oil of brulee

notice.

2010-06-18T19:04:00.003-04:00

just a heads up: we'll be posting again now that there's almost/going to be/the prospect of a baby on the horizon. sorry we ran out of interesting things to say about ourselves; the sprog promises to be a wealth of material.

more soon, once this baby makes an appearance.

Dusty

2009-03-06T02:08:00.002-05:00

My god, when was the last time someone was here? What neglect!

To the ones of people still out there, here's a brief catch-up: Lindsay continues to TA her class. The students are a bit reluctant to consider anything other than their highly developed 18 year old views of the world and theatre. I just finished working with Brent Spiner and Lee Wilkof in Man of La Mancha at Reprise Theatre Company. A really great gig. For which I had to quit my regular day job. They said they'd be flexable, which meant I had to work 60 houra a week over Christmas and whenit came time for me to ask for five weeks of PART TIME they said no. I am now fruitlessly searching for a crappy day job.

However, life in The Manse West continues to be rather blissful. We're making plans and watching the last few weeks of BSG and enjoying what we have. Since I have more free time now a days, I'll be more vigilant in posting. Expect lots of short posts on how much looking for a job sucks.

i have been felled

2009-01-20T18:53:00.004-05:00

by some kind of virus. actually, today is me getting up from the fall. today is fine.

and since someone very special got sworn in as president, really it's more than fine. today is foine.

and since aretha franklin's hat already expressed the appropriate jubilation better than i ever could, i'm just going to slip in some photos of the madeleines i baked a while ago, because they were amazingly good.

just like today.

first week of school.

2009-01-11T15:13:00.002-05:00

my seminars are fine, but i got very excited about being a teaching assistant. i know the bloom will soon fade, but for now, it's something to look forward to at the end of the week. the professor asked me to do a quick schpiel about why actors, directors and designers should care about theory, and when i was done they applauded. they are both way more advanced than i guessed, and reassuringly, heartbreakingly eighteen years old. someone told me once that by the time i started teaching, kids would already be doing performance studies without knowing that's what it was. and it's true; these kids's minds are way more open about what might constitute performance. also, though, they look like totally conventional college freshmen:

2008: did not suck.

2009-01-04T02:34:00.002-05:00

we had a good one, all things considered. no moves, no weddings (planned by us, that is), no illnesses, no major bumps. we're car-driving, asthma-having, bleachy-haired angelenos now. that last one's just me; i can't get my hair dye to last worth a damn out here. someone actually referred to me as strawberry blonde the other day. yipes.

photos! we were in arizona--chris briefly, me a little longer. enough time for a grand hike, a sewing project and a lot of lazy afternoons with naps and beer that someone else paid for. my kind of winter break.

Nothing's final 'til you sign the contract

2008-12-15T22:30:00.002-05:00

I'm too excited not to say anything about it: I have a gig coming up in the new year. It's at a large theatre in LA, it's very high profile, and there are famous people involved. BUT, until I see a contract I feel like I can not say what it is, exactly. Details soon. Real soon, I hope.

And then I ate the middle one

2008-12-06T05:56:00.003-05:00

I took this picture for the bi-weekly email newsletter I put together for the day job. On the one hand, it's a picture of some cupcakes. On the other hand, I feel like I should be a character on Mad Men. Minus all the adultery and smoking.

I mean, nice cupcakes, right?

you win a flew and skogganinny.

2008-10-31T21:26:00.002-04:00

trader joe's: out of organic tomato sauce, but now stocking Fat Tire. we'll take it.

i'm home waiting for the kiddies. so far we've had a tinkerbell with a baby brother who i think was some kind of bean. best costume on campus was this young woman dressed as a chef, carrying a very small weiner dog in a lobster costume.

happy halloween!

we're back!

2008-10-24T19:59:00.003-04:00

sorry, guys. didn't mean to leave you hanging. mom was here to visit and then school started, and then yadda yadda, no blog. BUT, to get us back started on the right note, please observe this photograph of Platina Luna Blade Runner, named best in show at the CFA-IAMS Cat Championship last week.

that's right, mom and dad. platina.

haircut! and . . . bikeman!

2008-08-28T15:11:00.002-04:00

haircut!

and when i opened the photo booth app, i found this picture of my husband:

very nice, guilmet.

Today is a Great Day

2008-08-17T22:06:00.003-04:00

Because it's the day that Lindsay was born. And seriously, who's better than her? No one in this apartment.

oh, we did.

2008-07-26T02:22:00.001-04:00

i was saving the last one of these dozen eggs because they were special anniversary eggs, and i wanted a photograph. chris, i think, just wanted an egg for something, but like a gentleman, he photographed it before cracking. i just found the picture on my camera. good one, husband!

three hundred sixty five days, give or take.

2008-07-22T13:41:00.003-04:00

a year ago this morning, i hadn't slept so good. my folks and i had breakfast on queen anne hill and i remember trying to eat a lot of bacon because it was calorie-dense and i'd heard all these stories of brides not eating and bad things happening. the bacon must have worked, because only good things happened that day.

you know the husband had a hard night when

2008-07-18T13:52:00.003-04:00

you pad into the kitchen in the morning and find the freezer door left open and a dessicated sausage in the recycling.

but things got a little better by the evening, when we went to hear dean mora and his orchestra perform outside culver city hall. dean was the musical director of chris's show in burbank, and his band is amazing. he also invited us to be his guest at their swanky supper club show next week.

we dressed up, but the crowd was very much dockers, short sleeves and bring-your-own-chair. the breeze picked up, so i ended up wearing chris's jacket most of the evening anyway. but we took a few shots for posterity.

i think the last time i wore that dress was andy jensen's wedding, back when i had no need or concern for foundational garments. heh.

we wuz dipped.

2008-07-14T18:38:00.004-04:00

we took a jaunty ride this morning down the ballona creek trail to the south bay trail, on the beach, down to manhattan beach, and then back home the same way except with an important stop at Johnnie's French Dip Pastrami, which has been calling my name since the first time i spotted it on Sepulveda Blvd.

(of course, it was daylight--but the sign looks better in this nighttime shot i ganked from flickr.)

it's an expensive sandwich, and i'm sure pastrami is terrible for me, but the place is as cute as a bug in a rug. very much what i think of as old california, rightly or wrongly. next time i think i'll have something more ladylike; a few hours later i can still feel that pastrami hanging out below my rib cage. still, though. good to know there are some quality beef products on the ride home, at an aesthetically pleasing little shack where they serve beer and don't mind if you're wearing funny shorts.

where we've been.

2008-06-30T14:31:00.004-04:00

there are some stories, but for now, we'll let the pictures stand in.

in case you thought

2008-06-07T01:30:00.004-04:00

i was never going to post video from the camping trip, here it is. sorry the font is so small when it's reduced/compressed for the web. also, i know this is a family show, but there's a little bit of potty mouth in the footage. forwarned.

dear everyone in the world.

2008-05-29T13:30:00.002-04:00

camping photos are coming, but for now, i'm asking for crazy wild good and strong thoughts to flow toward our friends, brynn hambly and john kaufmann, who are navigating weird and rough seas right now. brynn was diagnosed with breast cancer in late april, and is currently occupied in giving it the smackdown. we are enormously excited about their june wedding in my favoritest of places, seattle, surrounded by many of my favoritest people. the more good juju, the better, so please send it out.

for those of you who are wondering about my good friend kirsten's mom, too, last word i had is that karen is feeling better, off the vent, not intubated, and that there is optimism afoot. it's been a big month for scary health stuff, so i'm going to go have a little extra broccoli.

where in the world is darling topher?

2008-05-21T22:40:00.002-04:00

if i gave you ten guesses, i am pretty sure none of them would be, "catering the american idol season finale."

oh, the irony. with a harelip and laryngitis, he could still sing the pants off either of them.

i won

2008-05-21T12:52:00.002-04:00

a small award at school--a five hundred dollar prize given in memoriam of Carl Mueller, a theatre historian and translator who taught at UCLA and maintained a presence as professor emeritus until his death this year. he came to speak to one of my seminars fall quarter, and he was great--funny, interested in us, ready to tell the best stories of 1960s berlin and the travails of translation. the award is one of a truckload that are bestowed at the same time, all funded by external donors to the school of theatre, film and television.

in return, i'm to attend a special breakfast where the donors hand out their swag to a roomful of vaguely uncomfortable students. the invite says "professional dress requested," although they don't say professional what. i'm going with meter maid.

Long Time Gone

2008-05-18T13:46:00.002-04:00

Things have been busy here at the Manse West. I just closed a show (my first real show in LA) and it was a great experience, and lbh has been hard at work making a Ph.D., and spent last quarter being the assistant of her program adviser. The weather is becoming much warmer – 80's, 90's – and it is beginning to dawn on us that summer is coming, and it's going to be fierce.

We're making lists and filling boxes getting ready for our first LA camping adventure, heading tot he San Gabriel mountains. Unfortunately these mountains have recently been on fire so the chances for 'smores are fairly low. But we're still pretty freakin 'excited about sleeping under trees.

LA Moment

2008-02-07T12:58:00.000-05:00

Driving to work the other day I pulled up next to a green car with a blond woman in the driver's seat. She attracted my notice because she was vigorously plucking her eyebrows in the rear view mirror.

She had very large hands.

I figured out why when she started to pluck her neck,

the flaneur speaks.

2008-02-04T10:59:00.000-05:00

so i'm taking this seminar on new media (in the english department, although the crowd is pretty interdisciplinary), and it has a blog. and i wrote a post about walter benjamin and some chinese performance art. and then walter benjamin, darling of the frankfurt school and dead lo these sixty years, posted a comment.

yay, internet!

birthday wrap-up.

2008-01-26T13:06:00.000-05:00

it was this guy's birthday on the 22nd. though our plans to ride space mountain and eat frozen chocolate covered bananas were foiled by rain, we had a pretty good time going out to breakfast and to geek out at the griffith observatory.

the new headshot is only incidental to the occasion, but it was a labor of love. it turns out the process is harder than i thought, but so long as the subject is a patient husband, it's pretty fun. and when c. went to reproductions to have the copies made, they put me in the database as the photographer of record. i actually blushed.

more teachers' dirty looks.

2008-01-12T19:17:00.000-05:00

we are back. at school. and magically, this quarter is shaping up to be as difficult as the last one was restful. (not that it was all that restful. just, on the balance, so much better than the year before it.) i'm a research assistant this quarter, plus there's this scary test all the first years have to take, an oral exam over the material covered so far in our seminars. if you pass, you get to keep going. if you don't, you don't. eep.

i'm not truly worried (although not completely not worried, either), but rather apprehensive about the amount of labor the prep for this exam will take. weekly study sessions. constant review. it's formidable enough that i dropped my language class. i can take it later, and one less stressor this quarter is a good thing.

also, it's sixty-eight degrees outside.

13:51:06 of 2008

2008-01-01T16:46:00.000-05:00

As of the writing of the title, that is how much of the New Year I have seen. Which is to say all of it. I just got home from what is affectionately termed the "Suicide Double."

The Double, in food service speak, is when you do one shift immediately followed by another. Same company, different company, it doesn't matter. If you have to work two shifts in one day, it's a Double. The "Suicide" Double is much the same but the first shift goes into the wee hours, let's say 2:30am, and the next shift starts very soon after, let's say 4am in Pasadena. The reason it is thusly named is either because you have to have some kind of death wish to do it, or by the middle of the second shift you want something heavy to fall from the sky and strike you dead, or it will simply kill you.

I was bartending a very laid back but expensive party in an artist's house at the foot of the Hollyw00d sign (Ichir0 could get it from center field) when the clock struck 0:00. Perhaps tellingly this arty crowd counted down by iPh0ne. Everyone was very kind, and several of them asked me how I was doing having to work on New Year's Eve and all. With the part still going I left at 2:30 so I could get to my next gig at the R0se B0wl parade. This was a private affair on the second and third floor decks of an investment banking firm, overlooking the parade route. I was also bartending this job, but was much less popular. Go figure that few of these bankers wanted vodka at 7am.

The reason – the only reason – to go through this little brand of hell is that the money is out-freaking-standing. Add to that the very generous tip I was given at the artist's house and I made more money in the last 27 hours then I have made on a weekly basis for quite some time. I only faded once, at about 7:30 or 8:00am, when I realized that most of my time in Pasadena would be spent watching 25% of the parade. By that I don't mean I could only watch a quarter of the parade's length. I saw the entire thing end to end, but from my vantage point I could only see 1/4 of what was going on at any given time. When a marching band went by, and boy did they, I could only see 12 or 13 people for every 50 who walked past. I saw some very interesting pieces of floats, too.

I could go on – hell, I probably won't even remember that I wrote this come tomorrow morning – but I find I must go into the next room and collapse into a jelly-like heap. Time: 14:11:31. So far, what a swell party it's been.

christmas!

2007-12-24T19:55:00.000-05:00

belated cookie party photos. annie bridget was the only prolific cookie decorator, but c. and i did a few after everyone left. notice my green bouquet with cranberries in the vase. saw it on the teevee.

okay, i don't know how this happened, but i can't be bothered to fix it. pretend these photos are all in their correct--or most conventional--orientation:

the milagro on our tree was a gift from sweet anni bluhm, who we think might be in scotland right now. she's one of many far away we wish were closer.

my parents are here, though, and that's lovely. it's also summertime weather. my dad and i went for bike rides both yesterday and today. tonight i'm making a buche de noel. all in all, christmas in UCL@ student housing is going pretty well.

what does it say about me

2007-12-16T01:47:00.000-05:00

that i have thought forever that the opening lyrics to "let's get it on" were:

i've been feeling dry, baby . . .

i'm not sure why i find this mortifying.

like weebles.

2007-12-13T13:32:00.000-05:00

the times reports that women's spines have evolved with more curvature so that we don't fall over when pregnant.*

that's . . . good.

also good to know that this curved spine minimizes back pain when great with child. given the not insigificant back pains of my previously and currently pregnant friends, i'm tempted to point out that this was not a job well done, but whatever. thanks, evolution!

(there's a great veiled snipe at intelligent design in the article.)

*you may need a log in. i suggest registering; i like the times content and they've never sent me spam. if you don't want to, try bugmenot.

now we're both losers.

2007-12-07T12:47:00.000-05:00

dear person who stole my visa debit card:

i hope you enjoy the sixty bucks worth of hello kitty gear from the sanrio store, and the two hundred you dropped at bebe (cocktail dress? smashing hand bag?). personally, i was going to use the money to pay bills, but hey--at least one of us is living la vida consumer! actually, since the money will be refunded to me once i dispute the charges, i find it difficult to get too angry, but in the long pre-holiday weeks until that dispute gets settled, it does stick in the craw to know that my checking account is nearly cleaned out while you posh around westwood with whatever trash you saw fit to spend my money on. happy holidays, bastard! hope we don't need more groceries this month!

end of quarter update.

2007-12-06T00:36:00.000-05:00

he brought me some lilies.

my apartment smells so good.

to do: two papers, one christmas card letter, a tree, and almost no shopping. that's right; i did it early. and we're broke, so it was really easy!

also, it's still summer here.

also too: i've been neglectful in not announcing my parents' blog. check out their wee house, which is charming in many ways, the most significant one being its proximity to our good-smelling apartment.

tuesday night at the mike doughty show.

2007-11-29T12:56:00.000-05:00

all thanks to the generous and talented livingstons .

turkey.

2007-11-26T13:24:00.000-05:00

it was pretty great.

the parents hunter came to stay in our brand new second bedroom, and i made the pie and the gravy (not piegravy), and mom made stuffing and rolls and cran relish, and chris made the turkey, and we had a good friend and her entertaining daughter over, and it was all in all wonderful. not even the remnants of my chest cold could put a damper on the proceedings.

we took a nice bike ride on friday, too, from the venice peir up the coast to will rogers state park. just a shortie, but a good one. chris went back the next day and did the ride my dad had taken on thursday, from the marina down to hermosa beach. i was inside studying and wishing i'd managed my time well enough to come with. nothing like foucault to make you jones for a bike ride.

the end of the quarter is heating up, but nothing too strenuous is on the immediate horizon. after the crazy tap dance of last year's pressure-filled schedule, i feel like i must be hiding out on a pig farm, being allowed to laze in my own wallow. i promised myself that fall quarter could be a lazy one, and it is, but i'm subtly starting to make plans for more active duty.

this is where i would show you pictures, but i took them with mom's camera. send photos, mama!

this just in: head cold breeds nostalgia.

2007-11-20T12:23:00.000-05:00

this morning, while battling the sinus sniffles, i saw an ad for the holiday market at grand central. and you know what?

i miss new york.

congratulations, universe. you win.

i think i would be better about

2007-11-18T01:06:00.000-05:00

posting with pictures if i had one of these:

it's wireless!

just a hint.

because i really wish i could be bothered to take a photograph of the applie [that was a typo but it's too good to fix] pie i made and froze unbaked two days ago as per the instructions at cooks illustrated.

aaaand, i made gravy today. weird gravy that you make without a roast, but it tasted kind of gravyish, and we'll deglaze the turkey pan with it, too.

pie!

this little piggy

2007-11-15T13:42:00.000-05:00

went to new york and didn't take a single photograph.

i did, however, join anni bluhm for a very wonderful birthday at the wholly smashing Sidecar. and i talked a little bit about video games to some smart people, saw some old friends, and was approached about creating a panel for next year, about the artist-scholar/practice-theory divide. and next year's in copenhagen.

that could be fun. i mean, expensive. i mean, academically rewarding.

our brothers in chains.

2007-11-05T12:23:00.000-05:00

i don't think it's any mystery whose side of the writers' strike this household is on, but i gulped a little when i read this (may require password) in the new york times, re: the horrors of losing _the daily show_:

"Losing Stewart and Colbert [during the run up to Iowa and New Hampshire primaries] is something like losing Cronkite during the Vietnam War."

that's someone from the WGA, not the times writer. and i don't know what's gulpier, the sacrilege or that he's kind of right.

I buttle.

2007-10-30T02:31:00.000-04:00

There is nothing quite like having an eight year-old look you in the eye and say "You can clear my plate now."

keeping on.

2007-10-27T12:23:00.000-04:00

in case any of you are worried, we're safe from the fires. we also bought a vaccuum cleaner. i'm starting to head into Major Reading mode, the kind of school time where i spend most of the day on my bed with my nose in a scholarly book. it's not fun, exactly, although it's not not fun, either. classes are going well, although it's clear that we're about to leave the calm place as the storm of the end of the quarter warms up. everything ends and is due the week before christmas, so november is the warm-up and december is the thunder.

i did get to go see some SITI company war-of-the-worlds goodness last night. a small group from school went, and as sometimes happens, i could judge my simpatico quotient with any given individual by his or her response to the show. i was absolutely mesmerized. and sad i'd left new york without taking classes with SITI. you do what you can, and their classes are always in the middle of the day and expensive, but. sigh. wow.

almost there.

2007-10-24T12:57:00.000-04:00

we're getting on towards having a los angeles home. just yesterday my husband roasted a chicken and i made chocolate chip cookies. if that doesn't a home make, i don't know what does.

in other news, i'm sure you've heard malibu is burning. we are, of course, completely fine. disturbing, however, is the warning that went out from UCL@ this week to limit our exposure to the air. apparently all sorts of things are burning, and the air is not so good. while this obviously makes sense, it's a hard thing to wrap one's mind around. be careful of the air?

it's funny; i forget we live in a giant city sometimes. it's pleasant to know that we live somewhere where i can see any movie i want, or find any kind of consumable, but i don't walk through it on a regular basis and so the actual phenomenological experience of this place as "city" is largely missing. i kind of feel like i'm in a suburb with lots of sushi and a big honking R1 university.

where we're going to see ian mckellen tomorrow night!

The USB Cable of My Discontent

2007-10-23T16:51:00.000-04:00

When I first moved to New York I needed a USB cable for my new printer. I was going to be reading stage directions at an Off-Broadway company the next day and needed to print resumés. There was a blizzard bearing down on the city, so the only thing I could think of was to go to one of the dozen or so electronic shops in Times Square. The cable set me back almost $50. As I got to know the city better, such things didn't happen anymore. Or at least less frequently. For one thing, I learned there was a Radi0 Sha¢k two blocks from my subway stop, if only I had turned right instead of left when looking for an open shop.

Yesterday I took my first bike ride through the streets of Los Angeles. There is no better way to get to know your city than to bike through it. And contrary to what one might imagine considering Californians, um, unique approach to driving, riding on some of Los Angeles' busier thoroughfares doesn't engender a feeling of impending death.

What's the connection? Ah. while on this ride (which started at UCLA, went to the catering service for my paycheck, tot he bank, and then home - about 14 miles) I dropped my keys. Not once, but twice. The first time was not a big deal. While unlocking Casper from a rack on campus, I apparently let the keys fall to the ground and didn't notice as I rode off for coffee. Fortunately I wasn't very far away when I realized what I'd done. Unfortunately I noticed because I went to unlock my baby and didn't have the key. A short walk reunited my keys to my pocket, with a stern admonition not to do that again.

An hour later I'm unlocking Casper from a pole outside a paint store (getting swatches for the great apartment painting project). Except I'm not, because I again can not find the keys. I left them on the sidewalk outside the bank five miles away. I had to take a cab back to the bank for the keys, and back to the paint store, give the cabbie $17 including tip, and then ride like hell on wheels to get to the apartment in time to go to work.

I do know the city a bit better now. I also know that my brain is a little less sharp than it used to be. At least back in NYC I was able to take the USB cable and tie it into a noose - a little art project to remind me to be careful. Maybe I should tie my keys to the cable and carry that around.

he is new baptized!

2007-10-17T22:14:00.000-04:00

if i have ever seen a better looking baby, may i never eat chocolate mousse again.

in case you haven't heard, i accidentally extinguished the light of christ during the baptism. i lit it back up real quick, though.

special extra fun: see if you can tell which photos happened before all that original sin was wiped away!

where we are this weekend:

2007-10-12T13:24:00.000-04:00

here, here, and here:

superfantastic.

california lazymouth.

2007-10-12T11:56:00.000-04:00

i'd forgotten about it. lack of articulation is practically its own dialect here. someone came up to me on campus this week and asked if i would sign something to support

bruhk bomb-uh.

my guess was "bronx bomber," but the winner, of course, is:

barack obama.

every vowel is a schwa, and lord help the one that gets caught between two blendable consonants. the undergraduates here all sound like they're on a reality television show.

chimps, i tell you.

2007-10-02T22:40:00.000-04:00

it's the second week of the quarter and my fees aren't paid. my account shows that i owe the university almost three thousand dollars. this is not true--the department very generously offered me a package that includes full support, which will show up eventually . . . i guess. in the meantime, i have to say, the university isn't really doing a bang up job of getting it together. i get that there's a lot of us and that i'm not more important than the other (apparently, truckloads of other) grad students waiting for their packages to come through, but as chris pointed out as i vented today, how does the beginning of an academic term sneak up on you this bad when it's what you do? i don't like administrative details, either, but i'm not an administrator. i am someone who moved across country on a handshake and the promise of funding. how are their hordes of us whose money is stuck in beaurocratic goulash after the start of classes? why have i made nine phone calls about this--plus countless emails and two campus visits? why did it make me cry on the bus the other day?

i have movers to pay. books to buy. a conference to attend. i had to get a car. i have prescriptions that need refilling and a husband who needs dependent insurance, and neither of us is covered until my freaking fees are paid. what i've been hearing for a month now is that the money is in some kind of mythical pipeline. i'm about ready for them to tell me it's been so delayed because elves got into the system.

those of you who have routinely dealt with big public research universities, i salute you. it's enough to make me want to punch someone in the groin.

almost there.

2007-09-28T21:41:00.000-04:00

friends, i like to think it is the home stretch. we check out of Bad Sublet Hotel this weekend, stay at least a night with our friends' dave and jen's cats in santa monica, and then finally meet our apartment on monday (in the morning, at least, before the moving truck arrives and i go to my historiography seminar. have fun, chris!).

it's been a tough couple of days. my first class was boring, which: it's okay, but still, pleh; and then today i went on my umpteenth attempt to have it out with the awards and support folks, and found out that the reason the money i thought i was promised has not materialized is because it doesn't exist. tears ensued, but they're trying to make it right. and i'm berating myself for having moved out here on a handshake. if you are my parents, just know i'm not being intentionally vague, it's just a long story. the number i heard in the brief phone conversation in march that set all this in motion turns out not to be the one that's in the computer. it's not clear whether i misunderstood, there's been a snafu, or some combination of the two. increasingly credible, however, is the hypothesis that UCL@ is run by chimps.

how academia workz.

2007-09-22T17:43:00.000-04:00

someone says, call for papers! you think, i'll write one!

send off fifty word abstract. receive word of acceptance; be pleased. shuffle email to bottom of pile.

six months later, whatever part of you thought it up is dusty and hungover and has enough to do keeping up with current demands. it also has gotten conflated with the part of you that doesn't know which moving box you put your great-grandmother's crystal decanter in.

i thought i could leverage some writing i'd already thought out. it looks to me now, though, that i gussied up that abstract so it would sound better, and got aways away from my intended, pre-fabbed argument--and possibly gussied my way right into some all nighters and acid reflux. first quarter! moving! our godson's baptism! october is suddenly huge!

the problem is that it all starts with the fifty words. it's like buying something on very bad credit terms; the piper always comes back around. and he wants a powerpoint presentation with that cogent thesis, thanksverymuch.

maybe i'll just do a little dance for them instead. and see if my advisor sends me back to washington heights in a cardboard box.

Don't Take Your Love To Town

2007-09-20T16:57:00.000-04:00

We've made our first Major Married Purchase today . . . her name is Ruby.

ugh.

2007-09-07T15:01:00.000-04:00

i cannot wait until school is over and we choose a place to live and go there and never move again.

he took me out to the ballgame.

2007-09-07T14:52:00.000-04:00

i'm late reporting, but this week saw my first visit to major league baseball game. c. had tickets to go and a date who bailed, so we jumped on the train. sixteen minutes later: yankee stadium!

and man, it is way better than i thought. it's open air, warm and soft, and a giant vista; it's spending the evening outside!

luckily i was in the giant line for the ATM and beer during the Bad Bad Inning, telling the tipsy college boys behind me that i was in the witness protection program for infomring on major securities fraud. actually, i didn't care about the score so much, just the popcorn, beer and the outside. so nice.

okay!

2007-09-03T13:40:00.001-04:00

here goes!

the blog is not dead. the blog was sleeping in order to surprise you loyal readers (mom) with a renaissance! or at least weekly postings! shazam!

let's begin with this: if you sent us a wedding gift and we have not thanked you yet, it's because there's been a long sort of supply chain. we got the boxes and boxes of generous bounty (booty? can i call the gifts that inaugurate our marriage booty?) to my parents' front room, where they have stayed for weeks. mom's mailing them to us in small batches--huge, thankless chore, immense gratitude--so the thank you process is a little delayed. our thanks may have suffered retardation, but are no less sincere.

and from there, let us move to honeymoon photos, not in chronological order:

more photos here!

Moving on up

2007-08-23T12:16:00.000-04:00

We were told that university sponsored housing had a 9 month waiting list. We were also told that the waiting period could be shortened by calling the housing office repeatedly and making a nuisance of yourself. While she was in LA looking for apartments, Lindsay called the housing office and was told we were #4 on the list. She was also told that an offer was going out that day for an apartment and if it was not accepted they'd offer it to us since they knew we'd say yes.

We will be moving into a two bedroom apartment (with a dishwasher, pool, heat, a/c basic cable included) in the married and family housing complex on October 1st. Lindsay starts school on the 25th of September so things will be a little odd for two weeks while we live someplace else, but that's small potatoes compared to the relief of knowing we have a place to live.

Now to sublet this place . . . which hopefully will work itself out by this week end.

photos: first batch.

2007-08-11T10:59:00.000-04:00

we don't yet have the professional pictures, but here's the best of the best of the work by friends and loved ones:

wedding, round one

(those of you who were there and/or desire the deep cuts, i have a larger album that includes the various parties and rehearsals . . . )

it already feels a little dreamy, like it happened to me when i was a younger person. i can't wait until we're safely moved and can start wallpapering our bathroom with the outtakes.

All Yr Transit Belong 2 Us

2007-08-08T11:49:00.001-04:00

It's a good day to stay home.

[______________]

2007-07-25T01:26:00.000-04:00

never have i been more at a loss for words.

check jenni's photos, and know we are inventing new applications for the word

happy.

Please raise your right hand.

2007-07-18T18:13:00.000-04:00

We went to the county auditor, housed in a cedar shingled municipal building tucked under a thick growth of pines, and got us a marriage license. We had to read and sign our agreement on a paragraph that stated we were not second cousins, under 18, or carrying an STD unbeknownst to our partner. Then we had to raise our right hands (left hands on nothing) and swear we had read it, and it's true. We're pretty sure it's done this way so the nice lady at the county auditor's office doesn't have to point blank ask us if we have STDs.

We be all legal for the matrimony!!

on to the truly important details:

2007-07-11T10:15:00.001-04:00

the wedding cake, in three petite tiers:

chocolate with bailey's irish cream filling (with CHUNKS OF CHOCOLATE in it)
lemon cake with lemon cream cheese filling
and hazlenut cake with kahlua filling

buttercream over all. i'm having two pieces of each.

(ours is just plain cake shaped, although c. was very interested in the one with the boiled lobster on top.)

a wedding that involved us only peripherally.

2007-07-08T13:13:00.000-04:00

we took time out to go see my good friend zach get married yesterday. having gone to college in the days before digital cameras that fit in altoid boxes, i don't have any "before" snapshots to share with you (actually, there's a really good one of him and me backstage clutching a stuffed elmo, and one of him shaving off his chekhovian beard a piece at a time, leaving him variously with a trucker mustache, backstage boy goatee and ridiculous soul strip).

he looked pretty grown up last night, though. we were both so used to bemoaning our unlikeness in love that i think we were both caught by surprise by our respective large happinesses, both of which get codfied this month into legally binding partnerships. weird. twelve years ago we were smoking weed out of a diet coke can.

in retrospect, i should have taken more pictures. i hate experiencing a wedding from behnd a point-and-shoot camera, though, and i don't like for the bride and groom to have to deal with any more shutters and flashes than they have to.

deep breaths.

2007-06-28T12:21:00.000-04:00

the mortgage man completely spaced our application for a home equity line of credit.

you know, the loan that was going to make it possible for us to conquer the cash flow situation created by getting married the summer after a year of full-time graduate study, followed closely on by a cross-country move.

because he flaked on the paperwork, we can no longer get through the process by july 12, the day we leave for seattle. which means . . .

i don't know what it means. i'm kind of scared to think about it. i know if i had been a little more on the ball, i'd have gotten this process started months ago, but months ago i was in school, and i was kind of hoping that when dealing with bankers i could finally let down my guard about checking up on everyone else's chores and trust that the person who was supposed to get it done would just freaking get it done.

the seamstress and the jeweler who's making our wedding bands are also overdue to call me, potentially dropping balls i similarly left in their court as i type this. jesus christ. nothing stimulates anxiety like the world proving that it's warranted.

in case you didn't already like kids, or: fly, fat bird!

2007-06-27T10:45:00.000-04:00

my friend claudia reports that her son, william (currently older than pictured here), loves to sing. standards in his repertoire include "Twinkle, Little Star" ('although instead of "diamond in the sky" he sings "a diamond outside") and something c. describes mysteriously as a 'robot song.' this week, however, he branched out into new genres. claudia describes hearing him softly croon:

"Fat bird singing in the dead of night . . .
Take these broken wings and learn to fly . . .
Fat bird, fly . . . Fat bird, fly. "

i love him a little.

The joy of live theatre

2007-06-25T03:00:00.000-04:00

There are many things one is not in control of as an actor. We call it "the joy of live theatre." Just to pull an example out of my hat, when a member of the audience vomits before the opening curtain, right there in their seat, that's the joy of live theatre. Or if the lights go out about a half an hour in because of some mystery power failure. Ah, the joy! But when these things happen in the same evening then joy has moved out and is replaced by an unsettling silence from the crowd. That we call "dying."

recon.

2007-06-21T14:21:00.000-04:00

bike paths.

neighborhoods.

friends i didn't know lived there.

more to follow.

On the Radio

2007-06-18T19:19:00.000-04:00

I promised a link, a link is here

Ronald Coleman, huh?

2007-06-08T16:36:00.000-04:00

I've been in St. Louis for the last three weeks or so playing dress-up. I just opened A L1ttle N1ght Mus1c at the lovely Stages St. Lou1s. We opened on Wednesday night, and we'll run to July 1st. I'm getting to do all kinds of actorly things like wear tail coats, put five pounds of gray crap in my hair, and get interviewed on the the local NPR station(!) The last bit just happened this morning. I'll post a link to the audio when it is posted, if you'd like to hear me sound like I am totally making up stuff to sound smart (lbh, there's no need for you to listen, since you hear me do that on a daily basis).

This is a rendering for one of my costumes. I love the picture, because the costume designer drew it with me in mind, so he kind of looks like me. His hair is thicker.

i am marrying ronald colman.

2007-06-04T22:10:00.000-04:00

if you are curious what chris has been up to . . . .

he's been dressing up like THIS!:

and, yes. he will look just like this at the wedding. i promise.

in case you are wondering,

2007-06-02T17:41:00.000-04:00

the safety cowboy is playing our wedding.

(not promising puppets.)

the real graduation.

2007-05-24T10:54:00.000-04:00

while everyone else walked through the arch, we walked through the weirdness.

we rode the D train. later, there was a riot, but we didn't get any photos of that.

then, we ate at nathan's, where french fries come with a weapon!

then we rode the cyclone.

then we got in the water (a little).then we said good-bye.

it was a grand, grand afternoon.

graduation.

2007-05-20T20:27:00.000-04:00

i know, you were wanting some pictures.

42,000 of my closest friends

2007-05-08T22:50:00.000-04:00

Ever since I learned there was such a thing, I have wanted to do the Five Boro Bike Tour. Last Sunday, I did. It's a 42 mile tour of New York and ending in Staten Island (with, seriously, about 3 minutes in the Bronx). It was awesome, except for the part where I left my seat bag in a Port-a-Let in Astoria, only to discover this in lower Brooklyn, about 15 miles later, and with no way to back track. Fortunately, the fine folks at Bike New York have an excellent lost and found system.

The most memorable thing about the ride was the myriad sounds I heard: the cumulative roar of hundreds of tires rubbing the road, a chorus of bells ringing at the starting area, all the bikers hooting as we entered an underpass on the southbound FDR. There were sights too, of course. Here are some:

The staging area in Downtown Manhattan. To get the full effect, you really need to click on this picture

Up Sixth Avenue.

Hauling down the FDR Highway: one of my favorite sections of the ride!

The Port-A-Let queue in Astoria. Little did I know when I snapped this shot that I'd be leaving so much behind...

The Verrazano Narrows Bridge, as seen from the Staten Island Ferry after the ride. It's really long, but if you look south while crossing you can see open Atlantic clear to the horizon. It's closed to Bicycle traffic except for this ride.

she found it.

2007-05-06T07:30:00.000-04:00

after much effort, the mother-of-the-bride dress has been accomplished.

(except, according to the mama, with a shorter skirt.)

because you've been so patient,

2007-04-26T18:49:00.000-04:00

let me introduce:

our godson.

chloe helped.

2007-04-24T10:22:00.000-04:00

mom planted flower pots to help decorate the bow of the boat at the wedding. my little grey cat kept her company. so sweet.

The Friendliest Ghost You Know

2007-04-23T11:21:00.000-04:00

Lindsay replaced her stolen bike early this year, and I replaced mine while visiting Seattle in March. The weather has been crappy enough since we got back that I have been unable to really take her out and ride.

Yesterday was beautiful, though, and I decided to check off a "Need to do before leaving New York" item and get a nice ride in by circumscribing the island of Manhattan. It was a 31 mile, nearly 3 hour ride with moments of awesome, irksome, and where-the-hell-am-I? And cell phone pictures!

The Awesome: A tall ship at the Southstreet seaport

Directly under the Brooklyn Bridge

A cherry tree by on the west side bike path

The Irksome:

Thanks, Manhattan, for the fantastic signage!

Where-the-hell-am-I?

The signage gets significantly worse the further north and east you are.

And lastly, my new ride: bought in Seattle, shipped to New York, and totally awesome

She's named Casper.

agog.

2007-04-21T19:28:00.000-04:00

i, too, am flabbergasted.

nor'easter!

2007-04-16T10:45:00.000-04:00

we're in one. it's my first. somehow i thought it would be more dramatic; really, there's just a lot of rain. which is kind of nice as an excuse to not blow dry my hair.

Almost Famous

2007-04-08T13:57:00.000-04:00

I recently filmed a web-only commercial for a company called L1feL0ck. Some people (Lindsay included) think the woman in the background playing my wife looks like Lindsay. Alas, it is not. In all it's glory, I give you:

The site where I found this video (the producers didn't tell me it was finished) suggests you "click on tags to find similar videos: funny, sexy, animals, commercial, jail, l1fel0ck, chickens, geic0, identitytheft, insurance"

he is risen! let's have gravy!

2007-04-03T20:55:00.000-04:00

it is the most beautiful thing.

chris thinks it is odd that i'm in love with this gravy boat when i don't like gravy, but i know some of you understand what it is about graceful shapes and shiny things. this gravy boat. is. perfect. and i have wanted it for months.

mama, you are amazing.

In the papers

2007-04-01T11:32:00.000-04:00

Well, it's official now, because it's been published in The Olympian.

And we used the Pharmaceutical Ad Shot™ from the engagement pictures, to boot.

Her: He has herpes . . .
Him: . . . and she doesn't . . .
Her: . . . and we want to keep it that way.

meaningless foofery!

2007-03-26T11:47:00.000-04:00

these are the wedding earrings currently under consideration. so far i am only looking on the internet because shopping time tends to be past 11:00 or while i'm at my dayjob. and while none of these are "real," some of them are too expensive (like the top ones, which are actually also too big, but sort of the right proportions).

that's godmother zing-zing. bwahahaha.

2007-03-19T14:23:00.000-04:00

i am godmother. to one connor (conor? we haven't confirmed spelling) joseph murray, born yesterday into the joyous love of his family, biological and non-.

this is where i would put the picture, if we had photos. we don't, but i'm pretty sure he looks like a wrinkled pink potato. they mostly do, the full-term, vaginally-delivered caucasian babies. no word yet on whether he has hair or a conehead. i have been told that both he and laura are doing just fine, no scaries, only joy.

i had a wonderful conversation with his brother, who calls me auntie zing-zing (actually not his misapprension of my name, but what auntie mica heard when auntie kay said my name in a busy coffee shop . . . that's right; all your base belong to aunties), on the phone the afternoon of the birth. almost as good as the one during my visit when he asked if he could tell me a secret, and then whispered into my ear, "i love you." yeah. and then my heart dropped into my uterus. kieran murray: causing organ prolapse since 2007.

i congratulated christopher on being a godfather and he said, "you know we're responsible for his soul now."

actually, it hadn't occurred to me. but now i'm making him a mix CD with sam and dave.

Sorry, wrong number

2007-03-05T22:42:00.000-05:00

I'm pretty sure I misheard the caller, and they hung up when I asked them to repeat themselves, but what I thought I heard last night when I picked up my cell was:

"I have a call from Izak Perlman"

raining in LA.

2007-02-26T12:23:00.000-05:00

i mean, what were the chances?

it was pouring, and when i ran out to the drug store with a newspaper over my head to buy an umbrella, they didn't have any. because they don't stock them. because it's los angeles.

my interviews at UCLA went well. nothing definitive has been said, either about admission or financial aid, so keep thinking good thoughts. item: i did get to walk on the red carpet where the academy awards happened, on my way with a college friend to have shabu shabu in a restaurant near the kodak theatre. it was pretty unremarkable. (the carpet, i mean; japanese food with a friend is almost always a thing to be celebrated.)

mostly, i'm glad to be home, and not figuring out freeways or hawking my academic project. it was a surprisingly exhausting little trip. and there's a lot of homework waiting.

i did drink three fat tires before i left the west coast, though. so good.

saint of valentine.

2007-02-14T18:43:00.000-05:00

we've been delinquent.

but not because we don't love you.

this valentine's day is sort of emblematic of recent months: after two days of almost no conscious contact, we had an hour or two this morning before c. had to run to a rehearsal, then work, and i had to start the pile of photocopied reading assigments that weekly threatens to eat our couch.

sigh.

chocolates on sunday, we decided. we're hoping that romance deferred is all the sweeter.

on film!

2007-01-26T15:13:00.000-05:00

or, pixels. bits. whatever.

this was the monkey's birthday: duck, sprouts, cake, absinthe. i'd follow all that with "repeat," but i may not have the energy to roast another animal until the spring.

the "no" dresses.

2007-01-23T14:33:00.000-05:00

posted here--for weigh in, if you like, but also as a destination for anyone who may be looking for a dress and wants to see what i have on the market. if you know someone shopping for a wedding dress who would look hot in one of these, please feel free to direct that person here. stats: the fuller one is designed by tamara kristen for marisa bridals, size 8, that rhinestone thing is removeable. the one with buttons is an amy michelson, size 8, called "open heart." each is silk, each is a sample in mint condition, each sells for a ridiculous price in a pink store with tulle all over it but was remarkably affordable on eBay.

that's all the bridespeak i ever want to use in one sitting.

happy birthday, betrothed.

2007-01-22T13:14:00.000-05:00

we took pictures from the official birthday dinner last night (roast duck, st. emilion grand cru, chocolate cake with mocha buttercream, absinthe), but they are still on the camera. i did, however, want the world to know that i'm glad you were born.

from auntie zing zing.

2007-01-14T19:42:00.000-05:00

school starts next week, so before i've forgotten the warm cocoon of home: one of the highlights of our trip, kieran murray. (and some other guy.)

engagement portraits!

2007-01-10T22:06:00.000-05:00

we weren't necessarily going to do these, but our kind photographers threw them in to our package deal. we're fans.

Christmas in Seattle

2007-01-07T22:40:00.000-05:00

We spent the holidays in the great northwest, saw Lindsay's family and saw our extended non-related family in Seattle. We also got to do a few wedding related things, such as tour the boat, eat some cake, taste some sparkling wine (those of you reading in Seattle need – NEED – to go to Cremont in Madrona), and had some engagement photos taken. I left last week, and Lindsay comes back tomorrow. I can't wait, frankly. The apartment is small, but it still gets a bit lonely without the best girl.

A tool of capitalism

2006-12-22T11:33:00.000-05:00

The other day I did background work in a commercial for a large computer company. I can't really say which computers, so let's just call them "Honey Pots." I was supposed to be filmed first - call time 8:30am - which meant I could do this commercial for a few hundred dollars and then get to work. Instead I was filmed last - 3:00am - and made several thousand dollars (after 16 hours on set you get paid one day's rate per HOUR). The whole thing was filmed on a green screen, with computer animation and effects to be filled in later. My favorite part of this whole, long, very lucrative affair was that on the set of this commercial, one that supposedly highlights the use of these "Honey Pots" as vehicles for creative people, there was exactly one "H.P." and about two dozen Macs. And the one "H.P." was there to be photographed as part of the spot, and not actually used in any way whatsoever.

christmas in new york.

2006-12-18T22:53:00.000-05:00

it's happening.

Yet Another Website

2006-12-17T14:22:00.000-05:00

We here at Guilmet/Hunter Inc. want to keep you informed. That's why (with invaluable help and server space from lovely and talented Jenni U) we are launching Chris and Lindsay Will. It's your number one stop for all wedding information!

Tell us what you think!

for sixteen points and a trip to Foam World on canal street,

2006-12-05T21:26:00.000-05:00

true or false:

the paper i am sending to UC Berkeley on friday as a writing sample includes the word badonka-donk.

so true.

Giving Thanks

2006-11-26T02:01:00.000-05:00

We had Ani and James, and Ani's 10 year old niece Ava over for Thanksgiving. Lindsay was far too busy with her twenty-seven or so papers so cooking fell to me, which is just the way I like it. We had turkey breast, which was the size of a rump roast and took about three times longer than we expected but was perfect, bourbon sweet potatoes, french beans cooked with bacon, mashed potatoes, stuffing (although there was nothing to stuf it into so I suppose it was "dressing"), cranberry relish by Ani, pumpkin cheesecake and gingerbread that Lindsay made. Bourbon for drinking supplied by Ani and James.

Games were played, food consumed, fun had. We are thankful for friends and the opportunity to spend time with them.

Let Us Eat Cake!

2006-11-16T20:13:00.000-05:00

made an appointment to try the cake at Mike's Amazing Cakes while we're back out west for Christmas. And gosh, I do like me some cake!

wedding update.

2006-11-11T13:17:00.000-05:00

attendants, we bought your gifties.

i hope they're good.

just remember: it's a nerd wedding.

All Hallow's Eve

2006-10-31T09:51:00.000-05:00

Happy Halloween!!

things about school that make me feel old.

2006-10-26T10:15:00.000-04:00

1) the immunization forms ask about when i recieved the chicken pox vaccine. as if.

B) one of my teachers just offered to meet with me via video iChat.

III) i am the only one in the class who remembers dittos.

the mama was here!

2006-10-23T21:21:00.000-04:00

chris didn't get to see much of her, because he's silly busy with work and rehearsals. she, however, saw a lot of me.

notes: none of these are actual contenders, although we found a couple. we're keeping the field under wraps for now. also, some of those are bridesmaid dresses i thought would work--so, that's why they're green and pink and black. not because i think it would be awesome to be wearing pink satin of any kind.

Take me out

2006-10-11T23:43:00.000-04:00

We occasionally get stars in the restaurant. Today I waited on a baseball player who I won't name, but let's just say that he plays for one of the teams here, and they were just eliminated from the playoffs. And his last name rhymes with "Cheater."

Very nice man, very polite, tipped 40% on the check.

I have a standing rule that whenever I wait on celebrities I treat them like any other customer. I pretend they're regulars, and that's why I know their face. I don't use their names and I don't fawn over them. I assume they just want to eat their crab cakes in peace like a normal person.

Well today I had to ask Mr. Cheater for his autograph, because the owner wanted it for his son. I felt like a tool. Why couldn't the owner walk up and introduce himself? He is owner of a multi-million dollar business, and head of a multi-billion dollar real estate enterprise, after all, you'd think he could do the deed for himself. But no, he must send in the $4.35/hour peon to do his groveling for hm. I felt like I had been asked to detail his SUV.

But I nabbed an autograph for one of my buddies, since I had to go there anyway.