New Year’s Eve Festivities

Saying "2009" just sounds strange to me. It’s going to take a while to grow on me…

So, Eric and I drove out to Mountain House to spend New Year’s Eve with our good friends Stephen and Jenny, who just bought an awesome new house. We took Eric’s Nissan since my car has been giving us some trouble lately. It likes to overheat on the freeway and then the oil pressure drops. I did some research online and learned this is a typical problem with Ford motors. I also learned that it could progress into a blown piston if not careful and quickly repaired- definitely not a good thing considering Probe parts are hard to come by. Therefore, my car has been indefinitely retired until we can figure out how to fix it. I am thankful for the timing of this unfortunate issue however, since I am not currently in school and we can make do with one working vehicle in the meantime. Interestingly enough, the Probe always seems to select convenient times to give me trouble...

After the long drive out to Mountain House, we spent most of the evening playing Guitar Hero and snacking- I brought some spinach-artichoke dip and some cookies-and-cream fudge. And Stephen’s famous bean dip was delicious, as always. Somehow, I got stuck with the mic during our gaming session. At least no one could hear my voice over the guitars and drums! Along with a few other couples, we also played a few rounds of a card game called the battle of the sexes. It was quite hilarious to hear the boy team arguing over what color saffron was and I’m sure the boys were intrigued by our discussion of what court lines allow for a 3-pointer in basketball. We took a quick break to watch the ball drop and toast the new year. All in all, it was a good time! We didn’t leave until about 1:30 in the morning and we were not exactly looking forward to the hour-long drive back home and all the stupid drivers we might encounter along the way. It was horribly foggy through the Altamont, but luckily the roads were empty.