We spent a large part of the final day of the year stuck on the side of the road.

When we left the house this morning, Tony noticed a small puddle of oil under the car. At the gym parking lot, there was a BIG puddle. We headed for a mechanic. Three blocks later, the oil alarm started beeping, and that was that. Then an odyssey of AAA, the car dealership, a tow truck, Jiffy Lube. (We were lucky that Tony bought me my own cell phone last week, because he hardly ever carries his around.)

It all turned out fine, though. Jiffy Lube replaced the oil plug they had somehow knocked loose a few days ago, and now everything works great. Our whole year has kind of been like that. Big excitement, big challenges, big victories.

Happy New Year.

I'm naming the darkest bruise Brutus. He'll be a little bigger and darker by this time tomorrow.

Made it up the route, though.

I can hardly remember what it's like to have pristine, unbruised knees. I'm proud of the bruises, though! I got them on exciting climbs -- routes I wouldn't even have attempted a month ago. When we go to the gym this morning I'm going to try my hardest climb ever, up a nasty inverted slope and then over an overhang. Wish me luck! (And someone tell me to go buy some long climbing pants already. Sheesh.)

Other than that, we're still having a grand time doing nothing. It is amazing how much nothing we can fit into a single day.

Tony again.

Folks, just an FYI for this holiday season, the words "Thank You" go a LONG way. Rhon and I have done an awful lot for our friends and family in the last week, and yet, those words were not used by a staggering majority of recipients. I personally think I can't say it enough to those who take the time to do something nice for me. Please remember to do the same.

And thanks to all of you who not only frequent the site, but send us e-mails. We appreciate it a lot.

Hi all. Tony here (posting from Rhon's laptop.)

Happy Xmas to all. Were having a great day today being broccoli... saw Two Weeks Notice, played some Toe Jam and Earl III on XBox, and absorbing all of the first disc of my THREE Back To The Future DVDs!

Looking over our web logs, we see our little site has grown from a few close friends to a site that has traffic from around the world! (Sinagpore, Australia, Italy and many other countries visit our site each month!) Wow! We plan to keep entertaining you in the next year to come.

Hope you all have had great holidays this month!

Did anyone out there really like The Two Towers? We were both terribly bored, even Tony, who usually has rather high tolerance for such things.

Our goals for the rest of the week are to see a few friends, climb, play video games, not eat too much and otherwise do nothing. We had hoped to go to Tahoe -- we want to try some altitude hiking in the cold weather -- but a trip would involve planning, reserving, packing... all the sorts of things that seem like just too much effort. Maybe we'll do it over Tony's birthday next month instead. (Despite a lot of great help last time, there's no way I'm making another party anytime soon... or even not-so-soon.)

Busy preparing for the family holiday party later today. Yesterday was practically a party itself, with Jon & Rachel & Mom & Stephen all over here helping us put up our new wood blinds downstairs (thank you smithandnoble.com), decorate, and prepare the food.

Did anyone see Friday's USA Today? The CSI game is featured on the first page of the Life section, along with an interview with Tony. So cool. When we have a moment we'll scan a copy and post it here.

Tony got a promotion! He's now officially an Executive Producer. The email announcing this fact has not yet been mailed around his office yet, but I couldn't hold back any longer. Go, Tony!

We went for a victory dinner and a victory climb, but I think his favorite part of the celebration was getting the Back To the Future DVD box set. In widescreen, of course. (I had to fight about four hundred frenzied holiday shoppers for it in Best Buy... yikes.)

Weather update 3: second storm has arrived. The only rational thing to do is to eat all the ice cream out of the freezer immediately, so it won't be wasted if the power goes out.

Weather update 2: more rain, more weather alerts. We have a rocky embankment between the lagoon and our patio, so I've been picking 'safety rocks' on the side to watch and see when/if the water rises to cover them up. So far, five of them are now underwater. Five more and we'll be living in an aquarium.

Went climbing anyway, then to the mall. We now have enough Godiva chocolate to feed an army.

Weather update: pounding rain. The weather service just issued a *third* Severe Weather Alert for our county: Urban Flood Advisory.

I'm watching the lagoon.

Tony is home, just in time for our neighborhood to be hit by a typhoon. Not kidding. On sea it is apparantly a supertyphoon but it will be a 'mere' typhoon by the time it hits us tonight. The television is abuzz with warnings about high winds, power outages, the need to stock bottled water, emergency numbers... and possible flooding.

The last time there were flood warnings, the lagoon crawled right out of its bank, over our patio and licked our sliding glass door.

We are not thrilled with the prospect of having to replace the downstairs carpet if it happens again. But in the meantime, life goes on. Tony is on the train, chugging toward work to report on his outstanding time in New York. I am still conducting my at-home Writer's Workshop to catch up on all my projects. But maybe I'll take a break to buy just a few more candles before tonight...

After an initial hour or so of weak climbing and stooge-like falling from the routes, we finished our Sunday in the gym by both completing our toughest climbs ever. (5.10s, for those who know climbing.) Now bruised and missing a little skin but still victorious a day later.

We had breakfast together this morning -- despite a waitress that was so rude I was afraid she spit in the water -- and then Tony flew to New York for the CSI press tour. Just name a popular magazine and he's talking to them sometime this week. I'd love to post ALL the details but I don't know the confidentiality situation yet. Meanwhile, I'm conducting a one-person at-home super-intensive writer's workshop, catching up on all my projects, and having a glorious time except I wish I'd stocked up on a little more food first. Getting tired of Froot Loops.

Tony is back in LA today, voice-recording another of the CSI actors for the game. I am crazy jealous, of course, and am comforting myself with an eBay binge. (I really need new climbing pants, you know. And some other stuff, too...) He'll be back for the weekend, and then on Monday he's heading to New York for the week to do a press tour, also for the CSI product.

This all sounds pretty glamorous, but he's been so crazy-busy that it's hard to find a moment to enjoy it. Plus, he had to get up at 4:30 this morning to catch his flight, which isn't particularly glamorous in any situation.

Got home from Thanksgiving in Florida last night. Word for the wary: schedule more than 25 minutes between flights if you have a connection in Dallas.

Unconscious now. Will post more later.