Time to put on my business socks

I'm getting down to business today with the help of my handy dandy business socks of flying monkeys. Check it:

I love socks. I never wear plain white socks and I like to match my socks to my mood or goals of the day. Today's socks, though, are inspired by a website I just discovered. An old friend from back in the days of first grade and onward is a Flash animator and has a web cartoon of Space Monkey Mafia. It's really cute and quite hilarious. So my socks today are about flying monkeys.

Flying monkeys aside, however, I am getting down to business, hence the business socks. I'm going to dig into statistical analysis (delicious) and dive into a journal article for class (everyone needs exercise). In addition to the help I will be receiving from my socks, I've also got two kitties to help me along.

Fred's business is sleepy time. Where's he going? Sleep. Sleepy town.

I hope I don't doze off looking at the cute guy's cute face.

Ewan McGregor

This post is going to make my husband mad/sad, because he knows my sentiments for Ewan McGregor. However, I would like more people to randomly land on my blog by doing google searches for famous people and movies. Therefore, I am posting a bunch of McGregor pictures. Plus, the man deserves it, people!

Ewan McGregor has been one of my favorite actors for about 10 years (others include Cary Elwes, Gene Wilder, and Hugh Jackman). I discovered him in high school in movies like "Trainspotting", "Shallow Grave", and "Eye of the Beholder", but "Moulin Rouge" really cinched the deal for me. Before "Moulin Rouge" came out, I'd told my then-best friend that I thought Ewan McGregor was really good looking. She flat out laughed at me (crazy!). After she and I went to see "Moulin Rouge", however, she came crawling back and bowed down to the McSexy McGregor. We then proceeded to see "Moulin Rouge" six more times in the theatre (thankfully, half of those were in the dollar theatre, movies are too expensive). People gave that movie a lot of shit, we even witnessed people walk out of it. But if you notice, the following year "Chicago" came out and got raves. Rip off. I refused to watch that movie for years. I have seen it now and it's ok, but I can't stand Richard Gere singing and I still think it's bogus.

"Moulin Rouge" was actually the first DVD I ever bought. Why do I even remember such a thing? It's a funny story...at least to me. My friend and I watched and waited for the movie to be released on VHS. We finally saw an ad saying it was due to be out on such and such a day. Hooray! That day came, we drove to Best Buy, looked all through the VHSes, and nothing. No "Moulin Rouge". At least, not on VHS. It was first released on DVD only. Blasted! Neither of us had a DVD player (can you even believe that?). So what did we do? Well, we each bought the DVD and then I bought a DVD player. Yup. I bought a brand new DVD player just so I could watch "Moulin Rouge". Heh. That's very unlike me, as I am...how do I put this delicately...cheap. Yes, I love money, I love saving money, I love checking my banking account to see how much money I have, I love finding money. In the words of Max Bialystock (Zero Mostel), "I WANT THAT MONEY!!!" Anyway, so I bought a DVD player and we proceeded to watch "Moulin Rouge" way too much, even attempting to learn the dance that Kylie Minogue, AKA The Green Fairy, does...no success. Super fun times were had.

Sadly, I started watching "Moulin Rouge" a few months ago and it no longer gripped me like it once did. I'm pretty sure part of the problem is my living in a crappy apartment with no sound proofing, which inhibits me from singing along. I'm going to give it another chance after I finish this post though, neighbors be damned!

Too much talk. On to some pictures!

I love him for more than his "Moulin Rouge" days though. He's a mothertruckin' Jedi, people! Come on!

I like to think that he's enough of a geek that this picture, while somewhat sarcastic, shows him genuinely enjoying some "Star Wars" nuts. Afterall, his uncle played a fighter pilot in one of the originals.

Ok, Ok, in this picture he looks a little...umm, Nathan knows the word I'm searching for but won't print. Happy, yeah, happy. The guy's got a great smile.

No words neccessary.

Words neccessary? His head is in a lion's mouth. Words done.

Hah, words definitely neccessary! He's Scottish. He sometimes wears kilts. He sometimes doesn't wear a shirt when he's wearing a kilt. And sometimes he casts "Come hither" looks when he's wearing a kilt with no shirt.

Bespectacled, a bit nerdy, and great. Note: the people who did Rob Pattinson's hair for his character of Edward in "Twilight" totally ripped off Ewan's look (see picture below).

Just posing.

Black and white pictures are always nice.

I mentioned Rob Pattinson having McSexy's hair in "Twilight", but he also has Ewan's expression. I've only put one picture below and if you're not convinced you need to watch a "Twilight" clip. It's true.

The hair. The look.

Other great McGregor works to check out:
A Life Less Ordinary
Velvet Goldmine
Down with Love
Star Wars prequels
Big Fish
Night Watch
Brassed Off
Emma
Long Way Round
Long Way Down

Back from vaca, the weath was great

I save actual seconds each week abbreviating words. It's phenom!

Nathan and I are back from our trip to AZ and Disneyland. It was pretty fun, and I've got pictures to prove it!!! I believe I shall do this in snippets, because there are many pictures from the many phases of our trip.

Phase 1 - The drive to AZ, Jan 1st, 2009

As much as I often detest this place called home, AKA the Bay Area, it really is quite beautiful.

It was soooo foggy on our drive that morning. All the way from our home in Berkeley to just before LA. Fog fog fog fog fog. Kind of scary in some places actually, because we'd be driving up a mountain with very low visibility and people would still be zooming around. Dangerous a-holes.

Wide open and amazing. Get a load of that vanishing point!

Yup, that's snow. This was somewhere still in CA called Tehachapi. We visited a fine establishment in this town. You may have heard of it, Walgreens.

Phase 2 - The fam, Jan 2nd to Jan 7th, 2009

From left to right, mom, Piggy, Nathan.

Awww, Piggy loves Nathan. Frickin' adorable!!!!

Oh, poor old Floppy. She's got no hearing, hardly any vision, but a strong sniffin' snout. This old puppy loves to mooch, and the habit has gotten more aggressive with old age. Perhaps she thinks she's alone in the room since she can't see or hear us, and so she thinks, "Why don't I put my cute little puppy paws on this table and try to get Allison's food? She'll never know it was me. Woof!"

Mom and G-ma. My mom insisted on getting some family portraits taken when we were in town. They turned out pretty funny because my mom has her mouth open and laughing in all of them (I'll have to scan in a couple maybe). In her defense, my nephew Daniel, 2, was cracking her up the whole time.

My little Pigglet. Piggy loves laying on laps. It's probably her favorite thing in the world. Other favs of Pigglet include chasing the Trash Truck Monster, barking at hot air balloons, mooching, sleeping, and barking at the neighbor dogs. Oh Piggy, you're so cute!

Phase 3 - DISNEYLAND, Jan 9th to 11th, 2009

Here I am outside of Splash Mountain in Disneyland. Nathan got the brunt of the splashing that day, but out of the shot my pants are soaked. I didn't mind, it feels nice when you're walking around in the sun. Yes, it's warm to hot even in January. Add to that my sissy-hood when it comes to heat. Equals, SPLASH FUN TIME!

Big Thunder Railroad broke down when we were on it. Not just temporarily either. We were stuck sitting stopped on the tracks for a good 10 or 15 minutes and then had to walk through the attraction to get out. There were two pre-teen girls sitting in front of us who kept talking to us and were pretty funny.

We had a very delicious lunch in Downtown Disney at this place called Naples. It was pretty expensive (thank you, greedy corporate such-and-suches), but did I mention delicious? It was delicious. There was a really creepy chef/clown thing projecting out from the restaurant that this picture is supposed to show. But you can't expect too much from a random person taking your photo, at least they got me and Nathan in it.

I'm sad here because Nathan didn't want to go where I wanted to go. I don't remember where I wanted to go, but it was somewhere, I know that much. You can see Nathan trying to worm his way into the photo, heh heh. I also like that you can see the big ship in the background and all the crazy people.

Here we are on Space Mountain. I love riding this ride with Nathan because he giggles the whole time. Giggling is funny any time, but Nathan giggling is hilarious. He sounds like a mixture of Mickey Mouse (no joke) and a giddy schoolgirl. And for some reason, this ride in particular elicits the giggle fits from my goofy dear. He always looks so funny in these pictures that they take on the rides (here he is making sure nothing falls out of his pockets), while I look calmly happy.

Beautiful Disneyland. It really is beautiful too. The amount of details they have around the place is just amazing. You don't even need to go on the rides to enjoy the place, just keep your eyes open for unexpected decorations around the entire park.

This is over in the other park, California Adventure. Nathan doesn't like this side as much because it's not so Disney oriented. But I love it because it has the biggest roller coaster, California Screamin'. This, however, is their newest attraction, which is the 3D Toy Story Midway Mania. For your line-ly entertainment, Mr. Potatohead. Potato Potato, Potato Potato.

One of Nathan's favorite Disney movies (the favorite?) is Pinnochio. We found this little restaurant within a part of the park we'd never seen before, tucked away in behind the Dumbo ride and some random princess stuff for little girls. I really like this picture, because as Nathan pointed out when looking at it last night, it looks like his thought bubble.

This is in CA Adventure again heading into the Hollywood side of the park, which houses the Twilight Zone's Tower of Terror. We finally decided we were going to do this ride though it frankly terrifies us just to look at the building. It's a tall hotel looking building with a flickering neon sign. Our friend Richard and his new lady friend were at the park with us this day, and they were going to ride it together, even though she gets motion sick. Nathan and I thought, if she can do it, so can we. So we did. I was so scared waiting in the line and walking into the elevator where the ride actually happens. But it wasn't too bad at all. The ride shoots you up real high in the elevator and drops you, up, down, up, down, in various stages and heights. BUT, you're inside a building and can't really tell how high you are. The scariest part for me actually was when you get to the very top, there's no wall between you and the outside and you can see just how high above the park you are. THAT was the scariest.

Every time Nathan and I go to Disneyland, we each buy one pin for our lanyards to mark the occasion. This was our 5th trip. I first took him to Disneyland to celebrate his graduating from ASU. He hadn't been since he was a little kid, and was very excited. Needless to say, he loved it! So, when we moved to Berkeley and he started working at a coffee shop, I started saving all of his tip money to fund two year-long passes for us. He made pretty good tips, we bought the passes, and we've been 4 more times. We'll probably only make it back one more time before they expire on June 4th, boo. Anyway, the point in my telling this story is that Nathan's pin for this trip was sorcerer Mickey and we found this statue in CA Adventure of sorcerer Mickey. Picture needed. Picture taken.

If Nathan were here right now (and not on his way to his first day at a new job, to be described at another time), he would say that this is an epic blog post. Yes.

The end.

The handmade homemade christmas present extravaganza

Since the completion of my semester, I've been a-craftin' up a storm. I've made a hat and scarf for a cold friend in Michigan, started a new super-secret scarf project for an unnamed beneficiary, painted a box for Nathan, painted a box for my grandma, painted some holiday thingies for me and Nathan, and painted a Noah's arc thingy for my nephew. I've been working on these things for probably 5-8 hours a day, no joke.

Here's the hat and scarf I made. I wanted a picture of them before I mailed them off to the midwest. I'm still waiting to hear if they've been received and dutifully loved.


This is a Christmas thingy that I started painting years ago. The last time Nathan and I were in AZ, I found a tub full of my old craft supplies and decided to bring it back to Berkeley. I was digging through it a few days ago and found this half-painted thing and decided to finish it. Below it is the box I painted for my grandma, who I will be seeing in AZ in just a few days. Grandmas always love little knickknacks, right?


I just finished this present for my nephew Daniel last night. I think it turned out pretty cute. My brother has some weirdly strong urge to decorate the kid's room with Noah's ark stuff, so I guess this should fit in nicely.


I'm looking forward to giving out all these presents. Nathan and I are leaving for AZ on Thursday, but we're not having our replacement Christmas celebration until Saturday. So I've got a few more days to wait. In the mean time, I've got about a million things to do around this place before leaving, including coming up with some new way to thwart the invasion plans of the ants that live in our crawl space. (If it's not a raccoon it's another thing.) I'm really looking forward to our trip though. We're going to be staying with our friend Richard in his new house, and then Richard and us are going to Disneyland!!! Anyway, fun times ahead, I'll post about them when I'm back.

Weekend fun...knitting

I'm nearly finished with the hat I'm knitting for a friend. I haven't made a hat in a really long time, so I've had to sort of relearn how to do it. I think it's turning out ok, and I should have enough yarn left over to make another one.

Mocha and Dark Leaf

I really like making stuff with my hands, as silly as that may sound. Even sillier, I was thinking about trying to sell some of my knitted stuff at one of the copious Bay Area farmer's markets. I think that crazy anti-mass-production Berkeleyites would be willing to pay pretty well for handmade things. Maybe I'm cuckoo.

I'm gonna get my knit on!

I friend of mine is living in Michigan now, and because the weather is leaning into winter that far north, I'm going to knit him a hat and scarf. I've been thinking about adding a series of posts about my knitting projects anyway, so I'm going to start with this. Here are the colors I chose:

I'm going to make the hat striped brown and green, and the scarf will just be green. If I have the energy, I'll do the scarf in a basket weave, otherwise I think I'll just do a really basic one-side knit one-side garter or chunks of rows of knit then garter repeating. Anyway, I'm excited to get started, I haven't knitted anything in about a month.

On the sadder side, I'm going to start grading 100+ pop quizzes now. Boo (not Halloween "boo" but sad "boo"). Thankfully, this grading is mindless enough that I can have "Frasier" on while I'm doing it. Being set in Seattle, this show is the appropriate choice for this evening. After I'm done grading, Nathan and I are going to watch some "X-Files" and I'll start my hat. Yay! I'll post some pictures as I progress (on the knitting, not the grading).

A couple of great songs

"Kiss Me" by Sixpence None the Richer
This song really takes me back to high school (middle school? When did it come out?). And Nathan was kind enough to locate it and include in on our Wedding Soundtrack. He did all of the music for our wedding reception. He put a lot of time into it and came up with about 5 or 6 discs of love-related songs that helped to make that day really special.

"Nothing Compares 2 U" Sinead O'Connor

This song also has a lot of memories for me. Especially, for some reason, with me and Darren. One summer I was having a hard time and Darren was really there for me. We would hang out every single night and have the absolute best time. One of our activities was driving around and listening to all sorts of music and singing insanely loud. Our favorite lyric from this song was "all the flowers that you planted, mama" but she says "mama" really fast. We thought that was great fun.

Timing is everything

When we were in AZ over the summer, our friend Richard introduced us to an internet phenomenon. A youtube video of a song called "What what (in the butt)" by Samwell. I will not post the video here, as I hope to never hear the song again and therefore someday not have it stuck in my head. One of the highly memorable lines from this fine music video is "I won't bite...not that hard."

Ok, now that you have that information, I can tell the story.

After Nathan missed his shuttle today (see post below), he decided to stick around campus with me while I finished up (I needed to attend a practice conference talk for a fellow graduate student). After the talk, one of the girls from the lab had to leave, but she came back when she realized she'd forgotten her keys somewhere. Rather than coming all the way back in the room, she just tentatively poked her head in the door. My advisor then said, "We won't bite" at which point I turned to Nathan and said "Not that hard." A more perfect set up could not be asked for.


The moral of this story: Always keep Nathan around so he can laugh at your jokes.

An old friend is newly happy

As you know, Nathan and I have rediscovered technology via facebook. And with that, we've rediscovered many friends. One of our really good friends in AZ has had a hard year (I won't go into it), but we've been chatting with him through facebook's IM and can tell that he's taken a turn for the happy. Congrats to him and bonne chance avec la nouvelle fille.