It was well into December by the time I realized I never posted anything for November, so I've got two months worth of updates for 2025's year-end post.
Friends of the Forest Award
Last year, I volunteered to be on a tech committee for the Friends of the Forest here in Sedona, who help the National Forest Service with projects in the Coconino Forest, including the hiking trail system.
My wife and I have volunteered our time as trail ambassadors (tracking trail usage data) and on the graffiti cleanup team, because visitors seem to not know, or acknowledge, leave no trace.
On the tech committee, we talked about a number of possible projects, but the one I landed on was to make the yearly Job Hazard Acknowledgement process much easier for most of the heads of the various committees. This could take days for some of the larger committees, and I was able to help create a spreadsheet dashboard that allowed them to turn days of time, into minutes.
At the yearly wrap up meeting, my partner on the project, and I, received the following award for our efforts.
Work Trip to Philly
I had another work trip up to Philadelphia where I was literally up for a single day. Quick, but important.
BGGCon 2025
Since I've moved to Arizona from the Dallas, TX area, my board-gaming friends and I have gotten together in the November timeframe for a week of games.
Since BGGCon is conveniently scheduled during this time, we chose it once again as our destination. It's always great fun.
During our first get-together, we played Starship Captains, and we have kept up a tradition of playing it each time we've gathered. Heavily influenced by Star Trek about managing the crew of your ship and visiting planets in the galaxy and completing missions.
Sedona Goings-on
For Thanksgiving, we had dinner at a local resort who had things ready to ring in the Christmas season.
While there, we came across a number of javelina in a field nearby.
We also were able to get tickets to see Chef Duff Goldman, who's been on the Food Network for a long time, initially with his show, Ace of Cakes, talk about his life and make us his family's apple strudel.
Power Mexico Trip
My employer, Power Home Remodeling has a Mexico trip every December. Around three thousand of its employees and spouses get an all-expenses paid stay at a resort (only the flight's not included) to a 3-day music festival that they put together on the beach.
The main artist that my wife and I were looking most forward to, was Rüfüs Du Sol who put on a phenomenal show. This photo doesn't really do it justice.
The headliner on the last night of the festival was Dua Lipa, who was great, too.
Christmastime in Phoenix
We spend a few days down in Phoenix and Scottsdale so we could find some attire for a wedding my wife and are attending in February.
While there, she surprised me with a steak dinner and tickets to see the Cirque du Soleil Christmas show, 'Twas the Night Before... which was good.
We ended up having to stay an extra night and got tickets to the luminary exhibits at the Desert Botanical Garden.
And I haven't mentioned any of our friends joining us on any of these trips, but Peanut the Sloth joined us on this one.
House Build Progress
Things are coming along now. Finally, we got the outside stucco color on. I don't have a more recent photo with the scaffolding down, but here it is.
We also have cabinets initially in place and most of the recessed lighting installed.
Movies
- Predator: Badlands I'd seen already but couldn't wait to see it again. Cemented it as one of my favorites of the year.
- The Old Guard 2 was one I couldn't really get into all that much. Thought I recalled the first one being okay. This one, not so much.
- Frankenstein (2025) Like many of Del Toro's movies, I found this one to be a bit more style over substance. Beautiful. And generally liked it, but not something I'll likely revisit.
- The Running Man (2025) was a bit of fun. While I haven't read the story it's based on to know if it's closer to the source material, but it's quite different from the Arnold version.
- Novocaine was fun, too. I'm liking Jack Quaid in whatever he's in.
- The Legend of Ochi was more meh than I was hoping it would be.
- Troll 2 was more meh. I recall liking the first one, but this one was a bit boring to me.
- Caught Stealing was suprisingly enjoyable. Mostly because I've found Darren Aronofsky's other films underwhelming when they're typically praised.
- The Rats: A Witcher Tale felt like it was four hours long even though the running time is only 83 minutes. Best thing was seeing Dolph Lundgren on the screen again.
- Granite Rapids Moon is unique in that it was filmed almost entirely in the Grand Canyon. Low budget and independent and still a showcase for the national park. Saw it with a Q&A with the director and star of the film to learn that the story behind the filming could be a great documentary if they have the footage.
- Avatar: Fire & Ash feels a bit more of the same as the last film in the series, but it's sure amazing to see in HFR 3D on a big screen. I'll continue to watch more films, assuming they're coming. Maybe the next one won't be about the same bad guy from all the movies trying to kill everyone again.
- Zootopia 2 I didn't feel was quite as good as the original film, but it was still really good.
- Wake up Dead Man was a reminder of how much I love good dialog in film.
Top Films of 2025
Since it's the end of the year, here's my top 5 of the year.
- Sinners
- Predator: Badlands
- Ballerina
- F1
- Bring Her Back
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