SPANDEX WEEK

It recently crossed my mind that it could be a greatly entertaining feat to incorporate spandex into what I wear every day for a week. I want to invite you all to join me in this experiment because everything is better with friends. [Already joining me: Paige, Sarah x 2, and Megan] The endeavor has potential to spark conversations with others and new thoughts about oneself. Regardless, it is sure to be fun and silly, so you probably want to do it!

the following are acceptable:

Under armor
Tights
Leggings
Pantyhose
Leotards
lycra and spandex-containing fabrics

The week actually started yesterday; Sarah and Megan shared the fabulous example above to kick it off.

mess

Last night, I attempted to make a pecan crust. It turned out soupy, so I made it into a crumble topping for an apple pomegranate crisp.

I made an apple marzipan galette, too.


When cleaning everything up, I poured a bag of (raw organic) sugar all over the counter, my pants, socks, and the floor.

"I am such a mess."

I sighed.

Ellen asked me, "Did I tell you I used the blender to make dinner last night?"

"no?"

"Well I was unaware that when you blend something you have to hold the lid down..."

Creamy white wine sauce splattered all over the kitchen.

:)

Why are we so afraid that others will see how messy we are?
Do we really think that they are less of a mess?

I hear about the splatter, and yet, my idea of Ellen has in no way fallen to the depths of kitchen doom. She's my really really good friend and her messiness will never change that.
So in hearing of her mess, and knowing my high esteem for her, I look at my mess with less self-deprecation. It's not comparison. It's the domino- effect of grace.

blog award?

Rosalyn gave me a blog award! WOWZERS.

THANK YOU, friend!!!

I don't think I should get one, since I rarely post, and when I do it is ridiculously pointless. But hey, if Obama can get the Nobel Peace Prize...

Sooo, I shall continue this blog-love according to the rules that I guess work out here:

The rules: use only one word, pass along to six favorite bloggers, and tell 'em you did so.Take it away-

1. Where is your cell phone? desk

2. Your hair? straight

3. Your mother? cray-cray

4. Your father? daddy

5. Your favorite food? icecream

6. Your dream last night? umm

7. Your favorite drink? kombucha

8. Your dream/goal? farm

9. What room are you in? cube

10. Your hobby? life

11. Your fear? doubt

12. Where do you want to be in six years? adventuring

13. Where were you last night? home

14. Something that you aren't? challenged :(

15. Muffins? glutenous

16. Wish list item? bike

17. Where did you grow up? usa

18. Last thing you did? email

19. What are you wearing? brown

20. Your TV? what?

21. Your pets? haha

22. Friends? yes

23. Your life? highway.

24. Your mood? smiley

25. Missing someone? distance...

26. Vehicle? escape(h)

27. Something you're not wearing? belt

28. Your favorite store? anthropologie

29. Your favorite color? blue

30. When was the last time you laughed? morning

31. Last time you cried? sunday

32. Your best friend? friends

33. One place that I could go over and over? running

34. One person who emails you regularly? Janet

35. Favorite place to eat? kitchen

The People I'm going to tag:

Esther- What amazing creativity!!! You inspire me, love.

Julia- Oh the brilliance of her subtle humor!

Logan - What a blessing it is to live with this lovely lady.

Sarah - We need to play more. Hope she will blog about Vegas...


Blogs are for boredom.

narcissism

Blogs are so narcissistic. You are totally right, Jim.

The topic is all over Julia and Julie. I was convicted again last night when Paige and I went to see it.

I keep thinking about this today, even after receiving a request for an entry about the party we had this weekend.
Maybe I'll just stop blogging. I want to live in a self-sacrificial way. What does that mean?

So instead, this post will be exo-narcissistic.

Thomas. His good friends call him "Big Deal". You don't even need to ask why. Clearly Thomas should be a model.
This picture proves it.

Caption: "They try to copy my swagger"

This is more artistically noteworthy:

Is he laughing at the sun? Is he holding the world? Maybe he thinks he's in control.
Anyone who can pull this look off with scruff gets a good deal of credit.

Thomas, get on the runway!!!

Black and White Jazz Night

Black and White Jazz Night

Come join us at our new home for a lovely evening of music, drinks, fun, and catching up with friends.

Bring a bottle of wine and a friend!

Date: Saturday, October 3rd, 9pm

Location: Sweet Virginian

Address:
837 N. Lincoln St.
Arlington, VA 22201 (map)

ad hoc

this post is for a real friend.

Today I spoke with a project manager at my office about automating the status reports she and the project lead compile weekly. She mentioned that there are tasks done regularly and then there are ad hoc... I thought that was fun so i threw back a sentence with "ad hoc" in it.

My friend had a similar instance at work where her supervisor repeatedly mentioned ad hoc queries. "People tend to do ad hoc queries on the data" he said, "and if these ad hoc requests are out there, there needs to be a way for the ad hoc requests to be fulfilled..."

yup

I don't think I knew what 'ad hoc' meant until about a year ago. According to my data warehousing book:

some users will build their own queries against the data warehouse from scratch; this is what we mean by ad hoc access. These business analysts or power users, are usually...

Now that I am near the end of this post, I am realizing how incredibly boring and pointless this post is.
wow.

you win

Julia started a blog. Obvious Subtleties. It is so beyond fabulous. I devote my summer to her... ok fine, I'll blog a little bit. But seriously, she rocks!

things my friends say

Today, I received the worst grade of my life. So I will post things that my friends have said to me in the past 24 hours which combat the oppression of low numbers which attempt to identify me.

--------------------------------------------
me: I'm so screwed
marian: don't be screwed! :)
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busi: you need to have faith that you will pass this course
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me: hot yoga at 645 tonight?
or a movie after?
julia: [...] hanging out later sounds great, i'm desiring to be around people
:)
-----------------------------------------
ellen: You can code [engineers'] brain's out

beautiful days

The sun is coming out.

Despite all that has happened, I still believe people are good at heart
- Anne Frank

Yesterday, Sarah Boschung and her mom took me and Alicia out to dinner. It was such a lovely evening and we shared a delicious meal of local fish and veggies at Ivy Inn. Our fellow patrons were celebrating "Cousin Luke's" birthday and they all had beautiful voices. We ended up spending the latter part of the evening enjoying their music and company. We even stood and sang the National Anthem together. Patriotism still exists!

Today, I had no cash and walked into Cville coffee. A kind stranger heard me ask about the nearest ATM and then just offered to buy whatever I wanted for me! She bought me a smoothie, what kindness!

So, with Anne Frank, my pessimism subsides today. It gives way to happy thoughts (and my Masters Qualifying Exam.)

principal

Remember in elementary school, they taught you the difference between principal and principle. It was pure propaganda: the principal of the school is your PAL! Principles are probably more important and ought to be held dearly, didn't get a fun trick.
the word Principal comes back to haunt me!
Principal can also be used as an adjective.
Principal Component Analysis.
I don't really understand what this means in application. But, didn't you hear? Statistics is all about theory at UVA anyways!

> print(summary(R.prc,loadings=T,scores=T))
Importance of components:
Comp.1 Comp.2 Comp.3 Comp.4 Comp.5
Standard deviation 2.182863 0.38849296 0.215406149 0.105260061 0.0412688656
Proportion of Variance 0.957767 0.03033704 0.009326595 0.002227071 0.0003423355
Cumulative Proportion 0.957767 0.98810400 0.997430593 0.999657664 1.0000000000

Loadings:
Comp.1 Comp.2 Comp.3 Comp.4 Comp.5
FL -0.452 -0.138 0.531 0.697
RW -0.428 0.898
CL -0.453 -0.268 -0.310 -0.792
CW -0.451 -0.181 -0.653 0.575
BD -0.451 -0.264 0.443 -0.707 0.176

Principal components, you are not my friend.

Happy Food

You know where Fellini's is? On 2nd St. off of the Downtown Mall? Well, just across the street is the best treasure of Charlottesville. No, I don't live there ;) hahahahha
Nicola's Veggies!!!!!


Sarah Boschung and I finally went there yesterday and relished the delicious salad concoctions that owner and chef, Dragana Katalina-Sun, created. Sarah Yates and I stopped today, after our delightful run on the Rivanna trail. More deliciousness- fresh soup!
Also, if you go there, which I really hope you do, try the truffles! They are so natural yet soooooo tasty!!!!!!

If you want to be healthy and don't know how to start, I recommend you start right there on 2nd St!!!
Oh! And she'll be at the Downtown Farmers Market Saturdays... mmmmmm

educated

Busi: I really feel like I don't deserve to put "matlab" on my resume
Me: I really feel like I don't deserve to put "masters in statistics" on my resume
Busi: Yeah, you can, you paid money for that.

Emilime

Emily is visiting!!!!
Clearly, this is a special day, a day of unexpected LIMES!
We had an epic greeting at A-Slice's house; the lime was complete! Her housemates all ran downstairs to see what the ruckus was about.
and... I got a job.
Emily, and Ellen and I went to dinner across the street at Basil. The place was busy and the waiter, Andrew, let us know that someone quit today and therefore they were short-staffed. I asked if they were hiring. He told me to "talk with the man in the white shirt". Sooo, I did. I filled out an application. He wanted me to write down my availability.
I think I'll start next week. So come visit me at Basil!?!?!

sunny thoughts for a rainy week

This afternoon, I was g-chatting with Adam and he commented on how the weather was "blah", and said, "we need some sunshine".

I couldn't agree more.

-------------------------------------------------

Yesterday, Ellen and I went for a walk in the rain, and I decided that by doing so, we chose to be friends with the rain instead of being upset with it. Saturday night, I watched Singin' in the Rain. They knew the secret, too.

-------------------------------------------------

I think I may apply for a job with a cell phone company called Jitterbug! I only clicked on it for the name. One of the sunniest songs of all time.

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Ms. Manners says that flirting is an improper pastime that proper people can properly practice. Also true flirting should have nothing in it to which the participants are held accountable.

crunchy

Today I felt kind of old. First off, facebook changed and I don't know how to join a group. This is a problem. I feel behind the times. I'm only 22!!!! PLEASE!!!
Feeling behind the times makes me think of something else:
As most of my friends know, I'm pretty organic, granola, environmentally friendly... and I am also very conservative politically. My mom says she calls us (yes, she is as well) "crunchy conservatives". Only today did it occur to me that I don't really know what "crunchy" means. I mean granola is crunchy, so I figured it meant the same thing. Ah the joys of urban dictionary! It's probably one of the most useful sites out there, especially for us old folks. Also, the Trinidadian translation of LIME, my beloved apartment, was found on this website. Just another reason why clearly, this is a great thing. ANYWAYS, I found that crunchy really does mean that I am environmentally friendly and implies an altered lifestyle.
And I do have a pretty different life than the average person I suppose. Today, after I offered Brian grapefruit for the fifth time this week, he looked into the big box of them in my kitchen and asked "Where do you get your food?" . Very good question, Brian. My grandma grows grapefruit (nice alliteration, Brian noted). My milk, I get from a farm, along with eggs and often chicken. I firmly believe that happy animals make happy people. And other than that, I drive around Charlottesville to get the best deals on healthy fats and fresh produce. In the words of Emilime: "mmm mmm good".









Off on a milk run!

supercilious

Sarah Yates recently got over a brutal flu and we started running together again! double celebration there!

I told her to check out my blog for some reason and she emailed me the following... Honestly, I could not write a better post, so this is Sarah's gift for the betterment of my blog:

I particularly like the name -- superciliousx... I do like some puns indeed (I assume you're playing on the fact that supercilious sounds like super-silly (us?)). A random thought generated by your blog (which is for random thoughts): SO in French, I think that the word for eyebrows is sourcils or something similar to that. I always remember what supercilious means (haughty) by imagining someone with snooty raised eyebrows that are very well-tweezed. Somehow supercilious and sourcil seem similar to me......... this is why I did well on the SAT verbal I suppose, because I make RANDOM word associations that happen to be right.... hmmmmmmm. Maybe someone should hire me to write the SAT?

As you may assume, I do not intent to be supercilious with this blog, only super silly.

on school

While writing my take-home midterm last night, I erased the same line about five times just because I had copied things incorrectly. But one of my favorite pieces of advice is:

Don't be afraid to erase your mistakes

It's true in school, which is why I tend to use pencil whenever possible and carry a large eraser .
It's also true in other areas of life. Though it's harder to actually remove the marks we have made, apologizing, fessing up is one of the most admirable things someone can do. It shows loving respect. Professional mistakes, the first of which is screwing up interviews (done that) are even harder to erase. So rejoice in that eraser!!!


Marian said earlier this week as we were talking about school... "it's an adventure in unfairness".
YES: careless mistakes which cost points, cut throat competition, curves.
bad posture, pre-arthritic hands, sleep problems, _____ you can add your own lamentations here.
When will I be finished with this!?!?!?!

din din

Paige and I made a very legitimate dinner on Valentines Day.

This is 20 clove garlic chicken.Yes, we ate all 20 cloves and only half of the chicken.


and these are some strawberries. ------>>>>
mmmm




Paige says that pictures of food never turn out looking quite as good as the food originally was. I think this is pretty much true.

For this reason (and others) I feel somewhat squeemish at dinners with my parents when they take a pictures of dishes that are anything near artistic.

Food was meant to be eaten.

initiative... I do not have it.

Stacey joins me as I blog this lovely evening. (with ice cream cake, which makes everything that much better, and hot water and lemon, but not mixed together)
We just came from the AFC and along road home, we passed the University of Virginia Hospital. On top of a wall or something there is a slide show constantly running. It says things like

persisitence
beyond measure

and then

collaboration
beyond measure

we don't know what that means.
One said

initiative
beyond measure

Stacey read it, "initiative, I do not have it".

L-slice.

When you put a teapot on to boil, it makes these loud noises at the beginning, and then, just before it starts to boil, it gets quieter. I think it's like the calm before the storm.

Ellen and I both like to drink tea (and water and wine and cappuccinos). We always use the tea kettle, never the microwave. Even when we had a plastic water heater, we used the stove. (But that's another story...)
L-slice. We live together, so clearly her love for Camembert rubbed off on me, my love for organic rubbed off on her, and our love for God and each other is mutually encouraged. ( I don't think that's proper English).
Maybe the boiling point of our friendship was last summer...

I <3>