Enjablog

So, I finally got off of my lazy butt yesterday and went running. I had every intention of going swimming (cardio of choice), but I went by and it was crowded and I had an 8 o’clock appointment to keep. So I didn’t really have time to swim after work and get home in time anyway. Got home just before 7:30, and went out as the sun was finishing setting. I know, I know… I shouldn’t go running after dark by myself. I figured that would give me extra incentive to run faster, right..? Heh. Oh well. Ran around the neighborhood. Drove the route today and it’s about 1.25 miles. Not bad considering I’m completely out of shape. And I actually haven’t gone running since 1999. Wow, I hadn’t realized it was that long ago. But that just goes to show how much I don’t like running. Oh wait, I did run on a treadmill about 8 months ago. And I played on an elliptical. Anyway, it wasn’t that bad. I was sore today, but it was a refreshing kind of sore. And I think I just need more sleep. So, that was my evening yesterday. Got some reading in too. Tonight… Gilmore Girls and lasagne. I’m a happy camper. :) Now I’m off to read before I fall asleep. ‘Nite all! :) -J.

Link of the day: Lands’ End Virtual Model - Make a virtual you and try on virtual clothes that have functional virtual pockets (that translate into *real* functional pockets!)
Lol… I am ever so pretty — Fashion advice: You look good in everything. But you may want to coordinate outfits that will lengthen your silhouette.

Gee… think they’re catering to a dumbed down voting public? They just needed to work “I’ll be back” or possibly even “Come with me if you want to live” into his campaign speech:

“‘These guys have terminated dreams, they’ve terminated jobs, they’ve terminated opportunity, they’ve terminated everything we’ve had,’ he told an audience in Monterey.”

D.C. Has Third Worst Traffic in Nation, Study Finds (washingtonpost.com)

Someone left a cookie on my desk today and I was so happy… until I saw that there was chocolate in it. Then I was so sad. Then I went on a quest to find out where the cookie came from. Went and asked MichiganTony and NewGuy and I was told, “It’s good; eat it.” As though I didn’t *want* to eat it. Silly boys. Anyway, the guy in the office around the corner brought in the cookies and when I passed him a few seconds later he asked if I got the cookie he left for me. I said I did and thanks. But I gave it to the boys to split. And he asked me if I didn’t eat cookies. Me? Not eat cookies? It’s like I haven’t been working here for 6 months already. So. Yes, I eat cookies. I eat a lot of cookies. I just don’t eat chocolate. Alas. The bane of my indiscriminate mass cookie consumption. So, he said he’d bring in sugar cookies for Christmas. Cookies! :) -J.

best compliment of the weekend: being compared to lara croft
current arsenal: pepper spray, bat, baton, panic whistle
current book: the warrior’s apprentice

Hey all… This is mostly for TJ alum, but anyone else is welcome to read. I received this email today and thought I would share it with everyone. Basically, they’re going to start looking for a new principal soon. Anyone who cares about the quality of the educational experience that this institution offers to incoming students… take a few minutes to think about what you enjoyed at tj and what made your years there memorable. Now, what can be done to uphold that standard? Email the schoolboard with your thoughts. Take a stand. Be an army of one. Oh wait… wrong commercial. Anyway, this email says it way better than I do:

Dear TJHSST Alumni and Friends,
October 3rd is TJ’s Homecoming. Let us use this date to initiate a campaign to search for Jefferson’s next principal.

The Washington Post
1150 15th St.
NW, Washington, D.C. 20071
(202)334-6000
Jay Mathews, Education
mathewsj@washingtonpost.com

I had a really good day of wandering around Great Falls today. I don’t know what it is… but I usually don’t like outdoor anything. But the weather was nice and I was adventuring with 2fg’s puppy. 2fg was rock climbing with hc, so I went exploring and… I had so much fun. I think the reason I usually don’t like hiking is because I go with other people and I have to talk to them and keep track of them and stuff. I dunno. So maybe I like puppies better than people… Nothing wrong with that. :) -J.

I totally forgot to put up my quote of the night for yesterday: “Tony Blair would make the best President of the United States.” As much as I like Tony Blair and think he’s is a very effective politician… there’s just one huge flaw with that. :) -J.

So it’s really late, or really early, and here I am updating the blog. What a sad life I lead… ;) Oh well. Anyway, I’ve had a really eventful last couple of days.

Friday — Got my car inspected. Ran errands. Went to the library. Decided not to go to work. Went over to William’s and we decided to venture out and watch Matchstick Men. I thought it looked interesting just from the psychological side of it, but it wasn’t really focused on that. That was just a characteristic that was secondary to much of the story. I liked it… would definitely recommend. After that, wandered around Shirlington and got dinner at an Indian place and ice cream at Magee Moo’s. Good food and stuff. Then people-watched, which led to a conversation on door-opening. We saw a couple park and the guy walked around the car and opened the door for the woman. We both thought that to be a little excessive, but I thought that opening the door for a woman/date, especially on a first date, is a nice gesture. While he agreed that it was a nice gesture, he would not be inclined to do so unless it were convenient (as in, he were walking from that side of the car). Comments, anyone? Anyway, after that, went over to the House of Yen and sat around watching Coupling and the entertainment that is drunkenness. I was a little disappointed with the level of amusement resulting from the drinking, but oh well. I took a nap and then went home and went to bed. Oh and the roomies are back from saving the world. Well, saving the state, at least. So that’s cool.

Saturday — Got up and went to watch the Women’s World Cup. The Brazil-France game was exciting. Brazil was playing terribly, save for the goalie, and missed quite a few seemingly easy shots. France, on the other hand was playing pretty well, but just couldn’t seem to get past the Brazilian goalie. That is, until the last 10 seconds of the game. They scored and the game ended tied 1-1. Germany-Argentina, on the other hand… well not quite as bad a massacre as the Norway-Korea game, but close. I left a little after halftime right after Argentina scored, leaving them trailing 1-4. Game ended 1-6. Oh well. Went to Chipotle for the first time today after the game. If you haven’t been there, their burritos are huge. I was probably eating for like over half an hour. Anyway, left from there to go to this fundraiser thing for someone participating in the Marine Corp marathon to raise money for the Whitman Walker Clinic. So far away… Went to Gaithersburg and met up with 2fg and cn at cn’s house. Headed over to the festivities. It was… interesting. Drank a little, gambled a little, got skeeved out a little, ducked out and gossiped a little… and that’s about it. 2fg made out like a bandit playing blackjack. At one point, he was up over $400 and that was after he had started trying to lose money. Funny that… when he was making risky bets and trying to lose money back to the house, he kept winning. Anyway, stayed there way too late. Drove back, and here I am. Made tentative plans for tomorrow to go watch 2fg’s cute puppy while he goes climbing. Hehe… I know I’m anti-social, but sometimes I just don’t care. :) -J.

So I had all these quotes and things to write about the discussion with my parents and Everything last night, but then I decided I didn’t want to post it. It’s a controversial topic, and I just don’t feel strongly enough to argue about it. I feel strongly enough to severely disagree with them, but that’s about it. So there goes most of my fodder for the day.

In other news, I’m not sure if my memory is going or if I’m just way more memorable than I realized. Laughable, I know. But here’s the thing. Since my haircut, I’ve had a lot of people comment on my hair… especially people at work. People who don’t normally talk to me. People whose names I don’t know… and more specifically, at least in one case, person who I don’t even recognize, much less remember meeting. And then another guy said hi to me and knew my name, but, again, I don’t remember meeting him. I think I’m losing my mind. Anyway, over the past week, I’ve gotten some very nice compliments on my newly chopped off hair. Some select comments:
What did you do to your hair?
Oh, that’s so cute!
You look like a little chinese girl.
You look 10 years older. Haha… just kidding.
Whoa! Where’d your hair go?
Why did you cut your hair? It looked better before.

William’s quote of the day: “it always surprises me when i remember you are a girl..” It’s nice to feel special… Unfortunately, my friends aren’t the ones who make me feel special. Oh well. ;)

adding to the list of suggested defense items:
baseball bat
no-contact jacket
knife
machete
duct tape
water
cattle prod
lightsaber
expandable baton

Ok that’s all for now. Have a great weekend all! :) -J.

Ok, so I’m finally getting around to purchasing some self-defense products. I’m wavering between pepper spray and stun guns at this point. Let me know if you have any advice to offer. Main sources so far:

Tasers - Very cool stuff, but a bit expensive and probably overkill for my needs.
Stun Guns - Convenient, compact, but requires direct contact with assailant.
Pepper Spray - Inexpensive, portable, but totally not as cool.
More pepper spray - This is the guy who came to my office to endorse pepper spray. Looks to be about the same stuff.

So cast your votes. Probably going to order tonight. :) -J.

The Online Books Page

DEAR ABBY: I am a junior on the high school football team. “Amy” is one of our school’s cheerleaders. We get along great and I want to ask her out. The problem is, I called Amy’s house and asked to talk to her, but her father wouldn’t let her come to the phone until I gave him my full name and told him where I was from. He made me nervous, and before I could answer, he hung up on me. Did I do anything wrong? — JACK THE JOCK IN JERSEY

Pay attention to these basic rules. They will come in handy for the rest of your life and the telephone will be your ally.

Haha… #2. I know people like that. Sigh… :) -J.

Woo!! For anyone who is interested, you can now leave comments. :) I have been trying to get a comments thing up for months now. And there have been all sorts of obstacles along the way. But today, I came across HaloScan, which suited my needs perfectly. So after all that effort, the lazy route was the way to go. Didn’t have to join the livejournal cult, couldn’t get moveabletype to work with hostonce, and couldn’t get a perl script to run on their server either. Maybe I just didn’t try hard enough. Oh well. Anyway, this is just what I wanted. So leave a message and test it out. Haven’t checked out all the cool options and stuff yet, so there might be more changes on the way. Don’t forget… Season premiere: Gilmore Girls tomorrow! :) -J.

Go read a banned book. It’s good for you.

“What’s that?”
“A solicitation letter from Howard Dean.”
“Howard Dean? Who’s that? The guy on the radio?”
“You mean Howard Stern?”
“Yeah.”
“No, that’s not Howard Dean. Howard Dean — Democrat… running for president; Howard Stern — politically incorrect radio talkshow personality.”

Almost the same though. And just for those of you who haven’t received one of Dean’s letters, here are a few of the opening lines:

“Dear Friend,
My name is Howard Dean and I am running for President.
I’ve heard that you are not a fan of George W. Bush.
Me neither.”

I don’t think I can add anything more… so I’m just going to leave it at that.

Most of the day was spent at the Women’s World Cup today. US vs. Sweden. US won 3-1. Then Brazil over S. Korea, 3-0. Went over to the castle for dinner and then home. ‘Bout all for today. :) -J.