list of jobs that are harder than mine...

My dad won his jury trial today! huzzah! i imagine that he was making a face similar to this one. although, he might have been missing the stone tower (from ponce de leon's house in old san juan).

Yup, you guessed it. i've just figured out how to use picasa. you can expect way more lame family vacation pictures from now on. 

oh my god this is so awesome...

Under an 1815 Volcano Eruption, Remains of a 'Lost Kingdom'
(click here for full story)


the lost kingdom of Tambora!?!
oh man oh man.this is awesome. i had no knowledge of Tambora - and boy do i like volcanos. pompeii? fantastic.

this is so cool.

although (and this is embarrassing), when i read it at first on the cnn site, it seemed like they had found the lost kingdom of tambora in rhode island, which didn't make any sense and i was really confused.

I just saw a bumper sticker that said PRECHES.

Yup. That's all i got.

bowling bowling bowling to freedom!

So I'm organizing a bowling night - March 10th at 10pm at Melody Lanes in Brooklyn - take the N to 36th street, it's on 37th street and 4th ave (click here for review/directions/map)


come bowling. i'll bring my parents and my sister. it'll be awesome.

babies are cute

My cousin is turning one on bowling night!
on the left you'll find him listening for the sand worms that eat people.
on the right, he's reading this post. he's very advanced.

happy early birthday rory!

i'm going to bemidji

because Bemidji, Minn. is the curling capital of the united states. and i want to be a curler.

and i think that the medals rounds of curling shouldn't be at 7am. they should be at a time when i can watch them. because, i know that most people don't believe me, but curling is way cool.

and it's scottish too.

i, too, am a douchebag

Yesterday was Toby's birthday. Toby is awesome. I forgot. I'm sorry.

When i googled Toby to find a picture of him to show you, this toby nathan came up. she's an md AND a pc. you could do worse, tobs.



happy happy happy happy birthday. see you this weekend!

Get it on, Pang and Tong, get it on.

Dick Button won the gold medal in 1948.

Sheena and I just finished watching an evening of Olympics, which was awesome. The US women's snowboarding team kicked some ass, and Joey Cheek (who is just cute as a button) blew everyone else away - even the eight foot tall Russian dude. But the highlight of the evening for entertainment value was absolutely the pairs free skate. Of course Dick Button (who is nine hundred years old) was commentating, along with some bitch. I think this bitch's name is Sandra. I'm not sure. Let's call her Sandy.

Sandy, Sandy, Sandy. Did Petrova and Tikhonov kill and then eat your dog? your child? did they steal your identity and spend your life savings in Las Vegas? Because I would understand your ire if they did. If not, then you're just mean. She accused them of having choreography that was a "cop-out". She also said that Tikhonov (who is seven feet tall) "has never been able to get through a full four minute program." i know, i know, that's not really all that mean. But don't worry, she was also racist, saying things like "the Chinese have always been known for their tricks." I believe they're called jumps, sandy, not tricks.

Also, the silver medalists in the pairs were amazing. the woman (zhang dan) fell from like eight feet right onto her knee, got off the ice in tears, and went right back on. and then they won the silver medal. after falling and stopping the routine. it was awesome.

Dick Button said (of zhang) "who would have guessed that someone that slight would hvae a heart as big as the skating rink." who, indeed, Dick? who indeed.

start me up, if you start me up i'll never stop

Sheena and I were on our way to our soccer game yesterday (against the number one team (read here for what happened)) and who should walk onto the subway and sit across from us? none other than Michael McKean, who is awesome and has been in all of the Christopher Guest mockumentaries and is amazing. Of course, the only thing i could think of when he sat down was that he played the bad guy in Mom and Dad save the World, which is a horrible movie.

so I stare at him, then I stare at Sheena, then Sheena stares at me, stares at McKean, McKean stares at both of us. uncomfortable. for the rest of the trip I babbled incoherently, Sheena pretended to listen to what I was saying, and McKean made his young companion crack up hysterically - not really surprising.

we did not play it cool. it was a sad day for us. but very very exciting.

DOCTOR UPDATE. OH MY GOD.

ok. so i've just discovered something amazing about Dr. Shapiro. She began practicing medicine in 1942.

SHE BEGAN PRACTICING MEDICINE IN 1942.

not only does that make her one of the first female doctors, but it also makes her something like 85 years old.

and also Marna, the receptionist extraordinaire i work with (who is around 55ish) just realized today that this same Dr. Irene Shapiro WAS HER PEDIATRICIAN!!

i'm sorry for the capitalization, but it's insane.

oh, you think??

This article in the Times today almost made me cry:

Some Democrats Are Sensing Missed Opportunities (full article here)


oh really? see, i thought the dems were doing a great job. totally. (that was sarcasm, it doesn't always come across in writing).

blast from the past

i found this again. and liked it. just as much as the first time.

this was a tribute to my blog. from august. thanks andy.

2-4-6-8 who do we appreciate??

So we had our fifth game of the season yesterday (Castle Grey Skull FC crushed the opposition 3-1) and are slowly moving our way up the ranks of the NY Co-Ed Soccer beginner league. Awesome. Our ringer wasn't even there.

Josh and Seth and Bridget came to the game, and it was great to have some fans cheering us on. Josh also took some awesome pictures.

Next week we go up against the Footlocker team, which is not only undefeated, but has a goal differential of, umm, 23. We're not far behind with our GD of -1.


picture borrowed from www.minioncontrol5.tripod.com

way to keep a monday light

I forgot to put this up, but i think the 3 people who read this blog might appreciate the story.

On mondays we have our big lab meetings. these meetings aren't super serious, but we definitely discuss serious recruitment, data analysis, administrative stuff. so at the meeting on monday, one of my bosses was discussing things we need to do to get one of our studies ready for analysis and writing of articles.

She's talking about responsibilities we all have, and says something like, "so we all need to keep on top of our duties" or something like that. the important part is the use of the word "duty" because i start giggling to myself.

i cut the giggle short, so it came out like a snort. everyone in the meeting stops, looks at me, and Richard (the uberboss) asks what's wrong. I say nothing, paula says, "no, you rolled your eyes, do you have something to say about this?" and i reply with, "no, please, it's nothing."

of course, because my life is a movie, they won't let it go and i finally come out with, "i am 12 years old and paula said 'duty'". and Richard says, "more like 8 years old".

i start laughing hysterically and, luckily, the rest of the lab group joins in.

just another monday at behavioral medicine. hot damn i love my job.

live in the now, man!

This morning I left my iPod at home. It was charging, I forgot to put it back in my bag before I left. Very sad. So I was stuck listening to the noise and chaos that is a New York City subway during the morning commute.

There was the dude listening to music so loudly I'm surprised his eardrums weren't bleeding, the loud talkers, the usual.

And then, as I was closing my eyes for my traditional (59th to 168th street) nap, I heard the opening notes of Stairway to Heaven. Immediately in my head I played out that scene in Wayne's World in the guitar store where Wayne starts playing the nice guitar and the clerk stops him and points to the "No Stairway to Heaven" sign. So i giggle a little to myself. and then the guy plays the ENTIRE SONG. all eleventy billion minutes of it. needless to say, my nap was interrupted.

It was better than jamaican dance hall music at 8am, and I had a crazy smile on my face the whole ride. all in all, not a bad way to start the day.

party on wayne.