suzyness.com

So I’m in the kitchen, filling my bottle with incredibly hot water, thendumping… repeat… and the little mold spores stuck to the inside of mybottle aren’t retreating. I get the idea to use a paper towel and a knife totry to scrape them out… so I’m standing there… scraping away… whileco-workers are entering and leaving the kitchen, glancing at me with apuzzled look on their face. I don’t know any of them, so I refrain frommaking myself look even more insane by trying to explain what I’m doing.Finally someone asks… I tell them the story… mold, tried washing, etc.My discussion with unknown coworker #1 continues for a bit, he tells me Ishould just chuck it. But, other nalgene still missing, and the starbucksversion being my favorite for drinking out of at work, I continue with myscraping. Unknown coworker #1 gets an idea.. I should use a baby bottlecleaner to clean out the inside of the bottle! Great! Except… I don’t ownone of those. Unknown coworker #2 now chimes in, “I have a baby bottlebrush! You can use it if you want.” Im assuming he means at home, so I ask,”here?” He replies, a little embarrassed now, “Yup. I’ll go get it for you.”He comes back with the brush.. I inquire as to why he has such an item atwork… he states that he uses it to clean out his water bottle, too.Definitely a reasonable explanation, considering my current activity.Anyway, I get the bottle cleaned out inside… and am now happily sippingaway :)Yay, water!

It’s been awhile since my last update, and I have lots of pictures and info to post… for now, though, I’ll have to start with just the updates. I spent New Year’s Eve with Ben & some friends at martini party in Folsom. We brought in the new year with champagne, balloons and a live band. It was a fun night… The next weekend, we were off to New York to spend some time on the East coast. Erin (my roommate), Melissa (friend from work) and I arrived early Friday morning. We stayed at the Marriott in Times Square, and were thoroughly impressed with the size of the room and graciousness of the staff! Both are rare finds for the area. We walked down 5th Avenue, shopped for a bit at H&M, bought tickets for a play, went to a yummy dinner, saw The Producers on Broadway, and finished off the evening by grabbing a drink at a bar in the theatre district. As we were walking back to our hotel, it started snowing!! Of course, within a few minutes the snow turned to slush, and finally hail… we hurried back to avoid being pelted too much, and called it a night around 12pm.Ben arrived Saturday morning around 9am, and we were off for the MOMA. His brother, Dave, met us at the hotel, joined us for the MOMA and generally played the role of tour guide for the afternoon. After the MOMA, we headed to Chinatown to get some lunch at WoHop. MMMmmm. From there, we took the scenic route to Williamsburg (including walking across the Williamsburg Bridge) and walked around the shops there for a bit. After shopping, Melissa & Erin headed back to the Village to meet some friends, while Ben, Dave & I stayed in Williamsburg to explore the area a bit more. We grabbed some coffee to keep warm and Dave took us out to a great spot right off the river to enjoy the view. We got some fabulous pictures (yet to come) of the city. The rest of the evening was spent at dinner & a local bar called “Barcade,” which features a bunch of old arcade games. On Sunday, the three of us (Dave, Ben & I) grabbed lunch at Katz’ deli (the famous ‘When Harry Met Sally’ deli). Fully stuffed, Ben & I went back to the hotel to nap for a bit before dinner (food coma), and Dave went back home until dinner. The dinner plans were for Ruby Foo’s at 7pm. Ben and I walked up 5th Avenue to meet Melissa, Erin & Dave at the restaurant. Ruby Foo’s is a Chinese Food & Sushi Restaurant, and we had a wide array of food at our table that night. It was all quite delicious :) After dinner, Melissa & Erin went up to the top of the Empire State Building to do the touristy thing and get the scenic night view. Ben & I had already been, so we passed on the opportunity and grabbed a cup of coffee downstairs instead.Monday… our last day in New York… and we still had a list of things to do! We got up early and headed out for the subway. We decided to start at the bottom of the city and work our way up, starting with Ground Zero. It was awing and sombering to see the location where so much loss and tragedy had occurred. The location has several informational boards up, telling of the building of the twin towers, how the area had developed, and finally, the destruction of the site. Finally, a tribute to all of those who’d lost their lives. *Sigh* It made me quite sad.From there, we headed back to mid-town, in an attempt to go ice skating in Central Park. When we arrived, we thought our efforts had been thwarted, as there was a tv show called “Johnny Zero” being filmed there that afternoon. They ended up only closing a portion of the rink, so we still got out on the ice for a good 45 min or so. Our last stop in NY was lunch at Serendipity. The wait for the food was rather lengthy, but it was yummy, and the frozen hot chocolate made it worth it. :)A final note… I came back from New York to a new job on Tuesday. I’m working for a company in Rancho Cordova doing accounting & data analyst work. For those of you who want it, my work email is suzyk@csmarketing.com.

I’ve been rather slacking on my posts lately, but for good cause. Mostly because I’ve been sick. I woke up with the worst sore throat on Sunday morning, and have been battling this cold ever since. My only hope is that it’s gone before Friday (when I’m in New York). The second reason… I no longer have my laptop, so posting while lounging on the couch isn’t an option for me anymore (ok, well theoretically, I guess I could post from my pocket pc, but come on now, really, who has the time?)I’ve been doing quite a bit of work around the house the past few days… re-caulked some cracks on my walls (where the brick was pulling away from the wall), glued down the infinitely annoying linoleum that has been peeling up in the bathroom for the past few months, bought a new coffee table and end tables that required some assembly, so Ben & I put those together (ok, so it was mostly Ben, but I cooked dinner, so I think that’s a fair trade off!!).I’ve also been playing with my new toys quite a bit. Ben got me an IPOD for xmas, my brother got me a pocket pc, and my parents got me gps to go with the pcp! I’ve been loading new programs, new songs, etc. My neighbors have been “working on” the place next door. This, of course, involves making loud noises with hammers and power tools. Apparently it was a rental for some time and was just completely trashed. The people who bought it are the same ones who I bought my condo from… so “improvements” include hastily laying down linoleum over existing stuff (instead of pulling it up), wiring the garbage disposal and dishwasher to the same plug, and having them BOTH run off the switch (so in order to run the diswasher, you have to unplug the garbage disposal and flip the switch on), fixing a leak with packing tape, etc. Besides the fact that I’m sick, and would rather not deal with the annoyance of pounding hammers, I have a slight chip on my shoulder about these people. (as they were supposed to come fix all this stuff, but conviently “forgot” on the day of the appt. Moving on…One of my christmas presents from my parents this year was a mini-crock pot. I took it out of the box a few days ago, and have already made some really yummy soups and pasta sauces in it :) I’ve decided it’s my new “left over eater” as well. I need to do laundry, pack a suitcase, do some vacuuming, return some stuff to Target, and plan out a few *hot spots* for new york, all before 8pm tonight. Phew.. if I get all of this done, i’m gonna be one busy girl today!