November part two

Short notes from the rest of November, which I have neglected for far too long:

We bought some Snap after the whiskey fest, and I also made gingersnaps by myself for the first time. Both are lovely!


Thanksgiving was an epic time, where I had large meals with my family, Peter's family, and Matt and Una in Secaucus. Mom and I also did our 11th (I think) annual Black Friday shopping, which left us with a very large gift for my aunt. Subsequently, after we did our third thanksgiving with friends (which was lovely, btw), we jaunted across the Lincoln Tunnel and dropped it off to her. Driving in the city was less horrible than I had expected, and we had a lovely lunch in Bryant park by the ice rink. (see: delicious perogies). Sum total of driving: 800 miles over ~17 hours (2 hrs in gridlock, mostly on the way back to pgh) and four states. A bit crazy, but definitely worth it.


There was also a bit o' frost at the end of November, and some glass pumpkin making. A good month!

November in the 'burgh

Or more specifically, the Edwin treatment. Which is to say that my friend Edwin came to visit last weekend and I worked to make it as all-out Pittsburgh awesome as I could. The weather even cooperated with sun (gasp!) and warmth (double gasp!). After he landed on Thursday night, we basically kept eating, starting at Avenue B for lunch after a lazy Friday morning:



After a bit of a Shadyside walking tour, a NASA talk at CMU and department happy hour, we were off to the Pittsburgh Whiskey and Fine Spirits fest. Just coincidence that it was the same weekend Edwin was coming, but a perfect pairing (thanks, GroupOn!). It was a blast to be able to try almost any liquor imaginable. I was especially psyched to try the newest addition to the Art In The Age family. Their Root alcohol is already one of my favorites, as I'm a huge root beer fan, but the new Snap (a la gingersnap) tastes so awesome that we had to get a bottle. Other notable samples include Fireball (below) that tasted like liquid red hots and another company (whose name I forget) that produced a whiskey that was exactly like inhaling a campfire. So weird, but intriguing. Edwin also jockeyed to try the Johnny Walker Blue, which made back a good chunk of the ticket cost by itself. We also tried the 1703 Mt. Gay, absinthe, reallly smooth vodkas and all sorts of high-shelf stuff I would never have normally tried. The food was pretty good to boot: a "Cuban" style sandwich, lots of great mac&cheese, bread, nuts - typical drunk food. I had some pre-drinking and can say that they were legitimately tasty, however. =) I hope there's a groupon next year!




Saturday was a big day as well. We hit Vanilla Pastry Studio for delicious cupcakes, Oh Yeah!'s for crazy waffle combos, the Strip for Edwin's first Penzey's experience and other such adventures, the Duquesne incline (of course) and a short drive-by of Southside (where I'd spotted the below crazy car a few days prior). Then a nap, and a great dinner at Toast! This ensured that not only did he get the full foodie experience, but also the full what-the-hell-Pittsburgh driving experience and a wide neighborhood exposure. I think it worked out well.




On Sunday I also pulled him along to attend TEDxUniPittsburgh. TED.com - or Technology, Entertainment, and Design - has swallowed many of my hours; in return, I get to watch experts talk about their field, whether it's the psychology of spaghetti sauce, how to teach crows to use vending machines, WolframAlpha, or home model rocketry. It's incredibly cool stuff, and watching it the TEDx way with an auditorium of people is especially neat. Obscure Games and Friday Night Improv talks were highlights for me, as were the big whiteboards of questions you could fill out. I saw some people I only know from TEDx events around pittsburgh, which was fun. A really good end to a fantastic weekend.



Finally, a bonus seasonal shot. Enjoy Thanksgiving! I'm very excited to go home for more than a day at a time.

be sane.

Some saw it as a fit of political awareness that is, according to the media, uncommon in certain age brackets. Some saw it as a more general expression of frustration with said media. Some just saw it as an occasion to make funny signs. It's certain that millions of people SAW it, in some way or another, no matter what their intentions. Yes, I'm talking about the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear, and yes, this entry is horribly backdated but so be it. Peter and I went with my uncle and his wife to D.C. on October 30th and this snarky, weird, inexplicably friendly and hopeful event deserves some description. I've never been to a major rally, much less any minor ones, and the whole day really stuck with me.

We got up quite early for a Saturday and got down to the Greenbelt station by about 9:30am. Given that the rally wasn't supposed to start until noon, we were quite surprised when we met the line that looped around the front lot. But the excitement level was so high! Lots of friendly chatting and "holy shmoley, the line is over where?" exclamations later, we made it to the metro car - which was certainly not any less crowded than a sardine tin. We hadn't expected to get quite so intimate with our fellow rally-goers so early, but laughter is the shortest distance between two people - or, perhaps, a whole subway car of passengers who were just starting to realize how absurd their day was going to get.




The first thing I noticed after we squeezed out of the station was the signage. Everywhere. People selling nonsensical signs, people giving away political signs, people carrying folded "we didn't think about bringing this on the metro" signs... Any variation you can think of on a popular meme, it was there. It felt, to me, like the Internet personified. A giant mass of people with opinion boxes filled with "we brought sandwiches" and "who farted?" and "bears!!!" Some were political, some were completely random, and an occasional few were somewhat mean (but mostly to Fox, which is relatively justified). But almost all were funny, if not just because of the scale of it all, and we spent a good amount of time pointing and going "look at that one!" - as if we weren't already painfully obvious tourists.




After establishing that the portopotties were not a myth, we tried to get a good spot. There was only so much we could maneuver versus the tide of people, and we settled down to a mediocre vantage point at best. I wish I could have climbed a tree, as some did, but not everyone can be so lucky. Admittedly, I was miffed throughout the Roots set, but how long can you really sulk when the Mythbusters come out and test the periodicity of a giant human wave, or the ability of a huge crowd to shake the ground by jumping all at once, or the sound that happens when a sea of people simultaneously laugh, cry, or cheek pop. That was awesome by itself. The rest of the show had some slow parts, but it was almost impossible to not have a good time. Some of the reasons:
- Colbert came up in a psudo-Fenix contraption and wore some sort of flag superhero suit
- Father Guido Sarducci gave the benediction and asked God to give us a sign, maybe a tattoo on someone's face, to show who had the "correct" religion
- Cat Stevens and Ozzy Osbourne dueled their peace and crazy train songs, respectively; Jon and Stephen eventually compromised with the O'Jays rendition of Love Train
- Stephen and Jon sang "I'm more american than you", but most importantly, Stephen's tuning at the beginning caused his singing partner to double over in "I can't sing that" laughter (well, he can't sing well in the first place, but still)
- John Oliver wore a Peter Pan / Robin Hood / ?? costume

Jon Stewart's last 13-minute speech rivaled all of that, however. I strongly recommend it - http://bit.ly/9lNPYu - as there was such silence during it but you could tell that people were agreeing. They were empathizing. We were all together in wanting more willingness to compromise, more real progress, more reason and sanity in what is and what represents our political discourse. Contrary to some reports, it was not an apathetic crowd. You don't draw ~250,000 people and break Metro ridership records because you don't care. Not everyone was there for the same reasons, certainly, but they showed up. Even if our spot kinda sucked and we had to shout "louder, louder!" to hear what was happening on stage, I was proud to be a warm body in the crowd count. Everyone we talked to was very friendly and smart, and made me feel like things are going to be good, not crazy like the media touts. Never perfect, perhaps, but with everyone's help it'll be pretty darn okay.

Time for fall

All right, it's fall! Bring on the slanting morning light and cooler days! Or, if you're Pittsburgh, bring on the super cold, then the dark and rainy, and then recalibrate to proper fall weather... as a nice (?) segue, the past month's activities have been similarly random.

I suppose the most exciting parts have been the concerts. Since Peter and I went to the second annual Virgin Mobile Festival, I got presale notice for this year's concert. This time, the tickets were free, and you bet I snagged a few. But when the weekend rolled around I wasn't sure I would actually go...driving so far to see bands that I was only vaguely interested in. At the last minute I decided to go for it, and I'm so glad I did! A great day of sunny weather, interesting people watching, and great music. Jimmy Eat World and Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros were highlights for sure! I can't believe this is my third (maybe fourth!) time seeing JEW. How time flies. I also surprised myself by actually enjoying a freebie pedicab ride. It was just that kind of wonderful day (more photos on flickr). Also, for my birthday Peter got me tickets to see Ra Ra Riot, a cute Syracuse band. We got to the venue early enough to get superb seats, close enough to shoot the setlist! Also note my budding Photoshop skills (kind of...still only halfway through the class). Voila:



Somewhere in between we found out that mom's tablecloth is waterproof (cue whole family droplet-blowing competitions...ah we're so mature). Also I came home after school one day and BAM! the road in front of our apartment was being paved. I guess that's why they did such a crap pothole-filling job; they were going to spackle it with asphalt after. Pretty neat to watch.



A little more recently: I've really been enjoying where my office is on campus. A lot of my CMU photos are taken of and around the green roof of my building, which is right outside the Envirochemical Engineering labs. It's been really neat to see how the sun's path is changing with the seasons, although I have to keep moving if I want to eat lunch in the sun now. =) I've also been experimenting with food, as always - I tried to make nutella palmiers the other day but they weren't quite what I had expected. Our CSA box has been dumping a bunch of fall veg on us that we're not quite sure what to do with - cabbage, squash, etc - so I've been keeping busy trying to make it all palatable. Nothing especially photogenic but at least we're eating well!



I'll leave you with some sunset, like always, and some fireworks from a Pirates game (they actually won! holy cow!). =)

Two weeks in Ecuador

So I spent August 31 - September 8th in Ecuador as a volunteer with Engineers Without Borders (EWB). A few days were spent in Quito but the bulk was spent in an indigenous Quechua community called Tingo Pucará. They live in the high lands (Tingo Pucará means, approximately, "small lookout hill" and it's part of the Andes) and have very limited access to potable water. EWB installed a rainwater catchment system last year that they use frequently, but otherwise their choices include a spring at the bottom of the mountain (900+ feet down!), some distribution lines from neighboring Guangaje that run less than an hour a month (significant letdown), or some other water pools around the region. Except for the distribution system, which barely counts, none of these sources are protected and so are most likely contaminated with fecal matter from the roaming cows, sheep and llamas. We were there to test their soil, map where a water pumping system would go, get solar and wind data, and generally investigate how we would pull off this project. It was very cold and we were working all the time, but the views were incredible and the people were so happy to have us. A small selection of why it was amazing (also including the potato soup, which we had for every meal, every day):







Choosing just a few pictures has been difficult, but you can see more at http://www.flickr.com/photos/30911243@N00/sets/72157624853787201/ and http://www.facebook.com/#!/album.php?aid=2425582&id=11316215&fbid=802938497764&ref=mf. It was a great trip and although I got really sick on the way back, I'm glad I went.

So about that August!

In the rush of life lately, August has gone unnoted here. That is a mistake. It was a big, big month. The biggest: after a lot of stress, I passed my qualifying exams! There was much rejoicing, but no publishable photos of said rejoicing. =)

There was also a lot of tasty summer food, and some excursions to new restaurants. Abay is an Ethiopian place down the street that had really fun finger food (pictured), and Spoon was a favorite as well.


We also got around town to get an update on how tall the agave plant at Phipps is (tall enough for duct tape!) and to check out a behind-the-scenes tour at the Pittsburgh zoo (say hi to Louis).


Even bigger travel news to come. Enjoy some sunsets in the meantime.

The 4th and beyond

A few leftover July-ish things, as I procrastinate studying for quals a little...
The green roof has cool plants I've never seen before, including one with cool Myst-like properties:


There was also that fourth of July business. This being our first year here, I thought it would be fitting to really do it up - go downtown, watch all the shenanigans, etc. On average, the plan worked flawlessly, bringing us great views of waterboat races, skydivers, awesome sunsets and fireworks off the Fort Duquesne bridge. Yum yum. But. When it was time to go home, us and everyone else and their three children wanted to also go home. Chaos is not even the word. Kids were lighting off fireworks in the street unanchored, traffic was at a truly impressive level of bad, and buses were full to the brim. Next time maybe I will buy Peter some anesthetic before the night is over...or probably we'll be watching from some safe, non-busy roof.



In keeping with the "getting out of the house occasionally so my textbooks don't swallow me" vein, I signed both of us up for a downtown walking tour. It was not on one of Pittsburgh's current egg-fryingly hot days, thank goodness, and we did actually learn a bit about the city. For example, Grant St was leveled off by 30 ft (resulting in enough dirt to fill the nearby lake!), the Smithfield St bridge is the oldest steel bridge in the U.S., and the oldest structure in western PA (circa 1764) is down near the Point. Also the yellow of the pgh bridges is only sold here, and is not produced for any other city. Not that anyone else would want it, honestly... but it was an interesting few hours and we got in 4 mi of walking that we wouldn't have normally. And - what a shame! - the tour ended right near a Melting Pot. I haven't been to one in a long time, so we had a bit of fun. We also stopped by the incline because we were there, but I didn't get steady enough shots to do justice to the view at night. Another time!


Society of Women Engineers also hosted a cake decorating class, which I was ALL OVER. Learned how to fill, crumb coat, ice and decorate. Successfully used 9 of the 12 available base colors for the most colorful cake in the lot. A couple days later, there was a super awesome sunset with lightning (!). It was a good week. Of course, if you don't count all the work I am doing, that is...