Blossoms, finally!

this is what i was waiting for.... and now i finally got a picture! isnt it pretty? tim showed me last night some pictures he took of those trees with his phone, and i could only answer; "so, you were just watching this without taking me there?! i want to see it toooo!!!" especially since before you know it, all flowers are gone again and only green trees are left. we went there today; its just opposite the building where he works....

we also drove through somerville, where we lived the first three months exactly a year ago, as there are a lot of blossom trees as well. just, so pretty!!

ah, and tim got a new lens for the big fancy camera, surely you will see some pics through that lens the coming days...
(click on the pic to see it entirely; i just wanted the flowers as big as possible)

Reet one

an advertisement for reebok. reetone, whatever that may be. well, i see a ladies buttocks, and a not very neat dutch word for buttocks is "reet", thats like "ass". so, ass number one?!

and a dog....

and time for me togoto sleep, i cant make any sense of this ad anyways!!

Hiring day

april 19th, mc donalds had a national hiring day. i think it meant you could walk into any mc donalds and could fill out an application. there were 50,000 positions available! i missed it... ;)

today i read in the newspaper that the day was a great success, many people came, more than 1 million filled out an application for either a part- or fulltime job.. and they hired even more people than planned! 62,000! worldwide, mc donalds has 400,000 people employed. 

so... all in all i think its not bad mc donalds exists, children love it, for us, lazy adults its useful after another too long day in the lab and no mood or energy to cook anymore, and it provides numerous jobs. but it seems most people despise mc donalds, or perhaps they feel they should express that they never goto it! :)  (howcome all those jobs available then!)

here in the US they want to ban all advertisements focused onto young kids that have to do with unhealthy food. that might be good. but i think the problem is and will always be their parents; they should take care that their kids get healthy meals and goto mc donalds only by exception. then it also remains fun for them.. 

but well, thats just my simple opinion and now i should attend to my non-mc-job!!

No gates

as biebkriebels asked yesterday; there are indeed no gates around the harvard stadium, and there were only a few warning signs. this is underneath the stadium, thats what i saw first. i then did not yet know how huge the stadium is, athough this is already pretty big, entering the stadium was really a surprise! and it looked so ancient! it almost reminded me of the colosseum in rome (the outside, i never went inside), but almost...

Harvard stadium

sunday evening we went to the harvard stadium.  i had never seen it before, although it is soooo big! its along the charles river, close to harvard business school. we climbed all the stairs up to the top, from where i took this picture! at the entrance of the stadium was a sign saying "stadium only open to harvard faculty, staff and students. al others are strictly prohibited. trespassers will be prosecuted", will be prosecuted?! ouch... , but as harvard employees, we were allowed to go there. except for an old man running up and down the stadium, there was nobody, but i still was afraid that any moment someone would come to ask what we were doing there... and make us prove that we work at harvard (of course i did not bring my harvard id)

it was really cool to see! but going down all those stairs on too high heels made me a little dizzy and took quite some time.. haha! on the grass it says "harvard crimson", which are the athletic teams of harvard. the stadium opened in 1903, and was built in just four and a half months. the structure cost $310,000. most of that money came from the 25th reunion gift by harvard's class of 1879. its so huge, currently 30,323 people fit into the stadium, although according to wikipedia the maximum number of seats is 57,166 (perhaps before obesitas became a problem..?)

Great race

we drove past this sign yesterday, on our way to the beach! in fact, i made tim turn the car so i could take a picture of it as we both found it hilarious. "happy spring, thanks for a great race".  it generated an enormous amount of questions.. :) what does spring have to do with the race? who are they thanking? and who are they? and, more importantly, what race? the human race? do we really have to be thankful for that? hmm, i guess i should leave it at that.... an endless musing on the human race might be a bit boring, and perhaps too negative....

defenitely, it will be, at least for a while, another of our quotes... like "surrender, then denny's", or, from sheldon: "Hello, Oompah-Loompahs of science" he actually says that about engineers; "engineering - this is where the semi-skilled workers realize the work of better minds". hmm, i am not an engineer, but i do feel like an oompah-loompah of science on a regular basis.... now is that good or bad? :)

Easter sunday

today was a great surprise. woke up early and the weather turned out to be great as opposed to the forecast cold and rain there was sunshine!! and it was warm... we left early, planned to do grocery shopping first, but the supermarket was closed! we drove straight to the beach, this time to another beautiful spot on cape ann, magnolia beach. there were few people and a lot of sun! perfect!

when we got hungry we went to denny's somewhere along the highway. the only reason we went to dennys is the big bang theory, when leslie winkle says, while losing a paintball game "surrender, then denny's" we both found this very funny, so when we finally saw a denny's it was an easy choice... that was yet another 'ooooh, this is really like in the movies'-experience... :)  the easter bunny was there as well, as you can see, and i was drinking cranberry- and tim grapefruit-juice....

and, as opposed to the netherlands; tomorrow is not a free day here....

Living here...

.... means you live in quite an ugly building!! but actually the next sign said; you'd be home by now... this is next to the green line station science park, next to the museum of science, in boston. we drove past it when tim picked me up from work. the amount of rent we pay for our apartment is far too high, so sometimes we are wondering whether we should find a cheaper place when our lease ends (here you sign a lease for a year or even longer; if you want to rent per month, the rent is even higher. our lease is even 1,5 years, in exchange for living rent-free the first 3 months). we do not even live in boston, but in melrose. however,... the alternative would be the above, for example... would it be cheaper? probably not. and no washer/dryer in the apartment. perhaps no underground parking, pool and 24hr gym.... ah well... we still have a little while to decide as to what to do... :)

today was a rainy day. and not warm. we planned to go shopping tomorrow because of the weather, but i discovered today that everything will beclosed since its easter! so instead we went this evening to the outlet center in wrentham, where they have an enormous amount of shops.. we passed them all... pfff.. but relatively speaking, we didnt buy much!

happy easter! now we have to come up with another plan for tomorrow....

Quite artificial

picturing the lights like this on a rainy saturday night (last week when it was really very cold and i regretted not wearing my winter coat).... i had just bought a star filter! always thought people with some star-lights knew their camera better than i did.. but just putting a filter on your lens does the trick! so i took quite some pics while driving home, but tim doesnt like them...

i think its funny... perhaps every now and then.. :)

tomorrow its supposed to be 11 degrees celsius, and rain... while in the netherlands its over 24!! since days, maybe weeks already?! i hope you enjoy it there... here i cant wait for warmer weather to start. the pool here also got uncovered this week, but i presume it will take a while before we are allowed to actually swim in there again....

Dining room (2)

and this is inside Christies..... just like the movies, no? and i think many years old, already....

at the bar is a picture of the owner that opened the restaurant, Christies; the grandfather of the current owner. here are quite some pictures of the dining room, and a review of the fried food!

Dining room

whats more american than a dining room....! we saw one while driving to nahant, 2 weeks ago or so, and decided to actually enter this restaurant, christies, which seemed to be from another era.... it actually says at the entrance; since the turn of the century! i assume thats the 1900s rather than 2000..... inside it was indeed as if time had stood still, including the people working there, as well as the ketchup bottles and the menu above the bar. exactly like in the movies...! in fact, the owner told us that several commercials had been filmed there already.

on the other side of the road is the ocean, so i imagine in summer it could be crowded here. or perhaps it was so in the 50s... :) now it was pretty deserted; many tables and there was only us 2 and a young family... it was amazing and i wanted to picture it all, but i felt like such a tourist...

One way

 this is in charlestown where we were just taking some pics, last sunday. here i used a circular polarizer on my camera! :) i started reading up on that on wikipedia, but that page is endless and extremely boring, with quite some math and diffraction and all that kind of stuff we had at school. so i just quote the package: "improves contrast and color saturation in blue skies and white clouds". i am telling myself now that this pic indeed looks better because of the filter.. but i didnt take one without so i cant really tell...

i like the sign. one way. do not enter. it is so definite, if you enter.. there is no way back. at least, thats how it seemed to me. the sign is in front of some huge, really huge, circular towers. i think, judging from google maps, there are 5 of them. we pass by them every time tim brings/picks me up from work. i always wonder what they are. and that i should really take a picture of them (but they were too big; didnt fit!). behind that is a parking lot for school buses. looks also funny on google maps!

sometimes, i wish there were more of those signs, haha. in life in general. here we surely did not go beyond that sign.... but thats for another time to discuss! tim is telling me i should goto sleep....

Just weird

we didnt really know what they are implying here... ? are they implying anything in the first place.. ? something real americans understand, but we dont?

we were in the BJs this weekend. thats like the dutch makro, where you can buy stuff in bulk (even bigger bulk than in normal supermarkets.. :) we now have a free trial membership for a few weeks (a membership for a year costs 40 dollars or so), for that you can buy stuff in this store, and you can get gas at a lower price (but the gas king is still cheaper or the same and doesnt require a membership!). but i guess we now came to the conclusion that we do not need a BJs membership. whenever we go there, we buy a lot... for quite some money... and its always crappy stuff (like a million oreo cookies, or reese's peanutbutter cups.... etc). its probably best if we stay with the market basket... we anyways dont need wet ones, and surely not a dozen of them...

Charlestown photoshoot

tim picked me up from work in charlestown. it was suddenly rather sunny out and not too cold, so i wanted to test 2 filters i bought yesterday. slowly i am finding out that taking pictures is no magic, you just need some stuff.... ;) but especially you need objects. there were some desolate buildings, some graffiti. pretty standard. pictured it all, and then we drove off to go home. turns out right on the other side of the building there was a photoshoot going on! while driving by i took some photos, which were all crap... :( only this one is kind of ok. but it is missing the girl watching with a little dog. and its missing the red ballerina-shoes that were on the ground, most likely the ones the girl being pictured was wearing before she got into those impossible high heels...

taking pictures takes time, patience, a steady hand and.. you need to think before you shoot! too bad i usually realize that when at home, going through my pics, and they all turned out.. not exactly as i wanted.... perhaps if i were a magician i could construct the entire scene as i wanted from the 5 crappy pics i took... hmmm, maybe better next time!

Dog posing

this dog was posing for tim. in fact, there was an entire photoshoot until the light turned green... the dog was hanging out of the window soo far, i thought it was a little dangerous. and cold! it was very cold, windy, and later even rainy, today... 

patiently waiting for summer.....

More fun

apparently, fembots have more fun. i dont really know what a fembot is, i presume the robot-lady in the pic, although she doesnt look particularly funny, or having fun... some ad around government center.

and most likely im not one either.. i was just, once again, sleeping on the couch. oh yes, i planned this evening to write emails i should have written already, to check the taxes before finally sending them out tomorrow, reading in my book... etc etc. time flies when you are tired... ! good night!
additional note: someone on facebook told me what a fembot is (another lesson of wikipedia knows everything!!). "Fembots are fictional female androids from the Austin Powers movies. They are created by Frau Farbissina, and designed with a Yvonne Craig-like appearance that emphasizes their sexuality, to seduce and kill Austin Powers... " now... whats the link with liquor?!

Pink jacket

and her father's white sunglasses.... many carriages  were lined up, in the center of boston, close to the very touristy place faneuil hall. the horses have a kind of shit-chute (my english is not that good!) attached to their bottoms, so that it doesnt end up on the street, but slides right into a bucket. i just wanted you to know..!! :D

No blossoms...

...yet! but its coming!

cant wait fur everything to be in bloom.... last year many streets in somerville were so pretty with all the blossom trees.... this is what im waiting for!

and now im so tired as if its friday already, but its only wednesday....

Soap shop

this is at downtown crossing where we got on the orange line tonight after dinner. the soap shop currently has pink led lights around all of their windows. in the netherlands that would mean something else.. or is that only when the lights are red? i find it funny and always have to think of the red light district when i see this shop now... not what the average american would like to be associated with, i guess, when going to this shop!

those soap shops have an overwhelming smell, coming towards you if you are still far away, yegh. i prefer to stay out of this shop. they have millions of different hand sanitizer; different color, scents, size etc. same for soap, room refresher, etc etc etc.... but essentially its all the same; this shop could greatly reduce its size, i would say... :D

Quick post

a quick post to make up for yesterday's lack of one...

this is kind of close to south station, i would say between the institute of contemporary art and south station. just some street thats currently rather abandoned, but it looks like they are working on getting some rather fancy apartments all around there, as you can see above. i like the location, and close to the harbor, but other than that, theres not much to do.. (yet).

i feel i am doing bad concerning posting and taking pictures... i hope both will improve soon! :) i blame the weather, and otherwise my camera (or my lack of understanding of it), thats the easiest... ;)