First things first, I’m working on redecorating my site, and fixing a few things with my photos. Things will be in flux for a few days.

At this moment in time I’m enjoying the view from my new cube. I need to take a picture of the vastness of the windows that I am now exposed to. I keep getting distracted by the birds flying over.

A tons of posting is coming very soon. So much media to process and upload. So much sleep to find time for. So much joy to still attempt to contain and process. My five day tour was some of the absolute most fun ever. Bonerama is the greatest. I love all of them so much. The music was just beyond. How do they keep taking it to the next level? Julie and I had an indescribable amount of fun in so many places. I am a very blessed person to get to follow my bliss even if its just a few times a year.

How am I supposed to work today? I’m still a musical mess!

This is a true statement, I am not exaggerating for effect:

When I drove home from work yesterday, one of the various business clock/thermometers I pass by read 56 degrees.
Today, at basically the same time of day, that same thermometer read 0.

1. I collect spoons.
2. Chocolate mint is my favorite flavor, but please, none of that fake green ice cream.
3. My first food was Cheerios.
4. I still have Cheerios for breakfast most days.
5. I prefer to go to the movie theater up to an hour early so I can get the specific seat I want in the middle of the theater.
6. I keep all my movie ticket stubs in a notebook.
7. On average, I see twenty four movies a year in the theater.
8. My high school English teacher, Ms. Holcomb, taught me to spell out numbers rather than write them numerically if they are under one hundred or so (I don’t remember the exact cut-off). To this day, if I type a number with numbers instead of words, while I may do it, I still think about how to spell it out.
9. I am good at baking and obsessed with cupcakes.
10. I have a birthmark on my right shin that resembles the state of Indiana.
11. I am not a night person or a morning person.
12. Schindler’s List and The Princess Bride are my two favorite movies.
13. I was a statistics major when I started college, having never had a statistics class in my life.
14. I thought I would be a sports statistician and wanted to work for the Chicago Bulls.
15. I changed my major to computer science after one semester.
16. Now I do website work and have had the same job for the past seven years.
17. I find genealogy fascinating. (Love Geni.com!)
18. I am a member of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe. I am half Native American.
19. I am a quarter Welsh.
20. I have kissed the Blarney Stone.
21. I have been a Dallas Cowboys fan all my life.
22. I sleep with a teddy bear I got when I was around ten years old. His name is Charmin.
23. I love to take pictures and think I’m pretty good at it for an amateur.
24. I have season tickets for Iowa Hawkeye football.
25. I have seen Harry Connick, Jr. perform 47 times (really). I am familiar to him when he sees me.
26. I play the tenor saxophone. Though these days it’s only once a year for Iowa Homecoming.
27. I wear the same jewelry/accessories everyday: three rings, a necklace, my ReNew Orleans bracelet, and simple gold wire earrings.
28. I take my rings off the minute I get home and put them on my dresser.
29. On my necklace is a gold cross and a tigerhawk. I got the cross because it looked like the one Dana Scully wore on The X-Files.
30. The X-Files is my absolute favorite tv show. Ever.
31. When it originally aired, I wouldn’t answer my door or my phone when The X-Files was on TV.
32. My cat MacGyver is named after the television show which was still airing when I picked her out of the litter.
33. When I was fifteen, I wrote an angry letter to the ABC network in response to the later seasons of MacGyver because I didn’t like the changes they made to the characters on the show and thought the quality of writing had really declined.
34. When I was a teenager, I wrote a letter to my favorite mystery author (Lilian Jackson Braun) to inquire if she was sick or dead after she didn’t publish a book for awhile. She wrote back and said she was fine (and has since published many more books).
35. I dislocated my kneecap twice in high school; once in Spanish class and once at a speech contest.
36. When I was in 5th grade I burped regularly for about two months.
37. I was unconsciously swallowing air and once I learned to control it, I could burp on cue.
38. I was once commended for my burping prowess at a large group speech contest.
39. There were thirty five people in my high school class.
40. I was the valedictorian of my high school class. My speech was Star Trek themed.
41. I must have plain Colgate toothpaste in order to brush my teeth.
42. I met some of my best friends online.
43. I met my oldest friend in first grade. We’re still close.
44. I didn’t drink until several months after my twenty first birthday.
45. I am allergic to live pine (makes me break out), but I insist on having a real Christmas tree. Which should touch the ceiling of whatever room it is displayed in.
46. I am an unabashed fan of Apple and all the fabulous products they produce.
47. I was in marching band in high school and college and I still miss it.
48. I loved wearing a uniform and was insane when people didn’t have their pants hemmed to the right length.
49. I love love love wearing fancy dresses and gowns.
50. I cannot stand uncomfortable or cheap shoes.
51. I learned to read when I was three or four.
52. I come from a family of readers and Scrabble players.
53. I have a tattoo of a fleur de lis on the inside of my left ankle.
54. I am alarmed at the number of people who don’t know what a fleur de lis is. Like they’ve never seen one ever before.
55. Clue is my favorite board game.
56. I know how to stage a crucifixion pageant and how to make fake blood several different ways.
57. I danced (ballet and tap) for many years as a child and then again for a couple of years as an adult. I wish I was still dancing.
58. I was a wrestling cheerleader in high school.
59. I worked in a couple of research labs in college. I had no clue what anyone did in the labs.
60. The only bone I’ve every broken was my left pinky finger. Emily DeWitt broke it when I was in eighth grade because I threatened to tell her boyfriend what she got him for Christmas. I couldn’t play G# for the Christmas concert that year.
61. I collect movie posters.
62. I was conceived in Guam.
63. I studied abroad in Wales for a semester.
64. Hearst Castle is probably my favorite place in the world to visit for a day. I think I could give the tours there.
65. I have a very good sense of direction and rarely ever get lost.
66. I hate that I say the word ‘like’ all the time.
67. My other bad habit is biting my fingernails.
68. I designed and created decorations for a lot of my band and choir concerts in high school.
69. I redesigned the music stands my high school jazz band used based on the design that Harry’s big band used at the time.
70. I am very opinionated when it comes to hymns and how they should be sung.
71. I love to sing Christmas carols.
72. I used to be a good singer and could hit really high notes.
73. I have been to a Britney Spears concert. It was hilarious and mended a friendship.
74. I cannot abide plain walls with nothing hanging on them.
75. I essentially stopped listening to the radio in 2003 after I got back from Mardi Gras in New Orleans.
76. My favorite band is Bonerama. I used to fly to New York City just to see them play for a night or two. (But now they come closer to me. Thanks guys!)
77. Peanut butter sandwiches are to be constructed thusly: if using white bread; first butter, then peanut butter; if using wheat bread, first peanut butter, then honey; finally, fold in half, one slice at a time
78. I would love to get dressed up for Halloween each year, but I never have anywhere to go if I was dressed up.
79. Other jobs I’d like to have include: wedding planner or make-up artist.
80. I love snow!
81. I am a bit obsessive about recycling. I have been for years. I just find it so satisfying to sort things and then put them in all the separate bins at the recycling site.
82. I love to iron. It drives me nuts when guys have wrinkled pockets on their shirts.
83. My best physical attribute is my hair.
84. The first thing I notice about guys is their hair. I love good hair.
85. I think live music is truly one of the joys of life.
86. I attended several Star Trek conventions when I was in high school.
87. I love a good roller coaster.
88. I have been caving in underground caves in Wales.
89. My mom taught me how to knit a few years ago and I’m working on my skills.
90. My favorite real castle is Llansteffan Castle.
91. A dream of mine is to travel to Egypt. I’ve been interested in ancient Egypt since I was young.
92. I never know how to describe my interest in literature and films relating to the Holocaust. Its not something one “enjoys” and saying “fascinated” also seems wrong.
93. I’m obsessed with organizing my photos (both real and digital) and all my music (very large iTunes library).
94. I like to eat bologna one slice at a time, by itself, rolled up. My Aunt Margaret taught me to eat it like that when I was a kid and no other way seems right.
95. I could eat chocolate chip cookies everyday. They are the perfect dessert.
96. My favorite food is fried chicken.
97. My favorite comedy bit ever is called ‘The Four Yorkshiremen.’ There were ‘hundred and fifty of us living in shoebox in middle of the road. I’m laughing just thinking about it.
98. In high school my favorite singer was Bing Crosby and my favorite musician was Benny Goodman. This was in the 1990′s, not the 1940′s.
99. This year I completed a life goal of seeing every movie that has won the Academy Award for Best Picture.
100. One of the coolest things ever was when I got to attend the Red Carpet arrivals for the 2007 Academy Awards in Hollywood. It was surreal.

After the final rec show of the season, the members of the Hawkeye Marching Band were taking photos with their friends, their sections, their families, ect, before heading out to their last pre-game. It brought back memories of my not-so-long ago final year in band. Except this would’ve never been overheard when I was in band:

Mom to son: Honey, do you want your picture with Mr. Kastens?

My mom and I recoiled in horror. I remember when I had my 4th and 5th years in band, and LKK looked physically pained to have to shake my hand and fake a smile in my general direction.

I was in the band.
Back when the director didn’t like me or my friends because we threatened his grip on mediocrity.

My back hurts tonight. After I went to the chiropractor last night. So I’m all paranoid that she injured me in someway.

Tomorrow morning I take Mac to the vet to see what she’s dying of now. Joy.

I need to go to the movies. Its been over two months since I’ve been to the theater and I think its contributing to my mental state.

That’s really all I’ve got.

Off to watch Bones and House while they’re still on. Hollywood needs to pay the writers what they deserve so I have shows to watch come January. Though its not like I don’t have a backlog of movies that wouldn’t last me a year if I had no TV to watch.

This is from a physics lab at Iowa in college. I don’t know what its measuring or what lab it was from. I took Physics I & II (with Calculus) in college because I was going to get a BS degree in comp sci instead of a BA (they offered both, the only difference was how many additional science classes you took), I got the BA instead, but still suffered through all the physics courses. Jeff, G-reg, and Frosty were either in one or both of the classes with me. The professor was this horrible waste of space who tortured us with multiple-choice exams where all your calculations meant nothing. The labs were fun, I remember that. I also remember studying and working on problem sets in some of the lecture rooms in what was then the new business building. They didn’t lock the rooms back then (all of ten years ago) but they did start shortly afterwards. Gee I wonder why.

Frictionless, massless planes. And ice skaters. Good times.

I also got a new blender that was on clearance. My old blender is the one I had had since college, and while it was fine functionally, it smells like burning when I use it. Which isn’t really what one looks for in a small appliance.

Finally, I tried to make pancakes for dinner tonight. Tried and failed. I don’t know why but I’m just terrible at making pancakes. I can bake so well, but I cannot get pancakes right. They’re either undercooked or burned. We won’t even speak of my attempts at french toast in the past.

It was kind of an odd day. I hope tomorrow is less weird.

That was me this morning. I don’t think my person got as good as a scrub as it usually does.