Obsessed

Unfortunately, I am the type of person whose taste buds decide to become soul mates with something for some indeterminate period of time. And much as Dan enjoys eating the exact same thing for dinner every night for a week, well, not so much. A couple of summers ago, it was Grape Nuts (don't tell my manager) with soy milk and fresh blueberries. Mmm. Random, I know (especially since I refused cereal pretty much throughout my early years) but oh so delicioso. Seriously, I would eat literally 3-4 bowls every day. And crave it when I was eating something else, caving to my vegetable appreciation. What sane person craves Grape Nuts??

Lately it has been Nutella. But not just any old Nutella. Nutella with coconut and bananas (occasionally substituted for strawberries) on toast (or crepes, if available). I won't eat it without any one of those components. No fruit - too sweet; no coconut - too...something. It just doesn't have the same flavor. No Nutella - well then what would be the point of anything?

It's seriously getting ridiculous. This part is especially embarrassing, but I like it on bread that has been sitting out for a little bit so it has that crackly sort of exterior, without actually being toasted through. Lately I've made myself layer on more banana to increase the fruit:carb ratio.

Another dear love is homemade pesto. I made a cilantro bell pepper one yesterday and pretty much want to scoop up the extra with my bare hands.

Am I the only one with insatiable food cravings? What do you crave?

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks

Loved Frankie. Only mostly loved the book. The main thing that kept this from a 5-star read was the writing style. It just wasn't totally my thing. The 3rd person narrator interludes were a bit off-putting to me, and it just sounded pretentious at times.

(For instance, "How does a person become the person she is? What are the factors in her culture, her childhood, her education, her religion, her economic stature, her sexual orientation, her race, her everyday interactions--what stimuli lead her to make choices other people will despise her for? This chronicle is an attempt to mark out the contributing elements in Frankie Landau-Banks's character. What led her to do what she did: things she would later view with a curious mixture of hubris and regret. Frankie's mental processes had been stimulated by Ms. Jensson's lectures on the panopticon , her encounters with Alpha, her mother's refusal to let her walk into town on the Jersey Shore, her observation of the joy Matthew took in rescuing her from her bicycle accident, and her anger at Dean for not remembering her. All these were factors in what happened next... (107)"

All the talk about the panopticon was totally interesting, but written weirdly, in my opinion - it was written like an encyclopedia or a biology textbook, not like a novel. I get that it is written in sort of the essay style as a parallel to Frankie's own essay on the subject, but it was just kind of annoying and distracting to me.

That said, I LOVED Frankie. What a fabulous character. Matthew and Alpha and Trish were also spot on. But really, Frankie. She was just so interesting and punchy and awesome-girl-power-esque, without being crazy (which some thought her to be, but from seeing her progression, she decidedly was not). So yeah, awesome characterization.

All in all, aside from some writing shortcomings (style, ending, etc.), I'd recommend this wholeheartedly.

[Total sidenote: for those of you who appreciated the aardvark/ardvark post, you will totally love the use of neglected positives in this book. :))

Another year down

Happy birthday, Dan! In honor of the event, I threw him a surprise party this past Saturday. It was so fun! We're grateful for the many wonderful friends who came out. Since I am typically a terrible liar, I was rather pleased with my trickery this time around.

For months, I'd been thinking it would be fun to have a float party, since Dan loves ice cream soda floats of all kinds. My awesome friend Lizzie, ballet buddy and cake-decorator extraordinaire, offered to make the cake. Who could refuse? Sadly, I don't have a picture offhand, but will upload its magnificence soon. In any case, I wanted to go help her decorate it, so I crafted a fake email from her asking if I wanted to go over for dinner/girl time after last week's ballet class, and forwarded it to Dan. Of course, he said yes, and I was careful not to get food dye on my clothes.

Next came planning how to get him home while others were already there, and getting all the food there without him noticing. So I bought ice cream/weird sodas on Thursday during lunch, stored them in my work freezer, and dropped them off at a friend's house that evening. Then at the aforementioned ballet class on Thursday, I gave my keys to my fabulous friend Becca, figuring I could just call Dan excitedly when I got home in hopes that he'd run down to meet me. Luck prevailed - it turned out he was still on campus working on a group project, so we got to drive home together and he was none the wiser.

Friday got a little sticky - I had to take home a bunch of frozen food samples from work, and wanted to drop them off before we made our drive down to DC that night. I get home and walk up to my door and stop. DUH! Dan was at the previously-posted-about competition, from where I was going to pick him up, but I called and suggested he just meet me at home - it was probably faster for him to bike than for me to drive at that hour, and that way we wouldn't have to transport his bike to DC and back. :) He heartily agreed, and met me at home. I also told him that it was so nice out (thank heavens it was sunny) that I would just be reading outside until he got there (totally believable with my sun obsession). When he showed up, I was sitting there reading, and I feigned surprise and fluster (noun form of to be flustered?) and exclaimed that I'd been so absorbed in my book that I'd completely forgotten to take up the frozen stuff (again, totally believable). He rolled his eyes but didn't think a thing of it.

Saturday arrives and we're driving back from DC and a friend calls to ask what time the party is. "Um, 8." I was totally rude and brusque but then had my shining moment of cleverness as I turned to Dan and asked, "Branch council is at 8 tomorrow, right?" Finally, we arrive at home (me having sent a preconstructed warning text) and walk out the gate to the parking lot...fortuitously, I walked out first and noticed a group of friends standing on the doorstep. I quickly made some shooing motions and they turned and walked the other direction, the back of their heads going unrecognized by Dan as he walked out. We walked up, they screamed, he screamed, and the rest is history. :)

Thanks to everyone who made the party so fun!

Oh, and what birthday would be complete without a brief 10 things? In honor of all our recent road trips, how about things I love about him that I've learned on road trips?

1. He loves looking at barns, and taking pictures of them. He'd probably paint them if we had more time.
2. He adores American history, and fills in the gaps when I forget names and dates and such.
3. He's nice to me and only makes fun of me for falling asleep when it's within the first 5 minutes, and on rare occasions, 10.
4. He's not into the over-touristed places and exhibits and such, and would much rather pull out a map and wander and figure things out.
5. He really really really loves car treats. Especially Fruit Snacks.
6. He always likes going to Taco Bell and thus does not make fun of me for liking it, too.
7. He loves having a wide assortment of cartertainment, but is perfectly content reading Harry Potter for the majority of the ride.
8. He likes bringing the baben along. :)
9. He's excellent at starting random and interesting conversations, such as those involving aardvarks.
10. He is completely my favorite person ever with whom to travel. I can't wait until this summer. :)

Love ya, sweetheart.

This pretty much makes me physically ill

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/16/world/asia/16afghan.html?hp

There are just so many things wrong with this, I don't know where to start. It makes me sick when people try to twist religion into meaning the opposite of what it does. Makes Bliss all the more meaningful.

Dan is cool

http://philadelphia.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/stories/2009/04/13/daily7.html?ed=2009-04-13&ana=e_du_pub

He's becoming a repeat offender now. :)

Where my mind goes at night

I got a speeding ticket in my dream last night. Except the officer was going to mail it to me, and when it arrived in the mail, it had my cute little visiting teachee's name on it instead. I, of course, was thrilled since I knew she wouldn't have to pay it, anyway, and it allowed me to escape the wrath of the terrifically unkind Upper Dublin police force.

Total sidenote: did I not already have a ring on an important finger, I would, without question, be sending out invites to my marriage to this weather. The end.

Why we married each other

[Intro of who knows what leading up to this.]

Daniel: Yeah, you know, like on Wikipedia where it has the disambiguation.

Preethi: Disambiguation?

D: Yes, that's when you look up, say NBC and it says something like, "This article is about the National Broadcasting Company. For National Bank of the Colonies, click here."

P: Oh. You're so clever to have just made up that example off the top of your head because I'm fairly certain you would have never ACTUALLY looked up the National Bank of the Colonies on Wikipedia.

D: ...

P: So, why is it disambiguation? Why not unabiguation?

D: Or a-ambiguation?

P: Yes, a-ambiguation! Like Asymmetrical. But it would be hard to distinguish between ambiguation and aambiguation. People might get confused and think it's really the opposite of what it is. Maybe that's why aardvark has two "a"s!

D: Yeah! Maybe there's really an ardvark, and an aardvark is the exact opposite of that. Maybe some people saw this new animal and were wondering what it was and someone said, "Well, I know for sure that it is NOT an ardvark! It looks like the exact opposite of that!"