This took forever to post. Anyway, just had this convo:
Bill: Wow, there are a lot more pictures of scantily-clad babes in the Las Vegas airport than in most airports.
Em: Yeah, I bet you don't see that in Jackson. Wait, do they even have an airport in Jackson?
Bill: Let's hope not. Then they could escape and spread.
A complete draft of the thesis has been submitted!!!!!
In other news, we have to be up to go to the airport in two hours.
Since it was warmer today (46°, practically sweltering) I decided to use my brand new GPS* to find my first geocache.** It turned out to be a sheep-themed affair in a mailbox outside a neat little used bookstore, about a ten minute walk from home. I felt rather sheepish that I didn't have anything sheeply to leave.
*Christmas present from dad and Cyndi
**Dad got me started on geocaching. He is waaay into it. See here for proof.
I have been formatting and proofreading Bill's thesis for the past FIVE HOURS. I need chocolate.
My favorite thing about SFGate.com is their Day in Pictures feature. For the end of the year, they have posted the best pictures of the year past.
I was just putting dishes away to dry, when I saw that there were dishes improperly arranged in the rack (i.e. not like I do it) and started to get annoyed when I realised, hello, I have a boyfriend who does the dishes, without me knowing, even. This is a time for yay, not annoyance.
Since it had stopped snowing, I thought I would return two library books that are due today and two due Wednesday, as well as drop off some mail and grab some Drunken Noodles for lunch. So I suited up: silk long underwear, wool socks, knee high Docs, layers, scarf, hat, gloves, the whole shebang, and headed out the door, when GAH! still snowing!!
I will be renewing those books online and ordering in.
Update: nobody is delivering, either because they don't for lunch on weekdays, or because their drivers can't get in because of the snow. GRRR. I am reduced to eating chocolate chips and pumpkin seeds.
I love that he lets me pluck his evil eyebrow even though it hurts, because that thing just freaks me out and I NEED IT GONE.
We bought a new game tonight, Carcassonne, which is a city-building strategy game. We played it once and I eeked out a win through methods which I called strategic and Bill called despicable.
It's been a long time, but Bill and I now have for real, honest to god, out of the country, longer than a weekend vacation plan! We are doing the lazy American luxury thing, and will be spending the last week in January (the spelling of February has ruined me for all the other -uary months. OK, I guess that's only January. Anyway, I keep wanting to spell it Janruary.) at an all-inclusive resort in Cancun. Marble floors, jacuzzi tubs, swim up bars, balconies with a view of the ocean, all the food you can eat and booze you can drink, not a native in site: the whole cliche.
Other vacation plans on the menu include almost a week in CA to see Bill's p's for xmas eve and xmas and Grace thereafter, with possible side trips to Napa or Tahoe (snowboarding!). For New Year's we'll be at Killington, again with the snowboarding. We'll be at the same lodge we went to a few years back. You know, the one with the outdoor heated pool? That we built snowmen while in? And had a snowball fight, also while in? Yeah, that one.
Let the jealousy commence.
Today I had occasion to send the following email:
BROOMS AREN'T ROBOTS!!
Bill sent me flowers today, since I was bummed and missing him last night. He tried to be sneaky about it, deleting the confirmation email he got, but he wasn't fast enough. The computer here dings when he gets and email and I saw it, went to the website to see the arrangement, and burst out laughing, because really, he does have terrible taste in flowers. But that just made it better, because I got a good laugh out of it, and it's just so sweet that he tried.
I was laughing when I called to thank him and he huffily demanded that I find a better selection. I browsed the website and sent him a few choices. His response? "humph. no candy canes and no pinecones = not better"
Say, "Doesn't she look great? She's wearing my bra!"
If I ever need to get past a ridiculously open and bizarrely visible lattice of lasers, the answer's really quite simple: capoeira, ideally accompanied by music from my iPod.
The movie was actually pretty enjoyable. The plot was silly, of course, but there were lots of great little moments, where the actors were just playing their characters off each other.
I'm going to be doing them this week, so if you think I might not have your address, better send it along again. You know how I am about keeping track of these things. Lots of my contact info got lost when I left work, since, silly me, I kept my primary address book there.
Bill and I made Manhattan Clam Chowder last night for dinner, and it was delicious. I had the leftovers tonight and it was even better. Who knew something which was essentially half "clam juice" (that's what the bottle says) could be so good?
It's pretty easy to make, too. Just saute celery, bell pepper and onion for a few minutes until softened, then add equal parts clam juice and diced, canned tomatoes, plus some chopped potatoes and a pinch of cayenne, simmering for about ten minutes so the potatoes cook. If you're using fresh clams, like we did, add them and continue simmering until they open, about another ten minutes. Toss in some parsley, salt, and pepper and you're done!
Traditionally there would be bacon sauteed first, but we left that out for obvious reasons. Adjust the veggies and cayenne depending on how chunky and spicy you like it.
This morning I met a guy in the courtyard of the Boston Public Library so he could take pictures of my feet. It's actually not as weird as that sounds. He's a local musician/psychology student who is taking photos for an exhibit at a friend's art gallery. He's taking pictures of the faces, hands, and yes, feet of 10 women and 10 men. They won't necessarily be paired, so it will be up to the viewer to determine which body parts belong to whom. Or at least that's his cover story. He turned out to be a pretty cool guy, and I had a good time talking to him for the hour I was there.
After that, I dropped by the department of bcs again to earn a quick $30, for reading and pushing a couple of buttons for an hour, all in the name of science.
Today is turning out to be a stranger-intensive day. I'm planning on meeting a woman in about an hour to check out a yoga class together. I've been looking for people to take yoga with so I will feel obligated to go out, even if it's cold so I don't stand them up.
There was a beautiful fall arrangement in the lobby for someone in the building. I was tempted to steal it, but even I am not that mean. Plus, everyone was nice enough not to take mine when I left them there for two or three days.
Update: they must be sick or something, because there is another arrangement for them now.
I've got an interesting day today. This afternoon, I'm heading over to MIT's Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences to participate in some reading aloud and reading comprehension studies (or so they tell me). Tonight, I'm going to a secret screening at Kendall Square Cinemas. About once a week, they show a movie a few days before it is released, but don't tell you what movie you will be seeing. You can apply for tickets and I got in tonight! I just got the email a few minutes ago.
I was thinking of sleeping in this morning, but the city decided to jackhammer right outside my building. Of course, once I was fully awake they stopped.
I'm going to try and to my shopping and decorating this week, so if you haven't sent me one, PLEASE SEND ME YOUR CHRISTMAS LIST. I never know what to get for you people.
It's Monday, and for the second week in a row I have tulips (!) to chase away the no-Bill blues. Last week, Cyndi send me a gorgeous bouquet of orange and yellow ones to brighten up my Thanksgiving day table. Unfortuantely, I passed them two days in a row in the lobby thinking, "Oh, how sad. Someone was sent flowers, but went away for the holiday and they'll be all dead before they get back." Mom and I had even discussed how sad that was. It never occured to me that they might be for me, even though I usually obsessively check the name on every package and even bring inside the ones that aren't for me so they can't get stolen. When I called to say Happy Thanksgiving, she asked if I had got the tulips. I said no and wondered why they hadn't come for a few seconds before something clicked and I ran out to the hallway. I was thankful that they were still alive and stayed lovely for several more days.
This week it's purple tulips. Bill saw them on the way home from the grocery store and picked them up for me on Friday. Yay, Bill.
With apologies to the more sensitive of my family members:
Why is it, that when you're out with friends and have gas and go to the bathroom, you got nothing, but when you're back smack dab in the middle of them you can't contain the farts?
And, also, why is it that the one time you fart in public in a month or more your boyfriend always asks, "ugh, do you smell that? it smells like shit." Keep your mouth shut, for the love of god! I'm trying to maintain a low profile, here.
This is an old standard, but worth going back to see this year's addition. The step-by-step assembly is pretty amazing.
As I was waiting to order what turned out to be a wonderfully delicious, warm, and satisfying meal at Pepper Sky's, the waiter spontaneously brought me some magazines to read, since I was alone. I had never experienced that before, but thought it was an extremely thoughtful touch, especially since it made me discover a new magazine that I must get a subscription to, The Improper Bostonian. In addition to local features, it has regular dining reviews and what look to be thorough theater and event listings. I think I'll wait until after Christmas to get it, as it makes an easy addition to my list.
My food was a tangy, moderately spicy shrimp lemongrass soup, fantastic steamed chive dumplings, and spring rolls, which were nice and added a great crisp touch, but weren't as spectacular as the other two. To round out the experience, they were playing soft Christmas piano music in the background, which you know I love. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a website to link to, but if you're local go often and take all of your friends. They just opened and I'd selfishly like them to stay in business. They on the corner of Green and Pearl streets, I think, one block south of Mass Ave in Central Square.
On the way to and from lunch, I crossed the "police line do not cross" tape and walked by the gutted building. It looks a lot like mine. A couple of times, I inadvertently startled the loitering firemen as I popped around a fire truck with my big orange umbrella.
I also dropped by the library to pick up some books I had requested, Infinite Jest and Terra Nostra. I had no idea they were both that huge! I am now completely book-logged; there is no way I am going to finish all my books before they are due.
From the Globe:
A raging five-alarm fire late last night ripped through an eight-family wood-frame condominium complex just south of Central Square, fire officials said.
The blaze, which started before 11 p.m. and lasted for more than two hours, engulfed the condos, spread to nearby buildings on the 200 block of Franklin Street, and leapt to buildings on adjacent Auburn Street.
Officials said no one appeared to have been hurt, but a significant number of people would be homeless. The American Red Cross and the Salvation Army were on the scene to assist those who were burned out. Many victims, braving the night chill in sweaters and light jackets, huddled in the community room of a high-rise across the street. The burned buildings are also across the street from the Central Square library branch.
There are no fewer than 15 emergency vehicles outside my house right now, at least 8 of them fire trucks. I can't see if the smoke that's filling the street is from the back of the Greek Orthodox church across the street or the building behind it. I counted three ladders stretched up from fire trucks before the street was obscured by the smoke. The weird thing is there is almost no noise. I wouldn't have even noticed if I hadn't seen the flashing lights through the blinds when I got up for a drink of water.
I just dropped mom off at the airport for her flight home. I was lucky enough to have both Bill and her here for all of last week. On the way home I saw a sign in the shuttle that said "Fair Pricing. All the prices at the shops in Logan Airport are fair. If you find the same item at a lower price locally, please call 1-800-something-I-don't-remember. "
While with mom, we discovered an amazing upscale chocolate shop. Their hot chocolate was delicious but so rich that I almost couldn't finish mine. The best part is we have a shiny new gift card from mom to spend there.
Mom and I also saw the Nutcracker performed by the Boston Ballet. I hadn't seen it in more than 10 years and it was a lot of fun. The Arabian dancers were our favorite.
We cooked and ate all day on T-day, and fortunately everything turned out great, except the first pumpkin custard which I forgot in the oven and burnt to a crisp. The replacement was tasty, though. The rest of the meal was
Mixed greens with roasted pumpkin seeds, asiago cheese and a dijon balsamic vinaigrette
Acorn squash stuffed with wild rice, fennel, and brandy apples
Garlic mashed potatoes
Brussel sprouts
Scallops wrapped in spinach and halibut with a tomato vinaigrette
Gingersnaps
I'm having leftover potatoes now. It was a lot of food, but we did a lot of walking and I saw several new parts of Boston. We also managed to catch the Polar Express in 3D, which was fun on the Imax screen, but probably not worth it otherwise.
Last night Bill and I learned the hard way that while a movie followed by some very strong Old Fashioneds (Yay! for the awesome bartenders at the B-side Lounge) and then hot fudge sundaes instead of dinner makes for a great date night, it does not make for such a good night's sleep.
Today as I was reading Brief Interviews with Hideous Men by David Foster Wallace while listening to sappy Christmas music, the juxtaposition suddenly struck me and I just had to laugh.
The Kendall Square Cinema sometimes has advanced screenings that you can get invited to if you're on the film club mailing list. Tonight I'm going to see Shortcut to Nirvana: Kumbh Mela - "Held every 12 years where the holy Ganges and Yamuna rivers meet, the ancient Kumbh Mela festival is the largest gathering of people in history-over 70 million pilgrims and many of India's most revered spiritual leaders, including the Dalai Lama. More than a simple account of the 2001 event, this film is a sensory experience of an ancient, grand occasion, a swirl of color and motion, song and cacophony, the sacred and the surreal-spiritual India as anyone would hope to find it, offering a message of harmony, unity and peace for all humanity."
Update: while in line at the theater a guy with an Italian accent asked me what movie the line was for. When I told him he said incredulously, "ALL those people are in line to see Shortcut to Nirvana?" He got very excited and turned to his friend to tell him. Turns out they were the directors. They stayed for a Q&A after the film and it was a very cool experience.
Playing 24/7 xmas music without a boyfriend to put a damper on it.
Since Bill has to leave on Sunday to go to AIChE in Austin and doesn't really have time to come up for the weekend, I am going down to New York this afternoon and we're spending three nights down there. Then while he's in Texas, I'll be at Jess's, finally getting to see her place.
I'm off to the library to find some books to read on the train. Toodles.
The Secret Service is doing a backgroud check on me. Part of the whole Clinton reception thing. Crazy.
He's so cute when he's failing miserably at pretending he didn't pick up my books at the PO box so he can surprise me with them. No, he doesn't remember when he went by the post office last. Books, what books?
Jess won a faculty lottery to attend a reception with Bill Clinton the Tuesday after next and I'm her guest!
With the yelling and the honking. It's not quite midnight and I forsee this continuing for several hours. Ugh.
On my way back from The Motorcycle Diaries, I stopped at Toscanini's for a scoop of half Chocolate Sluggo and half Espresso Brownie. Also tasted were the Honey Chamomille and the Cinnamon Spicy Pecan. I oohed and ahhed over the latter so much that the nice scooper chick added some on top of my scoop. It had a real kick to it, but you could only appreciate it if you paused between bites, which was hard to force myself to do as it was so tasty.
The other highlight of the day was getting my very own library card. There is a branch about a block away so I hope to be in there a lot. They have a small but pretty good DVD selection; you can take out five at a time for up to a week and the best part is that they're totally free of charge. I picked up two disks of Monty Python's Flying Circus, Barbershop, American Splendor, and Raging Bull. Plus I got a super nifty card that goes on my keychain instead of cluttering up my wallet. Speaking of keychains, checkout this pen I got and am totally loving. (Nikki, if it's a crappy pen, just don't tell me and let me be happy in my ignorance.)
I Heart Huckabees was hilarious and delightful, by the way, as was Five Children and It, which I caught at the Boston Fantastic Film Festival. It was its US premiere, which sounds much more impressive if you don't know that there were only about five of us in the audience.
I wonder if, when you get junk mail with "postage paid" on it, you just drop it back in the mail, the company has to pay the postage again, or if they only pay once up front for a certain number of mailings. If they had to pay again, all my junk mail would go straight back to the mailbox. Of course, then I would have a mountain of junk mail being recycled to my mailbox everyday and the mailman would probably get wise, so maybe that's not such a great idea after all. Hannah's is probably better
People are hooting and hollering and honking their horns outside because of some baseball game or something. Shut up, people, SHUT UP.
Bill and I just spent a very pleasant evening at 1369 Coffee House. He was working and I was reading Dasheill Hammett and enjoying the coincidentally complimentary Chicago soundtrack. A passer-by happened to glance at Bill's computer screen full of equation and said, "That looks like fun. It looks terrible actually." with a good natured, apologetic, somewhat horrified look on his face that cracked me up to no end. Bill found it somewhat less amusing.
Bill was down at Princeton most of the week, but fortunately Lillian was here to keep me company. When I wasn't interviewing, I was out with her and a few other Merckies, drinking, bowling, and generally having a great time.
Check out the delicious sandwich I just had from Darwin's Limited - hummus, avocado, granny smith slices, cheddar, sprouts, honey mustard, and tomato on pumpernickel. Wow.
My friend Lillian from my first job at Merck is in town for a conference and she stayed with us last night. Fortunately she's very easy going and tolerant and didn't even complain about having to sleep on the floor. (Non-complaining, floor-sleeping friends have been a trend lately.) We had Korean food at Koreana. We've had and loved Korean before, but we've always stuck to the BBQ. This time we got that delicious scalion pancake thing, and two other classics, Dolsot Bibimbap (rice with a whole bunch of stuff in a hot pot) and Jhap Chae (clear noodles w/ veggies).
Our stuff is unloaded, the U-Haul's been returned and we've christened the front stoop with our first meal from the Falafel Palace. The apartment is a sea of boxes and we're still trying to figure out how we're going to put everything away in the closets we don't have, but this was by far the easiest and most pleasent move I've made in many years.
The weather today is gorgeous: mostly sunny, with a few clouds, and in the low seventies. It also helped that we had hardly any furniture and amazing parking karma. In the center of a busy city we were able to park both the U-Haul and the car right out in front of the building. It was the shortest distance I've ever had to carry boxes into an apartment.
On the way back from returning the truck we passed by Toscaninis, which I had heard raves about on Chowhound, so we stopped by for a scoop or two and declared the cookie dough OK, the espresso very good and strong, and the german chocolate (choc, coconut, and pecans) absitively posolutely fabulous.
Even the junk mail is good. We got a Crate & Barrel catalogue, a list of menus for places that Dining In delivers for, and a letter from Comcast with their number so we could call and get an appointment right away without trying to find a phonebook or something.
The reason I can write this is because the cable guy happened to stop by to disconnect someone else and agreed to hook up our cable broadband service right then, instead of having us wait for our appointment next week.
But not everything can be perfect, so our inaugural run of the dishwasher was leaky. The landlord said he'd be by to fix it next week. It the meantime we'll just have to make do without one, which could be tough since we've only had two years of practice.
Later: we walked about two blocks down to an awesome Mexican restaurant for dinner. It was a no lard, no extra oils or fats place, with a great salsa bar and plenty of veggie options. The burritos de papa made us very happy.
Feeling snarky and want have a laugh at celebrieties expense? Check out Go Fug Yourself, a collection of heinous fashion missteps.
I took the corolla in for service last week, which was a huge headache of waiting, and not being picked up by the shuttle and given a loaner car, and crying, and more waiting. Eventually it turned out ok, and I didn't even have to pay a huge amount of money. Except Jess noticed while she was here that the grille is missing now, so I have to get that replace today. Ugh.
I'm also going through our cupboard and sorting food to toss and food to donate. The packing is going pretty well: the books are done, we're more than halfway through the clothes and the bathroom, and we went through all our files yesterday, which was an enourmous, tedious job.
Poor Jess's train is really late. What should have been a six hour trip has turned into a eight and a half hour trip.
The past few days have been cleaning, packing, and surfing craigslist for cool used furniture. I took my car in and had a slow leak in one tire repaired and they replaced a sensor that was supposedly responsible for the car balking and occasionally stalling when it was first started up in the morning.
Jess is coming down tonight for the weekend. We're going to get to see Rebecca's new baby (!), have dinner with the new German postdoc in Bill's lab, and have dinner with Matt and Vicki. We might go into the city and catch a movie, too. Jess wants to see A Day Without a Mexican, which is on my list as well.
No appropriate gift-giving occasion is approaching, but Nikki told me about wishcentral.com, so I've started a wish list, and of course can't resist sharing.
My wish list.
My favorite blogger linked this ethical philosophy quiz. My results:
| 1. | Jean-Paul Sartre (100%) Click here for info |
| 2. | Kant (93%) Click here for info |
| 3. | John Stuart Mill (82%) Click here for info |
| 4. | Jeremy Bentham (68%) Click here for info |
| 5. | Ayn Rand (66%) Click here for info |
| 6. | Prescriptivism (52%) Click here for info |
| 7. | Epicureans (50%) Click here for info |
| 8. | Aquinas (49%) Click here for info |
| 9. | Spinoza (49%) Click here for info |
| 10. | Stoics (45%) Click here for info |
| 11. | Nel Noddings (34%) Click here for info |
| 12. | St. Augustine (34%) Click here for info |
| 13. | Nietzsche (31%) Click here for info |
| 14. | Aristotle (31%) Click here for info |
| 15. | David Hume (29%) Click here for info |
| 16. | Ockham (29%) Click here for info |
| 17. | Plato (27%) Click here for info |
| 18. | Thomas Hobbes (22%) Click here for info |
| 19. | Cynics (13%) Click here for info |
The last two weeks in California were an action-packed blast, with no time for blogging. Let's just say I managed to squeeze in a visit from Barbara, Chinatown, North Beach, indian food at the Embarcadero Center, Dame Edna, a family BBQ/reunion, a day at California Adventure, a wine tasting, delicious Mexican food and margaritas, an evening at the Improv with Kevin Neelon, dancing at Club NV (envy - not Nevada), and the UC Davis chem-e reunion. Oh, and two It's-its, from which I shall now go into withdrawals.
I drove up to Lake Tahoe yesterday and met Nikki for lunch, which turned into seven straight hours of talking: we definitely do not see each other often enough. We ate at the Lone Eagle Grill, which is right on the water and has a gorgeous view of the lake. The drive up, and espicially the lake and mountains there we unbelievably beautiful. I took a couple of pictures, and if any turn out, I'll post them. On the way back I pulled over to gawk at all the stars. I actually got to see the Milky Way for the first time in five years.
In other news, Gmail has given me more invitations, so if you want an account, or know someone who does, let me know.
At Grace and Jason's wedding, they let us borrow the photographer for a few minutes, since we were already all gussied up. She has since posted them online, if you would like to take a peek. They're at Pictage; just search for "Bill and Emily" under Find Your Event on the left side of the page. We should pop right up, but if we don't you can also find it by the event number, 69286. The only downside is that you have to register to see the pics.
Mom's visit was great. We drove down the coast (oh god, I almost said shore - I hope New Jersey doesn't leave a stain), did the tourist thing at Pier 39, and had dinner one night in North Beach at, what else, North Beach Restaurant. After she left, I drove myself down to Santa Cruz and ate my way through the boardwalk, then went window shopping in Carmel.
Now I'm home in Yuba City. Yesterday I went out to my old community college to see some former professors. They're really sweet and my engineering instructor wanted me to talk to his materials class. He introduced me as "the famous Emily Hill" and claimed the faculty still talk about me. It was funny and nice, even if it wasn't necessarily true.
Tonight my cousin Steph and I are going down to Sac to do a bit of shopping at Crossroads, and then grab her brother Josh, who just moved down to Sac State, for dinner at Mikuni's.
It's been an eventful week in California. Grace and I spent 14 hours a day the first few days I was here prepping for the wedding and painting the apartment. (Yeah, I know, no one else has any idea what she was thinking either.) We did manage to squeeze in manicures and pedicures as well as a very nice bridesmaids' luncheon and rehearsal dinner before Saturday as well.
The wedding was beautiful and nearly perfect. Everyone had a great time and we stayed at the after party catching up with old college friends until 1:30 in the morning, which doesn't sound that late until you realize we started drinking at 2.
Sunday morning Bill and I had lunch with his parents before dropping him off at the airport for his red-eye flight home. Monday was filled with much needed relaaaaxing and Tuesday morning I picked mom up from SFO. We spent the afternoon looking through the little shops in Pacifica and strolling on the pier and the beach.
Finally, today we met Julie, her kids, and Huela at the Half Moon Bay State Beach and spent several qualitly hours making sandcastles and burying Feliciana in the sand. Huela treated us to a fabulous Italian dinner, and we drove home through the coastal fog.
Today is my last day at work. I haven't posted lately because I've been busy tying up loose ends, and have had guests the past two weekends. Jess came down and spent Fri, Sat, and Sun night. We went shopping, chilled, and ate our way through central Jersey and New York City. Her new place sounds really cool and Bill and I can wait to go up and see it. She even brought down train tour info for the area up there.
Tonight is my last karate class and packing for California. I know I'm going to forget something, but as long as it's not my bridesmaid dress, I'm sure I'll get by.
Friday my cowrkers had a surprise going away breakfast for me and a smaller group of us went out to lunch. Cheesecake for breakfast is such a good thing. They gave me a bit of spending cash, and my boss gave me an American Express dining card to try one of the Cambridge restaurants. I'll miss several of my friends here, but I can't pretend to not be excited about being done. Yay!!
On Friday I wore a jacket and gloves to walk to dinner - while the sun was still shining.
Bill brother came up again this weekend. We spent the day yesterday playing frisbee in the park, disc golf at Rutgers, playing chess, and eating Korean food. Last night we rented the first four parts of Band of Brothers and split a bottle of wine. Good times. Next weekend Jess comes down to visit and we've promised her bolis.
I sent out my "I'm leaving; it's been nice knowing ya." message yesterday and got more than 40 responses back! Aww, I feel all special. Half of them are probably relieved I won't be around to nag them anymore.
I started cleaning so the place would look ok tonight when people came by to look at our stuff for sale an dimmediately began sniffling and sneezing, thus prooving that I am allergic to cleaning and chouldn't have to do it.
Update: we sold most of our big ticket items! and the best part is that the girl who bought them isn't moving until the end of August, so we still get to use them for another month instead of sitting on the floor.
My boss was dismayed to learn I just finished reading a book about grammar (punctuation, actually) and am now reading a book about math. Yep, even my boss is cooler than me.
Bill is anti-bookmark and I am pro-bookmark. It is really frustrating when we are reading the same book and he lets my bookmark fall out. Then makes fun of me for being stupid and liking bookmarks, because smart people can remember where they left off. ARRGGHH!! That is all.
Changing the bad guy to a big corporation made the plot a lot more complicated and a lot less sensical, entirely nonsensical, in fact.
Bill and I made a webpage describing all our stuff that sadly won't fit into our new apartment in Cambridge. It's too bad about the dining room table; I really loved it. The rest of the stuff it will be nice to purge, though. Nothing wrong with it, but it will be nice to start fresh.
Bill posted an ad on the Princeton classifieds, and I'm going to the the same at work tomorrow. Now we just have to make fliers to put up at karate, around town, and at Rutgers.
I singed my hand making tortillas for Huevos Rancheros this morning. There an angry red burn on my palm.
Bill and I saw Harold and Kumar last night. I was surprised that the theater wasn't more packed on opening night, because it totally deserved to be; the movie was hilarious, not it any way that I can properly descibe given my joke-telling ability, so I'll leave it at hilarious and just say go see it, if you're allowed to see evil, R-rated movies, that is.
It was especially fun because we saw it in New Brunswick, and each time it was mentioned, the whole theater would be all WOOOOO!! YEAH!!!! They even showed the "cineplex in New Brunswick," which was an Odeon that doesn't exist here. We were in the only cineplex, a Loews. It was also entertaining to pick apart the geography: "They have to go all the way from Hoboken to New Brunswick to find a White Castle, and then to Cherry Hill to find another?!? Dude, there are like four on my way to work!"; "They keep running into those guys, and that guy, and that other guy over and over, and not even in the same town, all up and down the state! Literally."
I do have to add that they played up White Castle like it was the tastiest thing ever, but this is a place that serves chicken rings. Their burgers are tastless and tiny. The patty has holes punched in it to save them an extra square inch of low-grade beef on each burger; the official reason is "to cook the meat more evenly". Um, ok. You people out west aren't missing anything. Be grateful you have In-N-Out.
As I was walking from my train to sushi tonight, a guy pulled alongside and asked directions to a nearby hospital. I pointed him to the nearest hospital, and he proceeded to go exactly not the way I suggested. Turns out this was a good thing since I just looked up its location and my directions were completely wrong. Oops. I hope it wasn't urgent.
The sushi was great, though. So good, in fact, that it was almost impossible to stifle yummy noises, but somehow I persevered.
I got this shirt in the mail this morning with a note from Cyndi: "Saw this shirt. Thought of you. Now you own it." The shirt makes me smile and will be great for working out or travel sleepwear. You won't catch me wearing it in public, though. Why? Because if anyone asks I will have to admit that I have a bunch of fun in karate, but I'm actually not very good at it, and there goes the illusion.
It's a bad idea to fix a meal of scrambled eggs and veggies right before trying to watch a movie with subtitles, especially if you're wearing a white shirt. In retrospect, this seems obvious, but I guess I didn't visualize all the elements together beforehand.
Having really enjoyed both Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! and All About My Mother, I was surprised at my dissapointment with Women on the Verge. I think it's that whole cross-cultural transmission of humor problem. I didn't even realise it was a comedy until I was reading a few reviews after I saw the movie. Yikes. Sorry, Jess.
On the other hand, I thought Starwoids, a documentary about the nutso fans who waited more than a month in line to see the awful Phantom Menace (and weren't even dissapointed - too much emotional investment, probably) was a lot of fun. I wouldn't recommend it for most people, but it appealed to the geeky teen in me.
We got rained on walking both to and from class tonight, but it didn't matter much because we were pretty sweaty anyway.
Save a backup of your template, because it can get eaten at any time. What a pain in the butt. I won't be making that mistake again.
Today at the train station (I'm trying to take the train to work more, now that the weather is nice) I saw a woman who was wearing nylons on the outside of an anklet. Nylons and anklets don't mix well under any condintions, but the nylons on the outside? As if that wasn't bad enough, add the fact that they had a gold sheen and you have a real crisis.
I got my tickets to California: arriving around 2:30pm on Wednesday, Aug 18, and leaving at 7:00am on Sunday, Sep 19. I still have to get my tickets to southern California, probably for the last week of August, if that's OK with dad and Cyndi.
Our best friend Jess is moving to upstate New York tomorrow to be a visiting faculty member at Hamilton College. Her parents got into town today, and we, along with another couple, went to Stuff Yer Face for bolis (stromboli, for the uninitiated) and beer to see her off. I got the Emily boli, naturally, and we all grubbed on their blue cheese dressing, except for Rebecca, who has to abstain from soft cheeses because she's expecting. Too bad, because that dressing is the best we've ever tasted; it's completely ruined us for any other.
But there I go talking about food again. Seriously, Jess, we will miss you terribly. No one else has gotten along so easily with both of us. You were never a fifth (third?) wheel; in fact, it will be weird just being the two of us. We always laughed a lot more when you were around, even if it was about flashlight worries or hairdryer mishaps. Who are we going to have sushi with? Who will tell us we should read Borges, or take us to salsa parties?
We plan to watch Rebel Without a Cause tonight, drink Old Fashioneds, and brood. We miss you already.
Language: Engrish - funny translations
Movie: speaking of translations, Lost in Translation is a great movie. It's Sophia Coppola's second film, the first being The Virgin Suicides, a beautiful, dreamy adaptation of Jeffrey Eugenides' book.
Pretty: Zen gardens - a large collections of beautiful places
Funny: Bonsai Kittens - hilarious site that some extremely gullible people actually got the FBI to look into a few years back
This movie was both amusing and depressing. The Slahser is a mercenary used car salesman who travels around the country hosting weekend liquidations sales. The filmmaker follows him through one such sale and shows him to be a compilation of every used car salesmen stereotype times ten.
It made me very glad that I a) do not live in Memphis, b) am not an alcoholic who drinks beer for breakfast, and c) do not have to buy a used car from any one like this.
Jess and I watched Xanadu last night, which was really worse than you can imagine if you haven't seen it yourself. I expected the cheese, the musical numbers, and the bad acting (although I could never believed it could be that bad), but I didn't expect her to be some sort of bizarre Ms. Pacman, as Jess put it, or to be bummed out about an old Gene Kelly with a pasted on smile and a faded voice. He was still ten times more gracefull than Olivia, and it was a pleasure to watch him dance, subdued as it was.
Despite the awfulness, I considered myself lucky because I had no residual Olivia Newton John songs clinging to my brain. That is, until Jess emailed today and they came back full force, or the one or two words that I remember came back full force and have put themselves on a constant loop.
Xanaduuuuu... ARGH!! No Home Depot trips for you, Jess.
And in other Olivia Newton John news, we'll be seeing Grease outdoors tomorrow night, assuming the weather holds. Yay for sing alongs.
Saturday was spent showing Tom a bit more of New York. We walked through Central Park, spent a couple of hours at The Met, watched the dogs and the kids play in the Washington Square Park fountain, and had some delicious East Village chow. We of course took him to have the best french fries ever, and we tried a new (to us) place in Little India for dinner. The Vegetable Vindaloo was so tasty and spicy my eyes were watering and there may or may not have been some panting, too.
No Way! Must be seen to be believed. I recommend surfing for a while: lots of other interesting furniture on this guys blog.
Really, the purchase of three pairs of shoes should be a cause for
celebration, not consternation. Somebody please explain this to
Bill. I know I'm probably the only person in teh world who thinks
the flats are adroable, but I'm simply over the moon for them. I
mean capris? petticoat skirt? Does no one see the hotness?
The parking garage elevartor stopped on every single floor and on at least three of them, no one even got off. When the door shut on 6th floor and there were only two of us left and three lit buttons, we just looked at each other and rolled our eyes. It really shouldn't take that much brain activity to realise you should only be pushing the button for one floor. These people are developing/manufacturing drugs? Scary.
Tom will be visiting this weekend, which means we will probably be heading back to the city in search of some alcohol. We had great margaritas and sangria at the new Dos Caminos last weekend, with even better guacamole, tuna ceviche, plantain empanadas, shrimp and lobster tacos, and roasted veggie quesadilla. Yeah, amazing food. Little too far on the trendy side, being in SoHo and all, but it was worth it to eat yumminess outdoors on a beautiful night. Fortunately, it wasn't so snobby that they refused to let us in, even in all our touristy glory. We put our names in for the 40 min wait and Bill decided to drop off his laptop backpack in the hotel. When we returned after an hour, they recognized us and seated us immediately rather than having us sit out the now hour-long wait.
This is an interesting site that shows you exerpts from the platforms of the Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, and Green parties (without telling you which is which) for seven issues. You rank how closely their blurbs coincide with your views, then at the end it tells you which party you agree with the most. Some of the blurbs are vague or full of nearly meaningless rhetoric, but it was still pretty neat. Not suprisingly, out of a total possible score of 700, none of them even got half the points. I'm so disagreeable.
My results:
Green - 235
Libertarian - 185
Republican - 150
Democratic - 145
Bill insisted that I post a correction to the microwave post, or rather put it in context. The "certain someone" was nuking such obnoxious garbage that one of Bill's labmates actually moved out of the lab to get away from it. Hence the sign.
Skip the incoherent propaganda and see a movie about propaganda, on both sides. Control Room was really excellent. Especially moving was this statement from a military press officer:
"The night they showed the P.O.W.'s and dead soldiers . . . it was powerful, because Americans won't show those kinds of images. It made me sick to my stomach."
He then recalls Al Jazeera's coverage from the night before, of Iraqi civilians killed and wounded in a bombing in Basra.
"They were equally if not more horrifying,and I remember having seen it, in the Al Jazeera offices, and thought to myself, 'That's gross, that's bad,' and then going away, probably to dinner or something.
"It didn't affect me as much. It upset me on a profound level that I wasn't bothered as much."
I highly recommend that you see it. See it, see it, see it.
We're having ice tea and reading the paper in Cafe Doma in the West Village. On the way down, our cab driver suddenly annouced, "OK, OK, I confess, I'm the actor right there," pointing to the head shot taped to the back of the drivers seat. Apparently Bill and I are so scary we can wring a confession out of guy by staring silently out the window. It turns out he's the guy who used to play Les Moonves on some old David Letterman sketches. He got dropped after a sketch with Fidel Castro. We heard All. About. It.
My weekend plans rock. They could so kick your weekend plans' butt. (Except for Cyndi, her plans sound pretty good, too.)
Tonight Bill and I are going to see Anchormen. Then tomorrow we're going up to the city and will ride a tandem bike through Central Park. After lunch, I'm going to meet Jess for some shopping, followed by dinner and Control Room. And we're spending the night, so I foresee the Cornelia Street Cafe in our future.
Heh. To keep away the undesirables. There are exemptions for pretty much everyone but a cetain someone.
Despite the circumstances, my visit to California was really good. I got to see the family, eat several burritos, and go to a BBQ where I met some of Grace and Jason's friends that will be at the wedding. As always, I wish I had remembered to take pictures.
Since I've been back, I've been focused on writing my resume and cover letters, and identifying companies to apply to, ugh. I hope finding a job won't be too tricky in light of that fact that I don't want to start until November, and hope to be in California most of September. It would suck to have to fly back to Boston all the was from CA, but I guess there are worse problems to have.
This afternoon I was on a teleconference and one of the participants would not stop breathing directly into the phone. Either that or there was very loud wind at regular intervals in his/her office. It got on my nerves so much, I was almost ready to hang up. I don't want my meetings to have anything in common with obscene prank calls, thank you very much.
Today was the last day for Hannah, the consultant who sits in the cube next to mine. Boo. But yay in the long run, since I'll only be living about a mile away from her once we move to Cambridge. She's cool, but you don't have to take my word for it; you can check out her blog for yourself.
After dinner with Jess, we went to another movie in the park, this time On the Waterfront, which was really good. I haven't seen many Brando movies and will have to check out more. A big, fluffy white dog provided pre-show entertainment by chasing around the geese. Speaking of which, people need to stop giving them their scraps. It's not good for their digestive system, as evidenced by the gross green puddles that were all over the place.
The machine in the break room has Peanut M&Ms listed as a "heathier snack." On what planet is that true? Healthier than what, bacteria-dipped radioactive sticks?
Also, putting in money and pushing the button for the wrong snack is bad enough, but pushing the button for an empty row? Entirely stinky.
My Aunt Diane's father-in-law passed away last night. I'll be flying home to California as soon as I know when services will be held.
We'll miss you, Grandpa Jim.
Friday night Jess came up to New Brunswick and we saw Dodgeball, probably the funniest movie of the year. When I bought my tickets, the sweet little old ticket seller couldn't resist telling me that he had seen it twice and "still laughs every time," whatever that means. He went on about it for a good five minutes. So, highly recommended, if you're into the ridiculously overblown characters and lots of non sequiturs humor.
Saturday was also a Jess night. She cooked a fabulous scallops, sauteed spinach, and sweet potato dinner, which we had with a nice Argentinean White from our wine of the month club. After dinner and some amazing dark chocolate gelato at the new ice cream place in Palmer Square (try the blood orange sorbet), we saw Romeo and Juliet in the park as part of the Princeton Rep Shakespeare Festival. It got much colder than normal, but fortunately we had an additional sleeping bag which Bill got from the car at intermission. We zipped them together and were much more comfortable, except that Bill kept sliding down the hill, which was getting us uncomfortably close to the goose poo. The play was a bit disappointing, probably the least inspiring of the six we have seen in the park. We hope that Much Ado About Nothing next month will be better.
Ok, I'm not naming any names, but some of you seem to be missing the point of the comments section. If you want to comment on something on this page, it makes no sense to email me about it, because then it loses the context of the original post and especially complicates compiling information. So learn to love the comments, people. They're really not that scary.
Birnn Chocolates claim to be "the finest chocolates on the face of the earth," and, dude, they aren't kidding. I think they may be better than See's and Ethel M combined. And they're five blocks from my house. HOW DID I NOT KNOW THIS!?!?
I found out about them today because my boss Dana and I carpooled to another site for a meeting, and when she was dropping me off, she said, "Oh, Birnn is over here, I should pick some up for my husband." He is such a chocoholic that when she had found them from a web search for some custom chocolates a few years ago and proudly brought home her find, he tasted it and was like, "Wow, this takes like Birnn's. I used to get Easter Bunnies from there when I was a kid." He can tell brands of chocolate by tasting, people. That is impressive.
Anyway, I got some and am trying not to scarf it all down before Bill gets home. I was going to wait for him to get here before I had any, but I caved and carefully peeled back the sticker and ate two. I think I covered for myself pretty well, but I guess if he reads this I'm busted.
Also in the sweets department (why are all my entries about food?), I had the elusive peanut butter creme donut from Yum Yum (no link, what kind of self respecting business does not have a website?) today, when we drove down there to celebrate and provide donuts for some team members. I can honestly say peanut butter creme donuts are the only thing I miss about Pennsylvania.
At dad's prompting, Bill and I (okay, I) have decided that we really can't put off having out picture taken any longer, so we're going to set that up sometime in the next few months. If you would like a copy, please let me know how many and what size, and if you want just me or Bill and I or both.
The trip to see Tom was cool. We got in pretty late Friday night, since we had stayed in New Brunswick to have dinner at Stuff Yer Face and play Boggle with Jess. (I dominated, as usual.) We were tired from the drive, or at least I was, as evidenced by the following exchange:
Bill: The book's all bent. You sat on it!
Me: I didn't sat on it!
Tom: Hah! Take that grammar.
Even though we were tired, it was nice to see Tom, and we stayed up talking until 2 or so.
In the morning, we headed down to the mall and checked out the White House, the new WWII Memorial, and the Lincoln Memorial. Then while Tom went to ultimate frisbee practice, Bill and I went to the FDR Memorial and the Jefferson Memorial. It was a very memorial day, and those memorials are far apart, which was unfun due to my sore legs from squats in karate. This was particularly embarrassing because just the night before Lucy, who is at least 20 years older than me, was saying how great class was because it was a good workout but never left you sore. Yeah, right.
We had dinner at Meskerem, and decided the Assa Wat (fish in traditional spicy sauce) was not nearly as good as at Makeda, but it was Ethiopian, so it was still nummy. Then we accidentally wandered into the coolest bar in the world, not trendy-cool, and not ridiculously chic or crowded, just eclectic and comfy and great. It served coffee and alcohol, had a nice menu and tons of couches and places to work. Every city should have someplace like it.
I've been flooded with invitations to give out (I think I have about 11), so if you want one, let me know.
You can read more about it here.
Marianne, me, Tammi, Grace, and Steph at the PF Changs in the Aladdin hotel in Vegas this Memorial Day.
I just set up an audioblogger account so that I can make audio entries here, and have decided to open it up so that any of you can too. The way it works is that you leave a message, and an icon will appear on this page, so that if anyone clicks on it, they will hear the message. So remember that whatever you say will be public.
Here are the instructions:
1. Call 1 - 6 6 1- 7 1 6 - B L O G (1-661-716-2564)
(Listen very carefully to the Voice Prompts)
2. Enter my cell phone number (I'm not going to put that here, but most of you have it. Let me know if you don't.)
3. Enter the PIN (which is 8520), press #
4. Record your message, Press #
5. Press 1 to post it on my page, 2 to review, 3 to re-record.
The National Osteoporosis Foundation's Annual Ball was a bunch of fun. It was as the swanky Pierre hotel on 5th Ave. The speakers (current surgeon general and Ann Richards, former gov of TX) were great and the food was amazing, but even more amazing was that Bill wore a tux, the only time he has worn one ever, except for prom. So naturally we forgot to take pictures. Thanks mom and Grace for helping me find a dress in Vegas. It was just perfect and Bill loved it.
Last night Bill, Jess, and I went to Pettoranello Gardens to see A Hard Day's Night, as part of the outdoor summer film series. We took the sleeping bag and sat on the hill, which was pretty steep so we kept slipping down it. The fireflies were out in mass and were beautiful at sunset. It's the same venue that hosts the Princeton Rep Shakespeare Festival every summer. We'll be going next week to see Romeo and Juliet.
This weekend, we're going down to DC to see Bill's brother Tom, who is there for a summer job.
I was trying to wrest a diet coke from the vending machine just now, but it kept spitting my quarter back at me, which prompted me to be all, "What's wrong with you, stupid vending machine?"
It was Canadian. My quarter, not the vending machine.
This stuff is insane. It certainly was as long lasting as advertised - I got all the way through a three course meal with no noticible decrease in color and only had to reapply the gloss to recover the shine. It is so tenacious that I had to literally scrub my lips raw to get it to come off. It's like the color chemically bonds to your lips. Scary, but kind of cool.
As we were watching people play chess in Harvard Square, Bill said that he was really looking forward to moving to Cambridge because Princeton, and especially the undergrads are so anti-intellectual. That cracked me up, but not because it isn't true.
We agreed to rent an apartment we saw this weekend. It's about twice what we pay now and about half the size, which means we'll have to get rid of most of our furniture and the stuff in the basement. The parking is an amazing $100/month, so the car will probably go too, after we've been there a few months and are sure we can get by without it. I'm actually looking forward to the purge of all our crap. It will be so nice to start over with just the essentials.
We spent the weekend apartment hunting and checking out the area. Bill couldn't have chosen a better weekend for convincing me that living in Cambridge would be great; the weather was unbelievable. Too bad he forgot sunscreen. He's a little tomatoey right now.
The eats were delicious. We had a pear danish, a bear claw croissant, and an egg sandwich at Carberry's, along with wonderfully strong coffee. There was a yummy, almost California-esque burrito at a place that I have been unable to find on Google. No clue what the name of the place is. Before we left town, we had a decent brunch at the (self) reputedly legendary S&S Restaurant. But by far the best place we tried this weekend, possibly this year, was Taberna de Haro, an authentic tapas place in Brookline. The food was heaven. The service was slooow, but that didn't really matter, as tapas are meant to be savored over a lengthy conversation, and we had a lot to talk about, what with trying to find an apartment and exploring the city a bit.
I signed up a bit ago, and in some ways it's better than Friendster, because there are communities you can join based on your interests, and each has a message board. However, most are not very active, and there are a lot of improvements they could make the the user interface. Interesting, but not really worth much time. If you want to check it out, leave a comment and I'll send you an Orkut invite.
What I'd really love to get is a gmail invite, but I can't bring myself to pay for a free service, and gmail is a pretty hot commodity right now. I love the phrase "hot commodity." It's so grandma.
Library School
Cool stuff to do in Cambridge: yoga, martial arts, dance lessons, good food
Procrastinating on updating my resume
