I haven’t written in a while and that’s because there have been many things going on in our world. John’s been away, a lot. Anywhere exotic? Only if you consider Norfolk, Va, exotic. Personally, I don’t think that he does. We joke that they should just rent him an apartment down there.
Along with John’s travels, we’ve also had two blizzards within a week of each other. The first one started on Friday, the 5th, of February, while the second started on Tuesday, the 9th. I’ve placed a bunch of pictures of the blizzards on our photo site, but here are a few for the blog:
John attempting to shovel out our driveway on 2/6/2010
I used a yard stick to measure the snow fall. This was taken on 2/7/2010
I’ve lived in Jersey for 10 years now. This is the most snow that we’ve since I’ve been here. In fact, this is the snowiest winter in Philadelphia history! I tried to stay inside for most of the storm. What did I do for most of the storm? Cooked. John and I had some great food – barbecue ribs, chicken pot pie, spaghetti with bolognese sauce, southern chicken with gravy and lots of good breakfasts. What do the cats like to do while the snow falls outside? I’ll let the picture speak for itself.
Sophie lounging on the family room couch.
Valentine’s Day weekend fell after the second of the blizzards. We’d both had several rough weeks, so John suggested going out to dinner on the 12th. We went to a restaurant that I’ve been wanting to try for a while, 10 Arts by Eric Ripert. Why is it called 10 Arts? Because it is located at 10 Avenue of the Arts (otherwise known as Broad St). I’m not going to acknowledge how long it took me to figure that out. The restaurant is set up in the lobby of the Ritz Carlton, across from City Hall, right in the center of downtown. Normally, it would take us 15-20 minutes, tops, to get to a parking lot and into the restaurant. Because of all of the snow that hadn’t been removed from the streets, it took us over an hour. I’ve never seen the city so gridlocked, and this was at 7:30 at night! Why did we want to eat at 10 Arts? Because I am a HUGE fan of Top Chef and Jen Carroll , who came in 4th last season is the Chef de Cuisine.
We had a lovely dinner, once we got there. I started with corn chowder, had trout for dinner, then a mini cupcake trio for desert. John had tuna tartare, rabbit, and bread pudding. He also had several drinks (did I mention that it had been a rough week?).
This past week brought a major change to our household. On Friday, I was left go from my position as a staff scientist at Coriell. The company was asking for concessions that would be almost impossible for me to make. Unfortunately I now have to join the millions of Americans that are looking for a new job. I’m hoping that I don’t have too much difficulty finding a new job. While I’ve been looking at the listings, it appears that I was drastically underpaid. I knew I wasn’t making much money, but I had no idea how much below par I was making. I’ve been applying for jobs that I am overqualified for but the positions pay at least double what I’ve been making. John and I are hoping that this is the start of better things for me careerwise. Only time will tell.
In the meantime, I am still working at Temple and Rowan in the evenings, but my days have become free. What is a girl to do with all of the free time? This was a no brainer. Along with job searching everyday, my plan is to begin organizing the house. This is something that we’ve been wanting to do for several years now but we haven’t had the time. Guess that’s not a problem now. I’m going to start with the office on Tuesday and I’ll provide lots of pictures so that you can monitor the changes.
The Shaky Octopus 