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Tuesday’s Tidings for January 28, 2014

Chels’s mom found this at Whole Foods last week – how awesome is it?!
No fancy intro this time, but it is Josh (that would be me – third person is so bizarre) writing Tuesday’s Tidings this week. Why? Because I felt like it. On to the list…
1. So, basically the most amazing thing ever. The White House is hosting a “virtual big block of cheese day.” At this point, anyone reading this must, by definition, fall into two camps: those who have seen the first season of The West Wing, and those who haven’t. Well, actually, you were already in one of those camps before you started reading this post, so the post hasn’t done anything to influence you in that respect. However, if you were in the former camp at the beginning of the post, you are now in a new camp, where you get what I’m talking about. If you weren’t, you are in the latter new camp, also known as the camp where you’re probably not reading this anymore and have gone on to bigger and better things. Good for you. Anyway. For fans of The West Wing, it’s basically an exploding-head moment, to borrow a tweet from my sister Jennifer. Somehow there’s a clip of Leo’s big block of cheese speech available on YouTube that NBC hasn’t taken down in almost a year. Watch it. Then watch The West Wing and despair at the idea that television will never, ever be that good again. Also, Bradley Whitford is getting old. Sadly. But he still rocks. 

2. This is the part of Tuesday’s Tidings where I’m supposed to recap what happened on Downton Abbey on Sunday night. I really like Downton Abbey, but I’m really bad at recaps. I don’t want to spoil your fun if you haven’t seen it, and if you have seen it, why would you want to read my recap? It was good. Anna and Bates are cool (kind of), so that’s a load off. But Bates is going to kill somebody, so, hey, the load is back. Good thing, too, because that was the only real drama going up to this point, and I don’t think the season is supposed to be over yet. Sunday nights at…some point in time. Check it out. 
3. At the risk of sounding incredibly superficial (I actually do have some things to say that are important, unlike everything I’ve said so far and am about to say in this paragraph), I must return to the world of entertainment yet again for my third bullet point. We watched two movies this weekend, which is rare for us. They were two that we’ve been looking forward to seeing for quite some time – The Butler and Captain Phillips. They were both excellent. Great performances across the board in The Butler, and a new angle on the civil rights movement of the 60’s and 70’s – very interesting. Captain Phillips – well, that was one of the best movies I’ve seen in a long time, and possibly Tom Hanks’ best performance to date (which is saying something). Suffice to say, it pushes you to the edge of your seat for two and half hours and doesn’t let you relax once. Also, basically completely clean (for a movie this intense – very mild language and one bloody scene at the end). Hanks got robbed of the Oscar he so richly deserves, but his incredibly capable co-star, first time actor, and actual native of Somalia, Barkhad Abdi received a hard earned nod for his efforts, and I hope he gets the gold statue (still best joke at the Oscar’s ever – Billy Crystal’s, “Just what people love to tune in to see during a recession – millionaires giving each other golden statues.”). 
4. Needless to say, these bullets are not listed by order of importance, because one piece of awesome news hit the wires this past week. A ceasefire in South Sudan took effect on Thursday, and we are hoping and praying that (a) it will stay in effect and (b) a resolution will be made ending the violence for good before the ceasefire expires on February 7. Only time will tell, but it would be a huge win for the people of South Sudan, as well as my cousin and her family, who remain in pseudo-refugee status in Kenya. 
5. The President of France is…a bit ridiculous. Not saying we don’t have plenty like him in our own government (we do), but, wow. 
6. I LOVE my Kindle Paperwhite. Chels got it for me for my birthday roughly two weeks ago, and I don’t think I’ve read this much (or enjoyed reading this much) in many years. Also, it doesn’t weigh anything, so in a situation like I was in yesterday, where I was standing on the bus for a prolonged period of time, not a seat in the house, I could still read while holding on the strap with one hand and not worry about dropping my book or tablet or whatever on the person sitting underneath it. It’s awesome, I love it, and I have no idea why I waited this long to decide I wanted one. I love to read, possibly more than anyone else I know (my dad and my brother-in-law Travis might possibly edge me out), and it’s really a match made (at the library). Speaking of the library, I had no idea I could go to my local library’s website, find a book I want, check it out (on their website), and have it appear on my Kindle seconds later! Sometimes I love modern technology.
7. Referencing the above, I’m riding the bus now. I used to drive, then I took the train, now I take the bus. I realized it picks up about a mile from my house, whereas I’m driving ten miles to the train station, and the duration of the ride is the same. It’s a no-brainer, but I didn’t even consider it before now. Why? Who knows. Taking public transit doesn’t come naturally to us here on the west coast. We have to ease in. 
8. Christian is teething. A lot. Like, we’ve been getting 60-90 minutes of sleep some nights in the past few weeks. That’s fun. But, dang, he’s a likable little guy. And very debonair in his new fedora (or so say the 900 people who stop us to gawk at him everywhere we go). Babies in fedoras. Who knew?
9. The Navy is making it happen. Why didn’t the Air Force come up with this first? C’mon guys, what’s brewing in your skunkworks? 
10. Dinner fail last night. Chels tried her best, but the recipe let her down. I have a mantra for times like this: if you’re going to try as many recipes as we do (2-3 new ones a week, usually), every once in a while one is going to blow up in your face. Sometimes literally (that usually happens to me, not Chels). It’s worth it, and it doesn’t mean you’re doing anything wrong. We’re going to mod this recipe, get to where it should have been in the first place, and make sure it’s good and fixed before we loose it on the poor, unsuspecting public (that would be you). 
Until next time!