i bought a tent!! i'm so excited!

it's a kelty gunnison 2, and it has two doors and two vestibules, and only weighs a little over 5 lbs. i can't wait for it to come so i can set it up and play in it :)

i swear, i'm not a slacker.

really, i'm not. i've just been super busy lately. i know that's a lousy excuse, because everyone's always busy, but it's all i've got. i've been working on getting my research project off the ground, and it's looking like everything could be up and running within a month's time. and that's really, really exciting. i ordered all the pipe and connectors that we're going to need to route the roof runoff to the wetland today, and that should all come in next wednesday. digging and laying the pipe will probably be the following week, and then it's just a matter of getting all the data collection equipment set up and working (oh, and, uh...teaching me how to use it all. minor detail). sooo...it's looking good.

in totally non-school-related news: my little brother's band has a real live GIG next monday! their band (dysthymia) is going to be playing at the webster underground in hartford next monday (6/21) at 6:00 pm. they're only playing 3 songs, but still...very cool. most people's first gigs are at much less cool places than the webster. so yay, rob!

that's all for tonight...i promise, i'll try to be better about updates. i swear, i'm not a slacker. not really.

oooh, look what i got!

mike got me a lovely green iPod mini for our 3 year anniversary. it's even engraved:

Krista Leigh
Love Mike

the only problem is that it requires windows 2000, and i run windows 98. not only that, when i tried to put windows 2000 on my computer, there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth and cranky threats that doing so may result in the sudden and complete death of my computer. it's not a very cooperative hunk of plastic. so...i'm getting a new computer :)! i've got some money saved up, and it's been something that i've been saying that i want to do for a while now, so i'm going to do it. all for the sake of my lovely green iPod, which is sitting sadly at home begging to be filled with fun songs to run to. i'll keep you posted as the computer saga unfolds.

trying to enable comments on my blog...it's not working :P

just got back from texas last night...

mike and i spent the last 10 days bumming around texas, hanging out with my cousin liz and her husband, steve. we had a great time...camped on the beach at mustang island, walked around downtown austin (saw the bats at the congress street bridge), did the riverwalk in san antonio, saw the alamo, did some hiking at enchanted rock, hamilton pool, and the westcave preserve. we also saw a couple of movies (Van Helsing and Troy)while we were down there at the alamo drafthouse cinema, which was really cool (why do we have nothing like this in CT?), and had dinner with some friends i had met through a crafty/cooking/decorating/etc web board i've posted on for years. all in all a very good trip. i'll post pictures over on my homepage some time this week, i promise.

my rude awakening upon arrival home: gas here is now over $2 a gallon for low grade. arghh!! hopefully prices won't go up too much more, although i have a feeling that they will since it's not even technically summer yet, and gas is always more expensive in the summer. oh well. what can you do?

i tuned my guitar tonight.

i haven't touched my guitar in ages. i haven't played it in longer; really, in years. not that i was ever really any good. but i always wanted to be. i'd still love to be. there's something about being able to play an instrument, to sit down and create music, that i always wanted to be able to grasp. i used to play around with it a lot; pick out melodies and strum occasional chords, but i was never what anyone would call good. i don't really know what inspired me this evening...but it was satisfying to still be able to at least tune the darned thing, to hum out the octave switch between the E's and alternately tighten and loosen the strings between until everything blended nicely. it's good to know i haven't gone completely tone deaf since i've stopped singing. really singing, i mean. i sing plenty in my car. but it's not the same. i'm afraid my muscial ability is going to atrophy and waste away on me ;)

You are a GRAMMAR GOD!


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eeyuck! gah! why do people do things like this to themselves? aieeee! can't.....look.....away......ack!

go huskies! uconn's women winning last night made uconn the first school in division one history to have both the men and women as NCAA champs in the same year. which means lots of excited people on campus. it also means a stunning lack of campus newspapers in my building, because everyone has snatched them up. which means no crossword puzzle for us grad students to do while we eat our lunch. but that's okay. as lisa put it in her celebratory email: "storrs connecticut is the basketball capital of the world!"

(read more)

rain, rain, go away, come again another day...

:P

i know, i know...april showers bring may flowers. but i want sunshine! meh. this weather makes me sleepy. i feel like i could just curl up and take a nap at any given moment. i need sunshine and flowers poking up out of the ground and tiny little leaf buds popping up on the trees. but what do i get? rain. rain, and a chance of snow on monday. snow! people! i already wore a skirt! it cannot snow!

*grumble grumble*

i saw a dog die today.

not that this is anything unusual...as unpleasant as it may be, i see a lot of people's pets die. it's part of my job. the bizarre thing about this is that i saw this dog die twice.

a woman showed up for her appointment this evening with contessa, her little cocker spaniel who had been acting very lethargic and shakey. i went out into the waiting room to get her, and saw that contessa, who was lying on the floor with her head slightly lifted, had left a large puddle of urine. i ducked in back to grab a towel to lift her up with since she was wet. when i got back to the waiting room (literally seconds later), contessa was flat out on her side. the owner appeared unalarmed, but it was apparent to me that the dog was glassy eyed and not breathing. it had literally walked into our waiting room, laid down, and died.

i scooped up the dog and brought her in to the doctor, who listened for a hearbeat, but found none. she checked for ocular reflex, and found none. she listened again with the stethoscope...and there was a faint, erratic heartbeat. and then contessa started to breathe. and then, contessa sat BOLT UPRIGHT. as amazing as this unaided return from death was, it was apparent that the dog was shocky and in poor condition. we rushed her in back to begin stabilizing her, but as we were putting in her catheter, contessa began breathing laboriously. we put her on oxygen, but almost immediately, contessa died. again. this time, for good. i can honestly say that this was the first time i ever saw a dog, or anything, for that matter, die twice. Not fade a little and then come back, but honest-to-goodness lack of breathing, lack of heartbeat, completely limp, flat-out die...and then start breathing again. the body, human or otherwise, never ceases to amaze me.

Came across this on the blogger site today: a blog devoted to poems written entirely from snippets from spam emails. Aside from being a very clever concept, the poems are actually pretty darn well put together. Apparently spam does have some modicum of worth. Who knew?

hoo-hah! i ran 5 miles this morning! i am en fuego! well, to elaborate, i didn't run the *entire* 5 miles, but i ran most of it. had to take a few little walk-breaks here and there (cold air+lungs=eek, i can't breathe!), but in any event, i am still en fuego. and i am loving my new running pants, which are very very comfy and well worth the $40 i spent on them. my long running pants are very comfy as well, but the new ones are nicer for slightly warmer weather. stop laughing. yes, i consider this slightly warmer weather. so what if it was 27 degrees this morning? it was sunny. and besides, it's warmer when you're excercising. so there.

found this link today--it has video files for all of the saturday night live "jeopardy!" skits. frickin' hilarious. 4/15/00 cracks me up every time ("i know kung fu." "for the last time, no you don't."). any whoo, enjoy :)

oooh, by the way, the sticker-maker i mentioned on february 11th is now mine, all mine! [thanks dad :)]. much sticker making will ensue.

"if women are supposed to be less rational and more emotional at the beginning of our menstrual cycle, when the female hormone is at its lowest level, then why isn't it logical to say that, in those few days, women behave the most like the way men behave all month long?" --gloria steinam

*snicker*

in loving memory of my nana

small world...i was just upstairs looking for the departmental secretary, and i ran into a girl that i went to high school with. she was a few years ahead of me, and had done her undergrad here at UConn, but i hadn't seen her in quite a while. it turns out that she decided to come back for grad school, and our departments share a building. she mentioned that she was going to have a "welcome back" party for a guy that we'd both been friends with in high school who is coming back from florida, and that now that she knows where to find me, she wants me to come. so that should be nice, seeing a bunch of old familiar faces. neat-o.

oooh...
this, my friends, is a sticker maker. and i want it.

i'm enthralled. you can stick anything you want through the little machine and turn it into a sticker. well, not anything you want, but any image small enough to fit. there are some larger versions, including this one which can also laminate, but at $9.99 i think this happy little yellow guy is a steal. someday, when i'm rich and famous, it will be mine.

oh yes, it will be mine.

yay! i went running today, after cruelly neglecting my sneakers for lord knows how long. i've been sick the past few days, and it was cold and windy, but man did it feel good to be outside being active. i definately need to schedule running in at least three days a week and get back in the habit of getting out there. it makes me feel ever so much less sloth-like :)

this is the dress that i might be wearing for erika's wedding...isn't it lurvely? she wants danielle (matron of honor) and i (maid of honor) to wear strapless dresses, and i really like this one a lot. it's pretty and fun. it's not definately "the dress" yet (i don't think), but in any event, it'll be something like that. i've never been in a wedding party before (well, almost, but we won't go there ;) ). i can't wait to see what erika picks out for her dress.

weddings are so fun :D

hooray for feeling useful! i spent my entire morning in the water lab running nitrate and ammonia tests on various water samples. it was nice to feel useful, since my project isn't really up and running yet. the testing isn't something i can do on my own yet; there are about a bazillion steps, so i'm sort of relegated to "helper" status for the first several runs. but eventually i'll be on the rotation to do them on my own. that's several months from now, but still. neat. who would have thought that i'd actually enjoy working, for all intents and purposes, in a chem lab? it all changes once you relate it to something interesting, though. it'll be nice when i actually have some sample of my own to run. hopefully in the next few weeks we'll be able to get something started with the wetland. at any rate, i'll keep you posted :)

so that's what's in that truck...

so, when i lived in windham, i used to see the schwan's truck all the time. i vaguely knew that it involved food delivery; mostly ice cream, i thought. honestly, i never really gave it much thought at all. then kelly brought in a catalog to work the other day. i did not realize that these people bring food to your house. like, any kind of food you want. you just call them and say "bring me prime rib and mashed potatoes and green beans," and then the little truck comes to your house and brings you prime rib and mashed potatoes and green beans! holy convenience, batman! i had no idea things like that existed. i can't wait until i have some more money, b/c you bet your sweet bippy i'm going to their website and stocking up my freezer. really. did everyone else know about this? i'm amazed.

this picture makes me smile :)

it's called "you are my sunshine," and it's from a really neat site called, oddly enough, explodingdog.com. you submit a phrase via email, and the guy who runs the site picks some out and draws his own interpretation. it's an interesting concept, and a lot of the drawings are far less straight forward that this one, which, i think anyway, makes them very thought-provoking. worth checking out.

uneventful day--had a snow delay, and when i went in at 10 am for class i found out that it had been cancelled as well. so i hung out in my office drinking tea and eating chocolate pie (the breakfast of champions!) that erik's mom made. yum. went to work, which was dreadfully slow, fed kim's cats, and now i'm home. la la la. off to work on my hydrology homework, and reheat some of the vast quantities of chili that are in my fridge. hooray for 5-qt crockpots :). anyone want some chili?

man, work stunk today. we have a sub-in doctor while my boss is on vacation, and this evening both the sub-in and one of our regular vets, wendy, saw appointments until 7pm. the other tech was only on the schedule until 5:30, and offered to stay until 7, but the woman who does the schedule said we'd be fine with 2 doctors and me. well, sub-in decided that he needed to do x-rays and mondo bloodwork on a dog, on top of seeing the rest of his evening appointments. i told him we had time to do that, as long as we admitted the dog and did it right then and there. so i take the dog in back, set up for the blood draw and x-rays, and wait. no doctor. so i go to see where he is--he went into his next appointment. so now we're all thrown behind. i finally get him in the treatment room, and he tells me that he doesn't know how our x-ray machine works (?!?!?!?), and i have to do the x-rays myself. he graciously offers, however, to put the dog on the table for me. thanks a lot. so i set up, do, and process the x-rays by myself. then i have to tell him exactly how much blood to draw up for each blood test (how are you a vet without knowing this?!??), and what type of blood tube to use. i run all of the in house tests he wants, and prep and fill out lab forms for the ones he wants to send out. now, mind you, there is another doctor who also needs my help, so i have to run back and forth setting up all of sub-in and wendy's other appointments and getting them into rooms. plus, sub-in doctor won't learn how to use our computer system, and we don't use paper files, so i have to write bills for everything he does, plus type in all the exam comments for him. then, he wants me to find him paperwork from a pet he saw earlier in the day (with a different tech) so he can decipher the blood tests he did that i printed out for him because no one else bothered to do it. i don't know what you did with it, buddy! i wasn't even there! gah! i was so happy to leave there tonight...not looking forward to wednesday.

so on tuesday, i'll be a grad student. surreal. after five and a half years, i was just perfecting the art of being an undergrad ;)

uconn's financial aid department is giving me migraines. they mucked up my aid application so much last semester--after telling me over the summer not to send my revised forms into federal because they could do it faster, they completely forgot to do it. i had to remind them. twice. i didn't even get an aid package offered to me until a week after the semester ended. and the package they did offer me was pitifully small. they don't care that i've filed as an independent for the past five years. they don't care that i don't live with my parents, or that my parents don't pay for my schooling. as long as you're under 24 and don't have a degree (which i do now, but last semester i didn't), they assume that your parents are paying for everything for you. so i had to write a letter explaining my financial situation and why i deserve more money than i got, and maybe they'll reconsider the package. in the meantime, i can't register for classes, b/c i still haven't paid for last semester. gah. the woman i spoke with yesterday said that i'd written a good letter, and i should come back on tuesday to see if it had been reviewed. so that's the plan. hopfully they'll give me enough money to cover last semester...i apply for financial aid for a reason, people! i'm b-r-o-k-e! *sigh*

i love my new cell phone.

it's compact. it's user friendly. it has a color screen. it plays the theme from the muppet show when mike calls me. it plays "chariots of fire" when lisa or abbie call me. it plays "take on me" by a-ha when anyone else calls me (i love that video. did you know that? because i do). it lets me call anyone else with verizon for free for up to 1000 minutes a month. since most of the people i know have verizon, i think this is a pretty darn good deal, even considering that mike and i are on the same plan and have to share the minutes. most of all, i am simply overjoyed to have joined the world of The Real Cellphone, where you never have to hear "you have twenty five minutes to complete this call. please hold while your call is being connected," or "your balance is low. re-up today at any verizon or participating seven-eleven location." hooray!

so what are you waiting for? call me so i can bask in the glory of my digitally modulated 80's music!

bah for moving targets.

since i got my new digital camera for christmas, i've been very excited about its portability and convenience. i kept thinking of all the times i'd seen things and thought "i have to take a picture of that!", only i didn't have my bulky 35mm on me at the time, and the photo op was lost. well, in the past 24 hours, i have seen 2 such photo ops that were shot down because the desired targets kept moving. pooh.

target #1: a man at the bowling alley last night was wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with the following saying: "the flogging will continue until morale improves." i thought that this would be a perfect t shirt for my friend ray, and i really really wanted to take picture and email it to him. but the big jerk kept moving, and the one picture i did manage to take left the back of the t shirt undecipherable. bastard.

target #2: this morning, mike and i were driving behind a pickup truck with 3 girls and a goat in it. yes, three girls and a goat. not in the truck bed; i'm talking about inside the cab, all nice and cozy. a goat. i thought at first that perhaps it was a dog, but no. it was most definately a goat. where were they taking the goat? i don't know. but it would have made a great picture if the damn goat didn't lay down (and therefore put itself completely out of view) as soon as we got up next to the truck. bastard goat.

tonight we are driving down to stamford to see deanna, georges, and anjeli. i hope all of you have a very happy new year's eve, whatever you end up doing. and please, DON"T DRINK AND DRIVE!!

Happy New Year!
love krista

what a happy happy christmas :)

everyone seemed to really like the gifts that i made/got for them, which was fantastic. my little brother was especially psyched about his one-of-a-kind custom pie shirt (long story), and the fleece scarves went over pretty well, too. *and*, i got lots of really great gifts, including some things i didn't even ask for (like an incredibly nice digital camera and a stainless steel crock pot) or think that i would ever get (like the *entire* Trials of Life video series hosted by sir david attenborough--my dad rocks ebay!). it was wonderful, happy end to a very trying year, and i don't think we could have asked for anything better.

and on a completely unrelated note: lobster barbie.

i am done done done done done with my undergrad work! after five and a half years, i have finally finished the requirements for *both* of my bachelor's degrees! (happy dance, happy dance). and it's almost christmas. and we've had two good snows, which i love driving around in. and we got a new bed on saturday--a queen size, brand new, grown-up bed! things are good right now. i'm a happy camper. lisa and abbie are coming over tomorrow to make cookies, and hopefully on wednesday we'll be getting a christmas tree (a REAL christmas tree. hear that, landlady? a REAL tree). so there.

alrighty...i have lots of crafty presents to work on :)

twinkle, twinkle little pit...

maybe i'm missing out on something here. maybe i'm old fashioned to think that shaving and washing my armpits is good enough. maybe i'm just not "hip". whatever the reason, i can't for the life of me imagine why someone would want to buy deoderant that sparkles. above and beyond that, i can't even imagine why someone might think that creating such a product might be a good, lucrative idea. is there something fetching about sparkly pits? please, if you or someone you know uses sparkly deoderant, tell me what is going through your mind. i'm intrigued.

i used to have a donkey that i loved a lot...

my brother introduced me to weebl and bob a few months ago. this adulterated version of "jenny from the block" made me chuckle, so i thought i'd share. apparently, mtv has somehow bought into this whole thing, so check it out before it's eaten by the corporate monster ;)

goodbye, miss mouse...


i lost my pippa mouse today. with the help of dodi's blood, she did make it through surgery. however, opening her up revealed that not only was her stomach overwhelmed by a hard, lime-sized tumor, but there were also between 50 and 100 smaller tumors scattered throughout her body. while coming out of anesthesia, she went into shock. she stopped breathing while i was kissing her head and talking to her. she died in my arms at around 5pm.

pippa was abandoned in a muck bucket with three other kittens at the first veterinary practice that i worked at, about 4 and a half years ago. she was only 7 weeks old. one of the other kittens looked almost exactly like her, but i chose pippa because of her fat, round face and "chipmunk cheeks". she lived everywhere i lived--in my dorm room, in my series of apartments. she comforted me when i was sad. she was a little (okay, sometimes a lot) cranky with strangers, but she was a squishy lump of love to me. i absolutely cannot believe that when i go to bed tonight, she won't be there to jump up and snuggle with me.

thank you so much to everyone who's been there during pippa's sickness with kind thoughts and words. to all of you who pippa ever growled at, i am sure she did it with love. well, maybe not love, but i'm sure there was a hint of fondness... :)

goodbye, miss mouse. momma loves you.

a quick pippa update...i've decided to let my boss go in and take a stomach biopsy from pippa on monday. i've had a long talk with dodi, and he has agreed to spend the day at the hospital as well in case the Dr thinks that a blood transfusion will lessen miss mouse's anesthetic risk (since she's so anemic). i figure with the biopsy results, i can at least decide if chemotherapy is a viable option or not. please keep pippa mouse in your thoughts on monday, and cross your fingers for a realistically chemo-treatable prognosis. she's only 4 years old, and while I don't want to prolong her suffering, I don't want to "give up" if there's anything I can do to fix her. (i know "give up" isn't the best word choice; i know that my job situation affords me the opportunity to explore different avenues that otherwise i literally might not be able to afford. just wanted to clarify that i don't think someone else in the same situation would be "giving up" if they chose to euthenize w/o further exploration...).

i feel like i've hit a ten on the crappy-week-o-meter.

i've been sick all week, which isn't necessarily the worst possible thing, except that i hate being sick. but who doesn't? work on monday was about as horrible and stressful as it possibly could have been. i'd go into detail, but it would take far, far too long. that's all just crappy-week filler, anyway. the main thing that has me down right now is that last night, i found out that pippa has stomach cancer. most of you probably know that she's been sick for about 3 and a half months now, losing weight, refusing to eat, etc etc. i brought her in to work over the weekend so that someone could force feed her while mike and i were in the city, and since she was there, we did some more bloodwork and x-rays, and an ultrasound. she's severely anemic (normal kitty red blood cells should be at ~ 35%; pippa's are 17%). the new x-rays show a considerable increase in the size of her stomach wall, and the ultarsound shows it to be dense and inoperable. i have few to no options. i was a total and complete wreck last night. that cat has been everywhere i've been for the past 4 and a half years...she lived in the dorms with me, she's apartment hopped with me. she's my baby. i don't care if that sounds dumb. as up and down as the past three years have been, she's been through it all with me. and now she's sick and there's nothing i can do. i want to just crawl under my blankets and not come out.

meh.

fangoriously...gelatinous...and, uh...linebacker...

i keep having the urge to say these three words. blame it on strong bad. and while you're there, you can also check out trogdor.

hope they're handing out depends...

can you spot the error in this email sent out to UConn students and staff? abbie's mom did :)

This years Homecoming Parade will take place this Thursday, October 23, 2003 from 6:00pm to 7:00pm.

Glenbrook Road will be closed beginning at 5:00pm for the parade to form up. The Busway from Gully Hall to Glenbrook will be closed from 6:00pm to 7:00pm and there will be no parking on Stadium Road from 5:00pm to 8:00pm.

The parade route will turn right off Glenbrook onto the Busway to Gulley Hall; right on Fairfield Way, left on Hillside Road and right on Stadium Road. The parade will end at the Memorial Stadium.

The entire University Community is invited to view the parade.

We apologize for any incontinence the parade may cause individuals entering or leaving the campus at this time.

"Go Huskies"
M. Kevin Fahey, Associate Director, Campus Activities
University of Connecticut

i got peed on by a 19 pound cat named buford today.

that is all.

so disappointing...

last fall, dunkin donuts introduced the seasonal and quite yummy pumpkin spice doughnut (or, "donut" if you prefer). lisa and i were both interning at the same conservation center at the time, and would frequently hit up the d&d (no, we did not play dungeons and dragons) for pumpkin spice donuts and hot chocolate on the way back to campus. so needless to say, we were very excited for the return of the pumpkin spice donut this fall. well, maybe not *very* excited, but excited enough to set up a special "hot chocolate and pumpkin spice donut" date. so why is this all so disappointing? because this year, some wiseguy thought it would be a good idea to put frosting and sprinkles on the already perfect pumpkin spice donut. egad! what were they thinking? *sigh*. they tried to make up for it with a non-frosted (and also quite tasty) apple cider donut...and it almost worked, but not quite. :P . dumb ol' dunking donuts, popping my little pumpkin spice bubble. gar.

Windup Hopping Lederhosen

"Somewhere, there's a tiny Bavarian man hopping around with no pants!! These little tiny lederhosen, or "leather pants" in English, will brighten even the grumpiest person's day. Just wind them up, let them go and then shout, "Oh! Meine Lederhosen! Dey haf escaped!" This is one of those products you have to buy just to prove it exists."

i love archie mcphee :)

no, it's not "platy-ma-pus", you idiot...

i don't know how many of you have happened to stumble upon the excercise in futility that is jessica simpson's thought process on Mtv's Newlyweds, but lord almighty is it hysterical to watch. hysterical in a sad, disbelieving way, but hysterical all the same. in case you've missed it, check this out. feeling better about yourself already, aren't you? that's what jessica's here for. kind of like me and bowling--just there to boost everyone else's ego.

my sister got engaged! my sister got engaged!

erika called me up last night to tell me that rich proposed! ever the planner, my sister has the wedding date (march 20th 2005) picked out, and has asked me to be one of her maids of honor (there will be 2 of us). i'm so excited! i've never been in a wedding party before. what fun :).

it's pouring again today...at least we had a beautiful weekend. went to the Big E yesterday with mike, jim, courtney, and lisa, and we met up with deanna and georges while we were there. ate like pigs, saw the world's largest rodent...what more could you ask for? we even all got goofy hats at the carnival (thanks jim!). best overheard comment of the day? "what's a rodent?". i kid you not. thank goodness for stupid people, or we'd have no one to laugh at :)

today is national talk like a pirate day. armed with that information, i expect you all to speak appropriately. landlubbers.

a brief update before i start my calc homework...

far far (my grandfather) is fairing relatively well in icu. he'll have to go to a nursing home to recuperate from the surgery. healthwise, he's decent...will to live wise, we're not so sure. only time will tell, i guess.

pippa is still at the hospital. todd (my boss) thinks it may be pancreatitis, in which case we're pretty much in hurry-up-and-wait mode, continuing supportive care. if her current meds don't have her eating normally by wednesday, we'll start a course of cortisone and see if that helps. *sigh*.

and that's all for now...

went down to stamford for georges' surprise party last night...so many september babies! ray and todd on the 3rd, me on the 8th, cat on the 9th, georges on the 13th...and i know i have a few to remember coming up later in the month.

i have to call home later on today to get an update on my grandfather...he broke his hip earlier in the week and had surgery; now he's apparently in the icu with some sort of infection. it seems he's not putting up much of a fight, from what i understand...all of the information i have was gleaned off a message my dad left on my answering maching last night, so i don't really know much. i'm bracing myself for...well, for anything, i guess. i'm glad i got to see him last weekend.

hpefully i can bring pippa mouse home from the hospital tomorrow. i admitted her on thursday morning...she's been not eating well/vomiting/losing weight for about a month now, and after trying every possible alternative at home, i finally just brought her in and left her there. we'd already done bloodwork and x-rays and found very little, but more blood tests have shown that she's losing protein, and not from her kidneys (the place protein loss frequently occurs). so she's on twice daily meds right now, and hopefully will be feeling better by monday. if not, we may need to open her up for intestinal biopsies. this is my baby kitten...i'm trying to hope for the best.

it's gloomy out...maybe i'll go back to sleep for a little while...

on a mission for don...

know anyone named don? make him read this.

i am deeply, deeply troubled by this. what in the world...? i don't know what disturbs me more...that they have a stuffed animal named cooter who "likes exploring small dark places", or that the one they call cozy has "three creamy udders that are fun to fondle." or maybe it's just the proclamation that "the more you fondle them, the happier they are." egads! read all of the descriptions, and don't shoot whatever you're drinking out your nose.

i got a smoothie machine for my birthday (thanks dee!), so this weekend was a blur of tasty blended alcoholic beverages. hey, i'm allowed every once in a while. and how fun is this--when i walked into the staff meeting at work yesterday, i was greeted by a rousing rendition of "happy birthday" by my coworkers, and cupcakes. yum :). so far, 23 is good. and i finally got a desk (yes! a real desk!), so i don't have to sit on the floor with my computer monitor on a rubbermaid container anymore. hooray!

okay...off to do calc homework. meh.

what a gloomy gloomy day :P

it's gray and rainy today, and i've subsequently felt very tired and blah since i woke up this morning. i bought the last of my books today (finally!), and managed to finagle my way out of buying a graphing calculator (thanks lisa!), so at least i'm not too terribly broke. which is nice, considering i just got paid today. i've got to set aside some money to make my taco dip for this weekend, and maybe some chili as well (if abbie's mom will be nice enough to let me borrow her crock pot again after i held it hostage for months last time). i suppose i could just go out and buy my own crock pot, but...i'm not going to if i don't have to. note to self: call abbie's mom and beg. for now, i must go change for my jukido class, and hopefully re-park my car closer to the armory so i don't have to schlub all the way back to WB Young in the dark. later gators.

i can't believe i haven't posted this yet! i got in to grad school starting in january!!! i'll be doing work on constructed wetlands used to process agricultural run-off and storm water. which may sound not so exciting to some of you, but is pretty much exactly what i was hoping to do. yipee! as far as i know, i also get a stipend (not exactly sure how much yet), a tuition waiver, and (praise the lord) medical benefits. so needless to say, i am very very excited. :D

also fun and exciting--i started my jukido class last night, and i am really enjoying it so far. it's 2 nights a week at the armory at UConn, and i'm getting one credit for it. other than that, i'm taking calculus (again), conservation biology, meteorology, and an independent study to start getting some background information on my grad research. busy busy busy. hopefully it won't be too stressfull of a semester. we shall see...

i'll bet the groom is sorry now...

"A North Haven bride spent part of her wedding night in a jail cell, after police said she hurled things at reception hall workers who closed the bar. " read more.

so much for being the image of poise and beauty on your wedding day...

no, i haven't died.

grad school is looking *very* promising for the spring, which is wonderful--however, i'm now in the middle of much fall registration turmoil (of course i am). for some reason (and no one knows why, apparently), People Soft (the on-line program that all registration is conducted through) will not let me register for anything. not one single thing. i called the registrar and got them to manually put me into a calculus class, since that's the only thing that i actually need to take, but i was hoping to take a full semester's worth of classes so that i'd get more financial aid. i went to UConn the other day, but no one was able to figure out what the problem was. the only thing i can think of to do is make a list of all the classes that i want, go back to the registrar's office, and make them manually put me into every class. which i think i'll be doing on wednesday morning.

it also appears that i have poison ivy on my ankle. i'm not really sure, b/c i've never actually *had* poison ivy, but that's what everyone at work told me it looked like. bah. i wasn't even anywhere near poison ivy! harumph.

Mike started his new job today as *Pharmacy Manager* (ooh la la!) at the West Harford Walgreens. his new schedule gives him every other tuesday and wednesday off, and since i also have tomorrow (tues) off, we might go to the beach. wheee! i can't believe that it's the middle/end of august and summer is almost over. *sigh* back to the books soon.

two of my very dear friends lost their home to a house fire recently, as well as all of their belongings and, worst of all, their dog and kitten. i can't even imagine how difficult things must be right now, but i am so, so thankful that the two of them are okay. it seems so unfair sometimes, the way that horrible things happen to the nicest of people. i can't even begin to understand it...

i'm still in limbo about what the fall is going to bring...it turns out that two of my letters of recommendation never got submitted to the grad school, so they haven't even processed my application yet. nice. i sent out a few politely pushy emails, so hopefully, that will get the ball rolling. and in any event, i'll be on campus this thursday to meet with morty.

what else...? hopefully i'll be going to see abbie play in her old people band on wednesday evening (i've got a mental picture of a bunch of geriatrics, including a little old man with great big ears playing the tuba, and wee little abbie smack dab in the middle), and other than that, the week ahead of me is relatively uneventful. unless i'm forgetting about something, which is entirely possible...

goodnight, you moonlight ladies...

went to see james taylor with lisa the other night...what a great concert! between him and seeing pearl jam twice this year, i am being super-concert spoiled.
it's been a nice week so far. went tubing down the farmington river with erika and danielle on sunday, then the three of us, mike, and rich bbq'd at my parent's house...tuesday after mike's bowling we went and saw todd's band play at an open mike night at mario's cafe in derby (they were very good!), and mike and i spent yesterday at the beach. i now have a lovely perma-bikini baked onto my skin. very amusing. anyway, i've got to go get ready for my yoga/pilates class, but i figured i ought to update since i've been so bad about it lately. maybe next week i'll even update my other page (hah. maybe). enjoy the weekend, all! :)

i am such a slacker lately. i haven't posted anything here in weeks, and my homepage hasn't been updated since the end of may. i don't even have a really good excuse...just doing other things. anyway, as far as what's new and honestly, rather sucky:

*i finished calculus. unfortunately, i did not pass calculus, so despite the fact that i already participated in the spring graduation ceremony, i will be going back to school in the fall to take calculus yet again. on a somewhate brighter note, this may mean that i will also be able to take the dendrology class that i never got a chance to take. but i'm really having a hard time seeing a bright side to the fact that after 10 semesters and the completion of 2 bachelor's degrees worth of requirements, i failed my very. last. required. class.

*as of yesterday morning, oscar has shuffled off this mortal coil. for those of you who do not know, oscar was the eastern painted turtle who i had gotten as an itty bitty hatchling a little over three years ago (he was exactly the size of a quarter, i swear to god!). he had been having some eating issues, not really wanting to eat anything that i offered him, but he seemed to have resolved them and had been eating like a champ for the last 2 weeks. saturday night, he was alive and puttering around in his aquarium. sunday morning, he was not. i don't know what happened. :( very very sad.

these very cute switch plates are from metro retro. they've got tons more, and although i have not yet ordered any, i am coveting them as we speak...

i've had my lovely, beautiful, fantastic jeep for just shy of a month, and i already have a headlight out. wha?? i don't even do that much driving at night. i mean, even if i drove around all night long every night theat i've had the car, you'd think that i *still* wouldn't have a head light out. so bah. i don't know what's up with that. but i'll probably be fixing that today, as well as studying for my calculus final (it's almost over! it's almost over!). wish me luck...

dirrrrty bunnies



these are actual fabrics that you can buy at nestmagazine.com. i don't know why you would want to, since they cost $87.00 per yard, but just think of the possibilities as far as conversation pieces are concerned...living room curtains, a bed spread (well, i suppose that might be appropriate), a lovely blouse. "why that's a lovely fornicating bunny blouse you have there!" "why thank you! i made it myself!" it's almost worth the obscene cost. almost.

i am trying to lose weight. nothing drastic, just a few pounds...but still. it makes it awfully hard when companies are making yummy ice cream goodness like new york strawberry cheesecake. and it helps even less that said ice cream is currently sitting in my freezer, calling my name. it's taunting me. it *wants* me to have a big butt.

all is well here. i know i've been a major slacker in the updating department, but i'm going to blame it on calculus for now. i've only got 6 more classes left (hooray!!), and i can't wait. work has been good lately, but tough, since one of the doctors left and several people got laid off. i'm thinking about taking the tech test and becoming certified if i don't get in to grad school for the fall...we shall see. i any event, i have to go study for the calc exam i have on thursday. i hope everyone's enjoying the lovely day that CT is having...

cats that hate you.

my personal favorite: "Anubis hates you because he is a god, and you are not. He is displeased with the mere mortals that surround him, he will shit on their beds."

or perhaps it's this:"As I sit here, imprisoned by my monkey-faced turd of a human, I silently relish the thought of every night, I creep up, sit on his face, and fart ever so smugly into his gaping mouth."

my jeep is the most beeyooteeful vehicle in the world. except for the big blob of bird poo on the hood. stupid bird. garrr...

i'm getting my jeep tomorrow! i'm getting my jeep tomorrow! they agreed to accept half of the original agreed downpayment, and didn't stiff us on the deposit. hooray!

okay, off to do more calculus homework before i have to go to work :P

very strange...i made a pile of changes to my template, and although the template code shows up as edited, none of the changes are appearing on the page. in other words, this page is currently creating itself off of coding that no longer exists. sometimes blogger is infuriating. gah. i fully expect there to be more issues in the days ahead, since they are currently in the process of moving all of their blogs over to the new editing format. which is cool and all, but still...its a little sad when you know the system is going to bomb out on you before anything really even happens.

monetary stress of the week: my jeep has been delivered to the dealer, which is all well and good except for the fact that we told them 4 weeks ago that we wouldn't have the money for the down payment until june 12th. we were told "oh, that's fine, it takes 6 to 8 weeks for the car to be manufactured and shipped anyway." well, it didn't take 6 to 8 weeks, it took four. and now they're saying that we only have 5 days after being notified of delivery to pick up the car, or we forfeit our $500 deposit (note: june 12th is more than 5 days away). so...not really sure what's going on at the moment. send me happy thoughts.

nice thing of the week: even though i didn't have time today to get a temporary parking permit for my parents' car (which i drove to school today) and there was already a parking cop sitting in the lot when i parked the car, i somehow managed to *not* get a parking ticket. hallelujah.

please excuse any technical difficulites...i am mid-revamp.

long time, no post, i know. to catch up: last saturday was graduation. two days later, i started my calculus class (even though i participated in the ceremony, i'm not *technically* done until i finish calc). calc meets MTWTh 9-11 am for six weeks. that makes one wek down, and only 5 more to go (oh, you bet i'm counting). i had my first exam this morning, and i think i did pretty well.

**I GOT A C IN PHYSICS**

that deserved its own line, i think. this is the first time i have ever been positively thrilled with a C. i was really, really frightened that i might not pass that class.

and in household news: last friday, mike and i noticed that our cabinets were falling off the wall in the kitchen. i guess that's what happens when they aren't screwed into studs. sheesh. so anyway, when i got back from calc class monday morning, they had come , emptied the wrong cabinet and taken it off the wall. no note, no phone message, just dishes and glasses all over the counter and a missing cabinet. mind you, the set that was visibly loosened from the wall was still intact. then today (thursday), two of the building employees show up with my cabinets to reattach them. where did they take them for four days? i don't know. what did they do with them? i don't know. they weren't broken. so anyway, they're downstairs now re-attaching that set of cabinets to the wall, and they said that today, they're going to take the set that's falling off the wall and come back tomorrow to reattach it. i don't understand why they keep taking the cabinets (which are not broken, merely badly attached to the wall), but whatever. as long as they stay on the wall this time, i really don't care. now, i must go make sure that none of the cats are getting underfoot in the kitchen...they're nosey little buggers...

happy dance! happy dance! i am *done* with school work for this semester!! i had planned on spending the next two days finishing my GPS project, but i showed my prof what i had so far today, and he said that it was good, and anything else that needed to be done we could discuss when i meet with him on wednesday to turn the project in. so I AM DONE! now, if only i could shake this nasty cold i've had for the past week...it seems to have graduated to a full-blown sinus infection. gah. at least i finished my project today, so now i'll have time tomorrow to go the the walk-in and score some antibiotics. i don't want to be a big ol' snot head for graduation :P

oh, and check this out. especially the IM "screen shots." very amusing.

***PHYSICS IS OVER***

thank the lord.

i am officially *ahem* a Team Leader.

i went into work today to find a little pin with the words "Team Leader", as well as a $25 gift certificate to the Willimantic Pub and Brewery in my mailbox. apparently, at monday's staff meeting (i wasn't there b/c i had a class) i was chosen as the evening technician team leader for the month based on how hard i've been working lately, most specifically this past saturday, which was busy as all heck. so that was pretty neat :)

other than that, worked on my GPS project today, and now i'm going to go study for my physics final. what fun. i have that exam saturday afternoon, then lab animal on sunday morning. my GPS project is due wednesday, i take me GRE's on thursday, i graduate on saturday, and i start my calculus class on monday. busy week, eh?

i got a 70 on my physics exam!!!!! do you know what this means, people? it means that i passed! i passed a physics exam! whoo hoo!!

oh dear... the things some people will do just to get a trophy.

*evil, evil grin*



muahahahahaha! my cats are in sooooo much trouble >:D

!!!!!!!!!!

today makes two whole years that mike and i have been together. since we both have to work tonight, we decided to celebrate yesterday. so...mike got home around 5:00 last night and presented me with a card that he had made that included a set of directions to an unknown destination. the next page of the card: a bunch of pearl jam stickers (stickers! whee!), and...tickets to the pearl jam concert at the pepsi center in albany, which was at 7:30 last night!! talk about keeping a secret until the last minute! we got there in time to catch the opening act, too, which was sparta. i cannot even tell you how amazing the concert was...it was incredible. i can't wait to see them again in july...the show had so much energy, they played a fantastic set....!!!!! yay! i have the best boyfriend ever :D

also neat: this was the same show that my friends chris and jody had tickets to, and i'd been pestering them all week, telling them they had to tell me all about the concert and what songs they played, etc...and we actually ended up running into them outside after the concert. we didn't get home until nearly 2 am, but i managed to make it to my 8 am physics class only 5 minutes late, and i'm on my second wind now...we'll see how the rest of the day goes.

i just thought that you might all like to prepare yourself for the important upcoming holiday this friday. i expect all of you to be in full compliance. no excuses now, you hear? really, it's your civic duty.

ooooh.... :D

we went and signed all the papers for the jeep yesterday...that's the color that i chose, above ("intense blue pearl coat"). looks like the ETA is going to be early/mid june. *yay*!

this week is screwy. it's wednesday, but it feels like...i don't know. not wednesday. my internal clock is completely off kilter. ah well. it's been a good week so far...on monday i managed to get a few extra points on my physics exam from my professor, and i had lunch w/ mike's uncle elan and cousin adam, who were up from puerto rico checking out colleges for adam. today i think i kicked some butt on my lab animal exam, and now i have to go write a physics lab report...which is okay, since it will be my *last physics lab report ever*. hooray :D and, i caught up with an old friend of mine from high school that i hadn't talked to since graduation...oh, 5 years ago? pretty exciting. mike and i were supposed to go tomorrow to sign the paperwork for my car, but that's getting pushed off until next week. that's okay--~2 months, and it's jeep time once again!
plug: if you need a photographer for anything, call my friend brooke. any of you who know me know that i am *not* a photogenic person, but she managed to get some shots of me that (gasp!) even have my eyes open. check out the turtle and snake shot on her web page--those are my babies (oscar and athena)!

sometomes, blogger, you are wholeheartedly irritating. why, for example, is my right menu being attached to the bottom of my blog? my tables are ended correctly. and regardless, that's not *my* coding, anyway. it's *your* coding, blogger. so why can't you read it and make it do what it says it should be doing? why is half of one of my posts missing? *sigh*. actually, i think i know what the problem is, and i think i may know how to fix it...

*puttering around*

[edited to say: "i fixed it! *yay*!]

mike got tickets to see pearl jam!!!!! we're going to see them at the tweeter center in boston on july 3rd. i cannot even tell you how excited i am about it! AND, we faxed in the order for my jeep to my uncle last week, and we're going down to sign paperwork on thursday. so in about two months, i will have a car. and not just a car. a jeep. a jeep wrangler. *happy dance happy dance happy dance.* i will not marr the happiness of this entry by telling you about how i did not do so well on my physics exam last week. suffice it to say i got my best grade yet. let's leave it at that.

update: after much trekking about campus, the "1-credit" issue has been solved. degree audit wasn't counting 4 pathobiology credits that are required for my animal science degree, so really, i have 3 more credits than i need (not one less). so all is well.

also: for the first time *ever*, i was able to answer ever single question on my physics exam this morning!! although it is highly unlikely that i could have answered all of them correctly, at least i was able to draw some sort of intelligent (i hope) conclusion to each problem. so, *yay* for me. let's just hope that i passed this one...

i just got a letter in the mail--i am ONE animal science credit short of graduation requirements!!!!!!! how did i (not to mention my 2 advisors) never catch this before??!!?? God help me, could this semester *BE* any more stressful???

argghhhHHHH!

lovely lisa bought me this kick ass shirt the other day from the co-op. oooh, it makes me want my jeep!

had a lovely weekend--work went by super fast on saturday morning, and by the time i got home, the clouds had cleared and the sun was shining. saturday night = party at lisa's with yummy drinks and lots of new people to meet. sunday, abbie and i gps'd the morning away, then munched on pasta salad; sunday night, we went down to mike's parents' for pizza and ice cream for his mom's birthday. in bed and snoozing by 11 pm. gotta love that. today abbie and i went for a short but enjoyable run, tonight i'm going grocery shopping for lots of good food, and tomorrow is supposed to be 80 degrees. whoo hoo. it's lookin' like a good week so far :)

from today's Onion:

VOLUME 31 ISSUE 16 — 29 APRIL 1997
Ünited Stätes Toughens Image With Umlauts
WASHINGTON, DC—In a move designed to make the United States seem more "bad-assed and scary in a quasi-heavy-metal manner," Congress passed a bill Monday changing the nation's name to the Ünited Stätes of Ämerica. "Much like Mötley Crüe and Motörhead, the Ünited Stätes is not to be messed with," said Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK). An upcoming redesign of the Ämerican flag will feature the new name in burnished silver wrought in a jagged, gothic font and bolted to a black background. A new national anthem is also in the works, to be written by composer Glenn Danzig and tentatively titled "Howl Of The She-Demon."

i am so, so tired today...*yawn*
and don't even get me started on the snow we're supposed to be getting. garrrr. it's spring, for pete's sake! *s-p-r-i-n-g!*. yesterday, the news said that we might get 7-10 inches of snow. now, not only do i not want to drive a car that isn't mine in that, but...it's april 7th! bah. i want warm weather so i can wear flip flops and skirts and drive with my windows rolled down. oh well. soon enough, i guess...

we're having technical difficulties...

yay! got my lab practical grade for GIS: 96%, and 98% overall lab grade. makes me much happier than physics, that's for sure...other than that, not much news for today. it was cooold today---bah. i'm so looking forward to consistently warm weather. drizzle and threats of sleet make me grumpy. i think i'll go paint my toenails in protest of the crappy weather. don't ask me for rationale, okay? just go with it.

this could, quite possibly, be the best title of a children's book *ever*: "The Day My Butt Went Psycho". those crazy canadians...

"Since his twelfth birthday, two months ago, Zack's butt had made a habit of jumping off his body and running around the streets making a nuisance of itself. Zack was sick of it. So was the local buttcatcher who had already caught and impounded it three times." buahahahaha! i think i need to buy this book...

i keep forgetting about