Officer Kimberly Munley is my hero.

This article made me cry – and I am not a crier. Good on her, and good on the other soldiers who helped each other.

Success!

Guess who totally aced her Econ midterm! I did! I’m totes a genius.

And speaking of geniuses, OkCupid (an internet dating site) did an interesting survey recently, and one of the questions they asked was “Are you a genius?” The results were interesting, but not surprising. Unsurprising – 46% of men said they were geniuses, compared to 30% of women. Given stereotypes and sexism, it’s not surprising that women would be less likely to think they’re super-smart. Also unsurprising – 39% of all respondents said they were geniuses, which is not possible. As OKTrends said “2 in 5 people (and nearly half of all men!) think they are one in a thousand.” This is something that I’ve long suspected. Everyone thinks they’re above average, that they’re special. But it’s just not possible for everyone to be above average!

OK Cupid broke down the results in a map, which was pretty interesting. Green means more people think they’re a genius, and red means less. Check out Nevada!

Chili Cook-off!

This past Sunday, Mosaic held its annual chili cook-off as part of its All Saints’ Day celebration. It was a great time!

There were ten a bunch of chilis entered into the competition. So many crock pots!

There was also a nice dessert table, and a lot of fixings for the chilis.

There was even a mince pie, which confused everyone!

Lots of delicious cornbread, which was my and Michelle's favorite part!

Pastor Rob explained the contest – everybody tastes, and everybody votes.

Pastor Rob explaining. He is big on gestures!

We all got ballots:

I also got cornbread.

After eating, we voted and put our ballots in the pot:

The winner got this fancy trophy:

The trophy

My favorite chili was one with sausage in it. I think that I liked it best because I don’t like chili, and this didn’t really taste like chili. Unfortunately, mine didn’t win. The winner was smoked chili. It wasn’t too big of a surprise, cause it was also the first chili to be completely eaten!

The chili master accepting his prize. He also got some kind of chili pot, but not the one we put our votes in.

I had a great time. Lots of people stayed for the cook-off, and even though we had to move inside because of the rain, everyone had fun!

The balloons are so festive, right?

More chili eaters!

I really love Mosaic Church, and I’m so glad to have found it!

Rock Creek Park with Fall Colors

Last Monday I finally made it out to Rock Creek Park again to go running. It was great! It wasn’t raining, it wasn’t freezing, and I did 3 miles on a very hilly trail (no horses, but there was evidence that they had been there earlier, if you know what I mean).

The trees were turning, and it was pretty beautiful. I took a bunch of pictures – here are some of my favorites.

Homemade Candy Corn!

I saw a recipe for homemade candy corn on The Kitchn, and I decided that I needed to make it for the Halloween party we’re having at church tonight. So, I went over to Michelle’s house to use her stove and countertop.

First, you make the candy dough, which involves boiling some stuff, then letting it sit, and then mixing in some other stuff. I was glad to have my experience with making fudge, because you need to take the mixture off the burner when it reaches the softball stage. The website said about 5 minutes (2.5 for the half-batch I made), but it took much less time than that, so I would have burned it if I didn’t have the fudge experience.

After you make the dough, you divide it into three parts and color one orange, one yellow, and leave the other white.

Candy corn waiting to happen

Roll a portion of each color into a long line, then smuch them together and cut into triangles. Then, you’ve got candy corn!

Fields of corn. Kinda.

Packed up and ready to go to the party!

Centro Maria at Halloween

I joined the Community Committee at Centro Maria! I’ll be helping to plan the community events that Centro Maria puts on for the residents. Our first event: a Halloween party!

I helped to decorate the dining hall for the party after my midterm on Thursday. The party is going to be tonight, and it’s going to be fun! I don’t think I’ll make it, because I’m going to Michelle’s (which I still haven’t finalized with her, but I’ll get on it soon, I swear!).

But just check out how awesome the dining hall looks! I’m pretty proud of it!

Spooky entrance, right?

Those are eyeballs on top of candles with rats or spiders on them. Gross!

Streamers, banners, paper lanterns, orange tableclothes, glass jack-o-lantern tealight holders - so festive and Halloweeny!

Look at that cute little guy!

It’s almost Halloween!

Tomorrow I’m going to my friend Michelle’s house to make homemade candy corn! And maybe a bunch of fudge, too. But in honor of the candy corn I’m going to make, here’s a couple pictures of candy-corn-themed stuff I’ve seen around town!

Saw this on the way to the zoo Sunday

This was at Rhode Island and 4th, on my way home from somewhere.

Both of these were done by street artist Diabetik. She/he painted a bunch of traffic cones to look like candy corn, and stuck candy corn stickers (?) on stuff around town. Diabetik does some pretty cool stuff. Last spring, she/he did Peeps stickers. Check them out:

Ruby Tuesday Brunch Update

Sunday I had lunch after church with my friend Michelle and her mom, who was in town visiting. We went to Ruby Tuesday and had the brunch menu again. But this time, something was different (besides the fact that Michelle ate three yogurt parfaits instead of two). The cookies were big!

Proof:

The Zoo! (Picture heavy, of course – animals!)

Sunday afternoon I went to the National Zoo. Did you know it’s run by the Smithsonian Institution? I was surprised to learn that. They were set up for a Halloween event for their affiliated group, the Friends of the National Zoo. There were skeletons, and pumpkin people all over the place.

Pumpkin people in yukatas outside the entrance to the Asia Trail

First up was the sloth bear, who was really interested in the people watching her. She was right up next to the glass! It was pretty cool.

I also saw an adorable red panda! She was also walking back and forth next to the glass. I think maybe it was her feeding time, and she wanted us to feed her.

I saw two of Przewalski’s horses (I don’t know if one of them was the one that gave birth earlier this year. I didn’t see any baby horses. )

I got creeped out by this Prevost’s Squirrel:

Seriously, it all of a sudden snapped its head around to glare at me. Creepy.

I spotted a Golden-headed Lion Tamarind. Can you?

And this Black-Tailed Prairie Dog made me homesick.

Seriously. Look at that belly. Who does that remind you of?

I spotted some kind of leopard (yay, punny!)

And then…PANDAS!

This panda was sleepy.

This panda was hungry.

And this sleepy panda was being watched by a giraffe!

I saw my personal favorite – elephants!

And then I moseyed down to the Kids’ Farm, because I’m a kid at heart. And, to get a specific set of pictures for my mom. These ones!

She was waiting very patiently to come into her stall for the night.

The zoo was very pretty. Just look at the autumn colors on this tree!

And check out this close-up of the brilliant yellow flowers from the zoo entrance:

And these lanterns that hung overhead at the entrance to the Asia Trail:

I loved the zoo.

Here are links to videos I’ve uploaded of some of the animals I saw:

Red Panda Pacing Back and Forth

Hungry Panda Bear

Goofy Prairie Dogs

Mooing Cow

My Trip to the Petworth Library (Picture heavy)

On Saturday I decided to check out the public library in Petworth. My mom told me that it looked pretty cool, and that it had free parking and wifi. Sign me up! Before leaving, I heard a commotion outside my window. This was the scene:

Spectators at a rugby game were fleeing to their cars, as the rain got heavier. But I’m not scared of rain! So I set out, with my trusty umbrella in hand. But not only did I run into crazy traffic (more on that later), the rain turned into this:

It was probably as hard as the hardest rain I’ve ever driven in. But I soldiered on, because I’m not a quitter! Eventually I got to the intersection of Georgia, Kansas, and Upshur, where the library is located. I pulled into the parking lot of this building:

which I was hoping was the Petworth Library. There weren’t any signs or anything indicating whether it was or not, so I just got out of the car and hoped for the best. The building was under construction (hence the boarded-up windows all over the place [I think]:

…and apparently one of the things they are building is a little moat in the sidewalk:

But after deftly jumping across the moat (can’t stop me, construction workers!), I found my first clue that this was actually a library:

A book drop! So I headed inside to get out of the rain, just like an ant. It was a pretty nice library, although it was definitely under needed renovation. It had some pretty sweet bay windows:

Note the book-spacer propping open the window. Proof that it was hot inside!

It was about a thousand degrees in there, so I didn’t stay long. I just checked my email, cleared my Google Reader, and then went to use the bathroom. Which turned out to be a spooky adventure. First, I went down this creepy hallway:

Then I turned, and went down this creepy staircase:

Which led me into this creepy basement:

And that’s when I found out the bathroom was locked, and I had to go back upstairs to get a key. Sweet. Staff bathroom was open though -

- but I wasn’t going in there. *shiver*

But I eventually got out of the Petworth Library without seeing any ghosts of librarians past or anything, and headed back home. I ran into some more traffic, and, confirming my suspicions, this sign:

It flashed between “Expect Delays” and “Howard University Event 10/24″, which is what I had suspected was the cause of the traffic. It was Howard’s homecoming on Saturday, and that was why the traffic was backed up for blocks with lots of cars and buses. I took the hint and found an alternate route back to Centro Maria, where I proceeded to procrastinate and watch 30 Rock instead of studying for my Econ midterm. It was a good day!