Tropical Storm Lee Churns Up Some Surf

We went to the beach in Florida today, and though it was a bit cloudy and humid, Tropical Storm Lee made the surf much more surfy than usual in Florida. It was a good day to ride the waves.

Two Versions of "Sunday"

Click here to see the amazing Mandy Patinkin and Bernadette Peters in the 1984 Stephen Sondheim production of Sunday In the Park with George, performing "Sunday."  I removed the actual video because it would start automatically when the page loaded and I thought that was annoying. Below is a parody of this song by Rent composer Jonathan Larson from his show, Tick, Tick... Boom.

Tropical Storm Lee Churns Up the Gulf

It has been a while since we came down to our vacation home in Florida.  After surviving an earthquake and Hurricane Irene last week, we were looking forward to getting away for a long weekend.  However, Tropical Storm Lee has developed in the Gulf of Mexico.  Luckily, it isn't affecting the weather in Punta Gorda, FL (where our house is), too much.  Since it is summertime in Florida, it is not unusual to have thunderstorms everyday.  The thunder shook our house this afternoon, I thought we were having an earthquake down here.  Hopefully, the weather will be nice enough so we can get to the beach for a bit.  Anyway, it is nice to get away.

Tweet of the Day - @MeganAmaram

@meganamram Megan Amram 

If you're an amputee and you know it, clap your hand.

Arizona Man Impales Face with Pruning Shears

I saw this x-ray image in the paper while riding the subway to work this morning and made an audible moan.  The man fell on his pruning shears and impaled the handle in his eye socket.  Watch the Good Morning America story about it below.  Amazing!

Tweet of the Day-@Crutnacker On DWTS

@Crutnacker

BREAKING: Nancy Grace going on Dancing With The Stars to find whereabouts of the missing Chastity Bono.

New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #300

If you like playing dumb, we can install a dimmer switch. 

This is my idea for the New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #300.  Let me know if you have any ideas for a caption too.  

Good Night Hurricane Irene

Hurricane Irene tore up the east coast this weekend.  Luckily, she spared us any damage.  We actually had a pretty nice weekend.  Yesterday, I made a lasagna.  We spent most of our time hunkered down inside watching last season's Top Chef Just Desserts.  I had DVRed them  and we have been enjoying them, but they are making me hungry.  We never lost power or cable.  A tree in a small park near our house fell over and a city crew with chainsaws came early this morning to clean it up.

I talked with my mom this morning and she also came through the storm without much problem.  My siblings didn't have as much luck.  Both my brother and my sister live in Maryland, near the Pennsylvania border, and they both lost power.  What's worst, my sister's septic system backed up in her basement.  She has not had a fun weekend.

Getting Rid of Belly Fat through Running

I have a big belly, but not this big. 

I was playing on the iPad this morning and I saw this article on the National Public Radio (NPR) app.  I've had many debates with people about this subject.  I always thought aerobic exercise, such as running, helped you lose belly fat faster than weight training.  I run all the time, but I still have belly fat, so it is hard for me to win that argument.

Jogging Fights Beer Belly Fat Better Than Weights by Nancy Shute, NPR - August 26, 2011

Weight training is touted as the cure for many ills. But if the goal is to lose belly fat, aerobic exercise is the only way to go, exercise scientists say.

We're not talking about muffin tops, the annoying bit of pudge that rolls over a woman's waistline and is featured in those strange Internet ads. Rather, this is gut fat lodged around internal organs, which could look like a beer belly from the outisde. It's considered a risk factor for diabetes, heart disease, and cancer.

Surprisingly little research has been done comparing the health benefits of strength training with weights to aerobic exercise such as walking. But that's just what researchers at Duke University did. They compared changes in visceral fat – the fat that wraps around internal organs – in people who did strength training compared to a group who did aerobic exercise.

They divided 198 overweight, sedentary adults into groups, with one group working out with weights three times a week for eight months. A second group jogged 12 miles a week. The aerobic exercisers lost significant amounts of visceral fat, as well as fat around the liver. They also lost abdominal fat overall, and had improvements in liver enzymes and insulin resistance.

By contrast, the people who were pumping iron lost a wee bit of subcutaneous fat, but their stats otherwise didn't improve. The aerobic training burned 67 percent more calories than resistance training.

The results were published in the American Journal of Physiology. "Resistance training is a very good way to increase lean muscle," Cris Slentz, an exercise physiologist at Duke who led the study, told Shots. "And aerobic exercise isn't." But if the goal is to lose fat, then aerobic exercise is the ticket, he said.

There's no easy way to know how much visceral fat a person has; the researchers had to put people in CT scans to measure it. But one good clue is a beer belly. And men tend to carry more visceral fat than women, Slentz says, while white people tend to have more visceral fat than African Americans. And older people tend to internalize fat, while younger people carry fat right beneath their dewy skin. [Copyright 2011 National Public Radio]

Tweet of the Day--@Nickimartini

@nickimartini  

And thank you @bluespongerun and Shane for being the best host parents ever and putting up with me for 3 months!

My niece, Nicole, has been staying with us all summer while whe was interning out a radio public relations firm, and today was her last day.  Last night we took her out to a French restaurant.  I had the skate.  I never heard of skate before.  It turns out it is some sort of a ray (fish).  I won't be ordering it again.  Nicole had salmon, which looked delish.  Shane had the skirt steak, which he said was so so.  

It was fun having Nicki stay with us, and we're going to miss having her with us and her making us watch cheesy crime shows.  She turned 21 this summer, so we took her out for cocktails (see photo below).  Now she is headed back to school for her senior year.  Have fun Nicki!

Morning Run to See New King Memorial

This morning, a group of my co-workers and I got up a bit earlier to do a 5-mile run from the Tidal Basin in DC up to the Capitol and back to the new Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial.  It was fenced off when we arrived with members of the press inside the fence and us outside the fence.  It was an impressive looking monument from what we could see. 

It was crazy humid this morning, so I got very sweaty.  Below is a photo of me and the running gang.  We're all training to run the Philadelphia Marathon in November.  We have a dream!

Back Row:  Stephanie W, Karlye, Stephanie C (my boss)
Front Row:  Rassii, Sara (my cat sitter) and me.               

New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #299

I get it Mildred.  We all have to pee. 

This is my idea for the New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #299.  Let me know if you have any ideas for a caption too.  

Living Through a Naked Earthquake

I went to the gym late today, so it was just before 2 p.m. when I was in the shower.  That was also the time of the big Virginia earthquake of 2011.  I thought it was construction nearby at first.  Eventually, I realized it was an earthquake, but I had no intention of running out of there with just my towel.  I quickly finished and dressed.  Nobody else seemed too panicked about the situation.  I stopped at the salad place to get my lunch, and they told me everyone in Pentagon Center mall ran for their lives to get out of there when it happened.

As I was getting close to the office, I could see everyone was outside.  They had to check to make sure the building was safe, so they eventually said we could go home.  Meanwhile, I was texting everyone to make sure they were OK.  They let us go up to our offices--I needed to get my keys.  Since the subway was going to be a nightmare--it was running at 15 mph while they checked the tracks and I'm sure it was VERY crowded since everyone in the DC area was trying to get home at the same time.  A group of co-workers went to a nearby Mexican restaurant and we had some drinks.  I had a frozen margarita and a beer.  Shane also went out for drinks with co-workers.

Eventually, I decided to use one of the Capitol Bikeshare bikes to ride home.  It was a beautiful day and there were lots of people riding and walking home.  I had already run at the gym, so I had gotten plenty of exercise today.  I am sure I worked off the drinks.  Now I'm home and I don't see any damage to our house.  Maude seems no worse for wear. Everyone seems to be safe and sound.  You just never know what is going to happen when you wake up in the morning.

"Ladies Who Lunch" from the Movie, Camp

Anna Kendrick, who would later be nominated for an Academy Award for Up In the Air, stole this scene in Camp as a girl who poisons her "friend" and takes over for her to sing "The Ladies Who Lunch" from Company.  I have to say that this is my favorite performance of this song ever.  She is awesome.

Richie Rich Rebuilds $12 Million Beach House

According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is going to bulldoze his $12 million 3,000+ square-foot beach house in La Jolla, CA, and rebuild it with a new house that is nearly four times larger.  The new home will be more than 11,000 square feet.

Romney is worth an estimated $264 million dollars, according to disclosure documents filed with the Federal Election Commission earlier this month.  The Romney's recently sold their $3.5 million home in Massachusetts and got more than $5 million for a ski resort home near Park City, UT.  They still have a townhouse outside of Boston and another vacation home in New Hampshire.

I don't have anything against a person being wealthy.  I wish I were wealthy.  I wonder why someone with all that money would want the headache of being president.  I would want to enjoy spending all that money.

It just seems odd to me he would flaunt his riches now by spending millions on a vacation home rebuild when he is running for president.  It sure doesn't make him seem like a typical guy that would understand the problems most Americans face.  Been out of work for 2 years... that's nothing.  Mitt has to suffer the squalor of a tiny $12 million vacation home.

This is a man that recently stated that corporations are people.  He wants to cut taxes, cut spending, and reform entitlement programs.  Of course, he doesn't provide any specifics about what he would cut or how he would reform entitlements. However, this is a man that couldn't even win against John McCain.  I don't think he'll win again.

Did You Ever Get a Song Stuck In Your Head?

We were cleaning out some of our closets today and both of us had this song stuck in our heads. I actually heard it on my iTunes recently and was singing it and Shane started singing it and we couldn't stop to the point where it was driving us crazy. Now I have infected you (if you dare to listen).  We saw Raul Esparza sing this on Broadway in Company.  We also own the DVD of the show.  We love it.  I just wish this song would leave my head now.

We Got a New Fireplace Insert

This is how it looked before with the stinky gas logs. 

This is our new fireplace insert with a fan that will
finally keep our main floor warm and not smell. 

Here's a closer view.

Since our furnace is on the roof, our downstairs is cold in the winter because heat rises.  Now, the downstairs will be toasty warm.  The old gas logs we had were very smelly and had to be vented.  All the heat just went up the chimney.  This insert has a fan that pumps warm air into the room.

It was not easy getting this done.  We had to have a chimney sweep come first and inspect our chimney. He discovered that the person who installed the old gas logs ran the gas line through the chimney to the downstairs fireplace--very dangerous.  We had to get that fixed.  We had to have an electrician come in and install electric inside the fireplace.  The place that sell the inserts is in Virginia and is not licensed to install in DC.  We had to work with another contractor to install the thing.  Also, we still have to get someone to fix the drywall and paint where the electric was installed and where the gas line was moved.  It took forever and was not cheap, but we're glad it is done.  I think it looks pretty nice too.  

Happy Birthday Sharon (Shane's Mom)!!

Today is Shane's mom's birthday.  She is an awesome mother-in-law.  Happy Birthday Sharon!!

Sharon with Shane and me on the beach in Florida.

With Shane in front of the Space Shuttle.

Enjoying and adult beverage in a floppy hat. 

This is wrong on so many levels. 

Shane and his mom in Blue Hill, Maine.

Top 10 Reasons Rick Perry Could Win

Texas Governor Rick Perry (R) recently announced he was running for the Republican Party nomination for president of the United States.  He may just be dumb enough to win.  Here are my Top 10 Reason he could go all the way to get the nomination.

10.  He thinks man-made climate change is a hoax.

9.  Regarding the BP Gulf Oil Spill, he said, "From time to time there are going to be things that occur tha are acts of God that cannot be prevented."

8.  Thinks that a Commander In Chief can only be respected by the military if he has had military service.  Sorry Presidents Obama, Clinton, Franklin Roosevelt, Wilson, Taft, both Adams, etc.

7.  Flip flops on minor things like party affiliation.  He used to be a Democrat. 

6.  A governor from Texas?  How can that go wrong?  He seems to have lots in common with W, but has been called dumber and meaner.

5.  Has threatened the Federal Reserve Chairman with "ugly" behavior if he showed up in Texas.

4.  Perry strongly criticized the Obama stimulus, but used a big chunk of it to plug holes in the Texas budget.

3.  Perry has an amazing record of job creation--at Taco Bell and Burger King.  According to the Washington Post, Texas has more minimum-wage jobs than every state other than Mississippi, a superlative you brag about if you don’t care about what kind of jobs you create and are only trying to run up the numbers. 

2.  He wants to use predator drones to patrol the Mexican border. 

and the #1 reason Rick Perry could win, 

He has considered having Texas secede from the union.  Sounds like great presidential material.

Here are more reasons this "alledgedly closeted" homophobe could be our next president (did I not mention that before?).  They are thanks to Bob at I Should Be Laughing blog.

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished-Fail Blog

Aunt Bea with Michele Bachmann's Eyes

There is a new blog that takes iconic pictures of famous people and replaces their eyes with Michele Bachmann's eyes, Bachmann-eyezed!  Some of them are pretty funny.  I love Aunt Bea, but kind of wish they had done Opie.  You have to see Marcus Bachmann with his wife's eyes.  Spooky. 

Goodbye China Wall--Hello Chipotle

China Wall is a Chinese carryout restaurant on 8th Street near Eastern Market.  It is our go-to place for cheap, delicious Chinese food.  When we call in, they know our usual order so well, they finish our sentence for us.  It was Sweet and Sour Chicken with pork-fried rice for Shane and Broccoli in Garlic Sauce with white rice for me.

Recently, we got the bad news that China Wall has lost their lease and will be closing at the end of the month.  They are going to be opening a Chipotle restaurant in its place.  I do have to say that I love Chipotle, but we will miss China Wall.  Luckily, there are lots of similar Chinese take-out places around.

Behind the Scenes at Michele Bachmann's Newsweek Shoot

Behind the Scenes of Michele Bachmann's Newsweek Cover - watch more funny videos

Happy Birthday Shane!!

Today Shane turns 41.  I'm taking him out to a nice Italian meal tonight.  Here are a few of my favorite photos of him.  Happy Birthday Sweetie!

Sitting in the window with Maude.  

One of Shane's favorite places in the world, on our lanai in Florida.

At the Badlands in South Dakota.

In front of Pumpkin Island Light after sunset.

In Maine again.

With Shane's mom at the Blue Hill Fair.

Who knew clearing land could be so sexy?

Shane in Maine with our friend, Christine, drinking champagne.

With my triplet nieces.

Shane is the best!  Love ya!

Kayaking on the ocean in Maine

And he makes a mean apple pie!

Happy Birthday Mom!!

Today is my mother's birthday!  She probably doesn't want me to say how old she is, so I won't.  Happy Birthday Mom!  Below is a set of photos featuring her. 

Braving possible gunshots by sitting at our dining room table in DC.

Mom and her favorite baby, Rudy.

Mom was sometimes a bad influence on her granddaughters. 

Mom models her Snuggie

All dolled up. 

With her favorite youngest son.

Mom lunches with her pal, President Obama.

The President Lunches In the Neighborhood

President Obama and campaign volunteers eat lunch at Ted's Bulletin, a diner-type restaurant on 8th Street near Eastern Market on Wednesday.  It is two blocks from our house.  The Washington Post reported he had a burger with cheddar cheese, a side salad, and fries.  He had lunch with six campaign volunteers chosen for essays on community organizing.

Happy Birthday to My Big Sis, Kathleen

She is 6 days less than a year older than me and is 51 today. Have a good one sister!!  Below is a more recent photo.