archGFX

this is the view off our fiends' balcony. it's such wonderful fodder for imagination: the trees growing in through the bottom door, the vegetation so dense you can't see the ground, the segregation between the manicured garden next door, that's being ignored by plants on both sides of the fence, i love it all.

melanie flew out to san francisco earlier than i did, so monday morning we were discussing her meeting me from the airport. she said the oddest thing - "well, you're getting in at noon." i could have sworn my flight was leaving at 9:40 PM. Of course, It's my assumtion that was wrong.  So, i had to fire of an email to my 2 bosses, HR lady, and accountant asking for an extra day off. given that i'm by far the youngest non-intern employed here, i went for a middle-aged bit of humor to make it go over easier: "note to self: pay more attention when wife is talking." it certainly struck a cord with both of my bosses, but man did it make me feel a) like an ass b) old and lame.

on my way up to the blue line, i managed to drop, then kick, my minidisc player up the stairs. for all sony entertainment's many, myriad faults, sony hardware is top notch. i wasn't worried that the player would be damaged, or that the disc would skip. i was worried my headphone cord would pull out, and the music would stop. some days, i'm glad i never got in on the iPod fad.

My plane did, in fact, get in at noon, and we did indeed go to the explOratorium afterwords. that was pretty fun, despite being swarmed with school kids when we got there. shortly after 3 o'clock, it got pretty empty, so we got to run around and play like kids. they had a bunch of cool exhibits at the about naturally occuring fractals and the relationship between chaos theory and weather. most of the fun stuff was later, including the levitating beach ball (conical air gusts).

the first night we were there, we went out for vegan ice cream (chicago needs this real bad) with some friends we met up with last year. whilst eating my cone of sonic death monkey (or whatever it was called), the ice cream story from madison came up. the one where despite it being a cool october night, i managed to melt ice cream all over my hands, face, shirt, and shoes. and all of our (mutual) friends lauged at me, including the one who never talks. upon finishing the story, the wifest points out to me that i have ice cream all over my face. again. i either need to be banned from ice cream, or at least start bringing my own spoon, since i seem to eat it fine at home.

the rest of the weekend was pretty chilled, hanging out with the wifest after missing her, going to museums ( pikchas! ), shopping, going out in the evenings. all the things that we can't do at home right now, due to the mountain of stress that we were avoiding.