happy new year!

Again!

It's the Chinese New Year, welcoming in the year of the Ox. And what a good time to enter into the year of the Ox. Ox is said to bring prosperity, but I think some of that is through patience and hard work. Which maybe we, in general, haven't really worked on...judging by the current economic climate.

But I want to steer away from that subject, as there are many who study those kinds of things for a living writing on the topic. I just wanted to wish you all a very good Ox year! And maybe hope for a little oxen prosperity too.

I have always been fascinated by astrology, Western and Chinese. It's a very interesting personality study. As far as Chinese astrology is concerned, when I was growing up I felt I had lucked out by just barely making it into the year before me due to the way the Chinese new year fell that year. I am a dog, just making the cut before the year of the pig. According to Wikipedia, the dog is:

"Dog (Yang, 3rd Trine, Fixed Element Metal): Honest, intelligent, straightforward, loyal, sense of justice and fair play, attractive, amicable, unpretentious, sociable, open-minded, idealistic, moralistic, practical, affectionate, dogged. Can be cynical, lazy, cold, judgmental, pessimistic, worrier, stubborn, quarrelsome."

Which, looking over those, a lot of those characteristics fit in with my zodiac sign, Aquarius (oh, if you look at the Dog page over on Wikipedia, it says that it is roughly associated with Aquarius! Imagine that).

Even though I like being a Dog, I still think it would have been fun to be Tiger or a Dragon. How cool would that be? But...overall, again, I'm pretty content with my signs: Aquarian and Dog. And I think I once read somewhere that in Native American astrology I was an otter. Fun!

ballet

I used to dance. Growing up, I took ballet for several years (along with soccer, which sometimes made Saturday mornings very busy). And then I took dance all throughout high school, which was granted more jazz and modern. But we did do an occasional ballet period after our concerts, and those classes always reminded me of these little muscles in your legs that really don't get worked much on a day to day basis.

But I always loved dance. And whenever I've stopped taking it, I always want to take it back up. And I do plan on it.

Today I made a little progress with getting back to dance. I still remember the ballet workouts and warm ups and all of that, so this morning I spent about 25 minutes working on some basic ballet warm ups. And about midway through, I was already thinking that those muscles I forget are there would definitely be reminding me they're still around come tomorrow and Monday. But it's good. I always feel better after dancing, no matter how tired I feel or how much my legs feel like jelly.

I think I may have to look back into those classes. There were some tomorrow. Hmmm...

And I think I'll be keeping up with the ballet at least. Even if it's just a short workout here and a short warm up there.

coffee cake

I should start off by saying that I don't bake. Sure, Ghiradelli has helped me bake brownies my co-workers enjoy, but that's adding water and oil and an egg. Not exactly baking from scratch, which is what I've really been wanting to do more of. Because...nothing smells better than something baking (which is why I don't mind baking brownies for work). But I had a nice long weekend this weekend and decided to try my hand at something a little more labor-intensive.

I've made several things from Giada's recent cook book: Giada's Kitchen: New Italian Favorites, and have loved almost everything I've made. The other night, just as an aside, I made the spiced Americano...mmmm. Not only did it taste sweet and delicious, but the smell! You make simple syrup, but add several spices to it, and it made my little studio smell almost like mulled wine.

Anyway, back to the baking. So I decided to try making the almond, pine nut and apricot coffee cake. Because...I love coffee and almonds, and pine nuts and a good coffee cake. So when I put the cake in the oven, I snuck a little taste of the batter just hoping to get an idea of what it might taste like. Because I don't know if it was the roasted nuts or the almond extract, but just mixing the batter together made me really hope the next fifty minutes went by quickly.

So when the time was up, and my apartment thoroughly saturated with those smells, and ample cooling time had passed, it was time to taste it. Now granted, Ok, not to give myself applause, particularly since it's not my recipe, but it was delicious. So good. It was just moist enough, and the scent from the almond extract floated up off the cake, and it kind of crumbled/melted in your mouth. And then there's the slight crunch of the toasted almonds on top. I was tempted right then to make another pot of coffee to go with a second piece, but...I somehow restrained myself. But I know what breakfast tomorrow will consist of.

So...here's another book recommendation for you. I'm really looking forward to trying something else. Hmmm...something warm for the winter. Or just maybe another coffee cake when this one's gone. Why not?

texas

I know. I'm late at posting this. But...I've been a little busy and this is the perfect weekend for catching up on things. Nice long four day weekend. And that's what I'm doing. I've been organizing and cleaning, little by little, so that it's not all done at once and feeling a little overwhelming.

But...I wanted to bring you up to date on my trip to Texas over the holidays. o any of you who travel home still feel that way? When I get off the plane and I'm walking through D/FW, it's like a burden has been lifted. No, that's not the way to describe it. But I can breathe easier. I know that I can relax, that things are chill here. It's a different way of life down there. And this trip I was really looking forward to.

Granted, this had also been the longest period of time I'd gone without a trip back there, but also because I knew that the day after Christmas, we were going to the King Tut exhibition at the DMA. I had meant to take a trip up to Philadelphia when it was there, but I didn't and I had kind of regretted that. So I'm really happy it came back to stop at a couple of other cities, and that Dallas was one of them. It was, of course, incredible.

And the one item that really stood out was this...necklace or pendent that really wasn't too big. Maybe a couple of inches. But the reason it stood out was because of the scarab. It had this kind of...pale green glass that the scarab was carved out of. Next to the display case there was a video that said the glass came from the desert, from this area where a meteor had come crashing down and exploded before hitting the earth. And the heat from that explosion melted the glass for miles, and that's where the glass came from. And of course there were more. I mean...the exhibition was artifacts from Ancient Egypt...talk about opulence. But that one item stuck out in my mind because of the glass.

I also of course got to catch up with some friends and had the best time with my sister. I was, I think, the only person in Texas looking forward to it warming up by the end of that week. I wanted some warmth before I came back to DC, and of course...they want their little cold spells to last as long as possible. But I got my wish and it warmed up to about 70 my last few days. And I'm already looking forward to my next trip, only I have no idea when that will be.

Hope everyone had a great holiday season! And here's to a great 2009!

new year's resolutions?

I'm really not big on the whole resolution thing. Because I don't understand why one should wait around for the new year to implement a change. If one wants something to change, then change it. Who cares if it's...November 14 or June 9 or some other random date. I can, and do, understand the whole out with the old, in with the new, of a starting a new year, but...again, change something when it comes to the realization that it should be changed.

That being said, I got to talking to someone the other day about resolutions and something did come to my mind, mainly because it's still within the first few days of January 1. Towards the end of last year, I started slacking in the language department. I studied/reviewed Italian even less than I was doing towards the end of the summer, and my French...well, let's just say that was fading away without even a "au revoir." So...I do have some resolutions, and that's to study my languages.

I'll set aside time each weekend for the Italian, and maybe another time during the week as well for a little review because once a week really isn't enough. And as for French, well...I did get a 2009 desk calendar that has a phrase per day. Granted, some of these in the beginning I already knew, but it's a little something. And I'll watch more French films. Speaking of which...I did hear that Borders was having a big sale so it might be time to stock up on some.

Phrase of the day today: C'est une urgence! (it's an emergency! urgence ). Can I use it in a sentence? Hmmm...c'est uneque j'étudie ma français!

I know, that may not be correct...but hey, I'm trying. Right?