No Pants

Lynn,
these are your people:

Improve Everywhere mission: no pants


These folks are doing some neat stunts. Food court musical was cute, but I like the subtlety of Frozen Grand Central Station.



I have some pictures from Paley fest (I don't think they are very good), but that will have to wait a few days...but I will say that Capt. Awesome is awesome and Jon Hamm from Mad Men is dreamy in person while Vincent Kartheiser is pretty funny...

Scouting

The funny thing about living in the greater LA metropolitan area is that production-related stuff happens all around you & when you least expect it. For instance, when I lived in the apartment, I woke up one fine morning & headed out to walk Lola by Caltech & came upon cast trailers & the crew setting up to film some Numb3rs exteriors. [They loved Lola, of course.] Most recently, I was sitting in my office (helping some of my students) when a young man popped his head in and asked my officemate Dave very politely if he could take a couple of pictures of our office because he was scouting locations. [Don't even ask about the pile of papers on my desk that I've been meaning to organize.] My other officemate, Denise, has a pirate flag flying proudly over her corner & I'm sure that will cause giggles in the production office. [It still makes me giggle & I see it everyday.]

I don't get all fan-girly when this happens...at least, not anymore because all the filming near CalTech de-sensitized me to it. That's not to say that "movie magic" doesn't thrill me any more (it does), but I'm just not surprised by it.

Just another day in LA-LA land, I guess.



Later this week: Paley Fest: An Evening with Chuck

In the Queue: Sanjuro

I've had the movie Sanjuro on my shelf to be watched for many months and finally got around to it today. (Don't ask why it took me so long.) This Kurasawa film is a sequel to Yojimbo (which I have not seen but is in my Netflix queue somewhere) starring the fabulous Toshiro Mifune in the title role of this dark comedy. Sanjuro is a sarcastic, surly yet wise ronin who leads a small gang of young samurai rebels in their quest to rescue the uncle of one the rebels.

I enjoyed this very much, and it made it me laugh out loud quite a bit. (Also: this Criterion Collection release that I saw looks & sounds great.) While I love Mifune as Sanjuro (and, I must confess, I think I have a little crush on Mifune), I think my favorite character is the prisoner who's kept in the closet and pops out every once in a while to give his opinion to the young samurai. Hee! The best line for me, though, might be Sanjuro's: after the young rebels have made several foolish mistakes and now plan to attack the bad guys in what is undoubtedly a trap, Sanjuro asks, "Aren't you tired of being stupid yet?" HeeHee! I will be using that line often in my life from now on.

Miscellany

in no particular order...

(1)Lost Episode: "The Constant"
If I had known that there was the possibility of a hottie Scottish dude randomly showing up in my physics lab, I would have stayed in research. :)

A general Lost comment: so far, we've had a Sayid episode & a Desmond episode where we have seen them not "island-disheveled" (i.e., nice clothes, nice hair, & in Des' case, no wildman beard) and all I can say is purrrrr.... me=happy.

(2) Tenure update
The board of trustees has granted me tenure. Yay!

(3) Kaylee has a beau (J, that's the other Kaylee)


Kaylee(left) with her new boyfriend, Levi. How cute are they? I haven't met Levi, but I can tell from this picture that he is a total goofball.

(4) Stolen Wallet
My wallet was stolen out of my briefcase in my office today while I was in class. They left my cell phone & laptop so I'm not complaining. They tried to use my credit cards at Wal-mart - my credit card companies suspected fraud right away. I guess they know I'm a Target girl. The DMV was a surprisingly pain-free experience (I think it helped that I had my passport; even though it was expired, the DMV woman was thrilled that I had the foresight to bring it. I'm pretty sure I saved her from doing paperwork.) No new picture or anything; it will come in the mail - yay, technology! I will miss my DKNY wallet which I'd had forever - it was of the softest black leather & it was best crafted wallet I've ever owned. [Sidenote ~ Dear Chase Bank: your automated phone system sucks; how about adding an option for reporting lost or stolen cards at the TOP menu?]

(5) Homelife & Daemons
Lola & I were thrilled to have Jessica come for a visit. We had a great time. Thanks again for coming out. We did many things (which J has mentioned on her blog), including going to Wicked. It was fabulous!

J also left me her copy of The Golden Compass (thanks, again, J!). I really liked the combination of elementary particle physics, religion & fantasy. I have to love a book that uses the collapse of a wave function as a metaphor for when things fall apart. [I suppose I should have included a "warning: geek alert" warning before that.] I enjoyed the idea of every person having their own daemon & it made me wonder: what do you think your daemon would be? [That's not rhetorical - I want to know what you think yours would be.] And if you were a daemon, what shape animal do you think you would be? [Also not rhetorical.] For me, I'm not sure...the animals I've had the most affinity for are dogs (I was even born in the year of the Dog), wolves, dolphins, hawks/eagles & geckos so maybe my daemon be one of those. If I were a daemon, I'd probably end up being some type of bird - I'd love to be able to fly like that.

(6)Movie News
Indy's Back! I don't know if it will suffer from the "Even-number" curse, but it's Indy so I'll be there.

I recently saw the tv ad for Iron Man & while I would not have pictured Robert Downey, Jr as Tony Stark, I'm willing to give it a shot because I have a bit of nostalgia for Iron Man. When I was kid, my brother Dave read Iron Man comics so I got to read them, too - now that I think about it, they may have been the first comic book I ever read. At the time, Tony Stark was fighting his alcoholism and I was fascinated by this idea of a "hero" having such personal demons. I was still pretty young, so the idea of the hero not being "perfect" was fairly novel to me. (I wonder how much that influenced the fact that I like 'em tall, dark & handsome?) Hey, Susan, your boy Favreau directed it, so you have to go with me. ;)



That's my life, in a nutshell.

The "Old Mo"

A response to DKM's invitation to follow the book meme with the following rules:
1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.


If you had posted this yesterday, I'd be posting something out of The Golden Compass. (Thanks, J!) Today, however, the nearest book at the moment happens to be the text used in one of the courses I teach, The Physics of Everyday Phenomena, 5ed by W. Thomas Griffith. Therefore, you all get some physics today (w00t!):

"If the defensive back is moving before the collision, his velocity changes abruptly. There must be strong forces at work to produce these accelerations, but these forces act for only an instant. How do we use Newton's laws to analyze this event?"

Page 123 of this book is the first page of a chapter on momentum and impulse. On this page, I learned that the "old mo" refers to momentum, as used by sports announcers when describing the momentum of a game (i.e., to the flow of a game)...although I have never in my life heard of it referred to that way. I'm thinking of renaming our Conservation of Momentum lab to something that cleverly uses the phrase "old mo"...something like, "Every old mo is new again," but, you know, more clever than that.

I like cheese.

I just finished watching this week's episode of Psych (entitled "Lights, Camera...homicidio")and had to comment. Shawn & Gus' case took them to the set of a telenovela entitled Explosión Gigante de Romance (if you need the translation: Giant Explosion of Romance) and it was pretty funny (as usual). I was particularly amused by the reference to the Pollo Loco guy (who was in the ep) hee! But I *loved* the subtle production things in this ep - the tight camera shots of faux over-dramatic Shawn in the hospital room and the theme song in Spanish. *giggle* And the telenovela set was so perfect. And how cute was James Roday speaking Spanish? hee! And I have to give the boy credit - he's always funny, but he did some real good stuff in this episode. If you haven't seen this episode (or show), try to catch a rerun later this week or watch the ep online at the Psych link above - you will love it.

There have been many good lines on this show, but last week's episode had one of my all time favorite lines EVER. Gus, Shawn and Shawn's dad were investigating a disappearance from retirement community & were going undercover - Shawn's dad as a new member of the community. At the front desk, Shawn slipped up saying that Shawn and Gus were there to drop of their father. Shawn (James Roday) and Gus (Dule Hill) *clearly* look nothing alike and the woman says, "You two are brothers?" And Shawn, after a quick glance at Gus, replies, "Our father worked at Benetton." I just about fell off the couch laughing at that.

What does this have to do with cheese? You'll have to watch "Lights, Camera...homicidio" to find out.

Tenure!

I have been nominated for full tenure by my department. Yay! [It's not official until the college grants tenure, but I don't think that will be a problem.] Yay!

I think I will have a glass of Maui Blanc to celebrate tonight (and then get back to grading).

Window Coverings

I haven't posted a new picture in forever; here's what the front looks like these days:


[You might want to click on the picture to see more of the red details in the larger view.] You may notice that one of the front windows is boarded up; the previous owner had an A/C in there which they removed before selling the house. The window that goes there was in the back yard where it suffered some termite damage and was left at the mercy of mother nature who was not particularly kind to it. It will, however, be repaired and re-installed at some point.

The new grass on the front lawn died - a victim of a July heatwave complicated by a lack of watering due to exterior house painting. As soon as the hole in the foundation is patched up (lower left), the lawn will be re-seeded

I've been a homeowner for over a year, but I still have not gotten drapes or curtains. The bedroom is really the only room that requires some window covering and I have put up some inexpensive & temporary Redi shades in there.

I like Roman shades, but my windows don't really allow for mounting them on the inside of the window; mounting them outside (on the window frame) is not an option - part of what I like about the house is the wood trim on the windows and I don't what to deface them with window mounting hardware. Curtains would be tricky for some of the windows b/c some of the windows have things under them (like the built-in bookcase).

I have found something that I think will work (for the bedroom at least): a pole pocket roman shade from Pottery Barn (most likely in cardinal red). The bedroom has three windows: one large one (which you can see in the front of the house) which is actually three (one unopenable center window flanked by two casement windows; see above picture)-my bed is centered on the center window; and two smaller casement windows on the side of the house [you can one of these in this old picture]. I think I will get a pocket pole shade for the center of the large window and then floor length curtains for all the casement windows. I think that will make opening & closing the window covering easy - which is a must since Lola loves to look out that window. I'll have to check the dimensions, but I may get one for the front French door, too. As for the poles, I'm tempted to get antique brass (as in flat, not too "gold-y" brass) ones (if I can find them) so that it matches the window hardware; however, my personal aesthetic prefers a different finish (some kind of dark metal - like maybe these.

In any case, I do hope to have window coverings by the New Year. I'll have a little time off & will be able to mount them.

Too busy...

wow...it's been months. I will try to post at least once a week. Promise.

First:
I hope everyone had a happy gobble gobble day! Lola & I went over for dinner at the Kary homestead. It was a great dinner with great company. Lola was very social & very good. :)

Second ~ New shows this season:
I'm still very much enjoying Chuck. I thought Capt Awesome was my favorite character (he won my heart when he taught Chuck how to tango), but I have to say that Bryce might be my new favorite...sigh...those big baby blues and he speaks Klingon - what more can my little geek heart ask for?

I'm also enjoying Pushing Daisies. I love the look of the show, the acting is great, the writing is sharp and where else can I get my dose of Jim Dale now that Harry Potter books are no more?

My guilty pleasure is Big Shots - those boys just make me laugh. (I even like Christopher Titus! - I hadn't really cared for him before.) A secondary guilty pleasure is Dirty Sexy Money, but I somehow forget to watch that one (maybe I should season pass that one on the TiVo, huh?).

So what's everybody else watching?

Before I forget...

I saw many pilots at Comic-Con this year & the one I recommend the most is "Chuck" on NBC. The producers described it "Alias meets The Office". It really made me laugh. Watch it on Monday Sept 24th!

I am kitty, hear me roar...

I have pictures of the house & of the family visit and have a rant or two I need to let out, but I have a migraine today so instead you get another old photo. Here's me in my ballet heydays dressed as a kitty just like Diva Kitty but with less "Diva-tude" than Sophia:

Old Photos

My brother, Dave, has taken up the monumental task of digitizing all of our old family photos. Here's one of me -I'm not sure when it was taken, but I think that's the old house so I'd say I was around three or four years old. :) Clearly, I'm ready to go yachting or to Sunday brunch:

Yard sneak peek & Table Dilemma

I'm down-sizing - the house's living/dining room area is much smaller than what I had in the apartment. I suppose, ideally, I should get rid of my large-ish mid 90's sofa sleeper & my awesome if large Ikea table and get something appropriate for the space. But I'm po' right now (since all my money has gone into making the house livable) so that's not an option. Socal thought (and I agreed) that a plan might be to sell the dining table (and its matching sidetable) and get a table for the patio which would become my "dining room."

I liked this idea a lot - it would give me more room in the living room (I could move the club chair & ottoman back to the living room & have more space in the office...like, say, for maybe a treadclimber...). So I started hunting for outdoor tables & chairs, hoping that I might get lucky with the July 4th sales. As I started checking measurements, I very quickly saw that most tables were about the same size as my awesome IKEA table and the chairs were generally larger. Should I go through the hassle of selling my table & buying new stuff or should I just "weatherproof" my IKEA table & chairs? (The chairs have a water/stain resistant faux suede microfiber, but I can easily change that to a more "outdoorsy" fabric if I wanted to.) [Because of the size of the patio, round tables block the "flow" so I'm sticking to rectangular tables...unless I got a little bistro table, but what's the point in getting a teeny table that barely seats 2? :) ] That's my dilemma-of-the-week. Hmm. Maybe after the exterior painting is done, I think I will "test drive" putting the IKEA table back there to see if I'm comfortable with that.

Anyway, what you really want are pictures:
My hibiscus:


Our little orange tree:


Here's Lola showing off the new lawn in the backyard:

Erratum

The color of the Behr inspiration house is "Ripe Wheat" not Rice Wine. I have no idea how I got that mixed up. BTW, I have decided to go with "Ripe Wheat" and not "applesauce". [Priming starts on Thursday!]

Quick House Update

The new grass is growing! Hibiscus has been planted! [More pictures later.]

I was poking around the Behr website looking for the exterior accent color, when I came across one of their "inspiration" pictures with the basic color scheme I want for the house. So I thought I'd share. The only difference is that I will use some brick-red color for accent. I'm undecided about the body color -"rice wine" (which is the one in the inspiration picture) and "applesauce" (which is very similar to rice wine but has a teeny more yellow in it). Rice wine seems more "earthy" & more in line with the architecture of the house, but applesauce is a little brighter. I have samples & will make the decision soon. There's another color 1 shade lighter than "applesauce" called "banana cream" [yummy!] which made it to the short list by virtue of the name alone. :) Alas, when I brought the swatch home, "banana cream" looked too pale in the bright glare of the So. California sunshine. Hmm...coming up with names for paint colors must be a fun job...

Book Meme (only b/c J invited me)

Many months ago DKM invited Jessica to complete a book meme ...and Jessica invited me to complete one, too. I've had to think long and hard to complete this list, for a few reasons: (1) How can I pick just one?? (2) I have found that, honestly, it's hard to remember sometimes (I guess I'm getting old) and (3) I, regretfully, haven't read as *much* as I would like.

#1~One book that changed your life: Well, how about a book that would have changed my life? That's The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester. If I had read this book when I was a teenager, I have no doubt that I would have followed a different path in my life. Alas, I read it when I was in grad school - too jaded by life. [Demolished Man was good, too...I like Bester's work a lot...much more than Asimov, but I digress.]

#2~One book that you've read more than once: How 'bout I answer this when I post my comfort books?

#3~One book you'd want on a desert island: This week I might have to go with The Princess Bride by William Goldman. Even the cover (on my copy's cover, it calls itself "A Hot Fairy Tale") makes makes laugh. It makes me laugh & smile & believe in True Love. :) I don't get tired of it. [On a different day, I probably would have chosen Mort by Terry Pratchett. *giggle* And on yet another day, I might pick a collection of Shakespeare's comedies or Homer's works or some Greek plays - things I've wanted to read in their entirety, but never had the time. On the island, I'd have plenty of time on my hands...] Although...I am a city girl so maybe something of the "Surviving on a desert Island for Dummies" variety might be better...

#4~One book that made you laugh: I'll give this honor to the first book that I remember that made me laugh in what my teenage mind thought was an "adult" manner (i.e., with satire, parody & puns) - Another Fine Myth by Robert Asprin. I would sit on the couch & read & laugh out loud and it was so fun. Good times. I hadn't really felt that way while reading a book until I started reading the Discworld series (thanks, J!). I ought to read that Myth series again...


#5~One book that made you cry: I actually try to avoid books that make me cry; age & hormones often make me cry at random things. The book that made me cry "for reals" most recently was, believe it or not was the audiobook version of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone as read by Jim Dale. Dale had given the characters such life and at the end, when Dumbledore is talking to Harry about the sacrifice his parent's made, his voice cracked just so. I immediately thought of my parents and what they had sacrificed so that I could have a "better" life. Then again, maybe I was PMSing. [BTW, I've never actually read a Harry Potter book; I've only heard the audiobooks, and I highly recommend them.]


#6~One book that you wish you had written: This is the toughest one for me because I admire writers for different reasons and want to write like them even though their style is not necessarily my style. So what can I do? Pull them all off the shelf, put them in a box, close my eyes, shuffle them about with my hand & pick one? I don't know if that means I need to think about it more or that I need to read more. :)

#7~One book that you wish had never been written: One that I've actually read? Or one like Mein Kampf, which I haven't read, but I'm pretty sure whose absence might have made the world a better place?

#8~One book you're currently reading: current read is If Chins Could Kill by Bruce Campbell; I had started it a while back & never finished it & only now have I gotten back to it.

#9~One book you've been meaning to read: A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah. I keep putting it off because I know it will make me cry and make me angry.

#10~Invite others to post their list: I invite D., Wes and SoCal.

A Shoe Story

The story begins innocently enough - a need to replace two pairs of old shoes.

Pair #1:
I need new Lola walking shoes. My current pair is a comfy pair of Sketchers:



I like them because they are easy to slip into in the morning when I really don't have the skill to tie shoelaces. In fact, this is the second pair of (essentially) the same pair of Sketchers that I have owned in 2.5years. The problem? They get wet (from dew and/or sprinkler moisture practically everyday & the man-made materials don't hold up too well. So, even though I like these sketchers, I'm looking for new Lola walking shoes.


Pair #2:
My favorite shoes in the whole world are these Merrell shoes:



They are super-comfy and have that awesome burnt tomato color. They were my "Go to" shoes - the ones I could slip on to go to the mall or a quick errand or a movie or a plane flight or... well, you get the idea. They are still structurally sound, even though I've had them for at least 7 years. In the last couple of months, however, the sole has finally started to deteriorate - there are no holes, but they are starting to get really, really worn. (They have become my "walk around the grassless sometimes muddy yard" shoes and that's why they are so grungy in that pic.)

So, of course, I went shoe shopping, intent on ONLY getting replacements for the aforementioned shoes. I was quickly reminded why I shouldn't go shoe shopping without someone to be the voice of reason.

First, I found these pirate shoes (with hearts!) from Rocket Dog on Super clearance at Macy's:



Then, at DSW, I found some really cute (also on super-sale) Rocket Dog flats similar to these, but the print was the British flag (I couldn't find them on their website)...luckily, they didn't have my size & I had to leave them. :(

DSW is evil, because there I found these replacement Merrells:

[They also come in red, but the red color looked..hmm...more like a really bright Day-Glo red, if that makes any sense, so I went with these.]

So they are not in a super-fun color, and therefore not "strictly" a replacement, but they are oh-so-comfy. They are cloth and will make a great "Go to" shoe for the summer. As I poked around the Merrell website trying to find Lola walking shoes (I saw a few that might work), I discovered that this style also comes in leather. Oh, the temptation!

And of course, because DSW is evil, as I walking out with my "replacement shoes", I walked by a stack of Pumas on super-duper clearance. They had these in my size:



$16 for comfy purple & lime green leather Pumas? No way were those staying at the store! (Come home with momma, kitties!) I'm saving these for this year's Comic-Con.

If anyone has any suggestions for Lola walking shoes, please let me know; the criteria: no slides, no velcro(Lola's hair gets stuck to it), no shoelaces and no thin soles.


Sigh. Shoes.

The kidnap Room (and the Patio)

It looks like a regular shed...


(side)

Pull back the corrugated aluminum door to reveal glass sliding doors...


(front)

Inside it gets creepy... a window...



carpet, lighting (there was a phone line & electricity)...


a closet...


Several neighbors have confirmed that someone was sleeping there. Creepy


Now...Lola has a real yard:


This is what the patio looked like the day I moved in:

(click on it for some notes)



This is what is looks like now:

(still not organized or anything...but little by little it's taking shape)

The landscapers should be done on Tuesday... yay!

Eat My Monkey

I felt like having sushi the other day, but I was in a bit of a rush, so I stopped at a Whole Foods Market for some from their takeout counter...which is right next to the bakery stuff. That's where I saw the monkeys:



Very yummy. [The eyes are upside-down white chocolate chips; the ears & mouth were cookie. Yum.]


Pictures of the kidnap room before & after coming later this week.

aaack!

Has it really been that long since I posted? Sigh. Well, summer's here so hopefully, I can post more regularly. I need to spend the next couple of days emptying out the kidnap room before its demolition...in the meantime, entertain yourself with this:

What would Jesus blog?

:)