My tax refund at work!

I have been telling myself since I moved here that I was going to buy a new tv after a year of living here, but I caved and bought it early after I got my tax refund (don't worry, I saved some of it!). I bought a 42inch Sony Bravia and I love it so much. Now I can watch all of my shows in HD and I am especially excited to watch playoff hockey in HD!!!

Here is a picture of it, I usually have my TV on TLC so I think right now it is showing A very Duggar wedding, which I think I've watched like 10 times but still can't get enough of.


Look at how clear that picture is!!! When I first got it I was a little addicted to watching tv because I could not get over how nice the picture was, but I've broken the addiction. I'm still blown away by the picture though!

I was going to buy a nice stand/entertainment center for it also (time to get rid of the dorm bookshelf dad made for me) but I ended up spending a little more on the tv than I wanted so I decided to wait a few months to buy the stand so right now it is just sitting on an end table, and my cable box/dvd player are on the floor, sort of hilarious to have this really nice tv and nothing nice around it!

The GP three take on NYC

A couple weeks ago, I spent the day in the city with a couple friends from way back. My friend Molly's parents moved to the city a while ago and they were in town visiting them during a weekend that I was in NJ visiting Matt. Since I usually drive up to NJ on Thursday nights, and Matt works on Friday anyway, it worked out really well to let me go into the city for the whole day to see them. Molly Jenna and I have been friends for a really long time. I've known Jenna since kindergarten and live really close to her in GP. Molly and Jenna have known each other since they were babies and I've known Molly through Jenna since elementary school, so we all go way back. We all managed to go to Michigan together and stay friends through all of these years. It was also exciting because I got to see a lot of the touristy NYC things that I hadn't before such as Rockefeller center, more 5th avenue, and the statue of liberty/Ellis island.

This was the first day of spring and I woke up to a snow covered outside. It was very disappointing because I had thought I'd seen the last of the snow for the season, but it did get warmer toward the end of the day.

First we saw this fountain wall thing that was kinda cool looking:

Behind the NY Public library, this is Bryant Park, where fashion week is held:

Jenna and I on the steps of the NY public library:

The three of us waiting in the subway, Molly is the queen of taking self portraits:

Molly and Jenna on the ferry going to Ellis Island

Lady Liberty in all her glory

It was very windy so my hair is a little out of control, but I wanted a picture with Liberty:

The GP Three (I just made that up, that's not what we call ourselves):

In front of the Immigration museum:

This graph shows how many people immigrated to the US over the years since 1800, the big dip is the great depression:

This chart shows the number of slaves that were brought to the Americas way back. Only 5.6% were actually brought to the British colonies, which I was thought was surprising:

These are Jenna's great-grandparents, Rose and Vincenzo!

Me with Manhatten in the background and bright sun in my eyes:

Us and Liberty:

World Trade Center Ground Zero, it looks as if they have barely done anything to the sight:

Mural near ground zero of the buildings on fire

Looking through the fencing you can still see the foundation of the building below ground:

It was a really fun day, we got to see a lot of the city and shop on fifth avenue. It was nice to see my friends from home whom I haven't seen in a long time.

p.s. I would like to thank Sara for suggesting I compress the images, it made making this post a LOT easier and way less of a headache. Thanks!

Weekend in NYC...part deux

I went to Jersey last weekend to see the boy and we spent most of Saturday in the city because the weather is finally getting nice and because Matt wanted me to try "chicken and rice". There is this guy who runs a gyro stand on some random corner in the city that Matt has had a few times and has wanted me to try for a while so we sort of planned the excursion in the city so that we could be there at 7, when chicken and rice goes on sale. Here is a rundown of what we did:

First thing we saw coming out of penn station in the city, proof that the correct word is "pop" even on the east coast, it felt nice to be vindicated :)


I took this picture from central park, the reason I took it was because I am pretty sure this building (the tallest one in the picture) is the building they always show as where Chandler works in Friends, but maybe I'm crazy

Sitting on the fountain in central park, I took this because it seemed like a pretty famous area of the park, I seem to remember some Home Alone 2 scenes from this area
We went to FOA Schwarz and played with the toys, and I had to take a picture of Matt with his favorite bad guy!

Walking down 5th avenue, to my utter delight and surprise, we happen across the World of Disney store! Matt knew when I saw it that we were definitely going in. I didn't even know there was a disney store in NYC and it was neat because they had all sorts of NYC Mickey and Disney stuff that I don't think you can get anywhere else. I bought an NYC pin!


Continuing down 5th avenue we saw Radio City Music Hall, I figured that was worth a picture:

After that, we waited for about 45 minutes to get chicken and rice, I have to admit it was quite tasty! Then we just lounged around for the rest of the weekend.

Hair Choppage

This is what I looked like yesterday:


This is what I look like today:


Any Questions?


(p.s. all the clothes in the background are because I am doing laundry, not because I am a slob...mostly)

Winter Sports = Owwww

Monday was president's day so Matt and I both had long weekends and a while back we decided we were going to use the opportunity to go snowboarding. Matt has been snowboarding since he was in 8th grade so he is good at it and has no problem, I on the other hand only tried snowboarding for the first time last winter, and only did it for two days at that. I really enjoyed it and couldn't wait to do it again, but this was the first opportunity since then that I have had to be able to do it. I knew that since it had been a while since I had snowboarded, that it would almost be like starting all over again...and believe you me, I was right.

Last year when I did it for the first time, I learned that what everyone tells you about learning how to snowboard is true...you will fall...a lot!!! Snowboarding looks a LOT easier than it is, in my opinion, it took me a lot of tries last year just to get the hang of not "catching an edge" while trying to go straight and subsequently falling flat on my face or flat on my butt. This year, I tried to focus more on switching between my heel edge and my toe edge. This is pretty self explanatory but I'll explain it anyway in order to take up some space.

Lemme back up a little bit...snowboarders either ride "normal" (left foot forward) or "goofy" (right foot forward), hey, I didn't make up the terms. Most people who are right handed prefer left foot forward, but it is really just a question of which way makes you feel more stable. Now, regardless of your riding "style" you are always always always supposed to lean so that you are putting a lot more weight on your front foot, otherwise you will spin around and end up with the wrong foot going foward down the mountain. This is one of the hardest things to get used to because you naturally want to lean back when you want to slow down, but this will just make you spin around and fall over and put on a nice show for all the people on the lift above you.

Now that we all know about normal and goofy, the next thing you need to know about snowboarding is that you are always supposed to be on an "edge". Heel edge means your weight (while still mainly on your forward foot) is supported by your heels, while toe edge natually means your weight is supported by your toes. Heel edge allows you to turn left, toe edge allows you to turn right. Generally, you are supposed to switch between edges in order to basically continue in a straightish path.

As I said before, I made it my goal this time to work on switching between edges without going splat. Well, I would say I can do it about 50% of the time, I have a lot of trouble going from heel to toe which means I fall on my knees alot. And boy do/did I have the bruises to show for it. These pictures do not capture the full essence of how bright purple my knees really were, but they do show how much surface area the bruises covered.




I tried to buy knee pads on the second day, but they didn't sell them so I went without, luckily I didn't fall as much (mostly because I was afraid to turn right) and I didn't last very long as my entire body was one big sac of soreness. Also, I wanted to take pictures, but if I had had my camera with me on the mountain, it would have ended up in a couple hundred pieces by the end of the day.

Matt was very very patient and stuck with me on the greens the whole time, so I was very appreciative of that because I know he wanted to do harder stuff. He did a few right before we left when I had had enough so hopefully he still had fun! And don't worry, I wore a helmet and wrist guards the whole time!

It's about time

So way back in September, I wrote a couple posts about going to NYC to see the little mermaid and then going to Annapolis with my friend Kelley to see a Navy football game. In those posts I mentioned that I had taken pictures with a disposable camera because I had forgotten my regular camera and that I would post the pics "soon," when I got the pictures developed.

Well, I finally got the camera developed this weekend so I am ready to post the pictures now, they aren't of the greatest quality, the colors seem sort of dull, I guess we are all just used tot he quality of digital now. Sorry it only took me like 5 months...

After the show outside the theatre

We sat in the corner on the grass, this is a while before the game started

After all of the navy "midshipmen" marched out onto the field by company. Apparently they do this before every game, and every student has to attend every football game, there is no choice

The did a flyover before the game with these weird planes that can convert into helicopters mid air and land vertically

Toward the end of the game, me and Kelley

Movin on up!

On Tuesday, I moved out of my training room and in to my new, permanent office at the PTO. I have one officemate, Mike, who started on the same day as me and was in my lab with me for the whole 6 months and is one of my hang out friends outside of work, so that is nice. We are also in the same "art unit" which is mainly the reason we got placed together.

My office has an actual door that closes and locks, I have a name plate thingy by my door, two whole desks to myself, my own bookcase, and my very own printer!! The computer setup is no different than what I had in the training academy but there is definitely more space. I am also now in the same building as my SPE (supervisor) and all of the other people in my art unit.

I actually feel like I am more a part of the PTO now because before, we were in a building that was next door to, but not connected to the actual PTO complex of 5 buildings. The 5 buildings are all connected on a concourse level below ground, so I don't have to go outside for anything anymore (now that it is getting warm of course).

Here are some pictures:

The name plate outside my office:

About a week before I moved in, I went over to check on things in the new office, and they had spelled my name Catherine Burke...let's just say I was not pleased. I had a gut feeling that that would happen because they also spelled my name wrong on the first day when I got my badge, so they had to give me a new one of those too. This sort of thing makes me so mad, I realize that the conventional spelling of Burk is with the e, but I get very touchy when people spell my name with the e because it happens so much and it is only because of pure laziness. Because my name is spelled wrong so much (Katherine Burke, doesn't even look like the same person) I make a really concerted effort to never spell people's names wrong, even when they seem conventional, and I know how frustrating it can be, I feel like this is the story of my life. I can not tell you how many times I have said "Cathy with a C, Burk with no e". My World history teacher in 6th grade and cross country coach in high school, Mr. Cooper, used to just call me that whenever he addressed me, I guess he like the ring it had.

View into my office from the hallway, the chair you see is my office mate's, my area is closer to the door:

This is where I sit:

My bookcase, this is to the right of my desk if I am sitting facing my computer, against the wall the door swings open toward:
Well, there it is, not bad eh? I am going to try and get a bulletin or white board this weekend to put on my wall to try and bring some life to the place.