My Top Ten - Bagel Types

Lately I have felt that nothing in my life is changing, and have had next to nothing to reflect on in the past few weeks. Classes started today, which should add some excitement to my week, and I also started my new job as a teaching assistant. Overall, things have been dull, but it looks like a change is on the way.

"The bagel is an unsweetened doughnut with rigor mortis"
Beatrice and Ira Freeman, About Bagels, NY Times, May 22 1960

Since I feel a need to write something, I have decided to be lazy and start a weekly trend of top ten lists. I would do a normal top ten list, like movies or books, but that would take an extremely long time to think about, time of which I have but don't intend to spend on blogging. I may do one of those eventually, but I would feel a need to extend the list to a "Top Twenty." I am mostly doing these lists for my own mental well being. Anyways, as the title of this entry says I will now list my top ten favorite types of Bagels. I picked bagels because I was recently at a bagel shop and I realized how many different types of bagels their are, and how great it would be to have an answer to someone who asks me "What are top ten favorite types of bagels?" The question is not if someone would ever ask such a question, but if I could blow someone away by having such unnecessary information able to be delivered at a moments notice. The bagels I list may not all be available at your local bagel shop, but I have seen them before. I haven't even tasted them all, just some of them sound like they would be good.

10. Everything - gross, thats why it is number ten
9. Cinnamon Sugar - tasty, sugary, unhealthy.....sounds good to me
8. Asiago Parmesean - those two words added to any food create greatness
7. Apple - I love everything apple, but I have never had an apple bagel that lived up to my stringent expectations
6. Pumpernickel - yum
5. Whole Wheat - plain tasting, wholesome
4. Honey Grain - messy, tasty, and oddly nostalgic to eat
3. Rosemary and Olive Oil - amazing taste; this bagel has recently rose in rankings
2. Cinnamon Raisin - a classic
1. Plain - the original, the best

Ok..... after listing these, I feel like I may have put too much thought into this. I don't eat bagels often, which allows me to be unbiased in my selection of a top ten, although I am sure my list will be contested for centuries to come by bagel enthusiasts around the world.

Fun, Sun, and 5'10" showers

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be."

- Douglas Adams

My trip to Daytona Beach, with a couple days spent at Disney World was awesome.  It was my first time on a long vacation with Karen, and I think that she had a great time, especially since she hadn't been to Disney World since she was in diapers.  True I do have some problems with the way Disney runs business, and the way they portray their characters, but I have to give it to them, they know how to have a good time.  Since my brother has been spoiled in the last few years and had gone to the parks a couple of times with school, he was not as amused as Karen and I were, but I was able to keep him from constantly acting like the "negative nancy" teenage life tries to force him to be.  I am amazed that I had as much fun as I did.  Even the beach was great.  Some highlights:  

Going on the Everest ride, and trying to avoid the vomit located in the cart in front of me that was left by it's previous passenger

Dad pushing buttons in the Mission Space ride because he felt that if he did not, they would not let him out of the ride.

Seeing Kennedy Space Center for the first time.

Watching all the staff at Epcot ride around on their Segways.

The entire trip was a blast, even with the ever-growing stress of moving.  But I have finally left the stress of moving behind me.  During my entire time in Florida, I was constantly fretting about the moving process that was soon to come.  What made it even worse was that all the things I felt could go wrong ended up going wrong, although there were a few things that I thought were already going wrong that ended up going right.  In short, it was a stressful process that I am glad is over.  Now I can focus on the more important things in life... like getting internet and cable....oh wait...I mean grad school.  

Since my new apartment is right next to campus I am able to take full use of all the services the library can offer that my new place cannot:  A/C, coffee, and ceilings that don't make me feel like I am walking through Bilbo Baggins' burrow at Bag End.  True there are some problems with my new apartment, but I have to say, I love the place.  It is the first place I have lived that seems to exhibit a personality of it's own.  Anyways, it will be very nice once the weather cools down, which will happen in a month or two.  I hopefully will be able to upload some photos of it at some point if I can find my memory card reader.  The height of the ceiling is probably the most noticeable flaw.  My friend Geoff is 6'6" and the top of his head touches the ceiling when he stands straight up.  The shower, is even shorter, and when I get in it I have to lean down like I am some teenager in high school trying to get a smoke in under the football bleachers.

It is going to be nice to be so close to campus and downtown Boone.  I will be able to use my car less, not have to worry about relying on the bus system, and be able to walk out my door on a fall Saturday and hear the craziness that is pre-football game tailgating.  I feel good about my new living arrangements as of now, but only time will tell.  

One thing I have yet to figure out is why here on the third floor of the library, which is a quiet study floor, does this guy a few computers down from me feel the need to play music from his computer out loud.  Why is this being allowed?  It wouldn't be so bad if I couldn't see that he has a working set of headphones next to his computer.