Random Annoyance of the Day

My spell-check is Canadian. At least, it likes to think it is. Why in the world would Microsoft Word want to change color to colour?

Laura's Travels: Philly Edition, No. 2

Continuing on with my trip to Philadelphia, after we hit up the Reading Terminal Market, the next stop is a must-see for any American, the Liberty Bell. Unfortunately, I didn't get to lick it, unlike Barney and Ted in the best show ever, but it was still pretty cool.

Around the corner, we next hit up Independence Hall, but didn't actually get to go inside.

In front of Independence Hall is a statue of Commodore Barry, who did something cool back in the day, I'm assuming. Unfortunately, I need to learn to frame my subjects a little better, as all five of the pictures I took of him were at this unfortunate angle.

And finally, a picture of boyfriend, who is so important he must talk on his blackberry while we're sightseeing. :)

Search Me Out

So apparently Google released a new search tool yesterday, which helps search for difficult to find government public data. As someone who has to search for public data on a somewhat regular basis, I applaud their effort, but find their initial release puzzling. Currently you can only search for unemployment rates and populations for a particular state or county, according to the Google blog. I find this odd, because it's actually quite easy to get this data immediately from the Census Bureau website, as this is like the only public data that is easy to find. I may be a bit biased, as I do use the CB data quite a bit, and even get to play with the private data from time to time as part of my job, but I still think someone could find it quite easily. It will be interesting to see what they add to it next, as it has a lot of promise.

Laura's Travels: Philly Edition

This past weekend, I took a trip up to visit boyfriend's family, who live near Philadelphia, and also went into the city, for as much as I travel around, I've never actually been to Philly. I normally like to plan a bit more before a trip, but this time, all I did was google "things to do in philadephia" and I came up with a decent list.

Saturday morning, boyfriend, his grandmom, his aunt, and I took the train into the city from Morrisville, where his family lives. Unfortunately, the train was late, and and when it finally did arrive, it didn't quite manage to stop at the platform. After sitting on the tracks for a while, it finally reversed so we could get on. A slow 10 or 15 minutes later, we stopped on the tracks and the conducter came by to inform us that Amtrak had decided to spray the track for weeds, which makes the track very slippery, which was why it had slid past our station. We had to proceed slowly for a while before finally Amtrak gave us the signal that we could go full speed. Needless to say, we arrived later than we expected in Philly.

The train station is right next to the Reading Terminal Market, which was first on my list of top things to do in Philly. I love a good market, and this one was quite fun, with tons of yummy food. It also spoke to my love of neon signs, as you can tell from the pictures.

Next up: Let freedom ring!

Man-Eating Alien Snake Plant!

So a while ago, back when I actually posted my photos, I posted some pictures of the Man-Eating Alien Snake Plant that I had taken in the San Francisco Botanical Gardens. Last Thursday, I went to Whole Foods after work to pick up some dinner, and lo and behold, they had the Man-Eating Alien Snake Plants for sale! Of course I had to buy one, so if I ever happen to disappear some day in the near future, you'll know what happened to me.



On a somewhat related note, has anyone ever read the children's book The Plant that Ate Dirty Socks? I was trying to explain it to boyfriend after I bought my plant, but he had no idea what I was talking about, but it's a really great book.

Got a Case of the Mondays?

It's one of those Mondays. Yes, I just looked down, and I have a huge stripe of deodorant on my knee. No idea how that happened.

Coffee, Coffee, Buzz, Buzz, Buzz

Tuesday was free cone day at Ben and Jerry's, and while I'm not an ice cream fan, I like me some coffee ice cream from time to time. But Ben and Jerry's doesn't have just plain ol' coffee ice cream, they have Coffee, Coffee, Buzz, Buzz, Buzz ice cream. Funnily enough, it didn't affect me near as much as the cup of coffee I just had, as I am literally buzzing at the moment. I know, this post is meaningless, but it's just a random post to let you all know I'm still alive and not taken over by the Small Cool contest or the massive GIS project I've been working on, pretty much every waking moment this week.

The Last Small Cool Post (Maybe)

It's my turn to go head to head in the Apartment Therapy Small Cool Contest today! I need all the help I can get, as the one I'm going against is quite popular, so please vote for me!

http://contests.apartmenttherapy.com/2009/small-cool/main/faceoff/20

Small Cool Contest Continues....

The next round of the Apartment Therapy Small Cool Contest has begun, with the individual face-offs, to find the best apartment out of a bracket of 16. So far, 2 face-offs took place yesterday, 2 today, and mine is tomorrow! Make sure you sign in to vote for me then!

Up on a Pedestal

I love pedestal dining tables, but right now I just don't have the space for a real table. So instead I just get to dream and drool over pictures like these:

(Photos courtesy of: 1- Apartment Therapy, 2-Alvhem Mäkleri & Interiör via Desire to Inspire)

Ernst Haeckel and His Very Cool Prints

I love fishy things, and anything related to the ocean, pretty much. Any nature show that has underwater filming has me captivated. Somehow, I stumbled upon these prints, which are done by Ernst Haeckel, which depict all sorts of nature, but I'm primarily fascinated by his ocean-related ones. Ernst was a biologist, naturalist, among many other things, in the late 1800s/early 1900s, and his Kunstformen der Natur (Art Forms of Nature) contained 100 prints of various organisms. The three below were my favorites, but several others are in very high resolution on Wikipedia. The detail is amazing, and I'm thinking about printing off some of them some day, but for now I just look at them every now and then.

Kitchen Beautification, Part 5

So I guess I left you all hanging on the kitchen, but I've been a little consumed with Small Cool fever this week. I'm a little disappointed in how things are turning out, as they are not capping the entries at 40, as the rules state, because they got so many entries at the end of the submission period. If they would have stopped at 40, I would have ended up at 8th place, which would have been a pretty much optimal position for the bracket, as I would have been the entry with the most votes in the bottom bracket. But alas, I'm currently in 9th, which is the worst position (I go against the first place entry), and there is one more day of entries. Oh well, I had a good run, and I'm impressed I did as well as I did.

But I digress from kitchen talk. It's all up in the air once again as to what I will do with the kitchen, surprise, surprise. I was talking with a friend last week, and it turns out there is the possibility of renting a row house with her and one of her other friends, which would be cheaper and the timing would be perfect. So if I do that, I'll leave the fugly kitchen for the next tenant to deal with, seeing as how I don't want to do a lot of work on the kitchen and move in four months. But, while I was at the top of my game in the Small Cool competition, boyfriend and I were scheming as to how we could improve the appearance of the kitchen for future pictures, as it really is the downfall of my apartment. Oh, the finalists get to submit 10 new pictures, so that's why we were thinking this. We had a few ideas, and I think they would work out really well, without even having to get permission. So here goes:

Appliances - can't really do anything without expense/permission, so they have to stay.

Cupboards - kind of the same boat as the appliances, but I could paint. I also had a brilliant idea to hide at least a few of them. I don't use the bottom cupboards a ton, as they house my pots and pans (I don't cook that often) and cleaning supplies (ditto). I could figure out a way to attach a skirt to the bottom of the countertop, in a neutral shade, to hide some of the nastiness, similar to what I did in the bathroom (glue guns work wonders).

Backsplash - As the third of the most hideous elements of my kitchen, I think I could locate some sort of sheet of metal/something that I could just temporarily prop up/attach to the wall to hide the blue/white wallpaper. This could potentially still be the pressed tin that I had suggested previously.

Walls - I had a brilliant thought regarding the walls. There are 2 full gallons of the wall color paint stored in the kitchen cabinets. I could totally just paint it for now and then repaint when I leave. Granted, it's a lot of work for 4 months of painted walls, but if it got me the competition championship, it would have been worth it.

So there you have it - a few non-committal options for updating a kitchen enough for pictures. I had a lot of fun brainstorming different ideas for the kitchen, so stay tuned, as this may become a regular feature!

Small Cool Fun Continues....

So my 48 hours of voting on my apartment are almost up! Check me out if you haven't done so already.

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/dc/small-cool-2009/small-cool-2009-lauras-small-snug-tiny-division-29-081767

I'm doing so much better than I thought I would. And I totally bet that none of the other competitors have multiple spreadsheets tracking the progress of everyone's entries, as well as a project spreadsheet showing the possibilities and gaming the best position for everyone to be in so I win. :) I'm such a nerd.

I am small and cool enough!

Everyone must go immediately and vote for me! :)

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/dc/small-cool-2009/small-cool-2009-lauras-small-snug-tiny-division-29-081767

Am I Small and Cool Enough?

I just pressed the submit button for my Small Cool entry for the Apartment Therapy contest! Now I just have to wait and see if they actually post it and then see if people actually like it. :) I'll definitely be posting a link if I do make it, so stay tuned for that!