I’ve been down with a respiratory thing for two weeks now, so behind on a lot, but Darth Santa did get his annual excursion to mingle with the little folk, and I’m finally posting some pictures.  This year we went to San Diego’s Natural History Museum, with a stop outside the Globe Theater on the walk over.

All of our Darth Santa goodness, old and new, is over in the photo gallery.  Have a very Merry Sithmas.

We had a great time at the Penguin Plunge, and I made this today from the GoPro footage we shot there.   Even if you don’t enjoy video of people having a good time starting 2015 at the beach, I really liked this arrangement of Auld Lang Syne, so just close your eyes and take it in.  Happy New Year to all our friends.

NEW YEARS PENGUIN PLUNGE 2015 from Chuck Hartley on Vimeo.

June’s always our busiest month.  Last day of school.  Randy’s __th birthday.  Our sixth wedding anniversary.  Now we’re adding a new one: June 19th, hereafter known as Onofre Adoption Day. The Blur of Fur II was adopted from Animal Rescue Kompany, and is a five-month-old Bichon.   He and Diego bonded on a play date at Onofre’s foster family’s house, then moved in a few days later.  Excessive photography to follow.

Christmas may be dominating the news, the mail, the calendar, the living room, and, well, everything, but as a Public Service Announcement I’d like to remind you that we’re now only thirteen days away from the 28th annual Penguin Plunge at Del Mar.

Mmmm…donuts.  Mmmm…lifeguards.

We’re planning to make this year our eighth start for a new year with a “refreshed mind and a slightly numb body,” to quote the stylish certificate that comes with the donuts and coffee.

Photos from previous years are posted under the tag ‘Penguin Plunge‘, and a video we made from the 2013 event is hosted at YouTube.

HOWLING POINT CHRISTMAS 2013 from Chuck Hartley on Vimeo.

Spent the holiday trying to get over some kinduva respiratory thing that kept me from the extended family shindig in Las Vegas.  Nurse Diego and his crack aquatic convalescence staff took made me get up and eat periodically, and the magic of Facetime made it almost like I was there enjoying the tryptofan.

Did have a minor revelatory breakthough re: Facebook though.  I’ve spent too much time on their site lately, and not enough on my own.  I got cut off cold Turkey sometime Thanksgiving morning though, for “security reasons” that they won’t or can’t explain.  My identity needs to be verified, and I guess their verifiers are out stuffing their faces.  The revelation to me though was a cold, hard reminder that I’m not their customer, I’m just the product they sell to advertisers.  As convenient as that site is, I think it’s time for a new look at what content I post there versus what I post on my own domain.

You know that point in the horror movie where the person (or dismembered body parts) you thought was dead slowly starts moving?  Well, consider this that moment for Howling Point.  Not dead yet, no matter what we’ve looked like the last couple of months.  Happy Halloween.

… [A]ll men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Those words, beautiful every year, sound just a little bit better this year.  Will be spending Independence Day celebrating with my now federally-recognized husband by burning the flesh of animals, drinking fermented substances, and finally, protecting our puppy from the noises of our pyromaniac neighbors.

Having a great holiday and hope you are too.

Let’s see…missed Halloween, the election and Thanksgiving here.  Blame Twitter and Facebook (via iPhone) and a dead PC.  Fortunately the Christmas banners went up automatically on the first,so the site didn’t look completely neglected.  Reloading software and setting new defaults on a new HP laptop now, and trying not to get thrown over the rails managing the Windows 8 learning curve.  Not to mention playing with my  new train and scheduling photo ops for the Dark Lord of the Snow.