The good news: I'm off to Colorado in a few short hours. Pretty hikes, tall mountains, fresh clear air. I don't think I could ask for anything more (well, I guess I could ask for the Alps with their feniculars and gondolas and alpine lodges stocked with all the amenities you need so you don't have to carry a full backpack...) I'm very excited! This begins the next 6 weeks of constant vacationing -- leaving for Peru on August 27, Matt & Steph's wedding in September... yippee!

The bad news: On Tuesday night my throat was sore. By lunch yesterday, a headache and stuffy nose were added to my list of maladies. I went home and tried to sleep it off. I felt better this morning, though swallowing was still a challenge. Now, my throat feels soothed but my head is throbbing. (Needless to say, no work for me today). Here's to hoping it will go away before I get on the trail!

Sarah dug this up from an e-mail conversation last year (I had overheard her explaining to Gavin what ERA's and save's were and sent Jen an e-mail about it... which was very disturbing that he lacked such a fundamental knowledge of baseball). Jen (an avid baseball fan) responded with: What the hell is Gavin doing with a fantasy baseball team? That's like me having - I don't know - a fantasy Star Trek crew. Except worse because I at least know what a Klingon Bird of Prey is, if not it's crew compliment.

It still makes me laugh.

Tomorrow we're off to Colorado!

Last night I packed my backpack, and then put it in the large duffle I bought for it (so it would travel better on the plane). Now it looks like I'm taking a body bag with me to Colorado.

I'm sorry I missed Barack Obama's speech to the Dem. Nat'l Convention yesterday. I've heard nothing but rave reviews. This section caught my attention in particular:

A belief that we are connected as one people. If there's a child on the south side of Chicago who can't read, that matters to me, even if it's not my child. If there's a senior citizen somewhere who can't pay for her prescription and has to choose between medicine and the rent, that makes my life poorer, even if it's not my grandmother. If there's an Arab American family being rounded up without benefit of an attorney or due process, that threatens my civil liberties. It's that fundamental belief-I am my brother's keeper, I am my sisters' keeper-that makes this country work. It's what allows us to pursue our individual dreams, yet still come together as a single American family. "E pluribus unum." Out of many, one.

You won't hear me say stuff like this about gun-toting, radical conservatives too often, so enjoy. Way to go President Bush! It takes guts to threaten to veto a bill that also includes spending for veteran's and housing in order to signal your support for space exploration. And here's another rare one, a second way to go for my Rep, Tom Delay, usually playing the roll of evil-re-district-er, seems to be the mastermind behind the veto threat.



I'm now poked, prodded and vaccinated against horrible, bizzarre diseases. The funniest thing was the trip to my personal doctor yesterday. He was really excited about my trip -- as it turns out, in the day before setting up shop as a GP, he had some specialty adventure-sports medicine and has lots of friends that go on exotic vacations. Anyway, I had gone to get Diamox (to help with the altitude in Colorado and Peru) and an anti-diherrea (to help with potential food problems in Peru). But as the conversation progressed, the Doctor decided "just to be sure" I should take some other medicine with me "so that a nasty bug or bad food doesn't ruin your entire vacation." The doctor started scribbling madly on his prescription pad, and I ended up a package of strong antibiotics, anti-naseua medicine, something to supress vomit in case I can't keep the other medicine down, plus the diamox and anti-diherrea. Plus he encouraged me to take peptobismal before eating any meals. So, now I'm going to Peru with the contents of most neighborhood pharmacies.

Anyway, he gave me several pages of instructions on how to determine what I should take when, so hopefully they won't take a rocket scientist to figure out... oh wait! Then this morning, I went and got vaccinated against Hep A, Tetanus (apparently you are supposed to get these every 5 years to protect against dirty cuts -- you'd think they'd tell you this 'cause I could step on a rusty nail just as easily in the US as Peru), and Typhoid (which is actually a pill). So, if I get sick after all this... well, someone has it out for me.

I am officially ready for Colorado, in case you're wondering. Just need to pack the backpack.

And Cari was all about the links today. First was awesome, a link to Lemmings, Possibly my favorite old-school computer game EVER. I can't wait to go home to my personal computer rather than my government-purchased-and-monitored work computer to play it! She also linked to this personality test. Here are my results (I don't necessarily agree with them all):

Wackiness: 16/100

Rationality: 38/100

Constructiveness: 60/100

Leadership: 64/100

You are an SECL--Sober Emotional Constructive Leader. This makes you a politician. You cut deals, you change minds, you make things happen. You would prefer to be liked than respected, but generally people react to you with both. You are very sensitive to criticism, since your entire business is making people happy.

At times your commitment to the happiness of other people can cut into the happiness of you and your loved ones. This is very demanding on those close to you, who may feel neglected. Slowly, you will learn to set your own agenda--including time to yourself.

You are gregarious, friendly, charming and charismatic. You like animals, sports, and beautiful cars. You wear understated gold jewelry and have secret bad habits, like chewing your fingers and fidgeting.

You are very difficult to dislike.



Update 11:06 am - In case you were wondering, my mother is an EVIL GENIUS. Here are the results of her test


Wackiness: 26/100

Rationality: 50/100

Constructiveness: 32/100

Leadership: 50/100

You are an SEDF--Sober Emotional Destructive Follower. This makes you an evil genius. You are extremely focused and difficult to distract from your tasks. With luck, you have learned to channel your energies into improving your intellect, rather than destroying the weak and unsuspecting.



Your friends may find you remote and a hard nut to crack. Few of your peers know you very well--even those you have known a long time--because you have expert control of the face you put forth to the world. You prefer to observe, calculate, discern and decide. Your decisions are final, and your desire to be right is impenetrable.



You are not to be messed with. You may explode.

I hate Harry Potter. I blame this all on Jen M. My whole weekend was a complete wash. Why, you ask? Because on Friday afternoon, I picked up Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the 870 page children's book that I have already read once... and couldn't put it down. I picked it up because I was enjoying Eleanor, and decided to stop reading it because it is the perfect light (both in weight and in content) book to take with me to Colorado. I needed a book to distract me from her.

Anyway, I ended up reading Harry Potter. All weekend. By Saturday morning, I was up to page 400. By Sunday, I was approaching the end, when I *had to* put it down in order to go gear shopping for Colorado (I had already blown off cleaning, laundry, eating, and mowing the lawn to keep reading). Then, I was annoyed that I had tickets to a play ("Dial M for Murder") that would interfere with my reading (don't worry, I dragged myself out of the house and enjoyed the play tremendously).

When I got home from the play at 11 p.m. last night, I figured, "Hey, what could one more chapter hurt?" (Yes, the thought of calling in sick this morning crossed my mind as a way to get in more reading time). Every 15 minutes or so, I glanced at my clock, and thought "Just one more chapter."

I finished the book. It was 2 a.m. Needless to say I had a difficult time getting up this morning.

On another subject, I am continuously dismayed at how little I know about space shuttle entries. 2.5 years with DESCENT being my job, and, gosh be darned, I can barely speak the lingo, let alone consider myself posessing any sort of expertise. Its like I need a remedial course...

Nothing planned this weekend. Maybe a movie, maybe sailing. Sounds like I might be going to a play. I also have to do some last minute provisioning for Colorado. Hooray for Colorado!

Right now, the Cutri's are beginning there mass pilgrimage for Cutri "birthday season" (otherwise known as the last week in July, where it appears a number of people in my grandfather's generation were born). Highlights of "birthday seasons"s past includes trips to exotic places like Italy and Wisconsin. This year, there is a family reunion in Erie, the riviera of Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, I will miss the reunion because hopefully right about then I will be climbing to the top of a 14,000 foot mountain. Hopefully I will be forgiven.

Now, to finish up this entry with some link-mania.

A collection of memo's from the chief of Fox News. It makes me crazy when people think Fox is actually "Fair and Balanced." Though its kind of embarrassing, it took a Doonsbury cartoon to point these memos out to me.

The events in Iraq Tuesday are going to be the top story, unless and until something else (or worse) happens. Err on the side of doing too much Iraq rather than not enough. Do not fall into the easy trap of mourning the loss of US lives and asking out loud why are we there?

But you have to agree, the guy has a sense of humor:

"With trepidation, we'll go into the Michael Jackson indictment today ready to blow breaks and stick with it if it's a circus like last time, or to mix it with other news if, as promised by authorities, it retains some sense of legal decorum. It's a big step in the case. It does NOT mean he is guilty... The President and the PM of Canada meet today and will make remarks at midday. Take the remarks, even if Jacko is singing on top of a truck with no pants on at the time."

Worship My iPod

Because now you -- yes, you -- can say you were there for the advent of the Apple iPod. The very first one. The red-hot must-have gizmo of Now. The smooth white plastic love lump of Yes. The Gadget That Changed Everything even though everything was pretty much already completely changed and everyone was pretty much already like, damn, can things even change much anymore? And then the iPod hit and the answer was a clear, delicious, hell yes.

The iPod is the It Girl of this generation. It is the gizmo equivalent of the printing press. The lightbulb. The steam train. The space shuttle. The Pocket Rocket vibrator. Et cetera...

The little white slab has it all. Cultural cache, hipness, style, sex appeal, superlative design, annoying ubiquity, shameless pretentiousness and a tangy and undeniably appealing hint of where we're headed and what's to come and, if we do it right, how seamlessly it can all slide into our social arsenal.

And, best of all, compared to most obnoxious, bug-addled, instantly disposable gadgets in the world today, the iPod actually works. Beautifully. Elegantly. Clearly. Like nothing that came before it and like a thousand things that will attempt to come after it because it's one of those trendsetting life-altering devices that everyone must emulate immediately or die trying. And for that we are all grateful, and annoyed, and impressed, our habits irrevocably changed, our cultural memory indelibly stamped...

It can be the answer to just about anything. What was it like at the end of the millennium? iPod. How did you manage to endure the ongoing wargasmic ravages of BushCo and his corporate lizard spawn? Oh my God, iPod. What kept you from committing suicide with a USB cable and some printer toner after losing everything on that Qwest stock after the bubble burst? Oh man, iPod. Hey you kids get the hell outta my yard! Dude, chill out -- iPod...

Last night was a very frustrating sailing night. We were doing everything right and wrong all at once. Anyway, we finished last (well, actually the Dolphin Senior fisished last, but that's a slllllow boat compared to us). It was doubly frustrating because there were times that we were incredibly close to all the boats ahead of us, and by the end, well, no where near them...

I have nothing else to say. La di da. I have a sim with the weather forecasters today. After that I will probably go home, veg out, go swimming...

Family, we should start planning a trip for the holidays! Trip trip trip!

A thrill a minute, right folks?

I borrowed this from Sarah, because I don't really have much else to write today.

Last Cigarette: In Austin with David and Twins; Before that, Swiss parties; They always seem like a good idea at the time and then give me a sore throat for a week.

Last Alcoholic Drink: Mike's Hard Lemonade (I know, sissy, girly)

Last Car Ride: Jeep, top down, yeah!

Last Library Book: Finite Element Methods in Fluid Mechanics

Last Book Bought: Lost (by the author of Wicked and Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister and Eleanor (historical fiction about Eleanor of Aquitaine)

Last Book Read: Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, currently reading Eleanor.

Last Movie Seen in Theatres: I, Robot

Last Movie Rented: I don't rent movies anymore, because I'm a Blockbuster delinquent. I used PPV to watch Magdalene Sisters about a month ago, if that counts.

Last Cuss Word Uttered: Fuck. I say that a lot.

Last Beverage Drank: Morning coffee

Last Food Consumed: Half a slice of leftover pizza before bed last night.

Last Crush: Orlando Bloom. Ah, pirate, elf, prince of troy, whatever.

Last Phone Call: I'm sure it was to Mom. Just can't remember when.

Last TV Show Watched: West Wing

Last Time Showered: 7:30 am this morning

Last Shoes Worn: Black sandals

Last CD Played: Moby "18" (in my car)

Last Item Bought: Diet Pepsi from the vending machine yesterday afternoon

Last Download: Old pictures from Irwin's camera of me in fatigues getting ready to spend the weekend with the army as a roving journalist.

Last Annoyance: A slow day at work

Last Disappointment: How little exercise has improvered my stamina

Last Soda Drank: Diet Pepsi

Last Thing Written: Log entries for the NEEMO mission. Well, and yesterday's blog.

Last Key Used: g.

Last Words Spoken: "Where are you going?... Do you get to talk to the Europeans?"

Last Sleep: 11 p.m. until 7 am, then 7:30 am (gotta love snooze)

Last Ice Cream Eaten: Vanilla at the Moon Party yesterday

Last Chair Sat In: Uncomfortable 70s-era office chair.




Last night I took the dogs out for an hour carrying my backpack, followed by 728 stairs in Kemah with Jen (yes, I counted... well, counted and multiplied. I'm a counter, what can I say? When I take tests, I dismay people by figuring out the impact of mistakes on each test question, then on my overall grade on the test, taking into account curving, then my grade in the class, then my cumulative GPA. This type of rationale drives other people slowly insane. I guess everyone is allowed to have neurotic test taking behavior, and that's mine.) I woke up this morning with a slightly dull ache in my quads and a slightly dull ache in my arms (from rock climbing?). I guess that means I got a good workout. I've been really religious about doing something exercise-y for the last month or two, but I don't really feel like I've made any gains - climbing those stairs last night didn't seem any easier than the first time Jen and I did it. Well, I'm going to keep at it, so maybe even if I don't make Longs Peak, I will be fine for Peru.

There's an exhibit of science fiction art called "The Future We Were Promised." Maybe that expression existed before the exhibit. But today there have been so many articles about Apollo 11, plus the hubbub here at work (they gave us free moon pies in a hokey sort of congratulations) -- well, that's the expression that keeps going through my head.

Who would expect that 35 years later, we would not be back on the moon to stay? Who would expect that we didn't have any serious plans for a manned trip to Mars? Who would expect, on the anniversary of the lunar landing, that the House Appropriations Committee would have the gall to slash spending on new space exploration programs? Why does an alliance of space advocacy groups representing a million people can only turn out 70 people for a Moon-Mars blitz on the capital? (Even I'm guilty here, I fly to D.C. to march for women's rights but not space exploration...) Who would expect that the highest altitude man has been soaring at for the last three decades is about the distance between D.C. and New York City? Who would expect that in the same country that raptly watched moonwalks, a vast portion of the public doesn't even realize there are two astronauts living aboard the International Space Station right now? Who would guess that during an administration that doubts the existance of global warming that NASA's budget would be cut more than the Environmental Protection Agency?

Today, they opened up the lunar rock area for employees to visit. It looked unused, sterile. In fact there are several sealed cannister's of lunar materials returned from Apollo 17 (in 1972) that are still unopened for want of manpower and interest. While we walked over, we talked about living on the moon. When I was in junior high, high school, this seemed like a legitimate dream, even as I watched the space station stay alive by only one vote in Congress. I can remember writing an essay about establishing colonies on Mars when I was in 8th grade. I envisioned that in 10 years, if I was working for the space program, that's what I would be working on -- instead there has been no progress made in all that time except some paper studies and inflated budget estimates.

But the question I have a hard time answering, the reason I don't think the public is keen on funding space exploration, is "Why? Why go into space?" The only answer is that it is the future we were promised. I hate the idea of stopping exploration - its something that is so compelling and a part of the human spirit. I also don't understand the argument that exploration should be purely robotic -- there are vast differences between people and programs - seeing, touching, feeling, and thinking and the synthesis of all those things is what will lead to ground breaking discoveries.

I wonder what the state of the space program will be in 10 years from now?

Ok, I'm going to stop waxing philosophic. Did I mention its a slow day for me?

This Land is hillarious. Especially when John Kerry sings "He can't say nuclear and that really scares me..." (to the tune of, you guessed it, "this land is your land, this land is my land..") Anyway, watch. It was even on Good Morning America this morning. Don't worry it offends Republicans and Democrats equally.

I am kind of in a post-lots of work stupor right now. I did my activity report, I took some notes, now, I'm at a loss (even though I have a running list of things to do). Today may be a wash anyway. They are doing all these activities to celebrate the Apollo 11 anniversary, so this afternoon, I may make a little trek out to see moon rocks.

Last night I went to the Rock Gym for the first time in ages. My fingers are all tingly again. Afterward an hour of climbing, I went hard core and spent a half hour on the elliptical machine. I ran into a classmate from Training Academy who gave me some scoop on the X-Prize Team Canadian Arrow. Don't worry, I'm still a Burt Rutan groupie, but I think anyone who attempts any of these competitions is awesome.

This is a hillarious way to commemorate the anniversary of Apollo 11. Its a parody on all those people that think the moon landing was a hoax. My favorite parts:


...But NASA scientists quickly realized that traveling to the moon is impossible. The Van Allen radiation belts will kill anybody who tries to reach the moon. NASA officials knew this early on and realized that they would have to fake it. In fact, one of the reasons that the CIA, Lyndon Johnson, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the military-industrial complex, and the Knights Templar had John F. Kennedy killed was because Kennedy was about to cancel the Apollo program...

George Bush was told to invade that country by his Saudi masters, some of whom are not even human, but aliens. Why do you think Saudi “women” wear those burkas? They hide their tentacles. Fortunately, Michael Moore is investigating...



It seems like a million years since my last entry. No, I still haven't found NEEMO. But in the meantime, I've had a lot of fun working the mission. I worked my last real shift yesterday and my last telecon this morning. Back to normal life, work, schedule. Which will be good for my sanity. But it was really fun working something like that, mixed in with all the work, to have the crew tell you they just saw the biggest crab ever. Or saw a shark doing "aileron rolls" in the sand. Or, like yesterday, and call to ask if you were on-console to let you know that Becca North is a really awesome line (how sweet to keep the support staff happy!).

Ok, I've written two paragraphs for this entry and then deleted them both. One was about having nightmares about the start of the semester. The other was about missing flying. Both were kind of depressing, so I deleted them. One of my co-workers just came in and told all about his three week trip to Africa. They climbed Killamajaro, which makes the two big hikes we're doing this season seem like a stroll up a hill. And then they went on safari and to beaches in Zanzabar. Now I want to go to Africa even more, but I definitely don't want to climb a 20,000 ft mountain.

I saw I, Robot this weekend, and was pleasantly surprised. The movie actually preserved the Three Laws of Robotics, crossed over some characters and scenarios from the collection of short stories, and tried to stay at least somewhat faithful to the universe envisioned by Isaac Asimov in the 1940s (before there was such a thing as a personal computer, I may remind you!). It really was bothering me when reviewers accused the movie of borrowing elements from Terminator and Robocop and such, rather than acknowledging the influence that I, Robot had on them (trivia: Isaac Asimov invented the term "robotics"). I read all of the NY Times yesterday (ok, at least the articles that interested me) and they actually did one of their consensus editorials on it(or whatever real newspaper people call them -- the one's with no author on the sidebar). We, robots

Now that "I, Robot," a technophobic thriller starring Will Smith, has hit movie screens nationwide, it's worth remembering Isaac Asimov's accomplishment in the book of the same name, which was first published in 1950. True, the humans in Asimov's book seem more than a little robotic, despite their snappy, Batman-like dialogue. ("Holy space!") Donovan and Powell — the robot-testers — resemble Cub Scouts in adult bodies. And as for Susan Calvin, the rather dried-up robopsychologist, well, it's simplest to say that she bears as much resemblance to her screen counterpart, played by Bridget Moynahan, as Asimov's robot stories do to this movie.



As machines, Asimov's robots are not very important. Asimov invests almost nothing in imagining how they look. What makes them interesting isn't sentience or consciousness or a human appearance. It's the fact that the machines embody three hierarchical laws that require robots to protect humans from harm, to obey humans and, a distant third, to protect themselves. Each of the stories in "I, Robot" works out a problem in the application of these laws, usually caused by an unforeseen implication or contradiction. Asimov's robots are perfectly logical, and therefore all the real problems are caused by humans, who are shockingly unaware of the way their intentions and emotions run counter to logic. What look like manufacturing flaws in the robots nearly always turn out to be faults in the way a command was articulated. Humans, it turns out, are mainly good at bossing other humans around. Our computers remind us of this every day.



There may be nothing subtle about Asimov's prose. But there is a great deal of subtlety in the strangely narcissistic relationship he creates between humans and robots. The very existence of robots leads, in Asimov, to immediate questions about human nature — not as it's expressed in the robots themselves but as it's expressed in their relationship with humans. After all, those three ironclad laws create a framework for decency that — as Susan Calvin might say — few people ever display. It's no wonder Hollywood prefers simply to fear robots, as it does in "The Terminator," "The Matrix" and now "I, Robot," to name only a few examples. It's vastly easier and more thrilling than introspection.

Ok, time to get started on work-work now.

Another day in NEEMO-land. This morning I started on console at 6:15. Tomorrow I start at 5:50. Notice how each day gets progressively earlier? Though, I'm pretty excited about tomorrow, I get to be the NEEMO equivalent of CAPCOM. For you non-space people, that's the one who communicates with the crew. The bugs are getting ironed out, which makes me happy. I did make the crew journal yesterday.

I have nothing else exciting to report. I gorged on Mely's again last night (because, heck, I hadn't been there in 5 days). Sometimes I think our group is single-handedly keeping that place in business.

I must be in the mood for quizes today. Here's an interesting one that tells you how many Earth's would be required to support the whole planet with my lifestyle. Strangely, though, Jen O. discovered a country bias -- same lifestyle in different countries take up different numbers of Earth's. For the record, I'm not doing so hot, requiring 4.3 Earth's.

And my movie watching history:

Last night I elliptical machined for a really long time and at a really high incline/restistance. Today my legs are in a LOT of pain. Lots and lots.

Otherwise, life has all been work lately.

In case you are wondering what's going to keep me really busy at work this week, I am now going to venture off into technobabble about NEEMO...

I woke up at 0'dark'thirty to begin my work on NEEMO 6. Up until now, the work has been interesting, or at the very least productive. But after this morning's teleconference with the crew (already living underwater off the coast of Key Largo) I am totally stoked about it!

The point of NEEMO is that some astronauts and engineers go and live in this enviornment with is "analog" to a space mission -- and we can test out new technologies and new ways of communication while keeping the crew just a little bit closer to home. For this mission, they are "aquanauts" instead of astronauts. Anyway, I am working in the ExPOC, which is an experimental Mission Control room where three controllers keep in touch with the aquanauts to help them during their dives (called "EVA's", or Extravehicular Activity -- just like space walking). I am working a position called "Data", which keeps track of where the crew is and how much air they are consuming and what progress they are making in the mission. I helped write a tool that will display the position of the crew and their status on a big screen for all the other ExPOC people to look at, and part of my job as "Data" is to keep it updated real-time.

As a side note, in several copies of mission reports there is a note that says "Make sure to tell Becca that there is flourishing fauna and coral on the 'Becca North' and 'Becca South' lines." I think I mentioned before that there were two excursion lines that didn't have names and we were having a brain fart about what to call them -- so I JOKED that we should name them after ourselves. JOKED. You know that casual snide comment that I occasionally will make when meetings get boring and/or slow. Much to my embarrassment, it stuck. But I guess I'm over the embarrasment, and starting to think its just damn cool that there are these random underwater ropes with my name! Of course, I always joked I wanted to invent my own equation just to have an equation named after me... so, I guess this is a trial run :)!

So, if you are interested in following the mission, there are live web cams that you can watch here. They do dives twice a day, in the morning and afternoon - so if you want to see the crew in action, you know where to go.

If it were up to me, I'd eliminate all pointless meetings. Or at the very least, replace that lost time period with something entertaining (old episodes of the Simpson's anyone?)

Katie e-mailed me this morning with a similar eyebrow waxing story from the same pedicure place! Apparently there is a whacked out pedicurist telling girls their eyebrows are ugly in an attempt to selling waxings but only succeeding in ruining our pedicures.

Ok, back to the grind.

Do I have funny looking eyebrows?

I had a fabulous pedicure today with the exception of one short conversation (keep in mind this was carried on in slightly broken English because the pedicurist was east Asian of some sort).

Pedicurist: Do you get your eyebrows waxed?

Me: Nah, I like my eyebrows the way they are.

Pedicurist: Ahhh. Ohhh. Well, you know its bad, really bad to pluck your eyebrows. You should wax instead.

Me: Umm... I don't pluck my eyebrows either..

Pedicurist: Ohh [expression of shock on her face]. You don't pluck your eyebrows?! (As if I just admitted that I robbed the crown jewels) You should do something, they would look so much better.

Me: Nah, I like my eyebrows the way they are. Anyway, I don't want to add any new beauty ritual to my life.

Pedicurist: Oh, but you'd only need to wax every one month or so. Its good. Good. Your eyebrows bad. Bad right now.

Me: I don't want to have to worry about getting my eyebrows waxed once a month, I hardly have time to get pedicures that often.

Pedcurist: Sigh. Well, ok, if that's the way you want it. But you need work on eyebrows.

Anyway, there's nothing like having your pedicurist insult your eyebrows while you are trying to relax and enjoy the massaging chair. I buried my head in my book and pretended to ignore her. I got her back later when she started asking me questions about my family and, I don't know what came over me, but I decided it was easier to make up things than explain to her about my family. So, Mom, just so you know in case you ever run into her, I'm your only biological child, but you adopted 5 boys including a set of twins and you live in Portland.

It was basically the weirdest pedicure I have *ever* had.

For the record, I don't have a uni-brow, my eyebrows aren't furry, curly, or ultra-dark. Therefore, I do not intend on beginning to wax them any time soon.