Coffee-Gate

Heron firmly believes my frequent spills are my own personal superpower. This picture proves it's actually a LARGE CONSPIRACY by the sneaky food container companies. This is not by any means my first drippy coffee cup, people... THEY ARE OUT TO GET ME. ~A

Scenes from the Bolt

loving the Boltbus. Phonecam to computer to blog. some excerpts BOS-NYC:

- H

America, For Spacious Malls...

On a desperate quest to score a gym bag before tomorrow's morning practice, I hit up not one, but two malls... the second being the Fashion Centre at Pentagon City. Apparently, it takes its location seriously, as the style inspiration seems to be "Fourth of July Bandstand". (Be sure to note the life-size cutout of Michelle Obama in the corner of the America! store...) ~A

Missing NYC...

Shot from the window as I took the Vamoose back to Arlington... ~A

Summer in D.C.

There are many good things about the nation's capital, including the tasty little Peruvian place where I had dinner last night. But for some reason, one of the first things I associate with D.C. is its crazy-tall escalators... ~A

NYC's a Pretty Town

Let's face it. There are a lot of attractive people in this town. I haven't been to LA, but I imagine that people spend quite a bit of effort, time and money to spruce up their image... makeup, hairdresser, clothes etc....

But there has to be limits.

When your bobby pin drops onto the dog-pee and crap-infested sidewalk that is a NYC sidewalk, putting it into your mouth as you fix your hair is a no-no.

Ech... I almost gagged.

~H

Port Authority Poem

Ah, the tiny rebellions of the cranky commuter... spotted in the Port Authority bus terminal. ~A

Oops, I did it again...

My Etsy problem persists... but I really hope this fits. ~A

Chicago

Chicken in the car, car won't go... that's how you spell Chicago! ~A

Aaahh NYC Public Transportation

It's been a while since we've ridden the F-train to Brooklyn on a weekend. What better excuse than to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge, check out Brooklyn Designs '09, and then head into the slope for a party to celebrate one of Ali's co-worker's finishing his MBA (part-time no less!)...

Needless to say, for those in the know, the F-train isn't exactly the most expedient form of transportation, esp on the weekends. So this gave me a chuckle as a a passenger realizes she gets cell service when the train pops aboveground:

"I'm sooo sorry I'm late. This whole F-train thing just isn't working out."

yeah. there's a reason it's called the F-train.... 'nuff said.

~H

I might have an Etsy problem...

Recent buys (clockwise from top left): necklace from locallibrary, vintage-brooch-turned-ring from musarra and co, vintage-reworked, seriously bling earrings from Bel Canto Designs, nano case from QuietDoing, branch earrings from Nervous System and a gorgeous vinyl laptop sticker from Splendid Vinyl which allows me to pick out my own laptop from all the copycat Sternie Dells in the study lounge... ~A

The Things You Learn

Several important things I learned today:

1) It is IMPERATIVE that the lid is SECURE on the coffee cup BEFORE drinking hot coffee. Thankfully, I was wearing a rain coat at the time. Unfortunately, while my jacket dried out relatively quickly, it thoroughly looked like I peed myself. well, heeello, cute checkout girl... it's not what you think. honestly.... it's coffee.

2) I've heard this from many a person, but I do mghuabmle. I mean, mumble. I've got to learn to articulate my words, which leads me to the third great lesson the day:

3) It is apparently never too early for steak and cheese (colloquially known as cheesesteak) at the roach coach. I was a little early for a site visit, and decided I was hungry so stopped off at a roach coach to snag a bite to eat.

"Egg and cheese on a roll, please!" says I to the master chef.

"You want onions on that?"

"uuum, sure just a little bit," says I, somewhat thrown off but definitely looking forward to some extra flavor to the breakfast sandwich.

Five minutes later, I give him a $10 bill and receive $5 in change. Shit, that was the most expensive egg and cheese I've EVER had. Crack the bundle of aluminum foil open and lo, and behold: a steak and cheese sandwich. At 7:30 AM. The chef confused "egg" with "steak". Heck, he completely eliminated anything remotely close to eggs. I had in fact ordered a cheesesteak. At 7:30 AM.

Don't judge me, what do you think I did with it? Excuse my while I clear out my arteries...

Dilbert Moment 2 - And I wasn't even there

I'm in and out of the office recently esp since I've been working from the NYC office in Queens (QNS)  I have a sign up on my monitor that lists 3 locations, OUT, FIELD and QNS. 

I put a post it with an arrow next to the location that I’m at when I’m not in White Plains.  So it looks like this:

OUT

FIELD

QNS  ß

 Somebody rolls by my cube looking for me, and I get this report from my neighbor who sits next to me:

“he thought your note for Queens with the arrow (QNS->)

 meant questions and pointed to me”

 Dilbert worthy? Are am I just new York-centric?

 Still out of breath laughing.

~H

Dilbert moment - IT usefulness

And there's a reason why Scott Adams writes some of the best cartoonery in the world. Cause the stuff really does happen. Case in point:

Laptop needed to be fixed Thursday afternoon.

Says IT Man 1 "leave it overnight, I'll have it ready for you at the Helpdesk first thing in the morning."

Friday morning: "Hey IT man 2, IT Man 1 said he'd have my computer ready for me."

IT Man 2, "We don't have your laptop here. maybe it's on IT Man 1's desk"

...Which it was.

IT Man 2, "Oh wait... you can't take it. IT Man 1 sent an email saying the computer's not done yet."

I proceeded to give IT Man 2 an incredulous look, "So IT Man 1 sent us an email telling me that the computer isn't ready yet, intending me to read my email on a computer that I haven't gotten back yet."

So Friday morning, I'm stuck doing "work" on a sh*ta*s loaner computer. Honestly, I often wonder about IT.

~H

PS. hmm... this blogging thing is harder than it seems. Been 4 months since the last post. Sorry!

In the new world order...

Given the current state of the economy, we decided that it was time to cash in our small change jar and put it into our savings account. Mind you we've been adding (and taking) to this jar for the past 4-5 years and it was getting kinda heavy.

We had a latte bet to whoever could guess the closest: Ali = $50, Heron = $83.75

I thought that we were going to destroy the penny arcade machine at TD Bank but after finally feeding the thing, this is what we came up with:

My cameraphone sucks so let me tally that up:

• 4 Dollar coins
• 232 quarters
• 776 dimes
• 514 nickels and
• 1810 pennies.

Grand total = $183.40 and going straight into savings.... man alive that felt good. We were like giddy children...

-H