Okay, so originally I planned on typing up our 'trip blog' (erm, it was on paper! written by hand!) from Turkey - but then I kept putting it off and putting it off. So instead, I'll blog about everything BUT Turkey! For those of you that didn't know, Julian and I went to Turkey for two weeks at the beginning of May - it was amazing, but I'll do more on that trip later ;)
So what else is new?
Well, after our long vacation, we had the misfortune of catching some kind of bacterial cough/cold from a fellow traveler who apparently was never educated in the glories of covering your mouth. I actually spiked a fever while in Turkey. I did a short course of antibiotics, which nipped it in the bud - but it was too short to kill it completely. Unfortunately, a sinus infection followed with a fever for like six days! Now the silver lining was by the time all of that was over, I had been off work for a month :) I also however drained my TIVO and almost had to resort to talk shows. The horror.
Now I am back at work, working on a researchy project involving perceptual image differencing. I only have a week, so I didn't really do much beyond the implementation of a paper with some slight modifications. Results pending, but encouraging!
After being out of town and sick for so long, our yard had taken quite a hit. Julian and I cleaned the sucker up with lots of hard labor, just in time for a party this weekend. If you are reading this, and didn't know about the party, shoot me an email and come!
I have this tree, which is easily the 'best' tree on our block. I mean, it's big, and I live in a city where there are NO trees. However, it is so infested with aphids, that it's just disgusting. Last year I tried the old "spray with a pressure hose" trick to knock them out... to no avail. There was so much honeydew that they were glued to the tree. So this year, I had the tree thinned, but unfortunately, that didn't really help. So I tried the hose trick again last night.... I didn't really think I was accomplishing much, until I looked at the car parked UNDER the tree. nasty! So I then dutifully hosed down the poor car for its unsuspecting owner. I also tried malathion (big dog of a pesticide) last year which didn't even make a dent. Next up, trying to find a soil treatment I guess... The tree is too big to really spray the whole thing.
We were supposed to gain a fourth household member today, but alas, it didn't happen. It was a friend of our current roommate Gilbert - we hope it will all work out and she'll be able to join us soon anyways! It was a short-term thing, not a permanent fourth addition.
I recently read a book (okay, I've recently read about 10 books, but...) called "Showdown with Diabetes." The author speaks of the life changing action of having received a pancreas transplant. I want one.
I started up with Pimsleur again, mainly because a) I have an ipod now and b) I've been working longer hours and thus commuting separately. Hopefully I'll keep it up.
Julian is buying a new car. Much to our chagrin, you cannnot simply go to a dealer and test drive a hybrid car. Apparently, they can't even keep one on the lot they sell out so fast. So unfortunately, we had to PAY to rent a civic hybrid and a toyota prius. I liked the 'interface'/controls of the interior of the civic better. I liked the 'pep', the seats, and the 'feel' of the prius better. The civic had a much more noticeable shudder when coming to a stop and kicking off the gasoline motor. The prius also got better mileage on our one day long test drive: 45 vs 37. So prius it is... now we'll see how long it takes to get one! Jules is putting a deposit down today. The only downside of the car... is how low it is to the ground. Hopefully that front piece is purely plastic and won't rust if we repeatedly scratch the hell out of it. Our driveway is a bit steep, and the prius will most definitely drag!
Nothing else major to report that I can think of.... ta ta!