November In Review

A tad late, but here's how November went down....

Music: I just die over Lianne La Havas' cover of Little Dragon's "Twice". See also her cover of "Elusive" (also a rad video). // By far the coolest music video I've seen in a long time goes with Pharrell Williams' "Happy", check it out, but you'll probably see something different than what I saw (intrigued??). (If you have troubles with the website, you can see part of it on youtube).



Movie: I can finally cross "Pulp Fiction" off my list! It was probably my least favorite Tarantino film I've seen so far, but there are some very quotable lines and I wish that bunny diner was a real place! One of my coworkers has been calling me "Uma" with my latest haircut, so that's part of what prompted me to see it. I wish I could dance like those two cats. Or more like, I wish I could let go of myself in that way. I also watched the "Emperor's New Groove" with Annelise, for the first time in ages, and loved it as much as ever. Even though she did get irritated at me for proving that I could quote every single line if I wanted to. (Pull the lever! Wrooooong leverrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!) Someone broke into my car (on Thanksgiving!!) while we were watching the movie, but thankfully there was nothing worth stealing, and they just left napkins from the glove compartment all over the passenger floor. Yay.

Best Bites: I finally found a Carbonara recipe I'm crazy about, and it's super easy! So I made it a bunch of times this month... And so can you. (I use bacon instead of pancetta, because that's what I have in the freezer).

Best of the Web: 

• This real-time clock of births and deaths all over the world kind of shocks me.
• There's not much I love more than finding stuff in old books.
• If a homeless man with a great voice wants to crash your worship music video, definitely go with it.
• A series of photos of moms holding their one-day-old babies. I love how the babies are still so curled up and the mamas still have tummies.
• A comedian's take on parents vs. people who think being parents would be cute.
• Super incredible counter tops made from semi-precious stones.
• Even Ken and Barbie don't have a perfect union.
• How about inhaling your tea as a vapor instead of drinking it?
• A found a new comic artist I really like, and this his illustration of the first year of parenting is great. Here's one of my favorite snippets from the strip. 

November Events:

• Ishmael and Michelle went with me to our local Day of the Dead festival, which was not quite as impressive as I was hoping, but we still enjoyed looking around and watching the dancers. 
• Jonas and I headed down to Beverly Hills for the live Radiolab show. Again, not as impressive as I was anticipating (the latest theory on how the dinosaurs really died), but I'm still glad we got to go, and the Saban theater was so beautiful. I even got two free temporary tattoos that a grumpy merch guy threw at me. Thanks?
• I talked Jonas into getting a plastic white Christmas tree this year (retro, baby!) and at the end of decorating it together I told him...
• ...We found out that we have another baby on the way! No big deal... 
• At my work Christmas party, we got to see PCPA's Mary Poppins. The story isn't my favorite, but I'm always blown away by all the incredible details that go into the set. I'm definitely wishing there had been a way for me to swing being in that technical design program (alas, 80 hours a week for 2 years!).
• We spent Thanksgiving (and the weekend) with both our families, full of yummy food and a lot of good, honest, conversations with people, for which I am thankful. My mom and Annelise and I each went through our copies of the Taste of Oregon cookbook and marked favorite recipes. I also accidentally gave the other team a point in Cranium by mouthing off about my knowledge of Eames. Sorry I'm not sorry. 

Ishmael Update: I'm not sure how I'm going to report on what Ishmael is up to from now on since "1 year, 1 month" old just doesn't have the ring that "6 months" or "8 months" does. He's finally got walking down, he says "thank you", but it sounds like "gecko" and he's starting to test me quite forcefully (that deserves its own blog post). One thing I'll be posting regularly when it becomes more frequent are the funny things he says. I can't wait! He now has 8 teeth and doesn't try and pull his socks off at all times. Small victories. (I was about to buy him girls opaque black tights - that'd show him! Also, please appreciate the genius in that solution.)

November love list: My boss, who asks me every day how I'm feeling and brings me extra Thai food that her mom cooks. It's all downhill from here in my lifetime of office rapport. I'm also loving that my friend Amber moved back from Chicago.