excerpt from washingtonpost.com

In the fraudulent category, a longtime employee of the U.S. Forest Service in Oregon, Debra K. Durfey, wrote convenience checks worth more than $640,000 from 2000 to 2006 to a live-in boyfriend, who used the money for gambling, car expenses and mortgage payments, according to the GAO and the Justice Department. Durfey pleaded guilty last year and was sentenced to 21 months in prison and restitution.

craziness! i worked with the USDA's purchase card controls group developing reports to try and identify fraudulent activity like this for some of their other agencies....didn't cover Forest Service (else maybe this woman would've been caught earlier...hehe).

ever notice how in meetings when the speaker is doing something neurotic while they're speaking everyone can't help but follow along or stare? i used to be in meetings where this one woman would start looking at the wall when talking (when there was nothing on the wall!) and everyone would just look with her (i know some of you know exactly who i'm talking about...hehe).  then the other day, this guy was talking and drawing neurotic doodles on his notepad and everyone was fixated on watching him draw boxes and triangles, color them and then cross them out.  why is that?

dude, what happened to lara flynn boyle? had a hard time recognizing her on law and order last week. so sad. :(

instant karma...or plain old lack of common sense

so i was walking to work this morning and this jerk decides to stop his bike right in the middle of the crosswalk of a busy intersection. having become an annoyed new yorker, i decided to exact vengenance. i tried to 'accidentally' run into his tire to let him know he was in pedestrian space. my mission was successful but not without loss.  i got my jeans all dirty from the tire tread...seriously great planning on my part.

anyways, what i wanted to blog about was pigeons...

my walk to work takes me through worldwide plaza, which is pretty empty in the mornings save for a person here or there enjoying a cup of morning java before they head into work or a restaurant worker spraying down the outdoor seating area of the restaurants in the plaza.  this morning however, there was what i can only imagine to be a tourist family, who had just finished breakfast and decided to throw their leftover bread on the floor for the pidgeons.  as they watched with amusement at the pidgeons who started to gather and enjoy the feast, a clean-up person promptly headed over and swept up all the bread crumbs. the looks on their faces was priceless.

another story that i found funny was an article that appeared in the new yorker back in july.  apparently, among the many weirdos in new york, we have birdnappers.  and to be more specific, pidgeon nappers.  these people pull up in vans, spread birdseed to attact the pidgeons, swoop up the unknowing victims by tossing a big net over them and then drive off.  man, i wish i had been a witness. http://www.newyorker.com/talk/2007/07/09/070709ta_talk_collins

my last, and perhaps most amusing story is something that happened again, on the way to work, a little while back.  i was walking down a quiet side street behind a woman who was not walking slow but not quite at the same pace i was.  for half a block, i debated whether to just slow down or try and pass her. being slightly late for work, i decided to go for the pass.  this next part was quite honestly a perfect storm of events.   as i went to make my move, she was just walking into a flock of pidgeons grazing on crumbs.  the pidgeons started to fly all over the place to get out of her way and unfortunately, one of the pidgeons took off at an angle where he couldn't see me coming up on her.  as i sped up to pass the woman, he collided right into the side of my face. yes...my face.

happy friday!

road trip!!

pics from gy, jw and my trip up to bean town this weekend.  special thanks to f.lee for the suggestion to swing by maine and dan for the yummy restaurant recommendation.  both an added bonus to a tremendous weekend. :)