Book Club

One of my new year's resolutions is to be a better blogger. I even get points for it (more on that later). Of course to be a better blogger necessitates having more in your life than just work - really no one else is as interested in the intricacies of my job as I am and ofttimes even I am not that interested. So instead of continually writing blogs in my head which are never actually published I am making more of an efforts to stop whatever I am doing when I feel a blog coming and fire up the old PC. For instance currently I should be cleaning the kitchen which is a bit of a mess from my flurry to get refreshments made for book club. The responsible side of me thinks I should do that and go to bed but the creative side of me decided to do this. It was a pretty easy decision since I don't particularly like doing dishes.

We read "Three Cups of Tea" this month which I highly recommend. It was a bit slow to get into but is a fascinating story about how a few people can change the lives of many...the importance of education to a community...why development and commercialization brings both good and bad...how the power of love and understanding can conquer the power of fear and oppression...and the strength of the media to portray images both true and false.

I readily admit that normally I am an escapist reader and this is definitely not an escape but it is enthralling and very much an edifying read. Maybe I am on a roll and will update goodreads more often this year.

Oh back to the explanation of refreshments - no although I naturally feel that any social gathering requires food it is not a requirement for book club hosts but really how can you not serve tea when discussing a book call "Three Cups of Tea". And yes the majority of us drank three cups of tea. Luckily, my roommate Andrea and I are a bit of tea fanatics and thus could provide a plethora of choices by simply opening our cupboards - 8 to be exact. My new discovery - Sweet Thai Delight which is a truly delightful mix of coconut, rooibos, cinnamon and anise made best with a bit of honey and a splash (large splash in my case) of coconut milk (and yes I did actually have a can of coconut milk in my cupboard because you never know when it will come in handy).

favorite christmas quote

I spent this Christmas with the Tippets family. After the traditional dinner at IHOP with funny face pancakes, reading of the Christmas story, and opening of one Christmas gift all the girls went to bed and the adults went to finish wrapping/constructing gifts. About 11 pm I found Eve (age 4) in the hallway rubbing her eyes. When I asked why she wasn't in bed asleep she answered in total seriousness..."I think I had too much fun!".

What is a girl to do - this was a dilemma. I asked what she usually did when she couldn't sleep and she answered that she usually just stayed up. I realized that this is exactly what I do (often to the detriment of my health) but then she came up with a solution for her sleeplessness - she would be able to fall asleep immediately in my bed. So after a quick conference with her mother to get permission into my bed she went and immediately fell asleep.

workplace humor

I just returned from a two week vacation (pictures to be posted soon) to find that apparently according to one of our volunteers I resigned while I was out. I have a funny voicemail one of my colleagues forwarded to me from said volunteer who was very sorry to inform my colleague that I am no longer employed at the museum and my colleague will have to deal with her concern. Too bad I didn't know I had resigned when I dragged myself out of bed the first day back or I could have just enjoyed a nice relaxing day at home. :)

and the tag goes where?

I knew I would have a really long day today (as in Friday because I guess technically it is now Saturday - and I am just getting home from work) so I showered and braided my hair last night to cut down and the getting ready time (air drying my hair here usually has disastrous results), had my lunch all ready to go, knew what I needed to take with me, etc. Basically my goal was to get out the door as quickly as possible with the least amount of thought possible. As luck would have it I was so tired last night that apparently I didn't move and my braids looked great so I skipped the doing my hair portion of the morning. I got a good start to my day before everyone else showed up and powered through an extremely long list (if I was this effective every day it would be amazing!).

However, the whole day (or at least until about 8 pm) I kept feeling like my shirt just didn't fit right. It was your basic white, cotton, boatneck shirt - the tag is inked on the material instead of sewn on. It looks nice and is usually quite comfortable except for today when I felt it was straggling me and cutting off my air supply (yes - that is a bit of an exaggeration). So around 8 pm I realized that my shirt was backwards - yes it was now 14 hours after I had gotten dressed and I was just noticing. Pathetic! So I switched it around and quite enjoyed the last 4 hours I wore it.

the innocence of youth

During Sharing Time this afternoon...

Me: You really need to sit in your chair quietly.
Sunbeam: hmmmpfff! (sitting down quietly but not exactly willingly)
Me: Thank you.
Sunbeam: (gently squeezing my arm with both hands with a mischievous grin - but doing it rather quietly)
Me: What are you doing?
Sunbeam: Squishy!!
Me: (in my head - not really what I want to hear but the child is still being fairly quiet and is still sitting in the chair which is quite an accomplishment)
Sunbeam: Squishy!!
Me: Okay - well then why don't we just sing with the group now.

2nd Annual Del Ray Music Festival

I live in Rosemont which is between Del Ray and Old Town Alexandria so I feel that I can claim either. I love this area! Every year there is Art on the Avenue where I always find unique pieces - there is something about buying a ceramic piece from the actual artist that makes it more fun. This weekend Del Ray is hosting the 2nd Annual Music Festival. Browing the festival website I found out that the Del Ray Community, was formerly known as the Town of Potomac and it is celebrating its 100th year.

E is for what?

On Tuesday night I was running errands late at Target and noticed that my gas gauge was on empty. I made a mental note to stop at the gas station on the way home because I knew I was driving into work the next day. The last time I remembered looking at the gas gauge was on my way to BWI and at that point it was showing a quarter tank. Alas, my mind wasn't working very well and by the time I checked out and got to my car I completely forgot. I remembered as I was falling asleep at 1 am and thought - no problem I pass three gas stations on the way to work and can just stop in the morning. Obviously I didn't remember in the morning either.

Here is what my gas gauge looked like when I pulled into the parking garage for work the next morning. I honestly think that had my car started to sputter and die I would have been seriously perplexed at the situation.

Another cake...

...again using my new favorite form of chocolate magic. This four tier chocolate tower was concocted to celebrate Andrea's birthday.

cupcakes!!

More wedding cakes...this one was for Kerstin and John. Becca helped tons - coming over and staying up until 3 am - I would have been in trouble without her help. We tried lots of different flavors and settled on vanilla, brownie, and oreo (the raspberry was a complete disaster so we left that out). The groom's cake (Terp's helmet) was marbled chocolate chip. And the giant cupcake was chocolate. It was lots of fun to make the flowers out of chocolate plastique - which is my new favorite chocolate invention. You can do such cool things with it and yet it still tastes good. And it has a shelf life of weeks. The cupcakes and the football helmet worked out even better than expected. Getting them all the way to Maryland in one piece was nerve wracking but it all turned out well. The kids especially loved the the miniature cupcakes.

green growing things

So I took these pictures a couple weeks ago but haven't has a chance to post them. Our yard got a bit out of control this year and before anyone noticed turned into a jungle. I was pretty impressed with what our lawnmower (an electric one) was able to accomplish. However, even after I went over it a couple times it wasn't completely trim as you can see.