Thursday, June 30, 2011

'Meta' News

If you know me well then you probably also know my favorite prefix. I used it so often for a while that people were starting to call me ‘meta’.

But now in a beautiful piece of irony, the basketball player known for starting the biggest brawl in NBA history has been taken my idea to a new level, re-naming himself “Metta World Peace”. Yes, there’s an extra ‘t’ in there, which I guess is a Buddhist thing, but still.

If it was my ‘meta’ word then what would “meta-world-peace” be? How would we even resolve the syntactic ambiguity? Would it mean peace in the meta-world (eternally worshiping Godel)? Or would it be meta-peace in this world (I suppose: coming to peace with the fact that there will never be actual peace)?

I looked at several videos about this, and this was clearly the funniest. I love the guy who thinks it means ‘pieces of meta(l), spread all over the world’.

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=6702831

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Oh Heaven; Kleven Be Thy Name!


Allow me to explain.

A couple of months ago our dear friend, Ashley (who is amazing and brilliant) gave birth. Kind of a big deal. Anyway, her birthabration party took place on the very same weekend that Cherie and I were supposed to travel to Southern California to watch Rafael Nadal play against Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic (not at the same time!) at the Indian Wells tournament. If you know us you will understand, to at least a tiny degree, what a sacrifice it was to miss that (I still can't hear the words "BNP Paribas" without a little pain in my heart).

After enduring waves of sorrow, we unofficially made up our minds that we would never miss another tennis final (at least not one with Rafa) for any reason ever again. But then, during the final weekend of the the very next major tournament (the French open, starring guess who), Ashley went and had a birthday party (not to be confused with a birthabration, which is a totally different thing)! Her party was to be a two-day Survivor–style competition in Maple Canyon, Utah. Not to be missed (pox on those of you who did miss). The party was all day Sat. and Sun. The tennis final was Sun. early morning.

So here’s your LSAT question of the day: how could we possibly reconcile our no-tennis-missing-at-least-with-rafa-in-the-final-of-a-major policy with our two-days-of-camping-for-Ashley’s-birthday expedition? (p.s. you also need to be aware of the no-wireless-in-maple-canyon-situation)

The answer involves two words: “bed” (and) “breakfast”. Congrats if you got that one! But which B&B to choose of all those in Mt. Pleasant, Utah??? The answer was loud and clear after we saw the following pictures online:

The Sitting Room

The Formal Dining Room

The "Island of Romance" Bedroom

The "Hooked on Romance Lounge" where we watched the Nadal/Federer match

Cherie's favorite room: "Romancing America"
(they only had a twin bed so we couldn't stay here)

If any of you are fans of The Office you are thinking exactly what we did, namely Schrute Beet Farms!!! Am I right?

Every surface was covered with doilies and antique hats. It reminded Cherie of her grandma Vera's house.

We stayed in the “In the Mood Room” – not, incidentally, an innuendo, but a reference to the 71-year-old owner’s favorite musician: Glenn Miller. Wow.


When we opened the mood closet it was full of old clothes. I mean old. What to do was obvious:

We don’t think these were in there as a throwback or to enhance the room’s theme. We think they were there because they were their clothes! To quote “Sassy Gay Friend” (a Youtube thing) “Clothes don’t count as vintage if you have been wearing them since they weren’t!”

Awesome. We woke up to the best homemade cinnamon rolls that can be conceived and to Rafael Nadal beating Roger Federer in the Paris finals.

We are wearing our Nadal T-shirts here and are so happy that he won.

We also had delightful (endless) conversations with Mrs. Klevin regarding the accomplishments of her adult children.

Needless to say: Best night ever!!!

Then we got to play more Survivor with our friends. When they tried to guilt us about spending the night indoors that night I replied: “There’s absolutely nothing you can possibly say that will make me regret the last twelve hours of my life!”

As for the results of the game, I won’t go into it. Let me just say my friends are traitors. And my strategy almost worked! I guess that’s kind of the point of the game. Dang it. Next year my uncanny ability to throw rocks into buckets will finally be allowed to shine!

Congrats Sophie, Winner of Survivor Maple Canyon



Thursday, June 9, 2011

My Medical Study

About six weeks ago I contacted a medical study about the possibility of becoming a participant. The EAGeR study is currently underway through the University of Utah and looks at the effects of low dose aspirin on reproduction (EaGeR: Effects of Aspirin in Gestation and Reproduction). There is some evidence that taking low dose aspirin improves blood flow to the uterus, thereby improving pregnancy outcomes.
So far I have had two meetings with a research nurse and am taking either a baby aspirin or a placebo in conjunction with folic acid daily. In addition to taking my medication, I also have to test my urine every morning to determine fertility levels, store this urine in the freezer, and keep a daily log. Super fun!

My EAGeR basket: urine cups and storage containers, fertility monitor
and testing sticks, medication, and daily journal.

When I told Chris that we would need to clear some space in the freezer to store my urine, he replied, "Well, that's not the grossest thing that has been in there." He was referring to the leftover Indian food from our wedding that went bad and then got frozen in the hopes that the freezer would somehow remove the rotten taste. It sat for over a year and still tasted terrible.

White box in the middle of the freezer=urine storage container

Box o'urine

I'm excited about the study and happy to be a participant, especially since they aren't taking any new participants as of this month. I just barely got in.

For more information on the EaGeR study: http://www.eagertrial.org/index.php

The (not so) Good Wife


I have recently become obsessed with the TV show The Good Wife. It was ranked #8 on the Time Magazines "The Top 10 Everything of 2010: Top 10 TV series". I found a website that streams almost every episode of the two seasons and over the last several weeks have watched everything.

This has led to a few jokes about me not being such a good wife...too many hours watching this legal drama. Sorry Chris.