June 20th, 2006
Beijing: Animal rights protestors shut down Fangji Cat Meatball restaurant - purportedly caught and killed stray cats in the streets to serve to customers. This is yet another case of a beautiful, ancient tradition tragically ended by the callous onslaught of westernization; pretty soon, all you'll be able to buy on the streets of an Asian city will be a falafel or baked beans on toast.
Interesting fact: There are 31,000 gelato shops in Italy and the frozen confection accounts for 11% of the country's gross domestic product
June 19th, 2006
Received email from March of last year with the following message: "Please pick up your paycheck in the next week or it will be cancelled and you will not be allowed to recover your pay"
June 17th, 2006
With nothing better to do with my Saturday, I decided to try my hand at biking a century. Having never biked more than 55 miles at a stretch prior to this, it probably wasn't the best of ideas...
Mile 0: Set out from apt at 6:30AM equipped only with a bottle of water, 8 fig newtons and a coupon for a free gatorade.
Mile 6: Started Santa Fe Century at Milhopper and NW 43rd
Mile 20: Got sick of chain grinding noise and sought out the thing that was doing it; couldn't figure out what the purpose of said-thing was, so yanked it off.
Mile 20.3: Realized I had just removed my gear shift
Mile 30: Got lost due to faulty map.
Mile 40: Got back on trail.
Mile 50: Realized that bright blue arrows on road were going the same way I was - decided to give up on map and use these from here on out.
Mile 55: Discovered that no one would honor my free gatorade coupon.
Mile 65: Drank 60oz of water from gas station restroom sink.
Mile 70: Finished last of fig newtons.
Mile 74: Started hallucinating
Mile 77: Thought I heard a duck chasing me - looked back and found that I was being pursued by a remarkably tiny, exceptionally fast dog.
Mile 77.2: Barely escaped with my life from the vicious jaws of micro-dog.
Mile 80: Gave up on following course and turned onto FL-121 (34 st).
Mile 85: Got second wind.
Mile 85.5: Second wind ended.
Mile 90: Contemplated whether I could have found a better way to spend my Saturday.
Mile 105: Arrived back at apt at 3PM, ate several lunches and went to sleep.
June 5th, 2006
Christmas present (purportedly ordered in mid-December) arrived today; I sure hope this GPS is better at finding the way back to my car than it was at finding its way to my doorstep.
June 3rd, 2006
Camped in the murder capital of Georgia along the St. Mary's River; the most recent casualty - a man was chopped into pieces and packed into a dorm fridge.
May 22nd, 2006
Started tutoring job today - in 4 hours, one student showed up - he wanted directions to the nearest water fountain.
Met with boss for research position, this statement made my week:
Boss: "The government gave me x dollars to pay you for all work you do on this project, so if you plan on still being here in the spring, let me know so I can start paying you less for the work you do now"
May 21st, 2006
Roommate's parents visited today - I had to hide out in library until evening because they somehow came to be under the impression that I was a girl.
May 5th, 2006
Dragged bikes 150 miles down I-75 from my defunct bike rack -- and here I thought all those people waving were just being friendly...
