There was the exact wrong weather for snowmaking, even if I'd been feeling perfect, so we punted our original idea for skiing this weekend. With nothing else planning, I suggested we check out the reform synagogue that Jon's ex and son attend. I really liked it, alas. ( nobody was skyclad )

I recommended the Metropolitan Museum of Art's "Interwoven Globe: The Worldwide Textile Trade, 1500-1800" to my ex-boss and his wife bc he's an economic historian and she's obsessed with patterns, so she took me to it. I learned a little from the exhibit: textiles were the hot commodity in that period and then as now, China and India made cheap ( Read more... )

I think I came across Plague VSI while looking for books for my Rainier trip: Amazon randomly puts a few VSIs on sale every once in a while and there are A LOT of books in the series. I find epidemiology fascinating, but this book was written by a historian. Still, 125 pages was about my interest in the topic that month and it was nice to get a ( Read more... )

I bought Before the Swarm back when Kindle Singles were new, probably bc I liked the idea of short books for a few bucks. Then I read the first few pages, which were about the profiled scientist growing a botfly in his hand and decided it was too ecchi for me. Not sure why Nicholas Griffin thought this was a good way to open a book -- the rest is ( Read more... )

Counterinsurgency Warfare: Theory and Practice, David Galula: I balked at spending $71 for a 128 page book. Fortunately, TWH was happy to lend me her copy. It's very very good, with lots of information from someone who was in the field. Reading it, I believe the US was following everything he suggested in Iraq at least, so we should've won, right ( Read more... )

I had worked myself into a temper on Friday night, so Jon made me the greatest egg sandwich ever as a peace offering. He's brilliant at cooking eggs, he butters the toast, and we keep quality cheddar and bacon in the house, so the sandwich was so good, it was almost a shame to put hot sauce on it ( Read more... )

The nice thing about having 3 nights in a row of parties is that I took out my makeup case on Thursday and didn't put it back again until Sunday. I even shhhhh wore the same dress twice. Economies of scale! woohoo! ( I took a level in eye shadow )

I've never been anywhere that required context more than Venice. Without it, Venice is an old town with bizarre transportation; with context, Venice is a glittering museum, a carefully preserved monument to trade and its benefits. Julian arranged for a private historic walking tour that included take-home maps and charts. How cool is that? I don't ( Read more... )

Before we went to Gettysburg, one of my smartest cow orkers recommended Shelby Foote's Stars in the Their Courses. I barely finished The Killer Angels in time, so I never got to it, but when I was prepping for our trip to Fredericksburg/Chancellorsville, I thought Foote's The Longest Journey might be a good overview of the campaigns in the area. It ( Read more... )

I think it's sort of funny how Black Friday has become its own special holiday. I'm surprised at how muted it's been this year: is it just me? On Friday we ended up going to the main shopping district in my hometown. Parking was slightly more difficult than a typical weekend, but Saks wasn't particularly crowded. I tried on a few dresses; the one I ( Read more... )