Update!

Two things:
1. I am *finally* back in nola after over two months in Idaho. We are now starting to prep for school and are looking for an apartment in nola proper.
2. I am officially out of the stone-ages! Guess where I'm posting this from? My droid :) I finally broke down-- we changed carriers (verizon refused to give me a deal on a phone) and got a free droid*, twice the minutes, unlimited data, and a phone that I can also use as a hot spot for $20 LESS than verizon. Isn't that crazy?

Anyway, I'll post something way more interesting soon (and more often) now that I'm home.

*it was pretty funny, we actually had to pay for K-man's bare-bones, no frills flip phone

For my Harry Potter fans.

I'm a huge fan of comic writer Lucy Knisley. She is a big Potter fan, so she's had a lot of stuff on her blog lately celebrating the new movie. 


She and her room-mate did this cute video:

Prepping for Our Wizardly Voyage! from Lucy Knisley on Vimeo.

Here is her comic summarizing Harry Potter. This link has a down-loadable high-res version.

I hope you all enjoy the movie!

First World Problems

I'm sure some of you have already seen this, but it made me giggle.

I know, I know. It's been nearly two weeks.

Here's why: I have banished myself to Idaho to try and finish my thesis. I've been here a month and a half and will be here another three weeks. ALL* I have been doing is working inside a cinder-block box (the office ISU has loaned me).

Anyway, I decided to take a little break and write a post I promised weeks ago.

K-man** and I went on a Banksy tour of New Orleans a while back.

Here is the map of all the places we went. Here are the pictures:

It's been so long, I don't remember the order we saw them, so I'll start with my favorite.  I like it because it feels harsher than the others.

The house was abandoned after Katrina.  The inside is completely gutted and full of graffiti.

The next pic is kind of crap because there was a bum sleeping directly in front of the art, so I didn't get out of the car.  Notice directly to the left of the shopping cart there is a pair of shoes.  There used to be more to the painting but there is a guy known as the "Grey Ghost" that went around a painted over nearly half of Banksy's art.

 

Here's one where Banksy is actually poking fun at the Grey Ghost.

This next one is probably considered the most famous of all the pieces he did in New Orleans.  It's been covered with plexy-glass so no one can deface it.

This one was nearly impossible to get a good picture of because it was a weird angle through a fence and there was a bad reflection on the plexi-glass. It is a stick figure that Banksy has the ghost painting over with a roller. (I almost didn't post this one, the picture is so shitty)

I love this last one because the plants/environment have become part of it.

The little girl is screaming at a rat that is now covered up by the plants.

There you go! Hope you all are well and happy.

Oh! One more thing.  If you like street art, you should watch Exit Through The Gift Shop .  It is very interesting and you can play it instantly on Netflix.


*OK, so I've been spending time with my family too :)
**I miss you K-man!  I love you.

Happy Father's day!

We watched the movie Parenthood yesterday....

and this:

reminded me of a post I wanted to do a while ago.



A few weeks ago K-man and I went to a "Mad Hatter" party*.  The dress code was garden party attire with (of course) hats. This poses a problem for both K-man and me because we have gigantic heads.  Really, think about it.  Have you ever looked at our heads? They're huge.



 

 

 We ended up spending an afternoon searching for hats that would fit our heads.  Excuse me, hat companies? Women's heads are not "one size fits all".  

It actually made for a pretty entertaining afternoon.

(That's a large, folks.  Isn't K-man a good sport for letting me post this?)

My situation was identical.  We did finally find some hats that worked, but it took quite a while and a lot of stores. Moral of the story:  if you're going to throw a theme party and you want us to come, please don't require hats.  Thank you.

*What is it with hipsters and theme parties?

on a side note:

Bridesmaids was fantastic, as is Lindy West's review.





I find it strange that I can't stand most of Kristin Wiig's characters on SNL but find her completely charming in her movies.  I'm probably the only one who feels that way.

Happy 34th birthday Star Wars!

Oh yeah, and happy towel day.

I guess I better say goodbye.

Sorry for the lack of posts--I'm banishing myself to Idaho for over a month and am forcing myself to finish my thesis. I'll post something cool soon, I promise....oh wait, this is probably my last post, with the Rapture and all.  It's been nice blogging for you all, I hope it was somewhat entertaining ;)

Have you seen what some of these crazies have done? Spent all their money, sold all their belongings, quit their jobs, pre-paying heathens to watch their animals, etc.  *face-palm* for sure.

Tip: Don't send chatty social types to give a workshop to math people.

I attended a workshop today that lasted 7 hours.

*


Here's the thing, for the amount of information I actually got, it could've been done (efficiently) in an hour-- scratch that, it could have been done over a one-page email. So ridiculous. Why doesn't this company realize math people are not very hands-on? We don't need to role-play every scenario, in fact role-playing is considered a form of torture. Seriously. They might as well have been sticking bamboo shoots up under my finger nails.

I have to go back tomorrow for more torture training.

*Something you might not know about me:  I'm a huge fan of street art.  My brother influenced  me because he's always been into it.  The above is by Banksy.  Over Easter weekend, K-man and I did a Banksy tour of New Orleans and drove all over the city.  K-man's a good sport. Anyway, it was a really great way to see a bunch of the neighborhoods we'd never been to. I'll post pictures soon.

I went to see Ani last night

and in the encore she played my all-time favorite song, Both Hands. (the video is a little corny, but it's the best version I could find on the internets)


Also in the encore she told us she had just found out she's opening for John Prine soon so she played one of my favorite songs he's written, Angel from Montgomery.


The volume is a little low, you'll need to turn it up.

Ani played the entire show solo and acoustic. AWESOME.

I love to teach. I love to teach. I love to teach.

Here's what I'm doing today:

Grading finals.  boo.  Lilo's even upset about it.

I miss the bugs in Idaho.

This time of year, the  mosquitoes come out in New Orleans.

This is my leg:

Both of my legs look like this.  I won't be able to wear dresses for two weeks because I don't want to look like a friggin 30-year old who came down with the chicken pocks. 

Yes, I did get bit all the time in Idaho, but at least there you can feel them bite you. You say: "hmm, I just got bit, maybe I should go inside." Not here. These bites are all from one night.  K-man and I sat outside to drink some wine in the coolness. I got all of these in the amount of time it takes to drink one glass of wine.  That's some messed up crazy-ass shit.

Moral of the story: I'm in the market for bug repellent.  Please give me your suggestions for deet-free repellent.  I know you world travelers I'm related to have to have some favorites.

Here is the other bug on my mind right now:

This is the buck moth caterpillar. These things fall on you from trees and their spines get stuck in you.  Their spines are little tiny tubes filled with poison.  Afterwards you get nauseated, dizzy, and a crazy rash forms.

Let's talk about the caterpillars in Idaho.  They are cute, cuddly, and awesome to play with. We make songs about them, do sixth-grade projects with them, and watch them turn into butterflies.

Now I'm living in a city where it is literally impossible to avoid trees and I spend my day darting around like a crazy person to spend as little time under them as possible. Luckily their hatching season is almost over.

Thank you.

Thank you, religion, for giving my university an excuse to give me a four day weekend! Hmmm...what will I do with my time?   :)

Hope you all are doing great!  I'll have an interesting post soon, I promise.

Apparently I'm the only one

I'm the ONLY person who found "Perfect Couples" amusing.  Why'd it get canceled to be replaced by Paul Reiser?