Thursday the 13th

spring flowers, March 2006
Originally uploaded by flora and flying.

Not much to report. Picked up my jetsetting mother from the airport and first phone call she gets other than my perpetually calling father is her swedish cousin. Yes, there are Iranians in Sweden and they are related to us.

She's such a talker and schmoozer my mom.

Its freaking cold here. I have told all my guests for Easter to dress for weather. I am thinking we may be eating in shifts and drinking hot cocoa instead of orange juice.

As for the actual festivities, its pretty basic, hunt for 30 minutes, check out your bounty and then eat real food.

The easter basset works hard every year to get those eggs out and hidden for good Easter foragers. Most are good hunters and look high and low for those eggs and will try and find each and every one.

This year's weather doesn't look so hot, we may need to waterproof the eggs, but unlike a few years ago, they won't melt.

What are your easter plans?

Rainy days and money on my mind

Peony in the rain, March 2006.
Originally uploaded by flora and flying.

Today I spent 600 bucks with 2 bags of groceries, nice clean windows and new car tabs to show for it.

I wish I earned 600 bucks today.

Seems that I am having a string of such days and I hope the end is near.

nm

paring and culling

I'm removing myself from countless email lists that I amcurrently subscribed to. It is quite lovely. I hit the unsubscribe and my three days later my mailbox is half the size. I'm even doing this at work, Sun Microsystems be damned, I need not to get three emails a day about new products. If I need something, I'll check it out myself.

I just cancelled netflix for the third time. I love it, but honestly, when do I have time to sit and watch a movie other than on a plane? If I'm lucky, I'll get it from the library. If I find myself missing it, I'll start up again.

As for culling, everytime the different charity organizations call, I'm happy to donate.

Ditto for books, if I don't get it at the library, I buy it used. If I don't feel its worthy of keeping, I either donate to the Seattle Public Library or package them off to send to the book exchanges at the various Admiral's Clubs throughout the system.

I'm using freecycle right now to rid myself of a few things that you couldn't even believe that people would want -- tires, diving weights, cleaning supplies. Its amazing what you can share with others who may find treasure in your cast offs.

Check it out yourself. Freecycle.

nm

more on life and concentrating

Bleeding Heart, March 2006.

Life here is okay. I am still working on the concentration thing. I had some success today and even though I have to leave work, I'll continue to chug on later tonight, just to catch up from my lame Monday.

Here is an interesting thing I picked up from LifeHacker on what I think I am experiencing Attention Deficit Trait.

Other than that, managed in one hour to drop off lots of toxic waste and get my car emission tested and pick up 5 new 5 gallon buckets. ;) In that way, life is good.

Now, if the DOL liscensing site would work, I would be good as gold.

monday musings

Things have been quiet around here. I hope you are all okay.

Today I just couldn't get things together. That is, I could things I wanted to do together, but not the things I had to do, like get my act together at work. This is bad news these days. I can't really put my finger on my trouble, but I can get work work done at home, but in the office, I am distracted beyond belief.

Oh well.

At least I managed to get 9 things off my to do list at home.

How do you all get and stay focused at work?

I share an office with a dear person, who is very intensely busy right now and my lack of productivity makes me feel even more lame.

Its just a phase, I know, but its bumming me out.

nm

not falling far from the tree

My mom is hosting 48 people today for brunch. This number is down from the parties of the past where 100 was the norm and my mom did all the cooking, but for many it is a daunting task. I can't imagine knowing 100 people well enough to invite them into my house, but the entertaining gene is very much something I inherited from my parents and of that I am happy.

Ditto for the gardening gene. My father can be found puttering in the garden morning and after his nap each and every day, when he's not gardening, he's plotting something and he is often visiting nurseries. He's not an expert and many would not think he's the most elegant gardener, but it makes him happy and keeps him busy.

I picked that trait up from him as well, I would be happy puttering, weeding, pruning, cultivating pretty much every waking moment that I'm home. Like my father, when I'm not gardening, I'm thinking about what we'll do next and how it may look.

I may look like my father (spookily so) and have my mom's soft touch and laugh, but I'm happy to have inherited two things from them that I truly hold dear, my love of feeding my friends and tending my garden.

Busman's holiday

Piante di Roma, March 2006.

Two weeks ago today I came home from one of my best trips in a long time. TH and I basically ran around Rome looking for inundation markers from a series of floods that occured over time. Not all of Rome was flooded, but when you start digging into the history, the topography, the hydrodynamics of the river and how Rome changed after the Reunification of Italy in 1870, things get interesting.

Lots of people have looked at the inundation, but not necessarily mapped it, nor really delved into why and how they were designated. This perplexes me and gives me yet another reason to go running after the ones we didn't get. I will probably put together a Google Earth Map that shows where these were, but as lovely as it is, it isn't really spatially enabled, its just a nice visual representation. I want something meatier.

Well, there is always next November or December to finish up. I could do it earlier, but why should you only have to fly two segments to Rome when you can fly three?

nm

where's waldo?

I had a funny conversation with my father this past weekend where he asked if we were going somewhere over the weekend. I said no, he was shocked. He's used to his kids running hither and yon and never being home.

Today my brother is on his way to Paris to give a talk at a meeting and then to Turkey for two weeks to do much the same and take in some sights. He's been there probably 20 times and will get to meet a new member of our extended family, Miss Celine. He'll be off to Brazil and back to Europe again in a month or two, so he's also a frequent flyer.

I've actually booked some flights for the end of the month, it maybe that I'm missing the dinging at 10,000 feet telling me its okay to turn on my approved electronic devices or that I have no time to do sudukos now. In any case, in three or four weeks, I'll be ready to roll. I may have done it also to tempt fate, in hopes that a certain someone invites us to Goldendale that weekend that I'll be out of town. ;)

nm

Know when to hold em, know when to fold them

Not my cards, but my frequent flyer miles.

I'm trying to get my aunt here from London, we're marginally flexible on dates and now that she has decided when she wants to come here and where she wishes to land, I can work with the Mileage Plan to get something that will work. I hope.

I very rarely use miles for myself. I do some brain addled calculations to figure out the cost per mile using real dollars and then what the ticket would cost me in ff dollars, which are half or a third of that. I sometimes use miles for upgrades, especially on hard to upgrade flights like out of JFK. I usually clear the upgrade list, but with TH who is one tier behind me, its better to just use miles. I never use miles for free tickets for myself, I would rather earn than burn in most cases unless its a god given emergency.

So, using 90 to 125K miles to fly British Airways in Club or First with a stopover which would be a $12,000 ticket seems like good use of miles to me. To squander that same amount on four tickets to Vegas or San Diego when the tickets can be had for $238 bucks, is bad use of miles.

Cross your fingers they can get me what she needs.

nm

Agent double 00

I am looking for new jeans, not the 165 buck ones that I love and admire and until I lose a bit of weight am not willing to shell out more cash to buy a size that will show off more of me that anyone needs to see.

So, I go to the Banana Republic website and see that they now have 00 sizing. WTF? I wear a size 6 in Banana Republic, which is really probably closer to a size 12 in 1970's sizing. So, a 00 would be a size 4 in 70's sizing.

We're either getting smaller and smaller or bigger and bigger. Pro-ana sites and baby seats for obese babies, we're seeing it all.

Case in point. NM needs new shoes (always), most stores no longer carry size 5 or 5.5, just 6 as their smaller size. I wear a 5.5 M, I cannot prance into Macy's, Lord and Taylor, Ann Taylor, Cole Haan or in some cases, Nordstrom anymore because those sizes just don't sell, so they stop stocking them.

Oh, okay.

So, I shop online for shoes hoping that the size is true to fit as well as the color and style.

As for banana, I'll be in this evening. I need pants. I hope you have some in my size, whatever you want to glamour size me into believing.

nm

March Garden Pics

Narcissus, March 2006

Click to see March Garden Pictures

I should be ironing napkins, reading a novel or just maybe getting ready for bed. However, I thought I would share March's garden pics. Some are not very good, but as you can see, spring is our time.

The blurry pics of the jays are just that, a bunch of Steller blue jays are hanging out on a screen that TH is using to seive out rocks and evil bamboo for a bed she just made. The job is done and according to the folks at our local Audubon Society, they may just be looking for nesting material.

The pile goes on Friday, so I hope they are done by then.

nm

The 72 hour rule

Anemones, Rome, March 2006.

We have rules and regulations chez nm and TH. One big one is that no plant shall remain encumbered in its plastic pot for more than 72 hours after it has been brought back from the nursery or plant sale.

Not that we always follow our own rules, but this afternoon's gentle rain means that we'll be putting all those rhodies, a few hellebores and other choice plant material in the ground as soon as we get home and get that creamed spinach on.

nm

Spring forward

Don't get me wrong. I love the longer days, it is the getting up that hurts.

This week was full of firsts. The first plant sale, the first of two seasonal hotdogs provided by the Lions Club of Federal Way and the first of a hundred blasted plant pots that will overfill a 33 gallon trashcan until TH and I summon the courage to visit Flowerworld way up north to recycle the pots.

All in all, the idea of coming home at 5:30 or 6, gardening, eating dinner and then have more time for either gardening or going for walk in the light has great appeal to me.

How about you?

Things that vex

Crocii in the lawn, chez nm, Spring 2006.

TH called me while I was at the store on Wednesday. Turns out our lawn dude (yes, we have one) came by and mowed. He mowed down our crocuses. WTF? For the first time in my life, I actually fired someone on the spot. He was confused. He thought I told him to wait until the crocuses has stopped blooming to start mowing. He was wrong. I said, I would call him when we needed him. We typically don't mow until the crocus foliage dies down and the energy goes back to the bulbs. For a guy who has gone through the master gardener program, he's a few nutrients short of the 10-10-10 N,P,K ratio needed by most bulbs.

So, what do you do?

TH went out and bought some little containers of tete a tete daffodils and spread them through the lawn. It looks better.

I was chatting up the clerk at MM, bemoaning my lawns fate. She gave me the name of her parent's lawn guys and says they are good. So, hah, now I have a name. Poor Ms. C who asked me the day after the massacre for the name of the lawn dude. I hope this other person works out better. I have to say MM is one of the best things to happen to View Ridge/Bryant in a long time. Thanks peeps.

This morning on my way to work. I looked at the lawn and peeking out of the edge was the purple of two late blooming crocuses that made it through the edging and mowing and give us a sign of life.

nm

word cloud

Word cloud, March 2006.

From snap shirts website that I found while following a Seattle blogger, Michelle de Seattle, from Jenorama's blog. I hope you are feeling better today. Yowch.

nm

ducks in a row

Angus, the scottish duck. Edinburgh, Scotland March 2004.

Ack, it is tax season and other than knowing where all my stuff is, I haven't done diddly to get it to my dearest accountant who I'm sure is just salivating to get cracking on my taxes.

So, tonight, I will sit with the pile of papers, the statements and try and give her a glimpse of where the heck all that money went.

I have to say, that I should be getting a honking return, which will be nice as it ain't going to be that way much longer.

Right after tax season, she'll be vacationing I'm sure and you all will promise me you'll do a better job than me of getting your ducks in a row before next tax season rolls around. Right?

The same can be said for updating your wills, estate planning, figuring out your withholding, doing a FSA through your employer and maybe taking a few more dollars out of your paycheck pre-tax. I had three good conversations this past weekend with three women who are in charge of their finances and they all convinced me that I need to be a better job of dealing with my pre-tax dollars.

Thanks ladies.

nm

New Year's the Roman way

Haft sin, Rome 2006

My haft sin, March 2006 in Rome. Funny thing was that just down street (via) of our apartment was a Persian Rug shop with a lovely haft sin and a nice sign for Persian New Year. I purposefully walked that way daily just to see it.

I liberated my hyacinth (sombol) in the planter outside of our building. I will visit it sometime next Spring and hope it is flourishing.

nm

ajil

Ajil
Originally uploaded by flora and flying.

Okay, I'm lame and busy and tired. Here is a little bit of my mom's ajil for your perusal.

I think there is a tad left and I went to the Iranian grocery store on Saturday for some dried mulberries and a few more almonds.

For those of you who are wondering what the heck is up, I'm just tired and trying to catch up with my life.

More later on this most beautiful spring day.

hyacinth and going home

Hyacinth, March 2006.

On my way home from Rome, sitting in the Cathay Pacific First Class lounge at LHR dining on shumai and other delectables. The Hong Kong flight has boarded and we have the lounge to ourselves. Our transit has been remarkably easy this time. Bulkhead on BA, upgraded on AA and I'm looking forward to reading a few magazines, taking a nap and getting my menu ready for my persian new year dinner.

See you all later.

nm

Happy New Year - Aide shomah mobarak

Haft sin, Rome March 2005.

Happy New Year 1385 from chez NM to you.

May this year be much better than last year and the the following years even better.

Peace to all.

For more information about Persian New Year, please visit Persian Mirror.

nm

out for coffee

Cafffe Camerinno, the coffee with three fs. Rome, December 2005.

We'll be back in a few days, so just sit tight.

nm

miracles happen

Roman holiday, March 2006.

My camera showed up today, just when I was starting to really groove on J's Fuji that he kindly sent me. I promised him I'd send him a cd of my pics, so I'll try real hard.

I'm almost packed and if the weather goddesses are with us, we'll make it through DFW between rain and thunder.

Later taters.

airline pet peeve number 344

Well, more like an airport club one. People who speak very loudly on their cell phones in relatively quiet lounges when there are little work cubicles to be had.

The US airways lounge in BOS is pretty nice. Decent tarmac views and other than self-important peeps and the inability to carry in outside coffee, it works.

That does not work.

Had a fabulous day in Boston. Dinner last night at Durgin Park with a really great waitress (yes, J, she was great) who gave us two tips for places to get a lobster pizza and lobster roll next time we have a car.

Hotel was good too, nice suite upgrade and welcome from the GM. It was a bit out of the way, not really in Cambridge, so we had a 9 buck cab ride each way into Harvard Square. After the conversation with Jacques, the taxi driver, discussing his plans for opening a pizzeria, I decided that I was hungry again. Half a felafel sandwich from Cafe Algiers helped ameliorate that. :)

A walk from Newbury street through the Common towards Locke Ober was brisk and sunny. We had a great lunch and toasted TH's father who loved the restaurant. I had a great lobster salad and carrot ginger soup. TH had lobster bisque and roast beef hash. We left sated and killed some time at Filene's Basement.

Now, we're at the airport, getting excited (?) to go home. I'm hoping to get some work done. If not, I'm hoping that I'll just get some sleep.

Back home tomorrow and then off to Rome.

B--- you'll get your ajil tomorrow. :)

not for tourists

Not for tourist guides - available at many independent bookstores or amazon.com.

I love these guides. We have one for Boston which we'll use today and the one for DC is equally as useful.

I'm a big fan of alternative guidebooks, not the Fodors, Rick Steves or Frommers variety, but more like Time Out or Cadogan. In France I like the Routard guides and the Paris est a nous, which I have blogged about in the past.

The NFT guides are great local guides with hints on parking, where the nearest good food is and the maps are easy to read. I recommend you pick one up the next time you are going to Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco or Chicago or another fine metropolis.

Other good on line guides include Gridskipper and I'm always happy to search and post on Egullet and if it is seat pitch, airline lounges or what they are serving in first class Paris-Singapore I'll happily use the search function on Flyertalk.

Me, I'm looking forward to dinner at Durgin Park (I know, I know, but the coffee jello...) and lunch and Lock Ober.


nm

the eve before the last wednesday of the new year

It is nice to be able to celebrate more than one new year. In this case, we're getting ready bit by bit chez nm for the Iranian New Year. Granted I don't do the big huge celebration that you would see in the Southland, but in my own little martha-ey way, I get things together. Alas, like last year we'll be in Rome, we know when New Years will be and we'll do our portable haft sin as usual.

Today is the the celebration of last wednesday before the new year also known as Chahar Shanbeh Soori, the traditions are based on Zoorastrian Fire Festival. People light fires and you are to jump over them getting rid of the illness and bad juju and bring happiness to the new year. We do it in the small scale, a candle on the porch. In the past we would pass the candle under Jacques and Roya and jump over it ourselves.

The other tradition is to eat a noodle soup - ashe reshteh and to have a special fruit and nut mix (ajil) that one's mother is kind enough to provide.

The chahar shanbeh souri ajil

In equal proportions mix

Shelled pistachios
Roasted chick peas (found in Iranian grocery stores)
Almonds (fresh and non toasted is great)
hazelnuts ( I like mine roasted)
Dried figs (these little ones are very dry and yummy)
Dried apricots (my mom skips this step)
Raisins (we use two kinds - flame and sultanas)

Mix together and enjoy during the next three or four weeks, if it lasts that long.

Nushe jan! Eat up, buttercups. My friends will attest to the yumminess of the mixture. TH leaves behind the chickpeas (my mom often makes a chickpea free version for her) and B. eats TH's chickpeas. Its a win/win situation.

The outpouring

Thank you all you lurkers who have emailed me or asked TH if I'm okay after my smooth move last Thursday.

Let's put it this way, I am staying away from watering cans, benches and woodstoves for the foreseeable future.

I'm touched.

Sniff.

nm

my manicurist hates this time of year

No matter how many pairs of latex gloves I don, my nails looks like crap this time of year. She's going to be very cranky later today.

She's going to have to live with it, its definitely time to get dirty. Two pairs of socks is not enough to keep the earth out of my froggy boots.

It'll be vamp red toes for me starting next week or maybe I should go with something more earthy?

nm

rogue daffodils

Not so rogue daffodils, March 2005.

Today I spent the day going to and fro our fair city including a trip down Montlake Blvd with a requisite stop for bridge traffic. It was a beautiful and sunny day and who could blame folks for taking their boats out even if it means that the rest of us have to turn off our engines and hope that we'll make it across the cut before the next set decides to go through snarling traffic further.

If it wasn't a lovely glorious sunny day it would really suck, but it gave me a chance to admire what we call rogue daffodils, the daffodils that have naturalized on the slope between Montlake and the Burke-Gilman trail. We look forward to their appearance as they brighten our trips to and from our neighborhood to Montlake, Dowtown and the eastside.

Pretty much everywhere with the exception of Alaska should be seeing the first of the narcissus up and at em. I can't tell you how much it brings joy to my heart to see them popping up and spreading as the years go by.

nm

what a day

When you start out your day by spending 10 minutes trying to hunt down your orange coffee mug you know it is going to be one of those days.

I have no big plans for the weekend. I'm actually here all weekend, I get to go to airport to pick up TH, but no flying or trains for me. I'm quite happy.

I'm ready to collapse now, so that is what I'm going to do.

nm

flat on the keester

Twice this week, the first time was last Friday morning going through the turnstile at the Gare du Nord Metro station, I went forward with my computer bag and my rollaboard did not cooperate. By the time we yanked it out, I went flying and landed butt first onto the landing. Very graceful.

Today I was watering some plants on our porch and standing on a picnic bench. I fell off and hit my back against the Franklin stove that used to grace our living room/dining room before the floors were done. I think if I had been anticipating the fall, it would have been worse. Good thing I was wearing a charcoal grey wool coat as I think I would be covered in soot and to the cleaners tomorrow. So, just call me grace, because this week I have proven to be not very light on my feet and happy to show it to the world.

nm

Time shifting

This morning I went to a session at AAG on Podcasting and alternative technologies entitled Unfiltered: Podcasting, blogging and knowledge transmission. It was probably the best thing I saw today. Having just opened my brain to the concepts of podcasting, rss feeds and really how we deal with the constant bombardment of information and the best ways of filtering it to what we need and to determine what is the most accurate.

One thing that they did talk about was the concept of time shifting, which originated from recording television shows onto videotape for later transmission. Life is now about time shifting, paying bills on line with different due dates, tivo, podcasting, buy now, pay later. Time is both crucial as things happen so fast and yet, we try to make things work with our now hectic and managed schedules.

This alone is a topic of a dissertation.

TH and I had a great lunch today at Rhapsody. The weather was nice and we both decided that we could not stand eating out of a plastic clamshell, so we splurged and had a nice three course meal for 20.06. We're heading back out now for a plenary and dinner with dear friends. Sad to say, I have to be up at the COD for a 8:15 flight.

At least my upgrade cleared. :)

nm

back in chicago

Today and tomorrow. Just had dinner with my bro and now I'm sitting on the couch of my room looking at the river and the Wrigley building. The weather is fine and tomorrow I look forward to seeing some great talks and catching up with some friends. I didn't score the Monarch suite this time but its still pretty decent. As TH stated four hotel room in 4 days is a bit much for her.

I'm hoping to do a bit of shopping while I'm here, but other than that, its work, work, work.

I love a city where 2 bucks gets you from the airport to downtown.

nm

that nagging feeling

Signage, Lurie Garden, Chicago, January 2006.

I was awoken by my neighbor's car alarm at 4:37 am. I was actually asleep and I thought that it was one of our cars. Nope, it was his POS that continues to beep/screetch/honk at various and sundry times of the night and day and does he do anything? No.

Me thinks its time for a little talk.

Anyhoo, now that I am up, I am thinking that I am not sure if I have a hotel reservation this week for my trip to Chicago. I'm pretty positive that I did make a hotel reservation when the meeting dates were announced, but I'm not positive, thus the nagging feeling.

I log into my account and low and behold, no reservation pops up. Yikes. I go to my email and there is a reservation, but starting tomorrow not today. So, I check and I can get a reservation, which is a save. However, I'm now hoping that my reservation is still valid. If not, we'll be hotel hopping from McCormick place to Deerfield to the airport and somehow I'm not sure we're up for it...

None the less, TH has a room for tonight and given how she's been feeling, that is a good thing.

nm

not quite the wrap up to the weekend

TH is sick and is still in BRU. I think she tangled with something and honestly, it was better she just stay in bed today. I am quite used to travelling by myself, sometimes I prefer it. However,when I left her feeling miserable in the hotel room at 6:45 this morning, it felt strange, as if I was leaving part of me there.

She'll be flying tomorrow if she feels up to it. I can't thank the change desk in BRU enough for making some changes and getting her out tomorrow without the tortuous four hours that I have in JFK right now. It is too short to go anywhere and too long to sit here. The flight across was gorgeous - sunny across Belgium and France and England and beautiful when we made landfall in Canada. I got some really nice views of Long Island which is great since I'm currently working with that data.

The best thing is that I will finish that darn book before I leave here. Oops, I better go find something else to read.

Later.

nm

It's Saturday, I know I'm in Brussels

Oy, what a day.

Off to a cafe I know of near the canal and rue antoine daensaert. They have some really good hot chocolat and decent coffee.

Sunny and cold here, better than cold, sleet and grey of Paris...

More later.

travel necessities

travel necessities
Originally uploaded by flora and flying.

Here in the ORD Flagship Lounge, the second time in two weeks. I was supposed to go through New York today, but the ever vigilant TH check the weather report for JFK and we rearranged our flights. I tried using the superduper premium line and was told I could buy a new ticket. TH went the not so super duper route and they rebooked us, retained our domestic upgrades and got us the bulkhead in coach. Good thing, because our original flight to JFK was cancelled this morning.

So, the lounge is starting to fill with VIP (in their own mind) types doing important things and chowing down on chicken skewers, scallops wrapped in bacon and strange triangle shaped things of which I am afraid of.

I'm hitting the DD for a nice big coffee (decaf) preflight and a half an ambien.

I have noted some of David Lebovitz's favorite chocolate places to try on this trip. The weather appears to be defective, so me thinks we'll be visiting Christian Constant for a TH chocolat chaud tasting.

A bienot.

I'll be blogging remotely. I think.

nm

70K and counting

The Falls available at your local bookstore.

I have been carrying this book back and forth in my laptop bag for the last five months. I am giving it one more chance and if I doesn't move me, its going to be let free at a nice little English bookshop near Jardin de l'Odeon in the 6th.

I do this, buy a book and it doesn't move me to read it, it taunts me, it makes me feel guilty and then I either leave it at home or at my last destination. TH is a big believer in bringing as many books as possible, she reads voraciously and is always fearful that she'll run out of things to read en voyage.

So, her bag is laden with books that will soon be jettisoned and replaced with ballotins of chocs.

Sounds like a fair tradeoff.

nm

another pathetic evening chez ff

JK says her life is pathetic. She went to a show last night. I bored my seminar with my discussion of mapping flood markers in Rome and now at 11:30 pm, I am downloading data onto my laptop to take on vacation.

WTF?

No worries, TH is right with me, working on her talk for a meeting on Wednesday.

Very PoMo here. Dueling laptops with external harddrives. Me thinks next we need a roomba and an espresso machine.


nm

one more time with feeling

God, its nearly midnight and TH and I have dueling laptops and are working from home. I think I may have to divorce my laptop and consider that life is much more interesting when you don't spend it working.

Then again, if I spent time at work working instead in meetings or on the phone about a meeting I would have time to work.

Later.

nm

Pancake Gals

I'm sorry I won't be in London today for the great Pancake Race. Its Shrove Tuesday to some, Mardi Gras for most and all I care about is TH's pancakes for dinner with a bit of lemon and sugar. Yum.

Its a tradition that I'm all for keeping up with.

nm

It doesn't really matter what day it is

Me, sometime in my infancy, I believe in Chicago, 1965.

I was on the phone with my mom yesterday morning and we talked for about 10 minutes about this and that and finally I said - "aren't you going to wish my a happy birthday?" She said "Your birthday is tomorrow, the 26th". I told her today was the 26th. Anyways, no matter what day, you have to be in the mood to celebrate. This weekend was not it.

Like last year, I have a major work crunch, a paper for my seminar and too much on my plate to even enjoy dinner out. I fell asleep reading about landscape and memory last night.

So, I'm celebrating my prime birthday (you figure it out), in Paris on Friday with dinner at Cafe Cassette or maybe somewhere swankier like Violin d'Ingres and a brief shopping excursion somewhere interesting.

TH consoled me with the fact that until his dying day, her father was convinced her birthday was six days later than it was, her first due date.

nm

the love boat

I had a moderately sheltered childhood. I'm not saying it was a bad thing, in fact, I think it was good. My parents were very social people and every other weekend would find us at the home of an Iranian friend who was hosting a "mehmooni" or party that usually started around 7 and went until 11 or 12. There weren't that many Iranians in the Pacific Northwest in the 70s, so we stuck together. The kids grew up together and we are all still pretty close. If the family hosting the gathering was further than our watersheds (Redmond, Medina, Three Points, Bridle Trails or Seattle), it would make for a long day. We would start early and make a trek to Centralia (god, we didn't know about Burgerville back then) or Olympia and it seemed so exotic.

In any case, it was good clean fun. Our parents would talk and laugh. It would feel like a salon after dinner where they would discuss politics or poetry. Before dinner, it was typically gender segregated with the women in the kitchen talking and prepping the food and then men in the living room usually talking shop (most of them were doctors). The girls would usually help set the table with the chafing dishes and all the large silverplate platters for rice, stews, salads and greens. The guys, probably were outside rough housing or inside playing foosball. It was well before dvds, Playstations or easy availability of recreational drugs. Dinner was served with great fanfare and as with all Iranians, you just can't have one main course, so there was lots of variety. I think this gene has skipped this generation. The kids would come in and get food and go eat at the kids table and the adults would get food and then find places to sit around the table or in the living room. Iranians are not big on sit down dinners. Go figure- generation skipping gene strikes again.

When dinner was done and some sort of sweet was served, the parents would go on saloning and the kids would all gather up around the tv in the rec room for the Saturday night line up of the Love Boat and then Fantasy Island. I learned to love the Love Boat and looked forward to the guest stars. It kept us happy for a few years, until we discovered boys, rock and roll and that there was life outside our happy clan. I still think fondly of that show and look forward to a few snippets I see when I channel surf on travel. I never got into Fantasy Island. I'm not sure if it was Herve Villechaise or the sinister plotlines, but it always felt so desperate.

I also was so tired from figure skating practice that I conked out sometime after the plot was outlined for FI. I would be happy when I woke up with a quilt draped over me and my parents gently nudging me off the couch to say my blearly farewells to my friends and our hosts and popped into the car for the drive home.

Tonight as I sit at home with dueling laptops crunching data, I wish I could be 11 again, watching the Love Boat with my friends and having not a care in the world.

nm

numb and whatever

Mmmm. Donuts. February 2006.

I really needed to go back to work this evening to see if my data had transferred to my latest trinket from TH. It is pictured here. I wanted something in a red box for my birthday, but as excited as I am about this, I was hoping that it would come from another company famous for its red boxes, not Lacie in Hillsboro. I guess that is the cool thing about being an adult, you can make your purchases if you wish. As for going back to work, I just couldn't do it. It was too cold. I was exhausted, both emotionally and physically. Today, I left at 5:30, that is the earliest I have in weeks. It was light when I got home, that was wierd.

I did succeed in getting the USGS to cooperate tonight. I have lots of data now and we'll see if I can make it all work this weekend, my deadlines keep getting moved up!

later taters.

nm

gobsmacked

TH and I received emails today inviting us to the Memorial Service of a friend we had no idea had passed away. She was only 46 and though we had not been in contact in years, we had both thought of her in the last few days. She was a great friend, mom and all over good person. We tried to keep in contact, but for some reason, they pulled away from us. After a while, its just not any fun to even try to keep in contact via christmas cards or birthdays.

I can't believe she's gone.

I was going to spend my tomorrow morning putting back my study, but I guess I'll just go to a Memorial Service instead.

nm

truly getting back to normal

Crocuses, Front Lawn, February 2006.

Dinner was delightful and knife and forky. Thin cut pork chopped dredged in flour and herbs, sauteed in a pan with shallots and sliced mushrooms and finished off with some marsala. Artichokes and herbed spinach pasta for sides. It was definitely yummy and normal.

Spitting now and cold and raw. The garden looks like it miraculously made it through the worst of the cold weather. There is a forecast of below freezing for the next few nights, so we'll be covering the citrus again. I can't wait for the fucshias to make it back out. I love them, but not in my front hall.

I think I lost two small hellebores that were in pots, at least their flower potential. Me thinks the plants are okay. I'll miss the first great plant sale of the year next weekend, but there will be more to come. I noticed today that the first of the peas are starting to break through the ground. I'm going to read the forecast discussion before I make the first few rose prunings.

nm

network issues

from: seamless.usgs.gov

"System Status:
Network Outage: Thursday February 23, 2006. The system is down due to network issues. We expect the system to be available again this afternoon. Thank you for you patience and we apologize for any inconvenience."

Yeah, right. You have been down all week and I can't get dick done.

Thanks.

feeling like a truck ran over me

Flood Marker, Rome January 2004.

Half our developers are sick, I'm all blurry and really feeling nasty. I will chug down vitamin C today, but right now the idea of spending three hours staring at slides does not excite me. I am happy to report that we did find somewhere to stay in Rome for March and D. has graciously offered to bring his camera for me to test this week. It will be interesting to stay somewhere different. I wanted to stay on the other side of the river, but the place we wanted was not available. This is close to TH's favorite gelateria, some grocery stores and our coffee place of choice. I am planning on spending some quality time on the streets looking for signs much like the one you see in this entry. Katherine Rinne, an architect, who started the Aquae Urbis Romae: The Waters of the City of Rome project which I am building some of my own work on. As long as the apartment has a moka, a good bed and some light, I should be happy. If I'm desperate for a computer I know where to go.

I need to start looking for a GPS now.

nm

defective

My Nikon D50 crapped out this weekend, right when I was going to take some pics. It was flashing some errors and when JK and I got back from erranding etc. I spent some quality time on some message boards trying to figure out how to troubleshoot from 5500 miles away. I shot off some nice pics on Saturday, which I would love to share, but sorry, you'll have to wait. I took the camera back to the store (local chain) and they said it had to be fixed by Nikon. I bid a sad goodbye to my most favorite camera and hopefully they'll either replace the body or fix it. Its under waranty and TH was smart enough to buy the extended waranty when we bought the camera in late September. I'm bummed since I have an upcoming trip to Brussels and Chicago and in less than a month I go to Rome. I have grown quite dependent on the D50 and I can't go back to my 5 megapixel camera now.

TH mentioned that it bummed her that something so technologically advanced could peter out in 5 months of use and wasn't sure we could trust it in the future. The manager of the store said that they would probably replace the body,which though I appreciate makes us realize that there are no longer craftsmen/women who take care of these things. Everything gets shipped off to the factory and more than likely, it will get trashed and a new one sent. Just like the Ipod, just like my first portable CD player, just like the hundreds of VCRs and DVD players that end up by the side of the garbage dumpsters or in landfills.

In the meanwhile, I'm without my D50. I did ask a friend if I could borrow or pay him to use his SLR Pentax for the next few weeks, he just replaced it with a D200, so I have that option, but I'm just bummed.

Other than that, a bit tired, but not jetlagged. I made dinner tonight and though it was basic, it was all done at home in a kitchen with without boxes everywhere.

nm

stygian darkness

Nothing like flying across the Atlantic without a window and stygian darkness. At least I finished my netflix, worked and watched 8 episodes of that adorable Jason Bateman in AD. At least I got out for an hour or so this morning, walking towards Holborn and through back streets to avoid the hustle and bustle that is Oxford Street.

Back home now. Cheese is in fridge, rollaboard unpacked, clothes in hamper, chargers accounted for and presents presented to TH. We have dueling laptops right now and I'm about to wash off 5500 miles of jet fuel and go to bed. God, I get to do it again (Paris and Brussels in 10 days).

Later taters,

nm

sunday lunch

Actually, brunch at st. john with JK and E. and it was yummy. Great room and definitely will return for lunch, other than that, picking up some books for TH and some club bars as well. Visited my aunty in Finchley and realize that I'm due for a Ground Force weekend in April. Other than that Now, just hanging in the room and about to hit the club for a decaf cappucino to warm up with.

Tomorrow a few errands and then back to the airport. I'm glad I came, TH has kept herself busy with fun projects and hopefully I can convince her to return with me in April.

nm