birthday sweepstakes

Oh my. This had to be my best birthday yet.

I worked on Thursday, my actual birthday, because I was taking the other days off. I had a meeting with this woman from Japan about our institutional repository (not suppository, or toilet, by the way) and she completely brought a gift (a cute little scarf)! I was so excited that I didn't even get to tell her that it was also my birthday. Also, the Director of the Libraries actually stopped into my office after getting some coffee. That is a benefit of having the coffee shop office, for sure.

I got home and Duke had just arrived. I also had a fabulous birthday present from Bevin, which I will certainly post a photo of, so everyone can appreciate the fabulousness. We got ready and went to dinner with our young friend A. We had delicious thai food and met up with Pilgrim for ice cream after. I was too full to eat any ice cream, but we decided to go for a beer, which I was not too full for. We went to the Surly Girl and met up with Lacy Coxx, her GF, and a couple of others. That was truly fun and then we went home.

Friday I drank two cups of full-on caffeinated coffee so Duke and I talked non-stop for a couple of hours while I made a cake and did dishes. I checked my email and saw that there was a special birthday video from ScootKing and Leo via Portland (see March 24). Then Johnny came home and we went to Pilgrim's for desserts and playing with the baby. I knew that J. Gordon and Jess Webb were supposed to arrive that night, probably around 11 or 12, but there were many text messages with regard to status, etc. We left Pilgrim's at around 12:30 when I was nearly asleep on the couch. We got back and they STILL hadn't arrived. I got a second wind and vacuumed the living room. Johnny announced that they were here so we ran outside and looked for them. I ran to the car and saw that THERE WERE TWO OTHER PEOPLE IN THE CAR! Erica and The Agent has snuck their way to Ohio and were totally in attendance. Jess had stopped for Sparks, so we cracked open a few and stayed up late.

Saturday was a full day. The Agent and I dropped Zoey off at the questionable kennel and took a quick tour of the campus at the cataloging factory. By the time we got back, Johnny had packed up a bag for me and sent Jess, The Agent and I off for the day. It was all planned in advance and all unknown to me. Our first step was to go to this random address. We pulled up in front of the place, and it was someone's house! I wasn't sure what to do, but The Agent assured me it was okay by informing me that we were there for massages and hot tubbing and relaxation-by-magazine looking. I don't need to say how great it was. Then, we took off for sushi and sashimi at the newly renovated japanese restaurant and then we went to see a movie!

We headed back toward home and as we pulled up, I noticed Jupiter (the cat) in the alley. I jumped out to get him, and waited for the rest before going inside. I am glad I waited, because there was A DJ IN OUR HOUSE. My brother, Sil, and family were there and a variety of others, including food and all kinds of excitement. Sil made me this fancy birthday cake and we danced and drank and had so much fun. My Best Friend From High School also came. Here are some selected photos which don't actually represent the entire evening because many hours passed until I remembered to take some photos, and then many passed after I forgot again. [Edit: I forgot to mention that Johnny's cousin and her bf came from DC, just for the party! It was great to see them, and it was such a surprise.]

Anyway, most everyone left on Sunday and i spent the day sleeping and cleaning until Lacy and her sick GF arrived to watch the Sopranos and the Most Awful Season Finale Of All Time with us.

I wish everyday was birthday sweepstakes. Thanks everyone for coming.

Birthday week!

This is going to be a good week. My 30th is Thursday, and Johnny is planning a party for me on Saturday night. Jess, J. Gordon and Duke are coming, I am pretty sure, and maybe some other people too, although I'm still not supposed to talk about it. I am going to go ahead and work on the actual birthday, but I'm taking Friday and Monday off, to enjoy and relax. I am planning to go to yoga on Friday morning, so that will be a nice start.

I wish I could have a birthday sweepstakes. I don't know what exactly that would entail, but it would be cool.

My best friend from high school called me last week and I am going up to visit her tonight. I am strangely excited and a little nervous. I haven't seen her in 7 years, but I am taking some beer, so I'm sure it will be fun.

timing is everything

I have a tendency toward efficiency. I mean, maybe I am a little obsessed with it. I am usually considering the most efficient way to go somewhere, to do a list of things, to get ready in the most efficient way. I am also occasionally obsessed with how other people see me.

I was at the gym and had just come from the shower and was getting dressed in the locker room. I had my pants, socks and shoes left to put on. It was pretty quiet in there because it was pouring rain for about 30 minutes, just enough time to get people to cycle out, but not back in. I put on my socks first because I didn't want to stand on the locker room floor with my bare feet. Then, I thought it made the most sense to put on my pants and limit the amount of time that I was less-dressed. Then I had the efficient idea that if I put my shoes just after my pants, while sitting down, then I wouldn't have to sit back down to put my shoes on, and I'd get out of there a few seconds (or fraction of seconds) earlier. I chose not to untie my shoes because I can usually just slide them on without too much trouble.

My occasional obsession kicked in when someone turned the corner and I suddenly realized I was sitting there, wiggling my feet to get into my shoes, towel across my lap, pants down. I must be the queen of good timing.

First anyone?

This weekend was full of firsts.

Art Museum
I have never been to the art museum here. I don't know why. Leo runs a film festival that had its opening night party (and film) at the museum. It was really nice and Johnny showed me around to all her favorite works in the museum. There was lots of background noise and no people trying to stand in front of us.


Chocolate covered grapes
Whoa. These were served at the opening with lots of other yummy goodies, but wow. If you haven't had these, maybe try some when you can. They are really good.


Yucky post-yoga
Saturday was the first time ever that I didn't feel awesome for the rest of the day after doing yoga. It probably had a lot to do with the sausage gravy from Bob Evans that I ate afterward.


Spaghetti squash
I've never had spaghetti squash before, so I didn't really think that the squash looks like spaghetti, but it does!


Double pie crust
Due to our food connection, we ended up with basically a bushel of apples. I decided to whip up a couple o' pies, but to make them gourmet-style, with double crusts. I always thought it would be hard, but it is just the same, with more dough rolling.


Sopranos!!
Tonight is the first episode of the LAST season of the Sopranos.

woot!

Music to my ears

Our new computer came with GarageBand, a program to create your own music and whatever. Here is our first effort, soon to be on all the radio stations. (AIFF format, Quicktime) I really hope you can play it because Johnny's vocals are OUT OF THIS WORLD. Seriously. Way better than Debra.

I need your help!

I have been trying to think of the title of this book for weeks. It is about a family and the mom dies. There are a bunch of kids, and each chapter is told from the perspective of various people in the story. The older boys have to build the mom's coffin and then there is a bunch of rain and they wait a long time to take her to town to bury her and the bridge washes out and they have to take the long way around and her body begins decomposing, but they still keep going. There is at least a little boy, and a young-ish girl who thinks she is prego. It's a great story, but I can't think of the name or the author. I know you all are well-read, so someone must be able to help me, right?

On a less interesting note, does anyone know of a multi-format IM client that can be used on a mac? I use Trillian on my work PC, but it isn't available for mac.

Running off

Last night after Johnny got home, she was holding the door open to bring in her paintings and Zoey ran out. She sped across the street and down the alley. Johnny went looking for her (and got gas in the truck) but no luck. She came back, but like 20 minutes later. I wish that I had more confidence in her ability to look both ways before crossing the street. I know she would love to just run and run. I think she misses the farm life.

Today my friend Sanj from the cataloging factory got married. She and her (now) husband, Coop, had this big production at the courthouse, where about 25 people showed up in fancy outfits and took photos of them with the justice-of-the-peace (who, by the way, made several inappropriate comments about Sanj making dinner every night and about Coop trying to run away). We all laughed politely and took pictures around him.

There I also saw some women I've known for about...oh, maybe 10 years, that I hadn't seen since my girlfriend at the time and I broke up in 1997 or whatever. That was fun, and it was strange because they look exactly the same. Not older or anything. It gives me hope for when I am nearing 40.

This saturday they are having a big reception dinner at a restaurant, on the same night as Leo's birthday dinner!! We RSVP'd for the wedding some time ago, so we are going to that but then going dancing with Leo, et al., which will fully rock.

What fun

Oh my. So here many days have passed.

We went to Chicago with the Bro and Sil, and it was really fun. We went to this overpriced steakhouse place and ate food that was quite good, but still overpriced. Then, we went to Second City. Dudes, if you ever get a chance to go, you completely should. It was so fun and funny that we went back again the next night for the free improv hour. That alone made we want to move there. Or Toronto, or NY, or Detroit.
We also went to the Contemporary Art Museum where they had a surprise piece by Johnny's fave artist, Lee Bontecou. We saw Gehry's Millennium Park and shared a hot dog with all kinds of stuff on it.

We boarded Zoey for the first time. It was a little sad because she clearly didn't want us to leave her there, but everything went fine, obviously. She was a little crazy when she came home, ran around and chewed up an (empty) box of girl scout cookies. Overally, I'd say it was a success. At least we ate the cookies first.

Last night was muy exciting because we bought our first computer! Can you believe that neither Johnny nor I has ever had to purchase a computer yet in our nearly 60 years (combined)? We saved a little cash and went on over to the Apple store and I am now sitting in a freakin' coffee shop typing on this fancy new iBook, instead of doing my research like I am supposed to. Woo!

Ok. My Birthday is totally coming up and we are having a party. I am just saying that I want you to come, but please don't talk to me about it! I want it to be a surprise if you pop in, so make arrangements with Johnny if you can (please?) come. I promise that we will visit my library and go to Waterbeds-n-Stuff . It will be so fun. Also, if you are going to come early or stay late, mention that to Johnny too, so she can suggest that I take days off work as appropriate.

curling

I have simply been too busy to post, what with the olympics and all. I am fully informed about the wonders of ice dancing, women's arials, and slalom. it's pretty amazing.

I have also been busy with our lap dog:

weather is strange

It's so weird that I didn't even know it snowed on the east coast until, like, Monday. By then, all y'alls were feet deep in the stuff.
Today it was 57 and tomorrow is supposed to be 61 degrees.

Suddenly, Ohio is in the south or some shit.

showtime

The show was so fun. I don't know if it was any good, but I had a great time.

We were there just on time, and I got together with my co-mc's to discuss our strategies. It was a valentine's theme, so the numbers were divided into break up songs and love songs. I decided to dress the theme, so I wore a break-up outfit for the first half which was basically a slinky black number (no photo), and I dressed as a love-princess for the second half. Here's a shot of me and Lacey Coxx, where I am in the princess 'fit:

Leo and I decided to plan a Taboo style game with the conversation hearts (inspired by Bevin) and to spice it up some, we tried to write tiny little words on some of them, for fun.
I asked Leo, "Do they have to be about Valentine's day?"
She said, "well, about love, or sex, or whatever" so I wrote

Give me my pants

on one. that one was a real hit.

Our number was at the end of the first half, and the crowd was fully into it. I wish I had thought to recruit someone to take a photo, but I didn't, but I will tell you this: involved a toaster oven, girl push-ups, and iron-on letters on shirts and underwear.
Here's a post-number shot of Lacey and me. Please note the leg warmers and white cowboy boots (which she got for $9 + shipping on ebay! woo!):


So johnny sang the debra, which was awesome. here's a shot of us before she got too drunk:

Please note the wild look in my eyes.

There was much drinking, and even some inappropriate behavior from johnny's coworker. then we were ready to go, but our stuff was locked backstage. while i waited at the bar for the key, there was some hilarity happening back there. I got there just in time:


I want to take this moment to mention the nail polish on jake's hand. In case you can't see it, here is a close up.


She showed me how she felt about it:


On the way home, we got some White Castle fried cheese, and drank-n-dialed The Jesserson. So fun.

disappointing tv

I made the (nearly) fatal error of watching the grammys last night. what a awful show it has become. kanye was a little clever with the band, but then they messed it up by changing into fancy outfits.

but freakin' green day? u2? jesus. the mainstream "rock" world is full of annoying people. I was interested to learn that the guy who won all those r&b awards is from springfield, not far from here.

Rock on Ohio!

One show that was NOT disappointing however was America's Ballroom Challenge. This is not the Dancing with Celebrities (which I might be missing right now!) but is, instead, a real competition, produced for TV. The dancers are really performers, and talented. I was inspired by the way that some of the dancers would get out there and perform kinda silly-looking moves with so much confidence that it was cool. And hott. It made me realize that I need to practice my choreography for the show on Saturday.

another haircut

This one was much more interesting. After the last experience, I was pretty sure I wasn't going to trek back out to the 'burbs to overpay for a cut and some uninteresting company. I have been asking around, and then I remembered that my one friend said she went to an Aveda salon.

I said to myself: Duh. Of course. An Aveda salon.

I started researching the different places here and after eliminating the ones that are far away and the training school, I made an appointment. I had a great stylist and I now have a salon to call my own.

As a reminder, here is a "before" photo (taken at work with my phone, so a little sketchy on the quality)


And here is an after shot, with the same apology.


I am so rocking out.

kingpin

We went bowling on saturday night after practicing for the show. It was our friend's birthday, so they reserved about 8 lanes at the alley so there were 8 lanes of queers packed into the bowling alley. We drank beer and I almost won once. I bowled a strike, even. Woo!

And the Super Bowl! Go Steelers! As if there was any doubt.

Dude, i am totally obligated now.

Ok, so DonnaTroka "tagged" me with this Lists of 3 thing, AND posted a comment about it, so here goes.

LISTS OF 3

Three books I can read over and over:
1) Tipping the Velvet / Sarah Waters
2) Anna Karenina / Tolstoy
3) David Copperfield / Dickens

Three places I've lived:
1) Ohio, Ohio, Ohio
2) Philly
3) Barbados (well, I visited there, and I dream of living there. Does that count?)

Three TV shows I love:
1) Dancing with the Stars
2) Monday Night Football (woot!)
3) Sopranos

Three highly regarded and recommended TV shows that I've never watched a single minute of:
1) CSI
2) The West Wing (to copy Donna)
3) 24 (Well, almost. I watched one episode a couple of weeks ago, and I wasn't so impressed. I heard later that it was a "not-that-good" episode.)

Three places I've vacationed:
1) Iceland
2) London
3) Barbados (already mentioned, obviously)

Three of my favorite dishes:
1) Sushi (Especially the sweet potato tempura roll. mmm.)
2) Beans and rice (which I made almost every day and now Johnny hates it, so I don't eat it so much anymore)
3) Spinach in nearly any presentation

Three sites I visit daily:
1) www.bloglines.com
2) www.blackboard.drexel.com
3) www.columbus.craigslist.org

Three places I would rather be right now:
1) At the Khyber Dance Party with Jess
2) Some-warm-where, on the beach
3) downstairs eating dinner

Three bloggers I am tagging.
Here I will buck the system and tag... no one! But if anyone wants to do this, you can say I tagged you.

the fun never ends around here

Thursday night ScootKing called to see if we wanted to have an early weekend beer, so we said yes, of course.

We ended up at this crazy place with "Dick" in it's name, which I was always a little curious about, but was a little frightened to go in, based on its name and it's rather dive-like facade. ScootKing said they played jazz there sometimes, so I was comforted. We get there and they have 2.50 Bass and little tiny bottles of red wine for Johnny. We play some pool, people arrive and the band warms up. I want to mention, at this point, there were 2 strange things happening at once, the synchronous nature of which were quite the highlight of the evening.

First, a guy in the band was doing a sound check for his jazz flute. Second, Leo was drinking chocolate pudding through a straw. Here's another dark bar photo of that.

[For the record, I tried to record the yazz flute, but he quit playing before I laid down a good track.]

Today we helped my sister-in-law (hereafter known as Sil) cater a wedding. No, I didn't know she was a caterer either. She made some cakes for some people at her church, and so they asked her to cater ths wedding. She said yes, but there really was a lot involved. We pitched in, and everything went fine, except the cream cheese mints. I will get a photo of the georgeous wedding cake and post it sometime soon.

Tonight Johnny is working on a project where she is drawing a cuckoo clock scene. She was looking for a photo of a person making the third-grade face you make at people when you think they are crazy (or in this case, cuckoo). She couldn't find one, so we tried some photos of our own.

Please excuse the hair in the towel.

And then this one.

Here's Johnny's first effort:

But this is certainly the one that really, truly masters the action and the feeling, all in one.


You should try it. It's harder than you think.

works is busy

My new job is busy. I have been tossing around the idea of getting a Treo Palm to deal with the calendar. It is very exciting, in a office/paperwork/non-Hollywood kind of way, and I am so glad. I just can't believe how lucky I am to have gotten out of The Cataloging Factory relatively unscathed.

Today is my "Research Day" when I am supposed to take time to do research to work toward tenure. It's hard. I came in and actually worked half of the day on this giganto problem with the accounting unit and now I have to figure out when to re-allocate my research time.

In the meantime, I will think about planning for our trip to Chicago! We are taking my brother and sister-in-law for their xmas present at the end of next month. So far, we know we are going to Second City and to some steakhouse or something where they got a gift certificate, and maybe to Millenium Park.
Does anyone have any other suggestions for fun things to do while we are there?

Rock on Ohio!

So after the movie Friday, we went to The Surly Girl Saloon for dinner and then to our neighborhood kareoke bar. We ran into some old friends there, played some pool and sang some songs, as expected. I even tried to get a photo of the awesome sign above the table, in the shape of the state of Ohio, telling us Ohioans to Rock On. Here's a super dark photo in case you just need to see it for yourself.

The best part, by far, was after I completed a rousing rendition of Van Halen's You Really Got Me and a friendly drunken stranger approached me and said "We think you totally have the voice to sing 'Baby got Back'."

The voice?

There's no voice involved there. I just have to be able to say Honda, Fonda and Anaconda, all in a hurry.

I told her I was sorry, but thought I was done singing for the night. Maybe next time.

Saturday we finally went to see Walk the Line at our walking distance movie theater/pub.
Sunday was filled with playoff dreams fulfilled and shattered. Two weeks to the Super Bowl! (I mean, the big game)

oh, those bangs.

update to house problem: no update really, just to say that it was much warmer in the house last night, hopefully that can't be completely attributed to the fact that it is 56 degrees today.

Tonight, i am psyched to say, we are going to see the Ohio premiere screening of The notorious Bettie Page. I feel pretty sure that I won't be worried about insulation as I watch.

House of Horrors

So it has been cold. In the house. Like, really really cold. I can see my breath sometimes when i wake up.

Our last gas bill was $470. As soon as I opened it, I called Johnny and she turned the thermostat down to 50. We got another space heater and began making good use of the wonderful electric throws that Johnny's mom got us for xmas. But it is still really cold. We started troubleshooting and it became clear that the house didn't have any insulation. there is 6 inches in the area between the upstairs and the attic and a little in the basement, but that pretty much covers it. We started calling contractors.

We found one and my lovely new co-worker offered to look themup on Angie's List for us, since she had a membership. They had all A's except a recent B in punctuality (which was an issue for me because I had a 9 am meeting). We agreed they'd come early and I was all worried about it. They came 10 minutes after 8, which was perfect. I signed the papers and left.

I got this cute message at 3:30 saying that they were all done and had cleaned up and everything had gone really well.

Johnny called at 4 saying that it was a disaster. She came home to broken asbestos siding patched with SPACKLING. Mud on the floors and insulation (kinda like those little peanuts) all over our stuff in storage in the attic.

WTF.

I called to complain and after much rigamaroll they offered us this: a $500 check or they'd replace the siding. The problem is that you can't really buy asbestos siding anymore. The people who lived here before moved the door, apparently, and replaced the siding area with wood siding in the same shape. So what do we do? We are going to talk about it and call them tomorrow. What jerks. I read that it is okay to seal the siding yourself to keep the harmful fibers from getting into the air. Then maybe we could paint it.

If you live in the area and are thinking of getting insulation, don't use these guys.

After all this, it better be warmer in here, dammit.