Rain

Now it's raining here.  So sad that I found out it was raining by looking at the Shake Shack cam and not by looking out the window.

Park

I checked the Shake Shack cam a little while ago and there was a line, but now the park is completely empty.  Like NO ONE around, no one on line, no one sitting anywhere.  Everyone went poof.  Is it pouring outside or something?  Did something happen that I don't know about?

Alert

Alert!  There is no line at the Shake Shack at this very minute!

 

There are even people browsing the menu who don't look like they're on line for the Shake Shack yet!  There's that much space!

 

Park's generally pretty empty too.

 

But considering it's 5:15 on a hot and humid day, I somehow doubt that can last.

A Letter Concerning Food

Dear Wendy's,

Adding an option to pay for jack cheese on my chicken sandwich isn't going to make me forgive you for getting rid of the Wild Mountain Chicken sandwich that I loved. Or the Southwestern Chicken Caesar salad. Is it too much to ask for you to make a salad without red meat, cream or bacon?

All that being said, I still go to Wendy's often. But I would go a lot more if you brought these back!

Warm regards,
The person who buys lots of cheap chicken nuggets with BBQ sauce

Shakes

I think I have already said that I love the Shake Shack cam.  After all, didn't I leave it up on my screen all afternoon one day?

 

Therefore, it should not be surprising that I enjoyed this story: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/28/dining/28shak.html.

 

Anyone want to stand on line for me? :)

 

And while I'm on the topic, I had a discussion with some people the other day about "on line" v. "in line," which I never even knew was an issue until I got to undergrad.  Just saying.

Owner

I have been staring at the word "owner" during my find and replace, and now it looks very, very odd.

Barbie

Cleaning stuff out of my parents' house is such a long process. I have a lot of stuff, a lot of which I have held onto for sentimental reasons. However, I have found it a little easier to get rid of childhood toys these days because of my camera. It's the same thing with greeting cards and postage stamps.



I figure, if I take a picture of it, that should last. And then I can get rid of the actual item, and retain the memory. Hopefully, this will start to make a (small) dent.

Soul

What Your Soul Really Looks Like

You are a warm hearted and open minded person. It's easy for you to forgive and forget. You are a very grounded, responsible, and realistic person. People may not want to hear the truth from you, but they're going to get it. You see yourself with pretty objective eyes. How you view yourself is almost exactly how other people view you. Your near future is in a very different place (both physically and mentally) from where you are right now. For you, love is all about caring and comfort. You couldn't fall in love with someone you didn't trust.

Inside the Room of Your Soul

Stats

I think I missed a few searches, but a lot of them seem to deal with the bar exam. For example, there are 6 search results on my current log. Which ones don't fit?

Failing grade simulated barbri essay - They always grade low. And it's not July 4th yet. Plenty of time.

Barbri nyt book outlines - Unclear to me. What is NYT? I don't remember that as a Barbri abbreviation, and it only makes me think of NY Times.

Paced program Barbri - Unrealistic. I never finished all of the assignments.

Accidentally swallowed plastic fork prong - This made me laugh, because unfortunately I think I must have. There is no other explanation for where the fork prong could have gone!

Neatfreakmom - *shrug* Don't know how that got here.

PMBR similar real MBE questions - I thought they would be, but I'm not so sure they were very close last year. But what do I know... I slept through a good part of the MBE and didn't give each question the time it deserved, so I barely remember the question formats. If anything, it's just helpful for making you sit down and do a simulated test. That aspect of it can't hurt.

And I realize that by posting this, I kicked my "excellent lunches" post further down. Oh well.

Filled Up

I have eaten a lot of good food this week.

On Monday, we had the firm outing at a country club up in White Plains. It was a lot of fun, especially the manicure and massage. The masseuse gave a deep tissue massage, which I'm not really used to and kind of hurt in parts, but it definitely felt good afterwards. As for the food, it was fine, but pretty much your usual BBQ or buffet fare. It was a nice way to ease back into the work week after coming back from Chicago.

Tuesday it was back to work. And to a fabulous lunch with my summer associate buddy at Milos. I went for the prix fixe "business lunch" menu and the food was wonderful. Very fresh, the flavors were just right and not overpowering, the portion sizes were good. Overall, I was very pleased and it lived up to everyone's recommendations and praise. I would definitely go back there. (I say that about so many places, but it's true!) Good company and good food.

As for what I actually ate, I started with the stuffed calamari, which was stuffed with 3 types of Greek cheeses. (According to the website, it's feta, kefalograviera and myzithra). It came with some mixed greens on the side. For my entree, I got the whole fish of the day, which was sea bass grilled in olive oil. It was so simple, but so good. Everything was so tender and the perfect texture. I loved it. And the strawberry sorbet that I had for dessert had such a strong strawberry flavor that even though I was full, I could have had 3 bowls more!

I really need to figure out how to exercise more self-control, but I think that is a topic for an entry not devoted to how good food is. And as a side note, the putrid smell of a neighbor's cigarette drifting in through the bathroom vent is ruining my wonderful memory of all the good food I have had this week!

Ahead to Wednesday, which was sort of an impromptu lunch with my summer officemate. We went down the block to the Kati Roll Company, which I had passed many times but had never gone in. It had always been crowded, and now, having gone in, I can see exactly why. It's inexpensive for lunch, and it's really good! We split 3 different rolls - the aloo masala (potato), achari paneer (cottage cheese and pickle) and chicken tikka. I liked the aloo masala and chicken tikka a lot. With drinks, this was probably the cheapest per person summer lunch I've ever gone on. Which is good! More money for charity!

Thursday brought another buddy lunch, this time at Del Frisco's. A yummy salad and a perfectly seared tuna had me thinking that it might be a healthy lunch (since, after all, I didn't go for the bacon in the salad). But then I had some strawberry cheesecake, which I liked, even though I am not a very big cheesecake eater. Pretty much just this and the Heath bar cheesecake lollipop at david burke & donatella.

Today, I went to lunch with a bunch of junior associates and summers at the Indian buffet across the street, Utsav. There was so much good food there, and I thought the entrees had ended at some point in the line so I had a full plate, but they kept going! My favorites were the chicken, fish and eggplant. Granted, that's not very helpful since it's so general, but I don't remember the names of the dishes offhand and they had paragraph long descriptions. But I would definitely recommend the buffet. Yum! I'll look through the online menu and see if I can remember any of the dishes. *reading* I can't remember... there is a chicken one with fenugreek, but I thought that was the fish. *shrug* It was good. That's all I remember.

For dinner, Alvin and I went out to Caribbean Spice, a cute little place about a block from the apartment. To sum up, it was excellent service and such good food. I'm still stuffed. At one point, the chef came out and was just talking with all the patrons. A very nice, relaxed atmosphere and really good food. And so close!

It started off with plaintain chips that they brought over, and then a delicate soup that tasted like a combination of chicken broth, coconut milk and buttery vegetables. Mmm. We ordered an appetizer of saltfish fritters, which were yummy and reminded us of conch fritters from the Bahamas, and came with avocado salsa. For entrees, Alvin got jerk chicken with herb roasted potatoes, and I got pineapple coconut chicken with pumpkin rice. They both came with veggies and plaintains. (So much food!) Can I tell you just how much I am in love with pumpkin rice? So good.

And it's taken me about an hour off and on to write this post and I am still so stuffed. So much good food. I think I need to work out this weekend... But I can't complain. Excellent company and excellent food make me happy. :)

Shakes

It was a very nice day today.

 

For the entire afternoon, I left the following site open on my computer:

 

http://www.shakeshacknyc.com/camera.html

 

Yes. I watched the line all day.

 

Although now it goes off the camera....

Drill

The whirring of the drill is making me crazy.  I'm already feeling out of it and lightheaded and now they're drilling into my floor, so that the entire floor is softly vibrating.

 

Well, the feeling is soft, but the noise is most definitely not.

 

Can't they wait until I leave? Bah!

Lightheaded

I feel so lightheaded today.  Over lunch, there was a minute when I thought I was going to pass out.  I don't usually feel faint in that sense, so this was a little alarming.  I thought sugar might do the trick, but apparently not.  Time to try some tea.

Post-Outing Quizzes

It's no secret that I would like to go to Latin America...

You Should Visit Brazil

If you're looking for an extreme yet chill vacation, Brazil is perfect for you. Go wild at Carnaval, get lost in the Amazon, and relax checking out the beautiful people on the beach.

What Latin American Country Should You Visit?

Although I think Argentina and Chile possibly rank higher on my current list...

And here's another one:

You Communicate With Your Ears

You love conversations, both as a listener and a talker. What people say is important to you, and you're often most affected by words, not actions. You love to hear complements from others. And when you're upset, you often talk to yourself. Music is very important to you. It's difficult to find you without your iPod.

How Do You Communicate?

Long Weekend

off for the weekend

and I think it's going to be just as hot as it is in the picture. going away just in time for summer to make an appearance.

have a great weekend!

Hmm

Things have a habit of going poof in my apartment when I need them. Hmm.

Packing

Normally, to construct my packing lists, I literally go head to toe. Clearly, when I wrote this list this morning, I was very tired and not quite all there, as I just noticed that one of the early entries on my packing list was "hair."

Hmm.

More on Benji

So I think Benji might be my current favorite dancer to watch on SYTYCD.

I have watched his dance with Donyelle about 4 times now because I just truly enjoy watching it. They're probably my favorite dancing couple from last night. But the reason I single out Benji is because last week, I watched his dance with Heidi (the save yourself from elimination dance, the West Coast swing one) many times.

Therefore, I think he must be the one I like best right now.

There are a bunch of others I like too - Donyelle, Allison, Jason, Stanislav, Travis, Musa among them. But I haven't watched their dances over and over again like I have these 2. Maybe it's the dancers and the style combined. Not sure.

I love dance shows. And now Red Hot Chili Peppers's Higher Ground is playing on Music Choice, and it's making me think of the movie Center Stage, which is also about dancing and which I also love.

I really should get back to packing.

Shock

Yesterday morning I woke up to a little bit of an alarming news story. I had heard about a stabbing on the train the day before, but had thought it was an isolated incident and a troubled person. I was glad to hear that the victim was, so far, okay.

I wake up to the TV as one of my alarms. I caught snippets of the story in my half-asleep daze, and heard something about a guy getting stabbed at the Rockefeller Center train station and then 2 other women getting stabbed near the W Hotel in Midtown.

First, I thought it was a bad dream. I mean, it sounded so implausible that there could be so many stabbings in such a short period of time. Second, it dawned on me that that's the train station that's the closest to work. There could be a troubled guy running around with a knife near the office! Third, I thought, maybe it's not near the office. After all, there are a lot of W Hotels in Midtown.

But then they said he was caught at the McDonalds in Times Square. And that's down the block from work.

Hmm.

It was a bit shocking and unsettling. 2 locations pretty close to where I walk every day, and there's some random guy walking around stabbing people?

Three stabbing incidents. Three other accidents where young people got killed recently. It's a little scary.

Luckily they had already caught the guy, so I was a little less anxious about it. Not like when that guy shot a judge and I was scheduled to fly to Florida, and was worried that he was still going to be running around shooting people.

Then, I put it out of my mind on my walk to work and took care of a lot of little things since I have today and tomorrow off. A little hectic tying up loose ends, but it's got to be done sometime, right? Like re-organizing and cleaning my office....

SYTYCD

Benji and Donyelle were awesome.  I love So You Think You Can Dance.  So much fun.  I wish I could dance that well.

Plastic

Uh oh.

 

Talk about an "oh crap" moment.

 

What happens if you eat plastic?

 

I just looked down at my Chinese take-out fork and 2 of the prongs are missing the ends.  I swear, those prongs were full prongs before I started eating.  And I only noticed it because it got significantly harder to pick up food.

 

Which can only mean one thing.

 

I swallowed the pointy ends of 2 plastic fork prongs.

 

Crap.

 

And I don't mean the very tip of the prong, I mean, like, a third of the length of the prong.

 

Is this bad?!?!

 

(On a side note, I realized I say "like" way too much in conversation and it's annoying me.)

 

But seriously, is this bad?

 

Flores

I don't really have anything to say about this picture right now because it is late and the brain isn't really functioning. I just kind of felt like posting it. It's from way back in April. "Way back." Feels like just yesterday.

That Show

I didn't think it was possible, but it appears that people on TWoP hated the show even more than I did. I think that is a feat. But then again, I suppose, I also have the previous version I saw to compare to, which was even worse. So this time around it seemed better. But if I was the tough sell in my group, I only wonder what the retention will be if this gets a second airing...

Skipping Around

Procrastinating, so I figured I'd do this again. After all, it has been a week.

Since last time, people have arrived here looking for the following things (and probably have been disappointed...):

Bukhara aprons
Is this a special type of apron? I know Bukhara is a restaurant in New York; I think it is the one where we did a very large buffet lunch when I was a summer. But what about the aprons?

More on Olympus and Spiderman
See the link in the first line of this entry. I don't think I've come up with anything more to say. And I'm typing this while watching the show I previewed and didn't like in Vegas. I'm only watching it to see if it's changed at all.

Well they have changed the introduction. It wasn't clear to us watching it in the preview that it was a reality show. They have tried to make it a little clearer in this intro. (They told us "real women." But any show could say that. Saying "not actors" is more convincing.)

PMBR 3-day course
I did it. I thought it was helpful. But then the bar exam didn't really have any similar questions. So what do I know.

Arizona has the number one divorce rate in the country? Interesting. Then again, Scottsdale does have an overwhelming number of reality TV stars... I don't know if there's some sort of correlation there or not.

They have changed the introduction to better identify the characters too since they were kind of indistinguishable last time. I think I have just given away which show this is.

Failing Barbri graded essay
I think discussing Barbri in the last post of this type did the trick as far as searches go. Anyway, don't worry about the early Barbri essays. They grade low to try to make you take the extra essay course.

Barbri MBE
Don't remember much about it except that I got McDonalds for lunch inbetween.

Yoplait television commercial bikini
I thought I should do this to motivate myself to get in shape. Maybe I still need to do it because getting in shape is not really happening.

Hmm. This whole first segment is much better than the version we saw. Maybe the producers do care...

More on Carly Patterson and her butt
Will someone please explain this one to me?

Skirt blowing TV - Marilyn
I have no idea how that ended up here at all.

What happened to Marissa on OC 2006
I could tell you what happened but I don't want to risk accidentally spoiling someone who didn't see the finale of the show. So... there are a lot of other sites out there that will tell you. You should probably go there instead. But I do think what happened could turn out to be a really good development for the show if done right.

Back to the show. My main complaint with it before was that it dragged a lot. The pacing has gotten a little better, but now it's starting to drag a little again. Blah.

La Playa

Do the Dutch have good beaches?

I do love the beach though, although I wonder if I love it more in the non-summer seasons. If you're on vacation someplace warm enough to go to the beach and it's not the sweltering summer season, I think you appreciate the sunlight and the warmth that much more. Love the beach in the winter. Especially in, say, San Juan. :)

Your Inner European is Dutch!

Open minded and tolerant. You're up for just about anything.

Who's Your Inner European?

You Should Spend Your Summer at the Beach

You're a free spirit who is always thinking of new ways to have fun. And you don't just love summer... you live for it. So, you really should blow off your responsibilities and head to the beach!

Where Should You Spend Your Summer?

Trips

I cannot change the "most recent" thing in the sidebar right now, but I would like to change my vacation daydream to Provence.  Sigh.

 

The guy across the street is wearing a blue shirt and typing on his computer.  I kind of wish my computer faced the window.  Then at least I could feel a little more in touch with the world during the work day.  That guy is facing the window... lucky him.

Distraction

I was rather useless at work today. Well, not really, seeing as how I did get a lot of things done, but I was just so distracted.

In the morning, I was distracted by trying to find World Cup games on live streaming radio in Spanish. No luck. In the afternoon, I was mostly distracted by Amazon. And all day, I was distracted by the gorgeous weather outside that I was enjoying from behind a double paned window.

I just felt so useless.

Eagles

I went to my cousin's Eagle Scout Court of Honor on Saturday.  It was interesting and a nice family get-together, and I'm proud of my cousin for getting to that point.  But it struck me while I was there that, as of the end of this week, I will have 3 cousins who are Eagle Scouts.  3 out of 8.  And another 3 of those 8 can't be Eagle Scouts because they are not male.  Crazy percentage that is.

More Quizzes

Some more quizzes, just for fun. I was looking at the date on my last post... I can't believe I graduated a year ago today. It definitely does not feel like it was THAT long ago! Where has the time gone...

Your Dosha is Kapha

Calm and grounded, you are not prone to mood swings or anger. However, once you do get angry, it takes a lot to cool you down. You tend to think a little slower than most people, but your logic is astounding. Overall, you very loyal and trustworthy. You're not scared of being who you really are. With friends: You enjoy their company, but often listen more than talk In love: You crave connection and affection. It's hard for you to be single. To achieve more balance: Exercise vigorously (especially in the sun) and let go of attachments.

What's Your Dosha?

You Are 60% Obsessive

You're somewhat obsessive, especially when it comes to a couple things (like horrifying thoughts or cleanliness). As long as your quirks aren't interrupting your life, it's all good.

How Obsessive Are You?

You Are a Chihuahua Puppy

Small, high strung, and loyal. You do best in the city with a adults - young kids could crush you!

What Breed of Puppy Are You?

Distorted

Your Emoticon is Grumpy

Maybe you're having a bad day... or maybe something just upset you. Either way, you're definitely seeing red!

What Emoticon Best Represents You Right Now?

I'm not really feeling that grumpy right now. Is this because I said I didn't want to talk to anyone right now?

I guess I got this result because I am not feeling very well. I think I shall take this again another day...

Queso

I think I overdosed on cheese this afternoon.

Seriously.

Or perhaps my system is just in shock from not processing this high a level of fat for a very long time.

Hmm.

Settings

I wish the firm issued us networked laptops so that I could relocate my "office" to the cafe upstairs and watch World Cup soccer while I worked.

News

I don't know why the news media thinks I want to see the dead guy's face for minutes at a time plastered on my screen or on the pages of the paper.

 

Am I supposed to enjoy looking at a dead person?

 

I realize that he has done a lot of bad things, but I'm not about to join the "yay! we killed him!" celebration.  I mean, it's not like anything is really going to stop because of it and it feels like a celebration of homicide, which... I don't exactly go for.

 

Anyway.

 

I guess I will just stick to the news I usually read... like the travel and business news.

 

In more interesting news, the rock, paper and scissors thing that has been circulating around the firm made it to the newspaper today.  Ha.

Rainy Days

It has literally not stopped raining since the minute I woke up.

If I wanted to live someplace where it was cloudy or rainy all the time, I would have moved to Seattle or London.

It's so gray outside!!

Rerun

Haven't run down the searches on my statcounter for awhile.

But I looked today... and some searches make sense, and some I still don't get. The number of results arriving here by search engine is significantly lower than last year. Is this because I am blogging less than I did during barbri or is it because I have become boring or... is it because I haven't talked about barbri in a good long while and that's what everyone is searching for?

Spiderman 3
I get this one, seeing as how I just posted about seeing the place where they filmed last night. (And it was last night, since the signs I saw this morning were already down, packed away and driven off by the time I got home).

Carly Patterson's butt
Seriously, if you're the person who lands here looking for this, like people did last summer, can you please enlighten me as to why you are searching for this??

Paddlefish swimming pictures
Paddlefish? What does a paddlefish look like? If I'm not sure what kind of fish it is, how did a searcher get here?

Olympus mrobe 100 cleaning
Got me. I am actually not as diligent as I should be about cleaning my cameras...

Aquarium
I love aquariums! I know my most recent post was about the Aquarium stop on the T, but the most recent aquarium that I've been to is the Shedd in Chicago. They had a free day (Tuesdays, I think) where everything was free but the wild reef. It was fun. On an unrelated note, I love penguins.

AQUARIUM
This time it was in caps. I guess that counts as different...

Aquarium picture
Well, it was a picture of the T stop.... I wonder, do search engines pull up results based on when you posted? Because these aquarium searches are all pretty close in time together and closer to the time I posted about the aquarium stop than now. If you understand how these things work, can you shoot over some explanations in the comments?

Marissa on friendster
Yes I am. I didn't check it for a couple of months, but I think I've checked it twice in the past week. I go through phases. Just like candy --> tea --> donuts. I had 2 donuts today. This is unacceptable.

Even if they were Krispy Kremes.

Filming

There were these big movie studio-esque bright lights on one of the streets I normally walk home last night.

 

I couldn't figure out what it was.  The street looked like it was blocked off, the lights were blinding, and there was a massive crowd of people around the edge of the street.  Not to mention the cop cars lining the street that I haven't seen to this degree since the terrorist alert during my summer program in 2004. (I would link, but I can't from here).

 

The only thing I could think of was that Kathy Griffin was getting out of her show at the Nokia Theatre, but I could not imagine why there would be this big hoopla for that... (No offense to her or anything).

 

Fast forward to walking to work this morning...

 

They have been setting up what looked like a new Broadway show on the same street.  I didn't think it was odd because I knew the play before it had been limited run.  There were tons of crew people around yesterday and today setting up...

 

And then I looked at the "starring" list and one of the names was Mary Jane Watson.

 

I had one of those, "huh? wait a second..." moments.

 

For awhile.

 

And then I saw the equipment and some of it was labeled "Spiderman 3."

 

Lightbulb starting to go on...

 

So I took a picture of it all.

 

But it took me walking 2 more blocks before I realized that that was probably what was going on last night.

 

No wonder all the tourists were photo-happy and looked giddy.

 

Lightbulb on...

 

Off to a meeting with my newfound wisdom. Ha..

 

By the way, do you think it's right to post pictures of the set-up? I mean, a) it might be considered a spoiler, and b) is that allowed since the movie is still filming? I have no clue.  To meeting I go!

 

Again

Alvin and I went out for Ethiopian food tonight at Queen of Sheba. Before leaving, I checked the weather forecast.

It said cloudy. The forecast for tonight was "sprinkles." I distinctly remember this because I joked about how I don't associate sprinkles with weather but instead with ice cream.

As we were halfway through our (very yummy) meal, it started to pour.

What is it with me and getting stuck in the rain?

Last night, after I left the office, it wasn't raining. I walked out and it started to rain again.

Argh!

Rain

Can somebody please tell me why the only time today when it has poured has been the exact times that I was walking around outside?

 

It was not pouring before I left the pharmacy.  It was not pouring once I got up to my office.  What the heck is going on?!

 

Not fair.

 

I got soaked in rain to the middle of my thighs... my pants weren't just wet, they were like completely soaked through.  Thank goodness I had more sneakers at the office!  But I wish we had those hand dryers....

 

I still think yesterday's storm was worse though.  At least today it didn't get super-dark.  But I don't know if it was a similar white-out condition because I was in the middle of the rain hiding under my poor umbrella.

 

Booooooo.

Bubblybubble

On days when I cough like this (which, honestly, has been every day for a couple of weeks), I start feeling like perhaps I should live in a bubble.

Ugh.

Vanilla

Let me preface this by saying that I'm not a big vanilla person.

I'm not really into fragrances that have vanilla in them. I eat vanilla ice cream first because I want to get rid of it so I can savor the chocolate. It's just not really my thing.

So the results of these quizzes puzzle me. Two quizzes in one night calling me vanilla. Despite the ice cream quiz's description, I think the quizzes are trying to tell me I am boring.

You Are Vanilla Ice Cream

Your personality is anything but "vanilla" You're a risk taker, who's up for anything new. You go well with anyone and fit into any situation. You are most compatible with rocky road ice cream.

What Flavor Ice Cream Are You?

Caffe Vanilla Frappuccino

Smooth and sweet, you fit in to almost any crowd. No one would suspect you of being a coffee tweaker!

What Flavor Frappuccino Are You?

Ho hum.

Cynicism

There is a quiz at Blogthings right now about how cynical you are.

I took it and got 8%.

Although... when I was reading the questions, it struck me that I used to be a LOT more cynical than I seem to be right now.  There were a lot of things that I would have totally checked off about five years ago that I wouldn't check off now.

What happened?