with love from phoenix

Oops I Did It Again!

2007-03-09T19:45:00.000-08:00

http://phoenixchristine.wordpress.com/

Voila!

2007-02-26T07:39:00.000-08:00

Pool Day

2007-02-25T14:22:00.000-08:00

Not for swimming. Still too cold for that.

We're having our pool tile cleaned tomorrow. If you didn't already know, Arizona is dry dry dry and because of that we have to pimp our water from whoever will give it to us. I think for the most part it comes from Colorado. Somehow along the way the water seems to accumulate tons of minerals, especially calcium. As a result, the water here tastes like pure ass and even though I was raised on California city tap water (also from colorado, i'm sure) I refuse to drink the water here.

This is what happens when you don't take care of your pool the way you should:

It looks much worse when it's dry but I assure you there is some nice blue mosaic tile under that. I have no idea the last time these were clean...probably a few years ago.

Today we are draining our pool so the tile guy can come blast all that lime crap off. We love hanging out in the pool in the summertime and can commit to keeping it cleaner so it's worth the pricetag to get it done.

OHHH and other news, my coworker just had a brand-new very large home built and she moved in around New Years. A week later there was a sewer back up and it ruined some of the carpet in her basement (basements are also very rare and very expensive in AZ). The builder replaced ALL the carpet in the basement even though it was just a small hall area that was ruined. She GAVE me the 20x30 remaining piece they replaced for FREE. Weeeee!!! Free carpet!!! So now the pink room will lose the last remaining piece of pinkness whenever we get around to having it installed. Hooray!

i know, i know!

2007-02-21T17:58:00.000-08:00

I've neglected my blog. Guilty as charged!

However, we have some new developments on the horizon: the husband got a new job he starts next week AND we are having our pool drained and the tile cleaned on monday. We are shopping around for a hybrid car so he can cruise down the HOV lane without a passenger. Exciting, I know!

I also bought some new living room furniture that got me in some hot water with the husband but I think once it gets here and is all assembled he will be okay with it.

What else, what else? I'm dragging ass re-doing the second bathroom but I need to get on the stick because a LOT of family will be descending upon us at the end of March.

That's pretty much it for now. I will post again if anything cool happens. We're still planning our trip and all that nonsense. And no, I'm not pregnant.

FYI: Heather Lives!!

2007-02-12T19:30:00.000-08:00

The husband and I went to dinner with Heather and her husband on saturday night. I am happy to report that she is indeed alive and well (and way taller than me).

Reason #2745 Why I don't miss the Midwest

2007-02-05T10:13:00.000-08:00

bundle up kiddos!!!

Poll Time!

2007-02-03T09:34:00.000-08:00

It's been a bit boring around here lately, I'll admit. Everytime that happens I start thinking about changing things, like my hairstyle or my blog. This time it's the blog.

I'm pondering doing the whole hosted-with-your-own-URL blog thing. IF I were to do that, I need input from you people.

www.PhoenixChristine.com
www.ChristineR.com
www.WithLoveFromPhoenix.com
or your own ideas

thanks people!!!

It's Still Winter in AZ

2007-02-02T22:31:00.000-08:00

We went to a party in Paradise Valley tonight and the hosts asked us to pick some grapefruit from their trees to take home.

I like fresh-off-the-tree citrus and all that, but I can't wait for summer!!

An Inconvenient Truth

2007-01-30T20:10:00.000-08:00

I finally saw Al Gore's movie tonight. It was rather interesting. In case you haven't seen it, he discusses how he learned early on from a college professor that rising CO2 levels correspond with rising global temperatures. He presented data and information for various scientists, military groups and others involved in global-warming related research.

As a science person I always enjoy hard data like the graphs he provided for various things. He also seemed to portray scientists as absolute and ethical authorities on the subject. Naturally, I like scientists and hard data can be hard to refute. However, I still think its good to question everything. I would LOVE to have his sources for his info, preferably in written format for reference. I'm not saying I doubt global warming and the impact of our actions on the environment; I just think you can't always take everything at face value. Scientists, just like any other profession, want to put their best work forward. Sometimes perfectly good info is omitted from journal submissions because it complicates the main focus.

Just because things get published doesn't make them reputable. We had a seminar this week discussing the ethics and temptation of image manipulation in research journals. Only ONE journal has routinely scaned EVERY SINGLE IMAGE submitted to them for the past 3+ years to check for tampering or over-manipulation. It's kind of an unspoken issue in the scientific community. If you can adjust the image contrast to make your picture look awesome, why not? Why NOT remove ugly background? Obviously its WRONG and unethical to completely fabricate results (and we were shown examples of data that some scientists DID fabricate, unfortunately).

It was very interesting to hear from a major journal editor that some manipulation is okay but for the most part fellow scientists (and the public) need to see data as it was observed, as ugly as it may be. So now I am skeptical of everything I read. Did they really include everything? Probably not. Did anyone check to verify their results, or their references? Al Gore did make a point that 0 scientific articles disagreed with the theory of Global Warming and yet 53% of media articles took a skeptical position. Interesting. Scary.

The media drives the taxpayers. Taxpayers drive research. Most taxpayers can't sort through intellectual journals to decide what is true and what is merely a media sensation. Hell, even a lot of scientists can't do it.

Regardless...recycle your shizz. It isn't hard.

El Norte

2007-01-25T21:37:00.000-08:00

We met the husband's dad in Sedona for dinner because he was "in town" for a conference. It's a nice 2 hour drive and man is it cold up there!

Here are some pics from our mini-adventure:

Lame, I know. I couldn't resist.

We took these standing on top of some vortex view point. People believe there are these areas in Sedona that have spiritual energy and they resonate with your inner being (or something like that. Google it.) The area has a lot of "interesting" art colonies and voodoo/weird/psychic shacks set up. It also has beautiful viewpoints. And snow. Meh.

Poor things. They had no idea what was coming to them.

Mini-Roadtrip

2007-01-23T18:06:00.000-08:00

I made the trek across Phoenix today to the other side of the city. I left at 4pm. It took me 1.5 hours to reach my destination and 30 minutes to get home. Hmph.

I-10 sucks. Welcome to Phoenix...where too many people live! (those are brakelights, btw)

Something I'd LOVE to have a pic for, and don't for good reason, is a car i passed on my way out of town. The hood was open and bent back ALL THE WAY to the windshield, like in the movies. It was so awesomely bad. Naturally I couldn't take a picture because I was too busy swerving out of the way since that car was stopped in the center lane.

Today

2007-01-18T16:59:00.000-08:00

Today marks 5 years of my husband (5 years ago he was a boyfriend) and I being attached at the hip. That's right...the beginning of the end!!

5 years ago today I managed to rope a tall, dark and handsome man in a college dorm lounge into hanging out with me exclusively. Even back then I knew he was a catch.

I've got to cut this sappy stuff short. I've currently roped him into taking me out to dinner and so we're off! :)

meh, again

2007-01-16T19:10:00.000-08:00

i dont like my new template. I don't think i'm going to mess with it too much for now.

it has been WAY too cold here. Like icicle cold. Not good.

I started working on the second bathroom, painting and stuff. Pictures shall follow, whenever I get far along enough to warrant photography.

My pregnant friend today told me that someone else in the lab asked her if I was pregnant. Apparently that girl had a dream about the pregnant girl and me and somehow interpreted that to mean I have a bun in the oven. Hmm. I think tomorrow would be a good day to wear my new empire waist shirt to mess a little bit with any speculative minds. ;-)

WDYT?

2007-01-11T18:06:00.000-08:00

Be honest. Everything I do, I do it for you.

And I need to know how to subscribe to y'alls blogs. Is there one place I can go to get all my pretties at once?

Rant(s)

2007-01-10T18:36:00.000-08:00

At work: why do they send out a facilities survey, get feedback that it's way too damn cold in the building, and then keep the temp the same? And where are our new lunch tables???
The city has eliminated the last possible left hand turn within a 1 mile radius of where I work. NOT an exaggeration, unfortunately. Do tell, how am I supposed to get anywhere useful without making one piddly left turn????
I've had a headache for about 3 days straight
I'm all out of chocolate
I can't find a blogger template I like
As if blogger could handle any normal HTML changes. You know what i'm sayin'.

Under Construction

2007-01-07T09:20:00.000-08:00

quit yer bitchin' until i'm done.

Let there be light

2007-01-06T15:32:00.000-08:00

Our house came with the ugliest light fixtures known to man. It's hard to believe these were ever in style, and hard to believe that they never bothered the previous owners enough to change them. But then again, the previous owners had a pink fetish and decided to spread that all over the house.

Regardless, we've taken it upon ourselves to slowly take them down. Even though our ceiling fans are hideous, they are functional and the master bedroom one even has a wireless controller (!) so they're going to stay a while longer.

Just before halloween our porch light was acting up. So the husband put a new one in:

I don't have a pic of the original. It looked like the big sister to this hideous wall thing found in our hallway, except with a tail:

Today I put in a new one:

...And there was light.

And a sorta related note, we also changed our house numbers. Previously:

*barf*

no "country" in my house. NONE!!!!

Now: Ahhhh much better

Resolutions and whatnot

2006-12-27T17:01:00.000-08:00

I don't really make resolutions. I prefer "goals" instead. Resolutions are meant to be broken. Goals can be a work in progress and failure along the way is okay. In honor of the New Year coming up I have decided upon the following goals to be accomplished sometime in the next 370 days.

Pay off my car
Remember to take my vitamins every day (this was my goal last year. meh!)
Paint the kitchen cabinets and add some knobs
Re-do the guest bathroom
Un-pink the pink room
Go to Europe
Cease consumption of all caffeine and soda

About that last one: no, I'm not converting to Mormonism. Actually, I hardly ever drink caffeine as it is. I don't like the taste of coffee but I'll have an occasional caffeinated tea or Pepsi. But because I seldom have it, it makes me too jittery and I don't like it. Carbonated drinks, or SODA as we like to call it in the civilized world, don't seem to agree with my stomach.

Now that we're all intimately acquainted with my beverage limitations, I'd love to hear any of your goals for 2007.

Christmas Dinner

2006-12-24T08:49:00.000-08:00

We had an early Christmas dinner last night and had some friends over. It was my first time entertaining non-family for a nice meal. It turned out very well and was fun. I made the same turkey that I did for Thanksgiving (recipe to follow) because it turned out so well. One of my friends is pregnant so I had to lay off the booze that I usually cook with.

Here are the recipes for yesterday's dinner for all my foodie friends. Each one was pretty easy in case you want to try them out. BTW these are all Zero Calorie. Bwahahahahahaha!!!

Good Eats Roast Turkey
courtesy of Alton Brown

1 (14 to 16 pound) frozen young turkey
For the brine:
1 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 gallon vegetable stock
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1/2 tablespoon allspice berries
1/2 tablespoon candied ginger
1 gallon iced water
For the aromatics:
1 red apple, sliced
1/2 onion, sliced
1 cinnamon stick
1 cup water
4 sprigs rosemary
6 leaves sage
Canola oil

Combine all brine ingredients, except ice water, in a stockpot, and bring to a boil. Stir to dissolve solids, then remove from heat, cool to room temperature, and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled.
Early on the day of cooking, (or late the night before) combine the brine and ice water in a clean 5-gallon bucket. Place thawed turkey breast side down in brine, cover, and refrigerate or set in cool area (like a basement) for 6 hours. Turn turkey over once, half way through brining.

A few minutes before roasting, heat oven to 500 degrees. Combine the apple, onion, cinnamon stick, and cup of water in a microwave safe dish and microwave on high for 5 minutes.

Remove bird from brine and rinse inside and out with cold water. Discard brine.

Place bird on roasting rack inside wide, low pan and pat dry with paper towels. Add steeped aromatics to cavity along with rosemary and sage. Tuck back wings and coat whole bird liberally with canola (or other neutral) oil.

Roast on lowest level of the oven at 500 degrees F. for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and cover breast with double layer of aluminum foil, insert probe thermometer into thickest part of the breast and return to oven, reducing temperature to 350 degrees F. Set thermometer alarm (if available) to 161 degrees. A 14 to 16 pound bird should require a total of 2 to 2 1/2 hours of roasting. Let turkey rest, loosely covered for 15 minutes before carving.

Turkey Pan Gravy
from Food Network Kitchens

4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 shallot, minced
4 cloves garlic, smashed
1 sprig rosemary, minced (about 1 tablespoon)
1 sprig thyme leaves, minced (about 1 teaspoon)
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

Once you've roasted your turkey, pour any pan drippings into a degreasing cup or small bowl. Reserve 2 tablespoons of the fat, discarding the rest, and add the separated juices to the broth. Add the reserved fat to the roasting pan and place on a burner over medium-high heat. Add the shallot, garlic, rosemary, thyme, and bay leaf; season with salt and pepper. Cook until shallot is tender, about 3 minutes.
Meanwhile, make a paste with the butter and flour in a small bowl; set aside. Add the broth and scrape up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. Bring to a boil and whisk in the flour mixture. Boil until sauce thickens to make a gravy, about 4 to 5 minutes. Adjust seasoning, to taste. Remove and discard the garlic and bay leaf. Serve.

Mashed Potatoes
courtesy of Emeril Lagasse

2 pounds potatoes, peeled and diced
1 stick butter, cubed
1/2 to 3/4 cup heavy cream
Salt and white pepper

Place the potatoes in a pot of salted water and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook the potatoes until fork tender, about 12 to 15 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and drain. Place the potatoes back in the pot and return to the heat. Stir the potatoes, constantly, for 2 to 3 minutes to dehydrate the potatoes. Remove the potatoes from the heat. Add the butter. Using a hand-held masher, mash the butter into the potatoes. Add enough cream until desired smoothness is achieved. The potatoes should still be sort of lumpy. Season the potatoes with salt and pepper.

Sauteed Green Beans
courtesy of Cathy Lowe

1 1/2 pounds green beans 2 cloves garlic, minced 2 tablesoons butter 1/2 cup of water
Trim ends of beans. In large skillet melt butter and add beans, garlic and water. Stir and cook quickly over high heat until tender.

Salad Dressing
courtesy of me + the internet

2 shallots, halved lengthwise and peeled
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1 3/4 cup olive oil

In a blender or food processor, finely chop the shallots. Add vinegar and brown sugar and process until smooth. Slowly add 1 3/4 cups oil, processing frequently, so as to thicken the mixture.

Bittersweet Chocolate Pudding
courtesy of Emily Luchetti

4 large egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1 1/2 cups whipping cream, divided
9 ounces (2 cups) chopped bittersweet chocolate (not chocolate chips)
2 teaspoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Whisk together first 3 ingredients in a medium bowl until blended.
2. Combine milk and 1 cup cream in medium saucepan, and cook over medium heat until hot. Gradually pour hot milk mixture into egg mixture, whisking constantly. Return mixture to saucepan, and cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly with a heat-resistant spatula, for 5 minutes or until mixture thickens and coats the spatula or until candy thermometer reads 180°.
3. Remove saucepan from heat. Add chocolate, and let stand 10 seconds; whisk until smooth. Transfer chocolate cream to a clean bowl. Place plastic wrap directly on the surface of the cream, and refrigerate until cold and set, at least 3 hours.
4. Combine remaining 1/2 cup cream, sugar, and vanilla in a medium bowl. Beat at high speed with an electric mixer until soft peaks form. (Do not overbeat.) Dollop onto each serving of pudding.
*Serving suggestion: Divide half the whipped cream evenly among six wineglasses. Spoon about 2/3 cup chocolate pudding over the cream in each glass, and top with remaining whipped cream.

Fall Colors

2006-12-23T11:16:00.000-08:00

Yes, you read that right. Even though it's Christmas weekend the fall colors are peaking here in Phoenix. I had some spare time on friday to wander through campus and take some photos.

OK so this one isn't really fall foliage...

but the oranges are ready for action and I liked this picture.

Christmas Card

2006-12-18T19:54:00.000-08:00

Dear E & C,
I now have (eleven) great grandchildren, I need 1 more to make it a dozen
before I leave this earth, but like Lauren says I won't be going anywhere
for a long time.
Love,
Grandma

She's 87. And so subtle. Merry Christmas to you too, Grandma

Winter in Arizona

2006-12-16T11:08:00.000-08:00

finally got our lights up

tangelos will be ready any day now!

haven't killed these yet either!

From Heather

2006-12-14T19:34:00.000-08:00

01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink
02. Swam with wild dolphins
03. Climbed a mountain
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid
06. Held a tarantula
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
08. Said “I love you” and meant it
09. Hugged a tree
10. Bungee jumped
11. Visited Paris
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise
14. Seen the Northern Lights
15. Gone to a huge sports game
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables
18. Touched an iceberg
19. Slept under the stars
20. Changed a baby’s diaper
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
22. Watched a meteor shower
23. Gotten drunk on champagne
24. Given more than you can afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
27. Had a food fight
28. Bet on a winning horse
29. Asked out a stranger
30. Had a snowball fight
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
32. Held a lamb
33. Seen a total eclipse of the moon
34. Ridden a roller coaster
35. Hit a home run
36. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
39. Had two hard drives for your computer
40. Visited all 50 states
41. Taken care of someone who was drunk
42. Had amazing friends
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
44. Watched wild whales
45. Stolen a sign
46. Backpacked in Europe
47. Taken a road-trip
48. Gone rock climbing
49. Midnight walk on the beach
50. Gone sky diving
51. Visited Ireland
52. Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger’s table and had a meal with them
54. Visited Japan
55. Milked a cow
56. Alphabetized your CDs
57. Pretended to be a superhero
58. Sung karaoke
59. Lounged around in bed all day
60. Played touch football
61. Gone scuba diving
62. Kissed in the rain
63. Played in the mud
64. Played in the rain
65. Gone to a drive-in theater
66. Visited the Great Wall of China
67. Started a business
68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
69. Toured ancient sites
70. Taken a martial arts class
71. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight
72. Gotten married
73. Been in a movie
74. Crashed a party
75. Gotten divorced
76. Gone without food for 5 days
77. Made cookies from scratch
78. Won first prize in a costume contest
79. Ridden a gondola in Venice
80. Gotten a tattoo
81. Rafted the Snake River
82. Been on television news programs as an “expert”
83. Got flowers for no reason
84. Performed on stage
85. Been to Las Vegas
86. Recorded music
87. Eaten shark
88. Kissed on the first date
89. Gone to Thailand
90. Bought a house
91. Been in a combat zone
92. Buried one/both of your parents
93. Been on a cruise ship
94. Spoken more than one language fluently
95. Performed in Rocky Horror
96. Raised children
97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking
103. Had plastic surgery
104. Survived an accident that you shouldn’t have survived
105. Wrote articles for a large publication
106. Lost over 100 pounds
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback
108. Piloted an airplane
109. Touched a stingray
110. Broken someone’s heart
111. Helped an animal give birth
112. Won money on a T.V. game show
113. Broken a bone
114. Gone on an African photo safari
115. Had a facial part pierced other than your ears
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
118. Ridden a horse
119. Had major surgery
120. Had a snake as a pet
121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours
123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states
124. Visited all 7 continents
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
126. Eaten kangaroo meat
127. Eaten sushi
128. Had your picture in the newspaper
129. Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about
130. Gone back to school
131. Parasailed
132. Touched a cockroach
133. Eaten fried green tomatoes
134. Read The Iliad - and the Odyssey
135. Selected one “important” author who you missed in school, and read
136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
137. Skipped all your school reunions
138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
139. Been elected to public office
140. Written your own computer language
141. Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream
142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
143. Built your own PC from parts
144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn’t know you
145. Had a booth at a street fair
146. Dyed your hair
147. Been a DJ
148. Shaved your head
149. Caused a car accident
150. Saved someone’s life

Google Rocks

2006-12-09T09:33:00.000-08:00

I haven't checked my Sitemeter site statistics for about a million years so I figured I'd go and see what's up. I found the "Referring URL" statistics to be very informative and downright hilarious.

Apparently you can find my blog by Googling:

"recipe for honeybaked ham glaze by the HoneyBaked outlets"
"honeybake ham recipe using a blowtorch"
"chinese dumplings" phoenix arizona"
"speedy oil change+motorcycles+phoenix"

www.palmwalk.com
"palmwalk.com shut down"
"slutty asu girls"

It's never too late

2006-12-04T19:31:00.000-08:00

for pie. Or recipes for pie.

BOURBON PECAN PIE

courtesy of FoodTv.com

1 cup sugar

3 tablespoons butter, melted

1/2 cup dark corn syrup

3 large eggs, beaten

1 1/2 to 2 cups pecan halves

2 tablespoons good-quality bourbon

1 (9-inch) deep-dish pie shell, unbaked

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

In a medium bowl, stir together the sugar and melted butter. Add the corn syrup, eggs, pecans, and bourbon, and stir until all ingredients are combined. Pour mixture into an unbaked pie shell, and place on a heavy-duty cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes. Lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees F, and continue to bake for an additional 25 minutes, or until pie is set. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack.

PUMPKIN PIE

courtesy of FoodTv.com

1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened

2 cups canned pumpkin, mashed

1 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 egg plus 2 egg yolks, slightly beaten

1 cup half-and-half

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) melted butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger, optional

1 piece pre-made pie dough

Whipped cream, for topping

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Place 1 piece of pre-made pie dough down into a (9-inch) pie pan and press down along the bottom and all sides. Pinch and crimp the edges together to make a pretty pattern. Put the pie shell back into the freezer for 1 hour to firm up. Fit a piece of aluminum foil to cover the inside of the shell completely. Fill the shell up to the edges with pie weights or dried beans (about 2 pounds) and place it in the oven. Bake for 10 minutes, remove the foil and pie weights and bake for another 10 minutes or until the crust is dried out and beginning to color.
For the filling, in a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese with a hand mixer. Add the pumpkin and beat until combined. Add the sugar and salt, and beat until combined. Add the eggs mixed with the yolks, half-and-half, and melted butter, and beat until combined. Finally, add the vanilla, cinnamon, and ginger, if using, and beat until incorporated.
Pour the filling into the warm prepared pie crust and bake for 50 minutes, or until the center is set. Place the pie on a wire rack and cool to room temperature. Cut into slices and top each piece with a generous amount of whipped cream.

These were both easy and delish. Sure, it's a heart attack in a pie pan waiting to happen. But it's totally worth it.

Home Alone II

2006-12-01T16:33:00.000-08:00

I'm having steak for dinner. And then I'm going to take a bubble bath. Maybe watch a movie.

I've got this home alone thing down pat!

Home Alone

2006-11-30T17:54:00.000-08:00

The husband is out of town on business until saturday. It's kinda good, because I can loaf around and eat mac'n'cheese out of a box and nobody is going to hassle me for it.

It's bad because I'm unsupervised and I'm not quite sure if I can work the VCR to tape Scrubs, The Office AND Grey's Anatomy at the right times. Oh and he left his coat here and for some reason it's 27F and snowing in Dallas.

Speaking of snow, it's damn cold here too. It was about 50 yesterday and really windy. At night it has been in the 30's. I know, you all think that's weak. Come visit me in July and weak will have a whole new meaning to you. As Heather says, why are people who can't stand cold considered weaker than those who can't stand the heat?

and to Mist1, i tried to leave a comment on your blog and it never loaded the comment box. boo!

Mawwage

2006-11-25T19:06:00.000-08:00

Today I was thinking about marriage. I haven't been married long, just about a year and a half, so I'm hardly an expert on the subject.

We got married fairly young, especially by today's standards. I was only 23. Ha! I say "only" as if it were eons ago and now I am so much older and wiser! Regardless; we dated for about 3 years before we got married and I knew it was coming long before we actually did tie the knot.

Now I may be young and practically newlywedded, but I'm not living in some fantasy world where I think it will always be this good. ~50% of marriages fail. It would be pretty egotistical of me to think that my marriage is immune to that. What makes some marriages more susceptible to divorce? Is it circumstance or personality, or a combination?

I dont think there is any specific formula for a successful marriage.
-Some people have an arranged marriage and do fine. Other people date for years; some end up happy and some don't.
-Some people share the same interests and that keeps them strong; some find strength in their individuality.
I think perhaps what makes a successful marriage is part luck, part compromise and part adaptation. People change, bad things happen, luck can sour. If you and your partner can roll with the punches, you are giving your marriage the best chance to survive.

On a semi-related note: why is there so much pressure to BE married? Most of my friends are single and they are in the thick of guilt trips from other friends and family to pair up. Why does the government give married couples tax breaks? Why is 30 the end of your life if you aren't married yet? Why does our society lead people to believe they are unfulfilled if they don't have a life partner? Why does single = lonely? Do you buy into that?

Honestly, I didn't exactly plan to be married at all, let alone at such a young age. I wasn't going to wait around for some guy to complete me. I had my own plans, and was in the smack-dab in the middle of implementing them when I met my husband in college. What are ya gonna do? Roll with the punches, of course.

gobble gobble!

2006-11-23T20:34:00.000-08:00

Turkey Day went off without a hitch! While I was cooking, my dad and the husband were in the garage installing fluorescent lights and a new electrical outlet for our garage door opener (which has yet to be installed due to a Home Depot snafu) AND taking down a dead tree from the side yard. Our neighbors are going to start thinking we are tree-haters. The food turned out delicious and I couldn't be more pleased. I made my pies last night; a repeat of my pumpkin pie (soo yummy) and my first [bourbon] pecan pie, which turned out great.

I hope you all had a great holiday!

Jealousy

2006-11-21T19:40:00.000-08:00

Jealousy rears its ugly head every once in a while. I think everybody is susceptible to jealousy at one time or another in life. It's easy to be jealous of someone when you don't have the full picture. Whenever I catch myself becoming jealous, I ask myself if I would want to BE that person. The answer is always NO. Overall, I'm happy with who I am and where I am in life. Sure, there are things I'd like to accomplish and things I'd like to have. I am a realist; I'm only 25 and I have the rest of my life to figure things out and to acquire nice things. A lot of people in this world deserve better than they have; conversely, a lot of people have more than they deserve.

What is the point of this? I guess there isn't one. I suppose that in order to progress on with your life and have a positive effect on the world you need to be at peace with yourself and with other people. How you gonna win if you ain't right within?

Thanksgiving Week

2006-11-19T18:44:00.000-08:00

Somehow Thanksgiving Day is turning into a whole week event. I did the first half of my turkey day dinner shopping. I have a 14lb bird awaiting its final destination on my table in the fridge.

Last year it was just the husband and I. We opted for a turkey breast but we still went all out and had quite a spread. This year we are hosting my parents and have upgraded to a full-size turkey and two pies instead of one. My goal is to send everyone home with at least 5 pounds they didn't arrive with.

The parents get here tuesday and we have all sorts of booze and home improvement projects to keep them occupied and happy. The weather is supposed to be beautiful as well.

Thanksgiving holidays are also important in that they mark the serious start of the Christmas holiday shopping expeditions. Meh...I have no idea what I'm getting most people. I'm super excited to decorate our house. I have a lot of lights and we'll have to figure out how we're going to engineer them up onto the house.

Ohhhh on an unrelated note, the husband and I are planning on taking a "real" vacation sometime in 2007 (probably spring-ish). Pretty much anywhere. Except Mexico. Regardless, if you have any suggestions as to where we should go, please comment away!

What would you add?

2006-11-13T18:13:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking about what would make the "perfect" car for a while now. Part of me is old fashioned and "perfect" entails chrome. The practical and modern side of me has been making a mental list for things that a cool car really needs:

A Dashcam - think of all those weird pedestrians, cute dogs, other cool cars and jerky drivers you see on a daily basis. Have you ever seen something totally crazy and then you're telling someone about it later and you just can't convey what happened? OK maybe this is my inadequacy in articulating spoken english...but it would be so cool to be able to record things from your dash. Hit and run might become a thing of the past.

A Car Communicator - picture a scrolling ticker like screen positioned in the back/side window. A built-in steering wheel keyboard and voila! you can tell everyone what's what instead of giving them the finger. I'd use it to get that college student who-is-also-doing-her-hair-and-makeup-whilst-tailgating me to pay attention. Luxury models would have a hands-free voice activated communicator, naturally.

Interior wipers - don't you hate that weird film you get on the inside?

What else would you put in your custom car?? And will Heather pass these ideas on to important people at work?

Christmas in October

2006-11-12T15:21:00.000-08:00

I started seeing Christmas stuff in stores last month. Sigh. I haven't really started shopping yet. Besides the hard-to-shop-for-because-they-have-everything people on my list, my husband's and my dad's birthdays are both the week before Christmas. I'm not one to chintz out and give a joint gift for the two occasions, but that translates into double-duty in the shopping world.

The good news is now that we are homeowners there are a plethora of tools and hardware items ~~I want~~ that will be perfect to give to my husband under the guise of "here is a man-tool to celebrate the birth of Jesus." I'm still waiting for him to give me his list of preferred tools (hint, hint!).

On a side note, I'm slowly starting to get into some gardening. By that I really mean that my Penstemons haven't died yet. The same goes for a house plant. Actually they look pretty good. I have some scabiosas on order (they were perennial of the year in 2000, after all) and I'm hoping I actually get them because I ordered them pretty late. It's still warm here so I don't fear for them too badly. I also got 2 tomato plants and a rosemary bush. So exciting, isn't it!?

Anyway, back to Christmas stuff. I saw this on Nothingbutbonfires.com

Yesterday

2006-11-09T06:41:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was a good day. I got a free lunch, won a $50 Best Buy gift card, and tested negative on my biannual tuberculosis test!

NO FUMAR

2006-11-08T18:28:00.000-08:00

Out of the two non-smoking propositions, the more strict one passed. I am SO HAPPY!!

Once it goes into effect, smoking will be prohibited in ALL public places and places of employment. (except for outdoor patios, etc.)

I was also surprised by how much all the illegal immigration propositions passed. Personally I don't think these propositions will stop the influx of illegal immigrants. They don't address the incentives for their presence here. However, the wide margins speak for themselves and hopefully foreshadow some *real* policy changes will be in the future.

Illegal immigrants are denied bail for serious felonies.
English was declared an official language.
Illegal immigrants are no longer eligible to participate in state-subsidized immigrant and adult education classes; they are also ineligible for in-state tuition and financial aid at colleges/universities.

It seems like the whole country is on the cusp of some big changes. Very good!

i like suffrage

2006-11-06T18:37:00.000-08:00

or is it suffering? Watching political ads = suffering. Reading endless verbiage about redundant propositions = suffering.

Tomorrow morning = suffrage.

Here in Arizona we have not one, but TWO propositions against smoking in public places to be voted on tomorrow. I'm growing more and more liberal with the passing years and all I keep hearing with regard to the smoking issue is "what about freedoms and rights?" What about my right to come home from a bar/restaurant not smelling like ass? What about the freedom to breath clean air??

Sorry smokers...you and your filthy butts are going down. If you want to inhale through your cancer sticks do it at home. The same goes for clipping your toenails. Keep it away from the public!!!

oops

2006-11-05T12:03:00.000-08:00

Have you ever Googled a newlywed couple's name to find their wedding announcement or pictures? And instead of finding that, you find a divorce notice?? Whaaaa??

I don't feel as bad for not going to the wedding now.

Insert Title Here

2006-11-04T18:12:00.000-08:00

I know I've been MIA for a while. Not much has been going on lately. We bought a new porch light because our old one was hideously ugly and only worked sporadically. We installed it just in time for Halloween. It was lots of fun handing out candy and mini Play-doh (from Costco!). We had about 75 kids; my favorite costumes were a buff spiderman and Ketchup & Mustard.

I'm working on my Thanksgiving shopping list already. My parents are coming in from DC and my mission is to send them back home at least 5lbs heavier. I also need to get some good Thanksgiving door decor, a festive tablecloth and some nice napkins. I already have silver chargers ready for action. Ohhhhh the exciting life I lead!!

My friend/coworker finally announced at work that she is pregnant. "Finally" meaning that she's waited a long time to BE pregnant and also because she waited until the end of her first trimester before spilling the beans to the general population at work. This is good for several reasons: she will be a guinea pig for all the pregnancy stuff AND she will hopefully take some of the focus off me. And by focus, I am referring to the woman in my lab who habitually breaks our nice morning silence with a subtle "You should have a baby. Now. You are the perfect age." She only mentions this about every other day. She is also convinced that having her youngest daughter cured her of headaches; naturally, suggestions to have a baby to remedy my headaches is perfectly logical to her. Then again, she is also convinced that our boss has active Tuberculosis. Conspiracy theories to the max!!

200

2006-10-27T20:03:00.000-07:00

So here we are, 200 posts. I briefly entertained the idea of making a list. But that fizzled out at about #35 so I will continue to bore you with my usual crap.

This week the department lab manager sent out an email telling us that we now have to write out the full chemical name (including water for H20) and all components on all bottles in order to pass inspections. The purpose of this is supposedly going to help firefighters who may have to come save us in the event of an emergency.

A. How is writing out things going to help a firefighter? As if they would know what Magnesium sulfate is, as opposed to MgSO4.
2. Why are firefighters reading labels anyway? If the lab catches fire it is gonna BURN with all the chemicals we have in there.
3. The whole point of shortening things is because chemicals have ungodly long names.
EDTA = Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid. As if I want to write that all day long.
4. When I went to double-check the spelling SDS (sodium dodecyl sulfate), I referred to the bottle the chemical company sent us. What does it say? SDS. Of course. Nowhere on the bottle does it have the unabbreviated version.
5. If a firefighter doesn't know that H20 = water, well, um, mayhaps they are in the wrong business.

Logic, people. What has happened to simple logic? Apparently "red tape" is more popular. Hmph.

Meh

2006-10-26T20:18:00.000-07:00

So you guys aren't impressed by my tree story? Hmph. You have no idea how hard it is to find good tree people. I called 50 million different arborists/landscape companies. About 1 million of them called me back. 500,000 of them don't speak english. 300,000 of them were too expensive. Out of those remaining, 10 had full-coverage insurance. 1 had a good receptionist person and so they got the job.

We've been planning the tree take down for a long time now. But you don't care so I will quit my yapping.

On an unrelated note, I'm popping Advil like candy (Dr's orders) and wearing the biggest wrist brace of all time in hopes that I'll magically be cured in 1 week. Somehow I visualize myself in therapy. Physical therapy, people! And I get to spend $600 to get new pipets for myself at work. If all else fails, I guess I have to get into a new line of work. And I will be asking PhoenixHearse for the hookup because it looks like she has the sweetest job ever made.

Speaking of PhoenixHearse, who recently had her 100th post, I am approaching my 200th post the next time I decide to log on and spew my meaningless crap at you all. Don't worry, I'm not going to post 200 pictures of junk that is laying around my house. If you have anything you'd like to request, I will take that into consideration. I'm just lucky I got this far. This damn wrist brace keeps hitting random keys and messing with where my cursor is. It's like drunk typing, but not as fun.

Ta Ta for now kiddos!

The Big Surprise

2006-10-23T15:08:00.000-07:00

Now you see it:

Now you don't!

No more tree. Or bird poo. Or birds. Or nests. EVICTED!!!!!!!!

Seriously you guys are terrible guessers!!! Way off. No baby!!

Here are the in-progress pictures taken by my husband. By the way, he worked really hard at taking these and by stacking ALL THE WOOD by himself after they were done.

I take perverse pleasure in seeing this pic (above)

I was really worried that it would look bad after the tree was gone. But I think it looks much better. Now our Tres Sexy palms can have the front yard limelight all to themselves. I think they need a little recovery time too after being suffocated by that giant canopy.

By the way this is a GREAT way to start a neighborhood buzz because all the neighbors are nosey in their own ways and will wander over to see who/what/where/when/why & how the tree was taken down.

Monday is a big day for us!!

2006-10-20T19:08:00.000-07:00

I have a surprise for you all but I'm not going to tell you what it is. I will *show* you what it is on monday.

For now I will let you wonder and guess away at what it might be.

Dumb & Dumberer

2006-10-18T20:22:00.000-07:00

Apparently someone in Kansas thinks Arizonans are dumb.

All I want to know is, since when has Kansas been qualified to make judgements about intelligence?

Just sayin'!

Freak Out!

2006-10-16T20:24:00.000-07:00

As you can see I posted on the left hand side that I just finished reading Freakonomics. That is a half-truth. I read it a while back and recently re-read the last few chapters that I missed the first time around (it was due back at the library before I finished it. Odd. Usually I read very fast and devour my books.)

Anyway, aside from the interesting conclusions they come up with regarding abortion & crime, etc, I found it fascinating what they found out about parenting. You know how it goes, everyone has their own school of thought about how to raise kids and how to keep them safe as babies. Apparently, no matter how obsessive you are, your kids will turn out how they turn out. Most of the rules and safety devices exist to pacify the parents and to make money for the companies that produce said devices.

They discuss how people obsess over what to name their children; as if the name will affect their children's future success. What it all comes down to is, successful/smart people tend to have successful/smart kids and the names, books, schools and baby einsteins have nothing to do with it. Good. That will save me a lot of money on all that smart baby accessory crap.

Mountain Trip

2006-10-15T14:54:00.000-07:00

We just got back from our trip up to the mountains. The only problem is that they have more conifers rather than deciduous trees so the color changes were not quite what I expected.

PS you can click the photos for full-size view.

Stinky was not impressed by the cold temps at that elevation.

View from the Arizona Snowbowl

You can see the color changes a bit here.

I also have pics in my 35mm camera and they will probably be developed sometime next year. hehehe

Weird Neighbor

2006-10-15T14:43:00.000-07:00

Evan met her when we first moved in but I didn't have the pleasure until saturday morning. I had been out in the yard planting my new penstemons and she and her 34 year-old daughter were in their front yard...doing stuff. She came over and introduced herself. She's a widow. Her daughter lives with her. She isn't married, but two of her four kids are. Blah Blah Blah.

Then it went downhill pretty fast:

neighbor lady (looking at my yard): "We have a lawn mower if you need to borrow one." Strike one.
me: "Thanks, but we have one. Our yard looks a bit rough because we had to replace our sewer line and our irrigation has been out for about a month."
neighbor lady: "The people who lived there before took really good care of their yard." Strike Two

Um hello!! I was out there this morning working on it. I'M WORKING ON IT!!! She can sit there all smug with her stupid rock lawn that doesn't look immaculate or anything and be alllll snide about my yellow grass (that coincidentally isn't even that long!) I should have asked her daughter if she needed to borrow a razor for her five o'clock shadow. Hmph.

Well now that I know what we're dealing with I will be much better equipped to handle her in the future.

Big Weekend

2006-10-13T18:56:00.000-07:00

I'm already exhausted...

Tomorrow morning i'm getting up at the buttcrack of dawn to hit the botanical garden fall plant sale. I'm going to try my hand at gardening a bit. The good thing about Phoenix is you can grow pretty much anything, you just have to know when to plant it. Because the winters are so mild, now is the perfect time to plant a lot of stuff. I've got my sights set on some Penstemons for the area formerly-known-as-the-planter-box. I'd also like to get some herbs, probably just rosemary for now. If anything else along the way strikes my fancy then it will probably find its way to my cart. Hopefully my yard will look a little less crappy after tomorrow.

So in preparation of plant day tomorrow, I spent this afternoon prepping the soil. I threw down some mulch and painted that half-done piece of wood where the planter box used to be. Sounds easy/basic but my hands are somehow still dirty and my back is killing me. I'm now accepting applications for lawn boys.

I have to go into work to finish up an experiment after I get my plants. Boo. At least I can totally rock out in the lab because there won't be too many people around. I don't know what it is, maybe it's the humming of the air handlers or the apparent privacy my ensemble offers that makes me want to bust a move to my Ipod when I'm in there.

this is what i look like

(this isn't really me)

It makes the time go by quicker at least. Oh and BTW if you couldn't tell I don't professionally bake/ice cakes or work for the united nations. I get paid to manipulate a variety of infectious diseases. I'm a lab rat.

After I get home I have to plant my beloved little plants. And then we are going to roadtrip it up to the mountains. FALL COLORS!!!! Stinky is coming along too. She loves a good car trip. Hopefully I'll have some good pics when we get back.

On that note, I am so excited for halloween. SO EXCITED! Every year for the past several years I have purchased a large bag of candy in anticipation of halloween. And every year those kids foil my plans by driving their cute little costumed selves to some fancy subdivision. Last year I had one piddly trick or treater...and she was bigger than me! Now that we are out of apartments those kids will be coming to my house! I need to start building up our reputation now...we don't want to be a lame house on the route.

That's all for now kiddies. Have a good weekend!

Let's Do Lunch

2006-10-11T21:18:00.000-07:00

Lunch is always an exciting time at work. I plan all my experiments around lunchtime. Partially because I'm usually dying of hunger by noon but also partially because group lunch is a hoot!!

The people I work with are an interesting mix. There are people from France, Italy, Albania, Algeria, Senegal, Ethiopia, China, India, Canada, Chile, Columbia, and the UAE. I hope I didn't forget anybody. Anyway, the vast majority are from China. And there is nothing more fun than sitting with a table full of Chinese people discussing anything.

They always want to know what everyone else is having for lunch. "Oh what do you have today? Looks good!" Never before has my PB&J looked so exotic. Xiamin recently discovered pizza. He also discovered they were on sale at the grocery store. He looked like a kid on Christmas day.

I think it may be a cultural thing, but the Chinese do not appear to find money/finance discussions taboo at all. If you get a new haircut, they drown you in their admiration and of course they must know the cost. "Did you just buy a house? How much?" "Where did you get that spinach dip? Costco? Oh I love Costco. How much was it??"

Costco is another thing. Now, I love Costco. But there is something special in almost every Asian I've met that draws them to Costco like a magnet. In my old lab there were 2 Japanese postdocs and the first thing they wanted to do once we got to San Diego was get a Costco membership.

Aside from the Costco deals, exotic food and finance there are also great stories to be shared. A woman in my lab was raised in Communist China. She didn't learn english until she was 30. Wei wasn't allowed to play Mah Jong there so she doesn't even know how to. I think we need to get a lab Mah Jong game so we can play during the lulls.

I think I need more exciting lunches. They are expecting the PB&J now. I'll wait until the group gets in a rut. Maybe i'll knock their socks off with some soup or a burrito.

--------------------------------------------------
10-12-06

I brought some tuna casserole today. The crowd went wild!!!!

Blah Blah Blah

2006-10-10T19:55:00.000-07:00

I don't have anything useful or funny to contribute today.

Except: My coworker swears she saw frost the other morning. Riiiiight.

I need to go see a doctor because I've developed a repetitive strain injury from pipeting too much at work.

I have 3 different pipetters that can suck up volumes from 1 ML to 0.25 microliters. They are all similar in that they make my wrist hurt because I use them all day long. They have a cool little eject button to get rid of dirty tips but that just adds to the strain.

People are always bitching about how biotech is all about making money & taking from the little people. I've even heard of people who truly believe we have the cure to cancer and we're keeping it hidden from the public. ::shaking my head:: Well people, here you have it; I am sacrificing my WRIST for the advancement of science. The next person to blame the downfall of all things sacred on science will be beat with my wrist brace.

And if I find out the lab next door to us has the cure for repetitive strain injuries they will incur a beating as well.

Summer is over!

2006-10-09T19:35:00.000-07:00

It has finally started to cool down. Our last 100 degree day was a week or two ago. We had over 100 days of 100+ degree temperatures. I know it sounds unbearable but it's really quite lovely. It has cooled to the mid 80's and there is NO WAY I'm getting in the pool. Way too cold. In fact, I wore my sweatshirt to walk across campus today.

Soon it will be in the 60's and 70's and the students will have their mittens and scarves on. Hopefully in the coming weeks we'll make a weekend trip up to the mountains to see the fall colors. This is what they looked like about a week ago:

www.thearb.org
photo by Kristen Novo

So beautiful!

Congratulations to Heather

2006-10-06T18:52:00.000-07:00

She is now officially non-employed! Now that she has approximately 40+ more hours available, she should swing by my place and hang out.

And regarding the post below...you guys will be the first to know when I am expecting.

That is an outright bold-faced lie.

Seriously...you guys will probably among the last to know. But it's all good. I can post belly pics so we can all revel in my increasing fat-ness.

This post is for Lou

2006-10-05T18:40:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to let her know that my employer has added a benefit that would give me 6 weeks 100% paid leave after the birth of a baby or adoption of a child. FYI.

My Weekend

2006-10-02T20:37:00.000-07:00

As if you care!

Regardless; my blog, my weekend.
Now you see it:

Now you don't:

As usual, Stinky helped.

I think I have a conehead

2006-10-01T20:21:00.000-07:00

I can't wear headbands like this. I think they are cute, esp if you have your hair up.
They always slide off. Hence the proposed conehead.

Oh well. You win some, you lose some.

This is for Spoon

2006-09-29T21:54:00.000-07:00

Warning...its a little graphic. One summer during my college years I did a marine biology internship in Boston. During that summer a young whale washed up on Cape Cod so we did a roadtrip/necropsy to find out the cause of death. It was grotesque and awesome all at the same time. In case you forgot, whales are mammals like we are, and they have many of the same body parts we do: lungs, ribcages, lungs and penises.

whale penis!!! For spoon!

Things I learned that day:
1. Whale lips are soft (that's me touching them in the top photo)
2. Blubber feels like tire rubber, except its 6 inches thick.
3. The whale died of renal failure from a parasite infestation.
4. Dead-whale scent does NOT wash out. Ever.

Perpetuating Creative Avoidance

2006-09-29T21:16:00.000-07:00

1. What does your headline mean? It used to be "With love from detroit" and that was not sarcastic at all. Then I moved to Phoenix. I like Phoenix; I'm feelin' the love.
2. Elaborate on your default photo: Apparently I liked eating cheese puffs topless as a small child.
3. What's your middle name[s]? Marie

4. What is your current relationship status? Married for 1 year and then some

5. What are you wearing right now? PJ pants and a button down shirt. They don't match at all.

6. What is your current problem? The large tree in my front yard

7. Who do you love the most? My husband

8. Who makes you most happy? Stinky the dog

9. Are you musically talented? Not at all. Doesn't stop me.

10. If you could go back in time and change one thing, what would you change? I'd buy real estate in CA

11. If you MUST be an animal for ONE day, what would it be? I'd be Stinky the dog. She has it made in the shade.

12. Ever have a near-death experience? Not to my knowledge.

13. Can you dance? Sure...

14. What's the name of the song that's stuck in your head right now? The Killers - Andy, You're a Star

15. Who did you cut and paste this from? Ian

16. Name someone with the same b-day as you: Um I think Macaulay Culkin or Michael Jackson. Ew. Maybe Both. Double Ew.

17. Have you ever destroyed someone's property? Not until tomorrow.

18. Have you ever been in a fight? No but it would be cool if i was. and if i won.

19. Have you ever sang in front of a big audience? Yes in a choir.

20. What attracts you to the opposite sex? Tall, dark and handsome.

21. What do you usually order from Starbucks? I don't. I don't drink coffee. Or caffeine.

22. Do you have a crush on one of your myspace friends? Not to my knowledge.

23. Ever had a drunken night in Mexico? No. Only sober, sleepless ones.

24. Has anyone ever said you looked like a celebrity? Unfortunately. Alanis Morissette. The only thing more embarassing than being told you look like her is to not know who she was (at the time).
25. Do you still watch kiddy movies or TV shows? Sure.
26. Did you have braces? No but I wanted them BAD.
27. Are you comfortable with your height? One more piddly little inch and I'd be golden.
28. Do you consider yourself adventurous? Sure.
29. Do you speak any other languages? Spanish and Japanese. Ginko wa doku desuka?
30. What's your favorite smell? fresh cut grass, jasmine, sea salt & rain. But not together.

This is for Heather

2006-09-28T21:34:00.000-07:00

per her request

As you can see there is a theme.

Confession Wednesday

2006-09-27T20:45:00.000-07:00

On the local radio here they have Confession Wednesday. I love it!

People call in with their way-out-there confessions and whoever has the deepest darkest dirtiest one gets a prize.

I saw this link on another blog:

http://truewifeconfessions.blogspot.com/

I'm going to see how long it takes Evan to figure out which one is mine.

hehehehehehehehee J/K. I'm not that dark. Yet.

Mean Old Hag

2006-09-27T20:20:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I was reading in the library. I purposely went to the back corner of the top floor for ultimate quiet-ness. After about an hour, these two little boys were wandering around that section of stacks with someone. They were doing karate chops and chasing each other around.

Round One: I caught the little one's eye and gave him a dirty look. He appeared unphased.

They wandered away and I thought it was over.
No.
They came back, karate chops and tag games galore.
I caught one of them getting loud.

Round Two (to the older kid): "Hey you, this is a library. You need to be quiet."
He scampers off.

Round Three, 2 min later (to the little one): He comes bounding around the nearest stack, poised for a big karate chop. I busted him in mid-pounce. I say:"Don't do that in here" in my best I-eat-little-boys-for-dinner voice. And insert dirty look.
He scampers off.

ding ding ding! I win!

I suppose I should have picked up my broom and cauldron on the way home from the library. Apparently, I am that lady.

Happy Autumn

2006-09-24T18:08:00.000-07:00

Half-hearted apologies in advance for gross over-generalizations of local students.

You know it's autumn when you are regularly cut off by inattentive wealthy out-of-state college kids driving the Porsches/Luxury SUVs/convertibles that mommy and daddy gave them. Go ahead, wave at me when I honk at you. They may be able to provide you with an allowance, fancy cars, paid tuition and designer clothes, but no amount of money can make you a good driver.

Drumroll Please

2006-09-23T19:49:00.000-07:00

My bathroom is 99.5% done.

I still need a curtain to cover the world's most hideous window. And after I win the lottery tonight, I'm going to get a new countertop that matches a lil better.

Stinky helped a lot.

Bimbo!

2006-09-20T21:52:00.000-07:00

It starts with one Bimbo in the neighborhood and goes rapidly downhill after that.

2006-09-19T22:33:00.000-07:00

We saw "The Last Kiss" on sunday. Everyone I've talked to said they left depressed. I thought the movie was pretty good. I don't want to spoil it for anyone, so I won't really discuss it too much.

The soundtrack was awesome!

2006-09-18T19:58:00.000-07:00

As if it isn't enought of a struggle for me to sit still for 1.25 hours in my bacterial physiology class. Between the guy wearing the "Endangered Feces" T-shirt and Stupid Question Guy (and my own self-admitted ADD) I don't know how I make it to the end.

How can Stupid Question Guy understand how DNA denatures but is confused by "renature?" How do you get to a 300 level class without knowing what ATP is?? Sigh.

On a brighter note, fall is here! It was cool out this morning. I'm tracking the fall colors up in the mountains so we can take a weekend trip up to see the leaves.

We had our first guest in the Pink room this last weekend. And I finally finished my bathroom! I'll have pics soon.

Foosball is the Devil!!!

2006-09-17T18:23:00.000-07:00

The only thing worse than watching your husband watch his favorite team (Notre Dame) lose to one of their biggest rivals (Michigan) at home is having not one, but TWO Michigan fans heckle him publicly at a baseball game.

That one is for you, Tara.

1/4 century

2006-09-13T20:29:00.000-07:00

now i am 25 years old. sounds sorta old. and sorta young. I don't really feel old, or like i thought I would feel in my mid-twenties. Inside, I still feel pretty young. And then I wake up and realize I have a husband, a dog, a house (& mortgage), bills and a job. How did I get so responsible???

Last year was a pretty big year for me. Aside from moving across the country and buying a house, I feel like I learned a lot about myself. I can bake awesome pies. I have a 30 minute attention span. I do not want to go to grad school. It is possible to find a job you like. I like blogging. I am not ashamed to meet people from the internet! I know what side of the political fence I am on for more issues. I am more liberal than I thought I was. I am allergic to a ton of stuff. I'm not very articulate but I don't really care.

There were some things from the past that I was clinging to. I have been waiting for somebody to pay back some money they owe me. I've come to accept that they operate on different moral/ethical values and will probably NOT be having a change of heart. OK.

There were friends I thought I was closer to and discovered that I am not close to at all. When they don't tell you they are having (or already had) a baby, then you aren't that good of friends. Got it.

I thought that I should want to get a PhD and want to balance that type of career and family. I learned that you can't do everything. And that's perfectly okay. I finally decided I don't want to get a PhD, so that is one less worry on my list!

Sounds silly, but I learned how much I loved my pathetic little dog. She had a health scare earlier this year and I'd be so upset if anything happened to her.

It's amazing how things change over the course of a year. I wonder what will happen with 25???

Bitches!

2006-09-12T18:24:00.000-07:00

As you can see I now have haloscan comments. Let me know if there is a problem.

Oh and depending on YOUR account and settings (like Christa's) I can't post comments.

Long time no blog

2006-09-11T19:56:00.000-07:00

I am still alive. Sorry I've been MIA. As if any of you care!

There has been a lot going on.

1. I turned 25. I had a long, profound post all planned out but due to the loss of internet connectivity on our home computer, those plans never came to fruition.

2. The sewer pipe crapped out (hehehehe I crack myself up! get it, "crap," GET it???)

3. The sewer pipe has been replaced. Yet I still have a big hole in my yard. And my wallet.

4. Heather got her house. A new house. And luckily she has plenty'o'room for me when my house falls apart again, which shouldn't be too far out in the future.

5. We visited some family.

6. We visited our college campus. Which is actually pretty nice now. Fancy new landscaping and library. I almost wrote my name on a brick but I was all out of Sharpies.

And without further eloquence, here are the sewer pictures:

This is "before.

Obviously "during." He didn't get quite all the way around
the first day. The pipe break is "behind" the tree.

A man and a shovel dug through all these roots.

No fancy machinery or sharp tools here!!

And there you have it.
smaller pipes = water main and irrigation lines.
Large black pipe at bottom = offending pipe.

We still have a hole in the front. The tree's days are numbered. Tune in for more information. Eventually.

apologies

2006-08-29T17:50:00.000-07:00

so sorry I've been MIA lately...our internet at home went out after a storm LAST WEEK and we haven't been able to get it up and running again. We have a bunch of other crap to take care of too so I won't be back for a week or so.

Kids, be good while I'm gone!!

FYI

2006-08-22T18:59:00.000-07:00

I will be changing my URL in the near future. Not sure what just yet. I just need a change!

Good Advice

2006-08-21T19:20:00.000-07:00

sorta.

http://odboland.blogspot.com/

And Heather, somebody is competing with your Bitchy Mondays.

Check out Half-Nekkid Thursdays.

speedo!

2006-08-20T19:43:00.000-07:00

this guy really likes his swimsuit. and red shirts.

Guilty as Charged

2006-08-20T11:05:00.000-07:00

So I was reading The Stiltwalker's blog (via a link on heather's blog).

The Stiltwalker will probably never visit my blog for various reasons to be mentioned below.

In case you are too lazy to click the link and see her blog, I have listed her blogging observations and my violations of unspoken blogging rules.

1. A lot of people either don’t care or just can’t type. And for the record if you make too many grammatical errors I won’t read often if at all. I’ve spent too many long hours as an editor to brush erroneously bad writing under the rug. It would be kinda like immoral.
I can type but I don't really care.
2. Some people have their personal pics as their profile pics. And I must suggest find another image ASAP. GUILTY!
3. Even worse, some of these same people talk in their blogs about how HOT they are and etc., when you’re like “do you honestly believe that I believe you’re getting that much anus?.” N/A
4. And even worse, these people are usually the ones that have a zillion and 4 pics of themselves posted all over the place. Geesh. N/A
5. Blogger fucks up on the regular. agreed
6. There seems to be a large amount of e-crotchal activity. N/A
7. Tags suck. Period. I mean someone will tag you and then expect for you to post that shit ASAP. Calm down. I don't fully know what tags are. if they are links to your blog, then yes I am guilty of that.
8. There are a handful of people I’ve noticed that rarely update but will comment the sheer hell out of everyone else’s posts. Somewhat guilty
9. There’s not a lot of originality. Just the other day I read one person’s post, then I read a “friends” post. And it was the same style and everything. Now some ideas are good and I can see them being infectious, but damn. GUILTY
10. I can think of like 3 or 4 people right now who ‘deliver’ every single post, every single time. Effortlessly. NOT ME
11. I can think of like 8 or 9 people who need to hang themselves or OD, either way get the fuck off the internet with that boring, empty shit. Probably ME
12. Seriously though there are some ugly people who use the internet as a catalyst. I can’t get over how someone will talk pure-d-shit on their blogs but then you look at them and you’re like ugh, gross. (ok no more ugly references) N/A
13. As I have rarely ever pre-written something for a specific post, I wonder how many people do and how often? Only if I don't have time to finish. guilty.
14. Does doing so discredit the function of a blog or blogging? I don't think so. Who says it has to be spontaneous?
15. This is perhaps the most addictive thing since stuffed crust pizza (and penis). Blogging? sure.
16. I’m still waiting for a juicy e-fight/battle. Any takers? I’m down! Now that I think about it, maybe I’ll just start one. Like this shit. I’m just saying though. Bias rules, I guess. Ditto.
17. I really need one of those paypal logos. Y’all can fund my existence fo’ sho. I'm not that desperate. But I'd be lying if I said I've never thought about it.
18. Why do people create blogs then decide to use discretion in what they post because their ex, current, granny, boss, parole officer is reading it? Please explain that one. I like my job.
19. Templates bitches, templates. I can honestly say mines is trash right now but it isn't illegible or otherwise hard to navigate. I suggest people save the blinky, twinkly affects for myspace. It's just irritating and even if noone states so, they don't like looking at it. I promise. Blinkies Suck.
20. Stop emailing me asking if I want to date you. The answer is no. Damn.
21. And for the record I despise "I'm bipolar" and/or "the man is keeping me down" blogs and any intermediateness thereof. I read those. Guilty!

Well, I admit my life is pretty boring and seldom do I have anything truly Blogworthy. But I need something to keep my WPM high and this fits the bill. Meh.

2006-08-12T23:35:00.000-07:00

Stinky has changed her mind about the pool. It's all good if there is a flotation device and some dog cookies involved.

i think blogger is having a format issue. sorry!

What is your soundtrack?

2006-08-11T19:47:00.000-07:00

Somebody posed this question a few days ago...I'm still thinking and will post mine eventually. What is the soundtrack to your life??

Opening credits: coldplay - don't panic
Average day: travis - sing
First date: jimmy eat world - work
Love scene: jets to brazil - sweet avenue
Breaking up: Jewel - foolish games
Getting back together: matthew sweet - i've been waiting
Life's okay: semisonic - made to last
Driving: billie holiday - the very thought of you
Learning a lesson: third eye blind - wounded
Partying: folk implosion - natural one
Happy dance: gypsy kings - zorba the greek
Regreting: mazzy star - fade into you
Long night alone: travis - blue light flashing
Death scene: dandy warhols - sleep
Closing credits: snow patrol - run

i'm going to fill mine in as they come to me. post yours!!

Meh

2006-08-10T21:48:00.000-07:00

I know, I know, I haven't been blogging. I've been wicked busy at work lately and truthfully not too much is going on. FYI: The scoreboard has been updated to reflect our latest juvenile casualty.

I know I posted a while ago about bathroom weekend. While I knew that it would take more than a weekend to accomplish everything, I didn't know it'd take this long. This weekend is more of a real bathroom weekend. I finished the cabinets and hardware yesterday (yay). This weekend will be major painting time.

I know you all don't care about my stupid bathroom. That's okay, I'll come up with some drama later. On saturday we have a lunch date with Evan's boss...anything related to Evan's boss usually has good stories along with it.

Until then, happy fridays to everybody!

Just a few questions, Ma'am.

2006-08-04T20:42:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we met with some police officers regarding the incident mentioned below. They asked us some questions, gathered up our evidence and got our contact info. Today at work I got a message saying I needed to call Officer Anderson. Ok. I dial him up and he says he has a few questions for me. Personal questions. So they can contact me in case I don't stay employed there. Suuuure.

Officer Anderson: What's your birthday?
Me: August 26, 1981
Officer Anderson: What is your height and weight?

__confused pause__

Me: um, five-foot-five, a hundred and fifteen pounds. (blush)
Officer Anderson: It's okay to lie about that.
Me: But that really IS my height and weight. I don't see how this is relevant to anything...
Officer Anderson: It doesn't really matter. I have to fill in the blanks. They don't like empty spaces on these forms. What's your phone number?

At this point I feel like the next question will be "What movie do you want to see this weekend? Will you have my babies?" Luckily he was satisfied with a phone number and address. No I will not post that.

Maybe this is why I really try to avoid police.

My Tree

2006-08-02T21:08:00.000-07:00

OK I better explain my front yard scoreboard located on the left. My husband and I just bought our first house in June. We closed June 16 and moved in the friday after that. On saturday, our toilet overflowed and all the drains were slow. Welcome to homeownership!

What does this have to do with a tree?

A few phone calls, a day and a plumber later, we found out that the ginormous tree in our front yard has crushed our sewer pipe. The bad news? We have to pay for it. The good news? None.

Not only is the tree perilously located next to our foundation and roofline, but the canopy pretty much covers the entire house, front yard and driveway. This results in all sorts of things littering down: bird poo, bird nests, bird poo, bird eggs, bird poo, baby birds, bird poo, and leaves. I don't know if the birds were given an extra dose of stupid but they seem to fall out of their nests a lot. They cannot be placed back in their nests given the height of said nests and sheer number of them that are in the tree. Fifty million at last count.

I came across this sign on campus the other day. Perhaps somebody is trying to tell me something. I'm starting to think there is an avian conspiracy; somebody please intervene if I admit that I hear them talking to me.

And this is the saga of my front yard. The scoreboard keeps tally of me vs nature. Yes, mother nature may be winning now...but the score is about to be evened. For fear of my aging roofline and foundation, the tree is about to meet it's maker.

Stay tuned for updates. Things are about to get shaken up around here!

Dear Jay

2006-08-02T18:04:00.000-07:00

I just saw your comments, I never would have known that J Sorel is Jay from http://makejayfamous.blogspot.com/ because your profile is not available to view. Call me crazy, but if you want to be famous and need exposure, it might help your cause to activate that feature.

Just Sayin'!

Good luck on your quest for fame.

Fraud

2006-08-01T20:08:00.000-07:00

My boss just got back from a week's vacation. While she was gone, one of my undergrad's (we'll call him #1 because i have 2 of them) timecards was due to the timesheet lady. I know better than to piss off the timesheet lady so #1 calls her and asks if its OK if I sign his sheet in my boss's absence. Even though I'm his supervisor, her money pays him so that is why she typically signs off.

Tangent: for those of you who don't know, researchers are paid by grants. Even though I am on staff at a large university, the university itself does not pay my salary; grants do. So if my boss starts slacking and we run out of money, I run out of employment. The boss writes big long grant proposals, committees decide yay or nay, and then we get money. Usually these are from the state or federal government.

So I glance at the timecard and sign it. Happy friday, lets go home!

Fast-forward to monday morning: I hop into my boss's office to find out how her week off was. She tells me it was fun, yadda yadda. Then she says she got an email from the timecard lady saying I signed a timecard listing 40 hours for my undergrad. FORTY? He works less than 10 hours per week. Maybe it was a really messy 4.

So we call timecard lady. She says there are hours logged for monday, tuesday, weds, thursday and friday. Odd. #1 only came in on weds and friday. So my boss asks her to check the last timecard. Same thing. Except it has my boss' signature. Tons of hours. Interesting. More timecards; more scratched out 4's turned to 8's; fives added in pairs to give an easy 10 hours to add on. Fifteen faxes later, we find out he got paid for working 5 hours on Thanksgiving Day. Except that he didn't work Thanksgiving Day.

The good news is: his ass is grass. We have badges that get us into the building and into the labs because our building is uber-secure. IT can give us a print out of all his entry and exit times. You certainly can't work 40 hours when you are only in the building for 7 hours, right? I also have -in his handwriting- his actual hours worked that he wrote on a calendar in the lab.
The only major problem is that
A. he has already been paid. A lot. how will we get it back?
2. we didn't move into our uber-secure building until January. Which means that anything before that is his word vs our word. Except for Thanksgiving day. dumbass.

Not only is he abusing financial aid, but he is committing fraud. Because he is paid with Federal money, the police will be involved. He can be expelled. The list of bridges he's burnt is extensive.

I can't believe he'd do such a thing. I feel betrayed and extremely disappointed by this. I've known people before who take money that isn't theirs; but I didn't particularly like those people to begin with. When they stole $$, it merely solidified my low opinion of them. But this kid, he was a good kid, or so I thought. He seemed eager to learn; a hard worker. I don't think he has a clue about the depth of what he's done.

That's all that has really happened today. I think it's enough.

Some interesting blogs

2006-07-31T21:10:00.000-07:00

This is what happens when you hit "next" in your upper right hand corner.

http://jesusfreak5.blogspot.com/

http://pickalayout.blogspot.com/

http://dreamcatchersinternational.blogspot.com/

http://sellmythings.blogspot.com/

http://ahkenz-.blogspot.com/

http://ironcity.blogspot.com/

http://makejayfamous.blogspot.com/

Meme

2006-07-29T16:57:00.000-07:00

I tried to find out what meme really means. All wikipedia had was mess of meaningless verbiage about replicating cultural information...whaaaa??

Regardless...I stole this one from Desiree.

Take Four

Four jobs you have had in your life:

unpaid marine biology intern
minimum-wage environmental science intern
well-paid big pharma arthritis research intern
research technician AKA slave to academia

Four movies you would watch over and over:

It's a Wonderful Life
The Big Lebowski
Bridget Jones' Diary
The Mexican

Four places you have lived:

Yokohama, Japan
Valparaiso, Indiana
Boston, Massachusetts
Novato, CA

Four TV shows you love to watch:

Grey's Anatomy
Animal Cops
Good Deal with Dave Lieberman
The Office

Four Places you have been on Vacation:

Mackinac Island, MI
Lake of the Ozarks, MO
Maui, HI
Las Vegas, NV

Four websites you visit daily:

Four of my favorite foods:

chocolate
tequila lime shrimp
steak
a chicken dish i like to make

Four places I would rather be right now:

in bed
in the pool
driveway - washing my car
hotel del coronado

Four friends I am tagging that I think will respond

Four Places you’d love to visit:

Co. Kerry, Ireland
Valencia, Spain
Greece
London

Four foods you don’t like:

mushrooms
onions - can't stand the texture
liver
potato salad. barf.

2006-07-27T20:34:00.000-07:00

We found out yesterday that Evan got a promotion at work!

I'm so proud of him for working hard; all his effort is starting to pay off!

Up to the Challenge

2006-07-26T07:14:00.000-07:00

Heather recently posted a challenge. About proving that she exists...

Seeing as I know she exists I'm not too worried about it. But I have something to share for all you haters out there:

Heather's dog Derby, unlike my own dog, has a quite the appetite for shoes. Unfortunately, in my own ignorance, I left my shoes by the front door, unattended at ground level. Within about 0.5 seconds Derby got ahold of one and ran off. There is also an indentation on the front of the shoe but it did not photograph well. Even though Derby and I weigh about the same, we don't share the same shoe size, so I eventually got it back. That's all I've got.

New format

2006-07-25T21:03:00.000-07:00

obviously there is a new format. questions, comments graciously accepted. tell your friends.

TGIF

2006-07-21T19:05:00.000-07:00

This evening is the commencement of "Bathroom Weekend." We have a lot of projects we could do on the house but I need to start with baby steps first. The bathroom is small and manageable. I know I won't get it all done this weekend but I'm hoping to knock out quite a bit.

Tomorrow I have to hit up Lowes for supplies. Here is what I'm working with:

We like penguins, so they will probably stay. Boring off-white paint. I am still undecided as to paint color for the walls so please give me your opinions. The medicine cabinet and the light switch are not exactly even. I'll have to see what I can do about that.

I hope this isn't too hard to fix!

Crap!

2006-07-20T19:36:00.000-07:00

We got home from dinner tonight and there was a little bird standing on the back of my car. It didn't move as Evan pulled up next to it. When I got out I was ready to throw something at it. We are up to 5 nests and about 10 dead birds falling out of the Evil Tree into our yard so far and sometimes I just can't handle the birds so well. As I approached my car, he looked at me, took a poo on my trunk and flew off.

Just thought you'd like to know that. I hope he's number 11.

2006-07-19T21:04:00.000-07:00

I don't have anything useful to contribute today. Except a cry out to Lisa to start blogging regularly again. Lisa you are so unbelievably articulate and have such a command of the written word that sometimes i question whether the words you use are "SAT vocabulary words" or even english at all. Just because I need a dictionary to read most of what you compose doesn't mean I can do without.

If nothing else, can you post your old column about a degree in the arts vs the sciences for old times sake? I will even settle for SimTara news.

The Speedracer

2006-07-18T20:24:00.000-07:00

Now I'm sure the only person who will find this even mildly interesting will be Heather. When I turned 16 there wasn't a shiny new car waiting for me. We were a 1-car military family [1 car and about 10 motorcycles] as it were so there was no way I was getting anything fancy. I shared our family truck for a while and shouldered much of the maintenance such as washing, waxing and changing the oil myself. I think my dad taught me how to do it mostly because I fit so well under there. I loved hanging out in the garage with my dad as he fixed and tended to our gasoline machines. So finally the day came when we could get another car!

We answered a pennysaver ad for a cream-colored 1973 Mercedes-Benz 280 2.8 litre (c'mon its german) straight six sedan. And so began the love affair for import sedans. When we got it home I wasn't allowed to drive it. We had a lot of work to do first, and I wasn't officially added on the insurance yet...so I spent HOURS cleaning it. Picture a toothbrush. Seriously.

No more duct tape holding up that one window. We went to the junkyard and bought a "new" window louvre thingamajigy. New shocks. New wipers. No more stickers on the windows. That should be a crime. Vacuums! Armor All flowing like water! Polish polish polish. This car could not be washed the conventional way at first. The paint was original and it was so old and porous that it needed to be properly polished first. Lo and behold! My CREAM car was indeed WHITE!

By the time we were both street legal my car was lookin' pretty spiffy! It was the way all cars should be...german-engineered, power windows, real wood on the dash, shiny paint (in most spots), shiny matching hubcaps, a sexy grill and most of all: real live shiny chrome all over. That car was the most solid piece of machinery on four wheels. It didn't accelerate up hills too great but it could creep up into the 90's on the freeway NO PROBLEM.

I loved my car. LOVED it. So what if the air conditioning didn't always work right? It only got up to the low 100's in the summer...bring a towl for the vinyl if you're going to wear shorts! So what if it only had the original AM/FM radio with a dial and one piddly speaker in the center of the dash? So what if i had to lock the drivers side door, close the door, open it, and lock it again to really get it to lock? In addition to all this [and probably more that i'm forgetting] there was also a hole somewhere in the muffler. It wasn't a huge deal, but when I accelerated, it would sound like it was really revving it up, like a race car. Or mayhaps, a Speed Racer.

The Speedracer and I were met with rolling eyes quite often my senior year of high school. "We have to ride in that?" Some people have no respect.

The Speedracer and I had many bonding experiences together, such as our first emergency call box phonecall. "See Dad, I told you we needed to get new tires." That's right. My tire EXPLODED on the freeway. It left dents from the inside of the fender. **sob**. There was also that time I ran out of gas in the middle lane near one of the busiest freeway ramps in San Diego -during morning rush hour- even though the gas gauge read "1/2 tank." Another trip to the junkyard.

Then things really started to go downhill. I'd overheat, quite often. I got used to lugging gallons of water and driving with the heater on. The end was near when she would start billowing blue smoke once we got over 40mph. That really put a damper on city driving. No longer could we cruise the California freeways without a care in the world. This was a repair that would be costly to fix...and did it make good financial sense? Sadly, I never saw the fate that was in store for Speedy because I left for college before that summer quite ended and never saw her again. I like to think that she is in that big junkyard in the sky.

So when I was at college that first semester, setting up my very first personal email account username, ChristineL was already taken so I chose the next best thing: Speedracer280. And there you have it.

PS: evan i hate it when you read over my shoulder while i'm typing. just sayin'.

2006-07-16T21:44:00.000-07:00

Today i was putting dishes away and i found my souvenir prom glass in our kitchen cabinet. I've decided it's time to toss that puppy since it's about 8 years old by now. My prom wasn't too magical...what little magic it symbolized has fizzled away forever. I have one posed pic leftover; aside from serving as photographic evidence of my killer tan [thank you southern california], it serves no purpose and remains stuffed in a box of other random high-school era pictures. My date was a teammate of mine, one year younger than me. I suppose it was somewhat scandalous to bring a junior to the senior prom, but I didn't really want to go with anybody else [read: nobody normal asked] and sitting at home or going stag was not an option.

Coincidentally it's the former prom date's birthday this weekend. He was one of those friends I'd call or write every year (ok almost every year) and wish him a happy birthday. I have a few of those friends. The gift is remembrance! Usually those people never remember my birthday...shocker! Somewhere along the way we drifted apart, I moved away and got married, he moved away and had a baby and we haven't spoken in forever. And so, for the last time, happy birthday you lame former prom date. May your commemorative prom cup runneth over with joy and happiness. And may mine find its way to the recycling bin.

PS if anyone is good with HTML/CSS lemme know I have a question RE new header/blog title.

The Birds

2006-07-10T18:37:00.000-07:00

another nest fell out of the tree. The birds were going nutzo...and I couldn't figure out why. Until I found Junior. A punkass crow is trying to bully the little fellow. I'm still watching the drama unfold outside. Junior's momma isn't too swift. Hopefully she can rescue him already so they can all shut up.

********* 9pm update*************

junior is still out there. in the dark. alone. his mom got tired of waiting for him. I gave him a box with some soft stuff in it. if he was smart enough to take refuge in there he probably would be smart enough to not fall out of the tree in the first place. I can't wait til this tree is gone!!!!!!!!

Dumpling Party

2006-07-09T21:29:00.000-07:00

The dumpling party was great! Instead of calling it a "dumpling party," Wei should have called it a Chinese food coma party. We learned the secret recipe and technique and filled our stomachs to the brim with an array of delicious homemade chinese food.

I would have taken pictures of the final product...but you know...I was a little busy. Stuffing my face. MMMMmmm.

Because I'm Shameless

2006-07-08T22:27:00.000-07:00

Kevin and I were having some fun in the lab. Since we aren't technically allowed to take pictures in there that sorta ramped up the fun even more. There is a lot we can't do in there. Some rules are for good reasons, like "no eating in the lab" or "no open-toed shoes" (i always abide by those). I purposely don't share much of what I do at work because it's classified. I had to get background checks and FBI fingerprinted to do what you see above. I guess it is a little bit glamourous.

I'm just happy that my eyebrows look good in this pic. Yes, I do have an eyebrow obsession. Never over-pluck!

TGIF

2006-07-07T21:14:00.000-07:00

I'm so exhausted this week! It looks like I'll be getting a new sewer pipe for my birthday. I must have been very good this year.

Wei invited us over [this sunday] for a dumpling-making and pool party. She makes the most awesome chinese dumplings of all time. Everytime there is a pot luck at work she makes them and we go nuts for them. She picked just 3 of us to come over and she is going to teach us how to make them ourselves. SO PUMPED!!

The summer storm season has begun and I'm hoping that our shingles hang on tight. I enjoy the change from incessant sunshine and I love the smell of rain. It really does a number on the pool but oh well. What are you gonna do?

I finished The DaVinci Code tonight. I think I was the last person in America to read it. It was very good...and I can definitely see how the movie would be good too (haven't seen it yet). Now I just need to find a book that discusses Dan Brown's historical accuracy vs his creative license. I've never really delved into the "sacred feminine" before but its very interesting. I've been trying to read more books lately...luckily I read fast and can "catch up" on all the popular reads. In the past month I've read The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (very good), The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd (okay), Freakonomics by Levitt/Dubner (good, need to re-read one chapter) and a few Nicholas Sparks novels (not as good as The Notebook or The Wedding). I feel like I'm forgetting one or two more.

Tomorrow we have a busy day...clean the old apartment, pick up a few things at Ikea, Home Depot, Target, etc. And mentally prepare for the dumplings. yum!

Dave Lieberman

2006-07-05T21:07:00.000-07:00

He is my new hero.

Grilled Citrus Chicken
2 1/2 to 3 pounds chicken thighs, bone-in and skin-on, trimmed of excess fat
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1/4 to 1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 lemon, zested and juiced
1 orange, zested and juiced
1 lime, zested and juiced
Few dashes cayenne pepper
10 sprigs fresh thyme

Season the chicken thighs generously with salt and pepper. In a non-reactive baking dish large enough to hold all the chicken to marinate, whisk together the vegetable oil, citrus zests and juices, cayenne pepper and the thyme. Add the chicken thighs and turn to coat. Let marinate for at least 30 minutes or up to a couple hours in the refrigerator.

Preheat the grill. Remove the chicken from marinade and let excess drip back into dish. Place chicken on the hot grill, without overcrowding the pieces. Grill until fully cooked through, turning occasionally, about 15 minutes total, depending on how hot your grill is. Serve immediately.

-----------------------------------------

Mint Iced Tea
3 green tea bags
1 quart boiling water
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 large lemon, sliced into 1/4-inch slices
1 bunch fresh mint, washed
2 cups cold water

Brew tea in boiling water, letting steep for 10 minutes. Pour brewed tea into a serving pitcher. Add sugar and lemon, and swirl in the mint, holding it by the stems and using it to stir and dissolve the sugar. When sugar is dissolved, drop mint into pitcher and add 2 cups cold water. Refrigerate until thoroughly chilled. Strain mint out before serving and serve cold.

Highly recommended! Evan is going to make fun of me for all this but it's okay. I am the master chef!!!

its been a while

2006-07-01T13:17:00.000-07:00

so yes i haven't blogged in a while. we have been unbelievably busy lately. Evan's parents came to AZ, we moved last friday in the 110 degree heat (which really wasn't all that bad). On saturday the toilet overflowed and on sunday we found out that the evil tree out front crushed our sewer pipe leading from the house out to the city main. We are still in the process of finding out who has to pay for that. Supposedly it isn't going to be us...fingers crossed. They will have to dig up the front yard to bypass the tree roots and old pipe to lay new sewer pipe. OK by me. Today I should be getting a quote for the removal of that tree. We were talking about getting rid of it before any sewer fiasco because it is a leaf/twig/berry/bird/birdpoo mecca all over our yard. It is just too big for the small area its growing in, and I dont want my foundation/roofline to get ruined either. I feel a little bad for wanting to kill a tree but hopefully i can re-plant a smaller more manageable one later on.

Let's see, what else? Evan met the "weird" neighbor. We got our new washer and dryer...which are AWESOME. SO BIG on the inside. And the dryer has so many fancy buttons and digital displays. It even has a light inside so you dont have to blindly search for socks. We got the pool up and running. Stinky does not like to swim. We got some new blinds too.

The only reason I have internet today is because we're moving the computer from the apt to the house. Hopefully we'll be up and running with internet in a day or so.

This week I got a call from Jennifer (former co-worker). She called to let me know that our old boss died of a heart attack on a golf on Jun 27. We are both glad we don't work there anymore because it would be too difficult to feign sadness over a man that pretty much made every day of our 1.5 years there a living hell. Talk about a manager that couldn't manage. And the sexually inappropriate comments!! It was the kind of stuff you'd hear about in the news but you wouldn't think it really happened to normal people. At least his young daughter will never find out how he treated us and talked to us.

I used to blog about that office but that was in an old blog that has long since been deleted. What will April and her brood of illegitimate kids do now? She can't call in sick every other friday if a new manager comes in. Will Cara still be able to be the biggest bitch that ever roamed the planet? And Flo...she won't be able to take months off at a time for her "injuries" anymore. That office is so screwed now. It has been a long time coming. Karma is a bitch, isn't it?

Well that is most of what has transpired here in the last two weeks. I'm off to grocery shop and make one of Dave Lieberman's grill recipes...yum! Later, all!

2006-06-16T16:25:00.000-07:00

WE CLOSED
!!!!!!!!

We were supposed to close yesterday but due to a little snafu it got delayed until today. We already have new locks on the doors and promptly ripped down the nasty bathroom cabinet and valances that the sellers left behind. I'm on the hunt for new curtains and I'm sure we'll be spending the weekend cleaning and maybe picking out some paint colors.

Tomorrow is our 1st wedding anniversary! I'm so proud of all we've accomplished in the past year. We met all the goals we set before us and adjusted our lifestyle so that we could really afford the kind of house we both wanted. Tomorrow Evan's boss is showing us how to maintain our pool and then we have a hot dinner date (sans boss).

In honor of our closing, I would like to say goodbye to the many people/pets we've met during our renting years:

Won't Lock The Door Guy
Psycho Girl & Poopy Pug
Buff Lady & her 2 dogs
Annoying Car Alarm Guy I
"My dog isn't vicious" Guy & Vicious German Shepard
Hot Tub Guy (& PJ girlfriend)
All the "gangsters" in our complex
Annoying Car Alarm Guy II
Loud Smoking Kids
Yelling Single Mom Lady
Home Alone Boy (AKA Chalk Cuss Words Boy)
The Pool Drunks
"Bich" Kid
Unleashed "Beware of Dog" and Stupid Blonde Girl
Crying Baby
Shower Guy

It's been fun but now it's time to move on. **tearful wave**

MySpace

2006-06-08T19:14:00.000-07:00

Ahhhh Myspace. What an interesting little site. It's like Classmates.com on speed [and its free!]. I like to peruse and see what everyone is up to. It's amazing what people will put on the internet. In a few short months since I "joined" I've seen one former high school classmate in her foundations and a former [male] biology lab partner in a form-fitting dress and makeup. Who would've thought???

It doesn't seem like it's been that long since graduating from college, let alone high school. Some people are just now getting married. Some already have several kids. The good-looking high school soccer player? Bald. The pretty/anorexic girl from choir class? Fat. The nerdy girl who liked horses? She got contacts, a haircut and got pretty. Former teammate? Still with his 10th grade girlfriend. English class Goth Girl? Wears pink now. Quiet history class guy? In a band!

Then there is the whole dynamic of making -and keeping- "friends." You have to get approval before the title of "friend" can be bestowed upon you. There are those moments of uncertainty when you aren't sure if they will remember you and "reject" your request. There is also the "message diss" where you send somebody a message, perhaps to say hello or to ask a random (non-sexual) question, and they never write you back. Or the disappearing friends! One day they are there, the next...gone! Annoying bulletins, threats to delete you if you don't leave a comment once a week, crazy profile skins, it goes on and on!

It is really great getting to re-connect with people you once knew. It reminds you of how far you've come, how much you've changed. I still have people I would like to "find" and for now I just have to wait for them to make a profile. I know there are weirdos and less-than-desirables checking out my profile too. I know. I just don't really care. So keep looking people. It's what makes MySpace go 'round.

Dusty

2006-06-06T20:23:00.000-07:00

Not only has it been over 100 degrees for the past month, but today we had a dust storm. That puppy moved fast.

click on photos to enlarge

Right before it rolled in. You can still see the mountains.

No mountains

Brown sky as it passes through. Pretty cool!!

So Pumped!

2006-05-30T19:29:00.000-07:00

I used a roll of black and white film during our honeymoon at the Hotel Del Coronado...but I didn't develop it when we got back. As far as I know, Costco doesn't do B&W, so I was going to take it back to the camera store where I bought it from. Alas, I never did. And then we moved. The film got packed. Since we are packing again, I came across the questionable roll. Because it wasn't rewound all the way, I wasn't sure if it was an unused roll or THE roll.

I dropped it off at a local camera store on friday. And today I found out I have pictures on it! I get to pick up the prints on thursday. Hence the title, SO PUMPED!!!

Coronado is so beautiful. If you've never been there, I highly recommend a visit. Or you can drop by our house, because I will be framing some of them.

And Tara, no, they are not "those" kind of honeymoon pictures.