Wow, I was wondering why no one ever responded. With all the earthquake premonitions, I thuoght it could've been more, and the silly TVs at 'Buffalo Wild Wings' just weren't informative enough.

So by the way, I crashed my car today. I'm embarassed and feel like a dope. Luckily it was just very minor, I rearended a guy who was a total sweetheart about it. His truck had no damage at all, not even a scratch, but my cute freshly painted baby has a big scratch across the front bumper and two smaller cracks, one under each marker light. Symmetrical.

Luckily my husband has assured me it's only a day's work on his part and he has all the materials still from painting it in June. So it's not that big a deal and I consider it a wake-up call that I need to stop looking for my lipstick while I drive.

Sigh. Hope everyone else had a better day!

I'm sorry to say, but your incident made me giggle just a little bit liberty - but its great that your hubby can fix it, I need a spouse like that.

ok... so i've finally caught up with TC... i've been back since saturday and just had the opportunity to read all of the pages since i left (page 147)... here's all of my comments for the last few pages that i missed...

jump, i have the same shoes as your partner... but i've never worn them to a job site...

happy belated birthday orhan...

gin, sorry to hear about your sister...

techno, that sucks about your passport and stuff... i hope that they catch the bad guys...

techno, i'm watching californication too... it's a pretty good show... the kappe house was sweet... do you know who designed the house that the ex-girlfriend and daughter family lives in?

eeek... per posted on TC...

jump, the house is looking great...

vado, congrats on the weight loss... i hope to be losing some weight soon with my impending switch to commuting by bike...

sorry about your car LB... at least your hubby can fix it for you...

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

so this is gonna be a fun weekend... tomorrow night is the local aia welcome reception for monica ponce de leon (office da)... then saturday night is the annual aia gala where monica will give the keynote lecture... saturday morning is the opening of our local farmers market that runs every saturday morning from october through march... and i'm going bike shopping to find my new set of wheels...

OMG. I've been in lighting class for almost 3 hours now. No break. Skipped lunch. Urgh.

lb, I'm glad you are OK. Accidents suck. That's why they are called accidents!

Back to class :/

she lives - hello WK

DubK, you need to eat! Just don't eat anything heavy that will make you sleepy during lighting class...when I had lighting in undergrad the instructor took us on a nighttime tour of campus, pointing out different kinds of bulbs and approaches to outdoor lighting - that was actually pretty educational.

architphil, welcome back!

Steven looks smashing (oops, car crash reference) in his guayabera shirts - they seem excellent for you too, techno! And any piece of clothing described as a "happy, odd mix" is OK by me!

thanks architphil. you are lucky to come out okay lb. accidents are no fun.
on an upbeat note i went high tech and outbid everybody on e bay to get a new 19" wide screen dell monitor for 157.50+shipping charges so it came to little over 200 and i saw the same monitor about the same price at dell site. but the thrill of winning the action was priceless.
the move to new office is completed and place is really cozy comparing to industrial space we had. my new office is the back room and i don't see the people come in and out of the office door, not that we have people coming in numbers. it is kind of a room where the boss reside so, i know the girls are going to make fun of that pretty soon.our old landlord returned the full deposit of $5800 today for leaving the old place clean and orderly. that was nice. first time a landlord returned the deposit in full.
we are again fucked by verizon and our dsl is still not connected even though it was supposed to be done last friday.
verizon is a nightmarish company and if you are fucked over by them, you can pretty much do nothing about it. i hope there is a class action law suit that takes them down few billions. it is just not right. i have been dealing with them on various issues for the last six months or so and they basically have a monopoly around here.
anyway, overall change is good, rent is about the half, and i am looking forward to my 19" widescreen gift, my first purchase ever from e bay.
good night all.

hi architechno! There is still time to hop on a plane and come to LA for my party Saturday night, BTW.

thanks lb. I am home now. I went straight from class to Chipotle and treated myself to a giant burrito....I actually snacked on trail mix most of the day so I wasn't hurting, but I wasn't exactly nourished either. I didn't want to ruin vado's parade earlier but I've lost a bunch of weight this year too.....probably 25-30 pounds by now, but I can't check because I don't own a scale! However, I have gone down 2 sizes since moving to LA, from the biking....I literally can't wear most of my old pants anymore, they fall off of me. I look like a hobo. So, I bought new ones. Pain in the wallet, but satisfying no doubt.

sorry about the bumper-bender, lb. even close calls scare me, i'm such an old-man/overly-concerned driver.

not sure i look smashing in my work shirts so much as like a scrawny youngish-looking-but-aging very white guy.

lighting class sounds very interesting, wk. i feel that's a big hole in my education so far. lighting design seems obvious until you try to actually achieve something, at which point it becomes next to impossible.

sounds like, despite little issues that will be old news in a couple of weeks, your move is smooth, oa. congratulations! i'm jealous of your big monitor. i've got a little monitor, no sound card, and bad overhead lighting.

LB - good to hear you are ok and that your car will be ok too. Accidents do suck.

Orhan - that monitor does sound quite nice. Hope you get the verizon thing worked out. It sucks not having all cylinders firing. In a few weeks these kinks are bound to be a thing of the past.

WK - I'm quite envious of the classes you are taking. They sound really interesting, esp. the one on lighting. Excellent on the weight loss thing. Now if only my clothes fit me as well as they did before vacation. Too bad I'm out surveying for the next two weeks as well b/c yoga is calling out to me.

Hi Steve - we met on WK's cross country trip. I can't picture you in those shirts, but I'm sure you do look smashing in them ;-)

if anyone has a chance, check this out, fascinating...http://www.soapfactory.org/exhibit.php?content_id=106

i'm still alive

beta- no time to check it out yet.. this weekend should allow me to breath again. How was the chard?

So my evening blew too. I was all excited to go shoe shopping (DSW had a coupon for a free leather bag if you spent 40 bucks), and damn if my calves are too fat for boots to go over. And since I can't wear high-heels right now, my selection was limited. So, I bought Husband a pair of running shoes to wear at the track. At least I got my free bag. And Macy's apparently quick selling clothes for the 'swollen ones' about 6 months ago, so no new clothes either. I had to settle for high-fiber cereal, cheese, and summer sausage.

And if anyone is interested, the last Grand-Am race of the season is this weekend in Virginia, let me know how it goes! And, you better cheer for the blue and orange car, it does have the best designed paint job!

killa, the chard was great, i have to finish making the rest. i cooked the first batch with garlic/evoo/onions and put channa marsala over the top - with some of that asian hot sauce....very good, but i don't think i really got a sense of the chard flavor. will try it tonight without all the extra fixings...

i plan on going this weekend, as time becomes available - packing sucks, but hopefully this is the last time for a long while....

Wonder K - I would so be there, but still no passport (and I'm still waiting on the police to prepare my report so I can officially claim it lost)

So beta, are you packing because you got the house, and you are actually moving in so soon?

LB, okay, closing is on monday, today is the last day that anything could possibly go wrong, right?

i mean can anyone forsee a scenario where at 10 am monday morning, they say sorry you're a dead beat a-hole and an architect to boot? i mean i am such a superstituous dolt anywho...but yeah either way we are moving into something at the end of Roctober...

i might just have my first festival of meat mid-west style.

good luck with the closing beta!

congrats to all who've been ticking off goals on their personal fitness goals, and with all this talk of exercise, dieting and weight loss, i'll share my slightly different experience:

i started an intensive, high-performance work-out routine at a nearby gym this past monday. 5 days a week for one hour, 7-8am. interval training, bootcamp style. goes for one month.

in one week i estimate i have done no less than 400 pushups, 500 situps, + many many minutes of crunches, plank holds, in addition to sprints, dumbell curls and presses, sprints, squat-presses, pull-ups, thousands of meters of rowing, etc.

most everything goes in cycles of 5 or 6 exercises...with abouth 90 seconds on each, and then rotate. something about bilding fast twitch muscle response in the way that athletes train, rather than long stretches of cardio on a climber, or bike, or whatever. it's anything but boring.

apparently it's working pretty quickly too. i thought i would lose weight in the process...but in five days i actually gained 2 pounds and dropped 2.5% body fat. i guess the muscle building process went a bit faster than i anticipated. the trainer said my target should be to gain another 5-7 pounds and drop another 5-8% body fat. that came as a surprise, as i really was hoping to drop a few...but i guess if the beer turns from gut to guns, i can't complain.

as the proverb goes...i'm sore in places i didn't know i had muscles.

one week down, three more to go...and i'll celebrate with SF's 15th anniversary of Critical Mass Halloween!

mightylittle......Halloween was one of my favorite things about living in San Fran! Total and utter chaos, in costume. Although they've toned it down a bit the past few years, right? I just loved riding the bus around town with SpongeBob and Superman on that night. Fabulous.

Speaking of Halloween, hocus.pocus is not only back, he's a serial killer? Creepy....

dubK - agreed.

SF + Halloween = Crazy Fun Times!

the snow birds here have a charity Halloween party annually (duh a'techno). It is really odd seeing these old biddies dressed up - but invariably the young guys come dressed as chimp'n'dales bow tie and all , next comes frisky old ladies. I've tried to avoid this event as best I can...

mightylittle, when you first start intensively working out, your body starts compusively storing water in your muscles, thinking that the new workout-periods are an anomaly and they better store up on the water so you don't dehydrate... OR SOMETHING. Anyway I can't remember the true biological reason for it but the end result is a) "puffiness" to the look of your muscles and b) a couple extra pounds of water weight. Once you keep up the workouts and your body realizes you're serious, it stops storing up the water, you slim down in looks and in weight. Also muscle typically builds up faster than fat burns off so there is a small amount of overlap period weight-wise when you first start working out. Give it about 4 weeks and you should notice a difference (slimmer, with more toned muscles). And, good for you for sticking with a high-intensity regimen! Make sure you get the stretching and warm-ups that you need... trust me, I have arthritis, and you DON'T WANT IT. :)

lounge pants. i live in them while at home. they sport a camoflaged bat design. i may never go outside again. im so comfortable. where's the remote?

you could work at a health insurance call center, vado. they wear those things to work! and a variety of other things that looks like pajamas. i half expect to see someone with footie pajamas get dropped off in front of our downtown humana office.

thats because of all the all nighters they pull to deny claims probably.

Coffee's ready....finally..........aaaaaahahhhhhh

im on my third cup! there's a big parade downtown this morning. the circle city classic is happening. that's a game between two historically black colleges. there's also a parade and kinds of other things. like 150k people come downtown for it. which means people who live downtown are inconvencienced this happens with every parade etc, for example, i need to mail something at the post office but i won't be able to get to the post office because the streets will be closed off so i'll have to go to some out of the way post office. i supposed i could walk but i have other errands to run that require my wheels so what's up with that. this is one of the drawbacks of downtown living. also, outside my place is often where the marching band buses park and they leave their engines running all the freaking time. wtf?

I have a birthday party to go to today, for a 5yo, at a place called "Sugar Buzz". Should this scare me?

vado drive out to Meridian Kessler and hit the cafe at 49/Penn - the renovation there starts in two weeks, this will be your last chance to enjoy its 70s-fern-bar-esque decor! Then you can go to the broad Ripple post office instead.

i am gonna go to the broad ripple post office. there is always a long ass line there though. yuppies you know. i've already had four cups of coffee!

Then you'll have plenty of opportunity to talk to people in the line, which I know you enjoy....

okay just got back from the post office a coffee stop and grocery shopping. here's what happened....


mailed contact lenses to exgirlfriend/future wife.
went to the monon coffee shop where some doofus woman kept letting her toddler run all over the place. this behaviour bugs the shit out of me because theres a little kid running around a place where he could easily get a hot mocha latte dumped on his head. plus its not a fucking nursery. then went to the grocery store in my hood and found a wallet in the parking lot and turned it in. bought some food. watched a woman half heartedly push an empty cart up to the sidewalk, she turned to walk away. it rolled back into the drive aisle of the lot she turned looked at it and walked away. yes i pushed it up (two good deeds in one parking lot) then i noticed that a 100 maserati parked next to my car and it had an "save the environment" license plate. well i just looked up the mileage on a maserati, its a 400 hp v8 and gets a whopping 11 miles a gallon in town. people are so fucking stupid.

I'm not working out half as much as I used to.... two or three mornings a week, I look out the window and wonder if it's like that first thing in the morning, how bad will it be by the time I need to ride home? And then I hop on the bus instead of my bike. And when I do ride, I don't really have time for the long-way-home joyrides I was taking in LA, so it's to and from school, the grocery store, or wherever, quick as I can. I have not yet been back to Greenlake, or ridden more than a mile of the Burke-Gilman trail, or to see the Arboreum... so sad. It's supposed to be only 'Mostly Cloudy' on monday though, so I'm hoping to set aside the afternoon for a good long ride/workout.

I just wanted to mention that I'm done with this thread and hopefully those of you who I care enough to argue with actually got the point that I was trying to make. I mean, of course buildings have overruns, and detailing is not always going to be perfect, and we do what we can to get the point across in our design......but is it honestly too much to ask that in the 21st century, a building that monstrous do something more for its users? That's all I'm saying. And I'm tired of having my every breath nitpicked so I'm done with it.

I slept in late today. First time in weeks! And my new roommate has a flair for interior decorating (whereas I'm content just to put up pictures of pretty buildings), so we got our place arranged last night and it looks great! Just in time for the party tonight. I have no idea how many people are coming, lots I think, so I was going to host everyone on the roof but if it gets too cold or whatever, we should be able to have them down to our place.

i've just returned from my bike shopping trip and am feeling a little giddy... i test drove a few bikes... they were all SOOOO much nicer than the bikes that i've ridden in the past... they didn't have the bike that i really wanted to try out assembled, so they're putting one together for me to come test drive later this week... i can't wait to start commuting by bike...

okay - I finally bought a printer. All-in-one! Doesn't handle the paper size I wanted but it gives me something to work with off hours.

I'm sitting here in what feels like 100% humidity, watching the Rugby World Cup (NZ vs France) score at the half is 13-0, not looking good for the froggies.

I'm supposed to be going to lyme at the visitors station I built a few years ago; but got an anynomous phonecall from someone (a lass) that said she was coming over. Settle down boys didn't seem like that. But I've been waiting here for 45 minutes and still nothing. Should I leave or spend my time with the footie and Thread Central (decisions|decisions|decisions)

WWTC Do? Wait for the lass!!!

exactly!!

Liberty & Vado what's with the coffee drinking on Saturday..weekend buzzes should be limited to single malts only

score is level at 13

we're about to be 15,000 posts, tc'ers!

I don't exist without coffee in the morning, a-techno! Now, house celan, grocery shopping done, birthday aprty survived, it's time for a beer - Centennial Foudners IPA, to be exact. Yum.

DubK, I'm toasting to a grand success for your party tonight. Have fun!

Aw hell, i didn't realize I was posting #15K right then and there! Oblivious as usual.

congratulations fred-san? you didn't customise, beta?

hey Jump I posted one of your houses on my blog, I think you have a serious fan base developing with me right on top (can I be pres?)

Oh and Lib I think the beer is a good idea - either for you or the screaming children. I've been drinking beer all day - and about to have another whilst I watch the Saturday movie on HBO

saturday night and we're all hanging out at TC to see if a-philia gets lucky... guess this is what happens when you grow up.

hah hah - naw nothing like that. The unknown call was from a lady cop (female police officer) - but she bailed on me. She wanted just to give me an update on the investigation

granted we should all be at dub k's party on the roof :( and it seems like Paul aka the big green floating head will be there too

killa the squash is good too, garlic, butter, peppa...mmm thanks! how's the wife feeling?