DC - it rained.

grammar lesson of the day

Capitalize Mother, Dad, and other titles if you can insert the person's name and titles like Grandma and Major when they appear with a formal name.

If you can replace the "mother/mom" or "father/dad" with the person's formal name, "Mother/Mom" or "Father/Dad" should be capitalized.

Example: Mother is really my best friend. 
Example: Donna is really my best friend.

If you cannot replace the "mother/mom" or "father/dad" with the person's formal name, then "mother/mom" or "father/dad" should not be capitalized.

Example: My father is really nice. 
Example: Fred is really nice.

In the above example when the father's name--"Fred"--replaces the name "father," the sentence does not make sensesuggesting that "father" is a general term, not a formal name and should not be capitalized.

from the nice people at Paradise Valley Community College, Phoenix, AZ

Women I want to be like: Nigella Lawson

occupation: cook, author

her wiki (here)

her website (here)

one reason she rocks: she's worth about $220 million and isn't leaving any of it to her kids, stating ""I am determined that my children should have no financial security. It ruins people not having to earn money." (Daily Mail)

another reason: check out this BBC interview.  She's brilliant.  "In How to Eat you said, "Cooking is not so different to literature: what you have read previously shapes how you read now". Of all the literature, gastronomic or not, what has had the most lasting effect on your style of cooking?

What I meant by that was that when you read a contemporary novel you bring to bear sensibility honed from years of reading, an understanding of the shape of the novel, much like the way you develop as a cook."

I first came across Nigella when I was cooking for one of the workers at L'Abri and had to wait for something to simmer or something.  The worker had one of Nigella's cookbooks in her kitchen so I took it down and started reading.  Her writing is fabulous.  I bought How to Eat and just enjoy sitting and reading it.  Sadly, her recipes are a little too English for me (odd tastes thrown together) and I don't end up loveing many of the recipes.  But, oh, the writing!

I DVR her shows on Food Network and gain lessons in femininity.  She is unabashedly passionate about food and her descriptive words are deliciously x-rated.  My counselor told me awhile back that I should find a group of women that I want to be like.  Nigella is near the top of the list.  She's brilliant, passionate, talented, and hot.  

One recipe I'm looking forward to trying: Pollo alla Cacciatora 

dude.

The Lyre Bird

I heard about this guy at the L'Abri conference in Rochester, MN this past February.

My Girls (video) - Animal Collective

dumb logo, washington state

homeless chic

from the sartorialist

Detroit

"United Artists Theater

This spectacular Spanish Gothic theater, built in 1928, was closed in the 1970s."

TIME Magazine: "Detroit's Beautiful, Horrible Decline" by Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre

This photo collection is particularly horrifying and sad because of the similarities between Detroit and St. Louis.  Although St. Louis wasn't built around a failing industry (fur trappers, brewers, airplanes?), we are both extremely violent cities that had heydays that are long gone.  Poor Detroit.

ooooo.

from garance

Leg Hair

This past weekend I let the middle schoolers in Crash wax my leg hair.  The leg on the right is mine, the other leg being waxed is that of Johnny, an 8th grader.  I had thicker leg hair than him, only growing mine for two months.  Oh, the power of puberty!

It started out as laziness in January and turned into fascination and a personal test of endurance by late February.  

I have to admit, now that the hair is gone I kind of miss it.  If having hairy legs wasn't as socially unacceptable as it is, I would have it.  Somehow I think that having dreads and hairy legs would be a bit too much, don't you think?

ALSO: the feeling of wind brushing past your leg hair is awesome.  I feel sad that most women don't know this amazing tickley feeling.  

Another discovery: When I was younger, the only way I could cause my brothers any real pain was to pull their leg hair.  This is, in fact, quite painful I found out. 

how to enjoy not being famous:

- enjoy getting coffee without paparazzi and photos with the headline "celebrities: they're just like us!"

- enjoy fluctuating in weight without national critique and expert analysis!

- enjoy questionable fashion choices!

- enjoy not getting shocked looks on people's faces when they see or meet you!

- enjoy going to the beach looking weird, hairy, or ugly!

- enjoy dating and breaking up with multiple men, all none the wiser!

in other news: I'm addicted to PopSugar again.  A girl who sat in front of me with her laptop in my Conspiracy Theories class in college got me started on it.  Sad.  I can't believe I'm helping to pay the paparazzi.  

spring.

Sometimes I don't think I get nature. Maybe it is becuase I live in Missouri. The midwest has its natural beauty, for sure, but I am not one that naturally enjoys it. The midwest thoroughly enjoys using the color brown in its palette, so much so that I am led to despair.
Lying in bed this morning, trying to wake up for the second time, I started thinking...what if I don't like nature that much because it is in the process of being redeemed? It is not to its fullest glory yet, it too was affected by the fall (as seen in our pollution of it). However, many people find God through nature, so it still packs some punch.
It's probably just because it's the midwest.
These guys in my yard gave me some hope today. The yellow-ish stuff was growing under a cement block (used for questionable purposes - it's right next to an old dog-run leash). Way to go, guys!

indie cover of the day:

Gomez - The Way You Do the things You Do (Temptaions) - Gomez

thanks, Jeff!

2 Inní mér syngur vitleysingur - Sigur Rós

Allie Loves Twitter...what gives?

Kenneth the Page = Lousiana Governor Bobby Jindal

Internets Crush: Gabe Delahaye

(more Gawker photos of him here)

I heard about stereogum from somewhere because they had a bunch of good free mp3s.  Then I was like, "what's videogum?" and hopped on over there.  This is when my love was born.  Gabe is a writer for Videogum and writes scathing reviews of current TV shows (LOST, Gossip Girl are my faves).  

To find out if he was actually hot or not (IRL), I found some other fan write-ups.  It was kind of comforting to know that I wasn't alone on this one.  Also, through googlestalking him, I found out that two of my loves had converged:  This American Life and Gabe.  Bingo.  

He did a segment for an episode on reputations where he went around to his friends and asked what they all thought of him.  Unfortunately they all thought he was an ahole and told him that.  Haha.  

Here are some of my favorite Gabe reviews:

Gossip Girl: "Even in Real Life Dorota is Mistreated"

Gossip Girl: "Short Eyes Wide Shut"

LOST: "Seriously, Though, Nestor Carbonell Wears Eyeliner"

True/False: Food, Inc.

Although I wasn't able to go to the True/False film festival in Columbia, MO, this year, I heard that this was one of the best shown. I listened to a Michael Pollan lecture from TED.com and have wanted to read one of his books for awhile. He's a smart dude.

ist gut

No Line On The Horizon - U2

I don't care who you are, this...

So one of the freshmen in my bible study does Color Guard (like high school marching band color guard - the flag throwers).  So I went to see her compete in a color guard competition.  It was a cross-cultural experience.  Many of the performances were video-game/anime themed.  It was fantastic.

Lisa Hannigan - "Lille" (remember pop-up books?)

Lisa Hannigan - "I don't know"

I Dont Know - Lisa Hannigan

I don't know what you smoke or what countries you've been to if you speak any other languages other than your own, I'd like to meet you. I don't know if you drive, if you love the ground beneath you. I don't know if you write letters or panic on the phone, I'd like to call you all the same. if you want to, I am game.

I don't know if you can swim, if the sea has any draw for you. if you're better in the morning or when the sun goes down. I'd like to call you. I don't know if you can dance if the thought ever occurred to you. if you eat what you've been given or you push it round your plate I'd like to cook for you all the same, I would want to, I am game.

If you walk my way, I could keep my head we could creep away in the dark or maybe not, we could shoot it down anyway.

I don't know if you read novels or the magazines if you love the hand that feeds you. I assume that your heart's been bruised I'd like to know you. you don't know if I can draw at all or what records I am into. if I sleep like a spoon or rarely at all or maybe you would do? or maybe you would do.

if you walk my way I will keep my head we will feel our way through the dark though I don't know you I think that I would do I don't fall easy at all.