oh. hi.

oh! hi! how are you?

So... yeah, sorry about the lack of updates on my normal-life-that-you-all-seem-to-think-is-interesting-or-else-why-would-you-read-this.

The last six weeks, in poetic form:

'puter broke my hands
could not type for many weeks
now with voice software

*bow*

Art acquisition, 5 years in the making

I bought some new art...






...I'm pretty ecstatic about it.





This isn't just any old piece of art...





...it is a copper wire screen that has been picked and poked to form the shape of a woman...



...and I love it.






5 years ago I was in New York and walking by the Met - there are always many artists displaying their wears along the park there. I stopped at one display that was particularly good, it was a man making 3d shapes out of metal window screens. It was beautiful. I wanted to buy something, and even talked prices with him for a bit, but didnt have enough cash and was running late to catch my bus back to Boston. Ever since then, I have deeply regretted not buying one of his pieces.


This weekend Lindsay invited me to walk with her to the Harvard Square Mayfair. After sampling some free fudge and fighting through the crowds, I saw an artist booth - with 3d metal screen sculptures. I went up to the artist, "Years ago I saw something like this next to the Met in NY..." "yes, that was me."

DESTINY

I immediately purchased a piece. And yes, I was sure to get his contact info and website. Pete Smith of Burlington VT, I <3 your work.

my beautiful mom

I know mothers day is a week away, but oh well




















This is a portrait that my parents photoshop teacher did of them. I guess she used a few photos of them as reference and then created this picture as a painting in photoshop. It is beautiful. You can tell my mom was a total fox when she was younger - she is still quite beautiful.

My friend Lindsay pointed out that she looks a LOT like the actress Glenne Headly. Never realized it, but she's very right. I hope I inherit some of both of their excellent non-aging qualities :)

Twitter celebrity and careless stinkers

one of the more emotional-rollercoastery days on record. I shall ellaborate in numbered form, per the usual:

1. I actually got up when my alarm went off. Lately I've been pressing snooze a lot, but there was something about this day... I think I knew it would be a weird one.
2. As any other day in the last several months, I checked my ever-growing twitter feed on my open/professional/general account (@rosegrabowski) and saw a funny post from an important person in the Search / SEO/ Google world. I am one of his >22,000 followers. I re-tweeted and added my own commentary
   
   mattcutts I can't stop watching this 7 second video: http://bit.ly/kXsde
   rosegrabowski 7 seconds of physics bliss. nerdily brings me back to the happy days of AP Physics & the right hand rule http://bit.ly/vd2ls (RT @mattcutts)
   mattcutts@rosegrabowski AP Physics FTW :)
   
   wait, WTF??? he replied to me, apparently he likes my nerdyness (FTW=for the win.) But the best part... he then proceeded to ADD ME TO THE PEOPLE HE FOLLOWS. and you know how many people that is? 116. Or, now it's 117.
   
   This is a big deal. I have no idea why this guy, who is kind of a big deal at google, would follow me. But with great power comes great responsibility. I.e. I have to be careful what I tweet now, or my superiors at work might get angry :)
3. So that was cool.
   
4. Yup, that was cooler than meeting Ben Affleck this weekend. And more lasting (now I have a direct line into Matt Cutts' computer. holy god.) I was giddy and blushing (who the crap AM I? super nerd, thats who.)
   
5. I came home from work and on my kitchen table was a bowl of yogurt. Just sitting there. and I smelled coffee... because the coffee pot was still on. And the crud was burnt to the bottom of the carafe. My first thought was that maybe my sister was abducted suddenly from the house. Then I remembered her boyfriend was here. Michael, I know you try - but I shall continue to passive-aggresively call out acts of carelessness through my blog on an as-needed basis. Sorry :)
   
6. I ran off to the grocery to get some food stuffs for grilling tomorrow (yay! more grilling!) As I backed out of the parking spot into the general part of the lot, I looked behind me and saw someone else getting into their car behind. I figured he'd, you know, at least look to see I was backing out. I slowly moved, and just as I was about to go from R to D, I looked and saw him BACKING UP INTO ME. I beeped as harshly as possible, but to no avail. The idiot must not have looked in his rearview at all w/in 15 seconds of moving. He hit my bumper, I didnt see any damage but I still yelled at him. Or, kind of raised my voice. I dont yell. BUT I F*ING WANTED TO.

what a weird day... these orange popsicles I bought at the grocery should help keep me calm :)

Ok, officially love grilling

I did some grilling today...






















... it was, in a word, delicious.

I am pretty glad that we picked an apartment with a backyard and a grill.

Because, as it turns out, everything tastes better grilled.


I made some asparagus, just drizzled with olive oil, sea salt, and freshly ground pepper, and then splashed with a little lime juice after. Umm, heaven. I ate most of it before remembering to take a picture of it in the serving bowl.

I then stuck on a pattie that I had grilled on Saturday (half turkey meat, half beef. when I think about it, the idea of mixing their flesh is super weird. but it was still tasty) and made a little sandwich while I put on the zucchini.





mmmmmmm zucchini. As a child I thought this was gross.

Now I think it is divine.



HAPPY MONDAY!

Easter peeps (poops)

I made marshmallow easter peeps last weekend.












They looked more like easter poops.












After much experimentation I was able to form some moderately human-looking peeps


so I had marshmallow people and their poops. HAPPY EASTER!

My Mosaic Matrix

a new facebook chain, but i figure this is a more polite forum. enjoy

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search (http://www.flickr.com/).
b. Pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into Mosaic Maker. Change rows to 3 and columns to 3 (http://bighugelabs.com/fl

ickr/mosaic.php).

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What is your favorite color?
4. Favorite drink?
5. Dream vacation?
6. Favorite hobby?
7. What you want to be when you grow up?
8. What do you love most in life?
9. One word to describe you?


anyone care to guess what words I used? :) Hint: #1=Rose. PSYCH.

Salsa Stories

I went salsa dancing again Friday - that's 3 times in 2 weeks. I'm already a LOT better. Before this I had gone to Havana Club (3 blocks from where I live) only every 4-6 months, but I still remember some of the people I'd seen a few times. Turns out some of them remember me too.

This guy (turns out his name was Ivan) asked me to dance, and when I looked up at him I said "Hey, I know you!"
Ivan: "yes, last time we danced I disrobed you!"
Rose: *long pause* *more pausing* "OH THAT WAS YOU!?!?"
(took me a few seconds, but I finally remembered the time we were dancing and I was wearing a wrap dress - at one point he was turning me, and his hand accidentally caught in the loop tie at my waist, pulling the tie out. I caught it before my dress flashed open, but it was a hilarious moment.)
Ivan: "haha yes, that was me. I tell that story sometimes, it was very funny."

Glad we both had a sense of humor about it :) (and glad I learned my lesson, I never wear that dress out dancing any more!)

Happy Birthday to three important women

MITRA happy birthday (4/4,) miss you love you.

JULIET happy birthday (4/5.) Umm go away.

HOLLY happy birthday (4/8) miss you love you!

in other news, this is how I feel sometimes:

nataliedee.com

Random list of thoughts - ice cream, mysterious pains, salsa

• I realized recently I probably consume 10% of my calories via ice cream or the equivalent (frozen yogurt, sorbet, ice cream bars, you know.) I'm ok with that.
• This morning I was walking around the office and my knee hurt a bit. I had the faintest memory, so very fuzzy and unclear, of waking up in the middle of the night having put my body in a crazy position and being in pain. I know know if this was a real memory or not, it is very odd. I'm wondering what really does happen at night that I dont remember. (hopefully I'm not eating MORE ice cream in my sleep.)
• I really, really love failblog. Props to Juliet for opening my eyes to this wonderfulness.
• Speaking of opening eyes, check out this crazy piece of art. Yes, these are real.
• I went salsa dancing last night, to a class a friend invited me to. I had intended on starting salsa lessons this year, but hadnt gotten my act together. I am an ok salsa dancer, but mostly fake it (my body can figure out most things in the club, but I dont consciously know what I'm doing half the time.) I was really impressed with how much everyone, including myself, improved by the end of the class. Much salsa dancing in the future to be had.
• Mitra's birthday is Saturday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MITRA!!!
• Juliet's birthday is Sunday. Juliet, you can suck it.
• Just kidding, I hope you have a happy birthday too.
• A few nights ago I was thinking about one of my close friends and how much I love him and his girlfriend, and what I would say if I ever get to give a speech at their wedding. And I actually started to cry. Wow. They are really special people, I hope they are happy forever.
• I fell for multiple april fools jokes today. HARD. even though, every year, I resolve to be careful and not fall for anything. I am PATHETICALLY gullible.

that is all.