Weekend Bits & Pieces

This was one of our last calm, non-packing weekends and it was a lovely one.

1. We saw "War Horse" tonight and all in all, it was a pretty good movie.  I was in tears most of the time, though, because war scenes + animals in pain = fragile Caitlin.  Can I tell you something weird? When I watch war movies, whether it be the Civil War or Vietnam, I think about how our lives would've been different if Rob had fought in one of those wars instead of Operation Iraqi Freedom.  And sometimes I wonder if in some other time, in some other place, we were together in some way and he did fight in one of those wars.  I know that sounds crazy and yes, I totally stole it from an X-Files episode, but regardless the thought always causes me to well up in tears.

2. Does anyone else eat plain fresh mozzarella as a snack? I could eat cheese all night and all day, and that is simply fact.

3. Isn't my dog just so fancy?

4. I just finished the 3rd book of "The Hunger Games" series and I must say, it's a great read.  It surprised me, but I really did enjoy reading it and quite frankly couldn't put it down. I think what I liked about the ending--without giving anything away--is that the emotions and actions of everyone involved were very realistic.  Instead of everyone just frolicking on their merry way I think the toll of war/stress etc. seemed pretty believable.  I don't want to give away anything else but if you like dystopian fiction, you should definitely read it. My next book is "The Poisoner's Handbook" all about murder by poison in Jazz Age New York.  Morbid? Probably. Warning: Reading any of the book I have below might give a little bit away if you plan on reading it.

What did you do this weekend? 

Things I Love Thursday

Nova shared this last week and I had to pass it along - PUNtries of the World.

This video from Portlandia made me laugh out loud - Is it Local?

I've heard a lot of people ask for this - Alternatives to Pandora and Last.FM.

Who doesn't love the Holstee Manifesto? Click the image to make it bigger.

This funny Amazon review made me laugh. And who doesn't enjoy laughing?



If you have never seen the Drunk History series on YouTube, watch it NOW.  Click here, here, and here for my favorites.

I just saw HP7 the other day, so this is fitting: the Parseltongue Translator.

One of my favorite videos (and one that Rob and I quote all the time), Marcel the Shell with Shoes On.

The entire version of "Werewolf Bar Mitzvah" from 30 Rock.

How cute is this dress? Too bad the color would wash me out.

The story of Disney's Pocahontas Avatar.

Words on Pictures.

I used to watch this video over and over again when I was in Russia and Rob was in Iraq. Always made me laugh.

Sorry for the shorter post today. I hope you all have a great Thursday!

By the way, I finally went hiking with Rob and his coworkers...will write a post on that for Friday with lots of pictures.



Weekend Bits and Pieces

1. First of all, and this is exciting I promise, I got my hair colored on Friday!  It is now a dark, dark brown similar to the color it was on my wedding day.  After it was done one of the sylists at the salon said something like, "wow, I had no idea that such a dark brown would look so good with your pale skin, and it looks more natural than your natural color." Pretty impressive, two insults in a single sentence.

2. On Saturday Robbie and I spent time with his brother and his brother's wife, Jessi (I talked about Jessi in this post).  They live around 50 minutes from us so we spend a fair amount of time with them when we can.  We watched some 30 Rock (duh), had a few drinks and talked about various things.  Rob's brother, Nick, took Cypress for a four-mile walk while we bought food for dinner.  We ended up making one of my favorite meals, "breaded" chicken stuffed with feta, garlic and spinach, paired with asparagus on the side. Lots of butter and oil and damn, it was yummy.

Yeah yeah, I ate most of it before remembering taking a picture. /gluttony

We also saw the movie "Super 8," which I rather liked.  It reminded me of a present-day "Goonies" though with a lot more swearing and carnage.

3. Today I went to lunch with the lovely Justine, my wedding photographer and good friend.  Every time I go to the big city of Portland I have to eat Chipotle.  I don't know about you guys, but I'm at least 87% convinced that food from Chipotle is some sort of delicious gift from the heavens, or at least contains some sort of extremely addictive narcotic. I could eat Chipotle day and night, and twice on Sunday, though only once this Sunday.  Anyway after eating some delicious Chipotle manna I met with an August wedding client.  Their wedding will be my first Jewish wedding as a photographer so I am pretty excited for the new experience (okay and also scared out of my mind that I'll do something wrong, but you know, it all comes with the "excited" package).

4. After all the other funnery from today Justine and I met up for a "Trash" the Dress shoot featuring me in my lovely wedding dress.  Because I love my wedding dress so much, I positively refused to trash it, so basically I just got some awesome pictures of me totally rocking the dress.  Here's a teaser picture!

Courtesy of Justine Johnson Photography

Awesome, right?! Somehow I look half-human in this picture and that, truly, is a feat. Thanks Justine!

5. Look at what I saw on the way home!

To answer your question, yes, I pulled over to take this. I'm not veering off the road in this picture, though that would make a better story.

5. I wanted to tell my Saturday gym story because I think it's hilarious. Saturday was my leg-exercising day but because I'm lazy said leg-exercising didn't include running, just squats, calf exercises, and lunges.  Anyway I was squatting away (ew) when a little 7- or 8-year-old girl came up to me, pointed to my 15-lb weights and asked "are those heavy?" to which I replied, "yes, very heavy," hoping she wouldn't grab one and fall over and break a limb and everyone would blame me.  Anyway this girl ended up chatting with me for a good 20 minutes. Call me subconciously lazy but I was too scared to start working out again because she was doing a lot of leaping and jumping around me and I didn't want to hurt her with freeweights.  Some of the gems from our conversation:

Me: What's your favorite subject in school?
Girl: Gym. I hate school.
Me: I LOVED school. I wish I was in school now.
Girl: Why on earth would you want to be in school?!
Me: Because when you work as an adult you don't get summers off! You have to spend all day inside working!
(way to crush dreams, right? I'm good at that)

Me: What do you want to be when you grow up?
Girl: A waitress. I was a waitress with my grandfather once and I was really good at it.

Girl: Are you married?
Me: Yep, my husband's here at the gym. His name is Rob.
Girl: Oh, is he the guy from Twilight?
Me: Yes, he does have the same name as Robert Pattinson...
Girl: (interrupts) No, is he actually the guy from Twilight?
Me: No, unfortunately, I did not marry Edward from Twilight.*

*Just kidding, I think it is actually quite fortunate that I did not marry Edward. What Bella sees in that pale sparkling douchebag I'll never know.

6. Rob and I are spending our Sunday watching a Nova special about dogs on Netflix. Yes, we're nerds, but let's face it...dogs are awesome.

What did you do this weekend?

Some Letters I've been Meaning to Write III

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Dear Hangover 2,

You were a huge disappointment.  The great thing about the original Hangover was the subtlety of Zach Galifnakis's character. In this movie I felt like his character--and jokes--were being slapped against my head like a fish.

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Dear Mythbusters,

Just...keep doing what you're doing.  Thanks.

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Dear My Brain,

Could we stop with the endlessly dissecting social interaction, both online and off?  You're treating the blog world like you dealt with high school, and high school was miserable. I can't believe I'm actually concerning myself more with what people online or offline say/think/do than, say, how lucky I am, or what a nice day it is.  Priorities, brain, please.

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Dear Body,

I'm far too hard on you, I know that.  But can we start showing some results from 6 months of gym?  I'm starting to get disheartened.

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Dear Birds Outside Our Window,

I understand the whole 'catch the worm' thing, but 4:30 a.m.? Really? Is it bird convention time?  Are you all screaming obscenities to each other, or to me?

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Dear Cypress,

I know that with spring come lots of rotting deliciousness left over from the frozen winter, but every time you roll so indulgently in said rotten deliciousness you get in trouble and get a bath, which you hate. I'm not sure you've heard of this quote, because you're a dog, but Albert Einstein famously said, "Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Please find a more civilized and more fulfilling hobby, like stamp collecting or knife throwing.

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Dear Maine,

Thank you for heeding my frequent requests for nicer weather. I am loving the 80 degree days and bright, sunny skies...and even the thunderstorms.  But you can keep the mosquitoes...they were not part of the agreement.

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Dear Old Men in the Gym,

Rob and I are starting to think that your wives and doctors force you to go to the gym, but you don't really want to, and that's why you spend about 80% of the time standing in the main thoroughfare chatting about spruce trees.  I know you punctuate these conversations with a set of 3 5-lb bicep curls, but could you please move to the locker room or, you know, a coffee shop or something?

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Dear Parents at the Gym,

I can understand that with children it's hard to find time to go to the gym, but I really cannot excuse allowing your two-year-old to climb on the machines while you work out on other machines.  There are WEIGHTS and PEOPLE WALKING AROUND. Either bring your kid in the morning when there is free childcare, stay at home and buy some weights, or have your kid stay in the big open area with kids' toys and other funnery.

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Love,

Caitlin

xoxo