School's out for summer!

Hello world!
I'm back after 2 weeks of coughing blood, (literally) feverishly writing a term paper, and cramming for a quantum exam in far too little time. It's amazing how much a week of being debilitatingly ill can screw up your schedule.

Anyhow, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth, and now that I'm not displaying tubercular symptoms any longer I imagine I'll be posting with more regularity.

Also, just a heads up, my goal for the summer is to complete at least 3 MAKE projects, so I'll post the results here. My first project is one I'd meant to do last summer but never got around to, which is to build a kite-borne aerial-photography rig (don't worry dad, my digital camera will stay earth-bound: the rig mounts disposable cameras).

When geeks have too much time on their hands

24: The Day After

Hopefully this title doesn't attract too many Jack Bauer googlers, as this post has nothing to do with the most formulaic of the non-crime dramas on television today (though I suppose terrorism IS a crime, I meant crime drama as in the CSIs and Law And Orders that air on every channel).

Nope, this post has to do with my age. As of yesterday. I have officially survived the second least exciting birthday to precede age 25 (with 17 being a close 3rd, but 20 edging both out by virtue of its proximity to 21). First off, thanks to all the folks who wrote on my wall (facebook), twittered me (twitter), called me (sorry my phone died Alyssa and Grandma), came out on Saturday (you know who you are), and made me breakfast and won me a pie (Leorah). The bulk of my celebrating was dinner with friends at Ajia followed up with pool at Roosevelt's.

So Ajia is an all-you-can-eat (-before-getting-sick-of-the-terrible-service) sushi resturant, and so far is the second best sushi-shop I've tried in philly (though that's not saying much). Eating at Ajia is a once-a-year tradition for me and my friends, as we love sushi and CAN eat a lot, but only once-a-year as the service is so comically bad that one visit gives us at least a year's worth of stories. This time it was particularly interesting as Spring Fling at UPenn coincided with this weekend. A party of about 15 drunken fratboys (and their sorority entourage) had virtually taken over the resturant, creating a huge ruckus and being generally disruptive. Ajia is BYOB, so these guys had brought a whole keg into the restaurant, and were doing keg stands and beer bongs all night. It was hilarious to see the two super-polite women serving their table trying to cope with the spilled beer and disruptive behavior, though it meant waiting an hour and a half for our food.

Roosevelt's could probably sneak its way onto my top 10 list of places to hang out in Philly. Saturdays they have a $10 cover, but inside there's free hot wings and roast beef, and a penny well from 10-12. The place tries to cater to 30-somethings working and living nearby in center city, but their great deals and the fact that they are just across the bridge from Penn draws a lot of older undergrads and many grad students as well. We got there right at 10, and were able to keep the pool table the whole night.

I got a sweet new laptop bag from the folks. If you are in the market I highly recommend the bags from Pacific Designs. I also got some Amazon $$$, which I think I may save till the next iPod update.

All in all it was a satisfying and restful birthday. Thanks to everyone!

Of Easter and Traditions

I had a wonderful Easter today. Leorah had bought a bunch of candy and made me an Easter basket and hidden eggs around the house when I woke up this morning. It was really sweet and cute of her, though now we have pounds of candy to tempt us. Lucky you if you work with me: expect candy on my desk tomorrow! After the egg hunt I made us a yummy omelet, took a 2 hour break, then returned to spend the next few hours in the kitchen cleaning and making a ham dinner. Ham is pretty essential to my memories of Easter, as much so as chocolate and eggs, and it started me thinking about my family's traditions in general.

In my family certain holidays have certain meals associated with them (ham for Easter, cioppino on X-mass eve, corned beef on St. Patty's, and of course turkey for Turkey Day). On other holidays we may not have a specific dish or meal, but we always tend to celebrate with a big meal (with a few exceptions: I can't think of any big Halloween dinners in my past). Even now that it's just me and Leorah on most holidays I usually find myself cooking more than enough food to feed a family of four (or provide us with leftovers for a couple weeks).

Cooking's not our only tradition, but it is the one that always leaves me the most satisfied when I can't visit home for a holiday, and it's the one I miss the most when I don't celebrate something. Do any of you (the two people who've been checking the blog consistently) have any traditions that you value the way I do food? What is it, and why is that tradition important to you? Leave your answers in the comments (ooh, that request made me feel so bloggerific!).

This week: a retrospective

So this weeks been a bit crazy. Leorah's been in Charleston visiting the folks, so I've been having to run home earlier and more often to walk the dog. It was also the last week that I TA labs this semester, and I managed to forget to show up for one of them! I've also hit another hitch with my research so I've been having to contact venders about a custom made part, which is probably the most time-wasting and boring part of getting an experiment off the ground.

The theme for the week has been unhealthy eating: I started the week out with a chicken fried steak on Sunday, and followed it up with pizza, ice cream, chili (right before a soccer game: bad idea), peanut-butter cookies, easter candy (thanks for the care package mom, dad, and josh!), and so on. I've come to the conclusion that one unhealthy food week a year is sufficient to remind me how great vegetables are. Still, I'm going to go out with a bang and make an Easter ham on Sunday.

I also got my beta copy of Joost this week. So far it's great. I can see it being a much more effective tool for targeted marketing than conventional cable, and once they resolve some buffering issues, and get a bit more content services like this could really give Crapcast a run for its money.

Oh yeah, HORSIES!!! These are the pics from last Saturday at the horse farm Leorah rides at:

This is Leorah and 'her' horse Louie (the cheeky one chewing on her arm). That dark horse behind them is Chapter, a former racehorse, and the horse of the farm's owner.

Here's Chapter and Louie running.

Here's Louie running some more.

Here's Chapter showing some interest in my camera.

This is Colin, a pretty white horse that hangs out with Louie and Chapter alot.





Here's another pretty horse. I forgot his name.




Here's Colin again. He really is all white. He just needs a good brushing.




And she wonders why he always nibbles at her hands!




Colin and Chapter




Colin eating




Probably my favorite part of the farm. Fat dogs.




Here's my favorite pic of Louie





This is why our help was needed: a driving competition. This is Louie's half-sister.




More chubby dogs.

I'm not lazy, really!

I know I promised horsey pics, then haven't posted for two consecutive days. Monday was crazy busy, and today I had batch-photo-uploading issues. I just got back from flying into a overly-dramatic-in-hopes-of-a-discount rage at a cricketless Petsmart, so I'm pretty pooped today too. As soon as the SmugMug uploader stops choking on my 350-photo upload I promise I'll make the aforementioned post, but it may well be late tomorrow that that happens.

I'm faaaaat.

I just got back from brunch at the wonderful Honey's of Northern Liberties. I made the mistake of having the chicken fried steak. It was wonderful, and for some bizarre reason I was craving some southern style fried food. But now I'm fat.

On an unrelated note, archery didn't happen yesterday, but Dan and I are going to go bow shopping this week sometime. I feel almost like Nicholas Cage from The Weatherman. I bet cabbies will treat me better if I've got a bow and arrows strapped on my back as I bike around town.

Pics of horsies tomorrow!