I would actually keep up with my blog?
So the lovely Jo tagged me, oh, about a month ago now. And here I am finally responding. It's sad, is what it is. [shakes head]
What Ifs:
What if I could meet someone in the art world to chat with?
I would want to meet Max Broedel, just to make all the other Med Ill-ers jealous. But he died long ago. Makes it a little difficult to chat.
What if I could have one wish granted for the benefit of all mankind?
(Jo's answer was pretty perfect...) World peace would be nice, too.
What if I could travel anywhere in the world?
Australia/New Zealand or along the Mediterranean - Islands of Greece, Egypt, Turkey, etc.
What if I could live in a period other than the present, for 24 hours?
In memory of my 8-year-old self, I would live in the late 1800s. I was obsessed with the Little House on the Prairie books for years after I read the first book in 1st grade. My mom checked them out of the public library for me one by one, until my aunt bought me the set for Christmas one year. I wanted to be Laura Ingalls. And I hated Nellie Olsen with all the passion a 2nd grader can muster.
What if I could make over three areas of my body?
hips, thighs, upper arms
What if I could become an animal for 24 hours?
Some sort of bird in the wild, so I could fly. But not a pigeon. Pigeons are gross.
What if I could bring someone back to life for 24 hours?
Probably my Grandma on my dad's side. She died when I was 9 and I have all these wonderful memories of her but I never really got to know her.
The end.
Bea, Jerilyn, and Bree - you're it!
Monday, March 31, 2008
Monday, March 24, 2008
Are You There, Blog?
It's me, Kristen.
I have been woefully un-bloggy lately. I think it might be those late-"winter" (I live in the desert, people) doldrums. I'm sitting here passing the time until more exciting things come along, maybe. There are quite a few exciting things on the horizon, but I'll blog about those as they happen. For now: Top Five!
Top Five Things from the Last Five Weeks.
1.New car. That you know about. Go Fit!
2.Great parents. I love my parents - they're the best. They came to visit for their Spring Break (they both work at the University in my hometown - Dad's a professor, Mom's an administrative assistant) and we had all kinds of fun. We introduced my dad to vegan food at the restaurant down the street (his consensus: mock chicken - ok. mock beef - not so ok.), we saw Horton Hears a Who (cute movie) and There Will Be Blood (we're an eclectic family), we drank good German beer, and we took the Fit up to Flagstaff to have dinner with my cousin (the Fit averaged 36.5mpg on this trip - Go Fit!)
3.Easter fun. The children's message at the Easter service yesterday was pretty hilarious. The lady doing the message gave each kid a plastic Easter egg and told them they would all open them together on the count of three. One...two...THREE! 35 kids open up their eggs and find......nothing! 70 eyes fasten accusingly on the Lauren's face, clearly saying "what is THIS crap?" She said "Look! Your eggs are empty - isn't that great!?" "NOOOO!" the kids replied. She went on to tell about how great it is that the tomb was empty on Easter morning because that meant that Jesus had risen from the dead and we could be with Him in heaven one day and the empty Easter eggs would remind us of that. She used lots of exclamations and arm waving to convey the excitement to the kids. At the end of it all, she said "so NOW aren't you glad your eggs are empty?! Isn't it great?!" "NOOOOO!" the kids replied. I think the point was lost on them. My friend Brad later said to me, "well sure, think about it. How exciting would it have been to open up the tomb and find it was empty....EXCEPT for some candy? I mean, Jesus rises from the dead AND you get a candy bar. That's a great day." Hehe. :)
4.Rock Band. Such good times! We keep having Rock Band parties at Dave's house. I'm getting pretty good at the guitar/bass, and I can rock the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Oasis on vocals, but when I play the drums, I "look like a fool, like a FOOL!" (phoebe) Ah well. Can't win 'em all.
5.Baby Girl. I'm going to have a niece! My brother and sister-in-law found out on Thursday that the little one is a girl. Htd already has some teeny tiny pink Chucks picked out for her. And upon lots of perusing of the little girl clothes, I have come to this conclusion: baby bikinis - kinda creepy, but oh-so-cute.
Up next: a long-overdue Tagging (sorry, Jo!)
I have been woefully un-bloggy lately. I think it might be those late-"winter" (I live in the desert, people) doldrums. I'm sitting here passing the time until more exciting things come along, maybe. There are quite a few exciting things on the horizon, but I'll blog about those as they happen. For now: Top Five!
Top Five Things from the Last Five Weeks.
1.New car. That you know about. Go Fit!
2.Great parents. I love my parents - they're the best. They came to visit for their Spring Break (they both work at the University in my hometown - Dad's a professor, Mom's an administrative assistant) and we had all kinds of fun. We introduced my dad to vegan food at the restaurant down the street (his consensus: mock chicken - ok. mock beef - not so ok.), we saw Horton Hears a Who (cute movie) and There Will Be Blood (we're an eclectic family), we drank good German beer, and we took the Fit up to Flagstaff to have dinner with my cousin (the Fit averaged 36.5mpg on this trip - Go Fit!)
3.Easter fun. The children's message at the Easter service yesterday was pretty hilarious. The lady doing the message gave each kid a plastic Easter egg and told them they would all open them together on the count of three. One...two...THREE! 35 kids open up their eggs and find......nothing! 70 eyes fasten accusingly on the Lauren's face, clearly saying "what is THIS crap?" She said "Look! Your eggs are empty - isn't that great!?" "NOOOO!" the kids replied. She went on to tell about how great it is that the tomb was empty on Easter morning because that meant that Jesus had risen from the dead and we could be with Him in heaven one day and the empty Easter eggs would remind us of that. She used lots of exclamations and arm waving to convey the excitement to the kids. At the end of it all, she said "so NOW aren't you glad your eggs are empty?! Isn't it great?!" "NOOOOO!" the kids replied. I think the point was lost on them. My friend Brad later said to me, "well sure, think about it. How exciting would it have been to open up the tomb and find it was empty....EXCEPT for some candy? I mean, Jesus rises from the dead AND you get a candy bar. That's a great day." Hehe. :)
4.Rock Band. Such good times! We keep having Rock Band parties at Dave's house. I'm getting pretty good at the guitar/bass, and I can rock the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Oasis on vocals, but when I play the drums, I "look like a fool, like a FOOL!" (phoebe) Ah well. Can't win 'em all.
5.Baby Girl. I'm going to have a niece! My brother and sister-in-law found out on Thursday that the little one is a girl. Htd already has some teeny tiny pink Chucks picked out for her. And upon lots of perusing of the little girl clothes, I have come to this conclusion: baby bikinis - kinda creepy, but oh-so-cute.
Up next: a long-overdue Tagging (sorry, Jo!)
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Having A Fit
and loving it!
(I've been waiting for MONTHS to use that blog title/subtitle!)
After having my old hoopty Taurus for the past nine years (seriously - I found my high school class schedule in the center console as I was cleaning it out), it was getting to the point where lots of things were starting to go wrong pretty frequently. Sooo...I bought a car. A brand spankin' new Honda Fit.
It just might be the cutest car ever. And she's got more than looks, folks. Oh yes, we've got great gas mileage & safety ratings, and a price that won't break the bank.
It's like that guy we all knew in high school (or girl. whatev.) who was SO cute AND smart AND nice AND you knew you could never have him. But then one day he turns to you and says "I really hate doing it this way, but my parents are really strict - if you will spend a hellish 8 hours of your life talking to sleazy people who will lie to you about my qualities, endlessly try to figure out what YOU will bring to the relationship, and then conveniently "forget" what they told you an hour later or get all upset when you call them out on their lies - well, then I'm all yours." Ok, so I guess that analogy doesn't really work, but you're picking up what I'm laying down, yeah?
I. HATE. BUYING. CARS.
I am not kidding, I spent 8 hours at the Honda dealership on Saturday. It is a VERY long story, which I'm not going to go into (mostly because it makes me angry), but suffice it to say that this experience has totally jaded my view of car salespeople. They were SO underhanded about everything and obviously assumed I was either going to be a) so giddy with excitement about actually seeing my "pretty new car" that I wouldn't notice it was missing half the things they flat out told me it had, or b) monumentally stupid and unobservant, despite the fact that they knew I have a Master's degree in a field where obsessive attention to detail is pretty much a requirement. (This wasn't rocket science, though, you guys. It's kind of obvious when a car does NOT have mudflaps on it (that you didn't want in the first place). Unless they're using those new, invisible mudflaps.)
BUT. After probably one of my most frustrating days on record, I ended up making a pretty good deal on the exact car I wanted. And I managed to keep my dad (who was along as moral supporter and general bullshit detector) from blowing through the roof of the place somewhere around the 7th hour. I took him to the local brewery for dinner as a thank you. Somewhere around the end of the second beer I think his blood pressure began to return to normal.
(I've been waiting for MONTHS to use that blog title/subtitle!)
After having my old hoopty Taurus for the past nine years (seriously - I found my high school class schedule in the center console as I was cleaning it out), it was getting to the point where lots of things were starting to go wrong pretty frequently. Sooo...I bought a car. A brand spankin' new Honda Fit.
It just might be the cutest car ever. And she's got more than looks, folks. Oh yes, we've got great gas mileage & safety ratings, and a price that won't break the bank. It's like that guy we all knew in high school (or girl. whatev.) who was SO cute AND smart AND nice AND you knew you could never have him. But then one day he turns to you and says "I really hate doing it this way, but my parents are really strict - if you will spend a hellish 8 hours of your life talking to sleazy people who will lie to you about my qualities, endlessly try to figure out what YOU will bring to the relationship, and then conveniently "forget" what they told you an hour later or get all upset when you call them out on their lies - well, then I'm all yours." Ok, so I guess that analogy doesn't really work, but you're picking up what I'm laying down, yeah?
I. HATE. BUYING. CARS.
I am not kidding, I spent 8 hours at the Honda dealership on Saturday. It is a VERY long story, which I'm not going to go into (mostly because it makes me angry), but suffice it to say that this experience has totally jaded my view of car salespeople. They were SO underhanded about everything and obviously assumed I was either going to be a) so giddy with excitement about actually seeing my "pretty new car" that I wouldn't notice it was missing half the things they flat out told me it had, or b) monumentally stupid and unobservant, despite the fact that they knew I have a Master's degree in a field where obsessive attention to detail is pretty much a requirement. (This wasn't rocket science, though, you guys. It's kind of obvious when a car does NOT have mudflaps on it (that you didn't want in the first place). Unless they're using those new, invisible mudflaps.)
BUT. After probably one of my most frustrating days on record, I ended up making a pretty good deal on the exact car I wanted. And I managed to keep my dad (who was along as moral supporter and general bullshit detector) from blowing through the roof of the place somewhere around the 7th hour. I took him to the local brewery for dinner as a thank you. Somewhere around the end of the second beer I think his blood pressure began to return to normal.
Saturday, February 23, 2008
I Spent Friday Morning Perfecting A Sausage
What did you do?
So...my job is weird. Most days are spent illustrating some sort of bloody surgical situation or meticulously dissected cadaver. Those are the normal days. Then there are the days when my boss is all "Hey Kristen, I need you to take a really nice photo of a sausage on a fork for this ad I want you to create."
Oh, sure. No problem.
So I was working on an ad for a symposium sort of thing that they're having at the hospital in April. It's about the ketogenic diet, which is a diet used for treating epilepsy and other conditions. It's very high in fats (about 90%) and kind of rewires your brain to send your body into starvation mode (although it's very structured, so the patients are getting sufficient calories). Your body sends all kinds of extra ketones to your brain and in about 2/3 of the patients, seizures are significantly reduced.
ANYway, they had sent us some images they wanted to use for the ad, but they were full-color photos that didn't translate well in black and white (which is what the ad had to be in). So MY job on Thursday and Friday was to create a new image (following this very specific idea my boss had that involved some neurons, some molecules, and - of course - the sausage on a fork).
The fruits (or rather, the meats) of my labor.
You can see the final ad here.
Yeah.
So...my job is weird. Most days are spent illustrating some sort of bloody surgical situation or meticulously dissected cadaver. Those are the normal days. Then there are the days when my boss is all "Hey Kristen, I need you to take a really nice photo of a sausage on a fork for this ad I want you to create."
Oh, sure. No problem.
So I was working on an ad for a symposium sort of thing that they're having at the hospital in April. It's about the ketogenic diet, which is a diet used for treating epilepsy and other conditions. It's very high in fats (about 90%) and kind of rewires your brain to send your body into starvation mode (although it's very structured, so the patients are getting sufficient calories). Your body sends all kinds of extra ketones to your brain and in about 2/3 of the patients, seizures are significantly reduced.
ANYway, they had sent us some images they wanted to use for the ad, but they were full-color photos that didn't translate well in black and white (which is what the ad had to be in). So MY job on Thursday and Friday was to create a new image (following this very specific idea my boss had that involved some neurons, some molecules, and - of course - the sausage on a fork).
The fruits (or rather, the meats) of my labor.
You can see the final ad here.
Yeah.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Oh Taurus, Don't Fail Me Now
Just hang in there for one more month.
So. My car's a hoopty. Htd and I headed to the store tonight for our weekly grocery shopping trip. We bought all manner of foodstuffs - fresh fruits and vegetables, cereal, milk, eggs, lunch meats both animal and soy, ice cream, frozen items. We went through the checkout with our environmentally friendly reusable bags. We returned to my car and loaded all the groceries in the trunk. We dutifully returned the cart to the cart corral. We buckled up and prepared to leave the parking lot. I turned the key....and nothing. Not a whirr, not a groan, not a cough. Just...nothing. Oh cripes.
I think to myself, maybe it's the battery? But that doesn't make sense because the inside lights are still working intermittently and the door continues to make its uber-annoying dinging sound whenever it's open. I pop the hood (not really expecting to be able to DO anything) and do what I always do when I have car issues: call my dad. He gives me a couple things to try, all to no avail. Then one of those "universal truth" sort of things happened. It goes like this:
1 popped car hood
+ public place
------------------
random male offer(s) of "you need some help here?"
A very nice man in the parking lot came by and asked if I could use any help. I asked if he had any jumper cables - he did and proceeded to try to jump my car. (I had been telling the story by saying "and this nice guy came by and offered to jump me." I have since changed how I phrase that.) Jumping didn't work. The car gave a single feeble "rawr" and gave up. Cripes again.
So I called upon the single gal's best ally - guy friends. Dave ended up driving all the way up to where we were, bearing his tool collection and nifty little headlamp (because of course it was night time). He used his battery tester, which read a healthy 12 1/2 volts. Strange. Then he tried cleaning the battery terminals, but they were fairly clean to begin with so that didn't do anything. I reported back to my dad and he said there was probably a short in the battery, so try putting in a new one.
We all piled into Dave's mini cooper and drove to the closest Walmart (the only place open at 9:30 on a Sunday night) and I plunked down about 80 bucks for a new battery (they had ONE left) - which is sad because that is about 1/10th of what my car is worth these days. For real. Anyway, so we drove back to the grocery store, hooked up the new battery, I said a little prayer, turned the key and...VOILA! The car starts like it just rolled off the assembly line back in '95.
Thank goodness it was nothing more serious than a really old battery. Thank goodness we were in a fairly safe area of town when the car crapped out. Thank goodness for kind strangers with jumper cables. Thank goodness it happened on a weekend when awesome friends were available to help and I didn't have anyplace pressing I needed to be. It could have been so much worse, so praise God for the little things.
And speaking of looking on the bright side: when we got home over two hours later, the groceries were still cold. In spite of being a hoopty, my car has actual magical powers. You know, that...or the groceries were in the trunk...at night...in February.
I'm gonna go with magic.
So. My car's a hoopty. Htd and I headed to the store tonight for our weekly grocery shopping trip. We bought all manner of foodstuffs - fresh fruits and vegetables, cereal, milk, eggs, lunch meats both animal and soy, ice cream, frozen items. We went through the checkout with our environmentally friendly reusable bags. We returned to my car and loaded all the groceries in the trunk. We dutifully returned the cart to the cart corral. We buckled up and prepared to leave the parking lot. I turned the key....and nothing. Not a whirr, not a groan, not a cough. Just...nothing. Oh cripes.
I think to myself, maybe it's the battery? But that doesn't make sense because the inside lights are still working intermittently and the door continues to make its uber-annoying dinging sound whenever it's open. I pop the hood (not really expecting to be able to DO anything) and do what I always do when I have car issues: call my dad. He gives me a couple things to try, all to no avail. Then one of those "universal truth" sort of things happened. It goes like this:
1 popped car hood
+ public place
------------------
random male offer(s) of "you need some help here?"
A very nice man in the parking lot came by and asked if I could use any help. I asked if he had any jumper cables - he did and proceeded to try to jump my car. (I had been telling the story by saying "and this nice guy came by and offered to jump me." I have since changed how I phrase that.) Jumping didn't work. The car gave a single feeble "rawr" and gave up. Cripes again.
So I called upon the single gal's best ally - guy friends. Dave ended up driving all the way up to where we were, bearing his tool collection and nifty little headlamp (because of course it was night time). He used his battery tester, which read a healthy 12 1/2 volts. Strange. Then he tried cleaning the battery terminals, but they were fairly clean to begin with so that didn't do anything. I reported back to my dad and he said there was probably a short in the battery, so try putting in a new one.
We all piled into Dave's mini cooper and drove to the closest Walmart (the only place open at 9:30 on a Sunday night) and I plunked down about 80 bucks for a new battery (they had ONE left) - which is sad because that is about 1/10th of what my car is worth these days. For real. Anyway, so we drove back to the grocery store, hooked up the new battery, I said a little prayer, turned the key and...VOILA! The car starts like it just rolled off the assembly line back in '95.
Thank goodness it was nothing more serious than a really old battery. Thank goodness we were in a fairly safe area of town when the car crapped out. Thank goodness for kind strangers with jumper cables. Thank goodness it happened on a weekend when awesome friends were available to help and I didn't have anyplace pressing I needed to be. It could have been so much worse, so praise God for the little things.
And speaking of looking on the bright side: when we got home over two hours later, the groceries were still cold. In spite of being a hoopty, my car has actual magical powers. You know, that...or the groceries were in the trunk...at night...in February.
I'm gonna go with magic.
Sunday, February 03, 2008
Counting Crows For Penny Pinchers
OR, the concert and everything after.
Holy crap, so there is one good thing that has come out of this whole Super Bowl in Phoenix hoopla - there was a FREE Counting Crows concert last night. Um, AWESOME. I heard about it on the radio on the way to work Thursday morning and had to double check the website once I made it to work to make sure I wasn't hearing things.
So, the htd and I made our way to Tempe Beach Park last night around 8:00 and joined the MASSIVE crowd for about an hour and 15 minutes of live Counting Crows goodness. They played a few songs from their new CD and basically 3/4 of August and Everything After.
SA. WEET.
And the whole drive home we got to watch the massive fireworks show in the rearview mirror. Twas a good time.
Holy crap, so there is one good thing that has come out of this whole Super Bowl in Phoenix hoopla - there was a FREE Counting Crows concert last night. Um, AWESOME. I heard about it on the radio on the way to work Thursday morning and had to double check the website once I made it to work to make sure I wasn't hearing things.
So, the htd and I made our way to Tempe Beach Park last night around 8:00 and joined the MASSIVE crowd for about an hour and 15 minutes of live Counting Crows goodness. They played a few songs from their new CD and basically 3/4 of August and Everything After. SA. WEET.
And the whole drive home we got to watch the massive fireworks show in the rearview mirror. Twas a good time.
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