Pigeon of Wonder

Things for the house

2009-10-07T22:10:00.000-04:00

So, we've been taking these last several weekends pretty easy, not doing too much around the house. We hosted our first party on Saturday, and were happy with the way the fajitas came out on the new grill (the chicken...well, let's just say it needed just a tad more time). But I'm off my entertaining game a bit. We couldn't find the Off and the mosquitoes were definitely out that day. Also, I had to go to the Dollar Store in the middle of the party because we didn't have any napkins (actually, neither did they, and I ended up handing out paper towels, which is just a tad embarrassing). But having a party really highlighted that we need to back into "home improvement" mode, which means switching back to "spending money on the house" mode. We need to fix the downstairs sink. Buy an oven (actually, I really wish we could get the whole kitchen remodeled, but that's going to have to wait). Also, what is going on with my can opener? Can a manual can opener just basically stop working? The colander broke last week. We need area rugs, and some new paint in the living room and bedrooms.

So lot's of stuff. Not sure when its all going to get done. Maybe in 5 weeks. Maybe in 5 years.

Settling in

2009-09-12T18:10:00.002-04:00

Its been about a month since we've moved in. We're slowly arranging the house to our liking. We indulged ourselves and bought a somewhat unnecessary patio set and bbq pit (somewhat unnecessary only in the fact that the weather is turning cooler a little earlier this year and I don't foresee too many more days this year where we can really enjoy those items, but they were on end-of-season clearance). We're hanging pictures and still trying to figure out our furniture arrangement. Also, doing home improvement projects. For example, we learned how a toilet works, and how to fix it when it doesn't work. Big things for us.

And we're learning the neighborhood too, and finding that we have to re-learn where the best things are and how to get there. We found the best liquor store pretty easily, but I had to look up where the drycleaner is, as well as the post office. We're still arguing about the best way to get to the grocery stores. These are all things that you take for granted that you know when you live in a neighborhood long enough.

In some ways, moving across town definitely feels like a big of a move for us as moving across the country. We had lived in the same zip code for 11 years, counting our college years. In fact, the familiarity of that neighborhood was probably why we ended up moving there when we came back to DC in 2002. It was just one less thing to deal with. Not saying that we didn't learn more about the neighborhood; it was just easier that way, and we were lucky to live in such a great place.

New house

2009-08-17T15:11:00.001-04:00

Hi, we've moved from our condo into a beautiful old (and I do mean old) house on Capitol Hill. Marcel approves, I think.

Google Maps

2008-11-23T21:20:00.001-05:00

So usually when I'm looking for directions, I visit three websites: Yahoo! Maps, Google Maps, and Mapquest. I visit three different websites because I've found that each site will get different websites to get from Point A to Point B, and often the time estimates will be different. Lately, I've noticed a little camera icon on Google Maps. When you click on the icon, you get a street-level picture as if you were actually driving down the road. But what is actually very strange is if you type in an exact address for a house, you can actually see that house. It was kind of disconnecting to see my parents' vehicles parked outside of their house, and to see pictures of their neighbors getting into their car.

So check it out and be freaked out on your own.

I'm one in 16,000

2008-10-23T14:38:00.002-04:00

I've long complained about my name being erroneously mis-matched to a possible terrorist on TSA's watch list. While I've never been denied boarding, I'm often not allowed to print my boarding pass at home, and I have to wait in the line at the airport in order to get it. When this happens, I usually have to add an extra hour to my travel time. Looks like the TSA is finally taking steps to prevent this from happening: Government to Take Over Airline Passenger Vetting. Sucks for privacy advocates: yay for me!

Again--not a terrorist.

Smug Prius Owner

2008-10-21T10:56:00.002-04:00

So its been a few months now since we bought our Prius, and what has been the most enjoyable--well, besides getting 50 miles to the gallon--is watching people freak out when the car starts moving. Why do people freak out? Because the car makes no noise when its running on electric. Twice now, both at grocery stores, as I've been pulling out of a parking space, the person in the car next to me has gaped as the car started moving, seemingly on its own. I watch them stare at the car, and I can see them wondering if the car has started moving on its own, and if they are going to witness a terrible collision as my out-of-control car careens into another vehicle. Very slowly, comprehension begins to dawn on their face. Today, a young guy stared at the car for a while, and I watched a goofy smile spread on his face as he realized that the future is here! The future is now! Behold, the hybrid vehicle.

Drama at the theatre

2008-09-04T22:50:00.002-04:00

Three months ago, Matt gave me 5 gifts to celebrate our 5th anniversary. Last night, we finally used the last of the gifts, which were tickets to see Les Miserables at Wolf Trap. Wolf Trap is actually distinct for two reasons: 1) its actually a giant outdoor covered theatre, and 2) its also a National Park. You can buy tickets for the lawn, or in the covered section. Matt had gotten us seats in the covered section.

Les Mis has sentimental signifcance for us. It was one of our first dates, back in 1996, and I remember holding hands as we looked in wonder at the revolving stage, and being thrilled with the giant red flag that the students wave at the end of Act 1.

Last night, a group of four elderly people (two couples) came in and sat down next to us. I was kind of annoyed, but only because, really, nobody likes it when people sit next to them. About 20 minutes into the show, as Fontine is giving in to becoming a prostitute, I feel the man next to me start to rub my knee. As I turn toward him, I realize he's actually trying to get up, and he hurriedly rushes past us, up the aisle, to alert the usher that his wife is having a medical emergency.

I glance at his wife, and see that she is slumped over in her seat, with her eyes closed and her mouth slightly agape. Her friend is holding her hand, and rubbing her arm. The usher comes over and asks us, quite politely, to move. We comply, and we watch as EMS techs rush down the aisle, pull the woman out of her seat, and try to revive her. All the while, Fontine is dying on stage, pleading with Jean Valjean to help her child, Cossette.

After about 20 minutes, they brought her around, and she was alert as the stretcher carried her past us. The performers on the stage were none the wiser, but the audience around us still looked slightly stunned as the real life drama around us finished.

I can't imagine what the poor man went through. What was supposed to be a nice night out for them probably turned into a moment of terror. I really thought the woman was going to die. Luckily, it appeared that she was okay when they left.

I don't know what caused that woman to lose consciousness. But I do know that Matt and I squeezed each other's hands a little bit tighter that night.

Time for another new horizon

2008-08-30T16:48:00.002-04:00

I thought that I would be gone by now. Its been almost 5 years that I've been at my organization, and there has been a lot of stress, and a lot of frustration. Its hard being a worker bee in a hive where you never see the queen. So why did I accept a promotion? Well, its really more than about the money.

After two years in my current department, I felt that it was time for a change. There were a whole bunch of middle management positions opening up after a round of retirements (some forced), and a few straight-up firings. I was unhappy with the way things were being changed without my or my colleagues opinions. So, of course, I started looking elsewhere. But guess what? The economy kinda sucks right now.

And it took forever for this promotion to happen--almost three months. But it finally did, and yesterday was my last day in my current position as a regular librarian. It was sad to leave my colleagues, as I had never felt such a strong sense of camraderie as I did there. I'm moving on to a position where I'm the boss, and as such, probably won't have as many opportunities to bond with my immediate co-workers (who wants to hang out with the boss?). And the commute is going to be tough--cross-town, ten miles each way in DC traffic. And did I mention its in the 'hood?

I can't say that this location was even on my list of places I wanted to go. But I really hope to be an agent of change. This is a community that needs a library. Not just a place to find books to read, but a safe place for kids, a place for adults to learn how to type up their resumes.

So we'll see how it goes. Wish me luck.

Civic duty

2008-08-17T20:46:00.007-04:00

Well, Honda Civic, we had some good times. You were such a good little car, despite the fact that the brakes were a little warped so you shimmied when we were trying to brake on the highway. Those road trips were great...remember when the wild mule in South Dakota slobbered all over the driver's side window? Your highway mpg are still awesome.

But let's face it, you were getting a little expensive. Remember 3 weeks ago, when the muffler fell off and we had to wait an hour and half for a tow truck? And then the repair ended up costing $400? Yeah.

I can't help thinking of you now, sitting on that car lot, as we drove away in our new-to-us Toyota Prius. Are you thinking that we're going to come back? I'm sorry. I hope your new owners take better care of you then we did, and you get those rust spots taken care of, and maybe someone will be willing to pay to see if they can fix those brakes, and get that timing belt replaced. I'll think of you every time we see another green Civic.

Map Schmap

2008-07-28T10:37:00.000-04:00

A few months ago, I got an email from a company called Schmapthat said that they liked one of my pictures from my trip to Philadelphia last year, and they wanted to include it in their online guide. Today I got confirmation that they are including one of my photos in their Betsy Ross House informaiton. Check it out: Betsy Ross House http://www.schmap.com/philadelphia/sights_oldcity/p=45467/i=45467_21.jpg

I had never heard of Schmap before this, but it seems like a fun trip planning website. They are also considering another one of my photos from St. Louis (now that's an old picture, from 2002). They got my photos from my Flickr page, which I don't put too much personal stuff on. Actually, if you think about, its a really cheap way for Schmap to get free web traffic. They contact me about my photo, and I pass the information on to you. Ingenious, really.

If you'd like to walk down memory lane, you can read about our visit to Philadelphia on my Yahoo! Trip Planner and click on A Visit with King Tut. If you're not one of the 79 people that have given me a thumbs up, then why not?

2008-07-24T21:35:00.001-04:00

I'm not a crafty person, but I'm very fortunate to have friends who are crafty. One of my friends, who lives in California, is taking her craftiness to the next level and has started selling her work online. Check out her online store at http://www.boxingday.etsy.com/.

Boxing Day... Yippie!!! :o)
Thursday, July 24, 2008 1:28 AM
From:
"Kelly Basinger"
To:
undisclosed-recipients
Hello, hello, hello!
Most of you have heard that my little on-line shop is open. It's been almost a month since I opened my proverbial doors and I now have 50 original, handmade items listed for sale. I welcome you to check out my shop here:
http://www.boxingday.etsy.com/
In celebration of being open a month, if you make a purchase before July 28th, I will refund 100% of your shipping costs! Make your purchase using PayPal (you can use a credit card without opening an account) and when I finalize the details of your shopping, I will refund your costs through PayPal. YEA!
And! If you miss me and the glow of humor that usually surrounds me, I also invite you to visit my blog. Some entries are funny, some are semi-thought provoking, and some are just plain me being the complete goofball you know and love! What else can I say?
http://shopboxingday.blogspot.com/
Please feel free to e-mail me your comments, suggestions for product lines, special orders for the holidays, bad grammar or misspellings that you find, ideas for me to market my store, stories about your kids, complaints about your job, memories of the past... yadda yadda yadda... I'll take any communication you wish to send!!!
Love from Boxing Day,
Kelly
Kelly Trivia
I keep getting the question, "Why is my little company called Boxing Day?" Several reasons! My birthday falls on the Boxing Day holiday, I save boxes from the trash and use them in my art, and I also make paper boxes!
(Here's a link for more info on the holiday! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxing_Day)
Other Info: If you do not wish to receive a monthly update from me regarding Boxing Day or wish to receive it at a different e-mail address, please let me know.

On the Red Line

2008-07-14T22:14:00.006-04:00

Washington DC is a city of individuals. People come here from all over the world to work or go to school, and when they introduce themselves, you don't see who they are or where they came from, you just see them. While you may meet their significant other, more than likely you'll never meet their siblings, parents, or childhood friends.

That's why its always so interesting when the tourist families come to town. Sure, they're kind of annoying (why would you ride the subway during rush hour? The museums aren't even open yet!), but its also kind of refreshing to see a husband and wife and their pack of kids stand out amongst the sea of business suit-wearing, iPod listening Washingtonians. The kids are always so aware of what's going around them (unlike some of the Washingtonians), and, more importantly, its really fun to see who the kids look like--Mom or Dad.

Riding the subway home today at 9 pm, I came across a family of, I think, 7--mom, dad, 4 boys and 1 girl. My first thought was that all of the kids looked exactly like their dad. My second thought was, how does a family of 7 afford a vacation to Washington DC? But now that I think about it, I've actually seen several large families touring around DC.

Sometimes I do kind of wonder what the tourists think of us: the daily commuters who are either going off to some high-paid job in the private sector or the more casually dressed government workers. One time, I overheard some person tell their companion, "Everyone here is in such a hurry." Well, considering it was rush hour, and people were trying to get to work after dealing with a lousy commute, and we all were in the subway station, this was not a surprise. I bet you're in a hurry when you're going to work, too, buddy! But you're just not on display for all the tourists to gawk at.

Rocky Mountain High

2008-07-09T23:10:00.003-04:00

So last week was a really busy week for me. I was out in Anaheim for a couple of days for a library conference. I returned to DC on Tuesday, and on Wednesday I was on a plane to Denver. I like Denver a lot, and Matt and I would like to spend a few good days there, but this time, we were en route to Rocky Mountain National Park as part of our annual 4th of July trip to a national park.

Now you may remember that I blogged about previous years' adventures at Lassen Volcanic National Park in California and Zion National Park in Utah. We continued our trend of Western Parks this year, mostly because one of our group members moved to Denver recently and didn't have a lot of time off. But also because Rocky Mountain is in fact a kick-ass park. And by that, I mean the altitude at 12,000 feet totally kicked our asses.

I love Rocky Mountain because it really does feel look like a Coors Light ad, not that I'm a big fan of Coors Light or anything. The water was so pristine, and there was still some snow on one of the trails on the 4th of July. In fact, I fell in said snow twice--not intentionally. Luckily the weather is so dry up there that my shorts dried within 10 minutes each time, so its not like I was walking around with a wet bottom or anything (at least for a long period of time). The wildlife watching up there was phenoemenal. We saw a she-moose, a beaver hiking at 10,000 feet (nowhere near a body of water), and some really cool big-horn sheep. We also met some very friendly ducks.

This trip was great because not only did we get to go camping with some friends, but we also met up with other friends who live in the Denver/Boulder areas. I like Colorado a lot, and I wouldn't mind relocating there myself (hint, hint, Matt).

You can read more about our adventures on my Yahoo Trip Planner

A major milestone

2008-06-07T17:21:00.003-04:00

Today we hit a major milestone. Its been many years, and a long hard journey, but today, our Honda Civic hit the 100,000 mile mark.
That's a pretty big deal considering that Matt has been the sole owner of the car, which he got as a graduation present in May 1999. Despite not really driving much in DC, this car has been all over the country. From Texas to DC, back to Texas, on to California, up and down the west coast including Seattle, and finally cross country back to DC. We've taken numerous road trips, and had a couple of minor accidents (including one that involved us patching up the bumper with duct tape).

The turnover happened as we were pulling into the arrivals area at Dulles Airport. We were dropping off one friend and picking up another friend that we haven't seen in 8 months. It was such a mundane thing to do, but life is made up of little mundane moments like that, isn't it?

But sometimes, life is not mundane. Like sitting at a fancy restaurant on the eve of your 5th anniversary and realizing that you feel just as giddy as you did on your wedding day (and no, it wasn't the wine). That is in fact another milestone that Matt and I are celebrating today, along with a friend's 30th birthday.

Yup, life is full of milestones.

Kindred spirits

2008-05-11T23:12:00.000-04:00

At my sister's suggestion, I've been re-reading the Anne of Green Gables books. As a child, I adamently refused to read these books. I don't know really remember the reason why, but for some reason the story just didn't really appeal to me. If you've never read them, the first book is about a plucky orphan girl who accidently gets sent to a town called Avonlea on Prince Edward Island in Cananda to live with an old spinster woman and her bachelor brother. She is prone to accidents, which lead to many humorous episodes.

Despite my so-called lack of interest in this book, I always managed to sneak a peek at the Anne of Green Gables movie whenever PBS showed it. One year, living in the Bay Area, the public television made the incredibly smart move to show it during a pledge drive, and I pledged enough for them to send me the complete series in paperback.

I think reading the Anne books as an adult really made me appreciate the series more. Life in that time period was different, harder, and very interesting. However, I've come across the perplexing question as to when these books actually took place. The first book was published in 1908, so I assumed that the book took place around this time. In the first book, Anne ages about five years. However, as I'm reading the series, Anne's sons become soldiers in World War I.

However, what is even more perplexing is that some books in the series were actually written after the rest of the series was completed. Anne of Windy Poplars (Book 3) and Anne of Ingleside (Book 5) were actually written 15 and 18 years later, respectively, after the last book, Rilla of Ingleside. I wish I had known that before I started reading the series to see how L.M. Montgomery had originally intended the series to be read. However, it is widely acknowledged that Montgomery "phoned in" most of the sequels, but Windy Poplar and Ingleside were a return to the original magic of Green Gables.

I'm also looking forward to reading for the first time either the Wonderful World of Oz or Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. These are both book that I tried reading as a child, but I could just not understand what was going on

OCD

2008-04-28T17:09:00.002-04:00

I think I might be a little obsessive/compulsive. For example, I know that have 14 stairs in my house. I asked Matt if he knew how many stairs are in the staircase once, and he just kind of looked at me as if I was crazy.

These last couple of weeks, I was (obsessively/compulsively) looking for a good fare to go to Denver for 4th of July. I checked every day whenever I thought there was a good chance the fare might drop. Finally, I got a good fare, and I saved us about $40. I felt triumphant.

But now, I feel kind of empty. I find myself searching for fares for the exact same flight just to make sure that I got the best fare (I did...so far). I don't know what websites to go to to waste time now, since all the websurfing I had been doing was related to this search. I just click, click, click around airline sites for no reason. Its really very pathetic.

Kulture Klash

2008-03-20T22:59:00.003-04:00

So, in an effort to become more "cultured", Matt and I have been to 2 different cultural events at the Kennedy Center this month. But here's the thing...we are very cheap. Of course, those of you who know me are probably thinking, "Laura, you drop $100 at Target on a monthly basis." Which is true. I can't deny that. I love Target. But I also want to be more cultured, so I've been on the lookout for good deals.

Before this month, the last time we went to the Kennedy Center was sometime in college, probably over a decade ago. Matt surprised me on Valentine's Day with an Italian dinner served in his dormroom and then with tickets to a jazz concert at the Kennedy Center. Or so he tells me. I remember the pasta. I don't remember the concert.

A couple of weeks ago, I was flipping through one of the free newspapers and come across this special discount for $20 tickets to the National Symphony Orchestra. Great! We got our tickets, enjoyed the concert, and ran into a friend on a date during intermission. We crashed their date (at his invitation), and told them that the last symphony we had attended was the NSO performing classical music from Bugs Bunny cartoons (which was awesome, by the way). We also mentioned that we had been wanting to go to the opera, since we had never been.

Well, less than a week later, I find half price opera tickets! Apparently, Wagner's the Flying Dutchman is in town. So off we go, back to the Kennedy Center tonight, where we go to sit through a 2 hour opera with no intermission.

It was...interesting. The music was good, the singing was good, the story was interesting, but man, the dialogue was terrible. I'm sure part of that was the fact that we were reading English supertitles and they were singing in German, but after a while you just kind of want it to be over with. I was slightly relieved when the main female character finally threw herself off a cliff.

I guess I will never be a fancy Laura, wearing opera gloves and a monocle. I still prefer my concerts in the outdoors in the summertime. And I think I like my operas with an intermission.

¿Como se dice? ¿Como se llama?

2008-02-23T20:58:00.002-05:00

I submit for your viewing and listening pleasure, the Amigos de Obama website, which features such instant classics as " ¡Viva Obama!" and "¿Como se dice? ¿Como se llama? (¡Obama! ¡Obama!)".

3 minutes and 21 seconds

2008-02-22T15:00:00.003-05:00

What is it about being on hold? I'm trying to call the membership hotline at my sportsclub to speak with a "fitness advisor" to get Matt set up at my gym. They gave me a wait time of 3 minutes and 21 seconds. It has so far been almost 10 minutes. Why do they even bother giving a time estimate like that if there's really no way that they can make it? What makes things even worse is that they keep replaying the same jazz saxaphone song over and over again after they interrupt it to tell me that my call is very important and to continue to stay on hold. Its like a never-ending Michael Bolton/Kenny Loggins/whoever it was that used to play the saxaphone in all those smooth jazz songs of the 80s and 90s.

Update: Its been two hours. I give up.

For a certain brown-eyed girl

2008-01-29T22:00:00.000-05:00

I met Annette my first week at American University. She was a girl from the town of Alamosa, CO who had lived all around the world. Her worldliness attracted me, but her sense of humor and willingness to do good made me want to be friend. We were roommates sophomore year, living on an all-girls floor in one of the residence halls that was populated mostly by the women's rugby team. But she went abroad junior year, and moved off campus when she returned. Matt and I went to a party at the house once, and there were so many people there, and they were charging an entrance fee for beer, which I didn't want to pay because I didn't drink, and Annette really didn't drink either. We kind of drifted apart, and now I'm not even sure if I saw her at our graduation. I moved back to Texas for a year, and then on to California. I don't think we really even emailed during that time, but there were a lot of people that I didn't really keep in contact with.

Despite not really keeping in touch after college, Matt and I were eager to reconnect with Annette and her husband Figaro when we moved back to Washington. We had only met him a few times before, and he seemed like a nice enough guy. We spent Thanksgiving with them at their teeny tiny little apartment, and two Easters together. I remember laughing at her mashed potatoes because there was so much butter in them that they slid right out of the bowl without leaving any bits behind.

We were sad when they moved to Denver to pursue their studies in 2005. But whatever, Denver is a cool place, and we'll make an effort to go visit, right? They visited DC at least twice a year to see family and friends, and we were lucky enough to see them on most of those visits.

Three weeks ago, they stopped by DC and we had dinner with them at one of our neighborhood restaurants. We talked about the normal things that friends do...work, family, general gossip. We hugged them goodbye and said we'd probably see them this summer.

Last week, I found out that Annette had a brain aneurysm, and later died. Her family and friends were in shock. I felt like my heart was breaking. We flew out to Denver just to be together with them. When we came back last night, I looked through my photo albums, trying to find pictures of her. Shockingly, despite knowing Annette for 12 years, I don't have that many. I guess you always regret the pictures that you don't take, but you can at least cherish the ones that you have.

And this is really gross too

2008-01-23T10:11:00.000-05:00

The other day, I opened one of seldom used closets and discovered an interesting smell. I couldn't quite figure out where it was coming from, and to be honest, I didn't particularly want to investigate further. I did feel the carpet though to make sure nothing was wet in there. Nope.

Today, I finally decided to do something about the leaky faucet in our bathtub. For the last couple of weeks, the water has been running steadily and I just haven't had time to do anything about it...that is, call the maintenance guys to come take care of it. I remembered that the pipe access to that tub is in the closet where I had discovered the funky smell, and thought to myself "Aha! I may be on to something!" So I called maintenance and left a message, mentioning the funky smell along with the leaky faucet.

After I got off the phone, I decided to move the stuff out of closet so the maintenance guys wouldn't have to deal with that. I picked up a Camelbak backpack that we taking hiking and camping with us...and out tumbled some mysterious food-like substance. I don't really know what it was. There was some brown stuff in bags that perhaps had started to ferment, and there was something that appeared to be a brown dinner role. The last time we went camping was back in August, and I don't remember taking any dinner rolls along with us.

I'm glad I took the time to clean out the closet before the guy gets here, because he probably would have been terribly disgusted. I know I was.

Sometimes working in the library is a little weird

2008-01-22T20:55:00.001-05:00

Last Friday, I helped an obviously inebriated but still friendly older man find a book. He was very grateful, and sat for several hours reading in one seat. After he left, I went to go pick up his book and noticed he had left behind some trash: three packets of pepper and a wrapped orange condom (I say wrapped because some of my colleagues have found used condoms in random places around the building, including under the piano cover). I decided to leave the junk on the table just in case he came back to pick it up. I never saw him come back, but someone else must have noticed the stuff because when I came back, the pepper was still there but the condom was gone.

The guy came back today, obviously not drunk, but still very friendly. I wonder if he thought I had taken his condom.

Protecting your photos online

2008-01-09T09:11:00.001-05:00

An interesting article in today's Washington Post discusses how corporations are taking photos from Flickr for their advertising...and not getting permission from the photographer to use them.

Hey, Isn't That . . .

People Are Doing Double-Takes, And Taking Action, As Web Snapshots Are Nabbed for Commercial Uses

By Monica Hesse
Washington Post Staff Writer

Happy Belated New Year!

2008-01-05T13:17:00.000-05:00

I'm a little late, but so far 2008 has been kind of busy for me. We had our mostly annual "Ribarama" party on New Year's Day, featuring college football bowl games and ribs. Usually, we get our ribs shipped in from "premium" bbq locations, such as Rendezvous (check out that URL), the Salt Lick, and last year for Sausage Fest (held on Super Bowl Sunday), we got our sausage from New Braunfels Smokehouse. This year, we decided to stay local, and ordered our ribs from Urban BBQ in Rockville MD. We did this because most places only ship ribs overnight, and with New Year's Day being on Tuesday, there was no way we'd be able to receive the ribs in a timely manner.

Matt and I knew we were taking a chance by getting local barbecue, and we had never tasted Urban's stuff before. So before Christmas, we went out for some barbecue tasting and made the arduous trek out to Rockville (the traffic is really terrible out there due to major road construction). We got lost, because its in the middle of a very tiny shopping center. I kept hoping to catch a whiff of the meat cooking on the pit, but alas, there didn't seem to be a pit on the premises. We tried three different kinds of meat: the ribs were tender and falling off the bone, the sausage was good, but covered in some weird sauce, and the brisket was kind of dry and not really very flavorful. We decided that the ribs and sausage would make the cut for Ribarama.

Despite the fact that I picked up the meats on New Year's Eve, the food was still delicous the next day (I heated it up in the oven). Matt picked up 2 growlers full of beer, we had tons of food and people kind of staggered in whenever they had gotten over their hangovers.

So now that the holidays are over, its back to healthy eating. Cutting back on cheese, bread, sausage. All that good stuff. My guess is that this may be the last blog I post about food for a while.

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

2007-12-16T15:39:00.000-05:00

Last time I blogged about making cookies and forgetting the key ingredient of baking powder until the very last minute. Surprisingly, they came out pretty good. Baking a pumpkin pie today, I realized as I was pouring the batter into the pie crust that I forgot to add salt. Luckily I was also able to incorporate that in at the last minute, but we'll see how it tastes.

Here's the recipe that I used for oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. I got it off of the back of the Safeway brand Quick Oats. I cut it in half.

2 sticks of butter (.5 lb)
1.5 cups brown sugar, packed
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups Quick Oats
1.5 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
.5 tsp ground nutmeg
.5 tsp salt
1 cup chocolate chips, raisins or chopped nuts

Place racks in upper third of oven and preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl with electric mixer, beat butter, brown sugar, and vanilla until light and fluffy, about 1minute.Add eggs and mix until thoroughly incorporated. Add oats, flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Mix on low speed until blended. Add chocolate chips, raisins or nuts, and blend on medium speed until incorporated. Drop batter by tablespoons 1.5 in. apart onto greased baking sheets. Bake for 10 to 13 minutes or until golden brown. Cookies will feel soft but will firm up as they cool. Let stand on baking sheets for 2 minutes before transferring to racks to cool. Makes about 45 cookies. Recipe developed by cookbook author Marlene Sorosky Gray.

I should really just stick with plain ol' cooking

2007-12-06T21:47:00.000-05:00

Its no secret that I like to cook. I enjoy reading recipes, and I enjoy following a recipe to make a really delicious meal. However, I've come to the sad conclusion that I should not be baking, specifically cookies. Oh, sure, I can throw a brownie mix together, or even use the Cake Mix Doctor to pretty up a vanilla cake. But cookies, well let's just say that they require a level of sophisticated recipe reading that apparently I can't master. I keep forgetting to add something rather important, usually baking powder. As a result, my cookies end up to be a chewy, gooey, slightly undercooked, yet delicious mess. Of course they're delicious--they're pretty much sugar and butter (definitely the way to a Matt's heart). But they look awful, and I'm usually too ashamed to share them with the people I was planning to share them with.

For those of you who may not cook or bake, baking requires a certain amount of precision that cooking doesn't necessarily need. With cooking, you can be all like, you know what this needs more of? Garlic! And chop up a bit more garlic, and throw some salt in there, and maybe even if you're crazy about garlic and salt like I am, add some garlic salt. But with baking, if its says 1 tsp of salt, then you really better follow the directions, and not add more or less, because let me tell you, you will know.

Tonight I made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, and what did I realize that I forgot to add to mix as I was putting it on a cookie sheet? Baking powder, of course. I quickly added all my cookie balls make to the bowl, threw some baking powder in there, and just prayed that it wouldn't turn out too terrible. Actually, they really didn't. I mean, they're a little undercooked on the inside, but nothing too bad. Its not like anybody but Matt and myself are planning on eating a dozen and half cookies. Oops, I mean, 16 cookies. Yeah. 16.

Work

2007-11-29T22:43:00.000-05:00

My supervisor got fired today. Oy vey.

Marscapone stuffed dates

2007-11-23T12:09:00.000-05:00

Saw some fresh dates in the store last week and decided to try this recipe for Thanksgiving. Its adapted from the dish at Komi, where that super hot chef Johnny Monis works.

Marscapone stuffed dates

8 fresh dates
1/4 cup marscapone (actually that will probably be too much)
1/4 cup Good quality extra virgin olive oil
Sea Salt to taste

Preheat oven to 350. Place the marscapone in a small baggie, and cut a small hole in the tip, or using a pastry bag. Using a small paring knife, gently push the pit out of the date. Place the tip of the baggie into the remaining hole and squeeze the cheese into the date. Pour the olive oil over the finished dates. Season with sea salt. Place in the oven for 10-15 minutes.

Pure heaven! Oh, and I just realized that Johnny is making the dates in the picture on the Komi website.

500 Mammograms

2007-11-23T09:57:00.000-05:00

The Breast Cancer Site is looking for clicks! They are 65 percent towards reaching their goal of funding 500 mammograms for the month of November. If they reach that goal, they will donate an ultrasound machine to a hospital in South Africa. Click daily: http://www.thebreastcancersite.com

Getting ready for Thanksgiving

2007-11-19T11:29:00.000-05:00

I've decided to start making a few things early this year for Thanksgiving. It looks like there will only be four of us, and one person is a vegetarian, so there will be lots of meat. I'm thinking of the following menu.

Apps:
Vermont Cheddar (already purchased)
Marscapone-stuffed dates
Candied spiced pecans (will make either Monday or Tuesday night)

Main Course
Turkey (have to defrost)
Mashed potatoes, using cream cheese and sour cream
Stuffing (have to make a veggie option of that too)
Roasted veggies (veggie friend bringing)
Cranberry sauce (already made!)
Homemade wheat rolls (yes, I'm crazy, as I've never made bread before, at least not by hand. I'll probably start the dough on Tuesday)
Gravy

Dessert

Pumpkin pie with homemade whipped cream

Don't you wish you were at my house for Thanksgiving?

Wandering Women (and Matt)

2007-11-13T22:49:00.000-05:00

Tonight, I hosted my first ever author talk with Stephanie Elizondo Griest, and I'm pleased to say that it was a success! I contacted her in the spring after I read her book Around the Bloc: My Life in Moscow, Beijing and Cuba. Actually, I have to say that I was surprised that she wrote back to my little fan letter. But it turns out that she was promoting her latest book, "100 Places Every Women Should Go," and agreed to come give a workshop called "Traveling Sola: Tips for Wandering Women."

We had 34 women attend the talk, plus Matt. It was kind of funny because he was the only guy in the room, and some women (and the author) kind of gave him a funny look when he came in, but nobody seemed to mind, and I think he enjoyed it too. He was especially useful when it came time to clean up, too.

Stephanie is a very outgoing speaker, and I would encourage anyone to go see her if she shows up in your town. You can check out her tour schedule at her website http://www.aroundthebloc.com.

Also, speaking of wandering women and Matt, check out my trip journal from my latest trip! We just came back from New Hampshire and Vermont. I've got lots of great pictures too, so just email me if you want to see them.

From Zero to Hero

2007-10-29T10:15:00.000-04:00

Its been six months since we bought our Wii, and let me tell you, it has been the most awesomest six months ever. We have been spreading the Wii gospel to anyone that will listen, and have convinced a few people to go out and buy a Wii for themselves. In fact, I think Nintendo probably owes us some money for that.

We are such dorks that back in August, we pre-ordered Guitar Hero III for the Wii, and after church yesterday, we drove over to Best Buy to go pick it up. Despite the usual drama that accompanies a Best Buy trip, we got the Wii home and set it up.

The cool thing about Guitar Hero is that you get to play a "guitar" with buttons instead of strings. You have to hit the "notes" in the sequence they appear on the screen. The notes get more complicated as it goes on and on. And that's pretty much about it. Its really addicting, especially for certain people in the house who played for 3 and a half hours yesterday before I told him that we had to eat dinner. For the Wii, they've incorporated the wireless remote into the guitar, so there's no strings, and you get cool effects like sound coming from the guitar and not just the TV, and vibration when necessary.

I'm not terribly good at the game, but its really fun nonetheless. Unfortunately, I'm going out of town this weekend, so I'm concerned that somebody in the house is going to take advantage of that to beat the game, thus leaving me in the dust.

The best piece of bass in three counties

2007-10-18T10:32:00.000-04:00

When I think about how much I was disgusted by the idea of sushi when I was a kid, I have to wonder why. Sushi is really awesome! My first foray into sushi was in Berkeley with a woman whose mother is from Japan. She knew exactly where to go and what to order. I probably stuck with rolls for the first few times, but it wasn't long before I was eating nigiri (the raw fish). I've never had sushi as good as I've had in Berkeley. It was so fresh and tasty.

Here in DC, there are lots of sushi restaurants as well. There are some really good ones, but lots and lots of really bad ones. Not that the fish itself has gone bad...just lower quality, I guess. I had some sushi the other day, and all of the fish tasted the same. But it was cheap, and that's why we were there.

Today I stumbled upon this online chat in the Washingtonian magazine that gives the ins-and-out of sushi eating, and more importantly, how to get the best pieces of fish from your sushi chef, especially when sitting at the bar. Some of the stuff I knew, some I didn't. For example, did you know that you're not supposed to use chopsticks with nigiri, or rub wood chopsticks together? Also, good chefs find it insulting when you cover your sushi with soy sauce or wasabi because the fish is already supposed to be perfectly seasoned.

I'm also not a big believer in making sushi at home because I think it would be very difficult to find sushi-quality fish at the market, but this chat does talk about ways to make sushi at home.

I guess one of the benefits of eating sushi is that its really low-fat, and great if you're on a diet. Of course, that's assuming you stick with fish, and don't get those really expensive rolls with cream cheese in them.

Hmm, all this talk about sushi is making me hungry for some, but unfortunately the only place around here is one of those carousel sushi places. Some other time, I guess.

college students today are a bunch of whiny little bitches

2007-10-14T21:37:00.000-04:00

One downside of living so close to my college is that I still feel the need to check up on what those crazy kids are up to every now and then, despite the fact that I graduated eight years ago. There are often articles in the Washington Post about American University, and I, of course, feel compelled to read them. For example, this article about a newly renovated dorm that features double beds appeared last month in the paper. My friends and I just shook our heads and lamented how entitled kids today are.

However, my recent foray into Facebook has lead me to become more knowledgeable about the present-day AU, and through Facebook, I learned that students now have fall break, which is basically one day off in the middle of the semester. I'm thinking to myself, "Fall break? WE never had a fall break." We would just sludge our way through the semester, with a holiday for Labor Day and a few days off for Thanksgiving. We always had at least three to four weeks off for the Christmas holidays. Researching the evolution of fall break, I find out that it was instituted as a two-day break in 2000, and later scaled back to one day in 2005.

An opinion piece published in 2005 in the Eagle, the student-run newspaper, argues against scaling back fall break by saying:

"Removing rest days for AU students will create dangerous consequences. AU students are special and different from other U.S. college students. At any time, approximately 1,000 AU students work internships, much higher than national percentages. Compiled with part time jobs, studying and extracurricular activities, AU students find themselves working 50 - 60 hours a week to remain successful. Fall Break and study days serve as means for students to recuperate from their busy schedules, explore the District of Columbia and help prepare for midterm and final exams. Without these breaks, students will prepare less for their exams, miss more classes, and underperform in the workplace and classroom."

Okay, is it just me, or does anybody else hear how elitist this sounds? AU students, if not all college students, are starting to feel entitled to things like double beds and extra days off. Maybe I, as a government employee, shouldn't really be talking, but hello children, welcome to the real world! You're not going to get random days off in the middle of the semester. Its not like I spent every waking minute of those study days studying either, and my jobs/internships were fun, and often let me do homework at the same time. Stop whining, or else you'll be sorely prepared for what a real job is like.

Okay, end of rant. I promise I'll post about something more fun later.

Whither the video store

2007-10-01T09:15:00.000-04:00

You're going to think that we're pretty old fashioned over here, but Matt and I liked going to the video store to pick out a movie. Of course, its very rare that we would go to the video store in the first place...maybe once a month, if that. Between not really watching a whole lot of TV in the first place, and having other plans, and oh, yeah, getting that occassional video out from the library, we just never rented movies enough to subscribe to Netflix or Blockbuster online.

Last spring, however, Blockbuster gave us a pretty damn good reason to not subscribe to their service...they closed their store that was located only a mile away from us. Didn't matter, we thought, there's a much closer independent video store that we would rather go to anyway. Unfortunately, at the beginning on August, we walked into that store, and found out that they had lost their lease and were being forced to close, so they were selling off all of their videos and DVDs as well (all the good stuff had already been bought). So we were forced to go to another video store to rent "The 40 Year Old Virgin ", which, by the way, was the only video we rented the entire summer, I'm pretty sure. This past weekend, we were going to that store to rent a movie, and sure enough, they had a big store closing sign, and they were selling off their collection as well. And once again, we had missed all the good stuff.

So now I have to sign up for Netflix, and I'll probably get the cheapest option, and even though its only $4.99 a month, that's still more that what we would usually pay per month to rent the occassional movie. Its all a scam, I tell ya.

So I bet you're thinking...

2007-09-28T20:53:00.000-04:00

I bet you're wondering, "Wow, now that Laura is 30 and sexy, does she not have time to blog?". Well, yeah, its been kind of a crazy month for me, so even though several things have happened to me that I've thought were blog-worthy, I haven't had a chance to talk about them. Here goes.
1) Matt's parents were in town last week, so we had a week of fine dining. Unfortunately, I had to work on Saturday, so Matt had to find a way to entertain his parents himself. Luckily, he had the brilliant idea of taking them to a brew pub, Rock Bottom Brewery. I come home from work to find this giant--empty-- glass container sitting on the counter. "Don't touch my Growler!" Matt yells. Yes, this is a refillable container that holds 5 pints of beer that can be taken home with you for the low, low price of $6.95 per refill.

2) I've decided that I will never watch another video of YouTube for the following reasons: a) It has become too ubiquitous. b) Most of the crap that's on it, is well, crap. I'm not really intersted in watching your hamster roll around in the room in its hamster ball, and c) the other stuff that's on it is probably a copyright violation. So there. Don't send me any YouTube links. I'm not gonna watch it. You know how much I hate hype anyway.

3) I've joined Facebook, but honestly, I don't really see the point of the whole thing. Its like MySpace for lazy people. Seriously, you can't blog, but they expect you summarize how you're feeling in one little status sentence. Also, what is the point of "poking" people? Maybe I just don't understand because I'm no longer in my 20s, but I feel pretty lost using Facebook.
So that's my post for the month. See you in October.

Karma

2007-08-29T20:10:00.001-04:00

Two things of interest happened to me today:

1. I bought lunch for a homeless guy at Subway. It was a spur of the moment decision, and it surprised even me. He had a footlong seafood sub with extra mayonnaise, chips and a drink. He was very grateful.

2. A bird shit on my arm as I was walking to the gym. It was truly disgusting.

30 is in fact the new sexy

2007-08-22T15:57:00.000-04:00

I bet you've been wondering if I've been too hungover from my birthday party to tell you about it. The answer is yes...ha ha not really! What, me drink? Hee hee.

Elisa hasn't had a chance to get her pictures up yet, but my friend Avery has sent some to me. We had such a great time! Elisa flew in from San Antonio and brought a surprise with her...a watermelon pinata filled with Segovia candies (pralines, caramels and coconut flavored).

We spent pretty much all day on Saturday running errands for what would turn out to be the most rockin' party that we've ever thrown...literally. We rented a karaoke machine, and it turned out to be a huge hit. You know, there's always that concern that people would be too shy or modest to want to get up and sing. Luckily I have friends who are neither shy nor modest.

The pinata was planned by Matt and Elisa, but since Matt had never been to a party that involved a pinata, he was a little unsure about the logistics. It took a while, but they finally got the pinata up the tree. Elisa spun me around 30 times, and went to town, totally whacking the pinata into submission (apparently, I have a gift for hitting the pinata). When it cracked open, I heard a cheer come up from the crowd, so I tore off my mask...but no one was picking up candy. C'mon y'all! There's candy all around! Hoarde it greedily! We had to prod people along to get the candy, but they all finally took it. A few more people took a turn at the battered watermelon, and although there was no more candy in it, it was still thoroughly enjoyable.

Ah, the rest of the night was kind of a blur, but I do remember singing, drinking and eating that delicious cake...marble cake with strawberry icing filling and cream cheese icing on top. It was quite nice too.

My house still hasn't recovered completely, which is a sure sign that it was a memorable party.

A life with no regrets

2007-08-18T10:23:00.000-04:00

Today's the big day! Its my 30th birthday! Elisa's here and we're off soon to go pick up some party supplies. I'm really excited, and a friend of mine from college just called from Qatar to wish me a happy birthday.

I was telling a co-worker of mine that I don't feel like this is really a significant birthday, and she said that its probably because I'm happy with my life. And its true...I am happy with my life right now. I can honestly say I don't have any major regrets in my life. I've done things my way. And I'm really happy about that.

Getting ready to par-tay!

2007-08-10T21:41:00.000-04:00

My birthday is in a week. That's right, on August 18, I turn 30. I'm really excited about the whole thing, and we are having a party at our home to celebrate.

One thing that's kind of frustrating about D.C. is its lack of regular bakeries, and that's important because I love cake, especially birthday cake with my name on it. The famous bakery is Cake Love, but I certainly do not love that cake. Its too dry, and the frosting tastes too much like lard in my opinion. Plus, they are incredibly expensive.

For Matt's birthday last January, I tested various cupcakes around the area. I had a cupcake from the now-defunct Reeve's bakery, which actually gave me heartburn. Reeve's bakery was a fixture in downtown Washington for a long time, and I really wanted to like their cupcakes, but I just couldn't. However, they were most well-known for their pie. I also tried a cupcake from Heller's Bakery, which tasted more like your standard grocery store cupcake. Not bad, but just a little too sweet (I bet it would be a good cake for a kid's birthday, though). I finally ended up getting awesome cupcakes from Buzz Bakery, in Virginia. It was well-worth the expense and the drive. The cupcakes were moist and dense, and the icing was not too sweet. Plus, they were beautiful little things.

For my birthday, I really wanted a cake though, and I had to begin the process of searching for a bakery again since Buzz doesn't really do large cakes. Back to the foodie message board for ideas. Of course, the problem with asking foodies about stuff is they tend to give you suggestions like this. Don't get me wrong, those are beautiful cakes, but really, I just want a cake, not necessarily a work of art. There's a lot of French bakeries in DC, some places aren't open on weekends because they do more a breakfast pastry kind of thing. At some point you start to think, "Why can't I just get some damn cake?!" And then I remembered a place that I had come across online in my previous research.

This morning I tested out a cupcake from Just Cakes. The cake itself was nice and moist, and although I find the icing a little sweet (perhaps because they dusted the cupcake in decorative sugar), I liked it enough to order it for my birthday. We'll see how it turns out.

Oh, and this morning I also bought liquor for the party. Lots and lots of liquor. I think it will be a good party.

When I say its hot, its really hot

2007-08-08T23:48:00.000-04:00

Okay, I'm the first person to snicker when people start complaining about the heat here in DC. Yes, 85 degrees can be considered quite warm, but don't start bitching about how humid it is too. Believe me, 78 degrees and 40 percent humidity is not all that uncomfortable...actually, I find it a little on the cool side.

But when you hear me complaining about how hot it is, you better take notice. Because then you know its hot enough to get a Texan complainin'.

Today it reached a 102 degrees. Plus, our ac at work was basically not functioning, so inside my library it was 80 with 63 percent humidity. Nevermind the fact that the library is supposed to close when the humidity surpasses 60 percent (we didn't, but that's a whole other rant). I was uncomfortable all day, and when I stepped out for a smoothie in the afternoon, I felt like I had stepped into an oven. I'm just glad that my deodorant kept working.
So yeah, y'all, today was hot.

Southwest airlines boarding passes

2007-07-29T16:54:00.000-04:00

I learned something this week about printing a boarding pass on Southwest airlines. If you have access to a computer but not a printer, you can reprint your boarding pass at the airport (either at the kiosk or with an agent). You don't lose your boarding group assignment or anything. The boarding agent says that when she has to fly but isn't near a computer, she calls a friend to check her in and she picks up her boarding pass at the airport. Just something to know.

I'm dying here

2007-07-21T13:52:00.001-04:00

Today is the day that Harry Potter comes out. I am also at work today. Luckily, I work in a public library so getting my hands on a copy wasn't difficult. I just really, really want to be reading my book right now.

Harry Potter predictions

2007-07-19T19:12:00.001-04:00

I predict the following characters will die in the last Harry Potter book:

Neville
Ginny Weasley
Lupin
Bellatrix Lestrange
Severus Snape
Voldemort

Laura vs. the Volcano

2007-07-09T22:44:00.000-04:00

We're back from our annual fourth of July trip to a national park. This year, we chose Lassen Volcanic, one of the smallest and least visited national parks in the country. Why would we choose such a place? Well, proximity to gambling is one reason. The other is that we were meeting quite a few people from the West coast for a weekend of hiking and camping.

A scant 2 and half hours from Reno, this national park doesn't really have any "oh, wow" moments like the Grand Canyon. The mountains are in the southern Cascade region, and the namesake mountain, Lassen Peak is only about 12,000 feet. But while it may lack sexiness, this park is still a fun place to hang out and hike. Also, there's an element of danger here too...Lassen Peak is still an active volcano, and it last erupted in 1915, spewing lava and volcanic rocks all over the place. If you're a badass (which I'm not), you can even hike up the volcano.

This was a fun trip, mainly because we were with such a great group of people. Despite the fact that I like to camp with at least one former Eagle Scout and none were present this time around, making fire was not too complicated, thanks to the dry conditions in California. Actually, I'm surprised that there weren't fire restrictions in the campground.

There was one really scary moment when a few of us got lost in the wilderness, literally. We were following a trail that just seemed to kind of die off, so we wandered around aimlessly trying to figure out where to go. Finally, we heard cars on the main road so we made a beeline for the road, only to discover that we were about a mile from the trail head.

One of the great things was the big, blue sky. It was such a brilliant blue, and for most of the time, there was nary a cloud in the sky. At night, the stars were out in full force, and it was amazing to me that there were so many. Matt even saw a few shooting stars.

It was a welcome change from big-city life (although I really missed the food...the one time we went into town we had a crappy experience at the local pizza parlor/bar), and I would gladly go back.

Owning a home, without owning your building

2007-06-29T16:44:00.000-04:00

Okay, there are some really great things about owning a condo. One, I never have to hassle Matt to mow the lawn, because we don't have a lawn. Two, its easily affordable in DC.

Lately though, its been really frustrating just doing general home improvements. We tried to get a ceiling fan installed in our bedroom, but the electricians said it couldn't be done because the ceiling didn't have enough depth to hold a fan, and also, the only way they could run the wires would be through the outside brick, and obviously, they can't do that.

We thought about replacing our scary little spiral stairwell with a real stairwell, but found out that it would be very expensive (we used the money to pay down a little bit of our mortgage instead).

We're lucky enough to have a private entrance to our unit, but the door has to be replaced now because of several cracks. A contractor came out and said the entire door frame would have to be rebuilt, and to do that we need pre-approval from our condo board.

This was supposed to be the year of home improvements, but so far everything has gone by the wayside. Maybe I'll just go ahead and get the carpet replaced and feel like I've actually accomplished something.

Worst...first day of summer...ever

2007-06-21T23:07:00.000-04:00

Actually, today wasn't too bad in general. Matt and I met up with some friends, ate some crab, drank some wine. What totally sucked was the temperature. A rain storm swept into the area during rush hour and brought a cold front (the second time this month). When I got out of the Metro, the temperature had dropped to 69 degrees, but it had mostly stopped raining. Later as we ate on the patio, another rain storm came through, with huge gusts of wind. We were freezing. However, we did enjoy a gorgeous sunset once the storm blew out of the way. It was bright orange, with gray clouds swept across the sky.

So, okay, the comraderie was nice. But its just wrong to have a summer day in the 60s, especially since is the second time this month that this has happened. I'm pretty sure this weekend will be really nice though.

Summer in DC

2007-06-20T20:08:00.000-04:00

Nothing says summer in DC like families of tourists coming in droves to the city. They walk around in matching shirts, stand on the left side of the Metro escalators--blocking the way of people walking on the escalators--and look around instead of looking at where they are going. Pretty much typical anywhere you go.

Good tourists try not to take up too much room on the Metro during rush hour, and make way for us drones who aren't lucky enough to be on vacation.

Coming home from work today, there was a couple with a very small baby in his arms. The wife was following behind with the stroller, which she proceeded to fold up once she got on the train (good). Someone offered them seats behind me, and they sat down gratefully. After a few minutes, the baby started to get fussy, and you could tell they were mortified, as people turned their attention away from their iPods, and toward them. "Shhh," the dad said. "You don't want to disturb the workers."

The workers. I felt like calling him, "comrade". It was a strange end to an otherwise uneventful day.

Best of my love

2007-06-12T21:14:00.000-04:00

Someone forwarded me a link that tells you what the number one song is for the day you were born. My birthday song is "Best of my love" by the Emotions!
Speaking of birthdays, mine is only two months away. I've been trying to figure out what a cool 30th birthday party would be. I think it will probably involve eating and drinking, but that's about it.

Oh yeah, that song link: http://www.joshhosler.biz/NumberOneInHistory/SelectMonth.htm
Go Spurs Go!

The Slug Course

2007-06-07T22:56:00.000-04:00

For our fourth anniversary, we decided to do a very Matt and Laura thing and go out for dinner (of course). We chose a restaurant in our neighborhood that has a very good reputation among the foodie community, that we hadn't been to yet because it can be a little pricey. Like many high-end restaurants in DC, they pride themselves on using local, in-season and organic products.

Our first course consisted, of course, of salad. I enjoyed a salmon seviche (that's the way that they spelled it, so that's how I'm going to spell it) with greens, and Matt had rabbit with romaine. As we were finishing up our salads, I saw Matt stop and look very intently at his plate. He kept staring at it, and I could tell he was getting very, very ansy. I glanced over at his plate, and saw a teeny tiny little slug squirming on the very last piece of lettuce. It was horrifying, but at the same time kind of amusing. The slug, if that's what it was, kept moving around, clearly terrified. Matt looked completely distraught. He flagged the waiter over (who was very, very good), and said, "There seems to be an animal on my plate, and it seems to be alive," while the slug kept squirming. The waiter was properly mortified, apologized, and whisked the plate away. He came back a few minutes late, apologized again, and said the manager was coming over to speak to us. The manager came a few minutes later, apologized profusely, and offered us a complimentary glass of champagne to give us a few extra minutes to decide if we wanted to continue our dinner. We decided that we wanted to stay, and enjoyed the rest of the meal. We support organics, after all.

All in all, the salad was comped, as well as our bottle of wine, and two glasses of champagne each. All of this without throwing a hissy fit in a nice restaurant, like some people would do. We'll probably go back, but probably won't order salad again. Supposedly, they also have the best burger in town.

Under the boardwalk

2007-05-31T13:00:00.000-04:00

At the beginning of the month, I thought to myself that I should try to blog more often. Well, I didn't. Lately it seems like my life is all about work (or working out), and when I get home, I'm re-reading Harry Potter. Lots of excuses, right?

This past weekend, Memorial Day weekend, we kicked off the beginning of the summer with a trip to the Jersey shore. We camped in Cape May with some friends, and were pleasantly surprised by the beauty that is south Jersey. The weather was great for most of the weekend, except for Sunday night when it rained pretty hard. I didn't feel like there were a whole lot of people on the beach, and when we visited the boardwalk amusement park in Wildwood, we didn't have to wait in line much. Actually, apparently they were anticipating a small ground on Memorial Day, because the entrance fee was discounted pretty heavily. Plus we got to eat carnival foods, like ice cream, fried Oreos, and funnel cake. Thankfully we did our eating after the roller coasters.

It was cool to see a real, live boardwalk, with rides and skeeball, like you do in the movies. I guess the real downside about the beach was that the water was freezing cold, although there were a few warm currents coming in (it felt like someone had peed). But otherwise it was a great weekend. Jersey...its not just for mobsters.

Ode to a softshell crab

2007-05-26T13:30:00.000-04:00

Oh, softshell, you who sacrificed your
short little life for me
so that you could be deep-fried and crunchy.
Wonderful crab, prepared in a multitude of ways,
making DC worth inhabiting in the summertime.
The most yummy of all the crabs--
yes, even over stuffed crab--
I thank you for being so delicious.

Wiiiii! part deux

2007-05-12T23:23:00.000-04:00

So remember back in December when I wrote about Matt really wanted a Wii? Well, let's revisit that subject.
For the last six months the D.C. area has been a Wii wasteland. We would go around to various electronic and game shops and interrogate teenage store clerks: Do you have any Wiis? When do you expect to get Wiis in again? How many Wiis do you usually get? How fast do you sell out? Lately we felt like we were this close to finding one: Well, we got some in two days ago, but they sold out pretty quickly. Matt was finally coming to the conclusion that the Wii in fact does not exist, and its a vast conspiracy by Nintendo to get people talking about a product that they might introduce in the future.

Yesterday, we left Best Buy, dejected by missing a Wii shipment (and subsequent sell-out) by a day. We decided it was time to move on with our lives, so we went shopping at a mall in Virginia. Coincidently, there is a game store in that mall, on the lower level. We peered over the railing as we walked by, and on the door they had posted a sign that said "Wiis now in stock." We raced down the escalator, startling some senior citizens out on their afternoon constitutional, and into the store. "Do you have any Wiis?" I asked tentatively. "Oh, yeah," said the store clerk. We held our breath as he went into the back, and when he came out with a Wii box, we high-fived and hugged. Our search was over. This Wii was coming home.

An evening conversation

2007-05-10T21:21:00.000-04:00

Me:...So if I lose 2 more pounds, I'll have lost 60 pounds all together.
Matt: That's great, Laura! Do you want a cake when that happens?
Me: Yes. But don't let me eat too much.

So yeah, looks like I've lost those last two lbs. Matt says it looks like I've shrank. I don't feel any different, except I'm more likely to be more active. Tonight, I walked more than mile just to go to dinner. And then, despite the fact that we were stuffed, we walked home--another mile or so. And it didn't bother me. Well, my feet kind of hurt, but my feet always hurt, so that was no big deal.

Its tough, though, because I look at myself, and think that I still have quite a ways to go. Easily another 40 to be at a healthy weight. I think that I'll never see the end of it, and then I'm going to flip it around and gain back that 40 pounds when I get pregnant. Yup, I said it. I want to have a baby.

Anyway, that's still a ways to go. As always, I will keep you posted.

Laura (libarian) es hermosa!

2007-04-30T20:09:00.000-04:00

Yes, friends, I seem to have a secret admirer. This piece of graffiti was marked onto a table at my library. And that is exactly the way that everything was spelled.

Kind of made my day. Although I would have preferred it if they hadn't written on the table in permanent marker.

I'm an answerer

2007-04-23T21:06:00.000-04:00

Lately, I've become addicted to Yahoo! Answers. If you don't know what that is, basically people post a question to the website, and other people answer them. The questioner and other users can vote on the best answer, and you get points for having the best answer.

Its kind of exhilirating to be chosen as the best answer. Its also really crazy how many people don't know how to use the Internet! I mean, some of these answers you can find on Wikipedia. Some of the questions are kind of funny (how do they keep the colors separate in a Cadbury creme egg), other questions are straight from a kid's homework assignment.

I always get a little thrill when my question is chosen as the best answer, but when I told Matt that, he said, "Aren't you just doing your job?" Which is true, I guess. But it just goes to show that in the age of the Internet, librarians are needed more than ever.

Its so sad

2007-04-18T19:24:00.000-04:00

This morning I was reading the Washington Post online. The Virginia Tech massacre is a very big story here, since its only a few hours south of DC and the shooter and a few victims were from the area. Underneath the stories about VT were a few other world headlines, in much smaller type. The one that caught my attention was "Baghdad blasts kill 131."

After Monday, that particular headline sent me reeling. I can't imagine living in a country where mass killings are so...ordinary. I can't imagine daily have to relive the sorrow, shock and pain of 9/11 or Virginia Tech. But that's what the people of Iraq, particularly in Baghdad, have to live with.

After that, I flipped through the Post's online photo album of the victims of VT. I teared up at work as I saw so many young people's lives taken away from them, as I read about the heroics of some of their professors. And I wondered about the Iraqis whose pictures we'll never see, and the infants who may have died at the scene, who never had the chance to grow up to be heroes.

This isn't a commentary about the war. Its just my own thoughts about two terrible situations, and how the media covers it. We may have become desensitized to coverage about the war, and perhaps its a shame that we're only reminded about the horrors happening abroad when a horror happens here.

Me, on a diet

2007-04-10T20:53:00.001-04:00

Me
Originally uploaded by laura_gonzales.

Every now and then I'll catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror, and think, Wow, I look good! I hadn't realized how good I've been looking until I started putting my pictures from Paris in a photo album. I happened to put them in the same album as my pictures from London and Rome, which we visited in May 2005.

I can't believe how much I've changed! It's like I'm a different person. And its not just because I'm wearing an opposite color jacket either, or my hair's a little longer (the shoes are the same, and I'm wearing a pink shirt in both). I'm honestly surprised that people recognize me.

Looking a pictures like this really motivates me (she writes, while eating Easter candy). Its been a tough couple of months for me, losing weight-wise, since I've only lost about 10 lbs this year. It seems like there's always an excuse to not watch what I'm eating.

Matt and I were joking the other day while at Subway, and I couldn't finish my 6 in. roast beef sub (on wheat, no cheese). "Is this going to turn into an after school special? 'Laura, Please Eat Something'?" he said. Luckily, I love food too much for that to ever become a problem.

Snow in April

2007-04-07T12:49:00.001-04:00

Snow in April
Originally uploaded by laura_gonzales.

It snowed this morning. Yes, today, April 7, it snowed about an inch in our nation's capital. Nevermind that this is the same week as the Cherry Blossom festival, or that is was 75 degrees four days ago, or that the tourists have been running around in shorts. It snowed this morning and the blooming trees were covered in the white stuff. Apparently its been 83 years since the last time it snowed on this date.

The snow's pretty much gone now. Its been above freezing all day,, although it may freeze again tonight. I keep hoping that's going to be in the end of it, and spring will finally come to us full-blast, in all of its sneeze-inducing glory. I'm just not cut out for these yankee springs.

Trip Planner-Paris

2007-04-05T21:48:00.000-04:00

Okay, so I've finally updated my Trip Planner for Paris. You can read about our trip in excruciating detail. Be sure to leave a comment there so that I can feel loved!

Paris in the Spring!

2007-04-01T15:59:00.000-04:00

We're back! We were supposed to return on Saturday night, but the flight was overbooked and they asked for volunteers to fly back on Sunday. They gave us each vouchers worth $400, and put us up in a hotel. But of course, that's not what you want to hear.

The trip was so great! We stayed right in the middle, in the Saint Germain de Pres neighborhood. Our hotel room was small, like most European hotel rooms, but the staff was very friendly. We walked everywhere, and every night we were so exhausted. We tried to pack in as much as we could in a week, but there was so much more that we missed. In addition to Paris, we visited Versailles (a 45 minute train ride out of town), and there was a few worrisome hours there when we discovered that some of the workers were on strike, but only for the morning.

One surprising discovery for us was the Sacre Couer basillica. It was so beautiful, inside and outside.

Of course, we had to visit the Eiffel Tower. Out of necessity we visited it at night, and luckily it had rained earlier so a lot of the smog was cleared out.

The food was sooo good. The French really love their bread and dairy products, and honestly I don't know if there was a meal that I had that didn't involve bread and cheese (even in the morning, there was usually a cured meat out). Also, I've decided that I really, really dislike foie gras (duck liver). I had it several times in Paris, because they are obsessed with it, but I don't see the appeal. I went to Paris with an open mind about food, and I'm glad I tried it, but if I can avoid it, never again.

Oh, and the song of the trip was "La Camisa Negra," by Juanes! We heard it everywhere!

Anyway, I'll probably blog more about Paris later. And I'll definitely have more pictures up soon.

America the Beautiful

2007-03-24T09:31:00.000-04:00

So in the midst of all of our Paris planning (we leave tomorrow!), we've also had to make a few decisions about at least one of other trips this year. Traditionally, we get the hell out of DC for Fourth of July because Tourists! Ew! and we head off and celebrate America in another way--we visit a national park. Last year's trip was awesome, and we decided to do another trip out west. Actually, we usually choose a park to go to on January 1st, but this year we didn't make a decision until a few weeks ago, for various reasons. I was really pulling for Rocky Mountain NP, and I thought it was a done deal, but then Yellowstone reared its head, and it was decided we would go there. Unfortunately, we were not the only ones who had that idea, and all the campsites for the Fourth were taken. So we decided on another California park--Lassen Volcanic.

Even though I've been to this park before, I'm still really excited about going back. If you've never seen a volcanic area (I guess I've seen four volcanic parks now), its definitely very striking. If the eruption is recent (like in the last 100 years), a lot of the trees are gone, and the land seems barren. But then you notice all the plants that flourish in that kind of environment.

Oh, but here's the sucky thing...they've raised the price of the National Parks Pass from $50 to $80 and they've given it a dumb name: the America the Beautiful pass. Granted, it now provides access to all other federal recreation areas (seashores, forests) that may charge a fee, but really, how many of those areas charge a fee? The price may be prohibitive, since we'll have to visit parks at least 8 times in a year, and honestly, I'm not sure if we can do that. They may have just shot themselves in the foot because I'm sure there's a lot of other folks like us that want to support the parks but don't want to be overcharged. Maybe we'll get it, just to be supportive, but I'm not so sure.

Give DC a vote!

2007-03-21T08:59:00.000-04:00

Did you know that DC residents are not a part of any state? That means that we don't have any voting members in the House or the Senate. Yet we still pay federal income taxes. What happened to "no taxation without representation"?

This week, the House will vote on a bill that would give DC a voting member. Currently, DC has a non-voting delegate in the House, Eleanor Holmes Norton (you may remember her from her appearances on the Colbert Report). Politically, DC is very Democratic. Despite the fact that the bill also gives Utah another voting member (Utah is a very Republican state) due to population growth, the White House is urging Republican members of the House to vote against the bill. Even if the bill passes, the White House says that it will veto the bill. Right now, the bill has bi-partisan support, but the threat of a White House veto could deter some Republican Congressman.

It is outrageous in this day and age that U.S. citizens are not being given their Constitutional rights. Please urge your Congressman, Democrat or Republican, to vote for H.R. 1433.To read more about this issue, please visit the Washington Post's Metro website: . You can visit your Congressperson's webpage by visiting http://www.house.gov.

I {heart} Mana

2007-03-17T19:47:00.000-04:00

Its only taken me about 15 years, but I finally got to see Mana in concert last night. My sister happened to mention to me late last fall that Mana was touring, so I decided to check out if they were going to be in my area. Surprisingly, they were playing a few miles away in Virginia. So last night, Matt and I braved the icy rain and drove an hour out to Virginia at the end of rush hour to see Mana.

I have to say, this was one of the best concerts I've ever seen. I own half of their albums, but you know its a great concert when you're really enjoying the music you've never heard before. Matt had only heard their songs when I would play the CDs, so he was really unfamiliar with their music. Yet he was really enjoying the music, totally rocking out.

What I loved: I loved that the drummer Alex was smiling throughout the concert. His drum solo was so awesome, some guy jumped on the stage and started doing the "we're not worthy" bow before he got tackled by security. I loved that they made it rain on stage. I loved that there were Latinos from all over Latin America at the concert, waving their banderas, and Fher wanted to see them all.

What I didn't love: Fher's pants. He is really tall, and he was wearing these black and white striped, high waisted things. I kept telling Matt, "Why won't Fher change pants?" Also, Fher endorsed Hillary Clinton, saying she was the voice of the Latinos in the U.S. What, no love for Obama? Also, they didn't play my favorite song, "Selva Negra."

This was a great band to see live, and even though these guys are in their 40s, they really rocked the house, for 2 and a half hours. I can't wait to see them again.

Time flies (like I will in a week)

2007-03-15T20:40:00.000-04:00

Well, despite my rather pathetic efforts to learn French , the time for Paris is almost upon us. I can't believe its been seven months since we booked this trip, and I'm still kind of in shock that its finally going to be here. In addition to trying to learn French, we've been planning our trip. We're going to be mostly in Paris, with a day excursion to Versailles. Since we're only going to be there for five days, I think that's our best plan of attack.

Matt and I journaled during our trip to Italy two years ago, and I'm hoping to do the same for this trip. I found it was very relaxing to take 20 minutes to recount the day's adventures. This time, I'll probably post some of that writing on my Yahoo! Trip Journal (note: the Paris trip is not listed there because I'm keeping it private while we're still in the planning stages. But, hey, look at all those people who like my trip to Philly!).

I'm really hoping that a lot of people in France speak English, because basically the only thing I know how to say is, "Bonjour, monsieur. Excuse moi de vous deranger. Parlez vous Anglais?". Which translates into, "Hello sir. I'm a little crazy. Do you speak English?" Kidding! Actually it means, "Sorry for bothering you." I think that will be a very useful phrase.

barbecue in DC

2007-03-05T22:24:00.001-05:00

After my visit to the gym this morning, I was really hungry. I mean, really hungry. The kind of hungry you get after working out for an hour and half. There's this barbecue place across the street from my gym that's pretty good, and the owner is from Texas, so it has the right intentions (but alas, its not quite the same, mostly because while the owner is from Texas, the cooks aren't). I went in fully intending to get a sausage sandwich, since I do love sausage, but instead ended up with a pulled chicken sandwich, since I was feeling guilty.

I didn't really like the bread, so I focused mostly on the meat. Like I said, pretty good, just not excellent. But here's the weird thing: the entire time I was in there (about 30 minutes), I was the only female there. Then I realized that most of the times I've been in there, I've been one of the only women there too. Very strange.

Most of my female friends (I refuse to use the term "girlfriends") tend to like meat, and food in general. I wonder if we are just DC anomolies?

Matt's a nerd

2007-02-23T20:45:00.000-05:00

For the last eleven years, Matt has flaunted his perfect 20/20 eyesight. Everyone told him he would never get out of college without getting glasses. We were wrong. Then we all told him that there was no way he would get out of law school without getting glasses. Wrong again. Finally, a mere month after his 30th birthday, I made an eye appointment for him, and guess what? He needs glasses for reading, computer work, and driving. He's officially a nerd.

Trip Planner

2007-02-19T22:40:00.000-05:00

I just found a feature on Yahoo! Travel that lets you plan your trips, blog about it, and post your pictures. I just returned from a weekend visit to Philadelphia, and now you can read about it
here. The link will also be on my main page.

Ines of my soul

2007-02-05T20:16:00.000-05:00

The good thing about plane rides is that they give you a large block of time to read. Going to and from Seattle, a five hour flight, I had plenty of time to start and finish the latest novel by Isabel Allende, Ines of My Soul, which was published last fall.

Allende, a Chilean author now living in California, tends to write about those two places, and this novel was no exception. Taking place in Peru and Chile during the Spanish conquest, Allende introduces us to the real-life Chilean historical figure, Ines de Suarez. Born in Spain, Ines travels to Peru in search of her husband and adventure. After learning of her husband’s death, she is determined to stay in the New World and later takes up with the Spanish conquistador, Pedro de Valdivia. Together, she and Pedro de Valdivia decide to found Chile, and conquer the native people in the process.

The book goes into many details about the wars between the Spanish and the natives, and does not sugarcoat the hostility between both sides. Yet, despite her role as conquistadora, Ines proves to be a very sympathetic character, a fictionalization I’m sure.

Actually, the sympathy I felt toward the Spanish was a little surprising to me. The Spaniards did terrible things to the native people, and the natives fought back with equal brutality. In the book, Ines says she does not blame the natives for fighting for their land, since the Spanish did the same when the Moors invaded Spain (if you look at the cover, you'll see that the figure they chose to portray Ines has some Arabic features...). This view, I’m sure, was not shared by the original Ines. However, one cannot help but feel sympathy for a group of people who, with their food supplies practically destroyed by the Indians, are forced to eat puppies in order to survive. Yes, puppies.

This sympathy leads to the question: which side do I root for? As a Mexican American myself, with both native blood and Spanish heritage, these types of things needed to happen in order for me to exist. Often times, we assign brutality to the Spanish side, but the natives were no less brutal. We forget that the Inca had systematically conquered other native tribes before the Spanish conquered them. And we find out that Pedro de Valdivia meets a terrible end at the hands of the Indian youth, Lauturo, who (according to the book, at least) he had treated like a favored nephew.

History is relative, however, and historical fiction even more so. My own research could uncover little more than what is widely known about Ines, mainly because most of the books written about her are in Spanish and have never been translated. I’m glad that Isabel Allende is giving Ines a greater audience than she had previously had before.

charitable donations

2007-02-04T23:00:00.000-05:00

Its tax time again. For me, that means gathering up all tax-related documents, including charitable deductions, for 2006. After looking at our contributions, Matt was a little chagrined that we aren't really keeping up with our tithing as much as we should (7 percent of our total income), but I pointed out that we do give to several non-profit organizations, and even gave money to organizations which we can't deduct (thank you, Webb for Senate, even though we don't live in Virginia, but that's another story).

Of course, giving isn't about how much we can deduct on our taxes. I honestly believe in the work of every organization that we give money to. In an effort to up our charitable donations for the year, Matt and I have agreed that we will give a set amount to a charity every month, and will alternate who chooses the charity. This month, I chose the local public radio station, since its pledge drive time (why does it seem that its always time for a pledge drive in public radio?).

Speaking of giving money, DCFoodies.com seems to be upping his charitable donations as well. He'll be donating ad revenue from his site to a local DC organization. That's a class act, if you ask me.

I encourage everyone to give back to their community in some way, whether it be by volunteering time or making a financial contribution.

Poor George

2007-02-04T15:09:00.000-05:00

Well, the day after I wrote about using my George Foreman Lean Mean Grilling Machine, I tried using it to grill some fish. The machine didn't really heat up very much and a lot of the controls didn't work. I think the innards got wet. Bah.

However, this did call for a trip to Target, which I always love, to purchase a brand new George Foreman Lean Mean Grilling Machine. I ended up getting one with removable grill plates to make it easier to clean. Today, is the inaugural use of the new George for Sausage Fest. I have about 9 lbs of sausage, including half smokes, which is DC tradition. I got inspired to buy half smokes after reading about them in Washington City Paper.

Where is my motivation?

2007-02-01T11:56:00.000-05:00

After a brief and small (3 lbs) success early on this year, I've managed to gain those back in the last 2 weeks or so. My excuses: Matt's 30th birthday blowout, conference in Seattle (although I ate a lot of seafood), just plain laziness. Matt has decided to get back on Weight Watchers and that helps. This week I signed up for 10 hours with a personal trainer, in one hour increments. I hope to start that next week.

I've been really hungry lately, so I'm making it a point to eat oatmeal every morning. Last night I got out of work late and it was a real challenge for us to not go out to eat at our favorite neighborhood Italian restaurant, Dino, because it was right there. We managed to stagger home and make dinner together: boneless, skinless chicken thighs on the George Foreman Lean Mean Grilling machine, steamed zuchhini, a great quick mashed potato recipe from the WW cookbook. As I was inhaling my food, Matt said, "I bet if we were eating shit on a shingle it would still taste good to us right now." I beg to differ. Shit never tastes good.

Stories from travelers

2007-01-29T19:25:00.000-05:00

The Washington Post online has online chats with their reporters and editors on a daily basis. One of my favorite chats is the Talk About Travel chat. Not only do they take questions about travel-related stuff ("Is $400 too much for a round trip ticket to Alaska?"), but they usually have a random question that they throw out to the public about their own travel experiences. Today's question: "Give us your best hot-to-overheated stories and win a prize. Tell us about a night in Mali without A/C or coming down with a bad case of sunburn on the Equator. With the freezing temps outside, we need the heat."

I chimed in with this, which some of you may remember:

Washington DC: Heat: On our Hawaiian honeymoon 3 and a half years ago, my new husband and I went sea kayaking. Unfortunately, we ran very low on sunscreen. After a few hours of kayaking, my husband noticed that the top of his feet were getting red. A few days later, while playing in the ocean, he saw what he thought was a jellyfish on his foot. He ran out of the water, only to discover that his feet had started to peel and that water was sloshing up under the dead skin, causing it to puff up.
Andrea Sachs: That is so grossly amusing. If the prize is aloe vera, you win!

And guess what! I did win!

Andrea Sachs: Wow, you guys were on fire with your questions and hot travel stories. For the woman whose husband had bubble toes in Hawaii, please email me your address so I can send you some aloe, or whatever else we have laying around for a prize.

catalogs

2007-01-24T19:02:00.000-05:00

I've decided I like ordering from catalogs. All kinds of catalogs. Yesterday I ordered sausage from New Braunfels Smokehouse for our latest meat-based party, Sausage Fest. Today I received a catalog of a very different kind, from Coach. Yes, those pretty pretty bags. I've decided that for my 30th birthday (which is only 7 months away, by the way), I want a Coach bag. Oh, and sausage. But since I can get sausage any time, I'm choosing the Coach bag as my gift.

(Get your minds out of the gutter, people. I really am talking about pork-based products when I say sausage. And no, not that kind of pork.)

Of course, the real problem with catalogs is that they seem to multiply. In addition to my Coach catalog, I also got a Lands End catalog. I'll probably get more meat by mail catalogs too. Actually, I think I got the Smokehouse catalog by subscribing to Texas Monthly, which I also received today. So I have lots of things to read now.

I do read normal things, too, of course. I'm planning on posting a blog soon on the latest book that I've read. Stay tuned.

Who needs Craigslist when you've got pawn shops?

2007-01-11T10:27:00.000-05:00

Have you ever tried to sell anything on Craigslist? Its a really frustrating experience. You're emailing back and forth with people, and they're trying to bargain you down on a price, and then when you agree on a price, you have to arrange a mutually agreeable time for pickup, and then you just have to hope that they show up. I just don't have time for that. I've posted things on Craigslist twice: some moving boxes that we were giving away for free (FREE!) and a grill that we ended up not selling but which ended up getting stolen (STOLEN!) later. That's why when we got a new TV (in preparation for the Wii) recently, I wasn't sure what to do with my old one. Craigslist was out. I decided to pay a visit to my local pawn shop.

I visited my first pawn shop as a seller when I was about 18 years old. Several years before, when walking my dog, I had found a diamond ring in the street, laying amongst the leaves. The diamond itself was about the size of a fork tine, and I'm pretty sure it was 10k gold. I held on to it, taking it to the flea market once to see if it was real. It was, and I got offered $25 for it on the spot, which I refused. I took it later to a pawn shop, and ended up getting more than that, though not much more.

I pass a pawn shop pretty much every time I go to the grocery store. It has always surprised me to see it there, since its right in the middle of Georgetown. I had never had the occassion to go inside, so I was curious as to what kind of merchandise they had. I hauled my TV inside, and told the affable young man that I would like to sell my television. "How much are you hoping to get for it?" he asked. "Oh, around $50," I said. Which was a total joke. My off-brand TV was pretty much as ghetto as they come. It didn't even have those audio/video/stereo plug-ins, but it was cable-ready. Luckily, he found the joke funny, or maybe not so funny. "I'll give you $20," he said. With my awesome bargaining skills, I was able to get $25. Actually, I thought that was pretty good. Cuz, yeah, ghetto TV.

The good thing about pawn shops is that you don't really get seller's remorse. If I really want it back, I can go back in a few weeks and give them $27 to get it out of pawn. Or, if I'm really desperate in a few months, I'm sure it will be for sale for the low, low price of $40.

Adventures on the bus

2007-01-08T19:28:00.000-05:00

There are parts of D.C. that are notorious for bad parking. My neighborhood is one of them, but at least we don't have the bands of roving drunks that are prevalent in Adams Morgan, a hip neighborhood that has cheap restaurants, partying college students, and lots of bars. Despite the abundance of restaurants, not a lot of them are any good, with the exception of Amsterdam Falafel, which isn't really a restaurant, and San Marco, which is scheduled to close soon, if it hasn't already. So, me being me, I don't really have a lot of reasons to go over to Adams Morgan, unless I'm invited to a party, which is why I was there the other night.

There's a bus stop a few blocks from my condo that takes me straight to the heart of Adams Morgan, and parking in Adams Morgan being what it is, I try to take it. However, like many bus lines in D.C., this particular bus line seems to have more than its fair share of eccentricities. I've had a strange experience every time I've ridden this particular bus line, and Saturday night was no exception.

Everything was going well when I first boarded the bus and paid my fare. Since my stop is actually at the beginning of the line, buses will idle at this stop for several minutes before actually leaving. The bus driver announced that we'll be leaving in 8 minutes. There were several people already on board, including a woman who asked me if I knew where a certain street was. I didn't, and neither did anyone else on the bus. It turns out an elderly woman was lost. She had been riding different buses for several hours hoping to find her way home. She lived in Hyattsville, MD, which is nowhere near where I live. The bus driver decided that there was no way she was going to take off with this woman on her bus, and more importantly, let this woman get off the bus, when it was very obvious she didn't know her way home. She decided to call her supervisor to come pick the woman up. A noble choice indeed, but now we were delayed. We waited 20 minutes; no supervisor, but another bus pulled up. We all got off the bus, but discovered that we had to wait another 15 minutes for that bus to leave. The elderly woman was fully prepared to board the 2nd bus, even though it had been explained to her that a supervisor was coming to pick her up. She had no idea that we were delayed because of her, she was just ready to go home.

I ended up taking a cab to my destination, and pretty much got ripped off by the taxi driver (thank you D.C. for failing to put meters in the taxis). If I had any confidence that the elderly woman knew her address, or that a taxi driver wouldn't try to rip her off, I would have offered to give her money for a cab ride home. I think the bus driver did the right thing, even though it turned a $1.35 ride for me into a $10 one.

Starbucks Cinnamon Dolce Latte

2007-01-07T16:56:00.001-05:00

Today I was looking around for a bathroom and decided to stop in at Starbucks. As I was finishing up in there, I noticed a sign for the seasonal "Cinnamon Dolce Latte." I hadn't really been planning on getting anything, but the sugar-free syrup option really piqued my interest, so I decided to get one. Unfortunately, the people in front of me didn't speak English, so I had to wait an extra few minutes while they mimed their order to the baristas.

I decided to try the no-fat, no-sugar Cinnamon Dolce latte, and despite a slight artificial sweetner aftertaste, it was pretty good. Best of of all, when I calculated the Weight Watchers point values, it was only two points! A very nice treat for me, indeed. I can only imagine what a treat a full fat, regular Cinnamon Dolce latte would taste like.

I want to quit the gym!

2007-01-05T17:47:00.000-05:00

Remember that Friends episode where Chandler wants to quit the gym but they keep trying to stop him, and he and Ross end up getting a joint bank account? I kind of felt that way today when I told Curves that I need to cancel my membership, except since its a women's only gym, there was no hot guy to try to convince me otherwise, so it was a lot easier.

I decided to quit Curves because my work gives me a huge discount to become a member of the Washington Sports Clubs, and I can use any of their facilities in DC, Philly, NY or Boston. With the discount, its even cheaper than Curves, and of course the hours are better and they offer classes and a personal trainer. It was a hard decision for me, mostly because I try to be non-confrontational, and also because Curves gave me a lot a support through my initial weight loss. Of course, they wanted to know why I was leaving, and I told them that I got a good deal through work.

Anyway, let's see how I do.

I don't believe in New Year's Resolutions

2007-01-01T20:35:00.000-05:00

A few years ago, I decided that I don't think New Year's resolutions are effective. Basically, a lot of people are all deciding to change their entire lives on the same day. And they do it not because they really want to change their lives, but rather because the new year seems like a good time to start something new. As a result, new year's resolutions tend to fall by the wayside by mid-February.

I'm not making any resolutions because of the new year, but still have my own personal goal to lose more weight. Today, I made my first recipe from my new cookbook: hummus. Usually, hummus is pretty high in fat because of the olive oil and tahini. This recipe uses no oil and less tahini. Still delicious. Thanks to my family for buying this for me!

I think I enjoy losing weight because I enjoy cooking. I know that seems strange, but I now have the opportunity to make new recipes and try new dishes. Who knew it could be so much fun?

Everyone has to have their own motivations, I guess.

Wiiiii!

2006-12-17T21:35:00.000-05:00

Matt is obsessed with getting a new Nintendo Wii system. I can't really describe why its a different kind of gaming system, except to say that the wireless remote controller requires the user to move around in order to play the games. The Wii was introduced last month, and has been selling out quickly. Most places aren't even selling it online, except through Ebay at some crazy markup. This is definitely a problem, because, as I said, Matt is obsessed with the Wii.

Last night, we stopped at Best Buy to see if they had any. Nope, sold out. Matt then thought that he heard of another place on Wisconsin Ave. that was selling the Wii, so we drove up and down for a little while, with Matt calling out, "Wii? Where are you, Wii?" Seriously. What makes this story really funny is that last night's activities were actually a repeat of what we did the previous weekend.

I've told Matt that the Wii will probably be available after Christmas, just in time for his birthday. Yet everytime we pass by an electronics store, we have to stop and look for the Wii. Today, we saw another couple about our age looking for one as well, with the guy with a slightly frantic look on his face and the girl looking slightly bored.

Here's the thing, though: I want a Wii too. The graphics look really cool, and come on, who wouldn't want to swing your arm to simulate sword play? Now, we have to work on getting a new TV too....

I'm a freak of nature

2006-12-13T22:41:00.000-05:00

Yesterday's visit to the allergist was quite productive. Apparently, I'm a total freak of nature, because I need 2 different nasal sprays, one for each nostril. God, what's wrong with me? On the plus side, I felt better today than I have in several days. Hooray for doctors who actually LISTEN and want to help their patients!

I can't wait for Christmas! Although it did freak me out today when I heard someone say there are only 11 days left before Christmas. I mean, where did the year go? And, Matt's 30th birthday is in exactly one month. I think he's mostly excited about it. We're thinking about doing some upscale bowling. And before you chide me for the upscale part, let me tell you--this is the only bowling that's available in the District. No voting rights in Congress and no moderately priced bowling? Yes, living in DC is every bit is disenfranchised as you think. Write your Congressperson (not about the bowling, but about the voting rights...give DC a voice, dammit)!

Okay, I'm rambling, y'all. Hey, I don't strive for good writing here, I just want you to like me.

Its that time of year

2006-12-11T19:20:00.000-05:00

For me, December has always been the time of year when I would get sick. I remember being at my grandparents' houses on Christmas Day utterly miserable in another room with no TV while all my cousins played with their toys. As an adult, things haven't really changed. For the last two Christmases, I was sick, last year with a sinus infection, the previous year with a stomach virus. At being sick when you're an adult on Christmas isn't any more fun than being sick as a kid on Christmas, especially when you're traveling 3000 miles to be with your family.

The crazy weather here in DC lately hasn't helped my sinuses any. For the last two weeks I've been faithfully taking my Allegra, but today's 65 degree weather just kind of did me in. I'm not totally sick, but it was enough to make me call the doctor because, dammit, I will not be sick on Christmas again this year. Thanks to a change of insurance (from an evil HMO to a much less evil PPO), I was actually able to make a doctor's appointment with an allergist! Without a referral! And my appointment is tomorrow!

If all goes well tomorrow, I'll be in tip-top shape in two weeks!

Sunset in Shenandoah National Park

2006-11-26T18:12:00.000-05:00

Sunset in Shenandoah National Park
Originally uploaded by laura_gonzales.

This has to be one of the best pictures I've ever taken. Can you understand how this trip was the opposite of dying?

I am thankful

2006-11-24T17:33:00.000-05:00

For great family and friends! Yesterday's thanksgiving feast was a success. I added a sweet potato dip to my appetizers, but a little kitchen mishap prevented me from making mashed potatoes. No worries, though; there was so much food, and Matt and I will be eating leftovers through the weekend.

Shaken, not stirred

2006-11-14T11:42:00.000-05:00

Well, I was going to go on a rant about how Smirnoff is sullying the good name of James Bond by promoting the Bond martini as a vodka drink in their latest commercials. (Because we all know that martinis are made of GIN and not vodka, right? A drink made with vodka is always referred to as a "vodka martini".) However, I did some research and found out that in fact, James Bond has never gone the route of a traditional martini, and has instead been drinking "vespers", a mix of gin and vodka or rather "Three measures of Gordon's, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. Shake it very well until it's ice-cold, then add a large thin slice of lemon-peel." Sounds like a good recipe. Just don't call it a martini.

the incredible shrinking feet

2006-11-10T16:38:00.000-05:00

I recently bought a new pair of shoes. I usually wear a size 8.5. The pair I ended up purchasing are a size 8. And they are still too big.

Today I'm wearing a pair of shoes that I purchased in February or March of this year, which I've only worn a few times. Once again, too big. I don't remember them feeling this loose.

I'm suspecting that my loose shoes have something to do with my recent weight loss. When you lose 50 lbs, the fat has to come from somewhere, right?

I also found this: http://www.diettalk.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-1485.html

I'm just glad I'm not crazy.

Vote early, vote often

2006-11-07T19:10:00.000-05:00

If you're interested in political commentary, head on over to Matt Ranting for live election coverage for nationwide elections.

And speaking of bananas...

2006-11-05T16:03:00.000-05:00

For the third year in a row, I'll be hosting my parents and sister for Thanksgiving. Although my mom hijacked my turkey the first year, she has been extremely helpful to have around while cooking such a big meal. This year, I'm going for more healthful recipes. Of course, I'm not expecting to lose weight that week, but at least things won't be too bad.

Here's the menu that I've come up with so far:

Appetizers
Crudités with hummus, crackers and cheese

Dinner
Turkey with Gravy
Salad with mustard and caper dressing
Roasted garlic and butternut squash cassoulet
Herbed mashed potatoes
Mom's special stuffing
Laura's creamy spinach
Elisa's cranberry sauce

Dessert
Pumpkin pie
Apple cranberry crisp

Beverages
Iced tea
Champagne
Wine
Coffee
Port
Scotch (that's for me, I think I'll need a hard drink at the end of the day)

curious bananas

2006-11-05T14:57:00.000-05:00

curious bananas
Originally uploaded by laura_gonzales.

I noticed today that there was a Curious George sticker on my bananas. How...curious.

Am I a bad omen?

2006-10-16T11:35:00.000-04:00

Today I realized that 3 of my favorite vacation spots had some terrible thing happen to them in last year or so.

New Orleans, which I visited in December 2001, had Hurricane Katrina.

Hawaii, which I visited in June 2003, had the earthquake yesterday.

London, which I visited in May 2005, had the subway attacks in July 2005.

Probably just a consequence of being well-traveled, yes? Still, it makes me sad that some of those places that existed once will now only leave on in memories.

Googling oneself

2006-10-10T21:00:00.000-04:00

Have you ever Googled yourself? What am I saying? Of course you have. I know how egotistical you really are.

There's something strange about Googling oneself (or, doing a search for your own name on Google). How much information is out there about me? But who are all those other Lauras out there?

Sometimes I wonder if anybody is out there looking for me, and coming across Laura the Lawyer, or Laura the Systems Manager, and thinking that they've found me. Am I Laura the Professor? Could be! You'll never know. Did my namesake's accomplishments fulfill their desire to learn more about me?

And at the same time, I'll never know who those other Lauras are either. My name is pretty common, but I've never come across anyone else with my first and last names.

Its also strange to come across the real me on a search results page for random things. Yes, that's my post on that listserv, and look over there...my sister used my full name on her blog and it came up on a search. But there's something pretty pathetic about the fact that the real me only appeared 3 times over 18 pages of search results.

We strive for anonymity, but at the same time yearn for popularity.

The opposite of dying

2006-10-09T21:29:00.000-04:00

Yesterday we were finally able to use our camping equipment, for only the second time this year. Its not like we hadn't wanted to go camping before the end of the season, but, really, where did the summer go?

The drive up to Shenandoah was "interrupted" by a trip to a winery. I know what you're thinking...Virginia wine? Yeah, well, they do have wineries, but for the most part, don't expect too much out of them. When we got to Shenandoah, we set up camp, had lunch, rested for a while, and then decided to head out hiking. Unfortunately, it was getting kind of late at that point, about two hours to sunset, and the hike we chose had a time estimate of about 4 hours. We decided to try it, and we booked it down the trail. We got to the waterfall in about an hour, and then had to hike back up. Luckily, we were able to make it off the trail with about ten minutes to spare until sunset. We pulled out of the parking lot, and drove down the road a little bit, where we watched the sun set over the Shenandoah valley. A gorgeous experience.

Dinner involved sausages and the Yee Fong Chang story, a story which Matt will only tell when we go camping. Unfortunately, we forgot the marshmallows for s'mores, but I ate chocolate and graham cracker, which was still really good.

This morning, we woke up, had a good breakfast, and decided to go for another hike. We decided to stop at the ranger station to ask for advice where to go. She directed us to a trail that involved spectacular views...and rock scrambling. Lots of rock scrambling. On mountain sides. Have I mentioned that I'm scared of heights? The whole experience was terrifying but exhilarating.
We left the park to go explore some more wineries, and we ended up at this quiet place with pretty good wines. But more importantly, they had picnic tables, and we ended up unpacking a picnic. Luckily, today was a beautiful Indian summer day without a cloud in the sky, sitting in a vineyard, enjoying a cool bottle of wine with a fresh picnic lunch (that involves sausage). As my friend Jen said, "its like the opposite of dying."

Sitting here at home, I'm glad to be sleeping in my own bed tonight, but I wish I were back up there in the mountains, where the leaves had just started to change colors. Unfortunately, I think the camping season is over now, and we'll have to wait for spring to go out there again.

Songs to die for

2006-10-06T16:16:00.000-04:00

You remember that scene in High Fidelity when they find out that the girlfriend's father died and they're all sitting around talking about what songs should be played at the funeral? Well, the Brits have compiled a new set of funeral songs (which I heard about through this Washington Post blog). The list is pretty lame. My choice for a funeral song? In-a-gadda-da-vida by Iron Butterfly. What's yours?

This is funny

2006-10-05T19:13:00.000-04:00

Several months ago, Matt received an e-mail from his ex-girlfriend saying that she was getting married, and she asked for our address. He replied to her, sent the address, and asked when exactly the wedding was going to take place (she just said November). No further response.

Well, today there is an envelope addressed just to Matt (not Mr. and Mrs. or , or Matt and Laura or anything like that, and it looks suspiciously like a wedding invitation, and its from Austin. Well, I only know one other person in Austin, and she's not getting married any time soon. I decided to open it, even though its not addressed to me (ahem, Matt opened my special birthday present FedEx this year, and then totally ruined the surprise for me by waving it in my face, so no, he really doesn't care if I open his mail. In fact, if I didn't, it would probably never get opened, so there. But I digress). Anyway, it is a wedding invitation, for a wedding that's in 5 weeks.

So my question is, am I invited to this wedding? And FYI, she was totally at my wedding, so hello, she knows that we're married

Tejana

2006-09-29T14:12:00.000-04:00

One of my colleagues, who used to live in Austin, told me that I had a very Texas look, but she didn't want to say anything (this was after I told her that I'm from San Antonio). That really made my day!

Making peace

2006-09-21T18:37:00.000-04:00

Some of you may know that I've been very frustrated at work recently. About 3 months ago I was transferred to the main library to work on an exciting new project. Well, due to, among other things, gross incompetence (not mine, thankfully), this new department was officially closed last week. We were told of this on Wednesday. I had a stomach ache from Friday to Wednesday because of the stress.

Things had been in limbo for me and my co-workers for the entire three months. Nobody really knew what to do with us, and there was no plan or policy for us to follow. It was with a mixture of frustration, anger, and a little bit of relief that I learned of our demise. The good news is that I get to stay employed, but I've been transferred over to another department, where I have to learn the ropes all over again.

I left work early on Wednesday, ostensibly because of the stomach ache, but also because I had to gather my thoughts. Yes, I would prefer it if I could be doing something that I really wanted to do (whether that be with my current employer or elsewhere), but I have to take what life has handed to me, right? Last night I made peace with the whole situation. Miraculously, my stomach ache has mostly disappeared.

just because...

2006-09-15T15:14:00.000-04:00

"that's the way things are done around here", doesn't make it right.

sigh.

Video: Meeting Kevin Costner

2006-09-14T20:59:00.000-04:00

Not to beat a dead horse, but here's the video that the woman standing next to me took when we met Kevin Costner. She was standing to the left of me and KC was shaking the hand of the person to the right of me. Thanks, Katie!

Even if you're not a Justin Timberlake fan

2006-09-13T16:36:00.000-04:00

which I'm not. I just think he's a good dresser. Anyway, his new album FutureSex/LoveSounds got a hilarious review in today's Washington Post. Some excerpts:

Timberlake, the most cornfed and harmless of pop stars, is about as likely to project an air of dangerous sexuality as he is to knock over a convenience store with Screech from "Saved by the Bell."

Alrighty! But I think my favorite line is this:

[W]hen it comes to, um, randiness, Timberlake is still no Prince, and lines such as "Back up some more / And let me take it off" have the same sexual charge as a proposition from a Care Bear.

back on the wagon, not on the gravy train

2006-09-11T11:54:00.000-04:00

Now that summer is officially over, I'm back on the weight loss wagon. From Memorial Day to Labor Day, I've lost 10 pounds, not bad for a summer, but not great since I'm still about 30 pounds away from my weight loss goal. I have to say, it was pretty good eating this summer: Mexican food in Tejas, gourmet Mexican in Chicago, Italian in Baltimore. And Komi for our anniversary (oh, Komi! I look forward to the day that I can see you again).

Yes, as you can see I have issues with food. I love food, I'm not afraid to admit that. And of course I associate food with comfort and love. The fact is, I don't see anything wrong with any of that. Of course, the problem was that I was eating too much too often and wasn't exercising. So now, in addition to my 3x a week at Curves, I'm also doing a yoga class once a week. I'm hoping to lose at least 15 pounds by Thanksgiving. I'll keep y'all updated.