live long

Oy, what a weekend. On friday night we had book club - it was really fun - review to come soon on my book blog, which, according to Google Analytics is 2xs more popular than this blog! So, you guys are totally missing out. ha.

Yesterday we saw the new Star Trek movie - I thought it was quite good although I kinda wish it had been a little more naughty. Like, Kirk and Spock and whatstheirnames are all kids, I would have enjoying seeing them act more like dumbasses. But, all in all, I thought it was a fun movie. Next I want to see UP - in 3D!

Today went to a friend's b-day party - had turducken brats - awesome.

Erg, weekend went by so fast.

Memorial Day Weekend

We had an absolutely fabulous weekend at my friend's family lake house in N. Indiana. There were nine friends, one big house, great food, lots of drinks, and I think it was about 10 degrees warmer than Chicago. I didn't wear shoes all weekend and my bathing suit was my main item of clothing. That's the life.

On Sat. we tried out the Miracle Berries that M & I brought along. Have you heard about these? You eat them, and then sour foods taste crazy sweet. I ordered the tablets because the berries are ridic expensive - it was really fun - you should try it. Our buffet included (l-r): Limes, radishes, grapefruit, onion, popcorn, diakon, carrot, pineapple, rhubarb and lemon. My faves were the lemon and the rhubarb - it was like a slice of pie. Oh, we also had apple cider vinegar, balsamic vinegar, Guinness and tabasco. It was awesome and hilarious! One caveat: fruit tastes good; beer tastes bad.
Otherwise we laid around on the dock, slipping into the water when we got too hot and lounging about on various screened-in porches, played a bunch of Rock Band, Celebrity, and mixed drinks.
Here's me and M enjoying a beautiful sunset.

priceless

Last weekend in Indiana there was lots of talk about who/when/where re: morel hunting. My aunt's husband (somehow not quite my uncle) said it was a "bad year" for morels, and he only found "five or six."

"Oh, that is pretty bad," I said.

"Pounds." Oh, come on.

Much was made of the sort of people who will shell out ridiculous amounts of money for morels. Well, my friends, M&I are exactly those kinds of people and today happily purchased 1/4 pound of mushrooms for $12. Yes, that's $48/lb, and worth every penny.

Hoosiers know there's one way to cook up your morels, and that's fried in butter:
Hello, my precious
flour and pepper bath

mmm...

Lunch!

Mamas don't let your babies

Had a great weekend in Indiana visiting our mothers and grandmothers. M & I made a nice brunch for everyone and I think it went pretty well. I only wish we had had more time and that my sister had been there too!

me da and his mother
M & his granny
me and my gran and mom. Eek! My hair makes me look like a crazy person...

I love lists

I happen to love making lists. Today, I was thinking to myself: I'm going to make a list of types of lists. While putting it together in my head, I happened to hear about another list, which is possibly better than my list: the Overrated list, apparently initiated by that rat bastard Christopher Hitchens. Hitchens supposedly said “the four most overrated things in life were champagne, lobsters, anal sex, and picnics.” I disagree with two out of those four things.

The list is not as easy to formulate as one might think. Do I include our ostentatious 42 inch, high def, flat screen television? No, it's obnoxious, but it's also friggin' awesome. Paris? No, I totally love Paris. Luxury cars? How would I know?

Special K's list of 4 Overrated Things
1. Orson Welles
2. Master's degrees
3. little children
4. Live music

What's yours?

Playing with fire

Dudes, that BofA stock I bought is like the smartest buy I ever made. I'm soooooo excited. I'm so excited I want to SELL SELL SELL! But, instead I have to wait like 20 years and then see if I can retire "early". I doubled down on it and guess what it's at today? 12.69! I bought that shit at $7, baby!

I know it's gauche to gloat about one's progress in the market and recreate conversations with one's mother online - this will surely end in tears with all of us living in caves with a rotten-leaf-based economy. But for now I've got that glorious feeling of excitement - that wonderful, early-nineties feel that I had before I uh, M & I lost our jobs and everything went horribly, horribly wrong...

such pretty eyes

Me: I saw Wolverine this weekend.
Mom: Oh, I don't know why you would go to that. The trailers are so loud.
Me: It was ok.
Mom: What is it, he's supposed to be a good guy, but it's like he has scissor hands?
Me: ha!
Mom: What's he like? 'I'm a good guy?' Scrape! Scrape?
Me: ha! ha!
Mom: He has those pretty eyes and then, what is it? He has scissor hands? And they cut through anything? A person? An airplane?
Me: ha!
Mom: And it's scrape! Scrape?
Me: Mom, that's hilarious, because, you know why? In the comic book, his hands make a noise like "Snikt! Snikt!"
Mom: Oh, snick? snick!
Me: ha! ha!
Mom: Well, Bud's been killing all sorts of animals and dragging them up on the porch. He left the head and tail of a chipmunk and I kept throwing it out in the woods and he kept bring it back.
Me: Gross! What was it like?
Mom: Oh, it wasn't that bad, he'd eaten almost everything. It was like... snick!

h1a1

I made the mistake of listening to some pundits last week and getting so upset about swine flu I had to go to bed early and go to my mental happy place. It didn't help that my place of business sent out an email that they had "been preparing for a pandemic for a long time" and then proceeded to inform us of the ways we were to be kept safe, which involved us covering our mouths when sneezing and frequently washing our hands.

I am of the opinion that informing grown people of things they should do out of common decency is completely useless if that person does not already do those things. For example, most restaurants have a sign in the bathroom that implores employees to "Wash hands before returning to work." Those people, and people who do not cover their mouths when they sneeze or cough, are not going to suddenly start acting like responsible citizens of the world because you ask them nicely. They are animals, and will kill us all one day with their filthy germs.

My "cousin" KHM has just about the only reasonable view of this whole thing I've heard. Check out her recent posts.

Snikt - no spoilers. No big ones.

Last night we saw Wolverine with a bunch of friends - it was so fun. The movie had gotten some really bad reviews, so our expectations were low, and, we were uh, pretty drunk.

Wolverine is the origin story, so we start with a wee-wolverine cub and his brother. As soon as they can grow facial hair, they start seeing the same barber and will continue to do so for, apparently, the rest of their lives. The two are something of professional soldiers until Wolverine gets kind of grossed out by his brother's obvious bloodlust. Then he moves to Canada, that great symbol of I'm-sick-of-war.
Some stuff happens, and Tim Riggins from Friday Night Lights shows up. He's ok, but unfortunately he doesn't make out with anyone. I totally saw Hugh Jackman's penis. I swear to you, every woman in the theatre giggled for like 5 straight minutes after seeing Jackman naked.

Many ridiculous things happen - this is entertainment, not art - more than one person falls to their knees and reaches their arms out and screams into the heavens as the camera pulls back. The silliest moment is small but the most intellectually insulting: Wolverine slashes through a metal wall in the shape of an "X" and the bits in the middle stay in place. Who do they take us for? Leave your brain at the door, don't forget your flask! Have fun!