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.
Friday, September 30, 2005
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.
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