I got a new haircut! It's cute. I hope it's still cute tomorrow after I wash it and style it myself. But I told my hairdresser that I wanted something that required no effort or blowdrying, and that's more or less how she styled it, so I should be ok. Nonetheless, I will make thereject take pictures when he gets home.

I came home today to find the latest Spore expansion pack waiting waiting on my desk. Aw!

And now, for your amusement, allow me to share a recent conversation.

Me: I really need to get my eyebrows waxed.
thereject: They're like yetis! Or little wookiees!
Me: [trying hard to look insulted and not laugh]
thereject: I love your little wookiees!

We started doing p90x last Wednesday, so we have two workouts left in the first week. Overall, I think it's going to be a good program for us. I had been making it to the gym about twice a week for just 40-50 minutes and then biking for an hour or more once a week. So it's definitely making me exercise more often and for longer than I had been. It's also nice to be exercising with thereject. That's been extra incentive to get up and get moving - I can't slack and sleep in if he's not going to.

We have been doing the videos in the morning, though, which is a challenge because we have limited time (though probably less of a challenge than finding a time we can both do it in the evening). The one problem we've really run into there is that we thought each day we'd need just an hour. On the days you do strength training, though, it's really an hour for the initial workout, but then you're supposed to do Ab Ripper X (a 20 minute ab routine) on top of that. So you really need an hour and 20 minutes. Somehow I don't find it so bad to wake up at 6:00, but 5:30 sounds really painful. Maybe we need to just do abs in the evening? Not sure what the answer here is...

( My thoughts on invividual DVDs so far )

Two days left in the first week - Legs and Back, and the Kenpo which looks to be like cardio kickboxing. I'll let y'all know how it goes.

I took my measurements the other day, and let's just say that seeing those change, and he prospect of getting back into some pants that no longer fit, will be good incentive to continue with this.

P.S. No, I'm not usually up at 6:20 on Sunday mornings. Stupid insomnia. I'm going to try to go back to sleep now.

About to risk the weather and go for a bike ride. While I do really like the ride up through Rock Creek Park, I'm thinking maybe I'll go the other way this time, on the trail down along the Potomac and out to VA. I may also swing by the grocery store and test out my spiffy grocery bag paniers (and get groceries).

thereject and I are planning to start p90x soon. Yesterday I got all the weights we'll need, plus a pull-up bar and strengthy stretchy tube thingy so that we should both be able to do the routines at the same time (assuming we have the space to both do the cardio routines at once...). I think we do need to pick a date to start, or every day it's going to be like, "I'm tired this morning, we can start tomorrow." We really have no excuses anymore other than laziness. I'm nervous about how hard it will be, but looking forward to having a structured, regular routine. I've been better about exercising the past few weeks, but still not really up to snuff. I have a number of friends who say the program really works, and from seeing keilbasa_007 before he started and after he'd been working on the program for a while, it makes me think that the before and after videos and photos out there from people who've done it aren't (all) paid shills for the company. I won't be following the p90x diet as it's more or less impossible for vegetarians (it's Atkins-esque in the beginning), but will count calories and whatnot.

I got a bike on Saturday! It's not fancy, but it works. I didn't realize how much I missed riding until I was on the road again. I keep seeing it and thinking, "Why am I sitting here when I could be riding my bike?" I also got a pair of these awesome grocery bag panniers which will make shopping trips much easier. If there's bike parking in the grarage below my office, or if I'm allowed to bring my bike up, I may start riding to work.

I went for a lovely ride yesterday through Rock Creek Park.

Last night we had a BBQ at xgreenjudasx  and kielbasa_007 's with them and two other friends. Yum!

The farmer's market had strawberries this week! AND I got cherries, which I love love love.

Tonight we're seeing The Decemberists out at Merriweather Post Pavillion. Should be fun, but Merriweather is such a pain in the ass to get to. On the up side, this means I get to leave work early.

Which means I really should leave for work.

As you've probably heard by now, George Tiller was murdered yesterday. This came as quite a shock to me and disturbed me more than I would have expected, it's part of why I slept so horribly last night. ( More about Tiller )

Aside from the details of this particular case being upsetting, tragic, etc... I'm having trouble putting this into words... I find it very frustrating for the pro-choice movement. ( Must history repeat itself? )

Last night, during a too-brief stint of sleep, I dreamed that I was part of a group of mostly retired superheroes (well, we didn't quite have super powers, but whatever) and the world needed saving. For-real- this-could-be-the-end type saving. We were gathering up the old crew. We want to talk to one guy who had become a ski instructor (or something like that... there were skis, and kayak paddles... whatever) and when we asked him to join us he said no. We were astounded. "I've done my part already," he said. "I've done enough. It's not my job to save the world anymore."

Per Willow's request, here's the recipe I used for cupcakes, from Joy of Cooking. They were slightly drier when we ate them at work today, but still tasty. You'll need a hand mixer.

( Recipe! )

My new pseudo-minion's birthday was on Saturday. I baked cupcakes to bring in tomorrow.

Most of my cookbooks are for hippie vegetarian food (and one is semi-haute vegetarian food), but they're not so much for the baking. Fortunately, thereject bought The Joy of Cooking not long ago. We haven't tried any of the savory recipes, but I've now done several of their sweet ones and they've all been pretty awesome. Bread pudding with whiskey sauce... mmm!

Last time I made cupcakes I used the sponge cake recipe. They were tasty, light and fluffy, but a bit dry. Maybe I didn't really realize what sponge cake is. I put some fork holes in the top and drizzled them with booze before frosting them (kaluha with mocha icing, and Captain Morgan with coconut icing, arrr!). The drizzling definitely helped, and they were well received. But they were kind of a pain in the ass to make (it took 3 or 4 bowls...) and I wasn't totally happy with them.

This time I used the batter recipe for "lightening cake" (aka bunkuchen, apparently). You only need one bowl. I was skeptical about the bizarre instructions for beating the batter, but I followed them nonetheless. The batter was really thick. I thought I'd screwed up.

thereject and I each ate one of the cupcakes, and his reaction was, "I don't think I've ever had a cupcake this good." They're definitely the best cupcakes I've ever made. Moist, spongy, just dense enough. They're perfect.

• This site cracked me up: http://www.textsfromlastnight.com/ (maybe NSFW - no photos, but much inappropriate text) Thanks Em!



• Took a boxing class yesterday. Hardest hour of exercise in recent memory. Owie owie owie. This is good pain, right?



• Baked chocolate chip cookies. Ate too many. Typical. Thinking of getting another. Also typical.



• I may spend too much time on Twitter. Not sure I can write in segments of more than 140 characters anymore.



• My computer spontaneously names himself Casper a few days ago. Thanks for the thoughts on computer names a while back!

It's about 90 degrees out. Great googly moogly! What happened to spring?? We had a couple of days of it around cherry blossom time, then a lot of chilliness and rain, and then suddenly... BAM! The new apartment has central AC, thank goodness. It's also half underground, so it stays pretty cool.

Packing is going well, we pretty much just have to pack the dishes and some odds and ends. We also need to go about unscrewing and un-nailing things from walls, that sort of thing. But it's all very managable to get done by Thursday morning.

A question for you, friends list: We discovered that out cell phones get basically no reception in the new apartment. We called each other while both down there, and the call was dropped. D'oh! Is there any device out there that really, actually boosts reception? Or what are our options? I was thinking it would be schnazzy if you could have one number ring both a landline and mobile phone simultaneously, but not sure if that's possible... I guess with call forwarding you could forward calls back and forth between the two... Any ideas? Anyone else had this problem?

I really like the blog The Art of Nonconformity (thanks to StumbleUpon, my favorite internet time-waster, for finding it for me). They guy who writes it has, from what I can tell, managed to make a career out of world traveling. He has a lot of great tips for traveling for less, traveling more comfortably on the cheap, and also a lot of just good life advice and reminders. His posts always inspire me to be a little more.

This post in particular was a good reminder to me, and thought it might provide a little inspiration for some of you as well (considering how I know most of y'all...). The post is about Glory Days, that tendency to constantly reflect back on "the best time of my life."

I've become a little obsessed with TheDailyKitten.com. The big orange cat in today's photos looks just like Jasper!

"Self," I said, "you can agonize for weeks over what computer to get, be irritated by your current computer in the meantime, and probably buy the one you and therejectlooked at the other day anyhow because you're unlikely to find anything better for significantly cheaper, or you can just buy that one now and get it over with." So last night I bought a new computer. Most of my files have been transferred, but I still need to hook up the internet and install software.

My question for you, dear friends: Do you name your computers? How do you come up with names?

• Did yoga on Monday or Tuesday morning, and Moggie helped me with savasana by lying on my stomach. So cute!
• Working on intervals on the treadmill. Feels good to be doing something again where I can see progress.
• But I haven't been working out much this week because I was a little sick at the beginning, and keep getting to bed too late.
• We got Little Big Planet (link has a video) last weekend, and it's incredibly fun and cute (hence some of those late nights).
• Got my shiny new touch-screen phone last night. It's pretty sleek and adorable, AND has a place for my Hello Kitty cellphone tags (dangley bits). Yay! I have Goth Lolita Kitty and Tottori Kitty (she has a pear hat (because they grow pears in Tottori) and is sitting on a camel (because Tottori has sand dunes)) on there now.
• And... crap. I just realized I'm interviewing someone soon. Will find link to pretty phone and kitty-chans later. Need to prepare...

I held a meeting in my office earlier today. Attendees were:

1. Lauren - recently recovered from what I dubbed the Pink Sparkle Plague (in honor of Lauren's love of pink and sparkles, though she also may have been puking or having feaver hallucinations of them while sick) for 3+ weeks and missed many days of work.
2. Molly - contracted the Pink Sparkle Plague, was out flat last Friday through Monday, but is "much better now." Uh huh.
3. Kristin - coming down with/fighting off something

Yesterday I had a killer un-killable headache. ( Woe was my head! )This morning I thought instead of going to the gym, some yoga would do me some good. I couldn't find my favorite Baron Baptiste DVD, so I settled for the 25 minute routine I have by Karen Voight. It went pretty well (I could tell I've gotten stronger since last time I did it), but also largely confirmed that everything is tense.

Since I do now have room for a yoga mat, I ask you, dear friends: What yoga DVDs do you like?

( My yoga tastes in general )

I've wanted to see The Decemberists live pretty much since kieri suggested them to me. And they're coming to the DC area this summer! On a Monday night (June 8) at Merriweather Post Pavillion! Argh! Merriweather is a bitch to get to, and gates open at 6 which would mean leaving work early to get decent lawn seats. If I could get real seats instead of lawn seats, maybe it wouldn't be so bad? Tickets go on pre-sale in half an hour. What to do??

(and would anyone else be interested in going?)

DC area folks, I recommend getting on the 9:30 Club's mailing list, as in addition to listing shows at 9:30 Club they often also have early announcements about events at DAR and Merriweather, and sometimes early sale specials like this.

P.S. Thanks for the funeral tips. I didn't send flowers, but will send a card and give my friend a call after the wake and funeral is over.

thereject got tickets for Divine Performance Arts: The Spectacular 2009 (for those too lazy to click the link, it was a variety show of Chinese classical dance with some singing and stuff thrown in). We went on Thursday. The costumes and backdrop were often a bit cheesy, but the dancing itself was well done. Made for a nice evening out.

Yesterday, I gave thereject a lot of chocolate, and helped him eat it. I also gave him a bottle of bourbon, which I will not help drink. He made a tasty vegetarian shepherd's pie for dinner (apparently the shepherds herded carrots and broccoli) and then we played Rock Band.

I would call this a successful Valentine's Day.

Had to wait for a while, but once I got in the doctor's appointment was quick and painless. Next week I should have all kinds of fun info about my cholestoral, blood sugar, iron and B-12 levels, etc. I also asked if they could see what my blood type is - I had it tested in Japan and then even gave me the little test card back (laminated, with dried blood on it and everything) but my mom thinks that based on hers and my dad's that the test was wrong. We'll soon see!

When I went to the doctor last week he couldn't draw blood. So I'm going back again this morning. I dutifully ate a bunch of salt last night at around midnight, and have had 6-8 cups of water this morning. Even I can see my arm vein right now, so I hope that's a good sign. I just wonder... what happens if he can't do it this time?

This has all been a good reminder of why I've never given blood.

First off, I started reading the most depressing book ever written - The Year of Fog. It better pick up soon or I might slit my wrists (or, more realistically, stop reading it). It's well written, but SO DEPRESSING.

So I was going to go to the gym this morning, but I got a little too distracted reading and so left a little late. Only to discover that all the sidewalks are covered in an inch of ice (it must have rained last night after the snow stopped, and then froze over). I got about half a block before I gave up and turned around. The streets (at least side streets) are covered in ice as well. It's not the quantity of ice and snow we get around here that's a problem, it's how it doesn't get dealt with properly.

All of the local governments and school districts are opening late. My office goes by the federal government schedule. Are they opening late? Of course not. And the one thing I really need to work on today can't be done from home, so I have to go in.

If I had this t-shirt, I would wear it today.