Cell Phones

Rich and I are LAN free. We both have cell phones and use those instead. The downside, I couldn't call various Help Desks during the day, and the one for Canon was closed before 9 pm (when my night-time minutes start). I just got a new phone (I still need to send the phone number out to everyone) and I have that Verizon IN-Networking calling option. It's great! I can call people anytime! Woo!

I'm retiring my old cell phone. After 2 years, I logged 600 hours on it. I spent 25 entire days on the phone. Wow! I guess that's what having a long distance relationship can do for you. I've also always used phone a lot. I was one of those teenagers who was constantly on the phone. Luckily, there's no such thing as long-distance.

In other news, Andrew finally has DSL! Even though I won't see him for a year and a half, I'll still keep up on his life because of his blog. Don't forget to request your NJ Absentee ballot, Andrew! NJ Primaries are in June!

Daily Reading

All you Democratic-minded people out there should be reading DailyKos.com. Kos updates it throughout the day to include the latest developments in the politics day. I've gotten hooked. Today's news so far, Rice will testify in public before the 9/11 commission.

Laundry Time

It's been a while since we've done laundry. I don't know how it happens, but every time we do our laundry, we end up with 7 loads. I think I just underestimate how much dirty clothing the two of us can output in a span of 2 or 3 weeks. I'm lucky because I have a pretty healthy stock of clothing, and I also end up going to do 1 or 2 loads of emergency laundry at odd times when Scott does his every week.

Concertinas in Strange Places

You never know when you'll find a concertina. I only learned what a concertina was this past September. Now that I know what one is, I find them everywhere.

Notable occurences:

The Muppet Show with Peter Sellers. A muppet is playing the concertina in the gypsy scene.

Rathergood.com: A Kitten is playing the concertina in the song Independent Woman.

The Outlaw Josey Wales: A short lived bad guy rides around on his horse with his concertina.

Eternal Sunshine

Last night, we went to see Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I really liked it as did several of the people we went to see it with. Mostly, the character development and plot were very well thought through. Bill Chapin thought an accurate reviewer quote for him was "May be the first movie I've seen that bends your brain and breaks your heart at the same time." -- Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly.

Pictures

So, I don't think we're going to find our digital camera. What saddens me the most is the pictures I still had on there which I hadn't downloaded onto my camera. At least I remember them and will list them for posterity:

• Craver General Store
  
• Scott's first stone carving in his yard
  
• Rich, Scott, and I at the Chili's in Naperville (there was one here that I really liked)
  
• Cafe Iberico dinner in Chicago (Julie, Bill, Brian, Kelly Ryan, Rich, Scott)
  
• Garlic eating contest by and for Scott
  
• Penny, Matt, and Laura in Munster
  
• Abbie Cashman
  
• New Year's Eve dinner at Julie's (Holly, Brian, Bill, Julie, Janice, Rich, Scott)
  
• New Year's Eve concert (I obviously should've downloaded this pictures a while back)
  
• Dean in the coffee table
  
• Dinner at Sandrine's
  

Bunny

I took a quiz from Allie's blog. The world thinks I suck for being nice.

Thanks to Danny Lange for leaving me my first testimonial on Friendster! My self-related step-brothers are traveling all over the world! Andrew's in Australia for the next year and a half, and Danny went to Uruguay for Spring Break. My real brother got that scholarship, BTW. He's spending his summer in Aspen at an orchestra there.

What "Happy Bunny" phrase are you? you suck and that's sad You are a very compassionate and sympathetic person. You use your divine sense of humor to cheer up a situation.

Cookie me

We had our Eagleton class today. John Weingart talked about his experience in Waste is a Terrible Thing to Mind. Any fans of folk and/or bluegrass music should catch his radio show on Sunday evenings, Music You Can't Hear on the Radio, from 7-10 ET on WPRB.com. Jonathan brought chocolate chocolate-chip cookies! He's also running for the school board in Clifton in Passaic County. So, if you're a Clifton resident, vote for him! We like it when Jonathan brings freshly made baked goods. He's brought brownies and chocolate-chip cookies. He's also a Republican but considering going D to make it politically in Clifton.

Tonight, I hung out with Katy and we made chocolate-chip and oatmeal chocolate-chip cookies (from a Betty Crocker mix) after social hour.

Glowing, Buzzing, All-electric

I'm behind and I need to catch up. After being gone for Spring Break, I updated my planner to figure out all the work I have due and when. April is a busy month because it's the last month of the semester. I missed 2 of my Database Design classes because I was in Annapolis and then busy. I'm also increasing my participation in organizations like the Princeton/Trenton SLA. I'm sure I'll get it all done because I have to.

In other news, I looked over Xcott's job talk. He's a very respected member of the field of steganography. He has a chapter in a book! He did not take Rich's suggestion of having a picture of a stegosaurus in his powerpoint presentation.

Pesto Pizzaz

When I was in DC at Eastern Market, which is their year round grocery market, I picked up some pesto, which I found to be mighty delicious. Michael Roston was looking for lump crab, but Nicki and I convinced him to make a Soy-Lime salmon with lime sushi rice recipe from Simply Ming. So, instead of crab, we got salmon from the open air fish market. Dinner was delicious and I need to get this book so I can make some of these recipies for my dinner club.

When I got back home on Sunday, Rich and I made a pork tenderloin and chicken pasta dinner with the pesto I bought. Yum! I also made my way up to New Brunswick for the ALA Accredidation reception, where we welcomed the accredidation committee. Library schools must be accredited every 7 years, and it's Rutgers' turn this year.

NPR DC

I'm here in DC now. We took a group of Library school students from Rutgers on a field trip to Washington DC. On Thursday, we went to the Library of Congress and heard various librarians speak about their jobs. Afterwards, we went to dinner at 4:30 pm across the street from the LOC at a Chinese restaurant. The one thing we'll have to change about the next trip is to make sure that we get an actual tour of the Library of Congress, instead of just seeing speakers.

After dinner, Jim hijacked a tourbus to drive us back to the hotel. Seriously. There was a small shuttle bus outside the restaurant, and he walked up to Clyde, the driver, and $omehow convinced him to drive us all back home. Amazing how that happened. Brenna, Katie, Katie's friend Katy, and I went to a bookstore/bar/restaurant/cafe in the DuPont Circle area. Kramer Books and Afterwards Cafe even had a free Internet/E-mail computer for public use in the bar. (Hooray!)

Friday morning, I went on the tour of NPR. (Another group went to the Archive Center at the Smithsonian Museum of American History.) The people at NPR were really cool, and finding out about special libraries like the ones at NPR make me want to consider being a librarian. I got to see several radio celebrities, like Carl Kassell of "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" fame. I left the group after that tour. They continued on to the National Library of Medicine.

I instead walked around a bit, and I stopped by the ALA Washington Office to talk to someone about libaries and public policy. It turns out that the people who work on Intellectual Property are based out of the main office, in Chicago. Maybe I'll end up there some day. I also took a shuttle to Georgetown to wander around. I went back to the DuPont Circle area to meet up with Michael Roston after he finished work. That evening, we went to dinner with a group of his roommates and friends at a Middle Eastern restaurant names Baccus, and we tried to hit the Fox and Hound bar, but it was too packed, so we ended up at a Irish pub called Biddy Mulligan's. It was a good time. Michael's roommates, friends, and girlfriend are cool.

Star above the Garter

Happy St. Patrick's Day. We played a session at the D-Bar tonight. I had an idea weeks ago to play some Irish music at the D-Bar. I got us the place and Scott picked all the tunes, found lyrics for the songs, and arranged practice sessions. This was really his effort that made everything come together. Thanks Scott!! He also sang, and now he's going to have to keep on singing at the other sessions that we'll go to. HA! Thanks also to Rich, Cynthia, Dargan, and Lauren for playing.

I'm off to Washington D.C. in a few hours.

California was 50 degrees warmer than it is back here in New Jersey. I come back to snow and slush.

Krakow

Remember Brian Krakow from My So-Called Life? He was the dorky one vs. Jared Leto. If you look at him now, he's cute! Who would've thought? Some people grow up and look different. Some people grow up and still look like Screech.

Yesterday, William and I went up to San Francisco and stopped by Lark in the Morning. It had all sorts of musical instruments. I got to try a really nice Anglo concertina that I got to play. (I only know how to play a C major scale.) They had a few mandolins, but nothing even close to the selection that Mandolin Bros. has (where I got my nice Weber Y2K mandolin.) For dinner, we went to Berkeley and had Ethiopian food with Jomy. I also met up with Daniel and Massie for coffee afterwards. It was really nice to see all of them. Daniel'll be a senator someday.

A place that Scott suggested to go in the Bay Area was the Winchester Mystery House. I won't have a chance to go this time. A psychic told the Winchester Rifle heiress that she was cursed and had build a house for the spirits who were killed by Winchester Rifles. The full story is here. The house was designed to confuse the ghosts who were haunting her.

Paper

If you are a Mike Vea fan, his Polo Jeans ad is on the back cover of Paper this month, now at newsstands! Pick up your copy today!

San Francisco

I'm here in sunny Palo Alto now. The weather's beautiful and nice, a welcome change from the cold of New Jersey. Does anyone have any recommendations on things to do? Now that the gay marriage machine has been shut down, we can't go and give well wishes there anymore.

Happy Birthday, Jeffrey!

Today is Jeffrey's Birthday! Rich and I went into New York to have dinner with him, Mike, and Regina at the Manhattan Grille. It was a lot of fun, and we even got to go to Jeffrey's new apartment on the Upper East side.

On the way back to New Jersey, we picked up my brother on the train at the Newark Airport. He's visiting me this weekend to attend an interview for a fellowship with the American Symphony Orchestra League. After we got back to Princeton I took Jeff to the D-Bar (because what trip to Princeton is complete without a trip to the D-Bar, I ask?).

It was Brian's birthday last week. Happy Birthday to you too!

Step into my office, baby

It's been a few days. I always end up staying up until about 2 am doing other things, and sleep usually beats blogging. Sunday was a nice and sunny day, probably in the 60 degrees range. I think to myself, this would sure be a nice day to play outside. So, I called up my old friend Scott and we went and played some music outside in Princeton. This being the nice Sunday it was, just about everyone was outside walking around town and especially around the commons of Princeton. We sat by the sculpture lions, me plucking away at my mandolin and Scott on his concertina. People kept on coming by, asking about our instruments, taking our pictures, video-taping us. It was fun to be out, but I didn't really enjoy being a curiosity.

Monday brought snow and more rehearsal for the gig on Tues. night. Tuesday, my Reference and Resources class had a field trip to visit the Princeton libraries (very convenient for me). I went to that and stopped in at the PACM conference. Cynthia ordered a ton of food for the entire day. Very impressive lineup, both food and speakers. The Jersey Sprawled played that evening for an attentive audience of PACM students, professors, and various friends. We were rewarded for our efforts with large catering containers of food. I got to sing Fox on the Run which was a lot of fun. Note: This is not the Dazed and Confused version. Tuesday was also my half-birthday; thanks to Andrew for reminding me in his blog with his.

Tonight, we had Scott and Henning over for dinner. We had some of the copious leftovers from the conference. I made a Warm Chocolate Raspberry Pudding Cake from Epicurious, which is my favorite recipie site. I served it up with some freshly made vanilla ice cream and fresh raspberries. It was delicious.

Next Wednesday is St. Patrick's Day. I've set up a traditional Irish music session at the D-bar to celebrate. So, if you're around, stop by the D-Bar next Wednesday starting at 10 pm! Scott gave me and Rich a huge packet of songs to play/memorize. I probably won't be doing much of that seeing that I'm taking off to visit William in California on Saturday, but I'm sure it'll good anyway.

Annapolis

The field trip to Annapolis was a blast. I had a great time bonding with the other Eagleton Fellows. Besides learning about the budget, I got to talk to the Executive Director of the State of Maryland's Office of Legislative Services. He oversaw the study the state conducted on their electronic voting machines to determine how secure they were. They hired a team of hackers to break into the systems to they could better protect them.

Thurs. night, we all went to dinner and then went out drinking the Annapolis. Sarah K, Sarah S, William, Shannon, Kristin, Margaret (Governor's Executive Fellow), and I hit McGarvey's Saloon & Oyster Bar. Sarah K walks into the bar and immediately gets handed a glass of wine by some gentlemen sittingi at the bar. She has this amazing "free drink" sense. It was a great and interesting time at the bar. Sarah S, the one receiving a PhD in Food Science, educated us on how raw oysters are just about the dirtiest thing you can eat. We also planned the ESC (Eagleton Social Club) events for the rest of the year. Our next event is social hour on St. Patrick's Day in Princeton. I think I want to take the group to the D-Bar.

Rich's cousin Michael goes to St. John's College in Annapolis, so I told him I'd give him a call Thurs. night. So, I did and him and his posse (dressed casually in polo shirts and sweaters) meet up with us at McGarvey's and took some of us to a bonfire/kegger on campus. It was interesting hanging out with him and his friends and just being in that Great Books atmosphere.

Friday morning, we met with some other legislators and delegates and ended our formal trip to the Annapolis State House. For lunch we headed to Buddy's to get some steamed Maryland crabs. I had the crabcakes. Not as good as the ones (best ever) that Brian introduced me too, but they were filling.

I got back into Princeton Fri. night in plenty of time to attend the D-Bar's 80's party. I don't really have an 80's outfit, but wore an old ringer shirt with the Sigma Alpha Iota logo mimic-ing that of Oscar Mayer. Scott should've dressed up as Alex Winter from Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. He grew up with people asking him "Hey, did you know you look a lot like the excellent Bill S. Preston?" Alex Winter apparently has his blog here.

Saturday night, the Jersey Sprawl had a rehearsal to prepare for our gig on Tues. at the PACM Conference. I learned a new Irish tune there too.

Janice Misfortune

Another great night at Mitchell's Famous Irish Session. I've been playing mostly my mandolin at these sessions. I'm to the point where I can pick up the music if people are going slow, but not so much if they're going really, really fast. Most of the time, they're going really, really fast. I know a lot more of the tunes now and can play along, thanks to my diligent/patient mandolin tutor. A tune that I like is Banish Misfortune. Try saying that 3 times fast, hence the Janice Misfortune. I wish I'd know about my interest in Irish music earlier. I would've gone to the sessions at the Hidden Shamrock back in Chicago on Sundays. Ahh, if I'd only listened to Amy back then.

I'm off to Annapolis for a field trip! Eagleton's taking us visit the Maryland State House and to meet Eagleton alumni.

Oranges

We just got our shipment in of oranges from the tree in front of Rich's house in Livermore. I am convinced that these are the best oranges you'll ever find. They are explodingly juicy and sweet. This year, we got 14 of them, 7 for each of us. I covet these oranges. I think they were picked just a little before they were supposed to be because I can actually section them like a normal orange. Usually, I peel one and eat it like an apple. Anyway, they are still delicious.

Waltz This Way

This weekend was the Princeton formal. Instead of being like a normal formal it was free and the dancing genre of choice was waltz. Scott's friends Xtratos and Andrew were here this weekend to visit and they went to the formal also. We all went to dinner at Fedora Cafe and then to the waltzing lesson before the acutual formal. The lesson was not a good one. 5 minutes of this is what you do and the rest of the house was spent by people cluelessly trying to go back and forth to the 3/4 time. All in all, it was a good time. Waltzing can be hazardous with all the people bumping into each other, but nowhere near as calamitous as polka where people really gallop into you. Though, Scott tried to make a name for himself by using Blair to run into as many people as he could.

Things I've lost: Red makeup bag. I think I left it at Frist after the Valentine's Day dance. I stopped by there. Someone had indeed returned a red makeup bag on Feb. 15, but someone else claimed it 2 days later. I think it was mine, and I don't know why someone would want someone else's used makeup. We also can't find the digital camera right now. It was last seen Feb. 20th when we had dinner at Sandrine's, so hopefully it can't be far. It's not in my backpack, that's for sure.