Princess Sparklefists

Woo! The Washington Post has the winners of this years Peep Show marshmallow peep diorama contest. They're lots of fun, as usual. I particularly like the cute Goodnight Moon one.

My mom told me (again) last night that when I finish grad school, I really ought to write a collection of stories about my experiences with public transit. Over the past year and a half I've had my fair share of transit mishaps and misadventures, that's for sure, although I somehow doubt the outside world's interest in my inability to catch a train on time.

This evening I'm fresh from class and for the first time in recent memory, I've left the classroom still thinking about the course. I'm disappointed because there were avenues of discussion that we weren't able to explore and points that I wasn't able to raise. (Luckily, we have a course blog, so I'll be able to talk about those things later!) This really shouldn't be a novel experience for me--I like school, and pretty much always have. Unfortunately, library school pretty much sucks all the joy out of learning, so right now I am ecstatic about the fact that I am once again engaged by learning. Now I remember why I wanted to go to grad school--this is what it's supposed to be like. It actually makes me reconsider the idea of returning to grad school yet again for a subject masters degree. Not right away, but maybe someday.

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Instead of stocking up on milk last night, like the rest of this city did, I ventured out to meet my aunt to see An Education at the E Street Cinema. If it's showing somewhere near you, I highly recommend it. Carey Mulligan stars (Sally Sparrow to Doctor Who fans) as Jenny, a 1960s school girl who falls for a charming older man. She's fantastic in the role, and completely deserves all the awards and nominations. The supporting cast, including Olivia Williams, Emma Thompson, Alfred Molina, and Dominic Cooper, were very strong as well. I'd really like to read the memoir the film was based on, but unfortunately it hasn't been published in the US.

I'm glad I went out last night because today the snow predictions actually came true. Over the last 24 hours we've had almost two feet of snow. That's almost unheard of in this region, and it was enough to shut down most of the city, including almost the entire public transit system. I had intended to some have friends over for a holiday party tonight, but that fell through, so I've had the apartment to myself all day. (One of my roommates is in India for a month, the other left for Rockville as soon as she got up this morning, before the roads became nearly impassable. She asked me for snow driving tips, and I sent her out with a dustpan and broom since she had no ice scraper.) It's been a bit lonely, but I've kept myself pretty busy. I'm all stocked up on baking supplies (I braved the long lines at Giant last night for eggs and cream of tartar... wouldn't want to be caught without if the store was closed today) so I mixed two cookie batters. I baked one variety (and hardly burnt any of them) but the other has to refrigerate overnight first.

Tomorrow I'm doing more baking... hopefully with an assistant. An old friend (from elementary school) is up from Williamsburg and wants to help, but she couldn't get out of the city today. Metro had better be running again tomorrow, cause it'd be fun to see her again.

I met up with my aunt tonight and we went to see Julie & Julia, which I really enjoyed. Both stories were fun, and Meryl Streep is excellent as Julia Child.

After the movie (all that cooking and eating!) we had a late dinner at Jaleo. It's the end of DC restaurant week, we decided why not live it up and go for the prix fixe menu. We had a whole feast of tapas accompanied by yummy sangria. I think my favorite was chicken with garlic that was really tender and juicy, but everything I tried was delicious. To top it off their was flan for dessert! It was a bit of a splurge for me, but, hey, it's the end of summer, and now I've had the restaurant week experience.

Since tomorrow is my last day of summer, I want to find something fun to do, rather than just spending the whole day sitting on the sofa. (We have a sofa and a coffee table now, yay! Now I just need to buy a TV.) One week off between classes isn't long enough!

I've not been feeling well all week, so it's quite a relief that we've hit the weekend. Today was one of those days I probably shouldn't have been driving at all because I'm so completely exhausted, but I had to get home somehow, and I made it without getting injured, so yay.

I am feeling somewhat better now that I'm at home eating chips, though. I've got these olive flavor tortilla chips (yes, there are actual bits of olives in the chips) which are absolutely delicious. FoodShouldTasteGood chips are my new favorite. I've also had the multi-grain and sweet potato flavors, which are good, and I want to try the chocolate chips.

Anyway, enough about chips. I think tonight calls for vegging out with Netflix and Hulu. Maybe even some ice cream if I'm motivated. (I've recently discovered that's there a Coldstone--and a Chipotle!--in town, which I never knew. Probably a good thing for my waistline.)

Ah, summer vacation. I love it. Finally, I can do whatever I want, whenever I want, with no guilt. Not that I didn't still have an agenda for my day, it just doesn't involve school things!

• I went on a bike ride this afternoon, and when I got into town I discovered there's some sort of festival going on this weekend. Now that's fun and all, but it also meant that part of the bike trail was blocked, and the rest was very crowded with families and young children. My last big bike crash was caused by little kids veering left of center on a bike trail, so this was worrisome for me. There was one near miss when a kid swerved out in front of me, but I made it home okay. (And for once, I wasn't totally drained because I actually followed my own advice not to push myself past my limits.)


• We now have an official chore sheet at home, not that it makes much of a difference. Derelict housemate selected cleaning the bathroom from the list, but apparently his idea of "cleaning" means wiping down the countertop two days after making a mess cutting his hair. I decided I've had enough, so I spent some quality time scrubbing the floor, and basically anything else in sight, with bleach. It was a bit labor intensive, but there really is something satisfying about accomplishing a physical task.


• I need to stop watching Fringe while I'm eating, cause it grosses me out. Also, in the department of "Eeewwww," I am very lucky that I don't have a particularly sensitive stomach. Yesterday I decided to risk the sour smelling milk cause I was in a hurry and had already poured the Cheerios in the bowl... today I dumped out the rest and it was kinda chunky. Blech. I discovered earlier this week that the temperature in the fridge wasn't low enough, so at least now I know why everything has been going bad.


• I have time to read again! I went to the library (I had to hurry to get there before they closed for the weekend!) and checked out a stack of books, including a couple recs from friends before we got shooed out by some John Philip Sousa (there's some holiday spirit for ya!). I had my usual reaction of "Hey, I've played this!" And on more than one instrument, no less.


• There's an article about zambonis in the New York Times! :D

This weekend was very busy. I read some articles, wrote a paper, read some more articles, looked up articles online, read those too...

Saturday afternoon I took a break from school things and headed over to the Home Despot. Strangely enough it was quite busy on a sunny Saturday afternoon in April. Who'd have thunk it? I went there in search of a new mailbox. The plastic flag had long since fallen off before I moved here, and this week the door broke, so every time the mail is delivered it falls off. It was definitely time for a new one, but I almost changed my mind when I saw the huge $70 ones for sale. Who pays that much for a mailbox? Luckily they had the small, plain $15 variety tucked away down the aisle.

So I thought to myself, "How hard can putting up a mailbox really be?" I unscrewed the old mailbox successfully, then discovered that the new one was smaller and wouldn't fit on the base. So I'd need a saw. Or four. ( Amateur carpentry time! )

Also, I tested out my new-old waffle iron this morning. I will be eating chocolate chip waffles for breakfast for the next few days because I made way too many for one person. Yum! There's also some Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream I picked up at Trader Joe's last night that's calling to me. End of semester stress requires lots of comfort food.

I felt better about my apparent weakness when my roommate the personal trainer, who is much stronger than me, also could not open my jam jar. Of course, his inability to open it didn't help me with the continuing PB&J problem, sooo... I tried again.

Rubber band thing did not work, so then I tried hot water, but then the jar was all slippery. I dried it off, set it on top of one rubber glove and used another for the lid AND I TWISTED IT OFF!

I AM VICTORIOUS OVER FOOD PACKAGING AND CAN FINALLY MAKE MYSELF A SAMMICH!

I hope everyone's enjoyed their first day of 2009. :)

Mine's been pretty slow. Last night I went to a party, so I slept in the morning. Then I spent the rest of the day doing important things like reading Georgette Heyer and switching out most of my LJ icons. My dad made stuffed shells for dinner, which were much yummier than sauerkraut.

CD101, my favorite Columbus radio station, has started their annual countdown of the most requested songs in the station's history. If you like alternative rock, I highly recommend it for the unique mix of songs. I always hear something amazing and unexpected. If you don't live in Columbus, never fear! You can listen live online.

Tomorrow it my last day of vacation, and there's so much to do. Clothes to pack, errands to run, "The Mind of Evil" to finish. And right now I think I need more Christmas cookies.

ETA: Guys, I have an important question. In addition to the books I've read list that's been chilling on my desktop all year, I've got a to-read list. Should I start that over for 2009 as well? I'm torn. On one hand, I want to read all the books ever, so I'll never actually finish the list if I don't purge it once in awhile. On the other hand, I made the list so I can remember titles, and if I purge the list I'll... forget. I can't decide!

ETA 2: Kit asked to see the list. ( Here it is. )

The past week I've mostly been reading news articles that have left me frustrated or angry, so today I've got some other stuff I found interesting in the Sunday papers.

I know some of my f-listers may be interested in the Billie Piper interview in The Observer today. She talks both about her pregnancy and the upcoming series of Secret Diary of a Call Girl, which begins this week.

This is from last week, but I didn't finish last Sunday's Washington Post until I went to throw it in the recycling yesterday. (It's such a good thing we don't get the paper delivered every day. We'd never finish anything!) Anyway, there was a nice feature editorial about Ohio and being a Midwest transplant to D.C. written by Emily Langer. She writes:

I miss Ohio most when I hear other transplanted Midwesterners belittle their parents for being intimidated by subways that they have no occasion to ride, or mock the suburbs that seemed pretty great when they were running through sprinklers in their big backyards, or dump on cornfields and cows, especially when most of them spent their childhoods not on tractors but in minivans. But of course, I too have sinned by leaving Ohio, and there are days when I feel downright traitorous for having done so.

I don't think she mentioned in the article, but Ohio has a major problem keeping college graduates in the state. I know Governor Strickland is doing some work to reverse that trend, so it'll be interesting to see how successful that is in the coming years. (Says the Ohioan turned nomad.)

And for those who like to go to Magnolia and mack on some cupcakes, Jennifer 8. Lee asks Will Cupcakes Be the Next Krispy Kreme?. We had some pretty darn good cupcakes in Montreal, but I can't remember the name of the shop. Forget Krispy Kreme, though: why is there no Timmy's near me?