Last week I tore myself away from chores to meet some eFriends (technically Internet Strangers, but I was brave!) - Ryan and Diana. They were visiting DC so Carlos and I went downtown to meet them and visit the American History Museum (and get completely soaked and lead them on a wild goose chase to find food). Proof that we all exist:
The rain was not nice to my hair hahaha.
Ryan also took pictures to prove that I exist.
Proof that the DC Metro system exists!
It poured rain from then until this weekend, what a mess.
On April 29 it was our 10th dating anniversary. We went out to a restaurant in Bethesda, and I wore a dress even though it was cold.
I guess we have grown up a little...
The weekend before our anniversary we went out to the Shenandoah. We did three good but hard-for-Kate hikes: Stony Man and Corbin Cabin on Saturday (we did Corbin Cabin in the opposite direction from what they suggest on that site - that was dumb) and then White Oak Canyon on Sunday. I stupidly left the battery for my camera in the hotel room when I meant to take nice pictures of us at sunset, but at least I had it the rest of the time:
A puddle miraculously shaped like India!!
( More Shenandoah pics )
Bird list for Shenandoah:
- Eastern Towhee (lots)
- American Redstart (bushels)
- Turkey Vulture
- Blue-headed vireo (lifer!)
- Hooded Warbler
- Blackburnian Warbler (kind of a lifer - I thought I saw one briefly once before, but didn't have my book to make sure at the time. Now it's on the list for sure.)
- American Robin
- Chipping Sparrow
- Cardinal
- Raven (I think? I should have paid more attention.)
Back on April 11 we went to Mount Vernon with my now-ex-officemate to meet his mom & stepdad. Of course I took a bunch of pictures even though it was raining then too. Here are a few:
Inside the crazy octo-barn.
Then the weekend after that I went birding at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center North Tract. Some pictures below, more here on Picasa. I can't find the bird list, but I did see an immature Bald Eagle and watched a Kingfisher (king)fishing.
This week we finished up the office (which we started right after Christmas, yikes). More pics here if you really want to see it step-by-step. Oh and we also painted the basement to make it slightly more tolerable for Carlos' new surround sound (which I totally complained about until he plugged it in and played 2 seconds of Transformers. It's so cool!).
After (of course we need to put some more stuff back in, but you get the idea)
The walls are light gray, it's hard to get it right between the flash & the CFLs. I'll have to take some pictures during the day.
Finally, on Friday we saw Star Trek. It was freaking sweet!! But I don't know if I have the energy to watch like 20 seasons of TV shows, or 10 movies... so maybe I'll just watch this one over and over and pretend I am a Trekkie now.
There's your super-rare update... enjoy ;)
So I know people would pay thousands of dollars to stay at my house this week. And that this is a once-in-forever historical moment. But as you can see from the fact that I am posting, I am not on the Mall. I just knew I couldn't handle the crowd. If a crowd is dense enough that I am touching other people 50% of the time, and big enough that I can't immediately get out, I get all claustrophobic. That crowd on TV looks insane, and I wouldn't get out of the city for hours. It gives me the heebie-jeebies just thinking about it. Thus I am watching the inauguration in HD from my nice warm sofa (even better than being there, right?). Don't worry, I'll be properly jealous of all of you that went down there when I see your pictures.
It's exciting just watching it on TV, too, even though nothing's really going on yet. Seeing the crowd really makes you feel how important and amazing this is to so many people in our country. I know he's just one man, I know our country is a wreck right now, and I know he can't fix it all by himself or quickly. I know it will be hard, after this initial emotional rush, to motivate our set-in-its-ways population (I include myself in that assessment, of course). But based on the influence he's having on our citizens right now, he just might be able to do it, with all of our help.
So exciting
(Also crazy exciting but super depressing: Galactica is backtica. But what the frak is going on??)
(Less exciting: water main break outside my house, we are losing water for the next hour or so. That's what I get for working from home.)
Stay warm and safe if you are downtown, and enjoy your inauguration day, everyone!
[Side note: I'm not alone now that the movie is out. This is my favorite review so far: "I can only hope that their precious tome has been unmercifully butchered in its trip from the page to the screen because if this disaster actually is faithful to its source novel, then what that says about the collective taste of its rabid fan base is too unspeakably depressing to contemplate." Most reviews say the movie is very faithful to the book - the book really is that bad!]
Back to my main point: here are some things that I really like that aren't super-popular or award-winning . They are almost guilty pleasures, except I don't feel very guilty about any of them. And look, the first one has vampires!
Sookie Stackhouse books / True Blood
My friend lent me the first three of these books and I liked them a lot. It took me a while to get into the first one because I kept having Twilight flashbacks, but by the third book I couldn't stop reading. Bill is super boring, like all "good" vampires are, and I am tired of vampires vs werewolves in every single book and movie and show. But Sookie is tough and sassy and saves herself most of the time. I can't wait to read the rest.
I have been watching True Blood to see how they translated the books into a TV show. It seems more graphic than the books (which is backwards to me, you'd think they have to tone things down to put them on TV. I guess not on HBO). Maybe I'd like TV Bill better if his hair wasn't so dumb. Anna Paquin is great as Sookie, except Sookie's been annoying the crap out of me for the last half of the season. I really like Sam (unless he's around Sookie, then he turns lame). I love how detailed and important they've made the minor characters from the books - Tara and Lafayette are awesome. I can barely stand the wait between episodes, and I don't know what I'll do after the season finale this Sunday. (It also helps that my favorite TWoP recapper Jacob does True Blood's recaps. He makes it even better, just like he does for Doctor Who and BSG.)
Supernatural
Yes, it's a sci-fi/fantasy show on the CW that gets invisible ratings. Yes, it's basically Buffy with two brothers instead of one Slayer (especially this season, with all the "chosen one"-ing, apocalypses, and raising demons for Halloween). Yes, even though the individual episodes have been spectacular so far, this season could end up being ridiculous (I usually only want to hear "God has a plan" from a platinum blonde robot hallucination, you know?). But I love Dean (click that, seriously), the brothers' relationship, and METALLICAR. The show can be scary, funny, and badass. Also, after an episode at the beginning of the season, I can bump up Supernatural's "Time Travel" score in my TV Show Comparison Tables, moving it closer to the top!
Psych
This show is super-goofy, sometimes the mysteries make no sense, sometimes there are plot holes, and I always laugh when I see them pretending that rainy Vancouver with waist-high ferns is actually California. But Sean and Gus are awesome (I think Gus is funnier, even though he's the sidekick) and I laugh the whole way through every episode.
Secret Diary of a Call Girl
It's unbelievable (even though Belle supposedly exists), soapy, and teaches you things you might not want to know. Some people think Billie Piper looks like a man (I disagree). The show went to hilarious lengths this season to hide her pregnancy (ugly clothes, hiding her behind pillows, using a body double that looks nothing like her). But I love Rose Tyler the hooker with a heart of gold. She's so funny and cute, and I am got stupidly caught up in the love triangle this season.
Temeraire books
I know Naomi Novik used to write fanfic on LJ (so do several million other people who want to be authors someday). I am sure some people don't like the old-fashioned style she uses in her books, and they can drag on (haha, see what I did there?) a bit. But Temeraire is cute and funny and smart and heroic, so I can't stop reading these books.
See? Now you can roll your eyes at me the way I roll my eyes at Twilight-obsessed teenage girls. Enjoy.
Also, if you are the lame kind of nerd, you might like these pictures from the upcoming Star Trek movie, starring Spocklar the scary Vulcan who steals powers out of people's brains. Right? No? Whatever, I am not a Trekkie. There is too much optimism on that show, and the captains say things like "You can't do that, it's against the rules." I prefer the soul-crushing hopelessness and airlock-happy Presidents that BSG provides :D
Is it frakking January yet?
( Video behind the cut to be polite )
Today is my sweet devil cat Loki's 2nd birthday, yay!! We thought he would have calmed down by now, but he is still as hyper as he was as a kitten.
Other recent milestones were:
- Our 9th anniversary at the end of April
- 2 years of engagement at the end of June (oops)
- 2 years of living in our house at the beginning of July
- Carlos and I both found our first gray hairs over the summer. I hope mine comes in salt-and-pepper like my dad's. I also hope it doesn't come in like that for a few more decades =P
We have battened down the lawn furniture here, waiting for Hanna's weekend visit. I hope everyone in her path stays safe and undamaged this weekend :)
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
cleolinda's awesome recaps (check out Twilight, New Moon, and Eclipse). But her recap of Breaking Dawn (Parts One, Two, and Three) almost make me want to read that one (for the lulz, as they say). Should I do it? Have any of you read it and seen if it is as bad as it seems? Is it entertainingly bad or just bad bad?Also the movie looks sooooooooo awful :D Wow I heart schadenfreude.
But like I said before, part of what made me want to read the first book was that it was set in the Pacific Northwest. I love the descriptions of all the rain and green forests. I know you are supposed to hate them because Bella does (she prefers Phoenix, a place that I would not live for any amount of money - all the open sky, flat land, and tiny trees freak me the hell out) but I love it. Are there any GOOD books set there that I can enjoy (besides Snow Falling On Cedars which I have already read but probably should again)?
I finally watched the Olympics Opening Ceremonies online last night. They were freaking awesome! At the beginning I was all "Ok cool lights zooming around and then making rings whatevs" and then the rings FLOAT UP FROM THE FLOOR BLACK MAGIC OMG. And when the printing blocks turned into flowers it like touched my evil blackened heart somehow. wtf.
Speaking of touching my heart, Doctor Who Season 4 finale actually made me cry. I BURST into tears. Actual tears came out of my eyes for a whole 2 minutes. I don't cry at movies or TV ever (EVER! even Doctor Who Season 2 finale!), I don't know what was going on. And I wasn't even crying at the sad Donna part like a normal person should. No, no, I was crying at the FINALLY DOCTOR AND ROSE KISSING YAYYYYY part. I have so many issues. That season was so awesome though, I love Donna even though I expected to hate her with a passion.
And that reminds me that Laura Roslin almost made me cry about a million times in this past half-season of BSG. What is wrong with me.
How about some pictures! Yes I am going to be lazy and link you to Picasa instead of resizing them and including them in the post.
In mid-June I took a few hundred pictures of one really gorgeous sunset.
At the end of June we went to Bethany Beach. I took a bunch of pictures (as usual). One day the water was super blue and super clear, it looked like the Caribbean. And I did actually go birding once, I saw Willets which I don't think are on my life list (I have to check), and added Boat-Tailed Grackles to my life list. I also saw a Brant on the beach, in the middle of many blankets of people, not trying to run or fly away. I bet he was hurt and I didn't do anything to help :( That's a lifer at least.
I went to Redskins Training Camp a few weekends ago, and thanks to the girlfriend of a coworker I was in VIP. This would probably have been more exciting if I had (a) watched a full game of Redskins football any time in the last 15 years and (b) a clue who any of the players were. Which I didn't. I still had a lot of fun. I got about 7 autographs for my brother and took a lot of pictures (and got horribly sunburned). Click for pics.
I found some pictures from the first time we went to Niagara Falls (I think it was back in 2003). Some are from the Maid of the Mist (which we didn't go on the second time we went there) and there are some of me petting and feeding a killer whale, sweet.
This weekend we are supposed to go to some hotel up in Western MD that is on a lake and supposed to be pretty. Hopefully I will take 10000 pictures like I usually do on vacation.
Now what, you may ask, do I do all the time, if I think longingly about blogging but don't do it? My class kept me pretty busy (when I wasn't at work or commuting), but the truth is, I watch a lot of TV. I just get obsessed with some shows. I watch them, then read recaps about them, then spaz about them with my friends that also watch them, and so on. It takes up a lot of blogging time!
But I don't get obsessed with every show that comes along. I tried to figure out what my favorite shows had in common, and found there were several elements they all had. I made some tables to show how they all stack up (because I am obsessed, see). I rated everything on a scale from 0 to 5, so the highest possible score is 40. Check it:
| Category | Score | Notes |
| Spaceships | 5 | At least one every ep, since the TARDIS counts |
| Robots | 4 | Every other freaking episode |
| Supernatural/fantasy elements | 5 | That's all there is in this show! |
| Time travel | 5 | The whole show is built around this! |
| Smooching/love story | 4 | While there isn't a lot of smooching, this one gets a 4 for the Doctor/Rose story alone |
| Cute boys | 5 | Hi, Ten :D |
| Ass-kicking hot girls (usually blonde) | 5 | Rose, Martha, Donna, etc |
| Funniness | 5 | I like British humor, so yeah! |
| Total | 38 | Almost full points! No wonder I'm so obsessed with this show. |
So, what do you think? Are my scores accurate? Am I a crazy person? What kinds of things do you need in your TV shows
- Mood:
tv obsessed
Let's see, what have I been up to. See, I never want to post unless I have pictures, and then I am too lazy to resize them and put them in photobucket, so I never post. But I do manage to post my pictures on Picasa, because that is possible to do even when you are lazy. So let's see what albums I can direct you to...
February
Deep Creek Lake: For President's Day Weekend we (me, Carlos, my mom, my brother, my brother's girlfriend) stayed in a family friend's cabin and went skiing at Wisp, yay! Unfortunately I pulled my calves or something the first day, and then it was 50 degrees and rainy the other two days. That meant I spent the other two days reading in front of a fire, oh darn...
Lunar Eclipse: I tried to take pictures of the lunar eclipse, hoping my new lens would help out. It was a little windy (and freezing!) so the photos were a little blurry even with vibration reduction.
March
Early Spring Flowers: I took pictures of some crocuses and snowdrops along the stream behind my house.
Philadelphia: I went up for Violet's birthday and took the opportunity to go to the Star Wars exhibit at the Franklin Institute. I wore my Frakking Toaster t-shirt and took pictures with Boba Fett, and if that doesn't make you click on the link I don't know what will.
April
Neighborhood Nature and Crazy Clouds: Some pictures of trees and birds from around my house, and then the most amazing and weird sunset I have ever seen (you should really check this out!).
Yuri's Night: Some of my work friends and I went to the NASA Goddard visitor's center for a Yuri's Night party (celebrating the anniversary of the first person making it into space).
Nationals Game: I went to a Nationals Game at the new stadium. The stadium was sweet but it was pretty chilly and I forgot my coat, and the lines for warm drinks were so long I never got one (poor baby). I did try my first chili dog ever, from Ben's Chili Bowl. It was pretty much genius.
May
Lokitography: So I read this article about attaching a little camera to a dog and said, "That would be awesome to do to Loki!" I bought the camera they mentioned in the article on Ebay and strapped it to the cat. He took some amusing pictures. I want to do it again and also try attaching the camera to a kite or something.
Cottage for Memorial Day: For some reason I thought it would be fun to cram 15 people into two not-particularly-large rooms for a weekend. Luckily my friends thought it was fun too.
A Day Of The Creek: During that weekend I set the camera I used for "Lokitography" up facing the creek, set it to take pictures every 15 minutes, and left it there for a day.
June
Ridiculous Storms: Yesterday we had two huge, violent storm fronts come through our area. My office building has a pretty good view to the west where they were coming from, so I took pictures of the second front rolling in.
LJ says my original post was too big, so I'll have to split it into two...
- Mood:missing you guys
I (finally) got my book at 1:30, and I finished about 10 minutes ago. 759 pages in 7.5 hrs, not too shabby!
All I have to say is it was everything I hoped it would be. It was so awesome. And I think I need to read the last several chapters again...
While I'm not dedicated enough to stand in line for hours and then start reading at midnight, I am freaking the heck out over Book 7. I've been avoiding all public mention of the book like the plague, especially since the ending has been leaked, and I'm so excited to see what happens. That thing is not leaving my hands from the second I get it out of the box until I finish it. I can't wait, no matter how heartbreaking it's all going to be.
Good luck, fellow Potter fans. I'll see you on the other side.
If it had to go, it may as well have gone out with two awesome episodes where Veronica kicked all kinds of ass. But I take it back, I won't miss the obligatory psychotic jackass at all 
Logan sucks forever!! Hehehehe!
I can't believe they are replacing this show with Pussycat Dolls shit. Dammit.
Bye Veronica 
- Mood:
even more depressed
Last weekend my friend Jeni told me she didn't read my blog when it was about Veronica Mars. Well, neither she nor any of you will have to hear about it anymore, since it got cancelled. In about 5 minutes I'll be sitting down to watch the last two hours of one of my favorite shows ever. I might even miss that Echolls kid.
(Except I totally talked about Firefly forever and ever even though I didn't see it until after it was cancelled so maybe you haven't escaped yet 
)
On the plus side, I went birding two times in the last three weekends and got three lifers in about an hour at one place. Hopefully I'll get off my butt and upload pictures someday.
- Mood: depressed
It had better be awesome tonight (at 9 on the CW!!) to make up for it
I am crazy-repeat-playing "Teardrops on my Guitar" by Taylor Swift. What is it with me and unrequited/unrequitable love stories? I present as evidence my undying love for Buffy/Angel, Doctor/Rose, Brokeback Mountain, and me/Sheriff Lamb. The song is sappy and highschooly (and the video even more so) but whatever, it is awesome:
Ok, now it's time to go back to American Idol (go Jordin!)
I am sure you are tired of pictures of my cat, but he's crazy and I feel the need to document this fact on the internet.
"Oh God, she's blogging again."
Now check out the scary noises from my backyard! The videos are from about a week ago.
You have to wait until the end of this video, but it's good and loud. It must have been right in the backyard.
( Two videos )We heard a similar noise once this winter, but it sounded even more like human screaming then (we did go outside and make sure no one was being murdered, but we never saw anything). I have been assuming it is a fox because I saw a couple several times this winter (and it sounds like small, red barking, doesn't it?), but my dad said it might have been an owl too. The people at ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small}
urban_nature think it's a fox too.
Here in the mid-Atlantic, it is starting to be hummingbird season. I need to get my feeder out!
Two quick TV things:
The season finale of BSG finally broke me. I've been replacing "fuck" with "frak" inside my head ever since then. I haven't said it out loud yet but it's only a matter of time! Also, I have NO CLUE what is going on on that show, and it's awesome. Also yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy for certain people returning. (I am too lazy for spoiler-censoring right now.)
The season premiere of Doctor Who (because I totally live in the UK where it aired... shhh...) was really cool. I am so in love with that show, and the Doctor, and Rose and maybe (probably) New Rose. I think I'll elaborate later, I'm just wondering who else is watching it.
Ummmm I need to post a ton more but I think it will have to wait until another day.
This entry is about two singers I love irrationally and unconditionally, even though a lot of other people don't. Yay.
So Nelly Furtado's next single being released is "All Good Things", which is one of my favorite songs off her latest album. It reminds me of her older songs, which I like more than the new style stuff. Apparently it was written by the lead singer of Coldplay. Here's the video:
AND THEN. My future wife's new song is SO AWESOME. It's like Mean Girls compressed into 3 minutes of music. It's pink and mean and the best damn thing. The video entertains me:
Heeeeeeeeeeeee hee hee. I know you all probably hate her but I DON'T CARE I LOVE HER!!
And if that wasn't enough to make you cry/hate me forever/both, try this.
Me to coworker: You listen to some crazy music. Every time I walk by your office I hear some random thing I've never heard before.
Coworker: It's classic rock. This is Pink Floyd. You've never heard Pink Floyd?
Me: I've heard of that... person?... band?... before, but not a song by them.
Coworker: *laughing his head off*
Yes, I am a philistine. Feel free to defriend me now and never speak to me again.
YAY AVRIL!
- Music:Avril Lavigne - Girlfriend
From this post.
Ryan asked:
- When was the last time you went looking for birds? What was your last lifer?
- When you asked, it was at the Cottage at Thanksgiving and my last lifer was the Black Scoters I saw out on the river there. Now that I am getting around to answering, the last time I was birding was yesterday at Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge on the Eastern Shore. The two lifers I got there were White Pelican and American Black Duck. I will hopefully post about it in a bit.
- Do you have a nemesis bird?
- Lately, it's all of them. In general... can I say all warblers?? Haha. I don't know, I think I'd have to try hard to see something and miss it before it could be a nemesis. I have been too lazy to have a nemesis bird.
- What bird do you want to see more than any other?
- Used to be the Snowy Owl, but then I saw one yay. Otherwise it changes all the time. I'd love to see a Golden Eagle, I guess I am a sucker for the dramatic ones.
- And lastly, why do you ignore the Xangans so much?
- Because LJ is better? Well yes, but that's not the reason. Because I don't like you anymore? No that's not it either. Because when I go to your page I want to leave 10000 super-long comments about 'OMG your cats are so cute' and 'aww you and Diana are living together, that's so great,' and 'wow I like the bird pictures a lot but I have no idea which gulls are which,' and then I get overwhelmed by the thought of typing so much that I give up before I start? Oh yeah, that's why.
- (But seriously, LJ is fun, and there are birding communities and you could talk to other crazy good birders and argue about IDs and stuff!)
- Because LJ is better? Well yes, but that's not the reason. Because I don't like you anymore? No that's not it either. Because when I go to your page I want to leave 10000 super-long comments about 'OMG your cats are so cute' and 'aww you and Diana are living together, that's so great,' and 'wow I like the bird pictures a lot but I have no idea which gulls are which,' and then I get overwhelmed by the thought of typing so much that I give up before I start? Oh yeah, that's why.
Heroes has been awesome lately. Especially last week. But more importantly, did anyone watch last night and see the Spiderman 3 commercial? It was very "blah blah I don't care about MJ blah blah diamond ring whatevs blah blah I care a tiny bit about James Franco but DUDE WHERE IS VENOMMMMMMMM?!?!?!" Seriously, that's the only reason anyone will care about this movie. Stop holding out on us!
(Other TV shows I have been obsessing about lately are Farscape (only seen the first 8 eps) and Due South (finished the first two seasons). As long as they don't kill off John, Aeryn, or Fraser, I'll be OK. I think.)
Does anyone reading this read X-Men comic books? I am reading Astonishing X-Men (sole reason for reading = Joss Whedon wrote them) and they mention some backstory like the Legacy virus and Emma Frost and Sentinels (which I think I remember from the cartoon back in the day). Do I have any hope at all at catching up on those things? I thought I might try Wikipedia, but is it worth it? Also I have only read Vol 1 so shhhhh.
I want to be meme-y so how about you ask me questions and I answer them, as long as they aren't inappropriate or otherwise uncomfortable. Like maybe get-to-know-me questions, or opinions, or test my knowledge, or something... Hopefully I won't be a loser and I'll actually answer them ;)
I officially don't watch TV anymore.
Dear Rose Tyler,
Let's pretend that 10 years ago you weren't Britney Spears. Let's also pretend I haven't seen video evidence of this.
Love,
Kate
Edits (because I took today off from work, and of course I am spending it on the computer):
I just saw the fox trotting through the woods out back. It's easy to see him because the leaves are gone and there is snow (well, more like packed sleet) on the ground. Yay fox!! Additional HOLY CRAP at 1:11PM! The fox just ran through my backyard!! Right next to the deck and the bench by the tree! Holy crap! His tail is almost all bare... This is why Loki is an indoor cat.
Kind of meme-y: my top 20 most played songs, and my last 20 played songs. Screencaps, because I am too lazy to type.
(The ones by Jean-Yves Thibaudet are from the Pride and Prejudice soundtrack, hence the obsession. And yes, I am properly embarassed by the second to last one there.)
(I just discovered the Lily Allen song at the top and I love it. Bear McCreary = Battlestar Galactica soundtrack, hee. "Ride Forever" by Paul Gross = Due South soundtrack, hee hee! And yes I heart me some Nelly Furtado, I won't lie.)
I should make myself useful and run errands but maybe I'll upload some Loki pics later. He's going to get snip-snipped soon, poor guy...
