I'm leaving for Portland tomorrow early and coming back late on the 14th. While most of my time there will be spent working at the Oregon field office, I will have most of tomorrow, all evenings, and all day Saturday free to check out Portland. Here is my current list of things I really want to do if at all possible:

Drive to beach and check out the Pacific coast
Christian Kane (aka Lindsey on Angel, aka Eliot on Leverage) show Sunday, June 7th at Dante's
See the Sinferno Cabaret at Dante's before the Kane show
Pride Festival Saturday, June 13th
UFO Museum
Powell's book store
Rock Bottom Brewery

If anyone (like Ell who told me at least two other things to do that I forgot about) has other suggestions, let me know! I'm bringing my laptop with me, so I'll be able to keep up with the internets while I'm gone.

Unrelated to Portland, we are having visitors soon! Natalie and Judith are coming to visit again June 19-22. We will probably spend some quality time at the Smithsonians and maybe the zoo. Then my uncle is going to be in town June 21-24 for a work thing, and he's taking me to a Nationals-Red Sox game. Yay!

Comment and get five questions of your very own to hug and squeeze and call them George.

Courtesy of the lovely modillian:

1. Have you ever dyed your hair pink? Ever wanted to dye your hair some unnatural color?
I had hot pink streaks in grad school. I didn't maintain them because I didn't feel like spending the money, but I loved how they looked. Every now and then I think about doing something in blue or purple though.

2. What is the best restaurant in your city? How is it the best?
It really depends on what kind of food you want. Italian Cafe is the best for Italian food. Their tomato sauce is amazing. Matuba's is my favorite for sushi. They have awesome Alaska rolls. Old Ebbitt's is more expensive, thus reserved for when parents are around to pay for it, but it has the best upscale Americana food.

3. If a knick-knack-paddywhacked, would you give a dog a bone or send him rolling home?
I don't take that kind of sass. That dog is rolling home.

4. When you're sporting a red hat and wearing purple and sitting in a rocking chair at the ripe age of 80, what do you want to look back on your life and feel proud to have accomplished?
I don't want to have ever stopped going and moving and doing.

5. Let's say next year there will be another Star Trek movie with the same cast as this year's movie and they're rooting about in the universe in the 23rd century. Who would you most like to see in a role/cameo and why?
I want Shatner and Patrick Stewart to both have ~1 second, uncredited crowd cameos to watch the internet explode with fanboys trying to figure out whether they're actually in it or not.

This has been quite a weekend for awesome stuff. Friday night, I saw Arcadia at the Folger Theater, a Shakespearean theater in DC, and it was amazing. Despite having studied Arcadia in undergrad and written my huge honors paper on chaos theory and Arcadia, I had never actually seen it performed. The Folger cast made up for it tremendously with their show. The woman who played Thomasina (aged 13 for most of the play and 17 for the last bit) was fantastic at convincing the audience she was a good 20 years younger than her real age. It was so much fun to watch with a smart and engaged audience as well. I had a great time chatting with the couple behind me during intermission about how we came to see Arcadia. I think I will make a point to try and see more shows at the Folger because the atmosphere is really nice there.

Saturday, Brooke and I saw Star Trek with ell, and it was hilarious and full of awesome. I met up with ell for a very tasty dinner at a pub in her apartment building. They had double chocolate bread pudding. This has inspired me to search for chocolate bread recipes. I think it would taste quite good with honey or peanut butter. So everyone totally needs to see this movie. It really doesn't matter if you don't know anything about the tv series (any of them) because the movie is really funny and accessible. Yes, you will get more jokes the more familiar you are with i>Star Trek</i>, but I think the concept of a switch blade axe should be pretty hilarious to the general public. Also, freaking everybody is in this movie. You will see actors you never expected around every turn. Paul McGillion (aka Carson Beckett from SGA) has a 10 second cameo. (PS. Sorry to everyone in my theater that heard me shout "Oh man, that was totally Paul McGillion in that scene." right after his cameo was over.) Also, I am all about Kirk/Bones their love is so exasperated.

Sunday, I bought a new bathing suit. I realized when we went to Disney that my main suit didn't really fit me right any more. The suit I got from Fashion Bug, it was the first one I tried on, and it was on sale. This does not happen to me when it comes to swim suits, so I will strongly encourage any other women who wear plus sizes to check out Fashion Bug if you are looking for a swim suit.

Today, we went to Rachel's for a Wii Party. Lots of fun, lots of everyone swearing at each other in Mario Kart. I played one round to be a good sport and screwed up tremendously which was fun. There was also delicious ice cream cake.

Yay for long weekends full of awesome!

I had my first hula fusion belly dance class. So much fun! For the August show, we are dancing to "Rock a Hula" and "Can't Help Falling in Love With You" by Elvis. I'm sure I will be very sick of both songs by August, but "Can't Help" is one of my favorite Elvis songs.

Zoo work is going well. They ordered me an official name tag, so I can get discounts at the gift shops and concession stands. Yay, perks! I also get free parking, but driving up there isn't worth the hassle with the metro so close.

Last night, Brooke and I watched Twilight with the RiffTrax (guys who did MST3K), and it was hilarious. I was near tears a couple times from laughing so hard. Now I'm tempted to go through the website and buy RiffTrax for any movie I own. I am also tempted to watch the movie again with Robert Pattinson's commentary because I know how completely off track he can get in interviews.

In upcoming travels, I'll be in Seattle around Labor Day for the LSU-Washington game. Mom, Dad, and I (and maybe my sister, too) are going to meet up there and stay with friends of the family. I haven't seen them in years, but Mom and Dad have visited more recently. This will mark my 2nd ever trip to the Pacific Northwest after my trip to Portland in June.

While my birthday is many months away, I already know what I'm getting from my parents - tickets to see A Streetcar Named Desire at the Kennedy Center with Cate Blanchett playing Blanche DuBois. EEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!! It's running end of October through November, and tickets go on sale in August. I'm currently debating between trying to get tickets as close to opening night as I can or getting them on my birthday. Mom and Dad are going to fly up for the occasion, whenever it is, so they are going to the show as well.

I have my Disney pictures up on my flickr page. I believe the pictures of most interest can be found here, here, here, and here.

Disney World was full of win and awesome. We made it to Epcot, MGM, Magic Kingdom, and Animal Kingdom. I'll post a link once I have all the pictures on flickr. I took a ridiculous amount because, despite having been 3 previous times, I have never been to Disney World with a camera before.

Epcot was having their Spring Flower Festival, so there were topiary shaped like Disney characters all over the park. I had fun practicing my German while buying delicious Milka chocolate bars in the Germany store. We got to watch the fireworks/laser show there, and it is very cool.

I rode the Rock'n'Roller Coaster at MGM which has one of the more intense starts I've experienced on a roller coaster. The blaring Aerosmith music makes the ride even better. Brooke and I both rode Star Tours and spent quite some time browsing the gift shop after. I bought two Stitch action figures, one of Stitch as Yoda and one of Stitch as Emperor Palpatine.

We had lots of fun on Pirates and the Haunted Mansion rides at Magic Kingdom. I have decided that my car's name is Doom Buggy, after the cars in the Haunted Mansion ride. (Must look for appropriate bumper sticker.) We also rode Splash Mountain. Did you ever get drenched on Splash Mountain? Brooke and I had both ridden it before and remained completely dry. Such was not the case this time. Everything I was wearing except my shoes and socks were soaked. Perhaps not the best day to wear a white shirt, but I doubt anyone was surprised to know I was wearing a bra that day. We also got to see the Magic Kingdom fireworks one night. Tinkerbell totally ziplines down from the top of the castle into Tomorrowland. I wish I could do that.

Animal Kingdom was the only park we hadn't been to before, so we spent the most time there. It's a really cool combination of zoo and amusement park. They rides are great, and there are several walking paths to take you around near the animals. There is also a safari area where you are driven around the wildlife preserve with free roaming animals. Our vehicle had to stop for a few minutes while a giraffe wandered across the road. The really nice part about Animal Kingdom in the summer is the shade. Pretty much the entire park is shaded with huge trees to make the park feel more like nature.

My next trip will be to Portland, Oregon in June. Some of you might remember that I got to go home last June to help out the LA field office with a big survey. Well, I'm going to be doing the same work for the OR field office this year. I would have liked to go home again, but I'm excited to go to Portland since I've never been to Oregon before. Any suggestions for places to go, things to do, food to eat would be greatly appreciated. I'm staying near the downtown area, but I will have a rental car to get wherever I want to go.

For people in the DC area, Video Games Live is coming to WolfTrap July 10. Brooke and I already have tickets for the lawn area ($25 each including all service charges). If anyone else is interested in going, we'd love to do some kind of potluck at the concert. The lawn area allows whatever outside food and drink you want to bring in. My coworker and her husband are probably going to join us, but don't let that scare you. They are fun theater/gamer geeks who are just as socially awkward as you are.

Off for Disney World in about 10 minutes. YAY!!! 90F weather, swimming, water slides, roller coasters, and the world's greatest marketing machine. I hope I survive that much happiness.

I have a Dreamwidth account now. Thanks, marcelle42! I'll still keep cross-posting here and there. I think I'm going to abandon the IJ though; nothing's really going on over there.

Yesterday the women's bathroom at work smelled like baked beans, and the floor was sticky. I don't want to know how the two are related. Today it didn't smell like beans, but the floor was still a bit sticky. Ewww.

In awesome money news, all the math stats at my work were supposed to get a pay adjustment upwards effective March 15. Since they didn't really tell anyone about it, none of us knew we were supposed to be getting more money until today. Boss's Boss didn't even know. Now that he does, he has spent the morning contacting the appropriate people to get all of our pay scales changed. I don't know how long it will take the payroll people to make the changes for the ~20 employees affected, but we will be getting a lump sum for the money that should have been added to our last 3 (so far) paychecks. Hurray for finding money I didn't even know was missing!

This weekend was the spring show for the Sahara Dance where I take belly dance classes. Since I wasn't performing, I volunteered to help out for 3 of the four shows (one Saturday and two Sunday) since I wanted to watch the show at least once. It was way more draining that I expected, but the shows were amazing. I actually got to watch all 4 shows because I ran the merchandise booth before, during intermission, and after the late Saturday show, and I took pictures during both Sunday shows. It's been a while since I've been co-opted for my photography skills. I got a chance to delete the obviously blurred pictures before I passed the camera back to the stage manager, but I worry that the rest of the pictures won't be very clear either. The combination of low lighting, shiny costumes, and lots of movement really killed my chances of getting very many decent shots. I'm not sure why they had me do it anyway since they hired a professional photographer to take pictures as well. If the decent pictures get posted online anywhere, I'll link to the ones I'm not embarrassed of later.

There was an information fair at work yesterday about various discounts available to government employees with local tourist attractions. Also, somewhat out of place, a T-Mobile representative was there to tell everyone about the 15% discount on any T-Mobile service for government employees. Why didn't anyone tell me about this when I signed up for T-Mobile two years ago? I got all the information to get it applied to my account and called about it this morning. For whatever reason, I actually get an 18% discount on my monthly bill. Since I have a small plan with only one line, it only comes to about $7 off a month, but that's better than nothing.

Also, 6 days to Disney World!!

So I've taken another of my month-long breaks from posting. I think I should just accept that I'm going to do that sometimes and not feel bad about it anymore.

Back in March, I had a conference for work at the National Harbor, a more inconveniently located and cheesily pretentious conference center I've yet to see. (Pics here.) The opening speaker was Dave Barry who was just as funny in person as you would expect from his columns and from watching Dave's World with Harry Anderson. The conference was interesting, and I got some good programming ideas the talks I went to.

Earlier this month, our friends, Natalie and Judith, visited us for the Cherry Blossom Festival. We had a great time going around the Tidal Basin and seeing the special events for the festival. The Asian Art Museum had a really cool exhibit on the Shuten-doji with incredible comic style drawings and stories. The American Indian Museum also had a comic exhibit focusing on representation of American Indians in comics and the works of American Indian artists. (Pics here.)

A couple weeks ago, I made another trip out to Mount Vernon to see the new blacksmith shed. They have also added a new blacksmith. (Pics here starting with the blacksmith's shed.) He has a red beard, and his name is Eric. I refrained from making any Viking jokes as he was working with hot metal objects. He is going to be the estate's full-time blacksmith. Apparently they've always contracted the work out to either Williamsburg or other free lance blacksmiths. I think it won't be so pleasant to visit the area in August as it was on the 50F day in April. They have also added short wagon rides by the river.

Belly dancing continues to be fun. I have taken a couple of the weekend workshop classes to check out other teachers. For the summer session, I have decided to take two classes, one for technique and one for performance. The performance class is Hula Belly Fusion, so I will be in a dance during the school's August show. Anyone who's in the area August 15 should come. (I'll remind you again closer to time.) I volunteered to help out backstage for the spring semester show this weekend which should be fun. I've missed being involved in theatrical things.

I started doing volunteer work again. I'm doing clerical work at the National Zoo one or two Saturdays a month to help the volunteer organizers (paid workers) keep up with all their filing and data entry stuff. They don't usually have people request to do office work, so the organizer I interviewed with kept asking me if I really wanted to do it, especially after she found out I've done theater and improv. I reassured her that I really didn't want to deal with kids I wasn't allowed to be mean to. Also, I'd rather do something isn't getting done for lack of volunteers than something that people are scrambling to help with.

Work's been going well. New Boss has finally arrived. It's taking me some time to get used to being supervised again. We went almost 6 months without a direct supervisor, so it's hard for me to view her as anything other than an interruption right now. Probably I'll be used to it again within a month since she has the same laid-back management style as Old Boss. I'll find out in a couple of weeks if I get to go home for work in the beginning of June. It's mostly definite, but I need to call the office down there to make sure they request me.

As some of you already know (because Brooke's been better about posting than I have), we're going to Disney World May 7-10!!! Brooke's dad will be there with MathCounts and invited us to share his hotel room free of charge. We are looking forward to all the rides and the swimming pool with water slide at the hotel.

The Arlington County libraries had their semi-annual sale this past weekend, and I racked up. My best find that would have made the trip worthwhile all on its own: Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula, or The Adventures of the Sanguinary Count. My copy has a way more hilarious cover, a blurry image of which can be found here. I want to put off reading it for a while, so I can savor the possibilities that exist for this book. I also got a Debbie Gibson cd and a book on the 1928 coast-to-coast foot race along Route 66 (main prize $25,000).

Life is pretty good these days.

The Pi Day party was lots of fun except for a couple last minute cancellations. Don't worry, we will only make you feel guilty about it until the next party (if you make it to that one). There was chocolate pie, apple/cherry pie, and pizza pie (in the form of Bagel Bites). It was so much fun having people over that we're doing it again in a couple weeks. Natalie and Judith are planning to come down from NYC for the Cherry Blossom Festival. If anyone in town would like to meet up with us at the parade and/or the street festival on April 4, let me know. The more people we have in our small crowd, the less horrible the large festival crowd will be. Well, that's the plan anyway.

To anyone who is familiar with Canadian wedding customs:

I have a few questions for you. My cousin is getting married to a very nice Canadian woman this summer. My aunt is currently butting heads with the fiancee's mother (we'll call her Mary since I don't know her name) over a few issues of wedding etiquette. Mary always claims these differences are 'how they do it in Canada.' I'm tempted to call bullshit on two of these, but maybe that is how you do it in Canada. Please advise if Mary is correct by Canadian standards or if she's being rude (as my family thinks is the case).

1. You only send someone an invitation to the wedding if you know they are definitely coming.
2. Any party related to the wedding is automatically a shower. A person can only be invited to one shower.
3. She's never heard of the bride's family paying for all or most of the wedding and reception.

They been living in the US for almost 15 years now. I really think she would have heard about at least one US wedding during that time.


To anyone who is coming to the Pi Day party:

1. Are you bringing food and/or drink with you? You don't have to. I just don't want to end up with too much of one thing and not enough of something else.
2. Does anyone have food restrictions? I don't remember anyone having allergies or personal food choices, but I wanted to make sure before I went shopping.

1. Ell's awesome Un-Valentine party.
I met some of shrieking_ell's awesome friends and their awesome kid. We had a great time drinking while watching Empire Strikes Back, The Big Lebowski, and Buckaroo Bonzai. I think I need repeated viewings to get what the hell was going on with Buckaroo Bonzai owing to the effects of Jeff Goldblum in chaps and lots of rum.

2. Coraline in 3D.
Unfortunately you can't see it in 3D anymore because the stupid Jonas Brothers concert movie took over all the 3D screens a couple weeks ago. The movie was very awesome with an appropriately creepy soundtrack. There were some large differences from the book, but they added to the story.

3. NSO's Prokofiev, Ravel, and Stravinsky concert.
The National Symphony Orchestra periodically has ticket specials for only $20. I was thinking about going to their Prokofiev, Ravel, and Stravinsky concert but wasn't sure if it would be worth the effort. Then I read an interview with the composer for Coraline. He mentioned Prokofiev and Stravinsky as being two of his favorite composers. This totally sealed the deal for me as I loved the Coraline soundtrack. The concert was incredible. The audience gave a standing ovation after each piece, and the piano soloist for the Prokofiev concerto had 3 curtain calls. She was really amazing. I need to make a point of going to the theater more often.

4. Mom's visit.
Mom and I started the sightseeing with a visit to the newly restored American History Museum. It was not as awesome as I remembered the previous incarnation being. Needs more First Ladies and pop culture stuff. Then we went next door to the Natural History Museum. They have recently opened a new section called the Ocean Hall which has many interesting specimens (by that I mean totally freaking creepy looking) from various ocean depths. The large replica of a whale that hangs from the ceiling is especially impressive. We went through the Butterfly Garden after, and Mom had a butterfly land on her pant leg. Now Mom, Dad, and I have each had a butterfly land on us. Last we enjoyed a special exhibit on orchids. The exhibit room was full of hundreds of flowers and smelled wonderful. Unfortunately we had come too late to hear the Smithsonian’s horticulturist speak (I didn't even know the Smithsonian had a horticulturist. I can't imagine there was much competition for the job.), but it was really cool seeing all the different colors orchids come in. Pretty much anything in the purple-red-orange-yellow-green spectrum was an option.

The next day we spent 5 hours at the Newseum, and we would have stayed longer if we’d sat through all the different films they show. They have newspaper front pages from as far back as the 1200s all the way through a daily changing display of current front pages from newspapers around the country. After the Newseum, we went to the Wax Museum. They have several figures of presidential figures, including President Obama in a mock Oval Office. The most interesting part was the video about how the figures are created. Over 200 measurements of the subject are taken while the subject is in the pose the figure will be displayed in. They use make up artists and hair stylists to match the subject’s skin and hair colors as closely as possible. When the final figure is assembled, each strand of hair is inserted one at a time. It takes weeks to create each figure in the museum.

We had a pretty heavy snow here which kept Mom an extra day. We didn’t mind since we played board games and baked cookies. The only annoying part was getting through to the airline to change Mom's flight. We were on the phone for over two hours, most of the time spent on hold passing the phone back and forth so no one's arm went numb.

5. Hafla.
My belly dance school has a hafla (party) mid way through the session to give the students a chance to perform for each other in a casual environment. No one is required to go (except the teachers), and you don't have to perform even if you do go. Each teacher choreographs a short dance for each of her classes, so there were about 20 performances total. It was fun, but our performance was so short that it almost seemed pointless. I know they wanted all the classes to have time for a short dance while also having time for open dancing, but I think we could have danced for a little more than 1 minute. My teacher said I did a really good job and that I have great control over my hip movements.

6. Pi Day Party March 14.
As some of you already know, Brooke and I are hosting a Pi Day party on Saturday, March 14 at our apartment. There will be wii gaming, pies, and costumes. I promise I will not make anyone do math! Costumes are encouraged but not required. If you do wear a costume, it should be of the geek/nerd/dorktastic variety. I will be dressed as Hypatia, the first female mathematician, which basically means I will have a bed sheet awkwardly wrapped around my person to simulate a toga. Please feel free to bring guests, but please let me know. I don't want to run out of food and/or drinks. Email me at jrho.jrho at gmail dot com if you need my address and/or phone number.

ETA: I uploaded pictures from Mom's trip here.

Lot 1: Last Friday, I met up with some hilarious women from the Shapely Prose website. After I went to a bar with one of the women and her husband to hear accordion bands. This is possibly more awesome than it sounds, but I doubt it. The opening act was a sword swallower and a fire eater. They were really entertaining. Unfortunately I hadn't worn good shoes for standing long periods of time, and I was really tired, so I left during the first band's set. They were comprised of an accordion, a violin, a stand-up bass, and a drum kit. I really need to find out what their website it because I really want to buy one of their cds.

Lot 2: The results of the 2007 Census of Agriculture were officially released on Wednesday. We all went to the auditorium for the official announcement by the Secretary of Agriculture who was kind of an ass and booked it out of the auditorium as soon as he gave his talk. He was out the door before our director finished thanking him for being there. Before the talks started though, there was the national anthem with associated video hilarity. An image of a waving flag faded in and out with various pictures of heterosexual, same race couples with small children. There was one image of a crop field and one image of a carefully multicultural group of children, but no images of livestock, Hispanics, teenagers, single people, couples without children, vehicles, or water. From this my coworker and I have determined that these people and things are unamerican. It was really hard to keep our laughter muffled once the still shot of fireworks came up.

Lot 3: One of the surveys I work puts out a monthly publication with results from the previous month's survey. I got an email yesterday saying there would be a small party with cake and punch next week because we had put out 12 consecutive monthly publications without issuing any corrections. That's right; we didn't screw up for one year. There was no such announcement last year which leads me to believe we did not manage a full error-free year in 2007. I'm planning on taking full credit for this since I fully took over this project from my coworker January of last year. Not that I have anything to do with the publication, but I have decided my mere presence has clearly made the difference.

Lot 4: I had major baking plans for this weekend, so I went to the grocery early this morning to get my ingredients. Upon returning to my apartment, I noticed a downed power line next to my building which I immediately reported to the non-emergency number for police/fire department. I also told my apartment manager that I had already called it in and asked for someone to come put a barrier around the live end of the wire because it was in the playground next to my building. The firemen got there before anyone could do that, but it turned out not to be an issue. It wasn't actually a power line; it was a phone line. The fireman was really nice about explaining how to tell the difference between the lines and didn't make me feel stupid for thinking the phone line was a power line. (Note: The power lines are on top of the poles and not directly touching the wood. Phone lines are bolted to the pole and are black. Cable lines are bolted to the pole and are, around here, green. The more you know.) They just coiled it up and tied it to the pole before calling the phone company to come fix it. I told the manager what had happened and to expect people coming to say their phones were dead. He was extremely profuse in his thanks, maybe we'll get a discount on rent next month. (Probably not, but it would be nice)

Lot 5: I did lots of baking today. All new recipes I got from a thread on Shapely Prose, and they all 3 turned out fantastic.
( Chai Shortbread )

( Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cake )

( Beef and Cornbread Casserole )

I have my car back in excellent condition! It was ready yesterday, but I didn't get the message until too late to pick it up due to belly dancing class. I'm really enjoying the class, and it hasn't been a problem for my knees so far. Yay!

As some of you already know, I finally caved to peer pressure and made a facebook. I'm screening the comments if you would like to leave an email I can use to friend you.

Brooke posted her video of the President walking past us at the Inaugural parade. It looks much better if you click to watch in high quality.

Tomorrow we will have king cake, courtesy of Brooke's parents. Yay! We made sure to talk to our parents ahead of time to stagger the king cake deliveries, so they don't both come at the same time like they did last year. My parents are sending one in two weeks. A regular and easily attainable supply of king cake is the main thing I miss about Mardi Gras.

Via modillian

The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me. It will be about or tailored to those five who respond first. This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:
- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make.
- What I create will be just for you.
- It'll be done this year.
- You have no clue what it's going to be. It may be a mix tape. It may be pictures. I may sew something. I might bake you something and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure!
- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

The catch? Oh, the catch is that you have to put this in your journal as well.

Note: In an attempt not to send something you would completely and totally hate and/or be allergic to you, I will be asking random and possibly superfluous questions of whomever will be getting stuff.

Brooke and I went to the Inaugural Parade Tuesday and were lucky enough to wander by a volunteer as she was passing out tickets for the bleacher area near the President's viewing area. It was nice to be able to sit and huddle for warmth with all the other people in the stands. We got there around 11.30, expecting the parade to start at 2.30 and get to us around 3. The parade didn't actually start until after 3.30 due to, as we learned the next day, Sen. Kennedy having a seizure during the luncheon. It was totally worth the wait and the cold because Obama got out of his car and walked with Michelle for the last blocks of the parade where we were sitting. I only got one blurry picture of them, but Brooke took video of the whole thing. I'll post a link once she puts it on the internet.

Owing to the delay and the cold, about 90% of the crowd left after the presidential part of the parade was over. I felt really bad for the parade participants because hardly anyone was there to see them. Toward the end of the parade, marchers were thanking Brooke and I for staying to watch them. We were pretty much the only people beside event staff left in a half block space that had been crammed with people earlier in the day. The nice thing about staying until the end of the parade was that there was no crowd in the metro. Pretty much everyone had left over two hours before we did.

All pictures of the parade are here.

After I finished posting all my photos, I started going through the stats on my flickr page and noticed a huge jump in views earlier this month. Before the picture with the most views only had ~650. Now the picture with the most views has almost 3500, and it's one of the pictures of Neil Gaiman that I took at the book festival in September. Looking through the referrer pages, I found out that I had been linked from one of Neil Gaiman's blog posts. Someone had found my pictures and wanted to know what type of fountain pen he was using to sign books. I'm thinking about sending an email to Gaiman telling him he is welcome to use my pictures whenever he wants and maybe he could sign one and send it to me. Still my flickr page got linked on Neil Gaiman's blog, and that is probably the coolest internet thing that has ever happened to me.

I was there, and it was awesome! How awesome? Behold the lineup of speakers and performers:

Denzel Washington
Bruce Springsteen - The Rising
Laura Linney and MLK III
Mary J. Blige - Lean on Me
Jamie Foxx and Steve Carrell
Bettye LaVette and Jon Bon Jovi - It's Been a Long Time Coming
Tom Hanks
Marisa Tomei
James Taylor, John Legend, Jennifer Nettles - Shower the People with Love
Joe Biden
John Mellencamp - Ain't that America
Queen Latifah
Josh Groban and Heather Headley - My Country 'Tis of Thee
George Lopez and Kal Penn
Herbie Hancock, Will.I.Am, Sheryl Crow - One Love (let's get together and feel alright) medley into Where Is the Love?
Tiger Woods
US Naval Academy Glee Club and Renee Fleming - Walk on Through the Wind
Jack Black and Rosario Dawson
Garth Brooks - American Pie, Shout, We Shall Be Free
Ashley Judd and Forest Whitaker
Usher, Stevie Wonder, Shakira - Higher Ground
Samuel L. Jackson
U2 - Pride(In the Name of Love), City of Blinding Lights
Barack Obama
Bruce Springsteen, Pete Seeger - This Land Is Your Land
Beyonce and everyone else (Stevie Wonder on harmonica) - America the Beautiful

That is how awesome it was. You can watch it on hbo.com at 11 EST if you haven't already.

I didn't manage many pictures and managed almost no good ones. What I'm not too ashamed to show other people can be found here.

Sunday, Brooke and I saw The Curious Case of Benjamin Button which we both enjoyed. I want to be as awesome as Cate Blanchett some day.

Monday, I got pointed in the right direction on a problem I was having with a program at work. It's going to take me a while to make all the changes I need, but I at least know how to start on them now.

Tuesday, I got yet another pair of free underpants from Victoria's Secret. I get at least one coupon for them every 6 weeks. This particular coupon was for a special limited edition underpant not described on the coupon. As it turns out, the special underpant is a pink thong. So now I have a pair of delicate pink buttfloss (seriously, it's a string thong) underpants. Nothing I would have ever bought for myself, but an interesting thing to get for free.

Wednesday, I had my first belly dancing class at Sahara Studios which has a location conveniently on my way home from work. The class went well, and the teacher seems nice. She suggested that everyone have hip scarves for class and let us borrow some extra scarves for the first class. I used a coin scarf which was not as much fun as I had hoped. The hip shimmies really make the coins swing back and forth, and my butt got sore from getting constantly hit by all the coins on my scarf. I told the teacher that after class, and she laughed and said at least I know what kind not to get now. I'm thinking I'll try one with beads or maybe just fringe for class.

Thursday, I went to bed at 7.30 and slept until my alarm went off this morning. Really good night's sleep.

Please take a moment to note how well my week has been going.

Today, I feel like Alexander, he of the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day. I telecommuted on a computer that decided today was the day to be slow as molasses. It's freezing cold outside. When I left my apartment for an eye doctor appointment, I found that someone had hit my car, knocking off a hubcap and the driver-side mirror, and didn't leave a note. I froze my hands taking pictures of the damage. I was late to my eye doctor appointment (which actually went pretty well). I called the insurance company after I got back and listened to crappy hold music. Then I found out my car is technically "undrivable" because it's illegal to drive without a driver-side mirror (I did not know this). I do get a rental car while repairs are done on the Jetta though. However work will not start on the Jetta until tomorrow or maybe Monday because they have to tow it to the shop a mile down the street from my apartment what with it being undrivable and all. I was given a Nissan Altima for a rental car, with a keyless ignition, that no one told me how to use. I had to go back in the rental car place to get the woman to show me how to start the car. The car started to make strange noises after I drove off. I realized the engine wasn't shifting gears because Altimas can be switched from automatic to manual, and this car is set on manual. I had no idea how to change it back, and I could exactly read the instruction manual while I was driving. I'm going to look up how to do it tomorrow. I did figure out how to shift gears, but it's awkward. For dinner we got Lebanese take out. They had run out of my favorite dish (stromboli), so I had to settle for lamb gyro which isn't nearly as good.

So that was my Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day. And there's not even a new Stargate: Atlantis tonight to cheer me up because the very last episode aired last week.

1. One of my coworkers died last night. She had lupus, so her death was not completely unexpected, but it did happen rather quickly.

2. Someone shoved the men's bathroom door open hard enough to break the thick, textured window. When I heard the sound of breaking glass, I went to the hall to see what had happened. It took me a bit to figure it out because there was no one in sight. I asked one of my male coworkers to check the bathroom in case whoever broke the window had been hurt, but no one was there. Whoever did it took off in a quick hurry. Boss's Boss said he saw a guy go into the bathroom crying about 5 minutes later, but he didn't look injured. We still don't know what exactly happened. It took maintenance 45 minutes to come clean up the glass, but they had new glass set in the door within 2 hours.

3. It snowed heavily for ~15 minutes even though there had been 0 chance of precipitation. Brooke said it didn't snow at all in Arlington. The rest of the day was bright and sunny, too.

4. The heating/cooling building that controls the temperature for our building and several others across the street had large plumes of smoke/vapor pouring from the roof for about a minute. I had gone to look out the window because it sounded like low-flying aircraft. Again, I have no idea what happened. I assume it was nothing bad because the heat in our building didn't shut off.

5. I'm in a 5-way tie for 3rd in the office football pool. I have a chance at winning money if Florida wins tonight.

All before lunch.

Only one weird thing happened after lunch. On the way home, I passed a guy who looked like Bill Clinton with a full beard.

I don't know whether to hope tomorrow will be more surreal or less.