Adventures in the Colonial 'burg: June 2009

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Back in the same decade

Yesterday was Corbett's birthday, and he has finally joined the ranks of the thirtysomethings (I always wonder if I should go back to that old show and watch it, perhaps I'd understand it). We went out to the King's Arms Tavern (a colonial-style restaurant) for dinner with Chris and Sonya, which was delicious as always. Afterwards we went back to our place for cake and ice cream.

Now, below is the cake that we had made for Corbett. The story is a long one, but I'll go through it quickly. Last year, Corbett superimposed his face onto Kermit's body to send a birthday greeting to his nephew. When Sonya's birthday came around, as a joke he took that picture and crossed out "Dylan" and "Uncle" and added Sonya's name. Then, with Chris's birthday he again modified it accordingly (note, continually crossing names/words out). One my birthday, Sonya took that picture and changed the names, and scribbled long black hair on Corbett's face, added glasses and sent it to me.

So we (well, it was Sonya's idea, and I did the design) decided to modify it again and put it on a cake. Now, Ukrops (stupid non-alcohol selling, closed-on-Sundays, Christian supermarket) wouldn't do the cake with Kermit's body on it, so I had to remove it. But I had to add some faces, and here's what we got:

It works, while it's a little frightening at the same time...

Friday, June 26, 2009

Reflections

I know that I haven't posted in months and that you're all probably sick of the retrospectives already, but as someone who spent four years of his youth totally obsessed with Michael Jackson, I feel compelled to share a little something. Here is a video of (IMHO) his greatest song, amazingly performed, with all its glaring contradictions: MJ's pathological need to change his image, his pretenses to humanitarian work being far overshadowed by his fame (and financially squandered on exotic toys and carnival rides), and the psychotic fan base that made him into a legend. Lest we forget, MJ held concerts that made Obama rallies look like PTA meetings.

(Melinda: don't miss the key change at [correction: 2:12!] Your '80s rock ballad can kiss my ass).

Addition is hard

I've been struggling much of the week with addition. The sad thing is that none of this is a joke. I know not all of you are math dorks, and many of you hate math in all its forms, but humor me. I have been spending this entire week just trying to figure out why when I add two numbers, I do not get what I should get. Case in point, I have two numbers (watch out, fraction alert):

A = 2

B = -2

And I am supposed to get

A+B = 1/2

Note, that 2 plus a negative 2 equals zero. No matter how you spin this, zero does not equal 1/2. So that's right. I've been out of graduate school for five years, and have worked in this field for let's say nine years, and I cannot add. I did finally figure out my mistake, and it would bore you to hear it (because the rest of this post is the epitomy of excitement), but it's all good now.

It is sad though, that it took me a week's worth of work to remember how to add.

Monday, June 22, 2009

lazy, busy weekend

This was one of those really lazy weekends in some ways, but also somewhat busy. Saturday we spent in Norfolk, eating at California Pizza Kitchen, and then heading to the Botanical Gardens. We only had an hour and a half there, but that was enough. We should have gone earlier in the season, when all the flowers were blooming, but we had a nice stroll through the gardens. It was basically a walk through nicely cultivated nature.

Sunday was simultaneously lazier and more strenuous. After watching both Ghostbusters movies (AMC was having a "Bill Murray" marathon, but we didn't stay tuned for Stripes and Caddyshack), we got off our butts to head to Yorktown by bike. This was about 26 miles roundtrip, and it was great on the way there. The way back was much more uphill, and thus, way more tiring. But it was a nice visit to Yorktown, even though we didn't stay long. We got smoothies at Ben & Jerry's (shut up), and strolled a bit on the beach before biking around the town a bit. Enough time to enjoy it, but also it was great getting home, so I could collapse and not move the rest of the night.

I was proud I could do it, but at the same time I am not in shape at all!

Yet.

Friday, June 19, 2009

DC can kill ya

Our journey to DC was simultaneously a lot of fun and exceedingly tiring. We got up at 6:30 to get ready and go, and made it to IKEA (in Woodbridge, not far from DC) shortly before they opened, so we could walk around the showroom before the Marketplace opened. After a few, but not enough to get a joyful feeling out of being at IKEA, purchases, we headed up to the Capital.

Once there I dropped the C-man off on the Mall while I headed to Georgetown, to the Chinese Visa Office. Of course, even though we wanted to pay the extra fees for getting the visas back the same day, they wouldn't, so someone else will have to go up there to pick them up (I won't, because I dropped them off for three of us, so someone else can now make the drive). The good news with that though is that I could then go back to the Mall, meet up with Corbett, and enjoy the rest of the day.

We went to lunch, then to the Smithsonian museum of American History. I have to say I was very disappointed. The museum was not laid out in a way that made anything interesting, and I usually find history interesting. They had some exhibits that were just bad (and terribly misleading when I looked at the science-related ones), but whatever. Alison met up with us there and we wandered the museum for a while before going on the monumental death march.

That's right, we walked to all the monuments. Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson, and by far the best and newest, the FDR monument. This is where Corbett fell in love with FDR:

After all that, we had dinner and parted ways with Alison. It was great to see her and sadly I'm not sure when I'll make it back to StL to visit, but alas. Good times were had by all. We left around 9 and made it home before midnight, where an excited dog greeted us, after he had been so gloriously cared for by Miss Sonya. He didn't realize, and we haven't told him, about our run-in with this squirrel:

Very tame squirrel, and a little too interested in us. I think he wanted food and we eventually had to run away before he attacked. After this picture was taken he turned towards us and started talking, moving closer, and then we ran. That's right. We ran from a squirrel.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Thunderstorm ride

Yesterday, the forecast was sunny. All day. In the afternoon, however, I saw clouds rolling in, and they were mildly worrisome. First of all, in this part of Virginia, this time of year is known for sunny days and "showers" in the evenings. These clouds weren't that foreboding but since I had biked to work, I wanted to be sure.

Weather.com told me, "No worries! You won't see any rain until 7 or 8 pm easily, if not later!" I look at the radar map, as I like to do, pretending to be a meteorologist. The current map showed some shower formation not far from here. I click on the "past map in motion," and it showed over the previous three or so hours how these clouds appeared as if from nowhere. Then I clicked the "future map in motion," which is the new thing on weather.com, and it shows (supposedly) what is to come. Well, from the instant after "now," the storms just vanished and it looked glorious. Clearly, this forecast was from the same information that stated on their Hourly Forecast was was to come.

Not trusting them, I left work to just go home and finish my calculation there. The moment I left, the rain began. Not wanting to go back into the office, since I'd have to unpack everything all over again I figured, "What's a little rain?"

Let's just say this, the next fifteen minutes were some of the worst. The rain was pouring down, but not just that, the wind was so strong (conveniently, no matter which way I turned, it was always a headwind) that I was getting pelted in the face with rain, and it required three times as much effort to just go forward at all, much less at a decent pace. The number of (stupid) cars on the road caused me to have to ride through puddle drenching my shoes and socks. The only piece of clothing that wasn't wet when I got home was...oh wait, no, even my boxers were soaked through. The only solace was that Corbett got caught in it too, so we could commisserate.

The forecast is the same this morning as it was yesterday. So I biked to work, since it's so sunny and beautiful out! I am certain it won't happen again.

Monday, June 8, 2009

Bike ride

Sarahlynn posted about a tiring biking adventure this weekend, so I thought I'd do the same.

This was the first weekend we could both get on our bikes (well, we switched, and I rode Corbett's to try it out since his is brand new, and he rode mine), and have a nice Sunday afternoon bike ride. We were ambitious in our plans, as it involved riding from our place through the Colonial 'burg, onto the Colonial Parkway to Jamestown (note that is already something like 12 miles), then up around the entire area to Waller Mill Park (where I sometimes bring Dante) and back. This whole trip would have been around 30 miles, and ha ha! I haven't gone biking in a while. I've biked to work (not for a while, but most of last fall I did), but that's 3.5 miles each way, and each portion of that journey is broken up by me sitting down "working."

Plus, the Parkway is extremely hilly, and has a very gravelly road, so you definitely have to work a lot harder to keep going. So I got wiped. We made it about five miles, stopping just past "Halfway Creek," and turning back. It was a wise decision, but at least it meant we went about ten miles. It's a good start, and I think for now the lesson for me is to stay on paved roads for a while, just to be able to make it farther. Either way, though, it was a nice ride, and the weather was perfect for it.

Friday, June 5, 2009

Athletic?

So Dante had to go to the vet yesterday. This is the fourth time in the last couple of months. The first was just his annual checkup and shots, and then there was his teeth cleaning. I had to make a quick stop there to get his kennel cough shot (I like to get that as close as possible to boarding him, so that's why I didn't get that previously), and then the other day he got Staph Dermatitis. This was most likely from the floor at the kennel, adding irritation to his elbow (or front leg knee if you want to be Ellen) from lying on the metal floor (even though there is a cot in the kennel and he had his blanket--I think D just likes to be dramatic), and allowing the staph to move in and give him a crusty coating.

What was funny was that the vet asked if I bring him running, because his heart rate was so low. I laughed, because of course I don't. He's not an active dog, although he does spend all day looking out the window and runs around the apartment like a maniac when there's a squirrel or dog outside.

It's even funnier because at my last dentist appointment, I was asked the same question: "Do you run?" for the same reason. Anyone who knows me and happened to be drinking coffee just now probably has a computer covered in the glorious caffeinated bevarge. Maybe I don't have to exercise and just can pretend I do. Apparently I can get away with it, as can Dante. Like father like son, egh?

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

And the move is almost complete!

I'm back, and everything is all good. For the most part. I could write pages about what has happened during the move, but I'll just play the bullet points game.

Our last night in New York was great; we hung out with Kelly and Maggie and had great cheap Indian food and alcohol. Can't argue with that.

The movers who loaded our truck up in New York were fantastic. Nothing broke on the way down, and there was some minor damage, but nothing more than you'd expect from a move.

A car ran into us on the drive down, right after we hit gridlock traffic and a horrible rain storm. The idiot was in the breakdown lane after his lane ended and just kept going, so he side swiped us. Luckily we had the truck insurance and his car was nicely damaged. He was a prick though.

Our move-in was delayed a day, but overall that went well. We got moved in and are now mostly unpacked. We had help from glorious friends (Chris, Sonya, Andre, Erin, and Saul), who all hate us now. Especially when tell them that we may have to get rid of the humongous desk that took four people to move out of my old place and into the new one.

The apartment is great. They left a washer and dryer in there (we're supposed to rent those for fifty bucks a month but we're just not tellin'), and the extra bedroom is great. One main issue, but luckily it's mostly covered, is that the people who painted the walls were morons. They didn't cover the carpet, so all along the entire wall is a slight coating of paint (they obviously just rushed through spray painting the apt). But besides that and the weird sloping all over the apartment, it's a significant improvement over the other one.

Now it's back to work like normal, sort of, although it's difficult to get into it. I will.

I'm sure I'll have more things I've forgotten that I'll write about, but that's enough for now. Gotta work.