then she appeared

This whole week has been stupidly hot. Day after day of 90 degree heat with high humidity. SO OF COURSE I spent a lot of time outside. Got some free Red Sox tickets from work for Friday night, so I took Patrick. He isn't a baseball fan, but he loves to go to Fenway. I see his point. Games are much more fun in person. The game was pretty interesting up until the end when we lost in extra innings. I haven't been following baseball at all this year so I knew about four players on the field. Still, it was a pretty good time. I had a couple of hot dogs and a couple of ice creams (I counted it as my cheat day). I was pleasantly surprised to find that, while the seats are still TINY, I am not taking up more than my share anymore. So that was a nice discovery.

Saturday was the memorial for my good friend Dan's mother. They had it at the family home, and it wasn't air conditioned so we hovered in the areas with fans and some of us migrated outside. Sweaty! I wore a dress, which I almost never do. It was sleeveless, but since my upper arms are not fit for public consumption, I wore a short-sleeved shrug over it. Yikes! I was running with sweat. It was so nice to see Dan and meet his wife, finally (even under such sad circumstances). They live in NY, so I never see them, and even when they still lived here Dan and I mostly corresponded instead of visited. I don't know how these things happen, how you go from seeing someone to never seeing them, but I still felt the old connection the minute I saw him, so I'm going to have to change that. Face time. That's the ticket.

I had tickets to see Cirque du Soleil ("TOTEM") on Sunday afternoon, so I got up fairly early to get a few things done beforehand. Mom needed a prescription filled for some eyedrops that she needs to take before her surgery on Wednesday, so I walked into town, placed the order, then went over to the Y to get in some bike time. The walk there was just oppressive. So humid out you could taste it in the air. Sun was beating down, too, and every step felt like walking through sand. Man! It was probably a good workout, though. Did 30 minutes on the bike, got the prescription, walked back. DIVED into the shower. Slacked for a bit, then realized I should eat before I went to the show, so out into the heat again for some lunch. Jenn picked me up a bit later and we decided that if the tent that the show was held in wasn't air conditioned, we'd just leave. Because yes the tickets cost $100, but a girl can only take so much.

It was actually chilly inside the tent (and what does THAT cost? I mean, it's a tent. It's not exactly insulated) so that was awesome. I'd never seen a Cirque show in person before, just some stuff on TV, so it was really fun. I kept comparing it in my head to the Olympics, because it seems like the Cirque circuit might be where failed Olympic wannabes end up. Then again, their synchronized stuff is probably way more precise than the Olympians are...anyway, with the exception of some Native Americans on roller skates and some...ugh...CLOWNS, the whole thing was delightfully strange and incomprehensible and fun. The plot is supposedly about evolution, but there was something with aliens and something with more aliens later, and there was a speed boat and some monkeys and frog-people and a starman and I dunno. But it was eye-candy, that's for sure. I posted a location update on Facebook and oddly one of my FB friends was also there. We waved at each other across the tent (I waved my phone so they'd spot us), so that was cute. We didn't discover our mutual presence until almost the end of the 30 minute intermission, or I'd have gone over to visit.

Today was much less hot, so I managed to get the shopping done and so forth without any stress. I was pretty tired by the end of the day, though, so I didn't manage to get to the Y for weights class. Ah well, it'll be there next time.

So that's my latest. I am ignoring thinking about my training thing until work tomorrow, because tomorrow Theresa is back from her two week vacation, and she's the Laurie-whisperer in the department. If anyone can calm me down, it's Theresa.

So Kottke linked to this fun tool and I just had to play:





It's amazing how I never age, right? I miss the 70s; I loved that 'fro!

I spent a tiny chunk of today not doing work and doing these instead: Some math/logic problems.

Ok, a couple were easy. I managed to answer 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 pretty easily. I was too lazy to do 13, because that was all math and I was tired by then. #1 I finally cheated on. #5 I got wrong -- and there's a huge argument on the answer page where some guy argues the way I would have if A. this hadn't already happened, and B. I was a lot smarter.

#2 I still don't understand. I have never been able to do probability-type logic problems. I like ones were I can draw them on paper (or today, in Powerpoint) and work them out.

And #14 is a cheat; my answer was to get a friend to stand upstairs, duh! But their answer is clever...and cheating!

Answers here, but try them first, they're fun!

I'm a little bit addicted to YouTube lately, so pardon me -- I know this is all over the place today. I just can't resist little nuggets of joy like this one, a remixed movie trailer for The Ten Commandments. Yul and Charlton are rival "kids" in the local high school.

Shades of "The Shining Redux"!! (which was more brilliant, of course)

Stolen outright from metafilter:

The characters of Battlestar Galactica drawn as Simpsons characters! I like Adama and President Roslin the best, I think. Although I'm pretty fond of Dee with Lee and Billy and leashes...and the baby "toaster" is a riot.

I guess some of the drawings are sort of spoiler-y, so be wary if you aren't caught up...

I don't know why, but the Park Slope area of Brooklyn seems to be stalking me lately! First some of the various apartments in the apartment site that livingdeb linked to are in Park Slope; then a few days ago I was listening to the radio and they had a cutesy story about a bar in the Park Slope area that had a happy hour for parents every week — that they can bring their small children to. And now THIS, a classic email list exchange between various parents from the Park Slope area — all about a hat.

Park Slope, BACK OFF! I don't like you like that! Can't we just be friends?

"Cheney's Got a Gun!" (MP3)

"... Cindy Sheehan better run..."

Thanks to p_j_cleary for this time sink: Red Square game. It's got a certain Pong sensibility, but sort of a Zen Pong.

Those two chinese kids that were rockin' out to BSB previously now have their own blog. Many many videos: http://twochineseboys.blogspot.com/

Edited to add: Ok, it gets a bit much after a while. But how long-suffering is the guy on the computer BEHIND them?

The Top 10 Weirdest USB Drives -- All of these are geared to how they look sticking out of your computer, and include a rubber ducky, bottle of sake, some sushi, and a human thumb. Those are all actual products one could purchase -- and then there's the one-off Barbie USB...rip off her head and stick her stump into your computer. Fun!