Marathon

Everyone else has already posted about working a water station at the Prague Marathon a couple of weeks ago, but I decided to jump on the bandwagon anyway.

Bright and early on a Sunday morning a couple of weeks ago (really really early for Sunday--7:30 am!) I met up with Dot, Phil, and Chris about 5k from the beginning of the Prague Marathon. We didn't actually hand water to the runners, it was a gatorade-type beverage called Isostar. I hate that word now, because I said it literally at least 1000 times. I'm prone to exaggeration, but this number has not been exaggerated at all. From time to time, I would try to change my routine a bit. I described the Isostar in various ways, including "Poor man's Gatorade".


The rest of the Davis and Syvertsen families stopped by with some friends, so the runners had a makeshift cheering section toward the end of the race.

Nothing like a Never Nude

Although it is still technically Spring, summer weather has hit Prague with a vengeance. (I say this now, and in the middle of the week it will be cool again) It seems like with the coming of the warmer weather, the unofficial dress code here changes drastically. The heat hits, and the clothes come off. I have never before in my life seen so many low cut tops and short shorts & skirts (outside of a nightclub) before. And these sightings have been during working hours--and even in some businesses! Friday when I was waiting for my tram at I.P. Pavlova, I saw a woman wearing a crocheted top. Normally, this would be a non-event, but this top was more like a cover-up you would wear to the beach, not the office! Additionally, it seems like Czech women no longer feel the need to wear supportive undergarments while wearing gauzy white tops that leave nothing to the imagination.

It's not only the Czech women whose wardrobes have changed, Czech men have hopped on the bandwagon as well. In my previous post, I detailed the continuing story of our washer woes here in Prague 2. Thursday afternoon, a repairman came to "fix" our washer. More on that later. What surprised me so much that I had to have photographic evidence, was his outfit. Apparently, cutoff shorts are fair game here. I had in my kitchen living proof that nevernudes are not only present in fictional tv shows such as Arrested Development. They exist here in Prague too, only this nevernude forgot the rest of his outfit on Thursday! Compare these photos and judge for yourself:


Here is Tobias Funke of Arrested Development wearing his cutoffs. The narration for this situation/development in the series goes like this: "Tobias was a nevernude, which is exactly what it sounds like."



This is the washing machine repairman, and my landlady. Notice the socks with sandals, and the nevernude cutoffs. I think we have a worldwide phenomenon here.

The Saga Continues . . .

Just when I thought it was safe to have clean clothes, Washer-Gate 2007 continues.

My roomie has guests coming in tomorrow, so we were cleaning up a bit around the flat tonight. We were washing some bedding for them to use while they are here, as we were all under the impression that the washer was working properly. I mean, it had been working since it was "fixed" last week, so we assumed that all was fine.

I guess that was our first mistake, cause you know what happens when you assume? You make an ass out of u and me. About 10-15 minutes after the cycle started, Alice walked into a kitchen with at least 2 inches of water covering the floor.


As you can see, we had a major flood. Alice quite helpfully took this picture while Angela and I were bailing out the kitchen before she jumped back in to help. It wasn't quite up to biblical proportions, but it sure felt like it to us! 8 full buckets of washer-water later, the floor was semi dry.

We sms'ed our landlord, who came downstairs to check things out, even though it was almost 11 at night. I think that the final diagnosis is that it is not shutting off when filling up, and overflows. So now we have a broken washer again, at least until a repairman comes to "fix" it again or we get a new one.

Beck-a-rama!

I recently acquired the entire series of Futurama, and have been catching up with Fry, Leela, Bender, and my personal fave, Dr. Zoidberg.

I don't think it was a coincidence that I read this popwatch blog entry declaring the employees of Entertainment Weekly's choice of Loser by Beck as their Greatest Indie Anthem of All Time. And then I watched the Futurama episode where Bender joined Beck's indie/folk band on tour playing his washboard stomach. No siree, that took careful planning ;)

Add to this my glee at discovering that there is a Futurama movie that should open this year. Wahoo!

New Link!

I've added a new link to the sidebar, Chad's 12 of 12 project. The idea is to take 12 pictures of your day on the 12th of each month, and upload them to your blog. You can then share the links with him on his 12 of 12 page. I missed this month's deadline (mostly because I didn't know anything about the project), but I hope to participate next month. I'll have to set a reminder on my phone or something.

Look, Sunny! Peter Petrelli of Heroes has emo hair too. And he's even more emo while in the rain! :)

Why so sad, emo kid?

It's been a long time since I've updated--things have gotten very hectic here in Prague 2. :)

Last weekend, Sunny, Dot and I saw Spiderman 3. Sunny commented on the movie most elegantly in her blog, so go read up on her take. I made a comment during and after the movie that seems to have baffled my friends (I tend to do that a lot lately), I said that Spiderman had emo hair when he was wearing the black suit.

Dot didn't know what emo meant or what emo hair was, so I have turned to the great Wikipedia to enlighten her. :)
Here is what the wiki entry had to say: Emo is a slang term used to describe a range of fashion styles and attitudes somewhat affiliated with emo music and its related scene. As an adjective, emo can describe a style of fashion or music, or a general state of unhappiness or melancholy (as in to "feel emo"). Emo is also used as a noun, often pejoratively, to identify a member of the "emo scene" or someone viewed as fitting the "emo" stereotype easily being characterized by a straightened side-part hairstyle covering one eye.

Here is Peter Parker with his normal hair, and here is a picture of Spiderman/Peter Parker after donning the black suit:



And here is a picture from the Wiki entry on emo, describing "typical male" emo hair as black with long bangs brushed to the side. Hey, except for the color, that could describe my hair!