Fat Tuesday

Another year, another Fat Tuesday. This one was perhaps not as exciting as many in past years, but it was productive and dare I say nice. I woke up very early and watched a season three episode of Arrested Development while still snuggled under the covers on a 28-degree morning, ate breakfast, and got to work in my house, SOME MORE. This pre-painting stashing is kind of for the birds, but I have made lots of progress. Some riveting photos of this excitement: Marley planting herself on top of some painted posterboard, head-exploding test shades of gray, and boxes of books given away.

My former roommate came by to get a few of his remaining heavier items so they won't get mauled by the painters. Then my dad came over with a half cafe au lait / half hot chocolate and a biscuit and helped me unscrew various things from my walls, which was very helpful. Then I painted four more gray paint samples on poster board and hung them on various walls and squinted at them and talked about them with my friend in Hawaii, who said to pick the one with the best name, and AB Chao, color smart lady. Eventually I called my mom for help and she immediately ruled out one as "BEIGE!" and picked the one she thought looked perfect in every room, otherwise known as a color championed by the aforementioned color smart lady. Thanks, Mom! Thanks, AB! It only took six tries to get gray right, no big deal. Then I went on a chilly but sunny and excellent three-mile run, feeling like a semi-good runner once again after dragging through my last two long runs. Then I took a shower and sat around in my bathrobe listening to my dogs snore, eating ice cream out of the carton in a pre-Lenten indulgence, as I plan to give up sweets again this year. Then my ex-boyfriend and I had beers and hummus and chicken salad and veggies and couscous for dinner and were friends, and all was good.

On Lundi Gras, I had dinner with my brother and his girlfriend. She and I confessed to not having seen certain movies, and he reacted particularly violently to one. "I DO NOT THINK I CAN EVER AGAIN SIT AT A TABLE IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA WHERE TWO OUT OF THE THREE PEOPLE HAVE NOT SEEN COOL RUNNINGS!" Well. I have obviously added it to my queue. This, though, coming from the guy who has never seen Miracle! He admits this in the middle of the Winter Olympics, no less! As Mrs. Mike Eruzione, this offends me kind of a lot. ("I play for the United States of America.") Speaking of which, the feature on Today about the coach made me cry buckets while removing curtain rods from my bedroom wall. It was so good that I almost, but not quite, forgave the show for employing a certain ex-president's daughter as an Olympic correspondent, which I am going to go ahead and say is straight ridiculous.

And now, random links:

My Avett Bros. love goes on & on. Here's their performance on Austin City Limits that aired recently. If you don't want to watch the full 30 minutes, just watch Murder in the City and When I Drink, two of my all-time favorites of theirs. Gorgeousness.

If you like Olympic figure skating, or even if you don't, you should probably go ahead and read the men's figure skating liveblog by Joe R. and AB Chao. It is enjoyable.

I love the videos where you can hear the sound of the coaches and players during and after the football games. You know what I'm talking about? Just in case not, here's the one for the 4th quarter of the Super Bowl. It's six minutes of delicious. The moment between Brees and Payton at the end makes me boo hoo every time.

Every single person on the internet has already linked to this article, but I'm posting it anyway. Ebert in Esquire. I've been reading Ebert's most excellent blog for years, and this is a great profile. You have to love a man who responds to Sarah Palin's comment that the rest of America appreciates what Massachusetts just did in its Senate election by tweeting, "All except for sick people, idealists and the sane." Or who says what so many of us have thought but might not readily admit, "It is just plain not humanly possible to dislike Taylor Swift." As for his blog, it has an crazy number of readers and commenters, and he thoughtfully replies to so many of them. Also wonderful: his post about being able to eat or drink anymore. And his post about remembering Gene Siskel. Really, the whole damn blog is pretty wonderful. Is it wrong to think that Roger Ebert is an American hero? Because I kind of do.