And even more exciting than Marc Jacobs!!!

Powder Report for Dec 20, 2007

New Powder: (last 24 hours) 12"
New Powder: (last 48 hours) 19"
Seven day total: 29"
Mid-mountain Base: 40"
Total snowfall this season: 70

3 storms in the forcast!!!

Happy Birthday to me.

Marc by Marc Jacobs

Lovely Lily Bag

Destined to become a classic.

Pebbled-leather handbag with logo medallion at front and pleating at front and sides. Rolled double handles and 12" main compartment zipper. Lined interior features 6" zipper pocket and 2 patch pockets. Dust bag included.

6"H x 13"L x 6"D.
7" strap drop.
Imported.

Oh no you didn't. Oh yes I did.

Merry Happy Omnibus

I saw Chairman Obey and Senator Martinez while I was shopping today in the country. I guess everyone deserves a Christmas.
Perhaps they were meeting at a highly secret location to figure out this whole Senate/House spending compromise...over peppermint mocha's and eggnog lattes...

The snow cometh

I may need some time off in February...
Snowboarding is not a crime
(And YES I KNOW that two of the four resorts are in UTAH!)

AND...A hearty welcome back to the (drum roll please)
POWDER MT. SNOW REPORT
New Snow 24hrs - 0"
New Snow 48hrs - 0"
7 Day Total - 13"
Mid-Mtn. Base - 13"

Like a duck to water

Movies anyone?

I saw JUNO Wednesday night. It's really good and has a sweet ending when she decides to marry her 15 year old boyfriend and be an adult... just kidding. But really, a good flick.

Now, I just have to wait for Sweeney Todd... oh yeah...

I scream, you scream, we all scream for...rice

Free Rice.com
I know, you think I'm crazy.

Try it.

Hello Dolly!

I had the opportunity to go to the White House this morning. Now, because of my political affiliation it's been a few years since I've been IN the casa blanca. (I think they may let me back in, in about 427 days). But, I value the institution and respect the building (and my visit would not entail listening to the POTUS speak - comments by the FLOTUS only) so I got up early and headed down to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

As I'm SURE YOU ALL KNOW... the US Mint has recently released the Presidential dollar coin program. Wherein, all of your favorite presidents from Adams, to McKinley will be featured on handy $1 coins. They are GREAT - I encourage you all go ask your bank for them!

In coordination with the Presidential dollar coin series, the Mint has released the First Spouse coin program. (Please notice the use of 'spouse' and not 'wife', as we will someday have a first husband.)

So, I went to the White House and wandered around. If you have ever taken the twenty-five cent tour of the WH, you have been in the colored rooms (green, blue, red). I never gave tours in the WH, but during the holiday season one year I was in charge of keeping singing school kids organized and out of trouble before they performed their holiday tunes to ball guests. During the afternoons and on Mondays they roll out the carpet and take down the ropes and you can just wander around, like it was an actual house, and not a museum.

I digress...

The event was lovely. They had a woman dressed up as Dolly Madison (picture below) and a nice little 5th grader to help us remember First Lady facts. Even the current First Lady did a good job. (She certainly is more eloquent than her husband.)

I met the artist who designed the reverse of the Dolly Madison coin. Dolly, as you may remember, is the one who saved the Picture of George Washington which hung in the East Room when the British attacked Washington and the White House. (She actually left the front doors to the WH open in hopes that the British wouldn't break them open trying to get in. I often do the same thing with my Jeep.)

There, hope you enjoyed your history lesson for today.











































And just when things were going swimmingly, the POTUS showed up, but he left shortly thereafter...

Here Kitty, Kitty.

What do you mean I can't sleep on the bed?

Like to THESE Places!!!

I need to get out more

8 Million Pictures of Plants

Having company in town allows you to walk among the tourists, taking pictures at will and, if desired, wear a fanny pack (not included).

Please enjoy some pictures of the US Botanic Garden, otherwise known as 8 million pictures of plants. I wish they were in order - they are not.

Barney Frank ROCKS.

This week the House passed the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). It doesn't make you kiss other girls or break up your marriage. It stipulates that when you go to work, you will be judged on your work. (Revolutionary, right?)



Rep. Frank: “...Mr. Speaker, we say here that we don’t take things personally, and usually that’s true. Members, Mr. Speaker, will have to forgive me — I take it personally. 35 years ago, I filed a bill that tried to get rid of discrimination based on sexual orientation.

As we sit here today, there are millions of Americans in states where this is not the law...But here’s the deal: I used to be someone subject to this prejudice. And through luck, circumstance, I got to be a big shot. I’m now above that prejudice. But I feel an obligation, to 15-year-olds dreading to go to school because of the torments...I feel an obligation to use the status I have been lucky enough to get, to help them.

...I want to ask my colleagues here, Mr. Speaker, on a personal basis, please don’t...send me out of here having failed to help those people.”

At the end of debate on the Rule for the Labor HHS Approps Conference Report, approximately 8:45-9:00 p.m., the House will take the following votes:

1) Democratic Motion on Ordering the Previous Question on the rule for H.R. 3043 – Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2008 – Conference Report (H. Res 794). VOTE YES – 15 minutes

2) H. Res. 794–Rule providing for consideration of H.R. 3043 – Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2008 – Conference Report. VOTE YES – 5 minutes

Next votes: about 1 hour – on final passage of the Labor HHS Appropriations Conference Report.

__________________________________________________

Ah yes, the late votes. I almost forgot how fun they were. It begins. Eating 3 meals at my desk, attempting to go outside at least once a day during daylight hours, trying to remember what my kitties look like.

Today was election day. Being a DC resident, I didn't vote for anything. But on the radio this morning the jockey was telling everyone that they should stay home and not vote because it is a waste of time. And then he went on to lambast a local candidate for who knows what. I think he just wanted to call her nasty names because it was amusing.

Isn't democracy FUN?

Really, it's hard to get much done.

Did You Know?

In God We Trust

The use of the national motto on both U.S. coins and currency notes is required by two statutes, 31 U.S.C. 5112(d) (1) and 5114(b), respectively. The motto was not adopted for use on U.S. paper currency until 1957. It first appeared on some 1935G Series $1 Silver Certificates, but didn't appear on U.S. Federal Reserve Notes until the Series 1963 currency. This use of the national motto has been challenged in court many times over the years that it has been in use, and has been consistently upheld by the various courts of this country, including the U.S. Supreme Court as recently as 1977.

The Department of the Treasury and the Department of Justice intend to actively defend against challenges to the use of the national motto. In 1992, a challenge was filed and successfully defeated in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland.

For more bits of monetary trivia check out the
The Bureau of Engraving and Printing not to be confused with..... the US Mint. (Stay tuned for the UTAH quarter!!)

Halloween - bring it on

My Carbon Footprint

I'll cut to the chase. My pilot light won't light. It is 40 degrees in DC and I can't make my furnace turn on. Blast the dumb house inspector who told me that it was better to turn the bloody thing off in the summer because the copper would last longer.

So, it's cold in my house. I have a space heater and plenty of wool socks, but it's getting colder and the kitties are getting restless. (Actually, I don't think they care. They have fur and each other.)

The nice guy is coming on Saturday to see what he can do, and here's hoping that it works. Hopefully he will try something that I didn't try, because all the things I did try didn't work out very well.

They say that air conditioning units create a bigger carbon footprint than heaters, so I guess my carbon footprint is really small... for the next 4 days. Then, I'm going to kill myself some ozone. (Just kidding, I recycle and eat tomatoes from my garden; I think that gives me an hour or two of heat.)

Burrrr....

Nothin like a good protest...to make you late for work.

World Bank Protesters Keep Police Busy on Capitol Hill
Monday, Oct. 22, 2007; 10:55 am

Nearly 60 people have been arrested this morning on Capitol Hill — and more arrests could occur throughout the day — as an array of groups hold protests for causes entered on the annual meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
Eleven people were arrested early this morning for unlawful assembly and incommoding at the Cannon House Office Building, and 10 more were arrested in the Cannon Rotunda. Police also arrested seven people on the sidewalk outside of Cannon.

Near the intersection of New Jersey and Independence avenues Southeast, protesters sat in the middle of the road shortly after 8 a.m., forcing police to temporarily divert traffic. Twenty-six people were arrested for unlawful assembly.

Just as police reopened the street, another group of protesters then took the road, forcing police to arrest an additional five people for unlawful assembly, including two minors. The streets have since been reopened.

Protests have taken place throughout Washington, D.C., in the past several days as officials gather at the World Bank and the IMF for annual talks. Several streets near those offices remain closed.

— Elizabeth Brotherton

Copyright 2007 © Roll Call Inc. All rights reserved.

Scream like a girl.

I jumped out of an airplane over the weekend. Crazy, right?! It was crazy, and I did scream like a girl. But, then again I am a girl. I was strapped to a guy who happens to be a four time world skydiving champion and who took is first step out of an airplane when he was nine. As reassuring fact you kind of forget when you are staring out of a door at 11,000 feet. Thusly...












Yeah, right?! It is hard to explain how difficult it is to talk yourself into doing something so counter-intuitive. It went something like this... Me: Hey, want to jump out of a perfectly good airplane?! Self: What, are you nuts-o? That's maddness.

But I did it (mainly because I was strapped to Mr. Four Time World Championship and he kept walking as I was voicing my reservations - apparently 'no' sounds a lot like 'go'). And for the first 6 seconds you feel like you are falling and I think my eyes were closed during that part, because all I remember is screaming.

But after that first backflip (I am not making that up, picture below) you lay on your belly in a free fall, try not to suck in too much air and think of that Tom Petty song.

And you know what? It's a pretty damn good time.






















"And once you have tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been and there you long to return."

-Leonardo DaVinci