De-Lovely Things

I love walking to work. Its a 10-15 minute jaunt from the condo to the office, and as long as its not raining or blowing me about in a tornado-esque fashion, its usually a lovely affair. I almost always listen to my NPR podcasts on the journey--my favorite being "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me." SOOO funny. I often wonder what people driving by think when they see my solitary figure, standing at the corner, laughing out loud.

Last night I was reunited with the long lost, j. Okay, maybe not looong lost but it has certainly been a while since we got together. We feasted on cake (Thank you, The Chocolate!) and talked a blue streak about life and funniness and everything that we find awesome. She's a gem. I love cake. And there you go.

Sunday was Harry Potter's 31st Birthday. Did you celebrate? There were Gryffindor-styled cupcakes with personalized birthday flags happening over on my side of the tracks. Funfetti. Delish.

Next week I'm headed to our nation's capital for a Teaching American History Conference. Its sort of part of my job description to stay up on the TAH Universe, so I'm getting paid to be there. And I'm not paying to get there or be there. That's a free airline ticket, free hotel stay, regular salary for the week, and a per diem allotted for food and other such things (i.e COOKIES). And guess what? This will be my first time in Washington D.C.! Its pretty thrilling, not gonna lie. I'm looking forward to staying in a Marriott, walking the Mall, eating at Larry's Cookies, visiting the Newseum and at least one Smithsonian, and somewhere in there I'll probably glean some new info on our TAH grant. I only see one* downside to all of this and it involves one Mr. C who won't be coming along. [Boo... 45 days, y'all. 45 days.]

Homemade BBQ Chicken Pizza
Make your pizza dough and spread it on your pan/stone/whatever you use.
Top it with BBQ Sauce (preferably Sweet Baby Ray's cuz that stuff is TheBomb.com), Mozzarella cheese, chopped pre-cooked chicken (Even better if its been cooked in BBQ Sauce), red onion, and cilantro, if you have it. Add a few more sprinklings of shredded cheddar. Bake. Enjoy. And you will enjoy because its AWESOME.

I just heard about Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir. I am entranced and mesmerized. Also, I think he looks like Aaron Eckhart.

Earlier this week I returned to Monopoly after a multi-years absence from the game. Thanks to Skyler for bringing me back to the glory of the Parker Bros. exercise in "making me think again about the possibilities there might be under Socialism." Really if I hadn't landed on that "Free Parking" moneybags when I did...all might have been lost. As it was, I didn't lose, and we'll leave it at that.

Today is National Watermelon Day. The fab Social Committee at work surprised us with a Watermelon Celebration complete with Watermelon salsa, Watermelon Granadas (sp?), Asian spiced watermelon cubes, and lots of good ol' fashioned WATERMELON--STRAIGHT UP. I adore watermelon. This was a tender mercy, no? It certainly made me happy!


*One other downside could be the fairly awful flight itinerary we've been given. We're leaving at 6:00 in the flippin' AM on Sunday, and we won't return until 9:00 PM on Thursday even though our conference ends Wednesday evening. And don't EVEN get me started on layovers in Dallas. DALLAS!

Pictures from Here and Here