Wild West

SmallWyatt
Originally uploaded by madcoolninjas.

Meet Wyatt Earp. The real live Wyatt Earp. I took his picture outside of a Cracker Barrel by the highway. He describes this as his "1800's" look. I particularly like the raised eyebrow. Unlike his (sometimes) bloodthirsty ancestor, real Wyatt is a sweetheart. A sweetheart with gently curling mustachios.

Hee.

Chocoholics Rejoice

This happy chocolate man on Notting Hill has some advice for Her Royal Coldiness. He read on the UK version of Yahoo that chocolate is thought by scientists to contain a substance a third more effective at controlling coughing than condeine. I kid you not. (OR, if the picture continues to hate me, you can check it out here.)

In Which I Spend the Weekend on My Own (Mostly)

The post-Thanksgiving weekend was nice. Not superbly fabulous, but thoroughly nice. Nothing very earth shattering happened, but the peace and quiet was lovely. In classic Grandma fashion, we had pure, unadulterated leftovers for dinner on both nights. This was no less than expected. She really gets a kick out of leftovers. Needless to say, however, I was VERY ready for the omelette I made myself for tonight. (The 'rents were having--that's right, you guessed it--leftovers.) Also, Mom made chocolate chip cookies. They are to-die-for-perfect. Bliss. Pure Bliss. In the living room, M, D, and Pat are having what appears to be movie night. So far they've watched both Chicken Run and Lost in Translation. I wait in suspense to hear what they choose next. The sports news here has been surprising. Not only did the U of A basketball team nearly beat Wake Forest (in a highly suspenseful last 30 seconds, we lost by the bare minimum of points), but the football team actually beat ASU. SHOCKING. Grandma and Grandpa were thrilled. And now I have to work on my paper about Jupiter. Hooray for the primordial solar nebula. Also the magnetosphere. Also the protoplanetary nebula. Also liquid metallic hydrogen.

Ka-THUNK

Also, I tripped over an old computer yesterday leaving Astronomy and I have a huge blue bruise. I am a klutz. Yay me.

Welcome to LOCK DOWN

With about 20 minutes left in my second class of the day, suddenly there came a very odd crackle from the speaker on the wall. In the silence that followed came the announcement we most dread. "We are in a lock down situation. Please remain in lock down until further notice." This means we close all the blinds, turn off all the lights, lock the doors, and sit huddled in complete silence on the floor behind the most solid wall under the windows. Usually, this, however annoying, is just a drill, and after 5 minutes of silence we are released. Today, however, it was not a drill. We sat for 20 minutes before hearing an announcement that there had been a "home invasion" in the houses west of CDO and that until the police apprehended the three suspects, we were to remain in complete lock down. So we sat, and we sat, and we sat. We sat through the end of the period, we sat through lunch, we sat well into the last period of the day. In silence. After about an hour, they notified us that one suspect had been caught, but 2 remained, and after a full 2 hours they announced that 2 suspects had been caught and that the last was "significantly south of CDO", and we were allowed out and sent home. It sucked. The End

Whoa...the weekend

This weekend was a non-stop socializing extravaganza. On Friday night I went to see Anne-Marie in the Greenfields musical (City of Angels). It was actually pretty good, and for a bunch of kids, they did a pretty good job of carrying off the humor, which might easily have evaded them. Although I went with Charlie, due to his space-cadet status, we arrived separately and at wildly different times. It was still fun however, and I am glad I went. Afterwards, in the freezing parking lot, we had a "let's be friends" conversation. I thought this would bother me, but upon reflection, it actually doesn't. I think part of it was that my friends were so behind this whole thing that I kind of talked myself into making it a bigger and better deal than it actually was. In retrospect, I'm kind of relieved. Of all possible "endings" this is a pretty great one. So Friday was not a loss at all, especially when Rosie called me after the play to let me know that her parents were letting her drive up to Tucson for the night on Saturday/Sunday. Hence, Saturday was insane. In the morning there was much frantic changing of sheets, vacuuming of kitchens, and general sprucing by orders of the Mom-in-Chief. At 11:30, I left the house to go to Doug's for a surprise birthday for Josephine. The party was a ton of fun. Doug had a pinata and a game of pin the pirate on the X, and there was chocolate cake. I got to see people I hadn't seen in a long time, and we had an awesome time. They are easily my nerdiest friends, as well as some of the funnest. Cotter is really into this variety of martial arts that involves swords, so after we got tired of whacking at the pinata, he took his sword and hacked it neatly in half in one swing. It was really very impressive. The sword went straight through the cnady, and we kept finding starbursts and crunch bars severed neatly in two. The hacking was followed Chinese and general fooling around with silly string, party hats, and birthday games. At about 5, Rosie came, and we ordered take-out Chinese food which was fun. We then watched Fargo, which was bloody, but kind of along the lines of Pulp Fiction with obnoxious midwestern accents. It was a great weekend. Also great is the news of our Thanksgiving plans. We're all going to eat dinner next door at Grandma's on Thursday, and then on Friday the "big people" except for Grnadma are going out to the ranch. I am to be allowed to stay here! Wahoo! Mom says that she thinks Grnadma would be more comfortable with someone right next door, and I am more than delighted to be the one to stay. Hurrah for Thanksgiving!

On the brink of sanity...

I'm feeling quite incapable of expressing the level of stress that is floating merrily around our house this morning following my (delightful) visit from Rosie (of which I will soon tell). I have been accosted thrice by my irate mother demanding that I pick up A's room (why? I know not. It looks exactly as it always has, but suddenly this is unacceptable), wash the dishes, and move all of my things off the bathroom counter. She's flipping out! She comes running down the hallway yelling things at me, when all she really has to do is say them. There's no need for a heart attack... AAAAAAAAAAaaaaaa.......

I think I'm moving

Well, I think I'll be moving here pretty much. Today started out with a thud. An orthodontist's appointment which was supposed to be the last check before they take the damn things off turned into "let me just wrench your teeth real hard one more time." In other words, one more month, and then we'll see. This is disappointing, but at least I'm getting close. Again. Ugh. And I had to get up at the crack of dawn (literally) to make it to the appointment. Sooo not worth it. Now all I've got is a jaw full of sore teeth. Ahh well. I'm almost there. I'd better have the straightest teeth in the world when we're done with this though. I deserve them. As Claire said this morning, my orthodontist is the man, and he's keeping me down.

I think this is goodbye, lj

Well, I think I've been seduced by Blogger. I'm really loving the super-editable templates. They're very charming. How was I to resist? Also, this whole emailing in thing is fun indeed. True, it takes longer, but it's just so...easy that I'm into it anyway. Well, welcome to Mary-land. The topic of greatest interest here this week is Winter Formal and my date and/or dress -lessness. My friends have decided fairly unilaterally that I'm required to ask Charlie, get a dress, and pull myself together. It's just that I've never been that into the whole formal thing. It's just so much...work. I know that means that I'm incredibly lazy, but I just don't see that the return on all that prep is really proportional to the work it entails. Ah well, I've got to go study for an English essay on the Tempest which I'm supposed to take bright and early tomorrow morning. Wish me luck!

Well. A new site, a new elegant-er layout. Maybe I'll stay here. I do have a certain amount of loyalty to livejournal, but blogger's templates are so darn cute. Just look at all of that adorable green stuff! It's kind of revolting how cute it is. And, and, and....but livejournal will be so lonely--I was the last holdout, the last friendly lj kid. But Blogger lets me email my entries in....sooo charming...