Further Adventures with Dr. Science

I never believed in these things anyway

2010-03-20T11:38:00.002-05:00

Yesterday was the "last day of winter," in some official sense, or at least a widely agreed upon one. Biking required no more than a long-sleeved shirt, and I didn't wear gloves. So naturally the "first day of spring" opens like this:

Nice, very nice.
-Dr. S.

Route to the lab

2010-03-19T17:33:00.005-05:00

Get on the train at the platform with this interesting backdrop:

Then getting off at the river, follow the route:

Now you know the secret way to our government lab.
( I'll take this over a highway commute any day. )

Unrepeatable Pizza

2010-03-01T20:51:00.005-06:00

What do I do with leftover party beer (bad guests, bringing Heinies!), the dregs of a turmeric bottle, an unwanted fennel bulb, too many Thai chilies, and a dried-up squash?

Pizza dough: Spicy and Decidedly Yellow

2.25T yeast in 1C heated beer and 2.3 C warm water sat until mixed. Mixed in 3.5 C flour , 1T salt, 1 T turmeric, 1T chili oil, 1T toasted sesame oil. Rose very little its first 1.5 hours, really got going the second hour after being punched down.

Topping combo 1:
White sesame seed chili paste, Bbbbbbb squash pieces, and sauteed fennel bulb with onion.
Chili paste: 1 Thai chili, 1 dried ancho chili, 2t powered cinnamon, oil to wet, ~2T white sesame seeds. Minced chilies. Mixed all in mortar & pestle.

Bbbbbbbb squash: Removed rind, halved and seeded 1 old-ass, dried up acorn squash. Boiled in 1 unimpressive beer, 3T butter, few bay leaves (both big and baby), bit of bouillon. Once tender, considered whether to add brown sugar. Not bad.

Fennel bulb and onion sautee:
Wedged (enwedgified) 1 big ol' fennel bulb, likewise a handy onion, and sauteed in olive oil with (untoasted) sesame oil (raises the smoke point, doesn't add much flavor). Dusted with ground white pepper, garlic powder, and ground allspice.

Topping combo 2 :
Tomato sauce and huge gobs of fresh mozzerella. Threw in some of the onions from above, dusted with ground black pepper.

Result: Combo 1 wins. Enhances the spiciness of the dough with the chili paste, while complementing it with the sweetness from squash and fennel.

You think I is swizzfiggling you?

2009-11-28T14:51:00.007-06:00

The problem here is that the camera wielder is too bright. The flash was not on, in fact.

Resting in his brine: Turgay the Turkish Turkey. (Turkish friends suggested the name "Kalaynak," which is one of the large, extinct birds, and apparently sounds funny in Turkish. But everything Turkish sounds funny to us non-speakers... And their backup suggestion of "Hindi," which refers to the selfsame bird immersed in brine above... is already an English word, with the wrong meaning here.)

It's all the stuffing.

All of it.

(OK, yes, I know, but it was that, or have it sideways in gphoto2, which uses exif information to auto-rotate, and I'm stubborn.)

... and that's it for documentation. After the first course is on the table, it's not as interesting to arrange pretty pictures.

_Dr. S

They say it's from Hawaii

2009-07-30T08:46:00.001-05:00

...but apparently the back porch here will do just fine. Progression from the past three days:

Evidence

2009-06-23T13:50:00.001-05:00

A good weekend.

_Dr. S

parentheses for dinner

2009-06-22T20:22:00.003-05:00

...also available au gratin:

_yum

But what to do with the plantains?

2008-12-26T19:57:00.003-06:00

Some recipes in my usual style: What looked interesting at the market, and what existed at home. Recipes are in the past tense for a reason: This is just something done this way once; the next time, it will probably be different. What person is the same at two subsequent meals? So use your judgement following any amounts/ingredients/techniques/life choices I might make; I'm not responsible for you, you baby. Enjoy!

Wei, You're Distracting Me Garlic Chicken

Chopped many cloves of garlic,
chopped a few chicken thighs,
threw in a tablespoon of Dijon mustard
about 1.5 t <powdered wasabi
to marinate ~1hr.

Cooked in a little oil (lightish olive oil) until tender and cooked.
Served with a small amount of molasses, which turned out to be genius.

The whole time I was chopping and researching uses for chard which would be tasty, Wei wanted to chat. Kept washing the garlic or chicken from hands so I could type back... sticky keyboards aren't my steez.

Lord Bless This Bacon-y Chard

In a pot, cooked Irish Bacon over high heat with some fresh oregano from a potted plant I bought earlier today, making a nice mess of the inside of the pot.
Added many leaves of chard, cut across the stem into inch-wide strips (thinner at the stems).
Stirred over high heat, wilting thoroughly. Lots of juice produced.
Added cider vinegar, butter, a little white whine.
Added slightly too much salt; don't do that, ok?
Cooked over medium-low heat, uncovered, to reduce the liquids away.

Christ Jesus, that was some tasty pork!

note: The oregano's probably completely unimportant, but looked nice while the bacon was still piles of pink flesh in a clean pot, and certainly didn't hurt. I'll add it after the meat is crisped, next time.

Sadly, the plantains I bought found no place in dinner tonight. They're sulking on the counter, but I've got some tasty plans for them, too. What about spicy, ginger-fried plantains? Crispy chips, maybe, since these little guys are a bit green right now.

_jmsj

raw oysters and wine for breakfast

2008-12-06T05:14:00.003-06:00

A cold, blustery, rainy morning at the market. Shared a dozen raw oysters (Gillardeaux, petite et moyens) with friends, standing by the seafood mongers' stand. White wine is complementary. My last Saturday morning market for the foreseeable future; glad I finally tried this.

yum,
_jmsj

resuming posts

2008-12-03T08:05:00.003-06:00

Think I'll go back to posting here. Hello again.
_jmsj

The table dinner

2008-04-01T16:38:00.003-05:00

_jmsj

oh woops

2008-03-30T15:37:00.003-05:00

purple sheet was new. Now the pink socks are.

_jmsj

photo essai

2008-03-24T16:55:00.008-05:00

clouds from the Jura mountains mean rain

flanking CERN, clouds from the right.

maybe that last one is only interesting to me.
_jmsj

photo essay; the move-in

2008-03-24T16:42:00.004-05:00

print printemps des temps...

2008-03-02T15:30:00.005-06:00

The way to work. Muddy these days; March is here.

I thought it was weird that all these trees started their springtime growth in little balls, right in the middle of the branches.

Then I found one that had died. You can see where the parasite plant has inflamed the bark of the host tree. What is it? Doesn't look like mistletoe, does it?

Springtime. Pussywillows.

No jokes, now.
_jmsj

when stuck in a meeting...

2008-02-17T15:46:00.002-06:00

...and missing the sunset...

The Mystery of Batiment 2017

2007-11-25T11:00:00.000-06:00

In the fields to the west of the ATLAS surface halls

There sits Building 2017.

CERN denies its existence.

But if 2017 doesn't exist, then who is its TSO,
and what kind of ghost answers that GSM?

And are there other rooms or floors?

Don't let this die. You never know, it might be a big deal.
_Dr. S

occasionally glorious swiss weather

2007-11-25T09:40:00.000-06:00

On such days, this is handily the best commute of my life.

Even the view from the kitchen windows can be breathtaking.

And on cold nights with a strong Biese (spelling?),
if you're patient with the exposure,
on a path through a field by a busy road,

-Dr. S

I'm thinking of painting the other one to match

2007-11-24T13:13:00.000-06:00

Eyes are neat. I've been reading all about black eyes. Too bad it changes so fast.
_jmsj

Handful of Pretty Pictures

2007-11-24T13:03:00.000-06:00

Pixelated chayotte.

Your side/My side

Swiss snow in my hand

Cafe avec hurricane du Double Creme

Fun with clouds

2007-11-15T05:33:00.001-06:00

|......----++***^^*^***----_............|

2007-11-14T14:43:00.000-06:00

I stopped working to watch this. So very worth it.

and then

The night shots of CERN's gigantic luminous clitoris took some long exposure times. I accidentally surprised another cyclist who was afraid that I had wiped out, with my bike laying on the ground (no kickstand), my stuff spread out everywhere. Probably freaked her out even more that I was apparently so calm and even happy. We ended up talking about the comet near Perseus that night. Maybe she meant the Perseid showers?
_Dr. S

Breakfast art, religion amidst science, and a first snow for the Jura

2007-11-13T16:34:00.000-06:00

Not only did I not cry over spilled blood orange juice,

I kinda liked it.
The book is an annual poetry review (with art and short fiction)
published from the Netherlands by my high school friend Megan Garr.
wordsinhere.comBetween the LHC building and its twin,
Vishnu dances the world through creation and destruction.

There are some heavy-handed words nearby
about vibrations, existence, and physics.
I like it anyway.

Doing my part for No-Shave November.
It's Geneva/CERN vs. Pasadena/CalTech this year.

I watched the last of this snow being deposited on the Jura.

These little mountains look much taller with their hats on for the winter.Sure makes for a pretty commute.

-Dr. S

A gift horse's mouth

2007-10-29T04:38:00.000-05:00

From the album Gabriel's weirdo plant

A neighbor in Bat 40 (the LHC offices) brought me one of these prolific plants when she saw me repotting mine. They start off like normal young plants, then become gargantuodd. She has an adult one seen here which is completely new-looking to me, and has already started a handful of young ones in its own pot. Mine is in the beginning stages of looking more adult already.

The leaves start as pale green shoots at the top of the stem, among pink fuzz. Then the stem grows past them and they develop white ribs and red leaf stems. The stalk takes on a thick, cactus-y look. Anybody got any ideas about this thing? It's hard to find the name of a plant without technical botanical descriptors in my head.

A week ago, I met my old friend

2007-10-13T14:13:00.000-05:00

I biked out to LHC point 5 to commune with the detector I've been working on.

-Dr. S

Un Anana du Terre

2007-10-13T14:08:00.000-05:00

While I was out riding around the French countryside...

Here I thought that the deciduous North American ground pineapple had no relatives...
_Dr. S

Assorted views from the camera

2007-10-12T14:49:00.001-05:00

Made six roasted chicken legs with leeks, sweet potatoes, and figs.
Took me two days to eat even a third of it,
then the leftovers went to a BBQ,
then the leftover leftovers I ate with two other people at CERN Restaurant 1.

I kinda went overboard.

~

The Jura nearby Cessy.

On foggy days, we're not in a valley any more.
No hint of the Alps, even.

From the livingroom balcony, looking towards Mont Blanc. It's pretty tall, so I don't think i can walk there. I checked it on a map.
That would be it there, with the snow on it.

The floor of the CERN visitors' center... umm, centre
is graced by a giant, metallic sperm.
Do the reception desk workers know this?

~

...and the ever-poplar Alhambar, in Geneva's Old City.

Most European Place I've Ever Been.

_Dr. S
PS

Now this, this is another story.

Investigations of Frenchness

2007-10-02T14:09:00.001-05:00

Some things in Frenchness have charm,
like the All-Night Pizza-Thing Community Cooking Event. A colleague of mine has been living for about two decades in Bretigny, where they have the last of the area's communal stone ovens. For three days it is stoked with fires (Used to be only two days, but he convinced them of his idea that two was insufficient), and then the fires are alternated with tartes of brioche dough about 20cm across and bearing all kinds of good toppings. It takes all night to bake the 500 or 600 tartes, which are available immediately for sale. So if you're driving from the experiment cavern site in Cessy to your home in Ferney-Voltaire at 3am on the right Saturday... Or you just ask Dick to bring the tartes to work on Monday.

And some other things in Frenchness have strangeness.
The USCMS apartment where I'm crashing is home to a singularly ugly amateur painting. As Jessica is explaining to Andrew, it was almost bad enough to be a "croute." Something about the paint being laid on so inexpertly as to develop a baguette-worthy crust. So we pushed it over the edge by allowing Kathy to apply pink pony glitter.
The ... painting ... passed the croute test by being able to hold the glitter--on the flowers, on the figures' eyes, and in the bluish part of what we took to be a sky.
I used to be unable to look at the thing. Now it makes me smile.
_Dr. S

where things are, and a social life at last

2007-09-30T14:34:00.001-05:00

The gray blob where the Rhone leaves the lake is Geneva, Switzerland.

The yellow pushpins are placed at the synchrotron's eight interaction points.
I work at any of the three red push pins.
I live at the green one.
So for instance, a week ago, I left my green push pin and biked under the airport, over a massive hill called Grand Sacconex, and coasted into the Geneva about as close to the lake/river meeting point as the dark North-South bundle of train tracks you see there. It's called Cornavin. There was a going away party for a Swedish CERN student I'd never met, but it was where everyone was planning to be that night.

There was karaoke in one room...

There was copious alcohol in all the others.

The ride home was the second time I'd ever tackled this hill.
The sight of top of it still brings a smile.

And just as I re-enter the town where I'm living, the sign on this
restaurant nearly made me fall of my bike.
I spent the next Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday recuperating from a cold
(and completing my first major computer coding effort)
in my room.
Pretty damned pleasant place to work.Outside my window, (NNE) it's mostly other apartment buildings.
I'm going to look for places to live which are less urban.

work work work

2007-09-30T14:12:00.001-05:00

Some of my work has been in Batiment 904.

It's a warehouse where subsystem development teams can have electronics racks, small electronics laboratories, and the greatest coffee machine I've ever had the pleasure to frequent. But the only running water is the water cooler, so the bathroom is a short hike to the next building over.

It's clean, warm with the soothing heat of multiwatt hardware, and has great natural light.

There have been some .... hiccups, but then the real world is just like that.

Of course, some work can be accomplished remotely, say on the lawn of Restaurant 1, with a view of the sunset on the western faces of Mont Blanc.

Working on both sides of a national border means carrying two currencies at all times. You also should have your passport, GSM phone, CERN ID card (losing one means a visit to the Geneva police station and a scolding), and working papers for two countries. I have a different pocket system for each pair of pants.
-Dr. S

Parking Lots of CERN

2007-09-30T13:57:00.000-05:00

For a friend who reads this blog, and finds more exciting things in a parking lot than any normal person would. So on a beautiful fall day in the Rhone Valley,
with the wind from the west, off the Jura mountains,I saw some nice juxtapositions...

Mom, Dad, I think I might like Smart Cars.

It certainly is excellent driving country.

In the picture above, can you spot the tallest mountain in Europe?
-Dr. S

Dinner with the BU team

2007-09-29T05:29:00.000-05:00

Most of our team is CERN-based, and some of it is adopted from another group (That would be Ianos, across the table from me).

Arno was in a great mood, so we sat him at the head of the table.

I don't recall Laza doing magic tricks.
What the hell was this?
Arjan reminds me of a Dutch incarnation of
The Dude from The Big Lebowski.
Maybe it's just me...Eric took a nice little video from his corner of the table:

What nice dinner table conversation we were having.
_Dr. S

Took a while to unpack the bike

2007-09-29T04:42:00.001-05:00

...but when I did,

bump-b'p-BUUUUUMP!

It's on, Glitter Gnomes. It's so on.

I forgot to deflate the tires before checking the bike into the plane's unpressurized, rubber-freezing cargo hold. The rear tire only seemed to have a slow leak, but when I surrendered my CO2 cartridge at airport security, I gave up the only way of re-inflating it. So Eric and I pulled off The Bike Trick, where a Kia (Ikea?) is made to hold a bike as big as the car itself.

All you have to do is shake out the car's contents onto the lawn....
et voila!

Once it was back in shape (the rear tube had to be replaced after all, when it gave up completely--and suddenly--after being ridden at full pressure, though not until it had been resting quietly beside my desk for a few minutes), I could load up with, say, a pate en croute, tableware, and a book of French grammar.
Now I'm comfortably prepared for tedious meeting and for sailing along open French countryside alike. Speaking of the new commute:

This beats the pants off of what I was riding through in Boston.

(though the JP commute had no border crossings)

No time for Europe: CERN, she calls

2007-09-29T03:34:00.001-05:00

Bat40 is bilaterally symmetric;
Donc,
nous tracons la limite,
nous coupon elle,
nous avons deux moities.

The LHC Building (Bâtiment 40, or "40" to its friends)

It was CMS Week, a local holiday observed by staying inside despite the beautiful weather and holding long meetings.

I have little patience for long meetings.

Once you are exhausted by content-free talks, stubborn semantic squabbles, and sheer overwhelming unbrokenness of the meetings, it's time to buy rounds of beer, wine, and snacks on the flagstone terrace of R1 (Restaurant Un).

HCal, my peeps, are particularly good at this. Above, Steve Lynn of Miami refuses to sit still for the long exposures of natural light around sunset. (Middle) Wine bottles obscuring two collaborators visting for the meetings and Arno, our Coding Wizard and a post doc in my group. Right, with their wine: Ianos who makes the radioactive calibration sources move through the detector, Arjan, who develops the next generation of high-gain, low-noise photodetectors (and is CERN's closest approach to a Big Lebowski, though Dutch), and our Pomeron-hunter. Don't know what they are? No one does, mon chou.

The HCAL Last Supper.

(actually, this was still a few hours before supper.)

_Dr. S

So this guy moves to the Rhone Valley...

2007-09-28T18:15:00.000-05:00

The morning I moved to another continent

~

My trusty, much appreciated moving crew.
The cat had chosen the night before all this to go explore the neighborhood.
Lost Cat,
the poster would read,
Is he chillaxin' on top of your cat right now?

Then came the longest day of my recent life. Scant pictures, but lots of memories. By 8 or 9pm (the first time that day), I was walking through the airport parking lot with just this suitcase and this bicycle, all I brought with me to live. Everything I wouldn't be needing at CERN was stored away in the physics department.

Somewhere in here, I took a long flight sandwiched between two German business men: AutKoldPforDerNicht, and TossenzTurnzPfitpfullie. Otherwise they were nice, and I got a few minutes of sleep, even. It was 14h when we arrived, my advisor and I went to CERN to glad hand various characters, we dumped my stuff in my current temporary lodging (Ferney-Voltaire, France side of the border), and we stayed out with more than a dozen fellow collaborators drinking and eating. Just before 2am, I gratefully hit the sack.

New Place: voila.
Je suis crapped out.
~

Exploring the next day, the place is perfectly decent.

...not exactly my taste, but clean enough and spacious enough...

The French make scary stairs that eat you, then fence you out so you don't get eaten. Nice.

and the wildlife... I didn't know the Rhone Valley had marmosets who, according to this warning sign, will arrest you and make demands.

Watch out for marmosets.
_Dr. S

Memories of JP

2007-09-28T18:09:00.000-05:00

Possibly the chillest place I have ever had the pleasure to dwell in.The accidental altar in the livingroom.

A back porch perfect for the tranquil coffee part of the morning.

And what I thought was an unbeatable bike commute: a path through wooded, be-ponded hills.

-Dr. S

Shindig of Departure

2007-09-28T10:31:00.000-05:00

One of the best barbecues in my life; there were, like, an Avogadro's number of people I love, all eating and talking in the same house. Oh, man.

~~~~

Ah. My element.
A devil on both shoulders.

Back porch peeps.

Talks with his hands.

I love this grill.

The... jade plant... Ok, I give up on captions.

My distant cousins, who lived nearby. Also little bro.

Yes, Mike, that's really my mom.

Best charcoal grill I've ever operated.

Only my Little Bigger Sister is missing. The physicists's nuclear family.

So that's how that happened...

The Boston Good-Byes

2007-09-16T06:06:00.001-05:00

I'm getting to be fairly settled in now, so I have time to document the trip. There were frustration with wireless both at the apartment and at CERN, so there's quite a backlog of things to put here. Skip it if you're not reading this to kill time; I don't know how to check who reads this damned thing anyway.

Good-bye, Jamaica Pond-on-my-morning-commute.

Good-bye, Fence-Made-of-Bikes at the Otherside Cafe.

Good-bye, witty graffitti referencing early American political campaigns.

Got to see my brother, who brought me a pineapple from our cousins he'd just seen. They won't let the damned pineapple joke die. I'll tell it to you sometime, if you ask.

....And then there was this little shindig...

A first breakfast in France

2007-09-15T07:54:00.000-05:00

Took myself on a little walk around before buying groceries, with only the house's coffee in me. The weekly market--jeans section, fancy clothes section, pottery (special this week and next, I think), food trucks, fresh seafood, olives, wine, vegetables, fruits, pasteries, Vietnamese food--was closing down as I went through. That meant there was no need to pay for the nectarines, though I tried. (The guy kept saying, "C'est bon," so I guess he means "It's alright.")

Typical French countryside roundabout.

French roundabout by a park. Normally you have to yield when entering;
here you don't have the priority...

Le Parc a chez moi.

And then I was back, bought groceries next door (avoided conversation, but talked to myself in French), and made myself this:

Croissant and coffee, with creme fraiche in the eggs. OK, it was 14:30, afternoon already.
Not jet-lagged, just too hungry to think up a lunchy lunch.

Apres,
_jmsj

Well, at last.

2007-09-15T03:53:00.000-05:00

It's not often that all one's worldly requirements fit into two checked items.
(Ignore the concrete pillar.)

Thursday/Friday, which was a double day of about 42 hours (having left six of them to my West during the flight), is all done now. I have a place to live for the next three months, a ready-made crew of about a dozen hard-drinking, hard-thinking coworkers, and I even got myself a desk in an office at CERN. This morning, I'll try to get a way to commute.

Otherside

2007-08-14T22:54:00.001-05:00

The camera had a little too much to drink.

125 feet of used climbing rope

2007-08-14T22:52:00.001-05:00

Now it's hours of swinging in a hammock instead.

Learning to make Turkish coffee

2007-08-14T22:50:00.001-05:00

Usually, I barely avoid having the whole mess boil over onto the stovetop. Once, I failed to avoid it.

Desert

2007-08-12T20:31:00.001-05:00

Lotus-seed steamed buns and a mango.

Wish I had a tripod

2007-08-12T11:29:00.001-05:00

The daylight's not so bad, but the night shots...

But I find them so INTERESTING.

2007-07-29T10:39:00.000-05:00

Lately

2007-07-19T17:51:00.000-05:00

Come home on an overcast and rainy day while it's still daylight, found a stick of incense in the kitchen while playing with the cat; not a bad smell. It wafts into the dining room where I put an LP on (Jeff Beck's 'truth'), and set down to work with a glass of cold water and a little vodka with Polish white grape juice.

A livingroom on Magazine St.

2007-06-24T20:57:00.001-05:00

Probably a bull snake

2007-05-29T20:25:00.001-05:00

My parents have a new neighbor.

Looks a lot like the bull snake at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bull_snake
-Dr. S

Wedding Cake Incident: Spooge, Blood, and Chunky Yellow Mucus

2007-05-29T17:57:00.001-05:00

From such innocent beginnings,

Such a blight on the face of all things culinary.

-Dr. "Swedish Chef and Co." Science

A livingroom on Magazine Street

2007-05-29T17:42:00.000-05:00

I categorically dislike flashes.

The Doctors Aaron, and the weird warm-colored party

2007-05-27T15:20:00.001-05:00

-Dr. S

Happy Party, and Happy Birthday, Mina

2007-05-27T15:16:00.001-05:00

Luckily, no musical recordings were made this night. But this was the acoustic jam party:

Oh, there you are

2007-05-27T15:10:00.001-05:00

Swingset Tricycle: Phase One

2007-05-27T14:58:00.000-05:00

See? It's a big tricycle,and you sit in a swing on it, and swinging pushes the pedals.

It's hard to find good help these days. They were all out of creepy-voiced hunchbacks, but this tall Swiss girl really wanted the part. What the hell, y'know?

Stably and firmly holds the bicycle: check.

The seat hangs at a decent height, and there seems to be room for pretty good swinging.

Aw, but the turning radius is about a mile. Crap.

Well, a little redesign now that the basic idea is realized and looks doable.
-Dr. Science

Kaca's Party: The Front Room

2007-05-27T14:42:00.001-05:00

The cool kids just sat in the corner and had everybody else come to us.

Rob arrived with characteristic stylishness. Note the very hip knee pad around the left ankle.

So where's Vivek's side of this exchange?

Beautiful friends. Nice, guys.

Art appreciation among the ladies, argumentation among the gents.

Which is why I stayed out of the kitchen unless
Claudia wasn't coming by to refill empty cups with those frozen drinks of hers.

Here? No, wait, that's a double inversion.

No evidence of Ken, though. Nor Martin.
-Dr. S

...before it eats YOU.

2007-05-27T14:33:00.000-05:00

It was delicious.
-Dr. "Hungry Mungry" Science

Thunderstorm

2007-04-04T21:43:00.000-05:00

The moon at dusk, as we waited for takeoff.

Atlanta smog at sunset. See the inversion layer?

And then we flew around an active storm cell. There's lightening illuminating the clouds from within (just under the wing in this shot).

And this would be dramatic if it weren't for the reflection of my lap obscuring the shot.

The moon, again, not the sun. Harsh, idn'it?

And one for Silvia: I was trying to track the same cloud below and to the right as we flew past it. Instead I succeeded in painstakingly dragging the glare from the wing light across the frame.

Trip home

2007-04-04T21:39:00.000-05:00

Drinking problem.

Two pictures at our little seder table. I like the candid one better.

Face off?

-------

Look! My real family in their real home! Most of which is still in boxes.

--------

The flight home from home.

On the way home from home, I watched a thunderstorm just after dark. Looks so peaceful before the sun sets.
-Dr. S

Use More Electricity

2007-04-04T21:32:00.000-05:00

Alternate caption:
"Consumption is Beautiful."

And this one is just nice, no clever juxtapositions:

Dinner at Fanny's: Ayeup.

2007-04-04T21:15:00.000-05:00

Saw this just outside the hostess's home:
(Look closely. Helps if you speak Maineiac.)

Our elegant hostess.

The usual conviviality. From the excitement evident on their faces and from the wild gesticulations, you can tell when they started discussing physics.

And Dirty Dan couldn't understand why we were all laughing at him...

Katherine's physics discussion face. This one was slightly posed.

The best take came later, more...spontaneously.

(Je reccomende cliquer. C'est vrai effrayant.)

Not where I hang my hat!

2007-03-18T14:53:00.000-05:00

Cambridge is less thoroughly literate than I'd been led to believe.

much improved

2007-03-09T10:39:00.000-06:00

The tropical-beach-resort feel of our offices has hit an all-time high.

Triumphs

2007-03-05T13:12:00.000-06:00

Renovated the cubicles of the temporarily absent.

Celebrated the buttering of...

the OREO!

The confluence of the green sweater, the green background, and the green-tinted terminal window. With Fortran frustration.
____

Biked quietly across the frozen field
(following snow, rain, and then freezing).
Smoothest surface I've biked on in weeks.
and then,
of course,
the bike slid away from under me.

After more than a year, the cat gets his favorite treat:
Snow.

And, this one.... shallots are kind of sweet and sexy, doncha think?

-Dr. S

$1.99

2007-03-02T18:52:00.000-06:00

And it wasn't bad at all. I love that first beer on a Friday evening at the desk.
Suddenly the coding isn't so painful.

At last.

2007-02-14T10:05:00.000-06:00

Now we can get back to the usual routine of cheerily complaining about the snow. Almost thought we'd have to skip it this year.

Should have posted these at one time

2007-02-13T20:15:00.000-06:00

but maybe not all at the SAME one time.

Across from a favorite coffee shop. Telephoto lens from inside, with a cup of tea.
(Tea, warm coffee shop, and window not shown.)

I knew it was a bad idea to use dish soap in the dishwasher, but since there wasn't any other soap to use, I got to see just how bad an idea.

Sketchy footbridge to a sketchy neighborhood. A perfect shortcut.

===---===

My friends are so thoughtful. I mean, they think so intensely you can almost SEE the thoughts.
See? Thoughts are just streaming out of her mind...

-Dr. "Go" Science

Crust had a hole in it when I unrolled it.

2007-02-13T18:47:00.000-06:00

Jumped the zuchs in butter an olive oil, salt and pepper, then when they started to get a little burnt, lots of dill, chopped garlic, a little sugar. In their oil, three eggs scrambled with cottage cheese.

When the crust was nicely brown under its olive oil, brushed it with Favorite New Hot Sauce One (right) and Good Old Sriracha, mixed the scrambled eggs with the sweet garlic zuxhs and a fistful of chopped cilantro, dumped it all together, and voila: breakfast for dinner.

+
=

Best damned breakfast-for dinner I've ever made.

lazy morning

2007-01-14T19:50:00.000-06:00

And a steady, cold rain all afternoon.

Mike, Wei, and Diego are in their 80's!

2007-01-14T18:39:00.000-06:00

altogether, I think they're turning about 77 or so. Anyway, the party:

Somehow, Bonecrusher looks so sweet, but Vendetta... not even when she's smiling.

Meanwhile, HotSilvia remains skeptical. Or maybe high?

I'm feeling happy, apparently.

Even with all our scintillating conversation, Daniel can't keep his eyes open.

But see how he perks right up when Chris and Piccolo Mike start in on the yer mom zingers.

...which has the opposite effect on Vendetta.

Happy collective birthday, y'all.

New Year's Eve

2007-01-03T21:01:00.000-06:00

A little dinner (looks a lot better than it really was.)
Who knew veal scallops could become asphalt shingles?

No FDA warnings on this one.

Fully recovered from dinner, it's time to play dress up.
Nothing says elegance like a little black dress, a cigarette holder, and a squirming oversized feline.

The Hosts

The Millionaires arrive.

(Millionaires and plastic cups.)

Millionaires politely retire to the veranda to take their pipes.

Meanwhile, back in the soiree.

The competition:

...and the Calibration:

There's a picture like these of these two from every party we ever have.

Schwaeggy, though in actual fact the very epitome of edgy (typical above) tries to pose in repose (below).

Halloween

2006-12-07T23:02:00.000-06:00

No, pDan! Vikings snarl! You're way off.

Charlotte and Vendetta... who seems to have lost her eyes somewhere...

Papa Smurf... and his ass-kickin' boots.

Not actually a costume there, Chachi.

Fanny hanging out with Chachi.

Fanny with her pal Chow Yun Fat.

Fanny and some cute clown.

Fanny and that Mike guy.

I defy you to tell which one is Mike and which one is Sun Wukong or Sun Goku.

Then all these nice people showed up.
(I'm cuing off the fact that I shot these in the entranceway.)

Don't they look friendly? But after that the photo journal turns ugly:
There were drunken Vikings, and clowns consorting with smurfs...

Mrs. Robinson doing her thing:
...Even a little Ali G action with the Djini/Jeanie.
I'm not sure what's with the shadow. Possibly the flash was drunk at this point.
It all ended on the back porch,everybody watching as the Last Viking turned surly and unsteady:
There's your thousand word of Old Norse right there, Blondie.

How many physicists does it take?

2006-12-07T22:59:00.000-06:00

(Actual action shot from Quantum Fun Time)

Hang on. We'll just figure it out from basic principles. Does anyone see the chalk?

Hiking in the Blue Hills

2006-12-07T22:29:00.000-06:00

Always with the camera, Charlotte. Gotcha back.

I dunno, I'm tired of editing pictures, and I kinda like it on its side.

The sun was so BRIGHT! Only the astronomer is ok with that incredible solar flux.

Bear? Energy spasm.

Hunting for SUVs at the car rentalist's.

Not social.

Sasquatch is the one in the "I'm with Stupid" shirt. Jerk.

I don't know anyone else can make that face. Look at Nina hide in shame, unable to contort her visage so ably.

Nicest spot we found, wasn't it?

Back after the blag apathy break.

2006-05-30T22:38:00.000-05:00

Tea, the way my desk sees it.

I know, I know, I'm way over due to post to this blag. Coming up as quick as I can go.