i came home today to flowers! and not just any flowers--daffodils and tulips! my favorite. my boy is wonderful.

took a lab animal science test today, fairly certain that i aced it. at least my GPA will be good in all my *other* classes this semester (obviously, physics being the bad-grade culprit). i got stuck in line for 20 minutes at the post office, but that's okay because i finally managed to send out a package that i've been meaning to send out for the past week and a half. also found a cute little bead store right around the corner from my apartment, and bought a few beads there to make what i hope will be a positively lurvely necklace. the clerk there was so helpful, too--what a great little store! and on top of everything else, i managed to get my assigned section of campus scoped out today for the emergency phones that i need to GPS. shouldn't be too bad of an assignment, especially since i have abbie, who's willing to be hoisted on top of bus-stop roofs to get accurate satellite readings for me ;)

today was a definate 10. it's about damn time, too :)

oh, that should solve everything...

one more physics exam down the tubes...

actually, in a funny way, i'm kind of happy with how i did. i don't think i completed enough of the exam to actually *pass* it, but i was able to work out answers for some of the more complicated problems, and i feel pretty good about that. i feel like it was an improvement, at least. now all i need to do is ace the next three ;)

tonight we're going to a party at jen's, which should be fun b/c we hardly ever see her. tomorrow, we're going to the chowder pot in branford with jim for an early birthday celebration, and sunday (hopefully) will be GIS day: abbie, kim, and i are going to try to take over the computer lab and get as many GIS assignments as possible done in advance. so it should be a fun weekend. i'm feeling pretty sleep deprived lately, but i hate to spend my weekends going to bed early when i have the opportunity to see people that i almost never get to see. i *live* with mike, and i hardly ever even see him. i'm looking forward to the day that that changes, when i can have a "normal" schedule...which, if i get into grad school, will be at least another two years from now.

now, i need to go figure out the questions i got wrong on my exam...wish me luck :/

[edited 4/2/03, b/c my typing style was apparently causing some rather annoying confusion.]

so...last night was not so great. i got out of work a little later than i had hoped (not such a big deal, but i really needed to get home and crank out my physics lab report/finish the physics homework that's due tomorrow/study for my physics exam). on the way home, just moments before i reached the highway (which makes me so happy, b/c it means i'm officially "almost home"), i got pulled over by a cop. 60 in a 50: my very first speeding ticket. my very first *ticket* ticket, if you don't count parking tickets. and at UConn, i don't, b/c the cranky little ticket men are vindictive and mean. but that' s a whole different story.
so, i finally get home and start working on my physics lab, which was due by midnight last night. physics lab is the only reason i may pass physics at all. i do reasonbly well on the labs, and i feel pretty confident in my ability to explain what i'm talking about when writing them. *not* the case last night. i spent 8 pm-12:15 am fussing and worrying over that thing, and even after e-mailing it to the TA 15 minutes late, i still wasn't very happy with it. it was shorter than i'd wanted it to be, and i just didn't feel like it was very well written. i fully expected to receive a not-so-impressive grade on it, but at that point, i was happy just to hand it in.
cut to 5 minutes ago, when i checked my email...turns out the TA was feeling ambitious and already graded my report and emailed me the result: 100%. don't ask me how that happened, b/c i have absolutely no idea.
i think i shall spend the rest of my day wandering around in a daze...

*goodbye grandpa*

my grandpa, john leighton toumine, passed away on monday, march 17th. thankfully, i was able to see him before he died. he was unresponsive, but i think he was aware that we were there, and that we were talking to him. he couldn't talk or move, but you could see movement under his eyelids when someone talked to him...at any rate, the funeral was on the following wednesday. it was a very nice service--it was very obvious that my grandfather was very well loved and respected in his community, and that he had a lot of wonderful friends who'll be there to see my grandmother through this.

thank you to everyone who has wished me and my family well. your thoughts are greatly appreciated, and they mean a lot to me.

...i promise, i'll have *something* more pleasant to report soon... :/

oh...i gave blood today! 8 pints makes a gallon! that's something good, at least.

these are my new obsession. i really, really, really want to have them. i can't get over how adorable they are, and how much they seem to be calling to me, wanting to be in my kitchen cabinets...do you hear them?

i chopped my hair! about 7 inches--it falls just past my shoulders. i love it...it's still long enough to pull back (barely!), but it's so fun and light and easy to manage...whee! what fun.

when it rains, it pours...

my grandpa is going into hospice care. the doctors say he doesn't have very long left...he's been battling multiple myeloma for nearly two years now...

my sister and i are going to drive down to south carolina to see him next weekend, as long as i can get off from work. i should be able to. considering the circumstances and all.

my grandfather is a jazz musician. if you can find recordings of the galvenized jazz band or albert burbank's "burgundy street blues", do so. my grandfather played with the GJB for quite some time, and played bass on the latter recording. he's an incredibly talented musician and the closest thing to a saint on this earth. and i don't know how i'm going to handle this at all...

oh, i am dreaming about this car...not that there's anything wrong with mike's civic, b/c there isn't. it handles very nicely, it is a billion and a half times better on gas that anything i've ever driven (not counting that crappy cavalier rental i had last fall)...but i've only ever had jeeps, and i love them, and i miss them. and just the mere thought that i may soon be able to drive one again...sends my heart all a-twitter. driving with the top down, splashing through the mud...oh, i can't wait for summer...

lisa, abbie, and i went running in the rain today. we splished and splashed through all the puddles, got thoroughly drenched, and had a great time. we ran by a peace rally at the library, and i felt very...detached. i don't know how i feel about all of that, really. i feel like rallying for peace and refusing the possiblity of war is an incredibly idealistic notion, i guess. i certainly don't *want* to go to war, and i think that bush is a little too hell-bent on it...which makes me nervous. i don't feel at all comfortable going into a war without the support of the UN, and we haven't got that right now. i don't even know what the "official" reason would be right now, anyway. someone over at Digs (i think it was yam) mentioned that she felt like she should be able to vote in the next u.s. election (as a canadian), since our president just wants to be in charge of all of the countries, anyway. and while i think that she said that (at least partially) in jest, i think she has a point. not that canadians should vote in u.s. elections, but that bush is a very "my way or the highway" kind of guy. it just all seems more personal than political, i suppose. i'm not nearly as informed on the issue as i ought to be, though, so who knows...

buahahaha! behold, my newest creation!

okay, it's not exactly *my* creation. i got the idea from the uncommon goods catalog. but i made three of my very own last night, and i am positively tickled with the results. the piture above is the shot from the catalog; mine are all wavy along the edges and of varying depths (depending on the height of the object i melted them over). but that's the general idea...

i went to the thrift shop yesterday, and with my student discount (25% discount! from the thrift shop! it's like stealing...) i purchased 3 old vinyls, in various stages of abuse and disrepair. then i brought them home, placed them on top of various oven-safe objects, and melted and re-molded them to make the spiffiest little bowls you ever did see. and you probably will be seeing them, not only b/c i'm going to post a photo asap, but because you're all going to be receiving them at some point as gifts because i am in love with them. if it is at all possible, these may even surpass in fun-ness the creation of the little magnetic chalkboards last week (chalkboard paint? magnetic paint? *someone* needs to be nominated for sainthood. any catholics in the house?).

*sigh*. i suppose i really ought to be spending my limited free time on school work, eh?

[edited on 3/6/03 to add photo]