Enjablog

I went out with a bunch of friends tonight to see Superman II as part of Crystal City’s outdoor film festival. We watched Superman last week and it was a little terrible. Not at all like I remembered it (awesome).

Superman II was a big improvement over the first movie. But some questions did come out of the evening:
1. After Superman gives up his powers and gets it on with Lois, how do they get back from the Fortress of Solitude (in the North Pole)? I’ll grant you that Clark stops to pick up a jacket when he heads back to the North Pole, but they had no jackets when they arrived. Because, you know, that’s all you need for the North Pole.
2. So, having given up his powers in an irreversible process, Superman discovers that he, in fact, needs those powers to do stuff, like beat up bad guys. He must then return to the Fortress of Solitude (wearing a jacket this time). There, he finds a green crystal and then he has his powers back. Jigga-what?
3. Also, what kind of world does not believe in the death sentence, but believes in immortalizing criminals so that they will be imprisoned for eternity? Oh wait… I just realized that sounds a little like Hell. But Krypton-created. Hm. I guess I take that one back.
4. What is with the new superpowers Superman discovers after the supervillains start teleporting around him? He doesn’t use these later, but they’re pretty cool: super-cellophane “S”, teleporting, self-projections/holograms, and tractor-beam eyes.

Again, this was waaay better than the first movie (and they even continued the theme of hitting children). And I understand that you’re supposed to suspend belief to a certain extent when watching movies. But I think these are legitimate questions.

Oh, and Fortress of Solitude? Shouldn’t Superman have some kind of security system on that place? There were half a dozen people traipsing through there, not to mention Lois trying to redecorate 30 seconds after arriving. If I had a fortress of solitude, you’d better believe I wouldn’t use it for parties.

I had a girls day out on Sunday with some friends to celebrate a belated birthday. We started out with the most incredible brunch ever at the Ritz. They had a breakfast area, including an omelet bar, waffle bar, and a buffet with eggs benedict, sausage, bacon, crepes… Then there was the sushi/seafood/lunch area. And the 2 dessert stations. It was also the most expensive brunch I’ve ever been to, but I think the bottomless champagne/mimosas balanced that out.

This was followed by a shopping trip. First stop: Sephora. The birthday girl, Mella, had a coupon for a birthday freebie and as we were looking around, I realized Mella would be the perfect person to do my wedding day makeup! She agreed without hesitation — and then asked what the date would be. She then proceeded to ask me about the makeup I use as my eyes glazed over and my complete cluelessness became apparent.

She then took me around the store teaching me the basics and showing me her recommendations. Then we got an employee to help me do a skin match (?) to find the right foundation color for me. Which led to the following:

1. Primer
2. Pore refiner
3. Foundation
4. Concealer
5. Makeup — the other stuff that makes me pretty after I finish looking “natural”
6. Powder
7. She Laq — which apparently I’ll need so my makeup won’t run when I sweat

I’m just going to take an intermission here. After I got home and discussed with Ian, we got to talking about wood finishes:

1. Clean
2. Sand
3. Pre-Stain conditioner
4. Stain
5. Polyurethane/Shellac

If you’ll notice, a woman’s face requires 2 more coats than it does to finish wood.

After I was properly made up [an hour later], we proceeded with our shopping excursion. A stop in to redeem a free panties coupon, some dress shopping, and then the final shoe stop before calling it a day.

It was an all-day immersion training on how to be a girl. Educational and fun!

Ian and I went to a birthday party this weekend for a friend we know from high school. We weren’t very close friends in high school, but our circles overlapped and we had fun catching up at our reunion last year. As it turns out, she and her roommate (also from high school) live only a couple miles from us, so it was a fun excursion for the evening.

They planned a photo scavenger hunt in Old Town. I think it was the first time doing one of these for everyone in the group and it was loads of fun. There was some joking, though I suspect people were mostly serious, that we weren’t to post these pictures on Facebook. So I’m posting just the one here with my friends cropped out. This fulfilled the “Do the bunnyhop with a stranger” task. Jack Sparrow thought we were nuts. ;)

Other items on the list included:
- Take a photo of one of your group on all fours with a dog.
- Take a photo of one of your group posing with a monument, historic marker, or historic artifact.
- Take a photo of one of your group posing with a street performer or costumed historic interpreter.
- Take a photo of one of your group posing as a sculpture or performance art spelling out a word with their bodies. (This one included a visit to the local Old Town sex shop.)

We ended up finishing much earlier than expected, but that just meant we had time for ice cream before taking the Trolley back to the metro. We went back to the regular part of the party after that and looked through both groups’ pictures. The birthday girl was judge and chose the winning team. I have to commend her for her impartiality. She chose our team for the win, even though she was on the other team. Extra points going to us for our bunnyhop video!

It turns out… at the end of the race, there’s no cure. All they had were cheese samples and coupons.

Ian and I have been having some problems lately. There have been little black bugs flying around our apartment and we tracked it down to our plethora of new plants. They fly around, mate, lay eggs in the dirt, repeat.

Per standard protocol, I used the internets to investigate the problem. From my research, it sounded like we had fungus gnats, so then I started an investigation to find a solution. There are all kinds of ways people have tried to resolve this… taking new dirt and baking it to kill anything that might be growing in it and then repotting all your plants; leaving out bowls of vinegar or wine to attract/drown the gnats; putting cut potatoes on the dirt for the gnats to lay eggs in and then throwing away the potatoes before the eggs can hatch (ew!).

We decided to follow Australia’s plan and introduce a non-native predator: Nematodes. They’re microscopic parasitic worms that attack garden pests… like fungus gnats.

Now, while I was in the midst of researching this, we also noticed a white cotton-y residue building up on Herb. I don’t actually have a picture of it on him because I was too grossed out by it. But I did do some research… And they’re mealybugs. The infestation was significant, but did not spread to other plants.

One of the solutions to mealybugs? Nematodes.

Our nematodes arrived about 2 weeks ago and, I’m happy to report, we noticed a significant improvement within the week! And Herb is looking like he might survive! I went through and cut off all the infected leaves that were beyond survival, leaving the healthiest leaf to continue the fight. He has one green leaf left with some mealy reside and a new, uninfected leaf sprouting. Now Ian’s just worried about what we’ll do with all these millions of nematodes…

In other news, went to Ian’s favorite bar/restaurant in the area with a some of my favorite people last night!
(Disclaimer: If you were not there, you may still be one of my favorite people. I mean, probably not, but I think I’m not supposed to say that. Hm, that wasn’t a very reassuring disclaimer. You may already have won one of my top positions as Friend!) It wasn’t even anything exciting or celebratory. We just hadn’t seen each other in a while and started making plans weeks in advance to find a date when we were all free. And it finally happened!

It’s here! It’s here!

One of my coworkers and I have been discussing buying hardhats back since sea trials last summer. It was mentioned again last week at happy hour and she took the initiative to put the order in. The hats arrived today and now I’m ready for any shipyard related trips to which I might need to attend. *giggles*

I think this is going to be a perfect opportunity to use my gmail unicorn sticker. And I need to go find some of those Hello Kitty stickers I’ve been joking about for the past few years.

Oh. My.

I’m going to end on this because I have nothing more to add. I went looking for Hello Kitty stickers… and started clicking around amazon and found this:

So apparently, I need to be getting more Vitamin D so I don’t get osteoporosis either? I thought all I had to do was eat more cheese…

How avoiding the sun to protect against skin cancer has left Georgia Coleridge facing the threat of brittle bones

‘You’re only 43,’ he said. ‘It’s a bit early to worry. You keep fit, don’t you? You get some sunshine?’

‘Ha!’ I said. ‘Exercise and sunshine aren’t really my thing. I’m usually indoors, tapping away on my computer.’

His reaction was both immediate and surprising. All trace of nonchalance disappeared and I felt my first surge of apprehension. Looking back, I don’t know what I had expected – a blood test, maybe – but I left clutching a referral to a private clinic with a state-of-the-art Hologic Discovery QDR bone scanner.