Monthly Archives: March 2011

We came to Brooklyn tonight ostensibly to attend craft night at NYC resistor. When we got to Paula and Cameron’s though it turns out that this was the best excuse to have made to come over and spend the night with our lovely friends. We had a delicious dinner and Mike and I are sacked out in the charming spare bedroom.

Yesterday I was working from home because the undercarriage of my car is falling off more and more dramatically and I shouldn’t drive it on the highway all that much, I think, lest something really gets banged up. So we were going to take my car to the shop.

And then poor Seven was sick instead, and his mom first brought him to work and then brought the poor button to our house clutching a garbage can full of barf.

So I didn’t get the car over here, we didn’t pick up the motorcycles from their shakedown service, and I didn’t suit up in tyvek and cut down all the poison ivy in the side yard when it quit raining. That last thing was just me being lazy, though, really.

I attended a lecture-slash-presentation tonight on a rock boring project for a local sewer improvements. It turns out that my PE license is up for renewal at the end of the month and I am short on professional development hours by quite a lot. This time last year I was doing great – and then things got away from me.

So tonight I learned about drilling rock tunnels in fractured rock for sewers, which is actually quite exciting even if the presentation had the deplorable pun “a boring project” as the subtitle. The meeting was at this standby NJ establishment which a colleague has already warned me about. but what does she know about steakhouses? She is a vegetarian! Turns out she knows a lot.

Also, turns out that of 40 attendees I was one of 3 women … And one of the women was a wife, not an engineer. There were an alarming number of “flirt with the young lady” comments – by which I don’t mean coy flirting, but comments from one old dude to another the this was the chance to flirt (with the young lady). Also a few overhead comments from rowdy engineers on the topic of wives and what they’re good for. Ugh. Old school, for sure.

Mike and the little dudes and I had some friends and family over for a little dinner party tonight. We had just enough people to fit around the table and it was a perfect occasion to get out the china.

When we emptied out the attic to make room for the insulation, I finally unpacked the large box holding (as clearly marked) three generations of china. Michelle and I packed it up when I moved from pittsburgh in 2005, and it’s been through two basement floods and a nice hot attic since then. Happily it was all whole and lovely. We found a home for it where, hopefully, we will he inclined to use it all the time.

On the menu: green salad, asparagus, peas, crash smash potatoes, london broil, and Nigella Lawson’s easter egg nest cake. We had a totally lovely time. So lovely we forgot to tell everyone it was our third anniversary tonight!

We are having a cold steady rain today, so of course my internet distraction du jour was browsing for armored textile motorcycling pants. I have a pair now (the Joe Rocket Alter Ego) but they are getting a little worn after only 2 years and 7- or 8,000 miles.

Ideally I’d like something with reasonable breathability and ventilation but also an integrated waterproof lining layer. I secretly would also like some red pants, to match the racing stripe on my jacket and helmet. But in all reality, I’m sure it will come down to what ever pants fit me well. I am apparently very uniquely sized for a young lady.