so fresh, so clean

NOT.

sigh. i'm starting to feel like every time i come to europe there is some stupid issue that just kind of ruins the vacation. last year, it was missing luggage for FOUR DAYS. this time, its renting an apartment that just - all of a sudden - doesn't have running water. yep, no water, in very modern paris. it happened tuesday night. we checked in to our apartment on friday night and everything since has been fine (except for the apartment being much smaller than we saw in the pictures online). then, tuesday night, i went to the bathroom, flushed and went to wash my hands and there was no water in the sink. i went to the kitchen sink. no water. elaine poured brita water on my hands so i could rinse off the soap. we then went to dinner at a thai restaurant (i've been craving asian food). we came back at about a quarter to ten and found there still was no water. we call the woman who rented us the apartment and she gave us some instructions to check in the hall in case someone had turned off the water. we couldn't find it and we noticed that one of our neighbors' tv was on, so we rang the doorbell and he came out. we explained the issue and he mentioned that the neighbor between our two apartments had also mentioned he didn't have water. so we knock on his door and this other guy comes out. the four of us stood in the hall talking about it. we went and looked all around and finally found the original thing that our landlord was telling us about - it was on. it was not the problem. the four of us kind of putz around the apartment for 10-15 min talking about what the problem could be. we call the landlord back. she says "well, it's not my fault! i'm in the south of france, there's nothing i can do." typical french.

so elaine and i go to bed despite being hot and sticky. i got waxed yesterday and needed to rinse off, elaine walked for 5 hours and its super humid, so we were both gross. there is a random sink in the hall upstairs from us, so we have been able to flush - we flush the toilet like normal, then take the brita pitcher up to the random sink and fill it with water and come back down and fill the sistern with water. seriously. we have to make a few trips, though because the sistern doesn't fill with water after just one pitcher. i've also brushed my teeth upstairs. its silly, really. so this morning we wake up and the woman calls right at 9. there are construction workers in one of the apartments below us and she thinks that maybe they turned off the water. they came in around 10 (despite coming in before 8 every other day this week and banging and pounding to wake us up) and elaine goes to ask them if they've turned off the water. the man is a painter and he says "no, we haven't touched the water, besides, we have water." which they do. the neighbor from last night said that he would email the building association but it make take a week or more for them to fix it. we leave on sunday.

so elaine calls the landlady again, who hasn't returned our call from earlier in the day telling her that the workers say they didnt touch the water. the landlady says "well, what am i to do? these things happen and sometimes people just have bad luck." we would like her to pay for a hotel for us to stay in or give us our money back because this is a massive inconvenience. i am going to have to go to lisa's in the suburb's tonight and take a shower. then head back to town to sleep and get up and go to the wedding on thursday. if we dont have water on friday when we get back from the chateau (which is probably the day you're reading this), i don't know what we'll do. we want to threaten to go to the authorities because its technically illegal to rent apartments out for less than a year in paris. and we want to tell her that we'll plaster the internet with bad reviews and she'll never get another tenant again, but... i dont even know if that is right. doesn't it seem normal that if you rent out an apartment with certain amenities, you should provide those amenities and if not, then you reimburse or take care of the situation. the whole thing is just a massive joke and totally ruining my one vacation of the year.

THIS is the EXACT reason why i will never live in france. people dont care about others, they don't try to help.... and its so sad because paris could be the best city in the world if you had different people living here. i won't post this until friday, which means by the time you read this, i will have spent a few very uncomfortable and annoying days in gay paree. i'm already ready to leave.

[so fresh, so clean by outkast chosen because i am neither fresh nor clean and thats funny because i'm annoyed.]

at last...

so... if all goes well today (thursday), i am at the castle above... the lieu (place) where my friend is having the reception for her marriage. yippee! yes, you can all feel jealous now. but not really of me. or, if you are jealous of me, only be jealous that i have friends who have weddings at castles in france. because its not like *i* am ever going to have a wedding at a castle in france... for more info on the place, click here. the french government doesn't actually honor religious weddings, so they are TECHNICALLY already married (from a legal standpoint) because they had the justice of the peace wedding last month. but this is the "church" wedding to which everyone was invited. it is being held at an irish church in paris (found here). then afterwards, a friend is driving a few of us out to the chateau. it should be interesting... i'll take lots of photos and whatnot.

all this wedding talk and helping out and whatnot (this is my 2nd of 3 weddings this year!) always gets me to think about my wedding... and then... there is always this blank. i can't really picture it. i dont think, aside from jonathan brandis, i have ever thought about getting married. or really believed that i actually would. so its hard for me to think "i want this, and it has to be here, and i want that,, and these are the people i would invite..." etc. the only thing i have thought about is who would be in the bridal party, but... now that i have seen how bridal parties affect people, i dont know that i even want one. plus, i think its hard when your friends are all over the place. and i feel like there is a lot of tradition in weddings and i just dont really feel like i'm a very traditional person. i understand them for what they are, but at the same time, i dont really ever follow any of them. but hopefully this will be a beautiful weding, with little drama (there are only 48 people, including the bride and groom!), and lots of fun! on verra. je t'expliquerai plus tard (SI c'est bon!).

so what wedding details do you love?

[ultimate romantic song, in my opinion, "at last" by etta james]

so confused!!!

ok, something WEIRD is TOTALLY going on... i'm "online" kind of... but not really. i have NO SIGNAL on my mac and whenever i turn on my computer, it asks me to join a network, but all the networks have passwords (which i dont have), so i dont join. instead, i go to the apple store to get my internet for free. (i'm in paris, btw, not sure when i'll post this, so just an fyi for context). and because i don't have internet in my apartment, i have been pulling up websites while in the apple store, and then just keeping my computer on, but shut, while i walk home and then pull them up when i'm in m apartment. as soon as i lift the monitor, it asks me again what internet service i want to connect to (i cliekc "cancel") and then i do my work offfline. HOWEVER, a few odd things have happened today:

1. i open up my computer back at the apartment hours after i have been at the apple store and i plug in my headphones. there is a song playing over and over and over again. i a) dont know where this song has come from and b) have never heard the song before. i look at itunes, and according to the main bar, there is nothing playing in itunes. i play a quick video and the video plays, but there is no noise. ??? so i close itunes. the song continues playing. i shut my computer and then open it again. the song continues. i finally realize that its a dopey love song from my friend's wedding website. i close the tab in firefox and the song stops playing. i thought i wasn't online! but then i figure i must've somehow, without knowing, downloaded some sort of plug in that allowed it to keep playing.
2. i'm on another site reading an article and i realized there is an advertisement that keeps playing over and over again. how is this possible?
   
3. a few minutes later, i am taking notes on an article i have read and i pull up this site that has top list of different things or whatever. you have to click "next" to see the next items in the list, so i initially think that its not going to work so i just write the header down for later for me to return to it. then i close the tab. by chance, i happen to click "next" on one slide and ... the slide pops up! even though i am NOT on the internet... so i go back and open the tabs that i had closed, and a few of them come up! its really really bizarre.

why is this working? is it kind of LEAKING a teeny bit of internet connection? i'm so confused! i'm going to try posting this and if you see it on tues night, it means that it posted despite me NOT being online (according to my little "signal" thing and the fact that none of my podcasts download). AND no one sees me online... so wierd!! anyone know whats going on??

[editor's note: wrote this on monday night and was not able to post it, so am posting it on wednesday when i'm back in the apple store able to use the internet.]

dream apartment - 39

obviously, i will need this hidden parking garage for when i have a porsche. or, more likely, a schwin ten speed. tip from here.

and as a bonus where is this from??
Drew: Nice car. I drive exotic wheels myself.
Natalie: What is it? A Schwinn ten-speed?

leave me, lying here

oh my goodness. its been q loooong fez dqys. ok. interesting. iùm in qn qpple store in pqris. qnd its been q long ti,e since i used q french keyboqrd: its kind of qnnoying:

apple store. that is zhere i am. i came here, not because i missed all things american but because i forgot my charger. actually, that is not qt qll true:

ok, i'm back on my own computer. i started that (above) earlier this week at the apple store on a french computer, with a funny keyboard, but now i am back at the apple store with my own computer and can type (mostly) normally. i'm sitting on the floor and there are people sitting above and next to me. i think they're reading my typing.

so anyway, the time that i am here now is monday afternoon, early evening. i have been in paris for a few days and already have done a ton of stuff that i have never done before, so that is fun. my friend elaine and i are staying in the 6th arrondisement on a super cute street with TONS of restos, bars, and shops. i'll take a picture later and post it. i should also take a picture of our apartment. its super super small. its like... well i dontknow. but since its so small (AND NO INTERNET) it makes it SUPER expensive, which is annoying. but i think tonight we're going to stay in, cook dinner, watch a movie on my laptop and get some value out of our money. oh, actually, i just found our apartment online. here it is. cute, n'est-ce pas?

oh. i also did something very bad today. i bought a bag. yes, i know, my weakness. i shouldnt' have even entered the store! but i DO love mandarina duck, and i just happened to be in paris during les soldes (the national twice-annual sales events) and well... it was 50% off. so... it was fate. it won't let me paste the picture in here, so here is another link for you of what i just paid way too much for. don't worry, i'll get a night job on the corner of my street. :) it looks waaay better in person and will be FAB-u-LOUS for work.

so yeah, this morning, elaine and i went to mandarina duck to get my purse (it was actually a part birthday gift from her, so thanks dear) and then we went to ile st. louis, which, can you believe i have NEVER been to?? its one of the two islands in the river int he middle of paris. i had never been. so now i have. we walked around a little and then went to berthillon which has like, apparently, the best ice cream in the world. i was told by a friend that we shouldn't go to the actual berthillon, but eat at the resto across the street and then get ice cream there. so we did that. i got mackeral, which i have had before and definitely like. i've just never had it cooked so the whole thing is there except the head. it was kind of surprising. i had to filet my own fish. then we walked across the river to the ile de la cite and walked past notre dame (which doesnt impress me) and over to sainte chapelle church, which my aforementioned friend recommended we go to. but there was a MASSIVE queue, so we decided to make reservations for wed morning to go. oh, that reminds me, i have to make reservations for that while i am here with internet...

ok, that sucked. its 9.5euro to go online, but only 8 if you stand in line. and now i'm wondering what happens if i dont have a printout.... hmmmm. i guess we'll just go stand in line. but i do have to get tickets to go to reims demain... holy crap! ca coute cher pour aller a reims! it's expensive to go to reims! like over 100 euros... i'm not sure i'm super interested in that anymore... i'll have to check with elaine when i get back to the apart. i guess you won't know what i do until later since i'm going to post this on tuesday and that is the day i'm meant to go to reims or not.... dum dum dum.

so whats new in the US since i've left?

[leave me, lying here, cause i dont wanna go... lyrics from veruca salt's 8 arms to hold you album "volcano girls"]

hotel california

so i've added another fun link to the "time enhancers" section... i love the liveplasma site, which i haven't looked at in YEARS, but now that i thought of it the other day and went back to it, i love it even more! its a site that amalgamates sales of artists, music, movies, etc and then tells you what people who bought those items have also bought. for example, eminem is closely related to 50 cent. which makes sense, eh? so i put in my favorites (garbage, kevin spacey) and find stuff that i already know or new stuff to check out.

who are your favorites? any surprises when you put them in?

this all came up because my coworker who sits next to me was listening to a radio station and i kept asking, "who do you like between ___ and ___?" i think it started with billy joel. i asked what his favorite billy joel song was then he asked who i liked better between billy and elton john. so i thought we'd do a little poll in the comments section and everyone can fill in in the comments:

billy joel or elton john?

the monkees or the beatles (ok, probably not a fabulous comparison, but who has heard of the turtles?? if so, the monkees vs. the turtles?)

bruce springstein or huey lewis? (again, not totally same realm, BUT i associate them together because they both played the same kind of music when i was growing up in the 80s - wildly different after then, but i still consider them the same)

the eagles or the stones?

i'll comment on my own in the comments...

[hotel california is arguably one of the most popular eagles hits. my favorite, however, is life in the fast lane]

dream apartment - 38

i LOVE this. it looks so awesome! i might want a white house with a bright pink front door... how fun is that? check out another view at apartment therapy.

what color would be your front door?

black hole sun

i think a lot about alzeheimers and dementia because my grandmother has it. and so when i see an article about it, i read it. it often makes me sad or cry because it is such a horrible experience to watch your loved one slip away - and i'm not even around my grandmother that often! AND she tries really hard to keep herself together when i'm around (vs. when my mom or aunts are around her). so i figured i would take some time to educate my readers on this horrible disease

i can't seem to post the video here, but i can put a link, so check out this link for a video of a doctor explaining that alzeheimers isnt entirely genetically passed on. which means that probably anyone can get it, and that there are things you can do to prevent it.

this article is interesting because it talks about the fact that there arent a lot of good drugs to cure or help alzeheimers, but they are starting to find predictors and things that will help decrease the chance of getting alzeheimers. for example, getting a lot of exercise and getting enough vitamin d (neither of which i do, but i am inspired to work out at least a half hour each day until i leave for europe and TRY to get some more sun (but i'm pretty sure i'm allergic to it) which is one way to get vitamin d).

so the point is - take care of yourselves people!

a few weeks ago, i was talking to my grandma during one of our twice-weekly calls and she says to me: “its been raining a lot. I could take my soap outside and take all my clothes off and get clean.” it was pretty funny. i don't know why she thought that.

another day, my mom was at my grandma's house, but i didnt know that, and i called gma to talk to her, but my mom answered. she said they were watching justin bieber on ellen and all the girls were going crazy. my grandma said she couldn't understand why people went crazy like that and my mom pointed out that she had a crush on a country music star, who i had never heard of. so i look him up on wikipedia and he's in his mid-40s and it turns out his wife is 20 years older than him. we were all kind of surprised, but mostly surprised when my grandma said, “older women make better lovers. If you knew who he was, he’d be in your heart all the time."

i'm just sayin...

[Black Hole Sun from 1994 by soundgarden was on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of the 90s and i thought it was appropriate for a ramble about mind games]

american pie

i often say that i feel more north dakotan than american. i like the values that i believe north dakotans have - being respectful, polite, community, living close to the earth, etc. and maybe this isn't necessarily a "north dakotan" sort of value system, but i see it more there than i do anywhere else i've lived (and i've lived in quite a few different places). i always start to think about being "american" when i'm getting ready to leave for europe. i have some friends over there who, because they watch their news (which includes a story on the US almost every night - how often does nightly news with brian williams do a story on france??) they think they know everything about living in the US. it gets frustrating because i'm always defending america or our way of life or some stupid interpretation of one thing or another. ugh. i'm already dreading it. BUT i was given a slight bit of hope when i read this article talking about the fact that america is great because no one murdered jay leno. it doesnt say he should be murdered, just that in other societies if companies wanted to save money, they would've done that. and i dont think murder is good, so it made me happy.

this is another article about living abroad now that obama is in office vs. when bush was in office. i haven't been to europe in 14 months, so it'll be interesting to see how its changed (if any) or how people there look at americans. (and, come to think of it, i was only in paris for a day last time, vs. this time it will be 9 days) the article points out that most americans (literally, "most" - only 30% have passports) will never realize how other's around the world look at us. and that is sad.

another thing that is sad is this article. well, sad for me, of course, because it puts me (once again) in the minority based on how i think.

ok, enough about all that. as you read this i am in london most likely. i'll be working from the london office on friday and then taking the train friday night to paris where i shall sleep forever and ever.

have you been abroad? and what are your thoughts??

[FABULOUS song by don mclean]

nuthin' but a g thang

so slightly worried now that i think about it. 1) i'm worried that my passport expires soon. i was thinking that i got it in 2002 because thats when i moved to france (and they're good for 10 years, so it would expire in 2012), but then i remembered, i got it in 2001 because i was stuck in france on september 11th. which should still give me another year, but what if they made a mistake and it expires soon? AND that means i only have a few months to add as many stamps as possible (i got extra pages sewn in to my passport last year and now want to fill them up because i actually have few stamps on the new pages) before getting a new passport. iiiinteresting (i'm just realizing this as i type, which means that i am now planning trips in my mind to far away exotic places that will stamp my passport)... but i'm also worried because 2) i don't actually know WHERE my passport is. i remember seeing it recently and putting it somewhere thinking "oh, i'll need this soon, i'll remember putting it HERE." but now i can't actually remember where HERE is. i told higgi that i'm not sure where it is and he said i could use his if i needed to. what a great roommate! don't you think?? i wonder how many people would offer up his or her passports for someone else. AND no mention of a rental fee! also, we have determined that we people will probably not question the woman handing over a man's passport aspect. and IF they were to do so, i would easily be able to make them feel uncomfortable for asking me about it. problem solved!

----------------

ok, so update (i wrote all that yesterday at work): i forgot i didnt have my passport until i was about to go to bed and was rereading what i wrote. i started having minor heart palpitations because i couldnt remember where my passport was. i spent about a half hour looking for it and was ready to freak out when i found it. it was NOT in a logical place. annoying. oh crap. i didn't look at when it expires.

i just looked. july 2011. i've got one more year.

----------------

ok, so just a summary. it's 4:35 and i have been up since... well, awake since 3 or so and up for about an hour. i set my alarm for 4am so i could finish packing and go through my donation stuff AND so i'll be sleepy tonight at 5pm for my flight. we'll see if that happens. last night i went out with a coworker which was good and then was about to walk home but it was NASTY STICKY out. so i walked half way then took the bus to the sushi restaurant to get me some yummy food. i went home to eat it and then left to meet up with friends at the beehive, which is this bar/club place playing live music. i had a scoop of ice cream and then went home to talk to a friend in n'awlins who, i had no effin idea, is actually a lawyer in a very important on-going case in the gulf... dum dum dum... crazy man, totally blowed my mind. so then i really went to bed. and woke up early! i'm kind of annoyed i woke up so early. grr. BUT on to more important things... today is... the day i leave for europe, yes, BUT it's also...

PLAYERS BIRTHDAY!!!

its my littlest brother's 23rd birthday. here is a picture of us from my cousin's wedding last year - yes, family, you were cropped out. sorry!


so here is a fun birthday cake for you, player. hope you have a great day! sorry for leaving for europe on your day. and also i have a gift for you but decided not to send it since i'll be home in a few weeks... so we'll celebrate then.

catch ya'll on the flip side!

[Nuthin' but a G Thang from 1992, hit #2 VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of the 90s Dr. Dre featuring Snoop Doggy Dogg) because my brother's a gangsta]

good vibrations

so yesterday was uber busy. here is what i wanted to do:

• tuesday - ride bike (now that i didnt drop it off) to target and home depot and return items. get toothpaste and toilet paper at cvs. drop off bike to get fixed? write blog posts. watch one movie to return to netflix. go through donation items. pack for europe.

i was actually really productive, but even then, i didnt get everything done. i was at work until 615 or so. i walked home (which counts as exercise!) and stopped at cvs to get things (didn't get the t.p. bcs higgs said he'd get that at the weekend) and then stopped at the bike shop in my neighborhood to see how much it was for them to give my bike a good tune up. it was $65 which i was quite shocked at. i'm certain it was $30 in fargo. sigh. so i ask if i could bring the bike in that night, rather than ride it all the way to rei. she said i could, but they were closing in 2 min. right. they closed at 7pm. well i'm not sure if i'll have time tonight to bring my bike in, so i figured i'd have to take it to rei, which meant another little workout, which is good, and then i'm a member of rei, so i get a "dividend" later. might as well go there.

so on my way home i had to stop for some dinner because, despite my earlier declaration of not eating out this week, that's pretty much all i have done because
WE DONT HAVE ANY FOOD. i should've gotten groceries last weekend, but i didn't think we needed any, was partially hungover, AND didn't really have time, oh and i'm leaving tomorrow, so it would probably go bad anyway. higgs and i were talking about how we keep thinking all the veggies we get from the farm each week will feed us all the time. but not if you throw dinner parties and make food for others (which i guess happened last week). AND you need stuff to cook with the veg. i think we technically have cucumbers, but i just wasn't feeling it last night. so i stopped to get chicken naan. i also rationalized that i should go there because i didn't go to mela last week and i'll be gone for 2 weeks, so if i didn't go for a month straight, they'd probably forget about me.

got home, ate quickly, jumped on my bike to rei and dropped it off. they are also going to install a pedometer on it. except thats not really a pedometer because it counts the wheel turns not the feet steps. so i guess they're installing a wheelometer for me. i can pick it up when i get back. i was going to walk home, but by this time it was almost 9 and therefore dark. i meant to wear light colored clothing to the bike store, but i forgot and was wearing all black. its a good thing i have such pasty skin, my arms act like a natural light reflector. i took the t home because by then it was pretty dark. i popped in my movie when i got home and started packing. higgs is probably not pleased that there is a suitcase in the waiting room again. sorry, but there's no room in my room. i picked everything out, so i just have to now put everything in the suitcases. i am trying super super hard to pack minimally. we'll see how that goes.

i fell asleep taking a break from packing and missed a bunch of the movie. i got up, organized a bit and then went to bed. not enough sleep!

oh, final thing that happened yesterday that was funny. this guy at work, who used to be my old boss, said to me, "danielle! what did you do to your hair?" i turned back into his office and he brings up how he has to watch days of our lives with his wife sometimes (sure, sure) and apparently there is someone on it who has a purple splotch of hair. he asked his wife why women did that and she said "that's in style. women just do it sometimes." i think he was comparing my tipping to purple hair! so i made a joke about it and he's like "no, no, your hair looks fine." *i* actually DO think it looks fine. MORE than fine. silly old men.

[Good Vibrations 1991, #1 VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of the 90s Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch]

one week

sometimes i get in taxi cabs and worry that i have just sat on a needle that is infected with something bad. like maybe its full of hiv+ blood. i know that sounds really bizarre and annoying, but i think i read a story about that years and years ago (someone was purposely leaving needles in movie theaters and taxis for people to sit on and get infected. i feel like this was in texas and it was a woman who was upset she was infected) and now, every now and then, i think about that. i thought about that tonight on my ride home from my friend's house. i went over to her place after work for dinner. we have been trying to meet up since i moved back to boston at the end of may. i didn't realize it, but now i do, it turns out that i'm the one who always cancels. oops. was NOT a hint at anything, at all. i'm just an introvert and always have to be mentally prepared to do things.

initially, i was going to ride my bike over to her place, which is right by the charles river and has a fabulous view of the river and cambridge. its got a really cool roof deck. but when i left work, it was extremely very super humid and gross, so i just took the t to her place instead. she made a fabulous asian salad (can i get the recipe??) and we had some wine and then went on her roof deck and had italian ices. mmmm. it was good. i took a cab home (no needle!) because it was raining. i was going to go to bed right away, my higgi had a friend over so i chatted with them over some bubbly (obviously, very natural) and then remembered i have to do laundry before my trip this week. i keep going through my list of things to do in my head:

• monday - dinner at lisa's. drop off bike to get fixed (didn't happen - now i have to figure out when to do that). laundry
• tuesday - ride bike (now that i didnt drop it off) to target and home depot and return items. get toothpaste and toilet paper at cvs. drop off bike to get fixed? write blog posts. watch one movie to return to netflix. go through donation items. pack for europe.
• wednesday - drinks with coworker after work. go to gym. shower and do hair for trip. finalize packing. try not to get a lot of sleep so i will be tired on plane on thur.
  
• thursday - take sleeping pill at 5pm. go to bed on flight.
• friday - take tube to work. attempt to stay awake all day. meet elaine and walk to train station. take train to france. attempt to stay awake. get to apartment. go to bed forever. for-ever. for-ever.

[One Week 1998 VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of the 90s Barenaked Ladies ]

dream apartment - 37

ummm yeah. i would imagine you could take one look at this and realize that
i
would
love
this.

you absolutely have to check out the original post at the kitchn which shows two other AWESOME pictures of this. this is obviously a must-have. in fact, i must figure out where to get one... oh. i just reread the original post. its available from some store in napa or something. zaz! what do you think of paying $499 for this?? i just might have to instead of one of these bar things...

iris

i was just told to get out of the kitchen and "go make a mess somewhere else." this is my life in the kitchen. i just can't seem to do anything well. sigh. i was making popcorn and more of it landed on the floor than in my bowl. oops.

so its sunday night and i've had a pretty decent weekend. last week was BRU-TAL at work. i flew back to boston on friday and came home via taxi. i got home sometime after midnight. slept in on saturday morning, but forced myself out of bed around 1030 or so because i had a rendez-vous with a friend in london on skype at noon. after meeting up with her, i had to leave for a movie. higgi and i went to see twilight. i'm not a twi-hard, but i have seen the first two movies and i was curious. i rather enjoyed it, but mostly for aiding in my curiosity of this new phenomenon. its kind of crazy. after that, we went for a drink at our new pub near the theater. then we met up with my dad's brother's wives sister and her husband. we went for dinner at a restaurant that we may all skip next time, had some drinks and then went to a bar called drink. we had a drink at drink and then took a cab to the south end and had a snack at the butcher shop. it was good fun. home around midnight and then higgi and i made nachos and i watched two episodes of breaking bad so i could stay up. i didn't end up going to bed until 330 or 4.

today (sunday, that is) i was meant to have a board game party, but had to cancel because i thought our plans with our friends would be today instead of yesterday. it all worked out, though. i was in bed until... oh not late. can't sleep in anymore after a bender the night before. had some breakfast and higgi and i decided to go to the market. but the market wasn't there. bummer. so we went to get breakfast at francescas and i wasn't feeling well, so i left early and came home to take a long nap (which is why i'm awake now). i was in bed until 3 or 4 and then i got up. i was going to go to the gym or for a bike ride, but i just wasn't feeling it in the heat outside. so higgi and i did yoga in the living room. it was good. then i showered and came downstairs to dinner that higgi made. its nice to have someone cooking for you. :)

so that was my weekend. have a super busy week this week. am already looking forward to being home after my trip and just decompressing. just 3 weeks...

[Iris by the goo goo dolls released in 1998 was on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of the 90s]

dream apartment - 36

isn't this a really neat idea?? i'm pretty sure that higgs and i will have to make this... it'll be so easy to save up that many corks - what sayst you? a month? two? :)

late in the evening

i am super tired. and i just paid $10 for a mini bottle of saline. bully for travel and running out of necessities. hello, i'm still in sacramento. it was a long, tough day at work. auction yesterday and lots of stuff to coordinate today. after work, i met up with some friends and we went to dinner at a restaurant that was... so so... i had crab cake salad and it was ok. i think there were mushrooms in the crab cakes. i dont like mushrooms. but i'm trying to eat more fiber and colorful veggies, so the salad was good. afterwards, we wanted to go see grown ups at the movie theater, so we walked up and asked for tickets. it turns out, the movie left today and they brought in a new movie. so we decided to come back to the hotel and had a drink at the bar. it was fun. we had italian margaritas, which i love. oh, and for you higgi in the morning, i was the life of the party! no social awkwardness here. so THERE. ha.

i've had a few bizarre situations while i have been here this week. i hope to ramble about them later. until then, here are some videos and other random stuff for your enjoyment.

my brother, homie, sent me this video and i wanted to put it here because i was talking about how great arrested development is. and i wanted him to know i saw it. and its great anyway. originally found here.


Arrested Development Chicken Dances - Watch more Funny Videos

then there is this video showing sleepless in seattle as a scary movie. love it! its all about editing, cutting, and MUSIC. music is KEY. the article, which is here, actually talks about how when a woman pursues a man, its creepy, but when a man pursues a woman, its romantic. interesting food for thought. what sayst you??



and then finally. the obvious. of course these are necessary! individually wrapped wine glasses (FULL OF WINE!). available only in the uk right now (i'll be there next week!), so i'm thinking... what kind would you like?

[song by paul simon because its almost late in the evening. my body thinks it is.]

dream apartment - 35

how FABULOUS is this idea?? just another reason to have a card catalog in your house (or an apothecary cabinet!!!) i love love love this. and apparently i'm not good at making up my mind these days. i basically loved ALL of the apartment therapy's pics on home bars. maybe thats a combination of not making up my mind AND loving bars... hmmm....

how cool and classy and b&b is this one?


and then of course, this one from crate and barrel (LOVE the clean lines!) that rivals the one i was *going* to get... (as seen here) maybe i should shell out the extra bucks and actually get this one. it IS super nice. what do you think?

is the one directly above $500 better than the original one i was going to get? my old friend, rcs, was going to build me a bar once... so long ago...

eat the rich

i was reading this article the other day, about this personal finance blogger being an eat-out-aholic and how it works for him, and i started thinking about myself. i, too, am an eat-out-aholic, but i'm not convinced its working for me. its expensive, can be unhealthy, AND i am a member of a farm! i get 10 pounds of veggies every week!! which i've already paid for. and a lot of it goes bad. part of it is that i don't know how to cook it. or cook in general. but i'm watching food network all the time, so i think eventually some of those things will start to rub off on me (here's hoping!). in my own defense, when i first moved here, i was still unpacking, etc. but that is no longer an excuse! aside from this current week (because i'm traveling for work), i'm going to try to go a few weeks without eating out. so that starts this weekend when i get back to boston. i'm going to go sat-thur without eating out (except when i have to for work reasons - business lunch or something). (thur i leave for europe, but will try to limit my eating out there, as well). so that's my new goal. i gave up candy and pop (which has been going great! except i did have soda when i was sick, which is ANOTHER reason why i shouldn't eat out - pretty sure the chinese food made me ill) and don't think i've had any candy. my little brother, player, is doing it, too. i wonder how he's doing. (hint, hint, tell me). and now: one week of not eating out.

so what will i miss? i'll miss chicken naan from mela.

and pizza. ooo. we should make our own homemade bbq chicken pizza with lots of veggies from the farmers market. good idea!

and jae's sushi. i'll miss that. i'll try to get my sushi fix this week while in sac.

i'd miss scallion pancakes, but i'm already over them since they made me ill.

what's your favorite food / place to get take out?

[song by aerosmith picked because am going to try to get rich by eating out less!]

bring back the magic

the other day, i was up early and started this rambling about my stupid AC unit. here is a rambling that i started (and have no finished):

--------------

oh my goodness. its 1209 am and i am awake. and extremely tired. i awoke twenty minutes ago, overheated in my room - hot under the covers. it hit 100 today in boston and mother nature rarely does that. it says its 78 degrees outside now. still too hot. i prefer for it to cool down to 60 or so at night. and not even hit 78 during the day. ugh.

anyway, now is just as good a time as any to explain the situation with the AC unit. a few weeks ago, i came home from work and the apartment was soo hot. i was so uncomfortable. our apartment is two floors and the top floor can get really warm. the basement is mostly brick and cement (? tile?) floors so it stays pretty cool. (unless we're cooking or its super dooper hot outside) i complained to ryan that there was no way i could sleep in this heat. and i would be really grouchy if i couldn't. so i said that i was going to get an AC unit. he tells me that his old roommates left one in the basement because they moved to a place with central air. he has never used AC before and said that in the 4 years he's lived there, only 4 times a year does he wish he had it. and then he just sleeps downstairs. i'm determined to get an AC unit in my room, though. then it could keep the whole upstairs cool! so we move the stuff thats piled up on it in storage, i clean it off, and we carry it upstairs to my room. we try moving the screen and it
won't
budge.

there are trees or bushes or vines or something growing INTO it. i knew these branch thingies were there, i see them every time i open my window, but i didnt realize they were affixed to both the screen and the brick outside. so the screen's not moving. i decide that the next night, i'm going to go into the courtyard and find someone with a ladder to prop up against our place and then dig the branches out. casually, ryan mentions that i should get a portable unit. i'm dreading the next night because its supposed to be hot again, but higgs won't be there so he can't help me with the branches. he was going to be gone the next night, as well, and i was worried about putting in a unit by myself.

the next day, at work, after thinking about it more and more, i think "yeah! a portable AC unit! then i can move it to the waiting room if it's hot in there, or the bathroom or move it downstairs for when we're cooking." its THE answer. so i go on target.com and find a portable AC unit. it sounds great. i read the reviews and check out the website of the manufacturer. its fabulous. exactly what i need. why don't more people use these?? here is what i found:
neat, eh? its eco-friendly and also a dehumidifer. i was totally stoked to get it (although, now that i've ordered it and received it and am writing about it, i went to target's website and they don't have it listed anymore... just really popular??). anyway, the reviews are great, and i was really concerned with getting one that is energy efficient. so this seemed to be the one.

it comes a week plus later and i get home from being at a red sox game for work - walk in to the apartment and there is this massive box waiting for me. the air con unit!! i was normally going to go straight to bed because i had all day meetings the next day, but i couldn't wait to set it up. i get it out of the box and there is this weird hose with it. i read the instructions and it turns out that this, too, HAS TO GO IN A WINDOW. i was dumfounded. when you look at the website (link above) there is NO MENTION of window or hoses or anything like that. there was one mention of a hose in one of the reviews, which i sent to higgs and he mentioned that it probably needed to go into a window. but i read all over their website and there was no mention of it. i was thinking that technology has advanced enough that it just circulates or uses the hot air it produces. but no. apparently, all men know that AC units have to go in a window, and most of the women i have talked to say "well, its portable! it shouldn't have to go in a window." and to be fair, i guess this doesnt HAVE to go in a window, you could also drill a hole in your wall and have the hose go out that.

so this massive AC unit is actually worse than the window unit because my bed is in front of the window and there is no place for me to put it, nor does the hose reach far enough if i were to have it in the middle of my room. crappy. higgs came home about then, while i'm sitting in the rocking chair completely dumfounded. he just said "i told you it needed a window." he didnt listen to my arguments about the fact that "portable" should mean "moveable anywhere" not just "moveable near a window."

i was then faced with this dillema of whether or not to return it. it was 75 pounds, so its not like i could carry it to the post office. i could return it to target, but then i'd have to rent a car to get TO target. AND my room was still hot. we finally realized that i could get a longer hose and put it at the end of my bed. so last weekend, we went to home depot and i got a hose to attach to the current hose. the new hose is metal, though, versus the one from the company which is a thick plastic. and the company hose was 6 inches vs. the 4inches from home depot. so we also bought duct tape. higgs was instrumental in setting it up and we finally got the hose under the bed and up to the window. and it worked! it was very cool (both in the sense of temperature and neatness).

but later that night, i woke up because it was kind of warm in my room. the AC unit does a really good job of cooling the area right in front of it, but on the other side, it was warm. i thought it was weird but went back to bed. the next day, i couldnt stop thinking about it, so i finally investigated and discovered that the two tubes connected under my bed were not actually connected anymore! so all night, while the AC unit was working, it was cooling air on one said, and then blowing hot air out the other side. crappy. so i went under my bed and duct taped it together. a LOT. i used practically half the roll. solved.

so a few more nights of cool air, and its great. then, one night, i wake up and i'm burning up. my AC unit is not on. i try to turn it on. not working. i check the outlet. my surge protector had blown. i reset it and put the AC unit back on, 2 degrees warmer. no problem. then, the other day i was getting ready for work, and it blows again, but this time i couldnt reset it. i waited until after work and it finally worked again, but oof dah. this is kind of a major pain in the butt for some cold air. AND it takes up massive space in my room. which makes me now dislike my room setup. i want to rearrange but i'm not sure if it would be worth it. i'll be tackling that next weekend.

so what about you? are you keeping cool this summer?

[i chose this subject because its on jb's hot water album (and its hot outside) and i would love for someone to bring back the magic to me - in this case, the magic is 60 degrees outside]

good riddance time of your life

whew. whirlwind few days. its 8:33am bos time, although i might be in central time now... i'm on a flight heading from boston to salt lake city and then to sacramento - going to smf for the week for work. i'll be working out of the california office until friday when i head back to boston. the following thur i leave for europe for almost 2 weeks. crazy! i can't believe how quickly this summer has flown by.

yesterday was no exception. i had planned to have a laid-back day. on friday, after work, i went out with a coworker from our australian office. she is in town for two weeks and i figured she might want to have someone to have dinner with. we went to b&g oyster house and it was sooo gross and hot outside. we sat inside and i had a nice seared tuna (no oysters for me) and some wine. i think my bread was moldy. anyway, we were out kind of late - 11 or 12 or so. i went to bed and slept soundly until 5am when i awoke and decided to measure my room to see if i could rearrange it. i meant to take notes of all the dimensions before i left this morning, but i forgot. so now i will be doing that nextw eekend instead.

anyway, i was tired again so i slept until some other time - 9 or 10 and watched tv in bed until after noon. i went downstairs to see what higgi was doing and i had planned to go to the gym, watch a movie, then start packing for my trip and organizing my room - i HATE coming home to a mess after a long trip. so i sat down to talk to higgi and i proposed mimosas. he was game, of course, ha! and so i got some bubbly and oj. then higgi proposed we watch alias. he's trying to re-learn me one of my favorite shows. so we start watching and after 2 episodes, i told him we had to pause it so i could make some kale chips. apparently these are all the rave now. i was listening to a podcast on bloomberg businessweek today and they talked about this company that is SELLING kale chips, which i just made in my kitchen. its basically put oil on kale, salt and pepper it and then bake them. its super easy. although, technically, the first time i did it i burnt them. but whatever. anyway, i make the kale chips and higgs and i go back to watching alias.

at some point, he gets up to go to the kitchen to get something to eat or drink and he comes back to the living room, and i'm sitting with my back to the door out to the patio and he screams and points "danielle! there's water all around you!" i had NO idea what he was talking about. i look down and sure enough, water. everywhere. it had just started pouring outside and there isn't a really good seal between the door outside and the rotting wood. oh, and the little well outside the door doesn't drain properly. i guess it rained so much and so quickly that the water had no where to go but IN the house. we leaped in to action (after i paused the show and put my laptop away, of course). we got towels to block the water by the door and by this time, the water has spread to the other side of the living room about to head into the dining room. i laid towels around the perimeter of the water to stop it from traveling further. ryan moved the furniture out of the way and i picked up some extra chairs and my magazine rack. we had to stop the water from coming in the door, so we opened another door (which looks like a window, but technically we have three "doors" outside but we only use one) which had been re-done a few years ago (the last time the apartment flooded back in 2007 - same problem that it wasn't draining, so they decided to only do the two wells that had flooded - not the third which flooded this time). so higgs goes outside in the POURING RAIN and within about 10 seconds is drenched from head to toe all the way through his skin. he had a mini portable sump pump that we were going to stick into the well to get the water to pump back into the garden. but the hoses wouldn't connect to it. we must've been missing a part. so higgs puts the sump pump into the water without a hose and we let it just drain into the well that was working properly. it was a catastrophe. i mean, not like oil spill or anything, but for city-living, it was a mess. i'm still trying to think of how quickly it all happened - it started flooding in the apartment within a few minutes of it starting to rain. less than a half hour.

so it finally stops raining as much and we go to start cleaning up the water inside the apartment. i had laid this big, pink rug that i LOVE down in the middle of the inch of water to absorb it and higgs realizes that the rug is BLEEDING pink EVERYWHERE. we obviously dont want to stain the floor, or the living room rug (which was already soaked), so we picked that up and put it outside. i was expecting the rain to stay bad for a long time based on the weather report, so i called family friends to see if they could take us to target to get a wet vac. i'm imagining we're going to spend the rest of the day and night like they did at my aunt and uncle's house 2 years ago where the water was coming in so quickly, they just stood at the doors sucking it up into the wet vac and then dumping it every half hour or so. but the rain slowed and then stopped, so we just had to clean up. our family friends were watching the soccer match in the north end and only had a two-seater car anyway (that probably couldn't have fit a wet vac), so higgs remembered his gma had a wet vac. we called her and her boyfriend and they came over about 45 min later with a wet vac and mop. before they came over, we spent the time taking towels, lapping up the water, then ringing them out outside. when the wet vac arrived, i wet vaced the rug and ryan mopped the floor. we have cement/tile floors, but they were still kind of damp, so we let them air out overnight. higgs had a wedding to go to (we thought he wouldn't be able to go, but it ended up being fine) and so he left. i did all of the laundry - it took me 5 or 6 hours to wash and dry all the towels and rugs and made fajitas for me to enjoy. i didnt finish laundry until 10pm or so and i still had to clean my room and pack for my trip. i did the latter, not the former. i was up packing until midnight and then woke up at 4:30 for my flight.

crazy days. or just day. apologies for my typing - i'm on a bumpy plane and i cant actually see my computer screen bcs the person in front of me has his seat reclined.

how was YOUR saturday??

[Good Riddance Time of Your Life from 1998 is on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of the 90s List by Green Day. i thought it ironic and funny - good riddance to the flood and there always seems to be a flood around me (which is always a fun time of my life) - who would've thought i'd be fighting a flood in BOSTON??]

sıɥʇ dıןɟ

¡ʎoظuǝ ˙uoıʇɔǝs sɹǝɔuɐɥuǝ ǝɯıʇ ǝɥʇ uı sı sıɥʇ oʇ ʞuıן ǝɥʇ 'ʎɐʍʎuɐ ˙ɐɥ ˙spuoɔǝs 2 ɹoɟ ɯıɥ pǝʌǝıןǝq ı ˙punoɹɐ pɹɐoqʎǝʞ sıɥ pǝddıןɟ ǝɥ ɟı uʍop ǝpısdn ǝʇoɹʍ ɹǝʇndɯoɔ sıɥ ǝɯ pןoʇ ɹǝɥʇoɹq ʎɯ puɐ ǝʇıs sıɥʇ punoɟ ı ˙uʍop ǝpısdn pɐǝɹ oʇ ǝʌɐɥ noʎ ʇɐɥʇ ǝʇou ʞɔınb ɐ 'ʎɐpoʇ ɹoɟ os 'ʎɐp ʇuǝɹɹnɔ ǝɥʇ oʇ ǝuo ppɐ oʇ ʎʇıןıqɐ ʎɯ oʇ sʞuɐɥʇ ʇsod ʎɐpıɹɟ ɹnoʎ ǝʌɐɥ ʎpɐǝɹןɐ noʎ 'ןןǝʍ

seize the day

its friday!!! wooo hooo!!

in honor of friday, i thought i'd post this AWESOME mashup combining two fabulous things: newsies and lady gaga! how great is this??



what are your plans for the weekend? for me... not sure. sunday i leave for sac for a week (until fri) and therefore i have to go to napa and pick up a whole bunch of wine... and i want to be going swimming and other fun stuff to keep cool in sac. oh, but for this weekend, i guess i should hit up the gym. and do some rambling. and keep cool. and... idk. some more stuff

[seize the day is from the newsies soundtrack written by none other than the great alan menken]

happy phantom

the thing i like and equally dislike about summer is the fact that there are rarely any good tv shows on. i LOVE wipeout, so that is fun that its on every week in the summer (drink while you watch it, its hil-arious!), but other than that... meh. i guess dexter starts at the end of summer. thats good. but that's practically fall and until then...

people often tell me i watch too much tv. BUT, in fact, i don't watch as much as you'd think. 1) i don't watch commercials and 2) i dont' watch episodes i've already seen and 3) vh1 celebreality is crap now, so that cuts down like 5 hours a week. so there. and other than that crap, i actually watch really engrossing, well scripted shows (vs. reality shows - bleh). for example, i LOVED arrested development. and apparently there will not be a movie. sad. but here is a fun mashup for you to enjoy:

i found it here.

AND i am quite pleased because i found this article on this happiness site that i read about how watching tv - wait for it - actually makes people happy! by that logic, i should be watching it ALL THE TIME. maybe i can get paid to watch tv. hmmm.... i think they have jobs that do that. its called a critic. maybe thats not so interesting... anyway, the article is here if you want tips on how to enjoy tv watching (or not feel guilty about it!)

my favorite shows over the years include (in no particular order):

1. Arrested Development
2. OZ - FABULOUS SHOW (the show is just called "Oz" but I'm really excited about it)
3. Alias (although my roommate keeps telling me i dont remember enough about it
4. Seinfeld
5. SATC
6. modern family
7. wipeout (duh!)
8. family feud (i'm convinced my family should go on against my friend whitnee's family)
9. miami vice (really good)
10. dexter
11. weeds

hmmm... i'm sure i'm forgetting some. what are some of your favorites?

[happy phantom is a song by tori amos because tv makes me happy]

dream apartment - 34

so i love love love me some stairs. as is evidenced here, and here and here. and this post at the apartment has more stairs to enjoy. here are some of my favorites - all totally bizarre!


and i kind of love this one just because it looks like it'd be a workout to go up:


most of these are not safe for children!

born in the U.S.A.

happy 5th of july everyone! it is officially 12:02am, so no longer july 4th. i'm hoping to do a bit better on the ramblings over the next few weeks bcs i'm taking a vacation for 2 weeks (kinda, i'll explain later), so i want to prepare for that...

today (sunday, technically) was a pretty decent day. woke up this morning to no power in the apartment. well, first i awoke to a bit of stiffling heat. so i went to turn on my fan and it didnt work. at this point, i realized the tv cable box wasn't on. = no power. crap. BUT it sounded like my fan was on. it kept making this ticking noise as if it was trying to work, but there was no power. so i unplugged it and it KEPT MAKING THAT NOISE. great. just great. i have a possessed fan. i went into the waiting room to go to the bathroom and there is no light. so i find a flashlight and use that. headed back to my room and tried to do something but i couldn't. there was nothing to do with no electricity. no tv. no computer (i hadn't charged it the night before). not enough light for me to read. finally, i fell asleep. i awoke an hour later to an incredibly loud alarm. the power company was messin with our electricity and set off some apartment alarm. so i took my flashlight to hit the reset button. went back to bed and slept some more. once the roomie woke up, we talked about making kale chips with our csa delivery, but turns out the oven needs electricity too. wth. thats annoying. while we were talking, the alarm came back. roomie got it this time, then the power came back. sweet!

we got up and decided to go to target/home depot to get a thing for my AC unit. did i go over this already? if not, i will later. anyway, the bus didn't come back for 2 hours so we had lunch at applebees (with the gift card my aunt and uncle gave me for my birthday in may - thanks ny erds!). i used to love applebees, but it was kind of disappointing this time. maybe i'll go in to it later.

anyway, we took the bus home and set up my ac unit - its cold in my room now! i did some random stuff (organizing and whatnot) and then i went in to the office to get some stuff done. i sent a few emails and then met up with my coworker who is in town from london. he didn't have much to do and i didnt want him to feel bad being july 4th and all (we aren't a part of his country anymore), so we went for thai food and then some drinks. we had a good time. hung out for 4 or 5 hours, which was fun. it was nearly too hot and there were waaay too many people, but we had a good time anyway. i got home after the fireworks started and wasn't going to watch them on tv, but my mom in nodak was, so i figured i'd watch them with her. turns out, we could see them from our apartment! so i watched the end from higgi's room. it was cool.

and now, in honor of our nation's birthday, i thought i'd post some random stuff about our country.

first, which country is the "happiest" in the world? no, its not us. but do we even make the top 10? i guessed no. check out if we did or not here. oh, the winner is this:

this chart is really interesting about obesity rates in the US. where does your state fit? read more about it here.
hmm... i thought i had more, but it turns out i don't. how as your 4th? (and 5th...)

[song by... you-know-who...]

i don't know why but i do

i was listening to this npr podcast and they had a segment about new alzeheimers information (this is the thing i was explaining to my mom while i was at the airport and mr. man listened in on my conversation and then COMMENTED on it). in case you can't/don't want to listen to it, i'll summarize it for you here:

basically, this neurologist in iowa or somewhere was hearing a lot of families of his alzeheimers patients say things like "i don't want to go visit [so-and-so] because what's the point? he/she doesn't remember that i've been there 10 minutes after i leave." and he started wondering - is that true?" do they really NOT remember? and does a visit have NO EFFECT on someone whose mind is disappearing? so he tested a group of alzeheimers patients... he had them watch a sad movie, e.g. forest gump and noticed that everyone reacted to the sadness of the movie - some to the point of crying. 10 minutes after the movie was over, most didn't remember even watching a movie, let alone that they cried. HOWEVER, they DID feel SAD. and they couldn't explain WHY they were sad. so, he tested the opposite. he had them watch feel-good movies like when harry met sally or a bill cosby special. and they laughed and smiled. and again, 10 min later, they didnt remember, BUT they felt HAPPY. and they couldn't remember why. SO, the point is this people: get off your asses and go visit your family who have alzeheimers - it MAKES A DIFFERENCE for them. and it should for you, too! doing things for others 1) makes you feel good and 2) gives you good will with the man upstairs (if you believe that). plus, the way i look at it - if *I* were in the same position - not remembering things or people, i know i would want people to come visit me. take my grandma, for example. she has beat all of the statistics of people with alzeheimers - she has lived with the disease much longer than expected, but she is starting to fade. i call her twice a week and she thinks that i call her every day. i'm not going to try and correct her (why make her feel bad?), BUT if she feels BETTER thinking i call her every day, then how does that hurt anyone? in fact, it makes me more willing to WANT to call her every day. and it doesnt have to be a half hour conversation. i just call and say "oh, i'm at work, i had this for lunch, i'm working on this project, the weather is sunny, etc." and she gets to gab for a bit and have 10 less minutes where she is sitting alone and her mind is playing tricks on her.

what is your experience with alzheimers?

[(i don't know why) but i do is a song on the forest gump soundtrack by clarence "frogman" henry]

bathwater

this article came out a while ago, but i've saved it because i wanted to not forget. i'm not sure if i've mentioned it before or not, but i have a (n irrational) fear of sharks. i think they are always in the water, even if its practically impossible for them to be in it. i'm always afraid someone is going to come in to the pool behind me and drop a big shark to come eat me. i know, i know. its totally stupid. but it MIGHT happen one day. some people are afraid of flying (irrational), spiders (you know who), or peanut butter on the roof of their mouth (??!!), and all of these are actual issues. i'm afraid of sharks behind me. or under me. or coming at me. so when an article comes out saying that most shark attacks happen on the weekends and in shallower water, i pay attention. especially on this weekend when people are at the lake, or ocean or on boats enjoying the nice festivities. this does NOT make me feel safe in ocean waters. i went for a bike ride this morning to the esplanade (the area right by the charles river) and there were TONS of people out jogging, riding bikes, even a rollerblader! (i want to be that rollerblader, btw) oh and lots of people out on their boats getting a spot for the fireworks tomorrow night. i am hoping to avoid them, but i might end up watching them with a coworker. what are you up to this weekend (besides avoiding sharks)?

[bathwater is a song by no doubt that i thought appropriate because it really is the only safe body of water...]

plus haut

for some fun, i thought i'd put up some videos for the day.

first, a video of this group that i LOVED while i was in france - what for. they were formed on a tv competition show called la nouvelle star or pop star or something like that. these were the four finalists and they became a pop group that had 2 hit singles, a good album (in my pop-minded mind, of course) and then they broke up. this song was super popular and i randomly listened to it and then had to find the video.

enjoy.



secondly, one of my FAVORITE abdc dances. just check out their aerobatic and flexible moves by quest crew

dream apartment - 33

SO... let's say you cant have your own home theater... what's the next best option? an inflatable outdoor movie screen! OBVIOUSLY! but actually, i think i would just like to use it indoors, i dont love the outside much. but its a nice option. it might be fun to start an impromptu screening on the street. can't you just see me walking down the street dragging this thing?? but then there'd probably be some licensing issues. to avoid that, i should just make my own movie.... that seems like a lot of work and it probably wouldn't be any good. ok, scratch that. inflatable movie theater in the bathroom!