Why do i never want to drink tea again...?

So, i am sure you have heard of Christine O'Donnell and what a useless waste she is and how she is insulting to women politicians and probably women in general?

IF you hadn't or if you had any doubt. Watch this (remember she's running for SENATE):



Now, I was under the impression that all the Senate did was make amendments, like the first one, to the constitution... what does she think she is running for? Miss Tea Party?

If it was a sure thing before that she would lose the election, it sure seems it now. PS. if you haven't seen any of the other debates, check them out. To me, Chris Coons seems like such a reasonable fellow, and I think we need more people like him in the Senate. Maybe that's just me...I like him!

P.S. If you go to her website: ElectChristineODonnell.org you'll see she spelled her own name wrong. Gawker caught it, so it may be gone by the time you read this, but as of right now, it's spelled O'Donnel... scary. just scary.

Amazing!

Holy Moly. Some crazy shit is going down. But, I encountered something so amazeballs that I needed to shout it from the rooftops. However, since I live in an apartment without roof access, shouting it from the blogsphere will have to suffice.

These:

best. ever. I am a long time Special K fan - except the freeze dried fruit. i hate that shit. - and this is the best yet. Plus - wicked cheap in the caloric intake and on the purse (on sale 2 boxes for $5).

Kellogg, you win this round.

(Practically) Wordless Wednesday

Did you watch Glee? I did. Good episode, but they always are. Here is what really stood out to me:

Gleisand!

yeah...

This post is brought to you today by Polyvore

So, most days I go to work dressed pretty much like this:

I wear trousers/khakis, flats, a buttondown shirt, and my trusty Timbuk2 messenger bag. Not too bad. It's classy, work appropriate, but it's just a little, well, boring. Am I right?

Today I woke up feeling like I needed a change; like today was different. I decided to mix things up a bit. I stepped away from the khakis and wore an outfit more like this:

Ta da! A skirt! Leggings! Mid-calf boots with heels! HEELS! Now that is what I call an outfit! I have been thinking recently that I should be dressing more like this, and less like what I usually wear. This morning, T told me that I looked "professional, but cute" which was pretty much what I was going for.

I think I am going to dressing like this more often.

Robot Stuff! Warning: this could be the start of a post series

My bestie Beckles gave me a really cute necklace a few weeks ago. “But, why are you telling me?” you may be asking yourself. Well, here’s why:

Look familiar? Take a gander at the banner at the top of this page. Go ahead, I’ll wait… … … back? Cool right? That’s one of many reasons why she is awesome and my biffle. She got it at Forever21 but I checked and I did not see anymore in store or online. They do have some cute things to ogle so take a look: http://www.forever21.com/.

But, that got me thinking. Could there be a way to incorporate robots into my wardrobe? Of course there is! In fact, there are many ways! Today, I will demonstrate by doing some variations on a theme: robot jewelry.

When I was looking for some more jewelry I found the mother load of cute in the form of the Etsy shop Picobaby.  Observe:

I died. This is bananas. I think the two best parts of the store is that all of the robots are made out of used computer parts (I can see some screws, an electrolytic capacitor, and perhaps a servo part or two) and there are a ton of different styles to choose from. Oh yeah, and it’s not too expensive. This one is $35 + shipping. Not too shabby. For more, go here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/Picobaby.

Next up we have some more major league cuteness:

How cute is that?! Almost too cute. This offering comes from Kittyrobot and she has some wicked cute stuff that I totally advise checking out. And, she doesn’t just do robots because she is aware that robots are not everyone’s thing. For more Kittyrobot goodness check her out here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/kittyrobot.

And the last of the Etsy offerings:

I am a huge fan of Dr. Who, so when I saw this I did a happy dance in my chair. T was worried. When the happy dance was over I checked out more from Casstasstrophe and I was even more elated. In her own words “Your finest source for smart intellectual jewelry for the classy nerd, geek, or dork in your life (scientists, engineers and science fiction enthusiasts too)!” How me is that?! She has some really, really great stuff, mostly black, metal silhouette kind of jewelry, but I highly recommend checking out her store: http://www.etsy.com/shop/casstasstrophe. She rocks!

And for the more brand oriented folk:

At almost $100 this one is a little too pricy for me. But, if I could afford to spend moneys on such things, I would totally get one. And probably several of the other geeky charms they have to offer. And a lot of other stuff from Nordstrom too!

So, that's my robot necklace post. Tune in for the next installment of this series (date TBD) where I talk about where to get Rocketship pieces. And perhaps other stuff! Hooray!

Happy October!

Wow is it October? Really? Where did the summer go? Where did September go for that matter?! I hate when that happens. Oh well.

So, here’s the plan. I have decided that I want to make some short term goals for myself. And I have some October goals, and here they are:

• Blog more
• Already in progress – go team! What’s next?
• Lose weight
• Ah, my good friend, how are ya? It’s that one on the list that is always, always there. I guess consistency is good right? Right?!
• Go apple picking and bake things out of the apples
• Fun no? I think apple picking is one of the best parts of fall and October is a great time to do it.
• Take a mini-break
• Yes, yes it is all very Bridget Jones, I am taking a super secret long weekend away with T. More on that to come, but for now it is a secret.
• Not buy shoes, boots included
• I have shoes. I have boots. Lots of them. I need to be saving up some moneys and I think my shoe budget is one of the things that will have to take a hit – especially this month due to mini-break.
• Train for Roller Derby
• Surprisingly the Roller Derby idea was not a fly-by-night thing and I am still training for try-outs. There is a workshop for it later this month I will be attending (I may even blog about it! Imagine!)
• Start boot camp
• This one is a maybe. More on it to come, but for a sneak peak, go here: bcor.com
• Rethink the blog and start being more organized with posts
• I have been reading other blogs and have been getting ideas, so I think now is a good a time as any for some retooling.

So, I see big things for October. Stay tuned!

aaaaaaaaaand I'm back!

Oh Hai, I has been buzy…

So, I am so sorry that I have not blogged in forever and a day. The summer has just been super duper busy! I didn’t really have any real long vacations or anything, but between my job, my family, and my social life, it’s a wonder I can sleep (sometimes I don’t ). I have been working late nights a lot and have come home to do some extra work remotely after office hours. So, lots and lots of working! But I guess I have to pay for my lavish and luxurious lifestyle somehow!

I also had a crazy short mini-break with my extended family in the Poconos, which was hectic and nutty (just like my relatives!), followed the very next weekend by my parents showing up at my house surprising me by having my brother sleep on my couch through Monday. And I didn’t have off from work that Monday either so you can imagine how pleased I was at that. Still, the visit was still nice. It took a while for me and T to recover from the family visits, but we have finally gotten caught up and back on track with our lives.  Well mostly…now I am going to write as if I never left!

A few weekends ago T’s dad visited and he brought us a really nice antique table. Before I had a wicked cute, albeit small, table and chair set from Ikea:

And here is the new one!

And in an act of philanthropy and do-gooder-ness I called up a local donation place and they took it off for charity.  Only one problem we also gave away our chairs along with the table…d’oh!

Isn’t it pretty though? T’s dad got if from their neighbor’s house after he passed away and left T’s family (actually T but that’s another story…) all his worldly goods. It’s a real honest to goodness antique, one of my firsts really. Oh wait, not the first, the chairs were the firsts. The chairs we have had and were being used as nice decorative pieces rather than seating. They are actually date back to the 1820s (ish), the same as my house! That’s another story that is also for another day. This day is for the table. Which is pretty and nice. One of the best parts is that it comes complete with leaves that enable it to fit like a bunch more people…now we just need 2 – 4+ more chairs…

I promise to blog more and to include more pictures and stuff. I missed it a lot and I look forward to turning a new leaf with the onset of fall (pun, sadly, intended).

I need a vacation from my vacation

I am too tired to do anything. I just got back from vacationing with my family and I am sooooo tired. I am too tired to type.

good entry...

A Pop-up Restaurant? What's that?

Well, I’ll tell ya! Let me explain: a pop-up restaurant is when a restaurant is conceived, assembled, opened, and closed all in a very short amount of time. Basically an empty space is transformed into a restaurant like poof magic sparkles! Ever seen those cooking competition shows where they have to sit down and think of a restaurant and it is only open for that one night? That is a pop-up. And this week I got to go to one! Let me back up. The restaurateur I have mentioned before, Stephen Starr, did this experiment where he teamed up with chefs from around the city and worked with them to put together pop-up restaurants where they are the executive chefs and he is like the financier or investor. He only plans to do three this summer, one with Aimee Olexy, the chef and owner (I think) of Talula’s Table  to do the first one. I didn’t go to that one. The second one was with Konstantinos Pitsillides of Kanella this was the one I got to go to. The third has not even happened yet but it will be featuring one of the cheftestants from the current season of Bravo’s Top Chef, which is kind of cool.

So Kanella. Oh Kanella. Where to start? Really with Kanella it is all about the food. Which is A.maze,ing. Kanella is a tiny little restaurant in Center City Philly, but not really in the hustle and bustle of things. It’s actually on the corner of a side street off the main drag towards the outskirts of the gayborhood. Gordon Ramsey would say that it is “simple, honest, and rustic” (compliments for him). It is an amazing restaurant. It’s Cypriot themed, but unlike a lot of other restaurants the chef/owner is actually from Cyprus. What is really cool about Cyprus is that the cuisine is a mix of Greek and Middle Eastern. So, needless to say, it is really, really good. So good, in fact, that it has been featured not only in pretty much every paper and magazine in Philly, but also on the Food Network on “The Best Thing I Ever Ate: Salty” for their Cyprus Breakfast, but also in other national magazines like Esquire.  Did I mention they have really good food?

What was the coolest thing about the Pop-up was that it was the Kanella food but with an amazing budget. And booze! Kanalla is a BYOB and I usually go there for breakfast, so I wouldn’t do a lot of boozing anyway. The Pop-up had “specialty cocktails” like the Salty Cypriot, which was a really fancy version of gin and tonic but pimped out. Best cocktail I have ever had. For dinner I had quail. Freakin’ quail with a chickpea salad, figs, and Spanish goat cheese! Those  Spanish goats know their stuff! It was out of this world good. T had a lamb kabob which with a ton of fixin’s. Beyond good. We had appetizers and desert too which were all just amazing. It was…expensive, but totally worth it! I wish that pop-up restaurants that good came around all over the world and more often so everyone would be able to have as good a time as we did!

Softball is over, but there's something better on the horizon (at least more painful anyway...)

Okay, so the softball team totally lost in the play-offs. In the first round. To a really bad team. ☹. Oh well, life goes on. So, I was thinking about it, and I really liked the whole aspect of being on a team and having that support and sense of accomplishment with people who are proud of me. It really got me thinking that maybe there is another team to join. So I started looking for an alternative and I think I found the mother load. ROLLER DERBY. Here me out. Roller Derby is not at all like what Roller Derby used to be. It is not faked at all and it is not over run with huge lesbians (not that there is anything wrong with any sized lesbians). It is a really athletic sport with really strong, athletic women. On wheels. And Philly has a really active team (The Philly Roller Girls), which happens to have bouts really close to where I work.

In case you are not sure what Roller Derby is all about, let me try to quickly explain the basics. It’s played on a flat track by two teams, each consisting of five girls to each team. There are four blockers (one of whom is a pivot who keeps the pace of the pack). The remaining player is a jammer. It is the jammer’s job to skate past and through the pack of blockers and lap them to score points. The jammer scores one point for every member of the other team she laps. The bout (the entire match) is broken up into jams, each either two minutes long or shorter depending on whether the lead jammer ends it early or not. The winning team is the one with the most points at the end of the bout. That’s pretty much it. I left out how brutal it can get, and even though there is no elbowing and you can’t trip or hit the other girls except between the shoulder and the thigh, the players get pretty beat up.

Why would I want to do such a thing? Because it looks freakin’ sweet! And is an all girl sport, which is pretty neat. Also, it is a really great work out. So, here is my plan. I am going to get skates and pads and a helmet and I am going to work on skating. I looked up a whole bunch of different skills you need to know in order to qualify to play and tryouts/workshops are held in November. I think that will give me enough time to figure out if I actually like skating and am as good as I was in junior high school (I was hell on wheels back then. I could limbo and speed skate and stuff with the best of them). Then I am going to start trying to do some of the moves I learned on line that are a little more advanced, like t stops and superman falls and stuff. Then, if I am still into it by November, I will attend the workshops and try out for the team.

I will be checking in with my progress and bruises every once in a while. I will even perhaps post a video when my friends throw footballs at me while I slalom past them.

PS if you are reading this in a reader or RSS feed, you should totally check out the site because T made a new and better than ever banner complete with a little girlfriend robot for the original robot. So cute and bad ass at the same time. He is working on more rocketships and stuff. All in good time!

recap! or what i did on my lack of summer vacation

Oh wow, it’s been almost a month since I last wrote. Sorry about that. It has been pretty busy around here since then. To catch you up, here is some of the stuff I have been up to:

Softball!
I am on the softball team at my work and it has been in full swing since I last wrote. The program works so that each department can have a team and they compete against all the other teams in two leagues. The American League plays on one set of days where the National League plays a different set. My team has its ups and downs, but we’re not too bad. Our record is 5 and 5, but when we win we really win and we have some really great players, sadly myself not included. I have never ever played software before, and I thought it would be a good way to meet people I work with since I am so new to the place. I play catcher, defensive pitcher, and occasionally second base, which I enjoy the most think I am best at. There are some really weird rules to the league to make it more fun and fair than competitive. Like, each team pitches to themselves so there is a higher chance of hitting and it’s hard to strike out. But, to compensate, there are only 2 pitches and you can get out on a foul and there is a member of the fielding team who plays “defensive catcher” so that the team does not lose the position. Also, since it is a coed league there has to be 3 women playing at all times. I think this makes it kind of chauvinistic and sets up the game to be in the guys favor. Plus, my team puts the girls at the lame positions like catcher, defensive pitcher and middle left/right outfield (another extra position I think which is in between center and left or right field). Plus, the first basemen will come in and play home plate because they don’t trust the girl playing catcher. Not fair, but usually it’s still fun besides. And sometimes I surprise them because I have my moments where I play rather well. I was even elected by my team to play in the  all-star game where the two leagues played each other. We crushed the other league 17-4. Yay team! Play-offs start tomorrow and I will let you know how we do! PS I have a pink glove. It’s super cute!

Traveling to New Jersey
I have traveled to New Jersey twice in the last month and it has been quite an experience, not really a great one either time. I went to visit one of T’s friends in South Jersey via over an hour-long bus ride. Through Camden. On NJT (New Jersey Transit). Yeah, as you can imagine it sucked and was scary/interesting. We left at around 2:00 and the buss was like 15-20 minutes late. Then our stop was at a closed gas station parking lot that had the sad, abandoned look of Pripyat. Not a good start. Then we had to drive from there to THE SUBURBS. I live in the city and both me and T avoid all things suburban. We both strongly believe that life in the ‘burbs is worse than death and we very much like the city life. We are DINKS and the city life suits us just fine. The only time we need a car is when we have to get together with our friends in the ‘burbs. Imagine that? A lot of people find it hard to believe that we don’t have a car and get a long just fine without one, but I like it a lot, at least for now. We had a nice time with our friends, but then we had to go back to the city a like 9:45 on the bus again, which was over 30 minutes late this time. NJT passengers at night are…interesting to say the least. We did eventually make it home, but we will not be doing that again anytime soon. For the second trip to the dirty Jerz I went by myself for a July 4th/ my grandmother’s b-day party in North Jersey. I took PhillyCarShare that time and it was a little better but the 1.5 hour trip turned into a 2.5 hour trip because I got super lost. Damn you Garden State Parkway! Google Maps on my iPhone saved my life though and I made it successfully, eventually. It was a good time, but I was pissed because my fam made a big damn deal about me going but all but one of my cousins skipped and so did one of my aunts. So not fair, but that’s family for you. Well, at least mine anyway. I made it hope safe and sang to Glee Volumes 1-3 all the way home. That was the best part IMO.

Cooking and Baking!
Since making the decision to not go out to eat at all during the week I have been cooking way more. I have also taken the opportunity to try out some new menus and experiment with more healthy recipes. Or instance, I switched out pork for chicken sausage in my meat sauce and it worked pretty well. WholeFoods makes some rocking sausage that I will be trying more of in the coming weeks. Maybe I will do a sausage review or something. Who knows! I have also worked hard to remove almost all high fructose corn syrup from my diet. It’s tough, but I’m trying. More on that later as well. I also made 3 pies over the last month, one strawberry rhubarb and two cherry, all from scratch with fresh fruit and my own pie crust. I hope to share the method and recipe with you all as well.

There was a ton more stuff as well, but I am tired and my allergies are driving me nuts. So, I must be going. I promise it won’t be a month until I write again. Pinky swear.

Foodie vs Foodiot: No one cares about my cheese? But it's artisan!

So, I was procrastinating and reading archived entries of this awesome, local food blog Fidel Gastro and I saw how he highlighted an article from the New York Observer in 2009 about how the culture of food has changed since the advent of the organic/slow food/local food movement. The author of the article, Joe Pompeo, went on to discuss how there is an over saturation of talk about food and what we're eating and how we meticulously document everything we are "shoving down [our] pie holes". He went on to indicate that no one cares about the awesome artisanal cheese we, the foodies/foodiots, get our hands on or how we paid for the feed for a pig that will be slaughtered at the end of a year (a venture that I am attempting and will get back to you about if it actually comes to fruition).  He also says that most people are discusted and grossed out by all the talk of food and are pretty tired of it.

This hit home and really irked me. I consider myself a foodie and am always afraid that I am crossing that line between foodie and just annoying/boring/grossing people out with my talk of food. I love food. And I think more and more that the average person cares more about not only what they are eating but where it comes from and I don't think it's a bad thing as Pompeo implies. I think that the more people care about what they eat and where it comes from the more the industries that supply and produce food are forced to care. I think that a lot of the foods marketed as natural and organic are using the term as a marketing ploy instead of a movement in better, healthier, and more sustainable ways to produce food. I think if the public starts caring more, prices will start to become more competitive and that maybe organic will become the new mandate instead of a choice for those who care/can afford it. To me, it is a crime that healthy, fresh food is more expensive than packaged "food" and is a huge contributing factor to the so called "obesity epidemic".

One of the things I have struggled with in the creation of this blog is whether or not I wanted to have it be a "food blog" specifically or have more of a blog with foodie posts, or just not include food at all in my contributions to the blogosphere. I have read a lot of successful blogs, some of which I will highlight when and if I try recipes from them or springboard posts from things they write (like Fidel Gastro mentioned above). There is also the fact that so many of them document their dining experiences outside their own kitchens and how they have really high quality cameras they take to restaurants with them. I have been debating whether or not to do this and chose not to (alike in one of my first posts about El Rey where I detail the food and restaurant but have no pictures). I read somewhere, I forget where now, how some chefs/restaurateurs think that people are obnoxious taking pictures of their food or posting blogs about their dining experiences. I would really hate to put the people who work so hard for me to eat so well in an awkward or unwanted position, but I also want to share and publicize the best places to eat in my fair city.

Oh the conundrum! The choices! The decisions! I guess this will have to be a continuing struggle and ultimately determined by how good my camera is. Hint hint T ;).

PS I agree with Senor Gastro, Joe Pompeo can suck it.

I can't really come up with a cohesive thought...

So, I am having difficulty coming up with any real interesting topic to talk about, so i think i am going to do a bit of what my English teacher in college used to call "free writing". What she would tell us to do was to just write whatever came into your head. Of course, it was "guided free writing", so we were supposed to prattle on about some literary topic like what Faulkner was getting at in "The Sound and the Fury" or why Morrison's Beloved was so effed up and weird (both some of my favorite favorite works of fiction ever. yeah take that Myer you hack...easy, the time is not right...anyway where was I? oh yeah real writers and free writing) So, here goes:

I never really understood why some couples are together. I mean, I am with my boyfriend because I love him, we get a long really well, and he totally gets me. Some couples, it just seems like there is no real reason why they should have ever gotten together in the first place, let alone continue to be together for freakin' years and then get married and make other unhappy people. Just doesn't make any sense to me.

I have gone into another one of my phases where I have decided I want to be thinner but i want to expend as little effort and discomfort as possible. So, I have piggybacked this new idea with my desire to be more thrifty and have come up with a plan! Before, we would go out to eat at least once during the work week and both days of the weekend and then order take out for two or three other nights of the week. Instead, I have decided to bring my lunch to work (lean cuisines, smart ones, healthy choice etc. all frozen and quick and ready to go) and cook healthy dinners for me and T all during the work week. Then, have one semi-indulgent meal during the weekend. This has been quite successful for going on our 4th week now. So far we have saved around $400. And, I've lot some weight...not nearly enough but these thing take time.

The English teacher I mentioned above was one of the best English teachers I have ever had, but she was loonier than a fruit basket. She was a total cat lady and a feminist. She actually changed her name back to her maiden name when she got her PhD in women's lit. She would always wear over-sized t-shirts and sweatshirts, usually with pictures of cats on them. I remember one was almost the exact same one I had in elementary school; white with a big cat face outlined in black but with bright green eyes. Weird the things you remember. She was the one who really got me into reading real literature like Faulkner and O'Connell and Morrison. I also took Woman's lit (clit lit as the kids used to call it)and discovered how awesome and creepy women writers can be. MJ, I miss you and your wacktastic self.

(I just noticed that i really, really like to use parentheses when i write...and ellipses. not sure why but i am pretty sure that i always have, much to the chagrin of my English teachers)

At work, it seems like i keep surprising the people I work with; that i am surpassing what they thought i could do. At first this was pretty cool, but now i am starting to think that they did not think i was as good at my job as i am and that i am surprising them more than impressing them. Maybe i am wrong, i mean i am on the paranoid side when it comes to what i think other people think of me, ask any of my friends and they will tell you i have always been this way. When i was younger i always used to think everyone was mad at me when really they were just living their lives thinking we were best friends. I have gotten into more than one stupid fight because i thought people were mad at me when they weren't. I think I am going to avoid that and just think that my coworkers/bosses are impressed and leave it at that.


Okay, i think that's enough, I am tired now.

A holes - can't live with them, can't stab them in the face...

Lately, I have been realizing more and more that most people are really dumb; that the average person is a few fries short of a happy meal. And usually, because people are stupid, it makes them jerks. Ass hats run a muck. Sometimes, I think it is a Philly thing or maybe even an American thing, but then I play an online game with people from all over the world (like Halo Speaking of which the beta is over so I can play again and have my TV back!) or watch the BBC World News and I see that it is really the whole effing human race. The majority of people are just imbeciles. And I have noticed that people will turn really mean when they are in a situation that they are unfamiliar with or it becomes apparent that they are inadequate and they feel stupid, mostly because they are stupid, but the mere fact that people found out that they are stupid makes them all defensive and mean.

I see it everywhere. Take my old job. There were quite a few people who were hacks and had no clue what they were doing and everyone knew it, but they worked really really hard to pretend like they were good at their jobs and new what they were doing typically by belittling everyone they could. I mean, every time I or anyone else would know something that they didn't, they would pretend like it was their idea all along and that they were testing us. True story. Quite a few times my old boss would tell me to do something, I would tell her that it was impossible or that it was against policy, and she would tell me that she was just testing me. And she wasn't joking either! She actually would try to pull off that she knew it was wrong the whole time and that she was trying to prove that she was smarter by testing me. Unbelievable. That is one of the many reasons why it is my old job and not my current job. I got the eff out of there as soon as I could and now I am so much better off.

I digress. Where was I? Oh yeah people are mean and stupid. Another way people try to pull off that they are not as dumb as they actually are is that they immediately blame you for a mistake they made. Take a woman who works for my landlord, lets call her Mary. Mary told me the wrong place to park when I first moved in and a neighbor of mine had my car towed because I was in his spot. And then Mary tried to tell me that it was my fault that I had parked in the wrong spot. She told me the wrong place to park! She got her left confused with her right and she was reading off an old chart of spots. See what I mean? Dumb da dumb dumb duuuuuuumb.

It amazes me that humans have been in charge of the planet for as long as we have given that so many of us are more stupid than a bag of rocks. Maybe that's why Stephen Hawking is convinced that the human race is destined to destroy itself far before the sun collapses or alien life finds us.

Philly sports AKA an excuse to throw batteries at Santa

In response to the Philly sports post by my biffle Beckles I think it is only appropriate that I write one too. I guess my take on the Philly sports phenomenon.

I didn't grow up in Philly, I grew up in the Boston area. Not even in Massachusetts, but the area so I was a Red Sox/Celtics/Bruins/Patriots fan. It was not until i moved to PA for college that any of these teams started to win, but even by then I was being turned. The Philies/76ers/Flyers/Eagles were starting to turn me. Philly fans are wild and their enthusiasm is infectious. Then the Phillies won the World Series and it was all over. Philly sports franchises had me and were not letting me go. Did I run into the streets and start rioting with my fellow Philadelphians? no. I can proudly say that I did not. I watched the game and cheered, but I did not take to the streets causing mayhem and destruction. But when the Flyers beat the Bruins I was cheering on Philly instead of Boston. Again, didn't really celebrate or even go anywhere to watch. Okay I didn't even watch it, but I heard it, looked at the website and got excited. What can you expect? I am a geek remember. I am not a hard core fan of sports, which I guess is why I could be swayed from team to team, but Philly fever is crazy and it is hard to ignore!

My Weekend or why i hate flying...

So I had to go to my brother's graduation this past weekend. After college I stayed near my college, which was just outside of Philly and conveniently close to 400 miles from my parents. It was a pretty good decision on my part I think. I was able to build a life completely apart from who I was growing up or who my parents are. I was able to get things for myself and truly be independent. However, when I need to travel back home, say for something like my little brother's graduation, there is really no easy way to get there. Sure I could drive for 6 or more hours fighting some of the worst traffic in the country, but oh wait, that's right I don't have a car. So I could either take a bus for 6 hours (I am not a bus kind of girl) or I could take a plane.

The plane ride is easy, don't get me wrong. It is a nice easy flight and cheap if you book early and with a cheap airline like SouthWest, but I hate flying. I really REALLY hate to fly. Firstly, I always get sick. Since I was little I never sleep well the night before a flight, I always get a killer headache/migraine, and I will sometimes even get ear infections. When I have ruined more than one vacation by having to go to the doctor due to severe, flight induced ear infections. Then, of course, there are the passengers on the plane. I swear, as soon as you get on an airplane, you turn into an inconsiderate A hole. An A hole who doesn't put the seat back, even when the flight attendant asks. An A hole who talks really loudly to all the people around them while on a red eye. An A hole who got there late and had to take the middle seat, hogs the arm rest, keeps getting up every 5 minutes, turns the fan on while the cabin is freezing and takes all the overhead storage space. And has a baby. Who cries and poops and is its annoying baby self who will turn into an A hole and fly with me in 20 years and make my life miserable then too. The worst part is that there is no escape for the duration of the flight. you can't even walk around the cabin because of federal regulations! I hate flying!

What was interesting about my time at the airport though was that a lady was sitting near me waiting for the same flight as me and she asked me to watch her bag while she went to the bathroom. Now, I had never met this woman in my life, and I am a huuuuuge rules person, so I told her no and quoted the FFA regulations about leaving bags unattended or with people not a part of your party. Since looked at me blankly and said "you mean I have to drag it around with me?" Yes, ma'am that is what I mean. Maybe next time you will pack lighter! Sheesh!

NPR is the cat’s pajamas! The bees knees! Just good stuff!

In honor (somewhat) of confession Friday over at Modgblog, one of my favorite blogs on the interwebs, I am going to make another geeky confession. I am totally in love with NPR. National. Public. Radio. In case you grew up Amish or live in a bubble, NPR is government funded and viewer sponsored, almost entirely talk, and pretty much bent on educating the masses. It’s like PBS but on the radio and I am a huge sucker for it. I could (and have been known to) listen to it for hours. I subscribe to podcasts, I read some of the online content, I would be a member if I listened to it as much as I used to.

There’s the rub, I used to listen to it every single day for several years. Whenever I was in my car I would list to NPR. NPR in my car – it even rhymes! Most of my friends hated taking trips with me driving because instead of music I would almost always have NPR on and be listening to whichever show was on at the time. But, when I moved into the big city, all of that changed. The trade off for the city life was that I started taking public transportation and I sold my car. To my brother. In California. That’s a whole other story that I will get in to another time. Just trust me, I will never see that car again.

Of course, it makes total sense. Living in a city with the awesome public transportation system that Philly has there is no reason to be clogging up the streets with another car that I would hardly ever use. I would be paying for really high insurance, being my age and living in a city know for bad drivers, having to worry about parking, the dreaded and evil PPA, not to mention gas and all the maintenance costs of a car. I now just have to pay for a SEPTA pass or tokens and I am good to go. I pay for an occasional bus ticket to NYC or plane ride to further places, and it the long run I save a lot of money. For the times I need a car I have PhillyCarShare, which is an awesome service that I can rent a car at any time for a few hours at minimal cost and maximum convenience. But, with all of these pluses, one of the biggest minuses is that I do not get to spend my quality time listening to all my friends on NPR.

I remember in college I would listen to Car Talk on Sundays on my way to play rehearsal (something else I will tell you about in another post). I would listen to “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me!” and laugh with Paula Poundstone and/or Mo Rocca on my way to that mall on Saturdays or The NPR new programs on my way to work in the morning. That is one of the only things I miss about living in the places I used to live. I try to listen to my favorites while cooking dinner at home, but I can barely hear it over the sounds of cooking and I can’t really pay attention or I burn things.

Maybe as a treat to myself I will start putting aside time to listen to these great programs. It is so nice to listen to that stuff, and I’m always learning new things when I do, which is always a plus in my book!

Beta Beta Beta: Worse than a sorority and less exclusive.

As you may or may not know the Halo 3: Reach beta came out today. That means that over 3 million boys aged 12 – 40+ either stayed home from school or work, or rushed right home and downloaded the beta for the final installment of the Halo series. It was quite amusing to see so many grown men giddy with excitement over this game, that’s not even really out yet. It’s just a beta, that means that there are limited things you can do, there are lots of bugs in it, and it is not actually finished yet, but still all these guys went wild over it! What’s kind of interesting to see is that the game companies, Bungie partnered with Microsoft, actually advertised the beta. That never happens. Sure a game company will release a beta or a demo or a preview and some people get excited and tell their friends and the company makes money off of it, but not like this. One of T’s friends actually worked really hard all of last week to scam his way into getting an early invite code so he could get a chance to play the beta ahead of almost everyone else. He wanted to get the pre-release of the pre-release. That’s like, crazy right? What’s worse is that LOTS OF GUYS WERE LIKE THIS. I mean, they were like 12 year old girls at a Jonas Brother’s concert getting white goo shot at them from cannons and loving every second of it. Or middle aged women waiting in line at a Twilight premiere for a glimpse of their beloved Edward (I will save my Twilight hatred for another post…or 12…I really hate that series…it’s just so…and the books…and the merch…I mean, HAVE YOU SEEN ETSY?!?!...save it Katie, save it…k I’m good now).

My point is that there was a lot of hysteria over a game that’s not actually released today, and it is mostly so that they can sell more games because people love the game before it’s finished. I bet Microsoft wishes people were this excited for their Office 2010 beta that’s been available for a month or so now…yeah I bet there are some very excited accountants. Wooooo excel spreadsheets! Graphs! Yeah…I’m a Mac. I’m waiting for the new iMacs to be released with the new i7 chips…sorry I was geeking out. I went to my happy place after being all upset by Twilight. I’m good now. Where was I? Oh yeah the Beta…

Of course, I’m not going to lie, I do like halo. I like to kill dudes I know and dudes I don’t know. I like to hear little 12 year old boys whine about getting blown up by a sticky grenade or seeing guys get gunned down by a pink player. I only started playing a few weeks ago, but I am pretty good for a beginner and I kick ass at Grifball. I love me some hammer action! Right now all the beta has is the multiplayer function of the game but it showcases some really nice and fun improvements. The controls are different for one thing – a lot of the buttons do different things, which I think totally blows because I just figured out that B punches dudes in the face. B for beat down. How am I going to remember that it is now punching is with the right bumper? Right Bumper is for…yeah I will have to think about that one. Also, now you can pick a super power at the beginning of the match and each time you die. You can have a jet pack (!) or be invisible, or run really fast or be invincible for 5 seconds. Each thing has a downside but the upsides are wicked sweet. Oh, and the weapons are way better now. All the dumb ones are replaced with useful things and the good ones have been beefed up. I will have to say more when I actually get to play because T has been hogging the TV since he got home from work. And the RHONJ is premiering their second table-flipping season tonight! Thank goodness for On Demand.

Is my foodie showing?

So, in my last post I mentioned that I live in a major city, but I purposely did not say which one. I thought that it would be wise to say as little about myself as possible. Then I thought to myself "Self, you live in a city with more than 1.54 million people. There is little to no chance anyone will string together clues enough to figure out who you are. And if they do, that is kind of impressive." Also, there are so many location specific things I want to talk about that it will just be easier to say where I live. So here it is, I live in Philadelphia. I wasn't raised here, so I am not a typical Philly person where I fight about hoagies vs. subs or anything like that (they're subs by the way but shhh don't tell my neighbors), but I do live and work here and I love it.

Anyway, the reason why it is important that you know I live in Philly is because we have our own little things we obsess about. One more resent Philly obsession is FOOD! We are slowly but surely, with the help of Iron Chefs, the Travel Channel, and a dedicated group of restaurateurs and chefs, becoming a food town to rival many a food town. Among our food elite there is one restaurateur who has lead the charge in the name of food and has been attributed with singlehandedly revitalizing the Old City restaurant and nightlife scene. His name, if you haven't already guessed, is Stephen Starr, and I went to one of his restaurants this evening for dinner. I actually went to his newest restaurant, El Rey, a really cool, kitschy, Mexican dive kind of place. Even though a Starr restaurant tends to be a bit overpriced, they all have some really cool calling cards that tell you instantly that they are a Starr restaurant, and El Rey is no different. All Starr restaurants are themed. Not theme in a stupid way like the Rain Forest Cafe (blegh!) or Hard Rock Cafe (gag!) but things that are done really well and tasteful and make the dining experience something special and different. One of his most famous places is called Buddakan and has a giant gold Buddha right in the middle of the dining room. I'll get back to the Starr empire another time, because I want to bring it back to my night.

I went with my boyfriend T, whom I take on most of my restaurant trips, and we went right as service was starting. Actually we got there more than half an hour early and hung around the city for a while until service really started. Then we were seated and the night started as many a night at any restaurant, I ordered a cocktail (a margarita on the rocks, with salt thank you) he ordered a beer and so it began. We got guacamole with homemade tortilla chips to share, which were great and came out about 5 minutes after we ordered them. The we chatted and waited for our meals to come out. While waiting we got to see the restaurant swing into full gear. Since we got there so early, we were actually only the second table there, but it did not take too long for the place to fill up. Then, the best part, we got our food! I got a Mexican Short Rib Sandwich type thing, and T got a "los moles" plate that consisted of chicken, pork, and lamb all in slightly different mole sauces served with tortillas. Mole is a Mexican savory chocolate sauce that is not sweet at all but really tasty. Both were extremely good and while eating them we both agreed we would have to come back to try it again. Always thinking about the next meal, that's us!

So, there we are all enjoying our food, just about finishing and ready to order dessert when I see Stephen Starr himself come out of the kitchen and sit at a table in the back. The man, the myth, the legend was actually in the restaurant, checking up on it at the end of its second week of service. In the iconic words of Rachel Zoe "I litrally died". I had a mini freak out over some of the best churros I had ever eaten. I was a little star struck (and a little drunk) if you couldn't tell. T told me that I should have given him the thumbs up, but I didn't cause I am a scardy cat so we just paid and left.

Well, that was my night. I spent the rest of it watching the new Stephen Hawking show and hanging out. 'Cause that's what I do.

Oh, hi there. I didn't see you come in!

Welcome. If you are here for robots or rocketships, you may be in the wrong place. Here, it's more about the stuff. Heavy on stuff, light on robots/rocketships. But there may be some robots and rocketships...maybe...hey, don't go! we're just getting started! I'm just getting warmed up! It'll get better. Promise.

Well, I guess I should introduce myself. I'm Katie, or K. I'm in my mid twenties and kind of a geek. Okay, more than kind of. I work in IT at a big University in a big city. I like techy things, but I also like other stuff (hence the sciency, nerdy title with the stuff tacked on haphazardly at the end). I am really into food, as most techies tend to be. I like to cook, bake, and of course eat. If you're good I may share some of my legendary recipes with you. Okay, maybe they're not legendary, but eh they're not bad. I'd eat it. Since I live in a major city, I dine out. A LOT. I may talk about that too, but my city is overrun by food bloggers that I would hate to compete. We'll see how it goes. I will write things and you will read them. That's the plan Stan. Maybe you'll like them, maybe you'll comment, maybe you'll tell your friends.

So again, welcome. Keep your hands and arms inside the car at all times. No eating, drinking, smoking or flash photography. Enjoy the ride.