oh the joys of being awake at 5am

according to the u.s. geological service earthquake site for recent earthquakes in california and nevada:

A microearthquake occurred at 5:13:17 AM (PDT) on Thursday, March 27, 2008.
The magnitude 2.4 event occurred 2 km (1 miles) WSW of Culver City, CA.
The hypocentral depth is 8 km ( 5 miles).

Magnitude 2.4 - local magnitude (ML)
Time Thursday, March 27, 2008 at 5:13:17 AM (PDT)
Distance from Culver City, CA - 2 km (1 miles) WSW (242 degrees)

no duh. 1 mile wsw of culver city is pretty much right under my house. i was "lucky" enough to be up catching up on some work and i heard the glasses on the shelf behind me rattle for a second or two, then i felt and heard the jolt, then some more rattling for a second or two, then it was done. a mild event to be sure, but, as i said, basically right under my house. i was standing by the time the jolt hit, but it was over so fast, i didn't have time to get to a doorway. and of course, there's there's always that first second or two where you're standing there frozen like a deer in the headlights wondering how bad it is going to get. thankfully, not so bad.

the madness of march

i love march madness. it's been 13 years, but this is still one of the best buzzer beaters in the history of the tournament. it is also one of the best moments of my life.

i love paris in the spring time

on my google home page, i have the widget that shows the eiffel tower cam in paris. every morning when i start my computer, i save a screen capture from the web cam for some yet-to-be-announced project that i probably will never put together.

anyway, today's picture was just perfect. it's 4 pm on a sunny friday afternoon in springtime paris. doesn't it make you just want to get on a plane?

serenade

i work on the 7th floor of a 12 story office building and we get our windows washed by those guys on the hanging scaffold every once in a while. even though you know it's coming, it's always a little shocking to look out your 7th story window and all of a sudden see a person standing there. and there's a weird 21st century etiquette problem. do you look at the guys? do you acknowledge them? this morning's window washing was extra-surreal, as one of the guys was singing (mexican ballads, of course) so i got serenaded for a few minutes while i was working.

tell it, kitteh

doggy bag

multy eats his way through a bag of dog food.

ethan's first bruin basketball game

ethan's first bruin basketball game
Originally uploaded by lornababy

imagine that

got some cool news on tuesday and thought i'd share, just in case you don't read peanut butter etouffee, the food blog that i do with my mom and aunt. pbe was selected as a "blog of note" by blogger. don't ask me how. it's not like we submitted the site for consideration or anything. anyway, we'll get pimped on the blogger home page for probably about 10 days, which will drive a lot of traffic to the blog, much more than normal. on a good day, we'll get about 50 or so hits; today we got 3,000. being called a blog of note is no oscar, but i'm kind of flattered. pbe was just something that we decided to do for kicks and the benefits have been in the enjoyment we get in cooking and writing about cooking, in keeping in touch with each other in a new and interesting way and in meeting new cooking friends all over the world. we have a handful of regular readers, strangers that have become friends, but to know that we might now expand that circle is kind of cool. imagine that.

vote

i know it's been a long time, but i've been incredibly busy. this is what's been on my mind lately. if you live in a super tuesday primary state, i hope you'll vote today and i'll hope you'll vote for barack obama...

no way

u$c might relocate their football games to the rose bowl? i won't stand for it.

on that note, the big game is this saturday. we've been pretty bad this year, but we've also taken out two top 10 teams, so why not u$c? they've shown they can be beaten [cough-stanford-cough-cough] this year. and, oh wait, didn't we humiliate them last year, as well?

here's a fairly detailed history of "one of the most intense college rivalries in the United States" on (you guessed it) wikipedia.

and, finally, just for kicks, my favorite commercial ever!



go bruins!

you're all geniuses

apparently, my blog's reading level is:

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i don't know what the criteria are for giving it such a designation (other than typing in my blog url and hitting enter), but i won't look a gift horse in the mouth.

so, if you're reading this, you're probably a genius. yay, you!

globe trotting

after visiting the fine cities of san francisco, london and washington, dc all in one month...i'm a little tired.

i was sick as a dog for the trip to sf, so no pictures.

but here's london:



see the rest at my london flickr set.

then, we hit dc on the way back to witness the wedding that many still can't believe actually, finally happened:



and then i made my bunky schlepp to the dc zoo to see the pandas and much squeeeeeee-ing did ensue:



check out the rest of the photos on my panda flickr set!

Fred Goldman is on our flight

Yes, that Fred Goldman. Hope he's flying first class on OJ's money! 
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how could you not love that face?

multy
Originally uploaded by lornababy

here's multy patiently enduring me trying out the new camera.

IMG_0001

IMG_0001
Originally uploaded by lornababy

my first photo with my new canon powershot sd750. london, here we come!

UCLA beats Cal - or why my voice is gone

UCLA vs. Cal
Originally uploaded by esthereggy

oh, the trials and tribulations of being a bruin fan. how many times have I complained that we play to the level of our opponent? on a bad day, that means a humiliating loss to a winless notre dame (which apparently is so upsetting, it sends some bruin fans into labor). on a good day, it means staying neck and neck with and ultimately emerging victorious over one of the top college football teams in the country. and sometimes, it means walking into the rose bowl just hoping the team doesn't embarrass you. it's a psychological trick bruin football fans use to keep from being tremendously disappointed, embarrassed, suicidal, etc. it's really kind of sad when you think about it. the bruin faithful should have the right to expect the greatest out of our teams - we were the first school to win 100 national championships, weren't we? but when the bruins exceed your expectations, boy, does it feel great!!!

such was the case on saturday when we watched the bruins embarrass cal at the rose bowl...again. we started out a little shaky, but finally got a rhythm and really had a competition with cal. sure, we don't have much of a pass defense, but we successfully contained their running game (which makes me wonder why tedford kept it on the ground so much during the second half). by the 4th quarter, bunky and I were agreeing that, even if we lost, we'd still be happy to put up such a good performance against cal. and then cal had the ball and there was about two minutes left and they were near the 30 yard line on a third down with five yards to go. all they need is a field goal to go ahead and there won't be enough time for us to score again. and then longshore throws it and verner intercepts it and i screamed the most high-pitched, horror-film scream for all 76 yards that he ran it back for the touchdown and for several minutes thereafter.
and that is why i had no voice for two days straight! go bruins. please don't embarrass us in pullman on saturday.

p.s. thanks to flickr's esthereggy for sharing her photo of the scoreboard.

welcome ethan

the newest addition to our tailgating crew, who will be carpooling with brian and sarah, arrived on sunday, october 7, 2007...

the littlest bruin: ethan riley

minutes after our humiliating loss to notre dame, ethan announced that he would be arriving soon. coincidence? i think not. rumor has it he already knows the eight clap.



congratulations, brian & sarah!

so, tell me, how long DOES it take to get to lake tahoe?

simple flight to reno, right? wrong. my 5:30 flight was said to be "on time" on the departures board when i arrived at the airport at 3:00. by about 4:00, however, it was cancelled due to "mechanical issues." they , apparently, made an announcement, which could not be heard where i was waiting (ahem, the bar). when i arrived at the gate at 4:30, i thought i had more than enough time. around 5:15, when they still hadn't called my flight, i decided it might be worth asking, what was going on, which was when i learned the flight was cancelled. they could put me on a 9:15 flight tomorrow morning, but my meeting starts at 9. the only way i could get into reno tonight was to get on a flight to seattle, then catch a connection to reno. and an hour and a half direct flight suddenly becomes a five hour marathon. when i arrived in seattle, i was pleased to discover that i had less than 30 minutes to make my connecting flight and the gate where i landed and the gate for my connecting flight were at complete opposite ends of the airport and required me to take a series of four trains to get to the right section of the airport. round about train three i could hear them paging me for last call for the flight. after the fourth train, i got to run up three flights of stairs to get to the concourse and then, of course, my gate was at the complete opposite end of that. so i got to run through the airport in high heeled boots with my luggage flapping, then down another flight of stairs and across the tarmac to the plane. they slammed the door right behind me. the flight on the prop jet to reno was bumpy and we came down through the most amazing rain storm to land. great, i finally got to reno at 10:45. then there's still the hour and a half shuttle ride to south lake tahoe and of course, i was so thrilled to learn that the next shuttle doesn't leave until 12:30...which puts me to the hotel at 2 am...which is roughly 12 hours after i left the office to go to the airport today. i think i could've driven here faster.

still waitin' in the airport

left the bar, now at the gate. crazy woman literally running around the boarding area picking up newspapers from chairs and ground. don't know why. i'll probably find out, tho. odds are good she'll be sitting next to me on the plane, as i am a known crazy-magnet.

drinkin' in the airport bar

waitin' on my flight in the airport bar, sitting next to two little old ladies (in their 70s for sure), drinking whisky with beer chasers. i hope i'm that cool when i'm 70.