the world economy, it would be worse than that.

We think that there has to be massive reform. Congressional Districts should be drawn by non-partisan commissions and politicians shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near the process. Voters also have to stop voting to re-elect the same people who are causing all these problems. We also think the Republican Party needs to suffer a massive defeat in order to be able to rid itself of the teabagger lunatics. On the other hand, Democrats have been doing much better at standing up to Republicans than they’ve done up until now.

We end up with a rant from Arthur about a Washington Post piece that totally mucked up Australian history and displayed ignorance of The Commonwealth, parliamentary democracy—and pretty much everything else, to be honest.

Everyone’s welcome to leave a comment (agree or disagree!).

Links for this episode:
Linda Ronstadt at the 2013 National Book Festival – The blog post that Jason mentioned
The Nullification Party – the Andrew Sullivan piece Arthur mentioned
Australia had a government shutdown once. In the end, the queen fired everyone in Parliament. – The boneheaded piece from the Washington Post
Arthur’s blog, podcasts and videos can be accessed here.

Get 2Poltical Podcast for free on iTunes

At Lincoln Center

I'd hoped to be able to post things in the order in which they happened. But I am having problems with both my computer and blogger not working correctly. It is getting very frustrating.

Anyway the end of our long morning walk in New York Ended at Lincoln Center. The sun was just coming up it was around 7 or so when we got there. We ducked into a near by Starbucks to warm up and for me to charge my phone.

We then proceeded down Broadway heading for Times Square.

Walking Down Broadway

After Lincoln Center and the Starbucks, we headed down Broadway. There's a mall right at Columbus Circle which was open and we went inside and saw some their cool decorations. There's a Whole Foods there that must open at like 7am on Sundays. I was surprised at the number of people that were there.

The decorations at The Shops at Columbus Circle

The stars change colors

Wow have to plan a trip to New York in February to see this mega-hit!

Wandering Around NYC at Night

After the show (see more about it a few posts down), we wandered around. We tried to find a place to eat but the places we went to were all very crowded in part because the Giants were on TV. So we just grabbed a quick bite and continued to look at the decorations which now had some snow on them!

And of course a trip to Rockefeller Center.

Rockefeller Center packed with people. A far cry from 12 hours earlier

Just a spectacular view.

Looking down towards Time Square.