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If you follow me on Instagram then you’ve already seen this picture and heard this story, but I thought I would share again. I went to the post office and asked the postmaster for some “pretty stamps” he obligingly reached behind the counter and put these in front of me.
These stamps remind me, I so excited for the Nationals this year! All the way to the series this time! Whoot!
Two years of blogging! Thank you to all my followers and everyone that has encouraged me to keep trucking along with Sacred Monkeys of the Vatican, I’ve learned so much. Last year I promised an overhaul of the site that never happened – hopefully that will come about this year. I think I have a couple other surprises up my sleeve, but you’ll have to wait and see. Here is to another year of good things!
Okay, so to make up for forgetting last Friday’s meatless meal, I am giving you three meatless dinner ideas today from three of my favorite foodies!
First up, a mushroom and leek quiche from Smitten Kitchen. (This one makes my mouth water!)
Next, shrimp tacos from The Pioneer Woman. (Mmmmm, shrimp.)
And Finally, Korean pancakes (they’re savory!) from Dinner A Love Story! (Totaly making these tonight!)
Well, yesterday was pretty much horrible. Like a mad tea party, only there weren’t any riddles. Let’s check, yup, it was so bad even the Pope decided to quit.
Warning – rant ahead: Read the rest of this entry »
And one more post before the weekend!
Today is the feast of the dedication of the Basilica of St. John Lateran! Check out the amazing panoramic views of the basilica posted by the Holy See.
A few interesting facts about St. John Lateran:
1) There is no St. John Lateran – in Italian the basilica is Basilica San Giovanni in Laterano, or the Basilica of St. John in the Lateran. Lateran refers to the name of the family that owned the palace and grounds before they were seized. I forget who seized them, but I am pretty sure it was an emperor and I think it might have been Nero. Later the Lateran Palace was given to the Pope by Emperor Constantine.
2) The Basilica is the official seat of the Pope as Bishop of Rome, not St. Peter’s Basilica. Although the Pope resides at the Vatican he reigns from St. John Lateran.
3) Oooh, sources, yay! I was right, the palace was seized during the reign of Nero. . .
Source: lonelyplanet.com via Trena on Pinterest
I drove down to Pensacola, Florida over the long weekend for the wedding of a dear friend of mine. It was such a fun wedding! Every detail of the day infused with true southern hospitality. And it was wonderful to catch up with friends that I hadn’t seen in a while. The awesome wedding location meant that there was opportunities to spend time on the beach and lots of fresh seafood (I am pretty sure I ate my weight in shrimp during my stay.)
Another friend’s birthday coincided with the happy occasion, so I packed a gift that would be beach appropriate: floating lanterns! These were so cool! I ordered a packet of ten off Amazon.com, but I wished I had bought twice as many.
We set them off over the Gulf of Mexico, during a wedding after-party, calming my fears of lighting the city on fire. (No worries, they are biodegradable, I checked.) What I found really amazing about these is that although they weigh almost nothing at all it was really hard to hold the lantern when it was ready to fly. Sadly one was let go before it was ready and it fell into the water. It spluttered for a second or two and then burned out, but that was the only fatality.
All the others made it safely up into the starry night. Unlike fireworks they are perfectly silent, which makes them even more surreal. As soon as you let go it drifts straight up, so gracefully, and it keeps going up until it burns out. Of course the picture above shows hundreds of lanterns, and we only lit a couple at a time, but the sense of wonder was not lost.
I have developed a new pet peeve since starting to train for a 5k. (I am on week five and doing great, thanks! I can now run for a good portion of 5k, but there are still five more weeks in the program.) I like to take my routine to the GW Parkway where I can be distracted by the scenery while I count off the minutes till cool down. However, cyclists love the GW too.
I like cyclists, they are great people. But, they have this really annoying habit of yelling “on your left!” when they are coming up behind you and they are going to pass by. Why is it annoying? Well, let me tell you.
1) Of course cyclists are going to pass on the left, unless they are going to go off roading on the right in their fancy-smancy racing bike. Besides, this isn’t England. Americans always pass on the left, you don’t have to remind me. Finally, this is DC we have unwritten rules about leaving the left side of the escalator free so people can pass while slow pokes stand on the right. I am well aware that there is fast moving traffic to the left.
2) I am not deaf, I can hear you coming a mile off. Sound travels pretty quickly my friend, and despite your wickedly cool racing jersey, you are not going faster than the speed of sound. And if I don’t hear you, yelling at me when you are right behind me is a really bad idea. It scares me and I almost always jump, usually to the left because that is the last word I hear.
3) All the joggers, runners, walkers always stay on the right side of the path so you can pass us-its your job to look out for us, not the other way around. Esp. since you can actually see us and we can’t see you since you are behind us.
Now peeves are just that, peeves. Most of the time they are irrational. However, I suggest you try to go running on the GW between the hours of 5 and 7 and see how you feel about cyclists yelling ‘on your left!” every few seconds. It gets to you.
So what do I suggest? That cyclists use their bells. It’s not startling. It sounds nice. The sound carries farther, so I know you are back there a long way off.
Source: onceuponachef.com via Trena on Pinterest
I’ve been living off this salad for the past week. Mine also had cucumbers It’s so yummy! Enjoy!
I don’t usually touch on politics on this blog. But as we speak Obama’s healthcare is being reviewed by the Supreme Court and I cannot begin to emphasise how important it is that this bill is ruled as unconstitutional. As Justice Scalia stated today: “If the government can do this, what is left? What else can it not do?” If this passes and the government can force people to buy into this plan and opens the loophole for the people of America to be forced to buy into future unknowns. What else can they force us to do?
I am always amazed at people who will pitch a fit about war, taxation, the DMV, the postal service, pink slime in food, FDA rules, failing schools, bad roads, corrupted politicians and yet they are totally willing to let the government take over their healthcare. It befuddles me completely. Do you think they’ll magically care all the sudden because your health is in jeopardy? So you don’t trust them to stop shooting people in a war, but you do trust them to care about your medical needs? Um, because they won’t. Did you not see that road construction around the corner that has taken forever that is being funded and directed by the government? Now imagine them getting seriously mixed up in your insurance. Are you scared? You should be.
And my objections above are just reasons the government would be bad at taking care of your health insurance, nevermind that it is unconstitutional, wrong and dangerous for the government to be privy to so much more power than it already has.
To top it all off, if you are a working member of society, you are going to pay for this. Literally. Think this year’s tax return was bad? Wait until you are funding everyones insurance. If we really are the 99%, then you better believe the 99% will fork over what is due.
So I ask you to a moment, maybe two, and pray that the Supreme Court will uphold our freedoms as American people. I agree that the healthcare system does need some kind of reform. I agree that healthcare is expensive. But this is not reform, this is a usurption of power from the people.
