Always Fishing

Update your blogrolls!

2010-09-14T10:35:00.002-04:00

Dear readers,

As I mentioned before, I have left D.C. and moved to New York City. New city, new blog! While Always Fishing will forever be my first blogging home, this blog will now become in active.

You can now follow my trials and trivulations on my new NYC blog: Avenue Eff, http://avenueeff.wordpress.com.

The Final Post... For Now

2010-07-17T07:25:00.003-04:00

Believe or not, my life has dramatically changed since I last contributed an entry to my blog that once received so much love.

Over the course of a few short weeks, I've landed a new job working in New York, which means I'm leaving Discovery and D.C. behind (btw, for those of you who keep asking me what the deal is with the enormous shark on the Discovery building, that's Chompie. He's a promotion for Shark Week, starting Aug. 1).

Photo by the AMAZING Dan Plimpton

It's bittersweet. This area has been a great home to me for the past six years and Tad and I have a lot of friends and family here, but we're ready for a new adventure. The Big Apple, baby!

It's funny too how many New York people I've reconnected with since I made the new job/new city announcement last week. Kids from college who have moved up there, people I used to work with when I was an intern there, friends who have put me in touch with friends... I feel like I already have a welcoming party waiting to greet me.

I say this is the final post for now because Always Fishing has been my D.C. blog for so long, I sort of feel like I should leave it behind and begin a new blogging venture. I haven't decided yet. One thing is for sure, I bid you adieu, fair readers, for now, and thanks for your support. I'll see you in New York!

Plugging Back In

2010-06-29T20:19:00.011-04:00

A friend told me a while back that it usually takes her about two weeks to get back into a normal routine after vacation. I believe it.

When you're used to going 100 mph, then you slow down to maybe 15, getting back up to speed can be rough -- obvious by my lack of blogging of late. I got back safe and sound from the Outer Banks on Saturday, June 19 and spent the rest of my weekend at my parents house before coming back to DC. Since then, it's been a bombardment of happy hours, birthday outings, new job celebrations, World Cup watching (and crying), restocking the fridge, and oh yes, catching up on work and getting back into the working groove.

Our trip to Avon, North Caroline was calm, quiet and blissful. About an hour past Kitty Hawk, Nags Head and the more touristy parts of the OBX, there's not much down in Avon except a grocery store, gas station and few shops and restaurants. You can make the drive from one Welcome to Avon sign to the other in about 5 minutes, maybe 6 if you get stuck at the light.

We spent most of our days getting up whenever, going to bed whenever, and laying around on the beach with a full cooler.

The house my parents rented from a family friend was fully stocked with beach access, a pool, pool table and an incredible view in between the dunes overlooking the ocean. It sounds like a scene from a Nicolas Spark's book, doesn't it? By the way, Rodanthe, as in from the book/movie "Nights in Rodanthe," is a township right before Avon.

We did venture out a few times. We went to the worst mini golf course I've ever seen. It was like someone had just mowed patches on a big lawn. Come on, at least give me a windmill to aim at or something.

Tad taking charge.
Leslie and Josh, super excited to play.

One of our day trips included an outing over to Ocracoke, an island filled with artisans, gift shops and Black Beard museums located a few miles off Hatteras Island and it's only accessible by ferry.

We also stopped in Frisco (more than once) for Scotch Bonnet fudge -- ooohhhh so good -- and drove around Buxton for apple uglies.

And don't think we didn't sneak in a few exciting moments here and there. I was there with my parents, my sister, her boyfriend and Tad. My father often likes to take dinner time as an opportunity to bring up sensitive or controversial topics relating to current events. He finds the discussion fascinating but it usually leads to a lot of eye rolling from my sister and someone saying, "well I just don't agree" then silence. Case and point, first night we're there, my sister's boyfriend began going off on Obama's policies and how the unions are fueling the deficient and unemployment. Until then, I had never met anyone who had not only listened to Rush Limbaugh outside of the "Daily Show" but also consciously took on his views, God bless him. It was all poor true blue blood Democrat Tad could do to bite his tongue.

Another exciting thing was I got to try out wind surfing for the first time, which was awesome, I'm completely hooked. It was sort of like snowboarding -- another sport I love -- with a sail. I think I fell off seven times by my last count and I was definitely sore afterwards. Totally worth it.

Avon is the type of place you go to relax, probably retire to one day, and it can be a nice change of pace. Not a lot going on and sometimes that's just fine.

Lauren Unplugged

2010-06-10T22:19:00.003-04:00

Tomorrow night, I am OBX bound!

Heading out to Avon, North Carolina for a week of fun, relaxation and unplugging so I won't be blogging for a few days.

Once again, I'm leaving this...

For this...

Talk to you next week! Signing off.

Random Wednesday: World Cup 2010 Edition

2010-06-09T09:55:00.007-04:00

Sex and Soccer: Some soccer coaches insist their players keep their eyes on the ball -- and nothing else, but can abstinence really make a difference in your soccer playing? We ask an expert.

Travels of a Soccerholic: My friend Daozhong is World Cup-bound right now, and will be blogging about her travels to and around South Africa, as well as her projections for the games.

I do enjoy how Google is running live stats and schedules on the games.

World Cup gamblers in England are "smoking died vulture brains" because they think it'll help them predict match results and outsmart bookies. That sounds about as smart as taking vodka shots through the eye.

This sports website compared 32 World Cup teams to 32 NFL teams in terms of skill and record. Why? No other reason than football is as popular in America as futbol is to the rest of the world and we Americans needs some sort comparison to understand the hype.

Going e-Couture, Nike unveiled their 2010 World Cup jerseys made from recycled plastic bottles.

Hypocrites

2010-06-08T11:54:00.000-04:00

Betty posted this on Facebook today. Pretty amusing...

Two Races

2010-06-06T21:58:00.008-04:00

I was on my feet most of the weekend. I don't think my legs have been this sore since the first week of high school soccer practice.

Saturday I woke up early to head out to the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure with my friends and coworkers Kasey and Betty. The plan was to run the whole thing and I was all for it, even though I'm not much of a runner and both of them are marathon champs. I think I would have been able to do it if Kasey and I hadn't met Betty at her apartment before the race and then ran most of the way to the starting line on the National Mall -- 3 miles away.

The outside temperature at 8 a.m. in D.C. was already near 80 degrees and HUMID. I was drenched by the time we got there. All those mornings I had spent running on a treadmill in an air conditioned gym didn't help me prepare at all. We asked some random guy near the starting line to take this photo and I think I was still trying to catch my breath because look miserable.

From left to right, me, Kasey and Betty at the starting line.

The three of us snuck up towards the front of the line together and I started off running strong, but lost my two marathon running friends pretty quickly after that. I alternated between power walking and running it, mostly power walking. 5K may not seem like much, but if you're not used to the conditions, it can really take it toll on you. I stopped twice to help women suffering from heat exhaustion get off the road and get help. It was brutal out there.

Even though I wasn't doing this race for time, I still finished in 46 minutes, which I felt pretty good about. What I was so much more aware of was why I and everyone else was doing this: for our loved ones. Over 50,000 people showed up to participate and almost every one of them were wearing signs that said "In memory of my mom, my aunt, my sister, my grandma," or "Fighting for Lisa," "Celebrating my survival: 5 years!" Seeing all of people together sharing the same struggle was a little emotional, especially since it's a struggle women in my family have faced as well. I feel proud to have been a part of it.

Today was a completely different kind of race, again in D.C. Tad and I were house sitting for the weekend out in the sticks of MoCo so once again, we got up early this morning, drove back to our apartment, unloaded, hopped on the metro and headed to Woodley Park where we met Daozhing and Ruth for brunch at Open City.

Open City is an incredible coffeehouse and diner, famous for their eggs dishes. The wait for a table on a Sunday morning can take over an hour but it's so worth it. My mouth is watering just thinking about the applewood bacon scramble right now. Dao is leaving on Tuesday to head to South Africa for a few weeks for the World Cup so this was our sort of good bye get together. It only took a month for us to coordinate our busy schedules but it was nice to catch up with good friends and wish her well.

Full and protein-powered, Tad and I headed down to Freedom Plaza to meet another group of friends to participate in the annual Washington Post Hunt.

Crowd gathering at Freedom Plaza.

It's a logic puzzle scavenger hunt around the downtown area, sort of like a Da Vinci Code type thing, where you have to hunt for clues and solve brain teasers in hopes of taking home the grand prize: $2,000. The person or team that solves it the fastest wins and people take it very seriously. We saw hundreds of people with D.C. guide books, GPS equipment, coordinated t-shirts, people running straight into traffic -- it was nuts!

Tad staring intensely at the list of clues.

Stu and Lizette figuring out which direction we should take next.

And the puzzles are hard! Here's an example of one. First, you had to find where these feet were located on a map in the special WaPo Hunt edition of their magazine.

If you count them, the total was 555.5 feet, which you then had to remember is how tall the Washington Monument is. So then you went to the monument, and you also happened to remember that you had seen an illustration of a guy with a pink umbrella standing at the monument in the magazine. Then you had to notice that he was wearing a t-shirt with the number 74 on the back of it, which then corresponded with a piece of a clue in the magazine as to where the final solution was. I'm just going to stop myself here because I know I've already lost you.

I've been told that if you manage to solve two out of the five pieces (and each piece has several parts) then you're doing pretty well. Between Stu, Lizette, Anthony, Beth, Tad and I, we solved three, but obviously weren't quick enough to get the grand prize. Still, at least we know what to expect next year.

After all this running around this weekend it was nice to come home tonight to catch up on blogging and just not move for a while before I hit the ground running for Monday.

Random Wednesday

2010-06-02T12:26:00.010-04:00

Links I found. Enjoy.

This is so incredibly dorky, but also amazingly awesome. LEGO printer uses felt-tipped pen to print stuff (thanks, Dave!).

This bacteria have a "right brain" that just won't quit: E. coli art.

Google Maps tell you where to go and how to get there. Bing Maps tell you where to live. BOOYA!

This is how I feel about the Twilight series. A little morbid, but you'll also learn something about MIT's Science Fiction Society.

PHOTOS: Sinkhole swallows an entire factory and an intersection in Guatemala. You can't even see where they went! Coworkers today were joking that it looked like the work of Superman... or gnomes.

"Drunk" parrots litter this Australian town, and veterinarians are stumped as they try to help the birds through their "hangovers."

More Office Shenanigans

2010-06-02T09:02:00.003-04:00

I didn't do it, but I think I know who did. I think it's the same person who committed this office scandal. I did eventually find out who it was, but I'll never tell :)

Love and Loss

2010-05-31T21:45:00.011-04:00

It's taken me a couple of days to get back into the blogging groove....

Late last week, I got word that one of my friends from high school had died. I really hate that the way I've come to know that someone from home has passed away is when someone else calls or messages me and says, "Did you hear about so and so?" It never means anything good.

While we had drifted apart after high school and only saw each around the holidays, Kyle was someone I used to hang out with all the time. He dated a good friend of mine so we all went to dances together, went to games together, movies, the mall, riding around, the whole bit for years. He died after falling off a ladder while changing a light bulb and it was a shock to my system. That old cliche that life is so short washed over me all over again and it took me until after his funeral on Saturday to get out of this weird fog I've been in all week. I saw so many other old friends and that was a comfort, some I hadn't seen since last year at Karey's funeral. She was a close childhood friend of mine who was killed in a car accident on May 3, 2009. Several of us commented on how much it sucked that we usually see each other at either weddings or funerals.

R.I.P. Kyle Linder, forever in our hearts. 1985-2010.

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Cancer is something I'm very familiar with, breast cancer in particular. Grandmothers, aunts, my mother, girl friends -- countless women in my life have suffered with this horrible disease. So when I found out a friend's breast cancer was back and another mutual friend of ours was helping to rally us together for a Susan G. Komen Race For the Cure team, I signed up immediately. I've never done the Race for the Cure before, but I couldn't be more excited and ready to help out team PinkForTink.

Only caveat is our coworker who helped organize the team is bound and determined to make us all run it, like really run it, not walk it. Thus begins my 6:30 a.m. runs. Starting tomorrow morning... and the race is Saturday. I'm not a runner at all, but if Trish can take two tours of duty fighting breast cancer, I can make it through a short run.

If you want to run with us, search PinkforTink in the 'Join a Team' box: http://tinyurl.com/ycafbms or if you'd like to donate, check out the fundraising page: http://tinyurl.com/2bn8fve

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Discovery is hosting a "Discover Your Impact" Day on June 18th to encourage employees to get out of the office and help the community -- AWESOME! My first choice was to sign-up to help out at a horse farm in Mt. Airy (I'm a huge animal lover), but I'll be away on vacation that week.

For those who aren't able to actively participate, but still want to help, you can sign-up to make cards for sick children staying at NIH in Bethesda. I'm also encouraged to ask friends to participate so if you're interesting in helping make cards, let me know! I'll post details once I get them from the event coordinator.

The Hamster was LOST

2010-05-24T22:00:00.009-04:00

This may be one of those stories where it's a lot more hysterical if you're directly involved, such a shame we didn't catch all of this on video, but nonetheless it has made me laugh to myself all day long so I think it's worth a shot at retelling here.

As everyone in the world knows now, last night was the series finale of LOST (as a die-hard fan, I don't think it has hit me yet that my Tuesday evening TV viewing will never be the same again). Tad and I have an old friend named Brandon who is responsible for turning this crazy TV show into an obsession for us, so it seemed only fitting that we would make the drive to out to his apartment to watch the final episode.

Not 10 minutes after we walked in his door at 8:25 p.m. Sunday evening (the episode started at 9) something happened.

Brandon was put in charge of caring for his roommate's two Roborovski hamsters (world's smallest breed of hamsters) while his roommate was away. After hearing all this talk about his roommate's plans to build Hamster-Topia, a 7x6 foot hamster tubing palace in his bedroom, I had to meet the little guys. As I looked around the cage...

Brandon: "Is there only one? There's supposed to be two. He has to be in there. He has to be. Is he buried? Seriously, he's in there right?"

Turning his roommate's room upside down, Tad and I began giving a quickly-flipping out Brandon advice on how to handle the situation, everything from going to the pet store and buying a replacement, to telling his roommate that the hamster got sick and died, or that the other one ate him. As Brandon suggests leaving the room and coming back to search later, Tad, staring at the back corner of the room, says, "I see him," in such a calm way that none of us computed what that meant. Tad would later tell us that he thought he was hallucinating and didn't really realize what he was saying.

About 1.3 seconds after his saying this, it clicks and we all spring into action at once, cornering the critter behind a book case. Not only are these hamsters small and can slip through the tiniest cracks, they are fast and can dart quicker than deer. Here, there, there, here, the three of us tripped over each other to corner him, taking out books and boxes and screaming things like "Grab him!" "AH!" "Close the bedroom door!" Just as the hamster runs along side said door, Brandon says "no way he can... OH MY GOD!" and away hamster slipped.

Chasing him down the hall and into the kitchen, I fell on my hands and knees and scooped him up before he got under the fridge. Triumph at last and the hamster was safely returned. We still don't know how he got out, but Brandon taped up every crack in the enclosure with industrial tape.

It took us a good 10 minutes to calm down enough to get off the floor from laughing so hard, just in time to settle in for the series finale.

The three of us and most of my office today have been going over the final episode again and again, judging each of our interpretations. One theory I heard was they all died in the initial plane crash and used the island to sort out their issues, but that that doesn't explain how some could die on the island and others couldn't. I think I'm with Tad and going with my original theory that everything was real, just shown to us in time-traveling parallel universes.

We also tried to make a list of all the plot lines they didn't explain or wrap up, but had to stop because it became too depressing. Some people were pissed at how it ended, but I thought it was appropriate with all of them dying. It gave some sort of resolution, even though we don't exactly know how we got there.

Gyros and Gypsies

2010-05-24T20:35:00.007-04:00

I have two great girlfriends who specialize in tapping into the most obscure but awesome (and usually free) D.C. events, whether its a cultural festival, outdoor show or market.

Last weekend, I had a few hours to kill in my Saturday morning and Erin suggested we head over to the annual Greek festival near the National Cathedral. It was sunny and warm out, perfect day to meander through the booths of jewelry, pottery, clothes and amazingly good food.

Authentic spiced beef and lamb, topped which lettuce, tomatoes, onions and homemade tzatziki sauce all stuffed to the brim in warm pita... ooohhh my mouth is watering just thinking about it.

I stole this photo from Erin, but I really think it says it all.

The festival was held on the grounds of the gorgeous Saint Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral on Mass. Ave. NW.

and it was a good thing we got there early, because by 1 p.m., the line for gyros was easily 100 people long.

After browsing the tables, I picked up a necklace, Erin and I grabbed some hand painted plates. This is the one I bought, isn't the artwork incredible? I haven't found a place to mount it yet.

Then we stumbled upon a Greek fortune teller at the end of the row. Neither of us had ever had our palm read, so we figured we'd give it a shot.

This woman had to have been in her late 60s at best. Incredibly thick accent, leathery brown skin, gray braided hair, earring the size of softballs, and I think I counted a total of ten teeth. As soon as she grabbed my right hand, I instantly tensed. Maybe because I was a little nervous, or perhaps it was because she said to me, "Vokay, vhat ver I sees, I must tell vou, goot or bad."

Now, according to her, it's bad luck to tell others about your fortune, so I'll leave the mysteries of my life between us, but I'll say that she was close on most things, but also pretty vague. For Erin, she way, way off, according to her. I won't speak for Erin, but I certainly walked away feeling weirded out. In case you're wondering, I did not take the fortune teller up on her offer to come to her office for more to be revealed to me.

I'll say this, the ambiance from the festival gave me such an itch to go to Greece, a country that has been on my travel to do list for years. It's nice to live in such a cultural rich area that I can get a tiny taste of it.

Randoms

2010-05-19T16:50:00.005-04:00

I'll write a real blog post later, promise -- the next one I have coming up is about gyros and gypsies -- but I saw these links today and just had to share.

Turns out, it's a really bad idea to post your social security number on a billboard. Even if you're the LifeLock CEO.

Dear London, your 2012 Olympic mascot looks like you crossed a Teletubbie with a character from Monsters Inc.

SpaceX's Elon Musk was the inspiration behind Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.'s) character in Iron Man. DNews space producer asks, so Elon, are you "Rocket Man" or "Iron Man."

One of my friends used this when she was for applying for jobs. Glassdoor.com is a database of employee comments and interview questions from over 80,000 companies, domestic and abroad. It's a great way to get a feel for what your future work environment might be like.

Side note: I think I've watched the baby sloth video at least four times today. It makes me feel warm and fuzzy.

Your Daily Dose of Cuteness

2010-05-19T10:01:00.002-04:00

Baby sloths! Even with their dagger-like claws, they're pretty adorable.

Meet the sloths from Amphibian Avenger on Vimeo.

Updates

2010-05-14T09:08:00.008-04:00

Here's what I've got for you so far...

A surprising number of you have asked about my hair. Sorry I've been so bad about giving you an update. It's all better now -- I went the brunette route, (sorry Tad) -- but no more tiger stripe highlights! Will post a photo later.

Top Chef D.C.'s contestants names, backgrounds and photos have been released. Everyone looks boring.

A dead "zombie satellite" is causing so much havoc over Earth right now among the communication satellites that it could knock out everyone's signal during the LOST season finale. I only have one thing to say to that.

College Park's beloved Santa Fe Cafe and bar will be closing its doors forever on May 22nd, just in time to hit up the graduation crowds then peace out. Sad. So many memories.

After 25 years of flight, space shuttle Atlantis lifts off for one final voyage. I think the photo is gorgeous. Makes me sad to think of a time when we will no longer have shuttle launches, they've been going on my whole life (NASA is killing the shuttle program at the end of this year).

Still haven't found out what caused the fire in downtown Silver Spring (DTSS).

Fire in downtown Silver Spring

2010-05-11T17:49:00.005-04:00

I saw this as I was leaving work today (took it through the construction fencing). Another "Mulberry Street" moment. This is an enormous construction site next to the Silver Spring metro station in downtown Silver Spring where a retail, parking garage and transport hub are being built. Not sure what happened other than there was a lot of smoke and the whole area smelled like burning tar.

Chincoteague

2010-05-09T20:56:00.013-04:00

For Mother's Day, we did something a little different this year: field trip!

My family's celebration of this day to honor Mom is usually expressed with brunch at our hometown country club -- shrimp and grits, eggs benedict topped with crab meat are not only to die for but also tell me I'm home. But Saturday we loaded up Dad's truck and headed down to Chincoteague, Virginia for a change of pace.

Where I'm from on the Eastern Shore, Chincoteague is slated as a gorgeous, quiet beach getaway -- you non-shore natives may have heard of the children's book "Misty of Chincoteague?" Same place, and yes there are wild horses down there. It was indeed very beautiful, but I was struck by how small, and for the most part beach-less, the community was. I could definitely see how staying at a local B&B or just walking the quiet streets would be very relaxing though.

Side note: NASA has a HUGE facility down in this area and as we're driving past it, my parents told me they almost sent me to space camp here when I was a kid, but decided to send me to Bible camp instead. Whaaa?! A monologue of something along the lines of "I could have been a contender" comes to mind.

Our purpose for making the drive was my mom had a few artist friends who were showing their paintings, jewelry and photography at the Chincoteague Mother (Earth) Day festival (I guess combining Mother's Day and Earth Day?).

Although it was a gorgeous sunny day, 30-40 mph wind gusts made it difficult to browse (and for the artists to keep things on their tables), but I managed to pick up a few things. This handmade gold ring for one...

And these paintings, which were FREE, frames included. Amazing, right!?

The incredibly talented artist who did them, Dawn Tarr, said she was cleaning out her garage and was trying to get rid of "some junk." I couldn't believe she was just giving them away. Although most of her free paintings were of near-naked men or topless mermaids, I found these nonsexual framed ones and I thought they would fit nicely in current and future dwellings. I know, how prude of me, almost Pottery Barn like, but they're so pretty! I think I'll put the peas in my kitchen and daisies in my bathroom.

The best event of the art show was this woodcarver who used a chain saw to carve lawn statues out of tree trunks.

This wooden flamingo was about six feet tall. My dad tried everything to convince my mom we needed it for the backyard -- he was not successful.

We wrapped up the day at Bill's restaurant around the corner from the festival before heading home, where I then laid out by my parents' pool and then watched movies all night on pay-per-view until I fell asleep at 10:30 pm. It felt awesome.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

2010-05-05T22:33:00.012-04:00

"Margs to the face." -- Andy Heck (Andy, if you're reading this, I am sorry. This line has become the motto of all my happy hours).

Keeping it light this year, Tad and I headed over to Mi Rancho in Silver Spring just for tacos, enchiladas and, you guessed it, margaritas, in honor of Cinco de Mayo or our weekly date night (usually we do date night on Friday or Saturday, but I'm heading home for Mother's Day this weekend. I know, all kinds of "awwww" happening here).

Highlight of the evening -- live mariachi band!

Shameless self promotion again: Want to learn about the history of Cinco de Mayo? Sure you do. I had to write up a blog about it for Discovery News, so I can tell you all about it right HERE.

Randoms

2010-05-03T23:58:00.008-04:00

Hilarious links I found while waiting for my laundry to finish so I can go to bed...

Muppet movie camera improv test from 1979. Hysterical. "You're not a real bear. Have you ever seen a bear with a magenta nose?" ... "Do you know what you get when you cross a pig and a frog?" I've never seen Kermit so sassy!

Okay, I know I steal links from Emily way too much, but she is the Internet scouring champion, and this one was too funny. Comic Sans is definitely NOT my type. What is it about that font that's just... ugh.

"An ice cream parlor near M.I.T. will soon be serving Internet-flavored ice cream." Seriously. That's the first line of the article. I didn't even have to touch it.

Take five minutes to stop and smell the roses. It's good for your health.

Listed as one of the nation's leading pot consumption states, D.C. gears up to vote on legalizing medical marijuana. Several 20-somethings say it won't make a difference.

"Avatar" director James Cameron + NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab = kick ass 3-D camera eyes for the next Mars rover (warning: shameless self promotion here).

Song stuck in my head right NOW. Also not conducive to sleeping.

Hair Delimma! (again)

2010-05-03T19:17:00.004-04:00

Not to worry, I didn't accidentally die my hair black again.

Should I go blond or stay brunette? Right now I'm dark brown with lighter brown under tones. Nothing dramatic. In fact, it has faded to dull, flat dark, dark brown color with almost orange-ish streaks. Trying to make a decision by Thursday because I'm trying to squeeze in a hair appointment to get my horrible roots fixed before Mother's Day this weekend (for all of you who forgot it was Mother's Day this weekend, you're welcome).

My hair looks like this now. You can see my dilemma. I have really dark hair with a blond streak from a birthmark on my scalp and as I've gotten older, the blond has turned from a golden to a grayish. This has fascinated every stylist I've ever been to:

P.s. it is IMPOSSIBLE to take a photo of yourself in the bathroom where the lighting is best and not look awkward.

So I could really go either way: lighter or darker. If I go blond, which I was thinking might be fun for summer, I was thinking this:

If I stay brunette, I was thinking this:

Help! Opinions wanted!

Well done, weekend, well done.

2010-05-02T23:03:00.006-04:00

This weekend was solid. Nothing epic or outlandish, but definitely satisfying.

Friday night after work, I headed out to College Park for UMD's Art Attack festival. Tad, who has the in with the entertainment folks from his work at the student union, got us VIP passes to the main event: Ben Folds/Weezer. Both are groups that I have a handful of their songs on my ipod but I wouldn't call myself a huge fan. That all changed after this night.

Ben Folds was his usually "Billy Joel of our time" self, and having never seen Weezer in concert before, I was blown away by how hard they could rock.

Here's just a taste of the madness. The crowd of 12,000 (the biggest Art Attack crowd to date) was throwing glow necklaces in the air. You see someone throw a roll of toilet paper at around 11 and 19 seconds.

Standing within arms reach of the stage, I'm fairly certain Rivers Cuomo was pointing at me when he came over to stage left singing "(If You're Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To)" ;)

Before the encore, Weezer's bass player, Scott Shriner, jumped off the stage right next to us and did a set of 20 push-ups. My camera took that moment to malfunction and then say "memory card full" so you're going to have to take my word for it. Certainly one of the highlights was when Cuomo dressed up like Lady Gaga and the band sang their MGMT cover "Kids" remixed with "Pokerface."

It was one of the best concerts I've been to in a long time. If you ever go to a concert with Tad and I, you'll find that we "feel" the music very differently. Tad likes to close his eyes and let the instrumentals and vocals wash over him. I, on the other hand, like to flail around and let the beat move me. Kinda funny.

Saturday we let ourselves sleep in way too late. In following my usual Saturday morning routine, I got up, made myself something to eat, read a little, dozed, repeat. Rarely do I let myself do that until 1 p.m. though. After we finally got up and moving, we headed up to the roof to sit by our building's pool for the first time this season -- couldn't resist when it was 90 degrees, sunny and breezy.

Making another date night out of it, we went out to dinner Saturday night at Austin Grill (we got fed, but eh, not a memorable meal), and then to the movies to see Date Night (ha!) starring Tina Fey and Steve Carell. We went into this movie expecting it to be really cheesy and hokey, and there were parts that were, but what separated it from other dumb comedy movies was that it was smart, and there wasn't any point where I felt like it was dragging or there was a lull in timing. Plus, there were lots of unusual cameos. Pretty hilarious as expected.

Another hot one today, Tad and I relaxed out on the patio at our friend and former roommate Roberto's place with our other dear friend Daozhong for a barbecue. Roberto is an amazing cook and grilled up all sorts of good eats: two different kinds of sausage, flank steak, mango, pineapple, strawberries... I, of course, made sangria. Good food, good conversation, and suddenly it was evening.

Tad and I headed back to our place where we then accidentally napped for three hours (I'm never going to get to sleep tonight), and woke up hungry not for a meal but for snacks. After a failed attempt to make homemade bread (the yeast I had bought a while back had gone bad), we ended up making guacamole, margaritas and catching up on last week's NBC Thursday night line-up. Now, here I am blogging about it all.

So like I said, a solid weekend, nothing too crazy, but equal parts of fun and rest to get me back to feeling refreshed and fully charged for Monday. Well done, weekend, well done.

Grammar Slammer

2010-04-30T15:36:00.006-04:00

Madhatter's
1319 Connecticut Ave, NW
Washington, D.C.

Out for Daozhong's birthday dinner last night. Photo of the dessert menu. Don't these waffles sound delicious? MmMm I want mine with extra sand and grit.

Update: Suddenly I paint

2010-04-28T13:22:00.003-04:00

Update on my painting: My dad claimed it for his office :) Aww.

Sangria Cravings

2010-04-28T13:07:00.010-04:00

I've been on a sangria kick lately, not necessarily a bad thing I suppose. I think it's rooted in my deep longing for summer, plus, I have to agree with Erin. All the fruit makes this a healthy drink, no? Judging from the past few batches I've made, I think I've come up with the perfect recipe.

I tried this one out on some friends at two separate dinner parties I hosted (I felt like a needed an excuse to make a huge punch bowl full of wine drink) -- Erin blogged about my last one on her food/travel blog -- and this latest batch got some great reviews (I already sent to this Erin for her blog -- she has a much bigger following than I do -- but I thought I'd share my thoughts here too anyway).

This recipe is SUPER easy because all you're doing is chopping up fruit. I came up with this after reading, no lie, SIX different sangria recipes. It's not all that original except for the Sprite and the pineapple chunks. Most recipes call for club soda instead of Sprite but I think this adds much more flavor. The pineapple chunks soaked in the wine are truly the best fruit to munch on once you've emptied your glass ;)

Lauren's Sangria. Serves about 4-6 people (depending on how big your glasses are. We used solo cups like classy people).

1 bottle of Mirassou Cabernet Sauvignon (according to an article I read about making sangria, this is the best cheap red wine brand (around $10 at most liquor stores) and type for the drink. It's tart and fruity, but lighter than a Merlot).
1 12 oz can of Sprite
1 grapefruit
1 peach
1 pear
1 lemon
1 lime
1 and 1/2 cups of pineapple chunks

Chop up the fruit. The citrus should be sliced horizontally for presentation (they will float!) and then the rest of fruit should be cut into bite-sized chunks. Add your wine. Let soak for no more than 2 hours before serving (I usually do 1 hour). Then, right before your guests come, add the Sprite. DO NOT add the Sprite before hand or it will go flat before you serve it (I found this out the first time around). Stir and enjoy!

The best part is if you need to make more, just reuse the fruit and add another bottle of wine and another can of Sprite.

Mulberry Street, suddenly I paint and "Boobquake"

2010-04-26T20:07:00.009-04:00

When I was a kid, my dad's favorite book to read to me was "And To Think that I Saw It on Mulberry Street" by Dr. Seuss. I think about that book sometimes as I'm on my way to work because my commute doesn't change, and for the most part, my surroundings don't either. So when I see something out of the ordinary, it really jumps out at me. Like this...

Yes, that's a Giant Foods shopping cart chained up to a bike rack with what appears to be a pretty decent bike lock.

I've seen it chained up like this about three or four times now, but sometimes it's not there, which tells me someone is not just being possessive, but actually gets some use out of it. The Giant is a good five blocks or so away.

In other news, I was really worn out from the work week by the time this weekend rolled around, and the rainy weather didn't help to make me feel like going out either, so I took it easy. Then I got bored, so this happened:

I had some art supplies hanging around so I painted. I haven't painted anything in years, and this took me about three hours. It's a tree branch of cherry blossoms. I haven't decided what I'm going to do with it yet (give it away or hang it up), but I'm not going to lie, I impressed myself a little with this project.

And finally, "boobquake," by the Washington Post. I loved this story and I hope someone includes this in his clip packet. Although clever, I thought the "scantily clad" part was pretty conservative. Probably a good thing...

Caption: "Women showing cleavage gathered in Dupont Circle, D.C. to participate in "Boobquake," a reaction to a Shiite cleric's claim that, 'Women who do not dress modestly . . . lead young men astray, corrupt their chastity and spread adultery in society, which increases earthquakes.' (Anna Uhls/The Washington Post)"

Earth Day 2010

2010-04-22T09:23:00.007-04:00

Happy Earth Day! Wanted to share a few of my favorite quirky Earth Day-related links in honor of love for our great mother. I'll be adding to this throughout the day.

Ellen Degeneres makes clothes from recyclables and then makes poor models walk in them on national TV.

The International League of Conservation Photographers (ILCP) selected the "Top 40 Nature Photography of all Time." The photos will be auctioned off today by Christie's International, and proceeds will go to various environmental groups. My favorite is the one of the lily pads. I think it looks like a painting. I can't show it here due to copyright issues, but you can view the whole slide show here.

Our solar astrophysicist on staff with my team had the in at NASA and got the most ASTOUNDING photos of our sun from NASA's Solar Dynamic Observatory. Better than CNN's slide show for sure ;)
That photo doesn't do it justice though. View the whole slide show here.

And here are nine reasons why Blue is the new Green. I can't help but feel that "green" and "green living" has been so overused and misused that it's becoming obsolete.

Did you know Earth Day turned 40 this year!?

Erin blogged about what you can do for Earth Day and BONUS! There's a Sesame Street clip included!

A hard pill to swallow

2010-04-21T23:07:00.002-04:00

I'm going to take a second and be slightly political.

The other night I was reading an article in the latest issue of Vogue, of all things, about the dangers and realities of antibiotic-feed meat, particularly beef.

First I had to get over the fact that such an article was even in the snooty fashion magazine, then I was surprised to find myself completely captivated and I read it from start to finished -- something I rarely do with their articles (hey, Vogue is sort of like Playboy for the fashion obsessed anyway, am I wrong?).

The issues over force feeding antibiotics to animals are nothing new. Health concerns with our eating beefed-up meat (oh puns) have been around for years, especially after Michael Pollen's food expose, Omnivore's Dilemma was released (I will forever be grateful to my mom for making me read it). Concerns like can this process affect our development, are the antibiotics making women infertile, is it safe for the animals, is it harmful to us -- all of these questions I had heard before. But what I hadn't heard before, and what the Vogue article taught me, was that the main antibiotics given to cows to prevent disease is tetracycline.

Forgive me if I sound naive, but the word "antibiotics" for animals sort of floated out there in space for me and it wasn't until I read "tetracycline" that it came back down and smacked me in the face. They're giving cows tetracycline?! And then we're ingesting it?!

To make it more clear, tetracycline is a broad group of antibiotics that treat a number of bacterial infections. One antibiotic in this group is amoxicillin. I have been prescribed amoxicillin and others from the tetracycline group for everything from a bladder infection to a root canal. It's the go-to bacterial-fighting drug and the fear is that through eating meat, we humans will develop a tolerance to one of the most affective antibiotics on the market. Not to mention that something we need to see a doctor and get a prescription for is being sold in livestock feed stores by the bagful.

The article goes on to mention that organic label watching is important -- something I wrote a research paper on for my junior English class -- including that "grass fed" means practically nothing unless the label says "American grass fed." It also sites a Clemson University study that found that pure grass-fed beef has a whole host most vitamins and minerals, including omega-3s and beta carotene (something I didn't know beef even had in it) than grain-fed beef.

Scary, messed up stuff!

It really puts my earlier argument into harsher perspective -- the one where I said I would be willing to pay more for meat to ensure the animals are treated humanely and antibiotic-free but still buy non-organic anyway. Maybe I shouldn't consider it an option anymore.

Family and flowers

2010-04-18T21:09:00.016-04:00

I've gotten into a bad habit of buying potted plants -- especially flowers -- for the apartment every time I go to Eastern Market, which I would say is about once every few months. Yesterday's trip was no different. Our apartment is practically an atrium now with NINE potted plants and counting. They make the place seem homey and pretty, but it's getting ridiculous and so I've decided we've reached our plant limit. For now.

Plants usually die under my care. Some people call it over watering. I call it smothering with love.

Anyway, here's what I bought yesterday...

Portulaca

Alyssum -- although I call it "the asylum plant" because I can't ever remember "alyssum." The blue thing that it's in is actually a cheap plastic serving platter I bought at Giant.

Peppermint on the left, cilantro on the right. Bought for the purpose of making really excellent homemade mojitos and salsa. Mmmm.

I had raved about the vibrant flea and farmer market in Southeast D.C. so many times that when my parents and little sister came up to visit yesterday for Dad's birthday, that's where they wanted me to take them.

The gorgeous but blustery spring day made lunch at Le Pain Quotidien and weaving through various vendors easy and relaxing. Thing you have to be careful of, or at least I do, is when you start getting sucked into all the unique wares for sale and the line between "oh I need" and "o0o0o I want" becomes very blurry.

An 18th century map of Maryland? We definitely need that. Crazy mirror thing with embellishments? That would look great in the... well... somewhere, I'll find a place for it. This antique record player? Wild! Weird metal sculpture of a flamingo? What I've been wanting my whole life!

Luckily, I managed to escape out of there with only buying plants and three necklaces: one for my mom, my sister and I. They all look similar with small medallions inside a circular shape, just will different amounts of gold and silver and I thought it was a nice bonding item. Here's mine...

Sorry, best I could do with pointing the camera at myself with the flash off.

For Dad, gave him four Orioles tickets packaged in a redwood Cuban cigar box. Also bonding items :)

One funny moment of the day was when my dad ordered a ginger ale at lunch and the waitress said, "ginger ale? We don't have, but we have hoegaarden." Even after I tried to explain to her it was a soda, like Coke or Sprite, her response was "oh you want a Coke?" Poor thing.

Needless to say, it's hard to fail at giving the family a fun D.C. outing when you throw in really good food, artsy stuff, live street music and nice weather. A glorious way to spend a Satuday afternoon.

I'm a little creeped out by this...

2010-04-14T15:12:00.003-04:00

I moonlight, if you will, (that sounds so Delilah) on a weekly Discovery Channel podcast called the "Friday News Feedbag." I've blogged about it before (this week I'm hosting!) and the way it works is there are three guys on the show -- James, Jorge and Will -- and when one of them is out of the office, then I take their spot.

It's all about quirky science news and both James and Jorge (Will usually hosts) present the craziest, weirdest science stories they can find. The running joke is when I fill in for James, I become "Lames," and "Lorge" or "Laurge" if I'm filling in for Jorge, because the listeners pick their favorite story each week and since I'm only on part time, a vote for one of my stories goes to the guy I'm filling in for.

Anyway it's a lot of build up for this image we received today on the Bag's Facebook fan page:

The guy took our photos off our contributors pages on Discovery News. We were all a little creeped out. Also, impressed by the Photoshop skills. I guess now I'm truly famous.

One of Stephen's best...

2010-04-14T09:13:00.005-04:00

Stephen Colbert had German ambassador to the UN Hans Beinholt come on The Colbert Report and denounce "cupcakes" and "children's birthday parties." Tad and I couldn't breathe after watching this. One of Colbert's best. Watch until the end -- it's totally worth it. I promise.

The Colbert Report

Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Thought for Food - Mentally Ill Advertisers & German Cupcakes

www.colbertnation.com

Colbert Report Full Episodes

Political Humor

Fox News

Writer's note: I had the name wrong when I first posted this. My apologies!

MVA headaches and rabbits

2010-04-13T11:54:00.008-04:00

No one has a good story about the DMV (Dept. of Motor Vehicles) and in Maryland, it goes by another name - Motor Vehicle Administration - but a rose by any other name still sucks.

Called the MVA today because I had ordered renewal tags for my car about a month ago, but still haven't received the tags within the 10 business day window. However, credit card was charged the $128 the day after I submitted my request.

MVA employee: "oh, well you should have gotten them a week ago. I'll put in a request to have them mailed out to you again."

Me: "Mail them again? Can I just come in to an MVA and pick them up?"

MVA employee: "If you did that, we would charge you a processing fee. Mailing them again is free."

Seriously?!? How does that make sense. My offering to come in is free to you, MVA! What if I end up receiving both tags in the mail eventually? What's stopping me from using the other set of tags on another car, two for one, other than being a solid citizen? Or what if someone else is getting two sets of free tags at my expense?

Alas, another temporary tag to be printed out to get me through the 10 business day allotment once again. So annoying.

In other news, I'm a huge nerd. As I'm struggling through Anna Karina, I'm also re-reading Watership Down in tandem as a relief from strife in the Soviet. I was having a conversation with a coworker about my strange reading habits and he informed me that Watership Down was not only made into a full-length animated film, but you can also watch the entire thing on YouTube. Who knew?!

I loved that when he sent me a link to it, the subject of the email was simply, "Rabbits."

Terra Cotta Warriors: Cool, Meh

2010-04-10T09:49:00.007-04:00

Writer's Note: Hey Always Fishing fans, you'll know once again my posts have become more infrequent. My beloved 7-year-old Dell has finally kicked the bucket, dead and gone for good, so my blogging capabilities have been reduced to when I can wrestle my boyfriend's computer away from him to write. Not easy when you're dating a grad student who has papers due constantly. I hope to have a new machine soon, but in the meantime, bare with me and I will try to update at least once a week.

That being said, it's no surprise to you why I'm just now blogging about my excursion to the final showing of the Terra Cotta Warriors last week.

Thousands of larger-than-life statues guarding an ancient emperor, as a big history enthusiast, I was really excited to see them. I had heard for months that it was an incredible exhibit and had been dying to go since I first found out they were coming to the National Geographic Museum in D.C. last November. Somehow, time got away from me and suddenly it was the end of March and the exhibit was closing March 31.

Thanks to a savvy friend, Tad and I were able to score two tickets to the final showing through ThingsToDoDC.com (it's a great website site for events, but it's more geared towards singles wanting to meet singles, so if you're in a relationship, skip the "receptions").

I'll spare you the details of the exhibit because what is on the NatGeo website for it is all the exhibit had to offer. Maybe a little less.

Tad and I had a lovely date night and certainly enjoyed going, but both of us felt a little disappointed. I for one was expecting more warrior statues, and we counted only seven. We were also sort of bummed at how many things in the exhibit were replicas, and that the whole thing was more "here they are! Enjoy!" and didn't explain, how the statues were removed, cleaned, reassembled, how long it took, how they were shipped here, what was next for them and the biggest puzzlement: what and where archaeologists going to dig next. The only indication given was that they were not going to touch the emperor's burial tomb.

So was the exhibit cool? Yes. Did it live up to the hype? Meh.

We did get a nice picture out of it:

Notice: Replica. Also, Poor Tad, I was wearing high heels that night :)

Top Chef DC Filming in Silver Spring?!?

2010-04-06T17:24:00.007-04:00

One of my friends at work took a stroll over to Whole Foods in Silver Spring today, and snapped a photo of this posted sign in the store with her phone.

For those of you who aren't regular Bravo network watchers, Magical Elves, Inc. is a production company that produces several shows for them, including Project Runway, Treasure Hunters and -- TOP CHEF!

And scenes where chefs are racing through Whole Foods, punching each other out to get the last fresh cut of fish for the day, is a quality show staple.

Not going to lie, totally going to conveniently forget multiple items off my grocery list one day at a time so I just HAVE to run over to my local Whole Foods to buy it. Seriously, I think it'll attract more people to the store. Great marketing and legal tool, Whole Fools. BONUS!

Help me out!

2010-04-05T17:21:00.003-04:00

Hello readers,

I need your help with a project I'm working on for Discovery.

I don't usually use my personal blog as a platform for work stuff, but this project was my idea and I think it would be awesome if I could collect photos from as many places as possible.

For the next few days, Mercury and Venus will appear together in the sky. That's where you come in: I need photos of them! More details HERE.

How to submit them to Discovery is in the link above. One guy from Denver submitted gorgeous photos, as you will see at the bottom of the post.

DEADLINE IS THURSDAY, APRIL 10. Many thanks!

Erin -- I feel like a moron not remembering to ask you while you were still in Australia. That would have been awesome, sigh. Oh well, safe travels!

Happy Easter!

2010-04-04T09:05:00.006-04:00

It seems I've become the default holiday blogger on my team, which is sort of funny because most holidays we have in the U.S. today have religious roots and I am not a church goer (outside of a Christmas Eve or Easter Sunday mass once in a blue moon).

However, in the past I've written on the history of Halloween, Marti Gras, St. Patrick and yes, now Easter.

Read this to find out what the Easter Bunny has to do with Jesus. Short answer: Nothing, the Easter Bunny is a pagan symbol.

Interesting too -- and I didn't include this in the Discovery blog because of all the religious fanatics already going to town in the comments section -- but through researching that topic I found one religious history professor's paper that said one of the reasons Easter is a movable holiday is so the Catholic church can pick a Sunday that won't interfere with Passover observances.

Just click on the Easter blog if nothing else than to be cuted out by the photo my coworker lent me of his 3-week-old pet bunnie buns.

Speaking of bunnie buns, allow me to take you back to how I commemorated Easter on this blog last year with GIANT BUNNIES!!!!

And let us not forget that Easter means another edition of WaPo's PEEP Show!

More to come on this blog post later, for now it's time for me to locate my white gloves and wide brimmed hat. Happy Easter!

Spaced Out

2010-03-30T15:24:00.009-04:00

Don't you just LOVE satellite photos of space? Does your heart leap in your chest when NASA publishes it's Image of the Day -- a satellite image of a different place on Earth -- on it's Earth Observatory website? Are you anxiously searching for huge photos and slide shows of weather and volcanic eruptions seen from space?

No? Is that just me?

Well, even if your heart remains calm when faced with gorgeous space images, you should still follow this guy on Twitter.

Astronaut Soichi Noguchi (Twitter name: Astro_Soichi) takes a photo every couple of hours out of a portal window on the International Space Station and posts them on Twitpic.

He's just using a little point-and-shoot but when your subject is THE ENTIRE EARTH, it's kind of difficult for every photo not to come out absolutely amazing -- spy satellite quality, even.

"Mt. Fuji, JAPAN. On the morning of my 100th day on orbit :-)"
-- Soichi Noguchi

EXtreme Coffee Pouring

2010-03-29T14:33:00.006-04:00

As I was perusing the internet on my lunch break with my afternoon cup of coffee, I came across this story about a cup of coffee from the Washington Post that struck me as wild.

The story is framed around an owl-tattooed, former Army nurse turned owl-tattooed, coffee barista who sometimes competes, sometimes judges a "latte art throwdown" at the Baked & Wired in Georgetown. The competitions for cash-and-beer prizes are described as "guerrilla-style... go head-to-head at the espresso machine" to make beautiful and delight flowery and leaf milk patterns on top of a cup of coffee.

And this isn't a D.C. thing. Apparently there are "Latte Throwdowns" from coast-to-coast.

Who knew there was a "coffee scene" outside of the enormous lines of dozing strangers at Starbucks. People standing on the side lines cheering on two contenders at dueling espresso machines, like watching an egg-on-the-spoon race or a game of flip cup.

This cracked me up (from the article)... "It really gives coffee professionals that 'nerd time,' for lack of a better term," said one coffee shop patron. "Yet it can be a totally non-elitist thing."

Non-elitist? Ha! Not so unlike the wine snobs, liquor snobs, food snobs and snobs of other luxury goods, certainly the coffee snobs have a secret nose-in-the-air society and a distinct French roast air about them. Good to know they're a welcoming bunch.

Randoms

2010-03-25T14:19:00.012-04:00

I came across a bunch of fun links today, all too short to turn into full posts. Plus these links do the talking for me.

A school in England has been called "The Worst School Ever" for faking a teacher being shot to death in front of dozens of young students. I have to say I don't disagree. Someone is definitely getting fired over this. Or sued.

It's not always fun to get the scoop. As if the health care debockle wasn't complicated enough, Politico and The Atlantic published blogs on "an iffy memo" about health care that was supposedly a secret draft document from some office in the Democratic leadership in Congress. It was a hoax. Well done.

SIDE NOTE: Does anyone else think of balloon boy when they hear or read the word 'hoax,' or am I alone on that one?

Bad photo-op for Pelosi, especially since the Republicans are painting the health care bill town red with her name.

Lingerie football league players were chastised and put on probation for wearing TOO MUCH clothing. Come on, you've got to be true to the game, right?

How to make maps look beautiful and artsy (Allie, this link is for you).

Facebook is just for fun. Twitter is short lived. So head hunters are turning to LinkedIn to see if you're serious about your career.

Office Scandal

2010-03-23T14:22:00.003-04:00

The latest office scandal up for debate...

We found this message scrawled on a PLEASE CLEAN YOUR DISHES message taped to the office refrigerator...

From the coworker who started it all: 'Our office kitchen's response to dirty dishes: "Every time you don't rinse a dish, God kills a kitten!" Who wrote this!?!?!?'

This has led to a fiery burst of comments from coworkers back and forth.

My contribution was I thought the kitten looked like Darth Vader. "I find your lack of faith (in making sure the dishes are clean) disturbing."

Play-by-Play

2010-03-22T21:35:00.006-04:00

Live play-by-play action of my actions during the (4)Maryland vs. (5)Michigan State game yesterday.

Disclaimer: We were fairly certain if the Terps could triumph in this game, they could go to the Elite 8 for the first time since 2002 when we won the national championship.

SUNDAY, MARCH 21
2:18 pm: Return from a huge lunch at a local Greek place full of gyro and spanakopita.

2:30 pm: I grab one recliner, boyfriend gets the other. Flip on the game.

2:41 pm: Score 2-4 Michigan. Terps can't get a rebound and Vasquez misses his first 3. Yawn.

2:43 pm: Yawn, stretch, "I wonder if we'll..."

2:44 pm: Snooooooozzzzzzzeeeee... MmMmMm nap, nap, nap, nap...

3:30 pm: "Wha, wha?" "Oo0oh, you're wake again? Nice of you to join us."

HALF TIME, score: 39-48 Michigan. "Oh great, glad I missed so much."

3:55 pm: Game's back on. Second half.

4:18 pm: Score 51-67 Michigan. Terps can't get a rebound and Vasquez misses some free throws. Yawn. Pick up magazine, thumb through it. Boyfriend has the hoodie on his sweat shirt over his eyes.

4:33 pm-4:43 pm: Hey, we made one. Hey, they missed one. We made one. They missed one...

4:47 pm: Score 73-80 Michigan. Vasquez makes a two point jumper.

4:49 pm: Score 79-80. I'm out of my chair now. Boyfriend has been out of his chair for the past 10 minutes. Pacing. Yes.. yes... go... go.. ALL RIGHT!

4:50 pm: Score 81-80 Maryland up for the first time in the second half. GOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGO. 0:39 to play. Michigan calls a time out. "YEAH YOU BETTER CALL A TIME OUT!"

4:51 pm: NO! YES! NO! NO! YES! GOOD! YES!!!! They make a two point jumper. We make a two point jumper. Score 83-82 Maryland. We got this, we got this, we got this!!!

4:51 pm: Michigan has the ball, 3 seconds to play, dribbles, we got this, we got this, Michigan's Draymond Green launches it from almost half court.

Time freezes.

No effing way.

4:51 pm: BERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRNNNNNNNNTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

4:51 pm: Michigan makes 3-point bucket. Woosh. Final score: 83-85 Michigan wins.

4:55 pm: Pick our mouths up off the floor. WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!?!?!?!?!!?!?!?!?! WHA WHAT WHA!?!?!?! ARE YOU... ARE YOU.. ARE YOU KIDDING? ARE YOU EFFING KIDDING ME!?!?

4:56 pm: Super ego stops id from punching a hole in the wall just in the knick of time.

MONDAY, MARCH 23
8:02 am: Still depressed.

10:48 am: Caught up on all the Facebook discussions "ugh... lame... sad..."

9:55 pm: Sigh. Next year.

Luck o' the Irish

2010-03-18T20:21:00.005-04:00

I had more than one person tell me I was so noble for coming back to work from my mini-vacation on St. Patrick's Day. But that didn't stop Tad and I from celebrating.

After spending a long weekend in Brooklyn for my brother's birthday (post about that to come later), Tad and I could have easily stayed at home last night and not regretted it. However, it wasn't just any Wednesday, it was St. Patrick's Day so we felt we should toast our heritages at least once.

Heading down to our neighborhood Irish pub house, we were surprised to find a long line out the door at 7:30 p.m., even more surprised at home many couples with young children were ahead of us.
Inside, we easily weaseled our way to seats at the bar, despite the crowds and ordered up some green beers -- which turned out to be Miller Lite with green food coloring, what a gyp, but at least we knew what to expect.

And hey, it was green :)

It's funny when the green beer and Irish car bombs are flowing and the excellent live music is playing the sort of fellow bar patrons you end up talking to. We talked to two guys from Ireland, one who said he moved to the U.S. when he was 6 months old, and one who moved here four years ago from Dublin for a contractor gig at the Pentagon. We even got into a light-hearted argument with a guy wearing a green Boston Red Sox shirt over whether or not the Yankees sucked more.

All in good drinking...

The one that made the most impression on me was the wounded veteran sitting at the bar next to us. He could have been older than 30.

As we're waiting for our second round and the live band in the corner started up again with The Eagles' "Take It Easy," I looked over and noticed the guy sitting next to me had hearing aids. Then I saw him hand his army ID to the bartender. After talking to him a little, turns out he lost his ability to hear in one ear while serving in Afghanistan and then lost hearing in the other ear while serving in Iraq. He just got out of Walter Reed this week fitted with the hearing aids and he told us it was the first time he had been able to hear his own voice in months. I don't remember how many rounds we end us buying for him, but I definitely know we thanked him for serving many times over.

Soup's On

2010-03-10T20:38:00.012-05:00

I didn't mean to turn this into a food blog, but alas this is where the typing has taken me.

I've been on a real soup kick this winter season, making soup that is. Maybe it's the harsh winter we've had or my very strange way of needing to be busy, but soup has become a staple on my dinner table almost every other week. Onion soup, potato and leak soup, zucchini and smoked Gouda soup (oh yeah, so incredibly divine), the ever classic beef stew... just something about eating soup not from a can that's so comforting.

I think it's also the feeling of accomplishment in trying something new, combined with making food with the purpose if sharing that has appealed to me. I had an acupuncturist tell me once that she could tell from the way my kidneys felt that I liked to feed and care for people. Come to think of it, that sort of weirded me out.

Anyway.

Thanks to my Soup Bible (gift from mom), my warm liquid food cravings have been satisfied. No really, that's what it's called...
There's one soup I've been stuck on for a few rounds because it's tasty and so, so good for you (lots of vitamins!). It's is a roasted red bell pepper soup, and while it looks complicated, it's very easy to make.

First, cut the red peppers in half and clean them of seeds, stem and any other insides (you can also throw in yellow or orange bell peppers with this, it'll alter the sweetness a bit. I use only red because they have the most vitamins out of all the bell peppers).Place on a cookie sheet on some foil (peppers will ooze a little so this gives you easy clean up) and stick under the brolier on high. The time varies based on how new your oven is, but for my oven it took about 15 minutes. Just keep an eye on them until the skin looks like this...When they're black, stick them in a food storage bag lying side-by-side, seal the bag, and let them cool. The moisture building up in the bag will make the skin peal easier. Doing this makes the peppers tastes more sweet and less bitter.While they cool, chop a small yellow onion, stick it in a sauce pan covered in vegetable stock. Bring to a boil and leave it there for about 5 minutes then take off the heat (this differs from the book. I find if you leave it on the burner, the onions can burn).When the peppers have cooled, take out of the bag and peel off as much of the skin as you can. Doesn't have to be perfect, but the more you can peel off, the more velvetly the soup will taste. At least get all the burnt bits off.Chop the peppers, add to the onion, cover with more veggie stock. Bring to a boil and let sit for 5 minutes.Now the fun part, using a food processor or a blender, blend everying in the pot. I usually leave mine a little chunky. Add in herbs, whatever you want. I add Italian seasoning, bascially.
When blended, pour in bowls and serve with a dolup of sour cream. The book recommends plain yogurt, but I'm not a fan. Delicious!

Coffee Break

2010-03-08T09:50:00.007-05:00

My mom forwarded this to me. I always wonder where people come up with this stuff. It's a portrait of the Mona Lisa made out of cups of coffee -- not even sponsored by Starbucks!

Thanks, Mom!

The 3,604 cups of coffee were each filled with different amounts of milk to create the different shades.

Founding Farmers

2010-03-07T20:57:00.007-05:00

Everyone enjoys a good meal, but I have a few friends who pride themselves on being picky eaters and one in particular who is an absolutely delightful food snob.

Using her advanced palette, she can detect when the shrimp on her salad has been previously frozen then thawed. She can tell when the "gourmet" pizza crust was made fresh that day or shipped in last week. Even when vegetables in stir fry are organic or not.

So imagine my excitement when she first told me about Founding Farmers in D.C. and how their food was some of the best eats she's ever had.

An American cuisine restaurant -- obvious when one of their most prized dishes is fried chicken and waffles -- located across the street from the Mexican embassy, the idea behind Founding Farmers is to work with and purchase from local, organic farms. When products are available, you see them on the menu, and all breads, pastries, even ice cream, are made in house.

Not just good eats, FRESH good eats.

Clearly the secret is out because when I tried to make a reservation last week the hostess told me, "the earliest I can seat you for dinner is 9:15, I suggest you try a walk-in reservation and see if someone cancels." When I went out there this past Thursday night with Simone and Jen, we were faced with a two and half hour walk-in wait, and were lucky enough to squeeze in some chairs at the bar.

I was impressed with the restaurant itself. Mostly light wood and grey fixtures, with small hanging lights over a gorgeous grey stone table. The kind of place you could take your friends out for drinks or impress your in-laws with. I also just found out they're D.C.'s first LEED-certified restaurant, so bonus for all us pro-earth people.

Food: absolutely to die for. Although I completely abused my body and it retaliated later. My heart especially, I'm sure.

To start, I enjoyed a tasty whiskey and orange drink called "Farmer Jon," one the bartender claimed was his favorite. Followed by salami flat bread and mac & cheese with peas and ham (suggestion from sad food snob friend). The best way to describe it is the salami, melt-in-your-mouth. The pasta, velvety soft and the cheese, creamy, smooth and filling.

What did I tell you? But if you're going to indulge, indulge in good food.

I was also intrigued by Jen's ordering the "popcorn of the day" appetizer. Last Thursday's was barbecue. You're probably picturing popcorn covered in sauce but it was more like a slight kick of seasoning. Surprisingly delicious.

I slept so well after that meal, and let me tell you, it's a good thing the closest metro home was 15 blocks away.

Photo courtesy of Founding Farmers. I was a half hour late to dinner so didn't want to stop, and walking out I was too stuffed to function.

Randoms

2010-03-03T10:27:00.009-05:00

Taking a page out of Emily and Lauren's book, some fun, random links...

I blogged about how food exports in Chile -- including wine :( -- might be affected in the aftermath of the recent megaquake and tsunami. Hope you like USDA reports.

Seventeen Mag goes to prom, and the dresses are more hideous than ever before. Although I think my little sister owns the dress in photo #8. Awesome. (Thanks Emily G)

More phishing: Restaurants are now adding a 'Health' charge?

Almost every song sounds better when the Chipmunks sing it. Ke$ha's "Tik Tok" is no exception. (Thanks Emily Y)

To all LOST fans: Was "Catch a Falling Star" ruined for life for anyone else? I just want to know what's going on already!!!!! Although Tad and I agree that our lives will never be the same again after the finale.

I can't stop looking at #5 EMO bunnie (or is it Bun-Eh?).

I'm really excited to see the new Alice in Wonderland. Hopefully it'll be just as good as the 1903 version.

Glow-in-the-dark SQUIDS!

Phished

2010-03-02T22:39:00.003-05:00

There are more people on University of Maryland's campus on a given school day than who are permanent residents in my hometown county.

So you never would think it would be the target of a phishing scam.

I got a call to my cell phone yesterday morning that went something like this, "Hello, this is the National Bank of said county. Your account with us has been blocked. To remove the block, please call us back at this number."

Interesting. I closed my account with the National Bank in middle school. And I didn't have a cell phone in middle school.

Called the bank, called the police. Did NOT call that number back. Then called my credit card, called my actual bank to report it and put alerts on all my accounts.

Several hours of round robin games of telephone, the police called me back this morning. The FBI is now investigating a phishing scam in my county, where they believe someone got a hold of a "do not call list" and for some reason is targeting the area, which is how they got my cell phone number. The National Bank was just a conscience.

My dad put it perfectly. "It's such a shame that people would waste such incredible talent on something like this," he told me during one of our many phone conversations these past 36 hours.

So bizarre that such a condensed, rural area was targeted, but it's also terrifying to think about. Cyber criminals are becoming more sophisticated than ever before. This is way beyond Ocean's Eleven. For example, two hackers in San Francisco were just picked up for their phone phishing scheme with Toyota customers, The Washington Post reported yesterday.

If you receive any weird automated phone messages or texts, DO NOT CALL THE NUMBER BACK. According to the police, it establishes a connection with the hacker as a valid number. Be careful with emails too, some criminals will copy and paste actual bank or other promotional email alerts for a hacking blast. AOL had this happen a few weeks ago. Check the return email address to make sure it's legit.

Haircut and Love Poems

2010-02-28T22:52:00.013-05:00

I bought these tulips a few day ago. What started out as buds in a pot are now two-foot-tall flowers.

I used the weekend to take it easy and sleep. Lots of sleeping. I read a study once that proved you can never actually "catch-up on sleep" but after all the time I've spent in bed, I feel like a whole new woman. Today was really the first day I ventured out.

My first stop was Bang in Chinatown for a haircut. Tourist tip: while they're still on the pricey side, Bang Salons are the most reasonably priced salons I've found in the city that have sleek, professional hair stylists. I really appreciate how they consult with you about what you want and give you several options before they even pick up a brush.

Anyway, today's goal: Cut and blend in the freaky blond splotch I have in my dark brown hair. It's a birth mark, but several hairdressers have asked me, "umm, did you dump peroxide on your head before you came in here?" The one today was no different.

I'll spare you the details and just show you the result:

Ta-da! I like it, though the color is lighter than I wanted it, but it's not orange, which is what the stylist said might happen if we pile on a dark dye. Good! Also, those bangs were fun for about two minutes, but now we have spats.

After pampering, I met up with Ruth in Dupont. A quick stop for a bite to eat at Zorba's Greek cafe for gyros (heros? yeros? eros? I never know) off Connecticut Ave., then we headed to a vintage and used bookstore I found online called Second Story Books on P Street.

Coming from a family of big time readers -- we just inhale books, my dad especially -- I was on the hunt for unique gifts and Ruth graciously obliged to check it out with me.

What I was expecting was a dusty, dimly-lit store full of torn and faded books of the past, so you can imagine how surprised I was to find most of the collection was contemporary used books. Hell, we found The Da Vinci Code among the shelves and boxes. A few locked cabinets held the ancient volumes I had anticipated, but anything behind lock and key is beyond my price range.

I ended up with two books -- a 1994 ed. re-purposed collection of the original 1892 Sherlock Holmes stories and a 1902 book of love poems. It was the inscription inside the poem book that made me buy it.

July 8-18, 1927
"Good bye to you Lil,
May the words of this book
bring many fond memories
of an almost blissful
summer romance -
'Till we meet again, Matt"

Ruth and I were both tearing up and I couldn't let it go, even though I felt a little disrespectful sneaking into (and purchasing) some one's private thoughts.

Total for the purchases: $9. Bargain!

I could spend entire afternoons in bookstores, but I feel a store like this where the books themselves have a story to tell outside the pages is truly special. Our next venture is to find the vintage bookstore President Obama visited shortly after he took office.

What can we do?

2010-02-25T21:48:00.007-05:00

Usually, my animal rights friends call me a hypocrite because while I believe all animals should be treated with care and kindness, and I'm willing to pay more for meat if it was from free-range livestock, but if filet mignon or grilled shrimp are on the menu, it's pretty much guaranteed I'm ordering it.

That being said, I don't know why, but I've been having these pangs of sadness for this situation in Orlando with the orca whale killing its trainer. It's a terrible tragedy for the family who has lost their loved one, but on the other hand, my heart goes out to the killer whale. Here's this wild creature that was captured off the coast of Iceland and has been forced to breed and perform on cue in literally a bathtub for decades.

That's not natural. Can you imagine being forced to dance in your shower for food while people clapped?

My team at Discovery has done several stories about the orca's behavior and why it acted so violently, even why it had killed before, so it's something I've been immersed in every day since it happened, which is probably why it's starting to get to me. But clearly this animal is unhappy, even if SeaWorld is giving it the best care and nothing -- so far -- is being done to change it. Why?

Killer Whale Trainer Death Tied To Mating, Isolation
Should Killer Whales Be Kept in Captivity?
Killer Whale Testosterone Surges Documented by SeaWorld

To top it off, I've also been working on a slide show about endangered tigers this week too. Did you know there are only 200 white tigers left in the entire world? That's including the ones that are in zoos and nature reserves! Several conservation programs believe that all tigers in the wild will be extinct in our lifetime.

When we learned the alphabet in grade school, wasn't it "T" for tiger? Can you imagine them going extinct?

Why? Well, because of poaching, habitat loss, climate change and on and on and on. And then back to the whales, not only are we stealing them from their natural environments, but also researchers have now found a "garbage patch" in the ATLANTIC Ocean, not to mention the one in the Pacific that's been there for years, and on and on and on...

Ah! It's too much! The helplessness and hopelessness of it all is too heavy. What do we do? What can we do?

I have to say I've grown a greater respect for those animal rights friends of mine who have been thinking about these things and more for years, and will continue to think and act to protect animals years from now. I don't think I could handle it.

Who samples 20 minutes of three classes at once? Honestly...

2010-02-23T12:21:00.011-05:00

This really made my lunch break.

An article in New York Magazine featured an email exchange between acclaimed NYU business professor Scott Galloway and one of his students who was a HOUR LATE to his Monday night class. Thank you, Tad for sending my way.

Grab the popcorn, and let the email blood bath begin... HERE.

I have to say I think I side with the professor on this one. The student acts like he's never been in an academic institution before.

Moron. How hard is it to ask another student who took the class last semester, "hey, how was that class with Dr. Galloway"? As I recall, NYU's Stern Business School is pretty prestigious so it's not like it would have been overwhelming or even hard to find someone, maybe someone like a T.A. perhaps? The article points this out too.

For all you Maryland broadcast jschool students, doesn't this sound like an email Dr. T would send if any of us ever DARED to show up an hour late to 360/361? I think I would fake death before ever tempting fate with the great one.

Blog Redesign

2010-02-22T18:32:00.006-05:00

Avid readers, look! New blog design!

While I loved the how the black background really made my text and photos pop, it was also making me feel dreary, so I'm going to try out a few new templates and colors schemes this week. Or maybe just stick with this one for now until I get bored with it. Just as long as it's not going to remind me of the piles of grey snow melt all over the city.

I need some COLOR!

I'm open to ideas, thoughts, suggestions for how I can change it up, if you have any! I know a few html tricks but not enough to hack Blogger... yet! ... so please, all ideas welcome!

The photo in my banner is one I took earlier this month of the underbelly of a train bridge in my neighborhood.

Crafty

2010-02-21T22:16:00.006-05:00

This is just one thing that can happen when I find myself with an hour to kill before I have to get ready to go out. I get crafty.

Yes. I painted a flower pot. It's for a fern plant thing from IKEA that not only has survived these past few months, but has separated and grown into two fern monsters. I even took the time to cut up a sponage to make sure the pretty diamond shapes were even, picked out some pretty colors and painted a pretty flower pot. On a Saturday evening. All while half dressed to go out to a bar.

Eat your heart out Home & Garden Network.

The bar we went to was Buffalo Billards in Dupont for Sam's "Gone Away" party (she left D.C. a few months ago in a rush and this was her first weekend back). And oh did we ever have a fabulous time! The dj (and other bar patrons surrounding the dance floor) either loved our enthusiasm or were overjoyed to see us leave, and that's all I have to say about that.

I'll post photos once I get them. Or maybe not...

I was shocked at how HUGE the place was! Billards, darts, dance floor all nicely tucked away in a basement bar that looked the size of a D.C. city block. Drinks were a little pricy (a Yaungling draft cost the same as a Jack&Ginger that comes in a 4 oz. glass? Come on). It was also great that the flat screen TVs covering the walls had the Olympics on because it gave everyone in our mixed crew something to talk about, but it was a bit of a buzz kill when you're trying to shake your groove thing to Britney and someone wipes out on a bobsled right behind you.

The best part of the night was that even though Sam, Amy, Jess and a few others in our group last night hadn't seen each other in weeks... even months... it was like we picked up right where we left off. Carrying on without missing a beat. That's when you know you're in good company.

Curling condoms

2010-02-19T13:18:00.007-05:00

As if the sport of curling wasn't hilarious enough all by itself, come to find out they have their own condoms. WITH A MARKETING CAMPAIGN!!!!

From TodayShow.com:
"The U.S. Curling Association has its own official condom: “Hurry Hard,” named for a phrase curlers cry to encourage faster ice-sweeping. Vancouver organizers have stocked the Olympic Village with 100,000 condoms... which works out to 14 for each of the 7,000 athletes, coaches, trainers and officials housed in the Games’ two villages."

"The citizens of the village are young, remarkably healthy, and the definition of physically attractive. In such an environment, flirting is as natural as breathing."

Is there's really anyhing else to say but... WOW, and good job! I'll never be able to watch curling without giggling again, and I had just gotten over it from when I first watched them at the 2006 Winter Games, with the brooms and the intense faces... I have to stop myself there...

Get the full story here. Happy Friday!

Photo credit: HO / Reuters

Random rants too small for individual posts

2010-02-17T16:03:00.010-05:00

OLYMPICS: I'm really getting into the Olympic skiing events. Incredible, aren't they? I can barely twist in midair off a diving board, let alone backflip off an icy jump going 90 mph on skis! I wonder how they train for the mogul events. My theory is they start on a trampoline first and then someone just pushes them out of a chair lift a couple hundred times so they get the feel for it.

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PEOPLE: Dear girls in the office wearing short sleeve shirts in winter,

What the hell is the matter with you? Are you out of your mind? You expect me to believe that while I'm bringing in extra sweaters to put over my first sweater in this ice box of a shared office space that you are comfortable strutting around in a t-shirt? It's fricken' -8 degree outside!!! Not 80 degrees!!! As I sit here in my high-heeled, pointy-toed boots, I'm all about understanding the sacrifice of comfort for cute, but COME ON! It's WINTER TIME! It's okay to cover those pasty arms until spring. Everyone will understand.

Love, Lauren

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TECHNOLOGY: Have you gone back through who you're following on Twitter lately? You might surprise yourself how many useless people you've been mindlessly following since the time when Twitter was shiny and new and you went Follow button crazy.

I hadn't really thought about it until last night when I noticed that TomCruise was really starting to get on my nerves with his "@Somebody Thanks!" "@SomebodyElse Huh? Thanks!" tweets. UnFollow. Then I started going through the list and I'm ashamed to admit I had a lot to unfollow, including the entire cast of fake FRIENDS profiles, some other TV show, country artists that only talked about their upcoming tours, ABCNewsNews, the list continues. Ah, Twitter detox. I kept a few... let's say "junk food" feeds... just for my personal enjoyment *cough* LadyGaga *cough*.

==========================================================
MORE TECHNOLOGY: I once had a friend tell me that people in her office like to have competitions to see who can 1-Up one another.

I feel technology is now doing the same 1-Up game. Just as I was getting to know about FourSquare.com, a Twitter-esqe support site that lets you Google map where you are so people can find you (or avoid you, as the case may be), here comes along "PleaseRobMe.com" blowing up on everyone's tech blog. "PleaseRobMe.com" points out how stupid FourSquare is because duh, if you're at the coffee shop down the street, chances are your house is empty and willing.

Oh, the hilarity. I'm reminded of the Monty Python skit about an old lady who thinks she has new neighbors...
*Knock, knock, knock*
Old lady: "Who is it?"
Two men coming to rob her house: "It's the robbers!"
Old lady: "Oh! By all means! Come in!"

Making good use of all this snow

2010-02-16T22:23:00.022-05:00

Note: Apologies to readers, future posts may get fewer and far between. Christmas 2010 will mark my computer's 7th birthday and the past few times I've tried to blog -- or really just tried to get past the Welcome security screen -- the poor dear has frozen or crashed or whatever you call it when it's hanging on by its last megabyte threads. Goal is to have a new one purchased by this summer, so bear with me.

I felt fantastic today. Like really, really good. I want to believe it's because I just came back from a refreshing and active skiing/snowboarding long weekend, but it could also be that today I had my first cup(s) of coffee since last Thursday. Woooo flying high.

Tad, Nick, Ruth and I set out for the poconos late Friday evening to the tune of everything on our iPods, from Miley Cyrus to Madonna, from T. Pain to the Temptations, doing whatever possible to get through the four-hour drive to Olyphant, Pa., a suburb of Scranton -- yes, home of The Office. Yes, there are places that do sell Office t-shirts. We ate in one.

Saturday was the big day, delicious homemade subs from M-6 Deli, a place only the Greenleafs and Vice President Biden have ever heard of (probably), and six hours of night skiing at Camelback. I was getting back on skis for the first time since middle school, and Ruth was getting on skis for the first time ever. We were all VERY impressed with how well she did, proving to the world that in fact, her words, "Jews DO ski!"

Snow conditions: AWESOME. The mountain still had almost a foot of fresh snow left over from when the Round 2 blizzard hit the Mid-Atlantic just last week.

People conditions: Surpringly good. The lift lines were fairly short, considering it was a Saturday on a holiday weekend. We only had to watch out for the all the punk ass middle school kids who think they're so cool when they give you the finger as they cut you off on their little punk ass snowboards. One of these days...

No matter, I was back into my skiing grove, just like riding a bike, complete with jumps...

Okay that jump seemed a lot bigger when I was making it.

After waking up on Sunday morning and feeling every muscle in our bodies, we decided to take it easy. Tad and I took the opportunity to show Nick and Ruth some of the downtown Scranton highlights, including lunch at the famed Cooper's (puts Silver Spring's Piratz Tavern to shame) and the "Scranton (WHAT?) The Electric City" sign.

We spent the evening squeezing in a couple more hours of night skiing (I switched back to snowboarding, feeling on top of the world). The four of us then polishing off the weekend with excellent greasy food and a beer sampler (and a few +1's) at Barley Creek Brewing House for a late dinner.
Monday morning, it was time to leave. Even now, after working a full day it seems so weird that about 36 hours ago, I was shredding down mountains and thinking to myself how maybe if I practiced more, maybe I could be competitive for the 2020 winter Olympics. Definitely itching to get back, despite all the snow and cold. We know how to make good use of it.

Whiteout

2010-02-10T23:14:00.009-05:00

Some time in June 2009

Feb. 10, 2010. 2:34 p.m. after a second round of shoveling and plowing the streets.

You usually can see the train tracks from here just on the other side of the white building.

Sigh. One day, summer will come again.

I enjoyed the Washington Post's sense of humor about people trying to drive in whiteout conditions: Snow is falling and flakes are on the road.

Speaking of this storm...

2010-02-09T13:41:00.005-05:00

People are funny.

"A Safeway grocery store in the Dupont Circle area of Washington had milk and some bread Tuesday, but many other items were picked over from the last storm. There was no shredded cheese, and people who wanted Diet Coke or Brussels sprouts were out of luck," reported CBS News.

Tad at a grocery store in Silver Spring, Md. His text message to me was: "Omg you better love me lots for this."

A weather map I can follow

2010-02-09T13:12:00.006-05:00

Even though this is a map of the storm from this past weekend, not this one that's going to hit us today... still love it.

Also... I miss my alma mater

S'now Joke

2010-02-08T18:54:00.008-05:00

I was going to blog about Super Bowl Sunday... the story of the Saints' win and Google's commercial completely melted my heart...

But now I'm too distracted by WAVE 3 of 'Sno My Goodness Gracious When Will This Ever End,' or 'Snowpocalypse,' for short. This is getting SNO ridiculous.

Check this out... thanks Melmo for tweeting this. 'That poor little teddy bear didn't stand a chance'...

And no I'm not tired of the snow puns.

Millions of pounds of snow fell on our city. MILLIONS!!! Gotta do something to keep it interesting. Even Capital Weather Gang is now hosting a poll to name this next storm which could bring another FOOT of snow to our region.

What god did we piss off and how can we kiss and make up?

The office was a deserted waste land of 'pods' today (we don't call them cubes because they're more like half horseshoes desk things). I suspect the same will be for the rest of the week with this other storm coming tomorrow. On Friday, dozens of coworkers were milling around aimlessly, looking out the window, making phone calls, taking bets on when they were going to break down and finally go home before the panic got to be too much for them. Dozens more today were now unable of gettting out of their neighborhoods. As one coworker joked, "I'm staying in Virginia, so yeah, I'll see you guys next Monday."

And Snow It Begins

2010-02-06T19:45:00.017-05:00

SNOWpocalypse. SNOWmageddon. SNObliteration. SNObomination. SNObama. SNOgasm.

My favorite is still the one my coworker came up with: Snowtorious B.I.G., but snOMG! also holds a special place in my heart.

Lots of names for the TON of snow we got dumped on us in the past 36 hours. AGAIN.

Tad and I went out walking around in it today and it was definitely a more violent storm than Round 1. No, not this little storm earlier this week. THIS storm from December, where 18 inches of big cotton-like flakes fell at incredible speeds. This storm from today was like wave after wave of icy, hard snow creating fantastic snow drifts and other hazards. Still, we were able to have fun with the 27 inches that fell in our neighborhood.

I'll stop here with the snow details because I know it's the only thing the news has talked about today and show you some fun pictures instead:

Facebook friends, see my profile for more shenanigans.

I was sad to miss out on the enormous snowball fight in Dupont Circle at 2 p.m. (and I was even officially Facebook invited!!!). BTW, AMAZING WaPo video of the action HERE. Maybe if I had some cross country skis I could have made the 8 miles trek, but with half of the Metro system shut down, it wasn't going to happen.

And did you hear we're expected to get more on Tuesday night/Wednesday? The aftermath from this monster won't even be melted by then. Insane right? What is going on?!?! AH! Must go buy bread!

I called my aunt, who is in Miami right now for the Super Bowl. She said to tell you all, "It's beautiful, 81 degrees and sunny here! And I'm sorry."

First Snow of the Week

2010-02-03T22:25:00.005-05:00

The weaker storm for this week. Barely a warm-up for what they're calling for this weekend in the D.C. region.

Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2010, 5:43 p.m., just as the snow started to fall.

Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2010, 8:12 a.m., the morning after.

It was so beautiful this morning to see all the trees holding several inches of snow.

Even on the chain link fences at a construction site.

The Groundhog Has Spoken!

2010-02-02T10:18:00.007-05:00

Producer to me: "That fucking groundhog always sees his shadow."

Big Pic I put together on Phil's shining moment. I think he looks like Elmer Fudd.

My favorite Groundhog Day headlines...

"US Winter To Last Six More Weeks, Says Groundhog"
-- Doesn't that just scream "competent superpower" to the world?

"Forget Groundhog Day! Feb. 2 = Marmot Day, Thanks To Sarah Palin"
-- Sigh. Again, who's happy she's not our vice president? This girl!

"Groundhogs Offer Contradictory Rulings on Big Day"
-- Poor groundhog, he weeps.

"Sammi The Pocono Groundhog Is Dead; Predicted More Winter on her Last Day"
-- Cheerful.

"Go Back in that Hole, Phil"
-- This is for you, Nick: That's what she said.

'I've always depended on the kindness of strangers...'

2010-02-02T09:14:00.004-05:00

While sitting at a BoneFish Restaurant in Frederick, Md., the kindest thing happened to us.

Tad, Stu and I were coming back from our snowboarding/skiing trip at Liberty -- Facebook friends, pics are posted -- when we stopped at BoneFish for dinner.

Sitting at the full service bar, we were in heaven with our fish tacos, shrimp fetachini and all the warm bread the bartender could bring us, fully entertained by the bartender's multitasking ability to flip off a beer top with a martini shaker while pouring all three of us water.

As we were finishing up, commenting on how close Maryland was to beating Clemson, an older gentleman sitting with his wife three seats away asked, "oh are you all Maryland fans?"

Tad proudly puffed out his chest to show his MARYLAND TERRAPINS sweatshirt. "Yeah, we all graduated from there."

"Go Terps!" the guy said. "Go Terps!" we replied.

We asked for the check and as soon as the bartender brought it over and we were fishing out our money, he came back, snatched away the receipt, threw in the trash and gave us the thumbs up sign.

"Uhh... whoa, what? What just happened?"

Bartender: "Don't worry about it. It's been taken care of."

He had to nod his head at least four times towards the older couple for us to get what had just happened. Somehow, in the span of minutes, maybe even seconds, the older couple had picked up our tab, just because we were Terps. Stu, Tad and I spent most of the car ride home that night saying things like, "I was so blown away by that!," "That has never happened to me before!," "Who does that anymore? Not many."

I've heard other people say to me when I've asked for advice or favors and then try to thank them, "hey, someone helped me out along the way once too. It's nice to be able to return the favor."

That was one incredible favor that'll stick with me for a long time, and I can't wait for the opportunity to return it.

How To Report the News

2010-01-29T15:39:00.003-05:00

Oh, how I love the Brits. Love, love, LOVE them.

One of my coworkers passed this around today. Newswipe is a mini-series on BBC4 that pokes fun at the inner workings of news media. Listen carefully to what Charlie is saying... hysterical!

State of the Union

2010-01-28T23:17:00.005-05:00

Okay, real quick. I just want to be pretentious for one hot second and share how amused I was that I had the same thoughts about Apple's new iPad as pretty much everyone else who read the announcement, AND I blogged about reaction to it a whole 27 1/2 hours before CNN had something live. HA!

Now on to the main event. I know I'm a full 24 hours late coming to the State of the Union commentating party, but better late than not to show up at all.

I thought last night kicked off nicely. I was on my way to my good friend Ruth's place for a SOTU viewing party when I had to pull over on Calvert St. to let the presidential motorcade through. Annoyed at first, that I was stuck at a green light, waiting for whatever was making the siren come around the corner, turned into almost-peed-my-pants excitement when a cop on a motorcycle turned into no less than 15 cops on motorcycles, countless black vans, an ambulance, numerous armored cars and the famed black limousine with the distinctive presidential seal on the side door flew past me on their way to Capitol Hill.

Of course I called my parents. Of course they told everyone in their office about it today.

Finally getting to Ruth's, a big group of us settled in with various beverages and cheese things, taking bets on what the theme would be (I promptly said that I read he was going to tell the country to calm the Eff down), armed with our SOTU BINGO cards and color commentary...

Obama: "I hated it. I hated it. You hated it. It was about as popular as a root canal."
Peanut Gallery at Ruth's: "Well, he just lost the dentist vote."

Obama: "This year, I will work with Congress and our military to finally repeal the law that denies gay Americans the right to serve the country they love because of who they are. It's the right thing to do."
Peanut Gallery at Ruth's: "Ahhh Petraeus looks happy about that!"

Obama: "That's how budgeting works."
Me: "SCHOOLED!"

The speech left me with mixed feelings. On one hand, I appreciated that Obama was aware and made a poignant effort to note that the biggest chunk of his audience was not sitting in the House chamber. On the other, I felt that at times I was getting a pep talk from my high school soccer coach: "Don't walk away from reform. Not now. Not when we are so close. Let us find a way to come together and finish the job for the American people."

The exports statement -- "We will double our exports over the next five years" -- had the whole room up in arms. I thought it was an out-of-the-blue thing to include. What does America export that the world will want two fold in the next five years? Are we the leading global exports in anything right now?

I was on board with his comments about energy jobs and high-speed rail, no pun intended -- although I think the energy jobs should be government positions if you're going to make a 60-year-old formerly employed auto worker learn how to build wind turbines. However, I was surprised we didn't hear more about the environment or oil dependence -- wasn't Copenhagen just a month ago?

Several of the pundits have complained that this speech was too long. As you can tell from the long-winded way I blog, that definitely didn't faze me. Obama's plate is just as full as it was a year ago and he still has a lot to prove in a short 10-month period before the country speaks in November.

Apple, Tapping into Women?

2010-01-27T16:30:00.010-05:00

Presenting, the iPad. Apple's latest tech creation. Doesn't this product seem so unnecessary? It doesn't solve any of my technology meshing problems.

It's a giant iPhone, right? To me it seems like a 15" laptop with the screen laid into the keyboard. Aren't you just begging to have the glass scratched and cracked, or covered in greasy fingerprints? I know I'm constantly wiping my touch screen phone on my sleeve or pants.

Plus, This is exactly what I thought of when I heard Apple's announcement of the iPad. Thank you, NPR for putting my thoughts together so eloquently for me.

Other names that were circling around -- iTablet, iSlate -- conjured up images of debating Roman senators and solid pieces of rock. Cool, yet indestructible and timeless.

iPad = brain reads as 'digital feminine product.' At the time of this post, 'iTampon' was already a trending topic on Twitter.

Prediction: It'll be a huge deal for about a month, then considered a failure.

Photo courtesy of Apple.

Word Junkie, NOT Math Junkie

2010-01-26T13:26:00.011-05:00

Currently reading (with 20 pages to go):
Love in a Dry Season, by Shelby Foote. A story about a twisted love triangle between some very miserable Mississippi families set around the time of the Civil War. Thank you, Dad.

Just ordered:
The Frittata Affair: Adventures in Four-Star Dining at Home, by Judy Pochini, a food writer who married a four star hotel restaurant chef and spins tales of how they turned four star quality meals into easy, healthy dinners for friends at home. Thank you, Mom. This one is on it's way to you soon!

The Art of Eating, by M.F.K. Fisher. A collection of five of her most popular essays. Erin wrote an incredible blog post about it today and now I'm completely intrigued -- hook, line and sinker. Thank you, Erin.

Game Change, by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin. I know. I know. I should be so ashamed. But I have friends who are completely gushing over it and others who are wrapping their scarfs around the outside cover while they read it on the metro, as if it's actually something embarrassing like Murder in the Hamptons. My curiosity can't hold out any longer.

My dad also got me Anna Karenina for Christmas, but that almost 1,000 page Russian novel intimidates me.

Oh yes regarding the math... God, I hate math. I really do. I appreciate that it exists. I'm in awe of people who can convert Fahrenheit to Celsius in their heads for fun (anyone get the West Wing reference there?), but it's not for me. Don't ask me to calculate the tip at the end of dinner. I'll choose the New York Times Sunday edition crossword over Monday's Sudoku any day, and that's not even real math! Not really.

Turns out this is one of those instances when I can blame someone else for this anxiety, *cough* Ms. Doggett, you second grade witch, *cough*. I LOVED this article, it made me feel so much better.

North To The Future

2010-01-25T22:32:00.006-05:00

Since my last post, there's been a lot of talk among my friends about the definition of living life, especially among the 'explorers.'

They say that it means that you wake up one day at 8 a.m., say "I think I'll go to Tibet today," and by 9 a.m. they have tickets waiting for them at the terminal.

Some say it's about always saying 'yes.' Want to try this weird squid dish? Sure. Feel like sky diving? Why not.

Others say it's about not knowing, just getting from the day to day with a wide open mind and see what comes down the road.

And of course there are those who believe in just working hard and sticking to a moral code.

I feel like I live by an uneven combination of all of them, with varying degrees. It's how I went from a target run, to having a nice dinner out at a Latin fusion restaurant by day, Latin rave club by night place, to seeing Kathy Griffin live to getting into the swanky rooftop club at the W hotel over looking the White House gardens on Saturday night.

But anyway, I bring this up because I read a story about the census today that struck a chord with me.

The U.S. Census Bureau has already begun the 2010 census in Alaska by going door-to-door, starting with the village of Noorvik in the frigid North, even though the rest of the nation will start off with getting census papers in the mail around March 15.

Why the special treatment? Two main reasons: one being the census officials are traveling by dog sled -- the easiest way to get around up there -- throughout the northern parts of the state and the ice will be too thawed to ride on by March. The other is many of the villagers are off on hunting and fishing trips during March and are gone for weeks at a time. They're not at home to fill out papers.

So the U.S. government is accommodating a few hundred people in the frozen tundra so these villagers can continue to live their lives the way they want to, to make a living and survive uninterrupted.

What an incredible way to live.

Where does your love map take you?

2010-01-21T10:50:00.004-05:00

Mine said I was a Builder/Director.

One of my coworkers and good friends Kasey interviewed Dr. Helen Fisher, author of "Why Him, Why Her" and founder of Chemistry.com. Dr. Fisher developed a personality test that helps people align their traits with others that fit well with their characteristics. Sort of like the Myers-Briggs test drunk on love and dipped in relationship juice.

Kasey passed it around the office and after eight pages of questions, Dr. Fisher's test said I was trustworthy, loyal and challenging, as well as I'm the executive type, efficient, respectful of schedules and social.

Some of the questions weirded me out -- like "what color best explains your personality?: Royal Blue, Red, Forest Green, Yellow." I picked Royal Blue because that's my favorite color, but I wonder if it means I'm less fun or something. Either way, Kasey tells me that Builder/Director is the same personality type of powerful political women.

Done. I'm running for Congress.

And I'm supposed to be with someone who is "devoted to family, sensible with money, responsible with possessions, compassionate, and wants to have detailed and informed conversations." Sounds about right.

See where you match up. Take the test here.

A tie would have killed you?

2010-01-19T20:52:00.008-05:00

This is a snotty post about dress. I'm giving you fair warning in case you want to bail out now.

I had the pleasure of taking part in my family's "annual pilgrimage" to New York City over the weekend. We go at least once a year, usually for my mom's birthday.

We went to see Finian's Rainbow on Broadway Saturday night. It's a revival of a 1940's satirical romance musical with everything from a sweet love story, to ballet, to harmonica solos, to leprechauns, to racial issues. Quite the clash of completely different arts and cultures.

Photo credit: Finian's Rainbow

Anyway, it was an evening performance on Broadway, so I wore a nice winter dress, with high heels and panty hose. My family followed suit with dresses and heels, coats and ties. But I was shocked, SHOCKED and appalled to be walking into the theater next to a kid in duct taped tennis shoes and a man in grey sweat pants and a Rangers jacket.

All around me, people sitting in the plush red velvet seats underneath multi-million dollar chandeliers and flashing lights were wearing jeans with holes in them, sweat shirts, hoodies, band t-shirts and baseball hats.

And we're not talking upper balcony, we're talking people sitting in the fourth, fifth, sixth row orchestra. Rangers jacket and son sat in the third row on the left hand side. Seats that cost $200-$300 a piece! I mean come on! A clean shirt and tie would have killed you?

I understand that the St. James Theatre is not the Russian Tea Room, but it's also not your middle school auditorium. I would have even been more understanding if this were a matinee performance and you managed to get tickets off the street at last minute. But this was an 8 o'clock evening show!

I can't explain why it bugged me so much, but I felt almost insulted. As if these people didn't think going to see a Broadway show was anything special to make an effort for. It sort of killed the ambiance of being transformed into a whole other world of exquisite mystery that theater can so easily do to a person. Also, it's just a matter of looking presentable in a nice place.

My dad will sometimes tell us stories about when he was a kid, you had to wear a coat and tie to travel on an airplane, or to go out to dinner, or go to the movies. The theater meant full, three-piece suits, or even tuxes, for the men, and fur shawls, diamond earrings and full-length evening gowns for the women. I'm not saying we have to completely go back to the fashion days of old, but I don't think having a mandatory dress code of nice shirts, pants, skirts and dresses for evening performances at Broadway theaters is too over the top.

Hell, even D.C.'s bowling alley has a mandatory dress code.

Haiti

2010-01-13T16:14:00.005-05:00

This disaster has consumed everyone around me since the quake hit last night, which is obviously understandable. Out of Haiti's population of around nine million, they're saying about 2-3 million people could die as a result of the aftermath, and this could be a greater horror than the Sumatra tsunami (where about 1.3 million people died).

Whenever something like this happens, I always feel a sense of sadness, helplessness and smallness. A need to help. A need to mobilize, organize, share. Questions about why is this so awful, why is Haiti such a mess took over almost our entire staff meeting today.

Clearly, my coworkers and I are not alone. Already almost all of the trending topics on Twitter have reverted to some form of #HelpHaiti. There were two groups and numerous fan pages about relief and donations on Facebook at the time of this post.

Even my mom emailed me to say she was cleaning out her closet tonight to dig out any extra clothes and bedding to donate. She encouraged me to do the same, which I did through Discovery's employee Haiti relief fund.

My team put together a package on the disaster. View it here.

According to several news sources, the most vital thing these people need is money. Here's part of a widget I built for our articles for some places where you can go to help:

The American Red Cross is accepting donations by phone. You can text "HAITI" to 90999 to donate $10 to the Red Cross's efforts, or call 1-800-Redcross or 1-800-257-7575. Visit their Web site to find out more.

Interaction, the largest coalition of U.S.-based NGOs focused on the world’s poor, has set up a Haiti relief donation page, listing several participating organizations where you can donate.

UNICEF is also accepting donations for the relief efforts in Haiti and the Caribbean region. Visit their Web site or call 1-800-4UNICEF to donate.

Bunch of randoms

2010-01-12T09:50:00.003-05:00

"Lauren's FAMOUS(er)!" or so somebody tweeted.

I had my first blog post for Discovery News go up last night. I got to go to the Department of Justice to cover their panel discussion on Stalking Awareness Month (that's January) and stalking victimization in the United States.

It was pretty wild. Read it here.

I had done several interactives and videos for the team, but this was the first time I was allowed to report and write a full piece on my own. My big break!

In other news... you probably know at least one person who fits one of these descriptions. I know I do. Hilarious!: 18 People You're Scared of on Facebook.

And for those of you who missed it last night (like me, because I was sleeping), here's what Conan O'Brien had to say about the late-night shift switch.

Maybe I rang in the New Year too strong?

2010-01-10T17:04:00.003-05:00

It is so true what they say about daytime television -- it will make any sick person beat the illness out of them for fear of death by horrible writing and tacky people.

The slave master bronchitis whipped my ass good starting Monday morning and finally beat me down midday Thursday, when I asked to work the rest of the day from home, and ended up in the ER with shortness of breath, tightness in my chest and fear of pneumonia (it wasn't). I spent Friday at home. And Saturday. And today.

Oh my God, get me well.

Not leaving the apartment since Thursday evening -- except to sneak out on the balcony for a few minutes to get my daily dose of fresh air -- has made me stir crazy and susceptible to awful TV watching. The Magic Bullet demonstration marathon (they practically have their own channel), Joan Rivers selling necklaces on QVC, cartoons and worst of all -- Keeping Up with the Kardashians (why are they famous again?) only to name a few.

In my finer hours, I also managed to watch a three-hour special about how the dinosaurs actually died (it was a combination of the world ending and disease), The Weather Channel (did you know it was 17 degrees in Atlanta today?), all of the news channels (FOX can be pretty funny) and 28 episodes of West Wing on DVD -- why yes, that is one full season and almost half of another.

I can't tell if my eyes hurt from my body trying to cough my lungs into oblivion or from doing the only thing I felt I could do when I wasn't sleeping.

Thankfully, I'm feeling better and have never been more excited to return to work tomorrow, to feel like I can contribute to the world once more.

Ringing it in strong

2010-01-04T20:43:00.013-05:00

Despite absolute, beyond-belief, frigid temperatures outside, I did not spend my first weekend of 2010 hibernating between a fluffy comforter and a heated mattress pad as planned. No, I was out and about, sporting my Eskimo shoes even (these FANTASTIC faux fur waterproof thermal boots my dad got me for Christmas. Beyond amazing).

The night of New Years, Tad and I took our first trip to the AFI Theatre to see 'Up In The Air.' It's not that we have anything against the AFI, loved the atmosphere, but mostly they host indie or foreign films so it's rare that a movie would come along that we both would be interested in. Enter 'Up in the Air' starring George Clooney. Loved it. The cuts, the quips, the open ending. Brilliant.

I'll say this about foreign films. I wish I could enjoy them. I certainly admire people who do, but unless I know and understand the language the movie is in, then I can't stand them. It's the subtitles. I get so annoyed when I see a TV with closed captioning because I end up reading the words and not watching the picture -- same with foreign films. What's the point then? I'd rather just read a book.

I just lost at least a handful of college friends for saying that.

It's okay though, I'm about to make up for it in food, because with food I have no lack of adventure.

My entire Saturday afternoon was spent at Domku Cafe, a Scandinavian restaurant in the Petworth area of all places. This warm, cozy, charming little house (that's what 'domku' means) was across the street from a funeral home and a pawn shop, yet it looked like something right out of a European village. Or at least Brooklyn.

Upon recommendation from our waitress, Kasey, her friend Melissa and I gorged ourselves on the meatball dish and bread pudding, finishing it off with sips from licorice-sweet Absinthe (the legal kind that's pretty much a tangy liqueur) martinis -- a combination I only suggest if you're planning on sitting around for a couple of hours. Otherwise, inte god ('not good' in Swedish).

I met my good friend Erin for lunch and a visit to the National Portrait Gallery in Chinatown on Sunday. Erin is anyone's best museum buddy, and certainly mine. Not only is she an absolute nut for art and history, she's knowledgeable about specific artists and their work, and she doesn't mind if you comment on a painting or a sculpture because she's itching to have a discussion about it anyway. For someone like me who is almost entirely right-brained with left-brain urges to learn, it works out well.

Here are a few photos I took while we were there...

Ceiling in the great hall of champions

I think I stared at this painting for at least 15 minutes to convince myself it wasn't a photograph.

Comments people left in the guest book, mostly children.

This is one of my favorites. For reasons I cannot explain, I have a fascination with windows and how people turn them into beautiful works of art: mirrors, coat hangers, mosaics, shadow boxes. This piece was titled something like "A Touch of Winter" and it was two windows glued together and filled with dried grass, feathers, a hat, glove, keys and a few other knick knacks. It reminded me of those I Spy children's books.

So now that this has turned into an epic post, I'll sign off here and simply say that so far 2010 is moving forward well.

Entering a new decade tomorrow

2009-12-31T14:15:00.004-05:00

Well, I finally made a decent dent in the four cakes and pies my mother sent me home with post-Christmas. We're talking cheesecakes and pounds of buttercream icing. Thank god for hungry co-workers and friends.

Still, this is why I'm going to gain 500 pounds before the end of the week, and then will be forced to make a New Years resolution to lose it all -- and I don't believe in New Years resolutions (can't stand the disappointment).

A good friend of mine made a New Years resolution as 2008 rolled over into 2009 that she would not spend money on new clothes for the whole year. She excluded essentials like new underwear and socks, seemed fair, and shoes -- I thought this was pushing it. She claims she broke her resolution while Christmas shopping, when buying something for family members turned into things marked "To: Me, From: Me," but I gave her a break. Fifty straight weeks of not buying any new clothes, from one girl to another, is commendable. Keeping a New Years resolution for 50 straight weeks, from one person to another, is commendable. In the end, although tempted constantly, she said she felt refreshed and proud of herself for resisting.

For me, it's easier to default to this life mantra a la Dad (or perhaps a fortune cookie) : Just keep going forward. Always seems to work.

Tad and I just got back from being out and about on this New Years Eve, which included a stop at our favorite coffeehouse, Mayorga in Silver Spring. They're closing their doors today because "recent building construction strongly hindered the foot traffic" for them to survive.

Even though they're a local chain (eight other locations in total) it's always sad to see a neighborhood staple close down. Even more said for me because there goes the convenience of good coffee, free live music and large, comfy leather chairs out my back door.

Still, 2010 is looking up for me. I'm already in discussions with various friends to plan trips to Savannah, San Diego, Outer Banks and Iceland. Hard to believe we're entering a new decade tomorrow -- perhaps I'll finally write my novel or paint something to hang in the living room. First things first, let's get drunk.

Happy New Year everyone!

So much love for coworkers

2009-12-29T17:32:00.009-05:00

Abridged work email chain...

To: Digital producers

From: Project manager #1

Subject: video process ideas

Let's bypass that program altogether, slap in a thing, and allow producers to create their own stuff. Requirements for that would be easy peasy.

WHO'S DOWN?!?!?!

==========================================================

To: Project manager #1

From: Project manager #2
CC: Digital producers
Subject: video process ideas

==========================================================

To: Project manager #2
From: Project manager #1
CC: Digital producers
Subject: video process ideas

I [Was] Home For Christmas

2009-12-28T22:36:00.011-05:00

I promised my mom and sister I wouldn't put Christmas morning pictures of them on my blog since they were taken pre-bedhead fixing, so here's what I can offer to recap the holiday.

It's a gingerbread puppy! Actually, Holly is about 18 years old, no exaggeration.

Another one of our puppies, Oliver, jealous of Holly's swanky Christmas sweater.

Christmas breakfast, pancake puffs with chunky apple jelly from the famous SaraBeth's.

Now that us kids are grown, my mom banished the handmade preschool ornaments to our boxes and mostly Old World ornaments are the only ones allowed. Makes for a pretty tree, nonetheless.

My favorite photo, table setting for Christmas dinner with Grandma's china.

I was sad to see the deluge of rain we got on the shore washed away most of the 'white' in our white Christmas, but it was still wonderful to escape D.C. for a few days to catch up with family and old friends.

I spent Saturday night, the day after Christmas, at a local bar in my hometown with some old high school buddies, catching up on who had bought property, who had gotten engaged over Christmas, who was already married, who was pregnant and who was trying to get pregnant. It's a whole other world back where I'm from than what I've grown accustomed to living here, and yet, life seems normal in both places.

Everywhere there's a feeling of Christmas...

2009-12-24T09:43:00.004-05:00

You want to know something that's not smart? Sticking a brand new, unopened bottle of wine in the freezer, then going to bed and completely forgetting about it until the next morning, because this is what happens...

On the shelf is the wine, foil still on, cut out in a perfect circle from where the cork came shooting out, and yes, beneath it is the cork and icy wine chunks.

I've heard of beer cans exploding in the freezer, but who knew a bottle of wine would too! I guess the alcohol content isn't high enough.

So we've had our spirits... how about some music? I thought this was hysterical, but I think mostly because it reminded me of Monty Python (Merry Christmas, Mom).

Can't forget about the gifts... and this story cutes me right out. What tops the list on most asked for item in letters to Santa this Christmas? Dinosaurs.

And finally, a story about the "baffling" evolution of elves from cute, woodland creatures to fully-armored, ripped soldiers (Merry Christmas, LOTR and Warcraft obsessives).

Working a short day today and then I'll be heading home to my parents house for the holiday. Merry Christmas!

Actual AP News Alert, Dec. 22

2009-12-22T16:29:00.001-05:00

Oy, slow news days.

BREAKING: "President Barack Obama says the only Christmas presents he needs from his daughters are hugs." -- Gawker.com

(Thanks Emily!)

'Who brings a gun to a snowball fight?'

2009-12-21T13:05:00.010-05:00

Apparently, that's how they roll on 14th Street and U in D.C.

This story began over the weekend but video was released this morning and it's blowing up everywhere.

First this happened, a cute, SWEET story about a D.C. snowball fight that was passed around via Twitter, sort of awesome if you think about it because over 200 people showed up: DC SNOWPOCALYPSE GUERRILLA SNOWBALL FIGHT 2009!!

and then this happened!!!!: D.C. snowball fight 'fun and games' until gun appears because a plain-clothed POLICE OFFICER got his nose bent out of shape when some kids threw snowballs at his Hummer.

Okay, look copper man, first of all, identify yourself as a cop!!! No one would have messed with you! Second, you're in a freakin' Hummer for goodness sake -- the closest thing to a civilian TANK. Is a powdery snowball really going to hurt your car so much that you felt compelled to leave your vehicle and get in their faces?

Hmm... I guess we'll just roll the tape...

Snownomenon 2009

2009-12-20T20:26:00.013-05:00

Total accumulation in our area reached about 20 inches in under 24 hours, with three-foot snow drifts, making this one of the top five worst snow storms in D.C. history, and breaking the all-time record snowfall for a single calendar day in December. We still managed to have some fun though.

Snow angels -- me on the left, Tad on the right.

Snow on the ivy.

Tad tried to tackle me in the snow. I retaliated and he lost. Badly :)

And a BIG Xmas to you too!

2009-12-16T16:41:00.006-05:00

Betty thought I needed a Dr. Pepper lipsmacker upgrade for Christmas.

Speaking of Christmas... I learned from Twitter of all places that "Christmas is abbreviated to 'Xmas' because X is the Greek letter Chi, the first letter of Christos." Huh, interesting. And all this time I just thought someone at some point in time (I figured Hallmark) just got lazy.

Also for your enjoyment... Christmas lights gone wild! I don't know why but the snowmen make me laugh. One of our bloggers explains how it's done.

The Massage Oil Store

2009-12-14T22:54:00.005-05:00

While scouring Wheaton Mall yesterday, I tried desperately to find a Christmas gift for my brother and his wife. I'm seeing them on Thursday night so I thought it would be easier to give them their gift then, instead of shipping it to them for Christmas, which didn't give me a lot of time to spare.

Like a banshee, I ran through the mall with a mental list of possible items: some nice kitchen things, maybe some exotic teas (does my brother drink tea?), chocolates? Having failed at Macy's -- it lacked a home section -- I was frantic to find something, any store that might sell thoughtful and appropriate "From sister, To brother," things before the mall closed.

An adorable boutique caught my eye as I ran past Borders Express. Cherry wood cabinets, glass bottles, adorable boxes tied up in ornate ribbon and flowers... in my shopping insanity, I thought maybe it was a chocolate shop, or a specialty cooking store and the glass bottles were full of olive oils from all over the world. It wasn't until after I walked in that I knew I was wrong, very wrong.

I found myself surrounded by lavender, chamomile, sensual massage oils (from all over the world, at least I got that part right), body scrubs, organic hair products... and more. I tried to back out but was caught by the shopkeeper, who had just run in overjoyed to see someone looking around (I was the only one in there).

"Hello, welcome to Said Store. I'm 'Tom,' are you looking for anything in particular?" said a man I would have never expected to work in a store like this. Picture Vernon Davis with Ne-yo's voice.

Freaking out and caught off guard, what I wanted to say was, "Nope, sorry, this isn't what I'm looking for," but what came out instead was something like, "I.. uhhh.. was.. um... looking for something for my brother... and his um... wife... but I don't think... um."

"Oh for your brother and his wife, well how about some nice massage oils. We have several different, sensual oils..." said the Ne-yo Vernon Davis, trying to be helpful.

"Um. No. Definitely.. ew. No, they like cooking? Yeah ... so I don't think... umm." I frantically looked around, picking up various items, trying to make small talk, all the while pounding on my brain to think of a way out without being completely rude. I somehow settled on one of the bottles that looked safe (it was in a spray bottle and turned out to be hair conditioner). "Oh this smells nice."

"Yes do you know what sort of hair texture your brother and his wife have? Because these products are excellent for..."

Okay, now that's just weird. "Haaa, no. Um. Well. This is a lovely store. I'm going to.. um.. give this some more thought. Thanks. Bye!" I stammered before turning on my heel and running away. I think the guy tried to give me a card or something as I was rushing out but I'll never know for sure.

It was then I knew I was done Christmas shopping. Done.

Macgyver Lunch

2009-12-11T13:59:00.002-05:00

Wooden coffee stirrers make semi-usable okay chopsticks...

GLOW! Love, UMD

2009-12-10T14:57:00.002-05:00

University of Maryland put out its annual holiday greeting video: 'Let Your Inner Turtle Glow".

Watch it HERE.

It's... ummm... cute.

I like how you have the option to download this song to your ipod or to your cell phone for a ringtone. I also enjoyed the alternating shots of Maryland celebs with random students: Maryland celeb... random student... Maryland celeb... random student...

Ugh, GAP carolers

2009-12-07T15:43:00.005-05:00

Thank you, Tad for finding this holiday jem. Best line of the article by far...

"Plaid? Really? That’s the hot new thing? Lumberjack chic? Are we all gonna get together this year and make pancakes? I’m not buying a plaid shirt for $45, not when I have 37 plaid shirts that I owned back in 1992 sitting comfortably in my attic."

Now Is the Winter of GAP’s Very Plaid Discontent, NBC Philadelphia

Now I don't know much about advertising, but I completely agree with Magray because I remember John Krasinski for rainbow scarfs and 'Mellow Yellow' cords. Sad.

But even those weren't as bad as GAP's 2009 theme, 'GET CHEER! C-H-E-E-R! WOOO.' Not to mention that the "how cute are these boots? How cute are these boots?" song gets stuck in my head all the time like I'm a substitute teacher being held captive by a preppy private school Kindergarten class.

Ahhhhh make it stop!!! Also, I never in a million years would have known they were saying 'moose' had I not looked up this video.

A Dollar Tree Christmas

2009-12-06T20:37:00.009-05:00

Speaking of Christmas trees...

I decorated our apartment for Christmas for $6. SIX DOLLARS!!! That's gotta be some sort of record. Just excuse that the artificial tree was a hand-me-down from Tad's parents, and the adorable plush snowman holding the wreath was a gift from a neighbor, and the snowflake ornaments were made from printer paper I had lying around that was probably about $5.95 a pack at some point... but still... SIX DOLLARS!!!

Who knew Dollar Tree could be such a treasure trove of cheap but half-decent christmas ribbon, decorative balls, garland, even Christmas lights!?! And then they had Santa bells, and wreaths and gift wrap paper for your front door... it can get dangerous when everything is marked down for $1 each.

When I began contemplating buying an entire village of ceramic cookie cutter houses and ice skater figurines -- not to mention my mom was at my side, encouraging me and saying "oh my goodness, how cute!" -- that's when I knew I had to get out of there.

I think the end result wasn't so Christmas-on-your-face as I had envisioned, still a few steps up from last year though.

Paper snowflake and ribbon made into bows are my ornaments. I'm such a crafty little girl scout.

Garland on our balcony. Along with our poor tomato and herb garden

And finally, I couldn't let the wine rack feel left out.

Wasn't it appropriate that the day I finally got around to taking these pictures was also the day it snowed? Tad heard somewhere it has snowed in the D.C. area every Dec. 5 for the past 5 years. Crazy right?

It's been a nice weekend too. I met up with Erin, Simone and Allie after work at Mayorga Coffee on Friday to hear one of Allie's coworkers, Juliet Lloyd, perform. I was a nice way to unwind. Juliet is a singer/songwriter who has had her music featured on a few tv shows, including The Hills, and I thought she had a similar sound to Sara Bareilles, only sweeter.

Saturday was spent playing in the snow and braving the elements to head over to Nick's Christmas party extravaganza in Ballston (my homemade cheese ball shaped like a pineapple was a huge hit). I know, so domestic. But certainly, Christmas is in full swing around here.

National Christmas Tree Lighting

2009-12-04T22:24:00.011-05:00

For the first time ever, I was able to not only attend the National Christmas Tree Lighting in front of the White House this year, but I was able to see the national tree up close, in person. A D.C. holiday staple I had never experienced until last night and it was spectacular.

Work graciously let me work an early shift to go to the event -- we had to be through the security gates by 4:30 p.m., crazy right? Who is usually off work and available to head down Pennsylvania Ave. at 4:30 p.m. a Thursday? -- and it was a sight to behold. Over 7,000 people showed up!

Everything looks better on JumboTron, don't you think?

Our friend Daozhong got very lucky and won five tickets online a few weeks ago, but was unable to go so Nick and I gathered some old friends and coworkers to watch the show.

Randy Jackson (one of the judges from American Idol) MC'ed the event -- he said 'dawg' at least twice -- and the show included performances from Sheryl Crow, Common and a few others.

Not to mention the Obama family were the ones to 'get down to business' as the president put it, and flip the light switch.

WATCH IT HERE (you can hear me counting down):

It was a wonderful way to get into the Christmas spirit because the show was silly with holiday cheer -- Michelle Obama read T'was the Night Before Christmas on stage, a chosen 5-year-old read her letter to Santa... then Santa showed up to finish the show with a sing-a-long (and then that's when we left to go to dinner).

I was really impressed with how many lights and ornaments were on the tree. So many, that you almost couldn't see anything but a cone-shaped white blur. The night overall was a fun and different way to spend an evening, and it certainly put me in the Christmas spirit.

Parents and Technology Part III

2009-12-01T09:52:00.004-05:00

Recently, my dad discovered that you can set your text messages to type in all caps all the time.

He says it makes it easier to type. The rest of us suspect it makes it easier for him to read.

This is sort of funny because he writes in all caps all the time naturally when he writes notes and such, but it also comes off as his yelling at you via text, even when he's obviously not.

"WHAT TIME ARE YOU MEETING US AT THE AIRPORT?"

"NO HEAT UPSTAIRS SO I TURNED ON THE SPACE HEATER - REPAIR GUY COMING TOMORROW."

"GREAT TO SEE YOU! SO GLAD YOU COULD MAKE IT DOWN. LOVE YOU"

It's like my very own Dad News Ticker!

So Much Giving

2009-11-29T16:31:00.013-05:00

I'm still rolling myself around from all the Thanksgiving food I ate, but I have to say that it was one of the best holiday trips I've had. Didn't miss any flights. Wasn't delayed. No traffic. No drama. Just a lot of moving around.

I was in Chattanooga, TN with my dad's side of the family again this year for the big turkey day. We kicked off the feasting Wednesday night at a BBQ place downtown called Sticky Fingers (my little sister, Leslie, bought a tshirt that says "Come Lick Our Bones" to prove it) before heading over to Aunt Doris' (Dad's sister) for coffee and way, way too much decadent dessert.

My parents don't believe in sleeping in, so up we were with the sun on Thanksgiving day, back over to Doris' with our cousins Mark and his daughter Sydney for a light breakfast and to watch the Macy's parade - one of my sister's high school friends was in the Towson marching band this year. For the big meal, we were joined by a bunch of Doris and my Uncle Ival's sisters and friends for Thanksgiving, Southern Style: Turkey, beef brisket, ham, creamed spinach, sweet potatoes, three different kinds of rolls, stuffing, green beans, and so on and so forth. Not to mention two countertops of desserts. All chocolate.

At one point in the afternoon, I was charged with playing with my 5-year old cousin Syndey, who I convinced coloring quietly was much more fun than playing 'loud growling cats.' Here are snippets of our conversation for your enjoyment...

"It's a French bear. You can tell because it has a mustache."

Sydney: "I don't like pink. It's waayy too girly."
Me: "I don't like pink either."
Sydney: "Well then you can't use the pink marker because you don't like it either."

"I want to practice writing now. Tell me what to write. Only three-letter words please."
"How about... 'cat'?"
"That's to easy!"
"How about... 'dog'?"
"That's too easy!"
"How about... 'cow'?"
"That's too easy! Here, I will write them so I can teach you things."

"I want to show you my hair ties! (She pulls out a huge box of hair ties and sorts them by color and amount of sparkles. She picks up a extra frilly hair tie). This one is my favorite even though it's way too pretty and fancy."

"Sydney, how old are you?"
"I'm 5 and a half."
"Oh yeah? Well, I'm 23 and a half."
"Uhh that's not a real number. You're too old."

Our last full day in Chattanooga was on Friday. No, we did not go Black Friday shopping, I mean not really. We did see people camping out the night before in front of Best Buy, and two car wrecks outside of the Wal*Mart parking lot. Insanity.

We spent the day at my older sister Kate's house with her husband Brian and my niece Sara Jane, who is only 6 and already reading Harry Potter (I know because I was asked to 'please, please, please' sit and listen to her read. I was actually really impressed). We eventually loaded up and meandered down to a sort of art district where we "Black Friday shopped" a small street fair and a few boutiques. The evening was wrapped up with eating dinner at the (prepare the snooty accent) fabulous Chattanooga Country Club and watching the Christmas-light decorated boat competition on the Tennessee River.

I think Leslie said, "We never said what we're thankful for," half a dozen times this weekend, but we never did. I'll tell you that I'm thankful we came home on Saturday and not tonight so I had all day to lay around, eat Thanksgiving Take 2 (my mother couldn't resist cooking her own T-day dinner and we weren't complaining) and help my parents get the house ready for Christmas.

No, in all seriousness, it's been a hectic year for me and I couldn't have gotten through it without my fabulous, and always supportive friends, and forever loving family. It's hard to believe we're pretty much half way through the holiday season and it's only going to get fuller, faster and crazier from here and I'm grateful for it all.

It's getting weirder by the day

2009-11-24T12:20:00.003-05:00

Two days ago, Tad and I received our first "Save the Date" wedding invitation that was addressed to both of us. They're good friends of mine. Tad has only met the couple one time.

A few days ago, a coworker asked me at a work happy hour, "So what does your husband do?"

Two weeks ago, Tad asked his mother to please send me this recipe for one of his favorite dishes so I could learn how to make it, to which she replied, "No way! Not until you put a ring on her finger!"

A few weeks ago, my mother asked me, "Would you and Tad like to host Thanksgiving this year at your place?" and when I responded, "Uhh, are you out of your mind?!" she said, "Oh okay, well will you be spending Thanksgiving with his family or with us?"

We're thinking we're just going to hold out as long as possible -- at least until we win the $100 bet with Erin that Tad will propose to me by my 25th birthday. She says yes, I say no way -- then elope and tell everyone a few years later.

Please remember to thaw your turkeys

2009-11-18T21:56:00.005-05:00

I'll be filling in for James tomorrow on the Discovery News podcast, Friday News Feedbag.

I setup an interview with a chemistry professor from Georgetown to explain to us on the show why a turkey will explode in a huge fire ball if you put it in a deep fryer before it's completely thawed.

Tad promptly told me tonight that his family bought a turkey deep fryer today because they thought it might be fun and interesting to try it out.

I'll be in Tennessee for Thanksgiving so I get zero say in this and my protests are mute.

Great.

Work Moving Day

2009-11-16T09:24:00.006-05:00

My fourth desk move in my 19 months here at Discovery was completed this morning. I think I have the most moves among my coworkers if we're going by length of time spent sitting in a single place.

A move entails having everything on and around your desk -- including your chair, computer(s) and cabinets -- moved to a new location and I have to say I've continued to be impressed with how I've never had anything misplaced. I will also say that I think this move was for the better because finally the entire digital team is on one single floor, making it much easier to track down people and things.

Most of my desk stuff is still in bins -- and I have a lot of crap. I basically took anything that I had in my old dorm room that didn't go in my apartment I brought into work to decorate my desk with. Think the flamingo lamp and Margaritaville sign.

So far I've only dived in to unpack the essentials: tissues, coffee cup, pen.

The rest will soon follow.

Mmm Mmm Good

2009-11-15T18:12:00.007-05:00

This was full-fledged food weekend. And it was delicious.

Tad and I make an effort to try a new place to eat around our neighborhood at least once a week. We've lived in our new apartment for a few months now, but we have yet to repeat a restaurant or cafe. Usually, we try to meet up for lunch on Fridays to have this "try a new thing" date, but with the past two weeks being so crazy for both of us, we waited until today and did brunch instead.

Jackie's in Silver Spring was the place we tried. With its enormous heart-shaped, lime green and bubble gum pink sign, and thick orange curtains, Tad and I had avoided it until today. Especially after my mother had declared, "that place looks like a gay bar," when she came to visit.

It took a recent "Top 100 Restaurants Around D.C." review to change our minds and look them up online. Come to find out, Jackie's had been named a top 100 restaurant in the area three years in a row now. And, according to their website, the owners of Jackie's also own my favorite dive bar, Quarry House, so really, how could we go wrong?

What was formerly a car garage turned restaurant, Jackie's was wall-to-wall covered in the same lime green and bubble gum pink as their sign, so god help anyone with a hang over that ventures over there, but the brunch menu was rather reasonable. I sprung for an Eggs Benedict, which I never get, but was enticed with their substitution of prosciutto for regular sliced ham and toasted rye bread for the English muffin. Tad ordered a delicious mushroom, onion and some sort of exotic, tantalizing cheese omelette.

Not meaning to turn this post into a complete restaurant review, I'll just say that we'll probably end up back there again sometime in the future, once we finish making our rounds.

Aside from brunch, I spent my weekend at a sushi/karaoke bar in Dupont on Friday night for Simone's birthday -- which was sort of funny and ironic because Simone works for the KidSafe Seafood campaign -- and while it may sound like a horrible idea, it was actually pretty fun. Saturday, I met up with Sam Laz and headed out towards Eastern Market for another new food experience and farmer's/flea market fun.

We went to Spike from Top Chef's burger joint, Good Stuff Eatery, (my first time) and man oh man was it ever the best burger I've ever had. I'm not big food snob when it comes to organic vs. non... but let me tell you, there was nothing more incredible about this burger than the taste of organic beef, lettuce, tomato, onion on a soft buttery roll.

Top it off with fries served with several different kinds of mayo dips -- including Old Bay, ahh home -- and the thickest chocolate milk shake ever... oh goodness. I never wanted it to end and I was full for the rest of the day. Seriously, you know me. I eat constantly, but after that meal, the only thing I had before bed was a salad at home and only because I felt like I had to.

To sum up the weekend would be for me to say that it was calm and full-filling. I committed several deadly sins -- gluttony, drink, etc. -- and yet still feel refreshed and relaxed. Job well done, weekend.

Photos are from their respective restaurant websites. I forgot my camera :(

Never gonna give you up...

2009-11-11T13:32:00.003-05:00

I discovered today that several of my coworkers have never heard of being Rick Roll'd. "What's Rick Roll'd?" they ask me? As if the international phone pank and then internet pank sensation hasn't been out for years.

It was even in the news today for goodness sakes... yet another justification not to have an iPhone. Sigh. Just keep telling yourself its okay not to have an iPhone.

What to do with this glorious gem of information? Become that girl who sends out horrible spam emails? Nahh, needed to be more sneaky and less annoying than that.

Being too busy to go nuts with it, and not wanting to break key work relationships, I ended up just IMing two coworkers individually saying, "Hey, can you check out this story and see if you think it's a good idea? We're having a heated debate on my team about it right now: Find out how scientists got lost in an ice cave trying to find the world's coldest spot. http://tinyurl.com/2su3q3" and then of course they said "uhh wtf!?!?" and I immediately followed it up with a classy: "YOU'VE JUST BEEN RICK ROLL'D!!!! Have a nice day."

BTW if you clicked on that link, you're a total sucker. Not you, Mom and Dad. I'll explain it to you some other time.

Oh the things that get me through the work day...

DISCOVERY NEWS IS NEW!

2009-11-09T14:48:00.006-05:00

This is the reason I've been too exhausted and drained to blog in the past week...

It's the Discovery News site redesign! Yay! I've been in meetings, discussions, arguments, training sessions and revisions on this very product for several months now and it all came to a head at last night's launch. It officially went live at around 1 a.m., but I didn't get home until 3 a.m-ish so I apologize again for not having a more meaty post.

BUT PLEASE CLICK AROUND!

Despite my 4 a.m. bedtime, I still had to be in the office at my normal scheduled time this morning and just to give you a taste as to how exhausted I am, when I went to get dressed this morning, I spent 10 minutes staring at my clothes and asking myself, "what are these things in front of me?" Yeah, two cups of coffee and some spicy Thai food later, I'm doing much better.

I want to send out a big thank you and infinite love to my patient parents, my dear and always understanding boyfriend Tad, Kasey, Smur and the rest of my friends and colleagues who nodded along sympathetically as I bitched and moaned about how all this redesign craziness was going to kill me. It was well worth it. THANK YOU!!!

Back in Business

2009-11-03T14:37:00.003-05:00

Phew! Nothing like the flu to knock you and all your willpower to blog right out of you for a week.

No, I did not have the swine flu, thank goodness, just the regular kind. Bizarre that a virus that didn't even give me a fever still managed to keep me bedridden for two days and make normal breathing difficult for seven. Today is the first day I can breathe out of my nose. Gross, I know. Sorry.

In other news, the Discovery Store at work had their big end-of-the-year blow out sale open to employees today and it was PACKED. Coworkers came by the droves with IKEA BAGS, you know those ginormous blue ones (and that's bags, plural), and snatched up handfuls of items. All I wanted was a mug to complete my collection of "Mugs From Media Places I Have Worked and/or Visited." Most of the stuff was for kids though -- books, games and such -- so I ended up not buying anything.

The event did get me thinking about Christmas shopping... and then made me anxious thinking about Christmas shopping. Why is it that family, those lovely people you HAVE to (and usually want to) get gifts for, are the hardest to shop for? I know a great gift idea for a former roommate of mine, or for one of my coworkers, but what to get MOM?

Sigh, this would be so much easier if I could have just brought everyone a mug.

52 DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS.

The universe finds this funny

2009-10-27T20:18:00.003-04:00

And I jinxed myself.

Been up and down since 3 a.m. this morning with congestion, sore throat, aches in my muscles and joints and dizziness. Needless to say, I stayed home from work today and of course it was Pet Adoption Day, of all days!

(see end of previous blog post to understand what I'm talking about)

Feeling Fulfilled

2009-10-26T13:34:00.008-04:00

I would describe this past weekend as fulfilling. Yes, I had a fulfilling weekend. I think it's because I got to do many things all over D.C. in 48 hours that I normally wouldn't have accomplished at all.

Friday night, Tad and I went out to a bar in Adams Morgan called Reef. I. KNOW. We went out!!! My friend Kelvin's birthday was the occasion, but when Tad was pumped for going out just to go out, I was very excited. We don't go out together at night much. Many of you remember/know what your bank account looks like while you're putting yourself through school.

Saturday was spent at the Silver Spring farmers market, and then ducking into Redrock Cafe for lunch to escape the rain. Then I left at 3:30 to meet up with Sara to see Where The Wild Things Are. Sorry fans of WTWTA, we hated it. Well, maybe 'hate' is too strong of a word. We strongly disliked it and thought it was weird. To describe it in a word would be to say it was 'angry' and I thought it ended without conflict resolution. I did get my first Mongolian BBQ experience afterwards though (again, I. KNOW. I'm way behind on trying that staple Bethesda restaurant).

Sunday, I rose early (so early that when I said good-bye to Tad, he said, 'have a good day at work') and headed out to Foggy Bottom to watch the Marine Corps. Marathon. It was the first time I had ever seen it -- first year I knew so many people running in it -- and I was completely blown away by the amount of runners (over 20,000!) and people dressed in costumes.

Best sign by far! So hilarious.

Kasey and Betty. GO SHARKRUNNERS! (Discovery's team)

Afterwards, I headed out to Ballston to meet my friend Nick for lunch, then eventually made it back to my apartment for a two hour nap. I was so exhausted from all the marathon watching and cheering, phew! Okay, so I need to go to the gym more. Followed by more TV watching and shouting later -- damn you, Darren Sproles for being so inconsistent and ruining my fantasy score!!!

In other news, I still haven't decided whether or not I'm going to get a swine flu shot. The TV says I should, my coworkers say I should, the doctor says I should... part of me feels that as a young, healthy adult, there are people out there who need the vaccine more than I do. The other part of me doesn't want to be sorry for saying that later. The internal debate continues.

First Pumpkin

2009-10-22T17:02:00.006-04:00

The preface of this dialogue is I have a friend who has never carved a pumpkin before so she wants to throw a pumpkin carving party. And action...

Me: This is going to be some party!

Friend: Ha. I'm not sure everyone will come ( I hope not, my apartment is teeny).

Me: Word to the wise... buy lots of newspaper for people to carve the pumpkins on, like one Sunday NYT is perfect.

Friend: Good point. I've never carved one before. I have NO idea how to do this.

Me: Ha I know. Pumpkin, knife, newspaper, candle. That's all you need.

Friend: A candle?!!?!?!? For what?!

Me: Umm to make the pumpkin glow?

Friend: Interesting.

Junk: It's What's For Dinner

2009-10-20T11:50:00.008-04:00

Before you judge what I ate for dinner last night, you should know following situations occurred all in the past week:

Happy hour + getting lunch out + getting dinner out (note: this was different than the happy hour outing) + cooking and hosting THREE meals for three different groups of friends on three separate days + going to the grocery store + going back to the grocery store twice for things forgotten + attending a Caps game + sickness + horrible Maryland/Redskins football + Tad having a late night class last night + going to the gym for the first time in three weeks last night.

And that is why last night's dinner equaled this: some pretzels + about a cup and a half of Chicken Voila + a bowl of spinach with olive oil + a slice of peanut butter toast + four stripes of bacon + a piece of cheese and a cookie.

Did you notice how I became lazier and more desperate exponentially as the night wore on...