Fourth of July Weekend

We had a very big weekend full of visitors, celebrations, great food, and of course fireworks.

It began on Wednesday when Mom and Ron flew in for a visit. I picked them up from the airport and they came to my office to meet my coworkers and have lunch. The next day I took them on a tour of the Capitol and to visit the Anderson House - a little known and underappreciated DC spot. That night we roasted the Happy Chicken and ended my five years of vegetarianism (see below).

On Friday, we celebrated the birth of our Nation and the birth of my mother - a true July 4th yankee doodle baby. We got to the Mall early and staked out a prime spot for A Capitol Fourth. Unfortunately, about two hours before the concert it started to rain. We toughed it out, largely motivated by a group of interns sitting next to us that kept the party going by playing and dancing in the rain to "Umbrella" and "It's Raining Men." The rain stopped just long enough for us to enjoy our delicious picnic, including leftover Happy Chicken salad. By the time the concert started, the storm had passed and we rocked out to Huey Lewis and the News.

I texted my father, a fellow Huey fan, that he should turn on PBS to see me and the concert. By the time he turned it on however, a certain Silver Fox had already started performing. This is mine and my father's text exchange.

Dad: Are you still there?
Me: Yeah, but Taylor Hicks is performing. He's no Huey.
Dad: He sucks.

I couldn't have said it better myself. The rest of the concert was semi-forgettable, until an ancient Jerry Lee Lewis played in the fireworks with "Great Balls of Fire" - of course. We had a perfect view of the fireworks display and it more than made up for any rain or lame Idols.

On Saturday, Nicholas and I celebrated our five year anniversary at Palena with my parents. We had 5 course dinner - one for every year. It was truly tasty and fun was had by all. I have to brag on Nicholas for giving the most thoughtful, inventive anniversary gift this year. Every year we give the traditional anniversary gift and this year was wood, apparently symbolizing the order and strength of a marriage in its fifth year. Nicholas gave me a bonsai tree, because he remembered how I had wanted one at a festival we went to earlier in the year. He also had 5 trees for every year of our marriage planted in an California area destroyed by forest fires.

I mean seriously - how well does this man know me?

My parents' last day in town we decided to do some stereotypical touring and went on a D.C. Ducks tour. We had a real blast with Captain Frank, especially since we were the start students on the Duck and answered almost all his trivia questions. (I mean how many of you can identify Frances Perkins?!?!) We all could have done without the quackers they handed out towards the end of the trip, but not as badly as Maggie who was barked incessantly when we tried them on her.

We had a pretty low key last night and dropped them off early this morning. We had such a fantastic time that it's hard to think the visit is already over. But hey - ending five years of vegetarianism, celebrating five years of marriage and 52 years of age is a lot for one weekend so we probably couldn't have shoved in much else either way.

1,827 days

Kisses
Originally uploaded by SarahorNicholas

Five years ago today, Nicholas and I were married. Jealous?

Me and the Happy Chicken

I hope you're all sitting down for this...It's big...Last night, for the first time in five years, I ate meat. I ate an organically and sustainably raised chicken bought at the farmer's market from a local farm. Nicholas roasted it up and I have to admit it was quite yummy.

After hearing me preach from my vegetarian soapbox for several years, I'm sure you are all shocked. I became a vegetarian because I felt and still feel the cruelty inflicted on animals in the industrial farming system was unethical and unnecessary. I became a vegetarian because the environmental impact of confined animal feeding operations is terrifying and the impact of consuming that much meat on our bodies is unhealthy. I became a vegetarian because I was not comfortable distinguishing between a dog I treat like my child and another animal which is only food.

The first crack in my armor came after reading Omnivore's Dilemma. The author makes a valid point that domesticated farm animals could not survive in the wild and that these species have evolved or been breed to feed us. Still, I thought I couldn't kill the animal myself so I'm not going to eat it.

Then I read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver and everything changed.

This book is amazing for a thousand different reasons, some of which I will post about later on, but one of them is her attitude towards meat. Like Pollan, she argues that these chickens and turkeys would not survive in the wild and that they are very energy-efficient ways to turn grass and sun that we can't eat into meat we can. However, what really swayed me was her argument about eating meat that is locally raised. She argues that is much more environmentally friendly to eat a chicken from down the road then an orange shipped from New Zealand or tofu from California, especially in the dead of winter.

Still, I was a little hesitant about eating something I wouldn't kill. However, she describes a "harvest day" on her farm when her family, including her young daughter, slaughter some of the chickens and turkeys they've raised. I realized that if a ten-year-old can become comfortable with the reality of slaughter then I can too. That's not to say I'm prepared to eat beef or pork yet but who knows.

So, I ate the chicken. It wasn't as momentous as I thought it would be. I think just making the decision to eat meat was what felt huge. I didn't get sick but I wasn't immediately overwhelmed by what I'd been missing either.

I actually thought my mother, who is in town visiting, would be more excited than she was, but she couldn't get over how much the bird cost. (It was $17 for 3.25 lb bird.) But listen, happy chickens aren't cheap and that suits me just fine. Breeding or evolution aside, animals make the ultimate sacrifice to get to our plates and I don't think making meat cheap and abundant is the way to respect that sacrifice. Not to mention, that I think the time and labor involved in raising any type of animal is nature's way of telling us we probably shouldn't be eating it all the time anyway.

Vegetables and grains will remain the mainstay of my diet, but I'm sure another happy chicken will cross my path eventually.

Sarah's Selections

Interesting article about conspicuous consumption.

On why the Supreme Court should be part of your decision making when voting for President: "As you contemplate what you want the next Supreme Court to look like, ask yourself what happens when judges are sidelined—or when they're chosen for their inclination to sideline themselves. If we really want to restore the rule of law in America, then we'd better vote for a president who believes that we call it the Supreme Court for a reason."

Phenomenal article examining the media's coverage of first ladies: "The real, and more interesting, question here is how, specifically, the spouse is fair game: How should we cover the candidate’s wife—as a political figure unto herself, or as an appendage to the campaign? Do we cover her (or, to be fair, him—but Bill Clinton is a statistical outlier in every sense) only as she relates to her husband, or, instead, as she relates directly to us? And if the answer is “both,” then where does the one stop and the other begin?"

This is pretty lawyerly and a bit dorky but just the same Wermiel was my con law professor and it's a pretty big "OH SNAP!" to Scalia so I'm including it:
"I am reading the decision in Heller as fast as I can and will post my thoughts as soon as possible. The headline is that the court decided 5-4 (no mushy plurality here) that the D.C. handgun ban and the trigger-lock requirement violate the individual right to bear arms as protected under the Second Amendment. But I must first pass along this rather brilliant observation from professor Stephen Wermiel from American University, who wonders why none of the dissenters cautioned the majority that today's decision "will almost certainly cause more Americans to be killed." (Boumediene, Scalia, J. dissenting.)"

Really great editorial on how Ivy League educations aren't all they're cracked up to be: "The world that produced John Kerry and George Bush is indeed giving us our next generation of leaders. The kid who’s loading up on AP courses junior year or editing three campus publications while double-majoring, the kid whom everyone wants at their college or law school but no one wants in their classroom, the kid who doesn’t have a minute to breathe, let alone think, will soon be running a corporation or an institution or a government. She will have many achievements but little experience, great success but no vision. The disadvantage of an elite education is that it’s given us the elite we have, and the elite we’re going to have."

I knew there was a reason I liked Tim McGraw

Apparently, he saw the guy he pulled up on stage rush the front and hit a woman. So, first he calls security and when they don't come fast enough him and his crew pulled him out of the audience. Then I guess they exchanged some words because he pulls back and almost clocks the guy. His crew then steps in and rushes the guy offstage. Freaking awesome.

Hillary's Return

I swear I'm on CNN with Hillary so much they should offer me a job. I'm towards the end of the clip. Don't mess my act of kindness when I let my someone else step in front of me in line.

Of course my kindness was rewarded. Hillary reached through to shake my hand and I told her we missed her. She thanked me and then exclaimed, "I love your daisies!" (In case you can't see in the video, I'm wearing daisy earrings in her favorite color of yellow of course!)

Could she be any more amazing? Doubtful.

My Aunt Carolyn

Christmas in Kentucky
Originally uploaded by SarahorNicholas

Last Saturday, my great-aunt Carolyn passed away. She was 73, and her loss was and still is profoundly felt.

I flew to Kentucky the next day to be with my family as we all celebrated her life and mourned her passing. We told stories and distracted ourselves when the stories were too much. I learned things about her that I had never known, but mainly had my notions of her strength and compassion confirmed.

She was a lot of things to a lot of people but here is what she was to me.

Growing up, so the story has been told to me a hundred plus times, my Uncle Joe (as in "Uncle-Joe-and-Aunt-Carolyn," one word) would call up my mother and matter-of-factly inform her that she needed to drop me off at their house. They had not seen me in a couple of days and she could go off and do any old thing she wanted, as long as it involved dropping me off first.

I would spend hours to days being doted on and fed. Aunt Carolyn doing the former and Uncle Joe the later if memory serves. She would buy me Barbies, Barbie Vans, Barbie Salons, Barbie Pools. She would read me stories or play the piano while I sang along. I was taken along on anything from basic errands to church revivals. When they moved to Florida, going to see them became a trip in itself.

It would be almost 10 years before they had grandchildren of their own , and I gratefully filled in as a surrogate until Courtney and Zach showed up. Aunt Carolyn loved me unconditionally and I felt that love no matter how far away she was or how long it had been since we'd seen each other. Whenever I thought of all the people praying for me - praying me safe, praying me successful, praying me happy - Aunt Carolyn was the first person I always thought of.

She valued family above all else and undertook to preserve and protect it in her own way. To say she liked to take pictures is to say Shakespeare liked to write. She preserved the present with a dedication unmatched in our family - a sisyphean task in a group where the commandment to "Look this way and smile!" elicits only groans and complaints, if not full out sprints and dodges.

She also protected the past. She knew the story of every great-great grandparent, aunt, and even cousin. If that weren't enough, she could point them out in the antique photos she carefully kept and cataloged. When others in her generations couldn't tell a CPU from a JPEG, Aunt Carolyn scanned and labeled hundreds of family photos - understanding the power of new technology to safeguard these images.

I inherited my love of ancestry from her and I am so grateful that I spent several hours with her last summer learning the connections and stories that otherwise would have been lost. Of course, I know her knowledge went beyond those few hours but all I can do now is piece it together from notes on the back of pictures and more traditional sources, instead of hearing it from her.

Her love of family was not limited to her own blood and I learned at her funeral how many other lives she touched. She was always anxious to find a connection with everyone she met and if it wasn't there, she forged it herself.

I still giggle at the memory of her first interaction with Nicholas. She sat down beside him at a family gathering and asked him, "Now, Nicholas, where are your people from?" To say he was confused would be a vast understatement. He offered that his mother and father lived in Atlanta. She persisted, "Now, I know some Hollands over in Caldwell County. Are you kinned to them?" More befuddlement from Nicholas.
No matter. If his family weren't from her neck of the woods, she wanted to know where they were from. She continued to question him about his family and his life as if knowing Nicholas better was all that mattered. In that moment, I suppose it did.

I hope I inherited far more from this woman than a love of family history and the lyrics to "I Shall Not Be Moved" and "I'll Fly Away." I hope I can be as faithful as she was to the values of God, family, and compassion. I hope I can give passionately to my marriage and my career - racking up decade after decade to their service. Above all else, I hope I can become worthy of my Aunt Carolyn and all those prayers she sent my way over the years.

Day Five: Why are we doing this again?

Oh man, we got soooooooo close to ordering a pizza tonight. I wanted some pizza really freaking bad and Nicholas was on board. However, we talked ourselves down from the ledge and decided we could at least complete the work week. (Even though somebody - NOT ME - drank a Coke yesterday!)

So, he made black bean cakes with rice and avocados. It was really delicious and I would have felt yucky and stuffed if we'd eaten pizza. We're going to a barbecue and dinner party this week so caving is inevitable but we at least can say we made it an entire work week.

Day Four: Nana to the rescue

So, yesterday I had about decided I was only going to make it a week. I was tired of being hungry and I was really tired of feeling deprived. My biggest problem with this diet (or any diet really) is having such a contentious relationship with food. I don't like feeling as if everything I eat is out to get me - "does it have gluten!?!?" "I bet it has sugar!!!" It's difficult to see food as a big sea of things you can't have.

Luckily, Nicholas found these little beauties. That's right - no diary, no eggs, no refined sugar, no gluten cookies! And miracle upon miracle, they actually taste good. They are going a long way towards not making me feel deprived. I'm still just taking it day by day, but I'm feeling hopeful.

Sarah's Selections

I've decided I'm going to dedicate this entire Sarah's Selections to this one article because I think it is so incredibly important that every one read it. It doesn't matter if you are single, married, childless or a Gosselin, this article is about our culture and the expectations we all have about gender and parenting.

Favorite part: Where the housework ratio is two to one, the wife-to-husband ratio for child care in the United States is close to five to one. As with housework, that ratio does not change as much as you would expect when you account for who brings home a paycheck. In a family where Mom stays home and Dad goes to work, she spends 15 hours a week caring for children and he spends 2. In families in which both parents are wage earners, Mom’s average drops to 11 and Dad’s goes up to 3. Lest you think this is at least a significant improvement over our parents and grandparents, not so fast. “The most striking part,” Blair says, “is that none of this is all that different, in terms of ratio, from 90 years ago.”

Day Two: The Veggies Arrive

Bull Run Farm CSA
Originally uploaded by SarahorNicholas

So, today we picked up our first harvest share from Bull Run Farm! It was so exciting to wait in line and pick out all our veggies.

I was a little worried at first because one of my coworkers told me she had picked up veggies from the same farm and that they had been "really dirty." Luckily, I quickly remembered that vegetables grow in the ground, not in the produce aisle. ;)

We got scallions, pac choi, greens, tat soi, basil, oregano, garlic skape, sorrel, chives, and our egg share. Nicholas made a delicious stir fry of the pac choi and garlic skape for dinner.

I'm glad the veggies have arrived but I'm not sure how much easier they are going to make the 21-day cleanse. The second day was no easier. I'm still hungry. I still have a headache.

And I really, really want a cookie.

Dude, I'm on The Daily Show!!!

The Daily Show
Originally uploaded by SarahorNicholas

I don't know why this is so much cooler than CNN or Fox News, but it totally is!

For all of you in the back...

In case you hadn't heard:

Claims by U.S. President George W. Bush and other top administration officials before the 2003 invasion of Iraq regarding Baghdad's ties to al Qaeda and its weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programs were generally not supported by the evidence that the U.S. intelligence community had at the time, according to a major new report by the Senate Intelligence Committee released Thursday.

Oprah's 21-Day Cleanse: Day One

You knew it was coming right?

Oprah says, "Jump!" I say, "How high?"

Oprah says, "No alcohol, caffeine, sugar, gluten, or animal product." I say, "Sure! I can do anything for 21 days, right!?!"

I might have been a tad hasty.

The day started out fine. I had buckwheat flakes with soy milk and banana. It was yummy and filling - not that much different from regular cereal. However, as the day progressed, I got hungrier and started to go into what I'm pretty sure is sugar withdrawal. I ate lots of trail mix, had a salad for lunch, and yummy tortilla soup for dinner, but the low grade hunger/headache persisted.

Oprah says the goal is progress not perfection.

So, yeah, we'll see.

Sarah's Selections

Creepiest thing ever.

You can never accuse Bill Maher of being boring.

The first time I burst into tears about Hillary.

The second time: "The next woman candidate will have a better shot at the White House because of the tireless efforts of Hillary Rodham Clinton."

Most accurate description ever of complimenting women on their clothes. I always compliment perfect strangers (it was a New Year's Resolution from a couple years ago that I just kept doing) and this is totally true.

Hillary

We went to hear her concede and endorse Barack Obama. That's me on the riser in the background. Nicholas was next to me but he got blocked by a tall dude.

She was wonderful and gracious. I'm not really ready to talk about anything beyond that.

Gossip?

Peruse the cover to your left. It promises to give you the juicy details about the birth of Angie and Brad's new twins. Only one problem – they haven’t been born yet!!! This can only mean that the article is a complete and total work of fiction.

I’ve always stuck up for celebrities when they complain about the gossip machine and I don’t read these magazines or perezhilton.com or whatever. But when a celebrity said, “They make things up. There is not an ounce of truth to these stories.” I always thought, “Oh come on, there’s got be something there or elsewhere would it come from.”

But obviously I was wrong and the stories are coming from out the editor’s asses. I mean there was NO delivery. Angelina is still walking around pregnant as the day as long.

Something tells me this isn’t quite what the Supreme Court had in mind with the public figures exception.

Sarah's Selections

(Forgot to post this on Sunday - enjoy!)


Beyond infuriating.

Great article on MSNBC's obama bias. Favorite quote: "Rather, by giving "the personal" precedence over "the political," the network was using Hillary Hatred to fuel its coverage in a similar fashion to how Fox News uses Democrat Hatred to excite its viewers."

Article from last week's New York Times Travel section on how awesome Tunisia is!

Just when you thought the human race was moving forward...

Now, don't get me wrong. I love Sex and the City but I think this article makes a very valid point about portrayal of women writers in the media. Favorite part:"What provokes such fury, over Carrie Bradshaw, and -- for a flash -- over Gould (barring a book deal and TV show that will turn her meanderings into cultural furniture) is that in a media landscape in which there are a severely limited number of spaces for women's writing voices, the ones that get tapped become necessarily, and deeply inaccurately, emblematic -- of their gender, their generation, their profession."

This weekend

Shenandoah National Park
Originally uploaded by SarahorNicholas

Nicholas and I have had a really wonderful weekend.

Mine started off with a bang. My friend Molly and I went to see Sex and the City: The Movie and it was AWESOME! My biggest complaint is I wanted more. I could have sat through 8 hours with a movie about each character.

On Saturday, we had lazy day. I slept in and we went out for a nice brunch at Open City. Then, we went to see the new Indiana Jones movie, which was fun. Not groundbreaking or earth-shattering, but fun.

Today, we woke up and went out to Shenandoah National Park. We brought Maggie and she did great on the almost 6 mile hike - although she is zonked out on the floor at the moment. We hiked to a big waterfall and ate a picnic lunch. It was a bit of a haul towards the end but we made it!

For the record...

Junior Prom - 1998
Originally uploaded by SarahorNicholas

As many of you may have noticed, I am scanning all of my old photos and putting them on flickr. I thought I would share this photo with all of you because I think it is the best picture taken of me EVER.

Given I was only 16 and cellulite free, not to mention with my high school boyfriend who was not my decision making at its best, but dang I look good! Also I think I deserve some serious credit, because that was 1998 and I would wear that dress tomorrow. The same cannot be said for some of my friends I'm afraid.