did you get a good lawyer?

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Larisa and I have been talking lately about working on a few more songs together.  We came up with one that we wanted to sing and decided to go up to campus last week to find a pretty place to perform.

Well... We got a little distracted.  I started showing Larisa around campus and she fell for all of the gorgeous architecture.  She stole my phone (better camera) and went on a little photography spree.  She'd get enthralled with beautiful woodwork on a doorway and then apologize for "taking so long"; I wanted to pull out all of the random photos of campus on my phone to show her just how much I understand.  I'm a sucker for a gorgeous building and I love that she appreciates UT the way I do.




 all photography by Larisa Corder

We headed over to the music building where they have a bunch of little soundproof practice rooms to run through the song.  I pretended to play around on the piano, but I soon let the real musician accompany our tune.


Of course, by the time we were done sightseeing and playing around on the piano, it was dark outside.  Grrrrrrr.  We tried out a couple of places outside, but we couldn't find enough bright light to film.

Our solution?  The laundry room.  Yeah, that's where all of the great musical collaborations take place.


We just Could. Not. Get. Through. This. Song.  One of us kept forgetting the words (me) or messing up on the harmony (me) or laughing (me).  

Such are the things we do.

P.S.  It's not just me, right?  I make some weird faces when singing.


you shouldn't see scary movies alone


An empty glass of wine, a completely devoured bowl of popcorn and a KILLER movie.  Seriously.  Go see Cabin In The Woods. But not by yourself.  Seeing movies alone is my little indulgent relaxation ritual, but I forgot that I see scary movies best with Loryn.  She can't handle the sounds, I can't handle watching the gore and we both need someone to hold on to during the scary parts.  We're a perfect team.

Go see this movie.  I can't tell you what it's about, but just trust me.

feel free to freak out like I am.

Saturday, April 21, 2012

I'm totally a creature of habit.  I tend to do the same things over and over, especially when it comes to getting ready in the morning.  I pretty much have a uniform: jeans, a bright colored v-neck/tank top, grandpa cardigan and a long necklace; the afore-mentioned v-neck and one of my homemade, high waisted, pocketed skirts and sandals; or yoga pants and a t-shirt.  (So fashionable!  Whatever, I leave that to some of the other yayas.)  I'm the same way with hair; I'll find a style I like and then fix it that way for months on end.  Some of them are super cute (the curls in my profile picture) some are easy (a quickly bobby-pinned, poufy, 30-second updo) and some are a combination (the grandma bun I've been rocking for the last six months).  Sometimes this is really useful (I can get ready very quickly.  I've got my makeup routine down to a science - so fast!) but sometimes it means things sneak up on you.

Like how long your hair is.

My hair has been pretty short since the first weekend of college when I chopped it all off.  I've pretty much kept it that way in the 10 years since then, spending a long time in short bob with bangs-ville...

Yaya Christmas vacation 2008 in Houston! That was a good haircolor.

Again, I'm lazy about such things, so I kept it like that for a long time (years). But, I stopped cutting my hair for a while and while most people would notice it growing out, I was putting my hair up every day.  (In my defense, I work at a restaurant where I have to keep my hair up.  So, it's just easier to do that all of the time.)  Well, I left my hair down the other day and was shocked to see how long it was.  That grandma bun I've been rocking has completely disguised the transformation.  

When I saw myself in the mirror yesterday (in a bathroom on campus, so ignore the background) I realized I had to take a picture and show everyone.

whaaaaaat?!?!

I think that since I've kept my hair short for so long, even though it's obviously been growing out, I (and others, I presume) just think of myself with short hair.  Hannah keeps freaking out every time she sees me.  I had my hair down yesterday for the autism/music program and she kept walking up to me to say, "Your hair is just so long!"

This kind of feels like a blog version of "I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant".  Don't judge me.

the doctor

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Look what I found!

Love it. I watched a few seasons a while ago and I think I need to watch a few more.  (Doctor Who, for you who don't know what Daleks are... Exterminate!)

judge a book by its cover (you should totally)

Monday, April 16, 2012

Now that I have a coffee table (pictures coming soon) I thought I should get some coffee table books.  Not really, that was a lie.  (the coffee table book part, not the coffee table... though I haven't figured out a way to get the legs on yet, so, a double lie)  Anyways, I found these books at Urban Outfitters - I'm such a sucker for good cover design and there are some awesome ones in here.  (As well as books written by funny website creators, I like those too.)


I have the e-book version of this on my phone and I've read it a thousand times.  She's one of the funniest people (and writers!) on The Office and this is one of the funniest books I've ever read.  Definitely my number one recommendation on this list/the only one of these books I've actually read.  Her website, The Concerns of Mindy Kaling, is fantastic and I wish she still wrote on it as often as she used to.



This website has people send in drunk texts they get from their friends.  It. Is. Amazing.  It's always been a favorite of mine and I just might have to get this book.

(618): I'm about one sudden movement away from being able to cross "throw up in a fortune 100 company's bathroom" off my bucket list

(508): You called to teach me about fire safety, meowed a whole bunch, said "I hope you are not on fire" and hung up

(910): I just hate that one day I'll have to tell our children how we met, makes me look like a gold digger



Funny website, really funny book title.



Penguin Threads put out a line that (if you know me, you'd know) I'm obsessed with.  Jillian Tamaki embroidered covers for a group of classics and they're beautiful. There's The Secret Garden, Emma, Black Beauty, Little Women, The Wizard of Oz, and The Wind in the Willows.

I want all of them.  All of them!  I wonder if they have prints of the covers that you can buy.  They'd be amazing, framed.


Understand Rap: Explanations of Confusing Rap Lyrics You & Your Grandmother Can Understand

Example: "I got rubber band banks in my pocket." - from "Whatever You Like" by T.I.
- I carry such large amounts of cash around with me that a wallet would quickly wear out as it would be stretched beyond the capacity to hold the currency for which it was designed.  A common alternative to the wallet, the money clip, is pushed beyond its mechanical limit as well.  Therefore, a large rubber band will be employed, as it can expand with increased capacity.

Don't you feel enlightened?



Haha.  Nothing more to say for that - again, great website.




I didn't really look through this cookbook very much, but I'm a big fan of Trader Joe's and I'm so jealous we don't have one.  When I was in Virginia, there was a Trader Joe's a half a mile from my house.  I loved that place so much.  They don't have any in Texas because of the Whole Food's empire, but I heard one might come to Dallas soon!  So jealous...

 BRI!  I just Google mapped it and it's only 1.2 miles from your new house! Lucky...

the best mj cover I've ever heard.

Sunday, April 15, 2012

I don't know where I first saw this, but I've had it stuck in my head all week.  So gorgeous.

I can write a thousand words about flower arranging, but I have nothing more to say about this.

i wanna make a cardboard world...

Thursday, April 12, 2012

I watched a short film last night about a 9 year old boy, Caine, who really loves arcades and decides to make a cardboard one in his dad's automotive parts shop.  He's super creative and makes a bunch of different games, machines and all the accoutrements that go with an arcade.  His first customer is a filmmaker who... Well, just watch this video yourself.  It's worth the 11 minutes, I promise.  I must have watched it 4 or 5 times by now and it still gets me.

The dad in this movie is a perfect example of supportive parenting.  As a little creative kid, I was lucky enough to have parents who encouraged my pursuits.  (My mom did a fantastic job homeschooling me in elementary school and I made some awesomely creative stuff as a part of my schoolwork.)


This kid is so creative and an amazing problem solver.  He'll obviously be super successful someday, so the people behind this film made a website, Caine's Arcade, where they set up a scholarship fund.  As they say, "Imagine what this kid could do with an engineering degree!"  I love it!  People all over the country are watching this video and loving this kid as much as I do, donating a buck or two and in 8 or so years, he's gonna have every educational opportunity available to him!  (It's over $100,000 so far.)

The little girl in me who took a JC Penny's bridal catalogue and started a fake wedding planning business loves the idea of this movie. (I'm totally jealous that I didn't think of charging strangers for my services; I gave them away for free to my friends!)  I think about having my own kids someday and how to foster their creativity.  How do you make sure kids know that if they work hard, experiment, and trust their inner artist (crikeys, that sounds cheesy), they can really create something special (even cheesier)?  I better have kids with the Corder/Howard gene of "Dude, I don't exactly know how, but I'm pretty sure I can figure out how to make that myself."  Nature/nurture, whatever, they'll have it.

Oh, and I know I made some of you reading this design weddings with me.
"Ok, so you're going with bridesmaid dress #4R79S2 in lavender #5P28D3.  What shoe do you want again?"

I'm pretty sure this is what all my planned weddings looked like.

things that I think are awesome (the it made me laugh edition)

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

I haven't been feeling super fantastic this week (as Loryn and Mel got to witness when they dropped by to see my beautiful, pj clad, unwashed hair self) and since I found out I can make up some of the test I bombed last week,  I've been laying around watching The Office and studying Linguistics.

In a particularly challenging chapter on phonology, I found this:

"switching my major to figure drawing"

I feel you, mysterious artist who also bought/sold their book to the UT Co-op.  If I had to study this stuff for more than one class I'd switch my major too.  (And if I wasn't 242 days away from graduation, I might switch my major to one that didn't require this class as well...)

this chart is the bane of my existence


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more funny things...

a drunk guy in the back of a cop car sings "Bohemian Rhapsody" flawlessly

"I have done nothing wrong - even the situation where you grabbed me, has nothing to do with having been sort-of intoxicated, as you proclaim!  And I didn't say that I was intoxicated... And it doesn't even matter! What it has to do with is brotherhood of man on the planet Earth!" 


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I'd like to thank Clint for showing me this next video and its compatriots.  My Drunk Kitchen is a series where a girl named Hannah gets drunk while she films a cooking show and posts the videos to YouTube.  

It's as awesome as it sounds.

Most of the videos are about cooking things like pizza or omelets.  My favorite, however, is one where she attempts to make cookies.  She's not a fan of baking, by the way... (language warning)

"nothing about cookies is fun"
"now it's the worst part, the part where we cook and don't just get drunk"
"pretentious a** recipe"
"put some baking powder in, it doesn't matter how much"
"things to do while it's baking - clean your kitchen so your roommates don't get mad about your drunk cooking show"

Clint, let's make our own drunk cooking show.  We'd be soooooo good.

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Nobody does "Garth and Kat" better than Andrew Rodriguez and I. (I'm Garth)

some of Fred Armisen and Kristen Wiig's best work.

"That's how your hair looks when you come out of the shower?"
"I heard a rumor that you gave me chocolaaaaaaates."
"Please, Seth!  We came all the way from Colonial Williamsburg!"
"Please!  I'm begging for my life!"

Every single time they break and start laughing, I almost pee in my pants.  They've done this bit a million times (you're welcome) but I love it every time.






a map! and a lamp! (that doesn't work!)

I headed over to Austin's City-Wide Garage Sale a few weeks ago and found this gorgeous, vintage, pull-down map.  I don't remember exactly how old the lady told me it is, but it is older than me.  (Some city is on the map that changed it's name in the early 80's.)  It has beautiful, bright colors and is pretty giant - a perfect addition to the sadly neglected dining room.


I love the graphics on the bottom.

back in the U.S.S.R.

I've also been working on some sort of ceiling lamp for the living room.  I got the idea from Amanda at Our Humble A(bowe)d and she stole it (I mean, borrowed nicely and gave credit) from some $600 British lamp. (I actually really like that one and I think I'll add it to my "for when I win the lotto" folder.)  

(the $600 version)

I took a heinously ugly $2 lamp shade from Goodwill and took the shade part off leaving only the frame on top.   I looked for the biggest one I could that had a flat top, so the bulb would hang at the top of the lamp, not be recessed down to hang in the middle.

(the part I ripped off)

I took some wire mesh (called hardware cloth, like this from Home Depot) and replaced the shade I took off.  It took a little muscle and finagling to keep it straight and secure it on, but it wasn't that hard.  So, for about $7 total, I had a new lamp shade.


Then, I forced Larisa to search for sticks with me outside (I'm a horrible sister, it was pretty much in the middle of the night) and then hung them, mobile style, inside the shade.


I bought some little birds from Michael's for a dollar or so apiece and used hot glue to attach them to the sticks.  Then I took a cord (with a wall plug on the end) and a bulb kit and forced Campbell to do a little electrical work.  I used a few hooks to hang it all from the ceiling, taped the cord going down the wall (so I could paint it) and plugged it in.

(the pictures I took before I hung it up came out a little blurry - I'll try to get up and take a level photo)

I'm pretty proud of my cord hiding job... I put it up against the molding of the front door and I think it's about as unobtrusive as I could get without rewiring the ceiling.

So, there we go... If you're interested in the details, I'd go back to the original tutorial from Our Humble A(bowe)d.  She took much better pictures than I did.  And... she probably didn't trip a breaker when she plugged in the cord with live wires at the end so she could measure exactly how long to make that cord and the live wires touched each other and sparked and now that outlet doesn't work anymore and the problem is she lives in an apartment so she has to get the maintenance people to come and do it for her and so she doesn't even get to enjoy the light.  

I mean, I didn't do that either... I'm just saying she probably didn't do that.

What I've been doing lately...

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

I took Friday night off of work to do some catching up on sleep from Thursday's all-nighter (but I've gotten my grade back and the studying wasn't in vain!)  After my nap, I went to a movie by myself (my favorite way to spend an evening) at Alamo Drafthouse - an Austin institution that's worth all of it's hype.  I saw 21 Jump Street and had some amazing 4 cheese-artichoke-spinach-hearts of palm dip.  It was fantastic.  Fan-freaking-tastic.  So funny and smart (and a little dirty, fair warning.)

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The littlest sister (Larisa) moved into a new bedroom, so we've been spending a lot of time together lately, talking color schemes, new furniture and paint choices.


We also had the first Casey's of the summer last night.  Seriously, if you live in Austin and you've never been, you need to remedy that.  Casey's New Orleans Snowballs - one yelp reviewer said it all:

If one does not like Casey's, it is fair to assume the following:

* They are a terrorist
* They are a communist
* They do not believe in AMERICA
* They take life for granted

Mounds (hers) and Peach/Strawberry (mine).  Why did we get big ones?  I think we were just a little excited that they were finally open.  We drove by, saw the open sign and practically did a U-turn to get there.

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Campbell (the brother) has had a scary week.  He went to the ER with what he thought was a extreme muscle spasm in his neck.  An ambulance ride to Seton and some surgery later, he had a giant abscess taken out of his lymph nodes.  He's totally fine and cracking us all up when he's loopy on painkillers, so I'm relieved.  He does have a sweet scar on his neck - we've been coming up with explanations for the injury and my favorite is knife fight, followed up with the classic, "You should see the other guy."

I just stole this picture from his facebook, but look how handsome he is!

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I also took a little study break tonight and did a little music making with Larisa.  She's become a little ukulele virtuoso and so we used my crappy iPhone video camera and had a concert out on the south steps of the Tower.  

Thanks for the screenshots, youtube.

I made Larisa record "Sweetie Pie" - the song that prompted this post.  She killed it, of course.

Oooooh... That one might be worse.

The squeals at the end of both of these is our excitement of getting through the songs without a car driving by.  If we were more professional, we'd have multiple takes to pick the best from...  Nope, y'all get one-take performances.
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Ok, back to more studying.  I lead an exciting life, don't I?
 

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