Sorority "Sisters"

I find this picture of Carrie Underwood and her sorority sisters, which appears in the October 6 issue of Us Weekly, a bit unsettling. They look like clones of each other.

More pictures of the kids...

My brother has two sites where he posts pictures of his kids... Ben's is here and Mia's is here.

Museum Day

Tomorrow is Museum Day, sponsored by Smithsonian magazine. Museums across the country are taking part and providing free admission. It's always nice to save some money! If I were back home in Cleveland, I might take advantage of the free admission to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. What a deal! Unfortunately, most of the museums on the list in the Washington, DC, area are already free. Also, I was going to go to the National Book Festival tomorrow. But I guess if it rains, I might be heading to a museum.

Religulous screening

I was excited to go to a free advanced screening of Bill Maher's documentary Religulous last night. I enjoy Bill Maher and I enjoy seeing people try to explain their beliefs. It was definitely interesting and I enjoyed it, although I have to say if people want to spend their lives blindly devoted to God, why does Bill Maher care? Well, he does bring up some points and explains why he cares a bit but for the most part, I think he should let people do what they want to do just as I'm going to let him date models and porn stars half his age and hang out nonstop at the Playboy Mansion.

However, the truly interesting part of the evening was that the movie theater apparently installed the third reel incorrectly and so when it started, it was upside down and backwards. And instead of just stopping the reel and trying to correct it, apparently it had to play all the way through. So we had to sit there for like 25 minutes with nonsensical noise and upside down images. They talked about trying to fix it but then decided to just finish the movie and give us all coupons for another movie. So I missed about a half hour in the middle. But considering it was a documentary and Bill's point of view is pretty clear from the outset, I'll just wait to watch the rest of it on DVD. And go see another movie for free with my coupon!

Umbrella Today keeps it simple

Umbrella Today is probably the simplest weather site ever. You type in your zip code and it comes up with a big "YES" or "NO", answering the question whether you will need an umbrella today. Huh. Kinda cool, kinda simple. You also can sign up to get text alerts on the days when you will need your umbrella, no Internet required. I'm intrigued, although honestly I carry an umbrella with me every day. I have a small one that I keep in my bag. (via)

Pictures of Mia

Here are the first pictures of my niece Mia! One by herself first and one of her seemingly already trying to get out of the grasp of her big brother:

Man charged with smuggling beetles from Japan

Umm, eww! Here's the article, but nowhere does it say what the police did with the beetles. That guy lives close to me too!

I'm an aunt again!

My brother and sister-in-law now have a bouncing baby girl - two weeks early! She was born today at 6:02 pm and I guess although Melissa had been having contractions a little bit in the afternoon, the baby was almost born in the car and came really quickly. Good for her, couldn't wait to come into the world! Brian said she's 7 lbs, 10 ounces and has a full head of hair. And she snorts like a pig when she's sleeping, as I heard firsthand over the phone. If (when) I get a pic, I'll post it.

NFL Game Map

Kinda cool, this map shows which NFL football games will be carried in your area each weekend. On the left are buttons for CBS & Fox and the game that is shown is color coded. This was how I found out that this Sunday, the Browns vs. Cowboys game will be on TV here in DC, as well as most of the rest of the country. Sweet! (via)

Night Construction

I'm pretty sick of them doing overnight construction work on our street. They warned us on Monday night by telling us that our water would be turned off from 10pm to 6am. Last night, there was no similar warning; they just started hammering and drilling away starting at about 10pm and on through the night. I find it obnoxious that they only feel the need to warn you about it if your water is turned off. Do they think that doesn't affect our sleeping? I sleep with a fan on to drown out noises like that and my fan is not even loud enough to completely wipe it out. I find it really really annoying and I really don't get why they can't do it during the day. I'm guessing nighttime noises are a bigger nuisance to more people than being without water for a few hours during the day.

The Office commercial

Has anyone seen the commercials for The Office that are running during the Olympics? This one really made me laugh:

Beloit College Mindset List

This is an interesting list that comes out every year that shows the mindset of incoming freshman. The world as they know it, basically. It's enlightening and a surefire way to make you feel old. For instance, to these kids "Caller ID has always been available on phones." What? I remember when Caller ID was new!! And when we got it for my parents and they thought it was kind of a waste. Another one: "GPS satellite navigation systems have always been available." Also: "There has always been Pearl Jam." Heh. (via)

The World Conspires Against Me...

So I haven't had Internet at home for about a week now. We were sharing Internet with my neighbor but she moved to the fourth floor and we seem to not get her signal anymore. So it's tough for me, an Internet junkie, but at least I have Internet at work from 8:30 to 5:30, right? Well, not so much. Yesterday, our Internet at work went out at about 11:30am! It was down the rest of the day and actually wasn't fixed until about noon today! 24 hours without the Internet!

To make matters worse, last night after work I went to the library thinking that I might use their computers. When I got there, they were evacuating the building! Apparently the fire alarm had been going off and so everyone was asked to leave and the fire trucks came to check out the problem. I stuck around for about 15 minutes but nothing seemed to be happening so I just decided that someone did NOT want me to have access to the Internet that day and went home. Argh!

Smartbike DC

So I guess Smartbike DC launched today, although I saw the bikes downtown yesterday so maybe that start date is a bit off. But, the idea behind it is similar to the Zipcar/Flexcar concept, where instead of buying a car, you can sort of rent one whenever you need it. Smartbike looks like it charges $40 a year and then you can borrow a bike whenever you need one in three-hour increments. There are initially 100 bikes at 10 locations.

Forty bucks a year isn't bad at all, especially compared with buying a brand new bike, but I kind of don't like that you can only ride the bikes in the District - there are plenty of great bike spots in Virginia. (via)

Library of Congress Junior Fellows

It looks like the Junior Fellows Summer Intern program at the Library of Congress has come quite far in three years, since I was part of the first group. Here's a blog post about their findings this year. It looks like there are now 50 of them. We had about 20. It's amazing they are still finding some pretty cool treasures. And they get their names posted on the Library's Web site! I never was so lucky. Our press coverage was pretty non-existent. I guess I can always say I was in the first group, though.

Brickskeller

I went to The Brickskeller today, which I've wanted to do for three years since I heard about it but just had never made it before. It's a little off the beaten path actually. And they have hundreds of beers to choose from. We had a work happy hour for one of our employees who is leaving and she is a big beer lover so it was a good opportunity to go there. I ended up getting the Firestone Double Barrel Amber Ale and really liked it! But, one complaint is that with a beer list this long, why do they not have more from Ohio?

What a race

Last night I was sleepy but decided to stay up at least until the 4X100 relay to see if Michael Phelps won his second gold. And boy did I not regret it! What an awesome, exciting race. I highly recommend watching it, even if you know what happened.

Sales Tax Holiday!

This weekend is Virginia's annual Sales Tax Holiday weekend, good on school supplies under $20 and clothing under $100. It seems like it might be a good weekend to go shopping!

Web site with potential

I read about TripIt today and it sounds interesting. When you travel, you send all your confirmation emails, itineraries, etc... to it and it organizes them and creates one big itinerary for you, which you can then access from anywhere in whichever format you prefer. You can then share itineraries with friends to see where your schedules overlap. Web 2.0 for travel, I guess. It might be worth checking out next time you travel! (via)

No wonder I'm so spoiled

As I've left Cleveland and moved to Syracuse and now Washington, DC, it's annoyed me how awful the public libraries are. I guess I grew up just taking library services for granted and I won't lie that it's probably one of the reasons I became a librarian. Here's another article that proves my point that the libraries that I grew up with are the cream of the crop. On a list of the Top 25 Most Modern Libraries in the World (the WORLD, not just the US), the two libraries I always went to as a kid are both on the list under the technology and innovation category. (via)