Monday, November 24, 2008

Bearded wonder

About every two months or so I always get the "crazy" idea of growing a beard. Honestly it's not as much a conscious effort as it is laziness. I just get tired of shaving frequently and so me and a lot of my friends kind of "trim" for a while. We like the "scruff" look I guess.

But, anyways - I typically get to the point where it's ugly and I think "ok let's try it again" or I just shave.

This last week has been the itchy annoying phase and I don't like it, but I've never really toughed it out all the way. So, at least for now I'm going to try.

I don't really know if I pull the beard off very well - but I figured I have to see it through just so I'll know. Unless it sucks and you know it, but are afraid to tell me.

Here are some pics of my "beard".

Pardon the photography and the lazy eye ;) (Kath/Chris)

I thought I would include a picture of a really nice looking beard.

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Done!

I just finished another project. Jay bought me 2 canvases last year for Christmas that have been hanging blank on our walls ever since. On Halloween, I finally started on the big one and just finished:


As seen hanging above the couch:
(It's hanging really high because I had Jay help me put the wire on the canvas and then accidentally painted it up-side-down...I'll eventually move the wire so it hangs farther down.)

Admittedly, it matches absolutely nothing else in our apartment. For those of you who remember/took part in the Walton painting, you understand what an undertaken these "modern pointillism" paintings actually are! To do this, I found a picture of Houston and pixelated it to be made up of .5" x .5" squares and then limited it to 7 colors. Then it's just like paint by number on a canvas that has been divided up into a grid with .5" pixels. It seriously takes forever, though. It would be awesome to get it silk-screen printed onto canvas...

Close up:
From Wikipedia: Pointillism is a style of painting in which small distinct points of primary colors create the impression of a wide selection of secondary and intermediate colors. See? Really like pointillism aided by Photoshop!

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Just Read:

Several people have recommended and given me books lately to read. Since being in school, I haven't exactly had a lot of time to read non-school books, but I figured I should get reading so I can return all these books!

I just finished this one that was given to me by a guy I tutor in Data Analysis:

It's a cute little book about leadership/management. Apparently, the three secrets in life can be summed up in squirrels, beavers, and geese. More specifically, the idea is that organizations are more efficient when everyone has a sense of purpose (squirrels), has ownership/control of goals (beavers), and encourages one another (geese).

The guy who gave this to me believes in it so much that he sent an email to our program director to give me "goose honks" (and he actually used those words in the email) for my help with tutoring him. But I will say, I felt good about helping him out just by receiving a little recognition. Guess it works, huh?

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

My Friends

Good thing Kath and company come here because we don't get out of here enough. Here's our new little friend Lucy:
She's a very sweet little baby who actually likes to be held and snuggled, unlike Hudson when he was a baby. She loves her Hudson and her mama...and tolerated us as well.

Making our cookies. He actually "helps" now, so it's a much messier process:
He's so grown up now. For the first several years of his life, I literally saw him every single day (or just about), so it's weird to only see him incrementally now. He actually let's me hug and kiss on him still...didn't even worry about whether there were lipstick marks or not. He still loves numbers and counting. Little accountant in the making...

Monday, November 17, 2008

Stomach Virus? Food Poisoning?

I hate being sick to my stomach. The nausea, the sweating, the hurling, and the hugging of porcelain. Now imagine you are at a friends house - and your friend is a single musician who doesn't necessarily keep the cleanest bathroom.

Last night was awful. Linz had to come pick me up. I still don't feel that great right now and it's almost 7 p.m.

No matter what I do when I get sick to my stomach it always takes me a long time to recover. Especially with eating.

Being sick isn't fun.

The Lindsay Update:
Ok Jay doesn't even begin to paint the picture here. His friend calls me at 11 to tell me Jay can't make it home and then calls me back a half hour later to come get him.

When I get there, Jay is laying across this nasty toilet that hasn't been cleaned in who knows how long. So we go get him Gatorade...we sit around watching Adult Swim cartoons, Iron Chef, Hook... Jay in the bathroom throwing up the whole time.

Finally at 1, Jay falls asleep on the bathroom floor (which hasn't been cleaned since probably a year before the toilet). So I let him sleep for half an hour in the bathroom and then convince him we can make it home. We take a trash bag along for the ride.

All I could think about when he got into bed last night around 2 was that his skin had touched so many dirty bathroom surfaces and was now touching our sheets. Come to think of it, I think I'll go change our sheets.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Apartment Update

So I had a long talk with our apartment manager.

Without going into detail here is what is happening:

We got a brand new AC unit installed today and next month we are receiving a $200 rebate towards rent.

So remember kids............ sometimes it pays to complain.

Just be nice about it.

Apartments - Ugh

I have literally called our apartment office over 20 times, requested online service, and asked to speak to a manager on four different occasions about our A/C.

Last night was like the 10th night Linz and I have spent sweating in our 85 degree apartment. I am so pissed to say the least. For a long time the A/C unit would leak horribly and before that it didn't work at all when it would break. For the last six months however it will run and stay on, but without cooling. So imagine this: You get up and go to work at 8am and come home to find your unit has been running all day long without cooling. We have had electric bills over $270 in a month for a one bedroom 850 sq. ft. apartment - and obviously when I would notice it wasn't cooling I would turn it off and not just let it run. On five different ocassions it occured while Linz and I were gone for more than a day.

I am talking to a manager today and asking for some kind of a rebate towards next months rent. This is bull shit. What do you think?