Dude....

When I moved to Atlanta, I would go here to find gas prices that were under $0.70. Not so today...

I don't want to comment too much on the hurricane. The whole thing is just so sad. It's incredible that people knew this storm was coming, yet so many people were stuck in its path.

I guess the positive news is that the Red Cross's site was swamped today. It took me about 10 tries to get on. Luckily, once in, it doesn't crash on the donation pages, so you can be sure that your donation went through only once. If anybody wants to donate, here's the link again.

Sure would be nice to be able to pay my bill

A couple weeks ago, I received a mildly threatening email from the folks at SDM. Turns out if I don't pay my bill by September 2, I will not be able to enroll for Fall term. I am fine with this rule; I actually thought I had paid my summer bill and expensed it, but I had only done that for Spring.

However, I have been trying to get in touch with the finance guy at SDM for two weeks now, and find myself unable to get answers about how to pay my bill. I have important meetings over the next few days that I cannot simply skip out on to make the trek down to Cambridge. Friday is the deadline, and it seriously looks like I am not going to make it. Looks like I will have a bunch of free time on my hands come September 7.

And yes, I realize it is my own fault for mixing up my bills, but I have been trying to rectify that situation for fourteen days now to no avail.

Update: The distance coordinator just returned my call, but couldn't tell me how to actually go about paying the bill. Am waiting on a call back.

Deep thoughts....

Why do grape-flavored things taste nothing like grapes? Raspberry things can taste like raspberries, even when they are blue, and strawberry things certainly taste like strawberries. However, even the best quality grape things still taste more like grape flavoring than grapes.

Woohoo! What a weekend

Okay, quick weekend log:

Friday I went out to meet Bob, Andrew, and Dave at Bell in Hand. When I got there, Bob was sitting at the bar talking to the bartender. She and I got to talking, and it turned out that she was from Stoughton, the town next to where I grew up. She was tall and athletic looking, and had graduated high school the year before I did, so I asked if she played hoops for Stoughton. Sure enough, she had.

I laughed at this, as my basketball team always had to get a police escort when playing Stoughton. I remarked that one of their girls had wanted to kill one of ours...the girl on my team being a big huge fat girl who was quite mean to me when I made Varsity as a freshman. The bartender laughed and said that she had been the one after the Heifer. I told her I wished she had succeeded. =D It was fun to reminisce.

Saturday, I went to the beach with Katie after sleeping in to recover from my weekend in Atlanta. We had a great time at Singing Beach, eating slushies, fruit, potato chips, and ice cream over the course of the day. It was really nice to lay around and relax on the beach again. I also discovered that Katie is also going to Pittsburgh next weekend, so we are plotting a way to end up at the Pirates-Cubs series.

Saturday night my dad and I went to the Sox game. We parked at MIT and walked over. As always, it was nice to see John and Meredith, the couple who sits next to me. Unfortunately, there was some ignoramous in the row behind us that kept shouting nonsensical things. He was excellent with manipulating cursewords, letting Millar know how much he liked him. I'm sure Millar was very impressed. He was a true dumb-dumb. Anyway, the game was not a good one...the Sox lost 12-8!!! My dad and I still had an awesome time...we had a hot dog and a beer each.

I love going to games with my dad because it always reminds me of being a kid and going with him. We talked pretty much the whole game, so the Sox performance was really not such an issue (well, today it is, what with the Yankees only 1.5 games back).

Today, I woke up and walked to Filene's Basement, after deciding to forgo a work barbecue to spend time selfishly by myself. I bought some very nice things, then made my way home. I spent the rest of the day reading, watching movies, and baking brownies (my emergency brownies that I freeze individually so that I can defrost them on days when I need them).

In other news, my SecurID token is not working, preventing me from logging into work. I lost one, and got a replacement. I like to work from home in the evenings, a habit I started while at CNNSI. I find I work more efficiently, and actually enjoy the work more. It's weird to be a Sunday night and not be able to log in at all. Oh well, more work for Monday. I guess it's nice to be forced to enjoy my continued relaxation.

All in all, an extremely good weekend. It was so nice to just relax and do next to nothing. Tomorrow starts a busy work week, then a weekend trip to Pittsburgh for a wedding with Dan (and now Katie and her man!), a flight to Atlanta and drive to Tallahassee to see the Florida State-Miami game, followed by a trip to (you guessed it) Destin to see Kellie, Allen, Payton, and Bailey before they move to Raleigh.

Cannibalistic cookies freak me out

I just bought a pack of M&M cookies. On the back is a picture of the red, yellow, and green M&M's from the television commercials. The green one is saying, "Red, you're really outdone yourself this time" to a smirking red M&M carrying a tray of M&M cookies.

Here are the top five things that freak me out about this ad:
5. M&M's with appendages
4. M&M's with go-go boots
3. M&M's with chef's hats
2. M&M's flirting
1. M&M's taking pride in the cooking of other M&M's

There are, of course, a number of other things disturbing about this thing, but I don't have time to write them all.

And yes, I did eat the pack while writing this blog entry. They were okay: better than Famous Amos, not quite as good as Reuger.

Ugh...Allergies!

I have been dragging for the last few days and have not been able to figure out why. It seemed like an April-in-Atlanta type of cold: stuffy head and sleepy, about one bad night's sleep away from a sinus infection. Figuring it must have been the Atlanta-to-Boston transition after this weekend, I waited for it to go away.

Today I found out that pollen season is in full swing up here. Unlike Atlanta where the peak pollen season is in the spring, here it gets just as bad in the early autumn. ICK!

Hopefully none of y'all are going through allergies as well. Start taking that Clarinex now if you have allergies!

Happy Anniversary, me! And Happy Birthday, Jeff!

It has been exactly one year today that I purchased my condo. It's gone really fast. My closing was quite an adventure, and not anything I really need to celebrate, but I am happy with the condo.

And happy birthday to my brother-in-law, Jeff!! Have a great dinner tonight!

In other news, the Red Sox finally banned "Yankees Suck" shirts from Fenway, though they are still allowing the chant. I think both make Sox fans look like idiots; the Yankees don't suck. They are one of the most amazing franchises in sports. That's precisely why beating them feels so good.

Jeff is a Yankees fan...maybe the ban was a present for him?

So you think you can dance

i really like the new reality show "So You Think you can Dance." Ummm...that's it. I'm tired.

Sorry!

Hey everybody! Sorry I haven't written...I've been very busy, traveling and all. I will write tomorrow. (Sounds like a letter from summer camp, huh?)

Warren Tavern

Monday night I headed to the Tavern. Danny had called me to get me there Sunday night, but I was beat from the beach and promised to head over on Monday. He was bartending and Greg was managing. I sat at the bar and had a couple of drinks while watching the game and chatting with the two of them. I left (when Schilling came in, just before he blew the game), and headed home after about two hours. Good, relaxing night.

Let me tell ya, not having homework is awesome!!!!

Weekend Review

Saturday: Eve, Jeff, and my mom drove into town to meet me for breakfast. We went to Sorrelle, a pastry shop around the corner from me. We had a great breakfast, then I left to meet Liz and Corey for our trip to Gloucester.

We drove up to the camp ground, picked a camp site, then set off for the beach which was a mile away. Wingersheek Beach is a delightful place....lots of great sandbars to walk around on. We sat around, ate, and gabbed for a few hours, then went back to the site to clean up.

From there, it was off to Gloucester House for dinner (c'mon! Half the fun of roughing it is using the money you would have paid for a hotel on a huge dinner!). We followed that up with a stroll through town and ice cream for dessert. Then it was back to camp for beer and s'mores.

The next morning, the girls dropped me off at the beach and went on a kayaking expedition for a couple of hours. I set up my chair and enjoyed about 2.5 hours of reading Harry Potter and walking around in the sand bars. It was wonderful. I really needed that down time. I often think because I live alone, I don't need any time to be alone and reflect outside of my condo. However, there is a huge difference between being alone in the city with a television set and sitting on a beach. I felt so refreshed by the time Liz and Corey returned to pick me up.

We took down our campsite and drove into town. We wandered around the shops for a bit, then left for home. Great weekend! Thanks, girls!

Random memory of the day

In 1998, I told all of the recruiters who were calling me that I would not work more than a mile from my apartment in the North End. I still had too many interviews to take them all. Sigh....good times, good times.

Normal Calves! (not baby cows)

I had my follow-up appointment today with my physical therapist. My calves have elongated! (If you don't remember, I had managed to shorten my calves by wearing 3-inch heels every day for five years.) I had a 5% range of motion before, but am up to a full 20%. My doctor was very happy =)

I need to fill y'all in on my weekend of the beach and camping with Liz and Corey. Will do that later, but had to share the news.

Good end to the week

The week definitely is ending on a high note. Yesterday I gave two briefings: one to a smaller group in the morning, and the second to a slightly larger crowd in the afternoon which included my boss and customer. Both went very well. My boss even left me a sticky that said, "Great job!" on my desk. He is tough, and compliments like that mean a lot. So YAY!

That night, I met mom and dad out for dinner. We went over to Figs, which they have wanted to try. We had a great booth by the window. Of course we over-ordered and had lots of leftovers. We also shared a pitcher of Sam Summer which made my mother particularly entertaining =D. Winters here are tough, but I love having my parents close enough that we can decide to do dinner last minute and still meet out.

Today I had yet another meeting, then got lots done at work. I was interviewed by a diveristy magazine about how I chose to come to SDM. I also took pictures of myself for the upcoming article on bloggers at Sloan. I look like a true dork when I sit at a computer. Sucks that about 80 percent of my waking hours are spent in that state! =D

Afterwards, I sold my Stones tickets to a very nice (and very good-looking, but that's beside the point) man. Then it was off to Grafton Street or something like that where I met Dave, his girlfriend Brittany, Christian, Matt L, and several of their friends out for a drink. Brit looked beautiful as always and is so sweet...sure you don't want to move up here, at least til Dave is done with school? =D

We then went to hear the Avett Brothers bluegrass band. They were hysterical. The music was great and funny. Matti and Kumar were there, though I really didn't get to speak to them as they were seated separately from us. (Wow the sentences preceding this paranthetical sound like I'm twelve years old and writing about what I did on my summer vacation...not good...) ANYWAY, they were so good I bought a CD, as did Matt L. Neither Dave nor Christian had to, having known the band well enough to have been recognized during the show.

Then I came home...I was scared I had left on my toaster, and for once I actually had. Everything was okay, though. Whew! That's what I get for making cookies in the toaster.

Tomorrow Liz and Corey are coming at 10am to get me, and we are driving up to Gloucester to camp and go out in Rockport at night. Hopefully, Eve (and maybe Jeff?) will make it into the city for breakfast first.

Death by computer games

File this under "weird news of the day." Apparently a man died from playing video games for 49 straight hours after being laid off from work for doing the same. I wonder if companies like EA Sports are going to become the next target for frivilous law suits a la the McDonald's "I'm too fat because I chose to eat your food" suits.

Three long-lost folks reemerge

Yesterday did not get off to the best start: I took my first spoonful of Cocoa Pebbles and had to spit it out due to the fact that the milk was spoiled. I then decided this was my sign to be healthy, so fixed myself a bowl of cottage cheese--also spoiled. I then settled for the old stand-by of cheese and crackers (Laughing Cow cheese....that stuff never dies). It was then off to work where I briefed a very unreceptive audience.

I got back to my desk to find the guy who was supposed to buy my Rolling Stones tickets then backed out over email (anybody need two?). However, I then received a call from a number I did not recognize...it was Irene, a woman I worked with while at Context Integration whoh was my first female mentor. She actually had a large effect on my professional life, and it was so wonderful to hear from her. Yay!

The day then dipped back into the doldrums a bit, with another briefing...sigh....and trying to schedule mroe briefings. At the end of the day, I left and went to meet Matt, Dave, and Jeff for dinner at Cheesecake Factory, but arrived just as they were about to leave the mall.

So I left there to meet up with Andrew, and the two of us went for dinner at the brand-new Nebo, which I would not recommend. Forty bucks a piece got us each a pizza and one drink. I"m not even kidding. And the shrimp on Andrew's pizza was not fresh. That place won't last.

We left there and went where everybody knows our names: Warren Tavern. Unfortunately, Justin wasn't playing, but we still had fun. While we were talking to Danny and Greg, I heard a woman say, "Ilana?" I turned around and there stood Valerie Bennett, a fellow Sharon High grad, a year younger than me. She had not aged a day. When I told my mom, she said, "Valerie was always such a gorgeous girl...how does she look now?" "The same!" "Wonderful." It was great to see her....she is also a single gal in Boston, so hopefully we can hit the town soon!

As I was talking to Val, a handsome blonde man started staring at me and smiling...it was Todd Ingrewsen, a guy who graduated with me from SHS!! When I first moved to Charlestown (we're talking that very night), I went by myself to Warren Tavern and saw Todd and his mom, a wonderful woman who was the cheerleading coach in school. It made me feel a lot better about my decision to move to Charlestown. I hadn't seen him since then, so it was so great to run into him. Val and I tried to convince him to get his wife out, but it was too late in the night by that time.

The three of us talked and had ourselves a mini-reunion until the bar shut down. It was awesome! The bar was also crawling with my friends from the Warren Tavern softball team. Too much fun! What a great night.

Now I am in my last Systems Engineering class. Woo hoo!!!

No more accounting!

Accounting is over and done with. Yay! I don't want to talk about the exam. I didn't exactly enjoy it. I ended up having to take the day off from work in order to study after conking out the night before.

After the exam, however, Dave and I headed over to Fenway to hit the Beerworks and take in the ballgame with 18 of my coworkers and their spouses. We started off at the Beerworks, where Dave had blueberry beer and I had watermelon. We also tore into a plate of cheese fries, one of the Beerworks' specialities...so good.....

Katie and Sean got there a little later, and the four of us drank and talked for some time before the game. The remainder of our department was supposed to meet us there, but did not show up (which was not a surprise to me). We headed over to our seats around 6:45. On the way, I bumped into Jamie Lipscomb, who played football at Dartmouth while I was a manager of the team. It was great to see him. Immediately after wandering from him, we ran into Harry and Jake and his family. Oo! And we also stopped on the way for Dave to buy a cap (a pretty kick-ass cap, actually).

We got into the game just in time for the anthem. There were a lot of new names on the roster, including Graffanino, who ended up going 3-3 with a walk, home run, and I think 5 RBI's. He was awesome! The game itself was great...definitely not a pitchers' duel. The teams traded runs in many innings. Very fun.

I was kind of bummed to be sitting on the opposite end of the row from John, who was there with his family. John is definitely one of the biggest (if not the biggest) fans in our department. His kids are adorable, and I was a bit sad not to have gotten to talk to them or his wife. Next time!

It was a great night: The weather was gorgeous. I had a hot dog and a couple beers at the game. We got to hear all great ballpark songs today: the Anthem, "Take me out to the Ballgame," "Sweet Caroline," and "Dirty Water" once we won. Like Yoav, I had been on a bad losing streak at Fenway, dating all the way back to last year. We're talking like 8 games here!

Bad streak broken, Katie, Dave, and I left the park to wander back to MIT. Matt's party had died down, so I drove Katie and Dave home, then headed back to Chucktown completely unencumbered by thoughts of Accounting exams.

Drink, Beach, Study, Drink, Beach, Study....

Sam blogs drunk; I blog hungover. Dude...I had a total of four beers from 8:15 - 2:30am last night. How am I hungover??? Granted, they were slightly heavier beers (two Newcastles, two Harpoon UFO's), but still! That's less than 75% of a beer an hour! Plus I probably walked about two miles over the course of the night. I am getting oooooold.

In other news, just waiting for Katie and her friend to pick me up. We are then heading to Singing Beach in Manchester-by-the-Sea. I have my trusty accounting weight--I mean book--packed and ready to go. Everybody on the beach will be so jealous of me and my engrossing reading!! =D I wonder how many people will stop and ask me tax questions.

After the beach, it's off to SDM to print out the 10k for the exam which is supposed to be printed at 6pm. A night of studying will ensue...

I love my garish pink blog

There is no way that anybody walks by my desk and thinks, "Hmm...that looks just like Slashdot, JavaWorld, or a similar technical site."

MIT Webmail

Has anybody else been having problems logging in throught the Webmail browser interface? For the last two days, I have been getting stuck at the redirect.php page.

Stupid Things make me Happy

When I was at Target on Wednesday, I bought Armorall Wipes for my car, one for window and one for dash. While stuck in traffic yesterday, I cleaned the inside of my windshield. Dude, that thing was filthy!

I was so happy driving to work and being able to see so clearly out the windshield. It was like the morning after I had LASIK when I woke up and took the bandages off, and could actually see the clock. Happy sigh....

And for the SDM'ers

How many of y'all think that Prof Plesko mumbled "IBM" while telling us of our final case study? =D

Bars closing, bars staying open

The Littlest Bar in Boston is closing. I'm not sure if it's because the Atlanta folk don't go there all the time or because we went there once. =D Kidding.

Speaking of Atlanta, I talked to Sharleene last night. I really miss her and she is going through a tough time, still undergoing physical therapy after being hit while driving by a drunk driver...at 8pm on a Saturday! I wish you alll the best, Sharleene.

Last night, we went out for Dave Schiller's birthday at the Asgard. It was a lot of fun. Yoav blogged about that. And as he said, we did go to the Warren Tavern where I got to see Greg, Danny, Justin, and John. Going back there is always fun.

I couldn't stay out too late because I had a briefing this morning in front of the Architecture Council. It actually went very well, and they have asked me to do the brief again for those that missed the meeting.

For lunch today, Katie and I went to the Cheesecake Factory. It is so nice to work with a woman again! Especially young and single. =D We ate yummy sandwiches and talked about lots of girl stuff, including the 70-percent-of-women-thinking-they-would-be-further-ahead-if-they-were-prettier survey. Katie agreed that in our field the opposite was true (some of y'all may have seen the blog entry I posted briefly on the topic. If you didn't, I can email it to you...controversial topic, don't need it up here for work reasons =))

Now going out to a women's networking dinner with Jamie who I met at Elwin's party last week. Yay! Going out to eat twice in one day always reminds me of Atlanta. =) Of course, I used to work out a heckuva lot more, so I could get away with it. =D

Blogging pays off!

I got a random email today from Larisa, a woman with whom I went to junior high, high school, and Dartmouth. She had been looking for me and found my blog! Yay, Larisa! It was so great to hear from you!

Having an S-curve day

In my attempt to apply the concepts I am learning at school whenever and wherever possible, I would like to state that I am having an S-curve day today. It started out very well: I had a great workout, cooled down to Louis Armstrong's "A Kiss to Build a Dream on" and "Moon River," and arrived at Systems Engineering in plenty of time to meet Josh Collens, a fellow MITRE employee. I enjoyed his lecture... I can always learn something new about MITRE. Then had a great conversation with Matt Lamantia on the way to the car. Everything was going swimmingly!

Then I drove to work (don't like driving). I got here, and found that I had to do parts of my briefing in the 10 minutes I had before it started. The briefing went okay...it was just for the folks in my group. (Now's where the curve starts to flatten out again closer to the bottom....) However, we have one of those people who likes to ask obvious questions in order to make himself look smarter. Usually this doesn't bug me too much. But today he got on one of his schticks and kept asking the same thing over and over again. It was to the depth of, "So the sky's blue, right? Yeah, the sky is blue. The sky is blue, huh?" Really kept throwing off my briefing rhythm. Eventually I had to pull one of those, "Okay, I have your sky is blue question duly noted here. Is there anything else you would like to add?"

Afterwards, I went for a quick powerwalk with John, which provided a good spike to the S-curve. Then another briefing. This one was uneventful, but I had the briefing to try to delegate some work, and found that it was not the kind I could delegate to the selected audience. Grrr...

The day is still going fine, but I was very proud of my S-curve analogy and wanted to share my wisdom =D

At school early, Sprint PCS has bad customer service

Nothing too thrilling happening so far today. I'm at school way too early. I wanted to avoid the parking problem of last week, so left work early. Too early. Despite the fact that today is street cleaning day in this part of Cambridge, there were many spots in the West Annex lot. Well, not many, but three.

Today I did battle with Sprint. Long story short, my phone broke, they replaced it with a different model (refurbished of course), the zoom on that camera didn't work, I got promised a new, unrefurbished phone would be waiting for me at Sprint PCS Burlington, I called to check, and it wasn't. Turned out the technician with whom I spoke on Saturday didn't troubleshoot correctly, and in a few quick steps, the zoom was fixed.

However, the fact that the technician had promised me a new phone and not delivered irked me. I double checked with him at the end of the call, "So Monday there will be a new--not referbished--phone waiting for me at Sprint PCS Burlington." He repeated my statement. Nope! I would have been stuck standing around at the Sprint store if I hadn't called first.

(When I went to Sprint to pick it up in the first place, I had to wait an hour to get it, which doesn't include the 20 minutes or so I waited for a sales guy to help. This is after they didn't call me as promised to let me know my phone was in. Grrrr...)

I've had Sprint since 1996 (yup, I'm an early adopter). I have never complained before. You know what the guy offered me??? Five percent off next month's bill! I told him that that just showed how much Sprint values their customers' time, so he bumped it to fifty. By this time, I'm sick of the whole thing, so go to hang up. The guy then says, "I notice you haven't taken advantage of Spring long distance at home." My response? "I cannot believe you are trying to sell me long distance right now." Him: "Neither can I."

Bug!

In my cleaning frenzy of last week, I decided to move a display of stuffed moose. I moved them a herd at a time. When I got to the bottom, there sat a bug, Atlanta-style huge. It was about two inches long, about three quarters of an inch wide, like a huge cockroach but with a pair of pincers above his head.

After screaming, I leaned toward it. It looked like a plastic bug I used to use to scare others. But why would I have put it under the moose? I was scared to touch it, having tried several times. Eventually, Scully came along and flipped it on its back, and the number tatooed on its stomach area made me realize it was definitely plastic.

I was still scared to touch it. I eventually almost touched it with one finger, then decided to carry it with a paper towel instead (just in case).

Being the brainiac I am, I put it in a drawer, figuring I could use it in another prank someday. However, I get the feeling I'll be doing a similar blog entry to this one in a year or two when I reopen that drawer....

Wisdom from the Mom

I've got a lot to write about today, but this one was too priceless to pass up:

I created a blog for my mom so she could have an account and post comments on this blog. When I told her she now had her very own blog she said, "So now I can complain about things?"

Finally Focused!

Every so often (okay, very rarely), I will get myself into a cleaning frenzy. For me it's a frenzy, for most it would probably be called "just cleaning up." I was commenting to Dan that the extremely helpful ADHD book I bought last year had said that when you (person with ADHD/ADD) is focused on a task such as cleaning, continue to do that task...do not stop to rest even a second, or the focus will drift.

Dan's comment: "So, did you ever finish that ADHD book?"

Of course I didn't. We got to wondering if the last line of the book says something like, "If you got this far, you're cured!"

Parking at MIT

I arrived on campus at 7:58 today, and drove to the West Annex lot where I usually park. There were no spots available. This happens sometimes, so I simply drove on. I drove down the street, looking for street spots, nothing. On to Mem Drive...nothing. Back to West Annex...nothing. Mem Drive...nothing. Street...nothing. Around and around and around. By now it's 8:20, and I had decided it was time to sneak into another lot. Unfortunately, this was the day that they actually had someone monitoring it. ARGH. So I parked at a meter, which will expire at 10:25, before 10:30 end of my class.

So do I leave midclass to feed the meter? Leave class early? Just risk it?

I pay $567 a year to park here. I should not have to put up with this crap.

Dance skills fading fast....

I just tried to take a break from studying in order to get my blood pumping (damn you, paper helicopters! =D). I used to do this by dancing. When I was with CNN/SI, I used to work a lot of hours from home and would use this technique to get rid of excess energy, send oxygen to my brain, and get some endorphins in me.

It was a series of stretches, layouts, and pirouettes in a warm-up routine by my favorite jazz teacher, Leon von Brown. (By the way, if you need a break, watch the video on his site...the ones from class 1 and class 2. He cracks me up.) ANYWAY, I could not remember the layout series! I know it sounds silly, but it's a very relaxing way to stretch.

I am going to have to make a special trip to Atlanta to take his class again at the Atlanta Ballet School. I miss it.

Yeah, this entry makes no sense. I'm sorry. But I couldn't dance away my energy, so I had to blog it out!!!

Systems Engineering professors

I really enjoy Professor Frey's respect for his students and willingness to adapt to their requests. He continues to be flexible in allowing for the growing number of software students in SDM. During class today I was thinking about the metaphor between the professors and the subject they teach.

Professor Frey resembles what I believe to be the essence of systems engineering: his basic requirements are to teach the class, help us learn, etc. However, his implementation has changed as dictated by the class; he has willingly added in a software sway, even though it is not his area of expertise. He is working hard to work in the "late requirements" presented by his changing classes. His design methodology is more of a spiral, incorporating additional functionality as he continues on. As a side note, I am enjoying his classes more and more as he continues to tailor them.

Professor Clausing is more regimented systems engineering. He has his preordained requirements and sticks by them. He also refers to lessons learned from the past more. He is using older design methodologies, which is one thing he recommends in his various papers.

I may write more on this subject later, but need to get back to the homework now.

Time to stop whining about the weather

Headline from the Globe: "Heat wave causes more misery"

Today is 93 degrees. Hot, yes. But there's only 26% humidity! That's friggin' gorgeous.

Seriously! "It's too hot." Or two months ago, "It's too cold." Dudes...y'all sound like the 85-year-old woman who was my landlady in the North End...she never knew what to complain about first. Maybe if everybody stopped complaining, there'd be less hot air floating around.

Paper helicopter project

Before starting my paper helicopter project, I decided to research a few sites online to get a view of the world from eyes other than Box's and Lieu's. All of the sites I found were targeted toward children! I actually think that it's pretty darn cool to be able to learn from playing a children's game.

Of course, this got me thinking. The 12-year-old version of myself would have LOVED this helicopter assignment. I would have been chopping those papers up and just having a grand old time. I wish that I could send my project back to my former self in a time machine. Younger me would do a much better job. While younger me is doing that, I'll sit down and enjoy a writing assigment to cover for younger me's lost time working on the copter.

I think that while I am back there I will convince younger me to take at least one engineering course in college. Get a head start on the career that would await her...

Oh, goodness. I just realized it's summer and this is the time of day I would have been out riding my bike with Eric Yaffe, one of my best friends from childhood. Oh well, no time travel for me today.

Beach day on Sunday

After an adventurous night out with Sam and my Warren Tavern softball teammates, I headed to the beach with Andrew. We made a last-minute decision to head for Singing Beach in Manchester. My GPS guided us right there.

It was gorgeous! I was very impressed. Nice, clean sand, gorgeous water, beautiful rock formations a few hundred yards out. That plus they had Ritchie's Slush! I got one scoop raspberry and one scoop watermelon. So yummy. I even dove into the water at some point. It's like hopping into a vat of astringent.

After the beach, I asked a local where to eat lunch, so Andrew and I went to The Landing for some seafood. The bread and fried scallops were excellent. My scrod dish was good, but I am developing a distaste for the cod and haddock that usually comprise scrod.

We then headed home, somehow ending up making a turn into Charlestown directly behind my mom and dad! Andrew honked the horn, and after some confusion, my parents waved. Andrew dropped me off, and I went for a quick walk with my parents. They took the water shuttle over to the aquarium, then walked back by way of Dino's in the North End. They brought me a salad for dinner. Thanks, mom and dad! They then went home, and I went back to doing homework. It was very nice to see them, if only for a short time.

I was exhausted from the day (oh, and being out the previous night), and got into bed around 8pm, fast asleep by 9.

Today I finally went to see a doctor about my stomach. I still have constant nausea and a bit of vomiting (sorry to be icky). Perhaps the worst thing about the nausea is that every time I think or say the word "nausea," I have to think or say "Austin Power's fashah" in Goldmember's voice. Anyway, the doctor thinks that my stomach problems are probably still a result of my mourning, but they ran a bunch of tests anyway.

Weird tourist lady

I went out sailing on the Charles again. So much fun!! Pretty uneventful except for my stopping to help a mother and son who had capsized. They finally righted the boat, but it was filled with water, so I threw them my bailer, then sailed off, my mitzvah of the day complete.

At the end of my sail, I was unrigging my boat when a woman on the walking path on Memorial Drive yelled down, "Would you take a passenger?" I wanted to yell back, "What do I look like, lady? Green cab?" but held my tongue, instead telling her that I had just come in, I wasn't setting out.

These boats are small boats. I can't imagine inviting myself on one with someone I didn't know. People are weird.

Sloanie hits Newbury Street

I had an appointment in town today which finished around 1pm. As I was walking back to the train, I called Corny and Hillary who are visiting from Atlanta to make plans for sometime over their stay. It turns out they were four blocks from where I was, shopping on Newbury Street.

Needless to say, I joined them (people tend to leave my office on Friday by 1:30). We had a great time, stopping in everywhere and chatting. And, of course, the crown jewel : ice cream at JP Licks, which I have been craving like a pregnant woman for weeks now. I had a chocolate chip cookie yogurt and oatmeal cookie yogurt in a waffle cone. YUM. It was sunny and hot today...just gorgeous. I loved seeing Corny and Hillary. Their one-year anniversary is this weekend. Yay!!! Hopefully I will get to see them again before they go.

The bad part about the shopping was that I had to come home and finish up work late. D'oh! I have been making good progress on my project, so the work was actually fairly enjoyable. Of course, it has me in on a Friday night AGAIN. I guess it's been good, though, because I finished up work around 9pm, then did some homework (still working on it actually).

Just got a call from the Charlestown Crew, out terrorizing Boston. Woohoo! Not joining them tonight, but definitely jealous. =)

Ilana: The Ultimate Sloanie

I have encountered a little mystery. I decided to take a break from doing homework recently, but couldn't move from my chair as Scully was sleeping comfortably in my lap. So I surfed a bit, then googled my name. (Yes, I'm a dork.) I came across the entry you see to the right.

However, I then clicked through to that page, and the link to my blog had disappeared! Isn't that weird? I wonder if all the babbling about Warren Tavern or Atlanta fell below the Sloan standard =D It's nothing important enough to email Al Essa about (especially since I respect the man and feel pretty honored to have been on his web site at all), but I found the whole thing relatively amusing.

Back to the Tavern(s)

After a difficult day yesterday, my parents drove me back to Charlestown. We had ice cream at Cold Stone for dinner. I later met up with Brie, Andrew, and Bob at Tavern on the Water. The night was beautiful: there was a full moon, the clouds reflected the light, the city was stunning, the temperature was perfect. Oh yeah, and the booze was flowing freely =)

We stayed for a while, later joined by Dave (I know, shocker. Charlestown crew at the Tavern...) The night was pretty uneventful until I wandered back from the edge of the pier to find Andrew chatting with a group of girls. Ever the good wingman, I said hello and turned to meet the girls. One of them was Lori, who--as you might remember--I haven't seen since Figawi 2004. I didn't even recognize her. I said a couple of words, then wandered off.

Andrew, Brie, and I soon left for the Warren Tavern, leaving behind Dave who was talking to two really cool girls: Gretchen and Tricia. (Dave, whatever happened with that??) When we got there, Justin was singing per usual, so Brie and I groupied it up. Justin was actually just mentioned in the Improper Bostonian as one of the people who makes Wednesday nights at the Tavern awesome. YAY!!! I ran into Jill, a local girl originally from Texas. It was so good to see so many locals.

Midnight came, and the bar closed. Everybody left except the three of us, Justin, Tavern staff Danny, Shannon, Pat, and Johnny. We were eventually joined by Tavern on the Water security Rocko and Linda. It was just like old times (except Greg wasn't there, being off on vacation with his family). We all sat around, talking, making fun of one another, discussing the Sox, and telling bad jokes. We toasted repeatedly to Lynn and Phil, and talked about people close to us, the afterlife, and other supernatural theories.

We stayed until about 1:30 or 2, then wandered to Store 24 (of course), then home. It was great to be back in Charlestown doin' my old thing =) I needed a night like that.

Sys Eng lectures good

I continue to find the sys eng lectures significantly better than the readings, and am impressed by Professor Frey's continuous attempts the tailor the content to the software folks. On Thursday, we are going to look at software testing, very cool. Today's lecture was definitely interesting, if only because it contained a baseball analogy.

Phew....don't need to brief MITRE, just the architecture council.

One slice bread, one tablespoon peanut butter, cocoa pebbles

That's all I've had to eat since Friday morning that has stayed down. Actually, I just had two butter cookies that are doing okay. How come when you can't eat right you feel so bad? I definitely have enough pudge stored up to feed my bod for a few days. I don't get it. Why wouldn't the body metabolize fat to fight feelings of dizziness? (Not a rehtorical question, I really am wondering)

Rant: Worst reading quiz ever

Okay, warning: I am grumpy as hell. I haven't been able to keep food down for over 50 hours now, so am definitely not chipper, compounded by my mourning.

Anyway, this is the worst, dumbest reading quiz ever. It's so frustrating!!! When I think about systems engineering, I think of a set of accepted tenets which clear the way for effective analysis, design, and implementation of a range of systems. The papers we have read for this class have repeatedly fallen well outside this definition. I have tried to google for many phrases contained in these papers and come up with NOTHING.

For example, this week's paper is on isoperformance approach, specifically performance invariant sets. Go try googling "performance invariant set." C'mon, get outta here and google it. As usual, nothing but academic papers, primarily MIT ones. If this is such an accepted tool, why am I not seeing pages such as Dell or Slashdot or other engineering stuff pop up?

Grr...I try to remain optimistic about this class, but it is taking me a lot to concentrate on anything right now, and this article and related quiz are certainly not worth my effort or time.

I miss you already, Lyn

I just found out that a very dear friend of the family, Lyn Duggan, died of a heart attack. Lyn was like a young grandmother to me, and her husband Phil is like a young grandfather. Perhaps more importantly, she was also like a mother or older sister to my mother and her sister, whose own mother died 27 years ago.

Lyn and Phil (pronounced "LynAndPhil," they were so inseparable) never had kids and traveled everywhere around the world. They'd go from safari to cruise to Paris. They were so unassuming, so fun-loving and so much in love. Poor Phil...she truly was half of him.

One of my favorite Lyn and Phil moments was at Eve's engagement party. For those of you that don't know, my sister is four years younger than me and waited as long as she could to get married, but eventually had to plan her wedding because mine ain't happening any time soon. Of course, people always worry how the older sister will take it, and I was most nervous about how people would react to that worry (if that makes any sense). Lyn and Phil give me a pair of beautiful Tiffany earrings as soon as they saw me at the party, telling me they got them for me because they knew how pretty they would look on me. It was so kind, and such a loving gesture.

The last time I saw Lyn was on Christmas. Lyn and Phil brought their three Boston terriers to the gathering at my Aunt Helen's house. Eve and I were doing the "Dance Dance Nation" game on cousin Lewis's Nintendo, and Eve inadvertantly planted a foot in one of the dogs' faces while trying to execute a back kick. He went yipping to Lyn, who understood Eve had meant no harm, but merely possessed the family grace that you have seen coming from me.

I guess I should write how they became like family. My grandparents died young. I had a great Aunt Ruth and Uncle Bernard who lived in New York City. Lyn and Phil lived across the hall from them. My aunt and uncle passed on about ten years ago, but Lyn and Phil stayed close to us. They had no children, and we had lost a lot of our family very young. It was a perfect match.

Lyn was an amazing person. God, I'm going to miss her. I can't even imagine what Phil is going through. My mother said he is too broken up to even talk about it. I may go to New York this weekend if I will be able to help. My family will talk tonight to decide.

Out with the kids

After sailing yesterday, I went home, did some work, then headed into town to meet up with Brie, Amy, and Andrew at The Place. They had been there for a few hours before I got there, and were quite chummy with the bartender. He asked what I wanted, so I asked him what his favorite drink to make was, and went with that.

It was a fruity, sweet martini. At the top, he had drawn a big red heart in some kind of syrup. It lasted 2/3 of the martini! Impressive. And it was on the house. YAY

I hadn't seen Brie for a while. She looks great (as always), and always cracks me up. Good to be out with Andrew as always, though I left before Dave arrived.

Now I'm in systems engineering. The lecture is actually pretty interesting...object-oriented design and web services.

My new favorite pastime

Is sailing on the Charles! I just love it. I went again today to blow off steam from the accounting exam and pressure at work. =) It is such a wonderful feeling to sail...I highly recommend it!

Join me in my boycott of Sears!

Those of you that knew me last year around this time may remember a particularly disgruntled Ilana. I had just bought a top-of-the-line washer and dryer from Sears (over $2000 for the set) that looked wonderful sitting in my living room. Ya see, I had given the specs to the sales guy who saw the huge commission and sold me the set anyway. Sigh...

So Sears came out EIGHT TIMES. They also had to come out to bring me a stackable and take my gorgeous washer and dryer away after a MONTH. Grrrrr....

So anyway. Bygones. Haven't bought a damn thing at Sears since except for a printer I got with all the gift certificates I made them give me for my trouble.

And now the credit company has started up. I bought the W/D on a Sears card so I could have a year of no payments. EVERY SINGLE MONTH I have been assessed late fees and have had to call and have them strike them from the record.

So today I called and asked to be compensated for my time. I was transferred to a manager (David G.), who had as much intelligence in his skull as I do in the pinky nail of my right toe. In a rather combative manner, David G. told me that they don't compensate for wasted time. I asked him why, if they charged late fees, should we not be able to similarly use time and be compensated for it. Brainiac got mad and said, "So what's wrong with late fees?" I answered, "Other than the fact I should not be charged any? Nothing. You're missing the point."

I could go on, but will conclude with this: Apparently David G. is the highest we get in the Sears credit customer service hierarchy. He told me he was the end of the line (of course smartass here has to say, "So you don't report to anyone?" "Yes, ma'am, but you can't talk to them.") So now I need to write a letter.

I thought Sears was awful before, but now with the latest dealings with their credit folk, they are even lower in my book. TO quote RainMan, "KMart sucks!"

What is "deceptively easy?"

That would be the accounting exam questions according to our TA. I actually guffawed in class when she used that phrase. HAHAHA

Hurricane Dennis

I saw on the weather channel that Dennis had washed away much of Destin's beach. It basically dragged away 5.5 feet worth of sand (in height). I admit a few tears fell when I saw the footage.

I left Kellie and Allen (my friends who live there) a message on Kellie's cell on Saturday, but haven't heard back from them. I am guessing they evacuated to Atlanta and hope that Dennis left their home unscathed.

Avoiding studying by studying

Accounting bored me so much I did some homework on the Systems engineering WIKI. We need some hardware guys in there, dudes.

Studying

Now I'm actually studying. And I'm bored. Please reply to this post with jokes. If you don't, I'm going to start telling mine. I'm sure you've heard most of them, and they're BAAAAD.

Sailing@MIT

So despite the fact I've been sailing since before I kissed a boy (wow! I was like 17!... kidding, really 8 or so), MIT requires that newcomers to MIT sailing take a lesson. So today, my hours from 9:30-2:30 were spent re-learning how to sail and out on the water.

It was actually a lot of fun. The instructors were very quick and funny. For instance, when they were talking about avoiding other watercraft, one of them mentioned the crew boats. He pointed out that the rowers were very intent on what they were doing and would not see you. "And this person here," he said, pointing to the coxswain, "Is very small, so they won't listen to him either if he tells them to slow down." Maybe you had to be there, but it was funny.

Anyway, as the one person with any experience in the class, I got to demonstrate some stuff, which was cool. Then sailed around on the water for about 1.5 hours with some random guy I was paired with. All in all, a good time.

Now it's time to study. For REAL this time.

You know what would make accounting so much more cool?

Aside from "anything." =D It would be so cool if each company we study or read about in our book would give us free samples of stuff. For instance, my current page has Zales and Circuit City, and I could really go for some diamonds and a DVD recorder right about now.

My Favorite Episode of "South Park"

Last night my TiVo picked up the South Park episode, "Osama Bin Laden has Farty Pants." I clearly remember this episode being the first time I felt okay to laugh after 9/11. I was very surprised today when I checked the original air date: 11/7/2001, almost two months from 9/11. I actually still have the original episode on my TiVo...that and "61*" have been there for almost four years!

The episode made it okay to acknowledge that things were, as the boys would put it, "Pretty f*cked up." The episode opens with them standing at the bus stop, all wearing gas masks, then boarding the bus after Officer Barbrady checks their packs.

Some other highlights:
Stan's mother lies on the couch, doing nothing but watching CNN for eight weeks. When Stan comments that he has received a big, brown package from Afgahnistan, she doesn't react for several minutes.

Towelie (an admittedly annoying character) appears and the kids groan. Towelie responds, "So you don't want Towelie around?" Kids:"NO!" Towelie says, "So am I to understand there's been a Towelie-ban?"

Afghanistan has its own version of Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny, wearing arabic clothing rather than winter clothes. The South Park kids meet their Afghanistan counterparts, and try to figure out why people hate Americans. Afghans: "A third of the world hates Americans." South Park: "Why do they hate us?" Afghans: "Because you don't realize a third of the world hates you."

The riskiest part of the episode involved the interaction between Cartman and Osama Bin Laden. Cartman: "OH, dude! It's called deoderant. It's not expensive." Bin Laden later speaks on the phone saying, "A flippity flappity floop. Jihad Jihad Jihad," which starts off a priceless series of scenes in which Cartman plays Bugs Bunny to Bin Laden's Elmber Fudd, inlcuding the typical scene in which Cartman/Bugs dresses like an Arabian pricness and lures Bin laden into wooing a camel. Arabian princess Cartman holds up a series of cartoon signs, starting with the usual screw and ball (screw ball) and jack and donkey (jackass). This quickly progresses to poo and a head (sh*thead) and a rooster and a lollipop (you figure it out). Excellent. Osama is finally put in an Uncle Sam outfit and shot by his own troops.

The episode ends with the boys standing up a small American flag and Stan commenting, "America is our home. It's our team. And if you don't like your team, you should get the hell out of the stadium. Go America!"

It's funny that South Park has become a very intelligent commentator on America. They have continued to be right on the money, including an episode in which they catch Saddam only a few days after he was really caught.

(And yes, I am doing an excellent job of procrastinating from both studying and the gym. I got mad skilz.)

Whine Alert: This term is more on the icky side

Dude, this term is not quite as much fun as last term. I am feeling very overwhelmed not just by the amount of work at school, but also from MITRE. I just looked at the homework assignments for systems engineering and accounting. YUCK. That plus I need to stay in all weekend to study for accounting =( I'm also bummed because I had to miss what sounded like a very cool seminar this morning on networking and finding jobs, having to meet with my boss instead.

I would really love to do the normal summer thing and just go party every night, but I suddenly have to act like a grown-up. To counter such feelings, I had two hot dogs and an ice cream sundae for dinner.

As an aside, I am looking forward to Matti's comment on this, which is sure to be about lean studying =)

Cheat Sheets

We are allowed to bring a "Cheat Sheet" to our accounting exam on Wednesday. While I appreciate the pseudo-open-bookedness of the gesture, cheat sheets drive me nuts. I would want an exam to mimic real life as much as possible. It is much more plausible that we will be near a textbook or the internet when faced with an accounting problem than an 8.5x11 piece of paper with formulas written on both sides.

Yes, I understand that writing the cheat sheet is in itself a helpful tool. However, the decision to do this or not should be up to the student. Likewise, if a student wants to spend a portion of a two-hour exam thumbing through a textbook, so be it. I just don't like things that make so little sense.

Hectic week almost over

Yay! This week has been fairly good, but a little too busy. Last night, we went to the Summer Shack with SDM, then a smaller group of us headed out. Dave, Brit, Kevin, Maja, Christian, Spiros, Abi, Matt L, Sam, and potential SDM06 Shelley ventured into Cambridge and enjoyed a few pints at John Harvards. We didn't stay out too late, but it was great to be out with folks again...seems like forever since the group has done something social.

I am very much looking forward to a relaxing weekend. Of course, knowing that I have an accounting exam on Wednesday will limit relaxation an induce much more studying, but it will be nice not to travel or entertain.

Business Trip!

We are currently nearing the end of our business trip. (See SDM Website for details...I'm too lazy to blog)

Today we had a good talk from Right Management Consulting about career direction. Definitely sometime I had to hear.

Okay, now we are going to Summer Shack for dinner. YAY

Realized I haven't blogged for a while...

Doesn't mean I don't love y'all. Just means I'm way too busy. I'll be better soon...

From my 6'6", Causcasian friend Oge

> You calling yourself supremely logical is like me calling myself
> short and black.

Tell me this has happened to you....

I got home from work today, made a quick dinner, and sat down to do more work, as I have fallen behind. I got a good chunk done, and went to read Yoav's blog. I noticed that he had written about Jeff's wife's birthday celebration--the one I have in my Palm Pilot for next week--happening tonight.

At that point, it was 6:30, the party started at 6:00, and i still had a good couple of hours to go. So I called Yoav and asked him to call me if they went somewhere after Cheesecake Factory, figuring we could meet up then. I got a bit more work in, then decided to switch over to accounting for a bit, as Matt and Jeanne, my accounting teammates, are getting together tomorrow to do the homework, and I can't go, so I wanted to have a good chunk of it done to hand off to them.

Before transitioning, I figured I should clean for about 15 minutes, as Dan is arriving tomorrow and is severely allergic to cats. I vacuumed the bathmats in the bathroom, removed them, and started sweeping. In the course of my sweeping, I had to move my Tanita scale on top of a box of kitty litter in order to sweep beneath it.

Well, you know the little turny thing that turns toilet water on and off? It was in that immediate vicinity, and all of a sudden, I was getting sprayed in the face with a small stream of water. I reached for the handle to shut the water off, and suddenly I'm lost in a turrent...I had knocked the pipe clear out of the #@$(* toilet.

After a struggle, I got the water turned off, but not before it drenched me, my hair (ewww), my bathroom, my kitty litter, etc. I had to move Scully's litter box quickly, as it is one of the Littermaid ones that run on electricity. Of course in doing that, I had a bunch of wet kitty litter left all over the floor. EWWWWWW

So I kept cleaning the water up, and I felt like something was dripping on my already wet head. Sure enough, the CEILING was drenched, and water was dripping from it on to me. EW ew ew ew ew. So I mopped the ceiling with my wet Swiffer.

Long story short, I got the water cleaned up, headed over to Home Depot, and got my new part. On the way home, I was stuck at a light, so decided to clean my car a bit. I reached into the side pocket on my door where I keep my trash, and put my hand right into a rotten apple core. EWWW... I eventually got home and installed the damn thing. I then finished cleaning up, started a wash for the towels and my bathrobe involved in the squirmish, and hopped into a nice, hot shower.

This has happened to other folks here, right?

Getting my Palm Read

Last night Rajeev read my palm. I've never had anything like that done before. It was really interesting. Some of the things he said I figured he would know just from being in class with me since January. However, he had two that most people don't realize:
1. I either understand something immediately or else will have to struggle greatly to comprehend it, and may never do so
2. I am an extremely logical person. I just had this discussion over the weekend...I'm logical to a fault. When things don't make sense, I don't understand. It's kind of a weird quality that I guess isn't too obvious in my personality.

I usually don't believe in this stuff, but I thought it was pretty cool. Rajeev learned from his family.

Dinner at Summer Shack, Bowling at King's

After work, I went over to Summer Shack for the SDM-sponsored dinner. On the way over (using my new GPS system) I spotted Sam, and we drove the rest of the way together.

Everything was included, even beer! Yum!!! The SDM05's were at first in a corner, but we eventually mingled. For dinner, I sat with Jeff, Matt R., John Haj, the industry rep, Moise (SDM03 from MITRE), and further down the table Uday, Sonny, Dave, and Bill Foley and spouse. I had the lobster, and really enjoyed it. I love meals in which you are supposed to get sloppy.

After dinner, I introduced myself to the bulk of the Naval people, who were sitting together at one table. A quick dessert of hot fudge sundae, and we began rounding people up to go out. About ten of us went to King's for some bowling: Sam, Dave, John Haj, Rajeev, Cenkhan from SDM and Chris, Stephen, Jason and Eric from the Naval thing. They kicked our butts, but it was fun. Plus it was ladies' night, so I bowled for free. YAY

After that, we headed over to Tavern on the Water to show our guests the great view of Boston. We closed the place down, getting kicked out at midnight (so lame to close so early). I apologize that today's entry is so poorly written, but I am wiped out from last night.

Quick Entry

I am really busy today, but just wanted to do a quick entry because I really enjoyed the creativity discussion in Systems Engineering today. The first hour passed very quickly. The second hour was a definite improvement over the first couple weeks of classes, but anything after the creativity talk would have been a let down.

So, Yay, SysEng is picking up steam!

GO METS

Dude...the Mets take 2 of 3, Red Sox sweep, Orioles get swept....

Eve and Jeff are at the game. I'm so jealous. Of course, having been at the 17-1 Sox victory at Yankee stadium, I can't complain about missing amazing games at Yankee Stadium =D

Dinner with Suzanne

Tonight Suzanne and I went to dinner at La Fonda Latina, a Cuban restaurant I used to go to a bit when I lived here. I love seeing Suzanne...she really is like a sister to me. Afterwards, we went to Eatzi's for mochas. It was great to spend time with Suzanne and hear what Adam, Mathew, and Rachel (her kids) and Burt, Jared and Emily (her fiance and family) have been up to.

Of course, in the middle of dinner I started to feel anxious about schoolwork and couldn't remember why...then I remembered the homework 1 version 2! Ah, accounting...how thou mockst me...

Ballgame Saturday

Yesterday we took two disco busses down to the Braves game. I was fortunate enough to be on the one with air conditioning. Dan, Susan, Franz, Tonja, Patti, Jamie, Larry, Grant, Tracey, Radio, and I sat around the kegs at the front of the bus. We sang along to Guns and Roses and other music on the way down after meeting in the parking lot at 10:30am.

One tradition of the bus trip it to create name tags for others on the bus. It's a pretty funny process. The rules: you are not allowed to make your own tag, and you must wear your tag the entire time. This process provided much laughter on the way down.

We got to the Turner Field parking lot around noon, and tailgated until 1pm. We were surrounded on either side by one Baptist church group and one school group. Poor guys =D. We were actually a pretty well-behaved crew, but we did have three kegs sitting in the parking lot. It was great to see Betsy and Chris G. who were on the second bus, and who I have not seen in a long time.

Todd and Lance joined us, which was awesome. I really, really miss those guys =(. Lance continues to lose weight...any more and we won't be able to see him if he turns sideways. Todd looked great too, despite having been through a very tough couple of weeks with the sudden loss of his father. (My and my family's deepest sympathy goes to Rachel, Todd, and little Sophie.)

We went into the game and set up camp at The Chophouse. A few beers there, some chili cheese fries for lunch, and you got yourself a little bit of heaven. After the game, we took the bus back and hopped over to Goober's for some beirut (beer pong with throwing instead of paddles). Susan and I did not do so well...okay, she did but I stunk.

It was great to see everybody, and i always love going to Turner Field. From what I understand, it was a pretty good game, too =D

Buh Bye Scully, Hello Atlanta!

Last night, I brought Scully to my parents' house in the 'burbs. The day I got Scully, I was driving her home from the shelter when I looked down and realized she was trying to get out of the temporary box they gave me for her: her teeth were wrapped between two of the airholes, and she was pulling away. I got home before my new pet could escape. I was a bit scared of her because of this incident, but she has turned out to be the nicest, friendliest cat.

I invested in a very nice bag for her. It looks like a gym bag, but has an opening for a cat, with two zippers and air vents. She breaks out of this thing EVERY TIME she is in it. She will climb out of the bag and into my lap, occasionally standing up with her paws on the window and her legs still on me. It's very cute. Then she'll climb in the back seat and look out the window. We always get lots of waves.

She is very happy at my parents' house. Maybe because they spoil her? Tuna for snack every day!

After I got back into town, I went to Tavern on the Water to meet up with Dave, Christian, Spiros, and Matt L. They were sitting outside on the lower porch with drinks when I arrived, so I joined. It was a beautiful night with a slightly chilly wind. I always have fun when out with those guys...they are really funny, with that intelligent, rather dry sense of humor.

After that it was home to pack, and now I should probably stop blogging and get my butt to the airport =D

Systems Engineering Today

Today Professor Frey gave a good lecture about the use of QFD. Any lecture that starts out with the showing of the EDS Cat-Herding commercial is good with me.

Bright shiny object for the 2000's

We have internal google at MITRE. We also have a google tracker at MITRE. Some MENSA member decided to broadcast this constantly-updating list onto the wall down the hall from me. Of course most recent submissions include:
dingwell (my officemate) loves sheep
davidi is a loser
dingwell rules
why are you reading this?
if you are reading this you have too much time on your hands
get back to work
you're fired!

and, of course, various jokes. about eight of us were just standing around for twenty minutes watching it. It's the 2000's equivelent of looking up "boobies" in the dictionary.

Boring classes are hazardous to my health

Did I write "health?" I meant "wealth." Went shopping during class again today, and bought 4 tickets to a Jimmy Buffett concert...in October...in Las Vegas...

My new best friend

Like Stan, Kyle, and Cartman finding Tweak, so have I found my new friend.

Back Home and Exhausted

I'm back in Charlestown. Last night we had the class dinner, then a party. Some observations:

1. I realized this is the first time I have been single at Dartmouth since 1993!!! Last reunion, I had just spent much of the week on vacation in New Hampshire with Steve. I still went solo to the reunion because he had just started doing JANITORIAL WORK Friday and Saturday at A LOCAL DINING ESTABLISHMENT and could not take the weekend off. Before that, I visited with Dan when we were still dating back in 2000. Prior to that, I was still dating Kevin, my college sweetheart who I had dated since 1994. Hadn't realized I hadn't flown solo for so many years....

2. Dartmouth people are amazing. Less than two percent of the folks there had put on any weight. It was crazy! Dartmouth is a very athletic school and it shows.

3. I should NOT stay up til 5am drinking. Not good.

4. Sometimes I would pass someone that I had known at Dartmouth but never been friends with; not anyone I disliked, just was never close to. These are the people you don't want to waste time with at reunions just because there are so many others to see. So they know you've seen them, and you know they've seen you, but you quietly refuse to acknowledge one another's presence. Hilarity.

5. Even though I was never very active, I am happy I was in a sorority at Dartmouth. Funny story though...I saw this woman at one of the events, and said, "Wait, you were in a sorority, right? I can't remember which one." She replied, "Yours." D'oh! It's fun to go over for pong and stuff. I'll post pics later.

6. Way fewer dogs at Dartmouth. It's quite sad.

7. Last night, I hit three fraternities (SAE, Zete, and Chi Gam. Chi gam literally smelled like horse manure. I don't mind the smell of mung, but horse poo? No thanks. I left quickly thereafter.

8. Few things in life make me as happy as holding cotton candy in one hand and a beer in the other. I got to do that on Saturday. Yes, I have pics and I will post.

9. Dude, I'm friggin' tired. I'm going to nap.

Reunion: Friday Night

I went to our class tent. I was pretty nervous about being single at the 10th (9th) year reunion, but I shouldn't have been...many people were. How come only people getting married or having kids write in to the class newsletter? When I get home, I am writing a letter: "Ilana Davidi is living in Charlestown, MA. She is still single with one cat. In her limited spare time, she enjoys going to Warren Tavern and assorted drinking establishments in the local area."

ANYWAY, the first people I saw were a set of football players. I managed the team for two years and kept in touch with many of the guys for years after. Of course I had a complete brain fart, and forgot a couple of names, but it was great to see Tarran, Pat, and John M. Pat and John are both in Atlanta and did a pretty damn good job of trying to get me to move back down there. We soon ran into Dave and Emily DeStefano. Dave was on my floor freshman year and looks great. I also hang out a lot with Rose, Shannon, and Holly. The freshman River dorm crew of Oge, Nate, Tom, Steve, Patsa, and Kim arrived later. Kim has a 6-week old! She looks incredible. I did not believe it was her baby at first.

It's weird...the women look pretty much the same, and most of the guys look older. I guess it's good because guys tend to look better as they age, while us...not so much (fine wine my ass.... at least when we're talking about my ass).

We had EBA's food in the '96 tent, then went to the combined class (94-6) tent. I did not run into Pamela yet. Soon.

So after the tent. Oge, Nate, Patsa and hubby, Kim and Hubby, Scott, Tom, Kate and Jim and I went to EBA's. I had my tuna melt sandwich, completely the trifecta of required EBA's food (chicken sandwich, breadsticks with ranch, tuna melt.)

By this time it was about 2am so I wandered over to SAE, my second home while here. There, I player beer die with Dumbo, Weasy, Dingo, Stain, Sue, and Stench. No plunks, but I did okay. By the way, my plunk list is still on the wall!! It says "Moose" in chalk with my many plunk lines beneath (I will tell the Moose nickname story another time).

After beer die, Dingo and I took on some 00's in pong. We played two-cup lob, which was fine because we were playing with Keystone Light, which just happens to be a synonym for "rancid shit." Luckily, we didn't drink once. One of the 00's kept calling me darling, so I told him he could only call me that once he started playing like a man. Ah, I still have the smack talk.

And some skills! Dingo and I went one-on-one afterwards for a couple of games, and I beat him in both. Woohoo! So what if I can't do calculus, ERBA, or long division....I can play pong!!! =D

I think I got home sometime around 5am. I am definitely too old for this, but had a great time. I was up at about 10:30 (thanks to the ridiculously loud guy on the phone next door to me), and went to bagel basement for coffee and bagels. YUM.

In the Stacks

I'm in the stacks now, and they have been redone. The pervasive, musty smell of old books is very faint. I used to love to come here and take deep breaths...Yeah, it's weird, but what can ya do.

back at Dartmouth

Well...I'm back!! This is so weird! They have changed so much on this campus. I guess the fear of it becoming a "Little Harvard" is justified. Dude...some guys from my class are four computers down, and they really look bad. One used to be really hot.

Anyway, I went to West Leb today to go to BestBuy. When I was here, all we had was KMart. I"m not even kidding. And you had to drive 10 miles to get there. Now it has exploded with stores, including BestBuy where I dropped a LOT of money on a GPS system, but I used it on the way back to school and it was so much fun.

Okay, I am about to go into the stacks and inhale the smell of books. I'll try to keep you posted, but I can only blog from public machines.

I am getting GPS this weekend

I left my condo in Chucktown at 6:45 for my 8pm softball game. after a quick stop to get gas, I was on my way to West Roxbury. In a typical Ilana move, I had printed out the directions--including turn-by-turn maps--from Mapquest. In an even more typical Ilana move, I left the last page at home.

So I am driving through some neighborhoods that I never even knew existed... Long story short is I got horribly lost and had to call Dan to navigate me through. I finally arrived at Collens field at 8:15. Of course, my game was at Billings field, but the website said to go to Collens and it was easy from there.

There was a game on, so I asked a guy on the bench how to get to the next field. He was all excited as he had grown up in the neighborhood. He gave me very detailed instructions which turned out to be DEAD WRONG. So I got lost again. And, of course, in Ilanaland, when we get frustrated, we cry.

<- MOM READ THIS...EVERYONE ELSE SKIP ->
Of course, my crying stopped as I admired the mansions and beautiful people in the new and gorgeous neighborhoods through which I drove. People everywhere smiled and waved at me. It was like the land time forgot, where everyone is friendly and happy. Lots of handsome, Jewish, successful men motioned politely to me from the Jaguars and gave me their phone numbers, requesting that I call for an evening out at Synogauge and a movie.

At the end of the drive, I was so relaxed that I went home and had a glass of Chardonnay before a quick bath and bed.
<- /MOM READ THIS...EVERYONE ELSE SKIP ->
< - EVERYONE ELSE READ THIS...MOM PLEASE DON'T ->
So I'm driving through some $hitass neighborhood, crying, trying to find my way to the field or home.

I finally turned came to a street I'd been on earlier, and found my way home. I arrived back in Chucktown at 8:56pm, over two hours since I had left. I had driven over 37 miles. I started a bath running, broke my no-alcohol diet with a Miller Lite (I NEEDED a softball-type beer), and soaked away Dorchester, Roxbury, Mattapan, and other ickiness in the jacuzzi. Much better.
<- /EVERYONE ELSE READ THIS...MOM PLEASE DON'T- >

So, I am getting GPS this weekend. I would have gotten it tonight, but I spent so long being lost that BestBuy was closed by the time i got home.

So Busted!

Today in class, the professor cold-called me first...I'm guessing because it was quite obvious that I was much more interested with the South Park character I was creating of myself than his senseless ramblings about some random theory.

Luckily, I pulled out with a vague answer. Woohoo!

That class is absolute torture. The discussions have nothing whatsoever to do with systems engineering. The readings are awful and pointless. I'm very frustrated. If I was paying my own tuition I would be pretty angry about the quality level of several of the SDM classes. Actually, I still am pretty angry, because as Yoav pointed out in class today, I do take time from work to attend class. That, of course, eats away at my gym and social time. Grrrrr.....

Florida:Georgia::New Hampshire:Massachusetts

In terms of driving, of course. I have noticed that cars with New Hampshire plates are even worse drivers than those with Massachusetts. The way in which they are worse is almost exactly the same as the way Florida drivers pollute Georgia highways: they occupy the left lanes at slow speeds, drive slowly in general, and really just drive like the blue-haired ladies in the Wendy's commercials.

Happy Birthday, Dan! 

Accounting with potato chips

I missed my first class on Monday and needed to watch the video to catch up. I really enjoyed watching the video from home. I could eat chips and slouch in my couch. I don't really like to participate in lecture-style classes anyway, so it suited me just fine.

I had a few problems with the network (argh, the dreaded "Buffering 99%" message...), but other than that was happy with the quality.

In other news, it dropped 30 degrees in about four hours here. Sigh....

Briefing a Success

Well, at least the briefing went well. My boss was very happy with it.

Of course, it went well enough that I got extra work. Yipppee. =D

Having one of those days.... (Warning: Kvetching ahead)

This morning I left my condo, only to get to my car and realize I had forgotten my iPod, which I sorely needed for my commute and for the gym after work. I went back up to the condo, grabbed the iPod, pet Scully, and went into the elevator again (no stairs to parking lot). Upon exiting the elevator, I realized I had also forgotten my cell phone, but decided to leave that behind.

Got to work. On walking in, creepy security guard #3 greets me by asking to see pictures of my vacation. I have already had problems with two security guards--one here and one at CNN--and am NOT in the mood to deal with it again. I'll blog on that another day.

So I manage to get out of that situation and head upstairs to find the air conditioning in the office I share with another developer is out. I like my office hot, but it was a sauna even for me. We called to get it repaired, but they still haven't come.

Then I went to the department refrigerator to move my salad dressing from the freezer to the fridge. Why? Because they clean out the fridge every two weeks, throwing everything away, but the items in the freezer are safe by policy. Nuh-uh. Dumbass fridge cleaner threw out my salad dressing. I felt silly calling to complain, but this is the third time they've done this. Shouldn't have felt silly...they'd received two other calls by 9:30.

I have a briefing today at 3:30 and my boss is very particular about briefings (and everything else), so I need to do four iterations of the powerpoint before the briefing. So no practice time for me.

Aaannd Yoav pointed out that we have accounting on Friday as well, so that is two accounting classes I need to miss in one week. (Gotta go to Dartmouth for my 10th year reunion, which is actually my 9th year reunion, but Dartmouth does reunions in groups of three classes).

That's it for now. Sorry to vent. If one of you writes back, "Sounds like someone has a case of the Mondays," I'll do to you as they did to the printer. (If you don't understand these statements, go rent "Office Space" RIGHT NOW. I'm having one of those days where I'm going to get home and watch it again so I know I'm not alone...)

Eve is Pregnant!

And I'm allowed to tell y'all now! YAY! I keep secrets, like, wicked good. Congratulations Eve and Jeff and mom and dad. And me! Aunt Ilana =D

Beach Day!

Went to Tricia's house in Marshfield for a day of beach and barbeque. Elizabeth knows Tricia from law school, so invited me along. The two of us drove down with Liz's boyfriend Frank. Once there, we went to the beach with other law school folk for a couple of hours, then back to Tricia's for a barbeque with her boyfriend Jason who was visiting from Jersey.

Tricia seems to cook as much as I do, but she made wonderful potato and macaroni salad . Frank did an excellent job at the grill. I had my twice-yearly burger and it was really good. We left shortly after eating to drive home...Liz and Frank to sleep, me to do MORE HOMEWORK. Wheeee....

Funny thing this morning on the way out of my garage, btw. Usually, when I pull out of my garage, I have a spectacular view of the USS COnstitution. This morning I pulled out and it seemed to be lost in a haze. I then realized that it is Bunker Hill Weekend and the Constitution is out for its "turnaround" in the harbor. Didn't get to see it sail, but it's back now with all of its flags raised. Very beautiful.

For all of you in Boston, the Bunker Hill Day Parade is tomorrow from 11am-2pm in Charlestown. Good vantage points on Harvard Street and throughout the town. Really fun stuff...lots of 1700's gear and fifery.

This sentence makes no #()$* sense

"The underlying theories of medical science such as chemistry and biology play a pivotal role in the development of new treatments."

Since when are chemistry and biology underlying theories of science???? This is ridiculous! The whole paper reads like this. How am I supposed to critique something that makes no sense????

Is it just the English degree or are others seeing this as well?

Homework on a Friday night...ugh...

I am in doing my accounting and systems engineering homework. Accounting was actually soothing...I liked just filling in the numbers (well, except when I got all pissy because I thought I was getting it wrong).

Systems engineering on the other hand is beyond painful. We have five essay questions due in 10 days. Only problem is the essay questions suck. One refers to a paper about medical practice as compared to systems engineering. The question requires as much knowledge about medicine as it does about systems engineering! It's a load of crap. I'm grumpy.

There I Go, Impulse Buying Yet Again

Dudes (and dudettes)...so I talked to Dan last night, and Franz, Derek, and the rest of the Batting for Beers crew are doing their annual bus trip to the Braves game. Last time I went, Dan and I shared a liter bottle of rum before the bus even left, then partook greatly of the kegs on board. By the time we got to the park, I was so hammered I was doing things like going into roped-off areas of seats and plopping myself down. NOT GOOD.

So of course, when Dan told me about the trip, I asked Franz if there was still room and overpaid for a ticket on Airtran. What's it like to be able to say, "Nah, I don't need to do that...I'll save the money and have a great weekend in Boston instead?" I don't think I'll ever know.... nor do I think I'll ever regret not knowing... =D

SO EXCITED FOR DRUNKEN PARTY BUS BRAVES GAME. Here are the unedited pictures from two years ago. Not for the faint at heart. You don't need to log in, just click the first picture.

Still in class

Still bored. And now the water I drank this morning at the gym is ready to leave me and man, do I gotta go.

Simpsons reference: "Give me a P!"
"P!"
"Go, go, go! P! P! P!"

Happy Birthday, Mom!

It's my mom's birthday today! She is a wonderful woman, and I am very proud of her. That, plus she's a huge sports fan and stayed up late to watch each and every one of the Sox playoff games last year (yes, even after I had given up hope)

Please excuse the awful picture of us, but I just love it...my mom and I snuck off to Paris on an E-Saver this year and spent Thursday-Sunday doing nothing but walking, shopping, eating, and drinking. Paradise!

Inaugural Night at Tavern on the Water

Although I had been prepared to stay in last night to finish (well, and start) my systems engineering homework then go to bed early to wake up at 6am for the gym, I got my usual Wednesday night call. Sure enough, Dave and Andrew were ready to go out in Charlestown. It wasn't our usual venue; we were going to Tavern on the Water which had just opened for the season Memorial Day weekend.

The talent was pretty low, so we pretty much kept to ourselves. I had planned to stay only 45 minutes, but thunderstorms starting rolling in, preventing my escape. After an hour and fifteen minutes, I decided to venture out. I left the boys chatting with two lovely women and went out into the storm.

Luckily, I saw a cab. He appeared to be waiting for someone. So I hopped in the back seat and said, "Did someone call you or are you at large?" He said someone had called from the Tavern. I told him no one else was leaving, and besides he could take me home and be back in two minutes, in time for the fare.

He drove me home without the meter on, so I gave him five bucks (all my cash), and jumped back into the rain. Wheeee.... I wonder how Andrew and Dave made out....

In 1987 I was in seventh grade

Pray tell, why are we reading an article from 1987 for systems engineering? Yes, it's cool to see that many of what was predicted has come about, but the last time i want to return to is one in which I had a huge afro on top of my gangly, recently-pubertized bod.

Our Accounting Book has Fancy Script

It's still as boring as watching grass grow in the rain.

SDM: Term 2

Summer term is officially underway at MIT. I really enjoyed my first term. Even ERBA had strong points to it: the homework (and impossibility thereof) helped me to get to know and greatly respect many of my classmates and the chats were always good for a laugh (and for getting me busted for laughing). I didn't really like Tech Strategy either, but at least I had a good partner in John Hajdiwuesdfsasdfasdf and there were only six sessions. I really liked my Apollo and Innovation in Marketing classes.

I'm nervous for this semester; so far, it's shaping up to be quite dry. Our accounting professor has a good sense of humor, but I found myself struggling to pay attention after the first half hour. I loved the reading for Systems Engineering and learned quite a bit about myself from it, but the lecture had me on the train to Snoozeville.

I am also printing out the reading for the Systems Engineering. It is making a HUGE stack at the printer here. Many of them are scanned-in pages converted to PDF. YUCK. As for accounting, I like the book with it's easily-scannable bold-faced keywords, but this book is long as well. Anybody know where I can score some Ritalin? ;)

I'm hoping that the second lecture in each course will jump start the courses. In the meantime, I have opted out of Systems Dynamics and Operations Management in order to enjoy the summer a little bit.

Scary freak alert

This is pretty scary stuff. Good thing they took away the bloody chain saw before letting him into the country.....

MIT Parking BS

MIT requires that students park in the West Lot YEAR ROUND even if there are no other students on campus. How dumb is that???

SDMers....do y'all pay for parking, or just park anywhere anyway? I cannot believe that they are trying to make me park in West Lot all summer. It's ridiculous that they give commuting students the farthest-away parking anyway, considering we are COMMUTING to classes. Dumbasses.

I'd vent more, but lucky for all of you I have a meeting.

Hello, my name's Ilana, and I'm unprepared

Does anybody know if we have operations management tomorrow? If so, where the heck is it? ARGH. Nothing like knowing if I have an 830am class or not :-p

Boathouse at Night 

Dinner with the Sheffields, Day on the Beach

Last night we had dinner with the Sheffields. Paty is just the cutest little ball of butter ever. She has such a personality now! She smiles and giggles. I love that kid. It was wonderful to see Kellie and get in some good talk. It was also great to see Allen, and he and Dan had fun talking about football (Dan went to Florida State, Allen to Florida) and real estate.

Speaking of which, Dan and I need to go get ice cream, gumbo, rum runners, and beer now. I'll finish this later.

Oh! And I got to see the Spelling Bee over lunch. I love that thing. I was bummed when my favorite kid was eliminated in about 15th place, but they're all cute. Okay, food 'n' booze time.

Yay, Sun!

I have had a great day! We woke up, went for breakfast, then headed to the beach. The sun poked out after a bit and it has turned out to be a gorgeous day. Kellie brought Payton for a quick visit, and we are meeting Kellie, Allen, and Payton at Pampano Joe's for dinner tonight.

The surf here is crazy...double red flag-type surf. We have a bodyboard and a floatie, and were up and using both most of the time. A couple times we got yelled at for going out too far...it was like being twelve again. They are very concerned with the riptide here as they lost thirty people last year.

There are a lot of people here. I've seen quite a few Dixie flags, more than usual. I'd call them ignoramuses, but that would send the lot scurrying for their doctors.

Waiting for the moisturizer to sink into my TANNED skin before going for dinner. YAY