The Three Hundredth Post!!!
Can you believe it, I've been posting to this blog for three hundred posts. Whee.
I had great aspirations on what I was going to do with this post. Then today got long and drawn out and I had all sorts of other errands to run, and packing for the Aspen trip, and...
I'm super tired, but Troy and Amanda and Michelle are on there way tonight to try to beat the storm...it's already snowing out, so they didn't, but they will be here sometime between now and 4AM. I am going to get zero sleep tonight.
On top of that, I haven't finished packing. Par for the course, hey Rachel? I'm mostly done. I think I'm over packing, but I can't tell. Eh. Now, to figure out shoes, brush teeth, contacts out, and bed.
Good night all, and I'll blog about my super nice Christmas and such when I get back.
Thursday, December 22, 2005
It's Over
My second to last semester in grad school is over. Whew. For a while, I wasn't sure how I was going to get everything done. Still...here I am, it's 1 am on Thursday, December 22nd, and I'm just about to go to bed. I finished up on Tuesday morning actually, but then my computer crashed again so I haven't had a chance to blog. Plus, I've been knitting.
I started packing for going home at midnight...typical Tricia Style. I can't pack before midnight, right Rachel? It would be completely going against tradition. I'm mostly packed, but I think I'll think about the rest of the stuff in the morning.
Happy Christmas and all the rest to all, and I'm sure I'll have an update for you when I return from GB. May it snow for you on Christmas/holiday of your choice morning, and may you travel safetly to any destination you choose to travel to...even if it's just from the kitchen to your own dining room.
My second to last semester in grad school is over. Whew. For a while, I wasn't sure how I was going to get everything done. Still...here I am, it's 1 am on Thursday, December 22nd, and I'm just about to go to bed. I finished up on Tuesday morning actually, but then my computer crashed again so I haven't had a chance to blog. Plus, I've been knitting.
I started packing for going home at midnight...typical Tricia Style. I can't pack before midnight, right Rachel? It would be completely going against tradition. I'm mostly packed, but I think I'll think about the rest of the stuff in the morning.
Happy Christmas and all the rest to all, and I'm sure I'll have an update for you when I return from GB. May it snow for you on Christmas/holiday of your choice morning, and may you travel safetly to any destination you choose to travel to...even if it's just from the kitchen to your own dining room.
Friday, December 16, 2005
Knit Knit
From now on, and especially when I'm procrastinating, you may here the distinctive click-click of knitting needles eminating from my abode. Why, you ask? Because Wednesday night Katie and I took a knitting class at Michaels. In two hours they taught us to cast on, knit, perl, and bind (or cast) off. Now I just have to remember each of the steps, and get good at them. For awhile I forgot how to perl and was gettting pretty frustrated (this was yesterday...day 1.5 of knitting experience) Last night I got Katie's extra needles...I have to go buy some...and retaught myself so I could do a good job on my current project. I have no idea what said project will turn out to be. If I get sick of it, it'll be a odd shaped pot holder. Otherwise, I'm voting for scarf. Tee hee. I'll do a couple of scarves and then I'll move on to something harder, like hats and mittens and maybe even sweaters.
In fact, I think I hear my needles calling me now...
From now on, and especially when I'm procrastinating, you may here the distinctive click-click of knitting needles eminating from my abode. Why, you ask? Because Wednesday night Katie and I took a knitting class at Michaels. In two hours they taught us to cast on, knit, perl, and bind (or cast) off. Now I just have to remember each of the steps, and get good at them. For awhile I forgot how to perl and was gettting pretty frustrated (this was yesterday...day 1.5 of knitting experience) Last night I got Katie's extra needles...I have to go buy some...and retaught myself so I could do a good job on my current project. I have no idea what said project will turn out to be. If I get sick of it, it'll be a odd shaped pot holder. Otherwise, I'm voting for scarf. Tee hee. I'll do a couple of scarves and then I'll move on to something harder, like hats and mittens and maybe even sweaters.
In fact, I think I hear my needles calling me now...
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
SNOW!!!!
Whee! Yay!!! **Happy dance**
I love snow, I do! Even when it makes driving a nightmare and gives me a sore back from the shoveling I do, because shoveling = money off rent, and snow is wonderful! There are a plethora of exclaimation points in this post. Oh well. I just shovel anywhere between 3 and 5 inches of the white stuff, depending on what the total is and where it had drifted. Some drifts were over a foot high. Luckily for me, the snow is mostly fluffy currently, or that would have been much harder work.
It's still snowing, I'll have to shovel again tomorrow and probably friday **rubs hands with glee**
Happy Snowy morning all!
Whee! Yay!!! **Happy dance**
I love snow, I do! Even when it makes driving a nightmare and gives me a sore back from the shoveling I do, because shoveling = money off rent, and snow is wonderful! There are a plethora of exclaimation points in this post. Oh well. I just shovel anywhere between 3 and 5 inches of the white stuff, depending on what the total is and where it had drifted. Some drifts were over a foot high. Luckily for me, the snow is mostly fluffy currently, or that would have been much harder work.
It's still snowing, I'll have to shovel again tomorrow and probably friday **rubs hands with glee**
Happy Snowy morning all!
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
They're Back!
Remember our furry four-footed little friends from last winter? No? Perhaps this will help you to refresh a year-old memory...
Yeah, that's them. Maybe not an exact portrait. Still. It's winter, there's snow outside so the mice came inside. We have no idea how many there are...only that it's a relatively (as in the last day or two) problem. We intend to be very proactive about this situation. Traps will be placed tonight. We're going to start with snap-traps. I hate the sticky ones because I feel like the poor little rodents suffer too much with them, but I'll break them out if I have to. Absolutely no poison...all it does is draw more of the wee beasties into the house with the promise of accessable food. Oh, and then they go and die in unaccessable walls and stink.
Day one of the battle: Mice - 3 items of food. Humans - 0
Remember our furry four-footed little friends from last winter? No? Perhaps this will help you to refresh a year-old memory...
Yeah, that's them. Maybe not an exact portrait. Still. It's winter, there's snow outside so the mice came inside. We have no idea how many there are...only that it's a relatively (as in the last day or two) problem. We intend to be very proactive about this situation. Traps will be placed tonight. We're going to start with snap-traps. I hate the sticky ones because I feel like the poor little rodents suffer too much with them, but I'll break them out if I have to. Absolutely no poison...all it does is draw more of the wee beasties into the house with the promise of accessable food. Oh, and then they go and die in unaccessable walls and stink.
Day one of the battle: Mice - 3 items of food. Humans - 0
Monday, December 05, 2005
The home stretch
It really must be getting close to end of semeseter time. I'm sitting here blogging after a long day of homework/tests/etc, eating ice cream (peanut butter cup) at my compute, and making lists.
For instance, today I:
It really must be getting close to end of semeseter time. I'm sitting here blogging after a long day of homework/tests/etc, eating ice cream (peanut butter cup) at my compute, and making lists.
For instance, today I:
- Did laundry
- Paid rent
- Finished my last biostatistics homework set
- Started and finished Environmental Chemistry HW #6
- Started and almost finished EC HW#7
- Started EC final exam (really a doozy, worked for 1.5 hrs and still not even done with #1 part a.
- Went to the bank
- Went to the grocery and bought food
- Did some mentoring (and reviewed my geometry)
- Worked on my part of the EC paper
- Worked a bit on my Policy paper (mostly rereading the assignment and brainstorming, but that counts!!)
- Reorganized the fridge, food cabinet, cupboard above the stove, and tea/cereal cupboard.
- Ate (very important)
- Did dishes
Thursday, December 01, 2005
Snow.*.*..**
It's been snowing for almost a week straight. If I heard someone say that, I would begin to picture the blizzards of yore, with their 30 inches of snow dropped, near white-out conditions, and traffic nightmares. Or perhaps of being trapped in the house for so long you are left with only ramen to eat, or your left shoe, and you are seriously considering how boiled left shoe would taste, perhaps with salt or lemon-pepper seasoning. The 30 inches of snow is not the case here. We've had snow off and on since Monday late-night, and have seen maybe 3 inches of the white stuff fall onto our porches, yards, or cars. All of said snow has been either the fluffy white flakes that resemble small cottonballs floating towards earth, or the really itty-bitty shiney crystals that make everything sparkle in the light of the street lampposts.
It has been a long time since we've had appreciable snow before Christmas, it seems. I seem to recall only one or two truely "White Christmas" situations in the last ten years or so. Should I blame global warming? Perhaps there is a global shift of jet streams? El Niño? La Niña? I have no idea. I do know I'm thrilled to look out my window and see the white stuff silently falling from the sky. The world outside my window is grey, it's about sunset now and we've almost entered that surreal time where light and almost light combine to create a bit of a dream world. I almost don't mind having to sit at my computer all night working on my homework.
I can only hope and pray that the current pattern of snow holds all winter. Maybe not snow every day, because I really like the cold sunny days of winter too, but nothing like last winter where we had a few ice storms, one major (6 inches) storm of snow, and a bunch of piddly little half inch falls in between intense, bitter cold. I want at least 4 to 10 big snowstorms this winter, including one where over 2 feet of snow falls in one stretch. I want fluffy snow, and small glitter-snows, and heavy, wet, snowball snows. I want to have to shovel a bunch (this has nothing to do with the fact that I'm paid to shovel :P ) I want a real midwest winter with lots of snow and stories that I can pass along to future generations. Sorry if I'm waxing maudlin on everyone, but I remember when I was 6 it snowed so much (and lots of blowing too) in 'ole GB that the snow drifted right up to our roof in the back of our house. My dad went outside and packed down the snow into a suitable sledding run off the roof and through the yard. My little brother and I played quite happily back there. We built a snow-dragon we could ride and had many an adventure on him. He was quite happy to carry us wherever our imaginations could take us. In the front yard, there was so much snow built up at the end of the driveway from both our shoveling and the street plows, and compacted in such a manor, that we had two snow forts. One by the mailbox, and one on the other side of the driveway. Sometimes they were castles and sometimes they were battlements, where our snow missles could be hurled with enthusiasm if not percision.
I'm not too old to play those games again! I want to build a snowman in the front yard even bigger than the last one Katie and I made in GB where we needed to devise a leverage system to place his torso and head upon his lower section. I want to put on boots and snowpants and go to como park and build snowforts with friends, complete with snowmissles. Maybe we could even coax the snow dragon to return amongst us. I want to put same snowpants and boots (and jacket and hat and mittens and scarf, of course) on and go sledding down a hill on a 2 dollar generic sled. I want to be able to USE my skis this year. I realize that all this wishing and hoping is going to cause royal traffic problems, so I hope that all people out there realize that snow means slow (see the resemblance of words there? I don't believe it's a coincidence.) That way everyone can enjoy the snow and we won't have to worry about accidents. Mostly, I'd like to go home for Winter holidays, and wake up to celebrate with my family to snow falling in an already white yard. Maybe this is the year.
It's been snowing for almost a week straight. If I heard someone say that, I would begin to picture the blizzards of yore, with their 30 inches of snow dropped, near white-out conditions, and traffic nightmares. Or perhaps of being trapped in the house for so long you are left with only ramen to eat, or your left shoe, and you are seriously considering how boiled left shoe would taste, perhaps with salt or lemon-pepper seasoning. The 30 inches of snow is not the case here. We've had snow off and on since Monday late-night, and have seen maybe 3 inches of the white stuff fall onto our porches, yards, or cars. All of said snow has been either the fluffy white flakes that resemble small cottonballs floating towards earth, or the really itty-bitty shiney crystals that make everything sparkle in the light of the street lampposts.
It has been a long time since we've had appreciable snow before Christmas, it seems. I seem to recall only one or two truely "White Christmas" situations in the last ten years or so. Should I blame global warming? Perhaps there is a global shift of jet streams? El Niño? La Niña? I have no idea. I do know I'm thrilled to look out my window and see the white stuff silently falling from the sky. The world outside my window is grey, it's about sunset now and we've almost entered that surreal time where light and almost light combine to create a bit of a dream world. I almost don't mind having to sit at my computer all night working on my homework.
I can only hope and pray that the current pattern of snow holds all winter. Maybe not snow every day, because I really like the cold sunny days of winter too, but nothing like last winter where we had a few ice storms, one major (6 inches) storm of snow, and a bunch of piddly little half inch falls in between intense, bitter cold. I want at least 4 to 10 big snowstorms this winter, including one where over 2 feet of snow falls in one stretch. I want fluffy snow, and small glitter-snows, and heavy, wet, snowball snows. I want to have to shovel a bunch (this has nothing to do with the fact that I'm paid to shovel :P ) I want a real midwest winter with lots of snow and stories that I can pass along to future generations. Sorry if I'm waxing maudlin on everyone, but I remember when I was 6 it snowed so much (and lots of blowing too) in 'ole GB that the snow drifted right up to our roof in the back of our house. My dad went outside and packed down the snow into a suitable sledding run off the roof and through the yard. My little brother and I played quite happily back there. We built a snow-dragon we could ride and had many an adventure on him. He was quite happy to carry us wherever our imaginations could take us. In the front yard, there was so much snow built up at the end of the driveway from both our shoveling and the street plows, and compacted in such a manor, that we had two snow forts. One by the mailbox, and one on the other side of the driveway. Sometimes they were castles and sometimes they were battlements, where our snow missles could be hurled with enthusiasm if not percision.
I'm not too old to play those games again! I want to build a snowman in the front yard even bigger than the last one Katie and I made in GB where we needed to devise a leverage system to place his torso and head upon his lower section. I want to put on boots and snowpants and go to como park and build snowforts with friends, complete with snowmissles. Maybe we could even coax the snow dragon to return amongst us. I want to put same snowpants and boots (and jacket and hat and mittens and scarf, of course) on and go sledding down a hill on a 2 dollar generic sled. I want to be able to USE my skis this year. I realize that all this wishing and hoping is going to cause royal traffic problems, so I hope that all people out there realize that snow means slow (see the resemblance of words there? I don't believe it's a coincidence.) That way everyone can enjoy the snow and we won't have to worry about accidents. Mostly, I'd like to go home for Winter holidays, and wake up to celebrate with my family to snow falling in an already white yard. Maybe this is the year.
