We can do THIS right now....

RealAge has a great video in Tips for the Day this a.m.: Leslie Sansone's Walk at Home!



Claude walks at home with this, I think--or something similar--in addition to her inimitable photographic prowls through her neighborhood in Paris.  I love walking in Paris...and I love walking little Fiona through my neighborhood.  But this seems like a good workout to do right here and right now.  I just need to get
up and stop lying here admiring Sansone's energy.  It's morning in Maryland...time to hit it!

Sunday Music: Tunde Jegede and Sona (Maya) Jobarteh

Video clip:  Tunde Jegede and Maya Jobarteh perform in Limerick, Ireland, in St. Mary's Cathedral.

Jegede is an internationally known multi-instrumentalist and composer who specializes in the West African harp-lute instrument called the kora.  Jobarteh is the first female kora player in her famous kora-playing West African family.  She began studying the kora at age 3 and gave her first performance at the London Jazz Cafe at age 4.  She also plays the cello, the piano, and the guitar.

Tonight I decided to find more songs to share.  I came upon this you-tube by accident, but I love their music. 

Hey! It's Saturday Night!!

Forget the bike riding....Here's the Queen of Ever:



She of course keeps that classy chassis on the Serial Skool Lunchbox Diet: Monday--a slice of bread; Tuesday, a slice of cheese; Wednesday, all the lettuce she wants; Thursday, ditto fresh tomato slices; Friday, another slice of bread; Saturday, an apple, and Sunday, a cookie & a glass of skim milk!

Fun, Sore Buns for Saturday...

If you can stand to ride your bike around DC in traffic for either 60 miles (the 50 States ride) or 15 miles (the 13 Colonies ride), haul yourself to Kaloramo Park tmw morning.  This good news is from Prince of Petworth's 5 PM Post today:

The 5pm Post – WABA 50 States and 13 Colonies Ride this Saturday

23 September 2010 5:00 PM | By Prince Of Petworth in Bike

Photo by PoPville flickr user JRoseC
“Saturday, September 25- The legendary 50 States and 13 Colonies Ride is back in 2010. Are you ready to try one of the hardest rides in DC? We provide the Start/Finish area and 3 pit stops fully stocked with water, food, and a bike mechanic.
The most unique and challenging bike ride in DC! This 60+ mile ride is for cyclists experienced and comfortable with riding through the city streets with traffic. The 50 States ride covers all 50 state streets in all 8 Wards in search of the District of Columbia’s statehood. Often been referred to as “brutal,” “insane,” and “engrossing.” You have not seen the city of Washington by bike until you have done the 50 States Ride.
*Cue sheets will be available the day of the ride. Because some of the cues may change last minute due to construction projects and road closures, WABA will not provide cue sheets in advance.

13 Colonies

Not quite as challenging as the 50 States Ride, but equally as enjoyable. Ride on all the streets named for every one of the 13 original colonies. This ride is a little under 15 miles and is also for cyclists who are comfortable with riding on city streets with traffic.
*Cue sheets will be available the day of the ride
Register Now>>
Continues after the jump.

Ride Check-In & Start:

Kalorama Park
1875 Columbia Road NW, WDC
8:00 am – Ride Check-In
8:30 am – 50 States Ride Begins
9:00 am – 13 Colonies Ride Begins

Getting There:

Kalorama Park is conveniently located to the Adams Morgan/Woodley Park Metro Station on the Red Line. If you are driving, limited street parking is available.

Lunch:

Those who choose the California Tortilla burrito lunch option will receive their food at the Capitol Hill Pit stop no earlier than 11:30AM.

Post-ride Happy Hour:

To celebrate your hard pedaling, come on over to The Grill from Ipanema for a post-ride happy  hour! Located right across the street from the finish area at Kalorama Park, there will be bike parking out front, a delicious brunch offered until 4pm and a full menu after that, and 1/2 price beers and $1 off drinks and appetizers for riders! Check out the brunch menu here>>

Thanks for your support of WABA and cycling in the DC area!”

Down the Rabbit Hole

When I was younger, hardly anyone I knew died.  All but one of my grandparents were dead long before my birth.  But people I knew died only once every two or three years if that often. As I got older, more of them moved away, especially to Florida and Arizona, and then died.  But lately, those who leave permanently are getting more numerous.  Every year at the Oscar ceremony, the Academy says goodbye to the actors and directors we've become not only familiar with but grown to love. And for every one of them who passes, there's more people I know personally.

I've been thinking of this more often now because of Martha.  Martha has been one of my best friends ever.  And she's leaving us.  Karen, one of her other friends, says, "I think I intuited this was happening to her maybe 4-5 years ago because of the nature of our calls, then their thinning out, then ceasing completely, and the cease of e-mails."  I know what she mean about Martha's "disappearance" oh so gradually. 

Martha as we knew her--with her vibrant, brilliant, beautiful, and mischievous spirit, the strong, creative teacher, artist, mother, and grandmother who loved to cook so much they tore out half their downstairs to create a huge kitchen with a professional range, who taught her beloved Ruby to play the recorder, the piano, and the violin--has left the stage. Still, she began with so much more than just about anyone else I know on the planet, so even her diminishing leaves her ahead of most of us. She informed me in a recent out-of-the-blue phone call that she has a full-time job, though unpaid, helping out where she lives--she has moved to a nursing home specializing in persons with brain injuries (including dementia and related ailments).  She's still reaching out to people, still teaching--calligraphy!--helping fill her fellow residents' days with accomplishment.  Still, we weep, even though she's not dead.  

My own much more unprepossessing life is going down the rabbit hole, too.  My days are very different now from what they were.  By choice.  I'm thinking more, rereading my beloved books more, remembering the past more even as I forget just about any odd piece of recent information on any given day. Swimming has become less of an athletic chore and more of the joyous splashing and paddling I did at Lake Sallie. Walking has become something I do to save money as well as my arteries.  It's all good.

In Case You're in the Neighborhood on Wednesday....

Prince of Petworth made this announcement on The 5 PM Post today:

“On Wednesday, September 22, from 7:30 pm – 8:30 pm Sierra Club presents Ian Woodall, a world famous mountain climber, who will speak on his life changing climbs to the top of Mount Everest in his talk entitled “The Tao of Everest.” His presentation will be held at Harriet’s Restaurant, 436 11th Street NW (near Metro Center and Archives stas.).

Between 1996 and 2007, Ian conceived, planned and led five expeditions to Mount Everest, reaching the summit on two occasions but also experiencing the death of fellow climbers along the way. He explores what these experiences mean to him in a presentation he calls the Tao of Everest.”

 DC has lots of things like this, but they're too late at night for me.  I can check out Harriet's Restaurant, though.  Never heard of or saw that before!   And check the link to the Tao of Everest!

TGIF!! Obama appoints Warren!!!

 OK, This arrived in my inbox today:

Top Five Things You Should Know About Elizabeth Warren

1. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was her idea. Here's why she thinks this agency is so critical: "It is impossible to buy a toaster that has a one-in-five chance of bursting into flames and burning down your house. But it is possible to refinance your home with a mortgage that has the same one-in-five chance of putting your family out on the street."¹
2. The Republicans are so scared of her, they tried to pass a law blocking her from leading the agency. Republicans in Congress and the big Wall Street banks have always been against Warren leading the new consumer agency. Republicans even offered an amendment that was widely understood as designed to block Warren. That amendment failed.²
3. She is one of the most prominent, successful and fierce female lawyers in America. Coming from working-class roots, she graduated from high school as a debate star at 16. She finished law school when she was nine months pregnant. And she has repeatedly been named one of the fifty most influential female lawyers by the National Law Journal and was twice nominated as one of Time Magazines 100 Most Influential People (among other honors).³
4. She spoke truth to power about the failed foreclosure program. The Home Affordability Modification Program was supposed to save homeowners from losing their homes but has left many deeper in debt than they were before. Warren used her position on the Congressional Oversight panel to bring the voices of these disaffected homeowners right to the decision makers in the administration and demand accountability.⁴
5. She may have actual superpowers. She once calmed the entire crowd of an NBA game with her encyclopedic basketball knowledge. She explained the financial meltdown so clearly to Jon Stewart he said it made him "want to make out with" her.

Re: item #3, Warren is CLEARLY the anti-P----!  Warren was a debate star at 16, finished law school when she was 9 mos. pregnant. Take that, O ditz from Homer!

(if you click "This" in my first sentence, you'll get the references for all the footnotes and possibly a video of Jon Stewart interviewing Ms. Warren.)  I dunno...the networks have been slower than molasses in January for the past 3 or so days....

Have a swell weekend!

Happy Monday....the Gals in their 80s have it today!

Margaret & Helen have a great post on, ostensibly, the Q'uran burning guy, but more to the point, what it means if you vote Republican (sorry, dear sweet rellies. Just because we share phylogeny doesn't mean we share ontogeny).

http://margaretandhelen.wordpress.com/

A choice quote from this post:

...considering what they [Republicans] did when we gave them the keys to the car the last time, are you really ready to put them behind the wheel again so soon?  I’m just not sure there are that many more countries we can bomb, world religions we can vilify, and oil wells we can drill before the rest of the world calls us on our bullshit.

Here’s a thought.  If  Pastor Jones is so dead set on burning a book he should just wait until The George Bush Memoirs come out. 

Ah, Grandchildren....how they teach and teach us....

I'm borrowing my grandson Ian's FB post today.  He says:

"You can build the mosque, just not THERE." 

"You can sit on the bus, just
not THERE." 

"You can get married, just not to that person right THERE." 

"You can have a baby, just not There"

That's making it plain and easy for the Teabaggin' geniuses.....

 Thanks, Ian

Those Were The Days, Indeed

Darlene's post on Facebook this morning said "Frank Rich Says It All for Me." So I hopped to the NYT and read his column.  But whoa!  When I clicked the little FB symbol to post this on my FB page, I was greeted with the following request to allow the New York Times to:

Access my basic information Includes name, profile picture, gender, networks, user ID, list of friends, and any other information I've shared with everyone. Send me email The New York Times may email me directly at XXXXXXX · Post to my Wall The New York Times may post status messages, notes, photos, and videos to my Wall Access posts in my News Feed Access my data any time The New York Times may access my data when I'm not using the application Access my friend lists Access my profile information Likes, Music, TV, Movies, Books, Quotes, About Me, Interests, Groups, Birthday, Education History and Work History Access my contact information Hometown, Current City and Website

FB wants me to give access to all of this PRIVATE information to the NYT in exchange for reprinting a column I like?   Um, no thanks!  


This is new.  I haven't got this particular page before when I linked to a NYT article on my FB page.  No more spontaneous attemps to promote Times columns (precious few, btw) that make sense to me.  Those days are over. 

How about some haunting music for the background?

"Those were the days, my friend. We thought they'd never end. We'd sing and dance forever and a day....lalalalalala......"  Mary Hopkins made this song popular in my relative youth, but before that it was a Russian folk song.  Remember?

Always worthwhile to stop by Echidne on Saturday night!!!

Here's her latest post, and a wonderful one it is!!  (If you're too tired to click the link, here it is in plain sight:

Ten Things Barack Obama Could Do To Save His Floundering Presidency [Anthony McCarthy] 

1. Fire Rahm Emanuel 2. Fire Tim Geithner 3. Fire Larry Summers 4. Fire Robert Gibbs 5. Fire David Axelrod 6. Appoint Elizabeth Warren, for crying out loud 7. Fire Alan Simpson 8. Give the House members something they can run on. 9. Stop giving your base the finger. We gave you a bigger mandate than any of your recent predecessors had. WE are the ones you owe, not the cast of clowns listed above. 10. Act like a president, for crying out loud. If you're just going to send out Gibbs to pretend you're powerless, If you're going to keep this up, step aside and let someone else try.  I second all of these motions!!!

70F and TGIF!

It's so not hot I can't sleep.  That may be the result of imbibing so much diet cola this aft, but it is pleasant in here for a change. Yes, we do have air conditioning, but this is good ol' Washing DC, which has been very hot for a while.

Here's a good one: Hungover Owls

Found it on Wrath of Dawn.

TGIF, folks!

Love Ya, Margaret & Helen!

If you haven't read Margaret & Helen's blog, you're in some kind of a cave.  Here's their post for today
about the past weekend's peckerwood picnic in DC. 

And whoa!  they seem to have got an accurate count for that, finally:  less than 100,000!  Here's my favorite part:

The greatest threat against America is not terrorism.  It’s not a mosque in Manhattan.  It’s not gay marriage.  It’s not healthcare reform.  And, believe it or not, it’s not even Beck or Palin.  The greatest threat against America are the tens of millions of Americans who won’t turn out to vote this November effectively giving power to 87,000 angry assholes.