On the IJ Side of Life
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November 27th, 2008
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| We're in New York now. The bus trip up this morning went quite smoothly. We saw a few of the bands from the Macy's parade taking group pictures on the steps of the library. Apparently Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends rickrolled the parade with Rick Astley himself present. The only downside of the bus trip was that the bus did not have wifi as advertised. Maybe it will be better on the way back. Thanksgiving dinner with Judith's family was delicious. There were more people than I expected because Judith's mom invited friends over. It was still smaller than any family event I've been to. We'll stay here tonight and go to Judith and Natalie's tomorrow then go out and about in New York. There is a place called Chocolate Bar. I have been informed there will be waffles, cheesecake, fruit, and delicious chocolate. We're also planning on going to Rockefeller Plaza to see the Christmas tree and the snowflake light show. We tried ordering pizza via Tivo over the weekend. Our attempt failed because you can only pay with cash when you order on Tivo. Combined we only had $10 cash on us. Maybe we'll make a more successful attempt at some other point in time. When I get back to work, I get to start telecommuting. I finally got a work laptop and got all the paperwork filled out. I'll probably telecommute on Fridays to help the weekend start a little bit earlier. It will be so nice to not have to go out in the cold one extra day a week, especially if it snows. | ||||||||
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November 20th, 2008
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| Sunday night Brooke and I met up with our friend, Toni, for her birthday at a jazz club in DC. Sunday is Open Mike Night, and they had some really good musicians. Toni did a really good job singing "My Funny Valentine." Owing to the lateness of the party and a bit too much wine, I went into work late on Monday. Since Monday was the first day without Boss, everyone had decided to slack off a bit, too. Current rumor is that New Boss will be picked on December 5, and one of the people in the field is a front runner. We shall see. Tuesday I got to help judge a cookie competition at work. Such hard work, but I willingly sacrificed my time for a worthy cause. One coworker submitted Pepperidge Farm Milanos for his entry. He got a special last place mention for bringing the cookies to work still in the packaging and claiming they were homemade. A few days ago, Brooke and I made a fascinating discovery. We can order pizza through our Tivo. This technology is new and intriguing. Perhaps we will test it out this weekend and give a status report later. We bought our bus tickets to go visit Natalie and Judith in New York for Thanksgiving. It's $40 roundtrip, and the bus has wifi. We're going up Thanksgiving morning and coming back that Sunday afternoon. Toni has said she might also be in NYC at Thanksgiving, so we might all get to hang out for the first time in years. Lastly and most awesomely, Brooke and I have tickets for the Inauguration. Yes, it's public, and anyone can stand along the parade route, but there is a sectioned off area for the actual swearing in that will require tickets to enter. I am so excited! | ||||||||
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November 16th, 2008
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| I had a really great trip home over Veterans' Day weekend. The only downer was seeing all the blue tarps flying into Houston and Baton Rouge. My parents' house still has three tarps on it. Friday afternoon, I got to see Ru's cats. This is particularly entertaining because Kai, a long-hair, had just got back from being shaved at the groomer's. He looks really dumb. Since only his body was shaved, it looks like he's wearing leg warmers. Bijou, one of the two Hemingway cats Ru fostered, has grown quite a bit since June. She is also a long-hair and hopefully will not have to suffer the indignity of being shaved like Kai did. Saturday, Dad took me tailgating and to the LSU-Alabama game. It would have been the most awesome day ever if LSU had won, but it was still a really good game. The food at the different tailgates was very delicious as well. One surreal moment from tailgating came when I saw two boys sitting to the side of their tailgate and reading. One looked 10-11 and was reading a Kingdom Hearts II manga. The other looked 8-10 and was reading Twilight. 0_o? I just don't understand kids today. After the game, Dad took me to Coffee Call for hot chocolate and beignets. Of course, I got powdered sugar all over myself, but at least I managed not to inhale any this time around. Sunday, I had my awesome birthday party with bbq, dobage cake, and homemade butterfinger ice cream. I highly recommend Voodoo BBQ for anyone in the Baton Rouge area. Ru and Stelly came as did most of my Dad's family and some of my Mom's. I got way more presents than I was expecting. It's been a while since I had a big family birthday party like that. Since I only brought a carry-on for the trip home, there were some gifts I couldn't bring back with me. The electric knife being the main problem. I don't think airport security would have been ok with me wandering on a plane with that. I started to build a stack of stuff to be brought home at Christmas since Brooke and I will be driving and will have lots of room for stuff. Monday, Mom and I visited Grandmother since her busy social calendar kept her from being at my party. I had gotten her one of those personalized puzzles for her birthday. You give the company an address to be the center of the puzzle, and they create a puzzle that is a map of a 4 mile by 6 mile area centered on the given address. Grandmother went on and on about how much she loved it and how it was so interesting. It's a good feeling to know that an unusual gift is appreciated. That afternoon, Mom and I went to the mall, so I could pick out a jewelry box for Christmas. I've never had a proper jewelry box, and I've been getting tired of having my things strewn about my vanity or crammed in the gift boxes they came in. Mom and I both found jewelry boxes we wanted on sale at JC Penny's, so I had to take Dad back later to buy Mom's for her present. Tuesday I flew back to DC. Wednesday I did nothing on my actual birthday. Thursday, Brooke and I went to dinner with one of my uncles who was in town for training. The food was really good, I had leftovers, and my uncle paid. All in all a very satisfactory evening. Yesterday, I went to the Join the Impact rally in DC. Unfortunately my camera batteries died after about 30 minutes. At that point I found out that my backup batteries were dead, too. Not that it really mattered, 15 minutes later the torrential downpour started. I wouldn't have kept my camera out in the wind and the rain anyway. None of my pictures really show the size of the crowd. The AP story estimates the crowd at 500+, but other sources say the number was 5000+. I think we were probably somewhere in between, maybe 2000 people. | ||||||||
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November 5th, 2008
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| I showed up a little before 5am. There were already people in line to vote! When the polls opened at 6, we had an estimated 1.5 wait for the end of the line. I started out at the electronic poll book checking people in, so I kept up with our vote counts. In the first 3 hours, we voted ~750 people. I didn't see the end of the line until after 9. The rest of the day we voted another 800 people. We never had a line after 10am. Our last voter showed up at 6:59:15. Polls closed at 7. We congratulated him on his excellent timing. For our precinct we voted ~68% of registered voters with election day plus absentee votes. The experienced pollworkers told me this precinct usually votes about 60% for presidential elections, so we did better than usual. Being up here in Fake Virginia, the Dems crushed the Republicans on everything. We finally got everything tallied and packed up at 9pm, so I got home around 9.15 and proceeded to stay up to 1am watching NBC and Comedy Central. Brooke and I watched Obama be declared president, McCain's concession speech, and Obama's acceptance speech. Foreign visitors are intrigued by the American election system. Groups of them request to visit precincts on election day. Our precinct had two groups of Chinese visitors and one group of mixed Middle Eastern visitors. They are fascinated by the mechanics of how a person can vote and how the machines work. We also had a group of Democratic pollwatchers. They were generally unobstrusive and seemed nice enough. The Republicans didn't send any pollwatchers to our precinct, but they might have in areas where they thought they had more voters. All in all it was a fun day. I think I'll probably volunteer again next year for the governor's election. | ||||||||
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November 2nd, 2008
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| All pictures can be found here. Friday we went to the Crime and Punishment Museum. The staff really got into decorating with cobwebs, ghosts, and other paraphernalia. The museum has lots of interactive things which wouldn't have been near as much fun had the museum been crowded. They even have police driving and shooting simulations. The entrance fee was reduced since we came in costume (Brooke as Thursday Next and me as a gypsy), and they had a special on the photo they take of you in front of John Dillinger's car. If we ever get access to a scanner, perhaps we will share the photo with you. It was fun to be out in DC on Halloween because we got to see lots of costumes. There were numerous Sarah Palins, some with enormous flag pins, one with pregnant Bristol Palin, one with a sign reading "I can see Russia from my house." There was a guy dressed as an iphone 3G, two dudes dressed as Master Shake (one with accompanying Frylock), and more sexy referees than I expected. Saturday was Rachel's party. Her brother came as William Howard Taft on vacation. One couple came as bananas in pajamas. At some point, someone broke out a new Atari that comes with all the games built in. Several rousing games of Pong ensued. As the party was a potluck, there was lots of good food, cookies, cakes, green bean casserole, General Tso's chicken, blood punch, etc. Several of us ended up watching part of the Nailin' Palin porn. It's way more hilarious if you play banjo music over the regular soundtrack. All in all an excellent party. This week will be quite busy for me. Tuesday is the election, so I'll probably go in late to work Wednesday. Thursday is Boss's going away lunch, and Friday I'm going home for the weekend. Saturday is the LSU-Alabama game. Sunday is my birthday party. Anyone who needs directions to the party, leave a comment, and I will email them to you. | ||||||||
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October 29th, 2008
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| We finally got around to scooping out the pumpkin on Sunday, so Brooke could roast the seeds. After we put both pumpkins out on our tiny porch. Someone stole the larger pumpkin sometime Sunday night/Monday morning. The smaller pumpkin is still there which I don't understand. Why not take both? Well, why take either of them, but you're going to go to the trouble of stealing one, so why not take the other? Lame. Also on Sunday we rented Persepolis which was nominated for an Oscar this year. It's an animated movie (in French) about a girl born in Iran then living in Austria and moving back to Iran. Both Brooke and I enjoyed it. It's not exactly an uplifting movie, and I felt very pensive watching it. I've been playing Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?, and it's just as much fun as I remembered. I'm pleased that my knowledge of geographic trivia has not faded very much. I always wanted to be on the game show when it was running. I just knew I could win and get the trip to anywhere in the Continental US I wanted. I think I'll go check YouTube for show clips. | ||||||||
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October 26th, 2008
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| The library had their annual sale this weekend. So many books!!!!! I also got several CDs, including Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? It is totally as much fun as I remember. I also got a dvd of The Last Starfighter. I look forward to laughing at it hysterically. Boss got a promotion to another department at work, so we'll be without direct leadership for a few weeks until they decide who will be New Boss. Office gossip says it will probably one of the guys down the hall. I think he's a bit creepy, but everyone else thinks he will do a really good job. Maybe he will be less creepy if I get to know him better. I'm not going to worry about it until I know for sure that he'll be New Boss. In awesome news, I voted on Friday!! Go Obama! An important reminder to anyone voting in Virginia, no hats, buttons, stickers, bags, shirts, etc. that explicitly promote one candidate, party, or cause (ex. funding for schools, property tax change, etc.). The poll workers will ask you to remove these items or turn a shirt inside out. I know some polls will have baggy shirts (no idea how big) for people to wear as cover ups if they do not feel like inverting a shirt. | ||||||||
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October 19th, 2008
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| We have some. Yesterday, Brooke and I went out to a pumpkin patch with adjacent corn maze. The corn maze was not as impressive as the one outside Baton Rouge, but it was still fun. We found a deer corpse in the pumpkin patch. It was pretty awesome (pictures to come eventually). There were also a number of pigs wandering about being fed bits of pumpkin and corn cobs by other visitors. They has tomatoes and berries which could be picked as well, but we decided it wasn't worth the trouble, especially since neither of us likes tomatoes. I went to a book sale today at one of the State Department buildings. The money goes to some good cause, but I forget what it is. I got 4 paperbacks and 3 hardback books for $25! I've already finished Coraline by Neil Gaiman, but it will probably be a while before I get around to American Gods which I also got. I found the 4th book in the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde. Now I need to read the second and buy and read the third book before I touch that one. The sale has everything half price on the last day which is Sunday of next week, so I might go back to see if there is anything I missed. Work went really well this week. My presentation was well received, and I was able to answer all but one question asked during my presentation. I stayed for all of the presentations though because I thought I might need to answer other questions which I did. There were a few things that I couldn't answer then, so I'll be working on writing up answers to those this week. Another good thing about staying all day for the presentations was the food. Donuts and bagels for breakfast, rice with salmon and chicken and mushrooms for lunch, cookies and brownies for afternoon snack all made the day go by fairly quickly. ETA: Official birthday party day and time is Sunday, November 9 at 12.30. There will be barbeque, dobage cake, and ice cream. | ||||||||
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October 13th, 2008
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| Hurray for having the day off work! I did bring some work home with me this weekend though. We have hired an outside group to look at several of our surveys and advise us on how we can improve what we do. I work on two of the surveys they are looking at, so I have to give part of the introductory presentation on Wednesday. This is the first talk I've had to give since I gave my master's presentation in November 2006. I am very out of practice. To add to the nerves, there will be at least nine other people from my work there, and all of them are higher up the food chain than I am. I know my presentation is solid because I practiced in front of my boss and his boss, and they both said it was good. Still nervous though. I had to buy a new suit jacket for the presentation since my old one only really fit well enough for interviews and not for anything involving moving around. It's going to feel weird to dress up so much for work. On the plus side for work, I had my performance review, and I got exceeds expectation which is the first level for end of year bonuses! Yay for extra monies! Now with complete lack of segue, the election is coming up soon. If you can, please consider signing up with your parish/county to work the polls. (Note: I avoid this phrase when speaking as I always hear work the poles.) Since I work for the government, I can waive my compensation ($150 in Arlington County) and not have to take any leave from work. It's going to be a really long day. I have to show up at 5am and can expect to stay until 8pm. I know everywhere is expecting record voter turn out, so they can probably use some extra hands this election. I have to go to a two hour training course next week to learn about the machines, how to check people in, what is/is not allowed in terms of people's actions and paraphernalia (no campaigning allowed within 100 feet of the polling place), how to do a provisional ballot, etc. People keep congratulating me on doing my civic duty and getting involved in my community. I'm really just doing this for the novelty value. It's something I've never done before, and I'm curious how the whole process works. Depending on how interesting the day is, I might or might not ever do this again. I really want to come out of this with at least two really bizarre stories. A few days after the election, I'm flying home for my birthday. For anyone who wants to come, my birthday party will be Sunday, November 9th in the afternoon. Presents are not expected but are always welcome. If you think you'll be coming, try to let me know a few days ahead of time. We want to make sure there is sufficient food stuffs for everyone. If you're bringing anyone with allergies I don't know about, let me know, so we don't accidentally kill somebody. All killings should be on purpose. As far as I know, I'm free Friday evening and all day Monday for hanging out as well. I'm flying back Tuesday morning and going back to work on Wednesday, my actual birthday. | ||||||||
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September 28th, 2008
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| The forecast said rain all day, so I left my sunglasses at home, didn't wear sunscreen, and brought my umbrella. It sprinkled 3 times throughout the day, and I ended up sunburned. This was all totally worth it. First talk of the day, I heard Judith Viorst who has written adult fiction and non-fiction, poetry, and children's fiction. Perhaps you have heard of Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day? She is an energetic and humorous speaker, and I think her talk was good for kids and adults. She read her new children's book, Nobody Here but Me, about what a boy gets up to when his parents are ignoring him. (Hint: Nothing good.) After that I wandered around for a while collecting free stuff until it was time for her book signing. I got her to sign my copy of Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. I like that book because sometimes you just need to be reminded that bad days happen, even in Australia. One kid at the talk asked if Alexander, based on Viorst's son Alexander, ever did go to Australia. Answer: No, but he almost did once. As Viorst's line was longer than I expected, Neil Gaiman's talk had already started by the time I got my book signed. I decided it would be a better idea to go ahead and get in line for Neil Gaiman's signing than to only hear half his talk since the Library of Congress is going to put up videos of all the author talks later this week. This was a very good idea. I was in line over an hour before he was supposed to start signing, and I didn't get my books signed until almost an hour after he started signing. Now I'm not a very good judge of crowd size, but there were probably well over 500 people in line for Neil Gaiman. The only other author that even came close was Tiki Barber whose line looked about half the size of Gaiman's, and that's only because he used to play in the NFL. Neil Gaiman signed books with a fountain pen which he had to refill just before it was my turn for book signing. I got Fragile Things signed for Ru and Good Omens signed for me. Terry Pratchett signed Good Omens for me at last year's festival with "Burn this book." Neil Gaiman laughed when he saw it and added "* Apply holy match here." after Pratchett's note. I am still very gleeful over this. I wanted to get Katherine Paterson to sign Bridge to Terabithia, but the volunteers said she was only signing her most recent book. Boohiss. I understand a limit on the number of things an author signs, but I don't understand limiting what those things will be. I hadn't even heard of her new book. It has zero sentimental value for me. So I used the time I was going to spend in Paterson's line resting in the shade before I got in line for Immaculee Ilibagiza. She's a survivor of the Rwandan genocide in the 1990s. Her book Left to Tell is about her life in Rwanda. Mom read it as part of Baton Rouge's Big Read this summer and passed it on to me. I didn't like it nearly as much as Mom did, but I do respect Ilibagiza's current work with the UN. I got Mom's copy of Left to Tell signed which should make her happy. Since it started actually raining soon after that, I decided to head home. The pictures I got of the day are here. When the Library of Congress does post the videos of the author talks, they will be here. I'm pretty sure it will be sometime this week. | ||||||||
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September 25th, 2008
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| On all the surveys we send out to people, we put a 1-800 number for people to call if they have questions or want to answer the survey by phone. The number on a survey which was recently sent out to farmers isn't the number of our help line. The number printed on the surveys is a phone sex hotline. Of course transposing two digits results in a phone sex line and not a help desk or a florist or a number that's out of service. Much hilarity ensued at the office with comments on which coworkers already had this number on speed dial and what sort of questionable phone records certain people have. There's not really anything we can do about it now since the surveys have already been mailed out, but I bet everyone will be checking future mail outs extra carefully for the next few months. In other fun news, I signed up to work at the polls for the November election. I haven't heard back yet about where I'll be stationed, but I will have to do a two hour training session sometime before hand. Work's really good about letting people take off work for election stuff. One of my coworkers helped out during the primary election earlier this year, and she said it was a fun but long day. I'm looking forward to it. If you think you could get off work for this, you should look into signing up to help in your precinct. It's supposed to be record voter turn out, so I'm sure they need the extra help. Shortly after the election, I'll be flying home for my birthday. I'll be in Baton Rouge November 7-11. The 8th will be devoted to the LSU-Alabama game which I get to go to as part of my birthday present. I'm available for hanging out the rest of the time, and I'd like to see as many people as I can. If I miss you in November, it won't be so bad because Brooke and I will be home for two weeks at Christmas. We're planning on driving down, so Brooke can get some stuff that's still at her parents' house. I've been keeping myself busy in the evenings recently by sorting through all my pictures that I don't have online. Some of you should be very afraid of the blackmail material I have in my possession. I've just finished getting everything in chronological order, tossing bad pictures, and getting rid of doubles. The next step is actually getting all these in photo albums. I have more albums that I realized - 4 empty, 2 mostly filled, 2 almost empty - so I'm pretty sure I'll have enough space for all the pictures I want to keep. Some of the pictures had photo cds with them, so those might eventually make it up on flickr. Maybe. | ||||||||
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September 20th, 2008
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| But not nearly so bad this time. I got a cold while I was in Pittsburgh, and I should be 100% by Monday. The Mt. Vernon craft fair was a lot of fun last weekend. I like talking with the merchants. Since they mostly all know each other from the fair circuit, they know where to go for various items. I told the soapmaker I was disappointed that the people I bought my cool striped socks from last year weren't there, and he told me about another, bigger craft fair in October that the guy would definitely be at. As my schedule is currently open that weekend, I plan on going, not just for more socks, but because I like craft fairs. I got a cool blown glass pitcher, some Christmas presents, and some candies at the fair. The Kennedy Center open house was also a good time. I listened to a western swing band comprised of teenage boys. So cute and tiny! One of the older gentlemen asked me to dance several times, and he made me look like I knew what I was doing. The old guys who look like mechanics are always the best country dancers. The Aspen Sante Fe Dance Company did a very interesting show. I really liked their first two dances, but the third was a bit to modern art/contemporary dance for me. The little boy next to me told his mom that he liked the first dance best because they were wearing the most clothes in that one. It's so nice to see children growing up with a fine appreciation for the arts. I listened to a great Cuban salsa band for a while before leaving to get in line for the step show with Step Afrika which was the big final show. They were amazing. Several fraternities and sororities also performed, but Step Afrika was definitely the best. I might try and make it to one of their shows since they are based in DC. The conference was not quite as much fun. I planned to take the Amtrak to and from Pittsburgh. 20 minutes before the train was supposed to leave Sunday afternoon, they announce that the train is cancelled. I'm still not sure of the actual reason, but I did hear rumors of flooding in the midwest. After standing in line to talk to a supervisor with everyone else that wanted to take that train (DC to Pittsburgh to Chicago), word filtered through that there was a Greyhound going to Pittsburgh, so a group of us who meant to go only to Pittsburgh got out of line and waited to see if Amtrak would arrange something for us. Not so much, we finally snagged an employee wandering by who told us what counter to go to for a refund and where the Greyhound station was. I found another woman going to the same conference I was, so we stuck together at the Greyhound station and on the bus. Thankfully, Greyhound held the bus for 15 minutes so that everyone coming over from Amtrak could make it. Taking the bus is not nearly as relaxing as taking the train, but I still got there. The conference itself had a number of very good talks that related to stuff I work on and lots of free food. Unfortunately the rooms were freezing cold, even the presenters were wearing jackets. We got to go to a Pittsburgh Pirates game Monday night. They lost horribly to the Dodgers, but everyone had a good time booing Manny Ramirez, especially the Red Sox fans. Also unfortunately, I started getting a cold at the game. Bleh. The second day of the conference, I slept in between talks but undid the rest by dancing all night at the conference party. In my defense the dj was really good. Wednesday brought more Amtrak stress. The train was supposed to leave at 5.45, and I should have gotten back to DC at 1.30 in the afternoon. Instead, the train didn't leave until about 8.30, and I didn't get to DC until after 5. I slept most of the trip and blew my nose constantly when I was awake. At least I get credit for all the time spent waiting for the train. Thursday night I went to a reception for the president of my undergrad. He's retiring at the end of this school year, and various alumni chapters are hosting parties in his honor. I caught up with several people I had known at Spring Hill (Chip and Kerry, I will call you later with the gossipy details.) and met an older alum who knows most of both sides of my family. He goes to the same church as my parents. The food at the party was really good, and I had a great time talking to people. This weekend I do not plan to leave my apartment at all. I need a break from socializing, and I need to rest up for next weekend. The National Book Festival will be an all-day, people-filled event. I'm very excited to get my copy of Good Omens (that Terry Pratchett signed last year) signed by Neil Gaiman. If anyone wants something signed by one of the authors, let me know soon (Ru, this means you!). I'm not promising anything because I have stuff of my own (and Mom's) that have priority, but I will try. | ||||||||
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September 9th, 2008
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| An absolute excess of pictures can be found here. Mom and Dad ended up staying a few extra days due to Gustav. They, and most of my family, still don't have power. Three family members will have to have roofs replaced. Mom and Dad have some water damage to their bedroom ceiling, but they haven't gotten an adjustor to come check out the damage yet. They've been staying with relatives who do have power since they got back. On the plus side, the weather up here was great for their trip. They flew in Wednesday afternoon, and we toured the Bureau of Engraving and Printing with Brooke that evening. Thursday I bought a 2006 Volkswagen Jetta in the morning. Mom, Dad, and I went to the National Cathedral in the afternoon. There are some amazing stained glass windows and unusual gargoyles. Friday we spent some time at the Smithsonians. The American Indian Museum has the most awesome cafeteria with delicious Mexican hot chocolate. The Natural History Museum was quite crowded, but the ocean photography exhibit was worth it. Mainly because it wasn't that crowded. We all enjoyed the Jim Henson exhibit (no photography allowed, unfortunately). Saturday was a bit more busy. We spent the morning at the National Arboretum. The Bonsai Garden was particularly awesome. The Friendship Garden also has many lovely flowers. We didn't walk through most of the gardens as they weren't in season, but we did drive around most of the grounds. The arboretum is huge. That afternoon we went to the National Geographic Museum. Their current exhibit is on Zheng He, commander of China's navy during the early 1400s. They have lots of cool replicas of the navy's boats (ships?). After, we went to the National Postal Museum. It was way more interesting than I had anticipated. They have a collection of stamps from around the world, some from countries that don't exist any more. Sunday we went to a Nationals game. They actually beat the Braves, increasing their win streak to 6 games. Their new stadium is pretty nice. They have a bouncy castle and everything. Monday we went to Mt. Vernon. None of us had been to the Grist Mill or the Distillery, so we spent some time there. They are both operational, but they rarely run the distillery as it requires so many workers. We saw a couple on Mt. Vernon's grounds. She wore a white, princess style gown with a small tiara. He wore his dress uniform. They were accompanied by a man carrying clerical garb and a woman with a camera and a backpack. When I saw them wandering through the entrance building to get to the grounds, I assumed they had paid some event fee to have a ceremony there. I found out later from the tour guide that they had lied to the ticket takers, saying they only wanted to look around for a little while. By the time the staff realized what they were doing, the ceremony was finished, and they were married. Mt. Vernon does not allow weddings anywhere on the grounds. I really don't know what the ticket takers were thinking to let them in. Brooke joined us later for the National Treasure tour. We got to go on parts of the grounds that are usually off-limits. Tuesday, Mom and Dad were left mostly to their own devices while I was at work. I joined them in the Butterfly Garden at the Natural History Museum. Dad had one stay on his sunglasses. Wednesday we went to the Supreme Court and the Library of Congress. The inside is completely amazing, and we only got to see the entrance area. The Reading Room and all the other rooms with books in them are off-limits to the general public. They finally got to go home Thursday, and while I did enjoy their visit, I was ready to see them go. This past weekend I mainly caught up with my sleep and my alone time. This coming weekend is going to be another busy one with the Kennedy Center open house(Sat.), the Mt. Vernon craft fair(Sat. and Sun.), and the conference in Pittsburgh(Sun. - Wed.). | ||||||||
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August 24th, 2008
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| I really haven't felt like going any where or talking to anyone recently, probably a combination of having been sick and dealing with people last weekend. My friend's wedding was nice. It was weird for me to see the service officiated by a woman as I was raised Catholic and have not attended very many services of other religions. I liked the vows and what the reverend said as advice to the couple more than what I've heard at the other weddings I've been to. I don't know if they were standard vows for Presbyterians. I don't think the couple wrote them themselves. The reception was nice because there were several other people from work (that I like) there, and we had a table together. I didn't get any good pictures though, probably a combination of being sick and having my batteries die early in the reception. Seeing The Dark Knight in IMAX was a completely awesome experience. If I see it again in theaters, it will definitely be in IMAX. The big sweeping panoramic shots scattered throughout the film are so amazing on the extra big screen. We did end up going to the late showing because the earlier one was sold out. Brooke and I ate dinner and hung out at Barnes & Noble while we waited. As we ignored one of the beggars we walked past, he shouted "Thanks for being modest." after us. I don't know what word he meant to say or if he thought modest was a bad thing, but he sounded like he meant it as an insult. We were both very o_O. At the theater, the usher had to yell at people to shift seats so that 3 deaf guys could sit together with their close caption filters. They have these screens that attach to the seat arms that let a person read the close caption on the bottom of the screen. It's a very clever way to allow everyone to watch the movie without having some tool complain about the words on the screen getting in the way of his movie. Work was hectic when I was there this week. I missed more time due to sickness. I spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to debug a problem with my code, only to find out the problem was with the data set I was given. Rar. I did have other things I needed to work on, too. They won't all get done this week either because Mom and Dad are coming in on Wednesday; I'm taking Thursday and Friday off. We have a list of stuff we're going to try and do, including getting my new car. I did put some new pics up on flickr, all of the cats though. In less than awesome news, SGA is being cancelled at the end of this season, a season which has so far contained some of the best episodes of the series. I understand they're doing it for financial reasons, but I don't have to like it. They are going to make a movie after this season and start up a new Stargate series. I don't know if I'm going to be able to get behind a whole new cast of space adventurers with such an abrupt transition. | ||||||||
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August 15th, 2008
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| Wretched sore throat plus earache kept me home from work today. I couldn't get a doctor's appointment until 6 pm though, and I called when they opened this morning! They did a strep test which came back negative, so they did a mono test as well. Apparently sore throat with swollen lymph nodes is a symptom of mono. I'm not any more tired than usual, so I doubt that test will come back positive. Usually I would just wait this out with tylenol and juice, but my friend is getting married tomorrow, and I'm going to see Batman in IMAX on Sunday with Brooke and Toni. Thank goodness for prescription drugs. Otakon last Sunday was fun. It was great seeing Natalie and Judith. I spent way more money than I should have, of course, but I'm very pleased with my purchases. Particularly pleasing is my new red shirt. It has a drawing of a strawberry dressed as a ninja and reads "Berry Ninja for Great Justice." Awesome. The latest news from work about telecommuting computers is interesting. I can have a tower, keyboard, and mouse right now. However, there are no available monitors until October when the new fiscal year starts. Whatever. I went ahead and bought a desk from IKEA because I wanted to do that while I still had the truck. It has been assembled and will, presumably, sit empty until I can take a complete computer home from work. The office area of our apartment looks much more office-like now though. The desk comes with a whiteboard section. Once I buy some dry erase markers and an eraser, I'm sure the board will quickly fill up with drawings of dicks, boobs, and stick people in inappropriate positions. | ||||||||
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August 9th, 2008
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| Woohoo, men's gymnastics! The opening ceremony was pretty freaking cool, not nearly as crack-inspired as Turin's, but quite impressive. I love how they lit the stadium torch. The irony of McDonald's being an Olympic host continues to amuse. Tomorrow is Otakon in Baltimore. Brooke and I are going to meet our friends, Natalie and Judith, there. They've been there for the whole con, but we didn't want to pay the $65 to just go Saturday, so we're going Sunday for $20. I don't really know what I'm going to spend the day doing, but I'm sure it will be interesting. I finally caught up with Toni, my other high school friend who lives in the DC area. She's always so busy with the 14 million things she's involved in that we hardly ever see her, even though she lives so near by. She took me to the woman who does her tattoos up here. I'm still trying to decide on the exact design of my theater mask tattoo. I keep googling for images, but nothing looks right. Having me try to draw what I see in my head is about as useless as asking a cat considering my drawing skills. I'll probably end up bringing her the closest image I can find, then tell her what I don't like about it. | ||||||||
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August 4th, 2008
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| We have it. Brooke's dad was kind enough to use his credit card points to buy us a year's subscription to Tivo. We've been having fun playing with it. The slow motion button renders everything hilarious. It's also very nice to be able to record shows that I decide to nap through and watch later. I do think this will lead to more tv watching, but I don't think it will be a significant amount. It definitely lessens the commercial watching which is good for my annoyance levels. I spend way too much time yelling at the commercials when I do watch them. It's been nice to only make sarcastic remarks at the actual shows now. I finished my second batch of cookies for the shower tomorrow. I am banned from making more cookies, unless they are peanut butter, because Brooke doesn't like all the extra dishes they generate. Fair enough, I'm kind of burned out on baking for a while anyway. I test drove a Jetta this weekend and have decided that is the kind of car I'm going to buy. The salesman was helpful without being condescending and did not push me to buy the car that day. I will definitely make sure to deal with him when I go back at the end of August with Mom and Dad to actually buy a car. I am both excited at the prospect of a car that can fit more than two people comfortably and saddened at the impending loss of Kitten. I'll have to look for bumper stickers for the Jetta soon. I would like to get another "Too bad ignorance isn't painful" one, but the only one I've found isn't really a style I like. I can take or leave "I don't suffer from insanity; I enjoy every minute" as that was a gift from my mom. Any suggestions on what clever slogans I should adorn my future car's ass with? | ||||||||
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July 29th, 2008
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| I know it's been over a month since I posted. I went on family vacation, and I wanted to wait until I'd put my pictures up on flickr before I wrote about it. Still haven't gotten the pictures on flickr yet. Maybe that'll happen later this week. ( Vacation ) ( Work ) ( Anonymous ) ( Fangirling ) ( Family ) | ||||||||
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June 23rd, 2008
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| 1. Three hour nap yesterday afternoon 2. Our tech goddess managed to find a computer for me, so I can start telecommuting next month! I thought I would have to wait until October for the new fiscal year when they buy new computers. Now I have to look for a desk. 3. On the way back from getting groceries, Brooke and I saw an awesome double rainbow. The brighter half was angled so that it looked like it ended in the road we were driving on. Like if we went one more block, we could get to the end of the rainbow. | ||||||||
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June 21st, 2008
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| The Friday night Mystics game was fun. Like with all his season tickets, Stewart had the best possible seats, right behind the opposing team's bench. May I just say that both the Atlanta Dream and the Washington Mystics are comprised of very attractive ladies. The first half was badly played by both teams, but the second half was really good. The Mystics won, mainly by being more proficient at free throws. Now I have been to at least one game of each professional sports league in the US. I'm quite proud of myself for this. This afternoon I went to a Can't Stop the Serenity showing at the Arlington Cinema 'n Drafthouse a few blocks down the street from my apartment. I didn't get to see Serenity when it came out in theaters because I was in Germany, so I was happy to get the chance to see it on the big screen. The Drafthouse is pretty cool and in walking distance. They show a small number of movies after they've stopped running in regular theaters, tickets $5, and they have live shows, usually comedians. The seating is at staggered bars and tables throughout the theater, and the waiters serve food and drink throughout the shows. I had the mozzerella sticks, and they were quite good. On my way into the show, I noticed a street festival which I explored after the movie. It was a blues festival with a live band playing. Many of the area restaurants had booths. One place was selling quarts of fruit salad for $1! That's an awesome deal for a mixed quart of grapes, strawberries, and pineapple. I stayed until the festival ended at 8 then came home to tell you all about my awesome day. | ||||||||
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On the IJ Side of Life
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