Long weekend

It's easy to lose track of days when you're schedule is busy from 8 am until midnight every day. Today is the last day of the conference and I fly to Chicago on Wednesday. Here's a recap.

Thursday: I fly into Orando and wait an hour and a half to catch a shuttle to the airport. The Meirs shuttle people are the most disorganized airport transportation organization I have seen. Their system: you wait in line for a long time, buy a ticket, take the ticket outside to the bus booth. At the booth, they write down your number and put your hotel on a list. Periodically, big shuttle buses will pull up, and they will call out about 3 names, and the bus leaves, nowhere near full. Since 30,000 people are coming in for the library conference, you would think they would have more frequent shuttles or more people working the ticket booth. I apologize if I complain too much. I'm used to efficient modes of transportation.

When I get there that night, I make it up with Kari to the Bahama Breeze. It's a nice place. We get seated and eat. About half of the group makes it to dinner that night. There are definately more women than men, to be expected at a librarian conference, and many of the young ones (us) are married.

To be continued.

Bill's Summer

Just in case you wanted to know what Bill's doing this entire summer. I want to try to make it to Thumbfest over Labor Day, but we'll see what happens.

Jet-Set

I'm off to Orlando today for the ALA Annual Conference. It turns out that Dargan needs a place to stay, so he'll be watching the cat instead of the cat moving to Philly for 3 week. Dean will be much happier that way. It also saved us a lot of time because we didn't have to pack all the cat's stuff and drive it over.

If you happen to be going to the conference, I'm working at the Internet Cafe. Stop by!

Practice, Practice

I've been on a strict regimine of 5 new tunes a week in preparation for Irish Arts Week in July. Scott's been schooling me in the Two or More Polkas, a reel, a Wedding Jig and another jig that goes with it. (Last week.) This week, it's been that tune that starts on an B and E, the tune that goes with it, and 2 others ones that he taught me last night and I may have forgotten. I'm doing a pretty good job at picking them up, by ear, but I usually forget them the next day, and remember them again the 3rd. Should I bring my mandolin or my violin with me to Orlando? I can play a lot more, and much faster on my violin than I can on the mandolin, but my mandolin cases has fun bumper stickers. Luckily, I'm taking the intermediate violin and beginner mandolin courses.

Free Produce!

Today was Agriculture Day at the State House. This means that there were all sorts of farmers' associations with booths set up in the basement giving out apples, blueberries, tomatos, squash, zucchini, cucumbers, and organic herbs. I think it'd be fun to go wine tasting at one of New Jersey's Vineyards or to go get produce at one of New Jersey's Organic farms. There's a pick-your-own strawberry place by where I live in Plainsboro, and I plan on biking there to get some fresh strawberries before the end of the summer.

Cynthia made dinner with all of the fresh vegetables I'd accured, and Rich made a blueberry pie on a whole wheat crust that Scott has bought. It was a delicious and healthy evening!

Stone Stamp

Xcott held another stone-carving session on Saturday. I'm mostly finished with my stone stamp. I have to refine some parts, and I'll put up a picture soon. I've also got to get ready for being gone for the next 3 weeks starting with the ALA conference in Orlando. I'll get to see Amy!

Knowledge-Held-Hostage

Friday, I spent the day at the Knowledge Held Hostage conferece on copyright and fair use. It was a long day and very packed full of seminars. I think it was too focued on one aspect and a more diverse range of viewpoints may have helped the discussion. (Instead of all big corporate companies bad.)

Librarian Blogs

Thanks to Ethan for his post on Librarian blogs.

Pizza Derivative

Scott made calzones for dinner on Tuesday night. While this was a pizza derivative, he made a different sauce made of eggplant and diced tomatoes which I really liked. Thanks!

Last Lambertville Session

Xcott's moving to Binghamton soon, so tonight was his last session at Mitchell's Famous Irish Session. Harold was there, and Xcott gave him a Flogging Molly cd to introduce him the Irish folk/punk scene. Harold gave him his group's CD. The members of Harold's band, the Immortals also come to the session.

The last bastion of chivalry

Thanks to my Ladies' Night post, I helped Emily with her first guest column at the Herald News in Joliet! Check it out! Emily is one of the "Common Sense" columnists.

Cat meets Cat

Since we're going away to various conferences, we're taking Dean to stay with Ed while we're gone. We took the cat over today to meet Ed's cat, hopefully easing the adjustment process later on. Most guides about introducing cats to other cats say that the cats should be gradually introduced, with one locked in a room with his food and litter for a few days while they both get used to each other. In this case, we left Dean on one half of the apartment for about half an hour before we let them meet each other, probably not the best move. Eme hissed at Dean, Dean hissed back and they kinda slinked around each other for a while. Eme's learned to make a weird cooing noise that is supposed to frighten things. I don't think Dean was phased. We'll see how they get along once they move in together next week!

Stone Carving

Scott's been teaching us the fine craft of stone carving. This afternoon, after a round of errands, we spent our time tinking away at some limestone. I prefer the wooden mallets because they are lighter. The downside is that they are covered in wax, which leaves your hand feeling a bit greasy afterwards. My first project will be a carving of my name is Chinese, a la the style those small red signature stamps that you see in Chinese art.

Rich and I had to leave the stone-carving party a bit early to prepare the Eggplant Parmesan for dinner. We used a Cooks Illustrated recipe that floured, egged, and then breaded the eggplant. You bake it on well oiled, pre-heated pans in the oven instead of frying it. It came out very well, not soggy or too heavy.

Potter, I presume?

I relented and saw the latest Harry Potter movie (#3). I'd seen the first one, but had decided to stick to the books after that, missing #2. Cynthia, Ed, Rich and Scott wanted to go, so we went to see it. I have to admit that I enjoyed it. While I did notice the differences in the book to the movie, it was still very well done.

Last night, I had some pizza with my friend Paul and his fiance. I met Paul at Eagleton. He was an undergraduate associate, now on his way to law school. Paul has an interesting story: as a Chicago native, he worked at Orvis, teaching flyfishing and guiding people on expiditions. He left his first college, Colgate, to try life as a golf pro for a few years before September 11. Afterwards, he decided to do more with himself by finishing his undergrad and going to law school. Congrats on your engagement and good luck with law school! You'll see Paul in office someday soon.

Senator Doria

Last night, Joseph Doria was selected as the new Senator for Hudson County! The previous senator had passed away several weeks ago. Senator Doria was one of the teachers I had for the Eagleton Seminar. I'm going to go see him sworn in at the Senate session this afternoon. It's always good to have connections in high places.

Hooray, GRC here I come!

Last night after pizza, I decided to log in to the registration for the GRC Science and Technology Policy Conference. The poster chair told me to try that periodically to see if I'd gotten funding. This time, it told me that after the $50 early-registration deduction and $850 in funds from the Chair, I owed $0! I have apparently gotten funding for the conference. Hooray! Big Sky Resort, Montana, in August!

Art Pizza

Tuesday night, we had the Stuffed Green Peppers. Tonight, Scott was back from Binghamton and making pizza. (I told him he had to come up with something else sometime, besides a pizza variant.) Aja and Karen came over, and fun was had by all. It's getting pretty hot/humid out here, so we tried to crank up the air conditioning so we could bear the warm apartment (especially with all the cooking going on.) Scott made a normal pizza and an "art pizza". The "art pizza" was topped like a checkerboard, with red pepper, olives, eggplant, and mushrooms making up the differet patches. When he wasn't looking I accidentally covered the top with cheese, making it harder to see the pattern. Opps! (There was so much cheese left over, and I wanted to use it up, not knowing the importance of the "art pizza".)

Grocery Store Rendezvous

At SuperFresh today, I was in the bread aisle looking for some seedless raspberry jam. I turn around and I see Aja (pronounced Asia)! Aja was my SAI pledge kid back at Northwestern. She's apparently living around the corner from me now, working for ZS Associates. Another NU/SAI alum, Karen, is also working for her. We exchanged contact info, and decided to have dinner together sometime soon.

Dinner Club

Rich made the spinach lasagna tonight. The secret ingredient is fontina cheese. It was a bit too heavy on the lactose for me. Scott just got back from being home, and Cynthia came over; they both loved the lasagna. I decided to start a dinner club with me and Rich making dinner 2 nights a week, Scott covering a night, and Cynthia doing a night. My two recipes for the week will be Stuffed Green Peppers and Eggplant Parmesean.

Shy New York

Went to New York today to have dinner with Henry Fu before he moves out to LA. I met up with Jeffrey at Penn Station and we went to Spice for lunch. Mike Vea came too. After the lunch special, we got bubble tea. I get bubble tea every time I visit New York. My current favorite flavor is the passion fruit green tea with tapioca. After that, we decided to start heading over to the Upper West side area from where we were in the East Village. (That's a lot of walking!) On the way, I got to see Jeffrey's office. He has a big corner office to himself with windows and everything! One notable underwear design I saw there was the "Shy Girl."

After cutting through Central Park, we got to Cafe con Leche on time. After a sufficient number of plantains, it was time for some Jamba Juice. The day was a lot of fun. It involved a lot of walking and very little rain.

Ladies' Night - Out

Only in New Jersey. Due to a guy's complaint at a bar/restaurant that he had to pay cover while the women didn't, Ladies' Nights have been ruled unlawful and discriminatory. Ladies, we lose out everywhere! Many business are getting rid of their special promotions nights, and business is down. As they say, women bring in more customers and without the women, the men do not follow.

I have a feeling this will not be the way that it is settled. The Civil Rights Commission still have to have a public hearing and formalize the rules, or else, by corollary, Kids' Night at the ballpark or Senior Citizen discounts may also be thought of as discriminatory.

Misplaced Keys

I can't seem to find my keys. Last night, after getting home from work (Rich drove), I took a nap while Rich went to play some B-Ball. We picked up some pizza afterwards to share with Cynthia. I know I had them at one point, so I'm hoping they're in the apartment. This post is here so I can remember when and where I last saw my keys.

The Legislature at work

The Legislators come to the State House on Mondays and Thursdays to get their work done. They usually have committee meetings and a session to attend. Today, I attended the Assembly Judiciary Committee hearing and the Senate State Government Assembly hearing. The Assembly Judiciary Committee heard bills on adding digital audio/video recording devices as illegal in movie theatres to the Anti-Piracy Act as well as a ball to criminalize the act of enticing or luring others to committ a crime over the internet. This bill is based on incidents in New Jersey where a man posed as housewives in chatrooms, posting their names and addresses, to have people to to their homes and hurt them.

The Senate State Government hearing was a rare joint session with the Assembly to hear bills on Pay-to-Play and election reforms. The Republicans have presented a plan, accusing Democracts of being too soft on election reform. Pay-to-Play is the name for the situation where contractors donate money to politican campaigns and then receive contracts in the future for it. What is interesting is that there is so much of a focus on this issue that half the bills reviewed in the hearing had not yet been introduced on the Senate or Assembly floor. One committee member's point is that How can they review these bills and approve them in committee if noone (legislators and the public) had not had a chance to even read them or analyze them yet. Most of these bills were approved by committee anyway.

Dinnertime

Rich and I have decided to cook more at home in order to eat healthier and also to be more thrifty. So, we've decided to make meals 3 times a week and then eat leftovers for the rest of the week (or something like that.)

They week, Rich picked three recipes that he wanted to make from the web and from the Cooks Illustrated magazine we receive. From Cooks Illustrated he picked a fish recipe, and a white spinach lasagna. From Epicurious.com, he picked a Coconut Curry Tofu with Green Jasmine Rice. We had the fish last night, and it was excellent. He made the coconut tofu tonight, and while good, it wasn't my favorite: it needed better coconut milk. Always buy the more solid coconut milk from an Asian grocery store instead of the Goya brand. I think I may like it better in the future when it is more coconut-y.

State House

OLS is housed in the New Jersey State House complex. It's a very nice building with nice marble, leather covered doors for the committee rooms, gold dome, you know, that kind of thing. I got a tour yesterday, and I learned about the legislative process today. It involves a lot of volumes of statues and laws, which are searchable on the NJ Legislature website. (Makes it a lot easier that way.)

While I'm here, I'm going to be working on a database project to store information about the state's legislators and also doing some research and answering some reference questions. For all you people in New Jersey, the new hands-free cell phone law will go into effect on July 1, 2004. It is not a primary offence, but a secondary one. Police cannot pull you only for talking on your cell phone, but can give you a ticket if they pull you over for something else and see that you were also talking on your cell.

Summer Internship

After celebrating Dave Smith's birthday last night at On the Border, I went to bed after submitting my application for the National Academies' Science and Technology Internship Program. I've applied for the Fall session and hope to hear back by the end of the month as to whether or not I've gotten an interview. I started my summer field experience (read: unpaid internship for class credit) at the New Jersey Office of Legislative Services Library. I'll be here for about 150 hours or about a month's worth of full-time work. That's also a reason that I've been behind in my blogging.

Lazy Week

I've been lazy and haven't posted for a week. I'll try to catch up and backdate posts as I go.