Let it be released from the mind

Friday, December 29, 2006



I gave a high five at work today. After further thought, post-five, I think this is okay.



There have been numerous recent sightings of Crazy Dreads Guy:






  1. 3:12, Connecticut Avenue, 12/23/06


  2. morning of 12/27/06, boss sees Dreads Guy in pants and a coat. This is straying from the typical get-up of bootie red shorts and yellow t-shirt. This is acceptable considering it was about 40 degrees.

Christmas rocked and so does my hubby. I'm totally ready for Costa Rica now with my wicked cool new digital camera and binoculars that are fog-proof and waterproof. I look forward to finding sloths and macaws. Especially sloths. Preferably baby ones like this (could you freaking imagine if I did?):







Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Happy Festivus!


It's the Festivus for the Rest of us...


Doesn't she look cute in a scarf?

Monday, December 18, 2006

Cookie Day

We had our work cooking club for the month of December--cookies/holiday treats. I got an excellent lesson on what Buckeyes really are. Buckeyes don't have Rice Krispies.

After about 4 hours of baking amongst wonderful friends, we had the following:
Spritz cookies (Danish butter cookies)
Oatmeal Cranberry cookies
Peanut Butter Balls (with the rice krispies addition)
Caramel Pecan Triangles
Chocolate Raspberry bars
Cream Cheese cookies

An excellent assortment, and much to look forward to.

You have to wonder what that thought is when you see a person walking down the street, by themselves, smiling as big as the light of day...

Thursday, December 14, 2006

A Daily Ritual

Brain pounding
eyelids heavy
sans alcohol
throbbing membranes
a daily ritual
oh hateful body

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

what a great few days!

Life has been busy--good, but busy. Outside of the holiday parties and merriment, I have had two concerts I played in and one I attended. And let's not forget about the free tickets from my uncle to the Redskins game. Damn, I hate me some Eagles fans. They're real jerks.

The Community Band I'm in played for a group of about a thousand the other night. Regretfully, most of them were non-discerning ears that couldn't wait for their marching band son/daughter to get on stage. But I don't mind saying that we absolutely rocked. I've heard from other community band members that it was the best concert they ever played. I'd like to think it's because of my excellent skillz---sike. It was very sad though that for the first time in my life I didn't have a single soul for me in the audience. Not one person was there to see KB and only KB play. I hope that doesn't happen too many more times.

Then last night we went to Largo Landing and played a concert for a group of elderly people. What a wonderful experience to see them bobbing their heads in the audience as we played a trio of Sousa marches and Gershwin and had a Christmas sing-along. The most inspiring part was definitely when a woman stood up to thank us from the bottom of all of their hearts for coming and playing, and she wanted to make sure we all knew how much we had improved....hahaha. Of course Wakefield inserts "See how important every note you play is".

On Monday night I treated hubby to an early birthday present--Ray LaMontange at the 9:30 club. And boy, it was a present for both of us. It is unbelievable how his voice can truly envelop you. As I was leaving the concert I was trying to think of how to describe the emotion he conveys and how you experience his music. It's almost like his voice is so outstanding that it pierces you, except it's not a pierce. It's like you're moving in jelly you're so overcome by him. Did I mention I enjoyed it? My coworkers so wonderfully informed me that you all can experience this too--I highly encourage you to visit NPR's website and take advantage of hearing his concert for free. I bet your feet and back will hurt less than mine.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6599923

I'm so happy he sang Jolene. What a killer. And the last song--perfect ending. Literally, all the hairs on your body will stand up for the whole concert. Yowza.

Friday, December 08, 2006

Sweet sweet Rose

What a good day in the office--my sweet sweet "coworker" Rose is in today! How could you not just fall into those beautiful brown eyes.

Thursday, December 07, 2006

Wahoo! Wahoo!

Going to the Redskins-Eagles game this weekend! Poop on our national bird. Poop on Philadelphia, the city of brotherly jerkiness.

Friday, December 01, 2006

Sighting #4!!

A long overdue sighting of Crazy Dreads Guy occurred this rainy Friday morning by MTrav as she traveled northbound on Wisconsin Avenue in downtown Bethesda. Red booty shirts and short-sleeve yellow T-shirt were present, despite the less than perfect weather conditions. Crazy Dreads Guy was walking at his usual fast pace.

Fond of Fondue


Wednesday night was an excellent office cooking club night--fondue. I had been quite nervous that an overloading of cheese and bread products would turn out dhastardly like when hubby and I tried all of the famous pizza joints in Chicago in a 3-day period. Dhastardly...

But, for the most part I escaped unscathed. Just a slight food coma at the end of the evening when I realized everyone was having enjoyable conversation but me. I just sat there glazed with brie rind.

It was remarkable how varied each of the choices were--ricotta and feta, a crab fondue, a baked avocado fondue, pumpkin and mushroom, and brie and wild mushroom. I contributed the brie and mushroom fondue which was extremely tasty and finished to the last dip. I had to cut most of the rind off since it most likely would not have melted, so I kept that for myself for snacks :) The pumpkin and mushroom was very earthy and wonderful, but not successful for dipping purposes. Perhaps if it had been pureed some it would have worked better. The avocado fondue was just trippy. A coworker combined avocado and dairy products in the illustrious Magic Bullet, and then baked it in the oven for a while. When you see hot avocado, you are afraid. Very afraid. From the very first bite I was trapped though. I could never explain what it tasted like, except that it was totally unlike anything my muted tastebuds could have imagined--slightly sweet, slightly avocadoey, nice and creamy.

For dessert there was a chocolate and butterscotch fondue with fruits and angel food cake. Much kudos go to MAR for conquering butterscotch. Anyone who has tried to make candy sauces knows the difficulties associated with it. I can't make caramel to save my life. Well, at least after failing twice, why bother any more!