Merry Crimbo!

The obligatory xmas pics... I picked a few cute/weird ones.

These people are insane. They live a few blocks from my parents

 and every year since I can remember,

they have gone way overboard. There's music to accompany the crazy.

We like to drive by.

We're glad we don't live next door.

My mom does the most adorable Dickens Christmas village.

This year involved a tin-foil ice rink.

Wider view of the xmas village.

In her defense- every piece was a gift.

It's all very cute. My favorite is the man with

a booth of dead poultry dangling around.

We played spades.

At some point- mom laughs so hard that

it looks really painful. Must have

been funny.

Mark got a Machete from Brian.

Of course it was then used to open every gift and

cut open any food packaging... 

Because everybody needs a good machete.

Best Day Ever

Yesterday was basically the best day ever. 

After spending over a month on a boat off the west coast of Africa, 

working 13 hour shifts, with not a single day off- Ben flew from

Paris to JFK, rode the subway all night since there were no buses until morning,

and arrived in Philly at about 8:30 am. I met him at Satellite cafe and

he dipped me low to the ground and gave me the most amazing big kiss.

Talk about the best bday/xmas present ever! We then spent the day

walking around and playing around downtown.

Best shopping find of the day: $30 wool pea coat.

And I have to say- we've never actually gone shopping before,

despite over 2 years together. ( not for longer than like a 1/2 hr)

It was strange but super fun.

Ben is good in bookstores- but funky clothing stores inspire

hilarious outbursts.  After like 1 hour we were fed up and

had the best sushi at vic's on 20th/sansom.

I recommend highly- prob the best sushi in town that doesn't

leave you totally penniless.

After sushi we tried to find me a new winter coat, 

but I'm picky so we got books and fun new sunglasses.

We really like our new sunnies.

This picture just makes me believe that Ben was actually here.

It was such a whirlwind 20 hours that I thought it was

a dream when I woke up until I saw my new sunnies

and his shoes that he left in my living room.

Good timing B...it was chili night. As much as I didn't want to share him...

Everybody totally flipped when they saw him.

I think Justin was the cutest. He picked Ben up and jumped around in disbelief.

I'm a good liar when it's important enough I guess.

Fake "bad time" chili pic. In every shot, we're all doing bad time

except for mark and lauren. They can't even fake it ;)

We went home and just crashed. It was wonderful.

So the day came and went.

All too quickly.

But I'm so glad everybody got to have a little bit of Ben fun.

So many more good times to come I'm quite sure.

Thanks B for reminding me not to take

everything so damn seriously!

Not Cool

So this stupid girl that works in the computer lab as a general grunt makes me so mad. I really don't like her at all. Today, she said some really rude shit. To one co-worker, she said "go ahead and touch the xmas lights (that she believed contain lead) since you're never gonna have a baby"...she may as well have said you're an ugly old hag- and this woman is beautiful and intelligent. To me- generally inappropriate comments about my weight such as "fucking eat something" (I had just come back from lunch with her boss so..) - I don;t tell her to stop eating so many things- that would be rude- why isn't it rude the other way around? I mean if I said- you're a fat moron- Im pretty sure there would be a problem...is this ummm reverse fatism?

Museum X-mas

I've been a major blog slacker. I apologize for this. Anyways...

Last week was the Museum's annual xmas party.

It was actually surprisingly tame.

Me and Elvis sitting on the van bench that is occasionally, inexplicably, outside the Kress entrance.

Ugly sweater contest.

I got third place.

There were only 3 competitors.

A few people actually liked the hideous sweater I was wearing.

 uck. bad taste much. It's actually hairy with ribbony things dangling off of it

if you could see up close.

 Then the karaoke started... 

Drs Rose and Monge kicked off with "Having my Baby".

Monge pulled a stuffed monkey out of her jacket at the end,

which is funny because she's a physical anthropologist (philadelphians may be interested to know that she is the one that identified the victims of the MOVE firebombing).

Steve and I with an incredibly out of sync rendition of

"Time of My Life"- the dirty dancing song.

He refused to recreate the triumphant "lift" scene at the end of the song. boo.

Cute little Miles really wanted to sing too.

 And by time the 1st keg was kicked...

"Endless Love". Brave Kevin. Brave.

Funny band names

Brooks loves to look through metal mags and find bad band names. Winners of the night: rapegoat, slutty earth, encoffination, and riot god. Don't you wish you were in the room when they came up with rapegoat or slutty earth?

Guinea Pigs in the Basement?

So, as I have mentioned, 

there is ongoing construction in the west wing of the museum, 

where the lab (now the Kowalski Digital Media Center) is located. 

We've had weird smells and carbon monoxide issues... 

We reopened the K-DMC last week- finally. 

This afternoon I went down there to check on things

 and as I walked by the mechanical room-

 I swear I smelled guinea pigs. 

Like I was transported back in time

 to when my brother had a guinea pig named Pierre 

(that turned out to be female) that he had trained to..uh..play dead. 

It was suggested that I was smelling wood-chips. 

Ok fine- but are they peeing on the wood-chips?

Umm..ok

Something about this is funny- just can't quite determine why exactly...

K-DMC and broken toe brother

So I finally looked at the annual report...

 actually because I was looking for pics for a

thank you card- that's really all the annual report is good for

... anyways oy Gabe why did you have

to publish such a bad pic. I'm sure it will be a nice

memory if I ever get really fat and old.

Trying to be positive.

This makes it all better.

It's pretty self-explanatory.

CO + babies= dead babies

Thanks Chuku.

Hey Sailor

Thanks Google!

Got to talk to my sea-faring boyfriend tonight

as he floats off the coast of West Africa. Awesome.

Even though the image froze up for about a 1/2 hour

right as he was... picking his...biting his nails.

He says hi to everybody and wants me to ask Justin

to go on a date with him whenever he makes it to Philly.

Poll on the right

FYI- I made the little questionnaire on the right side of the page- it's not spam- I don't have any ads or anything like that. So feel free to opine. Would be much appreciated.

thanksgiving disaster

Thanksgiving was...rather unpleasant...so much so that I am working to make myself feel better. Enjoy this video of new albanian song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtpEds1mBF4

Chilanksgiving

Yum. Amazing drunken cooking.

Thanks Justin, Rachel etc.. for hosting the most awesomest vegan chili-tgiving ever!

Pile of girls. Elvis making a come-hither face. Jimmy laughing her ass off.

Moment of calm among the chaos.

Cute. Jess and Mark- the prodigal hippy returns.

Bitch don't touch my gravy!

Oh, lovers biting each other. Always worth posting.

Spontaneous Portraiture at the 40th St Depot

This is Joe. He has about 3 teeth, 

a boom box in a cardboard box (now minus 1 flap),

 and a passion for portraiture.

Last night I went out with Jimmy to a comic book store thanksgiving thing.

I left early because my shoulder was killing me.

Had to wait at least 45 minutes for a trolley.

Luckily, I had some interesting company.

Joe plays the guitar, loves jazzy jesus music, and volunteers at a food kitchen.

Joe's drawing of a ....

chubby cross-eyed post-lip enhancement treatment male version of my

head floating in space.

Thank you SEPTA?

Ben..Gabon...Tomorrow

Ben is going to Gabon tomorrow for a job that

definitely involves boats and hose.

Awesome and exciting right?

Here is where Gabon is FYI

Reliquary Figure, 19th–20th century
Fang peoples; Gabon
Wood, metal, oil patina

Source:Reliquary Figure [Fang peoples; Gabon] (1978.412.441) | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Hope he gets to experience some of the culture

beyond the hotel and helicopter rides...

In the Fang language "a tara dazm!" means "holy cow!"

Happy Birthday Elvis!

Last night was beautiful Elvis's birthday... 

thanks to Jess for helping me set up! 

First fete at my new apart was a success. 

And Happy 5th Anniversary Pete and Jess!

 So...I do not bake. Let alone vegan bake. 

Solution: candle in a rotten piece of tofu decorated with Sriracha. 

Justin was yelling "dump 'em out" the whole time.

How do I make this camera show me boobies? 

There must be a button for that.

And after the champagne was gone, 

Pete refilled the bottle with some alcohol energy drink.

Class.

Tar Butts!

(apparently I got a new roof)

Not sure what's going on here... 

Justin seems to disapprove of kissing?

What is Pete doing in the corner? 

I don't even want to know. 

PS M&L that corner is your future abode.

the end.

Out-smarted by technology?

I spent more hours this week than I want to admit 

being outsmarted by an external hard drive

I won.

The fact that this was my big triumph of the week
is rather pathetic.

Bill Stebs Bene

There was a nice benefit for a co-worker's ill wife in upper egypt last thursday....

Here he is gettin' down with Shamika!

Drop it like it's hot?

Scott and Darius near the end of the night...fun evening

then the trolley wasn't running so I took a cab 

and payed the cabbie with a big tub of left-over animal crackers

Halloween and Monday Friends

Halloween!

Had a great Halloween weekend. Two friends from Brooklyn came Saturday and stayed for festivities. Love them. Never see them. So excited. Went to Sean's awesome Halloween Bash and sorry for the lack of pics but none are decent... so we obviously had fun.

Er and Dor. So cute. She was a spy and he was Cyrano de Bergerac..he appears to have lost his entire costume by this point.

Me=Sean's Nymph (he was Pan- not pictured)

Brian=very tall pirate

Danny=dead baby

Most of the photo is cropped out because I had lost parts of my costume by this point as well.

Lundi avec Julie Yan et Damien

 Monday night my favorites came over with a friend visiting from south of France.

They brought me beer and plants (that I hopefully won't manage to kill too quickly- given that at least one is a cactus)- housewarming cuteness! PS note my new curtains that were 1$ at the thrift store on baltimore that's connected to the weird exorcism church.

I'm an e-card

http://www.business-services.upenn.edu/ecard/send_card/76

2nd row on right

Double F U Crab Truck Man!

This is rather self-explanatory.

Nutter and Spooktacular VCN

Last Thursday? I went to work one of my other jobs in the museum, and boss Nancy said we should go to some reception. Ok maybe there's free food. There were more than 1000 people there, including the Mayor.

He's shorter than I thought he'd be.

Halloween Vegan Chili Night!

This guy...

 ...made chili in a pumpkin. Probably the grandest VCN achievement ever. Gold Star Brooks.

Double Gold Star Brooks for having such a hot wife!

Jess had on like 12in heels. Impressive, especially because she probably biked there. Pete was wearing a suit and he was some specific person- I forget the actual concept other than 

Pete in a suit=costume.

Girls!

Rachel=fortune teller

Jess=something fetishy

Me=...intention=pirate..outcome=axl rose 

Elvis=hot stuff...see above