its a gas!

I'm enjoying monitoring the gas mileage in my new Civic hybrid. There is a real-time gas mileage indicator, and it also indicates the average gas mileage for your trip on the trip meter. I reset the trip meter when i filled the tank with gas. On my first tank, I was averaging about 38 mpg with the air conditioning on, which seemed a little low. So I started to pay attention to how I was driving, to see if I could improve the mileage a little bit. Mostly I started using the cruise control, which made a big difference. About 2/3 of my drive each day is on highways, and this upped my average mpg for that tank up to 40-41. I refilled the tank last week and have been driving like this all the time now (still with the air on though) and I'm up to 42-43 average, which is more like it. I imagine by the next tank I can turn the air off and I should get up several mpg into the published range of 47/48.

Brian has also been paying attention to mileage as he's driving the Pilot every day. On his last tank he was pleased to see that he got 20 mpg! See, we average out ok.

An update on the musical taste project - Death Cab for Cutie was a great pick by Larry, I totally love it. I also bought 'Sumday' by Grandaddy which I really like. That wasn't a suggestion from the MTP, but something I heard playing when we were out for pizza with someone. I found out what it was and wrote myself a little stickie note on my desktop to remember to buy it... and then I never did. Well, bummer. Because its really good.

and yet, no marmite.

My new favorite blog to read is "The Sneeze", which I have linked over there on the side. Those of you with children would also appreciate it, as many of his posts deal with the doings of his young son. Anyhow, a favorite feature of mine is Steve, don't eat it!, where he tries various disgusting things at the grocery store. The first one is 'potted meat'. That remids me of when I was a freshman in college, boyfriends mother sent him a care package that contained a can of 'deviled ham' that we were not quite sure what to do with. Certainly he was not going to eat it. Instead he opened the top and hid the can in the backpack of a certain fraternity brother. Said fraternity brother did not go to class much in these days, so his backpack didn't see a whole lot of action. It was pretty smelly. I was amused, because I am twelve.

I really think that Marmite should be on this list. I mean, lets think about this here. Its Guinness sludge. Not that I do not love Guinness, I do! Very much. But this stuff is the tar on the bottom of the vat that you were never meant to eat. Brian of course LOVES Marmite, in phases anyhow. Thank god we're not currently in a Marmite phase... peanut butter smells so much better. When he opens the Marmite jar, a horrible stench fills the room. Then he glops it on his english muffin, like... ew. Like the tar that it is. After this horrible concoction is eaten, Brian is not allowed to have his face anywhere near mine, because there is no smell so foul as Marmite breath. Interestingly, the Marmite slogan is something about "You either love it or you hate it". I'm firmly in the hate camp. Actually, the 'hate' website is pretty amusing, with some recipes, or '10 ways to ruin a perfectly good sandwich'.

Oddly enough, I kind of like 'Twiglets' which are like a Marmite Cheet-o or something. I mean, I wouldn't eat a whole bag, or even a whole SERVING of Twiglets. But they're tolerable.

mysterious non-pooping geese

So, the place where I work now is situated on a beautiful park-like campus. There's a big pond right outside, the whole place is wooded. There are a bunch of walking trails - not that I've used them or anything... There are a million gazillion geese everywhere. When we lived in Wind Point there was a pond in the middle of our development where the geese hung out. Of course the place was loaded with goose poop. I noticed that here, even though there are ten million geese everywhere there is no poop. I thought perhaps they had engineered non-pooping geese (or toilet trained?). But I found out that someone actually goes around and removes it. Hm!!

We had a good weekend - on Friday we went to Tyler's Taproom with Julie/Bayly/many others for J/B birthdays. The food was just ok, but they had a great beer selection. They had Rogue Hazelnut brown nectar on tap!! ON TAP, I tell you!! Its so good. On Saturday we had a new friend over for dinner - she works on the same floor as me and started on the same day I did. It was fun. My mom said I'm Martha Stewart now with the entertaining! Hey, its the only way I get the floors vacuumed anymore. I'm just kidding. Sort of. Anyhow, I made something that was very very very good from the September issue of Bon Appetit. It was a pizza made on ciabatta bread with sweet walnut pesto, havarti, pears, gorgonzola and arugula. It was fantastic. It probably is not up on epicurious.com yet. I also made pasta with tomatoes (from our garden) basil (from Kristin's garden! I'm rooting it so maybe I can plant it) garlic and pinenuts. And we drank many bottles of wine. A good time was had by all.

Now back to work! I'm taking a class here this week to learn how to do RNA interference. First class started this morning at 8am. I'm a morning person too, but I didn't get a chance to get any coffee first so I was dragging a bit!

I would lose my will to live.

This post was hysterical. If this had happened to me I would have simply lost my will to live. Right there. In front of the trash can.

When I was younger I was terrified of June bugs (er... lets clarify: still terrified of June bugs) and I would not enter a door at night that was lit because it would invariably be surrounded by flying horrors. I would enter through the garage door, because it was a double door and the lights were on either side. So in the middle, you were good if you ran really fast. Anyhow, one time I was on the phone with someone (Kendra?) sitting in the front seat of my parents car that was parked in the driveway. Why? Who knows. But it got dark while I was out there and for some reason I couldn't open the garage door. So I had to have whoever I was on the phone with hang up and call my house again to ask someone to open the garage so I could get in.

I am still just as pathetic, I am happy to report.

Many new things to screw up

So I've finished my first week of postdoc! It was very exciting. I have a fancy name tag on a fancy lanyard now. And a new parking pass.

I started the week off on a good note by driving out to Raleigh for traffic court. THAT was an experience. I've never gone to traffic court before, so I didn't really know what to expect. When I got up to the traffic court floor of the courthouse it was just MAYHEM. Seriously, it took me a good ten minutes just to find the end of the line I was suppossed to be waiting in. It was very difficult because the line wound around the room TWICE. I waited in line for 45 minutes. There is not much that you can do to entertain yourself when you're waiting in line, so I entertained myself by checking out all the fashion disasters surrounding me. I was struck too by the people in line who knew other people in line. I mean, are you at traffic court like every week? I don't think this is the kind of place where you want to be considered a "regular".
When I finally got up to the end of the line, you get to this desk where a woman asked me what I wanted to do with my ticket. I had no idea that I had options. So I said I didn't know, I'd never been here before. She told me to go talk to the ADA that was at the desk. This was a very nice woman who asked me if I wanted the ticket reduced. Sure! So she did. It was still $110 though, only 10 of which reflected the actual FINE. Oh well. It shouldn't cause any problems with my insurance now, which was the major concern.

At work I decided to jump right on in and start doing work. After discussing with my new advisor, he had suggested a project to start on that was similar to one I had been interested in doing that he didn't think was technically possible at the moment. Since I hadn't been doing lab work for a while, I kind of missed it and I was excited to actually DO SOMETHING. In general the week went okay, but yesterday I screwed up Every. Single. Thing. I. Did. Minipreps? Easy, right? Not when you forget to label the tubes. Of course, these were my second minipreps of the same thing, because the day before I had done them and forgotten to save some of the culture for a frozen stock. I did 4 maxipreps but stupidly stupidly used glass tubes when precipitating my DNA and even more stupidly centrifuged these at speeds that are apparently MUCH higher than they're physically able to go. How do I know? One of the tubes shattered in the machine and I lost the whole sample. And had quite a glass-powder mess to clean up. Ran a gel and forgot to load the size standards. Screwed up my tissue culture.

Once I get into it I know I'll be ok, but yesterday was a very frustrating day.

Fortunately I got to do out for drinks after work, because Karrie and Ben were staying with us on their way from Cleveland to some beach in NC. They got to the house right before I did, and we went to the Federal for dinner and beers. They have great sandwiches and the BEST FRIES EVER. As well as a great beer selection, including one of my new favorites: Tuppers Hop Pocket. Mmmmm....hoppy!

Ugly Cars and nostalgia.

I told Brian about the Ugly Cars discussion, and he was a little surprised that I didn't include the ugly pimp-mobiles we see around our neighborhood. Not that we live in a pimp neighborhood or anything, but I think we are surrounded by a few poseur pimps. Anyhow. The problem was that I didn't really know what they were. I'm going to have to do more research on that. Although I think at least one of them is the Cadillac that Eve was talking about... it looks like Lionel Richie (There was a car that my mom and I used to say looked like Lionel Richie and now I forget what it was!).

Anyhow, since I couldn't remember the names of any of these cars, I googled 'ugly cars' and came up with this, the Car Talk guys top ten Ugly Cars of 2005. Now, I don't want to ruin the surprise or anything, but I think many of you will agree wholeheartedly with their pick for #1 ugliest car. Also look at this, their favorite comments recieved on Ugly Car nomination forms. I like one from the Aztek "Lets face it, not every engineering student gets an "A". The "D" students need work also." Hee. And I'm sure none of those were trained in the Cleveland Institute of Art Industrial Design department, although given some of the stuff I've seen at their student shows? I don't know.

For old times sake, I also wanted to post a picture of this (I know its too big for the width of the page, but I wanted you to get the full effect!):



which some of you will recognize as... (dun-dun-dunnnnn!)
The 8-trackmobile!!!

My first car, which had been my parents car before me. A 1977 Pontiac Grand Prix, which my parents lovingly removed the 8-track player from and replaced with a cassette player so that I would not need to entertain my friends with Neil Sedaka or the BeeGees. Obviously, this is not my ACTUAL first car, but one I saw driving in the Memorial Day (or whatever holiday, I forget) parade outside our house in Cleveland. However, many of the details are right. The two tone silver. The hugeness. However, mine had a black velvety interior, rather than this sort of scary red. And I don't think the pinstripe was red on mine either.

Ah, the 8-trackmobile. Site of much exciting highschool fun. My favorite 8-trackmobile memories include:
1. Driving with Herryn to take the PSAT or some other test in the bitter Wisconsin cold, and the latch on the passenger side door froze so that the door wouldn't close. So Herryn had to hold it shut the entire way to Gilmore. Hee.
2. Egging unsuspecting people at Pershing Park (those losers deserved it though) and standing in line at the Dairy Queen.
3. Kendra getting bruises all over her upper arms from egging unsuspecting people and then having to have her senior pictures taken.
3a. Also, one time Kendra missed with the egg and egged the inside of the car. We had to stop at the Spur (where we had bought the eggs, incidentally) and clean it up. However, that was the night I started hooking up with whom I had long been boy crazy about, so it was all good.
4. With Elizabeth and Becky, finding roadkill on the cabbage-scented roads of Franksville to transport on the hood of the car (as we drove slowly) and deposit on the front porch of a guy we knew. This was always followed the next day by questioning said guy to see if he would mention it... like "Sooooo! Anything exciting happen this morning?" He never said anything, so either he was onto us, or roadkill on the front porch was nothing out of the ordinary at his house.
5. Getting back from a jazz band trip to LaCrosse or Eau Claire or something at like one in the morning in (again) the dead of winter, going out and turning the car on to warm up while we loaded stuff into the trunk and then-boyfriend Jason R. locking the doors, with the keys in and the car running. So had to call my parents to come out and help out.
6. Driving back from a party at UW-Parkside where a kid I went to school with (names changed to protect the innocent!) drank like one beer and smoked a cigar and then threw up on Herryn, her new shoes, her boyfriend, and everything in the back seat of my car. Then Kendra sprayed 'Red Door' and I cannot smell that to this day without being overcome with nausea.
7. Having to drive around the Rockingham Park Mall parking lot for like seven hours (it was Christmas) with Melissa because when we found a spot it was one I didn't feel I could fit into.

Of course my car is not pictured here because it pretty much self-destructed. I played a small role in its self-destruction (you will recall the infamous rear-ending-sneeze incident where I rear-ended someones brand new SUV when I sneezed mightily, thus failing to notice that all the cars in front of me had stopped because a tractor was also driving down the road). After that, the fiberglass front of the car had some bolts in it to hold it back together. I also had a small depth-perception incident (at least thats how I like to think of it) when I drove a little too close to the island around the gas pump and did a little damage on the passenger side door.

But the car had problems that were larger than anything that I could do to it. At some point the trunk stopped opening reliably, so I had to store everything important in the back seat. This included sheet music and music books, my golf clubs, etc. Remember when Brian Drier puked in the back seat? Also all over all of this stuff. I lost a lot of music that day. Wherever there was fluid in the car there was a problem of some sort. First, there was a phantom hole in the brake fluid line somewhere that caused a bubble or something to periodically interrupt the flow of brake fluid to the brakes, thus the brakes would pretty much stop working. That was fun, and in fact contributed in part to the 'sneeze' incident. The oil also seemed to vaporize such that I needed to (or my dad needed to) give it oil on an all too regular basis. The most exciting thing was that the gas tank had rusted out. Now, remember I was a poor high school student, so I didn't ever have the cash to purchase an entire 50 gallon tank of gas (ok, maybe it wasn't 50 gallons, but it was huge). I would buy like, 5 dollars of gas at a time. 10 if I was rich. I remember quite distinctly everyone in the car gathering up all their change and buying like, $1.67 worth of gas.

Anyhow, one day my mom and I drove up to Grand Avenue to go shopping (almost certainly we had planned around Macadamia Nut Custard day at Kopps) and took my car. She bought me a whole tank of gas before we left. We got up there, parked in the parking garage and started shopping. Then we heard an announcement over the loudspeaker saying "Would the owner of a two-tone silver Pontiac Grand Prix please come to the information desk". Huh? We were standing at the info desk when we ran into a guy I knew from GMYWE. He said, 'Thats your car? They've put orange cones all around it and they're directing traffic around it!'. Ok. Well, it turns out that the gas tank was ~half rusted, so the gas was just leaking right out of it. We had to push the car out of the parking garage and leave. It was a little mortifying, but funny now.

The Grand Prix finally succumbed to an electrical problem of some sort. My brothers and I would be driving to Pinkerton and the car would just randomly turn off. I'd have to wrench it over to the side of the road (no power steering when no power!) and wait for a few minutes, then try again to restart the car. I think my dad had hoped to keep the car (because it was going to be a classic!!) but the mechanic talked him out of it.

So please. Leave your 8-trackmobile memories in the comments section. I know you have them.

Ugly cars: A direct comparison

I know that Mel is feeling like everyone is ripping on her car, and I feel badly about that. So I started thinking about whether the Element was TRULY the ugliest car? I think this side-by-side comparison of three ugly cars will convince you that it is, in fact, the most attractive of the three:

Witness, the Scion Xb:


The PT Cruiser:


And finally, the Element:


Of these three? Clearly the Element wins for most attractive. It is helped by the fact that, in this particular picture it has a sign above it that says "TACO". I like tacos.
Similarly, the Scion is undeniably the ugliest. So there, now we've done the experiment and I rescind my previous statement.

The Element is NOT the ugliest car in the world.
The Scion is the ugliest car in the world.

But lets compare to a truly beautiful car, the Jaguar XKE.


Am I not my father's daughter? Don't worry though mom, I'm with you on the Corvette.

Walk for PKD

If I did not send you an email about this already, Brian and I have signed up to do the Walk for PKD (Polycystic Kidney Disease) in Chapel Hill on September 17. Not only do sitcom star George Lopez and fashionista Steven Cojocaru have PKD (and if you didn't know that you don't read enough People magazine, but I forgive you), we also have a friend who does. And besides, raise money AND get some exercise! Hurrah!

We would really appreciate your donations! Money from these donations will go straight into PKD research, providing funding for a scientist just like me. Except one who works on PKD.

You can make a donation online by clicking here. I think at this point you can probably choose to make the donation in either my name or in Brian's, but either way, its all going to the same place.

No other real blog news. The love of the new cars is rampant. I could just kiss they hybrid! And in fact, I have. A friend from Cleveland is in town for a meeting and we hope to see him tonight. Smokey is inexplicably peeing on the couch again. At least its not a) brand new and b) we're not showing our house, like last time she got into the couch-peeing frenzy. A week of heartburn has apparently begun, making me consider buying stock in Tums again. Now I know that its clearly not stress-related, its just random because I'm totally not stressed. New job starts on Monday so I'll have a new email address, which I'll pass along.

a) a new car

So this weekend we began with the 'Things we can do now that we can't buy the new house'. We went out to the Honda dealership with the intent of buying a new Honda CR-V (SE, pewter pearl!). We had decided that we really needed something SUV-ish because we need some more cargo room. And Brian, who is considerably taller than I am, would really have preferred something that he didn't have to squeeze his knees into. We looked at the used cars first, where we saw a 2003 Honda Pilot with only 30,000 miles on it. Secretly I wanted a Honda Pilot. Its a little larger than the CR-V (built on an Accord chassis rather than a Civic chassis), has a lot more room. And, oh. Leather seats. And a GPS Navagation system. Turns out that Brian also found the CR-V very scrunched knee-wise, perhaps even more so than the Civic. We had never actually been in one, you see. The Pilot was also not significantly more expensive than the new CR-V we were thinking about.
Then we also saw a used (!) Civic Hybrid! Ohhh... a used hybrid. A 2005 no less. Only 9000 miles on it. To be honest, we didn't even test drive it. I think I sat inside. Both the cars are certified, so mechanically I was not worried. I loved it. I wanted to take it home to be my new car. So on the spur of the moment we decided to trade in our Civic and get both cars. The hybrid is so exciting. Kristin, who finally got her Prius after a year of being on the waiting list, said that she gets a little obsessed watching the gas mileage guage on their car, which tells you what gas mileage you're getting at every moment. Driving home from the dealership I could totally see how this could get obsessive. I watched that (Ooh!! 48 mpg!!) and the IMA guage (is the battery assisting the motor now? Is it charging?? Woo!) constantly. So very exciting. The car is bright blue and I get to drive it, since I will be driving further to work.
The next day Brian already started feeling guilty about getting an SUV. I figure that the hybrid cancels out the SUV ownership. Our AVERAGE car miles per gallon highway is still ~35, which is good. It equals out.
Now I'm desperate to get an iPod hookup for the cars. Mel has one in her Honda Element (the ugliest car in the world) which I'm very jealous of. I could almost have been talked into an Element for the iPod jack alone. The Honda dealer recommended a car audio shop where we could get one installed, so we may look into that. Otherwise I'll look for an iTrip or something.

ooh... podcasts

I have not been living under a technological rock lately, so I was aware of the existance of podcasts, I had just never listened to any personally. But basically its like listening to radio programs on your iPod. Various people put together things to listen to, whether its music, talk, whatever. And then you can subscribe to these podcasts and download them. And generally, they're free. There's even a lot of NPR shows on podcast so that you can listen to your favorite shows wherever you are.
Someone emailed me about a podcast (Cycling Insight) where two Australian guys talk about the Tour de France. Which I did not watch nor have any interest in other than Lance Armstrong in tight pants. However, these two guys are pee-your-pants funny. so I've been listening to this one.
If you have the most recent version of iTunes, you can search for podcasts and subscribe to them, then listen to them at your leisure. Another thing about iPods that is totally awesome. Also, another reason why I am wishing I had a regular sized iPod in addition to the mini.

1 month gym hiatus = big fat bastard

Last night was my first time back at step class after my defense/vacation gym hiatus. I'm so out of shape. Holy crap. I thought I might die. I had to take the risers out of the step about halfway through the class. Its amazing what one month can do to you.

Today was an exciting day. First, I made an exciting online purchase that I cannot disclose right now. Its a birthday present for my dad, who turns 60 in August. And I know he reads the blog sometimes. Second (and in fact, right when I was making the exciting purchase), my cell phone rang and it was Cooch and Little Joe, who are friends from college. I just saw Cooch when I was in Clevo for my defense, but I haven't seen Joe for several years. Anyhow. Cooch says "Hey, you live in Durham, right? We're on I-85 right now." Of course. I was worried that he had told me that he was driving through town when we were at the Barking Spider with everyone the night after my defense. I had drunk many beers, maybe I forgot. But no, this was in fact a spontaneous visit. Anyhow, they were driving down to Hotlanta, as Joe and family are relocating there from Rhode Island (State bird, the Rhode Island Red). So we went out for coffee.

Now that the court date for my airport-speeding-ticket is approaching, I have begun getting like five letters a day from local traffic court attorneys. It makes me feel popular. And, then I get to throw them away. Ambulance chasers of the traffic court world. There are also ambulance chasers of the real estate world, which I wasn't aware of. As soon as we took the house off the market we started getting phone calls from other realtors asking if we'd like to list our property with them. My popularity is apparently not limited to junk mail! It transcends many forms of junk communication.

Uncle!

Ok, we give up. No one is going to buy our house, so we give up. We took the house off the market and have bid a fond farewell to the new house. Our house has been on the market for 2 months now, and we're averaging like, 1 showing every 2 weeks. Its ridiculous. Our closing on the new house was suppossed to be on Aug 31, and we can't buy that one until someone closes on the current one. Given that Aug 31 is in a month, at our current rate we'd have only 1 or 2 more showings before the closing in order for SOMEONE to buy the place. There were still a lot of things that needed to be picked out on the new place, like light fixtures, paint, etc that would require a significant time/emotional investment, and I just don't have it in me to keep picking out beautiful new things for the house that it seemed someone else was going to live in anyhow. So, sniffle.

Instead, we'll have a little more disposable income (as the mortgage payment was higher in the new place) with which to purchase:
a) a second car!! hurrah!!
b) some bedroom furniture. Our current bedroom furniture, while nice, is the furniture that I got when I moved into a big girl bed.
c) assorted other furniture.
d) vacation for pleasure, rather than going to weddings or visiting family (not that those aren't a pleasure!). Do I hear New Orleans anyone?

So, there you go. In other news, I had jury duty yesterday. This is my second time doing jury duty, which is crazy because many other people I know have never been called. It was a thrill. I was picked as one of the initial 12 jurors for a civil trial (a personal injury case) but I got rejected by the lawyer for the guy who was suing the other person. When I did jury duty in Clevo, I was also on a personal injury case. It was interesting to see how the legal system works, and to see how a jury deliberates. But I really have no patience for the attitude of: "Well, X Company has lots of money so we should give this lady a huge reward, regardless of what their responsibility actually is." Because thats just ridiculous, but its exactly what happened on the last trial I was on.

Freaking Flip-flops!

We all know my stance on flip-flop sandals. Well, maybe we don't. Here it is:

I hate flip-flop sandals.

Let me clarify. I hate flip-flops when worn in inappropriate settings or with outfits that are not beach-wear. Flip-flops are also acceptable footwear when taking a shower somewhere where you want to avoid being barefoot. If you're me, thats practically anywhere, because I'm a little bit touchy about being barefoot. Okay, a LOT bit touchy.

Gawker linked to a story that demonstrates an inappropriate time/place to wear flip-flops. Like, oh... let me think... when you're meeting the President at the White House.

I love how the one girl decided that her flip-flops were okay because its not like they were "old beach flip-flops". Oh, no! They had RHINESTONES on them. Well. I stand corrected. After all, we all know that rhinestones instantly raise the 'dressiness' level of a garment. Just ask the inventors of the Bedazzler.

The Musical Taste Project

First: Wow! Three posts in one day!! Its because I'm cleaning up and typing up protocols etc., so = easily distracted.

Second: Ok. So I remember when I was younger I couldn't understand why my parents listened to the 'Oldies' station (even though I know all the words to the Oldies - blame it on the many hours in the car with one of the parents en route to the many music lessons, rehersals, etc) when there was all this great music on the radio! In the last few years, I have realized that my taste in music (like many of my friends) has essentially not changed a bit since I was in college (which was what, 8 years ago?). It has evolved a little bit, but only when bands break up or people go solo. For example, love for Pavement in college has translated into love for Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks now. Love for Blur has expanded into love for Gorillaz. Etc. etc. Brian and Martin injected a little more Brit-pop influence, but Brian doesn't listen to anything but NPR anymore, so there's nothing new. I haven't listened to the radio in eons, so I don't hear anything new that way. When I was in NH on vacay I listened to WFNX and that helped a little, but I don't remember what I heard. Ack.

Now with the advent of iTunes, I can download new stuff easily. Melissa made some suggestions when I was at home to start with. So now my request is that you all please leave me some suggestions in my comments. Please help me get my musical taste out of my early 20s.

Bachelor-stalking update!

The bachelor who I saw bartending at the restaurant in Nantucket? Went to Duke! What a coincidence. Not that I go to Duke. But close enough.
Becky noticed this article in the Duke Alumni Magazine she just got (which coincidentally has another article of interest in it, about my advisor. Another coincidence!). Dang. I wish I had had all this information when I actually saw the guy.

Jude Law falls off the list

Now Jude Law has skeeved me out to the point where he is no longer on my 'list' (of celebrities that I would fleetingly consider running off with if asked, and that Brian would have to forgive). Herryn and I spent hours devoted to creating and debating these lists on our marathon drive from Clevo -> NH, when we drove out together for my wedding.

I can't even remember who was on the original list anymore; its a revolving list. I'm pretty sure though that Anderson Cooper was there, unless the 'newsman' position was then occupied by Antonio Mora? Also Ewan McGregor would have been a sure thing (and remains on the list, 5 years later). Hm... I might have to give this some additional thought.

(Don't worry, Brian has a similar, however probably not as well-thought-out list, primarily made up of Jennifer Connelly and Catherine Zeta-Jones).

Well anyhow, Jude Law and his first wife got divorced. I gave him the benefit of the doubt. He got engaged to Sienna Miller who otherwise would not be anywhere on my celebrity radar, except for the fact that she appears quite often on the Fug blog. And now, 6 months after getting engaged he's been forced to admit that he was having an affair with his nanny. Nice. I think celebrities must significantly decrease the average #-of-years-married for the US because they all suck so much at it.

Its not me, its you.

I found this post on another blog. I have heard so many similar reports of US Airways hatred today that I'm seriously not surprised that they're bankrupt. With the number of people who have just told me in one day that they will not fly US Air either, there must be a million other people who have decided similarly.

I am so never flying USAir again.

Flying on USAir was a complete and utter disaster from start to finish. The trip from CLE-MHT? Disaster involving not arriving at MHT until after midnight. The trip from MHT-RDU? Two disaster-filled days of disaster. Yesterday I went back to MHT to try to fly out again. The flight to DC was delayed. They said our connections would be fine though. Well, not so much. When I got inside I had missed the flight by like half an hour. Brian of course did not get my messages and went to the airport to pick me up at 3:30. The man does not turn his cell phone on, EVER. He got the science geek gene, thats for sure. But obviously missed the tech-geek gene. Sooo. When was the next connecting flight? Oh... 5 and a half hours later. Of course. So at this point I was exhausted and moody and went up to the USAir club to see if they would be nice and offer me a more comfortable place to wait my seccond day of 5+ hours due to their apparent scheduling incompetance (no other airlines going to the same airports were delayed, just USAir!). No. They would not. They wanted me to pay 25 bucks for a day pass. She said (rather snottily) that their MEMBERS pay $375 a year for the privledge. I was like, I paid over 200 bucks for this plane ticket and I've had close to 15 hours of extra waiting in the airport as a result. I could have DRIVEN. To NEW HAMPSHIRE. So at this point I start sobbing. Remember, very tired. And wanting to get home. Also, who knows. Maybe I have PMS. Anyhow. Sobbing. In the airport, like a fool. Then I started reading to get my mind off it, but I kept thinking about the whole scene in the Club and start crying again. It was great. Then I was sitting there and I heard them announcing the final boarding call for another flight to Raleigh, which they had not even MENTIONED to me. Perhaps it was booked, but I would have tried to get on standby. I was REALLY annoyed about that. After three hours (and a little bit calmer) I decided to go to the bar, where I drank a beer and ate cheesesticks and read my book (now reading "The Broker" by John Grisham, which is actually interesting and readable, unlike "The Last Juror" which I read on the way out. The Worst Book EVAH!). A girl was waiting for a table and I asked if she wanted to join me, which she did. So we had fun chatting. Like me, she was also a poser punk/goth chick while in middle school. Wanting to be punk/goth but not able to commit to the black outfits and pale skin. Hee. Luckily this took my mind off of my misery so I didn't even start sobbing again when they FURTHER DELAYED my flight for an hour and a half. Finally I got home at 11:30 last night. Blah.

USAir was terrible though. Every flight delayed. I used to fly Continental all the time (in the mice in Cleveland, Lisa in NC days) and had no problems. Not one. USAir? Every single flight. Misery. You would think that customer service would dictate that you are at least polite to the customers you screw. But not even a teeny bit. Don't even bother to tell me about earlier flights so I can just GET HOME. I hated them.

Although, we had a flight attendant on the MHT-DC leg that was absolutely hilarious and I loved him. So very funny and nice and helpful. So evidence that not all USAir employees suck. Oh wait. That was operated by one of those other regional airlines. So he probably WASN'T a USAir employee. I see. It all makes sense now.

Remember how I was suppossed to be home yesterday?

Yeah, not so much. My trip has been filled with bad travel experiences. On the way out here our flight from Cleveland to Phila. was delayed for several hours (including 2 just sitting on the tarmac in Phila, thus I missed my connection to Manch-vegas, thus my new connecting flight arrived to Manchester at just after midnight. Thus, I didn't get home until 1 am.
Yesterday my flight from MHT-LaGuardia was suppossed to leave at 2:10, but by 6:15 we were still on the ground and expecting another 'update' at 7:15. I would have safely missed my connection in LGA if it had not already been cancelled. I was booked on a later flight to Raleigh, but it was looking like I wasn't going to make that one either. So I got rebooked on a flight this morning and came back to my parents. We have a wedding to attend on Saturday; lucky I left myself a travel mishap cushion of a few days. My mom picked me up in my dad's toy car (Corvette) because the real car was in the shop. We couldn't get the trunk open so we had to hoist my suitcase over the front seat into the very small trunk.

The rest of my trip was fun. I went to Boston to visit Matt and Melissa. Much gin was drunk. We went to Southie to visit her brother (also Matt. Matt II) and his wife Alicia. We walked all around Boston that day. Of course, I was not prepared for this and was wearing heels. So... a little painful. By the end of the day each step felt like knives were being stabbed into the balls of my feet. Mel was also wearing heels so we were unhappy. Matt and Alicia? Flipflops. We walked all the way to Charlestown (from the North End, not from Southie) to go to Coldstone Creamery. I'm sorry. Bayly, I know you love this place. But I'm not that enthused. I've tried it twice. I think my tastebuds are spoiled because I grew up on Kopp's frozen custard. Mmm. Macadamia nut day. My mom and I would drive up specifically for Macadamia nut custard day.

Also my dad and I flew out to Nantucket for the afternoon. I've never been there. Its cute. Lots of shops. We had lunch at this place on the water. The Rope Hook? I don't remember. Anyhow. The bartender looked so familiar but I couldn't place him. I was like, did we go to school together? Hm. So I finally asked the waitress his name, and she said he was Ben Sands, and that he had been on The Bachelorette. Aha!!! I remember I liked him. It was the Jen Schefft version. She's also an Alpha Xi Delta by the way. TFJ Jen! So I took some stalker-type photos of him with my new digital camera (graduation gift from wonderful husband!!) to send to Becky.
Flight was fun too. On the way out we flew over Boston, on the way back we were diverted over to Bedford out of the major traffic zone for BOS. I took some decent pics from the air, perhaps will post them when i get back. If I ever get back.

Oh also...

Amish posted this story on his blog and I thought it was funny.