Christmas Eve shorts

Stuffed mushrooms

A grab bag of thoughts and observations...

-- Spent two hours this morning at the Peet's coffee store at N.E. 15th and Broadway, helping to raise money for The Dougy Center. Pretty painless. You sit there at a table with some literature, chat with a fellow board member (Diane) and her daughter (Shawna), smile at folks as they walk in the door, and thank those that drop some cash or a check into the glass jar on the table. Peet's is matching donations all week long at that store, up to $1,000.

Bonus: I got to greet my bowling buddy (John) and his family (wife Andrea and son Austen), spend some time chatting with friends (Kay, Lakshmi and Raghu), and say hello to a former Grant Park neighbor I hadn't seen in a while (Sandy) and her older daughter (Julia), who used to babysit our kids.

Double bonus: Diane told me that before I arrived, the scruffy homeless guy sitting outside on the sidewalk came in and approached the table. They tensed up, wondering if he'd make a grab for the money in the jar. Instead, he pulled out a dollar and dropped it in there. Sweet.

-- Came home and helped Lori (in a very small way, to be sure) with preparations for the traditional hors d'oeuvres dinner that we have on Christmas Eve. Our guests tonight: Nathan and Sara, Jordan and Jamie. Simone and Kyndall are in Washington state visiting with Kyndall's relatives, due to return Sunday night. Lori is amazing in terms of her planning, cooking, baking and decorating. I'm a lucky, lucky man, to be married to her. She is, no question, the heart and soul of our family.

-- Got off work last night and plopped down on the couch with a burrito and a beer, all set to enjoy a mindless comedy we ordered off Netflix. Turned out to be, quite possibly, the worst film ever made: "Hot Tub Time Machine." Somewhere along the way I'd heard it was a goofy. sophomoric film, not unlike "Old School" or any other Will Farrell film. Wrong. It was goofy and sophomoric -- but it was badly done goofy and sophomoric.

Lori bailed out after 10 minutes. I hung in there for about 20. It had just about everything not working for it. Gratuitous profanity. Puerile dialogue. A despicable lead character (actually, he was one of the main three). Women as bimbos. And on and on... I could only wonder why John Cusack, a guy with a decent reputation as an actor, would have agreed to be in the film.