other stuff, minus dance
It's sad that I can't remember much in between March and May, though I'm not sure that much happened anyway. A large chunk of that time was taken up by ballroom (Harvard/MIT comps) and dance troupe, so that's what was up with me. Dance, that requires a whole entry of its own.
4/5 (Saturday)
Settlers of Catan party
Mike had another one of his board game parties, which are so much fun. We first had a potluck dinner, where I brought (and then made) some salad, Sally brought tofu, Jaime brought cake, and Mike/Yeunhee made these yummy meat wrapped in chicken things covered in cheese. We had a lovely dinner, and then we sat down to play this Settlers of Catan game. I had heard of it before but never played, it was very interesting. Actually, on first glance it would seem like a dull game because the board is not very complicated, but it's actually quite fun.
Mike/Yeunhee won eventually because of something really dumb. Mike was so smugly declaring his win because he got a road longer than Sally's. However, Jaime pointed out that just the turn before I put down one more road and actually claimed the longest road, and that was longer than Mike's. Brilliant. But then, next turn I got too excited being able to buy a new settlement, I forgot to reinforce my road. I could have easily connected two parts for a really long nearly unbeatable for a while road, but Jaime didn't remind me and I forgot, and Mike was able to grow his road one more step to win. So sad. It was fun though, I really love board games.
5/19 (Monday)
Chronicles of Narnia
After my 6.839 final, I had a day before having to deal with the 042 final. So Andriy and I went to watch Chronicles of Narnia at Fenway. It was good, much better than the first one, and Prince Caspian was hot. I just reread the books last year when the first movie had come out, but I already don't remember what happened. I just can't wait for Dawn Treader because that was my favorite. It was also the favorite of the guy who plays Prince Caspian =P.
5/25 (Sunday)
Picnic
Shopping
Sunday we finally pulled off the picnic that we've been planning for a few weeks now, after weeks of rainy Sunday weather. I got bread, cold cuts, and chips from shaws for chip sandwiches, and also ingredients for a yummy salad. Jaime brought cantaloupe, Lev helped get juice, and Sally came late with some pasta salad. We sat down by the dock on the esplanade behind our house and ate and chatted while Jaime took lots of pictures. It's really nice now that I've realized there's this area behind my place, a few weeks ago I went and lay in the grass while grading psets in my bathing suit.
After eating, we put the plates and cups back inside and went back out to the exercise area, where we played around on the pullup bars and stuff like that. I almost did a pullup, which was an accomplishment because I've only done one pullup in my life, and that was in fourth grade. But my arms were really sore yesterday afterwards. Then I tried hanging upside down on the bars while Andriy called me a monkey. I also limbo-ed under the lower bars. I want to be able to go really far down on leg power only, not bending, like a bboy. Someday. Sally and Jaime threw a frisbee around for a little while, until they got geese poop on it, and then we played a few rounds of Chinese poker before Sally had to leave.
Andriy and I went to the Galleria soon afterwards to buy him some pants. I thought we should go to Express because they've got some sexy men stuff, and we saw Milan there, and I thought, of course, Milan has some nice style. Unfortunately, the pants didn't really fit Andriy and made his butt look two feet long, so we ended up going to the Gap, which was better. Then we went to Target on the way home to get some things like soap, and then we had dinner at some Korean place on the way back. We were really late for the last FADS runthroughs ever, but they were fun nonetheless. More on that later.
Die Hard 1-3
Andriy and I watched the three Die Hard movies on his projector. They were actually pretty good, I think I'm a fan now. And I can't believe that the water jug thing was a real puzzle - we talk about it to model state machines in 042, but I never thought it was for real. I think I like the second one best, though, with the planes.
TV!
So, lots of TV going on that is really good. But the most important of all is that somehow I got into rewatching some Duck Tales, and I must say, it's just as good as ever, I haven't outgrown it at all. Awesome. And even though foreign people don't have the same experiences in popular media, Andriy said everyone his age also watched Duck Tales back in the day, so we were able to watch it together. Also, TaleSpin, Chip N Dale, Darkwing Duck, etc.
Other TV that I've been watching...
Celebracadabra - great because I love love love Hal Sparks. Plus the magic was pretty cool, though I wish they'd show how they did some of the tricks.
Viva Hollywood - even though it's like the dumbest show ever and the acting is really bad. I need to practice my spanish cuz I'm going to Costa Rica!
Step It Up And Dance - I enjoy it but they have no online episodes, which I think is the dumbest thing a show could do.
Dancing with the Stars - I was rooting for Jason Taylor, but I was happy that Kristi won because she really did kill on the finale. Jason has such good posture though, I was really impressed with his standard.
Desperate Housewives - What is going on with the 5 years later? What happened to Mike? I really liked the finale though, it was good to see Cathy was actually not a bad person.
Ugly Betty - omg just get with Gio already. Seriously, Henry is so last year.
Grey's Anatomy - Actually, this was one of the best season finales I've seen. The tumor patient love was just so touching, and the guy who was LJ on Prison Break is so hot. And then finally Meredith comes to terms with her annoying baggage.
Lost - WTF is going on? I'm curious to see how this all pans out in the season finale because it honestly is making no sense.
So You Think You Can Dance - FINALLY this is back! I almost didn't know, and then I downloaded the first episode via bittorrent, and I remembered the brilliance of having the high quality avi file. Some really nice dancing, loved the poppers like Phillip Chbeeb and the crazy contortionist guy. And the guy with the dance to the poetry reading, that was hot. Yay I'm so excited, I think this marked the beginning of summer for me, because I haven't gotten into summer mode quite yet.
Lawrence stuff
So we're still going to Lawrence to deal with the high schoolers, even though it's been a total flop. It really didn't work the way we did it, making up stuff as we went along, not really sticking to the overall plan of dealing with simulations. It was just pretty disorganized, so I still don't feel like they know what they are doing at all, and that's bad. I pulled an all-nighter last week to put something together for the first time (since Daniel usually does it), but we didn't use it because I didn't think it was ready. I'm going to have to revise it for this week to get it working, so hopefully that works out.
What has been cool, though, is getting to know my coworkers better. I mean, Daniel was always really friendly, but it was fun to talk to him and whoever else about things like Disney and Narnia and stuff like that. The only sad thing was that my room guy came for one session and he is so annoying, he just always says things where I think to myself, "What on earth can I possibly say to that?" Anyway, I'll just be glad when this stuff is over though, it puts a lot of pressure, since you're interacting, so you have to get it right. Yuck.
*************************
Next to come: Dancing-related stuff.
4/5 (Saturday)
Settlers of Catan party
Mike had another one of his board game parties, which are so much fun. We first had a potluck dinner, where I brought (and then made) some salad, Sally brought tofu, Jaime brought cake, and Mike/Yeunhee made these yummy meat wrapped in chicken things covered in cheese. We had a lovely dinner, and then we sat down to play this Settlers of Catan game. I had heard of it before but never played, it was very interesting. Actually, on first glance it would seem like a dull game because the board is not very complicated, but it's actually quite fun.
Mike/Yeunhee won eventually because of something really dumb. Mike was so smugly declaring his win because he got a road longer than Sally's. However, Jaime pointed out that just the turn before I put down one more road and actually claimed the longest road, and that was longer than Mike's. Brilliant. But then, next turn I got too excited being able to buy a new settlement, I forgot to reinforce my road. I could have easily connected two parts for a really long nearly unbeatable for a while road, but Jaime didn't remind me and I forgot, and Mike was able to grow his road one more step to win. So sad. It was fun though, I really love board games.
5/19 (Monday)
Chronicles of Narnia
After my 6.839 final, I had a day before having to deal with the 042 final. So Andriy and I went to watch Chronicles of Narnia at Fenway. It was good, much better than the first one, and Prince Caspian was hot. I just reread the books last year when the first movie had come out, but I already don't remember what happened. I just can't wait for Dawn Treader because that was my favorite. It was also the favorite of the guy who plays Prince Caspian =P.
5/25 (Sunday)
Picnic
Shopping
Sunday we finally pulled off the picnic that we've been planning for a few weeks now, after weeks of rainy Sunday weather. I got bread, cold cuts, and chips from shaws for chip sandwiches, and also ingredients for a yummy salad. Jaime brought cantaloupe, Lev helped get juice, and Sally came late with some pasta salad. We sat down by the dock on the esplanade behind our house and ate and chatted while Jaime took lots of pictures. It's really nice now that I've realized there's this area behind my place, a few weeks ago I went and lay in the grass while grading psets in my bathing suit.
After eating, we put the plates and cups back inside and went back out to the exercise area, where we played around on the pullup bars and stuff like that. I almost did a pullup, which was an accomplishment because I've only done one pullup in my life, and that was in fourth grade. But my arms were really sore yesterday afterwards. Then I tried hanging upside down on the bars while Andriy called me a monkey. I also limbo-ed under the lower bars. I want to be able to go really far down on leg power only, not bending, like a bboy. Someday. Sally and Jaime threw a frisbee around for a little while, until they got geese poop on it, and then we played a few rounds of Chinese poker before Sally had to leave.
Andriy and I went to the Galleria soon afterwards to buy him some pants. I thought we should go to Express because they've got some sexy men stuff, and we saw Milan there, and I thought, of course, Milan has some nice style. Unfortunately, the pants didn't really fit Andriy and made his butt look two feet long, so we ended up going to the Gap, which was better. Then we went to Target on the way home to get some things like soap, and then we had dinner at some Korean place on the way back. We were really late for the last FADS runthroughs ever, but they were fun nonetheless. More on that later.
Die Hard 1-3
Andriy and I watched the three Die Hard movies on his projector. They were actually pretty good, I think I'm a fan now. And I can't believe that the water jug thing was a real puzzle - we talk about it to model state machines in 042, but I never thought it was for real. I think I like the second one best, though, with the planes.
TV!
So, lots of TV going on that is really good. But the most important of all is that somehow I got into rewatching some Duck Tales, and I must say, it's just as good as ever, I haven't outgrown it at all. Awesome. And even though foreign people don't have the same experiences in popular media, Andriy said everyone his age also watched Duck Tales back in the day, so we were able to watch it together. Also, TaleSpin, Chip N Dale, Darkwing Duck, etc.
Other TV that I've been watching...
Celebracadabra - great because I love love love Hal Sparks. Plus the magic was pretty cool, though I wish they'd show how they did some of the tricks.
Viva Hollywood - even though it's like the dumbest show ever and the acting is really bad. I need to practice my spanish cuz I'm going to Costa Rica!
Step It Up And Dance - I enjoy it but they have no online episodes, which I think is the dumbest thing a show could do.
Dancing with the Stars - I was rooting for Jason Taylor, but I was happy that Kristi won because she really did kill on the finale. Jason has such good posture though, I was really impressed with his standard.
Desperate Housewives - What is going on with the 5 years later? What happened to Mike? I really liked the finale though, it was good to see Cathy was actually not a bad person.
Ugly Betty - omg just get with Gio already. Seriously, Henry is so last year.
Grey's Anatomy - Actually, this was one of the best season finales I've seen. The tumor patient love was just so touching, and the guy who was LJ on Prison Break is so hot. And then finally Meredith comes to terms with her annoying baggage.
Lost - WTF is going on? I'm curious to see how this all pans out in the season finale because it honestly is making no sense.
So You Think You Can Dance - FINALLY this is back! I almost didn't know, and then I downloaded the first episode via bittorrent, and I remembered the brilliance of having the high quality avi file. Some really nice dancing, loved the poppers like Phillip Chbeeb and the crazy contortionist guy. And the guy with the dance to the poetry reading, that was hot. Yay I'm so excited, I think this marked the beginning of summer for me, because I haven't gotten into summer mode quite yet.
Lawrence stuff
So we're still going to Lawrence to deal with the high schoolers, even though it's been a total flop. It really didn't work the way we did it, making up stuff as we went along, not really sticking to the overall plan of dealing with simulations. It was just pretty disorganized, so I still don't feel like they know what they are doing at all, and that's bad. I pulled an all-nighter last week to put something together for the first time (since Daniel usually does it), but we didn't use it because I didn't think it was ready. I'm going to have to revise it for this week to get it working, so hopefully that works out.
What has been cool, though, is getting to know my coworkers better. I mean, Daniel was always really friendly, but it was fun to talk to him and whoever else about things like Disney and Narnia and stuff like that. The only sad thing was that my room guy came for one session and he is so annoying, he just always says things where I think to myself, "What on earth can I possibly say to that?" Anyway, I'll just be glad when this stuff is over though, it puts a lot of pressure, since you're interacting, so you have to get it right. Yuck.
*************************
Next to come: Dancing-related stuff.