Quote of the Day (WARNING nerd jokes)

12:53 me: my supply of fudge striped cookies is dwindling

  THAT'S what i need to stock up on for the hurricane

 Roberto: hahaha

  i'm buying stuff to make hurricanes today.

 me: yessss

 Roberto: light rum, dark rum, pineapple juice, orange juice.

12:54 me: my friend is a meteorologist and he went to the weather version of AAS and they gave everybody there free hurricanes

 Roberto: nice.

12:55 we need to come up with some kind of astronomy drink.

  like the dark matter shot or something.

12:57 me: yeah, and everyone will always ask each other and the bartender, what is this made of?

  they'll just shrug and say WIMPs?

12:58 Roberto: hahahaha

  machos

12:59 WIMPS = whiskey……melon, patron

 me: hahahahahaha

  legit lol'ing right now

13:00 Roberto: whiskey, ice, melon juice, patron

 me: that actually sounds a bit unpleasant

- Talking about the upcoming Hurricane Sandy due to hit the mid-Atlantic soon.

Quote of the Day

Roberto: so you up to anything?

23:32 me: not much

  was reading for a bit. hangin out with the cat

  you know

  big stuff

23:35 you?

 Roberto: nothing exciting. grocery shopping, cleaning.

23:36 me: preparing for the bone chiseling.

23:37 Roberto: yeah.

  thanks for that.

 me: just doing my duty as your friend

  your pragmatic friend haha

23:39 Roberto: when are you donating blood again? have you seen the size of those needles?

 me: hahahaha

  touche  - My friend is having ankle surgery. I am donating blood for the first time ever.

City Life

I'm sitting on my fire escape. I like to sit at the top of my fire escape, on the roof of my row home. I could walk across the roofs and fire escapes of a dozen row homes since they are really one large seamless building broken up into homes and one-floor apartments. I like to sit on my fire escape and gaze up at the 10-15 stars I can see near the heart of Baltimore.

I hear a rustling near the bottom of the fire escape. Too soft to be a person. Rustling in the alleyway = rats. I think, "Can rats climb stairs? Wow I hope not, because they could climb the stairs of my fire escape and be at my back door. They could be clawing at my door and windows from the fire escape." I sit and hope that rats can't climb stairs. I look down and there is no rat. Phew.

I hear a rustling 3 floors below me in the alley that runs behind the large seamless row of row homes. This time, without looking I know it's rats. I look anyway- yes, it's a rat. It scurries out from under my neighbor's car that is parked in the alleyway. It runs across the alley to a dumpster that is overfilling with trash. They pick up the trash on Mondays so it's overfilling by Sunday.

I look back up to the sky again.

A few minutes later, a man steps out into the alley from the large seamless row of shops/restaurants that occupies the side of the alley parallel to the large seamless row of row homes. He empties a mopping bucket. The alley is slightly at an incline- the dirty water runs all the way down the alley. It makes sense now; I have noticed how where the middle of the alleyway street meets is turned an odd shade of pale orange. It must be bleached? by the frequent dumping of cleaning materials in the mopping buckets.

Some time later I hear the caw-ing of a large flock of crows. I hope that maybe they are ravens (I don't really the difference between the two) because of Baltimore's history with ravens (think Edgar Allen Poe).

I sit in relative silence (there is humming of heaters, some quiet honking in the background). Then I hear rustling again, this time at a different dumpster. Rats? I think. I look down.

I see a rat skitter. skitter. skitter. up three steps of a stairwell across the alleyway from my fire escape.

Quote of the Day

Matt: How is your tarantula? Please tell me it is doing better

me: DUDE. I was really scared so the first thing I did when I got home is look at her- she was in a different spot! I tapped the cage a lot but she didn't move. Later I came back and she was in a different place again. She is clearly alive, maybe recovering from molting so won't respond to my polite taps. It is rather tedious to shed your exoskeleton.

Matt: I know that when I have to do it I tend to lounge around for the next couple of days.

- Conversation between myself and friend Matt

(A few days ago Zelda the tarantula molted. I was mortified when I came home from work and saw TWO tarantulas. While this is very cool that she shed her exoskeleton, this morning she was sprawled out very oddly and I tapped on the glass to see if she was ok. She did not move. I tapped harder. Still nothing. I told some of my coworkers about earlier how I was nervous she was dying/ill.)

On a happier note

I made a website for work.

You can see all my lovely coworkers and their... interesting photos here.

My website is here. SO PROFESSIONAL EH?