knits

Today I am wearing a sweater that I knit. I finished it last week and this is the second time I have worn it to work-- it is a cardigan. No one has said anything about it... Does that mean it's so good they think it's store bought?

more on etiquette

at this time of year, we have lots and lots of fancy dessert-type snacks all around the office. there are tins of cookies and plates of pies and dishes of breads scattered around.

i just witnessed a co-worker paw through approximately 10 pieces of a baklava-type dessert before choosing a piece.

um, hello, swine flu anyone??

a real life episode of 'seinfeld'

or maybe i should call it 'cohen'?

wow. get ready, this is a great story.

saturday night we went to dinner and the movies with heidi and dave. we met at cambridge brewing company at 6:30, enjoyed dinner and conversation, then walked over to the theater for an 8:00 showing of 'up in the air'. we were chatting so much, we didn't get to the theater until about 7:55, but they were still selling tickets to the movie, so we figured we wouldn't have trouble finding seats. immediately upon entering the theater-- and at this point it was 8:00 and the previews had started-- we realized we would have trouble finding 4 seats together, so we agreed to just find 2 pairs and meet up afterwards. heidi and dave headed up to the front third of the theater, while dan and i stayed in the back. dan noticed a row with a few vacant seats-- there were 3 or 4 occupied seats, then a vacant seat, then an occupied seat, then another vacant seat. he asked to verify if the seats were unoccupied before we entered the row. as we approached the vacant seats, dan asked the woman with empty seats to either side of her if she could move to her right so that we could sit together. she said no, citing that she would not be able to see over the person's head in front of that seat... ok. so dan asks if she'll move to her left, and she says the same thing. at this point, we're sort of standing in the row, blocking people in the row from sitting back down and blocking the people behind us from seeing the previews, so we have no choice but to SIT ON EITHER SIDE OF HER! seriously. the woman on my other side said to me 'wait, she's not going to move to let you sit together?' yeah. this ASSHOLE wouldn't move, so dan and i watched the movie with 1 seat between us. at first we thought that maybe during the previews she'd have the sense to offer to move, but no, she didn't. unreal.

tonight we watched 'julie and julia' from the comfort of our own home, seated side by side. during the opening credits, dan turned to me and said 'it's nice to be able to sit next to you during the movie.' he's right. there were several moment during 'up in the air' that i wanted to say something to dan, and instinctively looked to my right, only to see this woman instead.

WHO DOES THAT!?!?!

it's all in the name

so... i have to say i think i'd have a really hard time having a name that is also a word used in conversation. i'm being intentionally vague here... but let me try to explain the scenario. a co-worker of mine just referenced a group of people and used his own name in the description of the group. i wonder if he thought it was weird.

(in my head when i started to write this post, it was really good... and sadly it's not very good, but i wrote it anyway, so deal with it. or don't.)

paperclips

I realize I have a strange habit of paper clipping things together and then deciding I need more and more paperclips for, well, I don't know what. This is what ends up happening to the front of my notebook after I unearth the stray clips out of the bottom of my bag:

a different perspective

it felt like a totally new place today at work. it was the first monday in months that i've worked a full day in the office-- the semester has drawn to a close. i changed desks, changed projects, and actually left for lunch... it was all different.

haircut

why is it when you get a haircut, people feel obligated to say, "did you get a haircut?" and wait for a "yes" response before saying "it looks good". i mean, seriously, just say you like it without confirming that i got the haircut, or keep your mouth shut.

it takes me back to when i was in kindergarden... a 5th grader at my bus stop had gotten a haircut, or maybe it was a perm? in any event, we got off the bus and i asked her if she had gotten a haircut (clearly, i was too young to do this differently). of course she said "yes" and then followed it with "do you like it?" (now i am remembering: it was most certainly a perm.) so i looked at it, and said "no, i think it looked better before." honestly i'm not sure she ever spoke to me again.

so let me say this: if you notice someone got a haircut and you like the new style, feel free to simply say "i like your haircut". if you notice, and do not like it, keep it to yourself.

(note: i got a haircut and i look awesome. if you see me, feel free to just jump out with "OMG your new haircut looks great!")

vending machine

yesterday we went to a really bad mall... we had a store credit at Kohl's that we were burning to use-- which, incidentally, was really difficult: we had trouble finding a suitable purchase. anyway i went to the bathroom in the mall, and noticed this vending machine on the way out of the facility:

yes, that's right. this vending machine, or convenience center, offers tampons, bubble gum, condoms, breath spray, and spirit bands... none of which cost over $1.00 each.

i wonder which is the most popular...

opening party

after all the heartache... i feel proud.

a wolf in sheep's clothing

We received a gift in a fairly prestegious box from a not-so-close family friend. Upon opening the box, we discovered that the gift inside was not in fact the brand it claimed to be. And I mean it's presumably a copy.

I ask you, who does that?

coincidence

yesterday andrew and andy came over for pancake breakfast. it was great to have a reason to clean our table and use our new dishes! we chatted about stuff, including a few memories from our wedding (3 weeks ago). i decided to blog about the conversation so i don't forget it.

let me start with a little background: our friend matt is a climbing friend of ours, and unfortunately had to decline the invitation to the wedding because he was traveling overseas to visit his girlfriend who is doing some work there (i think). then, somehow he realized that his flight was not until later in the day, the same day of the wedding, so he told dan he'd be able to make it to the ceremony and leave directly from there-- we were very excited!

ok, now fast forward to October 25. andrew, andy, and andra (who stayed with them for the weekend) drove from andrew and andy's place in Somerville to the venue in South Boston.

this is the story that andrew and andy told us yesterday-- totally paraphrased for emphasis.

them: who was your friend at the wedding with the big backpack, wearing jeans, a t-shirt, and flip flops?

us: oh, that was our friend matt-- he was literally on his way to the airport after the ceremony and cocktail hour

them: yeah... so we saw him on the street corner when we left our house-- he was waiting for the bus. all 3 of us noticed him and considered where he might be going, then all 3 of us noticed him again at the wedding and thought, 'oh, we could have given him a ride'.

random. fo sho.

spatial relations

i pride myself on being able to select the best size plastic storage container for leftovers of all shapes and forms.

it's almost 'the office'

this is probably crossing the line of information, but whatever. i can't contain it anymore.

there are 2 people who sit closely to me at work-- which means that they also sit near each other. at least once a day, they talk on the phone. both are overjoyed to be talking to each other, and one frequently puts the other on speakerphone.

um, really? is this necessary? i think not. i feel there should be a minimum distance apart that 2 employees must be in order to be allowed to exercise phone rights. someone needs to tell these people-- the speakerphone is insane, because we hear this cheerful person in stereo surround sound-- and it's just too much.

too much.

One week later

Mrs. Shana and Mr. Daniel

more random wifi

i think i like "HEY-GURL-HEY" best, with "Conical Goose" coming in at a close second... i also like that the network above "Conical Goose" misspells "Boston". what has this world come to?

random wifi network

i am considering starting a contest to find the most randomly named wifi network...

would you participate?

a, b, or c?

a. 6 second tanning

b. 8 minute tanning

c. high pressure tanning

i find "6 second tanning" the most disturbing. then i thought about it a little more... if you can get a tan in 6 seconds, why would you take 8 minutes to get the same result?

is this normal?

[posted per request of dan]

so i practice Bikram yoga... it's waaaay hot and humid in the room, and each class has the same set of 26 postures in the same order, each done 2x, regardless of where in the world you take the class. i am just getting over a nasty cold/bug/sinus thing, and i thought i would be ok to make it through the whole 90 minutes. i figured the heat would clear my sinuses.

well, i did ok. not great, and i suppose i could have done worse, but i wasn't too happy with how the first half of class went. i came home and told dan about this, and he suggested i should have left the room. i told him it's really frowned upon to leave the class, so i stuck it out, but i mentioned that tonight one girl did leave, for a little bit... as she walked towards the door, the teacher, who had a microphone on, asked her where she was going. she was close enough to the microphone that we could all hear her response-- "i have to go throw up". and... she left the studio. a few moments later, she came back and finished the class.

immediately after she left, the instructor announced that if anyone else needed to throw up, there was no need to leave the room-- feel free to use a trash bucked in the room-- the buckets otherwise designed for Kleenex, might i add.

so i implore you, readers, what is the strangest part about this story? leaving to puke and coming back to finish the class, or the suggestion that someone might puke in the studio classroom and keep going?

discuss.

cookin'

we made an eggplant dish for dinner the other night, pictured here, prior to being baked:

it is a variation on a dish from the cookbook called "vegetables" published by the culinary institute of america-- the actual recipe is for roasted eggplant stuffed with curried lentils... we made a more plain version. here is our variation:

1/2 cup brown lentils

2 cups vegetable broth

1 large (?) eggplant

1 tbsp olive oil, plus more for greasing pan

1/4 cup minced cippolini onion

2 tsp minced garlic

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

salt and pepper

1. bring lentils and broth to a boil-- cover an reduce heat to low. simmer until lentils are tender-- 25-30 minutes. remove and set aside, keeping lentils in cooking liquid.

2. preheat oven to 350. grease 8x8 baking pan. cut eggplant in half lengthwise and scoop out flesh, leaving 1/2" to 3/4" thick wall. mince scooped flesh and set aside. put eggplant halves in dish, skin side down.

3. heat large skillet over medium heat. add onion and garlic. saute until onion is golden brown, 6-8 minutes. add minced eggplant, cinnamon, salt and pepper-- saute 5 minutes.

4. drain lentils but save cooking liquid. add lentils to eggplant mix and enough cooking liquid so that vegetables moisten, and simmer until liquid is reduced-- 6-8 minutes.

5. fill hollowed eggplant with mix. cover with foil and bake until tender-- 35-40 minutes.

serve and enjoy! it's also good reheated... we had some for lunch the following day!

some people

we went to the red sox game. the people in front of us-- specifically the one girl with the thick midwestern accent who announced it was her birthday-- kept taking pictures of herself and the person next to her... dan joined in several of the shots.

after this happened, oh, 5 or 6 times, she finally notices that he is in the back of all of her pictures, smiling. (at least he smiled, right?)

when the wave started she turned to our row-- none of us participated in our group, mind you-- and says to dan "so you'll be in all my pictures but you won't do the wave... what's up with that?"

i fail to see the correlation... the red sox won 10-0!! let's dance!

p.s. not loving her plaid hat...

flickr love

inspired by stacey, and courtesy of the mosaic maker at big huge labs, here are some of my flickr favorites.

1. 08.28.09 - my vista - highland, ks, 2. 08.30.09 - sabetha, ks, 3. film.25, 4. sunset silhouette, 5. tide coming in, 6. only in venice, 7. mountain layers, 8. Two flats, not full, but still alot, 9. 06.29.09, 10. Farm to Table - Seven Pounds of Raspberries!, 11. 06.28.09, 12. 06.09.09, 13. taste the rainbow?, 14. 06.07.09, 15. 06.02.09 - comfort - clearwater, ks, 16. 05.15.09 - wichita, ks, 17. sea cave, 18. 05.15.09 - kansas sunset - manhattan, ks, 19. we took the train., 20. 242:365, 21. 04.21.09 - fonts - providence, ri, 22. 04.16.09 - blue on black - cambridge, ma, 23. 04.05.09 - when landlord gives you lemons - berkeley, ca, 24. happy birthday shana!, 25. 03.08.09

who thinks of this stuff?

i want to know who thought this was a good flavor for potato chips:

a slightly cruel trick, in my opinion

just got back from a cleaning at the dentist... i have to say i think it's cruel that the hygienist asked me questions while cleaning my teeth, because she knew how to time them exactly right so that she would ask me something, and then with about 0.5 seconds to respond, would remove the tools from my mouth. to me this is unfair because she had the upper hand-- she knew i wouldn't have a lot of time to think about the answers. for example, it went something like this:

hygienist: what kind of music do you like best?
me: all kinds

real original, right? whatever.

hygienist [upon hearing i had just returned from a trip to michigan]: how do you think foreigners are treated in the midwest?
me: they are treated well

that seemed too complex for 0.5 seconds.

hygienist: what is your favorite thing about boston?
me: uh......

yeah, i didn't even answer that last one. i was annoyed with her at that point. i contemplated asking her complicated questions, but then realized i'd rather have her focus on the task at hand: sticking pointy metal instruments into my mouth.

a 'news' story

Drunk man found at grocery store eating avocados - Boston.com

this is too silly.

is it so hard to believe?

today i was at a job site meeting for a project i am working on that is under construction. the attendees of the meeting included the extended regular crowd-- that is, in addition to the contractor, owner, and architect, some of the engineers were also present. there were a total of 10 people there, and i was the only female there. when the meeting ended, i waited for my project manager, also an architect, to finish a conversation with someone before walking together over to the site. i exited the main meeting room and waited in a large space used for maintenance at the golf club. a guy working on a machine to rake the sand traps (yes, they have machines to rake sand traps) looks at me and engages in the following conversation:

guy: hi!
me: hi.
guy: you must be the interior decorator.
me: no, i'm an architect.
guy: [in a condescending tone] ooooooooooh, i thought i already met the architect.

he was obviously trying to cover up the fact that he assumed that because i am a female, i must be the interior decorator. not even designer, mind you, but decorator.

at this point i decided i'd rather wait outside in the 90+ degree weather than hang out with him. is that wrong? and is it SO hard to believe i'm an architct? i think not.


anyway, check out how cool this orange tile looks! yay for bathrooms! somehow i can't figure out right now how to be able to make this picture bigger... the tiles are only 3/4" x 3/4"! what a mosaic!

scissors

today i bought a new pair of scissors. i decided not to spring for the $14.99 fiskars, and instead got this pair for $5.99.

in the car on the way home, i took out the package to take a closer look, and to my surprise, the directions for opening the package look like this:

so... i say this.

dear scissor company,

please change your packaging so that one does not need a pair of scissors to open said packaging.

sincerely,

shana

photo session

today our wedding photographer met us for an engagement session! we smiled a lot. i can't wait to see how we look... in the meantime, i'll share with you the faces i made in these self portraits courtesy of my iphone...

overheard on the T

[dad, son, and daughter on the orange line, looking out the window between sullivan square and community college]

son: dad, look at those trains from the olden days... i've seen those in wisconsin.

it might just be me, but i found it funny. first, i think referring to "the olden days" is humorous. it reminds me of elementary school. second, what is the correlation, if any, between "the olden days" trains and wisconsin?

sunset sail

pictures from the sunset sail.

dairy/not dairy- seriously

we went on a sunset harbor sail yesterday with friends, and another couple had also signed up for the 6 person boat. i'll share some photos once i upload them, but in the meantime, i'll share this with you:

we introduced ourselves to the other couple as we waited for our friends, and found out that she works in PR, and he used to be in the dairy business (making cheese, ice cream, etc), is now in the non-dairy business (making soy frozen treats, etc), and might return to the dairy business.

upon hearing this, dan equated the situation with the seinfeld episode about importing and exporting.

ridiculous.

lesson learned: dairy > non-dairy.

sidewalk-scape

i bet the person who dropped these was really sad.

(also: after over a year of this, i finally took the time to figure out how to link my photos to my flickr account! it's about time!)

365 on flickr

i've been taking a photo a day for all of 2009. it's exciting, and fun, and sometimes a pain, too... but in the end, the cool thing is looking back at the series and being transported to that day again-- remembering exactly where i was and what i was doing.

it's cool.

scallion pancakes

yesterday i attempted to make rice flour scallion pancakes. they were awful. do you have a good recipe or suggestion for making something tasty?

how?

a quick question to start your monday:

how does one throw out a trash can? please provide replies in the comments.

hot dogs

yesterday i watched this on TV.

what makes a person get into competitive eating? in possibly the most disturbing 10 minutes i have ever seen on ESPN, this dude ate 64 hot dogs, with buns. in an interview afterwards he said he's craving a cobb salad.

um, ok.

the simple things

we have been without hot water for about, oh, 30 or so hours... it's totally annoying. we went to the gym last night and showered there, and i have a feeling we'll be doing the same for the next few days. lame. i realized how much i rely on that morning shower to get me going... sigh. it probably doesn't help that the floor i work on is super quiet-- we're all moving to a different floor, except presently i am the last one on my side of the floor, sitting here quietly reviewing some lighting submittals.

LP's

the following is reproduced from an email that was sent out to my entire office today:

Anyone wants these?

Free LP records.

Janis Ian
Olivia Newton Johns
Jackson Browne
Joan Baez
Barbra Streisand
and more….

and another thing about market basket

the couple ahead of us bought $117 worth of frozen cans of Welch's juice. i believe it was 17 cases. that's a lot of juice.

market basket

i have never been to market basket... at least not that i can remember.  we've heard they have good deals and a big selection of food, so today, we decided to go.  what i can't figure out is why everyone else in the store was shopping as though it were the last day on earth to buy food-- that is, baskets overflowing!  like this one:

[yes, i am aware this picture is blurry... i was trying to be discreet]

then, as we approached the check out, we spotted this:

apparently, i'm totally out of it.  i didn't realize they were gone.  in fact, we have some at home, and enjoyed them this afternoon during our bike ride.

excited

a heads-up:  i am sharing some photos over on 3-see for a few days, as one of the regular posters is away without internet... check their site out!  it's great!  the posts i am a part of start 06.07.09.

compliment or insult?

i can't decide if it's a compliment or an insult when someone asks me if i knit something that i am wearing. as in, is it so bad that it must have been handmade? or, because someone knows i knit, the question is posed in order to be polite?

today i am my newly knit shalom sweater.

you be the judge. check it out here.

the jury is in

i had so much fun today... i was invited to be on a jury for a design competition for a 3rd year studio... i was one of 5 jurors evaluating the proposals done by groups of 2 students for a world war 2 fallen soldiers memorial. there were 54 entries!! we narrowed it down to the top 17, then the top 5... then finally picked a winner.

i can't stop thinking about it. this is the good stuff.

season 2

we're giving gardening another shot-- maybe this will be luckier; this plant has a mini tomato on it to start!  these will be yellow cherry tomatoes.

weekend. phew.

this week was long... 4 different studio critiques, plus work meetings and regular life stuff...

my friends bought a piece of furniture from craigslist from an author i like-- anita diamant-- and picked it up monday. they invited me to go, but i could not make it due to one of the aforementioned (yesss!) critiques... so look at this! they told her how much i liked 'the new jewish wedding', and she gave them this pseudo book plate (actually a printer label) for us to put in our copy!

hooray! happy long weekend!

in between

i like  being outside when it is no longer day, yet not quite yet night.  i feel a little like i'm cheating... enjoying the last few hours before mother nature's 'lights' turn 'off' and our city lights turn on.   

what's that in your car?

when did the hula hoop become a regular accessory?

(i must admit, though, i do enjoy the hula hoop Wii Fit...)

uncontrollable

they have just announced that there is no water in my office building.

suddenly i want to wash my hands VERY BADLY.

spring cleaning... a post for andy!

we stopped by our friends' place to see if they wanted to join us in wandering around Somerville Open Studios today... and they were knee deep cleaning their backyard!   look at how many bags of stuff they had... and i am not sure this is everything!

and now, for some smaller plants... just down the street.  these are so cute!

an energizing event

today i was a guest critic at some architecture thesis reviews.

i love this stuff.

rained out!

uncool, red sox, uncool.  we had covered seats and everything!

if only i spoke french...

i got stuck on the train this evening after teaching for a full 30 minutes between the stop at which i boarded, and the next stop. the experience was entertaining and surreal, due in large part to the ENORMOUS number of French tourists ready to go clubbing.

i only wish i knew what they were saying.

everyone uses Maxwell House Hagaddahs

see?

"it's all happening"

yesterday i felt confident, in charge, creative, and just plain good.

i hope this feeling continues.

tricky photography

whoa.

blogging and ridiculous ideas

i've been slacking on my blogging and focusing on my flickr photos... i started to get the feeling that i didn't really have a blog following anymore-- that most of you had given up on my musings... i hope i am wrong, though.

at any rate, i was searching through my old external hard drive and found this project proposal from my integrated building systems class at RISD... (yes the initials are IBS-- who thought of that?). i cannot believe we actually presented this as a design option. we took a sketch, then created our own design inspired by the sketch... maybe i'll add some of the more ridiculous pictures, but for now...

this is the start of our youth hostel.

um, really?

i just submitted an inquiry to a website and got this auto response:

"The message you sent requires that you verify that you are a real live human being and not a spam source."

i considered not responding... then i realized i need to know about their products, so i told them i'm real. they responded with this:

"This message is to notify you that your verification was received, and your email address was successfully white listed."

white listed?? is that a real term?

irony

I spoke to a coworker who took the day off work in order to take the LEED exam. This coworker passed the exam, which is exciting. I asked which test center the coworker went to, as a friend of mine took the exam at the same time... it turns out they were not at the same place; this person had driven to the test site in order to get in some last minute studying... I found it somewhat ironic or hypocritical to drive to an exam focused on sustainability which is in fact less than 1/2 mile from a rapid transit line (SS c4.1)

i am a dork.

yellow

i matched the walls in studio.

[thanks for the photo, tessa]

shana

i work in a relatively good sized office... yet i still find it funny that i receive shop drawings from a contractor addressed to me only as "shana"-- no last name.... like "prince" or "cher", perhaps i am identifiable by one name only. so... we got into a bit of a conversation about other celbrities known by their first name only. feel free to offer your contributions:

cher, prince, eminem, coolio, rihanna, ludacris, enya, seal, sade, carrot-top, twiggy, tiffany, usher, gallagher, sting, fabio, ice-t, duffy.

daylight

i realized something today.  the day in spring in which daylight savings time starts [today] is one of my favorite days of the year... sure, we lose an hour of sleep, but walking home from the coffee shop at 7:05 PM with a twilight haze is worth it.

41%

3060 hours of 7522 total logged on the job... yes, i just found out today that my time on a particular project amounted to 41% of the total hours on the job. total. hours. on. the. job. over 2 years! the next closest person in terms of hours logged 1398-- a mere 19%.

discuss.

062:365

062:365
Originally uploaded by shanalines

um... yeah. thanks, architectural record.

the freedom trail is lying

i took this photo today.  above this is a sign that reads "the freedom trail is open".... i have to say, NO IT'S NOT! this is a yellow stripe of paint that leads people around the boundaries of a construction site... and that's fine, but please don't pretend it's still the freedom trail!  

also, it has been drawn to my attention that my new years post describing my photo of the day plan for 2009 was misleading... the photos are on my flickr page which can be found here

game time

i really like game shows. i'm sort of sad that we do not receive the game show network at our house and as a result, if i am ever in a house that DOES get GSN, i like to watch it. last weekend i watched a few brief moments of Pyramid with Donny Osmond, the new edition of The New $25,000 Pyramid with Dick Clark. it was ok... not as good as the Dick Clark version in my opinion... and then a few minutes ago, frustrated with our client at work, a slew of "clues" rushed into my brain. here, play along.

"because you are interested in design"

"because you can afford it"

"because you you want a well-designed space"

ready for my secret clue? it's "reasons why you hire an architect".

now, try this one:

"i know more than you about how people will use this space"

"why do you care so much about this?"

"i'm paying you too much"

"you want me to pay for printing?"

"you're taking too long"

i hope you got that one too... it's "things you might tell your architect once the design (and possibly construction) process is well underway"

the sights of RISD

i have to echo John Maeda here-- when i see things like this i don't really flinch, i just think of RISD.... [via Our (and Your) RISD blog]