Valerie profile picture

Valerie

I'm my own Renaissance!

About Me


When I was 10 years old, I wanted to be Indiana Jones when I grew up. Now I am a well-adjusted adult, and I know better. I'm going to be Lara Croft instead.

Okay, maybe not exactly. But I can cook a mean Aloo Gobi, and I have a brown belt in origami.

My Interests

Rugby is the only sport worth playing. Join me at the Rugby World Cup in France 2007, or New Zealand 2011.

I like to look at the sky .
I like to contort myself into weird positions (i.e. yoga).
I like getting lost ('though I can read maps just fine).
Here I am on Flickr .

I'd like to meet:

Wayward poets and willful wanderers

Music:

Okay, this section is tough. I like to listen to songs on the ipod in alphabetical order. The first 25 songs then will give you:
Thelonious Monk, U2, John Lennon, Stray Cats, Lennon again, Elastica, the Wallflowers, Craig David, Rafael Hernandez, Scott Walker, Phonique, Nena, Adam Ant, Juanes, Neil Young, Tom Petty, Walter Murphy, Leftfield, Tony Bennett, Neil Young again, the Alfred Hause Orchestra, Gipsy Kings, Tom Petty again, Delerium, and Gilberto Santarosa.

Movies:

The Secretary , Rabbit-proof Fence , Whale Rider , Tomb Raider, Kung Fu Hustle , Ong Bak Thai Warrior , The House of Flying Daggers , Trainspotting , The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada . I admit that I loved LOTR, and The Scorpion King (just for the Rock-so hot!!!).

Television:

I stopped watching TV completely. Sometimes I watch DVDs though, especially Kung Fu movies.

Books:

Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight.
Captains Courageous.
Dharma Bums.
Hairstyles of the Damned.
Harry Potter.
The Power of One.
Die Wand (Marlene Haushoffer).
Cien An~os de Soledad.
Siddhartha.
The Handmaiden's Tale.
Wicked.
The Satanic Verses.
anything by Tom Robbins
the Sherlock Holmes stories
Bee Season.
The Namesake.

Heroes:

Richard Branson, Conrad Hilton, Ramses II, Greenspan, Kira Salak.

My Blog

Merry Christmas! Please accept this short story as a token of my esteem.

"Hey Jack, come look at this." A delicate blue-green nodule shimmered on the screen of Grant's microscope. "What is that?" asked Jack, peering over from his workstation. The two men sha...
Posted by Valerie on Sun, 24 Dec 2006 01:26:00 PST

stupid taxes

The property tax bill arrived in the mail today. After the shock of last year's bill, I had decided to ease the pain a bit by paying quarterly taxes instead of a lump sum at the end of the year. Sil...
Posted by Valerie on Fri, 08 Dec 2006 08:12:00 PST

anti-tobacco rant

I'm trying not to heave chunks at California's unbelievably short-sighted failure to pass Proposition 86, which would have added another 2 bucks onto the price of tobacco products.  What reason c...
Posted by Valerie on Wed, 08 Nov 2006 12:57:00 PST

Voting Republican

I've been married long enough to know that the people do not change.  No matter how much you want only the best for your spouse, he or she will generally continue to do stupid and annoying things...
Posted by Valerie on Wed, 18 Oct 2006 07:20:00 PST

ABs in Auckland - few pics (finally)

...
Posted by Valerie on Thu, 21 Sep 2006 06:35:00 PST

I never.

Do you guys remember that drinking game "I never"? It may have gone by some other name in your circle, but I'm sure you've all played a version of it at one time or another. The precept is that you ...
Posted by Valerie on Tue, 12 Sep 2006 02:24:00 PST

All Blacks pics

I recently fulfilled a dream of several years by seeing the NZ All Blacks play South Africa in a TriNations test match.  It was as thrilling as I had hoped it would be, despite the fact that the ...
Posted by Valerie on Tue, 01 Aug 2006 02:57:00 PST

Paradise found

This morning my lovely, dreamy sleep was suddenly interrupted - by what?  A sort of blaring, whining, honking sound.  My first thought was that the neighbors needed to attend to their car, b...
Posted by Valerie on Wed, 19 Jul 2006 05:53:00 PST

My itinerary

By popular demand - the answers to your pressing questions.  Yes, I am still going to New Zealand.  I'll be leaving July 7th.  Most of the time I'll be on the North Island, but I do hav...
Posted by Valerie on Tue, 13 Jun 2006 09:13:00 PST

the hills have lips.

There is a certain hill that I drive past every day on my way home from work that has a special appearance. For lack of a politer way to put it, it bears an amazing likeness to a mons pubis. I initi...
Posted by Valerie on Sat, 22 Apr 2006 11:34:00 PST