christmas 1.0

well.  i have located the pictures from my mother-in-law's camera, so prepare for more christmas or stop reading.

we had a great time!  went to st. augustine for shopping and a boat ride, did christmas with rob's parents as well as grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.  we don't see this crew nearly enough--it's been since or wedding or even before that since we have seen many of the cousins.

anyway, photos below!  then, i promise, christmas will be over.

me and the hubs by the st. augustine christmas tree.

 rob's parental units by their holiday botanical.

cooper gets kisses from bells.  thankfully she didn't eat poop that morning...

cooper gives uncle rob legos for christmas!

the middleburg mans family

jeff gave rob some winner pants and a winner hat.

rob's grandparents.  love them.

me and rob with the louisville mans cousins.

lori and jeff with grandpa mans- and his gator-walk brick.

(click here to see: 7 games you can play with a brick)

cousins!

missing thomas and christopher-they are on beautiful whidbey island!

aunt keri and cooper figure out that the way to go on christmas is...

pajamas!

In other news, STILL NO HAIR on our Barack Obama Chia Pet.

Christmas 2.0

This past weekend we went to visit my parents and godparents to have Christmas with them.  We had lots of fun, got lots of cool stuff (including a canon video camera, fancy wine glasses, and alcohol,!) and visited with much-missed family and friends. Tommy and Donna fed and watered us very well, and I ended up fat and happy and thankful my parents have a gym in their house.

We drank (some of us more than others), played with Tye, and watched the Saints lose to the Seahawks in the playoffs.  Shameful. 

Then we drove back to Birmingham in an ice storm, which made a 4 hour drive into a 6+ hour drive at 30 mph for about 4 hours of the trip.  Truly the most frightening thing about this is the other drivers in AL.  They are terrifying even on a sunny, 70-degree day. We counted 21 wrecks from the AL state line to Birmingham, a span of about 130 miles. Some people prefer to slide down bridges sideways, turns out.  Huh.  Interesting choice.

Bonus: We were off work for today.  And it truly is disgusting outside. You just might live in the south if you get off work for some icy pellets and two inches of snow.  Love it.

Tye smiles in photos now!

 Troublemakers.

Obligatory Christmas Tree poses:

1.  Rich and Eileen

2. Rob and Keri

3. Tommy and Donna

Tommy has two Saints jerseys, which he switches out depending on offense or defense.

This takes dedication, especially after a substantial amount of Crown.

We are proud for his many accomplishments :)

4.  Lee and Mom

T-Pa with Memere and Tye.  What a camera ham-runs in the family I suppose. 

Tye opens his gift from us.

Rikki and Colby gave Rob a gator stocking to offset  

all those MS State ornaments from last year. 

Tye helps Aunt Keri with her present from Rikki.  

Check out that shirt-this kid knows what's up.

Rob is wary/not surprised at my excitement over 

two bottles of wine from Rich and Eileen.

Next time I visit, I want ice cream, Tommy!

I wish I had edited these photos so Tye didn't look demonic.

*Cites laziness* 

Now Rikki and Colby have a microwave--and all the numbers work on this one.

Tye chills with Uncle Rob and "Melmo". 

Bells hangs with Lee on the sofa.  

Mostly Lee wanted to sit with the pink blanket.

We were greeted with this when entering Alabama.

Woo!  45 mph, our top speed for 130 miles.

Woke up to some nasty roads this morning. 

Lots of slush with slippery spots.

Good thing we put new 'boots' on Hoss recently.

Got us home--and in one piece!

i has big book.

Our lab just received a $1300 book. Actually it was $1225.  It's not a textbook like you use for class, but it does show pretty much all areas of the human cortex in case you need to know the cellular organization. Which we do.

No, it is not magical, and we have not yet determined if it will do our taxes.  

It's pretty big, as shown in the photos below.  The nerds, they are a-buzzin about this one.

Here is me holding the large book.  

I like that the title includes the word "cytoarchitectonics".

For further illustrative purposes, here is my hand on one page.

In other news, our Barack Obama chia pet still does not have hair.  Hopefully by Monday.

We are headed to Carriere, MS to see my parents, godparents, sister, bro-in-law, and nephew for the weekend!  Belated Christmas!

Happy Friday!

Um.

 Fail.

That is all.

The "N" Word

You know, I usually bypass subjects that are controversial in an effort to avoid criticism or conflict. But for some reason, this is just bugging me.

In a new, updated version of "Huckleberry Finn", the "N" word will be removed and replaced with the word "slave".  Also, the word "injun" will be removed.  This seems innocuous enough on the surface, and I can't exactly pinpoint why I have a problem with it.  Maybe it's because it's Mark Twain, and nothing he wrote should ever be rewritten.  Maybe I feel like people should just grow up and shut up and read literature in the context it was meant to be read.  I don't know.  Since I'm planning to be in the educational system (albeit in science), maybe this is just of particular interest to me. 

My question is, will the original form of the book still be available?  I'm guessing it will be, at least for a time.

Someone's comment on the story I read: 

"What’s next? Since slavery makes people uncomfortable, Jim will be rewritten from a slave to a hired field hand? Twain knew what he was doing when he used the words he used and he did it masterfully. ...Twain wrote Jim’s character to point out to us our own uncivilized ways."

There are many great arguments to both sides. 

So in the end I am torn.  Should we change the book so that schools will allow it and students have access to this literature? Is the story still the same with the language changed?  

I spoke to my undergrad lab student about this briefly, knowing that she wouldn't be offended by my asking her opinion on the matter (she is African-American). She feels like it doesn't pack the same punch to tell a story of that time period without the actual language that was used during that time.  

Anyway, though it seems very wrong to change classic literature just to make people feel "more comfortable", I'm left without a clear opinion on the matter I suppose.

Just goes to show that nothing is truly black or white, so to speak.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Chief! (?)

My friend and colleague Joy has received the most random Christmas gift.

A Barack Obama Chia Pet!

Excitement in the lab, because this is the home she has chosen for our green-haired President!
We certainly needed SOMETHING to replace the holiday tiger.  (If you are behind on your reading, you should check out that post, by the way.)

Photos below!!

Oh my gosh this is going to be AWESOME.

Please note this is a "special edition".  

Working hard on a Tuesday morning.  

Obama is gonna look swell.

Happy Tuesday, everyone!

Happy New Year!

I'm still not done with Christmas!  

Dec 23-27 we visited with my inlaws in Gainesville, FL-then I took last week off to organize my home and my life.  Rob and I did our own mini-Christmas morning on Dec 28, and it was so nice to just have that time to open our gifts from each other without a million other people around! I spent that last several days getting rid of a bunch of things and generally restoring peace and order to the house.  

It was lovely.

We spent NYE with our friend Alex and his girlfriend Lera and his brother Sergei.  They're Russian, so we practiced the Russian New Year's tradition of writing a wish on a small piece of paper, then you burn it and place the ashes in your champagne.  This is what you drink at midnight.  It was cool to do something new, and we love them anyway, so it was a lot of fun. (Also, there was a hilarious conversation between the Russians about the meaning of the word "redneck".)

I don't make resolutions (you set yourself up for failure), so nothing to tell the internets about there.

This weekend we visit with my family so we can have Christmas with them, so, believe it or not, I'm not done yet!  In fact, I still have a couple of gifts to wrap.  I.n.s.a.n.e. But I am so excited to see my sister, nephew, parents, godparents, and multiple adopted family members.  Plus, it's nice to prolong the excitement.  

Anyway, I don't have very many pictures of Christmas to bore you with, because even though we thought we had copied my mother in law's pics from her camera, well, we just don't have them.  

So I can entertain you with home improvement photos (I'm lucky to have a handy husband) and pics of my animals doing various adorable (to me) things.

Rob gave me new fog lights for the Mustang, which meant he had some work to do.

This picture was taken as he lost a screw and had to retrieve it.  

There is a reason this is a picture and not a video.

 

But hey, now we will look cool.  Well.  As cool as we can ever look.

Check out my alumni tag, finally attached.  

(Yay bulldogs for beating those silly Michigan folks in the Gator Bowl!)

Abby gave us these cute mugs and matching saucers for Christmas!

This is what we used for our mini-Christmas.  

Actually, I'm still using them.  Because snowmen mean cold, not holiday, right?

The animals are ready for their presents now, please.

Slick is, per the norm, giving his best "F**k you" face to the camera.

 Slick loves his new catnip toy.

Homie also loves his new catnip toy. Slick tried to take it so he would have two.

Homie kicked his ass.  If you know Homie, you know how uncharacteristic this is.

 Bells likes hers too! But also wonders if I'm about to take it away from her.

Buy all the gifts you want, lady.  Boxes are still better.

Bells snuggles with her new toys.  Homie wishes she would die.

Her favorite activity is to drag her toys to the sunniest spot in the house and sit with them.

Slick did not participate in toy cuddling or in sunny-spot sitting.

On to the curtains!  We got olive-green kitchen curtains for Christmas from Rob's parents.

Here are our bare windows.  (We have lived here for 1 1/2 years.)

Bare windows by the kitchen table.

Rob is living every man's dream on New Year's Day. 

Homie is nervous because he is sure he has been chosen to "hold the flashlight".

(The flashlight holder is the one that gets cussed at, for those of you unfamiliar.)

But we have had success!  Looks like grownups live here!

Hope everyone had a fantastic holiday and New Year!

Happy 2011!!