the Biopond

Since it's Friday and my boss is out, I decided to meet Cody for a long lunch. We grabbed some Chinese food from a cart and walked to a park (dubbed "The Biopond") hidden behind some of the biomedical lab buildings at Penn.

One of Cody's co-workers showed him this park a few months ago when he started at the hospital. He's been wanting to take me there, but I'm usually too busy. I'm really glad I finally made some time to enjoy myself during the work day.

If you're ever up at Penn or the hospital and want to escape from the craziness for a few minutes, hunt this park out. It's small, but it's better than nothing. You can find it behind the Richards building at 38 & Hamilton Walk, on Locust Walk.



The water is looking a little murky. I wonder if it's always like this or because of the constant rain we've had over the past weeks.



You can't really tell by this picture, but they had plenty of ducks, turtles, and koi. There's even a waterfall. A few people were back here eating their lunches and just enjoying the nice weather.

My favorite part was when the Google Maps people showed up. If you've never used Google Maps, you're missing out. It's way better than MapQuest, plus you can zoom in and check out actual photos of the location you Googled.



If you Google 38 and Locust Walk in a few weeks, you'll probably see a picture of me and Cody eating Chinese food on the bench in the park.

A reporter from the Associated Press was following the Google crew for the day. He decided to come up and ask me and Cody some questions about what we thought about what we were seeing. Uhhhh...it's a guy on a bike taking pictures for Google. What do you think we think?

By the way, that was pretty much my response. Tomorrow I'm Googling myself so I can see if that dipshit used my stupid quote for his story.

curry experiment

I've been dying for Chinese food for the last few days. I haven't had it in quite a while so my belly was aching for some General Tso's. Mmmm. I have been super good about packing lunch for work that I decided to stop by the Chinese lunch truck down the street from my office and splurge a bit. Big mistake. I can't even guess what they gave me, but it was no General Tso's with white rice and broccoli. I'm pretty sure it was uncooked mystery meet with soy-tastic brown rice and unidentifiable veggies. You better believe I returned that crap and got my $4 back.

And yes, I used the word splurge when referring to my $4 meal.

Since I didn't want to risk my life again, I sadly returned to my office to see what kind of granola bar could hold me over until 6 tonight. And surprise! Someone left a Trader Ming's (Trader Joe's Thai cousin?) Tasty Thai Meal in my snack drawer. I bet it was Robin. Thanks Robin.



There are so many different kinds of curry out there, and while I've tried a handful, I can't say I'm a huge fan. Some I like, some I don't. Germans love curry, so I had most of my curry when I was there. They even love curry in ketchup (which was gross, in my opinion). But since this was a free lunch and I'm a fairly adventurous eater, I thought I'd give it a shot.



The "jasmine rice" smelled nothing like any jasmine rice I've had before. It was gluey and difficult to break up.



I won't even say what this reminds me of. This, however, at least smelled ok - until I heated it up.




After mixing up the rice and sauce and then microwaving for two minutes, this is the outcome. My office now reaks of curry. I share a suite with 5 others so I'm sure they're really enjoying this circus of smells wafting from my office. The taste is kinda spicey (as in flavorful, not as in burning your mouth spicey), very heavy on the coconut, lemon grass, and cumin. I've drank a can of Cherry 7UP and chewed 3 pieces of gum and all I can taste is curry. I could only eat about half of what was in the container because the flavor was just so overpowering. I'd also like to add that I'm sure the little curry that I ate will probably take revenge on me later on tonight.

Lesson of this story is: don't hang out with Trader Ming unless you REALLY like curry and you REALLY don't care if it's good curry or bad curry, you just want some damn curry. And you really want to smell like curry for the rest of the day.

bad blogger

At my cousin's high school graduation party last weekend, it was brought to my attention that once upon a time I had a blog and I updated it. Sporadically, but I updated it.

I'm back! Mainly because I now have a computer desk and a computer chair and a comfy spot to sit after work to read blogs and update my own. Disregard that it is 3pm on a Friday and I'm actually at work updating this thing. My officemate is out for two weeks and my boss is worried about something, I don't know but it's not me. It's Friday and I work my tail off 95% of the time, so I'm taking some me time and being a slacker.

So, as mentioned above, I have my own computer desk and computer chair and comfy spot to sit in after work to read blogs and update my own. Please add to that list that I have a spot to watch tv other than my bed, a tv that's bigger that 12 inches, a closet that's bigger than my tv, a backyard with grass, a parking lot to park my car in, a kitchen that is (usually) clean and (ALWAYS) bug free.

Due to my backyard having grass, you can deduce with your incredible sleuth skillz that I no longer live in dear old South Philly. I don't miss it. Ok...well I miss good pizza. The Greeks in NW Philly don't make good pizza, but the Italians/Mexicans in South Philly do. I also miss that I missed the opening of Capogiro on Passyunk. And I miss the singing fountain. And regular, frequent bus service. And being in walking distance of Center City. And the POPE! And the Cantina. And Acme. And that's it.

I don't miss anything else. I don't miss hunting for parking. I don't miss funky smells. I don't miss the number 23 bus. I don't miss getting up at 6am and driving across the city to get changed and get on the bus and go to work and work and come home from work only to pack my bag and head across the city again because I am madly in love and people who are madly in love do crazy things. I don't miss the weird old men that are taxi drivers/mob hitmen that hang out on the corner of 12th and Cross and make lewd comments.

I love love love love Manayunk. I love living next door to a bakery and waking up at 3am and smelling baking bread and delicious sauce. I love the QUIET. I love central air. I love saving money. I love having parking and a lower Geico bill. I love having 2 bars within a block of me in both directions and I love having the will power of not going there every night, or even every week. I love being cooked for just about every night and I love that I clean up afterwards. I love not living out of boxes. I love having 3 kitties cuddle with me every night.

And most of all I love having a HOME and living with someone I love love love. Someone I can be weird and dorky and goofy around and not be ashamed dance around to terrible music that only I love and someone who can do the same things around me.

I make myself vomit in my mouth sometimes.

Anyway, my decision making skills have been on par the last few months. My choices might some a little...brash...but I think I've made some good choices given certain situations. What matters is I am much happier than I was this time 2 months ago, 6 months ago, and even a year ago. It just keeps getting better.