Longhorn in Paradise

Yes, I know it is already January 11, but as you can see from the pictures, we have been quite busy....Liska's birthday party, her first trip to the dentist...my getting my long, beautiful locks sheared. That's right. I have gotten rid of all that pesky hair...and no, I didn't lose a bet...I did not join the Army and it is not flea and tick season. I just wanted to get rid of it. Is that so wrong? It was difficult to get used to at first, but I am very comfortable with it now and will keep it like this going forward...my dad and I will both be pseudo-skin heads. :-) For those of you who don't know, that is our good friend Denise Brown cutting my hair. She is a real pro! The price was right too. :-)

So, Liska's birthday was quite an event...we celebrated with Kat's parents on her actual birthday by doing the ice cream cake thing...we also, of course, had to go get noodles as it is a Chinese custom to eat noodles on your birthday...it signifies long life. So, she's got that going for her...which is nice. The 7th was craziness as we had nearly 40 people in our house and out in our backyard for her big party. Fun had by all despite the wind and (relatively) chilly temperatures.

The week before Liska's b-day, I went out to Vegas with a friend of mine and had a nice, relaxing time. Ended up killing on the blackjack table to the tune of $1500 and also won about $900 on the slots. It was a good couple days! My buddy is a high roller there so we also got to stay in this penthouse suite with a full dining room, big screen tv, wet bar, two rooms, sauna, etc. It was a good time.

So, I know this post is basically just filling everyone in on what is up, but I did want to see what everyone's New Year's resolution is. Mine is to get serious about drinking more and finallly take up smoking. I've put it off too long. Actually, I did not make resolutions...I keep thinking how funny it is that people use this time of year to reinvent themselves...where did this all start? I have a feeling it was some dude who woke up on January 1 back in the day after a night of Bachnalian debauchery....he struggled out of bed around noon and looked in the mirror and said "I resolve never to drink again!" Splashed some water on his face and walked out to his family room. When he realized that the Rose Bowl was about to start he promptly announced "Hair of the dog!" and thus became the first of many people to break a New Years Resolution the same day he made it.

In other news, we are taking Liska to Disneyland tomorrow and then to the Aquarium of the Pacific on Saturday. Birthday party on Sunday.....we tried to get Liska to get her haircut on her birthday, but she kept telling the lady to stop touching her while giving her her best Heisman pose....I am officially training for the Bayshore marathon in May, so the Bartkowiaks should get ready for an invasion of the Knight men over Memorial Day weekend this year....over the past couple weeks, Hagen has started crawling, pulling himself up and cruising the furniture. He has also written his first symphony...eat that Amadeus!!!

I hope everyone had an enjoyable holiday....Happy New Year to all.

OH yeah, check out Liska's dancing prowess on YouTube...just go to the link in the Christmas post and click on "other videos from this user" or some such thing. You can see her dancing around in her Yo Yo hat.

OK....much love to all!

jak