Our White House

Knitting: Update

2009-11-02T13:30:00.000-08:00

Ugh. I can't even remember the last time I updated this blog. I'm sorry its taken so long. I'm sure some of you are tired of only seeing the last post. Well here I am ready to update. Since it was a very hot, very busy summer, I didn't do much knitting. But here are all of the projects I've completed since the last time I talked about knitting. (not pictured is another blanket like this one and a mini one like it for traveling)

A meat head hat for the Professor.

Mermaid fingerless gloves for a gift exchange

A hat for my baby sis (my mom added a pom pom since this picture was taken)

More meathead hats (dude they are just so easy to make!)

Did I mention that they look great with little baby booties?

Take another look and see what I mean...

This lady at my church has three grandbabies due at the same time..so I made these

Here get a closer look.

Holy crap they are SOOO CUTE!!!! (I've made 2 pairs in this baby girl pink yarn!)

A scrubby pad made out of antibacterial acrylic yarn (I actually made 2). I was commissioned at church to make easy knitting projects for our stake's super saturday.

A washcloth to go with the scrubby pad(made 2 of these too!)

A hat to trade with my friend for a cool camping pan.

Soooo coool huh!?

More meathead hats! Although with this one I forgot to knit inbetween every decrease row so it turned out a little stumpy.

So if I counted correctly, I think that's brought the total up to 30 completed projects this year. Oh wait, I just remembered I made a pumpkin hat for one of my other friend's nephews. That would be 31 then. On the needles currently (or inline to be knit) are 2 skull and crossbones hats, 3 of the wavy hats, one more booty and mermaid fingerless gloves. There is simply not enough time in the day!

Insomnia it's Not

2009-07-16T14:38:00.000-07:00

Just a fair warning, this post may veer into PG-13 territory. Also, my cousins might give me the ol' sideways glance the next time I see them. (A few read this blog)

In this age of WebMD self-diagnosis I feel pretty comfortable saying that I am a sexsomniac. "A sexsomniac?", you say. Yes, a sexsomniac. This doesn't mean I'm addicted to a rare form of Japanese porn featuring narcoleptics. It's a sleep disorder akin sleepwalking, but instead of walking, friskiness occurs in bed with no recollection of said friskiness in the morning, or ever. I'm just thankful that thus fair only a very mild, somewhat infrequent, and abortive version of this condition has manifested itself in my sleeping behavior. (For instance, check out this Newsweek story filed this year. Bruised genitalia from furious masturbating while sleeping? Sexual assault allegations? Lacerations and bruising from the rough sleepsex? Apparently the sex is usually much rougher during sleepsex. I've had none of that happen.) Vesper came across the name of this condition, sexsomnia, 5 or 6 months ago and I've been thinking about it ever since.

Take for instance two nights ago. (This is Vesper's recollection. Couldn't very well be mine, could it?) It's been VERY warm here in Seattle this week so we've been sleeping with the ceiling fan on. A few hours after we fell asleep Vesper sat up to adjust the fan. While she was fumbling with the chain I bolted upright, quickly and assertively removed some of her sleeping clothes (along with mine) and began to be quite frisky. Then, a few minutes later I mumbled, "You too tired for this aren't you?" and promptly rolled over and went back to sleep. The next morning while I was making our lunches she came into the kitchen and started talking about the incident. I had no idea what she was talking about. I still don't. I've been (a)roused from a fit of sexsomnia while in the midst of the beginning stages of friskiness, but I still can't remember instigating anything. It's like I've been dropped into the middle of a scene in a movie or play that I haven't seen or been part of the beginning of. It's a very VERY odd sensation. (For both of us I suppose.)

To our combined recollections I've never fully lived up to the intercourse part of the sexsomnia. Sexual acts, not sex itself, has been our experience. It happens fairly infrequently as well. Maybe every month or two. Sometimes I've gone half a year with any sort of incident that either of us can remember. All I know, is that every once in a while I wake up in the morning with no clothes on, or in a very intimate embrace with my wife and I have no idea what the hell is going on.

Embarassment (You)

2009-06-13T10:48:00.000-07:00

For those of you looking for an explanation for this atrocity, I've explained myself here. Also, if you want to laugh some more you can go here.

Um, if any of the negative 5 people that read this blog have enjoyed laughing in the past, sorry I've completely forgotten about this. I promise to update silly, nasally delivered, songs more often in the future.

This song was more a result of my liking my keyboard rather than having a song. Sorry again for the compressed sound, but these are back from my 4 track days, and I really didn't know what I was doing. It's funny to look back at these songs and remember how much I enjoyed doing this.

Have your cake and eat it too!

2009-05-03T21:06:00.000-07:00

I'm a doer.

I like doing things for other people.

Its just in my nature.

Unfortunately sometimes I get busy doing and agree to do to much.

Case and point: This weekend.

Gawain's coworker was taking donations for an auction this weekend. I agreed to bake a cake for it. Its an auction right? It has to be fancy! (um that was my stipulation, not the coworkers).

Yes, you are correct! I did in fact make a triple layer keylime coconut cake with key lime frosting in between the layers and swiss meringue buttercream frosting on the outside with sprinkled toasted coconut and a key lime on top. (yes those are the key limes I got from Lee's Market)

Yummy right?

We were so sad to see that go out the door. We couldn't really eat it anyway with our competition going on.

Froggy's best friend was also having his birthday this weekend. His mommy asked if I could make the cake, to which I promptly agreed and also offered to make cupcakes for.

Again, a doer.

All of this wouldn't have been such a big deal if they weren't all needed on the same day (Saturday) and if I didn't have some weird ear infection/cold/sinus infection with which I was feeling more like dying over and not so much like baking.

As you can see it turned out ok in the end.

(I guess I actually just really like baking when it comes down to it, and since we can't have any good stuff with this competition, I haven't been able to bake as much as I'd like)

Thank you for my cake, but seriously, do I have to wear this stupid hat!?!?!?

The price is right!

2009-04-17T08:49:00.000-07:00

In an effort to help us Gawain win the Biggest Loser competition , I have been trying to buy more veggies and fruits. Just 5 servings is an easy one point. Actually we really like veggies and fruits any way, and tried to eat plenty before the competition. I'm sure you know that they aren't exactly cheap.

Enter Lee's Market.

A couple of months ago we were at a party and some friends told us about this market where all of the produce is really, really cheap. Like they had bought 2 avocados for like a dollar. Dude! I had just bought one avocado that day for like 2 dollars! They said that it was in White Center and I should check it out.

Ok, I have a confession to make. I am TOTALLY TERRIFIED of White Center.

Yes, it is basically only 2 blocks from my house, but seriously, it is like one of the ghettos of Seattle. You only have to say "White Center" and people you are talking to are like "Ohhh...." like "Oh dear I can't believe you are still alive." Like seriously, in the first couple of months that we lived here, our car was broken into 3 times, the second time, the stereo and speakers were stolen and the third time the starter was destroyed in an effort to start and steal the car. The main drag of white center has at least 3 porno shops, which like to display the nativity scene at Christmas time and there is just overall general seedy-ness. I hate to stereotype, but, there you go.

ANYWAY, I decided since times are tough and money is tight I would overcome my fear and go to this Lee's market and check out the produce.

Pictured below is a typical trip to the market. Please guess how much I spent.

Go on, guess!

Can you believe everything pictured above (except the dog) was only $9.10???? I'm serious! I can barely believe it myself!

It works like so:

Already bagged things are $1.25. Anything not bagged is either 3 for a $1 or 2 for $1 or some insanely cheap amount per lb. In fact, I go in there so often, sometimes the nice lady behind the counter just lets me have stuff for free (like a single jalapeno pepper or a tiny little thing of ginger). There is a catch, in that they don't always have the same things (like for a while they had a giant bag of romaine hearts for $1.25, haven't seen that in a while) but if you aren't picky they have lots of stuff to enjoy. The best thing we've found twice now is a bag of about 50 key limes for $1.25. at the store 1 lb (about 30 limes) is 4.99, and it takes 22 limes to make our favorite dessert. The quality is actually suprisingly good for the price you are paying. I see them outside pulling off the bad bits of lettuce and bok choy and just putting the good stuff in bags. They may be smoking while they are doing it, but hey, I wash it all of when I get home anyway, right?

Here's to hoping you have something as equally awesome in a ghetto neighborhood close to you!

Spring at last

2009-04-15T10:19:00.001-07:00

So I've been meaning to post this for quite some time, inspired by my friend Caboose's blog when she did a similar post. Enjoy the first signs of spring (from like a month ago actually....)

Tiny daffodils under our douglas fir in our front yard

A cluster of crocuses...croci?....anyone, the plural please?

Umm...you'd have to ask Gawain...I'm not sure but they're pretty!

Spring: new life bursting forth from the dirt...sure is something, isn't it?

Happy Spring!

rBiggest Loser (not Really) Week 1 Report

2009-04-13T21:28:00.000-07:00

  Well, week 1 of the Biggest Loser (not really) contest has come to its conclusion. Here are the rankings:

  Those who have zero points (miles) are those who haven't reported their totals yet. Hopefully they'll report in to Vesper sometime soon so we can update the chart. An abnormal Monday has apparently put me barely in the lead after 1 week. The perfect storm of perfect weather enabled me to run further than I usually do, to go on a long walk with Vesper and the Professor, AND to help terrace the backyard of our friends the Alls. It was a points orgy through and through. Since I am addicted to charts and spreadsheets and tend to be an utter nerd I've gone a bit nuts with my tracking spreadsheet here. (Make sure you check out all of the links at the top to get the full effect. And you better believe that if I think of any more ways to slice and dice the data I will.)
  The biggest disappointment of the week for me was that I did not successfully complete the weekly challenge of no chocolate and 10 minutes of stretching a day. In an unthinking moment on Friday night about 11 o'clock I ate 3 Oreo's. After I had realized what I had done it took a LOT of effort not to scream vulgarities at the top of my lungs. I would have been at peace if it had been a conscious decision to eat chocolate...but I was just looking for something sweet. It was damnable to say the least. Vesper and I are dead set on this weeks challenge of 30 minutes of exercise per day and no caffeine.
  All in all it was a pretty good start for the both of us. Only 11 weeks to go and a Private to destroy on my end. The first place prize would look nice on us.

It's Not Really the Biggest Loser

2009-04-06T14:07:00.000-07:00

So last year Vesper's work had a "Biggest Loser" competition but they tweaked it. Since none of the participants were morbidly obese or had serious health problems, they created a point system based on healthy habits and activities. (If you really care to know the rules you may view them here.) The participants keep track of their points (miles) on a spreadsheet and check in at the end of every week. Well, it was such a smashing success everyone decided to go for a second go round. I thought it would be fun to track Vesper and my progress as we go through the 12 week collabatition. (You know...collaboration and competition) We'll post individual results, as well as results in context. So, look forward to a weekly post of charts and lists or, well, maybe nothing you remotely care about.

Also, the thought just occured to me that if any of you out in the wilderness of the world wide web would care to join in on the fun, just email us. The competition just started today and we could tack a day (or two) on the end of your spreadsheets (provided by the Biggest Loser, Not Really committee of Vesper) to make all things fair. Don't be bashful, the more the merrier. If you have any questions, just email us.

Happy Birthday The King!

2009-03-19T07:01:00.000-07:00

Today is Isabel's husband's birthday. She is doing an interweb-wide happy birthday for him. So here it goes since The King is our friend too!

Keep it going! Post on your blog today a pic of yourself, your hubby, your significant other, your baby, your dog, your cat, and/or yourfriend with a fake moustache , a real moustache, a fingerstache any kind of stache!

Knitting projects 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11

2009-03-16T18:08:00.000-07:00

So as you can tell, I've been a busy little bee knitting. There has been an onslaught of babys, and requests for things, so unfortunately the Professor and Gawain have been keeping eachother busy while I've been knitting as fast as I can. Here are the finished products:

A meathead hat for a precious baby boy, embellished with a cool wooden button

Another meathead hat for another precious baby, not embellished this time

Meathead hat #3 for a baby girl, embellished with a crocheted pink flower

A luxurious baby blanket for the above button baby boy

My attempt to make my 25 year old sister a skull and crossbones hat like the Professor's.....

Obviously size 6 needles were perfect for a new hat for the Professor, not so perfect for a hat for my sister....

There, size 8 needles worked much better.....

In which I geek out on you

2009-03-09T09:16:00.001-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I got an email from Gawain announcing that there was a raffle at work to go see the Battlestar Galactica series finale at the Science Fiction Museum! Holy crap! So awesome!! We love Battlestar Galactica! I emailed back as quick as I could type to enter right away. He said he already had and our chances were pretty good since he was pretty sure there weren't many other awesome people (read: geeks) interested in such things.

A couple of days later, I got another email from Gawain:

CONGRATULATIONS!!

The following employees will be placed on the VIP list for the season finale viewing of Battlestar Galactica on Friday, March 20 in the JBL Theater at the Science Fiction Museum:

Loi Nguyen

Gawain

Walt Glass

Bill Davis

Gemma Mercado

No tickets are necessary. Your names will be on a VIP list at the Museum.

Oh my gosh! So awesome! We are on a VIP list? We get to watch it on a big screen! We may win fabulous prizes! We are very excited to get to go. Now, the only thing to decide is to dress up as characters, or just make a t-shirt and what should go on that t-shirt....(make sure to click on the pictures so you can get the full effect and make an educated vote)

Should we go as Apollo and Starbuck?

President Roslin and Admiral Adama?

or Gaius Baltar and Caprica 6?

Or what is your fabulous idea for a t-shirt? We are getting excited! (also because Gawain's parents are going to let the Professor spend the night at their house...yippiee we get to sleep in!)

The story of a boy and a girl

2009-02-25T07:57:00.000-08:00

******WARNING!: THIS IS A BONAFIED OOEY GOOEY MUSHY LOVEY DOVEY POST! IF SUCH THINGS MAKE YOUR STOMACH TURN PLEASE LEAVE, I DO NOT LIKE CLEANING UP VOMIT!**********

Boy meets girl

Girl becomes crazy stalker-like obsessed over boy

Boy leaves on 2 year mission

Girl tries to forget boy, but just can't

Boy comes home to find girl engaged to someone else (hey, he told me not to wait!)

Girl and "other man" break up(Not because of boy, but it could have been....)

Boy woos girl

Girl didn't really need to be wooed, but is wooed right away

Boy proposes to girl

Girl is estatic! All her dreams are coming true!

Boy and girl are married(married!)

Boy and girl live happily ever after.....

The end!(or the beginning?)

Happy fifth wedding anniversary Gawain!
I hate to say it this way, but you are my dream come true
I love you!
(Hey, I said at the beginning, if you didn't like the mush, then head for the hills!)

*note: Our anniversary was actually Feb 21...sorry Gawain...I couldn't find all of the pictures I wanted!

The Oscar Night That Could Have Ended in Horror...HORROR!!!

2009-02-24T08:31:00.000-08:00

One of Vesper's favorite nights of the year is Oscar night. We board up the house, turn off the phones, and dig in. Well, most pundits felt pretty strongly that the Best Supporting Actor Oscar would be awarded posthumously to Heath Ledger and I felt the same way. (Especially since that was the only role I had actually watched prior to the Oscars) So, in a fit of overconfidence I pronounced to Vesper, "If Heath Ledger doesn't win Oscar for Best Supporting Actor I will run naked down our street and back at 9PM tonight." IMMEDIATELY after saying this a great doubt began to gnaw at me. I mean, of course Heath Ledger would win...right? How could he not? Well, for one thing...he was in a superhero movie. Those are never taken seriously at the Oscars. Philip Seymour Hoffman seems to win EVERY time he is nominated for anything. OH CRAP! Of course, I kept a cool, calm, and collected exterior during the event but we very nearly had most horrible ending to a very nice evening.

A Valentines Tip for the Office Bound

2009-02-12T11:01:00.001-08:00

I thought that this was a great, simple idea.

Have fun making heart shaped paperclips for those that you love.

http://howaboutorange.blogspot.com/2009/02/heart-shaped-paper-clips.html

Words can't even describe....

2009-02-06T09:09:00.000-08:00

Sunday night, Vesper recieves a text from Gawain, who is on a walk with Froggy:

Call me as soon as you are done feeding the Professor

Vesper, concerned that something is wrong, quickly calls Gawain

Vesper: What's wrong is everything ok?

Gawain: (Can barely talk from laughing) You will never belive what I just saw

Vesper: What?

Gawain: I was walking by that house on the corner and I can't be sure, but I think I saw the two people who live there having sex!!!!

Vesper: WHA?!?!?

Gawain: I know! All I could see was the girl but she was *moving* like she was on top of someone..and she had her shirt on. I didn't want to be a pervert because I had already stood there and stared in disbelief for like 10 seconds so I kept walking

Vesper: Holy Crap! That is hilarious! Maybe she's comforting him for Arizona losing the Super Bowl....

Knitting Projects #3, 4, & 5

2009-01-26T09:44:00.000-08:00

So I've been busy trying to complete the baby blanket I was commissioned to knit. Here it is finally!:

The cute recipient enjoying his blankie

Since that "big" project was done, I had an explosion of little projects that I wanted to do, and so I knitted up this hat while I was watching the premier of season 5 for Lost.

I liked it but decided two strands of this yarn were too bulky and one strand made the hat too thin (it's made with one and I can see the little Professor's head peaking through the holes). I decided to get different yarn and try it with the recommended two strands. I also knit it in the round this time, instead of on the recommended straight needles and then sewing up a seam (which i completely loathe doing). This is how it turned out:

Very awesome, I think, not because I knitted it, just because it's a really easy project that turns out totally awesome. Took only about an hour to do. Too bad the Professor lost it in the grocery store the very next day :o(

Dear Mommy, I'm sorry I lost my hat. I just get too hot sometimes. Please make me another one. Love the Professor

Knitting Project #1 and 2

2009-01-21T09:19:00.000-08:00

In my quest to see if I can beat my project count from last year, I thought I'd keep track of it here. Here are my first two projects, and you guessed it, they are baby hats!

This hat is a fusion of this pattern and this pattern. Of course for the Professor!

This hat is for a very prego lady at church, who is due I think tomorrow, but only looks like she is about 5 months pregnant. Whatever, I doubt her baby will be 9 lbs like the Professor was....

Praise the Lord!

2009-01-19T09:11:00.000-08:00

My sister lives in Georgia, you know, in the middle of the bible belt. She sees crazy religious stuff all the time. Gawain, being somewhat into religion, always finds these things rather interesting and hilarious. My sister found this, thought Gawain would love it, sent it to us, and this is what it said:

I know, right?

Knit knit knit

2009-01-12T09:35:00.000-08:00

So Martha says (you know, Martha Stewart) that in 2007 an average of 21 projects were knitted by people that, you know, knit. As I read this, I was wondering if I had completed 21 projects in one year. Even though they were mostly hats, I came to realize that I think I had done 21 projects last year, including knitting hats for every single one of the babies in my birthing class:

(yeah that ugly hat in the middle, I don't know who knitted that but it wasn't me)

That counts for 9 projects. I've also made 3 hats for the Professor

One hat for Gawain's boss's daughter

2 blankets for wedding presents

2 baby blankets, a scarf for a secret santa gift, 9 other baby hats I don't have pictures of, one hat someone paid me to knit them and a sweater and a pair of fingerless gloves for Gawain. As far as I can count, I think the total is 30 projects! The thing is, I just love to knit, especially for other people, so its easy to crank out the projects in no time. This year is shaping up the same. So far I've knitted a hat for the Professor, another baby hat for a shower this week, and I'm working on a baby blanket that someone commissioned me to knit. It may be hard to beat but I'll have to see if I can do atleast 30 projects again this year. Thanks Gawain for letting me knit all of the time!

Merry Christmas to us

2009-01-05T10:57:00.001-08:00

Yes I do realize this post is a bit late.

Busyness ensued at the end of this past year, what with trying to get us all ready to enjoy a sunny and warm Christmas in Florida with my family.

I thought I'd highlight some of the details from the trip.

The Professor's amazing performance on both the flights there and back (dude 10 hours is a long time for a 9 month old to have to sit still and not scream)
The unseasonably warm weather we enjoyed (yes it was 80 and sunny and we got to go to the beach or pool everyday....heaven!!!!)
Seeing my family I never get to see
Seeing my BIL before he goes to Afghanistan in March for a year (war sucks, please come home safe and sound!)
Getting a wall mount for our TV to fix this problem

Do you see it? come closer...

Now do you see it? No? Come closer still....

Yes those would be the Professor's itty bitty hand and finger prints all over our TV. Like I said, Merry Christmas to us for getting a wall TV mount!

I hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas and Holiday seasons!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ps: one of my new year's resolutions is to win a contest! (anyone will do...I just want to win one). Hopefully I can start out the new year right and win this one, because dude, those boots are ROCKIN! Wish me luck!

And yet another entry....

2008-12-02T21:03:00.000-08:00

Here is another place I am entering.

The Professor is officially swinging from the lights because of neglecting him to give this contest my full attention.

I better win.

HP Magic Give away contest

2008-12-02T20:51:00.000-08:00

I am now completely consumed by this contest.

I am thinking about it day and night.

I am even knitting for it.

I will update if I win.

WISH ME LUCK!!!

Here is one place I am entering at.

Yummy pies and Private Eyes

2008-11-24T06:30:00.000-08:00

Oh the TV...

The inanimate object I have a love/hate relationship with.

Even though we don't have cable, or even basic network tv stations, somehow we manage to hear about and develop relationships with really good shows that end up getting cancelled too soon.

First case and point: Veronica Mars

Oh how I love thee!(Not in a I want to get with you sense, just in the your show is so damn awesome sense and why are you not with Logan sense???)

The love here is that this show is extremely addicting, as in I just rewatched the first and second seasons and it was all I could do not to put the Professor back to bed everytime he woke up from a nap so I could just keep watching. As in poor Froggy would dance around me trying to get my attention to take him on a walk. As in I would not want to eat, drink, or pee. Only watch Veronica Mars.

The hate here: Cancelled after the 3rd season! Who won the sherif's election? Will Logan ever win Veronica back? What will Parker do? What will Backup do?

(i'm crying a little right here....give me a moment...)

Well after that whole fiasco, I (we, Gawain and Me) swore we wouldn't get into anymore TV shows. Only Battlestar Galactica and Lost. Well, Battlestar Galacticas last season is coming up(sigh!) and Lost only has 2 more to go!

Enter Pushing Dasies.

My co-worker, Crusti, had told me that it was pretty good and I would most likly love it. Knowing the pact Gawain and I had made of not getting into any more TV shows I logged that away in the back of my brain.

A couple of months ago we started watching the first season.

HOLY CRAP THIS SHOW IS GOOD!

It is like a modern day fairy tale. Ned is one hot pie maker. His love for (a girl actually named Charlotte) is so sweet. Olive is hilarious. So is Emerson Cod. It is eye candy to watch. And also delicious to watch both literally and figuratively beacuse of all the pies you see every epsode.

Alas, they are not even finishing their second season....they are being cancelled!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What will happen to Ned and Chuck? Will they ever touch? Will Emerson ever find his daughter? Will Olive ever find her homiopathic drug dealer?

I am again devestated (so is Gawain!).

But, because of all of the pie watching I've been doing, I have been inspired to make pies almost every day. Here are some pics to comfort you with, if you too are completely devestated from a favorite show that has been cancelled.

A pear-cranberry pie with lattice top

A "cup-pie" inspired by one of the episodes of "Pushing Daisies". This variety is a maple pumpkin.

Come on, you know you want to lick your screen right now....

Happy Halloween!

2008-10-31T13:47:00.000-07:00

Hope you have a FABULOUS Halloween!!

Yes, the only thing that actually makes this costume a "tooth fairy" costume is my mouth mirror "wand" (and it was one of the youth's idea that it would be cool to have my ipod in the picture...whatever)

The only time I"ve been lucky enough to have Gawain dress up for Halloween...4 years ago!

Poor mini pumpkins, never had a chance!

The Professor, super excited Halloween Morning

Our pumpkins this year

Froggy aka Captain Jack Sparrow

The silly things we do

2008-10-30T10:54:00.000-07:00

Ok, I seriously just tried to use my keyless entry for my car to open my house.

This is the third time I've tried to do this.

Anyone else ever try to do this? Or am I just a spaz (don't answer positive to the second question or i'll have to kill you)

Mommy you're so sillly!

I finally did it!!!!!!!!

2008-10-27T07:45:00.000-07:00

I am proud (and embarrassed) to announce that I finally did it! I finally finished the sweater for Gawain! After 2 years* (technically it was done last year at his birthday...I just needed to put on the zipper, which I was too lazy to do..) I finally finished it in time for his birthday(week). Happy Birthday Gawain!!!!!!

Sorry it took so long Gawain!

* I would like to note that it was not its difficulty holding me up, it was the fact that I am ADD when it comes to knitting, meaning I may have a huge project in progress, but will temporarily leave it to start and finish smaller projects like baby hats

You'll never believe what I found in my work bathroom

2008-09-30T19:55:00.000-07:00

So I'm in my bathroom at work, you know, going to the bathroom whan I look down and see something sticking out from under the shelf of extra toilet paper.

Doth my eyes decieve me?????? Is that what I think it is? You bet your butt it is!

(no I didn't touch it with my bare hands)

Yes that is a genuine lacy peach thong. It leaves one to ponder the following questions...

Who is running around the office with no panties on?????
Why did they stash it under the shelf in the bathroom used by 6 other women???
Why didn't they hide it better????

The facts are these....on that particular day there were 6 other women working that use this bathroom. There is also a cleaning lady that comes on Tuesdays and Thursdays...a tawdry after hours sex affair?

That was last Thursday. Cursing myself that I didn't have a camera to capture something too good to be true I just had to enjoy telling Gawain about it....through text message in the bathroom. Later that day I cursed myself further...duh do I not posess a CAMERA phone??

Today, Tuesday, the thong was still there! Squeling with glee I quickly took the above pictures. Unable to keep such jucy gossip to myself, I finally consulted the front office manager, Crusty, to ask her if it was hers, and if not had she seen it? She admitted that she had, in fact, seen it the day before (last Wednesday) but had forgotten to mention it to anyone else to see who its owner was. She too thought there might be a tawdry sex affair of the cleaning lady after hours. We finally decided that it may have been stuck in someone's laundry and dropped on the floor when someone was changing into their scrubs for work (seriously......who wears a sexy thong to work when they work with 5 other women and wear scrubs all day!?)

As of this post I still don't know its origins...I will keep you posted as the mystery is solved (hopefully!)

I think I've found my calling in life....

2008-09-24T08:07:00.000-07:00

Now that the Professor is eating some solids, I think I'll quit breastfeeding and do this instead

Click here to find out what my new calling is....

*read some of the comments if you have time!*

You're going to start doing what mom?????

The Monster Zucchini

2008-09-22T10:24:00.000-07:00

Gawain has been very diligent this year and cleaned up the yard and planted a garden. Its been great to enjoy the fruits of his labor all summer. We've been enjoying zucchini, eight ball squash, cucumbers and tomatoes. Soon to be enjoyed are butternut squash and pumpkins! We accidently let this one go and look what happened!

Someone decided to come in with the monster zucchini. I promptly screamed, took a picture, and then killed it. Slugs must die!

Happy Talk Like A Pirate Day!!

2008-09-19T07:34:00.000-07:00

Today be Talk Like a Pirate Day! argh! I be posting a swashbuckling quiz to determine your rightful name as a mangy dog of the deep.

My pirate name is:

Dirty Bess Flint

You're the pirate everyone else wants to throw in the ocean -- not to get rid of you, you understand; just to get rid of the smell. Like the rock flint, you're hard and sharp. But, also like flint, you're easily chipped, and sparky. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com.
part of the fidius.org network

Now don't be mockin me name! I am sparky! Now swab the poop deck and shiver me timbers! If ye doubt my love for all things pirates, check out some evidences that I be a black hearted soul!

Me first mate, the Professor!

Me attire for the day!

Me ring of power!

How long could you survive if you were chained to a bunk bed with a velociraptor?

2008-09-18T21:22:00.000-07:00

Its a valid question....really how long could you survive?

38 seconds

How much is that doggie in the window?

2008-08-19T07:23:00.000-07:00

Our neighbor, it ends up, is a professional dog groomer...like he used to do it for dog shows. Now he travels around in a van and goes to people's houses and grooms their animals(it must be noted that we discovered this because he drove the pet-mobile grooming van up the driveway we share and parks it there every night!). He offered to do Froggy for us, especially because he looked like this:

An hour and about 5 pounds of hair later, Froggy looked like this:

Gawain wasn't especially thrilled, especially now that we could see his family jewels (Froggy's, not Gawain's) loud and clear......I personally think he looks AWESOME!

The Professor gives his approval!

Born to be wild!

2008-08-11T20:56:00.000-07:00

While visiting Grandpa this week I got to take his new bike for a spin.....who am I kidding? I can't even sit up by myself yet!

"A cloned dog, a Mormon in mink-lined handcuffs and a tantalising mystery"

2008-08-07T11:35:00.000-07:00

So, I'm assuming that Vesper and I aren't the only ones to have read the story about the lady who paid 50 grand to clone 5 puppies from her dead dog "Booger"? There's no shame in spending time reading such a fluff story, it has been a slow news week after all. Well, apparently there is a lot more to this story and woman than I ever could have guessed. Apparently, there is suspicion (well founded at that) that this is the same woman who kidnapped a Mormon missionary and forced him to have sex with her (rapped him) in England in the 70's. Apparently they met at Brigham Young University and she fell madly 'in love' with him, hired private detectives to find out where he was going on his mission and followed him. Hilarity all around. Simply FANTASTIC.

The Daily Mail - A cloned dog, a Mormon in mink-lined handcuffs and a tantalising mystery

Photoshopped This Classic Art Has Been...

2008-08-04T08:51:00.000-07:00

I know I pass along more than enough Star Wars nerdery on this blog, and don't ever post any traditional 'story' or 'life happening' posts anymore, but I simply had to pass this photoshop contest that is going on at Worth1000.com. There are 44 entries to date and they are fantastic. I highly recommend a visit.

For Those Who Missed It...

2008-08-01T08:34:00.001-07:00

Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long-blog

2008-07-16T10:43:00.000-07:00

Dr Horrible's Sing-a-long-blog

This has promise to be absolutely fantastic. I just watched the first "act" over my break at work and it was great. There's nothing quite like watching Neil "Doogie Houser" Patrick Harris play an aspiring evil genius that is trying to gain access to the "extraordinary league of evil" in on online musical. Try it out. The first act is just under 14 minutes long and is a lot of fun.

BEWARE!!

2008-07-10T08:29:00.000-07:00

via slog

Why you should never talk about anyone behind their backs

2008-06-23T08:48:00.000-07:00

Vesper, having a couple of moments alone from her parents while in Idaho, composes a text to Isabel:

My mom hated the sexy mermaid onesie. It was SOO AWESOME!!

Vesper presses send. She thinks about how she doesn't really remember putting Isabel's phone number in. When she looks up the text, to her horror she realizes she put in her mom's phone number instead of Isabel's!

Panicking, she calls her little sister, Twiggy:

Twiggy: Hello?

Vesper: YOU MUST GET MOM"S PHONE! I SENT HER A TEXT I DO NOT WANT HER TO READ!!!!!! YOUR MISSION IS TO GET HER PHONE AND DELETE IT!!!!!!

Twiggy: OK!

Twiggy, able to get whatever she wants from Vesper's parents, tells Mom that she must use her phone and runs outside to Vesper.

Twiggy: Mom was wondering what's going on ...she knows she got a text.

Vesper: OK, I'll just text her my order for lunch really quick

Disaster averted, Vesper realizes that she shouldn't talk bad about people any more, or at least not send the bad talking text to the person it is about.

The infamous sexy mermaid onesie courtesy of May

Idaho: The Potato State!

2008-06-23T07:52:00.000-07:00

My parents and Grandma were all in Idaho this past week, which meant that I was obligated to drive down with Professor X to see everyone. Here are some Highlights (and Lowlights) of the trip:

The Professor sleeping most of the 7hour 35 min journey (Awesome!)
The journey actually taking 10 hours (not awesome!)
The car getting 40 mpg (SWEET!)
Being viciously attacked by a swarm of mosquitoes at a rest stop in Oregon (one of the lowest points of the trip)
My Grandma meeting her first great grandson for the first time (Tubular!)
My mom deciding that we must revisit every single home and school and church she ever lived in/attended while living in Idaho (VERY BORING!!)
The weather being 85+ degrees every day and sunny (great compared to the 40 degrees and rainy it has been in Seattle)
No working a/c in any house we stayed in so the Professor being perpetually grouchy (Sucky!)
Me getting an awesome haircut for $12....the first haircut since the Professor was born (HOORAY!!!)
No one noticing said awesome haircut..including Gawain (really? It looks so much better than before!)
The Professor crying almost nonstop because he misses Gawain/is burning hot/hates ancient people...(really I felt like a single parent because I had no relief at all...you guys rock and how do you do it????)
My little sister (who actually isn't that little...16 and supermodelish in height and looks) coming home to spend 10 days with us (Its going to totally rock!)
Listening to Eclipse by Stephaine Myer so I can have an intelligent book club recap with Isabel (very convenient for a 10 hour drive)
Almost vomiting about a billion times over really how cheesy the book is...and cursing it because I can't stop listening to the drama over the love triangle between Bella, Edward and Jacob (really...Bella is kind of a whore...and clueless most of the time)

I just have to say I am SOOOO happy to be home and SOO happy I live in the Northwest where it doesn't get too hot!

Thanks mommy for finally finishing my pirate beanie....That was the highlight of my trip!

Who knew Nine Inch Nails could sound so good?

2008-06-03T09:27:00.000-07:00

So when the Professor came home, since we love music so much we knew that we would have to instill this love for it in him as well. We also didn't own any lullaby type things to lull him to sleep with, so I just created a playlist on my ipod that had things like Dido, Coldplay, Jack Johnson, U2 and John Mayer on it. Gawain quickly got tired of listening to this playlist and decided to take the matter into his own hands. After searching the internet this is what he came up with:

That's right. He totally found hard rockin' songs in a lullaby format! They sound pretty neat, and what's more, Professor X loves them! We now have in our possession the lullaby formats of Green Day, Nine Inch Nails, Coldplay, Bob Marley, and No Doubt. We found that you could have lullaby renditions of Slayer songs, but decided that NIN was as hard as we were going for our baby.

Green Day totally rocks!!!

Just because everyone else is doing it means I must do it too!

2008-05-15T08:01:00.000-07:00

With all the "green"ness going on lately, Gawain and I have been trying to step it up a notch. We have been trying to be better about separating our trash better, recycling what can be recycled, composting what can be composted, and really only throwing away the Professor's diapers (which I know isn't that great, but we're working on that). We have seriously considered using gDiapers, and most likely will once the Professor isn't going through 5 billion diapers a day (we also have to make sure they will flush in our toilet that doesn't have a very good flushing capacity...Isabel please bring one of Baboo's over next time you are in the neighborhood). When purchasing a new car, we got one that claims good gas mileage and is a ULEV. Gawain takes the bus to work, and if its possible, I try and walk to the store and only run errands in the car when I have a long list so I don't use the car too excessively.

We are trying to do our part to minimize our "carbon butt print".

The latest thing that I have fallen in with is reusable grocery bags. I used to see people using them in the grocery store, at Target, at Babies-R-Us, and think "oh that's nice, but they're too small for my purposes! And more expensive than free." If I was only getting a couple of things, I would usually just say "oh I don't need a bag" and try and be good to the environment that way.

Enter having a baby.

The first couple of weeks after the Professor was born, people from our church were nice enough to bring us meals. One of those meals was brought to us in a fancy Trader Joe's reusable grocery bag.

Ok, first of all, this was a lot cooler than any of the other reusable bags I'd seen thus far. I mean seriously look at it:

By happy chance, this same family brought us dinner again, in another cool bag. I decided I would go pick up some bags, so I tried to return the former bag. She was nice enough to just let me have both!

Let me tell you. These new bags are super convenient! A lot fits in them, they are stronger than paper, bigger than plastic, and they have long enough straps that you can swing them over your shoulder if you need too. I ended up going to Trader Joe's, saw the awesome beach one, and asked how much it was.

$.99.

Really???? A buck to have a more awesome bag than plastic??? So I don't have this happening???

I have now been using the bags everytime I go anywhere. They are very awesome, and I feel good about helping the environment. Really, a couple bucks to not have a billion plastic bags running around is the least I could do!

You rock mommy!!!

***** I do know and realize that disposable diapers are awful for the environment. Like I said I'm working on that, and hopefully we will have a solution soon. Didn't want anyone to think I'm a hypocrite!*******

In which we recieve the worst corking of our lives

2008-04-28T07:11:00.000-07:00

On Friday, the Professor, Gawain, Froggy, and I all enjoyed a nice evening at Green Lake. The weather was beautiful, although a little chilly, and it was nice to be together. The only problem was that Professor X was coming down with a cold, and coughing, and making me quite anxious to finish the 2.8 mile loop around the lake and get him in the nice warm car and home. Once in the car, we stopped at Kidd Valley and enjoyed some burgers and a shake in the car, and then proceeded home. We decided to cut through the city because there was horrible Mariners traffic on our usual way home.

Lucky for us, while stopped at a red light, we noticed a huge entourage of bikers going through the intersection. We realized it was some biking club that went through the city every month. Last year, we had seen them with some of our friends and one of the bikers was riding his bike NAKED! I sat up a little straighter and tried to pay attention so that I could tell my friend if I saw anything crazy. Our light turned from red, to green, and the bikers continued to go through the intersection. Gawain started getting impatient. It was a green light, and the Professor was coughing more and more. We were both a little anxious to get our precious 4 week old home. The light turns from green, to red, and we wait again for the next green light. When it comes, the bikers are still riding through. Gawain decides he's had enough, and goes around the line up of cars to get through the intersection. As we get there, instantly 5 or 6 bikers swarm around us, enraged that we would try and cross the intersection while their demonstration was going through. "ITS A GREEN LIGHT!!" yells Gawain. The bikers just look at him angrily, like they have no idea what language he is speaking or what on earth he is talking about.

As the last of the bikers go through the intersection, a couple of the our detainees yell "thanks for your patience" and follow the rest of the group. Both Gawain and I are mad! That was soooo dumb! Gawain is out for blood. He confesses that it was all he could do NOT to hit one of the bikers and knock them over. Once home, we consult the internet and discover that the group is called Critical Mass and they do their ride the last Friday of every month. What they did to us is called "Corking" and it is technically illegal! Gawain has decided next month, he is going to borrow his dad's huge truck and trailer and cork them at every intersection. Now, when ever we see a biker, on TV or in real life, both Gawain and I get a little flare of anger in our hearts over how retarded that group was to us. So much for upholding the groups' m.o. of teaching tolerance for bike riders!

Is your refrigerator running?

2008-04-23T08:48:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, Gawain called in the morning shortly after he left for work:

Gawain: Umm Blowes just called, they are delivering the fridge today between 9 and 11.

Vesper: (looks at clock to see it is 830am, like any other normal mom at home with newborn, is still in p.j.s) Oh, well let me go then so I can take a shower really fast and clean out the fridge.

Two hours later, I am showered, dressed, the fridge has been properly de-condimentized (seriously, how do we have more condiments than actual food to eat in our fridge?), freezer has been organized for quick evacuation, and all of the magnets and drawings have been cleaned off the outside of the fridge.

It is now 30min past when I was supposed to feed the Professor. Not wanting to be caught with my shirt off, I heat up the bottle that Gawain is supposed to feed him and start feeding him. Seriously not 1 minute later, Blowes shows up with the fridge.

Way too cute to be delivery girl: Did you measure this door when measuring for the fridge?

Vesper: (Mildly horrified) Humm..actually no I didn't!

To make a really long and bitter situation really short, the fridge would not fit into the door into our kitchen. Its measurements were something like 26 and 3/4 in, and the door was about the same. Solution presented was to take off the door jam, which Blowes would not do.

Vesper (in bathroom talking to Gawain on phone): What should I have them do??

Gawain: Can't they just plug it in in the living room????

Thus how we ended up having our fridge, plugged in, in the living room. Needless to say, dinner was annoying to make last night.

Notice a not happy Professor X "mommy I hate the fridge in the living room!"

Luckily, Gawain was finally able to get the fridge into the kitchen, but that is another story for a different time.

Oopsy mommy, you messed up!

More Darth Vader Helmets than you Can Shake a Stick At

2008-04-10T09:48:00.000-07:00

I just stumbled across (courtesy of Clicked) one of the most hilarious and awesome things I have ever seen. Apparently a group of artists have gotten together and "updated" and modified the most famous of all Sith Lord's helmets. To see the 146 (146!) photos of the various helmets that were part of this display check out their Flickr page. Also, you check out the project's MySpace page.

Vesper's Tears of Laughter

2008-04-07T08:00:00.000-07:00

Gordo came over to see Professor X and bring over the usual presents and offerings of joy and good will. As wonderful and darling as the presents from him and his parents were, the truly magical gift he brought was a DVD culled from a video tape of a 1989 performance that we were both a part of.

In the second grade my class put on a 50's and 60's musical spectacular for the school and our parents. I distinctly remember 3-4 performances over the course of a week or so. One was just for parents, another for the 6th graders (We were much more somber for that performance) I remember truly enjoying the practices and performances. Who wouldn't have fun when 8 years old singing and dancing around to such greats as "Going to the Chapel", "A Little Help From My Friends", "My Guy", "Yesterday", "My Boyfriend's Back" and "It's My Party". Vesper could not stop laughing through the entire video. It was very touch and go for awhile with Vesper's post pregnancy/labor incontinence issues. We (and the couch) were very happy that her strong will overcame her weak bladder.
I was, um, quite enthusiastic about the performance and was easily the most demonstrative of the Ricettes. But poor Gordo just wasn't into it. You can tell the little guy would have loved to be just about anywhere else in the world. Keep in mind that Gordo's parents took this video I was so crazy and out of control that they couldn't help but turn the camera onto me.

(Gordo is the shy one in the white circle, and Gawain is in the Orange circle. You know, the tall kid in khakis that is gyrating around the stage with reckless abandon. Trust us...the video is worth the slight load time.)

Embarassment (When Will I See You Again?)

2008-04-04T08:52:00.000-07:00

For those of you looking for an explanation for this atrocity, I've explained myself here.

This song was written in 1999. (For those browsing with IE you may need to click on the play button twice.)

The Birth of the Professor

2008-04-02T10:14:00.000-07:00

Top 10 moments (good or bad) from Vesper's Labor and Delivery:

10: Vesper waking up with intense back labor at midnight on Wednesday March 26(umm I suppose actually Thursday morning then?). Even though its painful she is thrilled because that was the day she was supposed to be induced and she didn't really want to be induced.

9: After waiting 6 hours to go to triage (because we didn't want any chance of being sent home) we go in and luckily they decide at 3cm dilation and 90% effacement they will keep her, and her doctor says she can have an epidural at any time.

8: The whirlpool tub in the bathroom. Sitting in there for a bit was nice, and helped ease the back pain a little. All I have to say is I want one!!!! Unfortunately since back labor sucks, Vesper throws up twice and continues on the rest of the day on ice chips (not in the tub, eww that's gross!).

7: After 12 hours of labor, getting an epidural. Seriously, it was heaven!!! I truly admire those who can go with out one, especially if they have back labor, because it was AWFUL!! Vesper's Dr breaks her water after the epidural is in place.

6: The Angel of Mercy Nurse is the most awesome night nurse. She sponge bathed me and made sure I was cozy and then left Gawain and I alone, something the other nurses had not done the entire day (By this time it was like 8pm on Thursday (if you're counting that's 20 hours of labor by now) and I was only at 7cm and 95% effaced). The Dr (who was not MY Dr) lets me know baby is fine, but if I don't progress, "this baby has to come out somehow......."

5: Being alone with Gawain for awhile. Again A.M. Nurse ROCKS! Gawain and I just napped for awhile while the Dr was performing a c-section or two. When she gets back (around midnight, now 24 hours into labor) she is thrilled that I am finally 9cm and 100% effaced.

4: The epidural wearing off twice. Once around 8pm (luckily I got a boost) and again right before it was time to push. Oh yeah, and having an internal monitor for measuring contractions, that was interesting as well.

3: The Dr. sticking her hand up there and turning the baby the right way. I'm just SO glad I had half an epidural working.

2: 1am: DR: "Oh my goodness you're +3 its time to push, see there is his head!!!" A.M. Nurse and Gawain start coaching me while Dr goes and does one more c-section. When she gets back to catch, both her and A.M. Nurse are impressed with Gawain's coaching skills.

Dr: You are a great doula!

Gawain: I'm not a doula, I'm a Dudela!

And the number one moment from Gawain and Vesper's birth experience:::::::::::

1: Professor X being born at 147am on March 28, 2008. After almost 26 hours of labor and only 40min of pushing (thank goodness!) He popped out weighing 8lbs 15.6oz and measuring 21 in long. (DR: "Vesper look at him!! This is a huge baby!! I"m going to have to come back and see how much he weighs!")

The X-Man has arrived!

2008-03-28T18:25:00.000-07:00

I thought that we should take this time to announce the arrival of X-man into the world. Vesper valiantly delivered him at 1:47 AM on March 28th after 25 hours and 47 minutes of labor. (Now all of you know not to mess with Vesper...she'll outlast you any day) I believe the common information to provide is that he weighted in at 8lbs 15.6oz and was 21 inches long. I'm sure Vesper will write a bit later concerning the labor and the new man in our lives. But...in the mean time, please take time to enjoy these pictures.

He Brought Balance to the Force Sooner than We Ever Imagined

2008-03-26T14:47:00.001-07:00

I just found this funny picture and had to share. It's nice to see that Anakin and Yoda were able to have a reconciliation and work together before they passed on.

Easter 2008

2008-03-23T21:31:00.000-07:00

Ah Easter, finally the passage of the rite to finally wear spring things again, you know, white shoes and white pants, etc. Unfortunately for me, the weather was particularly horrendous this Easter, and I was forced to wear a big ugly rain jacket over my beautiful mostly white Easter outfit. Oh well, spring will get here eventually in Seattle, you know, by July the 4th or so!

Froggy posing with our Easter baskets and his tiny Easter egg that had a squeaky lobster and dog treats. Seriously, he's lickin' his chops already excited about it!

Gawain and I pose for our annual Easter shot, hopefully this is one of my last pregnant shots, considering I'm past due and set to be induced on Thursday.

Decorating Easter eggs, always a treat when using Star Wars egg decorating kits!

Also thought we would try out an Transformers egg decorating kit, clearly not as cool.

The completed Star Wars egg series for this year. See how it compares to last year's set!

Reminiscing on the Coming Spring

2008-03-19T14:00:00.000-07:00

Those of you who have or do live in Washington will understand the cruelty of February. In the midst of the gray and cold, many February's offer up one week of false hope that spring has arrived. Amazing and beautiful blue skies accompanied by temperatures in their 60's, or upper 50's at the least. If you don't watch yourself, you will end up with a jagged razor pressed to your inner arms by March when the cold and gray return and dominate until very late Spring...and then the gray sticks around until the end of July. Well, Vesper and I are no fools. When we saw and felt this February's weather ignis fatuus we threw Froggy in the car and boogied on down to Lincoln Park to soak up as much of the goodness as we could before it all blew away like a cruel dream.

Froggy was very excited and more than a bit impatient for Vesper to join him on the trail.

As seen in the picture we were not the only ones with the foresight to take advantage of the brief respite.

We even found this fantastic drift wood fort on the beach. (Complete with dried Christmas Tree...for instant fiery death!)

The weather even made the ferries look appealing. (Though the fleet is full of ancient, rusting, cracking death traps)

Lest you become too jealous of the visual and sensual satisfaction that was heaped upon us on this warm summer day...well...let's just say that there was at least one large crack in the perfect day's facade.

And yes...there was even an evil eye sighting that made all hobits run for cover.

But not even these affronts to decency and goodness could keep Froggy down from enjoying this wonderful day.

As an aside...Vesper and I received honorable mention in Marie's St. Patrick's Day Limerick Contest. Take a jaunt on over there to see the fantastic silliness.

I Guess I Love to Embarrass Myself (One More Chance)

2008-03-19T13:00:00.000-07:00

In an effort to find something a bit more interesting (read - ear bleeding) than my usual posts (the usual photolog or other non-interesting item) I've decided to embarrass the living crap out of myself.

Ever since 1996...yes, my freshman year of high school, I have had a 4-track, guitar (1 acoustic, 1 electric), bass guitar, keyboard, and a microphone and have spent countless hours having fun writing and recording (badly...i've never had the patience for perfection...or even acceptable quality standards) my own brand of music. I haven't really had time the last few years to record much music, and recently I've been pulling out some of the old songs for a listen. Here are my findings:

- I sing through my nose...though it gets better (or lesser) the closer we get to the present
- Occasionally I'm off-key (especially when self-harmonizing)
- I hate writing lyrics, and it shows
- I don't have the patience to go back and fix a bad note if there are only 1 or 2
- And as embarrassing as it is...and as much as I don't enjoy my voice...I actually found myself enjoying the actual instrumental portions of the music.

So, I've decided to post a song every week or so from my "back catalog". I have over 80 of them...but many are faaaaaaaaaaar too humiliating to share...so we'll maybe trot out 20 or so.

One last item before we get to the horror...THE HORROR!!!. To act as a FAQ and head off the usual questions that come up...1) I do play all instruments and that is my voice singing poorly. 2) As a rule I don't write songs about myself or any situation I've been in. I knew it would be too awkward to talk about if I ever played them for anyone. There is only 1 exception to this rule...and I'll have to talk to the person I wrote it for to see if they're cool to have the song show up on here at one time or another.

Okay...so...without further adieu...I give you..."One More Chance" written in the year 2000. (spoken in the high pitch voice of Conan O'Brien)

In which I may be described as "all baby", but dude, Baby is HUGE!!

2008-03-14T11:00:00.000-07:00

Inspired by the beautiful shots of my friend and her pregnant belly done by a professional photographer (lucky), I thought I would share some of my own. She is due only a couple of weeks after me, but she looks a lot tiny-er than I look! Not fair! I hope that you will agree, based on recent posts, that its time for Baby X to burst forth!!(at least that's how I feel!) ps: I would link to the said beautiful belly shots of my friend, but no permission and true identities are revealed at her site, so I must refrain in order to protect, trust me when I say they are very cute though!

In the beginning, there were tiny boobs, a semblance of a waistline, and a poofy butt from poofy butted capri pants (or just a poofy butt)

Now there are bigger boobs, no semblance of a waistline, a bamboon butt from my couch in the background, and a huge load of laundry to be folded. At least Froggy is cute!

Beacuse its so bizarre, of course I have to share!

2008-03-12T21:04:00.000-07:00

As I near the end of my pregnancy, I thought I would share with the interweb something truly bizarre. I'm sure every pregnant lady out there has seen this before, but still, you have to admit, its totally weird!!!!! I guess he wants out as much as I want him out! Due date is still set for the 20th. Any bids on size?

(Ummm...I guess its kind of long (17 sec) so you don't have to watch the whole thing...just enough to be weirded out)

Captain Kirk Will Blow Your Mind

2008-03-12T10:15:00.000-07:00

With my wife and I are expecting our first baby (boy) on the 20th of March, one of the duties that I have undertaken (since I mocked all the options that were presented to me) was to pick out the outfit that our little Baby X would wear home from the hospital. I didn't want our fantastically cool and suave baby boy to make his maiden voyage in a yellow outfit with sheep or any other normal baby outfit. (Because let's face it, with us as his gene pool he will most likely NOT be a normal baby.) As great and wonderful as those outfits are for everyday life (and please don't get me wrong, we are so thankful that we have them) they just aren't up to snuff for the all important trip home.

So, I decided to take matters into my own hands. Instead of searching the internet, or overpriced, chic baby boutiques, for an appropriate outfit I decided that I would make a fittingly awesome onesie for our soon to be awesome baby's trip home. The genesis of the character in the onesie came from Heidi. I was talking to her about the idea of making a onesie for the baby and she very sagaciously recommended Captain Kirk to me. After a half-hour or so of searching I found the following picture and the words came to my mind like a revelation from God. (Though the words aren't nearly as profound as an actual revelation from Father.)

Thank you Captain Kirk for all that you are and for being an inspiration to us all.

I Guess I'm "It"

2008-02-08T16:00:00.000-08:00

I (and Vesper if she is game) have had the honor of been tagged by Marie. As she so aptly put it, I now have the honor being tremendously boring to all 3 readers of this blog by providing "Seven random things about myself that you neither know nor care to know". So, without further boring adieu...

1) I have an unnervingly addictive personality. Really, at times it scares me. I often praise the powers of the universe that I was raised to never go near addictive substances or practices. Unless you count Hot Tamales as an addictive substance.

2) My mother's pet name for me is scoombeata. (Pronounced scoom-bee-ah-tah) The first syllable of that phonetic mess rhymes with zoom. In her defense her and her 2 younger siblings have developed a vast and mysterious vocabulary over the years of make believe words. So, I think she just applied this language skill to give pet-names to each of her children. Or our nicknames were derived from the sounds she made while we were crowning during the birth process. I can just she her screaming my nickname primevally with flecks of spit flying from her violet-hued face.

3) All four of my first molars came in without enamel. So, I have four fancy crowns in my mouth. (Too bad it's not my front teeth so I can't put together any oral bling.)

4) I used to hate eating chicken so much that when I was younger I faked that I was allergic to it by making strange sounds in my throat every time we ate it. This worked for a year or so. When my mother finally saw through that and I was forced to stay at the table until I had finished my chicken dinner I would wait until my mother's back was turned and stuff as much chicken as I could into the tracks underneath the table before she turned back around. Eventually I learned to overcome my hatred and completely forgot about the chicken that I had crammed underneath the table. That is, until around 10 years later when my mother was under the table trying to figure out why it wouldn't close back up after being expanded for Thanksgiving and found the petrified pieces of chicken.

5) In the summer between 8th grade and high school I was playing for a traveling, select sort of basketball team that had George Karl's son Koby on the squad. As neat as it was to be on the same team as somebody who is now in the NBA (who at the time was 2 years younger and rarely got into games) the real point of this numbered point is that my team did not qualify for nationals so I quit the team to start playing summer ball with my soon to be high school team. Well, the coach (who was excellent friends with and future agent of George Karl) did not take too kindly to this and got George Karl to "talk" to me about commitment and how I should stay with the team throughout the summer. This turned into an on again, off again feud between George Karl, myself, and the coach over the summer. I was even used an example of how spoiled and shitty, I mean, spoiled and entitled young basketball players are in Karl's book "This Game's the Best: So Why Don't They Quit Screwing With It". (You can even read my father's response to the book. It's the second comment on the page.) Though the disappointing thing is that the story in the book is obviously me, it is 75% false. I've been kicking around whether or not to blog about this story in detail for the last 8 months or so but have decided that it's really quite silly to drag their names through the ineffectual and unimportant mud of my blog so long after the fact, and for no good reason. (Though I do have a snappy title for the blog waiting to be edited on blogger "If This Game's the Best: Why Lie About It.)

6) I've been in the same room as my parents when...well...you know. (In their defense they must have thought I was asleep...though the memory is seared DEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEPLY into my consciousness. Not in their defense, it was a hotel room and I was 12 years old. I have NOT considered writing a blog about this "experience")

7) When I was in sixth grade, like most sixth grade boys, I was fascinated by fire. Unlike most sixth grade boys I would carry around in my jacket pocket various flammable liquids. Such as nasty old perfume samples lifted from my father's drawer or different aerosols. I was so bored in class one day that I raised my hand and asked to go to the bathroom. Once inside the bathroom I pulled the plastic garbage can away from the wall, grabbed some paper towels, doused them in musky cologne and put a lighter to them and walked out of the door back to class. When the embers of the garbage can were found on the floor of the bathroom the teachers at school placed the blame immediately upon my troubled class mate Dave. He had a history of such shinanagans (and to be fair, I did too, but I was just clever enough never to get caught) and he had used the restroom earlier that day. Though I had used the same restroom I was never questioned an certainly never volunteered any information. It's been long enough now that I don't feel too guilty about it and actually chuckle a bit at the experience...but that doesn't change the fact that I'm a coward for not speaking up.

Well, there you have it. My tagging has been fulfilled. And since I don't believe in passing along chain blogs I will not tag 7 others so thy have to go through this same exercise like some people we know.

Tagged!!

2008-02-06T19:56:00.000-08:00

So Marie was so kind to consider Gawain and I to be tagged. The deal is we write 7 things about us that everyone may or may not know. Here I go:

1. I am officially the biggest band geek you know. I started in 6th grade and stayed with it through 12th grade. I can play the trumpet, trombone, baritone, euphonium, and piano. My senior year of high school, I played in the marching band, jazz band, two concert bands, and was an assistant drum major and elected band president. oye.

2. My sister and I used to be obsessed with stealing bathroom signs. This also lumped over into stealing any sign my friends and I could steal when we went to Vegas one time in college. I have since curbed that obsession.

3. I have really really really really really long arms. Its almost embarrassing! They were even measured once. From finger tip to fingertip I have a 6 foot long arm span. I can also do a "rubber girl" impression with my very long arms (think Ace Ventura when he is running through the woods after being shot with African tribal darts and his arms are going numb)(start at 45 sec to see full fledged rubber arm action, and yes I can do that)

4. I have met Dale Chihuly on multiple occasions. He is very nice, but shy. I have also nannied his son on a couple of occasions. He is very bratty and whiny.

5. My favorite job I've ever had was working as a server at Joe's Crab Shack. I had to dance every 30 min (not like a stripper, like doing the Cotton Eyed Joe and the Macarana). It was the most funnest job in the world!!!!!

6. Gawain and I got to go to Vancouver, BC and see U2 perform for their Vertigo tour. My ticket won us the chance to go into the "bomb shelter", or the inner part of the pit to be right next to the stage. It was literally the fence in front of the stage, a crazy couple from Miami, and then us. I am now in love with The Edge.

7. Although I deny that I ever did it on purpose, everyone around me (meaning my sister) swears that when we were little, I used to swing on a see saw on our swing set and call her over and try to hit her on purpose. I think she was just stupid and would walk in front of me when I was swinging. Either way, she got hit on more than one occasion from my swinging on the see saw.

There you have it! Please don't think less of me!

Our Ride On the Magic Mitt Mobile

2008-02-04T16:00:00.000-08:00

While in Florida on January 22nd of this year Vesper's dad took us to hear Mitt Romney give a speech at the Jewish Republican Coalition in Boca Raton. Like I'm sure most politicians are, Mitt Romney was quite convincing. (Though, I must say I was quite impressed the Mr. Romney did not refer to notes of any kind during his 45 minutes speech and subsequent question and answer session. I know that such facts have zero baring on his fitness to be President, but worth noting none the less) As interesting as this Jewish political gathering we were a part of was (being not Jewish) that is not what this blog is about. This blog is about what took place after the formal speech. (As a side bar - Vesper and I are still quite ambivalent about which candidate(s) we really like or want to vote for. But Vesper's father on the other hand loves Mitt Romney with a love that will not die, nor will it fade. He hosts phone banks at his home to call other registered republicans in the states that are holding primaries soon to try and persuade them to vote for Mitt. The campaign provides prepaid cellular phones, call lists, and scripts) After the speech, some area campaign rep. comes up to Flint (Vesper's dad) and asks him if he would be willing to drive the Mitt Mobile up to the Orlando area. "The Governor" (the fact that the campaign referred to Mitt as "The Governor" every time he was mentioned was a highlight of the day) was taking a flight up to do some more campaigning, but the Mitt Mobile still needed to get up north. Flint said that he had to work but that Vesper and I weren't doing anything so we'd be able to. After talking it over, and initially resisting, we talked about it and Vesper had friends that she wanted to see in Orlando anyways so we agreed to make the 2 1/2 hour drive north up the turn pike.

After speaking with a higher up Mitt Romney campaign rep and getting instructions on where and how to pick up the Mitt Mobile (the Mitt Mobile will further more be referred to as the "MM" to stave off the inevitable onset of carpal tunnel) I envisioned a quick get away so we would have time to make it to Orlando before rush hour traffic and see Vesper's friend before her 3 little ones had to get to bed. This was most certainly not to be. First, we found out there was an appointment to get the oil changed on the MM. That took a good 40 minutes of our time. Then Flint just about begged us to bring the MM by his work so he could take pictures. That cost us another 30 minutes. Now, I must admit, though my heart was blackening by the second with the delays it was a treat to see the huge goofy smile on Flint's face. I haven't seen such a look of joy on his face in quite some time. (He celebrated by lifting a bunch of incidental paraphernalia from the MM) Lastly, and most necessarily, we had to swing by Vesper's folks' place to grab some gear for the road trip. We were in our best and spit-shined from the earlier rally/speech, and that is no state to be in for a road trip. That cost us another half hour.
Now, I would be lying if I didn't say that when we stopped over to get our things for the trip if we didn't stop and make a thorough tour of the MM and catalog everything that we saw.

The above sticker is what greets any visitor upon entering the MM. The thing that made me laugh in this picture were the children's toys in the open cupboards. (Notice the red "Eragon" book) I also thought it was neat he had one of his dad's campaign stickers displayed prominently.

Vesper and I survived mostly on the contents of the small kitchenette that was part of the MM. Though the fridge contained amazingly rancid feta cheese, the rest of the stock was pretty good, and mostly non-perishable.

Have you ever tried to imagine the splendor of the campaign trail? The opulence that the candidates lavish upon themselves whilst lying to the masses? Well, here it is. The master (and only) suite in the MM.

Of course, I couldn't pass up on a shot of the bathroom. Do you notice a flushing mechanism in this picture? I didn't either the first time I gazed upon this washroom, but I was full to bursting so I utilized the room regardless. Well, poor Vesper had to use the facilities later on as well, and as horrible as the smell was in there, I can't help but believe she was secretly very thankful I only engaged in numero uno. (She then proceeded to show me a foot pedal that flushed the toilet. My RV rank was revoked to novice.)

We greatly enjoyed the patriotic air fresheners.

Here is an example of what Flint made off with earlier in the narrative and a very fat looking hand.

Here is where Vesper and I spent the majority of our time on the trip. The amazing cabin of the MM that did not have adjustable chairs. (Let's just say that my pelvis probably could have handled steering duties) Though we did not utilize the TV or the DVD/VCR combo we were entertained by the small figures in the middle of the picture. Can you see them on the dashboard? Need a closer look? Well...here you are.

A Mitt Romney bobble head doll and a bizzare alligator head. I'm not sure if they are supposed to be some sort of commentary on his campaign or his relationship with the press, or perhaps his intentions upon winning the presidency, but anyway you cut it...it's just a tad disturbing. (Also, later on we discovered that Flint has the same bobble head on his desk at work)

Well, when we finally hit the turnpike we figured out why the Romney campaign folks didn't want to make the drive themselves, and were so gracious and thankful when we volunteered to do it. The MM reeled to and fro like a drunken man dropped upon burning coals covered in glass shards and angry piranhas. I kept checking out the trees along the turnpike to ensure that we weren't in the midst of a strong, swirling gale. I also often checked the road to make sure that there weren't any treacherous ruts that were the culprit of our cyclonic sloshing, but there were neither. The MM was simply a hurtling bullet of death and Vesper, our unborn/yet to be fake named child, and I were the gun powder. (If we extend this comparison I suppose the Mitt Romney campaign staffers were the cowards that pulled the trigger.) Though I soon acquired my sea legs Vesper was very tense to downright panicked at times during the trip. Much of the turnpike was under construction and the lanes would narrow or become difficult to navigate. The MM had about 6 inches of clearance on each side going through the toll booths. Also, we would somehow forget at times we were in a garishly painted campaign RV and be startled from time to time when folks would honk manically and wave their limbs at us.
After 90 minutes of the turnpike we mercifully pulled into a rest area to fill up the MM and get some treats. I had to disappoint a couple of different folks who asked if Mitt himself, or one of his sons was on the RV. After putting close to $200 dollars worth of gas into the MM we were off again.
As we neared Orlando we began to get a tad nervous. A campaign staffer was to call us with directions to where specifically we were to drop off the MM and we kept getting passed back and forth between staffers. After many nervous calls and rapidly diminishing patience we finally got a hold of the right person and he gave us the directions we needed. It wasn't that far, but we had to get through the heart of Orlando in rush hour, and it ended up taking an additional hour and a half. By the time we finally go to the Ramada (or whichever forsaken hotel we ended up at) we were absolutely toast. Again, the campaign rep that met us at the forsaken hotel was very gracious and full of the feral energy that only the converted possess. She kept talking about how she was only getting 2-3 hours of sleep now that the Florida primary was so soon, and all I kept thinking was how silly it seemed to give so much life for a political candidate. But, I suppose I should be happy for her since she found a candidate she can believe in so completely.

Can you see the great fatigue in our countenances?

We soon got our blessedly small rental car after dropping off the MM and had a splendidly relaxing dinner and evening alone. Unfortunately we were now over an hour away from Vesper's friend's home, so we rescheduled for breakfast the next day and wrapped up the day checking into a Holiday Inn or our own east of Kissimmee, were I proceeded to drink Vesper's contacts and contact solution the next morning. But that is a story for another day.
All in all I'm not sure what word I would used to describe the experience that we had transporting the MM. Exhausting would probably be the most apt one. It also felt a bit strange to talk about the campaign and pass out Mitt Romney stickers to those who asked since I really didn't (and don't) care one way or the other if he wins the nomination. I guess I felt like I was play acting, or deceiving these folks a little bit. I never said anything pro or con Romney (though the thought did cross my mind to be negative for the shock value of it), but it still felt like I was somewhat of a proxy for "The Governor" during the 5 1/2 hours we were in possession of the MM. Despite all of that, at least Vesper and I got a day that we will never forget instead of sitting around her parents house all day.

Here comes the bride.....

2008-02-01T15:19:00.001-08:00

I know that you are dying to here about our recent trip to Florida to see my family and also see my sister get married. So here is a photo journey of how it went!!!

Arrgh!! A pirate baby shower complete with strawberry pirate cake!!

The Mitt Mobile.....you're just going to have to wait for Gawain's post about it...which should be soon.

Seeing "Mom" and her beautiful children!

Gawain with "Mom's" girls. He had fun playing with them while Mom and I chatted. He's also about to get slimed by their mastif/great dane mix.

Mom and I belly to belly. Yes I know I'm huge. Everyone I encounter is horrified to find out I still have approximately two months to go.

We had some interesting times with Minnie the pillow. She decided to kiss The Belly,

Beware of snakes,

And hang out in a tree at a rest stop on the way up to Atlanta for my sister's wedding.

While in Georgia, my brother went a little crazy with so many wedding things going on.

The Belly also went a little crazy and tried to attack my little sister.

And I was excited to be the knocked up matron of honor and go get my nails and toes done in a spa chair with a delish dark color on the hands and a french manicure on the toes for $33! Damn Georgia and their cheap prices!!!

My gorgeous Bride sister and her attendents

My gorgeous Bride sister and her new husband, laughing about how she told him in a hurried card that she "can't walk down the aisle" to him.

Me apparently trying to eat my new brother in law's face?

(I just follow this mantra: Give The Belly what it wants)

In all it was a tiring trip, but lots of fun to see my family and friends!!!

Froggy's Christmas (As retold in late January)

2008-01-28T19:45:00.000-08:00

Rif ru rere rondering, ri ram rictating rhough Rawain. Translation - "If you were wondering, I am dictating through Gawain." (Gawain speaking here, as you can see, there is a need for me to interject myself into Froggy's narrative and remove the 'R's from his speech. So, these are his words, just not exactly phonetically represented.)

My Christmas started off very horribly but ended up okay.

The first horrible thing that happened was that Mommy dressed me up with a bow and a bell.

It was the most unmanly I have ever felt in my life. I'm horrified that Mommy made me take a picture.

So, in retribution I decided to tear at Santa's jugular for awhile.

Unfortunately, Santa's skin was composed of some sort of fibrous material, so I had to settle for ripping an eye off.

One of my favorite toys that I got was from my Grandma on Vespers side. It was a tiger that growls. Here is a video that Mommy took of me playing with my Tiger. It was pretty fun.

Mostly I just listened to Christmas carols and ate my special Christmas treats and passed out at 6PM. Christmas is alright.

Yes, we're blond, but that doesn't mean we're stupid...

2007-12-21T08:02:00.000-08:00

Scene 1:

Last Sunday Gawain made fried scones for us, used a little too much oil and spilled some under the burner on the stove. Vesper, in the course of trying to move overfilled pan of oil, also spilled some under the burner. Both Vesper and Gawain, b/c said burner was still hot, forgot to clean out from under the plate after it had cooled down.

Scene 2:

Last night, Gawain turns on burner on stove with oil still under, and decides it will burn off, there isn't that much.

He then goes to get ready for his shower since he just got back from a run.

Vesper is lounging around on the couach, feeling bloaty and preggo after a long day at work. She is going to go into the kitchen and start making hashbrowns on the stove that is heating up as soon as Gawain stops talking to her and jumps in the shower.

Vesper (looking at direction of kitchen, noticing smoke and also a flickering light against the fridge): (screaming like crazy) THE KITCHEN IS ON FIRE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gawain, who is naked from trying to jump in the shower, quickly runs after the screaming Vesper into the kitchen. Both are horrified to find a rather large fire raging off of the oily hot plate! Vesper can only think quickly (read panic) about what should be done. Gawain grabs the largest pan they have and trys to suffocate the fire, which doesn't work. Vesper wonders if they should just close the stove (it is an old oven and the stove actually fits like a drawer right under the oven), but worries the whole oven will then explode. Gawain, worried about being naked while fighting a fire, yells at Vesper to grab baking soda and pour it all over the fire. Vesper springs into action, grabs the bakng soda, and pours it all over the fire, dousing the flames.

Gawain: This makes me think about that time, in the scriptures, that that lady stabbed someone in the head and they said that she "smote" off his head. That's like you saying the kitchen is on fire, but really only the stove was on fire.

Vesper: Huh???? Our house almost burned down!!! How can you talk about that stuff at a time like this?!?!?!?!?

Gawain: (still naked) Um, I don't know, I'm jumping in the shower.

Te he our tree!!

2007-12-14T08:34:00.000-08:00

SO

We finally assembled and decorated our Christmas tree last night!!! I am so thrilled that we actually have a tree this year. Traditionally we spend Christmas either with my parents far away and they have a giant tree or our Christmas spent here at home has been so busy that we haven't been able to think about getting a tree. Also our house is tiny and Gawain is allergic to pine trees so that hasn't helped either. Thankfully, Walgreens had a 3 foot tree for $10!! We decided it would be perfect, and here it is:

Behold the tree, both blessed and precious!

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Also, Gawain and I need to register for baby stuff very soon ( my first shower is in a month!)! What are some absolutely must have things we should register for? We are quite clueless when it comes to this whole baby thing! Isn't the UGA onesie that my sister sent me enough?

Its the most wonderful day of the year!!!

2007-11-23T07:44:00.000-08:00

So today is Black Friday.

YIPPIEEEE!!!!!!!

Even though Gawain and I finished our Christmas shopping weeks (read 2 weeks) ago, I still love to go out on this day and be in the middle of all the hub bub. Lucky for me, my two favorite shopping partners, Isabel and Sweet Baboo, will be joining me for the insanity(The King may show up too, I think he was still deciding whether or not to go, and Gawain would much rather work ((which is exactly what he's doing today)) than ever voluntarily go shopping on Black Friday).

We are going to check out Kohl's, which recently opened (hooray we finally got one) and see if there are any more cute things left after its 4am opening, and then I'm not sure where the surging sea of shopping madness will pitch us next(hopefully in the vicinity of JC Penny so I can get another pair of my favorite maternity pants ever).

I will now share my favorite stories from last year:

In Best Buy, I foolishly went around 10 or 11 am to check and see if there was a Wii for purchase (I'm sure we all remember the great Wii shortage of late '06, early '07). Of course there was not, but after parking in the very last space as far away from the store as possible, I was going to at least not take the front door guys word for granted and go check the shelf myself. Of course, once I made it to the shelf after crowd surfing there, there were no Wii's to be found (damn you Nintendo!) and I decided to split since there was nothing else I wanted in there.

On the way back to the front of the store, a harried lady came charging through the crowd, parting the sea of harriedness with a huge box. I literally saw a Best Buy worker jump onto a CD shelf to prevent himself from getting trampled! It was SO awesome!

I then went to Jo-Ann's to try and get some yarn for my mom. After finding the secret side of the store parking (ha ha suckers!) and strolled in and headed for the back of the store. I realized about half way back, that I was passing a bunch of people in a line with their carts overflowing with craft goodies. "hum, that's kind of weird" I thought. As I got to the yarn, the light bulb over my head finally clicked on.

Vesper: "excuse me, is this the line to check out?"

annoyed Black Friday shopper: (looking at vesper as if she is a retard) Yes

Vesper: "oh, thank you!"

The line was wrapped all the way around the entire store.

I couldn't believe it. I knew these kind of shenanigans happened all over the place on this day, but had never actually witnessed this phenomenon. Needless to say, I was not going to wait in that huge line to buy like 3 rolls of yarn, so again I bailed and high tailed it home, refreshed and invigorated with all of the extra shopping estrogen that had been in the air.

Hope you guys have awesome stories to share with generations to come of your crazy Black Friday experiences!!

VIVA LAS VEGAS!

2007-11-15T20:18:00.000-08:00

With a little one on the way, Gawain and I decided that it was time to use our travel vouchers from Christmas time (when we got poo jabbed over and over from US airways) and take a trip. We set our sights on Las Vegas and this is what we discovered:

The Stratosphere, while awesome looking, is not in an awesome location, although our room was suprisingly awesome for how not awesome the rest of the casino was.

Why is it hard for people to take pictures of us AND cool background images? This is supposed to be us AND Caeser's Palace, not just us and something behind us.

The conservatory at Bellagio is very cool and was wonderful to walk around in all of its fall colors.

And it's cool water show.

Paris was also cool with the "Effiel tower"

And cool fountains?

Casino Royale...perhaps I'll see James Bond?

Or maybe I'll get lucky since this one is so huge?

Finally, someone who can take a picture of us in front of something (sort of).

One hott momma!

And one sporty daddy! (ps he killed the guy he was playing against, notice his awesome score)

Needless to say, we had a very fun time in Sin City!!

And the sex is......

2007-11-05T10:06:00.000-08:00

Sorry to wait till Monday and keep you in suspense, but we went to Vegas over the weekend and with Halloween and packing I just didn't have time to post a proper announcement.

The ultrasound was pretty fun. I do have to admit though, that when the lady put the ultrasound juice on my belly, I was expecting a shock of cold. Instead I got a shock of warm, borderline hot! Before I could stop myself, I had almost screamed "THAT WAS HOT!". The lady doing the ultrasound, who seemed to not be in a very good mood, also looked shocked and said "no its not." I was so embarassed that I just started giggling, and then laughing, and couldn't stop. I slowed down a little but then I would start up again. I think if it had not been for this, our ultrasound would have been a lot shorter.

For some silly reason, I thought the ultrasound was going to be like 5 min long. It was closer to 30 or 40 min long! It was so neat to see the baby, basically fully formed, with fingers, toes, feet, hands, a cute button nose, a brain, a little round mid section....the baby was perfect!

As we got down to the legs, the tech asked if we wanted to know the sex. We said yes! We were both getting very excited. She said ok and started taking measurments. "so this is a fe..." I knew it! Its a girl! "mur". Oh. Yes I know that that is a femur. "And then obviously this is a little Boy!!!!"

So Gawain and I are very pleased and excited to announce that we will have a mini Gawain grace our presence at the end of March!

PS: The dr. said that the little tike was a bit bigger than the supposed 19.5 weeks so the due date has been bumped up 5 days to March 20th. Her comment was "his head is pretty big...although that means he has a big brain." Te he, we have created a mad scientist!!

PSS: Froggy says "way to go mom and dad on giving me a new playmate!"

Do these crazy things really work?

2007-10-31T08:37:00.000-07:00

Although I didn't want to turn this blog into a prego blog, the next couple of posts may be just about that. Today Gawain and I find out the gender of our unborn child. We have both discussed many times what we think/want it to be, and we just both really don't care. We just want it to be HEALTHY! My co-worker thinks that we are going to have a girl, because no matter how she puts it, basically she says my butt has gotten bigger ("changed in shape") since I've been pregnant, indicating a girl. Gawain says this is crap and decides now he wants a boy just to spite said co-worker. We decided that we would do all of the hocus pocus things to indicate whether we were going to have a boy or girl, you know, just for fun. Unfortunately, because I was having way to much fun shopping with Isabel and Babboo last night for party clothes for my Vegas trip, I didn't get home in time to try some out before Gawain went to bed. I did manage to find some quizzes online and thought I'd post the results for your viewing pleasure.....so what do you think I"m going to have? Here are the facts:

1st time baby
my butt has "changed shape"(gotten bigger)
I crave OJ
I was greener than green for the first trimester (ie: throwing up once a day)
maybe not as emotional as I could be
I've been told (one time) that I am carrying high

Cast your vote! Less than 7 hours till we find out for sure!

The old wives tales test results : Girl

Chinese calender: Girl

Mayan calander predictor-if age at conception and year are both even/odd-girl, different-boy, since I am 25 and its 2007, both odd so I guess that means-Girl

"I heard that whoever is more aggressive at the time of conception, the child will be the opposite of that sex . . . "-----hum I can't remember?

The difinitive list of signs you are having a boy or girl-I have a little bit of both lists...does that mean boy and girl twins?!?!??!

Like I said, put in your guess, I'll let you know for sure soon!

Where my girls at? From the front to back!

2007-10-12T07:22:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time there were 5 very cute, smart, and popular blond haired blue eyed friends. They were the talk of the town and the life of every party. Every boy wanted them and every girl wanted to be them (in our minds anyway). They all eventually found guys that they allowed to marry them and there was much rejoicing. They would have only been TRULY happy if they all lived in 5 houses right in a row, but for now they would just have to find comfort and solice in their husbands/kids/pets.

Here we are in all our glory in front of our FAVORITE place RED ROBIN!

Just yummy sugar shots while we wait for our fries from RED ROBIN!

Small One about to go crazy because we aren't at RED ROBIN yet!

Flash forward about 5 years. It was now the 48th day of my (that is Vesper's) cycle and I was wondering where in the heck was my period??? I had taken a pregnancy test about a week and a half before and it had been negative (again!). I just wanted Aunt Flo to hurry up and come so I could get on with my life. On this particular morning, Gawain had gotten up to walk Froggy, and I decided that I would waste one more pregnancy test. This is what it said:

I was completely bewildered! Didn't it just say that I was't pregnant last week? I kind of walked in a fog that day and told Gawain after work. He was thrilled! I also was tricky and called Isabel to ask her who her OB/GYN was so that I would have a good one to go too. The next day I took my last pregnancy test, just to be sure. It was still positive!

A bean shaped thing growing inside Vesper that has a heartbeat!

I went to visit three of my four best girlfriends later that week. Small One looked so cute! She was pregnant with her second little boy and her 1st one was an absolute angel! Caboose also looked so happy. It been almost 4 years since I'd seen her and her 2 little boys were so cute and fun to play with. I was also extremely happy to see The Beast. She and her husband were letting me stay with them and we had a lot of fun cooking and torturing her husband (not cooking him, cooking for him!). I didn't tell them then since I hadn't had a dr. confirm that I was indeed with child, but I thought it was fun that Small One and I were pregnant at the same time.

We wish Mom could have been here to enjoy RED ROBIN with us!

A couple of months later, Small One and her hubby called to have me settle a bet for them. In the course of the phone call I let them know the "good news" and they also let me know that Mom was with child again. She hadn't been able to come to our little reunion seeing as she had just moved clear across the country and had 3 little ones and 2 huge dogs to look after. I was especially amused at her news because our due dates were within 2 weeks of each other!

A couple weeks after that, Caboose called to let me know that she was going to have a baby too! She was due only 2 days after Mom! At this, I was just like, this is SO weird!!! 4 out of 5 of us are preggers!!!!!! I would tell the Beast to hurry up and get pregnant, but she is v. busy studying v. hard at grad school to become an occupational therapist. Plus she's only got like 8 days b/c Small One is being induced on the 20th.

A crazy pregnant lady!!!!

I'm so happy for all of us! I only truly wish that we lived in five houses all in a row so that our kids could play and The Beast could do cognitive testing on all of them. That would truly be a perfect world. And also if we lived by a lake with a boat to zoom around in....

Congrats to everyone(you too Beast..I know you'll been done with school soon and that is really AWESOME!)

If only Charlie would have known about the 5 of us....he could have paid us in cute clothes and unlimited trips to RED ROBIN!

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

Also, Congrats to Isabel on getting her own column! I'm excited to read her words of wisdom!

I'm with stupid, or How I almost died last night

2007-09-28T06:54:00.000-07:00

So I must admit that I am blond. I feel I am not the typical blond, but I do have blond moments. These moments I am never very proud of.

Last night, Gawain and I bought a car! A new(er) car! Our first new(er) car! I wish that was what this post is about but its not.

Gawain was VERY nice and let me drive the new(er) car home from the dealership. Halfway home the dealership called and said "Wait you didn't give us a down payment!" Everyone was very excited when we left so both they and I totally forgot! I said I would turn around and come pay it right then.

When I got back in the car after paying the down payment, it was completely dark and I felt a little nervous because I was downtown, in an area I'm not very familiar with, and I am terrified of driving up hills in a stick, especially a new(er) car stick. But i decided I could do it, I would do it, and I would make it without getting lost!

It started to rain on the way home (typical) and I figured out how to work the wipers. This new(er) car was so fancy! I even programed my fav. radio stations and was rocking out to the music. Our old car had had the radio stolen from it so for the past 3 years I usually just drove around in silence. This was AWESOME!!! I only wished that the buttons were lit up better so I could tell what was the volume knob and what was the station knob.

The first 20 min of the drive home were uneventful. I went the normal way, going down a tiny freeway and through a darker industrial part of town. As I turned onto a street closer to ours, a car pulled out right in front of me and started acting all weird. It got in the lane next to mine and slowed down. I figured it wanted to admire my new(er) car in all of its awesomeness. As it kept acting this weird way and slowing down and speeding up next to me, all the way down the road, I started a very tiny freak out. We had opted not to get the security system, rationalizing that we could definitely find one cheaper than $700. What if this car was trying to follow me home to steal my precious new(er) car!?

I turned on my street, thankfully without being pursued, and got to my house. As I turned up my driveway, I noticed how terribly dark it was tonight. I was glad the neighbor we shared our driveway with wasn't home so I didn't have to maneuver too fancifully around her car with my new(er) car. As I got closer to our garage, I realized, with horror, that I should definitely have died at some point on my longish way home, and perhaps worse, wrecked the new(er) car!

I didn't have my lights on for the whole 10 mile journey from downtown to my house.

I just sat in the car for a second, thinking how completely stupid I was, trying to make up excuses for why I hadn't turned the lights on. I know I had been anxious about driving alone, downtown, at night, in the rain, where I might have to drive up hills in a stick, but still, that was NO EXCUSE for not turning the lights on. No wonder that car was acting so weird. The new(er) car is black so it was probably hard for him to see and that's why he turned out in front of me! I felt very embarrassed, too embarrassed to share my stupidity with Gawain, so hopefully he still loves me and wants to talk to me after reading this.

I hate how you learn things from making mistakes. I hate to make mistakes. But I'm glad in a very weird and shameful way that I made that mistake, so I NEVER forget to turn the lights on ever again!!!

You've asked, I finally deliver

2007-08-08T16:47:00.000-07:00

******WARNING! IF YOU ARE AT ALL SQUIMISH WITH ALL THINGS HAVING TO DO WITH THE HUMAN BODY THIS MAY NOT BE A POST FOR YOU TO READ*************

So I have had several (i.e. all 2 of you who read this blog) beg continually for pictures from the office of interesting things that happen there. Well, here they are finally!

I must also mention that I took cool pics of a different patient months and months ago but it was with the hygienist's camera and she has still failed to give me those pictures.

Case of the rotting tooth:

So this patient came in off the street, in pain beyond all pain, thinking that he needs a tooth pulled. We take an xray and all around the base of the tooth, like at the gum line in the front part of it, its black, which means basically that its so soft and decayed that the xray beams are going straight through instead of being reflected back on the film to show a nice white area.

This xray is not the actually pic of the tooth in question, but basically shows you what I mean. Imagine though, there is no tooth edge, it just looks like a bomb took out half the tooth.

Anyway, so we measured around the tooth to see what the gum situation is like and it was 8 all the way around. Ever have your gum health measured (may have been a series of 3-2-3's called out by the hygienist of dr?). There is a pocket that your tooth sits in in the gum. The higher the number, the deeper the pocket. 1 meaning very shallow meaning v. good. 12 meaning your tooth is literally hanging on by a string meaning v. deep and v. bad. So you can guess what the 8's meant.

So the dentist numbed the patient up and pulled the tooth right out. And this is what it looked like :

That little bomb crater on the side of the tooth wasn't created by a drill. That was created by good old fashioned decay!!!!!! And before we soaked it in bleach, it was BLACK!!!!

So be warned! Brush and floss! Atleast once a week!!!

Because we're really 5 instead of 25

2007-08-06T21:11:00.000-07:00

Gawain: So they don't have to be only about baseball?

Vesper: No! I know a lot that have nothing to do with baseball!

Gawain: Well then what about this one? "When you're riding on a seal, and your butt begins to squeal: DIARRHEA! (cha cha cha)

Vesper: HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!!

Gawain: HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!!

Vesper: (tears streaming down face) Do you have anymore?

Gawain: Well, how about this one? "When your driving in the car, and your anus erupts tar: DIARRHEA!! (cha cha cha)

Vesper: HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR!!!!!!!!!

Gawain: HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR!!!!!!!!!

Vesper: (crying she's laughing so hard) HE HE HE HE HE HE HE HE HE HE HE HE!!!!!!!

Gawain: HA HA HA...OK its not that funny....

Vesper: HO HO HO HO HO HO HO.......

Why my life sucks at this exact moment

2007-08-01T11:19:00.000-07:00

I work in a dentist office. I have to wear a mask when I work on patients. Unfortunately right now I have a cold. I'm not sure why, but when you have a cold and your nose is runny and you have to wear a mask, its just a reciepe for disaster. The reason being is this:

snot runs uncontrollably from your nose.

Its very uncomfortable.

Yesterday was particularly bad because (and i'm sure this is TMI) eventually the snot was running down my chin.

EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just wish I would have had tampons to stick up my nose!!!

not me, although I sure wish it would have been yesterday!!

IF YOU DON'T COOPERATE, I'LL NEVER BUY A CAR FROM YOU AGAIN!!

2007-07-19T07:00:00.000-07:00

SO

I used to nanny for a family of three boys. When I quit nanny-ing for them, the boys were 15, 13, and 8. I know.

Mr. and Mrs. X were about to leave to go on a trip to someplace extremly fabulous and outside of the country. It was around 8ish in the morning. Mrs. X was having a problem locating the keys to the van that I was to drive the boys around in while they were gone. She had finally given up and decided she was just going to have to have another set made at the dealership. The following is their conversation (i only was able to witness Mrs. X's side of the conversation so I had to embelish the other side a tiny bit).

Mrs. X: Hi, I've lost my keys and I need to have another set made. When will they be done?

Car Guy: mumblemumblemumble

Mrs. X: I'm not going to be able to come to the dealership today, I'm leaving to go out of town today. Is it ok if I send someone else? Also, is it possible to have the keys made today?

Car Guys: mumblemumblemumble

Mrs. X: No, we are both going out of town. Can't I just have someone else come down?

Car Guy: mumblemumblemumble

Mrs. X:(starting to sound impatient): Look, I am leaving the country in less than an hour. I need those keys TODAY or else my nanny isn't going to have a car to drive my children around in.

Car Guy: mumblemumblemumble

Mrs. X: (sounding flat out angry now) No I don't understand! If you don't get those keys made today I will return the van immediately!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mr. X: we need to leave right now!!!

Car Guy: mumblemumblemumble

Mrs. X: (livid): YOU LISTEN HERE! I NEED THOSE KEYS TODAY!!! RIGHT NOW!!!! OTHERWISE MY NANNY ISN'T GOING TO HAVE A CAR TO DRIVE MY CHILDREN AROUND IN!! IF YOU DON'T DO THIS, I AM GOING TO RETURN THE VAN AND I WILL NEVER BUY A CAR FROM YOUR DEALERSHIP EVER AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Car Guy: (i'm sure totally confused, bewildered, panicky) mumblemumblemumble

Mr. X: (walking up the stairs to the front door)I'm leaving with out you!

Mrs. X: THIS IS TOTAL B. S.(except she totally said it)!!!!!!I'M NEVER BUYING A CAR FROM YOU EVER AGAIN!!!!!!!! (hangs up phone in a huff)

Although they are very wealthy,they didn't usually have to break out the "I'm richer than you and should therefore have and get whatever I want" pimp slap except for very special occasions. It was all I could do to hold back the enormous need, not desire, but need to roll all over the floor laughing at how ridiculous Mrs. X was acting on this VERY special occasion.

Now, a couple of points must be noted, first off, she never even said who she was. Secondly, she had accidently packed the car keys with her youngest son's stuff who was going on an over night trip with his school, so they totally turned up the next day. Thirdly, b/c they have a bunch of minions doing what ever they want, they totally had an extra set of keys made for them while they were gone. Evidently before they left on their private jet, she hurridly wrote a note giving who ever the permission to take the van down and have keys made AND had it notarized for authenticity.

I sure wish I could throw tantrums like that. I suppose that just explains where her kids got it from.

Here are the boys at 13, 10, and 6. Don't let their good looks fool you, when they want to be, they are the Devil's spawn. Times 1,000,000,000,000.

Any other ex-nannys with crazy stories out there?

Do you think I'm sexy?

2007-07-17T08:45:00.000-07:00

Last Friday afternoon my co-worker Ms. Quah and I were engaged in our usual pre-weekend banter. Plans for the weekend were discussed and work was avoided. Somehow we ended up on the joy and mirth of searching through Craigslist's "Casual Encounters" pages. Whether it be women searching for men, men for men, women for men, women for women, or men for transexuals; the ads and sometime photos are hilarious. (But they are most certainly not safe for work) During the course of our conversation we began to wonder how different cities used this illicit and somewhat pathetic portion of Craigslist. This idle wonder turned into an idea for action, or as we now call it, "The Craiglist Project".

We first had the notion of placing the same W4M (woman looking for a man) ad in 5 different US cities and then comparing the responses. The cities that we settled on were Seattle, Los Angeles, New York, Miami, and Tulsa (we were curious how a 'buckle' of the Bible belt would fare). Some things that we talked about looking at in the responses were:

- How many responses the add received

- How including a picture effected the response

- The number of pictures we received

- The ethnicity of the folks who sent the picture

- Age of the sender

- Any other trends that may appear that we had not thought of.

(I wonder how many responses this photograph would get?)

Our excitement grew at the prospect of so much trashy, entertaining, and perhaps even enlightening information. Our excitement became such that we expanded the scope of our special project. We decided that it would also be very interesting to explore arrangements other than W4M. M4M, M4W, and W4M would also to be included in the comparative special project. On top of that goldmine of information; Ms. Quah brought up the point that Craigslist is not only in many, many American cities, it is also in most major world capitols. So we decided that after finishing up our American portion of the study we would cast our net out to the rest of the world and see what their appetites were. We wanted to hit every continent without including every city or country, so, now also included in our study are Paris, London, Sydney, Japan (Tokyo), Rio De Janeiro, and Egypt (Cairo).

We kicked off our first round in America yesterday afternoon. Our first case was W4M. The add that we placed in each American city is a very close approximation to:

"I have recently moved to ____ from Denver. I haven't had time to really meet anybody and I am lonely. I am not looking for any commitment right now while I'm settling into my new home here. What I am looking for is an extremely good time, where we can both just forget ourselves and have fun. I promise that you won't be disappointed. I am a 5'7" brunette with an athletic build. I'll be much more likely to respond if you attach a picture. I'm not too particular, I just want to know who I'm getting into. If I like what I see I'll respond with a picture of my own and my contact info. Don't be shy, drop me a line."

We also decided early on that we were not going to reply to any of the emails sent to us since we could not think of any further information that could be gleaned. The only drawback for this approach is that our postings will most likely be flagged for removal after 4-6 hours. The effort involved in responding to the emails was such that we were willing to accept flagging. The vast majority of responses come in this first time period anyways.

The plan for now is to update the results of our endeavors on Monday weekly. So, check back here on the 23rd for the first set of results. I hope you are as excited as we are.

PS - If you have any ideas for the project that have not been outlined above, drop me a line.

THE MUSIC WAS SO LOUD I PUKED ALL OVER MYSELF!!

2007-07-16T07:00:00.000-07:00

This week was officially Harry Potter week for Vesper and I. We saw the new movie and events on Tuesday night, and on Friday the 13th (insert scream here) we attended a Harry and the Potters wizard rock show at the Seattle Public Library with Isabel, The King, and Baboo. Also attending were a couple of my old coworkers and their friends. So, with our group of 10 we were set to help battle the forces of evil, namely, Lord Voldemort.

To ensure top performance and enjoyment of the show Vesper and I met Isabel, The King, and Baboo at the Westlake Center foodcourt. After fueling up we then made the 5 block stroll to the Library. The doors opened for the show (Which was in a library! How cool is that?) at 7pm and we arrived at 6:30PM. The line was already starting to snake around the building by the time we got there.

There were the usual cast of dressed up characters in attendance. From the Professor McGonagall hand puppet to a pair of fully garbed house elves. I guess it only makes sense since all 700-800 of us were there to see a trio of rockers dressed up like Harry Potter 4th year, Harry Potter 7th year, and baby Hagrid. Once we got inside while merchandise was being purchased and the crowd was waiting for the show to begin I wandered around and took some pictures.

(I know that this isn't a Harry Potter get-up, but I enjoyed the sperm guitars attempting to impregnate a LP)

(Vesper and I both appreciated that this kid even nailed the Stan Shunpike expression)

The Seattle Public library is a great venue to have a show. The main floor that we were all on is a series of diamond windows (I'm sure there's a proper word for the structure, but I don't know it) and our beautiful city was the backdrop for the show. Now, I know Harry and the Potters plays shows in libraries and other civic buildings all over the country, but I have to imagine that there is no better venue, or crowd (they mentioned it was their largest of this tour) they encounter.

(One view of the city. On many of the other shots taken within the library, you can see the city in the background.)

(The crowd milling around before the show.)

After a while chants of "Harry, Harry" began to break out and before long everyone's wizard heroes emerged on stage.

As you can see the Harrys emerged in full Hogwarts gear. Their opening number was "Voldermort Can't Stop the Rock". After the opener they had a "2 year old baby Hargrid" join them on the drums to fill out their 3-piece punk group. Due to the immense wizard heat they were putting off the sweaters were quickly shed and madness, only the likes of which you see when a rock show is played in a library, ensued.

(Notice the mic chord wrapped around the head of the Harry on the left)

If pictures aren't enough for you we even took a couple of quick videos with our camera. The sound was removed because it was all fuzz. (This show was LOUD. And, like all mediocre sound systems, the treble was far too high. The high-hat and crash cymbal were out for blood...dribbling from our ear drums.) Video

Isabel and family took off about an hour into the show because, quite frankly, Baboo was uber-tired and I'm sure that the piercing treble was not good for his tender little ears. But, those who stuck around (Us and my old coworkers) were in for quite the treat. Seeking to live up to the good Harry Potter name, the Harrys stuck around a signed merchandise and took photos with those who were patient enough to get to them, and not bothered by sweaty fake wizards.

(From left to right: Ms. Logic, Vesper, HP4, Gawain)

(Note from Vesper: How cool for HP4 that he is having people clamoring for his autograph and a picture! How cool for us, his fans, that we actually get to meet one of the lead singers of a band, get an autograph, and get a pic taken! I bet I could never in my lifetime get to do that with The Edge.)

All in all the show was a grand time. Lots of crowd participation, and humorous lyrics based on the books. If you have read the Harry Potter books and Harry and the Potters ever make it to your neck of the woods, attendance is a must. You will have a blast.

(From left to right: Ms Logic, Vesper, Gawain, Meg, Phinneas, Vivika, Matthew. And honestly, the person who took this picture is lame. Who doesn't get the entire name of the library?)

Flight of the Phoenix

2007-07-12T09:30:00.000-07:00

To commemorate going to the 12:01AM showing of “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” at the IMAX theater in Seattle I decided to keep a running journal of the evenings events. (ala Bill Simmons) Between the beautiful weather, using a flex car convertible Mini Cooper, Jihan and Staton joining us, and the rabid Harry Potter fans I had high hopes for an entertaining evening. (As a note I would like to point out that all of the driving portions of this journal were recorded after the fact.) (To view all the photos from this night's adventures visit Flickr)

8:00 PM – Left the house for the movie. Still feeling a bit surly from my nap. It feels like it might be one of those times where it takes a couple of hours to shake it off.

8:06 PM – Just noticed that our car has an ungodly amount of sap on it. Why do some trees pee so much?

8:30 PM – Finally got into the car. I think Vesper may start lactating she is so excited for the Mini Cooper. (She has wanted to buy one FOREVER and this is the first time that we have ever driven one.) 8:50 PM - Just passed one of our favorite store front displays on 99. Behold! The lightup wheelchair! 8:56 PM – Almost caused an accident taking a picture of Vesper driving the Mini Cooper. For some reason on the one picture I decide to take straight on of her the flash goes off, momentarily blinding her.

9:03 PM – This is one of those warm summer nights where the air just feels wonderful.

9:08 PM – Still feeling surly. I’m not sure what it’s going to take to pull me out of this.

9:21 PM – Listening to “Black Holes and Revelations” by Muse on 4th and Seneca downtown with the top down. The air temperature 87 degrees, a warm breeze is blowing, and the city looks beautiful. It doesn’t get much better than this.

9:28 PM – Got back to the Flexcar spot in time and the gas gauge is just this side of a quarter full. Love it when that happens.

9:37 PM – While driving from Belltown to Seattle Center Vesper squeals and noticed that they’ve turned the 7-11 into a Kwik-E Mart. 9:46 PM – Back at the Kwik-E Mart taking pictures. I can’t believe how much glee I’m getting from a bunch of cut-outs of Simpsons characters and Krusty-O’s cereal. 9:52 PM – We are in line at the IMAX and raring to go. We can’t wait until Jihan and Staton get here. Their ETA is currently 11PM. 9:56 PM – Some dufus in plain clothes is walking up and down the line trying to sell pizzas in unmarked boxes. $1 for an entire pizza. $.25 for a slice. No thanks. I prefer a sedate and orderly digestive tract.

10:02 PM – Got antsy and walked up to the front of the line. The 2 girls in front got here at 3:30 this afternoon, when it was still 93 degrees outside. (The temperature would be like if Topeka had a high temp of 783 degrees. This heat is just unheard of prior to August) They said they were the only ones in the line until 5PM or so. 10:06-10:15 PM – Walking around taking pictures. There is a very Halloween feel to a lot of the female costume wearers tonight. The theme seems to be “Slaggy Hogwarts Girl Extraordinaire”.

10:18 PM - Is that a seance?

10:23 PM – Just got done speaking with Jamie. She’s the one in the red Gryffindor Quidditch robes, Quidditch arm guards, sweet broom, goggles, Gryffindor sweater and boots. Let me tell you, they teach some good things at the drama department a Western Washington University. She made everything on her body except the Gryffindor patch on her robes and the goggles. - Broom: Walking stick procured from her Scout master father combined with straightened wreaths from Jo-Ann’s.
- Arm Guards: Made them from scratch herself.
- Robe: Bought a sewing machine for the express purpose of making these robes.
- Sweater: Knitted it herself.
- Simply an insane amount of time poured into a Harry Potter outfit.

10:30 PM – We have our first tired tuckus alert. Had to run back to the car to get a jacket for Vesper to sit on. My underlying surliness is still present. I’ve been awake for 3 ½ hours.

10:46 PM – Vesper is bored enough to make videos on my cell phone of us disapparating. (Here they are on YouTube -- Vesper – Gawain) Surliness, petulance, and impatience are unleashed. Glad the Vesper loves me enough to put up with my crap. The movies turn out pretty well though.

10:50 PM – We have identified a Class-1 Alpha-Bitch directly behind us in line. We cannot understand why none of her teeny-bopper friends is pimp-slapping her.

10:55 PM – Everyone starts cheering as line the begins to move, then stands around for 13 minutes to wait for the line to move again.

10:57 PM – Apparently Jihan and Staton feel asleep and lost track of the time. They are just leaving Bellevue for Seattle now.

10:59 PM – Determine that no matter what it is time for the surliness to depart.

11:07 PM – Alpha-Bitch’s toy wand sounds suspiciously like a light saber when swished and flicked.

11:08 PM – Line starts moving for real. Surliness gone, a blessing for everyone involved.

11:10 PM – Going to a movie at IMAX is so much more fun than going to a regular theater. Since they don’t show feature films very often, when they do they go all out. (See pictures below) The decorations, staff and facilities, were awesome. It’s also very nice to be able to listen to real music and not have to watch the same stupid ‘20’ before the movie. 11:15 PM – Vesper and I have to split. She’ll wait for J&S outside while I go and find seats.

11:18 PM – That was quick. J&S have arrived.

11:20 PM – I have finally ceased to sweat.

11:30 PM – These IMAX 3D glasses are righteous! 11:45 PM – I may have knocked over my popcorn, glasses, and almost the soda; but I caught a Dumbledore’s Army hat for my love.

11:50 PM – Wow. The stats on this (and I imagine all) IMAX theater are impressive. All figures are for Order of the Phoenix.
- 12,000 watts of sound.
- 18 miles of film
- The film weights 1,000 lbs.
- The screen is 6 stories high.

12:01 AM – The previews begin.

12:03 AM – I almost feel nauseous watching this “Dinosaurs Alive” preview in 3D. Seriously disorienting.

12:05 AM – Okay. Now I’m used to it.

12:06 AM – The movie has begun!!

2:24 AM – The movie is over. Overall it was great. The entire trip to and fight at the Ministry of Magic was in 3D. Once I got used to the 3D it was pretty incredible. The threstrals looked kind of funky in 3D though.

3:04:23 AM – Climb on top of bed and underneath ceiling fan.

3:04:27 AM – Fast asleep.

6:15AM – Please kill me! Don't make me wake up! I want to die!

Found Ourselves On a Walkabout

2007-07-10T10:00:00.000-07:00

As the weather turns downright paradisaical here in West Seattle Vesper, Froggy, and I take a lot of long walks around our neighborhood. There are many little trails along greenbelts, a couple of ponds with plenty of shade trees and fowl, and like any good neighborhood, lots of crazy things in yards and on the street. So, to take a page from Marie's Gadabout series we decided to take the camera with us on our walks this past week, and this is what we saw.

This hideous fence is near our house. Some new folks moved in a couple of weeks before Halloween last year and proceeded to paint the fence white, then yellow and orange. We were duly impressed with their holiday spirit, until several months past and they never painted over the jack-o-lantern colors. Thankfully our cones have been burned out by the wildly vivid colors so we hardly notice it anymore.

Our next selection of pictures is a group of catholic shines. For such a notoriously "unchurched" city, there are a fair amount of such shrines on our street.

Our best guess is that this is St. Nicholas of Tolentino or St. Francis of Assisi due to the animals at the foot of the statue. Unfortunately the owners of the home are never out and about when we are so we haven't had the chance to ask them. On a less faithful note. I went up to the doorstep today to check out the flower vase since it always has lovely, fresh flowers in it. They are fake, the heathen dogs.

These are the 3 Virgin Mary statues that live on our street. Of the 3 I enjoy the colorful one in the glass case most. This is primarily because the baby Jesus doesn't look like a stunted man-god. He especially has this syndrome in the first VM picture due to his quickly receding hairline. And since I don't want to make the second VM picture feel left out, I do appreciate the fact that baby-man-Jesus is standing upon the world in his dwarf state.

Another strange trend we noticed was an absolute cornucopia of out of date holiday trappings. Keep in mind that these pictures were taken on the week preceding the 4th of July.

Harvest Greetings?

Vesper noticed that the skeleton had been on the door for so long that it had worn scratch marks into the door. How long does that take? Weeks? Months? Years?

This picture gets special notice. We have lived in our home 3 1/2 years now. According to this corner house, it has been the Lord's birthday every single one of those days. That brings some new meaning to "The Great I AM".

This poor confused home had waring factions of Christmas and St. Patrick's Day decorations.

This lump of rocks spray-painted gold got lumped into the holiday decorations because we had no idea where else to put it. The pile is as ugly and out of place as it looks. What is being attempted here?

The rest of the snaps are in categories all their own.

I'm not exactly sure what joy is found in having a little boy statue that has to go pee in your front yard.

This is a delightful front porch combination spitoon and garbage can. A lovely sentiment for all visitors to contemplate before entry.

Nothing like crawling out of a dumpster to get the blood going in the morning.

We've been debating whether or not to call the police on this homeless man. He himself seems harmless enough. He is the only person we've seen sleeping on the streets in West Seattle and whenever he is awake he is nice enough to talk to. It's his dog that is the menace. Last Sunday morning when I was walking Cole by his sleeping carcass his Boston Terrier was untied and came bolting out of nowhere and attacked Froggy. I was able to fend him off with the prodding of my feet until I was able to stare him down and scare him off. It took all of my self control to not punt that little dog.

All that's missing from this graphitti is "ANTOJC".

And what tour of a neighborhood with people of Asian heritage would complete without fake granite lion statues. If we took a picture of all of these that we had seen this post would have trebled in length.

A few of Vesper's favorite things

2007-07-06T10:18:00.000-07:00

Since this is a fairly young blog and you may not know that much about me, I thought I'd divulge some of my well known or little known favorite things in hopes that you would get to know me better:

I love Star Wars. It is so awesome. My favorite Jedi is Shaak Ti.

I also love to play video games. Probably my favorites are Lego Star Wars and also Star Wars: Battlefront I and II (we have them for PS2 but i've played them on XBOX, which is also fun)
I am probably the biggest band nerd that you know. I was in marching band all 4 years of high school and in the top concert band all 4 years of high school. I was also in jazz band 3 years of high school, played trumpet, marching baritone, euphonium, trombone, and piano. I was elected band prez. senior year and also was assistant drum major. Honestly,do you know any bigger nerd than me?????
I love love love love love love love to knit! Mostly baby blankets and baby hats but I also do scarves. I have also made a teddy bear and an elephant and am currently working on a sweater for Gawain.
My top 5 are as follows: Daniel Craig, Ewan McGregor, Collin Firth, Matthew Fox, and Hugh Jackman

I'm a sucker for terrible movies. Not like grotesque movies, I'm talking things like "Bring it On" or "Malibu's Most Wanted"
I like good movies too though, also I really like independent films, they are usually really good.
My three favorite movies are Mean Girls, the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice, and Evolution
I'm terrible at sports and therefore hate to play them
I do love watching sports though, something about all the energy from the crowd is very exciting
Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends rocks!
Food Network rocks! especially Iron Chef, Goo d Eats with Alton Brown and Everyday Italian
My most favorite vaca place of all time is Disney World

My most favorite Disney Princess is Sleeping Beauty

My most favorite dessert is Wicked Hot Chocolate Mousse
My favorite restaurants right now are P. F. Chang's and Wild Ginger
The ultimate favorite of all time is Joe's Crab Shack, where I used to work
It was also my most favorite job of all time.
Harry Potter is awesome. I can't believe the last book will be here in less than 20 days!!!
The 5th Harry Potter movie will be here in less than 7 days!!!!!!!
I have traveled to 5 different countries and they were all while I was a nanny
I nannied three boys
I love love love love music!!!! All kinds!!!! even country and hip hop (there are some good ones believe it or not!) Some favorite groups: Muse, Johnny Cash, U2, Snow Patrol, Coldplay
Most embarassing song on my ipod: My 2 Britney Spears Albums!!

I'm sure this list will evolve and be added to but for now this is all I can think of!

What are some of your favorite things?

¿Cuanto tiempo deben esperar para tener el bullfight?

2007-07-05T14:55:00.000-07:00

How long do you wait after a divorce to start dating again? How long should it be until you share a romantic relationship?

As previously chronicled Gordo and I have been friends since childhood. During our time as friends he has had various and sundry lady friends, but none that really took that well. He dated quite voluminously in High School and directly thereafter. But, since he never was much for books and school he didn't go off to college right away. And, as time wore on, he found less and less amorous ladies around that weren't drunken whore-beasts or that did not offend his delicate optical sensibilities. This dearth of opportunity (aided in small part by school and work) lead him to leave Washington and go to school in Arizona, and afterwards, live and work in LA.

(Gordo and I when we were 16ish. Check out the fantasitc amounts of zits! And don't worry, those are just brownies in Gordo's teeth. Not dung.)

Through telephone conversations during his time in the Southwest, things did not get any better for Gordo. In fact, it is fairly obvious that life in general (especially social life) worsened. During his year in Arizona he did not meet anyone he even put an effort towards and in LA he wound up with Inquisition; a recovering alcoholic / nymphomaniac / head case that he stuck with due to frustration and loneliness. That had to be the worst relationship of his life. They would fight, frolic, and frustrate each other all the time. He would have to deal with her head games and trying to help her with her addictive personality. Don't get me wrong. I'm not viewing Gordo through rose-colored glasses here. He has his fair share of kinks like the rest of us. But, long story short, things crashed and burned with him and Inquisition. After a couple of years of personal hardship he came back home.

(Gordo is on the left. Look at the fear in his eyes! In that moment he is seeing his future with Inquisition. Also, look at my mighty fine stainless steel crowns.)

Gordo is lucky that, though he came from a crazy family, he came from a very good family. When he got back to Seattle he started spending a lot of time with his brother the Snake and wife Mindy. Gordo was Mindy's favorite brother-in-law. She also had a best friend Ginger who was in need of a good friend at the time. So, around March of this year, she started having both of them come over at the same time. As I'm sure you have guessed they got along and started to hang out on their own more and more, much to Mindy's delight.

(Ginger playing the lusty queen of the forest)

Now, the reason that Ginger was in need of a good friend was that she was in the middle of a divorce. Late last year her husband told her that he had been seeing other people (naked) for quite some time and wanted a divorce. Now, I haven't asked her myself for obvious reasons, but I imagine that this was crushing, devastating, infuriating, rage inducing, and harrowing to Ginger. They had been married for 3-4 years and she had no idea of his infidelities until he just laid it on her. Luckily they didn't have any children together.

So, Ginger's need of a good friend, and Gordo's need of a good friend and wholesome companionship worked out extremely well. Over time their bond has just deepened. Gordo has told me more than once that he has never hung out with a member of the opposite sex that he could just sit and talk to until all wee hours of the morning. Someone with whom he could share stimulating conversation and who shared so many of the same interests. Someone with whom he was at home with. It is quite obvious when Vesper and I hang out with them that if Ginger wasn't in the middle of a divorce they would be together. They really care for each other, a lot. But, since they aren't down with any degree of adultery they are sticking hard to their friendship game plan until after the divorce is finalized.

(Ginger with her mama)

So, this brings us back to the million dollar question. Vesper and I have discussed this but to no avail. How long should Gordo and Ginger wait after her divorce is official (August 15th) to become romantically involved? The letter of the law states 2.5 seconds after the court makes the divorce official they are free since she is free. But I have to imagine that social pressure may dictate otherwise. Yet, she has been estranged from her ex-hubby 9 months and her and Gordo have cultivated their bond for close to 4. How long will it take her parents to be okay with another man? I frankly have no idea. All of this discussion could be a moot point if, regardless of all of the signs, she is not ready for a romantic relationship. But, since they spend just about every free moment together and unconsciously do lots of leaning together, innocent hand / arm touching, and other couple-like things I don't feel that's the case. I guess only time will tell.

(Ah to be young and ignorant of the vicissitudes of life. From left to right; Daddy Gordo, Mama Gordo, Gawain, Gordo, Coach B)

In Which I Act Like a 3-year old

2007-07-05T10:48:00.000-07:00

I just thought I would post some pictures I made with my 9-year-old Cousin Soccerboy. Whenever Vesper and I head over to Kirkland to see our extended family Soccerboy begs either of us to go off and play video games, watch TV, or other nonsense. I usually turn him down in favor of talking with my relatives but on this occasion I was intrigued by Big Apple's mac book and the crazy contortionist pictures that could be taken with it. So I sat down for 5 minutes and did my worst. He (and apparently I am too) is quite the silly one. (My cousins Big apple and Horsey also make an appearance in the 3rd picture) The 2nd picture is by far my favorite of the group. It's fairly disturbing.

A Suite Afternoon

2007-06-27T17:26:00.000-07:00

Courtesy of KTSW's luxury suite and PEMCO's good relationship with the local broadcasting network our department had the chance to take the afternoon off and go and catch a day baseball game. It wasn't just any day baseball game either. The Boston Redsox were in town and the Mariners were going for the sweep. Diasuke Matsuzuka was pitching for the Redsox and was facing off against the other Japanese uber-star Ichiro Suzuki, so with Japanese paparazzi and American junk food in tow, it was meant to be a memorable afternoon.

Elle (My Guru), Kansas (The One Who Hired Me) and I all left the office together around 12:30 to make sure that we had plenty of time to find parking and to gorge as much food as possible before the 1:35 start time of the game. Everything was going swimmingly until we got to the gate to scan our tickets to enter the ballpark. When our tickets were scanned, the only message the staff's handhelds gave was "reprinted". They were as flummoxed as we were so as a result we were instructed to walk to the opposite side of the ballpark and to address the problem at customer services. After standing in line a good fifteen minutes the reward we got was a stumped look from the customer service rep. His computer told him that the tickets had been reprinted a couple of days ago and that our tickets were no good. He looked dubious when we explained our story to him. After a couple of calls to various supervisors, and with no explanation to us he wrote out this little sheet of paper and told us to go to the concierge's desk at the Suite Level.

Well, thankfully the whole episode ended anticlimactically when we were just able to walk right into the suite level with no problem at all. A couple of KTSW reps dropped by the suite around the 3rd inning and explained that they had double booked the suite and had had the tickets reprinted on Tuesday, thus making our tickets void and utterly retarded. Luckily they were able to move the other group to a different box. So, though the episode was very very lame we got to eat the other groups food as well as our own.

(There are 3 pizzas, beer, wine, soda, water, hot dogs, sausages, chicken breasts, hamburgers, popcorn, peanuts, and a pile of cookies that are not shown)

After wolfing down 2 plates of food in record time I finally sat down with a glass of lemon water and took in the beautiful view of the Seattle skyline from our suite.

As the first inning wore on I noticed, much to my delight, that those working in or on Qwest Field across the way were watching "People's Court" while plied their respective trades.

It must be nice to watch daytime television on a 40' screen at work.

The game went along at a pretty nice clip, but Elle and I found that it was much more boring being at the game without our better halves and usual social counterparts. Many of our coworkers ended up staying inside and just watching the game on TV while eating and drinking. What enthusiasm.

To make an exceedingly boring post short, the Mariner's ended up winning in extra-innings 2-1. Thus, the Mariners gloriously swept the Redsox, Ichiro won the Japanese smack-down by hitting an RBI single in the 3rd inning off of Dice-K (but sadly by not engaging in a martial arts showdown), and I won a Mariners jersey in a department drawing. Overall, between the food, the sights, the Mariner's win, and lack of work made this afternoon a splendid one after all.

(Ichiro just before getting his RBI single off of Dice-K)

(Myself and Elle - My, doesn't my face look gargantuan?!?!?!?!)

(From left to right - Jacque, Kansas, Gawain, K-Dawg)

(The fact that MySpace is Mr. Betancourt's favorite website is simply proof of the psychological horrors that take place in Cuba. Apparently he still thinks he's a 14 year-old girl in a training bra.)

(The Mariners jersey I won...lady luck was on my side)

(Raghu and his ridiculous amount of bling. Maybe they just do things differently in India.)

Oh, My God!

2007-06-25T11:00:00.000-07:00

I would like to preface this post (It has been a very long time by the way.) by stating that I am a Christian. I love being a Christian. I volunteer at, and go to my church every week. In this post I will be mocking art and artist, not the Son of God.

A couple of weeks ago Vesper and I were doing some Father’s Day/Birthday shopping down at the SuperMall. We were well wearied and eager for some rest so we spied some of those tacky massage chairs and splurged for a 3 minute back rub. Across from the chairs was the Christian Outlet Clearance Center. Always curious to see the wares of such stores Vesper and I wandered over. To my initial horror, and later delight, this is the first thing that we saw.

It was quite simply one of the most ridiculous pictures of Christ that I have ever seen. Here is a clearer version of the same picture.

The cacophony of religious symbols is enough to overwhelm the unwary viewer. Vesper and I stood gazing awestruck at the painting for a good 2-3 minutes. Then, the laughing kicked in. I don't think I stopped snickering and guffawing for quite some time. Then, we spent the remainder of our time trying to figure what on EARTH the artist was attempting to say.

- Mallet and Nails - These artifacts point to the fact that this man is a sinner. Apparently his sins have crucified Christ anew, or he's doing his darnedest to.

- River of Blood - The Blood of the Lamb is what saves and cleanses all from sin. So, I suppose that having the hooded Christ dragging the man of sin up the river of blood signifies that he is attempting to redeem the man of sin through his efforts.

- Dirty Jeans - He has rolled around so much in mammon and the earthly things of this world that he is simply filthy. In need of a good blood bath, if you know what I mean.

- Purple Shirt - This one was a bit tricky for us. Colors can symbolize many different things. But for the sake of this religious painting, let’s take a look at how purple is used in the Bible.

Royalty (Mark 15: 17, 20, John 19: 2, 5)

Decadence and Abomination (Rev. 18: 12, 16, Rev. 17: 4)

Holiness and Service of God (Ex. 39: 1-3, 5, 8, 24, 29, Ex. 28: 5-6, 8, 15, 33, Ex. 35: 6, 23, 25, 35, Ex. 26: 1, 31, 36, Ex. 36: 8, 35, 37, Ex. 38: 18, 23)

So, either this man is: A) Of the royal birthright and has fallen into wayward paths B) Immersed in his decadence and all that is worldly and revels in his abominations or C) A humble servant of his master that his been caught up in the vicissitudes of life and despite all of his earnest efforts is in need of the grace of Christ. I vote for B.

- Christ's Hands - Notice Christ's hand clutching the man's sternum. Christ's hands are also a symbol of his redeeming love and ultimate sacrifice for creation. Through clutching the man so fervently with his hand, he is beginning to lift the purple (read sin/abomination/decadence) from the body of this man. This is the hand that is being used to pull the man along the river of blood to who knows what. Christ's other hand is supporting the weight of the unconscious man.

- Unconsciousness - Apparently he is so deep in sin that he is also unconscious from lack of the living water of Christ.

- White Lilies - Symbol of the resurrection. Pretty straightforward.

So, in the end, after analyzing all of the symbols, we were still confused. Do the lilies mean that this is the resurrection for this man? That all of us have done this to Christ, and this is the payment he makes for all of us? Is this simply a wayward soul who is being helped back onto the path of righteousness? I nominate this picture of Christ as the worst of all time, at least of those who are trying to be serious and worship and pay homage to God. Simply atrocious, but good for a laugh and a bemused headshake. Poor guy. He tried hard, but ended up making a creepy painting in which Jesus could pass for a vampire. Am I wrong for missing the blunt guilt paintings of Christian yester-year?

(The caption on this picture reads, "If you have done it unto the least of these, ye have done it unto me." Nothing like a good stab of guilt, or heroin.) (As an aside, I have a couple of observations about this painting as well. 1) That junkie has a lot of meat and muscle on him for being a junkie. Also, Christ has quite the gun. 2) Would that injection of the sauce really hurt the Post-Resurrection Son of God? He has a glorified and perfect body by the 20th century. That needle isn't going to phase the Creator of heaven and earth. 3) Dude, a skull? 4) Are those nun chucks on the door? 5) There are many others, but haven't we dissected enough cheese ball paintings for one day, month, and year?)

Do you even know I exist?

2007-05-25T12:09:00.000-07:00

Today Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End is coming out!!! HOORAY!!! Acutally, it came out yesterday at 8pm. This is the fact that is killing me. I really wanted to go yesterday, but yesterday I was very sick, and of the 24 hours that were in the day yesterday, I slept for 16.5 of them. Its very important to me to make it to the opening day of a film that I am very excited about. Its all about making sure the numbers are awesome for the films you love. Gawain and I aren't the only people this matters to. I've had a friend who refused to go to the opening weekend of Star Wars episode 3 just to punish George Lucas for what a horrible job he did on episode 2. I know. Its a weird twisted world I live in. Even weirder than making sure I count in the tally of big opening weekends is my desire to dress up in the appropriate attire to match some movies. For instance, I would totally love to dress up as a pirate wench to go to the movies tonight.

Instead, I have a pirate shirt and a pirate ring I got from disney world that I will be wearing instead.

Other movies I have dressed up for would be Coyote Ugly my sis and I dressed up like bottle tossing skank whores saw the movie the opening day of the film.

Charle's Angels, my 4 roommates and I dressed up like crime fighting skank whores.

The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions my guyfriend and I dressed up like Trinity and Morpheous (which was weird for him since he is white and Morpheous is not). We saw both movies at the Midnight showing opening day.

I also wore a Star Wars shirt and did my hair like Princess Leia for the opening of Starwars:Episode 3. Also a midnight viewing of the show the opening day, in fact we went again at the 1030am showing the same day to watch it again.

In the end, does it even matter that I dress up? Does it matter I go the first day instead of the 15th day a film is out? To me it TOTALLY does! I just hope that the movie people recognize!!!

ps: Doesn't Johnny Depp look yummy in that "pirates" movie poster?

A long time ago...we used to be friends...

2007-05-23T09:57:00.000-07:00

Oh Veronica Mars!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How can that be the end!?!?!?!?!

Last night was the final episodes of one of my favorite tv shows call Veronica Mars. First off it went badly because I missed the memo that it started at 8pm instead of 9pm so Gawain is going to have to download the missed episode to see what we missed. Then! I want more than anything in the world for Logan and Veronica to be back together. It looked like, if the show would continue, that it was going to go in that direction, for Logan was doing all kinds of 'heroics' to keep Veronica safe, but of course, how will we ever know what happened to them?????? I hate you CW!! I hate everyone that didn't watch Veronica Mars and give it good ratings!!!!! WAHHHHHHH!!!!!

From L to R: Weeval, Parker, Wallace, Pez, Veronica, Keith Mars, Logan, Dick, Mac, Sherif Lamb

Pomp and Circumstance

2007-05-22T19:45:00.000-07:00

Well, Last week I was able to go home and hang with the fam. Home for me is in Lake Worth, FL, and oh what a glorious place it is! My parents live 15 minutes from a great beach and 20 min. from an AWESOME beach. Its usually sunny and warm. I really really really LOVE to visit my family the most though because I get to see them! I usually only get to see them for 5-7 days every year. Sometimes its hard not being able to see them very often, sometimes its not, but I'm always reminded of how much I truly did miss them once I get home to fl.

This particular visit was warrented due to the fact that my little baby brother was graduating from high school. It still blows my mind that he is of graduation age! Any way, so I get to fl the first day and my poor dad is trying to finish the yard. He just had a patio put in and the patio people had made a huge mess of the yard and had messed up the sprinkler system. So guess who got to clean up after the patio people...thats right his lovely children! ANyway, so the first day sucked like crazy (8 hours of manual labor is NOT my idea of a vaca). Next day, beach time! I finally got to go with my sister and her boyfriend and I totally toasted the back of my legs but still got not burned color elsewhere. Next day was the graduation. For a graduation class of 500+, an hour and a half graduation was suprisingly short and sweet. Some pics to capture the moment:

My littlest sis and I being bored

The smartest 18 year old I know (except for maybe the validictorian of his class...a 5.0 GPA??who knew??)

So we had a huge awesome party for my bro that night (by the way, its worth mentioning that after 8 hours of manual labor to pretty up the yard had been accomplished for said party, it rained and no one was able to go outside and enjoy the awesome patio and even more awesome yard) and the next day......DISNEY WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Disney World is my absolute positively most favorite place on earth. I could go a gazillion times and never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever be tired of it!!!! I'm gettin all giddy just writing about it. It truly is the happiest place on earth and dreams really do come true there. Anyway,we went to Epcot and it was totally awesome. The weather was perfect! The crowd control was perfect!! it was just a great time!!! Even more fun was searching for "hidden Mickeys" which is my favorite thing to do at the parks. Here are some of the highlights, in pictures, of the fun:

hooray for mickey!! also check out my blue shirted sisters boob job!

an infamous "hidden mickey" that I found with out the aid of the guide

my most favorite disney princess ever: Sleeping Beauty aka Princess Aurora aka Briar Rose

Me gettin eaten by Bruice the great white shark

Holding up Spaceship Earth with jets of water shooting out of my hands

I sure wish Gawain liked Disney world as much as I did so we could spend every vaca there. So I'm done boring you with my travels but here are a couple of pictures of my littlest sister and I at the beach:

Me about to get totally wiped out by a huge wave (it doesn't look that big but I went head over heels face first into the water)

My littlest sis and I enjoying a last couple of minutes together before I leave for the airport

One's a Knight, another's a Jabber, and the last one has died and come back to life

2007-04-17T20:13:00.000-07:00

I was listening to my mp3 player (I'm old school) when the Pet Shop Boys came on. I was really digging the song and it got me to thinking. Neil Tennant has such a nasally voice, why on earth do I like it so much? This isn't something that has developed recently either. I remember riding around in my brother's '80 VW Rabbit (The one we had was sky blue) being 9 years old and listening to the awesome 80's music of the time. One song that always stuck with me was "Opportunities" by PSB. Sure, I remember liking Information Society, Erasure, Bananarama, Human League, Duran Duran, and OMD as well, but I just loved the voice of the guy who sang "Opportunities". Now, at 25 years of age I'm listening to "The Sodom and Gomorrah Show" on the walk to the bus and still digging it. I don't get it. Why this deep seated affection for the voice of Neil Tennant? So, as I walked, and then rode the bus home I racked my brain trying to decide who my favorite male singers were. I was able to come up with 3 that rose head and shoulders above the rest. In reverse order they are:

#3 - Bono Vox aka Paul Hewson

Group - U2

Songs Where He Especially Shines - One, One Tree Hill, and Please

What to say about Bono that his many fans haven't already said? I for one feel that his voice peaked around '90-'91 during the recording and touring of Achtung Baby. He was still able to his those insanely clear high notes, but his voice had some balls when needed as well. Feel what you want to about his extra-rock god activities, but this man packs more emotion and feeling into his voice than just about anyone. It's nice when a performer can make you feel what they are feeling.

#2 - Neil Tennant

Group - Pet Shop Boys

Songs Where He Especially Shines - You Only Love Me When You're Drunk, Being Boring, and Can You Forgive Her (Check out the "Product" section of their website for audio clips)

Much has been mentioned about Mr. Tennant above. I'll just make this quick observation about his voice. It really has become much better with age. The nasal whininess has become much smoother and less abrasive he has advanced through life. Not that it has mattered to me, I was digging on his voice at the age of 9.

#1 - Dav(e)(id) Gahan

Group - Depeche Mode and Solo Project

Songs Where Especially He Shines - John the Revelator, Shine, and In Your Room

By far my favorite singing voice on earth. To me, he is the only one in this triad that can take a mediocre song and make it listenable/enjoyable. He has always (Well...let's call it from 1984, or when he finally made it through vocal puberty) had an excellent aggressive/suggestive singing voice. His voice is just cool. He can channel such wonderful darkness and emotion through those windpipes of his. But what has put him over the top is, after he got of the heroin sauce he took some serious vocal lessons and added another dimension to his vocal performance. Now on top of the funk he grinds, he increased his range and can now sing tenderly, as well as aggressively. (For a good example, check out Precious) For me, it just doesn't get any better than Dave Gahan.
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On a complete side note. An apartment building that I walk by on the way to work every day had it's fire alarm going off so I had the opportunity to see all of ghetto folks. Let me tell you, I was NOT prepared for the visual feast I was about to encounter. I just wish I was better at taking clandestine pictures so I could have snapped a picture of his huge beer gut hanging over his bitchin' black sweats as well.

What a wonderful...weekend?

2007-04-16T13:21:00.000-07:00

So its been a long time since Gawain and I have had a really really really fun weekend. This is mostly due to the stupid weather that seems to spring up every weekend and also Gawain having terrible allergies since it is spring. Lucky for us, Gawain got tickets to the baseball game for Satruday. And they were GREAT tickets. We were sitting 40 rows behind homeplate on the lower deck. It was AWESOME!!!

Also great was the fact that we got a parking pass with the tickets so we got to park our beater 89 honda accord inbetween a canary yellow mercedes and a silver audi A6. The game was really fun. It was the Texas Rangers VS. the Seattle Mariners. Although I am a terribly uncoordinated person and have never played and excelled at sports, I do enjoy being a spectator. Theres just something about being in the midst of lots of people all excited about one thing. I suppose I just feed off the energy. So, a great reason I like to go to games is because you are allowed to eat all the disgusting things you would normally never allow yourself to eat and its ok. For instance, Gawain and I each had a BBQ pork sandwhich, a bag of potatochips, large lemonade, he had a cotton candy, I had a fruit kabob dipped in chocolate and nuts, and then I also had a bag of cracker jacks. mmmmmmmm......Anyway so the final score ended up being Mariners:8 and Rangers:3.

We then had to go to this square dancing thing for our church at a different church. OK, first of all I normally do not like to go to extra curricular activites for our church. Nothing personal, Gawain and I would just rather spend time together or with Isabel and the King. The problem is that we are on the Activites Committee for our church so we kind of have to go. Also, this particular activity, the Activities Committee main person was out of town and wanted me to advertise for this activity and get people to bring drinks. On the day I was supposed to advertise I totally blanked and left all of the flyers at home and didn't have anyone bring drinks. I did email everyone in the church, but that didn't seem to help because when Gawain and I show up, we are the only ones from our church there!!! The people from the other church all have a hungry look in their eyes like "new meat" and swarm to greet us and find out more about us, only to be disappointed on two counts that 1: we belong to another church and 2: we are the only ones from our church.....that's right. for the 1st hour we were the only ones there! The ironic (or not) thing is that it ended up being REALLY FUN!! and also everyone from the other church ended up being really really nice....we kind of want to go there now...perhaps we can move or something!

Your Eggs Are Showing

2007-04-08T16:28:00.000-07:00

If there is one thing that Vesper and I love about Easter (besides the obvious religious aspects) is the decorating of eggs. Last year, much to our chagrin we didn't get time to decorate eggs and the only photo that was produced from that year was this steamy Doctor Octopus and Captain America shot.

Much to our delight we had the chance to decorate eggs both on Friday and Saturday nights with our friends El Gordo and Ms. Logic. The following are the festivity's blue ribbon winners.