Happy Suicide Prevention Week!

It is sort of ironic that it is National Suicide Prevention Week considering the weather this week has been very cloudy and rainy.  Please try not to commit suicide.  Thanks.

President Obama Top 10 Accomplishments

I was having a discussion with someone who was unhappy with President Obama's performance as president.  I thought I should have have some ammunition to defend the prez, considering I think he is about a million times better than the alternative--by whom I mean any of the current crowd running for the Republican nomination.  I can't say that I'm 100 percent happy with the what President Obama has done, but he has done some good things.  It should be noted that he does have accomplishments.  He also has one other thing his opponents do not have--a brain.

I got this info from Buzz Feed blog and an article by Gavon Laesigg from several months ago.  You can read the full list of 20 accomplishments here.  More information about Obama's accomplishments can be found here from Jack and Jill Politics blog.  Also, if you want to get involved in the re-election campaign, go here.

1. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, makes it illegal for employers to pay unequal wages to men and women who perform equal work.

2. Saved the American auto industry and its hundreds of thousands of jobs from disappearing by preventing Chrysler and GM from going bankrupt.

3. Overturned Bush Administration restrictions on Federal funding for stem cell research.

4. The Matthew Shepard Act, expands hate crime definitions to include gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, and disability.

5. The Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act, allows gay soldiers to serve openly in the United States military.

6. The Credit Card Bill of Rights, outlaws hidden fees and deceptive lending practices from credit card companies.

7. Student loan reform, significantly expands access to affordable government loans and Pell Grants for college.

8. The Affordable Care Act (Obama Care as Fox News would say) establishes universal health care, allowing, among other things, people with pre-existing health problems access to health insurance.  And the Children's Health Insurance Reauthorization Act, provides health care to 11 million children who live in poverty.

9. New START Treaty, will reduce by half the nuclear missile stockpiles of Russia and the United States.

10. Oh yeah... Got Osama bin Laden.

New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #301

That explains all the mopping we have to do around the urinals. 

This is my idea for the New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #301.  Let me know if you have any ideas for a caption too.  

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.