...Was on the Quantico Marine base today for a few hours. Learned that the few and the proud get free admission to Busch Gardens until December 2005. Actually I think that goes for all the armed forces. Lucky!

"Now George understand! George get coffee....then Ursula want George!"

Rule of Thumb

So that I might better utilize the English language, I have signed up on Phrase Finder's "A Phrase a Week." Every week I receive a phrase, it's meaning, and it's origin. This week's was particularly interesting.

The phrase was "Rule of Thumb." Rule of Thumb was said to have originated from a "belief that English law allowed a man to beat his wife with a stick so long as it was no thicker than his thumb. In 1782 Judge Sir Francis Buller is reported as having made this legal ruling."

The phrase also appeared in print when Sir W. Hope, Fencing-Master, wrote, "What he doth, he doth by rule of Thumb, and not by Art." So I guess the origin's up for debate, though I choose to believe the wife beating one, which is very un-PC, and therefore funny.

Phrase Finder

"A man who cannot control his woman...is funny."
-Johnny Cammareri, Moonstruck

I turn 25 on Sunday. Here are the two benefits: as of Sunday my auto insurance drops 34 dollars. I can also rent a car---hahaaaa--heeaaa! The only thing that makes me happier is that song by The Cutting Crew, I Just Died In Your Arms Tonight.

Yo my brother. This is a shout out to all with 2 hour block insomnia. It's happened to me from 4:45-6:45AM every other morning for a month. I blame jet lag for this new physical development. Well I think everyone should have a new hobby. Insomnia I guess is as good a hobby as any other--as long as it's results and implications are constructive and useful. I'd practice my cello but then there'd be some very disgruntled other house dwellers. So I'm sticking with quieter things.

I've filled most of my wee hours o' morn with journal entrying and trying to get into Mornings on Horseback by David McCullough (if you haven't read him, start with his John Adams first, learn to appreciate McCullough very very much, and then, bearing your appreciation in mind, try and chug through the 80% dry as toast, 20% interesting bio of Teddy Roosevelt. Why do I keep taking on these huge biographies of presidents?). Really, though, read John Adams.

I've also found out that Thumb War is pretty overrated, especially if the battle is against one's self. Not interestingly enough, as regards Thumb War, I've reaffirmed that my right thumb is the dominant thumb. Yawn.

I listen to basement noises (I'm temporarily a post-collegiate house slug). There's the joltful stopping/starting noise of the dehumidifier, the creaking of footsies upstairs carrying late night bathroom trippers, and my fan that has blasted faithfully for me each night since I first began college. I thought I'd weaned myself off the fan but realized something needed to shut up the dehumidifier...so I'm addicted again. My favorite noise, though, is the occasional cat fight sound. Blimey, I wouldn't want to be a cat in one of those.

Rachel, please relink my blog to thy list of lists, for I am determined to become quasi-faithful in my posting, and deserve a second chance. Does anyone else create these things and then decidedly not post for 2 weeks?

Finally got around to visiting the new (to this neighorhood) Caribou Coffee. It was rather anticlimactic. I don't exactly know what I was expecting--it's usually a generally pleasing experience, with the comfy chairs and fireplace and wooden floors, etc. But the coffee was watery (and a little eggy-tasting, ew) and the experience was kind of reminiscent of drinking Panera Bread coffee at Panera Bread.

Although I think I've been over the whole rustic log cabin-esque coffee store chain thing since 2002, I haven't completely ruled out a second visit. I really liked the Caribou in Charlotte, NC...
(see Caribou's website under "Links")

I wanted to see Travis Tritt tonight at Wolf Trap...my reservation: a mid August summer's eve in VA is the equivalent of being mummified by hot, sticky, wet cotton balls while simultaneously being forced to inhale and exhale into a pot of soup.

I admit Travis has the stereotypical redneck mullett that was first made popular by strung out Neo-Nazi Skinheads from West Virginia (thus making the cynical under-thirties of America feel justified in mocking country music and all who follow it)--but the dude can sing.

It's just like one of the great minds of the 20th century, Louis Armstrong, once said: "If ya aint got it in ya, you can't blow it out." And Travis got it.