The photographic remnants of Molly and my Thanksgiving weekend are available for your viewing pleasure here. And now, a few highlights.
On Thursday Molly cooked a fabulous dinner, all by her damn self, which was enjoyed by the two of us along with Zack and Lydia. The evening went well except for me dropping half the cornbread stuffing on the floor, and Molly proved to herself once and for all that she's a badass in the kitchen.
On Friday we jackassed down to Orange County, where we hung out with Molly's mom and brother in Newport Beach before Molly and my stepmother got manicures and pedicures. As the women got their hands and feet seen to, Mike, my dad and I went and drank beer and talked about sports and cars. We then regrouped for dinner at an Italian restaurant where I struggled to keep the political differences between our respective families from pouring out on to the table. Mentioning Ted Olsen as a possible Boalt graduation speaker was probably a bad move on my part.
Saturday, Molly and I joined my family along with the Shamrock Club of San Bernardino for an all-day tailgate party leading up to the USC-Notre Dame game. Notre Dame got their asses handed to them, which I wouldn't have minded except that we were seated in a rather high-traffic area and therefore had to endure group after group of USC assholes giving us the business. I countered by pointing out that their school mascot is only famous for having lost a war, but by that time the marching band was playing Fleetwood Mac's "Tusk" and the whole stadium was chanting "U-C-L-A sucks!" It was then, and only then, that I regretted not wearing my UCLA Law t-shirt. Over the course of the day I consumed five donuts and four and a half beers. Therefore, it was a good day.
Sunday wasn't interesting at all since we spent eight hours of it in the car. It should be noted, however, that 1000 miles of driving still didn't get us all the way through the Hobbit book on tape, though it got us damn close. I now have this theory that Bilbo represents America, Gandalf is England, and all that crap outside Hobbiton is Europe, but that theory is unlikely to be developed at this time.
Happy Thanksgiving.
"thank goodness," he said, and handed him the tobacco jar.
Or something like that. I listened to the remaining 5 minutes of the unabridged recording on my way to BART this morning.
We listened to the first book of the LoTR trilogy on our trip to/from New Mexico. After that we were too sick of the old British guy doing the readings singing that we haven't listen to the other two books.
Elaborate theories about Tolkien and global politics? Don't do it, Matt. You know the storm of nerdery it will unleash!