Holiday Weekend

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving yesterday! I certainly did. I woke up early to start the cooking - making stuffing, getting the bird ready and started, and then doing the cleaning I hadn't accomplished the day before. (All but one room were swept, dusted and cleaned; of course, the room that I didn't get to was the living room.) The cheesecakes (that's right, I gave my guests cheesey-cake options) were made, and I had everything planned. Then the folks showed up right as my co-worker called for directions, Daddo pronounced the bird done early (350 instead of 325, oops!) and the potatoes weren't boiling. So it was a little crazy in the final moments, but Momola and I work well together in the kitchen, Daddo calmed down as soon as we gave him some knives to sharpen (grumble, grumble, distract with shiny objects), and all ended just fine. We sat down with good food, good wine, and chatted our way through turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, homemade gravy (yay me!), asparagus, cranberry sauce, bread, and finally, cake. Whew.

We toasted to a good meal and a happy holiday, but I've actually been thinking about what I was thankful for this year. I'm thankful for an entirely happy year, one in which family figured largely, and new friends were made. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with friends and family.

daytripper

It was a busy weekend, followed by a twelve hour work day yesterday, so I'm looking forward to the long holiday weekend. I took the train up to Philly yesterday. Well, first I had to run for the train - I might have left the house a few minutes after I intended to. I made it, though, and just an hour and a half later we were sitting in a meeting room at Penn. Day trips are a little disorienting, because you start at stop at home, just like any other day, but somewhere in the middle you find yourself in a location that's outside your normal realm. We were delayed coming back, of course, which meant I got home ready for someone else to cook me dinner (yay, pub!) and hit the sack. Which is what I did. Not very exciting.

automaton.

Do you ever stop to think about how many things are done for us these days? Last night I was out for dinner with some wonderful people (yay!) and ducked to the restroom at one point. Without even thinking about it, I found myself standing in front of the sink, holding my hands out and waiting for the water to start. The faucet had a handle. I blame the restrooms at work - everything is automated there. The automatic toilet flushing is so sensitive you barely have time to stand up. Let me tell you, automatic flushing freaks me out. I had a roommate in college whose mother worked in germ research (bacteria or some such - I'm not a biologist), and she gave me the germ fact that has stuck in my head ever since, and probably will stick in my head until the proverbial end of (my) days. The toilet has a 6 foot germ spray radius. At least. We've all encountered the super flusher that sprays water (as well as germs) all over the place. As a result, I developed the "flush and run" technique in public restrooms, and a severe "lid down" rule in my house. These automatic flushers wreak havoc with my germ-phobia. I've started putting a square of toilet paper over the sensor so I could stand and re-dress in peace, and when ready to duck out I whip the tp off the sensor as I'm opening the door to the stall. Let's just call it a quirk and move on.

The point is, I stand and wait for the water to come on, I wave my hands in front of towel dispensers without looking for the lever, and once - just once - I walked into a glass door that I assumed had a sensor for automatic opening. I don't know if these automatic happenings are really making our lives easier or not (I guess not if we develop OCD behaviors to outsmart them) but I do know that the transition while some things are automatic and some aren't is kind of a pain.

As an aside, I find it funny that this toilet germ phobia is so strong. Yes, it's gross to think about, but in general I believe in exposure to germs - go with the 5 second rule, let your kids eat off the ground, and don't over-do the anti-bacterial soaps, we need exposure to germs to keep our immune systems going strong. I don't get flu shots because I'm neither super young or super old, and I've got faith in my body's ability to to develop its own antibodies. But bathroom germs? Heebie-geebies. And the MythBusters episode on bathroom germs? It didn't help me to know my actions were pointless.

babies and booze

The Dumpster came to visit last week. He came by the office, where his auntie taught him to cover himself with post-it flags. We went to the zoo, where auntie and Dumpster looked at the animals while his momma and uncle talked discussed 90210 (did you know it came back?). Auntie taught him 1-2-3, Jump! and he loved it. Now his momma complains I've hindered his number learning. I say, if you jump when he expects you to, he'll count just fine. And for the very first time, Auntie didn't get sick after playing with that baby - even though he was coming down with a cold! I think it's because I went straight from baby playtime to grown-up playtime and the liberal application of plenty of booze - alcohol kills germs, you know. I had two friends celebrating their birthdays Saturday night, so got all dolled up and disco fabulous (theme party, of course) and headed out after a disco nap. Good thing I took that nap, as I rolled back in around 4:30am. Nothing productive happened the next day.

Here's my favorite picture from the Dumpster's visit:

strongbad_email.exe

You never seen anything quite like these buttons!

(N.B. - The idea for this post is not mine. I saw Bill and Anna Friday night and she had read my last. As I told her more of the story, she said I reminded her of Strong Bad, and so, here we are. The following is obviously paraphrased.)

]Dear Astrowahoo,
You are so smart. I am not smart. Teach me about stars?
Sincerely,
Lack of Confidence, Maryland

a>Dear Lacking, My brother told me every day for the past week that I had not emailed you. To shut him up, I am emailing you. We live in a city, you can't see the stars. And the gift you sent me through him when I didn't respond right away? I already have one. Good luck growing a pair. Hoping we're done here, Astrowahoo.

]Dear Astrowahoo,
Thanks for your response, no worries it's over a week in coming, I will email you back the same night. I hear you like the zoo. Teach me about animals? Also, want to come over to my house for dinner a month from now? It will take me that long to think of something to say to you.
Hope to hear from you soon,
LC

]Dear Astrowahoo,
Only days ago, I asked about the zoo. Do we still have hipo there? My favorite. Hipos walk funny and make me think of Eeyore. Cute. Also, yay Friday.
Hope to hear from you soon,
LC

So, until next time, keep sending me your questions, and I will make fun of you, I mean, answer them.

I'm not emailing him back - I just can't. He misspelled hippo and spelled Eeyore correctly. I didn't even know how to spell Eeyore, and not being a 7-year-old girl, I'm not looking for a guy whose favorite cartoon character is a Disney creation.

The worst of it is, Momola read my last as a sigh over singledom, rather than a celebration that I'm not tied to an idiot. So, let's lay it out there - I'm glad I'm not tied to an idiot! Idiots often come with girl-motions and require long discussions about feelings and mush in between moments of extreme stupidity. Here's to finding a non-idiot, who doesn't take himself or me too seriously, with whom I can goof off and get laid. Until then? Bars. And batteries.

Things better left unsaid.

Recently, Christopher told me that in talking with a co-worker, the fact that I was a single girl in DC came up. The co-worker started asking about me and asked Christopher to introduce us. The response my lovely brother gave? "She doesn't like boys." Apparently then he heard the words coming out of his mouth, because he qualified it with, "I mean, she thinks boys are idiots." (OK, there is some truth there.) Not one to quit while he's behind, he elaborated with, "She's like Bones." For those of you not in the know, Bones is a character on tv - a forensic anthropologist who's scary smart, short on social skills, and meets cultural references with, "I don't understand." Since I'm not interacting on a daily basis with David Boreanaz, I don't see the upside of this comparison.

As a side note, Christopher did give said co-worker my email address, and the boy is cut from the "wow, you're so much smarter than I..." cloth. Makes me kind of wish Christopher had just stopped at, "she doesn't like boys."

This all happened in the same week a woman in my office saw my knitting in my bag - I'm knitting a little cap for Eric and Annie's baby boy in March - and I was told, "you knit and have a cat? That's so cute!" Seriously? Huh.

Make History.

I just left my local polling place. If you're not voting today, you're a big jerk. (OK, that's only true for Americans.) Can I tell you that I love voting? I do. I like thinking that even in some very small way, my voice is being heard. And this time? Oh, I woke up giddy this morning. I wanted to jump up and down. It doesn't matter that here in DC I could stay home and the lovely people around me would echo my thoughts with their votes, being a part of this election thrills me like no other voting day has yet. It's even better than the first time. I love it, and I'm wearing my "I voted" sticker with glee.

So go vote, jerks!