Jamie's Hero and Villain of the Week #21

Happy Friday!  It's the first Friday of the unofficial summer, and it's beautiful outside!  This week's picks feature heaping helping of whimsicality and an oppressive weather pattern.

Hero of the Week:  The Little Prince

The Little Prince has been one of my favorite books since I first read it in high school French class.  I've read it in both French and English multiple times, and it always makes me feel better when I'm sad.  I was thrilled to find a gorgeous deluxe pop-up edition of this classic in Anthropology.  I love Anthropology anyway, but now I adore it.  I had the best time rediscovering my favorite story with the characters literally jumping off the page.  So this week, the Little Prince is my hero for his musical laugh, hair the color of wheat, and ability to love a selfish flower.  

Villain of the Week:  Heat 

The weather may be nice now, but the week started off ridiculously hot!  I'm not opposed to heat altogether, but it was simply way too hot for the last days of May.  When I was out on the ramp at the airport waiting for a plane to arrive, I thought I was going to melt.  Really, the weather should have the decency to wait until late July or August to that abominably hot so I have a chance to mentally prepare myself.

That is all for this week.  However, please check out my updated version of Asia in the City.  It has been updated per Audra's request and I added some photos!  Have a great weekend!

Asia in the City

June is my birthday month.  As such, it is awesome.  In order to celebrate the beginning of this spectacular month, my friend Audra (also born in June!) and I took a mini road-trip today.  Our aim was to eat delicious food and celebrate all things Asian.

First, we went to the Peking Gourmet Inn where we ate the most delicious Peking Duck!  It was a really fun restaurant with gorgeous painted lanterns hanging from the ceiling and pictures of famous people posing with the chef covering virtually every inch of wall space.

Then we went next door to the super-classy 88 Oriental Market where we purchased such delicacies as Hello Panda cookies, aloe juice drinks, and jasmine tea.  The aloe juice looks pretty disgusting because it has chunks of aloe pulp floating in it, but it tastes really good and is incredibly refreshing.  I discovered it while in Singapore last year and was super psyched to find it today!  Audra also got some tamarind candy, which is pretty weird.  Tamarind is a really sour fruit, and the candy is chewy pieces of fruit coated in sugar, salt, and chili powder.  It wasn't bad, but I've never tasted anything like it before.

The last stop for our "Asia in the City" day was the Super H Mart, which is a truly magical place.  There are tons of fruits I've never heard of and an entire aisle of nothing but noodles!  Audra was horrified that I'd never tasted lychee (aside from an icky lychee soda at the Coke Museum in Atlanta, so she bought a bag.  We went out to the parking lot to enjoy the sunshine and the fruit.  I was surprised both at how crazy good it was and at the vast amounts of juice that baptized me once I tore the skin.  I was ridiculously sticky for the rest of the day!

We finished off the day at Reston Town Center with a visit to Sephora and Anthropology.  They might not be Asian stores, but they are awesome and not located in Winchester.  All in all, it was a lovely beginning to my birthday month.  

My next outing will be "Greece in the City."  Any suggestions for awesome Greek restaurants and Greek-themed activities in the NoVa area would be greatly appreciated.

Don't Feed the Feral Cats and Other Hard-to-Follow Tenets of Adulthood

A beautiful feral cat with huge glowing green eyes has taken to hanging out in the flower bed in front of my house.  Then three adorable kittens showed up!  They are for serious so cute, all fluffy and blue-eyed.  However, it's been so hot that I've been really worried about the poor little things.  I really wanted to put out food and water for them, but my dad (and to a lesser extent Kristen) was adamant that I not encourage them to stick around.  While I totally understand that it's very practical to refrain from feeding them because they'll become dependent and I'll have to keep feeding them forever and yada yada yada, it's still really hard to let it go.  Refraining from inadvertently adopting wild animals is one of the tenets of adulthood I've had to adopt.  Unfortunately, it's not the only unpleasant truth I've had to learn.  Some others include:

--Sometimes you have to work on holidays.

--You can't always take a nap when you need one.

--The ATM is not a magic money machine.

--Health insurance?  Kinda a big deal.

--Good self-esteem and a positive attitude is not all you need to succeed in life.  You actually do need some sort of talent.

Goodness, this is depressing!  To make up for it, here are a few positive things about adulthood:

--You can use a calculator with impunity.

--You can actually rent a car if you want to go on vacation.

--You don't have to eat your vegetables.

Hopefully the kittens will do alright without my help.  I guess it's just as well since the mommy cat would probably feel the need to tell her kittens not to eat food from strangers.

Jamie's Hero and Villain of the Week #20

Happy happy Memorial-Day-weekend Friday!  To kick off the festivities, here are this week's hero and villain picks!

Hero of the Week:  Swings

I got to take Jack to the park this week since there was actually a break in the thunderstorms.  With weather as horrendously unpredictable as it has been all over the country lately, it's best to take advantage of the sunshine when you can get it.  My little gila is kind of a sissy when it comes to heights, and he refused to go down the little baby slide, crawl through the tunnel, or go on the swings when we first arrived.  After 15-20 minutes of running to various playground contraptions only to turn back because he got scared, Ashley and I were finally able to convince him to sit in the baby swing with the high back and the bar that latches down.  He did NOT want to go high or fast, though.  He was quite clear on that point.  After a while of barely pushing him, I let Ashley take over and went to sit on the (regular size) swing next to him.  When he saw me swinging like a normal person, he decided to let Ashley actually push him.  He was adorable when he finally realized he wasn't going to fall out!  He giggled and yelled, "Whee!  Woohoo!!  I'm flying like an Angry Bird, Aunt Jamie!!!" at the top of his lungs.  It was one of the cutest things ever.  

Villain of the Week:  Comcast 

There are so many things I hate about Comcast.  I despise the fact that it assumes it can get away with horrific service because it is the only cable provider in many areas.  I hate that the phone and internet prices are just cheaper than the competitors' so you don't switch providers, but the cable price jump every month to make up for it.  You may think words like "hate," "despise," and "horrific" are a bit harsh, but I assure you, I have cause to use them.  When I decided to have Digital Voice installed at my last apartment, two rude men showed up at my door, connected a few wires to a new modem (for which I was charged an extra fee each month), charged me for the service call and left.  And yet, I had no phone service.  No dial tone, nothing.  When I called Customer Service (from my cell phone outside since I had no cell service inside which precipitated the need to install Digital Voice) to ask why it wasn't working, I was told, "Well, no one has been out to install it yet."  My response:  "Then who were the creepy men in my apartment?"  Then when I moved out, I had to contact Customer Service four times to get my service disconnected, and I received four different answers about the appropriate procedure to do so.  Yes, I've despised Comcast for a while now, so you may be wondering why it stands out as a villain this week in particular.  The answer is quite simple, really.  I had no cable, phone or internet service for the majority of the day which really threw off my blog-writing schedule.  Sure, service has been restored now, finally, but I'm still very annoyed.  Grrr.

That's all for this week.  Enjoy the long weekend!