Snack Time

Most days at around 330 or 4pm I get a hankering for a snack. And today was no exception. So I trundled myself across the street to Rite Aid to see what I could fine. Maybe a bag of chips, or some M&M's. What did I come back with? A pint and a half of Reese's Peanut Butter Cup ice cream. And don't you know I already have that bad boy open, on my desk, with a spoon. Sans bowl.

My First Mileage Run

As the New Year approaches, frequent fliers everywhere are making a list and checking it twice. Do they have status secured for next year? Unfortunately, I don't. Which means that I have to take my very first mileage run (Read this article for a good explanation of what I mileage run is). Currently I have 41,403 elite qualifying miles, and I need 50,000 to keep premier executive for next year, meaning I'm 8,597 miles short. That's kind of a lot. I checked Europe, I checked Asia, but nothing was cheap. After reading the above referenced article, I decided to check out Anchorage, Alaska and sure enough, came up with a cheap enough ticket. So here's the trip I'm taking next Saturday (Dec 10):

Washington National (DCA) - NY, LaGuardia (LGA) 10:00 - 11:10
NY, LaGuardia (LGA) - Denver, CO (DEN) 13:40 - 16:05
Denver, CO (DEN) - Anchorage, AK (ANC) 17:26 - 21:11
Anchorage, AK (ANC) - Denver, CO (DEN) 23:30 - 06:34
Denver, CO (DEN) - Pittburgh, PA (PIT) 07:50 - 12:37
Pittsburgh (PIT) - Washington National (DCA) 16:00 - 16:57

Total elite qualifying miles: 8,730 which will put me 133 miles over the 50 thou mark. Kinda cutting it close I know, but it's definitely worth it. And the total cost was about $400. Not bad at all.

Twin Sister is going to be pissed that I'm missing White Party @ Nation though...

Weekend Round-up

Well I have to say, this past weekend was quite entertaining. I definitely consumed enough food and booze to last me until christmas. Let's recap shall we:

Wednesday: I spent most of the day on the train to Boston. At 6.5 hours it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Took the Acela Express which is nice and roomy, the train was crowded, but not standing-in-isles crowded. I was definitely over it by hour 5 though. After a quick shower and costume change at Twin Sister's mom's house, we decided to head out to the bars to meet some of his friends from high-school. We started out at a straight bar but eventually made our way to the gays. By this time we were seriously intoxicated. How intoxicated you might ask? So intoxicated that I decided to play pimp for the evening. Neither TS or I wanted to shell out the $50 for the cab ride back to the 'burbs, so I made the executive decision to find an alternative place to stay for the evening. I saw a gentleman eyeing TS and made the introduction. The quote of the evening would have to be:

Twin Sister: I'd be happy to go home with you but my friend here is staying with me. He'd have to sleep on your couch.

Definitely one of our tashier moments. And sure enough, I slept on the couch.

Thursday: After waking up and subwaying it back to the house. We didn't have too much time to get ready and head over to Twin Sister's Aunt's for dinner. Overall it was a nice time with good food. However, TS's younger brother (21 or 22 years old) drove one of the guests away before dinner even started. Now, in the brother's defense, this woman is seriously crazy. And she must've been off her meds that day. She was already upset that her two adopted kids (who are supposedly normal) were spending the day at her recently divorcerd husband's house. Things got worse when we starting to talk about how much DC has changed, included the lack of prostitutes near the White House. I guess she didn't like the conversation. The icing on the cake was when TS's brother tried a bit of baked brie that apparently she had brought, he then yelled out "Uuuuggghhh, this is ROTTEN." The woman got up, turned to the brother, said "don't you have any manners," walked out the door, got in her car, and left. And sure enough did not come back. Strangely, no one seemed to be all that concerned. That night we went to a friend's house, sat around, and got loaded.

Friday: This day was rather tame. We slept in, went to the gym, and went to game night at TS's other Aunt's house. Not much really to report...didn't even drink that much

Saturday: We didn't really do much today either. Saturday night though we decided we needed a little change of pace. We started out at some trashy club called Paradise. It was two levels and the lower level looked like a basement. Probably because it was a basement. After that we went to Rise, were Twin Sister had manged to get us on the list. The place was pretty cool, although the music was wack. Despite this we ended up staying until damn near 6am (we got there at 230)

Sunday: Spent 10.5 hours in a car riding back to DC. I'm sure you can imgine how fun that was.

Bitches, I told you so!

My theory is that they a running drugs. Why else would the bus stop at 1st and New York Avenue. Where someone opens the luggage hold, takes something out. puts something in, talks to the driver for a minute, and the leaves.

Thanksgiving

Well I'm off tomorrow morning to Boston for Thanksgiving with Twin Sister and his family. I'm really looking forward to it as I think it'll be a total blast. His mom is a riot! I just hope she doesn't share a handle of vodka with us and then sendl us off to hit the streets. She did that when she came down to visit and it was NOT pretty (what really wasn't pretty was the fact that we could barely stumble into JR's and they still served us). I haven't met Twin Sister's brother yet, but apparently he's hot. And gay.

You might be wondering why I'm not going home for Thanksgiving. "But Chris, you fly back and forth to San Francisco like it's a trip to Target. Why aren't you going home now?" And you'd be right. But I haven't been home for Thanksgiving in three years cause it's generally been cheaper to fly east to Europe than west to SF around this time. I had planned on being in Brussels to visit a friend but that didn't work out, so off to Boston (on the train no less) I go. Besides Christmas is only a few weeks away and I'll be home then.

I'll be back on the blog on Monday. Have a happy and safe Thanksgiving!

Un-nerving

So I was outside smoking a cig earlier today when a Cheep Grand Cherokee pulled up across the street and double parked. I wasn't really paying attention but then I heard a gasp or two. When I turned around to look, all I saw were people staring at the car and at the building that the driver must've run into. I went back to work and when I came out not too much later, there were cops and fire trucks EVERYWHERE. There was a ladder truck and they were raising the ladder up to a ledge between two buildings across the street. There was a stretcher on the ladder and I figured for some reason they must be rescuing someone from the ledge. Well it turns out. They were. Sort of.

Convo of the Weekend.

Overheard in the Gallery Place metro station last night after Brian and I saw Harry Potter (which was SO good BTW).

Girl #1: I can't believe he played him like that.

Girl #2: Who?

Girl #1: Dumbledore. Man, when he told Harry Potter to forget about his dream, he shoulda had that shit on lock.

Girl #2: Right! Instead Harry up against Voldemort solo, and on top, dude done bust a cap in his friend.

Girl #1: That is some shady shit.

Convo of the Day

Me: Kate, I go out one night a week and you call me an alcoholic
Kate: Ya well I go out one night a month and you send me links to Betty Ford.

Mind you both of us are still a little drunk from last night...

Pants

I urge you, gentle reader, to click on this link and read the description of these pants. It's hystarical!

I will write more when I'm less hungover drunk. And no. I did not go to all-you-can-drink.

UPDATE: Apparently this eBay ad as made quite the rounds. Here is the author's blog, and his post on some of the recognition his ad has received.

Mother Nature You're a bitch. Pt. 2

So I think mother nature was mad at me yesterday after I called her a bitch. She teamed up with weather bug to play a mean little trick on me. Around 330-4pm it rained. I knew this was coming. I could see it on weather bug. What I did not know when I left work at 530 was that the earlier rain was not the end of it. You see I had checked weatherbug after the earlier rain dopplar said that was it. When I left the office I had forgotten my umbrella, as it was only sprinkling outside (and weatherbug didn't say more rain), I figured I'd be fine. Not so. I'm halfway to the metro, too far to turn around, when, WHOOOOOSHH. Buckets of water come poring onto my head. It was still raining when I got off the metro. And still raining when I got back on it to go back downtown. Mother nature, you've won this round...

Mother Nature, you're a bitch!

This little weather thingy has me a bit concerned. Right now it is a quite pleasent, though windy, 74 degrees outside. Somehow by tonight the temperature is supposed to drop just shy of 40 degrees. That's one mighty drop. You know it's going to be one of those times when once the front passes through, the temp drops in like 2.5 seconds.

Tomorrow's to-do list: Wear scarf and jacket to work, send mother nature a big eff-you letter.

Rite-Aid

I just ran across the street to rite-aid to buy cigarettes. I was in a hurry but there was only one person in line so I figured I could wait. I get behind the woman and stand there for a few before I realize that she has two shopping baskets filled with things. Now I've seen people before in rite-air stock up on candy for the office, or buy a couple of toiletries, but this woman was full-on grocery shopping. In Rite Aid! WTF? I mean she had toilet paper, cans of soup, cereal, milk, aluminum foil (who knew), the whole bit. Of course there was only one register open and the women behind it was in no kind of hurry. Bitch this is rite-aid. Seller of cigs, candy and perscriptions. If you want to get your shop on, go to Giant.

Weekend Round-Up

As perdicted, this weekend was filled with booze and hangovers. Overall it was a great time, although I don't think I've taken so many Advils in a single weekend before.

Thursday night: We all gathered at JR's for Bernie's B-Day, which happily coincided with $9 all-you-can-drink. I made the mistake of not eating before hand. I've made this mistake before, and it is n-e-v-e-r pretty. There really isn't much to report on. Probably because there really isn't much I remember. I do know that I woke up at Brian's with my hand in a McDonalds bag and an iron grip on some stale french fries. Cute, I know.

Firday Night: Take Thursday night and wash, rise, repeat. Friday was Nick's birthday which meant that he got to decide where we would go that night. His decision? The Common Share in Adam's Morgan. If you know me, you'll know that there is nothing more that I hate than a night out in Adam's Morgan. So I was less than thrilled at his choice. Twin Sister and I decided that clearly there is no way we can get out of it so we might as well make the best of it. A magnum of La Contessa pinot and a half bottle of vodka later, we figured it might not be that bad. We headed to JR's for a quick top off before heading to Adam's Morgan. I have to say, the pregame booze definitely did the trick because the Common Share was not as bad as I had remembered. I reached my limit at a relatively early midnight and had to check myself out of the party.

Saturday was Bernie and Nick's b-day brunch out at Bernie's parents house. Now mind you, Bernie's parents live out it Stickville so brunch was an all day experience. Brunch was fun, filled with tons of food and drink. However, getting to brunch was not so fun. Saturday night I decided to go to Nation with Chuck. My first time there since July. I ended up having a pretty decent time. A bunch of people I haven't seen in a while were there, and we definitely danced it up until 5 in the morning. Which is remarkable considering the DJ blew.

Sunday: Didn't do one damn thing.

Random stuff

The new Madonna album makes me wet and the two remixes I've heard for Hung Up make me even wetter! So far I like the Chus & Ceballos remix a lot better than the Tracy Young. But maybe that's because I really don't like Tracy Young. I'm still mad at her from the time she spun at Nation and just flipped the music off at the end. Bitch.

"Dance Floor Under Construction: Birthday Extravaganza" is finished. There are a couple of gems in there for your listning pleasure.

It so fucking cold outside, it was way warmer this morning when I left for work. Now it's like the arctic tundra

I don't have shit to do at work until January. Finally. I probably shouldn't be writing this but whatev's.

Poltical Post of the Day

So I know I've been posting a bunch of political stuff recently. Sorry about that. I'll try and spice up the coming weekend so I can give you lurid tales of booze and such. In the mean time, came across this post from Andrew Sullivan (via White House Briefing). Sullivan makes and extremely valid point regarding the President's recent assertion that "We do not torture."


"BUSH DIGS IN DEEPER: Here's a fascinating quote:

"There's an enemy that lurks and plots and plans and wants to hurt America again. So you bet we will aggressively pursue them but we will do so under the law. We do not torture," - president Bush, today.

If that's the case, why threaten to veto a law that would simply codify what Bush alleges is already the current policy? If "we do not torture," how to account for the hundreds and hundreds of cases of abuse and torture by U.S. troops, documented by the government itself? If "we do not torture," why the memos that expanded exponentially the lee-way given to the military to abuse detainees in order to get intelligence? The president's only defense against being a liar is that he is defining "torture" in such a way that no other reasonable person on the planet, apart from Bush's own torture apologists (and they are now down to one who will say so publicly), would agree. The press must now ask the president: does he regard the repeated, forcible near-drowning of detainees to be torture? Does he believe that tying naked detainees up and leaving them outside all night to die of hypothermia is "torture"? Does he believe that beating the legs of a detainee until they are pulp and he dies is torture? Does he believe that beating detainees till they die is torture? Does he believe that using someone's religious faith against them in interrogations is "cruel, inhumane and degrading" treatment and thereby illegal? What is his definition of torture? "

I personally wouldn't mind hearing the answer to these questions.

Evaluations

We finally get to evaluate our researchers here at my job. Without these people, our jobs would be so much harder. And yet. With these people, our jobs are so much harder. Every three months when our reports are due, it's not uncommon to hear my fellow coworkers damning these researchers to a life of eternal hell. We've all spent countless hours trying to fix the mess that some (not all) of these people create. My office mate Kate sent in this evaluation of one particular researcher.

Dear Management,

[This researcher] fails at all aspects of being a person.

Thanks,
-Kate

Fill-In-The-Blanks?

Normally on a monday morning afternoon I like to play Fill-In-The-Blanks. (Un)fortuntely I didn't go to JR's last night and instead went to a lesbian cookout over by Capital Hill. Considering Brian and I might as well have spent the entire weekend at Home Depot, this was really quite fitting. The only booze filled night was Saturday, and even that was quite tame. I think I had 4 drinks and was in bed by 12. Secretly I'm saving up for Nick and Bernie's birthday extravaganza which will begin this Thursday at JR's, promptly at 5:05 pm, and will most likely not end until Monday morning.

What Happens in Vegas...

I bet with this post title you thought I was gonna give some tasty tale of booze, sex, and dabauchery. Sorry to disappoint you, but I'm actually going to draw your attention to this Washington Post article about the FBI's use of National Security Letters. These letters are used by the FBI to obtain all manner of private info (phone logs, email lists, what books you checked out, online purchases, website visits, etc...), without the approval of a judge or grandjury, or for that matter, the oversight of Congress.

The post cites one particular example that really struck me. You may or may not remember the orange alert that was issued for Las Vegas right before New Years 2003. To investigate the terror threat, the FBI used these letters, among other means, to gather information on anyone that stayed in a hotel, rented a car, or flew on a plane to Las Vegas during a two week period. Are you kidding me? Think about that for a second. That's well over a million people. The FBI tracked the movements (at least vaguely) of a million people during a two week period. And who knows what other kind of information they gathered that wasn't revealed in the Post report. If you were visiting Las Vegas for New Years 2003, then you have an FBI file. What's even more disturbing is that even though the investigation didn't turn up anything, the government is still keeping all of that data for possible future use. Because of this, I've decided to write congress a letter:


Dear Congress,

Please excercise your constitutionally mandated task of government oversight.

Thanks,
-Management

Chris Evan's is SO hot!!

Fill-In-The-Blanks

As it's Friday morning, I would like to play Fill-In-The-Blanks. I know it's been a while but I'm sure you remember how. I'll go first.

I remember getting to JR's at 630
I remember not leaving until almost 10
I remember (though it had to be prompted) fighting a bush on my way to the GL
I vaguely remember not being able to find my coat check (but found like 4 others) at the GL and having to leave my bag and jacket.

I do not remember the walk back to Brian's
I do not remember most of my time at the GL (although I do remembr calling him like a bazillion times)
I do not remember how many drinks I had last night. I say 4-5. Bernie says 8-9. I'm guess it's somewhere in between

Who's next?

I would like to sleep with this man, and/or have his children. If you can work that out, let me know.

Thanks,
-Management

GOP Translator

I came across a pretty funny comment here, thought I'd share it. (Posted by Fairandbalanced?):

"...Democrats are devoid of any ideas..."

There's that line again.

In reality-speak that means:

"We're scared to death of the Democrats in '06/'08."

Im working on a GOP-to-Reality translator. Heres a test:

GOP: "We'll get Osama dead or alive"
TRANSLATION: "We wont ever get Osama b/c he keeps us in business."

another:

GOP: "We're going to fix social security."
TRANSLATION: "We want to end social security."

another:

GOP: "We are the party of morals."
TRANSLATION: "We will lie, cheat and rob you blind."

another:

GOP: "We want to return to fiscal responsibility."
TRANSLATION: "We want to shrink the Federal Govt down to the size where we can drown it in a bathtub."

Yeah! It works! Now all I need to do is mass produce it and sell it at Walmart.