Light dusting

we have a tiny bit of snow this evening... actually it snowed almost the entire sunday as well, but this is what was on the ground when we went for a walk that day. so disappointing...!

and well... thats all there is to say regarding this pic! its weird knowing that there is someone out there with a set of keys to our apartment complex, most likely. we already had suspected that when we were informed of just the 2. so that it actually were 11 was mostly shocking because the management didnt tell us that right when they knew, and just kept on pretending nothing was wrong. apparently, there hadnt been a single burglary in the 6 years this place exists. until last october, when there were 2, with forced entry (interestingly, just in the month a new management took over, just saying....), and thus the 11 that happened 2 weeks ago as i told you yesterday. i always felt very safe here, had no problem leaving the door open on the 3rd floor to run back to the garage to get the rest of the groceries. or propping open our front door to enjoy the excessive airconditioning in our hallways during extremely hot summer days (yesyes, we are cheapos; its a neat way to safe on our electricity bill, hahahahaha). but... not anymore. the thieves did not even leave fingerprints, and really knew what they were doing.... whenever there is a sound in the hallway i think its someone trying our front door, and i always double-check whether tmi has really locked our door. in time that will pass again, i guess... and really, we have nothing but huge amounts of clothes and shoes. no tv, no fancy stereo, no laptops... i like to think "they" checked our apartment already and saw nothing worth stealing....

Secret entrance.....

while walking to the subway, we saw this alternative entrance.... we thought of trying it, but then realized we already paid our fare by having a monthly ticket, so it wasnt really necessary. was really surprised though that there was no sign, or a police officer or whatever to protect you from falling down or so.... as is usually the case.

today we discovered that 11 break-ins have occurred in our apartment complex about 2 weeks ago. they all happened within one week, in 4 different buildings. in none of the cases there were signs of forced entry, and in some cases residents even found their apartments locked.... we had been informed already about 2 break-ins, and had been left in the dark as to how, what and why. it was suggested then that those residents had forgotten to lock their doors and we got a nice letter reminding us to always lock our doors, to not give away our keys or write our address on the keys. of course, we had questions already then. on top of that, last week we were suddenly informed that ALL locks to all 550 apartments were going to be changed, and still no answer why that would be necessary since they had labeled those 2 break-ins as "isolated cases".... but now we know. 11 break-ins. in some cases they even locked the door after they stole stuff, and then we have to believe to no one has or can have a key that fits on all our doors??! can you believe it?! its really quite scary and very weird to leave our apartment, double-checking whether we locked it but at the same time thinking that that does not matter anyways right now..... who knows, perhaps they already have been in our place! good thing that we dont have any ipads, iphones or other fancy electronics..... (apparently thats what got stolen).
during the "meeting" we had today with a police officer and the management team residents came up with the weirdest questions, suggestions and theories as to how this could have happened, and how this can be prevented in the future. yet nobody asked whether there might be a secret entrance somewhere......
im rather mad that the management kept us dumb and didnt inform us right away that 11 break-ins occurred, ALL without any signs of forced entry (and who knows, maybe even more?!), we only found that out because we attended that stupid meeting where we just went out of sheer curiosity, as we were wondering what the hell a police officer could tell us about 2 break-ins.....

Signs, signs....

guess what happened? we can only imagine.... but for me, the sign says it all........ (and in the back, behind the "slow" sign, thats a church....)

VLA antenna

from the very large kettle the day before yesterday we goto the antennas in new mexico that we saw during our road trip. on the signs i had seen the (i thought) town of Vla, which i thought was very funny, since we also had just passed (or were about to pass, i forgot) "Pie town" (evidence of that some other time). "vla" is dutch for a dessert that many, many dutch have after dinner. its cooked ilk with custard, often sweetened with vanilla. its not something i miss from the netherlands. we did eat it every now and then, but when you open the package, you have to finish it all rather soon, as the consistence gets... well... yuckie pretty fast. if interested, i found a recipe here (a very nice blog with very dutch recipes, but with american products and measurements!!!

anyways... ofcourse there was no town named VLA. it was yet another acronym and stands for Very Large Array. its a radio astronomy observatory at an elevation of 6970 ft and has made key observations of black holes, for example. looking these antennas up on wikipedia, i just learned that there are 27 of them (!!) and each is very big (with a diameter of 25 meters). while we were driving past them we were in the middle of a snowstorm and could not see very far ahead. we perhaps saw 2 or 3. really too bad... as you can see on this picture, the VLA looks pretty cool! but even the few antennas we saw, while it was snowing in a perfectly silent world, the road ahead and behind us entirely empty....... felt pretty "outer space", even though they are of course man made......

Huge kettle

i posted a picture of this kettle before (here), its outside a starbucks on government center. 2 commenters (jack and ali) then told me that this wasnt a starbucks originally, and i was referred to an interesting article about the kettle by ali. this kettle belonged to the oriental tea company and was hung outside the shop in 1873 (!!!). in 1875, a contest was held to guess the capacity of the kettle, which drew huge crowds. i have seen this kettle so often now, but only when i read this article, did i realize it is a really, really big kettle! apparently on the day of the event, 8 boys and one tall man hid inside the kettle, and appeared when the event started. so... this weekend we went back to have another good look at this kettle, and hanging up there, its still hard for me to imagine that 8 boys and 1 tall man can fit in there!! during the event, the contents of the kettle were carefully measure and as you can see, they are engraved... something i also had never seen before. so cool!!! now i just want to get up there and try for myself.... would i really fit in there?!

Pretty white!

to me this seems to be in a forest somewhere far away, but in fact its just the ditch next to our apartment. its pretty in fall and when snowing.... but can be quite ugly too at times! its interesting how much the water level can differ....we had some snow yesterday again, but today it wasnt that cold and its melting away... :(

our apartment complex changed owners very suddenly around august last year. we were informed after it had become a fact, just as we were informed that from that moment on dogs were allowed in the complex. nowadays whenever we walk the stairs (or someone else),open our door, or sometimes it seems even when we breathe inside our own home the neighbour's tiny dog barks like he is squeezed by paris hilton (or something like that). tim got into the habit of barking back (very convincingly), so i guess they think we are doglovers too..... theres more to complain about, but lets leave that for another time... ;)

Empty sign

we drove through quite some tiny villages during our road trip in december/beginning of january. and in each place several of houses/shops/restaurants were abandoned... so we also saw some empty signs like the one above, once luring you in with a message of some sort......

several of those places were for sale or rent, but i wonder how long they had been, and how much longer they would before it wasnt worth to buy anymore....

Sunday slogan

"man created god in his own image". on some electrical cabinet in cambridge yesterday. i thought that was interesting.... so i guess, the american god most definitely has a cupholder in heaven and ofcourse usually walks around with a cup of iced coffee of some sort....

Icy Charles

today we walked a bit around in boston and cambridge. it was not too cold, although freezing, so i thought it was a nice idea to walk to cambridge rather than taking the subway. so we took the longfellow bridge, and there it turned out to be really, really cold!! still a nice walk, but much colder than we had expected... as you can see, the charles is kind of frozen at the moment. in the back you see the harvard bridge, the longest bridge over the charles. as i was looking up the name of the bridges (i always forget them), i found that people review bridges. 6 people took the time to write down their thoughts on the harvard bridge, as you can see here...... ("Serves its purpose remarkably well, always there when I need it"......)

Icy cold!

wow, its cold! especially when the wind is blowing...
but, still no pretty white boston. just salt. and wind. and cold.
so another road trip photo... :)

Who's crazier?

above a picture when your thickest wintercoat, a hat (or 2), a scarf and gloves were not necessary. its suddenly real cold!! -15C (9F) this morning, but combined with the wind feeling like -28C (-8F). whatever the latter means... its just cold! finally i can wear all those nice hats and gloves and scarfs... :D

last night we were in a very full orange line. it was so full that i could not hold myself onto something, but since there were so many people, that wasnt really necessary anyways. at some point a guy nearby with headphones on started singing some musical song pretty loud. some eye rolling and giggles were exchanged between other passengers, as he went on and on and on. then he got a call, and everyone got to join in on his conversation as he was talking soo very loud! it was mostly about nothing, and the person he was talking to apparently was waiting at the station we were soon to reach. the guy stepped out of the train and screamed her name several times. really, really loud. at that point another guy suddenly shouted; "enough!! enough! stop it! no more barbara or whatever her name is. no more singing!! there are other people in this train. enough!" now we suddenly had a screaming person on either side of us, and i wasnt sure anymore which one was more crazy. the singing guy sort of ignored the angry guy, and just continued his loud phone conversation with the person who stepped into the train somewhere else. the angry guy did not like that, and while we were approaching our final stop, he ostentatiously (this word sounds better in dutch) took out his phone.... if possible, he was speaking even more loudly than the singing guy, reporting the above... now more people were looking weary at him than the singing guy. after a thorough description of singing guy (which in itself could be a reason for singing guy to become very angry, but he didnt seem to be the angry kind, just weird and oblivious), angry guy went on to report that he was afraid (!!), as he spoke up to singing guy and feared there would be retaliation of some sort. by now, the train had reached its final stop and everyone was rushing out. he remained on the platform, on the phone. quite weird if you are so afraid of the person opposite of you, now coming out too.... but... singing guy just happily walked on, still talking on the phone, while the angry guy...? i dont know... but he surely won the weirdness competition, in my opinion...

White road

well, this morning was disappointing; hardly any snow!! maintenance did clear the paths this morning starting at 5 am, but there wasnt much to clear. salt however was distributed throughout boston per the weatherforecast; lots of snow and lots of cold. yes, it was cold, but instead of snow, we walked on quite a thick layer of salt....

so.. a photo from our holiday. this was somewhere in new mexico, where we drove through some snow. here the entire road was covered! luckily there werent many cars and it wasnt slippery....

Freeze alert

while yesterday it was pretty warm (above 10C for sure), today started out quite cold. predictions are temperatures wont get above 0C (i guess thats 32F). and.... we started this evening with some light snow! 2-3 feet some weathermen say for tomorrow.... so, above another picture of our first snowstorm in the usa, january 2011. we got up and before they could clear the paths we "walked" through the snow at our apartment complex. we literally were in it till our knees! it was so cool!! (and cold!).

today we even got a "freeze alert" from our apartment management (weather forecasts say it will be well below 0C, maybe even -15C some nights this week). we are supposed to keep our thermostat at 60F to prevent freezing of the plumbing. every now and then our apartment gets to 50F (10C, during the night or when we have been away), and well yes, then we switch on the heating. but keeping it permanently on 60F (15C) seems a bit too much for me? i dont think we need that to keep the plumbing from freezing... we are even supposed to let the office know if nighbours are away, so that they can "protect their home". what do they do? they go in and switch on the heating without permission? i think thats a little odd....  well... lets see whats going to happen. we now at least know that management is not responsible for any disaster in our apartment....

Official inauguration

obama took the official oath for his second term in the white house today....

this "election" i saw months ago on some random wall in new york, i believe around chinatown... im surprised by the colors gum apparently can have...
ah, i just looked up their website; a group of people (street artists) placed them at several locations, they were also interviewed by cnn, and at the website you see pictures of the gum elections. the idea behind it is pretty cool: it was a way to stimulate people to vote, AND to have people stick their gum on a piece of removable paper (a face, actually) instead of on the ground where it will be stuck forever...

i went out with my camera today. and when i was ready to take a picture, i realized i forgot to put my memory card back in (in the camera, that is). buuuh. again no pictures this weekend! perhaps this week... snow is in the forecast!

Oooh Elvis...

when we were in las vegas this month (already 2 weeks ago by now!) we went to the famous "welcome to las vegas sign". we missed that last time, so.... it turned out there was a little parking area and signs with rules regarding picture taking etc etc.

as you can see, elvis was there too. at first i thought it was just funny and i tried to take some pictures while he wasnt watching. i was sure he was one of those types that wanted money from you for taking a picture of him/with him. but... as it turned out he was just happy to pose. for anyone! 2 times or so he was about to get into his car (or already inside as you can see here) when people took a picture of him. so.. he just jumped out again and posed. just like that. and then i thought it was a little sad... no? a guy, dressed in one of those weird elvis suit, a pink car, happy to pose for anyone with a camera.... 

Cool car

while on the highway in texas we saw this old and shiny car. as we were in a bit of a traffic jam it was easy to take a picture. but that was also too bad, a it would have been cooler without a car in front.....

all the snow here in boston has vanished! tonight is supposed to be pretty cold though... lets see...

Actual snow...!!

this morning we woke up to some sound. some machine going around outside. as we live in an apartment complex where every little piece of grass is manicured meticulously, we very often wake up to one machine or another (i especially dislike it when they blow the leaves away from 6am in the morning). then tim suddenly said; hey, isnt that the machine for snow removal? as i didnt expect snow, i didnt even bother to get up and look out of the window. until i woke up again and was curious about that machine; the trees are leafless since a while! and wow, there was all this snow!! and it was still snowing! a real layer of snow, with the trees all pretty and such. what a nice surprise!

so, along with my laptop i dragged my camera to work, to take some pictures along the way. this is right out of north station; canal street, which is lined with some pubs and lunchplaces that generally give me a sad feeling. except for the trees in summer... or like this!! from home to the subway we could still walk on a nice layer of snow, but right in boston that had melted away at most places already. and before lunch the trees had lost most of their snow... :( its much too warm! but... i had my nice surprise this morning and it was all white and pretty and since its melting away right now we dont have to deal with the dirty part of snow, when its walked on, and salted and melted a little and frozen again......

so yaayyy!!

Snowy Boston....

nope, this is not a recent photo, but one from our first winter in boston; january 2011. there was sooo much snow! i was just looking at the pictures i took then, and it was even more than i remembered. i enjoyed everything of it; the snowstorms during the night with the wind slamming around our apartment, and the snow just falling, and falling and falling. and me? waking up every so many hours to check "the progress". getting outside in the morning in a perfectly white and silent world... we had several snowstorms 2 years ago, and while people were complaining and saying it was not normal, i thought we would get something similar last year...? but then we didnt, so i hoped it would happen this year....? so far not... but lets see.... tomorrow some snow is expected, but as its not freezing, i guess there will be rain too. but the next night it will be freezing cold.... so... perhaps next week...??! i want to go out and take pictures! right now the weather is actually a bit depressing. its grey and not cold. but not warm either. just grey and boring.... 

above is right outside the public garden in boston; the commonwealth avenue mall, which is lined pretty trees on both sides, and many statues in the middle. i have some photos of those... perhaps i should go find them for another post...

Dutch snow....

this morning it was so warm that it felt like one of the first spring days; it was a bit humid. warm, but not superwarm, yet definitely with the promise that real summer is on its way.... normally you then look around (in boston, at least) and see the marvellous blossom trees all around you, and the grass getting even greener (if thats possible). but today; all grey. leafless trees... and me dressed too warm, as i am expecting winter!! winter! and im not getting it... :) i still have these nice red winter boots that i cannot use as there is no snow... :(

whereas in the netherlands its crazy once again; they have snow!! and far too much of it for what they can handle. trains are not riding, traffic is a mess, etc etc (although ofcourse, many people will still go to work by bike, because thats what real dutch do.... (not me though)). it started today and tomorrow more is expected, if i read the news correctly.... so yes, im a little jealous...

here a picture i took in the netherlands in december 2010, in a cute little city just above amsterdam, haarlem. some kids playing with a piece of ice, as then there was some snow too.... :)

Oooh, shoes!

i just saw the pink shoe, and thought, oh how cute, a shoe store in the middle of nowhere! only while taking the photo i saw that it wasnt quite the shoe store.... but a gentlemens club..... but, in the middle of nowhere! this was somewhere in new mexico. our first impressions of this state were not that good; desolate, many abandoned buildings, and sooo much trash along the road! eventually it got better, and we drove through some really beautiful places...

and yes, this weekend i didnt take a single photo. yesterday we did not do that much. we went to the mall for a bit (oh, how american!); its sales time, and i managed to get a pair of nice boots for just 6 dollars and 50 cents (i still dont know why they were so cheap), and 3 t shirts for 10 dollars. nice! i didnt need any of that, but really liked to get it for almost nothing.... today i did even less. we did goto the gym. i like going to the gym on sunday evening, since its usually completely empty. not today.....  is that really still from new years resolutions..?!

ah well, perhaps next week is better for taking pictures, lets see.....