Just Got Back From Las Vegas

Elliot and I had soooo much fun in Las Vegas! We took a four day trip with our friends Ben and Sheila. The four of us stayed at a nice hotel (the Palazzo), ate TONS of good food, and saw most of the hotel/casinos on the strip.

There are hundreds of pictures from our vacation, but I'll only post a few of them here. Click on the pictures to enlarge them.


This was the view from our hotel room:


Here we are in front of one of the fountains in Caesar's Forum in Caesar's Palace:


We watched two of the "fountain shows" at the Bellagio. They played "Singin' In the Rain" and "The Star Spangled Banner":


Elliot drooling over the world's tallest chocolate fountain:


Ben, Sheila, me, Elliot:


Me gambling:


Two food recommendations for anyone who takes a trip to Las Vegas: Lotus of Siam (proclaimed the "best Thai food in North America" by fancy food critics) and the buffet at the Wynn hotel. Yum!

Yay, Laura!!!

My little sister, Laura, has graduated from high school!

Good job!

Foggy the Moth!

Lil' Fella, the big centipede must have told his friend foggy the moth what a nice place to visit our house is.



Wow look how crazy!

Looks like some leaves.

Hey! He fogged up the lens some how!


How is he doing that? (that hand is just for scale)


OK, back to normal. Weird.

I guess that's why he's Foggy The Moth.

A "funny" thing happened on the way to the washing machine.

And by "funny," I mean TERRIFYING.

Yeah, this guy happened.

I am not extra afraid of bugs but this, LARGE CENTIPEDE, I must admit, made my heart rate increase. After cursing and recoiling in momentary horror, my next instinct, of course, was to take some pictures.

Here he is scurrying up to throat level.








And here the little cutie is trying to
lunge at my carotid artery.

The fact that they can smell the blood inside your vessels, while not widely known or even mentioned in the centipede wikipedia entry, is quite evidently displayed here. I thought these guys only existed in the movies! I wanna blame global warming but I am pretty sure that it has a lot more to do with the fact that there is a small pile of large branches that have fallen off the tree in our back yard that I haven't destroyed or moved yet. Ooops. Live and learn.
You can't tell, because I was too concerned for my life to get my hand close enough, but this guy was longer than my hand, about the length of an unsharpened pencil though probably more than twice as wide. This must be what Indiana Jones has to go through when he does his laundry.

So long little fella!

So then I got a cup, and threw him outside where he can take his rightful place in the food chain, which is probably somewhere between vampires and werewolves, neither of which has ever bothered me while doing my laundry.

Happy Birthday, Allen Ginsberg

My Barnes & Noble day planner makes note of the fact that today is Allen Ginsberg's birthday.

I saw Allen Ginsberg give a reading and speak in 1997, just a few months before he died. It was during my senior year of high school, and I went to the performance with a group of friends. I was very interested in Beat literature at the time-- Jack Kerouac was hands down my favorite author. I enjoyed Allen Ginsberg's poetry, too, of course, and I was thrilled to go see him speak. What a surprise to hear on the news just a few months later that he had passed away! I'm so glad that I took the opportunity to go see him.

Here's a short poem by the late Allen Ginsberg:

Fourth Floor, Dawn, Up All Night Writing Letters

Pigeons shake their wings on the copper church roof
out my window across the street, a bird perched on the cross
surveys the city's blue-grey clouds. Larry Rivers
'll come at 10 AM and take my picture. I'm taking
your picture, pigeons. I'm writing you down, Dawn.
I'm immortalizing your exhaust, Avenue A bus.
O Thought! Now you'll have to think the same thing forever!

New York, June 7, 1980, 6:48 A.M.

Indiana Jones and the Metaphor for Life

Long story short: I saw it and I liked it. I went with my friends Sheila and Ben who also enjoyed it. I would encourage everyone to give it a chance. It was enjoyable on many levels including some metaphors that have something to say about the basic human experience. If you see it tell me what you think about it in the comments.

More Recipes Posted

I made a couple of additions to our recipe blog today, at souperduper.blogspot.com:

1. I posted a picture that Taryn and Brendan sent to us of some granola that they made. Click here.

2. I posted our favorite quesadilla recipe. Click here.

3. I posted Elliot's all-time favorite thing to cook, Pseudo Thai Stir Fry. Click here.

Graduation Pics That We Paid For

Professional pics from my graduation ceremony (I still can't believe that I'm done!):






(We had this one laminated and so it looks like there are little pieces of fuzz on the photo when I scanned it into the computer. But you get the idea.)

I did it!

I've gotten all of my grades back from my last semester of law school. It's official-- I've passed all of my classes and graduated! I've earned my J.D.! I even graduated with honors. Yaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyy!!!!!!!!

Here are a few pictures from my graduation ceremony earlier this month:


(During the ceremony.)


(With my friend Jessica after the ceremony.)


(With my family after the ceremony.)

Dinner with Friends

Here's a picture from dinner last night, with our friends Sarah and Mark:

Our Song

Before Elliot and I walked "down the aisle" together at the start of our wedding last year, we played "I'll Be With You In Apple Blossom Time" by the Andrews Sisters. We happened upon the song while we were trying to plan music for our wedding. Even though Elliot isn't in the military and I didn't change my last name to his, its a beautiful song and it seemed so perfect for our May wedding that we decided to play it first thing.

Here's a clip from the movie "Buck Privates" which features the Andrews Sisters singing the song. It's not the version we played, but the clip is fun to watch.

More Roadtrip Pics

So, picking up from where I left off, for the first half of the fifth day of our trip we went to the zoo in Columbia, South Carolina. Zoos both fascinate and depress me; I always have mixed feelings about going to them. The one in Columbia is very nice, though. Here are the pictures:

Friday in Columbia

After the zoo, we drove to Savannah, Georgia. We had planned to just walk around and see the city-- maybe do a ghost tour. But it turns out that there was a huge St. Patrick's Day celebration going on. Savannah has one of the biggest St. Patrick's Day celebrations in the U.S. We had no choice but to go. :)

Here's an idea of what it looked like while we were there:



It so happened that our friend Hein was also in town, and we were able to meet up with him toward the end of the evening:



Friday night in Savannah was a lot of fun. The next day we walked around downtown Savannah for a little while and then we drove home.

Here's Elliot eating breakfast at a cool little cafe that we found:



And here's us in front of a fountain at one of the parks downtown:

One Fish Two Fish

Kenji Valentino, my betta fish, died two weeks ago. I was very sad about it the day that it happened. However, he lived to a betta's full life expectancy, and we had provided him with a nice big home and tasty food, so I think it was a good life.


(pic from when we first brought Kenji home)

I've always enjoyed keeping fish. Kenji was my only betta; most of my fish have been either goldfish or guppies. The first fish I ever had was a goldfish. I got him while I was in elementary school and Super Mario Brothers video games were really popular. I named that fish Mario, and my sister Sara got one and named him Luigi. Ha ha!

The next fish that I remember having was my fancy goldfish, Paddington. He lived for 6 and 1/2 years! Paddington even moved houses with me twice. He really was a great fish. I still miss him.

Elliot's not really a "pet person" per se, but he has conceded that it is probably not cruel or terribly unnatural to keep pet fish. (He thinks that most animals should be left in the wild.) Since fresh water fish are such minimal upkeep, he doesn't mind if I keep an aquarium. He even got Kenji for me as a Valentine's Day present last year. :)

Pictures from our road trip!

Finally! I had a few free minutes to make web albums of some of the pictures that Elliot and I took during our awesome road trip back in March. There are still 3 more batches of pictures from the road trip that I haven't made albums for, so I'll post those later.

First are the pictures from the time we spent in Virginia with my Uncle Jack and my cousin Lori. On the first day of our trip, we visited President Washington's birthplace and General Robert E. Lee's birthplace and most of the pictures in this album are from those two trips:

Monday in Virginia

We spent our second day with my uncle visiting Washington D.C.:

Tuesday in D.C.

The third day of our road trip was spent in Durham with Elliot's sister, Katie. Here are the pictures of what we did while we were in North Carolina:

Wednesday in Durham

We spent the first half of the fourth day in Durham, then we drove to Columbia, South Carolina. It was a relaxing day. We stayed at a very nice bed and breakfast that night.

Thursday in Columbia

More pictures later!

One Year Wedding Anniversary!

Yesterday was our first wedding anniversary! Yay!

Here's the only picture from yesterday of the two of us together:



We had a nice dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, and we'll go do something fun this weekend to celebrate our special day.

Congrats to my mother and Sara!

Both my mother and my sister, Sara, have earned their Associate of Arts degrees this year!

My mother earned her degree in psychology, and Sara earned hers in nutrition. Elliot and I are both so proud of you! Yay!

Laura's Photos from Our Trip to Virginia

Monday

Click on the web album, above, to see the photos that Laura took while she, Elliot, and I were visiting my Uncle Jack and cousin Lori in Virginia.

While we were there we went to George Washington's birthplace, Robert E. Lee's birthplace, and visited downtown Washington D.C. It was a great trip!

203 comes in at 520th place!

Which is to say that I ran a 5k. The Tallahassee Palace 5k to be exact.

I was number 203 and I placed 520th out of 782 people.

My time was 31:48 which, while not great, is my best time so far so I am happy with it.
Hopefully I will be www.gulfwinds.org has information about the race, including everyone's time and such, plus some pictures of many of the participants. All the photos below have come from that site. Please note that I am not in the foreground of any of their pictures.

I've got to
pull
ahead!

But, even though my captions jokingly suggested that I was pulling ahead there, I was really just trying to keep up with all those people as you can tell by the fact that I never actually pass any of them.
It felt good to finish the race though. I think that I will be trying more. If can ever run one without having to stop and walk, I will be pretty happy with myself.

March Road Trip

Hello, all!

Sorry I've been so awful at updating the blog lately... this is my last semester of law school (yay!) and then I'll have the bar exam to study for, so I've been pretty busy. Plus, I've had scarlet fever for about 2 weeks now, and it has made me feel absolutely exhausted.

But anyway, I wanted to start sharing pictures from the road trip we took in March. (Elliot, Laura, and I drove to Virginia to visit my uncle for a couple of days. Then Laura flew home, and Elliot and I drove back to Tallahassee, stopping to visit Katie in Durham for two days, then staying overnight in Columbia and Savannah on the way back.) I don't have time to load all of our pictures into a web album right now, but here are some pictures Laura took on the first day of the trip.

The first day of the road trip was mostly driving. We were supposed to fly to Virginia, but we missed our plane. We couldn't get a new flight, so we just decided to drive. It was a reeeeeally long trip. But we had fun.

Sunday

S.S.B.B. (Super Smash Bros. Brawl)

Guess what family and friends?
It was that time of year again. The time when a videogame arrives that is so amazing it requires, neigh, demands us to stand outside and wait till midnight so that we may purchase it as soon as possible. Even if one has already secured his copy of said game and could easily go to the store the next day at normal business hours and pick it up.

Seriously though, let's be honest. To wait in a situation like this, is to give the enemy the advantage, for this game is no other than Super Smash Bros Brawl! The eagerly anticipated fighting game from Nintendo for the Wii system! And everyone knows that you must start playing a fighting game right away so that you learn all the moves and rhythms as soon as possible.
To make matters more interesting, this game has been what the game industry calls "eagerly anticipated." How eagerly anticipated? Try 6 or so years of frothing, rabid, insanity inducing anticipation.

AND, TO MAKE THINGS MORE COMPLICATED

The day after the release I was to embark on an awesome vacation, that will blogged about later, where I had elected not to take either the Wii or this new game with me. I was to leave at 3 in the morning for this trip, but I needed to get in at least a half hour of playing for my brain to start adapting to the new content. That way when I came back and started playing in earnest I wouldn't be totally behind my peers, who in this case may be mostly half my age but, none the less, I must persevere!

So I start by forcing myself to sleep a little bit,

so that it won't be so bad later.

Then, as quickly and as safely as I can, I get in the car and drive to GameStop and get in line. Where I encounter...


...Gamers Galore!(not to mention those behind me) It should be noted that there was a Super Smash Brothers Brawl tournament going on as well as just plain waiting in line.


List? Let's!
Gamer's gaming?

Check.

Otaku/Manga enthusiast?

Totally.

Gamers, sporting cool gamer fasion?

Space invader scarf, Nice!

Now, if only we had some cosplay...

BAM! blurry guy in a cape, maybe a wig too; close enough!

Well I guess that's everything -wait- what's this?
A traditionally attractive female gamer/salesperson giving away free Super Smash Bros. themed cookies that she baked and decorated herself? How's that for messing with your sterotypes? Awesome! Now that's dedication! Thanks Amanda!

In case you missed it, those cookies were in the shape of an in-game item, the smash ball. It looks like this:

not bad eh?
Rock and roll.

OK, Time check:

Hrm, looks like it will be a while.
Oh well, good thing I broght my DS! While I was busy being beaten at Mario Kart DS by gamers and their parents, there was a contest going on inside and eventually there was a winner I assume. But heck if I know who it is because they didn't really tell anyone other than the first few peeps in line what was going on and once the line started moving no one, including me, cared anymore. Then everyone in line got happier one by one.

And even though we looked like this:


We felt like this:

WoaA~sqeak~Aoh!

I then went home and played about 45 minutes of the totally awesome, completely polished and brilliant Super Smash Bros. Brawl! It is everything it was cracked up to be. It lived up to immense hype, even more so than The Twilight Princess or Mario Galaxy, for example.

Then I got two hours of sleep and had a week long adventure. More on that later.

My Cousin's Wedding!

T.C. Vann and Crystal Butler were joined in wonderful wedlock on March 1st in Miami FL and all the cousins, aunts and uncles were there to see it! At least all the cousins and aunts and uncles that I grew up with. It took place on a very fancy and large party yacht and was completely wonderful! Best of all, I got to hang out with my family who I don't get to see as often as I should. Mary and I stayed with my grandma but we would like to give extra special thanks to my Aunt Martha for offering to let us stay with her. Now, on to the pictures...

TC's Wedding Pictures

Penny's Gone

My beloved turtle, Penny, died two weeks ago. She was at the vet's office, getting treated for what they suspected was dehydration and an infection, but it turns out that her kidneys were failing. The vet thinks it might have been a congenital condition, since she was never very healthy.

Today I received a package in the mail from my vet. It had a card and a pressing of Penny's footprints in clay. Which is heartbreaking to look at. Just when I'd stopped crying every time I think about her, I receive a physical reminder of her death. I know I'll appreciate having her little footprints later, but right now it's very hard to look at them.