adieu estelle

I was so sad to hear Sophia (Miss Estelle Getty) passed today. Her remixed workout video will always be my favorite youtube of all time, seriously.

On another subject, I was thinking today how surprising it is that two bands who I had never heard of at the time, who I photographed posters of when in Europe (Stockholm and Milan respectively), have now become two of my favorite bands ever.

Kitt Lives

speakin of my favorite decade, I have my first Christmas Wish List item for the year. How can I get on a waiting list for this?!

viva la 80's

Chris and I went to an 80's party last night which was a lot of fun. We drank Shlitz, Orange Crush, jello shots, and some cheapo wine called Boone's which is gross but I guess it was the thing.

We were supposed to go by our porn star names (your first pet + your street name when you were growing up) so pictured are Chrissy Patterson (front), Reggie Maynard (left) in the AC/DC pants, and Shadow Miller (right) with Ronald Reagan.

sunset 07.02.08

There was an awesome sunset in my neighborhood tonight which can only mean one thing - big storm coming. More over in Picasa.

Britto

Today I went to an art festival and there was an outdoor display of Romero Britto, a Brazilian artist who designs family-friendly cartoony statues in vibrant colors. His art feels like a melting pot of James Rizzi, Peter Max, Andy Warhol, Keith Haring and Craig McCraken (of the powerpuff girls) Each piece is about 5 foot by 5 foot. It's hard to pick a favorite, but maybe mine's Squeki, the cat.

OW, MY #$%&*@! BUTT

Those of you who know me well will never believe this, so I had to take a picture. I biked 29 miles round trip today for Colorado's Bike to Work Day with two very patient guys I work with, Larry and Mark. And it was 93 degrees out.

I don't even OWN a bike and I'm relatively sure the last time I biked anything near that far was in third or fifth grade, so this was a BIT of a stretch for me, but I'm glad I gave it a shot...and stuck with it.

Tomorrow, probably not gonna be so glad. It's safe to say from mile 22 onward all I could feel was my pubic bone. TMI, sorry, but that bike seat feels like hard concrete!

Tonight I was so grateful that we have a hot tub in our neighborhood but unfortunately the second I stepped in, thunderstorms ensued directly overhead - and it's an open-air hot tub. Within minutes, a tree had been struck by lightning 10 feet away from me, no exaggeration.

My neighbor half-laughingly, half-dead serious shouted "time to come inside!" Meanwhile poor Derby had closed himself in the bathroom out of panic. I've trained him well to prepare for a natural disaster, apparently.

If that's not enough, read this hysterical unrelated story in the Denver Post today about strippers and children on a golf course together that is also too great to be true. The quotes by the manager are my favorite. I wonder if she still has her job today.

please do not play in the boas

I was just updating some photos on picasa from my last trip to Austin and I came across this sign which immediately sent me into hysterics when I saw it in a drag queen costume store - it's like the sign was written JUST FOR ME.

crazy bout santogold

I think my utmost musical has dream come true - it must be - Gwen Stefani and Cyndi Lauper had a love child and her name is Santogold. love 'er.

Yay Cook!

he had me at hello...

btw, was anyone else a little horrified at how old manish George Michael looked tonight and simultaneously, how poignant and fitting his song Praying for Time was? no wonder he's back on tour, that song has finally caught up to its proper time and place.

blublu

if you do nothing else this week, check out this amazing animated graffiti clip:


.

a whole new respect for Mexican chefs

yesterday I spontaneously bought gigantic chiles at the supermarket (which make nice mittens but...)

I foolishly thought it would be fun to try and make homemade chile rellenos, one of Chris and my favorite mexican foods. first of all, i think i bought the wrong kind of chile. second of all, let's leave the mexican cooking to the restaurants. oh my gosh, the very first step of grilling, cooling, and then peeling the skin off the peppers took me forever! and i didn't even get all the skin, so we'll see how they taste in about an hour.

meanwhile Derby got into a box of granola bars a few days ago while we were at work. he hasn't eaten people food in a year or so, he was overdue for a binge.

I love his nonchalant, unguilty expression in this photo. story of his life.

just some random whining, i mean blogging

can i please get this license plate?

what the heck ever happened to Rage Against the Machine reuniting last year? I can see they're doing some dates in Europe, but the rage is needed here. I always thought their return would be the perfect timing for a new president and everything. one of their web sites RATM.net says "no, we are not dead". the last blog post on RATM.com was in February. Rage, please come back, we need you...

the post office today had a 30 minute line to wait in just for each person to spend 10 cents on some new 1 cent stamps. give me a freakin' break, can't the grocery stores just sell penny stamps for a few weeks?!

lastly what is up with how amazon dot com sends you 10 email receipts when you order something from them! one to say they received your order, one to say they're processing your order, one to say the order has been received by the marketplace vendor, one to say the marketplace vendor has charged your credit card, one to say that your order will be shipped in 2 days, then one to say your order has been received by the warehouse, one to say your order shipped, then one to say order has arrived - please leave feedback. Yeah I got cher feedback right here.

move aside, let the man go through

so i was thinking of being one of women from the San Angelo Polygamist sect for Halloween this year (brilliant, right?) but then I thought people might mistake me for Cinderella's stepmother. they are like, so identical, man! scare-y.

ok, normally I like to keep everything about next year's mixmas under tight wraps but I can't help but share one potential track...

first of all, I love Mike Doughty, always have. he's the musical incarnation of dry wit and irony. but his new song Put it Down (album version better) is the most physically addictive tune I have ever, ever heard. I can't stop playing it on repeat in my car, and when it gets to the last verse, I rewind it to the chorus again - mail - drop it in the mail, bottle up the sauce, bottle up the sauce. and naturally once I get out of the car, I can NOT get it out of my head. I'm not sure if I love this song or hate it for being so catchy! Gah! May need a 12 step plan to get off of this one.

she got the way to move me

is there anyone else who always pictures Chairry when they hear that Neil Diamond song, or is it just me?

things from paste

this weekend i caught up on a backlog of several Paste magazines and here's some of what i dog-eared...

ZuneOriginals.net is the coolest site – you can pick from all kinds of sweet art work for the back of your zune (if you happened to be interested in buying one). Apple should totally do something like this for customizing iphones and ipods 'cause I’d surely have to buy one.

and then the following artists were new to me:
sun kil moon - about the same speed as iron & wine
lili haydn - regina spektorish - tori amosish
echobelly - ok they've been around a while but i don't know why i just found them. they are the PERFECT combination of a lot of my favorite sounds. buh-rilliant. their best CD is not on their myspace but it's previewable here - appropriately titled "On".
emily king - a bit alicia keys, a bit india.arie
band of horses - kind ofa blend of death cab & jane's addiction
Sandrine - she's pretty original actually, but definitely belongs in the nancy sinatra / dusty springfield era
shivaree - major favorite - she's like gwen stefani's voice super stripped down, slowed down
chikezie - what, i seriously love chikezie! his cover of "i've just seen a face" is beautiful. plus i just like saying "take it easy, chikezie" as much as possible. it hasn't gotten old yet.

RIP, Burnt Sienna?

Even cuter than the Mr. Rogers Sweater Day PR stunt last month, Crayola's PR team came out with a really creative way of celebrating the 50th anniversary of the 64 Color Box, by letting kids decide the new names for 10 additional colors. So does that mean I'm going to have to pay God-knows-how-much on eBay if I want to color something Burnt Siena? (sniffle)

at any rate, here's the answer to what you're all wondering -- the new names -- drumroll, please:

• “super happy”
• “fun in the sun”
• “giving tree”
• “bear hug”
• “awesome”
• “happy ever after”
• “famous”
  
• “best friends”
  

I admit, I love Bear Hug. And maybe good ol' Burnt is still available in the 100 telescoping crayon tower. We shall see.

randomer and randomer

first of all, here's some crucial evidence that mix tapes are still ALIVE and WELL at muxtape.com... love this idea, check it out.

I don't know what to make of Dr. Pepper's "challenge" to Axl Rose to finally release Chinese Democracy. Do they really think they can make the impossible happen? Axl is the most stubborn soul in the world! I must say it's a pretty gutsy and super-random blog campaign, unless of course, the two parties mutually planned this publicity stunt ahead of time (d'ya s'pose?).

I've always believed that Chinese Democracy was a decoy, an invisible dangling carrot that doesn't really exist but just gives Axl something to frustrate the media and his fans with. His choice of album title is a dead giveaway - might as well call it "Never Gonna Happen".

by the way, Ted Forth "crossed over" and made a guest appearance where he disses his wife outright!! in Pearls Before Swine today. hi-freakin'-larious.

and for the "i love to hate this crap" files... my mom forwarded me one of those forwards about dog costumes (like "why dogs bite people" or whatever) today, and as i much as i do hate those, i love the one of the weim and his mini me in their bar mitzvah outfits. there's something so completely wrong about that. it's even worse than a tinkerbell costume on a male bulldog, or the famous "bear" costume in Super Troopers.
wrong wrong wrong.

hot penguin lovin'

more shtuff in honor of bunny week - i think this came out a couple years ago, but i forgot about it until today - one of the funniest Angry Alien shorts ever is March of the Penguins (re-enacted by Bunnies of course). amazingly there are more laughs in this 30 second short than in all 90 minutes of Happy Feet. plus it's a little more G Rated. watch it a few times and see what i mean (turn it up loud even though that Starz intro is REALLY A BIT TOO LOUD)

and if you didn't see it on my blog a few months ago, you must check out DisapprovingRabbits.com, mainly here, here, and here

could a blogger ever be more brilliant? too funny.

Getting Freaky with Peeps

In honor of the commercialization of Easter, here's a link to last year's really amazing, imaginative (a little too much time on their hands type of imaginative) peep dioramas.

The Denver Post tried to copy the idea for a Peep Diorama contest this year, which was unsurprisingly lame, but I have to admit, being a hardcore 80's junkie, I did love this one, Peeply Irrististable.

a 30 year history of larasue

i previously blogged about the best birthday card ever, but Big Ups to Miss Love for one of the best gifts EVER. she scanned a ton of old photos of my life. what a blast down memory lane. i can't believe there was a time where i had dark brownish purple eyebrows - eek. but it was such a treat, because Kate had a few pictures of freshman year at BU that I've never even seen, and also a few from our trip to Europe that I'm convinced she hid from me all this time! so here's a handful of my favorites.

Winner!

this birthday card from one of my friends at work was one of my favorites of ALL time:

damn girl scouts

Have you, or anyone you know gotten the flu or a terrible cold in the last few weeks? And tell me this - were you, or those same people you know, seen nibbling on girl scout cookies just prior to getting sick? I swear! everyone I know who got sick was also seen eating Thin Mints just prior. I'm starting the rumor right now... the girl scouts infested the country with the flu!!

OK, maybe I just need someone to blame.

I am horribly sick, but I think I'm in the final stretch of it today. It's been 7 days of every disgusting cold symptom imaginable. The skin on my nose is actually peeling now. The weird thing is I went to the doctor around 9am today, she gave me a bigass prescription of antibiotics (for sinusitis) that I immediately put in my purse. I haven't even had a single pill yet, and I'm already feeling better. Maybe I should just carry the bottle of pills around with me for the next few days.

Here's a few things to cheer oneself up if one happens to be sick. And for god's sake, put down that box of Thin Mints.

March 20th is the first annual Wear a Sweater Day in honor of Mr. Rogers. I love this!!!

here's a really cute web site from the Screen Actors Guild where various actors will read you a bedtime story.

this blog called Stuff White People Like (nay - love) has been cracking me up all day.

take a moment to pause

here's a really fun video of 207 people all freezing in place in Grand Central Station at the same time. i totally would have volunteered for this!

gadgets

Oh my Lord, I suppose it was only a matter of time before someone invented a Myspace for Pets... called matchmypet.com. I don't know about other dogs, but I don't think Derby is looking to meet friends online!

I came across that site when browsing for gadgets for my igoogle home page. If you haven't done an igoogle page yet, it's really really really addictive. It's much more extensive than My Yahoo. You can get gas prices for your zip code up to the second!

a moment of moz

it's simultaneously so funny and surprising that fans go so crazy for Morrissey in concert. even at his age now, he is constantly tackled on stage while trying to get through a concert. it's at least half of the amusement of his shows (the other half being, that he doesn't sing on key and is somehow still brilliant).

personally i love the guy but - call me crazy - to me, his body language just doesn't scream "hug me"

btw, has anyone else noticed that Bruce Campbell should probably play Morrissey in a biopic? hellooo...do i have to give hollywood all their ideas...

PS
do yourself a favor and check out will hoge, a new favorite artist for my un-genre-classifiable list just like brandi carlile, lucinda williams, patty griffin, and come to think of it, even morrissey!

a 29.9 year old's lament

i've really been trying not to dramatize over my upcoming 30th birthday although the truth is, i dread it a little. not that i'm not happy with my life so far or anything, but it was always nice to have a stigma associated with my 20's, like colleagues poking fun at me "oh, you're too young to remember this..." (hey, fine with me that i'm too young. make fun all you want! joke's on you, smug married 40something!)

but i just had a horrible, cruel moment of truth while driving on my lunch break. it went like this: all of my 5 programmed stations were on commercial, so i scanned the dial and landed on KOOL 105.1 which i happen to know is the Oldies station. i kid you not...right after a spot declaring the station plays the "best hits of the 60's and 70's" they cut to Separate Ways (Worlds Apart) by JOURNEY, circa 1983. first of all, this was my favorite song in the first grade, don't get me started on Separate Ways. but C'mon - how harsh is that to call a 1983 song an Oldie???? Ughghghghghghghghghghghghghghhhhhh.

snog

how freakin' adorable is this book cover:

13 degrees & missing austin

first some random notes:
here's a cute mindless article about top 10 cartoon names - yay pinky!

here's the top viral videos of 2007 just in case you're afraid you missed one. now about Austin...
On Sunday I came back from my best friend from high school, Julie’s wedding in Austin, TX and though it’s embarrassing to admit, I was dreading flying again right after Christmas and was feeling depressed that Chris couldn’t come with me, I even had some “I just know my plane’s gonna crash” jitters the day I left… and it turned out to be a really, really, really fun weekend, first taking in the city at a slow pace for a couple days, and then the most beautiful & yet raucous wedding ever.

When I came back, I missed Austin terribly, since I could wear flip flops comfortably there and Denver’s having zero degree wind chill and 13 degree temperatures.

I had a great time walking around Austin and sampling their crazy array of restaurants. I still didn’t run into Matthew McConnahey but I’ll keep trying.

The first day I enjoyed the Blanton Art Museum on the UT campus which is small but a very cool & unusual collection. They have a plaster cast collection of nearly every world famous Greek and Roman statue including Venus de Milo, which is a great resource for art students at the university. The best room was of course the Modern & Contemporary art (above and way above) which thankfully didn’t include any audio/video weird stuff but was full of vibrant abstract canvases – my favorite.

I also walked around South Congress which I had only seen at night last time. South Congress embodies the “Keep Austin Weird” slogan with a drag queen costume superstore (right), plus not just one but 2 shops filled to the brim with Mexican Day of the Dead art, plenty of thrift shops, and several Urban Outfitters-like jewelry/clothing/miscellany shops.

My favorite store, Uncommon Objects, is hard to put into words but I think it could be best described as a collection of flea market treasures that one might find if they had made a career out of shopping at flea markets.

The fascinating thing about the store was the display of the objects – I almost didn’t want to touch anything, or dare buy anything, because it was arranged so well – like every corner and shelf was a work of art.

The one thing I found that didn’t seem to fit in its arrangement was an old teddy bear who stood out like a sore thumb in his section, so I snatched him up and carried him home. He’s since been named Harrold and I’m currently on the lookout for a t-shirt and/or sweater to fit him. (Contributions or suggestions are appreciated!)

P.S. Uncommon Objects actually has a whole flickr site of people's photos of their store , below are a few of mine

Another highlight of the trip was spending a few hours in BookPeople, a huge downtown locally owned book store that was also chock full of interesting displays, great employee recommendations on books and magazines, and just cool, obscure, stuff. I walked out of there with 6 magazines I had never seen before, 20 or so birthday cards, and random odd gifts for people for next Christmas.

I keep trying to stop myself from buying things for Christmas a year out, but it’s pointless to even talk about stopping, I always do it. BookPeople happens to be across from the first and hugest Whole Foods in the world, which if you don’t believe me, has a 4 story parking garage, and is a convenient place to park downtown (there’s not even a single mean sign about being a customer or time limits).

Just a block from BookPeople was conveniently the original branch of what used to be my favorite restaurant in Denver (ours closed) called Z Tejas with amazing enchiladas, and a fantastic drink menu. More photos of Austin and that crazy Uncommon Objects store are here.

After all that, here I am, back to work and trying to carry my canvas grocery bags into Safeway whenever I go, trying to go to yoga & pilates once a week, trying to make my espresso at home in the mornings, trying to take the light rail to work at least once a month, trying to not say “that’s so gay” (really hard during American Idol), trying to quit checking email three or more times in a day (really really hard) and most of all stop inventing things to do to avoid the important.

On that note – logging off now. and watching american idol. no, project runway. then american idol. then celebrity apprentice.

Season of Uggs

Tis that season for wearing Uggs on my feet every day and for saying "Ugg" every time I go outside (come on, it's punny!)

Colorado was supposed to have a mild Winter this year, according to Farmer's Almanac, but so much for that.

I was thinking this morning about my last year's resolutions and how I did. I am a big fan of making them but not very stringent about following through on them. The point is trying, right? Maybe?

The resolution about going to the gym 3 times a week just never happens - maybe that's why my resolutions are always written in pencil.

The resolution about arguing less with Chris gets an A for effort and a C for execution. Try again next year.

I did really good on my resolution to stop talking on the cell phone in the car. I'd say I've given up answering the cell in the car at least 95% of the time and I rarely make calls. I wish more people would make this resolution.

Another resolution was to cut back on Road Rage. I've tremendously improved on being angry at other drivers. It's really hard to break the habit, especially when other people are in the car with you and they're angry, but I would say I've learned to stop even having angry thoughts about drivers who do stupid things at least 80% of the time.

This year's resolutions are repeats of those I didn't do so well on last year, and I'm adding a few more.

1. To bring my LL Bean canvas bags into the grocery store with me, bag my own damn groceries, and eliminate those pointless super-thin plastic bags once and for all.

2. To make eye contact with people, especially strangers (a major weakness).

3. To make coffee at home most mornings, since I got an espresso pot for Christmas and I am so particular about the way it's made anyway.

4. Inspired by Tim Ferriss' theories in lifestyle design, to "stop inventing things to do to avoid the important". That one is probably the hardest goal of all, and it may take me 5 years to even get to a B+ but I'm going to try and make it a mantra.

***
Other updates... over the holidays I read Shirley MacLaine's book Sage-ing while Age-ing because admittedly I wanted to know what all the fuss was about with her reputation of being nuts, and I surprisingly agree with a lot of her theories on the universe, as "out there" as they may seem at first. I'd highly recommend the read, if you can keep an open mind.

Music I am into these days continues to be modern folk / acoustic soul stuff; the mellower of which is Sara Bareilles, The Pierces, Amos Lee, Into the Wild soundtrack, anything produced by T-Bone Burnett, and the edgier of which includes Neko Case, Brandi Carlisle, Nada Surf, Mike Doughty, and a lot of Scottish stuff for some reason. It's going to be a little harder to stay in touch with new music this year because my office has virtually banned streaming radio stations including Pandora, Finetune, and AOL New Albums Preview (noooooo!) but I am trying to be cool about it. Trying.

This year's holiday season for me was enlightened by food and family, although I'm getting better about choices (food, not family - check out this restaurant resource) Still, Mom's snickerdoodles and gingermen, Chris' dad's homemade chicken nuggets, and my mom's carry-on gift of 2 loaves of Beckman's 9 Grain Sourdough bread all just made my year. I really need to just live in Santa Cruz.

I must be getting a little more domesticated these days, because I actually bought myself 2 cookbooks and a food processor in the after-Christmas sales. My favorite gifts from others were the afore-mentioned espresso maker, and some VERY cool unexpected Billabong fingertip-less gloves (is there a name for those?) that my sister picked out and are SO me, I can't even believe it. I couldn't find a picture but this is the yarn design (left)

Hope you got what you wanted in 2007 and continue to go for what you want in the new year. Cheers and keep in touch soon! larasue

mixmas backstory

folks ~ hopefully you've all received your mixmas 2007! if not, well i probably ran out of them, and no worries, you can listen online at my finetune site as long as your company doesn't have a policy prohibiting streaming radio stations like my company JUST rolled out last week (D'oh!!)

i am SO happy with the way this year's mix turned out, although this year more than ever before, i remixed and remixed it so much, that on the final day when i dropped them all in the mail, i couldn't even sleep that night without hearing the tracks - in order - in my head all night long which was definitely a tad maddening.

it's getting harder & harder every year to make and send all the discs, let alone write my cards, so this year i planned ahead and outsourced the production element (instead of burning cd's on my home computer one at a time) and also purchased a "mix kit" of stickers, labels, envelopes, etc. so that's why most of you should have a professional looking one and not a glue & crayons version (although a few last CD's got the glue & crayons treatment).

since late October i have been on a Complaint-Free Diet in an effort to lighten up and appreciate my privileges. most people wonder why anyone would ever put themselves through such a thing (or just look at me as if i've joined a cult) but i took the challenge after being inspired by The Four Hour Workweek blog and as much as i can't commit to a complaint free life (or even a full day) yet, there's something about trying to stop that i love, and it gets addictive. i'm totally sticking with it in the new year, and encourage each of you to try it, even for a week.

what i get asked the most is "what constitutes a complaint?"- well, technically the definition is "an expression of discontent" but the book A Complaint Free World allows that thoughts have a different effect than words, and only statements said out loud count as a complaint. moreover the book suggests that you aim to not complain, gossip, or criticize for 21 days. the criticize part is the hardest for me.

i've been at it for 2 months and like i said, i'm far from achieving a Complaint-Free Life, but i can tell my brain has adjusted a lot already and i don't find myself basing entire conversations on complaints anymore. unfortunately there are some things that happen and it's really hard to "let go" of, like for example, this week, a bunch of my Christmas cards were returned to me because they're square shaped, and who knew, square envelopes that are the size of a post-it note cost more to mail than one stamp. grumble.

i really hope most of you don't let the Christmas crowds and complainers get the best of you. hope you all have a fantastic 2008 and that the mix helps keep you going.