Celebrity photographer
First off, I wanted to let everyone know that I've uploaded some new sets to my flickr account. Other than some European pictures, I've added some pictures from rock shows. So take a look! Also, I know the quality of some of the pictures isn't so great, which is why we're currently shopping around for a much better digital camera. Mine is still good during the daytime, but nighttime/inside pictures aren't so hot. Victor's camera has gone missing. We haven't seen it since we moved last year. So it's time for a new one.

Last night we went to Texas de Brazil, which is one of those Brazilian Churrascarias, where they bring long spits of meat to your table and then carve you off a slice. It was carnivore heaven. The salad bar (way more than salad, and it included lobster bisque) was to die for. I had been to a Churrascaria once before, Brioso Brazil back home. Hmmm... I wonder if we could do Brioso Brazil for a rehearsal dinner... Anyway, Victor and I ate way too much, of course, and washed it down with yummy Argentinean malbec.

The Academy Awards are about to start. We're going to halfheartedly watch them and wish that Sideways would win everything.

Oh, am I still ill?
Alright, so we did make it back from San Francisco. Nothing too exciting to report... we shopped, we ate, we missed the Chinese New Year parade due to rain and asthma, Victor got food poisoning, etc. In any case, we had a good time and hope to go back soon. I took absolutely no pictures, sorry.

I found out my mom is really sick (just bronchitis, nothing scary). Apparently she had been putting off going to the doctor, and she hadn't been eating anything for several days, so last night she passed out twice. It was around midnight, and she was in the kitchen trying to get some Tylenol when she passed out onto the kitchen floor. It woke my dad up, and he helped her back to bed. She passed out again on the way to the bedroom. I find it kind of strange that he didn't take her to the emergency room, but I guess since they're way out in the country and it was past midnight, they didn't really want to make the drive. Anyway, she went to the doctor today and is now on antibiotics. They did a test for the flu there, and apparently they jab a swab way back into your nose to get a sample. The nurse told Mom to sit on her hands while she did it, and I guess it's so that she wouldn't punch the nurse or yank the swab out. Mom said it was all she could do to control herself. I don't think I want to get this test anytime soon.

Neil is really sick too. Turns out he might have tuberculosis, or "consumption," as I like to call it. I wonder if he's going to get to go to a sanatorium and cough blood delicately into a lace hankie? Seriously though, I hope he gets better soon.

Just as an aside: In case you've never played it, this is really fun. And addictive. And really difficult. It's pretty bloody, too, but in a fun way. I thought I'd include that since everything else here is pretty doom and gloom!

Everyone hearts the fashionable Brandon Flowers
Ryan passed along this link about Killers frontman Brandon Flowers in which the author compares him to Morrissey (well, we all thought that, right?). The author also calls Flowers "perfectly groomed" and has a very tasty photo to go along with it. And just now I happened to be perusing NME's website and stumbled upon the Winners List from the NME Awards. Not only did the Killers win Best International Band, but NME readers also voted Brandon Flowers "Best Dressed" and "Sexiest Man." Yum.

(Incidentally, we all think that Ryan's boyfriend Joe looks a lot like Brandon...)

Flowers in your hair
Victor and I have been trying to plan a trip for this weekend all week long. First, we decided to go to Mexico City to visit his uncle. Unfortunately, his uncle told us that the air pollution is really bad right now, and it would be a better idea if we came later in the spring. With my current asthma-every-day thing, I figure we shouldn't chance going there with bad smog. So after thinking about several other options (Toronto, Chicago, NYC, Montreal), we finally decided on San Francisco. We're heaving tomorrow morning, and because of the favorable time change, we will get there fairly early in the morning. Victor found a great deal on Hotwire, so we're staying at the Hilton in the Union Square area.

We've both been to San Francisco before, so I think most of the touristy stuff is already out of the way. I think we'll just do the patented Mandy and Victor Shop&Eat, which we seem to do in every city.

In other news, our internet is down at home. We went to the apartment community spaghetti dinner last night, and Dan and Cynthia said theirs was out too. Our building is specially wired so that everyone can use the same ISP without extra wires/cables/etc. Anyway, I called them last night, and apparently service is out for the entire building. When I left this morning, it was still out. As a side note, try finding your ISP's phone number without using the internet! We don't even get a bill from them, since we have direct debit. It's amazing how much we have come to rely on the internet in such a relatively short time.

Hmm, seems familiar somehow!
Have you guys been keeping up with the Federlines? Britney and Kevin, that is? I was reading a recent Stereogum post all about Mr. Federline's upcoming spread in Details. Scott Stereogum has an excerpt of the interview with Kevin, and Britney sits in for part of it. Their quotes are loaded with profanity and, dare I say, stupidity. Of course, they call each other "babe" and "baby" in the interview, which apparently they do quite often. That totally makes me shudder... I hate it when people call their spouses/significant others that. Anyway, it got me thinking of another famous Brit 'n Kev couple, who apparently have more in common with the Federlines than just similar names...



What do you guys think?

Happy corporate sponsorship day.
This weekend we drove down to Austin for some friends' birthdays. We got in late Friday night and played video games with Aaron, Debbie, and Mark. Saturday started with one of my favorite Austin restaurants, Mr. Natural, where I had veggie milanesa and Pineapple-Spinach aqua fresca. We then went shopping with Mark, Ryan, and Joe. I didn't buy anything except a birthday present for Karen and some stuff from Waterloo (the latest from the Hidden Cameras, the new folky Bright Eyes, and the new Erasure... plus a Placebo DVD.). Then we headed out to the Kurt and Karen birthday celebrations... sushi at Kyoto and then drinks at Stephen F's. It was a great night. We had brunch at Curra's before heading back to Dallas on Sunday.

This morning, Victor woke me up by accidentally punching my face in his sleep. He said he was dreaming that someone was following him, and I guess he tried to attack them and hit me. I think he needs to stop playing Metal Gear Solid 3 right before going to bed. Nice start to my Valentine's day! He felt really bad and apologized profusely... even though it really wasn't his fault because he was asleep.

Victor rants about the Grammys
Once again, the Grammys showed why no one takes them seriously. Honestly, how could Maroon 5 beat out Kanye West for Best New Artist? And didn't that Maroon 5 album come out 2 years ago? Also, I know he died and all, but was Ray Charles' album really the best album and best pop album of the year? Oh, and was John Mayer's "Daughters" really the best song of the year? Also, the J-Lo/Marc Anthony duet was very lame.

We didn't watch them, except catching the last half of the awful J-Lo/Marc Anthony thing. Puke. Anyway, here's the winners list. Uggh.

Arkansas Rocks!
In one sense it does, anyway. This morning there was an earthquake along the New Madrid fault in northeastern Arkansas. It had a magnitude of 4.2, which is enough to cause minor damage.

When I was in elementary school, scientists predicted that there would be a massive earthquake along the New Madrid fault and that it would greatly affect us in northwest Arkansas. We had earthquake drills at school, and the prediction was all over the news. The massive quake never came. Ryan (who went to school with me) told me today that there was a tiny earthquake around that time, and no one in our area felt it. I didn't hear about that, so I always thought the scientists had really messed up with their prediction. However, I did get paranoid about the earthquake for a while, and every time I saw cracks in the ground (like dried-up mud), I thought there had been a quake.

Back in the 1800s, there was a huge earthquake along the fault, which caused the Mississippi river to change its course. I think I remember reading that it actually flowed backward for a short time. Ah yes, here is a book review that talks about it flowing backward. When I was young, I read a children's book about a brother and sister that experienced the earthquake. I remember there was a scary old man in the book that kept shouting "Vengeance!" Does anyone know what book that was? I've Googled and Googled, but I can't seem to find it. Maybe I'm remembering the book wrong.

Stuck on a feeling
The new asthma medicine I'm taking (which is a herbal product containing ephedrine) is making my skin crawl. Especially the skin on my scalp. It feels really weird! I've only had this sensation once before, when I tried some Claritin D, which contains pseudoephedrine. I guess ephedrine and I just don't mix. The herbal stuff does help, though, so I can't complain.

The building maintanence guy came to look at the mold yesterday. He cleaned it up and left a note saying they would send a contractor to replace the panel under the sink. I think that his messing with the mold caused some spores to be released into the air, because I had a nasty attack last night (and still kinda have it now). I was able to get some sleep because I'm not using the inhaler, which means no stomach cramps!

In other (non-medical!) news, we're going to Austin this weekend for our friends' birthday party (Kurt and Karen are both turning 31). I think we're doing sushi and drinks. I think it will be a really fun weekend. Also, I can't wait to go record shopping at Waterloo. There's a lot of new stuff out there that I need to get.

edit: It's sushi and drinks, not bowling. Thanks, Victor.

There's hope after all
As a follow-up to last Friday's post about two Colorado girls who were sued because they left cookies for a neighbor, Victor sent along the following news story: the girls will not have to pay the fine after all. A Denver radio station has raised over $1900 to cover the girls' fine. The leftover money will be donated to Columbine victims.

Monday, Monday here again...
First of all, congratulations to Victor's New England Patriots (again). We watched the game yesterday and ate much junk food. Victor chewed on the remote in nervousness. In the end, it all worked out.

Except for the asthma attack I started having in the fourth quarter. That same asthma attack kept me up until after 5:00am this morning. During that long period of time, I had ample opportunity to figure out a few things.

Thing the First: Lately, my asthma attacks have been getting worse and more frequent. By worse, I mean crushing pain in my chest as well as terrible stomach cramps. I try using my inhaler (Albuterol), and it ends up making me jittery, wide awake, it and doesn't really help much anymore. It's pretty old, dating from my last asthma attack in October 2003, and it's probably expired. There is no expiration date on the label. Anyway, I started looking up stomach cramps associated with asthma, and it turns out that my inhaler is probably causing them. Nice. They seem to get worse every time I use it, so until my health insurance kicks in next month, I'm going to have to find an over-the-counter solution. I can't deal with these awful tummy aches.

Thing the Second: I finished reading I am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe on Friday. Victor had read it before me, and we both thought it was... not so good. So during my hours awake last night, I took some time to skim 277 customer reviews on Amazon. I had already read some of the critical reviews, but I wanted to see what regular readers felt. I found that a lot of them agreed with me. It's a shame that such a revered author as Wolfe decided to try to write from an 18 year old girl's perspective, as he is a 74 year old man. I know he did a lot of research for this book, hanging out at frat parties and whatnot, but seriously. For a man who writes in great detail, it's sad that the details are what he got wrong. Most cringeworthy were his feeble attempts at rap lyrics. He even made up a rap artist, "Doctor Dis." First of all, making a fictional character whose name is so close to Dr. Dre is, in my opinion, pretty bad writing. It's like writing a story about your teacher Ms. Barney and changing the name to "Ms. Carney" so that you don't get sued. He does the same thing with names of other people and items too. Second of all, very few 74 year old white guys can write convincing rap lyrics, and Wolfe isn't one of them. OK, I'm rambling here. But I don't recommend this book.

Thing the Third I think I may know what's triggering my asthma so much lately. A bit of backstory: Several weeks ago, we had a pretty awful water leak in our apartment. Our maintenance guy thought it was coming from the apartment above us, but it turns out (after a week of soggy kitchen!) it was leaking right behind our sink. So he cut a hole through the wall, fixed the pipe, and presto! - no more leak. Anyway, while cleaning the house this weekend, I looked under our sink to see which cleaning products we had available. I was greeted with disgusting blackish mold all over the back wall of our sink! Right where the water leak was! I think it might even be THE Black Mold, which has been known to cause breathing problems in people. I'm putting in a maintenance request ASAP.

Thing the Fourth Asthma sucks.

So here I am, Monday morning, tired unto death, and the lights are off in my office building. Oh, they just came back on. Hooray.

edited to add one more "thing"

Being nice just doesn't pay anymore.
Since when did we become such hateful, let's-sue-over-anything people? Here is a story about two teenage girls that baked cookies and left them on neighbors' porches as a gesture of love and goodwill. One of the recipients sued the girls because she got scared when they knocked on her door and then left. Apparently she freaked out so bad that she went to the hospital the next day with an anxiety attack. So she sued them. Never mind that the girls felt bad, sent notes of apology, and offered to pay her medical bills. (via Drudge)

You're out of touch, I'm out of time...
I've always prided myself with being pretty in touch with what's going on in the music world (well, the indie world anyway), so how could I totally miss that Bright Eyes is playing Fort Worth on Monday? Did I know about this previously and let it slip my mind? Maybe... but it doesn't sound familiar at all. So I guess this is just something I missed. And now it's sold out. Bugger.

I've seriously got to get ahead of the curve again.

Small redesign
Well, what do you think? Any better? I'm still working on some stuff, like adding enough pictures to my flickr account so that I can have a cool badge of pictures somewhere. I'm also going to improve a bunch of the supplemental pages. Ah well, this is a start anyway.