The Hermitage

Reminiscent of vacations of yore, while my family was visiting Nashville this weekend, we went to visit Andrew Jackson's home, The Hermitage. This trip was slightly different from the old vacations though--my sister and I had a say in where we visited. I've always been a little fascinated with General Jackson. As described in history class, his life seemed like a breath of fresh air after the stuffy profiles of the previous presidents. Maybe 'fresh air' isn't the right phrase, given his life, but at least the (woefully incorrect) description of the homesteading duellist was enough to catch the attention of a second-grader already disinterested in history.


Back to vacations: I remember hours of trudging around various historical sites as a child, bored, sunburnt, and tired. I remember later trips where we did more trudging around and I, as a teenager, was bored, sunburnt, tired, and absolutely horrified at the thought of being seen with my parents at a historical site. For this visit, I was just tired from walking around so much, but at least interested in the story being told.


The visit was good, in general. The price of admission gets you in to see a short film about Andrew Jackson's life and the land, an audio-guided tour complete with headsets, and free reign to walk around on the grounds and listen to the audio tour until your legs fall off or you start dancing to the questionable soundtrack of the audio tour. There's a lot to see and there's been considerable effort in preserving the home.


There are a number of pet peeves that I encountered during the visit:

1. Historical films neglecting to acknowledge the fact that the subject is dead by pretending that the film was made during the time period being discussed rather than 1983.
2. A glossing over of unpleasantness (in this case, the hardships of the slaves owned by Jackson--at least they acknowledged that he owned slaves).
3. Modern conveniences (air conditioning, electricity) installed in historical sites--after they were considered a historical locations.
4. No water conveniently available for visitors and vending machines charging $2 for a bottle of water. Unacceptable.
5. Period costumes. Wear matching polo shirts and ditch the air conditioning. Seriously.

The people were very friendly and very knowledgeable. While a little campy, the audio tour offered flexibility that couldn't be met with a guided tour. I got to cuddle with Texas while he flirted with the ladies in the historical costumes. I got to make/hear comments to/from Mom and Jenn about poor decorating choices made a long, long time ago. Mostly, I got to spend time with the family and I was very content (and tired) at the end of the day.

Texas in Tennessee

Texas and his mom and grandparents visited me this weekend. I don't think he really got a flavor of the city because he's still enjoying the flavor of his toes too much. We really tried to wear him out and mostly succeeded in wearing ourselves out. I was really happy to get some auntie time with him. We had lots of cuddles and noms. We also missed the other aunties very much!

Cuddles.

Noms.

Course Preview

Early this morning, I got the chance to preview the Music City Triathlon bike and run courses. It was a beautiful day. I've never bothered to preview a course before, but I'm really glad I did. There are a couple tricky hills on the bike that will be total momentum killers if they're not approached correctly. Also, I managed to miss a turn. I realized it just as I passed it, but there's a right turn in the middle of a descent. You come up over a not-small hill and you sit down in your drops and you see the bottom of the hill and fly by the turn. I'm sure they'll have people there on race day, but of the people that saw ride by there today, we all missed the turn.

The run is going to be tough. There are some long hills that will be uncomfortable. I felt pretty good today, but I didn't do the whole run and the run wasn't in order. I may pop out to the run site again before the race.

Changes

I'm in the process of making some tweaks to my blog. I've added a "Workouts" column to the left side, but I'm not sure if it's the most practical. I'll see how the list behaves after I reach the limit of the queue. What I'd really like is a rolling Sunday-Saturday gadget with archiving capabilities and a countdown to my next race.

Any smartypants out there got something like this?
Eh?

More Noms

Proud Auntie nomming Texas. Must. Share. Cuteness.
If we aunties do our jobs right, the boy won't have ears or toes left.

Dingbat

I've had a day full of dingbat moments.

1. I heated some water for my tea this morning and started to pour it over my already prepared cold cereal. I could chalk this up to lack of caffeine. I may still do that.
2. Some very poor driving decisions were made, mostly having to do with stop signs (not lights). Fortunately none of these resulted in anything resembling an accident or near-accident. I just realized about three times that I would have yelled and thrown hand gestures at someone who did the same things to me. Again, caffeine could be to blame. High oil prices could also be to blame.
3. While I suppose this dingbat moment happened when I was packing for the week, I just realized today that I left my running shoes behind in TN. I have a race this weekend and thought I had all the things I needed for that. Guess not.

Over my ringing earbuds

I was in an elevator the other day with my Bob Edwards show talking in my ears. I was using my earbuds. A guy got on the elevator and I could hear the music from his earbuds over the stuff I was listening to. I couldn't believe it.

A few floors later, another guy hopped on the elevator. He smelled of the back of the smoking room at the airport, where the glass has yellowed.

Fortunately, these guys weren't going to where I was going.

To complete the trilogy of extremes, the room I sat in for the next hour was frigid. Three out of five senses abused. Sigh.

Beer and Quiet

Why is it so difficult for people in semi-crowded places, such as a mall or an airport, to walk in a straight, predictable line?

I made my first trip (for shopping) to the big outlet mall nearby, Opry Mills. It's giant and obnoxious and right next door to the Grand Ole Opry. So, on your way to see the show, you go shopping and eat at the mall!! What could be more fun and American?

There wasn't an Opry show today but this was tax-free weekend in Tennessee so everyone and their many, many children were out in force, walking random lines through the mall and getting in my way.

I survived the experience, found a few things I needed and as a reward, I decided to have some ice cream. I stood in line at the ice cream place for about a minute before I gave up and went home where my reward was beer. And quiet. I think I chose wisely.

Repercussions of Extra Effort

After the extra-effort push-up marathon on Monday, the inability to lift my arms over my head became the inability to lift my arms by Wednesday. This made driving difficult but not impossible.

Yesterday, I got to visit with Texas and Ezra. I hadn't seen Ezra for a long time and we got some snuggles in as well as a short game of chase so I could see him run (hilarious and adorable!). During snuggles, he decided he was done with the snuggles and seemed to instinctively know that my arms and pecs were unhappy and when he was wiggling around manged to put all his weight on those areas. Owww! It was worth it though.

Running, Bunnies, and a Little Extra Effort

Jill decided that we hadn't been running enough in the last couple days and volunteered us to go on a group run with a bunch of med students. This was fine, it was only 4 miles and a little later in the day than what we had been running. My car said it was 96 out, but I don't think it was that warm. The group said they were slow. After the first mile at an 8 minute pace, Jill and I decided that they were giant sandbaggers and we took the rest of the route at our own pace. Three miles into the all-uphill extravaganza, we finally spotted the Athlete's House and their life-saving cooler of water out for runners like us. We took a few sips and walked for a bit, then finally made it back to the start. It was a tough run, but good. When we were getting ready to grab some water, the organizer mentioned the second part of the workout. Jill looked stunned, so did I.

We grabbed some water, we admired the little Scotty dog, then we quickly stopped admiring the little Scotty dog because he was trying to eat some bunnies. He had one in his mouth when the organizer yelled for help and we all went to corral the little bunnies (about the size of the bunnies in the picture below, which I stole from a baby bunny blog). We then tried to put the bunnies somewhere safe. They were very cute and not very happy. One was very wet from being in the dog's mouth, but seemed okay otherwise.

So, yeah, after we got over the cuteness and got the bunnies to safety, it was time to do push ups. Two sets of fifty. Yikes. I haven't abused my arms in that way for a long, long time. I took only a moment to decide that girlie push ups were going to be okay 'cuz 100 push ups is a lot and I haven't done more than 15 at a time since high school. I didn't quite make it through in two sets of 50, but I did manage to bang out 100 push ups overall. Now, I can't lift my arms above my head. We'll see how long that lasts.

Ladybug in Space

Also trapped on my camera--posted for another auntie I know:

Gratuitous Squishy Baby Picture

The picture is over a month old, but it's been trapped on my camera. It's entirely too cute to not post.

Dutch Apple Pie Flambé

My first attempt at a Dutch Apple Pie went a little awry. Everything went really well up until the crust, which split and cracked during it's pre-bake. I asked Jeremy if I should re-make the crust and finish the pie later or just use the pie crust as it was. We (I) decided that the crust was okay as it was and I evidently angered the pie gods.

When the first full bake cycle was done, the crumb topping hadn't browned as nicely as I would have liked and Jeremy suggested that I put it under the broiler. This seemed like a good idea. I set the timer for 3 minutes and continued my conversation. About a minute and a half into the time, I smelled something odd and decided that I should check the pie.

The pie was on fire.

I pulled it out of the oven and looked at it for a minute, then blew the flames out. I'm pretty sure that huffing and puffing is not in the manual for effectively putting out kitchen fires, but it quickly became Plan A and fortunately worked. Plan B involved moving the pie to the sink and dousing it with water.

The good thing about Plan A is that it left the pie mostly in tact. If you think of the crumb topping as a disposable outer shell, as you would with salt crusts, it's still a tasty pie. It's not going to win any beauty contests, but it will do.

Two years, two fires in my kitchen. I've now set a precedent.

Once in a lifetime

I ran the short loop at Percy Warner Park. All paved road, just over 5 miles. It was about as cool as Nashville gets at 4:30 on a Friday afternoon (read: low 80s) and the whole trail was shaded. It had rained earlier and added to the humidity, but it really wasn't bad. The longest run I've done in a while is 20-30 minutes, so after about 45 minutes of straight running, I took a 5 minute walk and we were done in less than an hour. It's not a fast time, but the hills are nothing to sneeze at. The first mile is uphill.

Jill has run this route a lot and she helped push me through the whole thing, but in the first quarter-mile she says, "You're going to hate me before this is over." I don't disagree, but keep going. While we're on the same hill, she says, "We're moving to part three of three!" as we turning a corner. I smile and think, "thankgod." Then I look up and think, "shit" and make some sort of noise that made Jill laugh.

Speaking of shit, about 3/5 of the way through, I need a pit stop and there was a convenient port-a-pot. I'm always apprehensive about park port-a-pots as they're usually neglected. However, in a once-in-a-lifetime chance, I believe I was the first person to use this one since it had been cleaned/replaced or whatever they do. There was a fresh roll of TP on the seat (which was down) and all but one of the other rolls were still wrapped. It smelled of urinal mint, fresh out of the package (as opposed to urine-covered urinal mint). The floor was clean and dry. The only thing that was missing was the hand cleaner dispenser. Sigh. I suppose I can't have everything.

Anyway, the run turned out to be really nice. Now, I'm off to sleep, only to get up in the morning for a 35 mile bike ride. Yea!

NomNom

Some tozies that Auntie Sarah can't wait to nom!

mmm...nomnom...

Argument

I'm still sticking to the workout thing this week. We'll see how next week goes. Today was the second straight day of running and the second straight day of realizing that my body does not like it when I run.

We've had arguments, my body and I, on long runs (and not so long runs) about who's idea the running thing was and how long we're going to stick with it. My lungs and legs are a convincing duo that try to trick my mind into thinking that they are going to collapse at any moment. My brain, on the other hand, tells them that it's going to be okay and we can keep going if we all work together. Just when I think I've won, my legs trip on something and we all have to walk for a bit. During the walk, I hear my lungs and legs laughing under their breath.

Update

Not that I'm promising any sort of posting regularity, but it seems that things have calmed down a bit for now. I got back from my big summer conference on Saturday, slept most of the day on Sunday, and tried (somewhat successfully) to face the world like a normal person today.

I decided that it was time to get back to regular workouts to prepare for the fall triathlon season. I took a swim -- 4000 yards in 8 sets of 500, then went for Johnny's spin class, which nearly killed me. I currently feel like I've been hit by a train, but happy.

Other good things: I got a letter from Granny Roop today, I've received lots of good feedback from the conference, and I had a good dinner (if a little late).

Dinner was "Easy Summer Casserole" from the Essential Vegetarian Cookbook by Diana Shaw. It consisted of layers of eggplant, tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, hard boiled eggs, and a crumb topping that had bread crumbs, black olives, basil, parsley, Parmesan cheese, garlic, and more garlic. I wasn't quite sold on the eggs, but they added a nice flavor (and protein).

Teh Cute

I dare you to not click on this video. I saw it on Jezebel who linked to Cute Overload who linked to YouTube. LinkieLinkieLinkie!
Enjoy!

Attention Span

I played a lot of some Mario-based racing game when I was at Purdue over the summer of '97. I can't remember what version of what system or what whatever things were, but there was a level that was described as "difficult", not because of the high technical level, or the irritating cheat-for-computer mode, but because the track was long and people (especially children, evidently) would have a hard time keeping their concentration for the entire race. I thought the concept was really funny.

Now, the Iphone has a "productivity application" that is meant to improve your concentration. The concept? Hold down the button as long as you can. Lifehacker posted about it. Click on the screenshot link....if you can remember to do so when you get there.

First

Today, I trimmed a couple bothersome nails with an X-acto knife.
That is all. For now.

Speaking of...

Speaking of food, you know those claw games you see in grocery and discount stores where you use a mechanical claw to try to nab a stuffed animal? They have them for lobsters now. The lobster claw game may be coming to a store near you.

Pet store? Bait shop? Grocery store?
You pick.



The video was actually posted a year ago, so it may be old news to some of y'all.

Cupcakes (finally)

I said a while ago that I would be making cupcakes. I finally managed to do so after my last final of the semester--a result of therapeutic baking. I made Three-vanilla cupcakes, which I found on Tastespotting. The three vanillas were vanilla extract, vanilla seeds, and vanilla sugar (made from storing sugar with a vanilla bean for a week). The recipe is "woefully accurate" in that it makes exactly 20 cupcakes. This was all the batter I had left to lick from the bowl:

The naked cupcakes turned out pretty:It seemed almost a shame to cover them up, but the final outcome was tasty, but didn't match the gorgeous photos from the recipe. I needed a different piping tool and firmer frosting. The cupcakes were transported to Indiana in a hacked-up cereal box, which I thought was fairly clever. I should have remembered to pick up a pastry box from the grocery, but I didn't.

New Addition

On May 6, we welcomed Texas into the world.

He was 8 lb., 3 oz. and 20.5 inches tall.

He's beautiful and perfect. Proof below:

And perhaps my favorite:

The little guy has no idea what he got himself into.

Summary

In the last couple days I've managed to:

• Make a full dinner (complete with dessert) for one of my friends. The menu consisted of steak, leeks and bulgur wheat, roasted squash, salad, and chocolate-banana springrolls. We also split a fantastic bottle of wine--Moulin de La Lagune, 2003, which was garnet colored, had a beautiful, soft mouth feel, and tasted of dark berries. It was ready out of the bottle. I'd recommend it for anyone who can find it.
• Finish my classes. Just a final left for one. That'll be next Thursday.
• Nearly get hit by a car. It was close enough that I had to jump back a bit and very quickly change directions. I was in a crosswalk with right-of-way and the guy driving had the nerve to honk at me. Not okay.
• Fence twice. I haven't fenced for months. It was good to be back on the strip.
• Sleep for 10+ hours a night. And take naps. Silly sleep debt.

Anyway, it's been interesting. Just thought I would share.

Realization

I suppose it's not exactly a new revelation that I'm a stress-baker. When things get extra busy or stressful, I have a compulsion to bake. The last month, I've wanted, more than anything to make cupcakes. Very vanilla cupcakes. However, there simply hasn't been enough time.

This weekend, I managed to find enough time to make almond poppyseed muffins, which made me quite happy indeed. Maybe this weekend, I'll manage the cupcakes. :)

Race Report

I realized that it's been a month since I've posted. Busy, busy times...school's been a bear, but I've tried to have a little fun.

I did an Olympic-distance triathlon this weekend (1.5k swim, 40k bike, and 10k run). The water was cold enough to be wetsuit-legal (65 degrees F.), so I wore the wetsuit I got for Christmas. The bad part is that I had never worn the wetsuit anywhere near water. It's an odd feeling to be that buoyant.

One of the keys of triathlon is transitions and people devote entire practices to transitions from swim to bike (T1) and bike to run (T2). I wasn't able to practice any transitions other than T3 (run to beer) much in the last few weeks. Therefore, the new wetsuit experience and the stress of T1 put me in the situation where I was stuck fighting with the wetsuit, trying to not fall on my bum for nearly a full minute after the swim. Not exactly smooth.

Overall, the race went really well. I used my new aerobars on the bike (thanks, Baby!) and only walked through the water stations during the run. It seems that I still can't drink and run.

I'm kinda excited about the rest of the season...

I was wrong.

My usual spin instructor was out today and called in a sub. My usual spin instructor has a reputation of being a bad-ass teacher, going as far as to adjust students bike tension if he doesn't think you're working hard enough (I think he had to stop doing that for legal reasons). I was disappointed when I heard he wasn't coming in because I thought I wouldn't get a good workout in.

I was wrong.

At first glance, the sub seemed perky-perky and did things like make us indicate that we were ready for a workout by yelling "woo-hoo". I was ready to be irritated. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough time to be irritated. It's not that the workout was technically harder, but more endurance-intensive. There was no spin with spinups, there were sprints on hills. There were three hill songs in a row (or a very, very, very long hill). I had to concentrate hard on keeping my cookies for the second half of the workout.

All in all, thumbs up to the sub.
I will not underestimate her again.

Cute Sells. Sometimes.

Prelims are in 10 days. I should be up to my elbows in technical papers, but since Jeremy took off this afternoon, I've taken it upon myself to make sure I make the most of my Netflix streaming time, fix the front derailleur on my bike, drink some wine, eat some leftovers, and most importantly NOT read technical papers.

While similarly procrastinating earlier this week, I came upon this ad (linked from Jezebel) for ummm....feminine hygiene products. I'm not sure it makes me want to buy anything, but it's certainly...something...yeah.

The Lenten Series Continues: Flashback

When: Easter, 1987. I was in the third grade.

Where: The farm, back stairs before they were painted gray. Also, the stairs are slick as hell and surprisingly narrow.

On dressing to match the wallpaper: I was in third grade. I didn't know any better and probably didn't have a whole lot to say about what I was wearing anyway. I wish I knew what I was laughing at. Perhaps a subconscious realization that I do match the wallpaper and Mom spent way too much energy trying to make my hair do that. I'm certain there were hot rollers involved.

Update...I'm not really missing

Motivation is pretty low right now. I have several things to post, but no real motivation to do so right at this moment. A short list:

• Update on the Lenten Flashback series. I'll have to double-up, I think. Big question: Teenage years next, or continue with the cuteness?
• A playset found on Amazon that's making the rounds in the meta that I think I'm still obligated to post.
• A bartender with too much time on his hands. And a background in government contracting. What could go wrong? Or right?
• Feminine hygiene at its finest.
• Crazy triathlon workouts!
• Seems that there was something else....I'll have to reference my notes later.

Also, "Hi" to Logan who made his commenting debut recently. Glad to see you around!!

Found

When I came back to Nashville from the semester break (and Christmas and stuff), I had a few days before classes started to have nice, leisurely walks to the office. One day, I noticed a fantastic sculpture that was reasonably close to what I had in my head for what I wanted over my couch. I didn't have time to stop and look or any way to get it anywhere. Then, I forgot about it. A few days later, I saw it again and decided that it should be mine and that it would be mine if it was still there after fencing practice. Jenn offered suitable sister-encouragement and convinced me that it was the right thing to do.

Naturally, when it was time to do the grabbing, it was dark, cold, and raining. It was still there, sitting in the alley leaning against the fence, ready to be claimed. It barely fit in the cruiser. Here's a picture of it on the floor:

A couple closer pictures so you can see the detail:

Finally (after two months of it hiding in my bedroom), Jeremy helped me hang it this weekend. The results:

FF: Lenten Series: Week 3

When: Easter 1979

Where: Mamaw and Papaw's trailer (I think)

Crochet is hip, especially when your mamaw makes a rockin' cape and hat for you for Easter. Not much else to say about that.

A little late for a vent.

It's a little after midnight and I really ought to be heading to bed, but thought that I deserved that giant bowl of ice cream after reading 8 technical summaries today. I only have two more to go and I think I'm going to knock those out before I actually sleep tonight. Otherwise, they will knock me out as I go to sleep tonight. Either way, there's sleep in the not-too-distant future. Yea!

In other news, I ordered some shoes a couple weeks ago, which were promptly delivered (I think I posted and I would linkie here, but it's a boring post and I'm too lazy right now). Unfortunately, they didn't fit. So, I'm exchanging them. It's a painless process, I send them the shoes via a printed UPS label that I stick onto the original packaging and they send me new shoes. Next day air (from the phone call, not the receipt of the original shoes). I was supposed to receive them today. Unfortunately, FedEx (don't know why the shipping company changed) decided that my shoes were much too valuable to leave on my doorstep even though there was no signature required. They tried to deliver at 2:30 this afternoon. Who's home at 2:30??? Do they just pay drivers to attempt to deliver stuff while people aren't home and hope we'll pick it up at the distribution center so they don't have to try any more? It's absurd. Leave the package on the doorstep. People who don't live here can't figure out how to get into the building. People who live here sometimes have problems finding finding their way after a long night out. My package (sent overnight with no signature required) will be just fine sitting on my doorstep for 3 hours until I get home from the office.

That is, if I can figure out how to get into the building.

End rant.

Cleverness in Government

The city of Chattanooga sent the city of Atlanta a truck of water today along with a proclamation. Today is "Give our Georgia Friends a Drink Day." It's well-worth your time to read the article...even if you have to skip to the end to read the proclamation.

J'adore...

...en ewww!
C'est un poisson de gâteau!
Bon appétite!

One food

I've finally decided that if I was stuck eating only one food for the rest of my life, it would be french fries or otherwise fried potatoes. If I had to pick just one kind, Walter's fries from the Trojan Horse in Bloomington.

Friday Flashback: Lenten Theme: Week 2

Mom was kind enough to send along a continuation of the Easter theme. This week, we'll explore the suspicious cleanliness of the dresses.

When: Easter, 1983.

Where: The farm, before the wall-to-wall carpeting was installed.

Last on the Bunny's list: Somehow we all look reasonably happy to be wearing the pretty (itchy) Easter dresses. Jenn looks a little dubious. I asked Mom how she kept us clean. She reminded me that the Easter Bunny did not show up until after church. This way, if we misbehaved during church, one call could stop the bunny from showing. It, thankfully, never came to that.

I should mention that Mom made the lovely purses we're carrying. If I remember correctly, she later made different covers for them as well that weren't white (and could be carried after Labor Day--Thank God!).

So. Very. Sleepy.

I discovered that I was very tired this afternoon. Perhaps it was the smallish salad (with orzo and crab) that I had for lunch that didn't quite sustain me. Perhaps it was the papers I was reading. Perhaps it was the M&M's that should have perked me up, but put me in a sugar coma. Perhaps it was the class that covered in painstaking detail stuff that I've seen before for an hour and a half. I don't think my chin ever actually touched the desk, but only because of the strange sitting configuration of the desks.

I took a brisk walk home after class and tried to work for a while and decided that a nap was the best thing for me. I woke up an hour and a half later. Ugh.

Blacker is the new black

A blacker black has been developed.
Kinda cool.

There's how much sugar in that?

Tastespotting linked to Foodsel today, reminding me of the short discussion of Smarties on Daily Pie after last Halloween.

You can pick the food and it shows you the equivelant number of sugar cubes, sticks of butter, and batteries (calories?). It will also tell you how long you would need to work out for different activities to burn the calories you took in. Kinda interesting but kinda sad. Enjoy!!

Before you freak out with the numbers, the default serving (for M&M's, at least), seems quite large. I think it defaults to 1 cup of the food. I have eaten more than a cup of M&M's in a sitting, but it's not the norm.

Silly

I don't work well without motivation. I've decided to sign up for an olympic distance triathlon (1k swim, 40k bike, 10k run) in April which doesn't give me a lot of time to train. I'm especially concerned about the run. I've got a plan and I'm trying to be reasonable and not overdo things early. I've hooked up with the Vandy Tri Club for support. Today was my first two-a-day with them in a while. I spent about 50 minutes in the pool and got in about 2500 yards. Then, I had a spin session that lasted every darn minute of the 40 minute workout. I thought we were done after that. I was wrong. We still had ab work left. It was a great workout and I think I'll sleep well tonight--if I don't wake up with my legs cramping!

Wine Tasting

When Kristi and Dwayne were in town, we did a tasting of Chateau Paveil de Luze, a Margaux from 2003 and 2005. These were both very good, but didn't have the characteristic Margaux nose or taste. This was surprising but not disappointing.

The 2003 had a full, earthy flavor and a very nice mouth feel and had a lovely, clear light garnet appearance. With a while to open up, it was ready to drink and will be drinkable for a long time to come.

The 2005 was a little sharp and earthy but not as smooth. It was a nearly-clear dark garnet color. It wasn't quite ready, and persisted in remaining "closed", but should be very nice in a few more years. It was better the next day, perhaps because the '03 was gone and I couldn't directly compare.

Truism for the Day:

On NPR's The Splendid Table,

"There is a Midwestern love for big, thick, dense things."
--Jane Stern in reference to the pancakes at the Grove Cafe in Ames, IA

Friday Flashback

When: I have no earthly idea. The wee-one was around for this series of pics so I'm going to guess 1983. It was definitely Easter Sunday. That's the only way I can explain the hat.

Where: The living room at the farm.

The Face: I am accused of making this face even now. It's evidently my I'm-really-tense face. Other interpretations?

In other news: Mamaw and Papaw used to bring us Easter dresses home from Florida. It was a pretty big deal. I honestly don't remember much about it other than it was a big deal and we were forced to wear the hat and little white gloves on this occasion and the dresses (lace) were unbearably itchy. We had to wear the dresses until all the grandparents saw us after church. They seemed to delay their arrival just to torture us.

Exam Week

This was the first round of midterms for the semester. My professors seem to have conspired and put their exams on consecutive days, therefore making me a little crazy. Well, maybe not crazy, but definitely reclusive. So now it's Friday night and I have no responsibilities and a lot of tension to release. There's a bottle of wine open, steak and potatoes for dinner, and bad TV on the internet. What else does the internet have? Shopping--specifically, zappos.com. I bought shoes. Cute, brown Clarks with free delivery.

But wait. There's better news: they've already been shipped. Some person is standing around in a warehouse on Friday night making sure my shoes are in the mail right now. I suppose they're also making sure that I'll order from them in the future, but I'm really more interested in the fact that they were shipped within an hour of my ordering them. I'm doing a little happy dance. I'm just not sure if it's because of the week being over or the shoes. I'll blame the shoes.

Swim Workout

I didn't have a lot of time for a swim workout tonight, but really wanted to do something. I managed 2000 yards in about 45 minutes and a really challenging workout (for me).

• 200 SKPS (800 total yards)
• 4 x 100, descending (1:30, 1:25, 1:20, 1:15)
• 8 x 50, 25 sprint, 30 seconds tread legs-only or 30 water crunches, 25 sprint on 1:30
• 4 x 100, descending (1:30, 1:25, 1:20, 1:15)

Total 2000

I made it through the first descending set, killed myself on the 50s, and missed the last 100 on the last set. I'll get it next time.

WFA WTF?

All the news today seemed to be centered around the congressional baseball/steroid hearings and I got really frustrated at the fact that our lawmakers are spending time investigating something that really doesn't affect the general public and that there was so much media coverage of said hearings. I kept getting a mental image of the big, bad committee asking hard questions during the session, then scurrying around for autographs during breaks.

So, I decided to find out a little about the committee that's running the hearings, the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, to see how baseball fits with the plan. The charter, from the webpage:

The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is the main
investigative committee in the U.S. House of Representatives. It has
jurisdiction to investigate any federal program and any matter with federal
policy implications.

Okay. This does not help with how baseball fits with the committee, unless baseball is suddenly a federal program. We'll move on to jurisdiction (again FTFW):

The legislative jurisdiction of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform includes the following areas, as set forth in House Rule X, clause 1:
• Federal civil service, including intergovernmental personnel; and the
status of officers and employees of the United States, including their
compensation, classification, and retirement;
• Municipal affairs of the District of Columbia in general (other than
appropriations);
• Federal paperwork reduction;
• Government management and accounting measures generally;
• Holidays and celebrations;
• Overall economy, efficiency, and management of government operations and
activities, including federal procurement;
• National archives;
• Population and demography generally, including the Census;
• Postal service generally, including transportation of the mails;
• Public information and records;
• Relationship of the federal government to the states and municipalities
generally; and
• Reorganizations in the executive branch of the government.

Okay, so I'll stretch things a bit and go with public information and records. It's a stretch, but I'm going to assume that's where they're coming from. However, if we're going to make this argument, I'll say that they need to be talking to individuals from all arenas wherein steroid abuse is an issue. These are probably primarily sports, but definitely not limited to baseball. The talks should be talking about the effects of steroids on the human body (for the use of public information) not the future hall-of-fame eligibility of the individual in question. Let that question go to the MLB governing body.

In the meantime, the 41 members of the committee have (so far) spent two sessions (this go-'round) in this investigation. Even conservative calculations would show astronomical billable hours. From there, we'll go back to the committee's homepage, on the right, under "Key Issues", and point out the "Waste, Fraud, and Abuse" (WFA) link. Yes, friends, this is the group that investigates WFA issues.

It's the very definition of irony.

Not quite a flying car, but close enough to impress me:

It took me a few minutes to figure out what they meant by "disappearing car door", but once I watched the video and had it spelled out for me, I drooled. Watch the whole video, enjoy the narrator's accent, struggle to imagine mainstream car companies adopting this.

The company is located in So. Cal. and the website seems a little slap-dash, but it seems like a viable idea.

Union Rules?

Henna

Having tried since before Christmas to schedule a time with Anu to play with henna, we finally managed to squeeze in about an hour on Saturday while Ladybug was taking her nap. It was a lot of fun and the results are great! The art will last about a week.

Spin Class

Just took my first spin class in years.

Primary accomplishment: I didn't puke.

Food!

It was a big week for food. My tasty, but failed attempt at a king cake last year made me a little dubious this year, but a very easy recipe came about on Tastespotting and there was success and yes, a plastic baby.

I finally had time and an occasion to make a baklava to take in to the starving grad students. The recipe is based on Martha Stewart's baklava recipe but modified to make it more reasonable.

It had to be sampled prior to release.

The weekend visitors inspired pancakes and sausage 'n gravy (made with Alan's pork sausage). The buttermilk biscuit (featuring cake flour) and buttermilk pancake recipes came from America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook, my current favorite general-purpose cookbook.

We also had good BBQ at Jim 'n Nick's. Kristi and I drooled over the collard greens. One of us, yes, the good auntie, shared with Ladybug.

I've got to get back to the gym this week!

Ladybug Goes to Nashville

Ladybug and her parents visited Jeremy and me in Nashville this weekend. We had great food, great talks, and great fun. We spent most of Ladybug's endless energy at the park with the dragon (Fannie Mae Dees Park). First, we had to get bundled up for the stroller ride:

Then, find the dragon:

Play on and around the dragon:

Help the dragon with some hygene:

And, elsewhere in the fantastic park, learn about climbing (great reach!):

Fun with tunnels (a video I hope):

Later, there was some fort-building--all fine and good until the bears took over:

Update

I'm posting to let people know that my general area of Nashville was unaffected by the storms, but there's a major effort in helping the nearby communities that were devastated. Things are pretty major when a campus-wide e-mail is sent out looking for volunteers for relief and when the storms become common locker room talk.

Storms and other natural drama haven't kept me from posting this week--sheer laziness has. There are several things to report. I'll (hopefully) be posting about these in the next week:

• Found
• Ladybug comes to Nashville
• Henna
• Baklava & King Cake
• Wine -- Margaux...mmm!

In the meantime, I'll thank everyone for kind thoughts and calls on the night of the storms. Keep those who were affected in your thoughts.

Friday Flashback

Because I miss nomadshan's Friday Flashbacks and Mom just sent me this picture, I decided to do one of 'em myself.

When: It has to be 1981 or 1982.

Who (l-r): Amanda, Jessica (I think), Michael, Audra, me

Where: The old Otis Park pool.

Demonstrating either my love for the water or my short attention span: Probably more the latter. I couldn't be bothered to wave at the camera as we were (obviously) being instructed to do. Amanda, fortunately, has the same problem. As I remember it, we spent most summer days at the Otis Park pool, thus my fantastic tan. This is where I failed my first swimming lessons. Ahh...the irony.

Help Kids With Math!

We did this last year, but it's a good thing to do. My favorite middle-school math teacher has called on her friends to help a fellow teacher get responses to a survey that will teach the kiddos about percentages and other math-y things. Go help!!

Take the survey!

For fun, put "pomegranates" as your favorite fruit. Heh heh heh...

Today's List

A short list appropriate for the non-sequitur-ishness:

1. It's exactly the wrong temperature for rain. Any colder and it would be snowing, any warmer and it would nice to have rain. As it is, it's exactly miserable and my walk home was much, much longer than usual.
2. Swimming for an hour straight is boring and makes me hurt the next day. But it's fun to say I did it!
3. It's much easier to edit other people's work than your own.
4. Polyester cording + Earbuds = Little shocks in the ear. Ouch!!!
5. Don't trust any technology websites that don't list patents on their product.
6. Haikus make fantastic technical abstracts.

Not as New, but Really Funny Anyway

This is probably not as new as advertised, but I hadn't seen it when Alex sent it along. She says, " It hurted me cause it was too funny."

Brief synopsis (à la Balderdash): Richard Simmons visits the U.S. set of Whose Line is it Anyway for a quick "Human Props" skit. Hilarity and hyperventilation ensue.

Enjoy!

Memory

I just had a really strong memory while looking at this photo on Lifehacker. It's not related to the gadget, but more to the form-factor of the gadget. It's been a long time, so Mom, if you're reading, help me out. Before Jenn was old enough to talk incessantly, before I went to school (or perhaps when I was in kindergarten), but after AAA started school, I would eat breakfast at a little, white, plastic, fold-down table installed in some cubby in the kitchen before it was remodeled. I think I sat on one of the little brown plastic chairs that we would stand on to reach the counters. I can't visualize where in the kitchen the little table was, but it was small, it had a bit of a texture similar to the texture of the chair, and it seems that I may have been the only one that used it. The strongest memory is sitting at that little table, eating little sausage sandwiches that the Schwann man sold, waiting to go to school. The sandwiches came perched on little white cardboard trays, wrapped in cellophane and went in the microwave until they thawed. You had to poke holes in the plastic. The bread came out pleasantly chewy, but the sausage was also chewy.

This memory, in no way, makes me want to eat prepared food.

Zoo Run Run

Today's mindless adventure lead me to run a 5k race with little or no running training in the last month. Brilliant! The last time I ran was over two weeks ago when I struggled through a two mile treadmill workout. I had signed up for this race before Christmas thinking that I would be able to get some building miles going before the race. Alas, the life of a grad student struck again and there was no building of the miles.

I expected nothing from the race and I hoped to finish either 1.) in less than 9 minute miles or 2.) without walking, depending on how I felt. I nearly didn't use the chip timing because the possibility of resorting to struggling with (2) was in the back of my head. However, I felt good before the race, even though it was sub-freezing, so I kept the timing chip. I was glad I did because I exceeded (1) by 30 seconds, finishing the race at 26:16, an 8:29 pace. It's not a PR, but I'm pleased with the day.

Things I learned:

• I started too far back in the pack. I was blocked by people clogging the runway, which slowed down my first mile. This may also have been a blessing, as I really wanted to be running faster, but may have run out of steam had I been able to run my own pace.
• Picking out people to catch up with seems to be a good motivator for me and I should continue to do this in the future.
• Having a strong sprint at the end means that you could have run faster overall.

Cool Stuff:

• Got to run through the Nashville Zoo, which appears to be a cool place
• Free beer at the end of the race
• I managed to feel a little competitive during the race--seeking out people to pass. This hasn't happened with running for....well....ever.
• My results were better than expected. I'm not exactly seeking to place yet, but there's hope!
• A long-sleeve technical t-shirt replaced the standard cotton tee as the event shirt. Whee!

Observations:

• People were comparing lists of animals they saw on the run. C'mon, it's a race! I, personally, saw no animals.
• Watching people try to grab as much free stuff as they could at the end of the race is a hoot. Power Water was very, very popular.
• My motivation at the end of the race was that I didn't like a girl's outfit in front of me (not flattering).

Resurrection

My views of how to fix electronics has changed. I noted a few posts ago that my microwave died. I was going to do something about it, but more than two weeks later, it is still sitting on my kitchen cabinet, plugged in. This may not be a completely bad thing. When I got back from my trip this week, I discovered that the clock and lights were working again. Magic? I dunno. It seems to be working just fine now. I have no earthly idea what happened.

It was definitely not working and now it does. Odd.

The microwave was picked because it was pretty and all microwaves are the same. After the untimely death, I went and read some reviews of this particular model and found that lots of people were having them die young, but conveniently out of warranty. My research also showed that it's often some capacitor that goes bad. Did the cap have a chance to cycle and refresh itself when I left it sitting? Dunno.

What I have learned: If something's broken, leave it there. It may fix itself. This replaces my old practice of dropping the broken device from an unspecified height. If it works after, great, if not, it definitely won't later.

I wonder how long this resurrection will last.

Word Switch of the Day

While repeatedly reading teleoperation as teleportation in a technical paper is entertaining, it really detracts from the primary focus of the article.

Just so you know.

Wounded-Bird-Truck

I may have previously posted about the Vanderbilt policy (mandate?) that they not physically harm the critters that run or fly around campus. This has lead to stories about squirrels being shipped off by the hundred to lands where students don't hand-feed them on the lawn to flourish or die (we can guess the outcome) or birds of prey being brought on to campus to keep the squirrel population down. The addition of birds of prey doesn't directly kill the squirrels, right?

Anyway, there's a bird problem. Not a bird-of-prey problem, but a bird problem. I documented, but never posted about this late last semester when I was a little more than crazy and posting about multitudes of birds would have just fanned the fire, if you will. So, I feel that, after the events of today, I can safely post the picture I took in the Nov./Dec. time frame. The dots, yeah, they're birds. A whole lot of birds.

From what I learned today, the birds in question are known for spreading all sorts of nasty diseases. The campus beautification team spends a significant amount of time keeping the little buggers a safe distance from the Vandy bubble. Unfortunately for those of us that have hearing left, that means that they blast the sounds of a wounded bird from a truck that drives around campus and setting off fireworks near the trees in which the birds light.

While I was walking to and from the gym, I could alternately hear the wounded-bird-truck(s?) driving about and the firecrackers going off. If I paid close attention, I could see on the horizon, the location of the firecrackers by the puff of birds making their narrow escape from the trees.

It was really absurd.

Found:

• One bowl of soup in my microwave from this last weekend. Heated, then forgotten. Oops.
• One busted microwave (one week after one-year warranty expired). Boo.
• One funny quote: "Bamboo doesn't grow that fast!" --on one of the fencing kids growing an inch in December.
• One tired girl after a 2.5 hour workout

Back to it.

"It" being regular workouts. At least, I hope.

Having discovered last week at Morgan-Monroe that I am terribly out of running shape, I took it easy today. I ran two miles from my apartment in about 17.5 minutes. I felt pretty good the whole way and I was able to comfortably push, knowing it was a short run. My knee didn't bother me (it did last week on both my runs).

When I got home, I did some core work.

Now, I can eat the rest of the chocolate cake that Rachel left in Bloomington! Yea!

To waste your time...

Go take the Sci Fi Sounds Quiz.

I'm terrible. Identifying sounds isn't a strength, but it's an entertaining quiz. I went back and took this, trying to go from memory, but still only scored a 71. I think Jeremy got a 71 without the advantage of multiple choice answers. I would play a clip and he would say something like, "Oh, that's HAL."

I was going to post the little tag from the website, but I couldn't get it to play nicely so you'll have to go and take the quiz and imagine the little tag at the end of this post.

**Imagine Cute Tag Here**

DoneDoneDone!!

With one in-class exam and two take-home exams turned in today, I'm done for the semester. A swim, some fencing, and a dinner at Bosco's later, I'm a little more sane.

Coming up: Holiday non-sequitur-ness and, in the Spring, PhD Prelims. Everyone smile and wait for the craziness.

Will Attempt Mental Math for Beer

Yes, I should be working on my exams. I got sidetracked by this article that implies that chimps can do mental addition as well as college students. I think this lands well within the duh regime. At this point in my college life, I can't put my shoes on correctly, much less mentally add things quickly.

The test (briefly summarized) was to flash two groups of dots on one screen and the adder had to select the sum of the two groups on another screen displaying two choices. It's not clear in the article (and I don't have the time/inclination to figure out) whether the response was a visual or symbolic answer. The success rate was the same for the primates as well as the college students (Duke, if you must know).

Anyway, it's a vaguely interesting and perhaps applicable article. I may need a pet chimp for Christmas.

Now, it's 9:00 pm, my chili's almost done, I have three hours before I turn into a pumpkin and there's an exam to tackle. Back to it.

NotaFire

The maintenance people came today to investigate my <ahem> electrical problem. It seems that the outlet and cord for my central heating unit had progressed into the melting-non-functional stage.

Why didn't the circuit breaker flip??

I dunno. Neither do the maintenance people. It could be that I caught it early enough that there wasn't enough time for it to flip.

Wait. It was your central heat? Wasn't it cold last night?

Yeah. It was cold. However, it's going to be colder tonight and I still have an apartment. It kinda reminded me of being on the farm. Nice and nostalgic--for a night.

So, everything's okay?

Yes. The guys came in and replaced the cord and the wall outlet for the heating unit. I'm snug as a bug, with only minor concerns about the rest of the wiring in the building.

Big Week

Things have been a little hectic since my last post:

• Jeremy and I competed in the Div. I NAC
• I had a particularly bad neighbor on a flight
• I finished and defended my thesis(!!!)
• An odometer birthday was celebrated
• My apartment nearly caught fire
• I'm still working on a take-home exam

Before I get to (really) rest:

• I have to finish this take-home exam and one more (for the same class)
• Christmas shopping
• Two finals
• Drive to Indiana

Good things from today:

• The wetsuit I ordered was delivered
• Yummy Indian food at the research group pitch-in (first ever, I think)
• Thesis was submitted
• The apartment did not actually catch fire**
• The potential fire was not from my cooking
• Progress was made on the above-mentioned exam

**I expect there will be a post about the non-fire tomorrow after resolution with the maintenance people. In the meantime, all is okay. I was lucky I was home.

Chocolate is Seasonal???

Jeremy went to pick up dinner tonight while I worked on the thesis. I had requested a chocolate shake from Arby's. He came back with tea and explained that, according to Arby's, chocolate is a "seasonal" flavor and this is not chocolate season. Jamocha, on the other hand, is not seasonal. This, evidently, is eggnog and orange cream season.

FOUL!!!

Sounds I Dislike:

Lawn equipment.

All lawn equipment that has any sort of motor, engine, etc.
This includes, but is not limited to, leaf blowers, weed eaters, and lawn mowers.

Today, these things sound like styrofoam being ground to bits by other, larger bits of styrofoam.

Sounds of Nature

Ugly, cellophane-wrapped, animatronic deer have taken up residency outside the Vanderbilt Hospital. I have yet to figure out what purpose the cellophane serves other than to compel me make a sympathetic gasping noise every time I pass. Breathe, little guy, breathe!!

Hooray!

Unless something important strikes me as I sleep, the Thanksgiving Thesis project has been successfully completed. There will certainly be revisions, but it's good to turn in to my advisor tomorrow morning for his leisurely browsing.

Doing a little happy dance...

...feeling a little insane.

Phase

I'm in the save-your-work-obsessively phase of the thesis writing. I have all the sections compiled into a single document. The figures and tables are all labeled and listed, there's a table of contents, and a bunch of words to go around the whole thing.

Whatever state the thing's in when I go to sleep tonight is what it will be in when I turn it in. I think.

Yea! Major progress!!

Crunch Time

The Thanksgiving Thesis Project has reached an important milestone. All the chapters are in (very) rough draft form. Now, it's time for the fine-toothed comb to come out and make sure that figures are numbered correctly, references are cited, and the bullshit I'm making up is at least convincing.

Let's see, refine 5 chapters in 30 hours. It's do-able.

What I'm dreading: Combining into one document.

What I'm happy with: A figure that took 2.5 hours to complete that nicely illustrates the process I'm working on.

Outlook: Optimistic, but getting easily distracted with real life (laundry, the need for groceries, the homework due Wednesday, the project due Friday, the exams -- THE EXAMS this week, Christmas shopping, the 15 little administrative things I need to take care of...sigh).

**Update**

Thanksgiving Night: 4 chapters out of 5 in very rough draft form.

Actively avoiding: The last chapter (results section).

Happy with: My data

Outlook: While it will be tight, but I think I'll have something that I'm not completely embarrassed about late Sunday night, ready to be delivered Monday morning. Optimism at its finest.

Thanksgiving Thesis

I am to write my master's thesis over the Thanksgiving holiday. This wouldn't be much of a problem except for my inherently social nature. AAA flew into Nashville on Monday, we drove to IN yesterday. I spent most of the day writing, but took an hour for a massage this afternoon. Today, I refined the outline, identified most of the figures that I want to include, and got rough drafts of two out of five chapters complete. Tomorrow, I hope to get at least one more chapter in draft form and the other two on Friday and spend the weekend cleaning up the whole thing. If all goes well, I'll defend sometime the week of the 3rd. Wish me luck!!

If I manage to get all this done, all I have to do in November is finish a math assignment, a project for another class, and take two exams while putting in corrections in the thesis. No problem, right??

Sesame Street

The first two seasons of Sesame Street are now available on DVD! Yea!!

Rumor has it that there's a warning for parents on the DVDs that these early episodes may not be appropriate for today's children. First, they tell us that the Smurfs was someone's giant hallucination, now, they're taking away Sesame Street.

No wonder we all turned out the way we did...

Green Christmas?

I have no idea how well this works, but Catalog Choice gives you an option to decide which catalogs you want to receive. Sounds great, eh?

Thanks Susan!!

Colossus

While listening to NPR this morning as I was heading to work, I heard in the hourly news summary that a British group has rebuilt Colossus, the computer designed to decipher German codes during WWII.

That's great! It'll be the size of a pocket watch!

No, no. Evidently, a computer museum (in the original location of an original Colossus machine) rebuilt the original design as accurately as possible (starting from a picture).

A computer museum--it's like seeing your childhood lunchbox in an antiques store!

The project took 14 years.

Huh? How long did it take to build the first one?

I dunno. Not 14 years. The difficulty is that all 10 original machines and their plans/specs were disassembled and/or destroyed for security reasons. The rebuilt computer will be pitted against a virtual Colossus running to demonstrate its blinding speed. Codes will be generated and transmitted via radio for this exciting head-to-head competition.

From Germany?

Yes.

Appropriate. Authentic.

Yes. Absolutely. The testing should be underway shortly. There are delays due to that fact that "we are at a bad point in the sunspot cycle."

Interesting article. Worth a read.

Names

I saw this article today and couldn't help but think that there may be some validity to this.

I remember drawing water associated with my lower-case script initials (SEA). Coincidence?

The sign of a long week ahead:

Walking to class this afternoon, I sighed and thought to myself, “At least it’s Friday.”
I then realized that it wasn’t.

It’s going to be a long week.

Additional Proof of the Downfall of Society

Hi, my name is Sarah, I think it would be great fun for everyone if you would let me come into your office when you're not around and do something funny. I could (a.) rearrange your furniture (b.) cover everything with aluminum foil or (c.) fill your desk drawers with Styrofoam peanuts. Would that be okay? Great.

Oh, hey, would you mind chipping in for supplies, everyone's giving $3. It would be great if you would too. Thanks.

Directions

On the way to class after lunch today, I was listening to my book, minding my own business, and as I was crossing a road, a slow moving car drove up (I was waiting on him to go so I could cross) and the driver asked me for directions to Sam's.

No problem. Sam's is nearby, I gave directions and got on my way.

Stop. Wait.

I was listening to my book (headphones, yes) and had sunglasses on.

This isn't the first time this has happened. I get stopped weekly by people asking for random directions, which is fine, but there seems to be no regard for the fact that I'm wearing headphones (and, in one case, talking on the phone, in another case, thoroughly wrapped in conversation).

I'm happy to give directions. Happier that I know where they're talking about. I just think it's strange that I get asked so often and so often when I should appear to be ensconced.

Thoughts?

Run Away...

My imagination got the best of me when I read this article about lobsters escaping from a supermarket. The word choices cracked me up.

1. I pictured them huddling and formulating a plan
2. I also pictured them posting lookouts and, during the escape, the slow ones yelling to the others, "Save yourselves!"
3. The soundtrack of my mind is going nuts with songs that include the phrase "run away" (e.g. "I've got to ..." and "... train, never coming back")

Don't you think it's a little odd that the crates weren't secured appropriately and the front door was "accidentally" left open?

Letters

I received real mail this week. I checked my mailbox as I was on my way to campus and found a card. A real card--just because!! I detoured back to my apartment to open it right then because I couldn't wait. I think about how happy I get when I get a letter, note, anything from a real person that I think I ought to be sending letters to people I know (like real correspondence).

Another inspiration for sending letters is the beautiful and fun stamps that the post office has put out this year. See? Yoda! Yea!

Go buy stamps and send a letter!! Make someone's day.

Inspired by: Sunflower!! Thanks soo much!!!

Joy!

Remember the "Friends" episode where Rachel takes Phoebe running in the park and is completely embarrassed that Phoebe still runs like a kid then in the end finds out that it's just a lot of fun to run like that? I was thinking about that the whole time I was running tonight. I felt better on my feet than I have for a long time. Maybe it's that it's not super hot and humid, maybe it was the music I was listening to, maybe it was the full night's sleep I got last night. I don't know and I don't much care, 'cuz I felt great and pushed for the last mile and felt like Phoebe running through the park. Yea!

Long Live Sport!

Most people who know me know that I'll watch almost any sport. They also know that I think ESPN is about the best thing to happen to television ever--especially back in the day when they primarily covered the "B-list" sports like volleyball and car racing (before NASCAR got popular). Now, with umpteen channels of 'round-the-clock coverage, there's a lot of airtime to fill. With what? Opinions. Lots of people are making a living giving their opinions about sports on television. Fantastic. God bless America! Unfortunately, over time, fact has been lost. Le Anne Schreiber's recent column addresses this issue and is worth a read. Enjoy!

Dinner before the Yum...

We made pecan- and panko-crusted chicken breasts for dinner tonight. Very tasty. I made this about a week ago and really enjoyed the recipe. Tonight we added a side of potatoes. The snap is from last week's meal, but this week's looked remarkably similar.

Yum!

Jeremy is here. I have no ice cream. We wanted something sweet. Do I really need to say anything more?

Yum!

Ask and ye shall...

This will probably become more commonplace with the fabulous-ness of the infoweb, but Minnesota Public Radio has a candidate selector quiz. It has the major issues and the stances of the candidates and you can rate the issues based on how important they are to you. It then pops out an ordered list of candidates. Very cool. I was looking for something like this the other day and Chris pointed me this way. Thanks, Chris!!

Go try it!

I wish WFIU would do something like this for the local elections...

Dedication

If my parents had been as dedicated to the success of my athletic endeavors, who knows where I'd be? Or rather, if I'd have survived.

The Flip Side

After posting about Josh, the jackass CS rep, I decided that it would probably be only fair if I would post about Coral, the very picture of all that is right in the CS world. I had called Coral prior to calling Josh. I needed Coral to help me get bits to some furniture that had been damaged in shipping. The problem was that I had already called the manufacturer and they had promised to send the parts along. I was worried that (1.) too much time had passed and (2.) that they would refuse to help based on the fact that I hadn't inspected the package upon receipt (FedEx had just dropped it at the door).

She said that none of this was a problem, asked me to send pictures of the damaged items (to her personal e-mail address), made sure she had accurate contact information, and even called back later to gather additional information. When I got back to her with the additional information, she knew who I was and remembered the problem. I was so very impressed.

Having had this fantastic experience, I was optimistic and gave Josh a call. Josh obviously didn't work out, but at least I know that there are Corals in the world.

Customer Service

I just got off the phone with a customer service rep. I was calling to ask if there was a replacement part for the battery compartment cover for my MP3 player. The phone call went like this:

Him: This is Josh. How can I help you?

Me (paraphrasing): Hi Josh. I have a MP3 player with a broken battery compartment and I was wondering if I could get a replacement part for that.

Him (direct quote): I don't have any. I never will have any.

(pregnant pause)

Me: I guess I'll just not worry about it then.

Him: Okay. Bye.

dial tone

Childhood Misconception

Walking around campus today, a few of us spotted this (apologies for the crappy resolution...camera phone):



It's green, about the size of a softball, hard, and bumpy.

One of the guys asked, "What's that?" The other responded, "Oh, it's a thing that comes from a tree...I don't know what it's called."

"What do you do with it?"

"Oh, throw them at people."

(insert pause for comic effect)

As he was saying that, I was starting to respond with, "You throw them in creeks and follow them as they float along," because that's what we used to do. I had to bite my tongue because the other response seemed to be more applicable for the current situation (no creek to be seen). Naturally, we looked around for targets, but no one walked by. The squirrels were oddly absent, too.

Here's the weird childhood misconception bit: there's a tree by the creek at Mom & Dad's that drops a bunch of these every year. For some reason, I concluded that this was the type of apple that Eve tricked Adam into eating. They looked like apples, but they didn't seem edible (I somehow got the impression that they were poisonous), and they were ugly, so it all made sense. Having put some thought into this more recently, I am curious about my "logic".

I mentioned this little story to the guys and they gave me the uncomfortable don't-know-what-the-hell-you're-talking-about look, the moment passed, then we took another glance around for a moving target.

Anyone know what this is and what it's about?

P.S. Bonus points for a Wiki link!

Superfun!

Jeremy and I went out with the triathlon club for a training/skills ride on Friday. Triathletes are notoriously bad at road etiquette, handling, dealing with crowded situations, and maintaining bikes (as compared to dedicated cyclists). We addressed the first three during the ride by heading out on the roads in Nashville during the busiest time of day at the beginning of Parent's Weekend at Vanderbilt, spending some time riding around the roads of Centennial Park, practicing track stands, and riding in the grass practicing leaning on and touching other bikes while riding.

Good idea? Sure!!

The good news is that no one crashed or got hit. The better news is that we all had fun. The best news is that we played bike tag in a park at dark in the grass with people milling around. It was 'sharks 'n minnows' style, starting with one it and adding its until one person is left who is not it. You had to physically touch other people on the bike for them to be it.

Bike tag ranks up there with the other fun, silly things that normal (read: smart) people wouldn't do, but I'd do again in a heartbeat (e.g. sledding on Slater at 2 am in -35 degree F. windchill).

I know, I know

You're all sick of me talking about this stupid baseball. I thought I would share that the voting has resulted in #756 being donated to the Baseball Hall of Fame with an asterisk branded on it. The article I read indicated that the BHoF is excited to be receiving it, but is actively not taking a stance on what that asterisk might mean.

"This ball wouldn't be coming to Cooperstown if Marc hadn't bought it from the fan who caught it and then let the fans have their say," Petroskey told The Associated Press. "We're delighted to have the ball. It's a historic piece of baseball history."

Personally, I don't care what they brand it with. I don't care if the record is "tainted". I wouldn't think much about the whole thing except for the following:


1. When time came for the record-breaking HR to be hit, the stadiums had security on hand to handle the situation.
2. Some asinine tax-goof with a big mouth made the guy who caught it think he would owe taxes on it if he kept it.
3. Some guy bought the ball at auction for around three-quarters of a million dollars.
4. That guy was smart enough to know what he had, that it was just a ball, and was willing to make a statement about it.


I would say that I'm done with this topic, but I expect that it will come up again.


I hope Mark Ecko videos the branding process, whatever that might be.