Typhoon Kompasu.

No worries, you guys, we are all "hunkered down" for the typhoon.  No work for either of us on Tuesday, whether or not it hits, so that's nice.  But it probably will.

P.S.  Pandora radio is playing Lucky by B.Spears for me right now.  No Comment.

Pandora Radio.

Five seconds ago, I registered for Pandora Radio.  Approximately two seconds ago, David Cook's Time of My Life started playing.

I am impressed, although maybe a little creeped out.

If I Still Had Facebook...

My status update would be this:

"is sick of people asking when she's going to have babies."

Really, Really Guilty Pleasure.

I've never listened to KISS.  I know that they have the song about Rock & Roll-ing all night and Party-ing every day, but beyond that, I really couldn't tell you. 

But, for some strange reason, I love to watch Gene Simmons Family Jewels on A&E.  I really don't know why.

I always feel guilty when I am watching it because I know about 80% of it is scripted.  At least 80%.

If Matt comes home while I am watching it, I will immediately change the channel.  I'm embarrassed at how much I love this show.  Any time I flip through channels and I see it, I will watch it, regardless of how many times I've seen the episode.  The dynamic of the family is so strange, so different from my own, but seems to work as smoothly as my own.  From all that we can tell as the reality sitcom audience, there is a genuine love between Gene and Shannon.  Nick and Sophie are pretty well-adjusted, although a bit more beautiful than your average family (or perhaps that is my love of Hebrew dudes showing...).

Anyway, I fell like I just needed to get this out into cyberspace, to admit my guiltiest of guilty pleasures so that maybe I can work through it.  And get over it just in time for Growing Up Twisted.

Dress-Up.

This is the dress I am going to be rockin' this November for what will likely be our last Marine Corps Ball.  I am also going to be wearing sky high heels and getting my hair done.  You can bet I'll be posting pictures.

Newsweek.

So, I've been reading Newsweek lately.  And, truth be told, I kinda like it.  A little tiny bit.

Take that last issue with Mark Twain on the cover.  So many good articles in that one.  It covered linguistics (my secret passion), the last days of Mark Twain, and some great literature that is coming out in the next few months.

I am beginning to think that my punk'd subscription giver knew me better than I knew myself.  I'm actually itching to go downstairs and dive into the newest cover story on why creativity is dropping in Americans.

And I used to get so angry at my mystery subscription...

What a Dreamboat.

Again.

Hi The Facebook Team,
Yeah, I know.  Remember how you made me take, like, 18 unnecessary steps to do so?  And yes, I would like to be able to use the site like I used to... six or so years ago when I signed up and it was a wall and open only to people in my generation.  And there was no Farmville or MobLand or suggesting friends to other people.  Remember when I could write whatever I wanted as my interests and they didn't have to link to a "Page."  I'd like to use the site like that.
Fare thee well and thanks for 6 years of addiction,
Andrea

W is for WolframAlpha.

I will admit to you, just about a year ago when I found WolframAlpha, I didn't get it.  It's a search engine, but Google it is not (no offense to Google - I love Google, I live my life on Google).

WolframAlpha is a "computational knowledge engine."  You can use it to compare two things, convert data, solve complex math equations and all kinds of craziness.  The computational possibilities are endless.  Find your ideal weight.  How much of that weight is fat.  How much is water and how much is blood.  It's amazing.

So go check it out.  Compare your hometown to your current town.  Find box office stats for your favorite film.  Compare your favorite film to its terrible sequel.  If you get stuck, click on the "Show Hints" link.  You won't be sorry.

You will be obsessed, and like me, start spending your day thinking of how to use WolframAlpha.  You are so welcome.

V is for Vacations.

Since we've been married before we got married, Matt and I have taken quite a few awesome vacations. Shall we happily remember them?

December of 2004, I left the U.S. for the first time to visit Matt at his University in Beijing. It was a pretty amazing trip, and oh yeah, that was when this happened --->

On our honeymoon to New York City, when after wondering aimlessly down Broadway we stumbled upon The Ed Sullivan Theatre, home to the King of Late Night (always and forever in my heart, at least) and got tickets to see his show LIVE.  Our amazingness was expounded (and my heart nearly stopped beating) when Dave allowed Matt o ask him a question before the show ("Where's the best pizza in Manhattan?" and dear, dear friend Dave bought us the best pizza of our lives.  David Letterman bought us a pizza.  Best. Honeymoon. Story. Everrrrrrrrr.

<--- Us before the show.  Soooo EXCITED!!!

Then, quite sadly, the vacation life stagnated because we were dirt poor.  Oh, well, we had each other and all that jazz.  Two years into our marriage, we got our fancy little three year vacation in the form of orders to Okinawa.

So for our third anniversary/pre-deployment leave, we decided to go big and spent a week at the Amari Coral Resort in Phuket, Thailand.  We spent most of the week walking around window shopping or drinking fruity drinks at the lobby bar.  Pretty amazing, right?

It was really hot and sweaty in Thailand.  And we didn't trust any of the locals to take a picture of us and give our camera back.  That's my excuse for this terrible picture. --->

I didn't really think the Thailand vacation could be topped until  (dun, dun, DUN!) we met up in Buenos Aires.  I fell in love with South America immediately. 

Matt spent a year in Mar del Plata, Argentina his Senior year of high school and so I've been hearing about this country for the last 8 years.  While debating where to meet for Matt's mid-deployment leave, Argentina was a natural choice (even though I wanted to go to France).  We spent two weeks enjoying and exploring the huge city.  We ate more beef than I can really even comprehend.  And more good food than I've had in two years in Okinawa.  We went shopping and saw art.  Rode the subway and pet a pretty disgusting stray dog that just looked sad.  Mini-theme park!  Empanadas!  Eva Perone!!  It was such an amazing vacation and will probably go down in the books as "Best Ever."

Thoughts on Mail.

Once a week I wonder to myself, sometimes out loud, sometimes screaming in the depths of my brain, who on earth got me a subscription to Newsweek?

For the past month or so, I have been receiving this weekly mag with no explanation. Did someone think it would be funny to supplement my InTouch with Newsweek? Was it something I said? Maybe someone thought, "Wow, what an idiot... she should be reading real news."?

I just can't figure it out. But I have been reading it.

The small articles, anyway.