Tidbits

We've been busy, but we always seem to be busy...so in my ongoing effort to increase the frequency of blog updates, here are some random tidbits on us.

Last night Josh and I went to the gym.  I definitely felt a moment of shame when our favorite staff member said: "Hi! How's it going?  Its been awhile".  We have been doing a lot of exercising outside the gym, but he was right, it had been quite awhile.

I've been doing a lot of A.M. running.  I am not, nor have I ever been, a runner.  But, it feels great, and Leonard and I have been training together.  He is turning out to be a fantastic motivator!

The water at my office is awful, even with a Brita filter.  Since we moved into the current office, I have been carting in my own water from home.  About a month ago I launched a campaign with my boss for a water cooler, it was successful, and it has been wonderful.  Today, the water cooler is empty, I'm surprised at how much of a damper this has put on my day.  The water truck comes back tomorrow; give thanks for the small things!


On Friday we went to Wicked at the Paramount with Josh's sister and her boyfriend.  We both loved it.  I have seen Cats and Phantom of the Opera, but it was Josh's first musical.  It was a production in the best sense of the word.  The costumes, the lighting, the set design, the characters, it was all fantastic.  There is nothing quite like hearing someone belt out a song in that kind of environment.  If you get the chance to see it, I highly recommend going.

Call me crazy, but I love the rain.  The weather has been terrible here, and I couldn't be happier with it!

Josh has been working on a garage reorganization.  Right now, the garage is in disarray because he had to take everything down to build new shelving.  It really is amazing how much space all that stuff takes up when its not organized!  It may take a little while, but like all of his projects, it will look fantastic when he is finished.

Ski season at Crystal opens this weekend.  I think we may skip it and wait for the snow to fill in.  Greenwater Skis does a phenomenal job with our ski repair, but I'd rather avoid the scratches this early in the season!

Firefly

I follow an amazing Tumblr by Jesse Lonergan called Dancer a Day.  Monday through Friday he posts a drawing of a character dancing.  It's silly, it almost always nerdy, and it's completely awesome.  It gives me a smile and it makes me question my geek-cred when I don't recognize the character.

Dude.  If this doesn't make you smile, somebody must have peed on your rug.



Or this?  I mean....come on!



Its fantastic and I highly recommend checking it out.

A couple months ago Josh and I gave up on watching the newest version of Battlestar Gallactica.  A very generous friend from book club loaned me her blu-ray discs of the entire show (for longer than I want to admit), and Josh and I tried but just couldn't finish it.  Every time we started to like a character something terrible happened to them, and not in the Game of Thrones way, more like in the way of the show Lost, where it just opens up 8 more story lines none of which I have the energy to follow because I want to know WHERE THE POLAR BEAR CAME FROM???

Sorry...  Anyway, we gave up and I felt the need to redeem the sci-fi genre to Josh.

I turned to Firefly.  A coworker of mine told me about this show several years ago and I've loved it ever since.  Josh was fully on board and he enjoyed it just as much as I did.  I picked up the TV series from the library on a Friday, we watched the entire thing by the next Thursday, and I bought Serenity the following Friday.  We both love the show, and I think we will be purchasing the DVD set soon :)

The timing just happened to coincide with Jesse Lonergan asking for requests on his Dancer A Day tumblr.  Being in a Firefly state of mind, I requested:  The Crew of Firefly.

Today this was the post:

The crew of Firefly for Kristina!

10:00am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Zx89KwWsNdQz
(0 Comments) 

(Notes: 42)

  

Filed under: Firefly Joss Whedon Too many characters to tag! 

I love the Internet.  Thanks Jesse!

King Tutankhamun

This weekend Josh and I went to see the King Tut Exhibit at the Pacific Science Center.  We made a whole Sunday out of it; we started out with the Mysteries of Egypt movie at the IMAX theater, walked through the exhibit, and enjoyed a great lunch.

The movie was great. I love the IMAX theater and I get a rush out of watching footage shot from a helicopter as it swoops over rivers, on a screen that makes me feel like I am there.  The movie was informative, but Josh and I agreed that it was geared toward a younger audience.  It had a lot of images of the three Giza pyramids and I got my first look at the modern city surrounding the pyramids.  All the pictures I have seen of the pyramids have carefully avoided, or just as likely Photoshopped, the city out of the image.  Like this:

 

Seriously, I google imaged it and none of the pictures show the thriving city just beyond the pyramids.  What is much harder to find is images like this:

I can honestly say, that before we watch this movie I had no idea that there was a full on CITY just beyond the pyramids.  In retrospect, it makes all sorts of sense but I still had a different mental image of this particular wonder of the ancient world.

After the movie it was off to the exhibit.  Josh and I were so excited to see this exhibit, it is the last time that it will be in North America and I have always been fascinated by the technological advancement of the Ancient Egyptians.  First the bad:  The Science Center uses this image in all of its advertising.

Call me crazy, or possibly naive, but I fully expected to see the death mask (that's the blue and gold mask pictured above), of King Tut.  This was not in the exhibit.  We found out later that King Tutankhamun nor his coffins (yes plural) have ever left his burial site.  All of the research done on King Tut was done at the burial site including the x-rays and CT scans of the mummy.  To me, it felt like false advertising, why show an image of something we are not going to see on all of the promotional material for the exhibit?  I can understand why they used the picture of the desk mask, it's beautiful, it's iconic, and it's dramatic.  And, there was no single piece at the exhibit that really screamed "Come see King Tut", quite like this picture does.  But, it wasn't there.

Ok, no more complaining...wait, one more:  It was so crowded!!  Even with the timed entry, we ended up waiting our turn at each piece we looked at.

Now, the Good:  the exhibit was phenomenal.  The items from King Tut's tomb were at the end, and they were divided into 4 rooms, each room corresponding to a room in the actual Tomb.

I was very impressed with the way this part of the exhibit was laid out.  The exhibit featured pieces from the tomb behind glass, and behind them, printed out larger than life and as the wall, were pictures from the tomb as it was discovered.

While King Tut's tomb is remarkable because of how complete and untouched it is, it was still the victim of looters.  So, we would see pictures like the above, with things tossed on top of one another, with no apparent organization.  The neat thing was looking at the object in front of you and picking it out in the picture on the wall.  Josh and I had fun looking at a boat on display and using specific details about it to help us identify it from several boats in the picture from the tomb.

Unfortunately we were not allowed to take our own pictures inside but let me tell you that it was amazing. There were other pieces from King Tut's tomb including necklaces, earrings, a lot of statues, jars, a chair, a bed, a very cool fan, and my personal favorite - the solid gold finger and toe covers that went over the Pharaoh's fingers and toes to protect them.

At least half of the exhibit was devoted to non-Tut artifacts from Ancient Egypt.  There was a lot of beautifully detailed jewelry, it is amazing to think about people creating these pieces of art without the technology we have available today.  There were a lot of statues and carvings, and every one was amazing to look at.  Josh was very impressed with how each face looked different, they must have been pretty good likenesses to be distinguishable from one another to such a large degree.  

 

We read about how one statue in front of us had been appropriated by one Pharaoh from another, Josh pointed out an area of the carving that was deeper than the rest, and we are pretty sure that this is where the new owner rewrote his name to make the statue his own.  There was a wooden sarcophagus of a Pharaoh's wife that was beautifully carved.  It was large enough for a person to fit inside ( I suppose that's the point) - but the entire back and sides of it were covered in tiny feather carvings.  You had to get close to really appreciate the different size feathers and how the carver made them interlock.  Everything we saw on display was beautiful - even the toilet seat.

After we left the exhibit there was another room with an exact replica of Tutankhamun's mummy, and a timeline of the research done on it.  I'm not clear on why this wasn't part of the exhibit because it was completely relevant and very informative, but I'm glad it was there and I felt much better about our experience after seeing it.

We took our time walking around the science center and checking out some of the other exhibits, but by that time we were too hungry to do much besides want lunch.  We found the 5-point Cafe on Yelp, and we decided to walk the 2 blocks and check it out. We totally scored when we walked in, sat down at a booth and looked up to find the Seahawks game on.  We had a great meal, several delicious beverages and enjoyed a relaxing afternoon.

It was a great day and I'm happy that we went.  Would I recommend it?   Absolutely, but I would think of it as a display of "Ancient Egyptian artifacts, including some from King Tut's tomb", not as "King Tut".  And definitely check out the 5-point on your way out!

Vieques #2 Horses

Horses roam wild in Vieques. The only fences on the island are built to keep the horses out. 

 
All the horses belong to someone, but they aren't kept in pens or pastures, they roam completely free.  The horses are everywhere, you have to keep your eyes out for them on the beach, in the park areas, and especially on the road.

























I have no idea how people know which horse belongs to which person, or even worse - how do they find their horses when they want to go for a ride?  One of the locals told us that if you try to ride one, the owner will find you in 5 minutes and tell you to get off his horse.  They must have some sort of system, but I didn't figure it out.  Horses are a big form of transportation in Vieques, it was not uncommon to pass a horse and rider on the street.

The first time we saw the "wild" horses I was so surprised I made Jim stop the car and I got out and tried to give one of the horses my apple core. The first one was not interested, he sniffed it and walked away.  I was not discouraged.  I tried again and the second one did the same thing!  This is as close as the second horse got.

Some of the horses were very well taken care of, and others seem like they might suffer a bit for their free lifestyle.  The small herd that stayed pretty close to our suite was a very healthy looking herd.  The stallion took good care of his ladies, and was very protective.  This is the stallion, he always let me approach and pet him.

It wasn't until about three days into the trip, with me petting the stallion every day that I realized what he was doing.

He would let me get as close to him as I wanted, but he never let me near his herd.  He was so calm and nonchalant about the way he would walk to keep himself between me and his ladies, that it took me awhile to notice.

After I noticed what he was doing I realized that these horses aren't pets.  They are a means of transportation, sure they are domesticated, but not like Josh's Mom's horses.  There is no way one of these guys would come up and ask for a butt scratch.


That doesn't make them any less adorable though.