Sam's new sleepy place

The stuffed animal/clothing heap!

A Tania in Calla clothing

(and glasses)

Friends don't let friends ....

Go to bed with wet hair. Ha!

Pretty pretty

Peeling layers of paint. Happy Friday. :)

Daystar

Long shadows from a tiny cat

The sun weighs heavily upon Hannah.

Love,

Tania

P.S. Also, if I don't post both cats, I will never hear the end of the Sami Conspiracy from my dad.

The Loafster

Julian has been on a bread making kick recently.

May it never stop.

Ground Control to Major Tania

Sometimes I open Google Earth so I can zoom in on Home.

My science

My science is a rainbow spectrum of label tape...

And my science is oodles of little larval ghosts - tiny empty jackets of what they used to be.

It's sad, but these are the little soldiers of science. And they are telling us a lot.

Love,

Tania

Goose alchemy

Yesterday (honk!) ...

and today!

It's not much, but I'll take it.

Love,

Tania

Well, yeah

I don't usually get preachy, however...

Please give blood.

Only 38% of Americans are eligible to donate blood and out of those only 8% actually do. That amounts to only about 3 out of every 100 people.

That's so few. I'm done now.

Love,

Tania

Oh, calendar!

Clearly my calendar doesn't read my blog.

Superlative

WE MADE PRETZELS! This was superlatively exciting and delicious. There are both savory and sweet thanks to a $5 box of Auntie Anne's Make-Your-Own-Pretzels I got at Hannaford before Christmas.

And, since something had to be in the background, a cat.

Love,

Tania

Lucasarts on the brain

Back in the day (1993) I discovered the graphic adventure games of Lucasarts. The two big ones I loved the most were Sam & Max Hit The Road and Day of the Tentacle. Today, they resurfaced.

In Sam and Max, the dog and monicidal rabbit detective team end of travelling all around America, stopping at the many dinky roadside attractions dotting the interstates. I LOVED it. The Ball of Twine made an appearance and ever since then, I've wanted to see it. I will someday, come hell or high water.

Next up was a straight and obvious lift from Day of the Tentacle (and also Maniac Mansion). I love me some tentacles. They're not ALL trying to take over the world, just most of them.

Love,

Tania

This one's for you, mommer

Love,

Tania

I am player three

It's not always about me

Behold, the stylings of Agata, mastery fishy renderer.

Love,

Tania

Slug-a-buggery

Connecticut is so close. I've shot arrows farther than Connecticut. I had no idea. It's right there. Last weekend I got the distinct pleasure of visiting Kerwin at her new digs in the Nutmeg State. Heh. It was one of the most enjoyable and relaxing weekends I can remember. On Friday I drove up after rush hour. I was instructed to leave Waltham no earlier than 6:30 unless I wanted to hate my life. Good advice, Katelyn. I left around 6:45 and was able to fly down 90 and 84. I made it to Vernon by 8. And then, indian food and chatting. Oh, the chatting. Indeed, oh, the indian food. I would cut a bitch for saag paneer and naan. So delicious. Then we headed back to Allison's chill pad. It's a crazy awesome loft and this is just one view from the super comfy couch I based myself out of ALL WEEKEND. I was a slug-a-bug and it was soooo awesome.

Not only is her place super cool (built inside an old factory), but she has a black cat, too. It's the snuggliest club in town. Meet Caleb, majestic as all get-out.

So after Indian food, Kerwin and I (and Caleb) chatted so more and then I was super tired and passed out AND IT WAS AWESOME. I awoke the next morning and we headed off to her lab so she could change the water the she was keeping her squid egg cases in. Yeah. Amazing. I love seeing other labs. Things I see all the time are in different places and configurations. It's like seeing your sibling with a wacky haircut. Afterwards, we headed back to Manchester and spent the day on the couch watching all kinds of fun and hilarious TV and chatted up a tiny hurricane. It was so great. Indian leftovers, a fancy-ass bottle of champagne, super delicious cheeses, and then home made brownies. Yeah, it was so fantastic we forgot to make dinner. Bam. Weekend.

On Sunday we woke up and drove back to lab, because science waits for no one, I get it. While she was doing her water changes, I was poking around the building. Check out some of these crazy architectural situations.

That's sinister AT BEST. I think that's where they keep all of John Carpenter's Antarctic experiments.

Then there's the room where all the ceiling tiles were gone and the only evidence that they ever existed in the first place is where they rubbed off on globs of ceiling glue. I love it. And finally...

Something akin to the Phantom Tollbooth. Some sort of dwarven elevator. No really, look at these jewels for buttons.
And then it was time for breakfast. The food was super tasty, and although the orange juice was from concentrate, IT HAD A BENDY STRAW!! Wonder of wonders!

We drove back to Kerwin HQ, I showed Allison my preliminary lab presentation (due 3 days hence), and then I bid her and the black kitty cat goodbye, hopped in the rocket car and drove on home. And then 45 seconds later (read: 1.5 hours later), I was back home. It was such a lovely trip, I was sad to go, but was so thrilled to know how close she is.

Love,

Tania

It's a fancy-ass name for a cabinet

More posts soon. Currently recovering from giving my lab meeting presentation yesterday.

Woot!

Love, Tania

Beloved brain clutter

So when the most recent doodle prompt asked that I get a little girl ready for a party, my first thought was PUT A BOAT ON HER HEAD!

The inspiration behind this thought is a book I remember seeing on Reading Rainbow (and I'm sure mom and I read the hard copy version, as well.) The book is called The Lady with the Ship on her Head, written and illustrated by Deborah Nourse Lattimore.

In it, Madame Pompenstance is invited to the ball and needs to win a fancy hat contest. Hilarity endues. Sadly, it appears to be out of print. However, on the RR episode is apparently on Youtube (skip to 2:41).

What important piece of information has my brain shunned in order to remember this book?

Love,

Tania

P.S. I suspect mom's response would be along the lines of, "Well then how important could that piece of information really be?"

Reason #478 to love Avi

I got this in an email today.

This is not the first pun/punctuation-related joke email we have exchanged.

Love, Tania

On distractions

Who needs the Internet when you have cats?

The view from 7 a.m.

Silly calendar

Of course it's bananapants!

Revelation on Unrealistic Proportions

I never really had strong negative body image issues, I thought I could loose some "side-chub" as I call it. I didn't feel fat, just mildly out of shape.

Then about two weeks ago I saw this on my friend Lauren's facebook page.

And now, provided that I keep working out (because it's fun!) and eating well (because vegetables are delicious!) and being generally healthy (because it really feels great), I am DONE feeling bad about little body things.

Love,

Tania

A first!

Never saw this in a book before. Neato.

Quite

Remainders

These are all the books I own that I have yet to read. This does not include books Julian brought to the marriage. Faulk-whoozle? Gogoggol? Hemingsomething-or-other?

I don't want to live on this world anymore

THIS is a section at Barnes & Noble.

VOOM!

I wish these sunglasses...

were rocket goggles.

Flashback

This tastes just like something I ate when I was a kid visiting Uruguay. Holy shit.

The calendar that keeps on giving

Reference here.

Queen of the castle

Sam always benefits from a trip to the grocery store. She is the queen of bags.

The bag-nitiation begins with some rolling.

It's not paper towels, but it will suffice.

T-minus 3 seconds to POUNCE.

The weather today

The Christmas Box from Colorado

Came in the mail today.

Avi: What words come to mind? Professional. Detail-oriented. Clean!

Love,

Tania

Only you can prevent forest fire(bears)

Oops