My cousin was successfully married on Saturday. The event was fun and a bit weird, totally their style though. I still need someone to explain to me why "Benny and the Jets" was their exit wedding/enter reception song. My favorite part of the reception was the milk fountain surrounded by plates of cookies. The cups for the milk were wide and short enough to dunk the cookies, too.

It was nice to be home and see various family and friends. For anyone in the Baton Rouge area, I highly recommend The Strand downtown for delicious pastries, chocolates, and teas. I understand the coffees are also amazing. My family and I did a high tea there, and everything they served was delicious. Ru and her uncle were also there, so I got to visit with them between courses. We have made plans to visit The Strand again when I am home for Christmas to sample more delicious items.

I met up with Ru and her boyfriend, Stelly, the next day to see Where the Wild Things Are. It was a really great movie. I especially enjoyed how they did the scene when Max leaves the island. (Note: I don't consider this a spoiler since the book has been out for decades.) There were less than 10 kids in the theater which I understand since the movie was marketed to adults. However, I think kids would enjoy it.

I'm about to fly home for my cousin's wedding this weekend. It promises to be a good time with nice fall weather. Hopefully my sister has sufficiently recovered from H1N1 to not get the rest of us sick and to be able to enjoy herself at the wedding.

This past weekend I met up with Natalie, Judith, Judith's sister, Judith's sister's boyfriend, and Judith's sister's boyfriend's posse at the Equality March in DC. It was great to see them, but I only stayed for a couple hours before I had to leave for my drumming class. I also ran into another woman who dances at Sahara, and she hung out with us during the march. I wish I had been able to stay for the rally after because there were some pretty interesting people speaking. I also wish I could have seen the Daily Show camera crew that was filming. Maybe some other time.

I finally got around to reading Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula: The Case of the Sanguinary Count. This book was completely unnecessary. It's a retelling of Dracula as though Sherlock Holmes had been involved in the case and had really saved the day instead of Van Helsing. Except, Holmes didn't really do much to defeat Dracula. He doesn't even follow Dracula back to Transylvania deciding that his work is done since Dracula's not a problem in England any more. It's written in the style of the Holmes stories with Watson narrating the events and contains an abundance of references to other Holmes stories, as though the author wanted to make sure you knew that he knew his Holmes canon. If anyone really enjoys Dracula and really enjoys Conan Doyle's stories but wants to not care about either, I highly recommend this book. Otherwise, you might want to read it out of morbid curiousity.

In future good news, Amanda Palmer of the Dresden Dolls and Neil Gaiman's girlfriend (only relevant in that they are both cool people who increases each other's coolness factor) is playing in Falls Church November 19! The club is actually across the street from my doctor's office, so I know I won't get lost driving there. If anyone is interested in coming to the show with me, let me know. Tickets are $20, and for an extra $5 per group, we can reserve a table for dining and sitting purposes.

So things have been going really well for me lately. Yay!
( Job )

( Mt. Vernon )

( Book Festival )

( Zoo )

( Nano )

For future awesome things, I will be home October 16-19 for my cousin's wedding. I'm looking forward to it as I am particularly fond of this cousin, and I know the reception will have good food, good drink, and good music. Any Baton Rouge people want to try and get together Friday night or Sunday, let me know. Saturday's fully booked with wedding and other family stuff, but I'd like to see friends if I can.

Brooke and I are going to NYC for Halloween. We're staying with Natalie and Judith and plan on having an awesome time at the Greenwich Village Halloween parade. I'm pondering costumes and welcome any suggestions on the matter.

I had a great Time in Seattle with my family. Pictures of our adventurous adventuring can be found here. We visited Pike's Place Market and watched the people who throw fish around. There were a ridiculous number of LSU people in town for the game, and they were all decked out in LSU gear. Seattle's economy probably had an insane bump Labor Day weekend with PAX, Bumbershoot, and the LSU-UW game crowds. We took a ferry across Puget Sound on a clear enough day to see some of the Olympic Mountains as well as the Cascades. The next day also had pretty good weather, so we went up the Space Needle to see the sights. I love all the free telescopes they have to let everyone enjoy the view. We visited a glassblowers studio and watched them work for a while before perusing all the really awesome and way too expensive for me to even consider work they had for sale.

Since Dad's birthday was at the end of August, we had delicious cake and ice cream for him while in Seattle. It was the only time Mom, Dad, Karen, and I had all been in the same place since Christmas, so we thought it was a good time for cake.

On the day of the game, we went with a group of family friends to Snoqualmie Falls and ate at this really amazing restaurant call Salesh Lodge. The falls were cool to see, but the salmon hash really made the drive worthwhile. Mmmmmm. On our way to the game, we passed a car that was on fire. Firemen were already on the scene but hadn't put the fire out yet. I was rather selfishly pleased about that as this is the first time I have ever seen a car on fire in real life. The game itself was a much closer match than we had been expecting, but I was happy to watch an actual competitive match up that the Tigers totally won. Husky Stadium overlooks Lake Washington, so we could see a veritable flotilla of boats all hanging out for the game.

Sunday we visited wineries. One of them had a peacock roaming the grounds. We tasted some nice wines, but I didn't think any of them were worth the hassle to transport back home. Monday we went to the Experience Music Project and the Science Fiction Museum. I'm not sure why, but they are connected and share an entry fee. This is a totally cool thing, and I recommend these museums to anyone going to Seattle. The EMP has an awesome collection of electric guitars and basses (even stand-up basses) that date back to the 1930s. There is also a bunch of recording studios set up with instruments and tutorials on how to play them. I now consider myself a drumming and rhythm guitar expert after spending upwards of 10 minutes on each tutorial. The Science Fiction Museum lacked any sort of hands-on fun (I'm not sure what it would have been anyway.), but I was quite taken with the general shiny awesomeness of the whole thing. Unfortunately they were very strict about the no pictures policy, so you will just have to imagine the wall of various sci-fi weaponry from various movies and tv shows. There was a section on robots, too.

Overall I enjoyed the trip and spending time with my family very much. One week is a sufficiently long trip though, and I am happy not to see them again until I go home in October for my cousin's wedding.

I uploaded the pictures from my parents' trip a couple weeks ago. They can be found here. Pictures of the belly dance show they came to see are here.

Right now I'm gearing up for my trip to Seattle in a few days. I leave Wednesday, and I still have several things to finish up at work. I also need to do laundry before I go to make sure I have enough socks. Right now I'm debating whether or not to bring something for the family we're staying with and if so, what to bring. They are friends of our family, but I haven't seen them in years. Mom and Dad have seen them more recently, but I don't even know what an appropriate gift would be. I though about food, but I don't want to fly with too much extra stuff. Maybe I'll get a tacky fridge magnet.

If anyone has suggestions of things to do and places to see in the Seattle area, let me know. We're going to be there for almost a week, so we have a good amount of time to be touristy.

I know. Two month posting hiatus. I was busy then just got really passive about internetting. Here's a brief recap of what's been going on with me.

Portland - work and fun

Portland is a really cool city to visit. I really liked working in the Oregon field office. Things went so smoothly that they let me leave early one day, so I could drive to the Pacific coast. It's crazy how different it is from the Gulf or the Atlantic coasts I've seen. I also enjoyed the waterfalls and the Japanese Garden. Once I post the pictures, you'll have more details on whatever else I did that week.

Natalie and Judith's visit

It was great to see them again. We had fun going through the American History Museum and eating at the American Indian Museum.

Uncle Don's visit

He was in town for a conference, so we met up one night to watch LSU play for the CWS title. We also went to a Nationals game, so we could see them lose to the Red Sox.

LSU CWS win

LSU once again won the CWS. It's even better to do that by beating Texas.

TN for wedding - bat

I went down to Tennessee for my cousin Matt's wedding. It was a nice trip, and I enjoyed getting to see some of my relatives. There was an unfortunate incident of one of the bridesmaids stepping on a bat in the vestibule before the ceremony. There was much screaming and worry that the bat would fly up someone's dress until they realized the bat was dead or close to it. Thankfully it was taken care of by one of the church workers, and the wedding went off beautifully.

Ell's party

Ell's friend collective skews very dorky and therefore awesome. Her 4th of July/My girlfriend's in town party was lots of fun. Delicious food and drink was had by all.

Video Games Live

Brooke and I went with my coworker and her husband. The National Symphony Orchestra was amazing as were all the soloists. They had an audience member (picked from a pre-show contest) come on stage to play Guitar Hero backed by the NSO. The deal was he would get a sweet laptop if he scored over 200k points on hard. Dude scored over 300k on expert. It was pretty awesome to watch.

Water damage and repair in apartment

Thanks to leaky a/c pipes, I had water damage in my bedroom. Parts of one wall, the ceiling, and my carpet had water damage. Thankfully, Brooke was out of town on vacation while all the work was being done to fix my bedroom, so I got to sleep in her room for a week. Everything's fixed now, but it was pretty stressful not really having a functioning bedroom for over a week.

Work is crazy busy

I've just had something going on with almost every project I'm assigned to. It's not too bad this week because I have training instead of work. Next week will probably be hectic again.

Belly dance show

For my Hula Belly Fusion performance class, we danced to "Rock a Hula" and "Can't Help Fallin' in Love" by Elvis. It went really well. I'll post pictures later of my awesome stage makeup and leis.

Parents' visit

Mom and Dad were here for a week to visit and see me dance. I didn't get to see them much because I had training all last week and this week at work, but we got together for dinner every night. Sunday we spent the day in Baltimore with Brooke. The National Aquarium is really freaking cool.

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!

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.

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.

In an attempt to start the year off right, I continue my streak of getting sick after Christmas. Bleh. I'm doing much better than I was, but the drive back up to Virginia starting tomorrow probably won't be much fun. I will be ok as long as it doesn't last as long as the drive down did. We expected a 17-18 hour drive. It took 22. The trip home has been lots of fun though. I got to see everyone I wanted, eat pretty much everything I missed, and spent a few days in Mobile with SHC people. I'm mostly ready to go back to work on Monday, but I will definitely miss the 60 and 70 degree weather I've been enjoying the past two weeks. Christmas day was warm enough for t-shirts. I don't want to go back to coats and hats and scarves and layers.

In any case, I hope that everyone's holidays went well and that you all have a better 2009 than you did 2008.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.).

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.

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 )

I'm looking forward to the one outside the USDA building tomorrow, especially the booth that sells chicken empanadas. As it's unseasonably cool up here, I'm not sure what sort of produce they'll have, but I'll find something. Tomorrow night, I'm going to a Mystics game, courtesy of my friend Stewart who had tickets to every sports team in town.

Last week at home was really nice. Unfortunately I didn't get to see Nicole (sorry!) or several of my cousins due to my work scedule, and I only got to see Ru and the kittens once. Pictures of me looking like a moron in the PT Cruiser can be found here. It's nice to be back to my regular schedule though. Only tomorrow and next week before I'm off again. This time for the big family vacation in northern Alabama. I'm bringing Apples to Apples, maybe Scattergories, and maybe dominoes. It will depend what I have room for in my bag because I'm flying down. When I bought my tickets, I figured out that flying would be about $100 more than driving with the cost of gas and food. Now, flying's only about $40 more, and it takes less time. Yay, me!

My flight home Friday went very well, no turbulance and we got there on time. My rental car is a black PT Cruiser, so I feel really prententious when I drive to and from work. The clock on the dash is analog, and I don't think there's a way to make the radio display switch to a digital clock. It's very distracting.

So far I've seen over half the required people with a few cousins still to go. It's nice to catch up with people when I can't have to stay long because of work. I did spend a while at Ru's seeing all the kitties and checking out the Wii Fit. Lots of new cat pictures are here. I found several pictures of Sebastian and Kumo that I hadn't uploaded, and there are pictures of Ru's cats as well. The two kittens are only 4 weeks old, and they're Hemingway cats! The extra toes make their paws look enormous for their bodies.

Work has been quite busy. I know I'll be working late tomorrow and Friday, and there's a 90% chance I'll be working Saturday as well. I knew that going in, but I still hoped we'd get enough done early to make Saturday work unnecessary. The people in the office are friendly and casual, so it's pretty relaxing work. However, they are very structured about breaks. Everyone has morning break at 9.30, lunch at 11.30, and afternoon break at 2.30. I'm used to taking a break whenever I feel the need for one and not taking a break when I'm in a groove at work, but taking breaks with everyone else means I get free food from the communal snacks. I can adapt for this week.