I fulfill many of the stereotypes that one might suppose I would.  I like a lot of the things on Stuff White People Like .  I am a liberal who likes NPR and the New York Times.  I'm a woman who likes to waste money on nail polish.  I don't hold this against myself.  But every once in awhile, someone fulfills that kneejerk image you've built of them SO WELL, that it must be shared, and expressed with glee to the masses.  My dear friends, this is one of those times. Today on my way back to work from lunch, I pull up at a long stoplight next to a truck.  A big, dirty truck.  It has wheels the size of my cubicle, and a choice bumper sticker.  Fortunately, it was a long enough red light that I had time to get a picture.  oh, and a close up of the bumper sticker. Now, we all know what guy we think drives this truck.  In our fantasy it's a guy with spiked hair and an Ed Hardy t-shirt and gold rings on at least 3 fingers...

Big thanks to Random.org for choosing Dan the first time.  Proof that this is random, since I clearly do not want that picture burned.  But I omnipotently decided that it would be ridiculous if Dan won, so congratulations to...... MULEMAMMA!   You will receive all your hard earned prizes in due time, and I truly appreciate all of you who participated in our first annual Lorraineinspain giveaway!  This won't be the last, methinks.

1.  My Cranberry pie finally won!  After a tragic finish at an ugly sweater party, and being overshadowed by the chocolate pecan pie at Thanksgiving, my Nantucket Cranberry Pie (which I took to the next level with a chocolate cream cheese icing)  got first place at the office holiday party Top Chef competition. I am happy. 2.  I also coincidentally won a caption contest on my favorite horse blog, and for my witty mockery was awarded a gift certificate for horse tack!  As I currently don't have a horse of my own, I'm giving it to Camp K.  I hope my mother and her 3 horses, 2 mules and 2 donkeys forgive me.  But I'm still claiming victory on that one, and relishing in being mentioned on my favorite blog in the same post as my international heroes. 3. GIVEAWAY!!!!  I was inspired by a number of blogs giving away x-boxes, TVs, designer handbags, and gift cards to the moon, but I decided that you don't actually need to be rich to share the lo...

This entire album is the very soundtrack of my trip to Eastern Europe.  It reminds me of many moments from that trip, but MOST vividly, it reminds me of Kiev.  I still dream about Kiev and the monastaries and communist apartment buildings and dazzling trolleys and subways.  And I hear these songs and I am immediately there. I especially recommend Ragged Wood and White Winter Hymnal, but the whole album is another time and place so sweet, so bright, and so unearthly that it makes me want to spit fire at the monotony of a desk job and whisk myself and my dearest love away to the cold and steamy air of the good people of Ukraine and live out our days in a freezing 10th floor cement apartment building teaching english and never looking back.

I love me a good Jaw Harp.  I was looking for a more spectacular anthem during the plane ride to the World Equestrian Games, and though this song seems to have no connection, there's something about Miranda Lambert's twang and the nostalgia of childhood that was all too perfect for a horse kid's dream-fulfilling-trip to the Bluegrass State.   Enjoy.

Okay, Maybe it wasn't unexpected for everyone else, but I don't listen to weather reports.  I prefer either the doom and gloom of NPR, or the happy tidings of Solos Exitos on 106.1, which is currently playing a smattering of Spanish Christmas music. But the good news is that it was a delightful surprise when this morning the campus looked like this.  The students are mostly gone, the few peaceful sounds are muffled by the layer of the Lord's sound insulator. And then five campus shuttles go by, pound my car with black slush, the parking meter nazi is watching me to be sure I put enough change in my meter to keep his preying bloodthirsty claws off my wiper blide, and I almost get hit by a University sidewalk truck. Don't be fooled by it's peaceful columns.  On campus, chaos is eminent. Or at least a parking ticket.  I escaped that one today.  I hope you've enjoyed these ramblings of a working woman.  Merry Snow Day.

1. That lunatic accused of kidnapping Elizabeth Smart was found guilty, not insane. So apparently he's NOT a lunatic, he's just a despicable human being. 2. I kissed a boy and I liked it. (to mock dan for the fact that he owns cherry chapstick and is the only person on planet earth who did not associate that ownership with Katie Perry's pop sensation.) 3. My crazy sport of 3 Day Eventing is currently considering the possibility of requiring a buckled and approved safety helmet at all times. That would mean the end of the dismal derby hat on Day 1, and safety at all times for all riders. For a sport known for it's danger, it's a delightfully conscious effort. We should have an official answer by next week. 4. Not exactly breaking news, but I did spend my lunch hour at Camp K to help with the "Horses for Heroes" program, in which we invite war veterans to come up and ride, which helps with mobility, PTSD, and, duh, makes you feel good. One of the vets ...

I promise to get another Traveling Tunes up soon.  In the meantime, here is a playlist that I compiled of various Grammy nominated artists this year who in my opinion don't suck (a la, Justin Bieber is not in this playlist, even if he probably WILL win the best new artist of the year. shudder.) While I find the Grammys to be political and contrived, and giving awards for something as subjective as music to be laughable, I do like being exposed to good tunes I might otherwise miss (especially in more obscure genres) and to see ground breaking artists being rewarded for trying new things (coughmirandalambertcough).  Enjoy.  Disclaimer: Playlist doesn't give me edited version options, and some songs have "adult language."  Make good choicez, yo.  

When I was living in Arlington, VA, I had a catholic roommate.  Said Catholic Roommate was a real Catholic, or perhaps a Less Common Catholic, as she actually went to mass every week,  was a good woman in myriad ways, and would've made the loveliest nun if she hadn't been engaged to (and now married to) a good Catholic italian hunk.  But I digress.  Catholic Roommate took part in Lent of course, and because I have a condition known as "worshipus infectious envious,"  I joined her in Lent, and took on the great task of not eating out for 40 days.  It was hard, I broke down once for a McFlurry on a particularly terrible day of work, but otherwise remained devout and saved a great deal of money in the process. So when Hanukkah came around this year, I reflected on my Jewish Ancestors, pulled out my simple little menorah, and thought to myself, "I ought to do more than light a few candles.  Maybe I should try to be Kosher!" and so beg...

Somewhere in the innumberable horse blogs that I check every day, I stumbled upon a link to the logistics company for the World Equestrian Games (that little diddy of an adventure I went to in Kentucky back in October, you may remember me pretty much self destructing with dangerous mixtures of devastation and glee over a 4 day period.)  Anyway, this company is selling off "used WEG" items, including rubber stall mats used by the horses that competed at the World Equestrian Games.  As one delightful equestrian blogger put it: "That is, if you want to own a piece of history by buying something that a French reining horse crapped on." And the answer is of course, yes, yes as a matter of fact I DO!  What makes this awesome is that since I don't have a horse, or a stall for that matter, I always pawn horse items off on my mother to buy for HER horses.  It's a happy relationship. My mother's reply:  yeah, cool, find out how much for ...

that's a Dumb and Dumber quote.  Ask me sometime about quoting that movie end to end. My brother-in-law Jared and I could do a little show for you. Mostly at weddings or holiday parties.  But I am actually foolish.  In my excitement to be an adult/wife/new-in-law, I enthusiastically volunteered to make a couple pies for the Thanksgiving Feast that will be had with Dan's family in Kanab.  From the onset this whole thing smacked of "See? I cook! I'm totally domestic and whatever? Look! I can WHISK!"  and it was about that point when Dan took the potato masher out of my hand and asked me if I'd ever done this before.  (For the record, the potato masher breaks up the butter just fine, thankyouverymuch.) I had to make the Pecan Pie twice before I trusted myself to make the real thing. The first time, I used "the easy recipe" which pretty much said -stir these 5 ingredients together and go nuts.  It was nuts alright. watery, milky chocolate bits and so...

Forgive this slightly self indulgent wife post that could probably be a page right out of seriously so blessed. I promise not to do this more than a couple times a year.  Unless I'm having an especially good wife month, and then it could be more.  Or if I'm having an especially poor wife year someday, you might luck out and just get ramblings about corn dogs and my thoughts on global warming. LUCKY YOU!!!!! My twisted wife weekend began with my first attempt at a chocolate pecan pie. It's a first attempt because I am hoping to take said pie to the Jackson Family Thanksgiving in Kanab, and I will not take a first attempt pie to such a grand occassion.  I have standards to set.  Thank heavens it was a first attempt. Despite following the recipe exactly, it was terribly eggy and watery.  The evaporated milk didn't set up, and my whisking apparently left much to be desired.  And, I couldn't taste the chocolate at all. Terrible recipe, and even worse whiskin...

It's photos and stories like this that make the art of sport great: Wong Wan-yiu of Hong Kong was competing in the last 40 laps of an epic indoor cycling finals at the Asian Games, and came down in a horrific pile up.  She was run over by other bikes, and in the end was determined to have broken a rib and dislocated her shoulder, not to mention road rash that would be enough to put me to bed for a month. And this woman gets up, gets on a replacement bike, and rides 37 more laps to win the Silver Medal.  As it appeared on CNNgo: Wong was determined to finish the race as this was her last chance to gain enough points to qualify for the London Olympics. She said to Apple Daily that "you have to be willing to sacrifice in order to achieve anything; it's all give and take." Read more: Wong Wan-yiu wins silver at Asian Games CNNGo.com to see the whole article

I'm missing Pioneer Woman on Throwdown with Bobby Flay on the Food Network tonight to go to a Jazz game. Either we need to get Tivo, or we need to sell the Jazz to some wretched city without a team.  Or to Los Angeles, who apparently doesn't mind having more than one team.  Actually, if I'm going to sit and watch a basketball game, I'm glad that I get to do it in person where there are lots of distractions and people watching and unhealthy snacks at my disposal. I've had a real hankering for a churro for YEARS. It's time to give in. And it's fun to go with Husband, because he doesn't care about ANY of those things, he cares about the bizniss down on the floor between those lanky mutant giant people tossing a ball around, and I can always know when to watch the jumbo screen for the replay right after he "OHHHH!!!!!"s.  Also, I LOVE booing referees.  I don't care what the call is or what team suffered, I will always take an opportu...

I bet that you had no idea that such an event was going on at this exact moment, did you?  The 16th Asian Games (their theme is year roughly translates to "thrilling games, harmonious asia" haha) are going on right now, and they claim to be the largest sporting event in the world based on the number of athletes that are actually competing, which apparently outshines the number of athletes in the Olympics by a great sum.  Interestingly, the exact numbers are hard to get. This year the event is being held in Guangzhou, China, not too far from Hong Kong.  It's apparently the first time that China has hosted the event, because of the extreme restrictions they've had in the past about incoming persons (and horses) from a variety of countries.  As we speak, a number of very unhappy equestrians from India are sitting pleading at a border insisting that the western diseases that their horses "tested positive" for are fake results.  There is no way that these ho...

1. I don't think that I've ever had a real pining for an item like this one, which I most certainly seem incapable of getting even if I were rich.  I suppose if I were ACTUALLY rich, I could fly to London and go to a store and get these, but otherwise, I'm out of luck.  They're so sophisticated, sleek, but totally turn of the century.  I would wear these in July. That kind of love. 2. Gilberto Gil's Album, Nega .  Exiled from Brazil and living in London in the 70's, this album is known for the loneliness of it- he clearly sounds homesick, covering the rapturous "can't find my way home" and then an almost eerily obligatory cover of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Did he genuinely like the Beatles?  Or was he deferring to London's power when he chose it?  Either way, wish I had this album on a vinyl, could curl up in my giant red chair in the study with a warm beverage and disappear in his voice. This unusual but awesome cover als...