pinetop/lakeside, az.

that's where i am right now. it's sort of near the new mexico border, about a 4.5 hour drive from phoenix. thursday i'll be in prescott, which is in between phoenix and flagstaff. last week, i was in sonoita and patagonia, down by the mexico border. i went on a trail ride at a ranch to check out some waterers that the landowner installed to keep his cattle out of the creek, and rode over trails in the long grass cut not by the cattle, but by mexicans coming over the border. not something you see in connecticut...

i've been traveling for work lately, and it's made the past month or so absolutely fly by. next week is thanksgiving, and subsequently, the official onslaught of christmas. not that i'm complaining--i love me some christmas as much as more than the next girl. but holy cow, where does the time go? i find myself still telling people that i "just" moved here, which is relatively true, but i've been here for almost 6 months now. half a year.

i haven't seen my family since june. that is so incredibly difficult for me. i can't wait for christmas, when dana and i head back east and get to spend time with everyone. but i also can't wait for them to come out here, and see my life in arizona (quick, before it gets hot again!).

i'm rambling. but i'm posting, so that's good, right? i need to spend some time reviewing the presentation i'm giving tomorrow before bed, so this is all you get for now. more to come soon (including pictures of our pretty yard and other fun things...). later gators.

i'm not dead!


but i also can't update right now. work is crazy busy, and i'm going out of town tomorrow. but i was told (hi dad!) that i have to update, so i'm doing the next best thing and promising to update. soon.

it's 9:30 on a sunday morning. it's still fairly cool out--around 80, I guess, which feels cool compared to 100 degrees. i went running this morning when dana left to go golfing, and then i sat on the back patio and ate my breakfast. it's nice when it's cooler out, because the patio is like another room of the house. and while i was sitting there eating my grape nuts, sitting indian style in a canvas directors chair and listening to the birds chirping and looking out at our backyard and the flowering mexican bird of paradise trees, i think i "got" part of this whole arizona thing. everyone keeps telling me "just get through the summer, then you'll see. the rest of the year is why we put up with the summer." and it's still summer, sort of--still hot outside, still hitting 100 degrees or higher. but i can tell that it's starting to change over. it cools down at night now, so when you're up early you get to see the mythical 70's before the sun burns through. and there's something to be said for sitting outside enjoying your breakfast in your running shorts and a sports bra on the first day of october. i miss new england fall...i really, really do. i miss the leaves changing, i miss the first cool days where you break out a sweater, and maybe a scarf, just for the morning chill. i miss my body feeling like the season is changing, and wanting to bake pumpkin muffins and zucchini bread and foods that make me think of fall. but arizona fall, while it's not quite here yet, is going to be pretty wonderful too, i think. now, we'll just have to see about winter...

besides, how can i complain about anything when i have a boyfriend who carves birds out of apples?

Rhacodactylus_ciliatus

Rhacodactylus_ciliatus
Originally uploaded by kristaleigh.

ello. *bat bat*. i am kreesta's crested gecko *bat bat*. i do not have a name yet, but that weel not stop me from batting my eyelashes at you *bat bat*.

okay, enough of that. i figured if he was going to be outwardly flirtatious and batting his eyelashes, then he ought to have an exotic accent to go along with it. anywho...this is my new crested gecko!! dana surprised me with him last night as an early birthday present! this picture isn't actually him (i stole it off the wiki site), but that's what he looks like. i'll post actual pictures of him soon!

i am officially 26 years old today. time flies when you're having fun, eh? 25 was a pretty stressful year, but wrapped up well--let's hope year 26 is relatively stress free. relatively.

chadlisa

chadlisa
Originally uploaded by kristaleigh.

i am sososososososo excited for this weekend! chad and lisa are getting married, and dana and i are flying to NY on thursday night and staying until monday night. i can't wait to see everyone, and i am so excited and thrilled and happy and honored to be standing up there with my babycakes when she says her "i do's" :D

hopefully this week will fly by...today already (mostly) has, tomorrow and wednesday are meetings all day (which sounds awful, but always seems to make the day go faster to me), and i only work until noon on thursday. whoo hoo, i can't wait! last weekend was fun (ladies' weekend at the camelback inn in scottsdale, and dancing at e4). i even danced on a platform whilst a hip-hop song about backing one's rear end up played (who can guess?). and i wasn't intoxicated, either :P.

someone, somewhere, for some ungodly reason, decided that bacon, corn syrup, peanut butter, and TANG had gone far too long without being married in one harmonious taste sensation.

please excuse me whilst i vomit. blargh.

redneckdogs2

you might be a redneck if...

redneckdogs2

dana and i were behind this truck on the highway last weekend. to be fair, the dogs seemed perfectly comfortable, but still...

for my engineer friends:

Engineer #1: What the hell were you thinking when you wrote this code?
Engineer #2: Boobs.
Engineer #1: Huh?!
Engineer #2: Truthfully, it's likely I was thinking about boobs.

Columbia, Maryland

via Overheard in the Office, Jul 28, 2006

in other news...the home internet connection is notsohot. we're supposed to have wireless, but i have to be hooked up to the antenna (by a wire) to access the internet. that is, when there's actually a signal. which is pretty much never. so i'm thinking that we're probably going to switch to cable intenet and just get a router so the laptop is wireless. in the meantime, if you've been emailing me and I haven't responded, it's because i have to way to check gmail (or any web-based email, for that matter). someday we'll be all settled in with functioning internet. and maybe even furniture. you'll see!

finally! pictures of our house! check 'em out!

a very interesting photo set of rake art photographed via kite. not mine, but i thought it was pretty neat...

i know. i know. it's been forever. i will defend myself by saying that we just got home internet last week, but i know i'm still lame.

so...where to start? i left connecticut with erika, lukin (the dog) and athena (the snake) on may 20th, and aside from seriously wanting to kick omaha's ass had a pretty issue-free trip out. we arrived in arizona on the 24th (that would be 4 straight days of 11 to 12 hour driving, thanksverymuch) and erika hung out for a few days, then flew back home. i know i've said it to her, but i'll say it again: thank you so much for driving out with me, erika!

i started my new job on june 5th, and it's been great. everyone is friendly, i like the work i'm doing and i've already had some great opportunities (like, for example, rafting down the colorado river in the grand canyon for two days). I get to do a lot of traveling (within the state, but still), so I don't have to worry about fermenting at my desk, which is really nice. I don't think I'd handle a job like that well.

dana and i moved into our house in the beginning of july. it's a cute little 3-bed 2-bath with a fenced in backyard (yay for lukin!) and a covered patio and lots of big windows for chester to sit and look longingly out of. i promise i'll take pictures soon (i really was going to this evening, but it's hot and i don't feel like straightening up). and lord knows i have to straighten up first so you all think the house is always that clean ;). actually, we've been really good about keeping everything neat. we're pretty good at this whole "living together" thing :).

okay--you're all up to speed! pictures (and more frequent posts) will be forthcoming!

i'm not dead!

but i am at work, so i can't really update. in short: everything is going very well, dana and i are in our new house, hopefully i'll have internet at home next week and can update then. later gators! i miss you, CT-ers!

anyone who is interested in really cool jewelry and funky art should go here and buy something from brooke, because she is super talented and wonderful and you'll automatically be cooler if you own something made by her. :)

i'm here i'm here i'm here!

the trip out was a lot of fun--thank you again, erika, for coming with me :). the driving days were long (11 to 12 hours each) and omaha was not kind to us, but all in all it was a good time, and i got to hang out with some very cool ladies (and cute kiddies!) in chicago, too! we pulled in to tempe around 8 pm on tuesday evening, and erika flew back to ct on friday.

dana and i are still staying in his current house right now, but we should be able to move in to the new house later this week. we went yesterday and walked around the park that it's near, which has a decent sized lake and picnic tables and lots of grassy areas. definitely a city-type park, but it's very cute and looks like a nice place to walk the dog in the evenings (probably while dana's fishing :) ). lukin is acclimating just fine, and really likes to eat the pecans that drop out in the yard. there's no pecan tree at the new house, but maybe i can smuggle some nuts over and hide them in the yard for him :).

today i'm trying to catch up on emails and get all of my financial stuff in order. hopefully i can get my trailer o' stuff dropped off this afternoon. i have some pictures from the trip, but i don't know where the cable for my camera is, so it'll be a few more days until i can post any of them. for now, i just wanted to say hello to everyone, and let you know that i arrived safely (though if you read the comments from the previous post, you already knew that--how cute is my boyfriend?). i'll be in touch with everyone soon!

just wanted to post something prefacing what is sure to be a lack of posting for the next week at least...

so it's wednesday night--oh, wait. thursday morning, technically. anyway. thursday is finish packing the trailer and clean the apartment day, which should hopefully be done by early afternoon. then i've got some western-ct errands to run, and am spending the night at my parents'. then it's back up here (but only to uconn, not the apartment) on friday, and back down to erika and rich's on friday evening. saturday morning, we leave for arizona.

day one: ct to toledo, oh.
day two: toledo, oh to omaha, ne by way of chicago.
day three: omaha, ne to trinidad, co.
day four: trinidad, co to tempe, az.

and then, my friends, i will have officially moved. don't know how long it's going to take to get settled out there, so i may not be posting for a bit. i'll catch up with you all soon, though.

i have taken my bed apart and am sleeping on the floor.

i think i am going to cough up a lung.

my apartment looks like a tornado hit it.

holy crap, when did i get that many pairs of shoes?

these are my random thoughts for today.

i love me some pearl jam :)

rob and i went to see pearl jam in harford earlier this evening, and it was such a great show! i'm really loving their new stuff, and they played some of my favorite older songs as well (including their usual closer, yellow ledbetter). so good.

last night april and mark threw me a going away party. many martinis were consumed. got to see some faces i haven't seen in a while, and was really touched by the thoughtful gifts people brought. seriously, presents weren't necessary. but seriously, i love them ;).

i just gave away my mattress and boxspring. tomorrow evening, i have to pack. a lot. uf.

it's been a busy week, and it's not going to be letting up any time soon. but that's okay, because the stress level is finally dropping. and it's been a long, long, LONG time since i've been able to say that.

to recap: last saturday was graduation, and on monday, dana, chester and i flew to arizona. tuesday was dana's birthday (happy birthday again!). wednesday morning, i met with the people who want to hire me and got the building and co-worker meeting tour (just need to have all my paperwork approved by the HR powers-that-be, and it's official). wednesday afternoon, we went and looked at a house that it looks like we will be living in (yay!). i flew out of phoenix at 6:30 this morning and got home at four (hey, who ate three hours of my day??), and i've pretty much been sitting in my comfy bowl chair with mexican blanket, surrounded by tissues ever since. i think i'm going to have to go to the doctor tomorrow, because i've been sick since monday and i felt like someone was stabbing me in the ears on the plane today. not fun.

looking forward: tomorrow, i have to go buy the ridiculously expensive paper that my thesis needs to be printed on, polish up the final edits, print it all out in triplicate, and then run around and get the signatures that i already got last week, but on the wrong, non-ridiculously expensive paper. tomorrow night, par-tay at april and mark's, where i'll probably end up crying because it's the last time i'll be together with everybody before i move. saturday is the pearl jam concert with rob (which is looking like it's going to be very, very soggy). sunday is a get-together at the 'rents. monday, the freight trailer gets dropped off for me to pack (which means that between now and then, i need to pack up my whole apartment). eek. next saturday...poof. i leave for arizona.

i swear, just yesterday i was saying "i can't believe i have a whole 'nother year of grad school." crazy. post-college life, here i come.

I PASSED!

i've got some revisions to do, but you may all start calling me by my proper and offical title: krista leigh 0sterberg, master of science.

:D

my defense is in THREE DAYS. really, more like two, because it's sunday evening now, and my defense is wednesday morning. i'm so excited and nervous. i'm thrilled to finally be done, but to be honest, i mostly just feel ill over the thought of being closed off in a room with my committee and questioned for two hours after i give my presentation. i've worked so hard for this, and i know it'll all be alright in the end (though i certainly expect that i'll have some revisions to make)...but i can't help but be nervous.

i got rid of my couch yesterday, and i've packed a few boxes. this whole moving thing is suddenly becoming very real. we're not sure where we'll be living yet, but we're looking...and i have a pretty good job prospect, which i'll go into more detail on in the next few days hopefully. three weeks. that's crazy. time is flying by so incredibly quickly...

okay. enough of that. i need to practice my presentation, and study for the question session. off to make those open channel flow hydraulics equations nice and fresh in my brain...

i've started up a flickr photo set of lukin pictures. because i am becoming That Dog Owner. well, not quite...i'm not going to dress him up in sweaters or anything. and he's got a tough act to follow (chester, my supremely well behaved kitty cat). but i'm pretty sure he might be the cutest puppy ever.

:)

lukin2

lukin2
Originally uploaded by kristaleigh.

meet my new puppy :)

his name is lukin, and he's a 6 (almost 7) month old welsh pembroke corgi. he's so incredibly sweet and adorable and smart, and when i call him he comes running and his big corgi ears flop all over the place. seriously, you could pass out from that much cute.

i can't have a puppy in my apartment, so he's going to be living at the breeder's until i leave. luckily, that's only a few minutes away, and i can go and pick him up whenever. my plan is to have him days and bring him back in the evenings, but i might try keeping him here overnight. he's not much of a barker, so i might be able to get away with it. we shall see.

i feel like maybe this wasn't worth the effort...

i got a CALL about a JOB!!!!

and it's a really interesting-sounding job!!!

okay, no more. i don't want to jinx anything. nothing's definite yet...

...but i got a CALL about a JOB!!!

things i learned this weekend:
~cd's look really neat when you heat them up in the microwave
~lightbulbs look even cooler. then they explode.
~it is possible to kill a microwave by cooking a lot of things inside of it that, according to generally accepted protocols, should not be cooked in a microwave.
~it is possible to drive a jeep on top of a microwave and have said microwave support its weight.
~rhode island's highest elevation is its landfill
~you can fit four people, two twelve packs, a saws-all, and various other miscellaneous tools in a mini cooper, all at the same time.
~a "coney island dog" has beef and onions on it, but no cheese.

...that's all i can think of right now. it was an interesting weekend :).

three reasons today is good:

the second draft of my thesis is done!

i bought my cap and gown yesterday and got my graduation tickets (and i only had to pay for half of the total regalia price, b/c i had a $25 gift certificate from speaking at a career services event)!

hanging out with dan and eating yummy indian food*

*not until next weekend...i lost my wallet and couldn't drive down to new haven. but i've got it back now.

my advisor left me a voicemail this evening telling me that he's bringing me a pigeon feces-covered piece of linoleum tomorrow.

i just thought that might make someone laugh out of context...

i woke up to snow this morning. what the heck? look, weather, if you know what's good for you... *shakes fist threateningly*.

i think they put crack in diet coke. for real. i don't even *like* soda.

i find out in a week and a half or so if i'm getting my dog!

i got my first issue of "southwest hydrology" in the mail the other day. i'm excited. you're probably not.

thesis is coming along...what with the new pigeon related data, it's going to be changing condsiderably (because hey, why not tack on extra analysis with three weeks to go?), but i'm doing what i can with what i've got right now.

i am going to need SO MUCH BEER when this is over. and a really good backrub. and a pony. and maybe a cookie.

check him out! i made this little octopus for a friend's baby. he took about half a skein of lion brand thick and quick (a little less maybe). i stitched on the eyes and mouth with some wool ease scraps. he was inspired by an octopus that april was making a while ago, but i didn't have a pattern, so i just made him up as i went along. it was a nice, fairly quick "i-can't-stand-my-thesis-anymore" project.
fairly low-key weekend...went out and saw stand play for jim's birthday, got to meet his girlfriend (finally!), and found out that they're playing three more times before i leave (i thought it was going to be my last show). spent yesterday in the office, last night had dinner with the family then stayed over erika and rich's, and i'm back in the office today. hoping to get the first round of thesis edits all tidied up by wednesday...so i probably ought to get back to that. later gators...

i went running in the park this afternoon. i love running, but between years and years of horseback riding, several occasions of over-abuse, and probably genetics, i have cranky knees and a really hard time running on pavement. subsequently, i'm always looking for new places to run that won't wreak havok on my joints. i was looking at a trail map of a park by my apartment and noticed that there was a nice 3.5 mile loop, most of which is on the blue-blazed hiking trail system and, blessedly, unpaved.
so anyway...i'm running through the woods, enjoying the gorgeous spring weather and listening to my ipod, and i notice a very persistant buzzing/humming sound over my music. so i took my earbuds out, and realized that it was frogs...spring peepers and bullfrogs. a lot of them. so off the path i go, pushing through the underbrush, trying to get closer. the closer i got, the louder it got, until i finally came across a large vernal pool FULL of frogs. i could see their shiny little heads poking out of the water, and they were all peeping and croaking and making an enormous commotion. it was awesome. it's one of my favorite sounds in the world, and i'm going to miss it when i move...growing up near water, it's a sound i've always associated with home.
on the rest of my run, i spent a lot of time thinking about the little things like that that i'll miss. but then i started thinking about all of the new sounds and sights and little things that i'll notice when i get to arizona, and how they'll be associated with new memories. how now i associate spring peepers with the coming of warmer weather, but in arizona, there will a new sight or sound or smell that i'll associate with spring...maybe geckos running around on the side of the house, or a certain type of flower. i don't know what those signs will be yet, but i'm excited to find out. it's part of taking a new place and turning it into a new home...

(click to enlarge)

how many bands can you find represented in this picture? leave the ones you find in the comments. I'll start off:
1. scissor sisters

new bangs! well, they're actually a few weeks old; i just got around to taking a picture of them. is it a "dramatic" haircut? well, no. but the last haircut i got that wasn't abbie trimming my hair in my kitchen with my fabric scissors (which, btw, she does a WONDERFUL job of) was roughly 3 years ago. so, baby steps. you can't see it in that picture, but my t-shirt says "Badgers? We don't need no stinkin' badgers!". It's marvelous.

my jeep is leaking coolant. this makes me cranky. i can see where it's leaking from, but i can't get at it (believe me, i was under there trying). grrr. and, i sliced my knuckle on a tin can. it's a pretty deep cut...i can't bend my finger all the way, and when i try, it starts bleeding again. no fun. okay, i'm done complaining now.

take the gun, leave the canolis. oh, and don't forget to arrange the pillows when you make the bed...

i just looked at a calendar.

see, i knew that time was flying by. i really did. and i knew that i was going to be graduating soon. but i just looked at the calendar, and my defense date is in six weeks, people. six weeks. the good news is, i handed in my first draft of my thesis on friday. this week, i'm preparing for a presentation i'm giving on friday, doing some job hunting, getting graduation paperwork done...i just sent out some quote requests for movers, and i want to start weeding through my clothes this weekend and set aside bags for donation. and mark my words, there will be bagS.

now if i can just fend off all the vultures who want my couches... ;)

because i needed to do something that didn't require me to think very much...
i tag april!

A - Available: nope.
A - Age: 25
A - Annoyance: people who always have to one-up you, slow drivers, being crowded by people.

B - Best Friends: brooke, lisa, abbie, april
B - Bar: bidwell, the half door, willimantic brew pub
B - Birthday: september 8th

C - Crush: haven't got one
C - Car: jeep wrangler
C - Cat: chester

D - Dead Pets Name: pippa mouse, oscar, nicodemus, archimedes
D - Dads Name: robert, but he goes by bob
D - Dog: soon, i hope!

E - Easiest person to talk to: april
E - Eggs: scrambled with cheese
E - Email: gmail, yahoo, school/work, website

F - Favorite color? blue. no, green. bluish green.
F - Food: depends on my mood. i like food a lot, it’s hard to pick a favorite.
F - Foreign Slang: schiesse, shite

G - Gummy Bears or Worms: worms. but really, gummy anything.
G - God: …
G - Good Time: being outside, exploring, hanging out with friends and loved ones

H - Hair Color: dark blonde
H - Height: 5'7”
H - Happy: when my thesis is done

I - Ice Cream: ben and jerry’s dublin mudslide
I - Instrument: kazoo
I - Idol: “a representation or symbol of an object of worship”

J - Jewelry: ears: diamond studs, silver hoops with little blue beads, my cartilage ring. and the ring dana gave me.
J - Job: looking for a real one…
J - Joke: how many ears did davy crockett have?

K - Kids: someday
K - Karate: i took a semester of jukido, but i only remember a few moves now
K - Kite: never was good at flying them…

L - Longest Car Ride: to montana and back with ray and matt
L - Longest Relationship: just shy of four years
L - Last Person you spoke to on the Phone: ray

M - Milk Flavor: i like milk flavored milk. ooh, and chocolate soy milk.
M - Mothers Name: lisa
M - Movie Last Watched: harry potter 4 (bought it last week)

N - Number of Siblings: 2
N - Northern or Southern: northern. but southwestern soon!
N - Name: krista

O - ONE Wish: less stress
O - One Phobia: not being good enough
O - One Goal: master of science!

P - Parents, are they married or divorced: married
P - Part of your appearance you like best: i like my toes; i don’t care if they’re short :P
P - Part of your personality you like best: if it needs to be done, i’ll find a way to do it

Q - Quote: ‘those who dance are called insane by those who don’t hear the music’
Q - What is your quest? i seek the holy grail.
Q - Quick or Slow?: depends on what the adjective is modifying

R - Reason to smile: my cat thinks i’m the greatest thing, like, ever.
R - Reality TV Show: ugh.
R - Right or Left: right

S - Song Last Heard: ‘happily ever after’ – the gufs
S - Season: all of them. i love the transition between seasons.
S - Sex: female. dirty birds, what did you think i was going to say?

T - Time you woke up: which time? 1:25 am, 3:30 am, 4:07am, etc…
T - Time Now: 8:54pm
T - Time for bed: it varies. always too late, though.

U - Unknown Facts about me: if i told you, they wouldn’t be unknown.
U - Unicorns?: make me think of a girl i knew in middle school who used to say she could see invisible unicorns in her yard. crazy loon.
U - U are a......?: person who hates when people spell words with one letter. u know who u r.

V - Vegetable you hate: olives. are those vegetables?
V - Vegetable you love: spinach
V - View on politics: i work in the environmental sciences. draw your own conclusions.

W- Worst Habits: putting things off, setting unrealistic expectations for myself, being insecure.
W- What do you wanna be when you grow up: happy
W- Where are you traveling to next?: arizona!

X - X-Rays: taken a billion, never had one.
X - X-Rated Porn: isn’t all porn x-rated? isn’t that why it’s porn?
X - X-Marks your spot: right now, that would be on my couch.

Y - Year you were born: 1980
Y - Year it is now: 2006
Y - Yellow: the color of my yarn bag

Z - Zoo Animal: i want a hippopotamus for christmas…
Z - Zodiac: virgo
Z - Zest:fully clean.

i'm starting to actually feel like this thesis is going to get written after all. the end of my college career and my impending move keep becoming more and more official. i've got two people interested in moving into my apartment when i leave, which makes leaving seem all the more real suddenly. i just realized that the next time i go see my favorite local band play at the end of march is the last time i'm going to get to see them play (hopefully not ever, but definitely for a long time). it's suddenly the middle of march, and i've only got a month and a half to tie up pretty much all of my loose ends. that's nothing, especially when time flies as quickly as it has been...

yikes. okay. back to the thesis.

you thought i fell off the face of the earth, didn't you?

well, i may as well have. it's crunch time, people. that thesis isn't going to write itself, after all. i took advantage of this past weekend as being the last weekend that i could feasibly devote to something other than thesis writing, and spent it up in saranac lake with lisa and chad. now it's back to the tables and figures and data and pages and pages and pages of notes and calculations and semi-formed thoughts that need to be turned into a cohesive and intelligent sounding masters thesis. egad. the next two weeks are going to be HELL. really, the next two and a half months are going to be hell, but i need to have my draft completed within the next two weeks, so they win the short term competition of abject suckiness. suckitude. sucktasticness. whathaveyou.

fyi:

you can now download a free (free!) mp3 of pearl jam's next single, "world wide suicide", from tenclub.net.

you can download lots of free (free!) live music from archive.org. i recommend this recording of a concert by the weepies.

my cat is friggin' adorable.

there are 72 days until i leave for arizona. holy crap.

okay, back to the thesis. later gators.

the second coming of christ...

apparently, a hardware store in manchester (right down the street from my old apartment, actually) has become a mecca for those interested in seeing the image of jesus in a piece of sheet metal. and if you're feeling particularly inspired by the whole thing, you can even make a bid for it on ebay (but you might want to hurry up; bidding is already over $500).

i don't even know what to say, aside from the observation that if jesus has time to be sending signs in the form of sheet metal to a connecticut hardware store, then perhaps he's got his priorities a bit mixed up.

i was a guest speaker at a wetlands-related meeting today, and presented my research to a room full of people who i was certain would immediately recognize me as a fraud and run me out onto the streets, possibly lashing me with phragmites stalks on the way out the door.

instead, i got two job offers. muahahaha, i've fooled them all!

in other news...

this is brilliant. who wants to share a pint?

clean water and flood retention: unconstitutional. who knew?

the supreme court is hearing a case by a michigan developer who claims that the clean water act is unconstitutional. you need to click the "listen" button to get the real meat of the story (my favorite part is where he tries to make the environmental consultant rip up the report stating that he needs to apply for permitting). at first i was surprised that the supreme court even agreed to hear the case; however, the more i think about it, the more i'm betting that it's based on the nebulous terms that define the clean water act itself. the wording of the act states that it applies to "navigable waters of the united states." traditionally, this is interpreted as all waters of the united states, which extends the coverage to wetlands. intuitively, this makes sense: though many wetlands are not 'navigable', if you dump chemical waste into a wetland, you can't act all surprised when it shows up in the nearest river. so wetlands are covered by the clean water act, and based on that, our friend the developer was told that he had to apply for permitting before he could bulldoze his (at least partially) wetland-classified parcel of land. truth be told, the vast majority of wetland-related permit applications are granted either entirely or conditionally. but did this guy bother to apply? nope, he just started bulldozing. brilliant.

my worry here is that somehow, someway, the supreme court will rule in this guy's favor. if that happens, wetland protection is going to be in big, big trouble. ugh.

look at that...weeks without a substantial entry, and then i go and get all political and topical on you. i wonder if this will be a hot topic at the meeting i'm speaking at on thursday...

states i've been to...i'll be able to add oklahoma and new mexico after i drive through them this spring!
create your own visited states map

from the livejournal ladies...
Four jobs I've had:
* exercise rider at a horse farm
* vet tech
* shelver at the university library
* teaching assistant
Four movies I can watch over and over:
* Monty Python and the Holy Grail
* Guys and Dolls
* The Professional
* the Lord of the Rings movies
Four places I've lived:
* Oxford, CT
* Willimantic, CT
* Manchester,CT
* North Windham, CT
(wow, that's boring...)
Four TV shows I love:
* Grey's Anatomy
*any nature documentary
*that's all I've got for this one...
Four places I've vacationed:
* Arizona :)
* Chilean Patagonia
* Colorado
* Montana
Four sites I visit daily:
* gmail.com
* students.uconn.edu
* treehugger.com
* lifehacker.com
Four places I would rather be right now:
* in arizona
* at my graduation three months from now
* on vacation
* asleep

back to the same ol' daily grind :P. had a great weekend; dana came on friday night and was supposed to leave on sunday morning, but ended up staying until tuesday morning because of the blizzard that we had here. but now he's gone, and i'm back to focusing on the work i need to get done for my thesis and the presentation that i have to give next week. boo. time's a-flying, though, and i'll be out there before i know it.

today i:

woke up early
went to an environmental policy meeting
read about dry depostion of nitrogen
gave blood
ate chicken tacos
made a johari window

not my most productive day ever, but it'll do.

yaaaaaaaaaay! i can wear contacts again! i've been wearing my glasses since november (scratched corneas :P ), but i got a clean bill of eye health today. woo hoo!

also woo-hoo:


oh yeah. i pre-ordered that. why? because i'm addicted. and sunday's episode ROCKED my SOCKS off (fyi, as of 7:30pm on tuesday, that's an abbreviated recap. the full one should be up in the next few days). okay, the socks stayed on, but holy edge of my seat, batman! i can't wait to see the conclusion this weekend. but what i can't wait for even MORE is for dana to be here! he's only coming friday night to sunday morning (so basically, a day), but it's better than nothing and we haven't seen each other since christmas. so yeah. that's the biggest 'yay' of the week :). which is nice. i haven't had a yay-filled week in a while. it was starting to feel a little past due...

finally! some progress with the data! i'm finally starting to feel like i'll be able to get this thesis written. time is passing by so quickly...and, i've got an official time frame for moving out to arizona (end of may). not exactly sure how i'm getting my stuff out there (psh, u-haul, not renting trailers to vehicles with soft tops), but i'm working on it. baby steps. apparently before i go, i'm going to hike mount washington with ray (and abbie and adam? yes?), so that should be fun. exhausting, and cold (mid may, most likely), but fun. and a nice farewell to the northeast, even if it is only temporary. the job market out in arizona is starting to perk up a little too, which is encouraging. i can't speak for the job market in general, but ones in my field were sadly lacking for a while there. and no cracks about "well duh, there's no water in arizona." i assure you, there is, in fact, water in arizona. they just hide it really well ;). found a job listing for a water quality specialist right in the town we'll probably be living in, but it's almost entirely lab work. i can do lab work, but i find it repetitive and boring, so while the pay is decent and i'm certainly qualified, it's not at the top of my list. there are a few that look interesting, though. i know there's always consulting jobs, but i'm gunning for something in a federal (or at least state) program so that it will be easier for me to transfer jobs later on. i'm not ruling out consulting entirely, though...it's certainly not going to hurt my resume to have two years of consulting work under my belt later in the game.

this is a boring entry, but i wanted to write something because i've been slightly less than prolific as of late, and this is the stuff that's been on my mind lately. so that's what you get. tough noogies.

almost 1 am, eh? to bed with me, i guess...

those of you who know me well know that really random things can crack me up. a good example of this would be the monkey joke. or the davey crockett joke. or the pirate joke. or my complete inability to get through a single one of those jokes without dissolving into giggles before i get to the punchline. i apologize about making references to things that most of you won't get; next time you see me/when/if you meet me, ask me and i'll tell you all three. anyhow. another example of something completely random that's making me laugh: almost naked animals. my favorites are trout (likes: rumpus rooms, a good cry, fancy dishes. dislikes: winter boots, cronyism, narrow streets), rooster (likes: interrupting, aquariums, bazookas. dislikes: selfishness, team sports, mandolins), and squirrel (likes: traveling, chili dogs, jazz music. dislikes: gobal warming, minivans, green olives). really can't argue with the squirrel.

robotic conscientious objectors coming in 2008

Ten Top Trivia Tips about Kristaleigh!

1. There are now more than 4000 satellites orbiting kristaleigh!
2. It is impossible to fold kristaleigh more than seven times.
3. Only twelve people have ever set foot on kristaleigh!
4. All gondolas in Venice must be painted black unless they belong to kristaleigh.
5. Kristaleighomancy is the art of telling the future with kristaleigh.
6. Kristaleigh has a memory span of three seconds!
7. Kristaleigh cannot be detected by infrared cameras!
8. It's bad luck for a flag to touch kristaleigh.
9. In the kingdom of Bhutan, all citizens officially become kristaleigh on New Year's Day.
10. Kristaleigh can't drink - she absorbs water from her surroundings by osmosis.

I am interested in - do tell me aboutherhimitthem

that's right. you all best be painting your gondolas black.

edited to add that i think april's is even better :)

i have found my next crochet project.

if you don't get it, go here and scroll down to read the letter. brilliant.

now i just need to find someone who will wear it...any volunteers?

blargh. that is what i have to say about my data right now. i will not bore you all with details the way i did with poor dana earlier today, but suffice it to say that it is being uncooperative. so yeah. blargh.

tomorrow is the official start of the spring semester, which is the first semester in eight years in which i will not be taking any classes. that is not a typo. believe me, i wish that it were. so on one hand, this is very exciting. i don't have to take any classes! no more boring lectures! wheee! however...this is a very drastic change in the routine that has been my life since 1998. and really, i suppose, since i was five if you want to get *really* technical. but i'm just talking college here. so it's very surreal to think that the semester is starting, but that it really doesn't mean anything to me at all aside from TA-ing. which is no small potatoes, because you certainly don't want to be the one reading and grading the 15 page papers. although, it is fun to write comments with my little red pen such as "a tureen is something you serve soup in. i believe the word you are looking for is terrain. please proofread your work--just because it's a word doesn't mean it's the right word." that makes me sound like the editing nazi, but i'm really not. if you'd been editing that paper, you'd have been cranky by the time you got to the 'tureen' incident as well. i really want to write things like "you keep using that word. i do not think it means what you think it means," but i think they're too young to get the reference.

but i digress. what i was getting at before i went off on my little tangent was that holy crap i'm almost done with college. which i've said before, and i promise you i will say again, and you're just going to have to bear with me because that's kind of the biggest thing in my life day-to-day right now.

moving on. new neat-o website: http://liveplasma.com. in a similar vein to pandora, which i posted about the other day, you type in a band you like (or a movie, director, or actor, unlike pandora), and it gives you a sort of flow chart of related bands/directors/movies/actors that you might like. you can click on any of the bands that come up, and it will re-expand further, which is nice for when you already know that you like all or most of the bands that it comes up with. also unlike pandora, it doesn't actually play music for you or link you to a resource; it's just a flow chart. but it's neat and visually appealing. and i'm a packaging whore, so visually appealing goes a long way with me. click on the image below to see the chart it gave me when i typed the band Spoon in the search box:

pretty accurate; of the other bands shown, i own (and like) music by eleven of them.

okay, that was a wicked long post. i'm out like a fat kid in dodgeball.

guess who got asked to speak at the state wetland scientists' annual meeting?

(pssst...it's me!)

so, yeah...a little nervous, as usual with the whole public speaking thing, but it will be a good preparation for my (*gasp*) defense. my defense, which is tentatively scheduled for may 1st. i have to make sure that date works for everyone on my committee before it becomes definite. so i've been analyzing data and making graphs and tables--not much writing yet at this point, although i've started a little bit. i have to get all of the numbers crunched before i can write about them, but i'll be starting that phase in the next couple of weeks, and my first draft of my thesis is due on march 13th. my thesis. holy crap, people. where on earth did grad school *go*?

maybe i *won't* be poor forever: check out number 10!

thanks april :)

bk3

i'm not sure where these pictures originated (i got them here), but they're cracking me up. because as i have posted before, the burger king kinda freaks me out. and yet cracks me up at the same time.

nikes

*sigh*

i think i have officially out-run my running shoes.

i guess i shouldn't be surprised, because i've had them for about a year now and i've certainly gotten a lot of good use out of them, but i'm bummed because even though they are space-agey and kinda ugly, they are a) incredibly comfortable, which is hard for me and my super duper crazy high arches to find, and b) expensive. not ridiculously so for running shoes i guess, but more than i'm willing (or able) to drop at the moment. the problem is, now i'm spoiled. example: my sneaks have no tongue--the boot of the sneaker is all one piece. this is great for me, because due to aforementioned crazy high arches, most sneaker tongues dig into the tops of my feet if the shoes are tightly laced. and up until this point, i've had no foot pain associated with these shoes whatsoever. and i have to admit that i really enjoyed being able to personalize them, from picking colors to having my initials embroidered on the heels. rockin'. i can't really justify buying shoes that are going to hurt my feet when for ~$40 more, i know i can get shoes that work really well for me, and that i can personalize myself. so i'm trying to suck it up and squeak a few more weeks out of this pair until i get my next paycheck, but damn...running in bad shoes sucks. i think i'm going to pick new colors this time around though...maybe red and a punchy looking orange. you know, keep my feet happy and motivated while i'm running ;).

i saw this in a print ad the other day:

"no, gravitational physics makes the world go 'round."

which made me laugh. because i'm a nerd.

yarn1

new yarn! april and i went to the yarn store on friday, and i got yarn to re-make rob's hat, and a neat book on felting, and the pictured yarn that i'm going to use to make myself a felted bag (probably something similar to the bag i made for erika, only maybe with a flap...). rock on. i have already professed my love of the noro kureyon yarn, but i was good and only got a few skeins of it. the two pinks and the green were much more reasonably priced, and complemented the noro well i thought. i'm excited to have a project to work on that i'll actually get to keep! but course, it's back burner...i've got to make rob a new hat first, and fix the guitar strap i made for george with the other noro. but i'm excited anyway :)

there are now three reasons that today is a date of note.

1)duh. it's january 1st.
2)it's my parents' anniversary (happy 31st!)
3)mike and sandra had their baby!!! welcome to the world, anna! yay for more cute babies!

if you had asked me on this date a year ago where i'd be in a year's time--not geographically, but it terms of my personal life and my future plans--i would have made a 100% inaccurate prediction. so here's to the unexpected, and the silver lining, and having an open mind. i guess i've learned better than to make predictions, but i know that the coming year is going to be full of change and excitement and i'm looking forward to it. i hope you all are, too.

happy new year!
-krista