blue highways

quito

2006-10-02T11:38:00.000-04:00

What a sad face! This is after we went on a LOOOONG walk where he met about 15 dog friends and got told he had a lovely coat about 5 times, so he can't have been a sad dog, but that poor little face.

2006-09-30T18:46:00.000-04:00

I've been all week. Today I've had some time to get a little more sorted. I organized my clothes a little, so sweaters are more handy than tank tops. This is never a fun task for me. I like sweaters, and I like fall a lot, but...whimper. Summers fly, winters walk.

Quito the dog came today. Anticipation of this has been a source of stress, but things seem to be going fine. The cats are wary but not tragically evasive. Quito is a little sad and stressed out and missing his people, but he responds quite well to being told he's a good boy. I haven't taken any pictures yet but I will take some perhaps this weekend. If it would stop raining, I would be more inspired to do things like take pictures.

My friend Rachel is in town from NC. We met up last night at the Pirates game (which was loads of fun) and then again this morning for the Lupus Loop. Quito also went to the Lupus Loop, but he was a little overstimulated. Liz my running friend came in 3rd place! She's so fast. I guess if you weigh 80 pounds and it's all muscle, you end up being pretty fast. Since we walked, we did not place.

sad

2006-09-02T09:21:00.000-04:00

The mayor died last night. So sad. For me, the saddest part was that wanted to be mayor for 12 years and he only got to be mayor for 8 months. And from what I understand, he would have done a good job if he was mayor earlier on. He was so dedicated to the city. And absolutely everyone seemed to love him. (So why wasn't he mayor before? Don't ask me, I only moved here in 2003.)

I don't have much to say about it, other than that I'm sad about it. The video on CNN (before my computer crashed) was heartbreaking. Perhaps I should stay away from the television, since I don't want to spend the day weeping.

curiosity abated!

2006-08-29T11:14:00.000-04:00

After, literally, YEARS of wondering whether the book Charlotte Sometimes has anything to do with the Cure song Charlotte Sometimes, I finally looked it up on Wikipedia and discovered that the song is based on the book.

Naturally, being the nerdy girl that I am, I read the book long before I heard the song. Now I'm wanting to read the book again, along with Summer Birds. Emma in Winter I didn't care for as much.

what is up?

2006-08-22T09:48:00.000-04:00

The answer to this question is, not much. Highlights include:
-I busted out the sewing machine yesterday and can't figure out how to thread the bobbin. I'm hopeful one of the ladies who's coming over for tomorrow's ladies night can help me.

-We lost our playoff kickball game yesterday. Sad, but, you know, it was nice to make playoffs. Next season we've got all sorts of new people.

-I'm looking for jobs in other cities. DC, Philly. Not necessarily ruling out Pittsburgh, but I think I'll have better luck looking in other places as well. Since this is all theoretical at the moment, I'm not really thinking of the realities of leaving all my friends and family here. However, the concept of "no more sports league" makes me want to hide under a table. (I understand there will be sports leagues in other cities, of course. But it will be different.) It's like in Hitchhiker's Guide, where Arthur can't comprehend the Earth is gone, but the fact that the pub down the street no longer exists sends him into a blind panic. (Or something like that.)

-I'm trying golf again with my dad today. I have a proper golfing costume this time.

-I may go to the grocery store this afternoon, or . . . I may wait until tomorrow afternoon. I haven't decided! Exciting, right?

-My loan money came through. I already went on the requisite "loan money came through" shopping spree. At least I got that out of my system though.

sleepytimetired

2006-08-18T17:25:00.000-04:00

I knew this was going to happen. I had all these Big Plans for my time off, and I'm not managing to get much done. I Swiffered the floor today, but I haven't put away laundry that I washed three days ago. I'm knitting a stripey scarf (what else do you do when it's August, right?) but I've only gotten to the fourth stripey. Still haven't busted out the sewing machine. I keep getting cross with Ben, basically because when I meet him at the door, bored, at the end of his work day, he's not ready to jump up and down with me. Something about how it's "hot" and he has to "walk eight miles a day," blah blah blah. Whatevs.

The moral of the story is, I need structure. I'm a lot better at getting a list of things accomplished if I only have a short time to accomplish the list. I don't think this means that I can't take vacations. Just maybe they shouldn't be three weeks long. Anyway, taking three one-week vacations sounds like a better plan anyway.

So, while I have a number of tasks to accomplish next week, I think I'm glad school starts the week after that. Especially since it's third year and I won't have class until 1pm.

long weekend

2006-08-13T23:39:00.000-04:00

Phew! I got back from my weekend in Madison, Wisconsin today. It was a lot of fun! Very relaxing and, as they say, just what the doctor ordered. Highlights:

-Fantastic weather the whole time! Too many mosquitos though.
-A kickball game with the Madison division of the Midwest Unconventional Sports Association.
-A live polka band as the Essen Haus, which is, in my opinion, the best bar ever. (Same day, we also went to the Terrace for outdoor beers in a collegiate atmosphere, Dotty's for burgers and fried mac and cheese, and then to the Nitty Gritty, which is the "birthday bar" in Madison - free drinks on your birthday.)
-Biking around the lake (Madison is on an isthmus) and cookout with friends.
-A lovely drive around Milwaukee and Lake Michigan before the flight home.

For those of you who like crossword puzzles, they run a cool one in the alternative weekly in Madison. Here is a link. It's a younger, hipper crossword and everyone should be doing it all the time. I suppose everyone cannot do it on the lake in the sunshine as I did, but never mind.

liver workout weekend

2006-08-06T23:33:00.000-04:00

Whew! It's been a while since I strapped the bottle opener to my belt and headed down to the corral for a weekend battle with liquor. I believe that I won.

Thursday night, we had some drinks. Since there were four of us, we determined the fairest thing was for everyone to buy a round. Whee! (I was the driver, so I sensibly did not partake in every round.) A lovely evening with the ladies.

Friday was my last day of work for the summer. Hooray! Naturally, this involved whiskey-and-ginger-ales and karaoke. "Faithfully" by Journey was my song of choice, though I also joined in on "Laid" by James. I can recommend both as excellent karaoke selections for the music-conscious alto.

Saturday was the fantastic Kickball for Hope event. Most of our team was out the night before. It's entirely possible that this had a negative effect on our play. Or not! At any rate, we certainly weren't going to let a little sun stand in the way of our drinking, so it's Gatorade-and-vodka all afternoon, followed by a lovely beer at the bar, followed by collapsing in a pile on the floor at home. It was probably a good thing we didn't make the playoffs.

Today I *only* had two glasses of wine at my parents'. Since I almost slipped into a coma as a result, I think it might be time to take a couple days off.

Indignities

2006-08-04T16:08:00.000-04:00

I went out to my car today to find the following note on my windshield:

OK.

1. WTF!?
2. This may be true, but it's pushing it to say that there was enough room for two entire cars in the area that I parked in.
3. If people in this neighborhood didn't generally park poorly, I could have parked in front of my house. This is something that happens from time to time.
4. Do they just HAVE these notes sitting around? Is this something they do often? Or am I the only person who has no "neighborly consideration"?
5. Seriously. Someone needs a hobby.

2006-07-30T21:56:00.000-04:00

I went down to York PA yesterday afternoon for a lovely half-weekend. We saw The Devil Wears Prada yesterday - I liked it better than I thought I would, given the reviews I've heard, but it desperately made me want to go shopping, so I'm not sure that's necessarily a good thing. Still, Meryl Streep, man.

Today we went to wineries. In my limited experience, Pennsylvania wineries are surprisingly good. I mean, it's not California or Italy or anything, but they do all right. The key is to find the wines that they're known for, rather than the ones that you may happen to like. When CMS and I went to Sonoma, we did not find good whites because, we were told, good whites do not come from California.

So Pennsylvania seems to be good for sweet wines, overall, and some fruit wines. Today we went to Nissley, Naylor, and Mount Hope. Naylor was rife with Republican paraphernalia. Not that this would necessarily bother me in Central PA generally speaking, but, you know, please keep your pro-Santorum propaganda to yourself. However, Mount Hope was located between Bird-in-Hand and Intercourse, so that kind of made up for it. (If you hit Intercourse, you've gone too far.)

Now I am sleepy!

to August, and beyond

2006-07-23T21:27:00.000-04:00

Ben and I just got back from Conneaut n'at. His family is up there all week. Unfortunately it was cloudy and cool most of the day, so I didn't get to work on eliminating my farmer's tan. Suppose that's what August is for.

Speaking of - only two weeks of work left! Can't really believe that. Part of me feels like it's gone very quickly, and part of me feels like I've always been working there. I've been feeling very strongly recently that this is sort of a watershed time for me - new job (though it is only temporary, it's a proper lawyer job), new place to live, new decade, new iPod, new kitten (still outside, but s/he's a wee babeeee). All good stuff, but that doesn't mean the old stuff was bad stuff. There have been good things and bad things, but that's how life is.

I still can't run. I tried on the treadmill yesterday and couldn't manage it. I did the elliptical though, so at least I'm maintaining some muscle tone. It's not entirely a bad thing to not be able to run - I obviously haven't gained 30 pounds as I was afraid I would, and there are plenty of other ways to work out. Maybe in August I will be able to do some more yoga too.

Mmkay, all updated on all my computery things. Now I need to accomplish tasks. It's practically Monday!

neighborhood cat

2006-07-19T21:57:00.000-04:00

It appears that this kitten has adopted our side of the street. Or at least a few of our houses. She came up to us last weekend. We fed her, and so did our neighbors. (The non-law-school ones on the right. The law-school ones on the left appear frazzled with bar preparations.) I think it's a her, anyway. I tried to look, but I couldn't get a good view. She was gone for a few days, and then today she came back, and like suckers we fed her again. She doesn't have a collar - I suspect she's just a stray, but she could belong to someone.

She's just as cute as anything. You can't see it in this picture, but she has the fluffiest little tail in the whole wide universe. I had Betty out on Sunday, and she was none too pleased with this little intruder. What with wanting to get a pug-baby and all, I don't think bringing another kitten in is the best idea. But I'm starting to think if she sticks around, I should probably take her to get fixed.

two months

2006-07-17T22:43:00.000-04:00

Two months yesterday since I sprained my ankle. Two months of limping around, of not running, of not playing hockey, of not even being able to go to yoga, of every two steps forward followed by a step back. I understand in the grand scheme of things that this is not a major injury. So many people hurt themselves so much more than I have. Actually, saying I "understand" this is not technically correct. Obviously I don't "understand" this, because otherwise I wouldn't be so frustrated and upset with myself and this ankle. On a theoretical level I understand it, but I doubt that I would think it was so unfair if I really got it.

I was doing really well. On May 14 I ran a 5K in less than 30 minutes (which is, you know, not all that fast, but it was the time I wanted). On May 15 I started my new job, went to kickball (probably lost, but that's irrelevant), and on May 16, BOOM, down for the count. (Forgive my cliche, Ben has the wrestling on again.) What could I have done this summer, what could I have accomplished, had I not hurt myself? I can't even make it to first base. I can't even do upward dog. I can rollerblade, but only one lap.

Gaaar! When will I be OK?

In Between Days

2006-07-15T14:44:00.000-04:00

It's sunny and hot right now, but this morning I woke up and it was threatening to rain. Unfortunately the only workout I can do right now is rollerblading, so I suited up to rollerblade despite the weather, but I had to leave my iPod in the car. Fortunately, I've had "In Between Days" by the Cure in my head for the past couple of weeks, ever since I heard a new cover it by Ben Folds.

I wish my last name was a verb, like "folds." Wouldn't that be cool? But only if it wasn't a household chore.
Sandy Drives
Sandy Reads
Sandy Rollerblades
Sandy Shops
Sandy Eats

Sure, they don't sound like last names, but, like, neither does "folds." Check out the Ben Folds "In Between Days," it's good.

Language Nerds

2006-07-14T11:58:00.000-04:00

This is a book review for "Far From the Madding Gerund." It is written by "descriptivists - those who would describe how language is actually used." A sample:

If a sentence strikes the vast majority of speakers of a language as well-formed, it is well-formed. This doesn't rule out variation, say, by dialect or region. "The team is in trouble" is grammatical in standard American English. "The team are in trouble" is grammatical in Britain. And linguists would say, "The team in trouble" is grammatical in African-American English—it is perfectly comprehensible and, crucially, native speakers of the dialect will not bat an eye at it. But "The team am in trouble," even if comprehensible, is grammatical nowhere. Such a sentence could only be the product of a mistake or a joke. Descriptivists draw their rules from native speakers, but that doesn't mean anything goes.

I like the nerdy grammar books, but there are some rules that simply need not be followed, if we take it as a given the point of language is communication.

Interesting: apparently E.B. White, author of "Elements of Style," uses "which" in a restrictive clause in the second paragraph of "Stuart Little."

food, busy, more food

2006-07-14T09:48:00.000-04:00

Why do I need a sugary fruity beverage to start off every day? We get breakfast on Fridays at our weekly meeting. Today, we also have baby-shower cake and Krispy Kreme doughnuts. Yesterday I actually forgot to eat breakfast. I forgot! But at least I won't starve to death at this place, that's for certain. I will have to make brownies or something before I leave.

This has been a busy week, to be followed by a busy weekend. Things continue to exist in piles on the floor and in boxes. (Not 's things! My things!) My ankle is taking frustratingly long to be completely better. It feels all twisty right now.

I bought my ticket for my Wisconsin trip in August. I am excited to see those girls. It should be good fun. I've been through Wisconsin but didn't spend what you could consider a decent amount of time there. It's the American capital of cheese, right? So we ate at the Pizza Hut. It was toward the end of the cross-country trip. That's my excuse.

picture pages, picture pages, open up to picture pages

2006-07-09T23:22:00.000-04:00

This is the beyoootiful hat I made for Barb at her shower out of all the ribbons and such from the presents. Everyone said I did a good job. I like craft projects.

I like my neck and chin in this picture.

Ben cooking in pink pants.

My dad kicking butt at Cornhole.

Happy 4th of July!

Elizabeth, I appreciate you not taking (or at least not sharing) any lardass pictures of me from this event. Viki was not so kind with her bridal shower pics... :P

fire, mandals, and tastefulness

2006-07-09T09:54:00.000-04:00

Last night Ben and I were sitting on the porch after dinner, and Ben thought it'd be a good idea to light a sparkler. This is the man who fell into an open manhole cover last week. So naturally he holds the sparkler directly over his body, rather than out in the yard like a normal safety-minded person. After it's burned for a while, the top part of the sparkler breaks off. Into his lap. He says "oh, it fell in my lap" and kind of looked at it for a few seconds. Then he realized it was burning him. So he threw the remaining sparkler down, and it landed on his paper napkin, which caught fire, and he stood up to get the sparkler off his lap. Turns out he burned a hole straight through his good mail-deliverin' shorts and to his leg. Fortunately we were able to put the napkin out before it lit the whole house on fire. Later on, he fell down the stairs into me. Fortunately neither of us was severely injured.

But wait. More adventures to come. Shopping next. I finally bought a papasan chair, which I've been wanting for almost ten years now. So we went to pick that up, since it wouldn't fit in my car. Then we went to Dunham's, where Ben got mandals and also a new bat. He insisted on sleeping with the new bat. He's still asleep now. He has probably knocked himself unconscious with the new bat.

Then, unfortunately, we ended the night at the Sandbar, the outdoor bar at Sandcastle, despite my vow never to darken the door of that trashy trashy place ever again. It was Sean's birthday, and as I try to be a tasteful person generally, I found that saying "your choice in bars is not to my liking, despite it being your birthday" was less tasteful than the bar itself. But only slightly. I tried not to pay attention, so it wasn't too bad.

weekend

2006-07-08T09:16:00.000-04:00

Gorgeous weather and not too many plans. I'm so excited I don't know what to do with myself. Thoughts:
-Drive! Drive drive drive! Drive to Colorado, drive to West Virginia, drive to Nova Scotia, drive to Ohiopyle, drive drive drive.
-Make it so it stops smelling like garlic in the kitchen.
-To the beach! The beach!
-Sit on the porch and drink wine. Repeat as necessary.

In other news, Chris Isaak is sexy. I've subscribed to the World Cafe podcast and he's talking about Roy Orbison. They mentioned that he was in Silence of the Lambs, which I think I sort of knew.

I'm off to go rollerblading, despite waking up in pain last night and having to ice my ankle. Hilarity is likely to ensue.

aak!

2006-07-05T21:57:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow Krista and I are going to yoga. It's my first time at the class since about December, and it's my first time since I hurt my ankle. What will this day be like, I wonder? What will the future bring . . . I wonder.

Meanwhile, tonight Ben and I had a pleasant evening. We played softball with the lawyer league and our team won (by a lot). Then we went for dinner at Fuel & Fuddle, followed by ice cream at Dave & Andy's.

But even before that:

in which our heroine attempts to justify her work

2006-07-04T22:41:00.000-04:00

I've been working at grading write-ons for the journal I'm on in school, and my thoughts on this process mirror my thoughts about that book I just read and posted about a few days ago. It's so arbitrary. I like something, someone else does not. Vice versa. What do I know? What do they know? Presumably our professors are better-equipped to grade my work than I am to grade my fellow students' work, but I imagine the same arbitrariness applies in some respects. On the other hand, I've been pretty good at predicting what grades I will get before I get them, with only three exceptions, so perhaps there is no arbitrariness and I've just spent too much time in literature classes in my life, reading various Virginia Woolf novels and thinking about the nature of language.

That said, I'll try to make my journal more effervescent and interesting in the future. I feel like it's sort of plodding and pointless recently. But then again, life is kind of plodding and pointless at the moment, so it's not a huge surprise. Everybody's friend Moon told me that he thought law school sucked the creativity out of him, and I feel the same way. Sort of struggling with the various shades of gray, aware of my written failings.

In unrelated Food News, I made spanikopida tonight, and pork chops with a cream sauce. Both were good. Perhaps not best served together, but I had phyllo dough and pork chops in the freezer. Phyllo dough is very very thin and a pain in the ass to work with, but it's so flaky and nice to eat, so it's possibly worth it.

Readin'

2006-06-30T23:39:00.000-04:00

Let's see if I can write coherently about literature. It's been a while.

I just finished The Egyptologist by Arthur Phillips. I got it because I enjoyed his Prague (which is set in Budapest and also very good). It's told as a series of journal entries and letters, mostly in 1922 but some in 1955. At first - blah, right? Epistolary novels blow. But it didn't bother me as much as, say, Dangerous Liaisons. Plus, all the different authors were in different fonts, and I dug that.

Anyway. This format is important to the story. The biggest theme of the novel was the fleeting nature of truth and how writing something down can apparently make it true, but not actually. People believe something is true because it is written, but it is not. A novel in letter format drives that home even more than an unreliable narrator. Most of the story was told by an inspector writing a series of letters from his "extremely reliable" notes, thirty years later, and by a man who was keeping a journal in 1922 that was basically a series of fabrications to the point that the reader really has no idea whether he believes it himself or if he's been lying to himself for so long that he thinks it is true. The reader knows that neither of these writers knows the whole story, about each other or about the tale that they're unfolding. This comes across in a number of small ways as well as at the end.

The medium of hieroglypics plays into this too. At one point, one narrator shows us how three different translators have interpreted a line of hieroglyphics, and they are barely similar. How, then, can we be sure what the ancient Egyptians were writing, if we cannot translate it into our own language? Similarly, how can we communicate with people in our own language when there is this necessary chasm between what we wish to communicate and what we are successful in communicating? Late in the novel, the narrator goes through a lengthy interpretation of hieroglyphics, at one point saying that the writer was trying to depict sarcasm - how can you depict sarcasm in that language? At the same time, however, the author is able to convey sarcasm toward the narrator by one of his helpers, sarcasm that the narrator is oblivious to. (A little bit of satire here - satire and metafiction are two of my mostest favoritest things.)

Plus, they talk about class and how people who are born into status are in a better position to achieve things and how that sucks. Hurrah, rabble-rousing masses!

There is no dramatic twist at the end; it is pretty easy to figure out what happens. I kept reading because I wanted to see how the people would find out each other's stories. In many ways, this book reminded me of Possession. If you're only going to read one and you're not especially interested in Egyptian history, I would recommend Possession over The Egyptologist, but one can only read Possession so many times, and this was a very good book. A little slow to get into, but worth it.

The End.

cooking

2006-06-28T20:33:00.000-04:00

I created my inaugural new-apartment meal tonight. Frozen pizza and corn on the cob in the microwave do not count. I made a summer risotto with corn, tomato, and basil. It was quite tasty. And counter space galore. There was no need to prop my book on top of the bowl containing the pre-cut vegetables.

For some reason I only have one one-cup plastic measuring cup, and one glass one. I know I have other measuring cups, but I don't know where they are. The cups have marks indicating 1/4 cup and so forth, so it is not a large problem.

I will have a fair amount of time to practice cooking things in August. I knew a girl who bought regular salmon and dried it with salt; it seemed like such a nifty process. She also did up some crab cakes. I only made crab cakes once. Mmmm, crab cakes. And there will be lots of zucchini. I can make every recipe with zucchini in it. Mwahahaha. Off to read Joy of Cooking cover to cover.

the joys (?) of cohabitation

2006-06-26T22:26:00.000-04:00

Tonight I got home from kickball, Ben made me a burger for dinner. Awwwww, good Ben, right? Innocently, he asked if I would mind if he watched wrestling tonight. Of course not, whatever you want, right?

Have you ever watched this? First these women fought each other. Then this guy came on and he looked like he had a plastic surgery six-pack. He flipped around, watched Hell's Kitchen, then came back to some sort of skit where some guy was dressed up like some other guy, and his buddy was dressed up like that guy's son, and one of them was married to the daughter of the guy he was dressed up as, then there was a video of the real guy from the 80s doing a song and dance number, and then the real guys came out, and they were all gonna fight, along with five guys wearing green leotards, but then "poo" got dropped on them. And everyone said "suck it!" and was all excited. Now Ben's drinking beer while watching wrestling. Something about not being white trash enough.

When I lived with Maggie and Belinda, we watched Sex and the City. I think it might even be on TBS right now. But they didn't make me burgers.

happy birthday to me!

2006-06-25T14:13:00.000-04:00

Yes, I know I make a ridiculously huge deal out of my birthday. I actively encourage everyone else to do the same thing. We all need our own Day.

In keeping with my tradition since my 21st birthday, I had chocolate for breakfast today. Brief rundown of birthdays since:
21 - in Scotland, working at a B&B, on a diet due to stress-eating while studying abroad. Rained all day, but I did have the day off. I hitched a ride down the hill and spent a rainy afternoon in St. Andrews. Woo.
22 - just graduated, miserable and sad and adrift. Got into fight with college boyfriend over the phone (broke up about a month later). Elizabeth, he was in Memphis. Coincidence?
23, 24 & 25 - I don't remember which one it was, but one year I went for Mexican food with CMS, Barb & Terry in DC. Was tasty. I had to wear a funny hat. Another year we went to Georgetown and Barb & I got drunk on Mai Tais and drank $5 Baileys milkshakes, and then I got into a fight with DC Boyfriend. Third year out of those, I'm not sure what happened.
26 - Went to the Outer Banks (aka OBX) with 7 women. That is too many.
27 - Mad Mex with Maggie, then drinks at Doc's with The Rachel & co.
28 - Wore a short skirt without hose to work, and got in trouble. Then, oooh, drank waaaay too much. Woke up way hung over the next day, but had a really good softball game.
29 - Happy hour downtown, not as much drinking as the year before. Softball game (we won!) and Richard's graduation party. Booo, it's my day, Snotface!

OK, only a few of those are interesting, but it's my day.

Anyway, this year, Ben got me a new iPod! And we went rollerblading! Yay. But softball was cancelled! Boo. But Kim's going to bring cookies to kickball! Yay!

Ben's birthday is Thursday. I'm thinking a plasma TV. (Not really.)

the good pain

2006-06-23T14:21:00.000-04:00

I *hate* that Au Bon Pain is nearby. It's "easy" to go there. But I just spent a ridiculous amount of money on a terrible salad. I brought a microwave meal, but I decided to save it for another day. Now I can't get the taste of nasty-ass dressing out of my mouth. Stupid stupid stupid. Nasty nasty nasty.

whew

2006-06-18T20:44:00.000-04:00

We moved the rest of my stuff this weekend. So tiring. And of course I want to unpack everything right away and I can't possibly do everything I want to do. I'm relaxing now for a bit, but I need to go up soon and dig through all my papers. Various bills that may or may not be due: another negative side-effect of moving.

My ankle is getting better. It's still sore, but I'm able to move around with almost normal type movements, provided I'm wearing the right shoes and braces, etc etc.

Bloomsday!

2006-06-15T23:24:00.000-04:00

Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed.

Good puzzle would be cross Dublin without passing a pub.

It certainly did make her skin so delicate white like wax.

Well, I could go on all night with that. Elizabeth alerted me that there are Bloomsday celebrations going on in Pittsburgh this year! Blast, I have to work, but I'm going to the Cyclops reading at 5:30.

navel-gazing

2006-06-12T16:57:00.000-04:00

I've been busy enough for my taste, believe it or not. Lots going on at work, lots of fun social events going on, and even some travel-planning. It's kind of weird to think, this is what my life was like four years ago (except without the social events part) and now it's happening again. But, you know, only for a couple more weeks. Then it's back to school. It's a lot like I've suspended adulthood.

In August, I'm hoping to go to Wisconsin to visit my friends up there. I'll have some time then.

Naturally, my upcoming thirtieth birthday, Barb's wedding, Brad's engagement (WOW!), and driving around through my old Maryland stomping grounds have made me Assess My Life. Carson said something nice about it yesterday. Things are generally going well, and I tend to forget that, being mired in my less-than-spectacular grades and my stupid ankle and a lackluster kickball season and whatnot. I mean, who knows what will happen in the next two or five or ten years. I can have my preferences, and think about them, and just see.

Just about time to head home, which is good because I can't think anymore.

News

2006-06-05T21:08:00.000-04:00

So we've been busy getting the new place organized. It's really nice! I like it here. I wish I could wave a magic wand and all my stuff would be here and unpacked, but in the grand scheme of things that I don't really like, unpacking is pretty low on the list. Organizing things and going to Ikea are fun, so the problematic side effects of moving (uncertainty as to location of key clothes, toiletries stacked on top of the bookshelf) aren't too terribly bad.

PLUS. It is summer. I had corn on the cob and cantaloupe for dinner. The beauty of early June is that it's summer, but there are hockey playoffs on.

Moving the cats was traumatic. Bru hid behind the water cooler for most of yesterday (after peeing on himself on the way here), and he's still a little skittish. He came out this evening and yelled at me for a while, but he also is rubbing on a lot of the new furniture, so he should be OK eventually. Betty was OK after about 10 minutes of being nervous and now desperately desperately wants to be outside. Any thoughts on this? Ben doesn't think it's a good idea, but I feel I'm stunting her personal growth. Plus, she's annoying as hell.

Birthday Wishes

2006-06-05T21:02:00.000-04:00

Happy birthday tomorrow to Emily Seitz! :)

warm

2006-05-29T11:08:00.000-04:00

Here is a picture of me from the wedding this week. I don't have a whole lot that have me in them that were taken with my camera. You can just barely see the boot on my left foot. It was a lovely wedding and everything went well. There was a lot of good food and lots of nice people to chat with. My partner is *Italian*. Fancy.

When we left on Friday, it was in the 60s and rainy. When we came back it was in the 80s and hot. This makes one feel like one has been on a long journey. And then coming home and sitting around the house in shorts and a bra top with the AC set to 80 makes one feel like summer will never end. And it's only May!

disaster

2006-05-25T07:18:00.000-04:00

So Tuesday night I came down with a stomach virus. Not being able to walk was not enough, apparently. I spent all day yesterday in various states of consciousness in the bed or on the couch. Stayed home from work since bad ankle + stomach virus = huge potential for disaster. I woke up this morning hungry but not feeling completely 100%. Nevertheless going to work though.

Poor Ben is likely quite tired of putting up with me. He brought ginger ale yesterday. He was fortunate to have missed The Worst of the Illness. But we're shacking up soon ... he won't be able to hide at home when I'm sick ... and vice versa. More disaster likely to ensue!

theme

2006-05-23T19:51:00.000-04:00

I'm certain that there's some 22-year-old intern at TBS who coordinates the evening Simpsons episodes so there's a theme. Today's 7pm episode was the one where Homer marries the gay couples and Patty comes out. Now at 7:30, it's one where Homer gets mad at Marge and moves into a gay neighborhood. I imagine this is done by some liberal arts major who's working as some production assistant's assistant and making like $22,000 a year and this is their only real joy in their work, which involves meetings and emails about a lot of boring and inconsequential things.

Ankle Update: I went to the doctor and they gave me a boot. Apparently I have a severe sprain and the doctor thinks I'll be wearing this three weeks. I haven't quite come to terms with this.

whimper

2006-05-21T13:41:00.000-04:00

It's a beautiful day and I can't do ANYTHING. All I can do is look out the window with my ankle propped up. This makes me feel like a whiny six year old.

I should think of all the positive things going on. My skin? Fantastic. My apartment? Relatively clean (packing debris only). My reading? On track. My movie-watching? All caught up. My sleeping habits? Actually normal (apparently I only need 10 hours of sleep a night when I work out regularly; who knew?).

Tomorrow's my mom's birthday, and I'm going to Aunt Carol's for lasagna. This is the extent of my plans today. Oh, and situps. Yikes.

grumble grumble

2006-05-17T19:01:00.000-04:00

Sooooo...I sprained my ankle playing hockey last night. It hurts! A lot! I stepped on the side of my foot and it just gave out. And since I hurt my knee on Monday (same leg) the whole leg hurts. Not the best thing to have happen on one's third day of work. Everyone's so nice there and it's fine, but I feel like I'm making a giant spectacle of myself.

We won the game, though, so there's that.

Things are pretty non-bloggable this week. Mostly just stressed about the new job (not about the work I'm doing, but about New Stuff Going On) and now obsessed about my ankle. Not much else is happening.

2006-05-16T18:47:00.000-04:00

It's time for another Good Idea, Bad Idea!
Good Idea: making pizza using pesto made with fresh basil
Bad Idea: eating half of it
Good Idea: playing kickball
Bad Idea: trying to teach yourself how to slide into first base

In other news, I'm fully satiated, but my knee hurts.

The new job is going well. It's a lot of orientation so far, but everyone is nice and the work seems like it will be fulfilling.

It's never going to stop raining!

To Do:

2006-05-13T17:12:00.000-04:00

It's kind of strange having nothing to do. I'm such a busy person, and this season seems to be especially busy with many friends' Big Events (marriages and moving = showers, weddings, and going-away parties). Plus I usually have Schoolwork hanging over my head, and if not that, then The Possibility of Working from Home (why relax when you can earn cash money?). But alas, last day of work was yesterday, and last day of school was over a week ago, and my apartment, while not exactly clean, is not a pit of squalor either. It's almost like there's nothing for a girl to worry about. (So naturally, this is a PERFECT time for me to IMAGINE that everyone is mad at me. Please comment with your reassurances that you are in fact not mad at me, and feel free to remind me how crazy I am.)

I think I'll watch a movie. Baking is a possibility, but it involves Driving and Making Lists, and I don't have the energy for that at the moment. I haven't been cooking much recently. But ah, this is not a good time for ruminations on my shortcomings. I must embrace my non-busy day. Pile of crap by the door, stay there! Cat hair on the couch, you will not be lint-rollered! Dishes, revel in your dirtiness!

friday

2006-05-12T17:42:00.000-04:00

I had a facial and a pedicure today. My feet look lovely. I've never had a facial before and I'm not sure how I feel about it yet. Spring is probably the best time for my skin, so perhaps this facial was ill-timed. Or conversely, it was a good time to go and see what happens. I can still smell the stuff on me, though, and while it was nice initially, I'm kind of sick of it.

I spent some time this afternoon going through my papers and things. I wouldn't call myself a pack rat so much as just lazy. Frequent purges are necessary. My office is a room that gets a LOT of sun during the day, and I noticed today that the spines of a lot of my books have become faded after being in the sun for two years. That makes me a little sad, but I guess I have no justification for keeping paperbacks in a dimly-lit library-like setting.

Today was my last official day of work at the old place. Three years there! Two part-time. It's weird to think I'll never do some of those tasks again. (And probably untrue, quite honestly - they've all but said I can come back after my summer gig is up.) I've been lucky with work and found myself to be fairly skilled at navigating the working world - so fingers crossed this will continue with my new endeavor starting on Monday!

so long, frank lloyd wright

2006-05-10T23:27:00.000-04:00

Today Elizabeth and I went to Fallingwater. What a gorgeous day for it!

We made sammiches and salits and ate them in the parking lot after our tour. Then we went down to Ohiopyle and walked for a bit, then ate ice cream. Mmmmmm.

that's entertainment

2006-05-10T00:10:00.000-04:00

Elizabeth and I went to the opera tonight and saw Cosi Fan Tutte. We both enjoyed it. It was that kind of madcap-slapstick entertainment that I relish in any form, regardless of the decade or century in which it was created. I'm thinking of: The Thin Man series, Much Ado About Nothing, Lucky Jim, Old School. Anything that could be termed "a delightful romp." I enjoy delightful romps.

Side note: slapstick is not to be confused with bathroom humor.

In some respects, these delightful romps have sexist under- and over-tones to them. They tend to involve romantic escapades in which the woman is made to look foolish. That does bother me, and I need to think about it a little more. I think it might be not so much that they're sexist, but instead that they're playing to stereotypes and it's our own culture that puts that "women are foolish" sheen on the stereotypes. To paraphrase Virginia Woolf, who's to say that makeup and fashion are silly, but sports are hugely important, merely because women are more interested in the former. It might also be my own sensitivity to such things that draws my attention to them.

In the opera, the women are completely tricked by the men, and they keep saying, you know, that's just how women are, leaving aside the fact that the men essentially drove them to infidelity. Course it all comes out right in the end. So is it a product of its time, or is it inherent in the concept that the men were jerks about it, or is it just completely and unapologetically sexist? (I doubt the latter is true - there is a very strong supporting female character, at least in the version we saw, who doesn't cower to the dudes.)

Time for bed, I think!

pleasant week

2006-05-04T12:41:00.000-04:00

This week has been quite enjoyable:

1. Study in mornings

2. Work in afternoons

3. Work out in late afternoons

4. Drink and socialize in evenings

Lather, rinse, repeat. Plus, the weather has been mostly fantastic. I'm mixing it up a bit today because tomorrow is my tax exam. And then...! I dare not speak its name, but it could be...time for pleasure reading! Huzzah!

Everyone in the sports league is talking about summer softball. This is funny because we've had exactly one game of the spring season, but it seems like most people in the sports league play softball every day of the week in the summer. Larry's coming back, so he's looking to reorganize Larry's Renegade Band of Random Softball Players (unofficial name) for Saturdays.
I suppose I should Accomplish Tasks now.

here i yam!

2006-05-01T21:54:00.000-04:00

Sadly, I come with news of our first kickball loss of the season. Best to get such things out of the way, though. We played a good game. Except for, you know, the errors. I've been on teams that are good defensively but cannot kick for so long, I don't mind losing so much if we score a couple of runs.

I'm slowly working my way back to "normal person" after being in finals limbo for so long. I have one test left, but it is on Friday, and I have many partially-empty days between now and then to get my things together for it. ("Partially-empty" is key - if they were completely empty, I would not study at all.) The three tests I took already...are done. I really don't want to think about them once they are done; I tried hard and did my best and I think they should come out all right. Inevitably I'll be disappointed in the results, because that's how I am, but no point in thinking about that until later.

So I took the weekend off and had some fun and did some cleaning, and here I am today. Got some good work done, had some nice chats with people (come to think of it, I had a large number of nice chats with people today), and what a gorgeous day! Tomorrow promises more of the same, plus a haircut.

success

2006-04-24T07:59:00.000-04:00

Well, now ethics is my bitch. But at what cost? I went to bed disoriented last night and didn't get much sleep. Kept thinking about confidentiality and breaches thereof. It's entirely possible that this is due to the ~45oz of tea I drank between 6-10, but I will blame the excess learning.

At any rate, I'm feeling on-track for my finals, which makes me mostly worried about brain-fry-out *during* the actual process. Any advice for taking 8 hours of finals in a 48-hour period (3 hr exam Thurs AM, 2 hr exam Thurs PM, and 3 hr exam Fri PM)? I don't think there will be time for a Run of Panic in between the two Thursday finals, but I'm going to bring my running gear in case the morning one doesn't take too long. People in the afternoon class will just have to deal with my stink (sorry, Kelly Katy & Greg).

shopping

2006-04-23T11:42:00.000-04:00

So I went and bought some needles and yarn, and I'm learning how to knit! (I bought a book too.) It's pretty fun. I suck at it, and I'm a perfectionist so of course this bothers me, but I'm trying real hard to be OK at sucking at it. Plus it's finals time and I should only be studying, not teaching myself how to knit, right?? Yeah. So far, I made a cat toy, and I know it's only a few short steps before I'm making sweaters for everyone I know.

I also got scary pants* a la Bridget Jones and ordered some dyeable shoes yesterday. This completes my bridesmaid-outfit shopping duties. I have a gift certificate for a spa day that I think I may use to have a nice French pedicure beforehand, if they do that sort of thing, as my toeses are exposed.

I'm off for a nice little run since it's quite pleasant out, and then I will attempt to make ethics my bitch.

*The scary undergarments were buy two, get one free, if anyone else needs to purchase such items. Fortunately I did not receive a lecture about how I was only buying one. Perhaps I should feel flattered about this?

perfect day

2006-04-20T20:54:00.000-04:00

No day can *really* be completely perfect, but this one was close. I'm not going to do a moment-by-moment, but highlights include:
1. Class at 10 (what a civilized time to have a first class)
2. Rollerblading with Kelly
3. High of 79 degrees; sunny
4. Outlining elder law all afternoon (this might sound psychotic to some of you, but I really love the opportunity to sit down and dig into a subject and just work it through and learn. I had all afternoon to do this today.)
5. Cadbury Creme Egg
6. Girlyman concert with Katy
7. Red wine and cheese and Thursday night television

Also we put the deposit down for our new place! We're broke! But we'll have a place to be broke! You know, in a couple months!

today's list

2006-04-18T23:15:00.000-04:00

1. I was listening to WJAS on the way home tonight. I wonder what will happen to WJAS when all the 80-year-old bluehairs that listen to it ... shall we say, stop listening? That said, they played an unfortunate version of "If I Loved You" that the world could probably do without.

2. I don't think women who play hockey like other women. We like each other fine. For the most part. We just don't like, you know, other women. And by "other women," I don't mean women generally; I mean "women."

3. Carrie Bradshaw has money problems. Sometimes it's nice to watch television. "I am in a financial cul-de-sac, but I'm going to take the bus."

4. I went to Payless to get dyeable shoes for the wedding I'm in and they don't have the style I want, like, at all. So I'm not sure what to do. I think I'll try David's Bridal, but I'm not sure about prices. They don't have anything on the website about prices. Worth a look I guess.

5. Why can't you say "shot to shit" on television, but "shot to hell" is OK?

yay!

2006-04-17T23:10:00.000-04:00

We won our kickball game tonight, 9-7. A high-scoring game is always the most exciting. For a while there, we were winning or losing with 1-0 games, which kind of blow. Everyone strikes out or fouls out or flies out, and how is that fun?

Anyway, tonight we were short people, so I had to come out of my "I only play right field" stance. I play 2nd and pitched. And it wasn't too bad! There were a few plays that maybe I could have done differently, but I made a few good plays too. I guess my fear of playing infield comes from those 1-0 games, where basically if you're the one who makes the mistake, your team loses. It's a lot better if five or six people make mistakes, and they are spread out over both teams.

Also, it's a lot better generally to NOT be the captain. I feel responsible enough as it is! I don't need to be In Charge too. So, yay!

zzzz

2006-04-16T22:03:00.000-04:00

Sometimes two days off has absolutely no effect.

Of course, I've been on this track for a while where "weekend" has no real relevance: kickball and drinks on Monday, studying all day Saturday. It's all right. This week has been kind of busy, and I've felt pulled in many different directions. Hopefully next week will be a little more manageable.

Eh.

take me out to the ballgame

2006-04-14T23:43:00.000-04:00

My first Pirates game of the season tonight! I love baseball games; they're such a summery thing to do. We got a group of tickets for 6 games with a large group of friends and acquaintances, which makes things chummy. Baseball games are so long it's basically impossible for anyone my age to be expected to pay attention to the whole thing, so you can stop watching and chat with folks, or run down two levels and get Dippin Dots with Elizabeth, or et cetera. People are there to have fun, which is different from going to a Steelers game because people are there to watch the Steelers win. Hockey is more like baseball, except that there aren't really casual hockey fans like there are casual baseball fans, so everyone at hockey games knows, like, who played right wing for the Rangers in the 1985 season, and the "casual" element is kind of missing.

I'm a huge sucker for all the extras at the games: Baseball bloopers! Vote for the song to be played during the 8th inning! Baseball trivia! The little drawings and songs they use to introduce all the players! A relatively recent enjoyable addition are the pierogie races, which I think are fantastic. So ridiculously silly. My favorite is Oliver Onion, who WON TONIGHT. Unlike the Pirates, who lost, but who managed to put up three home runs in four at-bats. So there were fireworks.

In the Old Days (you know, the late 80s), the organist used to play songs when batters came up that were takes on their names, and it was fun for me to try to figure out what tune he picked, and why. Now the players get to pick their song, which I guess is good for them, but some of them have unacceptable taste in music.

one is the loneliest number

2006-04-14T14:02:00.000-04:00

2 from set of triplets among 3 killed on Rt. 8

There was an accident on Route 8 yesterday and three people died - a father who took a year sabbatical to stay home with his kids, and two of the three triplets. The third triplet survived. There's a link in the story above that goes to a story featuring the dad and the triplets, and how fathers are getting more involved in their kids' lives.

As an only child, I was fascinated by multiples. Talk about not being a lonely kid! You've got someone right there, all the time, to play with and talk to and share with. (Well, maybe the "sharing" thing would have sucked.) The "surviving triplet" story strikes me because of the loneliness inherent in that phrase, especially since he is so young. I wonder what he will remember of his siblings. I hope he has some cousins or someone else to play with.

this might work!

2006-04-12T16:35:00.000-04:00

Initial thoughts: I think the "food" aspect will attract people, since it's someplace they can go during work. And people in Pittsburgh like steak and Italian food.

Gourmet market chosen for old Lazarus building
Steaks, sushi among the offerings
Wednesday, April 12, 2006

By Mark Belko, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A Washington County developer will open a European-style gourmet market Downtown as part of its $40 million-plus redevelopment of the former Lazarus-Macy's department store.

Millcraft Industries Inc. announced today its market will feature Jeanette-based DeLallo Italian Foods and Omaha Steaks. It plans to open the 12,000-square-foot store on Wood Street by the end of the year.

The store will feature freshly prepared foods, including entrees, salads and soups, business catering, fresh fish and sushi, specialty breads, a delicatessen, produce and Fresh Omaha meats. The Omaha products will include a new line of steak products called Omaha Fresh and Omaha Fresh Angus that will be available only at the store.

In catering to Downtown office workers and residents, the store will offer call-ahead ordering and grocery delivery. A Downtown market long has been at the top of the priority list for Downtown residents and city officials, who have been trying to court grocers for the past several years.

"We want this concept to become a true destination," said Lucas Piatt, Millcraft Industries vice president of real estate. "The market needs to serve the people who live and work Downtown, but we also feel that people will travel from around the region to shop here."

The market will be part of a redevelopment that will include condominiums, two-story rooftop townhouses, office space, and ground- level retail.

source

this is nifty: some favorite tunes

2006-04-11T22:53:00.000-04:00

Create your own Music List @ HotFreeLayouts!

More Lists!

2006-04-11T18:39:00.000-04:00

1. There's a commercial on about non-clumping mascara with Queen Latifa. Apparently, the trick is the way the brush is shaped. See, I always thought it was just paying attention when you put your mascara on and tossing it after 2-3 months. Silly me.

2. We just went to look at an apartment, and it was a little too small, but I loooved the landlord. I want to put him in my pocket. This is why it's good that Ben comes along with me to look at these places. I would rent based on this alone. This is not good.

3. I have to do dishes, laundry, and grocery shopping. But what am I doing now? Watching Seinfeld. Oh well.

4. Had lunch with Marcy today. We're going to be pool buddies in the summer. I used to love going to the pool as a kid. There's no reason not to go hang out by the pool more often.

5. Probably should do some sit-ups though.

kickball 2006

2006-04-10T23:17:00.000-04:00

I know you all have missed it, and now it's back: The Kickball Updates. New season started tonight, and our team WON! Huzzah! I'm not the captain any more, which means to me that I have absolutely nothing to contribute to the game, since I am not exactly good at kickball. I can catch, but I'm frightened of having the game ride on my shoulders, so I try to avoid playing in crunch-time situations. I can kick OK, but everyone else can catch, so I almost never get on base. Our reformatted team was good - some new folks, some old favorites. The best thing about kickball is that a large percentage of my favorite people are there and I get to socialize with them all at once. This pleases me. Also, there were adult beverages.

housekeeping

2006-04-10T22:52:00.000-04:00

I deleted the last post because it was uglifying the blog and I didn't feel like figuring out how to make the table work right.

two of my favorite things

2006-04-06T12:54:00.000-04:00

Crossword puzzles and obscure word usage!

The Dirty Word in 43 Down: A New York Times crossword gaffe

If you finished Monday's crossword puzzle in the New York Times, your answer for 43 Down, clued as "Scoundrel," was SCUMBAG. Most puzzlers, penciling in these letters, felt nothing more than mild satisfaction. But a small number knew enough to be outraged. ... The original meaning of scumbag is "condom." The Oxford English Dictionary dates the term to 1967, with 1971 as the first example of the "despicable person" sense, but current research has pushed the dates back to 1935 (based on the still earlier scum, "semen," and bag, "a condom") and 1950 respectively.

Read the rest

ooof

2006-04-05T22:16:00.000-04:00

Just got back from a girls-night dinner. I ate too much. But I don't trouble myself with eating too much at social functions. When I start going out every night for dinner, then it starts to be a problem. Yet another reason for being happy that I'm not working at a Biglaw firm this summer, right? Ha!

I made salsa, and now the apartment smells like onions. Ben won't like this, not at all.

Something bad is going to happen on Law and Order... something bad is going to happen.... I think Dennis Farina might get shot....

Nope, I was wrong. Kid shot himself.

so much for relaxation; food; stream-of-consciousness NBC-watching

2006-04-05T08:45:00.000-04:00

Due to a complicated combination of HR-based circumstances, I am now able to work at my old job during the first two weeks in May. This is good because it means I will be able to eat. Elizabeth pointed out that maybe I'd like to relax and NOT work during that time? She has a point, but there will be no relaxation if there is no money. So I'm splitting the distance and working 15-20 hours those two weeks. Still time for whimsical bicycle trips and sleeping til noon.

I've discovered my eating problem: I can't stop eating chocolate. Everything else I eat is fine, but once I start in on the chocolate, I might as well glue lard to my ass.

So I guess Katie Couric is for sure going to CBS now. She's not exactly my favorite person on Today, but I suppose one needs to be supportive of a female nightly news anchor, yes? I'm learning Wacky Science with Matt Lauer now. One gets a larger hangover if one drinks darker-colored alcohol, and if one rotates a plastic bottle of alcohol while dumping it out, it will dump out more quickly. Oooh, back to Matt Lauer making faces. People seem to think this is funny.

la la la

2006-04-02T10:10:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was Barb's quasi-surprise bridal shower at Vaccaro's in Baltimore. For those of you who have been there, you know the happiness of their Italian pastries and gelato. For those of you who haven't, I cannot recommend this place highly enough. Their desserts are so fantastically amazing. Also they are extremely large. The eclairs, for example, are larger than Qdoba/Chipotle burritos. But for most things you can get a small size (although of course we were having none of that at the shower). Amanda did a lovely job with the shower - there were about 10 people there, including George, and we played two non-lame games (including a name that love song game which I WON). No one bought Barb anythink she was embarrassed to open in front of George's mom. After the shower I walked around the Inner Harbor with Barb and George for a bit - it was sunny and I think most of Maryland was there, so there was great people-watching. I love Maryland. It is one of my favorite states.

Yes, I drove all the way to Baltimore and back yesterday, but it was worth it. I didn't even regret it during Hour Seven in my car, on the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

Today I have many things to do, but in tallying up actual tasks, I find that they mostly involve laundry. Apparently, sheets don't wash themselves, even if you've had them sitting in your closet for three weeks.

2006-03-31T22:18:00.000-05:00

You Belong in Amsterdam

A little old fashioned, a little modern - you're the best of both worlds. And so is Amsterdam.
Whether you want to be a squatter graffiti artist or a great novelist, Amsterdam has all that you want in Europe (in one small city).

What European City Do You Belong In?

smoothies and money and police tactics

2006-03-29T21:41:00.000-05:00

I just made the Best Smoothie Ever. Sooo tasty. Peach/orange/mango juice, frozen peach slices, frozen raspberries, mango sorbet, & vanilla frozen yogurt. It was so fantastically good, I can't even tell you. I want to eat fifteen more of them.

Pitt is doing this women's investment club thing, and I went to a meeting about it tonight. Everyone in the club would get together and learn about investing, and also contribute some money to an investment pool, and we'd have mentors in the field, and it'd be fantastic. They want to start next year and it would be their first year, so they want people from all different backgrounds that are excited about this sort of thing. Eep! I really want to do this - I want to learn about financial management and planning, both personally and professionally. The problem? They are only picking 20 women, and there were about 75 there. Probably 5-6 other law students too. So everyone keep your fingers crossed for me! I put that I graduated from college in 1998, so maybe I'll get in as the token old woman.

Oooh, on Law and Order, Dennis Farina was dunking some dude's head in the toilet to get him to confess. I feel that Professor White would not approve of that police tactic.

i <3 everyone

2006-03-28T21:30:00.000-05:00

Drinking with hockey players is the best. idea. ever. I no longer hate anyone at all. I apologized to the guy that I thwacked, and he bought me a shot, and now everyone loves everyone. Well, that might be a bit strong, but you know, the thought's there.

I need to write more. I suspect my blog is short and boring. The short but happy life of Francis Macomber. Maybe I'll start a Short Story Blog. No time but now. Except that now is a bad idea. So, no time but in the short-term future.

I'm HUNGRY.

thoughts

2006-03-28T17:02:00.000-05:00

My internet connectivity has been suspect this week. It keeps going in and out. I'm hopeful this post will be successful.

I like NPR. There's a story on about this guy who fell asleep in a moose or something. I'm eating cheese with matzos and listening to this story. Pleasant. Oooh, it ended all scary. Has anyone heard of the National Storytelling Festival in Tennessee in October? I'd like to go some time.

I think maybe when I have some time in May I will get some paint and paint all my bookshelves to be the same color. I saw some yellow bookshelves in a magazine today. That might be cheerful.

My cheese is gone and the story is over. I suspect there may be something productive I could do with myself. I'm not really into "productive" this week.

Sunday Sunday Sunday!

2006-03-26T20:55:00.000-05:00

I just watched the Simpsons written by Ricky Gervais. It was very funny. Now I'm eating matzos. It is good with Irish cheddar cheese or nutella (sorry Elizabeth) and not so good without it.

This was a pleasant weekend. The half-marathon-relay was not bad at all - we all pretty much ran the same pace, so that wasn't an issue. I actually improved on my previous 5K time (by a MINUTE! A whole MINUTE in four years! Imagine! Although come to think of it, I don't know if the previous time was adjusted for distance behind the start, so it might have been a wash). I'd like to do some more races - just short ones, 5 or 10 Ks. I'm doing a running club this season, and I don't exactly have lofty goals of peeling off X amount of time, but I wouldn't mind running a bit faster. (Then, among other things, I wouldn't have to hit people with my stick while playing hockey.) Catherine was in visiting and we went to a red party that doubled as Katy's surprise bachelorette party. Today I had an honest-to-goodness quiet Sunday in. Got a lot of work done.

Oooh, now Family Guy is on! Huzzah!

it's saturday, and this is the earliest i've been up all week

2006-03-25T06:48:00.000-05:00

Do I live in bizarroworld?

I'm doing a half-marathon relay with Elizabeth and Hari today. I hope they don't get mad about how slow I am. One of the things I like about running is that other people aren't depending on you to be good at it. Which begs the question, why am I doing a relay? Oh well. I suppose it's all about the personal growth.

I have to go put on fifteen layers of clothes now.

steamed

2006-03-21T23:08:00.000-05:00

We had hockey playoffs today. We lost the semi-final game, 6-5. Normally I think myself a generally fair-minded person - I admit that I do get emotional during the games, but it usually wears off a few minutes later and I feel sheepish. Well, it's been almost two hours and I'm almost as steamed as I was during the game. This team was brutal. It started for me when I almost got hit in the face with a stick. I don't like teams that play dirty, I don't see a point to it. They were really dirty players. I ended up playing dirty back a bit. I guess I'm not proud of that, but only to the extent that I don't want to get kicked out of the league for fighting. Highlights: a guy on our team got slashed in the leg, another got slashed in the chest and couldn't breathe, a professional escort called me "fat" (they've satisfied the female player requirement by bringing professional escorts to stand around and wave their sticks near the ball) and I blatantly hit the guy who high-sticked near my head with my stick for no reason (I really wanted to punch him in the stomach). If we'd won, we'd probably be finishing up our game right about now, but instead those douchebags are playing some other poor team who just came out to have a good time.

I don't know. Ben said we should leave these feelings on the deck, and usually I'm able to do that, but this time I wasn't. I like everyone else in the league (with the exception of this one girl, although now I think I'd like to have her over for dinner in comparison) and am usually more angry at myself and my own playing than anyone else. This time, I'm more angry at them. Certainly I won't be going to any games in which we play this team any more, if I can help it.

So there, I've said negative things about people in my blog.

Picture of Ben

2006-03-21T18:28:00.000-05:00

This is from Law Prom. He put my wrap on his head and pretended to be a shiek.

procrastination

2006-03-19T18:01:00.000-05:00

I'm going to the gym. As soon as I blog. And change. And find six other things to do first.

Last night we went to see V for Vendetta, and I liked it. The themes were terrifyingly distopian; I was a bit afraid for my own self after watching it. It wasn't too gory (there was one scene but it was more sort of theatric than actual gore). Like Emily I adore Hugo Weaving. (That's just what this country needs - a cock in a frock on a rock.)

I've also started to watch The Gods Must Be Crazy, and will finish it tonight (or maybe now, before I go to the gym??). So by the end of this weekend, perhaps I'll be ready to overthrow the government.

Speaking of, does anyone know where I can get some dumprick 2006 paraphernalia?

tipsy

2006-03-17T20:37:00.000-05:00

Always entertaining, it's The Tipsy Blog. I love mojitos and Ray's Blue Marlin Bar and Grill and Kelli and Rachel and Chuck and Mike G and Erin V.

I hate dry skin and when the cats make smell poos and cold weather and smoky bars.

I love Bru's little face!

I hate vacuuming!

back!

2006-03-13T23:38:00.000-05:00

Helllooooo! Back from Vegas. Highlights:
1. We saw Penn & Teller - this was Ben's choice, not something I would have picked, but it was decent. They're all pro-freedom of speech (as well as being Libertarian, but my mom's a bit of a Libertarian, so I'm used to that), and they explain some of the magic tricks, which is cool. I actually got to go on stage and read a joke aloud as part of one of their "we know how the mind readers do it" tricks. That was kinda neat. (We did eat at the Rio buffet, as Elizabeth suggested. Tasty!
2. I had a lovely massage. Mmmmm. It's pleasant just to think of it.
3. It was NASCAR weekend in Las Vegas. I will leave those images to your imagination.
4. The weather was sunny but cold.
5. So I don't gamble, and with the weather being cold, I ran out of things to do by Sunday. So yesterday I hopped in our rental car and DROVE TO UTAH. My plan was to go to Zion National Park, but this ended up being misguided for a number of reasons - snow, time zone change, and the question of what the heck was I going to do there by myself. So I got pulled over by a prepubescent cop in La Verkin, Utah, and he told me that since I was passing people, I maybe should have known I was going too fast. Quite so. He didn't give me a ticket, at any rate. I was maybe 20 miles out from Zion at that point, but the novelty had worn off, and it was almost 3:30, so I...turned around and went back. (In the process, I passed that cop, who had pulled SOMEONE ELSE over.) At any rate, it got the "I want to drive cross country RIGHT NOW" feeling out of my system, and it was a beautiful drive, and I got to listen to some NPR, so it was not a waste of a day by any means. Nowheresville, Nevada, is interesting to look at, and makes me appreciate Da Burgh quite a bit.
6. Uncle Don is doing much better! And the kitties are happy to see me. They are sleeping between me and the door.

That is all.

nice

2006-03-09T09:10:00.000-05:00

This is a live-action version of the introduction to The Simpsons. Funny!

vivaaaaaa las vegas

2006-03-08T19:30:00.000-05:00

We're off to Vegas tomorrow. I would be significantly more excited about this if the weather wasn't going to suck. I don't really gamble, so I was really looking forward to sitting in the sun by the pool for four days. This doesn't seem to be possible. In fact, I've packed sweaters. I know there will be pools inside and whatnot, but I need some sun.

Uncle Don had back surgery yesterday and we went to see him today. The surgery was more extensive than they thought it would be, and he's in a lot of pain now, but he seemed to be able to move a bit, so hopefully his recovery will be OK. It's scary to see people in the hospital. I have a relatively small, relatively healthy family, so my experiences in the hospital are somewhat limited. I know no one likes to go to the hospital. Taking Elder Law has actually helped put some perspective on this for me. At 66, Uncle Don is considered "young-old." It may be scary to see him in the hospital, but not in the same way it was scary to see my old-old grandmother in the hospital.

Here is a picture of Uncle Don.

yeast

2006-03-07T08:23:00.000-05:00

I tried to make cinnamon buns last night. Last week I tried to make naan bread. I have serious trouble with yeast. What is it? I try to let the bread rise for long enough (so I can't say it's definitely due to my impatience), but it doesn't seem to rise, no matter what I do. The naan bread turned out like crackers, and then turned into hard, rock-like slabs within 24 hours. The buns seem to be OK once I heated one up, but they are in no way light and fluffy. I have one more package of yeast, so I may try to make some basic white bread later on today and see if it comes out edible in any way. Perhaps it's not necessarily a bad thing that I can't make bread well, because if I could make it well I'd probably sit around and eat bread all the time.

i am in intense pain, pinky

2006-03-05T15:14:00.000-05:00

I forgot to mention that I went to a strength class at the gym Friday and I can barely walk. (How did I play hockey and rollerblade, you may ask? It didn't hurt quite so much yesterday morning during hockey, and it mostly only hurts when I've been sitting down a lot. It hurt a lot more to get out of bed this morning than it did to rollerblade.) So, ouch.

lazy sunday

2006-03-05T14:51:00.000-05:00

I just looked over at the cats and Bru was sleeping with his paws around Betty's neck. Of course they saw me looking and moved, but I still got a bit of a picture of it. They've never done this before, and it's pretty cute. So pardon my crazy-cat-ladyness for the afternoon, please!

Yesterday was a lovely day of hockey followed by a lovely day at the outlet malls with Elizabeth. Today was a lovely day of rollerblading with Julie followed by a lovely day of nothing at all (meaning, of course, many tasks to perform, but lots of time in which to do them and no reading). I loooove spring break.

So we're going to Vegas on Thursday, and I'm finally starting to realize that we're going to Vegas on Thursday. I hope it's sunny and warm. It's supposed to be in the 60s or 70s, which at least should seem warm. I'm tempted to rent a car and drive, I don't know, to San Diego and the Grand Canyon and any place that's remotely close to Vegas. I want to go on a road trip again.

media

2006-03-01T07:40:00.000-05:00

I forgot to post about Tristram Shandy, which we saw on Monday. The above link goes to a review in The Onion, if you're interested. I do like their reviews, and of course they're much better than mine. It's a meta-movie, kind of along the lines of The French Lieutenant's Woman with its "movie in a movie" concept. The book, which I haven't read, is apparently a post-modern book written before there was even a set form of the novel to be post-modern about. I love that stuff. I was worried, but Ben liked it too. He might not care for metafiction quite as much as meta-movie, I suspect. I don't think we got all the jokes, but it was funny.

Next week I have Ian McEwan's Saturday to finish, as well as The Constant Gardener by Whoever Wrote It (too lazy to check).

your wish is my command

2006-02-28T16:54:00.000-05:00

Chris and Elizabeth said I should update my blog, and so I'm updating my blog.

Here is a List. Like Anastasia Krupnik, I love lists.
1. I swallowed a piece of gum and it feels like it's stuck in my throat. It's not, but it feels like it is.
2. I wore the shoes that make my feet smell today. This is safe for everyone else as long as I don't take them off until I'm home, but now I'm home.
3. I ate lunch at 11am today, which I don't like. It usually causes me to end up eating three meals, or snack more heavily than I normally do.
4. My skin is dry. I think I hate the dryness of winter more than the coldness.
5. Speaking of, I forgot to order more prescription eyedrops again. Blast!
6. I asked Ben to nag me about going to the gym, so now Ben is nagging me about going to the gym, so I think I'm going to go to the gym.

thoughts

2006-02-26T10:31:00.000-05:00

Good news: fantastic article on Justice Stevens in the Post-Gazette today. Can't find the link. Why have a search function if it's not going to pull up any results? Summary: Justice Stevens is on the old side, but he's totally awesome and, importantly, appears to have no plans to retire.
Bad news: Don Knotts has died, of lung cancer. We used to say that Professor White reminded us of Don Knotts, and here they go dying of the same disease within two months of each other.

Last night I watched Cold Mountain. (At this rate I'll be seeing Capote in 2008, but never mind.) Last Saturday I watched A Very Long Engagement, and now I have some thoughts on war:

1. War sucks.
2. War sucks even if you speak another language, like French, or southern.
3. War even sucks if you have good cinematography. Perhaps war sucks especially with good cinematography.
4. It is possible to be sexy even if you've been shot in the hand/neck.
5. Women who are left behind when men go to war often have problems aside from missing their men, like polio, or being afraid of chickens.
6. After war is over, things are sunny and there are no long-lasting socioeconomic repercussions.

2006-02-24T08:24:00.000-05:00

Last night I went to a spinning class that was taught by a woman who goes to the law school. All these skillz that people have! Spinning was a good choice last night, even though I missed out on some other stuff that was going on. I've been driving myself crazy this week, and the best solution for that is high-intensity cardio workout. I'm pretty good at spinning. Anything that involves leg muscles, I can do. Kicking. Running. Spinning. Shopping. Not that Laura will read my blog, but I really liked her class and will try to go again at some point. Not to the Monday 6:15am one though, because that's crazy talk.

Work should be interesting today. It's been very interesting recently, in the "dramatic" version of that word. The short and boring explanation is that we're busy and we're missing people.

Tonight's the law school prom! I will be on the other side of the photographer's table! I think that's the real reason I'm kind of excited to go. I've been to how many formal dances the past two years helping my dad, and all I get to do is watch and not play dress-up. Tonight I get to play dress-up. I wonder if they'll have a King and Queen of Law School Prom??

skating

2006-02-21T23:05:00.000-05:00

I'm quite cross about the ice skating commentary. The others don't seem as bad. The ski-jump folks yesterday were all like, "He's great! But he's great too!" But these people.... After the Russian ice-dancing final skate yesterday, they were all like, "they did it as well as they COULD have done it" - and meanwhile these folks are rockin the sox. And they're making all these dramatic moral judgments on the Italian couples and their vendetta against each other.

Today, this lovely 29-year-old Ukrainian skater went, and after she finished, they talked about how she must love to skate since she's still doing it, and the dude was like, "it'd be better if she thought about it and tried something different instead of just going out there and doing the same thing all the time." And then a pause, and "I hope that's not unkind." You think? I just don't see why they have to be mean about people.

Aww, Fumie Suguri just came off and she and her handler just bowed to each other. She's cute. Oooh look, she speaks American.

It's good that the Olympics came around to fill the post-Super Bowl playoffs void. Maybe by the time they're over it will be warm and Ben can pick me up from school and we can go rollerblading.

looks like we made it, we're kids incorporated

2006-02-20T20:00:00.000-05:00

I was obsessed with Kids Incorporated. Here is a video of the theme song. I remember all the words to the theme song. Why can I remember this, but not the Fourth Amendment? I wonder what happened to the Kids who aren't Martika or Fergie.

Five Random Thoughts

2006-02-19T20:32:00.000-05:00

1. What makes me happy? Chocolate makes me happy. A good day is a day in which I have chocolate, and a bad day is a day which contains no chocolate.

2. Earlier this week, I turned left on a red light in front of a cop. I've done this before, in the suburbs, and I got a ticket. This time, I was in Oakland, and no ticket. Why? Maybe cops in the city have better things to do with their time? Maybe turning left on red is a matter of necessity in the city? Maybe the cop who pulled me over was having PMS? Bitch.

3. Hatty got hit in the nads with a hockey ball yesterday.

4. My three favorite international directors are Krzysztof Kieslowski, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, and Julio Medem.

5.

You're Anthony Kennedy! Although you're a

Conservative generally, your unpredictable

nature has caused you to be hated by your

Conservative colleagues. You generally enjoy

spiting the people you mostly agree with, and

leaving people baffled by never making the

same choice twice.

Which Supreme Court Justice Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

i wish my day was like this

2006-02-16T18:22:00.000-05:00

It must be nice to be a cat.

I just had another coffee smoothie. I think "smoothie" is kind of a misnomer, since it was a coffee milkshake. I can't hide under the "contains frozen yogurt = smoothie" umbrella if there isn't actually any frozen yogurt in it.

I got an email from Ben Adair today, he's got himself a blog. Here it is for those of you who know him, or for those of you who don't know him and are just nebby

early

2006-02-15T07:36:00.000-05:00

I made a quite tasty coffee smoothie this morning. Now I'm awake. I'm watching Today: Katie's doing ski jumping, and Al and Matt are doing luge. I wonder if Anne is happy to be in the US still, or if she'd be playing ice hockey or something if she were in Italy. Oooh, Al just met two girls from Pittsburgh. He asked them if he liked them Steelers.

It'd be nice if I could get up and make coffee smoothies every day, but then I'd probably weigh eight thousand pounds. Cheaper than Frappucinos though. So, I can still afford my gym membership.

Shut up, commercial for TurboTax. I will do my taxes! Ahh, stream of consciousness TV watching. Maybe I'm not really awake yet.

I don't like how Iggy Pop's "Lust for Life" is the theme song about Royal Caribbean cruises.

organic

2006-02-13T17:17:00.000-05:00

I have self-diagnosed SADD, which fortunately has been kept at bay this season due to the mild temperatures. Well, it seems that since it's cold this week, I've decided to be a) hermit-like, b) both overeating AND obsessed with my weight, c) a glum chum generally, and d) a possessor of bad skin tone. So I'm sitting at home beating myself up for not going to the gym tonight, even though I have no desire to leave my apartment at all, even though I didn't leave my apartment most of the weekend either. My skin is so dry I can feel it prickling. My shoes are in a big pile in the living room and I don't want to move them. I have to read for tax but I can't seem to step away from the Internet. Usually I'm very good at justifying my decisions ("I have hockey tomorrow." "I *need* to decompress my brain before I start a new intellectual project.") and while these things are true, they just aren't helping like they usually do.

And when it gets warmer, I will be go go go. But it's so much easier to do stuff when it's warm! I should embrace this, rather than fight it. Winter = hibernation. Summer = out every night and social happiness. Whoever's in town this summer, we need to have bi-weekly happy hours, by the way!! Alternate Thursdays. I decided this in Evidence today.

Betty sez, get up off your lazy butt and love with me. So off I go.

song of smoothies

2006-02-12T15:56:00.000-05:00

Krista and Paul's game night was, in the world of Mrs. Dalloway, a triumph. I would say "good party," but Krista doesn't read blogs, so we can just talk about it amongst ourselves.

Today I bought a blender. I am a smoothie fanatic, which makes it strange that I've been without a blender since the cats peed in my old one a couple years back. But today, I decided enough was enough, so off to Target I went. (Ironically, or not, I forgot to buy cat litter, which I need, whilst at Target.) I made one as soon as I got back. It was good, but I still need to work on proportions before I set up a smoothie stand at school. And get exotic juices. I think exotic juices are key. I read an article in The New Yorker a few years ago about how Clint Eastwood is a huge smoothie drinker and maker, and ever since then, I've thought of him as a very calm, smoothie-making type of person.

Went for a run outdoors today, the first time since I joined the gym. Although I'm glad that running outside is not my only option, it was nice today.

And yes, for those of you who are counting, I've managed to do some homework today as well, and will be doing more presently. As soon as I'm done with my smoothie.

Karma

2006-02-11T14:59:00.000-05:00

Here is a picture of the group I watched the Super Bowl with. I refer to it affectionately as "Yinzer Fest 2006."

Maybe I've been watching too much My Name is Earl - no, I felt this way pre-Earl - that when I don't get something I want, it may be the universe intervening because that's not something I'm supposed to have. At least, this line of thinking has comforted me through my life. And this week has been a bit of a "you can't have X!" kind of week, so it's instructive to remember this. I'm not supposed to have X. Because if I had X, I wouldn't have Y - for completely unrelated reasons - and Y is much better than X, for me, right here, right now. Personal philosophies are key.

I finished the draft of the paper that was due today. I don't know if it's good or bad. I think it's interesting - it's about land use and taxation and socialism - but not everyone thinks that sort of thing is interesting, and there are so many ways you can go with those topics that it's difficult to corral it, so it might be, you know, patchy. It should be fine for its purposes. But it's not going to win me any awards. So now I can come out of my paper-writing fog and accomplish other tasks. I've started cleaning. There's been entirely too much filth and squalor and genius-at-work stank in this apartment. Some of it is gone now, and my apartment almost smells like girls again.

look at me!

2006-02-10T20:53:00.000-05:00

I have a paper due tomorrow and still have a decent amount of work to do on it. Hope tomorrow morning finds me inspired and ready to write, because I don't know how much I'm going to get done on it tonight. Lalala. Usually I'm not such a slacker about these types of things, but I'm also pretty good at judging the amount of effort required to get a minimally acceptable score on such things. Knock on wood.

I found the solution to overeating: a large lunch followed by a smoothie and a power bar. And a candy cane in the late afternoon. I wasn't hungry all day! I've probably consumed 4,000 calories, but I've definitely minimized my snacking, which is what I was wanting to do.

Tuesday post-hockey blogging

2006-02-07T23:31:00.000-05:00

I watched the first half of Wire in the Blood before the game, which caused me to be late. I am watching the second half now. It is a British crime drama, and it is kind of freaky. I like it, and want to see what's going to happen. I will probably have nightmares though.

We lost our hockey game tonight. We lost last week too, and even though our former captain is on this team, I don't mind this loss as much. There was no last-second empty-net goal, although there was a ball that went by me at the last second. Ben just told me I played a really excellent game, so that was nice.

Hockey is the first sport I played when I moved back here, which makes it the first team sport I've ever played. The first season I played, we lost every game. It was still fun.

Back to non-football-related topics!

2006-02-06T19:56:00.000-05:00

But first, congrats to the Steelers on their win! The game was good in that it was close, although there were some questionable calls. Steelers would have won anyway, but it would have been nice without all that. Commercials were not, on the whole, that entertaining, although I liked a few of them.

Onward. This is going to be a busy week. Lots of juggling and rearranging and whatnot. So naturally, I'm blogging instead of embarking on one of my many tasks. Laundry? Working on my note? Washing the sinkful of dishes? These will all seem important at 11 when I haven't done them yet and am grouchy and falling asleep.

So here is my Sunday Random 10.
1. Y'zinga - Robbin Island Prison Singers - Amandla! A Revolution
2. Bandera - Willie Nelson - Red Headed Stranger
3. I Dream a Highway - Gillian Welch - Time (the Revelator)
4. Secure Yourself - Indigo Girls
5. Sempre di Domenica - Daniele Silvestri - Eurolounge
6. I Got Ants in my Pants (and I Want to Dance) - James Brown - 40 Year Old Virgin Soundtrack
7. Tennessee - Arrested Development
8. My Baby Loves a Bunch of Authors - Moxy Fruvous - Live
9. Time in a Bottle - Jim Croce - Greatest Hits
10. Casey Jones - Grateful Dead

Steelers Fever

2006-02-02T22:03:00.000-05:00

I went to the Strip today to get a Steelers t-shirt so I'll have something to wear to my office tailgate. Yes, there's a tailgate at work tomorrow. Wings, hot dogs, nachos, everything. (I imagine that Ben will be there, since I've just indicated there will be nachos.) Probably no beer. So I guess it's only a faux-tailgate.

The Strip was crazy! Or at least, all the places selling Steelers things were. There was a woman on the phone telling whoever was on the other end that she'd wasted all day waiting for a particular extra-large black long-sleeved shirt. (Yes, yes, I would say that you have.) I myself found a nice shirt, and I also got a Bus sweatband. Rock.

Driving in this morning, I saw that one of the mansions on Fifth Ave has quite tasteful black and gold drapes adorning their quite large house. You know Steelers fever has hit the apex when the rich folk get into it.

I promise I'll stop posting about Steelers stuff soon. I do have other things going on. But for those of you out of town, perhaps this will give you an idea of how insane it is here. And those of you in town are used to it, I'm sure!

Note to anonymous - I'm sure I *can* guess what you were doing while I was watching the Superbowl. I'm honestly surprised I have such a vivid memory of watching it at all.

Harry Pottah

2006-02-02T20:10:00.000-05:00

casting news for order of the phoenix

the 7th book is scheduled to come out the summer we take the frickin' bar! yikes. how's that going to work?

2006-02-01T21:53:00.000-05:00

Ben and I are watching Strange Brew. This is a really weird movie. I think I love it.

musings

2006-02-01T00:06:00.000-05:00

I posted about that poor person who broke three Ming Dynasty vases the other day. Good thing I didn't go near any museums today. Would have been a good day to spend encased in a plastic bubble, as "A. Klutz" was quite a suitable name for me today. Looking back, of course, nothing seems *that* bad, but sometimes it's the little things that get you. Somehow it's easier to slug through your grandmother's funeral, but short-circuiting your cell phone is akin to a nuclear explosion.

Ben and I cleaned out the cat litter box together last night. He almost hurled. My dad has a similar reaction to anything coming out of an animal's body. He used to just put paper towels over any of our pets' accidents and wait for my mom to come home. I wonder if women are genetically more capable of dealing with that particular type of stank? And yet men have really stinky feet, on the whole, and doesn't seem to bother them. Hmmm.

Daily thoughts on the Steelers... driving home from the game tonight, I saw maybe 10 "go Steelers" signs. I can't imagine another city more proud of their team than Pittsburgh. It's really nice. I've been thinking a lot about how "unbiased" news is supposed to be, but no one gives a crap if sports is biased. Think of all the poor Seahawks fans in the area? Not likely!

Anyway, this caused me to reminisce on the past few times the Steelers played in the Super Bowl, because I don't remember it being like this. Well, I wouldn't:
*January 12, 1975, Super Bowl IX. My dad actually went to this one, but I was merely a twinkle in his eye, as they say.
*January 18, 1976, Super Bowl X. I was en ventre sa mere. She was probably going for a walk while the Super Bowl was on.
*January 21, 1979, Super Bowl XII, and January 20, 1980, Super Bowl XIII. I was 2 and 3. All I remember from this time is having ear wax.
*January 28, 1996. Terry and I watched this one together in college. I wasn't in Da Burgh, so while there were plenty of Steelers fans in Wooster, it was different.
Here is the list of champions.

Anyway, enough for now. Time to crawl into a plastic bubble and be thankful I didn't seriously injure myself today.

2006-01-30T19:25:00.000-05:00

Anyone else think of Frightened Monkey?

empathy

2006-01-30T19:22:00.000-05:00

Museum visitor trips, breaks Chinese vases

CAMBRIDGE, England (AP) -- A museum visitor shattered three Qing dynasty Chinese vases when he tripped on his shoelace, stumbled down a stairway and brought the vases crashing to the floor, officials said Monday.

The three vases, dating from the late 17th or early 18th century, had been donated to The Fitzwilliam Museum in the university city of Cambridge in 1948, and were among its best-known artifacts. They had been sitting proudly on the window sill beside the staircase for 40 years.

"It was a most unfortunate and regrettable accident, but we are glad that the visitor involved was able to leave the museum unharmed," said Duncan Robinson, the Fitzwilliam's director.

The museum declined to identify the man who had tripped on a loose shoelace Wednesday.

Asked about the porcelain vases, Margaret Greeves, the museum's assistant director, said: "They are in very, very small pieces, but we are determined to put them back together."

The museum declined to say what the vases were worth.

here we go...and going...and going...and going...

2006-01-24T23:39:00.000-05:00

This article suggests we all take some time off from football this week.

Over/under on ...
Times you are reminded that Jerome Bettis is from Detroit: 65
Times you see the Bettis "fumble" highlight in slow motion: 23
Times you hear the name Terrell Owens: 145
Times you hear the name Drew Rosenhaus: 10
Times you hear the name Drew Barrymore: 0
Times you hear a reference to Chuck Knox: 50
Times you hear a reference to Chuck Noll: 51
Times you hear a reference to Chuck Norris: 1 (FYI: Chuck Norris doesn't read books. He stares them down until he gets the information he wants.)
Times you see a promo for Jake in Progress: 30
Times you hear someone describe the past weekend's championship games as "Jake's NOT in Progress": 1
Times you hear a Starbucks reference: 15
Times you hear a Nirvana reference: 10
Times you hear a Backstreet Boys reference: 0
Times you see a segment on all the different "Roethlis-Burger" specials in Pittsburgh-area restaurants: 4
Times you see a segment on all the different "Boul-tupper-ware" specials in Seattle-area "Bed, Bath and Beyonds": 0
Times someone makes a lame "wardrobe malfunction" quip: 10
Times someone is amazed the Rolling Stones are still alive: 100

tasty

2006-01-23T20:38:00.000-05:00

I just got back from the Giant Eagle. I made pasta with three kinds of mushrooms (crimini, portobello, shiitake) and two kinds of cheese (asiago, parmesan). It was nice. I'm washing it down with a Smirnoff Twisted green apple flavor, which I'm finding a little oppressively sweet, even though I usually like it.

I've been ravenously hungry all day. Most likely the product of an intense spinning class yesterday. I really enjoyed the class, but it costs extra, so I may have to look around for alternative ass-kicking classes. After I get home I frequently eat so much that I would have been better off sitting at home. I bought three kinds of nuts (soy, cashews, and sunflower seeds, which I know are not nuts but are sold in the nuts aisle, and which my mother used to pack in my school lunches for me in little orange plastic containers). Protein snacks = tasty. On the other hand, I like to eat and I like to exercise, so I suppose sitting at home and doing neither wouldn't really help me.

I don't think I'll finish this Smirnoff thing though. I didn't want to open a bottle of wine just for me by myself tonight, but then again, why the heck not?

I also got Cat Sips for Betty. It's cat milk, better for their little digestive systems so they don't have smelly behinds after consuming it. Bru's not a huge fan, but Betty loves anything remotely dairy. I used to let her lick out my yogurts, but her behind got too smelly. She still comes running when she hears me scraping the sides of the container, but at least she's not shameless like her brother when he hears me opening up a can of any sort. I try to tell him, it's soup, or beans, or whatever, but he doesn't give a shit. It's getting to the point now where anytime I'm preparing food at all, he thinks he's getting a treat. He's fat and therefore wrong.

I miss the Iron Chef. During my last couple months in DC, Saturday night was a big meal prepared for myself, a bottle of wine I drank myself, playing with the kittens and watching Iron Chef. I know it sounds depressing, and I was pretty unhappy at that time, but Iron Chef was a huge source of comfort. And extremely enjoyable regardless of state of mind. I loved French Iron Chef the most.

All right, time to wrap up that pasta stuff and get on with the evening.

Here we go!

2006-01-22T21:29:00.000-05:00

DAMN if that isn't the catchiest song ever written. Nevertheless, it is true: Pittsburgh's goin' to the Superbowl.