Windy Night

It's another windy night. I forgot just how much Shelby likes cold and windy weather. She acts like a 8 year old kid who just ate 1,000 pixie sticks and drank a bunch of sodas. Her ears and movements gets all pointy and fast. It's pretty hilarious.

Two things are for sure tonight. The housecats are all inside and there is no one looking down from the top of the Empire State Building.

First Snow

Snowy station
Originally uploaded by transplant

Today I woke up to a bit of snow on the ground and the general feeling that winter had finally arrived. I never mind the cold if there is snow on the ground.

Bus Drivin

We went to the MTA Transit Museum today. It was pretty cool cause the whole thing is in an old but still functional subway station. They had some good exhibits, lots of old subway cars with vintage ads in them, and some buses you could pretend to drive. Big Bro makes a jolly bus driver.

I look like Im going to run someone over.

At Home

Miracles of Modern Technology

Im writing this from an internet kiosk in El Aeropuerto in Madrid. I ended coming here for training instead of Mallorca, which was a nice surprise. I didnt take too many pictures or walk around too much because I was working until almost dark and the weather was not very picturesque.

I did see a bit of the city though, and meet and reunite with some of my favorite Spaniards though so that part of the trip was good. Its funny to me that I always end up getting shown around in the 'coolest' parts of cities when I visit, I think because Im from New York, and people like to show off the parts of their cities that are most like SOHO. Little do these people know that Im a small town girl at heart and the opportunity to travel anywhere and see international cities is amazing to me, whether I see the cool parts or not.

Ill post a couple of pictures when I get back to New York. Right now though Im sitting out a 2 hour delay due to bad weather in New Jersey. Boredom at its best. Too bad Idont have my sis around to play cribbage and make up slightly delirious songs about waiting

Greener Thumbs

Before (2005)

After (Now)

I realized today that I have a total of 9 successful houseplants, which is a lot but not a whole lot since the majority of them are pretty small. I have lost only 1 other plant in the last year or so, due to a complete lack of understanding of what it needed. After trying varying levels of water and light it dried up and died anyway, but I figure 9 out of 10 is pretty good.

I get all of these plants from a store down the street. They always give me a tip or two when I get a plant from them, and gave me some potting soil for free when I needed it which was pretty sweet.

Old Man Bunny

Lots O' Dots

A Good Thing About Today

Today is the day in my neighborhood when burly men can hug each other in the street outside the bar and do that manly hug that is all embracing, with lots hard pats on the back without looking around and feeling embarrassed.

I think its a better reminder than having to watch all of the news shows with the same footage and same stories fake being empathetic so they can all pat themselves on the back for the Best 10 o'clock 9/11 Retrospective News Special Feature anyway.

King Robot, Lemonhead and Fishface

Thank You Carl Sagan and Anonymous Chinese Girl

Two things happened at once the other day, which led to a funny and kind of interesting thought. I've been reading Contact by Carl Sagan, and really enjoying it. I also watched the beginning of Wizard of Oz, before my Netflix disc gave up and was unplayable. One of the biggest ideas in Contact is that we have been sending our TV transmissions out into space for a really long time, and any alien civilization that has been paying attention has also been able to watch our tv. As I was watching Wizard of Oz, I couldn't help but wonder what the aliens (or the future anthropoligists) think of the movie the Wizard of Oz. Because parts of it are completely crazy. Of course, there is a lot of TV out there that would make other civilizations think twice about the mental well being of all of us Earthlings. Anyway. Maybe we need to send the aliens a copy of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon too.

Here's a bit 'o luck/good karma story that happened to me the other day. I have a small, pink stuffed dog on my house keys, which I have had for a little over a year, and usually is hanging off of my belt loop with the keys tucked into my pocket. It keeps me from locking the keys inside of my apartment, or forgetting them at work. On my morning commute, after waking up extremely late and being generally grumpy, I noticed that it had fallen off in the train station where I switch to the local train. It was upsetting in the "I know it's only a keychain, but I am attached to it anyway so it sucks that its gone" kind of way, but since I was already running late for work, I couldn't really go back and look for it wihch made me even grumpier. BUT as I was walking up the steps to the next train this Chinese girl tapped me on the shoulder and handed it to me. Apparently she followed me around the station to give it back to me. Which was very awesome. Needless to say I thanked her profusely, and then we both went on our ways. It certainly brightened up my day.

Now Thats What I Call An Endorsement.

The Mice Parade Album called Mice Parade is really really really really really really really really good. Thats a lot of reallys. But I really like it. Even more than I really liked the Blonde Redhead album. Because the Blonde Redhead has a couple of tracks that I skip over. But I don't do that with any of the songs on this one. Because they're all good. And interesting. Which is also good.

Still Going

After a little break due to numbness in the crocheting finger, I've been working on completing my blanket. It went a lot faster when I could take it on the train, cause I could finish a color on the trip to and from work. Now I just work on it when I'm watching tv or a movie. Its getting bigger and bigger though!

I Like Taking Pictures When It's Near Dark

Newish Music

I got my hands on the newest Blonde Redhead Album. You all should give it a listen. I like it!

Home Again

The sunrise out of the balcony on my hotel room I stayed in for the Retail Convention in Spain last week. We were in a pretty big hotel on the Marina in the city of Palma. Seeing the sunrise was a regular event, since were were scheduled to leave everyday at 8 or 9. We were also scheduled for "Dinners" which most of the time meant hor'dourves and wine until midnight or after, which made for a very tiring but very fun week.

This was the approach to the beach on the Sunday. Luckily, the girl I was traveling with had one of here friends from HQ take us to a beach about 45 minutes away from our hotel. The road leading up to it was very narrow, it would be a single car road for the US, but in Spain most people have tiny cars that could just barely pass each other going each way. Then there is a dirt parking lot, and you had to walk along a trail for a few minutes before getting to the actual beach.

I've never been on a beach as nice as this one. It was pretty crowded with locals and tourists. It made for an extremely relaxing day. It was a little overcast, but the day was still warm, and so was the water. It wasn't until halfway through this day that I finally felt like I was out of the country.

I didn't get a chance to take pictures or sightsee for the rest of the week, since we were all under a full schedule. There were around 75 managers and other retail affiliated folk attending the conference, which during the day was presentations, workshops, and a long lunch in between. For one of the dinners the company rented a catamaran, and we took it out on the sea, and into a bay where it parked and then the dancing began. I was pretty motion sick from the ride over the waves in the sea, but once we anchored it was pretty still. The rest of the night was dancing and drinks. The DJ played a lot of Italian and Spanish pop hits, which was fun at first, but tiring for the English and German speakers a couple of hours in. Everyone says that the Americans are supposed to be the loud and obnoxious ones. But soon after the music started the dancing and the half naked yelling and whistling Italian and Spanish contingent started whooping it up, we all discovered that the stereotype isn't necessarily true. In the words of one of the managers from the UK - "How often do you get the chance to attend an Italian wedding reception in the Mediteranean?" We also had a scavenger hunt as our teambuilding activity one afternoon, which took us over the mountains of Mallorca. We split up in 10 groups of about 7, and had to travel around to a couple of different towns and take pictures, collect items and all kinds of various scavenger hunt type things. It was a bit like a Real World Road Rules activity. Also pretty funny because the groups were divided so the different countries weren't grouped together so everything had to be translated from Spanish into English, and then into Italian. We did a lot of training and the days were pretty long, but all of the sitting in cold air conditioned rooms looking at power point presentations was made up for enjoying the events at night. It was an almost perfect balance, except for the complete lack of sleep throughout the week.

Procrasti-wha???

I have, of course, like everyone else have been meaning to update the good ol' blog for quite awhile now. New job, combined with laziness, combined with the mental pile o' crap that I've been meaning to blog but never did is my only excuse. I figured I'd start off easy. With a picture of the dog. I'm happy Morsa's Hazel turned out ok. Having a sick pet sucks. I've had a couple of sick Shelby moments, between the vomiting for 24 hours and the cat scratch in the eye, plus a few others here and there. I'm glad I grew up with my parents, who taught me that pets (and people for that matter) are more indestructable than we think sometimes. Like when my Ma cured Tina's kitty eye infection with some left over people pink eye drops. Anyway.

I've been baking a lot of chickens lately too. It all started with a New York Times article about broiling steaks in a cast iron pan instead of the broiler pan that comes with your oven, which is a great idea. It works good as a small roasting pan too. That pan has quickly become one of my favorites. I'm working on perfecting my seasoning now, since I have figured out how long exactly to cook a chicken without poisioning myself with salmonella. I'm not sure why, but I'm pretty paranoid about raw chicken. Which isn't very logical, considering the amount of raw eggs I have consumed while making cookies. Maybe once it's mixed in with two kinds of sugar, the threat of food poisoning isn't so scary. It's nice to have a good chicken dinner. Then I have a week to eat the rest of the chicken in sandwiches and salads and whatnot. It usually doesn't last that long. Also thanks to big bro for the excellent knife set. I wouldn't be carving chickens every week without it! Any tips on successfully carving a chicken would be appreciated. I get lost around the thigh area, and usually resort to pulling off the meat with a fork or my fingers. It gets kind of barbaric.

My friend Nico was in town last week. It's always great when he's here because he has the knack of bringing all of his friends together in one place for beer and shenanigans. He keeps a pretty random assortment of people as friends, so it makes for some fun times. We spent a sunny Saturday at Coney Island for the Mermaid Parade. Which is part small town parade, and part half assed Burning Man. I liked it, because unlike the big parades in the city, it still feels like a regular people parade, with old time cars and the random motorcyle gang getting in on the parade action along with the freaks on the floats.

Mallorca

I'm happy to be in a Spanish speaking country. I can read menus, street signs, and all of those types of regular things better. I also get to practice my most awesome "Gracias" again. I got into Spain last night pretty late, and then had the morning off. I walked around and found the closest Western Union, and then went back to the hotel so I could take a swim in their pool and use the sauna while I had time (and to relax)

The pool is pretty small. I think the average backyard pool might be bigger, but it was very nice, just not for actually swimming in. I did some floating on my back, diving underwater, and some general splashing around. I also did a handstand and a couple of somersaults which was pretty sweet. I haven't done that since High School on a choir trip. Good thing I was the only one around! I also went and sat in the sauna, which is kind of strange. I'm always paranoid of getting shut in those places, so it took a little while to relax.

After all that splashing around I took a shower and headed to work. The HQ is pretty much what you might imagine after being in a store or looking at their website. Really nice, open and kind of "Dot Commish" Everyone that I met was really nice though, which was good. I'm learning all about their inventory tracking systems tomorrow.

After work, I walked around for a bit and took a few pics before it got dark.

Boredom at the Airport

I have had enough drama in the past couple days, so I'm glad that I made it out of Paris. While I was waiting at the airport for about 6 hours I had some time to take pics of the empty room I was sitting in while I was waiting. I tested out all of the "best shot" settings of my camera, made a few old timey movies of random people walking by and generally tried to find ways to past the time. I couldn't even plug in my computer and play the Sims, because in the airport in Paris they don't let you check in early (only 2 hours ahead, and that's just enough time to get through securtiy and to the gate), and there are no plugs in the wall to steal electricity from.

Where are you going?

Bordom. But in Black and White.

Eiffel Tower

Yesterday I went to the Eiffel tower. It was worth the 45 minute wait in line to get to the top. Even with the little kid behind me kicking me. The view is amazing. It's not the same as going to the top of buildings in New York, because there is nothing tall around the Eiffel Tower to block the view. I went in the late afternoon so the shadows of everything were really long.

I took the elevator up, and the stairs down. The elevator has windows, so it's like being able to see the inside of a bulding on you're way up. And it's a pretty complex structure so even the elevator ride was interesting.

I was reminded of my big bro and all of the planning of subdivisions he does. Paris is very complex and it can be hard to navigate since the streets go pretty much in every direction. What they call organic I guess!

I asked this Irish lady to take my picture, since she had like 5 kids and was lining them all up one by one to take theirs. She was pretty funny. Telling me where to stand and which way to turn to get the best shot. Very motherly. Hehehe.

I liked this one. It's just a pic of the steel girders and stuff from the 2nd floor landing.

This is looking straight down. You can see the line that I had to wait in, except when that when I was in line, it wasn't long enough to make a bend. I'm glad that I went when I did!

Sunday and Stuff

On Sunday I woke up late and walked to the Notre Dame from my hotel. It was extremely crowded both inside and out, which made the whole thing a little strange and not very "churchy." The architechture was very amazing though, and I saw a lot of things that I remember learning about in school. The stained glass windows were very beautiful, and it's kind of sad that it is becoming somewhat of a lost art. I took all of my pictures on the low light setting, so it looks a lot brighter in the pics then it really was inside. There were also a lot of people trying to use the flash on their cameras, which was really annoying (considering there were signs in multiple languages asking you not too). The surrounding area is also pretty much a tourist trap. There are a lot of souvenier shops and overpriced restaurants all called "Le Cite du Notre Dame" or something like that. There was a "Quasimoto" restuaruant too.

There were people everywhere! Especially crowding up front near the alter trying to get a good picture.

On the way back to the hotel, I sat by the Seine for a few minutes, which is a very popular thing to do. This duck got out of the water and came within 4 feet of me. He was cleaning his feathers and it looked like he was posing.

After I got out of the Notre Dame dark clouds were rolling in over Paris, so I decided to walk back to the hotel. I bought a book on the way back so I would have something to do while it rained. It was nice to sit and read inside and listen to the rain and thunder for the rest of the evening.

On the street outside my hotel, I ran into the male, French version of Shelby. I decided that this was her long lost French boyfriend. It was really strange to be on another continent and see a dog who looked so much like her. He was pulling on the leash when they started to walk like she used to do when I first got her. They at least have to be cousins.

I Louvre Paris.

Hehehe. I hope that you appreciate my joke. I didn't spend too much time inside the Louvre. Its so huge it really would take a few days to see everything, and I don't have that many days off, so I would rather spend most of that time seeing the city rather than looking at paintings, although I would like to make a trip back just to go to all of the museums. I didn't take a lot of pictures from the inside, since most places they won't let you take pictures anyway. I saw the Mona Lisa, which was a bit of a surreal experience. There were a lot of people crowding around trying to get a look. It's like trying to get to the front row at a concert. You have to sort of push and squirm your way up to the front, as people get up there and look and then fight the crowd back out to the museum. I'm glad I saw it though, it looks pretty much as you would imagine. I went mostly so I could see one of the most famous things in the world. After I saw that, I decided that I wanted to see the Dutch and Flemish paintings from 18th century, since I like those the most because of the realism and the subject matter. This was one of my favorites. If you want to see more of what I'm talking about, your best bet is to type in Dutch Golden Age into wikipedia and surf around.

There are a lot of giant paintings to look at. Most of them bigger than my apartment.

Leading up to the museum there are large well manicured gardens and park space. The pathways are covered in gravel and white bug dust. By the time you have finished walking through, you're shoes are pants are covered. I took this pic on Sunday, so there were a lot of people out enjoying the warm weather and the park. The pictures came out overexposed, but it was a hot day, and there was a lot of dust being kicked up into the air.

There were a lot of people sitting around with their shoes off reading and just generally getting a little sun.

Catching Up

Today is the French version of Labor Day so I have the day off, and so do most people. Except the restaurant workers. Most of the cafes and bars are still open today, which is good, since I wanted to find a decent cafe to use the wifi connection for free (except the price of my lunch I guess) They're are a lot of blocked off streets, and you can definitely feel that it's a holiday and most people have the day off. I'm sitting in Le Tabac du Chatelet. It looks pretty much like an american bar, but with more tables. There is also a big cigarrette counter like in Amelie with a girl sitting behind it. She doesn't look like the lady in Amelie though. Hehehe.

I'll post all of the pictures that I have been meaning to post, because the connection is much better, and it's free so if it does take a long time it's not like I'll be paying for the time. The next couple are from the day that I saw that big headache statue, as ma said.

This cracked me up when I saw it. Its funny to think that all over the world, whenever someone sees a really dirty car, they'll write the same thing on in.

This was inside St. Eustace, I would really like to hear the pipe organs in all of these old churches. I'm sure that they're pretty amazing. I wonder if this one was still operational. I saw on "Dirty Jobs" on the Discovery channel that it can take up to 20 years to clean and repair a big pipe organ, since there are so many pipes in them and it can be a delicate process. And that would be some very old dust inside there.

The ceilings inside was extremely high, like most old churches. All that open space above your head makes it feel like God is really floating around up there.

Candles.