Football Season is upon us.

I am not from Baltimore, so I don't fully appreciate the scorn and pain... but man were those Charm City Peeps MAD!

Military jargon that I could have gone without learning

In an attempt to be more organized, I was cleaning off my desk. Those aforementioned stacks of paper were piling up and getting unruly.

I have a pile of folders which say K.I.A. For those of you non-military folks, it stands for 'Killed In Action'. As part of my official duties, I get the casualty reports from the Department of Defense about all the soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines from my district who have been killed in Iraq. It is a sobering reality, as I then have to alert my boss and take care of some other morose and sullen details. The local paper generally finds out the information of the next-of-kin before I do. It is a mess. Not because the paper finds out before I do, but because there are quite a few folders in my stack.

It seems so pithy and disturbing to have a folder on my desk that represents a life. War sucks.

Those piles of paper...

You know those piles of paper you keep around your desk, office, house, that you know you will use SOMEDAY.

I dug out something from one of my piles and USED IT today. It was awesome. Actually, it was in a binder - do you think that counts?

I get so much information. People just drop by their newsletters, position papers, daily - weekly - monthly publications... I get email and faxes, so many I can't read. I throw most of them away, but some of them go in piles.

Every so often I'll review my pile to make sure that I still need to keep everything in it. Generally the answer is 'yes' and I put the pile back in its place. As of last count I have approximately two dozen piles. I'm not like that crazy person who can't get to their desk though, I am organized. The piles have subjects and priorities!

Still, it is getting to be a bit of a mess.

What's a girl to do?

Utah is on Fire. Happy Pioneer day? :(

Chicken of the Sea

Did you know... that crabs are like the cockroaches of the sea?

Lincoln Park

(The park, not the band - although the band is pretty groovy.)

Running in the city is somewhat of an art form. Without lovely mountain trails or paths by the river, we city folks are forced to create paths along roadways, through alleys and to parks where we can find them.

I have recently started running around Lincoln Park (12th and East Capitol). Lincoln Park is two blocks long and about a block wide. It is frequented by runners - such as myself, dog walkers, people with kids and city kids who want to sell you chocolate to make money for summer camp.

I'm still trying to get the hang of the running around the park thing. There are rivets in the grass for runners and in most places there are two rivets. In some places there is only one rivet however. Does anyone know the right of way protocol for this? Who gets to run in the rivet?

Also, is there a direction guide? During a brief stint in South Dakota I frequented a gym that had days for certain directions, Monday, Wednesday, Friday - clockwise, all the other days, counter clockwise. This gym also had pacing lights wherein you could keep up with the lights placed around the track and figure out how fast you were going. I think they were red, green and white (for really slow - I was in the white light category). It would be a GREAT idea if they would put lights on the trees so all the runners could pace themselves...kidding.

Also of curiosity is how many times around the park is a mile. It's not a very big park, so I'm betting it takes quite a few rounds to get my obligatory 2 miles in.

When all is said and done, it is nice to have a park and a little green. I do love the city, but dodging cars while trying to focus on your inner chi is sometimes very counter productive.

Work, work, work...

So, I was sitting at my desk the other day working diligently, as a good federal employee should (yes, I know your tax dollars pay my salary - thank you) and after the subcommittee hearing ended which was being shown on channel 12 came a documentary on synchronized swimming.

I'm not sure what kind of kid joins a synchronized swimming team, but I was not one of those kids.

I was mesmerized. I could not look away. It was like a car crash. They were in the water flitting about, and who knew about all you have to do with your arms underneath the water to keep your toosh and legs afloat above water.

It went on for about an hour, and although I tried not to get sucked in, I failed.

And, because I know you all are curious... the Santa Clara Aquamaids

...wow...

We're halfway there... how are we doing?

The moral majority...or something

I'm sorry....WHAT?

"This was a very serious sin in my past for which I am, of course, completely responsible," Vitter, 46, said in a statement, which his spokesman, Joel DiGrado, confirmed to the Associated Press.

Washington Post Vitter Article

A word about balance

In preparation for the impending trip to Costa Rica and in an attempt to not look like a total idiot on a surf board (or not on a surf board, as it were) I have been working on my balance.

Skating is really helping. I have found, contrary to popular belief, that skating is not like snowboarding. Snowboarding is a piece-o-cake in comparison. When you ride, the bloody thing is attached to your feet. To ride is to be one with the mountain and carve graceful edges in the snow. Skating is more like trying not to die.

Don't get me wrong, I really like skating, but I'm always acutely aware that I may hit a rock, or a branch or a curb and end up face down in pavement or break my arm or something. Skating is also a whole lot more work than riding. I am getting a very buff left quad if I don't say so myself.

So back to the balance. I have been doing a lot of those one-legged tree-standing things from my Yoga class - those help. Also, if you stand in surf position on the metro and close your eyes, that is a good exercise in balance as well. I nearly took out a tourista the other day because I was focusing a bit too much on my inner chi and not enough on the kid from Kansas behind me.

So...I shall continue to balance around town. If only I had one of those standing desks.

Ah... the work retreat...

Did you know that geese have very good group dynamics... I am not making this up. (If I keep using that phrase, I'm going to start giving Dave Barry money.)

But back to the geese.

According to Dr. Robert McNeish in his book “Lessons from the Geese”;

As each goose flaps its wings, it creates “uplift” for the birds that follow. By flying in a “V” formation, the whole flock adds 71% greater flying range than if each bird flew alone.

When a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of flying alone. It quickly moves back into formation to take advantage of the lifting power of the bird immediately in front of it.

When the lead goose tires, it rotates back into the formation and another goose flies to the point position.

When a goose gets sick, wounded or shot down, two geese drop out of formation and follow it down to help protect it. They stay with it until it dies or is able to fly again. Then, they launch out with another formation of geese and try to catch up with the flock.

The geese flying in formation honk to encourage those up front to keep going!

Honk.

Egyptian Coffee

I have been working with the Egyptian Embassy on a few things over the last little while. They had some constitutional reforms a while back, and according to some in the US government, they didn't do quite enough reforming....anyway.

One of my Embassy colleagues is leaving the US Embassy to go back to Egypt and work out that Palestinian/Israeli problem - easy, cheesy...again, anyway.

I bought him a small Congressional whatnot as a goodbye gift, and was invited to the Embassy to give it to him and for some tea. According to my sources, the Egyptians make some pretty sweet mint tea. I was planning on having that and enjoying the conversation.

Good plan, however, my Egyptian friend decided that I needed to try the Egyptian coffee. Now I don't really drink a lot of coffee, but I didn't want to be rude and figured when in Rome.

I'm not sure how many of you in cyberland have had Egyptian coffee, but it is very thick. It is not like Starbucks. You cannot get a Venti Egyptian coffee. They come in one size - small and potent. It has a very strong taste, but with enough sugar, it is not too bad. It isn't filtered, so it's sort of like eating coffee, but if you go slow enough, you can let the stuff sink to the bottom and avoid getting grinds in your teeth. And, as an added bonus, there are folks out there who dump out the stuff at the bottom and read your future! You can't do that with a tall, skim, frappachino.

One potential downfall is (I am not making this up) more than two a day is bad for your blood pressure.

I probably won't be drinking a lot of Egyptian coffee in the near future, unless of course, I am in Egypt and someone can read my grinds and tell me when I should play the powerball numbers.