Campus shut down this past Monday. Forget the fact that all the grad students are still around and doing research. They shut down the libraries, the eating establishments, the heat in my building... for crying out loud! Guess I should just start my vacation. Here I was going to do some research...
Last weekend was fun even though it rained all weekend so I had to cancel my Christmas present to Chris. Reschedule really. It was a disappointment but I can still give it to him after our vacation. We went to an ADP dinner in Berkeley on Friday night, and a party at Steph's house on Saturday night. I made chewy chocolate gingerbread cookies - my delicious specialty. But mostly I slept a lot and lounged around and read Anne's new book and knitted. Pretty mellow.
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
Monday, December 19, 2005
Thanksgiving Photos, etc
Chris and I
Henry
Matt and Chris
Devil Dog. Just kidding - it's only Serra.
Matt, Cece, & Chris
Grandma Jean, Grandpa Paul, Dave, Cece, Matt & Chris at Thanksgiving Dinner
Chris likes getting birthday presents!
Chris enjoying a couple of his gifts early - ski socks and a camping pillow from my parents.
My ginger - this might be a repost.
I thought this photo was hilarious - Johnny and Kelly doing their impression of anime.
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
Asimo
Honda just released a new version of ASIMO, their humanoid robot. The videos on their webpage are worth downloading the new version of Flash for, I think. What's most amazing about this robot is it's running ability. Unlike most "running" robots, this one is actually and technically running - this means there is a point during its gait in which both feet are off the ground. Granted, it's only .08 seconds, but it's still an advance. Really, the coolest thing about Asimo is that it exists - Japan is clearly the place to do robotics because they're actually trying to put robots into every day life. The closest we come in the US is the Roomba/Scooba line (automatic vaccuum cleaner/mopper for those not in the know). I also heard about an automatic mower somewhere.
We saw a demo of Asimo sometime last year and it was cool but clearly very scripted - the parts that were most interesting to me as a roboticist weren't emphasized and were not really demonstrated. Of course, automation is very susceptible to the demo effect, wherein you tell people to interact with the robot and it just poops out.
The Japanese view of robotics demonstrated by the Asimo robot was more clearly demonstrated a couple of years ago when Sony brought their Qrio robots for a demo. They spent like a half hour showing off the choreographed dance capabilities of the robots. Look! They even can do a synchronized fan dance! Then they showed us like 5 minutes of the robots autonomous abilities - they had a little ball that the robot could track with its eyes and then walk over and kick. The robot actually had an almost creepy way of moving - creepy in that it was so human-like. And when it lost sight of the ball it would turn around looking for it and then eventually find it, walk over, and kick it. This is the type of thing that gets me excited. Then they had an encore of another 15 minutes of dance routines.
In case you were wondering, Asimo stands for Ass Smashing Intelligent Monster. Chris and I laughed so hard when we read that in the paper...
We saw a demo of Asimo sometime last year and it was cool but clearly very scripted - the parts that were most interesting to me as a roboticist weren't emphasized and were not really demonstrated. Of course, automation is very susceptible to the demo effect, wherein you tell people to interact with the robot and it just poops out.
The Japanese view of robotics demonstrated by the Asimo robot was more clearly demonstrated a couple of years ago when Sony brought their Qrio robots for a demo. They spent like a half hour showing off the choreographed dance capabilities of the robots. Look! They even can do a synchronized fan dance! Then they showed us like 5 minutes of the robots autonomous abilities - they had a little ball that the robot could track with its eyes and then walk over and kick. The robot actually had an almost creepy way of moving - creepy in that it was so human-like. And when it lost sight of the ball it would turn around looking for it and then eventually find it, walk over, and kick it. This is the type of thing that gets me excited. Then they had an encore of another 15 minutes of dance routines.
In case you were wondering, Asimo stands for Ass Smashing Intelligent Monster. Chris and I laughed so hard when we read that in the paper...
What a lovely box!
I was hanging out with Anne last night and we were being crafty. She made a couple of bracelets as presents for people and then started cutting pages out of a magazine to make an origami box to put the gifts in. I admired the way she made the box and then it sat on the table while we finished our crafts. When I was about to leave she said "Here! I want to give this to you!" I was very pleased, "Oh thanks! It's really cute!" And I was about to move on in the conversation and she seemed taken aback... "Uh..." she says, "There's something in it!" I about died laughing. I hadn't seen her put anything in the box so I assumed the box was the gift. It was like that old joke. I was laughing so hard then it didn't occur to me to open it up so she had to prompt me, "You can open it now if you like!" She had gotten me a really nice filigree charm like one of hers I've always admired. What a nice gift! A pretty trinket and a good hard laugh.
I actually downloaded a Christmas carol yesterday. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen by BNL and Sarah McLachlan. Usually I don't like carols but I make an exception for this one.
I actually downloaded a Christmas carol yesterday. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen by BNL and Sarah McLachlan. Usually I don't like carols but I make an exception for this one.
Monday, December 12, 2005
More knitting weirdness
People will knit anything. I found this one while searching for "tit hand" on Google - don't try that at work, trust me. Guess I need to type in "Tokyo Institute of Technology Robotic Hand" if I want to find the non-obscene results.
This weekend was fun! Chris and I went dancing at JAMMIX and discovered that it's a way cooler dance than stuffy ol' Cubberly. It was a younger crowd and more dances that we know (what was up with all that Bolero at Cub?). Saturday we ran errands, generally biked around, and played Celebrity with some friends who were in town. (Turns out Winnie The Pooh is a hilarious celebrity to try to charade...) Sunday I had bookclub and we biked to the water temple, which is finally open again after a very long break. A very fun relaxing weekend.
Oh, also I read The Sparrow recently, by Mary Doria Russell. I recommend it highly but the beginning is hard to get into... just skim ahead until they begin their journey if you're getting bored...
This weekend was fun! Chris and I went dancing at JAMMIX and discovered that it's a way cooler dance than stuffy ol' Cubberly. It was a younger crowd and more dances that we know (what was up with all that Bolero at Cub?). Saturday we ran errands, generally biked around, and played Celebrity with some friends who were in town. (Turns out Winnie The Pooh is a hilarious celebrity to try to charade...) Sunday I had bookclub and we biked to the water temple, which is finally open again after a very long break. A very fun relaxing weekend.
Oh, also I read The Sparrow recently, by Mary Doria Russell. I recommend it highly but the beginning is hard to get into... just skim ahead until they begin their journey if you're getting bored...
Thursday, December 08, 2005
Get in, get out
Over celebratory lunch at the Faculty Club today Jack (a newly defended labmate) was recalling how he remembers attending his first lab meetings, seeing so many people interested in joining the ARL and feeling anxious wondering if he would be able to get in. Prof. Canon added - "And then you spend the next too-many-years feeling anxious wondering if you'll ever get out." Yeah, that about sums it up. Oh, and here's a little wmv clip of what The Simpsons have to say on that topic.
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
That's not a rhombus!
Once a month I'm part of a program called the Young Astronauts. We go to a school and teach 4th and 5th graders about science, engineering, and space. This week we were teaching about structures and Mike drew a triangle on the board and asked what it was. "A triangle!" And he drew another triangle adjoining the first one (like the structure of a bicycle) and asked what that was. One kid yells "A rhombus!" and another yells "That's not a rhombus!" We were practically in tears. I mean, where do they come up with these things? Probably just that their teacher taught them about that shape, but still.
We did a contest with the kids - they had to build a little bridge structure out of tape and paper that could span 10 inches while holding a much weight as possible and weighing as little as possible. Usually we encouraged them to build some kind of truss type structure with the paper rolled into tubes. One group was having troubles though and I got to them kind of late - they had just rolled the paper into little tubes and hadn't actually done anything with them. I told them to tape a couple together (we were running out of time!) and that would be their bridge. It was unbelievable - it was about half the weight of any other structure and held as much as any of them! Crazy. Just paper rolled into tight tubes and taped 4 across. It was a fun class.
Last weekend was fun too - on Friday we had the White Trash Tapas party - we went to Chili's and ordered dinner off the appetizer menu. I don't think I need anything salted or fried for a year. After that we went to Matt and Anne's house and played celebrity, which was really fun. Oh, and for dessert we had carrot cake that Anne and I made and Chris said was the best carrot cake he'd had in years. Yum.
Saturday we went to a pot luck at Brandy's house and I got to see Chris play with Amelia - she's awfully cute. Chris even says so when Brandy's not listening. After that we went ballroom dancing. We learned some new cha-cha moves and danced until our feet begged for mercy. Then on Sunday I went up to Kabuki with Steph S - there was a long wait so we walked around Japan town and when we came back we got called pretty quickly. It would be good to note that things really clear out there around 6pm on Sundays.
So it was a very fun and relaxing weekend. Yay!
We did a contest with the kids - they had to build a little bridge structure out of tape and paper that could span 10 inches while holding a much weight as possible and weighing as little as possible. Usually we encouraged them to build some kind of truss type structure with the paper rolled into tubes. One group was having troubles though and I got to them kind of late - they had just rolled the paper into little tubes and hadn't actually done anything with them. I told them to tape a couple together (we were running out of time!) and that would be their bridge. It was unbelievable - it was about half the weight of any other structure and held as much as any of them! Crazy. Just paper rolled into tight tubes and taped 4 across. It was a fun class.
Last weekend was fun too - on Friday we had the White Trash Tapas party - we went to Chili's and ordered dinner off the appetizer menu. I don't think I need anything salted or fried for a year. After that we went to Matt and Anne's house and played celebrity, which was really fun. Oh, and for dessert we had carrot cake that Anne and I made and Chris said was the best carrot cake he'd had in years. Yum.
Saturday we went to a pot luck at Brandy's house and I got to see Chris play with Amelia - she's awfully cute. Chris even says so when Brandy's not listening. After that we went ballroom dancing. We learned some new cha-cha moves and danced until our feet begged for mercy. Then on Sunday I went up to Kabuki with Steph S - there was a long wait so we walked around Japan town and when we came back we got called pretty quickly. It would be good to note that things really clear out there around 6pm on Sundays.
So it was a very fun and relaxing weekend. Yay!
Friday, December 02, 2005
Fun Lunch
Chris and I were walking over to the student center today and I was saying how what I really wanted for lunch was fried plantains with red beans and rice. This was just talk though because nothing at the student center will serve me that. Except for today there was a world arts festival going on and the Afro-caribbean food stand was serving blackeyed peas and rice with fried plantains. I'll take that!! I need to have these arbitrary food wishes more often!
After that we walked around the fair and there were these cool paper/pressed flower art works that I really admired. I had decided to buy one and Chris asked to buy it for me - he said if I hadn't tried to buy it myself he was going to sneak back over and buy it for me. What a guy.
Of course then I got accosted by the environmental organization guy who wanted to talk about how I should give his organization money to help with lobbying. He gave a confusing argument - mostly related to how the state wants to be able to drill for oil in California's wilderness areas. I asked him if there was much oil there, and he said, no but people would want to drill it anyway. (I've never heard of there being any oil in California - it would be like if they wanted to build a diamond mine here or something...) Took awhile to shake loose of him, but it was an interesting discussion. I'm one of the few people he talks to who knows the difference between national parks, wildernesses, and forests and furthermore Chris is winning me over to the usefulness of logging in a national forest. The one bad part was that this guy claimed an oil company could drill on government land and then charge taxpayers for the cost of building roads and stuff there. That doesn't seem right. Anyway...
After that we walked around the fair and there were these cool paper/pressed flower art works that I really admired. I had decided to buy one and Chris asked to buy it for me - he said if I hadn't tried to buy it myself he was going to sneak back over and buy it for me. What a guy.
Of course then I got accosted by the environmental organization guy who wanted to talk about how I should give his organization money to help with lobbying. He gave a confusing argument - mostly related to how the state wants to be able to drill for oil in California's wilderness areas. I asked him if there was much oil there, and he said, no but people would want to drill it anyway. (I've never heard of there being any oil in California - it would be like if they wanted to build a diamond mine here or something...) Took awhile to shake loose of him, but it was an interesting discussion. I'm one of the few people he talks to who knows the difference between national parks, wildernesses, and forests and furthermore Chris is winning me over to the usefulness of logging in a national forest. The one bad part was that this guy claimed an oil company could drill on government land and then charge taxpayers for the cost of building roads and stuff there. That doesn't seem right. Anyway...
These IM Quotes are Not Funny
To you anyway... Chris always makes me laugh though.
You can cite those two other papers and say, "First proposed by Doofus & Dimwit in [3], convex optimization in the loop offers a number of advantages blah blah blah", and then you're covered and no one will bother to read those old papers.
Chris: did you have to use config and/or configure during the build phase of glpk?
Teresa: yes, i did
Chris: oo. that could be tough.
Chris: config(ure) is typically an auto-generated shell script, which tries to configure the source tree for building on the current platform.
Chris: so if you're on a windows machine, it gets it ready for building ON windows, FOR windows.
Chris: but you need to get it ready for building ON windows, FOR VxWorks.
Teresa:
Chris: so you might need to do something like this:
Chris: unzip and configure it on your mac.
Chris: then copy the configured source tree over to the windows machine.
Chris: then try building.
Chris: that way you're at least configured FOR a variant of unix, before you start building.
Teresa: ok
Chris: but even that probably won't work completely.
Chris: you're going to have to edit some makefile by hand probably.
Teresa: oh this sounds like so much fun i can't hardly stand it
Chris: or you may be able to set some options during the configure step to tell it that you want to build for vxworks, instead of windows, even though you're on a windows machine.
Chris: it's going to be a blast.
Chris : you're heading into the 8th level of unix source code porting hell.
me: is it ominous that whenever i get back from vacation louie usually behaves much better?
chris: yeah. I think he's starting to show signs of rebelliousness. As a precaution you should have him deactivated and replace him with dewey.
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Birthday
Yesterday was Chris's birthday. What fun! We had lunch at Patxi's, worked a short day, had dinner at Zibibbo (yum! It was so good - interestingly, it was also the most expensive meal I've ever bought - probably not the most expensive I've ever eaten though). We had a yummy chocolate souffle dessert and I had these amazing butternut squash tortelloni. I'm still stuffed from all the food. We also went and saw the movie Flightplan, which was ok, but unbelievably full of plot holes. Oh, for his birthday I gave Chris 5 t-shirts. Two were just plain. The others say "I make stuff up", "Squirrels Gone Wild", and the best one: "Roses are #FF0000, Violets are #0000FF, All my base are belong to you." Tee hee...
Monday, November 28, 2005
Heisenbug
I've spent a couple of hours looking for what Chris has termed a Heisenbug. I thought Chris invented that word, but apparently not, as Wikipedia can explain. (Actually, that webpage has some amusing other types of bugs.) We use this phrase to refer to an error in your code that changes when you try to observe it. Usually it means that you've done something dumb with pointers - if you accidentally run off the end of an array then you access a random chunk of code in memory that might change the way the code runs every time you run it. Anyway, today I came back from vacation determined to track down this bug once and for all and discovered that it just went away on its own... hmmm... I'm sure it will resurface at a later date.
Sunday, November 27, 2005
Thanksgiving Ski Day
Hello from Boise! I just spent the most wonderful 4 days in Boise/McCall with Chris and his family. We arrived in Boise on Thursday afternoon, had the traditional turkey dinner (I partook of the side dishes) and then Friday drove up to McCall to hang out at the cabin. Chris's brother had come too, as a surprise, and so we spent a lot of time hanging out with him and Chris's parents. On Saturday we went skiing at Brundage, and the conditions were amazing! It was clear and cold with 6 inches of new powder. Just beautiful. Unfortunatelly Chris had a minor accident and strained a muscle in his leg, so in the interests of not further injuring it we just hung out at the cabin on Sunday (instead of more skiing). I already can't wait until Christmas - cruising AND skiing! The cabin is so relaxing - it's beautiful outside, they have this wonderful warm fire stove (with catalytic converter for maximum enviromental protection), and besides skiing I just read and knit and work puzzles and relax. Oh, and sledding. Chris and I held the Crazy Slide World Cup on Friday night and unfortunately I only got silver. Tee hee...
Also on Thursday Chris's grandmother was calling for singing so I sat down at the piano and ungracefully hammered out the few songs that happened to be in the music cabinet. It made me miss playing though and now I'm thinking about buying a piano - probably the electric (and therefore easily movable) kind. We'll see. They're pretty expensive.
We return to the world tomorrow. Wish us luck.
Also on Thursday Chris's grandmother was calling for singing so I sat down at the piano and ungracefully hammered out the few songs that happened to be in the music cabinet. It made me miss playing though and now I'm thinking about buying a piano - probably the electric (and therefore easily movable) kind. We'll see. They're pretty expensive.
We return to the world tomorrow. Wish us luck.
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
Lost Coast
The Lost Coast was awfully fun! I've posted a trip report already. Something that's interesting to note is that I seem to have finally figured out how to stay warm on these freaking trips. You'd think that it wouldn't take 4 years to learn. But then you'd think wrong.
Anyway, the trip was pretty cold since it was foggy almost the whole time. Nearby Whitethorn reported temperatures down to 35 deg. Here's how I stayed warm. I hiked in a cotton t-shirt and socks since there was little trouble staying warm as long as I was moving. As soon as I got to camp, all sweaty, I took off all of my upper layers that were wet. I changed into a fleece cap, coolmax type long sleeve shirt, thin fleece, and down parka. The parka is a new addition since my sister just gave it to me when I was visiting and it is TOTALLY KEY. It's amazing how warm I feel as soon as I put it on - and it's so light and stuffs down so small! And it makes a great pillow!
Another key addition on this trip was silk pants. I got these fancy Victoria's Secret pajamas ages ago but while packing for this trip I remembered that I pretty much can't wear them at home because I sweat so much I soak through the sheets. Perfect for a cold camping trip! So when my legs started to get cold I took off the cotton socks and put on dry synthetic socks and the silk pajamas under my hiking pants. Finally, before bed I filled a Nalgene bottle with boiling water and took it into my sleeping bag with me. I don't think this was totally necessary actually since the parka and the silk kept me so warm, but it also helped keep my hands warm before I actually went to bed.
This trip was so relaxing - probably mostly because the sun sets at 4:30 and rises at... 6:30ish? So the sun set, we had dinner, sat around the campfire (the donut box we had laughed at Chris for bringing along worked great for starting wet wood), went to bed and slept for a good 12 hours every night.
Now I'm blowing off lab and my flakey robot and hanging out with Brandy and Amelia today and packing for our Thanksgiving trip to snowy Idaho! Yay!
Anyway, the trip was pretty cold since it was foggy almost the whole time. Nearby Whitethorn reported temperatures down to 35 deg. Here's how I stayed warm. I hiked in a cotton t-shirt and socks since there was little trouble staying warm as long as I was moving. As soon as I got to camp, all sweaty, I took off all of my upper layers that were wet. I changed into a fleece cap, coolmax type long sleeve shirt, thin fleece, and down parka. The parka is a new addition since my sister just gave it to me when I was visiting and it is TOTALLY KEY. It's amazing how warm I feel as soon as I put it on - and it's so light and stuffs down so small! And it makes a great pillow!
Another key addition on this trip was silk pants. I got these fancy Victoria's Secret pajamas ages ago but while packing for this trip I remembered that I pretty much can't wear them at home because I sweat so much I soak through the sheets. Perfect for a cold camping trip! So when my legs started to get cold I took off the cotton socks and put on dry synthetic socks and the silk pajamas under my hiking pants. Finally, before bed I filled a Nalgene bottle with boiling water and took it into my sleeping bag with me. I don't think this was totally necessary actually since the parka and the silk kept me so warm, but it also helped keep my hands warm before I actually went to bed. This trip was so relaxing - probably mostly because the sun sets at 4:30 and rises at... 6:30ish? So the sun set, we had dinner, sat around the campfire (the donut box we had laughed at Chris for bringing along worked great for starting wet wood), went to bed and slept for a good 12 hours every night.
Now I'm blowing off lab and my flakey robot and hanging out with Brandy and Amelia today and packing for our Thanksgiving trip to snowy Idaho! Yay!
Friday, November 18, 2005
Harry Potter
Whew - what a week! It's all been a whirlwind since last Thursday when I took off for Lynchburg. There's a lot to be said about that trip - including what fun it was to hang out with Steph - but I don't have time to do it just now and most of the people who read this blog already know about that part of my life because they were there.
I thought I'd mention instead that even though I've been going to bed at 11 and getting up at 8 every day, last night I decided that I couldn't leave for the weekend without seeing the Harry Potter movie so I got a bunch of people together and we saw the 12:10 showing. I went to bed at 3:15 am or so and now I'm pretty tired still. The movie was great - the middle third in particular was among the best movies I've ever seen.
Today I have some research and some young astronauts and some preparing for the trip this weekend. We're leaving for the Lost Coast at 5am Saturday, hiking for 3 days and returning Monday. That's going to be a whirlwind too!!! It'll be fun though. I've been wanting to go back ever since 3 Thanksgivings ago... I think that's when I last went. Whew. I'm tired right now though.
I thought I'd mention instead that even though I've been going to bed at 11 and getting up at 8 every day, last night I decided that I couldn't leave for the weekend without seeing the Harry Potter movie so I got a bunch of people together and we saw the 12:10 showing. I went to bed at 3:15 am or so and now I'm pretty tired still. The movie was great - the middle third in particular was among the best movies I've ever seen.
Today I have some research and some young astronauts and some preparing for the trip this weekend. We're leaving for the Lost Coast at 5am Saturday, hiking for 3 days and returning Monday. That's going to be a whirlwind too!!! It'll be fun though. I've been wanting to go back ever since 3 Thanksgivings ago... I think that's when I last went. Whew. I'm tired right now though.
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
You know you're from....
This link is unusually funny and true. I especially like the Silicon Valley one because almost every one applies to me, and I thought this one was especially funny:
If someone refers to "SunnytogaDeAnzavale Road", you laugh and know what they're talking about.I'd never heard that one before but I definitely think it's funny.
Wednesday, November 09, 2005
Crochet/Knit
Here's some photos of my most recent craft projects. First is a baby blanket that I made for Ab. It had some issues - especially around the seam up the middle - I guess the main issue was what the heck was that seam doing there in the first place? It was in the pattern but it was totally unnecessary. The blanket was pretty average until the border went on and that made a world of difference.
Laurel is the scale factor here.
My first knit project - a little dishcloth?
Knit 4, Purl 4
Laurel is the scale factor here.
My first knit project - a little dishcloth?
Knit 4, Purl 4
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
States I've visited
I'm jumping on that bandwagon - here's a picture of the states I've visited:
Create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.
Create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.
Halloween Photos
Some photos from the murder myster halloween party at Steph's house. 
Here's me (Mata Hari) with Aimee (Dr. Death). The sultry look is in deference to the fact that I was supposed to be an infamous seductress in a contest with Black Widow (not shown in any of these photos) to see which of us can kill the most lovers. Ahem.
Martin is the Mad Bomber (note the dynamite and alarm clock strapped to his chest - actually they're road flares) and Gün is Apache.
These two were hilarious. Grandma Death and the Clown
The whole group. Chris played Ghost whose totally inventive costume was just supposed to be something that made him blend in. So yeah. Here he is in costume. Me, Stephanie (Cobra), and Martin (Mad Bomber). 2nd row is Jonah (Top Gun), Alex (Chef - he already owned his costume), and Gün as Apache. Lis is at the bottom and she plays Cowgirl. Wasn't her costume cute? Not shown is her boa holster. Funny.
Here's me (Mata Hari) with Aimee (Dr. Death). The sultry look is in deference to the fact that I was supposed to be an infamous seductress in a contest with Black Widow (not shown in any of these photos) to see which of us can kill the most lovers. Ahem.
Martin is the Mad Bomber (note the dynamite and alarm clock strapped to his chest - actually they're road flares) and Gün is Apache. 
These two were hilarious. Grandma Death and the Clown
The whole group. Chris played Ghost whose totally inventive costume was just supposed to be something that made him blend in. So yeah. Here he is in costume. Me, Stephanie (Cobra), and Martin (Mad Bomber). 2nd row is Jonah (Top Gun), Alex (Chef - he already owned his costume), and Gün as Apache. Lis is at the bottom and she plays Cowgirl. Wasn't her costume cute? Not shown is her boa holster. Funny.
Well, at least I'm not alone...
The New York Times today reports on problems with follow up care in cancer patients. (Which reminds me... when exactly was I last at the oncologist?) The paragraph that struck me most was this one:
Cancer survivors often experience psychological problems, including depression, persistent anxiety, debilitating fatigue and fear that cancer will return. Patients treated with surgery, radiation and chemotherapy may suffer infertility or impairment of sexual function, and have an elevated risk of developing osteoporosis, congestive heart failure and other heart problems, strokes and blood clots. In some cases, the panel said, chemotherapy may cause leukemia or bladder cancer.So we're paranoid. But for good reason. Is it really paranoia if you're often right?
Saturday, November 05, 2005
Sigh
The past couple of days I haven't been feeling very good - I think I have a little allergies. Whenever other people are sneezing and have watery eyes I get lots of headaches and I'm tired but have some trouble sleeping. While I've never heard of this being a way to respond to allergies, it seems too regular to be a coincidence. Anyway, I've been having these headaches and this morning I took ibuprofen and then at Hobee's for breakfast I drank a lot of coffee and I think I kinda overdosed on it and it made my stomach feel sick. After breakfast Chris and Ab went to Berkeley for a chocolate tour and I stayed in and got some things done (sent old clothes to Goodwill, returned library books, filled in and mailed my absentee ballot...). I also started on these crochet string bags that I've been wanting to start on for awhile (I think they're going to be really cool and go quite fast). So that was fun. I made a salad and went to the dinner at Eric and Sarah's.
While there we figured out some logistics about the Greek trip - we're going near the beginning of July next year and sailing for a week around the Saronic Islands. Shannon is going to look into yacht rentals, we're all going to look at area ports that we want to see, and I'm going to start thinking about provisions. (I volunteered to plan meals - that's a good way to get lots of vegi food onboard.) While at this party I called Chris in Berkeley and found out that the Honda has ceased to hold radiator fluid and is overheating like crazy and he's going to have to have the car towed back to Palo Alto. It worries me but he seemed more concerned about how he was doing in the game they were playing (Seafarers of Catan?).
Enough whining. I think it's bedtime.
While there we figured out some logistics about the Greek trip - we're going near the beginning of July next year and sailing for a week around the Saronic Islands. Shannon is going to look into yacht rentals, we're all going to look at area ports that we want to see, and I'm going to start thinking about provisions. (I volunteered to plan meals - that's a good way to get lots of vegi food onboard.) While at this party I called Chris in Berkeley and found out that the Honda has ceased to hold radiator fluid and is overheating like crazy and he's going to have to have the car towed back to Palo Alto. It worries me but he seemed more concerned about how he was doing in the game they were playing (Seafarers of Catan?).
Enough whining. I think it's bedtime.
Thursday, November 03, 2005
Halloween
Halloween was awesome. I invited a few folks over for chili and cornbread and then we walked over to the display in the professor's housing. There's a prof in the mechanical engineering design division who assigns his students to carve pumpkins every year and the things they come up with are totally amazing. One of the ones I liked a lot this year had a big pumpkin with metal bars stuck in (like a jail cell) and then a small pumpkin locked in the cell with a blinking LED inside and the cell itself had candles to light it up inside. Very weird and cool. There was also an awesome one that was carved so that the pumpkin face was meant to be seen from the inside and it was reading a book. There's no way I can describe it, but it was very neat.
Also in the past couple of days I've been working like crazy to finish a baby blanket for the friend who taught me to crochet and who is arriving here in about an hour! I'll post photos soon because it turned out really nice in spite of my initial concerns.
Also in the past couple of days I've had to threaten my robot with having its circuits fused to make it behave. I don't know what the deal was but I had some bug in my code that fixed itself by me going home for the night and coming back in the morning and trying again. I have no idea what was going wrong.
This weekend we're hanging out with Ab and I'm going to a dinner/meeting on Saturday night to plan our trip sailing in Greece next summer. There's 8 of us who want to do it and it seems like now's the time...
Also in the past couple of days I've been working like crazy to finish a baby blanket for the friend who taught me to crochet and who is arriving here in about an hour! I'll post photos soon because it turned out really nice in spite of my initial concerns.
Also in the past couple of days I've had to threaten my robot with having its circuits fused to make it behave. I don't know what the deal was but I had some bug in my code that fixed itself by me going home for the night and coming back in the morning and trying again. I have no idea what was going wrong.
This weekend we're hanging out with Ab and I'm going to a dinner/meeting on Saturday night to plan our trip sailing in Greece next summer. There's 8 of us who want to do it and it seems like now's the time...
Halloween
Halloween was awesome. I invited a few folks over for chili and cornbread and then we walked over to the display in the professor's housing. There's a prof in the mechanical engineering design division who assigns his students to carve pumpkins every year and the things they come up with are totally amazing. One of the ones I liked a lot this year had a big pumpkin with metal bars stuck in (like a jail cell) and then a small pumpkin locked in the cell with a blinking LED inside and the cell itself had candles to light it up inside. Very weird and cool. There was also an awesome one that was carved so that the pumpkin face was meant to be seen from the inside and it was reading a book. There's no way I can describe it, but it was very neat.
Also in the past couple of days I've been working like crazy to finish a baby blanket for the friend who taught me to crochet and who is arriving here in about an hour! I'll post photos soon because it turned out really nice in spite of my initial concerns.
Also in the past couple of days I've had to threaten my robot with having its circuits fused to make it behave. I don't know what the deal was but I had some bug in my code that fixed itself by me going home for the night and coming back in the morning and trying again. I have no idea what was going wrong.
This weekend we're hanging out with Ab and I'm going to a dinner/meeting on Saturday night to plan our trip sailing in Greece next summer. There's 8 of us who want to do it and it seems like now's the time...
Also in the past couple of days I've been working like crazy to finish a baby blanket for the friend who taught me to crochet and who is arriving here in about an hour! I'll post photos soon because it turned out really nice in spite of my initial concerns.
Also in the past couple of days I've had to threaten my robot with having its circuits fused to make it behave. I don't know what the deal was but I had some bug in my code that fixed itself by me going home for the night and coming back in the morning and trying again. I have no idea what was going wrong.
This weekend we're hanging out with Ab and I'm going to a dinner/meeting on Saturday night to plan our trip sailing in Greece next summer. There's 8 of us who want to do it and it seems like now's the time...
Sunday, October 30, 2005
Chris is a Killer!
On Saturday, Chris killed a preacher. You know, for pretend. We went to a costume party at Steph's house and played a murder game and it turned out that Chris was the murderer. But we all decided that that jerk deserved to get knocked off and aquitted Chris of his crime. Funny. The food was awesome too.
I also got my hair cut on Saturday and it turned out terribly. The hairdresser didn't make any effort to figure out which of my hair was bangs and which was not and so a random assortment of hair got cut and it looks totally weird. Also when she was washing my hair she pulled on it really hard and then complained when she was brushing it that my hair was all falling out. My scalp still hurts today.
Went geocaching today and have been enjoying eating way too much. Ginger snaps and ice cream and cheese.... yum!!!
I also got my hair cut on Saturday and it turned out terribly. The hairdresser didn't make any effort to figure out which of my hair was bangs and which was not and so a random assortment of hair got cut and it looks totally weird. Also when she was washing my hair she pulled on it really hard and then complained when she was brushing it that my hair was all falling out. My scalp still hurts today.
Went geocaching today and have been enjoying eating way too much. Ginger snaps and ice cream and cheese.... yum!!!
Friday, October 28, 2005
Waltz
Chris and I had our last in a series of dance classes last night. We were taking 2 5-week classes: Intro to Swing and Waltz, and Blues. I had no idea what Blues was when I signed us up for it but it turned out to be a rather random collection of steps and moves you can do slowish blues music. I didn't like it because it lacks structure - I like a dance better when there's a basic step that you can always return to when whatever fancy thing you tried to do messes up. The good news is that the swing and waltz class was awesome and I think Chris and I finally have the hang of both cross step waltz and rotary waltz. We need practice and hints on what to do when you get tired of spinning, but I think we mostly have the hang of it. What fun! I wonder what they're teaching next quarter?
Thursday, October 27, 2005
Off the diet
At long last! I've been not weighing myself very regularly because it's too depressing. I went on the diet back in August and Still was unable to lose 6 pounds. Best not look I figured. Incidentally, the reason I wasn't losing weight was because it's harder to be inspired to diet when you only have 5 pounds to lose - I would generally follow the diet Sunday through Friday and on Saturday just forget about it. Go figure - you cheat on the diet, you don't lose weight. Anyway, this morning I weighed myself and was actually 2 pounds below where I can go off the diet. I wonder how long I've been down there? But anyway, yay! No more diet for awhile!
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Grouptalk
Yesterday I gave the most amazing group talk. I'm not sure what was so great about it (as opposed to other talks) but my advisor actually said things like "That's really clever" and "I like that idea a lot! That's really great!" and "I really like what you're doing." Guess I may graduate one of these days after all. I'm trying not to feel bad about the fact that the idea he really thought was totally clever and he liked the most was actually Chris's idea. I feel bad taking credit for it but Chris agreed with me that it wouldn't actually have been appropriate to stop the talk and say "Well, actually that's my boyfriend's idea." Anyway, people out there worry about me so I thought I'd let you know that research isn't going so badly these days. Maybe I should post slides from my presentation so you can see what I'm up to... I'm not sure how comprehensible it'll be to a general audience though.
Monday, October 24, 2005
Motion Sick
This past weekend I think I was about as motion sick as I have ever been. I ate this huge indian dinner then went contradancing and spun and spun. I felt sick while I was there and it didn't go away when I went home. When I woke up Sunday morning I felt better but then I had a big Hobee's breakfast with Jen and Andy and drove them to the airport and after the ride I felt really motion sick again. I thought it would go away but I felt sick on the train and even while biking. I was starting to think I had food poisoning or the flu or something, but when I woke up this morning I felt much better. I guess it was just persistent motion sickness. Blegh.
Yesterday I found 10 geocaches, biked around Sunnyvale and missed my train by 1 minute, got a flat tire on my bike and realized I had run out of patch adhesive and had to bail on a fun knitting instruction thing because I just plain felt too sick. Oh well.
My roommate had a great weekend though. She has met some guy and it's been love at first sight. Or maybe 3rd sight, but anyway I haven't seen much of her this weekend!
Oh, I forgot to mention that Friday night was really fun. We hosted a sushi party at Chris's house. Those type of parties are amazing - you can feed 30 people so much they hardly have room to breath for about 25 bucks. Less if none of them actually want fish in their sushi. We also watched the movie Dead Again, which if you haven't seen it, is an excellent suspense film.
Yesterday I found 10 geocaches, biked around Sunnyvale and missed my train by 1 minute, got a flat tire on my bike and realized I had run out of patch adhesive and had to bail on a fun knitting instruction thing because I just plain felt too sick. Oh well.
My roommate had a great weekend though. She has met some guy and it's been love at first sight. Or maybe 3rd sight, but anyway I haven't seen much of her this weekend!
Oh, I forgot to mention that Friday night was really fun. We hosted a sushi party at Chris's house. Those type of parties are amazing - you can feed 30 people so much they hardly have room to breath for about 25 bucks. Less if none of them actually want fish in their sushi. We also watched the movie Dead Again, which if you haven't seen it, is an excellent suspense film.
Sunday, October 23, 2005
Super Weirdo
I danced contradance tonight with a guy who believes that the moon was put there by space aliens, NASA never landed on the moon, and there's an alien colony on the backside of it. Furthermore, astronauts cannot survive passage through the Van Allen belts, Neil Armstrong was bullied into not working with NASA because he wanted to speak out about the aliens, and when a rocket launches it's center of mass of the system stays on the earth. Oh, and photos such as this one show that NASA is hiding things from us and not even trying to cover it up! I mean, look! They just blacked out the parts the didn't want us to see!
You can't really argue with someone who is convinced of conspiracy and comes up with wild claims of no backing. I didn't think it was worth it to argue the physics questions with him, though I was tempted to point him at the excellent Bad Astronomy webpage dealing with such issues.
Fortunately none of the other people I danced with were total crackpots. Unfortunately I had a giant indian dinner right before spinning like crazy for hours and I really thought I might throw up. Blegh.... Not sure how soon I'll go contradancing again.
You can't really argue with someone who is convinced of conspiracy and comes up with wild claims of no backing. I didn't think it was worth it to argue the physics questions with him, though I was tempted to point him at the excellent Bad Astronomy webpage dealing with such issues.
Fortunately none of the other people I danced with were total crackpots. Unfortunately I had a giant indian dinner right before spinning like crazy for hours and I really thought I might throw up. Blegh.... Not sure how soon I'll go contradancing again.
Monday, October 17, 2005
Rachel Garlin
This past weekend I didn't do much, except on Saturday evening I drove up with Brandy and Amelia to Berkeley to see Rachel Garlin. She's a folk singer who went to high school with Stephanie G, and I've been going to her concerts since she was totally unheard of. I realize she's still mostly unheard of, but she's won some folk singing awards and is going to live in NYC to be a musician instead of a teacher (who plays music on the side), so she must be a little more popular nowadays. The concert was wonderful - she's getting a big enough repertoire now that she doesn't play every song she knows at her concerts, so I really got to hear a variety.
The real excitement of the evening though was driving up with Amelia. That car ride is a little long for her, so we had to pull over for a food break and then when we hit horrible traffic before the Bay Bridge she was screaming so much that Bran and I did a firedrill right in the middle of the road (it was going approximately 1 mph) so she could take care of the bebe. I had been sitting in back trying to entertain Amelia, but I'm just not the same as mom apparently. Bran thinks that Amelia's crying is specially tuned to her ears such that listening to it is unbelievably painful. I can believe it. It even made my head hurt. After the traffic jam Amelia seemed to chill out for the restaurant (Picante, in Berkeley) and concert.
In other news, last week I took a knitting class with my friend Anne. It seems a lot harder than crochet to me, but more interesting. Right now I'm making a dish towel (heh, not that interesting, I know) but after that I'm going to try hats. Also on the paper for the skein of yarn I'm making the dish towel out of, there is a cool crochet pattern for bags that I think I'll try next as a crochet project. I'll post photos of finished projects.
Speaking of which, I just posted assorted photos here. One of these days I need to post rafting photos...
The real excitement of the evening though was driving up with Amelia. That car ride is a little long for her, so we had to pull over for a food break and then when we hit horrible traffic before the Bay Bridge she was screaming so much that Bran and I did a firedrill right in the middle of the road (it was going approximately 1 mph) so she could take care of the bebe. I had been sitting in back trying to entertain Amelia, but I'm just not the same as mom apparently. Bran thinks that Amelia's crying is specially tuned to her ears such that listening to it is unbelievably painful. I can believe it. It even made my head hurt. After the traffic jam Amelia seemed to chill out for the restaurant (Picante, in Berkeley) and concert.
In other news, last week I took a knitting class with my friend Anne. It seems a lot harder than crochet to me, but more interesting. Right now I'm making a dish towel (heh, not that interesting, I know) but after that I'm going to try hats. Also on the paper for the skein of yarn I'm making the dish towel out of, there is a cool crochet pattern for bags that I think I'll try next as a crochet project. I'll post photos of finished projects.
Speaking of which, I just posted assorted photos here. One of these days I need to post rafting photos...
Sunday, October 16, 2005
Oh dear
Every once in awhile you see a photo that reveals something deep about yourself that you never knew. See below from Jill's wedding:
I am not ladylike. I am like, the antithesis of ladylike. It just never even crosses my mind apparently. In this photo we're supposed to be playing a game - in my mind is: how am I going to win this? No room is left for thinking about not flashing everyone and keeping my knees together. Oh well. And I didn't even win the game!
Here's a nice photo from the reception:
I am not ladylike. I am like, the antithesis of ladylike. It just never even crosses my mind apparently. In this photo we're supposed to be playing a game - in my mind is: how am I going to win this? No room is left for thinking about not flashing everyone and keeping my knees together. Oh well. And I didn't even win the game!Here's a nice photo from the reception:
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
Angelic
So last week Aimee Angel sent an e-mail saying that she had a reservation to camp on Angel Island, but being as she was in Taiwan, she wouldn't be able to use it, could we? Chris and I leapt at the chance because it's just a cool place to spend the night. As we drove over the Golden Gate bridge on Saturday and listened to the song Calling All Angels (on the radio, no really), we noted that the Blue Angels were performing. Ok. That was all the angels.
So like I said, camping on Angel Island is extremely cool. There's hardly any other people within about 3 miles of you, and absolutely enormous numbers within, say, 10 miles. Our campsite had a great view of the San Francisco city front and since it was fleet week they even had a fireworks performance that we could see great from our tent. It was funny though - it was something like 2-3 miles away so there was very significant time delay on the booming of the fireworks. It was most notable when the grand finale came and the booming was tremendous and then they all stopped and the booming continued for another 10 seconds. It just felt wrong somehow. (It reminded me of the rocket launch I went to see - I had essentially front row tickets at 2 miles away and when the rocket launched I expected roaring, but there was none for the 10 seconds it took for the sound to reach us and by then the rocket was way up in they sky.)
Anyway, the fireworks were very fun. We also did some geocaching (there's 25 geocaches on Angel Island!) and just generally walked around and enjoyed the perfect weather. On Sunday we hurried to make it to a certain ferry and were very annoyed to discover that they were running ferries at totally random times on a different boat than usual (all because of increased fleet week traffic) and that while we'd sat around for 15 minutes for our ferry to arrive our ferry had actually left and the rangers in charge just hadn't mentioned at all that, oh by the way, this is the Tiburon Ferry and it's leaving right now, any of you want to be on it? I was very annoyed. But we worked some Sudoku puzzles and I worked hard to remind myself that this just wasn't the end of the world.
When we got back to Tiburon we ate some really yummy pizza and discovered from reading the news that Stanford had won the DARPA Grand Challenge - it's so exciting! Everyone at Stanford is so excited about winning and it's especially exciting that we beat the favorites (CMU) and we had never even entered before! Sebastian Thrun, the professor they keep talking about in the news reports, was my computer vision professor a couple of years ago. I know someone famous. Woo hoo!
On Monday I played hooky and went with Julia to find a bunch of geocaches in Rancho San Antonio - we hiked up some totally huge hills and sweated a lot... it was great fun. We also saw a lot of wildlife - deer, quail, hawk, rabbits, chipmunks, and even a coyote.
So like I said, camping on Angel Island is extremely cool. There's hardly any other people within about 3 miles of you, and absolutely enormous numbers within, say, 10 miles. Our campsite had a great view of the San Francisco city front and since it was fleet week they even had a fireworks performance that we could see great from our tent. It was funny though - it was something like 2-3 miles away so there was very significant time delay on the booming of the fireworks. It was most notable when the grand finale came and the booming was tremendous and then they all stopped and the booming continued for another 10 seconds. It just felt wrong somehow. (It reminded me of the rocket launch I went to see - I had essentially front row tickets at 2 miles away and when the rocket launched I expected roaring, but there was none for the 10 seconds it took for the sound to reach us and by then the rocket was way up in they sky.)
Anyway, the fireworks were very fun. We also did some geocaching (there's 25 geocaches on Angel Island!) and just generally walked around and enjoyed the perfect weather. On Sunday we hurried to make it to a certain ferry and were very annoyed to discover that they were running ferries at totally random times on a different boat than usual (all because of increased fleet week traffic) and that while we'd sat around for 15 minutes for our ferry to arrive our ferry had actually left and the rangers in charge just hadn't mentioned at all that, oh by the way, this is the Tiburon Ferry and it's leaving right now, any of you want to be on it? I was very annoyed. But we worked some Sudoku puzzles and I worked hard to remind myself that this just wasn't the end of the world.
When we got back to Tiburon we ate some really yummy pizza and discovered from reading the news that Stanford had won the DARPA Grand Challenge - it's so exciting! Everyone at Stanford is so excited about winning and it's especially exciting that we beat the favorites (CMU) and we had never even entered before! Sebastian Thrun, the professor they keep talking about in the news reports, was my computer vision professor a couple of years ago. I know someone famous. Woo hoo!
On Monday I played hooky and went with Julia to find a bunch of geocaches in Rancho San Antonio - we hiked up some totally huge hills and sweated a lot... it was great fun. We also saw a lot of wildlife - deer, quail, hawk, rabbits, chipmunks, and even a coyote.
Fun e-mail
I got this e-mail from my roommate today:
Thank you, oh Queen of Latex.
Your loyal subject,
-Laurel
He he...
Thank you, oh Queen of Latex.
Your loyal subject,
-Laurel
He he...
Wednesday, October 05, 2005
Brrr brrr ba ba brr brr
It's started getting cold here. When it's cold here people (including myself) are reluctant to turn the heat on - maybe because they want to deny for a little longer that this particular part of California isn't the warm paradise expected. Last night I went to turn my thermostat up to 68 (whoa there!) and discovered there was a spider living between the numbers and the clear glass of the front plate. Nasty.
Anyway, Chris has some big deadline coming up so I've been going to bed much before him recently and I'm reminded of the fact that actually I don't seem to produce heat. It's a little weird. The thermometer says 65 and I spend awhile in that temperature of room and my hands and feet get totally frozen. So I crawl into bed in long silk pajamas under a sheet, 2 blankets and a down comforter and after a half hour I have to get up and pull a heating pad into bed with me because I haven't heated up the space under the covers enough to be warm yet. I have this same problem sleeping alone on camping trips - it'll be 45 degrees at night, I'll be in a sleeping bag rated to -20 degrees, I'll eat a peanut butter sandwich before bed, do 50 sit ups inside the bag, take a nalgene full of boiling water into the sleeping bag with me (all campers tricks to stay warm at night), and still I'll wake up in the middle of the night too cold to sleep.
Chris is the opposite of me. He's got the teeniest sleeping bag I've ever seen because all but the thinest fabric seems to be too hot for him. This is one of the few arguments I can see for people who are opposite still being suited for each other.
Anyway, Chris has some big deadline coming up so I've been going to bed much before him recently and I'm reminded of the fact that actually I don't seem to produce heat. It's a little weird. The thermometer says 65 and I spend awhile in that temperature of room and my hands and feet get totally frozen. So I crawl into bed in long silk pajamas under a sheet, 2 blankets and a down comforter and after a half hour I have to get up and pull a heating pad into bed with me because I haven't heated up the space under the covers enough to be warm yet. I have this same problem sleeping alone on camping trips - it'll be 45 degrees at night, I'll be in a sleeping bag rated to -20 degrees, I'll eat a peanut butter sandwich before bed, do 50 sit ups inside the bag, take a nalgene full of boiling water into the sleeping bag with me (all campers tricks to stay warm at night), and still I'll wake up in the middle of the night too cold to sleep.
Chris is the opposite of me. He's got the teeniest sleeping bag I've ever seen because all but the thinest fabric seems to be too hot for him. This is one of the few arguments I can see for people who are opposite still being suited for each other.
Monday, October 03, 2005
Weekend update
Last weekend's adventures were so fun! There ended up being 8 people on the trip to find ANX: The Angle of Eternity (my log at the above link includes photos) and so I got to meet a bunch of cachers including The Rat, who is infamous for his puzzle caches. It was a marvelously creative cache too, but in the end Julia and I thought we could have easily found it just the 2 of us. It was fun to go as a big group for a change though. Afterwards she and I knocked out a handful of caches that had been giving us problems, so that was cool too.
Saturday I spent making room in my house - Laurel just recently got a shipment of all her stuff from Oak Ridge so instead of having the whole house to myself I now have to share it. That's ok though - it gave me an opportunity to throw a bunch of stuff away. Then Saturday night we played speed scrabble and trival pursuit and ate tons of delicious cookies and dip at Matt and Anne's house. All in all it was a very fun weekend, although this morning I needed to sleep in really late because I didn't really sleep much last weekend! On weekends I'm more inspired to get up early because there's so much to be done in the day! Whereas on weekdays all I'm getting up for is to go to work. Work's better these days though. I have a clear goal in mind and I'm writing code and talking to robots and stuff. It's been pretty fun. But not as fun as geocaching.
Saturday I spent making room in my house - Laurel just recently got a shipment of all her stuff from Oak Ridge so instead of having the whole house to myself I now have to share it. That's ok though - it gave me an opportunity to throw a bunch of stuff away. Then Saturday night we played speed scrabble and trival pursuit and ate tons of delicious cookies and dip at Matt and Anne's house. All in all it was a very fun weekend, although this morning I needed to sleep in really late because I didn't really sleep much last weekend! On weekends I'm more inspired to get up early because there's so much to be done in the day! Whereas on weekdays all I'm getting up for is to go to work. Work's better these days though. I have a clear goal in mind and I'm writing code and talking to robots and stuff. It's been pretty fun. But not as fun as geocaching.
Saturday, October 01, 2005
Friday, September 30, 2005
Vanity search
Was vanity searching and found this. I hope it doesn't count towards my 15 minutes of fame... I don't even remember it.
As long as we're vanity searching I have to brag about being a famous deadbeat mom.
As long as we're vanity searching I have to brag about being a famous deadbeat mom.
Police Report Number
There is something magical about a police report number. On Sunday night I called around, was bounced around between police offices until someone finally wanted the info on the break-in. I reported all our stuff gone and included the price of the various items stolen - not because I thought we'd ever get it back but I guess I wanted there to be a history of break-ins at that trailhead that the police are aware of. Then maybe they'll watch it better or something. (Fat chance since none of the police I ever talked to had even heard of Los Padres Dam.) Anyway, at the end of the report they gave me a number and I wrote it down. I'm surprised I wrote it down because I couldn't fathom what it would be good for.
Well, now I know. Replacement student IDs cost $30. Unless you have a police report number, and then they're free. Replacement go passes (lets us ride the train all we want for free) cost $80. Unless you have a police report number and then they're free. (Even the library replaced my card for free when I told them that the other one was stolen - they didn't require a police report number though.)
Anyway, what a boon.
Well, now I know. Replacement student IDs cost $30. Unless you have a police report number, and then they're free. Replacement go passes (lets us ride the train all we want for free) cost $80. Unless you have a police report number and then they're free. (Even the library replaced my card for free when I told them that the other one was stolen - they didn't require a police report number though.)
Anyway, what a boon.
Thursday, September 29, 2005
Just a plain ol' fiasco
Well, I appear to have dodged the "unmitigated fiasco" bullet. As of this evening I only have a few teeny spots of poison oak. Amazing considering the forests of the stuff I was walking through. Kinda makes me wish we stayed out longer... well, nah. Not really. I was ready to come home after that brief time.
Today Chris surprised me by getting me a new palm Zire 21 and it's so cool. It's really fast and actually connects with my Mac laptop. He's such a nice guy! Also today we had our first dance classes - we're taking both Beginner Swing and Waltz and a 2nd class in Blues. I wasn't sure what the blues class was going to be about but the first class was kinda like a slow one-step. It was pretty easy - for Chris and I anyway. Most of the dancers in that class don't seem to have the foggiest idea what they're doing and we switch partners every couple of minutes or so. Oh well.
This weekend is shaping up to be super busy - parties and dinners and geocaching... I'm looking forward to it!!!
Today Chris surprised me by getting me a new palm Zire 21 and it's so cool. It's really fast and actually connects with my Mac laptop. He's such a nice guy! Also today we had our first dance classes - we're taking both Beginner Swing and Waltz and a 2nd class in Blues. I wasn't sure what the blues class was going to be about but the first class was kinda like a slow one-step. It was pretty easy - for Chris and I anyway. Most of the dancers in that class don't seem to have the foggiest idea what they're doing and we switch partners every couple of minutes or so. Oh well.
This weekend is shaping up to be super busy - parties and dinners and geocaching... I'm looking forward to it!!!
Sunday, September 25, 2005
Fiasco!
I'll wait a couple of days to decide if it was an unmitigated fiasco, but this weekend's backpacking trip was definitely a fiasco. First we decided we wouldn't go to Desolation after all because it was going to thunder and lightening. We changed to Ventana Wilderness because it was closer. I chose a hike that was about 32 miles over 3 days even though we haven't been backpacking since May because I read about some guy on the internet who did the hike in 1 day. For that reason it didn't seem like it could be that hard and 2 of the days were going to be along the Carmel River so it would be flat. I forgot to consider the Ventana Wilderness Kick My Ass factor - in that wilderness they seem to believe that the best way to follow a river is to go a long ways up one side of the canyon walls, drop down to cross the river and go way the heck back up the other side of the canyon. We didn't make it the scheduled 9.5 miles - we made it about 5.5. Not only were our feet hurting (our blisters had blisters!) but the poison oak was like nothing you have ever seen.
Actually, I've had a lot of time to think about poison oak in the last couple of days. It would be a really interesting and wonderful plant if I weren't so allergic. It can be many different colors (yellow, green, red, kinda pink), it can be a shrub, a vine, a bush, and a tree, it can grow just about anywhere.
In this photograph, everything red is poison oak. It's about head height, for scale. You can see the trail running immediately to the right of this grove - we walked through poison oak about like this for several miles/hours today. When I close my eyes I see poison oak. We recognized the campsite we ended up at because it was a small clearing in the poison oak. The poison oak filled us with despair and we decided to return home after only one night.
We had wondered when packing how our packs had gotten to be so heavy - both were 30+ pounds without water, which is a lot for such a puny trip. It was some extra food, and warmer clothes than were at all necessary given the mild weather (50 at night, 70 during the day). We didn't even use the extra day pack we brought along or the tent stakes or fly, or our wind breakers or extra fleeces or... I could go on and on. We brought a LOT of extra stuff.
When we got to the parking lot we discovered our car door had been jimmied, the rear window had been smashed (why both?? why?) and our wallets were both gone. As were our keys (house keys and bike keys... again, why???), my Che Guevara t-shirt (why??), the car jack, road flares (why???), jumper cables (why?? why???), iPod tape adaptor (thankfully I'd left the iPod at home) and my Palm IIIxe (I'm actually a little glad about this one because I was looking for an excuse to get a new one). We called our credit card companies from the nearest town (Carmel Valley) and canceled the cards, but nothing had been charged. They got our student IDs, drivers license, credit cards, Starbucks cards, library cards, and Chris's Good Times token (irreplaceable, or so he tells me). What a pain to replace that stuff. They'll get about $50 cash, $20 at Starbucks, and $5 for the Palm. And we have to get the window replaced, all our IDs replaced, and keys copied. Assuming we can even find the other copies of our bike keys. Why? Was it really worth it?
It's all too bad too - Ventana Wilderness is extremely beautiful, the weather was very mild and the route, while harder than I anticipated, was quite nice. If it weren't for the intimidating poison oak we probably would have stayed another night.
Fortunately Chris had stuck $40 in his pocket to hike with so we got some cokes on the way out of town and had dinner at Saturn Cafe. Now we have to figure out what to do with our backpacks (probably covered in poison oak) and wait and hope that no rash begins to appear. I'll report on that one later I'm sure.
Actually, I've had a lot of time to think about poison oak in the last couple of days. It would be a really interesting and wonderful plant if I weren't so allergic. It can be many different colors (yellow, green, red, kinda pink), it can be a shrub, a vine, a bush, and a tree, it can grow just about anywhere.
In this photograph, everything red is poison oak. It's about head height, for scale. You can see the trail running immediately to the right of this grove - we walked through poison oak about like this for several miles/hours today. When I close my eyes I see poison oak. We recognized the campsite we ended up at because it was a small clearing in the poison oak. The poison oak filled us with despair and we decided to return home after only one night. We had wondered when packing how our packs had gotten to be so heavy - both were 30+ pounds without water, which is a lot for such a puny trip. It was some extra food, and warmer clothes than were at all necessary given the mild weather (50 at night, 70 during the day). We didn't even use the extra day pack we brought along or the tent stakes or fly, or our wind breakers or extra fleeces or... I could go on and on. We brought a LOT of extra stuff.
When we got to the parking lot we discovered our car door had been jimmied, the rear window had been smashed (why both?? why?) and our wallets were both gone. As were our keys (house keys and bike keys... again, why???), my Che Guevara t-shirt (why??), the car jack, road flares (why???), jumper cables (why?? why???), iPod tape adaptor (thankfully I'd left the iPod at home) and my Palm IIIxe (I'm actually a little glad about this one because I was looking for an excuse to get a new one). We called our credit card companies from the nearest town (Carmel Valley) and canceled the cards, but nothing had been charged. They got our student IDs, drivers license, credit cards, Starbucks cards, library cards, and Chris's Good Times token (irreplaceable, or so he tells me). What a pain to replace that stuff. They'll get about $50 cash, $20 at Starbucks, and $5 for the Palm. And we have to get the window replaced, all our IDs replaced, and keys copied. Assuming we can even find the other copies of our bike keys. Why? Was it really worth it?
It's all too bad too - Ventana Wilderness is extremely beautiful, the weather was very mild and the route, while harder than I anticipated, was quite nice. If it weren't for the intimidating poison oak we probably would have stayed another night.
Fortunately Chris had stuck $40 in his pocket to hike with so we got some cokes on the way out of town and had dinner at Saturn Cafe. Now we have to figure out what to do with our backpacks (probably covered in poison oak) and wait and hope that no rash begins to appear. I'll report on that one later I'm sure.
Friday, September 23, 2005
Ventana
Change of plans. Chris and I are headed to Ventana wilderness instead because it's closer and on the coast, so we won't get rained/snowed on and we can leave tomorrow morning. We're going to drive into Los Padres Dam and then hike to Ventana Double Cone via the Carmel River Trail. Should be hard but fun - I'm looking forward to it!
Thursday, September 22, 2005
So wound up
I've been so wound up recently about Geocaching. I know it's weird, but I'm really excited because there's this cache called ANX: The Angle of Eternity that I solved the first stage for and I'm getting together a group to go out and find the rest of the stages. It's exciting to solve the puzzle, but also, after I sent out a post on that webpage looking for people to join me I got so many e-mails from other cachers wanting to help or wanting to come along. It's just neat to feel kinda like part of a big community. One of the cachers who responded is rather famous around here for inventing and solving very hard puzzles - it's so cool that he wants to come with me to solve a puzzle cache! Even Julia was amazed!
I'm also wound up because Chris and I are going backpacking this weekend. We're headed to Desolation Wilderness, where Chris has never been. We're going to go on my favorite route - up past various alpine lakes to Lake Aloha. I feel a little bad to not try something different, but at the same time I want him to see this amazing area. We're leaving Friday evening and returning Monday evening. Should be a fun trip! Hopefully it won't snow on us - Josh was out backpacking last weekend in Sequoia (or was it King's Canyon?) and got snowed on. Sheesh. September is supposed to be warm around here.
The only place that seems to be warm is my lab, where I'm very comfortable wearing just a tank top. The thermostat reads 82 and it's wonderful. Or as Jack put it, "You know it's hot when even Teresa isn't wearing a sweater." Last night we had a very yummy spanish inspired dinner with Chris's fraternity brothers at Andalu in SF and the night before we saw a really fun movie, Just Like Heaven.
I'm also wound up because Chris and I are going backpacking this weekend. We're headed to Desolation Wilderness, where Chris has never been. We're going to go on my favorite route - up past various alpine lakes to Lake Aloha. I feel a little bad to not try something different, but at the same time I want him to see this amazing area. We're leaving Friday evening and returning Monday evening. Should be a fun trip! Hopefully it won't snow on us - Josh was out backpacking last weekend in Sequoia (or was it King's Canyon?) and got snowed on. Sheesh. September is supposed to be warm around here.
The only place that seems to be warm is my lab, where I'm very comfortable wearing just a tank top. The thermostat reads 82 and it's wonderful. Or as Jack put it, "You know it's hot when even Teresa isn't wearing a sweater." Last night we had a very yummy spanish inspired dinner with Chris's fraternity brothers at Andalu in SF and the night before we saw a really fun movie, Just Like Heaven.
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Dress movie
Hee hee hee... I just made a silly movie showing off my new dress. This was also my first crack at editing a movie and it's kinda fun. The movie is on the big side - 1.3 Mb. Enjoy!
Sunday, September 18, 2005
King's Mountain Road
Today Chris and I biked up Kings Mountain Road. This was my 3rd time up (both other times were last fall) but this was my best performance. I only had to stop 3 times and still felt pretty good at the top. You'll see if you follow the link above that while the road is only 4.3 miles long, it gains 1500 feet of elevation and has an average grade of 7%. For those not in the know, that feels pretty friggin steep. Anyway, I attribute my improved performance this time to biking up the hill beside Chris's house every other day. It's not that long, but it's fairly steep and I think even that little section, regularly ridden, has improved my legs and lungs enough that Kings Mountain was significantly less painful. I also biked around the Portola Valley loop for 25-30 miles total today. I had this idea that I was going to get 400 caches by this weekend, but in the end I was too tired to get the last 3 by bike - I had to go out in the car and find those last few. Whew. I'm exhausted.
Another thing that made this ride up KMR easier was that Chris was telling me about the plot to The Stand most of the way. I gave up reading the book about halfway through because it was freaking me out, but I still kinda wanted to know how it ended. So since he's working on finishing the book he was able to give me a really long story to catch me up. Being distracted like that really helps me keep going.
Another thing that made this ride up KMR easier was that Chris was telling me about the plot to The Stand most of the way. I gave up reading the book about halfway through because it was freaking me out, but I still kinda wanted to know how it ended. So since he's working on finishing the book he was able to give me a really long story to catch me up. Being distracted like that really helps me keep going.
Friday, September 16, 2005
Mellow times
Not much happening around here. On Wednesday I babysat for Amelia again and she was a perfect angel until about 15 minutes before her mom was supposed to come back. Bran brought me lunch and Chris was laughing at how far I'd come - used to be I had to make Brandy food to get to see the baby!
We walked over to the Palo Alto public library to get my Stanford Library book that I had accidentally turned into the PA Library (doh!) and they couldn't find it even though I'd called earlier to make sure they had it. (Turns out it was hiding. I have to go back.) Wednesday evening was a BBQ for Chris's advisor's getting tenure. It was fun but I stuffed myself and now I have no points left for the week. Guess it's time for some exercise.
At work I've mostly been writing oodles of C code. This is code that should go on LEMUR one day, so it feels like progress. But C is a lot harder to deal with than MATLAB so I'm having to write a bunch of my own libraries and stuff. At least it keeps me busy. I've also been busy with a website that just went live today - yay! It's a site for a book by Susan Krieger. She wrote a memoir "Things No Longer There: A Memoir of Losing Sight and Finding Vision." I didn't design the page, I just formatted the content basically and fine tuned the design. It took way longer than these things usually do for two reasons. The first was that Susan and her partner are both English types (I don't think they're actually in the English department, but it's close enough) so they're really intense editors. Most people don't notice or care if you used an emdash or an endash. But they do. The other reason it took a long time is because Susan is legally blind and views the page through the screenreader software JAWS. (Which costs like, $1000, by the way.) I'm usually relatively careful about making my webpages accessible even to blind readers, but never quite as careful as this time. This time my Susan told me the way every section read and sometimes it would sound really funny and I'd have to figure out how to make it change even though I couldn't hear it. For example, should that picture go inside the Level 1 heading or before or after it? Because it reads totally differently depending on where you put it. Anyway, I went way over my time estimate which makes me feel bad, but Susan doesn't seem to mind. So yay, money!
This weekend I plan to find my 400th geocache. I want to reach 500 by Christmas - at 500 you go on the local Leader Board. How nerdy a goal is that???
We walked over to the Palo Alto public library to get my Stanford Library book that I had accidentally turned into the PA Library (doh!) and they couldn't find it even though I'd called earlier to make sure they had it. (Turns out it was hiding. I have to go back.) Wednesday evening was a BBQ for Chris's advisor's getting tenure. It was fun but I stuffed myself and now I have no points left for the week. Guess it's time for some exercise.
At work I've mostly been writing oodles of C code. This is code that should go on LEMUR one day, so it feels like progress. But C is a lot harder to deal with than MATLAB so I'm having to write a bunch of my own libraries and stuff. At least it keeps me busy. I've also been busy with a website that just went live today - yay! It's a site for a book by Susan Krieger. She wrote a memoir "Things No Longer There: A Memoir of Losing Sight and Finding Vision." I didn't design the page, I just formatted the content basically and fine tuned the design. It took way longer than these things usually do for two reasons. The first was that Susan and her partner are both English types (I don't think they're actually in the English department, but it's close enough) so they're really intense editors. Most people don't notice or care if you used an emdash or an endash. But they do. The other reason it took a long time is because Susan is legally blind and views the page through the screenreader software JAWS. (Which costs like, $1000, by the way.) I'm usually relatively careful about making my webpages accessible even to blind readers, but never quite as careful as this time. This time my Susan told me the way every section read and sometimes it would sound really funny and I'd have to figure out how to make it change even though I couldn't hear it. For example, should that picture go inside the Level 1 heading or before or after it? Because it reads totally differently depending on where you put it. Anyway, I went way over my time estimate which makes me feel bad, but Susan doesn't seem to mind. So yay, money!
This weekend I plan to find my 400th geocache. I want to reach 500 by Christmas - at 500 you go on the local Leader Board. How nerdy a goal is that???
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
Festival Photos
In North Beach with Brandy and Amelia for a fun afternoon. 
Weird shaped bread at the festival.
Owen and Chris enjoying the festival.
A cool ship on the end of a pier by Ghiradelli Square
A chaos of people in Ghiradelli Square for the festval
Coffee
Perhaps the best thing about drinking coffee in the morning is that after that it's unlikely that anything more bitter will happen to you in your day.
They just opened up a new Starbucks about a block from Chris's house and he's ecstatic. He's crazy for that mocha. I like mocha too but it's got a lot of calories, so when I diet I have to switch to regular coffee and packets of Equal and it's just not the same.
The chocolate festival on Sunday was really fun! I had kind of expected them to have different chocolatiers with chocolate samples. Instead it was all kinds of different stores with samples of their uses of chocolate. There was cookies, sundaes, fudge, truffles, milk shakes, gelato, port, chocolate beer (?!), dipped strawberries, mocha, tiramisu, and probably other things I'm not remembering. It was delicious but all that sugar got to be a little much. Also at the chocolate festival I heard the terrible news that my favorite chocolatier, Scharffenberger was bought by Hershey's. If they don't change anything, then it's fine, but if they try to change anything about the way SB tastes I may never recover. Ever since I went on my first factory tour I've been a total chocolate snob and have not found any other chocolate that has the certain something that SB's has! And Chris and I have been looking for substitutes because SB's is frickin' expensive.
Also on Sunday I dragged Chris partway up Telegraph Hill to find a geocache and we got to see the famous parrots. Did you even know there's a flock of wild parrots that lives up there? How cool is that? We only got to see them from below and hear their cries. It was still pretty cool.
They just opened up a new Starbucks about a block from Chris's house and he's ecstatic. He's crazy for that mocha. I like mocha too but it's got a lot of calories, so when I diet I have to switch to regular coffee and packets of Equal and it's just not the same.
The chocolate festival on Sunday was really fun! I had kind of expected them to have different chocolatiers with chocolate samples. Instead it was all kinds of different stores with samples of their uses of chocolate. There was cookies, sundaes, fudge, truffles, milk shakes, gelato, port, chocolate beer (?!), dipped strawberries, mocha, tiramisu, and probably other things I'm not remembering. It was delicious but all that sugar got to be a little much. Also at the chocolate festival I heard the terrible news that my favorite chocolatier, Scharffenberger was bought by Hershey's. If they don't change anything, then it's fine, but if they try to change anything about the way SB tastes I may never recover. Ever since I went on my first factory tour I've been a total chocolate snob and have not found any other chocolate that has the certain something that SB's has! And Chris and I have been looking for substitutes because SB's is frickin' expensive.
Also on Sunday I dragged Chris partway up Telegraph Hill to find a geocache and we got to see the famous parrots. Did you even know there's a flock of wild parrots that lives up there? How cool is that? We only got to see them from below and hear their cries. It was still pretty cool.
Saturday, September 10, 2005
Foot fungus
More geocaching fun today. Chris and I found 12 caches in the Portolla Valley trail system. He was getting pretty sick of it after 8 but the last 4 were on the way home and so I begged and he let me find them. Unfortunately I may have gotten into some more poison oak. Here's hoping I'm wrong. We also visited the kitty fair again today. They try to get homeless cats adopted on Saturday mornings at this pet store nearby and we go pretty often. We both want cats but neither of us live in a place that allows it and what's more we think we shouldn't get a cat until we live together and I don't want to live together unless we're married or engaged and getting engaged just to get a cat seems somewhat unwise.
Oh, I've read some great books recently. Zorro, by Isabel Allende and I'm currently reading I'm Not the New Me by Wendy McClure which is funny on a lot of levels. It was written by the woman who posted online the famous 1974 Weight Watchers Cards (that I've blogged about previously). She writes about being on Weight Watchers and about meeting people over the internet (kinda like I have through Geocaching) and about getting e-mail from people you don't know because of your webpage, and so on. Anyway, it's very funny and I recommend it.
We're going to a chocolate festival tomorrow. Should be fun!
Oh, I've read some great books recently. Zorro, by Isabel Allende and I'm currently reading I'm Not the New Me by Wendy McClure which is funny on a lot of levels. It was written by the woman who posted online the famous 1974 Weight Watchers Cards (that I've blogged about previously). She writes about being on Weight Watchers and about meeting people over the internet (kinda like I have through Geocaching) and about getting e-mail from people you don't know because of your webpage, and so on. Anyway, it's very funny and I recommend it.
We're going to a chocolate festival tomorrow. Should be fun!
Wednesday, September 07, 2005
Sunset Lane
Today's blog post is copied from my entry for Sunset Lane on Geocaching's webpage.
Whew!
My good Prince and I decided to bike over here from Menlo Park around 6pm. Foolish mortals! I had cross checked the location with the Portola Valley Map, decided the previous cachers couldn't have meant it about the hill, and we took off.
Parts of that hill were so steep that in my lowest gear I was just barely getting up (puffing and panting) and my bike was trying to pop little wheelies. Anyway, part way up we decided to ditch the bikes and hike the trail that crossed the road instead and from there it was a gentle half mile hike to the cache. The view was awesome and the swing was so incredibly fun!!
This was definitely my favorite type of cache. It's tricky to figure out how to get there, but once you do there's a nice view and neat things to play around on and the cache is very easy to spot.
I left a hairband and took the 1/2 Star Too Many button because it was hilarious. I was sad I didn't bring anything better to put in but I didn't expect to actually find much worth taking!
My good Prince trying not to puke while I try to figure out his camera phone.
Whew!
My good Prince and I decided to bike over here from Menlo Park around 6pm. Foolish mortals! I had cross checked the location with the Portola Valley Map, decided the previous cachers couldn't have meant it about the hill, and we took off.
Parts of that hill were so steep that in my lowest gear I was just barely getting up (puffing and panting) and my bike was trying to pop little wheelies. Anyway, part way up we decided to ditch the bikes and hike the trail that crossed the road instead and from there it was a gentle half mile hike to the cache. The view was awesome and the swing was so incredibly fun!!
This was definitely my favorite type of cache. It's tricky to figure out how to get there, but once you do there's a nice view and neat things to play around on and the cache is very easy to spot.
I left a hairband and took the 1/2 Star Too Many button because it was hilarious. I was sad I didn't bring anything better to put in but I didn't expect to actually find much worth taking!
My good Prince trying not to puke while I try to figure out his camera phone.
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
Photos from Chicago
I posted photos from Chicago. Chicago was fun but didn't involve much sleeping. We got in around 6 in the evening on Friday and met up with Andy at his coffee shop downtown, then went to Jen and Andy's place and ate yummy authentic Chicago Pizza and then went to see Andy's show, The Beatbox. He wasn't supposed to be playing that night but after the show ended early and they decided to have an encore/2nd half and he went on. That half was definitely funnier. What they do involves some intense skill - Chris and I had a big discussion afterwards about how totally incapable we would be of making up funny raps while simultaneously listening to the other performers and being in front of a room full of people. After the show we hung out at their cute apartment and visited with Jen and Zeke.
On Saturday we got up early and had a yummy breakfast with J&A at Ann Sathers and then hung out in Starbucks doing Sudoku puzzles. It's funny, I picked up this book of puzzles in the airport on the way out just because it looked interesting and I swear I heard about it all weekend. The Chicago Tribune started publishing these puzzles just this Sunday and everyone I mentioned it to was telling how their local paper had just picked it up and even on the subway people would see me looking at the puzzles and be talking amongst themselves about what the puzzles are and how popular they're getting.
We took the train downtown in the afternoon and checked into the Swissotel. The bus came for us at 3:15 and we got to see Jaime get married to Joe at Holy Family Church which is about the most beautiful church I've ever seen in the States. Afterwards there was an awesome reception and dancing and dinner. It was so yummy and also fun to get to catch up with friends from Princeton like Connie and Hruska and Jaime's other roommates. One funny part of the reception was the cake eating - Jaime shoved it in Joe's face. He took it well. He he... he's got a good sense of humor. I'd never actually seen anyone do that - just talk about it.
Lets see... also for the wedding I got a new dress from some store in the mall that was going out of business so it was marked down from $180 to like $25. I got this really high boots from Target to go with it and I thought I was so rad. Ha. I forgot that at a wedding no one looks at anyone but the bride, but Chris thought I looked nice. I tried to come up with something fancy to do with my hair, but you'll see from the photos that I didn't manage much. I'm just not sure what to do with it that's fancy besides an updo and I just don't have that kind of money to spend on hairspray. Too bad I didn't get any good photos of the dress because it was very sexy. You'll just have to ask me to model it sometime.
For Labor Day we got up late and went on a bike ride and then I went to bookclub and ate some of Ushma's amazing Indian food. It's fun that she and I have gotten back in touch after not really seeing each other in 10 years. She had some photos to show me from her 10th high school reunion and it was fun getting to see people that I didn't know that well but hadn't seen in ages.
On Saturday we got up early and had a yummy breakfast with J&A at Ann Sathers and then hung out in Starbucks doing Sudoku puzzles. It's funny, I picked up this book of puzzles in the airport on the way out just because it looked interesting and I swear I heard about it all weekend. The Chicago Tribune started publishing these puzzles just this Sunday and everyone I mentioned it to was telling how their local paper had just picked it up and even on the subway people would see me looking at the puzzles and be talking amongst themselves about what the puzzles are and how popular they're getting.
We took the train downtown in the afternoon and checked into the Swissotel. The bus came for us at 3:15 and we got to see Jaime get married to Joe at Holy Family Church which is about the most beautiful church I've ever seen in the States. Afterwards there was an awesome reception and dancing and dinner. It was so yummy and also fun to get to catch up with friends from Princeton like Connie and Hruska and Jaime's other roommates. One funny part of the reception was the cake eating - Jaime shoved it in Joe's face. He took it well. He he... he's got a good sense of humor. I'd never actually seen anyone do that - just talk about it.
Lets see... also for the wedding I got a new dress from some store in the mall that was going out of business so it was marked down from $180 to like $25. I got this really high boots from Target to go with it and I thought I was so rad. Ha. I forgot that at a wedding no one looks at anyone but the bride, but Chris thought I looked nice. I tried to come up with something fancy to do with my hair, but you'll see from the photos that I didn't manage much. I'm just not sure what to do with it that's fancy besides an updo and I just don't have that kind of money to spend on hairspray. Too bad I didn't get any good photos of the dress because it was very sexy. You'll just have to ask me to model it sometime.
For Labor Day we got up late and went on a bike ride and then I went to bookclub and ate some of Ushma's amazing Indian food. It's fun that she and I have gotten back in touch after not really seeing each other in 10 years. She had some photos to show me from her 10th high school reunion and it was fun getting to see people that I didn't know that well but hadn't seen in ages.
Thursday, September 01, 2005
Going to Chicago
Tomorrow morning Chris and I are headed to Chicago for Jaime's wedding. Should be fun! I went to the mall today and got a really on sale dress (the store was going out of business) and then went to Target and got some boots to go with it ("Gutsy" was the conclusion of my upstairs neighbor), and now I'm ready to go knock some socks off at the wedding. I'll bring back photos.
Yesterday we went on the annual lab sailing trip with Professor Cannon. It was a beautiful day in the bay! Unfortunately I woke up with a killer headache and got motion sick driving to Sausalito. I don't know what's wrong with me. My paranoia says "Oh no! What if I have menengitis!" Chris pointed out that that usually has an associated fever. I took my temperature and it was 97.1. If it was someone else I would assume my thermometer was broken, but actually my temperature tends to be around there. (Just a note for the Institute, I relate my tendency to get cold quickly to this - with such a low core temperature I just don't have as much heat around as normal people so I tend to be cold.) Last night I slept 13 hours (so did Chris - it's our rubella... or else maybe that we've been going to bed late and getting up early). Today I have a stiff neck (possibly from sailing) and still a bit of a headache. Of course, the non-institute explanation (read, non-paranoid) is that I slept funny the other night, got a stiff neck, and the tension in my neck muscles caused a tension headache and when my muscles heal I'll be better again. But where's the fun in that explanation?
In other news, on Tuesday I placed my first California geocaches. One of them in particular has been getting really good reviews! They are Beginner's Luck and Go Fish. Go Fish is the popular one. Also, I finally released a travel bug that Chris's mom gave me last Christmas. It hasn't gone much of anywhere yet, but I'm sure it will soon enough.
Yesterday we went on the annual lab sailing trip with Professor Cannon. It was a beautiful day in the bay! Unfortunately I woke up with a killer headache and got motion sick driving to Sausalito. I don't know what's wrong with me. My paranoia says "Oh no! What if I have menengitis!" Chris pointed out that that usually has an associated fever. I took my temperature and it was 97.1. If it was someone else I would assume my thermometer was broken, but actually my temperature tends to be around there. (Just a note for the Institute, I relate my tendency to get cold quickly to this - with such a low core temperature I just don't have as much heat around as normal people so I tend to be cold.) Last night I slept 13 hours (so did Chris - it's our rubella... or else maybe that we've been going to bed late and getting up early). Today I have a stiff neck (possibly from sailing) and still a bit of a headache. Of course, the non-institute explanation (read, non-paranoid) is that I slept funny the other night, got a stiff neck, and the tension in my neck muscles caused a tension headache and when my muscles heal I'll be better again. But where's the fun in that explanation?
In other news, on Tuesday I placed my first California geocaches. One of them in particular has been getting really good reviews! They are Beginner's Luck and Go Fish. Go Fish is the popular one. Also, I finally released a travel bug that Chris's mom gave me last Christmas. It hasn't gone much of anywhere yet, but I'm sure it will soon enough.
Monday, August 29, 2005
Geocaching Humor
I got this from Today's Cacher's humor section. I deleted the really un-funny ones.
Opa's Rules of Thumb for Geocaching
"Yes, officer, I know it looks suspicious"
By John Hebert, aka Opa
1. No matter how much advance research you do, the cache will be on the other side.
2. Any references to water/swamps/mosquitos/ticks in a cache’s description or log entries should be believed.
3. Always take the official bushwhacking distance and multiply by 3.62.
4. Waterproof footgear isn’t – unless the water is already inside.
8. You are allergic to some form of plant life; you just don’t know which one yet.
That last one seems especially amusing to me given the number of times I have gotten poison oak while out geocaching. I got a really bad case a month or so ago, which inspired Chris to make some "rules" for me. Rule 1 is, if it's too hot to wear pants, it's too hot for geocaching. Rule 2 is just that as soon as I get home I have to remove all clothes from the waist down (and waist up, if appropriate) and while removing them turn them inside out and put them right in the laundry. This helps keep me from reinfecting myself with oaked clothes.
I went geocaching with some new friends this past weekend on Saturday. caliseastar invited me along with a group of other women to help find one of the women's 1000th cache! It was fun to go as a group because it feels more like a social event and less like Nerds in the Field. Also, you find caches more quickly as a group because you can split up the search. A couple of them I'm not sure I would have ever found alone. We found caches in Soquel and Scotts Valley and then ate dinner in Los Gatos. It was a good time! On Sunday I went to Julia and Shannon's housewarming. They have the cutest little place - I'm quite jealous. It has this great little backyard and patio and they have very cute cats and hardwood floors. Chris and I went to church after the party and then I went shopping for some goods so I can put out my first local cache. The women I was caching with last weekend guilted me into it! Also, it's silly that I don't have any out. So now I'm almost ready. I have the idea and the materials, I just have to assemble it all.
Opa's Rules of Thumb for Geocaching
"Yes, officer, I know it looks suspicious"
By John Hebert, aka Opa
1. No matter how much advance research you do, the cache will be on the other side.
2. Any references to water/swamps/mosquitos/ticks in a cache’s description or log entries should be believed.
3. Always take the official bushwhacking distance and multiply by 3.62.
4. Waterproof footgear isn’t – unless the water is already inside.
8. You are allergic to some form of plant life; you just don’t know which one yet.
That last one seems especially amusing to me given the number of times I have gotten poison oak while out geocaching. I got a really bad case a month or so ago, which inspired Chris to make some "rules" for me. Rule 1 is, if it's too hot to wear pants, it's too hot for geocaching. Rule 2 is just that as soon as I get home I have to remove all clothes from the waist down (and waist up, if appropriate) and while removing them turn them inside out and put them right in the laundry. This helps keep me from reinfecting myself with oaked clothes.
I went geocaching with some new friends this past weekend on Saturday. caliseastar invited me along with a group of other women to help find one of the women's 1000th cache! It was fun to go as a group because it feels more like a social event and less like Nerds in the Field. Also, you find caches more quickly as a group because you can split up the search. A couple of them I'm not sure I would have ever found alone. We found caches in Soquel and Scotts Valley and then ate dinner in Los Gatos. It was a good time! On Sunday I went to Julia and Shannon's housewarming. They have the cutest little place - I'm quite jealous. It has this great little backyard and patio and they have very cute cats and hardwood floors. Chris and I went to church after the party and then I went shopping for some goods so I can put out my first local cache. The women I was caching with last weekend guilted me into it! Also, it's silly that I don't have any out. So now I'm almost ready. I have the idea and the materials, I just have to assemble it all.
Friday, August 26, 2005
Thursday, August 25, 2005
Cantaloupe
I ate an entire cantaloupe today. I don't know what I was thinking.
Actually, I know exactly what I was thinking. Cantaloupe to me is like the proverbial girl with the curl, and I really like (and only like) very very good cantaloupe. So when I passed JJ&F today and I could smell it from 15 feet away I knew that I should get some because it's not like I have many opportunities to get that fruit as tasty as I like it. So I bought it and took it home and cut it up and realized that I had no idea when I would be back at my house and it would probably go bad if I didn't eat it right then. So I did. It's a good diet strategy. 10 hours later I'm still not hungry at all and in fact thinking about food makes me feel a little queasy.
Also today was a day of babysitting firsts for Brandy, Amelia and me - this was Amelia's first time being babysat. (Being baby sat by grandma when mother is just inside a building you can see over there doesn't count.) Bran dropped Amelia off at my house and I watched her for 4 hours while Bran was at school. She was nervous that something might happen but I promised to call if I was worried about anything at all and of course we were all fine. Funny because whenever I go over to Brandy's house Amelia is always sound asleep and they always remark that it's unusual. Well, today I got to see that. Ha. She hardly slept a wink. But she seems to not fuss and eventually go to sleep when pushed in the stroller. So we walked a lot.
Brandy asked me today what I thought I would find Amelia's favorite age. I think when she starts talking and thinking and you can really start communicating and teaching and reasoning with her. We'll see though!
Actually, I know exactly what I was thinking. Cantaloupe to me is like the proverbial girl with the curl, and I really like (and only like) very very good cantaloupe. So when I passed JJ&F today and I could smell it from 15 feet away I knew that I should get some because it's not like I have many opportunities to get that fruit as tasty as I like it. So I bought it and took it home and cut it up and realized that I had no idea when I would be back at my house and it would probably go bad if I didn't eat it right then. So I did. It's a good diet strategy. 10 hours later I'm still not hungry at all and in fact thinking about food makes me feel a little queasy.
Also today was a day of babysitting firsts for Brandy, Amelia and me - this was Amelia's first time being babysat. (Being baby sat by grandma when mother is just inside a building you can see over there doesn't count.) Bran dropped Amelia off at my house and I watched her for 4 hours while Bran was at school. She was nervous that something might happen but I promised to call if I was worried about anything at all and of course we were all fine. Funny because whenever I go over to Brandy's house Amelia is always sound asleep and they always remark that it's unusual. Well, today I got to see that. Ha. She hardly slept a wink. But she seems to not fuss and eventually go to sleep when pushed in the stroller. So we walked a lot.
Brandy asked me today what I thought I would find Amelia's favorite age. I think when she starts talking and thinking and you can really start communicating and teaching and reasoning with her. We'll see though!
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
Random photos
A very funny photo my roommate Laurel took.
Hideous or cute? I have to go with hideous here. Laurel strongly disagrees.
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
Bike conflict and photos
So last week I was borderline stressing over something that had happened. One day I came down from Chris's apartment and found a note taped to my bike seat that said "Please park your bike in front of your house, not here in front of ours. Thanks." I park my bike chained to a post right in front of Chris's carport parking spot. This parking spot is in front of apartment 144 which is immediately downstairs from Chris's apartment, #244.
Chris and I contemplated many meanings of this note. It seemed pretty friendly, so I was inclined to think the best. I thought possibly they didn't realize who the bike belonged to and thought it belonged to someone down the way or something. We had met his downstairs neighbors and they seemed like very nice people so I was having trouble imagining what they really were unhappy about. Technically the condo complex (he rents out a condo, not an apartment) has a rule that you can't lock bikes anywhere except in the parking garage, but the garage is so far away from his condo that it just didn't seem reasonable. Josh takes his bike upstairs, but he has a nice light road bike, not a steel beast like mine. Furthermore, we had parked a bike against a light pole closer to the main road (a little less conspicuous) and it was stolen. Granted it wasn't locked up, but still, it doesn't seem like a good idea to try that one again. So given all these problems I thought I would just go down and talk to the neighbors and see if they didn't have a better suggestion about where to put my bike. I couldn't believe they were really that unreasonable.
I showed Chris the note though and he inferred this really sinister meaning from it - that they disapproved of our living situation (that is, that I stay over at his house every other night - they're sort of an older couple) and they really meant I shouldn't park my bike in front of their house because it should be in front of my home where I live and where I ought to be spending my nights. This made me really worried because you just can't argue morals with someone and expect to win anything.
So I was all nervous about what to do and fretting about it all weekend with my bike parked out there and they weren't even home. Then yesterday evening I noticed their car was in and I screwed up my courage and went down there to talk to them. It went something like this:
(He answers the door)
Me: Hi! I'm Teresa, one of your upstairs neighbors and...
He: Oh, you live there too, do you?
Me: Yes and I was wondering if you left the note on my bicycle?
He (looking grumpy): Yes. You know, your bike just really shouldn't be parked there.
Me (feeling worried): Well, I was wondering if you have any other ideas about where I should park it? Because I don't want to bother you but I don't know where else it could go...
He (still looking grumpy): Well, it just shouldn't be parked there. I mean we park our cars out there and it looks bad!
Me: ....????
She (coming around the corner looking cheerful): Hello! You know, I just don't see a problem with you parking your bike out there. The neighbor down the way came over and was complaining that it looks bad but I just don't know where else you could put it!?
Me (feeling relieved): Yeah, I mean, I thought about locking it against that light post out there after I saw your note...
She (aghast): You left a note?!
He: Well, yes! I mean...
She: Men can be so grumpy!
etc etc. It was pretty funny actually, him being all grumpy and her being so friendly. In the end we chatted and negotiated. They both thought the boxes (trash really) on the balcony looked bad so I promised to get them moved inside and they agreed my bike could stay where it was. They also said they would bring up bread sometimes because they have some bakery connection who always brings them more than they can eat. All's well that ends well. But I worried about that quite a bit.
Now some photos.
Ken sent this photo from a vacation to Palm Beach with his beautiful girlfriend Kendall. He was doing a "scholarly facial hair" experiment or something .
I visited with Amelia Rose this evening and she's starting to make faces - mostly when she's asleep but here's a few cute ones from the small amount of time she was awake.
And of course Amelia's beautiful mother.
Chris and I contemplated many meanings of this note. It seemed pretty friendly, so I was inclined to think the best. I thought possibly they didn't realize who the bike belonged to and thought it belonged to someone down the way or something. We had met his downstairs neighbors and they seemed like very nice people so I was having trouble imagining what they really were unhappy about. Technically the condo complex (he rents out a condo, not an apartment) has a rule that you can't lock bikes anywhere except in the parking garage, but the garage is so far away from his condo that it just didn't seem reasonable. Josh takes his bike upstairs, but he has a nice light road bike, not a steel beast like mine. Furthermore, we had parked a bike against a light pole closer to the main road (a little less conspicuous) and it was stolen. Granted it wasn't locked up, but still, it doesn't seem like a good idea to try that one again. So given all these problems I thought I would just go down and talk to the neighbors and see if they didn't have a better suggestion about where to put my bike. I couldn't believe they were really that unreasonable.
I showed Chris the note though and he inferred this really sinister meaning from it - that they disapproved of our living situation (that is, that I stay over at his house every other night - they're sort of an older couple) and they really meant I shouldn't park my bike in front of their house because it should be in front of my home where I live and where I ought to be spending my nights. This made me really worried because you just can't argue morals with someone and expect to win anything.
So I was all nervous about what to do and fretting about it all weekend with my bike parked out there and they weren't even home. Then yesterday evening I noticed their car was in and I screwed up my courage and went down there to talk to them. It went something like this:
(He answers the door)
Me: Hi! I'm Teresa, one of your upstairs neighbors and...
He: Oh, you live there too, do you?
Me: Yes and I was wondering if you left the note on my bicycle?
He (looking grumpy): Yes. You know, your bike just really shouldn't be parked there.
Me (feeling worried): Well, I was wondering if you have any other ideas about where I should park it? Because I don't want to bother you but I don't know where else it could go...
He (still looking grumpy): Well, it just shouldn't be parked there. I mean we park our cars out there and it looks bad!
Me: ....????
She (coming around the corner looking cheerful): Hello! You know, I just don't see a problem with you parking your bike out there. The neighbor down the way came over and was complaining that it looks bad but I just don't know where else you could put it!?
Me (feeling relieved): Yeah, I mean, I thought about locking it against that light post out there after I saw your note...
She (aghast): You left a note?!
He: Well, yes! I mean...
She: Men can be so grumpy!
etc etc. It was pretty funny actually, him being all grumpy and her being so friendly. In the end we chatted and negotiated. They both thought the boxes (trash really) on the balcony looked bad so I promised to get them moved inside and they agreed my bike could stay where it was. They also said they would bring up bread sometimes because they have some bakery connection who always brings them more than they can eat. All's well that ends well. But I worried about that quite a bit.
Now some photos.
Ken sent this photo from a vacation to Palm Beach with his beautiful girlfriend Kendall. He was doing a "scholarly facial hair" experiment or something .
I visited with Amelia Rose this evening and she's starting to make faces - mostly when she's asleep but here's a few cute ones from the small amount of time she was awake.
And of course Amelia's beautiful mother.
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