I hope to keep the spark that I got from my vacation as long as possible. I plan to do this by writing more, and going for morning jogs. Morning jogs are very cold up here, so I need a better winter running outfit. My wind jacket is hiding, but I vow to find it. It is my goal to suck it up and do at least a small jog every morning.

Add in my Wii time and I will be unstoppable. Oh man, Wii is fun. Christy is a stiff competitor on it. She currently is leading me in bowling and golf, but I plan to get better. She is really good at those sorts of games. Me, I get grumbly when I make a mistake, and that does me in. Much like in real bowling, when things start to go awry. Maybe Wii bowling will make me a better real bowler.

It is lunch time. I am off to get some fresh air and grub, Talk to you soon.

I'm now considering if I will get any sleep tonight. Maybe a bit, but none till I board I get to my seat. Can you call the act of getting from terminal to your seat "planing", as the reverse is deplaning? Spell checker says yes, but common sense says no.

Coolest tidbit I picked up on this trip: roundabouts are now the next big thing Arizona. My family drove though a newly built road that had a good half dozen of them. I felt like I was in Europe, something that does not happen very often when I'm out west. If you have never driven around one, they are hands down better than a stop light. If you don't believe me, have a look.

Secondary tidbit, I now know how to get to John McCain's house. Well, at least one of them. He happens to live really close to a group of these newly built roundabouts. I wonder what he thinks of them.

This fine laptop is sucking away juice faster than I can type, so I have to wrap this up. Christmas was great, and I hope yours was too, if that's your thing. Now all I have to do is find a rockin' New Years party.

I'm here in Prescott, Arizona, hanging out with my parents to celebrate the holidays. Despite having to work remotely, it has been great to take a break from the daily grind. It's great that just a little time off can bring back the spark of creativity.

I am currently Wii obsessed. There is one here, and as of this morning, there will be one in our house. As I haven't played video games in a few years, my tolerance to them has dropped. I was Wii boxing with my dad, and my arms were sore the next day. It is an especially spazz-o-riffic game, so no wonder. I would hate to see how I look flailing my arms this way and that as fast as I can move them. How fun it is to look foolish.

I am getting kicked out of the living room now, so I must go. I will write more soon.

There was a bit of unwanted excitement right after the ceremony which you, my reader, need not concern yourself about lest to say that it all worked out for the best. I only mention this because I was left off the hook in saying my Best Man toast. I feel that I should toast my brother and Ammie, and this seems like an appropriate public forum to do it now. So if you can, get a drink in your hand, preferably champagne, and let's get this thing started.

Tink, tink, tink.

Thanks again for taking this moment to celebrate the wedding of my brother and Ammie. I have known these two as a couple for almost the entire time they have been dating. I came back one summer from camping in Philmont, New Mexico to find that my brother was dating this tall skinny girl from West Texas who could cook up a storm. Even though my brother and I lived together for something like five years, we always had better luck with the ladies when the other was not around. Perhaps my only role in getting these two together was being an awful wingman to Harry for all those previous years, so that when the right one finally came, he was available.

My brother liked this one from the start. And, as many of you know, he caught her heart with a dish of his spaghetti marco polo. There may have been some large butterflies posted on her door at some point, but I think that it was the food that really sealed the deal. As anyone who has eaten Ammie's food can attest, she sets a high bar when it comes to grub. Food is not just food, food is love. And with this one lovely spaghetti meal, my brother gastrologically said I love you. (I wasn't there, but I would suspect that he said it as well.)

These two have been cooking meals for each other together ever since. Any time I have the honor of eating their food, I can really taste that little something that makes their food amazing. And it is not just the bacon that makes their meals amazing, it's the heart that is put into it.

Harry, you are in luck. I'm going to avoid all the embarrassing things I would normally say about you in a non-internet toast. I just want to tell you that I am so happy and proud that you have found such a wonderful woman. She makes you a more fulfilled and happy person, and I could not think of a better person to be in your life.

Ammie, I am happy to have you officially as my sister-in-law. It seems like you have been part of the family for a long time now. I want to thank you for the endless generosity you have given to me, be it my stunning birthday dinner last year, heart-felt walks on the streets of Georgia or thrifting together throughout the years. But most important, I want to thank you for loving my brother, for by making him happier you bring joy to my heart.

You guys are the best couple I know. May the many coming years only bring more joy and happiness.

Cheers.

It has been good travel, with trips to the Northwest, upstate New York and Virginia. On my list of things to do, weddings top the good times category. All the ingredients go so well together: love, friends, cheesy dance music, free drinks, free food, an appropriate climate to tear up, laughter, great toasts and an excuse to dress up and look all special. No matter how you mix it, it's a recipe that seemingly always works.

As I feel particularly saturated with weddings and their minutia right now, I wanted to offer to future wedding planners the Colin Guide to Weddings. I have taken the best parts of all the weddings I have attended and compiled a number of things to keep in mind if you find yourself planning a wedding.

1. Write Your Own Vows. I want to cry when I see people get married. Yes, I want even the men in the house to get choked up. I have found that the surefire way to make that happen is to have the bride and groom write their own vows in private, especially from each other, and speak their vows for the first time when they are at the alter.

2. Keep the Ceremony to 20 Minutes. Think of the children. And me. I've found that longer ceremonies start too loose the magic, and shorter ceremonies feel a bit rushed.

3. Put Beer in Your Welcome Bags and perhaps some good snacks for those who do not drink the suds. After driving for hours, there is nothing more welcoming than a cold one.

4. Keep It Outdoors. Whatever you can put outdoors, have outdoors. Make the bachelor party a summit trip. Have the after-party under the stars. Just be sure the ceremony is in the shade.

5. Rent Some Good Speakers, and Use Your iPod. While live bands are fun, and there are amazing wedding bands out there, a playlist filled with Michael Jackson, Justin Timberlake and 80's music is all you need. The reaction to Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" will make the highlight of the wedding. Make sure there is plenty of room to dance.

6. Only Two Toasts. The best man makes fun, the bridesmaid cries. It's a timeless classic that works every time. Do it before they get too drunk.

7. Beer and Wine Is Fine. No reason to get crazy with a open bar.

8. Take Wedding Pictures Before the Ceremony. This really just makes logistics much easier. The people want to go straight from ceremony to the food and booze.

9. Have a Cold Buffet, Mainly Vegetarian. Trust me, this works. Reheating always seems to deaden the food.

10. Use Bubbles. They are fun. We all love them.

11. Have Handlers for the Bride and Groom. This is their day. Everything runs smoother if there is some sort of campaign manager running the show. This is something to consider when choosing bridesmaids and best men.

12. Consider a Reusable Bridesmaid Dress. That light blue dress that they are never going to wear again? That ain't right. Christy has two of them. The only solution I have found to work so far is with black dresses, which worked with the guy's tuxes. You can always wear black again.

That's the end of my list. Any other suggestions?

*If there hadn't been overlap, we could have gone to six weddings. There is one wedding left for this season, my brother and Ammie.

Last I wrote, I was in Seattle, enjoying what that fine city had to offer in coffee, good food and friends. Christy and I then drove up to Bellingham, a little town north of Seattle that would be quaint if not for the bustling local tourism that has changed the face of the town. We were there to see a wedding, that would be Todd and Julia's for those familiar. A good time was had by all, including myself.

The day after all the festivities, we loaded up the car again and headed north into Canada to visit Vancouver. The town has sort of an west-meets-east atmosphere, perhaps a Hong Kong light, but with English as the dominate language. This is due in part to the large Asian population, one of the largest in North America (third, if I recall correctly from my travel book), a British vibe that comes with being part of the Commonwealth and an unique urban planing called Vancouverism that fills downtown with spaced-apart skyrise loft buildings.

We walked a lot in Vancouver, seeing most of the city proper. It's a pretty clean and nice place, with oddly safe crosswalks, and just like Seattle, super polite locals. I dare say that New York makes you a bit more suspicious of people's intentions, so the ultra-niceness to strangers put me a bit off guard. They also have a huge park that absolutely makes the place.

The only bad part of the trip was walking through two blocks of the most amazingly sketchy street, with white-faced druggies selling stolen goods next to the dodgiest, tricks-being-made-and-much-worse alley I've ever seen in my life. This was one block north of the historic Gastown, a utlra-safe tourist trap and historic district. Guess the police there like to keep all the riff-raf concentrated in one area. At least I didn't have to worry about being shot.

The highlight of this leg of the trip was a meal that Christy arraigned for us. For those of you who watch Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations, we ate at Tojo's an amazing Japanese restaurant, where we got the omakase. It was the best sushi I've ever had. If you get the chance, you should get this meal. It is indescribably good.

That's about it for the trip. Thanks to everyone who came out to see us, congrads to Todd and Julie, and may I soon come back to the great Pacific Northwest.

This one has been pretty fun, I must say. We've checked out some good spots in Seattle, walking around to see the fish market, Mario Batali's dad's restaurant, lots of cool little stores and coffee joints of the non-Starbucks variety. We did walk by the first Starbucks, and while I did not go in, I did humbly to tip my hat for their brilliant scheme of world coffee domination.

We saw Mt. Rainer raising beautifully in the distance, which should say something about the weather the last two days: perfect. Two days without rain, I see why they wedding was planned for this week.

We also saw some peeps of ours from our collective pasts, which is great. If any of you are reading this, thanks for coming out.

We are off to Bellingham, WA this afternoon. I'll report back from there. Right now I need some coffee.

The big red five. That sucker is huge, twice the size of all the other 5's on the bill. It fills up nearly half of the available vertical space. And it is Helvetica, as if it needs to be any more omnipresent than it already is.

When I think of American money, I do not think Helvetica. I think of that curvaceous script font used for the other numbers. I would be happier if they tripled the size of one of the other 5's. What about something more like this:

Now doesn't that look better? Color it some bright color, and it would be good to go. I hope that the next redesign does not fall into to the helvetica trap. Fortunately, there are no san-serifs in the one dollar bill.

That's my two cents.

I have not told you very much about my house, so I feel that I should start with my back window, and my Pavlovian pet. A while back I made a video about it:

The other day, after tossing a snack to the dog, I looked down into my neighbors back yard and I saw an entire side of beef, or perhaps pork. I took a picture, as it is not often I see a half carcass, let alone one that is not in a butcher shop.

I read recently that ordering in bulk is the most economical way to buy meat, but a side of an animal seems like a logistical nightmare. If a recipe calls for a side of pork, just imagine how many eggs you would need. Perhaps this a large family gathering?

To leave things on a more spring-like note, I make it to the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens this weekend with Christy and we enjoyed the cherry blossom excitement. I am happy to see that spring is here. Best time of the year.

I mention this because I have been recently thinking about my morning commute. It is, in some ways, the highlight of my work day. For one, it is quite likely for me to see someone I know on the way there. To date, I have seen: Abby, J.R., Linsey, Cara, Matt, Kim, Sam and Sophie. Every morning there is a good chance that I'll have to put aside my paper and catch up with the latest with happenings.

And that is the people that is just the people I actually know. There are the others, the characters who commute with me, as we all wordlessly travel up to Queens and over to midtown. There is the girl who looks like Carin, who could quite possibly could be her. There is mustache dude with the impressive but unsightly handlebar number. The small-headed girl with the brown bob. The tall, somewhat annoying, over-talkative hipster guy. And so on...

I suppose I may be overstating this a little bit. Along with these familiar faces are hundreds of people who remain unnoticed, little more than obstacles on my path to work. It is with them I feel like part of the herd, all of us headed off to Manhattan for one more work day. To counter that, I have the comfort of having these people whom I recognize, the individuals in the faceless group, who remind me that I'm not the only one out there who does this commute thing. And I'm glad they ride with me.

It all started with a This American Life show on superheroes. In it, one of the TAL reporters, John Hodgman—more popularly known as the PC guy in the Mac ads—had this question that he would ask at parties. Ask the question, and just like water to a sponge, the conversation blossoms. Let's get this question of of the way right now. The question is:

Given the choice between flight or invisibility, what would you choose?

If you have not heard this question, you must now take a break from this reading and go ask someone this question. Go right now, and ask someone, ideally a random stranger, and come back when you have an answer. Really, go do that right now, and come back when you are done.

Wasn't that fun? Wasn't that so much better than asking about work, majors or, not to put too fine a point on it, most anything else you can thing of? This is the allure of the question.

I've toned down the use of this question, but it came up twice this week in passing. On one occasion, I was talking about the purchasing process at thesuperhero store in Brooklyn, where you have to say your superhero name to buy things, and hence you need to have a some sort of moderate background story to support that name. So when I buy my McSweeney's, I tell them my name is Subway man, and I have the power to control all the trains in New York. While I think that this is a suitable superpower, the crowd was unimpressed, which lead to a general superpower discussion, and inevitably, the question.

Last night I was telling my friend how I got called on this question—someone actually had listened to the above radio show—unfortunately, one of the people in the group had not heard it, and we got sucked into the conversation again. My poor girlfriend and one of my best fiends had to again be sucked into the unavoidable superhero discussion. And for that, I am not proud.

I am sad that there exists not a better question, but I've tapped this question out. I vow from here on out to not ask anyone the question.

This morning I was talking to one of friends about how I am feeling about this never-ending best-election-ever situation. I came up with an analogy: this Democratic nomination is like The Ashes if the cricket match were to last, say, months, and I were to care about cricket. Both have oblique and seemingly non-sensible rules and it is hard to tell who is winning, even if you know what is going on.

Even though I know the race will go on, I still have a knot in my stomach because I want my side to win. Tomorrow will not be the end of the game, but the score will be different, and that my friend, is exciting. I best get some sleep so I can see how my old state votes. Don't mess this up, Texas.

What is going on here? Where is the usual liberal splintering and disillusionment that I have grown so accustomed to? What, is there no Deanesque— or should I say Huckaberryesque&mdash:candidate to siphon off the party's enthusiasm? How the heck did MoveOn choose a candidate that could actually, realistically, win the nomination? By some great stroke of luck, the famous Democratic tendency towards self-destruction has been corralled and transformed into a positive force. More voters and more excitement is now being put into the selection of one of two very similar, mainstream candidates.

And you know what? I know that it'll get ugly one of these days, but it is great to see an election being played by increasing the vote count rather than dropping it.

This makes me feel better about not being confident of whom to vote for the morning I woke up. I have been leaning towards one candidate, but I am not at all upset to learn that my state was won by the candidate I did not vote for. I can be happy with the outcome, whatever it may be. Guilt-free wonkness. Awesome.

As far as the Republicans go, there nomination process looks very similar to what lead to John Kerry. I will be interested to see if they can rally behind a moderate. Stranger things have happened, but the one of biggest lessons of four years ago is that people vote for candidates, not against the alternative. Obama or Hillary hate alone will not be enough to win the election.

Comments anyone?

Where is the Bud bowl of today, I ask? Beer cans playing football, that is all I ask for. I fear that the Bud Bowl would never make the cut. Is it too risky in this post-wardrobe malfunction era for a beer company to so directly advertise its wares?

Time to move on. Big day tomorrow. Election post to come soon.

On a personal level, Sushi gives me much joy, it saddens me to read that some of the best tasting items on the sushi menu are bad for you. Take away the thermometer fixings and the whole menu happens to be both good tasting and good for you. If the best of the best has quicksilver in it, I can't but wonder if the fish in my pay-scale come equipped with some type of heavy metal. One more thing to keep in mind for this omnivore's dilemma with seafood. (Say, for example, that whole, we-humans-are-eating-too-much-fish issue.)

What got me thinking is this nifty graph that came with the article. To research this, I suspect that the reporter used this as an excuse to eat at some of her favorite sushi joints at lunchtime. I envision her walking around midtown and snaking on an apparently dangerous number of bluefin nigiri, for a few weeks , all the while pocketing one or two pieces from each joint to give to the scientists. Doing this on a reporters budget, she'd probably skip the amazing places like Masa, and stick to the places that are either good or excellent....

I decided to make the following mashup to see if my theory is correct:

Quicksilver and Stars, an Unscientific Survey & Mashup

After doing all that cutting and pasting, I'll let you make your own conclusions.