Photos, part III

listening: Bon Jovi, Last Man Standing

This is part three of my massive photo dump, and part one of the staycation photos. We did, in fact, opt for a staycation this summer, and it was actually a lot of fun. We stayed in the Holiday Inn on Town Lake, which is very nice.

The first afternoon, we had lunch at Manuel's (where we ran into a friend of mom's and his partner, and the manager gave us a free dessert. the food is also delicious):

Then, we went for a walk:
I was supposed to photoshop someone into this picture, but I think it's funnier without:
Upon finding a fountain and some steps, we decided to be horribly irresponsible and irrepressibly silly:



Recognize this scene?:

Finally, stopped to look intellectual:

But that's hard work, so shortly thereafter we took a carriage tour:

The tour was a lot of fun. It's designed for tourists, so we picked up a lot of information about downtown Austin and some of the historic homes within the city.

More pictures to come once I get some emailed to me (hint, hint, mom). I regret to inform everyone that I was too distracted during the horseback riding, sailing, and spa visit to get any photos.

Photos, part II

listening: Billy Joel, Big Shot

These are from Sarah's birthday party. She and I have birthdays within two weeks of each other, so that's neato.

Sarah (of course):

Ivy, in the Batman dress that she made herself (*is so very jealous*):

And Jyan and David:

Everything was great, until the aliens came:
Group(ish) shot. We all wound up in front of the computer for a little Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog... and then some 30-second bunny movies:

And some wildly inappropriate cartoons:
We also watched some great movies. Apparently The Dark Crystal is a classic? I would not have been able to tell just from sitting through it. We also saw Deathproof (great right up until the ending), and I got to meet Sarah's neighbor.

Photos, part I

listening: Billy Joel, Scenes from an Italian Restaurant

Here are some of the photos from my 22nd birthday. 22's not exactly a hugely exciting number; I think I have another 8 years before my birthday is a big deal again. On the other hand, I did have a great time, and I got some neat gifts :-)

We had the party downstairs in the clubhouse, because there's nothing nicer than not having to clean much before and after a schindig.

Believe it or not, these two photos were taken at different times and locations:
The theme was "not acting my age," so we had N64 and Sega Genesis games set up on the television (no one wanted to watch Ice Age in Spanish with me instead...):
Assorted action shots:

The cake-cutting:


And so a Good Time Was Had By All.

A bag!

There's a new item in my etsy shop!

"How very dare you?!"

I read a theory the other day, which stated that there are only 50 actors in the UK.

The corollary is that these actors have all been in Doctor Who.

I think I believe this theory, considering that every time I find a new actor I love in Doctor Who, I can trace their work history back and find other shows that I also enjoy. John Simm gave me Life on Mars, and now I've started watching the Catherine Tate Show.

Actually, we've only seen the first episode so far, but I thought it was great (we would have watched more, but it was 2am and I had to work at 7am). I can't decide whether her Aga Saga woman or Screams-at-every-sound-lady (according to the wikipedia page, "Frightened Woman") is my favorite.

Sadly leaving the realm of Things From the BBC, we have actual news. I turned a skirt into a bag, so that'll be up on etsy tonight or tomorrow. Yes, this is news.

My family is going on some sort of vacation starting possibly sometime tomorrow. While we're apparently not very good at preplanning, I was promised parasailing, which sounds like fun. Oh, and we'll be attending the advance screening of The Longshots, since my dad's in it.

I had to ask off Sunday from my childcare job in order to join the vacation. My boss went me one better and gave me every Sunday off for the rest of forever. Yep, I have been fired from a Baptist church, which surely comes as no surprise to anyone at all.

Honestly, though, they were "restructuring", and they're a small place, so I'm not too hurt. The $30 weekly paycheck loss is offset by the fact that I don't have to get up at 8am every Sunday from now on. I will miss the kids, though -- freakin' adorable.

I do keep promising photos, don't I? I will resize them all while on vacation (probably) and upload them, say, next Tuesday? Sure.

Addition to Etsy

I added some coasters to my etsy shop just now. You should go see said coasters.

As an added bonus, I found picnik, which let me edit my photos a little bit for sharpness and contrast. I hope they look nicer than some of the others I have up.

. . . aaaaaaaaand I'm off to go see The Dark Knight!

The BBC: My Anti-Drug

Well, okay, the title of my post's not funny unless you've seen all the "__________: My Anti-Drug" icons on Livejournal (fill in the blank with favorite fictional character, or an emotion such as "apathy").

Thanks to the power of the internet, I've been able to watch some great BBC shows lately. As I a) pimp said shows to everyone within shouting distance, b) buy the DVDs eventually, and c) am horribly impatient, I feel no guilt over not waiting for them to air on an American channel.

• Season 4 of Doctor Who? Fantastic! Donna Noble is officially my favorite companion ever. It was really nice to see a female sidekick who was smart, brassy, and emphatically not pining over the male lead. Oh, and she's good at math, and funny, and types 100 words a minute. You go, Super Temp! Other than one throwaway episode (Midnight was double plus ungood), this was a nicely put-together season. The season finale was, literally, EPIC. Oh, and alternately hilariously funny and awfully sad.

• Season 2 of Torchwood turned out to be somewhat different in tone from season 1, but I'm not complaining. Sure, okay, there were spots where the story got bogged down in sappy lovefests (when you watch, keep an eye out for Group Therapy: Torchwood Style, Complete With Windows-Media Guided Meditation. It's loltastic). On the other hand, this season had everything I was expecting from the "adult version" of Doctor Who. Character development and backstory that's not boring? Check. Alien insemination? Check. People and Things blowing up/getting shot/trying to take over the world? Check. Fun bits of alien technology? Oh yes. Multiple instances of hot guys kissing? Hells yeah. TWIST ENDING? Also a huge check. I think the last episode marked the first time in a long while that I was actually totally wrong about a major plot point. So, good job guys!

I was a little put off by Entertainment Weekly's review, though:

As with P.G. Wodehouse novels and Robbie Williams songs, you have to be either British or adolescent to commit to this stuff; for the rest of us, it's a head-scratching lark.

Um, I like P.G. Wodehouse?

And, finally, we get to:

• Life on Mars. I honestly only looked up the show because the lead is played by John Simm, who was the Master in last season's Doctor Who. Oh, and because he's a-dork-able. [Even though I may lose my soon-to-be Rhetoric major cred for using that particular portmanteau]. I am only two episodes into the first season, mainly due to the fact that each episode is nearly a full hour long and chock full of drama (and awesome). I'm enjoying the show very much so far: the plot is interesting, and it's brought along by some very good actors. Granted, there are a few characters I'd like to smack upside the head, but that's clearly intentional. Even the requisite cliched we're-two-men-who-aren't-getting-along-until-we-punch-each-other-in-the-faces-a-lot scene was handled well.
  

More on Life on Mars later, when I've watched the rest of it. I also owe everyone photos of my birthday party and Sarah's, which I'll post once all the pictures are resized.

Bloggy Giveaways Winner

Sorry it's taken so long to pick a winner -- I actually put names in a hat which, with 102 comments (and some people earning multiple entries), took forever!

All the names went in an "Authenic Greek Sailor's hat" my grandmother sent me for my birthday, and then Justin picked one just now.


Congrats to Storm of Confessions of a Psychotic Housewife!!

Please email me with what you'd like from my Etsy shop (greenyak [at] yahoo [dot] com), and I'll get it out to you.

Many people mentioned in their comments that I need to take better photos for the Green Yak Store, which I will work on. Also, there was the mention that I don't have many items up at the moment.

In the next few weeks, look for the following to be added: cloth coasters, more jewelry (with different beads and charms) and recycled paper pendants.