Festivus and Kong

Posted on by grahams

‘s graduation party on Friday was great, I finally got to meet several of her coworkers and friends from college, and the lot of us managed to plow through 8 bottles of Champagne as well as some beer… It would have been nice if we could have invited more people, but our apartment was pretty much packed to capacity as it was.. When we move, though, hopefully we will be able to have some bigger bashes… =) Saturday was the Goodrich holiday party, which was pretty lame… I wasn’t expecting it to be a blast or anything, but even the food was bad this year.. And once again there was a designated driver tax — they charged $2 for a tiny little coke. Lame.

Sunday I caught King Kong (2005) with the film club. It was better than I had expected, and while there was one glaring plot point (the “kid” on the ship) that was left hanging by the end of the film, it was pretty tight overall (which is surprising given the 3 hour runtime).. There were obviously points of the film that were slower than others, but they all seemed in place (except for the aforementioned subplot, which should have either been trimmed altogether or at least followed through).

I am getting antsy for the holidays, counting the days until I get to drive home and enjoy 11 days off!

Phew

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is having some friends over tonight to celebrate the completion of her classes… Our apartment is so small, it should be interesting to actually have a party there with more than 6 people… =) I’ve been distributing the load of obtaining all the stuff she wanted acrossed the past few days. I have one more trip to the grocery store this evening before I’m done. Last night after she got back from work we cleaned the apartment. It’s been so long that I think I’ve forgotten what it’s like having a girlfriend who doesn’t spend every evening in class or tethered to the computer. It will be nice to have her (somewhat more) relaxed and not stressing out about a new assignment, etc.

Tomorrow is the Goodrich christmas party, which hopefully won’t be lame. Last year was OK, and Corinna’s volunteered to be DD, so I can take better advantage of the open bar this year… I have convinced more of my coworkers to go, so hopefully we can at least make an oasis of cool..

Fun With Snow and Parking

Posted on by grahams

The 5-6 inch storm that hit Boston was a 12-14 inch storm in Chelmsford where I work. It was snowing when I woke up yesterday, and although it was enough to disrupt traffic, it wasn’t enough to keep me from trying to get into work. It took 1:45 to complete my 27 mile commute, most of that was getting through Brighton and Cambridge and to the highway. Looking out the window all day at work I knew the commute home was going to be a nightmare, and I was right.

I sat on Route 3 for about 45 minutes without moving at all… For some reason the plows intermittently plowed the right hand lane, which caused all kinds of traffic as people merged. This, combined with the usual traffic of people getting on 95 north (I go south) meant a nightmare commute. It ended up taking me about 2 hours to get to Alewife. I decided to park my car at Alewife over the weekend so I didn’t have to worry about the parking situation on the street here. It’s only 5 bucks a night, and since it is supposed to be above freezing the next few days I figured it was a small price to pay to wait out the snow. If the situation seems less grim here tomorrow I will probably go get it and bring it back. I took the Red Line to Harvard and then took the 86 bus to Brighton Center. My commute home ended up being 3 hours when I walked in the door to our apartment.

In a stunning bit of serendipity, I had decided to make a stew in the crock pot, which was a pretty comforting meal after such a cold day. I had put it in the pot before I left for work in the morning, so it was pretty much all ready to go when we got home… We just kinda chilled last night, both of us had pretty bad days..

Users are like fish.

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Met up with several Rovia Ex-pats last night who I hadn’t seen in ages. Matt and I met up with Mario, Omar, and Ming in Kendall Square and then headed to PeNang in Chinatown to grab some grub. It was a total nostalgia fest, too bad the rest of the squad wasn’t around… We should have a big reunion at some point.

This Weekend

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Friday night I hung out with a bunch of friends from work… It was John’s birthday and he had a bunch of people over his house and then we went to watch some Minor League hockey. The game was terrible, we left after the second period, but it was good spending time with these guys (and gal) outside of work for a change.. I didn’t get home until past 1am…

Saturday and I just chilled out for most of the day, for the first time in a long time. She had been powering through one of her last assignments of her masters, and even though she still has more work to do in the next few weeks, she decided to take a “personal day”, which I appreciated, because I’ve felt like I’ve had a part-time girlfriend for awhile now. :)

Today the two of us took a walk in the snow “storm” and grabbed some lunch at Moogy’s. I had the film club tonight, while she had to stay home to resume her schoolwork. We saw The Ice Harvest. It was OK, but it was a little too predictable. It straddled the line between slapstick and serious, and I think if it veered a bit closer to slapstick it would have been better (and the predictability wouldn’t have been as noticable). I got home and found that one of the traps I set out for our little “mouse friend” had been successful. I had set out both spring and glue traps, because I wanted the little bugger gone, and he wandered into one of the glue traps. I’m not a fan of them, because they seem a bit like torture, but it got the job done, and I dispatched the poor guy as soon as I found him. I have more traps out in case he has any friends..

And the number is???

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Best work email exchange ever:

First, Allen wrote:

[…] If, by chance, you.re bored over the weekend and are in need of a fresh cut Christmas tree give me a call and come to Auburn, MA. (508-826-2928) I give discounts. We have donkeys!

To which I replied:

How many donkeys?

And his final reply:

Two. Mini donkeys. Cute little buggers.