who wants to run in the mud?

I'm running in the Irvine Lake Mud Run on July 17th with a friend who put a team together. It's an open team, more people can join. Who's in?

p.s. The photo of the adorable little girl in the mud is from an article on how keeping little girls too clean is probably leading them to develop asthma, allergies, and other similar ailments at a higher rate than boys. Snelsons, get Junie to a mud pit, stat.

who wants to quit your day job/phd program and start a girl group?

Alex Winston | Choice Notes | A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.


p.s. We can paint our nails black, and I'll play the egg-shaker.

happy hunting and the new b&b

I'm going apartment-hunting in Chicago at the end of June. My brother Matt decided he wants to come with, so that'll be fun (and an interesting experiment, since he and I have never vacationed together, and we tend to butt-heads pretty often--he starts it, of course). The trip is going to be full of experiments and firsts, I think. But I'm especially interested to see how our lodging turns out.  We're staying with a couple who rent a room in their Chicago apartment, through the site airbnb.

I first found airbnb a few months ago when I started poking around couchsurfing.org to see if I might be brave enough (or cheap enough) to stay on a stranger's couch to save a buck (or 200). I was getting cold feet and started looking to see if maybe I could just do a short-term apartment rental or something, and I don't remember exactly how or what I was doing, but somehow I stumbled onto some woman's profile on airbnb. I didn't want to stay with her, but I thought the site might come in handy (some rooms are only $25 per night!). People rent their living rooms, spare rooms, their own rooms (they take the couch while you're there). One place is a a spare loft in an art gallery that has beds partitioned off by curtains. Ha! I love it.

I had already booked a hostel for myself, but once my brother got on board I figured he would think a hostel was too low-brow. (He goes on fancy, high-maintenance vacations. I go on vacations where I stay in a stinky hostel and survive off of a bag of scones.)  So after I started looking at hotel rates this morning (ridic! and Chicago has a 15% hotel tax), I decided to check airbnb.

I thought my brother would put the kibosh on it, but when I called to run it by him he said, "What's wrong with you, sister! You have the wrong perception of me!" (This is how he talks to me. Usually calls me "sister" when I've done something "wrong" or he's drunk. I love him through it.)  So, I'm glad I was wrong, and we've booked a place in the neighborhood where I'll be hunting.  I'll let you know how it turns out.

p.s. They did not pay me to write this (though they should!). I'm just excited about it.

"A final analysis of DNA calculates the odds of it being anyone else at one in 11.8 quadrillion."

This is a line from a CBS story about OBL. And I'm quoting it because I love when news stories use numbers like this. 11.8 quadrillion. It's like they're just making stuff up to really blow our hair back. But maybe this is just to show that I don't get out much, since a quick glance across the interwebs reveals quadrillion is just what comes after a trillion, uuugggh I hate it when the facts take all the fun out things. That glance also revealed this from The Straight Dope:

Just so you know, here's the list of "named illions":

Billion has 9 zeros

Trillion has 12 zeros

Quadrillion has 15 zeros

Quintillion has 18 zeros

Sextillion has 21 zeros

Septillion has 24 zeros

Octillion has 27 zeros

Nonillion has 30 zeros

Decillion has 33 zeros

Undecillion has 36 zeros

Duodecillion has 39 zeros

Tredecillion has 42 zeros

Quattuordecillion has 45 zeros

Quindecillion has 48 zeros

Sexdecillion has 51 zeros

Septendecillion has 54 zeros

Octodecillion has 57 zeros

Novemdecillion has 60 zeros

Vigintillion has 63 zeros

Googol has 100 zeros.

Centillion has 303 zeros (except in Britain, where it has 600 zeros)

Googolplex has a googol of zeros

It's not particularly informative or anything, but for the sake of citing my sources--the whole CBS story is here.