January 29: Key West: Last Day: I am a Sox fan.

We left Key West early in the morning to go to Key Largo to enjoy Pennekamp. It was beautiful, and I was able to do some snorkeling (the seas were too rough for me to dive).

We asked a guy at the park where to go for lunch, and he recommended Hobo's. It was absolutely dive-y from the outside and adorable on the inside. Well, except that it was filled with pictures of sports figures, and we happened to be seated under Bucky F'in Dent's watchful eyes.

Being the nutty Boston fan that I am, I quickly covered the picture with those little mini menu papers they keep in the plastic things on the table. The waitress noticed and laughed. She asked if I wanted her to take it down. I told her it was okay, I was just kidding around. However, on returning from a trip to the ladies' room, I found she had removed the photo. Needless to say, she got a huge tip.

Before

After

We then drove to the airport for our sad, sad flight back to Boston. The bright spot was that Corey was sweet enough to come get us. Thanks, Cors! And thanks, Liz, for a wonderful, wonderful vacation! Let's do it again. Want to leave tomorrow?

January 28: Key West, Day 4: I am lazy

Whose idea was it to do Guinness, then margaritas, then beer??

Anyway, I went back to the Banana Cafe for a delish crepe. Tres bien. I then planted my hungover butt at the pool, where Miss Liz and Kaydub joined me.

After a couple of hours (and a couple of pina coladas--for medicinal purposes only of course), I went to take a walk and Liz took Kaydub to the airport. I grabbed one last key lime pie ice cream (yeah, I was disgusting on this trip), and walked to the Southernmost point and then to a craft fair. Liz met me, and we finished up some shopping and had lunch at an outstanding Mexican place.



One last night of sunset watching, and we went home for a night in before an 8:15am dive in Key Largo. After days of partying, we fell asleep to shows on the History channel about Apollo (Gene Kranz's "Failure is not an Option." It was awesome.) They followed this with a special about the Challenger, in honor of the twentieth anniversary of its loss. I can't believe it's been twenty years.

January 27: Key West, Night 3: I am a bouncer.

After the Sunset Celebration, we went back to Irish Kevin's. Unfortunately, they had the same exact singer telling the same exact jokes. We got irked and left to go meet the Navy guys and wife at the original Sloppy Joe's.

We weren't allowed in with drinks, so Liz and I stayed outside while our new friend (nicknamed Kaydub) went in to gather the troops. I was in a friendly-type mood, so struck up a conversation with the bouncer. He is usually the guitarist there, and was working the door for the first time ever.

Unfortunately for the bouncer, there were two doors. He'd have everything under control at one door, and someone would sneak in the other. It was actually pretty funny, but ya couldn't help but feel bad for the guy. At one point, he told one dude he couldn't go in with his drink. The guy said, "Okay," but when the bouncer went to the other door, the guy walked right in. I walked in afterward and said, "Excuse me, but I think the nice bouncer asked you to stay outside with your beverage." Okay, it doesn't seem funny right now, but it was very entertaining at the time...even rule-breaker-drink dude laughed.

Just before we were going to leave for the next bar, a guy walks by with a Red Sox cap. Key West had so many dang Pats and Sox fans, but I had to say, "Go Pats!" (yes, I know they're momentarily stopped), and "Go Sox!" to each one. Well, this guy decides to stop and chat. He agreed to look for us at the next location, the current Sloppy Joe's.

It is important to note at this point that MensaBoy had become the butt of all our jokes. We would raise our fists to heaven, drop in a 3-point stance, yell "You're a great American," and tap our hearts and heads rapidly. Eventually, we have our whole table--Navy folk, Soxboy, and friends--doing it.

Guess who else we saw doing it...yup, he was out on the dance floor, fist to heaven. It took a while to get across to everybody that they needed to stop making fun, especially to the Soxboy, who at 24 and drunk was ready to take on the big man. I seriously cannot put into words how very funny this all was to us. Anyway, those guys were back there, so we said some quick hellos and enjoyed the rest of the night on the dance floor.

January 27: Key West: Day 3: I am a sun-bathing shopper!

I should probably mention that Liz and I really wanted to go diving, but the winds were very strong each day. We made and broke reservations every day, and Friday was no exception. Sigh....

We therefore had an excellent brunch at Banana Cafe and then sat our butts down at the pool with a couple of pina coladas (Garth: "Braiing mee....TWO pina coladas, one for each hand.") After we had finished our strenuous sun bathing, we changed and walked down Duval for some good, down-home shopping and gallery-gazing.

We went to the Sunset Celebration in Mallory Square, where I saw a man I remembered from last time who trains cats. They were so cute.

January 26: Key West: Night 2: I am a Great American!

After changing from the cruise, Liz and I walked down to Sloppy Joe's for a snack and drinks. I actually ordered a sloppy joe...it was quite delish!

I know I have a rule about blogging about boys, but this night was waaaay to entertaining to ignore. So we're sitting at a table by the door, and a group of men come in. They start talking talking to us. They're nice but pretty drunk, so we ask for our check with the next beer to move to a different table (we wanted them to hear the check request and take a hint). The waitress informed us they had picked up our tab, and we were all set. They left us alone anyway, so we stayed at the table.

I later bumped into one of them by the dance floor. He was very nice and good looking, but definitely lacking in the intelligence category. This, of course, makes for high entertainment near the high seas. Please share with me:
-- His opening line to me was, "I love your hair. I could do a triple lindy off of it." (Hunhhh?)
-- "Do you look in the mirror every day and say, "I am a GREAT American?"
-- His friend, noting his height (about 6'6") and mine: "If you two have kids, they will be in the NBA or NFL."
My response: "Good, because they probably won't be getting in to MIT."
-- "You know why I'm successful? Because I've got brains (madly taps temple), and heart (madly taps chest). I've got both (taps both manically...he may have been trying to communicate via morse code. I have no idea).
-- "You have the best hair. People pay thousands of dollars for hair like that." (For those that have never had a perm, I'm guessing a good one costs about $100).
-- "I'm in the CIA" (Wait...this is after telling me he was from Canada. My response: "The Canadian Intelligence Agency?")
-- "I can spot a Vietnam Vet a mile away. (Pokes older man walk by) You were in 'Nam, weren't you?" (crazy thing is that the guy really was in the war, and MensaBoy had never met him before).
-- "You must have gone to the best college. What is that one....Princeton?"
Me: "What exactly about me looks WASPish?"
-- Gotta note here that he told me his life story many times. ("I'm the youngest of eight boys. I had to fight!" He'd making little fighting gestures. He was quite the thespian.)
-- "I'm old enough to be your father!"
Me: "You're 40. I'm 32."
Him: "So when I was 12 years old, doing my paper route, you were 3!"
Me: "No, I was 4."

Like I wrote, he was entertaining and not bad to look at, so I hung out with him for a bit, but eventually tired of his antics and went to sit down. When I'd look at the dance floor, he'd just be standing there, fist to the ceiling. Oh! And he kept getting in a three-point stance. I shit you not. Remembering back to his glory days of college football.

I have finally decided it is time to have my Loser Magnet surgically removed. I'll let y'all know how the operation goes.

January 26: Key West, Day 2: I'm a model!

Liz and I woke up at a reasonable hour to head to the mythical free cruise. We got to Fury's offices at the appointed time (9:15). When we walked in, a girl asked, "Are you two models?" I responded, "Oh...we get that all the time!" I think I'm funny sometimes.

Well, turns out we were the models. We sat outside laughing our little butts off about our luck until 10am rolled around and it was time to board. On boarding, we met two other girls being "models." On the other side of the boat was a wholesome, all-American family with two sons and a daughter. They had food and drinks for us on board, but we had to do some photographs first. I was a "friend" with the other two girls, while Liz played a wife to someone. The friends got to pretend we were being handed snorkel gear. I had to smile madly at the man handing me the gear. It was kind of like being on a date with a guy who thinks he is very entertaining, but you find yourself quickly tuning him out and just sitting there smiling like a dope. Needless to say, I played my part effortlessly.

It was really windy on the water, so we didn't do any of the watersports. We did have a nice two-hour cruise. We disembarked, and headed to the hotel pool to lie out. On the way, we stopped to fill our Fat Tuesdays containers with libations. We spent a few hours at the pool, a couple on the beach, then headed back to the dock for a "Thank You" sunset cruise. They had good, tart margaritas. An excellent time.

January 25: Key West, Day One: I am 32!

After sludging through some ice/snow/rain combination and the subsequent de-icing of the plane (causing a 1:15 delay), Liz and I were off to Key West. We picked up our car at the airport in Fort Lauderdale, then started the drive. We stopped in Key Largo for lunch on the water.



Once we got to Key West, Liz took a nap, as she was nursing a nasty cold all week. I went for a walk, stopping by an ice cream stand for some Key Lime Pie ice cream. It was my birthday...I deserved it! We were staying at the Southernmost, so we had a great location on the ocean and duval. It was very soothing to watch the water.

Once Liz woke up, we set out for downtown. We went to one of my favorites, Fat Tuesdays, and grabbed daiquiris to aid us on our walk. At one point, a handsome young man stopped us on the street and asked how long we were in town for. When we told him we were there until Sunday, he started telling us about a photo shoot his company, Fury Catamaran, was doing for their brochure. They needed people on the boat to parasail, jetski, snorkel, and just look like they were having fun. Liz and I jokingly agreed to go on...seriously, he was offering all this stuff for free! How could we believe him? Regardless, we had a great laugh.

From there, we went to Irish Kevin's to celebrate my birthday evening with Guinness, Jaeger, and good live music. We ended up sitting with a group of Navy dudes and one of their wives. Liz told them I went to MIT and it was my birthday (Every time I mention someone knew at Key West, just assume Liz told them I go to MIT. I swear...the whole island knows now! =D)

Yada yada yada, it was fun, then we went home and crashed.

Worth the wait...

I am flying home from a wonderful few days in Key West, and will blog more soon. =)

Happy Birthday, me. Love, Theo?!?

Theo's back?!? Are you kidding me? After all that, huh? Hmmm....guess I'm happy to have him back, but could have done without all the drama. It's like dating someone who abruptly dumps you, then wants to get back together. Hmph. I guess we'll take him back...there are only so many cute single Jewish men left in the world....

Leavin' Primetime

Tomorrow is my birthday. Usually I get sad when I am leaving a prime number. However, this year, I am leaving 31. That means on my birthday 1/25 (or 5^3), I am turning 32 (or 2^5). I haven't been this excited since I turned 27!

Besides, after 32, nothing but good numbers for the next five years:

32: 2^5, Kevin McHale, Barkley with the 76ers

33: Larry Bird
34: Barkley with the Suns, the number I wore when I captained softball and basketball in high school, 17 * 2 (i love 17)
35: Backwards is 53, the number I wore my first three years of hoops
36: 6^2
37: Prime

I heart classpaths/paths

Okay, quick whine here:

It took me about two hours to get Apache's XMLBeans up and running. First, I forgot that Sun uses Program Files as a default for installing the JDK (totally my fault...I should have switched to another, spaceless location). I therefore moved the JDK (it was puking on the space in "Program Files").

I then tried to run scomp. After mucking around with my paths some more, I came across a post in which I found that the script for scomp contained the wrong info. I needed to change
java -classpath %cp% org.apache.xmlbeans.impl.tool.SchemaCompiler %*
%JAVA_HOME%/bin/java -classpath %cp% org.apache.xmlbeans.impl.tool.SchemaCompiler %*

Okay, I was just griping because I was waiting for it to compile and couldn't bear to see any more errors. It worked! Yay. I've heard great things about XMLBeans so I'm pretty psyched to use it now that I have something to play with.

Anyway, I filed the bug with Apache, so hopefully the development team will be able to fix it for others (step to it, Yoav ;))

Grape Tomatoes

Why do grape tomatoes taste so delicious when someone puts them out on a veggie platter or when someone else puts them in a salad, and taste so bad when I put them with other veggies or in a salad?

I know food always tastes better when made by someone else, but dude, these require no preparation other than washing.

Sorry, Y'all

I was out enjoying the weekend too much to blog. =) Friday I spent with the fam'. I had a wonderful pizza dinner with EVE, my mom, and dad. Saturday, I went to the gym, then expected to go for a powerwalk, but mid-walk was informed by Liz that Ann Taylor was having a sale, so took a long and expensive detour to Fanueuil Hall =D. That evening, Katie and I went to Brown Sugar for some Thai food. It was excellent.

Sunday I met Yoav and Alli for a delish brunch at Tremont 647. After that, I felt a little tired and like I met get sick, so I cancelled plans to watch the AFC and NFC Championships at a bar. I stayed home instead, taking a jacuzzi during half time of the AFC Championship, and cleaning my place during the game itself.

This morning, my commmute sucked. It was snowing like there was no tomorrow, and not a plow was to be seen on the road. Luckily, I passed the time talking to Liz and my mom. I'll probably leave a bit early to work from home until a meeting at MIT with my sports management group tonight.

My life is just thrilling, ain't it?

Sports Management and Bluegrass

Last night I had my sports management class before heading to a bluegrass concert. The class was very interesting: first we had two groups--one representing the Pats, one the Celts--pitching a product campaign to a rep from Pepsi. It was very interesting, and I learned quite a bit about sports sponsorship. Next, one of our profs went into the details of how complex trades are made. He used the Chris Mills trade as an example. Of course, this caused the mention of the words "Vin Baker" which are enough to make any Celtics fan shudder.

I had to duck out of class about 10 minutes early to make the concert. The Avett Brothers were in town. I got there just in time to hear them kick off the show with "Swept Away," one of my favorites. They also sang "Pretend Love," which will be on the album they are releasing Feb 7. I got to hang around with Matt, Matti, S., and one of the original Avett fans: Dave (and his sister).

Yeah, I'm famous

My recipe for choclate martinis is in the Sidekick section of the Boston Globe today. I will be autographing copies at Warren Tavern the Wednesday after next starting at 8pm. ;)

Boston is a Beautiful City

I was driving to class this morning along Memorial Drive. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, but the wind was creating white caps on the Charles River. It was just gorgeous. It is so much prettier when the Charles isn't frozen over ;)

As much as I love Atlanta, it always struck me as strange to be living in a city with no water (the Chatahoochee does not count).

Lunch Today

Today I had lunch with five students, my professor (Jack Gill), his wife Linda, and our special guests Dr. Bernard Harris and Scott Jones.

I need to get back to work but just a couple of highlights:
- When asked about making mistakes in startups, Jones said the biggest mistake was choosing the wrong people. If someone is not working out, cut bait and move on (okay, he said it more nicely than that).
- Don't be afraid to fail. If you are going to fail, make it quick and move on.
- I wish I could share some entrepreneurial advice with Dr. Harris, but I kept asking him about his training as an astronaut.
- I did ask what he had learned in space that he could apply, and he talked about medical monitoring and the ways in which it could be improved (which I remember well from my Apollo class).

Target Located!

It took me all of about two minutes to locate my car and leave the Stata center. I am very thankful for my good sense of direction sometimes =)

Am I a student?

I just got my morning coffee. At MIT, if you are a student, you don't pay sales tax on food. I usually just suck it up and pay the extra 8 cents or so. This morning, however, the coffee woman asked the guy two people in front of me: "Are you a student?" "Yes," he replied. The guy right in front of me: "Are you a student?" "No." Me? "That's $1.58." At this point, I whipped the old ID out of my wallet and presented it to her. "I am a student." Eight cents came right off. Just in case you were wondering, this was a different coffee lady, one from whom I had never ordered, so this was not a result of my lack of proving my student-ness during prior encounters.

I guess I should feel a little offended about the whole thing, but I don't. I guess I'm just used to it. I can tell you, though, that both men in front of me appeared much older than I do. Next time I'll throw on some glasses, pull back my hair, and slouch to cover the fact that I do have (gasp!) breasts and see what happens.

Target: Gone forever?

Target my car, of course. Today I parked under the Stata Center (pic below), after receiving a ticket on Thursday for parking in the elusive West Lot.

The sylllabus for this class said we should be able to park down there, so I drove in, expecting to find an attendant. There was none, so I drove right on in. I was a little concerned about being able to get out of there at the end of class without a proper ID. I guess we'll see what happens.

That's assuming, of course, that I can even find my damn car. I took stairs up from the parking lot only to find myself in MIT's winding tunnels. I somehow managed to get to the Stata center, but neglected to leave myself a trail of pebbles or bread crumbs. I'll keep y'all posted on my progress....

"God is Mad at America!"

Talk about your science vs. religion....the mayor of New Orleans declared that God is, in fact, mad at these United States, and is showing his wrath by sending "hurricane after hurricane after hurricane." Can somebody please step up and show this guy the data on the twenty-year cycles of hurricane seasons?

I'd hate to see what he says about the coldness that God forces the North to endure every year. I bet the mayor believes He's really pissed at us. Maybe it's because unlike New Orleans--what he calls the "Chocolate City"--Boston is more Neopolitan or chocolate chip. Sometimes people are just plain silly.

Actually, y'all got it right...I'm just bitter because he spoke of a Chocolate City, making me believe there was a city conconcted from sugar and cocoa beans, when he really was just discussing race.

Weekend Recap

Friday was a busy night. I started out at Jamie's house for wine and cheese for a brief girls' night in. From there, I took the T (to Sonsie (being entertained on the way by a group of 23-year-old girls talking about how amazing a co-worker of theirs was because this woman was 32 and still out partying, living her life like she wants to. Good for her! I tried not to laugh too obvoiusly....) At Sonsie, I had drinks with Yoav, Alli, Sam, Kevin, Maja, and a couple of their friends. The martinis and company were excellent; the service not so much.

After Sonsie, I briefly rejoined Jamie and friends, but they were waiting outside too long at Ned Devine's, long enough for me to notice the exceedingly young median age of fellow clubgoers. I ditched out and went to join SDM 06's Will, Chris, and Adrienne. Apparently we had a lot of fun hanging out, as I didn't get home until around 3:30. =)

On Saturday I went for a walk downtown, then went to Hennessey's with Andrew for the game. I was getting really frustrated because the only reason to go out to see a game (for me) is to feel the energy of the crowd. Otherwise, I'd rather just have people over. There were two bachelorette parties there with very shrill girls (even Andrew thought so, but that might have been after he realized most were married already =D). Nobody was cheering or booing with the plays, so during half time we switched to Bell in Hand. That was slightly better. Of course, the Pats lost, so I left to go home with two minutes remaining, having been out so long the night before.

Today, I woke up at 10am, was awake til about 11, then went back to sleep until 3pm to the surprise of Pit beating Indy 14-3. Interesting game here. I'd prefer for Indy to win this year so that it takes some of the fire out of their bellies, but don't care too much. If they lose, I'll be rooting for the Seahawks, if only because Shaun Alexander looks so much like Tiki =)

So sleepy...

I've had a pretty amazing day, including lunch with Rod Canion, one of the founders of Compaq after my class this morning. I'm feeling kind of lazy, so I will blog notes from the talk later or tomorrow.

It finally happened....

This being a Wednesday night and all, I headed out to the Warren Tavern. When I got there, bouncer J was standing outside talking to one of the former bouncer boys. I said hi to both of them, and told J to stop scaring folks away. I then reached for the door. He told me to hold on, searched in his pocket, pulled out a key, locked the door, and said, "We're closed." I laughed, he opened the door back up, and I headed in.

I saw Gregg the bartender and waved, then did a once-through to see who was there. Here is what finally happened: I KNEW NO ONE. Shannon, one of the waitresses, passed by, and I asked if she had seen anyone. She responded that none of the regulars were there. I turned to walk out.

On my way out, I heard Gregg call my name and saw that he was holding up my drink. Who am I to turn down a raspberry Stoli and soda? I thanked him and started sipping at it, thinking that I used to walk into bars in Atlanta by myself all the time. Unfortunately, the only game on TV was a meaningless NHL matchup, and I quickly grew bored. I put the drink down, said some good-byes, then left to take a walk around the neighborhood.

Dudes...I knew *no one* at the Tavern. What is this world coming to? I'll let you know later, after I go back and try again. =)

Decision Made!

I have decided my new goal in life is to marry Jonathan Cheechoo.

Why? Three reasons:
1. He plays for the Sharks, and I love sharks.
2. He's from Moose Factory, Ontario. I love moose.
3. His last name is "Cheechoo." Can you beat that?? "Hi, I'm Ilana Cheechoo."

Aside from my new-found life goal, I--like many--found Joe Thonton's cheap shot on Hal Gill absolutely disgusting. If you're going to beat on a former teammate, at least do it in such a way that he can see you coming, and not with a stick to his back.

Pats ten post-season wins over-hyped?

I was about to totally bash the Pats summary in this article, when I realized that the author was a classmate and friend of mine at Sharon High School: Aaron Schatz.

Here is a quote from the summary: "The Patriots only have 10 straight postseason wins because the Green Bay Packers lay down like dogs to the Jets in the last week of 2002, which created a three-way tie atop the AFC East which the Jets won on a tiebreaker. If the Jets had gone 8-8, the Patriots would have won the tiebreaker over Miami, but there's no way they would have beaten Oakland, Tennessee, and Tampa Bay to win the title."

Aaron, I know that this whole psychic thing was not taught in any of the classes that we shared. Where did you gain the ability to predict the outcome of alterations to the past? Teach me, please, so I can get a cool job like yours =D (Congrats, by the way!)

Excited for Today

I am really excited for my day today. It started off with an excellent workout at the gym, including 35 minutes of cardio (YOAV). It continues with the High-Tech Entrepreneurship class from 10-12. Jack Gill, the instructor, already knows my name after one class. I was pretty impressed. Then again, sometimes I guess it's an advantage when only 10% of a class is women.

This afternoon I will go to SDM to watch their robot contest. I will then try to make all the newbies go to the Muddy for beer. Corruption begins early, I tells ya. ;)

Jim Rice Doesn't Make the Hall & SDM

Like most everyone in Boston (except the media, I guess), I am disappointed that Jim Rice did not make the Hall of Fame on his best chance. Next year will find Mark McGwire and others on the ballot.

I remember watching Rice as a kid. I always remember him as a second baseman. Of cousre he never played second base, but I did. I therefore must have decided at some point that he switched to outfield as a favor to his coach or something. Ah, the sweet imaginations of youth.

In other news, I went over to the SDM offices tonight. Yoav and Sam were both there. Sam was working on some chemistry stuff for school, but Yoav took me around to meet many of the 07's. I'm actually pretty impressed, even more so than I expected.

They were all out testing their lego mindstorms robots. The robots must navigate an obstacle course and must be completely autonomous. There seemed to be good collaboration among the teams, and I was very impressed with the machines they were testing. I'm going to go to the competition tomorrow after my morning class. Should be a good time, though nothing could beat the Smoking Man robot that Yoav, P-Wheel, John Wang, Cenkhen and I created for the contest last year. =D

Desh Deshpande

Today in class, entrepreneur Desh Deshpande shared some insights on what made him successful. Below are the main bullet points I took away from the discussion:

* Need to stop saying, "There are so many problems," and instead say, "There are so many opportunities."
* Each time you fail, you increase the chance of success in your next endeavor.
* VC's look for uniqueness, not for the "best."
* As an entrepreneur, you must force the issue of money with VC's.
* When asked for 4-5 keys to success, Desh gave these:
1. Always work with great people.
- They set a new benchmark for you and push you harder
- Look for working with the best people over earning more money
2. Have fun in what you do.
- Never do anything like say you will work really hard for a number of years so the rest of your life is great. Make it great now.
3. Have the guts to quit if you are in a position in which neither of the two prior keys are present.
4. Maintain the financial freedom to quit.
- Either have a lot of money
- Or need less money
- Save money to create an entrepreneurial nest egg

The last point reminded me of the "Sex and the City" episode in which Carrie wants to buy an apartment and finds she has no savings, just hundreds of pairs of expensive shoes. Note to self: regardless of eventual career goals, STOP BUYING SHOES. And purses. And clothes. And the latest gadgets. And shiny objects. However, keep buying ridiculous toys for Scully. Those are totally worth it.

"Reese" Rhymes with "Niece"

"Reese" as in "Hannah Reese" rhymes with "niece." Okay, I just realized that. Only took 19 days.

How I Spent my Christmas Vacation

Okay, that's a lie. This isn't how I spent my Christmas vacation, but it is how I spent this past weekend.

I don't have much time to write right now, but will be posting notes on Desh Deshpande's lecture from this morning later on today.

In the meantime, I call this one "Napping with the Niece." Photograph by Evie (aka "mom")

Marcus Vick on Reality TV

Yeah, that's my prediction. You know it's going to happen. We'll be seeing him next season on "The Surreal Life."

Hannah!

Visiting with the Sister, Brother-in-Law, and Niece

I spent the day in New York with Jeff, Hannah, and Eve. Eve and I barely moved off the couch all day. I sat with Hannah a lot, and was so comfortable holding her, I fell asleep. It was such a great day.

At one point, we were all on the couch, watching football. I had my feet up, as Hannah was lying on me. Eve and Jeff started making fun of my socks, which are white with two blue stripes around the ankle. When pulled straight, they reach about four inches above my ankles. I asked what was wrong with my socks, and Jeff promptly responded, "Nothing....if you played for the Lakers in the Eighties." I laughed until the tears rolled.

Hannah is so cute. Holding her is such an amazing feeling. She is still too young to show much emotion, but I swear she was much happier when the Pats were on scoring drives. (Jeff is a Giants fan, but I think you can root for both of those teams, seeing as how they are in separate leagues. The whole Red Sox (Eve)/ Yankees (Jeff) thing makes me nervous, though! Hear that, Eve? =D

Great Day

The morning got off to a slow start: I went to the gym and didn't have much energy in my muscles, so had to cut my workout short. I then headed home to get some work in before going to the New Year's Eve party for my department.

I got a little caught up in the project I was working on (the eXist one), and showed up late to the get-together at Redbones. From there, the department went candlepin bowling. None of us was particularly good--especially not me. (My high score was 70, though I did knock down all the pins on one ball...after guttering the first two of the set...)

As we were walking out after playing three games, Katie mentioned she was going for a manicure/pedicure and asked if I wanted to join. Of course I did =) We had a great time relaxing in the chairs, talking, and getting really tacky colors put on our toes (well, that's just me...she has better taste).

After a brief stop at Trader Joe's, she dropped me at home. I am now heading out to Warren Tavern (sorry, Matti, pre-existing plans...I hope the Beerworks treats y'all well...)

86 Years Since Ruth Left

According to my "Pups in the Park" Red Sox calendar, today is 86 years since we sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees.

Rose Bowl: Wow

Last night, Katie and I went out to watch the game, stopping first at Boston BeerWorks for dinner and some good peanut butter stout (no, it didn't taste like peanut butter for some reason). We then swung by Hurricane O'Reilly's, but it was empty. We therefore headed to the Fours, ranked by Sports Illustrated as the number one sports bar in America (I don't agree, but it is a fun, cozy place to watch a game).

After the first few minutes, the game really didn't seem like a meet-up between Numbers 1 and 2. It seemed like somebody had greased up the ball to the point where the players just couldn't hold on to it, like a greased pig catching contest or the greased-up deaf guy on Family Guy.

Then the game got good. Damn, did it get good. Katie had on a Texas cap and was rooting for the Longhorns. I was just rooting for all the handsome players =D (Hey, at least I'm honest.)

It's been a long, wonderful last few days of bowl games, and now it's over. At least we still have NFL playoffs, with the Pats in 'em. Then it's the drought until Spring Training, broken only by the minimal excitement of pitchers and catchers reporting. I'm just hoping the Sox have a team by then. Either that, or it looks like I'll be going doing to Fort Myers to play some first base for them. =)

Orange Bowl

Woah...what a weird game. What was supposed to be a coaching matchups was ultimately decided by a safety, a missed extra point, and several missed field goals.

One of the most touching moments of the game for me was after the Florida State kicker missed his final field goal attempt, several of his teammates formed a wall around him to keep him from view of the cameras. One of them even signaled for a fellow player to move closer to him to form a complete wall.

Of course, ABC--being the sneaky little network it is--managed to get in over the wall. I found that to be pretty rude actually...of course the guy is going to be upset and probably crying. Give the man the privacy he obviously desires. Yes, sports (like news) is a business, but this kid is not getting paid to play, and probably never will. Let him lament his mistakes away from the camera.

That's it.

I'm suing the BCS for compensation for time lost to crappy half-time shows. Do we really need half-time "extravaganzas" that run more than 35 minutes? Especially when said shows start at 10PM?

It's the little things in life....

Sometimes it's good to be easily amused, especially during bowl games with lots of commercials. For example, they just had the Aflac duck walk across the screen for the trivia question. It looked like he was going to plow right into a ball boy on the sideline. Too funny; I laughed out loud. Anybody else notice that one?

Wow, I'm talkative today

Take the picture below, replace the woman with Scully, her caption with "Purrrrrrrr-row," and the dude in the tank top with me in my penguin PJ's, and you can see what I looked like yesterday.

Oh yeah, and make the furniture and wallpaper non-ugly.

Last Correspondence

The Globe has compiled the last correspondences from New England soldiers killed in Iraq this year.

Toad vs Tora

This morning I got into work, raring to go (and singing "Unskinny Bop" to all that would listen). I was playing with some data entry for the new application I have been writing, and wanted to check if the data was being recorded correctly.

I went to start up Toad, a tool I use for reviewing data. However, Quest has a wonderful policy for its freeware: every sixty days, the user must re-download and re-install the software. No big deal, right? It took me way too long to find the freeware for update. When I did, it turned out to be the same version as the software I have, and for some reason did not recognize the new install.

I therefore returned to TOra, which is still freeware...or so I thought. Unfortunately, Quest bought that up as well, and when one follows the links to TOra, one ends up at the Toad page. Grrr... Luckily, SourceForge still had a version from June up. I reinstalled in about five minutes, and all is good.

Okay, that's my trials and tribulations for this morning. Nerd out.

Unskinny Bop!

Things I never thought I would say, and especially not say with glee: "Ohmigod...it's 'Unskinny Bop!'" They played that old Poison song on the radio this morning. It was friggin' awesome!

In other news, the gym this morning was great. I was dreading going, as this is the start of what one of my smoothie buddies calls "defibrillator week," as all of these folks who haven't worked out in quite some time come back in, say "Well, I used to be able to run an 8-minute mile," then never show up again (yeah, he had me laughing my butt off when he put it that way). Apparently, the threat of snow scared 'em off.

And what's with all the cancellations??? I seriously feel like I am back in Atlanta. A threat of snow, and all the schools call a snow day? (old lady voice) In my day, we would go to school and wait for it to start to snow! Then we'd walk home...uphill! (/old lady voice)

Tribute to Pat Tillman

The Ohio State linebackers are wearing their hair long as a tribute to Pat Tillman, who chose to fight for his country rather than play for the NFL, and subsequently lost his life in Afghanistan. Very touching.

Haha, ABC got Yelled At!

Play was just stopped because there was a camera on the field. The commentators declined to comment.

For my Mom

My mom said that she missed my blogging, so here is a quick summary:

Friday: Went to Town Spa and Ikea with Sam, Yoav, and Alli. We had a lot of fun, and all of us bought stuff (of course =))

Current: Holy crap, can they please stop showing Brady Quinn's sister who is dating the linebacker who is trying to sack her brother??? Ohmigod. Until she throws on some pads and starts tackling people, let's keep the camera off of her.

Ahem, okay, back to the summary.

Saturday: After hearing Alli's rave reviews of Bloomie's sale, I met my mom there for some shoppin'. We had so much fun. =) My mom got some cute shoes and a couple of shirts, and I stayed true to form by picking up clothes I can't wear for another six months: two tanks tops. =)

I had a brief moment of panic when I walked out of the store to my car, expecting to see my pink hat on the seat only to find it not there. I went back to the store into the shoe department, and saw the hat sitting there. I got all excited and said, "That's mine! See? It matches my scarf!" as I eagerly held out my scarf and matching gloves. Sometimes I am such a dork (if you are going to comment only to concur, I'll kick your butt).

On the way back to Charlestown, I stopped by Best Buy to treat myself to a present. I finally gave up the Sony Cybershot 3.2 megapixel camera I have had since December 1999. My Sony survived five years of me, as well as being run over by a pick-up truck. I loved that thing, but it wasn't so good at photographing yellows or in bright sunshine, so I figured I'd try a Canon.

I then went home and started playing with my new toy. Every year I say I am going to stay in for New Year's. This year, I did it. I put on my penguin pajamas, and made myself a healthy dinner of chips and melted cheese and salsa, complete with two glasses of wine. I watched "Airplane" and "Men in Black" with Scully on my stomach, playing with my new camera throughout.

Sunday: I went home to watch the end of the Pats game with my parents, then ventured out to Ikea again with my mom after Sam called to tell me they had the lamps I had wanted to buy on Friday, but they were out of (thanks, Sam!). I then stayed for the 8th night of Hanukah. Excellent cooking, mom!

Monday: Gym, then sat on my butt ALL DAY watching football. Again, bliss.

It has been a really great weekend of nothing. I needed this. =D Excellent way to start the year...this, the Year of Ilana. (It's YOI!)