I Love Him.

Linked In: Harry Potter Edition

Harry Potter Mustn't Return to Hogwarts! [via Reddit]

For those of us experiencing Post-Potter Depression, I bring you Harry Potter links, most of which I came across right around when the final film came out.

Neville Longbottom: WILF. [via The Mary Sue]

Kevin did a post on Harry Potter cover art from around the world!

Lucy Knisley created adorable abridged Harry Potter comics for all seven/eight books/movies. [via Buzzfeed]

Harry Potter characters invade famous album covers. [Next Movie via The Mary Sue]

J.K. Rowling's new project, Pottermore, is taking email addresses now to notify fans when registration opens.  Needless to say, I signed up.

I think one of the best remedies for Post-Potter Depression is to watch the actors in other films.  You can check out what the supporting cast is doing next here. [via Entertainment Weekly]

Did you see the final movie?  What did you think?

Dee Caspary

Once again, I bring you amazing choreography from So You Think You Can Dance.  Dee Caspary joined the ranks of SYTYCD choreographers in the seventh season of the show, last summer.  He is a contemporary choreographer with excellent taste in music.

His dances always receive high praise from the judges, and the dancers always receive enough votes to stay out of the bottom three couples after performing them.  Here is one of my favorites:

Melanie and Marko (Season 8) - Skin and Bones (song by David J. Roch)

Many of the videos have embedding disabled, so I encourage you to check out all of his incredible choreography from the show:

From Season 7, Ashley and Ade - Cosmic Love
        (song by Florence + the Machine)
From Season 7, AdéChiké and Kent - You Only Disappear
        (song by Tom McRae)
From Season 7, Lauren and Robert - That Home
        (song by The Cinematic Orchestra)
From Season 7, All-Star Group Dance - Drumming Song
        (song by Florence + the Machine)

From Season 8, Sasha and Alexander - Belong
        (song by Cary Brothers)
From Season 8, Half of the Top 16 Group Dance - Poison & Wine
        (song by The Civil Wars)

There you have it!  I hope to see a lot more from Dee in future seasons.  His dances are incredibly beautiful and his music choices make wonderful additions to my iPod.

#86 - Adopt a Dog or a Cat

Ladies and gentlemen, meet our newest roommate, Kyle Field!

Kevin and I adopted him from Purrfect Pals, Inc. this weekend and we are in love.  He is a three and a half month old mackerel tabby, and he is SO cute.  We may be biased, but I'm pretty sure it's just plain true.

Gratuitous cat photos commence.

He doesn't always sleep, it's just the easiest time to get pictures of him.

A.V. Undercover

The A.V. Club has a series called Undercover 2011, where various artists pick from a list of 25 songs to cover and record it in the A.V. Club studio. This is the second year they've done it, so I'm a little late to see it, but still very cool! This was one of my favorites:


Rocky Votolato and Matt Pond PA cover The Human League

Other covers include Cars by Gary Numan, Tubthumping by Chumbawamba, and Africa by Toto.

[via Mama Tarlow]

#10 - Make Someone a Birthday Cake

As you know, Kevin's birthday was on the 4th.  I took the opportunity to make him a cake and cross #10 off of my list!

It was also his friend Masha's birthday, so I wrote both of their names on the cake.

Cake = Funfetti + Chocolate Fudge Funfetti Icing!

So maybe I cheated a little by using a box cake, but I had never made a cake before that I really enjoyed (I think because I always make chocolate cake, and I recently realized that I like white cake better).  So yay for another one down!

Linked In

[via "Bloom" - see below]

Hello dear friends!

So we were without internet for the past week, and only my already-written blog posts were able to be published, which means I missed a link post last Monday.  Never fear, we're back on schedule!  Here are some links I'm loving:

My Daguerreotype Boyfriend: Where early photography meets extreme hotness (via galadarling).

My new favorite food blog is Healthy Food For Living - since I'm on Weight Watchers and she lists all nutritional facts, I can calculate how many points any meal would be!  Plus, Lauren's recipes look delicious and sensible.

A really cute lace braid tutorial from Elsie at A Beautiful Mess.

Thought-provoking article on Huffington Post on how to talk to little girls (via Smart, Pretty, and Awkward).

Saw this video on multiple blogs recently - "Bloom" by Pogo, a mix of Disney audio and video clips.  Very cool. (via /Film)

And finally, Google+.  I have joined and right now I'm mulling over how I feel about it.

I hope you had a great weekend!  I know it's back to the daily grind, but you can do it!

Wishlist

Some things on my wishlist...

From top, L to R: Tikkr Watch in White Collar with white face; Yellow Owl Color Wheel Pendant; Sofia Coppola for Louis Vuitton SC Bag Suede in Chataigne; Tikkr Watch band in El Diablo; TOMS Cordones in Charcoal Chambray; TOMS Classics in Olive Canvas; Converse Chuck Taylors in Grey; TOMS Cordones in Linen Pinstripe.

#51 - Read a Non-Fiction Book All the Way Through

As promised, a post dedicated to reading a non-fiction book!

Ever since I was a kid, I hated the words "non-fiction." I associated it with biographies and therefore with history, which was one of my least favorite subjects in school.  I understand that history is important and we learn from past mistakes, et cetera, but I just can't get on board.  It's too much memorizing and not enough fun.

Because of my aversion to history, I have never read an entire biography or non-fiction book.  This is why I added it to my list.  But I got lucky - instead of reading something about a World War or an American president (both good to know about, but not exactly light reading), Tina Fey came out with her book

[source]

Tina Fey is hilarious.  Seriously, at multiple points in the book, I was literally laughing out loud and reading passages to Kevin.  If you haven't read it already, I highly recommend it.  You will laugh, you will cry, you will watch 30 Rock on Hulu.  My favorite quote, on magazine photoshoots:

 "It's hard to take because it's more positive feedback than you've received in your entire life thrown at you in fifteen seconds.  It would be like going jogging while someone rode next to you in a slow-moving car, yelling, 'Yes!  You are Carl Lewis!  You're breaking a world record right now.  Amazing!  You are fast.  You are going very fast, yes.'"

Read it.  It's awesome.

Nappytabs

Can we take a moment and talk about Tabitha and Napoleon D'umo?

As I have said before, So You Think You Can Dance is my favorite summer television show.  I have been watching since season three, and it was in season four that we met hip hop's husband-and-wife dream team.

Joshua Allen (the winner of season four) and Katee Shean's (who placed third) first dance as a couple on the top twenty episode made my life.  This was also the first dance choreographed by the duo, and I'm pretty sure that all of America was in love.  Their dance to Bleeding Love by Leona Lewis (danced by Chelsie Hightower of Dancing With the Stars and Mark Kanemura of every Lady Gaga video ever) was nominated for an Emmy.

Seasons five and six were a little slow for Nappytabs, but Mad by Ne-Yo (danced by season five winner Jeanine Mason and Phillip Chbeeb) was pretty awesome, as well as I Can Transform Ya by Chris Brown (danced by season six winner Russell Ferguson and runner-up Kathryn McCormick).

Then it was season seven.  And Nappytabs was ready to make a comeback.  Enter Alex Wong, ballet dancer and season seven favorite.  The format of this show was different, and every contestant in the season danced not with each other, but with "all-stars" from previous seasons.  So Alex was paired with Stephen "tWitch" Boss, runner-up from season four, and they worked out this little number with Nappytabs to Outta Your Mind by Lil' John (embed disabled, check it out on youtube).  This was followed by another powerful one to Fallin by Alicia Keys, danced by AdéChiké Torbert and season four's Comfort Fedoke:

Can you see why I'm in love?  Season eight is happening right now, and Nappytabs is continuing their streak of amazing dances with Melanie Moore and Marko Germar's dance to I Got You by Leona Lewis:

The story for this video is that Marko has just been left at the altar, and his best friend Melanie picks him back up.  Then he realizes who he should have been with all along.  Precious, right?

I think that's what makes Tabitha and Napoleon so great - the stories in their dances are so rich and diverse.  No two dances are exactly alike.  They're happy and they're sad.  They're inspiring and they're fun.  Their stories are so different from one another, and their style is so unique.

Check out Nappytabs on twitter, and their clothing line.

Happy Birthday!!

Almost three years together, and I can't believe how lucky I am.

Happy birthday, Kevin!  I love you to the moon and back!

Takin' Care of Business

I'm a real girl!

My grown-up badge!

My first week of work went really well.  Thanks to everyone for the nice thoughts and kind words this week.  I'm excited about my new job, but it'll be a lot of work!  In December I'll be taking over for a co-worker going on maternity leave, so a lot of it is teaching me her job as well as my own.  Yay!  Everyone I work with is incredibly nice and I even have my own desk and computer and voicemail.  How cool am I? (Answer: very.)

I hope you had a good week, too.  Enjoy the holiday weekend!

Day Zero Progress Report

Well it’s been almost a year since I started my Day Zero project!  I’ve had a lot of fun with it so far, and I am currently 11% done!  Now that’s not a lot, but that doesn’t include all of the things that are “in progress.”  Since a large reason for this blog is to keep track of my list in more detail than my Day Zero profile, I wanted to write up a progress report and include those things on the list that are too small (or too boring) to warrant their own blog post.

Completed tasks:

#11 – Find a type of wine that I like –

I now drink Riesling! I'm still an amateur wine drinker, but it's a start.

#14 – Go apple picking –

Posted on October 10, 2010

#48 – Back up and clean out all of my files on my hard drive and computer –

Boring, but done!

#51 – Read a non-fiction book all the way through  –

I read Bossypants by Tina Fey.  She is absolutely hilarious!  I may actually do a post on the book later.

#64 – Get a Kitchen Aid stand mixer –

A Christmas gift from my dad!

#67 – Go to the FAO Schwartz store –

On November 24, 2010!

#70 – Take a walk in Central Park –

Posted on September 20, 2010

#74 – Visit the Sony Wonder Technology Lab –

Posted on October 31, 2010

#75 – See a show at Radio City Music Hall –

We saw the Radio City Christmas Spectacular!  On November 24, 2010

#79 – Go to Cape Cod with Kevin –

Posted on June 21, 2011

#89 – Buy and use reusable shopping bags –

Another one that's rather boring, but done!  Now we have fewer plastic bags floating around our apartment.

Tasks in progress:

#17 – Get to my goal weight –

Started Weight Watchers last week.  I'm keeping the numbers to myself, but so far so good!

#21 – Take my vitamins every day for a month –

Started on June 22, a week and a half down so far!

#37 – Send 10 “Just Because” cards –

Six sent so far, more to come.  If you like to get mail, let me know and I'll send you one!

#39 – Get my MA in Industrial/Organizational Psychology –

Finished my first year and passed my comprehensive exam, second year and internship to come!

#45 – Blog once a week for six months –

Partially the reason for the increase in blog posts lately.  It will probably slow down from posts every day to posts every few days as my internship picks up.  I'd currently guess I'll probably aim for twice a week, unless it gets to be too much.

#46 – Make an iTunes playlist of 101 of my favorite songs –

I've picked the songs, but until I actually make the playlist, it's not official!  I'll post the list when I'm finished.

#49 – Read 10 books I’ve been meaning to read –

I've read five so far, and two are on deck (both are Harry Potter books)!  This has been one of the most enjoyable tasks on the list.

#53 – Watch 26 movies I’ve never seen – one for each letter of the alphabet –

I've watched 17 so far!  This one has also been a ton of fun, one of my favorites on the list.  I can't wait to show you all the final list! (You can see the partially completed list on my DZ profile)

#54 – Watch every episode of NCIS in order –

I've finished seasons one through three, started season four.  I love this show.

So that's how it's going so far!  If you like the idea of this project, take a look at the Day Zero Project website and blog for more info.