Intelligent Design

I went to my first Discussion Divas gathering tonight. What a great time! Tonight's topic was intelligent design -- what is it, what is the controversy, what are the politics of the current debate.

We had a really great discussion. Even though most of the group seemed to personally believe that religion needs to be kept out of the schools, most of us came to the reasonable conclusion that intelligent design as a theory -- stating that there is some designer at work that either set evolution in motion or serves as the occasional guiding hand -- is unobjectionable on its own.

The biggest point of debate was whether intelligent design is taught in science class or in something like philosophy. There were lots of questions about what's behind the theory of ID, but most articles that the group covered pointed out the lack of science involved. Most proponents of ID seem to use the line of logic that evolution can't explain everything, so it must not be enough to understand our world, so there must be an intelligent designer or creator involved.

I agree that evolution doesn't really explain origins, but there's always the fear that the so-called religiously neutral theory of ID is just a new way to try to get God in the schools. That's what we kept coming back to in the discussion, even if ID sounds reasonable as a concept, no one really trusted it as a political strategy. we're all very worried about the "Christianization" of America. Yikes.

This was such a great way to spend an evening - with wine and chocolates, too! I can't wait until the next Divas night!

Bush's Numbers

According to the Washington Post, Bush has his lowest approval ratings ever. Now 45% approve and 53% disapprove of how he's handling things. Why couldn't people have felt this way a year ago? That 7% or so that have changed their minds in the last 10 months really could have made a difference last year. Now it doesn't matter how people feel, cuz we have 3 more years of him. I hope people remember how they feel now when it's time to clean house - and clean House - in 2006.

Poverty

I'm no economist, but I can compare poverty trends with who's in power in the White House and on the Hill. A new report shows that poverty's been increasing every year since 2000. Gee, seems to me there was a big election back in 2000. Could that possibly be related? And how about the fact that the previous worst years for poverty were in the 80's and early 90's?

I know the economy can never be tied to a single person or a single policy, but this just seems to indicate that Republican control of the WH and the Congress isn't helping the Americans who need it most. Is it causation, correlation, or just plain coincidence? It really seems like it can't be the latter....

The Beauty of the Mental Health Day

Wow, I really don't take sick days often enough. That's probably why I have 110 sick hours racked up. But not anymore! Today I logged 8 hours in the negative column and thoroughly enjoyed a day on my own. I slept all morning, only to be awoken by a surprise visit from maintenance at around noon. A few stressful moments as I had to throw some clothes on....

My afternoon was thoroughly enjoyable, with several hours of Bravo and TLC. West Wing reruns never get old, and those baby story shows are addictive! There was a pregnant couple who got engaged after he proposed to her at the start of the Wing Bowl, where he was about to compete in devouring buckets of messy, saucy chicken wings. Talk about romance!

Now it looks like my night will feature back to back episodes of one of my new favorite shows, House, on Fox. Finally, an enjoyable medical show again! Seems like there hasn't been one of those around since Doug Ross left ER.

Tomorrow it's back to work, but for now I'm feeling great. I should do this more often!

Best. Soundtrack. Ever.

Yes, folks, we have a winner. The soundtrack for The 40 Year-Old Virgin has the best music ever. Now, I've loved Judd Apatow for some time, and I think one of the many great things about my beloved "Freaks and Geeks" is that the series served as a kind of music history survey, like 70's Rock 101. He obviously spends a lot of time thinking about how music can affect a scene and I applaud him for that.

So, Judd, I thank you for gems such as these...

...Lionel Richie's "Hello" playing as Andy (Steve Carell) is about to, ahem, have relations with himself....

...Asia's "Heat of the Moment" which I think played over a crucial bike/car chase (but I could be wrong about when that played)...

...and the real crown jewels (heh heh) of the album, the trifecta - triumverate - triathlon of power ballads:

• Joey Scarbury's "Believe It or Not" - aka The Greatest American Hero theme song. Believe It or Not, I love this song.
• Corey Hart's "Never Surrender" - ah, Corey of the gelled hair and sexy pout. I would let him wear his sunglasses at night, so he can, so he can do absolutely anything he wants.
• Survivor's "The Search is Over" - "Now at last I hold you, now all is said and done. The search is come full circle. Our destinies are one." Power ballad lyrics don't get any better than that!

Thank you Judd Apatow! I will be enjoying these great music moments for a long time to come! (Heh heh.)

Two Thumbs Up!

It was a hot, anxious Sunday so EA and I went off to see a movie at E Street today. I give EA mad props for hanging out with me, cuz today was a pretty craptastic day and I was very anxious about some fairly nasty things that are going on. Enough said. But thanks for coming out and listening to me rant all day, and for the iced latte and ice cream breaks.

Anyway, we saw the new movie Junebug. It's been getting really good reviews and they're totally right. This is a good movie. Go out and see it! It's one of those family character dramas that show real people dealing with the "real issues" of every day life. Good acting, good writing, a surprisingly cheery theme song from Yo La Tengo. Even Ben "Ryan from the OC" Mackenzie was really good as the angry younger brother with a bad 'stache.

EA said afterwards that she really wanted to just yell at the characters and tell them to act differently, which reminded me of my Mom's big complaint about In The Bedroom. One of those movies where you just wish you could write a better ending for the characters, but you can't make them do the "nice" clean things, cuz then it wouldn't be a good movie.

Anyway, go see it! And let me know what you think of it....anyone seen any other good flicks lately?

Brew at the Zoo!

Wow. It's been a long time since I've gone to a restaurant already drunk. But tonight - woohoo! It was Brew at the Zoo. MCB, AS, EA (look, you get an acronym!) and I went and had a great time. There was lots of beer, and even though they ran out of food - it was touch and go for a few minutes, AS may still write a complaint letter - we filled ourselves up with hops. After sitting on the hill and having good girl talk, followed by a trip to the bathroom, which features educational signage about why animals spread their poop and pee out of their mouths (I took a picture), we realized we were starving. Totally starving.

So we walked back down to Woodley Park and went to that Italian place. We made it there with about 60 seconds to spare before the kitchen closed and had to decide on food fast. Drunk ordering at 9:59 pm? Wow, totally felt like college all over again. Except this was tortellini, not pancakes. Mmmm. Pancakes.

The ticket for the Brew at the Zoo included a souvenir beer glass. The glass came in very handy as we kept filling it up at all the beer stations. (Thank you to Sarah from the District Chophouse for filling up the glasses all the way - being a Friend of Cigarette Girls goes a long way!) When we left, however, MCB decided to forsake her glass since her apartment already has plenty of logo stemware, courtesy of her sister and I going to so many wineries this summer. So EA got lucky (wow -- at the zoo? -- that's how to lower that purity score!) and got herself a 2nd glass. When we were at the restaurant, about midway through the meal EA noticed the horror upon horrors -- her mugs had disappeared! (heh heh, that sounds funny.) She had set them on a table behind us and the waiter had cleared them! Well, funny negotiations and gesticulations on AS's part ensued, but now all is well. EA got her mugs back. Hallelujah.

Wow, work tomorrow is not gonna feel good. Not the least of which is the fact that I'll probably have a big bruise on my wrist, courtesy of a major arm-swinging/slamming into some other chick's mug while she was arm swinging incident. Ow! That hurt! EA will also have a wrist bruise, but I'll leave that funny story for her to tell. But my head will be aching! And I took part in my favorite summer hobby with some drunk texting tonight, so I need to check in with T-Dog tomorrow to make sure I didn't say anything TOO incriminating.

Good times! Just remember, what happens at the Zoo stays at the Zoo.

I'm bored

So it's been a long time since I've had a dysfunctional relationship. Heck, it's even been a long time since I've had an unrequited crush! So it's time to stir things up a bit. I just updated my Match profile and winked at about 4 guys. I don't know why I do this, other than sheer boredom. I never enjoy the Match thing - in fact, I usually end up feeling bad about myself. It's never worked out before. But what the heck, right? Stay tuned....

No Holds Barred

Have you seen this new show American Dad? It's part of Fox's animation block on Sunday nights. Since my usual ABC Sunday night lineup has been shuffled for the summer, I've started watching Family Guy and this new show. On tonight's episode the Dad was running in an election for church deacon. He was all manipulative trying to win, so he brought in the ultimate consultant.... Karl Rove. I nearly spit out my Crystal Light when I saw their depiction of Rove. He was like a demon from hell, some combo of Satan and Darth Vader. Complete with hooded robe and bats. He started to burn when he tried to step into the church. Hilarious! And this is on FOX! I'm not sure how the writers get away with it, but I'm glad they do.....

My how times have changed

So back in 1987, when I was a wee 7th grader, the little movie that could came out and took the women of this country by storm.... yep, I'm talking about that cinematic treasure Dirty Dancing. What a great movie! It's been a constant part of my life -- MCB and I used to try to work a quote from DD into every single day for several years! Anyway, when it first came out, like many other girls my age I wasn't allowed to see it. It was just too dirty. I remember Newsweek articles about how it was sorta scandalous, and that it was yet another sign of the downfall of moral values, yadda yadda.

Well, we were all just a fool to believe.....

Cuz I'm watching DD again right now, for about the thousandth time. Did I rent it? Oh no, it's playing on cable. What channel, you ask? Oh, why, it's on ABC Family. Yep, ABC Family!!!! A movie that 18 years ago (that's terrifying enough) was too dirty for my teenage friends and I to see, is now playing on the Mouse House's family channel.

Of course, this shouldn't come as a surprise. The gang and I were shocked recently when we spent some time in the young adult section at Barnes & Noble. We were trying to find Sweet Valley High books for a little nostalgia trip -- but instead we found all kinds of chick lit books that looked way to racy for young teens. I mean, really, orgasm in the title? We were scandalized! When I was that age, it was enough to sneak a copy of Judy Blume's Forever, and that was the best we could get.

Cindy's legacy

Cindy Sheehan ended her vigil today, but it seems the story she started is far from over. Thanks in large part to her courage for speaking out, the media coverage of the Iraq War no longer sounds just like White House or Pentagon press releases. I personally have seen a huge increase in stories about the shift in public opinion and Bush's plummeting approval ratings. The NY Times yesterday had a story about how others in the GOP are worried that disapproval -- and fatigue -- of the war could have a major effect in the 2006 midterms. I can only hope that voters will have that long a memory. And I do hope it's a memory, because this war has gone on for far too long. The American people deserve some straight talk about the why, the how, and the when of this war. I thank Cindy Sheehan for putting a real face of grief and outrage in everyone's living rooms. And I'm sorry I missed out on the nationwide vigils last night -- it must have been quite a sight to see in cities all across the country. Welcome back, peace movement, we've missed you.

Master of Whose Domain?

So that Supreme Court ruling about eminent domain continues to boggle my mind. As MCB just pointed out to me, it's getting worse. Now the city of New London, which won the ruling stating that their seizure of private property was Constitutional, is claiming that those homeowners had been living on city-owned property the whole time the case was being argued. Which means... they're charging them back rent! In some cases, that could be up to hundreds of thousands of dollars! They're charging people rent for having lived in their own homes! And, just as bad, they're only reimbursing people for the value of their homes as it was in the year 2000. Gee, think real estate values have changed in 5 years???? I really don't understand this ruling - it seems so counter-intuitive to me. It seems to go against the very notion of the American dream. Sure, you can be whatever you want to be, build your life, buy your own home, and live happily ever after. Until the city gets into bed with commercial developers and decide they want to put a strip mall in your living room. In all of the John Roberts talk, it's too bad that there isn't more outrage about this story of the Court!

Best. Show. Ever.

Bravo's Battle of the Reality Stars. Coral, Theo, and the Miz reunited. Jonathan and Victoria screaming already. Evil Dr. Will from Big Brother. Sue and Richard and Gervase from Survivor. Evan Meathead Marriott. Heidi from the Apprentice with Omarosa as a correspondent. This is gonna be some damn good sh*t.

They already cracked me up by showing the chimp from BJ and the Bear mastering the obstacle course back in the 70's version of the show. Stay tuned, this show is looking like a keeper.

Gossip!

Have you seen this article about how gossip may serve a purpose? Interesting. I can see what they're saying about gossip being a mechanism to establish norms in a group, and to accept new members or isolate and/or reform those who are breaking the social rules. But the thing about gossip being the modern equivalent of group grooming.... that seems a little far-fetched!

A Comedy Sandwich???

Ah, Steve Carell and Jon Stewart facing off on The Daily Show..... makes a girl happy!

Pittsburgh Revisited, Part 4

After the pool party, TZ and I went down to Doc's to meet up with MH, B, and her college friends from the night before. Yep, I sat on the deck at Doc's. It was kinda surreal cuz all of Walnut was closed down and filled with white tents, ready for the Jam on Walnut during the day. I was kinda disgusted to see that Walnut has become even more commercial with big, pricey, national retailers. A J. Crew on the corner? It's not quite so funky anymore.

On Sunday, I met up with my good friend JH for a late brunch at Pamela's. While I was at the Pamela's in Oakland, M & B went down to the Pamela's in the Strip District. It's just not a trip to Pittsburgh without Pamela's! It was great to see JH again and to hear about his exciting summer -- check out "Me & My Shadow" to see what he's been up to. After breakfast we went and laid down in the grass in front of some Pitt building, staring up at the cool leaves in the trees and talking about the world we live in and life in general. Good times.

We left Pittsburgh at about 4:30 on Sunday, back in the MH-mobile with no A/C. Luckily we had some great conversations to keep us awake! NKV had us in stitches (wow, that's a dorky phrase for me to use, but nonetheless...) with a story from when she and her sister were at a convenience store over the weekend. She saw a copy of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette near the register, with its above the fold coverage including a picture of Prince William and Paris Hilton, and a story with photo about high school football players. N made a remark to the cashier, something like "Gee, it's not like we're at war or anything." And the cashier, no fooling, said "Yinz are in Steeler country now!!!" Yep, that about covers it. :-)

Pittsburgh Revisited, Part 3

The what: PPT's Rockin' Five-Year Reunion
The where: The Compound, in the North Hills of Pittsburgh, PA
The when: Saturday, August 13
The why: How could anyone pass up a pool party at the Compound? And, oh yeah, it's great to see everyone again after all this time!

Saturday was great! A big thanks to the Reunion Committee for coming up with the idea of bringing all of us crazy PPT alums back together for a beautiful, nostalgic, hilarious Saturday in the sun. It was just as great as I remembered, seeing old friends, catching up, laughing at old stories, eating a LOT of food, drinking beer on tap, and touring that awesome house for the 5th time -- love what you gals have done with the renovations... and I'm so glad the mermaids, cowgirls, and Indians are still enjoying pride of place! Oh, and the BBQ was great- who brought the pulled pork?

I was so glad to have a chance to discuss Harry Potter 6 with the same fans I obsessively rehased 1 through 3 with. Great to see TZ and Kool still bickering like a little old couple (good luck with the new Kramer setup!), and TZ scolding Swany for his Faux Chappelle political views. Not a surprise that TP is still a little crazy, but glad to see that some folks are still thriving. It was fascinating to hear what people have been up to over the last 3 years - new babies, new spouses, new jobs, new pets! :-)

My vote for most hilarious element of the day? It's a tie between the expected -- Cuba screaming anytime the ball came remotely close to her end of the pool -- and the unexpected -- LJW, that Wild Woman, driving up in that "Knight to Remember" mini Cooper!

Pittsburgh Revisited, Part 2

Friday night rocked! A scenic tour of some old haunts.... M and I started out the evening with a quick picture-stop at the O'Reilly Theater, where we really first met working together at PPT. The building looks good (the Michael Graves design may remind you of Target!) but I don't love the way the copper is starting to darken. Sure, it's supposed to get some sort of patina, but I don't think the 5-year mark looks all that great.

But then we headed around the corner to Olive or Twist (yes, they win for a clever name) to meet up with our friend BR, who was having a last-day happy hour. She left the Theater last fall to go work at Ariba, the former FreeMarkets, but she is now returning to the Theater in a better job. She starts again Monday. I swear that girl's gonna run that place someday! :-) I was so glad to see 2 of our other friends show up so we had a little reunion with CC and Chicky. Good times! CC now works at Heinz/Del Monte where she does national marketing for Star-kist Tuna. I was glad to be able to share that Star-kist is Cleo's preferred brand. Of course, she looked as adorable as ever with a bright sparkly butterfly in her hair and awesome silver shoes. Chicky is totally impressive these days. She ran for city council! Alas, she didn't win, but she's about to start a new job as the executive director of this very active young professionals organization, and she plans to keep going in politics. I admire her for actually getting out there and trying to make things happen. She's got her first campaign behind her and she's not even close to 30 yet!

After 2 martinis each -- only $8.75, and this is at a pricey place! -- we left to meet up with a bunch of M's college friends. And where did we go? To Mad Mex! I had to call MCB to share the joy of 2 Mad Mex trips in one day. This time we went down into the South Hills and ended up with 11 of us at a single round table. There were *lots* of margaritas to be had. I ate the buffalo chicken wrap thing, which came with waffle fries. M and I shared those fries and later we both agreed that they hadn't been the best choice. Oh well.

The final destination of the night....? None other than good old Bar 11! Ah, the memories of that place. We each got our candy necklaces and folks were sportin' sheriff's badges, rubber chickens, plastic frogs, all kinds of good toys. Nothing as good as a koosh ball, sadly, but still a grand old time!

Pittsburgh Revisited, Part 1

I'm back in da 'Burgh! It's hard to believe that it had been more than 2 years since I'd last visited Steel Town. Even though I didn't grow up here, I felt a bit like a Pittsburgher after living here for 5 years. But not a yinzer. Never a yinzer.

The 'burgh looks good -- there's an amazing amount of new development on the South Side where the steel mills used to be. Big shopping centers and restaurants, I think the area is now called the South Side Works. I'm staying with M and B, and B's house (which he pays $600 a month to rent -- a whole freakin' house!) is way up on the South Side Slopes. Fantastic view, but crazy roller coaster streets you have to climb to get up here.

I haven't seen my old neighborhood - Highland Park - yet, but M and I did drive around Oakland yesterday and went through the CMU campus. There's now a huge new building right next to where our grad school building is. When M told me to look for it as we were about to drive by, I said "How could they build it there? It's a ravine!" And sure enough, there's now a big building built out over the Panther Hollow ravine. Those crazy CMU engineers!

M and I had a lot of fun on Friday, enjoying a decadent day off from work. (Much-needed!) We went to Mad Mex for lunch -- hooray for the red velvet burrito! -- and each shared stories of Mad Mex memories. (MCB, remember that terrible big dinner we had there one year, maybe it was for your bday, and RH was really obnoxious and made everyone mad and BS stormed off and left?)

After lunch we met her Mom and sister for a long, air-conditioned afternoon at the Carnegie Museums. For those of you non-burghers, that's pronounced Car-NEGG-ee. We decided to skip the special exhibit that you had to pay extra for - it was called "The Bog People" and we kept seeing really creepy posters for it everywhere. I think it would have given me nightmares. We did check out their temporary exhibit called Kid Size which featured a really diverse collection of things made just for kids. Children's furniture, cribs, strollers, school desks, rocking chairs, all kinds of contraptions. The biggest thing I learned from this is that being raised as a German kid must've been freaky! Between the draconian walkers and the "potty bench" -- where toddlers can all sit together to go potty in these brightly colored plastic bowls, I kid you not! -- I don't know how some of those kids made it to adulthood!

We also toured the art galleries and the natural history museum. I've always loved the Hall of Minerals, but the American and African wildlife sections freak me out. I hate those dioramas! It's such a perfect setting for some horror movie - these dark galleries with no windows and giant creepy taxidermied animals. I wonder if George Romero has ever shot in there?

The highlight of the whole museum experience, though, had to be the two videos we watched on animal mating practices. Did you know that chimpanzees French kiss? And that every human male has enough sperm to impregnate every female ON THE PLANET? Time's a-wastin'.....

Mr. Neil Diamond!

Where it began......I can't begin to know it. I only know it started strong!

Yes, tonight was the night, we saw the sparkly-shirted crooner himself! From high, high, terrifyingly high atop the stadium seats in the MCI center, M and I fulfilled the lifelong dream of becoming Diamond Girls! She even has the t-shirt to prove it.

It was a great show! He played a good mix of songs, both crowd pleasers and his own more somber, folk-y faves. Cherry, Cherry, Forever in Blue Jeans, I Am...I Said, Holly Holy, Soolaimon, Shiloh, Crunchy Granola Suite, Sweet Caroline, I'm a Believer, and as the encore, Cracklin' Rosie and Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show.

Neil and the band rocked-out, synthesizer-style, with "America." Oh yes, on the boats and on the plans, they're coming to America. The best part was that he had this video montage to go with it, showing photos of immigrants and immigration papers from Ellis Island. Those are National Archives records!

At one point, he slowed it down and the evening got mellow. He said he loves playing for his fans after all these years, cuz "we have a bond, you and I." Yep, we have a bond. He said so.

Then as the strains of a ballad started, he asked everyone to turn to the person to their right. I turned to M -- but there was no one on her right and no one on my left, so we were the only ones taking part in this moment. Neil said "Turn to that person and say"I love you very much." I burst out laughing, but M turned to me and growled "SAY IT!" Hahaha! It was a little scary, so I said it. Under fear of punishment. (Are you actually reading this blog, M??? ;-) Then Neil broke into "You are the sun, I am the moon, You are the words, I am the tune, Play Me." We agreed this would be my wedding song and M will sing it. Good times!

The only low point was a *long* montage of Neil's Jonathan Livingston Seagull songs. There was a beautiful but Successories-esque video of a seagull flying into the sunset. Neil wisely picked up the pace again after that.

I called my work voice mail during Sweet Caroline. Can't wait to play it loud on speakerphone!

Eight Hundred Forty-Five

I heard from SSE today that there are 845 business days left until Election 2008. That's a better sounding countdown than this one, which counts the weekends too. So only 1182 sunrises to go.....

It seems that Feingold has been making lots of travel plans to New Hampshire. Another hat in the ring?

Revisiting Body Image

Kudos to advertisers and magazine publishers who are starting to show a more diverse representation of women's body types. I'm a big fan of that new Dove moisturizer campaign and I'm glad to hear that teen magazines are starting to be more responsible. My own body image issues aside, as an RA in college I saw so many negative effects of our "never too skinny" culture. There was a family in high school where each of the sisters ended up being hospitalized each in turn for anorexia, and I still know people who strangely "forget" meals.

Friends and I have discussed another new apparent trend, that Dateline or some show like that called the "Desperate Housewives" effect. It's no longer just girls and young women who are developing eating disorders and hypergymnasia. Now women of all ages are starting to show the negative effects of society's demand for the super-thin.

I applaud these magazines and advertisers for trying to show *healthy* women, who can come in many shapes and sizes. We have a long way to go before we have a more positive culture when it comes to body image, but this is a great start.

It's Time Already - Hooray!

Jon Stewart just officially launched Indecision 2008! TDS is doing a roundup of all the likely Presidential candidates on each side. Ah, thank goodness. This means that someday, somehow, somewhere the Bush administration will end. Jon is naming Romney, Pataki, and Frist as likely GOP candidates, and Hillary as the current Democratic frontrunner. I know that Biden and Mark Warner are also making moves for a run. And I'd love to see what Edwards and Clark could do with a little more time and experience behind them. I can't wait! 11-04-08. Be there.

Congratulations!

A big shout out to my parents, Greg and Tammy, for celebrating 35 years of marriage today. Happy anniversary!

Only One Class Left

I had my penultimate photography class tonight. We're essentially finished taking pictures for our projects and now will spend the next week figuring out how to present them. I'll probably doing a PowerPoint presentation to share my whole project with people, but the really exciting thing is that Capitol Hill Arts Workshop has agreed to give us space to do a little mini-exhibit of our work. So for several weeks I'll have two images hanging for everyone to see. Hooray! We're going to cut the mats ourselves, so that's another new skill I'll be learning. This really has been so much fun. And my instructor said tonight that he has gotten approval to teach a night photography class in November-December and he recommended that I take it. I've really loved exploring the sort of amber glow of nighttime photos, so I'm looking forward to it!

Terror in the Living Room!

I live in an old, poorly-managed building in the city. I have a cat and I leave food out for her during the day. I'm not Martha Stewart. Add this all up, and it means that yes, I have roaches in the summer. Fine, I can deal with it. I always have Raid on hand and I've become a pro at wielding my big flyswatter to kill the suckers. They pretty much stay in the kitchen.

But tonight, something new and terrifying happened. I came home and got comfy in the living room, eating my dinner in the recliner in front of the Bravo West Wing marathon. After I ate, I took my dishes to the sink and came back to settle in and get comfy again. But as I was returning to the chair I saw a big roach on my living room wall right behind the chair. Eek! It was there when I was eating -- glad it didn't come near the chair. I went back to the kitchen and got my flyswatter of death. I got closer to the wall and took a look at it - it was bigger than the usual ones I see and it had more little antenna. Odd, I thought.

I didn't want to actually swat it on the wall, cuz it's a nice white wall. It's a little gross, but you know what I mean. So I decided to use the flyswatter to flick it down to the floor where I could do the deed more easily. I nudge the swatter in towards it, ready for the flicking, and then........

TERROR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The damn thing flew right at me! Now I'm screaming and whooping and whirling around in circles. Ahhhhh! It flew up even higher on the living room wall. But it couldn't beat me. I found a new use for the beloved Swiffer - aka long-handled killer of flying scary things. That thing is now just a scary memory, like the Blair Witch Project or The Ring.

Looks like I'll be emptying everything out of the kitchen for a major extermination next week....

Resistance is futile. Embrace the penguin.

Props to JLo for pointing out the way to universal peace and love. The way to end anger, hostility, and pain? Two words: baby penguins.

Days of Wine & Baseball, Part 2...

So Saturday continued as MH and I made our way over to RFK for my 4th Nats game of the season. Thanks to JJ, we scored some *amazing* free seats! Section 210, Row 3, seats 1 and 2. We were right on the first baseline directly behind the Padres dugout. These were in the $40 section, my best seats yet. We were excited to explore this fancy-shmancier section of the stadium, cuz they really do have better concessions and more leg room. They actually have veggie dogs on that level, but I just wasn't feeling adventurous enough to try an RFK veggie dog. I think that was a wise move. ;-)

A few memorable moments:
-- Since we were in the expensive seats, we figured we may see someone recognizable. Kudos to MH for spotting George Will! He was sitting in the 100 section right in front of us. Only in DC would a conservative columnist rank as a celebrity, but people were asking him for his autograph.

-- Vinny Castilla hit a home run! Of course, it was at the exact moment I decided to go stand in the pizza line. Important lesson learned - only go out for food when the other team is at bat.

-- About midway through the game, some very rowdy, *very drunk* college kids sat behind us. We should've known when one of the girls said she was having the best night ever cuz she got free seats and had a fake ID. Yep, we're talking young. They were really loud and screaming variations of "Go Nats! F**k the Padres! Padres suck!" After a while, the guy on the end started varying the routine and was asking everyone who walked by "Nationals fan? Yeah!" and then giving a high five. Most folks played along, but a few looked at him as if they might catch something from slapping his hand. I was tickled when he got George Will to give him a high five! After a little while, the ushers and security started coming to talk to them and make them pipe down, since there had been a lot of complaints. It was right around at this point that the guy on the end decided to make friends with us. He was kinda funny, but we didn't really want to chat with the drunk kid. MH tried to deflect attention by pointed out that the guy in front of us was a Padres fan. Big mistake! Poor guy! They started screaming directly at him, over our heads, and then he complained and they got a stern talking to. As the 9th inning started, a bunch of people left so about 10 people from the RFK security staff came down into our section to sit down. This spooked the kids so they took off for their next party. The silence was suddenly deafening!

Sadly, I'm now 1 for 4 on the games I've seen.... we beat the Mets, but have lost to the Pirates, the Astros, and now the Padres. I have 2 more games this season so let's hope we beat the Reds and the Braves! Either way, it's still a great way to spend an evening. Go Nats!

Days of Wine and Baseball, Part 1……………

Saturday was a great day as I indulged in my two favorite hobbies of Summer 2005. The whole day was spent with C and M checking out 3 wineries in Virginia. This was our 4th wine tasting excursion, I believe. So far this summer we’ve been to Willowcroft, Piedmont, Pearmund, Unicorn, Gray Ghost, Rappahannock, and now Tarara, Hidden Brook, and Lost Creek.

These wine tasting days are great. It’s so relaxing to hop in the car and head out into the beautiful rolling hills and trees of Virginia, spending the day in self-indulgence and forgetting all of the usual cares of work and relationships and such. We usually follow these trips up with a great meal, but today we started early with a trip to Mickey D’s. Not our usual choice, and terrible for the so-called diet, but it tasted great.

The skinny on today’s wineries:


Tarara: This was our primary destination cuz they’re celebrating their annual Blackberry Festival. Tarara is a winery that also grows blackberries, plums, pumpkins, and a lot of other fun fruits and veggies. The Festival had live music, lots of food, and craft vendors. There was a lot to do, but it was so ungodly hot in that field that we decided to camp out in the shade for a while. We did take the cave tour, which is where the wine is made. It should have been cooler in there but wasn’t. The tasting was fun. I confirmed once again that I *love* Viognier. I also liked their Cameo, which was a lighter, sweeter red. Their specialty is the Wild River Red, which has blackberries blended back in after fermentation. It was tasty, but more like a kool-aid than a wine. A surprising treat of the day was a sample of their blackberry lemonade – dee-lish!

Lost Creek: This place was great. The women who worked there were fun and very sociable, and we had a great time with the tasting. They had two seasonals, a Sweet Summer and a Spring Time. Both of these would be perfect served chilled with a picnic or sitting out at a bbq. They also had a good Vidal Blanc, and I liked their Rose and their semi-sweet Merlot. We camped out for a long time in the AC and got our traditional cheese, sausage and crackers plate. Yum.

Hidden Brook: We stopped here with just a few minutes to spare before closing, but since they were literally a hop, skip and a jump from Lost Creek we made it in plenty of time for a full tasting. Their wines were very similar to Lost Creek’s – grown on practically the same land – but they did something new… we’ve often been told that certain wines go great with chocolate, but this time they actually had the chocolate to taste along with the wines! The Cabernet Sauvignon, which I don’t usually like, was actually really great with milk chocolate. And their dessert wine was fantastic with caramel chocolate. So sinful I *almost* feel guilty!

Of course, it only took about a split second for me to defy my own vow of “I’m not buying any bottles today, I want to save money.” I came home with 4 new bottles which will be a great addition to my road trip/reunion bbq in Pittsburgh next weekend.

L'Enfant must be rolling over in his grave! Don't even think about renaming my street.....

I've been having more fun experimenting with my camera. Who knew my little toy would have so many cool tricks?!? I'm falling in love with both the white balance and color options features. I've turned my back on flash, cuz I'm learning about all of the great things you can do with natural, ambient, and found light -- cloudy days and nighttime are now my favorite times to take pictures! And black and white and sepia are a lot of fun to play with. This has been a great time, and I'm really glad I did this for myself this summer. Now I just need to save pennies to take another class soon!


These images are from our group project. My personal project is the Ellington Bridge, bu tour whole class is working on a project about transportation. It's going to be a really diverse project since each of us have a very different interpretation of what transportation means. Mine is the most literal, and I'm cool with that. The top picture is of the Metrobus, of course. The second is from a series of continuous shots that I took out the window as the bus was turning a corner. The last one is of a motorcycle that was parked, and since it's a fairly long exposure you can barely see the headlights of the cars that are zooming by. I love these!


PS - Cooter's on the Daily Show! Stephen Colbert just called him "Snatchster" - yikes! But Congressman Cooter is railing against the new Dukes movie. This is hilarious, hearing frat boys discussing the Dukes boys and their tight jeans. Hi-larious! And let's remember, Bo and Luke were far superior to Coy and Vance.

PPS - And what's the deal with Novack? How is he still on the air? The whole Plame thing boggles my mind, and as TDS has shown us he just dropped the big bull**it on the air and then stormed off the set. Good job, Bob!

Mmmmmmmmmm.....Restaurant Week!

I'm gonna borrow a page from SSE (click on Eat With Me on the right and you'll see) and describe a wonderful food experience from tonight. C & M, my partners in crime, agreed to make the big Metro trek into downtown to take advantage of Restaurant Week with me. We jumped at the chance to try Oceanaire, cuz two of us are big seafood fans. We had such a good time! The details:

At the bar: A Chardonnay, a Pinot Grigio, and a beer. We didn't try any of the happy hour appetizer specials, but we talked about definitely coming back to sample in the future.

Course 1: I had a good house salad and M had a cup of New England Clam Chowder. As a self-avowed chowdah fan, she was duly impressed. She even said she could come back and order eight cups of that chowdah, all in rapid succession, as her whole meal and still be satisfied. That's darn good chowdah!

Course 2: I had black pearl salmon with a blackberry sauce, M had the sea scallop skewers, and C (the non-seafood eater) had a pork chop. We shared sides of steamed broccoli and au gratin potatoes. The salmon was really good, especially considering it's not my favorite fish, and I definitely want to go back to try my usual fave, seared ahi tuna. M seemed to like her skewers, though she said the mango salsa that it came with wasn't the greatest combo. Surprisingly - ironically? - C's pork chop was the big hit. We each had a few bites. Best dang pork chop I've ever tasted! And at a seafood restaurant!The sides were decent, not superfab, but the portion sizes were crazy. One side is big enough for 3 people.

Course 3: Mmmm, dessert. M had the peach melba, which came with a raspberry sauce and vanilla ice cream. She loved it, but when I tried it I thought it was just a little too sweet. I had the mixed berry zagliabone/zamboni/zambelli. So tasty! Strawberries, blackberries and blueberries with a custard-y topping and some crumbled graham crackers on top.

Altogether, the night was a big success! Expensive, of course, but Restaurant Week once again proved to be a great way to try a new place. When's the next one??? ;-)

It's a boy! Hello baby panda!

A Stylist Dilemma....

This is one of those situations that arises every once in a while, and though it's a fairly trivial problem I'm having a hard time figuring out what to do. I've been seeing the same stylist for my hair for about a year now. The first few times, I *loved* the way she did my color, but I didn't really love the actual hair cuts. She and I have bonded though, cuz she went to IU and lived in Bloomington, same as my brother and parents. We're both Democrats and talked a lot through election season last year. So I do like her as a person and have fun chatting with her. Then this spring I needed a cut and she wasn't available, so I saw a different stylist. The new woman gave me a *fantastic* haircut, seriously the best one I've had in years. A few weeks ago, when it was time for color again, I went back to my main stylist. This time she noticed that someone else had cut my hair and was asking about it, kinda making comments like "oh, I would never do that..." about how it was styled. Turns out, though, that I didn't really like the way she did the color this time AND I am not happy with the cut.

So...... I think I need to get my next cut done by the second stylist. I loved the way she did it. But I feel guilty - damn that Catholic upbringing! But they both work at the same salon, so if I have to switch the first one will probably see me there. Can I just make a covert switch? Do I need to have a conversation? That's my least favorite thing to do!

I had another good photography class tonight. I can't believe there are only 2 weeks left! My instructor helped me figure out how to articulate my Ellington Bridge project, by focusing on the two themes of scale and color. So now I'm even more excited about putting this all together. I'll probably be doing a PowerPoint presentation which I can share with people if you're interested.

He said that even after the class is over, probably starting in January, he's going to host monthly "BYOB" critiques -- although probably not involving actual alcohol! -- where we can continue our projects or any other photo work and bring them to share and get advice. I love that idea, since I've been having such a good time with this class. I think that will be with all photography students at CHAW, so it could be another way to meet some new people. Hooray for new people!

Totally random other note -- did anyone else see the commercial for Bravo's new "Battle of the Reality TV Stars" ??? Mark your calendars for August 17, my friends. :-)

This is another good time.... best if you have the sound on:

I found a free program that I used to 'clean' the inside of the screen and the improvement was quite noticeable.

I highly recommend it. If you'd like to try it, simply click on the following link. The program is free, works automatically, and takes only about 45 seconds to do its job.

http://www.legrady.hu/sc.html

Nunsense!

This is just funny:

Dating in DC

The following are courtesy of NKV:

Dating DC Men and the Number One Wife (http://www.chrisabraham.com/2005/07/dating_dc_men_a.html)

and the sequel...
DC Women Only See the DC Men That They Let Themselves See http://www.chrisabraham.com/2005/07/dc_women_only_s.html

This reminds me of an old Ann Coulter column that was scarily accurate -- scarily cuz I was terrified to find myself agreeing with Ann Coulter. But she also had a theory as to why dating in DC is so difficult. (Although it does provide a nice alliteration.) I'll try to find it and post it here. Thoughts? Attempts to refute? Come on, I know there are some successful couples out there somewhere!

The National Arboretum is truly beautiful. It's worth the long drive on New York Avenue to find this quiet pocket of tranquility in the middle of Northeast. It's really spread out, something like 500 acres. Today we spent about 2 hours and saw the Asian lily ponds, the Bonsai garden, and the herb garden. The craziest thing was watching the Japanese koi fish going into feeding frenzies when people would toss little food pellets into the water. For a few minutes there, I was afraid I might lose a hand. It's a little creepy to have 30-40 big fish giving you the crazy fish mouth and following you as you walk around.

The Capitol columns were hard to reach, since they're doing new plantings and renovation around them, so that will have to be a return visit. MCB had the good idea that we should come back in the late fall to have a picnic among the state trees when the leaves are turning. Since it's one of those great DC destinations that's FREE, we can certainly plan many repeat trips. I have a lot more pictures up on Snapfish - if you're interested, let me know and I'll send you the link.

The only disappointment of the day.... after we left, we were both tired and thirsty since it was another super-humid day. The McDonald's on NY Avenue called out to us like a beacon in the night as visions of chocolate milkshakes danced in our heads. After waiting in a long line at the drive-thru, the little mechanical voice told us "We don't have any chocolate or strawberry today, just vanilla shakes." Ack! We got the vanilla shakes, under duress, but it was so not the same. I'm usually a big fan of all things vanilla, but this was just not all that tasty.