It’s the most wonderful time of the year!

There’ll be parties for hosting
Marshmallows for roasting
And caroling out in the snow
There’ll be scary ghost stories
And tales of the glories
Of Christmases long, long ago

 

Are the scary ghost stories the ones about Jesus’ conception?

 

 

I should ask about middle names too

With my wedding nuptials came a new last name.  So what’s one of the first things I did?  Try to get joanna.popik as my new email address!  But it turns out that joanna.popik was taken.  So what did I do? 

I emailed her!

It turns out that the other Joanna Popik is a very nice woman in Poland.  She too married into her last name, she has some family in NY, etc. etc.  We didn’t keep in touch after those first few emails remarking about having the same name – but several of my friends & family now send emails to her by mistake – so it’s sort of like pen pals!

 

Allll aaabooard!

Over Thanksgiving I discovered my 3 year-old nephew’s favorite TV show.  And by “discovered” I mean “watched over and over again whenever it was on.”  You probably haven’t heard of this show, but try to think of 2 things that little boys like.  Then, put them together.  What do you get? 

That’s right – Dinosaur Train.  A show where dinosaurs take the train to travel around and meet other dinosaurs on board.  It looks like in this episode we’ve got a baby T-Rex boarding the train from Pterodactyl Station with a brontosaurus on board to go visit some swimming pools he read about in his travel magazine! 

This is all completely accurate. They do, however, leave out the part where these species attack and eat each-other on board.

 

I can’t wait to be home again for the holidays.  Don’t you love natural history!?!

 

Everything I need to know I learned in Driver’s Ed

In driver’s ed back in the day I was shown a video about road rage.  In it a very sweet looking old lady cuts off another car.  (Uh oh – now you know this is going to be good.)  The car then follows Grandma back to her house, pulling in right behind her in the driveway.  Then, the tough guy in the second car gets out of his car, opens his trunk, and pulls out a wooden baseball bat!  (I know – it’s getting weird, but hang in there).  As he walks up to her window, sweet little old lady reaches under the passenger seat and pulls out a revolver.  The video freezes when she rolls down the window and points it at him.  I kid you not.

One of my strongest memories from high school is: be careful – because grandma has a gat.

 

It’s beginning to look a little like Christmas

Ah yes, if I might make one suggestion here…

I've seen this pharmacy window for days now, and it is not a work in-progress.

 

Cat Weightlifting Competition

I had a post all written and ready-to-go this morning, but then I watched this.  Enjoy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EF0svxGhClI

Like me you might be asking yourself – what are all these cats doing there?  But then I realized that if I was a stray cat I too would frequent the field with the free, fresh, HUMONGOUS fish in it.  I think they could make this show with people and donuts and it would work too.

Speaking of which, I’m off to get some donuts…

 

George Washington’s Rules of Civility & Decent Behavior

I bet you didn’t even know that these 110 rules from our first president existed!  Well, that can only mean one thing – you aren’t a civil and decent person.  Needless to say, I somehow came across them and just finished reading these rules, which the great GW wrote at age 16. 

They range from the silly: Put not your meat to your Mouth with your Knife in your hand. (Rule #95:)

To the overly specific: Run not in the Streets, neither go too slowly nor with Mouth open go not Shaking your Arms kick not the earth with R feet, go not upon the Toes, nor in a Dancing fashion (Rule #53: )

To a general obsession with not adjusting one’s balls in public: When in Company, put not your Hands to any Part of the Body, not usually Discovered. (Rule #2)   Shift not yourself in the Sight of others.  (Rule #11)

All in all it probably wasn’t the best use of my time at work, but as far as historic documents go it’s an interesting read.  A little tedious, which is too bad since that breaks Rule #80 -  Be not Tedious in Discourse or in reading.

Enjoy!

 

The Story of Mr. & Mrs. Pans

After our wedding in September we returned to our hotel suite to find that the hotel had pimped our room.  There were chocolate-covered strawberries, champagne on ice, red rose petals leading to the bedroom (culminating in a giant flower-heart on the bed), and two embroidered pillow cases reading  Mr. & Mrs. Popik  9/5/09.  

We downed a few strawberries and grabbed the pillows off the bed to show them off at the after party in a friend’s room.  We got there with our prize pillows held high to find that Julia and Max had also received chocolate-covered strawberries, champagne on ice, red rose petals leading to the bedroom (culminating in a giant flower-heart on the bed), and two embroidered pillow cases in their room.  What the hell!

Their pillows read: Mr. & Mrs. Pans 9/6/09 

Yes – the hotel had accidently set up Mr. & Mrs. Pans’ room a day early.  Instead of delighting a new bride and groom the evening of their wedding bliss, they had helped my friends eat a little more chocolate, get a little bit drunker, and take home a new set of pillow cases with a stranger’s name on them.   

I hope that Max & Julia are using those pillows all the time.

 

And on the other page of the calendar:

Ok.  So I know I posted a picture of my calendar yesterday, but I thought this was worth mentioning.  Looking at the calendar I am apparently going to a “Fancy Dinner” tonight.  Ooh la la:

All I can say is that I really wish I had written down a few more details.  I do not know when & where I am going.  But when I get there, it will be fancy.

I’ll let you know how it goes…

 

Happy December!

Well, that's a relief.