Copabananas

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Philly Time

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Right Before Show

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Outside the Show

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More Morimotos

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More Morimotos

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Morimotos

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More Internet People!

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Internet People!!

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View from the Hotel

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We're Here!

Welcome to Philly.
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Mama Ro Neck

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Off to Philadelphia

At noon today and after running some last minute errands, I'll be off road trippin' to Philadelphia where I'll be staying with friends until Sunday-ish.

I am so anxious, oh my god. Mostly because not only will I be seeing NIN again (that's like, what, 7 times I think), but I'll be meeting up with more people from the interwebs. A whole slew of 'em this time. Should be interesting...

What I find amazing is that most people that you get along with online are the same in person. They're posts really reflect how they are in real life and chances are that if they're a wackadoo online, they probably are in person too. Fortunately, most of these people are wicked awesome on the board or online so I'm looking forward to a great meet up in person. *fingers crossed*

Now let's see if I make it there without getting pulled over on the Jersey Turnpike..."FCUK THE POOOOOOOOOOLIIIIIIIIICE!"

What I'm Doing Right Now

This mobile photo blogging is awesome. Here's a look at what I'm doing right now.
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Crackberry Photo Test

Testing...
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*WHEEEEEEEEEEEE!! I can mobile photoblog!!!

Glorious Randomness

So last evening driving home for work I was contemplating various ways of passing the night away either sulking in front of the TV or going for some retail therapy, when all of a sudden I get a little ringy on my cellphone. "We bought a bunch of food and wine, where are you?" This coming from my two friends, one of which is moving back to Canada.

So already in my car I haul a U-ie and hightail it to the Haven for a nice healthy dinner of whatever happened to be at a local grocer and a magnum of Yellowtail.

So after many glasses of wine and great picking food, we three ladies of varying relationship status were discussing pretty much anything and everything about past relationships, past run ins with the law, and with bitchy people, and of course our dabblings with the various "scenes." Now that pertains to the clubbing world, the British scene, the hippie scene, the protest scene and of course, from where this famous quote came from, the drug scene.

I think the best quote ever EVER was made by my friend when she was discussing how we three ladies definitely differ from the norm and got out of various "scenes" before our souls were eaten alive. She proudly and loudly proclaimed "thank GAWD for all that acid I did back then." To which someone else proclaimed "yeah, thank god for smokin' all that grass." To which we all raised our glasses.

Such a great night and a pre-bon voyage to my friend moving back to Canada.

Update-ness!

Better known as the recap post because I've been to busy/lazy (yes, those both can happen at the same time) to do a proper post (let alone Twitter).

'Tis better to have crushed than have lost my rep. as an engineer. My friends are awesome and my instincts rock and I'm so thankful to have listened to them and not actually responded to any of the ham-handedness that's been going on for the past few months or so with someone we have referred to as CC. *whew* "Missed it by THAT much..." It was kind of a bummer today to find out about things, but I was so glad to here about it because it was not going to come from CC at all and I'd rather experience a quick band-aid getting pulled off of me than an open-heart surgery without anesthesia. I owe some mofos some drinkies! *points*

Since breakfasteries (yeah, I'm making up a new word, that's right) are few and far between in New Haven, I checked out one first with some friends then with my sister. It's on State Street and it's called Menu, but it's actually pronounced "Me 'n You." *collective "awwwwwww"* Great food, great coffee and stuff is actually able to keep for the next day. I had my pastrami omelet quesadilla (oh that's right, you read that right, it was a beautiful thing) this morning fresh out of the microwave and it was just as good!

I also saw "Hamlet" over the weekend at Edgerton Park's Shakespeare in the Park series. OK, yes, Hamlet is a bit long, but it's made so much better when you actually see it as it was meant to be seen: outside in the open air with food that you smuggled in along with smuggled in booze on collapsible chairs. Now THAT'S how the Brits of old would have seen it! The actors need to make you want to stay there and fence convincingly as well as go nuts convincingly! They have to make you care about this imaginary thing even over booze and food (and annoying dogs barking...eesh...). *raises a glass*

"I Pick Things Up..."

"...I am a collector..."

Here's a cool thing that was outside by my car when I pulled back in from lunch.


I love finding weird objects and if they are deemed cool enough or unique, they get kept by me for an eternity.

NIN: Lights in the Sky 2008

Such a great show, I can't even go into all of the details of how epic it was, but I attempt to here. So take a look.

Here's my Flickr set for the night. I totally should have snapped more, but I did see some people getting hassled about taking photos even though pretty much everyone else was. I guess it was whoever the security guards could gain access to from the walkways, thankfully I was safely in the center seat of the center row of the almost center section. Oh yeah...suck it!



The best way to sum up the night is: \m/

Old School Cooking

A coworker of mine is leaving to attend graduate school for architecture, in Illinois. :-(

And don't get me wrong, I'm tremendously happy for her, she's taking the next step towards being an architect. I'm just going to miss my female buddy at work, my comrade in a sense.

So to bid her farewell, my other coworker is going to have a pot luck at her apartment since she lives nearby and has a new baby that we get to play with and make funny faces at (YAY!!). So my dish to this feast will be my family's Baked Ziti. Now, I've never made this on my own before, it's always been under the watchful eye of my mother and with the help of my sister, so this is a big deal and my first attempt to recreate a dish that I've loved my whole life.

Food is very important to me, especially family recipes like this one. It contains all of the happy memories left over from my childhood when I did have that big extended family. It's like a reminder to me about what an extended family can be and now it's a little container of hope that someday I will have a family to share my love with and my food, that I will bring to them all the happy memories that I had about what it is to have a family.

So now my Baked Ziti is resting in the fridge and will soon be baking in the oven and filling my apartment with a new wonderful scent.

(and no, you can't have the recipe) :-P

B*tch, no you didn't...

Having enough money to buy yourself a building does not somehow make you a structural engineer. A contractor is not a structural engineer. An architect is not a structural engineer.

Therefore, why are these people being consulted about footing designs?

And when I suggest that I should be talking to these people before decisions get made since it seems like they are getting made without us and you get angry about it and want to start a fight with me, that tells me that you have a guilty conscience because why would you object to that.

Why are structural engineers always the "bad guys." Why is everyone always upset at us when we tell them "no, you can't have a steel column just sitting on top of a slab" or "no, you have to have a thicker roof because we have this thing called 'snow' in the northeast" or "no, you need a column here unless you can somehow levitate the second floor above the ground floor." Is it because we're the one's responsible for the building if something happens to it? MAYBE THAT'S WHY! You aren't the one's that will get sued by the state or have to pay for a full site investigation or, better yet, get your license revoked if something happens to that building. Maybe that's why we're just a tad defensive about things an shoot down your pretty little ideas.

I don't really like sacrificing building integrity just because it will save you a couple hundred dollars. Sorry, I don't answer to you, I answer to the laws of physics and my boss that signs not only the building design drawings (and is even stricter than me because he pays the insurance on that stamp), but my paycheck as well.

*rolls eyes*

Was this not obvious enough?

"[Gas] prices hit a record high of $4.114 at the pump on July 16. Since then, gasoline - and the future contracts of crude oil - have declined on signs that high prices have caused Americans to consume less."

Really?? Wait, so you're telling me that we live in a crazy world where if the price of something goes up that means that people will find ways to use less of it??? Oh. My. GOD!! That's it, I'm moving to Canada!

Office Construction

Well, I'm back at my deck finally. Most of the loud parts of the construction are over: sawing wood, nailing studs into the floor, running wires. Now it's just painting and getting things in order since we moved some people onto my floor.

Not being at my desk and not doing my normal morning routines like start the coffee pot or clean the counters off really affected me, at least in the wee parts of my emotional cortex. It wasn't like a full blown "OMG MY WORLD IS FALLING APART" type of reaction, but I did miss my normalcy and definitely felt a whimper or two bubble up.

It's interesting that I was starting to get bored with my daily routine a month or so ago and was looking to change things up and boy, did I ever get a shake up. Careful what you wish for...

Meme Nosy Fun Times!

1. What is your occupation right now?
Structural Engineer (you all should know that by now, I say it all the damn time).

2. What color are your socks right now?
I'm free-footing it.

3. What are you listening to right now?
Howard Stern replays on Sirius/XM.

4. What was the last thing that you ate?
Toast with margarine and peanut butter.

5. Can you drive a stick shift?
No, I let the engineers do the shifting for me, they would know better than me anyway.

6. Last person you spoke to on the phone?
My mom.

7. Do you like the person who sent this to you?
Yup.

8. How old are you today?
26.

9. What is your favorite sport to watch?
Soccer (I mean football/futbol).

10. What is your favorite drink?
Hmmmm, depending on the bar either a Grey Goose Martini with a lemon twist or a 7 & 7.

11. Have you ever dyed your hair?
Dyed? Nope, not yet anyway.

12. Favorite food?
I hate this question, ummmmmmm, food, I don't know, I can't pick one...

13. What is the last movie you watched?
The Fall.

14. Favorite day of the year?
My birthday.

15. How do you vent anger?
Depending on the setting: yelling about what happened, blogging madly about it or driving very fast.

16. What was your favorite toy as a child?
Legos.

17. What is your favorite season?
Autumn.

18. Cherries or Blueberries?
Cherries.

19. Do you want your friends to e-mail you back?
As long as they get back to me in some way, shape or form.

20. Who is the most likely to respond?
A person.

21. Who is least likely to respond?
My blanket.

22. Living arrangements?
Renting a 1 bedroom corner apartment .

23. When was the last time you cried?
Last week.

24. What is on the floor of your closet?
Carpet.

25. Who is the friend you have had the longest that you are sending this to?
I'm putting this on my blog, so they can all fight over who answers it first, the person who draws blood first wins!

26. What did you do last night?
Hung out with Laura Anne and her friend Deb and had a great dinner in the city.

27. What inspires you?
Humbleness.

28. What are you most afraid of?
Failure.

29. Plain, cheese or spicy hamburgers?
Cheese.

30. Favorite dog cat breed?
I just like to squish 'em, I don't discriminate.

31. Favorite day of the week?
Sunday.

32. How many states have you lived in?
Just Connecticut, for now at least.