the h is silent

The best part about moving to a new place? Decorating. Or in my case, dreaming about decorating because I still have tons of unpacking and organizing to do. But as soon as I get my craft room all set up, I'm going to whip up a couple of these babies for the living room:


Gum drop ottomans! OMG I HEART AMY BUTLER.

I'm still trying to figure out which patterns and fabrics to use. Maybe something from Amy's Midwest Modern 2 or Lotus collections? I also like Joel Dewberry's Aviary and Deer Valley (in persimmon because I enjoy the red + blue color combo).

I'm thinking that any of these will go with my new couch, slated for delivery in mid-September (except mine will be a more neutral cappuccino color):


So perfectly sleek, modern, and tufted. I get cartoon hearts and bluebirds floating above my head just by looking at it. THANKS MOM AND MACY'S HOME SALE!

Also, here is a picture of Joel Dewberry, which brings me to the title of this post. Is it just me, or did Eddie Van Blundht totally launch a lucrative career in designing modern and fashionable textiles after his time behind bars? (Those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about can Netflix the X-Files season four episode "Small Potatoes.")

still awake

It’s almost 6:00 in the morning. As long as I don’t have to start working until the West Coast starts working, I’ll never adjust to normal East Coast hours.

I think I have a cold. Woke up Sunday morning with a sore throat and was all ready to surrender myself to the H1N1, but it’s just been five steady days of sore throat and coughing. That’s only two of the eight common flu symptoms listed on the CDC site, so it can’t be the flu, right? Right?

I’ve been intending to embark on a photo shoot of good old smoky Lex to share, but between the sickness and working and trying to fix up our apartment (still) and wanting to avoid hot outdoor humidity at all costs and TJ being on campus all day and reading Marx all night (first day of the 19th grade yesterday—*wipes tear*), and let's face it, being glued to the LLWS and swooning over the second season of Pushing Daisies and basking in the warm glow of reality TV (last week saw the passage of the finale of Top Chef Masters AND the premieres of normal Top Chef and Project Runway), we haven’t really gotten the chance to explore our new city.

We’ll get around to it some day.

spor(t) repor(t)

Usually sports writers are struggling to find things to write about in a non-Olympic summer before football season kicks off. However, the past month has been filled with interesting sports stories and controversies, so I thought I would take some time to comment on some of them.

Naturally, we start in Kentucky, where college basketball is King. Rick Pitino, the head coach of the University of Louisville, is having some PR problems after he admitted to cheating on his wife and paying his mistress $3,000 for an abortion. He would've gotten away with it too if it weren't for said mistress trying to extort millions of dollars of hush money from him. Should Louisville have fired Pitino? Yes, but probably more because of his crappy press defense and inefficient offense.

At the same time, here in Lexington, some are worried about the recent news coming from newly hired John Calipari's former school. The University of Memphis will have to vacate its wins and Final Four appearance from the 2007-2008 season for having someone take the SAT for its star player, Derrick Rose. Even though Calipari's name was not mentioned in the NCAA report, this is the second time a team under his watch had to vacate a Final Four appearance (the first being UMass in 1996). So Calipari gets the full support of the university and governor of Kentucky despite cases of academic fraud and improper benefits to players in his two previous university head coaching jobs, on top of the fact that he depends on a horrible offense that he stole from a corrupt coach from Fresno (not named Tarkanian).

Now to the NFL controversies:

Michael Vick: served about 2 years in prison for his involvement in dog fighting/torturing/killing and will receive an additional 2- to 6-game suspension by the NFL.

Donte Stallworth: served 24 days in prison for DUI manslaughter and will be suspended for the entire NFL season.

Plaxico Burress: received a 2-year sentence after he pleaded guilty to shooting himself in the leg with an unlicensed firearm in a nightclub and will likely not receive any additional punishment from the NFL.

I know that each case above has unique details, but how does the only action that resulted in a death of a human call for merely 24 days in prison? Also, do you think that the NFL should act as a second judge and jury for legal cases by adding additional punishment?

The next story comes from the World Championships in Athletics in Berlin. People are questioning the gender of 18-year-old Caster Semenya, the South African runner who crushed her competition in the women's 800m on Wednesday night. As you might imagine, this is a lot more complicated than investigating to see if there’s a man dressed up as a woman under there. Where do you draw the line between male and female? Should hermaphrodites compete as men or women? What if you have X and Y chromosomes, but no male genitalia? What if you have two X chromosomes, but no female genitalia? I feel bad for Semenya, who was teased for looking like a boy her whole life, and now the whole world is asking questions about her eligibility to race as a woman. What kind of privacy rights should Semenya have in this situation? I also think there is an element of racism as some have mentioned—perhaps this is another example of demeaning Western attitudes towards black Africans? Would people be questioning a white European or American woman who ran a really fast time and looked kind of manly?

And now to Michael Phelps. In the past year, he has: won 8 gold medals in Beijing using the controversial LZR suit made by Speedo; gotten caught with a marijuana bong at a party; and lost to Paul Biedermann at the world championships, who apparently has an even more hi-tech suit than Phelps. Phelps’s coach complained about the use of these new suits and demanded that they be banned. Apparently, any suit that might be better than the one Phelps uses should be banned.

Also, Usain Bolt is fast.

motorcycle helmets and southern rock

As we drove across New Mexico on our way to Lexington, I noticed a few bikers on the freeway riding without helmets. And since we've been in Lexington, we've seen many people riding motorcycles without helmets. Maybe I've just spent too much of my life in California, but this was quite a surprise to me. First, it seems really dumb to go 65 mph on a motorcycle with nothing protecting your head, and second, I didn't really consider that New Mexico and Kentucky wouldn't have laws requiring all motorcycle riders and passengers to wear helmets. I knew that motorcycle helmet laws are fairly modern, but I kind of assumed it caught on nationwide like seat belt laws or raising the drinking age to 21. Can you guess how many states require all motorcycle riders and passengers to wear helmets? Here's a map with the answer.

I also noticed that there's a heavy dose of Creedence Clearwater Revival (and Phil Collins for some reason) on Lexington radio stations. Lauren and I were talking about how that makes sense because CCR is a southern band, right? We couldn't remember exactly where they were from. Louisiana, or maybe Tennessee? So we looked it up when we got home today and it turns out that John Fogerty was not born anywhere near the Bayou but very close to the Bay.

Nevertheless, the South has produced many great bands, including:

Ben Folds Five (Chapel Hill, NC)
Big Star (Memphis, TN)
Elf Power (Athens, GA)
The Flaming Lips (Oklahoma City, OK)
Iron & Wine (Miami, FL/Columbia, SC)
My Morning Jacket (Louisville, KY)
Neutral Milk Hotel (Ruston, LA)
The Olivia Tremor Control (Athens, GA)
Of Montreal (Athens, GA)
Okkervil River (Austin, TX)
R.E.M. (Athens, GA)
Spoon (Austin, TX)
Tripping Daisy (Dallas, TX)

days 3 and 4: oklahoma city to memphis, memphis to lexington

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We're still alive. And finally here in Lexington with an Internet connection!

Total miles traveled: 2,329
Total hours on the road: 35.5

I couldn't blog on the night of the OKC to Memphis leg because Nate and Cami's Internet decided to stop working the day we arrived. So I watched Twilight instead. Was that really Radiohead's "15 Step" that I heard during the end credits? I made it to the end credits? And is Thom Yorke really writing an original song for the sequel? I'm confused.

Memphis was nice. Humid. The ribs at Corky's were excellent—the meat fell right off the bone, the dry rub was really good, and the apple BBQ sauce was amazing. California, you know I love you, but you've got nothing on the South when it comes to BBQ.

And the South's got nothing on California when it comes to Mexican food. We tried a place next to our apartment called Mi Mexico. I get the feeling that the sauces on both our dishes came out of cans. My enchiladas with mole poblano was okay, but the sauce in TJ's camarones a la diabla tasted like sweet and sour sauce with Tabasco mixed in for a little kick.

I'm sure we'll find better, but I almost cried. I think everything just hit me at that moment: the crazy move, the exhausting road trip, the feeling of being in an unfamiliar place in which you're not sure you'll fit, the fact that our new apartment reeks of a smoker who used to live there.

We approached management about the apartment's condition and they're going to use an ozone machine on Monday morning to get rid of the smell. I'm not sure why they didn't think of doing this before we moved in. We're going to have to get a hotel room to stay in on Monday night while the machine does its thing.

We decided to do some work on the apartment ourselves since the housekeeping people won't be available anytime soon and we wanted to do something to improve the cleanliness levels in the meantime. The window blinds were pretty disgusting, so I scrubbed each slat one by one in the bathtub to get rid of the coats of nicotine and cigarette smoke. We've also gotten around to scrubbing the walls and windows in the living room and one of the bedrooms. Annoyance level: high. But once it's clean, the apartment itself will be really nice to live in. Can't wait to hook up that washer and dryer.

I do have some good things to say about Lexington. It's very green, and I can imagine how beautiful it will look in the fall. People so far have been really helpful and friendly to us. We drove through downtown last night to check it out, and it looked lovely. We'll have to go back and explore in the daytime.

day 2: albuquerque to oklahoma city

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Made it to Oklahoma City, and just in time for Top Chef Masters. Rick Bayless (who, coincidentally, is from Oklahoma City) for the win! I know I'm supposed to be talking about our road trip and not food, but I need to mention that Rick has started a blog about his experiences on TCM, and on this blog he's shared his winning tongue taco recipe from episode 3's "offal tasty" elimination challenge. I can't wait to try this.

But back to the subject at hand:

Total miles traveled: 1,426
Total hours on the road: 21.5

Sadly, I was wrong when I wrote last night that it's six hours from Albuquerque to OKC. It's actually eight hours. Still not bad, especially compared to yesterday's leg.

In the Texas panhandle we stopped in Amarillo to fill up. No matter how hard I try to say Am-ah-RILL-o I always find myself pronouncing it Am-ah-REE-o.

About 40 miles east of Amarillo is Groom, TX, pop. 600 and home of the largest cross in the Western hemisphere (or so they say):


Everything really is bigger in Texas.

Major thunderstorms in Oklahoma City, but people here have been so nice to us. At our hotel we ran into a random guy on a business trip who arranged for a discount on our room for no reason at all. The chatty guy at the front desk was great, too—very friendly, very helpful, and very concerned about getting us a VIP coupon to the Italian restaurant down the street. Always nice to have folks looking out for you, especially in unfamiliar places.

Tomorrow: visiting TJ's brother Nate in Memphis. Dry rub pork ribs, here we come. It's a good thing that our apartment complex in Lexington comes with a fitness center.

day 1: santa barbara to albuquerque

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So here we are in Albuquerque.

Miles traveled: 879
Hours on the road: 13.5

Not much to report. We drove by a dust devil in Arizona. Flagstaff is a lot greener than I expected. And there is a lot of road work going on between the Arizona border and Albuquerque. You'd think that I'd have a lot more interesting observations to share after driving through three states today, but traveling always brings out my most irrational fears—so I was probably too worried about careening off bridges or getting crushed by large trucks/planes falling out of the sky to notice much of anything else. I'm very happy to be safely tucked away in our hotel right now.

Six-hour legs from here on out! Tomorrow: Albuquerque to Oklahoma City.

"I'll build the ark, you fetch the animals."

We obviously picked the best week to move to Lexington.