Happy Christmas to All!

I would like to extend my holiday greetings to each of you and remind you of a group that needs our special support during this and every festive season:

The vegans.

Yes, the vegans, whose annual Tofurky can be but cold solace between late November and early January. The vegans, who are forced to bring their own seaweed-containing repast to neighbors' parties. The vegans, whose continual scoffing at the baser instincts of their omnivorous friends serve only to accentuate and heighten the rich, alienating smells wafting from the kitchen.

Not for the faint of heart is holiday veganism. This is no fairweather diet; it is not the polloovolactovegetarian escapism of half-hearted activists, faux friends of livestock. To miff mashed potatoes, snub stuffing, yawn at yams: these are the marks of a true pioneer of socioculinary egalitarianism.

Adopt a vegan this year, my friends. Support their brave stand. Invite them over for dinner and, when the pumpkin pie and Cool Whip are being served, present to them their lot: a 100% animal-free Fruit Leather. It is the least you can do.

***

Right. Now that that silliness is over, here are some pictures.


Kori and Issa somewhere in Spain being irresistably cute.


And then they gave us burning alcohol to drink!...and I don't know what happened after, but when I woke up I was in Jersey with a finger on a chain around my neck.


Toshio: everyone else looks at a cliff. He does backflips on it.


Do you see this? Do you SEE this? This is Galicia. Why did you make me come back? Why? Why? I hate you all.


The 1st century AD Roman 100%-concrete-free-as-in-nothing-holding-the-blocks-together aqueduct in Segovia. Mad props to Tom for this awesome picture.

PS. Eventually I will fix the size on these, but for now I kind of like them in their original size. So there. Also eventually, place pictures will be insterted into their respective blog entries. But that comes next week when it's not 1:42am Christmas morning.