National Pancake Day/IHOP

Since Lent is coming up, today was the day to indulge. It has also been declared National Pancake Day. At IHOP they serve a free small stack of pancakes so Tarrant, My mom and I decided to go for lunch. I had never been to IHOP before. In fact I’m very anti-IHOP. My sister likes IHOP because she likes pancakes and hates Waffle House. So I’ve always kind of been pro Waffle house to spite her. The food was okay. I like my homemade pancakes better. As I got up out of my booth though to walk out of the door some black stuff fell on me and it was completely disgusting. I have no idea what it was but I’m NOT going back to IHOP again!

Florida School Systems

Last night I was at my friend Rachel’s house reading the newspaper with her. The article I picked up was a Bush article. Since I am anti-Bush I like to read the things that he does. In this article it described Bush’s plan to change Florida school systems. He wants High School students to choose their majors and start taking classes for their major. I thought that making all High School students choose their career goals so soon could be a bad idea. Many students don’t know and for the ones who do know (at least the ones in Gainesville) dual enroll with the local college. I will be dual enrolling shortly but I’m still not sure what I would like to major in college.

Bush’s plan also states that sixth graders will start exploring the idea of different majors. I think that this could potentally ruin Florida school systems even more. My friend Rachel wanted to be a rock star, that’s it, all throughout middle school and high school. I had no idea what I wanted to do. The idea just scared me in middle school. I think that forcing younger generations to make up their minds too early can cause even more stress. This idea seems as if it could work for some, but not for all students. Maybe this should just be an option for honor roll students as an addition to what they already do.

Vagina Monologues

Yesterday I went to go see the Vagina Monologues for my second time. I really liked the first time I saw them. I think that the people did a good job of expressing what each monologue meant. I was kind of disapointed with the people that did it last night though. Tarrant said it was the first times she’s ever laughed during "My Vagina was my Village". That specific monologe is not meant to be laughed at. And I was also disapointed with "Reclaiming Cunt".

Birthday Fun

Yesterday was my 16th Birthday. During the previous weekend I went to Atlanta to pick out furniture from IKEA. Since I dont have pictures of my new stuff yet I will show those pictures on another post. Yesterday however was an excellent birthday. I woke up at 7:00 in the morning to watch Saved by the Bell. I grew up on that show so I figured it would be good to watch it on my birthday. Then I had a pancake with vanilla icecream on top. After that I got dressed and went to get my hair cut. My new hair cut is awesome. Then I got Starbucks. When I got home I decided I wanted to go to the mall so I went and bought a Led Zeppllin t-shirt. On the walk home I stopped at McDonalds and got a cheeseburger. Then I saw my brother and he gave me a ride the rest of the way. I opened my gifts: an art book, Buffy season 2 and a frog alarm clock and went to dinner at my favorite restaurant, Farrah’s. I had a falafel burger and fried ’shrooms. Then when I got home we had cake which was chocolate with oreo icecream and had frogs on it. Lastly I went and shot pool with two of my good friends and came home and watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It was a great birthday.

Meal Planning Week 2

This past week meal planning has had me grumpy. At first I was excited. I planned out some books from the FLB cookbook at this fan site for Francesca Lia Block. Then we went grocery shopping. I guessed that we were going to spend $95.00.  I guessed correctly too. It came out to be like 95.08 or something. And we even got extra things. Later in the week however, the little kids were here and the menu got really screwed up. I had to skip a lot of the meals because they ate all of the freaking food. And if I didn’t skip a meal I skipped ahead to a different meal. I hope this week I plan a little better.

Tanakh: Hebrew Scriptures

The name for the collected Hebrew scriptures is Tanakh. This name comes from the Hebrew letters for the three parts of scriptures: Torah which means "teaching", Nevi’im which means "Prophets", and Ketuvim which means "Writings".
Isaiah is found in Nevi’im
Leviticus is found in Torah
Daniel is found in Ketuvim
Proverbs is found in Ketuvim

18th Century Necklace

An 18^th Century diamond necklace that was
believed to be made for the Russian empress Catherine was sold in Geneva
this past Thursday for 1.5 million dollars (1.3 euros). The auction house was
very full but the executive director wasn’t surprised that it was sold under it’s
estimated amount. In total, over 340 lots were sold for 35.8 million francs
($27.0 million; euro23.1 million) during the daylong auction. The most
expensive of the jewels — a pink diamond ring — sold for 5.17 million francs
($3.90 million; euro3.34 million). The article stated this about the history of
the necklace:

“Catherine II, or "the Great," was one of 18th century Europe’s
enlightened despots, known as much for her correspondence with French
philosophers Diderot and Voltaire as for the reforms she introduced into
Russian society and government. The self-described "philosopher on the
throne" ruled as Russia’s empress between 1762 and 1796.

The
necklace, which holds 27 large cushion-shaped diamonds, is believed to have
been made for Catherine during the beginning of her reign and was housed in the
Russian state diamond fund in St. Petersburg   until 1917. It includes a matching bow clasp.”
A lot of people think it is remarkable that this piece of jewelry survived the 1800s because most of the jewelry was broken to make new jewelry in the latest fashions.