Yippee! Project Runway 3 starts tonight!

The divine Tim Gunn

I am NOT a big fan of reality TV shows, but make exceptions for the (three-time Emmy winning) Amazing Race and Project Runway. I just started watching PR last year and was totally sucked in. I still haven't seen all of Season 1, but that's okay. I'm quite anxious to see who the divine Tim Gunn is forced to say "we're going to have to ask you to leave" to.

The things I love most about Project Runway are that these people have to have a modicum of talent to succeed, and Tim Gunn. The hosts of these shows are typically so vapid and shallow; Tim Gunn is sharp, witty, and gives a "no holds barred" approach to his criticism, which is so refreshing. Plus the judges are usually critical rather than condescending.

Tonight, Bravo 10pm. Hopefully these thunderstorms will stay far enough afield to keep my cable up!

The more you know...

Can I finally get some relaxation over here? Since my fridge was empty, I stopped by Trader Joe's to get groceries last night ($107 worth - just to illustrate how desperately empty my fridge was). I really wanted to make a big fruit salad, so I bought a big watermelon and a cantaloupe. The chick at the register asked if I minded if she packed the bags heavy. Realizing that I no longer have someone to help carry this stuff to the car - I said heavy and fewer is better than lighter and more.

So all my groceries are stuffed into three bags, except for the watermelon and the cantaloupe. The girl at the register asks me if I need help getting this stuff into my car - and I'm all like, nah, I can handle it.

It took me no fewer than THREE trips back and forth from the cart (they keep them corralled in near the door) to get all this stuff in my trunk. Argh - it was so hot and humid. The main challenge was the damn watermelon and canteloupe. They were the reason for my last trip, since they wouldn't go in a bag and they were too awkward to balance with bags.

The lesson here is to always accept help if you have two large melons.

Finding my "rhythm"

Argh... so frustrating to be off-rhythm. This morning I realized that all the milk in the fridge was past its expiration date, that I had no English muffins for breakfast (no cereal either - see milk situation) and worst of all, no coffee (again, related to milk situation).

I've got to get things back in order. I see a fun trip to TJs today to fill up my empty fridge. Luckily there is an Einstein bagel place directly in my path from the train to work. Unfortunately I've been stopping there far too frequently (three times in the past week!) for a bagel and coffee.

Finally, I have a splinter in the bottom of my foot from walking barefoot on my back deck. I got it out - but it hurts like something awful. Naturally I'm wearing higher heels today, which makes the pressure on the sore spot fairly intense. Argh.

First night "alone"

Ugh. After a grueling long day, a horrendous flight (made so enjoyable by the three women who WOULD NOT SHUT UP on a 7am flight) and a exhausting evening with my dad the endless storyteller and my father-in-law, captive audience, it's finally time to be alone. After a short and sweet phone chat with DH (who hasn't set up his own internet service yet - so no audio chat for us) I have some time alone.

Except for the alone part. I'm actually looking forward to Friday night, when FIL will return home and I'll get the house to myself. There is so much cleaning that needs to be done; the kitchen is a mess, the bathroom is ugly, kitty poop needs scooping. I just don't have the energy to get it done tonight. I'm just going to crawl into bed and drop dead asleep.

It's going to be a long week.

On the bright side, I harvested my first vegetable from the garden tonight! A zucchini that apparently took steroids over the weekend - it was only 4 inches Friday - was a little over-ready for picking tonight; the darn thing was almost 12 inches. I basted it with cracked pepper and olive oil and grilled it with a leftover eggplant half, some leftover baby bella mushrooms, and two small onions. Yummy.

Okay... time for bed. Yawn.

Just my ... luck?

Pic of the accident scene this morning


What a weird morning. I have a major project due at work today - so I had planned to come in early (since I was waking up early to finish packing for this weekend and see DH off anyway). I'm just about to gather my things together to leave when I catch a report on the news that alerts me to the fact that a freight train hit a garbage truck in Gaithersburg (the stop right after mine) and that the MARC Brunswick line had suspended service.

Great! Now I had to drive to the Metro station, park there all weekend long, pay to get out, remember to get off at Rockville on the way home Monday, spend an hour going from Shady Grove to Silver Spring with all my stuff... etc. I was NOT a happy camper.

Which led me to get going a little bit faster than I would normally have, now that I had a 60 minute ride rather than a 25 minute ride to work. I shoved my suitcase in the trunk, pulled out, and got on the highway (hearing train whistles in the distance, but figuring that it was just trapped trains already on the tracks) on my way to METRO.

I get on 270S and see TWO helicopters hovering over the accident scene (figures) and then WTOP reports that the Brunswick line is operating again, albiet with up to 1 hr delay. Hmmm. So I take a chance and get off and drive right back to my train station. I pull into my spot, pull the trunk latch to get my stuff out of the trunk, and realize that it doesn't "release" - it feels like the trunk has... why yes, I did forget to shut the trunk! Brilliant! Luckily I didn't have panties strewn all over 270!

I get my stuff and make my way to the track.. hoping that I won't wait too long. Lo and behold, an announcement comes over the PA that a train is just departing Germantown - my wait is only 6 minutes! I get to work at a very respectable 8:00 - after getting a decent poppy seed bagel from Einsteins and a putrid vanilla latte from Starbucks (truly putrid.)

I don't even want to think about what adventures this evening might hold.

Why am I up so early?

Well... today's the day DH leaves me for Florida. Not really leaves me, since I'm flying down there tonight to meet up with him for the weekend, but when I come home Monday he won't be with me. He doesn't have internet access down there yet, which is going to be a real drag, but I'm sure that he won't be able to live long without it.

The cat's are going crazy, the dishes from last night's dinner are being left undone, and I won't catch a break until Tuesday - my dad is planning to visit Monday night, and that's as much drama as a 3 hour opera!

Bon Voyage DH - the kitties will miss you so!

P.S. DH hasn't gotten around to emailing CC and Jeffro, but he has says "thank you" for the phone card. He said it should last him until March, based how much time he plans on spending talking to me. :)

P.P.S. Thanks to Jeffro for correcting me last weekend - "Bye Bye Bye" is sung by the N'sync - not the Backstreet Boys.

My friend... Amazon.com

After spending too many hours on the train re-reading Economist articles, I've finally buckled down and ordered a few of the books from my gargantuan Amazon.com wishlist. I tried to be a little creative... so I've ordered:

The Genius in the Design : Bernini, Borromini, and the Rivalry That Transformed Rome
The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy
No Mercy: A Journey Into the Heart of the Congo
At Day's Close: Night in Times Past

I am totally in love with Bernini; when DH and I were in Rome two years ago, it was the focus of my days - looking for Bernini stuff. The Galleria Borghese is the ultimate Bernini destination, some of his absolute best, most beautiful sculptures are there. In particular, the sculptures of Apollo and Daphne and the Rape of Persephone are incredible in their lifelike detail.

Finally, I should be reading something again soon!

A bit early, don't you think

DH let me know that there was a teaser trailer online for Spiderman 3. Now I have truly enjoyed the first two Spiderman movies - much to my suprise - because they really were great character stories rather than just flash and dazzle special effects and action.

So I watched the trailer with interest... I haven't read anything about the story (don't tell me lalalala /hands in ears) but it looks like it is going to be a little dark. Looks very interesting, although I wish they would stop dying Kirsten Dunst's hair that Clairol bottle red and have her eat a sandwich or three.

Naturally, I am now looking forward to the movie, which I found out at the end of the teaser trailer COMES OUT IN MAY 2007. Ridiculous. Isn't a bit early to start advertising next summer's blockbusters? Also - if it isn't coming out until then - how do they have so much film shot? Shouldn't they be in the middle of shooting right now? Not wasting time on teaser trailers.

Now I am very disappointed. Jerks.

By popular demand...

Here is my recipe for Couscous salad:

1 cup cooked couscous
1/2 Cucumber - diced
1 med. Green or Red Pepper - diced
Handful kalamata olives - diced
handful cherry/grape tomatoes - quartered
1/2 block feta cheese - crumbled (more is better than less)
1/2 red onion - diced
Some dried basil and oregano
Black pepper
Olive Oil
Red Wine Vinegar


Mix all ingredients, then dress with oil and vinegar. Yummy! Even better on day two!

I had a farm in Africa

So... I'm totally in love with Meryl Streep. I had a chance to watch "Out of Africa" today on TCM, and what an unbelievable movie. Except for Robert Redford, who I can just never get into, the cast and the scenery were incredible.

I've only seen Meryl Streep in her campy trashy stuff... Death Becomes Her and Bridges of Madison County, and of course I want to see The Devil Wears Prada. This might be the first time I've seen her in a "real" film, and she does not disappoint.

I've seen a couple of great, old movies recently. I saw Cat on a Hot Tin Roof a week or two ago - and that's an amazing movie. Elizabeth Taylor is a shame now, but back in the day vavavavoom! What a hot babe. Paul Newman was incredible, as was Burl Ives (I know I know - the snowman from Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer!). Just a fantastic movie. And, of course, my all time favorite movie was on last night -and is on TCM again tonight - Gone with the Wind. There is no character in film history that represents, to me, an archtypical strong woman who is viewed in a negative light because of social double standards as much as Scarlett does.

Somehow, older movies are so much more satisfying to me. I really like character dramas - movies that focus on the personal development and interactions of a small group of characters. I don't care if anything major happens - watching characters evolve (or devolve) is really interesting to me.

Oh, I did see Meryl Streep in The Hours. She's a little overshadowed by Nicole Kidman (who was supurb!), but watching her watch Ed Harris's character fall apart is amazing.

Falling prey to marketing

A while ago I read "The Devil Wears Prada" and found it to be a vapid, but nonetheless entertaining little story. I liked the not-Anna-Wintour-yeah-right character; I thought it would be awesome to have that much power and influence to make people go get me coffees and whatnot because, frankly, I didn't feel like it and I could make you do it. I'd actually forgotten all about it (I read it at least 4 years ago, I think) until I started seeing commercials advertising the upcoming movie.

Now, I haven't been to the movies in a millenia - I can't actually remember what the last movie I saw onscreen was (maybe the final Lord of the Rings Movie). But I am actually considering going to see "The Devil Wears Prada." I adore Meryl Streep and think that she could be fab in this role. With DH moving to FL next week, my weekends are going to be pretty empty. So why the heck not!

I am so truly ashamed. But it is getting decent reviews. According to the Tomatometer it's 78% fresh! So I shouldn't feel completely guilty. It's a little like eating at Chipotle - I know that I am sending a market signal that corporate-homogonization is a good thing, but sometimes I can't help succumbing to need for some thoughtless fulfillment. And at least I'm not partaking in pure crap!

So that's why I like that stupid song

I read this article in the Economist a week or so ago... apparently there is this new technology that analyzes music to find out whether it conforms to some mathematical parameters and therefrom predicts whether the song is likely to be popular or not. From the article:

"According to Platinum Blue's software, called Music Science, for example, a number of hit songs by U2 have a close kinship to some of Beethoven' s compositions."

So weird and wild. Apparently some unknown French guy got a record deal because his song exhibited some of the characteristics that make a hit song.

For me though, it explains why even though I HATE that "You're Beautiful" song, I can't stop listening to it when it's on the radio.

Rain, rain go away

Ugh. What a drama this rain has been. Twice I have had to take the Metro to work, which involves an hour long ride through the city and back out to Silver Spring; my beloved MARC trains have been out of service because of debris and washed out tracks. Of course, on the one day that the trains were running they were running 1.5 hours late - so my ride on the 5:24 didn't get me to Metro Grove until 7:25, normally its 5:55.

Anyway, life is crazy. DH is moving to FL next week, I'm getting my promotion to GS-11 as part of my PMF program in July, the kitchen renovations are progressing at a snails pace (I've got to order those cabinets!) and this weekend we're having a small "thing" to celebrate DH's temporary move.

The worst part of it all is that I haven't found anything to read in the past couple of weeks. I have got to pick up another book soon!

C'est la vie. It's ark-building time.

Pissin' 'em off at *bucks

This afternoon I had a very long and wretched meeting that I had to go to - so I stopped off at *bucks for an iced latte. Now, at home this means that I make a regular latte - hot coffee and frothed/steamed milk and all - and just pour it over some ice. At *bucks it means that they use cold coffee and cold milk and just mix them together with some ice and voila - crappy iced latte.

Well, I simply wasn't going to stand for that. So I asked them to make me a regular grande non-fat, sugar free vanilla latte - then pour it over a cupful of ice. Not too hard really.

Except that the girl used too small of a cup to pour it into, and asked me what I wanted done with the regular latte.

"Pour the ice into a bigger cup and pour it all in there." Duh.

Now, according to the "Bad Barista Index" discussed on this NPR story , this little tale I tell indicates that we have a booming economy here in the Silver Spring area.

Because I mean, really, how hard is it to make a decent iced latte with those instructions.

Tragic Loss

It's a really angering feeling when you've have something taken from you. I remember being in Prague on Valentine's Day,1996 and having my daypack stolen right off my backpack in the storage room of the hostel we had stayed in - I lost my Dickinson College Ice Hockey baseball cap, some ornately decorated eggs that I had bought in Bratislava, some postcards from Vienna and Bratislava, a pair of shoes, and certainly some other stuff I've forgotten. I remember having $25 stolen from my wallet in the locker room in high school - money I think I had gotten from selling Blow Pops or some such crap for the German Club or something.

Last Tuesday I got home and discovered that the handle to the fence gate had been pulled clean off. I didn't think much of it - since the screws had worked themselves loose a while ago, and we were expecting our roofer to come by to give us an estimate for covering the soffets and facia in vinyl. I got inside the house, and noticed that the window shade on the back window was all askew. I though that Ray had messed it up raising it and lowering it incorrectly, and scolded him for it. Then we went out to the backyard, and noticed that the screen from one of the windows was missing entirely. At this point we started to realize that something - rather someone - had probably gotten into the house. The screen was shoved under the deck - quite clearly intentionally - and the window was open about 6 inches from the top. We have double hung windows that weren't latched shut - and it was really easy to open it from the outside. We checked around the house to see if anything was missing, and it didn't appear that anything was. The two laptops were still here, the digital camera was still on DH's desk, the DVD player and all the other little valuable things were still in their place. Hmm. Maybe whoever had gotten in had been scared off by the FedEx guy who had dropped off a package that afternoon, or the roofer who we were expecting to give us an estimate. Maybe they were just casing the house. Who knew. We were a little upset that someone had probably been in the house, but satisfied that nothing was missing.

Until last night, when DH started looking for his iPod. It wasn't on his desk, it wasn't in his backpack, it wasn't anywhere we expected it to be. We looked and we looked, until we realized that it had probably been the only thing stolen. The box that it came in, which he left on top of the computer monitor, was also gone.

Now, DH has had some really bad luck. In high school he had his new walkman stolen at a track meet. His newer Jeep Grand Cherokee was broken into at college (that was the night we fell in love, in fact), and only a couple of months after getting his new Jetta, someone keyed the hood at our old apartment complex.

It's all very tragic, and he's completely beside himself with anger and frustration. Of course, it was a video iPod, so I'm slightly more concerned about some slightly incriminating pictures that were on the iPod. Nothing nekkid - just somepics from his brother's wedding last May.

Poor DH.

I love you berry much

MMMmmm. Today was the first day of blueberry season here... and DH and I went and picked ourselves 5 pounds of berries! I know that we have the perfect relationship, because he prefers the big juicy sweet berries and I like the small, tart, slightly underripe berries. Based on past experience, this 5 lbs should last us through the middle of next week. (No worries CC - I'll need more berries soon!)

DH and I picked about 5lbs of strawberries last weekend, which were considerably more work. Besides having super-fresh fruit, I really like supporting our local farm. We pick at Butler's Orchard just outside of Germantown proper. It's like a 300 acre farm, replete with rolling hills, ponds and streams, wooded hedgerows, etc. I imagine that the land is unbelievably valuable, and I'm happy that it hasn't become like every other wide open patch of land on Rt 27 in MontCo, MD - barren hills of clay exposed because they're building 3/4 million dollar McMansion homes. Butler's Orchard is a little bit of rural paradise in a heavily congested area - and I'm happy to support them with my business to keep them that way.

Mmmm.. time for more berries. I've promised DH strawberry and blueberry waffles or pancakes for breakfast tomorrow.

No more, no more!

I saw this article this morning about one of my absolute favorite Tuscan towns. Apparently San Gimignano is full... there is nothing left in San Gimignano. At least between the hours of 8-3 - which is when all the tourists are there.

Speaking from experience, I can tell you that the most magical time to be in San Gimignano is about 6:30pm. The locals are home from work and just wandering around the streets. It's quiet, except for the occasional sound of church bells. There are few, if any, cars in the town's center. There are also few restaurants - but I can tell you about a great one in some guy's backyard a little bit off the beaten path. Ray and I love San Gimignano and hope that they find a way to balance the revenue from tourists with the beauty and all that is wonderful about the town.

Coincedently, last night Ray and I had melon wrapped in proscuitto (sadly, not true Italian prosciutto but a pale American imitation) and Italian pasta - penne with tomato (not as ripe as it should have been), basil (it will be better when it's the fresh basil from my herb garden), and buffalo's milk mozzerella (which one can get for about $6 at Trader Joes that is damn good.) Unfortunately the bottle of Vernaccia we bought in VA a few months ago was corked - otherwise we might have had some with dinner last night.

Highway to the Danger Zone

So last night, as we're eating dinner, we hear the rush of a fighter jet flying overhead. We've heard this once or twice before and it typically means that someone has entered the Washington DC "No Fly Zone" in which case thousands of taxpayer dollars are wasted to intercept some yokel flying a little Cessna who didn't know the rules.

This morning, I caught this article in the Washington Post which confirmed what we heard last night. As cool as it was to hear the fighter jet and then the helicopter fly over fairly low last night, it gives me the heebee jeebees that something is actually wrong.

Plus it's really loud.

Off to God's waiting room

Well today I am off to Singer Island, Florida for a much deserved long weekend of sun, sand, and old people. Oddly enough, temps in Florida have been running 5-10 degrees lower than here - go figure. Plus. today is the official beginning of the Atlantic hurricane season, so it will be nice to see Floridians busily buying plywood, water, batteries. and canned goods so that the first 72 hours after a storm hits they are well prepared to care for themselves.

What? That's not how things work? Who knew?

Don't know much biology

It seems that a former biology teacher I had in high school has been named the top teacher in Burlington County. Kate DeSantis (who was Ms. Zalinski when I had her for Biology in '90 - '91) is a teacher that I do remember fondly. The one thing that I remember most strongly is her explanation of why animals - humans in particular - have most of their senses (sight, smell, taste, hearing) in one place. Her explanation was that way they could only risk a small portion of themselves in order to ascertain whether there was a danger. As an example, she pretended that there was a fire in the hallway and demonstrated how by just sticking her head out the door she could tell what was going on and what the threat might be.

It's a pretty minor factoid - but one that had always stuck with me. I mean, of all the information that I was exposed to in high school, piled on by all the info that I was exposed to in college and grad school, there's only so much that is going to stick. There are classes that I can't remember at all (I couldn't remember the name of my teacher or any single event from my Creative Drama class to save my soul) so when something sticks, you have to acknowledge the teacher's role!

Yeah Ms Zalinski, errrr Mrs. DeSantis. Congratulations!

You go in the boat, boat goes in the water. Shark's in the water, our shark.

So I had to read a funny little news story about one of the RHIBs (Rigid Hull Inflatable Boats) from NOAA's HI'IALAKAI being attacked by a Tiger Shark off the coast of Hawaii on Fark.com. Here's the article describing what happened.

I think that the shark would do a lot more damage to my stability ball, though.

And you thought that I was unstable before!

This weekend I bought a giant stability ball to bring into the office to sit on while I work. It really is giant - 30 inches high. I've blown it up to test it out at home... and I am having such a ball (groan... I'm sorry). It's really fun to bounce on, and while I think that the one that I got is actually a couple of inches too big for me to be ideal, I can really feel my calf and back muscles getting a workout from balancing on it.

Let's see how long this fad lasts...

Celebrate summer with easy recipes

In honor of the unofficial beginning of summer, I thought that I would post a few of my favorite light and easy meal ideas!

Corn & Black Bean Salad (I just made this tonight)
1 Can corn
1 can black beans, rinsed
1/2 large bell pepper, diced
handful of grape tomatoes, sliced in half
1/2 red onion, diced
Couple of squirts of lime juice
Couple of splashes of olive oil (extra virgin - best quality you can find)
Couple of splashes of red wine vinegar
A palmful of fresh cilantro
salt, pepper, assorted herbs

Mix all ingredients together and enjoy.

Italian Pasta Salad (in honor of Ciccio)
Interesting cooked pasta, like farfalle or penne
Super-fresh, super-ripe tomatoes
Fresh Mozzarella (buffalo mozzarella if you can find it - but it has to be fresh - soaking in salt water variety)
Fresh Basil
Extra Virgin Olive Oil (again, best quality you can find)

Mix all ingredients and enjoy. This works super well when the pasta is still warm, melting the cheese a bit.

Assorted pasta salad ideas, using cool multicolored pastas with spinach, tomato, etc in them, should be dressed with a high quality extra virgin olive oil, vinegar, herbs like basil and oregano (fresh or dried). Stir in grilled veggies like peppers, tomatoes, onions, zucchini, and yellow squash or raw veggies like peppers, tomatoes, onions, and cooked small salad shrimp.

Yummy Couscous salads could have couscous, cucumbers, onions, black olives, diced red bell pepper, and feta cheese. Don't forget your seasonings and olive oil!

Feel free to add your own ideas.

MMMmmmm. Now I'm hungry.

And I'm gone again!

Yeah! New trip. DH is interviewing in Florida for a temporary position and I am going to join him for a little weekend trip to Palm Beach! Hurray! It will be nice to be in the heat again - hopefully the weather will cooperate. And I'll get to visit a whole bunch of my childhood haunts when I visited my grandparents: the Banana Boat, the Sea Mist, the Boynton Inlet, Gulfstream Park (pictured above). I'm so excited I could cry!

More travel for me! Yeah!

I'm back!

Well, I’m back from vacation and not lovin’ it. It’s so cold here… it’s ridiculous. Luckily, there might be a short weekend trip to Florida in my near future, which will give me a chance to refuel on my heat needs.

For those wondering… here’s a link to the Wikipedia article on “hydrophobia.”

Now all I have to do is plan my next vacation. I’ve several I’m considering right now:

A Fall long weekend trip to Maine, San Francisco, or the Cayman Islands
A next Spring/early Summer week+ long trip to London & Paris.

Now if only the budget will cooperate.

P.S. This is post #200! Woot

Almost there...

So, after a day at work where I ran around like a rabid chicken with its head cut off, I think that I might actually almost be ready to leave at the ass-crack of dawn tomorrow morning. Nevermind the fact that I still want to: pick up a pair of shoes and get an underwater camera that has a flash, two things that I have been singularly unable to do thus far.

I am breathing slowly, yoga-like breaths, trying to relax enough to get out of the office with as much grace and dignity as I can muster, and enjoy my train ride home.

In through the nose. Out through the nose. Mountain pose. Tree pose.

This is going to be much more relaxing with a rum punch in my hand and a spot on the beach.

Oh happy day

Lucky lucky me. I basically submitted my passport for renewal at the last possible moment before this trip and today I got it back! Yeah! Of course, the picture looks worse than I remember, the font is all different, and I lost all my stamps. But oh well, I got my old passport back as a keepsake.

Hoorah! Heck, I even had three days to spare.

4 days to go. All day meetings tomorrow and Thursday are going to make it bearable, I think.

A little fun...

It’s a little known fact that Mexicans love mayonnaise. I guess they put it on their burritos or something, like chipotle mayonnaise, but for some reason they have always really been into mayonnaise.

Historically speaking, mayonnaise comes from England (I think that they call it salad dressing, but whatever). In fact, the largest known shipment of mayonnaise in history was a shipment of mayonnaise from England to Mexico; a shipment unfortunately aboard the ill-fated Titanic.

The Titanic disaster caused huge shortages of mayonnaise in Mexico, riots and street protests broke out. Once regular mayonnaise shipments resumed, the Mexican leader decreed that a special celebration would be held every year to remember the great tragedy of the Titanic and its effect on their mayonnaise supply.

That celebration, my friends, is known as “Sinko de Mayo.”

Eliza - hunting cat?

So we had the back door open tonight, and all of a sudden Eliza jumped from the couch and ran over to the door. Turns out - we had a visitor.

Our backyard is a regular zoo. We've had opossums, bunnies, chipmunks, fox, and our neighbors had a deer in their yard (we have a 6 foot fence). Tonight we had a raccoon!

Thank goodness the kitties were inside and their rabies shots are up to date. I can't figure out how or where he got into the yard. Spooky!

He was a big mofo too... he totally would have eaten Henry. Eliza would have just tried to make friends.

Let's get physical

Single digits! Yeah! There are only nine days left before we leave for vacation - and I am celebrating by getting a physical. I called my doctor for a medical clearance for my SCUBA certification dives, and he requested that I get a physical before he signs off. That's just great.. I have to have blood taken (eeew - I don't do well with needles) and all kinds of areas poked and prodded.

Eh. What are you going to do?

I get to miss a morning of work, which is a nice side benefit.

In the news and on the 'net

There have been a bunch of articles that have caught my eye in the past few days.

First... a hilarious (because it's true) link from Fark.com to a "Girlspeak to English" translation aid. I particularly love the translation of "I don't want to talk about it." in Girlspeak to the English "Go away, I'm still building up evidence against you." and "We need to talk" in Girlspeak to "I need to complain." I must admit I'm guilty!

Next, an interesting article on CNN that discusses the heinous debt that most college students face when they graduate; debt that forces them into job and life choices that they might not otherwise choose. As someone with about $60k of school debt from grad school and undergrad - I feel the pain. I don't know whether having this much debt has made me choose a different life path - but I have also been fortunate enough to have married someone whose job allows me to lead the lifestyle I want and pay my debts. Of course, some might see that as a life choice in and of itself; that I married DH so I could have the lifestyle I wanted despite my enormous debt burden.

Actually, being married to DH added to my debt now that I think about it. If it weren't for the security he provided I might not have gone to grad school and added about $48k to my debt load. He's responsible! It's all his fault.

Finally, an article in the Washington Post talks about the impending doom that the retirement of the baby boomers means for the Federal Government. They are apparently going to try a whole bunch of advertising campaigns to attract younger workers to the Federal workforce and whatnot. I think they are putting the cart before the horse a bit here though. First you have to fix the arduous hiring systems - with the impossible to complete KSAs and months long process for applying and interviewing. Younger generations have too much competition out there to wait around for a government job.

Another thing that needs to be fixed is the abysmal state of government managers. Most managers are there because they are well versed on policy matters, not because they are good at managing people. People apply for jobs because of the description, but they leave/stay at jobs long term when they are well managed. This is a real weak link in the government right now, and the massive retirement of the baby boomer middle management ranks without some kind of strucutred approach to training people to manage (or developing two career ladders - one for policy experts and one for people experts) is going to frustrate any attempts to bring younger generations on board for the long term.

Lots of good stuff out there for those of us who have the time to read it.

Kitties have a new friend

This is so weird, but for the past month or so we have had a cat visiting our front step. He just likes to sit there in the sunshine and I guess hang out. Of course, this drives our kitties nut. We've had puffy tails and bloodcurdling yowls and all kinds of pacing from window to door to window in excitement.

So this afternoon I notice both kitties looking intently out the front door, in virtually identical positions. And there's the visiting cat - sitting on the end of the driveway. I ran to find the digital camera - so I could post a pic of the cuteness, but naturally I couldn't find it in time to capture the moment. So I offer this artists rendition of what a confrontation between kitties would look like.

Silly kitties.

Where did my weekend go?

I wanted to enjoy the weekend - but somehow I developed this huge amount of stuff to do that basically killed any dreams of relaxation.

Thursday night DH and I met with the kitchen designers. They are awesome. They had prepared a whole drawing of what the kitchen would look like, and had cabinet door samples and price quotes for everything. Then I decided that I wanted a totally different cabinet look, which ruined all their hard work. In retaliation they told DH and I to go pick appliances. Now, I do know what dishwasher I want (had to have a handle, not one of those clicky things you grab like a car door), but the refrigerator is causing major drama. Side by side? Bottom Freezer? I know that I want a stainless steel fridge (because they don't usually have high-gloss black, and I can't stand the textured black look). But I am having major problems picking out fridges because of the handles. So many choices, so few true options. Don't even get me started on cooktops and wall ovens.

Friday night we had to study for the SCUBA exam we had to take Saturday morning. Saturday we took our aforementioned SCUBA exam, then attacked the front lawn. Because the front lawn looked like the picture above - except with longer grass and more dandelions - it was insanity. Sunday was more lawn work - this time in the back yard.

All that, plus grocery shopping, pet food shopping, a trip to Home Depot (absolute HELL on the weekend), laundry, assorted weekend home cleaning tasks, and Eliza literally puking all over the staircase and entryway made for an exciting conclusion.

Vacation anyone?

Isn't LL Bean from Maine?

Apparently, LL Bean is moving to the Caribbean. Its new summer catalog features the beach where DH and I got married - Trunk Bay on St John.

Just compare the pic above with this link - clearly its slightly cropped on the catalog,and they covered the little house with trees (you can totally see where they copied and pasted trees), but there is no doubt it is the same beach.

The same beach I'll be sinking my toes into in just 14 days.. :)

20th Anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster

The NY Times has a bit on Chernobyl - making me realize that today is the 20th anniversary of the reactor explosion. I was only 10 at the time - I don't think that I was ever aware of it in that time period, but I'm nonetheless fascinated by it now.

Not too long ago I saw the National Geographic Channel's "Seconds from Disaster" about the Chernobyl explosion. It was absolutely riveting. I highly recommend checking it out if you have the opportunity. I think almost everyone is aware that Chernobyl exploded and released radiation into the air - but I think that most people's impression of this kind of disaster is that it was as violent and deadly as a nuclear bomb, which it really wasn't. That's not to say that people didn't die - and that they aren't still dying from the radioactivity released by the explosion - but it wasn't huge mushroom cloud explosion with many instantly being zapped dead in a flash (like in the BBC movie "Threads" or ABCs "The Day After").

I kind of have a sick curiosity to see Pripyat - the little town closest to Chernobyl that was evacuated. I mean, it would be a perfectly preserved slice of life under the late Soviet empire. A time capsule. Just incredible. There are tours that take you there, giving you personal dosimeters and Geiger counters to make sure that you don't absorb too much radiation. Fascinating.

Somehow I don't think that I would have many travel companions on this trip.

P.S. Here are links to the Washington Post's article about Chernobyl's observations of the anniversary and the Wikipedia article about the disaster.

I'm so bored again (sung to the rhythm of "On the Road Again")

This hurry up and wait game is brutal! After having more than a month of steady, if mind-numbing, activity, I’m back to having little to nothing to do.

Check whether houses in the neighborhood have sold, read Washington Post, read NY Times, read about Virgin Islands, read friend's blogs, do a little work, eat lunch, remember personal errands and do them, read more internet, do a little more work, walk around, do the hokey pokey and turn myself around, is it 5:15 yet?

This picture is really cool, though. I can’t wait to see one in 16 DAYS!

Do I work... or do I plan

Sadly, my return to work looked much like my departure - all day meetings for seemingly meaningless tasks. Today, I took a little mental time to daydream and have come up with the following items:

1) I think that it would be neat to pick my own bananas, mangoes, limes, coconuts etc - whatever fruit I can find on vacation. Not that I think that I could make a full mean from it, but still. So I tried to Google to find out when all of these things are ripe (there are banana and mango trees in the garden at our rental villa, and there are coconut trees growing on all the beaches). I've determined that I must be looking up the only information unable to be quickly found via Google. Depressing.

2) The "Lost" and "Amazing Race" season finales are on during my vacation week. Do I tape them at home to guarantee that I don't miss them, or do I incorporate them into my vacation? Decisions, decisions.

3) Since we will be on St John during a full moon, I am hoping to see the bioluminescence caused by the polychaete worm spawn (gloworms) that happens 2-6 days after the full moon. Glowing worms - trippin' man!

4) ZIP in "ZIP code" stands for "Zone Improvement Plan." I know you had to know that.

5) I'd better get my car emissions inspection done soon. Hmmmm.

My day dreams get less interesting as the days go on.

Last week, when I was away in Denver, the MARC train that I take to work hit a woman - she had layed down on the tracks to commit suicide. I feel really bad for my train conductors - there's no way they could stop the train, and it has to be a really rotten experience. I want to say something to them - but there's kinda a code, where I say "Good Morning" and they say "Good Morning" and then I say "Have a nice day" when I'm getting off the train and they reciprocate. Poor guys. They are so cute in their uniforms, though.

Official vacation preparation has begun! Just 19 days left!

I know that I go on and on about going on vacation, but right now this vacation feels like to only thing I have to look forward to; that is until Tuesday when we meet with our kitchen designers!

Anyway, we've officially started packing! Agh! The suitcases are open, and we've thrown in stuff like our bathing suits (I bought a super cute tankini at Kohls yesterday that was on a super sale! And I actually was happy with it! Amazing!), beach towels, suntan lotion and aloe, etc.

One challenge we've found is that our SCUBA fins don't fit in the suitcases that we have (we normally can get everything into our little carryon bags). So we're faced with a dilemma. Do we get a slightly larger suitcase that has to be checked in? Do we leave our fins in their SCUBA gear bag and carry that on, but still needing to check a bag? Oh the decisions!

I don't know how I am going to get through the remaining 14 days at work!

VW Commercials... whoa

Not DH's car, but a cousin

I love VW commercials... they are some of the best, most memorable commercials I've ever seen. There was that one I think that I have mentioned before, with the wedding and that haunting music. There's the hilarious commercial where the guy dive tackles a shopping cart that is about to hit his new VW. The da da da guys... the trash pickers... I could go on.

These new VW commercials freak me out though; if you haven't seen them yet - you won't believe them. One second, they show people riding in the new Jetta, chatting as aspiring upper middle class yuppies are wont to do. The next instant there is a violent crash - and you see every bit of it. Last, you see the shaken passengers standing outside the car, clearly okay.

The point is to advertise the safety features of the new Jetta, which I will admit was one of the reasons that DH chose his Jetta over a Civic, with the side airbags and all. Still, these commercials are really upsetting in their realness.

I can only hope that we never have to test the safety of our Jetta.

P.S. You can watch the spots here

Travel Tale #4 - My own personal Amazing Race

Yesterday, although my class was scheduled to end at noon, I was able to get to the airport by 10:30am. There were two Frontier flights to DC - one leaving at 11:45 and my flight at 4:55. I wanted to get on the 11:45 - but I had to go standby.

So I waited at the gate. And waited. And waited. 11:44 comes, and I started to feel like a racer on The Amazing Race, trying to get a critical flight. I was fidgeting. And then, at the last moment - I'm on! Yippee - I'm getting home six hours early!

So I called DH and let him know I was going to be home at 5:00 rather than 11! He nearly didn't pick me up at the airport - which would have been a real bad choice on his part, but in the end he made the smart decision and picked me up. Traveling out to Shady Grove from National at rush hour with luggage would have made me have to kill him.

I watched the flight tracker again on the way home. This time, my altitude at landing was 5 feet above sea level, rather than ~5400 feet. Much better. My nose thanks God for it.

So that was it. Denver wasn't really my thing. I mean, the mountains were pretty off in the distance, but meh. It didn't feel like it had its own character. Not that many American cities have their own character, truthfully. It's sad really, I think that corporate American is killing unique American identity wherever it might have existed. Gap, Banana Republic, Ann Taylor, yawn. Outback, Carrabbas, Lone Star, yawn again. So sad.

Anyway, I'm home now... but only for 20 days!!!

Travel Tale #3 - Positively Perfect in Every Way

Before the class, we were required to take a little quiz to determine how much we already knew about Project Management. I think I scored a 30%, considering that the quiz is mostly technical jargon and business-speak phrases that people in the real world don't use unless they've all taken this project management class (classic corporate training).

In any case, I had to retake the test tonight in order to receive a certificate verifying that I have completed the class. Needless to say (because of the title of this post) I scored a 100%. $3000 well spent by my agency? I think that that is yet to be determined.

Tomorrow I'm flying home - which I am really excited about. I mean, its nice to have been out of the office and all, but I miss DH, miss my kitties, and miss having good coffee.

Better than that - it's only 22 days until we leave on vacation! Gray skys are gonna clear up

Travel Tale #2 - It's all about showmanship

Back by popular demand... tales from Colorado

Every morning a couple of people from class are supposed to give presentations on concepts that we learned the previous day. Today it was my turn. I've never been one to shy away from public speaking, so I happily gave my presentation on MS Project.
Well, in addition to giving the presentation, the class also votes on who was the best presenter that day. Yesterday there were four presenters, and someone at my table won. And today there were 8 presenters - and I won.

As if there was any doubt. :)

The table I am at has six people: two older guys from EPA, one older guy from DoD, one Korean guy, and one girl from DoL. The older male duo from EPA are a bunch of troublemakers... but they are also so much fun. I've got to be the youngest one in the whole class; they tell me every day how much I remind them of their daughters. The facilitators of our class try and avoid looking in our direction, because we tend to give smart-ass answers to any and all questions.

On top of that, it's clear that I am an open book. I've already been labeled "the girl who knows everything," "the de facto leader," and "git 'er done girl." I don't know what the less complimentary labels are though, thankfully.

Good times.

Travel Tale #1 - How high am I?

I've been told that I have an uncanny ability to make a long, drawn out story out of anything, so here's attempt number one for my Denver trip.

I flew Frontier, as noted below, and they have those little Direct TV TV consoles in the headrest of the seat in front of you. Of course, it's $5 to watch crappy TV shows and $8 to watch even crappier movies, but whatever. The bonus is that the have "flight TV," which lets you see how fast you are traveling, the altitude, and where you are flying over. Pretty cool... I enjoy that.

So we've been flying at ~40,000 feet the whole way, and we're making our descent and approach to Denver. I'm watching the altitude drop, and thinking "Wow, I can really see a lot of detail at 10,000 feet." We keep dropping, and I see the runway - really close now - and the monitor still says ~6000 feet. I think, "hmmm, maybe there's a pretty severe lag between reality and what's on the TV."

Finally, we're on the runway and going ~50 miles an hour, and the altitude shows 5300 feet. It's only then (so much for being smart) that the altitude is feet above sea level rather than feet above the terrain below. Duh.

Still, it's pretty wild to see how high above sea level I am, can't wait to see it on the way home.

Welcome to Denver, Colorado

I flew Frontier, except my plane had a bunny on the tail

So I'm in Denver, CO this week. Well, technically speaking I'm not in Denver - I'm in Aurora, which is like 25 miles outside of Denver.

The weirdest thing about everywhere west of the Potomac is that there really isn't anything west of the Potomac - not that I could see from 40,000 feet anyway. I mean holy cow, Kansas looks like a square box partitioned up into hundreds more square boxes.

And Denver International Airport is like on the border of wilderness or something. Everyone told me to watch for the mountains... and all I saw were more square fields. Boring.

So I'm out here for some Project Management class, and yeah whatever, at least I am not in the office this week. And I think that it is supposed to snow on Tuesday, which is totally messed up.

I'm beat... so I'll regale all 4 of my readers with tales of travels some other time.

Oooh look at the pretty lights!

According to Yahoo news... the world is coming to an end! A comet fragment the size of a car is going to hit the Earth! On May 25th. The day that Bush is going to attack Iran.

Well... maybe not. According to Bad Astronomy blog's refutation of the Yahoo news article, the comet might, just might, pass close enough, to create meteor showers on May 14th. And... we'll be on vacation then, in a place where there is virtually no light pollution to obscure the sky.

Except... the full moon is on the 13th, and that light might block some of the view. Eh. Can't win for losing.

28 days to go and my vacation is safe!

Yeah! Huzzah! According to CNN, Delta pilots and management have reached a tentative agreement, which likely means that there will be no strike, and my painfully early flight from DC to STT will fly as scheduled. Hooray!

Next week I am in Colorado, not quite as exciting, but I am treating it as a mini-break from the drama that is my life at work. Hooray again.

Looks like everything is coming up Milhouse!

Wow, Google Earth is cool

So, even though I am a dorky geek, or a geeky dork, or whatever, I am just discovering the coolness and armchair vacation possibilities Google Earth offers.

The cool stuff I'm just beginning to discover:

A satellite image of the neighborhood where I stayed in Florence


A satellite image of where I'm staying on vacation on St John (not as high a resolution, but whatever)


So cool... but I think I am like the last person on Google Earth to figure out how neat this is!

Clearly, I married up

According to this CNN/Money Magazine "article," DH has the number one "Top ten best jobs" according to stress levels, salary and growth expectations, etc.

Lucky Bastard.

Funny, being a government employee doesnt even make the Top 50 list. Somehow, I am not surprised.

At this point, I feel like "The Little Engine that Could." I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.

Can I make it?

This will be me soon!

Insane (adj): Doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results.

I truly think that I am on the verge of going insane. For the last two weeks I have been in 9-5 meetings in response to an OMB program assessment request. Every day I come in, work on this assessment for the whole day, then go home exhausted.

This weekend, just to add a little to the exhaustion, DH and I had our first weekend of SCUBA training. Which was exhausting. We left home ~840 Saturday morning, and got home ~10pm. Same story for Sunday – left home ~930 and got home ~915. Let me just say that doing two weeks worth of SCUBA trainings in three days is brutal. Physics, physiology, math – these are not things my mind was created to absorb – especially in 12 hour sessions on the weekends.

Last night, however, I did breath underwater for the first time, and it was totally wild. Sitting on the bottom of the pool, with butts and fins and boobs and bellies floating around (or, more often, into) me, breathing normally without having to surface. Totally wild. I can’t wait to do it for real and see schools of shiny silver fish instead of slabs of shiny white flab.

The most surprising thing about the class is that the pool sessions were conducted – OUTDOORS. Do you know how cold it was here on Saturday night when the wind was howling out of the north? The pool was like 97-98 degrees, but man, getting out was brutal. It was like being in Finland or something.

Anyway, with only 32 days to go (almost into the 20s!) I think that I can make it. Those damn Delta pilots had better not ruin this for me.

The socially-conscious vacation activity

So, with just 36 days left to go and a possible Delta pilots strike threatening to complicate my plans... I'm looking for happy vacation activities to keep me sane.

Luckily I found Wagapalooza.

Please, for the love of God, don't strike - results edition

According to this article, Delta pilots are set to decide today whether or not the union will authorize a strike. I haven't seen it in the news too much, unlike when Northwest (the worst airline in the world in my opinion) mechanics went on strike - so I am hoping that the general consensus is that the execs and the pilots' union will work things out. There are only 38 days left before we're scheduled to fly.

However, as a former girl scout, I do believe in being prepared.

I know that we bought our tickets with a credit card, so that if our flight is cancelled because of a strike I call Mastercard and tell them to refund me the full cost of the flight and let them battle it out with Delta.

I'm still tracking flight options to STT for our dates. Technically Delta should rebook us on another airline if they strike - but I am sure that that would not be pretty - or convienent. I am mentally prepared to make another flight reservation if needs be.

P.S. Well the pilots just authorized a strike as I was typing this... Laissez le bon temps roulez!

Please, for the love of God, don't strike

So we're flying Delta to St Thomas in 43 days, and I know that Delta's been having some labor and financial issues. I've been praying and praying that they'll find away to settle their differences calmly and rationally, without public posturing and ratcheting up the tension.

So much for that... according to this article, the pilots are really gonna push this. All I can say is please, for the love of God and my sanity, please settle.

Glimmer of Hope - part deux

When DH and I lived outside of Philly (either growing up in Jersey or after college in Chester County), we loved to have - as a special treat - a true Philly cheesesteak. Now I understand that people's loyalty to a particular ship as "the best" is very personal. I grew up eating Jim's on South St just like all the other white bread suburban Jersey kids. Later, when we lived in Exton, PA, and didn't want to drive into the city, we relished the wonderful cheesesteaks at Roccos on Rt. 100.

Since moving to DC, however, we've had very, very few opportunities to enjoy the greasy delicacy. Local restaurant menu claims of "philly-style" cheesesteak (replete with lettuce and tomatoes - say what?) have us shaking in our boots.

The Washington Post has an article highlighting this place in College Park that, at first glance, seems promising. Amoroso rolls - definite element of a successful Philly Cheesesteak. Cheez Whiz - ohhhhs so sweet and real. The real question is... have they accumulated the decades of grease that makes a Philly Cheesesteak sing?

Probably not.. but I might have to try them for the Amoroso roll alone. MMMmmm.

Glimmer of hope

Today, trolling the Commerce jobs website, I came across a posting for a job in my dream office. I am trying very, very hard to stay calm and realistic – that this is a glimmer of hope that might just be a mirage. It might be a posting for a slot that has already been identified for someone specific (not unheard of in government), there might be tons of people who are very interested in the spot who are WAY more qualified than I.

But still, I emailed some people I know over there to figure out whose posting it is.

And maybe, just maybe… it’s like a .05% chance but the chance is there…

Keeping my fingers crossed. Tightly.

Edited to add - well the glimmer was in fact a mirage. They have identified who they want in the position... so it isn't truly an "open position." Oh well... c'est la vie. Welcome to government land.

An expensive new hobby

This is going to be me soon... without the long, flowing blond hair.

So DH and I went to an orientation session for our SCUBA class today... and now I've realized a) how excited I am to learn how to dive and b) how dangerous this is - because I am going to either want to move to Florida so I can dive every weekend or we're going to be racking up the frequent flyer miles. The dive instructer was an absolute gas. He's runs SCUBAedu.com, he's got a personality that left me in stiches, and I can understand why he has a legion of devotees that have formed a dive club out of love for him.

The kitchen drama continues as well. We met with one "designer" (more like layout specialist) this weekend who showed us his "plans" for the kitchen. Nothing really different or creative - mostly the same layout with a little different use of the pantry wall. We were disappointed - particularly when he had so few insightful suggestions in terms of actual design. We're going to keep looking - hopefully we'll find someone with a little more vision.

DH and I have discovered that we have only 2 or 3 free weekends between now and Memorial Day Weekend. It's a busy life we lead.

I am a virtual undergrad at Berkeley

Today, I listed to my first podcast lecture for the UC Berkeley course "European Civilization from the Renaissance to the Present." Basically Western Civ 101. It talked a bit about the cultural context that sparked the Renaissance, as well as the notable cultural contributions of the Renaissance and its impact/influence on 19th and 20th century society. It was understandably and expectedly shallow in terms of its level of analysis - but these are 18 year olds in their first or second semester.

Regardless, this was awesome. I was listening to this lecture on the train in to work - and I realized when I got to work that I had officially crossed the border from sorta-nerd to uber geek. It's okay though, I'm comfortable with that.

What I hope is that more professors make their entire course lecture series available via podcast. I think that this is the beginning of a real trend in education, at least I hope that it is.

Wow, I am really a total nerd. Check out the course I am listening to here.

Destroying my childhood... one tee at a time.

I just caught this article in the Burlington County Times... the golf course that I grew up living next to might be sold to developers for housing developments.

I cannot explain how upset this makes me. That golf course holds so many memories for me: KW and I would collect golf balls that were lost in the water hazards and woods and sell them back to the golfers on the 4th tee, in the winter the water hazards would freeze and we would ice skate on them, the strange eel creature that we saw swimming in the streams, sledding down the tee-off hills on the fourth tee, walking across the golf course (just once) to elementary school (we got lost a little), having my first french kiss in the trees near some other tee, running from the Ranger when we were caught on the course.

And that's just the beginning.

When I describe what my childhood was like, and what the kids and my neighborhood were like, the golf course is an integral part of all of those memories. We were mischevious (although I never had the guts to go to the Ranger shack and drive his cart after hours) but never did anything really really bad. It was fun to hide in the woods at the bottom of the 4th tee, and when a golf ball was hit close to the woods - we'd run out and steal it. When we got older, I remember some of the older kids actually learning to golf on the course - something we'd all try a couple of times.

In any case, hearing that this giant playground (I am sure that the Ramblewood County Club managers are thrilled to hear that) is about to be torn out for houses... well it saddens me. The next generation of kids on my old street aren't going to have the opportunity to play and run free on those vast green tracts like we did.

Come to think of it though.. the kids that were the generation after us probably never did play on the golf course. Their parents were probably too afraid of them being kidnapped or molested, and anyway the kids had Playstation and Xbox and the internet to entertain them indoors rather than playing Ghost in the Graveyard or Jailbreak outdoors.

It's a tragedy all around.

Goin' down to South Park...

So, through a strange set of circumstance, I am probably going to be in Denver, Colorado, for a week for a training class. Even stranger, there is a possibility that DH might also be in Colorado that week (albeit in Colorado Springs) for a conference.

The problem is – I know nothing about Colorado. At. All.

We were thinking of getting there a weekend early and doing something, but I have no idea what we would do. It will be April, so I have the impression that it is going to be cold, possibly snowy, so scenic mountain drives are likely out of the question.

I guess we’ll come up with something.

An iPod degree - Cool Beans

I was just reading this article on CNN.com, and I am intrigued by the possibilities. I've wanted to get more exposure to certain concepts and ideas in an academic setting, so I'm wondering if I googled "college lecture podcasts" how far I could get in acquiring that knowledge. It's a very intriguing idea. Imagine listening to Francis Fukuyama give a lecture on post 9/11 US foreign policy, or even listen to someone instruct a language class via iPod. Even better, some famous professor economist at UChicago give a lecture on international trade economics, or a research scientist at Woods Hole talk about fishery management.

It will be interesting to see how far this could go. Although part of the benefit of being in the classroom is the exchange of ideas and dialogue about new concepts to fully flush them out, this could also be an invaluable tool to reaching people ordinarily left outside of the traditional academic circle.

Intriguing.

And we thought it would be easy...

Well, it’s been a heck of a weekend. DH and I are starting to get really serious about the kitchen remodel. Saturday we chatted with a kitchen designer who is going to draw up a plan for our kitchen and price it out. We’re responsible for choosing lighting and appliances. He suggested we stop at the Great Indoors for some ideas. Which we did, and were promptly overwhelmed by the stunning array of choices we had to make. Refrigerator: top freezer, bottom freezer, side by side, built in, with water dispenser. Range or cooktop and wall oven? Dishwasher?

With that in mind we signed up for a subscription to Consumer Reports to try and narrow down the choices. No help there. We got recommendations, but then try and find those models in the store. Near impossible.

One of the things that we’re concerned about is making sure that the renovation looks like an update. We also wanted to see some "designed" kitchens for ideas, find out what the new trends are, what our "competition" was, etc. So today we went to some model homes in some new communities in Clarksburg. We went to 7-8 homes and holy crap! I cannot believe how big these homes were. They were ridiculous. 4200 square feet – four finished levels, and every bedroom has a bathroom. I couldn’t understand what kind of families would live in these homes – and indeed even how they could be families. The master bedroom had its own living room; the kids had their own living rooms, plus rec rooms, the normal family room, sun room. A four-person family could literally spend their lives in the same house never seeing each other. Rather than finding it stunning, which I think is the reaction of most, I found it very cold.

What we did learn is why homes in our neighborhood are probably not selling like hotcakes – as they did just a year ago. They are being listed between $550-$675k, and these new houses (albeit 20 minutes or so up the road and not nearly as convenient to highways or public transportation), are being priced very similarly, or just a bit more ($450 for town homes larger than our house through about $850k for a ridiculous 4200 square foot monstrosity) The models are replete with master baths with giant soaking tubs, granite kitchens, hardwood floors throughout – all manner of luxurious amenities. So imagine you have your budget, and you are looking at a 20-year-old, not really updated house vs. a brand new, very large (looking), totally modern model home. Priced similarly (and with creative financing – probably within a few hundred dollars monthly payment, which for most is what really counts) and the choice seems easy – even if it means a ~20 minute longer commute.

In order to compete with these homes on their terms (if that is even possible) we’d have to totally update the kitchen (which we’re doing), renovate the master bath so that we have tiled floors, a 6 foot soaking or Jacuzzi tub, a separate, two-person steam shower, a window over the bathtub, skylights, yada yada yada. We’d also have to finish the basement with separate home theater, exercise room, rec area, and bar area that is nearly as kitted out as the kitchen (granite, fridge, wine cooler, sink, etc)

We’ve got a lot of work to do.

Conquering the media outlets, one at a time

First, the Washington Post. Then the New York Times.

Now my wonderful little paradise has been discovered by The Colbert Report.

Watch the video here. Click on "Better Know a District."

Morning drama in 35 seconds

Open scene.

A young woman stands at a kitchen sink, looking out the window at a squirrel attacking a birdfeeder she had just filled with sunflower seeds. She’s preparing to make espresso, and has just turned on the coffee grinder. She bangs on the window to get the squirrel to stop feeding on the seed.

Young woman: Get off my feeder you stinker!

The young woman runs over to the back door, bangs on it a couple of times. A small orange cat named Henry runs over to the door in hopes of escaping into the backyard. The squirrel remains on the feeder. The coffee grinder is still running.

Young woman: Dammit.

The young woman opens the door, trying to keep the small orange cat from escaping with her foot. The coffee grinder is still running.


Young woman: Henry!

The small orange cat leaps over the foot and runs towards the squirrel on the feeder, chasing it around the roof of the gazebo several times. The sound of footsteps running down stairs is heard in the background. The young woman runs outside, grabs the small orange cat, who is hissing and spitting, runs back inside, slams the door shut, drops the small orange cat, runs over to the coffee grinder – which is still running – and shuts it off. She doses coffee grinds into the portafilter of the espresso machine, locks it into place, and starts making espresso.

A young man appears from the hallway.

Young Man: What the hell is going on down here?

Young woman: Nothing, I’m just making my coffee and trying to get the squirrel off the feeder.

The small orange cat is at the backdoor, meowing loudly.

End Scene.

Springtime for ...

I love Spring. I love getting out of the house, working in the yard, dreaming about the myriad projects that one wants to do to brighten things up.

DH and I are hoping to remodel our kitchen this summer – which is our major project for this year. We chatted with a couple of kitchen designers this weekend, found out that our initial budget was probably a bit low for what we wanted, and got the sense that unless you are doing a $100, 000 kitchen makeover, people in this area are not interested in working with you. Ugh.

We also tackled the backyard. The leaves had decided to fall in January, rather than in November when they were supposed to. So we raked up all the leaves. Also, three years ago I had transplanted 3-5 Iris rhizomes into the garden. From these original plants, I dug out and split literally 100 new plants, which I planted in the side garden and the backyard. Needless to say my legs are killing me, my back is sore, and I have sunburn on my shoulders.

It was a busy weekend.

Don't judge a book by its cover

I had two appearance-related incidents today...

First, I finally got around to getting my passport photos done so that I can renew my passport. I only have to travel in 64 days - so I though that it was about time. I wasn't vain about my picture, but I did a quick sweep of powder across the face and a fresh lipstick application. Still, I was annoyed about waiting 20 minutes for someone to wait on me when there were five people behind the counter and two people in the whole store. So my picture shows it - I have this look on my face like "so now you're finally getting to me! How nice." Which isn't really that big of a deal, since I imagine I'll have the same look on my face when approaching customs agents after waiting in endless immigration lines. So I've got that going for me.

The second incident was at home. I answered the door to some young kid selling some such crap. I open the door (all I am wearing is a college sweatshirt and similar shorts) and he says "Are your parents home?"
Now, I'm young looking for my age, but I'm also almost 30. Carding, I can understand. But I can't believe that I look that young that I merit an "are your parents home" by some kid half my age.

It's a weird, weird world.

New Book

Isn't he sweet. I want to save him!


Now that I have finished "The World is Flat," I am trying to decide whether I want to a) go back to school (shudder), b) build my career focusing on international policy - regardless of the issue - or focus on living marine resource management, and c) quit trying to figure my life out right now and let it go where it's going to go.

To those ends I am reading "The Empty Ocean" by Richard Ellis. I don't actually know if it is going to help, but it seemed like an interesting book. I'm almost 30 - shouldn't I have a better idea of what I want to do with my life yet?

I've been reading up on UDel's Masters in Marine Policy and UWashington's Master of Marine Affairs programs. I'm scaring myself. I really want to take just a few select courses rather than go through all the drama - and I'd like to stay somewhat closer to home.

Someone just smack me now. Think Cher in Moonstruck.

PostSecret Chat

There was a chat with the coordinator? of the PostSecret website/project, Frank Warren, on the Washington Post today - check it out here.

TJs all the way!

The NYTimes has an article about my favorite grocery store in the world, Trader Joes - in fact it's the only store DH and I go to for our weekly needs. Apparently they are about to open up in NYC, which should be a pretty big challenge.

The most frustrating thing is that certain products come and go. Recent loves of mine that have been lost are the bottled Santa Fe sauce (great on tacos, although the new Mexican Red Sauce is a fair replacement) and the diced coconut, which is apparently gone and was my favorite mid afternoon snack along with dried mango.

Their shrimp, olive oil, frozen pizza, and cereals are all must haves!

Taking it day by day

Another day, another dime. I met today with someone who works in the office that posted an actual international affairs job, but naturally it was a minefield opportunity to be avoided. I am already in one broken office, the last thing I want to do is work in another. So that's that.

One thing that is pretty good is that I have an interview tomorrow with the dream office. It's only a rotation, and they are fully staffed with little prospect of another opportunity, but that's okay. It's still the dream office!

Something that I am learning about govt work is that it is a never ending drama to try and complete one item on the endless list of things to do. There are a million things that my office needs to get done (and everytime I talk with another office - they to have an endless list of things to do). There's no outsourcing basic functions, so valuable time is spent doing/struggling with basic tasks, wasting time that could be used to provide a true, value-added service. Govt jobs are posted asking for qualifications of the job that you should be doing, but in reality you'd better have some technical skills with Access or Excel, because you'll be spending all your time on basic data collection and organization tasks. There is no time for true analysis.

It's really sad too, because the govt could do so many great things, if only we weren't bogged down in these trivialities.

It's over already?

Shame that weekends have to go by so quickly. After recovering from my Friday night fury, it was a pretty easy-going weekend. Got the kitchen cleaned, played Monopoly with DH, did a bit of furniture shopping (didn't buy anything - waiting for the new Crate and Barrel catalogue this week).

The highlight of the weekend was battling our dear kitties for their trip to the vet. We only have one cat carrier, but two cats. Both had to go to the vet (Henry for his annual check-up, Eliza for her quarterly weigh-in). We decided to stick Eliza in the carrier and Henry on the leash and harness, because Eliza tends to roam all over the car and Henry just hunkers down in the backseat. You know the expression "herding cats." Well, it's true.

As soon as Eliza gets placed in the car, she starts a non-stop meowing tirade that lasts the entire 7 minute trip to the vet. And if 7 minutes doesn't sound that long, I challenge you to go through it with a constant, loud "meow, meow, meow" in your ear. Henry, as expected, layed down in the back seat. When we got to the vet, he was so scared he tried to crawl into the armhole of my coat - while I was wearing it!

Needless to say they got through the exam without problems, but man - they are dear little pains in the butt.

68 days 'til vacation.

How fickle is woman

And just as quickly as I had accumulated a great deal of good will towards those who passed my George, their greedy entitlement attitudes and nickel and diming me (and a ludicrous charge of $40 for new wiperblades!!) send me into a fury.

I just picked up my car - and my charge was $184 rather than the $130 I had been given as an estimate. So I question the charges, where the reveal that they are charging me $40 for the wiper blades and $15 for "shop charges." I was enraged - they didn't even ask me to confirm I wanted the wiper blades installed - had they told me $40 I would have laughed at them and said "no thanks, I'll go to Pep Boys and do it myself. Then they explain to me that the $15 shop charges were to cover their "materials and services" like spraying down my dashboard or some such crap. Now those who have seen my car know it's a total hole - like I am going to be all impressed by a dusted dashboard. I tell them that those should be part of the cost of doing business, and making them visable to the customer is just a way of guarenteeing ill will for the nickel-and-diming treatment.

You know, if they had called me and said - hey, your car passed except for the wiper blades - and for $30 we'll go ahead and install them for you, I would probably have been cool with that (money for convienence) and my goodwill from the inspection would have made me a customer until they pissed me off a couple of times. Now, they have not only flushed any goodwill I had down the toilet, they've left a sour taste in my mouth and neither DH nor I will ever go back.

They say it's 10 times more expensive to get a new customer as it is to keep one... I wonder how much is costs them to lose one - especially when one has a car with 176k on it that's sure to have some mechanical problems that need fixing.

That kind of stupidity should be criminal.

The kicker is that while I was complaining about the charges (which they did knock down in the end, but I was too pissed by then to be mollified) the guy slyly mentions that they "saved" me $700 by passing my car. No, I told them, I had a quote for $350 to replace it the next morning. Plus, if the car was worthy of passing - they didn't "save" me anything. He was just trying to make me feel better about being duped, and it was so transparent it was laughable. Idiot. More service people I'll just have to see in hell.

George passed!

Not my car - but one of his close cousins


Right now, I am in a state of shock.

My car, George, is a 1995 Saturn SL1 with 176k+ miles. He's a great car - I love him.

When DH and I moved to Maryland, I took my car to a Saturn dealership nearby (without being potentially held liable for slander, I won't name names) who looked at a hairline crack along the furthest edge of the passenger side of the car (in the painted area) and promptly said "Your car won't pass Maryland inspection with that crack." Now George had easily passed PA inspection for several years with that crack. When I asked how much it would cost to replace the windshield - I was quoted a figure of $700.

Now, I love my car, but I was poor, jobless, not even a student at that point, and sinking $700 into my precious, but worn, car for something like a windshield was just not in the cards. I called around for a couple of other quotes, but never got anything lower than $600, so I sold my car to my father-in-law for free, who registered and insured the car in PA, but allowed me to continue to drive it.

Well, I'm sometimes not a very together person, and I have, on occasion, gotten parking tickets that have been forgotten. About a week and a half ago, my FIL received notice about one of those tickets. Needless to say he was not happy with me. After chatting with DH about the problems of the current arrangement - including the potential liability factor - we decided to try and bring George up to Maryland inspection standards and insure and title him with us.

I got a new quote for a windshield replacement (this time $350 with Safelite) and made an appointment for early Saturday morning. However, in a stroke of genious (hah) I realized that I should get George inspected before the windshield replacement - just to see what other problems might be lurking.

I took him in this morning, and, wearing my lowest cut sweater and using all my womanly charms, bounced and giggled and otherwise performed for the service boys and the man who would be doing the state inspection. They all acted very grim, noting that the windshield crack was pretty long, and that the back tires were a little worn. I was prepared for the worst - apparently Maryland inspection standards are quite tough.

You cannot imagine my shock and amazement when I chatted with them this afternoon and they relayed that except for needing new windshield wipers, my car was in solid shape and had passed the inspection. "What about the windshield?" I asked.

"It passed." They replied.

"Shut up!" I cried in my best Elaine Benes imitation. "Shut up." Shut up."

There was much laughing on the other end of the line. I don't know whether a little bouncing in a low cut sweater or a toss of my supercute blond hair made any difference. But George passed! He passed!

Somewhere I hope that a certain Saturn service idiot is rotting in hell.

I love George.

Say it ain't so...

So, I am scaring myself. I am completely wrapped up with thoughts and ideas inspired by Friedman's book - and I find myself actually considering the worst possible scenario: Returning to School.

After my abysmal experience with Georgetown, I vowed never to write another paper, read another assigned text, or participate in an quasi-informed classroom debate again. Yet here I am. I am thinking about trying to find a local, part-time, paid-for-by-work certificate program in environmental studies. I've done some rudimentary research, and there really isn't that much out there.

An alternative that I have considered is looking at the various graduate programs out there and, if I can, accessing syllabi for standard texts, articles, etc that I can read to "teach myself." It's cheaper (except for the cost of books - if I buy any) but I don't get any formal recognition or feedback.

I am very reluctant to go back to the classroom, and I am certainly not going to put myself into any further debt (I promise, DH!) But I am really intrigued and would love to get myself into a position where I am consulting or making policy on environmental issues. For instance, helping/advising large brands bolster their reputations by implementing conservation strategies with their suppliers. Stuff like that.

I am such a dreamer...

I'd better start learning Chinese

As my beloved readers might already know, I am deep into Thomas Friedman's "The World is Flat." I can honestly say that this book is one of the most interesting, most fear-inspiring, most motivating books I've ever read.

The general premise of the book is that because of technological advances that have brought individuals, information, and innovation together in an instant environment, the world is "flattening." Information, for those who can access the internet - which itself has become more inexpensive and widespread - is equally available to everyone (well, except in censoring China, but I doubt that that can last). This is making it easier to find the best, brightest, and cheapest element - labor, capital, infrastructure, whatever you need - not only within the geographical confines of your backyard, but literally anywhere in the world. Friedman also highlights the downside of this trend, and the slippery slope that the eschewing of science and engineering by American students and government investment will inevitably lead to a slide in our competativenesson the global stage.

Working for a science based agency both as an intern (NASA) and now as a PMF (NOAA), this trend is not only worrisome, it's a threat to the agencies' primary missions. If you don't have a meteorologist, a fishery biologist, a rocket scientist, or a physicist pool of labor to draw from (and for government work - it needs to be a large pool), then positions go unfilled, projects and missions go undone, and there is a permanently lost opportunity (because the money gets spent on something else.

I highly recommend that everyone read this book! It's an eye-opener. I won't go on, because I could write for pages about this topic. Let me just say that I told DH that I would fully support him going to get a PhD in a science or engineering related field of his choice.