the blog I forgot to post

Here in the nutrition department we were lucky to get rice krispie treats for halloween, so what a jaw-dropper it was to see two luscious chocolate cakes wheeled into the library where we held a little surprise party for one of the staff who will be married soon. (side note: weird thing is, she actually got married almost a year ago, but they got tired of all the to-do about it and had a tiny wedding with 10 people total in their backyard. I guess now is the "real" wedding or something.) Turns out these were tofu cakes. Who knew such things could be done with tofu. People seemed to be downing it, so I tried some. well, the frosting was tasty. :) The "cake" part was like very moist, very bland cake. The Chinese people I work with thought it was excellent, since Asians aren't big on sweet. I think chocolate is supposed to be delightfully decadent, and I don't think either of those words exactly describe the tofu cake. some of us did think "interesting" was pretty accurate ;)

unsolved mystery...

I got back from the dentist, worked awhile, then got hungry for my lunch. I went to the department fridge and to my surprise, my lunch was gone! A similar thing happened once before where I thought it was gone, but found it after a little digging and pushing (this fridge is always packed! I guess nutrition department people like to bring their own food so they can avoid those nasty trans fats from the cafeteria below... which reminds me, I meant to write a blog the other day...) Today, however, my lunch was nowhere to be found- not on any of the three shelves, not in the door, not in the drawer, not in the freezer. Not over, under, behind, beside or on top of anybody else's lunch. Now, my lunch was in a very undistinguishable white plastic CVS bag with red lettering (like half the other lunches in there!) so I scoured the fridge like 3 times in hopes that it would jump out to me any moment. but no. my lunch had gone AWOL. Maybe somebody got a hankering for string cheese, yogurt, a cheese sandwich and fruit snacks (heavy on the dairy today...). I think it was those scandalously gelatinous fruit snacks that tempted one of these nutrition dept folks to their doom. The string cheese, though, man that's what I was looking forward to today. Anyway, I half expect to find it sitting right back in the front where I put it when I come in tomorrow. In the meantime, the novocaine has worn off and my teeth are aching now

spring cleaning

I got my new phone today (for the office), and when I started putting it together I went wild in a bout of spring cleaning. They are doing construction in my hall, so between that and the fact that I don't think this office has seen a cleaning rag in several years, there was quite a bit of dust and grunge. The results? There are still unidentifiable crumbs in the carpet by the tangle of cords under the far reaches of my desk, but at least the surface of everything is more or less dust-free for a day!

Other good times had by all-- I bought some pants and they have an ingenious label on the inside that has one of those anti-theft devices in it so you don't try to rip the price tags off and walk out of the store with them. When I bought the pants they didn't deactivate it good enough and I set off their alarm when exiting. I've worn these pants a few times and washed them but have never taken out the anti-theft label. Today I went to the reading room that holds all of the current medical journals which are not allowed to be checked out or even removed from that room. I walked in and set off the alarm, which kindly (and very loudly) reminded me to "Please return all current journals to the Russell Reading Room." A little later while making some copies I remembered that these pants had some sort of magnetic tag in them, and after discreetly checking to see if I had not removed it I saw that sure enough- it was still there, with nice tough fabric that can't be ripped. So I sucked it up to my fate and exited the Russell Reading Room to another loud declaration of my supposed violation.

Later, though, I got to eat my lunch outside in the hot (70F) glorious sunshine!

the cat's out of the bag

I love that my roommates and I have a good time regularly by turning on a red Chinese lantern or their computer that is lit internally with some kind of bright blue led and has a clear panel on the side, and starting an impromptu dance party late at night when we should have been heading to bed.

I love it that we watch Bollywood's "Bride and Prejudice" and then go back to all the dancing scenes (pretty much every scene in the movie) and take lessons of the snazzy moves they have in the movie then practice them. I love that it evolves to us putting on the slippers that MaryAnn crocheted us for Christmas and practicing our spinning (one person poses precariously on one leg while the others grab a limb and start running in circles). I love that we are always on the look-out for any hot dance moves that we can add to our reportoire. (I mean hot in the ironical sense; any weird or funny moves we see in a movie or tv commercial or wherever we comment that we need to try it out at the next dance party we attend.)

I love that we can be entertained for the greater part of an hour by going to Google Earth, plotting out our various running routes or walks to work or whatever just to find out we aren't going as far as we thought we were then angling down so we can zoom down them mid-air. ("I'm flying!") There, we did our run for the day. Can I start logging my virtual runs in my training program?

I love that we gather around the kitchen table to gab and teach Jamie how to be mean while we all invariably eat something tasty like ice cream or chocolate then go bowling in our hallway. (We have a loooong hallway.)

I love that we get such a kick out of doing the dumbest stuff!

unraveling the mysteries of goggles

I think I have discovered the secret to not looking like Darth Vader at the end of my swimming sessions. I believe this has to do with where on the eye socket the goggles are stuck. If they're right in there where they suck right on and never leak, I invariably end up looking like something that rose from the crypt (wrinkly pruned-up skin doesn't help the overall effect either). However, if I position the goggles a little lower so they are more on the cheek bone, they seem to leave a lighter mark which fades more rapidly. This is not proven and I've only tried it twice, but it seems to have positive results and is worth the effort it takes to convince the goggles they don't want to leak when they are not in the optimal position to get perfect suction. Also, it makes sense cuz the closer to your eye, the more sensitive the skin becomes...

Anyway, that is my crowning triumph of the week~ (because, you know, all day Monday I thought it was Friday and all day yesterday it felt like Thursday. I think the rest of the days will all feel like Wednesday. But seeing how my week is pretty much over already anyway, I think it's safe to say I don't need to worry about having more crowning achievements!)

our bathroom

Let me describe my apartment: it's long like a train car. The living room and a small room we use as a bedroom are up by the street. Then my room is at the entryway/beginning of the hallway. Then there's a bathroom, two more bedrooms and finally a large kitchen/dining room with a small bathroom and a small room attached. My room has a window at the end of a little alley and the rest of the rooms have windows that go along the side of the alley. My roommate MaryAnn and I share the little bathroom way down the hall.

Our bathroom fan has issues. When you turn it on, it pulsates between sounding like a panicking moose and a dying chipmink. Really not relaxing, especially first thing in the morning or late at night. It also frightens our guests (hahhaha.. that was one of the funniest things ever). Naturally, the one time our landlord was over and we tried to show him, it just purred like a kitten. Last night someone went in our bathroom and I could hear it screeching all the way down the alley coming through my bedroom window. We really expect to get complaints from our upstairs neighbors anyday now- they complain about other things- but haven't heard a peep yet. man, we gotta get it fixed though! it's so obnoxious.

redding finally made it on the map!

The newspaper El Pais, based in Madrid, ran a short story about a blind 62-year old woman who just had her 12th child in Redding, CA.

go Redding~ way to make some worldwide news!

here's the address, in case you want to read it: http://ww.elpais.es/articulo.html?xref=20060219elpepuage_2&type=Tes&anchor=elpporgen