Ashleigh, to Priya:
"i was listening to backstreet boys today and i remembered when we were in the car on the way to philly and you were like 'Seriously, EVERY SINGLE song was a hit for them' and then like 30 minutes later was like, "priya, you're soooo right. every single one of these songs was a hit" and then you took out the CD. and what was it entitled? 'Backstreet Boys Greatest Hits'"
hahahahahahaha
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Joke's On You
Yesterday, several of my co-workers the next aisle over decided to pull an April Fool's Joke on one of the managers on that team. They saved the image of the desktop and pasted it into a Power Point slide, and found a way to pause the slide. In that case, the person would come back to her desk and find what she thought was her desktop (since the freeze-frame it looked just like that) and tried to click on things, but, obviously, nothing worked. It was pretty clever.
Also, I tried to create an original recipe last night. I decided to make stuffed tomatoes. I cooked a spaghetti squash and mixed it with broccoli pesto, which I stuffed in tomatoes and baked them, and served with couscous. Problem was, the couscous was just the plain kind (I'd run out of the flavored stuff) so it was kinda boring, and the broccoli pesto had too much lime zest in it. But when I called it lime pesto instead of broccoli pesto, Dan's rating of it went up from an 85 to an 88, largely due to positive associations of lime with Brazil and managing taste expectations. It's all in the positioning.
Also, I tried to create an original recipe last night. I decided to make stuffed tomatoes. I cooked a spaghetti squash and mixed it with broccoli pesto, which I stuffed in tomatoes and baked them, and served with couscous. Problem was, the couscous was just the plain kind (I'd run out of the flavored stuff) so it was kinda boring, and the broccoli pesto had too much lime zest in it. But when I called it lime pesto instead of broccoli pesto, Dan's rating of it went up from an 85 to an 88, largely due to positive associations of lime with Brazil and managing taste expectations. It's all in the positioning.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Grounds, Philly, & S'mac
This weekend was crazy, CRAZY FUN! And crazy crazy. Friday Dan was very sweet and took the train up to where I work and so we could have lunch together (at Taqueria La Morana). It was decidedly less good than Tortillas, where we went a couple of weeks before. Apparently we've decided to check out every seemingly authentic Mexican restaurant in a 10 mile radius of my office.
Dan hung out and got some work done in the library for the afternoon, and then we took off to drive down to Virginia. Rather, stand still in traffic for an hour on the 476, and then drive. We stopped off at my parents' house in NoVa to have a yummy Indian dinner which my mom extraordinarily graciously and spontaneously prepared when we said we were hungry, despite having "closed the kitchen" several hours before. My sweet dad was particularly concerned about us continuing the drive so late at night (it was 9:30pm by the time we departed) but we decided to tough it out since our time at UVA was already going to be so short.
Luckily, traffic around those southern Virginia parts is slim to none, and virtually the only time we slowed to the speed limit was when a cop was driving several hundred yards in front of us. I really dislike driving around cops, it makes me nervous and antsy and I keep looking at them to see if they're looking at me. I can't bring myself to pass them, even if they're driving under the speed limit. So I hung back and another more courageous car pulled up even and slowly passed the cop, going at most 5 miles over. I was starting to get seriously annoyed with the cop who was just cruising along, and I was starting to wonder how long I'd have to endure the unspeakable pain of going the speed limit when all of a sudden, he pulled the other guy over. Yikes. I felt bad for the dude since he really wasn't going fast, anyway, but I was somewhat unkindly happy for the fact that the cop would no longer prevent me from going any speed I darn well pleased.
So we arrived at UVA at around 11:30 and set up shop and promptly went to sleep. Mmm sleep. For a long time. We finally woke up the next morning and got ready at an excessively leisurely pace and went to eat breakfast/brunch/lunch at Cafe Europa. Mmm yummy sandwich and tomato basil soup. Then we went to downtown Charlottesville and walked around and window shopped in little antique shops and bought giraffe scissors and "hankies" and patronized a closing Crabtree & Evelyn. We then hurried back to "grounds" for a quick dinner at Lemongrass, some of the best Thai food I've eaten. I'm sad to admit that their lemongrass curry and buckwheat noodles kicked Pattaya Grill and Thai Singha's trash.
Then on to sadly missing Priya's friend's show due to the fact that we couldn't find the theatre until 10 minutes after the start time. Presented with the fact that there was no late seating (due to the fact that the entrance opens onto the stage...uh??? who had that idea?) and no intermission, we went back and watched The Office. Oh how I can't wait until April 10th.
Sunday morning, we drove back up to Philly (4 hours!) and had lunch with two of my old suitemates, Meg and Liz. Both were back in town briefly, so we caught them before they headed to Boston/Miami and NYC, respectively. Then church for 3 hours, during which Dan organized a lesson, and then we departed for New York City for our friend Nastya's birthday at the restaurant S'mac. Who would've ever thought there could be a whole entire restaurant wholly devoted to macaroni & cheese? It was glorious - goat cheese, gruyere, mushrooms, tomatoes, spinach, garlic, broccoli, cauliflower...magnificent.
Then we drove home. And went to sleep. Apparently I'm still not alert enough to come up with a clever ending. So, the end.
Dan hung out and got some work done in the library for the afternoon, and then we took off to drive down to Virginia. Rather, stand still in traffic for an hour on the 476, and then drive. We stopped off at my parents' house in NoVa to have a yummy Indian dinner which my mom extraordinarily graciously and spontaneously prepared when we said we were hungry, despite having "closed the kitchen" several hours before. My sweet dad was particularly concerned about us continuing the drive so late at night (it was 9:30pm by the time we departed) but we decided to tough it out since our time at UVA was already going to be so short.
Luckily, traffic around those southern Virginia parts is slim to none, and virtually the only time we slowed to the speed limit was when a cop was driving several hundred yards in front of us. I really dislike driving around cops, it makes me nervous and antsy and I keep looking at them to see if they're looking at me. I can't bring myself to pass them, even if they're driving under the speed limit. So I hung back and another more courageous car pulled up even and slowly passed the cop, going at most 5 miles over. I was starting to get seriously annoyed with the cop who was just cruising along, and I was starting to wonder how long I'd have to endure the unspeakable pain of going the speed limit when all of a sudden, he pulled the other guy over. Yikes. I felt bad for the dude since he really wasn't going fast, anyway, but I was somewhat unkindly happy for the fact that the cop would no longer prevent me from going any speed I darn well pleased.
So we arrived at UVA at around 11:30 and set up shop and promptly went to sleep. Mmm sleep. For a long time. We finally woke up the next morning and got ready at an excessively leisurely pace and went to eat breakfast/brunch/lunch at Cafe Europa. Mmm yummy sandwich and tomato basil soup. Then we went to downtown Charlottesville and walked around and window shopped in little antique shops and bought giraffe scissors and "hankies" and patronized a closing Crabtree & Evelyn. We then hurried back to "grounds" for a quick dinner at Lemongrass, some of the best Thai food I've eaten. I'm sad to admit that their lemongrass curry and buckwheat noodles kicked Pattaya Grill and Thai Singha's trash.
Then on to sadly missing Priya's friend's show due to the fact that we couldn't find the theatre until 10 minutes after the start time. Presented with the fact that there was no late seating (due to the fact that the entrance opens onto the stage...uh??? who had that idea?) and no intermission, we went back and watched The Office. Oh how I can't wait until April 10th.
Sunday morning, we drove back up to Philly (4 hours!) and had lunch with two of my old suitemates, Meg and Liz. Both were back in town briefly, so we caught them before they headed to Boston/Miami and NYC, respectively. Then church for 3 hours, during which Dan organized a lesson, and then we departed for New York City for our friend Nastya's birthday at the restaurant S'mac. Who would've ever thought there could be a whole entire restaurant wholly devoted to macaroni & cheese? It was glorious - goat cheese, gruyere, mushrooms, tomatoes, spinach, garlic, broccoli, cauliflower...magnificent.
Then we drove home. And went to sleep. Apparently I'm still not alert enough to come up with a clever ending. So, the end.
Friday, March 28, 2008
Philly Driving
We really adore Philadelphia. There are so many things about it that make us extraordinarily happy, such as Boathouse Row, Reading Terminal, Scannicchio's, etc. Philly driving, however, tends to make me want to stick a fork in my ear and pulverize my left brain, the part that is rational and wants people to drive in straight lines and not stop in the middle of a single-lane road and use turn signals. For instance, here are some things that have happened in the last, I am not even kidding you, 12 hours.
- This morning, as I was leaving for work, this man was pulling out of a parking spot in my lot. Now granted, it was a kind of tight spot, but presumably, if he's parked there, he must do it relatively regularly (considering it's a private lot). But he decided to turn slightly to get around the brick wall...very very very slowly. But okay, the brick wall is kind of intimidating, so all right, take your time. But then he stopped. In front of the gate. And didn't do anything. And continued to stand still. Not moving. For FIVE MINUTES. He just stood there! In case I wasn't clear, he continued to sit in his car unmovingly and not exiting through the gate. And then when I opened the gate from behind him since he wasn't, and he inched forward to the gate (was he scared of it?) and then nosed his hood through and then stood there again. Even though there was NO ONCOMING TRAFFIC. AHHHGG.
- Yesterday, I was driving home from West Philly down South Street and I got to the 15th block (the same one where a guy rear-ended me and we got to witness a heroin addict jump on random cars and lie down in the middle of the road, and where, in a separate incident, a guy tried to climb into my car and started beating my windows when I wouldn't let him...but that's a subject for another post) and there was not one or two or three or four but FIVE buses parked in the middle of this single-lane road completely stopped with a random white blinky light on top. Mind you, this was not in the middle of the day for a potential school trip, but rather at ten-thirty at night. What were they doing there? No idea. How do people get through there? They don't.
- Each day, I take Lincoln Drive to work. It's a super curvy and beautiful road that goes through parts of Fairmount Park. The cars in the morning tend to drive between 25 to 40 miles over the speed limit since it's a 25 zone and they drive it each and every day. There are also an abundance of blind turns so you really have no idea what's waiting for you around the bend. This morning it was a pair of geese just strolling along. The funniest part was that they didn't actually CROSS the road. Instead, they just hung out in the middle of it walking right along the white dividing line, going along their merry way. The best part was that it completely halted traffic as drivers waited for the geese to finish their morning promenade. It was rather cute.
Those are just the semi-unusual happenings - completely disregarding the normal throw-your-hazards-on-in-the-middle-of-the-street-and-leave-your-car-ness. (Which I was once encouraged to do. By a police officer.) It's going to be tough driving anywhere else - if I go on a trip, it's always so liberating to come back to Philly and feel like I speed and run blatantly red lights and park illegally again. :)
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Unpicky Eaterhood
I am not even kidding when I say that one of my favorite things about Dan (amongst many others!) is that he is one of the least picky eaters I've ever met in my life. There are very few things that he actively dislikes, and even those aren't real dislikes. For instance, he convinced himself as a child that he dislikes baby corn. Mainly because he had recently learned the word "appetite" and wanted to use it in a sentence. "I've lost my appetite" (for the coincidentally served baby corn) seemed to fit.I, on the other hand, never used to think I was a picky eater until I was around him. And I really do like pretty much all vegetables and fruits and good-for-you-things. It's only with the unhealthy things that I get choosy; sweets can't be TOO sweet, chocolate always defeats candy (and candy hardly ever wins even without chocolate as a contestant), nothing gummy (except the occasional Swedish fish), and plain chocolate must be dark. Processed foods tend to weird me out, and the fresh produce at Reading Terminal makes me hazardously ecstatic.
Dan's willingness to eat most anything is particularly exciting for me because it means that I can experiment with new and random and sometimes weird (but typically tasty, such as spaghetti squash casserole made with cottage cheese...I promise it tastes way better than it sounds) recipes and he'll always eat it, and usually like it. In fact, the problematic part is getting him to say which things he likes and which he really likes, so I can make them more frequently.
The one thing that he unreservedly adores is my vegetarian chili. Tasty, absurdly nutritious, and warm. MMM. So thanks, Danny, for helping me have a "specialty." :)
One, Two, Three, Stretch
Yet another reason I dislike the winter is that I always feel really out of shape. Since I like bullets, here's why:
a) It's way too cold to go running outside.
b) When it's not too cold, it's decidedly too windy. Which might even be worse than the cold.
c) I could get a gym membership, but by the time I get home and have to change, go over to the gym, etc. etc., I've completely lost my motivation to go. Plus, when I already get home at 6-6:30, I really have no desire to go to the gym at that point.
d) I go through a phase about once a year during which I tell myself that I'm going to get up at the crack of dawn and work out in the morning. Needless to say, my down comforter rudely wraps its tentacles around me and refuses to allow me to get out of bed. The gall.
e) On top of that, if I worked out in the morning, I'd have to shower at the gym, which I dislike, and I'd have to carry all my showering/work stuff with me, which I like even less.
f) I suppose I could go to the gym directly after work. But that would also involve me taking all my stuff with me in the morning, and I would still get home really late. And I sorta just like coming home. That was a lame excuse.
In any case, I really do love running and improving my endurance - when it's warm. For instance, I'd never really been a runner EVER in my life, and last summer, it was really neat to see that as I did it more, I IMPROVED! Who would've thought? So I ended up training for a half-marathon. Needless to say, I'm decidedly out of shape now.
So the other day, my friend Audrey lent me a workout video. Now typically, I feel like workout videos are nice for a sort of "day off" of working out, just for a nice, easy, get-your-heartrate-up-a-little sort of day. And yoga/Pilates is nice for, again, just sort of a slow day. So Roommate Julie and decided to try it out. Here's the sequence of events:
Monday, 6:30pm: Begin video.
M, 6:35pm: Okay, I thought this had several workouts - I guess it's just one long one with various segments. Let's do the whole thing.
M, 6:40pm: Hmm, this is nice, it's getting to the cardio part.
M, 6:45pm: Hello, kickboxing!
M, 6:55pm: I think this might make me a little sore tomorrow. But I'm going to go all out and do the advanced version of what she's doing.
M, 7:15pm: Entering abs portion...wow. Keep going...
Tuesday, 7:30am: I'm sore. Are you sore? I'm definitely sore.
T, 12:45pm: Noticing some more soreness.
Wednesday, 7:05am: Wow. Oh. My. I have to get up. And walk. All the way to the bathroom.
W, 9:10am: [text message] I'm way more sore than yesterday.
W, 9:15am: [reply text] Me too! I was going to text you the same. Ouch!
Wednesday, rest of day: Limping.
Pathetic, I know.
(For those of you curious about the title, think back to that old Saved by the Bell episode when they make that aerobics video. If only I had a leotard as cool as that.)
a) It's way too cold to go running outside.
b) When it's not too cold, it's decidedly too windy. Which might even be worse than the cold.
c) I could get a gym membership, but by the time I get home and have to change, go over to the gym, etc. etc., I've completely lost my motivation to go. Plus, when I already get home at 6-6:30, I really have no desire to go to the gym at that point.
d) I go through a phase about once a year during which I tell myself that I'm going to get up at the crack of dawn and work out in the morning. Needless to say, my down comforter rudely wraps its tentacles around me and refuses to allow me to get out of bed. The gall.
e) On top of that, if I worked out in the morning, I'd have to shower at the gym, which I dislike, and I'd have to carry all my showering/work stuff with me, which I like even less.
f) I suppose I could go to the gym directly after work. But that would also involve me taking all my stuff with me in the morning, and I would still get home really late. And I sorta just like coming home. That was a lame excuse.
In any case, I really do love running and improving my endurance - when it's warm. For instance, I'd never really been a runner EVER in my life, and last summer, it was really neat to see that as I did it more, I IMPROVED! Who would've thought? So I ended up training for a half-marathon. Needless to say, I'm decidedly out of shape now.
So the other day, my friend Audrey lent me a workout video. Now typically, I feel like workout videos are nice for a sort of "day off" of working out, just for a nice, easy, get-your-heartrate-up-a-little sort of day. And yoga/Pilates is nice for, again, just sort of a slow day. So Roommate Julie and decided to try it out. Here's the sequence of events:
Monday, 6:30pm: Begin video.
M, 6:35pm: Okay, I thought this had several workouts - I guess it's just one long one with various segments. Let's do the whole thing.
M, 6:40pm: Hmm, this is nice, it's getting to the cardio part.
M, 6:45pm: Hello, kickboxing!
M, 6:55pm: I think this might make me a little sore tomorrow. But I'm going to go all out and do the advanced version of what she's doing.
M, 7:15pm: Entering abs portion...wow. Keep going...
Tuesday, 7:30am: I'm sore. Are you sore? I'm definitely sore.
T, 12:45pm: Noticing some more soreness.
Wednesday, 7:05am: Wow. Oh. My. I have to get up. And walk. All the way to the bathroom.
W, 9:10am: [text message] I'm way more sore than yesterday.
W, 9:15am: [reply text] Me too! I was going to text you the same. Ouch!
Wednesday, rest of day: Limping.
Pathetic, I know.
(For those of you curious about the title, think back to that old Saved by the Bell episode when they make that aerobics video. If only I had a leotard as cool as that.)
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Death by Invitation
GLORY OF GLORIES WE ARE DONE. Well, almost.
How I despise this. And yet how cute they are. A certain young man very sweetly came over at 11pm last night after his group meeting to keep me and my nearly carpel-tunnelled wrist company. And gave me a wake-up call because he wasn't sure if in my soporific haze I'd remembered to set my alarm. :)
In other news, this weekend was nice and relaxing (x invitations, naturally) and beautiful out. We went for a run (outside!) and Dan proceeded to kindly not make fun of me as my side staged a protest. Why? I don't know. I mean, I'm out of shape, but not THAT out of shape. I can't WAIT for the weather to start being consistently nice so I can start consistently running on the consistently beautiful path to Boathouse Row. Oh blessed springtime, how I love thee and the scent of thy breath warms my frozen toes.
Finally, http://youtube.com/watch?v=DSYZesrkzAM.
How I despise this. And yet how cute they are. A certain young man very sweetly came over at 11pm last night after his group meeting to keep me and my nearly carpel-tunnelled wrist company. And gave me a wake-up call because he wasn't sure if in my soporific haze I'd remembered to set my alarm. :)
In other news, this weekend was nice and relaxing (x invitations, naturally) and beautiful out. We went for a run (outside!) and Dan proceeded to kindly not make fun of me as my side staged a protest. Why? I don't know. I mean, I'm out of shape, but not THAT out of shape. I can't WAIT for the weather to start being consistently nice so I can start consistently running on the consistently beautiful path to Boathouse Row. Oh blessed springtime, how I love thee and the scent of thy breath warms my frozen toes.
Finally, http://youtube.com/watch?v=DSYZesrkzAM.
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