Spring is upon us

This year, I was afraid DC weather would do it's typical tap dance: skipping right over Spring. We would get maybe a week of weather in the 60s and 70s, and then we would be right into the humid bitch that is Summer.

This past weekend didn't really do much to assuage my fears: late April and it was already 90 freaking degrees. And since my air conditioning doesn't kick on until tomorrow, it meant that I spent the weekend slowly roasting to death in my condo. I couldn't really leave since I had put off doing all my chores and housework for that weekend, so me = screwed.

But! Blessedly the weather has cooled off again, and the other harbinger of Spring (other than the cherry blossoms) has returned! I am of course speaking of thunder storms.

I love thunder storms. I love sitting on my balcony and watching them roll in. The wind picks up, the temperature drops, the air feels heavy with the promise of rain....and I love the anticipation of when the rain drops will actually fall.

When I was a kid and a storm would approach, I would pretend that I was a character in some natural disaster movie (think Twister) and would turn my face to the wind, let my hair blow around, and stare meaningfully into the distance as if I was sensing some kind of oncoming danger. Yes, I was a giant dork, but I bet most of us have done the same at some point, right?

Right?

Hmm.

Anyway, just such a storm rolled in last week, and I snapped some pics from my balcony! Enjoy!

Edge of the storm.

Cloud cover.

Rain falling over the trees of Fort Ward.

Random heart-shaped balloon caught in the winds.

Chocolate World

This I had to share. Earlier this month, Lori and I drove up to Hershey, Pennsylvania. Why, you ask? Duh. CHOCOLATE.

And oh did we find it. And in addition to the chocolate, we found the world's best ice cream sundae.

Observe.

And another look...

What you're looking at is culinary perfection. Chocolate Hershey's ice cream, chocolate syrup, peanut butter topping, crushed up Reese's peanut butter cups, whip cream, and of course, a cherry.

This was more than a sundae, people. It was a meal. It was a legend. While eating, all Lori had to do was look at me, and I responded, "I know." It was that good. Hands down, the best ice cream sundae I have ever had in my entire life. This sundae alone was worth the 3 hour drive. And that's not counting all the different kinds of chocolate in the factory store and the awesome deals we got at the outlet mall.

All in all, totally worth it. Even if we kind of sort of maybe possibly got a little lost on the way there. And back. But I stopped at a gas station and got a map. So it was alllll good.

Atlantic City!

I finally got around to uploading my most recent pics from my camera, and I realized I have so much to share! Most recently, my trip this past weekend to Atlantic City with Chris and Kent. That's right! The travelling trio reunites for a quick mini-break one nighter at Las Vegas' older more scuzzy sister.

Driving into town on a cloudy Sunday.

I've been to Atlantic City I think five or six times, mostly with Chris and Kent. They love gambling, so they get free hotel stays on weeknights (including Sunday). Since the three of us get Mondays off every so often, it works out pretty well.

Two things of note on the drive up. First, I randomly saw a guy with a donkey. No, that is not a euphemism. You know how the suburbs have built right up to I-95? I was looking into a cul-de-sac and I saw a dude with a donkey in the road. At first I thought it was like a wooden donkey or something, but then it moved. It was a real donkey.

The second story is more gross. Chris noticed a car on the side of the road with some girl standing next to it. Right at the moment he looked over, he figured out why the car was on the side of the road. Because one of the passengers was getting sick, and happened to upchuck right when he looked over. Fun, right?

Moving on....this trip we stayed at Harrahs Marina, which is off the boardwalk so it's a little less crowded. But the BIG draw is their huge indoor heated pool. There are cabanas and hot tubs all around the sides and the servers will bring your drinks right to the edge of the pool.

Living the good life.

Chris and Kent (and me, let's be honest) love the slots. The good news is, they let my push the button occasionally when they're playing so I don't have to wager my own meager funds.


Kent won $229 at the quarter slots. Here's his winning ticket. THEN at around 6 in the morning on Monday he won another $200. And proceeded to wake me up by slapping be on the ass to tell me about it. Here's the full conversation:

Kent: *slaps ass* Guess what?
Me: WHAT.
Kent: I won $200!
Me: Sweet! *snore*

All in all, it was a perfect mini-break, and we definitely plan on going back to the Marina. And the awesome outlet stores certainly helped. Retail therapy, FTW!

One last look at the pool!

Nebraska: Where the Cows Are

Last week, I was in Lincoln, Nebraska for work. While travelling there I learned several things about myself, Nebraska as a whole, and life in general.

1. I am, in fact, an East Coast liberal snob.

2. They keep the good beef, and ship us the leftovers. Damn, I had some good steak!'

3. It's possible to go into culture shock by being surrounded by white people. Very nice white people, but all white people nonetheless. Everyone in the service industry in Lincoln is a well-mannered white college student. Even my taxi cab driver.

4. Seafood is not "fresh" if it has to travel in a plane to get to you.

5. I had no idea single roads could stretch so far and be so straight.

6. People in the Midwest are actually very nice and much more relaxed...but that does not make them right.

7. I need me some rolling green hills to be happy.

8. Flying out of tiny airports is the best.

9. My perspective of how far away things are was all screwed up since the land is so flat. Example: "Oh, I see the grocery store up ahead on the left.....and we're still driving.....and we're still driving....ok, we should be there by now, but no."

10. Grain elevators look strange. And the locals like to talk about when they break and they have to flee the falling grain so as not to get crushed.

11. I can rock a University of Nebraska corn cob hat.

Told you.

Britney, Live!

On Tuesday, I attended the Britney Spears concert at the Verizon Center with 4 friends. So yeah, she’s not that great (or even that good) a singer, and yeah her life has imploded a couple times, and yeah, she’s richer than any 27 year old has a right to be…but you know what? I like singing along her to music so just shut it with the “blah blah Britney sucks blah.”

Any girl who tells you she has never rocked out to a Britney Spears song is lying.

Anyway, we decided to brave the vicious tweens (more on that later) and see if the reality of a Britney show could live up to the hype.

Quick review: Great show.

Ok, more in-depth thoughts: first off, my only real disappointment with the show was that they did not have large screens set up to allow for close-up views of the action. But I think the logistics would have been too difficult to pull this off. Mainly because the concert was performed in the round. The center of the Verizon Center contained three rings (the tour is named after her newest album called “Circus,” natch) and the entire space was utilized. I think having cameras try to capture all the action would have been impossible. However, this meant we couldn’t see any details of Britney herself; we were in the cheap seats and honestly it could have been some chick in a blonde wig and we wouldn’t have know the diff.

While it was pretty clear Britney was using a pre-recorded track, I can’t really fault her. There was a lot of dancing in that show and I can’t imagine anyone moving as much as she did and being able to sustain vocals that sounded anything close to good. (Side note: the Pussycat Dolls were the opening act, and as much as I find them kind of heinous, I was impressed by their ability to furiously dance and sound good…they were clearly singing live).

More on the dancing, in the beginning, it didn’t seem like Brit-Brit did all that much moving, but by the middle of the show she had hit her groove and was working it. A lot of her costume choices were questionable though (as you can see from the pics I have included).

But the coolest thing wasn’t even Britney. Continuing with the circus theme, the show included, dancers (duh), contortionists, acrobats, aerial stunts, guys on stilts, everything except live animals. Say what you want about Britney, but she know how to put on a show.

As for the songlist, I was surprised by how many of her songs came from her album Blackout that preceded Circus. She did the singles from Circus of course (opened the show with Circus, closed with Womanizer, and hit If U Seek Amy in the middle), but the majority came from Blackout with a few In the Zone songs thrown in. The only “classic” numbers I can think that she performed were Hit Me Baby (One More Time), remixed to awesome effect, Boys, and I’m A Slave 4 U. The only song that I could tell she sang live was a slower one, Everytime, and she sounded fine.

Regarding those vicious tweens, we definitely saw a brief fight break out before the show during the Pussycat Dolls. Two groups of girls converged with much yelling over who was sitting in whose seat. Cries of, “let me see your ticket!,” “let me see your ticket!, “ Bitch, don’t touch me!” were exchanged and then a brief shoving match occurred. I think they all figured out that shoving each other while standing like a hundred rows up from the floor was a bad idea and people seemed to calm down.

I was disappointed nobody pushed that drunk bitch who was dressed up as schoolgirl Britney down. She kept making us get up and down so she could walk past us to the aisle, and then started smoking in the middle of the show. But then she tripped and almost fell down the stairs, so that made me feel better. She was wasted.

All in all, like I said, it was a great show. Entertaining, definitely. I wasn’t expecting a performance of say, Kelly Clarkson proportions, but that’s not Britney’s shtick. For what it was, it was great, and I would definitely see her again.

I’m still only paying for the cheap seats though. I mean, I have some standards.

By the way, if you want to see even more concert pics and some more ridiculous outfits from the concert, go here.

Heavy Tomes

For the past two weeks, I've been reading Normal Mailer's book, The Executioner's Song. I finished it last night at 9:47 pm and did a little happy dance. Why? Because the thing is 1,050 freakin pages long. Getting through it all felt like a real accomplishment.

After finishing it, I realized that there are very few huge books I have tackled in my life. Now, I'm a big reader; I usually go through two or so books a week, especially since I spend so much time reading during my commute (I'm a public transportation kind of girl). Despite this, I don't usually gravitate towards the really long books.

I tend to stay away from biography and other non-fiction books. (except for true crime). I read for pleasure, and I find fiction to be more fun. And it seems like those big books are either non-fiction or Russian lit, and sorry, Tolstoy, you are not for me.

Having said that, I can point to 5 books that could definitely be considered tomes that finishing resulted in a definite sense of accomplishment. There's a feeling of having climbed the mountain and a sense of a job well done in getting all the way through these kind of books. So here's a list of my 5 greatest literary challenges (in terms of length, not content...James Joyce, I'm looking at you):

1) Gone With the Wind: I'm not sure what gave me the bug to read this book when I was in sixth grade. I just remember having a deep desire to read it...maybe that was around when the "sequel" was being released? In any event, I tackled my Mom's old copy with a vengeance and felt mighty proud of myself for having finished it as an 11 year old. Then I watched the movie and was depressed.

2) Helter Skelter: I developed a love for true crime during high school; maybe it was the titillating details of the mixture of murder and sex, but anyway, I stumbled across Helter Skelter probably about the time I fell in love with The Beatles as a sophomore in high school. Coincidence? I think not. I ripped through Vincent Bugliosi's account of the Charles Manson murders in about a week and was hooked on true crime ever since. It still remains one of my favorite books.

3) Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel: This book came out about 4 years ago I think, when I was in law school and working at the Barnes and Nobles. I saved up my pennies and bought it determined to read it over Christmas vacation. And I did. But I failed to consider how it would take ALL of Christmas vacation. Dear lord, this book felt long. I remember liking the beginning, but somewhere around the middle becoming less enamored. In the end, it came down to nothing more than a contest of wills to see who would win: me or the book. I pulled it out in the end, and sometimes, on a rainy afternoon if you listen really carefully, you can still hear the book weeping from its shelf because of the ass-kicking I delivered. Take THAT, book!

4) Sacred Games: I pay attention to book reviews I read in papers, and often immediately jump on to my library's system and place a hold when I come across something that looks good. Vikram Chandra novel of murder and deceit in modern day Mumbai was one of these I discovered by reading the newspaper. I dutifully hauled the almost 1,000 page hardback copy around for 3 weeks (the people on the Metro must have thought I was crazy), but really enjoyed reading it. I think it would have been better if it had been slightly shorter, but it's one of those books that you can really dig into. I couldn't breeze through it since it was chock full of references to Indian culture and Hindi phrases that demanded I take my time, but upon finishing it, I felt like I had been shown a glimpse of a world previously hidden. And there aren't many books that can really make that claim.

5) The Executioner's Song: As noted, I just finished reading this one last night, and it's another one of my true-crime opuses (why is it non-fiction books are so big?). After reading the book The Stranger Beside Me about Ted Bundy and surfing around Wiki, I found references to Mailer's book about the killer Gary Gilmore. I'm not sure he's technically a serial killer, but the book was fascinating and I liked how it was almost more about the people who surrounded Gilmore than it was about the killer himself. The book demonstrates how one person's actions can have catastrophic effects on everyone else they come into contact with.

So there you have it. My top 5 "big" reads that for one reason or another I have always remembered and considered feathers in my cap.

No more clowns!

Why????

Why would they do this? AGAIN? Look, the first movie (er, miniseries) screwed me up. I had nightmares for weeks. It was scarier than the book for several reasons: 1) seeing an evil clown is always worse than just reading about it; 2) TIM CURRY. He is like, the scariest man ever. He manged to be frightening in Home Alone 2! Come on!

So why would they want to improve perfection and also subject a new generation to the horror? Oh, right. The money.

Sorry, you could not PAY me to see this movie.

AHHHH!

DE-NIED.

For the past two weeks, I have been looking forward to Monday, March 10. Why, you ask? Because that was SUPPOSED to be the day that my new television would be delivered. The television that I had scrimped and saved for, that I was devoting a big chunk of my tax refund to, and that I had discussed ad nauseum with my friends and family.

And what happened? A big fat nothing.

My delivery window was between 12 and 4 on Monday. According to the tracking number, my appointment was actually scheduled for 3:00.

At 3:15 I called the company who said they called the driver and my tv was 10 minutes away. Woot!

4:15: I call again. I was told that they couldn't get ahold of the driver and would call me when they heard something.

5:00: Still no word from the driver. They would attempt to call him again and call me back. "Fine," I said. "But if I don't hear from you I am calling you back in 15 minutes."

5:15: "We're sorry, Ms. Riley, but there was a mix-up and the tv never made it off the loading deck even the computer said it had been put on the truck. We can't get it to you tonight since we don't have a driver, but will deliver it at your earliest convenience."

I was so angry I couldn't even really talk about it on Monday. The thing that pissed me off the most was that they essentially lied to me at 3:15. They never talked to the driver, they only looked at where the GPS signal of his truck was and saw it was near me. So now tomorrow morning is the new D-day. And I'm telling you, they better be here, ON TIME, or there will be hell to pay.

It's been one of those days...

I stepped out of the house this morning and had taken approximately 10 steps across the parking lot (headed for the bus shelter) when WHAM. Slipped on the ice and ended up on my back. Typical.

Look we all know that I am not the world's most graceful person, BUT, nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition. Or in this case, our worst snow storm to hit in March. I mean, COME ON. In any event, it was not an auspicious start to the day. And the part that really pissed me off, is the dude who was walking maybe 15 feet away from me, saw me fall, kept walking, and didn't even ask if I was ok. ASSHOLE.

Nothing really major happened at work, other than it took me way longer to finish a case than I expected. But on the way back, there was traffic on the highway and all the buses were running late. So I was stuck outside the Pentagon in the 20 degree air for 20 minutes waiting for the bus.

Which meant I was tired and hungry when I got home so I wasn't paying attention and bent my entire fingernail back when sticking my steak in the oven.

I think I should be thanking god that I didn't fall off the elliptical machine and break my leg.

Ok, so I know in the grand scheme of thing, this day wasn't that bad. Nobody I know died, got sick, lost their job, but still. For an ordinary Tuesday, it sure had some annoying parts. But the Heroes episode I watched when I got home sucked. Thank goodness tomorrow is my work-at-home day and I can sit around in my PJs.

The lone shining star of joy for the day was my discovery that U2 3D would be returning to the Smithsonian Imax screen. More Bono is always a good thing!

29th Birthday Party

This year, I wanted to do something a little different for my birthday. Instead of having a party here at my place, a bunch of friends got together and we went out to the new National Harbor, specifically, Bobby McKey's, a piano bar.

I read about Bobby McKey's in the Washington Post a few months ago when it was favorably reviewed. I had first been to a piano bar while I was in San Antonio for work and had a great time. Drinking and good music, what else do you need? Then when I was on the cruise, Chris, Andrew, and Whitney spent several evenings in the ship's piano bar and had a lot of fun.

So 26 of us caravaned over the Wilson Bridge a few weeks ago to National Harbor to the piano bar. Our reserved table was VERY close to the front, so it was a bit louder than I had expected, but I think a good time was had by all. We talked, we danced, we drank...dear god, I drank. In fact I was so hung over the next day I had to miss the Fairfax Chocolate Festival, but in retrospect, I think it may have been more the beginning of the flu that hit my full force the next day. Which makes me seem slightly less pathetic. It seems kind of sad to be 29 and lying in bed nauseous and sad because you drank too much the night before.

But let's get to the good stuff! Pictures!














See you all at my 30th!!


Oh, dear god. I'm going to be 30!

Long time no see, Mr. Flu.

Oh, influenza. It's been a long time since we met up, or even talked on the phone. Maybe, what? 5 years? Since that time at Christmas you made me so miserable that I couldn't even stay up more than 2 hours on Christmas morning to enjoy my presents. But let's not dwell on the past. Let's talk about the future! And how since I contracted you a week ago I won't have to look at your ugly mug for another half a decade.

That's right. Exactly a week ago today I began to exhibit flu-like symptoms. Headache, sore throat, nausea, an achy body (I thought at first maybe I had overdone it on the elliptical machine the day before, but quickly realized that's not going to make my entire body ache). The only thing to do was to load myself up on Alka-Seltzer and lie in bed moaning. You know you're sick when you're whole body aches so much you can't even fall asleep.

I thought I might be able to drag my sick ass into work on Tuesday, but alas. It was not to be. Which was really unfortunate since I had started mentoring a new attorney the week before and am basically in charge of teaching them. The way it works at my job is All I Need To Know About Veteran's Law I Learned From My Mentor. So when your mentor isn't there during your second week? Not good.

Luckily for me, Alicia is a quick study and had plenty to keep her busy. So my absence was not really that big a deal. On Wednesday I put in a half day, since the achiness struck again. In an attempt to make myself feel better, I procured some ice cream of the chocolate peanut butter cup variety. But then I spent the whole of Wednesday evening freaking out that I might get salmonella. Plan = backfire.

In any event, by Thursday I was feeling much better, and good thing too, since I flew out to the fair state of Michigan to visit my brother and sister-in-law for the weekend. We had a great visit, which included lots of movie watching, cookie eating, and even a trip to the Second City comedy group outside Detroit. AND I picked out the new kind of flat panel tv I'm going to buy when my fed tax refund comes through. Although who knows when that's gonna happen.

So, see ya flu! Go turn someone else's life into a misery. You jerkface.

Coming soon: Birthday celebration stories and pictures!

You know you're getting old...

...when snow loses it's mystic charm.

Remember when you were a kid and you eagerly looked forward to snowfall? Snow days, sledding, snowballs, snowmen, snow forts etc. etc. The world seemed to have transformed into a fantasy land when those first few inches would stick to the ground.

Yeah, that's all changed.

Snow is now more of a hassle than a sign of fun. Things I consider when I hear there is snow in the forecast: "Do I have enough milk?" (I am from Virgina, after all), "will my bus be on it's normal route?," do I need to drive anywhere?," and "will Metro be running?"

So the magic of childhood has faded to the practicalities of adult life. And that's depressing.

But despite that, there are still times when the snow is just as beautiful and filled with as much promise as when I was a kid. But it's getting harder and harder to remember that. Especially when I have to hike home on iced over sidewalks after my bus has dumped me 10 minutes away from my normal stop because it's running on a snow emergency route.

Things to do in DC: National Museum of American History

After closing it's doors two years ago for extensive renovations, the National Museum of American History on the DC Mall reopened in November of 2008. And a couple weeks ago, my Mom and I visited to check out the new digs and see the special exhibition of The Gettysburg Address, one of the few original copies hand-written by Abraham Lincoln.

Now, call me old-fashioned, but I like my museums to feel like museums. Old marble, maybe some dust gathering in the corridors, none of this light and airy crap. And what the American History Museum has is a nice marriage of traditional and modern. Walking in the front entrance (which is actually the entrance opposite of the Mall), you enter a huge gallery lined with random pieces of American history. C3PO from Star Wars! A nineteenth century bicycle! Things like that, all displayed in long cases the entire length of the hall. And while there is a huge skylight in the main hall, things don't feel too disconnected from the museum of old.

And very smartly, the bathrooms and lockers are located right next to the entrance. Thanks layout planners!

In fact, the only disappointment I had is that the museum eliminated the huge pendulum that used to swing in front of the star spangled banner. Sigh. Memories.

As for the flag itself, it's been moved to a glass enclosed viewing area which seems much more logical than having it hanging out in the middle of the air. It also underwent some extensive cleaning, but honestly, it looked the same to me. Which is as it should be.

I was surprised by the small number of exhibits that are currently out. I distinctly remember there being about twice as many First Lady gowns on display as there are now, but I have a feeling the curators are still getting settled in the new space. And they probably like to bring new things from time to time and put some thing backs in storage. Most shocking was how small Mary Todd Lincoln's waist much have been and how cute Kermit the Frog's felt hands are. I mean, I saw Kermit! The actual Kermit! And Oscar the Grouch. Other than the Gettysburg Address, the pop culture and entertainment display was my favorite. We Americans can get so nostalgic over our entertainment.

As for the Gettysburg Address, we were fortunate to have arrived right when the museum opened on a Sunday on a non-holiday weekend. Which means the place was not packed and I could get my nose right up to the glass to look at the speech. It's amazing how so few words (it covered about 2.5 pages of lined notebook paper--paper that looked exactly the same as lined paper we use now) can reverberate so loudly and so clearly through history. Lincoln's handwriting was small and precise, and I imagined him sitting at his desk writing several copies of the speech. Did he have to concentrate absolutely on what he was writing, as I have to, to avoid mistakes, or could he allow his mind to wander to other matters of state or something more mundane? Did he write by the light coming from the sun shining in the windows, or was it night? Did he know the impact his words would have on generations to come? For that matter, do great men and women ever fully realize that they are great?

Ok, this post has gotten a bit off course.

It's strange what runs through your head when you get close to history. Just being that near to a copy of his speech was surprisingly moving. It's pretty much the only way we have to feel like we can communicate with the great people of our past.

In any event, the new museum is well laid out, and worth visiting. My only advice is to avoid the peak times; if I had had to wait in an hour line for each exhibit, I would have been disappointed by the small number of objects out. And take advantages of the lockers. You don't want to have to carry your coat all day, and they only cost 25 cents.

Florence and the Santa Maria del Fiore

Hang in there, kids, we're slowly but surely nearing the end.

After passing the Stromboli Volcano without experiencing any lava or other disasters, our final excursion was to Tuscany were we traveled to Florence and Pisa.

Florence is known for its history and its importance in the Middle Ages and in the Renaissance especially for its art and architecture. A centre of medieval European trade and finance, the city is often considered the birthplace of the Italian Renaissance; in fact, it has been called the Athens of the Middle Ages. It was long under the de facto rule of the Medici family. From 1865 to 1870 the city was also the capital of the Kingdom of Italy.

Florence has a decidedly different feel than the cities of Southern Italy. It's as populous as its southern sisters, but feels somehow roomier. The weather is cooler, the streets are cleaner, and it has a more peaceful feeling. It's easy to imagine the Renaissance masters wandering its twisty streets contemplating art, philosophy, and the place of man in the world. Or maybe I had been on the road a really long time and was starting to hallucinate.

In any event, wiki isn't kidding when it says the city was "long" under the rule of the Medici. You can't take a step in Florence without tripping over some piece of Medici history; one of their art galleries, an old villa, or one of the their family crests that seem to drip from the stone walls.

But the real pride of Florence, and it's most recognizable landmarks is the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, or as it is more commonly called, the Duomo.

The basilica was built on the site of a previous cathedral, Santa Reparata (locals of Florence continued to call the Cathedral by this former name for some time after reconstruction), and was inspired by the new cathedrals in Pisa and especially Siene Cathedral, whose ever-extending and over-ambitious plans were never in fact completed. By the end of the 13th century, the nine-centuries-old church of Santa Reparata was crumbling with age. Furthermore, it had become too small in a period of rapid population expansion, when prosperous Florence wanted to match or exceed in size the much larger cathedrals then being built.

The new church was designed by Arnolfo di Cambio in 1296 (although the design was altered several times and later reduced in size). He designed three wide naves ending under the octagonal dome, with the middle nave covering the area of Santa Reparata. The first stone was laid on September 9, 1296 by Cardinal Valeriana, the first papal legate ever sent to Florence. The building of this vast project was to last 170 years, the collective efforts of several generations.

But enough of that boring history stuff. Let's get to the good stuff.

Nice, huh?

The Duomo must be one of the most recognizable churches in the world, and it was the only Florence landmark I was familiar with. It's so huge, it's difficult to get an idea of the full scope when you are on the ground. The city is built right up to its walls, so to get a good look you have to walk several blocks away, turn around, and stare up.

Approaching the cathedral from a street.

Looking up at the dome. Or at least trying to get a view of the whole thing. That mother is huge!

The "new" facade, completed in 1871. The cathedral is covered in beautiful white, red, and green marble.

The Florence Baptistry is located directly across the street from the facade of the cathedral and is renowned for its three sets of artistically important bronze doors with relief sculptures by Lorenzo Ghiberti. These doors were dubbed by Michelangelo as "the Gates of Paradise" because of their beauty, and they were said to have begun the Renaissance. The large panels pictures above show scenes from the Old Testament.

Details of The Birth of Eve panel. See, she's busting out of Adam's rib. Ouch!

More pics of the Duomo:

Campanile tower (aka the bell tower).

The facade again.

One last look at the dome.

Katakalon and the Stromboli Volcano

Our next stop on the cruise was a small village called Katakalon in Greece. We didn't book an excursion for this place, mostly because we were exhausted. But we did walk around the town a bit. Any by town I mean the one street that ran right through the center and was chock full of tourist souvenir shops. The good news is, I found tablecloths for everyone on my Christmas list, the bad news is it took like 2 hours of wandering to find them. But find them I did!

Here's the view walking towards the village from the ship. I told you it was small.

The main drag, lined with shops.

The next day we had a treat. We cruised by the Stromboli Volcano, a volcano on a small island off the north coast of Sicily, containing one of the three active volcanoes in Italy.

Stromboli stands 924 m (3,031 ft) above sea level, but actually rises over 2,000 m (6,500 ft) above the sea floor. There are three active craters at the peak. A significant geological feature of the volcano is the Sciara del Fuoco ("Stream of fire"), a big horseshoe-shaped depression generated in the last 13,000 years by several collapses on the north western side of the cone.

Stromboli is remarkable because of the length of time for which it has been in almost continuous eruption. For at least the last 2,000 years, the same pattern of eruption has been maintained, in which explosions occur at the summit craters with mild to moderate eruptions of incandescent volcanic bombs at intervals ranging from minutes to hours. This characteristic Strombolian eruption, as it is known, is also observed at other volcanoes worldwide. Eruptions from the summit craters typically result in few second-lasting mild energetic bursts emitting ash, incandescent lava fragments and lithic blocks up to a few hundred meters high. Stromboli's activity is almost exclusively explosive, but lava flows do occasionally occur - an effusive eruption in 2002 was its first in 17 years.

Extreme close-up!

Things to do in DC: Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum

I've always been fascinated by wax museums; there's something undeniably neat yet creepy about them. It feeds my voyeuristic tendencies, without actually requiring that I get up close and personal with famous people. So I feel naughty, but haven't really done anything wrong.

The only problem with going to Madame Tussaud's in DC is that it is ridiculously expensive. For $18 I would expect a personally guided tour with my own personal wax figure to take home as a parting gift. Fortunately, Madame Tussaud's is having a winter sale (or as I like to call it, a "dear god please come in before we have to close due to this shitty economy" sale) and the cost of an adult ticket is only $10. So on a chilly Friday after Christmas, Carly, Rachel, Rachel's sister, and I took off to enjoy us some wax figures. '

First off, it's worth noting that some of the wax people are more realistic than others. The Beyonce figure looked almost nothing like her, while I freaked myself out in the hall of Presidents by constantly thinking the wax figures were real people. In my defense, they were positioned around the room such that they could have been fellow tourists. When I saw them out of the corner of my eye, there was always a moment of confusion before the brain kicked in an realized they were just wax.

Also, while the price was greatly reduced, the Madame Tussaud's experience comes down to walking around a couple rooms and staring at wax mannequins of famous people. We were through the whole thing in approximately 20 minutes, and if I had paid $18 for that I would have been kinda pissed. So, in conclusion, it was fun, but probably not worth the money. But good thing I had my camera to document our hijinks!

Rachel shaking hands with Thomas Jefferson.

Carly getting fresh with Robert E. Lee.

Rachel attending the theater with Abraham Lincoln (sidenote: this set-up was actually really creepy since they had you sitting right next to Lincoln right before he got assassinated. It felt kind of...wrong).

My championing civil rights alongside Martin Luther King, Jr.

Me being interrogated by J. Edgar Hoover. I didn't do it, I swear! Communism was just a red herring!

Carly and I gaze adoringly at President-Elect Obama.

President Margaret and Chief of Staff Carly.

Carly gets fresh with Johnny Depp.

Me and George. Look, we're holding hands!

I help Tiger line up his next shot.