The Facts Were These

In honor of my now-defunct favorite show Pushing Daisies, and due to the fact that over Winter Break I found myself unable to sit still for very long, I decided to try my hand at pie making. I'm not especially enamored with pie (and there are only two pie eaters in our household anyway since the cats are watching their waistlines), so we brought a few pies to our neighbors.

This is the first pie I've ever made in my life

And thankfully it didn't kill anyone!

I had to re-top this cherry pie twice;
The crust-holes are supposed to be hearts.

We made more pies, but this pumpkin one was the last of which we remembered to take a picture

In Other News:

Falkor had a banana sticker on his head for several days

My brother Austin bought ANOTHER dog and named him Jack


So Josh made him fly


And I (VERY BRIEFLY) closed Jack in his food tub and laughed hysterically


And Also:

Our backyard was covered in snow

"So good, so good, so good!!"

One of the perks of my job is that I get to decide where our advertising budget goes as far as print, radio and television. Most of the representatives for these companies earn a commission by bringing in business, so they pull out all the stops to convince various advertisers to go with them. This week, I got an email from a radio station we work with in Bend. The rep said she had two extra tickets to the Neil Diamond concert here in Portland on Thursday, and wondered if I might like to go. I said, "Certainly!" So, she sent the tickets via FedEx and Emily and I went.

We rode the MAX into downtown Portland from Beaverton, which takes about 35 minutes. When we got to the Rose Garden, we had decent seats to the right rear of stage. The woman next to us was a bit tipsy even before the concert started, and started talking to me. She was from Bend and this was her first Neil Diamond concert. She realized that Emily and I were clearly younger than the mostly middle-age crowd (and, I'm guessing there were a good 15,000 people there), she asked if we *actually* liked Neil Diamond. We told her that, yes, we did like him, she said, "That's great! Have you seen "The Jazz Singer?"

Now, I studied film in college... so I immediately thought of the 1927 Al Jolson film, which is renowned for being the first feature film with synchronized dialogue (aka a "talkie"). Jolson shocked audiences in 1927 by breaking out in song during a conversation with his mother, in a scene from the otherwise silent film.



"The Al Jolson film... yeah, I've seen that," I said. She looked at me weird and said, "No... I was talking about the Neil Diamond movie. How do you know about Al Jolson?" I told her about my insane love of movies and the film studies courses in college and she proceeded to tell me that her dad's gravestone has an inscription about how he is now "singing in heaven with Al Jolson." Weird! (For the record, I haven't seen the 1980 Neil Diamond remake, but I was aware of its existence. The film buff in me just immediately thought of the original Jolson film).

The concert was a lot of fun... Neil Diamond, I'm happy to report, can still put on a good show at age 67. I didn't know every song, as his catalog spans four decades, but he sang plenty of hits, including "I'm a Believer," "Sweet Caroline," "Cherry, Cherry," "Coming to America," "Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show," "He's Not Heavy, He's My Brother," "Cracklin' Rosie," "Forever in Blue Jeans," and more.

Neil Diamond likes to rock the party!

When he sang "Red, Red Wine," Emily, realizing that Niel Diamond wrote it, said, "Man, UB40 wouldn't even exist without covering other people's songs!" So true!

I'm gonna guess that the average age of a Neil Diamond concertgoer is about 52. Or more judging from the extremely excited ladies of somewhat advanced age in the front row.


Few people realize that Neil got his last name from his tendency to shine under bright lights.

It was one of those concerts that we wouldn't have normally attended... nothing against Neil Diamond... but tickets for shows of that nature tend to be in the $50-$200 range, which is a lot more than these two indie rock kids are used to paying (we love live music, but most of the band we like charge around $15-40 person). All in all, we had a great time... even if we didn't brawl with the security guards in the front row as they forcibly removed us from the arena (but, we had a fun time watching that happen to someone else...).

A reversed image of Neil on the big screen gave us a much better look at the venerable singer/songwriter, as we were seated behind the stage. I can't complain, though... the tickets were free.

Here are some videos from our seats at the concert:

A Literary Resolution

My resolution for this year is to write down (and possibly critique?) all the books I read during the year. I did something similar to this in 2005 and I wanted to re-visit the list, but it is locked in a trunk to which I have lost the key (it's a long and uninteresting story). It was fun then because it motivated me to read more (and finish books when I start them) and I read something like 95 books in total. I doubt that I will be able to read anywhere close to that many this year.

I think what made me want to do this again is that I've read some exceptionally good books in this past year and I wish that I had listed them so I could remember them all. Some of the greats from 2008 are:

* American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld-- I am in love with this book. It is a fictionalized account of the life of Laura Bush and I never realized she was so interesting. I've read that Sittenfeld has been somewhat obsessed with the subject and it shows. I can't describe it better than that-- just that it's exactly the kind of book that someone with a spectacular imagination would write about someone whose private life has been so hidden. I think Sittenfeld did an excellent job making her protagonist three-dimensional, and it has made me more accepting of our current lame-duck president.

* The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield-- a murder mystery-type novel with an amateur biographer as the protagonist who is called upon to write the definitive tell-all about a famous authoress who is close to death. The tone of the novel has been compared to Victorian-era novels like Jane Eyre.

* The Magician's Assistant by Ann Patchett-- this novel is about the things that we don't know about the people we think we know well. After her husband, the magician that she assisted, dies, the main character discovers he had a mother and sisters when he claimed he was an orphan.

* The Patron Saint of Liars by Ann Patchett-- this was the year I discovered Ann Patchett, who is one of the best authors I've read in awhile (she also wrote Bel Canto, which I don't think is her best novel even though it might be her most popular). This was her first novel and it felt a bit incomplete and unsatisfying, but it was intensely engrossing. Told from three points of view, it is the story of a woman who comes to a Catholic home for unwed mothers even though she is married, then stays for longer than she intended. As a psychologist-in-training, I loved the portrayal of a woman who is hindered by her need for secrecy and privacy.

So this year I resolve to write down all of the non-school books this year that I read. Hopefully this will help me remember the good ones so I can recommend them to others.

ShepAlders at BNAT X!

As mentioned in a previous blog post, Emily and headed to Texas last week to (1) visit her sister, Abby, and her family, and (2) attend Butt-Numb-A-Thon, an annual 24-hour film festival hosted by Harry Knowles, founder of Ain't It Cool News.

Emily and I are total pop culture nerds to the extreme. Many of our conversations involve us identifying actors on-screen as quickly as possible, and then saying, "When's the last time you saw [name of actor] in anything that wasn't [name of film that is considered representative of said actor]. It works really well when it seems like the actor hasn't been in anything for a while. For example, I might say, "When's the last time you saw Mark Linn-Baker in something that wasn't Perfect Strangers ?"

In these cases, Emily almost always says, "Well, he was in an episode of Law & Order..." and, naturally, the actor was indeed in one -- or more -- of the hundreds of installments of NBC's long-running legal drama. Sometimes I joke that I've actually been on Law & Order a few times. I bet we have, at any given moment, at least 10 Law & Order episodes on either of our two DVRs.

But, I digress.

My point is that Butt-Numb-A-Thon (aka BNAT) is an experience that is perfect for a couple like the ShepAlders. Between the two of us, Emily and I have probably seen several thousand films and we're always watching more. For most people, attending a 24-hour film festival probably seems overindulgent and painful; while it's arguably the former, for Emily and me, it's a glorious experience filled with laughter, excitement, new acquaintances, vintage trailers, awesome food and more.

Here's a brief look at the films we saw, including my impressions (now free from caffeine overload and sleep deprivation!).

Viva Villa! (1934)

This embellished account of the life of Mexican revolutionary general Pancho Villa was one of the Hollywood's last pre-Hays Code films, and it shows! Academy Award winner Wallace Beery is quite gregarious in the title role and Fay Wray adds a nice dash of old Tinseltown class to the film. Even better, the movie was mostly filmed on location in Mexico and includes a large collection of extras (and, judging from the lack of authentic accents from all the main cast, they were probably the only thing truly Mexican about this film...). Still, this is a great example of the kind of ambitious filmmaking that existed in the early, post-silent film era.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)

Going into BNAT, this was the one film I was certain we'd see. Although it doesn't hit theaters until Christmas Day, it's made the pre-screening rounds for critics and has garnered rave reviews. The story is fairly simple: Based on F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1922 short story, Benjamin Button is boy who is born with the body of a very old man. As he grows, he becomes younger and younger. The film is told through a diary he kept throughout the years, which is being read by the daughter of a woman who knew Benjamin since childhood. I won't spoil the film, but it is a tale of life, nostalgia, love and relationships... and, most importantly, how the people in our lives make up a lot of who we are inside. One of the Aint It Cool News writers warned us that the film would leave us in tears at the end. While I have no problem crying in public or during a film, I didn't expect to feel so emotionally connected. By the time the credits rolled, I had teared up completely. This is a wonderful film in the spirit of films like "Forrest Gump" and "Big Fish," and easily one of the best movies of 2008.

Sahara (1943)

On one of our very first dates, Em and I watched "The Maltese Falcon," a classic example of film noir featuring one Hollywood's greatest actors, Humphrey Bogart. However, while I count "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" and "Casablanca" amongst some of my most favorite films, Em is admittedly not much of a Bogey fan. That said, it's hard not to like this thinly veiled WWII propaganda film, with its classically diverse and anti-German cast. In awesome 1940s fashion, the writers injected plenty of social commentary in the film on everything from racism ("Don't worry... his black skin won't rub off on your pretty uniform"), sarcasm ("Wipe that smile off your puss or I'll knock your teeth through the top of your head!") to the evils of fascism ("Do you know why we're able to do it? Because we are stronger than they are...I don't mean in numbers. I mean something else. You see, those men out there never knew the dignity of freedom.")

Valkyrie (2008)

When Tom Cruise decided to revive the venerable Hollywood studio United Artists in 2006, many were skeptical that anything good would come of it. His first film, Lions for Lambs, ulimately posted losses of more than $50 million. I'm not certain if moviegoers will flock to Valkyrie in droves, being that Cruise's once strong fan base has dwindled some in these post TomKat years, but it's an incredibly intriguing film. Based on the true story of Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, who led a group of Nazis in a coup against Adolf Hitler. I'm usually not a huge fan of films that are solely in English, when all of the characters should be speaking a foreign language (see "The Other Side of Heaven") and in this film, director Bryan Singer instructed the actors to use neutral accents rather than feign some type of German-English hybrid. Does it work? Eh... not really. Does it ruin the film? No. The story is quite thriling, so I was able to look past it. I highly recommend this film for any WWII history enthusiasts.

Coraline (2009)

Based on the 2002 novella by British author Neil Gaiman and directed by Henry Selick (who helmed both "James and the Giant Peach" and "The Nightmare Before Christmas"), "Coraline" is the story of young girl who moves with her family to Ashland, Oregon, (although in the novella, her family lives in the U.K.) and finds a mysterious door in her house that leads to a parallel world where her family has buttons in place of eyes, and things are much stranger than before! We only saw a few clips from this stop-motion animated film -- which was produced by the Oregon studio Laika in Hillsboro -- but they were all presented in RealD 3D and looked absolutely fantastic! Vivid colors and weird, imaginative images are all I really took from those quick clips, but with a cast of Teri Hatcher and Dakota Fanning, this film looks like a winner!

Up (2009)

I absolutely love Pixar. Last year at BNAT, Pixar reps brought exclusive clips from "WALL*E", several months before it opened. "WALL*E" proved to be phenomenal and one of my most favorite films of the year (the Blue-Ray versions of both it and "The Dark Knight" top my Christmas list...). This year, the good folks at Pixar brought us the first 45 minutes of their newest film, "Up." The film features an elderly man, Carl Fredericksen, who is lonely after the death of his wife. Having always wanted to travel the world with her, he embarks on an incredible journey to South America. I don't want to give to much of the film away, but having seen a good chunk of it, Pixar has hit another home run. The whole theater was filled with laughter throughout the screening and some phrases are destined to become favorites (i.e. "Squirrel!!"). This will also be the first Pixar film that will be available in 3D theatrically. I can't wait to see this!

Metropolis
(1926, with 1984 Moroder soundtrack)

This is one of those films that is considered a complete masterpiece from the silent era. Filmed 82 years ago in Germany, "Metropolis" is the story of a large city in the year 2026 where the rich live in fantastic, towering buildings, while the workers -- who keep the city running -- labor and live below. The film had a running time of 153 minutes when it premiered in Germany, but was cut down to 114 minutes for its American release (which, of course, did not help U.S. viewers understand the complex story). For years, it was assumed that the full-length version had been lost forever; however, in July a 16mm reduction negative was found in the Museo del Cine in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The film world is now waiting as the 210-minute print is restored.

The version we saw at BNAT was released in 1984 with a new soundtrack by Italian record producer Giorgio Moroder. Featuring a retro-80s lineup of artists including Freddie Mercury, Pat Benatar, Loverboy, Adam Ant and Bonnie Tyler, this version is both tinted (giving the film a splash of color) and truncated (it runs about 80 minutes). As a huge fan of 80s synth pop and films of the silent era (I'm a huge Chaplin/Keaton fan), this was perfect for me. "Metropolis" has been on my list of must-see films for a while, but I'd never sat down to view it (I'd even borrowed it from the library a few months ag0). I'm glad I finally got a chance to see this amazing film... and I can't wait until the newly discovered print is made accessible. This is a masterful film that is amazing in its detail, especially considering it was made nearly 90 years ago!

My Bloody Valentine 3D (2009)

This film is a remake of the 1981 slasher/horror film, "My Bloody Valentine." This is pretty much like most movies of this genre -- thin plot, characters with questionable decision-making skills and morals, and lots of blood. If you don't like horror films, you'll hate this. In fact, you might even hate it more thanks to the tons of 3D imagery, courtesy of RealD. Having seen many horror films in my life -- from classics to some of the more recent, I feel that this film is rather tame. That said, the integrated 3D effects are quite fantastic and make the movie really enjoyable.

I Love You, Man (2009)

I was surprised that this comedy was on the BNAT lineup, but I loved it! The cast is stellar, with Paul Rudd and Jason Segel as the leads, accompanied by Rashida Jones ("The Office"), Jamie Pressly ("My Name is Earl"), Jon Favreau ("Iron Man") and Andy Samberg ("SNL"). Basically, Rudd gets engaged to Jones, but while she's busy planning for the wedding with her bridesmaid, Rudd realizes that he has no real guy friends. A chance meeting with Jason Segel at a real estate open house sparks a friendship, and the story continues from there. Fans of "Knocked Up" and "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," will love this film. As an official "Freaks and Geeks," er, freak, I have an obligation to watch everything involving that oh-so-shortlived show's amazing cast (in this case, that's Segel).

White Dog (1982)

I'd never heard of this film, but it is truly bizarre. However, if Criterion deems a film worthy of release, it's almost always worth viewing. This movie stars then-20-year-old Kristy McNichol ("Family," "Empty Nest") as a young actress in Los Angeles. Driving along a dark highway one night, she accidentally hits a white German Shepard. Unable to find the owner, she keeps the dog to keep her company. After the dog attacks McNichol's friend, a black actress, she realizes that the dog has been trained to attack African-Americans on sight. She takes the dog to Burl Ives ("Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer"), who runs an animal training facility. With the help of trainer Paul Winfield ("Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan"), they try to re-train the dog. This film was very controversial when it was released and pretty much killed the career of director Sam Fuller. It's less shocking in 2008, but the film still is interesting because it explores theories behind racism and the potentially fatal effects of instilling flawed human prejudices onto animals, who can be trained to do just about anything. I wouldn't recommend this film to a room of third-graders, but I do wish that my really hip high school pysch teacher had fished this out of the archives. He had the most bizarre take on everything... and I would have loved to see him react to something like this.

Terminator: Salvation (2009)

We see a lot of clips, trailers and oddities at BNAT. Sometimes, special guests even show up. This year's event had several guests, including Elijah Wood (Emily's sister didn't know who he is... I guess her kids are too young for the LoTR trilogy!). As a huge Terminator fan since adolescence, I've been quite excited for this new film starring Christian Bale ("Newsies," "The Dark Knight"). Hollywood filmmaker McG ("Charlie's Angels") made an appearance to show as some lengthy footage (and then teased us by saying he actually had a burned DVD of the entire film... but the Warner Bros. rep who had accompanied him refused to let him screen it!). He proceeded to show us around 7 minutes of clips from T4 (as the fans have dubbed it, naturally). This included unfinished CG effects, stunt work with cables and mats still in place and raw footage with time codes and such still in place. In other words, the film is still far from done, but it looks pretty awesome. This film is the first time a Terminator film takes place completely in the scorched, future world, so it will be interesting to see John Connor as an adult, leading the resistance... rather than a young boy/teen being protected from assasination. Fans of the Terminator series will rejoice... and those who don't care all that much might have their curiosity picqued by the prescence of Christian Bale. I'd be there, Bale or no Bale... but, honestly, he's one of my favorite actors of late, and I'm convinced he can basically do no wrong.

Watchmen (2009)

If you asked attendees before BNAT started, "Which film do you think you'll see?", hands down the answer would be, "Watchmen." This much-anticipated film, based on the venerable 12-issue comic book series (1986-1987), is directed by Zack Snyder ("300," "Dawn of the Dead"), who brought an early print of "300" to BNAT 8 and, apparently promised to bring "Watchmen" in the future. Unfortunately, the film is not finished (and, at this writing, is still mired in legal drama). Luckily, the powers behind the film saw fit to send the first 22 minutes along with actor Jackie Earle Haley ("The Bad News Bears," "Little Children"). The film is set in a parallel version of 1985 where Richard Nixon is still the U.S. President, Soviet-U.S. strife is at its most volatile point and superheroes are present and very real. As much as I love comic books and graphic novels, I haven't read the "Watchmen" series (I blame a lot of my gaps in pop culture to history to growing up in rural, Eastern Oregon...). After seeing this footage, I'm convinced that I will have to do so before seeing the film. I've always been a fan of everything involving superheroes, so this is really perfect for me. The film is scheduled to open in March 2009.

Che (2008)

This was one of the films I thought we might see at BNAT. Hollywood makes very few "epic" films these days, mostly because most people only want to escape to the cinema for about 2 hours... not 4 or more! Since BNAT is already 24 hours long, I figured the film's 4½ running time was just too much. Well, I was wrong. At 8:30 a.m., Harry announced that our final films would be... "Che: Part I and II." First of all, I have to admit that this was a privilege, as this film has seen only limited release in New York, Los Angeles and various film festivals (i.e. Toronto and Cannes). That said, the film runs at a snail's pace, and never really allows the audience to connect emotionally. Unlike the fantastic 2004 biopic, "The Motorcycle Diaries," (which chronicles the 1952 adventures of Ernesto "Che" Guevarra throughout his native South America), this film provides very little insight into the life of a man who is esteemed by millions around the world as an example of social dissidence and revolution. It's not a bad film; in fact, at times, it's rather gripping. Many of our fellow BNATters had a difficult time with the film, having endured more than 20 hours of non-stop entertainment already. I was lucky, being fluent in Spanish, as I was not forced to expend a great deal of energy to read the subtitles. Still, it would be difficult to recommend this film to anyone unless they (1) were really interested in Gueverra's life; (2) really enjoy hours and hours of scenes with little or no dialogue; (3) want to submit themselves to an intense Spanish immersion experience. The film has a fantastic look and Benicio del Toro ("Sin City") is incredibly effective in the title role. Though I did watch nearly the entire film without slumbering, I might revisit it as a Blu-Ray rental and watch it again (in easy-to-swallow segments, of course!).

And, with that, BNAT was over. At the very end, as all of the attendees were gathering their belongings and massaging their sore derrieres, Harry said, "Hey... who is talkbacker Bob Loblaw Law Blog?" Emily looked at me and said, "Hey, that's you!" On Aint It Cool News, every story has a comments feature called "Talkbacks." This allows users of the site to post comments about the subject of the article. Every user has a handle (i.e. user name)... and mine happens to be "Bob Loblaw Law Blog." Apparently, Harry's wife, Patricia, really likes my posts, and, in Harry's words I'm "her favorite talkbacker." We went down and introduced ourselves to Patricia, who was very nice. We told her that we were married just 13 days after she and Harry in July 2007, which she thought was neat.

Hopefully we can go back to BNAT soon. Our niece, Jordan, said, "You wouldn't even come visit us if it weren't for Butt-Numb-A-Thon." What she doesn't realize is, more than likely, we wouldn't go to BNAT if they didn't live in Austin. It's been a real treat to attend the past two years... I hope we'll be able to go many times more in the future!

Texas Justice (The Return)

This past week Josh and I went to Austin, Texas to visit my sister Abby, her family, and also attend Butt-Numb-a-Thon X. Josh's post about BNAT is forthcoming, but I wanted to post some pictures about our Austin activities (mostly for my parents, on the slim chance they will ever read this, even though I have programmed my blog on their Bookmark taskbars).

We got there on Thursday and I don't really remember what we did. We slept a lot because we hadn't slept the night before. We tried to take my niece Jordan to see "Bolt," but the theater had posted the wrong times, so when we got there it was already halfway over. Instead we went to Sonic and had Blasts.

On Friday we went to the Texas State History Museum because Abby had always wanted to go there but never had the time. We saw the exhibit "Cowboys and Presidents" and also learned about Texas' main export: OIL! and the main import: astronauts.

Museums are best when your kids are armless so that they don't touch anything

Logan thinks this cannon goes well with his complexion

My adopted niece Mia is the most portable baby ever because
she only weighs about 14 pounds, 10 of which is hair

As the only 2 minorities in the Shepard family, Josh and Mia are slowly adding their bi-racial genes to our overwhelmingly white gene pool. In this picture, Josh is reminiscing about his Conquistador ancestors who added their genes to the Americas

Feeling his voice hadn't been heard quite well enough, Josh chose to vote a few more times at the "Cowboys and Presidents" exhibit

Abby and Mia have the headgear to prove their Texanocity

Friday night, Josh and I went to a Butt-Numb-a-Thon before party at Scholz Garten bar where we met Harry Knowles, the founder of aintitcool.com, the website which sponsers BNAT.

Josh made sure to wear the Oregon sweatshirt so that he could REPRESENT!

Josh has a more detailed blog about the movies we saw on Saturday and Sunday, but let me just say that it was awesome. We had all sorts of plans to tour the UT Austin clocktower and then see the lights at Zilker Park, but after 24-hours of movies that was actually more like 26 (4 of which were the ridiculously-lengthed Che), I came back to my sister's house and did this:

This is actually often how I fall asleep-- I've gotten so good at keeping my books open, I can now sleep for a few hours then wake up and keep reading where I left off. Don't you wish you were in grad school too?

On Monday we made plans to hang out with my 11-year-old niece Jordan. She wanted to go to Zilker Park, but we made her go bowling instead.

I couldn't think of a good caption, but just pretend I made some crack about Josh's eyebrows

Josh is what we would call "The Evil Uncle"

Guess who won. Yeah, that's right. ME!

Josh's entire wardrobe is so full of Hoodoo stuff, he unzipped his sweatshirt and it was a continuation of the Hoodoo logo!

Jordan claims we're the coolest aunt and uncle ever. The fact that we filled her with ice cream may or may not have anything to do with that.

So that was our trip. We came back to Oregon to find that it had snowed like crazy, which was confusing. In the past few days we've just been trying to get last-minute Christmas shopping done (although we may not even be able to make it to Hermiston if the snow continues as it is) and I've been using my extra time off school to cook some actual meals.

Blast from the Past-- Texas 2007:

San Antonio, TX temple
This temple was among the most beautiful I have been in, with the most gorgeous stained glass

In front of the Texas State Capitol, married for just 4 1/2 months

A Very ShepAlder Christmas (Tree)

Well, the ShepAlder Christmas tree has finally been purchased, assembled and decorated.

Let me preface this post by saying that, yes, we indeed are the owners of a fake tree. I realize that there are very strong opinions on either side. For Emily and I, it came down to a few things.

1) Neither of us are fans of the maintenance involved in having a live tree. The choosing, the hauling, the watering, the subsequent shedding of pine needles... and later, the disposal. Those who know us recognize that we're not the best when it comes to lots of responsibility of that sort. It's not that we don't care... we just get too busy to manage. If our cats didn't audibly beg for food, we'd probably forget to feed them.

2) I can't speak for dogs, but anyone who owns a cat knows that they love to hide themselves underneath anything. When we moved into our house last June, our cat Mercury -- who absolutely hates me -- quickly found that she could shove herself underneath the cabinet in our bonus room. She's stopped doing that now (mostly because, I believe, she discovered it's too unpleasant to press her squatty body into that small crevice), but she does manage to open the doors to the living room all the time. I'm convinced that she'd be hanging out under the tree any time we weren't watching her. Even though she's not allowed in that part of the house, she'll have nowhere to hide when she sneaks in there, as artificial trees tend to have much less space underneath. Problem (mostly) solved.

3. Since most newer artificial trees (including the one we bought) come pre-lit, there's no hassling with lights... you just put the tree up, arrange the branches... plug it in, flip a switch and BAM!! How cool is that? Simple. Just look at this mathematical equation I've constructed below:

No tangled lights + simple assembly - extraneous boxes for storing said lights = COMPLETELY AWESOME!

So, yeah... we're a fake tree family now and forever. It's the ShepAlder way.

We had a fun time putting up the tree, as this was our very first time decorating a tree in our home (we didn't get one last year for our first Christmas as a married couple as we lived in a townhouse with a much smaller living room).

Emily said I looked like a "raccoon who was up to no good and caught on camera" when she took this picture. I say I was just focused on hanging up my awesome Captain Kirk ornament.

Even though this is our second Christmas together as a married couple, this is the first time we've used this ornament.


We got this ornament on our honeymoon in Jamaica.
It Jamaica's me crazy!


We inherited a ton of ornaments from Emily's sister because her kids would likely break them... or something like that. Since we have no children, we get all the good stuff! The coolest thing about this ornament? It's little legs wobble to and fro!


Everyone who knows me recognizes I'm a total, unapologetic geek (I mean, c'mon... Em and I are about to attend an exclusive, 24-hour film festival in Austin, Texas, next week for the second year in a row). My love of Star Trek, Star Wars, sci-fi, comic books, etc., has lasted since childhood, and when I found an awesome eBay auction offering a load of Star Trek ornaments, I had to get them.


Mr. Spock was in the bundle as well. It's only logical to have him on the tree.


And the Enterprise-D from Star Trek: The Next Generation (I also have the Enterprise-E, but when I tried to explain to Emily why the two ships share a name, but are quite different, she just kind of rolled her eyes).

This OREGON DUCK is a constant reminder of our alma mater...
and the DUCKS decisive 65-38 victory over the silly Oregon State Beavers last week! GO DUCKS!!


With the tree up, it was time for a quick snap of the awesome ShepAlder family (minus the cats, who as I mentioned previously, are not allowed in this room. Lo siento, gatitos!). Emily had just woken up from a little nap, so she was a bit groggy.

We'll be spending Christmas with my family in Hermiston (wooh!), and then New Year's Eve at Hoodoo, so this tree won't get much official use this year. But, it's a welcome reminder of the festive spirit of Christmas!