DDR Marathon! (And the Superbowl)

Yesterday Jacob and I had a Dance Dance Revolution Superbowl party. There were two kinds of chili (hot/mild), two kinds of guacamole (manly/girly), two types of cornbread (with jalapenos/without) and two television centric activities available (watching the Big Game/playing DDR)

So basically, something for everyone who attended.

If you haven’t played Dance Dance Revolution you’re missing out on a cultural phenomenon of our time. Basically there’s a touch-sensitive mat attached to the XBOX 360 that serves as the dance floor. On screen you hear a song and see dance moves (in the form of ) and you have to hit them at an exact moment. It’s not much different than Guitar Hero, really, except you’re using your feet. And it’s better exercise. In fact, I’m pretty sure we burned at least a thousand calories a piece last night playing. Probably enough to counteract that first bowl of chili.

I sadly did not take any video of this. Maybe because I was afraid of the blackmail potential of having something so embarassing end up on the interwebs. Instead, I’ll give you video of a true expert.

Out of all the party goers, Liz has the most potential to someday, if she tries really, really hard, and basically forsakes all else in life, become as good as that little kid. Next time I’m going to video her.

Oh and we also watched the Superbowl. It was a good game and Pittsburgh won, as you know. I was rooting for them because my sister-in-law Karen is from there. It was a pretty exciting game. Especially the Puppy Bowl on Animal Planet at halftime.

Sometimes it’s the little things.

Marianne

We Have (most honorable) Porn………and cake.

Oh, c’mon.  You couldn’t expect me to pass on leading with THAT snap from dealer row.  It’s a science fiction con. What were you expecting?  Yeah, yeah, okay. 

Ahem.  Here’s what I probably should have led with.  Me, left.  Alisa, right.

So what DID become of our foray into the depths of Arisia 2009?  The original purpose of going was to support my pal Alisa Sheckley Kwitney who was speaking on four different panels.  I was also curious to see more of the science fiction conference world since my past experience has focused on RWA events. 

I was also in the mood to road trip, and, in fact, I did take the train out to the wilds of outer New York where Alisa picked me up in her jalopy and drove us off to Boston.  First up, however, was the requisite diner breakfast.  I’m a huge fan of the diner breakfast.  This was a particularly fine iteration. 

 

Aside from really stellar food, the placemat was a total bonus. You’ve got to love the small town. Where else can you find an advert for a massage therapist named “Raven P. Strange” next to one for a llama rental? (You realize we are not actually at the science fiction convention yet.)

After breakfast we hopped back in the car and sped off toward our destination.  As it turned out, neither of us had brought an Official Roadtrip Checklist and subsequently we had not thought to prepare our musical selections.  We tried sharing a set of earplugs so we could listen to our iPod/Blackberry; as you can see, that was amusing and somewhat lame…but ultimately inconvenient.

That would explain why we spent the bulk of the Roadtrip Sing-a-Long trading between the soundtrack for the musical Spring Awakening (”We’re Fucked!” being the most popular song selection) and a Best of Hall & Oates disc, the origins of which Alisa claims to have no knowledge. (Yeah, sure. You just loooove to sing “Rich Girl” when you’re alone in the car, doncha?)

After we’d “gone too far” and were aware that “it didn’t matter anyway,” we arrived in Boston (or Cambridge or wherever it was) and Alisa decided that “the L.A. driver” (me!) should take over driving responsibilities for the city portion.  I swear to god, I asked if she was really sure that’s what she wanted, and she said the city part required my mad L.A. driving skillz.  And that’s what I gave her. It was so much fun watching her throw out “seatbelt arm” every three seconds as I invoked the L.A. Law of Driving ["Always act under the assumption that a) the other person will always act as if they have the right of way and that b) the other person understands that you will act as if you have the right of way."]  It’s like double offensive driving–nobody ever crashes.  Brilliant.

We made it to the hotel alive, and I realized immediately that our sunny charm made us instantly dislikable in the state of Massachussetts.  Once we’d established that the desk people disliked us instantly for no apparent reason and the concierge disliked us instantly for no apparent reason and everyone else in the hotel from New England disliked us instantly for no apparent reason, we went to our rooms and unpacked for the con, and I called Cambridge native Megan Frampton to lodge a complaint against her people.  She laughed at me, an appropriate response, and off Alisa and I went to catch the last bit of Friday night con.

Lemme just throw down the best of the pix for Friday and Saturday:

Samaurai Luggage Cart

Gross Things. Fun!

Knights in Full F-ing Armor. Dude.

Wish I could have snapped her using her Blackberry. Anachronisms, yay!

Alisa, on panel explaining something very important and interesting.

So much better than Spanx. I'll have to remember that...

Um, what the hell?

Nope, still not sure.

Tall kick-assery.

I totally have that same wig!

I wouldn't want to use the bathroom after her. Just sayin'

"Yes, it is rather large, isn't it?"

Steampunk Spider. Woot!

Hard to tell, but this is a man in a skintight leopard suit with a red cape and matching boots performing a modern interpretive dance with R2D2.

Me wanna pet the nice doggie! (Er, explain THAT one to the kid.)

Well, them’s the goods.  I’m off to bed.  I was only there for half the time.  I’ve got to put a call into Alisa to find out what happened after I left…I am happy to report, however, that she did get home safely.  Heh.

Liz

Con Season is now open…

Datastream: I’m off to Cambridge to try out Arisia with the fabulous Alisa Kwitney. I anticipate seeing lots of cool costumes (the theme of the con is “The Fabric of Science Fiction.”) and plan to take pix*. Will report in during the event…

Liz

*Dear god, I hope I find my camera battery before I walk out the door tomorrow

Cozumel Pics!

Back to reality. Cry! But I thought I’d share some pics from our Cozumel Mexico adventure. I’m kind of exhausted, so the pics will have to be worth a thousand words for now.

Our hotel, the Aura Wyndham, was awesome. I highly recommend it. The swim-up rooms were the coolest thing ever.

It was an all-inclusive place, which meant all you can eat and drink. And you could sit on the beach to do it.

Some kind of weird floaty iceburg thing off the coast of Senor Frog’s, a few beaches over. We didn’t swim out to it, but it does look fun!

The hotel staff was wonderful! They suprised us a bottle of champagne the first evening.

The view of the resort from the pier and the pier from the resort.

In town…

I like this picture of Jacob.

Liz likes to joke that everywhere I go, I order a cheeseburger. This one’s for her.

The sunsets were amazing!

We watched them from the beach.

Once (okay twice!) more with feeling.

Hammock!

This was the park we went to to swim with dolphins. (Dolphin pics have to be scanned, so will have to wait.)

We spent hours trying to locate this hidden dining gem! Mostly because the guidebook had a freaking ERROR in it. Grrr. The fajitas were worth it when we finally got there though.

There was this big Hawaiian shirted tour group from Minnesota at the next table who were more than a few drinks in…

One of them came up to our table and handed me a rubber chicken and said it was to remind us to “have fun.” Reminded me of Liz and my old conference chicken days.

When we got back to the room, the staff had decorated. I LOVE towel swans!!

And that’s about it! Our four days in sunny, wonderful Cozumel!
MARI

Eyes on Special Mystery Project X

While Marianne was sipping strawberry margaritas in Mexico (Not that there’s anything wrong with that. And not that I’m jealous or anything.), I was taking new photos outside in snowy twenty-something degree weather for Special Mystery Project X (which you will be hearing about soon, but until then, which will be referred to as…Special Mystery Project X). Obviously, I don’t want to spoil anything, but I thought I’d give you sneak preview.

I’ll tell you all about the amazing photographer and the other person on the shoot with me when Special Mystery Project X is revealed. (All in good time.) But I can give a quick shout out now to MAC makeup artist Arianna DeJesus who totally rocked these eyes.

Liz

Buenos Dias!

Buenos Dias from sunny, warm, amazing Cozumel, Mexico where I have been since Thursday! It has been so nice here – great to get away from the freezing, rainy NYC weather and to sit on the beach in the sunshine eating chips and guac while sipping on strawberry margaritas! Yum!

Our hotel, the Aura Wyndham, is awesome – especially our swim up suite. Yes, you walk out of the room and onto a patio that’s directly on the pool. Coolest concept ever!

I have a ton more pics in my camera, but of course I forgot to bring the upload cable (gr!) so you’ll have to wait til I get back to see them.

Today we went swimming with a dolphin, which is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. Our dolphin’s name was Ixchal, a traditional Mayan name we’re told, and she was super friendly and sweet. We got to kiss her, hold her, ride on her belly, and have her push us on a boogie board. It was awesome. THe only bad thing? I got stung by a jellyfish while in the ocean halfway through. But I hung in and finished cause I didn’t want to miss out on the experience.

Anyway, just wanted to quickly update you on our trip and say it’s been very relaxing and nice and really couldn’t be better. I highly recommend if you go to the Carribean to try the week after New Year’s – it’s totally dead here, which makes it even more pleasant.

I’ll be sad to go home tomorrow, but will definitely be returning with many good memories.

Marianne

I remember when it was warm and sunny…

As Marianne basks in the warm Mexican sun (taking time out only to rub it in on Facebook) I hold down the fort in Manhattan.  It’s actually quite glorious today.  And now that I’ve blogged about the weather, I might as well just blog about what I ate for breakfast and then we’ll all go take naps.  (I’m totally in the soup with the book and sometimes it seems to affect my ability to be interesting and amusing in other venues (i.e. the blog). The other problem is that the more interesting and amusing projects I’m involved in aren’t ready to be unveiled yet. We’ll get there.)

But seriously, folks, it’s great to be here, wintery mix* and all. However, once upon a time, I, too, was vacationing in a warm tropical-y-ish place. My pal Bret just posted this photo and it seemed appropriate what with the new year** and all. (Cue wavy dream sequence frame.)

It was taken during the Songkran festival in Thailand–I think we were in Bo Phut–which is basically their New Year’s celebration. Everyone on the island joins in a huge communal smearfest involving a combination of water and baby powder. I’m told the water symbolizes washing away bad karma and whatnot, while the baby powder that people randomly smear on your face is meant to be reminiscent of monks’ blessing chalk. I’m not entirely sure what the symbology would be of having your breasts grabbed more than usual by random strangers, but, whatever.
 

Liz

*I’m currently obsessed with the whole “wintery mix” thing.  Or “wintry mix” thing, depending on your proclivities.  Needless to say, such a thing does not exist in SF or LA.

**I can’t believe we’re one week in. This is definitely the last time I can blog a reference about the “new year.”

Hello ‘09

Hello, 09.  Sorry I’ve been gone so long.

I’ve been picking up new music from the music blogs (and, yes, buying after sampling).

Current Favorites:

Bill Withers – Use Me

Lady Gaga – Beautiful Dirty Rich

MGMT – Time To Pretend

I’ve been writing.  I’ve been hanging out with great friends.  I’ve been shopping too much.  I’ve been thinking about retrenching, if you will.

Of course, I’ve also been thinking about resolutions for the new year–without rushing to make them.   (Working out and dieting are so omnipresent in my mind, they don’t count as resolutions.  I think resolutions should be grand* things, things that are possible only if you can really muster the courage.) 

Hence, the following: 

Enjoy the moment(s)–exit gracefully.     

That’s grand-ish enough for the next year, I should think.

Happy New Year!

Liz

 

*I love the word “grand.”  For some reason, I always think of Peggy in 42nd Street struggling with the line, ”Jim, it was GRAND of you to come.”  She can’t nail it until the director kisses her.  *Sigh*

Singing in the New Year

Yes, I said singing, not ringing. Because we rocked the New Year in with karaoke. A lot of karaoke.

As you might remember, I got a Playstation 3 for Christmas. So the next day I went out and bought the Sing Star game and two microphones to go with it. Sing Star is a karaoke game, similar to the style of Guitar Hero. You do battle with another player and the one who hits the notes best wins. They have a large selection of songs – both on the game CD and available for download for a small fee. (I think games like this are the only hope the music industry has of survival, honestly.)

Our guests arrived around eight pm. Just a small gathering this time. Liz brought a yummy brownie type cake. Leanna and Marcos brought some kind of latino traditional new year’s snack that I forget the name of as well as popcorn and chips/salsa. We ordered a ridiculous amount of Chinese food, too.

I used our new martini glasses and shaker and made Cosmopolitans. I’m not satisfied with their color – I wanted them to be a bit more pink. But they tasted good.

And now it was time for the karaoke to begin!

The competition was fierce…

And some of the song choices…questionable.

And though I don’t have photo proof, I can do a mean Slim Shady.

Of course, Molly is less than impressed.

Before we knew it, it was almost midnight.

Time to pour the champagne for a toast.

We were very happy to be inside in the warm apartment rather than outside in Times Square with the craziness.

At the very last second, we realized that we were watching the wrong station and missing Dick Clark’s New Year’s Eve special. So we switched, just in time for midnight.

Poor Dick Clark. Can someone please let the guy retire? They wheel him out every New Year’s Eve, even though he can barely talk! What’s the deal? Also, how did Ryan Seacrest get the gig?

In any case, we cheered and toasted and all that. Except Molly, who turned up her nose. She’s more of a Cristal type dog, I think.

Or maybe just plain water is her beverage of choice.

And then it was back to karaoke for the remainder of the night!

All in all, a great, rockin’ New Year’s Eve! And a lot better than spending ridiculous amounts of cash to go to some bar or club where some D List celebrity has been paid to MC at.

2008 was a great year for me. And I have high hopes for 2009!

Marianne

A Very Mad Cow Affair

So I went to Marianne & Jacob’s for Christmas and somewhere in the midst of the whiskey tasting/karaoke/board-game playing*, I received an email on my Blackberry from Antarctica.  Those of you who have been following me for a while have probably read a post or two about spending the holidays at McMurdo research station in Antarctica and understand that the place provides an unlimited supply of anecdotes that just seem like they couldn’t possibly be true but usually are.  This particular holiday dispatch I received from my dear friend did not disappoint.

Now, first of all, Thanksgiving dinner and Christmas dinner are the highlights of the season.  Certainly the culinary highlights, and really also the social highlights.  It’s just something you look forward to from the very beginning of the season, and the dining staff goes all out to make the feast a Thing of Greatness.

Well, apparently, someone stole the prime rib that was meant for Christmas dinner at McMurdo Station, Antarctica.  When I say that someone stole the prime rib, I mean that someone apparently went into the dining hall and robbed the place of 180lbs of meat.  What makes this information so remarkable is that you can’t simply get into your car and drive off with the plunder.

Unless you bribe the kitchen staff at the nearby New Zealand base to harbor said fugitive beef or convince the drunk Russians coming through on their way to Vostok to take you–and your beef–with them (and especially if you are female, you really don’t want to be marooned at the Russian station with a bunch of undersexed/oversoused comrades, believe me), or manage to sneak onto a plane bound for the South Pole Station (I think those extra 180lbs would be a issue with respect to your individual weight allowance) there is absolutely nowhere to take this meat.

If you cook 180lbs of meat somewhere on the station, I’m telling you, somebody is going to notice.  There is not much to smell out there on the Ice (other than sweaty bodies and Hamburger Night at the bar) and 180 lbs of prime rib cooking somewhere on the station is going to get noticed.

Yes, you could freeze it for future use (i.e. bury it in the snow next to your dorm), but didn’t your mother ever tell you to separate and individually package that stuff before you freeze it?  And don’t you think someone is going to notice an excessive amount of “food processing” happening just outside their dormitory window?  (”That’s odd, what’s Smithey doing down there?  Are those…body parts?  Good god.”)

Anyway, if the theft was meant to be funny, it’s only funny now.  I’m sure it wasn’t funny for the poor chef and all the hard workers looking forward to their holiday meal.  I’m told that “an investigation is pending.”

I can only imagine the official memo:

“…and, therefore, let it be known that until the instigator of the aforementioned beef-centric travesty steps forward and reveals his or herself to be the scoundrel at the center of this mad cow affair, the ice cream machine in the cafeteria will be turned off (gasp!) and all fresh vegetables incoming from New Zealand will be rerouted to the weird science guy who’s been doing penguin research out in the boonies by Shackleton’s Hut for the last fifteen years.”

Prime rib theft investigation.  It’s so very The Grinch Who Stole Christmas in Antarctica.

Liz

*Marianne has the pix (Such as they are.  Oy.) and we’ll hold the scoop on the particulars of said festivities until she’s uploaded them.