The Fascinating Life of an Architect

Red paint.

2008-06-24T08:28:00.002-04:00

daily weigh-in: 128.0 lb
running on: 7 hours of sleep

The next project on our list of home improvement tasks is a big one! We need to paint the exterior of our house. Lucky for Halsey I'm a designer... I downloaded Benjamin Moore's swatches from their "architects and designers" website, selected some colors for our house, and created a collage for Halsey to see, which included a preview of what our back porch might look like in Harvard CRIMSON!

Maine event.

2008-06-15T11:16:00.007-04:00

daily weigh-in: 134.0 lb
running on: 8 hours of sleep

I've been meaning to blog about a few trips to Maine that Halsey and I went on this month. We went up to his family's home over the first weekend of June to prepare for the arrival of a new float. Last year the wood float that Halsey & his family/friends designed & built 15 years ago finally suffered a fantastic failure, which meant a new float had to be built or purchased this year. Halsey spent lots of time researching and considering a fancy fiberglass type of float to replace the damaged wood float, and eventually his family made the decision to go forward with that idea. The fiberglass float is about 4X lighter than a wood float of the same size, which means it might be possible for Halsey and his family to pull it out of the water each winter by themselves instead of storing it at a boat yard, where it might be subject to damage as the tide brings it up and down each day. A second advantage of the fiberglass float is that it may be more durable and last a lot longer than a wood float.

Here are some pics from our first trip, which involved a lot of preparation work down at the pier, and some animal viewings in and around the house:

Here is the set of photos from our second trip showing the two day process of getting the float off of the delivery truck and attached to the pier!

Day 1:

Day 2:

The end!

Of course I couldn't resist taking a few pictures before we caught the ferry to come back home:

Home improvement.

2008-06-14T22:35:00.004-04:00

daily weigh-in: 132.5 lb
running on: 9 hours of sleep

I have some great news! Maggie (the magnolia tree that Halsey & I planted in place of our poison ivy patch last spring :: please refer to Progress in Suburbia) has bloomed! And her flowers smell so yummy!

Yesterday & last weekend we spent some family time outside rebuilding part of our back porch, scraping it, and prepping it to be painted. Halsey built a new railing, I cleaned the railing on the front porch so it could be painted, and Sequoia climbed a tree.

Today (when it stops raining) we are going to paint the back porch RED! And I'm going to finish wire brushing the front railing...

Summer time.

2008-06-07T22:51:00.008-04:00

daily weigh-in: 134.5 lb
running on: 8 hours of sleep

Let me begin my post by saying that even though I never expected to be living in suburbia at this point in my life & some of my friends think it is lame, today I realized that it is totally worth it if you can borrow your neighbor's power washer and blast the dirt off of your house with water all day in 92-degree heat. It is a very satisfying feeling, one that I am sure you can not find in Boston proper.

My boyfriend is once again more famous than me. Check out his article in today's New York Times: A Museum That Lets Its Visitors Become Part of the Art.

Also, my cat is now more famous than me: An homage to the Sydney Opera House (Stuff on my Cat 05/13/2008).

News.

2008-04-01T14:32:00.000-04:00

daily weigh-in: 133.0 lb
running on: 8 hours of sleep

I know I have been MIA for a while, but I've been working and doing stuff.... Anyway, I have some things to discuss. I'm loving the new dialogue about mixed race people in the New York Times: Who Are We? New Dialogue on Mixed Race. Stop making me check just one box!

Now for some work news. Check out the latest LWA project under construction via the MIT Media Lab webcam.

And of course, my dear super-talented Halsey has been very busy preparing for & launching ROUND, an exhibit at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, CT. He's also performing live with his band Aesthetic Evidence on Thursday at First Thursdays from 6:30 to 8:30pm.

I was bitterly disappointed this weekend because I went to see the movie 21, which was shot in Boston last year. I managed to wander onto the set, which was right across the street from my office, and was placed as an extra in the scene where Kevin Spacey & Jim Sturgess are walking through Chinatown. The good news is that my scene was not cut from the movie. The bad news is that I am one of the very blurry shapes in the background at the point where the two actors stop to talk after walking past the dancing dragon. So you can't see me. Boooooo.

OK that's it for now. Hopefully I'll start blogging again more regularly. It's hard because life is less crazy now that I'm done with architecture school. I don't want to write about boring stuff like having a job and sleeping regular hours.

It's a new year...

2008-01-03T22:47:00.000-05:00

daily weigh-in: 135.0 lb with sub-arctic snow outfit on
running on: 8 hours of sleep

I wrote the date down today for the first time this year and I realized, hey it's 2008! It's also 2 degrees Fahrenheit outside right now. Hooray for January in Boston. I've been busy so I haven't been blogging, but here's an update...

The month of December set the record for the most snowfall EVER in December:

Halsey and I spent Christmas in Connecticut with his family. Here are some special moments that I captured on film:

In memory of William C. Duncan, 1926-2007.

2007-12-09T21:42:00.000-05:00

daily weigh-in: 134.5 lb
running on: 10 hours of sleep

My grandpa Duncan passed away last Monday 12/3 after a long battle with cancer =( I will miss him... For now his obituary is posted here.

You can tell you live in suburbia when....

2007-11-25T09:52:00.001-05:00

daily weigh-in: 139.0 lb
running on: 8 hours of sleep

...all of your blog postings are about your house or your cat. Well, this post is about both! So there!

Sometime during the completion of my awesome 3D puzzle of the Sydney Opera House, the shell structure began to look like a cat outfit. So... we put it on Sequoia, naturally. I think it makes a great storm trooper outfit. Anyway, we submitted the photo to StuffonMyCat.com and hopefully we will see the photo posted soon!

This week Halsey and I have taken on the kitchen walls. The original owners had once installed a lovely wallpaper to match the tile behind the stove. A second layer of wallpaper had been attached later, and finally a third layer of wallpaper was glued over that. So either the two prior re-wallpaper-ers had neglected to scrape the glue off of the walls before applying their lovely paper, or the first or last person to wallpaper used wayyyyyyyyy tooooooo much glue, because there is a thick layer of glue that I have been scraping off for a week now. I just finished last night.

Now we just have to finish skim coating / sanding all of the walls so we can prime and paint! Yay!

Pumpkins pumpkins!

2007-11-06T16:48:00.000-05:00

daily weigh-in: 136.0 lb
running on: 7 hours of sleep

This year I carved two pumpkins and it was very exciting. I don't think I ever carved a pumpkin when I was kid... maybe there was something about the combination of ADHD and knives that scared my parents... anyway, my first pumpkin carving experience was at Halsey's friend Mike MacHenry's pumpkin carving party the weekend before Halloween. I think I did a pretty darn good job! By day my pumpkin looked like a smiley pumpkin head, but by night it was an eerie cityscape!

Halsey and I threw our first party together this past weekend, even though his "Annual Pumpkin Carving Party" has been an event in Bedford for a few years now... I dressed as a nurse and Halsey was my patient! Our friends crept out of their safe urban habitat and faced wild suburbia for one whole night! There were many excellent pumpkins carved at our party... I decided to be a bit less ambitious this time, so I carved a simple cat face.

Happy belated Halloween...

2007-11-06T08:53:00.000-05:00

daily weigh-in: 139.0 lb
running on: 7 hours of sleep

Oh yeah, and I turned 28 last week.... Halsey made me the best Funfetti™ cake ever, plus he decorated the house with some sweet balloons:

One of the things Halsey got me for my birthday is an awesome 3D puzzle of the Sydney Opera House, which is in fact so cool you can't even get it in the USA or UK anymore. Halsey had to go international to find me such a nerdy birthday present. At least it's not as embarrassing as what I got him for his birthday... 2 tickets to see the "So You Think You Can Dance?" tour in Manchester, NH! Muahahaha, but it was so worth it to see Sabra dance and learn that Danny wasn't an arrogant @$$ at all, just a little shy & awkward when he has to talk in front of crowds. PLUS, we got to see Hok (whom we affectionately deemed "Hok Pocket," or "Hok Pocket-chan" for those Nihon-jin out there, because he is so cute you just want to put him in your pocket and carry him around with you) do Wade Robson's hummingbird dance. Soooo worth the embarrassment of being surrounded by 14 year old girls & their mothers all night...

I was also lucky enough to celebrate my birthday with my parents & brother in my hometown of Westminster, MA. My very loving parents created a minimalist birthday cake this year... it might have had something to do with the fact that the Red Sox were playing in the World Series that afternoon...

Revolving boyfriend?

2007-10-27T14:36:00.000-04:00

daily weigh-in: ? lb
running on: 8 hours of sleep

Noooo..... just Halsey and his band performed at the Revolving Museum in Lowell last night!

Walking through Boston.

2007-10-26T13:17:00.000-04:00

daily weigh-in: ? lb
running on: 8 hours of sleep

I've seen many interesting art pieces cropping up in Boston. I took some photos on my walk to work this morning:

More bizarre cat behavior.

2007-10-26T10:05:00.000-04:00

daily weigh-in: ? lb
running on: 8 hours of sleep

I haven't lived with a cat in quite a few years, but I do know that Halsey's cat Sequoia is not normal. Look where he chooses to sleep! Wedged between Halsey's desk and his weight bench! He'll do anything to snuggle up with the heat vent...

I am not your mascot.

2007-10-18T22:35:00.000-04:00

daily weigh-in: 138.0 lb
running on: 6 hours of sleep

I hate the Cleveland Indians. And it has nothing to do with the fact that they're leading in the series against the Red Sox right now.

Why it's fun to have a cat.

2007-10-16T09:14:00.000-04:00

daily weigh-in: 142.0 lb
running on: 7 hours of sleep

Sometimes they sit on you inappropriately and think it's totally normal.

Progress in suburbia.

2007-10-14T01:46:00.001-04:00

daily weigh-in: 141.0 lb
running on: 7.5 hours of sleep

Halsey has magically transformed our nice mound of dirt into an extension of our lawn and a magnificent magnolia tree. This is an area where a bunch of gnarly bushes used to thrive. Here are some before and after shots:

Before the dirt came (but after we cleared out the gnarly bushes):

After the dirt came:

Now:

We're also considering planting bamboo in our yard. It's pretty. And Asian.

And here's a lovely picture of me & my newly adopted cat who loves me enthusiastically probably because I eat a lot of meat and his father is a vegetarian (ahem... Halsey). Also he probably loves me because I'm ALLERGIC to him. His name is Sequoia. He is named after a tree. There's also a tree called "meta-Sequoia" which is what I would a name our second cat if we ever got a second cat, which we WOULDN'T because I am allergic to cats. But you have to admit our cat is awfully cute:

I also have some pictures to share from last weekend's event in Burlington, VT:

Halsey is SUCH a rock star. I love him =) *sigh*

In other news, my two-time "buttmate" (It's an architecture thing. If you don't get it, don't worry about it.) Big Al, a.k.a. Templetoes, turned 26 tonight! SOOOO old..... anyway, I attended the festivities at his apartment in Boston's South End this evening. It was a joint "Sweet 26" birthday party with his good friend Chris. Alec's better half Sarah made a rockin' cake. Here are some incriminating pictures:

While I was at Alec's "Sweet 26" party I had a chance to peruse Everything I Ate by Tucker Shaw, and I must say I was inspired. I know I log my weight each time I post a blog entry, but what if I photo blogged all of the food I ate!?! Halsey already thinks I'm a freak because I look like I weight about 15 lbs less than I actually do, I eat A LOT, and I have been known to enter bacon eating contests and not come in last place. This could bring my blogging to a whole new level. I start tomorrow.

Bought some dirt today...

2007-09-26T09:19:00.000-04:00

daily weigh-in: 135.0 lb
running on: 7 hours of sleep

Firstly, today we launched the new Leers Weinzapfel Associates fancy flash-based website... check it out:
http://www.lwa-architects.com/

Otherwise, things have been very hectic lately. On Saturday Halsey & clambered around in our poison ivy patch in the backyard clearing out all of the evil plants that have been plaguing my darling boyfriend. He has had chronic poison ivy since the beginning of August! Even though I've been removing the plants and working in the same areas of the yard as Halsey among the alleged poison ivy plants, it hasn't affected me yet. It would be so ironic for me to not be allergic to poison ivy since I'm allergic to EVERYTHING ELSE KNOWN TO MAN. And poor Halsey has to suffer through the itching all by his lonesome. I guess I should feel lucky. Anyway, we cleared out the big area of the yard and moved some huge boulders back to the stone wall using an innovative technique that I like to call the "shove smaller rocks where the giant rock used to be while lifting the giant rock with a poorly fashioned lever and fulcrum" technique. Anyway, we've decided to plant a magnolia tree, maybe some clumping bamboo, and grass to extend the lawn into the large hole where the rocks and poison ivy used to grow. So this morning a large truck drove into our yard and dumped 3 yards of dirt into the hole! Woohoo!

Yesterday I went up to Burlington, VT to watch Halsey's band Aesthetic Evidence perform at club Metronome above Nectar's. They did great! I also got to spend some quality time with Nikki, my good friend from high school, since she lives in Burlington with her husband.

Busy bee.

2007-09-07T13:44:00.000-04:00

daily weigh-in: no idea
running on: 6 hours of sleep + 1 RockStar energy drink

The past few weeks have been crazy. There's that whole "working 40 hours per week" thing that I am still getting used to... we have a deadline today for a 100% design development drawing set, so that is keeping me very busy at work. Last weekend I officially moved in with Halsey, so I now live in his house in Bedford, MA! That reduced my car insurance payment by about 33%... The move has already taken up lots of my free time, and my weekends are booked through October. Halsey has managed to sign me up for three weddings (congrats Susie, Rick & Rob!), many hours of wood chopping / yard work (according to Maura's husband Pete, this is called "nesting"), and other fun weekend activities / trips. In addition to all of this, Halsey has several performances coming up that I will be attending. You should come too. Check out the schedule of Aesthetic Evidence's upcoming shows. All the cool kids are doing it.

Entertainment update.

2007-08-15T10:11:00.000-04:00

daily weigh-in: 135.0 lb
running on: 7 hours of sleep

My blogging has been terrible lately, I know. Today I calculated that in the three years that I have had a Netflix subscription, I have watched 244 movies (that's an average of 0.2 movies per day) which means I have paid $2.89 per movie rental. That makes me feel good about my decision to join Netflix, considering it costs $5+ to rent movies in stores.

In slightly more exciting news, Halsey & I bought a giant flat panel LCD HDTV for his house this week. It's a 37" screen and it is hot hot hot! My old *refurbished* (bad bad bad) Olevia 27" LCD HDTV died. Let's be honest though, it was never really alive. Within the first few months that I had it, it would sometimes... not turn on. As in, the happy blue light that indicates that the TV is plugged in but not turned on simply was not blue. And sometimes it would turn off when we were in the middle of watching a really important show. Right at the end usually. I was busy with thesis so I couldn't deal with it, and hey, it worked sometimes... I thought my apartment with the crappy electricity that would blow a fuse every time you used the hair dryer and the toaster at the same time could be to blame for the power problem. Eventually the TV stopped working altogether and the Olevia tech support people thought it was a power supply failure. So I bought a new power supply box for $60 and installed it myself. It fixed the power supply problem (the blue light would turn on), but the screen wouldn't light up. Finally they made me send it back across the country (for $80 shipping) only to tell me that it would cost $100 more than what I originally paid for the TV in the first place to fix it! (Of course it was super cheap in the first place, which is why I bought it!).... And then of course there was nothing customer service could do, so I just told them they could keep my stupid TV and shove it... somewhere nice. I hate Olevia's customer service so much right now... don't ever buy a refurbished TV from them, and make sure you're getting has at least a 1-year warranty if you buy a new one from them. End of rant.

Of course, being the poor recent architecture school grad that I am, I bought another Olevia TV because they really are the cheapest brand out there, and the picture is soooo nice. I made sure to get the TV with the 1-year on-site warranty though. Anyway, it's happy and pretty (for the time being) & somehow its tuner picks up all of the network stations in HD through Halsey's rabbit ears! Who knew?? We watched the movie "300" on it last night and it was awesome. Ah, the struggles of love / hate relationships.... I'm torn.

Woe is me.

2007-08-01T15:08:00.000-04:00

daily weigh-in: 137.0 lb
running on: 6 hours of sleep

As you can see, my blogging time has not increased in the past week. Unfortunately my roommate with the internet/cable TV account moved out and canceled our service. And of course NONE of the 20 or so visible wireless networks in my area are open networks. What the h*#@ is wrong with you people? Can't you see that I need to get online? My adoring public is suffering without news of my life!

Well, here's a very brief update: a few weeks ago my grandparents (on my dad's side) celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary! Congratulations! That's a really really really long time... My pro photog bro snapped this fine picture of the whole family (even Heather & Halsey made the cut!):

Speaking of my pro bro, two Sundays ago I attended the opening of his first photography exhibition at Jumpin' Juice & Java in Gardner, MA. You can go there and look at his pretty photos on the wall and order prints from his. So do that. Now. Or I won't be your friend anymore. Here's a picture of I took of his pictures. WEIRD, right!?!?!?

This past weekend I took a few days off from work and traveled up to Maine with Halsey where his family has a house. I got to meet his sister & her husband, plus spend lots of time with his whole family... it was super fun!

While we were vacationing, we completed several projects... which apparently is what we do whilst on vacation in Maine. For example, the float had some damaged decking that needed to be replaced, so Halsey and I spent a day ripping up the decking and replacing it. Here are some pics in case I am not being clear:

The next day it was realized that the well cover needed repair. Just a quick reapplication of the tar paper. Oh, did I say quick? I meant another full day of cutting boards and nailing things together:

I've got to say, it's a darn good thing I'm an architect and reformed mechanical engineer, because I actually do get a huge kick out of these things.... which of course is why I blog primarily about them.... There were however some more quintessential moments captured during our vacation, most importantly the lovely sailing:

Halsey won't tell you this himself, but he is quite the accomplished sailor. He even competed on the team at Yale. I know what you're thinking... keeper!

OK that is all for now. I'll still try to blog some pics from Yellowstone as it was quite beautiful. For now I can refer you to my picture of my brother's picture of Yellowstone. It can be yours for only $260...

Thanks Maura.

2007-07-25T16:52:00.000-04:00

daily weigh-in: 136.5 lb
running on: 5 hours of sleep

My dear best friend, Maura, has pointed out that there is a video of me on YouTube from the bacon eating contest back in February! Check it out:

I can do anything you can do, better.

2007-07-23T13:11:00.000-04:00

daily weigh-in: 135.0 lb
running on: 5.5 hours of sleep

I have been working full time since I got back from Wyoming/Montana and I have yet to time-manage blogging into my new schedule =( Working 40 hours a week is something I haven't done in about 4 years, so I'm a little stressed by the change! You'd think working 80 hours a week at school would have made this transition a relief, but it's very different... I don't like conforming to the 9am-6pm schedule because I always forget to schedule appointments and take care of basic errands during these normal business hours.

Thus, I will post this article to get back on track. It's from the Washington Post and it was written today about the firm I work for (Leers Weinzapfel Associates): Shaping the City: Award for Boston Firm Shows How Far Women Have Come in Architecture.

I still want to post some pictures from my Yellowstone trip, and I have yet to organize my final thesis material for posting purposes! ugh!

Stuck in the airport...

2007-07-10T19:39:00.000-04:00

daily weigh-in: no scale at the airport. sorry.
running on: 5.5 hours of sleep

Halsey and I are currently attempting to entertain ourselves at the Chicago O'Hare airport. I swear, every time I fly with United Airlines I end up in this situation. Delay. Delay. Delay. Cancellation. Rebooked. Delay. Delay.... and so on. So far we have gotten delayed out of Jackson, WY because the flight crew came in late from Chicago the night before & had to sleep. Fine. That delay, of course, meant that we were not going to make our connection here in Chicago, so we were booked with seats on a flight to Boston leaving at 3:46 PM. That flight was delayed to 5:40 PM because of a "mechanical problem." Suddenly a thunderstorm hit and the plane was sealed off. We saw the flight crew leave... then the flight was canceled. Halsey sprinted to the next gate with a flight headed to Boston while simultaneously calling United Airlines on his cell phone. With seconds to spare while waiting in line for the 7:00 PM United flight 540, he managed to book seats on United 542, the 7:30 PM flight to Boston, which, of course, is delayed until 9:45 PM. However, this option was much much much better than waiting with 150 people on standby for flight 540 (despite Halsey's fabulous position at #12 on the waiting list). So here we are... eating pizza and waiting to see if our flight will actually take off. Good times. Yay United.

I'm in Wyoming.

2007-07-04T01:24:00.000-04:00

daily weigh-in: no scale in the hotel room. sorry.
running on: 6.5 hours of sleep

I'm on vacation with Halsey & my family in Jackson Hole, WY. Today we went for a "float" down the Snake River:

Our next stop is West Yellowstone, Montana near the west entrance of Yellowstone National Park. I will have many more pictures to share soon.

Moving across town...

2007-06-29T15:58:00.000-04:00

daily weigh-in: 135.5 lb
running on: 8 hours of sleep

I've spent the last few days moving across town to a new apartment on Trowbridge St near the Mass Ave/Central/Harvard end. I will be sad to leave my Porter Square neighborhood, especially "little Tokyo" in the Porter Exchange mall... let's have a moment of silence. I do look forward to exploring my new neighborhood however. Last night I already reaped the benefits when my friends decided to go out to People's Republic & The Cellar for a drink AS USUAL. Instead of hiking a mile across town, it was nice to stroll out my front door, bang a left onto Mass Ave and walk an extremely short distance to our favorite nightly haunts.

I'm going to Johnny & Yael's wedding on Sunday & then flying off to Yellowstone on Monday! Yay!

Love and marriage.

2007-06-22T12:41:00.000-04:00

daily weigh-in: 135.0 lb
running on: 8 hours of sleep

All of my friends went to Johnny's bachelor party in Montreal last weekend, but I couldn't go because I am a girl. Booooo.... Instead, Alec appeased me by letting me go to the Red Sox game on Saturday with his girlfriend, Sarah. They were playing the Giants and Sarah is from the SF area, so we were sporting opposing team paraphernalia... But we got to see Daisuke Matsuzaka pitch! Here are some pics from the game:

In other news, Johnny and Yael are getting married next weekend in Ipswich, MA, the day before I leave for Yellowstone National Park with Halsey and my mom & brother. Gramma, aunt Colleen, aunt Margaret, Eamon and Liam will also be on vacation with us. Good times for all!

Other things I've been doing.

2007-06-20T15:02:00.000-04:00

daily weigh-in: 135.5 lb
running on: 7 hours of sleep

My life hasn't been all work since graduation. My grandparents celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary this month. I have a few pictures that I took from our brunch at the Old Mill restaurant in Westminster, MA (my hometown!), but I am patiently awaiting one of the family pics that my bro took with his spiffy camera...

Halsey and I also ventured out to the Gropius House a few weeks ago. We had other plans, so we didn't stick around to get a tour of the inside (although surely we will return to do so someday), but here are some pics of the outside of the house!

More from graduation.

2007-06-14T12:45:00.000-04:00

daily weigh-in: 134.0 lb
running on: 7 hours of sleep

I have more pictures from graduation, courtesy of my professional photographer/brother, Mike:

I'm a Harvard graduate.

2007-06-09T19:45:00.000-04:00

daily weigh-in: 137.0 lb
running on: 11 hours of sleep

I graduated from Harvard with a Masters in Architecture this week! Ah yes, 4 years of hard work finally coming to fruition... I've even got proof - a diploma with my name on it!

------->

The celebration started with a reception at the GSD. Halsey and my parents came to schmooze with the other graduates & their families:

The day of commencement was about superfluous showings of pomp and circumstance as one might expect. One of the student speakers even pronounced "Harvard" like "Hahhhh-vahhhhd." Nonetheless, it was a sufficient rite of passage enabling me to leave behind the 4 years of sweat and toil that was the GSD:

Home again.

2007-05-28T13:51:00.000-04:00

daily weigh-in: 137.5 lb
running on: 8 hours of sleep

I'm back from Maine. Halsey and I had a wonderful time visiting his lovely house! We took lots of pictures (most would make you puke) but here's a small selection:

I'm in Maine.

2007-05-25T19:28:00.000-04:00

daily weigh-in: 131.0 lb
running on: 10 hours of sleep

I started working again this week at LWA after managing to successfully navigate the world of Harvard Design School thesis completion. I will post images and photos of all my final work as soon as I get a free minute. Right now I am on an island off the coast of Maine where Halsey has kidnapped me to force me into a life of leisure for the long weekend... clearly I am too busy to be posting any work online. Or maybe not near a strong enough internet signal because the island is a bit remote.... but have no fear, I will end the suspense soon.

Make it stop.

2007-05-11T15:28:00.000-04:00

daily weigh-in: 134.0 lb
running on: 5 hours of sleep

OK I can't really stop working to blog for very long because I have less than 1 week left to put my entire architecture master's thesis together, but that's ok because my life consists of sleeping, eating sometimes, and working in studio so there's not much to write about. Anyway, here are some cool photos of my final model that my darling Halsey is helping me build every night because he's the best! We're working on the roof and the cladding now. I also have some more diagrams that I may post eventually if I can find the time.

Keep it together... keep it together... keep it together...

Work.

2007-05-05T23:23:00.000-04:00

daily weigh-in: 131.5 lb
running on: 16 hours of sleep

I had my pre-final pin-up with my adviser, Laura Miller, on Thursday morning. It is now crunch time! Here is some of my recent work, but I can't dwell on blogging because I must get to sleep so I can wake up and support Halsey at his performance tomorrow night!

My adviser has given me the task over the next few weeks to really figure out the roof system. Neither of us are happy with the pitched roof, or a simple sloped roof. So I'm building a model of a butterfly roof today, and tomorrow I'll probably try an undulating roof! Exciting, I know. Then I need to be very rigorous about the siting and possible combinations of my modules - diagrammed and analyzed. Then I can start worrying about details, and of course during all of this, I need to refine my presentation so I don't look like an idiot on May 17th!

I'm still alive.

2007-05-01T09:00:00.000-04:00

daily weigh-in: no idea. i could walk the 10 steps to go weigh myself but that would take up too much of my precious time.
running on: 6 hours of sleep

I haven't blogged in for-EV-er, but that's because my thesis work is taking up all of my time. The 5th tray at the GSD is in a daily frenzy as we all panic and strive to make it look like we've actually produced something worthwhile in our last semester at Harvard. I'm not sure any of us feel successful quite yet. So, in tribute to my fellow slaves to the system, I have compiled a collection of photos of my friends' thesis desks with a little commentary (if you click on them) for your enjoyment:

I've taken 3 weeks off of work at Leers Weinzapfel to complete my thesis work, but they have given me a full-time job offer and I've accepted! Yay! I'm going to have a real job again! I will start working full-time shortly after I graduate on June 7th...

And last, but certainly not least, I must plug Halsey's upcoming performance entitled 'Otherwise Uninvolved Individuals' for the 2007 Boston Cyberarts Festival. It's on May 6th at 7pm at the Cambridge, MA YMCA theater and you should come see how much of a rock star he is. I won't love you if you don't come.

Lovely weather. Too bad I can't go outside.

2007-04-22T15:08:00.000-04:00

daily weigh-in: 134.0 lb
running on: 9 hours of sleep

It finally feels like spring! Please don't send more snow... please don't send more snow... please don't send more snow. Holy crap, I just checked the weather and it's supposed to be 84 degrees outside tomorrow! Wow!

Yesterday I had a mini high school reunion lunch with Maura & Nikki, two of my BFF's from high school. We had lunch in Harvard Square - outside because it was so gorgeous - and then, of course, we went shopping. Because that's what we do. We shop. Some things never change. Anyway, here's some cute pictures from lunch:

Nikki had two extra tickets for the Guster concert that she and Maura were planning on attending last night, so Halsey and I went with them. It was a good concert, and we had some drinks/food after the show at The Ivy in Boston. It was good to catch up with my girls and take a day off from thesis work.

Also, last night Halsey and I put our relationship to the ultimate test. He let me give him a haircut. I don't have before/after pictures because I think it would have traumatized him too much, but I swear I didn't totally mess his hair up! In fact, I think it looks quite good. So maybe in a few days when the shock wears off, Halsey will let me take a picture of his new haircut & we can have a reader vote on whether or not it looks good. =)

La la la.

2007-04-16T21:21:00.000-04:00

daily weigh-in: 132.0 lb
running on: 6 hours of sleep?

Thesis is moving along swimmingly. This morning I had a pin-up with my adviser and she basically told me to go back to the first plan I had... sooooo that's good I guess. Less work for me? Maybe she didn't like my roofs?

The candy machine at school is empty.

2007-04-11T02:16:00.000-04:00

daily weigh-in: 130.0 lb
running on: 6 hours of sleep

I just thought I should tell someone... I took the last pack of Twizzlers about 30 minutes ago & now the only remaining treats are the selections in the row of Wrigley's chewing gum at the bottom of the machine. I bet those have been there for years... nobody chews Doublemint or Juicy Fruit gum anymore. I hope the vending guys come on Wednesdays. Where else will I get my daily bag of Cheetos & Twix bars?

I just found out that I have a pin-up on Monday morning with my thesis adviser. Apparently two of the lovely ladies in my thesis group have requested this pin-up, and the other two of us have been roped into it as well. So I have drawn up and modeled "revision 3" this week, mostly with changes that were suggested at my mid-review. Enjoy!

And thesis continues...

2007-04-05T19:44:00.000-04:00

daily weigh-in: 131.0 lb
running on: 5 hours of sleep

Today I'm working on some of the stuff that was suggested at my mid-review on Tuesday. Diagrams, research, etc... I also realized that I forgot to post my plan & section drawings with the rest of my mid-review materials, so here is my most recent set of drawings for my thesis design, which will of course look completely different by May 17th:

As you can see, there is much work to be done... I have a lot of re-design to do, and certainly a lot of work to do on adding depth to the design of certain elements, like the roof & foundation. Plenty to keep me busy for the next 5 weeks...

6 more weeks...

2007-04-03T17:37:00.000-04:00

daily weigh-in: 130.5 lb
running on: 1 hour of sleep + 4 red bulls

I had my thesis mid-review today. It was actually quick in painless. I don't know, I was kind of hoping to shed some tears or have a mental break down or something, but that didn't happen. I guess it's better that way. Here are my presentation boards and some model photos arranged to re-enact the critic's discussion of my project (this should shed some light on what the profession of architecture is all about):

Hmmmm... what else happened this week.... well, for one, I lost my beloved red Sony Cybershot camera the night I got to star in a movie with Kevin Spacey. I knowingly left it on my desk in my office, and I did consider going back for it... I was worried because the caterers were moving things around and there were a bunch of random guests wandering around, but I decided to assume it wouldn't be stolen, and if it was, it was probably worth being in a movie over going back for my camera. However, once it actually went missing I was quite upset, so I bought myself a newer prettier one to make myself feel better. It probably won't feel so good once my credit card bill comes, but I'm an architect and a blogger! What would I do without a camera!? So here's a picture of my new camera:

My roomie Cheryl's family was in town last week and they stopped by the architecture studio to see what it was all about... and of course they had to take our picture:

New thesis showcase for world viewing pleasure...

2007-03-29T05:03:00.001-04:00

daily weigh-in: 126.0 lb
running on: 4 hours of sleep

Thesis is in full swing & I just can't stop working at my studio desk to post too many blogs. I've got my mid-review next week! I've decided to implement a more productive way of sharing my thesis work as it progresses by creating a Picasa photo album dedicated to it. I'll post thumbnails that will link to the gallery as I add more photos.... here's a start!

THESIS PREP

MODEL PROCESS

I'm a huge star.

2007-03-23T00:53:00.000-04:00

daily weigh-in: 127.5 lb
running on: 8 hours of sleep

So we had a little office party tonight to celebrate our AIA "Firm of the Year" award, which was lovely. BUT, as I was going into the building at 6PM I noticed that Chinatown was cordoned off and big posters had "SET" written on them with arrows pointing towards Chinatown.... which is always intriguing. The office party was fun and all, but I got kind of curious about the "SET" on the street below, so I convinced a few co-workers to go do some recon with me...

Well it turns out that they were shooting the movie "21" (based on the book about MIT card-counters called "Bringing Down the House"), starring Kevin Spacey. The very nice police officers at the "police line do not cross" tape let me wander into the set when I asked nicely. I wasn't wearing my coat because I had left the office thinking it would just be a quick trip and then we'd get kicked out, so I wandered onto the set wearing my 3-inch heels, bahama length dress slacks and a t-shirt sweater. We pushed our way through the crowd only to see HELLO! Kevin Spacey standing there doing a take for the movie!

A few minutes later we were tapped on the shoulder & asked to leave, of course, because we weren't in the movie or wearing jackets (?). So I went and got my jacket and came back to watch. As I was standing behind the line where the non-movie people had to stand, Assistant Director B (hereafter "ADB") came over and said, "You found a jacket." And I was like, "Yeah." And then he was all, "Let me get you a photo release form." And I was like, "OK." So I signed my form and befriended this guy in a bright red Red Sox jacket named Roy. A few minutes later, as they were setting up the next scene, ADB came over to us and said, "Follow me." So we followed him! And he put us in the scene right in front of the dancing dragons and gave me a sparkler. When they ran out of sparklers after a few takes, he kept coming over and just giving me more, but eventually they ran out completely. So I may or may not be in the movie with a sparkler, but as they were shooting, if someone was blocking me from the camera, ADB would come over and say, "Step back. Don't block 'the girl.'" So as long as that scene doesn't hit the cutting room floor, I think I might be in a movie with Kevin Spacey! He kept walking right by me during the scene, but of course I couldn't take pictures because that *might* have been tacky. If I'm in the movie, you can be sure that I will blog many still shots of me in a movie! But for now, you get these poor quality pics from my cell phone....

I'm missing half of my brain...

2007-03-21T16:08:00.000-04:00

daily weigh-in: 129.5 lb
running on: 4 hours of sleep

I've been lasercutting a lot lately for LWA. I'm cutting the contours for the Howard County site model. I also started building a physical model of my thesis project because I'm lacking a computer at the moment... It's at the Apple store getting the hard drive replaced. It should be ready tomorrow or the next day HOPEFULLY because my computer is an extension of my brain, and without it I just sit and listlessly stare at the wall...

Happy birthday Tetsi-poo! Last night we celebrated The Tets' birthday at R.F. O'Sullivan's by eating huge delicious cheeseburgers and drinking beer. Funny, that's exactly what I chose to do on my birthday this year! I guess that's why The Tets and I are such good friends.... anyway, he's 26 now. SO old.

OK back to work.

When it rains, it pours!

2007-03-19T10:40:00.000-04:00

daily weigh-in: 130.5 lb
running on: 5 hours of sleep

I have decided that I am technologically cursed. Besides that my broken Olevia HDTV is taking up valuable real estate on my bedroom floor, and my car has a flat tire, now my MacBook Pro won't boot. Last night it sort of crashed while it was downloading an intel update from Apple, so I tried to restart it and it won't get past the screen with the spinning wheel. Of course I can't use my trusty Powerbook G4 as a backup because it got dropped in Rome and the screen doesn't work. I can plug it into an external monitor, but that is at school, so I now have no computer at home. Hopefully the folks at the "Genius Bar" can rescue my MacBook Pro this afternoon, but that remains to be seen.... In addition to all of my bad luck, this morning I was riding on the T and we got stuck between Harvard and Central with "technical difficulties." It was so my fault. So they had to do a manual opening of the doors and we all had to get out and wait for the train to clear so we could get on the next one. I'm just waiting to get hit by a car later today, or maybe a plane falling from the sky. Maybe I should tote an EMT around with me just in case. Hopefully my run of bad luck will end soon though... Hope... at least I have that.

Oh the weather outside is delightful...

2007-03-15T13:37:00.000-04:00

daily weigh-in: 127.0 lb
running on: 6.5 hours of sleep

But not for long! Hopefully the "big" snowstorm that is rolling in tonight/tomorrow will be winter's last hurrah in Boston. I love the fact that I got to do my 2.5-mile run in a t-shirt and shorts for a second day in a row today. This time Halsey came with me and, in fact, did a few wind sprints around my block when we got back! I guess he's in better shape than me... Once this bronchitis is totally cleared out of my system, I will have to step it up in my daily running to keep up! I'm just glad my running has gotten to the point where I don't feel like throwing myself in front of a car after only one mile. The fact that I can run 2.5 miles and it's enjoyable is huge for me. Maybe I'll even run a 5K or two this spring...

Last night Halsey & I went to the Secret Chiefs 3 and Sleepytime Gorilla Museum show at the Middle East, which was quite interesting. It was really fun to go to see a show where the music is very different from what I usually listen to. Tonight though, Halsey's friend Susie got us tickets to see The Shins perform at the Orpheum Theater in Boston and I'm very excited about that! Garden State is only like my favorite movie.

Where do I begin?

2007-03-13T17:48:00.000-04:00

daily weigh-in: 130.0 lb
running on: 4.5 hours of sleep

It has been a while since I've blogged and that's because I've been super busy, so this might be lengthy. Last week team Boink sucked at pub trivia, so we tried to throw it at the last minute, but only managed to come in 2nd to last, so we didn't even win the free shots. On Thursday night I got to check out the music stylings of Halsey Burgund at the Lily Pad in Inman Square. It was an excellent show and I highly recommend listening to some of his music on his website =)

On Thursday night my friend Greg also rolled into town to visit me & see his BFF, John (John is also my ex pole vault coach & he now coaches at Adams State in Colorado), at the NCAA DII indoor track & field championship meet. We got to have dinner with John's parents & sister, which was cool because his father is the head track coach at Dartmouth & also used to be my coach. We dropped in at 33 on Saturday night and I got to say hi to all of my favorite bartenders.

On Sunday Greg & I went to see Oliver Twist at the A.R.T., courtesy of my roommate Cheryl. The show was awesome & the cast has a few weeks left in Boston before moving on to NYC and Berkeley, CA, so catch it if you can! Saturday was also Cheryl's birthday & we went out on Sunday night to Tommy Doyle's to celebrate! Happy birthday Cheryl!

I've spent the last 48 hours preparing for my second thesis presentation, which happened this afternoon. It went well, but now I've got to get fired up for my mid-review on April 3rd or 5th. Time to build some models and design something awesome! Yay! I finished the last of my anti-biotics yesterday and have successfully recovered from my bronchitis. Breathing normally (ok, breathing better) is wonderful!

Bronchitis! Yay!

2007-03-08T14:59:00.000-05:00

daily weigh-in: 127.0 lb
running on: 6 hours of sleep

I'm so happy right now because I have just come back from the doctor and I have bronchitis. AGAIN! Yay! I love bronchitis. It's so fun. It's the one where you cough up lots of mucus for days and then start wheezing, and eventually probably die. I have a reached a point with my immune system where I just feel cynical and sarcastic about its ability to protect me from ANYTHING AT ALL. Anyway, despite my immune system's inability to function, my doctors have suited me up with steroids and antibiotics to make my bronchitis go away. Evolution should have killed me a long time ago...

Everybody's workin' through the weekend...

2007-03-05T02:20:00.000-05:00

daily weigh-in: 134.5 lb
running on: 5 hours of sleep

I spent some time in studio today drawing up some plans & sections. I'm pretty happy with the results. Next I need to make some models and write a more specific program for my project. I feel like I'm making progress though!

Hi.

2007-03-02T16:15:00.000-05:00

daily weigh-in: 131.0 lb
running on: 8 hours of sleep

This week has been very low key. I worked on Monday and Wednesday at LWA as usual. I got to draw up the layout of the framed awards that go up on the wall in the entry, and then I got to bang nails into the wall where I said they should be and hang up the awards. Speaking of awards, here's the link to the article about how we won the AIA Firm of the Year award for 2007: 2007 Architecture Firm Award Goes to Leers Weinzapfel. Yeah that's right... that's me front & center, right next to the principals. My 8-hour-per-week contribution is vital...

I did three loads of laundry yesterday. And I worked on my thesis project. Obviously. I'm finally in the phase of my thesis project where I'm drawing plans & sections of my potential designs. Today I also have grand aspirations to build a study model or five. We'll see how that goes.

Hmm... news is scarce. I've got nothing else to say. OK I'm going back to work.

Back at it!

2007-02-27T02:43:00.000-05:00

daily weigh-in: ??? lb.. I haven't been home in 4 days!
running on: 4 hours of sleep

Ooooohhhhhhh it's 3:00 AM and I'm in studio making up for lost time, but at least I'm not alone. I spotted 5 others with their drafting lamps burning brightly on the short walk back from the candy machine just now, not to mention the crowd in the computer lab. There's no real reason for me to be here right now except that I know I have a lot of work to do, so I'm going to call it a night after I blog and get a good night's rest so I can be efficient tomorrow. I got up 23 hours ago to catch an early flight back to Boston so I could be on time for work, and I'm pretty much exhausted right now.

I was in DC this weekend visiting Greg, so I have some pics to share. On Saturday night we went to a bar with hookahs and met up with Kyle Teamey, D'98 and high jumper extraordinaire! I haven't seen him in like 9 years, so it was fun to catch up. OK, pictures as promised:

Sleep finally.... well, after i blog.

2007-02-23T00:53:00.000-05:00

daily weigh-in: 132.0 lb
running on: 4 hours of sleep

My last two presentation boards that I made for my thesis presentation today for anyone interested in my graphics skillz:

Last night team "Boink!" kicked some serious @$$ at Atwood's pub trivia and came in first place. A special thanks goes out to Miranda and Daniel who carried us through pretty much all of the questions and ensured our victory. The legacy continues.

Tomorrow I'm flying to DC for the weekend to hang with Greg. I have to get up early and get my hair cut though, so I need to go to bed now.

Thesis presentation 1.

2007-02-22T02:24:00.000-05:00

daily weigh-in: 132.5 lb
running on: 6 hours of sleep

Here are the five presentation boards that I've finished so far for my first thesis presentation tomorrow. Oooooh exciting!

Go away winter.

2007-02-21T08:26:00.000-05:00

daily weigh-in: 132.5 lb
running on: 6 hours of sleep

I'm so excited that weather.com tells me temperatures are climbing back into the 40's this week. I think we've made it through all the 10's and 20's days for the winter. I hope so! That would be so nice. But when have we not had a freak blizzard in the middle of May? I'm still hoping to get away and go snowboarding sometime over spring "break." I put "break" in quotes because I don't think I've ever left studio during that week for the last three years. But it's a nice idea.

I've got my first thesis presentation on Thursday. Oh, that's tomorrow. So my hours of sleep tonight will probably = ZERO. And I will be personally keeping Red Bull, Inc. in business for the next 24 hours. Also, I'm supposed to play trivia tonight at Atwood's... I really want to go because all of our ringers said they'd go! And I want to win! Maybe if I work really really hard today, I'll be all set for my presentation and then I can just go.... Hmmmm...

Architecture is my life.

2007-02-20T00:59:00.000-05:00

daily weigh-in: 133.5 lb
running on: 4 hours of sleep

I'm just getting home from studio where I've been hard at work for 12 hours straight. Even worse, before I went into studio today at 1:00 PM I had been at home working on my thesis since 7:00 AM. So that's a grand total of 18 hours of work on my thesis today. Yup, that sounds about right... and that's why architecture is my life.

I do get to have fun though... for example, right now I have bruises on my forearm and hip from sliding down the stripper pole at Vanessa's private burlesque party last night at Atwood's. But don't worry Mom & Dad, I had my clothes on. I just wanted to know how to do it. It was fun... much like a pole vault drill and just as difficult, except then you have to try and look sexy, which is where I was having trouble.

OK now I need to get some real sleep so I can get up bright and early and go right back to studio. I have a goal of putting the FINAL final touches on my thesis document tomorrow and printing out a final copy for my critic. I'll post a pdf here on my blog, but it's a doozy! 80 pages of my writing is not for the faint of heart.

Sunday Sunday Sunday!

2007-02-18T03:29:00.000-05:00

daily weigh-in: 129.5 lb
running on: 7 hours of sleep

Today (Saturday) was lovely. I woke up, spent 8 hours in studio editing my "final" thesis document & then taught myself how to reproject raster images in ArcGIS with the goal of exporting a topo line .dxf file of my thesis site... and it worked! I'm so brilliant. Then I went to a Silpada jewelry party at my best friend Maura's house... and my parents were there. That's how we roll in Boston! I bought myself a lovely pair of earrings (p. 3-E) and a ring (p. 46-E) for my pointer finger. I was also tempted by bracelet (p. 8-D) but I resisted. After that, I headed over to Peter Niles' and Jason Shinoda's Brokeback birthday party, which was fun... until the cops broke it up... but then we revived the party, but shhhhhhh..... Brokeback pt. 2 was also fun. Photos pending. OK that is all. Goodnight.

Back to the drawing board...

2007-02-17T09:34:00.000-05:00

daily weigh-in: 129.5 lb
running on: 7 hours of sleep

I love that I can say "back to the drawing board" and then literally walk back to my drawing board. Oooh, more architecture jokes. I feel like posting this overdone, yet funny, tan-line montage because it's my blog and I can do whatever I want and I'm bored right now:

Anyway, I'm back in the saddle again. My strength is up... I've kept all of my food down since Wednesday morning. I'm still tired, which should be impossible considering I had only been awake for 18 hours over the last 3 days. That's 18 hours out of 60 possible waking hours! That means on average, out of every 24-hour day, I slept 18 hours and was only awake for 6! Incredible!

Last night I chipped my car out its ice cocoon, which took about an hour. The parking in Cambridge is impossible right now. Everything that was snow has turned into glare ice, so now I am packing two giant bags of rock salt in my trunk in case I actually need to move my car again. Then we played GSD whiffle ball and went to the Thirsty Scholar, followed by Atwood's...

And now I need to get my @$$ in gear and go do work for my first thesis presentation, which will be on Thursday! Go Bayside!

Happy Valentine's Day.

2007-02-14T19:27:00.000-05:00

daily weigh-in: 134.5 lb
running on: 10 hours of sleep

What a day I've had. First I woke up to piles of red roses and chocolates being delivered and I was serenaded by this string quartet... ok that didn't happen. I've really been sick all day and unable to move from bed... I woke up at 7 AM and began projectile vomiting at intervals throughout the morning. Then my fever spiked up to about 101.6°F. It's been a fun day. But you know, despite the fact that I don't have a Valentine this year and I've been puking my guts out all day, I did feel very happy today. And it's because someone really smart somewhere invented galoshes, and they've come back into style in the past few years. So it snowed several inches overnight and then rained all day and I really wanted to go to the grocery store to get ginger ale and chicken noodle soup. So I bundled up, put on my trusty black galoshes, and headed outside. Those shoes are spectacular. I saw like 8 other people hopping over puddles, but really landing in them and then shrieking. But I just walked right through all of the puddles. And my feet stayed dry and warm. Long live galoshes!

Competitive Eating.

2007-02-11T03:34:00.000-05:00

daily weigh-in: 131.5 lb
running on: 5 hours of sleep

Leah has kindly shared some photos of me not winning the Atwood's bacon eating contest... Also, someday I'll actually start blogging about current events again.

SATURDAY 02.03.2007:

Atwood's Tavern: Bacon Eating Contest


The setup.	Paparazzi in full force.	The most gung-ho competitor ever.	Taking my place.


Go!	Can't chew anymore...	Make it stop.	The last bite.


Weighing in the winner.	And of course the illustrious MC, Liam.

Roma :: the finale!

2007-02-09T10:37:00.003-05:00

The Grand Finale of my trip to Europe...

MON 01.29.2007:
Rome

Our last day! Since we didn't get to see the Sistine Chapel on Sunday (it closed before we got there), we went back to the Vatican on Monday morning to check that out. I mean everyone should see Michelangelo's famous ceiling painting of the hand of God reaching out to man before they die, right?

VATICAN REVISITED: Vatican Museum & the Sistine Chapel


Greg & Tim taking the scenic route.	Ornate ceilings.	Waited in a long line to see this room. Still don't know what it is.	The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.*


Gregorius is everywhere in Rome.	Pretty ceiling of the special room.	Not actually the famous work by Michelangelo...	More like a display in the gift shop. But look, Greg can touch the hand of God.

* Note: Since they don't allow photos to be taken in the Sistine chapel, I don't know where this picture came from. I just found it on my camera. Weird.

Since our night at the jazz club had taken a toll on everyone and we had only slept approximately 2 hours (but I always wake up absurdly early for some reason), Greg headed back to the hostel to relax on his last day of vacation, leaving me & Tim to climb the 510 steps to the top of St. Peter's.

VATICAN REVISITED: St. Peter's


First stop: inside the bottom ring of the cupola.	The mosaic texture at hand in the cupola.	Now I get a close-up view of the cupola!	View from the top.


Tim on the catwalk above St. Peter's. Someday maybe he'll send me the pic of me up there.	Climbing higher... Tim is standing straight up. Damn architects.

There were still several sights that I wanted to see in Rome, so Tim walked down to the Castel Sant'Angelo and the Ponte Sant'Angelo with me, and then I headed back solo to the hostel to find Greg, but I did some sightseeing on the way!


Lovely statues on Ponte Sant'Angelo by Bernini.	Ponte Sant'Angelo towards Castel Sant'Angelo.	Bernini's San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane.	San Carlo's sculptural lozenge-shaped dome.


Bernini's Fontana del Tritone at Piazza Barberini.	Fontana del Naiadi at Piazza Repubblica.

Greg and I headed out to get dinner later but we didn't realize that you needed to be at "The Supper Club" early to catch the show (the lady on "Passport to Europe" just seemed to show up & the performers appeared to be doing some sort of ongoing movement/art, not a prescribed show). Anyway, since that didn't work out, I seized the opportunity to force Greg to do more sightseeing in our last hours in Rome. We walked across the bridge to Trastavere where I wanted to find Bramante's Tempietto, which was built in 1502. The Tempietto is the best known example of a purely symmetrical centralized church form. It was built for King Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain to mark the place where St. Peter was martyred. It was really cold outside and after a lot of walking (and a take-out sandwich dinner) we finally found it.


Fontana Paola - aqueduct marker / terminal fountain aka mostra - at the top of the hill that we didn't need to walk up.	Bramante's Tempietto.

Greg and I went back to the hostel after our side trip to Trastavere & packed/napped before heading to the airport at 4:00 AM or so. We could not figure out the Roman train system for the life of us, so we ended up on a much later train than Greg would have preferred, but we both managed to catch our flights. We each headed back to our respective cities on the east coast, thus concluding a fabulous two-week European adventure. The end!

Roma pt. III

2007-02-06T20:16:00.000-05:00

daily weigh-in: 130.5 lb
running on: 6 hours of sleep

More from Italy...

SUN 01.28.2007:
Rome

Greg and I wanted to see the Pope, so we went to the Vatican on a Sunday at noon. Well, we saw his hand come out of his little window from afar right before he gave his weekly address, so that was exciting. Then we spent some time in St. Peter's, originally planned by Bramante 1506, but carried on by Sangallo in 1539, Michelangelo from 1546-1564, and finally completed by Fontana and della Porta in 1590.

The Vatican City


The masses at St. Peter's plaza.	More of St. Peter's plaza.	The Holy hand.


Me @ the Vatican.	Greg @ the Vatican.	Vaulting in the loggia.	Cupola @ St. Peter's.


St. Peter's nave.	Ceiling details in St. Peter's.


Bernini's "Baldacchino."	Bernini's "Altar of the Chair."	Greg with Gregorio.	Clearly the work of God.

After the Vatican we went up to Villa Borghese to check out Villa Giulia. Villa Giulia was built by Vignola in 1550 in the Mannerist style of architecture, which means it's supposed to be cute/playful/funny - a critique on the overly stringent Rennaisance style of architecture that was popular at the time. I've marked a humorous moment in one of the photos, however I dare say you might not laugh. Anyway, Vignola was the first to introduce the oval in plan, which became a popular motif in Baroque architecture a century later, and he also played with fixed viewpoints and illusionism in an unprecedented way. Keep in mind the Renaissance style was very strict and precise in terms of architectural representation. For example, the palazzo-like facade is basically a fake front because the living space is only 1 bay deep and the suggestedly big building gives way to cascading gardens in the rear. Also, the changing levels of the courtyards and gardens within the villa are supposed to keep things hidden until you stumble upon the secret staircase and the fixed viewpoint that reveals the surprise garden. Anyway...

Villa Giulia


The tricky facade.	Me checking out the caryatids.	Sunken courtyard (where are those secret stairs anyway?).

Sunday night we rallied some troops from Alessandro and went out to Gregory's Jazz club, near the Spanish steps, to listen to some live jazz and enjoy some wine. We had a fabulous time and got some good pictures!

Gregory's Jazz Club


Ted, Greg & Tim (best "blue steel" I've seen).	Venus & I representing for the mixed-Japanese folk.	Tim & I in our posse's private room with the lovely yellow wallpaper.


Oh yeah, did I mention that Greg actually owns the club?	And that he also performed with our new friends in the band that night?

Roma pt. II

2007-02-05T19:02:00.000-05:00

More from my trip...

SAT 01.27.2007:
Rome, Italy

We slept in a bit after our fun night out in Rome, but we still hit the streets hard for a walking tour! We started at the Spanish steps, walked to the Pantheon, then on to Campo de Fiori for an afternoon snack and a glass of wine in the outdoor plaza. Then I took Greg to see some fun facades of buildings before we headed back to the hostel and called it a night.


Trying the Roman water.	The Pantheon.	The Pantheon but closer.	Piazza Navona.


Spanish Steps.	A church. Looks early Baroque. Don't know what it is.	Greg in the Pantheon.	Me & the Pantheon oculus.


Temple to the deified Hadrian, 145 AD.	Corner detail showing recent interventions...	Campo de Fiori.	Palazzo Farnese by Sangallo, 1541. Note the horizontal distinctions marking floor hierarchy.


Column of Trajan.	Trajan's Market.	Trajan's Market.	Vittorio Emanuele.


Horse statue.	Area sacra a.k.a. cat sanctuary.	San Lorenzo.	Sacra scala - stairs you can only climb on your knees.


San Giovanni in Laterno, first Christian church built in Rome (later renovated by Bernini).	San Giovanni in Laterno.

Roma/Rome

2007-02-05T16:33:00.000-05:00

daily weigh-in: 133.5 lb
running on: 8 hours of sleep

I had my first day back to work this morning since I went on vacation. I got to draw exterior elevations of an existing staircase with the new railings that we're putting on it. Riveting.

More photos from my trip:

FRI 01.26.2007:
Rome, Italy

Greg really wanted to see the Colosseum, so I planned a walk that would take us from our hostel to the Colosseum, and then up through the Roman Forum. It poured all day, which sucked, so we went back to the hostel early and ate local Chinese food for dinner. Afterwards, we met up with a bunch of other travellers that were staying at Alessandro as well: Venus, Tim, Joe, Aaron, Nick, and Christian. We all went out to Julius Caesar's at the hostel's suggestion for a free shot and picked up two sisters from NH/MD whose names I can't remember for the life of me, and then we all went out to the Testacchio area of Rome where the nightlife was bumpin'. We ended up at a club that was half indoors and half outdoors and they played hip-hop for a while before switching over to house music. We had a blast!

Sta. Maria Maggiore


Outside.	The cupola.	Inside.	Chapel ceiling.

The Colosseum


Greg's money shot.	Interior views.

Me in the Colosseum.	Outside again. Greg twirling his umbrella.	Arch of Constantine.	Greg's statue pose.

The Roman Forum & some more of Rome...


Temple of Venus & Rome.	The Roman Forum.		Temple of Antonius & Faustina.

Temple of Fortuna Virilis.	Circus Maximus.	Palazzo Venezia.

THURS 01.25.2007:
Rome, Italy

We took a train to Rome on Thursday morning and checked into our hostel: The Alessandro Palace Hotel. Then we strolled around for a bit and visited the Trevi fountain to ensure our return to Rome.


Me throwing my coin.	The Trevi fountain.	Greg & I.

Napoli pt. II

2007-02-04T01:18:00.000-05:00

daily weigh-in: 132.5 lb
running on: 6 hours of sleep

I participated in a bacon eating contest this morning at Atwood's Tavern and I accomplished my goal of not coming in last place. Leah got the whole thing on video, so I'll surely blog that when she finishes the ULI competition and has time to upload the files from her camera! It was my first eating competition and I definitely had no idea that my jaw endurance would be the limiting factor. I wasn't full when I was done, but I sure couldn't move my jaw after it ended! Next time I'll train by chewing huge wads of gum for months in advance. I only ended up eating 3.5 ounces of bacon, which was far short of the 6.75 ounces that won the contest. Anyway I can't say it was a great experience because my stomach has just started cramping very badly and I'll maintain that it's the bacon's fault.

Thankfully I was not out of commission for the rest of the day, so I brought some more of my stuff over to my studio desk and worked on my thesis for a bit before coming home to sleep.

Anyway, on with vacation blogging...

WED 01.24.2007:
Naples, Italy

Greg and I rented a car (which is insane, and you'd know this if you've ever driven in Naples) so we could drive south to Mt. Vesuvius, Pompei, and along the Amalfi coast. We had fun driving around in a foreign land and the scenery wasn't bad either.

Mt. Vesuvius


The top.	Greg.	It was cold at the top.	Greg looking over Naples.

Pompei

Amalfi


Amalfi coast winds.	Windblown hair look.	One of our many stops along the coast.

Greg in Amalfi.	Me in Amalfi.	Greg expressing his joy.

TUES 01.23.2007:
Naples, Italy

Greg and I attended an authentic Italian opera on Tuesday night, but we didn't realize they were performing a modern version of Candide in English! The only problem was that we couldn't understand anything they were singing and the Italian subtitles projected above the stage were not helping at all!


Many balconies.	Greg looking very cultured.	Candide singing with the golden sheep.

Happy birthday to Johnny!

2007-02-02T12:30:00.000-05:00

daily weigh-in: 131.0 lb
running on: 7.5 hours of sleep

I just want to take a minute and acknowledge that it is my friend Johnny's 30th birthday today. 30 is a big number, so I didn't want this event to be overshadowed by my European trip blogging.

The notorious j-o-h-n-n-y.

In other world news, Tetsi and I entered a bacon eating contest to be held at Atwood's Tavern tomorrow morning at noon. Come support us as we try to eat as much bacon as possible within 5 minutes. Hopefully we won't die.

Napoli/Naples

2007-02-02T11:28:00.000-05:00

daily weigh-in: 131.0 lb
running on: 7.5 hours of sleep from last night

MON 01.22.2007:
Naples, Italy

We took a day trip to the island of Capri via ferry to do some hiking on our first day in Naples.

Capri


Capri dead ahead.	The walk to the top.	With our trusty bottle of wine.	Greg learning some Italian phrases.

Stairway to heaven.	Enjoying a refreshing beverage at the top.	The Mediterranean.	The view while hiking.

Greg working his best angle.	Arc Naturale.	Casa Malaparte: the reason I dragged Greg to Capri.	Sunset on the ferry back to Naples.

Napoli

Creative use of commercial space.

SUN 01.21.2007:
Naples, Italy

Renaissance Naples Hotel & dinner at Pomodoro Restaurant.


Our hotel in Naples.	Me eating.	Greg eating.	Wine bottles.

Barcelona pt. III

2007-02-02T02:30:00.000-05:00

daily weigh-in: 133.0 lb
running on: 12 hours of sleep from last night

More from Barcelona!

SAT 01.20.2007:
Barcelona, Spain

Park Guell:


Climbing up to Park Guell.	Looking back...	Greg & I.	Greg with the man symbol.

The top.	Greg & the famous lizard.	Gaudi was pretty cool...	It's like CandyLand but bigger.

	Ceiling mosaics.

Barcelona Pavilion:


Behold the Barcelona Pavilion.	By Mies van der Rohe in 1928-9.	Demolished in 1930, reconstructed in 1983-6.

The famed Barcelona chair.	One of Greg's "structural" poses.	Trying to distract Greg so he'll walk into the reflection pool.

FRI 01.19.2007: (cont...)
Barcelona, Spain

In Barcelona, Greg discovered my true dance style. Since he is an accomplished hip-hop performer, he has always wondered why I seem to dance to my own beat (i.e. twice as fast as everyone else). We hit the discoteque, Moog, where the DJ was spinning some house/trance beats and Greg realized I was born to dance to house music.

Moog nightclub & Citadines Aparthotel


moog. fun spot. also named after my childhood pet.	on our hotel balcony.

Barcelona pt. II

2007-02-01T20:04:00.000-05:00

daily weigh-in: 133.0 lb
running on: 12 hours of sleep

I've finally sorted through my photos from my trip after sleeping an absurd number of hours, fixing the tail light on my car and then getting the car inspected, moving all of my architecture supplies back into my studio space, and coming in 5th place in pub trivia last night. Anyway, more photos to come, but here's a start...

FRI 01.19.2007:
Barcelona, Spain

La Rambla --> Montjuic


street performers.	Greg reliving his glory days.


La Rambla.	Thinking hard about which way to go.	Could this be a clue?	The gondola to Montjuic.

where we're going.	aerial of barcelona.	another aerial view.	la rambla from above.

greg relaxing at the wine bar on Montjuic.	me "acting natural."

THURS 01.18.2007: (cont...)
Barcelona, Spain

La Boqueria


the market.	din din.

I'm back on my side of the pond now...

2007-01-30T15:45:00.000-05:00

daily weigh-in: 131.0 lb
running on: 3 hours of sleep
on location in: Cambridge, MA once again...

I'm home but I have over 850 photos to sort through before I decide which ones I'm going to post. And I'm pretty sure I haven't slept in a really long time, so I'm going to crash for a few days before I get to blogging. But my photos are awesome! Get psyched!

This sucks!

2007-01-26T22:13:00.000-05:00

running on: 6 hours of sleep
on location in: ROME, ITALY

So I have no wireless internet connection in Rome, due to the fact that I am staying at a hostel... so no pictures until I return to America! I will say that I did go check out the Colosseum and the Roman Forum today, which were both rockin'! Good times, love. So yup... that's about it. I've got nothing else until the 30th...

Barcelona

2007-01-21T02:35:00.000-05:00

running on: 5 hours of sleep
on location in: BARCELONA, SPAIN

It's my last day in Barcelona. Two days ago I had some technical difficulties getting my computer to work. My power transformer/adapter blew a fuse and it was a pain in the butt to get a new one... it involved walking many blocks from my hotel and trying to communicate in a foreign language. Also, I left my cable that connects my camera to my computer at home, so that was dumb. Fortunately for me, I've always wanted a card reader that can pull images off of many different camera memory cards/sticks so I bought one of those yesterday morning.

Therefore, here are some photos from Barcelona thus far!

THURS 01.18.2007:

I forced Greg out of bed at the crack of dawn to try my new form of European tourism: going for a 3-mile jog across Barcelona to see Sagrada Familia. On the way we stopped at Gaudi's Casas Batllo and Mila.


Greg's view.	Greg with a statue.	Casa Batllo.	Casa Mila.

Sagrada Familia:


the scaffolding.		me & a statue guy.

	"how to make an angel." freaky!

WED 01.17.2007

8 hour layover in Milan, Italy + arrival in Barcelona, Spain


the duomo in Milan.	shopping center in Milan.	Armani, Milan.	dinner at Geneve 1911, a tapas bar on La Rambla.

Sweet relief!

2007-01-15T18:33:00.000-05:00

daily weigh-in: 131.5 lb
running on: 8 hours of sleep
days until SP/IT: 1 glorious day

I went to see my thesis advisor today and picked up her comments on my draft. Then she told me I wouldn't have to hand anything in until I got back from Europe... she could just base her grade on my draft! I hope that means I passed :-) So for the next 12 hours I just need to pack and prepare to speak Spanish and Italian for the next 14 days. Woohoo!

I want to be done with my thesis. yes, that would be nice...

2007-01-15T10:47:00.000-05:00

daily weigh-in: 133.0 lb
running on: 7 hours of sleep
days until SP/IT: 2. crap.

Thesis and I are rolling along. I should be ready to turn this sucker in tomorrow, right before I make a mad dash to the airport. Here's a majorly important quote from my paper:

"The map is the perfect symbol of the state. If your grand duchy or tribal area seems tired, run-down, and frayed at the edges, simply take a sheet of paper, plot some cities, roads and physical features, draw a heavy, distinct boundary around as much territory as you dare claim, color it in, add a name - perhaps reinforced with the impressive prefix of 'Republic of' - and presto: you are now the leader of a new sovereign, autonomous country. Not only is your new state on paper, it's on a map, so it must be real." -- Mark Monmonier, How to Lie with Maps

Last night I went to Leah's to watch the L-Word and was supposed to come right back and work on my thesis document. But as usual we ended up playing darts and MarioKart until 3AM! So now I have to make up some lost time and really bust a move in thesis land.

Update.

2007-01-14T02:55:00.000-05:00

daily weigh-in: 133.0 lb
running on: 3 hours of sleep
days until SP/IT: 3

Since all I'm doing is writing my thesis, I feel the uncontrollable urge to blog all the time since I have no contact with other human beings. A guy in one of my classes attempted to talk to me as I was heading out of the library for coffee tonight but I totally didn't recognize him because I was so out of it and then I acted dumb. Good for me. I kicked some @$$ on my thesis document today though, and it is now sitting pretty at 66 pages. As you'll recall, it was at 57 pages last Monday and I hadn't touched it until today. I beefed it up this time, whereas I have been revising my main argument for the last 3 months, so I'm finally headed in the right direction. Well, at least in my opinion. I get my feedback on my draft from my thesis advisor on Monday, so we'll see!

Saturday night in the Harvard Library...

2007-01-13T22:44:00.000-05:00

daily weigh-in: 133.0 lb
running on: 3 hours of sleep
days until SP/IT: 3?? Holy crap!

It's 10:45 PM on Saturday evening and I'm at the Lamont library in Harvard yard. I feel cool though because there are no open seats and I actually know a few people here. This place is literally packed like the it's the hottest spot in Cambridge. And it probably is this weekend. The best part is the kid in the carrell next to me who is audibly snoring and he is so loud that everyone around me keeps snickering. Ahhh yes, the sleepless nights and endless amounts of reading/writing... I'll sure miss this after June.

I drove 2.5 hours to CT this morning to see Mike and attend his mom's funeral for 2 hours, and then I drove another 2.5 hours back to Boston. Even though it was a long drive, the funeral was nice to see... it was good and it helped clear my mind of everything that went down this week. So it's back to crunch time for me until Tuesday, when I leave for Spain!

Proud.

2007-01-13T01:45:00.000-05:00

daily weigh-in: 132.5 lb
running on: 10 hours of sleep
days until SP/IT: 4

I made my TV work for like 3 hours today. I'm the bomb. Except that I should have been working on my thesis prep document. But really, I had a book in front of me that I was totally reading while I watched 'Grey's Anatomy' and multiple episodes of the 'Real World' that I've missed over the last month. OK goodnight. I attempted to blog, but really I must sleep....

Rough week.

2007-01-11T10:18:00.000-05:00

daily weigh-in: 129.5 lb
running on: 6 hours of sleep
days until SP/IT: 5

It has definitely been a rough week. And I've got way too much work to do for finals. Today I have got to crack down on my thesis document. It's hard because I'm distracted by so many things right now, but I've got to push everything out of my head and be productive.

And while I'm procrastinating, I'd like to take the time to rant about my crappy TV. You might remember it from posts like 'Pretty New TV !' or 'HDTV Tracking' (parts I & II). Anyway, it's a 27" Olevia (Syntax) HDTV and it has some serious power issues. It has a nice blue light on the front that tells you when it is off. Usually my TV doesn't have the blue light, meaning it isn't receiving any power, or not enough power. I've replaced the power cord and tried plugging it into just about every outlet in my apartment, but it still doesn't work most of the time. It makes me so angry because sometimes it does work and you'll be watching a show when suddenly the TV turns off on you. That's frustrating. And annoying. So I wouldn't recommed this particular TV to anyone, but I haven't tried calling to get it fixed or anything yet. I just don't have the time.

Mike's mother's funeral is on Saturday, so I'm heading down to CT to attend. Here's a link to her obituary: Carol Lisi 1944-2007.

Hurry up and sleep...

2007-01-09T11:21:00.000-05:00

daily weigh-in: 129.5 lb
running on: 6 hours of sleep
days until SP/IT: 7

The most f*@&ed up part about being an architecture student is when you know you have to hurry up and sleep. It's this mental awareness that your body hasn't slept enough lately and you're not being as productive as you could be, so you decide to take a really quick nap. But then of course you can't fall asleep because your mind won't stop thinking. So you just lie in bed feeling more and more frustrated about the fact that you can't fall asleep. Eventually you get out of bed and start working again, but you have to keep working with the nagging feeling that you're destroying your body and your future health.

So yesterday instead of even attempting to try to sleep, I went to the mall and bought a cute little ipod nano and the nike+ thingy to go with it.


ipod nano	nike+

You put the little red thing in your shoe and attach the white clip to your nano. The sensor tracks how far you run and the nano will play your music like normal, but you can press a button and this chick tells you how long you've been running, how far you've gone, and what your pace is (per mile or km). It's really sweet. I put my nike+ tracker over there on the right so it will show my cumulative running starting today, but I can go on the nike website and make charts of all my running and track my progress. I love new toys.

In very sad news, my best friend Mike's mother passed away this morning after a long struggle with breast cancer. If you know Mike, you should send some love his way. =(

THESIS. done.

2007-01-08T07:28:00.000-05:00

daily weigh-in: 129.5 lb
running on: 1 hour of sleep + 2 red bulls + 1 green tea
days until SP/IT: 8!

a ha ha ha... I wish my thesis was done. I did, however turn in my Thesis Prep Document draft about 30 minutes ago... 57 pages long, thank you very much. Now I'm tired but I have to leave for work in about 1 hour. I should be napping but I can't sleep. I love being an architecture student! =D Have I ever mentioned how much fun it is? I was going to blog about something, which is why I signed on here, but now I can't remember what it was. Oh well, I'm going to try to nap for 30 minutes...

Xmas Pt. III

2007-01-07T20:22:00.000-05:00

daily weigh-in: 130.5 lb
running on: 5 hours of sleep
days until i leave for spain/italy: 9!

Yesterday I went for a run in a pair of shorts and a tank top. Tropical weather we're having in January in Boston... amazing! I don't know why I bothered putting my snow tires on my car this year...

Last night I went to a party at Kareem's apartment called "The Twelve Beers of Christmas," though I only managed eight before we got kicked out. The only requirement for the party was that we had to wear Christmas sweaters. So I bought the most beautiful, special, matching sweaters I could find & dragged Christian along with me to the party. I don't know why Christian can't take just take a good picture, so I'm sorry that he looks possessed by the devil in the one below... it's the only picture from the night.


xmas sweaters.	me, dad, mom, Heather, Mikey.

Today we had the Duncan family Christmas celebration Part III at my Aunt & Uncle's house in Billerica, MA. It was fun... I got to see my grandparents, my 10 aunts & uncles, and my 13 cousins/cousins' spouses/& cousins' kids. We had my uncle take this lovely family portrait of us for some reason. MOMMY >> A huge version of the photo can be found here.

What's up with this global warming crap?

2007-01-02T21:39:00.000-05:00

daily weigh-in: 133.5 lb
running on: 5 hours of sleep + 3 hours of sleep
days until i leave for spain/italy: 14!

Dude. It's supposed to be 61 degrees in Boston on Saturday. What the hell is going on around here? That's like bikini weather! I was hoping for at least a little snow this year, but with all the polar ice caps breaking off and floating around the Arctic, I'm beginning to think it might not happen. Anyway, I shouldn't complain. I've always said I want to live in a more tropical climate.

Oh yeah, happy new year! Leah and I threw a small party at her apartment and invited all of our friends and their extended families over to celebrate the new year and it certainly provided me with my fill of drama for the year. Good party though :-) Let's see if I can't post some incriminating pictures....


Leah!	N64.	Darts.

Definitely Christian kissing Johnny.	Just to be fair, me kissing Leah.	Tetsi, how did you get so cute anyway?

Oh yeah, I dyed my hair bright pink. And, of course, Merry Christmas! Christmas was awesome. I spent about 3 days up in Hanover, NH visiting the fam. My little cousins are all so cute, but they're all growing up so fast!


Eamon & Liam.	Anthony & Joey.	Gramma.

Uncle Jim & my mommy.	Cousins Rob & Mo.	Me & my Xmas present.

All I want for Christmas...

2006-12-23T01:48:00.000-05:00

daily weigh-in: 131.0 lb
running on: 8 hours of sleep

is for my friends to come back to Cambridge....

Lonnnnnnely... I'm so lonely... Well, I suppose I have the week with my family to look forward to. That will be nice. But I still miss my friends!

I just watched Memoirs of a Geisha and it is now my all-time favorite love story. While I was watching the movie, I printed out all 54 pages of my thesis document and now I will attempt to revise it. Ok, maybe in the morning.

|-)

I heart meerkats.

2006-12-15T03:14:00.000-05:00

daily weigh-in: 131.0 lb
running on: 6 hours of sleep

I went blonde today. Well, I guess it's more of a light copper color...

Meerkats are so cute. What the hell are they looking at anyway? I can't stop looking at them... they are so mesmerizing...

Christmas is coming...

2006-12-11T01:20:00.000-05:00

daily weigh-in: 129.5 lb
running on: 7 hours of sleep

Today was fun. This morning I got up at 8.30am and went to the ICA grand opening with Christian. Sizzling hot building... I took some very sexy pictures:

And thanks Tetsi for taking this picture... otherwise we'd have no proof that we totally met Brangelina... never mind that it's the same photoshopped image of them from their supposed Falling Water trip:

I also went to a party on Friday night with Leah at her friend Chelina's house, and we made this very attractive guacamole:

Random picture of me & my roomie Cheryl. And yeah, she always wears that much blue eye shadow... ;-)

Got a new sink today. woo!

2006-12-04T23:41:00.000-05:00

daily weigh-in: 130.5 lb
running on: 3 hours of sleep

Thesis.... blah... thesis... my brain is dead. I am at 49 pages of single-spaced thesis writing and I'm still going strong. It really is sucking the life out of me.

But, hey I got a new bathroom sink today! My favorite feature about the new sink is it's ability to provide a warm water stream. My old one just had hot and cold. It sucked. But now I have a nice sink. Yay!


old sink	new sink
red sink	blue sink?

Hmmm... oh yes, yesterday I purchased my tickets to go to Spain and Italy at the end of January. I'm going to Barcelona, Naples, and Rome with Greg... and possibly Florence if I can squeeze it in. I figure I can't be an architect and not have done the "Grand Tour" at least once... so I'm going to see where this architecture thing originated and be enlightened. I can't wait!

What else... Leah and I have been cleaning up at pub trivia lately. We've put together a master team of trivia geniuses whom we bring to Atwood's Tavern on Wednesday nights. We go by the name of "Team Boink!" and we kill the competition.

Have I mentioned I've been writing my thesis document? Here, I'll treat you to my opening statement:

"This thesis project seeks to explore the relationship between the the spatial organization of a dwelling space and its inhabitant's culture. Architecture can represent a culture or its inherent cosmology through direct symbolism, expression, and spatial organization. This thesis will seek to establish and represent the relationship between dwelling and the cognitive mapping processes unique to a culture through the design of a resonant dwelling space for a population that currently lacks this type of synthesis: the Navajo Nation."

Sorry.

2006-11-27T00:57:00.000-05:00

daily weigh-in: 130.0 lb
running on: 10 hours of sleep

I actually used to not suck at blogging, but I have been a slacker recently. I blame midterms... and possibly me having too much fun.

What I built on Thanksgiving:


behold the Marble Machine.

Other cute pictures:

Halloween <|:-)

2006-11-01T18:44:00.000-05:00

daily weigh-in: 135.0 lb
running on: 7.5 hours of sleep

A lot has happened since my last blog. I'm a year older... 27 to be exact. That's pretty old, right? I decided that going to R.F. O'Sullivans and getting awesome burgers, drinking beer, and watching the Patriots game was exactly what I wanted to be doing on the night of my birthday.

Here are some pics from my "party:"

Halloween went down this weekend. I decided on my costume and then I executed it, project runway style. You'll be impressed by my handiwork, I'm sure:

I decided to be Yuna from Final Fantasy (no, of course nobody knew who I was supposed to be, but that's the fun of dressing up as obscure anime/sci-fi characters every year). A rundown of the characters from left to right: 1. Me, 2. Me & Leah as Willy Wonka, 3. Me & Christian as a dark angel, 4. Dave, Becky & Tets as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, 5. Sarah as a nuclear warhead & me, 5. Dave again & Alec as Kim Jong II, dictator of North Korea.

I'm sick... again. My immune system sucks. I've had this disease on repeat every 6 weeks for at least the last 3 months and I remember getting it twice last winter. It feels like the flu, but my lymph nodes get so huge in my neck that I swear I have an unborn twin in there.

More happenings...

2006-10-24T03:00:00.000-04:00

daily weigh-in: 129.0 lb
running on: 6 hours of sleep

I'm trying to decide what I want to be for Halloween. It is crucial that I decide today so I have 4 days to craft an amazing costume. At the GSD Halloween party, you can really only choose one of two directions: 1) Go with a concept so funny and clever, nobody cares if the costume is crappy, or 2) Have an awesome costume. Since I'm not funny or clever, I'm thinking I should go as an anime character since I already look like one and I have short spikey hair right now. Also, I look good in tight clothing. So I think I might be Yuna from Final Fantasy because she's hot... yes, I realize this pretty much falls under the category of cosplay, but I'm dorky enough to know what that is, so I'm ok with that. I used to have green and blue contact lenses, but unfortunately I don't anymore. That would have been kick@$$ if I still had them!

What have I done in the last 10 days? Well, I went to a Stepanian show on Thursday, which was good. Friday was whiffle ball. On Saturday, Alec's parents took a bunch of us out to dinner at The Red House in Harvard Square, which was so nice of them. I had the lobster risotto, which was to die for. On Sunday, I had brunch with this cool chick, Leah at The Neighborhood Restaurant and Bakery in Somerville. She recommended the Cream of Wheat, and I must admit, I was a little bit skeptical... I mean, really? Cream of Wheat? Served in a restaurant? But she was right... it was so good. Amazingly good... in fact, I would go back and get it every day if it was just a little closer to my apartment. Go there. Eat it. You won't be sorry. Monday (today, or yesterday even), I went to work at LWA as usual, and then went to class. So exciting! I have class tomorrow morning too, so I best be going to bed now.

Happenings.

2006-10-14T18:05:00.000-04:00

daily weigh-in: 128.5 lb
running on: 12 hours of sleep

First of all, I'm working at 33 tonight so if you happen to be a person that reads my blog on an hourly basis and you want to come see me bartending tonight, I'll be there from 10-2. I'm sad though... it's my good friend Alec's birthday (Happy birthday Alec!) and they're going out and I didn't know that when I told Lida I'd cover her shift tonight :-( I'm not working at the bar again until November 10 when I cover for Amy.

I had a meeting with my thesis prep advisor on Thursday. Even though our thesis will eventually be a physical project, we do spend one semester "prepping" to find a theoretical basis for our project within the discourse of architecture. So that just means we read a lot of theory & then we meet as a small group (4 women + our advisor) to discuss the readings and apply them to our potential projects. I really enjoyed meeting with my group on Thursday. It's fun to have a reason to sit around and discuss readings with my peers, and one person who knows a lot more than the rest of us & is able to guide us in a meaningful direction.

Yesterday I picked up my copy of Form-Z 6.0.2 from school. This new version of Form-Z has animation capabilities (so things can move while the camera also moves), plus you can get the public beta of version 6.1 with your 6.0 serial number. V6.1 runs natively on my intel processor MacBook Pro! Yay... now my two major design software packages are running natively on my Mac... VectorWorks and FormZ that is so huge! ALSO, I'm running AutoCAD, Rhino, and 3DMax on my Windows partition... woohoo!

Yesterday I also got word that I made the second round of casting for "The Bachelor" (or "The Bachelorette"... I don't think they've decided yet). So this week I need to fill out an outrageous questionaire and make a 5-minute "a day in the life" video. How fun! Project! I think I'm exactly what they need to spice the show up a bit, but I also don't think I'm PG enough for them... oh well. I might have to vamp up my "girl next door." We'll see what happens :-)

I heart reading.

2006-10-11T00:35:00.000-04:00

daily weigh-in: 132.0 lb
running on: 7 hours of sleep

I'd like to share a little haiku that I composed today.

Reading for thesis
is so much fun. I can't wait
until I am done.

And that's all I have to say about that. Tomorrow I have a full day of work at LWA to look forward to, and then I have to get ready for my second Thesis Prep meeting with my advisor on Thursday. Just need to digest a few more lengthy articles on architectural theory and write a brief "Statement of Interest"... no problem...

Get it while it's hot.

2006-10-06T13:10:00.000-04:00

daily weigh-in: 130.0 lb
running on: 8 hours of sleep

Two nights ago I decided to sell off all of my Apple stock that I purchased last October at a 52.42% profit. Not bad for my first trading attempt. Now imagine if I had done that with millions of dollars, not just my teeny tiny IRA account... *sigh*

Last night I decided that I didn't want my dining room table anymore. I bought it while I was living in Allentown, PA, back when I had a real job, a dining room, and I actually ate dinner every night sitting at a table. Now I live in this apartment in Cambridge and the dining room table was taking up the entire entryway/common room. So I sold it to make room for a small couch and TV! That way my roommate can watch movies and TV without having to knock on my door, and I can set up the side of my room that currently has the couch and TV in it as more of a studio / work space. I also drove out to Lowell, MA with the Tets and bought myself a lovely bicycle:

Yesterday I went to work at LWA in the late morning/early afternoon and experienced my first meeting with a landscape architect. I'm always curious about the different business relationships between architects / engineers / landscapers / planners / consultants / etc., so this is how this particular relationship works... we budget a certain amount of the UConn total cost for landscape services, and then we select a landscape architect to propose schemes for the site. Right now the UConn project is still in a conceptual design phase and we are getting cost estimates for several different building concepts. Yesterday was not the first time the landscape architect has seen the project, but it was the first time we asked them to produce any designs for us. We are still working with four different building schemes, so we presented the four different ideas to the landscape architect and then got into a more detailed discussion on overall expression of the site, where each of the buildings' entrances would be located, where the service would be located, etc. Then the architect started sketching his ideas for the site for each of the four schemes, and we discussed what types of plants would be good in the New England climate, and where they would work given the layout and topography of the site. I got to show off my sun/shadow diagrams for the site with each of the proposed buildings, which was helpful for determining where we could realistically put a stormwater runoff garden.

School drools.

2006-09-30T11:56:00.000-04:00

daily weigh-in: 130.0 lb
running on: 8 hours of sleep

I had my first "Thesis Prep" presentation on Thursday with my advisor, Laura Miller. She is running it almost like a studio, which means all five of us advisees met and presented at the same time. We also had a discussion about each person's interests and potential project. It went well, but of course, just the act of meeting makes thesis a reality. It really puts the pressure on us to get moving! At this point in the year, the amount of work that still needs to be completed is overwhelming. Sadly, the second week of May 2007 will feel no different... I'm hoping to channel my panic into productive work over the next eight months, and maybe this blog will help me organize my thoughts.

I'm sick... AGAIN.

2006-09-21T12:40:00.000-04:00

daily weigh-in: 137.5 lb
running on: 12 hours of sleep

If I used my blog purely to log the amount of times I get sick in a year, it would be chock full of good material. This time it's a sore throat + 102-degree fever. I've been lying in bed for 2 days moaning, shivering, and sweating. I used to think I got sick a lot because I bartended and I basically handled drinks and money every week, and rarely had time to wash my hands in between. Ha! Just think about that for a few seconds... anyway, I don't bartend anymore and I'm still getting sick. I guess this particular case could have come from flying to DC this past weekend and not cranking up my levels of Vitamin C and Zinc for the airplane ride. I'll never learn.

When I was in DC, I got to hang out with my friend Greg again. I also forced him to check out the National Museum for the American Indian with me so I could do a little recon for my thesis. I got a few great books on Native architecture & Navajo textiles, which should prove useful this year.

Supergenes!

2006-09-13T17:33:00.000-04:00

daily weigh-in: 133.5 lb
running on: 5.5 hours of sleep

I got my cholesterol tests back from my doctor today... my first cholesterol test ever. My doctor says that my cholesterol values were so good she could hardly believe them, and I quote, "These may be the best cholesterol tests I have ever seen!" Awesome. I'm gonna have to go ahead and share my diet secrets. I have never in my life purchased anything labeled "diet," "low in fat," "lite," or "fat-free." I drink whole milk. I eat real butter. Once a week, at least, I have Taco Bell, Wendy's and McDonald's (the Big Mac is my absolute favorite). Breakfast usually consists of a peanut butter & jelly sandwich, or if I don't have time to make one, it's a breakfast sandwich from Dunkin' Donuts. Every day for lunch I eat a rice & bean burrito from Boca Grande, but sometimes I go for the beef birria when I'm feeling iron-deficient. In the afternoon I generally have a peanut-butter brownie or two chocolate cookies. When I cook at home, dinners range from sushi to steak tips with brown rice to frozen pizza. If I go out, it's usually a cheeseburger with french fries, or maybe onion rings! Late at night I usually get some Chinese food - in particular, I love crab rangoons and pan-fried dumplings - OR Ben & Jerry's ice cream straight from the carton. As you can see, diet plays a huge role in my fantastic cholesterol values. I should start my own diet plan. It's based on the theory that you should eat as much cholesterol and fat as possible, starting from a very young age, to get your body used to processing it. Thank you mommy for my superhuman Japanese genes! And for taking me to Burger King, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell each once a week when I was a kid!

School started this week... well, at least registration & course selection started this week. I'm staying with the firm I worked with all summer, Leers Weinzapfel Associates, part-time for the school year, so I started my part-time schedule on Monday. Right now I am trying to get all of my thesis prep research in order so I can embark on my thesis project as effectively as possible. I'm also trying to pull my portfolio together because I've been a slacker all summer and it's time to step up and get that done.

Allergy rant.

2006-09-10T12:04:00.000-04:00

daily weigh-in: 136.0 lb
running on: 7 hours of sleep

I hate autumn. The ragweed and molds are slowly killing me.... every morning my eyes are swollen half shut when I wake up. I immediately get that allergy feeling in my nose... it's different from just having a stuffed up nose because there's an irritation towards the back of the throat that sits there triggering sneezes and constant nasal drip. My head also feels very fuzzy, but I can't tell if it's my body's exhaustion from fighting allergens, the lack of sleep from all of my allergy symptoms, or the ridiculously high dose of Claritin that I take every day of my life to avoid scratching my eyes out during peak allergy season. The worst part about allergies though, this year, is my asthma. After a year and a half of running ~2-3 miles a few times a week, I can actually enjoy a nice jog by the river on a Sunday afternoon. But yesterday I went out for a run, and as I headed up the first hill I thought, "gosh, I feel really tired." Then I realized my lungs had decided not to accept any more oxygen, which really sucks. If you don't have asthma, I can help you understand what it feels like: Take a deep breath in, but only fill your lungs to about 95% capacity. Hold your breath for as long as you can, and then when you can't hold it any more and you feel like you're going to pass out, try to gulp in a short breath to fill the last 5% of your lung capacity, instead of letting your breath out. See how it doesn't quite satisfy your body's need for oxygen? You just can't get enough air in because your lungs can't get any bigger. That's what asthma feels like, except I don't have the opportunity to then push all of the air back out of my lungs and breath normally again. I have to push all of the fear and frustration out of my head and try to relax as much as possible while I frantically search for my inhaler. Then, with my limited lung capacity, I have to suck as much medicine into my lungs as possible and wait for my airways to open up again so I don't die.

I'm #1!

2006-09-09T02:32:00.000-04:00

daily weigh-in: 132.5 lb
running on: 5 hours of sleep

Holy crap, I just realized that if you do a search for 'laura duncan' (not in quotes) on google, my website comes up first! Hellz yeah, that's what I'm talking about! With quotes, I'm only like #3 or something, but still, that rocks! They must have reprioritized their search algorithm because I used to be like the #54 site for that particular search... and according to my "google page rank" widget, my site is still ranked a big fat zero, meaning it has no value to google whatsoever. The Google Page Rank used to determine the pecking order for search results, but now they must weigh in the fact that I AM LAURADUNCAN.COM. Any other theories out there?

Redecorating.

2006-09-04T00:37:00.000-04:00

daily weigh-in: 132.5 lb
running on: 10 hours of sleep

I'm finally getting some rest! The past two weeks or so have been crazy. I have rearranged and redecorated my entire apartment, which is finally at the point where I can stop and sleep like a normal person without worrying about rolling off of my bed onto a curtain bracket or some such hardware. Yesterday I made a split decision to buy a new couch (actually loveseat) to replace my 8-year-old futon, which I sold to Tets' new roommate, who hasn't moved to town yet and nobody has ever met. As an example of a typical day in my life lately, yesterday I woke up and decided that I should probably get a new couch. Actually, Tets called me at 11:30am and told me that if I really wanted to sell the futon to his roommate, we needed to move RIGHT THEN. So that prompted me to start a frantic search on craigslist for a new couch to replace the futon. I actually really wanted to get a leather chaise lounge from ikea to put in its place, but I finally got around to checking the price on that and we're talking $700. Furthermore, any of the new couches at ikea run about $400 for the smallest/cheapest ones, and that wasn't about to happen, so craigslist it was. Within 2 hours I had found a really cute modern loveseat in Everett for $80. So Tets and I set off to get the loveseat. By 3:30pm we were lugging the loveseat up the three flights of stairs to my apartment. By 4:30pm we had the futon apart and were lugging that down the three flights of stairs to the car. By 5pm, the futon had made its way into the empty room at Tets' place.

After the moving marathon, I came home and toyed with the idea of going to ikea to get the mounting brackets that I needed for my new closet that I had built the night before, but I was too lazy to go. Instead, I watched some TV and gave my roommate Cheryl a makeover before she went out for the night. Then I watched Stealing Beauty and finally called my friend Mark to see if he wanted to go get a drink because I was tired of looking at my apartment. We got some dessert at Temple Bar and then I came home and went to sleep.

This morning I woke up and went with Cheryl to Wheelock College for an orientation skit. Ha! Not because we were trying to scam on 18-year-old fresh meat, but because her friend, Kyle Terry, was acting in the show, which was called "Sex Signals." It was a lovely improv skit about date rape and relationships. After that, we went to Davis Square and had lunch at Diesel Cafe. Then I came home and cleaned out my old kitchen trash can so I could store wrapping paper in it instead. Then I went over to Tets' to meet up with about 8 of my friends for a lovely Labor Day BBQ. Irwin & Tets cooked ribs, biscuits, corn on the cob, and sweet potato fries, which were all amazing. I feel incredibly fat right now, but I have faith in the Japanese metabolism.....

Now I'm going to sleep so I can wake up and finally make that trip to ikea with Oki, after which we have scheduled a tennis date with Chris, Riki, and Irwin. Then I have about 4 days left of work before school starts again. Ugh!

Lovely weather we're having, isn't it?

2006-08-29T08:17:00.000-04:00

daily weigh-in: 133.5 lb
running on: 6 hours of sleep

I know, I know, I'm a huge blog slacker. Thank you to all of my friends and fans who have informed me that I'm not doing a good job keeping you updated on my life :-P

The past week has been rather hectic, and I'm not even back in school yet! Argh! I did move all of my crap out of one of the rooms in my apartment to make way for a new roommate. Then, I also found said roommate by posting a craigslist ad. Her name is Cheryl and last night we went to Ikea and I bought a lot of stuff. It was fun. Ok gotta go to work now.

What I did this week.

2006-08-20T04:37:00.001-04:00

daily weigh-in: 134.0 lb
running on: 6 hours of sleep

I always cut out blogging when I get really busy, which is unfortunate because my life is the most interesting when I'm running around like a chicken with its head cut off. Let's see... I left off on Tuesday, when I stayed home from work because I was sick. Yeah, I layed in bed and slept all day. It was sooo fun.

On Wednesday, I felt better so I went to work. I ended up staying at the office until 12:30 AM because we had an interview at Yale for a project on Thursday, and I needed to finish the stuff they asked me to work on. As I dragged myself home at that late hour, of course, it was the only time in the history of my living in Cambridge that two of the three escalators at Porter Square were broken, and the third was moving in the down direction!! Bastard! So I trudged up the 143-foot-long staircase of hell and walked home pissed off.

I went to work again on Thursday and then met the TNDC & Tet's friend from home, BJ, at Soulfire BBQ in Allston for dinner. The food was pretty good, but they don't have a liquor license yet so we couldn't drink beer with our soul food, as we so enjoy doing at Redbones in Davis Square. After dinner we decided that we'd explore the neighborhood of our brethren across the river (namely BU students and struggling musicians). We went to a bar called The White Horse Tavern and discovered a scary new world of jocks and preppies. Not really feeling the vibe, we traveled to the Model Cafe, which was much smaller, much darker, and much much emptier. As in, there were only four other people at the bar, and none of them were under 46 years of age. So naturally, we stayed there. After a round of drinks, we headed back to Harvard Square where Johnny, Yael, Tets, BJ, & maybe Oki set off to light sparklers in the backyard of the GSD, and Christian & I opted to split off and get a nightcap at Noir before heading home to bed. We briefly ran into Gina, Vince, and one of their friends visiting from out of town, which was cool. After Noir, I headed home and proceeded to puke up everything that I had eaten or drank over the previous 6 hours. I guess that's what I get for drinking a little while trying to recover from a stomach virus.

I still got up and went to work on Friday, but I was dreading the fact that I had to work at 33 last night. I pulled an 8-hour architecture shift followed by a 5.5-hour bar shift and got up this morning to go to a little family get-together in Northboro, MA. My cousin Adam is in town with his family, visiting from the west coast for the first time since his son, Aidan, was born. It was cool to meet Aidan and see Adam & Kathryn again. I had to bartend again tonight, and now I am so tired and ready for bed. I hope I can make tomorrow a productive day for cleaning up my apartment and finally posting an ad for a roommate on Craigslist!

What illness has come over me?

2006-08-15T22:31:00.000-04:00

daily weigh-in: 140.5 lb
running on: 8 hours of sleep

I don't know how I managed to gain 10 lbs in two days, but I guess that's cool. Maybe it's all the fluids I've been drinking since I've been running a low fever for two days as well! My whole body is sore and wehhhh wehhh wehh... I'll stop complaining now, but I hate feeling useless and lying around in bed all day watching all the TV I missed while I had no TV... I swear I didn't make my body sick on purpose! ;-) I've got the thermometer to prove it! 100.5 this morning, I promise...

I guess I'll write about my weekend now since I have the time. Thursday night I had my friends over for an Absinthe + Art Supplies party. I guess that sounds like a weird party to have, but I brought a bottle of Absinthe back from Austria in February and when you drink it, it makes you feel very inspired. It's probably the poison that comes in the form of wormwood, but that's just fine... I didn't have a very big bottle and seven of my friends came by for the party. So we all had a little Absinthe and the art supplies never actually came into play because we watched our fellow GSDers on DesignStar, which unfortunately sucked because they both got voted off over the last two episodes!

Greg came up from NYC on Thursday night to join us for the party, and he stayed through Sunday morning. On Friday, I ended up sleeping all day because I was starting to come down with this illness that is now plaguing me... but on Friday night, I cooked dinner for two and we had dessert down at Temple Bar before letting me go back to sleep. On Saturday we took the T over to the Museum of Fine Arts stop to visit the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and then we proceeded to walk all the way back through Boston Common to Faneuil Hall where we saw some fun street performances. We went to sushi for dinner, and then watched some more TV at my place before retiring for the night. Then, I got up at 4 AM so I could drive Greg to airport for 5 AM... ahhh, the things I do for boys :-)

Yesterday I went to work, but I felt feverish, crappy and exhausted all day. However, it being restaurant week and all, Marisa and I went to Blu for a fabulous $20.06 lunch. It was very yummy. This morning I woke up with a 100.5-degree fever and decided not to go to work because I was so tired and I couldn't think straight all day. I really hope I make it into work tomorrow because I've got a reservation at The Ivy for lunch and I'm making Lisi go with me! We'll see. My vision is already starting to get a little blurry and it's time to find my way to bed... |-)

Pretty new TV !

2006-08-13T06:36:00.000-04:00

daily weigh-in: 131.5 lb
running on: 5 hours of sleep

I spent my day Thursday at home waiting for my television set to arrive from UPS, and it did! It is very lovely. While I had no TV, I had been recording all of my favorite shows on my DVR... since Kareem moved his TV out of my apartment over three weeks ago, I was really scared that my DVR would be already be full and rewriting over the early recordings! Fortunately, my DVR was exactly 95% full and all of my shows are there for me to watch in the next few days! I've already watched all of the episodes of DesignStar, starring my ex-schoolmates Teman & Teran. Right now I'm catching up with the season of So You Think You Can Dance? Still to come is Entourage, the 4400, Project Runway, The Real World (I know, guilty pleasure), and Hell's Kitchen. So, I can't imagine I'll be leaving my apartment anytime soon...

I was also able to connect my MacBook Pro to the 27" display, which will come in especially handy when I'm trying to juggle four different software programs with lots of menus for my thesis project this year. I can open Form-Z + Illustrator both on the big screen, and have Photoshop open on the little screen, with VectorWorks somewhere in between :-) Not bad...

More to come about my weekend soon...

HDTV tracking pt. II

2006-08-10T14:32:00.000-04:00

daily weigh-in: 132.5 lb
running on: 6 hours of sleep

Ooooh!

Date/Time	Activity	Location
08/10/2006 06:48:00	OUT FOR DELIVERY	WATERTOWN, MA, US
08/10/2006 05:22:00	ARRIVAL SCAN	WATERTOWN, MA, US
08/10/2006 03:33:00	DEPARTURE SCAN	WINDSOR LOCKS, CT, US
08/10/2006 03:02:00	LOCATION SCAN	WINDSOR LOCKS, CT, US
08/09/2006 18:59:00	UNLOAD SCAN	WINDSOR LOCKS, CT, US
08/09/2006 18:52:00	ARRIVAL SCAN	WINDSOR LOCKS, CT, US
08/09/2006 16:44:00	DEPARTURE SCAN	LOUISVILLE, KY, US

It's a good thing I stayed home from work today so I could sign for it :-)