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 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!

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.

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 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.

The Friday night Mystics game was fun. Like with all his season tickets, Stewart had the best possible seats, right behind the opposing team's bench. May I just say that both the Atlanta Dream and the Washington Mystics are comprised of very attractive ladies. The first half was badly played by both teams, but the second half was really good. The Mystics won, mainly by being more proficient at free throws. Now I have been to at least one game of each professional sports league in the US. I'm quite proud of myself for this.

This afternoon I went to a Can't Stop the Serenity showing at the Arlington Cinema 'n Drafthouse a few blocks down the street from my apartment. I didn't get to see Serenity when it came out in theaters because I was in Germany, so I was happy to get the chance to see it on the big screen. The Drafthouse is pretty cool and in walking distance. They show a small number of movies after they've stopped running in regular theaters, tickets $5, and they have live shows, usually comedians. The seating is at staggered bars and tables throughout the theater, and the waiters serve food and drink throughout the shows. I had the mozzerella sticks, and they were quite good. On my way into the show, I noticed a street festival which I explored after the movie. It was a blues festival with a live band playing. Many of the area restaurants had booths. One place was selling quarts of fruit salad for $1! That's an awesome deal for a mixed quart of grapes, strawberries, and pineapple. I stayed until the festival ended at 8 then came home to tell you all about my awesome day.

I really haven't. It's not that life's been dull or tragic; it's just that I didn't feel like typing up the minutae. It happens from time to time with the worst being that March a few years back when I didn't post for over a month.

Anyway, I went to the Around the World Open House last weekend. It was awesome seeing more of the embassies. Pics are here. I really enjoyed Trinidad and Tobago's embassy. They had a steel drum band, a dj, delicious food, and a really nice art exhibit. There were alpaca at the Peruvian embassy. So cute! The Australian embassy had a really nice display on the Australian armed forces in WWII as well as an Aborigine in full tribal regalia playing a digeridoo. The Pakistani embassy had a bazaar set up outside with food, clothes, henna tattoos, music, jewelry, and furniture. I bought a new lilac pashmina. The Ghanan embassy had the best staircase. It's a sort of free standing spiral staircase. They had the inside all decked out with flags and red, green, and yellow drapes. I did manage to catch the cultural performance at the Bangladeshi embassy. A group of women sang while one played an instrument I've never seen before. It had a keyboard like a piano as well as other buttons, and she moved the back panel in and out as she played. They also had delicious chicken biryani to sample. Yummm. A woman demonstrated how to roast and prepare coffee beans at the Ethiopian embassy. The inside of the embassy was very nice and open with one wall decorated with panels of different kinds of wood. Mexico did not have their embassy open; they had their open house at the Mexican Cultural Institute. The interior decor was quite varied. The wall along the main staircase is painted with a mural done in the Mexican folk art style. The room with the flamenco demonstration had dark wood paneled walls while the room next to it would not have been out of place in a French chateau. Another room had an intricately painted pipe organ and light green walls. I wish I could have seen more of the building because I bet the other rooms wouldn't have matched the ones I did see.

Sunday night, Brooke and I saw Prince Caspian. I've read the book, but I don't remember any of it. We both enjoyed the movie a great deal. Indiana Jones wil come tomorrow night.

I went to an alumni event for my undergrad Monday night. I regret going a bit because the people there were mostly the clique-ish, snobby type that I avoided when at Spring Hill, but the food was really good, and the money went to the scholarship fund. I don't think I'll go to the next event unless it's an activity I'd do on my own anyway.


Also, a big happy 3rd anniversary to Chip and Kerry yesterday!!! I was going to call, but I didn't want to interrupt anything.

It was just as awesome and fun as I hoped it would be. Pictures are here, and I took a few videos which I uploaded to YouTube here. The free food karaoke party Saturday afternoon did not have the promised Cajun food, but the food they did have was quite tasty. We didn't stay long because it was so crowded, and we were slightly traumatized by someone doing "Baby Got Back." We wandered around the hotel a bit to make sure we could find the ballroom and to see what decorations were already in place. On the way back, we stopped at Teaism for food and drink. Yum. bakanaonna and I got back to the apartment and got ready in enough time to pose for pictures before the taxi showed up. I wore my bridesmaid dress from Chip and Kerry's wedding, and Brooke wore her silk Chinese dress. We both wore our pearl bracelets that rudebega got us for Christmas. All in all, very stylish. We got to the hotel before the ballroom opened, so we took the opportunity to take more pictures of the decorations for the theme "Lagniappe of the Bayou from Andouille to Zydeco." There was a zydeco band performing outside the ballroom before everything began. Once the ballroom opened up, we wandered around for a bit and listened to a jazz band playing inside. Then we found our seats and goodies. We each got a Mardi Gras tote bag (like I need more freaking tote bags), a program of the evening's events, and a Mardi Gras sparkler thing. There was also a drink table set up right next to our seats. Yay for Jack and Coke. Also big yay for champagne and pomegranate juice. At 8.30, the pageant began with the entrance of the krewe members and the King. The Marine Corps band played several patriotic songs before the presentation of the princesses. After the princesses had paraded around the ballroom, the Queen was presented, and she and the King paraded around the room. Once they were seated on the throne dais, the presentation of the Festival Queens began. Each of them had a crown as big as her head, an elaborate neck piece, and a heavily decorated cape. After the Festival Queens had paraded around the room, the float parade began. The throne dais was pushed around the room as were several other floats. Krewe members threw beads (nice ones) and stuffed animals. As Brooke and I were in the last row of seats, we did not get a ton of beads, but we did get some. Both of us were hit in the face by enthusiastically launched beads. At the time we had taken off our shoes and were standing on our chairs to have a better chance of catching something. The floats and the walking krewe members made three circuits of the ballroom while the band played "When the Saints Go Marchin' In" over and over again. General dancing began after the parade. It was very crowded, so we decided to wander around the hotel for a bit. One of the hotel restaurants was having a midnight Louisiana themed buffet. As we were both hungry, this was an awesome idea. They had grits, shrimp etouffee, and various other breakfast delights. Very delicious. Feeling restored, we returned to the ballroom but didn't stay long as we were both pretty tired. On the way out, we ran into our friend Toni. I wish I'd known she was there because we would have had an even better time at the ball. Her mom was also at the ball, so Brooke and I stopped to visit with her for a while. We finally got home around 1.30, and I went rather quickly to bed. I absolutely want to go again next year. I hope we'll be able to get tickets for all the events instead of just the ball.

To sum up the evening: YAY!!!!!

I had an awesome weekend visiting Jenn and Mike in Raleigh. It was great to have time to hang out with them both. I took off work early Thursday and drove down. Friday Jenn and I did crazy amounts of shopping. I had a list of things I needed, and I got everything on my list plus some. Jeans, sneakers, boots, purse, bras, sweater. I don't need to shop for anything again until Christmas stuff. Woohoo! Friday night Jenn cleaned out her closet, so I got some long sleeved shirts from her. Saturday we took my truck to pick up an entertainment center they had bought for their new apartment. The guy at the furniture store was impressed with how well tied down it was. Apparently most people just toss stuff in the back of their cars and go. That afternoon all three of us went to a Toyota dealership, so Jenn could test drive an FJ. The salesman was loud and completely ignored me once I said I was buying anything. Seriously he didn't even look in my direction after that. Sunday was a mostly lazy day which started with Mike making waffles. Waffles are awesome. Sunday night Jenn and I went to the Lincoln Theatre to see ... Jedd Hughes!! He opened for Pat Green, another country singer. Jedd did a really nice acoustic set. I only recognized one of his songs, but he said his new album's coming out this spring, so I will be able to have the new songs soon. Yay! Pat Green did a much louder, more rocking show with two bass players, a guitar player, a fiddler, a pianist, and a drummer. He has a good, energetic stage presence. Jenn bought a Pat Green shirt and cd. They didn't have any Jedd Hughes merchandise, so I didn't buy anything. I did see Jedd Hughes at the bar during Pat Green's set, so I went and talked to him. He was really nice and flattered that I had come to the show to see him and not Pat Green. I got my picture taken with him, too! I will put up the pictures from the show on flickr later. Monday morning I drove back to Arlington. Then I had an exciting afternoon of laundry and grocery shopping.

Today at work I had my annual evaluation. It doesn't matter that I haven't been there a year because all annual evaluations happen in October. There are 5 rankings, and the top three involve bonuses. I got a 3 because I have awesome programming skills. Boss said he has been very impressed with the work I've done on various programs since I started. This means I get a bonus in December. Yay!

Saturday I went to the Mt. Vernon Craft Fair. Everything sold was made using period, late 18th century methods. It was pretty awesome. All the tents were period, and all the vendors wore period garb. Some Revolutionary War reenacters had a small camp set up, and many of the vendors had demonstrations of their work throughout the day. I did a good bit of Christmas shopping for family members and got some fun stuff for myself as well. People were selling weavings, pottery, period clothing, baskets, woodcraft, pewter, buckets, candles, scented soaps, etc. I got an awesome pair of blue and white striped socks, a pair of earrings, and some tamarind candy. Mmmm. All the sellers were really nice about answering questions or just chatting. After I got home, I took a 4.5 hour nap. Interacting with strangers takes a lot out of me. I wasn't up for very long before I went back to bed and slept until morning.

Sunday I was up ridiculously early owing to all the extra sleep Saturday. I did laundry and watched tv until meeting Jim at the jazz festival they were having on the Mall. It was nice, but then they went more into Latin style jazz which I don't like as much. So we went back to Jim's and hung out for a while. He let me borrow his Answer Me Jesus to showbakanaonna. It looks like it's made out of bubble gum and is about 8" tall. It works just like a Magic 8 Ball but with messages like "Pray Harder" and "Not a chance in Hell." This thing is seriously hilarious. I have decided that it should really be called Pink Jesus of the Sacred Heart because something that absurd deserves a long title.

Today Mom called me at work to tell me their house got broken into. It happened sometime this morning between when Mom left for work and when Dad came home for lunch. The person(s) broke the window on the patio door to undo the latch to get in. They only took Mom and Dad's crappy laptop and Karen's old one. No one was hurt, nothing else was taken, and there was minimal damage to the house. It definitely could have been worse, but I wish it hadn't happened at all. I did have to call the credit bureau to put a flag on my SSN because I had it on at least one of the documents on Mom and Dad's laptop. That didn't take long, and I don't have to do anything else unless someone triggers the flag. Hopefully that won't happen, but if it does, that would make it much easier to find who broke into the house.

Last weekend I wasn't going to do anything but sleep. This plan was shot to hell when I found out that the Kennedy Center had an open house Saturday. Free mini-shows! Jim came with me. We saw the National Symphony Orchestra and Blue Sky 5, a swing band, before Jim left to watch football. Then I saw the Suzanne Ferrell Ballet company, the US Navy Country Singers, and Ben Kweller. The ballet company did excerpts from their upcoming November performance. They were very good, but I could tell the real performance wasn't for a while. They still had some timing issues to work out. I do think I want to see the show. Apparently this Ben Kweller guy has a following already. There were kids with his concert t-shirts. Many people in the audience were singing along with his songs, and I heard several people mention how amazing it was that they got to see him for free. I'd never heard of him. He was listed as an indie rock/alt country act. He sang one country song in the whole set. It was good, but I wouldn't classify him as a country artist. I liked enough of his songs to buy one of his cds off iTunes. He's a bit weak lyrically on some of his songs, but I like all the music. He seems pretty talented and really dorky. He wrote all the songs himself, and he plays guitar, piano, and harmonica. After the concert I went home and caught the end of Notre Dame's loss to Penn State. Yay. Then I watched LSU's crushing defeat of Virginia Tech. Big YAY.

Sunday bakanaonna and I finally saw Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I enjoyed it. The cast got exponentially hotter. It was a bit jarring to see Daniel Radcliffe looking ~21 when his character's 15, but I got over it. Imelda Staunton did an amazing job playing Umbridge. I do question the sudden multicultural explosion at Hogwarts. Where did all these non-white kids come from? Did they simultaneously transfer in a quarter of the student body from other schools?

Last night I went to the DC United - Real Salt Lake match with Stewart. United won, but they didn't play as well as they should have. It didn't help that the ref was calling everything on United and nothing on Salt Lake. 6 yellow cards were issued. Three of United's best players will have to sit out the next game because they have too many yellows. Boo. Luckily DC's already secured a spot in the playoffs, so a loss won't hurt them too badly.

This weekend I'm planning on going to Mt. Vernon for their craft fair. There will also be demonstrations of some period handwork. Brooke is definitely not going as she developed a childhood aversion to craft fairs. I'll probably go by myself early Saturday to avoid more of the crowd. I get in for free since I got an annual pass last time I went. Unfortunately there are no football games of great interest to me this weekend. I might watch the Michigan-Notre Dame suckfest, but I won't be upset if I miss it.

In other awesome news, I'm going to visit my friend Jenn over Columbus Day weekend. Woot! I'll get to see her new apartment and hang out in Raleigh, NC. I've only been to Raleigh for about a day to visit NC State to see if I wanted to go to grad school there, so I really have no idea what the city looks like.

Also I put all my Labor Day weekend pictures up on my flickr gallery. I finally finished captioning all my Florence pics and uploaded all my World Cup ones. Next step is to caption the 400+ World Cup photos.

The concert Thursday night was amazing! The rap polka medley at the beginning was especially hilarious with the original music videos playing behind him. Watching the video for "Don't Cha" sped up like that was great. Of all the fake interview clips shown throughout the concert, my favorite was the one with Kevin Federline. For the encore, he played "Albuquerque" which confused some of the audience. It was weird seeing people leaving during the song, but it was totally their loss because he did the entire awesome thing.

Not too much else has been going on recently. Kumo and Sebastian still don't get along very well. bakanaonna and I have decided they can just have their death matches, and we'll only try to break it up if it goes on too long.

Last week was pretty uneventful. Saturday, bakanaonna and I met up with Jim to go to IKEA. It was much fun. I needed a new, more sturdy, end table, and we wanted to get a cat tent for Sebastian and Kumo to play in. Sunday, Kumo arrived very traumatized from his flight. He was hiding under his bed in the carrier. Once we got him home, he settled in alright. Sebastian wanted to play, but Kumo needed his personal space and kept hissing at Sebastian to back off. Pictures of Kumo and the cat tent to come after Kumo has settled into the apartment a bit more.

Weird Al concert Thursday!!!! Woohooo!

P.S. Some people (whose names might be Chip and Kerry) owe me a phone call about the trials and tribulations of teaching high school.

There were over 35,000 people at the Antietam concert Saturday. Fortunately, Jim had a pass for the parking lot, so we didn't have to hike several miles to and from the car. The Maryland Symphony Orchestra was really good. They played a Star Wars medley as a preview of a show they're doing later this season before starting on all the patriotic music. Highlight of the evening was "The 1812 Overture" with actual cannons. The fireworks were also great. They shot off the cannons again at the end of the fireworks show, very fun. It took forever to get through all the traffic to get back, but we had fun rocking out to stuff on my ipod.

Aunt Christine, mother of my two favorite cousins, is in town this week for a conference, so bakanaonna and I met her for dinner at Capital City Brewery. It was really nice to see her and hear about what my cousins are up to these days. We're meeting her again Wednesday night. Depending on what kind of food she wants, we might bring her to Arlington for dinner and to show her the apartment.


PSA: It's Nude Recreation Week. The Naturalist Society would like to encourage you to do chores naked, garden naked, and telecommute naked. Next week is Nude Gardening Week. I hope you all plan to celebrate accordingly.

My friend Jenn and her husband, Mike, visited the DC area this week. I had a great time hanging out with them. It's been a while since I'd seen Jenn. We walked around and saw most of the monuments on Tuesday and went to the Air and Space Museum. Pictures found here. I had never seen the WWII Memorial or the Einstein Monument before. I highly recommend going to see Big Poppa Al as he is large enough so that you can sit in his lap. There was much walking. Fortunately the weather wasn't too hot, and there was a nice breeze. Wednesday we spent some time at the zoo. I have added more pictures to the zoo gallery here. The new pictures start with the pretty white flower. I have now seen almost all of the zoo. There is still one section way in the back that I haven't seen yet, so I'll try to see that next trip. Wednesday night Jenn and Mike, a couple they know from undergrad, Jim, Brooke, and I went to the Air Force Memorial to watch the fireworks. We were also expecting to hear the USAF Band, but they weren't there. I'm assuming due to the weather. We had a great view of the fireworks in DC as well as in several of the surrounding towns. At one point we could see five different fireworks shows at once. Tonight Jim and I are going to Antietam to hear the Maryland Orchestra and watch a fireworks show. I made snickerdoodles this morning so that we would have delicious taste treats to enjoy during the show, also in case we need to bribe a security guard or something.