underdogishere

A coworker baked this gorgeous cake, which I photographed using my phone just before she sliced into it:



It was more beautiful than the picture conveys. The flowers and butterflies were edible -- the tips of the butterflies' antennae where even dipped in edible glitter! The lady who made it is a test engineer; she told me this is only the second cake she's ever baked. She made the cake from scratch (no mix), and made the butterflies and flowers herself.

It was delicious.

Labels: Butterflies, Seen

From time to time I'm in a store and see a sign that says "Unattended children will be sold as slaves." Besides being conventional and banal, I imagine there are some times when this sign might actually encourage parents to leave their children unattended.

Last weekend I was in a shop in Cocoa Village and saw this sign, which made me smile:



And there was nary an unattended child in sight.

Labels: Seen

I thought this was pretty clever:



It's a pitcher with a column in the middle that you can fill with ice, to keep the juice cool.

Labels: Seen

Now that the U.S. has been eliminated from the World Cup, I can post about this without fear of jinxing us.

I've been awed by how much the World Cup has captured the imaginations of people in the United States -- or at least people around me. I've seen die-hard baseball, football, and basketball fans, who swear that soccer is for sissies, watching World Cup games that the U.S. isn't even playing in. People who aren't even interested in sports under normal conditions have been heard discussing what win, loss, or tie will get the U.S. out of the Group Round; or indignant over that blown call in the England game.

Anyway, this is the World Cup story that I have to tell:

It was the morning of the U.S.-Algeria game. You may recall that this was a must-win for the U.S. Either a loss or a tie would have eliminated us. I happened to be in my car and was able to listen to the first fifteen minutes on the radio. Then I was back at work. I called up a site that was live blogging the game, but of course I had to work, so I only checked it from time to time. The score stayed tied. I checked at the eighty-sixth minute -- only four to go -- and the score was still tied. Discouraged, I went back to work.

My cube farm has a conference room on one side, and the cafeteria is on the other side of the conference room. I was deep into coding and had actually forgotten about the game a few minutes later when I suddenly heard the sound of a crowd cheering in the cafeteria. Cheering? My coworkers aren't the type who cheer spontaneously at odd times. And then it occurred to me: Maybe the game was on the televisions in there. I quickly brought up the live blog and hit refresh. Yes! U.S. goal!

But what really got me excited wasn't the U.S. victory. It was the realization that a crowd of my coworkers had been standing in the cafeteria, anxiously watching those final, nail-biting minutes.

Welcome, America, to the World Cup.

Labels: Out and About, Seen

...because otherwise you might not believe it. This is in the Macy's at the Plaza Las Americas mall in San Juan, Puerto Rico:



It's a vending machine for iPods and iPod accessories.

Labels: Puerto Rico, Seen

...and this is the view from my balcony:

Labels: Puerto Rico, Seen, Travel

If you look up solecism in the dictionary, I'm pretty sure you'll find a picture of this poster:



...which is hung on the side of a cube where I work.

Labels: Language, Seen

So what kind of business would you want to be sure would be open on Valentine's Day? You know, for those last minute Valentine's Day needs. A florist? A confectioner? No. What you really need is:



A pawn shop.

I was startled at first to see this pawn shop advertise that it will be open on Valentine's Day, but, gradually, the common sense of the matter won me over:

If you need cash to buy a last minute Valentine's Day gift, you can get it at a pawn shop. If you need to buy a last minute Valentine's Day gift -- anything from earrings to a trombone to a gun -- you can buy it at a pawn shop. And when you receive a totally inappropriate Valentine's Day gift ("Oh! Honey! You knew exactly what I wanted! A Glock 17!"), you can turn into cash (always an appropriate gift) at a pawn shop. And even though Valentine's Day falls on a Sunday this year, you won't have to wait until tomorrow, because this pawn shop is open today and stands ready to fill your every need!

What could be more romantic?

And on a serious note, Happy Lunar New Year to all my three readers!

Labels: Seen

No visit to New York would be complete without an evening spent in Times Square. And no part of Times Square is more iconic than its high-tech billboards. "Look, my little children, at the amazing billboards! The M&M's! The Hot Wheels cars! The..."



Whoops!

Maybe there should be a prime-time each evening when the billboards are family-friendly. Late-night billboards can come out after that.

Speaking of M&M's, there is a three-floor store at the north end of Time Square devoted exclusively -- all three floors -- to merchandise featuring the-candy-that-melts-in-your-mouth-not-in-your-hand. I kid you not:



I had no idea there was so much M&M merchandise available.

And no evening in Times Square -- no matter how cold it is -- is complete without protesters:



Next up, my final post of pictures from my New York trip: The skaters at Rockefeller Center.

Labels: Out and About, Seen, Travel

If you want the full scoop on Manhattan's newest park, the High Line, you can start by clicking here, and remember, Google is your friend; but here's the Cliff Notes version:

As hard as it may be to believe with today's real estate prices, there was a time early in the previous century when there were stockyards, slaughterhouses, and meat packing plants in Manhattan. They were connected by a private rail line that ran up the Lower West Side, carrying carcasses and killing the occasional pedestrian in the process. In the 1930s the pedestrian count got too high, and they decided to elevate the train tracks. The trains ran until the early 1980s, when Manhattan became too precious for meat packing, and the elevated railway was abandoned. In the 1990s, it was going to be torn down, but some enterprising souls had an idea: Turn it into an elevated city park! And today it's the High Line.

The whole idea is just so cool, we had to check it out.

It was cold. Cold, cold, cold. But that didn't prevent some New Yorkers from... er, sunbathing?



The lounge chairs are actual rolling stock that can be run up and down sections of the old train tracks:



How cool is that? Here's Judi trying it out:



Here's a view of the park:



Here's a view from the park, of the Empire State Building:



Park benches:



Next up: Times Square!

Labels: Out and About, Seen, Travel

Lots of pictures in this one!

We decided to take a walking tour of Chinatown. After much looking online, I picked this one, which turned out to be great: Chinatown Walking Tour Map - New York Chinatown Map and Guide. I strongly recommend this guide if you want just a walking tour (and not a culinary tour).

Two surprises were (1) that the oldest cemetery in New York (1683) is in Chinatown, and (2) that it's Jewish. The First Shearith Israel Graveyard:



If you click for the larger image, you can read that Josaih Ellis died on October 8th, 1798.

Next up is a meat market whose window is plastered with posterboard in Chinese -- I assume cuts of meat and prices:



It was really, really cold during our walk. About halfway through, we were looking for a place were we could warm up and drink some hot tea. The tour recommended the Golden Unicorn, so we dropped in. The Golden Unicorn is a dim sum establishment. We asked for only hot tea, but they rolled the cart over, and we were intrigued, so we ended up trying a few baskets. The food was excellent. A bigger challenge was that Judi's mother had never eaten with chopsticks, and Judi hadn't in a very long time, and had lost the knack. It came back to her, though:



Until she got really good at it:



They did not offer us forks, by the way.

In case you ever need any tasty hand-pulled noodles, this is your place:



Purportedly New York's first dim sum parlor -- you can't read it even in the larger version, but the date painted on the window is 1920:



I'm not sure what role this life-sized plastic Homer Simpson plays in Chinatown, but there you are:



Perhaps if this blog has a visitor who can read Chinese, he or she can interpret the placard in Homer's armpit for us.

Here are Judi and her mother standing on a streetcorner waiting for the light (I made it across before they did). Notice how they stand out against the dark-clad natives:



This bike, chained to a lamppost at the end of the Manhattan Bridge (the Manhattan end of which originates at the edge of Chinatown), memorializes a bicyclist who was killed on the Bridge:



It seemed fitting.

An intersection (nothing more):



The tour ended at the Mahayana Buddhist Temple -- the largest in Chinatown, according to the guide. That was very interesting (and another chance to take a break from the cold). I hadn't been in there very long before my Reiki "turned on" full blast. There are a number of altars, each different. Here's one:



Next up, the High Line Park!

Labels: Out and About, Seen, Travel

Every time I stay in a big city -- one with tall buildings -- I never fail to find rooftop gardens. It seems ubiquitous that some city residents set up gardens on the roofs of their buildings. I find them fascinating. We weren't very high up in our hotel, but here are a few rooftop gardens that were in view:





This isn't a garden per se, but it's my favorite: A square of fake grass, a table, an umbrella, and four chairs. It would have been interesting to see people seated around this table, except that it was the dead of winter:



Next time, a terrific tour of Chinatown.

Labels: Out and About, Seen, Travel

It so happened that I was in New York City this past weekend. When the blizzard hit. The snow began falling about midday on Saturday, and by Saturday evening it was coming down pretty good. It was fascinating to sit in my hotel room, overlooking Broadway on the Upper West Side, and watch the circumstances of humanity as they unfolded in the snow.

There were a couple of things about New Yorkers in a snowstorm that were starkly different from my memories of winter in New Hampshire. The first was the large number of people who were using umbrellas:





Umbrellas in a snowstorm? What are you thinking? Where I came from, we wore a hat or scarf over our head, and just let the snow fall on it. As cold as it was outside, everyone should have had a hat or scarf anyway.

The other thing that struck me was the large number of people riding bicycles in the storm:



People, snow and bicycles do not mix. Not unless you're a bicycle messenger and you have no choice. Early in the evening the bicycles plowed through, but as it got later and the snow appeared to be about three inches deep, the bicyclists began to have a lot of trouble with control. Their front wheels slid back and forth and they were jerking the handlebars to try to keep balance. Not to mention frequently touching the ground with a foot. Taxis were following one guy who was in the middle of the uptown lane, and as he swerved around they were honking at him constantly. It was dangerous.

The hotel was directly across the street from the Broadway Fairway Market, which I guess is one of the most popular grocery stores in Manhattan. It was doing a brisk business (thus providing me with lots of material for observation). At about eleven o'clock a woman left the market. She was wearing an ankle-length black coat and a scarf over her head. She was accompanied by a smaller person -- perhaps a teenaged girl -- in a white parka and white hood, and a child -- a boy? -- in a dark coat and a black ski cap. The little boy was exhuberant, throwing himself on the ground to make a snow angel, then jumping up and kicking snow in the air, then grabbing up snow for a snowball. He was enjoying the storm. The woman was trying desperately but somewhat timidly to hail a taxi. She was standing way back from the edge of the traffic lane and had her arm up, but seemed to wave her hand hesitantly. I freely admit I'm no expert, but in my very limited experience the best way to get a cab is, if not to actually jump in front of it, at least make a run at it.

Anyway, this lady's technique wasn't working. But what tickled me is that every time a taxi passed without stopping (which was often -- practically the only cars on the road by this time were taxies), the exhuberant child would pelt it with a snowball.

A taxi would pass.

::snowball:: Thud!

Another.

::snowball:: Thud!

Another.

::snowball:: Thud!

::snowball:: Thud!

::snowball:: Thud!

It's a wonder his arm didn't get tired.

Slowly and quietly this little group worked their way up Broadway to 75th, and they stood there at that corner for quite a while, she flagging, he pelting. The woman seemed to not even notice the child, who I silently rooted for in his assault on the cabs, the cabs that didn't stop. Then suddenly the woman collected the white parka and the small child and crossed Broadway eastbound, disappearing from my sight. Where was she going? Why had she given up on the taxis? What was her new plan? How did they get home? I'll never know.

Labels: Seen, Travel

In this recent post, I mentioned that I'd been away for two weeks, and where I had been the first week (St. Thomas). So where did we spend the second week?

Curacao.

So... about Curacao:

While we were in Willemstad we popped into the local McDonalds -- I know, McDonalds? -- for some iced teas, because, you know, most places in Willemstad don't serve iced tea (the real, brewed fresh kind), and, believe it or not, McDonalds does. While standing in line, we noticed this on the menu board:

McKroket.

McKroket? Seriously? As you may know, the kroket is a Dutch speciality that's available all over the Dutch West Indies -- Holland House in Philipsburg on St. Maarten serves great ham krokets -- but... McKroket?

I had to give it a try.

It looks like this:



It was... tasty. You know, for fast food. Meat and cheese mixed together, breaded, and deep fried. Served on a service-issue McDonalds bun. It was interesting to see McDonalds attempt to incorporate local cuisine into its menu. After a little browsing on the Internet's tubes, I learned that you can get this in McDonalds stores in the Netherlands, too.

Just so you aren't misled, this is what real Curacao cuisine looks like:



And it's great!

Also on the food front, we had lunch at (and took a ton of pictures at) the terrific Curacao Butterfly Garden. There's a post about that on Judi's Butterfly blog. You can find it here.

Another thing I learned on this trip is that you never really know anyone. The sea-channel that links Curacao's magnificent but somewhat-inland harbor to the Caribbean splits the city of Willemstad in two. The side that has most of the buildings and people is called Punda -- literally "this side" in Papiamento, the local language -- while the other side is called Otrabanda -- "other side." Makes sense, eh? :) Punda and Otrabanda are joined by the world famous (really) floating bridge -- a pontoon bridge that swings out of the way when ships and tugboats are making their way through the channel. While the bridge is swung aside, pedestrians gather in crowds on both sides, waiting for it to close.

Judi, as you may know, is big on "following the rules." Common Judi-isms: "The sign says not to do that." "I don't think they want us to go there." "They have that rule for a reason."

So we were in Otrabanda, and just walking up to the floating bridge, wanting to return to Punda, when the bridge started to open. The fence was crowded with pedestrians, waiting. But the gate in the fence was open. And you can't imagine how surprised I was when rule-following Judi suddenly walked through the open gate, all by herself, and, without missing a beat, hopped across the widening space that separated the bridge from the land.

Judi?

Of course I instantly followed her -- I mean, the gap was getting wider and wider -- and then I was standing on the bridge as it moved under my feet, the land and the crowd of patient pedestrians behind the fence falling away behind me.

Judi?

Yes, Judi. Jay-bridge-walking Judi, as casual as if this was the kind of thing she did every day::



The bridge is usually crowded with people, so it was strange to be on it when it was almost deserted:



A yacht in the channel, passing by the opposite end of the floating bridge, which is obviously no longer attached to land:



The far end of the bridge is lined up with a restaurant, creating the optical illusion that you could walked from the bridge straight up to your table:



But the fact is that the restaurant is up the channel from the real terminus of the bridge, and there's a lot of water between the bridge and the restaurant.

As Judi waited at the far end for the bridge to close, I caught up with her and said, "I'm amazed that you just jumped across to the bridge. That isn't like you":



She answered, with nonchalance, "I know, and it occurred to me that I might fall in and drown, or my dress might get caught in the mechanism, or I might be crushed. I can imagine the headline: 'American tourist crushed by floating bridge.' But then I went ahead and did it anyway."



You never really know anyone.

Labels: Curacao, Out and About, Seen, Travel

Recently I received one of those automated telephone calls reminding me of a doctor appointment. It started with a chipper ladies voice telling me the doctor's name, and the date and time of the appointment. Then it changed to a more dour ladies voice telling me arrive fifteen minutes early. Then a man's voice cut in to let me know that if I was having a certainprocedure done (I wasn't), I needed to arrive thirty minutes early. Then the original chipper lady returned to give me a phone number to call if I had any questions.

I had a distinct feeling that I had just received a reminder call from a conference room full of people who kept blurting out little bits of information as they thought of them.

Labels: Seen

Seen on a bumper sticker:

It's not where your from
It's where your at

Labels: Language, Seen

...because we were. Recently I began noticing small plastic signs all around town -- you know, the ones stuck into the ground on wire legs that cost, like, $199 for 100 signs? These signs proclaimed "DNA Screening" in big letters. I thought, "Wow, does this mean anyone can walk in and get their DNA screened for, like, diseases and stuff? Has DNA screening become that commonplace?"

And then I got to thinking, "Isn't a cheap plastic sign an odd way to advertise DNA screening? I mean, this is a sophisticated medical procedure, and you'd have to wonder about the professionalism and quality of a company that advertises by placing cheap plastic signs by the roadsides."

Then one day I was stopped at a traffic light near one of the signs, and I was close enough for long enough to be able to read the rest of the sign -- the small lettering that you miss when you're zooming by at 40 miles an hour.

It turns out that DNA Screening is a company named DNA... that does screening. You know, screen doors. Window screening. Build a screen room around your swimming pool. That kind of screening. DNA can do it for you!

Labels: Language, Seen

I was driving along a busy road and caught sight of this sign out of the corner of my eye:



The thoughts that went through my head, in order:

1. They're supersizing Lent? Extra-extra-large Lent? What does that mean?

2. Double-X rated Lent? Lent with wild sex orgies? That can't be right.

3. Hey, it's not even the right time of year for Lent! Why are they making such a big deal about Lent now?

::frown::

4. Oh! It must be trying to say "Excellent"! Though, in that case, why are there two X's?

I still haven't figured out why there are two X's. Maybe if I watched TV I'd see a commercial and it would all be made clear.

Labels: Language, Seen

Today I had occasion to be ordering something online from Harrods, the British department store. I got to the page where I had to enter my billing information. You know how most of these pages have a little dropdown box where you can pick from Mr, Mrs, Miss, Ms, and (usually) None? Well, this was the honorific list in the dropdown on the Harrods form:

• Mr


• Mrs


• Mr & Mrs


• Miss


• Ms


• Baron


• Baroness


• Sheikh


• Sir


• The Honourable


• The Right Honourable


• Viscount


• Viscountess


• Begum (A Muslim woman of high rank, often a widow -- I had to look it up)


• Brigadier


• Captain


• Commander


• Colonel


• Count


• Countess


• Dame


• Doctor


• Doctor & Mrs


• Doctors


• Earl


• His Royal Highness


• Her Royal Highness (Just in case the Queen is sitting at her computer and, you know, just has to order something from Harrods right now)


• Judge


• Lady


• Wing Commander


• Lord


• Lieutenant


• Lieutenant Commander


• Lieutenant Colonel


• Madam


• Mademoiselle


• Major


• Monsieur


• Prince


• Princess


• Professor


• Reverend

I'm not making this up. Go to Harrods and toss something in your shopping cart and start the checkout process to see for yourself.

But, seriously (or not), a list this extensive cries out for mocking. For example, there's Her Royal Highness, but why isn't there a His Imperial Highness? I'm not sure there are any sitting emperors in the world right now, but you never can tell when one might sprout up and just have to order a stuffed bear. Also, what if the Pope suddenly needed to order from Harrods? Nary a His Holiness in sight. And he can't even delegate the job to a cardinal or bishop, as there is no Most Reverend, only a run-of-the-mill so-not-the-most Reverend.

I do like that Wing Commander made the list, but I find it odd, given that Britain built its empire and eminence on naval power, that Admiral was omitted. Do Admirals not shop at Harrods? Or does Harrods think that Admirals are not capable of placing orders online.

Finally, I must decry the social inequalities perpetuated on this list. For example, there's a Doctor & Mrs and a Doctors, but no Doctor & Mr (or would it be Mr & Doctor?). And gays are slighted, too. There's a Mr & Mrs for hetero couples, but nothing for gay couples (Messrs for two gay men or Mmes for a lesbian couple). Doesn't Harrods know that gays wield a lot of spending power?

Labels: Gender Issues, Language, Musing, Seen

Now I'm getting phished for in languages I don't even understand:

Subject: S'il vous plaît rétablir votre compte d'accès

Chers membres PayPal: Attention Votre compte PayPal a ete limite ! Dans le cadre de nos mesures de securite, Nous verifions regulierement l'activite de l'ecran PayPal. Nous avons demande des informations a vous pour la raison suivante: Notre systeme a detecte que votre compte PayPal utuliser sur plusieurs adresses ip differentes que la votre,nous avons essaye de vous contactez sur votre mobile sauf que vous etiez injoignable.apparament vous etes victime de fraude internet. Numero de Reference: DK-129-158-XN (Tentative de fraude) gardez cette references. C'est le dernier rappel pour vous connecter a PayPal, le plus tot possible. Une fois que vous serez connecter. PayPal vous fournira des mesures pour retablir l'acces a votre compte. une fois connecte, suivez les etapes pour activer votre compte .et veuillez marquer un numero de telephone valide,car des que nous receverons vos informations l'un de nos agents vous appelera pour verifier avec vous les dernieres utulisations de votre carte de credit.Si vous constatez le moindre defauts sa sera pris en compte et vous serez rembourser par virement bancaire Cliquer ici pour commencer la verification Nous vous remercions de votre grande attention a cette question. S il vous plait comprenez que c'est une mesure de securite destinee a vous proteger ainsi que votre compte. Nous nous excusons pour tout inconvenient.. Departement de revue des comptes PayPal Copyright c 1999-2009 PayPal. Tous droits reserves. PayPal (Europe) S.a r.l. & Cie, S.C.A. Societe en Commandite par Actions Siège social : 5eme etage 22-24 Boulevard Royal L-2449, Luxembourg RCS Luxembourg B 118 349 Email PayPal numero PP086

I assume this is a phishing expedition, because the link (removed above) to "Cliquer ici pour commencer la verification" (whatever that means) is clearly a phishing site.

Sorry, French dudes. Even if I took your bait, I can't read the labels on the form, so I don't know what personal information to spill to you in what fields.

Labels: Seen