Good Coffee

For all my friends, especially ladies in New Orleans, who are having trouble with the home coffee system. There is a brewing guide in the row of links on the bottom, with options for "Press Pot" or Moka thing or Pavoni (yah right!). The other key is having beans that are no more than two weeks out of the roaster.

gigglemonster

It's kind of funny Cecilia thought that 'intercourse' was the 'middle of two courses'.

a new way to communicate passive-aggressively

www.someecards.com.

Fun is Ouch

I had a really nice weekend! I took no pictures so there is no proof of this, however.

A pleasant backyard bbq Friday night with the peoples, limited sleep Friday night and an interrupted (by roommate's zip-code question) nap, leading into frantic packing of non-lightweight camping gear and making of pb&h sandwiches. Picked up Ian and Lucy and Buster the dog and drove out Annapolis Rocks, where we commenced a 2.25 mile hike directly uphill. Before it flattened out I started getting that panicky, roaring in the ears feeling. Fortunately three Teach for America volunteers who climb at the JHU wall appeared and fear of embarassing myself won out over fainting.

Did I mention it was really hot and my pack was heavy and non-ergonomic?

We camped that night and watched the sunset; Buster scarfed my apple.

In the morning we set up a couple ropes and climbed. Plenty of overhangs and roofs, nice horizontal hand cracks, and a gratuitous heel hook on the 10a made things fun. Second time around I finally finished the tough overhung section that drew blood from my knuckles. The sun started hitting our west-facing rocks around 3pm, so instead of staying to sweat even more we packed up and hiked out, cursing my pack (which Bryan had found in a dumpster) most of the way. The brewpub on Market Street in Frederick had a nice Hefewiezen and a decent pulled pork sandwich, but an especially scrumptious sherry lobster tomato bisque.

I'm achy, cut, bruised around the collarbones, and a little worried about the tightness in my left achilles, but how nice to be outside and climbing again. Marin took some pictures so if I receive them I will share....so you can believe me.

Bike Snob NYC

http://bikesnobnyc.blogspot.com/2007/10/from-lbs-to-complete-bs-future-of.html is my new favorite thing. Where oh where is Bike Snob BLT and why won't he buy me a drink?

Oh right...I'm the bike snob. Guess I'll have to buy myself a drink.

Office Morale

Is really really low. We just lost the big proposal and now it is too late to pretend that any morale building exercises (office olympics? secret guerilla art?)are just for fun. There are long-standing issues with management and senior management that are being discussed vehemently now, and perhaps this loss is the catalyst we need to actually take care of them. Of course, nothing will matter if we cut 20% of our staff and have to do all the admin work ourselves. How do you keep an organization from imploding?

Awesomeness

My fixie, now that the Brooks saddle is gone, is a marvel of lightness and agility. Wearing my cute cow-hair ballerina shoes just makes me that much hipper.

I am totally holding down the fort while the bosses are gone! When the Communications person at a large government aid agency calls you to apologize for not including you in the calls, you know you are doing ok. That or, they really just want the money you promised for the drinks reception after the Hill briefing you are supposed to be planning together.

Somebody wrote the Seattle Times, which is publishing gads of stories on how much Gates is doing for malaria, to say that cholera is a bigger killer. Um, in what universe? Oh, it must be the universe where 2,272 is larger than a million.

Interior design report: don't try to drill through the 1/4" metal plate on your back door to install blinds so you can sleep in on the weekends. Instead, tack up blackout curtains with magnets. Also, studfinders can be very useful to figure out that your house has no studs, just drywall over the brick foundation. Sa-weet.