Coming Home

Capitol
Originally uploaded by TaggartCojanSorensen.

Tomorrow I am coming home for three days. I am looking forward to being in my new home away from the Choking Robot Govenor Smoke.

Warner On Second Life

A former governor of Virginia and an undeclared presidential condidate named Mark Warner will make a live appearance in the multiplayer online world Second Life tomorrow.

via teh boingboing

i'm the internets incarnate!

here is a screen shot of my avatar hanging out on stage

Choking

Hyatt Sacramento. 12th floot. Did I mention the Govenator is two doors down? It is 10:30 PM and the cigar smoke emanating from his room has flooded my room and I am choking. I thought it was pretty neat that we were sharing a floor till his habit smoked out my room.

2 surprises in 1 day

ok, so last night, I hung out with the Riddle's in Clear Lake, well, because Taggart is out of town and sometimes I get doggone lonely. So my mom is cooking (free) dinner and she goes to sniff the chicken..."hmmm" I think. Why is she sniffing the chicken, that is never a good sign. But she cooked it anyways. And I'm thinking, "Surely my mother wouldn't serve her lovely family bad chicken" so it must have passed that sniff test....Then we go to EAT the chicken and my brother goes to sniff the chicken. THis is after I have already eaten 2 bites. What does this say about my sniffer? I guess I can't smell rotting flesh, which is a skill I think I'd like to have. Oh well, the first surprise is that nobody got sick from the chicken. YEah!!
The second surprise is that I passed my certification exam! Yeah! Boy, was I surprised..I could have sworn that I failed.

Bottoms up!

The National Cathedral

Today I went with my roommate Amanda to the National Cathedral. We met up with a couple of her work-friends and attended service. Then we toured the place.

The cathedral has all the fancy stuff that you would expect, including gargoyles and flying buttresses. Some of the stained-glass windows are spectacular. I especially like the one that I was seated opposite-of, which seemed to have a Star Trek theme.

Also, I think that this was the first time that I have attended a full Anglican mass. It was, of course, almost identical to a good ol Catholic mass—only some of the words were wrong and the songs were not as good.

It was interesting to see that the leader type figures get to carry around sceptres, which seems like a pretty good deal. I thought that it would be fun to have a legitimate use for a sceptre. I also think that it would be fun to say something like “Drat! I think I left my sceptor at TGI Fridays! Or did I leave it on metro?”

Another thing that I found interesting is that the former president of Iran, Mohammad Khatami will be speaking at the cathedral next Thursday. I think next Thursday is bingo night at Saint Catherine Laboure where I was baptized.

Here is a photo of the gals

The one one the far right is Amanda. It is with she that I have been staying with since July. On friday Amanda moves back to the San Francisco, and I move into my new place…

Happy Birthday Amber!

Here she is pushing back a hurricane in 2002.

A COUPLE OF SKETCHES ON FLICKR

http://www.flickr.com/photos/52587528@N00/

A PUT A FEW UP.

CHECK EM OUT.

DC United Versus NY Red Bulls

I finally went saw a DC United game last night! It was lots of fun! DC beat NY 3-1 in dramatic fashion. Well, maybe it was not so dramatic. But there were some flashes of great soccer. Anyhow, it was a good time.

Getting to the game was easy. I just hopped on the yellow line, and transferred to the orange line and then walked up to the ticket selling person and demanded tickets. There was certainly no risk of the game being sold out, and my seat was right on the half-line.

Anyhow, here is some footage. I apologize for the poor hold-the-camera-still-man-ship. Not featured in the video are the folks who set off smoke-bombs when the goals were scored, and the drum playing people, and the section that jumped up and down and chanted the whole game. It was a good crowd!

Out of nowhere

Having appeared out of nowhere, a summer storm is raging around us.

¡Vacation in Colorado!

This past week my folks and my sister Sara and my nephew Preston and my uncles and my sister's husband and his folks and my cousins and some family friends all shared a big cabin on a lake near the town of Grand Lake, Colorado. We spent the week eating and fishing and hiking and playing golf and eating and doing crossword puzzles and eating. I think it was one of the most relaxing vacations I have ever had- partly because I did not bring my cellphone or a computer (not that there was an internet connection anyhow).

I think the highlight of the trip for me was the BBQ ribs that we ate on a tuesday. Also, I enjoyed fussing with my adorable nephew Preston

and the beautifulness

Apple Flat Rate - Mercado gives cold hard facts!

Paul Mercado was quoted as saying,

"About the flat-rate repaire thing. I took my laptop to the Apple Store (after having made an appointment at the Genius Bar) and the folks there inspected it. They determined that it was definitely #@$ up and that the damage was not 'accidental'. Since my laptop was out-of-warranty they told me that they could ship it out to Apple Repair Land and that the folks over there would repair whatever was wrong with it for a 280 of the dollars. From what they told me, the Apple Repair people would fix ALL of the things that are wrong with it; meaning, they would fix the motherboard and the screen cable and any other busted doodads. Sounded like a good deal so I agreed and they boxed up the computer and shipped it out. It came back about 3 days later."

Has it already been a week?

Okay, go to BoingBoing and scroll down a bit and you'll see it:

"U.S. authorities are advising women not to wear gel bras on airplanes as information developed in the foiled London plot points to an expanding role for women in smuggling explosives on to an aircraft."

Simply amazing. This is almost as good as predicting an English World Cup loss. I just want to see how many women give up their gel bras at airports. For those of you who missed my eerily accurate predictive powers look here. Now, how could someone hijack an airplane with a thong? THAT'S the real question.

more stuff and nonsense

so my son started school
and he got his cavity filled
and we went to an adult party with him with an amazing amount of success
and annabel and nancy came to the rescue again
and my big sister bought me the bedding i wanted for Paola

so
he went to school - confidently strolled right up to the teacher and announced - I'm Adolfo Fidel Chavez the Fourth who is Three Years Old! - and the teacher's first comment was - OH, you're just like your daddy! - yessiree - he's a charmer - plus he likes his backpack and his new uniform!

at the end of the day - we took him straight to the dentist where they gave him a paper cup with a shot of something i would have liked - i'm sure - judging by his reaction - which incidentally - is not unlike his dad's after 3 shots of frozen vodka - he told his "joke" to anyone who would listen over and over and over - and would sing and try to pinch his daddy's nose which he kept missing - he would throw his head back and go - WHOA - it really is heartbreaking - i didn't like to see that at all - but he was totally limp and sleepy only minutes later - enough to allow the doctor to do her work - which she did very nicely - and now he has a little silver patch on his tooth - needless to say - he fell asleep HARD for the rest of the evening - i hope i never see him drunk again

so yes - we took adolfo to Sara Cress-de-la-Cress's bday party and he was a perfect little gentleman - he even fell asleep watching SuperFriends - thank you Sara and everyone for being so wonderful with him - Killy and i were able to enjoy a great gathering with conversation and good moments for the first time in a long time (has it really been 4 years?)

AND THEN

Annabel and Nancy to the rescue - they kicked over my nonsensical feelings of guilt and showed up to help me get that room together - we have one more workday scheduled and it should all be done - once and for all - i can't believe it's actually coming together - my first real nursery - i'm such a slacker mom...

and just to make things better - my sister in illinois just bought me the bedding set i had been wanting - i am so lucky and so is Paola

so that's that

what's new with you

Density

Exactly how did we fit so much into 800 Nelson?
I will be perplexed for a long while.
As we moved things out of the apt it seemed to get smaller instead of larger. Mind Boggling.
I would like to express my EXTREME gratitude to the McCarthy-Trudeau household for all their generosity
while we lived in Austin, and especially for being so generous in our departure.
Not a thing broke during the move and suffered little wear.
The NEW newness.
Liz and her dad scored a massive hand truck to help us transport all our belongings from
the truck to the new place.
The entire truck was unloaded in 2 hrs without breaking a sweat.

I apologize to everybody in Houston for not inviting everybody over and communicating a bit more
but at the moment we are knee deep in boxes and a bit stressed out.

Hello From Denver

I just arrived in Denver. It was fun flying without liquids.

Also, I sent in my iBook for repair. Quoted flat-fee 280 of the dollars to fix anything that may be wrong. I suspect that they will have to replace the logic-board and de-funkify the keyboard. Seems like 280 is not a bad price to get an out-of-warranty laptop fixed...

Anyhow, going to spend the next week up in the mountains breathing and reading trashy sci-fi and such. etc.

Mr. Hasselhoff's amazing video.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3382491587979249836

The graphics are.....um........well....real good.

Hide the syrup, Mabel ...

I know it's no fun to think about people falling out of a skyful of flaming wreckage and I know its way too laborious for us to muse too long on the tangled mess created by 100 years of Western domination of Middle Eastern political institutions, economies, and natural resources ... Quick! Someone distract me before my mind wanders too far astray!

Aaaahhh ... MSNBC to the rescue: Interesting items being discarded

Travelers at the Burlington International Airport in Vermont were forced to discard souvenir jugs of maple syrup. In New Orleans, half-used bottles of hot sauce lay in garbage bins. “We are seeing a lot of interesting items being discarded,” said Michael McCarron, a spokesman at the San Francisco airport. “Chanel No. 5, gallons and gallons of water, and some very fine Napa Valley wine.”

I'm not sure I understand what's going on here: Is it a ruse for government employee flunkies to get their hands on wines and perfumes they could otherwise never afford? (Next they'll foil a plot to blow up a plane with a Rolex!) Or is our government making a bold bold move to close the strategic "mini-shampoo bottle gap" with our potential global adversaries? (I hear the Koreans have been stockpiling shampoo since the early 70s.)

Flat Fee To Repair Portables?

Search of the internets seems to suggest that in most cases Apple will charge a flat-fee of around 350 to repair a portable. es verdad?

Fried Logic Board

*ugh*

Powerbookresq is sending my extracted harddrive in an enclosure tonight.

My Powerbook screen hinge busted

According to the mac guy I spoke with, this is a fairly common occurance and apple doesn't recognize it as a fault on their part. The only way to fix it is to replace the whole screen!!!!!!

we are talking about a large sum of money to fix it he casually mentioned the number 1400. That is when I cursed in foreign tounges and hung up.

G4 IBook R.I.P.

Es muerto. I think the logic board go bye-bye.

Squirrels on a sled.

Bulletin from Sara:

My brother-in-law entered a film contest put on by Alamo Drafthouse to celebrate the upcoming release of Snakes on a Plane. If you're not familiar with the interest surrounding this movie, I do apologize for bothering you like this, but it seems like everyone I know knows about Snakes on a Plane and wants to talk about how hilarious it is. At length. I understand. Snakes. On a plane. I get it. Samuel L. Jackson yelling about snakes. On a plane. I know, I know.

Anyway, the film is up on the Blanks on a Blank website and though it was all Juan's idea, it was a group effort and I am in it. Unflattering angle, but I'm in it. And my boyfriend does the awful Jamaican/Irish/Indian accent. He's also he guy with the fake mustache.

You can create an account and vote for your favorite. Not that I'm demanding that you vote for Squirrels on a Sled, but that would be pretty cool. I'm merely asking you to watch all twenty or thirty five minute films and decide which one you think is best. Or you could just vote for Squirrels on a Sled and avoid the wasted time.

Please see: www.blanksonablank.com, click Enter, then Films in the top menu. Juan's is on the first page right now, but I don't know if that's permanent. Look for "juanloya" or Squirrels and Sled.

We're shooting for second place! Cash! First place is a trip to the premiere of Snakes on the Plane and NO ONE wants that.

Thanks,
Sara

Three Things

Adolfo has a little cavity. I feel terribly about it, I really tried to be good about getting him to brush his teeth. I just read though that being cavity prone can be hereditary. Apparently it's my fault. I, the mother, have genetically given my child a high level of cavity causing bacteria. We caught it early enough so that it doesn't hurt him yet. He will get it filled next week on the afternoon after his first day of school. That's right, first day of school. We spent this weekend shopping for his school supplies at Wal-Mart (only because several items were specifically available there). So next Wednesday will be a very exciting day for my little boy. The worst part is that I will be trudging the day away at work while all this excitement is happening to him. The good thing is that his Daddy will be right there with him. I'm kind of glad I won't be at the dentist office though. I know my heart will break to see him lolling in a drug enduced stupor while they fix the problem tooth.

I think we have settled on a name for the little she-pinga. But now Killy is threatening to talk to the "family" about it. My response is, what family other than you, Adolfo and me? Adolfo IV says his sister's name is Carolina and her nickname is Lalalina. But a minute later he says her name is Nothing or Johnyouaryfebyouarymarchaprilapril.

I was looking for the proper definition of imbibed and found THIS interesting article.

1. Hash Beernies
1. The result of the process of adding yeast to fermenting hash brownies, resultimg in a tangy liquor.
2. An alcohol created by fermenting a canubus plant, also called a Hashpop.
Note: Known for causing the death of numerous youths who try to create this substance in unsterylized containers, causing the creation of Methanol, which can blind or kill those who intake too much of it.

In Vancouver, Canada, Hash Beernies were found bottled in a factory. The bottles found were toxic and resulted in the deaths of 14 college students and the death of the president of the local Health inspection office who imbibed the solution.