Merry Christmas '06!

Merry Christmas!!

We hope everyone got lots of toys and alcohol for being so good this year.


Among other things, Elaina got a "Yogi" gingerbread man in lotus position.


We accidentally made the Grinch on a homemade sugar cookie.


And luckily we were visited by the Christmas T-Rex! He brought us lots of toys and goodies...


...including really hip clothes from Metro Park...


...a cordless vacuum cleaner...


...a digital photo frame and Lacoste shirt...


...a Manduka Black Mat for yoga...


...a big homemade sugar cookie...


...a generous Crate&Barrel gift card...


...and an elf hat which Professor... loved?

And for as long as this link lasts, see what happened to me when I made fun of an elf:
http://www.elfyourself.com/?userid=5a2dfae20f9431e87c212adG06122408

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. Best wishes for 2007!!

Creepy Moustache Party 2.0

On Saturday, December 16th, Elaina and I had the privilege of attending the second edition of the Creepy Moustache Party. As you can expect, this year was creepier and moustachier than last year. Take a look:





A highlight of the party was Marty, who last year came as Ned Flanders, and this year came as a police officer:



Well done, Marty. Well done.

So until next year, rock on Creepy Moustaches everywhere. Rock on like Slayer. 1984 Slayer.

One Semester Down...

As of Tuesday night, I finished my first semester of the Evening MBA program at the McCombs School of Business! Woo-hoo! All things considered, this has been a great semester and I can't believe how much I've learned in a matter of months. I had three classes this semester: Financial Accounting, Statistics and Decision Analysis, and Managing People and Organizations. Out of the three, Financial Accounting kicked my butt the hardest. Having never taken an accounting course, many of the concepts and verbage were foreign to me, so I struggled to keep up with the course lessons. The final exam was probably the hardest final exam I've ever taken in my life. Luckily I wasn't the only person lost--in fact, half-way through the exam the professor made everybody put their pencils down, take a deep breath, and then he apologized for making such a hard final exam. As a consolation, he gave us 15 extra minutes to work on it (out of three hours). Hah!

Next semester: Managerial Economics and Marketing Management. Hell yes.

Michael Showalter and Michael Ian Black

Saturday night Elaina and I went to Emo's to watch Michael Showalter and Michael Ian Black's stand-up show! You may remember these two guys from The State on MTV (over 10 years ago), Wet Hot American Summer, Stella on Comedy Central, Ed, Reno 911, Best Week Ever, and Celebrity Poker Showdown.

This was the funniest comedy show I've ever seen, full of R-rated jokes and pictures. Michael Showalter showed us a picture of a '70's Porno Smurf, along with genitalia (seriously) and Michael Ian Black asked a couple in the audience if they've had anal sex. Holy crap it was funny. Keep an eye on these two guys, and go see their show if they go on tour again. Click here for Michael Showalter's website.

The Science of Sleep

Writer/director Michael Gondry's brainchild, "The Science of Sleep" (originally La Science des Reves) is a strong contender for one of the best movies I've ever seen. If you appreciated his direction in "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," you'll find this movie is not only more openly disoriented, but it also embraces its derangement. Starring Gael Garcia Bernal (Y tu Mama Tambien, The Motorcycle Diaries), the pace and simplicity of this film are a perfect balance, and makes you very aware of the nonsense of dreams (and reality).

Without giving anything away, I highly recommend that you see this movie. And let me know what you think!

No Time for Nothin'

Whoever said Business School is a huge time commitment was absolutely right. Each week I have had an assignment in two (and sometimes three) classes, each of which could easily take up my whole weekend. Having multiple grandiose assignments has been quite the challenge.

With that being said, I promise to call everyone who has left me voice messages the past few weeks. It may just take me three years to do it :)

3rd Quarter Updates

As we gently pass the halfway mark of 3rd quarter 2006, I thought I'd update everyone with the goings-on in our lives. I'd like to start off by saying the 3rd quarter started off well when we ran into Lance Armstrong and Matthew McConaughey in downtown Austin a few weeks ago. We didn't have the guts to disturb their dinner together, but we did order drinks and stand at the bar for an hour staring at them.

Elaina got published in the Sept. '06 release of "Neuropharmacology" which is a prestigious journal that publishes high quality research within the discipline of neuroscience. The title of her paper is, "k-Opioid receptor modulation of accumbal dopamine concentration during operant ethanol self-administration," which obviously means "We got rats drunk until they passed out, then wrote the word 'BALLS' on their foreheads and took pictures." Very interesting research. Seriously though, this is a big accomplishment for her and we are very proud of her hard work. You can search for her on PubMed by clicking here:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?DB=pubmed

Also, she has finished her coursework and will spend the next 2-3 years focusing on her research. From an elated Elaina, "I never have to take another class in my life. Ever!"

I am working on my 4th week at my new job and am absolutely loving it. My role consists primarily of handling certain accounts that have purchased our software, to make sure their questions are answered and that they are fully trained. Good stuff. Also, I will soon be taking off a week of work for my MBA orientation, which officially kicks off the start of my 3 years of evening MBA classes. Many advanced apologies for not returning calls or emails.

Professor has gone about 5 weeks without using the bathroom in the house. Kudos to him for doing that. I guess the intervention really helped.
What we've learned: crate-training works.
What we haven't learned: how to keep him from jumping up on anything that moves.

That's all for the 3rd quarter '06 update!

King Kong Sucks

I'd like to start by saying we never wanted to see Peter Jackson's vomit of a remake, King Kong. However, my credit card company sent me the DVD as a free gift, and we took it as a sign to watch the movie and sell it if it sucks.

King Kong SUCKS.

I don't even know where to begin. Anyone who said this movie was "okay" must have watched a different movie--or was plain drunk. A movie over three hours should probably have three hours worth of material for it to be that long; King Kong could have been summarized in about 20 minutes, but dumbass P. Jackson decides to draw things out much, MUCH longer than anyone wants to watch.

This brings me to point #1: there is a scene where about eight (8) brontosauruses are running down a narrow path, running alongside some 30 "explorers" on this ancient "SKULL ISLAND." NONE of the explorers gets squooshed, even though it's terribly obvious nobody would live through this thing. The scene lasts for about 5 minutes too long and is completely unbelievable. The rest of the scenes in the jungle are even worse... they are chased, attacked, dropped, slammed, and flown, and barely anyone dies. Now I can suspend my disbelief like anyone else, but this was so ridiculous, I almost thought Peter Jackson was making fun of King Kong. Who would have thought this crap was a good idea?

Point #2: Peter Jackson knows how to make good actors seem like 10th grade drama students. You know it's bad when a 30 foot gorilla is the best actor in the whole movie.

I have many more points but don't want to think about this movie again. Please let me know if anyone out there thought this movie was worth watching. I'm so mad I wasted some three hours of my life on this movie.

Change is a Constant

From Eddie:

I have resigned from my position as a Product Manager at my current company, Milum Corporation. I will stay thru July 26th to help the transition, and will be starting with my new company, SkyList, on July 27th. My two years with Milum has been an incredible learning experience not only in sales/marketing but also in computer technology and software design. I am sad to say goodbye to such good people, but am very excited to work with a younger, more dynamic company.

SkyList was recently acquired by Datran Media in New York, NY, and has been continuing to grow steadily since its inception in 1996. My role will focus on post-sales customer accounts and helping them make a greater profit by better utilizing SkyList's flagship software, StormPost. This is a great opportunity and I look forward to more posts on my progress!

Update: SKYLIST Ranked Among Best Places to Work in Central Texas!

The Professor

Enter "The Professor"



Holy crap he's cute.



We rescued him from the Boston Terrier Rescue of Greater Houston. He is about one year old, and was sent to the rescue center with his brother, who was adopted the day before we picked up The Professor. He is a slight spazz until he has a few minutes to settle down. He's sleeping on my feet and snoring right now.

The most amazing part is that we have yet to hear him bark. We've seen him romp around with other dogs and even took him on a 3-hour car ride back to Austin, and he hasn't so much as whimpered. Smart dog = The Professor.

Click the link below to see a few videos we took with The Professor.
Professor Video 1
Professor Video 2
Professor Video 3
Professor Video 4

Jake & Kaori's Wedding!

Elaina and I had an awesome time in Napa, CA for Jake and Kaori's wedding this past weekend. It was so good to see everyone that I haven't seen in years (and to meet Kydon for the first time). Can't wait to do it all again!

Trip highlights:

- Downtown Napa on a Friday night
- Dinner and dancing at the Bayleaf
- Full service KFC in San Jose, CA (no joke)
- Drinking and hanging out at the "Hideaway" all weekend
- Telling stories, and then correcting Dave's version of them
- Seeing Katie and Nina for the first time in like 5 years
- Giving Ewald a noogie
- Testing out Mik's GPS navigation system
- Coppola (now the Rubicon) Winery with Noah and Shari

If anyone has any pictures, please send them to us!! I am an idiot and forgot my camera...

First Anniversary in Italy

Elaina and I just got back from an 11-day anniversary vacation in Villasimius, Italy (on the island of Sardegna). Elaina had a neuroscience conference there, which she attended for the first three days, then we spent the rest of the time celebrating our first year of marriage :)

Trip Pros:

• Sardegna is GORGEOUS! Click here for a quick video at our hotel
  
• Food in Italy is better than most food in America.
• Tops are optional on all the beaches and pools. Here is a non-nude beach clip
  
• We found an empty beach (which we decided was a nude beach)
• The town of Villasimius is 100% pure Italian, no tourist traps or Americans with fanny packs.
• We randomly found an amazing church in the town of Cagliari. Click here for a video
  
• Driving is easy in Italy because nobody pays attention to traffic laws.
  

Trip Cons:

• Some Italians do not like Americans.
• We know about 2% of the Italian language.
• Our airline, Alitalia, stopped flying to Sardegna the day before we left. Figuring this out in Italian was not easy. This also caused us to miss our connection to New York. Alitalia paid for us to stay in Rome with full room and board so we could fly back the next day.
• Driving is hard in Italy because nobody pays attention to traffic laws.

Click here for some pictures!

Congrats to Elaina!

On Tuesday, May 9th, Elaina completed her PhD qualifying exams with an "Unconditional Pass." The qualifying exam is a 3+ hour-long oral examination where Elaina had to present her doctoral thesis to a panel of specialized doctors, whose sole purpose was to question everything she knows about Neuroscience. Ask any grad student -- qualifying exams are much harder than defending your thesis.

A clean pass is rare, and is the highest ranking available :)

She is now officially considered a doctoral candidate, and must complete the experiments she proposed in the exam to graduate. Congratulations!!!

And now for a corny picture of a happy Elaina:

Eddie's Getting His MBA!!

Today I found out I was admitted into the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas here in Austin! The McCombs MBA program is ranked #18 in the nation by U.S. News.

Elaina and I went to Mirabelle Restaurant to celebrate :)

Here is the "welcome box" I received from McCombs:

Divine Intervention

It's rare these days to find evidence of a higher power, especially on a pizza box. Who knew that a delivery pepperoni pizza from Papa Johns would double as a delivery from the Lord?

Thinking back on it, the pizza was pretty good: it wasn't too greasy, it didn't make me bloated and farty, and the garlic butter dipping sauce wasn't already slightly open when I started shaking it. Truly divine intervention. Papa Johns? In my book it's Papa Jesus.


You can click on the picture to enlarge it.

Noah & Shari's Wedding

This past weekend Elaina and I hopped a flight out to Raleigh, NC for Noah & Shari's wedding. We had a great time with good people, free booze, and plentiful food. Great job, Mr. & Mrs. Becker! Below are some pictures of the highlights.


Here we are with Mom, Jake & Kaori. Look how cute everyone is!


The happy/devilish look of Noah.


Shari surprises us all by flanking from the left.


...I... promised... I... wouldn't cry...


Holy crap they look cute. This is at the reception, and is the only decent picture I have of the newlyweds.


Happy Noah :) Well done, sir.

Before and After

Three weeks after purchasing our house, Elaina and I have made some massive changes to the place. Here are some before and after pics of our progress. We painted the house ourselves.


Office Before


Office After



Guest Bedroom Before


Guest Bedroom After



Master Bedroom Before


Master Bedroom After



Master Bathroom Before


Master Bathroom After



Kitchen Before


Kitchen After



Living Room Before


Living Room After

We Are Homeowners!

As of Thursday, January 26th at around 5:00pm, Elaina and I became homeowners! We are so freakin' excited because this place is a dream. We are going to slowly move in over the next month, so if you have a truck and live in Austin, give us a call! We will provide beer and steaks as payment ;)

Elaina's Abstract for Italy

This past week Elaina submitted her first "first authorship" abstract for a conference she will be attending in Italy. The abstract is titled "Intravenous Ethanol Infusion Effects on Dopamine Response in the Nucleus Accumbens Core and Shell." This is a big deal because although this isn't her first abstract, it's the first one where she is the main author and scientist behind the work.

In case you don't know, an abstract is basically a preliminary summary of study data that is presented to colleagues all over the world, so they can see what studies these scientists are doing that may impact their future research.

To view her abstract, click here: www.unc.edu/~eahoward/abstract.pdf