Metal Kettles

Who the hell thinks that metal kettles with metal handles are a good idea?? I mean seriously, does some guy sit there and say, "hey, let's design a kettle that, when used for its most reasonable purpose will quickly transfer copious amounts of heat energy to the user's hand." I'm sure the average person only burns themselves once or twice a month. The best is when you know about the problem and use a towel to hold the handle when pouring the contents. Then after you've emptied the vessel, you transfer it to the other, untoweled hand as if all the heat has magically dissipated during the pouring process. Sigh*

Life is good

I am sitting at a coffee shop that I just found via Eric, studying discrete choice modeling in the 70 degree New York summer air. This place, only a few blocks from my home, has a huge back yard half of which is covered by a huge trellis filled with grape vines. This give a good amount of shade, letting in just enough sun to keep me warm and, portends a great late summer when I'll be able to come here and pick the fruits.
I am, however, completely broke since I still have not begun working anywhere. This is a problem since my bank account has officially been exhausted and I even have credit card debt thanks to me not looking for a job early enough when I was in Portland. I am going to school on Monday to meet with a professor and a supervisor at the Voorhees Transportation Center http://policy.rutgers.edu/vtc/ regarding some research work that I'll be doing this summer. I will be conducting parking audits in the vicinity of train stations in northern New Jersey. I would like to do a little more than data collection, but I'm also interested in the project and that is all that is needed now.
Tomorrow I will go to my first practice with the ultimate team with whom I am ostensibly playing this summer. We shall see how it goes. On Sunday we will check out this block party further down in Brooklyn and also a craft fair near here. Brandy wants to find out what it will take to sell some of her work at the fair.

Friggin' kitten!

There is this damn kitten in the window across the street meoring it's face off. It has been doing this for the past two hours with no signs of relenting and is incredibly annoying.
Turns out that little kitties can, in fact, be the opposite of adorable; deplorable.

Ahhh

The heat wave has finally broken. Last night around we started to hear the portentous cool winds outside our window. In minutes the sky had opened and a cold rain was pounding the scalding pavement, lightning crashing all around. Dropping what we were doing, we grabbed beers and ran out to the stoop. We savored actually feeling chilly as we watched the storm blowing itself out. There was another couple doing the same across the street and we waved joyfully at each other. Today our high will be a cool 88 degrees.

In New York

Yes, I'm alive and well living in New York. I got here a couple weeks ago following a two week road trip across the country, which took me through California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, DC, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and of course, New York. I was joined on this journey by Brandy and two Italians, Stefano and Francesco. I met Stefano while studying in Budapest in 2004/5. Photos and, if I am not too lazy, commentary will come soon.
I am settling into my life here in Brooklyn quite well, although I have yet to find a job for the summer and my funds are basically nonexistent. I'm hoping to find something related to my field and have a couple of leads, but I might soon resort to whatever I can find. Of course I could be a little more proactive, but there are plenty of other tasks to tackle related to moving to a new place.
Brandy and I went to a music festival upstate called Mountain Jam on my first weekend here. I probably should have stuck around town, but she really wanted to go and the last festival I attended was Rockfest in 1999. It was quite fun although I was not into the music as much as Brandy. The venue was perfect - a ski resort in the Catskills - and we had fun exploring the mountain.
I have also begun my summer league for ultimate frisbee. Our team is terrible and we have lost every game. Granted, I cannot fault the quality of the players as much as the attendance, which has been abysmal. My back has been sore for some time and I'm trying to rest up this week, so I can be counted as one of the group of those too lame to play. But I am trying out for teams so I need to be in peak condition, or at least not broken.
It has been preposterously hot the last few days, topping out yesterday around 99 and humid. We also had some crazy lightning the other night that kept striking right near our place. It really sounded like we were being bombed.
Last night I met up with Krista, a couchsurfing friend, for her birthday. We went out to dinner at a pretty decent Thai/Japanese place called Nooch in Chelsea and then proceeded to the bars. We were supposed to go to this lame ass place called Lit near St. Marks, but apparently they were having some party and we couldn't get in right away, so we went over the the Kabin across the street. It was a divey place with a very cool bartender and we hung out playing pool for awhile. When we were informed that 10 or so friends of ours had gotten in at Lit, we made another attempt. This time two of the group were denied entry because they were too well dressed, having come straight from work. Brandy informed me that this place used to be a popular hipster hangout about 4 years ago, but was now pathetically hanging on to what was no more. Whatever. We exchanged some heated words with a couple of the staff and then gathered our group of 30 and took our business elsewhere.
Today I am once again hanging out in a coffee shop working on lots of random stuff. There are some perks to being unemployed.
Eric loaded the latest version of Ubuntu on my machine and also fixed my wireless so I can actually use password protected networks, or for that matter any network. My wireless situation was getting out of hand. Apparently it was the most hassle he's ever had with wireless. Atheros wireless cards are not recommended for those who wish to run Linux.
Tonight we are going to a cocktail party for our CSA and hopefully we will be able to switch our Saturday share with someone on a Wednesday share, otherwise it will be quite a hassle to get our veggies this summer. For those who are wondering, a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is a group in which members buy a share of a local family farm at the beginning of the year and then receive food for the duration of the season. The food is typically organic and you get a bunch of different products every week - whatever is in season. We bought veggie, fruit and egg shares and are looking forward to our first load.