No really, that's her official full name. We let Dad pick it, way back at the end of 1993 when we brought the tiny little tabby kitten who was the only female in the litter and was so cute beating the hell out of her brothers. She was so small! In hindsight we're not sure she was quite old enough to leave her litter but boy howdy were we excited to have her.

She lived a long (VERY long) and full life, got to live in two states, and has just about the best parents a cat could ask for (except for the occasional game of Sockhead perpetrated by Dad). She even managed to cohabitate with Shelby's exuberant pit-mutt for a while! She'll be missed.

Oh, and these aren't bad pictures of her, she actually did always look that annoyed. It's one of the things I liked best about her. She sure had character.

...but still Sal worries. He was brave enough to go up to the microphone during the "Mad Science: The Science Behind Science Fiction" panel on Thursday, since there had been much talk of robots and consciousness, which is within his area of expertise. I thought he was delightful and witty, and got a good laugh from the audience, but throughout the weekend he kept asking me if he had sounded dumb or anything. Well, I think this constitutes definitive proof.



I also note that he's the only non-celebrity on that list. Other Sal mentions here as well.

And yes, I am posting this so I can bookmark it and pull it up next time he's feeling insecure. Because he has no reason for insecurity! Too much awesome!

That is a "barbecue sword" he's wielding. The mask came with it. And you can clearly see the dogs are in awe of the sheer dudeliness.

I gave a talk at department seminar today. I was more nervous than I expected, which in turn made me annoyed at myself, which made me more anxious. But the talk went pretty well-- I didn't feel super great about it, but then, I didn't feel super great about it when I won the very prestigious (hah) award at our tri-lab retreat in April. Feeling competent is typically sufficient for me, so that's good. Sal thinks I need to "sell" the work better-- I'm sort of an advocate of letting data speak for itself unless you're begging for funding, in which case you kind of have no choice but to become Dr. Billy Mays. Anyway, that may be something I have to work on. It's not like I don't think the work is interesting or useful, I just don't want to overdo it, you know? Anyway...

What made today kind of special for me was the audience. Technically, last friday was supposed to be the last department seminar of the year, but my Advisor and one other prof had forgotten to sign up 10 months ago, so the department went ahead and had another one. But it wasn't highly advertised (usually we get 4-5 emails about these things, but not this time) so there weren't many people there. Hell, there were only two from my lab there, counting Advisor! But it was the people who came that mattered-- a handful of classmates and friends (who all sacrificed a full hour of their friday to come support me!), a postdoc I'd chatted with about my project while using equipment in her lab, the PI of the other speaker (who asked a great question for which I had specifically prepared a great answer for!) and, best of all, my parents were able to come.

Now, I know it's no Charger game, but this is what I do, and the work I present is good (IMHO) so to have them there watching was incredibly cool. I think a little of my extra nerves were due to wanting to show off for them, but the payoff was well worth it. Made me realize exactly how exciting my (eventual) thesis defense will be! That, coupled with the two or three defenses I've been to recently are actually pretty motivating!

Last weekend, I referred to NIF as a Magic Kingdom in which Dad is Goofy. However, Stephen Colbert has won the analogy olympics:

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
We Have a Death Star!
colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Keyboard Cat

H/T to... well, Dad, actually

Or at least the Goofy of the Magic Kingdom that is NIF. We were there for family day today (even got our picture taken with Niffy the mammoth) and everyone working there knew him and wanted to say hi. It was pretty cool. Well, so's NIF, actually. In addition to the mammoth pic (which I'm hoping to post when they upload it) we also got a great souvenir photo (seriously, NIF was like a Disneyland attraction) of us with Mom and Dad next to the target chamber. It's pretty badass.

After the tour we even stopped by one of the little wineries out there-- El Sol. I think my tastes might be changing since I enjoyed all five reds we tasted-- four right out of the barrel. And we got to meet the guard kitty of the barrel room since we trekked out there for two of the tastings. It was a very nice afternoon for a glass of wine too. Then we came home and demolished an entire bag of potato chips.

We're home now, and it's time for some co-op Halo. Maybe some Ben & Jerry's later (Americone Dream, mmmm). Not a bad Saturday, even if not terribly restful ;)

Where'd I leave off? Ah yes:

( very, very long )

Shelby and I had a weird relationship to weddings growing up. We didn't go to our first real one until Shelby was in 7th grade. I do remember staging an elaborate dress-up wedding with some friends from down the street-- if I remember correctly, Shelby was the ceremony's official dinosaur. Shelby also had a barbie wedding set that she got for Christmas on year, complete with billowing bridal gown that converted to a miniskirt for the reception. So I hope she's not too disappointed today, seeing as how we failed to hire a dinosaur, and all my attempts to convert her dress to a miniskirt after the ceremony were repulsed. Still, despite these obvious omissions, I think Shelby and Derek's marriage will probably be okay.

Now, we have gone in some different directions over the years-- primarily in the area of hair coloring-- but you'll always be my sister, and I am so very happy that you two have found each other. Seeing you together today, my vocabulary fails me. I don't think you need me to wish you any luck. Instead, I wish you the funnest marriage in the history of marriages.

To the bride and groom: salud!

Thank you all so much for your encouragement, well wishes and congratulations over the last few days (okay, years)! I am really truly grateful to have such kind, supportive, caring friends watching out for me.

Now, in the spirit of caring for myself, I'm off to for an afternoon at the spa with Mom and Shelby. Nominally, we're taking Mom as her birthday was last week. But coincidentally, all of us have things to celebrate: Mom's birthday, my paper submission, and the wonderful fact that Shelby's fiance is coming back from Iraq very soon. I'm very excited about taking some time to relax, both emotionally and physically (my shoulders haven't been really functional for a good long while, from being designated stress storage locations, as well as general hunching-over-computers-or-experiments mistreatment).

Then it's off to Livermore for dinner with Grandma and Dad (if he's not too sick), and the opening night of Mom's play, after which there will be the traditional pie. And then the somewhat less traditional watching of the episode of BSG that we missed while at the play that Mom agreed to Tivo so we wouldn't have to decide between her and Battlestar.

my sister got up this morning to find the yellow pages open to 24-hour emergency vets, and mom and shelby's dog tommy nowhere to be found. we couldn't get mom on her cell phone, but shelby just started calling the vets in the phone book until she found her. tommy was chewing on a pincushion and they think he swallowed a pin. mom apparently sounded optimistic, and said the vet had a couple different tricks for getting stuff out of animals' stomachs. still pretty damn scary.

but if you have a moment-- prayers for shelby and tommy, if you pray, happy thoughts or good karma or whatever if you don't. i know they'll appreciate it.

ETA: just talked to mom briefly, tommy is out of surgery and coming home tonight, which seems like pretty good news to me. thanks for the warm fuzzy thoughts :)

aw, my sister is turning into such a dork. not only was she the one who notified me that a certain trailer of awesomeness is up, but she went so far as to say, and i quote: "thanksgiving < harry potter."

*sniff* they grow into nerds so fast!

ladies and gentlemen, i give you.... the LOLSISTER!