Christmas Fireworks

Chronicles of Narnia

Decorating For Xmas

Hello Jim & Kim fanatics...and welcome to JimmyPowell.com!
A fun & entertaining site where you can get a glimpse into our little world!

Saying goodbye has almost become an art form for us. This time around we were saying goodbye to one of my favorite friends Julie who's moving to Florida just in time for Christmas. We hung out at Suzy's Bar & Grill in Hermosa to have a few last drinks and wish her well. Julie worked for the Redondo Chamber and has truly been a great friend of mine the past few years and I'm certainly gonna miss her. This just adds to the myth that everyone who we becomes friends with here moves away. Ha-ha!

OUR CHRISTMAS - Just 6 more days till we celebrate "our" little Christmas here in Redondo Beach. In light of our trip to the east coast for the holidays, we're going to be opening our gifts next Saturday night. Our gifts have started showing up under the tree including one that has me a little perplexed. It's a long, rectangular box in the back which Kim has demanded I not touch or shake in any way. Hmmmmm? She won't even give me any clues but I'll know in about 6 more days. 

THE EAST COAST - We fly out for the East coast next Monday night (19th) arriving in Richmond Tuesday morning. We'll be spending a few days in Richmond with Barry & Shannon before heading down to SloBo on Friday to visit with family and friends. We'll post our East coast itinerary on here next weekend so everyone will know when and where to catch us.

Sunday night we had dinner with Cassi & Dale and some of their friends in Hermosa Beach and watched the Manhattan Beach fireworks from their balcony. I guess since we don't get snow here, we get fireworks. It was a great fireworks show that last a good 10-15 minutes. I snapped a few shots which turned out good considering I free-handed it...i.e., sans tripod.

We went to the movies Saturday night to see The Lion, The Witch, & The Wardrobe and it was nothing short of amazing. Every aspect of the movie was faithful to the book (by C.S. Lewis) and it was the first time I've been to a movie where the audience cheered and clapped a dozen times at key moments in the film. You could really tell that most everyone in the theatre had read the book and like myself, were very pleased with the movie adaptation.

The animation used to make the animals talk was spectacular and The White Witch Jadus was played by Tilda Swinton who one tough witch in this film. I'd read all the Chronicles of Narnia as a kid and loved them and recently started re-reading them. Even if you haven't read the books, you should like this film.

Correction: Tilda Swinton was not the Elvin witch Galadriel in Lord of Rings, that was Cate Blanchett. Thanks for the heads up Lori! (I hate when my internet sources are wrong)

Someone sent me an email with all kinds of cute animal pictures but this one was by far my favorite. 

And if that isn't cute enough...how about this?

John was a clerk in a small drugstore but he was not much of a salesman. He could never find the item the customer wanted. Bob, the owner, had about enough and warned John that the next sale he missed would be his last.

Just then a man came in coughing and he ask John for their best cough syrup. Try as he might John could not find the cough syrup. Remembering Bob's warning he sold the man a box of Ex-Lax and told him to take it all at once.

The customer did as John said and then walked outside and leaned against a lamp post.

Bob had seen the whole thing and came over to ask John what had transpired.

"He wanted something for his cough but I couldn't find the cough syrup. I substituted Ex-Lax and told him to take it all at once" John explained.

"Ex-Lax won't cure a cough!" Bob shouted angrily.

"Sure it will" John said, pointing at the man leaning on the lamp post.

"Just look at him. He's afraid to cough!"

Over the weekend, thousands gathered in Sioux Falls, South Dakota to watch the demolition of the city's tallest building...the Zip Feed Mill. Demolition crews rigged the building with explosives, counted down to zero and pressed the button. The explosive went off, the building collapsed a few stories and then stopped. I guess you could say the building won.

• http://www.break.com/articles/stillstanding.html?t=4409

How bad is this for the demolition crew? Can you say embarrasing?

I guess my only question is how does the mother give birth to these? Ouch!

Courtesy of Shannon Powell

I came downstairs Saturday night to catch Kim fast asleep under a pile of pillows and blankets. We had a long, busy day and I guess she was a little pooped out. My sleeping beauty....

:-)

It's finally starting to cool down here in the South Bay. Feels like "Fall" right now with the air getting chilly once the sunsets. We were running around most of the day and happened to be near the pier near sunset so we decided to stop and watch. Not one of the "prettiest" sunsets of the year but I don't think there's a such thing as an ugly sunset here.

I guess the makers of Prilosec OTC (heartburn medicine) wanted to make opening their product similar to opening lots of presents on Christmas morning. I got this 28 count box of Prilosec over this weekend and could only shake my head at the idiocy of putting boxes, inside of boxes, inside of boxes. Maybe this stuff wouldn't cost so much if they would eliminate all the redundant packaging. There's at least 3 unnecessary boxes here.     

Box #1 From The Store	Inside Box #1,  Another Box
Inside Box #2, Two more boxes	Finally, the product....kinda!
Had a similar experience? You can complain to them by clicking here.

The owners of this house have done another song/lightshow which is pretty cool. It's not as good as the original one they did but still pretty sweet. Clark Griswald would be proud and whenever I get my first house....you better believe I'm gonna be doing this kind of stuff. :-) Check 'em both out!
     

• http://www.break.com/articles/houselights2.html (NEW)

• http://gorillamask.net/xmasinsanity.shtml (Original & Best So Far)

I'm a HUGE fan of Family Guy and this next video is a fine example of the kind of low brow humor that is so funny. It's Peter Griffin singing some holiday songs that he clearly doesn't know the words to.

Very funny...I only wish it was longer.
    

• http://www.gkko.com/funny-videos/558/family-guy:-a-peter-griffin-christmas/

After getting the tree up Saturday night, we spent Sunday night decorating it and putting up some of our other Christmas decor. We decided to go for an eclectic look on our tree this year using every ornament of every style we have. The main thing we decided was not to use garland so we have to buy some more ornaments to fill out the tree some more.

Kim also set up our Rudolph scene...you know...from the Rudolph special that comes on every year. That was always my favorite Christmas show each year and we'll be watching it very soon on DVD.