118: "Kick Butt"

0:08 Curry and the Keeper episode 118 January 1st, 2025. And hello my queen. Let's discuss where we've been. It's one of my, one of my queen and bean, bean, bean, black eyed peas. Yes. Hello, my beautiful wife. I thought for sure you'd have kind of like a fireworks sort of sound, you know? Okay, let's cheers.

0:49 We just said cheers for a second. And here we go. Let's try that again. Shall we? It doesn't sound good when it's not wine. No, it's not wine. We are, uh, we are drinking the, that's really, that's very unprofessional. You know, this is bad. We are drinking the Pellegrino. Yes. Cause we've been drinking for two weeks straight. We both not even funny. Um, but, uh, but yes, we, we came home to do the show. I don't even know where to start other than we've missed everybody.

1:31 We've missed Vineyard Nation. How are y'all doing? We've missed you very much. I want to start off by apologizing that we did not do the best of show. Brian had delivered a show and it wasn't, I didn't give him direction on what I wanted. And so the show wasn't exactly where I wanted it to be. It was not his fault at all. Um, he pulled it together. No, I didn't give him direction and he didn't have a lot of time. It's more fun when you blame it on him. It's all his fault. It was a lousy show. It really was no good. No, it just, it was big blocks of, of shows cause he didn't have time to go in and really listen to different clips.

2:13 And anyway, I have an idea for a best of show if we ever take the show off again. Um, but yes, it was all my fault. It was not Brian's fault. So, okay. So there we go. But now we're back with an extra long show. We're going to do three hours today. We have a lot, because if you think about it, we went to our last show was on the 11th of December. We had the Vaudeville dinner. We went to Tannenbaum Ball. We did Booster Graham Ball. Oh my goodness. I forgot about all that. And then we went to Europe before any of that happened. So hit it. Where would you like to start? Well, hit it. Um, uh, well, how about we, I don't know. Uh, I'd like to hit it with the Booster Graham Ball in Austin. That was kind of, that's kind of a good place to pick it up.

2:54 You want to talk about the Tannenbaum Ball? Oh, please do. But that's, you're hit it. Because you dragged me to the Booster Graham Ball. I dragged you to the Booster Graham Ball. There you go. Hey, we got two balls. You got to Tannenbaum Ball. I got Booster Graham Ball. Yes. No. So the Tannenbaum Ball was on the 13th? 13th. Yeah. And you know, this was the annual event. I help out with the silent auction, annual fundraiser for the historical society. And it was a lot of fun. I mean, the best part about it is, well, it's nice to support something locally, but also the band is phenomenal. The band is phenomenal. Yes. A very good band. When, when they're finally allowed to get on stage after everybody's done talking and doing speeches.

3:38 Well, they're going to do a postmortem. And I'm going to say, there's too many talking heads. This person got up and this person got up and we're like, come on. The band actually was like, hey, it's 1015. We're getting on the stage now because we're paid from 10 midnight and we're going to be on the stage whether we're playing or not. Yes. So that was the only thing is that it just took forever for the band to get up. You must tell everybody that you're recovering from a bit of a sinus infection because it's really, you can hear yourself snottering, wiping, sneezing, blowing your nose. I'm sorry. What do you want me to do? It's just professional to say, hi everybody. I'm ill. Hi everybody. I got a sinus infection that Adam gave me while we were in Amsterdam, which he got from some dude in the Netherlands.

4:19 So you gave it to me and I'm suffering now. And you're kind of recovered. And here I am, I'm still suffering. Yeah. You're only a couple of days behind me. Anyway, but we had fun at the Tannenbaum Ball. And we had fun because we got to sit with the besties. And to see everybody else too. Everybody dresses up. It's always fun. It's always nice. I pulled out an old rag from four years ago, which was great. You're dressing me? Yes. No, I bought her a jumpsuit. I bought three dresses. All three of them went back, including a pair of shoes. So I just ended up wearing the old rag. I think the real bummer was there were a couple of people who could not dance. David couldn't dance because he still has his foot in a boot. Yes. He was out there though.

5:01 He was kind of like, he was tiny Timmy. Tiny Timmy. He was tiny Timmy. Annette couldn't dance. No. Did she and Jimmy ever dance? Have you ever seen them dance? I've once, they danced once last year at the Tannenbaum Ball. He's not a dancer. She's a dancer. He's not. You're lucky. Your husband is quite the dancer. I know. I know you are. I wonder why. He's the greatest dancer. I'll never forget when you were like, yeah, I'm really good dancer. And then you saw yourself in video and you're like, oh my gosh. I always thought I was a really good dancer until I saw it. I know. It's really sobering, isn't it? Because I remember when I would do like dancer size, jazzer size, and you're like, I got this.

5:43 And you're like, no, I don't have this. Ain't got this. No. So that was fun. So yeah. So that was Tannenbaum Ball. That was on that Friday. And then we had to drop Phoebe off on, no, we dropped Phoebe off on Monday and then we headed to Austin for the Booster Grand Ball. Right. Because we're going to stay overnight in the Booster Grand Ball. Was it at Antone's? Famous Antone's. In downtown Austin. Yes. This was an event that was really produced by both Open Mic. He's from Minneapolis and does Toonster.io. And of course, Phantom Power Music, which is Ainsley Costello's parents. And so we had six bands on stage.

6:23 We had a guest list of about 25 or 30, I think. No, it wasn't that much. Not everybody made it, but we had a pretty big guest list. There's probably about 50 or 60 people there, don't you think? From what? Total? Yeah. Oh, no. There was more than a hundred people in the beginning. Oh, really? In the beginning. Yeah. No, it definitely tapered off. The crazier the acts got, the later in the evening. You had to go early to do sound checks and go through your script and everything. And you had a producer that helped you, which is great. And I went to go see my friend Shana, and we went and had dinner together. And then we showed up at Antone's probably about 6.20 and I come in and I'm like, where's Adam?

7:05 Where is Adam? Let me just set the stage. So now this was a value for value, modern podcast app, streaming, Satoshi's, the whole thing. And six minutes before we're supposed to start, something happens with the wallets. And all I know is I see people running around sweating. I'm like, let me see if I can help. We're talking to people in Germany. We're talking to people in the UK. Everyone's trying to figure out what's going on. And meanwhile, everyone's like, we got to get the show started because we got a lot of bands to go on. And then you arrive. Yeah. So I arrived and I'm looking around, there's no place to sit. And I'm like, I forget that we're, I'm in a nightclub.

7:46 I haven't been in a nightclub in what? It's like a venue. It's a venue with a bar. It's a bar. It's a bar with a stage. There's no place to sit. I'm like, where's Adam? Where's Adam? And so finally somebody said, oh, he's upstairs. So I go upstairs. You're like, hey baby. I go, you didn't save me a seat in front of these women. In front of one of the bands, in front of the stage manager. You're like, I like the diva that I am. I'm like, you go, you know, well, things are imploding right now. So. Yeah, we have just a little bit of stress. So if you go to, and then actually, oh, what's her name? Gosh, she plays the bass. I don't know.

8:26 Cindy, I think. I was, I forget that I was in a bar. And she says, well, my husband's downstairs. You can probably find, you know, you can probably ask him. She was very concerned about you. And this is my wife. I was like, that was totally a bad move on my part. Totally bad move. I felt bad because I had, you know, I had not considered how many seats he had. There's no seats. There is no seats to save. No, no. But it was fine. It ended up being fine. Shane and I found two bar stools, like up against the wall in the back. Behind the sound guy. We were fine. But I thought it was, it was a really good show. I mean, it was live. The thing that was nice is that the artists made a lot of money for them.

9:07 Certainly, you know, I think $6,000 total. So everybody made some good money for performing. That all came from people watching. It's streamed live audio and video. It was a real podcasting 2.0 collaborative effort. And I would say that besides, I love FM Rodeo. I just love those guys because they're very loud. Three young guys make a lot of, a lot of. Was that the second band? Yes. They make a lot of noise on the stage. They, they got a lot of Satoshis. They got a lot of boosts. Oh yeah. No, people, they're very popular. And they're from Hill Country. One of them lives right here in Fredericksburg. Yeah. You told me that. But then we had Suzanne Santo. And oh my gosh, she is.

9:48 And she comes in in a red dress. Phenomenal. Long red dress. And I love what you said. You're like, she shreds in a dress. She shreds in a dress. And it's so true. She is an amazing guitar player and she has a great voice. And then she pulled out her violin and she's jamming on her violin. I'm like, this woman. I turned to her husband, Nick. I go, I am fangirling on her big time. I just want you to know that. Yeah. She, it was a dynamite performance. She was phenomenal. People on the, cause you know, we had the booster grams going and the chat and every people like, where, who is this? What is going on? This is fantastic. She's definitely not getting the recognition that she deserves. Well, she's made a lot more money than she's ever made in any of the traditional Spotify or anything like that.

10:33 Yeah. So I'm sure that she was delighted. Everyone was delighted. It was a really, it was a great evening. It ended up being a really fun evening. Yeah. Ended up being great. Everyone, it was a success for everybody because we were really marketing towards the music people in Austin and not the Bitcoin people. And so there's a lot of interest and there'll be a postmortem for that. And so I'll hear how all that went, but I was honored to be a part of it. It was, it was fun. It was professionally organized. People are pros. I just loved it. Yeah. And you were, you said it was like 10 o'clock and you're like, Hey, there's two more bands. I'm like, what? I'm out of here. You did miss Henry Invisible, who was quite, quite a sight to see. I know you're still talking about him today, but it was, it was nice.

11:16 And a lot of friends came out, which I was really happy. Like Mark and Julianne from Fredericksburg came out and they loved it. They had a great time and I loved it. They are so fun. I, we have fun with them all the time. And then, um, He spent about an hour trying to figure out how to boost. I know. And he finally did it. He finally did it. He's like, I know I can figure this out. Julianne has a cousin who lives in Austin. So they met, they, they met her. And then Tim and Kim came from Austin. And of course, um, Sir Brian with no eyes came. He came. Dirty Jersey Whore came. That was really cool. Rob Dew was there. Did you see Rob? I talked to him as well. Yeah, it was nice. It was good. It was fun. And Tiffany and Rob came out and we had a good time.

11:57 We had a really good time. You did a great job. It was fun. I really liked doing it. You know, we do it differently next time. I have some, it was also Monday night. So it's kind of hard to keep people, you know, jamming all night long. What I liked also too, when you're up there, you're like, everybody, are you ready to kick butt? I was like, what? Did I say that? You sure did. I was like, hmm. I didn't quite go over with that crowd, but I see where you're going with this. But then I said that if, if, if they, uh, boosted over a million Satoshis, they were all be invited to the freak off. Yes, you did say that. But I like, everybody ready to kick butt? Like, just doesn't have the same.

12:38 As ass? Yeah. It doesn't have the same like, I'm trying to keep with the new Adam and the old Adam. It was a clash, baby. It's a clash. Can I tell you? I'm crashing. But that was fun. And then we stayed the night in Austin and we got to spend some time with our friends, Tim and Kim. We had breakfast at their place, which was really nice. That was fun. Yeah. And at this point, Phoebe is already in, uh, she's at Paws and Claws and, you know, it was, it was hard for me to drop her off, but you know, she was okay. I'm good. I'll just, uh, I'm good to just kind of put it out of my mind. And, um, so then we came home the next day after our breakfast and then we left on.

13:19 No, I, I hopped in the car and I went to see my friend Brandy. You, by the way are insane with your calendar. I mean, come on, come on. You're insane. I went, Brandy had a little, you know, holiday get together just with a few people. And did I not do as much as I could to get everything ready and the packing? We had a little discussion about it because we had plans. And then you came and told me, oh, I got a meeting tonight. And I'm like, I thought we were going out to dinner. And you're like, I'm like, you just like kicked me to the curb. Is that, is that your recollection? Is that your recollection of the whole discussion? While she's gone, I'm going to do everything because I know she's not happy. No.

13:59 Including hiding mail. I didn't want you to see. Yes. Hiding mail. You didn't want me to see. And I, all right. If she comes home and she sees this piece of mail, no, no, I'm putting this aside. It's a piece of mail for my ex -husband, which is every time I get something like that, I go into convulsion. It's like, it's like seeing a letter from the IRS. No matter what's in it, you see the envelope. You're like, like a letter from Satan or like it. Um, yeah, so no. So, and was everything nicely? Did I do as much as I could? You did as much as you could. I did a good job. Good job. Okay. And then you went into your meeting for a few hours. So anyway, so yeah, so it was boom, boom, boom, boom. Let's go. Let's go.

14:39 Let's go. So it was crazy. So we're finally then the next day where we get to the airport and everything is going pretty smoothly. I would say. Yeah. Yeah. TSA pre was, was good. Sailed through to JFK. Yep. Yep. JFK. And we get into JFK and your flight's delayed. We don't have a pilot and Adam's like, I can fly this thing. I'm like, God, baby, go up there. I said, this, when they say it will delay an hour, I'm like, Hmm, I know this doesn't sound right to me. So they had to fly a pilot in from Detroit. Yes. Um, and then, and you know, we, because we, we specifically got the American express platinum for our points.

15:20 Yes. Cause it has a good points program when traveling and for the lounge and the lounge is kind of a letdown. It seems like everybody has the American express lounge access. It's so busy and they don't have enough people working. So the dishes are everywhere. And then we finally found a seat next to the kids play area. And this little kid kept coming around, coming around the table. And I was like, this kid's going to get swatted. I'm like this germ barge needs to move away from me. Barge. Okay. And you're like, Oh, they're so cute. You're talking to the, you start talking to kid. I'm like, don't encourage the child. I went to germ barge. There's your title right there.

16:00 So we finally get out, but we were what? Three, four hours delayed for four hours delayed, which means that it, so going flying there, it delayed us arriving in Amsterdam obviously. And well, first of all, yeah. Um, the flight over was not exactly what you wanted. Yes. Because there was a lot of turbulence over the ocean and I woke up and it wasn't like up and down. Boom. It was like side to side kind of, it was, it was shaky. You were, it was shake, rattle and roll. It reminded me of Nashville. I didn't like it. It was nothing like Nashville. Nashville was much worse.

16:41 So I woke, so I fell asleep, but the turbulence woke me up and I'm thinking, okay, we're over the Atlantic. If this thing's go down, if this thing goes down into the ocean, I'm just, this is too much for me. Of course I start praying to God, God, if it's your will, I understand really don't want this to happen right now, but I'm, I know if I go down, I'm going to go up. So I got it. And so I woke up and I'm looking at you. I'm like, I wanted to grab your hand because I was scared, but you were, you looked like you were sleeping. Yeah. You look like you were sleeping and I wasn't going to bother really. You can always, but we need to make this agreement. Now you can always grab my hand.

17:22 You can always wake me up. Always. Don't I always say that if you're not feeling well, but I knew you had a big interview when we landed in Amsterdam. I'm rock and roll where we kick butt. I'm a butt kicker. So I can handle this. Okay. All right. Okay. All right. So, but no, I was concerned because I knew that once we got there, it was going to be boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. We got to get ready. We got to get ready for this interview. And I wanted you to be rested because I knew we were going to be bleary eyed. So anyway, so yes, we finally, we get into Schiphol and we, we get into the, the, um, reception area, the reception area.

18:07 Oops. And, um, luckily they had showers there, take a shower there before we even check in into the hotel. Yeah. So we had, we didn't eat because we had the breakfast on the plane, which was not that great. It was the omelet, the hot, super hot omelet that burned our mouths. Omelet. Yes. Turn down the oven people. And we had taxi Eric standing by. And so he took us to, to the, to the TV. So we basically got to the shower about 1130, almost 12. And we had to be ready by one. And he picked us up at one. So again, it was boom, boom, boom. So it was hurry up and wait at JFK, then get on the plane, disrupted sleep, and then bleary eyed getting ready for an interview.

18:52 So we go, but when we were at JFK, we prayed, we prayed, say, Lord, we prayed this whole trip. If, if it is your will for me to do this interview, you'll get us a pilot. And otherwise we'll cause you know, this delay is for somebody, somebody needs this delay. For some reason, it's not for us. It's to help. It's good for someone else's good somewhere. Yes. And so we're just a part of it. And we're supposed to be at that interview. We're going to make it. And we made it, we made it fine. No problem at all. We get to the interview and this is for the hour of power, right? Yeah, the Dutch syndicated version of the hour of power where they have the Schuller church and everything and they cut in they cut away to the Dutch interview with whoever it is and then cut back and forth.

19:35 And so yeah, so I'm very nice man. But he's hacking up along. He comes into the room, he's shaking our hands. He's hacking up along and I'm thinking, here we go. Whatever you have, we don't want it. Here we go. And so when you sat down to interview with him, he's, he's hacking. And I'm thinking, oh no. And you even said, is this your water glass or mine? Because I don't want what you have. Well, thank you. Because that's exactly what we got. But it was, I mean, from what I could tell him, it was all in Dutch. And you, you saw the interview. Yeah, I saw it. They sent me the edit. It looks good. It's really good. It was, it's going to be interesting. The reactions will be interesting because you know, people in Holland know me from Countdown, you know, not Mr. Kickbutt.

20:23 And you know, so it'll be something, it'll be interesting to see what the response is. But I think in general, it'll be positive because put it this way, it probably had the same impact as Rogan in America. That level of impact, I think. Yeah. Yeah. They were very nice. And so when we were sitting there, you were being interviewed by the woman who writes for their magazine. And so they bring us food. They like brought us dinner and wine. They were cooking. Yeah, they were cooking, brought us wine. I mean, it was so lovely, but he did, he came up to me. They were very, very, very kind to me. Very, everybody was. And they were one of the, the woman, I forget what her name was, who was interviewing you.

21:03 She was telling me kind of what was being said. But so I hear the interview and all of a sudden I hear your ex-wife's name come up. I'm like, what? I know that name. So I had to ask her like, what was that about? But they were very, very kind, but he came up to me and he goes, so how young are you? Do you remember him saying that to me? I heard him say it. I thought that was really sweet. How young are you? Oh, that's a nice way of putting it. And you said how old you are. And he went, no, no. Perfect, perfect gentleman. And then he hacked up a lung on me. Yeah, and he sprayed and sprayed. And then we were like, great. We'll get that gift later in a few days. Thank you.

21:44 It was really nice. So that was, that was really the reason why we stopped off in the Netherlands in the first place. Of course, then we got back to the hotel, didn't unpack basically. It was hard to stay awake. It was really hard to stay awake. Yeah. And we didn't have a flight until the next day. And so we went to sleep, got up because we stay at the airport hotel as every smart traveler should do. Yes. I will say staying at the airport hotel is definitely one of the better ways to go. Yeah. Makes it easy. And then we flew off to Florence. Well, we met up with your sister Tiffany. Because she runs like all the high end stores in the airport. So while you were getting coffee, so we were waiting for Tiffany to come over, you were getting coffee.

22:27 And so I found a table sitting next to two. They were Dutch. And he was trying to like auction me off to other man in the airport lounge. I'm like, I have a husband. Thank you. He was just being nice. He was being nice. But yes, we got to spend a little bit of time with Tiffany. So that was fun. Yeah. Yeah. Then we hopped on the plane. Off to Florence. Yes and Tiny Jesus came out and I started taking pictures of Tiny Jesus everywhere. Yes. Have you published your Tiny Jesus montage? I sure did. Yes. We made sure that Tiny Traveling Jesus was with us everywhere. Yes. And we took pictures. What are the responses been to that? You know what? I don't even look at my notifications anymore on Instagram. Why are you on Instagram at all? I know. I know. It's like Instagram and Fudge.

23:09 These seem to be your two main vices. Yes. Well, it didn't help that four packages of Fudge showed up at our doorstep. Thank you, Noah. Yes. So little tiny Jesus like Flat Stanley, if anybody knows who's Flat Stanley was. My kids got Flat Stanley in school and you had to take Flat Stanley everywhere and take pictures. And so I was like, we're going to do this with Tiny Jesus. And so then he was everywhere. But before that, we were on the plane. We were sitting on the plane and a No Agenda producer comes up to you. He says, are you Adam Curry? In the morning. I'm Alex. Oh, hey, Alex. How are you doing? And the stewardess, I'm sorry, the flight attendants, like, sir, you need to sit down.

23:52 You need to sit down. It was a small plane. It was what, 737? Yeah. No, no. It was a City Hopper. No, it was a City Hopper. You're right. Yeah. It was the smaller, our regional jet. It was what, an hour and a half to Florence? Like two hours. Cutest little airport. Yeah. You get off the plane. You take the stairs down. You walk on the tarmac and the bags show up. We go to the hotel. No, but before that, so we were waiting for the, you were in the bathroom and we were waiting, I was waiting outside for the bags and you hear, they're eating the dogs in the bathroom. And this is the No Agenda producer, right?

24:32 Well, he didn't, he didn't have the cadence quite right. So I'm walking out and he says, they ate the dogs. And like, only when I was out of the bathroom, like, oh wait, he meant they're eating the dogs. Okay. I got it. He sent a donation in by the way. Yeah. As she said, that's very kind. Yeah. So yeah. So then we get, we get in our car and we're going to downtown Florence cause our hotel is downtown and we get dropped off at the wrong hotel. We go in, the guy drops us off. We go in, we're like, yes, reservation for Curry. They're like, reservation for Curry? Can I see your reservation please? It always looked kind of sketchy, like a, like a rent by the hour type place behind that little, uh, kiosk, you know, the little, like a little window for the, like the movies.

25:15 You want to buy the hour? It's what it seemed like. And then the driver comes back and he says, no, no, I dropped you off the wrong place. It's, it's, it's, you know, it's 30, 30 feet that way. Yeah. Oh, okay. This, now we're at the hotel. So the driver's like, let us, let me drive you there. We're like, we can walk. Yeah. So it was a beautiful hotel and it was in a beautiful area in Florence and Florence was just decorated with all the twinkly Christmas lights and the narrow streets with all the shops and the low, it was just so festive. And that's one of the reasons why I just love Italy so much. That was great. Yeah. Now that I do a show before we went to up into the mountain. No, no, no, no.

25:56 But that night when we were in Italy, we were looking for a place to eat and we went to that little small restaurant and the waiter was ogling over your phone. Everybody loves your flip phone. Yes. The young kids, especially like this is cool. Where do I get one of those? I want to have this phone. And he was one of the co-owners of the restaurant. But we like little restaurants. I personally like the little restaurants like that as opposed to the fancy one in the hotel. It was nice. Yeah, that was nice. So the next day, take it away, Adam. We get up. I can't even remember. That's the day we had to meet at the bus. Oh, yes. Okay. Yeah. So the, so my sister had arranged for this secret trip and we're going to go for my, for my brother-in-law's 60th birthday.

26:45 We don't know where we're going, but we did have to meet at this certain point. And she gave us like Google map coordinates. Willow. I love, I love you, Willow. Give me an address because I need to put this into Uber so we can get there. It doesn't accept a longitude and latitude. Okay. So we get there. There's, there's a, you know, like a 30 person luxury bus and everyone shows up and it's the whole family. And my sister, Tiffany from, from Holland with Guido and everybody's there. And her son, and we all pile onto the bus. And friends. They had some friends and some family.

27:25 And, you know, and my one nephew, Matteo, he's got his guitar and we're on the bus and my, and my sister Willow, she's getting on the, on the, on the PA system. And it's, it's a jolly moment. It's just jolly. And Matteo just starts singing on his guitar. And everyone starts singing along. It was like this great, and we have no idea where we're going. We're like, we don't know where we're going. We just know that we needed to bring warm clothes, clothing. So we drive about an hour and 20 minutes up the mountain. And now we're in the, in the tiniest little village and there's snow. And it's called Dogonachie. Dogonachie. Dogonachie. And Willow's probably cringing. They actually hadn't had snow there for five years.

28:07 The first year they had snow. Then we get into cable car. Is it a cable car, a tram or a gondola? No, it's not a gondola. Is it a tram? No, it's a cable car. It's a cable car. Cable car. Yes. So we're going up. It's one of those things in the James Bond movies where it always breaks and it's, and it falls to the ground with the villain in it. Yeah. Nice. Yeah. So we were on one of those. So we took an Uber to a bus, a bus to a cable car. And so Willow goes to me, I go, oh, we're going on, we're going on that cable car. And she goes, are you afraid? I go, no, not at all. I was just surprised. Cause I had no idea where we are or what we were doing. And then we're up on this beautiful mountain.

28:47 This is a small little hotel, maybe 18 rooms, I think. And they rented out most of the rooms. Yeah, most of the rooms. And, and there we just, the festivities started, you know, we, we are all hanging out. We're drinking at the bar. It was like a little ski resort. Yeah. It was a tiny little ski resort. Just perfect. And then did we have the dinner that evening? Did we go to the bar? Yeah. No, we went to the bar. Yeah. Oh, everyone went to the bar right away. Yes. And then we had to have, um, we had to go get ready. And then they said, meet us downstairs at the restaurant at seven o'clock. And of course we're the first ones because we're always early. Yeah. And so they had a murder mystery dinner and they had four Italians who spoke English and Italian and they had FBI agents and there were crime, there was crime scene tape and evidence.

29:36 There was a body outline on the ground with the bloody knife. Yes. And so they turned it into teams. And I realized at a certain point, yeah, I'm sitting there, it's you and me, it's Tiffany and Guido and it's Joanna, which is Tiffany, uh, Willow's best friend and her husband. And, uh, I realized that all the kids are at a different table and we're the old foggy parents. But we were like, oh, we're going to get them. They know nothing. And we did not get them. We came in dead last. It was one of the hardest. It was tough. It was tough. We were using chat GPT and all kinds of stuff. It was really, really hard to figure it out.

30:16 And meanwhile, food is coming through. Food, food and more food. And it's pasta and it's another pasta. It was an antipasta first and then it was a pasta dish and then it was the meats. Oh, got to have the meats. Got to have the meats. So much food. Yeah. And Tiffany, Tiffany and I were like, we can't, we just can't, we have no room for any of this because once I eat a bowl of pasta, I'm done. That's it. So, but before that, Willow gave you a really sweet birthday gift. She actually gave me two things, something on the bus. Um, oh, that's right. Yeah. On the bus, she said, Adam, I have something for you. She hands me this envelope and in it are two books. One is my grandfather's prayer book.

30:59 Uh, the front cover is missing, but his wife, my grandmother gave it to him in 1942, I think. Um, and, and, and, you know, we have this going away prayer, which we do whenever someone, you know, when we leave a big gathering and it's Psalm 121. And the, the bookmark was the ribbon. The ribbon was in Psalm 122. And then she gave me a really small book, which is my dad's prayer book, same type of prayer book. Um, and has his name on it. And I was so touched by that. She says, I think you'll have more use of this for, you know, for this than anybody else. And I was like, this is fantastic. Yeah. And I've been reading through it. Was that before or after she told you, you can't wear Jesus sweatshirts all the time.

31:44 You're like, that's all I wear. But then, um, she gave me and her, and her husband, uh, both view master, old school view master. And she had, you know, one of those round discs and she had all these pictures from when I was a kid. It was just one of the sweetest. She's very thoughtful and what a great gift. Yeah, it was really lovely, but I mean all the planning and everything, she just did an amazing job and it's a lot of work, you know, planning that and then hosting Christmas Eve at her house and Christmas day too. We're not even there yet. So then, you know, we have the party and everyone is great. And then we all go to bed.

32:26 No, no, no. We go, don't we go downstairs? Do we go downstairs or we go straight up to bed? I thought we went downstairs because we, no, sorry, we went upstairs because people were getting coffee and you wanted a cappuccino and you got, you got, you got blasted. You do not drink cappuccino at night. Past 1130 in the morning in Italy. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I'll take a cappuccino and one of the Italian guys goes, cappuccino, cappuccino. What you need is a Sambuca with espresso. I said, that's what I meant. I meant Sambuca with espresso.

33:07 I'm sorry. You misunderstood me. That was funny. That was funny. Yeah. So then we, we slept pretty well actually, even though the bed was rather small. My feet were dangling out on the end. But we didn't even shower. We were, we woke up so late. Same clothes for days. We were like, we were like, we have to be out of the room by 10 AM. I think we woke up at nine and we went down to get something to eat. And I was like, I'm not hungry. I'm still full from last night. Yeah. But I still brought you a croissant. You brought me a croissant. Yeah. And it was perfect, wasn't it? Yes. And then we, uh, cause the bus wouldn't come until I think 3.30. So he said, well, we'll go down to the little village. Well, we had options though.

33:48 They said, if you want to ski or you can snowshoe, you know, you can do that. But we didn't have, it was also snowing at that point. It was snowing. Yeah, it was snowing. So we, we all went down the cable car, this cute, this cute village. We just walked around, looked at the shops. We went into a cafe and we all had a coffee. I had a cappuccino. It was before 11th. So that was fine. You bought everybody coffee that was in the little sweet little shop. Yeah. Lovely quaint, quaint town. Then we went back, got our suitcases and we go to the bus. No, no, no, no. You're missing. You're missing. So we come back, we have, we have lunch. We go downstairs and we have lunch. We're like, well, we have time. So we sat, we sat in the bar and we played that game hipster.

34:30 Oh yes. Yes. Which was a lot of fun. That's a good game. Yeah. It's tied to your Spotify and then you scan a QR code and you hear the song. You have to guess what the song is and you have to guess what year the song was. What year, but for extra points, you, the artists and the, it's a, it's a good game. And by the way, we won. Yes, we did. It was me, you and Tiffany. Yeah, we did pretty good. Yeah, we did. Yeah. And wait, no, we kicked butt. We kicked butts. Kicked butt might be another good show title too. We kicked serious butt. Yes. Okay. That was a lot of fun and I'd like to get that and play that with some people here. Yeah, I think it would be fun.

35:10 And we had to keep Mateo away because Mateo knows everything. And so he wasn't initially playing with us because he was skiing. But we have to get that game. Yeah, it was a lot of fun. Hitster. Hitster. Hitster. And they had, they, they got the game that had Italian music on it. So. Included Italian. Yeah, included Italian music. So Alessandro, he was able to. He knew all the Italian songs. They were just so much fun, all of us playing together. It was a blast. It was a blast. But it's, it's always, our, our family is pretty fun. Your family is a lot of fun. I said to you, I go, they would fit with my family like instantly, like no, no question whatsoever.

35:51 No question. Yeah, no, I felt completely comfortable. I had a great time. So now I had to do the show at 8 PM and we knew we had an hour and a half to drive. And I needed a little bit of time to prep, even though thank you, Neil. Thank you, Steve. Thank you, Dave. All of my, my, my clip boys, my clip team. They were working overtime for me because I knew I would have, it would be tight for me to clip a lot of stuff myself. I'd already been, been prepping here and there doing stuff. And so we go down and, and as we're, as we arrived down at the bottom of the cable car, word comes that the bus is there, but the motor for the windshield wiper was broken.

36:34 And now it's, you know, sleeting. And so, you know, we can't drive and we have to wait for another bus to come, which means it would be at least another two hours before the bus comes up the mountain. And we're in the middle of basically nowhere. Nowhere. Yeah. And so I'm like, well, that's not going to work because I'll never make it on time. So I'm like, You were very, we were both very calm. I knew. I was like, this will work out. This, this is the new kick butt, Adam. I'm very calm. And how about me? You were very, yeah, you were very calm. I was really calm until I said, you were calm until you said, I'm like, well, let me see. Can we get an Uber? The Uber is like, you know, $500 determined amount of time to get there and $500.

37:15 I'm like, can you call the taxi in town? And he's a guy. It's like, if I get Willow back, she's talking in Italian or how about just anybody who can drive us? And Tina's like, hold on a second. I don't want just any rando Italian driving us down this mountain. But then I guess Matteo and some of the other guys had already bribed the driver. Like they bribed him. Well, I think they bribed him. It was like, we're going to beat you up if you don't drive us down this mountain. They did some Italian stuff. They did not say that. They did some Italian talking to him. They used Italian magic. And so the guy said, look, I can take you down the mountain. I can't get on the highway because then I really can't see anything. And we'll have the bus meet us at the bottom of the mountain. So, and that went flawlessly.

37:55 There was the other bus. We jumped in the other bus. But what I love though, is that we're on this bus and your family just breaks out in song. They just break out in song. Like Willow starts singing or Tiffany starts singing and then everybody's singing. I'm just a poor boy from a poor family. It was Wayne's world. It was Wayne's world. It was so much fun. It was so much fun. They just break out in song. Or last Christmas I gave you my heart. All of these sappy songs. So we get back to the bus stop where we originally were picked up and everyone's getting in their car and like, okay, let's just call the Uber and the Uber cannot find us.

38:36 And now it's raining. So we're standing in this parking, this general parking lot. In a big, of like a big shopping mall. And the Uber can't find us. And it's raining. And it's raining. And it's cold. And it's getting later. Now I'm starting to break a little. I said, all right, let's cancel this guy. We'll walk over. Anyway, it worked out perfectly. We got another guy. But I said, I go, I said to you, I go, Adam, we're in a Seinfeld episode. For sure. We're definitely in a Seinfeld episode. But it worked out great. And we got back in the hotel. And you know, I had like an hour and a half to get ready. The show went great. Although I was hot boxing you with the date. I have that on my thing too.

39:17 I went down for dinner. It's very vapey in here. I'm like, I'm joking. It's in my throat. You're hot boxing me, man. And meanwhile, my throat is actually starting to hurt because now I've got Yon's disease. Yes, you got the interviewer's hack of lung disease. I got the hack of lung disease creeping up on me. And of course, the show goes until midnight there. So, you know, it was. And we're in one big room. Like it's not, we're not separate. And so, and here I am, I'm worried because you get, you get loud. You don't know. You project your voice. Oh, I know. I know. Believe me, I know. The door was right there and we were right by the stairwell. And I'm thinking, oh my gosh, I hope nobody knocks on the door because he's going, he's going.

40:00 Chico de Mayo! He's going, how do you close the show? Adios, mofos! I'm like, oh my gosh. And such. And then I'm like, they're going to walk in here. They're going to see this haze of vape. They're like, what are you doing to our beautiful Italian room? You're like hotboxing me. But I had a rough night sleeping. And then you ate potato chips for dinner. Yes, I did. I had both bags of potato chips. It was kind of rough that, I know. Because that's when the sickness started to hit me. But you had ivermectin, you were, you were slamming ivermectin on me. Yeah, it was good. But it was like, go, go, go, go, go. I mean, it was one thing after another. What I liked is that on this trip, almost every meal we prayed.

40:42 Breakfast, lunch, dinner. Which I have that in my notes too. So the next morning we go down for breakfast at the hotel. Not my favorite. It was a little too, I don't know. Breakfast-y? I don't know. It wasn't, it wasn't great. You're not snobby at all or anything. You are getting breakfast, you know, with the buffet. Well, this is where, okay, so we walk in there. It's very busy. A lot of families in there. I'm like, where did all these kids come from? Where did they come from? You are the worst. You were once a mom with kids. You remember this. I know, but I'm like, I'm on vacation. Okay. So we, we order our coffee and we're praying. Yeah. And the waiter comes up.

41:22 Cappuccino! You want a cappuccino? I was like, amen. Very, yeah. He, he was oblivious to what was going on. Yes. Yeah. And that was when the table that was sitting next to us, the mom was on her phone. The dad was just, the little boy was encroaching my space and I was giving him the like, the side eye. And then the dad, when the dad saw me give him the side eye, he was like, I'm not going to tell my kid anything. I'm going to let him go ahead and invade your space. Yeah. But young, youngish parents. And yeah, the mom was just on her phone the whole time, just completely oblivious. And then later she was staring off into space and he was on his phone.

42:04 Yeah. It's called fubbing, by the way. Ph. Fubbing. Fubbing. Yeah. Yeah. You're, you're, you're snubbing someone with your phone. You're fubbing. Fubbing. Nice. Yeah. Is that a show title? I like that. Yeah. Fubbing? I don't know. It's not funny. But that's interesting. It's no kick butt. That's true. I know. And so then that day we went and had the winery experience. Yes. We went to, we had a- We had a great driver too, because he had, he stopped, we stopped at the Ponte, Ponte, how do you say it? Ponte Vecchio. Ponte Vecchio. And we took pictures there and it was beautiful. And then he took us past this American cemetery. Oh yeah. It was World War II.

42:44 American military personnel are buried from, you know, from fighting in the war. And he said, let's just drive through it. Really? You wouldn't, that's not on the, on the map. You know, I did not know that was anywhere near there. Yeah. And we, at the end too, we'll talk about the experience, but at the end he was like, okay, what else do you want to do? We're like, we're a little tipsy. Yeah. We want to go home. Take us back to the hotel. But this is a Castle Verrazano. Yes. Well, no, it's just the Chianti wine region. You know, hello, Vineyard Nation. You know, if we're going to do something, we've got to go drink some wine. That's, that is what the show is about after all. And so we go to this castle and the first thing I learned, which just blows my mind, is that the guy who, who founded this castle 500 years ago.

43:28 Luigi? Was it Luigi? Yeah, I think it was Luigi. Luigi's the one that got eaten? Yeah, Luigi Verrazano. He discovered the Hudson Bay. Yes. And hence the Verrazano Bridge. Verrazano Narrows Bridge in Manhattan, which I've done traffic reports for that bridge for years. You used to do traffic on the 8th? Traffic and weather on the 8th. Oh, nice. Simmer down there, podcast lady. I never knew you did traffic. Was that on the radio? It's C-100. Hello everybody. Good morning. My daddy was a beetle. It's a stacker out there. It's a stacker out there. Well, the corkscrew at the Lincoln Tunnel is an hour and a half, and the Verrazano Bridge is bumper to bumper.

44:12 It's a stacker. And I'm in this chopper right now. It's a stacker. Okay, so yes, so that was, you didn't know that though? No, I had no idea. And so we got a nice tour. What was the lady's name? I forget her name. I don't remember. She was very enthusiastic. Very enthusiastic. But they had, I mean, I mean, we went past, they had rosemary bushes and sage bushes. Oh, you just smelled them. Olive trees. Yes, they had lemon. Remember the lemon trees? Because they made limoncello. They were inside because it was a little too cold for them. They rolled them inside. Yeah, it was pretty cool and old. I mean, this was all original castle. They've got casks, and they were actually redoing some of the original old casks for this Chianti wine.

44:57 And yeah, there was, nothing was too much. You know, even the room with the trellises where they hang up the grapes. Yes, I love that. It was so old school. It wasn't technology had just taken over. It was very old school. And then, of course, came the most important part, which was our tasting. Yes, and I'm telling you, these were not two-ounce pours. These were like four to five-ounce pours. Six different glasses. And of course, they paired it with more food. Oh my gosh. With cheese, the antipasti. And their olive oil and their balsamic. And we had pasta and more pasta. And then the meats. And then the meats came. And then we had dessert.

45:37 What was dessert? I can't remember. It's still in my stomach. What was dessert? Talk about stacking. This whole trip was just in, out, stacking. I was continuously full. Me, and that's saying a lot. Well, you know what? When we travel, though, so like, you're like, I need a snack at the airport. So then you eat a snack at the airport. Then we get a meal on the plane. You're like, you eat the meal. Then we get off. And you're like, I need a snack while we're waiting for the next plane. Then you get the snack. Then we get on the plane. You're like, I'll take the meal. What snack? I don't eat any snacks in between. I do eat the meals on the plane. Yeah, I'll take the meal. Yeah, I paid for the meal. Give me the meal. I want to eat your meal.

46:19 Yeah. The charcuterie board was good. That was on the way home, though. Oh, okay. That was good. Yeah. So, yeah, then we get back in the car. Yeah, so then, no, we were like, yeah, we'll buy a case of wine. Yeah, of course. It's always that. No, we bought six bottles of wine, three bottles. No, we bought 12 bottles of wine. Oh, we did? Yes. Wow. See, I went to the bathroom when I came back, and you had already taken care of everything. We bought 12 bottles of wine, three bottles of olive oil, and three bottles of balsamic. Oh, goodness. Because she goes, we only sell it in 18s. Yeah, multiples of six or whatever. And we're like, okay. Yeah. I go to the bathroom, come back, and he's like, it's all taken care of.

46:59 Yeah. I gave you your card, we're all set. Yeah. No, it was lovely. And that's one thing that we like doing. We like going to these wineries in the different countries. Yeah. So that was a fun thing for me and you to do. That's our jam, baby. That's what we do. That's our jam, baby. And so then on the ride home, we're talking to the driver who used to be a police officer in Italy, so you were getting stories from them. But from him, but you asked him, like, where should we go for dinner? Yeah. Because I didn't want to go to the hotel restaurant. It was too snooty for me. No, it's too expensive. And it wasn't great. No, he's, oh, no. Most of the restaurants here, there's all money laundering for the Romanians. You want to go to Buca Mario.

47:39 Buca Mario. You have the guy at the hotel, he call, make a reservation. They have special access. You know, you go to Buca Mario. How was that? Buca Mario was amazing. Did I do his accent? Yes. Did I nail it there? Okay. So it's this, you walk down these narrow little streets and all of a sudden you see this sign. Buca Mario. And you go in and it's under... It's underground. It's in the basement. And this is mainly locals, I would say. Yeah. And it's packed and we have a table and it was just phenomenal. I got a nice half bottle of wine, which was perfect because we didn't need more wine. Oh my gosh, we were drinking so much. And then what was lovely, when our meal came, we were praying. And then when we were done, the young lady next to us said, oh my gosh, that is so beautiful.

48:24 More people do not do that. Oh, that's right. Yes. And it's such a contrast to that. Here's your cappuccino. Here's your cappuccino. Yeah. Yeah. That was good. And it was, I love doing that with you, babe. Yeah, I know. That was a lot of fun. It is. It's, yeah, we travel well together. Oh yeah. We really do. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You tell me what to do and I follow. I do. I keep you organized. You're wearing this today. You're like, okay. Put it in this bag. Is that dirty? Put it in this bag over here. Yeah. Yeah. What are you wearing? No, you're not. How about when we get home? I'm like, boom, boom, boom. Things are unloaded, sorted in the washing machine. Done. Suitcases unpacked. So then we had a day to ourselves.

49:05 The next day. No, no. The next day was Christmas Eve. Oh, I'm sorry. Well, we had most of the day to ourselves. Yeah, we had most of the day to ourselves. And then we go up to my sister Willow's house, which is about what? 35? What's it in? Willow's cringing, eyes are rolling up in her head right now. I know, I know. And even her address, no map will even compute. I'm like, you got to go to my son's house. My nephew, Mateo, he lives near by. He has an actual address. Okay. Which of course, also our guy can't find. So we're going back and forth. Finally. The Uber guy. Yeah. We find everybody, we go up, and Willow has the house filled with food, and I mean, it's just jam-packed.

49:52 She's got her eggnog game going. Deviled eggs. The chicken liver pate was to die for. I mean, she's just gone all out, and people are coming in. We love their dog, Django. Django is a good dog. So cute. He's a good dog. Although, he was driving Tiffany crazy, because he's going out, barking, barking, barking, wants to come in, wants to go out, wants to come in, wants to go out. I'm like, he's a dog. He's so cute, though. And we had a great meal, a big, big family meal with all the tables shoved together. I loved that you asked to say a prayer, and you said a prayer. Yes, of course. And then the Italians are like, it wasn't long enough. Is that what they said?

50:33 Marco is like, that was short. I'm like, well, but I didn't want to keep everything, we all held hands while I said grace. It was nice. And it was a delicious meal. But again, it was more food. So we sat down, we had a big bowl of pasta, and I ate half of my pasta, and then here come the meats. Here come the meats. Oh, my gosh. It's more meats. And Tiffany and I are looking at each other like, we just can't. We're up to our eyeballs with food. It was fun. And then we all exchanged gifts. We won the ugly sweater contest. They were pretty atrocious, though. Are those pictures on Instagram? Yes, Instagram.

51:13 They were very atrocious. So we won a hat. Yes, we won a hat. And then afterwards, we all read a page. Oh, from the night before Christmas? Yes. And the Italians did. Everyone had to read. I love that so much. I know. I know. That's our curry tradition. Everyone read a page from the night before. And you have to read the page, show the picture. Everybody has to go, oh. Oh. But when we were passing out our gifts, your gift that you got all the guys. So why don't you talk about that? I got a custom handmade in Texas switchblades. Yes. That shoot out of the handle. Highly illegal in all of Europe. And they were like, oh, my God, this is so cool.

51:57 And then, of course, my nephew would take it. And if you hold the knife against something, it can't actually pop out. Like completely pop out. It won't shiv you. There's a safety on it, but there's still some force behind it. And, of course, my nephew Mateo goes against his leg. He goes, oh, that kind of hurt. And then he says, hey, guys, I'm bleeding. He goes, I'm really bleeding. He stabbed himself. He stabbed himself with the knife. And you go, you're an idiot. He says, I know. I know, I'm an idiot. So he just drops his pants. There's a stab wound in his thigh. Blood running down his thigh. And we're cracking up laughing at him.

52:38 He was laughing, too. I can't believe you even did this. And Willow's like, oh, it's Mateo. Get a bandaid for him. Oh, my God, it was so funny. It was so funny. And this got lovely gifts from everybody. It was really, really sweet. And then, of course, I'm like, you know, it's going to be hard to get an Uber to get back to Florence. Because we're like, where? And so my brother-in-law, Alessandro's cousin, Marco, says, I'll take you. Very little English. He spoke English pretty well, though. I mean, he was able to converse with us in the car. No, we could absolutely talk. No, I'll take you. All right.

53:20 So this is a little car. What is it? Italian. I think it was a Fiat, maybe. Tiny. And he throws down his iPhone and a JBL speaker. And he's got like this Brazilian. We get in the car and they have you sit up front. So I'm sitting in the back with Alessandro's friend. I forget what his name was. I'm in the back. I don't remember. It wasn't Marco. Roberto. Roberto. So Marco gets in, turns the car on. Brazilian music is blasting. And he just starts singing along. He turns down a little bit. And he's driving down this windy mountain. And the windshield is fogged up.

54:00 It's like 1130. We've been there all day. We're like, we're exhausted. He's like, whoa. We're like, oh my gosh. And the windshield is all fogged up. And after like 10 minutes, he goes, oh, maybe I should defrost this. And then he defrosts. And then he turns the heater off again. And we're freezing in this car. Going down these windy roads. But it was really good. We drove right to the hotel. It was so thoughtful. It was so thoughtful. But I remember I said to Roberto. Was it Roberto? That was his name? In the back. Yes. And I go, are you married? He goes, oh, no. We had funny talks with him.

54:42 They were very, very kind. It was very sweet. But that was the true Italian experience. Big time. Being in this little car with the music blasting. Driving down these windy. All we needed was smoking a cigarette and an espresso. Or a limoncello. Limoncello. And he actually sent me through Willow a link to one of the songs I like. Oh, nice. Oh, that's sweet. That's sweet. So we get back. And we were wiped at this point. Yes. So then we have to get up, get to the airport. We're flying back from Italy. Wait, didn't we go out? We went out walking around the next day?

55:23 That evening? Didn't we have one more day? That was Christmas Day. And we flew back to Amsterdam. So we flew back to Amsterdam on Christmas Day. And we got there. And then I'm starting to get sick. I'm like, my nose is running. And now Willow. And now Christina, my daughter. And Kevin, they're coming up from Rotterdam to have Christmas dinner with us. And so we meet in the hotel room. We had a bottle of wine. It was lovely to see them. She cracks me up. She's very funny. But no, so I'm like, I don't want to hug you. I'm getting sick. She's like, I got a cold. So she hugged me. Yeah, and it's just good to see Kevin.

56:04 I love the way Kevin says mother. He goes, my mutter. My mutter. So they just moved in together. They've just started their life together. We're egging them on about kids. And Christina's like, yeah. Yeah. And she loves her job. And she's got other opportunities she's looking at. And it was really nice. It sounds to me like she's waiting for Kevin to ask her. You know what? I picked up on that, too. I picked up on that, too. She said, well, if he asked me to marry him. And he's like, I need to get a job. I'm looking for a job. Good kids. Yeah, it was really thoughtful. And she got you a beautiful book about aviation. And then she bought me a Jesus Calling book, which is really sweet.

56:46 Yeah, very sweet. She didn't have to do that. So it was so nice. But by the time we got back up to the room after dinner, she looked at me. She goes, you're getting sicker. And I'm like, I feel terrible, terrible. And so that, yeah. So all day Thursday. Yeah, because I had to do the show the next day. Yes. Yeah, you just stayed in bed. What did we do for dinner on Thursday? We went down. We got Burger King. Oh, we went to the airport. I have not eaten Burger King probably in 15 years. We got Burger King in the airport and brought it back up to the room. And cookies. Yes, because I was so sick.

57:26 I was like, I didn't care. I just didn't care. That's right. I forgot. Well, we were like, I want to get you this. And I said, could you do a Burger King? I can do a Burger King. Let's just have a Burger King. It's easy, let's just get a Burger King. It's a Burger King, man. A Burger King. And so then while you were doing the show, I was laying down the whole time. Luckily, you had a separate room so I couldn't hotbox you. No kidding. I know. But I was watching the Lee Strobel interview with Sean Ryan, which highly, highly recommend it. Please watch it. It's good. So yeah, so that was Thursday and Friday. We get up, flying home. Yep, flying home. Oh my gosh, it was almost a 10 hour flight.

58:07 Yeah, it was pretty long. Well, you got the wind, you got the headwinds. Watched three movies. I thought you watched four. Three or four, I don't know. Tried to sleep, couldn't really sleep. Not really. But I was not feeling well. My ear was plugged up. When we get to Atlanta, I couldn't breathe at all. And I could not wait. And turbulence from Atlanta to San Antonio was off the chain. There was a little turbulence. Turbulence, just so y'all know, turbulence is not really... I don't care, I don't like it. Keep your seatbelt on. I don't like it. Keep your seatbelt buckled. And so we get to San Antonio, we come home, and the next day I go to pick up Phoebe.

58:49 I'm very excited. And I pick her up and she's like, hey, she seems okay. She's washed, she smells good. She doesn't smell good anymore. And she just has the worst stomach problems. Massive diarrhea. And she's so good because she kept going to the door, like, I gotta go out, I gotta go out. And she doesn't typically ask to go out because I take her out and she waits and she does her business when I take her out three times a day. Now it's like, gotta go out, gotta go out. And it was just a mess. And it was constant. She constantly wanted to go out. And so then we put her in my studio and the next morning, oh boy, she had an accident in the studio.

59:32 But she did it on the concrete, not on the first night, not on the rug. So I'm like, good dog. When I opened the door, she raced out, had to go again. Because she doesn't do that. No, she doesn't do anything. She's emptying out. Next night, roll up the carpets. They're still rolled up. It's a little echoey here because of it. And the next morning, it's a war zone. And she's almost embarrassed. She's very embarrassed. She doesn't like it at all. And she'd keep asking to go out. I must have taken her out ten times. It's not a lot at this point, but she's just not doing well.

1:00:14 So we give her some rice. They're making her chicken and rice. Yeah, a little bit of pumpkin for some probiotic. And the next morning, it's the same thing. And so I'm taking her to the vet. Yeah, I woke up and I took care of it. I'm just like, this is disgusting. I'm like, maybe she picked up a virus or something. And there's a new doctor at the vet, Dr. Sam. And she checks her out. So they have the dog whisperer. Oh, yeah. So they got this big, handsome Texas young man, like huge brawny guy. And like, hi, Phoebe. And he just stands there and just grabs her by her ears and massages her.

1:00:56 And Phoebe goes, oh. Just kind of melts until Dr. Sam sticks a probe up her butt and she's like, what? What's going on here? I was enjoying it until that happened. So they checked. There's no viruses. There's no disease. And Dr. Sam says, you know, 12 days, you know, maybe, you know, she was a rescue. So it's probably anxiety. You know, she just really, you know, the dogs are barking. Other things are going on. It was a long time. But before when I got there, because I always come in and the ladies, they're like, hey, Adam, hey, Phoebe. And she knows she gets right on the scale.

1:01:36 She lost 14 pounds. She was 86 pounds. I thought you said 85. 85.7. Oh, OK. It's 86, 85.7. And they're like, whoa. Yeah. Like, that's a lot. Yeah. How do I get it on that? I know. I said I should check myself under the camel for 12 days. So this is better than Ozympic. I know because I was looking at her. I'm like, she looks kind of thin to me. And she'll gain some of that back. Well, right away we got some pills to, you know, stop the diarrhea. Well, so it stopped in so much that she hasn't gone to the bathroom since yesterday. Yeah. So now she's all stopped up. No, she'll go. Well, we stopped those.

1:02:17 She'll go. Yeah. I recall this from previous times. It should be a day or two. And then she'll get back in, maybe even tonight. But it's just she's so attached to us. I mean, she's really attached to us. And so that presents a problem. Like, what are we going to do going forward? We have to find somebody to come into our house and stay with her in our house. Yeah. So we're going to start praying about that. We need to get somebody who can stay in the house. Yes. And take care of her. I mean, she could certainly stay one or two nights. I don't think that's a problem. But yeah, this was too long. Yeah. Poor baby. Yeah. So we're dealing with a sick dog. And then when we went out last night, New Year's Eve, we went to dinner at some friend's house. And I'm thinking, we can't just leave her out.

1:02:58 We can't. So we put her in the studio. We don't do that. No. Yeah. But she was good. No accident. Yeah. No, she was fine. She was fine. But she was so fine, she was just sitting with us. Even the fireworks weren't bothering her that much. You know what? That thunder shirt probably fits her perfectly now. The thunder shirt. She's felt 85 pounds. Oh, man. Are we done now with everything? New Year's Eve last night had a lovely, lovely dinner at Andre and David's. It was a night of decadence. Yes, it was. Three bottles of champagne, like a tattinger. I don't even know what the bottle is that we brought. I don't remember what that was called.

1:03:38 Then we started off with caviar. Yes. With homemade bellinis, which was unbelievable. At a certain point, I think I had eight of them. Oh, you ate most of them. Just have some more. They're like, Adam, just slap the feed bag on. But no one else was eating it. And Dawn's like, hey, I brought it. Just eat more. She had like four ounces or something. It was an unbelievable amount of caviar. It was amazing. And then we had foie gras. On brioche with sausage. And then we had sauteed apples. And that's Andrea. That's Andrea, of course. And then we had Wagyu beef, which was cooked perfectly. I know. David nailed it.

1:04:19 And I asked Dawn to say grace because she's so good at that. That's the first time we've had a dinner with just Dawn. Because it was just the five of us. I love that you got to know her a little bit more. And I'm getting to know her more. And I love that. Yeah, she's a good egg. But it was a night of decadence. So we woke up this morning and we're like, no. We came home. We watched the ball drop in New York. And I think we woke up at 1230 like, what? And we just crashed. And then got up early. Took Phoebe out. And she's so far so good. So it's been a whirlwind. Yeah, she's got energy. She's not been lethargic.

1:04:59 She's eating. She's drinking. So that's good. But she just has to poop regular. Please, Dawn, please poop. I don't want to have to take you back to the vet for being constipated. Oh, gosh. Well, that's the recap. So it's been quite a busy last two weeks. Yes, it has. And then this morning you say, can you do the God shot? I know. Can you do the God shot? Yeah, I'll do the God shot. So every year, Pastor Jimmy at church asks everybody, instead of doing a New Year's resolution, do your one word for the year.

1:05:43 Yes. Do you remember what your word was last year? Or what was your word last year? My joy. My word was joy. Joy. You know, and as I reflect on 2024, it was really a joyful year. It was. There were a lot of things that brought me a lot of joy. It was. At one point, I had lost my joy. And then Annette reminded me, you get your joy from the Lord, Tina. You're right. I forgot about that. You did lose your joy. She's so great. She's such a great mentor and guides me. And I love her for that. So, yes. So for the most part, though, when I reflect back on it, yes, it was. Well, I had to encourage, I believe was my word. And I've encouraged a lot. I've been encouraged a lot.

1:06:24 A lot has happened this past year. What was your word for 2025? And it came to me today because Pastor Jimmy was talking about it on church on Sunday. And he was talking about his word. What's his word? Convergence. Convergence. And I'm like, oh, you know, the word hope came to me. And I'm like, no, that's not it. That's not it. Then the word abundance came to me. I'm like, no. By the way, how good was it to be back in church? Oh, I know. It was nice. It was nice to be back in church. I know. So this morning I was reading Tommy Hayes' email. He sends a weekly email like a devotional.

1:07:04 Oh, I'm not on that list. Yes. I can get you on that list. Yeah, please. And God presented my word, which is seek. And so it ties to Jeremiah 29, verse 12, 13. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. And so that is so appropriate because we're going into a week-long biblical fast starting Monday. And I don't want to squander that. With that word in mind, that is what I'm going to do is I'm going to seek. You realize you just did an entire God shot? Oh, I did, yeah.

1:07:44 How about that? Ta-da! So yes, so my word is seek. Yes, because I really want to develop my relationship with God even more, especially with things that have happened recently with me. Like it is, yeah, it is completely being transformed even more. So my word came to me when Pastor Jim was talking about it on Sunday, and the word is accelerate. And I immediately thought, wow, I got to be careful. The accelerate, you don't want to accelerate too fast. You know, you got to be on God's timing. But accelerate is the word that I got. And this morning, here's what I got.

1:08:26 Philippians 3, 13, 14. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing. Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead. I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God through Christ Jesus is calling us. And this is exactly what I need to accelerate for. Wow. Yeah. I like that. That's perfect. I was very happy with that. Nice. Very, very happy. Very good, babe. Accelerate and seek. Yes. By the way, I'd like everyone to pray for one of our corksokers, Caroline Jekanin. She's going through some health issues. She was sending me some messages on Telegram of all places, but she's a Korean, the Keeper, Vineyard Nation, and she's going through some health stuff.

1:09:12 I had prayed for her, but maybe the Vineyard Nation can pray for her. Yes. And now I want to thank some people who have blessed us. Now it's time to hear from the corksokers. With a whooping cough. Yes, sorry. We got to hear from those corksokers now. What did you say? What did you say? Now it's time to hear from the corksokers. Well, you can imagine that we have quite a list, because it spans two weeks. And man, people have sent some beautiful notes and some fantastic support. We're value for value, curryinthekeeper.com.

1:09:54 You can read all about it under the Aboot page. Aboot. We love things in the P.O. box, which we did receive a number of things. Oh my gosh. This is one of the most fun jobs I have, is to come home and then go to the P.O. box and get everything that people have sent to us. We got a lot of stuff that came in. So before you go, can I mention this? We got a package from Murray's Cheeses. Yes. And there was no note. We don't know who it's from. And it was one of the best. Best cheese and meat selection ever. We are going crazy over this package. So whoever sent it to us.

1:10:36 Please let us know. Thank you. That was so incredibly kind and generous. And it was an Italian cheese spread. Oh, it was good. Have we even finished? We still have some of the cheese. No, we still have that truffle cheese left. And the Parmigiano. But thank you. And so please let us know whoever sent it because that was quite the treat. Dynamite. It was really good. What else came into the P.O. box? Well, we got the fudge. Oh, yes. No agenda. Somebody sent us like four pounds of fudge. Just what we need. From Michigan. We ate the first package before we even opened the rest of the mail.

1:11:17 Who ate the first package? You ate some of that fudge. Yes, you did. You had nice chunks of fudge. I want to mention this journal that we got. Talking to the mic, babe. I'm sorry. It was Sir Boober, the most sane man, Robert Ludwig. And this journal that he sent me was his wife's. And I'm not going to read the whole letter. But his wife had passed away. Oh, goodness. A couple of years ago. In February 2020 from leukemia. And he was just talking about what she went through and what they went through and how he found no agenda.

1:12:02 And then he found Curry and the Keeper. And he said, he's talking about no agenda. He said, then you started us. Then you started the Curry and the Keeper podcast. I decided to listen just because it might be interesting. And it has been. The journey you two have had is amazing. I am hoping I can soon join you on this path, but need to find a church. While there is one that we belong to, I've had some issues. And he said, starting soon after my wife's passing. Then he said, the notebook was something given to my wife, which he gave to us. Which I'm taking, sorry, Adam. The notebook was something given to my wife when she was in the hospital at some point in her journey. She loved to write in the book, fit her personality.

1:12:42 Unfortunately, she never got to use it. I want to pass this on to you to use. However, you see fit a new book for Tina's God's shot. So she doesn't forget. A book for Adam to use for inspiration or a gift for somebody that you think could use the inspiration. I am like, that touched my heart. So on the cover, it's a beautiful cover. And it says, God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. Courage to change the things I can and wisdom to know the difference. And I'm just so touched by this. Yeah, it's a beautiful note. And I'm taking it, if you don't mind. No, that's okay. So thank you. That really just meant so much to me. And then we got, I don't know if this is a no agenda, this Trumpography book.

1:13:23 I can't remember. I think it was for us. Yes. It's Adam and Tina. We hope you had a beautiful, you had a blessed Christmas. Who is this from? Rick and Anne Marie Gibbs. It says, we hope that you had a blessed Christmas in Italy with your family. We continue to be blessed by no agenda and currying the keeper each week. Thank you for your research and wisdom in all things politics and being a follower of Jesus Christ. We saw the author of this book, Jean Ho on the Mike Huckabee show years ago and found his testimony amazing. He wrote this book literally through the lens of his camera and reading the Bible. We hope you find it fascinating. We sure did. May our Lord continue to bless you in 2025.

1:14:03 Rick and Anne Marie Gibbs. It's a cool looking book. I did not know this. I mean, because he talks about Jonah and Joseph and I love that they intertwine the Trumpography. Thank you. That was so thoughtful. And we got a boatload of Christmas cards. The web sent us, everyone sent us their family Christmas letter, which is nice. Yes. Like, wow, look at all these things these people are doing. I mean, we love all seeing all the Christmas cards. So thank you. Everybody is really kind. Then we got some value for value donations. And we start off with the Baron of Old Bay. And he sends us $100 through PayPal.

1:14:44 And he says, this is a vacation donation. Everyone should have the opportunity to take a break, recharge and go see family, especially at Christmas. Buon Natale from the Baron of the Old Bay. Thank you so much, man. I really appreciate it. It's very, very kind of you. Oh, then coming in with 77,777 Satoshis. It is the one and only. My brother from another mother, Pastor Jimmy. Wow. He says, what a week we all had here in Stars Hollow, aka Fredericksburg, Texas. Everything I love about our town all rolled up into one amazing podcast. Love you both more than words. K-Y-B-O and K-T-L -D. K-T-L-D. Thank you, brother.

1:15:25 We got to spend a little time with them. Yeah, we did a little bit. And of course, you and Annette are doing something on Friday. And so Jimmy and I have been, Pastor Jimmy and I have been notified that we have a, we have two hours together. You have a bro date. We have a bro date from three to five on Friday, from three to five on Friday. And then we're all going out to dinner. Okay, so good. No, 630, we're going out to dinner. Oh, yes, you got a little more time. A little more time. $50 from Marco Frisson, always there for us. We thank you. Eric Kessler. Has Eric Kessler ever donated before? I don't think so. I think he needs to be decanted. You've been decanted. $50 from Eric Kessler. No note. If you want to send it after the fact, we're happy to read it.

1:16:05 Mac Tank with $49.99. Mac Tank, always there for us. We want to send you the Curry and the Keeper sippy cups. Katie Trimble, $25.33. And then with the mini striper booth, 7777 to OG Sam and Yay. Oh, yes. Michael Anastasia. That's right. Young couple. Yes. Happy New Year and welcome home. My two week Curry and the Keeper detox has been brutal. Can't wait to get back into the swing of things. Stay blessed, he says. He posted a great picture on with a wine and I think he had some kind of steak and that was the Curry and the Keeper glass. He's awesome. He lives up to his name.

1:16:46 He is the OG Sam and Yay. And there's another mini striper booth. Sir Brian with an I. Let's see if he writes about himself. I'm glad you both escaped off to Europe and avoided the natural disaster here in Texas. I called FEMA and said, hello, I'm in Region 6. Please send police, medical and fire and the National Guard. The state is in disarray. We have no wine, no cute stories and no Brian. It's absolutely mayhem over here. Please airdrop us an episode of Curry and the Keeper to calm the rioters and bring dog treats in the evening, y'all. In the evening! Thank you, Brian. That was actually pretty funny, Brian. Michael Hall, $7.

1:17:27 Thank you, Michael. Thank you, Michael. $54.45 in the Satoshi land from the one and only comic strip blogger. Oh, CSP. Howdy lovebirds. Thanks for visiting the European Union, the benevolent empire and happy New Year 2025. Yo, CSP. Thank you. Brian goes, yeah, comic comic strip blogger has started following me. I'm like, so what? Oh, see, he feels all important. Oh, yeah. When you get comic strip blogger. But Brian follows both your sisters. He follows everybody, everybody. He follows everybody. He's like, oh, yeah, I'm Brian. So Brian with an I. You know me from the Curry and the Keeper show.

1:18:07 Randy Black checks in with $5. Timothy Emory. Do we know a Timothy Emory? I don't think so. I think that's another decanting here for Timothy Emory. $5. Thank you. Thank you. We've got Blue Hens with $33.33 Satoshi's. Cheers and happy New Year's. Thank you. Have they donated before? I don't think so. That's another decanting. Oh, my goodness. You've been decanted. This isn't a significant number. A very dear friend shared $1,321 Sats.

1:18:48 That's a burp donation. With me last night during the live stream of my Value for Value show. Oh, this is the M2H2, the Mountain Music Happy Hour. So I wanted to pass that value along to Curry and the Keeper. Please credit this in his name as he should be celebrated for the legend that he is. And thank you for being a friend, Sir Brian with an I. Oh, of course. Thank you all very much. Thank you. We appreciate you all in Vineyard Nation. And again, you can go to curryandthekeeper.com, learn about the show, all the past episodes. And on the Aboot page, you can find our P.O. box and anything you want to send to us. We love it. Even if it's just a note to say hi.

1:19:29 It's all good. And it's good to be back. It is very good to be back. Did you do a question of the week? Of course I did. You know what it's time for? The question of the week. All right, everybody. I have no idea what's coming, but I should be prepared. The question of the week. Because Tina knows the question, so she has her answer. It's all new to me. Well, 2024 was quite the year for us, I think, in a lot of ways. So I want you to reflect back. And I want you to tell me what you, what was the most memorable thing that happened in 2024 for you?

1:20:10 Oh my gosh. Honestly, my head is so mushy. I think the most memorable thing has got to be, hands down, my surprise 60th birthday party. That was, I mean, that's going to stick in my brain for a long time. That was such a beautiful thing you did for me. And then to have all these people travel from around the country to be here and for it to be in this great location in Fredericksburg. And everybody was just meeting each other and getting along. And it was just, it was fabulous. That was memorable for the decade.

1:20:55 Outside of meeting you in that decade. Yes. Good one. And you, darling? Hands down, our vow renewal. Oh man, did I blow it? Did I blow it? Us? That was a big one too. Don't get me wrong. It's all about me. You asked me to reflect. I'm like, I'm going back in time. The first thing I stop at is that. Yes, it was our vow renewal. Can I share that with you? No. Let me finish. I mean, I just love that we, in front of God, our audience of one, recommitted ourselves to each other and, you know, the covenant of marriage.

1:21:39 Yes, true covenant. And having Pastor Jimmy and Annette there, you know, by our side. And again, all of our friends. And yes, and that was to me by far, and on our fifth anniversary, I mean, it could not have gotten any better. Yes. My second one, though, was the joy that I got from surprising you. That was my second one. But I win though. Because it was about us, not about me. You always win, my darling. Hey, I love you. Let's do it again next week. All right, I'll be here. I love you too, honey.