Something Random

Today I passed my thesis defense, which means I'm another giant step closer to being a real person. But in even more exciting news, I did this last night while preparing for the defense:

It's exciting because it's the first time I've beaten minesweeper without using flags (they show up at the end when you win). I learned many years ago from a Keck that I was playing minesweeper all wrong by using flags to mark the bombs. The time still wasn't very fast. But it was a relief to finally do it after getting a few subtle messages from the game:


And here's a text conversation I had with my mom a few nights ago:

Mom: I can ride my bike with no handlebars!
Me: Me and my friends saw a platypus
Mom: I can drink a shake with a silver straw.
Me: I don't know anymore of the song
Mom: I made that up.
Me: Ha. I thought it was a real line.
Mom: I can paint my toes with a butterfly.
Me: Shouldn't you be in bed.

So You Think You Can Dance

Here's the footage from our audition to the pop culture show SYTYCD (all the cool kids use the acronym):

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I'd never actually seen the show or gotten into dancing before trying out, but personally, I think we nailed this routine (except that Jaime's head kept detaching itself from her body). And even though I've never danced, I've always thought I could. However, if you watch the show, you may have noticed that we have never appeared on it. Apparently the show's name is all lies. It's not enough to just think you can dance, you have to actually prove it. What a joke.

I love Jib Jab!

Oh yeah...Nous sommes alles en Europe

The problem with hating France and the French your whole life, is that it's really hard to admit how much you loved the place after actually going there. And that's the last time you'll hear me admit it! Back to my old ways...

Q: Why do Frenchmen have moustaches?
A: To remind them of their mothers.

Q: Why do the French like smelly cheeses?
A: Well, in a room full of French people, you can't really smell the cheese.

"There is nothing lower than the human race...except for the French." - Mark Twain 1878-79

Q. Why do the French Smell?
A. So blind people can hate them too!

That's better. So, like the rest of our trip, we saw a bunch of stuff in a very condensed amount of time. We actually spent four nights in Paris, which was the most we spent anywhere. Still, we felt like death each night after sight-seeing.

We started our visit with a trip to Sacre Coeur. The basilica stands on a hill that overlooks the rest of the city. Hiking to the top was not the funnest thing, but it was worth it.

After that, we hopped back on the subway to go see the Arche de Triomphe. I'm not sure I'm spelling any of these words correctly. Since it's standard in French to not pronounce the second half of a word, I could spell it like Archejio de Triompheqx*^mn and it would still be pronounced the same way. So, I never really figured there was a point to learning how to properly spell French words. Anyhow, the archejio is on the famous Champs-Elysee avenue, and we went for a little stroll to look at the shops. And then took a long walk through the city until we made it to the Eiffel Tower.

We stayed at the tower long enough to watch the sunset after buying tickets to go up to the second viewing deck. I was really grateful that the top deck was completely full, so I wouldn't have to feel bad about denying Jaime that opportunity because of the cost. Since, I'm a horrible person and wouldn't allow us to spend hundreds of dollars on food, we ate a lot of sandwiches made of baggetts, smelly cheeses, tomatoes, and turkey. So, I was happy when we were forced into saving money.

We visited the Louvre, which is huge. We saw a lot of very famous works, like the Venus di Milo, the Mona Lisa and a bunch of Hans Holbein's paintings. On our last day in Paris, we went to find Notre Dame, but went to see Sainte Chapelle first. It was probably our favorite place in Paris because of how much stained glass was used to create it.



Afterwards, we went to mass in Notre Dame. We went to mass in Italy as well, and we were very impressed by the choirs. Hopefully it doesn't offend anyone, but here's a video of the choir singing in Notre Dame.

Which is worse for a baby's aural development? Loud explosions or a Miley Cyrus concert?

In honor of our baby's recently developed fully-functional ears, we decided to celebrate by exposing her to repeated loud explosions for the 4th. The baby, who takes after her mom, slept through the whole thing. All and all, she found it rather dull. What do babies know, anyway? Can you really trust someone who just a couple of months ago had a tail and gills?


Even though the baby was all together unimpressed by the fireworks display (she didn't stir once), her parents always enjoy seeing the Stadium of Fire. We did not attend the preceding Miley Cyrus concert--partly because of the ticket prices and partly because it was a Miley Cyrus concert. We were afraid the babies newly developed aural capabilities would be permanently damaged by crappy pop songs like "7 Reasons Why I Hate You, Which are Also Reasons Why I Love You and I'm Really Too Young to Even Know Anything but I'm Rich". If only she were a bit more like Hannah Montana. Now there's a girl that can sing! I also hate High School Musical. There. I said it. It has nothing to do with Independence Day, our baby or Miley Cyrus, but I just had to say it.




Back to the fireworks. Homer Simpson probably said it best: "celebrate the birth of your country by blowing a small piece of it up." We really needed something like that to help make up for a long week of work, even if it was only 4 days. So, we drove up to campus and watched the show from the north side of the Hinckley Alumni Building. I took a bunch of pictures for anyone that is weird like me and finds pictures of fireworks interesting. Just click on one of the pictures to see the album. Here's a video too in case you don't remember what fireworks look and sound like.