beat down

Sorry for the radio silence, I'm beat.

Really. I have a one hour thingie in Longmont on Thursday and honestly, if I could do it via the web, I would. I, nm, cannot stand the thought of flying, driving and hoteling and then powerpointing.

What is up with that?

Anyways.

Check this out.

If you are in the Cascadia region, that is.

I'll give the espresso with cinnamon chip cookie a thumbs up, though at 430 calories, I'm eating them in fourths.

Had another self deprecating day around here. Must work on that attitude.

nm

Canadian musings

I really can't say much right now because I'm tired, but we had a great weekend sitting and reading books in dappled shade while listening to some amazing music in Vancouver.

The Canadians show great love towards music and Vancouverites towards their city.

I'll write about it tomorrow.

There were some really amazing highlights and then some things that really vexed me that I need to think about.

Anyways, we're all home now. E.dd is napping in the kitchen after a weekend learning that it is okay to sit and wait before you go barreling through the door and we learned that are things he needs to learn.

Laundry is churning, thermarests are back in their alloted homes until we do this again and once again, this week is about running around like bassets who know that their is a bisquit hiding behind their masters back.

sigh.

nm

Ernest says it all

Check it out.

Wish us all luck.

nm

oh so true

In the hopes of finding something on the old NIOC hospital today, I found this and man can I relate.

As my mom used to seay, we named you after a flower, trust me.

I hated my name growing up. I really did, it was hard to pronounce, I had a million nicknames and none of them I liked. I shortened it, which to led to other problems, I even changed the spelling so it wouldn't be so obviously anti-semetic. It isn't, its just the root is such a common one in Farsi.

My dad, my aunt and some other family members call me one pet name that I like and one dear family friend calls me one nickname that no one else calls me, but it was the name that was the easiest for Americans to pronounce when I was in nursery school. I will still answer to it.

Many of my friends have changed or anglified their names. I guess for what they do professionally- law, commerce, medicine it makes sense. But I have grown to love my name and if you mispronounce it, I'll gently correct you.

Unlike Houman or Who-man as it is pronounced, my last name is simple and awfully Italian.

Lucky me.

nm

headache humpday

Variety is the spice of life, garden hose nozzles, July 2006, Seattle, Wa.

God, I feel like toast. I am not getting it to work at work and I'm flummoxed. Who said data compression was fun?

Anyhow, life here just goes on. Managed to nail down a spa weekend for E. dd while we go off to BC for the VFMF. To tell the truth, I'm not charged about the line up, so maybe we'll just spend Friday night walking around downtown Vancouver and going to the RainCity Grill for dinner.

Or not.

I love Vancouver, but prefer it when its cool, rainy and not full of tourists. It will be cool, hopefully not rainy as we're outdoors all day and unfortunately, based on hotel occupancies, full of tourists.

Good thing I cashed in points for the Hyatt. That stay alone would be close to 650 USD plus with taxes for a not very exciting hotel room. No, the Sylvia is never ever available because the VFMF diehards book 330 days ahead of time.

At least I have a stack of book to read, mostly mysteries, but good for sitting with a canadiano and a polarfleece blanket and listening to Feist and Jane Sibbery.

nm

the worst of both worlds

Behold.

Can you imagine? It means you'll have to continue getting pedis in the winter in order to wear these.

Yikes.

monday musings

Sunflowers, Oxbow Ppatch, Georgetown, July 2006.

TH is out of town (Berkeley for the day/night) and E.dd and I had many things to do. We did go to work, which was passable but not thrilling. in the time I was optimizing grids and finding my data, I managed to get E.dd liscensed, paid my huge Amex bill, and did other financial things as well as figure out the best way to deal with my new summer scourge - the moth.

JK is a lucky girl, her dry cleaner in Bethesda will store her sweaters for the summer. We don't have that option here in the city. I tried calling some of the more bespoke cleaners in town and no one stores sweaters. I even called a fur storage place, no dice. They did make one suggestion, cedar infused plastic bags. It just seems strange, storing sweaters in plastic.

So, I am going the other route, I am cleaning most of the sweaters I don't wear in the summer and then replacing my plastic containers with cedar lined storage containers - both sweater canvas caddies and the storage containers.

Good sweater storage tips.

Containers I'm about to buy.

Other cool things are this bag that TH picked up at Heathrow on Friday. It was a gift with purchase with a magazine. I live for these things. This purse is so cute with all the hummingbirds and the magazine wasn't so bad.
TH also brought home the new and improved American Airline amenity kits. I have to say they are keepers. I have a few British Airlines ones (mostly club) and a few Cathay kits, but these are great- multifunctional, a shoe bag and a great cosmetic storage bag with detachable mesh pockets. You could even use it for storing electronics, which is what TH uses hers for. The temple spa products are still awful and will get donated.

Check it out.

front view:back view:



I took advantage of beauty.com's offer of free shipping including products purchased on drugstore.com without meeting a minimum dollar amount. I managed to pick up the paula dorf eyeshadow I thought I had purchased in NY, so stay tuned while I learn about eyeliners.

Oy.

Other than that, life goes on, I finally ironed the 40 napkins and 30 placemats that I had piled up while watching a doris day/james garner, The thrill of it all on my laptop. She cans catsup in the movie, she's my kind of gal.

later taters,
nm

Football remembrances of things past

From http://www.gazzetta.it/. Happy day in Italy.
I'm not a big sports fan, but I like football. I like it for various and sundry reasons. For example, I like that it is a world wide game. I like the fact the in So. Cal there are leagues devoted to Iranian women playing football, but I honestly, didn't pay that much attention to the world cup this year. I am happy to see that Italy won. Why? Because I had fond memories of being in Rome in late June of 2001 when AS roma won the Italian championship for their league and it was wild. I can't imagine what is like in Rome now.

That sunday in Rome was hot and muggy. TH decided that she would go up to the Janiculum hill in search of a breeze and an aqueduct. I went the opposite direction, towards the Spanish step to the French Consulate/Villa Medici which was hosting a Rodin exhibit. After the exhibit, I went wandering up towards the Villa Borghese. I couldn't help but notice how quiet Rome was that day. The streets were deserted and it was easy to move around. I did notice lots of people clustered around their cars listening to football announcers and once in a while a cheer burst out.

At the end of the game, there was lots of loud cheering and by the time I met TH near the Pantheon, things were getting crazy. We went back to our 5 story walk up apartment on the Vicolo di Governo Vecchio to change, and off to the Bar Pace for a drink and a meeting of Gaetano the basset in his AS Roma jersey. By the time we went for our farewell dinner at La Carbonara the Campo was filled with cheering and quite snockered fans. Our taxi took us to the airport bright and early the next morning, we passed by bedraggled fans by the Circus Maximus who were still whopping it up and realized that the city loved its team.

The second great football memory is being in Japan for the last World Cup. JK, a seasoned Japan traveler went with me, the novice and we had a great time. We wandered around Tokyo and did day trips to Nara and Kamakura which were fun as well. We spent a day in Yokohama after the World Cup, wandering around the vast city and having the most fun at the Ramen Museum.

All the world cup fervor has made me a bit sad. The trip to Rome was the last that we took on TWA before the service was discontinued and I am hankering for a visit to Japan just because its been so long. I know I'll have my chance soon and everyday I think of Rome when I wear my personal control device which hangs on a AS Roma lanyard. I'm lucky to have had these experiences.

nm

300 posts

and really not much to say.

Worked, picked up TH, came home, played with e.dd, aunt B. came over for some puppy love and we all went to burgermaster and then a walk through the trail by CUH. E.dd is behind me right now asleep and TH is heading that way. She managed to snag the last seat on the 12:15 out of ORD. Good thing or else, she would still be on the way home via Dallas.

Which brings me to a funny thing.

My office mate has been doing a buttload of travel - Anchorage and Honolulu, almost monthly. He is slowly attaining status on Alaska Airlines and I am giving him advice on how to proceed. I told him if he was 3000 short in December, he and I were flying to ORD and back just to make status. He thought I was insane, but maybe when his upgrade to ANC clears at 72 hours, he'll be thinking differently.

Other than that, TH brought me a stack of magazines, a loaf of bread from neal's yard, lots of cheese including a half fat farmhouse mature cheddar that is to die for and most importantly, herself.

Well, back to cleaning up and getting E.dd to bed.

nm

day in the life 2

So, answering our dear Sheryl's charge, I will try and encapsulate my day, pathetic as it may be.


0535 phone rings, once. I'm up, but not out of bed, read a bit
0555 decide that I better get up
0600 let ernest the puppy out, he pees, sits down and then decides its time to poop
0610 feed ernest, put stuff out for the Blind pick up, pack up lunch, pack Ernest snacks, tidy up house for cleaning diety, brush teeth, get stuff in car for work, stuff for food bank, Ernest asks politely to go out again, we go into the back yard for a bit of self serve on the raspberries.
0630 TH calls from London, recaps day, says she can't take money out of cash machine, I remind her that food, in any class, sucks. She says she has already purchased her pret pots for her flight. She's soo smart.
0650 put ernest in car, with half eaten carrot.
0655 at gym
0700 trainer flakes, I elliptical for 40 minutes and read about brad/jen/britney/supermarket diets and watch cnn
0750 leave gym, take ernest to vet
0820 leave vet, 57 bucks poorer, with a rabies vaccinated dog, a toothbrush and some flea stuff
0830 go to met market, pick up coffee and dicuss ernest with katie and the girl who grew up with bassets
0840 arrive work, score a shaded parking place, back ernest in, take him out for an ablut and a bit of paw stretch
0850-1120 work on boring work stuff, answer emails, review document, try and deal with our image clipping issues, nothing is working eat lunch, snack and chocolate in frustration
1120-1150 take ernest for a .5 mile walk, sit, collapse and work on come. The sun is coming out, it is defective
12oo continue to work, pull out hair, get frustrated, talk to developer to see if he has any great ideas, eat cheetos (WTF?), get email from B, she did the same.
1400 Y. calls from Augusta, where yesterday she gave birth to a baby boy. I can't wait to see him. She sounds great. I continue to beat head on keyboard, because nothing is working.
1430 ernest goes for another short walk, drink, cookie
1730 finally leave work, giving images to our photo. specialist to see if he can create something in photoshop that will work.
1740 arrive at mudbay, buy ernest one bag of adult food and one bag of puppy food, he is so hyper.
1755 arrive home, eat dinner, the both of us. It is clean in here, David did a great job.
1830 we go for another walk, he is being a bit cussid, our walk is short
1845 I start working again, try another approach, redownload clean copy of data, download trial version of program
2020 decide that ernest and I need a break. Go to the Village to burn off some energy. He does most excellently. I wonder if its okay to wear fendi slides while carrying a dior purse?
2050 get back to car, drive to work to look for cell phone and check on jobs. Cell phone is there, jobs bombed. Send some email and then go home via cash machine, starbucks (okay, I know, but a rice crispie treat sounded good), library
2200 arrive home, full of self loathing for eating too much and for no good reason, take ernest out, he comes in and eats again, runs around, one more out and he's in bed. TH calls from Heathrow, she is trying to get on earlier flight out of ORD. Had to buy another ticket, but its so expensive, its changeable.
2200 my last thing worked (whew)I have a file that may work for the application! I will rerun it tomorrow to fix a few things, but I have something. Thank the gods. I do believe I have found a bug, so I will log it tomorrow.
2300 run dishwasher, finish putting away work stuff, get packed for gym and work tomorrow, burn cds and off to bed.

caged animal and other things that vex me

Dahlia, my darling, July 2006.

I was really freaking out here today at work. I have lots to do and no matter how many ways I twist the rubik's cube, nothing is working. I'm having to resort to photoshop to mask an image, how is that for lame?

I'm trying something now at home. It better work.

Other than that, I'm behind as usual on summarizing work issues, reviewing proposals and getting information to those who need it NOW.

Ya know what I mean?

I'm reading an interesting book about home management that could be applied to the work world. It was written before the age of widespread computer use and project management software, but the system seems to work and I may just apply it to my life.

Which, is really not that bad, considering.

At least my house is clean for the next 30 minutes before I unleash Hurricane Ernest from his time out. Toilet paper does not grow on trees young man. :)

So, other than that, he weighs 27 lbs and I'm not sure how many more weeks I can pick him up.

I'm off to the Village to amuse the boy, pick up some stuff and hopefully tire him out.

TH is back tomorrow and I am happy, she comes home with the newest in trashy british tabloids and cheese. Lots of cheese.

nm

crash into you

When you go wolf dinner down, stop your food slave from eating her dinner to let you out, go for a .5 mile walk and then come inside to chase cuppie and drag liter containers of tonic water out of the pantry for half an hour, you are entitled to crash and crash hard.

I wonder if I can put him in lockdown and plant all those bedding plants I bought yesterday?

I am now hooked up again. I'm not that excited. I have to take my old phone to Tmobile to get the numbers moved over to my new phone. Its a cute phone, orange pebl that has a camera and can take video. It is cute and orange, did I mention that?

TH got the same model she had before with better gsm capabilities, my parents got a free phone. Yes, I'm on the family plan.

TH and I chatted today, she's okay, but tired. Currently, she's at my aunt's house and hopefully going into the city to pick up cheese and some books. I don't think I need anything, but considering she has lots of room in her bag... Naw, I'm okay.

Really.


Well, I guess I should check on the boy and then go out and plant and water.

nm

sweet pea

DSC_1557
Originally uploaded by flora and flying.

Okay, here is a little summer for you all. Ernest and I got up from our respective naps and went to the garden to check on the raspberries.

We found the sweet peas in profusion as well as the dahlias.

No one was there either. Fanfrickingtastic as far as I am concerned. I may have to spend part of tomorrow evening bushwacking the morning glory, but things are definitely looking good.

The fireworks are going off, so I'm mustering the courage to get E.dd ready for a viewing at the secret parking garage.

nm

Real bad news

TH got a letter from London today. A week or so ago, one of her mom's dearest friends died unexpectedly and the funeral is day after tomorrow. I had many an occasion to visit with her and she was a lady and an amazing person. She was so fit and full of life, I can't believe she is gone. For TH, this is also hard. She is currently on a plane to ORD and then off to London and god willing, she'll be in Oxford by noon on Wednesday. Her mother's other dearest friend is also in Oxford by the way of Birmingham. She is also an amazing lady. Funny thing is until the one moved from Birmingham to Oxford, they had never met. Their only connection was TH's mom, her father and then TH. We usually saw them at least once a year, going up for a lovely lunch around Christmas. For some reason, we didn't make it this last year. The year before was amazing, the food, the conversation, the long, drawn out puddings and coffee in the lounge. Oy, what memories.

TH really struggled with the descision to fly to London for the service. In some ways, its a frivolous journey, but in some ways, it is important, to keep the ties with her kids, to see her partner and to say goodbye to someone that is a link to the past.

Friends, all I can say, is that there isn't always another time. Treasure each other.

nm

technology gap

I am currently mobile phoneless. Really. Don't even try calling me.

I'll be back up and running on Wednesday, but until then. I'm off the "grid".

Hah.

Back to spatchcocking.

nm

three day week

I am sort of taking tomorrow off of work. I need to go in and mail my laptop off to MPC and get the case and hinge fixed before things get worse, but hopefully that won't take too long. I have a lot of gardening to do.

Other than that, life is sucked by Ernest's needs.

I am a sponge.

nm

essentially summer desserts

Its that time again, the cherry guy is at work, our trees are full of rainiers, we are picking two or three pints of raspberries a day and soon we'll have gooseberries and currants. What to do with all this goodness?

I'm thinking the four c's for the summer - clafoutis, crisp, cobbler and crostata.

All yummy, all simple and all delicious the day of or the following day. I use several sources for the recipes including MTAFC, Chez Panisse Desserts and the Joy of Cooking.

The next few days I'll share with you these recipes. I'm thinking we'll be seeing a cherry crostata for the Fourth and maybe a blackberry crisp (okay, I'm cheating with last year's harvest) for sunday night.

Yum.

Everything here is just dandy. I'm busy with work and so is TH. I am really trying to finish off what I can so that I don't have to think about anything work related for the next few days. I have a pile of books, lots of weeding and a need to get that princess plant in a new pot before Sunday!

Later taters.

nm

nothing like a good song

We went to see Arlo Guthrie tonight at the Zoo. The last few shows at the zoo have been mediocre at best with screaming children, poor sound quality and not very dynamic performers. Wow, Arlo and family were dynamic, witty and just fabulous. The kids were pretty well behaved and the sound quality was great. We had low expectations and we were overwhelmed.

He even did "this land is your land", which always make me smile.

I can't believe the quality of music I've heard this year, Keith Jarrett, the Junkies and Arlo and that I still have Calgary and Vancouver to hit makes me quite excited.

Work was hectic today. I have a major project undertaking that just isn't clicking and needs to be finished by Friday. I have many fires to tend and all I can think about is gardening this weekend and maybe visiting cousin Scruffy and aunt Pat in Mineral.

Are we still on cupcake?

Ernest is sitting his his bed and having his pre-bed snack of a carrot and me thinks its time to get organized for tomorrow.

later taters.

nm

a long drink of water

Ernest in the bed, June 24th, 2006.

This weather sucks. It is hot, sunny and generally great for those without things to do and Viewridge pool memberships and bad for small mostly black basset hounds and the people that must check on them.

Today, Ernest went to work for about one hour (yes, I had pre-reserved his shady location), sucked on my ice cubes from my iced coffee and then decided that lock down chez nm was a better option.

He did okay, I think being stuck in lock down may help him increase that bladder control as well, which would be a positive thing.

Tomorrow should also be defective in the weather department, so other than a quick morning snuffle, its lock down for Ernest.

This past weekend we did a lot of things, mostly the mundane, but punctuated with a visit from Aunt Pat and cousin Scruffy, Ernest's first Pride March on the Hill, his first exposure to Dykes on Bikes (not impressed), a ferry ride to Vashon and visit with Amadeus, the great dane and his very charming people. He loved them.Ernest and the Dykes on Bikes.


Ernest meets cousin Scruffy.
Ernst (his german name) meets Amadeus.

It was busy around here.

Life here is okay, my work is getting sort of interesting again with lots of exciting things going on if you enjoy data management. I'm thinking I may take Monday off and have a four day weekend at home. Imagine that! So out of character for moi, but I might be able to do things as mundane as go to the dump and just read the paper.

We'll see what the rest of the week brings.

nm

more later

Once again I have managed to slice my finger open with my felcos,so I can't type. Everything is just fine, Ernest had a very busy basset weekend, we did do, it is too hot for me and TH is sweltering in Portland until Tuesday night.

I'll be back tomorrow with some pics and exciting things to say.


Really.