• Friday the 2nd: met Vickie Wu at Kelly's in downtown Brea for hot chocolate and conversation. Thanks for the Christmas present Vickie, and for the hot gossip, news, and theater info! Next time I'm in town, we gotta go watch a production together.

• Saturday the 3rd: tripped with mom and Annie to visit Nana, who was perky and talkative, enjoying apple pie, coffee, and Saturday afternoon football. Dinner out with the family at the Blue Agave, OK food and better conversation. Then in the evening, hung out with Dave, Tim, Justin and Jeremy (who I hadn't seen in forever; hooray for MK shared experiences: "How's your knowledge of pop culture?" "Uh, I was gone for the 1980's." "Yeah, me too."). Justin picked up a record player in a nice wooden case and inherited his parents' album collection—Feliciano! was particularly cool. Watched the second half of The Ring, ordered out pizza and Chinese, and played Trivial Pursuit until late.