The TV show Lie to Me is set in Washington, D.C. It amuses me because they use the front of the convention center as the office building. But today they are just annoying me.

Supposedly, a guy is pulling a tractor bomb (think truck/car bomb, but pulled by a John Deere) right up to the front of the Treasury building. Only one HUGE problem. The Treasury building is located right smack dab next to the White House. Inside the fence. Not only would this guy be dead in about a second, but it's physically impossible to drive a tractor pulling a bomb up to the front of the building.

They could have probably gotten away with most anything else, including doing something with the IRS building. Instead, they picked a building that pretty much every tourist ever coming to DC has seen...

I do like winter, but not as much as I used to.

You see, as of last year, I could put on soft sweaters and big hooded sweatshirts if I had to leave my apartment/dorm.

Now, however, I have to be in a suit or suit equivalent. Studies have proven that dress clothes are not as warm and comfortable as the aforementioned sweaters and sweatshirts.

Being a "grown up" stinks.

As I was coming home yesterday, I decided that I really wanted pizza for dinner. I came home, went online to order, and discovered that Papa Johns has a Redskins special. On the Monday after games, you get a large cheese pizza for $9.99, plus a free topping for every touchdown the 'Skins scored.

Frequently this season, that would have resulted in...a cheese pizza. But I chose this week to crave pizza, which means I got 3 toppings!

On another note, I returned my BarBri books today, which resulted in Christmas money!!!! And another 50 or so pounds of crap out of my apartment!

1. If you want a card from me and your address has changed from last year, please make sure you send me your updated address!

2. If you want to send me a card, please remember that my address has changed. Ask, and I'll send you the new location!

I have almost not stopped moving since I came home from church today. I had a whole long list of things that I wanted to do, and the only thing that I have not completed was a cleaning of my bathroom. But since I added a few cleaning items along the way, I feel that it's okay.

For instance, I cleaned my kitchen, vacuumed my living/dining room, took out the trash and recycling (3 trips for the recycling!), did multiple loads of laundry, fixed my bed frame, watered my plants, and got things set up for the week. But I was helped along by my television, namely the movie "Elf" and the Saints over the Redskins and now the Cowboys v. Giants. I was all for the Saints, but my loyalties are divided for the Dallas/NY game. I really like the Manning brothers (though Peyton over Eli), but a running back on the Cowboys graduated from my high school, and I got to see him play my senior year.

At least it's a good game!

Now time to finish watching the game, pour a glass of wine, and relax for a few hours!

we had cold rain/sleet/snow move in today, so I had been planning all week to make this a day when I didn't leave my apartment. And while I opened my door to hang a wreath, I fully succeeded in that plan! But that didn't mean I was completely lazy!

Instead, here's how my day went (not necessarily in order):
*slept in (of course!)
*watched the snow falling (no real accumulation, but still pretty coming down!)
*baking (lesson learned from last time--follow the recipe, and things actually work!)
*hung the remaining pictures in my living room and a few in my bedroom
*put up my Christmas tree and wreath
*watched a couple of old romance movies on TCM
*football (crying Tim Tebow and go GA Tech!)
*piano practice

The last one was the most interesting--a while ago I agreed to play for a mid-week service, having been promised that it would only be a couple of hymns and a few easy psalms. Instead, I got zero psalms and SIX hymns. In SIX keys! But only a few of the hymns are particularly difficult, so running through them slowly for a few times, then gradually speeding them up should be all I need to do, and I have plenty of time.

Tomorrow: church, then laundry, finishing the program for my community band's concert, and cleaning up the apt. to get ready for the week! Also, probably some Christmas movies.

At least, I have childlike abilities to make a complete and utter mess. And my skills were on amazing display yesterday as I attempted to make a double batch of friendship breads and a fish dish for dinner.

My evening started off well, with a mostly successful run to the grocery store, and an exciting, easy recipe to try for a meal!

Of course, making the breads is probably going to be quite messy, given the quantities of flour, oil, eggs, and sugar involved. Given that, I probably wasn't too bad as I was baking. Though I had not replaced the bag in my trash can when I took out the trash prior to leaving for Thanksgiving, so there was a bit of a messy pile in the corner of the counter until I remedied that situation.

I managed to get the first round of bread in the oven and proceeded to make my fish dish. It's very simple, but in the course of 15 minutes I managed to squirt lemon juice all over the stove and floor when I mis-aimed with a new bottle of lemon juice, drop one of the pieces of fish on the counter between the pan and the plate (they were right next to each other, but I managed to flip the fish right out of the pan and onto the counter), and dribble some of the topping sauce down the side of the pan onto the counter, as well.

Then, I discovered when I tasted the first batch of bread that I had completely messed something up (perhaps some skipped ingredients in my haste to go through the recipe, perhaps mistake in figuring out what I needed to do to double the batch, who knows?), and the bread was disgusting. Not only did I need to discard the already-baked bread, but I had to get rid of the remaining batter, too. And, of course, the trash can bag slipped down while I was dumping the remaining batter, causing me to get batter down the side of the trash can and on the outside of the bag. Luckily there wasn't too much on the trash can, so it was easily cleaned, the old bag put inside a new bag to throw away, and the saga ended.

Add in the fact that it was Monday after a long holiday weekend, and I was glad for shower and bed time!

Today, it's tomato soup/grilled cheese night while I do laundry, and NO baking! (I have more batter to try to make another round, but I'm out of oil, eggs, and vanilla extract, so that will have to wait until I make another grocery run).

My Thanksgiving weekend was wonderful, thank you very much.

I was able to catch an earlier flight, so I got home 3 hours before I expected! Add in a wonderful dinner, incredible deals on Friday, and simply being home, and it was spectacular!

As this will be my last entry prior to Thanksgiving, I thought I'd throw a bit of random trivia at you.

I'm watching "The Good Wife" as I pack to go home (HOORAY!), and two of the attorneys were talking about seeing a certain guy speak at Georgetown Law. Only problem is that they talked about seeing him in Hart Auditorium. As near as I can tell, the auditorium was part of the expansion of the McDonough classroom building; the expansion was completed in 1997, 12 years ago.

The premise of the show is that the main character is going back into law practice after being out of the game for 13 years. Which means she would have had to graduate prior to the completion of the auditorium. I suppose it's possible that she saw him speak prior to entering law school, but it seems unlikely.

Of all the mistakes to make, this is relatively minor, and I suppose there are only a few people who would know this. :)

I'm so excited that I was able to buy my ticket for Bon Jovi when they come in March! I'm a little behind the stage (I waited a little long to buy the ticket), but it's supposed to be an "open" stage, with no backdrop. So while he won't be facing me, I'm closer, and should still have a great seat! This was a ticket on my "must see before I die" concert list, so I'm super excited.

On the other side of the happiness spectrum, Jamie Cullum has finished his newest album. It's already released in most of the world, but it doesn't come out in the US until MARCH. Why this is, I have no idea. But I'm very mad! There's really no need for a delayed release of something like this. It's not even like with a movie, where often the release dates are scheduled around each other to avoid competition. I guess this is what the rest of the world feels like when it comes to certain American cultural exports. BOO!