This is so darn cute. And impressive.

And here’s a “making of” video…it took a whole day to film just 4 seconds. Like DAMN.

Last week I had the great opportunity to go to the geek mecca of the world: San Diego Comic Con. Cool costumes, zombies, boundless geekiness…this was gonna be pretty awesome.

I got to see transformers…

Baby Boba Fetts…

Baby zombies (that’s a real baby busting out of momma’s belly!)…

Clever costumes involving unpopular Star Wars characters…

Clever costumes involving the fallen Empire…

Lego renditions of The Flaming C…

The Monarch from the Venture Bros and all his baddies…

And all the Mythbusters crew!

And while these photos make it look like everything was a SUPER HAPPY GEEKY FUN TIME…here’s what REALLY went on a good 80% of the time while we were there:

Ridiculously long lines. Not sure if you can see in this photo, but that line stretches ALL the way down the marina.

And MORE ridiculous-mondo-frustratingly long lines.

You can see it stretching ALL the way up the stairs…and past that, it goes even FARTHER to snake back and forth around the building, and more INTO the building. We were in this line for 4.5 hours in hopes of getting into either the Walking Dead panel or the Big Bang Theory panel.  And didn’t get into either one. 4.5 hours that could’ve been spent perusing the exhibition halls, or any of the other nutty activities going on in and around the convention center. But you know what? Even with the wasted time in lines, even with some inconvenience and disorganization at some of the activities, I’d still go back in the heartbeat. Because when you’re out at Comic-Con, there’s so much going on and it’s overwhelming, frustrating, and utterly enthralling at the same time. There’s so much going on that you know that while you’re seeing/doing something awesome, you’re surely going to be missing out on something else going on, because there is just TOO much super awesome geekery going on all at once, all in one place. You really can’t get that kind of experience anywhere else. Comic-Con 2012? Bring it on.

Soooo…since my last post, I was supposed to post my new year’s resolutions. And I was supposed to post them in a timely manner. But we can obviously see how that plan worked out. At any rate, here are my new year’s resolutions, and how I’ve been doing on them so far.

• Start a financial plan – I’ve graduated, I started making money, but uh…I have absolutely NO idea where to distribute it in terms of retirement and all that grown-up money stuff. Not the most responsible thing for a working woman to do. It could all be going to some island in Tahiti and I probably wouldn’t even know it.
  • Not doing so hot so far. I’ve picked up a book, but I haven’t really gained a lot of financial knowledge from it yet. Hmmm. Might consider buckling down and hiring someone to help me out.

• Try to get my parents’ life story – this is more of a tentative goal, because as much as I would LOVE to have this done, I don’t think my parents would be receptive to the idea. :-/
  • No progress, but this idea was kind of thrown out there to be marked as “unlikely” to begin with
• Update blog once a week
  • FAIL. Like EPIC FAIL. GAH. Seriously.
• Update photoblog at least 2 times a month.
  • EPIC FAIL on this one too. On the other hand, this one is kinda linked with the next resolution….
• …move photoblog to another site. Livejournal is dying out, so I definitely need to do a massive overhaul of ALL of my posts to a place that looks better and is easier to use than hand-coding all of my photos in
  • So until I manage to do this part of it, the “update photoblog at least twice a month” deal will be on hold too
• Run at least once every 2 weeks
  • Started off doing pretty well, recently fell off though. Hopefully I’ll bring that back, and I’m actually hoping to make this goal more ambitious by bumping it up to 2 times a week instead of every 2 weeks
• Try a new restaurant once a month – EASY.
  • Good progress on this one so far, but this one is almost TOO easy for me. Haven’t really tried new restaurants specifically, but I’ve tried several new food trucks recently
    • Bernie’s Burger Bus (January)
    • Eatsie Boys (February)
    • Zilla food truck (February)
    • Community Bar (February)
    • Cajun Kitchen (March)
• Cross off at least one item off of my life to-do list
  • No progress on this one yet
• Try 5 items on the list of 100 things to eat before you die
  • No progress on this either! Gah!
• Try at least 6 new recipes
  • Tried to replicate the Shiner Bock mussels from Reef
  • Made bacon & brie sandwiches
• Try 10 classic cocktails
  • Classic hot toddy

So uh…so far not so good, haha. I guess I’ll keep tabs on this as the year goes on.

Anyone here? Anyway, here’s a quick recap of uh…the last 2 months or so? Consistent with blogging I am not.

• Went on a roadtrip to Oklahoma with Linda. Why Oklahoma? Because it’s there. Seriously. She wanted to cross a state off of her list, and I had vacation hours to eat up, so why not take a roadtrip to kill two birds with one stone? Verdict: we don’t like Oklahoma, and apparently Oklahoma doesn’t like us either. This wasn’t really a shock to us, but I guess we had to see for ourselves anyway.
• My boyfriend graduated from pharmacy school! Woohoo! We made sure to take him out and get him good and drunk, because dammit, after all the schooling, he deserves to finally get trashed.
• Christmas came and went. Maybe it was the warm Houston weather, or maybe I’m simply older, but Christmas doesn’t seem to have that same “WHEE!” factor these days.
• Got transferred to a different store at work. I miss my crew at my old store, but the new store ain’t too shabby, and the schedule is a little more manageable and more consistent.
• Went to Dallas to ring in the new year. Made some resolutions while I was on my roadtrip with Linda, and tacked on a few more. Can’t remember all the ones that Linda had help me make, but I garnered up what I could. I’ll make a separate post on the resolutions later.
• Signed up for the Art House Co-op Sketchbook Project, and mailed off my sketchbook with 35 minutes to spare before the last mail collection time. I was rushing so much to get the sketchbook done that I didn’t get many pics of the sketches, but I’m getting it digitized, so maybe I’ll share some of the drawings if I’m not feeling too bashful about it. My so-called art skills have gotten REALLY rusty since my highschool/college days. I’ll definitely do this again…it was a ton of fun, and it even inspired me to buy a sketch journal so I can doodle on my own time, without the mailing deadline.
• Ate, drank, laughed, and loved. Lather, rinse, repeat.

So there you have it. That’s 2 months in a nutshell. Better late than never, eh?

‘Tis the season!

So much for updating once a week, haha. At least I kind of kept up with it for the month of November, no?

Just putting in a post before I end up rolling around in a gluttonous stupor tomorrow at my annual EPIC THANKSGIVING DINNER.

This past weekend, I went up to Austin to run the Warrior Dash for the second time. I never blogged about my first one, so I was determined to document round 2, haha. At any rate, the Warrior Dash is described as the “craziest frickin’ day of your life”…it’s an epic race where you do crazy stuff like climbing up nets, crawling through mud, and jumping over fire. You jump over freakin’ FIRE. And in the end, you get free beer, a medal, a t-shirt, and – the kicker – a fuzzy viking helmet. I’m probably one of the worst candidates to do this thing, because anything that requires me to remove my ass from a chair is considered a no-no, but I wanted that stupid helmet and all its fuzzy glory. And so for a stupid looking fuzzy viking helmet, I decided to fork over some money, put myself through some physical exertion, and signed up for my first Warrior Dash. And it was surprisingly more manageable than I had thought, and it was fun enough that I decided to do it a second time. Which brings me to Warrior Dash round 2. Behold, the epicness! (I’ve posted some photos from my first dash too, just because I can)

Before the race:

Warrior Dash Round 1 before photos:

WARRIOR!!!!

Warrior Dash Round 2 before photos:

The aftermath:

Round 1:

Round 2:

And side-by-side shots of my SOCK OF EPICNESS:

(L) Epic sock round 1, (R) Epic sock round 2

Aaaand, the most epic warrior of this round:

THE ONE EYED WARRIOR

I just have to point this one out. During the Warrior Dash, one of my boyfriend’s contact lenses had slipped. He’s blind as a bat without his contacts or glasses, so in his case, to lose a contact essentially makes him blind in one eye. This guy managed to finish FASTER than I did on the Warrior Dash with pretty much NO depth perception whatsoever for the last leg of the race. Now THAT’S what I call epic.

I’m blogging from a plane. IN THE AIR. I don’t know about you guys, but I’m totally geeking out over this. At any rate, I’m en route to Atlanta where I’ll soon be stuffing my face at my annual epic Thanksgiving family reunion. I’m already excited enough about that. But for now, I’M BLOGGING FROM A FREAKIN’ PLANE!! Just had to share.

Champagne and chocolate covered strawberries? Don’t mind if I do…

A few weeks ago, the bf and I celebrated 4 years together. 4 years! Holy crap! At any rate, this time around the bf really outdid himself and booked us for a weekend at Hotel ZaZa, went out for a picnic, and even helped me cross something off my life to-do list (he booked us for a couple’s massage!). Aside from having some great quality time with the bf, it was my first staycation, and I’m fully convinced that EVERYONE should do one of these now and then.

Reasons why everyone should treat themselves to a staycation:

• It’s a chance to get away from the usual daily routine without having to leave town. It doesn’t sound like much, but simply sleeping in luxurious comfort somewhere else even for just one night really makes a big difference.
• On the same note of not having to leave town, it definitely saves you money. You don’t have to spend money on a plane ticket, car rental, cab fare, etc. etc. so that’s already a big start. And when you’re already saving yourself some cash, you can either pocket the difference, or splurge a bit and upgrade to one of those nicer rooms that you’d never otherwise stay in.
• That being said, if you’re going to do a staycation, definitely do it in an “upgrade” fashion. As in choose a hotel that is going to be equal or nicer than your current living conditions. There’s no point in doing a staycation if you’re going to go from the comfort of your own home to something crappier. It doesn’t have to be ridiculously expensive…I go cheap if I’m going out of town (where I assume that my room will strictly be used for sleep), but if you plan on having a good “stay in and relax” type of weekend in your own town, you may as well go big or go home.

• Since you’re already in your own town, it’s a chance to explore a little more or to visit those places that you’ve meaning to go to. Obviously you could do this on any given day, but the staycation mindset really sparks more of that “get out there and do it” type of mentality. Go eat at that restaurant you’ve always wanted to try, visit that museum exhibit you’ve wanted to see, then come back and chill out in the uber-comfort of your sweet hotel room that you’ve booked.

• If you want to have fun and get some drinks, most hotels will have a pretty swanky bar. Drink away, and when you’ve had enough, you can just stumble your way back to your hotel room. No designated driver needed, no cab fare paid. Just good times.
• It’s like having a second home from home! Just that it’s a lot nicer than your own home, and you don’t have to do the cleaning! Woohoo!
• If you’re forgetful like me, forgetting to pack an item isn’t a problem. Because you can just drive back home, pick it up, and then go back to relaxing in your hotel room.
• And if for whatever reason you end up miserable on your staycation (which I’d imagine you’d have to screw up pretty badly to do that)…you have the option of driving yourself back home, haha.

I really don’t have anything bad to say about the staycation experience. In hard times like this, it’s simply a good way to channel all that money that you normally would’ve spent on a crazy out of town trip into a simple weekend getaway in your own town where you can pamper yourself for a day or two. You get to have an upgraded experience, and overall you STILL end up spending less than you would have if you had left town and stayed at some cheap hotel. It’s a win-win situation, and you end up going back to work refreshed without having to go too far.

Tending to the dragon’s egg.

I went to the Texas Renaissance Festival a few weeks ago and a good time was had by all. Then a question was brought up: would you rather date a guy who was unemployed or someone who was a Renaissance festival jester? Sadly enough, if the unemployed dude was just down on his luck (vs. being lazy and playing xbox all day), I’d take the unemployed guy. And what’s even sadder is that every girl I’ve asked so far would rather take the dude with no job as well, haha. Thoughts?

I seem to have a pattern of having a good year for Halloween costumes, and then an off year. This year was one of my off years…after brainstorming with my bf for what seemed like ages, we STILL hadn’t come up with any ideas for costumes, and randomly whipped up something just two hours before heading out to the annual Montrose Pub Crawl. Unfortunately, we were so busy taking photos of other people’s costumes that we didn’t get any photos of our OWN costumes. Oops! Either way, I went as a sushi chef that was serving up Paul the psychic octopus (that little bugger who was predicting the outcomes of the World Cup games), and the bf went as a mourning soccer player from Spain. If people got my costume, they thought it was great. If they didn’t, they just made lame jokes at me about sushi orders. Meh, we’ll come up with something better next year. Otherwise, here’s some shots from this year’s pub crawl:

Slimer!

For all the Venture Bros. fans: Sergeant Hatred! Keep him away from your children!!

Quail Man! Talk about memories…I used to watch Doug religiously when I was a kid.

Space Balls crew. They even handed out candy! These guys actually won the costume contest at the end of the night.

Mr. Freeze. I don’t know how this guy breathed in his costume. Impressive.

SNOOKI. This picture really doesn’t capture just how hilarious this was. First of all, it was awesomely hideous. Second of all, this dude was TOTALLY in Snooki character the whole time…bad accent, overly obnoxious “lookit me I’m famous!” attitude, the works. Easily the best Snookster of the night.

Ball pit! One of the best costumes of the night, in my opinion. The ball puns were flying with this guy, and it totally worked. This dude got so much attention from girls wanting to “play with his balls” it was ridiculous.

LEGO MINIFIGS. Everyone was rooting for these guys to win the grand prize for the costume contest. The only reason they didn’t win was because they were absent from the costume contests at the other bars in the Pub Crawl, and the rules state that the grand prize winner has to win at one of the previous bars as well. Otherwise these guys would’ve had it in the bag.

Hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween!