Saturday was spent running all over the city with some friends for what was called Flags Day. We hit Yerba Buena Gardens, Union Square, got kicked out of a hotel before we were even past the lobby, and headed over to Oakland to the castle where Nicole and Mella had prepared a pool full of jello as a surprise. It hadn't set yet, but it was ready in the morning for fun. I only managed to take two photos with the sidekick. The rest were with my digital camera and will be flickrd soon. The one is obviously of the pool full of jello. The other is of a group of kids playing with an interactive game. Kicking and stomping to play a video game. All in all a great day full of adventure around the city, spinning flags, and watching the crazy shopping public.

We spent a good part of today revisiting Baltimore, some parts of which we haven't seen in the 18 months since we moved to the D.C. Area. So much has changed.

Lunch was with Kate at Crepe Du Jour in Mt. Washington. She had stories about her month-long trip to China; we gave her Cianna's school portraits and birthday pix.

Next we visited the Charles Village projects in our old neighborhood. Two of the three street corners being rebuilt were done with a B&N opening a month ago, and Starbucks and Chipolte to open soon to support the banks of new condos. Our old house on 33rd Street is pretty beat up by the jocks who have been living there. The couches on the front porch are a bit of a shock.

We passed by the stone building in Remington that is now headquarters for Charm City Cakes and where the Food Network show Ace of Cakes is filmed. There was one SUV in the side alley, and the lights were on, but I didn't think about knocking since I was sure Duff wouldn't remember me from the brief photoshoot he did with me at our old house two years ago.

Over in Hampden, we took in about an hour of the Mayor's Annual Christmas Parade, and then walked the Miracle on 34th Street.

The one place we hoped to reach was the new Atomic Pop store, but the parade made that block of Falls Road inaccesible.

After we dropped off her Auntie Kate, Cianna crashed into deep sensory overload sleep for the ride home.

- mike lee - baltimore

I was making a scarf for a chrismtas present when I realized I'd need a couple more yards to make it a good length, so I arrive...and they have every color except black dsejgazlqkfdsretfds! :( I wanted to finish+mail it today, guess that won't be happening :'( anyone know where I can get red heart soft yarn black? I wish there was a yarn store near me....

-- Teehee

Saturday we went nonstop. Here is a list of what went down mainly in list format.

MGM to Starbucks Monorail to Paris Breakfast/lunch Bought Price is Right tickets Shopping at Paris Price is Right show (not taped but more or less like the tv show you get to win prizes etc. None of our group got to go up. Monorail to Hilton Star Trek experience for a few hours, they have 2 simulation rides now. Qwarks bar - got swervy on some Star Trek hooch Monorail back to MGM then walked to our hotel Cabbed it to NYNY bc it was freezing out Ate at an italian restaurant Cirque "Zoomanity" which is adult themed but overall pretty tame Walked to Luxor for no good reason as it was now after midnight and some of us were beat. So we then cabbed it back to hotel.

Haven't taken too many sidekick pics since they come out bad, but I've been capturing more on our regular camera.

Not sure what sunday has in store yet other than some shopping and going to the Rio.

I've been watching the growing popularity of the Gemmy inflatables over the last two years. The prices have been dropping with variety and novelty increasing. Last year they started making inflatable snowglobes with blowing styrofoam snow. This year they're introducing inflatables with a working carousel inside! They even make an inflatable sumo wrester costume.

Surfing around, I found a Wall Street Journal article, and a link to AirblownWorld, and annual display of 1,000 Gemmy inflatables. A brief wikipedia entry says that the company is famous for the Big Mouth Billy Bass thing and started selling inflatables around 2001. There's a collector community where licensed and limited edition inflatables are traded.

These things are sold at places like large direct distributors, CVS, Home Depot, Walmart, Sam's Club and Target where I found our snowman for $29. I got a lot of impact for not much money when we lofted our snowman for Cianna today. She was fascinated by the unpacking. The setup is shockingly simple. Layout the form, zip a flap, plug it in to AC. The snowman filled out in about five minutes. When you install it outside, there are a few more steps involving the placement of ground anchors and strings.

Now I have to decide if I want to set this up on the porch outside Cianna's bedroom window or out in the yard.

- mike lee - wheaton, md

Our surrounding group of 12 houses are in the 13th hour without electricity due to a blown transformer. Still no sign of a power company truck. All of us Lees are in bed early under a pile of comforters. I'm enjoying the use of my power inverter pack to operate and charge my gadgets. I've got plenty of reading too. It's in the upper 30s outside, but our house still feels OK from the residual heat from the fireplace. Our situation is a slumber party compared to the hundreds of thousands in the midwest who are without power from the snowstorm.

- mike lee - wheaton, md

Tonight we are outside in downtown Houston watching "Polar Express". Temps are in the low 40's and calm, so it's not too bad.

Sleebus

Well the Pepco truck left after making our house lights flickr on for about 30 seconds. So who knows when we'll have power. There are a dozen houses in the dark. Dinner was out at Bertucci's at White Flint Maul on the Pike. The pics are of desert--we did have real food prior.

- mike lee - rockville, md

A bunch of the houses on our street have been without electricty for eight hours now. We went out for lunch and ran some errands, but I slept the rest of the time to continue to shake my cold and the voices in my head from a long week at work. The rest of the fam set up and decorated the tree. There's finally a service truck on our street, so we should have power in the next hour.

- mike lee - wheaton, md