Thursday, August 25, 2005

tomorrow, the freshmen come back.

this means that summer is officially over. not on the calendar, i know, but in my world. on one hand, i am not happy about this. on the other hand, i can't wait for classes to start because it means that time is progressing, and every day i am moving closer and closer to the day when i am done with grad school.

i started a new project at craft night last night; it occurred to me that i'm going to be more broke for christmas this year than i've been in a really long time, and that i'm going to have to make christmas gifts for pretty much everyone. so i can't go into details on the new project, other than to say that it's a christmas gift for somebody and even though i still have a lot more to do on it, i got myself off to a decent start. which is good.

off to go running...it is BEAUTIFUL today :)

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

yay! i get my new tires today! i'll be very glad to be rid of my sissy highway tires. next step--doing something about that lame-o fake diamond plate the last owner slapped on the sides...

Sunday, August 21, 2005

not a heck of a lot of free time lately...

i've been spending a lot of time reading articles for and starting the writing on my literature review for my thesis. the original goal was to have this done by the end of the summer, and that's definitely not happening. but hopefully by mid september it'll be set. there's very little left of summer now--classes start a week from tomorrow. this semester, i'm taking advanced fluvial geomorphology and aquatic plant biology, presenting my data at a conference in atlantic city, and wrapping up my research. next semester, i'm TA-ing and writing my thesis (and possibly taking one more class, but i'm hoping not). then...i'm done. done with college. three degrees later...

i have a feeling that these past two weeks are a harbinger of what my blogging frequency is going to be for a while. i'm going to try my best to have that not be the case. maybe i'll start adopting april's "w.i.p. wednesday", to keep myself on the ball...

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

anyone who would like to donate money to the american cancer society for the relay for life that i'm participating in in october, click here. my goal is to walk for as much of the 24 hours as i possibly can (i managed 17 last year...going to try to beat that without the unfortunate side effect of blowing out my knee this year). Every little bit helps, so please consider donating. visit this site to learn about how to organize a relay for life team in your neck of the woods.
stealing this idea from CTG over at pinkrunningshoes [who just had a baby! aieeeee! congratulations (again)!]...

identify yourselves! i know who some of you are that read this, but others have me flummoxed (yes, flummoxed!). you know enough about me...who *are* you people? ;)

[edited to add that as of 6pm on 8/11, 23 different people have been here since i put up this post. fine, poo on all of you ;)]

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

happy birthday to my mom!

this is going to be short, because i hurt my wrists pretty badly today trying to obliterate a large patch of phragmites and they are KILLING me, but i haven't updated lately and i probably won't get a chance again this week. i have a LOT of stuff to do.

so...last weekend was a rock-on kind of weekend! friday night i crashed at ray's, and we got up at 3 am and drove to new hampshire to go hiking. we hiked roughly 17 miles and did two mountains (zealand mountain and mount guyot), and even though it was probably the most challenging hike i've ever done, i had a blast. ray's a good hiking buddy, even if he is a friggin' mountain goat. he makes me challenge myself more than i probably would if i were alone. so yeah...got up at 3am, drove the 4 hours there, hiked 8 am until about 4:30 pm, then drove back home. then sunday, i went to the beach with april and mark, and april's sister shelly and her fiance rich. then we met up with justin in manchester and meandered around a car show (i love car shows!!). after that we all met up with another friend of theirs and had pizza and beer and alarmingly tastey fried pickles, and saw the dukes of hazzard movie (pure and utter cheese, but good car chases!). THEN, justin helped me get the doors off my jeep. ROCK. ON. all in all, a very good weekend.

okay, i'm in pain now. a lot. youch.

Tuesday, August 02, 2005

added pictures of the second bracelet to the page with the jewelry i made for my mom's birthday...

today was mutual of omaha wild kingdom day at the wetland. mice *and* groundhogs running all over the place. usually i just see sign that they've been there, but they were ballsy little vermints today. the mice i can deal with, they're easy to seal out. but the groundhogs have far, far, far overstayed their welcome. at first, i was sympathetic to the groundhog plight. i was hospitable. i figured, as long as they stay away from my monitoring equipment, i don't so much mind the giant, cavernous, swallow-up-your-leg-and-snap-it-off-at-the-hip holes in the hillside. but they took advantage of my hospitality. first, they chewed a hole in my wetland liner. and i was grumpy, but i patched it up and all was well. next, they dug a hole right through a spot where some of my underground wires run through. They didn't damage the wires, but you can actually see them in the hole, and that was a little too close for comfort for me. now, they've dug holes below *both* of my monitoring stations, which is way too close to the wiring for my samplers, datalogger, and rain gauge for me to be okay with. groundhogs, i have been patient with you. i defended your right to live on the cozy little hillside. but so help me god, if you damage my wiring and make me lose data resulting in my having to prolong my life as a graduate student...*runs finger across throat*.

groundhog stew, mark my words.