It has snowed and I am still alive! We got about six inches, and luckily it was mostly snow and not yucky ice like the Carolinas got. Yesterday Geoffrey and I woke up and bounced right out of bed and ran to the window, second-grader style, to look at the snow. We ventured downtown (using Metro -- you didn't think I'd still be alive to tell if one of us had attempted to drive, do you?) and frolicked on and around the National Mall. Yeah, we're pretty cool.
We went to the White House for a while, but we kept getting shooed away because they were getting the Ellipse ready for the White House tree-lighting. Fa dee dah. We also got corralled by some cops for a few minutes while a motorcade likely containing W himself (Sara, clutch thy heart) went through.Very exciting. After that we went to part of the Mall where the Washington Monument is, and had a good snowball fight. Then we built a little snowman right by Constitution Ave., where everyone could see 'im. And where he could see the White House. His sticks-for-arms could have held a sign, so we searched for means of making a "No Blood for Oil" sign or some such, but no paper, no marker, so no poster for our snowman. As we finished building him these three foreign guys came up -- speaking no English -- and shoved their camera at Geoffrey and got behind our snowman. So we snapped their picture and they were very happy. And we were very happy that they were very happy. And we were also very cold, so we wandered to the National Gallery of Art and had some hot chocolate in a little pavillion by the Sculpture Garden. The fountain there is a skating rink in winter, we discovered, so we'll have to go back there sometime and ice skate. Outside. Which is totally weird. But I could see where it would be fun.
After the snow frolicking we came home, spending the evening putting out our Christmas decorations (alas, no room for a real tree, but we have some other doodads) and making cupcakes in honor of Strom Thurmond, who made the front page of this morning's Washington Post. The roads were such last night that we thought it best not to go to either the symphony or the Los Straitjackets show, pity. But it was a very fun day anyhow.
Burning question (this is kinda gross, but I have to know): Is it acceptable to use the toilet brush to get rid of, um, skid marks? Geoffrey thinks this is one of many fine functions of our friend the toilet brush, but I am of the opinion of toilet brushes are strictly
for cleaning in the general sense. Flushing and time are the tools for skid removal, says me. Use the comments to weigh in, I'll publish results of this important poll.
Shout-out to Joe, who is a smartypants cool cat. We're all very proud of him and think he should eat more marshmallows.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: From Thad Strom, Strom Thurmond's distant cousin and a former staffer, as quoted in the Post: "I see so many people here today whose life Strom Thurmond has touched -- and some he even squeezed."
Stacy - 10:26 PM
Wednesday, December 04, 2002
Oh look, me again. See? December will be better. It is very cold here tonight. VERY cold. And there is to be snow -- some estimates put it at 6-8 inches now. Enough, according to Geoffrey, that it will come up over our boots AND WE'LL DIE. Though apparently Anderson and Greenville were getting hit with quite a bit of ice, so I shouldn't complain about nice soft fluffy (and freakin' cold!) snow. Geoffrey and I are thinking we'll try to go to the National Mall tomorrow if we can and see what the monuments and all the pretty buildings look like with snow. Very brave of us to plan to venture out ... we'll see if we actually do it.
Also have a wonderful choice of entertainment tomorrow night, weather permitting. Either (1) the National Symphony with Midori playing Smetana's Vltava -- the symphony about the river that runs though Prague -- one of my favorites, or (2) Los Straitjackets playing a Christmas show. Very different from the symphony. The Los Straitjackets are a kind of rock/surf band whose members wear Mexican wrestling masks and yell at you in Spanish during the show, I hear. Never seen them live, but I hear it's not to be missed. Tough choice -- tune in next time for the exciting decision!
As for today, I did a little Christmas shopping, some at real stores, where the cheesy Christmas music makes me want to kill, and the best part online, where I could listen to some Rhett Miller and munch and scratch my belly. Ah, I love the online shopping.
Is it to early to do Christmas cards? I thought about doing them today, but then thought gosh, no, it's too early. But then I checked the mail tonight and had TWO cards, so maybe I'm a chump.
Geoffrey and I ended the night at our friend (from Furman) Robin and Jason's house, where we ate yummy sweets and helped decorate their Christmas tree. Fun, cozy time.
Shout-out to Strom Thurmond, who turns the big 1-0-0 tomorrow. Janna and I have a tradition of making cupcakes for the occassion, so I've got all the fixin's ready. Sure hope he likes chocolate. Sure hope he likes it when I eat chocolate, that is. Oh, ho ho ho. Oh, you HAVE to go to the site linked with Strom's name at the beginning of this paragraph. Among other amusing features, it has a clock that counts how many seconds Strom Thurmond has been alive. Boggles your mind!
I leave you with an anecdote my friend Karen at work recently sent me about ol' Strom. I don't know if it's true, but you be the judge:
The day the Senate was scheduled to debate a bill restricting abortions, a constituent called Strom's office to express her opinion on the bill. His secretary told him, "Miss [whatever her name was] is on line one about the abortion bill."
Strom's reply: "Tell her to just pay it and I'll reimburse her."
Stacy - 11:39 PM
Tuesday, December 03, 2002
Look here, you whiny babies. I told you that November was going to be a slow month on my blog. Didn't I tell you? But still you hassle me. Since no one commented on my last two posts (sniff sniff), I figured no one would notice if I updated anyway. Poooooor me. ;) But you did notice, bless your lil hearts, and so I'm back, and hopefully on course to post more often again.
About that novel ... yeah, I didn't make it. I stayed stalled at 13,000 words or so and just gave up. The darn thing was so boring even I didn't want to find out what happened next. Oh well. I did learn a lot, and I plan to try it again next year.
Thanksgiving was good. I had to work, but afterward I went over to my friend Robin's house, where they'd saved me a heaping plate of good eats, so I was well fed and spent the evening with some ol' Furman folk. The next day I headed to Baltimore after work to hang out with an ol' Anderson folk -- my good buddy Ed, who shall hereby get a shout-out even though I'm pretty sure he doesn't read this. Geoffrey was back home in Anniston for the long weekend, so I was otherwise by myself, which theoretically afforded me the opportunity to stink up the apartment giving myself a pedicure, watch girly movies and drape the place in flowers and ribbons. I didn't end up getting time to do those things, though, between work and being with friends. So pretty much my only accomplishment from a weekend with the apartment to myself was to junk up the place.
Today begins a three-day weekend for me, which unfortunately looks to be coinciding with an ickypoo cold snap here -- pretty good chance of 1-4 inches of snow here tomorrow night/Thursday morning, they say. So I hope to get some Christmas shopping done, mayhaps, but may end up huddled up in my apartment, missing summer.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: In an e-mail from Sara P., who's a total bitch-ho but nonetheless supplied the kick in the pants needed to get me to write this post: "you suck, everyday i check the blog and nothing, no news, no funny stuff, just November 19th, over and over. I hate November 19th." Harumph!
LISTENING TO: Timeless, a tribute to Hank Williams (no, not Jr., and not III either, though he covers one of his grandpappy's songs and sounds just like him, creepy!), one of the like 50 CDs I am currently borrowing from my friend Sean, who mostly has great taste in music except for an unfortunate affinity for the freakin' Goo Goo Dolls. The others I am borrowing are all Johnny Cash, including his new one. So much good music, so few radio stations playing it. Sigh.
Stacy - 2:50 PM
