Weekend Report: Summertime

I spent the entire weekend outside and it was wonderful. DC gifted us with absolutely glorious weather – 70s, sunny, no humidity – which means three things: stoop-time, pool-time, and summertime.

Friday and Saturday nights I had friends over to hang out on our front steps, one of the very best features of SpeedyKate’s and my apartment. We sat and watched the world go by for hours while listening to music and chatting with our neighbors.

Like the friend-feeding hostess I am, I made some fantastic food to accompany our stoop-time. Whole wheat pizza (this crust, I did half whole wheat flour), with my Garlic Scape Walnut Pesto sauce, cheese, zucchini, mushrooms, and turkey sausage. I’m pretty sure there is nothing in this world that smells more summery and glorious than basil and garlic in my blender…

I originally planned to go rock climbing at Great Falls early Saturday morning, but the universe conspired against me so I ended up staying in DC, suddenly surprised by a plan-less day.

But it was sunny and perfect and walking around in my shorts and tank-top felt all kinds of awesome, so I texted LLC  –  an exchange I feel the need to share with you:
Me (9:21am): No climbing for me today - so let's do things?
LLC (9:29am): What are you thinking? Call me maybe?
(I was unreasonably amused to say the least.)


Anywho, we decided to use a coupon we’d long ago purchased for Indian buffet (aka my hobby). We went to Rasoi on K and 19th, which has a brunch buffet from 12-3 on weekends. I love Indian food. A lot. All of the things, in large quantities. I wish I could tell you what’s on this plate, but really just assume Indian awesomeness and call it a day. 

After brunch we made the dubious decision to go to the pool (bikinis after a buffet…it was a choice that we made…). The pool was packed – Francis Pool in Foggy Bottom is definitely my favorite people-watching scene.

It is so much my favorite that I did the exact same thing on Sunday afternoon! This time it was 6x6, SpeedyKate, and I. We did an hour of pool running (sooo much better when outside with friends), then lounged and read and napped.

Happy summertime to you all!

Best of the Week #63

Soooooo I just listened to "Call Me Maybe" 9 times in a row to hear all these versions. “9 Best and Worst Covers of Hit Song ‘Call Me Maybe.’” I am not ashamed. THEY ARE ALL GOOD. Especially this one by Ben Howard.


The corresponding gchat:

• LLC:  i was just going to say the same thing. i love this song. so damn catchy. THEY ARE ALL GOOD.
• me:  i want to sing along. resisting hard. this is why i need my own office
• LLC:  I LIKE THEM ALL

And there's this card. Hilarious.

And there is a corgi version. Someone hold me.


Ok, I hope that I have now successfully set the tone for your Friday (and guaranteed that you spend the rest of your day and potentially the entire weekend with Carly Rae Jepesn‘s voice in your head). We have quite a bit to get through this Friday, so get excited!

My most popular post this week was "The Best Pool Running/Aqua-Jogging Workouts" -- because summertime means pool time. (Though ideally I prefer my pool time to lean toward lounging and away from pool running...)

In a vain attempt to regain your respect after that pop music meltdown...this is a great infographic. "The African network."

• The U.S. military has established small air bases across Africa to spy on al-Qaeda affiliates and other militant groups. Shaded areas indicate the presence of those groups, according to U.S. Africa Command. Read related article and learn more about the surveillance targets.

Manatee vs. Glass. You’re welcome.



Anyone who has ever entered into the topic of podcasts with me knows that I LOVE LOVE LOVE The Moth. "Stories That Will Plain Curl Your Eyelashes: A Love Letter to the Moth."

• It’s basically the storytelling version of the high-diving board. Each performer pads out to the edge of the stage, curls his toes around the lip, and—pausing to consider what’s involved in dropping to his knees and scuttling backwards to the green room—recognizes there’s only one honorable way off that stage. And the story begins.
• I’ve had more than one public emotional display in sync with the timing of the story on my iPhone and out of sync with my surroundings. I have no idea what people see when sitting across from me on the subway, or as I run, earbudded, through Prospect Park, no idea what they make of the wrenching emotion, whether it comes with eyes brimming or an honest-to-goodness hearty laugh. When a story gets you, it gets you. It doesn’t matter where.

Friends share things like this on my Facebook wall. Not sure exactly what these say about me...actually I DO know what they say...not sure if it's good. 

I would love a Mupcake. Obviously.

Everyday Fingerprints. Awesome.

From As You Like It. Agreed!

• “Chicks. WEAR DRESSES.” Because you look cute in a dress.  In a dress you can say “motherfucker” like 20 or 30% more without disturbing your femininity quotient.  And actually its easier than pants.  Less to match and a lot of them just feel like pajamas.  So you can be cute AND secretly lazy.   

I 100% agree with Whit on this (and also want someone to grill me some apricots):

• Not to pull the whole “women can’t do everything men can..” thing, but grilling is sometimes overwhelming for girls. I say this only because I am one of these women. I get stressed out about bringing everything outside, and temperatures and grill tools. It’s a whole new ball game out there.

Worth the read: "The Ultimate Guide to Writing Better Than You Normally Do." Coincidentally, this is written by Colin Nissan, of "It's Decorative Gourd Season, M************" fame.

• Writing is a muscle. Smaller than a hamstring and slightly bigger than a bicep, and it needs to be exercised to get stronger. Think of your words as reps, your paragraphs as sets, your pages as daily workouts.
• There are two things more difficult than writing. The first is editing, the second is expert level Sudoku where there’s literally two goddamned squares filled in. While editing is a grueling process, if you really work hard at it, in the end you may find that your piece has fewer words than it did before. Which, is great.

This is old-ish (from April), but Hillary is awesome so I thought it worth sharing.

Well this exists: “Puppies the size of soda cans.” A puppy and a Diet Coke…what more do I need in life?

I'm going to see "Big Easy Express" at a documentary film festival next weekend. Pretty psyched.

• L.A.’s Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, Nashville boys Old Crow Medicine Show, and Londoners Mumford & Sons climbed aboard amid the massive rail yards of Oakland and set out for New Orleans on a “tour of dreams.” 

I have been calling this “mystery root vegetable” for over a year now. It appears in my weekly share of veggies, and I blindly cook it into something. Turns out it’s a kohlrabi.

I realize this is old news. But OMG I love this little girl.




Totally weird. “In Japan, fax machines remain important because of language and culture.”

• Japanese still fax party invitations, bank documents and shopping orders. Business people call the fax a required communication tool, used for vital messages, often in place of e-mail.

And that, my friends, is that. Happy Weekend!!!

Literary Bite: State of Wonder by Ann Patchett

I’m sorry to report that while State of Wonder is a good book, it’s probably my least favorite of Ann Patchett’s novels. Her others – Bel Canto, Run, An Equal Music – are just so awesome that this latest addition to her authorship pales in comparison. But to be fair, like all her books State of Wonder is well-written, creative (subject-wise), and  I did like it.

In State of Wonder, Patchett returned to her Bel Canto roots, creating a situation of a group of strangers shipwrecked in a South American jungle.

The protagonist is Marina Singh, a Minnesotan pharmacist working for a company that is trying to developing a fertility drug in the Brazilian Amazon. Marina travels to the jungle to find Dr. Annick Swenson (the evil(ish) genius heading up this research) and follow up on the death of her friend and co-worker, Anders, who had died on a similar reconnaissance mission a few months before.

The stakes are high in the jungle, both fiscally (if the drug worked it would make major dollars) and physically (upon arrival, Dr. Swenson warns Marina in no uncertain terms that she will not inconvenience herself to save pesky researchers).

 “She found a village of people in the Amazon, a tribe,” Anders had told Marina, “where the women go on bearing children until the end of their lives. . . . Their eggs aren’t aging, do you get that? The rest of the body goes along its path to destruction while the reproductive system stays daisy fresh. This is the end of I.V.F. No more expense, no more shots that don’t end up working, no more donor eggs and surrogates. This is ovum in perpetuity, menstruation everlasting. . . . Pretend for a moment that you are a clinical pharmacologist working for a major drug development firm. Imagine someone offering you the equivalent of ‘Lost Horizon’ for American ovaries.”

Patchett has a genius for complex character development. Dr. Swenson is a detestable as Marina is likeable, though as the book goes on layers and layers are added to the despot-like doctor’s character, humanizing her and making you care.

I guess my only major criticism is that State of Wonder starts kind of slow…but much like Night Circus, by the time I got to the last hundred or so pages (it’s a 350-page book), I could not put it down. I won’t spoil the ending for you, but there are totally amazing and unexpected twists!!!

I admit to being a very critical critic (only the best!), so if you want a second opinion, the NYT gave it a good review, as did NPR.

Capitol Hill 5-Miler

A new neighborhood means new runs. My go-to Dupont area loops are no longer feasible, so I’m working on building a new Capitol Hill repertoire of routes. The National Mall is an obvious option, but I do enjoy some variety in my workouts, plus I don’t always want to end my runs up that famous hill. 

View on MapMyRun.

Here is my newest 5-miler, a simple loop-ish around the neighborhood. Since it's entirely on residential streets, this route is best early in the morning or at other non-trafficky times. Though it does avoid major streets and intersections. Also, totally flat -- the way I like my runs when I'm just starting again. (Guess who’s kinda sorta running again just a little bit sometimes? THIS GIRL!)


MapMyRun just upgraded and now partners with Google Earth. If you go to the site, click “View 3D Video of this Map” on the bottom right. I promise it will BLOW YOUR MIND.


*For the record, SpeedyKate would like to add that this is NOT a pretty route. It is actually quite ugly. (Early-morning-Mollie does not note these things...)

Cake of the Week: Mom's Rhubarb Bars

Rhubarb has been all over the interwebs recently, and LLC has adopted an awesome, albeit expensive, philosophy:  when you see it, buy it! 

I am incredibly happy she feels this way because I looovvveee rhubarb. It’s tantalizingly tangy with a texture – depending on how long you cook it – tending toward apple pie. We’re rapidly approaching the end of rhubarb season, so get some while you still can!

LLC made these bars for me and I could not stop eating them. Rhubarb Bars for dessert with vanilla ice cream? Check. Rhubarb Bars settled next to my breakfast apple? Check. Snacktime Rhubarb Bars? I wish!!! (I ran out...gotta make some more!)

Me: I’m going to post your bars. Any comments?
LLC: Aside from the fact that they may be the best, simplest dessert ever???? And should be served with whipped cream on top because whipped cream is the greatest thing on earth?
No.


So that, my dear readers, is that. Enjoy these. I know I did.

Mom’s Rhubarb Bars

Printable recipe. 
Ingredients for filling:

• ½ cup granulated sugar
• ¾ cup brown sugar
• 4 cups of rhubarb, diced
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 3 tablespoon cornstarch
• ¼ cup water

Directions:

1. Dissolve cornstarch in water and set aside.
2. Over medium heat, cook rhubarb, sugar, vanilla for about 10 mins. Stir frequently. Add corn starch mixture. Bring to a boil. Stir until thick. Put to the side. 

Ingredients for bars: 

• 1 ½ cups of oatmeal
• 1 ½ cups of flour
• 1 cup brown sugar
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter

Directions: 

1. Mix ingredients into a crumble. 
2. In an ungreased 9x13 pan, place ¾ of the crumble mixture in the pan and pat down. 
3. Spread the rhubarb evenly on top. Sprinkle the remaining crumble mixture over the rhubarb. 
4. Bake on the top shelf of the oven at 375 deg for 35-45 mins -- until it is lightly browned and bubbling.  

Printable recipe. 

Weekend Report: Hiking and Chris Visits DC!

I have been having exceptionally awesome weekends recently. On Saturday I hiked Old Rag. This is the third time I’ve done this hike (read about #1 and #2). It's been a slightly different experience each time, but the views and rock scrambles (sidenote: LOVE) stay the same so it was, yet again, a win. This was my most summery Old Rag hike – escaping the heat of DC is always a good thing, though hiking when it’s above 80 degrees presents its own set of challenges (well “challenges” might be a bit of an over-statement. Basically, we were sweaty.) 

We got a late start and didn’t begin hiking until close to 1 pm. It was pretty hot as we made our way up the mountain, but by the time we peaked at 3ish there was a nice breeze, and when we finished at 5 it felt like a pleasant summer afternoon.  

Shenandoah is a bit of a trek, so I didn’t get home until 8pm. Though I was tempted to stay in couching with SpeedyKate (have we discussed couching? It’s a verb – just go with it), I had to quick-shower and hop on a bus because my super-awesome friend from college Chris, whom you may recall from Amy’s wedding, was stopping in DC on his way to a new job in Nashville!!! (Weekend soundtrack.) (I'm sorry.)

After quite the Saturday night in Dupont (Capital Pride!), we had an aggressively relaxing Sunday. We went to brunch at Open City. Their coffee is delicious (same as Tryst), but they don’t do refills which is a bit less than ideal. But ummm hello Bacon and Blue Omelet. I might love you. 

(Yes, this is instagrammed. No, I did not do it.)

After brunch we did some serious pool lounging at our friend’s apartment. It was kind of glorious. 

We had planned to run around the Monuments in the evening, but after Mexican dinner at Cactus that was definitely not happening, so instead we drove down and parked to say hello to Abe and MLK and I shared my extensive Korean War Memorial knowledge. 

I really think that no matter how long I live in DC the Monuments at night will never get old. And now it looks like I'll have to start planning a trip to Nashville...on a scale from one to excited, I'm pretty sure you can guess where I stand!

Best of the Week #62

Can someone please explain to me why the Metro is so empty on Fridays? Normally I’m standing on a crowded train, but this morning I had a whole seat to myself (yes, I am a metro commuter now...ugh.) Do most people just stop coming to work at the end of the week? And if so, how do I become one of those people???

Anyway, I realized after posting last week that I’d forgotten to include half of the links I’d found…which means this is a double Best of the Week post! It’s long. Get psyched.

My most popular post was "Slutty Brownies." Mostly because 143 of you googled "slutty brownies" this week. :)

Best read of the week: “From a Familiar Stranger, a Poem Written on the Stars.”

"Daniel Craig Wears a Dress for Women's Equality."





An interesting interview with Jonathan Franzen:

• I feel like a member of a single, large virtual community in which I have dynamic relationships with other members of the community, most of whom are no longer living. By means of what I write and how I write, I fight for my friends and I fight against my enemies. I want more readers to appreciate the glory of the 19th-century Russians; I'm indifferent to whether readers love James Joyce; and my work represents an active campaign against the values I dislike: sentimentality, weak narrative, overly lyrical prose, solipsism, self-indulgence, misogyny and other parochialisms, sterile game-playing, overt didacticism, moral simplicity, unnecessary difficulty, informational fetishes, and so on. Indeed, much of what might be called actual "influence" is negative: I don't want to be like this writer or that writer.

"Portraits Made Using People."

• What the...? Craig Alan make pop-culture portraits using people as pixels. I can't find any details on his process. I'm picturing him dangling from a helicopter with a megaphone shouting down commands to the streets below. How on earth does he do it, anyone?

Well of course I love a FP slideshow about the UN. “Where Have All the Blue Helmets Gone? A look at the Third World troops who fight the U.N.'s wars.” Something about black and white military pictures gets me…idk why.

• For most Americans, U.N. peacekeeping is something the rest of the world does. Indeed, the U.N. monitoring mission that is currently in Syria to enforce a floundering ceasefire features blue berets from 35 countries -- including Burkina Faso, China, Germany, Kyrgyzstan, Morocco, Russia, and Yemen -- but none from the United States. The absence of American personnel partly reflects Syria's antipathy toward the United States, which has called for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down. But it also reflects the fact that U.S. blue helmets have become an increasingly extinct species.
• It wasn't always that way, however.

I find gulags fascinating. Judge me accordingly? "Joseph Stalin's deadly railway to nowhere."

•  In the Russian Arctic lies buried an unfinished railway built by prisoners of Stalin's gulags. For decades no-one talked about it. But one woman is now telling the story of the thousands who suffered there - and there is talk of bringing back to life the abandoned railway itself.
• The scheme was supposed to link the eastern and western parts of Siberia with a 1,000-mile (1,609km) railway stretching from the city of Inta, in Komi Autonomous Republic, through Salekhard to Igarka, on the Yenisei River.
• Work on the western part started in the early 1940s but in Salekhard construction began after the end of World War II.
• The labour force was almost entirely made up of "enemies of the people" - prisoners convicted of "political" offences.
• Gulags 501 and 503 were created specially for the railway and every 6-8 miles (10-12km) along the track there were camps.

YES. This looks like my jam. “5 Tips for Hosting a Crepe Party.”

I’m pretty sure I’ve ranted about the use of “impact” before. This drives me crazy – it is NOT a word unless you’re talking about two objects hitting each other. Sometimes I’m ok with “have an impact on…” but impact alone used as a verb…UGH.

• "Impact" -- This wannabe verb came to prominence, says Bryan Garner, editor in chief of Black's Law Dictionary, because most people don't understand the difference between the words "affect" and "effect." Rather than risk mixing them up, they say, "We will impact our competitor's sales with this new product." A tip: "Affect" is most commonly a verb, "effect" a noun. For instance: When you affect my thinking, you may have an effect on my actions.

This will get stuck in your head. You’re welcome. Barack Obama covers “Call me Maybe.”

Dum-dum “mystery flavor” revealed.

• The Mystery Flavor pop is a mixture of two flavors that come together when the end of one batch of candy meets the beginning of the next batch. Rather than shutting down to clean out the candy equipment between flavors, Spangler turned lemons into lemonade and made pops out of the combination of flavors - the tail end of the old, and the beginning of the new.

For rock climbers: “How it’s made – Carabiners.”

"Asparagus Opera." How can you not listen?

Hope you’re not having this kind of day.

I AM SO TIRED.

TELL ME ABOUT IT. I AM LITERALLY JUST EXHAUSTED, YOU KNOW?

WORN RIGHT OUT.

POOPED. THAT’S WHAT I AM. JUST PLAIN POOPED.

I MUST HAVE LOOKED AT A HUNDRED THOUSAND AVENGERS GIFS IN THE LAST HOUR.

OH MY GOD, I KNOW. I CAN’T EVEN COUNT THE NUMBER OF GOTYE REMIXES I LISTENED TO TODAY.

THE INTERNET IS HARD.

IT TAKES SOMETHING OUT OF YOU. IT REALLY DOES.

Don’t be offended non-runners, this is fair and balanced and INTERESTING: “All Men Can’t Jump: Why nearly every sport except long-distance running is fundamentally absurd.”

• There's no denying it—our kind started substituting brains for brawn long ago, and it shows: We can't begin to compete with animals when it comes to the raw ingredients of athletic prowess. Yet being the absurdly self-enthralled species we are, we crowd into arenas and stadiums to marvel at our pathetic physical abilities as if they were something special. But there is one exception to our general paltriness: We're the right honorable kings and queens of the planet when it comes to long-distance running.

I like this “Adulting” post: Step 213: Do not comment on things people are, comment on things they do.

Oh McSweeney’s – There is one particular part of this (fictional?) Q&A that appeals to me, it’s about American Girl dolls.

• What do you think of that new show by Lena Dunham, Girls? I don’t know. I think I am over my crush on the subculture of entitled white girls living in New York. Nowadays I need something a little more related to global crises to get me interested. I don’t care about all those little indignities of finding yourself right now, and I wonder how many other people do. Doesn’t it seem alienating? Like, I bet everyone on the show Girls had an American Girl doll when they were growing up.
• What does that have to do with anything? I think American Girl dolls are the real class divide. If you had one: rich. If you didn’t: poor.
• So, obviously you didn’t have one. Right. Although my mom did get the catalogues sent to our house and I would pour over them with my sisters, each of us claiming a doll and her excessive amounts of accessories for our own. They were our imaginary dolls. We never even asked for one, as I recall. They were like 80 dollars or something (without any outfits! Or furniture!), which in mid 1990s Wyoming was the equivalent of buying a sturdy horse. I also think that whatever American Girl doll you chose spoke volumes about your own budding sense of self. I identified with Kirsten, the fragile and determined immigrant girl from Sweden. My sisters alternately chose Samantha (posh, classically beautiful victorian girl) and Molly (artistic, WWII-era scrappy do-gooder). I think this says a lot about us, actually. [Ed. note:  This is literally Sister2, Sister1, and myself, respectively]

I want to go to here soooo bad!!!! Indian food me, STAT! But I feel like I need a good excuse/reason for a fancy dinner…hmmmmmm, what can I celebrate?

If I found myself in Rockville, I would totally go to this coffee shop. (source)

• "Look inside: You don't see any electronic devices. You don't see a TV, you don't see computers. I'm not supporting WiFi. The only thing we have is radio. The reason is our generation lost it."
• "It" for Almany is the art of conversation, the predisposition to make time to socialize face to face. "In Israel, in Italy, when you go into a coffee shop, you're going to be social.
• So here, I don't want a computer in my shop. Take a break. When I opened, I wanted to put a sign: "W H Y Fi? Why?" He doesn't want to see couples sitting across from each other separated by an open computer screen. "Where's the eye contact," he asked, "with the person I want to be with?" When people complain about the lack of WiFi, he's bold enough to tell them this isn't the place for it.

"Dogs in Combat: Photos."

• Dogs have been working in combat roles alongside American soldiers for more than 100 years. In fact, they have been alongside soldiers since antiquity. But only in 1942, were dogs officially inducted into the U.S. Army.
• Dogs have played a central part in more recent actions in Iraq and Afghanistan where about 2,700 dogs were serving worldwide, according to the U.S. Defense Department. It was the largest deployment of canines in the world.

If I were into non-fiction I would work my way through this list: "Foreign Policy Summer Reading." Actually, I may read this:

• 10. Little America: The War Within the War for Afghanistan, Rajiv Chandrasekaran (June 26) To assess the Obama administrations 2009 surge in Afghanistan, longtime Washington Post reporter and editor Rajiv Chandrasekaran looks back six decades: In the 1950s, a team of American engineers constructed a model American town in southern Afghanistan -- complete with tree-lined streets, a co-ed high school, and a community swimming pool -- hoping to turn the surrounding region to turn into rich farm fields. Instead, the land, known as "Little America," was eventually ceded to warlords and used to grow poppies that helped fuel Afghanistan's opium trade. In Little America, Chandrasekaran details how U.S. efforts to rebuild the region during the Obama surge failed too, on account of infighting and incompetence among U.S. politicians, military leaders, and diplomats.

Happy Friday to you all!!!

I’m Biking…And Surprisingly Not Cranky About It

Yup, that post title pretty much sums things up – in the past six weeks I’ve run a grand total of 21 miles, accompanied by lovely training log entries such as “BAD,” “FAIL,” “BAD STOP.” (I’m not even kidding. Me = yelling at myself via the sidebar of my blog?)

BUT I’m not upset or stressed or anxious about not running because I will run eventually when it feels good again, and until then I just can’t bring myself to deal. I’m not saying this is the BEST way to handle the situation…but it’s the one I’m going with.

And biking outside really isn’t bad! It’s actually pretty fun. I go every other day and do anywhere from 20 to 40 miles. I’ve biked to Mt. Vernon, Alexandria, Bethesda, and loops around Haines Point.

My Monday night ride. See it on MapMyRun.

I always bike in large-ish quantities because when I was in junior high and had recently started running, I asked my parents about the biking equivalents of running mileage.  They told me it was “about five to one,” meaning that five miles on a bike equal one mile of running. So a 20-mile bike ride is just a four-mile run. Bikers out there – is this true? What do you think???

Anywho, I think part of the fun is that for me, biking is temporary...if my workout life were an episode of Friends, this would be the one where Rachel and Ross take a break and Ross sleeps with the copy girl.

Yes. Ok. Let me clarify: in this bizarre metaphor that I came up with while biking across George Mason Bridge at 6:20 this morning, I am Ross, running is Rachel, and biking is the copy girl. Long story short – taking a biking break from running is fun for a bit. (But let’s not take this metaphor to the next Friends level where Ross sleeping with the copy girl ruins everything for too long until the last season when they finally get back together.) (Ok too much. I’ll stop now.)

Anyone in DC want to bike with me?

Cake of the Week: Chai Spice Cookies with Chai Cream Cheese Frosting

Let me explain my housing situations. My former house, where I lived for three years and moved out of a couple weeks ago, was not only a home but also a job for me. It was a house owned by a national foundation that provides cheap housing to students and interns in major cities, and I was the House Manager. The HM job description is a weird hybrid of resident assistant and landlord…kind of like a super, who also plans house events, screens applicants, buys supplies, and generally makes sure everyone is playing nicely and getting along.

As the HM, my living space was the basement apartment. I had my own kitchen, living room, and bathroom, but was still connected to the rest of the house. This meant that if I wanted to hang out with the 6 residents above me I could...but if I wanted Mollie-on-the-couch introvert time, that was mine for the taking.
It was the perfect second job for a recent college grad/non-profit worker. Residents came and went, 2-6 per semester (since it's run by a foundation, the house doesn’t HAVE to be full). I became close friends with some of the residents (LOTR-Emily. Photoman, etc.), and some remained simply residents, nice people who came and went through my life.

But now things are totally different. I live in a 2-bedroom apartment with SpeedyKate, who as any Eat Run Read-er knows, isn't just a roommate but my friend! It's definitely different than the big group house. I’m enjoying not being responsible for others when I come home, and contacting our landlord to fix any and all of our problems (before I was the one people called – blerg). I no longer live alone(ish), so there’s a bit less introvert time, but as SpeedyKate and I set up our home and establish our roommate relationship, I like living with a friend more and more.

I know she appreciates my baked goods. Who wouldn't want to wake up to this?

And when I came home from volunteering this weekend, I found a pretty little rose left on the table next to my tea. Nice surprises like that just don’t happen when you live semi-alone.

So in response, I left her one of the cookies I'd made for my friends' bar-b-q. They're Chai Spice Cookies with Chai Cream Cheese Frosting. The buttermilk creates a texture like a super-light, not-dry scone...or maybe like a cookie/cupcake combination…kind of like the fluffy puffy cookies. However you choose to describe them, they’re addicting.

Chai Spice Cookies 

(Slightly adapted from Eat, Live, Run.)
Printable Recipe. 

• 1 1/3 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 egg
• 5 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1/3 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon cardamom

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and salt. Set aside.
3. Cream together the soft butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and beat for about three more minutes until well combined. Alternate adding the buttermilk and the flour mixture to the butter, starting and ending with the flour. Add the vanilla and beat on medium until everything is combined and the batter is smooth.
4. Scoop large spoonfulls of batter onto a sprayed or parchment-lined baking sheet. These cookies don’t spread very much while baking, so try to shape them round-ish, and you may need to pat them down a bit (tip: dip your fingers in flour so the dough doesn’t stick to your hands as you pat). 
5. Bake for about twelve minutes. Let cool completely while you make the chai cream cheese frosting.

Chai Cream Cheese Frosting

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 4 oz cream cheese (1/2 block)
• 2-4 tablespoons buttermilk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp nutmeg
• 1/8 tsp ground ginger
• 1/8 teaspoon cardamom

1. To make the frosting, beat together the butter, cream cheese, and vanilla. Beat in the powdered sugar, spices, and 2 tablespoons buttermilk. Add more buttermilk as needed to reach a spreadable consistency. 
2. Frost cookies once cookies are completely cool.

Printable Recipe. 

Weekend Report: South Pacific at Wolftrap and Grilling

What a wonderful June weekend. Friday night’s patio plans were slightly stymied by an unexpectedly disruptive storm (Trees down! Tornado warnings! Welcome to summer on the East Coast!), but friends and food and my living room floor sufficed.

Saturday afternoon, SpeedyKate and I basked in the glory of truly beautiful weather at Wolftrap, this super cool national park/6,800-seat indoor/outdoor theater in Virginia. We saw South Pacific from the lawn seats and it was sooo nice (listen along with this blog post). It reminded me of Shakespeare on Lake Tahoe that my family goes to every summer: nice weather, a hill, people with picnic baskets, blankets, and beach chairs on all sides. Wolftrap’s summer lineup looks pretty awesome – we will definitely be returning.

We returned home around 6, and went for our first roommates run! Three miles around the neighborhood were quite nice, though we accidentally stumbled upon an El Salvadorian soccer game letting out of RFK Stadium. Soccer fans are CRAZY. Next time we won’t run through that mess in only sports bras…

Sunday was equally glorious. Per usual, I visited my refugees in the morning. We practiced vocab via Scategories and they loved it! (I teach them English -- my only true qualification being that I speak English -- but so far it seems to be working quite well.)

In the afternoon, Nikki and I made our way out to Alexandria to attend a bar-b-q hosted by some other BUSkiers. As expected, it was delicious: chicken kebabs and corn on the cob and lots of fruit salad. Thanks to these friends, I will forever think of grilling and skiing together - AJ used to bring a grill onto the ski hill with us. Mid-race-day burgers anyone? Yes please. I made a variation on these cookies (recipe tomorrow). 

The guest list was a mix of rock climbers and foreign policy people. I got into a deep discussion about the LRA and US policy with people who were informed and interested! Aaahhh how I love DC.

And that, my friends, was that. Hope you had a good weekend too!

Best of the Week #61

Get up at 6 am? Check.
Bike 24.22 miles before work? Check.
Mentally prepare for an awesome Friday morning? Check.
Get psyched for the LLC/6x6/myself dinner party planned for tonight (it involves my patio, rhubarb bars, and cinnamon whipped cream). CHECK!

(View route details on MapMyRun.) 

As you may have deduced, I’m feeling pretty awesome on this lovely morning.

My most popular post this week was, no surprise, the Sluttier Brownies. One of my co-workers is making them this weekend, I imagine at least a few of you are too?  Enjoy! And if you like the picture, click here to Pinterest it!

And to ironically follow-up on my intense baking creations, this post about an “anti-diet” is very thorough. I particularly like the “cravings” section. Here's a breakdown of what your cravings really mean: (read more)

Nicholas Kristof's “Markets and Morals.” What is it ok to sell?

• Is it right that prisoners in Santa Ana, Calif., can pay $90 per night for an upgrade to a cleaner, nicer jail cell?
• Should the United States really sell immigration visas? A $500,000 investment will buy foreigners the right to immigrate.
• Should Massachusetts have gone ahead with a proposal to sell naming rights to its state parks? The Boston Globe wondered in 2003 whether Walden Pond might become Wal-Mart Pond.
• Should strapped towns accept virtually free police cars that come laden with advertisingon the sides? Such a deal was negotiated and then ultimately collapsed, but at least one town does sell advertising on its police cars.

Wow. I never knew that “gorp” was an acronym! I always just thought it was a silly name for my all-time favorite food (i.e. trail mix). But apparently it stands for "Good ol' Raisins and Peanuts." So now you know.

I am sorry to report about your workday Olympic viewing:

• If you want to watch NBC’s streaming coverage of the Olympics this summer, for example, you’ll have to log in to the NBC Olympics website with your cable or satellite account. Having paid $4.4 billion for the exclusive broadcast rights, the peacock wants to make sure it isn’t giving away the goods for free. It can afford to shun the cord-cutters because live Olympics coverage isn’t much threatened by piracy. (source)

Go JCPenny! Featuring two dads Father’s Day ad campaign:

• Back in February, the department store chain faced criticism from the American Family Association's One Million Moms project for its hiring of Ellen DeGeneres to be the company's new spokesperson. JCPenney refused to submit to the group's bullying, and stuck by DeGeneres.

“Inescapably, You’re Judged By Your Language” from the New Yorker.

• In short, different audience, different dialect. The key to linguistic acceptance is recognition and adaptation. Know thy audience, know thy friends. It’s not a matter of which sentence is “correct”—“for whom are we rooting” versus “who are we rooting for”—so much as which sentence is correct for the given situation. 
• Repugnant as it may be, the simple answer is that we need to learn prescriptive English because that’s the way the people in power communicate. As far as daily survival is concerned, it doesn’t matter whether the origins of this linguistic power structure are racist, classist, or élitist, or whether they’re based on the whims of dead white males. This is how the system works right now, today, and in order to best get the attention of those in power, to begin to effect change, we must be able to use their dialect. We must know their rules. 
• People who say otherwise, who say that in all situations we should speak and write however we’d like, are ignoring the current reality. This group, known as descriptivists, may be fighting for noble ideas, for things like the levelling of élitism and the smoothing of social class, but they are neglecting the real-world costs of those ideas, neglecting the flesh-and-blood humans who are denied a job or education because, as wrong as it is, they are being harshly judged for how they speak and write today. 

Somehow I don’t think I’ve ever had cacao nibs before…and now I want them for breakfast.

A new 2.5-hour epic about Hemmingway and his third wife. This is an interview with the director, Philip Kaufman.

• Hemingway & Gellhorn, which premiered on HBO on Monday and will be showing on the network throughout the coming month...
• She never gave interviews about her marriage with Hemingway and famously said "I do not see myself as a footnote in someone else's life." How did you find a way to show the story from her point of view? 
• Were you a Hemingway aficionado?
  When you're growing up, you have to read him, especially my generation. He had the thing with the perfect sentence, and you can smell the outdoors. He had a way you always felt. Sort of like an acupuncturist, he could hit exactly the spot that freed some of your senses. He was great, there's no question. He changed things, virtually every writer after him was influenced by him. Mailer, Nelson Algren, John O'Hara. J.D. Salinger had a whole fascination, a whole correspondence with him.

On NPR's Morning Edition about Ben and Jerry's: "The Graveyard Of Shelved Ice Cream Flavors."

• In what may be a nod to the current zombie fad, Ben and Jerry's also offers customers a chance to make the case for resurrecting a favorite flavor.
• "With aching heart and heavy sigh, we bid Rainforest Crunch goodbye; that nutty brittle from exotic places got sticky in between our braces. 1989-1996. It was a really, really good flavor."

Love this. (source)

• On Wednesday, May 23rd, 2012, I told my girlfriend to meet me at my parent's house for dinner. When she arrived I had stationed my brother to sit her in the back of an open Honda CRV and give her some headphones. He "wanted to play her a song"...What she got instead was the world's first Live Lip-Dub Proposal.

Have a good weekend!