Grrrr...

I accidentally got into an internet fight last week (with someone I don't even know! Man, I fight with EVERYBODY these days). Here is the result:

(be careful! This funny cartoon involves unladylike language!)
d

NOTE: My roommate says he thinks it looks like the dinosaur is just throwing a violent tantrum. This is a fine interpretation, but I was intending for him to be walking along. Oh well.

Away for the Weekend

I'm going to my uncle's house in the mountains of Virginia.

Here is what I will be doing there:
-reading
-sleeping
-playing fetch with the cat
-drinking wine
-learning how to do multivariate analysis on phonological variation in sign language
-watching the Discovery Channel

I hope the Discovery Channel has that show about the orphaned baby walrus, because walruses are my latest favorite thing to learn about and that baby walrus was adorable.

see you next week!

Red Tape

*

I'm in a pretty cranky mood today.

For one thing, it's 98 degrees outside. For real. That is too hot.

For another thing, I'm once again involved in a lengthy and extremely dispiriting battle with Gallaudet officials. This time it's more or less with the Registrar's office. The story is long and it just keeps getting longer, and it is tedious and asinine and full of me being angry and other people being unhelpful. It's pretty much the same as all my other stories about trying to get anything accomplished at this school.

Why, yes, I would love some cheese to go with that. Thanks so much!

*via despair.com's DIY motivator generator

Cake of Patriotism

I had a great time last night. From the roof of Trim Zander's house, we could see 360 degrees worth of fireworks. It was intense. There were so many things being blown up!

In honor of the occasion I made a cake. The outside of the cake looked like this:



The inside of the cake looked like this:



I worked extremely hard on this project, and while the cake itself was not especially light or fluffy, the aesthetic outcome was satisfactory, and everyone likes chocolate frosting, so it was a winner.

Happy Birthday, Constitution Gods!

This is my first Independence Day in Our Nation's Fine Capital. So far, so good. I am still in my pajamas, so pretty soon I have to start looking for a red, white and blue outfit.




Last year I was being all fancy at the Ambassador's house for my Independence Day festivities. Nowadays, I have no Ambassador friends to hobnob with so I have to make do with all my fellow 20-something grad student type friends. None of them even know how to play bridge!

But I digress.(You might not think I could digress, since I wasn't actually talking about anything, but you would be wrong on both counts. I can digress in situations that would amaze you, and also I was talking about something. I was talking about Constitution City.)

Much to my surprise and delight, fireworks are legal in this town. I kind of thought anything even remotely dangerous was frowned upon around here because what if the Presidential Motorcade happens by your house and he gets an ash on the windshield? Now you'll have to go to prison! But, it seems that patriotism in the form of explosives trumps any concern about danger (also in the form of explosives) so there are fireworks stands all over the place. I bought some yesterday on my way home from school, and will be exploding them this evening from Trim Zander's 4th of July party.

I am excited because it's been a while since I had any fireworks to explode. Last year I was in Rwanda, so no fireworks stands were available to me. The year before that I was in Minneapolis and watched the city display from the roof of a parking garage. The year before THAT I have absolutely no recollection of where I was or what I did, so it must not have been very fun or exciting. Either that or it was extremely fun and exciting and involved a lot of alcohol.

So. Have fun out there! Don't blow yourselves up.

The martians are coming!

d
Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net