Drowning On Dry Land

Goodbye, So Say We All

So, a proper update is coming soon (yeah, I don't believe me either), but mostly all I can squee/rant/jabber about is the Battlestar Galactica finale tonight.  I'm at about 90 minutes post time here on the Left Coast, and I can barely contain my Riverdance jig of joy.  

I admittedly came into this fandom late, but when I get obsessed with something, I go.all.the.way.

That said, I am so sorry to see this show end.  It is without a doubt one of the best pieces of episodic television ever done, and it may yet unseat West Wing as my all time fave - we'll see how the finale goes.

The plan is pizza, beer and bourbon - in just about the order to celebrate the night.

Mr. Moore: I raise an extremely fine toast of Buffalo Trace in your honor tonight.  Thanks for the ride.

Lastly, an amazing wallpaper that Grant over at LiveJournal :: Battlestar Blog created to send off our ship in style.

Flashback to the 80's

Back in my day? We called this Morrissey.   

Now:

Then:

I'm making no aspersions as to the books which I have not in fact read yet; it's just hilarious to me that all the tweener girls are gaga over this dude, who in fact presents himself as a rerun of Morrissey and every other Byronic heartthrob before and since.

Further proof that history repeats itself.

The cuteness might kill you outright.

I know, I know - I promised updates - and they are coming SOON - but I just have to share this, because the happy little bubble I've been floating on since Election Day apparently has no signs of popping based on this news out of Australia:

I WANT. IWANTIWANTIWANTIWANT.

Also, I can't stop humming the refrain of 'I want a hippopotamus for Christmas'. I am taking this as a sign.

I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas Lyrics

Happy Election Day, fellow Americans!

I hope this finds you feeling empowered, and your voice being heard.

I have been incognito these last months - life moves fast....so fast it takes my breath away.

But I'll have new pictures and updates soon.  Stay tuned.

It's a Cruel, Cruel Summer

First, a programming note: I cannot come up with language strong enough to describe my hate of the new Rich Text editor for Typepad posts.  Aside from the formatting bugs, gone is the ability to simply paste in the code for Flickr pictures directly into your post, bypassing the posting software.  Hate is a strong word, but my dislike burns hotter than a thousand suns.

Summer is in full swing here on the homestead, replete with sunburns, cookouts and all your other assorted cliches.  So far we've been able to keep ourselves occupied with a variety of projects and activities, but the idea bucket is getting thin.  This coming week Hubs is in China on business, leaving me sequestered with the kid all by my lonesome.  Eeek.  Got a couple of playdates scheduled, and probably a beach trip thrown in that week somewhere, but holy hell is keeping this child entertained a full time job.  It's no wonder that my house is a hot mess, and my garage is impenetrable.  Thank god school starts next month - not early enough for me! 

As part of the effort to keep the whining 'come on mommy, play with me' to a minimum, I took the kidlet to her first theatrical movie this week, the sure Pixar bet Wall-E.  I've been a huge Pixar fan for years, and this one is another winner.  (I must admit I was worried after cars.)  The first half hour was oddly reminiscent of Mad Max meets Short Circuit, and I kept looking for Steve Guttenberg to make a cameo.  But the plot picks up, and I was totally enchanted as was the kidlet.  She definitely is my offspring, as already evidenced by her love of the flicks.

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Although that begs that other issue, the giant pull-up colored elephant in the corner....potty training.  So far so good, but I have to remind her all the time.  And no joy on #2, despite repeated readings of Everyone Poops.  Gotta love those wacky Japanese and their bathroom humor.  I also blame Dutch.  His take on the subject has spawned so many turd jokes that I was shocked to see my calendar reflect the year as 2008, and in fact NOT 1982, nor is this 2nd grade.

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I haven't given up finishing the recap of the Yucatan trip from oh, NEARLY FOUR WEEKS AGO, and should have that installment up this weekend.  A burgeoning career in travel writing is apparently not in the cards.

It Keeps You Runnin'

Bah.  A cup of coffee spilled on my Powerbook, and now I have a lovely stain at the bottom of my LCD display.  Anybody got a hot tip how to fix something like this?

Hubs and I hosted a baby shower for my sister in law over this past weekend.  It was a resounding success, despite the fact that all 50 plus guests were huddled up in my house because of the massive heat wave California experienced, and nobody enjoyed the tables outdoors.  Bah.

Jeffrey Osborne Father's Day concert was a huge hit with Hubs.  He managed to contain himself and kept himself from jumping onstage or crowd surfing or anything equally embarrassing, but just barely.  Overall the show was amazing, and the location was (for me) the best part - pastoral views of the summer sun setting through the vines on all of the hills surrounding us.  Definitely want to see another show out there.

Hubs and I watched Lions for Lambs last night.  Wow.  It's been a long time since a movie has affected me like this.  The only disappointment was the absolute lack of scenes with both Redford and Streep.  I was panting, waiting for some of that Out of Africa chemistry.  Alas, no dice...but still an EXCELLENT film.

Escaped for a late movie with my stand-in boyfriend for a viewing of The Incredible Hulk - new version with Edward Norton.  Very lackluster, although I refuse to believe the mediocrity has anything to do with my boy Eddie.  He's long been a favorite of mine, recently cementing his position in my TOP 5 with his amazing performance in Spike Lee's 25th Hour...but this flick may be one to leave off the resume.

Potty training my extraordinarily stubborn daughter continues to be an exercise in frustration.  Nominal progress has been had, but the bigger question remains: whose will is stronger?  The pool has 3 to 1 on her.

In the course of landscaping our back yard, we've taken out 9 trees. It pains me to contemplate the removal of yet another tree, especially one this pretty:

It was planted too close to a retaining wall, and despite the fact that the tree is winning the war it may still lose the war because the block wall is breaking.  

House of Cards

Egads, what a few weeks. That feels like a repetitive record, but there's truth to it. I heard once that you never feel caught up...and when you finally do, it's because you're dead. Sobering thought, but comforting.

 On a completely disconcerting note, I've had a huge run of traffic on this blog due to the story out of North Carolina of the little boy who drowned an hour after coming out of a pool. My heart aches for his parents, and I'm more than a little weirded out that so many google searches on that news story have lead readers here. I've been trying to decide for a week what, if anything to say about it. Again, I can only repeat my prayers for his family. 

In other news and channeling Chevy Chase, it would seem that our deck construction is finally at an end, HALLELUJAH AND PRAISE TO BABY JESUS. The deck's been useable for a couple of months now, but those pesky little line items on the punchlist take a while to work through. But for all the frustrations and aggravations, it's totally worth it in the end. 

 

Totally does not mean renovation projects do not continue to abound in our household. Currently mouldings are the plague of my existence, and that's all I have to say about that without invoking obscenities. 

Father's Day is coming up this weekend, and every year it feels like the ante goes up. As a matter of timing and coincidence, we happened to be in the Yucatan for Mother's Day this year, and despite the fact that I didn't get a SINGLE CARD (I'm looking at my mother and husband), I can't complain too much. But the need for reciprocation was clear and so I started drumming up ideas in the last month or so. Brunch, engraved cufflinks, blah blah...none of it really seemed right. So my decision, while not 'Father Knows Best' is still something I think he'll love: I'm taking him out to a nearby winery for dinner and Jeffrey Osborne in concert. See, Hubs fancies himself a lost Motown singer, despite the fact that he is a) NOT BLACK, and b) did I mention he's Asian, and therefore NOT BLACK? As long as he doesn't jump on stage a la American Idol style, I'll deal. (My fear is totally founded...he has a looong and embarrassing karaoke career that I would sell my soul to have on film....but alas the gods are not that mischiveous to give me such power). 

Next installment of Yucatan recap coming shortly. 

PS - In keeping with my unintentional theme of titling posts after movie and music, I must mention how enamored I am of the new Radiohead album, In Rainbows. The track in which I take my title today blows my tiny mind.

Donde se fueron, part two

Programming note - Judging by the excessive wordiness and slow pace talking about Chichen Itza, I predict many posts to recap this trip. Be forewarned. 

After trudging around Chichen Itza for four hours and sweating like farm animals, we decided to call it a day and get back on the road for the 2+ hour trip back to the condo, and an IMMEDIATE SHOWER. As we were getting back on the highway, Hubs spied a sign for a cenote only a couple of kilometers down the road. For those not aware, the Yucatan peninsula is an entirely flat limestone landscape with nary a river to grace it. Therefore, when it rains the water runs and collects in dips creating after many eons these enormous freshwater sinkholes called cenotes. These cenotes were the ancient Maya's only source of drinking water, only they made other uses of them as well. 

Quite a few of these cenotes are connected by underground rivers and are diveable (!), complete with stalactites and other typical cave formations, and more of them are suited for swimming holes. So was the case of Ik-Kil, what we hoped was going to prove to be a refreshing sojourn before the long trek back to the resort. We couldn't have been more delighted. I was only sad that I had to leave because it was getting dark.

   

To say that I was excited about this may be a bit of an understatement:  

Rest of the set here.

Donde se fueron, part one

So, yeah: Mexico. The Riviera Maya vacation we took last week. Very, VERY nice. But not at all restful, which is something Hubs and I were desperately needing.

But fun. Oh so much fun.

I wrote virtually nothing of this trip beforehand - in actuality it came together just a few months ago, mostly through the availability of the perfect number of miles to cash in for our flights, and the grace of Hubs' cousin who gifted us with an amazing condo for the week. We'd been to the Pacific side before, namely Zihuatanejo last August, and we loved that trip, thoroughly enjoyed Mexico and I wrote about it here. But just as Oklahoma and New York are technically part of the same nation, so drastic are the differences between Zihua and the Yucatan.

Where Zihua and the rest of the Guerrero state are slow, sleepy seaside fishing villages with not a lot to offer in the way of nightlife or touristy excitement, that snail's pace is exactly what you need for a childless week of relaxation and mental rest. The Riviera Maya on the other hand has something to fill every minute of every day, for every flavor and whim imaginable. And so we did....despite the fact we never actually made it into Cancun proper.

We flew into Cancun on Sunday night, the 4th, and believe it or not I only realized just then that the following day was Cinco de Mayo. In California it's mostly just an excuse for excessive guacamole and margarita consumption, but I assumed it'd be a bit more serious taken down here so close to Puebla. In fact it was not. Maybe it was the isolation of the gringo resort we were at, but other than a floor show and a mexican buffet there wasn't much celebration to speak of.

In fact, after checking in the evening before we spent our first day just stocking the condo with groceries and checking out the local town of Playa del Carmen. That guidebook you see over in the sidebar led me to believe it was a much smaller town than it actually was, but in reality development marches where tourist dollars lead. No matter, it was still nice to find gas, good restaurants, gorgeous beaches and an amazing grocery store with the best bakery I've ever seen and the best cappuccino I've EVER had, bar none. And so all of these mundane tasks filled day one.

The next day was devoted to all things archaeological. We drove about two and a half hours inland to Chichen Itza to see the ruins of, at the time of its building, the largest city in the world.

Hubs is the archaeology geek in this family, and while I appreciate those things it doesn't necessarily get me all hot and bothered. But even having seen pictures beforehand and reading some history, I was still unprepared for the raw power and effect the ruins would have on me. For one thing, the place is immense - 16 square kilometers on the perimeter wall, and the structures themselves including El Castillo pictured above tower above are so much bigger when you're standing in their shadows.

I could prattle on and on about how amazing the site is, with it's perfect acoustics built so you can hear whispers from one end of the temple court at the other end; the gorgeous relief work carved into almost every stone on every building and the simple awareness that at the time of its building, this was the largest city in the world, over 100,000 people. But lots of pre-Hispanic historians are better spoken than I on the subject, and I can better supply pictures.

The rest of the Chichen Itza pictures are here.

Baby you can drive my car *hint*

I've started writing up our trip last week to Mexico, and I hope it will be as interesting and exciting to you as it was to me. My fondest wish is that I'll be able to impart how truly magical that part of the world is, and make you want to go there as much as I loved being there.

But I'm taking an aside here to talk about how Hubs and I have spent the past week and all of yesterday stalking autotrader.com to replace his car. Talk about the last thing you want to be doing right after vacation.

The car shopping was prompted by an accident Hubs had on the freeway right before we left for our trip. It was evening rush hour, and thank god he was in the slow lane, stop n go traffic. So slow that nobody's air bags deployed. But for whatever reason he rear-ended a little Ford in front of him and crunched the front end of his car and the back end of the Ford. A monstrous traffic jam and a total loss report from the insurance later, and here we are.

Really sad too, because the little 328i he's been driving for many years was a terrific car, and I had hoped to get a few more years out of it. Having no car payments on two cars for several years with no huge maintenance costs will spoil the hell out of you. Regardless, it's abundantly clear we're going to need a second car, because sharing with him is a logistical nightmare not to mention marriage threateningly annoying.

So the research commences. And I've got to hand it to the boy here, he really got his act together. In the space of about a week, and just one day (yesterday) spent test driving, he made a decision, locked down the financing and got the whole issue resolved. *golf claps* On top of this monumental feat of decision making prowess (this is the same man who can't decide on whether to have the enchiladas or the chimichanga), he managed to drive it home last night, thus saving his poor wife the hardship of another week carpooling.

Now we've just got to come up with a name for the new baby. Any suggestions?

Note: Before I give him too much credit here, and we certainly can't have that, I should also point out that his accident which was ENTIRELY HIS FAULT has not stopped him from criticizing my driving at every turn, including the entire week in which (for some reason) I drove in Mexico, land of people who do not acknowledge the existence of lanes. He's lucky he's alive.