aalgar.com

This is me and Lauri, in our hotel room. We spent a lot of time in our hotel room on this particular trip. Every married couple needs that sort of vacation every now and then.

This is me and my friend Jenn at the beach. Jenn is one of my oldest and closest friends.

This is Jenn on New Year’s eve, making punch.

This is xAdam – another old friend – on New Year’s eve. The thing he’s pointing to is a “luge.” It’s a giant block of ice with grooves carved in. Someone stands at the top and pours a shot of liquor down a groove, while someone else waits below for the chilled liquor to slide into their mouth. I tried it with a shot of tequila – it was kinda neat.

This is xAdam, gleefully operating the luge.

This is us on New Year’s eve. One of us is clearly having more fun than the other.

This is the “peppermint pig” – a really bizarre Christmas gift from my mother. Apparently this is some kind of New Year’s tradition. You’re supposed to put the pig in the little cloth bag, then whack the hell out of him with the little hammer. This symbolizes… um… the destruction of candy pigs. I guess.

I may mock this seemingly ridiculous superstition, but even I know better than to oppose it.

This is my friend Dave’s girlfriend, Vanessa. She went absolutely nuts about “the HUGE stop sign,” so we indulged her and snapped a picture. I guess it is pretty big.

Lauri and the enormous sign.

This is the absolutely gorgeous meditation garden we found in Encinitas on New Year’s day with Dave and Vanessa. The enlightenment and self-awareness practically bored itself into your skull.

This is one of the many breathtaking views from the meditation garden. God, I hate California. Why do I keep going back?

I’d like to say I was thinking something profound as I stared at that view, but chances are I was just falling asleep.

This, sadly, is the only picture we got of Dave and Vanessa.

This is us in the meditation garden.

This is our cat. It’s also Lauri’s way of finishing off the film so you wouldn’t have to wait another week for these pictures. I swore I’d never be one of those people who posts a picture of his cat in his LiveJournal, but LOOK! ISN’T SHE JUST ADORABLE?!