Two down in 08

I have a secret ambition to visit every continent. At this point in my life I am less than 50% of the way there. However, this is a big year for me because I am knocking two continents off my list!!! That’s right count 'em-- two continents. At the close of 2008 I’ll be over 60% of the way there only South America and Antarctica will be left.

Next month Alina and I are going to Korea to visit Camille. (Asia—Check!) We’ll be there about a week, and I’m so excited. Neither of us have ever been to Korea and Camille hasn’t been able to escape from her base much so it will be a new adventure for all three of us. As I understand it, when in Korea I should plan on eating, shopping, eating, shopping, and even more eating! I do plan on eating my way through Seoul! We also have a trip planned to the DMZ—other then that we’re still planning so if you know any good things to see and do in Korea I’d love to hear them!

In November, we are going to Morocco with the Pulitzers! (Africa—Check!) I’ve always wanted to go to Morocco ever since I first saw Casablanca. I’m really looking forward to it and j.dub has already started planning a great trip for us. We’re meeting this week to have a Morocco planning session. Should be heaps of fun!

Here’s lookin’ at you, kid.

LeechBlocked

I know some of you have already seen j.dub's blog on LeechBlock. P saw it on lifehacker a while back and sent it to me. I'm frantically trying to finish a paper by Friday so this weekend I decided that I needed a little extra help with being disciplined so I downloaded LeechBlock for the first time. It allows you to block certain websites from yourself and it can be set to only block certain websites at specific times of the day, say when you're most productive, or most susceptible to laziness, etc. So for instance, this week I've LeechBlocked practically every website not public health related from myself between the hours of 6:00 pm and midnight. It's been extraordinarily helpful! (Which, I suppose, speaks more to my lack of self control then to its greatness.) Now if only I could LeechBlock more things in my life like chocolate chip cookies, daydreaming, and t.v.!

In the meantime I'm off to write this paper--and Blogger is now leechblocked.

Ode to Mr. and Mrs. Pulitzer. Love, The Little People.

Every once in a while one gets the opportunity to bask in greatness. That happened to Peter and I this week. Our good friend Billy won the Pulitzer for his outstanding contribution to journalism!!! P & I were very impressed. In addition to being good friends B&J are also our neighbors so they came over last night to celebrate. P and I decided to have a bit of fun with them while properly honoring Billy's achievement so we got all dolled up in formal attire, (remember that dress KMS & KSV???) printed an 8x10 photo of B, presented him with a flower, and asked him to autograph his picture.

In all seriousness, congratulations to Billy!

PS-- I bet in no time Julie will get the Nobel for literature! Then they shall be known as Mr. and Mrs. Pulitzer-Nobel.

Farewell, Cruel Week.

This week was not stellar. Not the worst week I've had, yet it was a bit of a frustrating week. It started off with a bang. We sold our car on Sunday, and then Monday discovered we had mucho problems with the VA DMV because of their incompetence. (See P's blog for the details)

Then, I turned in my resignation at work this week. While it may seem like a shock to some, it has actually been something I've been contemplating for sometime. And quitting ones job is almost always a bittersweet experience. I'm very excited for a fresh start and am confident that this was the correct decision for me, but there will definitely be things I'll miss about my current job. I'll miss my big office with a gorgeous view of K Street and Franklin Park. I will definitely miss my staff they are really nice competent folks. I'll be sad not to refer to DC Coast as 'the cafeteria.' But most of all, I'll miss my boss. I adore him.

And in the midst of all of this insanity I had to turn in my preliminary data for my big paper today at Friday 5:00pm. Of course, this would have been less stressful had I bothered to organize and budget my time responsibly the past two weeks, but I don't want to dwell on that!