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.

new york new york

Jk said it best.

Check it out here.

I spent the morning at the paper sessions for VAF, while JK hung with the butterflies. I was happy to finally catch up with Uncle Bill who is teaching at CCA this year and walked around Columbia a bit. There is something about finally seeing Avery hall after using the avery architectural index all your life. Saw a nice wedding as well.

It was another morning of train screw ups, so we ended up over shooting the Columbia station and had to go back down on a local train.

I finally met someone who I had heard about, so that was nice.

Other than that, everything JK said was totally true and other than not getting my eyeliner, I'm pretty happy with most of my purchases.

nm

happy summer

Okay, I have to admit that I really hate summer. I hate the fact it now is getting dark again. Everyone is happy summer is here, me, I can't wait for winter.

What really makes me sad is that I'm missing the longest days of the year in Seattle. When I drove back from Cabezon tonight at 7:45, it was getting dark. The sun was so amazingly huge and firey, but it just wasn't right.

I managed not to buy anything but three pairs of smalls at the outlet. I did enjoy trying on many cute pairs of Prada shoes, but after Saturday's shopping spree at Henri Bendel, I figured I would give it a rest.

Just how many pairs of black loafers and kitten heels does on girl need? No, Miss C, I have not counted yet!

Other than that, I have hit the Tj's in Redlands, coffee tea bean and leaf and now I'm back in my luxurious hotel room fully sated by a plasticized salad and a large bottle of water. I'm hooked on Dog, the bounty hunter and soon the king of cars will be on. I can't believe that I'm watching this drivel. Now you know why I don't have a tv.

I had an amazing day of testing, talking to the lead developer, learning some new stuff and still managing to be coherent during my 2 hour conference call this morning.

Tomorrow, more of the same, breaking the software and reporting bugs. I am going to drive west to see my parents for dinner. I can't wait.

My mom informed me that she just bought Ernest a new water dish for his southern visit.

Sigh.

nm

Its a dry heat

Not that you all care, but I have either been without internet connection (wireless card is kaput) or really just busy. This week I'm in Redlands, California doing all sorts of fun stuff with software and trying hard to break it.

I learned a lot today and hopefully, they learned something from me.

Last week in New York City it was about 89 degrees and muggy, here its 90 degrees and dry. I can't say I like either, but I'll be home by the end of the week and it'll be nice and cool.

TH and Ernesto are muddling along. He was 2 lbs heavier and 44" longer than before.

Well, I just ate some of the best mexican (fourth time this week!) I have ever had right here in Colton, CA and once I check my mail etc. I'm going to head east to the outlets and see if I can beat any "bargain" I saw and did not buy in NYC.

nm

always ahead of the curve

OPI chocolate mousse, reef flip flops, talbots skirt, Bush School Graduation, Seattle, WA June 2006.


God, I had no idea.

I brought my cole haan very cute kitten heeled sandals to wear for a wine tasting and graduation this past weekend. Gosh, it was hot and everyone else was doing it. In fact, the graduates of this esteemed liberal bastion of secondary education were either shod in flip flops, high heeled shoes that were worthy of the prom or barefoot. I thought I was fine.

Well at least I had a nice pedicure.

Dog tired

Between E.dd's worrisome cough (turned out to be allergies), my mother's complicated travel plans, TH's worsening cold and all day of travelling, I'm tired, but not tired enough to haul my keester into bed.

I'm in New York City for the next five days attending the VAF meeting. I came straight from the airport to the opening session at CCNY and hung out waiting to register. I was happy to see some friendly faces in the crowd from Madison, Conn and U of W. I loved the opening session and learned alot about what we're going to see in both Manhattan and Queens. I did skip the reception in hopes of keeping to my fitness bootcamp goals of not overeating and hopped into a cab for my ride to midtown.

Checked into the GH New York, dropped off my laptop and bag and went to the Grand Central Oyster Bar for a nice dinner or smoked Maine day boat scallops on a bed of white asparagus with a leek and caviar vinagrette. I washed it down with an iced tea.

Why do I love it there? You can sit at the bar and eat alone and its okay. No one bothers you and you can eat a lovely meal while reading a book. As usual, TH and JK both suggested coming here for dinner and they were once again, right on!

I ran up to the Regency Club and scored a tiny brownie and some decent and fresh decaf for the evening. I should be in bed, but I am still awake. I am waiting for input from folks on a project and I am getting radio silence.

Sigh.

Tomorrow I have a full day of the Tenement museum, commercial vernacular, some self guided tours and hopefully some shopping.

I wish I could unpack, but my room is getting moved tomorrow, so I am once again, living from the rollaboard.

Oh, E.dd is driving TH crazy, I wish I could go home to relieve her, he's bored and very active, but most of all, he's so food centric, she can't take him anywhere without constantly taking crap out of his mouth. Its very frustrating for them both.

Come on Ernesto, behave.

nm

all four paws

Ernest woke up this morning with something that sounds like kennel cough and that isn't good.

He's due for his next set of shots this week.

Let's hope he just has a bit of a cold or allergies.

TH will take him to the vet this morning.

His blog is up and running.

www.allfourpaws.blogspot.com, NM says check it out.

Why all four paws? I used that phrase alot in graduate school, I either used all four paws to jump into a project or used all four paws to dig in and not start a project. In any case, all four paws is also what we use with Ernest to remind him that bassets need to keep all four paws down on the ground at all times to keep their backs healthy.

Well, its time to leave the Alaska Boardroom, pick up a dilettante mexican hot chocolate or a latte and schelp over to my gate for my flight to JFK.

nm

grounded

I feel like I am grounded, a novice at flying and travelling, not quite sure which way is up or down today.

I have no idea why. Maybe because I haven't been anywhere on a plane in a month, maybe I'm just tired. Maybe I just want to stay home.

My brother just called me from the plane, he's on his way to Rio today to give a talk at a conference and then off to Istanbul for more of the same. I think he's been to Turkey three times so far this year.

I haven't packed for my trip to New York tomorrow. I am just hoping that I can transfer the files I need to my laptop, finish writing up a work flow process and go home in time to take E. dd to boot camp, visit my mom and my aunt and come home and pack.

I should make sure I have enough sudukos to make it through the week.

nm