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?