Monday, January 26, 2009

Geeks!

Check out the geeks in Pittsburgh PA that were caught by the Google street view camera!!

Click here.

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Indian Weekend

By a total coincidence, we enjoyed three Indian-themed entertainment events this weekend: dinner at the BEST Indian restaurant in Seattle, Mayuri (second best: Indian Bistro in Ballard), followed by the movie Slumdog Millionaire, and then today we watched a famous Indian comedian, Russell Peters, on a DVD lent to us by a friend. For last night's Indian themed events we were accompanied by another couple, and one of them asked halfway through dinner, "...so, is this supposed to be an Indian-themed evening or something?" and we all realized that it was! Not only that, but it has become an Indian-themed WEEKEND.

Note to those who may be confused: our Indian-themed weekend was EAST Indian themed, not NATIVE AMERICAN Indian themed, which we did in a weekend last summer (very different, but equally fun).


A promo for Russell Peters, a very racially offensive but funny comedian. He is allowed to be offensive because he is also worldly (or at least, gives the impression of being worldly), so his comments (e.g. 'India smells like you just stepped in poop everywhere you go') are based on real observations, and are often unexpected. Plus, his audience was extreme racially diverse so I am guessing he doesn't actually offend as much as one would initially assume - or the people that were there didn't know what they were in for when they signed up, and were just laughing to be polite...

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Layoffs at Microsoft

Those of you who read CNN.com probably saw the headline this morning that Microsoft is laying off a sizeable chunk (~5%) of their company. Apparently even though they still had 2% growth last quarter, profits were lower than expected and they felt they needed to trim things up to keep stockholder's confidence (although stocks have fallen today anyway, I'm not sure why). Fortunately the Studly Hubby has been safe from getting the axe so far. If he does, we will be ok - he has been my trophy wife before and he's not afraid to do it again (and in that case I will benefit because when the Studly Hubby is home he often bakes, and when he bakes he often bakes cookies and cake, yum!). Meanwhile the Studly Hubby is still enjoying the new job, has diversified his skills and is challenging himself in a lot of ways, and has been learning the ropes and enjoying all the sweet benefits of Microsoft - it has been a good experience so far. Fingers crossed that the economy gets better before things get worse at Microsoft (and everywhere else...)!

Sunday, January 18, 2009

The Dahlia Lounge Experience

Last weekend for my Studly Hubby's birthday we ventured out to try a new hip downtown restaurant, the Dahlia Lounge. It is a Tom Douglas restaurant, who is a famous Seattle restauranteur. He has a bunch of restaurants in town, and supposedly a friend of a friend of ours that happens to have the same name always gets the best tables when he calls in reservations at restaurants around town.

So we put on our fancy downtown clothes (in Seattle, that means corduroys and a hoodie), fired up the Seattle-savvy Honda Civic, and cruised down to where things are happenin'. The restaurant was very nice, and had very good food. After brunch we shared a slice of coconut cream pie, which was so rich that even between the two of us we had trouble finishing it. Yum.


Afterwards we took advantage of being downtown and browsed around J. Crew, H&M, Banana Republic, and Macy's. The downtown stores are all very exciting. Especially right now - there are major sales all over the place. We haven't decided yet whether we should be saving or spending in this crazy economic time, so we did the usual - browse hard and buy when necessary. The big item that day was a new pair of Birthday Sweatpants for the Studly Hubby, who adores his sweatpants like a hockey player adores his ice skates.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

If you live in the Midwest...

You should buy one of these!
Doesn't that look warm? If you are really interested, it's the L.L. Bean Mad Bomber hat for $39.50. And while you're putting in an order you should get some of their stylin' swimsuits because it will help you remember that SUMMER WILL BE HERE EVENTUALLY...! And you can wear your swimsuit to work to help remind all of them too. Or at least distract them from the cold for a while.

Here it is a balmy 39F. I am fiercely writing a research paper on a project that I should have gotten wrapped up a long time ago. Winter is a good time to lock yourself away for a while to do things like this. Although I will be happy when I finally emerge, which should be pretty soon.

Wednesday, January 07, 2009

Now I dig vampires

My mom got me hooked on vampires. Not the real kind, I haven't found any of those yet (I went looking, I live near some fictional ones, but they weren't around).

Vampires seem to be totally hip about every ten years. I like fads, so I happily jump on board every time.

Here are the major vampire moments from my life:

1. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the movie (ca. 1992) If you haven't seen this, you really outta. I became a fan long before Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the show (see #2) and my loyalty kept me from actually watching the show until years after it aired.

2. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the show (ca. 2000)
This really was a good show, once I finally got around to watching it (on DVD, around 2005). And a very sexy Angel reminds me a lot of a certain Edward Cullen (see #3)...

3. Twilight, the book, then the movie (ca. NOW)
Twilight brings a fresh new round of vampires to today's youth. Since my mom liked the book, I decided I was not above reading pre-teen vampire romance and gave it a shot. It is a very good book. Edward Cullen is a heartbreaker for sure. I will probably have to watch the movie.

Friday, January 02, 2009

Best Christmas present ever

#1 favorite present this year:

A giant TUB of pistachios!!

#2 favorite:

Candies that WHISTLE!!

Thursday, January 01, 2009

Final adventures of 2008

After all the snow piled up on us, we had a tricky situation getting back to the midwest for the holidays. This is a run-down (the flight was scheduled for Sunday):

1. Wednesday: threat of snow, schools cancel, Studly Hubby works from home

2. Thursday: actual snow (4" ish), schools cancel again.

3. Friday: stays cold, snow doesn't melt (and city doesn't know how to remove it), which means schools cancel again. I slide down the icy sidewalks to work and somehow survive.

4. Saturday: stays cold, snow still hasn't melted, and the neighbors start trying to dig out their cars with garden shovels and brooms (nobody owns actual snow shovels and ice scrapers).

5. Saturday night: storm #2 moves in (snow from storm #1 is still on the ground). That story is below. Our flight got rescheduled from Sunday to Monday, thank goodness.

6. Sunday: we figure out how get to the airport on Monday. City is shut down, buses aren't going where they are supposed to. We buy a pizza from one of three open businesses in our neighborhood.

7. Monday: 3-hr trek to the airport. We hauled our luggage across 10 blocks of unshoveled deep snow, got on the freeway bus to downtown. The bus was absolutely packed with people that normally ride other routes or drive and nobody knows where to get off - we all collectively help each other find our stops and figure out how to get around an ice- and snow-covered downtown (which is extremely hilly and dangerous).

8. Still Monday: we transfer to the airport bus downtown. Everyone we meet is heading to the airport and dealing with cancelations or delays, looking both tired and wired. We expect the worst.

9. Still Monday: we arrive at the airport and check the flight board. Half the flights going out are canceled. Apparently many airlines are running out of de-icer. Our flight is still on, so we check in and go wait. The place looks like a homeless shelter, but without any beds. I feel tempted to hand out my spare change to the stranded travellers but remind myself that won't really help.

10. Still Monday: we board and fly out, on time and with no problems. I thank my lucky stars.

Time to take a break

 What do you do to relax? These past two years I feel like I have forgotten how to relax. It reminds me a little of grad school and how afte...