[Crickets Chirping]

Yeah... it's been quite a month.

I've thought a bit about blogging (though primarily on my professional blog), but haven't got around to it. Something about work and school and school and work... and no time to breathe.

Anyway, in this week's news:

• Alex is currently in Kharkov, Ukraine (yes, again... again), and staying a total of two weeks (yes, through Thanksgiving)... and his suitcase is lost.
  
• Despite my neti pot, my sinuses are giving me intense grief. By which I mean pain.
  
• All the Christmas presents have been bought, and arrived in nice brown packages last night. I'm having a little wrapping party by myself tonight, then sticking the presents under the bed until Christmas.
  
• I'm trying to register for spring classes... and facing the likelihood of three evening classes a week--which means getting home around 10pm three nights a week. Geez, can I just live in Denton??
• I'm not really as grumpy as all this sounds. Promise.
• I keep trying to read a chapter or two of a fiction book to put myself to bed, and I can't concentrate on any, even my favorites. The last book I successfully read for fun was A.J. Jacob''s non-fiction "Know It All," about reading the entire Encyclopedia Britannica. (Oh, and "Freakonomics.") I think my brain doesn't have the energy for escapism--so anyone have fun non-fiction suggestions for the winter break? (So much for reading my new comics--geez.)
• I have been in love with Etsy.com for some time, but finally made my first purchase(s) from it last week. Etsy people are WONDERFUL, and their products are even better in person. My paycheck trembles.
• I've been in NaNoWriMo envy this month--there is no way I could balance the holiday, school, work, and 50,000 words of a novel so I won't even try--but it did spur me to write a lot of notes on mine Monday. The end of the first draft is in sight, people--when I start writing again in earnest in mid-May, I think I can finish it pretty quickly.
  

City Girl (Our NYC Trip)

Tihleigh (with further encouragement from Laura and Astrid, but T you're the one who convinced me): you're a genius. The neti pot seems to be working, inasmuch as it stopped six days of NYC pollution from instantly replaying my recent sinus infection. Woohoo!

So, here's the briefest of summations of our 6-day New York City vacation, with no work in sight for either of us. It was a blissful time, and I'm realizing it's super-awesome to travel places that aren't attached to work-related trips.

Thursday:

• flight in, finally seeing Manhattan for the first time
• decided that Times Square is actually more over-stimulating, crowded, and neon than Vegas. WOW.
• love love LOVE Central Park.
• discovered that H&M has 1) awesome clothes that 2) fit me and 3) are about as affordable as Old Navy. Rock on.

Friday:

• began to figure out the complex subway system
• Chinatown: fantastic food, fun shopping (and I can finally use chopsticks)
• Yankees game (tromped Toronto 2 - 1, woohoo!)
• walking down the street after Yankees game
• Gray's Papaya
• finding out Sarah Palin was McCain's VP pick outside of Gray's Papaya (a great day for women, no matter your politics!)

Saturday:

• um… we did… stuff… in the morning. I will probably remember what it was when I look at photos.
• Metropolitan Museum of Art: Egyptian collection, Assyrian winged guards, Degas, Madame X, and Vermeers
• “The Lion King” on Broadway (awesome—especially loved the dance and use of performers as set pieces)
• street hotdogs—yum!

Sunday:

• Southside Seaport and Brooklyn Bridge
• decided not to wait in TKTS ticket line
• Wall Street
• walking alllll the way up Broadway
• lunch in Soho
• matinee showing of "Boeing Boeing." So. Freaking. Incredible. Best show I have ever seen, period!!
• dinner and dessert in Little Italy (sampled both pastries and gelato)

Monday:

• more Central Park walking and street hotdogs
• American Museum of Natural History: elephants, dinosaurs, huge whale
• dinner at the Burger Joint at Le Parker Meridien--tiny, impossible to find, amazing burgers
• another stop at H&M (purple cordorouy blazer!)
• walking along Fifth Avenue by Tiffany & Co., Trump Tower, St. Patrick's, Rockefeller Center

Tuesday:

• Ellis Island
• Statue of Liberty
• taxi driver getting lost
• flew out, and first class flying for my first time!

So... if I can tear myself away from my already-ginormous piles of homework this weekend, I'll upload those photos to Flickr--think we came away with about 7GB total, which for a 6-day trip, for us, is actually remarkably little. (But still a lot to sort, edit, and upload!) Then if by some miracle I finish, maybe I can start going back and uploading the Quebec City photos and other stuff from the spring and summer.

Well, a girl can dream, anyway.

The Fine Art of Music Videos

...Or rather, the fine art of choosing them.

So, the topic of ponderment for Alex and I this week has been favorite music videos. This was prompted by two different things. First, my insane love of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" and the 80's station on Sirius radio has always amused Alex. Second, he's been using that nifty app on the iPhone to find out the titles/artists for cool songs we hear on TV. Namely, during the Olympics, Muse's insanely awesome "The Knights of Cydonia."

Yeah, go look it up on YouTube. Right now. I'll wait, really.

YES. We've decided it's "Kill Bill" meets "Firefly" in a wondrous clash of cheesy genres.

So, anyway. Alex keeps asking for my top ten list of music videos. I've been working on it for three weeks, usually on my drive home as I suddenly remember one. And I think I've got it. He rather tyrannically insisted that I keep it to ten, although I originally had eleven (finally had to bump Madonna's awesome "Hung Up," to my chagrin). So now I also have an "Other Favorites" category.

And since I don't like the actual music video for Chris Cornell's opening to Casino Royale, but love love LOVE the opening in the movie with it, I decided that it didn't actually qualify. And now I also have the beginnings of a list with my favorite film opening credits.

Sigh. A lister. Can you tell why I'm a librarian?

Top Ten

1. Here It Goes Again, OK Go -- reasoning: humor, awesome choreography, unparalleled creativity, and I like the bald guy with glasses (oh plus I like the song)
2. Thriller, Michael Jackson -- reasoning: classic, great cheesy storyline, awesome choreography, awesome song, and Vincent Price
3. Tonight, Tonight, Smashing Pumpkins -- reasoning: lovely period/goth feel, haunting, and it references a cool old silent film
4. Call Me When You're Sober, Evanescence -- reasoning: just gorgeous, and a fairytale flavor to boot
5. Vogue, Madonna (original) -- reasoning: Madonna. Dude. plus, awesome choreography, great style, killer song, classic!
   
6. Knights of Cydonia, Muse -- reasoning: amazing cross-genre humor
7. A Million Ways to Be Cruel, OK Go -- reasoning: same as reasoning for #1. DUDE.
8. Ain't No Other Man, Christina Aguilera -- reasoning: great retro flavor (several of them)
9. White and Nerdy, Al Yankovic -- reasoning: insanely clever parody that's too true
10. Feel Good Inc., Gorillaz -- reasoning: awesome crazy odd animation, and... yeah.

Other Favorites

• Hung Up, Madonna
• The World is Not Enough, Garbage
• Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This), Eurythmics
• Lady Marmalade, Moulin Rouge Soundtrack (various)
• Don't Speak, No Doubt
• Safety Dance, Men Without Hats
• Mercy, Duffy
• Vogue, Madonna (MTV Awards version)
• You Spin Me Round (Like a Record), Dead or Alive
• Bad, Michael Jackson
• Beat It, Michael Jackson
• Wild Wild West, Will Smith
• Men in Black, Will Smith
• One, Metallica
• Take On Me, A-ha

Favorite Film Opening Credit Sequences

• 007 Casino Royale
• Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang
• Catch Me If You Can
• 007 Goldeneye
• Charade

Note: the above is not very indicative of my top ten, or even top fifty favorite songs. That's because my criteria for a music video is much more complex:

• choreography (skill, appropriate for song, and creativity)
• general creativity
• narrative helpful, particularly if costumes involved
• classic quality--timeless, not something I won't care about next year
• humor--not necessary, but really helpful
  
• song quality
  

And there you have it.

Home in Texas

Anyone else frantically watching (and fast-forwarding through the boring parts) the Olympics each evening to clear space on their DVR for the next day's round of events?

I thought we were pretty much through with stuff Alex and I were interested in watching, now that Phelps has officially made his mark, gymnastics is pretty much wrapped up, beach volleyball seems to be winding down, and we finally gave up on the rowing events... but now I hear that the rhythmic gymnastics cometh. With ribbons and all.

Dangit.

Not that I'll be able to catch much of it the next two nights--since the library closes at 6pm each night, I am going to have to scramble and use my evening-time at home to print more items for my annual performance review-type binder. Yippee.

Quebec City was awesome, my IFLA presentation went exceedingly well, and I now have at least four trips of which I haven't even looked at the photos I took--much less edited or uploaded to Flickr. Dangit, I need Christmas break already.

Oh, and Alex is taking scuba diving lessons--last week was his written test and pool exercises, and this weekend will be his open-water test, at a local lake. We were hoping to camp out there, as well, but between the rain and my mom coming into town, I think we'll just make the drive Saturday and then Sunday. I'm hoping to get some photos of him in all his gear this weekend--woohoo!

While he's underwater and I'm sitting on the shore, I've got my New York City guidebook to look through, to make some final plans. We'll be there August 28 - September 2, and will be catching a Yankees game and The Lion King (maybe another show as well, but that's the one we broke down and paid full price for). I've also got a handy list of "best of" NYC sights from my pal Rosemary (who lives in Queens)--any suggestions are certainly welcome! I'm hoping we won't be totally doomed, going over a holiday weekend... but ah well, you go when you can.

It's July Already?

This post isn't going to be about Alex's adventures in St. Pete, but as I'm spending part of my Sunday afternoon going through our stuff on Flickr, I thought I might post one of my favorite shots from his trip. Gorgeous, eh?

Last night, we went to Fort Worth for a date night. We ate dinner at the Flying Saucer, an establishment so centered around their international alcohol that I thought for a minute the waitress was going to throw us out when we said we weren't drinking tonight. However, the food was quite good; I enjoyed a goat cheese/cranberry/walnut salad, and Alex had a buffalo chicken wrap. Then we indulged in some kind of ice cream/chocolate cake drenched in raspberry sauce.

The Bass was gorgeous, and Avenue Q was great. So, so great. We kept joking throughout the first act that we'd see a bunch of empty seats after intermission, due to the, ahem, controversial nature of the show. And sure enough, the four seats to our left were empty throughout the entire Act 2, despite the fact that one of the guys had been laughing his head off. My theory is that he's going to get heck from his wife for laughing at all.

Today, we've had pancakes and some lazing about, and now we're back to work--Alex literally working on work stuff, me working on getting papers together for house financing, and travel receipts to file tomorrow, then the last three weeks (and four trips' worth) of laundry, and I had been planning on ripping CDs and organizing our mp3 players.... but yeah. So far, I've managed to throw up my hands in frustration over my lack of cohesive plans for my 30th birthday party, and add tags to some images on Flickr. And, er, there's this post.

I've still got a ton of photos and content to post for the last three trips (plus earlier stuff that I'm not even going to think about at the moment)... here are two brief notes:

• I was just in Anaheim, Abilene, and Austin. What's up with the A-town theme?
• I have now come to realize that Austin is the avacado capitol of Texas. And also has the most fantastic waiting service I have ever enjoyed. I have now made my peace with this town, and accept its eccentricities as charming (with the exception of the awful highway system, which I did not personally have to deal with on this particular trip).
  

Overload and Russian Dumplings

You would think I can't complain about being busy any more than I already have... yeah. I will try to contain myself when conversing, but suffice to say that work + preparing to travel for work + prepping for construction loan + car repair + normal bills and stuff to take care of... = Overwhelmed (more than usual) Starr. Sigh.

It seems worse than usual, since my co-conspirator is out of the country and not immediately available for help or venting.

But he did teach me something during our brief IM today: pierogies are Russian dumplings. He had some filled (variously) with meat, cabbage, mushrooms, apricots, and cherries. (He missed out on the salmon, apparently not enough to go around.) He had an apparently amazing boat trip around St. Petersburg today (well tonight, for him) from 10pm to 2am--gotta love having all that day light during White Nights. He said he took many photos (yay!) and there was apparently much yelling while under bridges. Huh. Guess that's a story I'll just have to hear when he gets back.

Solo Weekend

So, Alex is now in St. Petersburg; he informs me that as he is nine hours ahead of us, he'll shortly look up the winning lotto numbers and give them to me. Heh.

In any case, I'm off to ALA in Anaheim early Thursday am, and he's back in Texas the day afterward... I'll be back late the following Monday. We do get around these days.

Yesterday, my department enjoyed a lovely party at Clarice's house. Four of us ladies actually stayed in the pool until 10pm. 'Twas quite nice; I haven't been night-swimming in quite a while, and I've sorely missed Clarice since her retirement a few weeks ago. I stayed to chat with the last stragglers until 11pm, and was back in McKinney at midnight, then groggily woken up at 6:30 by Alex's call to say he was at his layover in London. Then it was off to church with pals Amy and Jaime, who also treated me to a scrumptious lunch of breakfast tacos, and rushed home for my first IM-session with Alex, once he finally got to his St. Petersburg hotel. We talked about Russian traffic and vessel sinks, primarily. (Ah, the joys of house-building.)

I believe the only things on my weekend list that actually got accomplished were purchasing a vanity for the new house's downstairs guest bath, and looking at a lot of vessel sinks and faucets. Here it is nearly 10pm and I haven't ripped a single CD, or cleaned my desk, or packed for California, or written any in my novel. Ah, well.

I have discovered this, however: Vader and stormtroopers dancing to Thriller. Which pretty much glows with Pure Awesome, considering it combines two of my greatest delights. Actually, make that three--I was going to say Star Wars and Thriller, but also the concept of a Dance-Off itself. Yep, Pretty Stinkin' Awesome.

More of the San Antone Weekend

Check out this bizarre patent.

Other fun stuff we did this weekend (that I left out of my previous post):

• Sunday afternoon, I swam for a gloriously peaceful forty-five minutes while Alex read one of his business books (poolside). Swimming underwater is one of the most tranquil activities to me, and something I rarely get to do. It's somewhat wrecked when I have to share the pool with other people, particularly chatty ones. Thus, sharing silent pool-time with Alex was blissful.
• Completely neglected to eat sweets for my Dad's birthday. He did manage to have some of the cheesecake Mom bought, but Alex and I were both so full and sooooo sleepy from our awesome TexMex meal that we fell asleep on the couch. Yes, sleep instead of cheesecake--it was a tough decision, and my brain won over my stomach (pretty rare occurrence, that).
  
• Again, I have to mention the early-morning chats my with parents. Saturday's morning was in the art studio, sans Alex, but Sunday was our more-traditional on the porch, with Alex. We all looked over the book purchases we'd made the night before and chatted about them--heavenly. Family + coffee + books + trees/country = bliss.
• On the five-hour drive back, Alex and I chatted about tons of stuff, as is our usual during that trek. We almost always bring music or audiobooks (this time we had a learning-Russian CD), but we rarely use them--we're having too much fun chatting together! That is just one of the hugest blessings of my life, that after more than seven years of marriage, Alex has even more become my best friend, so much so that we can't stop conversing through five hours of monotonous driving. This time, we discussed the new house plans, my book's plot, politics, work, travel, future dreams, finances... yeah, and I forget what else.
  
• I took a bunch of photos, primarily at the McNay Art Museum... but due to this week's schedule, I think it might be awhile before I get them up on Flickr.
  

Am I the Only Goofy One...

...or when composing emails, do you also reflexively smile when you add an emoticon? I don't know if I'm smiling "back" at the little digital face, or if my subconscious believes that by physically reinforcing the expression, my tone will be more adequately conveyed in the email.

It's also possible that I'm just an insufferably cheerful person.

So, this weekend Alex and I jetted down to San Antone for my dad's birthday--his 58th, which just adds to my whole reinterpretation of age, as he looks and acts, at nearly 60, nothing like what I thought of that age as a kid. I think he's more of what I thought 40 was--then again, when you're 12, it's hard to believe the world will still exist when you're 30. Anyway.

We had a great time--Alex made the remark, echoing what I've often thought, that my parents' house is an amazing place where you can truly relax. We tried to assess the reasons why, when we got back. We both think that a lot of it has to do with all the trees around their house--which bodes well for our future home, as the lot has tons of big, old trees. But there's also the birdsong (also related to trees), the "nearness" of the outdoors due to their abundant garden spots and back deck, and the sheer quiet. Alex and I lived in a similarly country-ish area at our old house, but there was the lack of trees (and thus birdsong), and because of the placement of our electronics, the house was always loud, even if you didn't consciously notice it. Whenever the power would go out, we'd be reminded of how loud the house usually was--the constant barrage of white noise from UPS's and computers and theater equipment and fans and the fridge.

So after waking up in that relaxing place--and enjoying my traditional cup-of-coffee-with-the-parents while Alex caught another half hour or so of sleep (this usually occurs on the back deck, but due to rain this time was moved to my mom's art studio, which is in a small red shed near the house), we took off for San Antone itself. We enjoyed the re-opening weekend festivities at the McNay Art Museum, a small but wonderful jewel of a place that reminds me of the Kimbell in Fort Worth (only with gorgeous Spanish colonial architecture instead of gorgeous modern architecture). It has a similarly comfortable and human-scaled approach to art display, with one of the most beautiful inner courtyards I've ever seen. We were ferried to and from the museum in a school bus in which the bus driver decided to dramatically illustrate that the shocks were not made to hold a load of adults, much to our discomfort (and amusement).

Then we headed off to enjoy a Jazz and Arts Festival at Crockett Park... but were perplexed to find it nearly empty, few booths (with the exception of the excellent Starbucks booth that twice provided us with free caffeine), and most befuddling, no music at all. Most people, performers, and vendors had apparently been frightened off by some earlier drizzles. We pronounced it neither jazzy nor festive, and instead spent awhile browsing through Half-Price Books, a dangerous activity for four people addicted to print. This was the third bookstore Alex and I had been to in a week and a half, and we brought home our fifth (at least) sack of books. I think we're a bit flustered by all our books being packed in boxes, and desperately trying to fill that hole--and since we plan on using movers for our next move, we don't have the thought of hauling heavy boxes to deter us.

Then we enjoyed a yummy (if loud) dinner at Tomatilla's, and headed back to my parent's casa rather late. A good time was had by all.

I'm now reading a ton of material in preparation for an all-day meeting tomorrow. Alex is off to Vegas (yes, again!) tomorrow through Friday, my mom is in town Wednesday through Saturday, my pal Jayne will be here over the weekend and a tad longer, and we have plans for yardwork and socializing over the weekend. Ah yes, and there are still preparations to be made for Alex leaving for Russia the following weekend.

It's a busy life, but at least it's an interesting one.

Weekend-ish Weekend

Well Saturday was all-out weekend-y, but since Sunday I had to write a conference paper, I'll just call it weekend-ish as a whole.

Friday night, we saw Iron Man, which was just about as fantastic as the trailer made it look, which made me extremely happy--but also frustrated, since I immediately wanted to see it again, and it no doubt won't see a blu-ray release until Christmas. Arg! But dude--yeah, I so called that Robert Downey Jr. was genius casting. Favreau, I thought if anyone could do it, you could--and you not only did it, you threw yourself in there as the chauffer. And had more than one line! I'm impressed.

Of course, we all know what movie is coming out this weekend, the thing of speculation for years, anticipated for nearly two decades--Indiana Jones. I've been heartened by the trailers--but worried that the whole "alien" plot thing isn't in the trailers at all. Yeah, that worries me. And the early buzz... I try to ignore it, but I guess time will tell. I hope to actually see it this week/weekend, despite the fact that we just saw Iron Man and have yet to see Speed Racer or Prince Caspian. But dude--it's Indy.

In other news, one of my fellow geek-brarians let me know of this extreme awesomeness: Joss Whedon is almost done shooting a 40-minute musical about supervillians that stars NPH (Neil Patrick Harris, for those of you not on the down-low) and Nathan Fillion (of Firefly, for those of you not--well, let's face it, for those sad, sad people who haven't seen Firefly yet). It's called Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.

Ahem: did you hear me? Whedon. NPH. Fillion. Musical. Supervillians.

Ah-ha, I thought I'd hear your scream of extreme awesomeness. Yes, indeed--and it's supposed to be released online first, later to DVD (and I can cross my fingers for blue-ray).

Erm, yeah, back to my weekend... Anywho, Saturday we met with our architect (yay!), had lunch at Freebirds (yay!), went to the Frisco mall and bought some clothes (I guess I'll just stop saying "yay" now before it gets old), had yummy tasty food at Cheesecake Factory, had a nap, I wrote in my novel (finally! returning to creative writing summers), and then watched some more of the new American Gladiators show--yeah, that's what I said. Cheesy guilty pleasure, indeed, with a little nostalgia thrown in.

Sunday, I had to work on a paper for IFLA (which is kind of a "yay" but also a groan for actually doing the work), but we did FINALLY break out the Mario Kart Wii. Dude--the wheel is a vast improvement, particularly for the kind of gamers, like me, who always threw their traditional controllers around anyway. I actually don't completely suck at this game--in fact, I got first place in most of the races I tried yesterday, which is pretty crazy stuff. I was so bad at Mario Kart DoubleDash for the GameCube that after the first week, I never drove my own cart, but was always Alex's partner in charge of throwing stuff at the other carts. I'm glad that the peripheral for the game is intuitive enough that I can finally drive my own cart. And the retro tracks are pretty fun--one of them is completely boring, but most are great, and I just love the idea in general. Next task: type in Bryce's Wii and Mario Kart numbers, so we can meet for online battles--woohoo!

We watched Enchanted in the evening, and it was truly awesome. I'm sure as a normal romantic comedy it was so-so, but for a Disney freak, it was awwwwesome, catching all the little references and watching Amy Adams do an amazing job of actually moving like a Disney princess in real life (which boggles my mind). And James Marsden was hilarious. And better yet was watching the credits and seeing James Baxter, my favorite animator of all time because he animated Belle, listed as animation supervisor. Dude!!! Go, Baxter! And who did he supervise? None other than Andres Deja (who animated Gaston). (I think Glen Keane, who animated the Beast, is busy working on Rapunzel, which I am so so excited about.) AND the great Alan Menken was responsible for score and song, which of course explains why both were awesome and hilarious.

I'm wearing the black-funeral-jeans again today--I keep wearing them and washing them and wearing them. Somehow it just comforts me to wear them, although I would have expected that I'd never want to wear clothes I bought for a funeral again. I think it's at least in part because it was Cherie's idea to get them in the first place, and having them on makes me think of her, in good ways. I've got still more memory notes, like my last two posts, but other than writing them down on a pad of paper, I haven't wanted to type them out and see them again. I think I'll get on that later this week, though. I don't know if it's important to anyone else that I put them up, but it makes them seem more real to me, if they're on the blog. And I know I'll read the blog again, whereas I'll probably lose the paper notes at some point.

Thinking of Cherie makes me think of missions, which reminds me: if you'd like to help with the crisis in Myanmar or in China, World Vision offers a great way to do that. They'll accept online donations of any amount, but if you specifically give $100 to either cause, you'll be providing one family with a survival kit including emergency food, drinkable water, blankets, temporary shelter, and a cookset/utensils. You can donate to Myanmar, to China, or both, or you can still sponsor a child for $30 a month. My family's supported World Vision as long as I can remember, and I've always been impressed by their organization.

And upon returning to my office with my lunch, I also brought back Jellaby by Kean Soo, which I'd read part of online and loved, but didn't realize was now in print. He's got short stories related to this book in the Flight volumes (which I also highly recommend). Jellaby is strongly reminscent of Calvin and Hobbes--only with a dragon and girl instead of a tiger and boy, and it's mostly drawn in purple--which is to say it is AWESOME. It's more of the "quiet style" Calvin and Hobbes strips, as I think of them, with a little manga-style background panels thrown in. I love it very, very much and if you like dragons or cuteness or small children with big imaginations, then you must buy this book.

That's a lot of news for one day, so I'll leave you with that.

So This is What a Weekend Feels Like

...So, after a lot of cumulative work on the house and my academics, Friday resulted in a contract on our house and a 98 on my third statistics test (a class in which previous ridiculous amounts of studying had only resulted in a 78 and a 84 on earlier tests). W00t!!

Yesterday was refreshingly weekend-ish, as Alex and I unwound for the first time since January:

• watched 3 episodes of "Lost," which we've been DVR-ing and not watching all season
• decided that we actually care about "Lost" again, and are intrigued by time-travel-ish storylines (don't reveal anything--we're not very far into the season yet)
• had yummy leftovers from the previous night's Chinese-delivery celebration meal (we'll miss Chopsticks on 380 when we move)... btw spicy orange beef is awesome.
• shocked ourselves by laughing out loud together... and didn't recognize the sound of it
• ignored the lawn in need of mowing (ha! take that, adult responsiblity!!)
• ran errands at Wally-World... and bought Star Wars toys
• visited our gorgeous 1.25 acres in Cross Roads (near Denton)
• measured the spot for the new house... and perhaps a work building?
• looked at theater-room seating
• had yummy drinks at Sonic
• Alex got to hear his happy Feist song, aka "the Macbook Air song"
• perused Best Buy--but refrained from buying either Wii Star Wars Lego Complete Saga, Wii Smash Bros. Brawl, or even a blu-ray movie
• got oil-based trim paint at Home Depot (meh)
• did not spend over $100 at Half-Price Books... must be your imagination
• (dude, I finally have Watchmen!! and Birds of Prey! and Penny Arcade!)
• rented Stargate SG-1: The Ark of Truth
• decided that it worked really well as an extended episode of the show... but I'm still waiting for Carter and O'Neil to hook up. (Come on, already, it's been a decade and the show's over--give me what I've been waiting for!)

Today, I'm involved in more responsible pursuits--writing/editing a collaborative book chapter and working on some of that ever-present homework. Ah, the joys of academic pursuits... but y'know, when I'm not also running about working on house stuff and what have you, I do love this. It's actually refreshing to have the time on a weekend to do homework... (shakes head).

Meandering Tuesday Thoughts

So I keep composing blog posts in my head... doesn't get them published, unfortunately. As soon as I get that T-1 to my brain, we'll be set.

Anyway, I thought I'd give the "general life update" on things, for the curious. Last weekend, I worked on Saturday but took Alex with me, and on the way home he treated us to dinner at Prairie House, which I've been longing to eat at for years. It was tasty--not only did we enjoy three scrumptious kinds of BBQ meat, but we also indulged in a fried cheesecake. Yes--cheesecake... fried... in cinnamon and sugar... with vanilla ice cream. Sunday, we did a few errands and then celebrated my father-in-law's birthday. Alex and I came home to watch Spiderman 3... meh.

I mean, it's not terrible. It's at least evenly blah--whereas Spiderman 1, I loved the first half, but once Macy Gray starts singing it goes downhill fast. But 3 is not a movie I need to own. I saw it, and that's that--leave the franchise at 2 with its glorious peak, thank you.

Alex said Fantastic Four 2 was better, and I believe him, although I chose to only watch the last fifteen minutes (I also bypassed the first one, because the trailer indicated a high cheese factor). At least FF2 had the Silver Surfer to redeem it. I didn't even like Peter Parker or MJ in S3--the only moment I really *liked* was when Spidey smashed Topher Grace's camera. But that's more because I like Topher's reactions.

We've been watching movies here and there, but nothing is standing out in my mind. We did finally buy Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, which makes me quite happy as I've been longing to re-watch it. Alex is similarly thrilled that we bought The Librarian 2, which will be a good addition to our "adventure" genre that we watch so much of. It's nice that there's been a huge increase in fantasy movies in the past five years, but could studios start making more adventure movies now? Those are effects-heavy, too, people. Sahara and National Treasure were steps in the right direction, but I could do with a few more.

I'm not even going to talk about Indy 4 here.... too frightened, yet hopeful.

Oh, we did rent Transformers--hey, it wasn't half as bad as I was fearing. It was quite a lot of fun and not so painfully cheesy as it could have been, and it made up for any cheese factor with its gorgeousness. And, um--have you seen the HD-DVD trailer for Transformers? If you're not drooling, it's obviously because you haven't seen it yet. Go watch it at Best Buy and then see if that doesn't convince you to make a semi-sudden impulse buy of awesomeness.

Other than that... it's been a week and a half of long work-nights for both of us, so little to add. Tihleigh got us hooked on "How I Met Your Mother," and sad to say that we have watched 3 DVR-ed episodes of this, but as of yet none of this season of Heroes. They're right there, on the DVR... but we watch SGA instead, or, much as I hate to admit it, the uber-cheesy Flash Gordon. The only excuse for that being that it has the jerk boyfriend from Smallville in a fun role, and they also show BSG shorts during it.

The previous weekend, we took a day trip to Austin for our nephew's fourth birthday party--and it was a lot of fun! Because it was at a park, the little kids running around were fun and cute, rather than weary-making as it can get indoors. I've now got so many pictures on my SD cards to edit, put on my hard drive, and selectively upload to Flickr that it doesn't bear thinking of.

Sunday, Alex bought GH3 for the Wii, which he's been waiting many, many, many months for, and I finished some homework. Then we watched the Red Sox joyfully tromp on the Rockies (sorry, I do like the Rockies, but... man, it's the Sox, c'mon!). And thus, sadly, ends our baseball for the year. Always depresses me.

I did get some free coffee at Jazzman's (UNT's Starbucks knock-off) this afternoon, which was much happy-making. And now, on to more things... like graphic design and such.

The Falcon Has Landed

(Er... the falcon being Alex.)

He called at 4:30 am to let me know he was in Paris, and I just got off the phone with him--he's in Helsinki!! It's odd how he seems closer now, over the phone, than he did when I dropped him off at DFW airport, when he was still in town for two hours. The beauty of cell phones and global communication, eh? And my husband is now officially an American Airlines Advantage Platinum member, and he's terribly pleased with himself making it to that point before I did. Hmph.

Monday morning is proving to be much more fun than yesterday afternoon--lack of sleep and coffee are much more my normal routine, I guess. I did complete my homework last night, but not all my work-work, so I got to work a bit early to start on that before my meetings begin. And a huge thanks to Tihleigh, who chatted me up last night until I was cheery, as well as let me know that I wasn't pathetic for feeling sad. And another huge thanks to Gayla, who is graciously hosting me tonight and tomorrow, so that I don't waste time and gas commuting home for no reason (particularly since I work until 9pm both tonight and tomorrow). I'll be back in McKinney Wednesday to catch up on mail and housework, since I will end work at a much more normal time.

And I'm wearing a new Audrey Hepburn shirt today--who can't help but feel a little glamorous when wearing such a gal on your shirt, I ask you?

Goodbye, Buddy!

Bleh.

So here I sit on my bed, laptop in lap, completely ignoring all the homework and work I have to get done before Monday morning. Because every time I try to concentrate on work/homework, my brain panics and starts to think about Alex. Which is ridiculous, because at this point he's still in Dallas. He doesn't board for another half hour, and he doesn't take off for another hour beyond that. Sigh.

So I am seriously wondering how I'll get myself to concentrate on the things I need to do, instead of continuously distracting my miserable self with the internet, comics, and the fact that I've got "The Empire Strikes Back" in the DVD player in front of me, and I don't have to leave the bed to enjoy any of these distractions.

Yeesh, and I have chocolate next to me, too. All I need is ice-cream and I'd be classic break-up mode girl. Geez. And here I used to have no problem living alone--I guess I had a much smaller apartment, then. And it wasn't so quiet, considering I lived near a college campus. And, y'know, the bed was too small to feel empy.

Yes, get used to this. Because if I have any time to blog this week, it will probably be more sniveling about how sad I am that my best friend is gone. If it sickens you, you can just come back Friday, when I'll probably start relaying all the awesome adventures Alex went on without me. Sigh...

Okay, seriously--who can I get to kick my butt about this work/homework stuff? Yeesh!!

Finland, Here We--er, He--Comes!

Yesterday morning, I got a message from my husband just as I arrived at my desk. He's going to Finland this Sunday, and he has never had a passport.

My heart leapt for about two hours on the double-adrenaline-rush of acting as GovDocs librarian trying to help Alex get a passport, and also thinking Finnish thoughts and trying to figure out how to squeeze in my own trip with him.

Alas, it was not meant to be. Not only is the cheapest plane ticket I (and one of my info-maven friends) could find around $900, but my passport just expired three months ago, I can't find it or our marriage license, it would cost about $470 to get it renewed in time (assuming I found those documents), and during the six days that Alex will be gone, I have an important meeting with administration--along with my regularly-scheduled I'm-already-far-behind work.

Sigh.

But we did manage to get the passport documents and service taken care of this morning, and I've already created several wiki pages of helpful information for Alex's trip, along with plans to make several more. I am nothing if not a thoroughly librarian wife.

(My apologies for cross-posting, to the two or three of you that read both of my blogs.)

Monday, Tired Monday

It's late, and my brain definitely is aware that it's Monday, and that it did not get enough sleep last night.

However, Alex and I did have a good time watching one of the best movies of all time last night, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. We nearly went for another best-of-all-time qualifier, Back to the Future, but Alex was feeling slightly more adventure-ish. I also got a lot of housework done Sunday--dishes, cleaning the entire kitchen--a scant week after it had been previously cleaned, gasp!--and folding laundry, which I also put up this morning before work. Amazing what I can get accomplished when I set my mind to it. Or rather, when I realize that being stressed out by the mess is actually more work than getting off my lazy buns and doing the work. Is that... adulthood... I hear creeping in? Maturity added to my character? Aaack, run for the hills!

Other than the chore-performing and the obligatory fat-couch time, we sat around with dazed looks, blinking a little, wondering what people actually do on a free weekend day. I worked Saturday, as I will again this week, and that added to the weeks I've/we've been out of town, or had parties, or seen friends/family, or had other obligations--it was a little disconcerting to have unplanned time. I think we both panicked a little--"Free time, oh no it's not scheduled, what do we do, we can't waste it, ack!" But finally we relaxed a bit--I think the housework helped me in this respect--and allowed ourselves to remember what our former glorious "lazy weekends" were like. Pure, vegetative goofball bliss, primarily involving time on the fat couch. Ahhhh.

I worked this evening, so I had this morning free to put up afore-mentioned laundry and--gasp--clean the interior of My Big Awesome Truck. I throughly vacuumed it and spot-cleaned all the hard surfaces after first removing a huge trash bag's worth of Stuff That Does Not Belong In My Truck. This stuff included a roll of copper wire, no less than five mostly-empty water bottles, six library books, and some craft beads shaped like letters of the alphabet (still in package). I know, I disgust even myself.

Also, I'm getting close to finished uploading party photos to Flickr. I'll link them on this blog when I'm done.

My Nikon: A Love Story

All right, I won't keep you waiting until I get to my Sunday and Monday ALA notes and finish up the ALA-blogging process. Here's the skinny on my newest gadget: the Nikon D40X.

Monday evening, my flight was delayed, then canceled, then apparently not canceled, then definitely canceled and I was on a flight for Tuesday--anyway, I finally got on a different flight, two hours later than I was supposed to, but I was just glad I didn't have to spend the night in the DCA airport. I like Reagan a lot, but I didn't particularly want to sleep there.

I disembarked at DFW sometime after 11pm, got my luggage, greeted my best friend warmly and thankfully, and we got back to the house sometime after midnight.

Back at the house, we unceremoniously dumped all my luggage to be dealt with later, and I plopped onto the couch. Alex told me he had a surprise for me, and I obediently closed my eyes and waited, assuming it was the nice normal sort of surprise he likes to provide--a new movie, or a chocolate-chip cookie.

I opened my eyes, and there was a gorgeous new backpack (similar to this)! More specifically, a laptop backpack--one with shorter straps than my current monstrosity (that I lugged all over DC), and which fit my laptop more snuggly. And which--oh joy of joys!--has a camera compartment in the bottom, just the perfect size for a SLR, a few extra lenses, a charger, and some memory cards. Perfect.

Well, except that my camera isn't a SLR, even though I tend to borrow them from the UNT Libraries Digital Lab fairly often. But I had plans to get one in a year or so.

Then he had me close my eyes again--and you'd think the next thing would be fairly obvious, right? But keep in mind that I was really, really tired, and my brain wasn't fully in Texas yet.

So yes, he had my close my eyes again, and there sitting on my lap was a Nikon box and a new 2Gb SD card.

I was more than a little flabbergasted. We've been saving for a specific goal, and it's seemed that everything is moving toward that goal, hence the reason I wasn't looking to purchase a SLR in the near future. We'd come into a small pocket of money that I'd assumed we would just push toward that goal, but apparently my very-generous and thoughtful husband had other ideas.

So, you see, although I very much enjoy my new Nikon and the glorious freedom of always having a spectacular (and light!) camera on-hand to capture the moment... the true love story of this post is my best friend. I loved him before the camera, I'm touched by his gift of the camera, and I'll try to prove worthy of his gift by not posting too many photos of him on flickr.

(Oops.)

DC Day Three

ALA is intense. Or perhaps it's just all that walking, combined with the 15 lbs of laptop/backpack I'm lugging around that makes it seem that way. Every time I get back to the Tabard Inn, I just crash with exhaustion.

I'm not going to be at the Facebook party that starts in fifteen minutes--even if I wasn't dead-tired, I have a GODORT thing to interview for at 8:15am tomorrow. Isn't that a spectacularly cruel time to schedule an interview?

So, this morning, I awoke with great hopes of trying a different breakfast at the Tabard--maybe bagels this time, or granola with homemade yogurt. Only--they serve breakfast at 7am on weekdays... and 8am on weekends. I only had time to frown with sadness, then rushed off to my first session, ERT's Digital Natives. The presentation wasn't really anything I hadn't heard already, but there was an interesting, lively discussion afterward, and the room was jam-packed with people. (The link above also provides some notes taken on the discussion, if you're interested.)

Dreanna Belden from UNT went with me to that, so we then got some much-needed coffee and a delish cranberry-orange muffin from the obligatory 'Bucks kiosk, and sat down for some good chat about life, the universe, and everything.

Then I had to run off to the GODORT Update at the Renaissance Washington, where I pulled up a chair and my laptop to Julie Linden's corner (near an outlet, thank goodness). I briefly got to chat with Kris Kasianovitz, who I met in Oakland through NDIIPP, and then met Amy Stewart-Mailhiot F2F for the first time--she's been generously donating some govdocs for some digitization projects of ours.

I met Dreanna in the hotel lobby, and we wandered off to Chinatown, eventually settling on the "Wok and Roll" where Dreanna had some gorgeous-looking sushi, and I settled for an uncharacteristically less-adventurous beef lo mein. I took some fun, colorful photos as we left Chinatown, and we got the giggles as we passed a tableaux at Hooter's. Four orange-clad buxom gals were outside, taunting a slightly-inebriated male librarian with, "Well, we never went to library school." He was amazed that they knew he was a librarian--until they pointed out that he was still wearing his enormous ALA badge. Sigh.

I went back to the Renaissance for GODORT Leg. II. It's not that I'm a glutton for attending meetings for committees I'm not on, but they were discussing a response to the recent CRS report legislation being considered, and of course that's particularly relevant to my work archiving those reports. It was an interesting meeting, and I learned that editing resolutions isn't nearly as boring as it sounds--or else that's the old English major in me, but I found it fascinating.

And afterward, I wandered in the general direction of the LITA Meet n' Greet, but along the way... I met Meredith Farkas in-person! (And sorry, but you'll have to read that link for the story.)

The LITA Meet n' Greet was... well, not as lively as I was hoping. I was mildly interested in the interest groups on Digital Library Technologies and Distance Learning... but if I become more involved in GODORT like I hope to and only increase my courseload in the future... I don't need one more committment. Unless I find a compelling reason, I probably won't renew my LITA membership next year--I can read their articles, blog, and attend their sessions without being a member, after all.

Coming out of the hotel, I ran into Valerie, Kevin, and Brooke--whom I met for the first time, having of course heard glowing things from Val. Which all turned out to be completely true, as Val went back to her hotel to write a CRS letter for Leg., and Brooke and I whisked through the Exhibits Hall for an hour. During which, I witnessed an amazing performance of female flirting that on her the coveted, swag-filled and quality-stitched Oxford UP tote bag. Clever girl, that.

We parted at 7th and L, and I headed once again toward the Metro and the Tabard. I lugged my technological burden upstairs, changed out of professional and sweaty clothing, and briefly hopped out again to traipse up and down the block with the Digi-Lab camera, capturing the gorgeous architecture.

I came back to have some more of the Tabard's lite fare--this time a mozarella-and-roast-pepper salad that really was lite, but had enough protein to keep me going. I dragged myself back upstairs at the ridiculous-for-one-under-30 hour of 6:45, and promptly spent a few hours in blissfully decadent, useless novel-reading and a half hour nap (finished Deboarh Crombie's Dreaming of the Bones). Suzanne Sears called and we arranged to share a cab tomorrow to Cathy's party, and then we sent awhile chatting and giggling.

I called Alex, but he and Jared were watching "Invincible," so I started being productive, and then chatted with him when he called back awhile later. He and Jared watched the last SG-1 today--completely with my full knowledge and permission before-hand--and said there's a possible second spin-off series in the works, as well as some TV movies. Well, there's hope, then! And, of course, I only let Alex watch the episodes without me under the strict understanding that he has to watch them with me Tuesday night, as well.

And now I'm here, having fully intended to go to bed an hour ago, but being sucked into that novel and my blog/wiki/flickr/Facebook ate up several hours of my life. Ah, well. Thus is the life of a digital semi-native.

Now, I think I'll spend a little more time ignoring my headache, uploading some photos, and looking at the GODORT website in preparation for tomorrow morning. And then to bed, to bed.

DC: Day One

Whew.

Right now, I am snug in bed at the wondrously funky Tabard Inn (my grateful thanks to Cathy Hartman for her recommendation!), checking Facebook, Gmail, and uploading part of today's photos to flickr.

This morning, I rode in to Alex's place of work in Plano, and bummed around on the internet until lunchtime. After a quick bite, we hopped over to DFW Airport--that would be my third time so far this year, folks! After a lot of goodbye hugs, I left Alex (gulp) and got my extremely-too-large suitcase checked. Yes, the gal who tends to share a tiny suitcase with her husband is taking a gigantic one for her tiny self. I think this reveals both my lack of time to make apparel decisions, and my slight insecurity about my first ALA attendance--everything I had any thought of wearing, I threw into that suitcase.

I had no trouble at all finding my gate, for once, and thus had a lovely hour and a half to take photos and edit them on my trusty (but battery-power-deficient) laptop. Then, wonder of wonders, I bumped into Doina, another UNT librarian who happened to be on the same flight. We boarded together, and then proceeded to wait on the tarmac twenty minutes behind seven planes.

The turbulence we went through until we got through the now-ubiquitous rainclouds over Dallas was unpleasant--but you can endure half an hour of almost anything.

I worked on my ALA schedule, looked out the window a lot, took completely unnecessary and probably uninteresting photos, and read a completely frivolous book. In fact, I had no intention of reading it, had never heard of it or the author, but found it in the paperback swap section of our library's cafe, and thought I might as well give it a try. It's actually pretty enjoyable thus far: Dreaming of the Bones, by Deborah Crombie. I'm not a huge mystery person, but it's very British and that feels very "summery reading" to me.

When we got to DC, those rainclouds had apparently followed me. Dark grey was the sky, except for a thin band on intense red that reflected gorgeously on the Potomac. And there was good old DCA, right where I left it with its horrifyingly-short runway.

We landed, and I completely scrapped my original plan of eating at the airport in favor of locating my luggage as quickly as possible. I lugged that huge suitcase up to the Metro station, where I found Doina again, and we took to Yellow Line. I happily proceeded to identify myself as an annoying tourist by snapping photos on the metro, and got a happy lump in my throat when I could see the Washington monument through the window.

Doina and I parted where I switched lines, and then I exited at Dupont Circle. This is when I became fully aware that my suitcase was not suited to: 1) airports 2) metro systems 3) escalators, or 4) street-walking. I walked three blocks south before realizing that I was alone, lost, and nearly unable to lug my suitcase any further. Being a huge nerd, I took a photo to document this.

I then went back another block north, called Alex in frustration, and then realized I was where I needed to be, and walked a half block east to my hotel. I also then took several photos of triumph. Because of my extreme nerdiness.

I checked in with a friendly woman I was so happy to see that I could have hugged her, and proceeded up to Room #5. By "proceed," I mean that I banged, pushed, and pulled my ginor-mo suitcase up a flight of stairs more narrow than it is (no, there isn't an elevator). But it's so homey, elegant, funky that I am extremely happy I'm not in a regular hotel. This is more relaxing, as well as cooler.

I went down to the restaurant and discovered that while entrees started in the $20's, their "lite fare" was more than appetizers and was in the more reasonable $ 8-10 range. I ordered a smoked pork quesadilla and water, and it was almost too much food--but gloriously tasty, and a wonderful treat to eat in the parlor with my book during cocktail hour, while a group apparently from Baylor discussed teacher benefits. I charged it to my room--oh, glorious luxury!--and snapped a few more photos of the room itself.

Since then, I've been in bed with the laptop, spreading my online presence and uploading about half of the photos I took today--I plan on getting the rest up tomorrow morning-ish. I read Alex to sleep over the phone--I think that might have been our sixth phone conversation today. (But then, that's not abnormal at home, really.)

I'll have to post more about thoughts and the Tabard and all tomorrow--I'm having lunch with Valerie, and then it's off to make my ALA debut, baby!

Note to self: stop wearing geeky-phrase t-shirts when you're traveling. You get tired of all those strangers staring at your chest, remember?

And to Alex: good night, my love--I miss you sorely.

Near-Perfect Weekend

This weekend was a great blend of getting things accomplished and finding time to relax--Alex and I both had the best at-home weekend we've enjoyed in ages. The only thing that was lacking to finish off the summery-goodness would have been dining on grilled steaks (but I've got two marinading in the fridge for tonight).

Saturday, our plans went awry in the morning. I had grand plans to make blueberry pancakes from scratch, having recently been inspired by a great episode of Good Eats, but trying to cook them on my skillet for the umpteenth time resulted in disaster. That took up so much time I didn't have time for my scheduled run, and we had to hurry out the door to make an appointment. But after that, things started looking up.

We were all dressed in our "grubby" clothes to get some work done in the building, when rain and hail struck with immediacy and force. We were a bit frustrated that our good intentions were ruined, but it turned out to be a pleasant, relaxing afternoon of doing very little. Joel and Kali called to ask if we'd like to come over that evening, and when the rain stopped, we went out to run a few errands.

Having determined that my pancake efforts were unsuccessful due to not possessing the right tools, we trekked to Bed, Bath and Beyond. We bought a stovetop griddle, a mixing bowl that doesn't hurt my hand, two new (and therefore un-melted) spatulas, a ladle with measurements marked on the inside, and a set of grilling implements for Alex.

Our purchases done, we headed over to Joel and Kali's and met their six-week-old son, who is cute as a button and a very merry lad. Kali made some fantastic cake-cookies, we all had a good long chat, and then Joel helped us break in our Mario Party 8 on his Wii (short review--fantastic game with many different kinds of gameplay, which makes it a good buy compared to other games). Alex and I groggily drove home at 11:30, feeling like it was 3am for some reason.

Sunday, I got up and remedied the lack of running the previous day, and had a chat with Amy A. Having the proper tools for the pancakes was marvelous, and they were full of fluffy goodness. Then we quickly got to work on what we'd missed the day before, and got a lot of things taken from the building and returned to Home Depot. Alex mowed the lawn while I washed dishes, we watched the last episode of Dancing with the Stars (Hooray, Apolo!!), and we went to bed early.

Quick Media Diet Update:

• Catch and Release: the main story was fine, but the real reason to watch this movie is the hilarity of secondary-character Kevin Smith. Man, he is hilarious in anything.
• And I know we watched some awesome movie in the past two weeks that we actually talked about buying... can't for the life of me remember what it was. Hmph; will post later. Ah-ha! It was Bruce Almighty, which we hadn't watched when it came out because we naturally assumed Hollywood would slant a story about God to be blasphemous, crass, or just plain stupid. Instead, we were not only entertained but impressed, and several times paused the movie, looked at each other, and asked if this really was a Hollywood production starring Jim Carey.
  
• Regarding the Stardust TV spot, which I saw last night, I totally had the same reaction that Neil Gaiman did--"I mean, I appreciate that Charlie Cox isn't famous, but he is the hero and the person who the film is about and the person who's on screen all the time."

Unrelated Banter

• I feel you, Gene & Bill--I feel you.
• The Alabama State Senate sounds lively!