6/29/10

1. Not feeling to affected by jet lag, was able to get out of bed on to work at the usual time.
2. Watermelon slices and cubes (for salad) at lunch.
3. The giant patch band-aids from the medicine cabinet working to cover up my blistered heels from wearing shoes that I thought had been broken in but was sadly mistaken in.
4. Dan shifting around the living room furniture again on his own to a much better configuration than we had last night. Therefore, bits of the room can actually be fully set up and unpacked!
5. Opening the windows being sufficient to cool down the kitchen/dining table from the hot and stuffy air in the apartment.
6. Dan reading Tom Clancy's The Cardinal in the Kremlin to help me fall asleep.

6/28/10

1. Getting up early enough so that I could quickly wash my hair, so that it wouldn't feel entirely gross for the entire day.
2. Getting to the airport in just 30 minutes and pretty much no line to check in. Unlike the last time I flew back from SFO.
3. Sleeping away most of the flight.
4. Only being 10 minutes late to my Flash class.
5. Security guard to the building relenting and letting me leave my luggage at the front desk instead of having to lug it up two flights of stairs.
6. Dan coming into Manhattan to help me get all my stuff back :)

6/27/10

1. Sleeping in a bit and then lying around a bit reading my cousin's abandoned books.
2. Beautiful, perfect day in SF. It was actually warm and sunny and I didn't have to pull out the extra jacket at all!
3. Riotous noise, color, energy from everyone at the SF Pride Parade and the festivities later in the day as well. I saw many more butt cracks than I ever thought I would in my life.
4. Fish tacos in soft corn tortillas from Nick's Crispy Tacos, plus mango aqua fresca.
5. Dinner with my aunt and uncle at a Vietnamese restaurant. I got a fresh roll and a small bowl of pho, my usual order. I'd been wanting Vietnamese food since Friday.
6. Successfully packing away everything without needing to resort to the duffel bag.

6/26/10

1. RS letting me make an extra PB&J from her supplies.
2. Beautiful day in the Santa Cruz mountains: sunny, breezy, lots of green trees.
3. Wonderful time had by all at the Illustrated Watercolor Journaling class. Both SP and RS seemed to have a really good time and the teachers were patient and enthusiastic and had a good mix of exercises to loosen up hesitancies about drawing as well as teaching new watercolor and type/font techniques. I'm inspired to try the sketchbook journal thing again :)
4. SP giving me a ride to downtown Palo Alto, where I visited Empire Vintage Clothing again and came out with another dress and two surprisingly cute rompers. I may actually wear them out in public, we'll see.
5. Getting a salad at Sprout Cafe after it was recommended by both SP and Tif from EVC, with somen noodles and edamame and seared pepper-crusted ahi tuna.
6. Spending the rest of the evening reading various books at the Borders in Palo Alto, which is housed in a pretty cool old building. Nice one, Borders.

6/25/10

1. Breakfast of delicious granola, watermelon, blueberries, scrambled eggs...no avocado, but I guess that's all right ;)
2. More chocolate chip cookies!
3. Feeling productive in the afternoon by knocking out a number of tickets from the open queue.
4. Being able to help out RW with a forecasting question.
5. Getting to say goodbye to JP before she heads off on her year-long role exchange adventure.
6. Trying the pumpkin red curry at the Thai restaurant I finally found.

6/24/10

1. SL coming to my rescue when I got my first angry caller at this job! I'm losing my touch a little, he rattled me a bit but it worked out in the end.
2. More fun product demos in the breakout session I attended, in particular this one guy who was THE most energetic and excited speaker I have ever seen.
3. My manager pulling me aside to ask me to help out an overwhelmed teammate. It's good to be seen as an expert on a subject area.
4. Well-organized team social events, first larger team event at a bar with organized trivia contest and good snack food (esp. the hummus), then dinner in a cute room of an Italian restaurant.
5. Drinking extremely delicious, fruity punch at a surprisingly nice bar with BK and RC.
6. Running into SH as BK walked me back to the hotel, she was just on her way out but I got a couple minutes of her company at least.

6/23/10

1. Gold oxford shoes no longer rubbing my heels and working well as dressy shoes for all the dress outfits I brought.
2. SL telling everyone a hilarious story about going back to the hotel room last night and finding his girlfriend passed out on the bathroom floor and his clumsy attempts to figure out how to remove her earrings.
3. Lunch being decent, once we finally were able to get food.
4. Really excellent day of talks overall, including the guest speaker, the product demos as always, and the marketing talk too.
5. The bigwigs staying with us for an extra hour over what they were supposed to.
6. Fun time at the dance talent show, particularly seeing A2's DM up on stage.

6/22/10

1. Being able to drop off my luggage at the hotel in the morning, saving having to lug it all the way to the office.
2. The chocolate chip cookies at the SF office...warm and bite-sized and soft and sea salt sprinkled on top. Best chocolate chip cookies ever. Ever.
3. AJ taking care of checking in to hotel, which took forever because they somehow didn't realize that all these people sharing rooms for the conference would want two beds. ?!?
4. Meeting up with long lost Boston coworkers during the evening social event.
5. Delicious food stands making up for the cold temperature: this one pork (duck?) sandwich that melted in your mouth, lavender creme brulee......
6. Amaaaaazingly comfortable bed, so soft and supportive. I think it was a wonderful bed even without having spent the previous 3 nights on a couch.

6/21/10

1. Just making the shuttle from the CalTrain stop to work, it's always a bit nervewracking to figure out a new route to an unfamiliar place.
2. Hanging out with PM and SS over breakfast, after my phone shift.
3. Getting lunch with most of the MTV team.
4. Successful catch canceling out miserable miss during flag football.
5. Getting dinner with FJ.
6. Going to see Toy Story 3 with my cousin and being really touched by it. Not my favorite Pixar (maybe 4th, after Ratatouille, Up, and Finding Nemo) but more memorable to me than the first two in the series.

6/20/10

1. Granola + almond milk + blueberries for breakfast. Yummy.
2. Getting delicious olive oil and pomegranate balsamic vinegar at the farmers' market.
3. Fresh, sweet strawberries with bread and cheese from the farmers' market for lunch.
4. Beautiful, warm, clear day in SF.
5. Getting a healthy dinner with my aunt/uncle/cousins.
6. Watching my first episode of True Blood at my cousins' neighbors.

6/19/10

1. Dan accompanying me as far as Penn Station on my way to the airport via the LIRR. 
2. ES switching seats with NE and even though her computer was dead and I couldn't use it to do my Flash homework, she'd brought a ton of magazines to help pass the time.
3. Free wifi on the plane!! Got various personal email/blog commenting tasks completed before my laptop died.
4. Pulling out my fleece jacket and a scarf to deal with unexpectedly cold and windy weather.
5. Realizing I could use the time sitting around waiting for the CalTrain (runs once an hour, I'd missed the last one by 6 minutes) to get some food. Ended up getting an avocado sandwich and fries, yum. Avocado makes everything better.
6. Fabulouso time shopping at Empire Vintage Clothing

6/18/10

1. Dan sending me an email noting that it's 1 year until the wedding :)
2. Pushing myself to finish various work projects I'd been putting off for no particular reason, feels like a weight lifted.
3. Getting my eyebrows threaded and the woman obliging my request for higher arches quite well.
4. Making matzo ball soup and remembering not to salt the water that the matzo balls are cooked in, so they didn't turn out overly salty.
5. Dan watching The Princess and the Frog with me. Original art/style for Disney, but unfortunately still some irritating ideas being espoused (girls shouldn't work so hard, they should focus on finding a man and starting a family because they can't achieve their dreams on their own, playboys can be reformed by the right girl, etc.) Still, it was enjoyable to watch a cartoon movie.
6. Not taking absolutely ages to figure out what I wanted to wear for the next week and pack it for the trip.

6/17/10

1. Cool breezes coming in through the bright windows in the apartment.
2. Someone letting me back into the building after I forgot my keys. That could've been bad.
3. Lunch of the same vegetable peel strips of squash, but salting them more thoroughly to get rid of some of the moisture, putting in apples, and remembering the Parmesan cheese.
4. Getting FG and DM to cover my phone shifts for me so I didn't have to go into the office at all and could continue to work from home and lie down when needed (too many greens/blueberries?).
5. Dan helping me put up the rest of the shelves for the closet system, finally fully assembled.
6. Enjoying our comfy couch with Dan, half-reading, half-watching Batman Begins.

6/16/10

1. Finally getting a couple of my sandals repaired.
2. Picking up and finishing Heroic Measures from the library, after reading this review. Not complex or fast-paced, but a well-told story, as she said.
3. Shadowing ES on phones and quickly getting the final call needed for review.
4. Both phone shift hours overlapping with meetings and only needing to pick up one voicemail.
5. AJ letting me grab the arugula and blueberries from the CSA this week.
6. Rounding up all the various shoeboxes in the apartment to start sorting through various categories of items (laundry stuff, jointly used medicines/first aid, my own personal makeup/personal care items, etc.)

6/15/10

1. MG and TE not feeling compelled to wave me over to join their breakfast meeting/1:1/conversation.
2. Getting caught up on interesting news articles from the morning news digest email.
3. Knocking out a few quick tickets in the afternoon.
4. Scalp massage while getting a haircut.
5. Getting fun bright colors for my mani-pedi.
6. Finally getting to posting furniture on craigslist.

6/14/10

1. Successfully getting up early and making it in time to assist MG in a training class.
2. Wearing my new gold oxfords/sneakers.
3. Excellent blueberries at lunch.
4. Only getting 1 lightweight call during my afternoon shift
5. It not being freezing in the classroom this time around. I'd brought a scarf, a cardigan, and leggings just in case.
6. Dan cleaning up my dishes from last night.

6/13/10

1. Nice slow start to the day after I woke up early and just laid around reading my Flash book for homework.
2. Pancake, bacon, home fries breakfast with blueberries and watermelon.
3. Playing several rounds of Gin Rummy on the b&b's covered porch (with a porch swing!).
4. Stopping by the Renningers Antiques and Farmers Market in Adamstown to poke around.
5. Dan emailing me alternate driving directions to help us get avoid the ridiculous traffic on the NJ Turnpike.
6. Watching AMC tv with Dan after doing some rearranging of the living furniture.

6/12/10

1. Getting the perfect housewarming present for LW at the Central Market in Lancaster PA.
2. EN picking up a brochure that led us to Kettle Kitchen and AAA Buggy Rides in Intercourse, PA. AAA stands for 'All About Amish.'
3. Best kettle corn I've ever had with the special small-hulled Amish popcorn.
4. The buggy ride stopping by a little roadside stand staffed by an Amish man and his adorable little daughters and getting extremely delicious homemade root beer from them.
5. Poking around the different shops in and around Kettle Kitchen looking at Amish quilts and crafts and such.
6. Relaxing in the Tree Top bed & breakfast that EN booked for us, reading magazines, watching bad TV.

6/11/10

1. Getting to work right before they started taking breakfast away, despite lolling about a bit in the morning and needing to pack for the trip to Philly.
2. Figuring out the JS code needed for a tool when testing on a regular page. Now just need to convert it for Greasemonkey.
3. Passing the time on the delayed Megabus trip on the phone with CP, catching up.
4. EN and DC picking me up from the Megabus stop with DC's car.
5. Dan taking care of getting our new-to-us couch into the apartment with RC's help.
6. My sister sending me an excited email about a wedding idea from something she'd heard about from the wedding of a friend of hers. So sweet!

6/10/10

1. Getting an email from my AS teacher that he'd be willing to give me an A for a pass equivalent so I can get the reimbursement from work.
2. Union Sq. B&N stocking the book I need for the AS class and having the service where you can just go over to pick it up.
3. Half-hour massage to relieve soreness in my neck/shoulders from sleeping a bit weird the last few days.
4. MF showing me an adorable rap video about the HC by a former colleague from the Boston office.
5. Excellent internal training on intro to our mobile product.
6. Making a salad of red leaf lettuce from the CSA that started up this week (hooray!), an apple from the CSA as well (hooray!) sauted slightly with a little honey since I'm a bit allergic to fresh apples now just like Dan (ugh), caramelized onions (mmmmm...and learning that the key to not having to use lots of olive oil is to cook at a low heat), and a grapefruit from work.

6/9/10

1. One of the longer meetings in the afternoon getting canceled.
2. Our team being united in our frustration with some workflow decisions made.
3. Dinner with AJ.
4. AJ coming up with the idea to look in the luggage room for a spare umbrella, which we found.
5. Picking up a UPS package after two failed delivery attempts. If you call a specific number you can actually just pick up your package from a truck they park outside the post office, which is right by the Hoboken PATH station. Nicely done, UPS.
6. Resisting to the urge to be lazy for another night and actually cleaning various papers and receipts I had lying around. Next up: catching up on blog comments!

6/8/10

1. Client meeting that went quite well, I think.
2. Weather outside being perfect for our outdoors volunteering events: partly cloudy, some wind, didn't get sunburn nor rained on.
3. The actual volunteering not being as labor-intensive as I thought it might be, what with so many of us there.
4. Going home early and remembering to stop by the comic book store to buy DC a birthday present.
5. Finishing reading Geek Love (not computer geeks, like carnie geeks...weird book!), HP#6 that I was re-reading, and started on the Enchanted Forest Chronicles again because I felt like it.
6. Going to bed at 9:30.

6/7/10

1. 2nd week of living in the new apartment but still getting up early enough to get to the office right at 9.
2. Watermelon juice at lunch! I wish they'd had more available.
3. Efficient 1:1 with my manager.
4. Getting to my AS class right on time despite leaving later than I'd wanted to.
5. Remembering that I'd gotten a t-shirt from work that I could drape around my legs to help fend off the cold in the freezing classroom.
6. The teacher for the AS class being cool about calling me out for occasionally surfing other things while he was talking (he said I looked like I was a bit bored, is all). I told him not to take it personally :)

6/6/10

1. Finding a Crate & Barrel sofa from a couple that lives a couple blocks down from us that was super comfortable and a good color/material, and within the budget I'd been setting for this new couch. Win! Now just have to figure out how we'll get it up the stairs on our end.
2. Picking up some random things (mod-looking red rolling chair, for one) for free, from another couple we'd gone to see a couch for but ended up not getting.
3. Efficient Ikea run, with Dan returning things for me and me picking up their replacements, with a funky red clock from their As-Is section. Dan finished up and met me in the checkout line right before I was up, which was good since he had both my coupon from the last visit and my debit card.
4. Making Reuben sandwiches again, this time with an even better fillings to bread ratio.
5. Unpacking, cleaning, and arranging to the point such that while  there are still boxes around, the essentials are all done and I don't feel so harried about it all anymore. Decided to take the night off after 6pm!
6. Thunderstorm-ish that cooled off our area so much without too much actual downpour so that I showered (5th time in 3 days or something like that) and did not feel gross again shortly afterwards. Amazing!

6/5/10

1. Dan's dad giving us a hammer to round out our tool set and finishing building some Ikea-ware.
2. Getting two delicious sandwich halves from Hale & Hearty for lunch.
3. Spending the afternoon at Renegade Craft Fair with SA and LS. I actually recognized quite a few of the vendors, either from their blogs or from the Boston Bazaar Bizarre last year. I'm really pleased with everything I ended up buying, excellent value/uniqueness.
4. Finishing most of the construction of my closet system, allowing me to finally unpack all my clothes and start organizing my jewelry.
5. Dan buying the ingredients to make Reuben sandwiches for dinner. I'm not getting Reubens at diners when I have a craving for them anymore, they're really quite easy to make (fewer ingredients than I'd thought) and I can finally adjust them so that the sauerkraut isn't soggy, the Russian dressing not overwhelming, and so that there isn't a 2 inch layer of corned beef in the middle and none on the edges.
6. Finding that the J.R. Watkins Natural Home Care All-Purpose Cleaner, recommended by Nothing But Bonfires, really is amazing, even on a mirror that was crusted over with who knows what from having been in my parents' basement for ages and then in our dust factory of an apartment in JC.

6/4/10

1. Someone else using the bagel toaster realizing I was putting in my bagel for the second time and so turned back the speed setting so I wouldn't get a burnt mess.
2. Feeling vindicated in that my original answer to a client proved right after running some tests on other suggested workarounds.
3. Spending the afternoon trying to figure out how to use JavaScript to build a tool. Good exercising of brain.
4. Finally meeting P?, Dan's sister's boyfriend, after hearing about him from Dan for a really long time.
5. Getting a Shackburger for dinner plus a strawberry shake.
6. Mets winning so that the Met fans beside me weren't all 'Goddammit!!' constantly, as they usually are ;)

6/3/10

1. Getting a good night's sleep with windows shut (noisy trucks at night on our street, surprisingly) and the AC set to 80.
2. Getting back from lunch a 12:45 so that even though I was messing around a bit and had forgotten about my 1pm meeting, still had time to make it there.
3. Referencing CL's really detailed notes to try to go through steps for a tool we're learning how to use.
4. Solid chunk of time in the afternoon to deal with various urgent tickets that came in.
5. Restarting my computer fixing a VPN connection issue I was having, thanks to DF's advice.
6. Finally getting some time to put together a preliminary layout for a metrics dashboard.

6/2/10

1. Dan staying home to deal with getting FIOS installed, which ended up taking pretty much the whole working day.
2. Working session on a metrics dashboard project that resulted in my needing to do and learn less than I thought.
3. Another good internal training run by MG with lots of educational client use cases for different features of the product.
4. One of my weekly meetings that's generally an hour taking only 15 minutes instead, so that I could use the time to make some phone calls.
5. My manager coming by to shoo us home at 7:30 and suggesting that I come in late the next day.
6. Leftover Thai food for dinner.

6/1/10

1. Dan forcing me to wake up earlier than I'd wanted to in order to get the last bits and pieces of the old apartment packed up and cleaned.
2. Movers doing an excellent job, finished in 3 hours instead of the expected 4.
3. Dan buying a pole level thing from Home Depot that made putting together the supports for my Stolmen closet system far easier. I love this level!!
4. Not having too much difficulty putting our bed back together, after the struggle with the Stolmen system and holes in the bedroom wall.
5. Figuring out how to fix the swivel stand system for the TV after Dan was getting a bit frustrated that we'd broken the TV somehow. Turns out that the stand part probably was never properly put together...and I FIXED IT.
6. Dan agreeing to ordering food for dinner after having a lunch of noodles.

5/31/10

1. Taking fewer car trips than I thought it would to get most of the awkward-shaped/delicate/kitchen stuff moved over to the new apartment.
2. Getting all the parts I wanted for my Stolmen closet system from Ikea, plus the $15 bookshelf Dan was really into getting not looking too shabby so we got it too.
3. Getting the kitchen mostly set up in the new apartment.
4. Taking a shower in the new apartment.
5. The woman that we needed to meet to potentially sell my side table calling us to cancel before we'd left Hoboken, so that we could get slices of pizza for dinner from Hoboken Pizza.
6. Buying kettle corn and a smoothie drink at Duane Reade for the last evening in the old apartment.

5/30/10

1. Taking the ferry to the Ikea in Red Hook to get some parts.
2. Swedish meatballs. 'Nuff said.
3. Taking less time than I thought to pack up the kitchen (I always leave this for last and it usually takes forever!)
4. Teaching Dan how to wrap up all the plates and bowls and things.
5. Dan making breakfast for dinner with eggs and pancakes.
6. Pretty much finishing up all the packing!

5/29/10

1. Dan calling PSEG and reaching a woman who offered up the suggestion our taking over the electric bill early, in order to have someone go over to the new apartment today to turn the electricity back on. Thank you, PSEG woman!!!
2. Perfectly cooking a trio of chive pockets for possibly the first time (meaning none of them stuck and tore open, as usually at least one does).
3. Going over to our new apartment and finding that they had someone in there freshening up the paint in all the walls (and a nice warm off-white color too that I think I actually like, not just soul-deadening institutional white) and that the electricity hadn't been turned off yet after all.
4. Taking a delicious little nap and waking up with plenty of the afternoon left still to start drawing floor plans of the new apartment.
5. Dan agreeing to buy me one last little carton of Tropicana OJ...I was getting so thirsty with just boring water to drink.
6. Dan making a dinner of pasta with TJ's meatballs and tomato sauce he had around, plus spinach I asked him to go out and get in addition to the OJ.