Look, I'm a cartoon!

Such fun . . . I encourage all interested parties to go to the following brilliant Web site: Simpsonize Me. Just upload a picture of yourself and have at it!

Not much to report. Got back from Nashville on Monday - a weekend of doing nothing much in particular. Went to a restaurant called the Puffy Muffin where I embarassed Charlotte by eating honey. (I was hungry and they were slow.) Tennessee, and I think most of the South, is mid-drought, and things were so dry and dead there! I got back to Virginia and thought, "Everything is so very green!" It's nice.

Post of shame

Not much to report here, other than the weather is weirdly beautiful . . . just checked and the temp is 79, the humidity at a crisp 36%. On July 2nd, people! Move to Virginia!

In other news, there was a bear sighting at the Sam's on West Broad, i.e., a mile away from my house. Our neighborhood association people very kindly posted "what to do if you see a bear" hints on the mailboxes. "Say your prayers" was not among them, strangely. Also, I've started again with the yoga. I have class tonight, in fact. I've been pretty slack with the exercise this last week, but sometimes a girl needs a break, you know? Back on the wagon this week.

Saw Ocean's Thirteen with Kristin last week. Pretty, pretty man candy.

The attached photo of Marzie was taken in my old apartment, and the lack of furniture seems to have made her strangely cooperative and photogenic. The other is of me with Paul at the White House, and I swiped it directly from Kerry's blog. It's in the Rose Garden, and we saw the First Dogs while this picture was being snapped. Many thanks to Robert Stillwell for taking us on the tour and for getting some good photos. (Though I think he was wrong to insist the security badge be flipped around to my back . . . now it just looks like a weird necklace.)

Settling In

A few pictures of the upstairs I snapped yesterday morning . . . I've straightened and thrown away more things since then. (Where does it all come from? I threw away a garbage-bag worth of things every week for the last month and a big old leaf bag of trash today. That's just me, y'all. Elves must come in every night and leave things is all I can come up with.)

But things are really looking much better, the kitchen is in working order, and I can walk around without giving myself bruises. I trolled Short Pump yesterday looking for decorating ideas . . . bought some super-comfy shoes and remembered why I don't go out there on Saturdays if I can help it. Such crowds!

More Moving

I just cannot believe how tired I am! Surely moving was not this hard last time around? I carried most of my things (i.e., books) over yesterday while Kristin and her sweet parents painted my room and bathroom. (Isn't that nice? I'm including a very out-of-focus pic of the pre-paint room to show why this was necessary. I don't do salmon pink, and the Webbs totally understood.) My bedroom is now "Eastern Sunrise" which is appropriate because it faces the east, and the bathroom is "Garden Pond."

Today after church I carried over what clothes I wouldn't need for tomorrow as well as some kitchen things. Pictures document our progress. Movers arrive tomorrow to get heavy/awkward things.

New Place!

Here are a few pictures of the new place before painting and before moving in. Kristin's sweet parents came down from Harrisonburg this weekend, and this plan is this:

Friday - clean
Saturday - paint
Sunday - move what we can carry
Monday - movers move heavy things and furniture
Tuesday - wrap up

What could possibly go wrong?

Back!

Kerry shamed me into posting again. What can I say? With the semester ending and all, blogging wasn't tops in terms of priorities. It's been a busy and exhausting spring.

Sadly I have forgotten where I left off my Charleston adventure and don't really want to sort through all that, so I'll postpone the update until another day. However, the photo to your left is the pretty vase I got at the Marion Square farmer's market on Saturday. The artist is Heather Martinez of Designs in Clay. According to her card, the technique is called caneworking:

The multicolored patterns are formed by caning translucent and colored polymer clays, resulting in vibrant designs that can be accentuated by candlelight or natural sunlight.

So there.

kerry's using Kelly's blog

Kelly apparently didn't sign herself out of blogger, so I am posting something on her blog to wig her out. She's in my den right now watching Blues Brothers with Kenny and Paul. Suzanna is having a blast with her. We are looking forward to watching Kenny graduate in his black dress on Saturday. Way to go Kenny!

This picture was taken at Pratt Park the other day. Cute ducks!

Tee hee

Okay, more on Charleston at a later date . . . I came across the following online this week and thought it was excellent advice.

1. The Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks
than Americans or the Brittish.

2. The Mexicans eat a lot of fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than
Americans or the Brittish.

3. The Chinese drink very little red wine and suffer fewer heart
attacks than Americans or the Brittish.

4. The Italians drink excessive amounts of red wine and suffer fewer
heart attacks than Americans or the Brittish.

5. The Germans drink a lot of beers and eat lots of sausages and fats
and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans or the Brittish.


CONCLUSION:

Eat and drink what you like.
Speaking English is apparently what kills you.

Jellybeans

What makes them so darn good? I made the mistake of buying some last night and have eaten, oh, about a quarter of the bag. So far.

Well, the trip to South Carolina was lovely and all-too short. I have only a few minutes (have been at various doctors this morning but have to be at work in the p.m.) so will begin with Thursday and see how far I get.

After considering the rather pathetic state of my '88 Accord, I decided to rent a car for the trip. Since the Enterprise (which I had never seen before) was about a mile from my apartment, I decided to walk over there. Armed with the address, I started out on Broad. I walked and walked and didn't see it, and finally noticed that the block numbers were a bit too low. (In the suburbs, only about one in five businesses have street numbers on them, so this took longer than it should have.) I call the car rental place and get an answering machine. Finally, in despair, I walk to the hoity-toity Volkswagon dealership to ask for help. Turns out the car rental place is behind the dealership, a good five hundred yards behind in fact, and completely invisible from the road. Hmmph.

Anyway, I am eventually given a lovely Chevy Cobalt to drive. It was excellent. The drive down was lovely too - a beautiful spring day, sunny and clear (though a little cool for my taste). The trees with their new leaves were a luminous spring green, lacy clouds of dogwood dotted the woods, and as I went further south, lushly dripping purple wisteria began to appear.

Also of note are the turbo-charged hand dryers I noticed in a few North Carolina gas stations. You know how most hand dryers send an indifferent stream of tepid air out until you give up in despair and wipe your hands on your pants? Not these. It was like holding your hands in a wind tunnel - water was gone within fifteen seconds, but I kept my hands in longer in fascination. The air came out so forcefully that it blew the skin around on your hands and you could see tendons and muscles you don't usually get to see. Like a dog with its head out the window or something. (Yes, I am easily amused, why do you ask?)

More later . . . off to get some jellybeans carrots.

A more detailed analysis of the race

So, I was finally able to check the race site again and discovered that there were 20,588 finishers in yesterday's race; of these, I finished 9,305 - about halfway back. 12,021 of these finishers were women (that's many more women than men! obviously races are not the place to pick up boys . . . ), and of those I finished in place 3,737, just a third of the way back. I similarly finished #588 in my division (women aged 30-34), which had 1,573 participants in all.

The race has a costume contest every year, and some of the entrants were just excellent. See the link here. I also ran past Charlie Brown and some of the Superfriends. Superman, Wonderwoman, Batman, Robin, and who else? Is there a Supergirl? (I smoked the Superfriends. Gratifying.)

1:03:47

My finish time . . . not bad considering my pathetic training regime this year. Also I started in a later wave than I was assigned to (so I could wait around with my friends) and the first mile or so involved lots of dodging people / apologizing for not successfully dodging. But the weather was just gorgeous, cool at the start, crisp, and warm enough when we finished that I didn't regret my tank top and shorts.

Hmm, the site is busy right now (I wonder why?) so I can't provide a detailed analysis of my finish amongst the whole pack, women, and women my age. Maybe later. Also I hope to have some pictures later this week to post. In the meantime, I just ran 6.2 miles! I can eat whatever I want! Off to find some carbs . . .

What I Did This Week

The weather has finally warmed up, thank Heaven, more or less for good. All the sure signs of spring are in the air . . . bradford pears, dogwoods, daffodils, asparagus for $2 a pound, and reasonably priced strawberries. Yay! I had an asparagus and onion fritatta for supper tonight, my first of the season. I really do think fall is the prettiest season in Virginia (the colors work really well with all the brick) but there is an awful lot to be said for spring. For one thing, the food is much better.

I went for a training run tonight, as the 10K is next Saturday. It must be all the iron the doc has me on, but running isn't nearly the struggle it used to be. Having red blood cells transport oxygen as they're supposed to must be helping. I'm hoping to work in a weight session tomorrow morning to get used to doing things early. I've always found my energy levels are way higher in the afternoon, but most race organizers seem to be sadistic early-bird types. I've been preparing to be out of town/out of town/sick a lot this last month, so I won't be setting any records, but I think I'll be able to run the whole way.

Easter is in two weeks, y'all! I don't have an Easter dress or anything. What's more worrisome is that I haven't gotten to a Lenten Lunch at St. Paul's at all this year. I'm hoping to remedy that situation next week, preferably on cheese souffle day.

Ummm . . .

Well, it's been a while, certainly! I've been out of touch for a bit, owing to a trip to Alabama, the week preparing to go to Alabama, and the week recovering from having been in Alabama. I picked up some kind of icky cold or something (for which I am blaming Suzanna) and am just starting to really feel better. A bit sniffy and headachy, but otherwise much improved.

Not much to say, weather's been lovely the last few days, and it was a good thing because there was a wreck right in front of my building and I stood on the corner waiting for the bus for, like fifteen minutes. The bus was right across the street and it just couldn't get across all the congested traffic. Other signs of spring: cute little birds eating discarded sandwiches at City Hall, daffodils, and I believe I saw a dogwood starting to bloom this morning! This is excellent news, especially for my heating bill! (Last month, fed up with being cold and sick, I decided to be warm and sick. The power bill, predictably, went up by a good fifty percent.)

School is fine - same old thing. The motivated students are doing extremely well, and the less motivated have quit showing up. Oh, and my next trip will be an Easter weekend in Charleston to see the girls and celebrate CSD's 30th.

Finally . . .

The weather's started to warm up, the days are getting longer, and I'm beginning to feel like the long cold winter is over. I'll be in Alabama next week visiting the baby (oh yeah, and Kerry too), so there is much to do, ie., getting laundry done, cat box changed, cleaned and organized.

Also school has been unusually irksome what with having to plan ahead for next week's lesson so the lovely Cindy can sub for me. Additionally they are in the middle of re-accreditation, so I've been having to compile mountains of inane paperwork for the auditors to ignore. Also midterms were due this week. Kids, in order to pass you have to occasionally, you know, do work.

But! Things are being crossed off my list in good time, and I've even had time to work a little more on the sweater I started for Mckenzie. Sadly I don't think it'll be finished by the time I leave Virginia, but maybe I can finish it up in Alabama?

Etc.

Lots of randomness:

1. I have a new niece! Molly Mckenzie, born 13 February. Lots of black hair.
2. I finished a cute little hat for Mckenzie. Purple and hot pink. Also started on a little baby sweater for her.
3. Valentine's Day! Got flowers . . . will try to figure out Sprint photos and post pics.
4. It's cold!
5. Went to Baker's Crust with Kristin and had the best potato chips ever . . . called "tavern chips" and feature bacon and cheese.
6. Went to Cancan with Liz and friend. Lots of croissants.
   
7. Marzie has taken to hanging out on the right side of my desk, which must be the warmest spot in the house.

Very very cold

We had a fire alarm at work today, which would have been a pain anyway, but it's freezing cold outside, and more to the point, I was on desk so had to decide: Is it worth the risk to dash back to my office to grab a coat? (And I should note I was lucky in that regard; many of my colleagues have offices on another floor and had to go out in the sub-freezing temps coatless.) In the end I decided the risk of hypothermia was greater than the risk of being smoked alive, so I was relatively warm. However, I regretted my decision to wear my un-sensible magic pointy shoes today.

In further cold-related news, I had to wait for twenty minutes at the bus stop tonight. Fortunately I had my warmer shoes on as well as hat, scarf, gloves, etc. The heat has been running continuously since I got home, and the cat has very sensibly buried herself under my covers. Also, I just checked the weather forecast and they are predicting a low of 11 tonight. E-LEV-en. (For those of you keeping score at home it's 23 right now with a wind chill that makes it feel like 13. Lovely.)

My favorite show . . . season begins tomorrow night!

Which 24 Character are you?

David Palmer
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School is starting already!

It really does seem it just ended, but my first night of class this semester is tomorrow! I've spend several hours tonight getting things up-to-date (the syllabus will have to wait until next week, I fear) and playing with my new course blog, which I've linked here. Just an experiment.

Kerry and Kenny, have you switched over to the new Google Blogger (or whatever)? It's so much easier to edit and format . . . no need to learn silly html.

It pains me to say it, but go Gators! What a blowout . . . you make an SEC girl proud. I'm hoping I'll get to recount Christmas stories tomorrow night or Thursday.

All right, New York first . . .

So, the weekend before Christmas (this would have been the 15th, 16th, and 17th) RP and I took the train from Union Station to Penn for a New York adventure! We got in around 8:30 on Friday night and went immediately to get food at a Korean restaurant. I had bibimbap, a delicious rice concoction. I have a new favorite cuisine - if Richmond had any such places, I would be several pounds heavier and many dollars poorer. We then went to Rockefeller Plaza to see the Christmas tree and ice skating, and walked to some of the department stores (Saks and Macy's come immediately to mind) to look at all the ornate display windows. The wonderful but exhausting weekend ended when we took the PATH train to lovely Hoboken where our hosts live.

It was a lovely time in many ways, not least of which is no one had anything really pressing to accomplish, so we didn't feel a bit bad about our late start the next morning. We walked along the Hoboken waterfront, which has lovely views of Manhattan, then took the train back to the city. We walked around the NYU/Washington Square area (apologies if I'm getting the geography wrong - I don't have my tour book handy) and had lunch at a restaurant devoted entirely to peanut butter! The Peanut Butter & Co Sandwich Shop, which is in Greenwich Village, had a truly fun menu (pictured here) of sandwiches and other treats featuring PB, and they have a line of gourmet peanut butters I've seen in Ukrop's. The Cinnamon Raisin Swirl is my favorite.

We walked some more (we did a lot of that!) along the lower west side (?) and had cupcakes at the Magnolia Bakery. I found them good, but a bit on the dry side. Thus fortified, we went to lower Manhattan, Ground Zero, Wall Street (also pictured here, decked out for the holidays), the financial district where our hosts work, then took the Staten Island Ferry, a free boat ride that provides wonderful views of New York Harbor as well as a good thirty minutes of sitting-down time.


Then it was off to Chinatown, Little Italy, and supper at an Australian restaurant, where I had a sausage roll (good), a meat pie (ditto), Brussels Sprouts (also good) and salad. (I should say that after all that walking I was starving, so cardboard would have been tasty, but the food at this place really was good.) Somewhere in there we happened upon a "new designers exhibition" in a school gym where young designers were selling clothes, jewelry, and accessories. I was very pleased to note that some of the knitwear was similar to the hat I'd knitted myself and had on.

The next morning we slept in (again), feasted on blueberry pancakes, and took the train back to DC. We had mostly daylight so we got to see some lovely East Coast cities in Delaware, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. After a two hour car ride from Union Station (actually slightly more owing to a wrong turn I took that put me in a very dodgy part of Pennsylvania Avenue) I was back in Richmond in plenty of time to get ready for the next weekend's trip to Alabama.