This past weekend in the car with my sister at one point the conversation touched on the whole swine flu mess. I made a joke comment that I had been having these dreams about an old lady on her porch named Mother Abigail. Well looks like other people had the same though, but took it to the next level thanks to Twitter. You now can follow Abigail Freemantle and Tom Cullen “MOON that spells Swine Flu!”
(If you haven’t read or seen The Stand by Steven King this will mean very little to you 
)
fun with photography »« sad day at the lab
We were told someone we work with was found dead this morning in their appt. News/facts are still coming out but it was quite a shock. I didn’t really know the girl that well. She worked in my section for a short time before she started training. Still…was quite a sad day at the lab today.
…Like something out of The Stand. »« Chicago day 3
Yesterday was our first day of class. We pretty much covered the basics and theory behind the microscope, how to set it up, how to calibrate the scale, things like that. They brought in lunch for us since there really isn’t much with in walking distance from where the class was.
Last night 5 of us all met up in the lobby and went out to see a little bit of Chicago. We took the subway a few stops up to the John Hancock Center and based on a tip from one of the instructors, went up to the Signature Lounge which is even higher than the visitors center (96th floor) and instead of paying 15$ to ride up and look out the observation deck windows we spent 10$ on a drink in the lounge and got to look out those windows which gave a quite impressive view of the city.
Ohhh also while up there we saw Bobby Lee from Mad TV up there having a drink with some friends. A few people took pictures with him and he seemed nice. Just figures that I live in NYC for 5 years and the first “famous person I saw on the street” story is from Chicago.
After the sun set we went back down and headed to Giordanos (the famous pizza place) for dinner. 4 of us split the tropical pizza which was pineapple, cheese, and canadian bacon. It was VERY good. Plus we didn’t eat till like 9 here which is like 10 for me so I was just a little hungry.
Today is day 2 of class. No idea what we might do tonight. One of the museums is open till 8 and free today so there was some talk of being total nerds and going there. Have to see.
sad day at the lab »« In Chicago
Well I made it to Chicago safe and sound. I even learned a few things along the way!
1. LaGuardia is a crappy airport.
2. United is a crappy airline (15$ for 1 checked bag…pfft!
It HAS been nice that all my travel is paid for so my trip from the airport to my hotel was covered, along with the hotel it self. I am staying at the Club Quarters. Place is a business hotel so the rooms are small but I wont be in it much other than to sleep so it should be fine. When I got into Chicago it was raining/snowing an after unpacking and what not it was REALLY raining out. Hence I had dinner in the Elephant and Castle pub thats attached to the lobby of the hotel. Had a decent burger/fries and a beer, and even was bad and got bread pudding desert to go and am enjoying it here in my room.
It’s only 8pm here, stupid time zones. So that combined with my travel has me dead tired but its a bit too early to go to bed yet. At least I have WiFi to entertain me
Chicago day 3 »« Back home and back to work
Meg and I are back in NYC. We flew out of FL at 6am yesterday and got back here around 830ish. The rest of our visit to Fl was quite productive wedding wise. By the end of our visit we had:
1. Set the date – 10-10-09
2. Location – The Fountain of Youth in St. Augustine Fl.
3. Found outfits for both Meg and I (her a dress, Me nice pants and a shirt, we are going casual)
4. Scouted out a few locations for our reception lunch, we still have to call and work out those details but we have some ideas.
All in all it was quite productive. We still have a good deal of work to do. Figure out a guest list, flights/hotels, officiant, wedding license, cake, ect. but its a good start.
Our Fl visit wasn’t ALL wedding planning though. We did get to go see Monsters vs. Aliens in IMAX 3D which was quite impressive visually, story wise it was alright, I mean what do you expect from an animated movie where one of the characters is a living blob? We also had a nice dinner at her sisters house and got to play Scene It on their Xbox after, we played teams and Meg and I kicked ass, and by Meg and I, I mean Me Finally Monday night they did a birthday BBQ dinner for me with a cherry cheese cake birthday cake. I also got presents from her family which was really nice of them.
Today was back to work for me, though it will be a short week. I head off to Chicago on Sunday for my week long microscope training class and I don’t get back till Friday. Then we will head up to CT for Easter with my family so I wont end up back at work until that following Tuesday. By the time I have to work a full week I will probably do nothing but complain since I have been so spoiled this past month!
In Chicago »« Fl update.
