Flooding, Flowers and Fans

On June 14th, Tropical Storm/Depression Alberto came through central North Carolina. There was flooding all over the place, in the usual places, such as Crabtree Creek, and in some areas less prone to flooding. Some places had 6 inches of rain. In Hillsborough, we probably had about one and a half inches. A road in Apex washed away. I ate lunch in my cube that day. Imagine that.

Around then, I played a great deal with Netvibes, but I couldn't determine that it was really any better than the Google Personalized Homepage. I created two almost identical pages in each aggregated just to make sure, but while Netvibes looked prettier, I thought the Google Personalized Homepage looked easier to read and I like embedding the Google Reader. Google also announced Picasa Web Albums, but I wasn't as excited about that as I had hoped. The maximum image resolution is 1600 x 1045 and, even if you pay $25 a year, the maximum storage space is 6 GB. It really is convenient to have uploading built right into Picasa, though.

While I was watching the end of Game Five of the Stanley Cup Finals, a raccoon got up on the window sill above my television. That was the first and only raccoon I've seen on my deck or anywhere around my house. There are tons of them around my parents' place. I grabbed my camera and got a nice shot as he was peeking in the door to the deck. Raccoons are so adorable.

The next evening, my parents and I met our neighbors, TD and CD at Kurama, for dinner. That was particularly cool, because I'd never met CD before. You can see how the building where I work, Bostock (part of Perkins Library) looked that day. with liatris and rudbeckia below. Here's also shot of the stokesia that was blooming next to the ramp up to the library buildings.



I spent much of the following day prepping for the Blackboard Test Fest. I ate lunch with NC at the Armadillo Grill and continued to be amazed at the crowds that gathered around the televisions. All the young kids on campus for various camps and TIP programs were completely captivated by the World Cup. I had no idea that it had become that popular, but I had to realize that most of these kids grew up playing soccer. The infamous soccer moms had soccer children and all those children were glued to any TV they could find, particularly flat panel displays.

That night, I went to guitar practice and Indigo Girls' "Gone Again" was actually starting to sound good, even when I played along. We went to the Thai Cafe afterwards and I had Shrimp Massaman again. JJ and I ordered potstickers, which were excellent and served with a curry sauce.