Jeff and I just put an offer on a townhouse!

Keep your fingers crossed.  We found a place we really liked yesterday and decided to go ahead an put an offer on it.  It is 3br/2ba and has a basement that has a lot of space in it as well.  It is in Laurel (though SW of downtown Laurel), and is pretty close to the University of Maryland where I'll be a student in the Fall.

I passed my comp!

Just found out tonight.  :)

Lucky Number Slevin

We went to go see this movie last night and it was good, I thought.  The Washington Post review complained about violence, but I didn't think it was overly violent.  It rather reminded me of The Sting, though the twists were somewhat predictable.  I don't want to give too much away, but if you want to see a good movie with Morgan Freeman as a "bad" guy you should go see this film.

My New Favorite Gym

A few weeks ago, I joined a new gym.  It has two things going for it: 1) it is in my building at work.  Specifically, I cannot get from my office on the 8th floor to my car in the basement without passing it. and 2) they have cable tv on every machine!!!  I can watch WSOP on ESPN 2 every day at 5 while I am working out.  Now if only they would get tivo so I wouldn't get bored during the commercials.  I'm kidding...sort of.

Exciting News - Looking to Buy

Jeff and I are looking to buy our first house (or really condo/townhouse, since that is about all we can afford in this area).  No yard/2 unshared walls for us!

We're going to start looking in earnest next weekend.  Wish us luck.  For those of you in this area, we're thinking of buying in Greenbelt.

I would love to move to Silver Spring or downtown DC, but there isn't much in our target price range there.  I saw a 1 br condo in Columbia Heights the other day listed as starting in the low $300,000s.  Um, yeah...how about no.

New Orleans Mayoral Candidate Poses at DL

http://www.boingboing.net/2006/04/13/nola_mayoral_candida.html

From boing boing:

Kimberly Williamson Butler, a mayoral candidate in New Orleans, is running a campaign photo of her standing in what appears to be the French Quarter, but what, on closer inspection, seems to be the simulated French Quarter in Disneyland's New Orleans Square, home of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, in Anaheim, CA. Note the red circle around the waste-can that shows where the eagle-eyed Justin spotted the tell-tale evidence.

OOOOPS!  Busted!

Weekly Recipe: Chicken with Lime Sauce

4  (6-ounce) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1/4  teaspoon salt
1/4  teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2  teaspoons olive oil
Cooking spray
3/4  cup fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
1  tablespoon brown sugar
3  tablespoons lime juice, divided
2  teaspoons Dijon mustard
2  tablespoons water
1  teaspoon cornstarch
1  tablespoon butter

Place each chicken breast half between 2 sheets of heavy-duty plastic wrap; pound to 1/4-inch thickness using a meat mallet or small heavy skillet. Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper.

Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 1 chicken breast half and 2 tablespoons sauce)

NUTRITION PER SERVING
CALORIES 260(26% from fat); FAT 7.5g (sat 2.7g,mono 3.1g,poly 0.8g); PROTEIN 40.7g; CHOLESTEROL 106mg; CALCIUM 32mg; SODIUM 382mg; FIBER 0.1g; IRON 1.8mg; CARBOHYDRATE 5.4g

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat. Add chicken; cook 4 minutes on each side or until browned. Remove from pan; keep warm.

Add chicken broth, sugar, 2 tablespoons juice, and mustard to pan; cook over medium heat, scraping pan to loosen browned bits.

Combine water and cornstarch in a small bowl. Add cornstarch mixture to pan; stir well with a whisk. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat; cook 1 minute or until sauce thickens slightly. Whisk in remaining 1 tablespoon lime juice and butter, stirring until butter melts. Return chicken to pan; simmer 2 minutes or until chicken is thoroughly heated.

Atheists: most distrusted minority

The University of Minnesota recently completed a study that identified atheists as America's most distrusted minority. 

From the press release:

"Even though atheists are few in number, not formally organized and relatively hard to publicly identify, they are seen as a threat to the American way of life by a large portion of the American public. “Atheists, who account for about 3 percent of the U.S. population, offer a glaring exception to the rule of increasing social tolerance over the last 30 years,” says Penny Edgell, associate sociology professor and the study’s lead researcher.

Edgell also argues that today’s atheists play the role that Catholics, Jews and communists have played in the past—they offer a symbolic moral boundary to membership in American society. “It seems most Americans believe that diversity is fine, as long as every one shares a common ‘core’ of values that make them trustworthy—and in America, that ‘core’ has historically been religious,” says Edgell. Many of the study’s respondents associated atheism with an array of moral indiscretions ranging from criminal behavior to rampant materialism and cultural elitism."

Pretty interesting...  I am always interested in this kind of stuff, and the difference between groups that are visible (African Americans, for example) and groups that are "invisible" (do you know the religious preferences of everyone you interact with?)

Click here to read the full press release.

Catch up and Comps

So now that my comp is over (!) I have a life back.  It is very exciting...other than the fact I seem to have gone to seven 30th birthdays since January, including another one this past weekend.  That has made me feel old like nothing else!

I haven't found out if I passed my comp yet, but I was very happy with how it went, so hopefully I did pass.  At least it's done.  Now I can resume happy hours at work, weekend movies, etc.  Woo-hoo!

In bad news, some woman in an SUV hit me this morning.  She tried to squeeze around me into a left turn lane and scraped up the whole side of my car - probably just paint damage, but we were thinking about selling my car, so now that is just one more thing to deal with.

Weekly Recipe: Ham, Spinach, and Sundried Tomato Calzones

Another recipe that utilizes Trader Joe's pizza dough!  This was better than I thought it would be.  I served it with Trader Joe's pizza sauce for dipping.  I also used Canadian bacon instead of ham, just cause we happened to have some in the fridge...and I accidentally omitted the parmesan, but it was still good.

Ham, Spinach, and Sundried Tomato Calzones
1 cup part-skim ricotta

3/4 cup (3 ounces) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese

1/4 cup (1 ounce) grated Parmesan cheese

1 teaspoon dried basil

1/2 teaspoon fennel seed, crushed

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1 (10-ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed,
drained, and squeezed dry

3 ounces lean ham, chopped

6 oil-packed sun-dried tomato halves, drained and chopped

1 refrigerated pizza crust dough

Cooking spray



Preheat oven to 450°.

Combine first 9 ingredients.

Divide dough evenly into 5 pieces; pat each dough piece into a 5-inch
circle. Spoon about 1/2 cup spinach mixture onto half of each circle, leaving a
1/2-inch border. Fold dough over filling until edges almost meet. Bring bottom
edge over top edge; crimp edges of dough with fingers to form a rim. Place
calzones on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Bake at 450° for 14
minutes or until browned.

Yield: 5 servings (serving size: 1
calzone)



CALORIES 356(32% from fat); FAT 12.5g; FIBER 3.2g

4 days to go and EMP's

My comp is in 4 days...  and I'm feeling like I might actually pass!  LOL

In other news, I am starting to wonder if I am giving off EMP's or something.  My brand new laptop (bought in October) all of a sudden stopped taking a charge.  Apparently I need the motherboard replaced.  Fortunately it is under warranty, but could it have come at a worse time?  I'm off work this week to study and have been holed up in the library with my laptop.  We have to order the part and it will take a few days to get in.

Fortunately, tonight I discovered that it will charge in my docking station.  So, tomorrow I can bring my docking station to the library and look like an idiot instead of bringing 5 fully charged batteries with me and hoping they last 8-9 hours.

Wish me luck on my comp!

Back to studying...