It's a good literary week for foreign policy and economics geeks in Washington. Madeleine Albright will be at the Georgetown Barnes and Noble tomorrow at 7:30, speaking and signing copies of her new book, Memo to the President Elect: How We Can Restore America's Reputation and Leadership. And Friday night Nobel Peace Prize winner and microfinancier ( Read more... )

Blogmeme stolen from Beth. Again ( Read more... )

As I mentioned in my last post, I have a lot of work to do. Unfortunately, I'm having a hard time getting it done because I keep getting distracted by thoughts about pie. Thanksgiving swiftly approaches, and my annual contribution is baking the pies. But how many, and more dauntingly, what kind? Bourbon-orange pecan. Ginger-honey pumpkin. Chocolate ( Read more... )

Economics is taking over my life. Some people (chiefly economists) would think this is wonderful, as economics permeates the modern world and a thorough knowledge of it will make me a more successful operator therein. I think it's a pain in the ass. It's not mainly the hours of econ reading, studying and classtime that bothers me but the sneaky and ( Read more... )

A whole week between posts! I'm slacking off. Actually, I'm not slacking off for a change. I took my French final today and yesterday. Tomorrow is the last day of classes, and then I have a whole week free before my other finals. Free, that is, to memorize who was whose Secretary of State and the dates of important battles in Vietnam and basically ( Read more... )

WARNING: This post contains uncharacteristically high levels of estrogen. Articles of clothing, underwear, footwear and accessories are explained in extensive, enthusiastic and sickening detail. Squealing may ensue. May be unsuitable for some readers. Read at your own risk. Seriously.
( Don't say I didn't warn you. )

Beth did a year in review that I liked, and now has demanded that I do the same. Okay then. What follows is the first few lines of the first post of each month of 2005 ( Read more... )

There are men in my house. They're fixing the garage door and the holes in the upstairs ceiling. Yesterday a group of them were here all day digging up wood and weeds in the backyard and laying concrete in their place. Before that they were fixing the air conditioner, and hopefully soon more will come to fix the garbage disposal. While it's good ( Read more... )

To expedite my learning of Italian I have begun labelling things all over the house with sticky notes bearing their names in Italian, leaving lots of space for Beth and Laura to fill in the appropriate names in Mandarin and Spanish, respectively. Mom hates it but I think it'll really help. Laura and the cat don't seem to really be into it either as ( Read more... )

This poem has been drifting around in my head for days now, or snippets of it anyway. I submit it to the cathartic power of the blog, in the hopes that it will go away and quit making me gloomy ( Read more... )