Counting Cars and Calories*

While commuting here in the Metro Washington area, I proclaim the following observations:

There are lots of decals, stickers and license plates supporting universities. Lots of Virginia Tech and Penn State. I do see a random BYU sticker here and there. Today, I saw a University of Maryland-Virgina license plate. I have seen the Notre Dame-Virgina plate several times. I notice lots of really expensive cars. I also see lots of Obama Stickers. I would say that the correlation between the former and later is really low.

Maybe this is one reason:

"Washington, DC – In light of the economic forum House Democrats are holding today and based on new statistics released this morning by the Department of Labor, Ways and Means Ranking Member Dave Camp (R-MI) released a state-by-state table showing 49 states and the District of Columbia have lost jobs since the President signed the stimulus bill into law.
“It is clear from today’s jobs report that stimulus has failed to do what it promised and failed to create jobs for American workers,” said Camp. “Eight months after the President signed the stimulus bill, we are all still asking: where are the jobs? Instead of jobs, the American people got record deficits.”

From:

http://www.republicans.waysandmeans.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=150826

*Just curious, does anyone knows who sings the song that shares the title of this post?

Links of note.

Good read about taking your bike on business trips:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/20/business/20road.html?ref=business

Great blog on how social media effects movies after opening weekend:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/the_big_picture/2009/10/is-the-twitter-effect-a-big-media-hype.html

I have been watching and following the Dodgers playoff run, I wish I could mute the awful TBS announcers and listen to Vin Scully. The worst thing about being a Dodger Fan outside of Southern California is not being able to watch and listen to Vin Scully. Below is a good read about Vin Scully's career:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-tobar19-2009oct19,0,1408346.column?page=2

Memo to boise st. from an Alabama paper:
http://deas.blogs.tidesports.com/10278/memo-to-boise-state/
(note I strongly dislike bosie st.)

I don't trust them...

You know that game "Worst Case Scenario"? Well I've never played it, but sometimes I make plans for the worst case scenario in my head. So DC has black squirrels. They are more aggressive and creepy then the regular gray kind. The other day one was very close to the sidewalk and I started thinking "What if it has rabies? What if it bites me? How would I catch it? Who would I call first? What street am I on, what would I tell 911?" Then I started wondering if rabies shots were safe for pregnant women. A quick google search revealed that rabies is 100% fatal to pregnant women and their babies and the shots for rabies are safe. I felt better about life. Although I still don't trust these guys...

I turned 26 at Virginia Beach

My birthday was on Sunday. I also happened to have Monday off in honor of Columbus Day. (I've never actually had that day off, ya for private schools!). So I made Reza take the day off too, so we could go somewhere. We went to Virginia Beach and stayed at a lovely hotel we got on Priceline. We enjoys a comfy king size bed and took several naps a day. Virginia Beach has a lovely boardwalk full of crappy suveniour shops, hotels and resturants. We rented that funny looking bike for a delightful ride. It was a bit cold to swim, but just being near the ocean makes me happy.

On our way home we planned to go to Jamestown, but Reza asked if we could stop in Norfolk, VA to look at the big ships. We ended up taking a 2 hour river cruise through the Naval and Shipping docks to look at A LOT of big ships. It was quite cool. The aircraft carriers were Rez's favorite (apparently he had a poster of them as a child). It also apparently was "Fleet Week" so we took a tour of a fighter ship and took turns sitting in the captains chair.

It was fun.

Matching Birthdays

This is a great way to spend time on the internet: find out what famous people were born on your birthday!

We have a birthday coming up in the family. So this is her birthday blog post.



I have searched the internet and found out you share a birthday with:

• Luke Perry, beloved actor well known for his role in Beverly Hills 90210!


• Steve Young - A Hall of Fame Quarterback for the San Fransisco 49ers


• Michelle Christine Trachtenberg - Harriet the Spy, Penny from Inspector Gadget the movie and Dawn Summers from Buffy the Vampire Slayer! And she is only 3 years younger than Christy!


• Michelle Wie - A well known female golfer!


• Joan Cusak - Sister of John Cusak, and Voice of Sally the cowgirl from Toy Story!


• Paige Turner - Adult Film star, born on the same day and year as Christy!

In the interest of wasting time, I researched famous people who were born the same year as me!

• Johnny Unitas - Hall of Fame Quaterback for the Baltimore Colts (not really, but we do have the same birthday)


• LaDainian Tomlinson - Running back for the San Deigo Chargers.


• Jason Taylor - Linebacker for the Miami Dolphins and Dancing with the stars superstar!


• Kevin Youkilis - Baseball player


• Heath Ledger - RIP


• ESPN was also born in 1979


• Three days before I was born Margaret Thatcher became prime minister

Knocked Up.

April 7, 2010

Yom Kippur

On Monday I set personal best commute time, both two and from work. It took less than 30 minutes each way! It seemed like there was 25% less cars on the road. I directly correlate this with the Jewish holiday, Yom Kippur. I knew Yom Kippur was a big deal when the New York Jets asked the NFL to change the start of their game last Sunday, they asked for an earlier start so the Jewish fans could get home by sundown. I have never lived in a place where traffic patterns changed because on a Jewish holiday.

To learn more about Yom Kippur click here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yom_Kippur

While living in Utah I learned that traffic patterns are also effected for religious reasons. For example, the first weekends in April and October Utah traffic is awful. Especially the Friday night before the Conference weekend. And for our friends in the Provo area this will be compounded with the Cougars of BYU playing their conference football game on Friday night.

Take Care,

The Ghazimoradi's