Merry Christmas and Happy 2009!

Naturally, I spent most of my extra-long Christmas break in Idaho with the fam.  Or should I say, a teeny portion of the fam.  This year it was just me, Leslie and Alex, and the parents.  Definitely a quieter, low-key Christmas.  

Let me paint a picture for you. Christmas Eve: we went to a movie, and when we got out of the theater we realized we didn't know what we were doing for dinner that night. It was after 6:00, so we just drove around to see what was open. Maybe Costco dogs? Nope, closed. Fast food? Good luck. The typical neon lights of Yellowstone were unsprisingly dark. Oh, look, the bar at Mama Inez is open! And Dominos! When all was said and done, our Christmas Eve consisted of cheese crisps, pizza, and Dad winning at Phase 10. (I was happy for him - he's such a trooper when we play Nirtz.)

Anyway, we all enjoyed ourselves, with lots of trips to the taco truck (I miss that Mexican food), the movie theater (I never see as many movies as when I'm at home), and Lowe's (naturally, we worked on a few home projects...we repainted the kitchen and it looks AWESOME. And Alex and Dad went to work on installing a cabinet. And I started peeling off the wallpaper of the upstairs bathroom!! Is anyone else really excited that this room is finally getting some attention??).

And I got to take a trip to Pebble Creek and get my skiing fix!
It snowed a LOT! Which I really loved since DC seems to have a definite shortage of the fluffy white stuff. Doesn't Chink's Peak (yes, that's the real name) look like a painting?
Dad and Alex had to snowplow the driveway more than once. The walls of snow on both sides of the driveway were at least a foot and a half tall!
The downside is that it snowed so much that we couldn't go to Spokane to see the SpokanderLouws. The days before we were supposed to go, it snowed about 2 feet (or 3? 4?) in Spokane and PLENTY in Poky. This was a bittersweet tragedy for all. We needed our kid fix. I missed the nieces and nephews. And since none of them were around, I realized how much of my time I usually devote to the kids in exchange for the adults when I'm around my family. Interesting.

I also got to visit Sarah-Dawn in Costa Mesa. Yay, Southern California, warmer weather! Right? Not so much. But we still had a great time. She literally lives minutes away from the ocean, which is basically her dream come true. We went to a couple of beaches...

...had a bonfire (most efficient fire ever made) and made s'mores on one of the beaches while we watched the sun set...

...went hiking through a canyon...

...and watched the fireworks and played with hats in Downtown Disney.



And we ate at In-N-Out and got Boba drinks. Twice!!

The Amazing Race

I got to see Princess for Christmas!!  Aside from just catching up and other awesome activities, we decided to get the ball rolling on getting ourselves into Amazing Race.  Here's what we accomplished during a portion of the time that I was lucky enough to be in her company.

Stupid human tricks

My ward's Christmas party was last night.  We got to do Sub for Santa for five families, YAY!  And we get to deliver everything and go caroling tomorrow!  

The party also doubled as a "variety" show.  Such a talented bunch I get to associate with every week.  I am so lucky.  (Don't even get me started on the Christmas program today at church.  Amazing.  That is all.  Amazing.)  Anyway, last night I couldn't help but throw in a little contribution I discovered I could do a few months ago...

I have nothing else to add.

What? Finals? Meh, I'll get to that later.

It's the middle of finals week.  What should I do?

If you said, "Don't study," I think that's a great idea!!  That's exactly what I did do today!

So here's what happened.

About a week ago, one of my classmates randomly pulls a bag of big white chocolate chips out of her bag and says, "Do you like white chocolate?"  I think my exact words were, "Is there sugar in white chocolate?  ...then YES!"  So she gave me the whole bag.

Fast forward to today.  It's day 3 of finals week and I'm done with all my finals until mid-day Saturday.  So I took the day off.  No school-related anything allowed.  I got some much-needed things done that have been neglected since August.  For example, I stacked all my books on my bookshelf.  (For those of you who don't already know, that's a big deal.)  Now they almost all fit.  See?

I also got all my winter stuff out, which I definitely already needed a few weeks ago.  

And, I made truffles.  Re-enter white chocolate.  It had been staring at me for too long.  It took me awhile, but that's okay!  I was still under my self-imposed school ban!  

They were so pretty, I took pictures.

And the taste?  Divine.  I once read a book where the author said she loved her pizza so much that she believed that it loved her back.  This is how I feel about my truffles.  It's true love.  

At Dana's request, here's the recipe:

1 cup baking chocolate or white chocolate, chopped 

2 tsp butter/margarine

1/4 cup heavy whipping cream

1 tbsp shortening

1 cup chocolate or white chocolate chips

1. Cover cookie sheet with aluminum foil.  Melt baking chocolate in heavy 2-quart saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly; remove from heat.  Stir in butter until it melts, stir in whipping cream.  Refrigerate 10-15 minutes, stirring frequently, just until thick enough to hold a shape.

2. Drop mixture by teaspoonfuls onto cookie sheet.  Shape into balls (if too sticky, refrigerate more).  Freeze 30 minutes.

3. Heat shortening and chocolate over low heat, stirring constantly, until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth; remove from heat.  Dip truffles, one at a time, into chocolate.  Place on cookie sheet.  

4. Refrigerate about 10 minutes or until coating is set.  Drizzle some with a mixture of 1/4 cup powdered sugar and 1/2 teaspoon milk (I just melted more white chocolate and some shortening in a Ziploc bag and cut off the corner).  Refrigerate just until set.  Serve at room temperature, store in airtight container.  Makes approx. 25-30 small truffles.

I think I'll take some back to school with me to share the love before this last final.  It's only fair, right?  It's like when you borrow a cup of sugar from a neighbor, and then you go and make cookies with it and give them back.  Suddenly I'm feeling very sneaky like that...like I'm the white-chocolate-to-truffles-finals-goodies bandit, bringing sugary joyness to burned-out students everywhere!!  Mwahaha!  I feel like I need an alias.  Any ideas?

U-G-L-Y! You ain't got no alibi, you ugly!

Ah, December.  A time for carols, well-wishing, finals, sledding, Buddy the Elf, Messiah sing-alongs, and ugly sweater parties.  Last night, everyone represented the spirit of December as we all tried to outdo each other in ugliness.  Throughout the evening, you'd hear people remark, "My, you're looking especially ugly tonight!"  And it was a very good thing.

I wish you could see it, but Greg (dude next to me) had flashing Christmas lights duct taped to his sweater. He was connected to the wall for lots of the night.

Not everyone had such ugliness on hand, but Jared was willing to wear a headband instead.  For a minute.

As if the party weren't already awesome enough, they had Elf playing, which is probably the best Christmas movie ever made.  Allow me to share just one of the many favorite quotes:

"So, good news - I saw a dog today.  Have you seen a dog?  You probably have."

XBOX360PS3WII

I'm always talking about out-of-school adventures, so I'll digress for a moment to let you into my campus world.  I guess it's about time, since I'm about to hit finals week and thus finish one quarter of the ride.

Fun thing about business school is that you get to pick topics for projects that are so far out there, but everyone uses business, so it still applies!  (Ironically, I used to say that about Stats...well, I still say that.  Guess I just like things that apply to everyone.)  

To give you a taste, I've been doing a whole lot of industry and competitor analysis on video game consoles. So yes, we could play Wii and call it "research."  (Other semester variations include the pursuing prospect of opening a Ritz in  South Africa and researching the economic-based history of telephony - from telegraph to cell phones to VoIP.  Isn't B-school awesome?)   Now, I feel like a fountain of console knowledge.  Want to know the history?  I'll tell you about the Brown Box.  Where'd PlayStation come from?  I know that, too.  Marketing strategies - Blue Ocean, anyone?  Competitive advantages?  Bring it on.  Maybe that doesn't strike everyone else as such a cool thing, but I guess that's why I'm here.  Here is my dynamic posse who also knows everything console.

I like learning.  My brain is having a grand time being back in academia.  

Thanksgiving Awesomeness

I was lucky enough to spend this year's Thanksgiving at home in Idaho with my parents and the VanderLouws.  If I had to pick a favorite moment, it was probably jumping on the trampoline with all the kids, especially after Maggie joined in.  Alas, I don't have a pic of that.  But I do have lots of other goodies.  As usual, I mostly just captured the kiddies.  Hope you don't mind.

If you want to see the vid of Elliot's mad dancing skills, you can check it out on my family's blog here.

Dinner with the co-workers

Recently I got to meet up with many of my old co-workers for dinner. It was grand! And I got to meet lots of spouses and significant others I'd only heard about before, and I got to catch up with everyone and just enjoy being around them again.

I realized that, of the 8 original Census workers there, only 2 are still manning their original posts in Services.

I also realized something that I think I already knew: I really miss my co-workers.  

Think about it - I used to spend more waking hours with this crowd than anyone else.  These guys really get me, and I'm so fond of all of them.  That was terribly difficult to walk away from, even for something as alluring as getting my MBA.  

Sometimes I get nostalgic, thinking about the lunchtime jogs and workouts, the vacuum breaks, commiserating when we had to work overtime, rearranging/kidnapping my supervisor's beanie baby toys, the parties that always inevitably had that expensive cake that tastes like chemicals, trips to J-ville, and even cranking out top diffs and referrals (which is odd).  Hopefully we can get together again soon.  I sure do like all those guys.

Alright, alright, alright

I think I got tagged by almost everyone in my family to complete these two lists, so here I go.  Sorry so slow to respond...school and all...

First listing...7 random things about me...

1) I used to be pretty uptight, always worrying and stressing about everything.  While I guess I still worry some, I'm a lot more laid-back than I once was.  I'm seeing it a lot with school.  The workload is pretty insane, and my life outside of school is pretty packed with responsibilities (and fun) too, but it hasn't gotten to me yet.  I can't honestly say I've felt much stress, if any, this semester.  Probably helps that I like the content so much - I don't think I've ever been as busy as I am now...but I don't know that I've ever felt as happy and balanced, either.  It's all about having the priorities straight.

2) I really love eating, and I'll try almost anything once.  This is leaps and bounds ahead of the picky eater I was when I was young.  I have learned to like everything I hated as a child EXCEPT onions.  Also, I have a philosophy about exercise - although I love the endorphins and everything, I do it so that I can eat what I want.  

3) Every time someone asks me about the scar on my leg, I make up a new story about it.  The best one so far is that I took a fall while I was rock climbing.  It helps that I dated a rock climber who helped me with all the terminology.

4) I wish I was more creatively spontaneous.  But I need to elaborate, because I know you all read about all the fun things I do.  I'm really good at joining in with other peoples' activities but it is rare for me to get the idea and/or actually implement it.  I have friends who are amazing at thinking of fun things to do and then rallying the troops and making it happen.  Not me.  I'm all about being a follower.  I'm good at following.  But I've actually worried before that all my fun activities will end once I'm not single because I'm never the one who gets the ideas, and I won't have all my single friends' ideas to piggyback on anymore.

5) I talk in my sleep, but it's always nonsensical jibberish unless I'm on NyQuil.  Then, everything I say is perfectly coherent.  Sarah-Dawn told me so.

6) I really seriously hate it when people question my intelligence.  It takes a lot to faze me, but if you really want to, start talking to me like I don't know what I'm talking about.  I dare you.

7) I have a special phone number I give to creepy guys who ask for my number.  It goes to a generic girl's voice mail in Utah, and then all the messages are played on a radio station the next day.  For the record, this is only given to the ones who are overly persistent and creepy.  So don't go thinking I'm just being mean to all the well-intentioned suckers out there.  They have to earn this number!

Now 8 Things...

8 Shows I Love to Watch:
I don't really watch TV.  Like, ever.  But when I do...

The Office

Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends

Did I already say The Office?  That's all I can think of!

8 Things That Happened Today:
Met with classmates for one of my group projects

Realized Thanksgiving is NEXT WEEK only after classmates pointed it out

Ate one of the free bagels Kogod offers every Tuesday

Got made fun of for how excited I was about eating a free bagel

Went to Accounting class

Met with classmates for another group project

Went to gym (a rare occurrence for November)

Went straight to Institute from school 

8 Places I Love to Eat:
Ben's Chili Bowl

Kabob Palace

Pasara Thai

Aladdin's

Five Guys

Bangkok Golden

Panda Express
Beto's

8 Things I am Looking Forward to:
Thursday at 2:00 when project #1 is done

Monday at 12:30 when project #2 is done

Seeing Becky and Ray and Grace and Elliot and Maggie next week

Being in Idaho

Snow (hey, if it's going to be cold, may as well make it good!)

Reading for fun again 

Graduating and getting a job that really fascinates me

The stock market coming back up

8 Things on my Wish List:
A family reunion with all the family there 

Snow this winter that lasts for more than two days

To be able to ski at least twice this season

To go to Peru and actually see Machu Picchu

To go somewhere in Africa.  And Australia.  And Antarctica would be cool...

A few more hours of each day in November, pre-Thanksgiving

To not live across the country from Sarah-Dawn

To have classes with start times that don't perfectly coincide with rush hour

Name that band!

Time for another concert, this time with Jeph.  A friend of his works at the DAR and thus gets free up-close tix to shows all the time.  I don't know that I ever would have picked this particular band to see, but I'm glad I did.  It's somehow fitting and made me all nostalgic.  Recognize this guy?  (And yes, he's wearing a skirt.  I think everyone on stage was wearing Halloween costumes, but I really can't be sure.)
Still not sure?  I'll give you some hints.  1979.  Zero.  Tonight, Tonight.  Bullet with Butterfly Wings.  That's right, the evening's entertainment was Smashing Pumpkins.
They did back-to-back shows at this venue with no opening band - just the Pumpkins headlining, with 25 songs each night.  It was an impressive show, even though I didn't know any of the newer songs.  They were bringing all sorts of random instruments onto the stage, which is always a plus for me.  Sure, you've got the guitars and drums...but then how about keyboard sometimes, or trumpet, or trombone, or flute, or electronic violin, or tambourine, or  mariachis?  For one song, every single person (I think there were 8 of them) was playing some kind of percussion instrument, even some crazy Tahitian-sounding drums.  I'm all about that.  Shows real musicality in a band.  

That being said, allow me just a moment to get something off my chest.  I'm all about a band showing off their musical skills.  That's why I love concerts.  What I absolutely do not love is the 15-minute jam sessions before and/or after every song.  When it gets to the point where I actually think, "if I was listening to the radio, I would've changed the station by now.  If it was a CD or my iPod, I would've switched to the next song about 5 minutes ago," it's time to move on.  We get it, you're very talented musicians.  Time to move along with the show now.  Come on.  This is the Smashing Pumpkins.  They have LOTS of albums with LOTS of good songs - with words - that they could be playing.  Why are they wasting their time and boring their fans with the jam sesh?  We did not pay good money (so, okay, yes, this time it was free...but still) to come hear them play the same measure 18 times in a row, long after the real song ended.  As I recall, I've seen this occur at two other shows: Dave Matthews and Death Cab for Cutie.  Didn't like it then, either.  Why do bands think this is a good idea?  Whatever gave them the impression that concert-goers would be entertained by this for such an extended duration?  Do they not understand that our society has a very short attention span?  Are they trying to lull us to sleep?  Or did they forget we were even there?

For the record, I never see this phenomenon at small shows.  It's always the big bands.   Stay strong, little bands.  Don't let those big guys bully you onto the alluring jam sesh bandwagon.  It won't make you cool and it won't make more people like you.  You're perfect just the way you are.

Masquerade!

Last weekend was the culmination of many planning meetings and lots of preparation by the collective Northern Virginia Institute Councils - the Masquerade!!  
In a nutshell, it was sort of like a dance/food drive/care package project/mask-wearing and decorating fall festival.  With a raffle and door prizes.  We just wanted to have something for everyone, and somehow we actually pulled it off!  And it was a big hit!  Thanks to the collective efforts of many, it was a smashing success.  The decor was fall-themed and perfect; the food was delicious and plentiful; the music was rockin'; and the attendees were many, well-dressed, and generous in their donations.  

Altogether, we collected 438 pounds of food to give to a local food bank, as well as a smorgasbord of DVDs, books, and other goodies for patients at the Walter Reed Medical Center.  It just may have been the best Institute activity ever.  At least that's what Bro. Toma says.  But maybe we're biased?

Hockey is the new awesome

Or maybe it's always been awesome.  It can be the awesome for last week.  I attended the Caps-Canes game with several classmates.  We even got hooked up with a backstage "tour," which consisted of a sprint through the basement - past the zambonis, all the basketball court pieces, and the caps locker room.
For the record, I have always wanted to ride a zamboni.  There were some little kids that got to ride with the zamboni drivers between periods of the game - I was green with envy.  If anyone knows a zamboni driver that would hook a sister up, I would be most obliged.  But I digress.

I've seen lots of hockey games in my life.  But I think this one was the best I've ever seen.  Really!  Check out this lineup...

*We got to see a fight (a GOOD one!  The gloves came off and they even hit the floor before the refs tore them apart!)

*The entertainment between both periods was most excellent (one was a race between a bunch of hockey pucks, shown below.  It ended with the blue one diving into the net FTW.  The other was a bunch of kids playing hockey - one kid dominated so much, he could probably play with the Caps right now, and I'd pick him to be MVP.)

*The ending of the game was intense and had the entire crowd at the edge of our seats - especially the very last play, 10 seconds before the finish, when the game-winning shot was scored.  

*Somewhere in the craziness of that play, one of the players ended up on the ground, with what I imagine was a broken nose.  That's right, we even got blood on the ice.

So, to recap: tour, fight, hockey puck net diver man, junior MVP, photo finish, and blood.  Best. Game. Ever.

Firefly!

It's that time of year, when we get to see just how creative all our friends really are - manifested through simple/clever/intricate/ brilliant costumes.  Ah, Halloween.

This year, I spent my Halloween at a party of some friends who live at house number 666.  Honestly, they had no choice but to throw this party, right?  I was dazzled by the costumes.  To name a few favorites, we had Charlie's Angels,

lunch ladies,

Spartan Cheerleaders (yes, they did the perfect cheer),

the Joker,

a couple of communists,

and my group, the cast of the 2002 one-series hit, Firefly (aka the movie Serenity).  

Sad to say, I haven't seen much of either.  All I know is that my character is River Tam, a super-genius who was brainwashed by the government to be an assassin.  Here's the real cast (I'm on the right)

And here's the clip that inspired my costume:

My pride and joy

...at least that's the running joke.  But it's only partially untrue.  This is my backpack:

and it really is a source of pride for me.  It represents all the countries I've had the privilege of visiting since I graduated from High School.  Something I didn't expect, however, is how much of a conversation-starter it has been.  In case you didn't know, I am a big fan of conversation starters - especially with fellow commuters on the metro.  I live in somewhat of an anonymous town where strangers like to ignore each other, so I like to do what I can to mix things up a little.  It's the reason I used to carry a Scooby Doo or Hello Kitty lunch box to work every day.  It tells the world, "Hey!  I am approachable!  Go ahead - approach me!"  

Today was a happy example.  I had two different people comment about my backpack on my way home from school.  One of them was a Lucy, a Colombian woman who began conversing with me in Spanish, asking where the Colombia patch was.  (I guess all the Spanish-speaking patches boosted her confidence in my Espanish-espeaking eskills.)  By the end of the ride, she had me convinced that I needed to add her beautiful country to my list of places I must go. 

She's very persuasive.

Punkin Chunkin 2008!!!

That's right, it's time for the 22nd annual Punkin Chunkin in Sussex County, Delaware.  This event is kind of a big deal.  Basically, people build different catapults, cannons, trebuchets, or what have you, and day after Halloween, they launch punkins!  The group I was with even got on the Science Channel (to be aired Thanksgiving night) with some hairy bearded guy dressed as a renaissance woman, saying, "Watch Punkin Chunkin on the Science Channel!!"  I suggest you do it.  Or just click on that link and keep your eyes peeled around the 1:00 mark.
At the offset, it appears to be a sort of white trash-type event.  And sure, there were some manifestations of that.
Like the dudes playing horseshoes with toilet seats...
...and the beer bottle windchimes...
 But once we started to think about it, this is a seriously educational event.  Are your kids having problems getting excited about learning?  Send them to the Punkin Chunkin!  You've got your physics and engineering going into building these catapults, all sorts of math to determine how far the punkins go and how to break the records, culinary arts galore in finding new and delicious ways to add pumpkin to every dish...I was told the punkins are even specially grown for this event, with an extra-thick rind - hello, plant genetics!  And, Professor Mitra would be proud to know, there was even a lesson in target marketing:

In case you can't read that ING sign, it says "CATAPULT YOUR OLD HOME LOAN TO THE NEXT COUNTY...Save a chunk with our home loans."  Brilliant.  Brings a tear to my eye.

Here's my amateur video depiction. I captured at least one of each of the different styles we saw. Can you see the punkins?

And here's a more professional rendition.

Superstar Gymnasts!

For the latest adventure, I saw some Olympic-medal-worthy gymnastics with Lauren and Kara.  

Apparently the Olympians on tour right now, so if you're lucky, maybe they're coming to a city near you!!  It was complete with a chick band to provide the background music.  They weren't so bad.  Basically, they were all just messing around...with style. For example, the ladies would rock out (gymnast-style) to Cyndi Lauper or Gwen Stefani, 

and then the boys would come out and break dance (gymnast style) to Jay-Z or Daft Punk.  

In any case, you couldn't help but be impressed with the feats these people could accomplish.  All that being said, this guy was my favorite.