Funny, but...

...why? how did that piano get there? were they planning on burning it? why in this open field? somewhere around boston...

we just got back from the new sherlock holmes movie. very funny too. but... sometimes, i wondered, why? i couldnt follow it sometimes... but well, still funny...

Newbury street

on newbury street (if you click on the link you can see its apparently bostons most enchanting street) you can find hotel chocolate. i thought that was just a hotel named chocolat (perhaps after the book or the film?), and i liked the bike with the flag (and the fancy couple, although i was annoyed by the guy behind the flag, haha). the tire does need some air i see now. but... its not a hotel, its a british chocolatier and cocoa grower, with 55 stores in the united kingdom and 5 stores within the us and the middle east. you can go there for "gourmet" chocolate. sometimes we joke we should start our own shop with "good food", and we will use terms like "artisan, old world, european, organic". with those words we can ask a lot of many for our products, and people buying it will think they are very hip, and special.... maybe we need a bike and a flag as well...

In comparison

this is what "cooking" in the lab looks like... :) this is a very old pic, still from the netherlands. (i think taken in 2007!) the purple-capped bottles contain yeast cells, from which we were purifying a protein (actually working with yeast is not that bad, it smells nice.... like bread.. ). the bad thing was that i was doing this in a room in which it was 4 degrees celsius, to protect the protein. sometimes i would sit there for an hour or so, which was not the most pleasant thing... in the right corner you see a door to the -20 room. luckily no experiments there, but sometimes we would need to go in there to search something, the advantage of that was that 4 degrees suddenly felt very pleasant.
at least when baking a cake you only get fat, not cold... ;)

Christmas cookies

currently, im a little into baking. actually, i always like to make stuff from the oven (thats why i bought a fancy oven in the netherlands, thats not here with me, buuuuhh), but recently im trying a lot of new recipes. i dont know whether fellow scientists agree, but i think cooking is like doing an experiment in the lab. differences being that in the lab you usually do not (or should not) want to touch the stuff you are dealing with, defenitely you dont want to taste it, and more often than not it smells bad. i would even go so far that when it smells good in the lab, you most likely did something wrong. for example, you heated that high-sugar solution a little too long, and it turned into caramel. while that may be a good thing in the kitchen, it for sure isnt in the lab... :) (tim experienced that recently, and didnt touch the autoclave ever since...). other than that, its the same. you mix stuff, you wait a little here and there, you heat or cool, and in the end you have a result thats either good or bad (although bad in the lab not necessarily means you failed, it could mean the result is different from what you expected, while in the kitchen...). what i dont like about recipes for cooking is that they always list the amounts of the ingredients at the top, and in the directions they only mention the ingredients, not how much. in a labprotocol (at least in mine), i never list them all on top, but you just take what you need as you go through the experiment. thats just a minor detail (although it really annoys me a lot!! haha).  just as in the kitchen, you have all the ingredients standing around somewhere (but sometimes you have to go to a colleague to borrow that cup of sugar.... )

just by accident i stumbled upon this amazing cooking website a few weeks ago, and since then i made several of the dishes (mostly the cakes and stuff). its interesting, here in the us they cook by measuring out cups and table- and teaspoons, while back home i was used to measure grams with a scale. so for some of the first recipes i followed here, i converted the cups back to grams. but... working with cups is sooo much easier and faster than measuring everything out on a scale! that took me a little while, i have to admit, since i felt that taking cups and tablespoons was not "very precise" (nor scientific... ). moreover, you cannot just convert cups back to grams, as a cup of sugar is heavier than a cup of butter, for example.

so, i also made the abovepictured cookies, which were really easy to make, and they are soooo pretty!! they look quite like the picture on the site (which is not always the case). oh, and tim likes them a lot.... :)

Urban outfitters

urban outfitters is a very hip store. or so they pretend to be. the young people working there are also very hip. they are so hip that its almost non-hip.... i never dare looking at them let alone speak, as im not sure what will come out of them. will i even be able to understand their language? surely they are not from the same world as i am. moreover, they never give me the feeling im worthy to speak to in the first place, certainly im not as fashionable as they are...  i think i never bought anything, although we go to this shop every now and then. i guess its these uberstyled employees that put me off. if they look like that in these clothes... or perhaps just the price... they also have a lot of stuff for your home, extremely expensive but oooh sooo cute. stuff you really dont need, but would love to have, as it looks soooo cooolll. luckily, a lot of that stuff is either too cool or too expensive, and thus the price will be significantly reduced after a while... thats when we come in, and buy it all. thats why we now have a door-mat that says "home sweet apartment" (marked down from 30 to 2 dollars), and some journal in which i am supposed to make one sketch a day. not that i ever sketch... (marked down from 16 to 2.5 dollars) just to give you an idea of the kind of stuff they sell (and what i think its worth).

anyways... now i saw the abovepictured signs on their windows. "save $$$$ for booze"???! that really was too "snazzy" (just found that word in the dictionary, not sure its correct...) for me, i just couldnt go inside. or does it mean im getting old?

Looking up

at copley square. you see the hancock tower, as well as the ugly church in front of it. to the left are buildings of which i dont know the name.... and i guess another part of the church?

Nice... socks!

today it was pretty chilly! we went to a free photo exhibition and then had quite a walk through boston. along the way we saw some guys in speedos. standing around as if it was the most normal thing to do on a chilly saturday afternoon...

back home i found out it was for the 12th annual santa speedo run where men and women run for charity. in speedos.... and some santa decorations. they raised 250,000 dollars! too bad i missed them running... :( here you can see a video of the event. and here is their website, so that you can join next year, if interested....

Cleaned out

its funny how this morning i read about occupy boston in the dutch news before i saw it on the american... :) they cleaned them out last night more than 24 hours after they were supposed to leave.  in the gym i saw a press conference about it. the square is now really empty... and they are working hard to get it all cleaned up and restored by the end of this week. 47 got arrested. in fact, the police gave them the option to go, if they wanted, without arrest, and so some choose to do so. but 47 remained stubborn and got themselves arrested. how stupid is that? 

anyways.. i also read in the dutch news that occupy boston was one of the biggest movements. dont know whether thats true, but they were one of the few that were allowed to stay longest, and i think where the police really tried to be reasonable with them and gave them more than enough time to leave, so that it wouldnt escalate as happened in some other cities. im curious to see what will happen next. if they really are there to change something, it should not matter that they cannot sleep in a tent in some square anymore, right?

Without title

well, this man was just crossing the street, close to the TD garden. i have no 2-word title for that.. he did have a bag of dunkin donuts with him. some people like that stuff, apparently.. :)

behind him you see those large concrete balls. they surround many government buildings in boston, and were placed there after 9/11. why? so that people cannot drive their truck or whatever into the building.... at least, thats what someone told me. and i did see them in front of several government buildings, but googling around does not give me much, and im too lazy to really search.. ah well..

By midnight...

... the occupiers are supposed to leave dewey square in boston.... they asked people to come and support them. im curious what will happen, i guess it will be all over the news tomorrow.

above the tents, and behind it you see south station. we dont go there very often, but actually i like this station, its quite big and looks interesting. although it apparently became more dirty since occupy boston (occupiers using the toilets etc, asking for food from vendors, using electricity to charge all their electronic devices). the bus terminal with buses to new york, canada and wherever else leave from south station too, and its also a big train station. but.. although we are here now since more than 1.5 year, we have never taken the train! (not sure if we miss anything, however.. :)

Self portrait

although i took quite some photos on sunday, this is yet another older one, since i still did not take them off my camera. and anyways it was time for a self portrait... this was the day after the first snowstorm of the season, when we had a walk on the cemetery. the tree's shadow was so perfect, i took many pics of it! and then a few with our shadows in it as well.

its still pretty mild out, i saw that the skating rink in the boston common yet again had to close early because of the warm weather.

Sleeping outside

here some occupiers without a tent, sleeping next to the tent city in boston. today was another big day for them... some donators raised enough money to buy a tent that is more suitable for the coming weather than the normal tents that are there currently. however, the city of boston does not allow any "permanent structures" in the tent city (so also no portable toilets, for example), and if i understood  it correctly, they filed this winterized tent under permanent. now.. the occupiers knew that this tent would not be allowed in advance, yet they did let it come. it cost 1350 dollars. can you believe it?! 1350 dollars! wasted! i would have loved to have 1350 dollars.... many people would, but those occupiers decided to show off the "hyporcrisy of the police", not allowing them their tent. so..., they did not fight (how great of them), and they allowed the police to take the tent away, just 20 minutes after it arrived. this as opposed to a few days earlier, when someone donated a huge sink (to do dishes and stuff), that was taken away by the police as well. the videos of that event are rather sad, as you can see here, and 1 person got arrested. beeghhh. its so stupid!!! as do many people think, even those who did not think so earlier on. here you can read more... (and i guess tim can pick out my comment in the comment section.. ;) )

Liquor store

now doesnt this look like a very american liquor store?

i still cant get used to the fact that you have to goto a separate store to buy alcohol. its weird and inconvenient... even so we dont drink that much... :) ah, and lets not forget tha you need to show you are above 21! even if you are not buying the alcohol, but just came along.. if not everyone in your party can prove they are above 21, you sometimes wont get it (but i wrote about that once before). but the most frustrating is when you goto a restaurant, and dont get your drink, as has happened to me far too often by now (i dont always take my passport with me, and that always turns out to be the case when i want a drink... )

ah well... at least its cheaper that way... ;)

But angels....

.....dont smoke. right, mom? but this angel was smoking....

i have no clue why there was an angel, i just saw him, took a pic, and at the same time a little girl came by and asked above question to her mom. 

this was in new bedford, some 51 miles from boston, and its the whaling capital of the world! (or so it used to be). the streets have cobblestones and that makes for an uncomfortable walk. we went to the whaling museum (tim insisted), but i found it rather boring, although they did have one entire room devoted to whaling-memorabilia from the dutch! there was some delfts blauw and some paintings. the only thing i found impressive was the size of many of the whalers boats; some barely bigger than the whale... we also saw how you catch a whale, and all the tools, but i did not like that. beeehhh.

and then the next disappointment came when we got home.... we had this photo contest from our apartment complex; everyone could submit photos and the best would win a prize. and see! there was a little envelope under our door. so i thought; yeeeeyyy! finally! i won something!!! and then i opened it, and yes, it was second prize in the competition!! only, it was not for me, but for tim..... buhuhuhuhuhuhuhuh....

:)

Working out

along the charles river in boston....

me, on the other hand... im still an amateur (still?! lets say i am...). until we moved to the us of a i never owned a pair of "athletic" shoes (at least not that i can remember). and only a few weeks back did i discover that the type of socks do matter, when running. at least for me... those regular black socks that i have since years are not sufficient. how i wish i had known that earlier!

Missing action

december already.... pfff. and that means theme day! this month's theme is "action shot". this is (yet another) old picture of mine that i took in 2009, in berlin. here you see a piece of the berlin wall that is still standing (i forgot where exactly this is). we were with a small group, just released from some scientific conference, free to explore the city. we were walking towards the wall, and i knew what all of them would be doing; looking through the cracks.... although we had just passed the other site by bus, and had more or less seen that there was nothing there, no action at all!! so i quickly got my camera ready for this action shot of no action... and yes indeed, they walked to the wall, to stare through the cracks... :)

i remember that during holidays, we once went to see the berlin wall when it was still functioning to separate east from west germany. i was less than 8 years old, and i still remember very well walking there. seeing those guards in towers, asking my parents if what they had just told me was really, really true; that you could not cross that barrier, because if you did, those guards might shoot you. i could not understand that it was possible to be just walking around, in the sun, while being so close to something so scary. not scary as in books or television, but something that was obviously real.

now that wall is demolished, although you can buy little (original or not..) pieces of it (people make money off anything!), and larger pieces are scattered over the world, here you can see a list of where they are. there is a piece in new york, at 53rd street, between madison and 5th avenue, with a nice little seating area around it (although it was 2004 when i saw it for the first and last time.. :) ), and wikipedia just tells me that there are at least 2 more in new york...

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants

Since 1980

this is a picture of tim taken at my birthday, posted on his birthday. isnt that original? ;)

its taken at the hot dog stand in coney island, new york. the business was started in 1916, when you could buy a hot dog for just 5 cents. the stand next to mr nathan's sold hot dogs for 10, and nathan used to work there. just copied this from wikipedia as it is so funny: "At a time when food regulation was in its infancy and the pedigree of the hot dog particularly suspect, Nathan made sure that men wearing surgeon's smocks were seen eating at his stand to reassure potential customers." my question; why surgeon's??! because they are doctors.. or? anyways, now nathan's famous has many stores spread over the us, and each year at coney island there is a hot dog eating contest on the 4th of july. this year, for the fifth time, it was won by joey chestnut, eating 62 of them in 10 minutes. yegh... if you click on his name, you can read all about his technique, as there apparently is a special technique and training required for eating so many hot dogs in little time.

ah well... we went out to dinner tonight, just not for hot dogs...

Crazy weather

the crazy weather continues! tomorrow is the last day of november, and you can go out with just a cardigan, no real jacket required... its so warm. im not complaining!! i like it! i just remember from last year.. i was wondering when the real cold, and ofcourse snow, would come... the weather remained so mild for so long. especially when compared to the netherlands, where it was much colder. but then the snow came, and it stayed cold for sooo long; i think only by the end of may it was warm again. 

but... this year its more extreme than last; as a result, the skating rink at the boston common had to close early today, and some trees in the public garden started to blossom again, as you can see here.

above was at the cemetery behind our apartment. there is this little pond with a green lawn around, perfect for sunbathing....

Steaming chimney

i have had this pic in my "to-maybe-post-someday" folder for quite a while now, until i saw this beautiful pic today, and a link to more info about the steam you often see in new york streets. now i spent most of this evening reading about steam, haha!
what did i learn today? well, first check this diagram, showing whats all going on underneath your feet in new york, as if whats around you isnt yet enough... steam is generated by heating water up to 1000F, turning it into... steam; every hour, approximately 125,000 gallons of water are turned into more than one million pounds of steam, which is then delivered through the steam pipes underneath the ground to many buildings in the city. its used to heat, cool or supply power. since 1882, steam has been provided to manhattan. sometimes you see steam coming from the manhole covers, which allows for nice pics (as you can see in the first link). interestingly, manholes were renamed "maintenance holes" somewhere in california, out of concern for for gender equality. hahaha! this steam can be dangerous too, as you can read here, steam pipes sometimes explode sending hot steam up in the air; the average steam pipe is 54 years old, but some are as old as a 100 years!

so what are those orange chimneys? they surround a steaming manhole and are there to make sure that nobody gets hurt; that steam vapor is very hot and could burn you!!! also, these  stacks elevate the steam vapor above street level so that drivers can maintain visibility. so... if you see steam vapor coming out of a manhole that is not protected by such a chimney, you have to call the steam company immediately, there could be a leak.... (although usually its caused by water falling on a steam pipe).

hmmm... dont know if i feel safer, knowing all this.. :) certainly i will stay farther away from those pipes, from now on, i was not really aware of how hot that steam could be and saw them as mere photo opportunities...

(the crazy glow behind the steam chimney above comes from times square, which can be seen well ahead..)

Men only

whats there to see? no clue, but it seems to be for men's eyes only...

this was in chinatown, i thought just a few weeks back, but it was in june already. how fast is time running?!