Three great days

I had the best damned weekend. Went home something after 5 p.m. on Thursday. Kicked back.

Friday, I spent the morning helping scrape the various sidewalks and driveway around here. Actually, I was more in charge of supervision, and the kids did most of the scraping, including our elderly neighbor’s place (not that he needed the help.) Headed down to Michoacana for lunch with Right Hook, and we repaired to the Atlantis for Bloody Marys and Glenlivet on the rocks. From there, I caught a cab downtown for New Year’s Eve.

Fun night, actually, hanging at a couple of the new cocktail lounges Kris Vagner wrote about last week. I saw a lot of people I hadn’t seen for a while. If Friday was any indication, you can have a pretty lively conversation without getting your head blown off. I also headed over to a new bar in the Pacific Beach Club—obviously the word hadn’t gotten out yet. The roughest part of my evening was trying to catch a cab shortly after midnight.

Saturday, we ate at brunch at IHOP, picked up my car, and came home for a nap. Later, Hunter and I explored around the canyon across the street from my house. We found what we were looking for, a sledding hill that only be described as “vertical.” It was so steep we started our groove halfway down the hill, which was still at least 25 yards from the bottom. We survived—no blood or tears, even.

Sunday, that hill demanded our presence, and we began the day by calling Hunter’s best friend, Domenick. He brought some friends, but we must have gained fortitude because we began at the top, breaking the sound barrier before we reached the bottom. After a couple hours, we ended with hot chocolate and a day relaxing in the living room.

You know, a little bit of relaxation goes a long way. I hope you all can make plenty of time for kickin’ back in 2005. Happy New Year to me. Happy New Year to you, too.