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I don’t know how you rank signs on stairs, but this is way up there, if you ask me:
We finally got the chance to dine at The Olde Pink House. Delicious and worth the wait:
The thing about Savannah is, no matter the time of year, things there are always in bloom:
Back home tonight, though I could stay away for some time. Oh, and I forgot this video about yesterday:
Today we drove down and had lunch at a Smashburger with our friend Paige. She and The Yankee go way back. Paige stood in a blizzard and shot our engagement photos and then stood in a heat wave and shot our wedding.
That’s friendship.
Anyway, Paige had a great year and we are unfortunately too far away to celebrate with her over her new family. But we got to do it today, on another cold and icy day.
Isn’t she cute?
Also, weather:
And, now, moving pictures about snow and ice and weather. #AShortFilmOfNoConsequence pic.twitter.com/ZgIZwEXepU
— kenny smith (@kennysmith) December 29, 2015
Lunchtime on the highway. You know, I spend a lot of time on the interstate, and this one in particular. There are four of these on this road covering the entire north-south span of the state. And it is impressive how often I’m near one of them around lunch or dinner.
I’m not sure who was more excited, the hoomans, the cat or the crab toy.
Tonight, laundry, repacking and, tomorrow, more traveling.
Went out for lunch today:
We did not eat the Rhode Island Red. He lives at the restaurant, though, which is kind of weird, I’ll grant you. The front is a nursery and out the back is a fresh fruits and vegetables store. Attached to that is the restaurant and we get veggie crepe wraps and stuffed squash there. Stuffed squash is good stuff.
The service is spotty. It is staffed by a bunch of students and sometimes they’re great but other times you just get the cute “Oops” smile. Not much you can do but stare at that and think I hope that takes you far in life.
And sometimes you think you didn’t want a veggie crepe, but maybe some fried chicken sounds nice …
We did some shopping today. We’re doing one of the Santa games for the holidays with my family this year. It is the polite Santa game, because it is a family environment and there are kids and there’s a price limit and you can steal presents and so on.
We have to find two things under $10. It took some doing, but we did it. (And some of those people read this, so I’m not spoiling that again this year.)
We saw some other cool stuff though. And I’m going to show some of those things to you. And when you see these things, remember how smart George Lucas was about the original Star Wars. The movie was the movie, but the vision was in the merchandising. He got sweet deals because no one back then believed that toys and shirts would be a revenue stream. That was Lucas’ real genius.
Now, with Lucas having sold to Disney for a song, and the Mouseketeers putting their muscle into merchandising, they’ve proven George Lucas an absolute piker.
We didn’t buy any of those things. I object on philosophical grounds. Darth Vader is a feared and despised bad guy throughout the galaxy. He is not the face that should be toasting your bread.
We did, however, pick up a little present for ourselves. Cool little nightlight:
And two presents for under $10 for the family Christmas game. Still no fried chicken, though.
So there’s a boss who bought a toy idea, or a boss who has a boss who really wants you to push this particular shipping line. And you know you’ve got a staff of young designers and the photographer who is just waiting for her big break. But before all of this you’ve got the packaging engineers — and they insist on calling themselves packaging engineers these days — and they’ve written a grammatically poor memo telling you exactly how much space you’re going to have to fill up for this box. The budget people are squawking at you too. It is going to cost six percent more than you’ve budgeted for boxes these size in full color ads. And you don’t really care. You’ve got a toothache. The in-laws are coming this weekend. You don’t know which idea hurts worse. So, in April, you approved this packaging.
And you and I see boxes like these.
“This year, buy wireless baseball for your son. He can learn to throw a curve indoors!
“Sure, you won’t be there for all his games, or even as many rounds of catch as you’d like. College tuition is expensive and you have to pull a double. Please don’t let that curveball hang or everybody is going to hit you for doubles, too, son.
“For his birthday, buy him a Tommy Johns surgery.”
“Hello? Can you hear me now? Do you know where my shoelaces are?”
“And could you please send a pizza. My sister is not a good cook and I am stuck in the masculine hegemony that demands she makes my food. Oh, and extra cheese.”
