I had a wonderful time in Maryland visiting my bff M*'s family. M* lives in Raleigh (and attends law school there) and her mom's house is halfway. I drove down Tuesday and spent a little time in Columbia, a planned community built by James Rouse in the '60s. It's a shining example of corporatism (gov't of/by/for corporations), suburbanist car culture, and consumerism. I would love to see a comparison/critique of Rouse and Robert Moses (the I-190 & Robert Moses Parkway guy) and how their planning philosophies relate to current localist, independent, green, higher density, transit-oriented planning (yea Buffalo First!). (Must take at least one urban planning course before leaving school!)

Until I read the wikipedia entry about James Rouse I didn't realize he was the planner of Boston's Faneuil Hall Marketplace. I knew he designed Baltimore's Inner Harbor. Both these places are used as "good models" for promoting the current plan for the Erie Canal Harbor/waterfront development in Buffalo that uses Bass Pro as an anchor store for an "urban theme park." Benderson, the proposed developer for the waterfront, creates suburban strip malls. I have been questioning the wisdom of the waterfront plan, but being in Columbia again gave it a whole 'nother layer of questioning. (For one critique of the waterfront plan: )

I stopped in Columbia because it has Daedalus Books, my fav bookstore ever Lots of academic press books for $5 or less. Yum yum! I picked up a hardback of Octavia Butler's Fledgling for M*. I also love Akbar a pretty standard Indian restaurant just a half mile (and 20 minutes of driving thanks to INSANE traffic) away. I find it interesting that Indian restaurants are rather homogenized. Akbar's food is very similar to that of India Gate on Elmwood, Passage to India in Harrisburg, Pangea in the Poconos, and a couple other Indian restaurants that I've been to and can't remember the names of. Is there an Indian-restaurant supply company? Anyway, the manager recognized me, even though I haven't lived there since 2003! I have stopped in during most of my MD/DC trips since then, so I'm not -that- surprised, but I was definitely pleased.

My phone is broken - I also stopped at a Verizon kiosk at a BJs, another half-mile, 20-minute drive up Snowden River Parkway in Columbia to try to get it fixed. The kiosk guy made me call a service line, CSR1 transferred me to CSR2 who decided it was the battery. Although my magic-pixie-dust electronics sense says it's the phone, I allowed him to send me a new battery, "We'll FedEx overnight it! You'll have it tomorrow!" Ha ha. I gave them M*'s mom's address and of course it didn't show up Wednesday, nor Thursday, nor Saturday. So here I am in Pennsylvania with a phone that only works when plugged in, and not even continuously when plugged in, but the battery is probably going to show up at M*'s mom's tomorrow and I'll need to get my hands on it before I'm able to continue the troubleshooting process. *sigh* travel is difficult.

M* loved the gourd (see last post for pix) and book; her mom loved the three gourd ornaments (who knew you could find brown Santas in Tioga County?!?); we played lots of Wii (I'm getting *good* at the table tennis and archery of the new Resort Sports); we drank a lot of Ketel One Citroen, mango rum, lemonade & grenadine; I had wonderful conversations with M's family & fun bunch friends. I'm so glad I went, although I'm sad about missing xmas with A's family. I spent some very pleasant/bittersweet time there tonight, though.

M*'s mom gave me a quesadilla making machine! How neat. I make quesadillas all the time - hopefully this will make it even easier. Jill & Kelly got me one of those nifty Keurig single-serve coffee machines with a whole box of hot chocolate cups. Appliances!

(2nd post)

To follow up on (e:tinypliny,50598) here are some of the gifts I'm giving this year...

An amazing gourd by Valorie West, Gourds Galore, Mansfield, Pa.


A pine tree in a chimney


More of Valorie's gourds


Some handmade soap by Splat Cat Crafts, Blossburg, Pa. (lard! yum!)


A balsam 'n cedar candle by Frosty Hollow Candles, Blossburg, Pa. (no photo)

Some Carhartt gear, a fishing license gift certificate, a couple pizza shop gift certificates, and doggie treats.

(Luckily no one who will be receiving these gifts reads this!)

Here are the winners of the 2009 Light Up the Holidays contest in the five rather random categories. Sorry, only properties within the borough are eligible :-)

Most Christmas Spirit


Modern


(detail)


Whimsical


Best Business Display


Best overall/Victorian


And my favorite that didn't win - I just couldn't persuade Jill & Kelly on this, but I love it.

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Yummy cookies!

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Yummy cookies!

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Yea!!! I'm done!!! I am school-free for 6.5 weeks! Yippeee!

(e:mrmike,50589) reminded me of another failblog xmas lights photo that I think is hysterical and not at all a fail. Why is it a fail? I judge the xmas lights contest in Bloss ( appropriate for an atheist anti-xmas curmudgeon, don't ya think?) and if this was an entry it would totally win a prize. And it's much funnier than the santa peeing off the roof.




Happy birthday, (e:hodown)!

At or before 4:00 p.m. tomorrow, I will be halfway done with my J.D. Unfortunately, I used up all my powers of concentration last week and can't focus for more than 10 minutes, so studying for tomorrow's fed tax final has been a real struggle. I've only left the house for hot chocolates at Taza.

My fat lazy China Cat Sunflower isn't very helpful although she doesn't interfere, either.

Allen & Elmwood around 2:15 p.m. today






My Santa Claus Tims

It's my fifth day of isolation. I ventured out for hot chocolate on Saturday and Monday. I need milk, sugar, cranberry juice and ginger ale but I've got too much studying to do to leave, instead, I'm writing here!

First final is tomorrow morning- Corporations (e:heidi,49944). I hate the Wall Street Journal. Here's a study limerick:

Walkovszky v. Carlton

Walkovszky was hit by a cab
Would Carlton pick up the tab?
No, limited liability
Has social utility;
Undercapitalization is fab!
- Jeremy Telman

Second final is Friday afternoon - taxation of nonprofit organizations - where I'll get to discuss the fine points of 501(c)(3) qualification and the Unrelated Business Income Tax (UBIT).

Sunday is the estrip potluck!! (see how bad I need it?)

Last final is next Thursday - federal individual income taxation. I'm looking forward to it because it's multiple choice, the test will be considerably easier than it could be, and the prof (whose name happens to be Heidi!) doesn't like gray areas so the exam is very clearly black & white.

And then I'm done! Halfway through my JD. Yea!

In other news, the Save Our School coalition packed the Mansfield High School auditorium (at least 450 people) Monday night to express its hope that the Southern Tioga School Board will renovate North Penn instead of closing it (e:heidi,50116) Newspaper article The crowd sang the North Penn alma mater, did crowd cheers, the girls volleyball & basketball teams read off one fact about the potential impact closing... Jill said it was a very moving experience.

I made a whole-hearted attempt to integrate Chrome into my online life, used it exclusively for over a week. I decided to return to Firefox because Chrome couldn't handle LexisNexis and would occasionally balk at Hulu. I really liked the right-click > open in new tab as the top option, the google search from the address bar, and my most visited sites on the page that opens when you choose new tab. I like the concept of "incognito" browsing, but I didn't use it.

Have you tried Chrome?