Five Guys Burgers

Large burger
Originally uploaded by mlovitt.

Have any of y'all ever eaten at Five Guys Burger? Really, truly, the best burgers around. The beauty featured here is ( I believe ) the biggest burger you can get there: a bacon-cheeseburger with mayo,relish,onions,lettuce,pickles,tomatoes,fried-onions,sauteed mushrooms,ketchup,mustard,jalapeños,green-peppers and A-1 sauce

Indiana?

Hey all,

I finally have a square inch of time to actually get everyone up to speed on the Fams situation out here in the mid-west.

The picture is of us on our trip from Portland to Indiana. in the background is a sculpture I have recently completed.

Laura is going to school full time...teaching two basic drawing classes and taking a bunch of classes herself. She is super busy but is still finding the time to mother the girls. After being a full time Mom for the last 9-10 years and struggling to keep her work going...it is nice that she can put that part of herself back onto the front burners.

Hannah is going to highschool.....new town, new kids, new school. This is a small town...she is from a big town......needless to say the transition has been the toughest for her. As anyone can recall, high school is such a strange and difficult time without any outside obstacles. She is deffinitly feeling it...but she is a real trooper and keeps her chin up and is making the best of it and it seems to be getting better little by little.

Chella is going to school for the first time and is handling it well. I am writing this from one of the classrooms in her school. I have been hanging around for part of the day to help her ease into it.
One of the main things I wanted in moving out here was the opportunity for the Girls to be able to play outside without us watching them like hawks. The first day we were here a little girl from down the street showed up and her and Chella soon scampered off. There are many more kids around and the town as a whole feels a lot safer then Portland.
Chella is 7 now - 8 in November......She is handling the move well....her world is still much more closely tied to the house. I think it will be a good change for her.

I am working from home....which I really am starting to enjoy. I have found where the pick up soccer games are played...I have found the skate park.... I have met quite a few neighbors that are open-minded and interesting. It seems that our neighborhood is all families that are tied to the University. A lot of Doctoral level research professors. It is interesting going to social functions with people that spend so much time and energy focused on their passion.

Blagh blagh blagh..........I miss all of you a ton.

total eclipse of the lunar

I am going to try to watch it at the Masonic Temple here in town because it seems like a good place for a portal to another plane to open, or some demon to be released, or the location of a holy-relic to be revealed, etc…

His very own locker

His very own locker
Originally uploaded by ultrakickgirl

Adolfo was very happy and positive on his first day of school - i am so proud of my wonderful growing boy

Is Today The Birthday Of The Amber?

If so, then

Happy Birthday!!!!

Summer Haircut

Summer Haircut
Originally uploaded by killy

Adolfo's first day of kindergarten is wednesday. Everyone, please wish him much luck.

We hadn't cut his hair all summer, and i hadn't realized how much hair he actually had until it was gone. He's back to his respectable catholic schoolboy 'above the collar' look.

Hurricane Dean Prediction Party

Maybe we should plan an impromptu Hurricane Dean (Category 3)
Prediction Party? I know it's kinda sudden but so was this hurricane
and not to mention that i'm kinda achin' to get together with
everyone. I can't remember the last time i saw adolph; taggart has
been out of town so much he hasn't even been inside his newly bought
home; and todd - well - is todd; and ryan, my God, i haven't even
seen Ryan.

We can play 'pin the vortex on the gulf coast' and wear the color of our favorite computer model

Some interesting prediction ideas:

1. How long will the average trip to Austin take during the evacuation?
2. What percentage of the residents of Houston and the surrounding
area will evacuate?
3. What will be the highest price paid for gas?
4. What is the furthest town from Houston that will be 'out of gas' due to the hurricane?

And of course

5. Where will the hurricane hit?

Anyone interested in doing this this weekend before we are all washed away?

Of Rattlesnakes And Robotic Squirrels

Tests with robotic squirrels confirmed that a warmed squirrel tail made rattlesnakes more likely to act defensively, say Rundus and Owings.

via The New Scientist

under the table

under the table
Originally uploaded by ultrakickgirl

adolfo has lost his toddler body - he is now a full on BOY and is developing muscles - he is about to start kindergarten and is very interested in the wii and other technological gadgets - it's beautiful to see how his mind continues to thirst for new things to understand...

Niagra Falls

Niagra Falls
Originally uploaded by Pablo Mercado.
I took a mini-vacation up at some cabins on the shores of Lake Erie. On the way back we stopped by Niagra Falls. At first I was like “Falls Shmalls”, but then we did the Maid of the Mist boat ride that takes you right up to the foot of the falls and I was (almost literally) blown away by the beauty and furor of the sky falling into the water and onto the rocks…

Western New York (Fredonia, Dunkirk, Buffalo) was really beautiful. I did not know that so much grape was produced there! We passed mile after mile of beautiful vineyards. In Fredonia at a place called Aldrich’s I enjoyed the most delightful malted milk-shake. At the Keg and Kettle in Dunkirk I ate a whole flock of Buffalo wings.

I also drove up to nearby Erie, Pennsylvania to see good old Thomas Schneider. His girlfriend Mira and he are living in a cute and creaky cottage that sits atop a cliff that overlooks Lake Erie. He is doing his Masters in Ceramics and Penn State and I got to see quite a few of his projects. His sculptures are fantastic!

Capturing Movies

Is there a way for me to capture or paste the CBS segment onto my harddrive? They want me to pay $95 for a DVD version, but I'm just wondering if there's any way to copy it directly off the website?

Link

Here's the actual link -- I look like such a plant geek!

http://wcbstv.com/video/?id=102239@wcbs.dayport.com

Lost Boy

Lost Boy
Originally uploaded by ultrakickgirl

although not a lost cause...

New Stuff

So I got a new client, his name is Hermes.... He's supposed to be like really famous for making scarves and stuff. Whatever. His girlfriend/wife hates any flowers that aren't white.

Also, they're supposed to be running an interview with me on the CBS New York morning show this morning... I can't watch it tho because we live in PA, but the reporter said it would be on the website later today, so here's the link. Try not to laugh too hard:

http://wcbstv.com/linksnumbers

Sunshine

So, I just got back from seeing Sunshine a sci-fi film directed by the director of , Danny Boyle.

The movie was ok. Visually it was very interesting, although the director did make some decisions I disagreed with as to how much and how frequently the camera should be spun around. Sonically, it was overwhelming, and I wish that the treatment of sound had been one of the many elements from 2001 A Space Odyssey that Boyle had found inspiration from…

As for the story, it was ok. I will not give away any of the plot-twists; instead I shall subject to you to how I would have written the story about a mission to restart the sun.

The sun is dying. Don’t ask why, don’t ask how, it is not important. The important thing is that the sun is dying and we need to restart it. The Scientists thinks that it knows what the problem is and they have put together a plan to remedy the solution. The plan? Drop a big bomb into the sun. Sounds simple enough. But it turns out that things are not that straight forward. You see, in order for the bomb to restart the sun, it must release a precise amount of energy, timed in precisely the right way. Unfortunately from Earth it is not possible to make these calculations and The Scientists believe that these calculations can only be properly made by information gathered from close proximity observation. In other words, folks are going to have to ride along with the bomb to make sure it is set off correctly.

So a crew is assembled. This is no rag-tag crew of misfits, rather it includes experienced cosmonauts and the only scientists on earth with the skills to correctly calibrate the bomb. The crew of 7 blasts off into Space. The fate of humankind wrests on their shoulders…

As the crew approaches the sun and begins to make the necessary observations, a troubling pattern emerges to one of the astrophysicists. According to her calculations there is no reason to drop a bomb into the sun. In fact, it would be disastrous to do so. What she eventually comes to believe based on the new observations that the sun will restart itself and that everything will be ok if we just leave it alone, etc.

Of course no one believes her and as the mission approaches D-Day the tension mounts etc.

For comic relief I think it would be funny if the onboard computer uses the voice of Smithers from the Simpsons, and that it only understands command from you if you speak with Mr. Burns’ voice.

Anyhow, I have not developed the story beyond this point but the climatic scene is a struggle between the scientist and a crew member who wants to launch the bomb and the crew member knocks out the scientist and reaches slowly over to press the Launch Button and just before the crew member launches the bomb the sun erupts in light, having re-started itself.

The Earth is saved Yay! But then Aliens invade. Noooo! But then we repel the Aliens, Yay! But in doing so we set up an Oppressive World Government. Noooooo! But its ok because there are pockets of resistance. Yay!!!! But they face impossible odds. Nooooo! But they team up with some of the defeated Aliens. Yay!!!!! And they defeat the Oppressive World Goverment. Yay!!!!!! And Peace Reigns on Earth. Yay!!!!! But then an Asteroid comes. Noooo!!!! But it misses Yay!!!!! etc

excellent gun action

excellent gun action
Originally uploaded by ultrakickgirl

i made this thing for adolfo and we geeked it out with a hatch, a sliding door and a gun - i was quite pleased that he played with it for so long and that he enjoyed it so much - he was quite pleased to shoot me and his sister with it along with all the requisite sounds associated wth death and destruction - good times

Ready? Set. GO!

I have signed up to walk/run a marathon in January.
I need your help.

Thank you.

http://www.active.com/donate/tnttxgc/CarolinaDivina