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today had a nice day. the streets were deserted in manhattan this morning, almost everybody was off. i left work early, met nicole, spent time with a friend in the afternoon, then nicole's dad and margaret came to see us and we headed to rockefeller center to see the tree together. it was packed, but the tree was awesome. took a few pictures, which i will post soon, then headed to st. patrick's cathedral. after that we went into saks for a bit, stopped by jacques torres for chocolates and cookies, and lastly headed back home.

tonight we watched a christmas classic: The Bishop's Wife, nice



tomorrow we will spend xmas even at ingrid and edward's, and we will spent xmas day w/ margaret's family.

to the to the collection of recently watched movies, i watched Abduction late last night. it was just OK, maybe 2 stars, mindless entertainment.



mild and rainy out, temperature in the mid 50's. it does not feel like winter yet.

there was no traffic this morning on the way to work, most people have take off and are already on their way to their christmas destination. the tunnels was all super backed up this afternoon and evening getting out of the city.

a few movies I've watched recently:

- straw dogs, a decent thriller with good looking leads. gets pretty gruesome, and can't match the 1971 original, but not bad. 3 stars.

- horrible bosses, a comedy with a handful of funny moments, but aside from that mostly not memorable, 2 stars

- contagion, a bird-flu style pandemic movie with tons of famous leading actors. it's uneven, and runs a little long, but t's decent, 3 stars

my apartment now has 3 airplay-enabled zones. yes, three, three :-D.

all ready and available to play at any time from any device, macbook, ipod touch, iphone, ipad or pc.

Nice article in the NYTimes about what Christmas in Barcelona is like:



IT was the Christmas season in Barcelona, but inside the city hall, a 14th-century palace, a scene from “the Arabian Nights” was playing out. Palm trees and satin cushions had turned the Gothic patio into a desert tent, complete with incense and Middle Eastern music. Pages, clad in pantaloons and velvet-trimmed turbans, led each child to the Moorish throne of the Royal Mailman and the bulging satchel he would use to convey their petitions to the Three Kings. Yes, those Three Kings: the magi in the manger with the frankincense and myrrh. Here in the Mediterranean, the North Pole and the jolly guy in the fur-trimmed suit don’t make much cultural sense. And you have to admit that there’s a certain biblical logic to having the Kings rather than Santa bear gifts.
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