Catching Up

One weekend, my dad tested my whole house generator by cutting the power main and it kicked in after a minute or so. That was a major success.

I made brownies before GM and AE came over one day to watch Edward Scissorhands, which I'd never seen before. The movie wasn't bad and the brownies were very good.

A couple of weeks ago, I started carrying the pager at work! I was very excited about that, believe it or not. I've always wanted to carry a pager. I think it's mostly because my brother started carrying a pager when I was a teenager. Note that one key factor is that the pager only goes off between 8am and 5pm. I might have a different opinion if I'd experienced a page at 3am. There are a lot of responsibilities associated with carrying the pager in addition to responding to the pages for open problem tickets. For example, I have to respond to Blackboard course creation requests, answer questions e-mailed to us, and fix links to e-reserves. So far it's all still fun and the problem tickets have been interesting.

Mad Hatter's Bake Shop opened in the Pavilion attached to the old Perkins Library. They have boxed lunches for $10, which is expensive, but it comes with a large sandwich, a salad, a large brownie or lemon bar and a drink. Everything is delicious and it's enough for multiple meals. I also got a Cafe Mocha there and it was one of the best I've had in a long time. The also have regular coffee, but they gave it away for free for a month before it opened. That makes it hard for me to hand over $1.25 now.

We had more beautiful weather. It was starting to be alarming considering it was mid November.

I forgot to be net control for the Durham FM Association last week. I made up for it this week.

On November 11th, they had the dedication of the new Bostock Library. I was able to attend the morning talks, titled "Scholarship in the Digital Age". They served lunch catered by the Catering Company. I chose salmon, which was delicious. It had an herbed cream sauce and was served with orzo. I ordinarily don't like orzo, but this was good. I had to go to a meeting at the American Tobacco Campus, so I missed the actual dedication, but I was back at the library in time to go to the reception. One of the most interesting hors d'uevres was dried apricots with dollops of blue cheese. That was a great combination. They also had square pieces of salmon sushi, crystalized nuts and fruit on brie, little potatoes filled with cream cheese and roe, crab pastry cups and several other things. Needless to say, I did not need to eat anything else that night, after I left the reception.

That Saturday, my dad and I picked up AE and we went to Easter Lights. AE ordered orange chicken, which we hadn't tried in a long time. I really liked it. Afterwards, we went to see the violinist, Hillary Hahn, in Page Auditorium. I thought it was ok, but not spectacular. One of the strangest thing was that Hahn was completely expressionless throughout the performance. If you've seen many live classical concerts, you know that is highly unusual. I'm sure that her technique was flawless, but didn't enjoy it as much as some concerts I've been to recently.

On Sunday, I watched a Doctor Who episode, the City of Death, at GM's, with AE. That was a fun episode, because the 4th Doctor and the 2nd Romana run around Paris through much of the episode. Afterwards, JH joined us and we went to the Cracker Barrell. We had lots of good conversation and some excellent corn bread.

At work on Monday, all of us went on a field trip to CIEMAS, where we got to play in
the DiVe Tank. That was truly awesome. Basically, you go in this room with screens on all sides, including the floor, wearing 3-D glasses. Five people can go in at a time and one person can hold the joy-stick equivalent at a time, in order to move around. That way you can wander around in a molecular structure, ride a rollercoaster, or wander around in the forest. When I moved us right into a tree at high speed, I noticed that I braced myself slightly, which is a good test of how real it seems to our subconscious. I've never seen a 3-D movie before, so it was a particularly interesting experience.

Yesterday, I got a flu shot! Duke was giving employees shots at the American Tobacco Campus. AE went with me, so I would have someone to talk to while I waited in line. Plus, she knew where to find it. We got coffee at Starbuck's there, before I headed for work. Once I got to the parking area in front of the Chapel, there were 6-8 Durham school buses waiting for me. My mom saw me on the PoliSci Quad Cam and felt my pain. I had to wait a while, but it's a lot easier when one has a Cafe Mocha in one's hand.

Last night, I met AE, EG and JG at Chai's. I had one of the best meals yet there. I ate a bowl of udon soup with tofu. It was perfect. Afterwards AE and I went to Shade Tree Coffee, where we talked for a while. I drank a delicious decaf cappuchino with lots of cinnamon.