Happy Turkey Day!

From the Baltimorian/Frederickian Corey's -- Happy Turkey Day! We didn't do anything as exciting as going to New York but it was a great day anyway. All the food turned out deliciously and Vernon got to try out my new electric knife for the turkey. Anyway, I took a small video - I'm not very good at it - but nonetheless here it is.

What not to do with your Mini

What not to do with your Mini
Originally uploaded by 1Sock

First Lesson: Don't hit deer ...

I know this doesn't look bad, but I got the estimate today. Total cost with all new parts, paint and re-striping = $4,565.

2nd Annual Mini Takes the Beltway Event

2nd Annual Mini Takes the Beltway Event
Originally uploaded by 1Sock

This was one row of the 10-15 rows of Minis lined up for the 2nd annual Mini Takes the Beltway Event in Alexandria, Virginia. Proceeds from this event benefited the Wounded Warrior fund. My car is the silver one in the foreground. If I was to count how many Minis were in attendance, I'd say there were around 150. The event started at Passport Mini and circumnavigated the outer loop of the DC beltway. It took about 90 minutes from start to finish.

Redskins Games

It's been a fun experience to go and see Redskins games in person at the stadium. I think by the end of the season Van and I will finally have the hang of all the tips & tricks of attending games. With my bonus from work I bought a new "pocket" camera and I'm going to attach the first video I took with it. On the video you'll see Van at the game (BEWARE - IT IS VERY LOUD) - our seats are pretty close to some speakers and they blare music (usually good music) every second there isn't a play happening so that's the loud noise you hear. I'll try and get better at the video part of this camera since my other camera will still be my main go-to for pictures.

Doing the MadMen Thing

Tonight, Pam and I are traveling to downtown Baltimore to attend a friend's themed wedding reception.

The chosen theme?

Dress in the fashion of the time period from the AMC television series MadMen.

Pam just got her hair done with a little lift on the ends and I got a trim (just to look a little more clean cut).

What are we wearing you ask?

Well ...
Pam got a got a nice blue dress with a ruffle and I will be going casual with a suede sport jacket and a maroon mock turtle. Here is my work-up from the AMC MadMen website. I am the one on the left. Unfortunately, it would not let me change the color of the mock turtle, but the jacket is close to the color that I will be wearing.

Xmas Delerium

Xmas Delerium
Originally uploaded by 1Sock

Pam and I were thinking it would be fun to travel to Texas this year for Christmas. The whole conversation started following a phone conversation between me and David a couple of weeks ago. David had suggested that maybe the whole family could come down and it would be a big 'ole Texas hoe down - or something like that.

Sadly, after talking with mom and dad this past weekend, it sounds like this year is not going to work, if it was going to be a "whole family" event. Besides which, it would make my schedule pretty tight too. I have a few Xmas gigs that I am expected to sing at with my madrigals group - the least of which is First Night in Herndon, Virginia, which would mean the Xmas trip would have to be cut short so I could be home for that.

Perhaps, if we start planning now, next year's Xmas could be pulled off flawlessly. In the not too distant future, Pam and I will try to find another time to make it back to good old Waco, Texas.

Eat Mo' Moonpies

Eat Mo' Moonpies
Originally uploaded by 1Sock

You know the trouble with signs like this out in the midwest on some old highway? The sign entices you in - 'cause who doesn't like a nice moonpie now and then - but the store is completely gone. All that's left is an old parking lot with a lot of old rusted out cars and some antique signs ... much like the moonpie sign.

Pam and I spotted this sign while sitting in line at a construction site along New Mexico State Route 68, south of Taos, New Mexico.

No moon pies were had. Just disappointment.

Redskins Rule!

Well, it's official -- I am now a Redskins season ticket holder! Got my seat assignment - section 405, row 21, seats 19 & 20 with parking in the grey lot. Now I have to get a decal like this for my Cube....well maybe not exactly like this but I do want one. I'm not real excited to be rooting for Donovan McNabb (too many years rooting against him as an Eagle) but hopefully I can grow to love him.

The Pioneer Woman Part Deux

I got on the computer this morning and did my normal checks - Woot, Facebook, CNN, and then Flickr - when to my tremendous surprise and exaltation I saw that one of my photos had been chosen for Group 4 of the Pioneer Woman's bug photography assignment! Woo-hoo! I've been submitting my pictures and hoping to be chosen for quite a while now. If you read my previous post you know of my love of the Pioneer Woman and her website - http://thepioneerwoman.com/photography/ - and not just the photography part. But, go, go see my picture on her site. The screen-capture here is just not as impressive!

A Hat - A Straw Hat

A Hat - A Straw Hat (as read by William Shatner)

Imagine my surprise when I saw the hat,
The hat - a straw hat,
close to the rat,
up on the placemat.

My feet ran pitty-pat,
as the cat jumped at the rat,
and the hat - a straw hat,
went flying with a splat!

The moral is that,
a hat - a straw hat,
should not be set on a mat,
by a cat and a rat!

Hello from Wisconsin

Ever been to River Falls, Wisconsin? That's where I am now - taking some technical training (long overdue). The weather is great - cool but not too cool - and sunny. My brain is working hard trying to cram as much information in as possible without concentrating on the fact that this new knowledge may mean many many hours of re-work when I get back to NIST. Haven't had a chance to take any photos - hopefully will before I get to the airport on Saturday. There's a great kayaking river here in town - the Kinnickinnic - but no time to do it. The university where we're holding class is practically empty since it is June so the town is almost shut down. It only has 12,500 population listed on the sign. It's less than an hour from the Twin Cities airport. Anyway, guess that's it for now....lunch break is over.

GPS

So, be careful in New Mexico when you're following GPS directions. You may end up off-road on dirt paths they call roads in middle of a forest in Cloudcroft after dark surrounded by elk! Thank goodness we had a 4 wheel drive vehicle - a RAV 4 - that did pretty well. The other thing to be careful of is driving on tribal land without permission. We had a nice friendly chat with a Warchief about that when trying to go to the Taos Peublo yesterday. But he let us continue on the road only to find out that the peublo was closed - think he would have known that. But nevertheless we went there today. No pictures of that though.

The Pioneer Woman and Me

Last Tuesday I did something very unusual for myself. I took off work early and went somewhere where I knew there would be a crowd and general pan-delirium....a book signing! The Pioneer Woman (she's the one who is not me in the photo) is a wildly popular blogger - http://thepioneerwoman.com/ - that I've been following for quite some time. She's the only blogger I follow with any regularity besides my wonderful brother-in-law, David, of course. I apologize for the blurriness of the photo but I clearly did not take it and I thought I had it set correctly for the lady that did but apparently not. I intentionally made the background black & white because otherwise it was a riot of color that I found difficult on the eyes. Anyway, back to the signing, it was indeed pan-delirium but luckily I got there early enough to get a ticket in the third group of 50 (turned out to have 9 groups by the time they were done) to get my book signed. I sat for a couple of hours waiting for it to start and stood in line for a couple more...very not like me. But she is just infectiously adorable and a fun and fabulous writer so I couldn't pass up the opportunity that she'd be in Virginia for a signing (she lives in Oklahoma on a cattle ranch normally). I met some very nice ladies in line and that made it much more fun to stand for hours. So that's my brush with fame.

Salvaged CDs - UPDATE

Thought y'all would like to know an update on the salvaged CDs. The following titles were salvaged:











+ Rufus Wainwright - Want One
+ Rufus Wainwright - Want Two
+ Rufus Wainwright - Release the Stars
+ Alison Krauss & Union Station - Live - Disc 1
+ Alison Krauss & Union Station - Live - Disc 2
+ k. d. Lang - Watershed
+ Madeleine Peyroux - Careless Love
+ Les Paul & Friends - American Made World Played
+ Moby - Last Night
+ Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
+ Maroon 5 - Songs About Jane
+ Maroon 5 - It Won't Be Soon Before Long
+ Keane - Perfect Symmetry
+ Mika - Life in Cartoon Motion
+ Seal - Soul
+ Scissor Sisters - Tah Dah!
+ Neon Neon - Stainless Style
+ John Digweed - Transitions - Volume 2
+ A homemade CD from a "Show" on 01/03/08. The first track says it's DJ Jazzy Jesse from Nashville, Tennessee. --- The mystery continues. Are these DJ Jazzy Jesse's CDs? How did they get in the Potomac River?
+ An unlabeled CD of folk and rock that sounds like something I should probably know, but am drawing a blank.

So there you have it. More stuff to add to my music library. I have really enjoyed listening to Madeleine Peyroux. Really nice voice.

Cherry Blossoms at the Tidal Basin

I just wanted to share with y'all a couple of shots that I took at the tidal basin last weekend. It was generally a gray day, but it was fun to see the cherry blossoms nonetheless.

Driftwood --- Trash --- CDs (???)

Pam, Lynda and I stopped by the tidal basin in DC today to see the cherry blossoms. The festival opened yesterday. The city event planners, in their ultimate wisdom decided to direct traffic for parking away from the event and down Ohio Ave SW, toward Hains Point, which is where we parked.

It was a short walk up to the tidal basin and Pam and I decided to walk down near the water (the Potomac River, for those of you who are asking). A couple of weeks ago this section of the waterfront was underwater due to the massive amounts of rain we got coupled with all the melting snow up north.

Anyway ... there was a lot of debris left from the flooding, much of which was driftwood and trash. Then Pam spotted this thing that looked like a day planner and, me being a scavenger, I thought I would take a look. To my surprise it was not a day planner at all, but a case of CDs. So I thought to myself: These should be salvageable ... All I would have to do is wash them off and then they should play just fine. I have yet to try it but it's worth a try. Right?

Then I started thinking some more:
+ How did these CDs come to be in a flood?
+ Did the flood rip them out of someone's hand?
+ Maybe someone threw them in to the flood, maybe to see if they would float.
+ Maybe they came from a house that was flooded up river.

Kinda weird really.

I love Chick-Fil-A!

In case there wasn't enough to love about Chick-Fil-A, I tried their breakfast today. I got the bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit and it was amazing! First of all, it was gigantic - think three times the size of the same item at Mickey D's. And so tasty - the eggs were *real* and substantial, the biscuit itself was so soft and buttery that that alone probably would have been enough for me to eat. So anyway, big plug for Chick-Fil-A if you have one near you. If I had had my camera with me I would have taken a photo but alas, it was not the case.

My niece - Anna

Can you see that little face in the window? It's saying, stop taking pictures of the men on the porch (Van on the left and David on the right) and come inside and play with me! How adorable! And I did quickly stop taking pictures and went inside to play.

My latest hobby is baking bread from scratch - no breadmaker. I've been enjoying making recipes out of two great cookbooks using the no-knead method. Well, I've never considered myself a good baker because unlike cooking usually you have to follow a recipe to the letter or the baking won't turn out right. But I just couldn't stand it so I modified a recipe and this loaf was the result. I think it's delicious. It's the soft white bread recipe (has some butter and sugar in the dough) but I substituted one cup of oat bran for one cup of the flour. I also added in a few teaspoons of vital wheat gluten that is supposed to make home-made bread fluffier and last longer on the shelf. Oh, yeah, and I also sprinkled cinnamon sugar on the top. Now that I've had success with modification I will be assuredly trying more concoctions with my bread. I'm really enjoying the bread making process but two people can only eat so much bread so I can't make as much as I'd like as often as I'd like. I've already taken several loafs to work and given one to a neighbor.

Hello World

Yeah ... I know ... the title is kinda geeky. But what else should I title it? It is the first post after all.