Jerks

To the asswipe who last night rummaged through my unlocked car and stole my GPS (which was only used five times and had this hilarious aussie accent and cost me $400) and somehow was able to sneak quietly past my neighbor's dog even though he barks at me every time I step outside and yet did not steal the charger or anything else (including my cell phone, shows you how cheap it is) because my lovely GPS is probably just being sold for $100 crack rather than being loved for its hilarious was of saying "recaculating":

You suck, jerkwad.

~Ciera

Plants

Yeah, I know, I've not posted in a while. I had some awesome things in the works, but it's not working out as intended and I have to do some hacking...

So, I've been landscaping. We added a path to the backyard, we planted grass in front, the ugly trees are gone, and now we're building flowerbeds. We found a cool little nursery in the city. It's in Squirrel Hill on an alley off of Shady avenue. It's basically someone's backyard. But they've got entirely native plants, and it's a reasonable selection. If you're looking for something that survives in Pittsburgh, this is the place to go.

www.sylvanianatives.com

More planting this weekend!

Also, if anyone wants dill or cinnamon basil seeds for spring, let me know. Both were loving it here. I'm going to try to harvest the oregano seeds, too. All three did really well through the summer, and they start well from seed. They got bonus points for being both tasty and pretty. The rosemary and lavender survived, barely. No seeds. Chives and sweet basil are doing better now, so the jury's still out on them. Parsley and cilantro were not a good idea in Pittsburgh, they were a stinky, mucky mess after the rain.

Special Kitty

Puppy the Cat has been diagnosed with "anxiety induced petite mal seizures". Basically, every time something upsets him, his little brain fires off a few random neurons and causes him to become lost in our house. Literally, he walks in circles downstairs. So he meows loudly until we find him. At 2 am. And 4 am. And 7 am...

So our vet prescribed Paxil so that he won't get anxious over stupid things (like a leaf falling from a tree). Kid you not, my cat is now on anti-depressants. He even has an account at Rite-Aid now for his prescriptions. I have to cut this itty-bitty pill into fourths. He eats his 1/4 pill with some kitty food off a spoon every night before dinner. He actually really likes "spoon food" now and comes running over when he sees the spoon.

On the plus side, we've been able to sleep every night this week because he actually goes to sleep at night now. Sleep is good.

Bunny the Cat, however, is now upset because Puppy won't chase her through the house 8 times a day. Now that he sleeps, the chasing-clawing-knocking-over-of-vases was cut back to 4 times a day. Darn

Emissions standards

This is the kind of thing that makes me miss California.

EPA asked to OK California Emissions Law
Lead or step aside (Letter from Schwarzenegger and Rell)

The other ten states are: Vermont, Conneticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Oregon, and Washington. Apparently Maryland, Arizona, and New Mexico are considering legislation. Notice that it is New England and the West Coast.

Pennsylvania, of course, hasn't bothered. This place is really not New England. It's Midwest, with all that it entails.

We're getting bids on the hybrid today though, so hopefully we'll be doing a little part by the end of the week.

Welcome

I'm Ciera, born and raised in California. Now I live in Pittsburgh. This blog is a place for my ramblings on living in "the 'burgh". It might help a little to know where I'm coming from.

I don't think I realized how much of a Cali girl I was until I moved to Pittsburgh. I can't surf, I hate skiing, and I think LA is disgusting. I never really thought about being raised in a "California culture". I'm a pretty average Californian, actually. I'm ethnically a mutt, though I am Armenian on my mother's side and third generation born in the US. I'm politically liberal, but really just left of center in California. I was raised in the Central Valley, and my extended family still raises grapes (for raisins) and now almonds (a recent change). I went to school at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, on the central coast. I graduated in 2005 with a degree in Software Engineering.

My fiance and I received job offers from Google, in Mountain View. However, we also were accepted to Carnegie Mellon University, the best school in our field. As this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, we packed our bags (and the turtle!) and headed cross-country to Pennsylvania.

Saul has graduated with his Masters in Software Engineering and is working at the new Google Pittsburgh office. I'm still at CMU, working towards my PhD in Software Engineering. We recently bought a home here since it will be several more years. We live here with our cat (Puppy) and our turtle (Terabyte).

In the last year and a half, we have created many long rants about Pittsburgh and life here. If you are planning to move here, please do not let this turn you away! I really enjoy my CMU colleagues, and we do have fun. It's just an interesting experience, and it probably isn't as drastic if you're from another part of the country.

If you're a prospective student in the School of Computer Science and are concerned about moving here, please feel free to email me at cchristo [at] cs [dot] cmu [dot] edu. It's probably not as bad as this blog makes it out to be.