Go Anne Go!

2008-12-08T10:40:00.002Z

Right, been ill, quit job, getting married in August. Thus, no blogs for a bit. But this is a good way to get started again... the joy of the meme! I have a cold, and am thus incapable of original or profound thought.Bold is for done, italics is for “Would like to do.” 1. Started my own blog - you're here, aintcha?2. Slept under the stars3. Played in a band – ok, it was a very Linda

2008-08-30T20:16:00.002+01:00

In Which Our Heroine Reveals the True Mind of GodTurns out, much to W's claims to the contrary, that God is a Democrat. Whew, I hear you say. Finally? After all this time? I mean, we all knew God favoured giving food to the poor, taking care of the sick and elderly and stuff like that which the Democrats do so much better than the Republicans, but still the R's like to at least claim that God

2008-07-18T22:41:00.003+01:00

In Which Our Heroine Talks About CheatingThink back, boys and girls, and remember the days when this blog was about "Hey, today I'm in Outer Mongolia, blind as a bat and cruising around on a train negotiating for raspberries when it stops?" Someday I'll get back to that kind of thing, but for now there seems to be a reactionary trend in what I'm writing. Maybe it is because I am off work "ill"

2008-07-15T16:51:00.003+01:00

In Which Our Heroine Ponders ConclusionsIn my job, I spend a lot of time effectively fact checking. I'm not going to put something in a document unless I can back it up. The law says X and relevantly Y is what we've got on our hands, with a bit of nuance at point Z. In the kind of documents I have to deal with, you can't just assert, you've got to back up every statement until you get to your

2008-05-14T22:35:00.003+01:00

Ok, there is a whole very mucho long post already half drafted about my recent road trip to Alnwick, Lindisfarne, Hadrian's Wall and the Farne Islands, but in the interim I'm too totally worked up about this Noodlehead.I spend a small portion of my job (say half an hour every morning) taking items that violate a company's trademarks off of ebay. Many of these are innocent mistakes by people, and

2008-04-27T09:46:00.002+01:00

In Which Our Heroine Tries to Get Back in the Blogging HabitCrumbs, it has been almost a year. And for some reason the e-mails are now coming in, virtually ordering me to update the blog. Who knew I had fans? But I guess I do.So I'll start with an e-mail that arrived yesterday. "WELL!After 2 weeks of rowing with the [insert name of guilty party's team here], I decided sweep rowing was NOT for

2007-05-23T23:42:00.000+01:00

In Which Our Heroine Moves HouseAh, getting ready to move house again. I'm amazed it is all happening so quickly. Just amazed. Saw it last Thursday, moving in this Friday (well, picking up the keys. And then buggering off out of town to drive to Exeter and fetch my things so that I can bring them back. It shoudn't be too bad as these things go. I don't have much stuff, and it is already

2007-04-02T15:26:00.000+01:00

In Which Our Heroine Plays to Her StrengthsIf there is one thing I love to do, it is the old Quiz. And one of my favorite quizzes (unless you count sitting in on a Monday night competing against Pete in back to back University Challenge and Mastermind...and losing. Pete is VERY good.) is the monthly quiz down at the RAC in Pall Mall. Good company, good quiz, excellent booze and atmosphere, and

2007-03-15T02:39:00.000Z

In Which Our Heroine Goes Back to the House with the Clock In Its WallsWhen I was about 8 or 9, I read a book called "The House With the Clock In Its Walls." I remember it as being fairly long, and I also remember it as being absolutely terrifying. It was my first encounter with a scary book, and given that I lived in an old house with a coal bin (which featured heavily in the story) I spent

2007-02-19T22:26:00.000Z

Life's been a major pain of the last couple of months. Moving house, living out of a pack for a bit, the general stresses and tribulations of existence, being told I was being offered a job and then being told that while that might still be happening, there was a yet undetermined delay.All that was washed away by those five magical little words, uttered by my doubles partner Liz, who I swear

2007-02-17T00:14:00.000Z

In Which Our Heroine Is a Little Unsure About Her New DigsThe local free paper came through the letter box today. Front page, very large point text."100th Crack Den Is Shut Down"(Latest closures seal borough's 'remarkable' record)Um, I'm sure that's a good thing. Or at least a better thing than having 100 crack dens lying around where people can trip over them. Help me! Help me!LoveAnne

2007-02-10T19:53:00.000Z

In Which Our Heroine Moves To LondonHere I am, all tucked up in North London. It is like having flashbacks to 15 years ago, when I lived in Muswell Hill. That was next to Alexandra Palace, coming up on it from the back or the left hand side depending on which road you took. Here in Crouch End, I walk out the door, turn right and there it is - the best view of Alexandra Palace I've ever

2007-01-02T04:13:00.000Z

In Which Our Heroine Makes Her Resolutions for 2007 I always make New Year's Resolutions (by always, I mean about the last dozen years) and for the most part I take them pretty seriously. I tend to carry a list of them around and seriously check in on them round about my birthday, which is conveniently almost exactly half way through the entire year. But this year, I'm putting them here, mostly

2006-12-27T16:28:00.000Z

In Which Our Heroine Starts Reading Her Christmas Mail.......Oh my. It is that time of year. The Christmas circulars and cards start arriving. This year really took the cake. (Speaking of which, I think i should go grab some Christmas cake for while I type this. ) There was the circular that hit death by sentence three and from there went on to illness, rheumatoid arthritis, pulmonary

2006-12-07T12:15:00.000Z

In Which Our Heroine Saves Sinterklaas!Oh the things that wind up happening when we try to be nice. Oh dearie, dearie, dearie.The other night, we were all getting together for a Group X meeting on the topic of "Science and Religion." The discussion was going to be led by my friend Jeff, an Episcopal priest and medical doctor, and professor of medical ethics at the local Medical School. But

2006-11-20T12:03:00.000Z

In Which Our Heroine Starts Thinking About ChristmasThanksgiving is this week, so it is time to start thinking about the shopping, the shipping, the making, and the whole deal. I've already completed one or two Christmas gifts (you knit, you start early), and I have some good ideas what to get most people. Assuming I have disposable income, which at this point is looking dicey, but hey, here's

2006-11-19T19:21:00.000Z

In Which Our Heroine Joins the FrayRight, people. Tom Cruise. More specifically, Tom Cruise's wedding. For fifty points and a chance to win the boat, please discuss the following:Why. Do. We. Care?????????????I am, or was, as much of a Tom fan as anyone should be. I mean, he was cute, in a short guy all -American way. The movies weren't too bad on the whole. Some of them were really good.

2006-11-15T13:53:00.000Z

In Which Our Heroine Keeps in the Poetry VibeBy sheer coincidence, my friend Liz (the other half of Team Milhouse) sent me this poem today to give me a chuckle:Short Love PoemJudith ViorstIt's hard to loveThe tallest girlWhen you're the shortest guy,For every timeYou try to lookYour true love in the eyeYou seeHer bellybutton.I don't know Judith Viorst, but I'm suddenly a big fan.LoveAnne

2006-11-10T12:40:00.000Z

In Which Our Heroine Gets Various FeedbackThat post on business-speak resonated with people, I'm glad to say. I can't take credit for prompting this story in the BBCbut that shows how much this is becoming an issue. In addition, I was sent to the lovely site for the humorous antidote to all this garbage: Despair.com. Keeps me going, knowing that there is still sanity in the world.

2006-10-24T18:45:00.000+01:00

Finally, more Hat Detail......I'm very proud, you see.

2006-10-24T17:38:00.000+01:00

In Which Our Heroine Has a Little RantLike most other people in the world (for example, my mate Gareth)certain things in life really get so far up my nose, I can feel their boots on my chin. And for the longest time, one of those things has been empty minded business speak. You know the stuff I'm talking about. It is supposed to motivate you, but really it just illustrates how someone else

2006-10-02T14:51:00.000+01:00

In Which Our Heroine Takes Her Driving TestIt had to happen at some point. You'd think, after 19 years of driving, that I'd be immune or exempt from having to take a driving test, but that would be wholly untrue. I'd let my US license lapse since they have to be renewed every few years as a revenue grabbing exercise by the State, and since I wasn't driving at home (or here, for that matter) it

2006-09-06T16:42:00.000+01:00

In Which Our Heroine Gets In Touch with Her Crafty SideI had to attend a wedding on Saturday. Wait, that sounds a bit harsh. I wanted to attend my friend Susannah's wedding, very much. And Susannah wanted me to attend as well. Specifically, she asked me to attend "wearing a great big hat." Now I love Susie, and was happy to accomodate this request, but of course the issue was finding the

2006-08-18T13:22:00.000+01:00

In Which Our Heroine Encounters Her Deeper FearsThere are many things in the world I am afraid to be near. I think that's pretty normal. For the most part, I'm pretty good at saying "This is scary, but I'm going to do/go/eat it anyway." And then there are the things to which I am truly phobic. Highly irrational, but screaming terror get away from me, eek eek, you get the idea. Thankfully,

2006-08-16T14:58:00.000+01:00

In Which Our Heroine Completes Her Transformation into a Cottage IndustryA couple of years ago, while at a wedding where I was a witness, read a poem, kept the groom's mother under control and made the wedding cake, I paused during the reception to hand a friend and his wife a baby sweater I had just knit for their then forthcoming child. Which reminds me, I need to knit something for what is

2006-06-20T18:00:00.000+01:00

In Which Our Heroine Gets Around to Updating her BlogWhere does the time go, eh? The issue about not updating is pretty simple. I don't have net access at home yet, and the Blogger is off limits at work. So, there you go. I'm not dead, I'm actually very happy, and life continues on.There's a lot to recap. In no particular order there wasdeportation and readmittance to the UK with a five year

2005-10-18T17:53:00.000+01:00

In Which Our Heroine Improvises around the Key of PistachiosAh, so much to tell, so much. I almost don’t know where to start. So once again I shall go the easy route and just answer people’s questions.So what about the new job? So far, so good. I have not at least been sacked, although due to European working practice being a bit different from American I spent the first week utterly convinced

2005-10-10T10:28:00.000+01:00

In Which Our Heroine Puts a Roof Over Her HeadWell, here I am. The great South West, by hook or by crook. And I have to say, initially it wasn't looking like a good idea but things have settled down.You wouldn't think, with cash in hand, that finding an apartment would be all that hard down here. Looking on the net, there were lots of furnished places that seemed to be going, and I wrote and

2005-09-24T11:28:00.000+01:00

In Which Our Heroine EmigratesWell, things are in full throttle here at GoAnneGo Towers. Having the job offer made, I have now accepted, and things are moving quickly. Very quickly indeed, as I start a week from Monday. This involves minor things such as moving down to the West Country and finding a place to live. Getting to Exeter is easy enough - just train it down from Paddington or

2005-09-06T18:35:00.000+01:00

In Which Our Heroine Agonizes Over the State of Her NationIt is hard to take, watching all the news filter through out of New Orleans. What is even worse, although totally understandable, is having to be the resident American around these parts. It means that people keep asking me "How? How has America let this happen? And why hasn't Bush lost his job already?" There is a perception here

2005-09-01T14:50:00.000+01:00

The phone is surgically wired to my head.

2005-08-09T19:41:00.000+01:00

In Which Our Heroine Gets TaggedMy turn, apparently.......Three Things You Like About YourselfMy deep brown eyesMy totally bitchin hairMy crackin bustThree Things You Don't Like About YourselfHave you ever tried to shop for female formal wear when you are 6'4"?The fact that I am apparently shrinkingMy baby toes. You know, the ones on the end.Three Things That Scare YouSnakesHeightsAnyone touching

2005-08-09T19:35:00.000+01:00

In Which Our Heroine Plays The Numbers GameToday, children, for the not so mathematically inclined, the lecture will be all about numbers. But fret not, this is not a particularly mathematical lecture, it just involves numbers of two types. The numbers of my bank acccount, and the numbers of test cricket. Despite that phrase, there will not be an examination involved.It is quite spectacular in

2005-08-04T00:38:00.000+01:00

In Which Our Heroine Reviews Another BookAs some of you know, I review legal books from time to time for the Bi-Monthly Review of Law Books. This is a sweet deal for me, in that I get free books that I pick to read (I have to get them approved first) and then I have to actually read them and digest whether or not they are any good. Generally, by the time I want to read them, they have been

2005-08-03T21:18:00.000+01:00

In Which Our Heroine Catches Up on the BacklogThe one good thing about being unemployed is that it gives you time to finally catch up on email and things. The last bit of work there was totally mad insane, with just enough room to breathe and not much else. Until the previously noted festivities that accompanied my leaving. Never mind.......When we last left our heroine (that's me, by the way)

2005-07-29T17:27:00.000+01:00

In Which Our Heroine Realizes She's Behind her DeadlinesI am late in sending out my book review. Consequently I sent the following e-mail to my editor:"Dear Mike,It is amazing the whooshing sound deadlines make as they fly by. I will have my review to you by Monday or my name isn't Anne ****. Yours sincerely, Katrina Postakovich."I think he understands.

2005-07-22T14:08:00.000+01:00

In Which Our Heroine Joins the Pop MassesMy official joining into UK pop culture occurred a couple of weeks ago, when I walked into Waterstones (how I love that bookstore), put my £2 down on the counter and said to the clerk "I'm here to join the madness please and pre-order my copy of Harry Potter and the Whatever It Is This Time.""Certainly, madam." The clerk was obviously quite used to the

2005-07-14T14:58:00.000+01:00

In Which Our Heroine Gets Back to Her LoveI finally went rowing. Having at long last been introduced to people, they were incredibly friendly. The boat was rigged for someone much smaller and this was pretty bad - zero connection on the front end, which of course led to zippo at the finish, which when rowing feet out made for lots of joy. And right near the end the gal behind me caught a

2005-07-13T14:34:00.000+01:00

What a Difference a Day MakesGreetings to all from the newly reopened front for terrorism. I say newly reopened because a) London is indeed back in business, and also of course because b) London has been through this before on a longer but smaller scale when the IRA used to shut down the Tube at its whim. The IRA though gave warnings beforehand.The biggest unreported news for me though is the

2005-07-01T11:32:00.000+01:00

The Differences in Culture Between Americans and the EnglishThese are key differences, as the failure to understand can cause insult on all sides.The office Christmas Party:English: Only considered successful if someone, hopefully not you, faxes or e-mails their resignation in the next morning rather than be seen in the office ever again. Clients are invited, and are considered to be entertained

2005-07-01T09:47:00.000+01:00

In Which Our Heroine Hops to Vla Vla Land One of the great things about being in London is that it is so close to the rest of Europe, at least in relation to America not being particularly close to Europe geographically (if at all in any other way). All of which allowed me to conspire over the last few weeks to actually head off to a friend's surprise baby shower.In Amsterdam.Just one of those

2005-06-23T16:10:00.000+01:00

In Which Our Heroine Gets a New HatRight. Bit sleepy of late, which is what comes of not getting to bed on time. And the actual concept of work means not lots of time to run around and cover the bits and bobs of what's been happening here in Britannia. But a bit of a recap.When last we heard of our heroine (that would be me) she was headed to Ascot without a chapeau. This was causing her

2005-06-06T22:20:00.000+01:00

In Which Our Heroine Lives the Life of the Shiftless PoorI don't have a job yet. It isn't for lack of trying, although my friend Jim insists there are council estates just waiting for people like me, the shiftless layabout unemployed. Frankly, it is driving me mad not having anything to do - I can't take it. So, apart from more applying for jobs and more appointments with temp agencies, today I

2005-06-01T23:36:00.000+01:00

In Which Our Heroine Goes Back to the BasicsI've always encouraged my coaching students/teammates/self to identify the best and worst things about an outing on the water. There are days where sometimes the best thing you can identify is "I didn't flip." There are also days where the best thing suddenly shifts to "I didn't drown." There is still something to be gained from those days, and at

2005-05-20T01:38:00.000+01:00

In Which Our Heroine Packs Her Life Up. Again.Well, the big move happens Monday. Over to England for six months. The packing has commenced.You'd think it would be a lot easier - what with having done it before to take off for a year, but it is completely different and a lot harder. All the packing last time was hyper practical. Tent, sleeping bag, hiking boots, it all has to fit in the

2005-04-14T22:20:00.000+01:00

In Which Our Heroine Realizes Her IdentityI realized it the other day.... I'm a Bostonian. This is impressive, as I've never really felt like I was from somewhere before. We moved a lot when I was a kid. Granted, it was never very far, but it always was far enough to change schools (and once even change back.) But only one person I know lives in the town where I grew up now, and I wouldn't

2005-03-30T02:43:00.000+01:00

In Which Our Heroine Catches UpAgh, almost two months, no posting. First off, the blog move. And hopefully eventually the move back. My exboyfriend was hosting this. This experience, while initially very kind, can best be described as a hassle. I don't think he particularly likes me (though he tries) and I've given up waiting for his exceptionally sporadic e-mails so that when they do come,

2005-02-01T21:42:00.000Z

In Which Our Heroine Tries to Create a CurriculumI've wanted to teach law for about as long as I can remember, and I'm getting invited to submit a curriculum to do just that right now. I saw an opening for a course I thought needed to be in the progam, and so I'm going for it.This is an interesting challenge, and not just because I finally get to be mean and cruel for a living if this all pans

2005-01-29T22:18:00.000Z

In Which Our Heroine Takes on MassBike and in particular Tom Revay (There was a Christmas in England, part the second, but it was depressing and the computer seems to have committed suicide (ok, the cat unplugged it) roughly two minutes before posting.) Whew. It has been a harsh couple of days. As many of you know, I used to volunteer and be a member of MassBike. And I left them. I left for a

2005-01-05T21:24:00.000Z

In Which Our Heroine Takes a Wee Holiday, Part the First Ah, the holidays. What better time to go on holiday. With those air miles in the "use em or lose em" category, I opted to use them, fly in a day before the black out period, fly out the day after it ended, and voila. Two weeks in England at next to no cost. On arrival, I realized that it was a good thing that I hadn't paid for the flight

2004-12-13T00:53:00.000Z

In Which Our Heroine Has Some of "Those" Experiences We all have them from time to time. A fully grounded real world experience that is the equivalent of a full on out of body experience. Deep within finishing off this blasted LLM (itself a rather out of body experience) I keep having these sorts of experiences all the time, and find that I quite enjoy them as at least they keep me laughing.

2004-12-06T16:18:00.000Z

In Which Our Heroine Marvels Without Seeing Apparently, blindness ain't what it used to be. Stevie Wonder has ridiculed Eminem's new video. Now, Stevie's got a right to his criticisms, and the words he's used seem pretty valid, but I just can't get past the fact that he hasn't actually *seen* the video. And he's not going to either. Which is a shame, since of course I definitley prefer

2004-12-05T19:42:00.000Z

In Which Our Heroine Goofs Up Dateline: the library. I officially drove myself crazy today while working on my paper and wondering "what the heck is that buzzing sound?" Given that the computer lab has been tropical of late to say the least, and the computers occasionally start whirring for no known reason, apart from the fact the sound wasn't giving up, I just let myself be annoyed but didn't

2004-12-05T01:34:00.000Z

In Which Our Heroine Dreams of When the LLM is Over The LLM is over. Soon. Thankfully. As of December 14, I've got all the post-LLM time I can handle (of course, I have to get ready to leave the country and in the meantime have promised to try to set up lots of funding and sponsorship for a local charity. You know, because you just never can be too busy.) But first, I have to get through

2004-11-04T00:03:00.001Z

In Which Our Heroine Gets a Wee Bit Antagonistic We all know (or at least I know, and if you're a faithful reader, you know as well) that there's someone who has yet to ID himself to me down at the Department of Justice who checks in and reads this blog every week. This happens whether I write something on it or not. This, obviously, concerns me. Mostly because I consider the DOJ under

2004-11-04T00:03:00.000Z

The Day After I've said it before, I'll no doubt say it again. I hate George W. Bush. I can't believe people voted for him. Don't these people like having jobs, or health insurance, or a country without a massive deficit, or civil rights? Or do they really like sending their sons off to war, terrorist attacks (didn't anyone else find it weird that the only president to suffer foreign

2004-10-21T21:43:00.001+01:00

In Which Our Heroine Attends a Beautiful Event Well, I went to Canada. It was fun! I even handled the flight up there and back well, which for me is a miracle and a half. I handled the flight up there by being too stressed to have to worry about the plane crashing. This sort of thing will happen when a girl doesn't book her flights by herself. When instead someone books them for her online,

2004-10-15T13:58:00.000+01:00

In Which Our Heroine Makes a New Start Well, with my having returned from the great gay Canadian Operatic Wedding complete with featured show tune by the happy couple, you no doubt want to hear all about that. And I'll get to it, but I'm in the process of a whole new start on things. New job, details on new place to live, all sorts of the new, some of which I have been forbidden to blog about (

2004-09-26T23:29:00.000+01:00

In Which Our Heroine Learns the Definition of a Good Party Ah, that was quite the BBQ last night. Re-defined "good party." How so? Well, a good party is no longer one with sufficient booze (although that was the case), or good entertainment (although that was also the case) or even one where the police are called (although come to think of it, that happened too.) It turns out that a *really*

2004-09-07T02:13:00.000+01:00

In which our Heroine Plans a Little Vacation. Gosh golly, I'm going away for five days! I have known for a bit that I was going, as it is for two friends' wedding, but as I had not yet bought the ticket (much shuffling of paychecks had to occur) it somehow didn't all seem permanent. But then yesterday, in the middle of another get away (a day trip along the coast to Portland with Bill and

2004-08-16T23:54:00.000+01:00

In Which Our Heroine Starts to Worry About Herself Apparently, the faucet was only the start. Today, I replaced the toilet! It was too easy. I repeat again, I am not becoming a plumber! I am, however, starting to become a little hyperactive. Replacing the toilet wasn't enough. I then did all the stuff that needed to happen to prep the bathtub for re-finishing (it is a little dingy) and am

2004-08-16T04:25:00.000+01:00

In Which Our Heroine Watches the Olympics Finally, it is that time. We've all waited for it, and now it is here. Time for me to get all worked up over the fact that Bob Costas covering the opening ceremonies is one of the most offensive things out there. At least this time around, when he and Katie got bored, they just shut up. No more waffling on about how to pronounce triskadekaphobia, and

2004-08-04T21:46:00.000+01:00

In Which Our Heroine Succeeds Ah, finally. I'm here. I've been trying to post for a couple weeks now, but there is some sort of compatibility issue between the new software and the new computer. So let's see where to start.... Adventures in Plumbing! Aha! I have a great new landlady. Unlike our old one, who wouldn't even fix our doorbell when it was broken for weeks on end and we lived on

2004-06-28T22:09:00.000+01:00

In Which Our Heroine Confirms Her Brand Loyalty Rowing, ah rowing. Bit of a passion of mine, which makes it highly weird that I really haven't been out this year. Until yesterday that is. Once a month in the summer my boat club hosts their "Harbor Rows" where you row down the Charles, through the locks, out into Boston Harbor down to the tea party ship, turn around and hang out by the USS

2004-06-10T02:56:00.000+01:00

In which our heroine gets all hot and wet and loves it I've waited some long months now for this evening. Long, cold, in fact freezing cold months where I just held on to a determination that some day I would once again be gasping in the delerium of being all hot, wet and sticky. Tonight was the night. Although the week started off cold and miserable again, the last two days have been

2004-04-14T18:17:00.000+01:00

In Which Our Heroine Remembers Her Childhood When I was growing up, I have distinct memories of the OPEC led gas crisis. Shortages, lines, everyone was concerned with mileage, mileage, mileage. Cars started to be engineered for better mileage, and we were taught in schools all about alternative energy sources, and the shortages of fossil fuels - pollution, the fact they were finite, and acid

2004-03-31T02:02:00.000+01:00

In Which Our Heroine Re-Joins the Working Classes I'm a renaissance woman, it turns out. First, I got myself one of them job things. I'm now a furniture mover for Gentle Giant movers. Scarily, I like it. It is the sort of job where if the people weren't so great, it would really suck, but the people are incredible. Even more, the money is astounding. I've got all the hours and overtime I

2004-03-08T03:20:00.000Z

In Which Our Heroine Waits for the Secret Service to Arrive at Her Door Now, I know from my website tracker that there's someone at the Department of Justice who reads this weblog far more faithfully than I update it, but I think this time the Secret Service could be dispatched. No, I have not threatened the President. That's against my theories as a pacifist. But I did send Dubya an e-mail.

2004-03-01T05:12:00.000Z

In Which Our Heroine Watches the Oscars Didn't *anyone* notice that LOTR:ROTK was about 45 minutes too long, and needed severe editing at the end?

2004-02-29T04:13:00.000Z

In Which Our Heroine Gets Through Feburary January was bad. February was better, but between Valentine's Day (past) and Leap Year Day (tomorrow) it seems to be all about the romance. Valentine's Day, I won't go into. Everyone knows what that's about. In the States, it is just a time where if you're single the forces conspire against you to make you miserable. Leap Years Day rolls around

2004-02-14T01:33:00.000Z

In which our Heroine keeps plugging away As if death and flying trips halfway around the world weren't enough, they all caught up with me and I caught "viral syndrome" which seems to be what the Emergency Room is non-committally calling the flu these days. Whatever it was, it was truly horrid, and even more problematic was the fact that I needed to get to hospital and everyone was busy and

2004-01-20T11:26:00.000Z

In Which Our Heroine Tries to Pay Tribute Hello, As many of you are aware, I have just returned from the funeral of my friend Jonathan (Jock) Smout, who died in an avalanche two weeks ago. (news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3355577.stm) Jock and I had been friends since our first day of college, when we were in the same entryway in our hall of residence. One of my favorite stories of him was an

2004-01-07T04:14:00.000Z

In Which There are Updates There is a lot to write about Christmas. It was great. Harters was here, lunches were had with old friends, new friends were made, much beer was drunk. Jim was here for New Years and Christmas, and that was great joy. Ethan got married, David's wife had a baby girl and Nils got engaged. I tried to write about it last night (and it was loooooooooooooooooooooooooong)

2003-12-27T22:04:00.000Z

In Which Our Heroine Gets Her Christmas Presents Ah, the holidays. I was a little nervous about Christmas. Could is possibly be as good as Thanksgiving? What with Rita being out of town, the prospect seemed unlikely. This was before Christmas turned into a three week long celebration! As we all know, the church doesn't really know when Christ was born, so the date is a wee bit random,

2003-12-14T03:58:00.000Z

In Which Our Heroine Bows Down To the AP News Service When they say truth is stranger than fiction, this is exactly the sort of thing they're talking about - you can't even make this stuff up: Retired Schoolteacher Claims to be Strom Thurmond's Out of Wedlock Mixed Race Love Child! A 78-year-old retired schoolteacher is coming forward after years of silence to claim she is the illegitimate

2003-12-12T01:17:00.000Z

In Which Our Heroine Tries to Act All Suprised Ok, folks, hands up! All those who are in the least suprised that Halliburton is accused of $61 billion worth of overcharging in Iraq, stick your hands right up in the air. Anyone? Anyone at all? How about you in the back? No? You mean the fact that a company that is already accused of billions of overspending on the Big Dig, and is attached to

2003-12-11T01:22:00.000Z

In Which Our Heroine Tries to Figure out Dentistry Ouch. It has happened. A crown on my tooth has half broken off. This is not good, particualrly as there seems to be minimal proivsion in this country for dental care for the poor, so I'm not quite sure what to do. I'm investigating programs with the local dental schools, which are certainly cheaper, but for some reason still feel the need to

2003-12-07T01:00:00.000Z

In Which Our Heroine Gets Snowed In For those of you not currently aware of the weather patterns of New England, Cambridge is currently getting snowed upon. This started around ten last night, and is forecast to go through tomorrow afternoon, when it will taper off to flurries. Now this is a good thing, as I do have those pesky exams to study for, but I haven't been doing as much of that as

2003-11-29T04:04:00.000Z

In Which Our Heroine Braves Black Friday It is something I always have to explain to foreigners. First, we have a holiday that doesn't involve going to church, even in a token fashion. It is a holiday solely revolving around eating. Doesn't matter what faith you are. If you want the full tradition, you need some turkey, booze and some football. And then.....the next day, everyone goes

2003-11-26T07:16:00.000Z

In Which Our Heroine Trys to Remember What She Is Thankful For Ah, it has been quite a week. My Mother and Grandmother have been caught in everyone's favorite past time "Anne's Family Coming to Town without Ever Telling Her" which is always fun. Granted, this time my Uncle at least told me and invited me. This beats out the previous record where I found out from relatives outside the country

2003-11-18T03:54:00.000Z

In Which Our Heroine Contemplates a Fate Worse than Death It all gets worse sometimes before it gets better. In this case, I thought I was getting better ecause I took Lemsip to make me feel better. And it worked. For a while. And then it reacted with the other medications I take. And not in a good way, like say suddenly discovering a cure for malaria. But no, in a bad way. A very bad way

2003-11-08T03:30:00.000Z

In Which Our Heroine Contemplates the Up Side of Death It is coming on. I can feel it. The lurking dreaded cold clammy hand of lurgy. Ugh, I feel ghastly. The tickle in the throat, the little bit of a cough, the drip drip drip of the sinuses, the aches in the joints that say "I'm a virus and there's sweet FA you can do about it, baby." I don't get sick often, but boy when I do, I get

2003-11-05T05:16:00.000Z

In Which Our Heroine Gets to Repeat her Favorite Word Over and Over It is common knowledge that my favorite word in the whole wide world is "mitten." It is just one of those words that is so much fun to say, and it also conjures up a cozy image. Mitten, mitten, mitten. The problem with me and mittens though is that I couldn't find mine after all the moving. It snowed the other morning and I

2003-11-03T17:01:00.000Z

In Which Our Heroine Opts Not to Become a Lutheran I am surrounded by avid Lutherans. Not that I'd consider the breed a particularly evangelical bunch, but my roommate is a Lutheran, her mother is a "good little Lutheran" and our friend Graham is a Lutheran who as soon as he gets his act in gear (which may be sooner now that he has successfully acheived the banning of smoking throughout large

2003-10-27T13:46:00.000Z

In Which Our Heroine Makes Her Way Down the Charles Ah, the Head of the Charles Regatta (HOCR). The pinnacle of the fall racing season. Three miles upstream on the Charles, through seven bridges, nearly a full circle of turns, on a narrow course, and more than half the entrants get rejected in a lottery system as it is just so popular they can't hold all the space! And that was before they cut

2003-10-24T04:35:00.000+01:00

In Which Our Heroine Frets Her Way Through Recovery This morning when I bicycled to work, it was snowing. That's even earlier this year than usual. But I guess it is officially a harbinger of winter, and with winter starts (but only starts) to spell the end of on water rowing practice. We've really ended it due to the fact that racing season is over and we need a bit of time to heal.

2003-10-17T17:10:00.000+01:00

In Which Our Heroine Forgets to Slow the Heck DownHello there sports fans. A bigger recap will be forthcoming. Highlights to include: * Racing! With blood, gore, two crashes, swearing and two cracked ribs! * Houseguests! Two mothers, two Australian strangers, a long lost but re-found a friend and the gift of a food processsor. * Work! And lots of it! And a near-sacking! (But I

2003-09-22T06:24:00.000+01:00

In Which Our Heroine Goes to Yoga Class Yoga, ah, yoga. I'd been debating going to yoga for a while but fell prey to the classic "oh, I don't have the time." This despite the fact that I certainly had the time if I felt like it. It is always just the initial effort of getting there, etc etc. But my coach had ordered me to go (and also to start doing ab circuits) so I went. Being a

2003-09-22T06:22:00.000+01:00

In Which Our Heroine Puts Her Heroine Powers to the Test Oh the humanity! And the blood. Team Milhouse has had a wee setback. Liz has broken her nose. She was doing an abdominal circuit, and if you want to know how you can break your nose doing that, you'll have to e-mail me and ask me. Not that I can provide great answers, as frankly I watched it happen and I still don't know exactly how

2003-09-15T17:15:00.000+01:00

In Which Our Heroine Gets Into the Cambridge Thing Long time, no post. Life has been terribly busy of late. School, moving (still moving! There is still stuff at Liz's.) Work. Practice. More practice. Ab circuits. The whole nine yards. But in the midst of all this, slowly a routine is settling in of some fashion. And I've been enjoying being a Cantab. Working at Burdick's has meant some

2003-08-25T19:01:00.000+01:00

In Which Our Heroine Has an Adventure in Retailing It started. The job started. Was I up to the challenge? I think so. Overall, I think I did well. Burdick's, as I mentioned, is an upscale chocolatiers. That said, the interview asked nothing about my knowledge of chocolate or food in general. Rather it went a bit like this: "We're hiring." "I'd like a job then, please." "Ok, you're hired.

2003-08-24T13:46:00.000+01:00

In Which Our Heroine Gets One of Them There Job Things It had to happen sometime. Actually, given the current financial situation, it really had to happen soon. Law being a bit of a dead area at the moment, I started applying for some steady "everyone does it" retail work. Of course, since everyone does it, I worried there might not be enough jobs, what with all them students arriving, but it

2003-08-17T15:48:00.000+01:00

The Promulgation of the New Rules. Courtesy of my friend Graham, I present to you here and now, a proposal to end the dating wars: There should be the dating equivalent of the "penalty box" in hockey. Here's my short list of dating reforms. 1. First dates should begin in a room like the rooms used for visitations in prison. The two people sit in little chairs on opposite sides of an

2003-08-16T01:48:00.000+01:00

In Which Our Heroine Eagerly Awaits Some Approval (alternate title: A Peace Treaty for the Dating Wars) My friend Graham, having had to listen to both myself and Rita fight our battles in the dating wars of late (and indeed, going to one of the combatants on the other side, looking to give him a good old fashioned Clint Eastwood stare), and also being a lawyer, has e-mailed me a new proposal

2003-08-12T15:59:00.000+01:00

In Which Our Heroine finally Remembers it is the Silly Season In England, they actually have a name for it - the "Silly Season" in mid to late August where everyone is on holiday and it is too hot to do anything, so there is consquently minimal news to report. But since the papers have to fill up their pages somehow, things that people actually don't care about, or ordinarily wouldn't care about

2003-08-11T15:10:00.000+01:00

In Which Our Heroine Notes the Obvious You know, sometimes, the news is just the sheer reporting of the facts. No real journalistic ability involved. From today's BBC News: A man who smashed more than 40 city centre shop windows, dressed only in his underpants has been sent to a secure institution for psychiatric tests. Well, now that's a real relief and a half. I was worried he might have

2003-08-09T00:23:00.000+01:00

In Which Our Heroine Braves the Dating Wars It turns out that today has been a big day in the war between the sexes. I was supposed to have a lunch date. Up til about 10 this morning, the chappie seemed nice. In fact, he still seems nice, but he had to cancel due to a lab meeting. Now, this could in fact be completely 100% true. There are large parts of my psyche that do indeed hold this to

2003-08-03T19:28:00.000+01:00

In Which Our Heroine Gets Interviewed My friend Elenarda has been taking part in an interview challenge. The nuts and bolts of it are someone asks you five questions, you answer them in your blog, then other people can either e-mail you to ask you five questions to post, or ask for five questions from you for them to post. My five questions as put to me are (I've put in my answers): And Anne...

2003-07-29T19:45:00.000+01:00

In Which Our Heroine Wonders Even More About US Privacy Laws I have a handy little thing over in the corner that keeps track of who is logging on to my website. Sort of. It gives me the IP adress, so I know if you're coming from a particular domain. It also tells me if you've linked to me from a search engine (I am popular under "rubber duck 1992" and "cotimundi" searches, along with the

2003-07-29T19:27:00.000+01:00