Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Oh Where, oh where can my little bag be?

Baggage Update:

My baggage was lost somewhere in America last month and has failed to show up anywhere.   I claimed the contents to be around $780 although I am fairly certain that is an underestimate as I keep trying to find things in my closet only later realizing that I had packed them in that damn bag. Although it was for one weekend, I happened to put all my favorite dresses,  every piece of jewelery and hair accessory I own,  my sonicaire toothbrush, all my make-up (which isn't much, but still...),  my favorite flip flops, and hot pink pumps all in that one tragically lost bag. ... damn.....  

This post is a tribute to some of my long lost articles:

My red sequins dress from college roommate Ginger's wedding... (and red feather hair clip)

My fun denim skirt from Sally and white blouse (including pink flower head band)

My 80's black striped and polka dot dress from Susie's deals including neon headband

My Asian dress from Sally

My e-bay project dress and those Teva flip flops

My colorful print dress

My sun dress, pink feather clip. and green headband

One of the dresses Bridget got me for my birthday... it was mine for 1 day

My super soft yellow t-shirt and blue skirt..including white beads

My grey cardigan (birthday present from Nancy) and other floral dress (birthday present from Bridget)  also only owned for 1 day.  Headband and beads were previously mentioned...gone

Black sequins dress and hot pink pumps


Tank top from Ireland

Red marching band cardigan from Ireland
My printed Danish dress from my Danish friend

You've seen this one before but I thought I'd throw in an extra full length action shot

The most tragic of all losses... my beloved leopard print sequins Betsey Johnson dress which I so lovingly splurged on as a birthday present to myself..

If anyone is ever in Alabama, please print out this post and look for my items lat this store:  http://www.unclaimedbaggage.com/index.html.   They buy unclaimed luggage and sell it in their shop.  Jerks.  (I would totally go shopping there...)

Who's a Sexy Kite?

Facebook excerpt: 

Jimmy O'Donnell

Facebook Friend # 1:   Didn't you make a big stink about wanting to go as something "pretty" for Halloween?

    • Me:   I'm a sexy kite!


    • Facebook Friend #2:  julie dear, queen of sexy, you wore a duct tape diaper over a pair of sweat pants. . .
       
       
       
       
       
       

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Kite, Camera, Action

 
"For the benefit of Mr. Kite there will be a show tonight on the trampoline...."  I have had that song in my head all week long, preparing for my Halloween costume.  I also quite often mistake the word trampoline with tambourine and even more often combine the two into "trambourine" which is obviously the act of playing the tambourine while jumping on a trampoline. 

Back to Halloween...

This year we headed south to Redondo Beach for a costume party at our good friend Reni's house.  Reni has been a third wheel of ours for close to 4 years now, or maybe I should say I have been a third wheel to Reni and Trevor for close to 4 years now.  That's probably more accurate.  The cast and crew of the show included Reni and girlfriend Liz, a slew of master student alumni's from the Great Class of 08, some highschool and work friends of Liz, and might as well bring the Danish girl down and give her a real taste of tick or treatery, an American Halloween party.

KITE! and Danish friend Saima (aka the rockstar)




KITE!!!!  Where's Ben?

Rainbow Bright flew in from NYC for the party

Hey Popeye, that beer spinach looks delicious but where's Olive Oil?

There she is hanging with Johnny Cash

Doc and Marty McFly came back from the future for the festivities

The Howells were able to make it off Gilligan's Island


Even Flo took time off from the Insurance commercials


Costumes were swapped


kites were photo bombing


And Ben Franklin and Marty McFly made some huge progress towards the optimization of time travel.

Left to Right: Viking, Popeye, Mr. Howell, Doc, Ben Franklin, Johnny Cash, Turtle Guy ?, Sticks...

Right to Left: Carrots, Marty McFly, Olive Oil, Rockstar, KITE, MRs. Howell, Flo the insurance lady, June Carter, Beer Girl


And it wouldn't be an American Halloween party without your standard underwear costumes.  (they weren't with us)

Apparently Conan O'Brien was promoting his new show by asking for people to send in pictures of themselves dressed up with the Conan mask on.... So we did:


Ben's got a little messy...

and a little creepy

Hopefully Liz wins the contest.  The prize is free tickets to the show.  Speaking of contests and prizes and winning, later that night we mozied over to a nearby bar where we walked backwards into a costume contest and proceeded to supermarket-sweep the first, second, and third place couples costumes category and also got the gold in the singles department netting in total a $250 gift certificate to the bar.  Party Time!


This is Kite trying to get Ben Franklin to put his legs up and give the kite a Superman ride....would have been a much better picture than this one which looks like Ben Franklin is trying to give birth...

Doc & Marty...


....and Ben Franklin & his Kite lived happily ever after.


The End...


Happy Halloween!!!

Sunday, October 24, 2010

If I Could Turn Back Time...

...I might have thought of a better costume....

Instead, we both went as Cher:


Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Encyclopedia of An Ordinary Life

Airplanes are amazing.  I love that I could fly to Florida for my sister's engagement party for a quick, less than 48 hour trip.  I would however, love it much more if it was longer than 48 hours and if Delta didn't lose my bag.


Baseball is America's favorite sport.  I try not to get to involved in sports because it puts me in a bad mood when the team I'm rooting for loses...better luck next time, Yankees.

Colleen is my youngest sister.  She painted me a picture for my birthday.  It's inside my lost luggage.

Duck walks into a bar .... he asks the bartender for some lipstick and says "hey, put it on my bill"


Electricity.  You don't realize how much you rely on it, until you have to go without it.  The electricity was out at work this morning.  There were rumors spreading like wildfire that it might not come back on until after noon.  Everyone seemed slightly annoyed but deep down inside I think they were ecstatic.  I know I was.  You can't pray for snow days out here.   If we don't have electricity we can't do any lab work, we can't do any computer work, we might as well go out to breakfast or go home.  15 minutes later the lights came back on to resounding "ahhhs," owwws," and "ughs."  Back to work.

"Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life" is a fantastic book.

Free lunch...there is no such thing as a free lunch... but also Family... got a lot of Family time in this weekend with all the sisters, both parents, and Josh's family too.
Awkward hand placement, Bridget


Generals prefer to keep their Armies in their sleevies.

"Gang Leader for a Day" is another awesome book by Sudhir Venkatesh.  Sudhir was a grad student in sociology at the University of Chicago.  He wanted to research african americans living in poverty in nearby neighborhoods.  He ends up pretty much becoming part of the gang family without actually being part of the gang.  You need to read it for yourself.


Henry Rutgers once said, "Never let your schooling interfere with your education."  


Itchy, I feel itchy.  I took some Benadryll.  Hopefully I can finish this blog before I zonk out.  If the excerpts are getting lamer, you now know why.


Jogging. I went for a jog today and it made me feel sick.  I think I am also slightly paranoid that I have the same bug as Bridget,  (See V for virus).


Joke.  Why did the bunny jump for joy?  Because he was hoppy!




Kite.  Halloween is in less than 2 weeks.  What should I be?  This morning I thought it would be pretty funny to be a kite.  Trevor can be Ben Franklin. 


Lightning was the cause of the power outage at work today.  There was a huge lightning storm last night and even some more tonight.  This is the first time I have seen lightning in California since I moved here 4 years ago.

Maybe I should re-consider the kite costume... Any other suggestions?  Some of my older costumes:








Nightmares.  Sorry if those pictures give you nightmares.  That's what Halloween's all about though right?

"Overacting (also referred to as hamming or mugging) is the exaggeration of gestures and speech when acting. It may be unintentional, particularly in the case of a bad actor, or be required for the role. For the latter, it is commonly used in comical situations or to stress the evil characteristics of a villain."-Wikipedia

Anyone remember what I was talking about?



Paralysis is a seriously sad injury.  I am really hoping Eric LeGrand from the Rutgers Football team is able to walk again after his injury in the game last Saturday. 

Quiet.  Congress has passed a bill that will limit the volume of TV commercials. This makes me happy.


Rain...when it rains it pours, and it sure has been raining a lot around here...


Shopping.  We went bridesmaids shopping in Florida and we found a dress!  Very excited at the idea of not trying on any more bridesmaids dresses.  And then there's the shoes....  hmm Nikes?


Thanksgiving.  Last Thanksgiving we went to a crowded bar with some friends.  I was talking with my friend, Kevin, while this shorter girl in front of us was standing on her tippy-toes trying to look past us to find her friends.  I said "Hello, have you met my friend Kevin?"  They talked all night.   Their year anniversary is coming up soon.


Umbrella.  I'm pretty sure I no longer own one.


Viruses are the worst!  Last year while in Florida my sister Colleen, my mom, and Nancy's fiance Josh all came down with a 13-hour-of-intense-vomiting flu.  This last weekend in Florida, Bridget came down with a similar situation on her last day there.  She puked in the airport, on the plane, and more once she got home.  Sorry 'bout that Briggles. That sounds terrible.


Windows.  I always leave the windows open at home.  The air temperature is always comfortable and it never rains, usually.  It's been raining like crazy lately.  Somewhere in the past 4 years I have lost the instinct to close the window when it rains.  The thought never crosses my mind.  That is until I went to  lay down for a nap on a super-wet soggy bed.  Luckily we have a dryer in-house.

X is the hardest letter. I have nothing good to say about x-rays.

Y aren't you in bed?  That's where I'm headed.  I'm done with this alphabet business.

Z Z Z z z z z Bedtime Bye!

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

J-E-hel-ll-o!

Last weekend I had chocolate pudding in bed for breakfast on both Saturday and Sunday.