Statistically Pimpnificant

At my school we use Gmail as the university email server. That means everyone in my program is tied together with the power of gchat. As you know, gchat allows you some space to have a custom message under your name. For a while mine has been "Jeffrey Mulcock is statistically significant," which is a play on our focus on statistics in the program. I have received many comments that people love my custom message.

Until yesterday. Someone changed theirs to "Chi-Square? CHI-CITY!" which is infinitely more relevant and funny than mine.

So now I feel like I got challenged with a white glove to the face. Help me come up with a statistics based custom message that can beat the above. I'm drawing a blank, but I can't just sit back and get smacked!

Root Canal

Um. This disturbing photo is of my sister Beefsquee. For some reason she thought it was appropriate to take a picture of herself receiving a root canal when the dentist was not in the room. Then she thought it was appropriate to send this picture to me while I was in class, thus making me laugh out loud and receive nasty looks from the professor. Sketchy.

Why she had to have a root canal? Who knows...she is a very dentally responsible young lady.

Sorry About My Flirtations

Saturday was dubbed as Indian day (dot not feather). Caitlin and I started the day off at the DMV. Despite arriving well before their closing time, we were informed that if we wanted to get new driver's licenses, we had to arrive at 7:30 am and stand outside for an 1 1/2 hours before they opened at 9am...otherwise you can't take one. Awesome. There were a lot of Indian people in the DMV that day, so we decided to go get the ingredients to make Indian food. We bought some Pani Puris, mostly because the box said the following:

The Ultimate Bombay Snack is Chowpatty Beach's Pani Puri - Spicy Chiled Pani (water) scooped in a Puri, an edible symbol of this flirtations city of exiles and pioneers. Simply follow the instructions and savor the taste of Chowpatty.Don't believe me? There is the box - see for yourself. How could you deny a description that describes the flirtations of exiles and pioneers??? I couldn't - either could Caitlin.

Then we went to Slumdog Millionaire, which we both enjoyed. It definitely had the vibe of Millions, which is fine because Millions is awesome. With a soundtrack including M.I.A., how could I not support? I really want to ask my Indian co-students what they thought of this movie.

Then we went home (while listening to Indian music on our ipods) and made this meal:Do you see the flirtations reflected in these Pani Puris?It was very, very good indeed.This has nothing to do with India, but I wanted to show Michael that we used his guitar ice cube makers that he gave us for Christmas. Rock on Michael!

But My Lips Hurt Real BAD

Can someone bring me my chapstick? My lips are chaffing me.

Dear Birthday Liz

Dear Birthday Liz,

You are the grandma-iest 24 year old we know. Your constant need for warmth and toastiness tricks us into thinking that you are an old woman, and not the vibrant young chick from Bountiful that you claim to be. Further proof of your extreme age is the fact that you like to match your husband in nearly every aspect possible...bags, jackets, clothes, etc.

So it is only befitting that for your birthday we go against our better judgement and cater to your warmth needs. The video below will tell you what we got you for your birthday.



And because SNUGGIE (all rights protected...how can you trademark a blanket with holes in it?) was so nice, they gave us a second one. So Don and you can have MATCHING SNUGGIES!!! All dreams do come true!!!

Happy Birthday most precious Liz. Thanks for making our lives awesome.

Tasty Fingers

My hands when I got to school today looked like this:

Negative -30 degrees after wind chill is factored in is a real biotch!

Okay, maybe I haven't left the house yet. And maybe Caitlin called a friend of ours to come take me to school so I don't have to walk sick in the wayyyyyyyy below freezing temperatures. But still.

I Sick

I Sick. I really sick. And what happens when I get sick? I get really whiny and all I want to eat is Burger King. It is my comfort food. It heals me. So when Caitlin called on her way home from work last night and asked if she could do anything for me...
Yeah Stephoin, that is zesty sauce you see on that plate. Caitlin loves me.

Experimenting With Wii-ness Last Wiikend

Last week Caitlin had started some discussions with Jenna about having a Cafe Rio night. I quickly agreed to this plan for two reasons: 1. I would get Cafe Rio pork salad for dinner. 2. I could trick people into playing MarioKart with me. Before we new it, the party grew to a solid 10 people (11 if you count an extremely awesome kid).

Jenna (and the previously mentioned preciousness), Liz, and Heather demonstrate the delicious meal that would result.

Lauren and Jason also partook of the goodness.

As did Don and Chris. You can see how big our place is - barely more than 2-3 people per room.

Dennis and I (with the tweakers, I am aware) loved the Cafe Rio. But at the forefront of all our minds was the MarioKart opportunities.

While Jason was excited about MarioKart, he was potentially more excited about the humongous ears that Caitlin and I bought at the $1 store that day. I can understand that.

But eventually the wii goodness began. We played MarioKart for several hours. The gaming was so intense and the cursing so fowl, that we couldn't really take video or pictures. Let's just say that I got beat by a girl. How terrible is that? So in my shame, I finally suggested we play some tennis. Prepare yourself for some special needs faces - people make awesome faces when they play wii tennis.

Heather and Chris were pretty fierce competitors - taking on Don and Liz in all their wrath and madness.Don and Liz tried so hard to compete...But in the end, they just fought about who was the missing link in that tennis pair. I think they both played fine...it was just Chris and Heather's amazingness. In the end, Lauren and Jason ruled us all with the regimented and fine tuned play. We could not compete.Around 12:30 we called it a night. That is really late for married folk in Evanston, Illinois - trust me. I was proud that our wii-ness was such a hot item that night. I expect many more of these nights in the future...hopefully bringing many to our home.

White Trash In White Paradise

Sometimes dreams change. One minute I was sitting in front of the mirror shaving with a tissue in my nose soaking up blood (I got a random bloody nose okay...Caitlin did not hit me). The next minute Caitlin is telling me to grow a mustache.

Doesn't seem to make sense? Let me expound. Because of the bloody nose tissue, I didn't shave my mustache and then forgot about it. Caitlin noticed and decided that maybe I should try to grow a mustache. I complied. At first I was very hesitant because I thought I'd look lame. Then I found this picture one day when I should have been paying attention in class:

This is Werner Herzog, my film making idol. He has my dream look. That stache is AMAZING. Now, this picture was taken in the late 70s...but still. P.S. - have you seen Fitzcarraldo??? WOW! So now I have a new dream. Here is how far I have made it:

Not too far in one week, but we'll see. I think Caitlin has repented of her desire for me to have a stache, but I don't know if I can go back now. OH...did you notice how snowy it is in the background? It snowed like 10 inches yesterday. Yari barely made it out! I love Chicago snow.

This is snow all the way up the door.

Signs of a Student

I am a student. You want some freaking proof? Fine. I have eaten Mexican (and when I say Mexican, I mean cheap burritos purchased 6 for a $1 at Jewel Osco) for lunch for 3 days in a row.

Now do you believe me? Whats for lunch today? Nachos.

First Day of School Again

The only lame thing about graduate school so far is that you don't get excited about the first day of school. This stems from the fact that you don't get to choose your classes, your professors, or anything. You just show up to your assigned schedule. I have no idea who my teachers are this next semester. I'm planning on just walking in and saying, "oh, its you." And that will be that.

I think I actually get electives next term, so that will be an exciting new element. Wish me luck!

A New Year of Didn'ts

Instead of telling you what we did do on New Years Eve and Day, I'd rather tell you what I didn't do - because it is a much more compelling story that explains why it was one of the best new years ever:

1) We didn't leave the house once for 24 hours on New Years Day

2) We didn't watch the ball drop

3) We didn't get together with anyone

4) We didn't spend a lot of money in hopes it would bring excitement

5) We didn't forget to sleep in

I guess I should add a few did's just for the hay of it. We did do a lot of this:

And we did eat here:

And we did scream Happy New Year at the appropriate time going out of 2008 appropriately - with a bang. Happy New Years everyone. We hope 2009 brings nothing but amazingnesses and joyishnesses.