How to Have a Very Colonial Thanksgiving

One of the perks of teaching at a small university is that everyone knows each other. So when the usual professor couldn't take a group of students on the Thanksgiving trip around colonial Virginia, the lovely travel study coordinator turned to us, the new-sans-children-newlywed professors: "Want to ditch your original Thanksgiving plans and host a ragtag group of misfits for a free trip to Williamsburg?" she said (in so many words). And that's how we found ourselves surrounded by turkeys and skinned hogs.

So how does one have a Very Colonial Thanksgiving you ask?

1: Watch a gorgeous sunset at Berkeley Plantation

2: Get locked in the stocks for an hour

3: Catch your turkey dinner

4: Gorge at an intense Thanksgiving dinner (note the eagle crest in the background)...

(Intense meaning that there was a butt load of ice sculptures and white-hat chefs)

Butcher a hog

Direct a military wearing a tri-cornered hat

Shatter the enemy's morale at Yorktown

Be adorable at Jamestown

Pretty easy, eh?

I know I've been absent on this blog for months so here's some things to look forward to: An adventure at the Cabbage Patch Kids hospital! Florida! Mothman Festival! And etc.

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It's About Time "OMG" Had An Anthem

Just when you thought pop music couldn't get any better, Usher had to go and make this:

2:08 will blow your mind. This is the stuff dreams are made of. Thanks, Usher.

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Dining with 'Coons? Only in Omaha...

We got a car full of folks together to see the sights and sounds of Omaha. Turns out much of the nation's college baseball fans felt the same way (thanks, NCAA World Series for the awesome traffic/parking/tailgaters!)

On the agenda: temple, zoo, then dining with raccoons. Yes, dining with raccoons. Come, watch the magic unfold:

Here is Stan, i.e. Kristan, my old roomie. She's the bomb dot com.

The Omaha Zoo is pretty off the chain. It has won loads of awards for things like its desert enclosure--and its amazingly well preserved cave paintings!
Pumba is much more hirsute in real life.
This kookaburra was not loving his glass cage. He flew into the window several times in an attempt to break free. Here, you can also see Warren's creepy special friend: Doppleganger.
Check out this bird's body/foot ratio. Totally unnatural.

This dude is pretty much my hero.
In the butterfly enclosure, Judy's six inch Waterfall of Imagination left much to the imagination.

The jungle dome had some super great spy moments. Stan, Cole, and large tropical bird on the jungle path--where they just let animals roam free!

Rope bridges = still a good idea
Family portrait with the lions, obvi.

Biggest regret of dropping of Girl Scouts: no shark tunnel sleepover.

Biggest grad school achievement: shaking hands with a fake octopus.
Biggest grad school fail: trying to perch a top a small giraffe statue. Sometimes dreams just don't come true.

On to Dining With Raccoons. A girl told me about this restaurant two years ago and it was almost as difficult to believe her as it was to actually witness it. But, true story, the Alpine Inn serves its trash to raccoons. And you can watch them eat while you eat a massive spread of fried chicken. It's just about as foul as you can imagine. But also, in the weirdest way, pretty freaking cool.

I call this image "Raccoon Boy."

Unfortunately, this was the only raccoon that dined with us. Afterwards, the feral cats moved in. They were pretty mangy.

Here is the treehouse in all its glory. Notice the bones piling up around it. Disgusting.
So, friends, Omaha is pretty freaky. But also awesome.

Fin.

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Married!

Thank you so, very much for all your love and support!

Very special thanks to Mrs. Megan Ruth Stay--our fabulous and gifted photographer/all around wicked cool woman! To see more of her work, click here! My sister posted a few more images on her delightful blog, The Meanest Mom.

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Freelance Whales

Oh, hello blog again! I'm sorry I dropped you like it was hot but here is my penance:



Nothing really seems all that noteworthy after watching this magic unfurl. Thanks to my roommate Emily!

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Bears.

I like them.

Before I explain that, though, I'll say that Warren and I spent a lovely weekend in Brooklyn with a dear friend and her man. We ice skated in Prospect Park, which pretty much looked like this:

But on ice. Lauren almost got ran over by a swarm of tweens that bore a striking resemblance to the crew on Roll Bounce. To my sister's horror, we consumed an obscene amount of hummus. But my most favorite part of the weekend happened when we started a discussion on bears. That man who built a bear suit out of steel, for instance, was a good topic. Literal Bearz I'm Jealous Of provided some guffaws. But then we found the most literally hilarious site ever. I present to you: maninbearsuit.com.

And scene.

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Observation: Teen Wolves

There was a time (like, say, 1985) when teen wolves looked like this:
And transformed into convertible-driving, slam dunking ballers:


Now they look like this:
And transform into flesh tearing, bounding werewolves.

My have the tides changed...

Which do you prefer? Are you nostalgic for jerseys? Having recently watched Teen Wolf 1 AND 2, I have to say yes. Sorry, Jacob. Your washboard abs don't fool me. Plus, you broke T.Swift's heart and you know how I feel about her. How could you?

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Winter Break Spent Like Ballers...

...and by "baller" I mean poor graduate students who drive Toyota Corollas :)

Well, I'm back in Iowa and it is cold. Also, my garage door froze so my car is trapped--welcome home to me! Winter Break was pretty off the chain. Here's a peek at what happened:

1) We went to Baltimore where this flock of seagulls ATTACKED me. Literally swooped down and surrounded me. At one point, there were multiple birds perching on my person. Not okay. This photo is just of phase one, when they united as an army front to corner me.

Warren was disgusted, obviously. We also ate fried chicken and crabcakes because that's what you do in B'more.
2) Visited the fam in Philadelphia. Camber gave Warren a beautiful new coif.
And the kids embraced their future Uncle Warren with lots of gusto.
3) We went to see the Zoolights at the National Zoo!!! I, of course, made Warren dress up as a panda...

...which, we both agreed, was not quite as humiliating as this guy, who literally had to dress up as a panda and dance monkey dance in a human sized snow globe.

It was also a good time to test out my Asian-ness. And for those of you who doubt I give you Amy & the Panda Wall. What's more Asian than this? That's right: Nothing.

Zoolights is great because they basically make animals out of lights. Like a family of elephants:

Or wolves howling at the moon. I wanted that shirtless werewolf to come out of the woods. Warren was clearly equally disappointed when he didn't. For shame (this is me crying to the moon my pain):

4) There was an EPIC snowstorm. So epic that the city closed down for a weekend and everyone stayed home and watched movies and drank cocoa and got a little bit of cabin fever. But we also got to play in the snow. It was too deep to make snow angels. I found this out the hard way.

So did Warren...



Hope you all had a lovely holiday!!!

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