This was when Cleo was about 2 years old. We had her first ever birthday party and the theme was Finding Nemo. Plenty of dogs, all shapes, sizes, and colors, and people, came over.

Yeah, the whole country, can I fuck a whole country? well it's my first time but I'm gonna do it, do they have cute boyz there? joke

So I've just seen on the DL message board that Aaron is moving to Belgium. I always thought it was great that he, TSD and DL were so popular there but now they're stealing him from us??

Hearing that Aaron is moving to Belgium and seeing the band again last month, upon returning to NY I was just feeling a little too emotional/nostalgic to watch the dvd. With Aaron across the ocean, the likelihood of future shows looks dismal.

Maybe I'll have to move there too. I have plans to work overseas after my postdoc is up. I was thinking more about France but Belgium must be cool if they like my music. I'll at least plan a visit.

I feel I have no clue what I'm doing. I went to see a place today. Not sure what my criteria are and I went alone so I have no other feedback. I don't think my lease is up until April 1 but I figured I should start looking in case I find something great early and since I have a dog I'm limited in my options. So today I went to this place near the Kendall Theater so it's an easy walk to MIT. Good because I'm close to work and close to home too during the day in case Cleo needs me to come home at lunch or something, especially since when we move she'll have trouble adjusting and could howl constantly while I'm gone and that might not be good w/ the people in the building. It's in a residential area in an apt. building on the first floor, easiest for moving my stuff in. It's a one bedroom and cheaper than I'm paying now. It's basically laid out kinda in a line. You walk in the front door into the living room then next to the living room is a bedroom and then next is a big kitchen and then just off the kitchen to the left is a bathroom. There's also a little room that leads to the back door for storage or whatever. I wouldn't know what to do w/ the space since I have nothing but it'd be possible to entertain. I could have people over, I could host runs and not worry about space. People could spend the night when visiting and there'd be room. Problem is it's the first place I've looked at and I have nothing else lined up. The lease is for Feb 1st and I need to give first and last months so I'd have to pay double rent for 2 months plus an extra month for last months rent. Most people in the building have dogs or cats so I'm hoping they'd be more tolerant of Cleo freaking out, like they are in my current location. There's no laundry in the building so I'd have to walk like I do now and I'm not sure how far it is, though the guy said they had laundromats all over. I didn't see one though, not that I looked very hard. The grocery would be a little issue. It's not as close as it is to me now, though I rarely go to it. I'd have to cab it home or do delivery probably which isn't too big a deal. I'd say I like my location now better but this is cheaper, more space and no roommates. Closer I guess to work so okay and there are plenty of restaurants and bars and the movie theater so it's not awful, it's just not Beacon Hill. Not sure what to do. Any suggestions?

So I went to the Apple Store to buy a replacement sensor for my Nike + because once the battery dies on the sensor you can't just replace the battery you have to buy a new sensor. The initial investment is $29 for the foot sensor and the iPod adapter so the replacement sensor you can get for $19. First I looked online to get all this info and then since I see they sell it at the Apple Store online I thought I could just go to the store and buy it. So I go there and right when I walk in this guy pounces on me asking if I need help. Normally I would say no and keep my distance from these unhelpful people but I thought I would be nice and social so I said yes and told him what I needed. He took me to the display w/ a million Nike + kits but I don't see just the sensor so I explain I just need the sensor and he says he doesn't think they sell it. But I said I saw it online and he took me to a computer to Google search it, wow!, how amazing, I already did that retard. Then he clicks on the link for the Nike store and he just thinks I have to get it from Nike but I tell him that I saw it at the Apple Store online so after several more clicks of other crap he finally goes to the Apple Store online and finds what I'm talking about. Then he has to radio the back to see if they have it but the radio is crap and he can't hear what they're saying but eventually finds out they don't have it so I have to buy it online. Wasted trip.

Then I'm waiting for the shuttle back to Kendall Sq and there's 3 punkass little kids all smaller than me but as they approach I feel like the 3 together could kick my ass if they wanted to. I'm sitting on the bench and the one says 'can you push over?','can you push over so me and my friends can sit?' so i say 'sure' and then they sit but they're acting like jerks, not to me, just in general, and then they keep getting up and then sitting back down and they keep hailing cabs and asking them stuff just to waste their time and yelling 'the shuttle bus is canceled' like it'll trick us and we'll all start walking back to kendall. then some lady said we could throw them under the shuttle bus. nice.

plus you got me 2 years in a row. It's only gonna get harder.

i am not allowed to speak to you anymore.
M read my emails and she thinks it is a good idea i don't speak to you anymore. sorry. gotta do what the wife says.

I got this comment on November 1, 2003.

JustaGuy (readingblogs@home) wrote the following in the 374 thread:
OK, that picture deserves a comment! and no one has left one. so, i'll be the first to tell you.

You're pretty. :) Nice smile.

Now get back to work.

I went back to the date and found this picture. My mom had come for my birthday and we spent the weekend in Kansas City, MO and in these pics we were in a wig shop trying on hair. That long stuff was not my hair and those braids were not my mom's.

I received this email on October 2, 2003.

Hi Heather

Im just in a tizzy...is it in bad taste to want to view pictures of diseased male os penis...or to view color pics of the canine male penis and reproductice system...I have searched for an hour for clear color pictures of the male canine reproductive system and also of the caninine penis...is this an odd reqest or what...i came up with a lot sick web sites that i did even bother to open....its research im seeking..of the normal canine male penis and of deformed or diseased...to campare and make comparisions.....where can i find this info....any leads please will help and save me some money on vet bills....sincerely thanks...good day....look foward to hearing from you....perhaps you can set up a site thats as equal to the laymen as it is to the vet...reading i can do..anywhere and or go to the liabray...but its absoulutly absurd that i cannot find any pics in regards to this research...as many canines as we have here on earth...or is it to be seen as nasty the anatomy of the our dear friends...
Donni

Me and Mom at Mindy's wedding, I think right before I left for vet school, so Summer 2002.

i received this email September 19, 2003 from heidi.

hi heather! i'm also a 2nd year vet student, at the university of TN vet school in knoxville TN. i love your weblog, although i don't know how you manage to keep up w/ it...i have a hard time scheduling in trips to the bathroom, eating etc (you know, all the minor life-maintaining activities). by the way, the vet school nerd test is dead on. thank god for 4-color pens! everyone in my class used them last year for anatomy and it was like a symphony...everytime the prof changed colors in the diagram he was drawing, so did the entire class. bizarre. anyway, just wanted to drop you a line and tell you i'm really enjoying your website. i'm always interested to hear how other vet schools conduct themselves. have a great weekend! heidi

Here's an email I received on September 16, 2003 from Jody after he was lucky enough to find my blog.

Hi Heather: I was just browsing Yahoo for MIKE PAGLIARULO and your link came up with some writing about Pags...let me tell you just how much I was and is a HUGE Pags fan....My name is Jody(male) and I live in PA, I am 33 yrs old and married for going on 3 years now and have more Pags items I think than anyone else that isn't directly related to him....Luckily for me my wife knew me in high school from 87-88 and knew I was a big Pags fan and puts up with my spending habits when it comes to shelling out money for stuff when I find it...I have 3 of his Yankees game used jerseys, one from 1985, a road rookie year when he wore #6, one from 1986, a home #13 and one from 1987, a road #13 autographed that he signed for me in Boston in 1998...although I have never met him, I got to know a friend of his in Boston that took the jersey to Mike and he signed it along with about 30 other things I have, including one of his Yankees game used hats...anyway, I also have over 20 of his game used bats from Yankees all the way to the Rangers, at least one jersey game used from every team he played for after the Yanks, a used fielders glove from his Yankee days and a Yankees batting helmet he used as well...not to mention his minor league Columbus Clippers home and road jerseys from 1983/84.....I was glad to find someone else who liked Pags and hope to hear back from you with any interesting stories you may have or items you may have collected of his from his career. Hope you don't find me writing you regarding Pags strange; or hope you don't think I'm a weirdo, but I was thrilled to read your story of Old Timer's Day from this past year and find out there was another person out there cheering Pags on!! Look forward to hearing from you if you find the time and take care, JODY

Pags is awesome!

We filmed a boating scene on a lake here and I stencilled
"The H.R. Martin" on the back of the boat.
Hope you don't mind.

Cool! Thanks Mark

Is that bad? I bought it this morning and started drinking it at about 9:30am, now it's 5:43pm. Gotta get some more!

so since I was a little girl I've been coming up w/ some great nicknames I think. in elementary school I nicknamed Jeff Myers 'Tree Frog' and it stuck all the way through high school. I also nicknamed Charles something 'Booger Brains.' As I got older, mainly by college, everyone got a boy nickname, well sometimes they had 'boy' in them, there was Stalker Boy, Nirvana Boy, Skater Boy, Hman, BBD, Psycho Sam... I'm having trouble remembering.

Anyway, then there was The Boy. He's the only one of these I've mentioned that I actually dated. Big mistake! He was a 'tool' everyone told me when he visited me in vet school. I guess I knew but I was fine w/ it for awhile, until he visited me that weekend in Kansas. It was my birthday weekend and we went to a party I think Saturday night. That's where everyone called him a tool. I was hanging out more w/ my roommate, that's another story, and I was trying to avoid being associated with the tool. On Sunday we went out for breakfast and we ended up sitting next to some other vet students that were friends w/ my roommate. They had some bacon sitting there on a plate and The Boy asked them if they were going to eat it and they said 'No go ahead.' So The Boy took the bacon and ate it up. I was very embarrassed and grossed out by this, I think also because The Boy had gained some weight since I'd last seen him a few months prior and he wasn't so tall so a little weight is a lot on a short guy. On the way home I dumped him. I planned on it anyway I think but the bacon incident really gave me the courage to dump him and then drive 2+ hrs to the airport and send him on a plan back to MA. It wasn't fun but well worth it.

Anyway, the point is, today he's been named Bacon Boy. I'm not sure what took so long to come up w/ it. He came up in a conversation w/ Greg today who always refers to the bacon story when talking about him and in replying I just wrote the best nickname ever:

Bacon Boy

Here's my Diet Coke shrine at my desk at work.

I got something in the mail from them postmarked January 4th. Guess I should have opened it sooner but I didn't think it was anything more than something for my estimated taxes or to file for 2007.

I was having an awful day yesterday, you can read more in the Weekend Recap, but anyway it was after 11p, just home from work, hadn't eaten all day and was so hungry I decided to make myself a burger from the ground beef I had left over from Saturday. While I was cooking the burger I decided to open this IRS mail. Basically it said that one of their accountants had gone over my 2006 taxes and decided I owed $2,725.90 and I could either agree w/ the proposed changes or disagree and supply additional info why I disagreed. I couldn't really deal w/ it at the time to figure out what the hell happened so I passed it over to Jenn and she was able to tell me they charged me a self-employment tax of $2,573 plus interest, $152.90.

Nice. At least it's not as bad as it could be. I'm not self-employed so they can't charge me. It's complicated being a postdoc fellow because they don't take out taxes from my pay and I have to pay quarterly estimated taxes, and I don't get a W2 but a 1099 so it looks more like I am self-employed but postdoc fellows are not subject to the self-employment tax. I called the IRS today and spoke w/ someone who told me to fax my 1099 but of course I don't have it so I have to try and get a copy from MIT.

Hopefully that's all it takes. Too bad I do my own taxes so maybe it was something I screwed up but I hope it doesn't happen again because I'm not paying some accountant to do them unless I absolutely have to, like if I get the NIH LRP and then they make you have someone do it. Until then I can handle it.

Heather 1 IRS 0

So the snow finally came and everyone else canceled school, except MIT of course but I'm still sick and I just can't make it in. I feel crappy for postponing my seminar, especially since I have it all done, but I barely slept at all last night and I have an even worse sore throat than yesterday and still swollen eyes, thanks rj, so I think it would be painful to try and talk for close to 2 hrs. today. Guess I will go rest up w/ Miss Cleo.

and another day of not running...boo!