Robert's Latest Project

I have had my eye on this LP Record Mirror from Uncommon Goods for quite a long time now; I thought it would look mighty fine above our mantle and that it would make a good present for Robert one day. However, seeing as the thing costs $200, I didn't see me actually buying the piece for a loooooong time. Then, over his holiday vacation, Robert was itching to start a new project. I sort of threw this out there and he was totally game so he immediately set to work. He was able to figure out a game plan and to buy his supplies quickly so he was able to complete the project before his break was over. And, if I may say so myself, I think it turned out AWESOMELY! I absolutely love it.

On the left we have Uncommon Goods' version. On the right, Robert's. See a difference? Me, neither!

And it looks fantastic in the living room, just as I knew it would:

When Robert was selecting which records to use, he posed a question to me: Should we use artists we like or go for interesting labels? We both voted for labels and I think it was a wise decision. Because it looks awesome. Did I say that yet? ;o)  So, when you come over and see that we have George Thorogood and Dave Mason records, don't judge. We bought them for their visual, not their aural, aesthetics.

I'm totally going to try to get Robert to sell these on etsy...

Random Round-Up 23

I've had this article sitting in my post queue for almost a month, waiting for some other random tidbits to be posted along with it. Since I haven't gotten off my ass to actually find any other bits, I'm going to bite the bullet and post it anyway. I know! I'm throwing caution to the wind these days, people.

Apparently, Sega has decided that dudes need something to do while they're peeing so they're developing a selection of urinal games for them to play.

A pressure sensor in the urinal measures the strength and location of your flow and sends the feedback to a video screen mounted at eye level. The Toylet sytem has four different games you can play: "Mannekin Pis," named after the famous statue, that measures how hard you can pee; "Graffiti Eraser," where you act as a firehose washing graffiti off a wall; "The Northern Wind, The Sun and Me," where you, the deeply perverted north wind, encounter a busty girl in a nice dress and decide to go for a panty shot (the harder the wind blows, the higher the skirt goes); and "Battle! Milk From Nose," where your urine becomes milk being squirted from a nose, and your squirts are compared to those of the last person to use the urinal. If you're particularly proud of your pee and carry your USB drive to the bathroom, you can save your scores on the stick for later.

I guess men feel gypped that the line for the ladies' room is always so long so they've developed something to help them pass the time. Lovely. If only I'd known sooner, I could've bought Robert a special thumb drive for Christmas.

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I'm sure you've read or heard something about the current controversy surrounding Rush Limbaugh but last Thursday (the 20th) The Colbert Report did an excellent job of tying together many of Rush's most dickish moments in a nice little montage. I think it makes its point perfectly.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Rush Limbaugh Speaks Chinese
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes

Love Me, Love My Doll

Okay, so I'm not sure whether or not I've posted about Love Me, Love My Doll before*, but I don't think I have so let me do a little recap first. LMLMD is a British documentary that follows a group of men who are in love with Real Dolls. It aired on BBCAmerica back in '08 and I found it absolutely fascinating. So much so that I've forced many of you to watch it at our place. (Though the TV version is edited; I bought the full deal online so you people who got to see it at my place should consider yourselves lucky! ;o) ) Here's a little snippet:

Now, the dude in that snippet (Davecat) is going to be on Wednesday's episode of My Strange Addiction on TLC. I know I've already plastered this on many of your Facebook pages but I would be remiss if I didn't post it on the blog, too. Tune in! Check it out! From the commercial it looks like Davedat's finally moved out of his parents' place so maybe things are looking up for him... well, except for the whole being-married-to-a-Real-Doll thing.

* You're probably thinking "Why don't you just do a search on your blog?" Well, because I'm weird and I don't want to make my blog private but I also don't want it to show up in Google searches. As such, Google doesn't allow the search box on my blog to actually function. And since I don't want to comb through hundreds of posts to see if I'm being repetitive, I'm just going to sift through a few likely tags and, not having found any LMLMD posts, assume I haven't yet posted about it.

Yummers!

I know many of you out there have been staying up nights wondering just how I keep my sturdy, pear-shaped body oh-so-pearish. Well, here's a critical part of my diet: homemade donuts!!! So, so delicious. Now, I don't actually make these bad boys too terribly often - in fact, this is the first time Robert and I have made them since we've lived in the condo - but the biscuits usually only come in 4-packs so once you buy them, you can make donuts for a while thereafter. :o)

First, make some holes in your biscuits.


Then, drop those puppies in some hot oil.


They don't take long to brown, so keep an eye out and then flip'em over.


Once they're cooked, dry them on some paper towels and then quickly drop them into some cinnamon sugar.


Et voila! An easy to make dessert that is absolutely delicious!!! Scrumptious.

Our Christmases Continued

So, my scheme to guilt-trip my sister into sending me the photos of Christmas by mentioning it on the blog totally worked and now I have some photos to share! Ha ha! But, if you know my family and its get-togethers at all you know that some of the best photos I had to omit for... content, so the photos I have are mostly just of us and the Blackards. Just know that, despite a few speed bumps, Christmas Eve was for the most part fun and we had a good time. (How's that for a qualified statement?!)

My mom wasn't feeling so hot this year and so didn't get around to decorating the tree before Christmas Eve arrived. I wasn't about to risk making myself sick by getting near that sucker so Melanie and I strongarmed the boys into taking up the task. They really were not as excited about it as this picture makes it appear...



Mel and I made dinner and Robert and Wade cleaned up. A very nice system in my opinion. :o) But we wouldn't have survived the night without our Square Cow Coolers!



I cannot for the life of me recall what Robert has in his hand here (and no, not because of all the Square Cow Coolers) but I liked the Christmas tree-ness of my ensemble so up the photo goes.



The table in all its glory:


Place cards:



Quiggles! Garfunkel stayed at our place for the evening to avoid the mishaps of last year's Christmas Eve (let me just say that Funk doesn't mix well with children who insist on chasing him around and poking him) so Quigs hung out between me and my dad during dinner (to avoid the same child and the same poking).



Modeling our fabulous chapeaus (Mel's is a snowman and mine is a reindeer. Too bad you can't see'em):



Remember the very mysterious cranberry bread post from a few weeks back? Well, Robert FINALLY got his loaf on this, his 14th Kimball Christmas. Woohoo!!!

(No, I'm not affiliated with the West Side - that's a 4.)

And he was very, very, very happy:

Every year, I make the much-beloved Boston Cream Pie. This year, my top layer broke apart and the custard layer on which it sat was not conducive to keeping it from drifting apart like the continents. *sigh* So here is my cake, complete with butt cracks. (The peppermint plate is mine, though, and it's still awesome!):



But I heard it still tasted pretty good:

Help, Please!

I face a tap dilemma this weekend and I need a little outside advice. My instructor over the past few years, Traci, was finally beaten down by Debra (the Parks & Rec director who, if you ever go to my recitals or hear me talk about, you know to be horribly narcissistic and annoying) and quit. So, starting next week, a new gal will be leading the ladies of Wednesday night Intermediate Adult Tap. Traci, meanwhile, will be assisting Mrs. Gentry (who, yes, is still alive) on Monday nights in Newark for a Beg/Int Adult Tap class. I really want to keep tapping - if I stop, I know I'll lose my mojo and just never go back - but I don't know which class to sign up for. Neither class will be particularly fast-paced so that's no help. Fremont makes you sign up for each quarter session separately and, at $69/ea I'll be shelling out $138 to finish out the year. Newark, however, makes you sign up for the remaining two quarter at one time (because they're considered the "recital quarters") and it will cost me $142 as a non-resident to finish out the year in Newark. So monetary considerations aren't really a help, either. I've been chatting on Facebook with a woman from my class, Danielle, who was one of the few people in class both under 50 and actually a good tapper. She, unlike me, knows who'll be teaching in Fremont and passed this along after I asked:

Genea is teaching the class. She was one of Traci's assistants. She helped with my sons class and occasionally taught. I just felt she was not effective. No control, not very enthusiastic, hopefully she is better with adults. She is a great dancer and is taking classes in dance at the college. I think most of the ladies are going to give her a try.

If you sign up in Newark... I know that Traci's mom is in the class and Traci said there was one other person in the class around my age. I had to leave so my kids and I would have the same teacher, plus I am irritated with Debra (I sent her an e-mail)....

So. I am at a tap crossroads. I like the Wednesday night ladies but I'm not sure how many are going to stick around (though I assumed most) and the instructor doesn't sound super fabulous. I really like Traci and she will most likely be teaching an adult tap class on her own next year but Mrs. Gentry's class isn't going to be too strenuous in the meantime. I do like Danielle, though, so I'd know someone and that's always my biggest hurdle. :o) Neither class is really calling to me but, as I said, I think it's important for me to keep dancing somewhere so I want to pick one and get started. I have to sign up by this weekend because classes start next week. This is where you come in:

TV Tidbits 94: HIMYM's "Bad News"

I think only Mel and Biji will appreciate this post but if you haven't watched last night's episode (or read any of the ensuing spoilers) STOP NOW!

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I watched the ep this afternoon after school and was surprised by the ending but now crazily so. I guess I am a heartless schlub. Dang. Still, I hopped on to IMDb and found an article about the episode. That, in turn, led me to EW.com where I found another take on the twist and a most helpful link to a Tumblr page that captured screen shots of each number. (I didn't notice the countdown at all because I'm dumb, I guess. I did notice the 48 steak sauce but thought it was a lame TV take on Heinz 57 or A1 steak sauce. I also noticed the 6 when Dr. Stengel tossed the medical file but mostly just thought it was weird. Aren't I so sharp?! Geez. Of course, after I read about the countdown I had to fast forward through the episode again to find all the numbers... Turned out to be pretty easy. Why didn't I notice'em the first time around? Gah.) Apparently, the viewing public is torn between thinking it was the best, most creative and awesome HIMYM episode ever and thinking that the countdown was leading toward something funny and, when it did not, getting offended by the 'cheap emotional sucker punch.' I'm with the chick from TV.com - "when the episode was over, I moved on." Am I indeed a heartless schlub at the core of my superficial schmoopiness? What did you guys think?

Quarter Wrap-Up & Start-Up

Today is the first day of the winter quarter and it dawned on me that I hadn't yet shared the end result of last quarter with you all. So! Here's a quick-and-dirty update on how things went and what's in the queue:

• I wound up with 3 As and 2 Bs for the quarter, which I was very happy with. Apparently, even though I'll only wind up with an AS, Foothill thinks it's a grad school and doesn't give pluses or minuses. Whatevs! One of my Bs was actually a 91% but the vet tech cutoff for an A is 92% so I just missed it. (Their entire grading scale is skewed because if you fall below 75% on anything you're out.) Overall I was pleased with my grades so that was a relief. :o)

• Winter quarter is the lightest quarter unit-wise so that those students who haven't yet taken the required Chem and/or Microbio classes may do so. I took both of those back at UCLA but Foothill has a 6-year recency requirement so I had to petition to have my classes accepted. I got my response over the break and both classes were APPROVED! I was soooooooooooooooooooo excited, you don't even know! No Chem or Microbio redo for me! Weehoo!!!!!!

• That means that this quarter really is a light one for me... Yay! I am only taking 5 classes* this quarter: Animal Care, a seminar series, Animal Mgmt and Clinical Skills II, Medical Math and Veterinary Office Practices. Sweet! I must enjoy it while I can because next quarter I'll have to start an internship so my schedule will be full. It's too bad you can't stockpile sleep or vegging on the couch...

* I know it seems like I only took 5 classes last quarter, too, but unit-wise I took 7 because I had two labs. I have only one lab this quarter so I guess I'm taking 6 classes unit-wise... ugh. This is retarded. Lemme say that I took 14.5 units last quarter and I'm taking 8.5 this quarter. There!

Whip My Hair... Or Not.

I ran across this video the other day and showed it to Robert because he, unlike me, is a somewhat fan of Neil Young. I was impressed by Jimmy's impersonation and Robert agreed (though only I felt like Jimmy didn't really need to sing the entire song).

Robert had never heard the original song, so I pulled it up for him.

I got approximately 40 seconds into the song before Robert exclaimed "I feel like I'm having a seizure!" Made me laugh! :o)

Willow's 'Whip My Hair' has now become the yardstick against which Robert measures all things potentially crappy. So far, nothing has been deemed crappier than the song.

Happy New Year!

Funk and Quigs rang in the new year in style. :o) I guess Robert's and my hard-partying night of fondue and movies just wore these guys out!