Did you see this cool video of how Jorge Colombo drew the New Yorker cover this week on his iphone with the brushes app?

I'm almost tempted to get one. Too bad at&t has horrible coverage at our house, and dropped us a bunch when J was in Maine. No iphone for me.

Jesse's going to Muji! (on the way to Maine for a job talk)

It's my birthday eve, I should be writing my paper, so do I need any other reason to write in my blog? (finally, I know. It's just so hard to write when my life is so...predictable/boring/un-newsworthy)

But there is a little bit of news. J is flying out to Maine for an interview. And since we're getting so good at the interview process, he asked to make his own reservations (that way he has no one but himself, and me to blame for the 5:47 am flight out of Maine) so he can layover and visit El Capitan E and A and maybe even my baby bro Ben. And, he will go in with E to work, but not enter his workplace until he enters Muji next door, buys me lots of things like a calendar, a planner, stationery, face scrub, I mean scrub face (black tube), and maybe a snack or two. Do they have clothes in that store? I love their clothes.

Anywho. We're really excited that he's flying out to Maine. A job would be great (and if he gets it, we can all fly there through JFK and I can go to Muji and cry and shop and eat those little chocolate frosted rum cakes that I pretended didn't have any alcohol in them because I can't really read katakana and it could be just some weird Japanese thing since I'm pretty naive when it comes to alcohol).

And I'm already meal planning for the four nights he'll be gone. There's a bbq on Saturday-sweet! Sunday is a day of rest, right? So what's more restful than cereal for dinner? Monday is family night-dollar theater and happy meals. Tuesday-Trader Joe's frozen something or another because I have to take my final. I've found that the best meal plans are ones that involve little or no dishes when Jesse's gone. I actually have to wash them when he's not here. It's rough.

J has a phone interview today for a one year position in Montana. Send those good thoughts his way.

Happy, happy, happy, happy, happy anniversary!

It's our 8th! Last year was copper. This year is bronze. Jesse wanted bronze weaponry. I said no. I did get him a shirt (1.99 at Ross) and an oil decanter (he's been asking for one, though he was not properly grateful when I presented it to him).

Since Da commented earlier that with 8 years of marriage, we'd statistically beaten the divorce odds, the cynic in me couldn't help but google "odds of getting divorced after 8 years" where I found this divorce calculator. FYI, it's still an 8% chance in the next 5 years. I guess we haven't made it yet.

atsui desu yo

97 degrees today. Counting down the minutes until J gets here so we can go to the pool.

Yesterday, it was almost as hot. I ate the last lime fruit floe while everyone else was upstairs.

Today, I've just been trying not to move too much. Tomorrow, it's supposed to drop 10 degrees.

But my question is, what is June going to be like, if this is April?

Irvine Regional Park

Mermaid wanted to go to the zoo for her last day of spring break, so I thought we could manage one of the zoos close by. Irvine Regional Park has a little zoo (well kept though) with animals from the western US. Here they are brushing the goats. But their favorite part was riding the little train around the park.
Most times I enjoy these little expeditions, and this one wasn't too bad. Especially once I introduced the no whining policy (you whine, we leave). Suddenly, the whining stopped.

I was pretty excited to see a wood duck in the pond. They've always been my favorites, but I had never seen a real one, just pictures.

Cross Word

A couple of weeks ago, we watched Wordplay, a movie about the NY Times crossword puzzle. It seemed that I should be able to do a crossword or two. Well. Turns out the LA Times puzzle is easier and freer. Today is the first Saturday puzzle I've managed. It took 45 minutes. And Jesse helped. I can finish a Monday or Tuesday puzzle solo (they get progressively harder throughout the week).

Yay for online anti-atrophy.