In our CSA box last Thursday, we received:
Huge bag kale
Big bag lettuce
Bunch of apples
Bag of parsley
Two acorn squash
Dozen small potatoes
Three zucchini
Three tomatoes
Bunch of green onions
The apples, lettuce, and potatoes were no big deal, we eat them all the time. We used the green onions and tomatoes (and three peppers from the previous box) in a stirfry, so that was easy. Acorn squash is a bit more of a challenge; last time we did the roasting with butter and brown sugar thing which was just okay, and I've also made savory muffins with them, but this time I decided I wanted to try the sweet route. So I roasted the squash, pureed the insides, and ended up with two cups - enough for two recipes, basically. I tried http://www.manifestvegan.com/2010/10/chocolate-acorn-squash-baked-custard/ which was not a huge success - flavor was so-so, it never set (although who am I to decry pudding), and it was too squash-flavored for Peter. At the same time, I made http://peasant-palate.blogspot.com/2011/10/acorn-squash-bread_09.html with half brown sugar, half regular sugar, and an extra tbsp molasses for good measure, and that turned out quite well. So well, in fact, that there was a hole in the middle of the cake before it finished cooling. This is due partly because I was frustrated that it didn't seem to be cooking all the way (it was, but the sugar on top was melting and making it look undone), but it was continued long after there was a reason to dig. Hooray, a squash success! Even if it does involve sugar and eggs. =)
That leaves the kale, zucchini, and parsley. After a bit of waffling, I followed http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/zucchini_and_spinach_gratin/ except for a few things: we didn't have bacon, so just used bacon fat for the onions; instead of the spinach, so we blanched the kale for about three minutes and then squeezed and chopped it; we used 1/2 cup of cheese in the filling itself, mostly feta with a bit of parm thrown in, and then more parm on top. Also I think we threw in a significant amount of pepper and adobo seasoning. But the cheese and spices (and eggs!) yielded an excellent way to eat kale and zucchini! I was really quite pleased with myself, being 2/3 on experimental recipes. We do have one small zucchini left, but I can always roast it and throw it on something if I don't get around to being creative with it.
Finally, we had a ton of parsley left so I decided to make some parsley pesto. The Internet had about a billion different recipes for that, though, so I took a sampling of ten and did a kind of average over the proportions. The result is below, and it turned out way better than I had expected. For one, the huge bunch of parsley (I made a double batch) reduced down to barely a half cup, which is much less daunting. Also it was really good, not as bitter as I'd expected from so much parsley. My plan is to mix it up with some spaghetti, butter, and chicken pieces. Fancy!
1/4 cup almonds (I had raw, slivered)
1 clove garlic
1 cup parsley
1/2 tsp of lemon juice
2 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup parmesan, to taste
optional good ideas that I didn't use: bread crumbs, onions
In the food processor, grind almonds nicely. Add garlic, parsley, and a jot of lemon juice and blend. Add olive oil to desired texture, then salt and pepper to taste. Add some parmesan, bread crumbs, or onions if you want them.
Overall, our solution to having all this good veg in the house is probably not the healthiest, but it's better than getting bored with the greens on your plate each night (which is what we tend to do without the box). Plus figuring out how to use some of the weirder stuff is fun! Peter always threatens to trash any nontraditional vegetable, so in the name of not wasting food, it is my responsibility to prove something edible can come out of things he or I don't usually like. It has turned out pretty well so far!
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Monday, October 10, 2011
An Orlando saga, in one
This next section will be about Orlando, attending a half-marathon party in Disney that some of my coworkers were running, a work conference, and a visit with some cousins. Busy busy!
10/1
Flew southwest, and I have no complaints! Amazing, after the previous debacle. Although I did get to the Holiday Inn Express (via bus, bwuahaha cheap!) to discover their complimentary Disney shuttle had already left for the day, but at least they gave me a bucket full of goodies (water, granola bars, popcorn) for being a Gold member. Pretty nice I guess. And I figured out the local bus system and didn’t need the shuttle anyway, and hit Epcot at 7:30pm with my fancy $55 half-marathon after-party pass, which I now know only really pays to cover after-hours admission since it didn’t really come with much in the way of food money. We got a $10 voucher but all the food was $2-8 so that was a fleeting victory. Ate until the big Reflections of Earth (hello, high school band flashback!) fireworks presentation and then they closed everything from 9 – 10:30 to boot normal people out of the park. There was otherwise nothing else to do, so after being sufficiently weirded out by a Disney display without people, I took a short nap in China. I also saw a bridge up in Epcot, which I’m sure rarely happens during normal hours, so that was neat.
I then ate some more (the tally was up to Australia, Singapore, Ireland, Poland, and maybe more?) and wandered, since it was a nice night and the booths were pretty well done. I did go on a few rides after quaffing some mead, which was not my best life decision especially regarding Mission:Space which is one of those lame screen-simulated rides, but by then it was time to wait by the runner’s entrance for my coworkers. Miraculously, I did find Ben and his cousins and a few others, and then we milled around before meeting up with Spyros too! Then I got a tiny Belgian waffle to top it off. Weeee. It was a pretty good night even after holding back a potential migraine, and luckily I got a ride from Satoshi, a previous CMU student, versus an expensive cab fare. Plus I took full advantage of the fact that Priority Club members get late checkout, and napped a good bit up to 1pm (necessary, since I didn’t get in until ~2:30am!)
10/2
Not much today, mostly full of sleep, figuring out supermarkets can be kind of expensive if they’re in the middle of nowhere near a hotel (hello, food deserts), getting to the conference hotel, the Rosen Shingle (which sounds like a disease), napping some more and then going to Publix (“across the street” means a half mile, apparently) with friends to stock up on food and booze versus buying very expensive food and drink at the resort itself. Then I slept a lot more that night. Weeeee!
10/3
Happy birthday to me, I get to take a human aerosols exposure tutorial and then wander around! Actually the day was very fortuitous – after some stalling about paying $14 for a taxi to the Florida mall (which seemed like the nearest Thing To Do In Two Hours, since I had to be back at the hotel by 6pm), I started out walking with Ben to get his poster printed and lo! We saw the mythical 58 bus, which the concierge had mistakenly told me wasn’t running! Okay so we found out it stops running between 10am – 2pm but still, an accomplishment, since $2 and free transfers is way better than some alternatives at the resort. The mall was just a mall, unfortunately, so I didn’t really get much, but it was nice to move around. Came back to a pretty good Careers in Aerosol Science talk + plus a free pizza dinner, hoorays. Then met some old CMU members and played volleyball with an extended posse – which, given my disinclination for all things except tennis that involve projectiles coming towards me, really just degenerated into chatting and drinking wine out of a water bottle. Classyyyy. But it was the best case scenario for the day, really.
10/4
Hello Monday – it’s the first real conference day! Again indoor air quality was the subject of the plenary, which was nice. Not sure how much I got out of the ensuing morning sessions other than I should have brought a damn sweater to Orlando (wonder why I didn’t think of that one…) because it’s freezing in the halls. But I’m sure I caught some at least, and it’s fun to see what other people are doing. The poster session was kind of overwhelming, but I did find a person who did research on clean cookstove emissions comparisons, which could end up being useful to know (considering that would be AWESOME to do). There were more talks in the afternoon, then a reception with short-lived food, drink, and a lady in a bear suit to remind us about next year’s MN conference (yeah, it was weird, but funny). Pretty exciting to chat with everyone, from professors to people who’ve graduated to people I just recognize based on their citations. I missed the chocolate-covered strawberries at the Women in Aerosols meeting (“Aerogirls” according to Spyros) but did get to spend quality time with Kaytlin, Gabi and Kristina so it was worth it.
10/5
Poster day, and group dinner day! After some seminars, they gave us a boxed lunch and because I was one of the poster people, I stood by my creation for about two hours and chatted with whoever was interested. It’s still so weird recognizing people by their last names, from their published work. A little bit like rockstars since I’ve been citing them in MY paper too! Neat to finally meet the face behind the name, and be reminded that all of these researchers are just normal people with normal imperfections, no matter how many papers they have under their belt. This should not be surprising, but somehow it is.
Everything else was pretty normal, except for one notable exception: while we were waiting to get into the restaurant for the 25+ member CMU dinner, a large black guy came up and made some interesting comments to me. He started with “Out of the whole group you’re the best looking one” which is acceptable, but each comment got more and more inappropriate until he ended with “and now I’ma have to go to church” and I was like dear lord. Where did you learn that was appropriate for anyone, ever. ESPECIALLY if I’m standing in front of my advisor and my whole research group. So embarrassing, but at least he left. Kristina said he went into a bar, and I hope he was already drunk because my faith in humanity would be sad if he said those things sober. It kind of put a weird spin on the whole evening (my kinda wimpy wimpy salad and very salty lobster bisque didn’t help) but it was still fun to chat with the folks who were at my table. Pretty good day, anyway.
10/6
A fairly normal conference day, except – shhh! – Gabi and I left after lunch to go to Universal Studios! The hotel had some after-2pm admission deals for the parks – ie 2- park admission for $70 instead of $140 or so – so we took them up on it. Still expensive, but it was my birthday gift to myself. =) I kinda wanted to go to Disney’s Hollywood Studios myself, but Gabi wanted to do Harry Potter World and I wanted someone to go with. It worked out REALLY well. The first park, the Studios part, had a few coasters – the music one and the Mummy were both pretty good – but also some pretty lame ones. The Twister walk-thru ride sticks out in particular as fairly terrible, but it was at least worth it for the “we waited for THAT?” kind of hilarity. The Simpsons ride was also bad in that it was terribly nauseating, with a lot of jarring and a simulator screen to boot. I should have learned after my Mission:Space adventure in Epcot that I should avoid it but we didn’t. Oh well! We did leave that park after that, having done most of the rides and not particularly enthusiastic about doing any more immediately.
Islands of Adventure proved to be pretty awesome, and I’m really glad we got the two-park tickets for a few reasons. One, we split our time equally between parks, but Studios closed early to reopen later with some sort of fright-night scenario. This meant that everyone was going there instead as we headed out of it, and because it was a Thursday, the lines were short anyway – which means the lines were even shorter, overall! We rode the Hulk, which was a little too jerky still, and then decided it was Harry Potter time. That’s on the other side of the park so we took a leisurely walk through Seuss-town and others before arriving. And man. They really did a good job on HP World. All the little English houses are covered in snow, which was funny in sunny Orlando but did kind of make me feel cooler, with a lot of the storefronts you read about in the books. They also sell owls, robes, and wands (amongst all sorts of other things) in the correct places, and the goods didn’t look too shabby. But the first thing we did, of course, was get some butterbeer. And like its corresponding article (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-hill/butterbeer-how-universal-_b_893654.html), I do think it was one of the best things. We both had the frozen version (the non-frozen came later…hehe) and it was super refreshing and hit the spot. Then we wandered around for a while in a little kid state – “look at that! Look at that!” – which I found truly impressive. I mean, Epcot was pretty ace, but I’ve seen most of it before. It was nice to find another one of those first moments when you’re really excited about exploring a new section of the park. And because the lines were so short, we hit the main screen/ride combo quickly (hello, single rider line), and I forgave the fact that it has a screen because it was pretty stinkin neat. Then we went on the hippogriff kid’s ride twice because there were no lines and it was calming after the first one. Also, the second time we boarded the ride as soon as we got to the gate – no waiting! Plus I wanted to take pictures, but Gabi thought she heard the attendant tell me to put it away, and when I didn’t (not like he could see anyway) we were like “take pictures take pictures take pictures!!!!” before someone found us out and/or the coaster got to moving too quickly. It was a little hysterical moment that you probably just had to be there for, but it was pretty cute.
I do have to comment on the new cubbies for your stuff while you ride especially strong coasters – they have a fingerprint-scanning bank of lockers that holds your stuff for free for the duration of one ride. Pretty nice! Of course, it says 31 minutes (or up to the length of the line for one ride) are free, and we weren’t really paying attention, so we did the dueling dragons coaster twice (no lines! Front row! AWESOME!) before we went back. Of course, then it holds your stuff hostage for $3, unless you look shocked and draw the attention of the attendant, who probably gets that a lot. But whatever, he cleared our charge, and we switched lockers and rode the coaster one more time because it was just that good – not jerky but full of twists and turns and loops! =) Then it was almost time for the park to close – five hours passed so fast! – so we booked it to the Spiderman ride thinking it was a good one. Turns out it was a screen one again – womp wompppp – but the running with butterbeer part was hilarious.
When we booked our tickets with the resort, the lady gave us two 2-for-1 drink tickets at certain places around Universal’s CityWalk, which is the Downtown Disney equivalent. Darn ucb was having a company party on most of it and didn’t invite us (we were all, the nerve! we’re hotel group buddies! haha) but we did find a latin place that would take it. Turns out the cheapest option was no-name well drinks, so we each got two fairly strong rum&coke//fuzzy navels for 5$. I figure, it’s no small feat in this town to get ANY drink for 2.50, especially an alcoholic one, so huzzah! The food was also good, and we ordered strategically so Gabi would be able to use her company card and reimbursed – woo free meal! When we got back (after having been in a cab behind one that had a laser show inside, which was pretty interesting) we met up with some others and hit the hot tub. So conference, rollercoasters, sun, food&cheap drinks, then hot tub. Pretty dang awesome day.
10/7
Attended a few good talks in the morning today, but fewer than I had anticipated because a few of the speakers never showed up (!). Split the cab with a few other people going to the airport (one of whom was a professor and got the whole fare, woop woop) and it was time to rent a car! Except not quite. We actually got there over an hour before my reservation, and since I wasn’t going to be able to get back that early on Sunday I just sat and caught up with some things in my trip log until it was time.
Since I was a savvy traveler, I had signed up for the Hertz free #1 Club Gold Plus status a while ago (usually $60/year, also came with a free weekend rental day) and got my own desk to approach. They also initially gave me a really nice Nissan Sentra, with 11 miles on it, but the GPS I brought wouldn’t charge in it (or, after I got an attendant, any of the three cars near it – curses!) so I had to move to a different rental with a mounted GPS. That one was a Toyota Corolla, supposedly dependable but this one at least was terribly annoying to drive. Maybe someone really beat on it, but it required constant steering attention as it wanted to blow all over the road. I didn’t even think it was that windy, although I did drive through three short, intense storms on the way down. Guess that’s just how Florida is.
I arrived a little before Natalie at the gated community where her boyfriend Peter (ha!) lives, so I spent a little while catching up on stuff on my phone (hee! Still novel) while waiting for the rain to stop before getting out of the car. Peter has two kids from a previous marriage, and I was staying in the 4-year-old son Jordan’s room; the kid was going to stay with his sister (8-year-old Rachel) across the hall. It worked out well, and the kids were cute if not a little whacky (although that part is not really unexpected given the age and that their parents are divorced). After meeting Natalie’s six cats (or so), we went to an Italian place for dinner (aka kid-friendly pizza!) and then Peter made a “blend” or healthy smoothie, including greens, afterwards. I’ve always been curious about the superfood smoothies and it was pretty good! So now I feel like maybe I might try it…although our blender is not half as powerful as the one he has, so it might not be as successful. Still it was reassuring to know I was eating more veggies. Peter seems like a pretty cool guy and he and Natalie seem happy together, which was great to see.
10/8
So much sleep, so good! After breakfast we hit the science museum with the kids and Rachel’s friend, and it was neat to watch them run around and remember how totally rad that kind of stuff is when you’re that age. I also learned about the huge-ass spiders that make gigantic webs between the palm trees here, and seeing them float overhead is something I was considerably less excited about. But no matter. We had lunch at CheeburgerCheeburger, which was an amusingly customizable experience, and then did a little shopping in the mall complex. There was a small purchase-related meltdown on Rachel’s part, who is very much a girly girl at this point, but the storm passed soon enough. We dropped her friend off and hit the pumpkin patch just as it started to rain – the kids grabbed their respective squash and we booked it for an afternoon of hanging out (and Thor!). I do appreciate being able to catch up to speed with what’s current in the lives of those under ten, and also catching up on my action movies. Peter made chicken curry for dinner which was great too.
10/9
Although my flight wasn’t until 5:15pm, to be on time for the rental (and to be there two hours ahead for the flight) I had to leave by 11:30am, which was earlier than I had anticipated. So we spent a slow morning in, and I had an excellent cappuccino (whipped cream & cocoa on top) and smoothie for breakfast -- I love these food options! =) Plus I laughed at the Scorpion King movie and played with the kids a bit. It was rather less than I thought I would be able to accomplish in a weekend, especially given all the go-go-go business I’ve been doing recently, but maybe that’s what I needed. I also would have liked to meet up with the other two cousins as, but that will have to be saved for another time.
I manhandled the car through three more storms, kinda figured out the cruise control with a bit of magic, and finally got to Orlando. I needed to fill the tank and ended up going through the $1 toll a totally unnecessary amount of times due to not knowing where a gas station was, but I finally figured it out and got back fine. After a nice salad in the airport, I tried to get through more Greece picture editing (they’re coming, someday!), then it was time for a flight and bus to home! My desk, upon arrival, was basically an explosion of mail, laundry, gifts, and stolen tea boxes (hey, the resort was so expensive, I took what I could get)…let’s not even talk about all the receipts I need to submit for reimbursement. But now I have five weeks or so before peter leaves and I go on my next adventure…ahhh, it’s good to be home!
10/1
Flew southwest, and I have no complaints! Amazing, after the previous debacle. Although I did get to the Holiday Inn Express (via bus, bwuahaha cheap!) to discover their complimentary Disney shuttle had already left for the day, but at least they gave me a bucket full of goodies (water, granola bars, popcorn) for being a Gold member. Pretty nice I guess. And I figured out the local bus system and didn’t need the shuttle anyway, and hit Epcot at 7:30pm with my fancy $55 half-marathon after-party pass, which I now know only really pays to cover after-hours admission since it didn’t really come with much in the way of food money. We got a $10 voucher but all the food was $2-8 so that was a fleeting victory. Ate until the big Reflections of Earth (hello, high school band flashback!) fireworks presentation and then they closed everything from 9 – 10:30 to boot normal people out of the park. There was otherwise nothing else to do, so after being sufficiently weirded out by a Disney display without people, I took a short nap in China. I also saw a bridge up in Epcot, which I’m sure rarely happens during normal hours, so that was neat.
I then ate some more (the tally was up to Australia, Singapore, Ireland, Poland, and maybe more?) and wandered, since it was a nice night and the booths were pretty well done. I did go on a few rides after quaffing some mead, which was not my best life decision especially regarding Mission:Space which is one of those lame screen-simulated rides, but by then it was time to wait by the runner’s entrance for my coworkers. Miraculously, I did find Ben and his cousins and a few others, and then we milled around before meeting up with Spyros too! Then I got a tiny Belgian waffle to top it off. Weeee. It was a pretty good night even after holding back a potential migraine, and luckily I got a ride from Satoshi, a previous CMU student, versus an expensive cab fare. Plus I took full advantage of the fact that Priority Club members get late checkout, and napped a good bit up to 1pm (necessary, since I didn’t get in until ~2:30am!)
10/2
Not much today, mostly full of sleep, figuring out supermarkets can be kind of expensive if they’re in the middle of nowhere near a hotel (hello, food deserts), getting to the conference hotel, the Rosen Shingle (which sounds like a disease), napping some more and then going to Publix (“across the street” means a half mile, apparently) with friends to stock up on food and booze versus buying very expensive food and drink at the resort itself. Then I slept a lot more that night. Weeeee!
10/3
Happy birthday to me, I get to take a human aerosols exposure tutorial and then wander around! Actually the day was very fortuitous – after some stalling about paying $14 for a taxi to the Florida mall (which seemed like the nearest Thing To Do In Two Hours, since I had to be back at the hotel by 6pm), I started out walking with Ben to get his poster printed and lo! We saw the mythical 58 bus, which the concierge had mistakenly told me wasn’t running! Okay so we found out it stops running between 10am – 2pm but still, an accomplishment, since $2 and free transfers is way better than some alternatives at the resort. The mall was just a mall, unfortunately, so I didn’t really get much, but it was nice to move around. Came back to a pretty good Careers in Aerosol Science talk + plus a free pizza dinner, hoorays. Then met some old CMU members and played volleyball with an extended posse – which, given my disinclination for all things except tennis that involve projectiles coming towards me, really just degenerated into chatting and drinking wine out of a water bottle. Classyyyy. But it was the best case scenario for the day, really.
10/4
Hello Monday – it’s the first real conference day! Again indoor air quality was the subject of the plenary, which was nice. Not sure how much I got out of the ensuing morning sessions other than I should have brought a damn sweater to Orlando (wonder why I didn’t think of that one…) because it’s freezing in the halls. But I’m sure I caught some at least, and it’s fun to see what other people are doing. The poster session was kind of overwhelming, but I did find a person who did research on clean cookstove emissions comparisons, which could end up being useful to know (considering that would be AWESOME to do). There were more talks in the afternoon, then a reception with short-lived food, drink, and a lady in a bear suit to remind us about next year’s MN conference (yeah, it was weird, but funny). Pretty exciting to chat with everyone, from professors to people who’ve graduated to people I just recognize based on their citations. I missed the chocolate-covered strawberries at the Women in Aerosols meeting (“Aerogirls” according to Spyros) but did get to spend quality time with Kaytlin, Gabi and Kristina so it was worth it.
10/5
Poster day, and group dinner day! After some seminars, they gave us a boxed lunch and because I was one of the poster people, I stood by my creation for about two hours and chatted with whoever was interested. It’s still so weird recognizing people by their last names, from their published work. A little bit like rockstars since I’ve been citing them in MY paper too! Neat to finally meet the face behind the name, and be reminded that all of these researchers are just normal people with normal imperfections, no matter how many papers they have under their belt. This should not be surprising, but somehow it is.
Everything else was pretty normal, except for one notable exception: while we were waiting to get into the restaurant for the 25+ member CMU dinner, a large black guy came up and made some interesting comments to me. He started with “Out of the whole group you’re the best looking one” which is acceptable, but each comment got more and more inappropriate until he ended with “and now I’ma have to go to church” and I was like dear lord. Where did you learn that was appropriate for anyone, ever. ESPECIALLY if I’m standing in front of my advisor and my whole research group. So embarrassing, but at least he left. Kristina said he went into a bar, and I hope he was already drunk because my faith in humanity would be sad if he said those things sober. It kind of put a weird spin on the whole evening (my kinda wimpy wimpy salad and very salty lobster bisque didn’t help) but it was still fun to chat with the folks who were at my table. Pretty good day, anyway.
10/6
A fairly normal conference day, except – shhh! – Gabi and I left after lunch to go to Universal Studios! The hotel had some after-2pm admission deals for the parks – ie 2- park admission for $70 instead of $140 or so – so we took them up on it. Still expensive, but it was my birthday gift to myself. =) I kinda wanted to go to Disney’s Hollywood Studios myself, but Gabi wanted to do Harry Potter World and I wanted someone to go with. It worked out REALLY well. The first park, the Studios part, had a few coasters – the music one and the Mummy were both pretty good – but also some pretty lame ones. The Twister walk-thru ride sticks out in particular as fairly terrible, but it was at least worth it for the “we waited for THAT?” kind of hilarity. The Simpsons ride was also bad in that it was terribly nauseating, with a lot of jarring and a simulator screen to boot. I should have learned after my Mission:Space adventure in Epcot that I should avoid it but we didn’t. Oh well! We did leave that park after that, having done most of the rides and not particularly enthusiastic about doing any more immediately.
Islands of Adventure proved to be pretty awesome, and I’m really glad we got the two-park tickets for a few reasons. One, we split our time equally between parks, but Studios closed early to reopen later with some sort of fright-night scenario. This meant that everyone was going there instead as we headed out of it, and because it was a Thursday, the lines were short anyway – which means the lines were even shorter, overall! We rode the Hulk, which was a little too jerky still, and then decided it was Harry Potter time. That’s on the other side of the park so we took a leisurely walk through Seuss-town and others before arriving. And man. They really did a good job on HP World. All the little English houses are covered in snow, which was funny in sunny Orlando but did kind of make me feel cooler, with a lot of the storefronts you read about in the books. They also sell owls, robes, and wands (amongst all sorts of other things) in the correct places, and the goods didn’t look too shabby. But the first thing we did, of course, was get some butterbeer. And like its corresponding article (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-hill/butterbeer-how-universal-_b_893654.html), I do think it was one of the best things. We both had the frozen version (the non-frozen came later…hehe) and it was super refreshing and hit the spot. Then we wandered around for a while in a little kid state – “look at that! Look at that!” – which I found truly impressive. I mean, Epcot was pretty ace, but I’ve seen most of it before. It was nice to find another one of those first moments when you’re really excited about exploring a new section of the park. And because the lines were so short, we hit the main screen/ride combo quickly (hello, single rider line), and I forgave the fact that it has a screen because it was pretty stinkin neat. Then we went on the hippogriff kid’s ride twice because there were no lines and it was calming after the first one. Also, the second time we boarded the ride as soon as we got to the gate – no waiting! Plus I wanted to take pictures, but Gabi thought she heard the attendant tell me to put it away, and when I didn’t (not like he could see anyway) we were like “take pictures take pictures take pictures!!!!” before someone found us out and/or the coaster got to moving too quickly. It was a little hysterical moment that you probably just had to be there for, but it was pretty cute.
I do have to comment on the new cubbies for your stuff while you ride especially strong coasters – they have a fingerprint-scanning bank of lockers that holds your stuff for free for the duration of one ride. Pretty nice! Of course, it says 31 minutes (or up to the length of the line for one ride) are free, and we weren’t really paying attention, so we did the dueling dragons coaster twice (no lines! Front row! AWESOME!) before we went back. Of course, then it holds your stuff hostage for $3, unless you look shocked and draw the attention of the attendant, who probably gets that a lot. But whatever, he cleared our charge, and we switched lockers and rode the coaster one more time because it was just that good – not jerky but full of twists and turns and loops! =) Then it was almost time for the park to close – five hours passed so fast! – so we booked it to the Spiderman ride thinking it was a good one. Turns out it was a screen one again – womp wompppp – but the running with butterbeer part was hilarious.
When we booked our tickets with the resort, the lady gave us two 2-for-1 drink tickets at certain places around Universal’s CityWalk, which is the Downtown Disney equivalent. Darn ucb was having a company party on most of it and didn’t invite us (we were all, the nerve! we’re hotel group buddies! haha) but we did find a latin place that would take it. Turns out the cheapest option was no-name well drinks, so we each got two fairly strong rum&coke//fuzzy navels for 5$. I figure, it’s no small feat in this town to get ANY drink for 2.50, especially an alcoholic one, so huzzah! The food was also good, and we ordered strategically so Gabi would be able to use her company card and reimbursed – woo free meal! When we got back (after having been in a cab behind one that had a laser show inside, which was pretty interesting) we met up with some others and hit the hot tub. So conference, rollercoasters, sun, food&cheap drinks, then hot tub. Pretty dang awesome day.
10/7
Attended a few good talks in the morning today, but fewer than I had anticipated because a few of the speakers never showed up (!). Split the cab with a few other people going to the airport (one of whom was a professor and got the whole fare, woop woop) and it was time to rent a car! Except not quite. We actually got there over an hour before my reservation, and since I wasn’t going to be able to get back that early on Sunday I just sat and caught up with some things in my trip log until it was time.
Since I was a savvy traveler, I had signed up for the Hertz free #1 Club Gold Plus status a while ago (usually $60/year, also came with a free weekend rental day) and got my own desk to approach. They also initially gave me a really nice Nissan Sentra, with 11 miles on it, but the GPS I brought wouldn’t charge in it (or, after I got an attendant, any of the three cars near it – curses!) so I had to move to a different rental with a mounted GPS. That one was a Toyota Corolla, supposedly dependable but this one at least was terribly annoying to drive. Maybe someone really beat on it, but it required constant steering attention as it wanted to blow all over the road. I didn’t even think it was that windy, although I did drive through three short, intense storms on the way down. Guess that’s just how Florida is.
I arrived a little before Natalie at the gated community where her boyfriend Peter (ha!) lives, so I spent a little while catching up on stuff on my phone (hee! Still novel) while waiting for the rain to stop before getting out of the car. Peter has two kids from a previous marriage, and I was staying in the 4-year-old son Jordan’s room; the kid was going to stay with his sister (8-year-old Rachel) across the hall. It worked out well, and the kids were cute if not a little whacky (although that part is not really unexpected given the age and that their parents are divorced). After meeting Natalie’s six cats (or so), we went to an Italian place for dinner (aka kid-friendly pizza!) and then Peter made a “blend” or healthy smoothie, including greens, afterwards. I’ve always been curious about the superfood smoothies and it was pretty good! So now I feel like maybe I might try it…although our blender is not half as powerful as the one he has, so it might not be as successful. Still it was reassuring to know I was eating more veggies. Peter seems like a pretty cool guy and he and Natalie seem happy together, which was great to see.
10/8
So much sleep, so good! After breakfast we hit the science museum with the kids and Rachel’s friend, and it was neat to watch them run around and remember how totally rad that kind of stuff is when you’re that age. I also learned about the huge-ass spiders that make gigantic webs between the palm trees here, and seeing them float overhead is something I was considerably less excited about. But no matter. We had lunch at CheeburgerCheeburger, which was an amusingly customizable experience, and then did a little shopping in the mall complex. There was a small purchase-related meltdown on Rachel’s part, who is very much a girly girl at this point, but the storm passed soon enough. We dropped her friend off and hit the pumpkin patch just as it started to rain – the kids grabbed their respective squash and we booked it for an afternoon of hanging out (and Thor!). I do appreciate being able to catch up to speed with what’s current in the lives of those under ten, and also catching up on my action movies. Peter made chicken curry for dinner which was great too.
10/9
Although my flight wasn’t until 5:15pm, to be on time for the rental (and to be there two hours ahead for the flight) I had to leave by 11:30am, which was earlier than I had anticipated. So we spent a slow morning in, and I had an excellent cappuccino (whipped cream & cocoa on top) and smoothie for breakfast -- I love these food options! =) Plus I laughed at the Scorpion King movie and played with the kids a bit. It was rather less than I thought I would be able to accomplish in a weekend, especially given all the go-go-go business I’ve been doing recently, but maybe that’s what I needed. I also would have liked to meet up with the other two cousins as, but that will have to be saved for another time.
I manhandled the car through three more storms, kinda figured out the cruise control with a bit of magic, and finally got to Orlando. I needed to fill the tank and ended up going through the $1 toll a totally unnecessary amount of times due to not knowing where a gas station was, but I finally figured it out and got back fine. After a nice salad in the airport, I tried to get through more Greece picture editing (they’re coming, someday!), then it was time for a flight and bus to home! My desk, upon arrival, was basically an explosion of mail, laundry, gifts, and stolen tea boxes (hey, the resort was so expensive, I took what I could get)…let’s not even talk about all the receipts I need to submit for reimbursement. But now I have five weeks or so before peter leaves and I go on my next adventure…ahhh, it’s good to be home!
Saturday, October 1, 2011
9/29 - 9/30 (final greece days!)
9/29/11
After a beautiful sunrise and a painless checkout, I met with Spyros and got to the airport. This was a day of quite a few airport-related firsts, including admission into the Delta lounge at the Athens airport. They had coffee, pastries, and mini ice creams (and a lot more besides) and it was pretty neat to see, since you’d have to have flown way more than I have to consistently get in. Our flight was a little delayed (air traffic wasn’t officially striking, but doing a “white strike”, where they just drag their feet and take the maximum amount of time to do anything) but it was fine. I read some of my book, started editing my photos on my computer until the battery ran out, and tried to sleep – pretty standard. But once we landed, I discovered that traveling with Spyros is awesome for more reasons than lounge admission – a person carrying a sign with his name on it met us after we deplaned, and help us cut through not just the line to get to customs, but the customs line itself. This easily saved us an hour or more of standing around. Plus, my checked bag had priority status! So that went well.
The JFK lounge was way more crowded, and had fewer pastries, but it was still pretty cool. But then everything went to hell in a handbasket, so to speak. First the flight to PIT was delayed a bit. Then they said they had mechanical problems, but boarded us after that so I figured it was fixed. Not so. After an hour and change on the plane (like flying to Pittsburgh, but with no movement!), the pilot declared the plane unsatisfactory. So they canceled that flight, and some freak weather thing canceled the last Delta flight after that. Then, of course, there was mass rebooking chaos – if you have several attendants on two phones at once, you are doing something wrong. And Delta, it seems, was doing everything wrong. Finally (way longer than I had expected Spyros to have to wait, really) we were booked on an 8am flight out, and with a hotel booked. Except the hotel was way out in the boonies, and the voucher said Holiday Inn (great, I get points!), but when we got there, they told us nobody booked with them, and that our tickets are actually for the Rockville Inn across the street. Rockville didn’t want to take our vouchers with the wrong hotel name on them, though, so we sat around and waited some more (and also for an ordered pizza, because the food vouchers we received weren’t helpful at a hotel at 11pm when they don’t have a restaurant). Finally, around midnight, we got a room, in which I would probably spend four hours sleeping before it was taxi time again.
I was impressed by Delta’s twitter account, however – I had complained about the situation, and they gave me a $50 voucher good towards any flight, fees, or whatever for the next year. Social networking hooray! This will probably go towards a trip to Ecuador, if I do another before September (which is likely).
9/30/11
Shower and back into the same clothes time, what fun. I’m now kind of a biohazard when I take off my shoes to go through security, but not exactly what the TSA are looking for. Also, whatever taxi company accepts Delta vouchers is the rudest I’ve ever had to deal with, but we got to the airport without much fuss. Before the flight we had three $10 and three $6 vouchers ($48!) to burn in food, so we had a fancy sit-down breakfast. Woo French toast and fruit! Also I stole the little jars of maple syrup (you never know), and spent $12 in vouchers on three dark chocolate toblerones (with Spyros’ full support, hehe. Plus he had some still for his flight this afternoon!). Finally we boarded and took off towards home! I sat next to a IBMer about my age who works on food systems and we had a delightful chat about live, Elizabeth Warren being a rockstar, and other things.
By the time we landed, Spyros was kind of sweating the trip to CMU, since he technically had a presentation to give to the first-years at 10:30am and wasn’t sure if he had been switched to 11:30 as he had requested the previous night. So Spyros got the car, I got the bags, and I made a bunch of calls while he drove to confirm the pres had indeed been switched. Everything was a success, and Spyros was kind enough to let me take his rental to the apartment briefly. He has to drive back to the airport to get to Orlando today so I had three hours to go home, freshen, launder, eat, and then I needed to come back briefly to make some arrangements for next week anyway. Also SWE was doing a tour of the nearby power plant that I wanted to attend, so I did that as well, although given my sleep level I was probably functionally drunk at that point. No matter! Except I killed or found husks of about seven roaches in the apartment, of varying sizes. Electric bug zapper racket purchase: justified. Nerves: shot. But I made it through the travel marathon, and after a bit of tiny packing prep for tomorrow’s Orlando flight (all I could manage) I slept for a really long time.
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