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

Missing NYC...

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

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

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

First Snow!!!!

It is with much giddiness of a school child that I announce the first snow of the season! well, at least in the white plains area... well, at least for me!

For whatever reason I couldn't get a good shot of snow falling.... but here's a snapshot from the WHI train station. There's snow there I promise.
Giddy giddy giddy giddy...

-H

Lonely

Job site at 11 PM and raining...

-H

mmmm....Pumpkins

As I'm sure Ali has indicated, we've been complete slackers w/ posts. Finally worked through some of my apathy/sloth (and work) to provide a short post about the Smashing Pumpkins concert we went to: White Crosses at the United Palace Theater. Keep in mind that I've been a Pumpkins fan since Siamese Dream though I can't say that some of the later albums have been on my Top 10 playlist. As with every artist (e.g. Metallica), artistic evolution often leads to different sounds than what initially drew a listener, leading to much gripin' about how they "just don't sound like they used to." I'll admit I'm one of those listeners; I respect the evolution, I just don't have to like it. Point being, while the concert was really fun overall, I couldn't really appreciate a portion of the set. Each to their own....

Highlights: Soma, Disarm, Galapagos, Cherub Rock, Zero (pic below)...


BTW, design-wise, the theater was a really cool old-school building; ginormous and had a classic feel to it. Here's what it looks like from the outside. I love how Manhattan offers so much in the way of cool architecture. This one was a hell of a subway ride away.
- H

PS. What the hell is up with Dinosaur BBQ? It's one of my favorite BBQ joints, but at 11 PM on a Friday night, how the HELL is it a 1-hour wait for a table? The place closes at midnight damnit.

PPS. Concert audio courtesy archive.org via smashingpumpkins.com

You know you're in NYC when...

... you realize the sweet-looking, grandmotherly WHITE lady sitting next to you on the subway is in fact the one blasting Jay Z through her headphones. That woman must have some seriously bling-bling knitting patterns... -A

We're really not that different from....

any other animal in the world... safety (and dryness) in numbers... Union Square during a ridiculous Saturday afternoon squall.
Love the man in the plastic bag... that's evolution for you.

-H

Strange Name for a Store

We bought produce here the other day... and it LOOKS ok... but I keep staring at it wondering, WHAT DO I NOT KNOW?! -A

Summer Days

Cape Cod, Summer 2008, me and a buddy enjoying the last twinges of summer. Nuff said. Hope y'all enjoyed the lazy days!

-H

Global Warming Doomsday

I may be somewhat ignorant of the actual hard numbers associated with this argument but, somehow the scientist and engineer (and the gastronomist) in me refuses to believe in the validity of the claim on the bus.

Keep in mind that I am certain that meat production contributes quite a bit to climate impacts (transportation, harvesting, processing) but there's absolutely no way that eating vegetarian or using animal-free products don't have similar impacts.

Chalk one up to the doomsday/fear approach. Cause that really worked in grade school.

BONUS: The website that they refer to is soooo legit-sounding. Click on the picture to zoom in; it's not even worth repeating here.

DOUBLE-BONUS: speaking of global warming, can the owner of the Chevy Cavalier that was parked outside of the Kips Bay Loews please stand up? I'm talking about the one that had 8 solar cells mounted to various surfaces of the car, and very likely was powering the 6-inch fan inside the car. That was awesome. Talk about grass-roots... (I had a picture that has since disappeared... boo)

-H

First Day of School

Wish me luck... it's been quite awhile. :) -A

Getting Ready

I would like to personally thank design undercover for posting this poster - as it will be my mantra for the next two years. :) -A

Back from a Hiatus

So I am definitely enjoying the wonderous marvel of wireless internet.... using a cellphone company's wireless PC card... currently on the way to the Cape with some friends and looking forward to a wonderful long weekend. Just wanted to update you and let you know some more posts are coming your way since Ali has been dominant as of late...

-H