Can You Handle The Hotness?

I didn't think so.
ZOMG! Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal back together again in a movie. Thank you Jebus.
I think both of them would be on my list of people that I would get a free pass to cheat on my boyfriend/husband with if I got the chance. Yay 2009! I didn't like Diego Luna in 'Milk' (loved the movie though) but he is so amazingly hot in 'Dirty Dancing 2: Havana Nights.' (And yes I realize I'm admitting I've seen it. But I'll go a step further and say I've seen it multiple times). But really. He was.

Oh how I love holidays. I spent new year's day reading and listening to episodes of "This American Life" that were on my podcast subscription but I hadn't listened to. Have I mentioned my nerdcrush on Ira Glass? I'm pretty sure I have.

I also watched a couple episodes of this crazy show I read about on Tokyomango about this guy who spent a year living in a room and could only live off things he won from mail-in contests. I'm not sure how he didn't starve that first month but watching him go nutty from lack of social interaction and do his victory dance every time the mailman came and delivered him stuff (like a live lobster, a TV, or a stuffed animal sea lion) is the kind of voyeuristic joy that can only be surpassed by the can-fessionals in MTV's newest fauxreality TV masterpiece, Bromance. I wonder when MTV will drop that completely misleading "music" from its network name and just dive head first into what it really does best. The True Lifes, the Mades, Paris Hilton's BFF-esque shows.. Just switch it to RTV or FRTV (which is just a step from FARTV! which would be the best network name ever. If you were an 8 year old boy..)

My weekend was relaxing. My bestie and I made baked macaroni & cheese, which I'll be eating for another day or so, and watched Serenity. I'm going to spend my Sunday finishing our book club book, doing some laundry, unpacking (I'm the slowest unpacker on the face of the planet), and heading to trivia tonight. Let's hope it doesn't snow again this week. But if it does, can it come with some pandas playing in my backyard?

Christmas Awesomeness

I'm back in cold rainy Portland after a wonderful week down in Alabama visiting the fam. My sister and my parents live there, as well as my sister's two dogs, Simba and Lil' Bear. They have now officially become the grandkids of the family. It's a bit ridiculous but they are truly great dogs. They may be spoiled with affection but they aren't aggressive or possessive. My parents are huge Cesar Millan fans and try to follow the Dog Whisperer way. I also got them hooked on It's Me or the Dog (I have a huge girl crush on Victoria Stillwell) so they are pretty good at controlling the puppies (which is good cause Lil' Bear is not so little).


Here's Lil' Bear doing some pre-washing of our dishes after our Christmas Eve dinner. 2 seconds after I took this picture, he bit that wooden spoon and cracked it. Oops! I had one of my best girlfriends from high school and her parents over for brunch on Christmas (we've known their family for about 14 years now). LB fell asleep under the table and snored so loud we had to yell over him. Yea he's kind of awesome. Simba is great too, best dog ever. All he wants in the world is for you to pet him and occasionally slip him some bacon.


These two brothers from another mother (and father) are awesome. The rest of my trip was great as well. I love my family. As crazy as they can be, they are endlessly hilarious, awesome, and entertaining.

I met up with most of the Girls Club, my group of girlfriends from high school. We all keep in touch pretty regularly and they are all just really awesome ladies. We had a few members missing but it was the biggest GC reunion we've had in awhile. My friend Susie has the coolest job ever. She works at Chicago Public Radio as a producer for "All Things Considered." You should listen to her stories and leave her comments about how awesome her reporting is! She says she doesn't see Ira Glass though (supposedly he's out in NYC most of the time) so no need to ask for an autograph or if he'll marry you or anything.

What else...oh! I went to a lesbian bar with my sis and saw possibly the gayest thing ever. A table decoupaged with pictures of Melissa Ethridge. Seriously. Melissa Ethridge fuckin decoupage.

Awesome! We had a great time watching the drag show and drinking cheap booze and chatting. I maybe drank a bit too much and felt it on the plane ride the next day but it was worth it.

Finally, I came home to this, my Christmas present to myself:

I cannot tell you how excited I am to carry around my new Golden Girls tote bag. I got it at this Etsy store. Afuckingmazing. So that's all for my now. I have no plans for New Year's Eve whatsoever. This is my first one actually in Portland and it's not looking like it'll shape up to be a good one, but if y'all hear of anything fun going on, let me know! I'd love to ring in 2009 in style.

My Silly Casey Negreiff Story

Yes I have one.

I have not been a long time OPB (Oregon Public Broadcasting, for those not in-the-know) listener. While I totally love and respect the NPR enterprise, I’d rather rock out to my decidedly 2006 playlist than be reminded of the financial crisis and how much I hate George Bush’s voice. I am a huge fan of driving only because I love to sing along to any and everything that I know the lyrics to. So when my car’s CD player died for good about 3 months ago, OPB was my go-to in the morning. When the only other choices are horribly annoying loud offensive sexist douchebags, ‘Morning Edition’ was an easy choice. I am now completely addicted to my morning dose of perfectly unbiased, thoughtful news while I drive to work. This is how I first became familiar with Caseina Griff. Not only does he have the calm, academic voice that I imagine is accompanied by a geeky-sexy intellectual personality and nerd glasses, but he has the strangest name ever! Everyday I would wonder how he spelled his name (is it Caseyna? Caseina? Caseena? I was leaning towards Caseina), where it came from, if other people thought it was strange. My first thought (and I’m pretty sure I’m the only person that has ever made this connection) was of that 70s movie with David Carradine and Sylvester Stallone, “Death Race 2000,” that takes place in a dystopian future (2000!) with no values or respect for human life and the ultimate entertainment is watching cars run down old people and babies. Anyone remember this? No? Eh. Anyway, while this is all going on, an underground movement is trying to stage a revolution. A delightfully crappy story of American values blah blah blah, but the leader is one Thomasina Paine, related to Thomas (with the cleverly chick-ified name!)*. So literally, my first thought after hearing Caseina Griff’s name was “hmm…I wonder if this is like "Thomasina Paine" and some odd attempt at changing a name to be more feminine. But he's obvs a guy, so maybe his parents wanted to shirk gender rules and instead of just naming him Casey, they’ll name him Caseina, as in a distinctly feminine Casey, but he’s a boy!” Seriously. That stupidly complicated thought process went through my head the first time I heard Casey Negreiff’s name.

The other day I was at my bff’s house and we were talking about public radio personalities and how we both imagine that all of the hosts on NPR/OPB must be incredibly attractive (::ahem:: Ira Glass!) with such powerfully soothing voices. My bestie wanted to know what Kristian Foden-Vencil looked like and while I was scrolling through the other hosts, I discovered the truth of Caseina Griff. Casey. Negreiff. Well no shit Agrado.

Now I can't help but laugh at how arbitrary and random my thought process is every time I hear his name. At least I was right about the nerd glasses.

And just to throw it out there, Casey Negreiff, if you ever google your name and come across this post, I’m totes available, allergic to cats, and love cooking. Unless of course, working for public radio precludes you from hanging out with people who say 'totes' and 'obvs.'

*Ha, I just wiki’d this movie and found this line: “Disruption of the race by the resistance is blamed on the French by the state, who are also blamed for ruining the country's economy and telephone system.” ::shakes fist at France:: The French! Why must they ruin everything! Including our telephone system!