It was a very eventful Halloween this year. Pictures from various activities can be found here. The Tuesday before Halloween was the 24th Annual High Heel Race in DC. What seemed to be ~100 drag queens in various fantastic costumes raced down four blocks in ridiculous heels. ell and temve were great company for such an excursion. On Thursday we went to see Up for a dollar at the cinema drafthouse near my apartment. They serve really delicious fried mac&cheese bites. It was a cute movie, but I think I would have liked it a lot more if Ellie instead of Russell had been on the trip.

Brooke and I went to stay with Natalie and Judith in New York for Halloween. We saw The Nightmare Before Christmas in 3D. It was pretty awesome. I'd never seen the movie before and enjoyed many of the songs. After we, along with a group of Natalie and Judith's friends, went to the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade. Unfortunately, it started raining just before the parade started and didn't let up the whole night. We didn't stay for all the parade, but the part we did see was fun. They had large skeleton puppets and zombies doing the "Thriller" dance and someone dressed as the Caterpillar from Alice in Wonderland. The trip back was also fun because we got the upstairs front seat of the bus. Great views through the upper windshield.

For the election this year, I worked in the absentee voter office counting, sorting, and verifying absentee ballots. I think I liked it better than working at a precinct because we didn't have any set-up or take-down work, and we didn't have people in and out all the time. We did have a lot of downtime though. I will be sure to bring cross-stitch and/or a really big book if I get assigned the absentee office again.

Sunday, Brooke and I went hiking in Great Falls National Park. Pictures here. The weather was fantastic, and the views along the River Trail are really nice. The trail we took wasn't too strenuous, but it also wasn't boringly easy (except for one section). I think we'll try to go back there in the spring to see everything in bloom.

Now for the future exciting stuff. Mom and Dad will be here in a few hours to commence my birthday celebrations. Woooo! Tomorrow night we're going out to Chef Geoff's in DC before heading to the Kennedy Center for A Streetcar Named Desire starring Cate Blanchett. My life is so awesome! I'm not sure what else we're going to do while they're here, but we're going to try to hit the National Archives and Arlington House.

Thursday of next week is Amanda Palmer's show in Falls Church. I already have my ticket and am super excited. Does anyone else want to go with me?

Now for the part where I ask for advice. I am thinking about auditioning for a V-Day performance of The Vagina Monologues next Wednesday. All audition materials are provided at the audition, so I can put off making a decision until about 15 minutes before the auditions start whether or not to drive out there. It's been over 5 years since I've done any acting, and I do miss it. But it's been even longer since I've done any acting with complete strangers. Any thoughts yay or nay?

I helped out at Boo at the Zoo Friday and Sunday night. It was fun but a bit overwhelming in terms of the number of people and how snotty some kids got about what/how much candy we gave them. I'm glad I wore my renfaire outfit Friday because I was at a much quieter station than Sunday and did not need to bend and lift and carry as much to refill our treat supply. There were lots of Optimus Primes, Bumblebees, Spider- Super- Bat- mans, and Disney princesses. My favorite was an adorable blond girl wearing a Wolverine costume, complete with fake muscles. I totally made one boy's night by immediately identifying him as a hobbit. Apparently I was the first person to do so the whole night. This was somewhat disconcerting to me as I thought the green cloak with silver leaf clasp would have been a dead giveaway. Maybe the other zoo volunteers are not quite as geeky as I am. Such sad lives they must lead. Sunday night I wore this. I can't decide if I was an eccentric artiste clown or a really ironic hipster-indie-scene person. Sunday I was at a much busier treat station with only one other person even though there were supposed to be 4 people working that station. The only breaks I got were when I paused to restock our treat supply. I'm really glad the weather was fair both nights I worked. I think the Saturday crowd got rained on a good bit.

I managed to avoid the rain Saturday when visiting ell and temve as they prepared for the Marine Corps Marathon and 10K, respectively. We had delicious food with some of Ell's friends and family. There was also a rousing game of Apples to Apples which resulted in a 3 way tie for first because we had to stop playing to eat dinner. After dinner, I went to the Sahara Dance hafla. It's been a while since I've gone out dancing (Wedding receptions don't count.), so I really enjoyed myself.

Tomorrow I'm meeting up with ell and temve for dinner and DC's Drag Race. I look forward to seeing men in fantastic costumes and high heels sprinting down the street.

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.

Brooke and I had an awesome time at the Maryland Renaissance Festival yesterday despite both of us forgetting our cameras. Oops. When we moved up here, the renfaire outfit I had disappeared into the ether, so I had been meaning to get another one for a while. I just hadn't gotten out to a renfest until yesterday. I bought a great outfit with a corset, chemise, and skirt. Once the shop assistant got me all laced up, she looked me up and down and said "Yeah, you're keeping this." I looked in the mirror and completely agreed. The corset is reversible, too, so I have one solid black side for more piratey ensembles and one cream and blue side for more sedate attire. I intended to wear my awesome new outfit when I volunteer at Boo at the Zoo (trick-or-treating at the zoo after hours for kids) and probably to the Greenwich Village Halloween parade when we visit Natalie and Judith in New York. I'm not sure about NYC yet because I don't know how much room it will take in the suitcase, and I'm not bringing an extra large suitcase just for the costume.

Another highlight of the day was chocolate-covered cheesecake on a stick. It is, as it sounds, a slice of delicious cheesecake dipped in delicious chocolate and skewered so as to be easily consumed without the use of utensils. Omnomnom.

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 finally put my Portland pictures up. You can see my adventures driving along the Pacific coast, hiking around waterfalls, and visiting the Rose and Japanese Gardens.

Friday night, I saw Carbon Leaf and Great Big Sea at Wolf Trap with ell. We had a great time despite the rain because we had actual seats inside. Both bands put on really good shows. Carbon Leaf's bassist was especially entertaining when he played his stand up bass because the body of the bass came up almost to his collar bone. He is very tiny. Great Big Sea had guitar/bass/mandolin/bohdran changes after almost every song. They know how to put on a very entertaining show. They did get sidetracked a few times with an ongoing discussion about whether or not the lead singer was Santa Claus which usually segued into part of a Christmas song. I did not expect to be swaying to "Do They Know It's Christmas Time?" while attending a Celtic rock concert, but it was totally hilarious. I would definitely go see them in concert again.

Saturday, I got to sit field side for the DC United match against the LA Galaxy and David Beckham. It was a good game, but we only managed a tie. David Beckham was very nice to look at and has many intriguing tattoos.

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!

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!

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.

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.

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.