The first seven days

Now a quick year-to-date in review, which is pretty easy as 2008 is only about a week old:

New Year’s Eve party: What I thought was going to be a little get-together turned out to be a good-size house party. They had Dance Dance Revolution (which I must get now for our Wii), karaoke, champagne at midnight, etc. Lots of fun.

On New Year’s Day I went shopping at Tanforan: Old Navy (hoodie and khakis; thank you, 50% off sale), Barnes & Noble (I Am America (and So Can You!)), Target (sweater; mmm, argyle). That evening we watched Colma: The Musical on DVD. It’s a charming little musical, and half the fun for us is the fact that it takes place in a neighboring town Colma, locally known for its many cemeteries (as well as car dealers and big-box retail). But much of the “Colma” shown in the movie was actually filmed in Daly City; some scenes take place at the hill at Westmoor High School at the end of our street, and in one shot (though not in the trailer, below) you can even see part of our house!

The worst of the recent storms came Thursday night into Friday, and that morning our power went out. Since I couldn’t work at home, I went along with Thom to his office and was able to use the internet there. We had lunch down the street at Roy’s, which was fantastic and just the thing counteract a dreary day. The highlights were crispy lobster potstickers to start, and carrot cake cheesecake (yes, cheesecake on top of carrot cake) for dessert. Oh, and the main course (macadamia nut encrusted mahi mahi) was good too.

The power came back on at the house in the wee hours of Saturday morning. In the afternoon I took down most of our Christmas decorations — the window lights are still up though turned off, and I left the garland (minus lights and ornaments) around the fireplace. It’s wintry! That evening we met up with some of my relatives at Paradise, a Chinese restaurant in South San Francisco. My, that was a lot of food.

On Sunday evening we brought in some fast food and watched Wordplay, which we’d recorded on PBS a while back. (Trailer below.) It’s a documentary about crossword puzzles, New York Times puzzle editor Will Shortz, and the annual crossword puzzle tournament. Thom and I are both crossword lovers, and so we both found it fascinating. I used to do puzzles more regularly, especially on my commute to work; I really should get back into it. (On a related note, to any Facebook folks out there: I’m always up for Scrabulous!)

Monday: Back to work! Sigh.