Farming

my sister wrote up a recent conversation she had with my 4 year old nephew, Gavin. (see batman/spiderman photos below). And Max is such a vegetarian...it's obvious that he and i are related. he will eat everything on his plate except the meat, which is exactly what i do. :)

The setting: Gavin, Max, and myself are sitting at the kitchen table eating supper. I have made a meal of barbecue beef ribs with a tangy, brushed-on, sauce. I also cooked some broccoli with a cheese sauce. The ribs took me 3 hours to make. I first boiled the ribs for 2 hours and placed them on the grill. I combined several ingredients to make the sauce and cooked it for 10 minutes on the stove before brushing it onto the ribs and grilling it.
Gavin: What is this?
Me: Barbecue ribs
Gavin: What animal does it come from?
Me: Cow
Gavin: What part of the cow?
Me: The back
Gavin: Why the back?
Me: I don't know
Gavin: How did the farmer get it off of the cows back?
Me: He had to kill the cow first.
Gavin: Do farmers have guns?
Me: Some do, but the farmer doesn't shoot the cows.
Gavin: So how did the farmer kill the cow?
Me: *sigh* he probably cut the cows neck.
Gavin: What does the cow do before his neck gets cut?
Me: What?
Gavin: The farmer goes "walk, walk, walk, walk, walk," and then cuts the cows neck. What did the cow do before it got its neck cut?
Me: Oh. Probably nothing. The cow probably didn't know that was going to happen.
Gavin: *pause*
Gavin: I want to be a farmer when I grow up. Except I just want to grow broccoli.
Me: Good idea.

I think tomorrow we will have vegetable soup.

(Of course Max only at the broccoli)

Big Things Come in Small Packages

This is my nephew Gavin. He's 4 years old. He recently asked why people have to die when God doesn't. He said he doesn't think that is fair.

Gavin is wise beyond his years.

I think he gets it from me. (Oh snap! And it's not even National Arrogance Day!)

Jay-Z and Sadyonce

Sadia was in town from San Fran this weekend, and I got about 3 hours to hang out with her. And we made it a very productive 3 hours. :)

Update

OK. It's official. This book is boring me to tears. Seriously? This is 2 of my friends favorite book ever. It lost it's 'funny' at about page 160.

Autumnal Equinox

Happy Fall, y'all!

To My Friend, Karla

Thank you for being the type of friend that I can have a deep, intellectual conversation with. Thank you for listening to my side and taking the time to ponder your response. Thank you for offering up alternate ways for me to look at other people, the world and myself. Thank you for sharing your stories and experiences with me. Thank you for having the courage to challenge me to be a better person.

I love you, too.

This is Awesome

Here's a pic of the upcoming film Elizabeth: The Golden Age.

I loved the first Elizabeth film and I am really looking forward to this sequel.

*update: Paul and I never made it to 3:10 to Yuma last night. I will see this movie but it's just so hard to summon up the strength to be inside, and quiet, for 2 hours. Especially when the weather is as lovely as it's been these past few days. But the forcast looks chilly next week so perhaps I will go then.

Fracture

Michi and I watched Fracture last night, while sipping on some 312. We both enjoyed the film even though Ryan's character was a bit too cocky for our liking. (insert crude joke here)

Anthony Hopkins is sooo good at playing one scary mother f*cker.

random fact I learned last night: when running an ink pen on the bottom of a person's foot....if their toes spasm down it's a sign of health. if their toes spasm up (towards the chin) it's a sign of brain damage.

you guys really ought to start believing me when I say the facts I learn are random.

Catch Up

I met up with Precious last night to catch up on life and whatnot. She's been in NYC for the past 7 weeks working on a dance internership-type thing. (Good lord my brain is not functioning yet....)
Anyhoo...she danced her ass off in Manhattan all summer and had a fairly good time doing it. (Despite the drama queen roomies she had to put up with.)

It was great seeing you again, Precious, and I'm looking forward to our lakeside excursion!

Box Office

There are so many films out right now that I want to see. Here's the list so far:

3:10 to Yuma (sorry Aaron, I'm hoping to see it this week)
Eastern Promises
Once (I want to see it one more time in the theaters)
The Brave One
Becoming Jane

I think it's about time I go on a movie marathon.

BlueTooth

Saturday night, Sarah, Paddy, Paul and I went down to the south side to watch the White Sox play the L.A. Angels. It was a fun game, even though the White Sox lost. Afterwards there was a spectacular fireworks show!
Throughout the game, Sarah and I eyed the cotton candy that all the little children were eating 'til finally Sarah broke down and bought a bag. We enjoyed Paul's mustache, turning cups of beer green and laughing at our blue tongues/teeth/gums.
Sugar is fun!

Yay, Books!

I started reading A Prayer for Owen Meany this past week, thanks to Karla's strong recommendation. I can vividly recall sitting on her living room floor, in Studio City, and listening to her read the Christmas pageant chapter. She got to laughing so hard I couldn't understand what she was saying. I love it when books have that effect on people.

This book is laugh out loud funny and I don't come across many books that make me laugh out loud. So, even though I'm only 100 pages in, and the book is about 700 pages long, I am already offering up my recommendation as well.

Happy reading, y'all!

Outta Mind, Outta Sight

Paul and I (along with Timmy and a whole crew of other folks) saw Wilco last night at Millenium Park. I'm still undecided which was more beautiful: the music or the skyline of the city. I'm glad we got in one more night at the park before the weather turns too chilly.
A random bit of info that I learned last night: a motor takes energy and uses it to rotate a propeller while a generator rotates a propeller in order to produce energy.

I told you it was random.

I've Decided I Hate This Couple

On a Date With . . . the Founders of True Love Revolution, Harvard’s Abstinence Society

LAST Valentine’s Day, Justin Murray and Sarah Kinsella sent out more than 800 pink greeting cards, one to every female freshman at Harvard. The two seniors stayed up nearly all night, taping candy hearts to the notes, which read: “Celebrate love, celebrate life, celebrate you: Why wait? Because you’re worth it.”

Founders of Harvard’s new abstinence society, True Love Revolution, Ms. Kinsella and Mr. Murray have been going out for a year and a half.

On a recent date at Border Café, a Mexican restaurant in Harvard Square, they sit on the same side of the booth, linking fingers and stroking each other’s hair.

This is about the extent of their physical connection. “We don’t push it,” says Ms. Kinsella, sipping a lemon-lime Margarita. “We pretty much stick to kissing and cuddling. At night, Justin will walk me back to my room, and we’ll hang out for a little while. I’ll give him a back rub or something, but, yeah, then he heads back to his dorm.”

The couple have been the target of some mockery — Mr. Murray recalls snickers of “there goes that virgin” as he passed a table in the cafeteria, and some students objected to the Valentine’s Day cards as antifeminist. But their society has attracted 50 members since they started it a year ago, and it will continue next year without them, after their graduation.

Campus abstinence clubs, which first sprang up in the South in the early 1990s, are a new concept at elite (and liberal) institutions in the Northeast.

Ms. Kinsella and Mr. Murray got the idea from similar, recently formed groups at Princeton and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. (Another is in the planning stages at Yale.) The clubs have parties and study sessions and sponsor lectures and discussion panels that encourage abstinence. M.I.T.’s group even has a pledge, and about half of its 40 members have signed it: “I commit myself to make an effort to live a chaste lifestyle. A chaste lifestyle involves using the gift of my body honorably and respectfully.”

Not coincidentally, both the M.I.T. and Princeton clubs call themselves the Anscombe Society, after the English philosopher Elizabeth Anscombe, a staunch Roman Catholic who condemned contraception.

The new clubs declare no political or religious association, and True Love Revolution takes no stance on birth control. Personally, Mr. Murray and Ms. Kinsella oppose contraception, and say their religious views “enrich” their ethical and moral opinions. They met at a retreat sponsored by the Harvard-Radcliffe Catholic Student Association.

To make their argument more palatable, they never mention God when describing their reasons for waiting; instead, they rely on words like “dignity,” “self-respect” and “empowerment.” Mr. Murray, who likes to quote Freud and Nietzsche, says the decision to abstain is about self-discipline: resisting titillating feelings.

Ms. Kinsella interrupts, giggling, “You always use that word!”

“What? ‘Titillating’ is an O.K. word.”

“I can tease you,” she says, leaning her nose into his shoulder.

“Every time I say that word — and I don’t say it all that often — you laugh. Um, anyway.” He redirects his attention toward his fajitas.

Mr. Murray and Ms. Kinsella say they are uncomfortable with a campus culture that equates abstinence with being ugly or inept. Both are slim, preppy and attractive. They are articulate about their feelings, with few of the awkward pauses and dangling, half-formed sentences that litter conversations about love.

“Justin always takes the time to make sure we’re doing the most we can for each other,” Ms. Kinsella says. “We have little relationship status check-ins: how are you feeling? Is there anything on your mind?”

“Am I doing everything I can for you?” Mr. Murray adds. “Should we go on more dates?”
The two are a “hair’s breadth” from getting engaged. In the fall, Ms. Kinsella, an anthropology major, will go to Georgetown Medical School, and Mr. Murray, a government major, to Georgetown Law.

They bat away worries from friends that maybe they should try sex first, just in case. The answer is no. Ms. Kinsella says abstaining is a matter of emotional health.
Taking small bites of her salad, she quotes from a course she took on female behavioral biology and describes the “awesome effects” of the hormone oxytocin, released during orgasm. “When people have that bonding experience with someone and it ends,” she says, “they tend to feel heartache.”

A few months ago, the club was host of a forum called “Living in a Hook-Up Culture,” which they hoped might help students warm to the idea of commitment. Nearly 60 people attended. Someone in the audience posed the question: “Can anyone here honestly say they’ve had sex and not felt emotionally connected in any small way?” No one raised their hand, Ms. Kinsella says.

Mr. Murray (who refers obliquely to a time when he had “different values” about sex) says his friends automatically assume the club was Ms. Kinsella’s idea. In fact, he first proposed it. Laughing, he quotes a reader’s comment in The Harvard Crimson: “Of all the tests girls have ever given, making your boyfriend publicly co-found this club has to be the toughest. I hope she’s at least really hot.” Mr. Murray quickly affirms that she is.

On a campus known for its lackluster dating life, Ms. Kinsella and Mr. Murray make a point of planning out their evenings. After dinner, the two wander, holding hands, down J.F.K. Street toward the Charles River for a walk along the water’s edge. It’s one of their favorite spots. This night, Ms. Kinsella has to get home to work on her musicclass project, a choral piece she set to the rosary prayer “Hail, Holy Queen.”

There was a time when Mr. Murray’s friends gave him a hard time for coming home alone — the couple avoid sleepovers. Now friends don’t bother.

“They know it’s not because I ‘can’t get any,’ like they say, but because I’m making a deliberate choice to respect the woman I love,” Mr. Murray says. The evening ends as it has nearly every night of their senior year: he gives Ms. Kinsella a kiss, says “I love you” and walks 20 minutes back to his dorm room.

Just to Love You, Baby, is Not Enough

Last night, Lee, Mike and I saw Ian Moore's show at Martyr's. I do love me some Ian Moore but I'm really on the fence about this new album. (Josh, I'm eager to hear what you think after you see the show in October....) It's really loud with a lot of distortion and it pretty much doesn't sound like Ian Moore at all.
But I will still see him every time he comes through town. And I will still text Josh throughout the concert reminding him how much I miss him and how I wish we could see the show together.

Here's the lyrics to New Day by Ian Moore. I love this song...

Everyday feels like a New Day
Sun has broken through the night's haze
I drink my coffee from a big cup
And I ain't ever gonna get up,
Get up

If I's a writer well I'd lay around
Smoking cigarettes and thinking about
The life I'd live if I was someone else
If love was lost & I was by myself
By myself

But babe your love is like a mountain stream
What's rough & rocky turns the valley green
And just to love you baby is not enough
Baby I just want to drink you up
Drink you up

My head is heavy & my tongue is slow
But I just want to call to let you know
Your word's weren't wasted Baby I'm doing OK...
And every day is like a New Day

My BFF's B-Day

ahahahahaha! i love snapping photos of my friends...when they least expect it. :)
happy 29th, sarah! aren't you glad i have a blog so the whole, wide world can see these photos!!!

ps) i believe it to be physically impossible for me to take a photo with sarah, with my mouth closed.

Hideout Block Party

I snapped some photos of this weekend's Hideout Block Party. My blog is not working so great today so sorry it's taken so long to get these up.
The marching band is called Mucca Pazza and the other night photo is Bloc Party.