I was no fan of 2018, that is for sure. As 2018 ends though, there are good things on deck and I’ll hope that 2019 is a bit gentler and happier. I felt like getting out the rest of the pictures I have from 2018 before NYE tonight, so here goes:
Last Holidays at AMLI:
Honestly, as we get ready to move into our new house, there will be some sadness at leaving our apartment here at the AMLI development. We’ve been here for almost 4 years! That’s one of the longest times I’ve lived anywhere. The location was fantastic for being able to walk to dining, shopping, and movies, and it was a small apartment but not in a bad way. Except for having people over – the small size definitely kept us from entertaining. So yeah, the new house we’re getting will be much more amenable to having people over!
Cool Shot of the Grand Wilshire one night:
That’s the current tallest building in LA, technically, which is next to the PwC building in DTLA. Pretty neat.
Paras & Carey Engagement / Holiday Party Fun – 15 Dec 2018
Our good friends Paras & Carey got engaged earlier this month! It’s fantastic news and they’re such a fun couple and some of our favorite people. They had friends over for a Holiday-then-Engagement party and man oh man did I get drunk. What did me in was after a whole night of drinking red wine, we switched to champagne to toast the couple. OOF. Not a good idea, at least for me. Definite hangover the next day. Anyway – pics!
Happy Hour with PwC
Before the PwC holiday break, the group I work with at PwC had a nice happy hour after work, when we all had come in to meet for a prep session. It was fun, and I do love working with these guys. All very smart and all a lot of fun.
Christmas at Mom’s
I’ve had the week off because PwC shuts down during the week between Christmas and New Year’s. We didn’t expect to do much in terms of activities this week as we knew we were gearing up to close on the house and buy a ton of appliances, so let’s just chill. Unfortunately though, Larry ended up getting hit pretty hard with something that laid him out Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I ended up going to Mom’s by myself to meet up with Mom, Stacie, and Trent. It was a fun time, but certainly my mind wasn’t all there thinking about Larry.
When I got back home from Mom’s, Larry was ready to go to the ER as he had a fever and it was just the culmination of him feeling really shitty. As we prepared to do that, his fever kind of broke and we ended up not going. Larry had chemo the next day (Wednesday) and both of us thought there’s no way he’ll be able to get it, but when we went in, the doctor ran blood tests and everything was better. Some of the pain that Larry had been feeling in his chest area the doctor predicted was likely an ulcer in his esophagus area, likely from stress. He got a prescription and that medicine seems to have helped – and whatever bug or illness was messing with him looks to have also gone away.
The last chemo session (Number 12!) was started on Wednesday and on Friday, he was able to say goodbye to the pump, hopefully for the last time. It’s exciting to know that he’s past that first, super-intensive phase and that we know it did it’s job. Now we just have to get ready for what comes next. Hopeful that 2019 yields some good news there.
The Glen LA update:
First, we have wired our down payment to the escrow company, so things are feeling really fucking real as of today. A closing date of today was actually in the cards, but because of the gas company (again) not being done with the installation until last week, the city sign-off won’t happen until next week (hopefully).
We did have two walkthroughs with the builder’s service rep over the past two weeks and folks, we not only have power, we DO have gas as well! There are a good number of small little things, mostly touch-up type stuff, for the builder to resolve, but basically, this house is almost ready to go!
You’ll also notice that the backsplash is in, which was one of the last things that we noticed as needing to be installed, and man, when we finally got to see it, it was such a joy. The kitchen looks goooood. The whole house looks great!
Walkthrough 1:
Follow-Up Visit to see if Gas worked!
So great!
Larry’s energy has been better this past weekend, so on Sunday, we went to Best Buy and bought the remaining appliances we didn’t have yet, a refrigerator and a washer & dryer. We’re pretty damn happy with the choices we made:
Next thing we’ve got our eye on is buying a king-size mattress set, and we went to Macy’s yesterday and I think we know what we want but we didn’t pull the trigger yesterday. Might have to do that tomorrow though.
Other Stuff:
We’ve been watching a lot of movies lately. The weekend before Christmas, when Larry was feeling okay, we actually saw two movies:
- Bumblebee: Holy shitballs, this was the Transformers movie I’ve always wanted. It’s fantastic, it’s got the old-school 1980s style of Transformers, it’s funny, there’s actual emotional performances to be found, it’s got heart, and it’s a blast. Highly recommended.
- Aquaman: Look at DC, finally figuring out how to make their superhero movies. Wonder Woman was finally something good from them, and of all things, they made Aquaman a thrilling and fun movie. It doesn’t hurt at all that Jason Momoa is practically perfect in the role, even if there’s no way you would have believed they’d go with his look for Aquaman based off of his traditional comic-book appearance. The movie is a touch too long, and there’s a lot of video-game style plotting going on (go here to get that, then go there to get this, but first get this other thing) but it’s still really entertaining. I think DC really needs to consider jettisoning all the Snyder nonsense and figure out how to tell the best Superman movie they can. Good luck though, as Richard Donner already did that.
At home, we’ve watched a couple of movies via renting them from ITunes:
- Hunt for the Wilderpeople: Oh my god, this movie is amazing. If you watch the trailer, you’ll know immediately if you like it or not, as the movie is basically this but fleshed out into the full story:
The director, Taika Waititi, is the same guy who made Thor: Ragnarok and What We Do In The Shadows, which I’d previously raved about. He’s got a wonderful sense of humor and tells a story with such a great wit. I don’t want to go too much further in describing the plot, but the kid in the movie, Ricky Baker (played by Julian Dennison), is hilarious, and Sam Neill as Uncle Hector is wonderful. Just, go, rent this movie. It’s SOOO good.
- Hearts Beat Loud. This is a cute independent movie about a Brooklyn record store owner who makes a great song with his college-bound daughter, and the resulting path of whether they continue to do this at the expense of his daughter no longer going to college. It’s a small story with a lot of great actors and good performances, and the music is very good. I don’t know if I loved the movie? It was cute for what it is, and the trailer below helps give you a sense of what to expect. Nick Offerman can get it though – he’s a good looking guy in this hipster-y makeover.
- The Spy Who Dumped Me. I really wanted to like this more than I did. Coming from someone who still actively adores the movie Spy, this looked to be exactly in that same sweet spot and it has two actresses, Mila Kunis and Kate McKinnon, that I love as well. But man, this was not it. It had moments that were fun, and a ridiculously hot guy in the form of Sam Heughan, but just something didn’t feel pulled together about it. Glad it was a rental!
Before I end this post, I had to post some posters I saved from the upcoming Godzilla: King of the Monsters movie. Have you SEEN these trailers???? I need this movie in my bloodstream it looks so goddamn good:
O
M
G
Just make it Spring 2019 already. Godzilla and King Ghidorah battling it out?????? Rodan fucking shit up??? Mothra all peaceful then throwing down???? GHIDORAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! Just…too much. It’s by far the movie I’m looking forward to the most this summer. So exciting. Anyway, I love these posters they made:
Just damn.
Anyway, that’s a long enough post for the end of the year. As I mentioned at the beginning, 2018 was a shit year for all the reasons that you can think of. I NEED 2019 to be better.
