Pablo Pichrisso Part Three

One of the many great things about the University of Washington is that their bookstore puts all of their art supplies on sale during the last week of the quarter. I'm not really sure why they try to clear their inventory seeing as how there will be six bazillion art students pounding down the doors within two weeks but well, they do, and I'm happy to profit from it. I went and picked up a 2' x 3' canvas and a 3' x 4' canvas and walked both home (about a shortish mile) in the dark rain since I missed the bus. Guess that bit is not important to the story but I think I did look pretty amusing wandering down the viaduct in the rain holding large canvases. Well, on the 3 by 4 I painted Bullfight III for one of my friends for Christmas who used to live in Spain and absolutely hates the rain that falls mainly on the plains of Seattle. For any of you who have read the timeless classic "The Cat in the Hat Comes Back", you will know that if you drop a spot on something, let it go. Do not try to clean it up. After trying to clean up and paint over an errant black speck of paint, I finally realized the beauty of water-soluble acrylic paint. The blotch came off with some water and a cotton swab. Well, it turned out well and I definitely need to invest in an overhead projector of my own before they stop making those antique machines altogether.

That's some Strong work there.

Ooohh, these are my very very very last days of the Strong Lab. Kicking off the last two weeks was our holiday lab party. We decided to go bowling at the garage. Matt, Roland, and I have been arguing about whether or not to have a going-away party for me. I don't want one at all and they want to throw me one. When Matt and I were in the fourth frame and about even, we struck a deal that if he won, then I would have a party and if I won, then I wouldn't have to have one. Well, er, um, my next three frames were strike, strike, spare. Matt turned to me and said, "wow, how much do you hate us?". Ahh c'mon, it's just that I don't want a party, I want to be done. This picture is a bit of the sass that came out since I beat Matt and Roland two games in a row. Thanks BYU bowling class last semester! Here's a picture of KFin, one of our graduate students; Tyler, one of our techs; and Roland. Awww, look at KFin, that's the type of good attitude she'll need to power her through grad school. Later in the two weeks, it was time for one last Dr. Pepper sculpture to decorate Matt's and my bay for Christmas. I especially like the pictures on the mantlepiece. And on Friday, December 18th, it was my very very very very very very very last day of lab for Roland. I started there in October of 2003. And so it was kinda time to go. Loves to the lab and adios! Here's my bench seconds before I walk out the door for the last time, all cleaned up and ready for the next um, person.

This babe's first rock concert.

WOW! I mean WOW! I just got back from my very first rock concert and what a way to roll! Tenaya and I went to the Deck the Hall Ball with Muse . . . and some other people that were also really good. We got down the event at about 5:30 or so and didn't stumble outta there until way past 11:03 PM. Okay so it wasn't too late of a show but WOAH! The opening acts were Vampire Weekend (with the lead singer being kinda intense in the there's no way I would ever want to meet you in person kinda way), Phoenix (a really terrific French rock band okay yes. French. A French band. that played 1901 to my heart's content), Metric (whose song "Help I'm Alive" has rocked me down many a run on 35th Ave in the rain), and 30 Seconds to Mars (that I'll talk about again in a minute). First, let's chat about 30 Seconds to Mars, also known as 30 Minutes of Jared Leto's Guyliner. Okay really folks. Who does this guy's hair and where can I get in line for that kind of volume? What product does he use on those lovely tresses? I mean, look at this. OH and hi look at those baby blue eyes. And his jacket. As was noted in the Seattle Times review: "30 Seconds to Mars is really great on the eyes and good on the ears" I love their song "Kings and Queens" and it really showcases Mr. Leto's extraordinary pulmonary system. Yowzahs. And then the main event: MUSE!!! They are absolutely amazing. Even U2 calls their show the best rock concert. Incredible. They played my favorite tune "Starlight" with rockful abandon. And they even had DNA swirling on the screens. Oh MUSE, you're so you know, molecular and smart.

Christmas in Ephrata!

This weekend I went out to Ephrata, WA to visit Megan who recently got back from her mission to Argentina. Basically, Megan's been telling me I should wander out to central WA and visit her house but I always insisted it was too far from Seattle (3 hours). After half a dozen trips to Moses Lake, which is about six minutes south of Ephrata, my arguments lost a LOT of force. Well, that town is amazing. I happened to make it for the Holiday Festival which used to be known as the Mint Explosion. We (Megan, Rachel, and I) started off the morning by racing in the Jingle Bell Run which was a 1.9 mile jog from the bank, down to the high school and around the track once, and back to the courthouse. It was about 25 degrees outside and my festive green shants did little to block the cold. Fortunately, since I wasn't running very fast, there wasn't much of an effective wind chill. Seriously, the six-year-olds were faster. Well, they get recess and I don't. So there. After working up an appetite, Megan and I went off to DK's for lunch. I ordered a beefalo burger and I'm now going to use the word "beefalo" as a an all-purpose verb and/or predicate adjective which means "at first you think it's going to be really bad, but after a while, you find out that you can stomach it and it's not that bad." This word will come in handy for describing lots of things. Like "Hey, how was your trip to the dentist?" "Oh, it was a total beefalo." Yah? Then, it was off to see the Christmas performance of Megan's mom's ballet school. This visit to Ephrata probably will probably have significant outcomes for future generations in my family since if I have any girls in the future, I'm going to sign them up for ballet. The little snowflakes were soooooo cute! I wish I had taken ballet but I was too busy swimming and building dams with huge rocks. Oh and friends, we were not done with the day. We then went to the Christmas parade which fortunately lasted only about 10 minutes. The people on the trucks and engines and the ones walking their dogs were throwing candy but it was so cold, I'm not sure I would have wandered out to the street even if they were throwing fitty dollah bills. But the puppies wearing the little santa outfits were adorable. After the parade, we raced over to park behind a big silo to see the fireworks. In hindsight, we should have parked on the other side of the big silo but seriously, I love love love Ephrata, they know how to get things done and not even Florence, Italy had such a nice fireworks display. That night, we made Christmas cookies, detonated the Bing Crosby explosion of Christmas music, and frosted them all in bright pinks and greens. Christmas is coming! Thanks Megan. (More pictures to come!)

La vita e bella si?

Hey I only have like three weeks left of work. That's it. Three weeks. I wish my brain were still on board but I think it got off the work train about four weeks ago. Oh well, as Mike the Headless Chicken so bravely reminds us (go to wikipedia and type in "Mike the Headless Chicken") we can get by on a lot less than we think. I've been having lots of trouble sleeping lately and I haven't been able to eat much. I know that sounds like one thing, but it's not, it's just the anxiety of not having anxiety. I've been living in constant stress for so long that now that the pressure is practically off, my brain is waking me up at about 5 or 6 saying "hey you, what are we doing today, what are we doing tomorrow, what are we doing in January when we'll finally be done with lab? huh? huh? huh? huh? huh? huh?" And the rest of me says, "hey give it a rest, I was dreaming about surfing". Hmm, isn't responding to yourself the starting point of insanity? Well, anyway. I've got to figure out what to do, a whole bunch to do in the time left, and a whole lot of other things to think about that are somehow more interesting than recognition degeneracy of the adaptive immune system. And yet, three weeks and then I get to go home for three whole weeks. Time with my family, time skiing, time playing trains with my nephews, making cookies with my mom and sister, playing games with my aunt and uncle from California, stripping the wallpaper in the front hallway with my dad, getting together with my friends from Seattle that will be in Utah, seeing so many of my friends in Utah, it's going to be heaven.

Happy Thanksgiving!

So this year was the first year that I didn't spend Thanksgiving with my family. I decided that with only three weeks left, I needed to get some work done. Although that plan basically crashed since I sat at my computer for over 8 hours on Friday and didn't get one thing done because my brain is toast and Saturday was a sparkling repeat performance, I'm glad that my parents took the opportunity to spend the holiday with my brother and his family out in New York. Yah see Jeff, see how nice your favoritest youngest sister is? Well, I am a bit jealous that I didn't get any of your tasso and goat cheese muffins for breakfast since I had a cheese sandwich that morning. Oh well, wonderful friends here in Seattle made the holiday a perfect one. I went over to Tom's house as they made a delicious turkey, stuffing with bacon and sausage and love, and provided both before and after dinner dancing and music in the kitchen. Featured covers included Guns N Roses, Enrique Iglesias, and Queen. And Wicked. Yup, those boys sang all the holiday classics. Here's me in the kitchen before. And then once they had a little Martinelli's in them, they hit the afterburners and dialed it up to maximum. Thank you to Tom, Jon, Adam, Jaylen, and Stephanie for a spectacular afternoon. And, I wrapped up the evening by convincing Hunter that he wanted to watch "Singin' in the Rain" rather than a shoot 'em up action flick like "The Transporter". What a sport! (Even though admittedly, Transporter will rock your socks.)

Turkey Bowl 2009

So every year the Institute hosts a huge flag football tournament. Out of the past seven years (7!) I've only gone to it if I had an assignment to do so. i.e., one year I was in charge of it and the next year they needed my truck to help move the BBQ. So scroogey but ha! Look at how social I am, I went this year. Admittedly, I only stayed about an hour of the five, but hey, it was cold. And at least I went right? Well, I'm giving myself sixteen points for good behavior. I think I deserve to buy myself some shoes or something. Or maybe a new jacket. That up there is a picture of my roommate Bridgette and I, happy that we'll be leaving shortly since it was soooooooooo cold. But before we left, I had to see if Kristen and Bridgette could move the sled down the field 10 yards. Don't worry friends, the UW Husky linebackers can't do it either. OHHHHHHHH!