When the bus arrives and the door opens, the driver says “You’re here!” in surprise because you’re at the stop and not running down the street toward it.

Because I enjoy messing with Penn Jillette (and because I try to do whatever Rachel does).

As I was searching Netflix to see if they had Spaced, I discovered there’s a new movie coming out from the guys that made Shaun of the Dead. It’s called Hot Fuzz, and it looks to be just as funny as Shaun was, so I’m excited. The trailer is available here.

I think I should put 40 pounds back on. Last time I took this, I did not look like Tony Danza. Though it’s better than when I was at my fattest, when I looked most like Danny DeVito. At least I’m not famous and avoided the identity crisis that John Mayer suffered.

Edit: I just ran another picture through, and this male’s second most resembled celeb is Yasmine Bleeth, and Tina Turner was also in the top 10. I will spare this person the embarrassment, but if you look closely at every male I know, you may be able to guess…

For a while, I was doing so well with doing real updates, but now we’re back to the ol’ list of things I’ve been doing…

I survived Christmas with the two families. I think it was probably scarier for Allison’s family than for me, since a food fight cooperation broke up, due to a loophole in my mom’s attempt to stop me from shooting whipped cream across the room. She said that your partner had to be within 3 feet, which turns out to be greater than the distance a can of whipped cream can shoot horizontally. Incidentally, we did discover that holding a can of whipped cream three feet above someone’s head can get it pretty close to into their mouth. And in their hair, but that’s a small price to pay.

Allison and I rung in the new year with Rachel and her family in Minnesota, where Rachel scored us a last-minute snow storm after a couple of days of boring weather. We played Space Pirate Amazon Ninja Catgirls and Munchkin, went for a walk in the snow, ate at Al’s Breakfast (still home to the best omelet I’ve ever eaten), shopped at the Mall of America, had yummy Indian food, and had a jolly good time. Some photos from the trip. I’m counting the days until Rachel comes out again in February, which happens to be one day before Stephie to visit.

Work has been crazy busy, but still exciting. I spent a couple of days this week on Bangalore time, which was exhausting. I’m getting too old to work at midnight. So different from a few years ago when I did my best work after 10pm.

Speaking of exhausting, I’ve been going to Community Bootcamp 5 days a week, which has been kicking my ass (in a good way!). I’m also going to start running again, training for Bay To Breakers in May (although it sounds like Blake won’t be able to run with me this year) and The Relay in July, which I’ll be running as part of a Yahoo! team (and don’t think I won’t be hitting y’all up for donations for Organs R Us). I’m trying to get back to my fighting weight again, since I’ve been putting on a couple of pounds lately.

In less painful news, I bought myself a mandolin:

It just came on Friday, but I’m already getting the hang of it. Within an hour, I had a couple of chords down and could play the verse/chorus of Will Hoge’s “(Better Off) Now That You’re Gone” (first three chords in my book were C, G, and F) as well as Glen Phillips’ Duck and Cover (I suppose that having a lyric from a song tattooed on your body makes you more likely to play it each time you pick up an instrument). I’ve started learning Losing My Religion (well, what song do YOU think of when you think of a mandolin?), and that’s been going pretty well. Once I got the bridge height figured out, the hardest thing has been tuning (and retuning) it. With the pairs of strings, being even slightly out of tune really stands out. Who wants to jam?

After our team holiday party (more on that another time), I found myself in Redwood City to help fix my sister’s Tivo. As I was walking to the train afterwards, I realized I would be remiss to not stop at Seasonal Sushi,where I ate about once a week when I lived in Redwood City. When I called in my takeout order (giving no identifying info besides one of my favorite orders), the lady said “long time, no see” and asked how I had been. I’ve always wanted to be a regular at a restaurant and be able to order “the usual” and have them know what I mean. While I don’t always get the same thing at Seasonal, and thus can’t get a “usual” there, being recognized over the phone after not eating there for 6 months is pretty darn close.

After a cell phone discussion about how much money he plans to spend on snowboarding clothes: “I’ll look like a pimp out there.” At this point, I’m picturing this white teenage kid snowboarding while wearing a furry purple suit and too much jewelery. Then: “Well, a pimp who falls down a lot.” I can only assume he tripped on the suit…

My brain is a weird place when I’m tired.

“Do not use Jesus as an excuse to be a packrat.” - Rachel

This video cracks me up.

Real update coming soon. Really.

Look!