Fairly quiet week at work. I did lose my first decision, which was disappointing; yes, it had to come sometime, and I don't think there was much else I could have done with what I had—but I do wish it hadn't been that case or that decision.
At home, our new bookshelves were delivered on Tuesday, which was the cause of much oooh'ing and aaah'ing. We've only had time to unpack the hardcovers so far, and those will all need to be shifted around when we retrieve the rest of my books from my parents' house: but it's so nice to have books on shelves again. Also, our couch was delivered on Friday; Chad is currently stretched out full-length on it as he swears at the TV (Maryland is in a very ugly overtime game with Virginia), so that gives you an idea of the size of the thing. It's very comfy.
It was also a week for museums. I went over to the New York State Museum to see the exhibit "Once Upon a Time: Fiction and Fantasy in Contemporary Art," drawn from the Whitney's collection. It was a small showing, but there were two pieces I really liked. One was Frank Moore's Lullaby II, which really needs to be seen full-size to be appreciated. The second was Alexis Smith's Beauty and the Beast, which was three long horizontal rectangles, divided into panels, arranged on top of each other. Typewritten excerpts from the story were on top of most of the panels; an object that referred to the story was in the center. For instance, when the father picked the rose, there was a paint chip for a shade called "Scarlet." I'm not describing it very well, and I can't find any pictures online, but it was well done.
This weekend, we went down to Long Island to visit Chad's grandmother, whose birthday is soon. I also went to visit one of his great-aunts, who is not well; it was sad, but I was glad to have done it. We had a nice dinner Saturday night, and today went to the American Museum of Natural History. We went first to the Einstein exhibit, which was enjoyable but not, in my opinion, spectacular. Then we went to see butterflies, which is always fun. Out for lunch, and then back for the Rose Center for Earth and Space. The Hall of Planet Earth is very well done, lots of beautiful geological exhibits, but the coolest thing is the "Scales of the Universe". The idea, as explained on the museum's web page, is that the Hayden Sphere is used as a scale reference in relation to models. My favorite was, if the Hayden was the size of an atom, then a point smaller than the dot on top of an "i" was a proton. It's really effective at conveying how big (and small) things are, and just a brilliant idea. On the way out, we stopped in at the First Europeans exhibit and the gift shop—buying a plushie squid and a stuffed T. Rex, just because they were so absurd.
Finally, in web news: I updated my LJ bio in a fit of strange procrastination. I found a cool story about the 1933 Double Eagle coin, and was tickled when BoingBoing picked it up on my suggestion. And I finally finished my Boskone 40 Convention Report.