eleven four

On this day in history:
1869 - First issue of the journal Nature is published
1922 - Howard Carter discovers King Tutankhamun's tomb
1966 - The River Arno floods and causes major damage to the city of Florence (especially noteworthy because the same river flooded Florence on the same day in 1333)
1970 - Genie, a feral child, is discovered in Los Angeles
1984 - Dell Computer is founded (as PC's Limited)

These people were born:
1916 - Walter Cronkite
1946 - Laura Bush
1960 - Kathy Griffin
1962 - Jeff Probst
1969 - P. Diddy AND Matthew McConaughey
1981 - This guy:

We had a little birthday celebration with a few gifts...
But THIS was the centerpiece of it all:
All right, maybe it was a little ambitious, but A for effort, right? If you don't recognize it, here is the inspiration (we're obsessed):

Earlier this week, Brandon's computer monitor died a tragic death, necessitating a replacement. We named it Megalodon.

Happy birthday, Brandon!

In The Red

Kansas City in the Fall

Late summer in Kansas City was very moderate, weather-wise, but we're definitely well into fall now. Leaves are changing and we've had a couple of very cold days. The radiators in our apartment are starting to turn on---it's very cozy!

We're still enjoying the abundance of barbecue in town. Most recently, we tried Oklahoma Joe's, a restaurant in a gas station that is one of Anthony Bourdain's "13 Place to Eat Before You Die."

Brandon is keeping busy with coursework and a couple of research studies. He's learning how to administer various psychological assessments, including the WAIS-IV. It must be hard work--here he is taking a break.

Here's our street. If you look closely at Alison's car, you can see the damage to the trunk and rear bumper from a fender-bender a couple of weeks ago (hit by an uninsured driver...awesome).
Alison is still looking for a full-time job (had an interview last week--fingers crossed), but in the meantime she is working here:
Folding t-shirts can be a very "zen" activity.

Happy fall!

We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming...

...for an announcement about how much I like this ad:

Thank you, passiveaggressivenotes.com, for reminding me of its existence.

Things to celebrate in August

After a month of sleeping on an air mattress...finally, a real bed!

A guy was selling this chair on Craigslist. Brandon bargained with him over email for about two weeks--we eventually got the chair for half its listed price!

August 12th was our 3-year anniversary. We took a trip over to Independence and walked around town a bit. Here's an interesting statue of people beating their swords into plowshares.

Then we went to this movie:

Alison gave it two thumbs up. Brandon survived. (Side note: One of the characters in the movie decides to cook every recipe from Julia Child's book Mastering the Art of French Cooking over the course of a year. Alison is also thinking about undertaking a cooking project, although probably not such a daunting one. What do you suggest?)

After the movie we went out for a delicious Italian dinner. After we got home, we figured we'd spent enough time together and decided to play computer games! (Very romantic.) (For those who are curious, Brandon's game of choice is Warcraft [not the online version] and Alison plays The Sims 2).

We hope you are enjoying your August as much as we are! Brandon starts school in a little over a week and Alison's job search continues (as does the thesis...always the thesis...), so we should have some more updates in the near future.