No Hat, No Cattle: boston Archives

July 03, 2005

Independence Day Weekend

The downside of the consulting assignment I'll be doing over the next three months is that I've had to agree to work some kind of odd days, like July 2nd, 3rd & 4th for instance. I've consoled myself by thinking that the truly American thing to do to celebrate the birth of our country isn't with fireworks and picnics, but with good, honest, hard work; dedicating the day to taking one more small step up our country's meritocratic ladder. Of course, that begins to fade a bit after the 7th straight hour sitting like this:

Luckily, I've found a few ways to lessen the disappointment of missing the holiday while some people are caravanting around the wilds of Maine. First, I've decided that, regardless of whether people written their names on the packaging, I am entitled to as many Jello snackpacks as I can find in the company fridge. The one's that specifically write "Do Not Eat" on the package lose their Jello first. And second, I've temporarily lifted all bans on the amount of coffee I'm allowed to drink in a day. This is especially nice since, as I'm all alone in the office and all, I can stick a whole office coffee dispenser thing in the fridge to make a nice, big batch of iced coffee.

Of course, none of that changes the fact that I'll be lifting off the runway at Logan on my way for another week in Houston just as the Pops start playing. Luckily, it isn't suppose to top 95 degrees there this week.

Posted by stan at 10:26 PM

My Four Days of Unemployment - Day Four

My last day of unemployment was a good one. Below you'll see the result of the day's most difficult decision: Should I get a side order of bacon?

Posted by stan at 10:22 PM

June 28, 2005

Ominous Clouds

Posted by stan at 06:00 PM

My Four Days of Unemployment - Day Two

I had originally planned on posting something each day during my four days of unemployment between my full-time job ending (June 24) and my consulting assignment starting, since I'd obviously have some time on my hands and had nothing more planned than strolling around Boston looking for Wi-Fi hotspots. Sadly, I was so into the whole doing nothing business on day one that I neglected to make a post, oops. Anyway, the highlight of the day was just missing a run in with the Cleveland Indian's Kevin Millwood at the bar in the Radisson. The gentlemen at the bar insisted that he was a very nice guy.

So today, I decided to take it up a notch and throw a little culture into Day 2. I stopped at the Christian Science Mapparium, since walking inside a giant stained-glass globe seemed like it might be fun and I've walked by the building about 700 times in the last 8 years without going in. Sadly, they didn't allow photography inside the Maparium, so you'll just have to take my word that, while pretty, it wasn't exactly awe inspiring. On the way out, the tour guide allowed each of us to whisper any "thoughts or encouragement" to the world, to which I'm sure the most common response is to lean in towards Iceland and gently whisper, "this wasn't worth six bucks."

Another little exhibit they had there was the "Hall of Ideas," which was basically a light display flashing inspiring quotes on the walls and in a fountain like so:

Other than that, it was basically a bunch of Mary Baker Eddy and/or Christian Science Monitor propaganda - they are both really great, according to the museum. My favorite part of the whole thing were these ceiling lamps:

After that I went to play pool for two hours and had a couple Dunkin' Donuts iced coffees; not much of a cultural event. But then I stopped by the Boston Public Library to peek at the Boston Ink exhibit about the Boston Society of Printers' history. It was both free and interesting, I learned some things about the history of the Western Alphabet that I'm sure can go right onto my resume.

That was it for Day Two, other than to report that I got a haircut today and, lets just say that in the future if the barber is an ex-military man I'll refrain from insisting that I want my hair "really, really short." Also, we'll be heading to a little barbecue later on. I've heard reports that the steaks, "really do look good," so I'm looking forward to that.

Stay tuned for tomorrow, I'll be dropping by the Sox v. Indians afternoon game at Fenway.

Posted by stan at 05:08 PM

June 07, 2005

Sara & Stan Trivia!

This picture features several important places in Sara & Stan history - see how many you get correct, but be careful, I threw in some extras to make it a little more difficult. Answers to come at the end of the week...

-Wedding Site
-First Fight Site
-First Meeting Site
-First Christmas Clebration Site
-Best Ribs in Boston
-Spot Where Sara Killed That Guy (in self-defense, or so said the police)
-Wedding Reception Site
-Pre-Date Rendezvous Site
-Where we watched the Sox clinch the World Series

Posted by stan at 05:44 PM

June 05, 2005

Boston

The day after we got married Sara & I were going to go see a movie, but we decided that darkness and comfortable seats would lead to us falling asleep in about 2-3 minutes given our unfathomable tiredness (getting married really tuckers you out).

Instead, we opted for pizza and a trip to the Skywalk in the Pru, since both were within two blocks of the hotel we were staying in.

Here are some of the pictures I took, a lot of them look the same on account of me finding a nice seat and not wanting to walk around all that much.