really

gift baskets
Originally uploaded by alannka

i wasn't kidding about the gift baskets at work.

gift baskets

the last few weeks our office has been getting huge (clearly very expensive) gift baskets from every nook and cranny of the philadelphia area, it seems. they are still coming. it is very dangerous.

someone got me 1000 places to see before you die for Christmas. also quite dangerous.

great blue

i saw a heron on my morning commute today. i just looked up at the sky, frustrated that i had forgotten my transfer money, and there was this gorgeous huge heron flying in front of the trees. i believe it was a great blue heron because it looked pretty much exactly like this and great blues apparently do hang out in pennsylvania. seems rather wintry to be hanging out here, but i am not a bird expert.

i took it as a good omen.

saw the nutcracker last night. i realized i haven't been to the ballet since the bolshoi in moscow in 1999!

i got this email from my dentist regarding the hole that the strep bacteria dug into my tonsil. it cracks me up:

When I saw you in November, I told you I had never seem such a prominent perforation of a patient’s pharyngeal tissue following a streptococcal infection. I also said I wanted to research the matter further to see if it really is that unique. I have checked various sources on several occasions and have found no similar description. Not that it matters…it just seemed interesting to me.

plink jet

i think i just might have to make me one of these musical instruments made out of old injet printer parts. there are videos!

via engadget

torba

finally i have had the time and wherewithal to put together some notes and photos of my time in torba province in vanuatu; a segment of the trip that was sort of just skimmed over in this blog.

i know, i know, you're sick of hearing about it. but i couldn't rest until i put this stuff out there. you can find it here, living with older trip journals on my travelogues page.

waitress....

... is a really good movie. i rarely see movies that i like so much. and it even has nathan fillion in it! mal from firefly! basically the movie manages to be both sad and funny in a really tender and beautiful way. five stars. had to mention it.

poker gelt

poker gelt
Originally uploaded by alannka

a bit more light. we played poker with hanukkah gelt. i did not do very well.

light

light
Originally uploaded by alannka

happy hanukkah. in honor of this festival of lights i have been experimenting with taking photos of lights and other bright things. this is one.

so busy! all aspects of my life are busy, busy, busy! so i haven't been updating this but then a friend said last night that he's been telling people about my blog and i feel like i ought to post something.

let's see... work is busy. absurdly so. then it's the season for parties and gatherings of various kinds so there have been a lot of those. then i finally have regained my voice after my bout with The Worst Case of Strep Known to Humanity, so i've begun to sing again, and have recorded some decent (i think) stuff for root signals.

i still do have a large (5mm x 2mm i think) hole in my left tonsil. i might keep it forever; apparently they are called crypts and i figure it'd be a good place to hide microchips full of secrets when i become a spy. of course, i just gave away my secret plan, so now i'll have to go to plan B, in which i am not a spy. so much for that.

also, i have been home for more than a month now, and i still keep thinking i see scampering geckos out of the corner of my eye.