Sailor Soldier of Love and Justice

Last week I took the day off for my birthday but still ended up logging in and doing some work, so I told our marketing agency that they owed me a cake. My cake arrived yesterday and it was delicious. Glad that there's at least one thing they didn't mess up. It was from a local gourmet bakery and tasted like they made it that very morning. Mmmmm.

The cake cheered me up while everything else exploded at work. At one point in the day, the security card system broke just after I had gone downstairs to get some tea. So I was trapped downstairs until someone with a key could take me upstairs. It was just that kind of day.

In the evening, the metro was a disaster. As usual. When I first got into the station, they were announcing delays on the blue and yellow lines. While I waited for a non-packed train to arrive, they also announced that there were delays on the red line. And just before an almost-packed-but-just-enough-room-for-me train arrived, they announced delays on the orange line. That means only one line in the entire system was not broken last night.

A nice man saw me struggling to keep people from crushing my cake, so he gave me his seat. I thanked him gratefully.

After my unpleasant commute, ben and I went to redeem free birthday food coupons. I got a free burrito from california tortilla and a free scoop of ice cream at baskin robbins. Dinner was extra tasty because it was all free.

The rest of the evening was devoted to unpacking. I moved the bird's cage to a better location and set up her new cage next to it so she can start getting used to it. Once she's no longer terrified of the new cage, I'll get rid of her old nasty one.

...And I have to go play with google's jules verne thing now... Wheee!

The tour of the White House was pretty neat!

We got there a bit before 5 and they let us in early. White House security was real security, unlike airline security. After an ID check and a walk through a metal detector, we were good to go. No groping or naked scanners or even taking off our shoes or coats. And the guards were all so nice! Ben lost his ring and they dropped everything to help him look. TSA could learn a few things from White House security.

Anyway, the tour! It was a self guided tour so we were allowed to take our time looking through the rooms and taking pictures. So I took plenty. Below are some of my favorites.

( Many many pictures )



After the tour, ben and I went to a brazilian bbq place where they served copious amounts of meat. On swords. It was a bit awesome in a horrible "how many animals did they kill for all this?" kind of way.



I couldn't get a very good picture of it, but basically men walk around with meat on swords. And interrupt you every 5 minutes to ask you if you'd like some. If you say yes, they use the sharpest knives I've ever seen to carve a piece. The knives went through the meat like soft butter. It was amazing.

I opted out of the meat. They had a well stocked salad bar that kept me well fed. Plus they brought out side dishes like potatoes and plantains and rolls filled with cheese. And then I had molten chocolate cake, which was probably too much food but it was really good.

So it was a pretty good evening. Almost makes up for my terrible interview. And now it's the weekend! Yay!

The edges are a bit dry, but the inside is perfect. Moist, but firm.

Today is National Cheesecake Day? Awesome!

- Cheesecake Factory is selling cheesecake for half off
- Eli's Cheesecake has free cheesecake until 2pm. (Guess that one is over already.)

Today we got an oil change for our car so we could safely drive to baltimore. We were overdue for one.

I also made a cake for our trip.

It's unfortunate that roleplaying was canceled. Now ben and I have to eat that whole cake ourselves. Blargh....

Work was exploding again this morning, but things have calmed down since then. The worst part of the day was when I sat on jelly. Compared to yesterday, sitting on jelly really isn't a big deal.

Lots of art is not here yet and I do not know why. I may get upset later, but I'm too tired for that now.

Three people told me today that I look tired.

I contacted one hotel about blocking off rooms for the wedding. Also contacted one photographer.

Does anyone have recommendations for wedding photographers on long island? I like the photojournalist style but I do NOT like when the pictures are all crooked. At this point I'm just emailing them and explaining my budget and situation and hoping that maybe one or two will take pity on me.

I was called downstairs for cake. I grumbled down the stairs that I didn't want cake, I wanted to finish my work. I was given cake anyway.

At some point I should contact bakeries to figure out wedding cupcakes. I want to arrange tastings. How do those work?

I am glad the weekend is here.

Today I went to a bridal show. Probably because I'm insane. I ate lots of free cake though. I was kinda disappointed that no one offers samples with fondant on them. I'm told it tastes really bad and I want to see for myself. (If it tastes so bad, why are so many cakes covered in it?)

I am now very tired. Being around people is exhausting.

Also, I want more of that fancy fruit punch I had today. It was tasty. (And I suspect very very expensive.)

I can never ask ben to bake me a cake ever again. It made him so unhappy. :(

For my birthday I asked ben to bake me a birthday cake. Then we got sick so the cake was put off until last night. Ben had some trouble getting the cake out of the pan and it ended up crumbling a bit. It really wasn't a big deal but ben looked sad and frustrated. I won't ask him to ever do that ever again. :(

The cake tasted good though. And I was glad ben made it for me. I just wish I could have asked for a less selfish birthday gift...

After cake, I feel asleep on the couch because I couldn't stand to be alone. I've been feeling very insecure and clingy lately. Ben woke me I think around 2 for bed.

When I woke up, there was nasty horrible snow on the ground. I dressed my dog up for the snow but she hates her snow booties. I think the problem was that the snow was really wet and soaked through the booties. If it was dry snow or ice, it probably would have been fine.

The drive to work this morning was pretty scary. Since the snow is so wet, the roads were REALLY slippery. I was having a hard time keeping my car on the road on turns and I was going pretty slow.

I'm hoping they'll let me go home early today. Traffic is going to be a nightmare with all the crazy people who don't know how to drive in snow. I know how to handle snow and I was having a hard time, so I'm really worried about what's going to happen when those idiots hit the road tonight.