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Sunday, February 27, 2005

The Gates

Took a stroll through Central Park today to see what all the hype surrounding "The Gates" was all about. If you haven't heard about them, here is some trivia for you:

The Gates were unfurled in Central Park, New York City on February 12, 2005 and will remain on display through February 27, 2005.
Christo and Jeanne-Claude developed the concept for The Gates in 1979. On January 22, 2003, the City granted permission to the artists to realize their vision.
7,500 gates, 16 feet high (4.87 m) with a width varying from 5 feet 6 inches to 18 feet (1.68 m to 5.48 m) line 23 miles (36.8 km) of footpaths in the park.
Gateslake_1 Free-hanging, saffron-colored fabric panels are suspended from the top of each gate and hang down to 7 feet (2.13 m) above the ground.
The Gates are stationed approximately 12 feet (3.65 m) apart, except when low branches extend above the walkways.

Click here to see all the pictures we took. I wasn't a 100 % convinced that the project would be all that great but it was kind of fun to see. It was neat to see a sea of orange colored fabrics blowing in the wind. I was also impressed how many people were in the park. For a Sunday in February it was pretty amazing. New York City has definitely made a profit on this with all the people that came to the city to see the gates.

Went to dinner at our favorite pizza place Arturo's in the Village after our walk in the park. Now we are back home and I am off to watch the Oscar's. Let's see how Chris Rock does. I think he is hilarious so I am looking forward to it. :)

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Friday, February 25, 2005

Snowy Morning

I am glad to announce that I am in a much better mood this morning. The snow looks pretty outside, the sun is shining and I am happy. ( .. now, let's see how long it lasts when I get to work *g*)

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Thursday, February 24, 2005

Weird Mood

OliverchairHad a good day off yesterday. I set the alarm for 9:45 but of course didn't make it out of bed until about 11:30. After some internet surfing and talking to my mom I decided to do something useful and actually managed to write 4 letters. I didn't get around to reading, playing the Sims or cleaning out anything .. but hey, at least I got something done. :)

Today was another crazy day at work. Was two people short again, trying to multi-task, sitting with the new girl, covering a few different desks at the same time ... just lots going on all at once. At least the day flew by fairly quickly and we managed to leave around 5 which was nice for a change.

After we got home and had dinner we decided to watch some stuff we had recorded on TV. We watched a Saturday Night Live Special about the 5 first years of SNL. And somehow during watching that show my mood changed. I hate when I am all of a sudden in a weird mood with no real explanation. I feel sort of blue ... for no real reason. I hate when I start to think too much, analyze life too much and worry about things for no good reason. I am sure I'll snap out of it sooner or later, for now I am going to curl up with my cat Ollie.

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Tuesday, February 22, 2005

Busy Days

Paperwork It's been a busy two days this week already so I am very glad that I have the day off tomorrow. :)

Yesterday was a nightmare as it was snowing and two of my employees couldn't make it in. On top of that I had a new girl starting which I was supposed to train. We also have a new big customer who is working with us and causing more problems than anything else. I know everything takes time in the beginning but it's just a mess from start to finish. Both Mike and I were at work until 8 pm yesterday trying to sort out some of this mess.

Today I finally got around to sitting down with the new girl, training and giving her an overview of the job.  Some of the mess was also supposed to be fixed today so we will see what happens. Got out around 6 which was at least a little nicer than yesterday.

I am off tomorrow which I am looking forward to. I have set myself some lofty goals of writing a lot of letters, reading a book, playing my Sims, cleaning out some things, .... We'll see how things turn out and what I actually get done. :)

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Friday, February 18, 2005

Happy Birthday Mike !

Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband Mike. Can't help but tease him every once in a while that I will always be younger than him. :) Although I am 25 already too so the big 30 is not all that far away for me either.

Had a busy day at work today but managed to escape on time to meet up with Mike's aunt Judi, our friend Karen and Mike's sister Kristina and her boyfriend Chuck at our favorite bar TK's. Received 30 free buffalo wings .. so I guess there is something good about turning 30 after all. :) Also ordered a big plate of nachos and lots of yummy drinks. Had a fun evening chatting, eating and drinking.

Tomorrow we'll be going to the musical "The Producers" on Broadway and afterwards out to our romantic restaurant Osteria al Doge in Manhattan. Yum. :) It will be a late night since the show doesn't start until 8 pm. Our dinner reservations are for 11 pm. We'll be tired when we get home but at least we can sleep in on Sunday.

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Monday, February 14, 2005

Happy Valentine's !

Heartv25 So here it is ... the day of love. :) Had a pretty good day at work today, wasn't too busy but also wasn't bored out of mind. A good medium is nice, doesn't happen too often so you gotta be grateful when it happens.

After work we exchanged our Valentine's cards and gifts. I got Mike a heart-shaped cheesecake with raspberry swirls from Harry & David, some boxer shorts and Reese's candy. He got me a really nice necklace. It's a heart-shaped silver pendant with pink Swarovski crystals. It's part of the Paris Hilton collection. Not a huge Paris Hilton fan but that necklace is really nice. It's a playful necklace that you can wear with not so dressy stuff as well as more fancy clothes. I love pink stuff so I am happy. :)

Going out for a nice romantic dinner later. Our reservations are for 7:30 so I'll be really hungry by then. Yum. :)

Part Two of our Valentine's/Anniversary celebration will follow this weekend. We are going out on Saturday to see the musical "The Producers" on Broadway, followed by a nice romantic dinner at an Italian restaurant in Manhattan (it's a special restaurant since that's the place where we officially got together in 2000) So I am looking forward to that. :)

Happy Valentine's everyone ! Hope you are all having a good day.

PS: Also a little reminder for everyone. Since my system crashed and I lost a lot of data over the weekend, anybody out there that reads this blog and knows me outside of the "web world", PLEASE PLEASE email (you can use ) me your contact information (address, email, phone number) so I can update my address book to a current status. THANK YOU !!! :)

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Sunday, February 13, 2005

Woke up in 2003

It's amazing what a difference 2 years can make. It feels like I woke up in 2003 today. Before you start to think I am completely nuts let me explain. :)

Yesterday was the day from hell so to speak. I got up to go to work as usual, had breakfast, made myself a big mug of tea. After that I usually go to my computer, drink my tea, pet Ollie and check my email. I followed my routine as usual but as I turned on my computer it started to make a strange noise .. clunk .. clunk ... like something was spinning inside. I didn't think anything of it at first and figured Mike could fix whatever it was in a minute. Well, turns out my hard drive decided to die on me. I was SO upset.

Luckily I had two hard drives in my computer and most of my data (word documents, photos, graphics, program files, ...) was stored on the second drive. Unfortunately Windows chooses to store all Outlook related files (saved emails, address book, ...) and Internet Explorer Favorites on the C Drive automatically. So I basically lost all my emails, addresses, phone numbers, internet favorites, .... ! I know, I know, you are supposed to have a backup of these things. We did make backups but the last one we have is from Feb. 2003.

So to make a long story short, that's why I feel like I all of a sudden woke up in 2003. It's better than not having any data at all I guess but it's still strange. I am looking at emails from people that I haven't spoken to since ... well probably 2003. And lots of internet favorites that are related to the Sims Online. Must have been about the time when I was really into that game. Most of the sites actually don't exist anymore, tried to look at them just for the fun of it.

I am slowly trying to restore my addressbook as best as I can but I know that some of the stuff might be lost for good. Anybody out there that reads this blog and knows me outside of the "web world", PLEASE PLEASE email (you can use ) me your contact information (address, email, phone number) so I can update my address book to a current status. THANK YOU !!! :)

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Thursday, February 10, 2005

4 years already ...

Valbutterfly1 Today is our 4th wedding anniversary. Can't believe it's already 4 years but my friend Sharon brought up a good point over dinner yesterday. Look at the people that have been married for 50 years and are still happy - now that's an accomplishment. I hope to get there some day. :)

Work was very quiet today, almost eerie. Everything was running smooth, I had time to reorganize my desk and just stroll around watching everybody else work. *g* Sometimes it can be nice to be a supervisor. Focus on the word "sometimes". :)

After work we went out to dinner to a very yummy restaurant. It used to be called Fiddler's but was taken over by new owners and is now called Chris' American Restaurant. It has very good food, I think they call it traditional and experimental American food or something like that. Mike had Cajun blackened Tilapia and I had marinated pork chops. For dessert we had Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice-Cream. YUM. :)

All in all a very nice anniversary. Next year we will reach the first milestone - 5 years. :)

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Wednesday, February 09, 2005

Feels like Spring

It's amazing how 46ºF can feel truly warm and evoke feelings of spring. :) I guess after all the cold weather and snow some warmer days make everyone happy. It's been "warm" (it's all relative .. if we had 46F º in the summer we would all be freezing) for quite a few days but today is the first day I have really noticed it ... probably because I am home.

It's my day off today and as I was going outside to get the mail the sun was shining and it felt warm and nice. A true spring feeling. After that I opened all the windows in the house and sat on the couch with my cat Ollie feeling the breeze and gazing outside, hearing the birds chirp. Silly me. :)

Haven't done much else. My friend Joanne from England just came online so I am gonna catch up with her now. Plus going out with my friend Sharon for dinner later. Yum. :)

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Sunday, February 06, 2005

My very own phone

Look at my nice new phone. :) Well, I actually don't have it yet but it's purchased and on its way as we speak. I am truly excited. :)

Not that I really need a cell phone but I have had a few moments over the past few months where my own phone would have come in handy. I also plan to start driving classes some time this spring (I know, I know .. you'll all believe it when you see it) so it'll be good to have my own cell phone when I am out and about.

It's a VI660 by Samsung with some nice little features. The phone itself is actually free which is nice. We added an extra line to Mike's plan and will share minutes. The feature I like the most is the MSN Messenger and email function ... I know not really true phone use but hey ... it's neat. :) So now all I need is some people to call me. *g* Is that pathetic or what ? *g*

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