Eat, Run, Read

DC to London to Delhi to Kathmandu!

2013-05-30T09:24:00.000-04:00

Dear readers,

As you know, Mollie’s adventure to Asia is under way! While she’s away, I’m going to be holding down the fort here at Eat, Run, Read. I’ll introduce myself properly a little later, but rest assured, I’m no stranger.

Without further ado, news from Mollie:

First things first: I'm happy to report that the journey went according to plan and I'm alive and well in Kathmandu! Now we back-track three days, because that's how long it took to get here...

I'm about to go trekking in Nepal, but first I spent a day trekking in London -- and I mean that literally. For some unknown reason I had to pick up my bag for the duration of my layover, meaning I had a huge backpacking pack to lug around with me for the day.

After an epic trip from DC to Dulles, which may or may not have included a last-minute stop at REI, and a red-eye into Heathrow on which I did not sleep -- or, if I dozed, it was less like sleep and more like torture, as only transportation sleeping can be -- I made my way into the city via subway for my first London (and first European for that matter) experience.

Guys, it's amazing how much you can see if you just walk a TON! By 3pm, I'd seen Trafalgar Square, Westminster Abby, the Thames, the London Eye, Buckingham Palace, Mo Farrah finishing a 10k in under 30 minutes, the National Gallery, and Portobello Road. It was all pretty cool -- I love exploring new places! The impressionist wing at the gallery was beautiful (when 007 meets Q in Skyfall that's where they are). And considering London's questionable reputation, I couldn't have ordered better weather: sunny and high 60s!

Unfortunately the pack definitely made everything harder, and by the end of the day solo with no phone/texting, I was lonely. I actually felt the urge to chat with strangers, which is not my usual jam at all! Now I see what people mean when they say that when you travel alone you end up making friends along the way. Otherwise there'd be no one to talk to!

Also, I looked hilariously out of place. Basically, I'm not willing to a) sit on airplanes for 2 days in jeans, or b) waste precious bag space on "real" clothes for just one day. And trekking-in-Nepal clothes don't exactly lend themselves to the London lifestyle...whoops! Sorry Americans, I'm doing nothing good for our image abroad.

By early afternoon I was EXHAUSTED, and returned to the airport to pass out on a bench and await my next flight -- 7 hours to Delhi. Love me some Jet Airways in-flight Indian food. No really, I'm being serious! Palak paneer and chapatti?! Yes, please!

By the end of my London-Delhi flight, I had lost all sense of time and normality, which is probably good because it will make adjusting to the time change super-easy. I was so sleepy it hurt on the flight into Kathmandu and everything was happening in a am-I-there-yet? zombie-esque blur.

But I arrived! And saw some pretty amazing mountains out the airplane windows on my way.

The Kathmandu airport is small, but of course the experience was confusing -- an assortment of smiling Nepalese men swirling around me, herding me places and telling me what to do. I always forget how stupid travel makes me feel -- of course you can return backwards through the metal detectors and security to apply for your visa. And well, duhyou can pay for your cab in dollars in advance and the get your change in rupees! Yes yes! Follow me please! You look like you need help! Don't forget your wallet! Welcome to my country! It's all nice and not creepy, just a bit overwhelming at times. And I'm pretty sure that as a woman obviously traveling alone, the people helping me thing is taken to a whole new level. I don't mind at all though -- I trust the Nepalese to know what's up in their country better than I do, so I'm happy to follow instructions.

So anywho, I'm here in my hostel -- literally on the other side of the world from most of my readers -- showered and ready to SLEEP. Sister2 arrives tomorrow (yay) and then who knows what happens next!?

Hustle and bustle!

It's not Bikeshare, but it'll do!

Goodbye DC, Hello Asia!

2013-05-25T16:02:00.001-04:00

Alright friends, sorry for going completely MIA there. I haven't left DC yet, but I've spent the last week in a mix of stressful packing/moving and blissful funemployment.

And when I say packing I mean OH MAN PACKING. I would not wish that mess on anyone. Clearly I put it all off until the last possible minute, then spent one hellish Sunday putting all my stuff into boxes and bags and wandering aimlessly around my apartment moaning -- nooooo noooo...oh noooo it's not going to fit...noooo...there's no way this is happening. (SpeedyKate and LOTR Emily can corroborate this silliness)

But magically (seriously, MAGICALLY) all my stuff fit in the back of my friend's mom's minivan, in an impressive tetris of stuff, including but not limited to my bed, mattress, a small chest of drawers, and my trampoline!

We left at the crack of dawn Monday to get on the road north: DC, Baltimore, NYC, Boston! We made it by early afternoon, unloaded the van into the basement of my soon-to-be home, and with that all my major to-dos were done.

We drove back allllll night Tuesday night, which was an 8.5 hours experience, but we survived. And oh hai week of funemployment, which for me looks like sleeping untill 9:30, PJs most of the day, biking around and about handling pre-travel errands, shorts and tank tops and curly hair and no makeup, and reading in parks, coffee shops, and my on my living room floor. Also, I went on my second learn-to-dirt-bike venture yesterday, and I'm happy to report it was a success! Bring it on Laos!!!

So all of my things have been taken care of, and at least logistically, I'm ready to go. It's kind of strange because usually when you go on vacation you come back home...but this time I'm not coming back (to DC at least) and I will just keep going on to more and more new things (I'm going to start grad school in Boston in August)! I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this to be be honest, but my decisions have been made and there's no turning back now!

Tomorrow I get on a plane that will take me to London; where I'll spend 9 hours (Hello Europe! Nice to finally meet you!), then connecting through Delhi and on to Kathmandu. I will meet Sister2 in Kathmandu on Wednesday and then we will go trekking in Langtang for a couple weeks. After a month in Nepal I will be on my way to Bangkok, where I will meet up with Andy for part 2 of my ventures that will include Bangkok, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam.

I would share with you the specifics, but we haven't planned them yet. So stay tuned to the blog! I will not be updating daily of course, but I will keep you posted on all my international antics!

Best of the Week #104

2013-05-17T10:02:00.000-04:00

Today is my last day at work! I’m wrapping things up, writing an epic exit memo of instructions for the new me, cleaning the crumbs out of my desk drawers (in Mollie Land, office drawers are strictly for snack storage), and sending that final all-staff goodbye email. It’s been almost two years at Enough (go ahead, you know the end of that pun) and the Satellite Sentinel Project, and though I’m definitely ready to move on to my new and exciting things, I’ll miss my awesome co-workers!

I considered doing a Best of the Week strictly of goodbye gifs…but maybe we’ll save that for when I actually leave leave.

I started out just skimming this (as I do with most things on the interwebs), but it is fascinating and I definitely re-focused and read it all: "For Sale: A Video of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford Smoking Crack Cocaine."

It began like this: We've made fun of Ford before for his bizarre pronouncements and nude pictures. Last week, we got a tip from someone claiming to have a videotape of Ford smoking crack. Would we like to buy it?
And so here we are. The owner still hasn't found a buyer with pockets deep enough to meet his demands. But word is out around Toronto now that the tape exist, and Ford's circle knows about it courtesy a CNN reporter. So, with permission, I am laying out everything I know about the Rob Ford Crack Tape in the hopes that a) everyone knows that Rob Ford, the mayor of Toronto, smokes crack, and b) this knowledge might hasten the arrival of the Rob Ford Crack Tape on the internet or broadcast television, because really, it is something to behold.

This dog. “Maddy On Things.”

Party Nose

I disagree with a lot of this, but parts are interesting: “The 5 Reasons Girls Type Like Thissss.” Or, correction, I don’t disagree with the fact that people do these things, I just don’t do most of them. I purposefully misspell in writing when I want it to reflect how I say things out loud – i.e. all caps to yell, “Baleful Os (nooo),” and “celebratory vowels (yayyyyy).”

Again, I don’t exactly agree with all of this author’s conclusions, “Women Are Natural-Born Stalkers, and That Can Be a Good Thing.” Buuuut this sentence = me, 100%: And so women just want to know WHAT THE F*** IS UP, like all the time and with everyone.

Not to be all gender essentialist about it, but there's something about borderline-obsessive curiosity that is more in line with the personality traits of women. Maybe it's a result of being raised in a world with implicit biases regarding our behavior as females. Generally considered as physically weaker, it only makes sense that we would develop our strength through social acumen and find power in trading information.

This is also me sometimes. Hungry corgi!

Witty and hilarious: “I Tried Gwyneth Paltrow’s Diet.”

At $154.31, it is almost triple what I usually pay for food, and I haven’t even bought all the fish I will eventually buy! (The diet is really heavy on fish.) I bought at least ten dollars worth of kale and an eleven-dollar jar of honey. Do you know what raw honey is? It is eleven dollars! And there are so many more ingredients than just those two. I actually had a mild panic attack while buying the food and I wasn't even having a dinner party.
After breakfast I decided to do the first DVD of the Tracy Anderson method. It's difficult, actually. Essentially you hold tiny weights in your hand and then flap your arms wildly like a person in a Victorian insane asylum having an epileptic fit. You do this for an hour. At the end, I was so tired I lay on the floor.

Like:

Similarly, from the show Scandal, which I don't watch but my friends do: Kerry Washington's handsome Senator boyfriend in reference to a woman he dated awhile back: "She didn't read. As if that's a thing. Not reading. Can you believe that?"

“Mean Girls Meets The Great Gatsby.” I still haven’t seen Gatsby…fail.

Someday I will have nice things."10 Pretty Domed Cake Stands and Keepers."

Go NY Magazine…I should read it more often? “My Sloppy, Sad Adventure in ‘Pajama Dressing.’”

New clothing is so hard to buy: You have to go to a store and try it on and then come to some sort of Socratic conclusion about it. Pajamas are less judgmental.
So when Marc Jacobs paraded pajamas down the runway at Louis Vuitton and Rihanna and Sofia Coppola showed up at parties in pajamas like tiny Julian Schnabels, I was elated. If pajamas were fair game to wear to actual events in the day, my wardrobe actually became much larger and significantly more cutting-edge (I usually hew to the more classic side of the spectrum, not so-called “runway trends.” These designer pajamas were so cool, like better-cut, ultrafeminine suits that a very short person could wear. One problem: I had not seen any people that were not Rihanna actually wear pajamas out of the house. Am I Rihanna? I cannot wear a sweatshirt that well! Am I Sofia Coppola? Not at all! My eyebrows are terrible…But you never know who you are until you try.

“'Space Oddity' In Space: Yes, Astronauts Are Still The Coolest Humans”

Yes, you will never do anything this cool. You could miniaturize Jay-Z and put him inside your iPod, inherit sixteen billion dollars, bring James Dean back to life, time-travel to 1968 to hip-nap Joan Holloway's hips, give birth to Miles Davis, and hire Stephen Hawking to help you develop the capability to spontaneously turn into a Corvette anytime you wanted, and you would not be this cool. Nothing is this cool.

Sister2, this one is for you! "Chubby Chipmunk Cheeks."

Watch this interesting video – “Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us.”

The best use of money as a motivator is to pay people enough to take the issue of money off the table: Pay people enough so that they’re not thinking about money and they’re thinking about the work. Once you do that, it turns out there are three factors that the science shows lead to better performance, not to mention personal satisfaction: autonomy, mastery, and purpose.

Need an epic soundtrack for your life? THIS. I think that want that song to be playing as I get on my airplane to Nepal. And/or on repeat for the next week?

Can we talk about how excited I am about all the food on my travels!?! As LLC advises, eat all the things. "Laotian food in Honolulu at S&T Thai Cuisine."

Laotian food, a friend says, is like "dirty Thai."

- sup new mai (above left): a bamboo shoot salad, seasoned with bai yanang, what Bletter calls an "MSG plant" for its natural MSG content, released by massaging the plant in water. The crunch of thinly sliced bamboo and deep savory flavor of this dish makes it one of my favorites.
- tam makhung (above right): a familiar green papaya salad, but in this dish, you can really taste the difference between Thai and Laotian food. The fish sauce for this dish is much more pungent and funkier than in the Thai version.

Me at 5pm today:

Let's celebrate everything! Have a great weekend!!!

Literary Bite: Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts

2013-05-16T10:12:00.001-04:00

Shantaram, by Gregory David Roberts, is one of my all-time favorite books.

It’s the story of an escaped Australian convict and former heroin addict, who makes his way to Bombay in the mid-1980s, lives and works as a doctor in a slum, spends three months in an Indian prison, gets involved with the local mafia, falls in and out of love, and fights the war in Afghanistan. And it’s based on the author's life – aka kinda TRUE!

I read Shantaram for the first time in summer 2008 (my first summer in DC!), and I knew almost immediately that it would become one of my most-loved books, due for multiple re-readings. Since then, I’ve recommended it a lot, thought about it sometimes, and finally got my hands on it again about a month ago. On a sunny warm evening, I sat down on my stoop, opened it up the 936-page block of gold, and immediately got SO excited to read it again!

Seriously, I challenge you to read the first page of this book and not want to read the whole thing. (You can read the first chapter here).

I was a revolutionary who lost his ideals in heroin, a philosopher who lost his integrity in crime, and a poet who lost his soul in a maximum security prison. When I escaped from that prison, over the front wall, between two gun towers, I became my country’s most wanted man. Luck ran with me and flew with me to India, where I joined the Bombay mafia. I worked as a gunrunner, a smuggler, and a counterfeiter. I was chained on three continents, beaten, stabbed and starved. I went to war. I ran into the enemy guns. And I survived, while other men around me died. They were better men than I am, most of them; better men whose lives were crunched up in mistakes, and thrown away by the wrong second of someone else’s hate, or love, or indifference. And I buried them, too many of those men, and grieved their stories and their lives into my own.

The NYT calls Shantaram “a gentle giant” and I agree. Despite its dark themes and depictions of crime and the worst of humanity, the novel remains light at heart, and is actually frequently laugh out loud funny. The dialog between Lin (aka Shantaram) and his friend Prabhakar the taxi driver is always hilarious, as is the relationship between Lin and the hit-man/best friend Abdullah.

And a lot of it is about love – some romantic (Lin and Karla), some filial (Lin and Khader), but mostly friendship (Prabhakar, Abdullah, Didier, etc. etc. etc.):

“At first, when we truly love someone, our greatest fear is that the loved one will stop loving us. What we should fear and dread, of course, is that we won’t stop loving them, even after they are dead and gone. For I still love you with the whole of my heart. I still love you. And sometimes, my friend, the love that I have and can’t give to you, crushed the breast from my chest. Sometimes, even now, my heart is drowning in a sorrow that has no stars without you, and no laughter, and no sleep.”

Shantaram is a novel, but it is based on real events from Roberts’ life, which makes is that much cooler! And if you’ve read it, and therefore love Prabakar, you’ll be happy to learn that Prabhakar Kisan Khare was a real-life individual. Says the author:

"With respect, Shantaram is not an autobiography, it’s a novel. If the book reads like an autobiography, I take that as a very high compliment, because I structured the created narrative to read like fiction but feel like fact. I wanted the novel to have the page-turning drive of a work of fiction but to be informed by such a powerful stream of real experience that it had the authentic feel of fact.

It is supposedly a pretty accurate depiction of Bombay in the 1980s, as a city mid-urbanization being run my mafia councils and corrupt police as its population explodes. Says Lin of his first visit to a slum:

"As the kilometers wound past, as the hundreds of people in those slums became thousands, and tens of thousands, my spirit writhed....Still, that first encounter with the ragged misery of the slum, heartbreak all the way to the horizon, cut into my eyes. For a time, I ran into the knives."

(That's a great quote, right?)

I'm a little bit torn right now, because I want to tell you everything, but I don’t want to give anything away…so I’ll stop myself and just say READ THIS NOW. The only downside is that the book in hard-cover is too big to fit in my purse.

Happy Birthday Dad!

2013-05-15T11:09:00.000-04:00

Today we celebrate the birth of mi padre!

That’s right, the good old daddy-o is one year more mature (his words, not mine), maybe (?) a few seconds-per-mile slower, but still running races, setting goals, and going for post-run pancakes like the champ he is (and he has raised me to be).

In my own old age, I have learned that I have learned a number of great things from my dad, mostly running related, but also life-related. So in honor of his awesomeness…

Things I have learned from my dad:

Win races, not workouts. A couple weeks into my freshman cross country season, my dad stopped by the track to watch us workout (totally normal for running nerds...). He saw me (and everyone else) sprinting at the end of each repeat like the silly 14-year-old I was, and afterwards sat me down: Don’t sprint at the end, don’t race your teammates. It really doesn’t matter who wins the interval – just run steady, even, at your own pace. Save the racing for meets! And then on race day, you race. Wise words, for serious!

He started the Greater San Francisco Track Club in 1979. (Bottom left)

Popcorn is the best snack in the world. Ask SpeedyKate, or any of my co-workers, I eat it every day. Homemade (none of that chemically bagged ickiness). Whole grain. Salty. Delicious.

No complaining, no excuses, no shortcuts. He and I totally agree on this. If you want to run faster, go out and do your workouts. And he KNOWS what hard work is – the man has done 25 marathons, 13 of which were sub-2:30. That’s fast. That’s averaging under 5:30 minutes per mile pace for 26.2 miles kind of fast! His PR? 2:24:28. Again, that's fast.

How to fish. It has recently come to my attention that not everyone knows how to fish. And I’m sorry what??? I just assumed this was a major part of everyone else’s childhood, like riding a bike. Apparently it’s not. (A recent conversation – Me: I want to go fishing in Cambodia! Andy: Umm ok maybe. Do you even know how to fish? Me: OF COURSE I DO WELL DUH.) So, in order from easiest to most difficult, I have been: unknown fish fishing from the Petaluma River pier, trout fishing in the lakes at Mt. Tam, mackinaw fishing from a boat in Lake Tahoe, and striped bass fishing in Marin Creek.

Chocolate cake and oatmeal cookies can solve all the world's problems. As much as he loves his health food and Power Bars, my dad cannot resist certain desserts.

Shoes and insoles are IMPORTANT. From a blog I wrote a while back:

To some people (i.e. my dad), running shoes are a religion. He orders boxes of shoes, testing them out, taking them for a run, seeing what he likes. Something hurts? New shoes. Feeling sore? New shoes. Tired? New shoes.
And then there’s the insoles. I’ve always had orthodics, because I have example-on-the-training-room-wall weird feet. My dad loves insoles just as much as he loves shoes. Some people’s fathers tinker with tools in the garage – mine creates Frankenstein-like insoles on the back porch.
He cuts them up, super-glues them back together, and makes his own orthodics. Heel lifts, extra arch support, whatever you need can probably be solved with the proper adhesive and an assortment of extra insoles (leftover from all the shoes, obviously!). You’d think that an alternative insole was the answer to the world’s problems…who knows? Maybe it is. We all need a little extra support now and then.

Mustache, white shorts, on the right. I KNOW RIGHT???

Experiment! He taught high school science for 30(ish) years, which has taught me to question, come up with ways to test, then experiment and review what you've learned. This applies to everything, not just things that involve lab coats and Bunsen burners.

Run on soft surfaces whenever possible. My family has no problem whatsoever driving (up to an hour sometimes) to go running on trails. And until recently I never thought of trail running as a separate activity from regular running. It's just running but better and better for you. This no-concrete/asphault philosophy has been so ingrained in me that even when I'm running in DC, I always try to run as much as possible on the dirt/grass/trail on the edge of the sidewalk or road.

One of the best things about running is breakfast afterwards. When I was little, I distinctly remember going to cross country races in Golden Gate Park when my parents and/or their teammates were racing, being baby-sat by one of my dad’s students or a running friend, getting completely soaked by the foggy-wet grass, then everyone going out to breakfast afterwards. And now when I go home the first question is where are we running? And the second is where are we getting breakfast afterwards?

And finally: Work hard, play hard. He loves saying this. And as cheesy as it is, I agree!

Happy Birthday Dad!!!

[Thanks to adults on Facebook, I now I have quite the collection of old pictures that are HILARIOUS (though maybe only to me?).]

Cake of the Week: Banana Rum Bars

2013-05-14T10:07:00.001-04:00

Drop everything and make these now!!!

For reals guys, I’m picturing a Venn diagram of all the banana things I’ve made, all the bars things I’ve made, and all the really really really good things I’ve made, and these Banana Rum Bars are smack-dab in the middle.

These are in the top-whatever of bars I have ever made ever. They’re like lemon bars (i.e. have a graham cracker crust and fruity topping), but with browned butter and rum and banana. They are also pretty dense – there’s nothing banana pudding or jello-y about these. (Luckily! Blegghh I hate banana pudding.)

I made a batch (9x13 pan) for our party on Saturday and they were gone super-fast and for good reason. There’s kind of a lot of salt involved, which I think is what made them SO awesome – everyone loves salty and sweet (especially boys, why is that?). They also came out of the pan really easily (every time something doesn’t stick I high-five myself, heave a sigh of relief, and dance a happy dance of joy in my kitchen), and cut very neatly.

Banana Rum Bars

Printable recipe.

For the crust

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
3 cups graham cracker crumbs (about 14 whole graham crackers, or 2 sleeves)
1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

For the filling

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, cut into cubes
3 mashed, ripe, bananas
2 eggs, room temperature
1 1/4 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
1 tablespoon rum (or vanilla)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt

For the glaze

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon rum (you may need more or less rum, or more or less sugar depending on humidity/consistency)
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Grease and/or line a 9x13-inch pan with parchment paper or foil. (I used oil to grease the pan, then used the paper wrappers from the butter to line the bottom…aka I never have parchment paper).
Prepare the crust: In a large bowl (or in a food processer), combine the melted butter, graham cracker crumbs (put the graham crackers in a bag and crush away! Or food process them if you’re feeling less aggressive than my good self), brown sugar, salt, and cinnamon. Pulse or stir until the mixture resembles heavy, wet, sand.
Press the sandy mixture onto the bottom of prepared pan. If it's too sticky, use the bottom of a measuring cup to press the crust down into an even layer. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and place the pan onto a cooling rack.
Reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees.
Prepare the filling: In a small saucepan, melt the 4 tablespoons of butter over medium-low heat. Increase the heat to medium and, stirring occasionally, cook the butter, stirring/swirling the pan occasionally, until it turns golden brown and develops a nutty aroma. Depending on the stove's heat, it can take 5-8 minutes for the butter to brown properly. Once is smells like AMAZING, remove the pan from the heat and let the butter cool to room temperature.
In a separate large mixing bowl, mash the bananas (so many opportunities to smash things in this recipe!) and then mix in the eggs, brown sugar, and rum. Add the cool brown butter and whisk until well combined. Using a spatula or large spoon, fold in the flour and salt.
Scrape the batter over the partially-baked crust and spread the batter into an even layer. Bake for about 40 minutes, or until a thin knife inserted into the center comes up with only a few moist crumbs. (Start checking it at 35 minutes)
Remove the pan from the oven and place on a cooling rack. Cool completely before adding the glaze.
Prepare the glaze: In a large mixing bowl, whisk powdered sugar, rum, and salt. Whisk until smooth. If it's too thick to drizzle, add about 1 teaspoon of rum at a time until it’s thin enough. Use a spoon or fork to drizzle the glaze over the cooled bars. Let them cool in the fridge completely, then cut and serve at room temperature.

Printable recipe.

Weekend Report: Going Away Party

2013-05-13T11:02:00.001-04:00

MONDAY!!!

Why I am I so excited about a day that is usually a downer? Well it’s my last Monday at work, I had a super-fun going away party this weekend, and I just went on a bike ride, and I’m breakfasting on a muffin and strong black coffee, and the sun is shining and pretty much everything is wonderful.

Saturday was rain-stormy and humid and muddy, but that didn’t stop me from spending the day out biking (per my recent non-running usual). Andy and I biked to Mt. Vernon and back, and let me tell you friends, those wooden bridges are SLIPPERY when wet. I was biking carefully, slowing down as I approached each bridge, until...

On the very last one, about a half-mile from Mt. Vernon, I heard Andy go down behind me. Of course I looked back, breaked, and my bike immediately slid out from under me and I hit the ground hard. There we were, two bikers on our backs on the bridge, bikes in varying stages of de-chained disarray around us, clutching our bruised knees and elbows and laughing hysterically. We got up, got back on, and were immediately warned by a passing biker, “Watch out, the ground is pretty slippery.” Thank you sir…we got it.

[Andy: Why is it that every time I hang out with you I end up covered in mud? Dirt biking, the relay, and now today. Me: I don't know...apparently I have that effect on people?]

I was pretty tired after the biking, but I had a party to prep for! It was a joint John’s birthday/graduation and me-leaving celebration hosted at my apartment. I baked a flourless chocolate cake and banana blondies (recipes to come), SpeedyKate and I cleaned up and moved our furniture out of the way, John brought us a big bag of awesomeness from Chinatown Express for party snacks, and done! Party ready!

I completely failed at taking pictures, so you’ll just have to believe me when I say that everyone looked great and had a good time.

Sunday was pretty post-party lazy. I puttered around until it was time for an hour and a half of heated flow yoga, which oommmmggggg Edwin, you kill me every time. I wish I could report that I’m getting better at non-bikram yoga…but I don’t think I am. I can do chataranga now though, and I hate my life a little bit less in downward-facing dog, so I guess those are wins!

Then my friends and I tried to see The Great Gatsby, but turns out arriving 20 minutes before the movie starts on opening weekend does not go so well. So we got fro-yo instead and called it a night.

Best of the Week #103

2013-05-10T10:57:00.004-04:00

I seriously thought this day would never come, but it came all the same!!! Today is my second to last Friday at work. Please, everyone, take a moment and join me in a happy dance.

For those of you confused/not caught up on my news, read this: “Big News: Grad School and Travel!”

So I’ve been living it up in DC quite a bit recently, since there are so many fun things to do before I leave!
Last night I went to bluegrass at The Argonaut. The band was called Only Lonesome and they were so good – aka a lot of banjo and mandolin (Excuse me sir, what is that tiny guitar you’re playing?) and fiddle! The room is super-small, which is cool but also reeeeaaaaly loud.

And on Wednesday night I tried a new ramen place, Daikaya, by Chinatown. It’s not quite as good as Toki (it’s a different kind of ramen, and has a shorter wait which is nice), but I recommend the Mugi-Miso Ramen (add an egg). Also, the bar/restaurant next door, Izakaya Seki, is really cool!

Mmmmk now let’s celebrate this most glorious of mornings with some Best of the Week links.

Best read of the week: "Out in the Great Alone." Seriously, sit down and read the whole thing it is SO well-written and you will love it. Random things I learned from this excellent piece: Denali and Mt McKinley are the same thing! Also, the novelist Gary Paulsen, ran the Iditarod twice. My favorite sentences:

I don’t know how you roll, emotionally, with respect to population-density tables. Personally I find this haunting."
If you stood Mount McKinley, which Alaskans call “Denali,” next to Mount Everest on level ground, McKinley would tower over it, thousands of feet higher; Everest is taller only because it rests on an elevated plateau.
They’d grown up together in the Lower 48, then lost touch before reconnecting as adults in Alaska, having in the meantime become a bush aviator and a professional dog musher, respectively, because obviously that is life.
Jay was a Vermont kid, raised in a small town, and there was a mordant New England pluck in the way he gazed into the abyss and said: “I see what you’re trying to do there, abyss.”
“gracious, I’m about to fireball.”
Also rural Alaska accommodations, Arctic-survival knowhow, and (speaking only about the rear cabin of Nugget, here, but) trail mix. Good stuff, possibly homemade. It had the little M&Ms in it.
He’d come to Alaska 40-plus years ago to work oil but gave it up because it meant spending months away from “her,” not specifying who that was. My heart felt like a helium balloon when he said that. Just reporting.
I’d take my glove off to adjust a zipper and lose feeling in my hand almost immediately and instead of thinking Holy no I need to get my glove back on right this second I’d sort of pause and go My, how interesting that my hand feels as though it’s visibly translucent. Then my brain’s inbox would gently ding. PLEASE DON’T DIE.

“The Coolest Earth Houses around the World”

A quote for my runners:

"There's no secret to it. It's just a lot of years and a lot of getting up, putting on the shoes and getting out the door on those days when it doesn't feel good and when it's not all that fun and still putting in the work." - Jenny Simpson, 1500m gold medalist at the 2011 World Championships

A whole new perspective on Babar, from “Book Reviews II” by The Honest Toddler.

Check out that lean. That suit. That bling. Babar don’t care. Before today I didn’t know animals could have swagger. This book was basically an episode of Cribs for Babar and his rich elephant family. I didn’t pay attention to the moral of the story but I think it was “too much rim make the ride too hard.”

For tech/web people: how to create a good user interface, called “The User is Drunk”

These all amuse me far more than they should. It's almost time for me to "Alpacas Pack Your Bag For Vacation!"

SpeedyKate send me this list of "34 Ways To Eat Carrot Cake For Every Meal," suggesting, your last week in DC...we eat all of these? OMG YES PLEASE.

Philosoraptor, on it as always:

If guns don't kill people, people kill people. Does that mean that toasters don't toast toast, toast toast toast?

"Real Life Mowgli: Girl Who Grew Up in the African Wildlife."

Riding a five-ton elephant, whom she called ‘my brother’, chilling with a cheetah or hugging a giant bullfrog as if it were a Teddy bear. The childhood of a French girl Tippi Degre sounds more like a newer version of Mowgli, rather than something real. A white child, she was born in Namibia to French wildlife photographer parents, and grew up in Africa. Tippi spent her whole childhood playing with wild animals including lion cubs, a mongoose, a snake, a cheetah, baby zebra, giraffes and crocodiles.
“It was magical to be able to be free in this nature with this child. She was a very lucky little girl – she was born and raised until the age of 10 totally in the wild.” said Sylvie.

We’re coming up on summertime, i.e. tank tops and shorts! So in light of that: “The History of Shaving.”

As far as armpits are concerned, we can pinpoint it almost to the day. In May of 1915, the upscale magazine Harper’s Bazaar ran an ad featuring a young model in a sleeveless, slip-like dress posing with both arms over her head.
Then World War II erupted, and that iconic pin-up picture of Betty Grable became part of popular culture almost overnight. It’s only a slight exaggeration to say that the women of America have been shaving their legs ever since. Why, you ask? Because Betty’s legs looked amazing, and to emulate that look, you had to wear a short skirt and sheer stockings. You also had to shave your legs, as nothing killed the effect you were trying to create more than leg hair poking through your silky stockings.

Ender’s Game!!! Note to self: must re-read soon.

“The Only Major League Baseball Player to Openly Admit He was Gay During His Career Also May Have 'Invented' the High-Five”

Besides being the first MLB player to come out during his playing career, at least with teammates and management, Glenn Burke is also often credited with being the guy who invented the high-five. To be clear, “low-fives” had been around for several decades at this point, particularly within the African American community, and there are a few people who claim to have “invented” the high-five. Perhaps they really did perform a high-five first at some point- it being not exactly a complicated extension of the already popular low-five. The reason Burke is so often given credit is there is substantial documented evidence of his first high-five, unlike so many other claimants. Further, after he started doing this, it caught on with the Dodgers and later throughout baseball and the world. So even if he was not really the first person to have the bright idea to convert the low-five to a high-five (which seems likely), he at least was integral in popularizing the switch.

Random world fact:

I have somehow never read The Great Gatsby, so I don’t know if I agree with this, "Schulz: Why I Despise The Great Gatsby," but who knows I might...

I know how I’m supposed to feel about Gatsby: In the words of the critic Jonathan Yardley, “that it is the American masterwork.” Malcolm Cowley admired its “moral permanence.” T. S. Eliot called it “the first step that American fiction has taken since Henry James.” Lionel Trilling thought Fitzgerald had achieved in it “the ideal voice of the novelist.” That’s the received Gatsby: a linguistically elegant, intellectually bold, morally acute parable of our nation.
I am in thoroughgoing disagreement with all of this. I find Gatsby aesthetically overrated, psychologically vacant, and morally complacent; I think we kid ourselves about the lessons it contains. None of this would matter much to me if Gatsby were not also sacrosanct. Books being borderline irrelevant in America, one is generally free to dislike them—but not this book. So since we find ourselves, as we cyclically do here, in the middle of another massive Gatsby-recrudescence, allow me to file a minority report.

A beautifully done and definitely worth exploring website: “Too Young to Wed.”

“Child marriage is an appalling violation of human rights and robs girls of education, health and long-term prospects. A girl who is married as a child is one whose potential will not be fulfilled. Since many parents and communities also want the best for their daughters, we must work together to end child marriage.” – Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, Executive Director, UNFPA

Read this story (about soccer), for this line: "That was one weird burrito bowl."

This is literally an animated short about a joke about chips.

"Two Chips" / An Animated Short from Adam Patch on Vimeo.
Who’s about to go to Nepal? This girl!!! So my friends now send me articles like this: "'ONE MISTAKE, GAME OVER’ - DRIVING NEPAL'S HIGHWAY TO HELL.”

“One mistake, game over” reads a bumper sticker on an old, worn truck. You couldn’t put it better. Here, to make it alive, you have to use your horn – as you would a foghorn – to forewarn cars, motorcyclists, chickens, goatherds, or suicidal pedestrians – like these two men who are rolling oil drums in the middle of the road, or these three men who are pushing a tree trunk to the other side of the highway. It’s one of those roads that you find in every poor country, a heroic feat that covers your face in dust, sweat and diesel oil.

And finally (since it's kinda long), Jimmy Fallon's "Lip Sync-Off with John Krasinski."

Have a great weekend and HAPPY FRIDAY!!!

Cake of the Week: 6x6’s Dark Chocolate Truffles

2013-05-09T12:15:00.000-04:00

This is a guest post by our dear 6x6 WHOM I MISS COME BACK TO ME.

As regular readers of Mollie’s blog will remember, I moved from Washington, DC to Cape Town, South Africa at the end of last year to attend grad school. Aside from the distance, my life has not changed much. I’m still running, but up to Rhodes Memorial instead of on the Georgetown Canal. I’m still reading, but it’s books left behind in my student housing instead of recommendations and loaners from Mollie.

Chapman's Peak

Also, gratefully, I am still cooking! While the African grocery shopping experience has been less than pleasant (Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods have clearly spoiled me. When I’m back in the States, those will be the first places I go!), I still have been able to cook some delicious, albeit simple, desserts.

This dessert, Dark Chocolate Truffles, I have cooked already several times since moving to Cape Town. I have two roommates – one French and one German – and the truffles were a huge hit with them. The German even experimented with her own variations on the recipe, and for a while our house had two plates of truffles perpetually in the fridge. [Umm hello flight to Cape Town, can I come over???]

Hike to Rhodes Memorial.

The French roommate, who is prone to hyperbole, likened the truffles to the “best, most refreshing chocolate ice cream in the whole world.” I encourage you to try!

6x6’s Dark Chocolate Truffles

Ingredients:

1/2 pound good bittersweet chocolate such as Lindt (or whatever you can get, depending on the country. In South Africa, Cadbury is equally delicious)
1/2 pound good semisweet chocolate such as Ghiradelli
1 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon prepared coffee
1/2 teaspoon good vanilla extract
Cocoa powder

Directions:

Chop the chocolates finely with a sharp knife. Place them in a heat-proof mixing bowl.
Heat the cream in a small saucepan until it just boils. Turn off the heat and allow the cream to sit for 20 seconds. With a wire whisk, slowly stir the cream into the chocolates until the chocolate is completely melted. Whisk in coffee, and vanilla. Set aside at room temperature for 1 hour.
With 2 teaspoons, spoon round balls of the chocolate mixture onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Refrigerate for 30 minutes, until firm.
Roll each dollop of chocolate in your hands to roughly make a round ball. Roll in cocoa powder. These will keep refrigerated for weeks, but serve them at room temperature.

Cake of the Week: Peanut Butter and Jam Muffins

2013-05-08T09:47:00.001-04:00

Peanut butter. Jam. Muffins. These are literally three of my favorite things and I don’t know why it took so long for this recipe to make an appearance in my life.

I don’t eat peanut butter in large quantities, but I do eat it constantly. So that means that I open up my jar at least twice a day, but it takes me about a month to finish it off. I’ve always preferred crunchy, natural, salted (oh hello Trader Joe’s!), but when desperate (i.e. I just finished mine and all there is in the house is some Skippy/Jif leftover from someone else; I’m in a relay van with six other people and we bought food together; Soviet Safeway was out of the good kind; etc.), any peanut butter will do.

It is the universal condiment. Chocolate sauce goes well with most sweet things, and ketchup goes well with most savory things, but peanut butter is the one that can cross the line and work with both! Think about it – peanut butter cookies are great, as is Thai peanut sauce. (The only flaw in this argument is citrus…peanut butter and citrus is not ok.) (And clearly I’ve thought too much about this – what can I say? Condiments = accessories for food = yum!)

And jam. I feel strongly about jam. People always look at me quizzically when I say I’m having a "peanut butter and jam sandwich," because you’re supposed to say "peanut butter and jelly." But they are not the same thing! Jelly is made out of fruit juice and has no seeds or chunks of fruit. Jam (aka “preserves”) has all the good stuff still in it. And I have always been on team jam, so yes I would like a peanut butter and jam sandwich thank you very much.

Ok back to these muffins. They’re barely sweet and pretty dense, i.e. definitely muffins and not cupcakes sans frosting. They’re not terribly unhealthy, since the only butter is the peanut butter. You can use any jam you like – I started with raspberry, and when I ran out I switched to fig. And they’re pretty awesome straight out of the oven or warmed up in a toaster oven the next morning for breakfast.

I adapted this recipe, using a combination of plain yogurt and water instead of milk. The dough is super-thick, but they turned out well so don’t worry!

Peanut Butter and Jam Muffins

Printable recipe.
Yield: 12 muffins (I tend to make littler muffins, so I got about 18 out of this recipe)
Ingredients:

2 all-purpose flour
½ cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup peanut butter, creamy or crunchy
1 large egg
½ cup plain yogurt
1 cup water
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Jam of your choice

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a standard muffin pan with paper liners, or spray each well with nonstick cooking spray.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a large bowl with an electric mixer, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
Add peanut butter, and mix on medium speed until well combined and crumbly.
Add in egg, yogurt, water, and vanilla, and mix until just combined.
Use a medium-sized spoon to scoop about 1 ½ tablespoons of batter into each muffin well. Shape a little well in the center of the dough for the jam.
Next, place 2 teaspoons of your favorite jam in the center of the muffin batter and top with another scoop (1 1/2 tablespoons) of muffin batter. If necessary, use a spoon or knife to gently spread batter to cover the jam.
Bake in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes.

Printable recipe.

Big News: Grad School and Travel!

2013-05-07T10:13:00.003-04:00

My dearest friends, readers, followers, and people stumbling upon my blog for the first time, I have an announcement: after 4 eventful years in DC I'm turning in my grown-up card, stepping out of my work shoes, giving back my key fob, taking a two year break from adulting, and gong back to school in Boston!!!

It's been a bit of a long drawn-out application and decision process, but I've decided to get my master's at Tufts' Fletcher School of International Affairs. The degree is called a Master's of Law and Diplomacy, and I will be focusing on Security Studies and International Conflict Resolution. (Too much seriousness there for you? Anyone who reads between the corgis and music videos and cake in my Best of the Week posts shouldn't be surprised.) Also, I will be living around the corner from Jess – yay!

So that will begin in August, but wait there's more! Before I commit myself to hours and hours of library time (or let's be real, coffee shop time broken up by middle-of-the-day runs....aka who's excited to be a student again? This girl!), I am leaving my life and embarking on an Epic and Grand Adventure!!! I exactly 19 days (eek) I will sit myself down on a plane to Nepal.

After stopping for a day in London along the way, I will meet Sister2 in Kathmandu and we will spend a month trekking and adventuring in the Himalayas (remember when we went to India together? Sister time!).

And oh wait there's more (I told you it was a grand adventure). From Kathmandu I will fly to Bangkok to eventually meet my friend Andy, who is happily taking a break from his own life to be a part of this trip. From Bangkok we'll head to Cambodia to see Angkor Wat, then make our way north into Vietnam. A close reader may have noticed some foreshadowing a couple weeks ago...the reason I was learning how to dirt bike is because we're going to dirt bike tour ourselves through Laos!

Then we'll cross overland into northern Vietnam and leisurely make out way down the coast (possibly by train) to Ho Chi Minh City.

From there we'll fly to Hong Kong, and from Hong Kong I'll fly home to San Francisco, and eventually on to Boston. That's right – I am literally going to make my way completely around the world in the next 3 months.

View Larger Map
I'm excited to go but sad to leave, so for now let's just pretend nothing is changing, ok? And let's be real, I'll be back to DC before anyone knows it. Blog-wise, I'm planning on continuing to post, probably just much more sporadically during my travels. I'll check in every so often just so you all know I'm alive, well, running in Southeast Asia, and eating aaaaamazing Nepalese and Thai and Vietnamese food (I don't know what Cambodian and Laoation food is like...but I bet it's good and I'll let you know).

So here's to Adventuring! I told you this is the Year to Be Brave.

Weekend Report: Dinner at Zengo and Playing Outside

2013-05-06T10:45:00.000-04:00

DC is like a big playground for adults. Ever since the weather got nice, I've spent every weekend mostly outside, riding my bike from place to place, meeting up with friends and stopping for snacks, music, or to sit in the sun along the way. It’s pretty great, and this weekend was no different.

Friday night started off right with quite the fancy dinner at Zengo (yes, that is two Zengo excursions for me in one week…don’t judge). We had a coupon for the chef’s tasting menu, and it was delicious! The meal started with their shaved papaya salad and some edamame, then progressed to appetizers, entrees, and dessert. Zengo is usually a small plates (Latin/Asian fusion) place, but these plates were anything but small.

Yucca Con Chicharron
singapore style beef stir fry/togorashi aioli/pickled cabbage

Crispy Chicken Wings: prawn glaze/lime/cabbage slaw

I’m having a hard time picking favorites – the yucca fries were unreal, as was the pork belly-yucca mash under the chicken. Yummm and the chicken wings.

Char Sui Chicken Breast
pork belly-yucca mash/anise tomatoes/garlic mojo

Chile Crab Legs: watercress salad/chili glaze/carmelized plantains

And the crab of course…basically it was all perfect. The only thing I didn’t like was the caramelized plantains with the crab, but that’s not Zengo’s fault, I just don’t plantains ever. The dessert was a bit difficult to eat, but ooooof the toasted coconut tuile holding it all together was SO good. I just want to snack on pieces of that forever.

Malanga Ice Cream: mango mousse/toasted coconut tuile

Part 2 of Friday night was attending and volunteering at BikeFest, the Washington Area Bike Association’s speakeasy-themed fundraiser inside Eastern Market. I got dressed up in a flapper dress, fringe and all, and enjoyed some live swing music, attempted (and failed miserably) at playing casino games, then helped clean up. (I forgot to take pictures, whoops, blogger fail.)

Saturday was what has become my typical weekend day-in-the-sun: coffee from Peregrine enjoyed sitting on my front stoop, biking to a friends’ backyard for more sitting outside, then yoga (Bikram for the first time in months! I am sore.). Post-yoga, LOTR-Emily and I finally made it to Union Market for ice cream (the creamery is only open on Saturdays, and for some reason I’m always there Sunday afternoons), and it was just as good as expected. They have regular and soft-serve, but the soft serve is literally their regular ice cream, just churned into smooth rich and creamy deliciousness.

Then we headed back to my apartment for more stoop-sitting, and watching the sun-shiny spring-timey world go by.

Sunday I went on a pretty epic bike ride up to Bethesda, then back through Rock Creek Park. It was a beautiful day for a ride, and biking the closed-to-cars-on-the-weekend roads in RCP was so fun! Sunday evening I got on my bike again and rode up to a friend’s house for some grilling followed by the Drum Circle.

(route details)

My legs are a little bit tired, and my arms are a little bit sunburned, but all in the best way possible. Hope you had a good weekend too!

Best of the Week #102

2013-05-03T15:45:00.001-04:00

Ok I have some truths for you runner-readers. I have been a bit secretive about my running recently, because I haven’t been running. Womp womp, that dirt biking crash and the ensuing foot situation was waaaay worse than I thought(/why is it not better yet?/I have no patience) and it is making me sad. So I will not be running a trail race this Sunday. And I will not be running a 5K on May 15. But I will be biking. And pooling. And that, my friends is that.

But the good news is it’s FRIDAY! Let’s celebrate with some Best of the Week. And I have a major back-up of links to share with you, so GET PSYCHED.

And this little guy makes me feel better about everything.

CookieHound, like Tastespotting, but just for cookies! Aka I'm there.

This is funny, but also interesting. “With Martha Stewart on Match.com, time to rethink online dating?”

We are accustomed to saying, “Okay, Martha.” She is certainly the most prominent, if not the only, ex-convict telling us how to make tasteful seasonal decorations.
Now she’s trying online dating. She has a Match.com profile — yes, that’s really Martha Stewart — where she explains what she’s looking for in a man...
When confronted with millions of potential matches, it’s hard to convince yourself that this Perfectly All Right And Not At All Cabbagey-Looking Fellow with whom you are about to go on your third date is, as P.G. Wodehouse would say, your specific dream rabbit. There are so many rabbits.

THIS MOVIE guys. Seriously. Was Motocrossed a part of your life?

Good read of the week comes from Bitchslap: A Column about Women and Fighting, “Column 44: Invisible Jeffry” On taking compliments and your own awesomeness (“Jeffry”) and other general bad-assery.

If he’d caught me in mid-stride I’d have been doomed, but my right foot landed just as I saw the front wheel of the stroller swing straight at me like the boom of a jibing yacht. My eyes locked on to the wickedly flashing chrome spokes, and somehow—this still impresses me—I managed to leap up and forward, pulling both my feet high enough to clear the wheel, the stroller frame, and the bemused baby within. I landed with a heavy crunch in the trail’s caliche, but I stayed on my feet. I kept running, wanting to avoid a tedious “You almost knocked me down/You almost ran over my baby” discussion, when behind me I heard the man yell, “That was awesome!”
“Thank you!” I called back over my shoulder, because it was. For one of the few times in my life, I honestly felt I deserved some applause.

Love this/agreed!

"Kareem: 20 Things I Wish I’d Known When I Was 30"

7. Be patient. Impatience is the official language of youth. When you’re young, you want to rush to the next thing before you even know where you are. I always think of the joke in Colors that the wiser and older cop (Robert Duvall) tells his impatient rookie partner (Sean Penn). I’m paraphrasing, but it goes something like: “There's two bulls standing on top of a mountain. The younger one says to the older one: ‘Hey pop, let's say we run down there and screw one of them cows.’ The older one says: ‘No son. Let’s walk down and screw 'em all.’” Now, to counter the profane with the profound, one of my favorite quotes is from the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer: “Talent hits the target no one else can hit; genius hits the target no one else can see.” I think the key to seeing the target no one else can see is in being patient, waiting for it to appear so you can do the right thing, not just the expedient thing. Learning to wait is one of my greatest accomplishments as I’ve gotten older.
8. Listen more than talk. And that’s all I’m going to say about that.

I didn’t know this! (from "Mount Everest Fight Raises Questions About Sherpas")

Although the term "Sherpa" has long been a part of the popular lexicon, outsiders generally know little about the role they play in Himalayan climbing.
The Sherpas are a small ethnic group that share many cultural, racial, and linguistic features with Tibetans, who live to their immediate north.
By comparison, Sherpas share a rather straightforward motivation: Mountaineering is their livelihood, and they do it to support their families. It's tough, seasonal work—similar to the role of commercial fishing in Alaska for enterprising college students. They approach the task with good cheer, and the pay is exceptional by Nepal's standards (high-altitude Sherpas earn several times the prime minister's monthly salary).

I would like to read this book and see this documentary: "Dirty Wars." Not my usual jam, but a friend I trust recommended them.

Hmm undecided about how I feel about one-pieces…maybe cute?

And speaking of clothing...I did a little stress-shopping this week. Don't judge me, it was all on sale!

(here)

Take the Social Intelligence Test! My score was 32 out of 36. The average result for adult population is 26 out of 36.

Test how well you can read emotions of others just by looking at their eyes.
The ability to read the emotions of others is linked to "social intelligence" which, in turn, is linked to performance on team-based problem solving tasks.

Must listen! "Evolution of Music" by Pentatonix.

I wrote a thesis paper partially on this EXACT subject, way back in 2009. Some things never change? “In tiny Lesotho, Chinese immigrants set up shop.”

But as in many other countries across the continent, the presence and success of Chinese traders has been a double-edged sword. Some Basotho – the local ethnic group – hail the availability of cheap goods from the Chinese, while others decry the squeezing out of local businesses and accuse the Chinese of shoddy practices. And like many observers, most also wonder how they have managed to become so successful.

This has more real life application than it should. (Or maybe that’s just MY real life?) “How to Talk to a Dictator.”

Remember, when you’re dealing with a dictator, you can get a quicker, more favorable decision than you can in a democracy. It’s important when you negotiate with a dictator that you connect personally. You don’t negotiate by sending e-mails or letters. It’s person-to-person diplomacy. Often the key is to find out what they really need rather than what they say they want. You have to learn what their current moods are, who they’re having an affair with, who they are threatened by, and what you think they want out of the negotiation with you. Don’t get emotional.

Omgggg remember #4? Butterfly clips!! Sister1 was soooo good at it when she was in Junior High and elementary school me was so jealous. SO JEALOUS. "The 19 Most Important Women's Hairstyles Of The '90s."

Pretty funny (this is satire...in case you can't tell): "A Field Guide To Flirting For The Socially Awkward."

Have an opening line ready. Something that will connect you on a deep level. Such as “do you sleep?” or “do you eat?” (If the answer is “I’m on a liquid diet” — abort, there’s nothing here for you).
Not to harp on the eyes, but they are such a big deal. Consider making your eyes go rapidly from side to side occasionally. It shows you have brain activity, which is desirable in a mate.

Whether or not you agree, this is a pretty powerful add campaign: “Choose One” — Little Red Riding Hood or an Assault Weapon?

HILARIOUS! "How Attractive Are You To The Opposite Sex? Esquire’s 1949 Questionnaire"

From Esquire’s Handbook for Hosts: A Time-Honored Guide to the Perfect Party (public library), originally published in 1949 and brimming with the era’s most flagrantly preposterous gender stereotypes, comes a set of questionnaires designed to help the ladies and bachelors make themselves more attractive to each other.
Examples for women: Do you wear clothes that make you a little more up-to-the-minute than the other women in your set? Good — provided your taste is reliable and that the clothes suit you. Men may rant about the “crazy hat” but they swell with pride when their lady companions arouse admiring stares.
If you are asked to get another girl for a foursome, do you pick one obviously less attractive than you are? You are unwise to do so. Get the most glamorous girl you know, and both men will be pleased.
Examples for men: Do you tell a woman she’s beautiful, even if she isn’t? This habit hurts nobody and makes a lot of girls happier.Do you try to arouse a girl’s interest by boasting of your success with other women? Don’t ever do this!

And finally, life rule:

Have a good weekend!

By the Book: Grammy Jean

2013-05-02T10:50:00.000-04:00

She doesn’t make blog appearances very often, but guys, my grandma is awesome. She’s 88 and writes me letters regularly, updating me on life in Los Altos, the Stanford art classes she audits, the garden and antique shows she goes to, the family’s odds and ends and parties I’m missing, and of course, the books she’s reading. I respond by printing out my blog posts and mailing them to her, so she can stay updated on all the action in my life. And in true family-member fashion, she is both my biggest fan and my most honest critic. (McKayla is Not Impressed has NOTHING on Grammy Jean.)

Grammy Jean serves as the family conduit for books. She hears of something or reads it first, then passes it to my mama, who then passes it on to me and my sisters. Eventually we give it back to her, and she passes it to one of my aunts, who then pass it on to cousins. So until recently I’d never met my cousin (LLC) and her family in Michigan, but turns out we’ve read most of the same books – thank you Grammy Jean!

When I told her about my Young Adult Fiction Challenge, she got super-excited (“Very good dear!”), because she’s been in a Children’s Lit Group for yeeeears (I mean really, possibly longer than I’ve been alive). Most recently I recommended they read Quest for a Maid, and at least according to Grammy Jean, all the ladies loved it!

She also thought my By the Book series was particularly fun, so she asked me to print out the questions for her to bring to her Lit Group. She was a bit disappointed by how few group-members took the time to fill them out, but then, as she says, “It is difficult getting people in their 80s and 90s to remember anything. Oh well.”

So, without further ado, here it is...

Grammy Jean, By the Book!

What book is on your night stand now?
Let’s say “on my kitchen table.” The Gardener Heist by Ulrich Boser [I've read this – it's good! It's about the Isabel Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston]

What was the last truly great book you read?
Ben Hur by Lew Walace; and Depths of Glory by Irving Stone

Any literary genre you simply can’t be bothered with?
Romance and Mystery. [Agreed.]

What’s your favorite Shakespeare?
Julius Caesar and Henry V

What was the last book that made you cry?
War Horse by Michael Morpurgo

The last book that made you laugh?
Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson

Name a book you just couldn’t finish.
I can’t remember not finishing a book. [Yet another reason Grammy Jean is awesome, right? #champion]

What were your favorite books as a child? Did you have a favorite character or hero?
My favorite book was Scottish Chiefs by Jane Porter, and my favorite author was William Wallace. My heroes were Skeezix and Uncle Walt [has anyone else heard of them? I haven’t…info here], and Peter Rabbit.

What’s the best book your mother ever gave you to read?
When Knighthood Was in Flower by Edwin Caskoden (aka Charles Major) [Grammy Jean lent me this when I was in junior high, and told me, with a very severe look, “Now listen dear. This is the most wonderful book and you will love it. Usually I don’t mind if you girls give me books back or not, but this one you MUST give back to me. If you don't I will be very upset with you.”], and Miss Minerva and William Green Hill by Frances Boyd Calhoun.

If you could meet any writer, dead or alive, who would it be?
Jane Austin

Have you ever written to an author? Did he or she write back?
Brian Wildsmith – yes. [Grammy Jean! Give me details!]

You’re organizing a literary dinner party and inviting three writers. Who’s on the list?
Jane Austin, Emily Bronte, Charles Dickens.
OR
Emily Caar, Tasha Tudor, Beatrix Potter.

What’s the best movie based on a book you’ve seen recently?
"War Horse"

What are you going to read next?
I’m currently reading A Place of Hiding by Elizabeth George

This interview is part of my By the Book series, in which I interview interesting people about their reading. Any readers out there interested in being featured here? If so, email me: eatrunreadmez@gmail.com.

Cake of the Week: Lime Leches Cake

2013-04-30T09:40:00.002-04:00

A while back I posted about a de-freaking-licious Tres Leches Cake. And in light of the impending Cinco de Mayo (omgggg it’s already almost May!!!), I have a slightly-simpler, possibly even more delicious variation to share: Lime Leches Cake.

I can't claim to be much in touch with my Hispanic roots, and I know that Cinco de Mayo is not really a holiday in Mexico, but being the California girl that I am, give me any excuse to eat enchiladas (or burritos, or tacos, or chimichangas), dip some chips in salsa, and finish it off with some sort of super-sweet dessert, and I am in!

I think that limes often get sold short, pigeon-holed in their too-common role as a throw-away green garnish. So let’s take a moment to appreciate them. They’re like lemons, but sassier. And I looove lime-y things – key lime pie, drinks with lime, lime cake, lime cookies.

I’m calling this creamy concoction a Lime Leches Cake (taking out the “tres”), because I switched lime juice for the milk. The lime flavor is definitely strong enough to taste, but not overpower, and even without the milk the cake itself is deliciously spongey and good. Instead of the traditional whipped cream topping, I topped mine with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. You could, of course, do this the normal tres leches way – any way you want!

You could also halve the recipe below (2 eggs instead of 5) to make an 8x8-inch cake, for a smaller something delicious.

Lime Leches Cake

Printable recipe.

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1-½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoons salt
5 whole eggs
1 cup sugar, divided
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cups lime juice
1 can evaporated milk
1 can sweetened condensed milk
¼ cups heavy cream

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray or butter a 9 x 13 inch pan.
In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt.
Separate eggs into two medium-sized bowls (whites and yolks).
Beat egg yolks with 3/4 cup sugar on high speed until yolks are pale yellow. Stir in lime juice and vanilla. Pour egg yolk mixture over the flour mixture and stir very gently until combined.
Beat egg whites on high speed until soft peaks form. While still beating, pour in remaining 1/4 cup sugar and beat until egg whites are stiff but not dry.
Fold egg white mixture into the batter (of yolks and flour) very gently until just combined. Pour into prepared pan and spread to even out the surface.
Bake for 35 to 45 minutes, and allow to cool completely in the pan.
For the tres leches: Combine condensed milk, evaporated milk, and heavy cream in a small pitcher. When cake is cool, pierce the surface with a fork many times. Slowly drizzle all the milk mixture over the cake, trying to get all over and around the edges too.
Allow the cake to absorb the milk mixture for at least 30 minutes.
Serve cold, topped with vanilla ice cream (or whipped cream topping) and enjoy!

Printable recipe.

Race Report: American Odyssey Relay 2013

2013-04-29T10:49:00.004-04:00

On Thursday night we left DC, drove to Gettysburg, and proceed to participate in the 200-mile American Odyssey Relay Run Adventure…and it WAS quite the adventure!

Before the start.

Last September, twelve semi-connected almost strangers got together to run the Ragnar Relay from Cumberland, MD, to DC and it was pretty much the most fun thing ever. Well we’re definitely no longer strangers, but we are still runners and still awesome…so we did it again! I wasn't sure if the second time around would be as much fun – this was a different course, a different organization, and a few new mystery team members, but it was just as good and possibly better!

Unlike Odysseus, it didn’t take us 10 years to get back home, but a solid 24 hours, 28 minutes, and 35 seconds was plenty of time…plenty of time to get us first place that is!!! That’s right – the Mother Pluckers won the Open Mixed category (6 men, 6 women), and placed 4^th overall like the champions we are!!!

At 11:15 am on Friday, SpeedyKate led us off from in a hotel parking lot in Gettysburg.

The start is staggered, with the slowest teams starting earlier, and the faster teams starting later (based on your own time estimation). The weather was perfect for running, and the course through the country and battlefields and along the C&O Canal was beautiful.

Two hundred miles, 36 legs, a lot of van snacks, far too few showers, and very little sleep later we ended up at the Waterfront in southwest DC.

But many many things happened before we got there…

Each team has two vans, so runners 1-6 do their legs while 7-12 chill out, then they hand off the slap bracelet to van two and have their rest time. But as the (self-designated) “official” team timekeeper, I switched back and forth between the two vans, meaning I got the FULL Mother Plucker experience!

(A brief note on our name: “to pluck” – v. to pass another runner: I plucked 12 that leg! Or Great job! How many plucks? Or See that guy up ahead? He’s the last one to pluck!!!)

As I said, the course was beautiful.

We ran through the battlefields at Antietam.

Mike ran up a mountain with 10% grade at about 6-minute pace...like a champion. (Many many high-fives were had by all.)

Robin went in for the pluck at the very end of her first leg!

There were some good hand-offs...and a few fumbles...

There was also A LOT of running in the dark (which is not particularly photogenic) – running in the glow of your headlamp through battlefields, campsites, and many many deer (? hopefully!) eyes watching you through the trees...

Saturday morning was all along the canal...which is pretty but boooooring to run.

I screamed a lot very loudly for everyone. (In what other context is it ok to yell absolutely absurd things at runners out the window of a moving vehicle with Girl Talk blasting? None.)

Our team averaged 7:20 pace. Which is pretty freaking impressive!!! As I already said (and will never get tired of saying), we won our category, beating the 49 other Open Mixed teams, and placed 4^th overall out of 135 teams.

And because running for 24 hours together wasn’t enough, we met up again on Sunday for an epic celebration brunch at Zengo. Everyone smelled better but felt worse (the stairs! SO HARD). And over many many many small plates and brunchy beverages we re-lived the experience and our own impressiveness.

Bottom line is that I like all these people and it was a great weekend. The only question is, who/where will we pluck next?

GO MOTHER PLUCKERS!

The Most Beautiful Half Marathon

2013-04-25T10:36:00.002-04:00

This is a guest post by Sister2.

I’ve spent the last five hot months in Thailand, training to run a half marathon in support of Room to Read, a non-profit that promotes literacy and gender equality by working with local partners to provide books/uniform/transportation/school fees, build schools and libraries, and encourage girls' participation in education.

My original plan was to race in the Phu Quoc Half Marathon in Vietnam on May 11th, but the cost of getting to Phu Quoc Island and the challenges of training while traveling through three different countries (not to mention the fact that it is “burning season” in southeast Asia, so going on a run means sucking down smokey oxygen) led me to change my plan and create my own race.

After my boyfriend (Eric) and I finished our semester teaching English in Thailand, we headed to Laos. Luang Nam Tha turned out to be the most perfect place for my “race.” We rented a motorbike the day before the run to measure out 13.1 miles around Luang Nam Tha, and found that the course we had in mind was exactly 13.1 miles. Perfect!

I woke up to a cool morning (so refreshing in southeast Asia) and walked to my start line in the middle of the town. Of course this wasn't an official race, just me running with Eric biking alongside, but I received some cheers and smiles at the start since runners in this part of the world are pretty rare and Eric and I are always a spectacle.

I turned out of town into a country road surrounded by rice patties and watermelon fields with the jungle-covered mountains surrounding them. Next was a turn into a small dirt road that wound through a few different villages where I passed by some schools – very basic structures with a blackboard, so I only really knew they were schools because of their signs outside.

"Whatever the cost of our libraries, the price is cheap compared to the cost of an ignorant nation" (Walter Cronkite). And it turns out, the cost of a Room to Read library is only $5,000. Make your investment in a more intelligent world!

I turned off the dirt road to cross to the other side of the valley and was lucky enough to run into an unofficial support crew of seven adorable little boys on bikes. They mimicked the English words and phrases we called out to them, which showed me how ready these kids are to learn. I waved goodbye to my support crew at the 10-mile mark (an old temple that was bombed in the '60s). They turned one direction to ride back to their village, and I looked towards my finish line.

I finished outside if the Luang Nam Tha secondary school in exactly two hours. Obviously I wasn't running to break any records, but I think I was smiling almost the entire run. It was such a beautiful course in a remarkable country that is full of smiling kids! My run inspired me even more to do what I can to give the children of Laos (and every country Room to Read works in) an opportunity to receive a quality education.

This was the first time I ran a race for a cause and what a race it was! I would absolutely recommend other runner to do the same.

And if you would like to donate to Room to Read (please do!), go here.

Cake of the Week: Raspberry Coconut Layer Bars

2013-04-23T10:28:00.000-04:00

Friday, if you recall, was kind of a stressful everything-is-terrible-and-sad sort of day. And from my perspective, there is only one reasonable and constructive way to respond to this – bake something amazing!

I always find baking relaxing. It requires enough thought and focus that you really can’t multitask it without running the risk of accidentally forgetting baking soda, or switching salt for sugar, or ooh whoops that was supposed to be 300 degrees and not 375??? It is active and yet not challenging (unless you’re whipping that cream by hand), and it results in something edible and hopefully delicious to share.

With Boston news on in the background, and thunder and lightning and tornado-style wind outside my windows, I calmly cracked a can of sweetened condensed milk, took out my aggression crushing a sleeve of graham crackers, and layered up these bars that may sound like too much, but trust me they are just right.

Let’s talk about the layers: graham cracker crust, coconut and sweetened condensed milk, raspberry jam, toasted almonds, and semi-sweet chocolate.

Like I said, these are intense little bars of awesomeness, and come with a hefty warning: FOR SHARING. I may or may not have eaten 4 on Saturday alone (breakfast, post-lunch, post-dirt biking, dessert – nothing makes a crushed foot feel better like coconut!).

On a scale from one to you-will-not-regret-these, go make them NOW. If someone would be so kind as to deliver a can of sweetened condensed milk to my door, I would make another batch immediately…

Raspberry Coconut Layer Bars

Printable recipe.
Recipe adapted from The Cutting Edge of Ordinary
Ingredients:

1 2/3 cup graham cracker crumbs (1 sleeve of graham crackers, crushed)
½ stick butter (melted)
1 tablespoons sugar
3 cups sweetened flaked coconut
1- 14oz can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup seedless raspberry jam (about half a jar – up to you how much jam you want)
¾ cup slivered almonds, lightly toasted in the oven
½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (and/or white chocolate chips)

Jess: I wish I were that coconut/could install a can of SCM in my shower.

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. (To toast the almonds, I put them in a cake pan in the oven while it was preheating – if you do this make sure you check on them so they don’t burn.)
Combine graham cracker crumbs, butter and sugar in a bowl. Press firmly into bottom of a greased and parchment paper-lined 7 x 11 inch pan (Ok so the original recipe says to use a 9 x 13 inch pan, but that just seemed too big so I went with something slightly smaller. You could also do a 9x9 and make them thicker and/or make a few extra mini ones in a cupcake pan).
Spread coconut over the top, and then pour sweetened condensed milk evenly over top.
Bake for 25 minutes, or until lightly browned. Cool completely on wire rack.
Spread jam over cooled top, sprinkle with nuts.
Melt the chocolate chips in a small bowl in the microwave for 30 seconds and then at 10 second intervals until just melted. I used a fork to drizzle the chocolate over the bars.
Cool completely before cutting.
Welcome to your newest addiction!

Printable recipe.

Weekend Report: What's the worst that could happen? (Dirt Biking Edition)

2013-04-22T11:02:00.000-04:00

I'm not even kidding guys – I went dirt biking this weekend! Are you horrified by the prospect of my pedestrian self controlling any vehicle? Terrified by the thought of me riding a 250-lb. motorcycle on grass and asphalt and dirt and through puddles and around turns and curves and banked curves??? Me too...but it was so much fun!

Saturday morning my friend Andy and I left DC early to drive to the great state of New Jersey. We escaped the city and had a lovely car ride (trip theme songs: this and this).

We stopped off in Andy's college town (New Brunswick) for some stromboli from Stuff Yer Face, and I’m not going to lie, it was pretty amazing. Stromboli, for those of you who don’t know (I didn’t) is like a cross between and sandwich and a calzone – i.e. sooo good.

Then on to Somerville, where we met Andy’s friends, loaded dirt bikes onto trailers, and headed to some trails for Operation Mollie Learns To Dirt Bike (there will be practical application for this…details to come!).

The good news is that I had three very good teachers. The bad news is that we had a quad and two racing dirt bikes, i.e. waaaay harder to ride than pretty much anything else. I started on the quad to learn the clutch and gears situation (I don’t know how to drive manual so teach me like I’m a little bit stupid please!), and oooh man guys it was FUN.

(Keep in mind that I used to be a downhill ski racer, so though it’s been buried under years of distance running, there’s still a little bit of fearlessness in me…I really like adrenaline and speed a lot.)

I moved up to a dirt bike, which was hard, but not as hard as I expected! I drove in a straight line a few times, then progressed to practicing turning. The tricky part was that I was learning on a big dirt bike, so getting on was a bit challenging, and I couldn’t stop without falling over. Also I was very very very thoroughly warned that if I pulled back on the throttle too hard the bike would literally shoot into the air. Ummm no thanks!

Once I felt comfortable turning left in a parking lot, we headed over to the trails for some real dirt biking. It had poured on Friday night, which meant MUD!

The trails were a lot harder than the parking lot and turns are HARD. The one I was practicing on was banked and sharp – definitely not a beginner turn. The first time I went over the bank and crashed because I wasn’t turning enough. The second time I crashed because I was going too slow. The third time was a combination of the two. The fourth time I psyched myself up to do it right, went in with more speed, leaned into the turn, and almost made it until the very end when everything went disastrously wrong. The bike landed on me, and the pedal went into my foot (I was wearing hiking boots, but still) – OUCH!

(Not me, obviously. But that's the end of the turn!)

I took a breather, considered my options (quitting or winning), and got back on. Now things were personal – I had to make it around that turn. And I did! I rode around in figure-8s for a while – around that turn (#win), over a jump (don’t worry I was not getting any air), around another sharp turn sans bank, and back to do it all again.

(Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of me actually on a dirt bike...but I was a bit distracted by the actual riding part.)

We drove back to DC that night, tired and dirty but pretty happy about the whole experience. Unfortunately my foot was not so good on Sunday...but nothing a bucket of ice and a cupful of fro-yo won't fix! Plus I get to tell people I hurt myself dirt biking, which sounds sooo much cooler than telling people I hurt myself running relatively slowly in a straight line (as my injuries usually are).

Best of the Week #101

2013-04-19T10:19:00.001-04:00

I am wearing Boston today, and it’s not too late for you to put on some BU/Sox/Celts/Bruins/whatever gear you have “as a small way to show unity and support for all of the victims and their families of this past Monday's unspeakable act.” Still sending my love to Boston!

This Best of the Week post will not be a round-up of Boston news…because I know that’s just too much for me and possibly for you. But on a slightly more positive note, “Photos: Afghans send sympathy and love to Boston, whose pain they know all too well.”

Documentary filmmaker Beth Murphy, a Bostonian and marathoner working in Afghanistan, took the photos for “To Boston. From Kabul. With Love” after receiving a text from her husband about the bomb blasts that killed three and injured scores of others near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. His messages assuring her that he and their young daughter were okay, Murphy wrote in a blog post, reminded her of the many similar message she herself had sent during her trips to Afghanistan.

And on a less positive note, from The Onion (note: satire!!!), “Jesus, This Week.”

“Seriously, can we wrap this up already?” Maryland resident James Alderman told reporters, echoing the thoughts of all 311 million Americans, who have just about reached their weekly goddamned quota for carnage, misery, confusion, heartbreak, and rage. “Because, you know, I’m pretty sure we’ve all had our hearts ripped out of our chests and stomped on enough times for one seven-day period, thank you very much.”

Ok moving on and bringing a bit of levity into our lives...

Awwww happiness. "27 Dogs That Will Do Anything For Kids."

Pretty cool: "Resistance Isn't Futile."

For the second straight year, amateur and professional photographers from around the world have submitted images for Washington-based NGO Freedom House's "Images of Freedom and Repression." Out of hundreds of submissions, Freedom House has selected 25 to be auctioned at an event in Washington, D.C. on April 18. Three photos were selected as winners. Here is a selection of the images, which capture the daily struggles and aspirations of people living in some of the world's most repressive countries.

This strikes me as a total win-win. You quit. Your office gets cake. What more could anyone want? “How to Quit Your Job With Cake.”

Haha go Jezebel, saying exactly how I feel better than I can say it myself: "F$@# Cupcakes."

I asked Buzzfeed Food's Rachel Sanders how she felt the cupcake had impacted U.S. culture. "This is getting a little deep, but I believe they tap into our American cultural tendency toward selfishness and emotional isolation," she typed to me via Gchat. "Like, what other culture needs a kind of cake that is literally impossible to share; if you even try it just disintegrates into crumbs and sadness? You are going to be alone forever, so go ahead and carbo-load."

Thursday was National High Five Day, which is weird, but ooook sure why not?

PSA MUST READ: From a Reddit thread entitled, What are some useful secrets from your job that will benefit customers?

When purchasing items on the internet (especially airline tickets), use incognito mode on your browser.
We use your own cookies against you: raising the price on tickets the more times you check, as you shop around for better deals. That way you’ll think the price is going up or that seats are being actively sold – thus increasing your urgency to buy, and punishing you for trying to get a good deal.

I’m sorry but this is too funny.

From the Twitter-verse, thank you Philosoraptor

Mindblowing ™ ‏@RealFactsOnLife4m: Round Pizza. Square box. Triangle slices. I'm confused.
Also: "You look tired" pic.twitter.com/JobZ8xYpqz

I grew up with backyard chickens and I’m pretty sure they’re the easiest “pets” ever. And they lay eggs. Win and win. “Pros and Cons of Raising Backyard Chickens.”

HAHAHA. Time to get ready for Beach Season?

How I Exit Awkward Situations (and how I feel about this week):

Again, love to Boston!!!

Literary Bite: A Little Princess

2013-04-18T09:56:00.001-04:00

Around this time last year, I started my Young Adult Fiction Challenge. It kind of fell by the wayside as I tunneled down a wonderful adult-books rabbit hole, but the other night I needed something to read and SpeedyKate recommended one of her favorites: A Little Princess.

Shockingly I had never read it, but I do count the movie (the one with Shirley Temple) as one of the classics from my childhood. As I read A Little Princess it all came back to me – the voice, the clothes, the hair, the plot. It’s written in 1905 by Frances Hodgson Burnett, who went on to publish The Secret Garden in 1911.

Fun-fact – Burnett was a playwright and author until she met Louisa May Alcott (Little Women!!!) in 1879 and was inspired to write children’s fiction. Also she lived in DC! Also, her house was literally next to my current office. Small freaking world.

Anywho, the story is about Sara, a precocious and wealthy but very sweet little girl who is sent to boarding school in England after living with her father in India. I can't speak for every little girl out there, but I know that I (and I suspect SpeedyKate) wanted nothing more than to be just like Sara: smart and imaginative and from an exotic location and loved by everyone and challenged by something but ultimately coming out on top. Also an orphan-ish (why are orphans in books so cool?), and also an only child (sorry Sisters 1 and 2...I don't feel that way anymore, but you know how it was).

It’s just such a nice story – the plot moves along, as most young adult books do, and stands up well to an adult read. I don’t want to give too much away (plot twists! surprises!), so just read it, to yourself or your kids. Or watch the movie (wow the whole thing is on YouTube!).

Ooh and you can download the whole book read aloud online.

Re-Post: The Places I've Run: "Marky Mark" (Boston, MA)

2013-04-17T09:59:00.002-04:00

This is a re-post from March 2011, after a weekend trip to Boston.

Four years of college cross country, indoor, and outdoor track mean that I’ve probably run more miles in Boston than anywhere else. Every day at 3:30 my team met at the TTC (Track and Tennis Center) to go for a run. Some days we piled into one of BU’s big red 15-passenger vans and our coach drove us to a park, or trails, or a reservoir. But mostly we ran from the TTC. The routes were passed down to me by the previous generation of BU Track girls and they all have names: River, Jamaica, City, Riverway, Science Figure-8, GC Sans GC, Fresh Pond, Res to Res, and my personal favorite: Marky Mark.

This run is named for the actor Mark Wahlberg (who started his career as a rapper: Marky Mark). Allegedly he has a house on Sargent Street in Brookline, thus this run is named for him (so the story goes). I like it because it’s one big loop, has minimal stoplights, and is a nice combination of streets and trails and dirt and ponds. The shortest version (mapped below) is 6.6 miles. This version starts and ends at the BU TTC (100 Ashford Street, Boston, MA). Of course you could start/end anywhere along the loop!

You can add on by running around Jamaica Pond (which makes the route total to 7.6), and/or around the Brookline Reservoir (1500m/1 mile-ish around) as many times as you want.

When I was in Niger, sweating to death running around Le Stade, I imagined myself running Marky Mark. And when I’m on a treadmill I often picture this run. Why do I love it so much? I have no idea…if you’re ever in Boston you should try it and see for yourself!

If you can't see the map, click here.

Love to Boston

2013-04-16T09:49:00.000-04:00

Thanks for checking in! I stayed in DC this year, and luckily, none of my many many many friends who live in Boston, ran the marathon, or came out to watch, were hurt yesterday.

I have nothing particularly insightful to say and I am generally avoiding pictures and news. This is a nice post: "If you are losing faith in human nature, go out and watch a marathon," and so is this story: "Boston Marathon heroes: Kindness and humanity amid the carnage."

Weekend Report: Outsidey Activities!

2013-04-15T10:08:00.000-04:00

I’m starting to sound like a broken record here, but good weather! Springtime! Weekending! Outsidey activities!!!

I kicked off the weekend with a Friday night baseball game, which was super-fun until the Nats lost in the worst way at the very end. Oooh well. It looked and smelled and sounded like baseball (bright green and reddish brown, bar-b-q smoke and hot dogs, thousands of people talking with the announcer calmly announcing in the background), which was enough for me!

I woke up Saturday morning with no plans other than 8 am yoga, and of course ended up doing and doing and doing things all day. All good things though! Good outsidey things, that is – as all the good things are this time of year.

What we're the things? Everything and nothing per usual – I pretty much drifted from place to place and sat outside. First at Union Market, then in a friend's backyard, then to switch things up I threw in a bike ride for some actual activity, which resulted in some mid-ride sitting in the sun at Yard's Park. But we did ride a decent ways: around the National Arboretum twice, past RFK stadium, down to the Navy Yard, then back home for a sun burning leisurely 16-ish miles.

Map details.

On Sunday, in celebration of springtime and Nikki’s birthday, I went for my first hike of the year in Shenandoah. Six of us, plus our four-footed mascot, hiked Elizabeth's Furnace to Buzzard Rock to Signal Knob.

I'm all about chatting while I'm running with people, but for some reason hiking is different. On a trail through the woods my mind wanders more and better than it does anywhere else – the stories in my head, that in daily life I don't have the time or attention span to tend and worry and develop to perfection, get more and more elaborate as I perpetually put one foot in front of the other, occasionally coming back to reality to dip in and out of my companions' conversation.

The hike ended up being a relaxing (because it’s hiking) but grueling (because I was tired) 10 miles up and down and up and down some "mountains." (Gotta put that in quotes, as I am on the East Coast.)

It was one of our friend's first hike ever! Seriously, guys, how is that even possible? I’m happy to report that he had fun.

It was a glorious way for me to spend any Sunday, and for Nikki to spend the last day of her 25th year! (Happy Birthday Nikki!!!)

Best of the Week #100

2013-04-12T10:13:00.001-04:00

I love running in the rain. Not freezing rain, and not windy rain, but a solid spring- or summer-time downpour that soaks but doesn’t chill and is somehow simultaneously calming, invigorating, and empowering.

I did eight hill repeats on Capitol Hill this morning – pretty much just me, the rain, the cherry trees, the robins, and a few especially intrepid tourists and fellow runners. I finished with my running shoes completely soaked, wrung out my waterlogged shirt on my front porch, and took what felt like a completely redundant shower. Good times – go springtime!

And while we’re speaking of springtime, here are some more cherry blossom photos from my week.

In my flowering tree research for Tuesday’s post, I came across this pretty cool map of all the trees in DC. "What trees are on your street?" Zoom in, then clicking on the tree shows its size, and you can also switch to street view to actually see the trees.

Breaking news! Fikabröd! Fika means to take a coffee break in Swedish. Fikabrod is the sweet bread you eat with that coffee. This is important because, well, sweetbread and coffee breaks! Yes please all the time!

You sit down, drink your coffee slowly and talk about anything. You can do it any time of the day and several times a day.
It is often a spontaneous break and therefore requires that you always keepfikabröd (sweet bread) at home. I actually read somewhere, that in the old days you should be ready to serve at least three different freshly baked goods not to insult a Swedish guest.

“The Big Squeeze: Can Cities Save The Earth?”

They are apartment towers in Hong Kong. Photographer , who has lived there for decades, pushed his camera close, so all he shows are windows and walls; there's no street, no sky, no top, no bottom, no end. The overall effect is like staring at a frozen tidal wave of residential construction, overwhelming, yet empty. You know this place is crowded, but you don't see a soul ...

Awww Snoopy. I know how you feel sometimes!

Interesting long read of the week “Does BuzzFeed Know the Secret?” about viral media, the spread of information, advertising, and the study of human behavior online. A few interesting chunks excerpted:

Peretti says that twentieth-century media businesses sowed the seeds of their own destruction by treating advertising as a “necessary evil.” He, by contrast, doesn’t care whether a post is produced by a journalist or sponsored by a brand, so long as it travels. He’s a semiotic Darwinist: He believes in messages that reproduce. “Some editorial content sucks, some ads are awesome,” Peretti told me, “and for many readers this line is even more important to them than church and state.” Within BuzzFeed, he’s stressed that creating custom-designed advertising posts is just as important as writing the hard news and soft candy. “People don’t do good work when they feel like losers and are second-class citizens within their own company,” he wrote in a memo distributed last year.
The Huffington Post produced an enormous amount of junky but well-trafficked content, most of which never appeared on the site’s front page. Peretti called it the “mullet strategy”—business in front, party in the back—a metaphor that grated on some of his colleagues. [About the Huffington Post, Peretti’s first project.]
It’s actually, literally, a formula. In speeches, he projects a simplified version of the epidemiological equation for viral reproduction, expressed as R = ßz. (in epidemiology, the z represents the number of people who come in contact with a contagious individual, while ß represents the probability of transmission.) This is the starting point of a theory that Peretti calls “Big Seed Marketing.”
“We have this very Newtonian view of causality,” Watts, a square-jawed Australian, shouted over the din. “Like, billiard balls hitting each other, that’s the most complicated thing that we can wrap our heads around.” But his research suggests that the commonly understood, Gladwellian model of virality, with its linear progression through influencers and tipping points, doesn’t really reflect the way viral messages spread. Instead, he says, they tend to grow from seeds scattered in little clusters, popping up all at once like toadstools after a rainstorm. BuzzFeed has found its most popular posts don’t take off because Kim Kardashian shared them but because many people did in small groups—the median figure is just nine Facebook friends.

Says SpeedyKate yesterday: Buzzfeed is basically a corgi aggregator. I am not upset about this fact at all – I’ve been loving corgis since 1992 (first Sarah, now Amy) and the ebb and flow of their trendiness will never affect that. From yesterday, this and this. I can't even deal.

"Carmen Sandiego's Africa map: television's invisible, impossible shuttle run."

On television, the maps always appeared right-side-up. But for reasons likely related to presentation, the kids and their beacons were situated at the top of the continent, so this is what they saw. Before seeing it upside-down, I didn't know where Mali was. Now I really really really don't know where Mali is. I also don't know what, why, how, or even whether Mali is.
She missed terribly on some of them -- for one, she thought Mauritania was Zimbabwe, when in fact Mauritania is roughly as close to Zimbabwe as it is to Maine.

I went to Open Mic Night at Busboys and Poets on Wednesday. I’ve been a couple times before and I am just consistently amazed at how talented people are. Jamia Reddy (video below) was the “feature,” all but maybe two of the poets were really good, and one guy, Official Sampson, did stand-up comedy that was actually hilarious. Not for everyone I guess, but I like it!

Hope you all have an excellent weekend and go on a bike ride or run or hike something!