Pack of Matches

Timmy--sorry I didn't call you back the night you called. Ann and I were engrossed in "A Long Kiss Goodnight" which was a long, trainwreck of a movie. But hilarious. Every character called Geena Davis a bitch. And when her eight-year-old daughter fractured her wrist after an ice skating fall, Geena told her to get up because "Life's full of pain. Get used to it." Reminds me of our childhood. Samuel Jackson was also a main character who should have been dead at one point, but drove a car with what I can only assume was a piece of his lung hanging out of his mouth.

So that's what we did. The End.

Actually, we ate a lot of food with Janice and I tried to convince Ann to throw around her pregnancy wherever we went. Need a seat on the subway? "Pregnant lady over here!" Need to cross the street at a dangerous opportunity? Hold up my hand and yell "Pregnant lady over here!" At the end of a rollercoaster line? "Pregnant lady in the back!" Unfortunately, I was much more excited about this than Ann.

Also, we took to naming her baby. Since she's looking at a 4th of July delivery date, we thought the name should be patriotic. For example:

Abe
Justice
Francis Scott Key
Roman Candle
Sparkler
Snaps
Pack of Matches (or POM for short)

Here's the three of us after brunch on Saturday:
















And the lucky guys who got to join us:

















On Saturday, we ate at a restaurant called HQ. Delicious dinner, and delicious pre-meal bread that smelled like wet dog. Afterwards we saw the play, "Room Service" based on a Marx Brothers' film. It was filled with hijinx and pratfalls. Very entertaining.

On Sunday, we took the train out to visit Janice and her husband, Sean, in Brooklyn. We ate cannolis at Fortuna Brothers--known for the best cannolis in New York--and then found ths graffiti picture on a walk afterwards:


















So that sums it up. Tim, maybe I'll go on that juice diet. (P.S. Ann mentioned something about red pebbles?)

Zoom zoom

Teaching classes, working, fixing bikes, sailing the sound, and meeting up with people this last week has been pretty busy. I just hope to god that things slow down sometime soon. I need a day to just sit around and watch a movie or something. I'll probably go climbing tonight until my arms feel like they're going to fall off and then do something relaxing. I think having tomorrow off will be pretty nice as long as I can get this project done for work today. It's a pretty interesting project dealing with the emissions around the great lakes. Who would have thunk that I'd move out west to do work on emissions back in the midwest, eh? Anyhow, I hope things are well with everyone else.

Rachel - Do we get a photo tour of your weekend with Ann and Janice?

Andrew - If you're home sick how come you aren't posting on here?

TS

P.S. Here's a good game. Click me.

Famous Friends

This is Becky. Becky Witkop: Best Buy advertisement. We were both paid $25 to have our picture taken on Broadway for an ad campaign at the New York Best Buy stores. I think they paid me because they knew Becky wouldn't do it if I didn't. Isn't she lovely? Peter told Becky she looked glorious and then told me, "Sturtz-- Maybe if you'd start taking care of yourself when you go out, we'd be celebrating you, too." Well then.

In two days, Ms. Ann Marshall will be in NYC to hang out with me and Janice. Peg might come on Saturday too! Hey-yo! Not sure what our plans are yet, but I know about a great party on Friday and I'll have to see if preggers will be up for it. Otherwise, I'm going to be Ann's roommate at her hotel, so I'm sure we'll paint our nails, talk about boys, and order late-night adult entertainment.

Kidding. The fumes from the nail polish would be terrible for the baby.

Tonight, I went with Peter, Walters, and a couple of other folks from Esquire to a Mentor/Mentee reading called "Women Write Now". Basically, it's made up of professional women writers and "underserved girls". At first I read it as, "Undeserved girls" and I thought, well, screw that--I'm not going to listen to their creative writing if they don't deserve my attention. But then I saw the 'r'. I'm thinking about signing up for it. It would be a lot of fun and I miss working with younger girls (besides the ones I work for at the magazine).

Bill Bradley is in town--he came in late tonight, but we're going to get a drink tomorrow after I get out of work. Part of me wants to rent Grizzly Man again.

Andrew--what's up? Shouldn't you be updating this thing like crazy because you're procrastinating studying for exams? C'mon!

Timmy, I wish I could be snowboarding down mountains. Instead, as one of the mentees so aptly put it in her poem, each day "the subway doors open and there's a strange smell. It smells like poop."

Ah, New York.

Pull it together people.

Well I hope the fam had one dandy of a weekend. I made it out to Crystal Mountain yesterday and played on a snowboard until I could hardly stand. I went with Ryan Anderson (Woodard's old roommate) and a friend of his. I learned a big lesson while I was out there; snowboards aren't as cool as they seem. I tore it up as best I could but when you need to get to the back country stuff there is no good way to move around on a snowboard. I think a tele ski session may be coming up soon and if all goes well I might have to buy some tele gear. Eventually I convinced the nancy's I was with to go back to the back country stuff and we all just loved it. Deep powder, no people, and a lot variation in terrain. We didn't take any photos while we were there but I grabbed some from the Crystal website and elsewhere.

Here's my favorite part, the North Back Country.
And here's one of the big bowls on the South Back Country.
The south back country was nice but it was just wide open and real steep. The north side offered more tight tree rides along with a bit of steep open areas. Plus the north was a longer run. Here's a shot of the trail map so that you can see where all the different areas are. (Click on the pic to blow it up.) The south side is to the far left and the north is to the far right.
Anyhow, that's what I was up to. I hope you guys enjoyed the weekend as well. Here's one last photo of Bryna and I.
Get posting you slackers!

TS

What happened to Earl?

Ok, so this first photo is a picture of one of the ducks looking for his lost duck friend, Earl.

Earl was later found as the Seattle rain kicked in and the fountain began to melt.
Poor soul. Good thing he floats.

TS

Re: Tim's Post and my comment

(If the same had happened to me) (It didn't)

Students are eating my soul.

So I actually had my first couple of students come in for questions today. I'm pretty sure they left possibly more confused than when they arrived, but I think I learned alot. Mostly I now understand that you must be prepared for any question no matter how bizarre. Is it ok to say to a student, "You should have learned that last semester!"? Cause I think it should be. I just pray that the students don't come to the conclusion that I'm one of the "idiot" TA's and not one of the "wicked smart" TA's. But what the hell, at least I'm getting paid! :)

Here's my sweet photo for the day.

MLK2K7

Sorry for the lapse!

First, Dad, how is the replacement wheelchair treating you? Mom said it's crap and it's not electric. Is it like the ones you see handicapped basketball players using? Do you hear the Harlem Globetrotter song? I hope f'ing Bay Home gets your old one fixed fast.

Well, as of my last post, Ricky, my friend from college, came to stay for a few days. He was in New York to meet with his agent and editor about the book proposal he sold. Because what else are you going to do with your free time in law school?

On Wednesday night we walked around and froze considering it was below 30 for the first time here and neither of us were dressed particlarly warm. We began at a Peruvian restaurant and then headed over to The Comedy Cellar and watched some medicore comediens. Whenever a comedien is offended because we "are too quiet" or we "need to wake up", the comedien should stop insulting the audience's intelligence and actually tell jokes that work. But there were a couple of big names: Jim Norton, Dave Attell, one of the comediens from Tourgasm, etc, and they were funny.

The next night, while Ricky went out with a friend, the roommates of 235 decided we'd have our first family meal (paninis). Notice Nandita's expertise with the press:



































Friday, Ricky and I met up with Peter, Walters, and his roommate, Greg, for drinks at Max Fish, a bar on the lower east side.

Here's Ricky trying to teach Greg some magic tricks; Ricky and me; a couple of chatty Kathys:


















































Today I plan on doing some research for my first writing bit in the magazine(!). It's going to be like a Harper's Index, except for obesity. Should be good--I'm looking forward to seeing what I can do with it.

And to finish things off, here 's a collage of pics Sarah sent me after her visit:

Busy Busy Busy

Sorry that I haven't been posting often, like you two crazy nerd kids have been doing.

Musical has just started, and is starting to finally heat up. All of the lead roles in the musical sound very very good so far, should be a fantastic show. We're in the very early stages though, just reading the script through and through.

I'm also busy because I'm try to understand everything in the past, to get ready for the upcoming exams. Which I am really really excited about...

Other than that, nothing has really gone on at all. Recently learned how to play "Hallelujah" by Jeff Buckley, on guitar, and how to sing it as well. I have it recorded, and it sounds pretty good. Though, I am going to wait to put it up for a long time, because Mr. Johnson made it sound that he wanted to do an A Capella version of it, as the Accafella's did. So I'm very excited that he is considering me ALREADY.

Ok, that's about it.

Sorry, no sweet pictures.

Love,
Andrew

Generations

Well I liked this article.

http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/1/8/164727/9355

Dad, I think you'll like the site below. Scroll over each item and it gives an image of it!

http://www.visual-literacy.org/periodic_table/periodic_table.html


Also, I liked this picture.


Andrew: You're slacking.
Rach: What happened? Where are you? Did the smelly gas make you forget about the blog?

Jigga Who?

Mom--I got my shirt in the mail today. Thank you, I love it. Now I have to find nice enough pants to wear it with. I think I'm getting a complex about my clothes. And I think that stems from my two gorgeously-styled roommates. I want to buy nice clothes, I really do, but the whole "Give a mouse cookie" syndrome plays out in my head (buy nice boots, gonna need a pair of tight-fitting jeans, buy pair of tight-fitting jeans, gonna need an upgrade from my American Eagle v-neck sweater circa 1999, etc.) and that's why I don't buy clothes, or boots, or anything else for that matter. Speaking of clothes--Mom, you better be using that phantom gift certificate to JCrew we got you for Christmas. Otherwise, I'm going to actually buy one.

Last night I went out with Nandita and Nicole to the 40/40 Club to watch the NCAA championship. We were set up in "Jay's Room"-- Jay-Z's favorite room in his club. Nicole's future brother-in-law was treating some of his financial clients, that's why we were there. The room had a pool table and signed sports jerseys were hanging up around the room. Of course, none of them were actually attached the wall, only leaning against it, and Nicole almost knocked down a David Beckham-signed jersey 3 times.
Here's a blurry and not-so-good picture of us:















The best part? The food. It was great and greasy. There's a $1500 minimum that you must spend in the room--ridiculous, was my first thought. Second thought was no one was drinking that much and how the hell are we going to reach that? then I saw the costs of our small appetizers (I think I embarrassed Nandita by taking this picture. I aslo flicked tomatoes that fell off my pizza onto the floor--honestly you can't take me anywhere):




















But we did see The Man Himself hanging out at his regrettably empty club. But no Beyonce. We walked past him every time we went to the unisex bathroom. When I say "unisex", are you imagining one door that men and women take turns going in and out of? I did. But at the 40/40 Club, you went into a bathroom with four stalls and waited in line with mixed company. I started to go in one, but then the big guy that came out stopped me and said, "No, no, you can't go in there--he can (pointing to the guy behind me)--but not you. Someone blew that stall up right before I went in there." Lovely. And likely story.

Since OSU is allergic to touchdowns, we left at the beginning of the fourth quarter.

So Dad, I hear you get a replacement wheelchair while yours is in the shop. Did you request hydraulics this time? Chrome wheels? Pimp that ride, Dad.

Tim--lovely picture. Andrew--start taking some.

And Tim--I just got an email from Bil Bradley. Can't believe that crazy kid is coming to town for a visit. I imagine he'll know all of the cool spots in his first five minutes and then have to give me a tutorial. I think he'd fit in just fine.

Oh Seattle

Well I survived the first half week of the new quarter and the weekend. Hurray! Rumor has it that there is a lot of snow around here somewhere and by god one of these weekends I'm going to track it down.

So classes are good and hopefully won't be too much of a challenge. The atmospheric radiation course may test me a bit, but hopefully I will be able to keep up with the rest of the class. Besides that my other courses are pretty simple it seems. The TA position is pretty laid back thus far. The lecturer is an avid skier, an Audi enthusiast, enjoys beer, and has pretty much given me his office and claims he'll never use it. So I guess I can't complain about that yet but this week might be troublesome with the students having their first homework assignment due on Friday, we'll see. I've also been managing to get some hours in at work to make an extra buck or two and it looks like I might get tossed a GIS project for the city of Vancouver, B.C. :)

Saturday evening I went out with Ann, Jeff, Smitty, Dave Carey, Stormy Knights (don't ask), and Mike Warner. We had a pretty good time eating a bunch of sushi (except Ann) and chatting it up. Besides that my weekend was pretty lame. I got some new climbing shoes and my feet are much happier now. I'm no photographer like old lady Rachel but I did find this little gem. I'm pretty sure that's Bryna's finger.

Out. T

Weather & News Report

I think this weekend broke all sorts of records. Yesterday, New York City basked in the glow of global warming and heated up to 70 degrees. People were wearing shorts and flipflops. I'm sure popsicles were involved and somewhere someone sprung open a fire hydrant.

Friday was nice too--I barely needed a jacket (Cloudveil, that is! Hey-yo!). Here's a picture of my building--strange and kind of pretty, isn't it? Plus, it's right next to the Chrysler Building:




































After work I walked home and stopped by Park Avenue Country Club where an old check was waiting for me. Ed and Kristen, two of the bartenders I worked with at Luna were on, and we caught up. Kristen invited me to dinner with an Editor in Chief she knows at a teen magazine and Ed filled me in on his acting auditions (or lack thereof). See us here:
















After a little while, a 3rd bartender from Luna, Brandon, came in (far right):

















Brandon, if not apparent from the photo, may be the most wild and hyper guy I know. Also one of the funniest. The best nights at Luna were when Brandon and Ed were bartending with a few other star players, and two barbackers, Nobu and Josh. Of course, when Josh died, the mood shifted.

We relied on Ed to give us relationship advice, Brandon to make us laugh. I liked Kristen even more when I started at Park Avenue because she likes to dance behind the bar and flail her arms everywhere. Goofy dancing also endeared me to Sarah Wexler when we met at Esquire. Especially the time when she almost backed into David Granger.

When I came home, I made spaghetti and talked with Nandita. Patrick Couples came over soon after and the three of us drank wine and reminisced about childhood romances, with Couples taking the title of child whore when he admitted his first french kiss was in kindergarten.

A few drinks later, I found out about Adam's engagement. I didn't think it would upset me as much as it did, but now I'm at peace with it and I hope him and his fiance will be happy. Looks like he found himself a keeper:

Cash and Bass

My day at work slogged by. Although it was one of the editors' birthday so we ate cupcakes from Crumbs. You guys are probably the only people in Michigan who know how good they are. And just in case you want to see where the "magic" happens, it's here:
















After work, I met up with Noah Fowle to see a movie called "The Situation" about a journalist in Iraq. The subject of the movie was good (showing the Iraq system of trust and why no one can get anywhere there), the acting, well, not so much. The director introduced the movie, though, and it was great to hear some of the backstory.

After the movie we walked by the Fox news channel building and I took a picture of what I can only assume is one of your favorite broadcasters doing his thing:





















We met up with Noah's bartender/poet friend at his pub The Four Faced Liar and we jumped in a cab to head to Brooklyn for a country music night. At Buttermilk the rules on country music night are: no more than four choruses and the song must pre-date 1970. They call the night (which happens the last Thursday of every month) CasHank because that's what everyone sings (Cash or Hank). It's basically live kareoke with a full band (violinist, slide guitarist, washboard, etc) It's pretty cool and the singers are pretty serious--it's embarassing if you forget the words. I also saw the ugliest tranvestite ever. She had a mulett and wasn't pulling it off. Then Noah and I got trapped into a conversation with a girl named Sunbo and I've promised to go to one of her dinner parties in a couple of weeks because, according to her, they are "the best" and "everyone knows about them". We heard this as many times (12) as we heard about her nonprofit work and why she doesn't get along with her politician father. We drank our pints of Bass and just nodded

Taking the subway back into Manhattan was a long trip, and I took this picture as we went over a bridge:
















Alright, off to work. It's 58 degrees out and it's only 9 am!

Love,

Rachel

Ahoy!

Rachel how in gods name do you get pictures off of your phone? You're amazing.

I made it back to the sunny city of Seattle. I missed my first two classes, made two meetings, and went to my TA position for the first time. Scary. I sure hope those kids don't have any questions all quarter. I may have done this stuff once but it sounds like these kids are on top of their game and probably know more than I do about the subject. But on the positive side the lecturer is a pretty cool guy and so I think that will help me survive this ordeal.

West coast beer still tastes good, I checked. Time for a quick shower and class!

TS

Birthday Day

Dear Everybody,

This is thy first post. What wonderful timing, considering today is thy birthday. With all old English aside, I had a very good day. My day was filled with a ton of people telling me "Happy Birthday" more than I thought would. Then, as a surprise ending, our mother brought home tacos, which were fantastically scrumptious. So the Birthday was a good day.

And yeah.

Love,
Andrew

Stella Lunch

I'm amazed at the quality of this picture considering it came from my phone.

Mom, Tim, and Andrew: you look terrific!
(it was time for the two beautiful family members to step aside for a moment)

Posting the First

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Welcome to our website Mom and Dad! Now you will never be lonely (because I can't imagine you are ever truly happy without the three of us to eat all of your food).

And now I'll commence with the first post. To catch you guys up:

Two nights ago I went with Walters to the Gotham City Comedy Club. I started the night by making him and my roommate Nicole a delicious salmon dinner (thanks Mom!), complete with an arugula salad topped with goat cheese, walnuts, strawberries, and blueberries. Walters said he only felt mildly nauseated the next morning, which I consider a victory for my first home-cooked fish. Hazaah!

You can tell the fish kicked in here:
















The comedy club was fun and there were lots of great comics--the headliner being the least funny. Walters couldn't see half of the time because some lovey-dovey couple kept blocking his view when the girlfriend climbed up into her boyfriend's lap. I stealthfully told on them and they got in trouble. Then I threw gum in her hair. (kidding... or am I?)

I stayed indoors for New Year's Eve and looked through a photography book of Elizabeth Taylor's jewelry while I sat on Nicole's exercise ball. The ball dropped and I went to bed. The next day I painted my room (which no picture will do justice to its cuteness):

(sideways, whoops!)















The color is inspired by a book I own (but have never read) and Amelie, since a) it's my favorite movie ever b) the red and green tint to the movie is amazing and c) I am slowly crafting my world and my appearances to become Amelie. Bangs are next!

And I'll leave you tonight with a picture from Columbia University. I had to drop off magazines and a couple of articles for our entry in the ASME awards (it's the Oscars for magazines--Esquire has won several) to the Columbia School of Journalism. I've never been there and it made me want to go back to school. It's beautiful.

G'night!