good housekeeping

This (little gem of a guide) is also printed (almost word for word) in an encyclopedia style cookbook my mom has (which has some really good, but really time consuming recipes). It was her mom's.

My favorite line is "he is master of the house...you have no right to quesiton him". Did women of the 50's really not cringe at that?

google reader

If google ever crashes, I might cry. Scratch that. Will cry.

Between gmail, gchat, picasa, google docs, and now google reader....A lot of my life is on their server, somewhere in the wild internet (where exactly DOES internet mail get hosted anyway? Do I WANT to look this up?). Google reader is amazing though. One glance, and I can see what new news there is, read about Katy's latest adventure, see new recipes. Amazing.

2008

Going back to work after 12 days off stinks.

However, being off the entire week of Christmas is kind of sweet.

A Katy Rank Moment

I was in the parking lot at the new Target, and there's a brand new sign that reads:

OTHERSTORES ->
Other Properly Spaced Words ->

I almost called Mrs. Lev to vent my complaint to someone who would understand. Aren't there people who proof these things?

got these in my email

And I love them.

Where was this mousetrap when I needed it? And I thought mice didn't actually like cheese because of the sugar content...was that some mice-preserving LIE when we were told to use peanut butter?? hmm....

And this is simply a PSA (ignore the unpleasant wording). Really, you don't look cool and it takes a lot of my self-control to not fix it for you.

Peacocks in the city

There's a peacock that lives on the west side of the Schuylkill River. I think it a female, since its not too brightly colored. I've seen it a few times, and every time I wonder how it got there. Did it escape from the zoo? I don't think they can fly (though Wikipedia oddly doesn't mention it). I'm starting to wonder if it was placed there in an effort to reguvinate the wildlife of Fairmount Park. It does have an ankle bracelet. Sounds like an obvious plan to me...use your limited park maintenance budget to bring in a fancy bird or two to break the monoteny of all the geese!!

Other sightings in the park:
~ Guy on bike with gun. While stopping at a water fountain during my short jog last night, I noticed two guys on bikes riding into the parking lot. They looked average enough, like Joe 20-Somethings Who Played High School Football and now are a little chubby and leisurely biking the city in their Random College Sports Team tees for exercise. Then one wiped his face on his shirt, exposing his gun. After mildly panicing for about 20 seconds, I also realized they both had on headsets and radios, and that there's a police substation in the side of the boathouse I was in front of. OK, so glad they're patrolling the park, but shouldn't bike cops look a little...fitter?

~ Woman jogging in a bikini top. Spandex shorts, fuel belt (how people run with these I have no idea), Ipod, and string bikini top...Granted, she wasn't well endowed, but I'm not either and I don't think a triangle top with a tie in the back and at the neck offers sufficient support. Then again, the only fat on my body was what's in said top, maybe I'd feel differently. Or maybe not.

rolling rolling rolling

Today I drove to work in an effort to ease my trip to and from our fundraiser at the Linc tonight...so I had to pay a ridiculous fee to park on campus...I accept this today, sheerly because of the amusement factor of the parking garage.

It has a 7.5 MPH speed limit.

Does your car show 0.5 mph increments? Mine barely shows 1 mph increments.

Maybe I'm tired, but that was really funny at 7:52 this morning.

Also amusing, this garage must have the only 7.5 mph speed limit signs in the world, because a search for google images didn't turn one up! But I love this cartoon!

Are you kidding me?

Do people really base their dinner choices on their conception of what their date will think?

"red meat on a date has become such an effective statement of self-acceptance"

"Hamburgers, she added, say you are down-to-earth"

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/09/fashion/09STEAK.html?em&ex=1186804800&en=f269f7a170e39f66&ei=5087%0A

I have never given my order thought beyond a) what do i want and b) will this make a mess and on occassion, c) will this reheat well...

The Poor Constitution

Actually, I'm not exactly sure how this falls with the seperation of church and state, since technically, the government doesn't control the media. (But this article is referencing newspapers in Texas. I can't help but have some leaping conclusions).

I don't even know what to say, aside from quoting a quote in the article: "Do you have any idea how blatantly offensive this boneheaded move is to the thinking public?” I am somewhat amused, although not suprised, at the 'Christian' backlash/fear of Bibles being disgarded.

And to answer the question at the end: Yes, I do mind getting AOL Disks. Who uses AOL anymore? Such a waste of plastic.

On a side note (its on my mind because someone referenced it on NPR the other day), lets remember that these Bible Belt folks who keep talking about the importance of keeping "family" life "traditional," have a significantly higher divorce rate than us heathen-area-dwellers.

Lastly, lets give a bit of props to the Pope, who is appearently at least slightly openminded/logical and is hopping a little bit on the Go Green bandwagon. (Side note: He's been "spending his time reading and walking scenic landscape"? How is this relevant to the article? And doesn't a (sort of, depending on how you look at it) world leader have...things to do?)

Higher Ed makes GAWKER

History in the making. And a great read for higher ed dorks (And love to the write in vote for those of us who took "Administration of Student Life/Why XXX Thinks Everyone Should Go To A Small, Very Expensive Liberal Arts College").
For extra amusement, check out the original poll.

Also, the TIME article on Obesity and HE would be more interesting if it tied in socioeconomic status. For some reason, I think obesity rates increase as income drops. But, confirming that could blow the article, since we all know college going drops almost exponentially with income.

Ok, I'm done being a nerd for this afternoon.

Addendum:
There's a good discussion on this topic HERE, Thanks Em!!

How do you know you're an adult?

I have found two clear lines:

1) Cool summer weather is not disappointing, but a blessing (especially when it falls on moving day). Doesn't matter to me if its 60 degrees out at night and the pool water is getting chilly. I haven't even been in a pool (well, a non-hotel pool) all summer. Or last summer. And weather in the 70s? OK!

2) You need movers. There is a point in everyone's life when its just not practical anymore to scrounge up friends/acquaintances/anyone you know who likes beer and pizza enough to haul boxes and furniture out of one apartment and into another. This point is clearly demarkated when said friends would hate you forever after spending their entire day on said move (especially when it involves two flights of steep, narrow stairs and a pretty substantial amount of furniture that has never seen a dorm room).

Hello late-20s.

On Traffic.

I've gotten spoiled having moved out of the NY Metro area. I don't content with serious traffic on a daily basis anymore. But yesterday...karma, or something like it, bit me. After an 18 hr flight (plus 2 hours check in/exit customs and and hour luggage collection/entrance customs), I got to chill outside JFK with my bags and about 20 people waiting to pick up their relatives from some (presumably Caribbean) location while my parents meandered for two hours through early morning rush hour (why they didn't leave prior to 7:30 am, when I called to tell them I was through customs, I have no idea). Then we took a two hour ride for the 18 miles home. I bummed around for a while, had lunch and a pedicure, and saw my grandmother, who gave me six bags of Chips Ahoy. I managed talk her out of the Ensure. (I'm not sure if just doesn't like it much, and has it because the doctor recommended it for her to put some weight back on, or if she really thinks I could possibly have a need for it, in which case she needs some glasses.) And I got on the road to PA at 2:50 pm, thinking I'd miss the traffic and slide into Philly well before 5...

Not so much. The day turned into a even crueler joke of the roads, beginning with a ten mile backup from an overturned dump trunk on the turnpike. 3.5 hours later, I made it to my new apt to sign the lease, and then sat in construction for another 90 min to go to my till-next-Monday-abode. Sweet.

But this time in traffic did have some positive yields:

1) Apparently there's fake cows out there somewhere. The Cream-O-Land truck's graphic (sadly somewhat hard to view on their website) clearly says their product is made from "real cows," leading to me question where the rest of our milk is coming from. Perhaps I should be buying organic, or I'm risking milk from...fake cows??

2) I saw a billboard for 1060AM. So, it turns out, there IS a Philadelphia equivalent of 1010WINS, one of the few NY things I miss. It even has a "give us 22 minutes we'll give you the world" thing going on (Both are CBS radio stations though, so I guess its not slogan-theft). While I am very pleased with this find, they need to recruit less grating announcers.

oh, prom

I had an interesting discussion with an old friend last night, who was lamenting the fact that the majority of her friends have gone from single to married/otherwise seriously involved in the past two years. While that's only about 50% true (and hence more of a perception), my arguement that its not a factor of said friends 'changing' but a factor of the fact that said friends are in their mid-20s+ fell on deaf ears.

Anyway, the less frustrating part of the conversation turned to her randomly running into my HS prom (and date-night) date at some corporate drinks event. Appearently he's going to Harvard Business School next year and got married recently. And I saw this card on Postsecret this morning, and kind of want to send it to him to see if he knew. But I don't have his email (and haven't seen the guy in 8 years, aside from 5 min at the Thanksgiving football game a couple years back), so obviously I can't. Oh well :)

need a laugh?

or a cry?
I don't have time to discuss this right now, but wow. (Also, some of the imbedded links are amazing...in a very...interesting defination of amazing).
http://crazytalk.typepad.com/bluegrassroots/2007/06/fun_at_the_crea.html

the progress of women

Overheard on the train platform this morning:

Woman 1: Why you here?
Woman 2: I going to work.
Woman 1: I didn’t know youse got a job. Why you git a job? You got a nice booty, why you git a job? Girrrl, you should get yo self a man instead.

I kid you not.

ok, so...

I start work on Monday. This is excellent for a few reasons:
a) I'm broke
b) I'm broke
c) I'm bored
d) I'm really unproductive when I have nowhere to be

And I think I'm really going to like my office and it'll be a good position for a couple of years. I figure I'll have to stay in some capacity at Penn for 5 yrs or so if I opt to go for it and pursue an Ed.D. starting this spring (and figure if I should take out more loans to cover the taxes on that or what....)....but that's ok. I think I like Philadelphia. I've seen more of it the last few weeks since school ended, and its pretty cool. Its amazing how much time school takes up (which makes me not terribly excited to do a doctorate part time but I'll cross that bridge when the time comes).

I'm also kind of hoping going back to the working world gives me more time for my extracurricular life, er, rugby. This year I missed two games and probably half a dozen practices, which is about what I missed in the last 6 years. I may not be a super-star (or even a plain star) but at least I'm reliable (that count for something, right?). While I have a horrid guilt complex, the priority shifting that paying massive tuition (read: over a year's salary) brings also inadvertently helped me realize its ok to not make rugby tops all the time. Given the time of year, I haven't seen any rugby people in weeks (which is true, though I doubt it was noticed since I didn't really have the opportunity to hang out this season anyway)...and there were actually events the last two weekends, but I missed them for long-standing plans with family. That priority shift probably is a good thing, seeing as I hardly ever see the family and noones getting any younger...

I have a question

What do (chronically) unemployed people do all day?

On the one hand, having lots of time on my hands is nice. My apartment is pretty clean. I've started cooking again. I've opened books with titles other than "Declining by Degrees" and "Higher Education Finance" recently. I bought a couple of trashy magazines (eg. Glamour, such guilty pleasures). I've not only been sleeping more than 6 hours a night, but I've been sleeping well past 7 am!! And I think I'm finally going to wash my car and clean the rugby dirt out of my drivers seat today...

But on the other hand....daytime tv is is awful (not that nighttime tv is much better!). I find it really easy to spend hours doing nothing, and then wonder how its 7 pm and I haven't been to the gym yet. And while its been nice this last couple of weeks, I know I'm going to need more in my life soon....

And that's a real possibility!! A job I'm interested in checked my references...and I had another good interview....so...we'll see....with some luck, things will be more in line in the next couple of weeks!! YES. I hate having life "pending". Organization is so important to me.

Tear

I'm an emotional basketcase this week anyway, but Matt's final GSE-Admissions Blog brought a tear to my eye. Seriously.

One week. 16 pages.

Happy hour.

(I heart Tequila.)

feelin' green

Last weekend I went to a conference for school/work/interviewing. The keynote speaker was Al Gore (who is surprisingly funny). He also had a 95% or so liberal audience of student affairs professionals, so the cracks about the election and current politics were well received. This 2 hours was by far the highlight of the conference (especially considering I spent 2/3 of it in the dungeon of placement interviewing, which may or may not pan out...). For the first time in my life, I'm motivated to recycle...and glad I have a gas efficient car for reasons other than my own wallet!!

Due to the T-4 weeks countdown to the end of the semester, and accompanying T-(2 case studies, 2 short-ish papers, and 2 long papers (one of which I haven't even done a lit review for)) countdown, I am going to refrain from detailing all the best parts, but I did find his website:

http://www.climatecrisis.net/

I am also planning on going to Alaska sometime in the next couple of years now, because I want to see the glaciers before they're tiny or gone...

Pledging

your virginity to your father?

Right now the Today show is doing a segment on the Purity Ball. The claim is that its growing out of the "abstinence movement" and is to help reduce the 80% (!?!) of high schoolers who have sex by their 18th birthday. First, I find it pretty hard to believe that 12 yr olds (well, at least the 12 yr olds I grew up with, maybe "things are different now") REALLY understand what a vow of chastity means. Also, its unclear (to me at least) if this is a vow of purity till marriage or till their 18th birthday. And I don't think that this can be good for parent-child communication. What if they ARE "involved" in HS and thinking about sex and then don't feel comfortable talking to mom/dad about it because of this pledge from middle school?? Lastly, I really get the impression that part of this vow is having your father "protect" you till you have a husband to "protect" you. Ugh. What happened to empowerment?

However....My biggest issue....

There's no mention of the sons. The boys these daughters are (or are not) have sex with. Appearently noone cares about their purity.

I hate double standards.