007

Exciting, ridiculous discovery of the day: Sean Connery in Zardoz. Kind of amazing that this exists and I'd never heard about it until now:

amazon

It's so impressive that Amazon still has direct customer support over the phone, and that it's actually good. Kindle issue resolved today in under five minutes.

quinoa?

For once, I tried eating something that's supposed to be super-healthy, and I liked it for more than its nutritional benefits.

gilead

"There are a thousand thousand reasons to live this life, every one of them sufficient." -- Marilynne Robinson, Gilead

personal record

I'm pretty sure that Boyfriend has now broken the record for longest relationship ever. He is now the holder of the championship trophy. Me :P

old job new job

Also, this launched today, which was pretty cool. Working on this particular deal has been an interesting collision of worlds for me. When I left my old job, I didn't think I was ever going to get to work on Holocaust issues again (which was sad, because it was very meaningful work), so coming here and then leading the Legal part of this has been a serendipitous way to stay involved from a different angle.

larp

Funny thought of the day: Imagine LARPing. On a trampoline. With people from work. It's not going to happen (we're not quite that nerdy), but it's pretty hilarious to think about.

philippines

Looks like the trip is going to happen in a month! Two weeks of diving in the Philippines, and we are so close to booking. Just the thing to motivate another session at the gym after work today. I think I can manage a total of a dozen cardio sessions before the trip.

501(c)(3)

Fun procrastination activity of the day: donating to some good causes and filing for matching funds from my company.

no rain

It has been sunny and warm (hitting 70 degrees) for the last couple of weeks. My secret optimist likes to think that this means that winter is over, but even though that's probably not true, at least it's a nice break.

rehash

Did another round of Harvard interviews tonight, but this time, two of my college friends were also there, interviewing students, so we went out for drinks afterwards to rehash the good, the bad, and the ugly. It's kind of like Kids Say the Darndest Things, except for that they're not really kids anymore.

Sample question: Tell me about your high school.
Sample answer: It's on a hill.

start

I usually love being super lazy on the weekend, but I also try to prepare a little bit for dive trips. With a potential trip in March, it's time for me to get my lungs in shape again. I managed to get myself to the gym and on a bike for an hour. (And this was after waking up earlier than usual, going out for breakfast, and dropping my friend off at the airport, and before facing the Sunday afternoon crowd at Whole Foods and doing two loads of laundry).

dinner x 2

Dinner last night with some of Boyfriend's friends (Japanese grill), and dinner tonight with one of my friends from my old New York days (seafood).

gizmo

I am accumulating gadgets at a rather embarrassing rate -- one benefit of working in tech.

relief

It's a little bit of a relief when I get a few deals with my favorite business people after a long stretch of working on other deals. It's like the work equivalent of coming home.

happy birthday

One of our good friends at work is celebrating his birthday in a couple of weeks, but I realized this morning (when checking Facebook) that his birthday is actually today. Surprisingly, even on such short notice, we managed to get a group of people to go out for birthday drinks after work. Random fun on a Tuesday night.

clean slate

My cleaning lady is back from her long hiatus, and tomorrow, I'll come home to a clean house. I went for 30 years without having a cleaning lady, but the last two years of having one have converted me to the "Have" camp so thoroughly that I look forward to tomorrow with as much pleasure as young children look forward to a visit from the Tooth Fairy.

my day so far

It's a day off from work. Boyfriend picked up a sticky bun for me when he woke up to get his coffee. He warmed up the sticky bun and brought it to me in bed. I ate it, finished my book, then took a nap. I'm going to eat leftovers, read, and maybe take another nap.

pho

There's nothing quite like having a huge craving for a particular food and then getting it.

revelation

Two people discovered pranks that we pulled on them at work yesterday, much to the amusement of the rest of us. A few more unsuspecting victims still remain in the dark, and I've got some good ideas for the next round...

We ended the day with drinks at a nearby dive bar, and now we've got a long weekend. I've polished off two books and ghost-written my parents' annual Christmas letter (we're always late), all without leaving the house.

business relationship

I had dinner last night with one of my clients, which in most companies would probably sound like a lame business thing, except that it's a bit different here, and she and I get along really well, both in and out of work. In terms of work, she's one of my favorite people to do deals with, and if we didn't work together, I think I'd still want to hang out with her. We spent a few hours catching up, gossiping, speculating, and it was really fun. She's also an incredibly positive person (it's really hard to get her to say anything bad about anything or anyone), which is sometimes what I need. As a lawyer surrounded by lawyers, I tend to see things in a somewhat cynical and jaded light, so to spend a few hours hearing another perspective that is full of silver linings and big dreams kind of scrapes the barnacles off of my crusty attitude. We had a great meal as friends, and also exchanged a lot of information and compliments as colleagues, so the whole evening was just lots of fun.

alumna

I've gotten more involved with Harvard since moving back to the States, interviewing students for admission and now bringing an undergraduate into work. It's kind of fun talking to these kids and remembering going through the things they're doing, and it feels like I'm giving back a little bit. Also, some of the candidates are pretty hilarious. I will always remember Ballet Girl and the Stoner, and wish them well wherever life takes them.

big plans

We've begun planning our next big dive trip in earnest. Looks like a liveaboard in the Philippines in March? I convinced Boyfriend to use my dive travel agent that I've used before, and he now agrees that a good dive travel agent is awesome.

twizzlers

Why, yes, I'm having Twizzlers for lunch. They called out to me when I was at Target, finishing up my weekend errands before going to pick up my friend from the airport so that we can hang out before going out to dinner.

deal

We went to the discount pet supply place, because I had to get food and bones for Fiver, and Boyfriend found a bed that is very much like Fiver's favorite ratty old bed, which never seems to have an equivalent anywhere that I look. It was marked $12.99, a bargain. The cashier wasn't able to get it to scan and ring up, so despite the price tag, she just charged it as $5.99, even better! Boyfriend is amused, but I still feel like it was a big victory. Hope Fiver likes it.

cover

I love cover versions. Cover versions have the potential to turn bad songs into good songs, and to put good songs in a new light. When they come from unexpected sources, it's even more exciting.

I listened to The Magnetic Fields' 69 Love Songs obsessively in law school, and some of the songs still make regular appearances in my playlists. One of those songs is "The Book of Love." Today, I came across an amazing cover of the song done by, of all people, Peter Gabriel. I was never a Peter Gabriel fan, but this song has given me a new respect for him, and it pretty much made my day.

calendar

The pope in a sombrero!

help

I have a tendency to be snide and lazy, so I'm making an effort to try to "be good" sometimes. I'm bringing an undergrad from my college alma mater in next week to shadow me and meet people in the department. I'm making some charitable donations. I'm trying to help friends out with things, ranging from bringing in boxes to help with their moves to working on CVs. It actually feels pretty good to try to be good. Sometimes.

part two

So after our lobster and crab dinner last night, I came into work and found out that lunch included lobster and crab pot pie. I wolfed some of it down after killing my inbox off and before running off to my first table massage of the year.

crustaceans

Got some coworkers together after work, picked up some freshly steamed crabs and lobsters, and between the seven of us, we ate seven Dungeness crabs and two lobsters. The lobsters were over three pounds each. Three other coworkers came to watch. It's a spectator sport.

new year

It's almost a week since my last post, which is the longest I've gone without posting here, but it was for a good reason -- the first couple days, I was being just plain lazy, which was awesome, because I was able to be lazy due to the fact that work was quiet and my clients were too busy doing holiday stuff with their families to send me any work-related email. The last few days, I wasn't posting because I was hanging out in Chicago with good friends, playing games, catching up, exchanging gifts, and eating an incredible meal at Alinea.

So I rang in the new year with a combination of laziness, friends, and food, which is about as good a way to start a year as any.