What the Hell Is He Talking About?

Super Bad

2007-02-13T10:39:00.000-05:00

Yeah, I know... I've been EXTREMELY bad. For some reason I thought I "took a vacation" from blogging in November, but now I discover it's been since August! I'm so sorry... my life really isn't that boring. Sometimes you just kind of don't feel like updating this thing. I will try to do better, but we really all know that in 6 months or so I'll take another "break." Such is life. Love it or hate it, nuthin' I can do.

Anyhoo... I've officially entered the iPod age, as of last night. I received an iPod Shuffle from the parentals for Christmas. However, with a 6-year-old computer and an internet connection slower than a fat man on a water slide, I couldn't really do much with it. In the last couple of weeks, however, I have acquired the following: A brand-new swanky HP Pavilion laptop, a wireless Internet connection, Windows Vista, Skype access, and a web cam. I won't say I'm up to 2007 standards, but I've definitely reached 2005 standards. I've become an iTunes aficionado, happily downloading music and (most amusingly) TV shows. Now I don't have to watch TV anymore, I can just buy what I need. I've also discovered that all of the major networks now stream most of their shows FOR FREE on their web sites, beginning the day after they air. So, because I watch 24 on Monday nights, I can catch up on Heroes during my lunch break on Tuesdays just by visiting nbc.com. Sweet! And now I walk around and ride the Metro oblivious to all sights and sounds because I'm listening to Fall Out Boy, Gnarls Barkley and (the shame!) Madonna on my iPod. Ahhh... the isolation technology brings. It brings a tear to my eye.

What would an Asgeir blog update be without a food section? Over the weekend, I finally dug out an Icelandic leg of lamb that had been taking up space in my freezer. I squeezed garlic cloves into the meat and roasted the whole thing for 2 hours. Delicious. Now I can use the leftovers to make a Tuscan white bean and lamb soup tomorrow. And, just because I felt like it, I made steak au poivre out of pork loin last night. You just cut it into beef-like medallions, crust it with pepper and salt, sear it on a pan, and throw it in the oven to finish. Just to be decadent, I topped each medallion with gorgonzola and broiled it to perfection. Sides: creamed spinach and ginger carrots. Not bad for a Monday, eh?

Book update: I don't have space to list all the books I've read since August (nor could I remember all of them!) but I'm currently reading E.L. Doctorow's The March. As I started reading it, I realized I'd never read any of his books before, even though he wrote classics like Ragtime and Billy Bathgate. So far I'm thoroughly engrossed. Other recent books: Hampton Sides' Blood and Thunder, Frederick Jackson Turner's The Frontier in American History, Paul Schneider's Brutal Journey, Kent Nerburn's Chief Joseph and the Flight of the Nez Perce, David McCullough's The Johnstown Flood, and - of course - Lemony Snicket's The End, in which the Baudelaire siblings come to the end of their 13-book journey. Upcoming books include Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals, Michael Oren's Power, Faith and Fantasy, and David McCullough's 1776. What can I say? Me likey read-y.

I recently came to the realization that this spring marks my 10-year high school reunion. Yikes. How did I get to be (almost 30)? Sure, I've got some gray hair, but how did this happen? I can barely take care of my plants, let alone a pet or a child. How did my friends decide that it was the right time to produce offspring - in some cases, two of them already? I will refuse to believe that 10 years have passed until the inevitable reunion party where everyone has to leave early to take care of the kids. Sigh... old age looms ominously...

Anyway - here's how I'm feeling this morning:

Food Food Food

2006-08-14T19:45:00.000-04:00

7:41 pm. Ahhh... I just had a lovely, easy dinner. I made myself a baguette sandwich with muenster cheese, turkey, champagne/shallot mustard, sun-dried tomatoes, fresh basil, and fresh ground black pepper. Yum! It goes to show you don't have to get all fancy to have a nice, simple yet delicious meal.

However... yesterday, I did make one of those fancy meals. I love risotto, and the more recipes for it I can find, the better. Last night's version was red wine risotto with peas and parmesan. I owe it to Giada De Laurentiis on the Food Network (big surprise), and it's delicious. Here the recipe:

3 1/2 cups canned low-salt chicken broth
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup finely chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup arborio rice, or medium-grain white rice
1/2 cup dry red wine
1/3 cup frozen peas, defrosted, optional
1/4 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley leaves
1/2 cup grated Parmesan, plus additional for garnish
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Bring the broth to a simmer over medium-high heat. Cover the broth and keep it warm over very low heat.

Melt the butter in a heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and saute until translucent, about 8 minutes. Stir in the garlic and saute for 30 seconds. Stir in the rice and cook for about 2 minutes until the rice is toasted. Add the wine and stir until it is absorbed, about 1 minute. Add 3/4 cup of hot broth; simmer over medium-low heat until the liquid is absorbed, stirring often, about 6 minutes. Repeat, adding 3/4 cup of hot broth 3 more times, stirring often, about 18-20 minutes longer.

Simmer until the rice is just tender and the mixture is creamy, about 5 minutes longer. Stir in the peas and parsley. Add the 1/2 cup of Parmesan. Season, to taste, with salt and pepper. Spoon the risotto into bowls. Sprinkle additional cheese over and serve.
(Copyright © 2006 Television Food Network, G.P., All Rights Reserved)

With the risotto, I served a variation on the traditional bruschetta. I toasted some french bread with olive oil, and then topped it with minced garlic, chopped sun-dried tomatoes, fresh mozzarella cubes, and fresh basil. I was a very happy boy :-)

I watched a movie called Primer this weekend. It's an independent movie, and it's this complicated rumination on physics and time travel. It starts slowly but when it's done you realize you've been seriously mind-fucked. I sort of liked it, but could have done with less of the "oh look at us we're making an indie movie" feeling.

Summer's almost over. How do I know? The fall television season starts next Monday! Wheee! The first series out of the gate is season 2 of Prison Break, which I sort of watched regularly last year. Here are my bold predictions for the best/most successful new TV shows: Heroes, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Shark, Traveler, Jericho, 30 Rock. Will I watch all of them? Hell, no. But programming directors may want to take notice: I predicted the success of shows like Ally McBeal, CSI, Lost, House and NCIS before they ever aired. This TV-holic knows his shit! :-D

Done for now. Greeting from the capital of the free world. Or whatever...

I'm Never Flying Again

2006-08-10T14:15:00.000-04:00

2:10 pm. And not for the reason you think. No, I'm not succumbing to hysteria at the latest news of crazy Muslims trying to blow up airplanes. We've all known that was coming for a while, and frankly should be surprised it hasn't happened yet (the quality of security screeners in the U.S. certainly isn't anything to slow them down). No, it's the overreaction as far as safety concerns that pisses me off. Now they want to ban all liquids (i.e. no water, which is necessary on any flight over 2 hours) and possibly anything that has a battery - iPods, computers, wrist watches, cell phones. How the hell can anyone survive a flight without water and these items? What's next, only serving non-spicy meals, in case they get too "hot" and can be used Ugh... How about scheduling all Muslims to fly on the same plane together? Can't we just make life easy, perpetrate one whopper of a racial profiling, and have one Muslim flight to the U.S. every day?OnlyMuslim passengers, Muslim crew, etc. That means the rest of us won't have to worry, and they can't really go around killing one another to get back at the West, can they?

(Leaving that behind now...)

Not much news from DC. The heat died down - it's only about 86 degrees/30 degrees today. You know life is fucked up when you can say "only 86 degrees." Either way, it's noticeably cooler, and for that I'm thankful. I had to endure an outdoor concert last week. It was excruciatingly hot, and the artist was Gordon Lightfoot, with whom I am not familiar and didn't therefore enjoy all too much. However, the cause was good (b-day celebration) so I have no complaints at all.

In other news, we've seen a lot of friends lately. First was the concert last Tuesday with Marc and Maria, I saw crazy Penn-Maria Thursday, we had Megan over for dinner on Friday, and then we attended a baseball game with Peter on Tuesday (we lost...boo!). Tomorrow we have dinner at Jenn's, and next week there's fondue at Yvonne's! Busy social calendar! That's why it's good to be home and relaxing every once in a while.

I finally finished my Oppenheimer biography. It was tremendously well written - definitely one of the most interesting bios I've read. The man lived an extremely fascinating life, and I'm glad I hunkered down for all 600 small-type pages. I've now moved onto an academic text, in preparation for my possible return to school in '07. It's called Indians, Settlers & Slaves in a Frontier Exchange Economy: The Lower Mississippi Valley Before 1783. Yes, I know you are all aquiver with excitement, surely clamoring to borrow it when I'm done :-) It's interesting to me, and that's all you need to know!!

Hmmm.... what else? I've watched a few Netflix lately - what else to do in this heat? We had a 1970s extravaganza with Marathon Man (great movie) and The Paper Chase (great writing and performance by John Houseman, utterly unsympathetic main protagonists). I also caught Doom (not as bad as you might think) but my attempt at watching Final Destination 3 was thwarted by a defected DVD. Lest you scorn my movie choices, I think the basic idea behind the FD movies is excellent, and I love seeing annoying American teens dispatched in as gory a manner as possible ;-)

Week 2 with the new boss. It's going just fine. I feel a nice routine getting started...

Alright, back to work. No more loafing.

101 DEGREES! WHAT THE F*CK?!?

2006-08-02T15:15:00.000-04:00

3:11 pm. Apparently, I live in Pakistan. Why else would people be dying, asphalt melting, and zoo animals freaking out in this ridiculous heat? My mother had the audacity to complain over the 68 degree sunny weather in Reykjavik the other day. I had to laugh. I would KILL for that weather right now. On top of everything, I have to be outside all night for an activity I can't specify until tomorrow. Ick. Just shoot me.

Can you tell this weather makes me super happy? Grumble... boo... hiss... I wish I was a polar bear right now.

Not much going on. I'm breaking in the new boss, since the old one retired on Friday. It's going OK. I made sure he is aware that I know where the bodies are buried, so I just get to keep doing what I've been doing. I'm too long in the tooth here to start changing my ways.

The new place is looking and feeling awesome. I'm sleeping well - too well, frankly, since I never want to leave bed. I even fell asleep on the couch at 9 pm yesterday, missing Rescue Me! I contend that it's the infernal heat that's making me so sleepy and tired. That, or I have the West Nile virus. I'll take door #1, please.

OK - I'm going home soon to listen to my new Keane CD and await the pain that will be tonight. (NB: The pain refers to the heat, not the activity.)

Distended Belly and All

2006-07-25T12:31:00.000-04:00

12:27 pm. Food report! Dinner was good yesterday, or at least I thought so :-) The chicken was overcooked just a bit and was therefore a little dry. I could have brushed some butter on it to fix the problem, but doesn't that sort of go against the whole "eat more vegetables" thing? The white bean (cannellini) mash turned out to be quite good, but less (or no) rosemary next time. It's so pungent! The roasted asparagus was delicious - a touch of oil and garlic and salt, and it melts in your mouth.

Tonight: Something super light. Roasted tomatoes, grilled corn, and a chilled pasta salad with peas, peppers and scallions. I wouldn't be surprised if some garlic made it in there as well... hehe.

I "accidentally" went to the movies last night. My friend Kris (Kiddi) and I had made some murky plans to do so sometime but decided on a whim to do so yesterday. We chose M. Night Shyamalan's latest opus, Lady in the Water. I am a huge Shyamalan fan, notwithstanding the disappointing debacle that was The Village. This new one has been his most critically reviled and financially unsuccessful movie thus far, and I don't get it. I thoroughly enjoyed it. The story is fanciful, and that's why I liked it. It's the kind of movie that you have to give yourself to completely - i.e. you have to swallow the premise and the story, hook, line and sinker. If you don't, you'll end up scoffing and shaking your head throughout. The cast was uniformly excellent, there were thrills and chills, and the customary surprise twist ending wasn't there, which I guess you could even call the twist in itself. I highly recommend the movie - just check your cynicism at the door.

Is it wrong that I brought a deconstructed hot dog to work? Chopped scallions, mustard, and remoulade in separate baggies. Two packs of Burger King ketchup. One hot dog. One bun. Nuke hot dog and assemble. Yum! I'll be doing this again :)

This day is moving v-e-r-y-s-l-o-w-l-y-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

The Truth is Out: I'm a Foodie!

2006-07-24T14:10:00.000-04:00

12:28 pm. I love food. Scratch that. I adore food. Eating good food can be such an immensely satisfying experience that it makes my day, or even my week. Conversely, a bad meal can depress me, especially if I've had to pay good money for it. Thankfully, I don't have many bad food experiences (although last week's garlic steak and shrimp combo came close to being inedible).

I don't just love eating food, which is obvious to anyone who looks at me. I love making it, thinking about it, dreaming up new ways of preparing it, and reading about it. Hence my subscriptions to Gourmet and Food & Wine. It's become obvious to me that I'm a frustrated chef, although one who's completely content with cooking at home - especially now that I've got my new kick-ass kitchen!! And cook at home I do! Just ask Sean's waistline :-)

Some recent highlights: Yesterday's dinner was a sumptuous feast, as far as I'm concerned. Thanks to my mom, I roasted a large pan of root vegetables (carrots, sweet potatos, rutabaga, turnips) with some garlic and olive oil. Delicious! The main course was a thin-cut chicken breast rubbed with shallot/champagne mustard and some awesome spice mix from Napa Valley. Holy crud, it was delicious.

Tonight, I will continue my quest to use vegetables more frequently and more innovatively. Vegetable #1 will be oven-roasted asparagus with olive oil, garlic and sea salt. Vegetable #2 will be a white bean mash with rosemary and garlic. The main event: Pounded-thin chicken breasts, rolled up with a spinach/cream cheese stuffing. Yum!! I also have some fresh blueberries, which I might serve up as dessert with some light whipped topping. Sweet!

In conclusion: Food is awesome. Thank you.

And now, this post's installment of "What Have I Done With My Netflix Lately?" Sean and I sat down to watch 16 Blocks on Saturday, and it turned out to be a surprisingly solid and competent thriller. The plot was just slightly off the beaten path and that salvaged what could have been a mediocre picture. Next up: Everything Is Illuminated, The New World, and the Russian smash hit Nochnoi dozor (Night Watch).

Precious Oxygen!

2006-07-19T11:05:00.000-04:00

11:06 am. Ahh. So the heat broke a little. Today's high is 88 (31 celsius) with high humidity. Not pleasant, but better than Monday and Tuesday. Sheesh. My northern genes have been making themselves heard lately!

There's not much to report at the moment. Work is easy - just working on setting up speakers for this fall's series of programming. We've done most of that work, so now it's just a matter of plugging in some holes. It's always fun to hunt down new Ambassadors, and we've recently added three high-profile ones: Tom Hubbard (recently in South Korea), Marc Grossman (until last year, under secretary of state for politial affairs), and Beth Jones (Kazakhstan). The elders may be paying a bit more this fall, but I can promise more bang for the buck!

I watched King Kong yesterday. Did Peter Jackson not get the anti-3-hour movie memo? Holy crikeys! I don't think I could have sat through that thing in a theater. I barely made it in my comfy chair, heavily air-conditioned and all! I found the movie to be only fair. Too many special effects, and many of them too glaringly obvious. I couldn't believe this was the same team of people who made Lord of the Rings. I guess they blew the budget on the great ape himself, who I must admit was masterfully done. The Kong-Ann Darrow relationship was fantastically rendered, but everything else was sort of blah. Adrian Brody as a dashing romantic hero? Give me a break! And Jack Black was OK, but he's just too much of a ham to fit into a picture like this. He should stick to stuff like Nacho Libre. On today's viewing list: Ultraviolet. No expectations, no disappointments.

OK, I'm too oxygen-deprived to write more. I just want my lunch! Is it noon already??!?

Ugh... Melting...

2006-07-17T12:48:00.000-04:00

12:44 pm. It's a million fucking degrees out and I hate it. Officially, we are at 98 (37 celsius) today, but the heat index (how it feels with the heat and humidity) is at 105/41 celsius. Tomorrow will be even worse. What the hell?!?!!! First we get the second coming of The Flood, and now we are being broiled to a medium-rare stage. I hate the weather in this city. Whenever we get a dusting of snow, the people who live here start whining about winter and how horrible everything is and how they can't wait for summer. Idiots. Give me Iceland in the summer, please.

The weather notwithstanding, we had a productive weekend. We helped Jenn move into my old apartment building, and her place was renovated, therefore looking a hundred times better than my old apartment (not bitter here, no, not at all). It was an easy move, thanks to a remarkably efficient moving company. That night, we had Jenn and her mom over for dinner. I made my curry chicken, and followed it with a freshly baked blueberry pudding cake. I think it was a successful dinner - either way, I had a great time.

On Sunday morning, we got an early start to IKEA. We dodged traffic (yay!) and bought our long-sought-after book shelf. We assembled it (stupid Swedish pictorial instructions) and emptied all the book boxes. It finally looks like someone lives there, now that there are books everywhere! I also put up some pictures, and the various tribal masks given to me by my brother. The place is really coming together; I hope to take some pics this week and post them on Snapfish.

Speaking of my brother, he's on his way to Damascus, Syria as I write this. Yep, start a war and off he'll go. It's a quick trip, officially just to pick up stranded Icelanders and sundry Nordic types from Lebanon, but he'll use the opportunity to get some footage and be on the ground for a while. Good for him. Buy me a nice rug if you read this, would ya??

I squeezed in a couple of Netflix over the last few days... Hoodwinked was just OK. Clever idea, but lacking in execution. Chicken Little was funner than I anticipated, but clearly did not come from Pixar. It was just missing that extra something. At home now: King Kong, which I missed in the theaters (those who know me realize how much I've changed when they see that I would miss a movie of that magnitude in theaters). Coming tomorrow: 16 Blocks and Ultraviolet. Yep, crappy brainless movies. Hey, when you're living on the freaking sun, that's all your head can handle!!

Dinner tonight: My mom's timeless Bangkok Balls. It's better than it sounds, I promise.

...and the Beat Goes On

2006-07-12T11:01:00.000-04:00

10:57 am. Mornin'. Here I am, sitting on my ass at work. It's July, so that means there's absolutely nothing to do. The only newsworthy thing from work is that my boss is retiring at the end of the month. We're hard at work training his replacement, which means a lot of work for me in August, since (by default) I become the institutional memory of this place. I guess that gives me something to do, so whoop-de-do! Although I must say, these quiet days do wonders for my ability to clear out my e-mail inbox. Who knew I still had such crap in there?

Didn't I promise to report back on my Superman Returns experience? Since I never did, here goes: I liked the movie. The new Superman dude is at times creepily similar to Christopher Reeve, but overall he does a good job of what is really a thankless role. Kevin Spacey is now such a send-up of himself that all I saw was Kevin Spacey - not Lex Luthor. Kate Bosworth is too young and lightweight for Lois Lane, but if Katie Holmes can do a Batman movie, I guess I can live with Ms. Bosworth. Mostly I was impressed with the respect given the storytelling, as well as the amazing special effects. Definitely a must-see at the movies, since it loses a lot of its grandeur on a smaller screen. (By the way, since this is James Marsden's third movie with Bryan Singer - and since he's generally devoid of any discernible talent - I've decided that he's sleeping with Singer. Nothing else explains this annoying ubiquitousness.)

Other movie news: I'm undecided whether to see Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. Given its record-breaking box office, I sort of feel like they don't need my money. But then again, Johnny Depp was hilarious in the first one, and he would really be the only reason for me to see this one (although Bill Nighy is always awesome).

Last night's dinner was a home-made spaghetti Bolognese. I spent a good deal of time online looking for a good recipe, since this was my first time making bolognese sauce from scratch. I ended up choosing one that involved ground beef (of course), diced onion and carrots, slices of ham, beef broth, tomato paste, a bay leaf, a tiny dash of nutmeg, and some lemon zest. It was really good - kudos to whomever posted the recipe online. I LOVE using my new kitchen. It's so big and open... I could spend hours there every night and be perfectly happy. Now to think of something to make tonight. I might make Sean's favorite... sherry curry chicken. Ssshh... don't tell him!

I've been reading a lot of academic papers lately, in preparation for my possible return to school a year from now. The history department at Penn sends out a lot of papers by their Ph.D. candidates, because there's a lot of getting together and commenting and such. Well, I got myself onto that listserv, so I could see what kind of work people at the Ph.D. level were producing. Some is good, some is bad. The one I read on the Metro this morning was god-awful boring (something about historical archaelogy and evangelicalism), but really well-written. Then again, the one from yesterday was really interesting (the ill treatment of Catholics in the U.S. after the Civil War), but wasn't very well written. I think I probably wouldn't have to be embarrassed by my writing should I get into that program...

Finally: My next trip to Iceland. Nothing this summer (not paying $800 to Icelandair for limited leg room and increasingly disappointing meals), but I'm planning a trip in October. My friend Hlif is getting married on October 14, and it looks like I'll fly out on Friday the 13th (eek) and stay for a week or so. The line to meet and greet me starts now. Presents are welcome. :-)

Home!!!

2006-07-10T22:20:00.000-04:00

10:15 pm. Yep, the move is done and I am now living in a brand-spanking new loft-style apartment. We're just settling in. Most of the stuff is put away. All that's left is buying a new book shelf and sorting the books out of boxes onto the shelves. Also, we haven't hung any of our pictures. Otherwise, we're pretty well set. I promise to post pictures as soon as the place looks good enough to show off online :)

I cooked the first real dinner tonight. After all the nasty eating of the moving period (yes, there was actually Wendy's and pizza and Chinese for 5 days straight), I wanted to make something light. I ended up making pasta with crispy strips of prosciutto, peas, sundried tomatoes, roasted red peppers, and parmesan. It was delicious! Accompanied by a spinach salad with Vidalia onion and a home-made citrus vinaigrette, I think it was a great beginning to my use of this spectacular kitchen.

And yes, I now have Internet at home. After three years (!) of being Internet free in my apartment, the free DSL being offered by our landlord was just too much to resist. Now begins the struggle to NOT tool around online all day long. Evil time thief!!!

OK, off to make myself a sandwich for work. Later, y'all!

Drip Drip Drip...

2006-06-28T14:37:00.000-04:00

2:33 pm. We seem to be finally drying out. The forecast predicted rain today, but this morning was sunny. However, since I don't have a window here at work, it could be raining fire and brimstone out there for all I know. However, the rain is supposed to draw down tomorrow and Friday. I'm glad I'm not moving this week!

Since I'm on a campaign to eat everything in the house before we move (less to move...hehe), I explored the freezer yesterday for some possible dinner candidates. Lo and behold, I came up with a package of ground lamb. Hmmm... what does one do with such things? In my case, I made lamb meatballs! Seasoned with bread crumbs, one egg, Worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper, garlic powder and paprika, they made for a freakin' delicious dinner! Served with some tasty oven-roasted veggies and wild rice, in addition to kick-ass pan gravy, I think it was a very respectable Tuesday night dinner.

Not much else to report from the Western front. It looks like I'll be seeing Superman Returns tomorrow night. The mostly positive reviews have given me some hope for the movie, but I am not yet convinced that there is anything to be added to this story. A super-strong dude from Krypton saves people repeatedly while posing as a meek reporter. Yawn. But given the critical reaction so far, maybe I'll be surprised.

OK, enough ranting. On to my afternoon snack, which today comes in the form of a banana.

Back in Action

2006-06-27T15:55:00.000-04:00

3:52 pm. Hola a todos. Another week has left harbor for a 5-day sail around Daily Grind Bay. Whaddaya mean it's only Tuesday???

Duff-man and I had a tiff this weekend... he wanted to go sailing on the Chesapeake Bay, but with the weather forecast suggesting heavy rain and wind and thunder, I was not really kosher with that idea... and I made that known in no uncertain terms. Yadda yadda yadda, he stays home. I'm glad, but of course now I also feel like some sort of henpecker. Yes, the weather was foul but since his buddies survived I assume he would have as well. I just feel bad that I created a hassle for the other sailors. Sorry! :(

Speaking of weather, the entire city has been drenched in rain since Sunday. Massive flooding everywhere - my apartment building, the Metro system, all major highways and thoroughfares and tunnels... this is what happens when you decide to build a major city in a freaking swamp! I'm almost glad I stayed home with a migraine yesterday, since today's commute was a mess and yesterday was even worse! My work Metro stop (Federal Triangle) was flooded and closed yesterday, and today it's darkened, still has no electricity to speak of, and smells absolutely disgusting. My faith in the Metro folks lessens every day.

Just seven days until the move!!! I'm getting very excited at the thought of a new home. I'll have a bedroom! And a totally cool kitchen! Right now I'm making sure that my address is updated everywhere it needs to be (credit card company, banks, cell phone people, Netflix, etc.). I have to confess that I love to move! It's like hitting the "refresh" button on your life - everything is new and different and (usually) better. I promise to post pictures of the new place once everything has been put away and the apartment is spotlessly clean!

Here's something delicious I made last night. It's by this Australian celebrity chef, Bill Granger, and I took it from his book, Bill's Food:

Roasted Tomatoes
3 tomatoes, halved vertically
½ cup bread crumbs
½ cup fresh parsley
2 cloves garlic
extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper

Heat oven to 400 degrees F/200 degrees C.

Cut tomatoes vertically. Season with salt and pepper, as appropriate. Slice garlic cloves thinly and spread on top of tomato halves. Mix bread crumbs and finely chopped parsley, and sprinkle the mixture on top of tomatoes. Drizzle tomatoes with olive oil, and roast for 45 minutes.

Quickie

2006-06-22T10:54:00.000-04:00

10:51 am. Just a quick note today; I'm running off to AFSA HQ to prepare for tomorrow's Elderhostel program - the last one until September (whee!).

Today, we lament the department of Maura. At 6 am this morning, she departed this city. Wisely (or not), she crammed her car full of her family and then proceeded on an 8-hour drive to Boston on the hottest day of the year (94 degrees/35 celsius) in a car without any air conditioning. The rest of us are taking bets on which family member gets killed off first, and by which time it happens. (My vote: Her dad, somewhere between Baltimore and Wilmington, DE). Bye, Maura. We hardly knew ye.

My campaign to eat what's available in the house continues. Last night: Hamburgers! They were actually very nice, with hints of Worcestershire sauce, blue cheese and dijon mustard. Yum. Tonight, I might try to make my first ever chicken pot pie. I've got the chicken and all these frozen veggies, so buying a pie crust and filling it up with chickeny goodness doesn't sound too bad, right? Tomorrow's dinner will be something dreamt up by our friend Jen, who has kindly invited us for dinner. That means playtime with her GIGANTIC cat, Snickers. Excellent...

Avian Flu Update (We're All Gonna Die!), Part 4: Read and be scared.

Halfway There...

2006-06-21T14:15:00.000-04:00

2:12 pm. So Wednesday is kicking my ass because its going so effin' slow! I'm all alone in the office and have been all day. For some reason that just slows everything down. So I'm sliding towards the Metro ride home at the pace of very old molasses.

I had a good weekend. We had to miss our baseball game because Duffy wasn't feeling well on Friday. He wasn't well on Saturday either but I made him join me at the Icelandic ambassador's residence for the June 17 festivities. He didn't eat much, so I made up for it :-) Free food (pancakes, smoked lamb, flatbread, shrimp salad crudites, etc.) and free drinks - never bad. We had fun hanging out with Yvonne and her folks as well as Kiddi and his girlfriend Sara. I was completely appalled by the ambassador's wife, who was completely drunk off her ass and stumbled around chain-smoking while wearing an traditional Icelandic costume. Utterly embarrassing. I can't believe the Icelandic state is subsidizing this pathetic woman's excesses. Mr. Ambassador seemed alternately bored and drunk. This is our public face to the US?

Sunday was spent in quiet reverie. It was scorchingly hot so the A/C and the fand kept us happy while reading lazily.

Yesterday, we headed over to apt. 1317 for a farewell party for Maura, who will get in her car very early tomorrow morning and leave DC for the greener pastures of Massachusetts. That bitch! At least it gave me a reason to serve some delectable Icelandic lamb (barbecued to perfection, even if I do say so myself...) along with Maura's potato salad, Jess's vegetable kebabs, and Cat's strawberry shortcake cups. I hate to see Maura go, but at least she gave us a good reason to eat and drink well on a random Tuesday night!

Bad news: I am no longer a resident of 101 Reykjavik. My mom and stepdad have sold the palatial 101 apartment and decamped to the less famous 107 Reykjavik zip code. How dare they??? :-) This is very inconvenient for when I come home and drink too much at the bars! No more 30-second walk home, but rather a 15-minute trek to Aflagrandi. Oh, well... they are very happy with the new place and of course I congratulate them on their new home. I want pictures!

I'm making progress on moving preparations. Yesterday, I was able to slough off some of the stuff I don't need on some unsuspecting Craigslist people. My old black IKEA bookcase - gone! The old IKEA tableware - gone! The old piece-of-crap Dell computer - gone! The microwave - gone! Just the desk and stereo/TV cabinet left, and all the deadwood is gone. I even managed to pack some stuff yesterday - five boxes of books and other random things are now ready for the move! Only 13 days until we get the new place...!

My new kitchen!

¡Hola!

2006-06-16T12:39:00.000-04:00

12:36 pm. Ahhh... Friday has rolled around and I'm looking forward to the weekend. Tomorrow is June 17 - Icelandic Independence Day - and we're going to a party at the ambassador's residence. Hot dogs and pancakes, here I come! We're also planning to visit the Alexandria Waterfront Festival in the morning - maybe my quest for funnel cake (suspiciously thwarted last year) will pay off this time! Other weekend plans: Baseball tonight - probably to watch the New York Yankees beat the snot out of the Nationals. Oh well... at least there's always stadium food. On Sunday, I will be carrying heavy object for Maura, who is deserting the nation's capital in favor of her ancestral home - the suburbs of Boston.

So what else is going on? Not much, frankly. I'm focused on the impending move/merger, which is only 2½ weeks away at this point. I've managed to throw away a bunch of stuff. Old clothes went to Goodwill last weekend, and this weekend unwanted books will find a new home at the Arlington Public Library. And frankly, a lot of stuff has gone into the trash. Who needs electrical cords from various long-gone gadgets? I even emptied my gigantic "trash box" (you know, the one where you chuck stuff into when you don't know where else it goes) last night, and condensed everything into a tiny box now filled with photos, cards, and other slightly sentimental things. Everything else: Down the trash chute! I'm also advertising on the Internet to sell the stuff I don't need anymore: A computer desk, a stereo stand, an air conditioner, tableware, and a bookcase. (Psst.. if you know anyone who needs this stuff, send'em my way!)

I'm enthusastically reading my book on Oppenheimer - it's very well written, and the guy is clearly an excellent subject for a biography (i.e. slightly nutty, a prolific writer, and extremely accomplished). When I'm not reading, I'm indulging in my Netflix addiction. I've sucked in the second season of The 4400 this week, and am awaiting Deadwood, Season 2, to arrive in my mailbox. I can't begin to describe how much better Netflix is than going to the movies. Infinitely cheaper, done on your own time in private, no annoying svertingi talking or nursing their freshly-born illegitimate children, no commercials... and you can pause when you need a bathroom break! I predict a severe financial crisis for movie theater chains in the near future.

No particular recipes to share this week. Now it's all about eating what we have in the house so we don't have to move every piece of food in the kitchen. Yesterday was burritos and Mexican rice. Delicioso!

Playing Catch-Up

2006-06-13T12:25:00.000-04:00

12:22 pm. Hey there. Pardon the short blog pause; I was away for a program for a couple of days last week, which meant a busy day yesterday. I'm now caught up...

I had a great weekend. My friend Kris stayed with me Thursday through Saturday, when I helped him move into a place for the summer while he's doing his Fannie Mae internship. He's staying way out in Alexandria by Van Dorn, which is too far away for my taste. Nice apartment, though, so he can't complain. Visitors always mean bad food, so we indulged in a Valentino's chicken-a-la-vodka pizza on Thursday, and then we ate at Thaiphoon on Friday. Bad boys, I know.

Otherwise, the weekend was calm and laid-back. On Sunday, Sean and I drove to Goodwill to donate a bunch of clothing. Then the customary Sunday-morning grocery shopping, followed by a short trip to Eastern Market and then we spent the afternoon at RFK Stadium watching the Nationals whup the Phillies, 6-0. It was a great day for a ballgame - cooler weather and we had great seats, courtesy of a friend of Sean's. I made chicken stir-fry for dinner but wasn't hungry so Sean ended up eating the whole thing ;-)

I finished the Jamestown book and am now well into this year's Pulitzer winner, American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer. It will be interesting to read about the life of Oppenheimer, the father of the nuclear bomb who then spent the rest of his life regretting his ultimate achievement. I'll be reading more this summer than over the winter, since there's no TV to distract me.

Food time: I was going to be a good boy and just make myself a little ham-and-cheese sandwich for dinner last night. But of course Rachael Ray just HAD to be making a sumptuous-looking croque madame on her Food Network show, so of course that's what I ended up making, bechamel sauce and all. It was absolutely delicious, and I was most surprised by my ability to refrain from making a second one!! It's hard to diet when you love making good food...

Movin' on Up...

2006-06-06T09:22:00.000-04:00

I actually wrote this post yesterday but Blogger was malfunctioning and wouldn't let me post it. So here it is, a day late:

2:28 pm. It's finally happened. I'm leaving my nest of three years to shack up with Duffy in our new swanky place. We're moving into our brand new one-bedroom in Arlington on July 4. Let me set the scene: 736 square feet/70 square meters, 10-foot/3.5-meter ceilings, stainless steel kitchen appliances, dark marble kitchen counters, a kitchen island (!!), huge jacuzzi tub, enormous walk-in closet... I'm totally psyched. I've just sent our new address to everyone I have an e-mail for... if I missed you, let me know and I'll send it.

I've also just spent the morning uploading all the pictures I've taken this year to Snapfish. This includes everything from my New Year's Eve baked Alaskas through the March visit to Iceland, San Francisco in April and ending with this weekend's Aussie wedding. Let me know if you want to take a gander at any of these and I'll be happy to share them with you.

I had a nice relaxing weekend. Sean and I delved into the second season of Rescue Me, which we really like. Unbeknownst to him, I've also just devoured the first two seasons of Footballer$ Wives, which I should probably be horribly ashamed of. I'll redeem myself by going back to quality television with Deadwood, which is next in the queue.

I also made a delicious Moroccan kebab dish last night. The recipe, which I got from the June 2006 issue of Food & Wine magazine, is below (I subtituted maple syrup for the pomegranate molasses, and tripled the amount of liquid that goes into the skillet at the end):

Ground Lamb and Shallot Kebabs
2 tablespoons crème fraîche
1 garlic clove, minced
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 pound (0.5 kg) ground lamb
12 large shallots—peeled, halved lengthwise and root ends trimmed but kept intact
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/3 cup water
1 1/2 teaspoons pomegranate molasses (or maple syrup)
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons chopped scallions
1 tablespoon chopped flat-leaf parsley
Warm pita bread, for serving Light a grill.

In a medium bowl, gently knead the crème fraîche, garlic, salt and pepper into the ground lamb. Using moistened hands, roll the ground lamb mixture into 16 balls. On each of 8 short metal skewers (10 inches or less), alternate 3 shallot halves with 2 lamb balls. Brush the kebabs with the olive oil and grill over moderately high heat, turning once, until browned on the outside (but not cooked through), about 3 minutes.

Transfer the kebabs to a very large (12 to 14 inches), deep skillet. Add the water, 1 teaspoon of the pomegranate molasses and the lemon juice; bring to a boil. Cover and simmer gently over low heat until the shallots are very tender and the meatballs are cooked through, about 30 minutes. Uncover and increase the heat to high. Add the remaining 1/2 teaspoon of pomegranate molasses and cook, basting occasionally, until the meatballs and shallots are glazed, about 5 minutes.

Transfer the kebabs to a platter and drizzle with any remaining sauce. Garnish with the scallions and parsley and serve with warm pita bread.
Copyright © American Express Publishing Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

#!#@$&* Heat!

2006-05-31T09:52:00.000-04:00

9:49 am. Grrrr... summer has descended on Washington and that means unhappy times for those of us who hate the head/humidity combo. Yesterday was 90 degrees (33 Celsius) and today is only slightly cooler. Poor me. Why must I suffer??

In happier news, yesterday I looked at an apartment that I absolutely loved. It's a one-bedroom in the new lofts building next door to my current apartment building. Huge bedroom with big windows, nice living room, an open kitchen (with an island, dark marble counter tops, stainless steel appliances, and a brekfast bar), a large bathroom, washer and dryer, and a big walk-in closet. I'm forcing Duffy to look at it with me today, and if all goes well we can move in there on July 4. Schweet!!!

I saw X-Men on Sunday. I was prepared to dislike it, but I truly did enjoy it. It's not long enough, and doesn't have enough time to give any dimension to some of its characters (Angel, Juggernaut and Kitty Pride mostly) but I can always enjoy a good comic book movie. Speaking of which, I'm concerned about the new Superman movie. That character has such a rigid mythology - how can you make a movie that adds anything to it? It took Smallville four seasons to get truly cooking, so I don't know what this movie can accomplish in 2 hours or so. But I guess it's slightly entertaining to see Kevin Spacey overact for a whole movie. (Finally, the Ghost Rider trailer was awful. I dislike Nicolas Cage already, but this movie looks like it will suck donkey dick on a massive scale.)

I'm making fish balls (fiskibollur) tonight. Yum-yum!

Freeing My Inner Geek

2006-05-26T13:05:00.000-04:00

1:03 pm. Yes, it's time to be unabashedly dorky. Here goes:

Geek Alert #1: I absolutely loved the two-hour season finale of Lost on Wednesday. It's taken me two days to wrap my head around it. Some of the longest-standing questions were answered (Why did the plane crash? Where's Desmond? Who is Henry Gale?) and some new ones were posed (What's up with the giant four-toed statue? Are Locke and Eko dead? Portuguese researchers in Antarctica? Where are Sayid, Jin and Sun?). Just as is true for 24, I really enjoy television shows that force you to think as you're watching, rather that just digest silently and effortlessly. I know some people detest the show (i.e. Duffy) but to them I just say that they have no ability to get lost in a good story.

Geek Alert #2: Omigod! The movie I've been waiting for since 2003 finally hits theaters today! X-Men: The Last Stand is out, and I will be seeing it this weekend. Stand by for my reaction to it on Tuesday (Monday is a holiday).

I have a busy long weekend planned. I have a Nats vs. Dodgers game tonight. Tomorrow morning it's a trip to IKEA for their annual sale. Then it's off to the giant philatelic convention, and Saturday is capped off by a dinner with the Coopers. I think I have something Sunday as well... but I forget. Monday I plan to zone out and do nothing!

Have a good weekend, y'all.

From the Kitchen

2006-05-24T09:34:00.000-04:00

9:31 am. The results are in! The champagne risotto is effin' delicious. Because I'm all about public service, here's the recipe:

Champagne Risotto

4 thin slices prosciutto
3 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
12 asparagus spears, cut diagonally into 1-inch (2.5-cm) pieces
2 tablespoons butter, divided
1 shallot, finely chopped
3/4 cup Arborio rice or medium-grain white rice
3/4 cup Champagne
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F/230 degrees C.

Place the slices of prosciutto on a lightly greased baking sheet. Bake until the prosciutto slices are almost completely crisp, about 6 to 8 minutes. The slices will crisp up even more as they cool. Reserve for garnish.

In a medium saucepan, bring the chicken stock to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer. Blanch the asparagus in the chicken stock for 2 minutes. Remove the asparagus with a slotted spoon. Set the asparagus aside and keep the chicken stock at a low simmer.

In another medium saucepan, melt 1 tablespoon of the butter. Add the shallot and cook until tender, about 3 minutes. Add the Arborio rice and stir to coat in the butter. Continue toasting the rice, stirring constantly, for about 3 minutes more. Add the Champagne and simmer until the liquid has almost evaporated, about 3 minutes. Add 1/2 cup of the simmering broth and stir until almost completely absorbed, about 2 minutes. Continue cooking the rice, adding the broth 1/2 cup at a time, stirring constantly and allowing each addition of broth to absorb before adding the next, until the rice is tender but still firm to the bite and the mixture is creamy, about 20 minutes total. Remove from the heat. Gently stir in the asparagus, remaining butter, Parmesan, salt, and pepper. Spoon the risotto into serving dishes and garnish by breaking the crisp prosciutto into smaller pieces over the top of the risotto. Serve immediately.
Copyright © 2003 Television Food Network, G.P., All Rights Reserved

Requiem for Some TV Shows

2006-05-23T12:04:00.000-04:00

12:02 pm. Ahh... just finished off a ham-and-cheese sandwich and some peach yogurt. Pleasantly full now.

It's now late May, and that means the U.S. television season is coming to an end. This year has seen the final seasons of some of my favorite shows. In the last 10 days, I've watched as The West Wing, Will & Grace, That '70s Show, Charmed and (most sadly) Alias all came to an end. (Also gone is over-the-hill Malcolm in the Middle). I've been pretty happy with the finales. The gang in the fake West Wing was a bit preachy, as always. The happy homo and his fag hag went out on an appropriately sentimental note. Alias closed its final chapter yesterday and I was very happy with the way everything was tied up well. When you've invested five years in a show, you don't really want anything to spoil the pleasure of a happy-ish ending. I can't talk about TV without mentioning the KICK-ASS season ender of 24 yesterday. Holy crap! All I have to say is that waiting until January 2007 for the new season will be a bitch to suffer through! (Coming tomorrow: The season finale of Lost. I'm already taking the Advil to help with the inevitable confusion.)

I've been plowing through the books lately. After finishing Stephen Ambrose's tale of Lewis and Clark, I dove headfirst into Love and Hate in Jamestown, which tells the story of Captain John Smith, Pocahontas, and the first European colony in Virginia. It's a good read, but not very thoroughly researched and a bit too broad for my tastes. Either way, it's a good preparation for my possible return to school next year.

My travel for the summer appears to be over. I have no plans to leave DC until October, when I will be attending a wedding in Iceland. I'm not sure how I feel about this. It's like I've totally blown my 2006 travel wad already, and it's only May! Let's see - Iceland for Christmas, Iceland in March, San Francisco in April, and Philadelphia in May. Holy schnikes. I'm still holding out for a nice trip to Maine in August (lobster and blueberries - yum), but I make no promises. However, visiting Maine would bring my number of visited U.S. states up to 30! My thanks to California and Utah for getting me up to 29 :-)

I am testing out a recipe tonight for a "cooking night out" at Jen's on Friday. It's champagne risotto with asparagus and crispy prosciutto. I'm highly excited about the recipe; it looked delicious when Giada di Laurentiis made it on the Food Network the other day. I'll probably serve garlic bread on the side. She also made a champagne-limoncello cocktail that I would love to try. I'll report back on the recipe tomorrow. The fancy-schmancy factor of tonight's dinner is offset by yesterday's dinner of hot dogs, corn on the cob, and potato salad :-)

Here He Is

2006-05-22T15:10:00.000-04:00

3:07 pm. Usually, I would start off with the now-customary "absence apology." But it's no use, since I'm often not going to be able to post regularly. It's been very nusy lately, and I feel like I've been living largely out of a suitcase since early March. Now things have calmed down a bit and I have a bit more breathing room at work. Hence - a post!!!

Let me begin by extolling the virtues of Hanes ComfortSoft Boxer Briefs. Discovering that a replenishing of the underwear drawer was much needed, I (i.e. we) headed to Target for an underwear sale (yeah, I'm cheap). Lo and behold, my favorite brand was on sale and I promptly purchased 8 pairs. I absolutely love their new invention: underwear without the uncomfortable elastic band and itchy tag. It's like putting on a pair of cottony cloudlike pillows. The ads featuring the U.S. dodgeball team don't hurt either.

About 10 days ago, Sean and I went to Philadelphia to celebrate my 5-year reunion. Yes, it has been five years since I graduated from college. That is such a f***ing scary thought. So now that we've established that I'm getting older, I must say that the thought of going back to Penn for my Ph.D. is truly exciting. Everyone I spoke with was very encouraging about my chances of getting in, and I was able to coax two people to write recommendations for me. I took my GREs 2 weeks ago, and managed to score a 640 on the math and 700 on verbal, which I was very pleased with. I'm still waiting for the scores from the writing section, but I'm hopeful about those. So who knows, maybe there will be a Dr. Sigfusson by 2011 or so. Save the date, since you're all invited to my graduation.

I know I promised to put my San Francisco and Iceland pictures on Snapfish. I need to get my ass out and buy a CD-R to save the pictures on. I'll do it this week - I promise!

What else is new? My urban family is breaking up. Maura is moving back to Boston. Cat is buying an apartment over by Columbia Pike (i.e. far away for those without a car). I assume Jess will also move somewhere come July. She is also leaving her job. Megan left her job. Everything is in upheaval! Waaah! I'm hoping our friend Jennifer will be able to move into our building - that would be fun. I need to build a new urban family from the ruins of the old one!

I'm attending my second U.S. wedding on June 3. Our Australian friends are getting married in a nice backyard ceremony. I envision blankets, picnic food, and champagne. And hopefully (sorry, guys) a nice cool-ish, partly cloudy day, or this Icelander will met faster than Tupperware in a microwave.

OK, I promise to write more this week. OK?

Dateline: San Francisco

2006-04-27T01:56:00.000-04:00

10:54 pm (Pacific Standard Time): Yes, yours truly has somehow made his way to the West Coast of these United States for the first time ever. I've crossed the final frontier and cast my eyes upon the Pacific Ocean and the rolling holls of California wine country. I'm here for a conference (Sean came along as well), but I'm treating this as a vacation. San Francisco is a beautiful city, and I've extended my stay through Sunday on order to get a couple of free days here to do as I please. We flew out early this morning (7:25 out of Dulles, which meant getting up at 4 am) on a Delta flight to Salt Lake City. I spent 2 hours in Mormontown waiting for our connection to Oakland, and it was weird. Being in the most conservative state in the union (Utah), if only for two hours, was a strange feeling. Anyways... the flight to SLC was great! We flew over the Mississippi and Missouri rivers and as we flew over the Rocky and Wasatch Mountains there wasn't a cloud in the sky, so it turned out to be a great day to fly. I got some nice pics of the mountains as well as the Great Salt Lake - they'll be on Snapfish sometime next week for you all to peruse.

Sean and I spent today walking around downtown San Francisco, munching on some of the great food this culinary mecca has to offer. One of today's highlights was a pistachio macaroon from Miette Patisserie at the Embarcadero Center, down by the Bay. Yum!

I've now been up for 22 hours, so I'm a bit tired. I'll wait until tomorrow to discuss my new book (Stephen Ambrose's book on Lewis and Clark) and how I kept thinking about it on the trip over here today.

Zzz. Good night. More tomorrow, from what is now officially the geographically farthest location from Iceland I have ever been.

Absence. Heart. Fond-Growing. Etc.

2006-04-06T13:19:00.000-04:00

1:18 pm. Hey, all. Another day at work, and still keeping busy. This is my last day here for 10 days or so, since tomorrow I'll be off at AFSA HQ making the course packets for next week, and then I move back into the Holiday Inn on Sunday. This is the first time we've done 3 programs back-to-back and it'll be tiring by the end, no doubt. But we have a good week planned, and hopefully everything will work out well.

So what else have I been doing in my long absence? Well, I did finish my book on the Peloponnesian War (it was excellent!) and now I'm almost done with my next choice, Paul Hendrickson's Sons of Mississippi. Hendrickson is a professor at Penn, and the book focuses on a photograph of seven Mississippi sheriffs getting ready to beat up on a crowd of black protesters during the integration of the University of Mississippi in the 1960s. He paints a picture of their lives, then discusses the event itself, and then moves onto the sheriffs' ancestors to see whether the legacy of violence and racism has stayed with them. Sadly, the outcome is about 50/50 yes vs. no. It's truly a very interesting book, evidenced by the fact that I've plowed through almost 400 pages in 10 days or so.

As for other entertainment, I haven't been to the movies since I saw Transamerica, so nothing to report there. I do want to see a few movies: Spike Lee's Inside Man, Ice Age 2 (really only to see the Simpsons movie trailer), and Thank You For Smoking. I've seen a couple of good movies on Netflix, though - among them The Constant Gardener, Junebug, and Mysterious Skin. I also saw The Aristocrats, which I surprisingly ended up not caring much for. Right now, Sean and I are geeking out on the entire first season of Battlestar Galactica, which I hope we can finish off tonight. I already have season 2 waiting in the wings! (You may commence your mocking now.)

I have a new obsession: Taking a vacation in Argentina. It's all Jim and David's fault for going there, loving it, and telling me all about it. I've found a flight and hotel that together only cost $1,000 per person (that's not bad for flying halfway across the world and staying in a furnished apartment with maid service for a week!). Now I just need to convince Sean. May I enlist the readers of this blog to assist me? Please help me get to Buenos Aires! I need steak and gauchos!

My four favorite stories of the year: (1) Tom DeLay resigning. (2) White House domestic policy advisor Claude Allen being arrested for stealing from Target. (3) Republican congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham going to prison for being a corrupt sonofabitch. (4) Homeland Security deputy press secretary Brian Doyle arrested for soliciting sex with a minor on the Internet. Ah, Republicans. The party whose promise was to bring integrity and honor back to Washington. Good luck with that.

Mark Your Calendars: July 27, 2007

Absentia Dementia

2006-04-04T15:04:00.000-04:00

3:02 pm. Yes, I know I've been a horribly bad boy lately, and I offer my profoundest apologies. I've truly been exceedingly busy over the last 3 weeks or so. As my latest post mentions, I moved into a hotel on the 12th to oversee another elder program. That first week (Middle East) went very well, and our evaluations were extremely positive. In the middle of that week, however, I skipped out and flew to Iceland with Sean for a few days. We had a great time (travel narrative below)! We flew back on the 20th, I worked like crazy for four days, and on the 26th I moved back into the hotel for week #2 of programs - this time focusing on "the new Europe." Again, a great week. I seem to connect really well with this older demographic. The trick is to think of them like your grandparents and you won't help but want to be nice to them. Evaluations for this week were ridiculously good. I'm now preparing for week #3, the last one of the spring season. Then no more hotel living until September. Whee! Anyway, I always like staying busy at work and that has certainly been true lately.

ICELAND! How strange to spend a long weekend in Iceland. Usually, I don't bother unless I'm spending at least 2 weeks there. Strangely, it turned out to be a great trip and 5 days turned out to be a good amount of time to spend there. The flight up was excellent, if I leave out the torturous hour spent bouncing violently up and down over Greenland. Stupid Greenland and its ridiculous winds! As we flew up the East Coast, the cloudless sky over New York City gave us a perfect view of Manhattan. It was so clear, we could see the trails in Central Park, I kid you not. We landed at around 6:30 am on a Thursday morning, and went home to breakfast and some sleep. Then we took a very long walk all around downtown Reykjavik in absolutely beautiful weather (which lasted the entire time). On Friday, we drove out into the country for the traditional quick "intro to Iceland" tour - this includes Geysir, Gullfoss waterfall, Thingvellir (where our parliament was founded 1100 years ago), and some awesome cool geological formations, as well as Skalholt, the center of Icelandic religious history (don't laugh - we used to be Catholic!). Dinner at my dad's followed, along with the traditional Icelandic midnight drive through throngs of drunken Icelanders - milk shake and fries included, of course.

Saturday was spent on family visits - my cousins, great aunt, aunts, second cousins, blah blah blah. This was all unplanned, of course, and I'm just happy Sean survived. He was a trooper. My mom cooked us a great dinner - lobster bisque, monkfish, and flambeed pancakes with ice cream. Yum. Sunday was lazy - we went to the movies to see my cousin's movie (which we enjoyed), and then we shopped like crazy for some delicious Icelandic foodstuffs to bring back (hello Cronions!!!).

We flew back on Monday after a nice lunch. Getting back was nice after 6½ hours in a VERY SMALL FUCKING ICELANDAIR PLANE!! Ugh. And they need to stop showing the worst show of all time - Everybody Loves Raymond - on those flights. It makes my blood boil!

Anyway, that's the travel story. Have questions? Ask me! More tomorrow.

Sitting on the Dock of Bay

2006-03-13T15:18:00.000-05:00

3:18 pm. Well, not exacly a dock, and not exactly a bay. But I AM sitting outside, on the banks of the Potomac River in Old Town Alexandria, taking advantage of the city's free wireless Internet connection as well as the 84 degree (29.5 Celsius) weather. I have a break from my elders for the afternoon, so I'm going to sit out here and read my book and go online outside for the furst time ever. Clearly, folks, this is very exciting. Heh.

The program is going well so far. We had three excellent presentations so far this morning, and I'm excited for the one scheduled for tonight, which is om women and Islam. The presenter has worked with us before, so I know it's a good talk. Afterwards, I'll show the movie Osama to the group, which fits well with the topic of the presentation. Just under 48 hours to go for me during this particular program, and then it's off to Iceland, which just had some snowfall last weekend. Hmmm... could the contrast in weather be any more stark? Not that I'm complaining - everyone who knows me knows that I prefer cold weather. But this switch from over 80 degrees to barely 40 degrees will be interesting.

Sean and I saw a movie this weekend. We finally caught Transamerica before it left theaters, and I have to say that I really enjoyed it. Being able to compare Felicity Huffman's performance here with that of eventual Oscar-winner Reese Witherspoon's role in Walk the Line, I must say that I would have given it to Huffman. She was outstanding. And while I'm on the Oscars, what a bunch of bullcrock that Brokeback didn't win for best picture. I guess giving it to the gay cowboys was a little too much for the little old Jewish men who make up the Academy. I saw four of the films nominated for best picture this year, and AT LEAST two of them were better than Crash. It was a fine movie, but clearly a political cop-out of grand proportions.

Either way, I'm now off to enjoy the fine weather on offer today. Later!

Friday Does Not Equal Freeday

2006-03-03T13:57:00.000-05:00

10:37 am. Busy day, yet again. I'm rustling the Elders for a one-day program, and we're about 2/3 of the way through. It's going well, yet again. Next week (March 12) we start our spring season, which means I'll spend 3 weeks out of 5 living in a hotel with the oldies (but goodies). Of course, that will be interrupted by a 5-day vacation in Iceland, so who am I to complain?

I haven't mentioned politics lately, because yet again I believe that when your enemy is committing suicide, you should step aside and do nothing. This whole shebang about the Dubai ports issue is kind of comical to me. Surprisingly, I agree with the "president" that it's OK for the government of a friendly country to make such a deal with the U.S. Anything else would be xenophobia and not really productive for anyone. But that doesn't mean I don't enjoy watching congressional Republicans go apeshit about this. These guys represent that xenophobes, racists, anti-intellectuals, and ignoramuses, and OF COURSE they have to be against this deal. And I don't mind that this is driving down Bush's favorable ratings on fighting terrorism. It's not right, but I'm still enjoying it. Combined with the continued fallout from and new damaging information about Katrina, this is a fun season for me. I can't wait until the elections this fall!

1:22 pm. I was reading someone's blog the other day and he was talking about what kind of music he likes and listens to incessantly. It got me thinking about what I like to listen to. Given that I never listen to the radio and officially moved out of MTV's demographis years ago, it's not as esy at it was to keep up with popular music. Instead, I can talk about what I listen to when I'm working out, since physical exercise without music is pure, unadulturated torture. My favorite workout music is either rock or something with an infectious beat. Recently, I've had Linkin Park, The Killers, and Skunk Anansie (now there's a blast from the past) in my handy little Walkman (no iPod here yet, sorry). Also, Scissor Sisters and the Queer Eye for a Straight Guy soundtrack provide hours of mindless dance beats which make the treadmill easier to survive. I tried working out with Keane, but it didn't really get the heart pumping. Same for Nickel Creek. These days, I'm also enjoying Madonna's "Hung Up" (it's the ABBA sampling!), Fall Out Boy's "Dance Dance," most of Kanye West's album, about half of the new Coldplay album, and a fantastic Icelandic CD by a band called L'amour fou. They take old Icelandic standards and interpret them musically, without lyrics, in great tango beats. I'm clearly a bad Icelander, since I'm not really on the Sigur Ros bandwagon. Maybe if I was a pot smoker...?

3:01 pm. The Oscars are Sunday, and of course I have my favorites. Just for the record, here are my picks in the major categories:
Picture - Brokeback Mountain
Actor - Philip Seymour Hoffman
Actress - Reese Witherspoon
Supporting Actor - Matt Dillon
Supporting Actress - Rachel Weisz
Director - Ang Lee
Adapted Screenplay - Brokeback Mountain
Original Screenplay - Crash
Documentary - March of the Penguins
Live Action Short - The Last Farm (go Iceland!!)
I also hope Jon Stewart, a fantastically funny and talented man, can rein in the show and make it less... sanctimonious. Yeah, that's a good word...

3:30 pm. Speaking of movies, I saw a truly fascinating documentary this week. It's called Blind Spot: Hitler's Secretary. In 2001, two German filmmakers tracked down Hitler's former personal secretary, Traudl Junge, who was with him during the last days in his bunker. The film is basically just her speaking to the camera for 90 minutes, about her relationship with Hitler, what kind of man he was, and how those last days played out. It's extremely striking to hear a first-hand account of one of the most written-about historical events of the last 100 years. Perhaps most amazing is her steadfast adherence to her contention that she never realized what was going on - not with the concentration camps, not with the horrible loss of life, the tactics of the SS. This claim is hard to believe, and one cannot help but think that she is engaging in personal historical revisionism. She was never punished - she spent six months in a U.S. camp but that was all. The last we hear of her is that she is just now starting to forgive herself. Maybe is she's done something back then she wouldn't have had a lifetime of trying to run from her past.

Rainy Days and Mondays...

2006-02-27T14:02:00.000-05:00

2:04 pm. Back in action after a nice weekend. Included were Chinese takeout, immigrant waiters dancing to Saturday Night Fever music, George Clooney getting his fingernails ripped out, 7-layer dip, and two excellent workouts.

The George Clooney portion of my weekend came during the movie Syriana, which I definitely liked. It's probably too confusing for most Americans (as evidenced by the whiny "I don't get it" from the next row over) but I found it to be a great example of thought-provoking filmmaking. As it is, it's probably over-simplified more than anything else. But then again, not all the lawyers were evil, not all the Arabs were evil, Matt Damon and George Clooney were'nt necessarily good guys. I like movies with a shade of grey. That's how the world works, right? (Someone write a memo on this for the "president.")

I'm really getting into my book. The writer is primarily a military historian and international relations theorist, so he's using his expertise to shed a new light on the Peloponnesian war. While I'm not necessarily in agreement with using the tenets of realpolitik and such to something that happened 2500 years ago, it's helpful to think of it in those terms. I highly recommend the book; Sean has officially demanded it as his next book.

I am extremely proud of my cousin, Arni Oli, for his new movie, Blóðbönd, which was released in Iceland last Friday to great reviews. Older than me by 5 years, my cousin studied filmmaking in Poland and has worked as assistant director on a number of recent Icelandic movies. The movie is a family drama about a man who discovers his 10-year-old son is not biologically his. Another good reason for me visiting Iceland in two weeks, since now I can go and see the movie! Check out this link for more information.

Today's birthday baby: My friend Sigurros, a chef who lives with her fiance and little girl in Milan. Not a bad life, huh? :-)

Random Shit

2006-02-23T14:10:00.000-05:00

2:09 pm. Here I am! It's been a busy few days at work. Not only am I doing my "regular" duties but also juggling 4 programs at a time (with a total of 155 attendees) as well as planning for 9 more one-day programs for this year. That's a lot of details to keep track of! It's all good, though, since I enjoy it.

So... what's going on? No big news from here. I got the go-ahead for my San Francisco trip, so I'll be heading there in late April. Iceland next month. What a little jet-setter I am. Good thing I'm mostly over my fear of flying; it's been mostly replaced with numbing boredom. Still, I'm looking forward to my first West Coast trip. I'll finally make it all the way across the Rockies (as opposed to the top of them), and see the Pacific Ocean. If you can't tell, I'm getting excited (not in a dirty way, you pervs).

Yesterday (on the Metro, natch), I finished my book on the 1918 influenza epidemic. Who knew it started in Kansas??! One always assumes this kind of pestilence starts in crowded, dirty, underdeveloped places like Africa or Asia (see SARS and avian flu). But I guess in 1918 Kansas WAS a crowded, dirty, underdeveloped place. (Now it's just underdeveloped and stridently conservative... hehe.) The book was good. Apparently, "president" Bush read it as well. I can't imagine him plowing through this text. I think those presidential "current reading" lists they put out are just a bunch of bull. Can anyone imagine W reading anything other than the sports section? Anyway, my new book is Donald Kagan's The Peloponnesian War. It's sort of a response to Thucydides' seminal account of the war, and Kagan says in the introduction that some reassessment is needed since Thucydides was in fact a participant in the war and therefore not necessarily completely unbiased. This is one of my favorite periods in history, and I look forward to reading my way through 30 years of Greek carnage.

Since we're on the subject of things that entertain me, I have to recommend a show to my friends and family in Iceland. Starting next Wednesday (I believe) on RUV is a show called Project Runway. It's one of the few "reality" shows I've been able to enjoy on any level. Watch it for the crazy, outrageous people, and try to forget that it's ostensibly about fashion design. Overall, it's just a helluva funny show. In other TV news, keep watching 24. It only gets better and better (except for the gratuitous mention of that awful Kim). Also, Lost is rocking this season too, but that was pretty much a given, right?

On to another favorite subject: FOOD! I made a meal last night that's for sure going into my folder of "keep'em" recipes. Click to find out for yourselves: The Montalcino chicken and figs with buttered gnocchi and pancetta was heaven-sent! I loved this dish. The only change I propose is using fewer figs and cutting them smaller than recommended. The cooking establishment may dislike Rachael Ray, but as long as she keeps giving me quick and relatively cheap recipes like this one, she's my girl!

Enough prattling for one day? I think so...

Freakin' Sweet!

2006-02-16T16:17:00.000-05:00

4:16 pm. Yes, only the immortal words of Peter ("Pee-tah") Griffin can express the happiness I feel at this moment. I get to go to San Francisco!!! From April 26-30, I get to kiss the East Coast goodbye in order to visit the "other side" for the first time. My first time seeing the Pacific Ocean, the Golden Gate Bridge, the hills of SF... I'm supremely excited! With a stopover in the epicenter of Mormonism, Salt Lake City, this will be a fascinating trip. Stay tuned!

I'll be off running a program tomorrow, and Monday is a federal holiday here in the U.S. of A. So I guess I'll be seeing you on Tuesday... :-)

Phrase of the Week: "Sprayed with Buckshot"

2006-02-15T15:05:00.000-05:00

3:03 pm. I can't believe I haven't made fun of this yet, but my favorite news story of 2006 so far has to be Vice President Darth Vader... I mean Voldemort... doh, I mean Sauron... erm, Dick Cheney shooting some random geriatric down in Texas. How perfect is this? Could the man's image suffer any more? It's not just that he's sold the country's energy policy to the oil companies, or that he's leaking information willy-nilly, or that he's sending young people to their deaths to fight an unnecessary war - no, now he actually has to SHOOT SOMEONE! The Vice President of the United States shot a 78-year-old man in the face! Not only was the guy shot, but the pellets actually gave him a heart attack as well. Any common-sense Republican p.r. guru should now be making a deal to feature Cheney in a gun-safety public service announcement. But no, instead there's silence, attempted cover-ups, and not a word from the Veep. Sadly, all I can say is "typical."

No word on the San Francisco trip yet. I hope to find out today or tomorrow.

Valentine's Day was yesterday. For the first time ever, I had plans! I took Sean out to Le Gaulois, a fancy-schmancy French restaurant in Old Town. He had Caesar salad and crab-stuffed ravioli with lobster sauce; I had French onion soup (duh) and chicken cordon bleu. It... was... delicious! Afterwards, we went home, where it had taken me 24 hours to prepare a delectable dessert: Chocolate bag for two! I was pooped and collapsed into bed shortly after 10, and had a great night's sleep. I feel very refreshed today (I wonder if that sugar-free Red Bull helped with that as well...).

Alright... on with the show!!

Sweet!

2006-02-14T10:02:00.000-05:00

10:03 am. I may be going to San Francisco for a conference!!! If I do, my map of visited U.S. states will look like this:

Winter Weather Watch!

2006-02-13T13:26:00.000-05:00

1:28 pm. Yeah, the Americans freaked out yet again over a supposed HUGE winter storm. So, it snowed overnight on Sunday and we got anywhere from 6 to 20 inches (15 t0 50 cm) in this region. It was a beautiful snow, actually, and I was happy to see at least some evidence that we are indeed in the middle of winter. The frequent 50-60 degree heat in January had me a bit annoyed, since I like winter. And do we really need such repeated reminders of global warming? I mean, seriously...

The weekend was nice. On Friday night, I showed an unexpected deftness at playing darts as we inaugurated Maura's birthday present - a nice dart board in a wooden cabinet, accompanied by a great set of darts. It was a nice way to wind down after a relatively busy week. Saturday was pretty quiet. I got in a good workout in the morning (on Sunday as well, actually) and then lounged around reading most of the day while Sean worked. I watched some of the Winter Olympics coverage, mostly to see almost nothing but the Americans get an unexpected asskicking (Bode Miller, Apolo Anton Ohno, Daron Rahlves, Michelle Kwan, etc.). It was fun to see the come-from-behind victory of Il Pomodoro Volante in the half-pipe. I have yet to see a fellow Icelander in the games, except of course for the opening ceremony (which I had to watch to see if we even had anyone competing at all!).

On Sunday I managed to tear Sean away from work long enough to have dim sum in Chinatown and then trudge through the Cezanne exhibit at the National Gallery. Some incredibly beautiful paintings on display there, and interestingly almost none of them were owned by French individuals or museums. Mostly rich uppercrust Americans, actually, which is always kind of weird. I wonder how some of these artworks found their way out of France...? *cough*stolenbynazis*cough*

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day, and yes, I have made plans although El Duffay has not been informed of the details. I'm sneaky that way.

So I'm back on the diet/workout regimen. That means 4-5 workouts per week (2 days on, 1 day off), serious limitations on food (today's lunch: a pear and yogurt; today's snack: tangerine), and more consciousness of what I do in general. It also means going back to the weekly dinner menu, which not only simplifies my grocery store excursions but also allows me to make healthier dinners by actually looking for appropriate recipes. Tonight's dinner is a southwest chicken salad with black beans and tortilla strips, accompanied by roasted red pepper vinaigrette. Not too shabby, eh? Hey, if I managed to lose 45 pounds in 15 months all by myself, I can do it again.

2:21 pm. I got busy again. I have a day-long program coming up on Friday, so I'm busy preparing for that right now. Then another one follows 2 weeks later. Ten days after that, there's a 5-week period of me moving in and out of a Holiday Inn for our spring season. I'm very happy that we're moving into a new hotel - one that I actually got to choose and negotiate with. I also prefer this location - I love Old Town! And having a Giant store across the street helps a lot as well. It's also interesting that we're getting a lot of repeat hostellers, so it will be fun to see some of the folks again.

Just 4 weeks until I fly to Iceland again. Sweet! I haven't seen Iceland in March since 1997, so I'm excited. We're bringing an extra suitcase to fill with food on our way back! :-)

Everybody Calm Down... I'm Here

2006-02-07T15:43:00.000-05:00

3:42 pm. Another busy day at work. There's been quite a bit of those lately, which is good because time passes much faster when you're busy! And before I continue, a double birthday today! My celebrity of a brother turns 31 (now officially "thirtysomething"), and soon-to-be-gone-back-to-Boston Maura turns (a lady never tells). Yeah, cuz that's what Maura is. A lady.

I planned on writing yesterday, but in addition to being a busy day, it just plain sucked. I woke up badly, and didn't really recover until 9 pm last night. The reason? Well, on Sunday night I indulged unabashedly in crap food while watching the Super Bowl (comments on that later). Actually, all I ate was lime nacho chips with salsa, and an Australian meat pie (well, there was a caloric act of terrorism at the end in the form of a pie), but I was so stuffed I felt like a pregnant American woman (specifically American, because we all know they get much more pregnant than other women). I was still stuffed when I woke up yesterday, and in fact did not have an appetite until 4 pm. In addition, I did an especially punishing upper body workout on Sunday, so my poor muscles were screaming in pain. And because I'm back on a diet/workout kick, I did not leave work and crawl straight into bed. Nope, I went straight to the gym for an hour of cardio. So today my legs are killing me. It's all puppies and roses here, isn't it?? :-)

Now, on to the Super Bowl. First of all, what random teams! I've grown unaccustomed to these games without the Patriots. No Tom Brady? No Vinatieri kicking the ball? Instead, we get two relatively mediocre teams, Seattle and Pittsburgh. Now, having lived in Philadelphia, I am forbidden from rooting for that OTHER Pennsylvania team. That, combined with Sean's Seattle roots, meant that I was squarely in the Seahawks camps. We all know what that means: My team lost. As per usual. The game was pretty good, but the refs were totally biased. They kept finding fouls on the Seattle side and also took away a touchdown early on. Add that to quarterback Matt Hasselback's endless missed passes and kicker Josh Brown's TWO missed field goals... ugh, it was a frustrating night. And YES, I can talk somewhat intelligently about sports, in spite of my acknowledged contempt for organized sports.

So, I've been on my quest to see as many of the Oscar-nominated films as possible before the awards. I've got a month to go, and I have yet to see 22 of them. I'm getting two of them (Murderball and March of the Penguins) via Netflix today, and will be able to catch up on 8 more that way. That means I'll gonna have to go to the movies a few times in the next 4 weeks :-) We'll see how this works...

Alright, off to celebrate Maura's birthday tonight. Dinner at Zola! Fancy-schmancy!

Singularly Uninspired

2006-02-01T11:59:00.000-05:00

12:00 pm. Today's blog entry title reflects how I've been feeling lately about blogging, but it's doubly appropriate today since that's how I feel about yesterday's State of the Union address given by the "President." God, that man is so annoying. Every single time he finished a sentence he looked like a toddler who just went poopy on his own for the first time. "Look what I can do, ma!" Ugh. Granted, I didn't actually listen to him. Sean did, and I put on earphones and tried to drown myself in Nickel Creek's Why Should the Fire Die?, but snippets of Dubya and the mechanistic, predetermined Republican applause kept breaking through. The only unscripted moment was when the Democrats gave a long standing ovation to Dubya's complaint about the failure to pass his initiatives. Boy, did he look pissed off! Hah!! In contrast, I thought Virginia governor Tim Kaine's rebuttal was well done. Poor Tim is still a bit rough in front of the camera afetr only 3 weeks in office, but his speech was moderate, nonconfrontational, and actually offered some good domestic policy suggestions. He was a little light on the foreign policy stuff, but isn't that true of all governors? (I can hear Sean bellowing "IT'S BECAUSE THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY DOESN'T HAVE A FOREIGN POLICY!") Anyway, Dubya got Alito onto the Supreme Court yesterday as well. If it hadn't been for those pesky gay cowboys and their 8 Oscar nominations, it would have been a clean sweep for the conservatives yesterday. (I've never been so glad that Jake can't "quit" Heath!)

Speaking of, I was pretty happy with the nominations overall. My favorites: Crash getting a best picture nom, Amy Adams getting a supporting nom for Junebug, Matt Dillon getting one as well for Crash. Also pleased that Madagascar and Chicken Little were snubbed for best animated feature. I was also glad that Felicity Huffman was nominated, mostly because she seems like a nice and cool person. In her honor, Sean and I are seeing Transamerica tomorrow night. I still say it's going to be an easy win for Brokeback Mountain - the only possible surprise spoiler right now is Crash.

On to the literary front. I finally finished Ken Pollack's Persian Puzzle, and it was truly illuminating. I kind of slogged through the first part (early history through the 1960s) but when it got into the 1970s and 80s and up to modern times I couldn't put the book down. The overall impact is slightly dented because Pollack clearly did not anticipate the election of a nutcase like Ahmadinejad to the presidency, but I think the Bushies would do well to keep this book on their night stands for the next months. From Iran I moved on to plagues and epidemics. My new book is John M. Barry's The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History. Sounds cheerful, eh? I thought that with bird flu around the corner it would be interesting to see what happened the last time we had something like this occur.

I made smoked pork (hamborgarhryggur) this weekend, and it tasted delicious. I've rarely had such a moist and tender piece of pork - it's so easy to overcook and dry it out. I must credit my father with the suggestion to boil it in a 50/50 mix of water and Coke before roasting it with the dijon/brown sugar glaze. Delicioso, even if I do say so myself. Tonight, it's time for some chicken parmesan! Yum yum.

Alright, off to lunch with Cat. Y'all come back now, ya hear?

Working for the Weekend...

2006-01-27T14:17:00.000-05:00

2:32 pm. Having a busy day here - haven't even had my lunch yet! Anyways, here are the weekend plans:

Friday night: Pizza dinner at Valentino's and the cosmic bowling.
Saturday morning: Cook breakfast for Sean, Paul and Peter while they go running. Yeah, I don't do running.
Saturday: Grocery shopping.
Saturday night: Party at apt. 1317.
Sunday: Dim sum in Chinatown with ex-roomie Marialuz.

Busy boy, huh? Yep, that's me.

No wonder Americans can't drive to save their lives:

Hump Day Afternoon

2006-01-25T15:56:00.000-05:00

3:53 pm. Hola. The working day is drawing to a close. Tonight's plans: Go home, pick up dry cleaning, buy milk, watch the last three episodes of Smallville (season 3), and then geek out over Lost - hopefully without disdainful running commentary this time (ahem)! Sounds fascinating, no?

Anyways, I did something unexpected on Monday. Hopefully breaking a cycle of procrastination that has followed me since college, I did my taxes 3 months early! Boo-ya! The Man owes me 600 bucks, and since I'm so early I should have that cash in hand sooner rather than later. This makes me a happy boy.

Then, yesterday, I entertained my brain a bit. Along with Sean and Paul, I attended a panel discussion at Johns Hopkins/SAIS. The topic of discussion was the new book, American Vertigo, by French 'intellectual' Bernard-Henri Levy. In attendance were Levy himself, conservative pipsqueak Bill Kristol, and Francis 'End of History' Fukuyama, who moderated the whole thing. It was a great discussion. The book is a modern-day attempt to emulate Tocqueville's Democracy in America, with Levy pointing out the good and bad things about America, talking to all sorts of people he met on his U.S. sojourn. I may have to go and get the book now. For those who are interested, it was taped by C-SPAN, so check their schedule for when it's being shown.

OK, off to make a nice Icelandic fish dinner...!

Howdy!

2006-01-23T15:43:00.000-05:00

3:43 pm. Yeah, I've been a lazy blogger lately. Last week was busy (and one day short), plus I had a program to run on Friday... anyway, events conspired to keep me away from here. Sorry.

Frankly, there's just not that much going on. My weekdays consist of work, dinner, being tired, and going to bed. Weekends are infinitely better. For instance, last night Sean and I had dinner at Jen's place. She made us an amazing cassoulet that was absolutely to die for (and those cheeses beforehand didn't hurt either). I cleaned the apartment and did laundry (typical Sunday afternoon tasks) after I hung out at Starbucks for a couple of hours with my book, chatting with Rosemary, who is 82 and a Starbucks regular (small coffee and one glazed donut each time). On Saturday, I saw a movie with Cat, who is the only person I know who appreciates schlocky horror movies like I do. And therefore, we saw Underworld: Evolution. It was OK, and a decent way to waste a Saturday afternoon.

Sean and I just bought tickets to go to Iceland! Icelandair is having a ridiculous sale on winter fares, so I'll be returning to the motherland on March 16 for a 5-day stay. It will be a great trip. I haven't experienced an Icelandic March since 1997 - can anyone remind me of how the weather is? Should I just prepare for the usual cloudy/rainy days?

Hmmm... let's see, what else is going on? Nothing much, really. Life goes on. Work is busy, since Elderhostel season is in full swing. There was a program last Friday, another one on February 17, and one more on March 3. Then I have three week-long programs beginning March 12 and ending on April 14 (with a week's break in between them). Next week I have to sit down and schedule the programs for spring 2007 - how ridiculous is that? The question is: Will I still be here then...?

The Sniffles

2006-01-12T12:40:00.000-05:00

12:39 pm. Hola. Struggling for breath here, as my nasal passages seem to be stuffed up with some primordial soup mix of snot and mucus. Lovely, ain't it? I'm heeding advice I remember my mother repeating when I was younger: Blow your nose as often as you can, and hack up every bit of grossness from your lungs that you can. You can therefore imagine what a pretty sight I am right now. Yeagh.

Not much to report here. As I woke up this morning, I discovered a fog so low and thick outside that I couldn't see the Marriott across the street. Super creepy, but also kind of cool. My weekend plans are shaping up. Tonight: Grocery shopping. Tomorrow night: Movie, probably. Saturday night I was supposed to go to a Georgetown party, but my date just bailed on me to go to Frederick, the armpit of Maryland (bad Cat!). Sunday morning it's brunch with Sean and Megan. Sunday night it's dinner at the Coopers. I hope Sean made it absolutely clear that I will become ever so slightly homicidal... er... perturbed if I miss the two season-premiere hours of 24 that night. So there... :-) You've all been warned!

Washington Rumor Mill Update: With Andrew Natsios having left the USAID administrator post this week, word has it that a new one will be announced next week. Apparently, it's Randall Tobias, the current global AIDS coordinator at the State Department. Take a look at his bio - this is no soft liberal! I wonder what'll happen with this.

(Sniffle. Achoo!)

(Cough.)

This is so annoying.

See you all tomorow.

Awash in a Wave of Drug-Enduced Euphoria

2006-01-10T14:06:00.000-05:00

2:07 pm. Oh, man. I am such a pussy when it comes to taking even over-the-counter drugs. I've been fighting this annoying cold lately and I've been taking Advil Cold & Sinus before going to bed. Well, I took one with me this morning to take at work, and now I'm just about to drop into a coma. It even says "non-drowsy" on the box! Why am I completely groggy and tired right now?? Clearly, I don't have what is by now clearly an innate American ability to consume increasing amounts of prescription and over-the-counter drugs without any apparent cognitive impact. I just want to go to sleep...

I've been catching up on my stack of unread magazines since I got back last week. I'm on the last Time right now, and I must say that while I am no fan of organized religion, that magazine has some really good writing on religion. This particular edition has a long article on the place of Joseph in the various religions and denominations. Clearly I belong to one of the liberal ones, since the more contructionist and conservatives ones have decided to portray Joseph and a REALLY old, non-sexual presence in the life of Mary and Jesus, whereas my image of him is as a younger man whose involvement in this whole mess was a bit more than a doddering old caretaker. Oh well - it's good reading, I recommend it. And while you're reading, check out this Washington Post article on how urban colleges have met the challenge of being good neighbors within their communities... and guess which school is the star of the piece? :-)

Sean and I saw Capote last Friday. It's a good movie, and Philip Seymour Hoffman gives an outstanding performance. Having now seen the three movies with the strongest male performances of the year, I can say that the race between Hoffman, Heath Ledger (Brokeback Mountain) and Joaquin Phoenix (Walk the Line) for the Oscar will be quite tough. I give the edge to Ledger, because his personal story is the most "Oscar-friendly" at the moment. Reese Witherspoon will have to fight it out with Felicity Huffman (Transamerica) for the lead actress Oscar. The former will win because some people just don't hand out these things to "TV actresses" like Huffman. Best movie will be Brokeback Mountain, best director Ang Lee. Fearless premature predictions rock! Whoo!

By the way, I'm blaming my cold on 6 hours on a plane with A LOT of babies. It's like a freakin' germ pool on planes anyway, and having little babies (i.e. virus and bacteria factories) on board as well doesn't help. Ick.

Oh, Christ... only in America does this kind of shit happen.

Avian flu update: We're all going to die!!!

I think the drugs have spoken enough today. I bid you a good morrow.

Back in the Saddle

2006-01-06T12:43:00.000-05:00

12:42 pm. Hey, folks. I'm back in the U.S. now, after braving the horrific dangers of a 6-hour semi-transatlantic flight. Actually, the flight was fine - just a bit boring. Just sitting there can become excruciatingly mindnumbing, especially when the airline conveniently ends the in-flight entertainment 2 HOURS before landing. Instead, I familiarized myself with small Canadian towns and their shapes. There's a lot of surprisingly square-shaped population centers in northeastern Canada. Who knew? Then all of a sudden the pilot announced that we were flying over Vermont... huh? Since when do we go that far west? Usually we cross into the U.S. over Maine and then fly down the coast just west of Boston and New York City. Not so this time - those cities were replaced with Burlington and Albany. Very strange. The cloud cover in Baltimore was freakishly low. We didn't get out of it until maybe 40 seconds before landing, and the first thing I saw out the window was a huge fire right next to the airport. The girl next to me freaked out, until I suggested that in all likelihood that wasn't a downed airplane. I still don't know what the fire was, but it's not my favorite thing ever to witness from a landing airplane :-)

I'm settling back into the old rhythms. I went immediately back to work yesterday, which was good. The jet lag ensures that I'm up with the chickens at 5:30 am and I was dead tired at 9:30 pm last night. I need to manipulate myself into staying awake tonight and getting my old schedule back. To that end, Sean and I are seeing Capote tonight. Hope it's good!

I got presents! When I arrived at the apartment on Wednesday night, I was promptly handed two large heavy skillets from Sur la table, a beautiful calendar featuring old traveling posters, and ridiculously expensive soap from Williams Sonoma. Yesterday, he piled on with a book he knew I wanted to read as well as the first two seasons of Family Guy. Freakin' sweet! In turn, Sean became an immediate beneficiary of his presents when I cooked Icelandic fish last night. Not too shabby! I also gave Sean the presents I got in Iceland: The 66N fleece jacket, the history book on Iceland, the Chivas Regal 18, and the Cohiba cigar (with appropriate attribution to my mom and David). Presents abound!!

Alright, enough of this BS. I'm back, and happy about it. Apparently, the weather in Iceland right now is not all too hospitable for flyers, so I'm glad I picked Wednesday to come back. Phew!

"It's the Final Countdown..."

2006-01-02T19:18:00.000-05:00

0019 hours. Yes, in the immortal words of Eurotrashy and awesomely-bad hair metal band Europe, the final countdown to my U.S. return has begun. Tuesday is my last full day in the city of my childhood (for the time being). It's been a great and relaxing time, but I'm now completely ready for my 9-5 life to begin again. I'm just the kind of person who needs a schedule of some kind - otherwise, I'm all out of sorts and end up doing next to nothing.

Still, I nevertheless accomplished everything I set out to take care of while I was here, and that makes me happy. It's been a nice vacation. Thanks for having me.

In unrelated news, my mother's car was violated by a gigantic mountain-jeep type monster today. I had just parked her tiny little Toyota and was walking away when I heard the unmistakable sound of metal on metal. Lo and behold, big-car/small-penis man had conveniently backed straight into my mom's car. This is when you're glad (someone) is paying for car insurance. Mountain man will have to fork out some hefty cash to fix my mom's hood.

I forced my brother to join me for a movie last night. I really wanted to see King Kong but he wasn't feeling the 187-minute running time; we instead settled for The Brothers Grimm. It's a perfectly enjoyable movie, but nowhere near Terry Gilliam's finest. I always forget the barbaric Icelandic custom of squeezing a freakin' intermission into the middle of the movie. Just so some junkies can go suck down half a cigarette and the movie theater can make $300 bucks selling candy. Ridiculous! At least last night they didn't cut into the middle of a scene, which is what usually happens. (Simmering frustration.) My countrymen seriously need to get with the program sometimes.

Tomorrow is a busy day, and I'm not sure if I can squeeze in a blog session. I'll do my best, but no promises. Either way, I'll be back at my desk on Thursday morning, and you'll definitely hear from me then!

Happy New Year!!

2005-12-31T22:52:00.000-05:00

0351 am, January 1, 2006. Happy 2006, everybody. I'm back from a friend's party, slightly drunk and really tired. I had a great evening. We feasted on a tryptophan-filled turkey with the requisite stuffing, and I was then asked to reprise my baked Alaska success for dessert. We then rang in the New Year with hundreds of Icelanders and tourists at the top of a large hill close to our apartment. It was strange talking to Sean right afterward, what with me being in 2006 and him all the way back in 2005. Anyway, I hope everyone has a wonderful 2006, and I wish you all a happy and successful new year.

It's That Time Again...

2005-12-30T15:50:00.000-05:00

2050 hours. Yeah, it's that time of the Iceland trip where I officially become bored of having nothing to do and start looking forward to actually being back at work. In about 5 days' time I'll be somewhere high above the wastelands of northeastern Canada, barreling down towards Baltimore at high speeds. It's an apt commentary on the frequency with which I have been on this flight that I know the names of puny little Canadian villages in the area... Goose Bay, Gander, Moncton... then things get a lot better as we hurtle past Bangor, Boston, New York, and Philadelphia (although a storm once drove us as far west as Harrisburg) and into Baltimore. It's usually about a 6-hour flight, and that means dinner, two movies, a lame sitcom, and a weird documentary (last time it was Jules Verne). As I've told many people, the 40 minutes after the pilot announces the start of our descent are my favorite time of any flight. I love coming in for a landing - the houses get bigger, I can distinguish between cars - and then finally, wheels down. (Sigh.) That's the moment when I completely relax.

In other news, my dinner party last night was a complete success. Even the baked Alaska turned out tremendously well, and everyone ate a lot. I was left with a few specks of the side dishes, and the equivalent of one bowl of soup (which my mom and Davíð certainly appreciated). I really do enjoy cooking, and especially watching people eat what I've made them (Sean knows this). I get a perverse pleasure out of serving things people aren't necessarily all that familiar with, and last night my unfamiliar dish was the prosciutto-wrapped asparagus. Most Icelanders aren't yet all that used to prosciutto, and it was fun to see them look at it strangely while trying to figure out just what kind of meat it was. But they all ate it heartily.

In completely unrelated news, I was watching Arrested Development on TV earlier this evening (yes, we get it here). It reminded me that I need to send a strongly worded letter to the idiots at Fox for canceling the funniest show on TV in years. Bastards.

As a measure of how "cool" Iceland is among a certain cadre of celebrities, Kiefer Sutherland just spent his second consecutive Christmas here, and Quentin Tarantino arrived yesterday (for the third time this year) to showcase three of his favorite 70s kung-fu films at a program tonight. He brought along a group of celebs, including semi-Icelandic Cabin Fever and Hostel director Eli Roth and Wu-Tang member RZA. And yes, because we are a nation of 299,900 people (300,000 expected in January 2006!), we find this inordinately cool. And as I read today's annual news roundup in the papers, some even had a special section listing all the celebrities that visited Iceland in 2005 - Cameron Diaz, Clint Eastwood, Rob Schneider, Eric Clapton, 50 Cent, Ryan Phillippe, Iron Maiden, Duran Duran, the White Stripes, Sonic Youth, Foo Fighters... I could go on. Can you tell we have stars in our eyes?

Alright, enough ranting. I better post this things. Just five more days until my much-anticipated return to America!

Gott kvöld

2005-12-28T14:16:00.000-05:00

1914 hours. Normally, I wouldn't be doing much this time of year. As it happens, I suddenly thought it would be a grand idea to invite 7 of my friends over for dinner tomorrow, and I've been sweating over the menu. This is what I've come up with:

*Pre-appetizer: Steamed asparagus spears, wrapped in prosciutto and herbed cream cheese.
*Appetizer: A thick, earthy cream of mushroom soup, made from scratch - of course.
*Entree: Chicken Kiev w/garlic butter and lemon, maple dill carrots, pearl onion/green bean sautée, and cheese and bacon potato balls.
*Dessert: Baked Alaska

I've never made baked Alaska before, and right now it's freaking me out. I already made the soup, and it's delicious, waiting to be reheated and creamed slightly tomorrow night.

I can't believe I'll be on a plane flying back to DC in one week's time. I feel like I just got here - but then again, it also feels like I've been here for a really long time. Strange how that works. Either way, I'll back back in my adopted habitat sooner rather than later.

Not much else to report. Hope everyone's doing well, preparing for a nice New Year's bash. Any suggestions as to what we should eat that night? We've been so relaxed about the whole thing, we haven't even gotten to the meal yet!

Maintenance

2005-12-27T20:26:00.000-05:00

0126 hours. Just doing some maintenance, folks. :-)

Breaking News! (Or Not...)

2005-12-25T20:08:00.002-05:00

0056 hours. Yep, still awake. We just watched Love Actually on TV and dammit if I don't just absolutely love that movie. That bit where the guy holds up the cue cards to Keira Knightley and tell her he loves her always makes me teary-eyed. That's the kind of romantic gesture I would totally go for. Anyone who showed up on my doorstep and did that... pants off in 3 seconds!! I need that movie on DVD. I also love the soundtrack, even if it has stinky Kelly Clarkson on it.

I loved all my presents. I got a bunch of gift cards - close to $600 worth! My family is nuts. I actually got a bit testy at my mom for all the money she spent on me. I feel bad. But now, I just can't wait to go shopping and updating my wardrobe! I need two pairs of Diesel jeans, shoes, winter jacket... yeah, that's about $600 right there. This is Iceland, after all!! I also got some music. I heard a brand new Keane song on the radio this week but there's no sign of a new album anywhere. My friend Hlíf hasn't called to upbraid me about the sextravaganza in a basket I got for her, so clearly she didn't mind too much :-) One of the presents I got my mom was a book called Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog (check it out online). She's been reading it all day, laughing and crying at various moments. I always know what'll get to her.

Tonight was the smoked leg of lamb meal. Not a big fan here - any kind of cured, smoked, dried, etc. meat means it got that way to make sure it didn't spoil, and I don't find that all too appealing. Tomorrow (or later today, depending on how you look at it), we're all going to my dad's place for filet mignon. That's AFTER I attend the Christening of my friend's little boy. I don't know his name, but I did get him an adorable little outfit as a present.

Hmmm... not much else going on here. Lots of eating, drinking (not alcohol, though), and reading of books and listening to music. It's a good time of year for relaxing.

Sleep beckons - or is it the new Sherlock Holmes book by Caleb Carr? Not sure... either way, I'll be in bed. Later...

Merry Christmas

2005-12-24T19:39:00.000-05:00

0040 hours. Happy holidays, friends. I'm stuffed and happy, having enjoyed a wonderful evening with the family. Lots of presents, but that's not what's most important. That would - of course - be the food! Damn, those three years since I last had ptarmigan have only made the heart grow even fonder. And it did not disappoint. Moreover, my mother's gravy is the sauce-world's answer to ambrogia. That thing can cure all ills, that's how good it is. I can't wait to get up tomorrow and soak some bread in it. Deeee-lish!

I hope you are all having a great holiday. Ásgeir returns to the U.S. in 10 days. Start your clocks and begin the waiting.

"Christmas Comes This Time Each Year..."

2005-12-23T17:29:00.000-05:00

2229 hours. Just one more day until Christmas, as the thirteenth Yule Lad above tells us (this one is Kjötkrækir, or "Meat Snatcher," who dives down your chimney to snatch the leg of lamb you've been planning to eat for the holidays). I've done all my shopping and feel pretty relaxed. Earlier this evening, my brother and I set up the Christmas tree. It's about a 7-footer, a nice sturdy fir tree. We gave up on ornaments a long time ago (a dog with a particularly strong tail swing sent many of them to an early grave) and now we just make do with about 200 blue lights. The tree looks beautiful, and even better when you turn off the overhead lights and just see the blue spots of light. Tomorrow I get to deck out the traditional Christmas candy tray (a.k.a. my downfall), and at 6 pm, the holiday season officially begins. The 24th is when Icelanders celebrate Christmas. We have a nice dinner - in our case, some nice wild ptarmigan (see below) - and then we open our presents. The 25th is for relaxation, hanging out with your new books and music, and of course eating. Traditionally, we have a smoked leg of lamb that night. I'm not a huge fan of smoked meat of any kind, so I eat lightly.

I just got back from the main shopping street (conveniently located right outside my mother's building), where I joined thousands of my fellow Icelanders in a tradition that dictates that on the evening of the 23rd, we got downtown, finish the last shopping, walk around (the main streets go pedestrian only on this night), meet friends and acquaintances, and revel in the Christmas spirit (some revel in the spirit a bit much, if you know what I mean...). I love this night. It's just such a festive, happy time, and the current weather conditions certainly don't hurt (about 34 degrees, no rain, no snow, very light wind). I'm a Christmas fan. It's not the commercialism, which I find increasingly annoying. I just like how social people get this time of year. You see people you never see otherwise. Everyone is generally happy. I wish everyone had experienced Christmas the way I have throughout my life.

Whoah, that got way sappier that I intended. And what's with all the parentheses? Can't I just write a proper subordinate clause?? Will I ever stop asking rhetorical questions?

Oh, by the way... this is a ptarmigan:

And this is what we do with it (it's in the middle):

Greenpeace should be starting up their campaign against me right about... now!

Merry Christmas, everyone. I can't promise a new installment tomorrow, but by the 25th for sure. Enjoy the season and the joy that it should bring.

Observations

2005-12-22T18:09:00.000-05:00

2308 hours. You wouldn't think that I would notice, but I actually did see that today was longer than yesterday. It was a beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky, and the daylight lingered on the mountains across the bay, turning them a beautiful orange. It wasn't completely dark until well after 4. Well, I say 'bully' for the winter solstice and the increase in happiness=daylight it brings me.

Another busy day today. Brunch with Kris, then some baking, fixing of glasses, and shopping. Package wrapping. Late lunch with dad. Buying a Christmas tree with him. A belatedly scheduled eggnog holiday party at the U.S. embassy, where I met all my friends plus had a chat with the interim ambassador (or chargé as I'm sure he'd prefer I call him). I'd never actually made it inside the embassy 'compund' and wouldn't have done so if the Icelandic rent-a-grunts providing 'security' had been allowed a say in the matter. They were extremely suspicious of the civilian who desired entry into the sanctum to gulp down two creamy cups of seriously spiked eggnog - especially after I needled them about how I work in a government building across from the White House and that the security guards there were significantly more relaxed than they were. I don't think they appreciated that. Ah, small men with small egos and smaller dicks. Give them an iota of power and this is what happens. Eggnog was followed by further wrapping of presents, then buying my actual Christmas tree, and then dinner with some friends who are headed on a 5-week Australian sojourn on Monday. Bastards. So far I've imparted some of the Cook/Davies wisdom on them, primarily that they should not under any circumstances request Foster's beer in Australia. And now I'm sitting here, chattering away...

As I did my first serious outdoor walking in Reykjavík today, I was reminded of how Icelanders always stare at people in public. American do the exact opposite, and that's (sadly) what I've become used to. At this point, I'm a bit uncomfortable during the first days here because I keep wondering what the hell people want with me. But I thought about it today and decided that generally, we are not staring because of rudeness. We stare because it's such a small society that eventually we are bound to run into someone we know. And how will you know they are there unless you're staring at every person you pass? At least that is my rationalization - and it was certainly why I got into the habit this evening and looked intently at every single person on the street. Alas, I knew no one. Which leads me to a second observation...

Where the hell is everyone I know? When I lived in this country, I'm not ashamed to say I knew a lot of people very well. Several dozens, if not hundreds of people I could identify on the street and know well enough to stop and have a chat. This NEVER happens anymore. Where did everyone go? Is the 1977 edition of Icelanders a lost generation? 189 people in my graduating class from high school - not a single one of them seen on the street, and I live less than a 5 minute walk from the school! No one from grade school, no one from work (and I've worked in a lot of places), no relatives, no casual acquaintances... I mean, the streets are packed with people, especially this time of year, and not a single familiar face! I really struggle to explain this. I know some people moved to the dreaded suburbs and started hatching offspring, but not everyone. Am I some sort of straggler, living a life everyone else has left behind? Am I doomed to be the person I was in high school for the simple reason that when I last "lived" here, I WAS in high school? Beats the shit out of me. I'd just like to get the validation of the "run-into-and-chat" with someone. Anyone? Hello?!

(Takes deep breath.)

(Composure regained.)

Alright, back to the grind. The new Brad Meltzer thriller won't read itself!

December 21: The Shortest Day of the Year

2005-12-21T17:53:00.000-05:00

2253 hours. Yep, today is officially the shortest day of the year. Just over four hours of sunlight. The good part of this whole thing is that tomorrow, the days start getting longer! Wheeee! Yes, this is emblematic of the Icelandic optimism that allows us to survive these winters. Just imagine, December 22 will be about 2 minutes longer than today. Yeah, that's a real upper! :-)

Not much to report. I spent entirely too much money today, without even trying. My haircut was $46 (no color, no shampoo, just a cut). If it hadn't been so damn good, I would have been pining away for my $14 Hair Cuttery hack jobs. Then I bought some tags for Christmas presents, and paid $10 for 30 of them. I stared slackjawed at the saleslady - who must have thought I was "special" - and pondered whether to inquire if the slave labor involved in producing said tags came with the purchase. Ridiculous.

I was planning to have breakfast with a friend tomorrow, but discovered to my significant dismay that my favorite breakfast place, Reykjavik Bagel Company, is now the Reykjavik Pizza Company, with no bagels in sight. You bastards! You killed Kenny!! Now I must search for another appropriate breakfast place, but I guess it's a good thing I already know where I'm having my dad take me for lunch - and that I'm having the cream of asparagus soup (yum!).

The weather is still good. I was able to walk around today in just my jeans and track jacket. See, I told you all that Iceland was a misnomer! We barely see the white stuff (cue Weird Al song) anymore. Thank you, global warming. You're a welcome presence in Iceland. Please go gently on our great-great-great-great-great-great-grandchildren when you broil the earth. Thank you.

Alright folks, that's it for today. I want to see some comments!!!

Iceland 2005: Day 2

2005-12-20T17:59:00.000-05:00

2259 hours. Good evening, all. Here I sit, sipping on water and (a) marveling at the cleanliness of my teeth and (b) cursing my dentist for the very brutal cleaning he gave me today. Ouch! And, to make matters worse, I had to pay him $100 for it. For just a cleaning! He made some overtures about a wisdom tooth that might need to come out... he's dreaming if he thinks he's getting that particular piece of business. USA here I come!

So today I baked 64 ham/mushroom/cheese pocket-type pastries, a family tradition. Only 48 more to go and I can call that particular task finished. I'm getting a much-needed haircut tomorrow, and I've decided to forgo the usual Christmastime hair coloring. No blonde will be added this year, as I've made peace with my natural rat-fur-colored hair. I will, however, have it styled in the most recent Icelandic fashion, no doubt to Sean's unimaginable horror. Ah, the delight one takes from the little things in life.

I've succumbed to the annual slide into popular fiction. On my nightstand, you will find John Grisham and David Baldacci. It's weird how I always do this at yuletide; it's like I need my fix of trashy novels, and I suck in about 3-4 in a couple of weeks, and then I can go back to being all highbrow and literary. Hehe. No worries, though - I've been able to abstain from watching the Icelandic version of The Bachelor, which may honestly count as some of the most execrable material ever produced for television. Plus, he looks SUPERgay, so that takes some of the believability out of the whole thing. Yes, there's a budding reality TV industry in Iceland. Apparently, just this fall we sent a whole bunch of people on a Mediterranean cruise to film an Icelandic version of Love Cruise, a U.S. reality show so obscure, I had to Google it to make sure it existed. Who knew? Ah, the slow slide of my country into a culture-void zone continues.

OK, done for now. By the way, to my Icelandic friends, I don't have a cell phone yet, so just call my mom's home number if you want to find me. And no, I'm not going to post it here! Pick up a phone book already!

Back home!

2005-12-19T10:19:00.000-05:00

1522 hours. Yes, now that I'm in Iceland I will be using military time. Now go google it so you know what time 1522 is.

I had an absolutely wonderful flight from Baltimore. Those who know me well are aware that I am usually not apt to use the words "wonderful" and "flight" in the same sentence. For some reason, I managed to put myself at ease and sort of enjoy the flight. Don't get me wrong, flying is still a god-awful boring experience. But this time my heart didn't try to climb out of my mouth every time there was the slightest trace of turbulence (not that there was any). Let's hope this is a helpful step in my quest to overcome this particular phobia. Saying goodbye to Sean was much more difficult than hovering in the air for 4 hours and 55 minutes!

My last weekend in DC this year was very nice. On Friday night, I had dinner at Hard Times (yay for Chili Bubba!) with Cat and Maura and we then saw Walk the Line as well. I'm not really what you call a Johnny Cash fan but I couldn't help but appreciate how great a lot of his music was (although I wish they had played 'Hurt' over the closing credits). Also, both Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon put in fantastic performances. I really enjoyed the film, and the X-Men 3 trailer beforehand certainly didn't spoil the night either!

On Saturday, we first went to Julia Cooper's second birthday party. I stuffed my face with delicious food, and did not hesitate to dip into the ultra-cool chocolate fountain. Cascading creamy chocolate - has there ever been a greater kitchen gadget in the history of man? I think not! Sean and I then sped up to Bethesda to see Brokeback Mountain, which was absolutely beautiful and heartbreaking in a quiet way. Ang Lee did not sensationalize a single aspect of the movie, so it just played like a beautiful, tragic love story. I've never been a Heath Ledger fan but he acted the shit out of that role. Plus, any movie that has Jake Gyllenhaal making out with another cute boy is just fine in my book. Yum. Perhaps the biggest shocker from that movie is that it will probably end up delivering an Oscar nomination to someone from Dawson's Creek. If that isn't one of the signs of the apocalypse, I don't know what is.

Sunday began with the last Dunkin' Donuts run of 2005. Having satisfied my sweet tooth (but avoiding overindulgence, so yay for me), the rest of the day was spent packing - or more like squeezing and cursing at the 8000 pounds of Christmas presents I had to smuggle into Iceland. Thankfully, I made it unscathed. The customs lady made a beeline for me (single traveller, male, 20s) but was very disappointed when I told her I wasn't coming back from a shopping trip but rather that I lived in the U.S. and the only thing she'd find were dirty underwear and socks. She backed away. So take note, since I've clearly just authored "How to Avoid Icelandic Customs 101." Hehe.

Alright, enough. Don't be afraid to drop me a line. I'm not in outer space!

Two Days and Counting

2005-12-16T12:37:00.000-05:00

12:38 pm. Hello, all. This will be my last blog entry from the U.S. this year. I fly to Iceland on Sunday and will be back here on the evening of the 4th. That's 16½ days for those who are counting. I'll definitely update the site while I'm over there, so stay tuned from "News from (close to) the North Pole."

It's been a busy week. Not work-wise, per se, more like I'm just running around doing last-minute yule-tide things as is customary during this season. I'm excited about seeing friends and family back home. Let's hope Icelandic customs won't dig around in my luggage too much, since I have an impressive stash of holiday presents hidden in there. I think I've finished pretty much everything, but of course I'll think of all the things I forgot as the plane leaves the ground in Baltimore on Sunday night. That's just how things always work out :-)

Otherwise, not much going on. I'm at work now, finishing everything that needs to be done before I leave (such as instructing the boss to water the plant twice a week). Not much to say, really... to my friends in Iceland, see you next week! To everyone else... I'll be back so PLEASE - no tears! ;-)

Happy Holidays.

Five Days and Counting

2005-12-13T15:36:00.000-05:00

Bored Again

2005-12-13T14:58:00.000-05:00

You Are 26 Years Old

Under 12: You are a kid at heart. You still have an optimistic life view - and you look at the world with awe.
13-19: You are a teenager at heart. You question authority and are still trying to find your place in this world.
20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences.
30-39: You are a thirtysomething at heart. You've had a taste of success and true love, but you want more!
40+: You are a mature adult. You've been through most of the ups and downs of life already. Now you get to sit back and relax.

What Age Do You Act?

You Are 26 Years Old

Six Days and Counting

2005-12-12T11:20:00.000-05:00

11:21 am. Good morning on this lovely Monday. I'm coming off a well-fed Sunday night so obviously I'm happy. The ladies of 1317 had their annual holiday feast, which this year included a huge ham, sweet potatoes, regular potatoes, and brussel sprouts. Before dinner, there were cheese and crackers, antipasto yummies, and Cat's delectable steamed asparagus wrapped in cream cheese and proscuitto. Dessert was pumpkin pie and QUADRUPLE chocolate brownies. I staggered home and died a happy over-eater's death in my bed. (Not to mention the dim sum I had for lunch!) Zzzz...

I saw The Chronicles of Narnia last Friday. Sadly, I was a bit underwhelmed. That's the danger of getting Disney to make a movie; without fail, they become oversanitized. Also, I loved the books when I was a kid so it would have been hard for any movie to live up to those expectations. Let's hope King Kong and Brokeback Mountain - both of which I plan to see this week - will fare better.

3:21 pm. Only six days until I arrive home. In my head, it still seems so far away. I've checked out the weather forecast and I seem to be getting pretty good flying weather, until I hit Icelandic airspace, that is. Check out the 10-day forecast for Reykjavik on weather.com. You'll see 10 full days of precipitation, from rain to snow. Lovely. Another point of interest: Check out the sunrise/sunset times. We're into the 4-hours-of-daylight period now. Pray for me!

Check out the Santa up top. This is the first of thirteen Santas (yule lads, as we call them). Legend has it that all thirteen live with their ugly old parents (their mother, Gryla, is the one who's been counting down the days to Christmas for me over the last few days) up in the mountain. On the 12th of December, the first one comes down and gives the good kids a little present, leaving it in a show they've placed in their bedroom window. The bad kids get an old potato. Yes, we have mischievous, sort-of-evil Santas - not that Coca Cola one with the "ho ho ho" and the red suit.

Those Mtherfckers at the Weather Channel!

2005-12-09T13:34:00.000-05:00

1:26 pm. Yeah... so we had barely any snow. Today is a beautiful sunny day with nary a cloud in the sky. I'm writing a threatening letter to the Weather Channel. See? This perfectly demonstrates what I was saying about "meteorologists" earlier this week. Predicting the weather is not a science - it's a fucking guessing game. So now I'm stuck with a canceled program. Add to that the fact that I'm at work today (while no one else is) and your humble writer is majorly pissed off today.

I'll be seeing the Chronicles of Narnia this evening. Let's hope that a Disney-fied Christian allegory starring a talking lion can cheer me up.

All About Snow

2005-12-08T15:31:00.000-05:00

1:47 pm. [Grumble] Stupid weather. I spent all morning on the phone as a consequence of having to cancel tomorrow's program. I'm not happy about it, but I don't want the attendees to struggle through snow and freezing rain, risking death and dismemberment, just to show up. So we erred on the side of caution and canceled. All I'm saying is, there better be A LOT of snow on the ground tomorrow morning, or I will be supremely annoyed. We'll make it up to them - we created a whole new program date in March, so hopefully they won't feel cheated out of the experience.

2:46 pm. IT'S NOT SNOWING YET! GRRRR....

3:24 pm. Sigh. I will now give in to the inevitable and embrace the oncoming "snow event," as it's called here. We'll see whether or not I make it into work tomorrow. You know DC, things get cancelled at the drop of a hat. Especially the government. Let's see what happens.

2005-12-07T11:49:00.000-05:00

10:55 am. Hey, folks. I won't be able to write all too much today. I have a meeting at 12 and then another one at 2, but that second one is all the way down in Alexandria and I need at least 45 minutes to get there. I expect to do some stressful running early this afternoon. Whee!

Only 11 days until I fly home. Time sure does fly, doesn't it? I remember when I was a kid and the month of December seemed to creep along like a 90-year-old in a swimming pool full of honey. Even after school ended around the 17th or so, the last week before Christmas seemed like it would never end. Now, those 7 days are filled with baking, cleaning, wrapping, buying, decorating... ah, to be a kid again. (Not that I haven't been accused of being childish.)

11:38 am. 'Tis the season for big Christmas movies, and even for me, who's slowly being turned off by the theater-going experience, there are a few movies I absolutely must see by the end of the year:

1. Brokeback Mountain. Ang Lee's treatment of Annie Proulx's short story about the unlikelest lovers ever. And please DO NOT call it the "gay cowboy" movie.

2. King Kong. Duh.

3. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Because I loved the books as a child, completely and blissfully unaware of its underlying Christian proselytizing message. I hope Disney and its kiddie cachet won't ruin this for me.

4. TransAmerica. Felicity Huffman (Desperate Housewives) as a pre-op male-to-female transsexual traveling cross country with her bisexual teenage hustler son. Sounds festive, doesn't it? Hey, sometimes good acting is all it takes to make you buy a ticket.

Oops, gotta prep for my meeting. Tomorrow! Tomorrow! There's always... tomorrow!

The Post-Lunch Haze is Setting In...

2005-12-06T15:49:00.000-05:00

3:09 pm. Not much happening here. My lunch of a sandwich and seven dates is having a drowsy effect on me. I've pretty much done all my work for the day, and now I'm just kind of hanging around, surfing the web and reading my book. The snow came down yesterday pretty well - much more than I expected. It was the kind of pretty fluffy snow that everyone likes to see (in pictures, anyway). Still, it wasn't enough to shut down the government today, so I had to slog in through the frozen streets (I've totally lost my formelly innate ability to walk on ice) and get my ass to work today. Now they're forecasting a huge snow storm for Thursday night. Normally that would make me happy, but I have a program to run on Friday and I'm not really in the mood to have to cancel it. Let's see what happens. Refer to my post from yesterday to explore my feelings on those who make a living as prognosticators of weather.

Bleagh...

The Things You Do When You're Bored...

2005-12-06T15:05:00.000-05:00

Which Golden Girl Are You?

Meteorology: Science or Not?

2005-12-05T15:48:00.000-05:00

2:55 pm. As I walked past the White House just over an hour ago, the first snowflakes of the season fell onto Washington, DC. Just a few brave specks of white were drifting tentativelt towards the warm, where they would meet their immediate demise, but I was smiling. I love snow. In its purest form, snow is the most aesthetically pleasing weather, and I love the nipping cold and ensuing cocoa-sipping and bed-cuddling. I am very happy that the weather service is forecasting anywhere from 3-8 inches (7.5 - 20 centimeters) of snow accumulation for tomorrow morning. If that happens - no work tomorrow! Whee! However, and hence the reason for today's entry title, I am wholly prepared to be disappointed. Time and again, "meteorologists" (as if they were real scientists) are proven to be spectacularly and frustratingly wrong in their prognistications. How hard can it be to tell me what the weather will be like this afternoon? Why can't they be more accurate? It is my contention that "meteorlogists," or "weather people" as I like to call them, are no more than puffed-up suits with B.S. degrees from Penn State university whose only measureable talens is the ability to be able to smile and point at nonexistent locations on a green screen simultaneously. In any regard, I'm just really happy that the snow is finally here.

3:10 pm. Book report! Over the weekend, I started a new book. This one is by Kenneth Pollack and bears the title The Persian Puzzle: The Conflict Between Iran and America. Time to learn about those crazy Iranians! (After 8 years in America, I've also learned about how crazy Americans are.)

3:42 pm. Well well.. AFSA is telling us to go home early to avoid the snow. I love it! Americans are so weird. This is probably a good idea, because it's enough for someone to say the word "snow" in a car driven by an American, and he/she will immediately swerve off the road and hit a tree. Alrighty... see you tomorrow. Let's hope the Metro doesn't decide to shut down before I get home. Ugh. Now THAT would suck.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like...

2005-12-02T14:18:00.000-05:00

2:09 pm. Greetings from a chilly Washington, DC. Not much going on here. I'm planning on finishing my Christmas shopping this weekend and maybe sending out some Christmas cards... that way the people who are getting one from me this year will be spurred into action and actually send one back for a change! And yeah, that was a hint. Thanks.

Congress just passed the 2006 pay raise proposal. Federal employees in Washington DC will get a 3.44% raise on January 1. AFSA usually follows suit and adds a bit on top as well, so hopefully I'll squeeze up to a 4% raise for next year. Living in Northern Virginia, one does not say no to any extra money. Thank heavens I don't smoke, drink, or have a daily coffee habit, or my resources would be stretched WAY beyond their limit!

Not much more else to say. Except that I officially swear off my preference for Jennifer Garner now that she has given birth to the spawn of Affleck. Yuck. Now there's a DNA pool that should dry up rather than expand. There... that was my celebrity rant of the month.

Have a good weekend, folks. See you all back on Monday.

December? What the...?

2005-12-01T12:30:00.000-05:00

11:15 am. How did it get to be December? Yes, I know, I do this every time a new month begins, but I'm truly confounded by how fast time seems to be going. Wasn't it just Halloween? And that was in October! Either way, the countdown to Christmas has officially begun, as good old Gryla above will tell you.

I got my first Christmas present today. A happy AFSA client sent us individual "Operation Iraqi Freedom" shoulder gun holsters straight from Iraq. Yep, I can now go buy a gun and strap it into my big bad holster! Do I feel powerful? Do I feel manly? Do I feel like shooting an animal? Actually, mostly I just feel silly over the whole thing. Whatever... I can make up excellent stories using this as a prop. "Yeah, I was in Iraq. Killed two enemies. A man changes over there. Etc." Excellent!

I behaved badly yesterday, and made Southern Fried Chicken! I've never made fried chicken before and I must say that my first experiment worked quite well. On the side I had buttermilk biscuits and garlic mashed potatoes. I do enjoy expanding my culinary repertoire, and something tells me I'll be making spinach mango salad soon (takk, Sigurros). Tonight is take-out night, and I can't wait to sink my teeth into some juicy, MSG-laced Chinese food!

12:23 pm. Alright, folks. I have to go to a meeting over at headquarters and I'm not sure if I'll have the opportunity to post more today, so I'll call it a day. To be continued...

Judge Not...

2005-11-30T15:17:00.000-05:00

10:04 am. Soo... after hearing from some friends about the serial rapist deal back home it seems that all may not be so clear. They defend him (these are females!), although they are conflicted about it. According to them, not all facts have come to light and the tabloids have focused only on the worst things. Still, I have to think that when someone gets 30 months for rape, in a judicial system that routinely lets rapists off with no more than a slap on the wrist, there has to be some weighty evidence behind it. For the moment, I'm still voting "guilty" but I'll wait to find out the whole story before juicing up the chemical castrating machine.

1:36 pm. I was happy to finish by book on Shakespeare yesterday. It was truly a great book - well written, imaginative and interesting. My standard for a good book is whether you can picture the narrative in your head, and that was easy to do here. I've now moved on to the twelfth installment (just one more to go!) of Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events - The Penultimate Peril. I curse my brother for introducing me to this series! Bastard! Speaking of whom, I understand he's flying to Sri Lanka Thursday. In the immortal words of the Church Lady: "Isn't that special?"

2:33 pm. Food update! (You knew it was coming.) Fish balls. That's right - fish balls! I can't find a better translation of the Icelandic word "fiskibollur." If "kjotbollur" is meatballs, then "fiskibollur" has to be fish balls. And that's what I made Monday night. Basically, it's haddock pureed with onion, corn starch, salt, pepper, and an egg. You then form the mixture into little balls and fry'em up on a pan. It's delicious, believe me. Mr. Duffy concurs. Last night, I made yet another spinach salad... gotta be healthy! This one had fresh mandarin orange slices, red onion, and toasted chopped pecans. Yum. I've also discovered a basil balsamic vinaigrette that I absolutely love. (Sigurros, vinsamlegast senda mer salatuppskriftina!)

2:44 pm. Did you people see the story of the world's ugliest dog dying? Man, that pooch was truly nasty! Now, I'm as much of a dog lover as any person can be, but that thing was just downright frightening. Let me try to find a pic. Here he is!!

Creepy little thing. May he rest in peace. Let's hope he didn't breed!

3:14 pm. I think I've said enough for one day...

I Guess You Never Really Know People...

2005-11-28T13:16:00.000-05:00

1:02 pm. I just found out today that a casual acquaintance who graduated from high school with me was just convicted of being a violent serial rapist who habitually slipped women a date-rape drug and then attacked them. I'm completely appalled and shocked. This person has been in my family's home. But here's the kicker: Because of his education, family background, and first-time offender status, he received a grand total of 30 months in prison. For being a serial rapist! Absolutely fucking amazing. As far as I'm concerned, all rapists should have their penises cut off, be subjected to chemical castration, and receive an automatic term of life in prison. What a disgusting fucking excuse for a human being.

Now, on to more pleasant things. I had a wonderful four-day Thanksgiving break. Thursday was filled with eating and then some more eating. We had a brunch in Del Ray (food: steamed asparagus, donuts, scrambled eggs, French toast, turkey sausages) and then a Thanksgiving dinner with the Aussies and the good doctor. The foreigners provided an excellent turkey with stuffing and gravt. We supplied bourbon pecan smashed potatoes, rosemary-garlic potatoes, and sauteed brussels sprouts with bacon. Dessert was an apple-cranberry pie (thanks, Peter!). I was STUFFED to the gills. It was awesome! After Christmas, this is my favorite holiday for eating :-)

On Friday morning, we drove to Annapolis for a quick getaway. The hotel (more of a bed & breakfast) was amazing and I slept in the comfiest hotel bed of all time. The weather was winter-cold and beautiful. Plenty of delectable seafood was ingested... as if that were any kind of surprise! Sadly, a part of historic downtown Annapolis went up in flames a few hours after we arrived. Only one house was badly damaged enough to require demolition, but I'm glad I was able to go to the candy store before it caught fire!

Is it wrong that I managed to watch 12 episodes of the fourth season of Star Trek: Enterprise between Wednesday and Sunday? Hell, no! I was on vacation! Leave me alone...

Alright, that's enough... right? More tomorrow.

God Bless the USA

2005-11-23T13:19:00.000-05:00

1:12 pm. Why, you may ask? Simple: Americans know that holidays should ALWAYS fall on a weekday. If a holiday happens to fall on a Saturday or a Sunday, they give either the Friday or the Monday off. Icelanders would do well to follow this example.

In the spirit of this, I'm now off on a four-day weekend. Thanksgiving is here, and so is a time for EATING ENDLESS TURKEY! I have two feasts to attend tomorrow, and then on Friday morning Sean and I will be heading to Annapolis for a weekend getaway. Good seafood, fresh air, the Main Street candy shop, little cadets running around... this will be a nice change from DC. Anyway, just wanted to alert you to my luck in having a nice long vacation.

Cooking update: Last night's dinner was a Bacon Apple Spinach Salad, the recipe for which I got at cdkitchen.com. It was excellent, although I used a raspberry vinaigrette rather than the prescribed mustard/vinegar dressing. Yum-o!

OK... tryptophan coma, here I come!!!

@$%!@%$*

2005-11-22T15:45:00.000-05:00

12:34 pm. "Hann a afmaeli i dag, hann a afmaeli i dag, hann a afmaeli hann Valgeir, hann a afmaeli i dag!" OK, now that's out of the way. Happy Birthday to my friend Valli, who is the latest of my group of friends to join the "28 Club." Hehe.

I had an absolutely AWFUL day yesterday. My hard drive AND my processor somehow managed to do the double swan dive of death simultaneously yesterday. I lost a lot of my data, including all AFSA correspondence, and - even worse - all my Elderhostel stuff. I've been slowly rebuilding my data since then. Argh! How is this shit fair? I was here until God knows when yesterday (well, 6 pm anyway), got home at 6:40, had two loads of laundry to do (and one 1 out of 3 washing machines was working), and cook dinner. Urgh. And then the stupid sliding kitchen door rolled off its track so now moving it is like having a tug-of-war with a cranky endangered Asian elephant. Monday certainly lived up to its crappy reputation yesterday!!!

12:54 pm. Last night's dinner: Oven-baked Icelandic haddock with roasted vegetables. Yummy. Reminded me of home. Speaking of which: 33 days until I fly to Iceland.

1:16 pm. I saw Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire this weekend. I liked the movie; it's now by second favorite after the Prisoner of Azkaban. The problem with fans of the book is that you miss a lot of the things that you loved in the book. A 2½-hour movie can't do 100% justice to a 700+-page book. I am pleased with the darker tone, though, which is entirely appropriate given the increasingly bleak subject matter. I was cheated out of my Superman Returns trailer, but whatever... I have plenty of time to catch that somewhere.

2:52 pm. It's amazing how time flies when you are busy. I've been hard at work trying to recover and recreate everything that was lost in the Great Crash of 2005 and all of a sudden it's 3 o'clock. I haven't even read the paper, done the crossword, or solved the sudoku, which I usually do over lunch. Today I just gulped down my peanut butter-and-banana sandwich in 3 bites and kept on working. I barely even noticed the fact that my co-workers left already. I'm all alone!

By the way, my program on Friday was a complete success. The evaluations were amazing, and everything went off without a hitch. I couldn't be more pleased.

3:44 pm. 'Nuff said. To be continued...

Baby Update

2005-11-18T13:58:00.000-05:00

Mundi and Rosa had their baby on Wednesday!! They are now the proud parents of a beautiful son. Check out photos of the new addition on their home page (link on the side).

Mooga!

2005-11-18T13:50:00.000-05:00

11:05 am. Morning all, and happy Friday. It is BONE-CHILLING COLD today, and you should see the smile on my face. It was below zero when I woke up at 5:30 am and getting into that steaming hot shower was a wonderful feeling. I got off the Metro at 6:45 and walked to AFSA - got myself a nice hot chai latte along the way - and now my Elderhostellers are all happily ensconced in a conference room next to me, listening to the truly fascinating tales of a former Ambassador to Iraq. Since I really don't feel like listening to that story for the 800th time, I'm here... talking to you all instead. Can't you just feel the love?

Since I now have someone reading my blog who appreciates the art of cooking as much as, or more than, I do (hi, Sigurros!), I must update you on my recent culinary adventures. On Wednesday evening, I made a brand new curry chicken recipe that I really liked (Sean was effusive, and we all know that's like wringing tears from a stone!). I found it on allrecipes.com under "Sherry Chicken Curry." I can't really see what I need the sherry for so I substituted a nice sweet white wine. The addition of the peanut butter also brings a lot of flavor to the dish. I only put in about ¼ cup of it, but you can really feel the creaminess and slight nutty hint in the back of your palate. Delicious! I also made some Indian green beans that I wasn't as fond of, but hey... cooking is all about experimentation, right??

Thanksgiving is around the corner - Thursday is Turkey Day and I have not one but two events to attend. First a brunch, then a dinner. I will be turkey-ed out very quickly! But we all know what time of the year this is in the U.S. That's right, it's early-advertising-and-shameless-marketing-for-Christmas month! Yes, the Christmas decorations have been up for a couple of weeks in most stores now and the telephone-hold music, elevator music, mall music, and such have all been converted to the Christmas soundtrack. Even last weekend's Icelandic bazaar was playing Icelandic Christmas music (strange hearing Silent Night/Heims um bol on November 12)! I'm almost done with my Christmas cards and I've already got about half of the Christmas presents I need to acquire. Most of them go home to Iceland with me to then be given away to other people. I'm just the mule. Still, I love Christmas. It's my favorite holiday, and the food is only part of it. The news that I will actually get ptarmigan (rjupa) again this year after a two-year hiatus is still putting a smile on my face!! Ahhh....

This week is Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire opening weekend. I'm planning to see it as soon as I can, but will probably wait until the crush of children and hard-core (read: scary) HP fans has abated. Early next week will probably be safe. I love the book and am excited about seeing the movie (as well as the attached Superman Returns teaser trailer), and we all know that nowadays it takes something unusual to lure me to the multiplex, where rude people and inept staff will conspire to ruin my viewing experience, despite having paid astronomical prices to get in. (Sigh.) If only I owned a movie theater.

12:41 pm. Ah, the wonders of a catered lunch. (Burp!) Why do I love bread so much?

1:46 pm. Alright, I better pretend I'm actually working today, since I have a house full of people here. They're at the State Department as I write; I stay behind to set up the audio-visual for the next speaker because Janice is not proficient with technology. And now I'm just waiting... lalalala.

Yes, I've Got Friends

2005-11-16T15:26:00.000-05:00

Please note the new links to the right, to other blogs. My friend Mundi babbles about his struggle for weight loss and the impending (already occurred?) birth of his baby, while my dear friends Sverrir and Sigurros talk about their new life in Milan, adjusting to Italian life, and being a stay-at-home mom. By the way, unless you're proficient in Icelandic, these won't be of much help. :-)

I would add my friend Valgeir's blog, but he's a lazy bastard who hasn't blogged since April... so there!

Eat It

2005-11-15T15:50:00.000-05:00

1:50 pm. Hmmm... what exciting adventures to tell you about today? Well, first I will brag. Last night, I took another block of my delectable Icelandic haddock and cooked it into a masterful piece of heaven. OK, overdoing it a bit, but still... that fish was finger-lickin' good. Thanks to my mom (even grandma maybe?) for the recipe, which we humbly call ömmufiskur in Icelandic (that translates into Grandma's Fish). All it takes is a nice roll in salted/peppered flour and some time spend sauteeing in a hot skillet of olive oil (and a tiny bit of butter for the flavor). Then I made a pan gravy from the drippings, ginned it up with mushroom stock, salt, pepper, bullion, sauteed sweet onions, and some milk. Yum yum yum. Served with yellow saffron rice and honey glazed carrots, this was an excellent Monday night dinner. As usual, it's a good idea on Mondays to eat before the 9 pm start of Prison Break - you definitely don't want to be eating while you're watching that show. Ick.

The Icelandic bazaar certainly whetted my appetite for all things Icelandic. I had flatbraud, hangikjot, snittur, pylsur, and kleinur... and then I bought a boatload of Icelandic candy. All the favorites were there, with a big showing of licorice. My stomach didn't exactly thank me that day, but I was happy nevertheless. :-)

3:41 pm. I'm breaking into the fund-raising business.. kind of. I've been drafted into the Penn Class of 2001 Gift Committee, on account of being on the university's honor roll of donors (which only means I've given money every year since I graduated, no matter the amount). Anyhoo, now I've got a list of 36 names that I need to pester to give money, ranging from $50 to $500. It's interesting reading the list of names. I got to choose my "targets" and clearly chose only people I knew in college. It's fascinating to see where they are living now, where they work, and that most of them have never given a dime to the school where they spent four years. At the very least, this is something to keep me busy. Not that I'm bored or anything... :-)

3:48 pm. That's it - no more of this inane bullshit today. Later.

Compose Yourselves

2005-11-10T16:51:00.000-05:00

2:36 pm. Ahhh... the weekend is almost here. Tomorrow is a holiday (November 11 is Veterans Day) so I'm getting a 3-day weekend. Plans are to see Jarhead on Friday night and then go to the annual Icelandic bazaar on Saturday. I need to stock up on flatkokur, hangikjot, malt og appelsin, kleinur, Noa Sirius sukkuladi and other exquisite Icelandic yummies. I'm also planning to munch on pancakes and snittur - the traditional Icelandic open-faced sandwiches. Oh, happy day...

Otherwise, not much is going on. I almost had a heart attack watching Lost last night. Damn, that show is so effin' good. Super creepy last night as well, and alas, we mourn the loss of yet another character. Farewell, *******. (Hey, I'm not going to spoil it for anyone!)

4:48 pm. Where has the day gone? Sheesh! I'm out of here. Catch you all back on Monday.

Wednesday, November 9, 2005

2005-11-09T16:00:00.000-05:00

11:50 am. Hi, all. Sorry about the lack of writing; I've been a busy boy. After very full days of work, I come home and have recently been engrossed in my book on the Spanish Armada, which I FINALLY finished yesterday! It was 600 pages with miniscule type, and it took me two months to read. It never takes me that long to read a book! Still, it was a great book - extremely well written and researched. It's amazing the details you get from this book. For instance, who knew that as the Armada was fleeing the pursuing English fleet north around Scotland and Ireland, the weather blew portions of it within 50 miles of the coast of Iceland?? A half day more of bad weather and we would have seen Spanish galleons wrecked on the coast of my humble homeland. Another thing: Who knew that there were actually a total of five armadas during the reign of King Philip of Spain, and that every one of them was a complete disaster? Anyway, I'm now diving headfirst into my next book, Stephen Greenblatt's Will in the World: How Shakespeake Became Shakespeare. It's off to a great start, and I hope I won't spend two months finishing it.

11:57 am. File under "embarrassing." I actually cooked something last night by taking the recipe off a box of Bisquick! And strangely enough, it was delicious! Ground turkey, salsa, some hot sauce and spices, and - of course - cheese, served on a warm pillow of Bisquick bread. In fact, it was so good that in 2 minutes I will put the leftovers in the microwave here in the office and scarf them down for lunch. Yum. So hungry!

12:15 pm. Damn, that was delicious.

1:15 pm. I ruined a childhood memory this weekend. I watched Krull and it was absolutely the most atrocious movie I have ever seen - or at least a strong bottom 10 candidate. See, never revisit sources of nostalgia because you'll only ruin them. Memo to self: Do NOT watch Labyrinth, The Neverending Story, or Black Star cartoons ever again! Just leave them pristine and revered in your memories. Thanks. (Hmmm... working on the theory that flipping this around and re-watching things you hated as a child will make them better, maybe I should track down a copy of the cartoon version of Les Misèrables that I was made to watch IN SWEDISH!! "Snälla meg..." Yuck!!!)

2:45 pm. Let me take a moment to gloat about last night's election results... NEENER NEENER NEENER!! Democrats kicked ass yesterday, scooping up the governorships in Virginia (my current home state) and New Jersey. In addition, the Governator of California got his sorry Austrian ass handed to him in a special election. Let me just tell you how heartwarming it was to read the headline "Democrat Kaine Wins in Virginia" in today's Washington Post. Frankly, it's good for the soul to read anything at all containing the words "Democratic victory." It's been a while since that happened, frankly. Let's hope this momentum (and record-low approval ratings for the "president") carries on into next year's midterm elections. It would be ever so lovely to take back at least one side of Congress.

3:38 pm. Al Qaeda strikes again. Bastards. What the f*ck is wrong with people who strap a bomb onto themselves and kill innocent people? There are some seriously f*cked up people in this world. I'm moving to Bora Bora. Too small for terrorists and endless white sandy beaches.

3:57 pm. OK, no more blogging today. Within the hour, I shall leave for home and mentally prepare myself for someone getting killed on Lost tonight. Why must they thin the herd - again? Didn't they just kill someone in May?? Geez... give these folks a break.

2005-11-03T16:17:00.000-05:00

3:20 pm. It's late in the day for my first posting - what can I say, it's been a busy day! It's amazing what happens when you're not paying attention. For instance, how the hell did it get to be November already? Jeez... I'm glad winter is here but time really does go by so much faster as you get older. Speaking of winter, I love waking up in the morning and feeling the crisp air wafting in through my open window. It's such a good way to greet the day, with a breath of fresh air to fill your lungs. Too bad it's usually around 6:30 am when I first open my eyes. Wouldn't mind a couple of extra winks evert now and then.

3:43 pm. I'm getting ready for a nostalgia-palooza this weekend. I'm having Netflix deliver me a movie that's indelibly ingrained on my childhood memories - Krull (1983). That, along with Spacehunter (an awful yet unforgettable movie starring Peter Strauss and Molly Ringwald), makes up my earliest fantasy/sci-fi movie memory. I've decided to venture onto that thin sheet of ice known as revisiting old favorites. Will the movie hold up, or just be as dreadful as it probably was then and still is? Whatever... that scene where the cyclops dude gets crushed by the rock-sliding door at then end is awesome!

4:12 pm. Finally: My dearest and oldest friend Þórmundur and his fiancee Rósa are expecting their first child - a boy - on Saturday, November 5. I wanted to take this opportunity to congratulate them and their new bundle of joy. Til hamingju, foreldrar! I'm holding out hope that I might make it to the christening (cough cough) if they can wait just - oh - 6 weeks or so for my arrival. And a note to my friend Andrea and her man, Brjánn: You guys are next up on the baby-making train. But don't rush it too much, because according to the list I made in high school (which has been 100% correct so far) I am next up after you. So, maybe in 3-4 years, please?

Fish is Good for Your Brain

2005-11-01T16:00:00.000-05:00

3:43 pm. Howdy. Not much to report today, but I did want to report on the excellent meal I made last night. It was in the spirit of the little North Atlantic island I call my native home. I cooked up some Icelandic haddock fillets, breaded them and cooked in a skillet. Add to that some sauteed sweet onions, boiled potatos (an extremely Icelandic thing to do), and some sweet corn on the cob... and it was an absolutely lovely meal. I believe in making good food on Mondays; it makes the beginning of the week more bearable :-)

Boo! Scared Yet?

2005-10-31T13:30:00.000-05:00

1:17 pm. Hey all, and Happy Halloween. Yes, the third-most American holiday (after Thanksgiving and Valentine's Day) is upon us. As of tomorrow, the Christmas blitz will begin. You will start to see Santa popping up in store windows, hear snippets of yuletide songs in the mall, see xmas bargains at the store... oh, yes, it's the happiest time of year. If only my American friends knew that in Iceland we have thirteen Santa Clauses and that we get a potato if we've been bad. Before the ho-ho-hos begin, just give me a second to frighten the crap out of some kiddies tonight before I start stringing up my tinsel and stockings. By the way, I've decided that I really need an iPod... :-)

My Friday Elderhostel went well (thanks for asking). Except for the caterers screwing up on breakfast, everything went off without a hitch. New the next four will just roll along with ease. And we even made some money, believe it or not! Did I just hear someone say "employee of the year?" Or "Christmas bonus?" Nah, didn't think so :-(

I didn't do much this weekend, except rearrange my entire apartment (again). I seem to do this every year. It's refreshing and makes me feel like I'm living in a new place. I particlarly like the new bed site - right under the window, allowing fresh air to waft over my naked sleeping body (hey, stop fantasizing, pervert!) as I snore away. Zzzz... I must say, I slept amazingly well last night. Hello, feng shui!

I see the "president" nominated Scalito - I mean Samuel Alito - for the Supreme Court. What did I say last week about throwing out the woman/ethnic minority requirement? Exactly! Now we have Mr. Whity (I don't care how "Italian" he claims to be) who's poised to ban abortion, put prayer into public schools, and probably send the gays to Siberia. Nice going there, Mr. President. Yeah, thanks for bringing honor and integrity back to the White House and not caving into pressure from lobbying groups. Loser. How do I detest thee, let me count the ways...

Zoom Zoom Zoom

2005-10-27T12:36:00.000-04:00

11:28 am. Must... write... quickly. I'm EXTREMELY busy today, since I was out yesterday and my one-day Elderhostel program starts tomorrow. I'm about to head over to AFSA to get everything ready - copying, assembling, arranging tables, setting up the sound system, etc. Don't we all just love last-minute preparations?

You may have noticed that I've held off on commenting on politics recently. I am just adhering to the principle that when your enemy is committing suicide, you just stand back and watch (enjoyment is optional). And boy, have the conservatives been pissing their pants lately. With Miers withdrawing this morning - to my surprise; I thought Bush was too stupidly proud to, in effect, admit that he made a mistake - there is one issue off the table, but with the CIA leak issue coming to a head this week or next, with Tom DeLay and Bill Frist both in all sorts of legal trouble, with Iraq deaths reaching the 2,000 mark this week... man, I'm glad I'm not a Republican! Sadly, now we will see a very conservative nominee to the Supreme Court, and Bush will throw the woman/ethnic minority consideration out the window. My guess would be Luttig or McConnell, both of whom have been thoroughly vetted by the conservative element. But how will that play with independents? The president effectively giving into a cacophany of unelected lobbying groups? That's pretty egregious.

My new Netflix interest is the first season of Veronica Mars. Every TV critic, TV writer, TV-a-holic, etc. loves this show, but I didn't watch last year. I watched episodes 1-4 this week and I must say that I am impressed. Someone called this show a logical successor to the Buffy mantle; I wouldn't necessarily disagree with that. I like what I've seen, and hopefully a year's worth of Internet gushing over this show won't leave me disappointed.

OK, gotta go. Work calls!

That Scary Time of Year

2005-10-25T16:43:00.000-04:00

1:34 pm. Afternoon, everyone. I have a bit of a break here at work so here I am, blogging away. The weather in DC has turned downright reminiscent of Iceland - low cloud cover, rain coming down sideways, cold. Needless to say, I am thrilled. I've been waiting for this weather so long, and finally AccuWeather and the other assorted weather-prognosticating thingamajigs came through for me. It even snowed in Western Maryland last night! Winter is here, lalalala. And right on time, too, since Halloween is this weekend. I need to stock up on candy in case the kids come knocking on my door. I already carved my pumpkin (motif: my now-regular "angry vampire" face), and I'll probably get some fake spider webbing to put on my door and put some candy in it for people to pick off.

We celebrated Jess's birthday (27!) last night. On my suggestion, we took her to a brand new southern/cajun restaurant called Acadiana, near the new convention center. It... was... delicious. My stomach was so happy. My appetizer was a platter of six charbroiled oysters in the shell with garlic butter and parmesan romano cheese. The main course was veal medallions with jalapeno cheese grits and wild mushroom gravy. Dessert was white chocolate bread pudding with salted macadamia nut ice cream. Yes, the ice cream tasted salty! And it was awesome. We washed everything down with a couple of bottles of a nice Vouvray. Jess loved the present I got her - a nearly 100-year old etiquette manual. All in all, an excellent evening.

I watched Sin City over the weekend. I thought it was visually stunning - probably the coolest-looking film I've ever seen. The rest of it I found somewhat lacking, though. The cast was great but most of them didn't have much to do. The only "acting" required was of Bruce Willis and Mickey Rourke, and you're not exactly tapping a deep well of talent with either actor, now are you? I enjoyed the Wallace & Gromit film much more. It was truly funny and any movie that includes a loving man-dog friendship and adoration of cheese gets an A-grade in my book.

3:41 pm. Damn, how time flies when you're busy. I've been going full speed all afternoon. I don't have much to add today, but want to tell you I won't be here tomorrow. I'll be taking advantage of my expensive and first-class medical insurance by visiting specialist after specialist and making sure my health is up to snuff. So far this year, I've had an HIV test and a colon cancer exam, and now it's off to make sure this boy is in tip-top condition. Catch you all on Thursday.

Much Ado

2005-10-21T15:47:00.000-04:00

2:43 pm. Howzit, folks? It's Friday and I'm soooooo ready for the weekend. I've got a full schedule as usual. Tonight it's off to see Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. Tomorrow, it's pumpkin-carving with the Aussies and assorted other friends. Sunday is a home-cooked meal for the birthday girl - this time, it's Jessica. And because apparently we need to celebrate twice (sigh) were are also taking her out to dinner on Monday at Potowmack Landing, which I hear has scrumptious seafood. I'm excited about the present I got for her: An ancient etiquette manual I found at an antiquarian book fair way back in February or March. There better be cake, too!

Otherwise, not much to say, so I'll bid you all a fair weekend and I'll see you back here Monday.

How YOU Doin'?

2005-10-20T16:58:00.000-04:00

11:44 am. Morning. Busy here, prepping for next week's program. Also doing a recruitment drive, which means a lot of letter writing, database maintenance, and envelope stuffing. And guess who gets to do all that? Anyway.. :-) Sean and I did eventually go and see Good Night, and Good Luck last Monday. It was really quite good, and expertly done. I loved the period music and David Strathairn was remarkable as Edward R. Murrow. The movie-going experience was better than usual, because we went to an "art-house" theater, so there were no loud people, no cell phones, no svertingi, and no advertising before the movie. Still, the $9 ticket price is appalling, especially considering the fact that I pay around $1.25 for each Netflix movie I see at home.

I also never wrote about the Nickel Creek concert I went to last week. It was awesome. The band is truly a favorite of mine and it was a joy to see musicians who not only are ridiculously talented but truly enjoy playing their instruments and are skilled enough to improvise on the spot and lead the others with them. Again, I highly recommend people check out their music (www.nickelcreek.com). It was a first-rate experience and I can't wait to see them in concert again. Here's a music sample for those too lazy to lok it up themselves: Click here.

2:16 pm. In the "is he crazy?" category... I just got back from Barnes & Noble where I bought this year's batch of Christmas cards. Yes, I've already started planning for Christmas. This stuff doesn't just happen on its own, people! I'm very happy with this season's selection of cards - a bit different and nothing corny or annoying. This is me, after all, so no "have a blessed holiday" or pictures of angels or (worst of all) a self-supplied family picture! There's nothing worse than that. And presents... don't even get me started on that! I've already got a lengthy list of people who need to be "gifted" this year. And, because I'm a freak and it's essentially a big list, I love it! Matching people to presents is fun, and easy to do if you happen to be bored at work... hehe.

3:24 pm. Hey, look at that! It's mid-to-late afternoon and all the work I need to do is contingent upon other people doing something first. So basically, I'm waiting for other people to get off their asses and do the things I've asked them to do. But this - of course - is a futile quest. We all know nothing gets done after 3 pm in this city other than long lunches and cocktail hours. (Sigh.) Is it worth sitting here, hoping for the impossible? You tell me...

3:26 pm. It's not worth it.

3:57 pm. Snore...zzzzzz...whu?

....................

2005-10-17T15:59:00.000-04:00

Hello All,

It's been a busy day here, as most of them are nowadays, and I'm getting tired. I think I may have managed to catch a cold overnight, as the temperatures dropped precipitously and I was freezing when I woke up this morning. Now I've got a bit of a stuffy nose and scratchy throat. Oh, the irony! The boy who can't wait until winter is now so acclimated to the 90 degrees of summer that his body rejects the onset of winter-like temperatures.

I had a wonderful, relaxing weekend. Much time was spent reading the papers and otherwise enjoying oneself. I had an unfortunate run-in with a foul-tasting chai latte, but that was pretty much it as far as bad things are concerned. Last night we had an exquisite dinner/feast at the Aussies' mansion. There was plenty of food to be had... pita and hummus, veggies and dip, chips and guacamole, Icelandic cured salmon and sauce, roasted rosemary potatoes, chicken with grape sauce, and an immaculate tres leches dessert, straight (kind of) from Cuba. Deliciousness abounded, as you can tell. I was very happy as I collapsed into bed last night (to the usual familiar sounds of Family Guy).

Halloween is around the corner, and every year I have an internal debate whether or not to get some sort of costume to get into the spirit. I don't think I'll ever top the year I wore the Scream killer costume (mask + plastic knife included) and scared the bejesus out of my friends at Penn. I don't think my old roommate Kyle will ever forgive me for that one. It's difficult to be original. I could go and get a George W. Bush mask (seriously, is there anything scarier?) and wave around proof that you and your family are hiding weapons of mass destruction. I could dress up as an indictment and go around asking people if they've seen Karl Rove and please tell him I'm looking for him. Any ideas, people? I can't just get a bowl of candy to give out to trick-or-treaters and end up eating it all by myself when no kids come a-knocking... again!

Sean and I are planning to go see George Clooney's Good Night and Good Luck tonight. It's a independent movie (in black and white, no less) about the clashes between Edward R. Murrow and Sen. Joe McCarthy about the communist witch hunts of the 1950s. Clooney is an unabashed liberal (kind of refreshing) and he no doubt intends us to see a parallel between that period and the current situation. I'm not much for reading politics into movies, but I think the movie looks good and I'm excited about seeing it. Almost as much as I am about seeing Wallace & Gromit, which I hope to see sometime this week.

Anyway, that's it folks. Gotta go solve my Sudoku puzzle of the day.

Daylight Savings Time, Please?

2005-10-12T16:52:00.000-04:00

2:27 pm. God, it's dark in the morning these days. I can barely get up. So much for ever moving back to Iceland! :-) Daylight savings begin in 2 weeks, I think, so it will get a bit better then. Who knew that my 19 years of experience waking up in utter darkness to go to school would crumble so quickly? This may also explain why I can't get out of bed until 11:30 or so when I go home for Christmas every year...

I was feeling 'under the weather' yesterday (what does that phrase mean, anyway?) so I didn't go to work. Monday was a federal holiday, so this will be a VERY short week for me. No complaints here, though. I kept myself busy over the weekend. On Friday I had poker night with the denizens of 1317. I came in second, losing only $2.90. Glad I wasn't Maura, who lost everything twice over! Saturday I saw an absolutely atrocious movie called Waiting... The girls wanted to see it. Their taste in movies will be seriously debated from now on. That night I also watched Being Julia with Sean. Good movie; Annette Bening was robbed of an Oscar last March. I also saw Vera Drake, which was really well done and not as horrible depressing as I expected. I've also just reordered my Netflix list, and look forward to many moons of good DVD-ing in the future. Next up: Star Trek Enterprise, Season 3. Yes, mock me if you will, but you know just as well as I do that once I start something, I need to finish it. Thank Yahweh that show only lasted four seasons, or I'd be in trouble.

I've been on a culinary kick lately as well. Last night I made popcorn buffalo chicken and home-made oven fries. Rachael Ray totally lied to me - she said the chicken would take 20 minutes to make. Bull-honky! More like 2 hours! I was intensely frustrated at the end, but it tasted quite yummy so I won't send her a "strongly worded letter." Monday night I made a really nice cauliflower soup from Gourmet magazine. It was very easy to make and tasted delicious. Saturday night, I decided to use a leftover black & tan beer from my brother's visit. I poured 3/4 of the bottle into a bowl and threw in some fresh sage and rosemary, as well as salt, pepper, and a bit of hot sauce. I marinated chicken breasts in the mix for a few hours. Then I baked them in the oven, basting them with the beer marinade every 10 minutes. The sauce was sauteed onions and ½ of a Thai pepper, simmered with the rest of the beer for a good while. This turned out to be delicious. With this experience and a beer cheddar soup behind me, I've finally found a socially redeeming value for beer!!!

3:34 pm. I just ate a Twix candy bar. I haven't had one of those in a very long time. My chocolate craving has been amply satisfied.

3:48 pm. Reading op-ed pages these days is kind of fun. It's filled with conservatives railing against the presidents, and more liberal-leaning writers kind of bemusedly watching the GOP rip into itself. It's red state vs. right wing, and the fur is flying. I highly recommend David Ignatius' column from today's Washington Post; he presents a catalog of the problems plagueing the Republicans and best of all, suggests that it's all self-made. The Democrats are superfluous right now, because the other side is single-handedly demolishing its hold on power. Next year's mid-term elections will look very interesting. (Speaking of the Post, there's an article there discussing that according to DC law, a person who's had ONE GLASS OF WINE can be arrested for drunk driving. Absolutely ridiculous!)

My Favorite Season

2005-10-05T12:12:00.000-04:00

12:13 pm. Ladies and gentlemen, I am please to announce the arrival of autumn in Washington, DC. The new season arrived unannounced sometime last week and appears to be beating back the remains of summer to emerge victorius in the temperature debate. It looks as if the rest of the week will bring high-60s to low-70s temperatures in our region. This makes many people happy. Your humble writer is now able to wear a jacket and a tie to work without fear of sweating through all his garments prior to boarding the Metro in the morning. Rejoice!

1:24 pm. Is it wrong to enjoy such glee over how much the crazy right wing is freaking out over the Harriet Miers nomination? Everyone, from Bill Kristol to Pat Buchanan, is clearly unhappy. And I love how the administration is telling everyone that Miers gave $150 to an anti-abortion group, as if that proves her conservative credentials. Don't forget that she also gave money to Al Gore in 1988! Regardless of her conservative values - or lack thereof - I'm most surprised that more attention hasn't been given to her complete and utter lack of experience. She has never been a judge, has not really been involved with the minutae of the law during her career, having spent much of it as a personal attorney. I'm not even sure she can name the most important Supreme Court decisions. Can she enumerate the details of Plessy v. Ferguson? Marbury v. Madison? The Fawaz Yunis case? The Alvarez-Machain case? I hate to agree with Pat Buchanan, but when he said the if she hadn't been a woman and a friend of the President, she would't have had one chance in a thousand to get this nomination, he was absolutely right. I'm also glad the Post's reliable source column this morning pointed out how much Miers looks like Rachel Dratch on Saturday Night Live. I guess it's easy to guess who'll play her in a skit next weekend!

3:01 pm. I saw in the Washington Post crime report today that someone was arrested for "public lewdness" in my apartment building! How exciting. I just bet it was one of the 90-year-old guys who forgot to put pants on one day... oh, the horror! This is actually the second time this has happened since I moved in late in 2003. Is somone an exhibitionist?!? I need to get the scoop on this.

Toooooosd'y

2005-10-04T17:03:00.000-04:00

11:49 am. Good morrow, all. I'm a busy bee today, with all the workload that's been "saved" for me as I was away for my two weeks with the elders. I'm also sendnig out thank-you letters (by snail mail - I need this to look nice!) to every hostellers, speaker, organizer, etc. that helped us out over the last two weeks. That's almost 120 letters to send, and you can bet that's keeping me busy! Also, our 1-day Day of Discovery programs have filled up completely (and have waitlists of about 12 people each!) and I've got plenty of work to do in order to make sure those run smoothly. Now that I've added two more dates (Elderhostel begged), there's even more to do. Ugh. Don't get me wrong, I like being busy. But sometimes you have to think that other people are capable of doing their job even though I'm not here to tell them how to do it...

12:58 pm. I'm totally hooked on these damn Sudoku puzzles in the newspaper! I think they have them in Iceland as well so I won't go into an eloborate explanation thereof, but it's basically a numbers puzzle and now I can't NOT do them! Help me!!

2:08 pm. I've gone ahead and "sinned" again. Yes, I actually spent more money on books! Bad boy, I know, but I just can't stop. This time, I bought Ken Pollack's The Persian Puzzle and Stephen Greenblatt's Will in the World (about Shakespeare). Add these to my ever-growing list of books I haven't yet read ;-)

4:02 pm. What a crazy day. I've been so busy that it's actually making me break a sweat! I can't wait to go home, get in 45-50 minutes at the gym, and then vegging over NCIS... mmmm...

I'm back!!!

2005-10-03T17:19:00.000-04:00

12:12 pm. And badder than ever. Or something. Yes, I've returned from the clutches of the Elderhostellers (average age: 77.5) unscathed and only slightly mentally unbalanced. Add to that the fact that I rolled over from a young 27 to a positively wizened 28 on September 28, and it's been a strange but interesting two weeks.

I'm not going to bore you with talk about my two weeks at the "Quality" Hotel, which will become a pile of ruins by the end of the year. Happily, I will be ensconced in a new hotel next spring, provided I'm still doing this. Happily, the last two weeks featured two happy occasions: My aforementioned birthday and my big bro's visit to these shores.

Birthday stories: Well, I was working on my birthday, but Ingo took Sean and I out to dinner on Wednesday and we then went to Jen's house for cake and presents, where Cathy, Paul and Peter joined us. It was a wonderful evening, replete with foodie presents and good company. The next day was cake and presents with the girls of 1317. More foodie porn was scored, as well as a Family Guy DVD. Finally, Friday brought dinner at Le Gaulois courtesy of the girls. I gorged on vichyssoise and crab-stuffed ravioli. Yum. Other presents scored: A beautiful camel jacket (Sean), a tie, a belt and new Steve Madden shoes (Ingo), two cook books, kitchen implements, and I treated myself to the (surprisingly cheap) first-season DVD of Lost. Happy days! When season 2 of Arrested Development comes out this month I will treat myself to that as well! :-)

Ingo's visit: Well, let's see. He came here on a Tuesday. On Wednesday, he flew to Atlanta. On Thursday, he flew to Houston. He came back to DC on Sunday, but by then I was Elderhostelling full-time so I didn't see him much. Basically, last weekend was all I got with him, since he flew out yesterday. It's always good when he visits, though, as we see each other much too rarely.

1:03 pm. Just wanted to gloat a little bit that I called the Supreme Court nomination days (if not weeks) ago! Nobody believed me when I suggested that Harriet Miers had an excellent chance of being nominated. Thank you, Sean, for remembering this and backing me up!

2:53 pm. I've become surprisingly disconnected from movies and TV lately. I just don't feel like going to the movies anymore; the experience is just not fun anymore. It's very expensive, there's endless commercials, the svertingi talk throughout the movie, cell phones keep ringing... ugh! These days it has to be something special to drag me to the movies, like the movie I saw this weekend. Serenity is the movie continuation of a TV show I loved and was cancelled before its time (Firefly). I enjoyed it very much, but I think my movie-going days will be fewer and fewer as time goes by. As far as TV goes, nothingf this season has really grabbed my attention. Not a single new show will go on my must-see list, which is quite short as it is (Lost, Alias, Arrested Development, and sometimes Desperate Housewives). I'd rather watch TV on Netflix, and use my time for something else.

3:51 pm. The response to the Miers pick is trickling in. The Dems seem to be taking it easy, but the conservatives appear to be a bit ruffled. I don't think they were necessarily expecting this choice, and right now none of them look like they are sure whether or not this will placate the psycho right-wing element that has hijacked the Republican party. She's not clear-cut on anything and has no record, judicial or otherwise. I've also heard whispers that she may have been a Democrat in the 1980s. We'll see how closely she will hew to the Bush party line if/when she gets confirmed. I wonder who will be the first to make an issue of her being unmarried? I can't imagine the Falwells and the Robertsons liking that!

4:09 pm. Man, I've been busy today. (Breathing slow to calm down.) Anywho, I promise to blog more frequently now that I'm back at a computer on a daily basis (no Internet access at my crappy hotel - ugh!).

One of Those Days...

2005-09-12T14:29:00.000-04:00

2:30 pm. Oh, yeah, it's one of THOSE days. I just started my lunch. It's been a busy day. With only 6 days to go until my Elderhostel programming begins, the oldies are calling for some hand-holding and assistance and while they are very very nice, it's frustrating when they call to ask about the things I've included in every mailing to them since they initally enrolled in their program. Ugh. Plus, now that summer is officially over, I'm working like mad on everything that my "colleagues" failed to do over the last 3 months. "Oops, I never did this. Can you do it?" Today, I've redesigned a web site, created an online survey, and laid out an 8-page newsletter in addtion to my regular duties. I want to go home!

That said, I had an excellent weekend. On Friday, Sean and I drove up to Philadelphia for a Sigur Ros concert. I'm not necessarily a huge fan but my Icelandic citizenship might have been revoked if I failed to see them yet again. So, now that is done. Kris, Sebastian and Rose really enjoyed it, Sean and I were not as enraptured. It's interesting music, but frankly, three songs in it all starts to sound the same. I don't like pretentious for the sake of being pretentious.

Saturday began with a bagel (what else?) on Penn campus. It tickled me even further to go back to college. We then drove leisurely out into the Pennsylvania countryside to look at antiques and avoid the hell that can be I-95 and the Beltway. It was a beautiful day and the drive was wonderful. So was the Chinese takeout that followed :-)

Last night, we had dinner with Marc and Maria and adorable little Julia - and the new au pair, fresh off the boat from France. Dinner was excellent as was to be expected - flank steak, salmon, cous cous, haricots verts, artichokes, and lemon sorbet. A delicious way to end the weekend. Plus, I think someone caught the parenting bug thanks to a parasol. That's a good thing.

Hustle and Bustle

2005-09-08T17:23:00.000-04:00

3:01 pm. I apologize for the lack of posts, but I've been extraordinarily busy this week, plus I left work early on Tuesday because I got a nasty 24-hour stomach bug and was on the verge of vomiting all day. So, no time to post! Since we last talked (figuratively speaking), I've finished two books, camped, and celebrated a birthday. Busy boy!

Books finished: My Ben Franklin biography and the fourth installment of the adventures of Literary Detective Thursday Next, in Something Rotten by Jasper Fforde. I really enjoy those books, beacuse they are clever and witty and allow me to put my English major in use, given that most of the characters are from the greatest novels and plays of all time. This book makes use of Hamlet himself in very imaginative ways. I am now on to a book called The Confident Hope of a Miracle: The True Story of the Spanish Armada by British historian Neil Hanson. Two chapters in I'm already engrossed in the machinations of Spanish King Philip and his vast conspiracy against poor Queen Elizabeth (who's no saint either, by the way). I'm looking forward to the chapters dealing with Francis Drake, a pirate who found himself a naval hero.

Birthday celebrated: That of Paul Higgins, yet another Australian. During the wonder twins' excellent celebratory feast, I tasted the Australian freshwater delicacy called barramundi for the first time. Good stuff, a little fattier than regular whitefish but very tasty and non-fishy.

Embarrassing but true: Sean and I saw Transporter 2 over the weekend. As I hang my head in shame, I must report that we had a good time and really enjoyed the view. :-)

3:34 pm. I am absolutely appalled by the mess in the Gulf States. CNN just sent me a breaking news e-mail announcing the discovery of 14 bodies inside a flooded hospital in New Orleans. Whatever happens, this is going to be bad. If some heads don't roll over this (I'm looking at you, FEMA Director Mike Brown and DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff) I think people might get truly angry. I am saddened and annoyed by the continual injection of race into this debacle. That discussion may have a place at some point, but it's not now. There is a sociological dialogue that needs to go on about that, but frankly, having black people yell at white rescuers that they are racist is going way too far. We get it. You're poor and disadvantaged. But you still could have gotten the hell out of there much earlier. There was nothing stopping you from paying $1 (or whatever the bus fare is in New Orleans) to get your ass to the Superdome. I don't see how this is a government conspiracy against black people.

4:22 pm. Ugh. Still busy! More tomorrow.

Wake Me Up When September Ends

2005-09-01T17:03:00.000-04:00

1:18 pm. Holy crud, it's September already?! Damn, time sure does fly as you get older. As I write this, I can pinpoint what I was doing EXACTLY one year ago: I was in the air, about 30 minutes out of Stansted airport north of London. Geez, I feel like that was yesterday!

2:43 pm. It's kind of a busy day. With the Elderhostel weeks coming up, it gets a bit hectic. And two speakers CANCELLED on me today! The bastards. So rude. It's not like I haven't sent them endless reminders! Urgh. Good thing foreign affairs experts are a dime a dozen in this city, and all of the egotistic enough to want to speak in front of any kind of audience. Better thrown out the line and hope someone bites...

3:45 pm. Eek. I haven't had any time to say anything worthwhile! Not that there's any kind of earth-shattering news from DC these days, but still... one desire to please one's audience. :-)

Zzzz... huh?

2005-08-30T16:27:00.000-04:00

11:32 am. I am uncommonly tired today. I fell asleep on the Metro coming in to work, which I have never done before. I've fallen asleep going home a couple of times, but never in the morning. Good thing I woke up before I had to disembark. Also, I'm glad that I'm not a sleep-drooler. How embarrassing would that be on the Metro?

11:33 pm. So much for New Orleans weathering the storm. Apparently, the Crescent City is now a cesspool of water and sewage, floating garbage and intermittent bodies. Charming. I'm sad because I love that city and would hate to see it sustain any critical infrastructure damage. As far as I know, the French Quarter is OK, but the suburbs are as good as sitting on the bottom of a lake. The Lake Pontchartrain levees didn't hold - not that I expected them to - and the place is a mess. And I have to wonder, is it some sort of bias that focuses the media attention on New Orleans and Louisiana while Mississippi appears to have taken the worst hit? Some of those pictures and video were shocking, and I can't understand why people didn't evacuate when told to do so. I mean, 30 people dead in one apartment building? They lived on the freaking beach! Wouldn't leaving have been a good idea? Ugh.

1:19 pm. Mmmm... just had a delicious lunch of a sandwich with black pepper ham, provolone and jalapeno mustard, a fat-free pudding, and some nice fresh raspberries. I'm actually pretty stuffed after that. During my lunch period, I also began some "scholarly" work. In order to prepare for a possible return to school next year, I got myself on the Penn history department listserve, which sends out papers that are about to be discussed at all sorts of meetings, seminars, brown bags, etc. The first one arrived in my inbox today, and is entitled "Born to Run: White Runaway Servants and the New England and Delaware Valley Labor Systems, 1700-1780." I'm glad to report that this paper (written by a Ph.D. student) does not seem to be any more sophisticated than papers I have written in the past. Take that, latent feelings of intellectual inferiority!!

1:24 pm. Speaking of food, my dinner last night was so delicious! I pounded out butterflied, boneless pork chops, sprinkled on some salt and pepper, rolled'em up with ham and fresh sage, coated in flour, and threw'em onto a frying pan. I sealed the meat and put it into an oven for 20 minutes or so. It was very good, even if I say so myself. Accompanied by tiny roasted garlic-rosemary potatoes, fresh blanched broccoli (Sean) and mixed vegetables (me)... a nice way to end another manic Monday.

2:05 pm. I spent 2 hours on the couch last night watching Prison Break on Fox. Overall, I'm pretty pleased. While completely incongruous as far as the plot goes, once the viewer suspends his/her disbelief this could actually be a pretty fun ride. There's a nice "mythology" element to the show, and building up a shadowy government conspiracy is always fun. Plus, the lead actor is smoking hot. I will watch this on a semi regular basis. A solid B+.

3:01 pm. Ugh. I just calculated that the average age of my Elderhostellers for the two weeks in September will be just shy of 79 for the first week, and just over 78 for the second week. Yikes. This is going to be an adventure! :-)

3:24 pm. Isn't this enough for one day?

Katrina and the Waves

2005-08-29T17:19:00.000-04:00

11:56 am. It's Monday and I was barely able to climb out of bed this morning. Rarely had my mattress and bedcovers felt so comfortable, and I just wasn't in the mood to face the day (and week) just yet. Oh, well. Here I am nonetheless. The weekend was nice, if a bit short as always. The theater experience was... interesting. Les Liasons Dangereuses is a great play - full of bitchiness, cruelty, and sex. Having an all-male production was a bit distracting, especially with the gratuitous nudity and simulated sex which weren't necessary to the story at all. Some of the performances were a bit stiff, although two of the actors I thought did a great job with their characters. Is it bad that I kept seeing flashes of Cruel Intentions as I watched the narrative unfold? "Oh, he's the Sarah Michelle Gellar character. And there's Ryan Philippe and there's Reese Witherspoon..." Ugh, I'm so low-class! :-)

12:10 pm. I am happy to report the imminent arrival of my celebrity brother to these shores next month. After jetting across Europe (Norway, Germany) to handle some reporting duties, he will land at BWI on September 20 and stay here until October 2. The autograph line starts here. Hehe.

1:43 pm. I had a nice lunch with Jennifer and feasted on some nice nibblies: dates, an Asian pear, fat-free pudding, and some snacky-cracker thingies. On a related note: I hate tourists. They suck and seem to make a sport of getting in my way!!!

1:44. Ehe. I apologize for the anti-tourism outburst. Just wanted to comment on the crazy evil hurricane currently attempting to destroy New Orleans. Let me just say that I'm glad that I've already visited that city twice, as it looks like it might take some months to pump all the water out of the city and that - frankly - some parts of it may be entirely ruined already. Let's hope for the best. It's a beautiful place with a fascinating history and culture and I don't regret a single federal dollar spent trying to preserve it and the marshlands surrounding it.

3:11 pm. Damn, it's past 3 already? I've been pretty busy, actually, and time does fly when that happens. On an entirely unrelated note, I've been doing some shopping lately. I added two nice dress shirts and a Calvin Klein necktie to my wardrobe yesterday, and I found clothes worth about $400 that I would LOVE to buy as well. That includes a nice camel-colored blazer from Banana Republic ($198), a brown jacket from Banana as well ($98), and a great pair of dress shoes from Aldo ($100). They are all very classy and nice, and somehow I will acquire them all. Mark my words (cue maniacal laughter)!!!!

3:35 pm. Tonight's dinner: Pork loin saltimbocca and roasted potatos. Yum.

Happy Days

2005-08-26T15:29:00.000-04:00

9:44 am. It's Friday, and for that we thank the various and assorted deities. I had a mexi-tastic dinner last night at Rio Grande with Sean, the wonder twins, the good doctor, and (as she will be known here from now on) the sultry single gal. It was billed as a farewell dinner for a Foreign Service friend who's being shipped to Venezuela (good luck with that) but alas, he was nowhere to be found. Instead, I got to chow down on a tamale, a chile relleno, and an enchilada. Washing it down with a frozen raspberry margarita made it even better! Tomorrow night, I'm apparently seeing an all-gay version of Dangerous Liaisons (rolling eyes) with graphic sex and violence (no one under 18 admitted). Color me sceptical about the whole thing, but we'll see. Since I'm getting half-price tickets I won't grumble too much. I'll report back about this on Monday.

12:27 pm. Damn, I love bagels!

12:41 pm. I've given much thought to this maybe-going-back-to-college thing, and I've decided that I need to keep all my options open as far as future plans are concerned. Getting a Ph.D. is a possibility, and therefore I feel that I should apply now for next fall. My big fear about pursuing this is that once you choose your "specialty" it's like you've painted yourself into a corner for the next 40 years. Your dissertation becomes your specialty and you're expected to stay within that narrow niche of academia throughout your career. It's a scary thought. But then again, I'm a big fan of academia and would probably be very comfortable with such a relatively "unstructured" work schedule. Another thing to ponder: Would I make a good teacher/professor? Should I really be shaping young minds? Can I mask my disdain for the rich kids and stupid frat boys and athletes? I dunno... let's see if I actually am accepted first ;-)

1:13 pm. WTF? Somehow the fall TV season snuck up on me without me noticing. All hail the end of reruns and horrible reality television! The first premiere is this coming Monday, and it's actually the show I'm most excited about of the entire freshman class - Prison Break, a sort of 24/The Great Escape/Shawshank Redemption hybrid that's getting excellent reviews. Other series I'm excited about for the fall: Bones, Kitchen Confidential, Reunion, Invasion, The Night Stalker, and in the service of satisfying my "guilty pleasure" needs, I'm sure I'll take a gander at The Apprentice: Martha Stewart (take heed, programming directors worldwide). Ahhh... fresh television: A sure sign summer is over and temperatures will be decreasing day by day.

2:01 pm. I'm about 3/4 of the way through my Ben Franklin book. It's very well written and full of information - ranging from the big things to small details that fill out Ben's life very nicely - but I'm not sure it's an entirely flattering book. I should rephrase: The book does not paint the picture of BF that one is used to. Especially having gone to Penn, he is generally depicted as the wise old sage of the American Revolution, which he was in a way. It's just curious that I'm just now finding out about his nearly unshakeable allegiance to king George and his long and almost completely useless quest to find common ground between the colonies and the UK. He also seems to have treated his wife and daughter callously and shacked up with various ladies along the way. This humanizes him to a degree, but I have to wonder why I've never realized all this before. What next, Thomas Jefferson getting a slave pregnant?!?

2:28 pm. That's it. I'm getting the hell out of here! Have a nice weekend, y'all!

Grumble. Huff.

2005-08-25T16:58:00.000-04:00

1:11 pm. Harrumph.. the computer was bothering me yesterday and this morning and wouldn't let me access the Blogger site due to some cookie issues. Bullpiddle. And now access has magically been restored. I tell ya, computers and technology may pretend to be our friends, but we all know they are much closer to being a frienemy. At some point, they will all develop the ability to talk and start ruining our lives like HAL from 2001. Scary.

1:12 pm. Oh, yeah. I've decided to keep the "diary" format (for a while, anyway) because that means I can keep this thing open all day and just write a comment when I (a) have time and (b) have something to day. So there.

1:15 pm. While I'm all about Family Guy and that show has served me well as a pre-sleepytime diversion at night, last night I stumbled across Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List on Bravo. What a freaking hilarious show! Getting an uncomfortably close view of celebrity (however low-wattage) is truly uprorious. Who knew being famous was such hard work? Flying coach around the country, having to sell your own DVDs, dealing with superfans (a.k.a. stalkers), etc. Truly inspired comedy. My U.S.-based friends should definitely check this out. The show that preceded it, however - Battle of the Network Reality Stars - is awful. Bottom-of-the-barrel stuff that should preferably disappear with the next bowel movement straight down the drain. Ick.

1:43 pm. Gross-Out Alert! I have just returned from the men's room. As a member of the Y-chromosome club, I use the urinal, and I can't help but wonder how on earth the rim of the porcelain mini-throne is always strewn with pubic hair. It's absolutely disgusting! How do men just shed their "fur" at such a rapid pace? I don't understand it. Then again, I can't understand how men who have been urinating on their own for years and years still have not developed the ability to NOT miss the bowl. One of life's many mysteries, I suspect.

2:17 pm. The next installment of Asgeir's life plans: I've decided to explore the chance of returning to school. Maybe I've been resisting because everyone has been telling me that I should get a Ph.D. and start teaching, and nobody likes doing what others tell them, right? Anyhoo, I'm about to apply to Penn (where else?) for a Ph.D. in history. I'm not sure anything will ever come of this, but I figured I might as well keep this particular road open for a while. I'm excited by the prospect of becoming a student again, but also freaking out because I enjoy actually working for a living. Jeez, I really need to be two different people sometimes. I guess we'll see what happens. My friends at Penn, who have been helping be navigate the murky waters of Ph.D. applications for the last couple of days, are very vocal about wanting me back. Stay tuned.

3:26 pm. Speaking of Penn, I'm going to Philadelphia next month. I have tickets to a Sigur Ros concert up there on September 9, which I will be attending with Sean, Kris, Sebastien and Rose. Sean and I plan to stay on in Philly, doing a (dare I say?) romantic weekend (Saturday, anyway) strolling around my old home town. I think a trip to good old Won's would be in order :-)

3:40 pm. Like I commented some time ago, we are all going to die from the avian flu! Run for the hills!

Hello There... Howdy

2005-08-23T16:54:00.000-04:00

Afternoon, folks. Well, I'm still kinda busy trying to catch up on all the work piled up by the !$#&^@ virus-slash-worm last week, but I'm still going to write here from time to time today, hopefully finishing a posting by the time I leave. As I'm writing this, it's 10:07 in the morning. Let's see when I can finish this puppy.

11:42 am. I wanted to tell the story of this weekend's bacchanalian worship in the Virginia countryside. My good friend Yvonne was celebrating her 30th birthday (or as we know it, 22 plus) and decided that a good way to do it without the annoyance of throwing a party (and then having to clean up after it) was to ask everyone to join her at the Virginia Wine Festival, which was being held at the historic Long Branch Estate in Millwood, VA. So Sean and I trucked out there along scenic and pastoral (well, past Chantilly, anyway) Route 50. Little did we know that this would turn out to be one of the hottest days EVER, as far as I'm concerned. The sun was absolutely relentless, and as we wandered from vintner to vintner, we were getting increasingly sunburned and weak. Soon, no one was even drinking the red wine anymore, as it was too hot. Everyone went straight for the chilled whites and roses. People were fainting from a combination of alcohol and heat exhaustion, and we called it quits after about 2 hours. The car A/C never felt so wonderful! Still, it was great to see Yvonne and Sean discovered a great local rose that we feasted on during the weekend.

1:13 pm. So, my new Netflix obsession? The FX series Rescue Me (which recently began showing back home in Iceland). It's a great show - dramatic, funny, sad, suspenseful. I just wish Denis Leary would at some point play someone other than a slightly altered version of himself. But as long as this awesome show keeps up the latent homoeroticism and gratuitous show of skin, I'm so there! I also watched All the President's Men recently. It's weird to watch it now that everyone knows who Deep Throat is. Another observation: Dustin Hoffman was exceedingly thin and petite in 1977. Yikes!

1:55 pm. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Pat Robertson is a huge jackass.

2:37 pm. I just ate an apple. A delicious New Zealand Braeburn apple. I now have apple debris all over my shirt.

3:44 pm. So fall is almost here and that means a mini-update of one's wardrobe. I've decided that I was way too dressed-up for last spring's Elderhostel programs, so this fall I will instead wear nice shoes (dress or dressy sneaker-types), fresh jeans, a nice crisp shirt, and a jacket. I already have my beautiful black striped suit jacket, and I want to add a camel-colored jacket, as I think they look great with jeans and shirts. I was tooling around the Internet trying to find one, and I really like this look. $198 is kinda steep for me, so if anyone has suggestions of where I can find a similar piece but for less money... :-) I also need new shoes, but I already know where to go for those. Rockport, here I come!

Sweet Connectivity!!

2005-08-22T16:42:00.000-04:00

Finally! Finally! I finally have my sweet, wonderful Internet connection back. USAID was hit by the rbot/zbot worm on Tuesday afternoon and all Internet and e-mail activity was down until this morning, which made work (a) hard to to and (b) insufferably boring. I'm just astounded that a U.S. government agency can be brought down by one little worm like this. I'm also interested in knowing how the State Department got online within 24 hours of being hit, while we had to wait and wait and wait... ugh. This has also reminded me of just how dependant we are upon technology - I was barely able to do anything here without having the Internet. I've been catching up all day, and still haven't come close to finishing what amounts to four days' worth of duties to perform. The good news is that we finally ended negotiations with the Holiday Inn in Alexandria to be our new Elderhostel venue. It's a much better hotel and this author will be much happier to spend the night there than at the current (and shabby) location.

Like I said, I'm massively busy today so I won't be able to make this much longer today - I just wanted to apologize for the absence and explain myself. I'll come back tomorrow with stories of people hitting the floor (grass?) repeatedly at the Virginia Wine Festival, and my new Netflix rentals. Until then, muchachos!!

Rainy Days and Mondays...

2005-08-15T16:47:00.000-04:00

Unlike Karen Carpenter, I kind of like rainy days (although I generally am not so much a fan of Mondays). I especially like rain after the kind of broiling, Hades-worthy heat we've been experiencing lately. Apparently, a big storm is supposed to blow in today, getting us wet and cooling us down a bit. I happen to find rain a bit romantic, although you've never experienced romantic rain until you've experienced it in a summer cabin in Iceland with fragrant birches and singing birds all around you.

Weekend adventures (besides evading the blistering heat of the sun): Not much was going on this weekend, frankly. When the weather gets like this, I prefer hanging out in an air-conditioned location, and by apartment is just fine for those purposes. I went to a happy hour with the AFSA folks on Friday and had a lot of fun. I had five drinks, which is a lot for me nowadays. Didn't get too drunk and completely sobered up on my ½ block walk to the Metro from the bar. Four martinis and a margarita ain't got nuthin' on me! On Saturday night, Sean and I caught a movie in Georgetown. We saw the new Jim Jarmusch movie, Broken Flowers, starring Bill Murray. Overall, I was disappointed. I got such great reviews, but I thought it kind of wasted the talents of four great actresses (Sharon Stone, Frances Conroy, Jessica Lange, Tilda Swinton) and left the audience without any kind of resolution. That bothers me. I paid for a whole movie, not 75% of one.

I finished my book, Guns, Germs and Steel. It was truly fascinating and illuminating. It focuses on things you take as absolutes - for instance, the developed countries' advantage over the third world - as goes back to the ultimate, initial cause. In most cases, the answer turns out to be food production, coupled with geographic, climatic, and natural resource advantages. I can't recommend the book highly enough. Go find it and read it. My new book is Walter Isaacson's biography, Benjamin Franklin: An American Life. You don't go through four years at Penn without developing a healthy respect for and interest in dear old Ben, and I'm thoroughly enjoying the book so far.

I applied for a job in Iceland today. We'll see what comes out of that...

Yee-Haw!

2005-08-11T15:33:00.000-04:00

So, I went and did it. Scorn and ostracize me all you want, but I still paid $9.75 (stupid Alexandria movie tax) to see The Dukes of Hazzard. AND... I had a good time. Total braindeath entertainment, and that's a good thing every once in a while. Jackass and Stifler at the top of their game and Burt Reynolds trying to desperately regain a former glory (yeah, I split an infinitive... wanna fight about it?). Even Jessica Simpson didn't suck, and that's saying a lot. Plus, apparently Tuesdays are free popcorn nights for moviegoers at that particular theater, so guess where I'll be going on Tuesdays from now on. When the small popcorn costs $5.50, it's very much worth it.

It's a funny thing how the mind works. This is my third August since I graduated from Georgetown, but I'm just so used to be preparing for school at this time of year I still have school-anxiety dreams every August. And I've had them the last two nights! First was high school back home in Iceland - I had missed the first two days and for a dork like me that means I might as well just skip the whole year! Last night it was a college dream - I was moving into an off-campus apartment with some roommates and chaos reigned, although surprisingly enough there were no 2-foot long lizards present. How do you tell your subconscious that you're 3 years out of school, when it's used to the same thing happening for the 20 previous years??

Things have been busy at work this summer, in contrast to previous periods of inactivity and boredom. Mostly, it's my Elderhostel duties that are keeping me busy. I'm happy to report that one of our September programs is completely full and I espect the other one do to so as well, given its tiny number of open slots. My experimental one-day program proposal was well received by AFSA, and even better by Elderhostel, which immediately OK'd it and asked me to prepare an additional two dates for that program. So now I will plan three "Iraq 101" programs, one each for October, November and December. I'm really enjoying the organizational and educational components of the Elderhostel work. I could see myself working on similar things in the future, no question about it. Hey, if you're over 55 and happen to be reading this, sign up and help pay my (meager) salary!!

Random thoughts on the news: (1) Oil just hit $66 a barrel. I've never been happier not to own a car. (2) Some South Korean dude died after playing a video game for 49 hours nonstop. There's one distraction I haven't succumbed to. (3) Whites are now a minority in Texas. Serves those hillbillies right. (4) We're all going to die from avian flu. I'm moving back to Iceland. (That last one was just for Sean.)

I've been quiet about my Netflix lately. Could the reason possibly be that I've watched 46 episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise in the last month and I'm not proud of it? :-)

Entry Interface

2005-08-09T15:29:00.000-04:00

Ahhh... a soothing rain has descended on the capital city, making us all feel a bit better after a number of days of broiling sun. A temporary reprieve from 95+ degrees and insane humidity is exceedingly welcome.

I spent the weekend quite productively. On Friday, I had not one but two three-course meals - lunch at Café Atlantico and dinner at Les Halles. Included were such delights as scallops and crab cakes, fricassee of chicken and veggies, and tres leches and crème brûleé. I was so stuffed when I went to bed on Friday (with three other people in the apartment and a highly-cranked A/C), I almost swore off food entirely! That's probably why this week's menu has been heavy on fruit, low-calorie instant soup, and tiny little sandwiches.

Saturday was a great time. We left for Cat's birthday extravaganza at 10 am, driving out about 70 miles to the Warren County Fair, near Front Royal. It was a hot, sunny day and the hillbillies and carnies were out in force, just as planned (mwahaha). We petted the chickens and turkey and rabbits and goats. We saw the pig, goat and duck races. We ate funnel cake and cotton candy and french fries and soft-serve ice cream. We went on every ride, from the bumper cars to the ferris wheel to the round up. We won prizes and amused the carnies by actually thinking we could win the bigger stuff. We even got a tan. All in all, sweet! We drove back to DC for an awesome pizza dinner (Valentino's in Alexandria) and then to the girls' apartment for (my!) cake and presents. Cat loved her pink KitchenAid mixer, and is already baking in full force - so our plan worked!!

Sunday was relaxation, mostly. Some nominal shopping took place but that was it, really. Just the way I like my Sundays :-)

My friend Yvonne's 30th birthday is coming up on the 20th, and the plan is to go to the Virginia Wine Festival in Millwood, VA - free wine, cooking, and fun in the sun. Sounds like a plan to me. A camping trip is also being planned for Labor Day. Busy me... that's always good!

Hey? You Still With Me??

2005-08-05T13:27:00.000-04:00

Ugh... another infernally hot day in the city. Will this never end??!!? Suddenly, the three months in Iceland last summer courtesy of the U.S. government are being appreciated more :-)

Happily, Kris managed to make it off the airplane and on to the MARC train on time, and I met him at Union Station at 8:15 last night. The man had close to a hundred pounds of luggage and was sweatier than any civilized person you would ever see. He didn't choose the best day to lug all this stuff over the Atlantic - crazy heat and humidity and all. I finally persuaded him that a cab was the only way we could ever get home alive and in one piece, and boy am I glad we did. We ate at Chili's and he collapsed on my couch just after 11 pm.

I am a bit embarrassed to admit that I really want to see the new Dukes of Hazzard movie. I never saw the show itself, but I always enjoy brainless action/comedies that don't take themselves seriously. Few things are more annoying than actors and directors who believe that cinema is a serious art and should only be used to make dramatic, depressing and incomprehensible films. If you can't check your brain at the door and be mindlessly entertained for a couple of hours, you have a serious problem.

I am an enthusiast of new stuff, which manifests itself in a need to sample all new soda and candy products on the market. In the last few years, I've braved Vanilla Coke and Pepsi, Pepsi Blue, Pepsi One, Coke Zero, Coke with Lemon AND Lime, Wild Cherry Pepsi, Red Mountain Dew, and the last was Coke with Splenda. Last night I went for the new M&Ms - MEGA M&Ms!! Yep, 50% larger candies. What can I say, I'm a marketing professional's dream. A quick review: Tasty as always, but I must say that most of the pieces were no larger than the regular stuff. Clearly they have to work on calibrating their machines a little bit...

Today is a culinary delight. First, a lunch with Sean and Megan at Cafe Atlantico, and then dinner with Kris, Sebastian and Rose at Les Halles. I'll definitely need to hit the treadmill this weekend, especially after a day at the county fair capped with Valentino's pizza and oatmeal-pecan-coconut cake during Cat's birthday bash tomorrow... oy vey!

What the Hell Is He Talking About?

Super Bad

Food Food Food

I'm Never Flying Again

101 DEGREES! WHAT THE F*CK?!?

Distended Belly and All

The Truth is Out: I'm a Foodie!

Precious Oxygen!

Ugh... Melting...

...and the Beat Goes On

Home!!!

Drip Drip Drip...

Back in Action

Quickie

Halfway There...

¡Hola!

Playing Catch-Up

Movin' on Up...

#!#@$&* Heat!

Freeing My Inner Geek

From the Kitchen

Requiem for Some TV Shows

Here He Is

Dateline: San Francisco

Absence. Heart. Fond-Growing. Etc.

Absentia Dementia

Sitting on the Dock of Bay

Friday Does Not Equal Freeday

Rainy Days and Mondays...

Random Shit

Freakin' Sweet!

Phrase of the Week: "Sprayed with Buckshot"

Sweet!

Winter Weather Watch!

Everybody Calm Down... I'm Here

Singularly Uninspired

Working for the Weekend...

Hump Day Afternoon

Howdy!

The Sniffles

Awash in a Wave of Drug-Enduced Euphoria

Back in the Saddle

"It's the Final Countdown..."

Happy New Year!!

It's That Time Again...

Gott kvöld

Maintenance

Breaking News! (Or Not...)

Merry Christmas

"Christmas Comes This Time Each Year..."

Observations

December 21: The Shortest Day of the Year

Iceland 2005: Day 2

Back home!

Two Days and Counting

Five Days and Counting

Bored Again

Six Days and Counting

Those M*therf*ckers at the Weather Channel!

All About Snow

The Post-Lunch Haze is Setting In...

The Things You Do When You're Bored...

Meteorology: Science or Not?

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like...

December? What the...?

Judge Not...

I Guess You Never Really Know People...

God Bless the USA

@$%!@%$*

Baby Update

Mooga!

Yes, I've Got Friends

Eat It

Compose Yourselves

Wednesday, November 9, 2005

Fish is Good for Your Brain

Boo! Scared Yet?

Zoom Zoom Zoom

That Scary Time of Year

Much Ado

Those Mtherfckers at the Weather Channel!