Pictures Part I

My dad and Will with their hats. It was a little scary but very cool how much my parents loved Will. I mean, he IS the cutest baby ever, so I really can't blame them.

We took him downtown to Pearl Street (where this picture was taken) to an art fair and he was great. He was a little out of it, as he had a fever from some immunization shots he got the day before, but he was a good sport.


















Boulder was in the middle of heat wave (like the rest of the country), so it was a very welcome offer we received from our family friends in Fort Collins to go out on their boat on a resevoir with them.

Not only was it much cooler, but we had a wonderful time visiting with them, having a delicious dinner on the boat and zipping around the lake. I think we would go up there with them every weekend if we could!

Phew!

This past weekend, my parents came to visit us in Boulder. This was my dad's first time seeing our place, though he had worked in Colorado one very pivotal summer in 1971 and has been back a few times since (my mom has been able to visit for work several times since we've moved here).

We had a really great time, and we did an amazing amount of things for the 4 or 5 days they were here, but I didn't realize how exhausted I was until this morning, when I overslept the arrival of my adorable summer job (eek!). Truly, though, the real culprit was my memory, conveniently telling me that my late-start morning followed my late-late night, which of course was not true at all.

We were out so late because Peter, my parents and I went to see Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young at Red Rocks. It was an incredibly long concert (in a good way), starting at 8:30 or so and ending after midnight, with an unusual intermission in the middle. The concert was sort of divided into thirds: lots of new anti-war songs to start (with a few classics in there, I think), intermission (doesn't count as a third), then acoustic versions of some of the great songs highlighting each of the members with the others backing up, and finally, some hard core rock with more of their classics, as well as some serious anti-war stuff, both new and old.

We saw quite a few people leaving during the slow acoustic section, maybe because they didn't know or like the songs, and maybe because it was a Tuesday night so they had to work the next day (it was about 10 or so by this time). We felt horrible for them when it was over though, because they missed almost half the concert! Too bad for them!

I think my favorite part was watching the crowd. There were really cute old hippies and really cute young hippies, as well as aging Baby Boomers (my parents included). I loved watching the row in front of us, which included an older couple who were dressed in clothes they either haven't worn in a long time, or who are still very counter culture. The woman wore a black leather biker cap and leather pants and looked like she weighed about 90 pounds and the man was similarly dressed. Next to them sat a group of younger people, the boy with a ratted white-fro that looked like it hadn't been washed in, oh, ever, and the girls were rocking out hard core, passing the joints and swilling the beer. It was really cute how much they loved the music.

Unfortunately, I couldn't get any pictures because CSN&Y didn't want cameras, and since I am incapable of sneaking, Peter had to run back to the car to put my beloved Tizzy away :-( But I do have lots of pictures from the other fun things we did with my parents, so I will get to posting them soon!

Hot time in the city

We are getting a nice little heat wave in Boulder (and across the country, I believe; what global warming?). This is what Will thinks of the weather:My parents are in town for a visit (yay!), of course perfectly timed with the crest of the heat, so we will do what we can to either stay out of the sun or stay out of our furnace of an apartment (concrete walls + west exposure - AC = H-O-T!). Luckily, there's so much to do in Boulder, and the mountains are close enough that we can always beat a quick retreat if needed. Nordstorm is having a sale this weekend, so if worse comes to worse, we may be forced to go to the air conditioned mall!

How come I never heard of it before?

I got Gosford Park from Netflix a while ago, and I just keep watching it over and over. I can't decide if it really is one of the most brilliant films I've ever seen, or if I've just been royally snookered. I'm still very much a student of "good" films and I've seen some that were critical classics I just couldn't love, but something about Gosford Park totally caught me.

It's been a while since I've done any kind of critical deconstruction or analysis of anything (and even when I did them in undergrad, it was always a story or novel, rarely a movie), but when I finished Robert Altman's movie, I had so many little epiphanies about themes, characters and filmmaking.

I want to see more of his movies now; I've seen some before and they seem to have a certain "flavor" to them that I always found intriguing but, frankly, boring. Now, I think, I have a better sense of how to appreciate his films. They aren't "movies" for mindless enjoyment (at least, not for me), but rather films to appreciate and digest, to think about as a slice of life or a rumination on a subject. If I look at them that way, they are beautiful gems of films I can greatly enjoy. Off to update the Netflix queue!

Prejudice

As a linguist, I know that there are attitudes towards language every speaker holds. In some cultures, speaking a local dialect may be seen as more ignorant, less cultured, etc. while in another culture, speaking a local dialect may be more prestigious. People can think speakers of certain languages may be funnier, kinder, more polite, less trustworthy, more immoral, or any number of human characteristics, positive or negative, all based solely on the language the person speaks.

Despite the fact that I am well aware of these prejudices, such as knowing that in American English, a Southern accent is less preferable and a French accent might be seen as more "romantic," I came face to face with the language prejudice that seems too deep seated for me to ever overcome: British accents. I was watching the BBC news report on the situation in the Middle East, and found myself thinking how much more intelligent, well-informed and unbiased the reporters were compared to American reporters. Of course, this all may be true, but how can I separate it from the accents?

Maybe I should just develop a British accent, and then I will have a fabulous self-esteem about my intelligence!

Illiterate

I just finished a "chick lit" book my sister-in-law lent to me (along with several others I've devoured in the four days since), and I was left with the question, "How exactly does this qualify as 'lit'?" I know chick lit isn't supposed ot be Anna Karenina, but even though I enjoyed the book, it was really just a thinly disguised romance novel, but not nearly as satisfying. I guess I'm just not a "chick."

Happy weekend

Last weekend, Peter and I flew to Vegas for the wedding of two very good friends. The bride, Vanessa, was my roommate freshman year and introduced me to some wonderful friends and the groom, Ryan, was an RA with Peter and me and one of Peter's groomsmen last year. We were so happy when they met and started dating, and now they are married! The wedding was great and we had a lot of fun, especially seeing Griff, a friend we haven't seen in years, and his girlfriend.



We also had the great pleasure of seeing our friends Armando and Desiree in Pahrump again, along with their almost-seven-month-old baby. We had seen her the day she was born and a few weeks after, but had only seen a few pictures since then. She's a few days older than Will, so I was really curious and excited to see another baby around his age.

It was incredible how much she had grown! Of course I knew she would be bigger and moe capable than the helpless newborn we saw in December, and I knew what Will was like, but it was still amazing to see the jump, rather than the gradual increase I saw in Will. She was so strong and quite capable of feeding herself cookies (if they didn't get to the dogs first).

It was really nice to visit with our friends again, especially for Peter, who hasn't found friends quite like Ryan and Armando here in Boulder yet.

Why bother?

Will has this awesome little piano that has different levels of difficulty and learnig as he grows. He likes playing it OK, but right now all he cares about is pulling out the plastic cards with each program and then playing with the $.25 plastic.

When we have kids, I think I'll just give them plastic cards and empty boxes and skip the toys altogether :-)

I know I am loved.

I opened the fridge, starving, and found only one yogurt cup left. Peter had left me a strawberry one :-)

Daily Photo July 8th

Daily Daily Photo July 5th

Misty Mountain Sunrise

More of Will's laugh

Here's a video from a while ago when Will went to visit Bear, Alison's Rottweiller. Be sure to listen carefully to the beginning. That alien sound you hear is Will laughing!

Fiery Fourth

Actually, it was pretty much the opposite. Since Colorado has been so dry, the governor banned all fire and fireworks for the state (except the big, controlled kind) last week to prevent wildfires. Ironically, we got the hardest rain we've seen in a very long time the evening of the 4th, and fireworks (of the legal sort) were seriously in question.

Luckily, it cleared up very well, and we still got our show! Since our apartment is incredibly close to the stadium where they do the fireworks, we had some friends over to watch. And what friends they are! They walked, literally, barefoot through the rain, uphill both ways (maybe only one way) to hang out with us! We had a barbecue--inside and with no barbecue in sight-- with hot dogs, chips, sausages and other fare. It turned out to be an unintentionally "healthy" meal, with buffalo hot dogs, sugar cookies made with part whole wheat flour, whole grain tortilla chips and a strawberry dessert. And it was all delicious!

I took some pictures of the fireworks, but I honestly just wanted to watch them more, so the quality of the pictures suffered. Since I have a slew of fireworks pictures I took years ago that were pretty good but I just never looked at them, I figured this wasn't too much of a loss. The finale was awesome though, tons of big fireworks going off at once, everything a finale should be, so we all enjoyed it.

Hope everyone else had a happy and safe Fourth!

Baby Laugh

So, Will's laugh is the best in the world. This is the first video I've done this way, so we'll see if it works. I set it to private, so let me know if you can't see it because of this!

Daily Photo July 1st

Life is awesome.

I've been playing around on Flickr a lot lately, getting inspired, commenting on pictures, meeting other photographers and what not. So I had an image posted that's called an HDR image. To create these, I have to use a program that is not free, but the trial version with annoying watermarks is.

A guy who is part of a small group of us who own the same camera also makes a lot of these HDR images and commented on one of mine that he liked that it was a shame about the watermark. I agreed, but explained we be po' and there's no way I could ever justify paying $109 for what is essentially a toy (Food? Toy? Food? Toy?). So last night, I get an email from him saying "Happy Birthday," saying he had liked what I had done with the HDR so far and giving me a code to try! It worked! I have no idea if this sainted man bought it for me because he's a billionaire and likes to do nice things for strangers on the internet, or if he has some code that is floating around on the internet (I kind of hope it's this one, because that's a lot of money to spend on a complete stranger), but I don't care!

Random acts of kindness rock! I'm definitely going to pay this forward (in a very non-monetary sense). Any other cliches I could press into service?

In other awesome news, within the past week, I have had two sets of friends get engaged! I'm not going to post them here, since of the readers I know exist, half of you wouldn't know them and the other half should probably hear it from the horse's mouth, as it were. (One of them I'm still waiting on confirmation for. They emailed out a very, very suspicious picture and if they aren't actually engaged, I'm going to be very angry, then very sad. So it better be true!)

Hooray for good things!

Thrilling Day

I spent a long time in the computer lab, practically froze to death in there (good thing to remember on days our apartment is 120), worked on yet another puzzle and we watched "Flightplan." We're getting a nice little thunderstorm now, and I'm going to start working on Peter's quilt tonight. I talked to my parents today as well, I can't wait until they come visit! We're expecting Peter's parents and brother and sister-in-law later this summer as well, which will be very fun! I keep thinking of fun things to do when everyone is here, I only hope we won't get another heat wave!

Have a good weekend and happy July! Here's a picture of a robin I spotted on the walk back from the computer lab to leave with:

Daily Photo June 30th

Where is summer going???

I guess it's already half over... no way! We haven't been backpacking yet, nor have we tubed the creek or done any of the fun fun things I was dreaming about during those last days of school. We have, however, spent many hours in our apartment, playing with a baby, watching movies and playing on the internet. I really feel like I ought to have accomplished more, but I've enjoyed taking a nap almost everyday (when the baby naps, and those are only taken when Peter's awake, I'm not THAT bad a babysitter!), doing puzzles, and catching up on movies. Plus, the baby is fricking cute (when he's not screaming) and he's fun to play with.

This morning, ashamed at my lack of doing-nothingness, I convinced Peter (who runs at least three times a week) to come with me on a hike up to Chautauqua. We did the same hike up to the arch that I did with Aous and Jena a few weeks ago, but it was much less crowded because it was a weekday morning. Peter's in much better shape than me (see the previous comment on running), so he was strolling up the mountain while I was laboring--huffing and puffing up the inclines.

The view was so worth it, and we eve had the arch to ourselves for a few moments! A family came in after us with two very small kids (a 4-year-old and a 1-year-old in a carrier). We overheard them saying, "We should have brought the camera," as they were looking at the incredible views and I just felt so bad for them! To have walked well over a mile, maybe 2, up a mountain with two young children and not have any record of it (says the woman who took 140 pictures on that same hike). So I offered to email them a picture if they gave me an address. A scramble for a pen and paper ensued, when the dad remembered a business card. Problem solved! A few pictures later and we headed back down. I love the downhill part :-)

Will was over as well and had a perfectly lovely day to make up for the days of screaming he's been having with the teeth coming in. He slept for an hour or two (and I joined him for part of it), then when he was awake, he cooed and babbled and smiled and worked very hard on his crawling and sitting. He managed to sit up by himself for the longest time I've seen him (granted, half the time he was leaning forward, propped up by his hands, but the balance was still there!), and the biggest miracle of all--he went to sleep for his nap without a single gut-wrenching scream. It was heaven!

Here's to making the most of the time we have!

Daily Photo

Daily Photo

Daily Photo

I'm making a new "feature," modeled after the daily photo at dooce. I'll add a photo every day, even if I don't blog, and hopefully that will help you all to see how exciting our day was that day. Maybe it'll be... laundry! Or... the baby! You just never know.

Since it's early today and I haven't taken any pictures, pretend this is yesterday and enjoy.

Jenny had a birthday!

Yesterday was our friend Jenny's birthday, so the usual suspects gathered at Alison's house... though Alison was out of town at her sister's triathalon! She was nice enough to let us use her place, though we were good guests (I hope!).

Peter and I were tired when we first got there; Peter because his 3 hour training for a new student turned into more like 5 and me because I watched Will on one of my days off so his parents could look for a new place (I really love him, so it wasn't work, it was just unexpected time taken). We also had a fair number of errands to run, which are always tiring. Luckily, there's nothing like good food and great company to re-energize, so by the end of the evening,
I wasn't even tired.

Happy birthday, Jenny!

Father's Day

We're back! Peter and I flew to Las Vegas last Thursday to meet my mom and dad, who drove in from California, and my brother, who flew in from Reno. Peter's family is also in Las Vegas, so it was so nice to have all the family together. My dad had several free rooms at three different casinos for different nights, so it was fun to visit them, swim in the pools and do the touristy things we don't normally do in Vegas.

We took this picture at (duh) Paris the afternoon we flew in. I kept looking through the many versions we have of this picture (with various eye closures in each), frantically trying to find the one with PJ, my brother, in it too. Stupid me, I forgot he came in at midnight that night, so of course he was missing! The nice German (?) old man took this and its 20 bretheren for us, since we took pictures for him and for every other tourist at the pool who managed to miss the little platform with stairs and a sign that said "Eiffel Tour Photo Spot" or something like that. Photo ops like these don't just happen, people!

While we were inching down the Strip (you mean, you actually want to get someplace?), we were lucky enough to be right in front of the Bellagio for the fountain show. I'm not overly impressed by most of Vegas' offerings, since I've come of age in Nevada and I've been to Vegas too often for work and family, but the fountains are one thing I will try to see if I'm in the area, and they are at their most impressive at night.

Equally impressive was the Bellagio conservatory, which changes quite frequently and is always lovely. I don't exactly know why, but they pulled out all the stops on this one. I can't explain it, but it's like a fairytale-esque miniature train set with American landmarks. Sound confusing? Somehow, it works. Peter's favorite part was the arching fountains that were so crystal clear they looked like Plexiglass. We're still not sure how they did it.
Here's the mini-Bellagio, complete with little fountains. You can see one of the many train trestles in the upper right. Each one was different and had a little sign explaining what kind it was. They had many different model trains running on tracks through the conservatory--overhead, through mini-villages, over the river and through the woods.

I couldn't get a good picture of it, but they also had an enormous banyan tree (I think) that was extremely old and had to be cut down in Florida due to poor health. So of course, they shipped the tree to the Bellagio! It wasn't whole like when it was a live, but you could still get a pretty good idea of its size from the huge trunks and limbs they had arranged (with trains running throughout, natch).

The rest of the weekend we mostly spent with family, swimming in pools (Paris, Red Rock and Green Valley, though Peter's family pool was the most fun with 5 people and 4 dogs in it at once), eating and watching movies. We never go to the movies, but we went to see Cars and An Inconvenient Truth. Both were quite good, but in different ways, obviously. It was so nice to be with family again, especially since this was the first time since the wedding that both of our families have been together.

Hope everyone had a happy Father's Day!

How social we are!

Last Saturday, after the hike, Peter and I went to a barbecue for the woodworkers guild Peter belongs to. There were a few others who were our age, but most of the members are older than we are. It was fun to meet new people and see the amazing shop you can afford when you are retired from nuclear physiscs (or something). Peter was like a kid in a candy store looking at all this shop (though admittedly, most of the other guys there were too). Some of the woodworkers brought stuff they made to show off, which was fun to see. These are pictures of one of the pieces made by one of the men we were talking with. The detail is just incredible!

Not-Funny News

The same night as all the wildfires were on the news, there actually was some quite sad news as well. A young man drowned while tubing in Boulder Creek, which runs right by our apartment. I guess something like this usually happens each summer, but it's still sad. Helps to remind me how powerful all that beautiful and cool water really is.

Hiking

Last Saturday, I went on a hike with Aous and Jena in Chautaqua Park (I never really know where to put all the "u's,"I just guess). We hiked up to the Royal Arch or the Royal Gorge Arch, I'm not sure which.

It was a pretty strenuous hike, and it was Jena's first real hike, so she was a trooper. Aous is afflicted with the same syndrome as me, namely, Mountain Goat Legs. This sounds like it should be good, but it's really not. What it means is that you feel compelled to scramble up steep hillsides at a quick, strenuous pace, which is usually not in keeping with the fitness or either heart nor lungs. The result is that if unchecked, we could end up at the top of a mountain, dripping with sweat, breathing heavily and so exhausted we can hardly make it back down the mountain on our shaking quads (this may or may not be true for Aous, but is certainly true for me!)

The hike itself was actually quite beautiful. More treed than Nevada hikes in the foothills, but more varied flora than the hikes in the Sierras. The only thing that I wasn't in love with were the crowds, but that was because we went on a Saturday when the weather was excellent, so the entire city was at the park. When we actually got to the arch, there was already a crowd at the top, which turned out to be OK with me, since heights aren't really my thing, so I had a buffer between me and Boulder Vallley. The views were pretty amazing, but I'd love to come back on a less crowded day, so I'm not forced to get lots of nice strangers in my pictures (she provides perspective?).

Today, Will was a little cranky, so I took him down to the creek for a little cool air, change or scenery, and of course, a nice, soothing stroller ride across lots of bumps and things (the child loves movement. I was playing around with the black and white mode on my camera and got some nice shots, with which I will leave you. I dare you not to want to kiss those cheeks!















And because teething hurts:



















Finally, Will's mom (Jessie) chose a shirt that perfectly describes him (it says "heart breaker" if you can't read it):

Perspective

Peter and I had to laugh watching the local news last night. One of the big stories was that "many" fires had broken out all over Colorado as the result of lightning strikes, several in Boulder County. Air support had been called in and firefighters were making headway on them. The largest fire in Boulder County was... 4 acres.

4 acres??? I don't think a fire that size in Nevada would even have been reported on the news. My favorite was that one of the reporters had personally found a fire the fire department hadn't been aware of. How big was this dangerous inferno? "About 75 feet by 75 feet." Wow. Granted, Colorado is much more densely populated than Nevada ever will be, especially in this area, and there are more trees and things that could burn hotter than the cheat grass and sagebrush in Nevada, but really! I remember in one bad fire season, the entire state of Nevada was practically on fire. There was a map that showed all the fires, including one in the center of Nevada that was something like 85,000 acres that I hadn't even heard of until then! 4 acres...

The baby!

So here he is, my adorable summer job. I've taken way, way too many pictures of him, but he's just too cute! He looks a little sad here because we had taken him on his first outing with us, downtown to the Jewish Festival. I think he was a little overwhelmed at first, which is whe I took this picture, plus, he got his first tooth in yesterday, which has to be painful and traumatic.

We met Jenny and Chris at the festival, and they hadn't seen him since May, so it was fun to see how much he had grown. It was amazing how many babies and kids there were! Peter decided that to fit in in Boulder, you just need to borrow someone's baby and stroller :-) My favorite was the little girl who had been playing in the fountains and was running round with only a shirt on when we saw her. Why are naked little kid butts running down the street so darn cute?

Catching up on stuff

I forgot to post about the dinner we had with our friends, Carrie and Jonathan, who are leaving to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro (among other travels) tomorrow!

They had a going-away party on Sunday that we had to miss, since Will-sitting conflicted with it, so they kindly offered to take some of their precious time before they left to meet us for dinner in Denver. We decided on Buca di Beppo's, which none of us had eaten at before (that seems like utterly terrible grammar, but I can't think of a good fix right now). It was quite fun, and parts of it were rather unexpected. For one, they take you through the kitchen if it's your first time (I'm sure Buca fans are totally mocking my naivete right now), the meals are served family style (as in, one small order of whatever will feed two, a large will feed three), and the decor is... eclectic. I have to say, the only place that trumps the tacky/kitschy facto of Buca di Beppo's is the Madonna Inn (just click on any of the rooms here to get a small idea). We visited it once when I was much younger, and the only thing I remember with any clarity (besides the generally-overwhelming tackiness) is the men's restroom. The urinal was a waterfall, a huge, fill-up-the-wall waterfall, and it was so impressive (and famous) that an employee gave us a tour when all the men had cleared out. If I remember correctly, the waterfall didn't run all the time, only when you "flushed" it (this could be a result of my over-active memory-imagination, which allows me to remember with crystal clarity events for which I was not actually present). Edit: OK, so apparently I did remember correctly! It's not as pretty as I remembered, but here's a great site if you are dying to learn more about this, and urinals in general.

Sorry, getting back to the real story. So the walls of the restaurant were pretty much entirely covered with framed old-fashioned pictures of fat babies, naked people, old people, and various other photos what would only be considered "art" if someone famous and important told you they were. It looked like somebody's crazy Italian great-aunt just went nuts with the decor, which is probably exactly what they were aiming for.

While Carrie and I caught up on the things since school let out (she and I are in the program together), Jonathan had a great time with my new camera. He took some fairly random pictures of the walls, and some fun action shots of the rest of us :-) He even started talking to the waitress about my little camera's amay-may 10x optical zoom! It was awesome.

The food was quite delicious, especially the chicken Marasala. Overall, it seemed like a pretty good deal and it was great splitting the check, since we all ate everything, so it went right down the middle (well, apparently our bill had a penny more on it, so Carrie and Jonathan paid a penny more tip, haha!). We declined the desserts there, since there was a Cheesecake Factory a few blocks away, and that sounded better than the unexciting dessert options at Buca di Beppo.

Since we were so stuffed, we got a slice of two different kinds of cheesecake, which the nice waitress then cut in half for us, then we cut the halves into half, letting each of us have both cheesecakes and only eating half a slice! It was great-- delicious and not stomach-bloatingly filling, and again, an easy bill to split!

We have so much fun with Carrie and Jonathan, it's just hard because they live about an hour's drive from us (with no traffic), so we can't see them as often as we like. PLUS. They are going to Africa. For a month and a half. Or so. Jealous! They have a blog on their website, plus a place to post pictures, but sadly, I think we'll have to wait until they get back to the US in early July for their Africa pictures.

Best wishes and happy journey, you two!

My Favorite Little Devil

So yesterday was, obviously, 6-6-06, and it also happened to be the birthday of two of my friends, so of course we had to celebrate! The birthday boys were:
Aous, the self-described antithesis of "President" Bush, and Luis, a Spaniard who was having his 22nd birthday for the second time. Aous and a few of us went on a short hike in Chatauqua Park, which quickly devolved into a photo hunt for Jena and me. There were just too many pretty flowers and plants to take pictures of! Here are some of the shots from our fun hike:


And here's a picture or two I took with Jena while we were falling dreadfully behind the others:

After the hike, we went over to Casa Alvarez and met up with Luis and several others. We had a great time. I hadn't seen almost anyone (except Aous) since school had let out, so it was good to catch up on various travels and the little life events that can happen in three weeks. Here's Aous tormenting Luis with suggestive camera fondling, and Luis' reaction:

Someone (we're still not sure who) told the restaurant about the birthday boys, so they brought out desserts with candles on them. Aous really didn't want to make a big deal about it, and so he wasn't too happy (sorry, it's your birthday! Could have been a lot worse!). I don't think Luis minded, since he got a free dessert :-) Aous really showed the true colors of his birth date (and his displeasure) in the picture below. I think Jena got an even better one, but I was further down the table:
Eek! But thankfully, no one was hurt and he forgave us (I think).

After dinner, some of us went to The Reef, a piano bar downtown. It was fun, but since it was early and
school was out, it was rather empty and one of the pianists was pretty rude about song selections and tips. Luckily, the next two pianists who played were absolutely amazing and played all of our silly suggestions with nary a complaint about the choice, AND did them very well! One of them was incredible. He rapped and played "Ice, Ice Baby" (with no lyrics, who can remember all those words anymore?), did an amazing beatbox Beastie Boys song, and the two of them did the coolest "Bohemian Rhapsody" (aside from the original), with only their voices and two pianos. I always have fun when I go to The Reef, but the early guys almost ruined it for me. Good thing the other two are professionals who can be funny without being bitter and rude!

You may be wondering how the babysitting is going. I'll write a post about that later, but as a result of him, I have considerably less time to write and otherwise putz around on the internet, so keep that in mind if you get impatient! (he's freaking adorable and we love him to bits is the short answer).

Baby's a-comin!

Scared you, didn't I?

I'm going to be watching a baby this summer for one of the other women in the department and our first day together is today! He's an absolutely adorable child, and I watched him for much shorter periods of time last semester and had so much fun with him. I'm really excited now, but I'm sure at 7 PM tonight, when his mommy comes to get him, I'll be too tired to be really excited.

If nothing else, this is good exposure to see what life is like with a baby (he's about 5 months old now, I think, almost six). I love kids and Peter and I want them, but not yet, since we both have a bit of schooling left to finish before we can get settled in our careers. Plus, it kind of helps to have a real job before you have a child!

If it's ok with his mom, I'll probably be posting pictures of him as well. He really is an incredibly cute baby and well-tempered as far as babies go, and I'm not his mom, so I have no bias :-) Yay for babies!

Picture Post

Some pictures from our run yesterday:

How to kill a fledgling marriage

Take one wife not known for doing laundry. Add one new washer and a heaping cup of good intentions and actual initiative. Stir in one load of husband's t-shirts (white, preferably),
then add one pair red shorts and one red shirt. Remove red shirt before beginning load, but forget red shorts. Allow wash cycle to come fully to a close, savoring the washing machine's sweet little song, and open lid of washer.

Stare in horror as realization dawns that every white shirt is now pink, and a lovely deep pink at that.

Thankfully, Peter has the patience of a saint, and only got slightly distressed when he saw the shirts included one of his favorites. Luckily, the Internet is amazing and I was able to Google a solution. RIT, a company that makes dye, also has a fabulous dye remover, which I was able to get at the JoAnn's across the street for $1.99. It worked practically instantaneously and Peter has resumed talking to me!

PS I'm only joking, Peter never stopped talking to me; he actually handled it better than I did.

Yesterday's Pictures

Nothing tremendously exciting happened yesterday, which is pretty normal, I suppose. This is a picture I took on the drive back from the dermatologist's. Tough commute, huh? Luckily, I'm just mole-y and all my moles looked normal, but I'll be going back in 4 months just to make sure nothing has changed.

It's spring, which means that all the animals are having babies or at least trying to (I'll post pictures of the baby prairie dogs later, so cute!). We have this little finch who loves to perch on our no-pigeon-net, which covers our little porch thing outside. He sits there and sings beautiful songs, which seem to be working, since I've seen him once or twice recently flying up with a female carrying twigs in her beak.

I like this picture because it seems to turn convention on its head. We're the ones inside the cage and he's happily on the outside!

Now that have a washer of our very own in our apartment, one of our joys is to do laundry. We don't even pay for utilities here, so it's wonderful! The only hitch is that we can't have a dryer (no venting), so we've figured out some drying options. As you can see here, Peter strung a line on the porch, which turned out to be rather easy, since previous tenants left the nails in at the perfect spots! We also have some fun drying things I bought at IKEA while I was in Reno, so altogether, we're pretty well set.

The other nice thing about drying laundry on our porch is that we face the sun most of the day, which is great for drying clothes, but gets really hot with a big window and poor insulation. So the clothes make a kind of curtain, plus we sort of get the cooling effect of evaporation! (Not really, but I like to think that). I'm getting used to stiff jeans much more easily than I had expected. Compared to spending dollars and dollars worth of quarters every other week or so, not to mention hauling the clothes up and down 3-4 flights of stairs (which Peter usually did, the lovely man), stiff jeans is a small price to pay. Yay washer!!!

Lost-a-day

K, so I had a post for yesterday and everything, but stuid Firefox crashed and took my lovingly crafted entry with it. Well, it wasn't really that good, but there were some pictures that were fun and I was going to post, so I suppose I'll just do that.

But that will have to happen later, as Peter and I are about to go on a run and he's just put on his shoes and is looking at me expectantly. Hasta luego!

More Pictures...

Here's a picture from the Bolder Boulder over the weekend. Aous and I danced and Alison ran cuz she's hard core like that. Peter also ran the 10K, and later that evening, when I was wondering why I was so freaking sore and he was just dandy, I realized it's because he ran for an hour while we belly danced for over three hours! Made me feel a little less out of shape :-)

This picture is of Alison and her snuggly Rottie, Bear. They came by to visit and Bear was even wearing a Bolder Boulder t-shirt! It was adorable.


A picture of the other belly dancers. We had so much fun!

New Camera!!!

Me & Mom-Boulder Falls
Originally uploaded by shanbrite2.

So we sucked it up and bought me a new camera, since my old CoolPix broke and the "holding the battery door shut" method was no longer cutting it. Now I have a pretty new Panasonic Lumix with a 10x optical zoom (yay!). This is a picture of me and the hubs at the Boulder Creek Festival where it was a wee bit warm and there were just way too many people and vendors (at least, far, far more than I was prepared for). Had we brought water, it would have been much more fun. If this works, I will be posting many more pics now that I have a fun new toy!

Spring (?)

About a month ago, I was terribly depressed because all signs pointed to spring: warmer weather, tulips and daffodils blooming, tiny green plants appearing; but the trees were still the same barren, dead-looking branches as in winter. Then, one day, magically, it seemed like a green mist appeared on the trees overnight and the tiny leaves were growing. Soon, the leaves were practically obscuring the trees and I was happy. Warm weather was here to stay and the sun-lover in me could be happy again.

Sadly, this is Colorado, and spring melted back into a snow shower (which then melted back into a 70-degree day), and we have clouds and rain again today. At least we have leaves on the trees now!

Best/Worst Movie Ever

Plan 9 From Outer Space.

We saw "Ed Wood" over the weekend and I just loved it, so we had to put the movies Ed Wood really made on our queue. I didn't think the real one could live up to the Tim Burton/Johnny Depp extravaganza of "Ed Wood," but man, does it ever!

If you haven't already seen it, I recommend seeing "Ed Wood" first, because it'll give you insight into scenes that wouldn't otherwise be terribly interesting and will also give you some background on the movie and its making.

"Plan 9" is like the epitome of every bad horror movie from that era. Crappy special effects, terrible dialog, ridiculous plot, it has it all. I love the (multiple) scenes that transition between night and day with each cut, the cop car that changes color and style every time we see it, and the tomstones that topple over when someone touches them. Awesome!

My Easter vigil

Normally I would be going to Mass tomorrow. It's at least a nod to my Catholic upbringing and faith, though I don't know if any weekly Catholics would consider me Catholic anymore. But this year, my first year away from family and married to a devout atheistic humanist, I await a different kind of celebration. This year I will be celebrating spring (and Easter) with my friends (those who aren't going to church). We're having a brunch buffet at our house tomorrow, complete with easter egg hunt and bacon--the poor grad student's Easter ham. My Easter vigil is tending to the muffins in the oven and the cheesecake I baked earlier. My communion will be sharing the food each person brings to our table. My thoughts are of spring, the rebirth, the joy and pain each birth of all kinds brings, and the hope for tomorrow's days to be better ones.

May you all have a safe and peaceful Easter.

Ruminating

Is a "thank" less than "thanks"?

Literary trivia

Am reading J.D. Salinger's Franny and Zooey for a fun bookclub my friends started. Peter and I watched The Good Girl with Jennifer Aniston which makes numerous references to Catcher in the Rye, the other Salinger book (are there any more?). Zooey Deschanel is also in the movie, and she was named for the character in the book! What are the chances of her being named Zooet (the character is a man), acting in that movie, me reading the book and watching the movie at the same time without knowing the connection? And yet, this little miracle has probably played itself out a hundred times before. Such is our world.

PS My friend actually had a conversation with Salinger, so there!

Kitchen Aid ecstacy

We used the grating/slicing attachment on the Kitchen Aid mixer for the first time tonight. It was magical grating 4 cups of cheese so quickly (we only needed 2 cups, but it was so easy! Anyone want some finely shredded swiss?). We got three identical graters for the wedding, and for some reason, I'm pretty sure we returned all of them, so we've been making do with a makeshift grater for a while.

But now, we have been reunited with our Kitchen Aid! I made a cheese souffle tonight and used the mixer not only to grate the cheese, but also to beat those egg whites into stiff peaks while washing the dishes. I'm hoping Peter noticed my amazing multitasking and put in my nomination for Wifey o' the Year ;-)

In other news, I love the time change when I hear the kids playing outside at 8 PM (memories!), but I freaking hate it when it's midnight and I'm not the tiniest bit tired. Plus, I can never remember if this will be a good thing on Tuesday when I have my 8AM class, or if I'm going to be hating life and hating the fact that I hate coffee. Clearly, math is not my strong suit. In fact, time in general perplexes me. Peter laughs at me because I used to set my clock an odd number of minutes fast (like 7), because I could never do the math fast enough to figure out what time it really was when the alarm went off. 5 or 10 minutes was too easy, so I'd just keep sleeping and defeat the purpose of setting the clock fast and thus frustrating my bedmate who likes his clocks all to have the right time. Crazy.

OK, I'm off to bed, and I'll probably sleep far too late tomorrow. Damn! That means Tuesday's going to suck. Adjust, little body, adjust!

Thousands of Miles

Well, we just got back yesterday from a fairly whirlwind tour de la southwest. Peter and I drove with our friend Andy across the Rockies, across the bottom of Utah, a corner of Arizona, and fianlly made it to Peter's family's house in Las Vegas. We spent a few days there, Andy and I went to see Avenue Q (it was awesome!), then Peter and I drove a few hundred more miles to see my parents near Bakersfield.

They are selling their house soon, so they wanted me to see it before they did (it's not the house I grew up in, I've never even lived there, so I'm not sad about it, though it is very pretty).

More importantly, though, they had brought a bunch of stuff we had forgotten in Reno when we moved. At last, we were reunited with our beloved Kitchen Aid mixer! Plus, we had a late wedding gift that had been delivered after we left, so we got to open that up. Yay Tiffany platter from family friends! The platter's great, but we're also stoked about using the giant Tiffany box for pretty much every gift we ever plan on giving one another :-) Nothing says love like a Tiffany box!

So, now it's back to the grind. I need to run a few dozen exta miles to get rid of the inevitable paunch I get when visiting Peter's family of amazing cooks, plus we had to have In-N-Out and visit Trader Joe's. Colorado is so deprived!

When we left Boulder, the snow was just melting and it was still pretty cold, but now it's an amazingly beautiful spring day and the sun is shining more than it was in Vegas. Spring flowers are peeking out around our parking lot, I'll try to take some pictures.

Speaking of pictures, sadly, we may be about to lose a member of our family. My spunky little Nikon Coolpix, which has taken probably over 10,000 pictures and traveled thousands of miles with us over these past three years, is ailing. The little spring that keeps the batteries in is no longer springy and so you kind of have to hold the little door shut so the batteries willl work.

Anyone want to buy us a new camera? Haha.

For Jena

Exciting times!

So, I officially have my own website now, and not coincidentally, I've also started my own business. Thanks to my awesome friend Jena, you can now visit the newly-launched shanbritedesigns.com! If you are looking for a new way to view old family photos, pictures from your travels or that fantabulous wedding you just had, check it out!

OK, self-promotion time over. In other news, we are supposed to be getting a huge storm tonight, up to a foot or more of snow. Too bad I don't have any classes that could potentially be canceled tomorrow. Also, my "baby" brother is here for his Spring Break. It's 1:30 PM now and he is still fast asleep on our couch. Good thing he's a heavy sleeper because Peter and I gave up the whole tiptoe-around-so-we-don't-wake-our-guest routine about four hours ago. I only hope he wakes up in time for the 2:30 appointment we have with one of my friends! We'll see!

I don't know if we can be friends if you don't like the following movies:

Pretty Woman (watching it now, forgot how awesome it is)
Taxi Driver
The Graduate
Citizen Kane
Garden State

That's all for now. I can never remember my favorite movies when it matters. I also like the sese movies, but I still like you even if you don't like them:

Adaptation
Lost in Translation
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (might be on the first list)
Memento
Magnolia
Amelie (seriously, who doesn't like this movie?)
Napolean Dynamite
All the Thin Man movies

My new motto

Fuck cancer. Sorry so explicit, but really, there are no other words that truly express that feeling. I just get so pissed off sometimes. I just found out that one of my friend's mom's cancer has been moved up to Stage 4, which is the worst level. On top of that, I've been thinking about my friend Alicia, and I just get so pissed that this is happening to her or to anyone. It's not like you can really do anything to prevent it, no matter what ads might claim, and it can target anyone of any age. And so far, there's no magic pill that can help everyone and every type, and there are just so many unknowns. Damn, I'm pissed!

Addictions

Peter and I got new cell phones over Christmas, the fancy kind they have in these here modren ages, with pretty pictures on the screen and all! From our old phone, which was a very old model when we got it two and a half years ago, to this one is like traveling light years! It even has a camera and can take video with sound, which is just too much fun. But the biggest toy is that I've downloaded Jewel Quest, a puzzle matching game, and so now I play it all the time. For some reason, I was a lot better at the free online version on Myspace. Maybe they make that version easier so you want to download it and save what you think will be awesome high scores? Or maybe the phone version is just different from the computer version. In any case, the digital age isn't necessarily a move forward. I spend time on my phone that I never did before, and time that should be spent doing homework or laundry. But Jewel Quest is just too much fun!

Back in Boulder

It's nice to be back. The weather has been wonderful; I was so dreading coming back to 20 degrees after being in Vegas where it was 70, but it's gotten to the high 60s here, so it's not too bad at all. I've been for a few walks since getting back, something I kind of take for granted when I'm here. It's so easy just to walk out the door and walk almost anywhere from our apartment. Other cities are not nearly as pedestrian-friendly and it's so easy to get back into that car-centric lifestyle when I'm there. When I had to go to the grocery store for the first time after coming back, it took a real effort to talk myself out of getting in the car and driving to Safeway. While I was walking back, I kept thinking that it would have taken far longer to drive than it would have to walk and I was so glad I managed not to get sucked into the illusion of ease the car provides. Of course, I know this isn's the case for most people and most cities, but I suppose that is one of the many reasons why Boulder so often tops the lists of best places to live. Now I just have to make sure I make the most of my time here!

The Void

I have nothing to do while I'm on break from school, so I watch movies, play on the computer and read books (I've read 5 of the 7 Narnia books in as many days). The horrile thing is, I really don't want to go back to school.

I know I'll enjoy it when I get back (at least, I hope I will!), but I'm so enjoying the luxury of being bored. I've always liked doing nothing the best of all, but unfortunately, I'm an "adult" now and you simply can't make a living at that.

It's not even so much that I like doing nothing and being bored, though. It's really that I enjoy being able to choose what I do with my time and not having any obligations or deadlines to meet. I know even that is an impossible job description, but I think I might have more flexibility as a professor in what I do with my time and the scheduling of it, but I don't know if I'll be self-motivated enough to complete what I need to. I'm such a contradiction in terms!