Tulips!

It's been a crazy week, and I plan on going on a review-posting bonanza soon, but until then, enjoy the flowers. They're pretty. 

I got my mom to give me these after complaining on Easter that no one gives me flowers during my family's traditional post-bagel brunch flower exchange.  (Note: Basically, I made the case that I am no different from my 94 year-old aunt and should be treated equally.  The main exception to this new maxim is that I still expect my duck-themed Easter basket to be hidden cleverly and full of Peeps.)  I'm an adult who doesn't live with her parents, so I don't see why I'm still counted as a member of my parents' household for flower allotments.  (Read: I am actually too lazy and cheap to spend $5.99 at Wegmans and get my own bunch of tulips.)  Then, my mom said she'd give them to me, and I said they were hers. (This was the moment when I realized that I had complained about flowers I could easily buy myself and that might wilt while being transported across state lines.)  Then, she told me she wanted me to have them.  So I took them and enjoyed them all week. (Success.)

The coolest thing I own...

And it is slowly, but surely, becoming completely see-through. As my Nomo shirt wears thin, I keep thinking about gathering all the old co-workers to sing an off-key charity single in honor of the old school swim team shirts we helped each other steal.

Lunch, Dinner, Lunch, Dinner

My next four meals, courtesy of Mr. Sub in Union, N.J.  The medicine I'm on for the next two days totally kills my appetite, but I figured I'd be able to get this down.

View from the couch on a snowy evening

Whose couch is this I think I know.
She's taken some prescription medication, though.

Medicine + me = bad news. So, it's back to the couch to enjoy a mini Twix and Nordic Combined (Olympic Fever! Catch it!). Will be back tomorrow with some potentially amusing things to say.

If you had a dessert like this you'd do a photo shoot, too

Vegan Treats Tiramisu. Don't let the "vegan" part of that fool you. This is sure to be delicious.

Snow Cave

This is the current view out my bedroom window. It hasn't stopped yet, but even now it looks like there's nothing else in the word except snow.

Berries a la Mode

Now, with more ways to bring skiing into your living room

I'm not usually a day napper, but I spent the morning on my skis and I'm pretty sure I'm going to bed at 8:30 tonight unless one of those day naps sneaks up on me. And seeing my skis (and taking pictures of them) in my living room made me about classier ways to tell people you enjoy slapping the slopes through living room decor. If you like ski-themed artwork or are just looking for something different (because it's not all ski stuff, but might see a segue developing here), you might want to check out Native Vermont, which features unique graphic and illustrated work by Ryan Fowler. And that is my plug.  And here is some of his work:

First, New Hampshire ski areas (there are other ski areas available):

And in his offerings of non-ski related work, here is "Two Hoots":

And "Black Bear Skinny Dip":

Those are just a few of what's out there, so if you like what you see and want to know more, you should head to Native Vermont's shop on Etsy. 

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(In the interest of full disclosure, I do actually know Ryan and may have occasionally enjoyed a sandwich and/or beer in his company. But that did not prompt me to write this post. I took a picture of my skis and since they're a few years old and nothing all that special, I did needed something else to write about.  And Ryan's stuff is good enough to write to the internets about, so that's how we get from point A to point B around here.)

Nearly new for 2010!

With less than a week to go before the new semester, I decided to clean my Chucks*. I took a picture of them because the last time I decided to clean the white parts of a pair of Chuck Taylors, I ended up with what I fondly refer to as "my icky bar shoes." That is the difference between using a Clorox Pen (pink spots abound) and a Magic Eraser (no spots, don't know how it get things so clean, don't care). You might ask, why not just get new shoes? Because, my friends, we are in a recession and I am in grad school. Also, I can't decide on a new color.


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*This is a good indicator that break has gone on a bit too long for me. I have - and am - enjoyed the time away, but any time I think to myself, "Hey, it's been awhile since I've cleaned ________________," when "________________" is something slightly outside my normally rigorous cleaning schedule, I probably need something better to do.

Forging ahead

No, I'm not just taking pictures of the contents of my cabinets. I got this mug for Christmas from my boyfriend's parents, so I guess I'm serious about this blogging thing. He got one, too, with the title of his blog - The Parasite Frequently* - on it. So, now we both have to keep writing since 1.) We're being taken seriously and 2.) Otherwise, these mugs will serve as reminders of our crippling defeat on the internets. Though the mugs would probably be delightful vessles to cry into.



*Note: The Parasite Frequently is ideal for you or your loved ones if you've had pressing questions about Shakespeare, literature, or if you'd like to read my boyfriend holding forth on reading poems. It's okay, he's a professional (like me, but with more seriousity).

Fun with cameras: It is possible to photograph "cold"

I took a few pictures while running errands this morning in Middlebury that I thought I would share for funsies. And while it's not as cold as it has been and it's not snowing as hard as it could, I think these pictures illustrate the ideas of "cold" and "Vermont" pretty well.  On a related note, I am now wearing toe warmers for everyday purposes.  Also, I'm thinking of setting up a tip line for the retrieval of my black gloves. 

Here are the rapidly rushing falls at Otter Creek:

There's a whole lot of crazy cold mist coming off that water.

Here's a moderately calmer section of Otter Creek (but the water was still rushing along....if you look carefully you can see waves and snow):

And finally, here's some ice, snow, and cold water (or, as I like to call it H20, three ways):

Merry Christmas from me and sideways E.T.!

He's been partying pretty hard this holiday season, but he hopes you have a happy holiday.

Merry Noonie!

In honor of Christmas Eve/Christmas, I decided to blog Wednesday's lunch.  Here are some pictures of the sandwiches at Noonie Deli in Middlebury, Vermont.  It's the first thing I want to do when I get to Vermont.  I'd like to say that it's the best sandwich place ever, but since I like so many different kinds of sandwiches, I can't really make that claim.  I can say, however, that Noonie's is hands-down awesome.  I'll avoid a discussion of the super-creepy Esquire peice on the Noonie's Girl, and let the sandwiches speak for themselves.

For my veggie friends, my veggie sandwich from lunch yesterday:

I think the word that best describes this sandwich is huge.  And I could have had more veggies if I wanted them. 

And N's lunch, the Purple's Pleasure, which is very much not a vegetarian sandwich:

That sandwich is crazy.

Snow!

Things finally stopped looking like a plot device in White Christmas up here in Vermont.

Sunday in the Christmas City

I decided to head out on Sunday afternoon and finally get a picture of one of the huge, steel Advent wreathes placed on the bridges and at the town hall complex in Bethlehem, PA. This particular wreath is perched on the wall at the back of the town hall complex and is a lovely welcome to the center of town for those traveling to the North Side over the New Street/Fahy Bridge. These wreathes are only a small part of the large-scale decorating scheme in town, as Bethlehem takes the title of "Christmas City" very, very seriously.

Note: I'm only guessing that these wreathes are made of steel, but since just about every long-standing sculpture in town is made of steel (because of the whole Bethlehehem Steel thing), I figure it's a safe guess. These particular wreathes mark Advent accurately and are truly gigantic. And awesome.

My Christmas Angel, She Drinks

Look at her rosy complexion. I don't think that's natural.

Positive Reinforcement

Last night, I celebrated the completion of two friends' dissertations and I wanted to do something to acknowledge the event. I considered greeting cards, floral arrangements, homemade t-shirts, making an concentrated effort to call both of them "The Good Doctor So-and-So-All" night, running around the bar making sure I bought them both beers, blood donations in their names, and finally decided to go old school. Certificiates! Of Achievement! Because, really, when you've achieved something important, there's nothing like a colorful piece of paper acknowledging that you achieved something important. Also, certificates are a reminder of a simpler time, one filled with stickers and smiley face stamps that used to let those of us who were good at school know that, as third graders, we really had some smarts. Graduate school can be difficult for a number of reasons and finishing a dissertation can be hard based on the nature of the project, but sometimes it's the simple things that told us we were good at something that we miss the most, like a certificate telling us we did a good job. I really should have slapped a sticker on my Master's thesis.

A Christmas Spectacular! and a Literal Mug Shot

I'm still a little flattened today, so I've decided to share some of my favorite musical numbers from my favorite Christmas musicals.  (Calm down, I only have, like, two favorites.)  And while I know it's more fashionable to be out of the holiday spirit than in it, I'm going to indulge the cheery side of my personality today.  So, here goes nothing:

If I were still in college, my roommate and I would have already broken out the DVD of A Muppet Christmas Carol and annoyed the people we lived with who found this behavior immature.  This movie tends to be particularly hard to find on television; Christmas 2003 is the only time I remember stumbling across it, and it was such a welcome surprise that my whole family watched.  For this particular holiday pick, I've chosen a song that I think perfectly captures the feeling of Christmas Eve when you're a kid and Christmas is so loaded with excitement.  Here's "One More Sleep 'Til Christmas" (Small note: this is in that odd, early '90s period when they hadn't found a solid replacement for Jim Henson, so Kermit sounds a little off.  Not way off, but enough to add a little unintentional gravity to an otherwise hopeful movie.)

My second selections are from a Christmas movie that follows in the grand tradition of most "classic" Christmas movies - it's a solid film that is, incidentally, set at Christmastime.  What I love about older Christmas movies is the way in which everyday life is balanced with the idea the sense of a little (but not too much) extra possibility on Christmas.  While this description could easily apply to It's a Wonderful Life, right now I'm speaking about White Christmas, which, when you think about it, features exactly one Christmas song.  The rest of the numbers in the movie are about dancing, snow, gratitude, and the pitfalls of life outside the army.  So, the two videos I'm picking have absolutely nothing to do with Christmas.  First, "Count Your Blessings (Instead of Sheep)," featuring the very young, very pretty Rosemary Clooney (I couldn't get the whole song off YouTube, but this works well enough).  Secondly,  here's a song that frequently that gets cut when a network decides that it doesn't have the programming space for the epic version of White Christmas, "Snow," which, I think, perfectly captures the fun of going to Vermont in December.  I have found, though, that repeatedly singing "Snow" both on the way to and during Christmas in Vermont is not something everyone appreciates.

Speaking of Christmas in Vermont, here's a picture of a mug from Rosie's in Middlebury, where I plan to breakfast at some point next week.