My New Honey Mustard- and Moussaka-Loving Coworker

I have a coworker now! His name is Archie Carlo and he's a native Louisvillian (I think that's the term). He favors orange and white stripes and likes to take a nap in the afternoon after working intensely for a few hours.

He's really good company when I'm sitting at my desk working during the day but he's much more curious about my lunch and beverages than coworkers I've had in the past! Salad with honey mustard dressing and moussaka drive him especially crazy. Also, he has a terribly inappropriate habit of biting my toes under the desk. HR is going to talk to him about that... Interesting that, although he kind of likes the fancy toys we got him, his favorite toys are a dried leaf and crumpled balls of paper. Go figure!

Back in Beautiful San Diego (Just for a Week! How I Miss You!!)

Sorry for the 2-week silence - we were in San Diego for a week and when we got back, work was pretty crazy. So this is going to be a belated post about my week back in my adopted hometown, San Diego! Although I moved to Louisville without any hesitation because I wanted to be with Fernando, there's no doubt that I miss San Diego and all my wonderful friends there loads and loads. Going back for a week was fantastic but it also made me feel like we still live there and are only in Louisville on vacation! Nevertheless, I maximized our short time there by cramming in as many social activities as possible (when I wasn't working of course!)

Early in the week my friend Rosa and I headed to La Jolla Cove, probably my favorite place in San Diego. I used to get up early and go running down this stunning sweep of rocky coast and blue water, back when I was an energetic grad student who rolled into the lab at 10 am:) We walked all the way from the Cove to Windansea beach, climbing up and down rocks. I never knew you could do that before!

I spent a couple of days in the office putting in face time and reminding people that I'm more than a disembodied voice over the phone. I was touched that everyone wanted to go out to lunch with me and people were greeting me with, "Welcome back, Stranger!" in the hallways. Ahhhh, the life of a mini-celebrity. Everybody wanting a piece of you...!!

Of course I had to go to my coffee mecca, Peet's Coffee and Tea, in La Jolla. Besides my friends and the beach, that's something I really miss about San Diego, as anyone who's heard me wax poetic about Peet's will attest. Was a bit bummed to see that none of my coffee guys who were fixtures at Peet's for more than 10 years and who knew my name were at the La Jolla Peet's. But maybe I should feel happy for them because that could mean they've moved on to bigger and better things (though it's hard to believe anything is better than Peet's!) Fernando and I shipped 8 pounds of coffee back to ourselves - that should keep us until our next trip!

We rounded out our week with dosa at Bawarchi Dosa with my good friends and future bridesmaids Julie and Rosa, Japanese noodles at Nozomi, and salsa dancing at the Marriott in La Jolla. I danced my first bachata (the basic step is 2 steps left followed by 2 steps right) with Fernando, which was fun and relatively easy for a novice like me. I'm going to try to find a salsa teacher in Louisville - I felt bad for Fernando because he can't really pull out the fancier dance steps with me right now. However, I could definitely dance well enough for the closing party on the last night of Fernando's conference. All of those chemists getting down on the dance floor was a pretty scary sight! We had fun though, at least until 10 pm when the band played its last song and the lights came on. Well, it was a scientific conference after all;)

After drinks (yummy pina coladas that she made - I'll try to wrangle the recipe from her) and shopping with my friend Sharon, a delicious homemade Columbian brunch with our friends Elvia and Andreas (and munchkins Andreasito and Valentina), sushi with my friend Kirsten, and a wonderful day at Sea World with Fernando's sons Marco and Alejandro, we left San Diego extremely satisfied and with all my pent-up need for socialization fulfilled. It was sad to leave San Diego and even harder to leave the dear people there, but a part of us was looking forward to getting back to our apartment and routine. We're definitely getting old!

Science Fiction Tuesday

I'm not exactly a science fiction buff but I like some sci fi movies and I really like the one sci fi book that I've read: The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin. I'm re-reading it now and it's just as absorbing as it was the first time around. The plot centers around an envoy to a planet where people are androgynous and can become either sex during a certain period every month. Even though this fact by itself is so provocative, the book isn't really about that. It's more about the precarious process of discovering how things work in a very different culture as well as an exciting adventure story with lots of frozen tundra involved. We could use some of that icy tundra action in Louisville right now - it's 90 degrees and very humid!

We also watched the Steven Spielberg movie A.I. last night (DVR'ed) for the second time. I first saw A.I. when it came out, which seems to be a while ago since Haley Joel Osment is now old enough to drink and drive. It's an interesting concept that robots can be constructed to love humans, with no guarantee of course that the humans are going to love them back. However, even though it's wrenching when the human mom abandons the robot kid in the middle of nowhere, I have to admit that a small part of me didn't blame her. Here's a kid who pops up with a fixed smile around every corner, is super eager to please, and just wants ever so hard to be part of the family. On paper he's perfect; in real life, he would be a little creepy. So while I was tearing up at the touching moments, I was also laughing (wickedly I'm sure) at Haley Joel Osment's character. It didn't spoil my enjoyment of the movie though. It's definitely worth seeing if you haven't watched it in a while, or ever. That's it for my one and only science fiction post this year!

Of Flowers and Anchorage (Kentucky, not Alaska!)

Fernando (aka hubby) bought me these beautiful red and white roses - for some reason, that's a popular combination in Louisville grocery stores. These are perfect for my desk! I keep looking at them as I'm working at my laptop and they make me smile. They're also an incentive to stay at my desk and be a good little medical writer.

We had an interesting restaurant experience recently at the Village Anchor Pub & Roost in Anchorage, a picturesque suburb of Louisville that's 10 minutes away from our apartment. From the outside, it looks like an unassuming pub in a well-kept building (the refurbished Anchorage train depot). Inside it was hopping! We got the last table because we didn't have a reservation, and we saw them turn away several people who came in soon after us. After a moment of feeling undeservedly smug, we checked out the menu.

Prices were on the steep side for pub fare (the fish and chips and fried chicken entrees were $16 each) and there weren't too many items that sparked my interest. However, I've been meaning to try a Hot Brown since coming to Louisville so this seemed as good a time as any. I can't speak for other Hot Browns but at the Village Anchor, the dish is a very cheesy casserole with lots of bacon and cherry tomatoes. Overall it was quite yummy although you'd never guess it's a sandwich at heart.

More interesting is the quirky vibe of the place, evident in the framed pictures crowding the ceiling instead of the walls. When we asked for the bill, I raised an eyebrow when our waiter plonked down a well-worn romance novel with "pearl" in the title. Nah, I thought, he can't be reading this. He quickly explained that that's how they presented the bill, as a bookmark in an old romance novel. Nice touch. It made me think of this online romance writing contest that I tried my hand at a few years ago. It's amazingly fun to write a romance novel actually! You can be as campy and over-the-top as you want, and let's face it, we could all use a lot more of that in our lives:)  

First Post Ever!

Hi Readers,
This is my first post on my first blog, so I'm new to the blogging world! I'm thinking of blogging about being a work-from-home writer to connect with other people who are telecommuting, writing, or just want to connect! I also need an outlet for more fun, let-it-all-hang-loose type of writing because the writing I do for work is very technical and precise. I might also talk about creative writing, moving to a new city, food, my favorite books and movies...you get the picture. Basically whatever catches my fancy and passion! I'd love to hear your thoughts and stories too.