A couple additions:
While Loopy was doing her thing at the god box*, I had lunch with college friend Carol K (formerly Carol M) who is pregnant, due in January. She looks really fantastic and seems very happy. She described her job (in an office at Columbia) as "mostly programming," specifically, "the database hokey-pokey: I put the data in, I take the data out, sometimes I shake it all about..." It's always nice to find that you still enjoy someone you haven't seen in forever.
The special dinosaur exhibit at the Museum of Natural History (which just for the record I find totally horrifying and offensive—in this room, African mammals; in this room, African people) was very cool. It was about new technologies being used to study dinosaur fossils, and the discoveries made thereby. If you go to the web page about it, you can actually read all the text that we saw in the museum, for free.
If you are even a little bit of a science geek, I really recommend checking out the section on theropod biomechanics, where you can learn exactly how they figured out how fast T. Rex could possibly have gone. In the museum, they had a little simulation on a computer, where you could manipulate the muscle mass, leg stance, and center of gravity to see what combination would have been most efficient for the T. Rex. Needless to say, I ate that up with a big ol' spoon.Loopy wasn't feeling well for much of the day (that stupid flu bug has still not completely gone away), but she was a real trooper, knitting her way through the museum and managing to stay upbeat even when she looked rather green around the gills.
She did join me on the computer simulation of the apatosaurus, where she enjoyed poking him to make him wiggle and squirm until it seemed like he was doing a little dance. It was a little sadistic but quite hilarious.
Anyway, before dinner, we went to the Union Square holiday market thing, which was delightful and charming in spite of the sleet. Loopy started to feel better around that time, fortunately.
At the market, we picked up a sparkly piece of cloth from India, all embroidered with beads and sequins, which we hope to turn into a curtain for the Chicago apartment, even though it is totally the wrong size and shape. But it is so stunningly beautiful, and so exactly what I had imagined & wanted to get, that we will make it work somehow. Loopy also got a pair of shearling earmuffs which made her (and her cold ears) very happy. I took some pix of the market, which I'll post when we get home.
After dinner we went to the Strand, which is like three times as big as it was when we lived here and now boasts "18 miles of books" (useta be just 8 measly miles). It's more brightly lit and cleaner now too—less creepy. I could just move in. Especially as the sleet had turned to driving rain. That's one thing I actually like a lot about Madison: the weather. I honestly don't mind cold as long as I'm not getting wet. But, god, rain in near-freezing temperatures... I hate that shit! But tonight, we were still in a good mood. Weird, eh? Kissing on street corners and all kinds of silliness.
Did I mention it feels like home here?
*sigh*
*Ad on google where I tried in vain to find out what that place is really called: "Huge selection, great deals on Box God. ebay.com"
(shouldn't that be Box Goddess?)(sorry)
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