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November 27, 2005
i'm the voice that you hear / when no one is near
On the past 5 days...
3 pies - apple, pumpkin, and pecan - all with amazing crust made from scratch
3 loaves of bread - two oat sunflower wheat, one amazing walnut wheat (amazing), from scratch
20 soon-to-be relatives, 30 lb turkey, 1 football game with 0 injuries (besides porch boy's lasting soreness), lots of laughter, and a completed wedding party (we are slow on the asking)
4 lbs of dry ice, for my experiment on friday. i was happy to find the dry ice room open on friday when there was no one on campus. ~1 inch of snow fell, making driving difficult for me. 1 million light fixtures at the place we met porch boy's fam for some pizza.
5 cars on our street, which is usually packed on the weekend. The grocery stores were also not busy.
2 bens, and 1 nose stud on teacher julie's nose. 8 various cakes - crab, salmon, and black bean consumed by the four of us. My first 3 hours at the green mill, the famous chicago jazz club. It was much smaller than expected, but the music was good. I am not as discerning (picky?) as my company, so i thought it was quite good. We randomly got a table, which was quite nice, though facilitated some nodding of heads. We are getting old.
53 degrees outside this morning when i left for my run(jog). Crazy weather. I am quite happy the snow is gone.
3 hours for the brisket...must start that soon.
Posted by christina at 2:22 PM | Comments (0)
November 23, 2005
i'm writing you this letter
Dear Mr. Person-in-charge-of-Chicago-weather,
Whew, you really had me fooled there with the warm fall. I had gotten use to running in the temperate temperatures. I had forgotten that usually there is a ease in to the winter running conditions. This year that obviously wasn’t your plan. After months of warm (for Chicago) weather, you hit us with a quick freeze last week and then a nice snow shower this morning. I awoke this morning to white everywhere – the trees, the grass, the air. I really didn’t mind the snowflakes in the eye during my run. I did mind the small hail balls you pelted me with just as I reach the half way point, hence furtherest from home.
Thanks.
me
Posted by christina at 1:49 PM | Comments (0)
November 22, 2005
a tree falls to the ground in the middle of nowhere
32 people (if I remember correctly) started the Ph.D. program here with me. A few have scattered due to this, that, and the other. Two have defended for their Ph.D.s. These people both came in with Masters, though even so quite quick. One worked his bum off, which is why he graduated so quickly.
When we came in as a class, we hung out a lot as a class. In the beginning, classes have a tendency to do that as you know few people. I actually knew leta, so quickly started hanging out with her crowd more than my year. I then started dating porch boy and therefore my time was limited to only the people I really wanted to see.
Months and month go by between sighting of some of those people I started with. It is interesting how many of us have had major life changes since then. Some have gotten engaged. Some have gotten married. Some have gotten engaged and married. Okay, that is a little narrow on the life changes – they all are of the engaged/married variety. The other big life changes – graduation, new jobs, etc, come after our time here, therefore the narrow range.
It is strange to me because it is opposite of my friends from high school and college. They do the new jobs, etc, but only one has taken the steps that so many of my coworkers have.
Anyways, that all came about because I just saw a classmate who has gotten engaged and married since we started the program.
Liz came and visited me the past couple days, and it was awesome. I miss miss miss living in the same city as her. We hung out and chatted. We got up and ran, chatted, had thai, chatted, saw pride and prejudice, and chatted. Sigh. I miss her.
Posted by christina at 7:26 PM | Comments (0)
November 18, 2005
mother mother ocean
quite tired today.
the cold has made this week harder than usual.
quiet glad it is friday.
liz is coming to stay for a couple of days! Yay!
we love guests. though slim shady will have to give up her current favorite napping place - the futon.
off to dinner and a movie with thomas. not potter, which almost made us abandon our usual movie places for renting, but i really want to see Capote (sp?). It seemed less daunting to brave the potter crowds than to try to decide on a movie to rent.
Posted by christina at 5:25 PM | Comments (0)
November 17, 2005
more than wanted
Shall I begin today with how it was 18 degrees when I left for my run today. With wind chill it was 1. One degree. ONE DEGREE. It went from feeling it was almost 60 this past weekend to feeling like it was ONE DEGREE this morning.
As I left hunk o’ man for dinner last night with Jon in a quality blowing snow fall, I told him I’d call him from Key West. Key West is the place I always threaten to move when it is cold. Of course, now I would never move to Key West, as the are a magnet for hurricanes.
As I listened to a story about a tsunami in California, I decide that the shore was a nice place to visit, but I would never live near one. With the threat of tsunamis in northern CA and hurricanes in the south and east, I’m pretty happy inland.
Though between tornados and FREEZING COLD temperatures, I’m not so hot on the interior either.
Posted by christina at 4:59 PM | Comments (0)
November 16, 2005
I'll tell you one thing its always better when we're together
Winter has arrived. Snow drifts around outside. It is just a small flurry, but the bitter wind this morning reminded me that my time running by the lake is about the come to an end. When the winds start blowing, they are especially brutal on the shore. Therefore I must return to my inland route or run north on the shore. North from my place puts a golf course between the shore and the running route. I’ll probably do that. I really like the running path. I like not having to stop for cars. I like having other people running around me. I like to find someone else to set my pace. It rarely happens (as not many people are out at 7 am during the week), but when it does (on the weekend) it is nice.
The arrival of the cold outside coincides with the arrival of cold in my research. In the past week, I have started to use a cyropump (liquid nitrogen) and a dry ice /alcohol bath in effort to remove water vapor from an oxygen stream. It has worked well, and I am pleased with the results. The annoying part is just all the handling of cold things (dry ice, liquid nitrogen). I am continuously cold it seems.
Did mention that I now make raisin bread…by hand. No bread machine for me. Though I am not really sure how a bread machine would put the cinnamon swirl in the bread. Next week I am baking up a storm for Thanksgiving (breads and pies).
I got some beautiful data yesterday.
Posted by christina at 2:34 PM | Comments (1)
November 12, 2005
let's paint a picture now / i do not want to forget
mask, restaurant in Tokyo.
Apple made me happy just as I was not happy with them. I recieved a mini ipod for christmas this past year. I am pretty sure it was a first generation. The battery started acting strange about a month or two after I got it. It would randomly stop in the middle of runs, even though it had been charging all night. It was very erractic, so I didn't really do anything about it.
Over the past couple of months it has gotten worse. It was dealable for a while, as I found if I waited ~10 mins and turned it back on, it would come back to life with a half full battery. This would annoy me and I would put calling Apple on my to do list, and then the ipod would be fine for a couple weeks.
The past month it stopped coming back after 10 minutes. In Boston, I finally contacted Apple. Turns out since I past 6 months, i had to pay for shipping and handling ($30) for them to work on it. I was kinda annoyed, but whatever. Fixing the Ipod woes is worth $30. They do send you the box to send the ipod back to them and then they return it. it was quite easy. The hardest part was finding a DHL drop.
Today, on a saturday!, while I was out running, it returned. Well, a new ipod came. I am quite happy. Here's to hoping this is one of the newer generation mini's which much better battery.
Its been a great day so far - warm run, e-mail from mark the rock star, new ipod. Stay tuned, though, fr my rant about chicago police giving me a hard time for talking on my cell phone, but watching people run red lights.
Posted by christina at 1:50 PM | Comments (0)
November 11, 2005
arrested development is appearing canceled. this is seriously the BEST show on tv. if you do not watch it, you are a poopiehead. and have no taste. especially if you watch a lot of crap tv (which is pretty much everything on tv) and don't watch a.d.
i really don't want to go on living a life where everyone watches the craptastic desperate housewives, but not arrested development. people don't think for themselves. they just blindly follow crap.
this is also reflects my feelings after the past presidental election.
Posted by christina at 3:31 PM | Comments (1)
oh it's so funny to be seeing you after so long, girl.
marble quarry, vermont - June 05
A chance search has reconnected me with a high school friend by virtue of a note in his friendster profile that one of his favorite books is The Confessions of Max Tivoli. I randomly read this book a couple weeks ago while in Japan. It was a crazy book. I didn’t think much more of it then, but now, as I write this friend, I am taking the time to think about it.
It starts out with:
“We are each the love of someone's life.”
It may sound optimistic, but really I think there is something pessimistic (and limiting) about believing that there is only one. Maybe not limiting, but destructive, in a way.
I believe the concept of the “one” is destructive. I believe there are a few people out there I could love love. I think when you think of there only being “one” that when relationships get hard, you aren’t “the one” is an excuse to get out.
I believe that there are few few few people that I could spend the time with like I do hunk o’ man. Love is a feeling, but also a commitment. I know that there will also be temptation, people that seem new and exciting and better than. But really, that is no better than, just grass is greener than.
It is interesting to look at how marriage has evolved. For most of history, few people married for “love”. They married for economic or social or geographical reasons. In the past 50 years, people have married for love. I am all for marrying for love (and am marrying for love). But I believe some people believed too much in love. It is more than love, maybe it is what grows out of love – commitment – for the good times and the bad. I believe in commitment.
The book is good; I do recommend it. It is an interesting exploration of metaphors, secrets, love, dependence, and life.
(Here’s a question. When did we stop putting that last comma? I keep seeing that comma missing. The comma should only be missing if the two words joined by the and are one entity in the list.)
Posted by christina at 12:11 PM | Comments (1)
November 7, 2005
'cause you got a good thing going baby
“Did I tell you about my football game?”
“Nope, what happened?”
“Well, I finished two seasons and won the superbowl!”
“That’s great honey!”
“Yeah, that’s not the best part. The Dude got traded to the Bears! I am so excited!”
“That’s great honey!”
---------
The yuppie in hunk o’ man has now fully emerged. He has made us turn the full corner and start buying our meat and veggies at Whole Foods. I’ve resisted, mainly cuz it is more expensive, but more because it is so yuppie. Shopping at the Whole Foods is the definition of yuppie in our neighborhood.
I resisted and whined and complained, but in the end, hunk o’ man and leta where right, the meat is so much better. I should stop eating hormone meat and pesticide lettuce, and now I have, at least in my own totally yuppie home.
Posted by christina at 1:04 PM | Comments (1)
November 3, 2005
copper kettles sitting side by each / copper coil, cup o'georgia peach
shrine in nikko. finally got my pictures back. I have lost a roll, oh well, though i'm happy that the rewinding mishap/film exposure didn't run a whole roll.
Yesterday I presented and saw the most patriotic city ever.
I presented in the morning. It went well, of course. There are not a lot (if any) tribologist hanging around at this conference (and those that do seem to leave on Tuesday). I got some good comments, but nothing real help for my current mechanism debate. Oh well.
Because the afternoon sessions held little interest for me, I decided to take the opportunity to explore Boston – specifically the Freedom Trail. After changing, I set out downtown. Upon arrival, I found some lunch by wandering around a bit and noticing a HUGE sign about world famous sandwiches. I went. I had an excellent roast beef in a busy deli. I shared a table with some really amusing older ladies.
I then enjoy a beautiful sunny afternoon (a tad cold) along the freedom trail, which involved following a red line around the city of Boston to Charlestown. The red line was sometimes just paint on the ground. The line was sometimes brick. The line did disappear as I found myself in a construction area and then out lost, then figured out where I was (love maps).
I saw old gravestones, houses, and tributes to the greatness of America. I also saw an anti-war protest. I almost joined, except I had freedom to see. I walked the 2.5 miles from one end to the other to walk up the 294 stairs to the top of the Bunker Hill monument. It was totally worth it as it offered beautiful views of Boston, including Logan airport. Even though I thought the stairs where going to kill me (which surprised me as I run 5 miles most mornings, but after 100 stairs I couldn't really breathe), watching the planes take off and land at Logan made it all worth it. Turns out this area has lots of tree covered hills. I guess it is New England, and the leaves are quite beautiful, as they are in Chicago and Japan. Funny how my trips have turned into fall leave seeing trips due to the warmness of the season.
I walked back into Boston, saw a lobster special for 10 dollars, and for the second time of my life had whole lobster for dinner. Yeah. I remember now, I like lobster, but really can’t deal with a whole one due to lobster goo. The thought of lobster goo made me feel slightly ill all evening and still makes me feel icky when I think about it.
Boston, despite the whole lobster, is definitely my favorite conference city yet. I love the ease of the T (now that I’ve figured it out). I love the sights, the smells, and the feel. I love Brookline. It has wide sidewalks great for running. Stores and eateries are conveniently located. The neighborhood is filled with youngish people also out and about at all times, though it has made me feel a tad old.
I could live here….except for the harsh harsh winter.
The thing that has struck me is how young this city is. According to my taxi cab driver, there are half a million students in this city. It shows. This is a very young city, at least the parts I’ve seen. Though I am sure it is like Chicago where there are really young parts and older parts. The parts that are young remind me of the neighborhood to the south of mine in Chicago. Our neighborhood is young, but not college young. It is like mid 20s-30s young. Not college age, just out of college young.
Posted by christina at 9:14 AM | Comments (0)
November 1, 2005
today was that day / it was that time
waterfall. nikko.
I didn’t make it to Harvard this morning. It turns out that there is a big rail yard between me and where I wanted to run (along the river). Oh well, it was still a nice run, except for my ipod, who doesn’t like the electricity or something in my room as it say it is charged when I leave, but IS NOT.
The conference is going well. I am loving my beautiful iBook. I am loving science. Conferences give me perspective, and make me want to keep doing research. The problem is that I don’t particularly want to keep doing research, and I want to particularly do my current save-the-world plan. And by save-the-world I mean save-my-sanity.
I am sitting in the sunshine trying to be warm. The meeting rooms are so cold. I am sitting where lots and lots of people pass. I love people watching.
Posted by christina at 5:26 PM | Comments (1)