A little night music

Shamisen = a plucked japanese lute

Kev and I went to see this great band (Hiromitsu Agastsuma) last night at Wesleyan. I read about them here and heard an audio clip on this page. Since Wesleyan is only 15-20 minutes away and the show was a mere $5, it sounded like a great idea. And It Was! The band had this great chemistry and they were all smiles. There were four musicians, playing the bass and guitar, drums, keyboard and the highlight instrument - the shamisen.

The shamisen most closely looks like a banjo, but the sound is definately different. He played the strings against the drum-like part with what Kev and I both thought looked like a cheap ice scraper (shown above, only his was leopard print, how cool?). And the top part of the instrument had beautiful glass tuneing "wings".

The music was great. There were some traditional Japanese folk songs and some jams and they even threw in some true rock rifts. If anyone is interested, they have two cds available, Beams and Agatsuma. Although Agatsuma is categorized as an import and outrageously priced. I'm going to check the stores.

Yum, A Soymilk Chai

Lately, instead of straight coffee I have been getting chai tea. Yum! Java City doesn't carry soy milk, so I have been getting it with regular milk. I don’t turn my nose up at the cow’s milk and drink it when I run out of soy. But the point is, if I have a choice - it is definitely soy (gotta be Silk brand!).

Being an enterprising gal, I brought my own soy milk over to Java City and my chai is better than ever! The regular guy wasn't there, though, so I had to cart my half gallon back over to work versus storing it there. Looking slightly foolish with a milk carton in hand is a small price to pay. The coffee lady even gave me a discount since I supplied the milk. What a deal!?

If any of you haven't tried Silk soymilk yet (dad) go get some today. Silk was recently named the best tasting soymilk in the United States by Consumer Reports Magazine.

A page a day does not cut it

Right after I went to see Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers, I was determined to read the second book. I finished the Hobbit right before we watched the first one and read the Fellowship of the Ring about six months after watching the movie. I am more than 100 pages into the book but since I have been in the process of reading it for over a month, I think I might have to put it off.

It doesn't help that I have been reading books on HTML, blogging and taking tutorials on whatever other computer stuff I can get my hands on. I am waiting for a book on PHP in the mail, something I can use as a reference. This computer stuff is just blowing my mind.

On another note... After being a die hard internet explorer fan, I totally think Netscape blows IE away. Download version 7.0 Now!

Peaceful exercise

My mom and I went cross country skiing on saturday and I brought along my work digicam. This was my favorite photo.

I haven't been out since last year, so my muscles were not ready for the workout. I was asleep by 9:30pm. I do love it though because it is so peaceful and quiet and there are never very many people out. Uphill is a killer, though.

Superbowl Monday Should be a Holiday

The game was a disapointment, but I came home $10 richer since I had 3-3 in the pool. Number one superbowl mistake - realizing on saturday at 8:30 that we forgot to pick up some beer (since liquor stores close at 8 and aren't open on sunday). Whoops. Luckily Jay and Katie had gotten a little extra. Number one superbowl event - the food. Yum, we had wings from J. Timothys, home made chili with homemade cornbread, a six foot sub, chinese, shrimp and of course chips and dip. The fussball table rounds out second!

Hope everyone had a great night.

13:32

That was the score of "cupband" - You have to get creative when you are stuck in the elevator. Yup, I went out to get a cup of chai tea with Rocco and took the elevator up to the third floor only the elevator doors didn't open. They didn't open! (worth repeating) It took about 3 minutes to drink the chai and then there was nothing. Rocco and I are normally pretty chatty but the conversation was pretty forced. Being stuck in a 5'5" by 4'; room sure can make someone closterphobic and I was so convinced it would shake every once and awhile.

About 30 minutes in, we came up with cupband. The game takes no skill, just an empty cup and large rubber bands. Thank you Kimberly for giving Rocco the large rubber bands, for without them we would have gone insane! We tossed them like horseshoes over the cup. One of those games you would never play unless that was ALL you have.

All in all, we were in there for exactly one hour. Fireman ended up prying the door open to let us out. Nothing too crazy but certainly out of the ordinary.

The Last to Know

My company has all of eight people and there is even another company of two on our floor. Working in a small company has some great benifits - you get a lot of feedback; I know everyone pretty well; my whole company made it to the christmas diner; and on any given day I get the ladies bathroom as my own (only 2 full-time ladies and 2 part-time).

Our 'monday morning meetings' were abolished, and lately I have no idea what is going on. I found out yesterday that Josephine and I will be sharing our little back office with a new guy from the other company. Then I found out that our company is trying to hire a field researcher and has already held an interview. Our floor is going to increase by 20%, and we are the last to know.

Idolize This

Kev and I have been watching the American Idol tryouts. I never got into it last season, but we flipped it on to see what it is all about. I think the tryouts have got to be the best parts because they are just short little clips of the good and the bad and the very bad. I wonder what people are doing going out there who must know they can not sing. And what about the people's friends who are egging them on. I wonder if some of these people are going on a dare or just for the hell of it to make a fool out of themselves.

The bad thing about catching these fun episodes is that I am so easily sucked in. It's the vaccum effect.

Franco Sarto = Sucess

I had a special meeting this morning with other people in the real estate industry and I have been going extra crazy to get the perfect outfit. Most of the guys wear suits so I wanted to get a pants suit or dress suit that was warm enough for the deep freeze. I got the most beautiful outfit the other day, black skirt and jacket with pink shirt. Came back home to remember I had donated my black *skirt shoes* to salvation army many moons ago.

So yesterday after work I headed over the mall for an all out shoe marathon. The mall is such a horrible place and it is so huge that I always want to leave as soon as I get in there. But I had a mission and I brought home some awesome shoes and even treated myself to a large Mrs. Field's chocolate cookie. Yum!

Holiday Traffic

On my way into work this morning I was amazed at how light the traffic was and then remembered that I was one of the few lucky people working on the holiday. I will treat myself to an early leave, though. Have a good afternoon!

I have never worked behind the counter

Kurt gave us some Dunkin Donuts coffee the last time we were over at their place. I have been wanting to get a coffeemaker, so that lent the perfect opportunity. We picked up the cheapest model, which consits of a Braun $19.99 special and I had a coupon that saved us an additional $4. I finally got a chance to brew up the D&D today. I never know how much to add and the side of the bag indicates 2 Tablespoons for 6 oz. I hate when they say it like that too, because I have no idea how many ounces I want to drink. I checked and 6 oz is .75 cups so I figured I would just toss in a little more and see what happens. It seems like I put A LOT of coffee in there and I think I may have overdone it because I am pretty wired at the moment and I didn't even finish my cup. I'll have to work on that one because it just didn't taste as good as when we go to the store. I love love love Dunkin Donuts.

Just a note - the side of the bag also indicates not to leave the coffee on the burner for more than 18 minutes. Hmmm...interesting. Who came up with that? Was someone in charge of determining the exact moment when coffee is no longer at it's prime? And we all know that the stores are not taking it off after 18 minutes. Actually, I have no idea about that as I have never actually worked behind the counter of a Dunkin Donuts so I shouldn't claim to have this insider information.

I'll be off to the casino in a few, where I can make full use of my caffine craziness, assuming the required *after caffine nap* doesn't take hold first.

Visualize Whirled Peas

I was listening to NPR today on my way home and they were giving a lot of airtime to the antiwar movement. If you're interested, check out this site. It is a good one. Their thought is to let the inspections have a chance to work. You can sign a petition or just get more info. I can't believe our intentions are "the best" here. And I find it odd that we want to preemptively strike them down but the gov has taken the opposite approach to North Korea. I wish we would concentrate more on creating peace instead of creating enemies.

There are going to be some anti-war protests this weekend and I'll be interested to see how much coverage they get.

From Soup to Nuts...

"Your love of life will carry you through any circumstance. Lucky Numbers 8, 11, 15, 21, 33, 34"

Can anyone please tell me what that fortune really means? Isn't that a delighful way of saying nothing. We went out to eat at Charkoon tonight and ate a little Thai food, which I couldn't really taste since I have no taste buds (another downside of being sick). And they gave us fortune cookies after.

I wonder if anyone has ever brought their fortune to the market and played their "lucky numbers". Maybe I'll give it a shot. Lotto, here I come!

My Rudolph Nose

I was trying to avoid it, but I am definatly...Sick! Yuck. Kevin was sick all last week so I pumped up on the water and vitamins, but it was all in vain because my nose is bright red. I can lead that sleigh, Santa!! My eyes are puffy and watering and don't even get me started on my sore throat.

It is so tough to work when you are sick. I had to read everything three times because I couldn't pay attention. I came home for lunch though, so that was pretty refreshing. Second dose of DayQuil. What would I do without DayQuil and the even better NiQuil?

I decided to stick it out at work, though, since I am working on a commission basis. Semi productive is better than not productive at all. I am not quite sure where on that productivity scale I ended up performing at, though. Maybe only slightly above staying in bed snuggled under my warm down comforter.

Scrollbar solved?

Well, it looks like the scrollbar colors are there when using Internet Explorer 5.5. I'll keep working on it to see if I can get it to work on 6.0 also.

Houdini Scrollbar Act

I spent an endless amount of time in front of the computer last night trying to
figure out how to get my scrollbar to change colors. I found a great tutorial at EchoEcho.com and was able to stick in the colors I wanted and came out with my cool scrollbar, which had a beautiful cranberry front (my favorite color) and tan background. After A LOT of trial and error to adjust my css template I finally got it to work. Got in this morning and to my dismay...not working here. Could it be that my computer at home is special? Or by some grace of lucifer the whole thing doesn't want to work anymore since Evelyn can't see it either? Oh well, I will figure this out!

"ha! welcome to the wonderful world of web design." Words of wisdom from Evs on these *wonderful* learning experiences.

One day I will come to you for a favor...

My sister and brother-in-law asked me today if I would be Kelly's godmother. Of course I said "YES!". Ahh, I am so excited!

More time wasted...

I waited in line for 30 minutes this afternoon to get my car washed. I looked at the clock at 4:33 and it was 5:00 when the door opened for me to get in. I love having a nice shiny car, but that car wash is so overpriced and during a portion of it the hoses are definatly pointed away from my car. I do not like the idea of wasting all that water, but i figure a wash every once and awhile especially in the winter is good. I heard it isn't supposed to rain or snow for the next week, so now was the perfect time.

I finally got the shop that put on my new tires to realign my car. You had to hold the steering wheel at a 30 degree angle to go straight. I got so much slack from the people behind the counter when I tried to bring it in on friday. The sister store near my place came up with so many excuses why it could be messed up (most of which either involved me being an idiot or a bad driver). I swear, they never would have told Kevin - "It's the snow" or "you might have bent something". Puh-lease!!

Today I brought it to the original store (further away) and was pleased that they finally stepped up to the plate and fixed it for free, as they should! I didn't even have an alignment problem before they stuck their hands under there!

2 Hours of My Life - Wasted!

I went to the movies last night to see adapation and was sooo disapointed. I could be convinced that it was a literary masterpiece because it didn't involve any flashy storyline or intresting plot but that just doesn't make it easy to sit for two hours and watch. I considered closing my eyes about 100 times.

The whole night wasn't ruined, though, we had some amazing chicken wings before the show. Yum!

The money pit

I finally made it back to the gym today. I haven't been since early October. Let's see, that means that just about $90 has been washed up in my laziness. I guess if I go every day this month, that'll make up for it. Too bad that is as likely as me wining the powerball jackpot and I already know that I didn't win that one, better chance of getting hit by lighting twice in one day.

On the low end of the learning curve

I just had moveable typeinstalled on my website and I am in the process of moving through the manual to figure out the ins and outs of posting to my website. It is interesting how much there is to learn. I had a pretty lame static website a couple of years ago when I went to Europe, but I have got visions of greatness for this website.

I have been facinated by how quickly the time flies when I am trying to figure out all this strange computer language and by how isolationistic it is. I am on the phone or out in my car so much at my job but you could really get lost in the computer if this was your job. It is sort of like going to Foxwoods at 11pm and wandering around playing some slots or getting a drink at the bar and you have no idea what is going on outside or what time it is because that place is it's own universe. Scary!

I must say, though, that I am having a blast.

Let it Snow

Jan 6 - We took this picture yesterday in a nearby retail shopping parking lot. We were driving by and were so amazed at how much snow we got and this pile was too irresistable. There was actually a couple of guys doing the same thing - jumping around in the snow and taking pictures of the enormous mound. If snow wasn't so cold, it would be even more fun. And to my dismay I lost my millionth pair of gloves and had to clean the car off this morning and this afternoon with chilled fingers. Yes, there was fresh snow before AND after work to clear off.

A White New Year

Yeah, my first post of the new year! It has been snowing lions and bears here (instead of raining cats and dogs). I think we got over a foot from yesterday morning to this morning. I was having the axels in my car replaced so I borrowed Kevins car. that was interesting because the heat turns on when it wants to basically and it didn't seem to want to turn on for me. I was working in Fairfield County and ended up going to four towns and then headed home. So I kept having to pull over and scrape the ice from the windshield wipers since the defroster wasn't doing it's job. It got pretty bad in Waterbury but then miraculously the heat returned (horay for my feet, too, which were mighty chilled). It was slow going but not bad on the highway and luckily all the places I was working and looking at were on main roads. My job is great because I get to see all these different CT towns, but when it snows like that - it sucks. Yes, I could of had an office day but I am behind in getting all this information for comparable sales so I braved the storm. For some reason I thought I could beat it home too, but I ended up home at 6:00pm right in the thick of things.

We braved the storm in the evening too, and went to see Catch Me if You Can, which I thought was pretty good. The opening credits were awesome. I also liked the way they moved scenes forward and backward in time. There were about 20 people total in the theatre. For some reason I think people like to go out to the movies when it's snowing.