final Olympic coverage

First of all, I totally want the closing ceremony Ralph Lauren outfit.
Second of all, Shani Davis is FINE.
Third, LONDON 2012 !!!!

On a side note, Americans are so freaking self-indulged. That practically every athlete is holding out their iphone or flip-phone or camcorder to record their every step is a bit sick. I'm glad Evan Lysacek is using his own eyes and experiencing for himself.

soprano for keeps

Whoa, after all that singing, when I'm warmed up, I can hit a high G. And it sounds good!

VANCOUVER2010 !!!!!

If you are looking for an introduction to popular classical music, just watch a bunch of figure skating programs.

thank god he's back

Johnny Weir, you're number one in my queue.

live blog of report card weekend

I sat down on the couch to write these effing report cards, which may have been due on Friday, but my knitting project was much too inviting to pass up. Pea green scarf, finished at last. It only took thirteen months.

. . .

I like to start with the high achievers, because then I can copy and paste. Parents don't really need specifics when their kid is smart.

. . .

Drinking, watching Troy, and writing report cards. Brilliant combination? Or recipe for disaster? I'll find out on Tuesday, when we get the first draft. Let's hope I remember to finish.

. . .

Ooh, new Sarah Palin disasters afloat! And she sorta kinda maybe really just admitted to potentially running for president in 2012. Let's all hope that Email Gate and Property-Tax Gate blow up real big before then.

. . .

I've moved on to 300. It's Greek movie night. My last ten report cards are really pushing the creative boundaries of how to respectfully convey to parents that their child cannot read, or is a total dickhead.

. . .

Good lord, I need to quit. Five more till I'm done, but they will have to wait until tomorrow. My head is a swimming mess of Baileys and gladiator sandals. I cannot think of anything nice to say about Veronica, other than I like her new haircut. This won't do.

rainy Friday

Last night I had dinner with W and then a sleepover and it was the nicest non-date I think I've ever had. First of all, his new apartment is way up in Topanga Canyon, so it was all peaceful and isolated and tree-house like, and the rain was pattering on the windows. The view from his living room is awesome because you can see across the whole canyon and it's all green and alive right now.

We had a Japanese dinner planned and my contribution of sushi was awesome even though I couldn't find sticky rice and used risotto instead. I just made avocado rolls but there is nothing so delicious as that mix of creamy avo and salty soy sauce and tangy ginger and warm rice. Yum.

W made a tofu salad that was the worst recipe he has ever not followed. The directions actually called for carrots and snow peas to be "chopped up into matchsticks," which I dutifully did. It was quite labor intensive and I complained appropriately. One of the final steps of the recipe was to put the chopped up carrots into the blender, thus rendering the matchsticking a complete waste of time. It was supposed to be a pate but owing to the fact that W didn't read the directions ahead of time and doesn't own a blender, it came out like chopped up tofu with some tiny pieces of carrot. No seasoning.

The other failed dish was some fancy potato and tamari thing that ended up just being mashed potatoes. It was decent.

So there was good sushi and mashed potatoes and a bowl full of broken tofu. We laaafffed about the awfulness because Wade is actually a good cook. We had mochi for dessert which made up for everything.

Then we watched the new LOST episode (me for the second time) and fell asleep and I am proud to report that I kept my pants and my sweatshirt on the entire time and no tomfoolery was had.

We are both good sleepers and spooned the whole night and I only woke up once to have my daily six am allergy attack and immediately fell back asleep and then got up at about ten thirty. The rain had stopped and it was sunny and misty all at the same time. Part of the boulevard was closed due to rocksliding in the night so I had to take the valley way out. It was beautiful.

flashback city

First, I had Friday night dinner and Celebrity party at Lynn's house with her friend Jones, and we figured out that he came and subbed for yoga at my school several months ago. He was memorable because the kids had been total shits up until then, and the two days that he came in he was whipping them into shape, and we were all wishing he could stay forever. Apparently he passed up the permanent job so the current teacher could take it. They are friends.

(Coincidentally, Jones is also the one who did the robot / puppet / vampire dance bit to Don't Stop Believing at Lynn and Stephen's anniversary LUV salon. I reenacted this skit to teach my students about theme. That was in November, a few weeks before the yoga switcheroo. It was during the reenactment that we discovered that Stephen (above) teaches karate to my favorite student Jordan.)

Then there was the DOTs thing.

Most recently (tonight), I was having dinner with Emily Shmemily and her fiance Michael, and we realized that he was my neighbor in college. Not like stranger neighbors who happened to live on the same street, but like neighbors whose roommates were best friends and who had been been in each other's apartment. Our windows were facing each other fifty feet apart. After having the whole conversation I can vaguely picture him on the stairs. No less embarrassing is that neither of us recognize the other. We've been hanging out since August.