Paintball!

Peter is moving to North Carolina to resume his golf career, so we had one last get together, and went paintballing. Peter's Uncle has 14 acres of gorgeous woodlands in Southern Maryland. I wasn't able to take any pictures that do it justice, but if you were to create an outdoor paintball arena from scratch, it would look something like this backyard. Its kind of a cross between Blood Gulch and Battle Creek from Halo 1. Two ridges create a valley where most of the carnage took place. A stream runs through the valley separating each side. I'm sore today but it was worth it. Thanks Pete!

Fun Birthday/Valentine's Week!

I've never minded if my birthday and Valentine's get mushed together a little...this year there was no way around it. Joe and I were both working on my birthday (the 11th,) then had plans on the 13th and 14th, so we just partied like rock stars for a few days.

On my birthday, my friend at work made me a toffee cheesecake which was pretty much the yummiest thing ever. Then Joe came up with all my other co-workers to "surprise" me and sing and give me a card, (we do this for every birthday, so it's not really the biggest surprise). But then Joe really DID surprise me and took me to a fancy restaurant for lunch! Oh, and he got me flowers and other stuff 'cause he's awesome.

Then after work on Friday we met up with some friends and went to another yummy place for dinner, and then to an awesome concert at GW: Ben Folds and Jason Mraz. I would easily rate this concert in my top 5 faves (to hopefully soon be replaced by the Blink Reunion show this summer...). Both guys are amazing performers: Ben likes to stand on his piano and put Altoids tins in his piano to make the keys sound different. He also threw his chair at the end of his set, breaking one of the keys off. Jason pulled the "encore" psych-out, came back and took Polaroids of his whole band, then threw the pics into the audience. Both played REALLY long sets (I almost fell asleep on the Metro ride home).

On Saturday we helped out at a Primary activity, which is always an adventure (we always have a few laughs when the Sunbeams are involved). We came home and our new cats were delivered! Their owners needed to move in with a widowed relative, so we got them for free. Destiny (or Sweet Dee as I call her; Molly you might be the only one will appreciate that) is 7 and Lucky is 3. When we opened their crates, Dee walked straight to the food, then turned around and started rubbing up against everything, including us. She really likes to head-butt into things, and purrs really easily. She seems to respond to "come here" and all of that, but it could just be a coincidence. Lucky is super sweet, but has been really shy so far. We lost both cats for about half the day yesterday, then we re-united them under the guest bed and they seem to be happy there. They're using the litter box and eating, so I can't complain.

That night we went to a dinner party with lots of yummy food and games. Joe won a free book from an author he likes, but there was a catch: we had to take a photo of us using the book/pretending to eat the book in a food setting. Our hosts helped us set the whole thing up, and...well...I guess you had to be there.

And this was at the end of the night...but I wanted to take a photo with the flowers from my parents and Joe (I arranged them together) after they bloomed a little. Thanks for a fun week everybody!

Happy Valentine's Britt! Love you!

Halo Valentine's Cards

All non - nerds can skip this post.

Thanks to Britt for being a good sport on the Xbox!



more here:

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a124/boysofsheahem/blog%20graphics%202/CupidSplasery.jpg

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a124/boysofsheahem/blog%20graphics%202/happyvalentinesdayqn7.jpg

Happy Birthday Britt!

!!!!! 21 is always a big one !!!!!!
well I've never met anyone who doesn't like Britt, she is awesome. happy birthday to you, I hope you find something fun to do! I hope you like the cats (if they ever get there) and the concert on friday. you rule!

love,

Joe

Ewok Dog

Treeta Dobra!

saw on other site, and couldn't not post.

Salieri? No thanks, I already ate.

Tracy: I can't understand those charts, break it down to me in Star Wars
Frank: Okay, on the one hand, we have R2-D2 and C3P0
Tracy: I like them, they're nice!
Frank: On the other hand we have Han Solo
Tracy: I like him too, he acts like he doesn't care, but he does.
Frank: And somewhere in the middle we have a CGI storm trooper or Tom Hanks in Polar Express.
Tracy: I'm scared! I want to go home!

30 Rock touched on the theory of the Uncanny Valley, which has always interested me. Basically, people don't mind things that we know aren't human. But when we see something that is very close to being human, but isn't (robots, corpses, zombies, etc.) we get very uncomfortable. People have used it to explain why movies like Wall-E are very popular, but The Polar Express did so poorly.

Here are a couple articles on it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_Valley

http://www.gorelets.com/uncanny/theory/30-rock-popularizes-the-uncanny-valley/

anyway, I thought of all this, when I went to a site promoting Bruce Willis' sure to be terrible movie, The Surrogates. You can make your own virtual version of yourself. I think the one I made for me looks like me, but also not. And it creeps me out. You can make your own here.

PS - yes I do have a job, and occasionally do work.
PPS - the title of this post refers to the conclusion of the above posted conversation. Tracy accuses Frank of not wanting him to succeed, like that guy in Amadeus who was jealous of Mozart. Frank asks "Salieri?" And Tracy, thinking Frank was referring to some type of Italian food says "No, thanks, I already ate."
PPPS - Sitcoms are even funnier when you write out the joke and explain why it's funny!

Cartoon

Now that I work in financial aid, I found this cartoon funny / sad.