Rock Chalk Jayhawk!

KU wins the NDT!!!

Ok, so this is old news. The trophy has been engraved, the rings have been handed out, the t-shirts have been printed, the congratulatory emails and facebook posts have been written, and across the country, the celebratory drinks have been imbibed. And I utterly failed in my Jayhawk debate alum duties by forgetting to post about it here.

But now there is a new angle on the story. Check out the coolest new addition to the beautiful Kansas landscape:



How neat is that?

Congratulations to the KU squad on a fantastic accomplishment. And particular congratulations to Coach Harris, Coach of the Year. In an activity full of smart, hard working, nice people, there is no smarter, harder working, or kinder coach out there.

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

My morning walk has gotten a lot more colorful recently. It is Pride week in the District (and in the country in general), and we live in the heart of it all—Dupont Circle (also known as the “Froot Loop”). The local businesses have been preparing for weeks, hanging rainbow flags and streamers and all sorts of colorful decorations.

Our own celebration began Friday night, with a lovely evening at our neighborhood Italian restaurant, Dupont Italian Kitchen (lovingly referred to by locals as “DIKs”). We claimed the very last outdoor table so that we could relax and enjoy the lovely evening weather, delicious food, and the always entertaining sights and sounds of DC on a Friday night. Dinner got a lot more flavor, however, when the underwear models showed up. In their work clothes. Because really, the best way to sell underwear is to send a loud pack of half a dozen male models to gallivant around Dupont Circle in very small boxer-briefs.

That was just a warm-up to the next day’s festivities. Since we live basically on the parade route and had been hearing the rowdy crowd since noon, we just couldn’t bring ourselves to stay inside and work (it would have been hard to work with all that racket anyway). So we headed out to enjoy the experience. And experience we did.

Turns out, there are cowboys in DC too.



And fun hair-dos.



And leather.



And beauty pageant queens.



All things you can find in Oklahoma, right?

We saw lots of debauchery, and other things we’d never seen before. But we also saw things that moved us (well me) to tears. Like the group of parents marching with signs that said “we love our kids.” And the “marriage is a civil right” signs being carried by the children of gay parents. And the churches and synagogues who sent representatives to show their support.

All in all, an excellent way to spend a Saturday night.

Product Endorsements

A while back, I received a somewhat breathless call from my best friend, who just had to tell me about something wonderful she had discovered. Hostess, makers of most things delicious in life, has come out with something amazing: strawberry cupcakes in 100-calorie packs! Of course, these delicious treats sent us back to the good ol’ days of Ruff Draft and Mrs. Heitz and birthday cupcakes and beating the boys at Trivial Pursuit and sitting on the couch with a strawberry sheet cake between us and eating our ways to the middle.... But I digress.

I finally found a way to reciprocate Rachel’s kindness in introducing me to my new worktime fuel of choice. And that is to introduce you to the next big thing in processed commercial food—All Natural Cheetos! They’re delicious. They’re snackable. They’re “white cheddar” so they don’t turn your hands orange. And they contain not a single ingredient that you can’t pronounce. Pick one up at your local Safeway today! Trust me on this one.

More ketchup

It’s been over a month since my last post, so this one is probably going to an audience of two. Unfortunately, the brain-fingers dream team has a limited number of coherent sentences that it can pump out in a day, and this month, each one of these sentences has been stolen by briefs and motions and white papers. But while the husband is off swimming 60 feet below where humans are meant to be and I therefore can’t concentrate on brief-writing, I thought I’d catch you up on some recent events in our lives.

Separate vacations. We’ve not even celebrated our second anniversary yet and we’re already taking independent trips. A strange confluence of events resulted in my mom coming to visit us in DC on the same week that Ankur went to Kansas to visit his parents. A good time was had by all in both places, though, and now our freezer is fully stocked with Matzah ball soup and Indian chicken. Hooray for moms. I then made my own single trip home a few weeks later, for some father-daughter bonding time at the Women’s College World Series. We’ve been going to this awesome event since before I could see over the railing in front of us, and even years later, it never fails to disappoint.

Together vacations. We finally converged for a short trip to Nashville to see our dear friend Kate get married. It was one of the very best weddings we’ve been to. The ceremony was touching, the bride stunning, the garden reception laid-back and fun while maintaining its elegance, and Kate’s family—all seven siblings of them—made us want to get started on a big brood of our own. (Of course, when we spent all day Saturday working in the hotel instead of exploring the beautiful city of Nashville—to where we seriously thought about picking up and moving—we realized that maybe we had a while before we could get things started.) Congratulations Kate and Brent, and best wishes for a long and happy life together!

Work. There's not much to say about that. I’ve been working, husband has been studying, and nobody has been doing laundry. And that catches you up!