Explosive Donut

Riding a segway makes you look really stupid.

It is really fun though.

And all the tourists get jealous. One random woman tried very hard to have a discussion with me about transportation policy. But, I segwayed away.

pew pew pew

When I went  visit my parents for my Dad’s birthday, we all had some tea. This is pretty typical. Usually there isn’t a white spider in the tea, though:

I would probably avoid drinking tea from Culinary Tea from now on.

Going to DC, Melody and I knew that the cherry blossom festival recently began. And there were plenty of cherry blossoms near the capital building:

Somehow, this picture doesn’t look that goofy. In person, Melody’s nose was so close to the cherry blossoms she was  pollinating the flowers.

We didn’t realize the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum was hosting a kite day until we got on the Metro. This quickly became obvious when everybody but us carried several kites (mostly Spongebob Squarepants and Barbie themed) on the subway. Feeling left out, we looked for a kite in every toy and convenience store that we could find, but to no avail. Not even the food cart/souvenir carts sold any. We decided that if you wanted to make a lot of money in a day, buy a ton of cheap kites at Walmart and sell them for double the price near the Mall.

Eventually our walk took us to the museum on the National Mall, which did have an expansive selection of kites, ranging from “micro kites” to kitty hawk replicas. We eventually settled on a shark-shaped kite, which we named Sharky Rosenchomp, as several friends were about to suffer through several Matzo-only meals. Also, because it had a nice ring to it.

The wind on the Mall was good at times, and Sharky had a few glorious flights:

Melody and I went to Washington DC a few weeks ago. On the way, we visited A&J for Chinese food on the way. The fried xiao long bao (soup dumpling) was particularly noteworthy. Here’s a the demise of one such fried XLB in photos:

I visited my parents for my dad’s birthday a month ago. We all took a vegetable cutting class as part of the festivities, but I developed ADHD and lost focus about five minutes in. Thus, the lemon on lemon violence picture below:

Oddly, lemon internal organs consist solely of celery slices.

Melody and I were walking along the Charles about a month ago and found a sort-of secret duck/goose colony. I’ve run past it a few times on the weekend, and there’s just as many ducks, if not more.

Look below for a video and a couple of goose-stalking photos. You’ll see lots of silly butt waggling and hear plenty of honking:

I’m training to run a 10k in 52 days. I’ve done a few 5k’s and my mother has only beaten me on two out of three. At least I won on the last one, even if I was only a few seconds ahead of her. She didn’t try to throw the race this time. That’s like your mom talking smack without even meaning to. While you’re doubled over, feeling like you’re about to vomit.

I should also note that I don’t have a 10k in mind, it’ll just me running around like an idiot. So the 10k will be no different than any other day.

Also, by training I mean that I’m spending half of my time figuring out why my Nike+ doesn’t work again, getting kicked off the treadmill, or running in circles.

First, I’d like to thank everyone who supported me doing the plunge! I probably should be afraid my friends and family are encouraging me to jump in near freezing water, but thank you nonetheless for your words of support and donations. We raised $275! All together, the the 25,000+ plungers raised a total of almost $3 million.

Unfortunately, they didn’t let non-plungers on the beach, and I don’t have any pictures of me plunging. I’ll do my best to impart the experience.

Melody and I drove down to Annapolis on Saturday morning. This is also when it started snowing:

We parked at the Naval Academy since the plunge had outgrown the beach’s parking lot. It’s hard to see in this picture, but there were several groups tailgaiting in the parking lot:

We were whisked away by the shuttle and at Sandy Point Beach in mere minutes.

I forgot my gloves in Boston, so the low 20’s temperature left me and Melody a bit… cold. Checkin was outside, but didn’t take too long. Melody and I headed into the party tent and quickly found a giant space heater to warm up. Here’s a picture of the madness:

Next, I headed over to the men’s (heated) changing tent, and went from my typical many layers of clothing to bathing trunks and sneakers. Soon enough it was 1 PM and time to rush out of the changing tent. It wasn’t so much of a rush because too many people were trying to leave it once. It took about 5 minutes just to get out, and many people were already back. Here’s a picture of some guys toward the end of the crowd leaving the tent (photo from Flickr):

Meanwhile, Melody took a few photos of the crowd:

As you can see, it was pretty crazy!

Most of the plungers had already gotten into the 35° water by the time I got there, so I had a bit more time to hang around. I was in for about 20-30 seconds and went in to about my waist. Most people jumped in and out, and only got to their shins, so I can consider myself slightly crazier than most other people there. There was a row of police divers in the water, and I didn’t feel like testing them.

To give you an idea for the beachfront chaos, check out these pictures I found on Flickr:

When I got out of the water, my legs were very numb. It was like someone shot my legs full of Novocaine. Unfortunately a huge mob of people were trying to get into the tent, but some people still hadn’t gotten out. And the first people to go in were now changing right in front of the tent entrance. So, I had to wait for about 5 minutes in my wet bathing suit.

Here’s a picture of some guys sneaking into the back of the tent (from Flickr):

I wish I thought of this.

Eventually I got inside the tent, and it was chaos. People had broken into the tent from all different directions, people were stepping on other people’s “dry clothes”, and more than a few women decided they liked the men’s tent better. It was really crowded, but at least I put my clothes in a faraway place, so most of it was sand-free. I got changed quickly and met up with Melody. She took a picture to document that I was alive and well:

You should note that the blue “Plunger bracelet” looks suspiciously like a hospital bracelet…

We had lunch and got in line for the shuttle back to the car. The snow had gotten pretty bad at this point and the buses couldn’t run very quickly. The line to get on a shuttle didn’t look that bad when we first got there, but soon we realized that it doubled-back twice. We ended up waiting in line for at least an hour. Meanwhile, the temperature dropped and they had to cancel the second plunge at 3PM. Mind you, this was much less fun than it sounds due to my lack of gloves. Also, there were a few nutters who missed their plunge and just jumped into the boat landing (which was very icy).

We eventually got on a shuttle. It was nice to get inside and thaw a bit. Unfortunately, two people at the front of the bus didn’t change out of their wet clothes and were suffering from hypothermia. It took a long time for the EMTs to show up, I suspect due to the snow, so we waited on the bus for another hour, at least. It was a motley crew: a girl scout troop, several very talkative millitary guys with exceptionally weak bladders, and an off-duty cop. The wait was entertaining at the very least.

Melody and I finally got to the car around 4:45 and didn’t get back to Baltimore until about 7 PM due snow accumulation on the highway. To celebrate surviving the plunge, I had a beer at a nearby establishment:

So in summary, I am very much alive and thank you for supporting me and the Special Olympics!

As a CompSci grad student, I spend a lot of time a) on the computer and b) reading conference papers. Speaking from experience, the two do not combine well. I’ll let you figure out which wins out.