Robert Popper (Look Around You)
Peter Serafinowicz (Look Around You)
Michael Cera (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World)
Anna Kendrick (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World)
Jason Schwartzman (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World)
Kieran Culkin (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World)
Angelina Jolie (Salt)
Lake Bell (Childrens’ Hospital)
Rob Corddry (Childrens’ Hospital)
Erinn Hayes (Childrens’ Hospital)
Rob Huebel (Childrens’ Hospital)
Ken Marino (Childrens’ Hospital)
Scott Bacula (Quantum Leap)
Russell Tovey (Being Human)
Lenora Crichlow (Being Human)
Aidan Turner (Being Human)
Sinead Keenan (Being Human)
Alia Shawkat (Arrested Development)
Nicolas Cage (Drive Angry 3D)
Amber Heard (Drive Angry 3D)
William Fichtner (Drive Angry 3D)
Eric Balfour (Skyline)
Scottie Thompson (Skyline)
Donald Faison (Skyline)
David Zayas (Skyline)
Brittany Daniel (Skyline)
James Gunn (Super)
Rainn Wilson (Super)
Ellen Page (Super)
Liv Tyler (Super)
Nathan Fillion (Super)
Michael Rooker (Super)
Guermillo del Toro (Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark)
Paul Bettany (Priest)
Karl Urban (Priest)
Stephen Moyer (Priest)
Maggie Q (Priest)
Cam Gigandet (Priest)
Will Ferrell (The Other Guys)
Mark Wahlberg (The Other Guys)
Eva Mendes (The Other Guys)
Seth Rogen (The Green Hornet)
Christoph Waltz (The Green Hornet)
Michel Gondry (The Green Hornet)
Olivia Munn
Zachary Levi (Chuck)
Adam Baldwin (Chuck)
Joshua Gomez (Chuck)
Sarah Lancaster (Chuck)
Ryan McPartlin (Chuck)
Mark Christopher Lawrence (Chuck)
Vik Sahay (Chuck)
Scott Krinsky (Chuck)
Josh Schwartz (Chuck)
Jole McHale (Community)
Chevy Chase (Community)
LL Cool J (NCIS)
Zachary Quinto (Lucid)

On with the (many) photos…

This morning, just after 4 am, I woke up to my cat hissing and clawing at the window. My sleep-laden brain couldn’t piece together the fact that he was genuinely upset, as opposed to restless and wanting attention, which is what I’m used to. So I walk over to the window saying, “Shhh, it’s 4 AM, people, myself included, are tryi—HOLY F**K.” The next thing I know my cat is hanging by his teeth from my right hand. Mother , that hurt. I put him in the closet (the freshly cleaned one!) and go wash my hands. I don’t see any blood, just painful scratches. The soap makes it burn, but it’s 4 am and I’m really tired, I just want it over so I can go back to sleep. When I glance up at the mirror, I notice that I’m white as a sheet and as soon as I realize this, I immediately realize that I need to sit down.

I walk back in my room and the cat is back by the window (yeah, he figured out how to open the closet door while I was washing my hands). I draw back the curtain and there’s a fat orange cat sitting on the window ledge taunting my cat. Of course, one look at me and he scampers off. I get light headed and squeeze my eyes shut, but it’s too late, I’ve already fallen back on the bed.

My alarm goes off at 5:36a and I roll over to turn it off, it’s at this time that I notice my hand is dark and sticky. Oh, and did I mention I’m about to puke? My hand is covered in blood; part dry and crusty, and part thick and sticky. Upon inspection, I realized that there’s a triangle shaped hole on my knuckle between my middle and ring finger. Holding it up to a ruler, it’s about 1/4-inch wide and gaping.

It’s now 12:50p and I’ve lost full function of my pointer, middle, and ring finger (the joints are stiff and burning and kind of stuck). And I’ve been having cold sweats. Since this is my dominant hand, I can’t tell you how frustrating this is. I can’t hold a pen or click a computer mouse without white hot searing pain. From mid-forearm down, everything is a steady throb and I keep glancing down convinced it’s going to combust into flames at any second.

Internet tells me that this is all part of a bacteria infection from cat’s saliva that’s normal. They say if it’s still painful in 2-3 weeks, see a doctor. I can tell you right now that I’m definitely not waiting 2-3 weeks. I CAN’T USE MY HAND and that’s not an exaggeration. It was hard enough making a sandwich for lunch with a weak hand and an elbow. Twisty ties are sent from the devil.

Oh, did I mention the arm that isn’t suffering from cat scratches was freshly vaccinated. Five shots to be exact (and 3 more this week). So I can’t even lift my left arm very far. (This made replacing the shower heads fun, let me tell you.)

I need a rascal wheelchair and a personal nurse.

Welcome to adulthood.

It started last week with the laundry room, or rather the catch-all room. A few months ago, Mariss picked up a washer and dryer, generously given to us by Ian Roberts. This was all fine and dandy, but the problem was that our laundry room was so full of junk/crap that we couldn’t even use the machines because we couldn’t get to them. Finally fed up with the laundromat, Mariss and I purchased a shelf to mount above the machines for all of our should-be-in-storage junk. A month later and the shelf was still propped against the wall in the kitchen waiting to be put up. Last weekend, after confirming that we’re all agreeing to stay, Katie lit a fire under our butts by dropping the bomb, “My mom is coming to visit in 2 weeks.” Eep! The house was NOT parent ready.

So Katie and I, on an exciting Friday night, completely emptied the laundry room (save for the machines), got out the ladder and FINALLY mounted the shelf. We both went through everything deciding what would stay and what would go and how to tetris-like put it away.

Before you look at the photo of the laundry room below, I want to emphasize that there was not a single square foot of open floor space before. And both bikes were on the ground effectively rendering the whole room useless.

(Ta da?)

My second idea/project was to get a bike rack so that we could keep both bikes indoors, but still have use of the narrow walkway. This was much easier said than done. I overestimated the height (width?) of the picture rail and the bike rack that I purchased was either moot or would have to be screwed into the wallboard. Considering our house was built in 1915 and how many issues we had hanging art in the living room, it became pretty clear that I was going to have to nix the bike rack idea.

Until I had an ah-ha moment. If only the picture rail were taller (wider?)! I dug through our garbage wood pile at work and came across a small piece that I could probably use, then I went to Target and got some no-slip spacers (normally used for under furniture, I think). I painted the wood white, attached the spacers and wood-glued the contraption to the wall. Followed that all with the screws and I don’t think it’s going anywhere.

And since we now had additional storage in the laundry room, I was able to clean out a bunch of stuff from my closet. This of course meant that, “Hey, I’m already cleaning it out, I may as well go through and donate clothes I’m not wearing any more.” When I started on the closet, I didn’t have any extra hangers and everything was shoved onto shelves. (The other half of the closet is just hanging clothes and a litter box [and air purifier] on the floor, nothing exciting.)
And, you know, since I was cleaning things out I decided to go through the refrigerator, too. I decided to get rid of expired foods and left overs. I’ll give you one guess as to which shelf is mine.

To be fair, I made a pizza with the about-to-go-bad veggies, so now I have wrapped up pizza for lunch tomorrow on the shelf.

And finally my pile of stuff to donate:

I also realized that I don’t think I ever did a follow-up post to my bathroom ideas. What I was thinking in the beginning, never really panned out. I painted the bathroom a pale blue and it really made it look so much cleaner.

So where was I? Laundry room, bike rack… Oh, yes. I changed all of the light bulbs in the house to be energy efficient, then I also changed both shower heads to use less than half the amount of water we were using before. (But the heads are also “water accelerators” so we don’t lose any of the pressure.)

And since I was in the tub, I was like, “Hey our grout/caulking is orange and black, I wonder if I can change that?” It turns out that Fantastic and Windex aren’t really great for showers, but you know what is? CLR. There was white grout under there! Obviously, this only made the black caulking around the top of the tub stand out, so of course I had to remove all of the mold. I scraped and cut and dug and bleached and finally got all of the black off. Then I re-caulked ALL BY MYSELF. I’m practically a professional now.

Here’s an only slightly exaggerated before and after:

So I had a productive weekend.

It was a short visit, but I loved up my new (and last) nephew as much as I could.

I was, however, able to go to BC early on a Saturday morning to take some photos of the work out. I thought it’d be nice to share a few images of what goes on during a sample hour.

Anyway, for my birthday Katie thought it would be a good idea to get 250 cards made that say, “My name is Gretchen. I am lost.” Complete with my address on the back. I think I’ll keep one in my back pocket at all times. For hilarity sake.

In case you’re wondering, I had a great birthday. My roommates and I all have similar birthdays, so we pooled our friends and invited 400+ people over to our little craftsman house. I ended up being the sober jerk at 5:30a kicking people out (in cabs, at least). We decorated our house very sweetly (see the poor quality iphone camera image below–don’t mind the hole in the fence from the neighbor backing into it). On my actual birthday night, Mariss, Katie, Tyler and I got dinner at Fatty’s in Eagle Rock. Great food, weird service. You HAVE to have reservations to have a decent experience, but the food is worth it.

With the lack of computer usage, my roommates and I have been spending some quality time together. In front of the TV.

[...]

:/

In my last apartment, my roommate was totally into the show Heroes. While waiting for Heroes to start one day, we had the TV on NBC and I was like, “Oh hey, there’s Rachel Bilson. What show is this?” The show turned out to be Chuck (about a computer nerd turned accidental spy). We watched the episode (even though we had no idea what was going on) and I’ve been hooked ever since. (The show is funny and endearing, and did I mention funny?) Flash forward to now and I’ve got my current roommate, Katie, into Chuck, too. Katie and I have sat down nearly every evening and watched one or more of the 54 episodes, starting with the pilot.

We cheated and watched the current season episodes as they were new on TV, so despite knowing the outcome of certain plot lines, Katie would shout, “Chuck and Sarah will NEVER be together!” Then she’d dramatically pretend to faint onto the couch with the back of her hand pressed against her forehead.

But speaking of television, since none of my roommates or myself are used to watching TV on a regular basis, sitting down in front of the tube made us feel lazy. This is how “two thing, a story, and Chuck” came about. We decided that an episode of Chuck would be a reward for accomplishing two things (example: unloading/loading the dishwasher –first thing– and, say, loading the washer or dryer –second thing), then one of us would tell a funny story (mostly Katie revealing silly things about her childhood–like, she had baby casts on her legs to straighten them, but the funny part was that she kicked them off a lot, so her parents thought it’d be appropriate to SPRAY GLUE them on). Admittedly, towards the end of the second season, sometimes we were so excited for the next episode of Chuck, the two things became getting out the ice cream and setting up the DVD. As soon as we felt productive (subjective), we rolled tape.

Once we were caught up on Chuck, my friend Chelsea, sent me the first season of Arrested Development. The episodes are shorter and easier to commit to, so we’ve been breezing right through them.

Additionally, I’ve love the British television series Doctor Who. Love it, love it, love it. I think, for Comic Con, I’m going to dress up as one of the Dr. Who characters. I’m afraid to watch other seasons because I love the two main actors on the show (current season five).

Image Credit: pip_ku

Last Wednesday, I had made a more-or-less official decision to cut my Europe trip in half, so I could use the other half to go to Tanzania in January or February. In explaining my need to climb Kilimanjaro to my dad, I pointed out that “you never know when something could happen and I’d like to do it while I can.”

Then, not 18 hours later, I’m driving to work at 6:23am on the 101-S and the cars in front of me stop very suddenly. So I stop very suddenly. Just as the rush of relief that I didn’t hit anything waves over me, SLAM SCREECH CRUNCH. The car behind me didn’t stop, hitting me full speed, sending me flying into the car in front of me, etc. etc. until 5 cars are involved. There were airbags and broken windshields and fluids flooding the ground.

Here is my car now. If the orientation of this image is confusing, don’t worry, you’re not the only one.

I could tell you about my physical state right now, but all I have to say is: IT COULD BE SO MUCH WORSE. I’m alive. I’ll eventually heal. Shit is swollen, airways are restricted, skulls are tender and bruised, BUT I’M ALIVE.

P.S. Yes, the brakes on my Toyota worked, thankyouverymuch.

But I digress. This post is a further review of my month-long Boot Camp.

Day 4 (W, 2/10): Did a long run. Longer than all of the other days. Pushed myself really far, but couldn’t make it the last .5 miles (ran the whole way, but cut through the course to make it a little shorter).

Day 5 (Th, 2/11): Got yelled at for bringing weights that are too light.

Day 6 (S, 2/13): The Major pushed on my lower back while I was running to–quite literally–push me to go faster. Thought I was going to collapse.

Day 7 (M, 2/15): We used no weights. Mostly running and scrimmages (hurtles, fancy sit-ups, crazy push-ups on a hill, etc.). Since I ate some sorbet over the weekend, I had to participate in the “After School Program,” which just means extra running for Cheaty McCheatersons, like myself. (The Major’s food program doesn’t allow for cheating “until you can afford it” –if you still have weight to lose, then you can’t afford it.)

I only have 5 more meetings left of Boot Camp. I really enjoyed the Saturday morning BC because there was no traffic getting to the meeting location (the usually 40 minute drive in traffic only took me 9 minutes without traffic). I might sub out Saturday mornings for Friday nights from now on.

This past weekend, I had a girly weekend. After BC on Saturday morning, I went hiking and burned an additional 1,100 calories. Saturday night five of us girls got dolled up (including mani/pedis) and went to a spendy restaurant, got a 5 course meal with wine tasting (I’m still not drinking alcohol), and everyone spent the night at our house for a big slumber party in the living room (because this designated driver wasn’t driving around the city taking people home). Sunday, four of us girls went down to Newport and Laguna (but everyone had the same idea and the beaches were packed).