Last Karaoke?

Et tu, Will Shortz?

Once again, I solved next week's puzzler before Will and Lianne even finished.

Am I really this pale?

Is that all there is?

April 19, 3pm, Eastern Standard Time
From here on in I'm... done!

And not just done with classes, done with Wharton full stop, minus a few parties. The next week is reading period to prepare for finals, and the week after that is finals. However, I have no finals so the next two weeks are dedicated to...?

Wow. So weird.

By the way, it's 50 and raining here. I love spring!

Snow in Late April = Bush League

We had a small break from our weekend-reaching-into-the-mid-week rainstorm with a little bit of snow this morning. To anyone who heard me complain that "East coast winters aren't that bad! I feel let down!" now is the time to point and laugh. This is a joke. I might get out of here without it getting warmer than 60 degrees, and I'm moving to San Francisco where it's rarely warmer than 65 degrees. The best part of this place was the honest-to-goodness spring I got last year!

On the good side, what could be cuter than Satchel in his new raincoat?

Not to Brag...

But I solved next week's puzzle before Liane and Will had even finished their banter.

winter drags on

Seriously, it's not stopping. Get me out of here. We are expecting a 'nor'easter' tomorrow, which may or may not include snow (it's looking unlikely, but I'm disturbed that it's even up for debate).

On the good side, Philly Car Share added a Mini Cooper to my local pod! This means I finally got to drive the car I've coveted for the past five years! And it was awesome. Maybe instead of buying a place in SF, I'll buy a Mini Cooper and Satchel and I can live in that. It'll at least settle the 'which neighborhood to live in' debate, since I can just move it whenever I change my mind.

Stone Cold

If you didn't cry during last night's season finale of Friday Night Lights, you have a lump of coal where your heart should be.

If you're not watching it, why not?

Update!

Google was right!

Too Smart for its Own Good

My Google homepage has now informed me I can choose from one of several whimsical themes to top my personalized page. While clicking through these, I noticed the 'seasonal' option, which seemed like it would be the most interesting one since it would change every once in a while (4 times a year, I would suspect), so I chose it. And while I have been complaining it is unseasonably cold right now, I do think it's funny that Google has chosen snowmen as its seasonal theme image three weeks after the official start of spring. I tried telling it I was in Los Angeles, and while it did cleverly change the background to indicate the sun had not yet risen, I was still faced with snowmen. So then I changed my location to Sydney, Australia, where fall is just beginning, and still: snowmen.

Ultimately, I do believe Google is smarter than I am and the weathermen are, so I am steeling myself for snow sometime in the next few days.

Passover

This year for Passover, I attended another family's more serious (well, longer anyhow) seder on the first night, and then hosted a shorter more my family style seder on the second night. I love Passover. It involves cooking, tradition, a ritual in your own home, a message about freedom, and wine. I use a Haggadah which has been passed down in my family, and which contains edits from my great-grandmother which take it down to just under 20 minutes of actual religion so you get to eat sooner.

This year I was especially reflective about the Haggadah because my grandmother gave them to me, and I still remember when we did seder with her. I realied that my Haggadah were different from all other Haggadahs I have ever used because they are from 1923, before WWII and before the formal founding of Israel. It's therefore free of politics, and the 'next year in Jerusalem' has a more metaphoric feel. The Haggadah even ends with "My Country Tis Of Thee" because it is a ceremony being performed by Jews who are new to America, and their ties to this country were new enough to be special and celebrated. I think that in itself is interesting, and it's even more interesting that I have used these books for so many years and I never really noticed that until this year. I think that I am used to conversations with my Grandmother around this time of year since we would touch base around Passover even when we weren't spending it together. She would usually tell some story that was part of the family history or her own experiences around Passover. So maybe this year I looked at the entire experience and tried to get that same connection to the past that I could have when I could pick up the phone and call her while I cooked my Seder dinner.

Rambling today, I know. It's still cold here.

Get Your Brooms Out

The Dodgers just swept the Giants. Happy spring! It's 30 degrees here.

Happy Half Birthday, Satchman

Satchel turned six months old and was showered with presents by his girlfriend at the dog store. I just bought him an extra treat or two. In this video (figured out how to manually embed this, cross your fingers that it works), he enjoys some of his presents, including the yellow sweater, fancy new bed, and birthday boy plush toy!

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OK, a little one. Thursday was my last Wharton 54, which means my last night of dressing up like a crazy person for a party. There will be more craziness, but none of it themed. And yes, we went a little nuts this year (the outfit I'm wearing was my uniform, so I didn't pick it). But I thought I should do a throwback to back when this blog started and it was party all the time.