In Which I Take in a Peep Show

This weekend is the annual Peeps contest run by the Washington Post Newspaper. Check it out!!! People designed and built dioramas with Peeps. The winners include a dramatic rescue of the Chilean miners and an escalator collapse in the DC metro (based on real events). My favorite is the Peep-BunnTiki. In other news, yesterday was a gray, yucky, rainy day. I practiced lots for my concert today (we're playing Beethovan's 9th symphony, 100-member chorus included!) Too rainy to go outdoors. So instead, I headed over to the Korean bakery for lunch. Look at the cute buns! And they tasted good too.

In Which Spring Returns

It's Cherry Blossom time again!!!!! I tried to go on Saturday, but it rained and snowed and it was just too miserable. So instead, we went to see SuckerPunch, the world's most boring action movie. Taking a nap would have been more exciting. That's just sad.

Sunday I finally made it to the cherry blossoms. Yay! Enjoy the pictures.

Me being pensive and serious.

Got your nose!!!!!!

Koto players at the festival. It certainly added atmosphere!

My favorite scene at the festival ---- a big truck hauling golf carts all around the tidal basin.

In Which I Travel

Lots of goings-on this weekend. I went to the quaint town of Occoquan to poke arond the little shops, and discovered that there is a small waterfall. The weather on Saturday was warm, and spring was in the air, so being outside was definitely called for.

Today I drove to Bethesday, MD to Strathmore to hear Hillary Hahn, the world-reknowned violinist. She played a Bach unaccompanied violin sonata, which was amazing to watch. She makes it look so easy. She also played and Ives concerto, which wasn't so bad (I sometimes think Ives is better than he sounds), Kreisler's "Variations on a Theme by Corelli" (always fun), and
a Beethovan. We sat in the choir loft behind the stage. It seems odd to watch a performer from the back, but we were sitting pretty close, which is fun.

In Which I Make Stew

Snow day today! We got 1/4 inch of snow. Really. There was some black ice this morning, but why cancel school? Virginia is a strange, strange place.

So what did I do in my free time? I read a book, went to the library and got more books (one can never have too many books). I practiced Beethovan's 9th Symphony, watched the news, read the paper while I drank my coffee, and I made beef stew. I've never made beef stew before. It came out pretty good. I haven't actually eaten it yet. I will tomorrow. Stew is always better the second day, so why not wait for the second day to eat it?

In other news, did I tell you all that my computer crashed? Well, after spending many hours on the phone to India, and to my brother, and bribing my boyfriend, it is finally mostly fixed. I lost everything on the hard drive. Fortunately, I didn't actually have much on the hard drive. But, then, a week later, my printer died. Grrrr. Yet another HP product that has failed me miserably.

In Which the Bay Freezes

Today was a beautiful February day in Virginia: it was sunny and almost 50 degrees. Hahahhahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!! Don't you wish you lived here and not in the snow belt? We had a snow day on Thursday. It was icy around a corner of the county, and we wouldn't want our little cherubs to slip and fall, now would we? Even if the sun did come out and melt off all the ice by 11am. There are advantages to living here.

I went back to Leesylvania State Park today, because the sun was shining and the weather was too tempting to stay indoors. It was so nice to be outside! However, it is still definitely winter because the bay was still had ice floating in it. The sound made by icy chunks floating in the water was like plastic containers clunking together.

Happy early Valentine's Day!

In Which I See Vegetables

Today I went to the National Art Gallery. There was an exhibit of rather interesting paintings by Arcimboldo, an Italian painter from the 1500's. he painted some unique faces composed of fruit, vegetables, marine animals, and other flora and fauna. There was even 4 faces that looked like plain old still lives until you looked at them in a mirror upside down. Then they looked like odd faces! The paintings were rather funny and entertaining. Here is a picture of a sculpture someone made to look like one of that paintings:

Outside the museum was a silver tree. Really. It was like, Oh! A silver tree! It looks like something that should be the symbol of Minas Tirith (wasn't that a white tree though?)

And lastly, here is a picture of me (slightly blurry) through hands. It was an exhibit of 15 pairs of hands. Yeah.

In Which My Eyes Fall Out

My sister got a festive turtleneck for Christmas. I don't think it was meant to be worn with these pants......