due to our policy of overselling flights, this flight has been oversold

[davemerrill]

Made it Southwards and back for Xmas! Our trip: drove to Buffalo in perfect weather and almost no traffic - the Oakville QEW construction is complete, I think - made our flight in plenty of time for wings at the Anchor Bar. Hartsfield was jam-packed. Got to the parents place just before the parents did, courtesy my brother and his Volvo. Spent Thursday doing last minute Xmas shopping. Friday we were just about to leave the house when the power went out. What caused The Great Smyrna Christmas Eve Power Outage?



I don't know, but I like to think it involved reindeer. Visited Devlin at Bizarro Wuxtry in Athens where we uncovered a treasure chest full of amazingly terrible comics, bought some junk here and there (both the Agora and the Grill were closed, sadly) and made it back to Atlanta in time for dinner at my sister's house.

Christmas Day it started off gray but soon the snow was falling. This was the first White Christmas Atlanta had seen since 1887! I got some pix early on, but the snow just kept falling and by the evening lawns, trees, and roads were covered. Didn't stick on the roads, though.



We visited with family and watched the nephew learn that the inner anatomy of blue dinosaurs is largely made up of balls.



Sunday we did more shopping and met up with CB and elizchris and Matt and squirrelcoffee at Umezono for some traditional holiday Japanese food. Umezono, I don't know if my palate is becoming more sophisticated or if they were just having an off day, but it's OK if we don't drop by next year. We saw TRUE GRIT down at Atlantic Station, probably the nicest Regal in town (even though again, inexplicably, the box office is understaffed and outdoors). I don't quite know if this lives up to the "best film of the year" hype, but it's certainly entertaining, and a refreshingly different take on the material from the Wayne film.

Monday we were supposed to meet up with Weikert for lunch but we couldn't make it in time, he had an early flight. We did some more shopping (the antique mall by the Big Chicken has an issue of Fantasy Masterpieces, the mid 1960s Marvel reprint book, on sale for only $145.00) and then we went over to hipsterdad's parents house, met him and lyneidas and the rapidly growing kids. From there it was dinner and ice cream with the whole gang which included squirrelcoffee and Matt!

Tuesday we got up, started packing, had breakfast at Ihop with my parents and my brother, and then it was back to crowded Hartsfield. Our flight was a little delayed and a little oversold but we got to Buffalo reasonably early. No, Delta, I will not take a later flight in exchange for $400 "Delta Dollars". My flight is ALREADY late thanks to you. I was afraid the car would be covered with snow but there was only a bit of ice on the windshield, and it cranked right up. We got a hearty Bob Evans dinner. Lewiston bridge border crossing was listing wait times of one hour, so we drove to the Rainbow bridge, which also looked like about one hour, so we drove to the Peace bridge, which took half an hour. And now we're back home!

Bunch of folks we didn't get to see. The holiday season is always busy and my time off was shorter this year. Next year we will just take a day and pick a location and tell everybody to meet us there for beer and catchin' up. Deal? Deal!

Comments

[lord-darkseid.livejournal.com]

Deal!

PS: Nephew looks awesome. :)

[lyneidas.livejournal.com]

I definitely agree with the central location and hanging out plan.

[mr-sadhead.livejournal.com]

Hey, didn't you say you'd seen that Gifford monster movie book make a cameo appearance in the Japanese film "House"? I saw it!

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

The book, or the movie? Or both? Now that House is a Criterion Collection DVD I need to pick that sucker up. Or be picked up by a evil light fixture, whichever.

[mr-sadhead.livejournal.com]

Film, film. Look for it in the train scene. It's the greatest film ever made!

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

Us being anime nerds, it was kind of our default restaurant for many years, especially for people in town for AWA. And when I was 19 and didn't know any better, the food was fine. Heck, maybe it actually WAS fine. But now, not so much.