i drink cosmopolitans all the time because i can't stand a traditional martini...i have no idea what they cost though since i keep a tab at most of the local bars...but 8.25 USD doesn't sound too bad for a drink
Oh and Sarah, TK, Liberty Bell and others with children. Please feel to talk about your family with freedom. I for one feel like I know them personally, all my nieces, nephews and god/shiva/rem-children. So I laugh when Liberty tells tales of Angus' day off school following mum on building sites, the birth of young Star, and the events unfolding around Abram. So please keep talking. And also is Abram sleeping through the night yet?
[rant]You know what pisses me off? What pisses me off is when volunteer to do things or for entities, they only want you to fall in line and do things their way, and if you want to take the effort on a different path, you're seen as not a "team player." Well, fuck team, and fuck leading, I won't be your shepard any more.[/rant]
[rantdeux]Another thing, does anything you consume; read, buy, have - really represent you? When I look at magazines or peruse some of my books, I think what the fuck does that have to do with me, I really bought that shit? Hey Koolhaas, eat me! PE, blow me. Danny Libeskind, suck cock. I am burning your books today, yep, gonna jamb a couple of roman candles in there, and spare the future architects of the world from your drivel. All in the spirit of Independence Day. [Psst. And you know what? I don't give a shit that your books are worth a pretty nickel.][/rantdeuxout]
I do love reading your rants, but beta, dear, do some tai chi.
manta, 7and7 is what my partner drinks. Too sweet for me, but they have a retro 70s "manly" vibe that I like.
DubK, I applaud your repair vs. repurchase of a computer. I'm in that frame of mind myself recently, though I'm longing for a new dishwasher I hate the thought of setting the one I have - which works fine, just not as well as I'd like - out by the curb to go to a landfill.
This was my problem with the Zaha does shoes video (jump, this is in part addressing your question of me on that thread): it's not so much the shoes I don't like, it's the huge prop they made to publicize the shoes: a truckload of styrofoam and plywood and paint, for what? They were probably used at a single night's event, then scrapped. That, to me, is wasteful and selfish. The shoes themselves, well, I won't wear plastic shoes because my feet wouldn't like them, but at least they are smaller, and a consumer good that hopefully someone could get a lot of use from. It's the prop I had a problem with.
Orhan, happy 4th to you and your adorable doggies. I am spending the 4th doing some drafting, and, um, since I'm still away from home I slept in quite a bit later than I intended to - I looked at the clock to see if it was 8 yet and it was, um, almost 11. I'm embarrassed!
There is a local real estate blog on which last night I called a proposed new medical building "a total piece of crap" then explained why it is so - I'm off to see if anyone responded to that! Happy 4th everyone!
anyone seen this blog - seems like a great thing to do less the frequent showers and restrooms. I am seeking the advice of all present WWTCD: should I take off the rest of the year. And say fuck I don't care and go where the wind takes me - even if its just as far as Cleveland or carnival in St. Lucia? Sigh...vacation has been most stressful
I somehow didn't hear until today that Anne D'Harnoncourt, Director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, died last month.
Bear with me, TC, as I mourn here; I'm alone today and this is incredibly sad news. Anne was only 64, and is one of the most gracious people I've had the pleasure of working with in my career. She was searingly intelligent, but also gentle, warm, and full of humor. She's one of a handful of women from whom I have learned how to be a professional.
As well as championing artists she also respected the hell out of a good architect: witness hiring Venturi, Richard Gluckman, Laurie Olin, and Gehry to do work at the Museum. She was amazing, and IMO the world is less so now she's gone.
Techno, if you have the funds to take the year off, then why not. If it means you will be scouring the dumpsters for food, and selling your services just to survive, well, thats not healthy.
Oh, and Abe has been sleeping through the night for 2 months? I cant remember. I tuck him in at nine, he puts himself to sleep (yeah!) and sleeps until 630-7am. Hes a complete morning person, as am I,, so its all good.
DubK and LB - I too have been debating the need to consume as well lately... more so than I usually do. And every single time I do purchase something (basically everyday things that I need) it pains me to think about all the waste of the packaging. Why is it when I buy my moisturizer they have to put it in a cardboard box... Why not skip the box and just sell me the bottle by itself.
Atechno - I say take the year of so that I can vicariously live through you. I have always wanted to do such a thing, to travel around, working small jobs to get me to my next destination, but have never had the courage to do it. Now that I have a house and student loans to pay off, it's not really in my foreseeable future. Oh well.
So far my day has been incredibly lazy. Woke up late, began watching an interesting documentary about Walmart, but fell asleep for another 2 hours. Might still be sleeping if a friend hadn't called. Now it's time to start thinking about getting ready for the cookout. Perhaps I'll read a little first.
i am in the office goofing around. tonite is a tough one for the doggies since they freak out from the fireworks. every year around the dead end street next door, the whole neighborhood gathers to fire up. it is totally illegal but what you gonna do? kids love it...
of course i got some tranqualizers from the vet and we hope to be covered like the years before...
poor pups I do hope they can sleep through it all. Give them some warm milk and cookies and send them off to sleep.
SH I never realised he'd been sleeping through for so long, that is truly amazing. And perhaps why you too seem more chipper on archinect.
oh and Tuna, I too have a house mortgage to pay but luckily I have enough savings to take me through the year. I would be severly eating through my account but it just seems worth it. One last thing to unfold and I'll see/make a decision
I celebrated the 4th by moving some of our downed tree in the yard.
I was hoping to have a wood splitter here this weekend, but it was a no show. I'm kind of bummed because I was hoping I would be able to knock out some firewood and get it properly stacked for drying. I'm thinking it might just be a long winter. I was also looking into the cost of a fire place insert. Damn those things are expensive. If I knew I was going to be burning wood for the next twenty years I would reconsider, but wood like fuel oil has gone thru the roof. I'm thinking I might split the wood and sell it and keep enough to have a fire in the fireplace on cold nights and just incase the electric power goes out in a storm.
The Fire works thing is looking like a dud....cloudy and humid...so all you see is flashes above the clouds.....so we be passing on gathering at the community field....this year.
the beanpole's first 4th of july was spent visiting 2nd cousins out on the farm. He enjoyed being passed around and the missus and I learned some new terms. from now on 'tooting' is in our vocabulary. So why is it that women think babies are so fragile, while dads (myself included) see them as being all but indestructible?
gotta leave the mancave and head back to being a dad. ciao tc!
TK, Abram was maybe two months old, maybe, when Husband tossed him into the air the first time. My innitial reaction was 'Oh My GoD!!! What are you doing!!!!,' but I caught myself at just a quick breath, realising that, since they were over the couch, it was probably ok. I don't want to be an over-protective mom, but yeah, I was scared.
So, today was Abram's first trip to the movies. I thought long and hard about it, and decided that a 10am showing of Wanted couldn't be too crowded, and that if I really needed to, I would leave the theatre. So we got there, I even asked the poor Ticket Kid how crowded it was, and we went in. Abram was perfect. I was nervous, and when they did that 'please don't add your own soundtrack' clip, and the Baby cried, I was thinking, No, its not mine. The only things Abram did that weren't so great were spitting up all over me, and emptying his bowels, which required me to make use of the 'family restroom.' After a feeding and a changing, he actually fell asleep. Some of the loud noises startled him, but I held him close, and he stayed asleep until we left.
How was the movie? From a female perspective, I really thought, given the Names in the film, that it would have better acting. To me, it relied too heavily on the Names, graphics, and explosions, but thats just me; Husband loved it. - I did feel guilty about Abe watching a short sex scene, which was more clip than scene.
Sarah was he really looking at the screen? I remember hearing that if babies are watching the film they are less likely to figgit or cry. I always wondering if its the baby sitter when I see a baby being taken to a movie...like they snuck out with the child to catch a film. anyway..night y'all driving to the south coast tomorrow for lunch
Yes, Techno, he loves TV. I try to keep it to a minimum, but at the movie, he was so distracted, he didn't even know he was hungry, and I had a heck of a time getting him to take his bottle.
I spent the day up in Boston, which was a nice diversion from my usual day-off routine (i.e., sleep in, eat, watch TV). The ride on the Acela was great... It gave me a taste of the potential of high-speed rail in this country, but also showed how much further we still have to go.
I missed the fireworks and Boston Pops on the Charles River, as my return train to NYC left Boston at 9:45 PM. Although not an Acela train, we still made good time, and the ride quality was enhanced by the fact that the train was nearly empty; I had almost an entire car to myself, and was able to doze off a few times. For once, a train ride with no screaming infants or loud cell phone conversations. I arrived back at Penn Station at around 2 AM, and made it home about 40 minutes later.
The highlight of the trip was visiting the Harvard campus and Gund Hall, home of the Graduate School of Design. Despite having lived in Boston during the summer of 2000, and working just down the street from Havard and spending a lot of time hanging around in Harvard Square, I had never once bothered to venture through the gates into Harvard Yard itself... Who knows why. I wouldn't consider the campus as photogenic as Princeton or Yale (I've always loved gothic architecture on a college campus, as opposed to Harvard's red brick colonial style), but it was still a very nice campus.
Gund Hall was technically closed, but a security guard was kind enough to let me in to wander around a little bit. The first thing that struck me was the size of the place; it's several orders of magnitude larger than the architecture building at Princeton. The student work in display was of very high quality (IMO), and ranged from generative blobs to more orthogonal modernism. As with Princeton, it's refreshing to see a wide variety of student work on display, as opposed to dozens of projects that all look the same. The trays themselves -- GSD's name for the open studio spaces -- were virtually deserted, but it was still nice to get a look. I'm looking forward to getting back up there for a more in-depth visit when classes are actually in session.
Boston itself was interesting. A few things have changed, but most of it hasn't. Leave New York or Chicago for eight years and you won't even recognize the city when you get back, but Boston seems stuck in a time warp... And I get the impression that's exactly how they want it. I was saddened, however, to discover that my favorite brunch place in Brookline is apparently no longer in business.
I had a pretty negative impression of Boston when I lived there in 2000, and although my attitudes have changed a great deal since that time, the city still feels like a very alien place to me. I'd consider it one of the most beautiful cities in the country, but in many neighborhoods it feels more like a colonial-themed amusement park than a real city. Philadelphia has a similar colonial charm, but much more urban grit to go along with it. And save for a few small areas, most of New York's colonial charm burnt down in 1835, or has since been bulldozed to make way for the city we know today.
Maybe the 4th of July is the wrong day to make such an assessment about Boston, since the city is overrun with tourists and much of the student population is away for the summer. Oddly enough, I lived in Boston during the summer, and all my prior visits have also been during the summer, so I've never really experienced the city during the regular academic year. GSD is having an open house in November, so I'll definitely make it back up there for that... It will be interesting to see if the city's vibe is any different then.
At any rate, it certainly made me realize just how "at home" I now feel here in NYC. My strong preference would be to stay here in NYC for grad school, but I would find it very hard to pass up an offer of admission to someplace like GSD or Princeton, especially if it came with some scholarship money attached. I guess I'll cross that bridge when I get to it, though.
LiG, you've seen Boston at it's best: the summer is really when it shines and feels MUCH more homey than during the year. The students truly invade all aspects of life and not many people who live there enjoy it. They can tend to make you feel like you don't fit in in your own city; like if you don't have a connection to one of the campuses in some way, you're shut out of the city life. (This is further exacerbated if you aren't even an alumnus of any of the institutions.)(and you WILL get asked that allllll the time... "where did you go to school??")
In many other cities the student population tends to be centered in one particular area, on one or two train lines, etc, and you can easily live life in denial of the students. In Boston, the students are EVERYWHERE; on every train line (except the blue line, and you will rarely use the blue line); pouring into every bar and lunch spot; and the streets are such that you can't really take shortcuts or skip around where they congregate, you are forced to go through them. I wouldn't mind this so much if the students were a minority of the population; but as +/- 300,000 descend upon a city of 3 million every year, (or only 600,000 residents of the actual neighborhoods of Boston!!), they are HIGHLY visible and can be HIGHLY aggravating. In September the spell of summer is popped and the city changes overnight on move-on weekend. Very different place...
Ok, discourse over. It's a very pretty city to visit, and if I had plenty of money, I would looooove to live there again someday.
Hmmm Gin begs the question "what happened in the summer of 2000?"
Hey all on my way to a birthday party, with booze and pulled pork. Have I mentioned how glad I am to be home? Anyway had loads of fish and sea crab for brunch and I am as happy as a...clam. Also took a detour on our way back to look at the wind farm. I felt I should of called WK at the sight - but she's en route to her dirty weekend in Hawaii. I'm not sure if "dirty" translates - I'm not meaning to be a cheek. Anyway there were about 20 wind turbines I couldn't determine the size much less see the base, but I guess they were about 30 - 40m diameters. Really gorgeous things, turning in the afternoon glow silent except for the wind in your ears :)
Anyway...off to enjoy some more food, booze and good company.
Summer 2000: I moved to Boston from Chicago on Memorial Day weekend to find a job and look for permanent housing while preparing to enroll in the Boston Architectural Center to finish my degree. I found a job soon enough, but had a much harder time finding housing. I thought I had a place lined up down in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood, but that abruptly fell through about two weeks before I had to vacate my temporary sublet in Brookline. I scrambled to find something else, but by that time I was competing with 300,000 other returning college students. Eventually I decided to move back to Chicago and crash in a friend's extra bedroom for a few weeks, rather than end up homeless in Boston. I ended up moving back to Chicago a week after Labor Day weekend.
that's the other thing about boston : all the apartments are taken by about april, for the coming september lease cycle. and pretty much the entire city housing stock runs on a school lease cycle. i've never seen a city so thoroughly dominated by it's students. the fullerton stop in chicago pales by comparison!
i'm sorry it was rough for you, LiG, but... better you learned it quick! took me years to figure this stuff out.
TECHNO : do you speak in a british accent???? i may have been voicing you wrong in my head all this time...
you've got everything right about boston, manta...and cambridge, somerville and medford, and any other metro boston area for that matter too. it's kinda funny how i stopped being able to tolerate college students the very day i stopped being one...ugh. my friends and i most often go to our regular bar in davis square, vaguely following an inverted academic calender, to take advantage of when it's least likely to be jammed wall-to-wall with tufts students.
Happy Sunday TC-
Ooh Atechno - I have an affinity for wind turbines too. They are so amazing.
I've never been to Boston but I hear nice things about it. Hopefully one day I'll get there to take in the sights. The old cities on along the eastern seaboard have always interested me. So much history. At times I can almost feel the spirit of those who fought so hard to found this country.
Anyway, my long weekend has been quite enjoyable. The weekend has been full of relaxation, yummy food, fireworks and friends. Last night my friend and I began the evening with a bottle of wine and a delicious pasta recipe (escarole, sweet Italian sausage and fresh herbs), followed by some great people watching in one of the alternative areas of the city at a music festival. Now I'm off to work in the yard some more. My mom brought me over some ornamental grasses to plant and I have six bags of river pebble to lay. Hope everyone enjoys the rest of their weekend. Ciao.
We had a fun interesting day even if it was a holiday weekend. Our client is opening their Italian Restaurante this coming week, so today
they brought in all the staff for a meeting. We weren't invited but showed up anyway. It was very informative, way beyond thinking about things in a code sorta way and even in a design sorta way. The owners are from the big apple and I must say I was impressed with the presentation to the staff. We also had some 5 star desert....which even made things better. The main contact on this project was totally in control of the meeting...and somehow managed to be sure His Architect had a Beer in his hand during the course of the meeting. I think he was trying to tell his staff something with this gesture....the something is take care of the customer and those who take care of you. It was a great gesture. This was once again reinforced when the Pastry Chef brought out of the kitchen not one but two plates of desert form Mrs B and myself....and this is the stuff you would put a fork in someones hand if they tried to steal just a fork full. The wonderful thing about this kind of experience is that I will help us in our next project in the design process, and in the process of interacting with the owners. I'm sure the next client (who happens to be on board) will be dazzled with my questions regarding function of his resturant. The other aspect of this kind of experience is that we have taken our client to the next level and they are friends...and our best marketing tool is friends.
Techno, you liked Wanted? Really? Did I mention before that I thought it was not so good? I'm being lazy, and don't feel like re-reading my posts, and I can't remember much these days, so forgive me if I'm repeating myself.
On another note, Abram doesn't seem to like Avocados. I don't like them either, they taste metalic to me, but I'm really trying. Abe has had them twice now, and he just doesn't get too excited about them. Too bad. He's going to continue to eat them for at least 8 more times - they say it takes 8-10 tries before your taste buds develope a taste for something. Explains so much, huh.
WWTCD? Should I make him eat avocados, and like them, before moving on to bananas? Maybe, after we get through bananas, I will start letting you guys decide what he eats. Its all a grand experiment anyway, might as well let you in on the fun!
Good morning,
I had car trouble over the weekend. So i came in late to work so that i could drop my car off at the shop.
Hopefully, the issue won't take up my entire stimulus check (i just recieved).
Also, Sarah, they taste metallic? What a shame i love avocados...
my 1 yr old is NUTS about avocados - more specifically guacamole. she'll dig in and take a fistful if allowed. but...i'd try the few times, like they say, and then let it be.
my 3 yr old won't touch 'em - nor much else that isn't white: banana after peeling, yogurt, bread, milk, etc.
Sarah I did like Wanted...but I'm a guy and it was the first time I had been in a cinema for over a year. I also needed to see a bit of gratuitous violence. Sarah, the metalic taste could be coming from the knife you use to cut it, sounds weird but true. Try cutting it with a plastic fork or clean your knife with lime juice before cutting. Something about avocados makes absorb other flavours a little too well.
Ooh, I just made guacamole for the first time about 2 weeks ago. I generally don't go on recipes for something like this so it was an improvised mix of avocados, salt, pepper, onion, jalapeno peppers, cilantro and lime juice all proportioned by taste. People seemed to enjoy it and even commented it was the first time they've actually liked guac. I left out the tomato because that was during the whole salmonella scare. I was going to add some tomatillos but forgot.
sarah- it may be the avocados, not your taste buds. avoid those pale green giants from florida - too watery and tasteless. go for california/mexican Haas (the dark wrinkled ones) for flavor (and make sure they are ripe).
bananas tend to be a favorite with kids, so wait till you get the avo into abe.
the research has shown it takes more like 12-16 times till kids like it (according to mrs. tk), but 8-10 times is a good run, then you can move on.
Ok, you two should put up some sort of dixclaimer or announcement when posting back to back. Just saying.
Any comments as to whether I should mix the Avocado with thr Rice cereal and milk to make it taste a bit more familiar?
And Techno, I will try using something else to cut it next time. I have to admit, I was a little bit over-excited to cut the avocado the first time. I giggled as I pulled my Wustoff from the block, grinned while rolling the avocado on the blade, and was a bit over-zealous when I wacked the blade into the pit to remove it. Oh, good times! Makes me wish I really did like them, cause cutting them was FUN!!!
Oh, TK, I guess I had forgotten the actual number, I just remember it was a lot more than twice, and figured 8-10 seemed like a lot. And you're right, it may have been the fruit. They only had two choices at Wal-Mart (yes, I'm poor, and shop at WM - this isn't the Green thread), and they were black-purple Haas that looked more like prunes, and I thought they looked too dry and over ripe, and then some Organic ones from CA, that were a little smoother, and had a slight hint of green in the skin. Maybe they werent ripe? Husband didn't seem much to mind. There is one left, maybe it will be better by Saturday?
i had some car trouble as well, nam...i went in to get my car inspected to kick off my mini-vaca, and ended up $630 lighter than when i went in there 2 hours before. so it was my stimulus check and then some...everything is hitting at once with my sweet, sweet corolla.
it made for a bitter 4th of july, but i got my damn sticker!
NO, its not dangerous, you put a towel between the fruit and your hand. You should try it, its fun! And, to remove the pit from the knife, you turn the knife over, and simply push the pit away from the blade - just turn the knife over first, or it could get messy.
SH - Avacados can be hit or miss. Sounds like you might have gotten a miss. If they looked dried out, they were probably over ripe.
mfrech and nam - I've recently had to put quite a good chunk o' change into my car. But with over 120,000 miles it turns out the things I had to get replaced had worked long past the time they were expected to.
I currently am not feeling well and am wondering if I shouldn't head home. I was very light-headed there for a while and my stomach acids are out of sorts. I hate going home sick esp. after a long weekend.
Hope everyone's post July 4th Monday is going well.
Regarding avocados,
I actually like the Big light green florida ones sometimes.
They are a more fresher, lighter taste than the creamier haas's.
Plus, they are usually huge and cheap (but then again i am in florida).
As for shopping at Walmart vs Target. I shop at Walmart all the time.
Where else can i by underwear and a car jack at 2 in the morning?
Plus, as TK said they are getting much more green now.
Finally congrats TK. Does this mean you one of "The Man" now.
hi gang! Just checking in from my Hawaiian "dirty weekend" as techno called it, which is actually more of a week and a half, and I'm doing well. WonderMan, his doggie and I hiked a gorgeous trail yesterday that led us through a rainforest. WonderDoggie, a 10-pound chihuahua-terrier mix, kept watch on the trail for us and made sure we kept going if we started to get tired. It was hilarious. We finally reached a ridge and saw the extent of the trail, which looked like something out of Lord of the Rings, and decided to turn around, and save it for another day. WonderDoggie is now asleep next to me as I write this :o)
All told, it's really lovely here. I'm going to the beach today, downtown to look at buildings tomorrow. Sarah, I too love avocados, and encourage you to try with Abram a little more. I'm going to put some on my sandwich today, in fact.
Wonder K, Pooche and Man glad to see you are all doing well.
My favourite vegatarian sarnie is avocado slices on whole wheat yum. Season with a little tomato pesto and you are in the business. I usally peel my avocado, long slices from top to bottom at the end you are left with just the...seed. Also in J'ca we call avocados pears...I'm not sure why maybe mighty or TK knows.
And I went into a kitchen emporium today owned by a friend whose husband owns a chair of steak houses on island, including on at the new Errol Flynn/James Bond marina in Port Antonio - I'll make sure to take the camera for that trip!!
Ok, guys. So I have asked a window question on the 'wooden windows' thread, and I'm going to need some advice before wednesday evening (thats Texas time). So, if you can advise, that would be great.
*Oh, and that really wasn't meant to come across all "I'm gonna need those TPS Reports."
Thread Central
i drink cosmopolitans all the time because i can't stand a traditional martini...i have no idea what they cost though since i keep a tab at most of the local bars...but 8.25 USD doesn't sound too bad for a drink
Oh and Sarah, TK, Liberty Bell and others with children. Please feel to talk about your family with freedom. I for one feel like I know them personally, all my nieces, nephews and god/shiva/rem-children. So I laugh when Liberty tells tales of Angus' day off school following mum on building sites, the birth of young Star, and the events unfolding around Abram. So please keep talking. And also is Abram sleeping through the night yet?
[rant]You know what pisses me off? What pisses me off is when volunteer to do things or for entities, they only want you to fall in line and do things their way, and if you want to take the effort on a different path, you're seen as not a "team player." Well, fuck team, and fuck leading, I won't be your shepard any more.[/rant]
[rantdeux]Another thing, does anything you consume; read, buy, have - really represent you? When I look at magazines or peruse some of my books, I think what the fuck does that have to do with me, I really bought that shit? Hey Koolhaas, eat me! PE, blow me. Danny Libeskind, suck cock. I am burning your books today, yep, gonna jamb a couple of roman candles in there, and spare the future architects of the world from your drivel. All in the spirit of Independence Day. [Psst. And you know what? I don't give a shit that your books are worth a pretty nickel.][/rantdeuxout]
I do love reading your rants, but beta, dear, do some tai chi.
manta, 7and7 is what my partner drinks. Too sweet for me, but they have a retro 70s "manly" vibe that I like.
DubK, I applaud your repair vs. repurchase of a computer. I'm in that frame of mind myself recently, though I'm longing for a new dishwasher I hate the thought of setting the one I have - which works fine, just not as well as I'd like - out by the curb to go to a landfill.
This was my problem with the Zaha does shoes video (jump, this is in part addressing your question of me on that thread): it's not so much the shoes I don't like, it's the huge prop they made to publicize the shoes: a truckload of styrofoam and plywood and paint, for what? They were probably used at a single night's event, then scrapped. That, to me, is wasteful and selfish. The shoes themselves, well, I won't wear plastic shoes because my feet wouldn't like them, but at least they are smaller, and a consumer good that hopefully someone could get a lot of use from. It's the prop I had a problem with.
Orhan, happy 4th to you and your adorable doggies. I am spending the 4th doing some drafting, and, um, since I'm still away from home I slept in quite a bit later than I intended to - I looked at the clock to see if it was 8 yet and it was, um, almost 11. I'm embarrassed!
There is a local real estate blog on which last night I called a proposed new medical building "a total piece of crap" then explained why it is so - I'm off to see if anyone responded to that! Happy 4th everyone!
anyone seen this blog - seems like a great thing to do less the frequent showers and restrooms. I am seeking the advice of all present WWTCD: should I take off the rest of the year. And say fuck I don't care and go where the wind takes me - even if its just as far as Cleveland or carnival in St. Lucia? Sigh...vacation has been most stressful
:
I somehow didn't hear until today that Anne D'Harnoncourt, Director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, died last month.
Bear with me, TC, as I mourn here; I'm alone today and this is incredibly sad news. Anne was only 64, and is one of the most gracious people I've had the pleasure of working with in my career. She was searingly intelligent, but also gentle, warm, and full of humor. She's one of a handful of women from whom I have learned how to be a professional.
As well as championing artists she also respected the hell out of a good architect: witness hiring Venturi, Richard Gluckman, Laurie Olin, and Gehry to do work at the Museum. She was amazing, and IMO the world is less so now she's gone.
Techno, if you have the funds to take the year off, then why not. If it means you will be scouring the dumpsters for food, and selling your services just to survive, well, thats not healthy.
Oh, and Abe has been sleeping through the night for 2 months? I cant remember. I tuck him in at nine, he puts himself to sleep (yeah!) and sleeps until 630-7am. Hes a complete morning person, as am I,, so its all good.
Happy 4th TC!! OA I love the photo.
DubK and LB - I too have been debating the need to consume as well lately... more so than I usually do. And every single time I do purchase something (basically everyday things that I need) it pains me to think about all the waste of the packaging. Why is it when I buy my moisturizer they have to put it in a cardboard box... Why not skip the box and just sell me the bottle by itself.
Atechno - I say take the year of so that I can vicariously live through you. I have always wanted to do such a thing, to travel around, working small jobs to get me to my next destination, but have never had the courage to do it. Now that I have a house and student loans to pay off, it's not really in my foreseeable future. Oh well.
So far my day has been incredibly lazy. Woke up late, began watching an interesting documentary about Walmart, but fell asleep for another 2 hours. Might still be sleeping if a friend hadn't called. Now it's time to start thinking about getting ready for the cookout. Perhaps I'll read a little first.
WE'RE BAAAACK!
did you know boston terriers are the first american breed?
the 'Olde Boston Bulldogge'
i am in the office goofing around. tonite is a tough one for the doggies since they freak out from the fireworks. every year around the dead end street next door, the whole neighborhood gathers to fire up. it is totally illegal but what you gonna do? kids love it...
of course i got some tranqualizers from the vet and we hope to be covered like the years before...
poor pups I do hope they can sleep through it all. Give them some warm milk and cookies and send them off to sleep.
SH I never realised he'd been sleeping through for so long, that is truly amazing. And perhaps why you too seem more chipper on archinect.
oh and Tuna, I too have a house mortgage to pay but luckily I have enough savings to take me through the year. I would be severly eating through my account but it just seems worth it. One last thing to unfold and I'll see/make a decision
Happy Freedom day y'all!!!
heheheh.
Orhan, i had to check the last page to make sure, i thought that doggy pic got posted twice.
As for macs and etc...
I have one, i switched to it after years of being a pc user. Love it, never had any problems. 4 years and counting.
Atechno, your life always sounds so tropical and laid back...
Also, i really kicked back today..
I celebrated the 4th by moving some of our downed tree in the yard.
I was hoping to have a wood splitter here this weekend, but it was a no show. I'm kind of bummed because I was hoping I would be able to knock out some firewood and get it properly stacked for drying. I'm thinking it might just be a long winter. I was also looking into the cost of a fire place insert. Damn those things are expensive. If I knew I was going to be burning wood for the next twenty years I would reconsider, but wood like fuel oil has gone thru the roof. I'm thinking I might split the wood and sell it and keep enough to have a fire in the fireplace on cold nights and just incase the electric power goes out in a storm.
The Fire works thing is looking like a dud....cloudy and humid...so all you see is flashes above the clouds.....so we be passing on gathering at the community field....this year.
the beanpole's first 4th of july was spent visiting 2nd cousins out on the farm. He enjoyed being passed around and the missus and I learned some new terms. from now on 'tooting' is in our vocabulary. So why is it that women think babies are so fragile, while dads (myself included) see them as being all but indestructible?
gotta leave the mancave and head back to being a dad. ciao tc!
TK, Abram was maybe two months old, maybe, when Husband tossed him into the air the first time. My innitial reaction was 'Oh My GoD!!! What are you doing!!!!,' but I caught myself at just a quick breath, realising that, since they were over the couch, it was probably ok. I don't want to be an over-protective mom, but yeah, I was scared.
So, today was Abram's first trip to the movies. I thought long and hard about it, and decided that a 10am showing of Wanted couldn't be too crowded, and that if I really needed to, I would leave the theatre. So we got there, I even asked the poor Ticket Kid how crowded it was, and we went in. Abram was perfect. I was nervous, and when they did that 'please don't add your own soundtrack' clip, and the Baby cried, I was thinking, No, its not mine. The only things Abram did that weren't so great were spitting up all over me, and emptying his bowels, which required me to make use of the 'family restroom.' After a feeding and a changing, he actually fell asleep. Some of the loud noises startled him, but I held him close, and he stayed asleep until we left.
How was the movie? From a female perspective, I really thought, given the Names in the film, that it would have better acting. To me, it relied too heavily on the Names, graphics, and explosions, but thats just me; Husband loved it. - I did feel guilty about Abe watching a short sex scene, which was more clip than scene.
Sarah was he really looking at the screen? I remember hearing that if babies are watching the film they are less likely to figgit or cry. I always wondering if its the baby sitter when I see a baby being taken to a movie...like they snuck out with the child to catch a film. anyway..night y'all driving to the south coast tomorrow for lunch
Yes, Techno, he loves TV. I try to keep it to a minimum, but at the movie, he was so distracted, he didn't even know he was hungry, and I had a heck of a time getting him to take his bottle.
Greetings, TC... I hope everybody had a good 4th.
I spent the day up in Boston, which was a nice diversion from my usual day-off routine (i.e., sleep in, eat, watch TV). The ride on the Acela was great... It gave me a taste of the potential of high-speed rail in this country, but also showed how much further we still have to go.
I missed the fireworks and Boston Pops on the Charles River, as my return train to NYC left Boston at 9:45 PM. Although not an Acela train, we still made good time, and the ride quality was enhanced by the fact that the train was nearly empty; I had almost an entire car to myself, and was able to doze off a few times. For once, a train ride with no screaming infants or loud cell phone conversations. I arrived back at Penn Station at around 2 AM, and made it home about 40 minutes later.
The highlight of the trip was visiting the Harvard campus and Gund Hall, home of the Graduate School of Design. Despite having lived in Boston during the summer of 2000, and working just down the street from Havard and spending a lot of time hanging around in Harvard Square, I had never once bothered to venture through the gates into Harvard Yard itself... Who knows why. I wouldn't consider the campus as photogenic as Princeton or Yale (I've always loved gothic architecture on a college campus, as opposed to Harvard's red brick colonial style), but it was still a very nice campus.
Gund Hall was technically closed, but a security guard was kind enough to let me in to wander around a little bit. The first thing that struck me was the size of the place; it's several orders of magnitude larger than the architecture building at Princeton. The student work in display was of very high quality (IMO), and ranged from generative blobs to more orthogonal modernism. As with Princeton, it's refreshing to see a wide variety of student work on display, as opposed to dozens of projects that all look the same. The trays themselves -- GSD's name for the open studio spaces -- were virtually deserted, but it was still nice to get a look. I'm looking forward to getting back up there for a more in-depth visit when classes are actually in session.
Boston itself was interesting. A few things have changed, but most of it hasn't. Leave New York or Chicago for eight years and you won't even recognize the city when you get back, but Boston seems stuck in a time warp... And I get the impression that's exactly how they want it. I was saddened, however, to discover that my favorite brunch place in Brookline is apparently no longer in business.
I had a pretty negative impression of Boston when I lived there in 2000, and although my attitudes have changed a great deal since that time, the city still feels like a very alien place to me. I'd consider it one of the most beautiful cities in the country, but in many neighborhoods it feels more like a colonial-themed amusement park than a real city. Philadelphia has a similar colonial charm, but much more urban grit to go along with it. And save for a few small areas, most of New York's colonial charm burnt down in 1835, or has since been bulldozed to make way for the city we know today.
Maybe the 4th of July is the wrong day to make such an assessment about Boston, since the city is overrun with tourists and much of the student population is away for the summer. Oddly enough, I lived in Boston during the summer, and all my prior visits have also been during the summer, so I've never really experienced the city during the regular academic year. GSD is having an open house in November, so I'll definitely make it back up there for that... It will be interesting to see if the city's vibe is any different then.
At any rate, it certainly made me realize just how "at home" I now feel here in NYC. My strong preference would be to stay here in NYC for grad school, but I would find it very hard to pass up an offer of admission to someplace like GSD or Princeton, especially if it came with some scholarship money attached. I guess I'll cross that bridge when I get to it, though.
LB - Was the proposed medical office building for St. Vincent?
: second item for meridian real estate.
LiG, you've seen Boston at it's best: the summer is really when it shines and feels MUCH more homey than during the year. The students truly invade all aspects of life and not many people who live there enjoy it. They can tend to make you feel like you don't fit in in your own city; like if you don't have a connection to one of the campuses in some way, you're shut out of the city life. (This is further exacerbated if you aren't even an alumnus of any of the institutions.)(and you WILL get asked that allllll the time... "where did you go to school??")
In many other cities the student population tends to be centered in one particular area, on one or two train lines, etc, and you can easily live life in denial of the students. In Boston, the students are EVERYWHERE; on every train line (except the blue line, and you will rarely use the blue line); pouring into every bar and lunch spot; and the streets are such that you can't really take shortcuts or skip around where they congregate, you are forced to go through them. I wouldn't mind this so much if the students were a minority of the population; but as +/- 300,000 descend upon a city of 3 million every year, (or only 600,000 residents of the actual neighborhoods of Boston!!), they are HIGHLY visible and can be HIGHLY aggravating. In September the spell of summer is popped and the city changes overnight on move-on weekend. Very different place...
Ok, discourse over. It's a very pretty city to visit, and if I had plenty of money, I would looooove to live there again someday.
Hmmm Gin begs the question "what happened in the summer of 2000?"
Hey all on my way to a birthday party, with booze and pulled pork. Have I mentioned how glad I am to be home? Anyway had loads of fish and sea crab for brunch and I am as happy as a...clam. Also took a detour on our way back to look at the wind farm. I felt I should of called WK at the sight - but she's en route to her dirty weekend in Hawaii. I'm not sure if "dirty" translates - I'm not meaning to be a cheek. Anyway there were about 20 wind turbines I couldn't determine the size much less see the base, but I guess they were about 30 - 40m diameters. Really gorgeous things, turning in the afternoon glow silent except for the wind in your ears :)
Anyway...off to enjoy some more food, booze and good company.
Summer 2000: I moved to Boston from Chicago on Memorial Day weekend to find a job and look for permanent housing while preparing to enroll in the Boston Architectural Center to finish my degree. I found a job soon enough, but had a much harder time finding housing. I thought I had a place lined up down in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood, but that abruptly fell through about two weeks before I had to vacate my temporary sublet in Brookline. I scrambled to find something else, but by that time I was competing with 300,000 other returning college students. Eventually I decided to move back to Chicago and crash in a friend's extra bedroom for a few weeks, rather than end up homeless in Boston. I ended up moving back to Chicago a week after Labor Day weekend.
that's the other thing about boston : all the apartments are taken by about april, for the coming september lease cycle. and pretty much the entire city housing stock runs on a school lease cycle. i've never seen a city so thoroughly dominated by it's students. the fullerton stop in chicago pales by comparison!
i'm sorry it was rough for you, LiG, but... better you learned it quick! took me years to figure this stuff out.
TECHNO : do you speak in a british accent???? i may have been voicing you wrong in my head all this time...
you've got everything right about boston, manta...and cambridge, somerville and medford, and any other metro boston area for that matter too. it's kinda funny how i stopped being able to tolerate college students the very day i stopped being one...ugh. my friends and i most often go to our regular bar in davis square, vaguely following an inverted academic calender, to take advantage of when it's least likely to be jammed wall-to-wall with tufts students.
Happy Sunday TC-
Ooh Atechno - I have an affinity for wind turbines too. They are so amazing.
I've never been to Boston but I hear nice things about it. Hopefully one day I'll get there to take in the sights. The old cities on along the eastern seaboard have always interested me. So much history. At times I can almost feel the spirit of those who fought so hard to found this country.
Anyway, my long weekend has been quite enjoyable. The weekend has been full of relaxation, yummy food, fireworks and friends. Last night my friend and I began the evening with a bottle of wine and a delicious pasta recipe (escarole, sweet Italian sausage and fresh herbs), followed by some great people watching in one of the alternative areas of the city at a music festival. Now I'm off to work in the yard some more. My mom brought me over some ornamental grasses to plant and I have six bags of river pebble to lay. Hope everyone enjoys the rest of their weekend. Ciao.
mantaray - how'd you know? But it does bleed into a heavy West Indian accent depending on whom I speak to.
Apparently I had too much fun last night at the birthday party. Oops some folks are offended. I guess I can't please everyone.
We had a fun interesting day even if it was a holiday weekend. Our client is opening their Italian Restaurante this coming week, so today
they brought in all the staff for a meeting. We weren't invited but showed up anyway. It was very informative, way beyond thinking about things in a code sorta way and even in a design sorta way. The owners are from the big apple and I must say I was impressed with the presentation to the staff. We also had some 5 star desert....which even made things better. The main contact on this project was totally in control of the meeting...and somehow managed to be sure His Architect had a Beer in his hand during the course of the meeting. I think he was trying to tell his staff something with this gesture....the something is take care of the customer and those who take care of you. It was a great gesture. This was once again reinforced when the Pastry Chef brought out of the kitchen not one but two plates of desert form Mrs B and myself....and this is the stuff you would put a fork in someones hand if they tried to steal just a fork full. The wonderful thing about this kind of experience is that I will help us in our next project in the design process, and in the process of interacting with the owners. I'm sure the next client (who happens to be on board) will be dazzled with my questions regarding function of his resturant. The other aspect of this kind of experience is that we have taken our client to the next level and they are friends...and our best marketing tool is friends.
Good Morning!
Techno, you liked Wanted? Really? Did I mention before that I thought it was not so good? I'm being lazy, and don't feel like re-reading my posts, and I can't remember much these days, so forgive me if I'm repeating myself.
On another note, Abram doesn't seem to like Avocados. I don't like them either, they taste metalic to me, but I'm really trying. Abe has had them twice now, and he just doesn't get too excited about them. Too bad. He's going to continue to eat them for at least 8 more times - they say it takes 8-10 tries before your taste buds develope a taste for something. Explains so much, huh.
WWTCD? Should I make him eat avocados, and like them, before moving on to bananas? Maybe, after we get through bananas, I will start letting you guys decide what he eats. Its all a grand experiment anyway, might as well let you in on the fun!
Good morning,
I had car trouble over the weekend. So i came in late to work so that i could drop my car off at the shop.
Hopefully, the issue won't take up my entire stimulus check (i just recieved).
Also, Sarah, they taste metallic? What a shame i love avocados...
my 1 yr old is NUTS about avocados - more specifically guacamole. she'll dig in and take a fistful if allowed. but...i'd try the few times, like they say, and then let it be.
my 3 yr old won't touch 'em - nor much else that isn't white: banana after peeling, yogurt, bread, milk, etc.
Sarah I did like Wanted...but I'm a guy and it was the first time I had been in a cinema for over a year. I also needed to see a bit of gratuitous violence. Sarah, the metalic taste could be coming from the knife you use to cut it, sounds weird but true. Try cutting it with a plastic fork or clean your knife with lime juice before cutting. Something about avocados makes absorb other flavours a little too well.
Ooh, I just made guacamole for the first time about 2 weeks ago. I generally don't go on recipes for something like this so it was an improvised mix of avocados, salt, pepper, onion, jalapeno peppers, cilantro and lime juice all proportioned by taste. People seemed to enjoy it and even commented it was the first time they've actually liked guac. I left out the tomato because that was during the whole salmonella scare. I was going to add some tomatillos but forgot.
guacamole is ok, i usually dont use it when making mexican, avocado on the hand is used alot, i put it in sushi as well (when ever i make it).
sarah- it may be the avocados, not your taste buds. avoid those pale green giants from florida - too watery and tasteless. go for california/mexican Haas (the dark wrinkled ones) for flavor (and make sure they are ripe).
bananas tend to be a favorite with kids, so wait till you get the avo into abe.
the research has shown it takes more like 12-16 times till kids like it (according to mrs. tk), but 8-10 times is a good run, then you can move on.
Ok, you two should put up some sort of dixclaimer or announcement when posting back to back. Just saying.
Any comments as to whether I should mix the Avocado with thr Rice cereal and milk to make it taste a bit more familiar?
And Techno, I will try using something else to cut it next time. I have to admit, I was a little bit over-excited to cut the avocado the first time. I giggled as I pulled my Wustoff from the block, grinned while rolling the avocado on the blade, and was a bit over-zealous when I wacked the blade into the pit to remove it. Oh, good times! Makes me wish I really did like them, cause cutting them was FUN!!!
Oh, TK, I guess I had forgotten the actual number, I just remember it was a lot more than twice, and figured 8-10 seemed like a lot. And you're right, it may have been the fruit. They only had two choices at Wal-Mart (yes, I'm poor, and shop at WM - this isn't the Green thread), and they were black-purple Haas that looked more like prunes, and I thought they looked too dry and over ripe, and then some Organic ones from CA, that were a little smoother, and had a slight hint of green in the skin. Maybe they werent ripe? Husband didn't seem much to mind. There is one left, maybe it will be better by Saturday?
i had some car trouble as well, nam...i went in to get my car inspected to kick off my mini-vaca, and ended up $630 lighter than when i went in there 2 hours before. so it was my stimulus check and then some...everything is hitting at once with my sweet, sweet corolla.
it made for a bitter 4th of july, but i got my damn sticker!
SH - I forgot to change my name after the whole "Philarious" Thread Central incident. Will do as soon as I can think of a new one...
I could never do that whole taking-out-the-avocado-seed-by-wacking-it-with-the-blade deal. Too dangerous for something I can do easily with a spoon...
NO, its not dangerous, you put a towel between the fruit and your hand. You should try it, its fun! And, to remove the pit from the knife, you turn the knife over, and simply push the pit away from the blade - just turn the knife over first, or it could get messy.
SH - Avacados can be hit or miss. Sounds like you might have gotten a miss. If they looked dried out, they were probably over ripe.
mfrech and nam - I've recently had to put quite a good chunk o' change into my car. But with over 120,000 miles it turns out the things I had to get replaced had worked long past the time they were expected to.
I currently am not feeling well and am wondering if I shouldn't head home. I was very light-headed there for a while and my stomach acids are out of sorts. I hate going home sick esp. after a long weekend.
Hope everyone's post July 4th Monday is going well.
woohoo, tk now has an intern/research assistant starting today for the rest of the summer. Smart kid studying interior design.
and sarah, WM is a greener corporation these days then tahrzey. don't be embarrassed.
Regarding avocados,
I actually like the Big light green florida ones sometimes.
They are a more fresher, lighter taste than the creamier haas's.
Plus, they are usually huge and cheap (but then again i am in florida).
As for shopping at Walmart vs Target. I shop at Walmart all the time.
Where else can i by underwear and a car jack at 2 in the morning?
Plus, as TK said they are getting much more green now.
Finally congrats TK. Does this mean you one of "The Man" now.
this just in
Phil joined a band
its awesome, im the drummer and from time to time
i whip out the sax
sweet
nam- i've been slipping towards that blurry line for while. it's more like i'm go-to guy for the bosses the 'the man'.
hi gang! Just checking in from my Hawaiian "dirty weekend" as techno called it, which is actually more of a week and a half, and I'm doing well. WonderMan, his doggie and I hiked a gorgeous trail yesterday that led us through a rainforest. WonderDoggie, a 10-pound chihuahua-terrier mix, kept watch on the trail for us and made sure we kept going if we started to get tired. It was hilarious. We finally reached a ridge and saw the extent of the trail, which looked like something out of Lord of the Rings, and decided to turn around, and save it for another day. WonderDoggie is now asleep next to me as I write this :o)
All told, it's really lovely here. I'm going to the beach today, downtown to look at buildings tomorrow. Sarah, I too love avocados, and encourage you to try with Abram a little more. I'm going to put some on my sandwich today, in fact.
OK, I'm off. Cheers!
Wonder K, Pooche and Man glad to see you are all doing well.
My favourite vegatarian sarnie is avocado slices on whole wheat yum. Season with a little tomato pesto and you are in the business. I usally peel my avocado, long slices from top to bottom at the end you are left with just the...seed. Also in J'ca we call avocados pears...I'm not sure why maybe mighty or TK knows.
And I went into a kitchen emporium today owned by a friend whose husband owns a chair of steak houses on island, including on at the new Errol Flynn/James Bond marina in Port Antonio - I'll make sure to take the camera for that trip!!
Ok, guys. So I have asked a window question on the 'wooden windows' thread, and I'm going to need some advice before wednesday evening (thats Texas time). So, if you can advise, that would be great.
*Oh, and that really wasn't meant to come across all "I'm gonna need those TPS Reports."
Phil....just don't whip out the sex....once and a while or you may be looking at some time behind bars.
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