I'll take Ken Jennings for $200, Alex.

hey remember that guy who won all that money on jeopardy!, ken jennings? turns out that kid has some pretty witty crap to say... and he does so on his blog, and in his new book:

Brainiac - Adventures in the Curious, Competitive, Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs.

looks like he'll be in long beach on october 17th for a book signing, if you're interested in meeting this wild and crazy mormon in person.

Are You Talking Like A Pirate?

Avast! It's International Talk Like A Pirate Day! (I borrowed Dad's hat for the occasion.) Confused? You can find out more information HERE, but if you need a quick fix on pirate lingo, this is their basic lesson:

Ahoy! - "Hello!"

Avast! - Stop and give attention. It can be used in a sense of surprise, "Whoa! Get a load of that!" which today makes it more of a "Check it out" or "No way!" or "Get off!"

Aye! - "Why yes, I agree most heartily with everything you just said or did."

Aye aye! - "I'll get right on that sir, as soon as my break is over."

Arrr! - This one is often confused with arrrgh, which is of course the sound you make when you sit on a belaying pin. "Arrr!" can mean, variously, "yes," "I agree," "I'm happy," "I'm enjoying this beer," "My team is going to win it all," "I saw that television show, it sucked!" and "That was a clever remark you or I just made." And those are just a few of the myriad possibilities of Arrr!

Now go talk like a pirate, ye scurvy naive!!!

DANCE! DANCE!

if you've followed my blog from the beginning, then you saw that one of my earliest posts was about a show called so you think you can dance. well they just wrapped season 2 last month and it was better than ever! they even put a tour together with the top 10 dancers.

the tour came to LA over the weekend and luckily we were able to get tickets. the twins, kristine and i took a lot of flack for our excitement over this show, but ultimately, the teasing was all worth it. the performance was amazing!!! seeing those gifted dancers perform all of our favorite numbers in person was awesome!

the biggest surprise of the night was that we weren't packed into the universal (gibson) amphitheatre with a few thousand screaming tweens, like we imagined would be the case. Surprisingly, the number of adults far exceeded screaming children. FAR exceeded.

it was kind of funny... while we were waiting for our table at dinner, this big, bald dude at the bar was having a conversation with a group of middle-aged women on the other side of the bar about who they were all looking forward to seeing at the show. odd scene...

a fun bonus was seeing some of the choreographers in the audience. there were at least 4, that we counted. fun stuff! (unfortunately, my camera failed me that night. boooo. so i have no photos.)

anywhoodles, it was a great night out with a few of my best friends and we got to see some of the best dancing we've ever laid eyes on. so tease away people, because i am sure that we'll be attending the live show again when season 3 wraps.

Aussie Invasion - Part 1

you may remember me mentioning kyle, our contiki tour manager in greece, in my recap here. well, he moved on from greece to spend the summer '06 season leading tours with contiki in canada.

last week, while on break, he popped down to the OC for a quick visit. we managed to squeeze in dinner at felix's, a visit to the getty, third street in santa monica, a trip to sharkeez at huntington beach (see below), hiking in the ortegas, camping in san clemente, and the temecula wineries.


fun stuff! stay tuned for part 2 of the invasion when anna (who i also met in greece, and stayed with in sydney) arrives at the end of the month!

Bye Bye Summertime!

oh the sadness of the unofficial end of summer... labor day. *sigh* well, if it has to end, then why not go out with a bang?

we closed the office friday, so that morning, i actually passed on the opportunity to sleep in and hoofed it up to peter's canyon for a hike. i run up to the trailhead all the time, but rarely actually continue on to the trail because that is already a 5 mile roundtrip, so this was a treat!

well, kind of... i forgot my snack. 11 miles is a long way for lara to go with no snack!

then kristine and i hit up the street fair for dinner that night...

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and it was back to the street fair on saturday, with a little pre/post party madness at j & d's...

i ran into a ton of alum. there were chapmanites everywhere!

sunday i took it easy and caught some time by the pool before heading to my cousin's for dinner so we could plan our upcoming houseboat trip...

finally monday, my friend, aaron (grasshopper), and i hiked big santa anita canyon, before heading back to pasadena for lunch and a 8-hour (yes 8 hours!!) home furnishings shopping spree for his new apartment...

anyone else need a vacation from the holiday weekend? zzzZZZZZ