Identity crisis

Dear FedEx: This is not my signature.

I don't know to whom you gave my new macbook (for which I have been waiting patiently since July to get my bonus so I would have the disposable cash to buy). I can assure you they were not part of my household, they were not signing on my behalf, and honestly, I doubt they even know who I am.

I am assuming my macbook (which my mother instructed me to buy, in no uncertain terms) is in use by now, altering the MySpace page of some crappy person who signed for my package.

Sigh. F**Ex.

Master of His Domain

Thoughtbot has recently bought the largest monitor EVER.


No, that's not a trick of the camera angle. You really can't see him behind it. It's 30". Yes, far larger than our last TV. Twice as large, in fact, as the old TV we have in the basement.


In all serious, it's actually pretty cool. The huge screen gives you all the advantages of having two monitors (i.e. you can work in a lot of windows at once) without the ergonomic disadvantages. For someone who's very busy and at the computer all day, I guess it makes sense.

Any why, my friends, is it possible to make GIANT monitors cheaply enough that small companies can afford them? MATERIALS SCIENCE! Ok, and a bunch of engineering. But those displays take some serious chemistry to make feasible. How do you make something that's reasonably lightweight and not reflective and enhances the color of the display and stays cool and has reasonable scratch/dirt/dust resistance and won't heat or shrink as the monitor heats up and cools down and won't change color/opacity/size with age etc. etc. etc. Oh and those fancy transistors inside the monitor are made out of something as well.

Today's materials science rant has been brought to you by the letter G. For GIANT. :)

St. Patrick's Day, 2008

Pay no attention to the lack of blog posts over the past 3 months. Thank you very much.

This past Sunday we went into the city for the St. Patrick's day parade. What a fun, bizarre day. First of all, the city of Philadelphia totally overlooks the open container law for the day. In the picture above, Chad and I are drinking beers (bought at a bar across the street, they gave us plastic cups for the occasion) with city hall in the background.

Because there are apparently a TON of Irish in the Philadelphia area, there were tons of troupes of step dancing girls. This I expected. I did not expect for many of them to be dressed up as clergy. I mean really. A dancing bishop? In every other troupe?


All I could think as these girls danced by is "honey, you realize you can't actually have that job, right?"

There were also plenty of catholic-themed floats. Featured below, a lovely float including clergy (who apparently all have Santa Claus -style beards), nuns, nurses, firemen and some catholic schoolboys at their desks.


The theme of the day seemed to be: Yay catholicism! Yay beer! Sounds good to me. There were lots and lots of happy people. We ended the day walking all the way across town for a free pint,
and then the train back to Ambler. Yay god! Yay beer!

Hello again

Yes, we're still here, in spite of the two month blogging hiatus. Lots has happened since then, including an awesome thanksgiving, several trips to boston, a trip to Boise and a trip to Madison, a wedding, an engagement (yay!), the holidays, visits home with family and wine tasting, and a new year properly celebrated with champagne and fireworks. But doing all this stuff makes me too tired to blog about it. :)

Perhaps someday I'll get that macbook and be inspired to be a better blogger. In the meantime, Chad and Jolie. Enjoy!

LOOK!!!!!!!!!!

Can you believe it? Both cats on the same piece of furniture at the same time! This image brought to you by Chad, who says they were sharing the futon for hours both yesterday and today. Chad also woke me up in the middle of the night the other night to point out that both cats were lying at the foot of our bed. We are really making progress now.


And now for your reading enjoyment, the list of things that Entropy has attacked this evening (keep in mind I've only been home for ~1.5 hours).

1. my lunch bag (see picture)
2. The Kitchen chairs
3. the kitchen table
4. the railing
5. the knobs on the hutch
6. the camera
7. my computer bag
8. my hand
9. the chair cushions
10. Max

She is currently concentrating on #10. I'll keep an eye out for new adversaries.

Happy Halloween!

Oooooh, what a scary house. Also in honor of Halloween a Halloween-inspired Fritata.


Those purple things are potatoes. Not as yummy as regular potatoes, but definitely weirder looking.

We've gotten a few super-cute trick-or-treaters, but not too many. As trick-or-treating time winds to a close, Chad and I have no choice but to eat all of the remaining candy. I go for the Twix, Chad prefers the Snickers. A quality holiday overall. :)

It's almost halloween...

Which means it's time to carve us some pumpkins


Chad marked his pumpkin early in the game...


Introducing this year's contestants: Chad's scared and Rachel's happy/sad pumpkin


In other news, added to the list of offensive things that Entropy must attack: my bag of crochet stuff.


Silly kitten, crochet is for old ladies.


Well, apparently this crochet is for lunch.


Final score: Rachel's crochet bag: 1, Entropy: 0. (She got distracted before making it through the plastic).