25 Questions about the Holidays

There are a lot of things happening around Casa de Hall right now... stay tuned for some big announcements soon. Things are so busy, in fact, that I am worried we won't be posting much. I thought I'd do this quick meme about the holidays to share a little about how Jay and I celebrate.

25 Questions: Holiday Style

• Eggnog or hot chocolate?

Eggnog! Especially now that Jay has a great recipe of his own. And you haven’t lived till you’ve lived through Duk-Nog.

• Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?

When Santa dropped off his gifts, he left them under the tree unwrapped. Gifts to/from family are always wrapped.

• Colored lights on tree/house or white?

We use colored lights – some people think they are tacky, but we love them.

• Do you hang mistletoe?

Nope, plenty of kissing at our house without it!

• When do you hang your decorations up?

Typically within a week after Thanksgiving.

• What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)?

Jay makes a wonderful roasted duck with apricot glaze, and I love the fresh baked rolls.

• Favorite holiday memory as a child?

Christmases with my grandparents – that was the best. My grandma had an ornament that sang like a bird, I was obsessed with it.

• What is on your Christmas wish list?

Sanity, and some peace and quiet in our lives.

• Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?

No, we never do, unless we go see family on Christmas Eve that we won’t see on Christmas Day.

• How do you decorate your Christmas tree?

With eggnog in hand, listening to Christmas music, wearing a Santa hat. We have a tradition wherein we get an ornament from a place when we travel there, as a souvenir. Then when we decorate the tree we can reminisce about our memories of that trip.

• Snow? Love it or dread it?

To be fair, since I’m from Georgia, I’m not a snowy day kind of girl. I detest driving in the stuff. But I don’t mind it otherwise.

• Real tree or fake tree?

I have always liked the ease and convenience of a fake tree, but Jay loves real ones so our last tree was a real tree. No tree this time around. Maybe next year…

• Do you remember your favorite gift?

My doll Dorrie. She was as tall as me then, and I thought she was beautiful. My mom kept her put away since she wasn’t really for playing with, and I still have her now. As far as playing-with toys, probably my microscope or my robot-controlled cat. Both have clearly played a role in shaping who I am now… a scientist with a beloved pet cat…

• What’s the most important thing about Christmas for you?

Time to relax and enjoy Jay.

• What is your favorite holiday dessert?

That’s a hard one! Every year I usually make a dessert called Chocolate nemesis, but to be honest I love the Christmas cookies we bake even more.

• What is your favorite tradition?

Watching Christmas Vacation with Jay and decorating the tree, and receiving Christmas cards. I love to hear from far-flung family and friends.

• What tops your tree?

Jay insists on an Angel, but I’ve always liked stars.

• Do you prefer giving or receiving?

Both! I love to select and give gifts, it’s especially wonderful when the person really enjoys their gift. I’m really big on giving “useful” gifts – things that I know someone will use. But when I receive a gift, it makes me feel very loved to know that someone thought of me and took the time to select something that they thought I would enjoy (that includes gift cards – that means you took the time to think about what places I enjoy shopping, and also gave me the gift of spending a lovely afternoon shopping for myself).

• What is your favorite Christmas song?

Baby, It’s Cold Outside.

• Candy canes, yuck or yum?

Yum!

• Favorite Christmas movie?

National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation – Jay and I watch this together every year, and every year we laugh just as hard.

• What do you leave for Santa?

Homemade chocolate chip cookies and bourbon.

• Do you have a Christmas morning tradition?

Just opening gifts!

• Do you prefer to shop on-line or at the mall?

This year I did a little bit of both.

• Christmas letter or Christmas card?

Christmas card – I try to send them out every year with a picture. This will be the first year I don’t have a picture. We just had too much going on at once.

Halloween in West Hollywood

This year I finally talked Jay into accompanying me to the Halloween Carneval in West Hollywood. It is one of the largest Halloween celebrations in the world - several hundred thousand people attend each year. Technically the Carneval lasts until 11 pm, but when we finally got tired and left at midnight, there were still thousands of people there. The main reason I love it is that watching Hollywood have an excuse to dress outrageously is amazing - the costumes are all carefully planned and executed for the most part. The entire night was punctuated by "Hey, check that one out, it's _____ from ______!" or, "Wow, that costume is AMAZING!" So this post will be mostly pictures of a few of our favorites from this year.

First, Rock, Paper, Scissors:


A little known fact- in the 16 years Jay and I have been together, I have only beaten him once at Trivial Pursuit and once at Rock, Paper, Scissors. In Trivial Pursuit he has an amazing amount of sports trivia and useless bits of information. In the case of Rock, Paper, Scissors he claims he can read my mind.

Then we saw Jessica and Roger Rabbit... such a lovely couple!



Beaker was inspirational to me. One of the reasons I became a scientist. Who says the Muppets aren't educational?


It's also fun when people get a group of friends together for a theme. This group dressed as the officers from Reno 911. Jason yelled out, "Hey Officer Dangle!" and they all immediately posed for him.


Remember watching Inspector Gadget? We sang the theme song for 10 minutes after we saw this guy.


Then another incredible cartoon memory, I got my picture made with He-Man and She-Ra! I loved watching those two cartoons after school.


Perhaps my most swoon-worthy moment was when I spotted Westley from the Princess Bride. Jay told me to go ask him for a picture, but I just blushed and stammered. So Jay shoved me onto him. I ask him if he would mind getting a picture with me, and he replied "As you wish." Damn, I almost fainted. He even had the voice.


A really neat costume we saw was Russ from Up.


I'd like to end with one of the funniest costumes we saw that night. I wonder if she ever found her dog?

Magic Mountain Man 5K Race

One of the goals Jay and I have every year is to run at least 3 races. Usually these are just 5K, but I'm hoping than one day we will participate in either a 10K or even a half-marathon. I may even harbor a very quiet dream of completing a triathlon one day (a very small one, mind you). With the events of this year, we have missed most of our usual races. But things have thankfully become more quiet in our lives, and I decided to try to cram all our races into the last 3 months of the year.

This weekend we headed to Castaic, CA to run in the 5K portion of the Sport Chalet Magic Mountain Man race. We woke up bright and early Saturday morning and drove to Lake Castaic. The race benefited the Challenged Athletes Foundation, a cause that Jay and I were happy to support. We arrived just in time to get our bibs, our goody bag, shoe timers, and get warmed up.

Neither of us has trained in the last month. Normally we try to set a training schedule, and we had been running a 5K a couple times a week working on our time and endurance. In the last month, we haven't run at all. So this course ended up being more challenging than I at least was prepared for. Jay is a natural athlete; he kindly stayed with me during the race. He was actually running circles around me at one point, supposedly to encourage me. We finished the race in 37 minutes - I'll take a 12 minute mile considering I hadn't even laced up my running shoes in 4 weeks!

The photo below we took immediately after we finished. Yes, I'm aware of how handsome my husband is, even after running 3.2 miles! The beautiful scenery really helped me get through it - I was so happy to be in such a beautiful setting, with the strength and health to get through a 5K race with little to no preparation. It made me feel very grateful.

Happy 9th Anniversary!

Happy anniversary sweetheart! This has been a tough year for us, but we are getting through it together; just as we always have, and just as we always will. I love you!

What it really means to be Southern in SoCal

This is probably the first time in years that we have updated the blog more than once in a 2-day period. Don't get spoiled.

As many of you know, I love to cook, and having lived and eaten in many parts of the U.S., my cooking has many influences. I have a fair amount of family from Mississippi and Louisiana, and have always enjoyed Cajun and Creole food, especially the gumbos and stews that are so prevalent along the Gulf and bayou country.

When you combine that with being Southern in SoCal, some pretty cool things happen...

(click on photo to embiggen. I can say embiggen if I want to, dammit!)

It's amazing what you can make with some red wine, a few tomatoes, okra, catfish, oysters, and mussels. And a bay leaf, salt, and creole seasoning. That's one hell of a stew!

Who's comin' for dinner? There's plenty more red wine!

An Unwelcome Awakening

Wow! Has it been a long time.... we've had an extremely busy Summer 2011. So busy in fact that I am months behind in posts. I will try to remedy that soon. Here are some of the high (and low) moments from May through July:

May: The McArthur-Wilson clan comes for a visit! We had so much fun with our favorite Canadian family. I wish they were back already- Galen and Raynham at Disneyland is my favorite amusement park visit EVER. The very next week we headed to Georgia to visit our family there. Jay's cousin Robert was married, and it was a fun wedding. The rest of the visit was not so fun - my Aunt Faye and Jay's mom have both been very ill. Jay's mom has gotten much worse rapidly, and my aunt had been told her cancer was terminal. We found both of them to be declining much more quickly than we had anticipated.

June: Our friend Helen received her PhD, and she and her husband Alias, along with their lovely sons, came into town for her hooding ceremony. It was a lot of fun to get to see them, though Jay was in Chicago for business. I visited the Tim Burton exhibit at LACMA with my friend Gil, and then was called back to Alabama. My Aunt Faye passed away 6 hours after I reached her.

July: Sid and Joyce came out for a visit! They drove cross-country, and we spent the weekend touring the central coast. We visited Hearst Castle, saw elephant seals, and spent an entire day at Solvang. Jay spent the next weekend in TyTy with his brother, visiting his mom. She is decidedly worse, which has been a hard thing for all of us to accept. The next weekend we headed to Great Falls, MT for our niece Ashly's wedding. Jay was the official photographer, and we so enjoyed visiting our family there.

So you can see our lives have been a bit of a roller coaster these past few months. Up then down, back up again. Just maintaining our work schedules and keeping the household in some sort of order has been about all we can handle lately. It's been a busy and difficult season, but visits from our friends and family has really helped us keep our spirits up. Thank you to all who have made the trip out and shared time with us - it means so much, and has been so needed. I'll try to get some pictures up soon!

But onto the title of this post. Early this morning (sometime around 5 am) the fire alarm in our apartment building went off. These fire alarms are LOUD, obviously for a reason. Jay and I practically catapulted out of bed, and began scrambling madly for shoes, and of course Meow. She was panicked, and that panic increased when I pulled out her hated carrier. That carrier means vet visits and kennel stays, and she associates it with trouble. She sprinted behind the couch, I tried to corral her, and she dashed beneath our bed. She wedged herself between a suitcase and a box of stored clothing, refusing to come out. Jay declared that she would be fine, and that we had to leave. If needed, we would send a fireman after her. He had scouted the building quickly while I chased the cat, and could find no smoke nor flames. We headed outside to the lawn with all our neighbors, and waited for the fire department to arrive. And waited. Jay finally called emergency services himself. At one point, he looked down at me and realized I was wearing my rain boots. "Why do you have your rain boots on?" he queried... just as the sprinklers turned on. Somehow in the back of my mind, I remembered that the lawns get watered around 5:30 or so, and grabbed my boots to keep myself dry. Jay however got soaked. Combined with a very rude and early awakening, he was in a foul mood. The fire department finally arrived around 5:40, turned off the alarm, and let us back inside. The alarm was apparently a fluke, and I'm happy to report that Meow does not appear to be deaf after her long exposure to the loud siren. At least she can still hear her food bowl being filled from two rooms away.

El Matador Beach

(Click on the photo- the picture will look better in a new window!)

One of the great things about living in California is the beaches. And yes, while it is some people's idea of a good time to lay on the beach and turn into a lobster, whilst getting sand in your nether-regions, and all of the other things that people associate with a big, barren expanse of terrain next to un-potable water (both due to salt content and occasionally pollution), the bottom line is that a lot of the year it's just too damn cold to do that. Who wants to swim in 65 degree water, when it's 63 degrees outside? Really? Yes, I know kids will. But kids are weird. We all know that. I used to be one. I know.

With that said, the beaches here are absolutely some of the most beautiful in the world, and El Matador, in Malibu, is no exception, though it is actually quite exceptional. I couldn't stop myself. Sorry.

April and I found ourselves in Malibu this past Saturday, and after attending a quick hike to Solstice Canyon with April's AWIS chapter, we grabbed lunch at Dukes, and then spent the afternoon at El Matador, just hanging out and enjoying the view.

See the starfish above? He was just hanging out, too. The rock this dude(ette?) is so attached to was about 100ft out in the water, and the size of a cow. That makes this animal close to 8 inches across!

And the Brown Pelicans were up to something. This is just one of the flocks that were migrating north. We saw no less than another 10 groups as large as the one above, and another dozen that were smaller. I guess they are heading north for sex and/or food.

Anemones are pretty easy to find. Just locate a large rock near the water, preferrably one that always has water pooling around it. Now look at the side of the rock, just at the base. See? Anemones! Get it? "See" anemones? Yeah.

California Rock Crab

Playful water

The photo above is of the same rock that the star fish is hanging onto. As you can see the tide level changes pretty quickly here. We were there for an hour or so, and were able to enjoy the tide at its highest point, and watch it recede.

Cormorants, probably, watching the mercury surf

I took this photo as we were walking back towards the stairs that lead to the parking lot on the bluffs over the beach. Sunset makes for a great time to be at the beach!

Where has the time gone?

October 5th will be both our 9th wedding anniversary, and also the 4th anniversary of the day we moved into our apartment in Mar Vista. We have lived in this apartment longer than any other place we have lived since we moved in together. It's really strange. We honestly never expected to come to California, until a few months before April came out here to meet with PJ. Now it's been home longer than anywhere else...

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

My St. Patrick's Day started off without much luck, I have to say. My bus was 45 minutes late, and I had a lot I had to finish up. But when I arrived, I found that a leprechaun had visited me, leaving behind his little hat and some "gold" chocolate. That perked me right up!

After a great seminar on job hunting with a PhD (it's getting time for me to move on from my post-doctoral training) and a good Pilates workout, I was ready to head home.

Jay had more Irish goodness waiting for me in the form of Smithwick's Ale and homemade corned beef with cabbage. As an appetizer he'd picked up some Dubliner cheese, and boy did Meow and I enjoy that! Meow is a very particular eater of cheese (she likes feta, strong cheddars, and gouda, but dislikes swiss, goat, american, and brie). Afterwards we walked down the street to McDonald's. Neither Jay nor myself had ever tried a Shamrock shake, so we shared a large one. I'd say my luck mostly comes from marrying Jay!

The Ice House

Jay and I have been extremely restful (lazy) the past two weekends. With teaching, travel, and Jay being very sick, keeping on top of just regular life has been exhausting. We're behind on pretty much everything! But we had made plans for this Sunday, and so we actually ventured out of the house.

Jay and I have been taking Pilates reformer classes for the past few months. We both enjoy them a lot, and it keeps us from being completely out of shape. One of the other regulars at our studio, Shannon White, was doing a stand-up comedy routine at the Ice House in Pasadena. We headed out on Sunday to Pasadena to visit the famous Ice House, and watch an evening of 12 comedians doing 10 minute routines. The Ice House is located in downtown Pasadena, which is a charming area north of Los Angeles. We have only visited a few times, and usually not for very long. On one memorable visit, we were there to decorate a float for the Rose Bowl parade (Jenny, I'm looking at you!). On this trip, we just relaxed and had a nice evening of laughter. If you ever get an opportunity to visit the Ice House, we highly recommend it!

Meow gets a bath

Most of you have perhaps met our feline companion, Meow. We've had Meow in my family since she was a wee tiny kitten being fed with an eye dropper. I told my sister over and again, "Do not get attached to this kitten. She is not remotely likely to survive, she was taken from her mother far too young." Well, that loud tiny kitten did survive, and she came to live with Jay and I when she was around 8 weeks old (I should mention this was without Jay's consent or knowledge, but that's a tale for another day). Meow has been with us now for 12 years, through 3 cross-country moves, graduate school, and marriage. She's lived in Georgia, Massachussetts, and California. She's visited San Antonio, TX, the painted desert, and the Grand Canyon. Over the years, our little girl has become quite the dumpling. Hey, she's a spoiled house cat, it's part of life! But one downfall to this is that she cannot quite reach the more delicate parts that a cat needs to keep clean, if you catch my meaning. So about every other week or so, she gets a bath. To be fair, she is extremely good-natured about the whole thing, right up until she has to be dried off. Then, she hisses and the claws come out. I finally decided to let her "drip dry" so to speak. I wash her, then wrap her in towels and hold her in my lap till most of the water has been absorbed off of her. During this time, she licks her paws and complains about her recent experience. It's really quite funny, and while we didn't capture it on video, Jay did take some pics. I'm laughing in all of them, because each time Jay tries to get Meow to look at the camera while she's licking her paws, she proceeds to complain bitterly. Poor kitty. But she smells so nice!

MDA Muscle Walk

This weekend was a very nice mix of busy and relaxing. We went for a run on Friday night to cap off our week. Lately we've been jogging at the UCLA track in the evenings. It's well-lit and very convenient to the lab. Saturday morning we were up bright and early to attend the Muscular Dystrophy Association Make a Muscle Walk at Studio City. Jay's office had formed a team, and we walked two laps through the CBS Radford studios. We got to see people building sets, and some of the city scenes used in various TV shows. We had lunch with our friends Dan and Gretchen at Mexicali Cafe and did a little window shopping. That afternoon we relaxed at home, as Jay continued planning his camping trip with Rob that is coming up this weekend! We ended up visiting Santa Monica where we had dinner at Real Food Daily. It's a vegan restaurant my friend Jenny introduced me to - so very yummy! Sunday we had our Pilates class, and followed that up with errands and sushi for lunch. It was a nice, busy weekend. Hopefully our team photos from the walk will arrive soon, and will be posted below!

The owl you saw...

is a great horned owl! He was lovely, you can guess his species based on the lovely stripes of his feathers and the tufts at his ears.

We had a nice, low-key weekend. We had dinner with some friends in Hermosa Beach (they have a lovely beach and pier area), then spent some time getting our apartment tidy. Jay's cousin Robert and his fiancee Tia are coming for a visit, and we want the place to looks it's best!

Hope you are all well, and having many grand adventures.

Devil Canyon Hike

On Saturday Jay and I headed up north to Chatsworth, CA where we planned to hike Devil Canyon. The trail is well-known for its sandstone canyons and a year-round stream. I was hoping to see some interesting wildlife, and Jay wanted to get some good pictures. I think we were both satisfied! The trailhead would've been impossible to find if not for the friendly assistance of a fellow walker we ran into. The trailhead is now buried behind a new subdivision full of luxurious McMansions. Once we located the trailhead, we found that the trail itself was not maintained. We had to do quite a bit of "bushwhacking" and hiking in the stream itself. The trail was verdant, with plants growing even on the canyon walls.

Here is a shot of the canyon walls, and the blue sky above.
And here is a shot of the sun onto the stream below, where we entered the canyon.

But I mentioned wildlife, and we found some creatures! Along the trail, we heard frog croaks echoing off the walls. Some patience sitting next to the rocks beside the stream brought out the frogs, a local species called Pseudacris sierra. There were tons of the little guys around!
We also saw a parasite called a horsehair worm, and lots of snails attached to the stream walls which I think may be an invasive species. The best of all, though, we spotted on the hike out. An owl, snoozing in a tree waiting for the sun to set so he could begin his hunt. Would anyone like to guess the species? I'll post the answer later this week!

Meow's Cat House

When Meow stayed at the California Cat Center, we noticed that her favorite spot was the privacy tent that was provided for each kitty. It's a spot they can go curl up and hide, and inside is a sheepskin/fur pad to keep them warm and comfortable. Meow loved hers so much, that we bought her one to take home. She stays in it quite a bit, napping and hiding. Beware of putting your hand too near... she will defend her little home! I've been moving it around the apartment for her, and right now it's at the foot of our bed. I just thought I'd post a picture for you all of my cute girl napping in her new tent!

Welcome to the New Year!

Happy 2011! We had an extremely busy 2010, and it looks like this year will be the same. We spent the holidays in San Antonio with Jay's family, and had a wonderful time. Our new nephew is beautiful, and just as advanced as Darren had told us. He quickly figured out "scooting" when we arrived, and tried several times to wrangle Uncle Jay's camera. Another budding photographer in the family.

I continued my annual tradition of getting sick during the holidays. I was sick at Thanksgiving, right before Christmas, during Christmas, and then sick for New Year. Jay and I rang in 2011 with me asleep on the couch, taking decongestants. He woke me up 20 minutes before midnight, got a New Year's kiss, and then we were both asleep by 12:30. Party animals, I know. I stayed sick at work, and finally caved on Tuesday and stayed home to nurse a sinus infection and 100 F fever.

While I am back at work and feeling much, much better, the congestion has remained, leading to this fun conversation at the lab with my bay mate Chris. Chris is hilarious, and has had to put up with quite a bit of my silliness. But this exchange was a classic. I had gotten a baked potato for lunch from the Greenhouse at Ackerman. Chris was apparently unaware they had a baked potato bar there, and when he came into the lunchroom, he said, "Hey, where did you buy a baked potato on campus?" I stared at him a moment, and then asked in a very puzzled voice, "What the hell did you just say to me about pink bananas?" Yes, I was still experiencing that lovely sensation of having a bucket over my head. My ears were ringing the entire day, and Chris did not miss an opportunity to bring up pink bananas.