Giving up on NaBloPoMo and OKC in review

So I've more or less given up on NaBloPoMo. I didn't really get to update while I was at my in-laws, and while I could go back and write stuff, I'm way too lazy to do that. Hopefully, however, I've gotten more in the habit of updating, and I won't just update every few months. (Though, realistically? We'll see how that goes.)

We had a great time in Oklahoma, though, and really enjoyed spending time with the family. With both of Will's brother's there and their significant others, along with two grandchildren, it makes for a full house, which I love the feeling of. The day after Thanksgiving my mother in law had someone come and take family portraits, which was pretty cool.

Highlights of the holiday weekend include:

• My ridiculously cute 7 month old niece, who was the happiest baby I've ever seen
  
• My ridiculously cute 3 1/2 year old nephew, who was constantly chatting, even if he was the only one in the room
  
• Watching Will play with the aforementioned niece and nephew
  
• Megan's Texas Sheet Cake (or, as it was also called, Chocolate Bomb Cake, because it's da bomb)
  
• The UT snuggie Charlie bought for his dad
  
• My first custard "concrete", which is basically like a DQ blizzard, but made out of custard, and thicker

For Christmas we're going to Austin to spend it with my family, and I'm equally excited about that. Dani will be back from London, PLUS my mom's pernil, PLUS a likely trip to the Salt Lick. Awesome!

OKC and Dale Chihuly

For some reason, every time we visit Oklahoma City, we go to the art museum. This might be because there aren't heaps of things to do here. Once you've done the Oklahoma City memorial and the Cowboy Museum, you've done most of the tourist attractions. So today we found ourselves at the art museum.

My favorite exhibit there is this glass art by Dale Chihuly. He has these neat art pieces that are blown art. Once I'm on a legit computer rather than typing this on my phone, I'll post pictures.

Aside from that, Oklahoma is great! Enjoying family time, and we went to a restaurant for lunch where they had queso! I hearted it.

San Fran recap

Flying when your ears are congested might be the most painful thing ever. I mean, I've never given birth so I can't say for sure, but it's pretty intense. I had that reaffirmed this weekend, when I flew home from San Fran and almost started crying as we descended. Dear Lord, that hurt.

Aside from that, the trip was pretty fun. Mary Anne and I went to the Academy of Sciences on Saturday, where we saw some exhibits and then went to the planetarium which was awesome because I am a dork. Though they always make me feel a little small and insignificant. We had Thai at this really great place near our hotel, and then on Sunday we went down to Fisherman's Wharf. The sea lions were there, but smelly.

I failed to take any significant amount of pictures, because I just didn't think about it. There's one from us at the pier, though, with Alcatraz in the background.

Fun weekend, though! However I need to go back there for real, rather than just for a trip that is under 48 hours, which has happened the past two times.

San Fran!

I'm spending this weekend in San Francisco with my friend Mary Anne. Well, by "this weekend" I really mean "most of Saturday and a bit of Sunday" because that's the way that flights were cheaper. I've only been there once before, when Will's brother and his wife were in town so we went up for another short stint. Apparently I do best in San Francisco if I'm there for under 48 hours.

I'm excited, though, and with any luck will have pictures and whatnot upon my return. YAY taking advantage of living in California!

Werewolves vs Vampires

Tonight on the way home from watching New Moon with some friends (yes, we did go watch it on opening day. Does it help that we didn't watch it at midnight?) we got into a heated vampires vs werewolves debate. (Okay, I suppose that right there ruined any credit we got for not watching it at midnight.)

I find Edward to be incredibly annoying and emo - the only person in the series who is MORE annoying is Bella. Why do I like this series again? I mean, they are the two main characters. So I am obviously more of a fan of Jacob, and am therefore a werewolf girl. It also helps that vampires are always described as being cold and marble-like, and as I am always cold, I would much prefer a werewolf as they are always warm. Granted, I am married to a human, so I suppose that it's a decision I'll never actually be faced with. Marci said that Will looks a little like Edward, but I wasn't quite sure what to do with that information.

Am I really typing this out for public consumption? Luckily, only 11 people read this blog.

Anyways, Marci seems to prefer Edward to Jacob, and Briana said she'd have to think about it. Jen was rather quiet on the subject, and then we got sidetracked and started discussing whether or not we thought that, if He lived today, Jesus would be a socialist. On that I think we found more common ground, deciding that He would probably not get involved in politics, but that His ideals would probably be more in line with socialism than capitalism.

And that was my Friday night out with the girls.

Library Fun Part 2

I'm considering checking out Going Rogue from the library out of sheer curiosity. (Also, why do I keep wanting to type it as Going Rouge? Do I secretly think Palin needs more makeup?) If I do, though, I need to find a good book with alcohol in the title to pair it with, so as to continue confusing the librarians. Perhaps It Sucked and Then I Cried: How I Had a Baby, a Breakdown, and a Much Needed Margarita? (Or perhaps not, as the title alone makes me want to rethink ever having kids.)

I actually have a pretty significant list of books that I want to check out, but I think my next one is going to be Escaping North Korea. I've had this fascination with the country recently, and Will and I have watched a couple of documentaries about it - one about an American who defected during the Korean war, and another about two young gymnasts who were preparing for the mass games. It's fascinating, really. And a bit scary.

Also, I just googled "documentaries about North Korea" and am off to add new titles to our Netflix list.

xkcd

Another day with nothing to really post.

So instead I'll leave you with this xkcd comic. While I love them in general (as anyone who is on my google reader friends list knows, since I share them all the time even though most of you probably have them on your list anyways) this is the only one that I've actually printed out and put next to my computer. Because it is SO TRUE. And, as a comp sci major, I am the default computer help person for many people.

[here]

Going TV-free in January?

Will and I were talking tonight, and are toying with the idea of going tv-free in January. We'd still use our tv for movies, but we'd basically unplug our coax cable. Things we really want to watch we'd watch on hulu, but as I mentioned before we watch way too much tv and it'd be a way to wean ourselves off it.

We actually would need to unplug the coax cable, since my instinct when I sit down on the couch is to turn the tv on, so I'd need something to remind me to stop rather than just sheer willpower. I don't do so well with willpower.

We're not completely set on it, but I think it's probably worth a try. Now just to come up with some board games that we can play instead. And that way we'd actually interact more than just "hey, can you fast-forward through this?"

The Stoning of Soraya M

Today one of my RAs brought to campus the movie The Stoning of Soraya M., which is a movie based on the true story of Soraya Manutchehri, a 35 year old woman who was stoned to death after her husband falsely accused her of adultery so that he could marry a 14 year old girl.

It was a really good movie, albeit a gory one - I didn't watch most of the actual stoning scene, because I have a weak stomach and a tendency to have images stick with me for a really, really long time.

The director was there and answered some questions from the audience. The movie is based on the book of the same name, written by French-Iranian journalist Freidoune Sahebjam. The part that I found most interesting was probably the fact that he said that practically all of the conflict that was shown in the movie within any of the men of the village came for dramatic effect, not from Sahebjam's research. In the book, which is non-fiction, there's no conflict from the men in the village - they're all for it. But in the movie, to deepen the characters a bit and in order to keep from villainizing Iranian men, they added some conflict, specifically in the character of the mayor, who ran the "trial" (if you chose to call it that) in which she was eventually found guilty.

Good movie, though it'll stick with you for a while. And don't be ashamed to look away during the actual stoning scenes - I had to.

There's money in the banana stand

Will and I have started watching old episodes of Arrested Development because (a) I've never seen it, but everyone says I need to, and (b) Will saw it a few years ago and said I need to. Everyone who told me I need to watch it was right - I do really enjoy it.

I also enjoy the fact that I'm starting to catch references that I'd never caught before. I think Dani used to have a shirt or something about Steve Holt, one of my lj friends had an icon that was Buster, and facebook groups that I used to just pass over finally have a context.

One of the coolest parts, however, is that it was filmed near where we live. The "bay" in the show where the yacht is (was) located and the banana stand is was actually filmed at a marina about 5 minutes from where we live. Today we went down there and wandered around with the specific intention of relating it to Arrested, rather than just eating Mexican food (which is usually why we go there). We found the spot where the banana stand is, to which Will said "That's exactly where the banana stand is!" And then we went home and watched an episode and, sure enough, that's exactly where it was!

So props to us for recognizing a filming location. If that's not LA life, I don't know what is!

Also, if you haven't watched Arrested Development yet, you should.