Adventures

Last week my parents came to visit and we spent about three days in DC. We visited the Holocaust museum, alot of the monuments, the National Zoo, the Museum of Natural History, the US Botanical Gardens, and one of the many art museums. Also, I got closer to the Capitol building than I ever had been before. On Sabbath we attended church at Sligo and then went to the Botanical Gardens, and on the way we saw hundreds of police officers outside around the Capitol. Turns out there was a demonstration by some neo-nazis and some counter-demonstrations. So there were a lot of police there to prevent violence. We saw police with riot gear, on horses, on bikes, on foot, in cars... about any way you can imagine police, they were there.

We had a wonderful time. The weather was beautiful and there were many trees and flowers blooming, although the famous cherries were definitely past their prime. These are some random pictures from our trip.

A butterfly in the butterfly gardens at the museum of Natural History

Another butterfly

One more

A little duckling that we fed in the reflecting pool. He was so cute. I really wanted to catch him, but he would have none of it.

The spot in front of the Lincoln memorial where MLK gave his I Have a Dream speech

A Panda at the National Zoo, on loan from China

An Asian elephant. I love elephants, and we got to talk to some of the volunteers there who knew a lot about elephants. =)

Beautiful tulips.

I'm incompetent and can't rotate this picture, but it's my parents near the Washington Monument.

Confession

I really enjoy angry white chick country music.

I like to think of myself as a Christian pacifist. And I'm happily married. And yet there's something about singing about that jerk of a man who treated me wrong. Singing it loud and with gusto. Does this mean there is something inherently wrong with me? Or do most women feel this way? Oh well, guilty pleasure, right?

Currently listening to: Before He Cheats by Carrie Underwood.

"You can safely assume that you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do." -Anne Lamott in Traveling Mercies

A poem I've been meaning to write for six years

A silent white fortress.
It seems solid, impenetrable,
but is so easily
pierced by my fork.
All the gravy pours out.

In the news

Michael can be seen shaking hands with Obama in a video on abcnews.com. It's in the Clinton Campaign at a Crossroads video at around the 3:30 mark. Woot!

http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4609671&affil=wpvi

101 posts

For my one-hundred and first post I will tell you about Brian Regan. Most of you readers know who he is, you know, the "take luck" guy. Perhaps you, like me, nearly peed your pants the first time you heard him. Or had to pull your car off the road so as not to have an accident from laughing so hard while driving. Perhaps you slip little comments into your daily conversations that make you laugh, but confuse others. "Many much moosen." My students think their English teacher has lost her grammatical sense. Perhaps you call other Regan fans when you see two log trucks pass each other going opposite directions. Hey, it's been known to happen. In any case, Brian Regan has brought a lot of laughs to my life, and hopefully to yours as well.

Of course, one of the things that I appreciate about Regan is that he doesn't need "dirty" words to make his comedic stylings hilarious. Many comedians use these words alot. For shock value? I'm not sure what exactly what makes curse words funny, but Regan doesn't need them.

So being the Brian Regan fans that we are, when we heard he would be in the area, we snapped up our tickets. We drove to Scranton, (double-bonus, home of The Office!) the Electric City, with our friends Mark and Candace. There were probably about 2,000 people in the theater, so thank goodness we got orchestra seats, because his humor is definitely partially physical. Not totally necessary, as you know from the cd, but it certainly adds to the experience. Anyway, we totally enjoyed the experience. There were several times when I couldn't breathe because I was laughing so hard. Also adding to my enjoyment was the guy in the row in front of me and a couple seats over who was enjoying the show perhaps more than I. He was having convulsions. After Regan left the stage we gave him a standing ovation, so he came back. People (ok, I did it) yelled random phrases from his former acts and he would then do that particular bit. He made comment that part of humor is the surprise element, but he got some of his biggest laughs from those old jokes that everyone knew. At one point he just started an old bit and from the first phrase I was laughing uncontrollably. And who knew his dad was from Scranton? So all in all, a hilarious time. I highly recommend that if you get to see this comic genius in person you do so.

Also, Leslie has been visiting this weekend. Which is fabulous. And we got her addicted to The Office. We watched pretty much all day yesterday, only taking breaks to eat and play a little Dutch Blitz. It's always great to have Leslie around. She makes me feel good about myself and at home. I know, I'm already in my home, but she makes it more comfortable. I also highly recommend a visit from Leslie. And in other news, in case you hadn't heard, James and Linsey had their baby, Micah James, on April 2, Leslie's birthday. So hurray for that.

I believe...

In the last few days I've noticed what I believe to be actual green grass. And a couple of trees are starting to look greenish around the edges. I'm starting to think that spring really might come this year.