Okay, much as I’d rather do more Hallmark reviews (I fear that they shall have to be saved for dull days in next December), I should probably actually talk about things going on here.

On Monday and Tuesday, I went to go visit Jackie in SF.

On Monday, I was rather worried about traveling on BART on a regular weekday (I almost never do this, and the one time I did around 2-ish on a weekday, the lot was almost full), but happily, there are enough people off from work that there was parking there in the late morning. Whew. Anyway, we met up on BART and took it to the Embarcadero stop and went to Hillstone’s (very tasty restaurant), then went to a Plentea (I think that’s what it’s called? cold boba-ish tea beverages) and briefly ran around Union Square so I could check it out for the holidays.

The power was out at Angelica’s for over 24 hours, apparently (it got turned on while we were talking to her on the phone) and it made the news that the power was out there so badly. TEMPERATURES ARE HITTING LITERALLY FREEZING OVER HERE, OMG OMG! To which I thought, “yeah, most other states are laughing their heads off at us for being freaked out at that.”

Tuesday: went back to see Jackie again, went to Mandalay (awesome Burmese restaurant in SF, highly recommended), ran around doing various errands, then went to her house to play the game I got her for her birthday. Her house is indeed covered in minions these days and she got me some too! I think she was so-so on my gifts again (sigh, but mostly I just suck at it apparently).

Wednesday: this ended up being super busy because unbeknownst to me while I was sleeping in, Mom booked me for a bunch of appointments:
(a) get my oil changed at 1:15
(b) get my eye exam at 2:40
(c) get my hair done at 5
(d) We finally heard back from Deacon Dave and can go over there around 7-ish.

I found this stuff out around the lunchtime hour....

Anyhoo: the oil change went well and speedily and I had a coupon and got the tires checked too, and he gave me carnations! (Random but appreciated!) Though he said that of course I need to spend $1000 on replacing the shocks....why is it that every December my car needs a thousand bucks of work done? Every December?

The eye exam went well and speedily--he said my prescription is a bit strong in one eye, but otherwise all is well and I didn’t have to get new glasses this year, woot.

As for the hair appointment, I had to tell Kevin that I can’t get purple hair this year due to possible/probably job interview, and in fact I should get a Professional Haircut instead. I am happy to report that even though he thought it was going to be too short at first, he liked it in the end. Right now it is very fluffy. I also asked him about my hair coming out more when I brushed it and he said, “is it falling out in the sink?” No. “Then it’s okay.” He could also see new growth on the top, so that’s a yay.

Meanwhile, I’m amazed I got through all of these AND GOT THERE EARLY FOR ALL OF THEM, and was done by 4. And I got to see another Hallmark movie I hadn’t seen yet, so there’s that!

Eventually Mom came home and we went to see the big three Christmas light shows around here: the winning Great Light Fight show mentioned here, the one that didn’t win but should have mentioned here, and Deacon Dave’s.

This show had a Star Wars cantina themed start (as you can see online) and then was mostly our town’s version of Fantasmic. I seriously think this guy should apply at Disneyland--he probably has a great time there and great qualifications.

Widmer World: This was my first time actually seeing this one and holy crap, it was amazing. It looks a whole lot more amazing in person than it did on the show. Not only do they have giant bling in the front, there’s an entire “Santa’s Golfland” setup in the back, there’s several train sets, inflatables, lights, stuffed animals (“This is what you do with your kids’ stuffed animals,” I heard someone say), and several constructed carnivals, merry go rounds, spinny things, roller coasters... there’s an entire war memorial in the back decorated in the ways that people celebrated Christmas in war time. There’s a little slide show area explaining the history of their work. There’s a Mr. Potato Head game and a wishing well (I can’t help but think the Widmer clan must admire Deacon Dave’s or vice versa since there’s some similarities, though it sounds like they all got started around the same time and who knows there. I wanted to ask Deacon Dave later on that night, but he was pretty occupied and I didn’t get to that one.). It was really freaking awesome.

Deacon Dave’s: Now, Mom had asked if we could get a house tour this year and he had forgotten about it. But he came in to her work today and said we could stop in and look around, though he was throwing some kind of party and wasn’t doing tours. So we dropped in and looked around, checked out the trees, he let us go in the chapel, etc. A few new things I noticed:

(a) A snowman that periodically goes off making noise about keeping you company...in the bathroom. I asked him about this later and he said, “BLASPHEMY!” One of the volunteers brought it in and kept moving it around... like in the fridge....

(b) I found three cans of “Campbell’s Cream Of Dove: Recommended by Deacon Dave” in a cabinet, with his face on them. I asked about these as well and got a similar response, i.e. “someone at the lab had a lot of free time on their hands.”

(c) A poem written for Deacon Dave to the tune of “Jingle Bells.”

(d) A sign by his computer saying, “Behave! What happens today is on Facebook tomorrow.”

(e) A Donald Duck pin saying, “I don’t tweet, I quack.”

(f) A Ouija board (!!!) in a pile of board games. I wonder how that got there?

This year’s theme was “Toy Testing Center” and it was great. There’s a stuffed animal room being tested for huggability, sports equipment, a bike center, a plane center (seriously, that was the best), a train testing center, a ball testing center with a self-kicking machine that kicks a soccer ball repeatedly, and in the game section, if you threw a penny into the TARDIS funnel, a TARDIS opened up to reveal some Barbies within. Adorable. Also, they hit 62 proposals on the proposal bridge this year!

So, that’s it for this year’s light shows! Good job, everybody!

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