Producto Robot
I've been rather impressed with myself this weekend. A list of what I managed to accomplish so far, and it's only 2pm on Sunday:
1.) Vacuum and clean the living room.
2.) Do three loads of laundry and change the sheets. I even washed a towel.
3.) Have an awesome dinner with Katja and Tom. After a day of helping a friend move, Katja still managed to cook a big dinner for four that included artichoke as an appetizer. I'd never had artichoke whole before: it was a fun process of peeling and dipping and tossing.
4.) Meet up with Laura and Hillary to take the Addison bus to Hot Doug's for lunch and then to Target to purchase some crafty supplies for a project due on Monday. Proceeded to wander around the mammoth two-floor Target for an hour. That place is overwhelming, dude. We needed to buy velcro and it took us the entire time to find it.
5.) Order more checks from my bank.
6.) Pay a couple of bills.
7.) Take a long leisurely jog along the lake front to North Avenue Beach.
8.) Work on aforementioned project and finish it before the end of the day.
9.) Meet up with Carol, my old boss, for dinner. She's in town for work so took me out to dinner. We had tuna steak BLTs which are nothing short of splendid.
10.) Watch "Pulp Fiction" on Bravo; I was mostly curious to see what they would do to it. It was a very brave thing of them to try to tackle that movie to make it TV-friendly. I would guess that entire portions were removed. There's no gimp in it, even. Now, why take out the gimp? If you're going to excise him from the story then you might as well scrap trying to show the movie.
11.) Buy toilet paper.
12.) Ready lessons for tomorrow morning, and put together data from last week's sessions.
13.) Walk over to Trader Joes, battling the Cubs game crowds in the meantime. I waded through them at about 12 or so, and people were already wheeling and spinning with drunkenness. Impressive.
14.) Purchase much needed wheat bread and milk from TJs and also some pine nuts and hummus. I know that I've said it before, but again, I fricking love the crap out of that store. The pinenuts at the Jewel down the street are $7.50 a bag and at TJs they're $3.50. A four dollar savings, my friends, makes for a happy Kristin.
15.) Start reading Reading Lolita in Tehran. It's pretty good so far, and I feel like I'm learning more about interpreting Nabakov than Iranian life for women.
16.) Chat with my parents, Anne, Des, and Robin.
...and there's still more that will be done! Todd's coming back from his trip to the lake tonight so I'll get to catch up with his sun-burnished self.
Time to make a big old salad for lunch. I'll be eating it with a self-satisfied expression on my face, I'm sure.
Thursday, July 28, 2005
An article in The New Yorker about Roald Dahl, why kids love his stories, "and many adults don't."
I hope the day never comes when I would be disheartened by Roald Dahl's children's books. They're some of the greatest things on the planet.
I hope the day never comes when I would be disheartened by Roald Dahl's children's books. They're some of the greatest things on the planet.
I kiss you!
Not sure if this is for real or not, but it's still my favorite thing of the day.
(via kottke.org)
Not sure if this is for real or not, but it's still my favorite thing of the day.
(via kottke.org)
Righteous
The weather, starting yesterday, has been nothing short of amazing. It's cool and sunny and sharp and feels like the first the first day of autumn.
So on Tuesday night I had a late dinner with one of my former students from Beijing who's now in Chicago with her husband and has been for the past few months. I haven't seen her since January 2001, so it's been about four and a half years now. Through Suzi, correspondence sparked up again, resulting in the reunion on Tuesday evening. Ting (formerly Alice) and her husband live a 20 minute walk away from me in a sweet little apartment and she cooked up a huge Chinese feast. Pretty amazing.
Last night I went with Hillary, Lauren, Laura and Megan to Ravinia to go and see Elvis Costello and Emmy Lou Harris perform. Ravinia is one of those places like Wolf Trap in DC where most of the people who attend concerts buy lawn seats where you spread out a blanket, crack open a bottle of wine and put together a superb feast. The concert was sold out and the enormous span of grass was covered with groups of friends on blankets. Amazingly, Ting and Brad were three blankets away from me. (Also amazingly, one of our clinic supervisors happened to be sitting at the blanket right next to us; I felt kind of bad for her since I'm sure the last thing she wanted to do was to see the mugs of the students that she sees day in and out). We commented to eachother that if you were an underage drinker, Ravinia would be the place to go. You just buy tickets to a concert that chances are no groups of roving teenagers would attend, come loaded down with wine, and you would just blend in with the masses. Noone was checking.
The concert itself was perfect experience. Ravinia is a well-run machine where buses run constantly between the parking lots and the festivals, and if concerts happen to not be sold out, you get in free with a student ID. Last night the weather was cool and the night was clear. Elvis Costello and Emmy Lou Harris sounded great (Emmy Lou Harris did a cover of my favorite Willie Nelson song as well, "Pancho and Lefty!"). We had the most amazing spread of cheeses, dips and wines. We found an excellent spot under a tree, close to the pathway and relatively close to the bathrooms. Everything went flawlessly, and it tasted like freedom.
Ah, that taste was fleeting, though. This morning it's back to the grindstone. I woke up this morning feeling pretty well-rested, though, and relatively ready to attack the day.
The weather, starting yesterday, has been nothing short of amazing. It's cool and sunny and sharp and feels like the first the first day of autumn.
So on Tuesday night I had a late dinner with one of my former students from Beijing who's now in Chicago with her husband and has been for the past few months. I haven't seen her since January 2001, so it's been about four and a half years now. Through Suzi, correspondence sparked up again, resulting in the reunion on Tuesday evening. Ting (formerly Alice) and her husband live a 20 minute walk away from me in a sweet little apartment and she cooked up a huge Chinese feast. Pretty amazing.
Last night I went with Hillary, Lauren, Laura and Megan to Ravinia to go and see Elvis Costello and Emmy Lou Harris perform. Ravinia is one of those places like Wolf Trap in DC where most of the people who attend concerts buy lawn seats where you spread out a blanket, crack open a bottle of wine and put together a superb feast. The concert was sold out and the enormous span of grass was covered with groups of friends on blankets. Amazingly, Ting and Brad were three blankets away from me. (Also amazingly, one of our clinic supervisors happened to be sitting at the blanket right next to us; I felt kind of bad for her since I'm sure the last thing she wanted to do was to see the mugs of the students that she sees day in and out). We commented to eachother that if you were an underage drinker, Ravinia would be the place to go. You just buy tickets to a concert that chances are no groups of roving teenagers would attend, come loaded down with wine, and you would just blend in with the masses. Noone was checking.
The concert itself was perfect experience. Ravinia is a well-run machine where buses run constantly between the parking lots and the festivals, and if concerts happen to not be sold out, you get in free with a student ID. Last night the weather was cool and the night was clear. Elvis Costello and Emmy Lou Harris sounded great (Emmy Lou Harris did a cover of my favorite Willie Nelson song as well, "Pancho and Lefty!"). We had the most amazing spread of cheeses, dips and wines. We found an excellent spot under a tree, close to the pathway and relatively close to the bathrooms. Everything went flawlessly, and it tasted like freedom.
Ah, that taste was fleeting, though. This morning it's back to the grindstone. I woke up this morning feeling pretty well-rested, though, and relatively ready to attack the day.
Tuesday, July 26, 2005
Sunday, July 24, 2005
Happy One Year Anniversary to Bryan and Des!
They married a year ago this past weekend. I can't believe that a year has passed so quickly, but I can believe what an awesome couple you are. So congratulations from both me and Anne (who was not able to get enough time on a computer to send separate congrats)!
They married a year ago this past weekend. I can't believe that a year has passed so quickly, but I can believe what an awesome couple you are. So congratulations from both me and Anne (who was not able to get enough time on a computer to send separate congrats)!
Another weekend...
...passed! How did that happen, pray tell? Regardless, it was a nice laid back weekend. And the upcoming week won't be terribly difficult, but I've lost my momentum for work and am eager to tackle the summer and its lack of responsibility. Yay! Three more weeks left to the quarter.
Anyway, on Friday we went to go and see Holy Roman Empire play at the Mutiny, everyone's favorite dive bar. They have these enormous mini pitchers for the low, low price of $5. Best deal in town. However, Todd tried to buy a bottle of beer (something fancier than your standard Budweiser) and it also cost $5. So you need to choose carefully at the Mutiny apparently.
Saturday after another excellent lunch at Hot Doug's (which we've both decided is our most favoritest place in town if not the world) I tagged along with Todd as he did his first round of car-shopping. We stopped at three different places, which offered the whole spectrum of salesmanship. It's like in "The Little Prince" where you go and visit different little planets, each dealership offering its own experience.
At the tail end of one of the visits, the relatively reasonable salesguy insisted on bringing his manager over. The manager proceeded to give an extremely condescending lecture complete with graphs on why Todd would be stoopid to consider any other kind of car. Todd listened politely, but it was obvious that he wasn't buying what the guy was selling. I don't know if the guy couldn't read body language, or if he thought that Todd was young and/or naive and/or dumb, but it was a bad call on his part because that pretty much forced the decision that no car would be bought from this dealership. My question is: does this work ever? Who does it work with and why?
Today it was over 100 in Chicago, which means that nothing was to be accomplished. I hear that the heat wave will be cracking soon, which I hope is to be the truth.
...passed! How did that happen, pray tell? Regardless, it was a nice laid back weekend. And the upcoming week won't be terribly difficult, but I've lost my momentum for work and am eager to tackle the summer and its lack of responsibility. Yay! Three more weeks left to the quarter.
Anyway, on Friday we went to go and see Holy Roman Empire play at the Mutiny, everyone's favorite dive bar. They have these enormous mini pitchers for the low, low price of $5. Best deal in town. However, Todd tried to buy a bottle of beer (something fancier than your standard Budweiser) and it also cost $5. So you need to choose carefully at the Mutiny apparently.
Saturday after another excellent lunch at Hot Doug's (which we've both decided is our most favoritest place in town if not the world) I tagged along with Todd as he did his first round of car-shopping. We stopped at three different places, which offered the whole spectrum of salesmanship. It's like in "The Little Prince" where you go and visit different little planets, each dealership offering its own experience.
At the tail end of one of the visits, the relatively reasonable salesguy insisted on bringing his manager over. The manager proceeded to give an extremely condescending lecture complete with graphs on why Todd would be stoopid to consider any other kind of car. Todd listened politely, but it was obvious that he wasn't buying what the guy was selling. I don't know if the guy couldn't read body language, or if he thought that Todd was young and/or naive and/or dumb, but it was a bad call on his part because that pretty much forced the decision that no car would be bought from this dealership. My question is: does this work ever? Who does it work with and why?
Today it was over 100 in Chicago, which means that nothing was to be accomplished. I hear that the heat wave will be cracking soon, which I hope is to be the truth.
Friday, July 22, 2005
Thursday, July 21, 2005
There are no words
I went with Laura, Lauren, Hillary and Trisha to see "March of the Penguins" tonight. Oh lordy.
First of all, I will preface this to say that both Annie and my dad called me up urging me to run, not walk, to see this movie. And they were so right.
Let's just say that I need a baby penguin in my arms five minutes ago. I was almost in physical pain watching the scenes when they finally ducked out from under their various parental belly folds to waddle and feed and tumble and get fat.
I went with Laura, Lauren, Hillary and Trisha to see "March of the Penguins" tonight. Oh lordy.
First of all, I will preface this to say that both Annie and my dad called me up urging me to run, not walk, to see this movie. And they were so right.
Let's just say that I need a baby penguin in my arms five minutes ago. I was almost in physical pain watching the scenes when they finally ducked out from under their various parental belly folds to waddle and feed and tumble and get fat.
News of the week
I love my easy week. Today I only have one client session in the afternoon and a half hour meeting and that's it. I know. But I'm sticking around Evanston in order to watch "March of the Penguins," about which I'm very excited.
In other news, I got caught in the major thunderstorm coming home from campus yesterday. I stood there at the gym for twenty minutes waiting it out, but I was wrong about the timing so was thoroughly soaked by the time I got onto the train.
Last night we went to see Vamplifier play at the Double Door. $3 tickets since Todd knows the singer, Scott. I applaud the concept of $3 tickets.
So, that's my week so far: not too exciting but not too shabby at all.
I love my easy week. Today I only have one client session in the afternoon and a half hour meeting and that's it. I know. But I'm sticking around Evanston in order to watch "March of the Penguins," about which I'm very excited.
In other news, I got caught in the major thunderstorm coming home from campus yesterday. I stood there at the gym for twenty minutes waiting it out, but I was wrong about the timing so was thoroughly soaked by the time I got onto the train.
Last night we went to see Vamplifier play at the Double Door. $3 tickets since Todd knows the singer, Scott. I applaud the concept of $3 tickets.
So, that's my week so far: not too exciting but not too shabby at all.
Tuesday, July 19, 2005
Best thing that I've heard all day...
Dark chocolate may help to lower blood pressure.
I love me some dark chocolate.
Dark chocolate may help to lower blood pressure.
I love me some dark chocolate.
A Stick of Butter
I'm excited that Mei Xiang had a wee baby panda that the Washington Post describes as "the size of a stick of butter." Too much. Check out the Post's Panda Watch.
I didn't find any pictures when I went poking around the Post, but Kevin has a picture on his blog today of a couple of newborn babies and I will submit that freshly born baby pandas may not be the world's cutest things.
But when I google "baby pandas" I came up with a site following Hua Mei, a baby panda born at the San Diego Zoo in 1999. I downloaded some especially adorable pictures for your enjoyment.
I'm excited that Mei Xiang had a wee baby panda that the Washington Post describes as "the size of a stick of butter." Too much. Check out the Post's Panda Watch.
I didn't find any pictures when I went poking around the Post, but Kevin has a picture on his blog today of a couple of newborn babies and I will submit that freshly born baby pandas may not be the world's cutest things.
But when I google "baby pandas" I came up with a site following Hua Mei, a baby panda born at the San Diego Zoo in 1999. I downloaded some especially adorable pictures for your enjoyment.
What's your favorite word?
I have a variety, but I would need to think for a while about my true favorite and why.
(via tmn)
I have a variety, but I would need to think for a while about my true favorite and why.
(via tmn)
Monday, July 18, 2005
Out and out wrong
So as I was reading "Today's Blogs" in Slate today I stumbled across the brou-ha-ha that surrounds the NY Times essay from Sunday titled "The Real Nanny Diaries are Online."
In the article, Helaine Olen describes reading her nanny's online blog, becoming mildly obsessed with it, and ultimately deciding that she was offended by knowing so much about her nanny's personal life and feeling as if the nanny was airing her own family's dirty laundry. I haven't read the nanny's blog in depth so I have no idea if she besmirched Olen's family, and it would be totally shitty if she did, but still...
Olen comes off sounding small and self-centered and not a little jealous in the essay. Did she realize this when she was writing it? Because very few would read it and think that this was a stand-up woman. And how low is it to scream "inappropriate" when your nanny mentions her work in her personal blog with a likely small audience and then describe in detail everything that you think is wrong with her in The New York TIMES for pete's sake. And this whole debacle is mentioned in enough blogs (in Slate, for instance) with links to the nanny's blog that it wouldn't be that hard to figure out who she is if you really wanted to put some elbow grease into the whole thing.
If you read the article then you would know that the nanny had passed along her blog address to Olen, which was a terrible idea. Even if you don't plan on talking badly about your employer, they're still your employer, and--really--do you want your employer to know about your personal life? It's your own. But from what I've read, it appears that the nanny didn't do anything worse than talk about her life as a 25 year old in New York. Which only makes Olen seem more foolish.
The nanny's rebuttal is in her blog here.
So as I was reading "Today's Blogs" in Slate today I stumbled across the brou-ha-ha that surrounds the NY Times essay from Sunday titled "The Real Nanny Diaries are Online."
In the article, Helaine Olen describes reading her nanny's online blog, becoming mildly obsessed with it, and ultimately deciding that she was offended by knowing so much about her nanny's personal life and feeling as if the nanny was airing her own family's dirty laundry. I haven't read the nanny's blog in depth so I have no idea if she besmirched Olen's family, and it would be totally shitty if she did, but still...
Olen comes off sounding small and self-centered and not a little jealous in the essay. Did she realize this when she was writing it? Because very few would read it and think that this was a stand-up woman. And how low is it to scream "inappropriate" when your nanny mentions her work in her personal blog with a likely small audience and then describe in detail everything that you think is wrong with her in The New York TIMES for pete's sake. And this whole debacle is mentioned in enough blogs (in Slate, for instance) with links to the nanny's blog that it wouldn't be that hard to figure out who she is if you really wanted to put some elbow grease into the whole thing.
If you read the article then you would know that the nanny had passed along her blog address to Olen, which was a terrible idea. Even if you don't plan on talking badly about your employer, they're still your employer, and--really--do you want your employer to know about your personal life? It's your own. But from what I've read, it appears that the nanny didn't do anything worse than talk about her life as a 25 year old in New York. Which only makes Olen seem more foolish.
The nanny's rebuttal is in her blog here.
Melting
It's hot outside right now which means that it's extra hot in my apartment. The temperature gauge in our living room is past its highest mark which is 85 degrees. AWESOME.
Actually, what's pretty awesome is that it's supposed to cool down tonight. I think it's supposed to dip just below 70!
I'm having a nice, eaaazzzzy week. Now that one of my classes has ended, I only have one (relatively undemanding) class left along with my clients. And then one of my clients canceled for this entire week so I only have six hours of stuff to do. Well, more since some of the stuff takes preparation and I'll have a couple of meetings as well...but still. And I have tomorrow completely off. I'm thinking of checking out the main library downtown. It's supposed to be pretty sweet.
Yay, pre-vacation!
It's hot outside right now which means that it's extra hot in my apartment. The temperature gauge in our living room is past its highest mark which is 85 degrees. AWESOME.
Actually, what's pretty awesome is that it's supposed to cool down tonight. I think it's supposed to dip just below 70!
I'm having a nice, eaaazzzzy week. Now that one of my classes has ended, I only have one (relatively undemanding) class left along with my clients. And then one of my clients canceled for this entire week so I only have six hours of stuff to do. Well, more since some of the stuff takes preparation and I'll have a couple of meetings as well...but still. And I have tomorrow completely off. I'm thinking of checking out the main library downtown. It's supposed to be pretty sweet.
Yay, pre-vacation!
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