Important things for you to know today

**I cancelled my MySpace account today. I don't why I'm feeling so accomplished about that, but I really am.

**Our cats need a bath for SERIOUS. Wow.

**Nothing that exciting has been happening since Dan has been home. He's been home since Sunday night, and he was all stuffed up on the plane, so then when the plane was landing, all the pressure built up and when I went to pick him up, he had lost a lot of his hearing capability. Yes, it all came back, but it was slightly alarming.

**I've started teaching a class, which is the class that all students who are going to be RAs take, on Monday nights. Then Tuesday nights, I have meetings from about 7-11 PM. So, by and large, until the semester is over, I probably won't be here blogging my heart out until Wednesday at least. You can tell that right now I'm hard at work over here.

**Dan has a third meeting with a company he's been interviewing with today - he had an interview in person before he went to Texas, then did a phone interview while he was in Texas, and now has another meeting with them. I can only take this as a good sign, so send warm thoughts.

**Was everyone thrown off on the last post because I posted something political? Is this like the time I said the word vagina and everyone didn't comment because vaginas are scary? Are politics scary? Did I commit a faux pas? Just let me know, I didn't mean to freak you out loyal readers (primarily Laura, Meghan and Rosa)

**I'm excited that next week I will be going on my own adventure - I'm going to Savannah to visit Ben and Jess, then going to Atlanta for a national student affairs conference, and then I'm going down to Florida with my dad to visit my grandmother. Huzzah! It's a lot of flights, but whatever.

Lily loves burritos.

Living on a college campus has it's perks

So, when students ask for my advice (and sometimes when they don't) about what they should do while they're in college, I step onto my soapbox and tell them that they should take advantage of the performances, exhibits, lectures etc. that come to college campuses. Because in real life, these things do not pop up in your backyard for ridiculously discounted prices. However, I also unashamedly take advantage of these things as well, like last night when I went to see Angelique Kidjo in concert, for less than $20. She is a singer from West Africa, who has been professionally singing since she was 20 years old. She just released her third (I think) album, and she is touring to promote it. As per her usual, it's full of collaborations with other, usually Western, artists. This album feature Joss Stone, Josh Groban and some others I can't remember. Anyway, I first heard her when she did a duet with Dave Matthews (just the person, not the whole band) on her first album and the song "Iwoya." (Your cue to go download it on iTunes) and I really really like her voice. Granted, she sings in a variety of languages, so not always going to get a sense of what she's saying, but the music is pretty great. Anyway, the concert was great - she has some energy, lots of dancing and singing, putting Britney Spears to shame. The whole stage was just her, her five musicians and their instruments. No sets, no decoration. It was lovely. She talked a lot about her beliefs about religion and wars and politics and things. This being Berkeley, people ate it up. People were dancing in the aisles, and this one woman, I'm convinced was having the best night of her life with the enthusiasm she was "dancing" with. I'm not actually sure dancing is the right word, but I think it's what she was trying to do. Maybe the more accurate term is flailing, a la Elaine on Seinfeld. Good times. In not such good times, have you seen this on You Tube? Sally Kern is an ass: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFxk7glmMbo Ellen's response on her show: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBmCA4z8Yzc

12 on the 12th

I love that Ro is posting 12 pictures on the 12th of every month. It's fun to get a glimpse into someone's life that is so different from the one that you experience every day. For the past two months especially, I have been promising myself that I would post 12 pictures from my day...except for the past two months, Dan has been out of town and had the camera. Last time he came back with approximately 4 pictures from the entire trip, so...maybe he'll take 6 this time? I decided to make do with reliving 13 things that happened to me on the 13th (today) and having you (that means YOU loyal reader) respond in kind. Next month, I will make an effort to do the picture thing. So, now I have to tap into my memory and remember what actually happened today. 1 - Woke up because Lily was scratching on the mattress again. She must know by now that this invariably wakes me up in a shitty mood. So, this was at 7:50, my alarm was set for 9. Kicked the cats out. 2 - Woke up again at 8:30 when James started meowing for food. Seriously, I'm ready for Dan to come back so we can go back to alternating mornings of "It's YOUR turn to feed them" 3 - Helped out with two interviews for a student staff position next year. The candidates were polar opposites. The first woman was a walking sorority girl stereotype, complete with breathy speech, lots of "um" and "like," too much makeup and blond hairflipping. *sigh* The second one was great though - at least he dressed up for it! 4 - HA. Just thinking about this frustrates me. So, I had to take a bunch of stuff to a meeting in another building. Additionally, I had to make a lot of copies for said meeting. So, I loaded up a cart (it was heavy crap) and went early to make the copies before the meeting. The copier and I fought a perilous battle, and basically, the copier kicked my sorry ass. So, by the time the copier was done, I was 25 minutes late AND found out that the meeting was actually in MY building the whole time. GAH. 5 - Went shopping for a program with my two Program Assistants (also student staff positions) who are pretty much fantastic. We went to a discount fabric store and tried to pretend that we were in Mood and on Project Runway. There was also Starbucks. It was nice after the hellish copier/meeting debacle. 6 - Had to make sure to get my Program Assistant to change the settings on the department van we'd been using back to English rather than French. It is hard to understand what a vehicle is telling you when it is speaking French. 7 - Dropped them off, ran inside, had a 10 minute meeting with my Hall Association treasurer, picked up another staff member (an RA) and went to Costco to multitask - have a one on one while shopping for some (other) programs 8 - Marveled at how much candy you can buy at Costco for $200 9 - Roped a resident into helping us unload said stash of candy from the van 10 - Went to a program on GRE/Grad school admissions that some of my other RAs put on, laughed at the presenter guy because he wasn't...good. 11 - Went to another program! Helped residents make mini AIDS quilt panels for a Berkeley quilt. Also, felt very un-creative. 12 - Ate cheerios while Lily curled up on my lap 13 - Finished my non fiction book for the month! Woot. It was a busy day.

kalsvnoa9wur9p!!!

Um, so Dave Matthews just announced their summer tour (by "just" I mean last week, I just found out about it tonight) and they're coming to my CAMPUS for not one, not two, but THREE nights in September. Um, osjkdnfp[onojs#@#9! Excitement abound. Of course, however, one of those nights is on Jean's wedding. So clearly, three nights will not be happening for KK. However, the other two are fair game. ZOMG I'm psyched. I was supposed to write something meaningful and such, but A)I think my cheese snootiness in my last post was a leetle much and also B)I'm completely consumed by the concert excitement. Maybe will try again later.

New favorite things

Life is still rolling along I guess. Dan is now in Austin, working for South by Southwest, the big music festival, so I'm stuck here in Berkeley all alone. Don't tell him, but I'm throwing huge parties while he's away. It's shweet.

So, my new favorite things:
1. Bookmooch
I joined this online group called which is a book sharing community thing. Which I totally think Blue Benson should join, BTW Laura. So, you list all the books that you own that you don't want anymore, and then people ask you to send them to them. You're responsible for paying for postage everytime you ship a book to someone, and then when you ask for a book to be sent to you, you pay nothing at all. It's a good time. I listed 10 books on Friday night and by Saturday, 8 of them were already requested! I'm going to have a lovely time at the post office tomorrow morning. Every book you list is worth 1/10th of a point, when you send a book, you get a point, and when you send to people internationally, you get three points. For each point you have, you are eligible to have a book sent to you. So, I've requested three so far. I'm kind of excited about it in my dork way. For reals, if you have a lot of books, and have some that you don't think you'll read again, this is a great way to get rid of them and get other books you actually want to read for free! OR if you don't want to go through the hassle, save your books and give them to me!(http://www.bookmooch.com/)

2. Vosges Chocolate Bacon Bar
OK I know what you're thinking. Bacon in a chocolate bar. EW? People. Let me tell you. This is a fantastically wonderful experience. It's made by Vosges which is a relatively snooty chocoalte company, started in Chicago, and they specialize in odd chocolate pairings (curry powder, lavender, other assorted spices). Yeah, so I heard about this bacon bar which combines two great loves of mine (yes, I count bacon as a love) and decided that I should probably test it out. It's unbeliveable. Sweet and salty and bacony. Real bacon pieces right there in the chocolate. Wow. Stop judging and try it out.

3. Savannah, Georgia
Ok, so I haven't been yet, but I'm visiting Ben and Jess at the end of the month for a couple of days and I'm REALLY excited about it. Not only is it a new place, which is exciting, but CC reunion in a new town? C'mon people, that's the stuff fantastic weekends are made of.

*pauses to consider if people will still be my friend*
4. Fromager d'Affinois (fro-mah-ZHAY dah-fee-NWAH)
Note - I did not write that pronunciation guide.
It's a cheese. A fantastically amazing cheese. I know that this is ridiculously snooty, even more snooty than joining a wine club, but um, it's on the "best things I've ever eaten" list.

5. The weather in the Bay Area in early March
It was sunny, cloudless and almost 70 degrees all week. But it also hasn't been windy, so it feels toasty warm. I've been in flip flops since last weekend.

6. Daylight savings time!
Wasn't that excited that we lost an hour of sleep last night (and seriously, pondering on that...where does it go? It's a little mind boggling that we decide that that hour just simply doesn't exist) BUT I love the fact that the sunlight lasts until 7 PM now. The getting dark at 4:30 PM in December thing really makes me sad.

7. Laura being awesome
So, Laura got accepted into her summer internship program in London which is AWESOME. I hope she's up for visits!

8. Rosa
For serious people, she comments on blogs from around the world. Can't you do the same while you're bored at work?!?

The end for now :) Fun new things to report on soon!

Photo for an upcoming celebration. Happy Birthday Jess!

Missy Higgins. Again.

Last week we celebrated for no good reason at all and had a relaxing date night. We had a simply outrageous meal at Nopa, which will be covered in a minute by minute account of our every delicious bite on our foodie blog. But for this non-foodie blog, I'll just say it was simple food prepared outrageously well. The real excitement of our night was to come from hearing Missy Higgins play yet another small SF venue. Thankfully, this time we already had our tickets and weren't the last to squeak in like last time. We managed to quarantine off precisely 4 feet of wall space so we each had room for one shoulder to rest on. Some not-half-bad California boy sang some sultry songs, and I wish we could share his name with you. However, he didn’t think to mention it once he was on stage, and Missy’s website describes him as “local artist TBA.” It occurs to me that we haven't really talked about any other musical tastes on here, except for maybe Dave; but we really do listen to things besides Aussies and Virginians. I digress.


The thing I truly love about Missy Higgins is that live and in person, she sounds exactly as amazing as she does on her album. I can’t imagine they tweak her voice one bit to sound any better. Also, she’s hilarious and enjoys joking with the crowd. And from our best observational guess is that she’s actually rather shy, yet she’s up their belting her tunes with unequivocal passion. So, maybe that’s actually 3 things I love about Missy Higgins. During our show, she also denounced Target bras, which for some reason I still find hilarious. Kristin and I decided, if her whole band weren’t naive men, maybe someone would have gotten the bright idea to tighten her strap for her. Speaking of her band, her backup guitarist is the awesomest awkward man you’ve ever seen. He dances to his own tune, regardless of the beat the band is on, and has this real goofy smile to go with untamable hair. He was good wholesome entertainment! Back to Missy, her voice is amazing and is one of the most soothing things I can think of right now besides the best of back massages. I know Kristin listens to her at work when she needs some distressing too. AND you can listen to her whole album on her website www.missyhiggins.com! You caught me, now that makes it 5 things I love about Missy Higgins. Yes, I’m listening to her write now.

Here’s some photographic evidence we were actually there. (taken from our entrenched 4 feet of wall space)

The rumors are true!

I watched Back To The Future this lovely evening. It was...not bad. But hey, who knows. Maybe this movie was like my gateway drug. Next I'll be watching Indiana Jones or Batman, or even Star Wars (erm, not likely).

Late Night Updates version...4?

**This weekend was lovely - 60 degrees and sunny. And headaches. I've had terrible headaches all weekend, so Dan has put up with quite the level of whining. But we've been rather productive. Doing some cool things, well, cool-ish things, things that we really enjoy (going out to brunch, movies, bookstores, etc.)

**We organized the crap out of our spare bedroom recently. Things into storage, things onto shelves, things out of storage containers, other things into the containers. After being here almost 10 months, we've realized what we need handy and what we really don't need handy at all. Plus, we've been doing some shopping at Costco, so we have bulk items we need to store better (Where on earth did we think we were going to store 2 oversized jars of Nutella?) So, as I love to organize, it was a good time for me. The good news is, just by figuring out how to use our space better, we've realized that A) we have more of it than we realized and B) we don't need to buy the two pieces of furniture we thought we needed to buy. This is good news. More money for wine. I mean, savings.

**After writing the last post about how I hadn't really been reading in Feburary, I decided to...start reading. The book that Meghan chose for me in Feb. (The King Must Die, by Mary Renault) actually ended up being really engaging and I read most of it in a couple of nights, even though it took me awhile to get into. So hooray for me. I finished it yesterday (only one day late!) and returned it to the library to get my next one, which Ro chose - it's called "Second Class Citizen" by Buchi Emecheta.

**Speaking of books, I had my first book club meeting last Thursday. They're still emailing me, so I guess that means I wasn't too socially awkward or anything. We're trying to decide what book to read this first month. Has anyone read any of these: The Tipping Point, Three Cups of Tea, Love in the Time of Cholera? Good, bad, not worth the time, life changing?

**Also this weekend, we watched a movie a day. I'd been on a really bad movie hiatus lately (Kevin, try not to get upset) because we'd gone through a phase of watching a movie 3 or 4 nights a week when we first joined the Blockbuster mail program (their version of netflix). Because they send them to you, and they just sit there until you watch them, and you want to send them back and get new movies and oh my, the pressure. So eventually, Dan just started watching some of them without me, and burning the other ones so he could send them back. So, we have this pretty significant stack of movies that we've never seen. And every time I ask Dan if he wants to watch something while we have dinner, he brings out the stack of DVDs we haven't watched and then I have to clarify that by "something" what I really meant was, lets watch the West Wing. Anyway, we started watching them this weekend. Friday night we watched "The Graduate" which I had never seen before, and I kind of have mixed feelings about it. I know it's a classic and everything, but...yeah. Saturday we watched "The Queen" which is one of those movies that got rave reviews and so I thought we should see, but never really sat down to watch. It was actually really enjoyable - we were both surprised by how much we liked it. And tonight we watched "Sicko" which you can't really enjoy as it were, but it did result in us having yet another "Why don't we live somewhere else?!?!" conversations.

**My dad and his brothers are going to be doing a triathlon in June in Philadelphia with Team and Training (The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society) in memory of my cousin Michael. You can visit their team page here: http://www.active.com/donate/tntsonj/delo. Dad will be running the last part (Jeff will be swimming and Mike will be biking). Hopefully I will be able to get to the event!

**We think that March is when James will turn one! Our vet and the agency we got them from can't really nail down a much more specific time frame than "around March" so please send birthday wishes. Kidding of course. We aren't planning on having other cats over to have a party or anything, but I wouldn't put it past me in old age. Just sayin.

This Lily on the counter, with her head completely inside a vase. She's kind of our "special" child.

And this is James, sitting neat and proper, even inside a box that is there for him to play with.