Guess I'll get the throw pillows...

Tjett was in the process of growing a playoff beard. He hadn't shaved since the playoffs started and the Wings kept winning so he just didn't shave it off..."if it's working, I'm not going to mess with it." He is very superstitious about hockey. It was also not terribly pretty. I said "*sigh* ok. It's fine." Which I DID actually mean, because far be it from me to make Tjett do something that would make his team lose.*

Because he (rightly) figured I meant that I still thought he should shave, he went ahead and buzzed it off. The Red Wings are now down 0-2 in the second game of the series, and are already behind one game. If they don't come back in the series, Tjett's going to blame me for making him shave off his beard and making his team lose. In which case I'm pretty sure he'd file for divorce.

*Even though hockey isn't my very favorite thing ever, I like it well enough. It's probably my favorite sport. And even though my team is the Wild, I rather like the Red Wings. Especially Jiri Hudler. And even though I'm not personally invested in the playoffs, I really like my husband. And I really like it when he's happy. And he tends to be happy when his team wins, and vice versa.

Yeah Boyeeeee!

I don't so much have the energy to write a long ranting blog post today. When I do, I promise it'll be good. So for now, all I'll say is...Tjett and I ate at Flav's Fried Chicken on the way home from Iowa today. The chicken is actually pretty darn good...hot, tender, juicy, greasy (as fried chicken should be). The sides are another story. They were out of corn bread, greens, the hot, mild, and BBQ wing sauces, ribs, and most fountain drinks (that they substituted with 2-liters). Apparently the delivery guy came, but no one was there to pay him. Anyway, the mac & cheese was more like mushy noodles in "cheese"...really no worse than what you would expect at any fast-foodery, but we couldn't finish a small between us. The corn on the cob was likewise mushy. Also when we got there we were pretty sure they were closed...no lights, no cars in the parking lot. Turns out we had just gotten there a little before lunch rush. We took our pictures with one of the several air-brushed Flavor Flav likenesses on the wall. They're on Tjett's phone.

Blog Sometimes In April

Yeah...I've missed a few days. In my defense, I was very very very busy getting ready for my talk at my alma mater, Cornell College. Which I gave yesterday.

I'm not totally sure what to blog about. I don't have enough pictures for a photo essay (though I suppose I could post my entire talk and take out any text that is in there). I suppose that since I'm in Iowa, let's talk about that.

I love it here. I don't think I realized until this trip just how much I love Cornell...and how much I miss it. I had the fortune of talking to pretty much all of my favorite professors yesterday. Charley Liberko, my organic professor and all-around good man, was asking me about grad school. I don't remember exactly what I said, but he said, "well, you're smiling!" To which I replied, "that's because I'm here!" And then I just about started crying, because what I didn't say was, "Because I'm here...where I was successful, my professors were fabulous, I played lots of music with amazing people, I made some of the best friends I've ever had...and I've never felt more at home than I do when I'm here."

You know, I really hope that wherever Tjett and I end up settling will be 'home.' I really, really do. But in complete seriousness, I wish there was work for me here. If there was, I'm pretty sure...no, I'm totally sure...we would move back here in a heartbeat.

*sigh*

In awesome news, Tjett and I suggested that we have another pan reunion. Dr. Hearne, who is the band/orchestra/pans director and one of the reasons I love this place so much, was super excited and it very seriously considering having a 15-year Pandemonium anniversary at homecoming in '12. I'm a little worried that I will have just started a job somewhere and not be able to go...but I can't wait. We were invited to play with them tonight, but they do have a full band and it would be weird. But we got to mess around after the kids' rehearsal this afternoon, so I'm very happy :)

Also I got to see Becky and Sarah, and later on I'm hoping I'll get to see some other kids :)

Things (I love and hate Thursday, Friday night edition)

Becky's latest post reminded me about Things I Love Thursday, which I can't say I often remembered to do during Blog Every Day in April (come on Katie, there were only 4 that you had to remember), but I thought oh hey, what the heck, maybe it's time for another.

But today was not a big 'love' day for me. It just wasn't. And so I present two lists.

Things I Hate, specifically right now.

• Skinny people without much luggage who sit on the outside seat on the bus. Riding on the bus is a necessity in this town. There is no way I'm paying the minimum $400 a semester to pay to park, and I'm just a little too far to walk regularly (and just not in good enough shape to bike to work, and right now it's too slippery to do so anyway). So I take the bus. Along with a million other people. A million other people who should have learned by now basic etiquette of bus riding. Our buses, like many city buses, have 8 or so rows of seats, two each on either side of the bus, with a center aisle in between. If the bus is close to empty, as my one bus often is, then feel free to splay yourself out in a full two seats. But as soon as you see that oh, there aren't any two-seaters left, YOU NEED TO PACK YOURSELF UP. I feel like this is super obvious, but apparently it isn't. On my second, busier bus today, the girl sitting in front of me was sitting on the aisle seat, making it impossible for someone else to sit down in the second seat. There are three, and only three, times when this is acceptable: 1) You are morbidly obese. It's irritating when you realize that you can't sit down because someone is taking up two seats, but it's forgivable. 2) You have just a crap-ton of stuff. I mean more than a backpack and a purse. I mean a backpack, a purse, three shopping bags, and a box of exams. This is also a forgivable offense. It happens. 3) The inside seat is wet or covered in something unsavory. I don't want to sit on that either. But any other time...get it together. Few things in life irk me more than a skinny person without too much stuff sitting in the aisle seat on a crowded bus. People have to stand. There is no excuse. Don't like crowds? Me neither. Have some serious 'personal bubble' issues? Get over it, or don't ride the bus.

• Grad School. I don't wanna talk about it. 'Nuff said.

• 'Open-minded,' 'liberals,' who bash Christians and Christianity as a whole. I just get so irritated and sad when people who supposedly are super open-minded and liberal like to say that it's impossible for Christians to be open-minded or liberal. As a liberal Christian, I can safely tell you...we do actually exist. There are Christians who will not tell you that you or anyone else will go to Hell. There are Christians who believe that two people, regardless of sex, should be able to be both legally and religiously married. Did anyone see that picture of the Christians in Egypt forming a protective 'wall' around the Muslims in Egypt to protect them while they were praying? Christians exist who believe that everyone has a right to practice their own religious practices. What got me going about this right now? Stay tuned for Things I Love, as there is a caveat...

• How I'm also expected as a liberal to smoke pot. Yeah, this is another one of those things. I've been noticing a lot lately that one of the things that liberals are supposed to find funny is pot use. All a comedian has to do is go 'so I was high' and the crowd goes nuts. I don't think it's funny. I think it smells bad, and I have other reasons for not wanting to partake. I do happen to think that it should be legalized...but not so I can go get high. More so we can tax the crap out of it, regulate it, and cut down on some of the drug wars going on. But I've never smoked it, and I have no interest in doing so, and I hate that as a liberal I feel like I have to explain that.

Ok. 'Nuff of that. 

Things I Love

• Fetch with Tia. Tia has this weird, really cute, way of playing. Sometimes it's a bit naughty; she really likes mouthing and grabbing, but my favorite are our games of fetch with her 'baby.' Her 'baby' is a blue rubber bone. She used to be kind of weird about playing with it, and she used to just carry it around. Now though, she's decided that it's the BEST TOY. Fetch with her baby is more like a combination game of fetch and tug. I throw the baby, she chases after it, brings it back, smooshes it into my legs, I grab it, we tug, she play-growls, half the time I get it, half the time I let her keep it. When she keeps it, she'll usually try to get me to tug it again. She gets up on her hind legs, she 'crawls' up me to get it (adorable in the winter, will get horrifying in the muddy spring)...I love it. 

• Two Bands: Mad Season and Tyr. Mad Season I've talked about before. It's a 'grunge supergroup,' comprised of Layne Staley and some other guys. From Pearl Jam maybe? Anyway, I got their CD from the library and have listened to it almost every day since. It. Is. Awesome. I'll do a bigger post on it another time. Tyr is a Viking Metal band that hails from the Faroe Islands. I don't have any of their albums, nor are they on iTunes, but they are on YouTube so I can listen to them at work. By far, their best songs are those that are in Faroese, but they tend to mostly be winners. My only beef with them is that they are decidedly anti-religion. Not Satanic or anything like that, but the lead singer likes to say at the end of his interviews 'and remember, religion is bullshit.' Apparently they're really upset about the Christianization of the Faroe Islands 999 years ago (or something), and quite a few of their songs involve Norse and neo-pagan mythos. Some of their music videos have them bashing crosses and stuff...supposedly it's because, you know, that's what Vikings did?...but I just wish that for once, I could find some good metal that doesn't have a problem with Christianity. Wishful thinking, I suppose.

• Tjett. He puts up with me. And he's super hotttt stuff :)

• Mushrooms. We made some chicken and mushroom marsala earlier this week. Um, delicious. It was my first time making it, and I was very proud of myself. It turned out really good, minus the sauce being very very liquidy. Is it supposed to be? I don't even know. But while making it, I had to taste the mushrooms to see if they were tender...ooooooh, mushrooms cooked in butter.....and the only thing better than mushrooms cooked in butter? Mushrooms cooked in butter THEN SOAKED IN WINE.