Monday, July 28, 2008
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Whew, this week has been crazy!!! I meant to write something everyday but was so worn out I couldn't even think about it and fell into the blogger's negative feedback loop. I broke one of the 10 commandments of blogging by thinking "I'm tired tonight so I'll post double tomorrow", but when tomorrow comes you're still tired but have 2 days of fun & merriment to write about...
First day I take care of some HR stuff & then get my very own cubicle, complete with computer, desk, filing cabinet, and shelves. 25 square feet that I can call my own. I'm going to observe my fellow office mates in their natural environs before personalizing my cubicle - I don't want to make waves & give people something to talk about in the break room. The boss was busy finishing up a big report and left me with some things to read. I looked through the stuff as much as possible, and when that got boring I screwed around on the internets. I did go to lunch with my fellow co-workers, who are all very nice. Being the oldest person in the group is an exciting change from my previous position where I met with old, rich people all day long. I picked up my Qdoba frequent burrito-eater card and am on my way to free lunches. Not as exciting as my Hilton Honors Diamond Status but you take what you can get.
Day 2 & 3 were very uneventful. The bossman still had nothing for me to do and the other people who were supposed to train me were too busy to meet. Again I spent 95% of the day looking around on the internet and feeing guilty about it. I understand that this guilt is something seasoned office workers have shed...I think within a week or so I'll feel great about screwing off all day.
Day 4 was my orientation. I honestly felt excited about working for University X after hearing about it's history and recent accomplishments. Being susceptible to suggestion as well as gullible will serve me well during my tenure in the office.
Day 5 was the yearly staff enrichment day retreat. I'll write a little about this later if I remember, but it included power point presentations with charts & graphs of last year's accomplishments as well as next year's goals, sessions on relieving stress and feng shui, skits, and 50 year old university administrators rapping. I'll post the video of the rap jam another day.
The bossman said that I'll be able to get rolling this week with real live work. Peace out bitches.
Monday, July 21, 2008
Sunday, July 20, 2008
DATELINE: Filthydelphia
All right, I'm a bit stressed out about starting tomorrow. I feel like I'm not prepared but, as Adale reminded me, all I have to do is show up & they'll tell me what to do. Tomorrow should be a meet & greet with my new best friends at the office, a tour of the coffee break room, rules & regs for teh copy machine, and maybe a fun lunch. Wish me luck!
All right, I'm a bit stressed out about starting tomorrow. I feel like I'm not prepared but, as Adale reminded me, all I have to do is show up & they'll tell me what to do. Tomorrow should be a meet & greet with my new best friends at the office, a tour of the coffee break room, rules & regs for teh copy machine, and maybe a fun lunch. Wish me luck!
Friday, July 18, 2008
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
DATELINE: Neighborhood coffee shop, PA
It's been a busy first week so far. We're almost totally unpacked & the place is coming together, even though last Friday, our first day in the apartment, the toilet clogged up and wasn't fixed until Monday. In truth we were both excited because the landlord put us up in a Hilton for the weekend while the toilet was busted.
Because of my Diamond status with Hilton we received the royal treatment, including access to the special Honors floor & Lounge. The Lounge offers a continental breakfast on tech weekends (we get free buffets during the week) as well as snacks & drinks in the evening. Saturday night we showed up at the end of the Lounge hours. Because he was closing up the Lounge, Lito, the Lounge attendant, remembered that I liked Gin & Tonics and offered me an entire 1.75 liter bottle of Tanqueray and unlimited mini bottles of tonic to take back to our room. I opted for the tall glass of straight gin & three mini bottles.
Unfortunately it got clogged up again last night & who the hell knows what they're going to have to do. There's a chance they'll have to replace the floor (the boards are rotting) as well as do some serious plumbing work. Hotel life is nice but it's not close to the train I'll need to take to work next week.
The picture below should give you a little flavor of our neighborhood. It's a display from the CVS selling both High School graduation banners and condoms. Kind of like peanut butter and jelly, really. I like the condom's name, "YourTube".
It's been a busy first week so far. We're almost totally unpacked & the place is coming together, even though last Friday, our first day in the apartment, the toilet clogged up and wasn't fixed until Monday. In truth we were both excited because the landlord put us up in a Hilton for the weekend while the toilet was busted.
Because of my Diamond status with Hilton we received the royal treatment, including access to the special Honors floor & Lounge. The Lounge offers a continental breakfast on tech weekends (we get free buffets during the week) as well as snacks & drinks in the evening. Saturday night we showed up at the end of the Lounge hours. Because he was closing up the Lounge, Lito, the Lounge attendant, remembered that I liked Gin & Tonics and offered me an entire 1.75 liter bottle of Tanqueray and unlimited mini bottles of tonic to take back to our room. I opted for the tall glass of straight gin & three mini bottles.
Unfortunately it got clogged up again last night & who the hell knows what they're going to have to do. There's a chance they'll have to replace the floor (the boards are rotting) as well as do some serious plumbing work. Hotel life is nice but it's not close to the train I'll need to take to work next week.
The picture below should give you a little flavor of our neighborhood. It's a display from the CVS selling both High School graduation banners and condoms. Kind of like peanut butter and jelly, really. I like the condom's name, "YourTube".
Thursday, July 10, 2008
DATELINE: Deep inside Amish Country
We survived day 1 of the move - loading up the truck, cleaning the apt, and driving out near Philly. We spent the night in a hotel in Denver, PA, about 1 hour outside Philly & are going out to the apt this morning to unload the truck.
We're in Amish country. I've never been interested in visiting Amish country. I am interested in the Amish but thought it would be too voyeuristic to roll up & gawk. Our hotel had a bunch of brochures promoting Amish tourism - I had no idea that Amish country was all about huge meals of tasty looking food. Check out this description from the Good n' Plenty Restaurant:
A typical dinner may include Baked Country Ham, Mashed Potatoes, Roast Beef, Crispy Fried Chicken, Baked Country Sausage, Noodles, Vegetables, Chow Chow, Pork & Sauerkraut, Pepper Cabbage, Homemade Bread, Shoo Fly Pie . . . and much, much more!
Damn!! They had me at Baked Country Ham. I definitely will be making a trip out to strap on my Amish farm feast.
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
hey guys, we're back from NY and have one more day before we load up the truck & roll out to Philadelphia. The weather was great in Chautauqua but it was hard to relax with the move hanging over our heads.
Today: cleaning, running last minute errands (just realized that one headlight burned out on the car).
I will leave you with a scene from what I dare say is one of the greatest television shows o ever grace the small screen.....Battle Bugs!
Crayfish vs. Scorpion
Today: cleaning, running last minute errands (just realized that one headlight burned out on the car).
I will leave you with a scene from what I dare say is one of the greatest television shows o ever grace the small screen.....Battle Bugs!
Crayfish vs. Scorpion
Friday, July 04, 2008
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
A few days ago I made an exciting discovery in the garage. I was going through my numerous tubs & boxes when I came across two tubs full of clothes, mostly shirts with a few pairs of pants. These included a number of old favorites that a few of you may remember me wearing - over 50 in total. One argument I would give to Adale about why I needed to keep buying vintage shirts at thrift stores was there is a limited amount of vintage shirts in the world and my fear that someday I wouldn't be able to find any. Now I think the reason I couldn't find any is because I had them all in tubs in my garage.
When I was going to Peru every year I had to have several wardrobes - a skinny one for the Fall, to accommodate the weight I would lose during the summer, a larger one for the Winter/Spring for when the lbs would begin to come back, and my field wardrobe for summer excavations. The tubs had a bunch of shirts from these wardrobes, ones I wanted to save because I hoped I could someday wear them.
These are the ones that were either too big, small, ratty, or boring to keep. Below are several pieces I had a particularly hard time giving up.
The black/white western shirt above was really hard to part with. I've had it since 1994 & have had lots of good times with it.
This is a shirt I bought new in Johnson City (at the Army/Navy store across from the Green Owl Diner) for field work in Peru.
I can't remember exactly when I bought this jacket, maybe 1990/91. In LA, I think.
I'm keeping these because they're the cream of the crop and, even if a few are too small, they're just too awesome to get rid of.
I took the ones I'm not keeping to three vintage re-sale stores & got a little over $100 for 15-20 shirts and teh rest went to a thrift store. I had dreams of finding some dorking 15 year old and making him instantly cool by giving him the shirts but just don't know any, and probably would get arrested trying to find one. Oh well. Someone will be very excited when they roll up on the East End Thrift.
When I was going to Peru every year I had to have several wardrobes - a skinny one for the Fall, to accommodate the weight I would lose during the summer, a larger one for the Winter/Spring for when the lbs would begin to come back, and my field wardrobe for summer excavations. The tubs had a bunch of shirts from these wardrobes, ones I wanted to save because I hoped I could someday wear them.
These are the ones that were either too big, small, ratty, or boring to keep. Below are several pieces I had a particularly hard time giving up.
The black/white western shirt above was really hard to part with. I've had it since 1994 & have had lots of good times with it.
This is a shirt I bought new in Johnson City (at the Army/Navy store across from the Green Owl Diner) for field work in Peru.
I can't remember exactly when I bought this jacket, maybe 1990/91. In LA, I think.
I'm keeping these because they're the cream of the crop and, even if a few are too small, they're just too awesome to get rid of.I took the ones I'm not keeping to three vintage re-sale stores & got a little over $100 for 15-20 shirts and teh rest went to a thrift store. I had dreams of finding some dorking 15 year old and making him instantly cool by giving him the shirts but just don't know any, and probably would get arrested trying to find one. Oh well. Someone will be very excited when they roll up on the East End Thrift.
Today is all about TCB. We've got odds & ends to pack up, have to spackle & paint over the holes in the walls, errands to run, and a going-away party tonight. To save room in the truck we've decided to make the sacrifice & drink up all of our liquor - those bottles are really heavy.
Did I mention that I've been making Starbucks Frappucino's at home? Here's my recipe:
2/3 cup double strength brewed coffee, chilled
1 cup milk
1 1/2 cups ice
1/2 - 1 tsp vanilla extract
3-5 tbs chocolate syrup
put it all in a blender, blend, and top with whip cream! You may have to add additional ice to get it to the right consistency. This poses a problem because additional ice will dilute the drink, so you can do what I did: make coffee ice cubes.
I found a few of my old favorite Atari games while going through my stuff - I played the shit out of these in Junior High.
Did I mention that I've been making Starbucks Frappucino's at home? Here's my recipe:
2/3 cup double strength brewed coffee, chilled
1 cup milk
1 1/2 cups ice
1/2 - 1 tsp vanilla extract
3-5 tbs chocolate syrup
put it all in a blender, blend, and top with whip cream! You may have to add additional ice to get it to the right consistency. This poses a problem because additional ice will dilute the drink, so you can do what I did: make coffee ice cubes.
I found a few of my old favorite Atari games while going through my stuff - I played the shit out of these in Junior High.
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
BREAKING NEWS: I am very important!!!
OMG!!! Right, so I'm reading The Consumerist, catching up on all the important news a knowledgeable consumer like myself needs to know and what do I see? One of my very own fotos from my days as a business traveler along with a shout-out to yours truly!!!
They have a photo pool on flickr and I linked a some of my fotos to the pool in the hopes to expand my influence beyond my current select group of readers. And guess what - they finally used one of my pictures!!! Below is a little snapshot of the page, but you can click here to see it in it's full glory.
As many of you may recognize, my picture is the one of the building with the elephants.
This is very very exciting. It's a long-deserving vindication of my belief that I truly am more important than most people. I think I'll go have a piece of Adale's delicious fudge as a celebration
OMG!!! Right, so I'm reading The Consumerist, catching up on all the important news a knowledgeable consumer like myself needs to know and what do I see? One of my very own fotos from my days as a business traveler along with a shout-out to yours truly!!!
They have a photo pool on flickr and I linked a some of my fotos to the pool in the hopes to expand my influence beyond my current select group of readers. And guess what - they finally used one of my pictures!!! Below is a little snapshot of the page, but you can click here to see it in it's full glory.
As many of you may recognize, my picture is the one of the building with the elephants.
This is very very exciting. It's a long-deserving vindication of my belief that I truly am more important than most people. I think I'll go have a piece of Adale's delicious fudge as a celebration
DATELINE: tha Crib
We're through getting rid of stuff and have been packing for the last several days. Adale says she'll be done by tomorrow (I've been packing but also am in charge of wrangling boxes & newspapers, calling the utilities, etc.).
The kitties have been en energized by the stacks of boxes in the apartment as well as the frequent re-arrangement of furniture. Boxes to jump into, climb on top of, chase each other around...you get the picture.
My parents are coming to town this week. They're going to stay until the 5th and then all of us are driving up to Chautauqua, NY. They are staying there for 2 weeks at the Chautauqua Institution, a kind of camp for adults with all sorts of speakers, classes, and art & theater stuff, and we'll be hanging out for a few days before coming back to town to loading up the truck for Phily. It'll be good to see them & I'm looking forward to going up to Chautauqua to relax and swim in the lake (if it's warm enough).
We're through getting rid of stuff and have been packing for the last several days. Adale says she'll be done by tomorrow (I've been packing but also am in charge of wrangling boxes & newspapers, calling the utilities, etc.).
The kitties have been en energized by the stacks of boxes in the apartment as well as the frequent re-arrangement of furniture. Boxes to jump into, climb on top of, chase each other around...you get the picture.
My parents are coming to town this week. They're going to stay until the 5th and then all of us are driving up to Chautauqua, NY. They are staying there for 2 weeks at the Chautauqua Institution, a kind of camp for adults with all sorts of speakers, classes, and art & theater stuff, and we'll be hanging out for a few days before coming back to town to loading up the truck for Phily. It'll be good to see them & I'm looking forward to going up to Chautauqua to relax and swim in the lake (if it's warm enough).
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