goodnight, travel well...

The Killers on Jimmy Kimmel Live (taken from my not-so-great camera phone):

This has been a very out-of-the-ordinary Thanksgiving week. It started off Monday when I got an email around noon saying I'd won tickets from Indie 103.1 to see a live taping of the Killers on Jimmy Kimmel's show the same day. I called up Scott and left work early to go pick up the tickets and get in line. The security team was pretty rude, but eventually we got inside the gates to the outdoor stage and grabbed positions about 10 feet or so from the stage between Brandon and Mark's spots. We had to stay crammed into this area with people all around us for about 2 hours before the Killers came out, but they made it worthwhile. They played Human and Spaceman for the taping, and then Losing Touch, Neon Tiger, Sweet Talk, When You Were Young, and All These Things That I've Done just for us. Despite all that excitement, the high point of the night may have been when a girl a couple people down from Scott in the crowd tapped him and said, "Are you in Potential Difference?" It turned out to be just another one of Kim's friends, but at least the girl behind us thought we were kinda famous.

Usually I'm not a fan of Thanksgiving (aside from the 2 days off) because I'm not a big fan of Thanksgiving food. Every year, my mom makes a big meal and invites family friends over, and I spend the whole day waiting around to watch people eat a bunch of food. This year, we decided to switch things up and drive down to Carlsbad to eat at my brother's restaurant, Bellefleur. I've praised this place several times on my blog before, and it was awesome once again. I had lamb, swordfish, waffles, bacon, sausage, prime rib, carrot cake, gummi bears, and mimosas, but I still wanted to go back for more.

All in all, it was a good holiday weekend, but this morning brought some bad news. About 12 years ago, my friend Steve bought a black lab and named him Brueggar. Brueggar practically grew up at my house since Steve was often travelling or busy with business dinners and things. I taught him how to swim in our pool and he became good friends with our old dog Whitney. A couple years ago, Brueggar started going blind and had trouble moving around Steve's apartment. He was still happy and was always excited to see me whenever I would house-sit for Steve, but he was always bumping into things and getting nervous about falling off ledges. This morning, he finally started to show he was in pain and Steve decided it was time to put him to sleep. Brueggar was always sort of a step-dog to me, so I'm really going to miss him, but I feel even worse for Steve. As a single guy in his 50's, Brueggar was like Steve's best friend and someone to come home to every night after work, or after long trips away. Brueggar had a good life and a good owner, but sometimes it would be nice if dogs could live forever.

RIP Brueggar