February 2013 Photo a Day Challenge

Inspired by Valerie's 365 in 2013 blog I've decided to undertake a one month photo challenge.  I totally made this one up myself.  It kind of has a lot of food-related stuff in it. Here goes:

1. Blue
2. Breakfast
3. Shoes
4. Hands
5. Sky
6. Spoon
7. Underwear
8. 5 pm
9. Mail
10. Drink
11. Last purchase
12. Dessert
13. Protein
14. Love
15. Close-up
16. Dinner
17. Freezer
18. Pantry
19. Book
20. Lunch
21. Water
22. Clothes
23. Tree
24. Table
25. Red
26. Cabinet
27. Inside the fridge
28. Unbirthday

Hexagonewrong: Gnome Hat

I like to knit something quick in between projects.  Well, Ross said he would like another dishrag.  The cashmerino one was eaten by the garbage disposal, and he has a small black wool one now.  I thought a red hexagon would be cool.  Something(s) went terribly wrong, and it came out looking like a gnome hat.

Bailey was very upset to have her photo taken, and the hat doesn't fit her.  It isn't small enough to fit between her ears or large enough to cover them.  I gave her treats after the photo shoot.

Flashback: Twin Peaks

This week I watched the pilot of Twin Peaks on Netflix. Man, that took me back.  Back to Jr. High.  I love the music.  I remember I had it on cassette and listened to it over and over again on my Sony walkman.  And I remember I was totally enamored with Agent Cooper.  I thought he was so handsome and charming.  I wanted to be Dianne on the other side of that tape recorder, listening to his voice as he went on about pie and coffee.

Twin Peaks was the Lost of it's day.  We all wanted to know who killed Laura Palmer.  And there were so many twists and turns and so much weirdness that if you hadn't started at the beginning it was impossible to follow.  Watching Twin Peaks again is going to be a trippy trip down memory lane.

Collection: Eye Glasses

I have quite the eyeglass collection.  You see, when Ross first started working at Bell Helicopter we had great insurance.  We were able to get glasses every year--and expensive ones.  Since then I discovered Zenni Optical and because I don't have a strong prescription I can get glasses without spending a lot of money.  Poor Ross has poorer vision, and whereas I can get photochromic lenses for 20 dollars, he has to pay 140.  I can easily get 3 pairs of glasses for the price of one pair of Ross's.  So I have accumulated quite the collection.

Check out those mondo-big glasses at the bottom.  That was my first pair of glasses ever--I got them at age 16.  I actually lost them, got another pair that was exactly the same, then found the original pair.  I think I donated the other pair--and I should do the same with this pair.  The next two pair up are back up glasses--I keep a pair in each of our cars.  I don't wear my old brown pair very much anymore, but all the others I wear on a regular basis. I have 6 pairs in the house and there are still times I can't find a pair!

As you will notice, all the glasses have plastic frames.  I did have a pair of metal glasses, back in the day, but I think they broke (or I donated them).  When I bought the next pair of plastic glasses I knew I'd never go back to metal rims with the nose pad dohickeys.  I also had a pair of half-rim glasses, but they broke pretty quickly--luckily, I had 4 or 5 other pairs of glasses to wear.  Ross is not so lucky.  He only has one pair of glasses, and they are damaged.  I just ordered him two new pairs from Zenni.

These "wooden" glasses are my newest pair.  I got them free--just had to pay shipping on firmoo.  I like that they look like wood, but are plastic.

I wear these red glasses a lot and get compliments on them.  The sides are all carved and fancy.

Hooded Scarf

I finally finished the hooded scarf I was knitting for my mom.  It really didn't take that long once I sat down and just did it.  I used the Japanese short row method and that seemed to work pretty well.  One side of the decreases looks much better than the other side.  They definitely don't look the same.  I'm not sure what happened there, but it isn't a big deal.  Overall I'm happy with it.  The scarf is really long (but not nearly as long as the pattern says to make it) so my mom can wrap it around herself a couple of times.  I hope she likes it and I hope it keeps her warm.

I took this photo of myself modelling the scarf because I figured Ross would protest if I tried to put it on him.  I'm not sure what I will knit next.  I think Ross needs a hat...especially since he has started riding his bike to work.  Whatever I start, I just need to keep up with it and not let it drag on for a year.

Motta Pitcher

My parents bought me this Motta milk steaming pitcher.  I now have 3 steam pitchers.  Hopefully this is the one. I'm going to try it out this weekend and hopefully I'll get to post a photo of some nice latte art.  My last attempt produced something that looked like a blooming yucca.

Lamenting My Laziness

I'm feeling particularly lame today.  I suck.  I waste so much time on shopping on ebay.  Not really buying much, but just scanning through hundreds of cashmere sweaters and other random nonsense that I don't need. Oop.  I just thought of another thing that I could search for that I haven't looked for in a while.  I'm resisting the urge to go to the ebay tab I always have open and search right now.

Exercising 3 times a week has been a real struggle.  I'm blaming my screwed up sleep cycle. We went to bed at a decent hour last night--before 10:30, and I laid there for an hour, unable to fall asleep.  My left shoulder was aching and my right deltoid was twitching--it had been since the afternoon. Frustrated, I got up, reheated my cherry pillow, and took half a muscle relaxer.  I sat up searching the web for pictures of saps/blackjacks/slapjacks---I have no idea why.  After about 30 minutes I went back to bed.  I started to feel relaxed, but then my brain turned on and I couldn't sleep.  Ack!  I probably fell asleep around 1am.  This morning----I slept till almost 11.  Although last night was a bit extreme, sleeping in till 10 has become the norm for me.  I have to get out of this rut.  The plan: get up very early tomorrow and not nap at all.  We have plans tomorrow night, so I'm sure we will be up late.  Going to yoga tomorrow will also help wear me out so that I don't have trouble falling asleep.  Damn I miss having a Queen sized bed.

There are plenty of things for me to do besides waste time on ebay.  I mean, I used to fancy myself a writer, but the crap I write on this blog about movies and books is so lame!  I didn't even mention the acting in Mama---which was great.  I used to paint, I used to play the cello.  It's like the creative side of me has just shriveled up and now all I do is observe/consume.  I don't have anything that I'm really passionate about or put all my effort into--not even ebay.

In an attempt to get out of my funk today I pulled out my cello.  It hadn't seen the light of day in years.  I managed to tune it and then set it out on its stand.  It has been so long I'm going to have to start over.  I've printed out some things from the internets to try and teach myself how to play again.  I think I need to actually write up a list of things that I can do besides watch TV or sit on the laptop.  I have a week to finish knitting my mom's scarf and that is completely doable.  I have a library book to finish.  I just have to force myself out of bed and then resist the urge to sit in front of the tv/laptop.

DVD: Intacto

We've had the Netflix DVD of Intacto for a long time.  When we tried to watch it we had all kinds of trouble--neither laptop would play it.  Ross fixed my laptop and we finally watched it today.

Intacto is a foreign film--mostly in Spanish.  In fact, the Spaniard Spanish was very easy to follow. Intacto is a movie about luck and fate. The lucky people steal luck from the unlucky and compete against each other to see who is the luckiest.  It is kind of dark.  I liked it.

Movie: Mama

I saw the movie trailer for Mama in the theaters and decided I wanted to see it.  It looked creepy and I like Guillermo del Toro's movies.  I usually back out of any interest in horror movies (or any movie really), but I really wanted to see this one and there was no way Ross was going to let me back out.

Mama is about two girls who survive 5 years in the wilderness.  After they are found they go to live with their uncle and strange things start happening.

I like that we got to see Mama.  It wasn't like we only caught glimpses of her.  You get to see her in all her ugly glory.  I thought the story was interesting and the special effects were good.  Well, there was one exception: a scene that was so ridiculous that the whole theater (all 8 of us) was laughing.  Maybe it was supposed to be terrifying, but a wig scooting across the floor just made us all laugh.  The jump-out-and-get-you moments scared Ross, but not me.

I'm glad I went to see the movie.  Maybe I'll be open to more horror movies in the future.

Smut

One of my goals for this month was to read a book--and not a children's book.  I picked up Smut by Alan Bennett at the library for two reasons: 1. It was small (I was thinking of taking it to California) and 2. I liked the teacups on the cover.  I didn't realize what the teacups were doing until I had started reading the book.  Oh my!

Smut is two smutty stories.  The first story just seemed to start out of nowhere and just seemed to end without an end.  Still, I liked it.  I enjoyed the second story much more.  It seemed to have a lot more twists and turns. If you'd like a smutty read without having to commit to a whole novel I highly recommend Smut.

So with that, I have completed one of my January goals.

Uh, What?

When we got home yesterday we found a set of appliances in our living room.  Uh, what the hell?!?
Bottom line:  The apartment peoples gave the appliance delivery guy a key and he delivered it to the wrong apartment--it was supposed to go to a vacant apartment.  Now I'm really shaken.  I'm wondering if they gave him the key to our place, or a master key.  And they didn't even escort him.  So if I was home he could have come in and murdered me.  If he had a master key he could have gone in anyone's apartment and raided it.  He could have let Bailey out.  The apartment people had no idea that the appliances were in our living room.  We could have just sold them on Craigs List.  Ross was really mad.  I'm disturbed.

The Big 6-0

We went to El Paso to help my dad celebrate his 60th birthday.

First we went to Truth or Consequences, New Mexico to relax in the hot springs there.  The price of the room included one soak on each day, so we had a soak the night we got there and one the next morning.

 Then on Sunday we went to Rudy's BBQ.  Here's the birthday boy.

My dad requested a lemon cake, and I don't have a particular recipe for one, so I used the Mint Cake recipe as a base and doubled it to fill the honeycomb pan.

My dad has been wanting this grill, and I thought they had them in stock in the store, but we ended up ordering it for him and he can pick it up soon.

One Dozen

Ross and I have been married 12 years.  To celebrate our anniversary we went to trapeze class, visited Mayfield Park, and ate some pot roast.  The photo is the best one I took at the park today.  I really want to get a new camera with super-zoom so that I can take really awesome photos.

Yiddish with Dick and Jane and a Rant

So I read Yiddish with Dick and Jane.  It is a modern Dick and Jane with Yiddish words thrown in---and a glossary in the back. I'm Sephardic--which is associated with the endangered language Ladino, which I don't know at all.  My dad speaks German, but not Yiddish. I don't know Yiddish, except for the normal words that everyone knows like tuchas, putz, and nosh.  Yiddish has always fascinated me--there is some movie where Eddie Murphy speaks Yiddish to an old lady and that just blew my mind.  I've just always wanted to speak a dozen languages, and I can barely speak 2.

Anyway, the book is modern and funny, covering topics such as adultery, homosexuals, and pot.  The glossary has funny explanations, not just definitions.  There seem to be a lot of words that describe various states of confusion and sickness.  My two favorite words are nu and shtupping.   Nu means well? so? or are you surprised?  Shtupping means fornicating.  I'll try throwing those two words around more in the future.

Okay, now for my rant.  Pot.  Sally smokes a doobie in the book.  I don't understand why everyone has to or wants to smoke pot.  In so many blockbuster movies there is a scene (or many scenes) where they sit around getting high.  Why does pot have to be everywhere?  I don't know why this irks me so much.  I really don't.  The idea of feeling super hungry but too lazy to get up and eat something is a nightmare.  Speaking of nightmares, I've heard so many nightmare stories about pot brownies.  Nope.  Crossed that off my list.  And I hate the smell of the smoke.  Maybe I'll smoke it when I'm 80 to ease my pain and help me gain weight, and it will be a revelation and I'll regret not spending my whole life as a pot head.  Maybe, but I don't think so.

January Goals

So I'm not exactly making New Year's resolutions this year.  I'm going to try and set goals each month. Goals for January:

1. Wear my retainers every day.  Tejal is doing invisalign, and it really inspired me to start wearing my retainers.  My teeth are killing me, but I'm committing to wear the retainers every day this month.
2. Finish my mom's hooded scarf.  I need to get knitting so that I can give it to her next week.
3. Exercise 3 times a week.  I have a problem with consistency.  I am a binger.  I'll go without exercising for 2 months, then exercise every day for a week then go weeks without exercising again.  I don't really enjoy exercise, but I need to learn to make it part of my (currently non-existent) routine.
4. Read a book.  A real book, not a graphic novel or children's picture book.  I have one checked out from the library right now.  I'm confident I can handle this goal.

That's it for now--that's plenty to deal with. We'll see how I do.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Ross had the days between Christmas and New Year's off, so we went and saw a lot of movies, including The Hobbit.  I'm not sure what I can say about this movie that hasn't already been said.  I saw the animated version a bunch of times as a kid, and I don't really remember it, except for the part where Gollum and Bilbo have their little riddle-off.  I even read the book a couple of times when I was a kid--still, don't remember much about it.

So, what I mean to say is that going into the movie I wasn't a big Tolkien nerd.  I only knew that I was going to see Bilbo and Gollum and Ian McKellen as Gandalf.  I'd seen some clips and the actors on The Colbert Report.

I enjoyed the movie--especially the parts with Gollum.  He was eerie, creepy, and a little scary.  I don't understand quite why/how they turned the shortest Tolkien book into 3 movies, but I'm looking forward to the next one.

Les Misérables

We took Tejal to see Les Misérables on Tuesday.  Back in High School Les Miz was all the rage.  I never got into it---I never even read it.

When I saw a thingy about how this version was filmed live--no lip syncing or dubbing, I really wanted to see it. I like Huge Ackman, so seeing him in a movie is a plus.

I didn't know the story, I didn't know the music.  I hadn't seen any other version.  I was a Le Miz virgin.  I was expecting a musical, but this was more like opera--they sang the whole thing, but not in operatic style.  Hugh Jackman's performance was stellar.  I enjoyed his acting and his singing.  I can even say the same for Russel Crowe and Anne Hathaway, and I'm not a big fan of either one of them.

I did not enjoy the singing of Amanda Seyfried or Eddie Redmayne.  Seyfried sounded forced and wobbly.  Redmayne sounded even more forced and a little operatic.  He kept doing strange things with his mouth that I found distracting.  Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter as the comic relief was a little odd, but they did a fine job.

I overall really liked this movie.  I enjoyed the story and the music.  I do think that filming it live made a difference.  I don't think it could have been dubbed with the same emotion--so bravo to director Tom Hooper for taking on such an enormous project.  It was a long movie, but it didn't feel very long.  I highly recommend this movie.

Mini Class Reunion

Ross and I went to trapeze class on the 26th.  It was a 1 hour swing class and I had a little surprise when I arrived: Donovan was there, and so was my IFW classmate Megan!  Megan was in the middle of driving cross-country and decided to stop in for a class (yes, we are that obsessed).  It was like a mini class reunion.

I only worked on my swing, and that's kind of boring, so here is a video of Donvoan attempting a pirouette.  He completes the pirouette, but doesn't catch the return bar.

2012 in Review

The biggest thing to happen this year: the move.  We are living back in Texas and I'm very happy about that--even if I am sleeping on a double bed and depressed about housing prices.

My new obsession: trapeze.  I can't believe that I started flying less than a year ago.  And in 9 months I've been able to take off unassisted and complete a bunch of tricks.  My next two goals--returning to the board and flying out of lines.

Year of the Zoo: We went to 6 zoos I think.  We got to see lots of big cats, and some baby ones too.  Houston was cancelled because of rain. Maybe 2013 will be the 2d year of the zoo.

Obsession: My weight.  I lost weight, I gained weight.  I did yoga hard core, I was lazy.  It has been a roller coaster of a year weight wise.  Right now I'm doing a super low-carb diet.  I'm sick of it even though I've lost inches.  I don't know how my mom did this for months and months.  It always boils down to exercise for me.  Lack of exercise leads to weight gain.  I do better with a high protein diet and regular exercise.  I need to commit to regular exercise.  I'm only doing this low-carb diet thing until January 10th, then I'm going to go back to my 30-40-30 diet yoga, and work out DVDs.  And there is no excuse for not going for a walk.  It is an easy way to burn calories, and instead I just sit here on my ass....

Jobs:  My job at Hopkins changed this year, and I started doing motivational interviewing.  It is a kind of psych therapy.  I finished up with the last of my participants just before I left for California. Unless they come up with something else they would like me to work on, I'm unemployed.  There are some high paying jobs here in Austin that I am qualified for.  They would require lots of travel.  I'm not ready to go back to work.  I would like to find a house first.  I'm considering that my job right now.

Travel: 2012 took us to Denver, California, and New York City.  I'm hoping 2013 will take us on an international trip.

The blog: I've passed over 1000 posts.  I think this is post is 1007. Wow.

2012 wasn't bad, but I hope 2013 is better.