Patterns

I enjoy myself a good pattern. And nothing beats a good pattern like an animated pattern. Check out Aaron Koblin’s animated Flight Patterns. You should be able to click the play button on the second image down. Seeing how the country wakes up and gets to work is very dynamic in this 57 second bit. I wonder what the different colors represent? Different airline carriers?

Dawn

This morning I was coming into work earlier than normal. I emerged from the subway station to that moment when dawn is about to pass on to morning. It had an element of the surreal. At first I didn’t know if it was because of the shift of daylight from the time I got onto the subway twenty minutes earlier. Or if it was a different sound level – the hustle and bustle of the morning commuters just starting to ramp up, but not yet there. Or if it was because the streets were a bit more vacant than usual. All this went through my head in the few seconds I entered the street. And then a white flash shot in front of me. That was the surreal part. The seagulls had not vanished yet. Had not retreated to higher ground as the homo-sapiens took over. And they were huge. Nothing like the little pigeons that are everywhere during the day. These guys were beasts. Big breasted with a wing span of three feet, they were big enough to feed a family of four on Thanksgiving. Or perhaps two of them could. And they were owning the street and the sidewalks and the skies. I had a flash of the lead into the climax of Alfred Hitchcock’s famous Birds. I got a little nervous.





They were soaring above the street, skimming the tops of parked cars. During the day they are around, but occupy the higher flight paths. I know this because of the bones. I had forgotten I was going to post all this today, until just now. When all of a sudden I hear the clatter on the roof above me. The seagulls fly by and drop the bones of their meals. The roof is littered with bones. Don’t mess with the seagulls, especially in the early hours. They own the dawn.

Happy stomach and lips

For me cooking comes in waves. Sometimes I wish I could eat more – there’s so much to taste and enjoy. Other times I wish I didn’t always need to figure out what to eat and we could just pop a pill (not that I’m a pill popping type of gal). Well, the tide is in (ok the analogy is now officially dead).


Some context. Here is my place. And over here on the left is my local Trader Joes. And over here on the right, about the same distance away, is my Whole Foods. And around the corner is my local run of the mill grocery store. Pretty nice set up but they each have their pros and cons and none of them can stand on their own. Love Whole Foods, but the prices. Still the best place for local produce, and if I buy meat (which I rarely do) and any other specialty food/indulgence. Trader Joes is a staple being a cheese lover. And then the local places sells my baking goods (flour, sugar) and other particular brands I prefer such as Grape-Nuts, Hood Cottage Cheese – best taste hands down, Cabot’s Wicked Sharp Cheddar – I’m not kidding, that’s what’s it’s called and for me, the sharper the better.



Well I noticed the other day that they had opened up a new Trader Joes… right across the street from my Whole Foods. Sweet! So at the end of Sunday, I make it over there to get my grocery shopping done. I figure I’d go to Whole Foods first and buy the remaining items I need at Trader Joes. Great plan except for three things – I’m tired, hungry, and by the time I get done with Whole Food’s I realize, that to get to the Trader Joes (yes, the one across the street), I have to drive a quarter mile, over the railroad tracks over to the next light to turn around and reverse directions. There’s a light between the two stores – but only for turning, not for going straight (there’s a barricade too that prevents folks like me from attempting it). So I didn’t make it to the new Trader Joes yet. I wonder if this one sells wine and beer (there’s something about MA puritan roots and limited alcohol licenses).



But the good news, I got some good meals for this week.

Sunday night: Cheese fondue (from previous TJs visit) and fresh french baguette. When I say fresh, I mean I was in the bakery at WFs and followed the baker dude with his armful of loafs he was putting out. They were still steaming! And because I wanted to I had some of the Salami I had bought and half a fresh avocado lightly salted. Mmmm good and easy.



Monday night: I tried my hand at mussels Provincial. They’re my favorite and I always order them when I’m out. At WFs they had a new shipment fresh from Maine. I used the remaining baguette from the previous night to sop up the creamy goodness. I used some simple white serving dishes and it was beautifully presented with the mussels and bread and steamed asparagus. I realized I didn’t know what to do with leftover mussels, so being on my own ate them all. I didn’t know how to de-beard them and most of them didn’t need it. I was confused at first when I was prepping them if they were alive or “harvested” (aka dead). They were still alive. So I ended up periodically jostling the bowl they were resting in so they would close up and stop staring at me before I killed them. I was happy to learn they don’t scream like other crustaceans.



Tonight: WFs had a sale on fresh pasta so I bought the fixings to make a cream based gorgonzola sauce with mint and toasted pecans. And pears! I forgot the pears. Hopefully I can pick some up on my way home tonight. I love this dish. I discovered it at a restaurant in San Francisco and would order it every time we went. I kind of made it up and was able to pull it off at home. I might do a kale salad – doesn’t really go but it’s the greens I have.


The other thing I picked up at WFs was my “chapstick”. I discovered this un-petroleum lip balm that I love. My mom set me up with some a few years ago.
And just last month they all decided to be used up at the same time. There’s nothing worse than having chapped lips and rubbing an empty tube over your lips trying to get the last bits out. I was worried the brand would have disappeared – nope just new packaging. I like this brand because I don’t feel like it strips my lips from producing the balm naturally so you’re not as addicted to it (hence why it’s lasted so long – 5 years I think).
Conclusion: my stomach is happy and my lips are happy – a great winter combo!

Raining Suzanne's

Every now and then at work, I’ll end up sending an email to myself. Usually when I’m “replying all” from an email I sent. Nothing unusual here and this is why I sometimes see my name when I glance through emails. But I did a double take this time round when gearing up for another week of work, I see my name there. And when it rains it pours. There was correspondence from two different Suzanne’s in the mix. I’ve never known a Suzanne before. Suzanna’s and Susanne’s but not Suzanne. And now two! At first I thought it was a spam trick. But it’s from a committee I’m on. They’re real people.




Apparently there was a little tiff with Suzanne and Whoopi, hence the picture. It looks like it was cleared up so you can rest easy now.



On a side note, trying to find a picture of a Suzanne, I remembered a sandwich joint in San Francisco. You put your first name in with your order and waited briefly. The guy handing out the finished product would yell your famous celebrity name. He’d mix it up some, so sometimes it would be David Letterman other times David Carey. Mine was always Suzanne Somers.

Car Keys and cell phones

There goes the pattern. Should have known better than to point it out – murphy’s law. So the latest thing gone missing is my car keys. I was running a little late Saturday morning. Threw some clothes into my bag and went to head out the door and my car keys were MIA. I thought they were on the table which means that probably one of the guys (i.e. walter, but there’s no proof) knocked them off and played soccer with them until they got stuck behind something. Hunted high and low and no luck. I’m convinced they’re now hanging out with my watch which I’m certain is somewhere in my apartment. Luckily I have a spare – but just one so am trying extra hard not to misplace this set.



On a different note, I did discover there is a pass through in my car so traveling with skis was a piece of cake. Unfortunately there was no snow this weekend. A beautiful snow on Tuesday evening. I watched the big snowflakes fall but not stick while sitting in my office in the city. When I got home I had the pleasant surprise that the snow was sticking to the ground and folks were out shoveling. It was a gorgeous evening with the heavy snow on the tree branches and that strange back light of the night sky from the snow storm.





Unfortunately, I realize I’m not being entirely upfront here. The latest thing to go missing is not my keys but my cell phone. I’m hoping it’s not on silent but it went missing last night. Don’t quite know where the silver lining is in all this but while I was surfing to nab a picture of keys, I found this brief article stating that “Cell Phones Can Disable Nissan Car Keys”. Particularly the 2007 Altima and the Infiniti G35 Sedans. Nice! I guess it doesn’t really matter since they’re both missing. Here’s hoping they both turn up, along with the other stuff, and that Nissan’s fixed the problem since the article came out in May 2007.

Notice a pattern?

I wanted to wait and see if it stuck, but it looks like I'm doing well. I've started posting something every day (weekday at least). Apologies for missing yesterday, but was on the road which made my computer time squished.



This comes from me appreciating it when folks post often and silently cursing folks when I have no new posts to read for the day. And then I realized I was being a "little" hypocritical. Hopefully I haven't jinxed things, but wanted to also give myself a free pass for Monday as it's a holiday so most likely won't be online. So until Tuesday!

I was lost but now I’m found

I found my water bottle! It didn’t make it into my bag apparently when I was leaving work the other day. It inspired me to see what I could do about the other favs missing. I know when everything went missing – within a few hour window.

- Sunglasses: I emailed the church today, where my sunglasses were last seen asking them to check their lost and found. The only other place is Cece’s. Nothing’s turned up right?

- Watch: I’m pretty sure it’s somewhere in my house. I had it the Saturday I got back from the middle east and took it off after I went grocery shopping, before I started cooking. So it’s got to be in my place somewhere. I’m going to try to do a quick spring cleaning Monday (I have president’s day off)

- Winter hat: This one I retraced my steps and checked the lost and founds so it’s gone. But I’ve got a sister hat in cream – doesn’t look as good, but am going to bring it into the yarn store and find the right yarn to recreate a new version. Either in the dark gray of the original or maybe a nice dark red or purple that goes well with my complexion. This will be my first wearable item in crochet. I have a feeling it will take quite a few tries. I’ll keep you posted.

- Gold earrings: This one I retraced my steps too and it is gone. I’m going to search online to find replacements – I think I know the name of the designer and maybe it’s in some overstock website. I did get them at TJ Maxx after all.

- Winter gloves: Again, I retraced my steps and it’s gone. But I’ve been meaning to replace these anyways. I started looking the other month at Macy’s so will start looking online too. My wee hands have been particularly cold these last couple of weeks on my way into work.



Hopefully I can soon report on some more items “found” and this is the end of the losing streak!



In other news, I was pleasantly surprised by the recent Fresh Air on Temple Grandin. I had picked up her book last year and started reading it but had put it down for some reason. I’ll have to pick it up again. She’s a remarkable woman who took her acute autism and used it as a strength to revolutionize the way we slaughter cattle. Apparently there’s a new HBO series about to start starring Claire Danes.


And finally, I have to jot down what I saw yesterday on my way down to CT for a project meeting. It’s about a two hour drive and I had just gotten onto I-84. The traffic was pretty light and I was enjoying the drive in my wonderful car. It was supposed to be a zipcar, but I won’t get into that. I do have to be more conscious of speed in this car – you don’t notice it at all. Actually on the way back, I kept passing cars pulled over by the police and had to slow down and it seemed like I was barely moving. Not that I was speeding before – don’t want to self-incriminate here. But if I had to choose, I’d prefer to be in a fast car rather than a slow car – if I’m on my own. Slow cars drive me bonkers. Anyways, that’s not the point. I was driving along – good site lines up ahead and I notice a spray of snow shoot up from where there was an on ramp. As I approach, in the far left lane I realize the spray was from a semi-truck that had taken the on ramp curve too quickly. It was one of those trucks that carry about a half dozen cars. Except it was empty. And now it was facing perpendicular to the road – both the on-ramp and highway – partly on each and the expanse of grass in between. Luckily, as we all come up to it, being the first wave of vehicles to approach, there was another semi in the far right lane, who slowed down and stopped, blocking the lane and letting approaching cars now there was an incident here with his flashers. It was all very peaceful – the beauty of the green frame of the truck against the white snow and the backdrop of evergreens. Very quaint and no one harmed. Although I’m not sure how easy it was to get the truck repositioned again. And I saw it all happen, except the magnitude of what happened didn’t register until I was closer. There’s something about things being in the distance and much tinier seem much less significant.

I'm Loosing It!

Brilliant title, right? I thought of it today on my way back from lunch and figured I'd go in and edit the title of the previous post. But unfortunately, there's no need. I got home this evening and found that I have lost yet another favorite. My glass water bottle. I don't know how it happened either as I carried my bag on my lap on my way home so there's no way it could have fallen out there. The only other thing was perhaps at a meeting with a client it fell out there. But it really had to work at doing that as I had put it inside a boot so it's not like it was just rolling around ready to roll out of my bag. And I don't feel like I'm more flakey or anything that would warrent me loosing things. I'm starting to suspect the universe is playing with me. I just don't get it.

BTW - love the glass water bottle. It was a wonderful gift. I have a thing about drinking water from glasses. I don't like plastic or metal or paper - give me glass. That's whats great about business class - water in glasses. Anyways, if you're interested, I believe Crate and Barrel has a line of glass water bottles. I carry mine all over the place - fairly durable and the stopper works brilliantly.

In other news, the crazy snow storm we were supposed to get today never came. There was barely a dusting on my way home this evening. It was supposed to be 6-10 inches starting during the morning commute. I'm really hoping I wake up to a pleasent suprise. Of course I have a meeting down in CT tomorrow that is a two hour drive so hopefully it's not too bad. Or really bad that the meeting gets canceled. But not the in between. I hope it's alot of snow. I've been jealous of the folks to the south. I thought that's what moving to New England would bring - crazy snow storms. It seems I should have moved to D.C. if I wanted that. I love snow. My three most favorite things are snow, maple syrup and raspberries. I miss the snow.

Sunglasses this time - what's next?

Another item to add to the list of lost items – my favorite pair of sunglasses. They were wonderful. Just the perfect shade of brown. Just the perfect size to fit my face. They were perfect and they went missing somewhere between church on Sunday and home. I guess that teaches me to go to church. I checked the car this morning which was the last place I could think they could fallen out of my pocket. I can’t even remember the brand to be able to post a proper picture of them. At least they weren’t expensive – well at least, what I paid.



So here’s the ever growing list:

- favorite pair of sunglasses

- favorite watch

- favorite winter hat

- favorite pair of gold earrings (well just one earring is gone)

- favorite pair of winter gloves (again just one is gone – to torture me)




What’s going on here? Looking at the pattern, if I’m not careful, my favorite winter jacket will go missing soon. I'll get on the bus with it on and then next thing I know I'll be getting off the bus and it will be gone. Just vanished off my back. I’ve been triple checking I’ve got my phone, wallet and keys with me these days. It’s very weird and out of character for me.

The Middle East

I just have to post this. I use one calendar for all my events – work and social. So today I’ve been scheduling stuff for the upcoming weeks. And I keep getting a moment of elation that I have something planned at the Middle East this Friday. For me, and a lot of folks in the Cambridge/Boston area, the Middle East is a local music venue. I’ve been there a few times to see a friends band perform. It’s a fun place.



But then I realize, even though it’s on Friday, it’s an 8:30 am appointment and it is a meeting to discuss business development in the Middle East. Not quite so fun. The thing is. This happened to me like three times. Not once, or twice, but at least three times I saw the Middle East and forgot that it was for a work meeting and for a moment thought I was going out for beer and music with friends.



So I just finished emailing some friends I’ve met who live up in Vermont to see if they want to get together for beer and music. I’m heading there this weekend as part of the annual tradition to see the Harris Hill Ski Jump event. And I’ve already got one taker. Pretty good as I only emailed one person so far. I need to go hunt up the other emails.



I guess there is something about lemon and lemonade or birds and stones or silver linings in clouds in all this. Or maybe it's just about beer. I’m just not sure what exactly.

New chair

I bought a new chair this weekend! Ok it’s not quite new. And to be honest it wasn’t exactly the focal piece I was looking for. But I’m happy with the purchase. I’m a home body. I love hanging out at my apartment. My apartment is perfect for hanging out. I have the living room couch to lounge on and watch tv. Or my office with its humungous desk to spread out whatever project I’m currently working on. Or my perfectly sized kitchen to whip up a delicious meal. Or my cozy bedroom to curl up in bed and read a good book. Or my sunny sunroom to knit and listen to NPR. Or my sun porch for… ok for dumping stuff right now – but this spring I hope to spruce it up and it’ll be yet another great place to hang out. And I didn’t mention my dining room or loft or even the bathroom – they all get hanging out time.



Except there’s a catch. The catch being that they’re all pretty much geared for single person hanging out. I know this and most of the time it’s fine. I don’t have folks visit too often and when they do its brief – an afternoon here an evening there. Except every year, around Christmas, I’m grossly reminded what a single life I live. My brother will stay with me for a week or so and it’s sometimes nice to hang out in the same room at the same time. Easy fix. Add a lounge chair in the living room. So I’ve been on the hunt… for three years.



I’ve found pictures of chairs I love, but can’t find where they are sold. I’ve found chairs I love online but hate to buy sight unseen and the nearest store is NYC. I’ve found chairs I love but they seem a bit too big to make it up my small staircase. I’ve found chairs that I love and know where to buy them but they’re ridiculously expensive, especially for someone who owns cats with claws. I’ve found chairs I like but are too expensive for something I just like. Chairs aren’t cheap. Couches are almost cheaper considering the number of seats you get. I was entertaining the thought of getting another couch, or a sectional. I don’t know. I need more seating, but just can’t find the right match of style and cost.



And then last week, I was perusing the furniture section on craigslist. Craig solved my bed dilemma. It was a year plus searching for the right bed frame. That was a year plus sleeping on the floor. I got this wonderful Vermont handmade beautiful bed frame (with under bed storage – even better). And all was good. I did the same thing with a cheap futon and it was the opposite. I got a little grossed out having a used futon from a grad student and got rid of it and vowed to only buy wood or non-absorbable material furniture used. Like this one below. Love the chair, but it's seen better days and turns out it's over 10 years old. Let me know if you come across a new version of something similar of this chair and ottoman.

But I came across this chair (the one at the top of this post). It was reportedly barely used and fairly new and was only a hundred bucks. This weekend I was over at friends who had a pick-up truck so asked to borrow it and ended up getting the pick-up and the muscle (aaron came along). It was at a lovely suburban house in Sudbury and was indeed “like new”. It was in their formal living room that looked like it barely ever got any use. So I got it. And now I need to quickly make a slipcover for it before the boys tear it apart as their new scratching post.

There's something about office supplies

It’s Friday. And I’m tired. And I still have a list a mile long of stuff to get done before I leave today. And I edited it to be only the most important and it’s still a foot long. One of my coping mechanisms? Other than procrastination? I’ve developed it from years in the industry – go hang out in the office supply closet for a little bit. There’s something about office supplies that just jiggles my quiver. It’s not the organization per se as I’ve seen my share of chaotic office supply rooms. It’s just the suggestion of order I guess. With office supplies come order and peace. Everything is going to be ok.



Actually, writing this just now, I’m reminded of my 20 something birthday years ago. I was living in the San Francisco area and my boyfriend at the time, for my Birthday, gave me a big box of assorted office supplies. I was tickled pink. It was better than the jewelry and other gifts from previous occasions.



And writing that last bit reminded me of another birthday, even father ago. I was probably 9 or so. Maybe older. There was a big box in the living room. I had no idea what it could be. Any ideas? Apparently, my parents thought the best gift to give a youngster wasn’t a Barbie doll dream house or gigantic box of new clothes. Nope, it was a two drawer filing cabinet. And I loved it! I filed to my hearts delight. Can’t really remember what. But it was full.



So right now, this is when I wish I was at a posh office. Our lease is up this spring and we’ll be moving to swankier digs. The new digs should have an office supply closet. And hopefully, it won’t take too long to stock it. But for right now I’ve got a glorified cupboard. I just went over to the dark corner. Crouched down and opened the doors. It helped a little. But not really. I miss my office supplies.

Wicked Tired

I’ve been really tired this week. Luckily I haven’t been driving or I might end up like this picture I took last week in Abu Dhabi (not really, I’m a responsible driver – really.) At first I put it down to delayed jet lag. On Monday I had a Dr. visit and she said she found the jet lag always hit on the third day. But here it is almost a week later and I’m wiped. My routine has been different lately as my living room isn’t back in order yet. The couch is still upended in the corner and I have a nice long table filling up the room. I realize I haven’t switched it back because I really like having the table like this. I just don’t really have a working couch right now. I’m tempted to turn my dining room into a small cozy living room and my living room into a grand dining room/office. The only thing is that the couch can’t be moved to the dining room – the doorways get too narrow. But the couch has seen better days, so maybe it’s time to get a new one? Need to start saving and searching.





So I’ve got this weird tiredness. Part of me thinks it’s stress of life. Part stress of work. Part diet. Part exercise (or lack of). Part unknown medical condition yet to be discovered. So here’s my plan:

1. See doctor. Check. Have a follow up at the end of the month when blood work comes back.

2. Look into getting a new bike/new tires for the old bike and winter biking clothes so I can bike to work. It’s winter but it doesn’t really snow so no reason not to bike. Maybe it’ll finally snow and then I can x-country ski to work.

3. Tonight cook up the remaining carrots and beet greens. That’ll keep me for this week. And then Sunday cook up food for next week. Sift through my wonderful cookbooks and discover more wonderful dishes. Eating all these wonderful leftovers from the dinner party has been great. Need to keep the momentum going.

4. Work. I don’t know. Head down and keep working. Finalize 2010 target list. Meet with friend to talk business development of my new idea for a side business. Start coming in and leaving at the same time. Try to shift it to be earlier in – 8 am.

5. Life. I don’t know. Keep going with the therapy sessions (it’s been two week gap so that might be in play here). Take another pass at the online pool. Sit down and figure out a budget and tighten things up. Schedule more fun things with friends. Partial check – have plans to ski on the marshes of Ipswich and see my godson this weekend.



Last night I made it to bed early which was nice since Tuesday was a late night at the town building committee meeting. When I started we were working on one fire station. Now we’re working on two schools, two fire stations and the police station! Long meetings and a lot of work to be done. And Monday, well, Monday was rough. I was only going to work part day since the jet lag was hitting me hard. Of course, it didn’t work out that way, got pulled into meetings so didn’t get home until about 7:30. Where I surprised myself. I had three main options:

1. Crash into bed – completely exhausted. Asleep by 7:34 pm.

2. Heat up leftovers for dinner and then crawl into bed. Asleep by 8:00 pm.

3. Tackle the mess from the party, eat dinner and go to bed. Asleep by 10 pm or so.



I rarely do the responsible thing, choice 3. I’m usually struggling between option 1 and 2 with maybe a little TV thrown into the mix. I don’t know where I got the second wind from, but I took it and the piles of dishes stacked on my kitchen counters, and stove, and dining room table and sun room table slowly diminished and disappeared. I worked and worked and worked and everything got put away properly into its home. There is something about turning chaos into order. Perhaps that’s what kept me going even though I was super hungry and tired. By the end, it all got done other than a half dozen wine glasses. The counters got wiped down. The leftovers divided up for lunch this week. The leftovers heated up for dinner. An episode of Lost watched and to bed at 11 pm.



And then the following morning I woke up early, 5:30 am or so and instead of being sluggish, that second (or third) wind came back so wrapped up the dishes, got everything put away and even did the kitty litter and took the trash out. All that’s left is moving the furniture back. Crazy!

The Third One

I'm worried I figured out what the third item is that I've lost (see previous post). My watch! I finally found one that I liked. Nice and simple and stylish. Made by Skagen (not cheap). It was perfect - especially now that it might be gone. I'm not fully convinced it's gone. I had it while traveling last week - so much easier to have a watch when in transit and the cell phone is off. I had it while running errands on Saturday. And then I took it off. And??? This week I've been slowly finding stuff that had gone missing during my haze of craziness created from too much - travel and entertaining. The brain really did start shutting down and I started loosing track of things. Simple things like my toothbrush and my cell phone charger and my T-pass. Those have all been recovered and I figured it was only time until the watch popped up. I haven't fully put everything back into their homes, so hoping that it's just stuffed in a pocket or something. Or, knowing my home, these guys have decided to knock it down from whatever surface and play with it so that it ends up under something - hidden away!

I Lost

Season premiere of the final sixth season of Lost is tonight. I finished episode 13 of Season 3 last night. That was the 62nd episode I've seen. I didn’t make it. There are 121 (not including season 6 of course). So I made it half way. It'll be tricky to stay clear of any spoilers. I already find that knowing some of the twists of future seasons took away from the unfolding of the story line.