ctinabina

Halloween in Santa Fe

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:57:12 GMT

Happy All Saints Day! Last night K and I went to the best Halloween party in town, the Santa Fe Reporter Party. The Santa Fe Reporter is the free weekly newspaper in town here, sort of like the City Paper in DC.

K, true to form, made his costume in the span of 45 minutes. He went as a lobster.

My favorite part of his costume were his eyes. We made the eyes by sticking pipe cleaners in styrofoam spheres and then wrapping the pipe cleaners around a headband.

Cute!

I went as an octopus.

I made this costume by tie dying a sweatsuit and 4 additional arms cut off of other sweatshirts. Then, I cut about 1 million circles out of felt and glued them to the arms and legs. I stuffed the extra sweatshirt arms and sewed them to the hooded sweatshirt. I was pleased with the result and the costume was nice and warm in the freezing night.

We also tortured Lucy by putting her bee costume on her. She was not pleased but we sure were!

She's still getting over the indignity of it all.

So, then after having a couple of trick-or-treaters, we headed off to the Reporter Party. It was a new place in town, Milagro 139. It's downtown and across the street from the long-standing Evangelo's Bar. The place was packed and there was a line to get in, which is a rare beast in Santa Fe.

Inside was full, too, and DJ Feathericci was pumping the jams. Feathericci is a DJ around town and seems to have something of a following here. This was the first time I listened to him and, I gotta say, he was good. Real good.
Here's the dance floor, taken from the above balcony.

I especially liked this Beaker and Dr. Bunsen Honeydew muppet duo costume:

After the Reporter Party, we headed over to the Catamount- which ended up having an only so-so Halloween party, and finally to one of our favorite dive bars of all time, The Matador, for a quick drink.

So, that's what we did for Halloween. It was a great night, even though I am freaking exhausted today. So much dancing!

La Posada & Haunted Santa Fe

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:19:42 GMT

A few weeks ago K and I went to one of our favorite bars in Santa Fe, La Posada. La Posada is also a hotel and spa but the bar is really nice, quiet, and comfortable. The bar is located in the old Staab House. The Staab House is named after its original owners, Julia and Abraham Staab, and was built in the 1880s. The legend is, Julia Staab committed suicide in her bedroom and the Staab House has been haunted ever since. Her bedroom is actually the largest suite in the hotel and the haunted room demands a premium. Here's a link to the whole story.

Here we are, sans ghost, finishing up a glass of wine in the bar. It was chilly so we sat by a fireplace.

I actually had one of their delicious cocktails- a Lemondrop. mmm. Also, I am no photographer so I caught the flash in the mirror above the fireplace. Oh well!
Here's a photo of the hallway leading to the bar. The story is that the ghost of Julia Staab is frequently seen to be walking down the stair (which are behind me in this photo) and into the hallway below.

I learned about this story last year when I went on a Santa Fe Hearse Tour. This is an awesome nighttime activity where you tour around in a modified open-air hearse.

On the way back to the car, we passed another haunted area. Here's a creepy photo:

This is an abandoned mental hospital. No joke. Well, it was once a mental hospital, then at some point became a nursing home, but now it is mostly abandoned. The rooms are rented out to film production companies and other short-term enterprises. It's really the strangest thing because it's a large plot really close to downtown. One would think that it'd be a prime candidate for either remodel or tear down. It's probably the fact that it's incredibly haunted that detracts potential developers.

Happy Halloween everyone!

Early Snow!

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 01:49:03 GMT

The past week has been cold. Very cold. Winter has arrived!

I generally like the winter months. The beautiful white powder blankets, the cozy down blankets, and the freshly baked goods are a-ok by me. So I was not terribly upset to wake up and see this in my back yard:

SNOW!
It ended up snowing most of the day. Not a whole lot has stuck around, though, because the ground is still too warm. Nevertheless, I'm happy.
So, reminder to those coming to visit this winter- bring warm clothes!

Santa Fe Farmers Market

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 20:23:28 GMT

This morning I went to the Santa Fe Farmers Market . It's a fantastic market and this is the prime time of year for it. It is a year-round market. During the winter, though, it shrinks significantly and features mostly meats (including super delicious Pollo Real chicken, Pecos Valley Grassfed Beef, buffalo meat vendors such as LaMont, lamb meat and yarn, and yak), long-storing, winter vegetables, preserved foods, cosmetics and baked goods.

The Farmers Market has, within the past year or so, relocated to its permanent home at the fancy new Santa Fe Railyard. The Railyard is the shiny new happenin' place around here. When it's cold outside, the market moves indoors. But on a gorgeous day like today, it was mainly outside, like so:

Each farmer has a booth underneath the wooden awning.
The railyard is also the last stop of the Rail Runner train, which connects Santa Fe, Albuquerque, and Belen. I have never been on the Rail Runner. A predicament I hope to remedy tomorrow.

The above photo is the Rail Runner rolling into the Farmers Market. You can see the permanent Farmers Market building on the right, partially obscured by a tree.
The tourist train also leaves from the Railyard:

You may remember that K and I rode the tourist train for his birthday a few years ago. Here's a link to my old post on that adventure.

Anyway, I ended up with quite a bounty, including a gorgeous bouquet of flowers:

And 1000 pounds of fruit and vegetables:

(Starting from the carrots and moving clockwise --> bosc pears, loaf of wheat bread, 2 eggplants, 2 small watermelons, a couple of turnips, a head of green cabbage and some red beets).

Now, to start cooking it all up! Mmm.

The Richest Deadman Alive

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 17:32:04 GMT

Last night, I had the pleasure of going to see The Richest Deadman Alive, an original play presented by a local company here called Theater Grottesco. It was also “pay as you wish” night, which was nice because I’m a cheapskate. :)

The comic play is actually quite funny; I even laughed out loud at several points. I rarely laugh out loud when watching TV shows or movies, so take it from me that it was funny. What happens is a hapless man, plagued by severe allergies, is accidentally locked outside of his home by a well-meaning but dim delivery man. Because the outside world is full of asthma-inducing things, the hapless man dies from exposure to pollen. His wife and friends mourn his passing and lay flowers on his casket. Enter the twist. Apparently, the hapless husband had been paying on a life insurance policy for many years unbeknownst to his wife. The insurance agent comes to the wake, cuts the wife a giant check, and leaves. Enter the second twist: the flowers laid on the casket muster up some crazy-strong allergic reaction that sneezes the husband back to life. There is rejoicing… and scheming.

The husband and wife blow all of their money on a vacation. They return home, wondering what to do now that they are broke. Unwilling to get a job, they decide that insurance fraud is the way to go and they start cooking up plans to fake the hapless husband’s death again. Hilarity ensues.

The end is a little strange and contains some social commentary that is uncharacteristically poignant (and a little jarring) for this slapstick comedy. It was rushed and abrupt. Also, there was a some over-acting that caught me in an eye roll or two, but for the most part it was appropriate for the play which contained a good bit of physical comedy and puns. On the whole, The Richest Deadman Alive gets 2 thumbs up. Oh, the stage and set design is simple but genius.

The Richest Deadman Alive was great. It was entertaining and an all-around good time. I recommend going. It’s playing at the Armory of the Arts (on Old Pecos Trail) and is running until October 18th.

La Cieneguilla Petroglyph Adventure

Sun, 04 Oct 2009 22:43:29 GMT

This afternoon K and I decided to go on an adventure. We originally were thinking about heading to El Rito, which is a town near Abiquiu. El Rito was having a gallery crawl this weekend that sounded like fun. We opted not to, though, because El Rito is a several hours drive from us.

Instead, K heard of some petroglyphs that are practically in our backyard. They are on BLM land in La Cieneguilla, which is right off of Airport Road in Santa Fe. Neither K nor I had ever been there before and, I gotta say, it was pretty awesome.

To get there, continue on Airport Road past the intersection with 599. Pass the horse stable place and Calle Debra. You will see a nice fenced-in parking area on the right hand side of the road. Park there and the trail head and trail is very well-marked. Like so:

The trial moseys along a barbed wire fence for a while, but eventually cuts toward the escarpment. There were A TON of petroglyphs up there. I took some choice pics. Here's one of a cool looking bird and some deer/horses:

Here's a close up of a turtle/lizard/horny toad:

Here's K with a whole bunch of awesome ones (and some electric green moss):

And another one of K with the glyphs:

And me and some additional petroglyphs:

The trial climbs up the cliff side and then you scramble over rocks to walk the length of the cliff. It's a beautiful view up there. Those are the Sangre de Cristo mountains in the distance:

We ended up scurrying up some rocks to the top of the mesa and taking an alternate route back to the car. It was a lovely, short, easy to moderate hike around.

When we got back to the car, we picked up a bunch of cans which we collect and take to the scrap yard for cash-money. What is it with people throwing their garbage all over the place here?

Check out that sky!^

Edited to Add: I forgot to post this petroglyph of a dog/coyote:

I liked this one because I thought it looked like Lucy (she's the one on the right):

Fall Foliage

Sun, 04 Oct 2009 16:25:37 GMT

Yes, it is that time of year when everyone scurries up to the mountains to look at leaves. We are no different.

On Friday evening, K and I drove up to Aspen Vista which is in the Santa Fe National Forest. It takes about 20 minutes or so to get there from downtown Santa Fe. We went up to catch the sunset and hike around in the moonlight.

This is what we saw:

The story is this large aspen stand was created by a fire many years ago. The fire cleared out all of the pine trees which made room for the aspens. Over time, the aspen stand is getting smaller and smaller as the pine trees encroach. It's perfectly natural; the pine forest is the older stage of the forest.

We watched the sun go down, which was very beautiful. Unfortunately, I don't have mad camera skills. But I did the best I could:

We took the girls with us and a bottle of wine.

The girls hiking-

We crossed Big Tesuque creek:

We luxuriated:

We walked back to the car with the full moon:

It was beautiful and the girls liked it, too.

The following day K and I returned for the Big Tesuque Trail Run. A race, unfortunately, I was not able to participate in this year. K ran, though and beat his previous time. I took some photos with K's camera that I haven't downloaded yet. It will accompany a separate post hopefully later tonight.

Batman: The Dark Knight review

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 15:39:17 GMT

Ok, so here's the review I promised.

Let me preface this by saying that I'm not familiar with the Batman comic books. I know they exist in the general sense but I've never read one myself. I preferred to pilfer my sisters' Wonder Woman comics, personally.  So I come from a place of ignorance.

I thought the movie was "fine." Hey! Quit throwing tomatoes! Allow me to explain.

The Dark Knight has that same super-cool feel of the acclaimed Batman Begins. I really liked Batman Begins, actually. Gotham City is a skeevy place where everyone seems to be a corrupt, tortured soul. I dig. From this evil ooze springs The Joker, a role that was masterfully played by Heath Ledger. The Joker was, hands down, the BEST part of this movie. Ledger creates a funny yet deeply disturbing picture of The Joker, complete with a unique voice, consistent body twitches, and a sick sense of humor. Seriously, The Joker was fantastic.

The story is about how Batman sees hope in Harvey Dent, the new DA. Harvey isn't corrupt and vows to clean up Gotham. Batman realizes that Harvey can do what he can never do, because Harvey can be the face of change that everyone needs as Harvey doesn't have to hide behind a mask and fly around in the dark. Very emo, I know. Harvey also happens to be in a serious relationship with Rachel. As we know from the first movie, Batman pines for Rachel in a strange, sixth graderish way. Like, Batman thinks that if he reveals himself as Bruce Wayne Rachel will respect him or something, but he doesn't want to reveal himself, so he instead acts like a jerk towards her. My eyes just can't roll enough in disdain for the Rachel-Batman subplot. But, to get back on track, Harvey and Rachel are an item.  This results in Batman being conflicted over his need for Harvey (because Harvey will clean up Gotham) and his hate for Harvey (because Harvey's gettin' with his love interest, Rachel.)   The Joker appears on the scene suddenly and without backstory. The Joker is essentially hired by the Gotham mobsters to take out Batman. The mobsters, however, didn't really understand The Joker and his motives. It becomes clear that The Joker isn't really out to kill Batman. He just likes anarchy, chaos, and to prove that people are really all evil, deep down.  There is also a short but significant appearance of the villian known as Two Face. I don't really want to get into it because it will give away too much.

So, that's basically what's going on. The reason I only gave the movie a "fine" rating (on a scale of boo, meh, fine, good, and super rad) is because of the following:

1. It's really long. We're talking looooong. But more than it, it was needlessly long. I found myself eagerly waiting for the movie to end because, well, I was getting bored. Too many plot twists and extraneous characters can do that to a movie goer.

2. Rachel. I already talked about this above. I don't like her preachy, holier-than-thou attitude. She also serves no purpose but to be an object of Batman's pathetic pining and, eventually, and object with which to manipulate him. She's superfluous and all-around lame.

3. Batman's voice is laughably contrived. Bruce Wayne's voice is normal while Batman's voice is excessively gruff and deep. Oh, and spoiler alert- Bruce Wayne is Batman. They're the same person. Everytime Batman would speak my eyes would start rolling again. It was just that terrible.

4. There's too much stuff going on. This ties in with #1 above. There's the Rachel subplot, The Joker subplot, the Harvey Dent subplot, the Two Face subplot, the Police Commissioner sublot, the guy who makes all of Batman's stuff subplot, the convicts on a boat subplot, the Wayne Enterprises employee who threatens to expose the real Batman subplot, the mobsters getting played by The Joker subplot, the guy who steals the mobsters' money subplot, and the copy-cat Batmans subplot. Not to mention the random appearance of the Scarecrow for three minutes.

However, all of this negativity is neutralized by the strong positive points of the movie. These include:

1. The Joker. For real, his character is just that good.

2. Morgan Freeman's short appearances as the guy who makes all of Batman's gadgets. He seems like a real person. He also engineers cool stuff. When he's on screen, you will be entertained. Also, Freeman is part of the "Wayne Enterprises employee who threatens to expose the real Batman subplot" and has a very funny couple of lines.

3. The convicts on a boat subplot that mirrors The Prisoner's Dilemma.  In the movie, there are two boats. One has a bunch of convicts on it and the other contains regular citizens of Gotham. At a certain time, both boats will blow up. The only way to save your boat is the blow up the other boat. There's a cameo by Tom Lister, Jr. who I really like. He's best known for his portrayal of Deebo in the Friday movies.

So, there's my review. Has anyone else seen it? What do you think?

ETA: I found a video about the Batman's gruff voice that is pretty funny (and accurate, too!) Here's the link: http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1824339

Na na na na na na na na

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 19:28:02 GMT

As most of you know, I'm a refined movie goer. I'm very exclusive and I only find worth in foreign films. As such, K and I just got tickets for the new Batman movie, The Dark Knight! It's opening night tomorrow and we got tickets for 9:50pm. That will give me enough time to take a nap after work because I'll be staying up way past my bedtime. I'll be sure to write a review.

Yes, I'm as alive as ever.

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 00:20:05 GMT

Stuff is good in the good ol' City of Holy Faith. I just spent a lovely birthday eating Spanish tapas, throwing a riotously fun BBQ at my house, playing obscene amounts of Wii sports and Super Mario Galaxy, and checking out the wares at the International Folk Art Market. We bought a couple of cards and a nice wood block print by Jose Borges. We're getting it framed. Those of you who will be visiting us can check it out. I also got a couple of pillow cases that are embroidered with strange looking animals. The only animal I can identify is an elephant. The other animals look like some sort of jaguar/pig/horse combination. Scary and perfect for our new, as of yet unpurchased, sofa. I'm not even sure what country these pillowcases originated from as I bought them at a multinational UNESCO table. Based on the animals, though, I'd have to say it was sewn by Umberto Eco.

In fact, the birthday party is still going strong. K and I may check out famed local storyteller, Joe Hayes, at the Wheelwright Museum on Friday. Then, we're off to see Radamisto at the Santa Fe Opera. Radamisto is an Italian opera written by Handel. It's described as "a musico-military spectacular" that celebrates the power of fidelity in marriage. O...K. I'm sure it will be great (how could it not at the awesome opera house?) despite it's off-sounding description.

That's all that's fit to print!

For those of you concerned about my lack of photos on my post, it's because I permanently misplaced my camera at a drinking establishment several months ago. This is extremely strange considering I never lose things. Seriously. I'm very organized.

I'm still alive!

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 15:06:59 GMT

Ok, I know I've let my LJ languish for a month. It's inexcusable, I know.

So, let me tell you about what I've been up to in a concise bullet point list.

- K and I went up to Boulder for Memorial Day. We ran (I walked) the Bolder Boulder, which is gigantic 10K race. We saw a bunch of pals and had a fantastic time.

- We adopted Frank the Tank, our new african pigmy hedgehog. He's somewhat malcontented; he's always huffing and trying to spike us. That silly Frank!

- We've made some progress on our floors. As many of you know from my incessant whining, K and I are replacing our wall to wall carpet with engineered hardwood. It's only about 700 square feet of work but it's been a painfully slow and annoying experience. Let me just say this, I will NEVER buy from Home Depot again.

- We went rafting in Taos 2 weeks ago. One of K's pals is a rafting guide, so we got to live it up with a *private* trip. That makes us practically celebrities! The river was flowing very well because of the copious amounts of snow we got this winter.

Ok, that's about all I can think of right now.

Come on ride the train!

Wed, 07 May 2008 14:12:21 GMT

Recently, K had a birthday. He's the big 32 now. But he doesn't look a day over 31, does he? :)

To celebrate, we took a Santa Fe Railroad train ride from Santa Fe to the Galisteo Basin. We've been meaning to do it for a while because it looks so cool. They have two coach cars that are old wooden passenger cars from the 20's. There is also a "silver" class car that was built in the 50's. We took the silver class car because we're high rollers. Apparently, the silver car was once Liz Taylor's.
Separating the cars is a flat, open car for people to observe the scenery and wave to passers-by.
Here's Kev on the flat car:

Now, here's me:

You can see the bright yellow engine car. This was taken near the Galisteo Basin. It was a beautiful day for a train ride.
I packed a lunch for us to eat on the train as the ride took a little over two hours. Onlooking passengers were quite jealous of our vittles, considering that the bar on the train only sold Cheetos and Funyons.

It was pretty darned fun.

Up next: Guest Blogger Frank the Tank

Home Improvement Ninjas

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 15:28:51 GMT

Sorry it's been so long since my last post. It's been a crazy month.

1. Kevin and I moved into our new house! Yay! Even though I despise every aspect of moving house, I'm very happy that we're in our house now. If you need my new address, email me or message me here.

2. I went to Hobbs for a week and I got to fly on a really small plane. I actually have pictures of this. I'll post in more detail later.

3. I went to Washington, D.C. on a work-related boondoggle. I saw my fam and friends. Can you believe that Cheeky McGee is already 8 months old?!?

4. We had our first home disaster. Of course, it happened on a Sunday evening. A valve connecting to our water heater broke causing water to flood the garage. Luckily, nothing was damaged except some carpet that is soon going to be torn out and replaced with nice wood. Once the wood is in, though, it better not happen again.

5. We had a joint garage sale with the in-laws. It was very successful and sort of fun, actually. If only it hadn't snowed the day before. Brrr!

6. Kev had a birthday! We went on a train ride from Santa Fe to Lamy. It was ton of fun. I have pictures of this, too, and I'll post in more detail later. Perhaps I'll do another photo montage post in the near future.

7. Two words: stripping wallpaper. Time consuming and not fun.

So, in sum, we've been busy little bees! We also don't have internet at our house yet and I happened to have lost my camera recently. I'll get back on the livejournal bandwagon soon, though.

Pomp and Circumstance

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 16:39:48 GMT

I'm a very proud dog-mom! Lucy graduated from Beginning Dog Training class yesterday. She did *very* well and she even got a diploma.

She had the largest crowd of supporters (maybe even larger than at my college graduation... hmmm.) All of the commotion made her a little distracted and she refused to perform her roll-over trick, but all of her other tricks and commands she performed 100%.

After the graduation, Lucy (and Ginger, too, because I couldn't very well leave out the Old One) went for a walk around the neighborhood and received some extra special treats.

Good dog!

T minus 7

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 14:16:12 GMT

So, I think that I can safetly post about this now. I've been waiting so as not to jinx it. Kevin and I are 7 days away from being homeowners! WOo hoo!

We found this lovely house. It's a territorial style one-level house. It has 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. Well, let me just show you some pictures.

Here's the front of the house. That big tree is a Pinon tree- so we'll be able (in theory) to harvest pine nuts. Mmm.

Here's one of the nicest features of the house. A sunroom! It's entirely glass, so it gets lots of lovely light and warmth. It overlooks this fantastic garden that the owners have painstakingly raised.

Here's another picture of the garden:

Apparently it has over 35 different varieties of irises in there. It also has a plum, pear, and a peach tree that allegedly fruit! Yay!

We close next week on the house. The current owners want us to do a walk through soon so they can explain how to take care of the garden- what fertilizer goes where, etc.

I'm really excited. The house is modest but still much bigger than where we live now. We'll have a guest room so once we're settled, visits are in order!

Fav Web Pages

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 03:15:28 GMT

I happened to stumble upon this website: www.bookcrossing.com

Essentially, you register a book that you've already read and ready to get rid of. You "release" it- which basically means you leave it in a public place for another person to find. Then, when other people find it, they go on to bookcrossing and say where they found it and where it's going. It's basically the book version of wheresgeorge.com.

I released my first book yesterday. I hope someone picks it up and registers it! It'd be cool to see if it floats around Santa Fe or if it gets taken to some exotic locale.

I love the idea of bookcrossing. Not only is it cool to see where your books travel if they get picked up and registered, but it helps with my other recent obsession- decluttering my house!

A Very New Mexico Drive

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 01:12:24 GMT

Today, while driving back from Alamogordo, NM, I saw a very elusive New Mexican object. It was a WIPP truck! It must have been carrying radioactive material from somewhere up north as I saw the truck near Glorieta, NM. There are nuclear triggers produced in Los Alamos, NM and the radioactive waste is trucked somewhere down south for disposal. I could almost feel my face melting off as I drove by.

Here's a pic I stole off the Los Alamos National Labs website depicting a WIPP truck driving toward Espanola:

#1 K!

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 01:39:10 GMT

K had been hinting to me for a while that he was planning something "big" for Valentine's day. Last week he started sending me these cryptic clues via email. All I knew was that I was supposed to meet him in Albuquerque on Friday night with a toothbrush. I ended up forgetting to bring a toothbrush.

After a delicious (srsly) dinner at La Cuisine French Bistro in Albuquerque and walking past this hilarious building:
See? It looks like it says "Hendren Blog." hilarious! But I digress...
Kev revealed the big surprise...

A TRIP TO LAS VEGAS! Squee!

We headed out on a Saturday morning flight. I had no idea but Vegas' airport is basically right on the strip.
K had planned our stay at the Luxor. The Luxor is this neat hotel/casino/restaurant complex that is built in the shape of a giant black glass pyramid. The decor on the inside is all ancient Egyptian-like.
Here's the view from our hotel room:

Cool sphnix, eh? One of Luxor's acts right now is Carrot Top, no joke.
We spent a few hours shopping at The Forum (Caesar's Palace) and Planet Hollywood. Here I am taking a breather after scoring big-time at Nanette Lepore.

I am sitting in front of a really cool aquarium. The aquarium was gigantic like everything else in Vegas.
We did a bit of walking around. This is the front of the Bellagio.

If you notice, to the center-left of this photo are a pair of what can only be ninjas. Here's a blow up:

I'm perplexed by this because ninjas move too fast for the naked eye. But what else could 2 guys in all black in a small inflatable raft outside of the Bellagio be, if not ninjas?
K had another surprise up his sleeve. He had arranged a helicopter tour up and down The Strip at night. It was really awesome. This is the view of the Luxor from the Excalibur, where the helicopter shuttle picked us up.

We got all dolled up and rolled over to the Mandalay Bay where we checked out the thousands of people leaving the UFC fight and had a great bite to eat at Red, White and Blue.
Here I am in front of the Luxor, waiting for the little tram to shuttle us over to the Mandalay.

I'm wearing the fruits of my shopping in that pic. That is the sphnix behind me.

We left on Sunday afternoon after eating at another great restaurant at the Mandalay Bay called the Border Grill.

It was a fantastic trip and I already can't wait to go back. Unfortunately, K and I didn't get our Superbowl bets down in time because the lines at the casino sports books were extremely long. It really was a shame because we would have won, too.
K and I already have plans to improve our blackjack skills by practicing at the local casinos here in New Mexico.

Happy Valentine's everybody!

Weekends

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 04:10:01 GMT

K and I had a great time in 'Burque. We ate at Siam Cafe with my pal, Tee. Siam Cafe is an unobtrusive little place off of Osuna in Albuquerque. My rating? Two thumbs up!

Tee and I headed to the Albuquerque Art Museum and we checked out the Ancient Egypt exhibit. The museum itself is a beautiful building. The Egypt exhibit was sort of small but I liked it. I liked eavesdropping on the docent's tour, especially her bit about Hatshepsut (recall my Halloween post of yesteryear?) We also scoped out the permanent exhibits featuring New Mexican artists of such renown as Maria Martinez.

After the museum, K had a special surprise planned! We went with some pals to Starry Night at the Albuquerque Natural History Museum. The museum opened after hours for an Hors d'oeuvers buffet and cash bar. Then, there was a 30 minute planetarium show that featured the currently visible constellations. After the planetarium show, there were telescopes set up on the observation deck outside. It was purdy neat.

Here we are in front of a star map.
After the planetarium, we headed over to our pal D-o-double-G's house for a libation. D-o-double has a motorcycle so I tested out the reliability of his helmet for him 'cause I'm nice like that:

All in all, it was a good day. K's parents looked after The Girls (Lucille and Ginger). When we picked them up, their expressions were something like this:

Nice, Ging, nice.

I forgot to add this picture!

Here's kev and some prehistoric crocodile models. K is the one on the left, in case you can't tell.

Movies and Talkies

Sat, 26 Jan 2008 16:30:30 GMT

K and I saw Cloverfield last weekend. Cloverfield is a newly released movie in which an alien monster attacks New York City. No, it's not Godzilla. The movie is entirely shot with a camcorder from the viewpont of a participant - something like The Blair Witch Project. My opinion? Thumbs down. The "avant garde" camera work was not only vomit-inducingly shaky, but it was also a cheap trick. I mean, hello? It's been done before... in The Blair Witch Project! Seriously, though, it was so shaky and jarring that K and I both felt nauseated for the remainder of the evening. Boo, hiss!

The past work week, however, was productive and totally un-shaky. K spent the week doing some auditing in El Paso, TX. Yes, this is the same El Paso of "Pass the Old El Paso" salsa. K seems to like El Paso, contrary to every other person I've ever met.

I spent the week here in Santa Fe. I slaved over an oral argument on a Motion for Summary Judgment. I prepared, practiced in front of the dogs, reviewed case law, and all that jazz. Then, mere hours before the hearing, it was canceled. Boo, hiss! Which means I'll likely have to do this all over again when the hearing is reset for a few weeks from now.

In other news, I plan on spending the day in Albuquerque today. I rarely go down to Albuquerque. This is because it's an hour away and far inferior to Santa Fe. That being said, I decided to tag along with K today (he's doing some kind of financial statement training at work) and hit up a museum or two. Maybe get some lunch, too, in the Vietnamese part of town. Maybe check out Talin Market for any bento box materials. I'll let you know how it goes.

Like sands through an hourglass

Sat, 19 Jan 2008 17:32:22 GMT

This week hasn't been all that exciting. Shocking, I know. First, It's been extremely cold here. Santa Fe gets plenty of snow but usually we also have days of relative warmth to break up the snow and ice. Not this year! It's really quite bitter cold. Second, K and I have been very busy with work. For me, at least, it seems like all those due dates that should have fallen over the holidays were pushed back until basically now. That's cool, though, because I'm all about billable hours n' stuff. Finally, K and I have been muddling through the complicated and positively un-thrilling world of mortgage pre-approvals. No, we haven't found "the" house yet. But we want the pre-approval so when we do find the house we want, we can act quickly and negotiate cunningly. Although, considering the way the credit markets are collapsing, who the heck knows what's going to happen.

Anyway, because I know that the three people who read this livejournal really only come here to look at photos, I'll add a few from last week.

K and I hit up local hang out Tia Sophia's (often just called "Tia's.") I think this was last Saturday late morning.

Here's me contemplating the wide wide world of getting gigantic loans.

And, I leave you with this last photograph of the girls. They basically look like this all the time. It's a bit disconcerting to have four eyeballs staring you down when you're simply trying to eat a cheese sandwich.

"Me wants cheez!"

A Christmas Retrospective

Mon, 14 Jan 2008 00:58:17 GMT

For Christmas, K and I retreated to Washington, DC to visit my fam. One day, we did the tourist thing and caught the local sights.

First, we hoofed it down to the Lincoln Memorial.
The Lincoln has a lot of great aspects. The Emancipation Proclamation and the Gettysburg Address are chiseled in stone. The larger-than-life statute of Lincoln is impressive.

An often-missed bit of historical importance is also displayed on the Lincoln. The phrase, "I have a dream" is etched on the step upon which Martin Luther King made his famous speech of the same name.

Here's K standing on the MLK step, lookin' all serious:

We then walked through the Vietnam Memorial and headed towards the Washington Memorial.

Our destination was the National Archives. Unfortunately, I didn't take any photos of the Constitution. Kev did and posted it on his LJ. (brennando)
On our way to the Archives, we meandered past various gigantic federal buildings. Here I am in front of the IRS:

The photo is sort of hard to read, but the building inscription says, "Taxes are what we pay for a civilized nation." Hmm. I'll just leave it at that.
After the archives, we tooled around the National Galleries. There we viewed the permanent collection in the East Wing. Here's K in front of some Rothko paintings:

We also checked out the current exhibit featuring Edward Hopper. This exhibit was quite extensive and featured all of Hopper's most well known works. Color me impressed.
As we headed back through George Washington University's campus, I came across a statute of their "riverhorse."

Which, to me, looked a lot like a hippo.

A Thanksgiving Retrospective

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 04:04:11 GMT

I went home to DC for Thanksgiving. While there, I went to my 10 year high school reunion. (It was fun.) I also did the following activities:

1. Ice Skating

I went skating with my sister, Tree. I don't know where she came from because that girl can skate! And when I say I was "skating," it was barely more than me trying not to crack my tailbone while flailing about on the ice. Tree, on the other hand, can skate backwards! She can also skate on one leg! She's, like, Katarina Witt or something.

2. Saw some seahorses at the National Aquarium

Yes, I took this phenomenal photo. I went with my sister, Marg and my new niece, Cheeky McGee.

I can tell she's going to be a genius already. Look how smart she is, looking at those fish swimming around!

3. Spent quality time with Cheeky McGee
Cheeky McGee was born a mere 3 months before my visit. This was my first face-to-face contact with her. I think she likes me.

I am very serious about my Auntly duties. These duties include cooing, cuddling, and occasionally napping, too.

Isn't her bib just fab?

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas...

Fri, 14 Dec 2007 02:48:51 GMT

Isn't this picture just darling?

The picture quality is sort of bad, and I apologize for it. It is a picture of a picture.
There's old Ginger and little Lucy sitting on Santa's lap. Isn't it the cutest?

Kev and I were taking a walk around Canyon Road this weekend just to see what we could see. As we were strolling along in the rain, I spotted this neat old truck sitting in someone's driveway.

So I snapped a photo.

K and I ended up moseying down to a tea shop to warm up and have a bite to eat. The name of it is escaping me right now. You'll just have to take my word for it that it was cozy and nice.

Colorado delight

Sat, 08 Dec 2007 01:26:38 GMT

Last weekend, K and I had the distinct pleasure of enjoying an awesome weekend in Durango, CO. I skeedaddled out of work early on Friday and we hit the road North. It was a weird day. The roads were pretty foggy the entire way. And, let's just say this area is not known for moisture of any sort to just be sitting around.
Here's a pic of the road:

We rented this awesome cabin that was between the town of Durango and the ski mountain with our pals:

(From left to right: Nate-dogg, Kev, Lundy, and Shappy.)
The cabin had "interesting" decor. Like this stool/table thingy made of cowboy boots and sass:

The cabin had a sweet hot tub. After the long drive up, we imbibed a few adult beverages and kicked it in our cabin's sweet hot tub. Not bad.
Our friend Sutt, who lives in Durango/Pagosa Springs, joined us on Friday, too. On Saturday morning, we awoke to find ourselves covered in a thick layer of beautiful snow. Here's a pic of Sutt chillaxin' in the window still; note the snow outside:

We sledded and threw snowballs around for a good two hours before we decided to venture out into the snow for a late lunch. As per Sutt's recomendation, we hit up the Old Schoolhouse pub. We crammed our faces with greasy pizza:

And we played some pool and shuffle board. Lundy beat me soundly at shuffle board.

The snow was really coming down, so we cut out of the bar and headed back to the cabin where we started out the night with some dancing. I did not know this before, but Shappy was, like, a professional dancer before she became and accountant. Proof:

Lundy and Shappy were wise enought to bring their karaoke machine. We musta done karaoke for hours.
Let me see if I can set up a chronology of the evening:
hour 1:

Still mostly paying attention; energy levels high; no visible beer cans.
Hour 2:

K out of it; visible beer can; signs of struggling
Hour 3:

Mulling about; K mumbling into microphone; visible imbibing; clothing strewn asunder

All said and done, a great night.

On Sunday, K and I had to set out earlier than the rest so we could attend an event in Santa Fe that evening. We were lucky in that the snow had stopped and the dirt road up to our cabin had been plowed. Check out these awesome vistas:

It was really breathtaking: