Dys-FUN-ctional

Ubud, Bali

2009-08-16T01:57:00.000-07:00

Roar!

Selling flowers at the market

I have a monkey on my lap!

Monkey Forest, Ubud

Sanur, Bali

2009-08-16T01:43:00.001-07:00

Denpasar is full... Business OK?

2009-08-16T01:32:00.000-07:00

Even the view is better in business...
(a chain of volcanoes)

A kite in a tree in Jakarta...

2009-08-16T01:20:00.000-07:00

Sanur

2009-08-15T02:14:00.000-07:00

On day three, Matt and I woke up early to catch a flight to Bali. Our flight was at 7am. The professor's son, who manages the guest house, assured us we could leave at 5:30 -- no traffic, plenty of time at the airport. Matt asked that the driver arrive at 5:15 just to make sure. It didn't matter -- the driver was late, and we left at 5:30.

We arrived at the airport nearly an hour later, close to 6:30am. There were lines everywhere. We showed a Garuda Air representative our ticket to make sure we were in the right place, and she waived at the line. We waited. And waited. We showed our ticket to someone else walking by, and they pulled us out of that line and told us to stand in another (short) line. Finally we got up to the counter.

The woman looked at our printout tickets and clicked at the keys of her computer. "Ohhh," she said, "Denpasar, is closed." "But they told us to wait," Matt protested quietly, voice breaking slightly with mild panic. "Ok, one moment --" the woman runs off with our passports and tickets.

We wait for her return, expecting the worst. Breathless she returns, and sits back down. She looks at us and says, "Denpasar flight is full. Only business." Matt and I exchange a look, not believing our ears. "Business OK?"

A few moments later we are racing -- RACING -- through the airport to try and make our flight, which was already in final boarding, also halfway in disbelief that our $60 tickets to Bali are about to buy us white tablecloths and real silverware in business class on a 747 -- better run before they realize their mistake!!

Oh heaven. By the time we got to the plane I was thirsty and a man brought me orange juice in a real glass. He look so happy when I asked for a second one. We had eggs and ham and two -- two! croissants, the best coffee we'd had yet, refills, oh, and the seats... so comfy...

Oh yeah, and Bali is nice, too -- but that's for the next post. :) (In a rush, have to get to a cultural dance...)

Total Traffic

2009-08-12T16:55:00.000-07:00

Day Two

Jakarta's facades are cracked and stained
Jakarta's facades are glistening glass...

As we speed north in our taxi toward the Cafe Batavia for brunch, lines to the rhythm of "Jellicle Cats" run through my head. We pass through jumbles of buildings squashed together like townhouses, 3-4 stories high, crumbling, rusted, and dirty with car exhaust. Bootleg CDs, car parts, lamps. We also pass huge mall complexes with grand names like "Plaza Senayan" -- these are gleaming behemoths that house Western designer stores like Prada, Tod's, Hugo Boss, and Coach, connected by glass walkways to luxury apartments and condos stretching dozens of stories high. Security guards check the undercarriage of each car that pulls up with oversized dentist mirrors. We pass the Chinese quarter, where many buildings stand scorched and empty from a fire many years ago, with grey facades and neon signs. We pass skyscrapers entirely devoted to a single bank, a single company, Mercedes. There is one major road that runs north-south through the center of Jakarta, and this is it.

We get out of the taxi and begin to walk to the Cafe Batavia, the second-oldest building in Jakarta. It faces the first oldest, which is the old Stadthuis Governor's Building, and is now a museum. Cafe Batavia is the ultimate 30s bar -- upstairs the walls are lined with photographs, the walls are teak paneled, heavy teak shutters keep out the sun and lazy ceiling fans swirl overhead (though there is also air conditioning). A teak bar is faced with cowhide. Muted brocade curtains hang down over corner clusters of cushioned wicker chairs. The food isn't that great (the guidebook described it as "form over function"), but the ambiance...

After walking around, going to the museum (a great deal at 20 cents), and returning to the Cafe for a much needed drink -- it was getting hot! -- we caught a taxi to go to one of these fancy malls. Air conditioning seemed to be just the thing, and there would be restaurants for lunch. The car turned south. And the journey that took us 45 minutes that morning took an hour to go half as far. Oh misery, sitting in that cab. Matt told me that officials in Jakarta believe by 2011 the city will experience "total traffic" -- complete paralysis. The only thing moving are the express buses, which have a dedicated lane. If only we'd taken that...

That evening though, a real gem of a restaurant find redeemed the day: Payon. Walking through the small gate, there is an open air traditional pavilion under which tables and chairs look out into a small courtyard. Additional detached buildings, some with gift shops, some with private seating, and one with, of all things, a children's play area, all face the courtyard's central fountain. The servers wear collarless white cotton tunics and black pants. Traditional Indonesian flute music plays. The sound of water almost drowns out the whine of scooters. And they serve BEER, which is not common (Indonesia is predominantly Muslim). Full, sleepy, and slightly tipsy, with our mouths tingling from the spicy fried chicken and grilled fish, we make it back to the professor's house to pack for that next morning's trip -- to Bali!

The Tree that Eats Kites

2009-08-10T16:47:00.000-07:00

I am in Jakarta, Indonesia.

I arrived at 1:00pm local time, which is 14 hours ahead of California. The airport is built to resemble a series of low, connected wooden pavilions, decorated with wooden panels covered in intricate carvings in dull colored sheens. I remembered that Matt said, when he arrived the first time, that between the terminal and the main building, in the hallway enclosed with wood and glass looking over the tropical palms of a courtyard, you could smell the distinct tang of clove cigarettes tinged with jet fuel. I made sure to breathe deep. He was right.

Within, armed with a small collection of brightly colored landing documents, I gave and got in turn: arrival visa coupon, arrival visa, departure card, passport stamp, stern warning about drug trafficking (this on a sign -- Welcome to Indonesia! Drug Trafficking is Punished by Death!), a yellow health card so they could find me if someone on the plane comes down with swine flu, or bird flu, or SARS, or god knows. Finally, a passport stamp. The luggage. A final x-ray screen. And then -- Matt!

Matt arranged for a driver, who was kind enough to turn on the air conditioning in the car, as I was still dressed for Berkeley. (i.e. wearing socks.) The toll road out of the airport is lined with unevenly manicured hedges and cassava trees. The traffic is medium heavy, with little regard for signals, but the cars and trucks communicate with gently tapped horns and weave securely between lanes. We passed clutches of shanty housing, lean-tos topped with corrugated metal, some had walls woven with bamboo (?). Those looked nicer. Each cluster was broken up by faded but brightly colored awnings denoting a food stand or market, displaying indistinguishable golden fried food in the window, colored juices made of mysterious fruits, newspapers, cigarettes. The outskirts of Jakarta.

The road rose to an overpass and Matt told me this would be my first "look" at Jakarta. We got to the summit and I saw it: in every direction through every window of our SUV, the haze of the city stretched to all points of the horizon. It was dotted with skyscrapers in every direction, one, two, a dozen, twenty, forty, a hundred? Some apartment buildings with concrete balconies, some in the far distance those glamorous glass and steel structures housing the Jakarta branches of global firms of commerce and law -- those that couldn't afford to be in Singapore, at least. It reminded me of climbing to the top of -- was it in Paris, or St. Petersburg? There was a bell, and at the top you could see a panorama of the city broken by the steeples of churches in all directions. Only this -- this was much bigger.

We arrived at the professor's house, who runs a bed and breakfast out of the top rooms now that his children have moved out. I showered and changed and we walked outside. A small warren of streets lined with high walls protecting the large houses within gave way to a main drag, lined with sidewalks rife with large holes revealing the drainage ditches below. Watch your step. Scooters danced between the cars, always gently speaking to each other with beeps, as we walked toward the McDonalds to get our fried chicken and fries topped with seasoning salt. My first meal in Indonesia! There we saw school children in uniforms practicing off flashcards, couples cooing over laptops taking advantage of the wi-fi, a large brood of bright blonde children belonging to the Dutch expat couple running amok in the large, clean, spacious dining room. The cashiers answered Matt in uninflected English, and wore smart black McDonalds polos that looked new. We imagined this was a good job.

After a nap we ventured out again, after dark, which falls at 6pm. 6am-6pm is the day; we are just south of the Equator. (Did I mention it is quite warm here?) In the warren of streets, barefoot children flew small square kites, constructed of a tiny bent cross of twigs and stretched with tissue. These rose quite high on the nonexistant tropical breeze -- above the walls, above the large houses, above the heavy telephone wires -- so high! They run and laugh as the men sit in front of their houses, smoking clove cigarettes and playing checkers. White cats with smudgy brown faces and half-size tails stalk the roads, looking for small handouts.

We walk to a pan-Asian restaurant that has a covered terrace (covered because of the rainy season) dotted with red chinese lanterns amidst white christmas lights. Fans are blowing from the rafters near the large TV sets that are playing Dave Brubeck at the Java Jazz Festival. We sit and receive menus for two different restaurants -- our choice. We order "lime squashes" which at Jayakarta is called a Jeruk nipis peras: lime juice, sugar syrup, and sparkling water. Over ice. Lovely. We settle on sushi because it's cool, and small, and I am not very hungry.

We walk back and I sleep all night, disturbed once only by the blaring call to prayer at 4am.

I wake up early and Matt wants to keep sleeping. Outside our room is the dining room, set with toast and jam, bananas, and instant coffee makings. I make my instant coffee and pull the wood and wicker rocking chair out on the balcony to watch the sun grow higher in the sky. The houses around are all awake with the chatter of women sweeping, men delivering things on motorbikes, and birds chirping -- one of the houses has a dozen bird cages alive with the cooing of doves and pigeons and the chirping of parakeets. I can see the neighbors' laundry hanging and hear the washing of pavements. The cats are roaming silently, and sit to meditate on the day. A particular type of tree with long leaves grows to about two stories high, there is one in front of me with a kite stuck in its branches. Matt pointed out the one down the road earlier -- about six brightly colored kites that had flown so high, so you could barely see it against the hazy clouds, had fallen prey to its branches.

An Open Letter to the RNC

2008-10-22T16:28:00.000-07:00

Dear Republican National Committee:

I read with interest today the many headlines announcing that your constituency had paid for more than $130,000 worth of clothes for Sarah Palin and her family from high end stores such as Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Barney's New York. Many of the articles focused on the issue that, should Sarah Palin keep the clothes, or should she use them for personal outings and appearances, they would count as income and be taxable by the IRS. In response to the news, you announced that the clothing would eventually be given to charity.

I would like to offer my services to you as a charity that would willingly accept such donations. Should you agree to donate Sarah Palin's clothes to me, which will otherwise be scrutinized for illegality, I will gladly, immediately, and with my best efforts make myself a charitable organization ready to receive your donation.

1) I would be able to appreciate the quality of Sarah Palin's outfits better than other charitable recipients. Who else noticed subtle sheen of the black silk shantung suit she wore at the Vice Presidential debates? (set off with the Swarovski crystal flag pin - a nice touch!) What about the the round-collar suits, the three-quarter sleeves, the bold but conservative colors? You strove to dress her in a way that would confer experience, legitimacy, and also femininity. You avoided Hillary's tangerine pantsuits and Condi's dominatrix boots, and found a "look" that, I'll admit, rivals Jackie O. and Carla Bruni meeting the Queen. This was not just a shopping spree; it was a transformation. You want to give away these clothes to someone who understands this; these clothes are a part of history.

2) I am a poor/I will put them to good use. I am currently a law student, which means that I am living off of loans, but I am also expected (as soon as I get a my first job) to have a wardrobe with a polished, professional look. I can't get away with Michelle Obama's H&M dresses; I need suits, pencil skirts, and double-breasted mini-trenches. Moreover, in the current economic downturn, it is unlikely that I will get a large signing bonus in order to properly prepare me and my closet for embarking on my career.

3) Sarah Palin's clothes can be tailored to fit me. I do not know what size Ms. Palin wears, but a recent NY Times article said that she wore a beehive hairdo because she is "short." I too am short. Everything else can be taken in. I will cover all costs of tailoring personally.

4) Your donation would be a sign of the Republican Party's willingness to support struggling young women entering the workforce. Moreover, you could point to the fact that I am a lifelong Democrat to show that the Republican Party never plays favorites, and is committed to fairness, equality, and rewarding merit rather than blind party loyalty and backhanded political tactics.

I am happy to name this charity as would best suit your needs. I would like to point out that my maiden name is Hispanic, and thus incorporating this into the charity name would also have the benefit of looking like your party supports minorities, whether you do or not.

I look forward to your prompt response.

Most Sincerely,

MEELS

Fabu-LAW-sity, Part I

2008-09-18T17:54:00.000-07:00

In my Civil Procedure class (which only a few days ago I realized was distinguished from "Criminal" Procedure ... ohhhhhh...) we are discussing personal jurisdiction. When can a state gain jurisdiction over a person or a corporation? The early, famous case Pennoyer v. Neff creates a strict rule for establishing general jurisdiction over a person (called, funny enough, the Pennoyer Power Theory of Jurisdiction) which holds that states have exclusive jurisdiction to the persons and property within its territory and no jurisdiction over persons and property outside of its territory.

In later years, the courts had to determine how to address corporations under this rule. Not having a body, but being a metaphorical body, the courts established two "legal fictions" - metaphors - for allowing jurisdiction over corporations who were technically outside of the state: 1) "presence" (i.e. if a corporation has a "presence" in the state, it does a lot of business there) and 2) "implied consent" (i.e. if a corporation was "doing business" in the state, it was implied that it had agreed to jurisdiction there).

These metaphors were deemed illogical by a group of folks called Legal Realists (again with the creativity here) and were swapped out with a standard in a case affectionately called International Shoe. "Presence" becomes "certain minimum contacts" and "implied consent" becomes a fairness test, "such that the maintenance of the suit does not offend “traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice."

But, says problem #6 in the notes on page 97 of my casebook, what about in the case of an individual person, who is NOT a resident or citizen or physically present at the time in a particular state, but who "does business" there to such an extent that it might be analogical to an out-of-state corporation? For there is one (and only one!) such a case, Abko v. Lennon , in which a certain Mr. Richard Starkey was deemed eligible to be sued in the State of New York because, the plaintiff alleged, he went about "doing business" there with minimum contacts and fairness and all the rest.

And to this I said, Well, those minimum contacts and fairness standards stem from (and override) the metaphors of "presence" and "consent," which were only created because of the need to analogize a corporation to a person. Analogizing back the other way, then, would seem to undermine the whole process, because we do have sufficient standards for determining whether a person is under a state's jurisdiction or not. So we obviously need a standard here regulating the types of individuals that this special case can apply to, so as not to offend the entire system of due process. And I would suggest the proper standard here would be that the defendant can be subject to general jurisdiction if it can be shown that he or she is "bigger than Jesus."

...

OK, I didn't say that last part aloud. It's a hundred person class. But I sort of wish I did. ;)

law school accessory edition: lunch

2008-08-25T17:36:00.000-07:00

I hate sandwiches.

Well, that's a slight exaggeration. I like, for example, buffalo mozzarella, fresh basil, and tomato on focaccia. I like that with prociutto too. I like most paninis. I like grilled vegetable sandwiches. And I like baguettes with brie.

OK, I like some sandwiches. But they have to be fatty, vinegar-y, or hot. And they can't, can't, CAN'T be on crappy bread. I am no PBJ girl anymore.*

So what's a commuting girl to do when lunch is on the line and proverbial moths are still fluttering out of proverbial pocketbooks? Answer: buy a really expensive lunchbox.

No, really; look at this:

This, my friends, is the Zojirushi Mr. Bento Lunch Jar, and it will be my new best friend in 5-9 shipping days.

An "American" sandwich won't even FIT in here - instead, I will have a four-course extravaganza, kept hot by Japanese Bento-technology. It is awesome looking, practical, and even has a CULT FOLLOWING! Seriously, if five thousand "Mr. Bento Porn" pictures can't stimulate some rockin' lunch ideas, I am worse off than I ever imagined...

YUM!

*One exception. I will still eat a tuna fish sandwich with Doritos wedged inside - a favorite of mine from high school.

I can haz broccoli??

2008-08-17T15:15:00.000-07:00

What is this, a B Vitamin deficiency??

Hey there, cats don't eat pie!

2008-08-03T15:35:00.000-07:00

Matt and I welcome the very cute, very intelligent, super adorable, worth at least sixpence (twice as much as your cat, Dave!) NEW KITTEH!

Already our dissertations are in peril!

Um, and not just metaphorically.

Kitteh finds the sunny spots!

Kitteh learns about glass table tops!

Vicious Aloysius makes a friend!

More pictures - and his name - once he loses the ridiculous vet cone.

law school preparations: accessory edition

2008-07-29T21:40:00.000-07:00

Well and now it comes to it! We are back from our travels and ensconced back in our lovely apartment, which we had left mostly clean with only a few straggling dishes from our hurried breakfast before catching our early flight. And now I have a whole month to focus on the one thing that really matters before the fall: what to wear on the first day of law school. (Did you think I would say "dissertation"? Really?? Ha, I laugh...)

Since the last time I opened my metaphorical pocketbook I only got those little moths you see in the cartoons, the first step for my wardrobe was Repair and Rehem -- I had the soles of my favorite fall shoes replaced, my too-long jeans hemmed (yes Beth, the ones you made fun of me for not hemming, I've finally hemmed), and some holes patched in a knit sweater. I will also probably get the lining of my leather jacket replaced... hmm... maybe I'll do it in something besides black... like purple! I will have to ask my special alterations lady, whom I LOVE... maybe I'll do a post just on her next...

But there is one item from grad school which will NOT be making the transition to the law school wardrobe: my backpack. I will graduate from law school and turn 30 at about the same time. Wearing a backpack at 30 is a sign of failure (or back problems. Uhh... or camping...) - but ANYWAY, my inherent fabulousness (fabu-LAW-sity! ha! still cracks me up!) and the fact that I've been using one since FOREVER that I've been in school precludes it utterly. So to the question: what miraculous shoulder bag contraption can fit a laptop, my books, my snacks, my electronics, the most recent issue of Vogue, uh, I mean The Economist, and everything else a girl needs?

I was stumped. What *are* all the cool kids carrying these days? So I consulted the professionals at Corporette - they usually do work wardrobes, but I hoped they would take pity on me, on the cusp of entering the world of "professional" school, and respond to my query. And they did! Twice! (I didn't even have to tell them that I'm a recovering medievalist!)

And their main bag reply was:

- a large nylon bag — you want something durable as well as lightweight, because your law school books will definitely be heavy enough by themselves. We’ve suggested a few for you below, but in general we’d suggest looking at diaper bags and beach bags as your main campus bag. If you have back problems, you may want to look into a rolling backpack, as most of the ergonomic bags are a bit too small for law school textbooks.

I was highly gratified to see them recommend a diaper bag, actually, because I'd been shopping around myself on Zappos and seen this:

Pinstripe! Teal! Looks pretty much perfect, no? But one of the gazillion reviews said it "looked kinda like a diaper bag" which I was mildly concerned about. Until Corporette sanctioned the nylon! Yay!!

Zappos will have it here tomorrow! For a test drive I plan to fill it with my laptop, Lewis and Short, and LaRousse Gastronomique and prance around the house.

Now I ask myself, can little pocketbook moths buy themselves a new MacBook???

travels never cease...

2008-07-04T10:19:00.000-07:00

... but sometimes, I wish they would!

Next up, Philadelphia, Cleveland, and DC. Unfortunately, Dissertation Station is the very last stop on this ride, and I was really hoping to spend more time there this summer. You know, before I hit Fabu-LAW-sity. OMG I should totally start that blog... Dys-FUN-ctional can be grad school, Fabu-LAW-sity can be law school!!!!

pictures

2008-06-10T10:02:00.001-07:00

up.

and then there were links...

2008-05-30T13:44:00.001-07:00

When I was in the tenth grade, my French teacher arranged a trip to France through one of those mid-grade educational tours -- the one where she gets to go for free if so many people sign up, and then 10 more for her husband, etc. I obviously HAD to go, and I did -- I was the French "prodigy," we'll say, of my central Oklahoma high school, managing to skip ahead through independent study and yada yah. I have very vivid, blurry memories of this trip - my first out of the country, ever. They're like snapshots from an old camera (and probably, if I go back though my photos of the trip, that's exactly what they are - the photos, not the real memory...).

I remember a half-dark plane crossing the atlantic. I remember Paris, it was overcast and cold, and the sand-colored gravel around the Louvre was not the lush palace garden I'd expected. The Mona Lisa was behind glass that glared, and was hard to see. I had a crush on a boy who was also on the trip, who wore a long black trench coat and looked like the Highlander -- I remember that very well. He was sort of a loner, and spent his time wandering around with the science teacher/chaperone Mr. Nole, who was also the detention teacher, and so knew him well. I tagged along - both of them were happy to be willingly followed by someone who could order cheeseburgers for them and didn't really want to go shopping at Le Printemps. I remember they ordered a Heineken together at a bar, and I didn't know whether I should get alcohol (isn't it illegal for a 16 year old to have alcohol??) or a coke. I remember some ice cream, and a crepe, and a car museum. I remember having a charcoal drawing done in Montmartre. I remember a prostitute was arrested in the lobby of our hotel at night, and it was the first time I'd seen one. I remember the painful decision - Mrs. Tippen wanted to see the Eiffel Tower at night, but Mr. Tippen had agreed to accompany some students to the Latin Quarter. Everyone grouped up with Mr. Tippen and it was down to me... I'm sorry Mrs. Tippen, I would've been branded a dork for life. The bartender could toss the bottles in the air and twist them as he poured. At least I got everyone back on the metro all right.

Then I remember a train, and we went south to a lot of towns that start with N... Nimes, Nice, a bus. Sun, and we were quite tired. Things are hazy, I remember a fountain and we went to a candy factory and a perfume factory - Fragonard, because I still have the bottle of "Rendez-Vous" that I bought there. I bought some chocolate "seagulls eggs" but ... I thought I had more francs than that... I could only get one bag. More time on the bus, an hour in Monaco, a jostle of people, what? a prince? I can't see, too short. More bus, into Italy, to Milan, it was overcast and the city smelled like piss. We only had four hours until our flight home, and I stayed on the bus.

Back in Oklahoma, about a month later, I flipped open one of my French books and found 300 francs. They said not to keep your money all in one place. They said it was safest, for our own good (nevermind that Mr. Tippen was the only one of us to get pickpocketed! from an exterior pocket of a fanny pack on a crowded subway!). And I had, like an idiot, and it was too late, the chocolate was gone, and what had been the name of it anyway...?

Over the years the memories grow dimmer and I remember these chocolate eggs, the enjoyment, crunchy sugared shell and chocolate inside, but something else too, another flavor. The disappointment that I couldn't afford more at the time. The regret of "playing it safe" with my francs. Ahh... the evanescence of youth, travel, experience.

Except now. In the internet age, what is ever lost? For a recent random internet search has yielded fruit - I, the traveler, passed through and went on, but the candy factory is still there, and doing quite well -- it's called Confiserie Florian and it's right next to Fragonard in Grasse, along the Cote d'Azur. Another traveler will tell you all about them on Frommers. "Rendez-Vous" has been discontinued, but Confiserie Florian still has its Oeufs de Mouettes and I can order them at any time; for the right price, they deliver all over the world. Cliquez-ici.

I meant to order them earlier, so we could have them delivered in the EU, but I put it off. I loved this candy, I search for its equivalent every year - I eventually turned to Cadbury mini-eggs every Easter as a pale, shadowy substitute (interestingly, another candy whose appeal partially comes from its limited availability). But... do I want to order them? ... What if they ... taste different than I remember?? I am not the same, perhaps my tastebuds more so. Am I prepared to revisit the flavor that I have dreamed of, idolized, searched for, and resigned myself to keeping and holding only in my memory, a memory tied up in youth, travel, searching, escaping, longing... And now I can just order that off the internet???

I will try them, one day. But... perhaps I will hold on to my memory a little longer.

oh noes! a grai hair!

2008-05-18T13:55:00.000-07:00

All Venerate the Altar of the Lam Gods

2008-05-14T06:17:00.000-07:00

Our recent trip to Bruges and Ghent had both Matt and I worshipping at the altar of "Het Lam Gods." For Matt, it involved listening to all 40 minutes of the audiotour of Jan van Eyck's famous altarpiece. For me, it meant eating a humongous rack of lamb in red wine sauce.

No, I kid. (kid! har har.) Matt had the lamb and I had fish. Really, it was Matt who worshipped the Lamb Gods all weekend, and I stuck to the Chocolate Gods. Well, to be honest, most of our time was spent prostrated to the Beer Gods, under the spiritual guidance of the lovely Brugse Zot.

Well, we had to try a few different kinds.

Pictures up in the usual spot.

procrastination...

2008-05-06T09:27:00.000-07:00

well the weather has suddenly become summery, I've spent a couple hours on the beach this week, watched several dozen episodes of gilmore girls and law and order, and read over 1000 pages of Harry Potter (vols. 1, 6, and 4). It can only mean one thing.

dissertation chapter.

Hmmm, I think I have to go do some dishes...

whirlwind tour

2008-04-21T13:50:00.000-07:00

The latest intallment of "where's that hottie?!" took me from Geneva, back to the Hague, and out to the San Francisco Bay Area, and back (to the Hague again). (Go frequent flier miles!) I had 5 surprisingly jam-packed days -- two in Berkeley, three in Palo Alto -- to determine the location of my impending continuing education plans. Homesickness made the decision harder than you might think, particularly after a tasty lunch, multiple rounds of house-made lemon-mint soda, and a run-in with my favorite crook-tailed orange cat, Pony Boy. (OK, I didn't actually see Pony Boy on this trip... I saw my dissertation adviser. She's less furry.) Anyway, addled by the scent of Berkeley in full spring bloom (and probably by jet lag) I was highly biased against my other option by the time I got back down to Palo Alto. And yet... and yet. With the cards on the table Berkeley just couldn't beat Stanford where it counts.

(Uh, that would be the financial aid package. and the generous joint-degree offerings that will give me credit for finishing my dissertation. and the incredibly with-it staff. and the high ranking. and ... you get the idea.)

Oh, and the classrooms have these chairs. Oh, yes. :)

my new friend Alice, aka the Doomsday Machine

2008-04-07T14:34:00.001-07:00

I went to visit Alice on Sunday. There was a big special open house day that apparently 50,000 other people took part in too. See, there's this 27 km tunnel -- you might have heard of it recently because some people think its going to destroy the earth, or at least Hawaii -- because the LHC particle accelerator in the tunnel is used to speed particles up to just below the speed of light, and crash them into each other. Then there are these big "detectors" at the crash sites, which measure for different things. Alice is one of them, and hopes to measure the smashing of large ions (hence the name... A Large Ion Collision Experiment) i.e. lead nuclei and to be able to recreate quark-gluon plasma. Quark-gluon plasma (not to be confused with quark-gluon plasma, which is probably much tastier) is what existed in the tiny fractions-of-a-second before matter was created after the big bang. So, according to the German CERN intern who was ahead of us in line to get tickets, if anything is going to create a black hole (or a dragon, see article) it's going to be the Alice experiment.

Neat, huh?

A Large Ion Collider Experiment

(Why would it create a black hole? Well, you see, when a star dies, its matter cools and condenses, becoming smaller. It has such a huge amount of gravity that all the atoms get squished closer together than normal and occasionally the atoms collapse into each other and the protons and the electrons start to touch and cancel each other out and then you get a neutrons-only playground but then those keep collapsing and you get ... "nothing" -- mostly because the gravitational pull is so strong, that you can't figure out what's in there and come back out and tell NASA. So... some people think maybe if you crash two nuclei together at just below the speed of light then conditions would be right to create a black hole, though ... it's only two nuclei, not an entire star's worth and, you know, we're still on earth and not in space and it would be subject to earth's conditions, so see, it's all very unlikely.)

SCIENCE!

new year, new look, new locale

2008-04-01T09:56:00.000-07:00

One of these years I will start blogging again and be in the exact same place I was when I left off. No such luck this time. :) Where did we leave off, Milwaukee? Well, we made it to California and stayed there all fall, enjoying our favorite enclaves and walks, sunny days, the vegetable market, and even braving the fish monger's and a new pizza place. But, as is in our nature, as soon as the weather turns cold, we go and fly off somewhere colder. To the Netherlands, this time. Oh sure, you might think of tulips and wooden shoes, but let me remind you about a little something called...

THE NORTH SEA.

That's right, frosty, frothy waves slapping against giant metal fishing trawlers, the wind wailing through the rigging of the ships at harbor, kicking sand up into your face and hair as you walk along the dead empty sand-grassy dunes where rusted green German bunkers squat -- oh yeah, THAT North Sea.

Of course, now it's April, so it's more like the North Sea with the row of summer-only beach clubs, bungee jumping, casinos, ice cream stands, windsurfing and para-sailing. But everyone is still wearing coats.

roar!

2007-11-20T18:48:00.000-08:00

Friday Night Fish-Fry and Brewery Tour

2007-07-15T07:30:00.000-07:00

In Milwaukee now, home of the famous tradition: Friday Night Fish-Fry! The lovely Anna took us to the Lake Shore Brewery for Fish-Fry and a Brewery Tour!

The Happy Crew awaits the delivery of deep-fried goodness!

The Fish!

Yay plates of deep-fried goodness!

Uhh... there was a polka band, and uhhh... Anna made me do it!

Yet another picture of me and Anna dancing together.

Afterwards we went to Leon's for frozen custard, which is like ice cream, but with egg.

Ahh, butter pecan...

NY-Ohio

2007-07-14T07:50:00.000-07:00

After leaving Beth's on Tuesday, we started the long, long, loooong drive through the length of New York State. It looked a lot like this for much of the time:

We were surrounded on all sides by corn. And occasionally there were dilapidated barns:

Once we were in Ohio, the skies cleared, and we decided to stop for some Roadfood for dinner. In good midwestern style, it was 5pm. The White Turkey Drive-In is an institution in Conneaut, Ohio. The on-the-ground directions in the book are non-existant, and of course our Rand-McNally atlas doesn't exactly have a city map of Conneaut, so our first step was to find the place. After driving from the highway to Lake Erie and back by the historic train depot, we gave up and called. A chipper, high-school cheerleader answered, and gave us one-step-at-a-time directions, promising to "stay with us" until we made it. ("OK, are you headed toward the lake?" "Um, yes" [we weren't]. "OK, so, you'll have to turn around." "oh, ok... [believable pause] Done." "Have you passed a Big K?" "Sure." [we hadn't] "OK, well, we're on the other street, so you'll have to make a left until you see a mobil station." "...Great. Fine, we're there..." and so on.)

It was kind of miraculous that we made it at all, actually.

The White Turkey Drive-In is a summer-only ... drive-in ... with stools at the counter and picnic tables around the back. They're schtick is a "secret-recipe" turkey, sort of like a juicy pulled-turkey sandwich, as well as root beer and tons of types of ice cream fountain drinks.

And cheerleaders.

Matt got a Turkey Sandwich and I got the "Large Marge," which is a turkey sandwich plus cheese and bacon. Because really, what can't be improved by the addition of cheese and bacon? And I got a root beer float, which was made with a huge swirl of soft-serv vanilla, and bubbled over the frosted mug when I stirred. It is unclear what the process of turkey preparation is, but according to the menu, the owners and 8 workers spent all of January preparing 8,000 pounds of turkey for consumption during the 2007 season.

We spent more time finding the place than scarfing down our turkey sandwiches, but we were satisfied that we'd experienced a bit of Americana by the time we'd left. The main street, decorated at intervals with flags, lead us back to I-90.

And as the sun set, the tops of the corn were illuminated by the horizontal light, and the white farmhouses glowed orange, a bald eagle kept pace with the car for a split second, and then veered left, out of sight.

No shit.

Pics!

2007-07-10T07:45:00.000-07:00

Me in Hyde Park, during our 18 hours in London. We had ice cream.

While we were in Washington, DC, we went to the Smithsonian. Actually, we went and had a nice lunch in the National Gallery and thought while we were there we'd see some stuff. The Nat Gal was pretty empty but Natural History was really, really crowded. Though I did muscle my way in to see my jewels, temporarily on display ;). I always thought that if this was mine, I'd replace the turquoise with something faceted. I mean, the turquoise really doesn't go, does it?

And me, in a crystal structure. Matt says it's salt. Really, if I were to be in a crystal structure, do you think I'd choose salt??

And then I cut Jim's hair, because it was an emergency and also the 4th of July, so his usual Supercuts or whatever wasn't open.

It was only an improvement, believe me.

And Pete took us on a tour - here's us on the little diamond marker that used to be the point-from-which all map calculations were based, directly below the capitol dome and atrium.

And all the states have statues of important people, so here's me with Will Rogers.

And the best part - we got to ride the train!

And here's the first frame from the Road Trip - Leaving Hamilton, VA!

Syracuse-Ithaca-Albany

2007-07-09T20:11:00.000-07:00

Like those hot wheels that you click backwards to build up enough wind to zip across the table, we have gone east before our push west. We arrived in Albany in the middle of a storm which brought down trees and powerlines - and we made sure not to park *under* a tree, seeing the back-end of a silver SUV totally crushed beneath several thousand pounds of tree just before arriving at Beth's house. We were awakened during the night by the sound of the city's wood-chippers cleaning up the streets. (The storm did NOT stop us from going to get soft-serv ice cream with sprinkles after dinner, though we had to go to Beth's second-choice store because the first had no power and was closed.)

Before arriving in Albany we made a stop in Ithaca, which was sort of a waste simply because it was so hot and humid that it made for a really unpleasant visit. But we got Hot Truck Pizza Subs based on a recommendation from "Roadfood," a book loaned to us before our trip, which were very good. (Though I must admit, just about the last thing you want on a hot humid day is a hot truck pizza sub.)

Next up, pictures!

Manolo on the Lawyer Shoes

2007-07-08T10:56:00.001-07:00

Oh my.

Road Trip, Mark III

2007-07-08T09:46:00.001-07:00

You'd think we'd have had enough of this cross-country thing, but here we go...

We began our adventure with a few weeks in Washington, DC and surrounding areas. Highlights included Pete's tour of the Capitol, the Williams-Sonoma and J Crew outlet, mexican food at Abi's, and Matt's mom's magical biscuits (they just appear when you arrive for tea...). Hopefully I'll have a picture or two up soon.

Yesterday our drive began once we managed to stuff the car with all the junk we'd been storing, plus a brand new X-Box 360 that was a wedding gift from Matt's friend Dave. (Thanks Dave. No really, thanks. If Matt never finishes his dissertation now, it's on you.) Driving northward we accidentally happened upon the Gettysburg battlefield while searching for a McDonalds - traffic was heavy with reenactors and slack-jawed amateur historians, so the over-educated grad students turned back and made for the next exit. Yeah, we're those people - seriously, you can see it from Google Earth if you really want to. Passing rolling countryside over rolling countryside, we made our destination by dinner, which was the house of our hosts' Middle Eastern parents, so we were greeted by a bone-in leg of lamb, potatoes, stuffed grape leaves, salad, broccoli, carrots, green beans (I think), rice, and probably something else I'm forgetting, with Kanafi (sp?) for dessert (which is mostly cheese, and orange rind). Eat, eat. Are you finished?! Don't you want some more lamb?

So now we're in Syracuse, tomorrow to Albany to visit Beth. Yay!

Grad School is Hard, Part II

2007-06-08T06:23:00.000-07:00

After our fabulous Rome wedding and honeymoon on the Amalfi coast (pictures of which can be found here, we took the overnight train to Geneva to visit Matt's aunt and uncle. (We were almost foiled by a country-wide taxi strike in Italy... that part wasn't very fun.) Now we are about to head up to their chalet in the French Alps, and then Matt and I are driving down to Provence for a few days before returning to the chalet, meeting back up with Matt's family, going back to Geneva and then flying back to the US shortly thereafter.

We'll be here.

:)

wedding!

2007-05-17T23:47:00.001-07:00

matt and amelia's wedding(s)

Korncrake!

2007-05-08T08:39:00.000-07:00

Mein Gott, how I longed to slap him, to shout at him, “Flee this place, young man, before the academy eats your soul!” But, it was already too late, the boy had given himself over to it, and any spark he may once have had had already been leeched away by the stultifing inanities of the “life of the mind”.

Please, please go read the fabulous, hilarious antics of Herr Professor von Korncrake, friend of the esteemed Manolo.

PS getting married friday!!! See Anna's blog for Rome pictures!

Yay, I'm a llama again! Hooray! ... Wait.

2007-04-25T02:35:00.000-07:00

Matt and I are back in Rome for the final 6 weeks or-so of our time here. Classes with Reggie wrap up next week (though I may stop going earlier - busy for the, what was that again?)

We are hoping to go through and do some of the things in Rome we've been wanting/meaning to do but haven't yet - it's funny to us to say things like, oh right, we'd better get back to that rare book store and buy that print - we only have six weeks left. :)

Medieval Academy Antics

2007-04-23T01:59:00.000-07:00

For now, I direct you to my friend Anna's post concerning the medieval academy meeting and a marvelous picture of us there. :)

At the moment, I'm back in Rome, though, alas, without my luggage...

BERKELS!

2007-04-16T21:25:00.000-07:00

I have made it (finally!) to Berkeley to pick up my fabulous dress! YAY! I have had a terrible cold, lost my voice, gave a paper at a conference, been to Toronto, and now I am back for the first time since August in Berkeley-berkeley... the air is so much cleaner here than in Rome!

We have Dragon*Con, and the Belgians...?

2007-04-09T00:03:00.000-07:00

check out this article from the nytimes

Belgium was probably a pretty civilized place in the Middle Ages, actually.

neat article

2007-04-07T06:17:00.000-07:00

Street Performance by "Greatest Violinist in America" goes ignored at L'Enfant Plaza

PRINCESS HAIR

2007-04-06T10:48:00.000-07:00

I'M A PRINCESS PRETTY PRETTY PRINCESS!!!!!

I just got the best haircut EVER from the exceedingly talented Rick at Noi Salon and and and he curled it and I looked fabulous like a princess and today its STILL LOOKS GREAT.

I have therefore scrapped all of my convenient and inexpensive hair and makeup plans with "Francesco" through the hotel and rescheduled all wedding hair and makeup with him and his partners at twice the price.

PRINCESS PRINCESS PRINCESS!!!!!!

What should you study?

2007-04-06T04:29:00.000-07:00

Your Learning Style: Personal and Passionate

You are very flexible and curious about the world. Human understanding is very important to you.

You Should Study:

Anthropology
Architecture
Art
Art history
Art therapy
Classics
Counseling
Foreign Languages and Literature
International Studies
Linguistics
Literature
Psychology
Sociology
Teaching

What Should You Study?

Damnit. Where did I go wrong? (How is art therapy like classics??)

my special rome links

2007-04-02T14:03:00.000-07:00

buy museum and exhibit tickets!
do yoga!
get your hair done!
go to church!
go to the salon!
get your nails done!
get your local info!
eat gelato! (or here!)
go to the library!
go running!
buy salami!
be romantic! (hint hint...)
try gran caffe!
learn Latin!
get married!

When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie...

2007-03-26T13:48:00.000-07:00

Matt and I have decided to incorporate some traditional Italian music into our special day. Please go here and listen to some samples!

This will go so well with our big spaghetti and meatballs reception! With the bottles of chianti wrapped in raffia and the red and white checkered tablecloths.

(Oh. dear. lord. Thanks Anna.)

Pompeii

2007-03-24T00:56:00.000-07:00

To remind you occasionally that we ARE actually in Rome, here are some pictures from our latest excursion, to Pompeii!

This is one of the gates of the city. Outside is the necropolis, which has quite a number of large chamber tombs and such that look like mini-temples.

This is the creepy thing everyone has to see, from the "Garden of the Fleeing." That is, as excavations were taking place, the head archeologist noticed strange-shaped holes in the ash/dirt/deposits of time/pumice stone, and on a hunch had them filled with plaster and dug around them. Sure enough, they represented places where the bodies of unlucky Pompeians had been buried and then burned away by the heat of the ash, but not before the ash had cooled around them to leave an impression.

Many buildings are quite well preserved. Pompeii was covered with ash and rock, not lava, but most of the buildings are still recognizable, with many frescos. We saw a bakery, a brothel, several houses, food shops, theaters, and temples.

This is the forum. No, those mountains are not Vesuvius - it's in the other direction. Too cloudy to see.

And these were all in a huge makeshift warehouse - obviously they haven't figured out what to do with them. Pompeians were drinkers, obviously. (See the little guy kneeling? Creepy.)

Another reason to become a lawyer

2007-03-24T00:27:00.000-07:00

Finally, some press time for medievalists!

I love Tolkien, I really do. But when Kalamazoo is in the same article as Dragon*Con...

(Thanks for the link Dad)

Two, count them TWO totally hot bridesmaids!

2007-03-23T01:54:00.000-07:00

I must pass on the exquisitely worded sentence from The Manolo, whose witty banter never ceases to make me laugh...

As we all know, historically, the typical dress of the bridesmaid employed such undermining tactics as the over abundance of rump-enlargening ruffles, and the strategically misplaced, bust-minimizing wickety-wack, to make the attendants look faintly (if not explicity) ridiculous.

I thought it appropriate to share with the happy news that BOTH of my wonderful friends are actually able to come, and that we chose (yes, we all chose together) the very beautiful (and very on sale) Sophia from J Crew, which last season was offered in pink quartz:

Which I've asked them to pair with gold sandals.

In fact, I believe this dress is so lovely that I got it for myself in the long version (for that uhhhh.... other ceremony thing which is not the real wedding), which I plan to pair with gold shoes as well:

Cynthia Rowley Trilogy from Zappos

Weddings are fun when they come with shoes!

I love the alphabet

2007-03-12T15:01:00.000-07:00

Look! when I'm alphabetized I come first! (In the links, that is.)

p.s. bitches

2007-03-10T00:46:00.000-08:00

Oh PS - no, I'm fine, really - crazy ladies who come by your outdoor table at a restaurant asking for money and end up tipping over your bottle of wine, breaking your glass and brandishing it at you with raised fists? Totally normal. Happens all the time, judging by the total nonchalance of the waiter and all the passers by (who, incidentally, were busy comforting the crazy lady). Well loro sono stranieri indeed. All we got was a "mi dispiace." Not even a new glass, either. Bitches.

pretty!!

2007-03-10T00:34:00.000-08:00

If I ever have any doubts about why I need to give up on academia, I just go to the Anthropologie website... seriously, imagine giving my conference paper in those! no one would even be listening to me - we'd all be looking at my beautiful shoes!

The New Democracy of Extravagance

2007-02-26T04:36:00.000-08:00

I love it.

“a bastardized aesthetic derived from Victoriana and filtered through the lens of the romance novel and the Disney cartoon.”
- quoted in this article from New York Times, snipped from a new book called "One Perfect Day: The Selling of the American Wedding."

I think mine is more Childe Harold + Audrey Hepburn.

A ruin--yet what a ruin! from its mass
Walls, palaces, half-cities have been rear'd
Yet oft the enormous skeleton ye pass,
And marvel where the spoil could have appear'd.
Hath it indeed been plunder'd, or but clear'd?
Alas, developed, opens the decay,
When the colossal fabric's form is near'd:
It will not bear the brightness of the day,
Which streams too much on all--years--man--have reft away.

But when the rising moon, begins to climb
Its topmost arch, and gently pauses there;
When the stars twinkle through the loops of time,
And the low night-breeze waves along the air
The garland forest, which the grey walls wear,
Like laurels on the bald first Caesar's head;
When the light shines serene but doth not glare;
Then in this magic circle raise the dead:
Heroes have trod this spot--'tis on their dust ye tread.

"While stands the Coliseum, Rome shall stand;
When falls the Coliseum, Rome shall fall;
And when Rome falls--the World." From our own land
Thus spake the pilgrims oe'r this mighty wall
In Saxon times, which we are wont to call
Ancient; and these three mortal things are still
On their foundations, and unalter'd all;
Rome and her Ruin past Redemption's skill,
The World, the same wide den--of thieves or what ye will.
-Cantos CXLIII-CXLV, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1818)

And I'm totally wearing a tiara, too.

Favorite things when I was 8 (1988)

2007-02-24T02:39:00.000-08:00

Favorite color: pink
Favorite books: 50 Famous Fairy Stories, Baby Sitters Club
Favorite movies: The Last Unicorn, The Magic of Herself the Elf, Willow
Favorite TV shows: Jem and the Holograms ("truly outrageous!"), Thudercats, She-Ra, Saturday morning cartoons
Favorite toys: My Little Pony
Favorite outfit: pink sweatshirt with sparkle-glitter leopard on it, hair up in ponytail on the side
Favorite foods: Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, french toast, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, doritos
Favorite activity: sleepovers!

hmmm... has that much really changed?

I feel like kidneys should come with a warning

2007-02-20T15:05:00.000-08:00

ARG. Sometimes Italy can be so truly awful! (Or perhaps offal...!) OK, so we go to the restaurant now occupying the location which was formerly Il Primoli. Antipasto della casa - fine, lots of bowls of different veggies in marinades and such. Fun, whatever. I'm speaking Italian with the waiter, understanding things, everything is going well. Then I order for a secondi Lamb with Roast Potatoes. The menu says this in three languages - Agnello con Patate Arroste, Lamb with Roast Potatoes, and whatever it is in German. I ask them to split it for the two of us. We end up each with an unidentifiable bony chunk - I cut into what looks like the only piece of real meat and it is, no shit, a kidney. I mean like, it's a cross section from an anatomy book, but cooked (incidentally, overcooked) and on my plate. With a tuby ureter attached, oh yes. That, with the bones and some stringly lower back meat, comes to 15 euro, please. Thanks.

crying... so... funny...

2007-02-16T11:05:00.000-08:00

http://shoeblogs.com/wordpress/2007/02/16/manolo-the-columnist-68/

Perhaps the Manolo would like to advise also the young fabulous scholar-medievalist what to wear to the tweedy conference in April before she sprints off to the school of the law?

the latest on the food front...

2007-02-14T10:45:00.000-08:00

http://www.chowhound.com/topics/371089

And on the Marcella front - a few to avoid, actually - the risotto alba style, pg. 255, is a lot of work for not a lot of payout. takes forever and tastes a lot like... rice with ground beef. Also, the Farmer's wife's fresh pear tart I found too sweet - she should have a note (of course it seems obvious now) that you should taste your pears and calibrate the sugar accordingly - but she calls for 1 cup! I would've put in 1/4. and if it needs an "active act of sabatoge" to ruin it, well, then we have a terrorist counter-top Italian oven...

More of an over glorified toaster oven, really.

The Pear Tart looked nice...

but it was really not cooked through in the center. browned on top but not cooked through. Marcella had no indication of what "doneness" was...

But our little oven did manage to make a very nice roast chicken...! (Nigella's recipe, not Marcella's - my Marcella disappointments have led me into the arms of Nigella again...)

And just to show that we are also enjoying the city - a great picture of Castel San Angelo...

short update

2007-02-07T23:49:00.000-08:00

a few nights ago - the Tomato Sauce with Chopped Vegetables (pg. 153) is stupidly tasty - I wouldn't have thought because the veg to tomato ratio is so skewed - there's barely enough tomato to bind it together. But the carrot makes it sweet and the celery becomes melty with a slight crunch. I thought I wouldn't like it because I don't like celery - you can't even taste it except that it lends a certain je ne sais quoi to the sauce. On fusilli so that the spirals can pick up the veg chunks.

Last night, just fusilli with jarred "red pesto" (pesto rosso) which has sundried tomatoes as its first ingredient instead of basil. It's a nice change from regular pesto but we both prefer the green stuff. This tasted a lot like olives - strange, since there were no olives IN it - but there you go.

My cold came back at the beginning of the week but it's almost gone again - soon we shall actually be well enough to start going to see things again! (maybe!)

Domestic Goddess or Italian Mama??

2007-02-03T01:48:00.000-08:00

While awaiting my Nigella cookbooks I turned back to my old standby, Marcella Hazan. As I was going through picking recipes I began to realize, slowly but surely, that Italian food uses the exact same 12-15 ingredients for every recipe, but in different combinations. And, in fact, those are the only ingredients you can buy at the market. No wonder Italians only eat Italian food! Having bought these 12 ingredients, I now have everything on hand to make 12 different types of pasta, 4 risottos, three crespelle, three frittata, and to accompany any meat that I buy. How about that??? (ingredients: carrots, celery, dried mushrooms, cream, prociutto, pancetta, eggs, parmesean cheese, romano cheese, wine, onions, butter, garlic, olive oil, and obviously pasta of different types and also arborio rice ... ok so more like 15 or so, and this assumes you have a rosemary plant and a sage plant handy, like I do.)

So obviously I have challenged myself to go through and try all the Marcella recipes that I haven't yet, without repeating until I'm done. I started with an old favorite, Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter (pg. 152) which is so simple anyone could do it and I usually just make that. But then I branched out...

And I made spaghetti carbonara (pg. 202)! Who knew that it was tossed with a raw egg? It was very delicious - and I made it not without some trepidation, as it is purportedly Matt's favorite pasta dish which he no longer orders at restaurants becuase it's never good enough. He liked it. :)

Here we have ravioli with lemon and cheese (bought at the local fresh pasta store) with burro oro e salvia (pg. 192) - golden butter and sage sauce, which we had with chicken with rosemary and white wine (pg. 329).

Honestly, I've never had it cook up this well - the chickens here must be extra fatty. Or maybe Marcella's recipes only work in Italy?

Last night I made fettucini with pesto, green beans and potatoes (pg. 177) - ok I bought the pesto (basil is not in season) but also quite simple and delicious.

So... when I come back and they have to let out the wedding dress more, this is why.

La Saga del Pacco

2007-01-31T08:02:00.000-08:00

Il Mio Pacco! Sei arrivato! FINALEMENTE!!!

Er, it's a good thing you weren't fragile, pacco.

A week and four delivery attempts later, two phone calls, and a patient war against our conspiring building administrator has finally yielded fruit. My pacco, containing my books, research from last semester, and most importantly my NIGELLA COOKBOOKS has finally arrived!

Lo, how could it have taken so long?? Well, let me explain... the building supervisor is highly offended by either my name or penmanship, and also by stickers of any kind. Thus every attempt to put our names on the mailbox was ripped down the next day, nay, within a few hours... Likewise, the package deliveryman's notes were roughly scratched down before we had the chance to even see them... Matt, suspecting that the yellow shreds outside our building's gate might be an attempt at communication, and knowing that Italians are both half-hearted and lazy, searched the sidewalk beneath our gate and found, lo...

Not a lot, but enough to get our kind secretary at the Italian school to call and beg that the package be delivered again.

But yea, the package gods were still not appeased by our efforts, and the building administrator still conspired to keep my books parted from me. Finally (after a phonecall with our landlord) he typed up a label that said MATTHEW SARGENT AMELIA-BONEGO. Correct enough, perhaps, but enough to confound the simple postman, who alas, not seeing the little sticky note Matt had placed nearby with the correct names (which had been summarily ripped down prior), went away again.

One final phone call, and a final day of holding vigil at home, skipping class, peeing with the bathroom door open to be sure and hear the buzzer should it ring, the gods smiled, and allowed that the package be delivered.

Reggie in the news

2007-01-28T11:12:00.000-08:00

clicca qui!

Rome in January...

2007-01-28T02:42:00.000-08:00

...is GREEN!

The forum, from the Capitoline hill.

And again, with the Arch of Septimus Severus.

The Palatine Hill and Circus Maximus from the Aventine. (we were heading toward the baths of caracalla.)

Pictures of the apartment soon, I promise. First we have to take down our laundry!

frowny face

2007-01-23T13:47:00.000-08:00

DIS MANIBUS
SPRINKLES CATTUS AMATUS
TE ELEGI SOMNICULOSUM
NUNC DORMIS MELIUS
VIX.ANN.XVI
(heres faciendum curavit)

:(

[translation: my kitty died]

Ciao Lissa and Dave!

2007-01-22T01:29:00.000-08:00

Wow! So it's been nearly 5 years since I've seen Lissa, and here we are! Lissa and Dave came through this weekend and we met up on Saturday. First we went to the wine bar Cul de Sac, which is "Rome's first wine bar" (how do you measure that, anyway?) in the Piazza Pasquino, home of Rome's famous "talking statue" Pasquino (these days covered with bad poetry and socialist manifestos). A bottle of chianti classico and a cheese/meat plate later, we went to dinner at Grotto del Teatro di Pompeo with Dave's parents, a restaurant built in Pompey's theater (which no longer exists, but all the buildings are built in a semi-circle over the original plan). Our meal was fabulous - we started with antipasti, sun dried tomatoes, eggplant about three different ways (grilled, marinated, and breaded), fritatta, zucchini, red peppers, and giant balls of fresh mozzerella di buffala. By the time our pasta dishes came, we were pretty much stuffed. Lissa really got the best thing, which was risotto di fiori di zucca... very tasty. My tortellini con crema was better last summer, and Matt's pasta and beans was ... pasta and beans. Eh. :) We were so full that we couldn't bear to order any secondi. We were going to split a few desserts, but the waitress wasn't content that a party of six should only order 3, so she brought six. ;) millefoglie, two types of custard, two plates of creme brulee, and tiramisu. Half of our group barely made it past the pantheon to see it all lit up.

I had wanted to meet up with them again yesterday but I have this bad cold right now and I haven't left the house. boo...! But I hope you had a great time Lissa! See you soon, maybe! (Not another 5 years!)

Elegy for Il Primoli

2007-01-18T02:54:00.000-08:00

O! Il Primoli, restaurant of restaurants, hidden gem of Rome!

How you greeted us with a complimentary glass of prosecco,
How you always seated us in the same booth,
With the photograph
Of the strange man,

Your yellow walls were warm and invited us away from the crowds
Warm was your pasta, heavy with cream and mushrooms,
or tomatoes,
or shellfish.

We laughed gently at your poorly translated English menu,
As children at an elegant older woman
who has forgotten
one curler.

But we swooned at your meats, your lamb and veal,
Carpaccio succulent and sliced so thin,
we could probably
read through it.

Zabaglione, frothy yellow and sweet, spread over
Delicate puff pastry, with wild strawberries
bursting tart-sweet
in our mouths

Sad are we at your passing, for we should have liked
To dine with you, one last time.

O Il Primoli
You shall always be
Il Primo to me.

Making Rome our new home

2007-01-16T13:17:00.000-08:00

We made it!

After a very LONG transit time, Matt and I have finally arrived in Rome. Our apartment is SWEET and you all should definitely come visit and stay on our couch. We are right next to an awesome market - veg, fruit, fish, bread, meat, shoes - and very close to public transport. We went out and explored last night around the Pantheon - streets are quiet and empty, such a change from the summer months! My laborious description of the restaurant we visited can be found here on chowhound (I post under meels).

To prepare for our trip, I bought an ipod. If you buy an ipod from the apple website, you can engrave the back. :) Here's mine:

[it says, "not bothered by the screaming children." If you're at a loss, look back through my summer 2005 posts.]

One final note - and sorry I'm not so eloquent as last time but it's been a long week - we bought the coolest looking vegetable at the market today.

It's called Romanesco broccoli. And it's a fractal!

oh yeah, and sign up for skype - I'm on, find me!

Rome Thoughts: Third time's the charm

2007-01-05T13:09:00.000-08:00

In exactly 10 days, I will have moved to Rome - Dies decem mota ero Romam - In dieci giorni io avro cambiato casa a Roma - wow that took a lot of work. And it's probably still not right.

My first visit to Rome was with Matt, while he and I were taking language classes in Florence. What sticks with me - the heat, the noise, the dirt. It was July, and there was dust in the air. We stayed too far away from everything, on the wrong side of the tracks, literally, east of the Termini train station. Our "bed and breakfast" was, unpleasantly, a woman who let out rooms in her 3 bedroom apartment by the night and fed us packaged toast-crackers and nescafe in the morning. How awkward. I didn't know to expect that Roman ruins were brick and not marble, or that the marble had been removed a long, long time ago, or that they would look so... ruined. Huge stretches of road carved through the remains, layering exhaust fumes among the dust, unsettling the hush of book history with the constant whine of car honks and the hums of motor scooters. Aside from one recommendation, we ate when hungry, falling on the "convenient" tavola calda and tourist menus, shelling out our precious euros for mediocre red sauce and freezer-burned tiramisu. We were pleased to return to Florence, its graceful churches, slightly cooler temperatures, and, at least, a modicum of familiarity and civilization - Dante, gelato, Giotto.

My second trip to Rome was two summers ago, alone - without Matt - for an intensive Latin program led by Reginald Foster. It promised a slow, deliberate immersion into 2,000 years of living Latin, with economical side trips. I discovered the Gianicolo, the hill west of Rome - which gets breezes in the summertime and offers a sweeping vista of the city skyline. Reggie's monestary was here, as was the small Catholic school whose cafeteria we borrowed for our daily class (Scuola di Divino Amore - which I wanted to call Scuola di Amore di vino). Nights were spent in Trastevere among the tiny medieval streets - which contrast so greatly with the heavy slabs of bernini and moussolini in the city center. Nights were spent with huge groups of unlikely friends - all different, all Latinists - with pizza and wine under the stars. With Reggie we walked slowly - painfully slowly - across the cobblestoned streets. We perched on old gates and parking lots and read Latin which was composed right there! said Reggie - right here, this spot, covered in concrete that doesn't exist in Reggie's world, or that does, peripherally, only in that it provides the only point of physical contact between the present and the past.

My third trip starts in less than two weeks. Not alone, but with Matt, and we'll be living in our own apartment down the other side of the Gianicolo, an area I'm only passing familiar with. We will be living among the Romans, in their residential neighborhood. We will shop at their market and supermarket, away from the intensity of the center, but also away from its history. There will still be grime and graffitti, and dog poo on the sidewalks. Buses will come barrelling down the streets at unpredictable intervals. There will not be the heady heat of wine and summer, the strains of funk bands playing on the bridge at 4am. But there will be winter - rain and empty streets - hush and dark. The first flowers of spring. With the seasons will change the vegetables, the length of days, the air - a new year, a new layer of dust, a new history - our history, Matt and I, together - to settle upon the ruins of old.

Domestic Goddess Initiation: Snickerdoodles

2007-01-02T17:01:00.000-08:00

These are from Nigella's How to be a Domestic Goddess baking book. They're more doughnut-y (she has nutmeg in them!) than cookie-y, and very delicious.

Unfortunately I think her recipe is off a bit - the dough was way too dry and next time I will add less flour (something in the translation from the UK to US version, I suspect). But I still served them, warm, with sugared strawberries and creme fraiche.

Domestic Goddesshead, here I come!

***********NIGELLA UPDATE
So I wrote in an email complaining that the dough was too dry through her website, and got this reply - it's not Ms. Lawson herself, but sure enough, there's a missing tablespoon of butter. (interestingly, also extra sugar!)

Dear Amelia,
Let me give you the English version, though translated by Nigella now into cups and so forth, and see if that helps. Since Domestic Goddess, she has always insisted on providing the American quantities herself, whereas up to and including DG, the US publishers 'translated' from the metric version themselves.

One and two thirds cups flour
Half teasp ground nutmeg
three quarters teasp baking powder
half teasp salt
One stick plus one tablespoon butter
half a cup plus 2 tablespoons superfine sugar
1 large egg
1 teasp vanilla
1 tablespoon cinnamon

Good luck!
Admin

a new look for 2007!

2007-01-01T13:27:00.000-08:00

Hurray! So many dys-FUN-ctional things in 2007! Like MY WEDDING!!!!!!! And living in Rome! (Why are we going there? Who knows! It's fabulous!) And then going to the Netherlands (probably) and then applying to LAW SCHOOL (shhhh... don't tell Jennifer yet!) and baking cupcakes and did I mention MY WEDDING?? And maybe we'll go live the colonial life in Indonesia for a while! (er - how about after storm season?)

It's dys-fun-freakin'-tastic!

1123! 1123! 5! Eureka!

2006-12-30T12:29:00.000-08:00

Watch this!

what'd YOU get?

2006-12-30T09:15:00.000-08:00

Apples! Silver ones that hold sugar and cream!

So cute!!

and an apron, and nigella lawson cookbooks, and and and and a necklace and an LSAT book.

Post-Christmas

2006-12-26T16:16:00.000-08:00

Ah, the glories of going home for the holidays... mom and dad, this is what happens when I come home for christmas. except you're at work.

and speaking of mom - she is doing much better, as I understand, and has, indeed, begun to lose handfuls of hair. My Christmas gift to her, fabulous hats from Headcovers.com are well timed.

I love the princess...

2006-12-24T15:33:00.000-08:00

Princesses have made the New York Times magazine this week. Oh, how I wish I were 10 in this day and age! You know I always played princess... though I didn't need disney to tell me what sort of princess to be. I had my own princess names - Sapphire was one - and I'd play "locked in a garret escaping evil parents" and run around the neighborhood with my handmaid/guardian (Ambre). What's wrong with that? :)

oh the smell of saltmarsh in the morning...

2006-12-24T06:34:00.000-08:00

Well here we are in Maine, in our little apt. with matt's parents and sister and a view of the salt marsh. ahhh...

Merry Christmas!

just an update

2006-12-17T17:34:00.000-08:00

so mom is doing well, according to dad - walking around, occasionally without oxygen, feeding the birds, watching movies. so that's fun :)

Matt and I are planning christmas dinner, to be made when we go with matt's family up to maine (brrr!!) again this year. And I spent an inordinate amount of time tonight - with no small amount of injury to my person - trying out a new recipe for Butternut Squash Risotto which I HIGHLY recommend! Tasty!

mom update

2006-12-11T06:52:00.000-08:00

well, they ran the blood test early (just for my mom, I guess!!) and it is, in fact, Wegener's Granulomatosis. But Mom should be going home today - yay! They started treatment on Saturday, which means mom had a chemotherapy treatment that is a slightly lower dosage than for cancer patients. (Cytoxan works on a lot of different diseases, turns out.) Downside - yes, mom will apparently lose her hair. So says the doctor.

Food and Wine Matcher

2006-12-10T07:00:00.000-08:00

Thank you Nat Decants, for having an amazing wine site with the coolest thing ever - a Wine and Food Matcher. I will spend hours on this...

Christmas Dinner thoughts are brewing... game birds with sangiovese? Mille feuilles with sparkling Italian Asti Spumante?

Or more eclectic: what wine DOES pair with haggis?? (Answer: New World Cabernet Sauvignon, of course!) Sushi? How about a nice champagne blanc des blancs? Marshmellow sweet-potatoes (listed improbably under "vegetables")? Viogner.

your mom... no wait, my mom

2006-12-08T19:08:00.000-08:00

I always knew my mom was one in a million... but she's also 1 in 30,000... 1 in 30,000 people to be diagnosed with a disease which is known to most doctors as the answer to trick questions on their medical school exams (no kidding!): Wegener's Granulomatosis.

She's been hospitalized since Tuesday and will stay there until confirmatory blood tests are run on Monday (apparently the blood test is so rare/complex, only one lab in Oklahoma does it, once a week).

I talked to her yesterday and knew she was feeling better when she started listing the types of flowers in the arrangement I sent her. (imagine: [labored breathing] "Your flowers are beautiful honey ..." "I'm glad you like them, mom, are you feeling better?" "... lillies ... irises ... [labored breathing] ... delphinium ... canterbury bells ... [labored breathing] ... some sunflowers ... and ... and some red things I can't see because ..." "because it's on the shelf?" "yeah, I can't see it. Oh and a pink rose.") (Those of you who know, know that in her emails my mom only tells me about her garden and what birds she saw that week.)

Anyway, she said she doesn't mind being at the hospital because people bring her food, she doesn't have to do dishes, and she gets to watch cartoons all day. And more people have come by to talk with her in the past two days than she's seen in the whole month.

whoa... too much free time theater

2006-11-29T12:14:00.000-08:00

on the suggestion of Matt's dad Peter I took a look at the Althouse blog, blog of Ann Althouse, law professor and general commentator on politics, law, and the pretty shadows made by the holly branches in her office. Her articles - fine, interesting. But don't get mired in the comment threads!!!! I have wasted an entire day going through them... whoa. (And some of them are CRRR-AZY!)

Oh Christmas List, oh Christmas List, how lovely are your contents...

2006-11-28T06:53:00.000-08:00

just in case some of you occasional readers (i.e. my parents, brother) needed some guidance, for your convenience:

- pink ipod nano
- alphonse mucha art nouveau book
- annie leibovitz photography book
- j crew gift certificate (or light sweaters in wool or cashmere)
- Emily Post's Etiquette (17th edition)
- LSAT study book
- cute fun books about etiquette, style, or event planning
- Nigella Lawson cookbooks
- things ingestible and comestible

SHAME ON NEW LINE CINEMA

2006-11-21T08:44:00.000-08:00

TheOneRing.net, a fan site devoted to Peter Jackson and the Lord of the Rings, published a letter today in which Peter and Fran disclose that they will not be directing The Hobbit. This is due to the fact that New Line refuses to settle a dispute about Peter's still unpaid salary for the Fellowship of the Ring. WaPo story here.

Backbenchers in white wigs are standing up and yelling SHAAAAAME!

total wedding madness

2006-11-09T12:11:00.000-08:00

can't... sleep... can't focus on school... must think about cakes with buttercream (or royal? or fondant?) in shapes and flavors - flowers (diy? splurge? pink? lilac?) - maps - must make a map and must find more ... more hotels! and put it on the wedding website! wait, must update this too! and when will we have time for pictures?? between? during? before? wha... six and a half more months of this?!?

oh, poor, poor Matt.

:)

we really ARE getting married...

2006-10-28T09:46:00.001-07:00

just put the save the date cards in the mail!

totally creepy stalker ecard

2006-10-26T21:38:00.000-07:00

Well, if you care about someone enough to bother sending them a halloween card, why don't you send them a creepy stalker card - one that's realistic enough to seem totally threatening and psycho.

Not taking credit for finding it - saw it first on Wonkette, who linked to this blog.

Coming Home to Georgetown... remembering food

2006-10-25T09:08:00.000-07:00

Georgetown's homecoming is about two weeks away... As a student there, coming from Oklahoma, I considered McDonald's cheeseburgers a treat (the closest one is so far away!) but I did manage to have several culinary experiences... I remember:

- dessert-only trips to Bistro Francais, for their strawberries and raspberries in sabayon...
- california chicken sandwiches on a croissant from Wisey's (seemed so sophisticated on a croissant!) or of course the Chicken Maddness (no peppers for me)
- the first time I ever had crab rangoon, from Hunan Peking. Sitting on my dorm floor being introduced to chinese delivery (they didn't deliver in oklahoma back then!) and lemon chicken
- first eggs benedict, possibly first brunch experience ever at Daily Grill (Martin's Tavern also good!)
- going out to I Ricchi on the medieval studies department tab to wine and dine our internationally recognized guest speaker! I wore my easter dress... we were early, my friend Kristin, a senior at the time, marched up to the bar and asked the bartender what he recommended. I, a junior, was not carded... the bartender told us he'd invented a drink, based on the bellini, called the carnevale... raspberry puree and champagne. mmm... That night was also the only time I've ever seen someone order from the "special" wine list (not the department! one of the guests treated)
- on a diet which consisted mostly of individual frozen pizzas, kraft mac n' cheese, and salad... learning to cook on my own. My first recipe - spaghetti aio e olio.
- being taken to 1789 by a then-boyfriend and ordering (then my favorite food) caesar salad... and being served whole romaine leaves. (Do I cut them with my knife?? do I try and fold them up so I can shove the whole thing in my mouth?? I didn't think you were supposed to cut your salad...!)
- crab and artichoke dip at the Tombs. !!
- being taken to Cafe Milano by my thesis advsior with friends and other profs to celebrate graduation/thesis end. It was the day Michael Camille died. I was introduced to carpaccio - they insisted I try it. thinly sliced raw beef, arugula, parmesean, lemon. It is now, still, my favorite food.
- two filet mignons! with sauce at Nathans
- my first grape-leaves wrapped whatnot at Bistro Med, trying to impress first date Matt with my culinary adventurousness... didn't work. Ew. Chewing slower and slower... swallow... erugh. Still don't like olive tapenade, either. (Good opportunity for Matt to promise to take me out somewhere else next time!)
- Cheese sampling at Dean and Deluca for my dad's birthday present
- Chai from Uncommon grounds - late nights with Kristin in the leavey center
- snooty sandwiches and a glass of white wine for outdoor lunch at Peacock Cafe
- my first coffee.

wow... facebook.

2006-10-20T13:50:00.000-07:00

ok so I was following up on the Reggie story when someone said that a comment had been made on the "Reggie" group on Facebook... so I caved and started a Facebook account... and I have to admit... it's WAAAAY better than friendster! Wow!

Facebook me!

Reggie loses his job at the Gregoriana

2006-10-19T06:46:00.000-07:00

Reginald Foster, Latinist extraordinaire, was unceremoniously dumped from the Jesuit Gregoriana University because of exacerbated relations between himself and the bureaucracy (Reggie's general distaste for hierarchies, plus the fact that he would let students sit in on his classes without paying tuition). See the story here and here. [Note: these links take you to an ultra-conservative Catholic blog which is otherwise kind of obnoxious.] Reggie has taken this opportunity to announce the creation of his own Latin Academy in Rome, location TBA!

I have TWO friends! (at least!)

2006-10-16T19:06:00.000-07:00

Beth, Me, and Anna on Wollaston Beach (just down the street from my house)

and inside the house!

And the angora bunny, as promised. (on columbus day we went to the Topsfield Fair, which was really weird, but we got cider doughnuts and saw a bunny. Lots of them, actually. And goats and bees and a pig race, too. Then we went to Gloucester MA and drove around.)

Well, that's pretty much up to speed (or up to meth, whatever). This past weekend we went to Matt's Homecoming up at Dartmouth, which was beautiful - all the fall leaves and Hanover is such a cute town! And Matt enjoyed getting tossed around by his Jiujitsu friends, too. :)

Dissertation Research is Hard!

2006-10-16T18:55:00.000-07:00

Especially when the Red Sox lose!

Plymouth Rock - booooo.

Yep, that's it. That's the rock. It was designated so in the 19th century, so it has to be the right one.

So then we decided to go up to Maine, because lobsters are brain food. They help dissertations! Let's go get one!

Matt caught me a crab! Real live green crab! (No, not a lobster - but close!)

Lobster is food for brains!

They make you smart!

Albany - I have a friend!

2006-10-16T18:52:00.000-07:00

Bethie! Iiiiiiiiit's been so long since last we met, lie down forever lie down! (OK, that's the georgetown song, not a strange solicitation...)

This *looks* like a college, but it's actually the Emma Willard School, where Matt's cousin went to high school. Damn.

The driving continued through Toronto and Niagara Falls

2006-10-16T18:46:00.000-07:00

Oh Centre, how I've missed thee!

And then the falls, where of course there were rainbows, and lots of water, and ticky-tacky tourist things.

All of these are in one building next to the falls... get your teeth cleaned, then hypnotize your lover and convince them to marry you. One stop shopping!

Pictures!!!! Of Everything!!

2006-10-16T18:37:00.000-07:00

So these go all the way back to Chicago during the road trip, when we visited Sohkeing. I vowed to stop working on my dissertation right then and there, having had the opportunity to try on Sohkeing's robes. Since that's all I've ever wanted to do - wear the velvet beret - I have no reason to continue my research on Gerald of Wales.

Here is the venerable Sohkeing - that IS brilliance at work.

Matt and Sohkeing outside her lovely apartment building (near Northwestern, where she's doing her postdoc).

matt almost got his camera cord...

2006-10-11T18:33:00.000-07:00

So, I have over 150 pictures to share with you from road-trip chicago on (including me eating my first maine lobster, physical evidence that I have friends, and a real live angora bunny). Matt left his camera cord at his sister's - and then she moved - but rumor has it that she managed to find it while unpacking. The spare cord matt ordered from amazon electronics came all the way from Hong Kong - and it didn't work.

Last week we went and saw SPAMALOT! it was very good. Though if you know the movie too well (cough, cough) it can be hard to stop criticizing the actors' delivery of movie lines. They've obviously been told to "own" the part, so they do it differently, which can be not as funny...

sad news from last week

2006-10-03T20:31:00.000-07:00

Nicholas Howe, professor of Anglo-Saxon at Berkeley, died last Thursday morning from complications with cancer. He was a great supporter of all graduate students.

It's hard to imagine that he's not on the other end of his email.

left sidewalk?

2006-09-27T21:02:00.000-07:00

was it the house burglar alarm, announcing a breach from the "left sidewalk" over an intercom we don't know about, or a local college kid (those eastern nazarenes!) with a bull horn on the street, or some emergency vehicle? Well, it woke me up from my nap. I guess we'll never know...

But while I'm up, allow me to proceed with this update. Ironically, I began these posts as a way to keep in touch, but now they're actually a way for my family and friends to TOTALLY AVOID CONTACTING ME and still find out what I'm doing. Gee, thanks guys. You can CALL. :P

(No, no, it's ok! sniff!)

Hm, I think I'm a little cranky from being disturbed from my nap. :) Aaaanyway... In answer to everyone's bated breath YES, I finally did get a Harvard ID (one more to add to the collection!) and now I have supreme access to their materials. (mwahahaha... except that I just had to ILL a book from Berkeley. How ironic.) It took 3 hours of concerted door-knocking (student ID office, then registrar, then student billing, then student ID office, then registrar again, then student ID office one last time). Wow did they HATE me by the time I was done! But props to harvard for having really high quality ID camera setup - backlighting, screens, etc.

I sat in on a couple Harvard classes - wow was that a lesson ... called "Reasons I *heart* Berkeley!" I'm pretty sure some of the students here have cultivated affected vaguely british accents. They must practice at home. Really, though, there's nothing to make you appreciate Berk-town like leaving it for a while. I miss: cheap lunch near campus, being given the benefit of the doubt (no, it's not a stupid question, it's a really damn good question which you guys just haven't thought of yet!), and spacious library stacks with tables in them which are well-lit and, perhaps most importantly, all catalogued according to a single system in alpha-numeric order. Ironic that the organizing principle of the Widener library syatem, arguably the best library in the world, is, to use a favorite phrase of Matt's, totally retarded. You really have to be here to appreciate it.

Actually, I'm having a great time though. Because I get to smile and say, "actually, I'm from UC Berkeley" and hear responses like "Oh, I went to berkeley undergrad. Sometimes I wish I were still there." And "Oh. Berkeley rejected me." And you DO feel uber-collegiate walking through Harvard yard in the fall with a huge stack of books. And Matt and I are just now meeting some very, very cool people. So it's working out.

And we're going to see SPAMALOT next week!!!!!!! Spam spam spam spam...

Hello from Harvard!

2006-09-16T10:18:00.000-07:00

At least, that's what I *would* say if Harvard had managed to assign me an ID number so that I could get an ID and have access to their libraries and computer system. But as of right now, that is sadly lacking... Considering that the registration period is already over and classes begin Monday, I'd say that, well, it's kind of disappointing.

So instead, Matt and I have amused ourselves by going to a Red Sox game, scouring Filene's Basement, and taking a road trip to Plymouth and then to Sandwich, just barely on Cape Cod. (Yes, we saw the magnificently disappointing Plymouth Rock.) And I bought tickets to Spamalot, which we'll go see on Oct. 4. So it hasn't been a complete waste of time. Just in terms of dissertation work. :)

Just to get us up to speed...

2006-09-03T19:14:00.000-07:00

We're off the road - after chicago we drove through Michigan - stopped in Grand Rapids to see Ambre, yay! and then spent the night with Christine R. in Ann Arbor, where she's about to start law school! Then we went up to Toronto for a nostalgic visit... everything has changed! The 20$ bill is different, my favorite bagel place has become a "fresh" juice bar and restaurant, my favorite pub no longer sells Scrumpy cider, and my restaurant choice (Bar Mercurio) was closed for the week. Booo! Thank god Futures was still in tact.

From Toronto we crossed back into the US at Niagara Falls (and had a horrible lunch stateside at a place called Red Carriage Inn - ick!) but the falls were pretty, of course! And then we made it to Albany to stay with Matt's uncle and aunt, and we had dinner with BETH who I have not seen in forever! and then we went to Boston - Quincy, actually - where we are now safely ensconsed in our lovely loft, which can be checked out here.

Chicago

2006-08-28T06:32:00.000-07:00

Hello from Chicago! Evanston, actually, home of Northwestern University and our friend, Sokheing, who is a postdoc here now. We're leaving today, actually, and I have no pictures, but thought I'd check in. We walked around Chicago without going into any buildings or doing anything in particular - walked down the magnificent mile, through the park, saw the bean, etc. And spent a lot of time on the wireless internet connection.

Through Michigan today, then a stop in Toronto before Matt's uncle's house in Albany...

Minneapolis

2006-08-26T13:06:00.000-07:00

We visited Matt's sister Sarah for a few very rejuvenating days, starting with a spinach salad and a Tom Stoppard play at the Guthrie and including a very adorable new kitten, Tybalt.

He becomes very sharp and pointy at night when he wants to play.

Sarah and Tybalt.

Badlands II

2006-08-26T13:02:00.000-07:00

You can see it's just stripes of different sediment layers, eroded into very strange shapes... miles and miles of this... (You can also see impending doom coming from above - a thunderstorm which produced no rain, but plenty of thunder and lightning strikes)

Yipes Stripes!

Impending Doom over Amelia

Devil's Tower, Mount Rushmore, and the Badlands

2006-08-26T12:58:00.000-07:00

So initially I had thought that Devil's Tower was Chimmney Rock, of Oregon Trail fame, but it is not...

It's much bigger, and really neat anyway.

Very, very tall.

And then we went to Mount Rushmore, which was sort of on the way - it's very accurately summed up in a picture. To get there, you have to pass through the unbelievably ticky-tacky town of Keystone, which is full of RVs, Olde-Tyme Western recreation dinner theater and photo booths, 101 ways to part a tourist with his money shops, etc.

Then we went to the Badlands, which are truly, truly bad... Very alien.

More Badlands, next post (having some trouble posting pictures)

Wyoming and South Dakota

2006-08-25T21:42:00.000-07:00

Hi All - we're in Chicago now, but (until I get the pictures off Matt's camera, again) here are a few thoughts to tide you over:

- Devil's Tower is not Chimmney Rock
- the Badlands are truly bad
- Mount Rushmore: the national park most accurately summed up in a postcard (Matt's phrase, not mine)
- another observation of Matt's - weeny computer nerds on the coast drink inky black coffee, while manly men in boxy states drink weakling tea-colored coffee. Discuss.
- thunderstorms that don't rain (only lightning and thunder) are very scary, especially when the lightning starts prairie fires right off the highway
- South Dakota is long

After this rousing day, we got to Minneapolis and stayed with Matt's sister Sarah, who administered restorative measures of culture and vegetables.

Montana - up to speed (or up to meth, as you prefer)

2006-08-21T22:10:00.000-07:00

The long road through Montana... it was long. But it wasn't entirely flat - in fact, it was quite pretty. Oh, and we saw the strangest anti-meth display yet - not the government gross-out posters. We were passing through the small town of Moccasin (population under 50) - it was mostly wrecked shacks and a few trailers. And along the highway is a giant, probably 9 ft. plastic grim reaper modeled mid-gesticulation, presiding over about a dozen white crosses stuck in the ground with the motto "Meth Kills" written menacingly nearby. Very odd.

We slept last night at a Super 8 in Great Falls. Bats sleep at the Super 8, too.

Carzor the Magnificent (covered in bug splat)

And we stopped at Little Bighorn Battlefield, because what else are you going to do in southeast Montana? Here is Custer's grave. They've added a little exhibit about the Indians who died there now, too. (The Indian one is much more artful, in fact. And they've marked two of the Indian graves with tombstones, at which other visitors have left offerings of unsmoked cigarettes.)

Ready for a honky-tonk good time through Wyoming and South Dakota!

Tonight we're at a Motel 6 which obviously has high-speed internet access in Gillette, Wyoming. No good food news since we lost sight of the coast, really, though in West Falls just before Glacier we found a specialty food store which carried Sharffenburger chocolate and all our favorite CA cheeses - Red Hawk, Humbolt Fog, and the rest. We got turkey sandwiches there. We stopped at a Montana Brewing Company in Billings today for lunch - I had a wheat beer which has won lots of awards, and it was very good! We've only eaten at a McDonalds twice this trip, and have mostly stayed away from chains (though tonight we opted for the Village Inn instead of "Hong Kong Restaurant"). OK, off to bed!

Glacier II - the Continental Divide

2006-08-21T21:57:00.000-07:00

This sheer knife-edge of rock is the continental divide...

Me, sitting precariously on the little stone ledge that separates you from ...

huge, steep, 9,000 ft. drop.

Matt was unfazed. And he was driving!

And we saw a goat. We saw lots of goats, in fact. One of them was walking on top of the stone guard rail while cars were whizzing by! (Until the stupid cars pulled over to gawk, and then it hopped down onto a lower rock.)

And there was an awesome canyon river. I'm sure it's more impressive with snowmelt, but it was low enough for Matt to do this...

The most frequent cause of visitor death at Glacier is drowning.

We popped out of Glacier at St. Mary's on the east side and started our long, long journey through Montana...

Trip Recap - Glacier!

2006-08-21T21:43:00.000-07:00

Matt and me at Glacier National Park! (Yes, it was very out of our way... we thought that Chris might have sent us on a wild goose chase... but you'll see it was totally worth it!)

View of the lake and mountain.

The neatest thing about the lake was that the stones of the lake were all different colors of the rainbow (different metal contents or something, I guess) - but they were all polished smooth by the lake and looked like jewels. (my feet)

Matt and his view.

You can see that for being Glacier, there wasn't much snow - of course, we missed the entire east exit of the park being closed off for wildfires by about a week. So there's no snow (the glaciers are, I hear, still there) and all the rivers are very, very low. But you can see how this one usually carves out the rock at high speeds...

Pretty!