Deep In the Heart of Darkness... er, Texas
Actually, the long-dreaded trip to Austin, Texas was not nearly as bad as I'd feared. Make no mistake, Friday was one of the single worst days of my life - two and a half hours sleep, up at 4am, a horribly cramped commuter jet to Altanta's fabulous airport, the fabulousness of the layover at Atlanta's fabulous airport mared by my extreme fatigue and ill-humor, a dizzying mix of greeting the oddball relatives, a quick trip to the supermarket, and then a dinner of my aunt's godawful cooking (she was serving turducken before it was "cool") - but I genuinely enjoyed yesterday's slideshow of pictures from the '60s, including the period that my dad's family lived in Brussels, Belgium, and the flipping through the old photo albums, including those taken by my great-grandmother during her years in Imperial India. My brother and sister will never forgive me for saying so, but I actually had a decent time.

My late Grandma Wilson, may she rest in peace, was born Priscilla Gray in Simla, India, in 1919. Her parents were Dr. Ernest R. Gray, DDS, an American, and Maude E. (Puddephatt) Gray, an Englishwoman. She lived the first few years of her life in Imperial India. As a young woman, she excelled in academics and graduated from Duke University in 1941. She gave birth to and raised four children; lived in such places as Brussels, Belgium and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and traveled to all but one continent (sorry, Antarctica). She was a fiercely intelligent, opinionated, attractive woman. And at the end of her extraordinary life, she died alone in a modest house in Austin, Texas. This is why I want to die at 60, in the middle of my life, at the height of my happiness, having seen my (hypothetical) children grown into young adults, maybe married, maybe having given me a grandmunchkin or two. I want to die while I still have something to live for, not after I've outlived everything I cherished about my life.

P I X A R
I got Finding Nemo for Christmas. Hells yeah!

Toy Story
A Bug's Life
Toy Story 2
Monsters, Inc.
Finding Nemo
and in the pipeline...
The Incredibles
Cars

We are living in a golden age.

Arthur Dent's daughter, Random
I'm trying to convince Sardine to chop her hair; is that wrong? Not break out the razor and shave her head, but a buzz a la Robin Tunney in Empire Records. Dude, chicks with really short hair can be hot!