Day 338: What a surprise, it's raining again

It's pouring yet again here! We have had very little summer at all. I hope the weather's better this weekend.

Day 337: Evil seagulls

Every day that I take the shuttle to work, I walk by this empty lot. For some reason, a huge flock of seagulls has taken up residence in the lot and they are always there, squawking and flying about. They're really disgusting. My coworker Mark thinks they come here because it's like their own private beach. I can't wait until something gets built in this lot!

Day 336: New Haven Fire Department

My apartment is pretty close to a firehouse which I never really thought much about until Sotomayor was nominated for the Supreme Court.

Day 335: Boston Stock Exchange

Quick trip to Boston and I had an hour before my meeting, so I took a walk around the hotel. It was really hot but I did see a few nice things, such as the Stock Exchange.

Day 334: Cake at Claire's

I had been craving a cupcake and a friend suggested I get some Lithuanian coffee cake at Claire's. It's one of their specialties and I'd not had a chance to try it, so we did after lunch. Good. Very good.

Day 333: Adam manning the door

A number of us volunteered to help out at CTLX, which involved mostly setting up, cleaning up, or sitting at the door checking registrations. At the exchange, there were two late night dance sessions from 1AM - 5AM. I wisely did not volunteer for those shifts, but poor Adam got stuck watching the door from 2AM - 3AM. He told me he had to stand up for the entire hour or he'd fall asleep. So here is Adam demonstrating his door monitoring technique midway through the shift.

Day 332: Dancing in Beinecke Plaza

CTLX (Connecticut Lindy Exchange) started on Friday, July 24 and today we had outdoor dancing in Beinecke Plaza on campus. Luckily the rain held off and we had a hot and sunny three hours of lindy. Here are two of my favorite dancers, Mai and Aaron, with the cool Calder sculpture in the background. (That sculpture always reminds me of Chicago.)

Day 331: Little hobo

On the way home from work (and on the way to the first night of Connecticut Lindy Exchange!), I thought I'd stop in at the vintage store (see Day 171) just to see if there was anything I might want to get for the weekend. I found a cute summer blouse for only $6, and it was presented to me in this little bundle on a stick. I was thrilled and carried it home on my shoulder. On our way out of another shop, a guy asked, 'Running away from home?' Hee!

Day 330: I'm going to Paris

Booked the flights yesterday and today I booked the Eurostar from London to Paris. I'm beyond excited!

Day 329: Rain, rain, rain

Last night it absolutely poured and it didn't really let up until this morning.

Day 328: Future swing dancer

Hmm...a baby at dancing?? This is Kaylee, and she is the daughter of the coordinators of my dance class in Middletown. Every Tuesday, Kaylee gets set up in her playpen on the edge of the dance floor and watches us dance. She participates sometimes as well, and she also is the recipient of loads of attention from all the dancers (including me!).

Day 327: Finally, we've got tomatoes

We've been anxiously waiting for our garden to produce something other than basil, and now we've finally got some tomatoes that are starting to turn red. Sadly not much else worked, other than one lonely zucchini plant that we're hoping will produce something. Of course these are the landlord's tomato plants, rather than ours. Maybe next year!

Day 326: Hartford

We took a trip out to Middletown to visit the Hindu temple, and then had a few hours to spare before Y's flight, so we went to Hartford. This is the Capitol building. I think I've been to three state capitols now, plus Washington DC.

Day 325: Lindy bomb!

Today was a lindy bomb at the farmer's market in Wooster Square. Yale Swing & Blues organized it and I turned out for it despite being exhausted from the night before. It was brill! Here is a not-so-great photo of Chris and Clare doing a lift. Can't wait until more dancing tomorrow.

Day 324: A visit to the Anchor

We had a friend over for dinner, and then we got a call from another friend who was out and about in New Haven. We decided at the last minute to head out and meet her and her friends, and they were at a bar called Richter's. We had a drink there (Smithwick's on tap! I introduced my sister-in-law to it.) and then headed to the Anchor. As I said in Day 295, the Anchor is a bit of a legendary dive bar in New Haven that I've been wanting to visit. Just today at work, someone suggested we go there tonight, and so we did! It was exactly as I thought it would be too.

Day 323: Rubbish

Our next door neighbors have had a new tenant move in, and in the process of getting ready, they decided to clean out their garage and basement. Great. But that means we have been living with this lovely mountain range of rubbish in front of their house for the past few days. People have even been coming by to pick through it! I have fingers crossed that this is going to be picked up today.

Day 322: Yashica's here!

My sister-in-law Yashica arrived this evening after a long trip from the west coast. We took her to dinner as it was her birthday! We went to the weird sushi place and ordered way too much sushi, but it was fun. We told our server we couldn't even fathom dessert, but he didn't listen to us and brought her ice cream with a birthday candle in it. The servers all sang happy birthday to her as well.

Day 321: Lunch from the carts

It was warm and sunny, so we grabbed lunch from the carts. Every weekday the local restaurants set up food carts around campus at lunchtime for the employees and students. Here are George and Mark walking back towards me after having bought some lunch.

Day 320: New painting at Claire's

I met S for lunch at Claire's today and we noticed they've put new paintings up. This is a nice one of the Green. Much more appropriate than the snowy one I posted on Day 162.

Day 319: Butter tea with L&J

Today we took a trip up to Northampton to meet my friend Laura and her fiance John who live in Scotland and were visiting. We went to a Tibetan restaurant for lunch. Laura and I were adventurous and tried the butter tea. It was NOT nice.

Day 318: Home again with a dosa

I had a brilliant trip to Philly and got back to New Haven hungry for some Indian food. So S and I went to Thali Too for some chaat. I had a dosa...yum.

Day 317: The Liberty Bell

On my mini-trip to Philly, we had to see some of the historic sites. So we went to visit the Liberty Bell. I'm sure I've seen it before when I was a kid, but I can't remember it. So I'm glad we went.

Day 316: View from train

NYC skyline on the way from New Haven to Philadelphia. I'm taking a last minute mini city break!

Day 315: Validity

My ID will be valid again once I apply this sticker...now I can check out books again at the library.

Day 314: Important traffic safety notice

Hee! Seen on the streets of New Haven. I love it! I even found something about it on the net:

http://www.ctmuseumquest.com/?page_id=485

Day 313: Changed the calendar

I changed my calendars over at work and this is what was awaiting me for July. Very pretty! It reminds me of Nice, though, rather than Australia.

Day 312: Goodbye to H'burg

Packing up the car and heading out from Harrisburg. I'm already missing my Mira!

Day 311: Happy Fourth of July

How better to celebrate the Fourth than with a glass of Pimm's and lemonade and a hat from Canada Day?

Day 310: Goodbye to Charlottesville

My last day in C-ville! I had some time in the morning before I left so I walked along the mall. I'll be back in the fall.

Day 309: Last day!

The last day of grading! We had such a great team. This is Sloan and Brindha chatting before we all dispersed.

Day 308: Canada Day

The Canuckles sang O Canada for us in celebration of Canada Day.