I enjoyed the Sex in the City Movie--especially at the Alamo, which was full of women drinking cosmos.  I also really enjoyed the pre-movie show at the Alamo, which included Chris Nolan's first role as a transvestite teenager in a prom dress smoking in a van, and Miranda's appearance on The Adams Family Values. There was a also a really good ( Read more... )

For my birthday, I got a few of my favorite things: lots of unexpected messages from people who have no reason to know my birthday except for Facebook (yea!), books from two of my favorite book recommenders (The Omnivore's Dilemma from Emily; What is the What and The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency from Rebecca), sappy cards, phone calls from ( Read more... )

My nephew Mike wanted Memorial Day to actually have some, I dunno, excitement, so he kept announcing "the Memorial Day sit-down" on Monday night. As part of the festivities he gave a soccer trophy to one of two 5-week-old twin girls, crowning her the "King of All Babies."

I entertained myself with various challenges last weekend:

1) I treaded water ( Read more... )

Lord of the Barnyard by Tristan Egolf (1998) is the most impressive novel I've read in a while.  (Actually, wait: The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood was also pretty great.)

The best word I can use to describe it is madcap.  The sentences are adjective-heavy, long, full of disgusting imagery, and convoluted. The book opens:

"There was a point at ( Read more... )

Awesome things that happened in Iowa:

1) Josh and I picked out a couch from the awesome furniture store, Room & Board, where my cousin works.  We had extremely great help from Lyndsay picking it out.  An amazing store, with amazing customer service.  I think Lyndsay's training lasted like 6 months or something, before she ever talked to a customer ( Read more... )

um . . . I haven't paid taxes for six years, and I still get $300?

nutz.

Last night, it hailed.  Storms are a bit terrifying at this house because we're eye-level with many tree-tops surrounding us, and we can see exactly how much the wind is tossing them around.  We didn't see or hear our neighbor's tree fall, though, because we were too busy hiding in the bathroom (the only windowless room).  We both thought the hail ( Read more... )

Getting married requires more shopping that I could have dreamed.  Today, I worked on clothes.  I must have tried on every pair of silver shoes in the city, and the ones I have still don't make me too happy ( Read more... )

Josh and I have a theory that a good relationship is one in which there a few defined roles.  For example, though Josh does more dishes than I do, he is still not the dish-doer in the relationship.  We both cook and clean; we both pay bills and make annoying errand-type phone calls.  Here's another more gross example: there was a disembodied ( Read more... )

Let's say you wanted an ice cream truck to roll up to your reception.  How would you find an ice cream truck driver?

I tried internet searches, yellow pages, and an e-mail to Blue Bunny, the maker of the ice cream novelties I am hoping for.

I feel positive that if I could find an ice cream truck driver, he or she would be very willing to come to a ( Read more... )