it is so. hot. and. humid. blargh.

yesterday was wednesday, which means last night was craft night with the ladies! had four people over, and we layed out a big blanket on the grass in the yard, and i grilled on my cute little ikea charcoal grill. we drank beer, ate burgers and pasta salad, knitted, and crocheted. (actually, i didn't knit or crochet a darn thing. i just plain didn't feel like it. but i *did* cook, so that ought to count for something).

this weekend i'm driving up to lake placid to visit with lisa and chad in their yurt :). should be fun; i've never been that far upstate before. but first, i have to mow up at the wetland tomorrow morning, which is a royal pain in my butt. :P

FYI: rob's band is playing the main stage at the webster in hartford on july 9th. they played at toad's place in new haven a few weeks ago, too...not bad venues for a band of high schoolers. rock on, little brother!

back from arizona...

what an incredible trip :). since the last update: friday afternoon, dana took me up to flagstaff where we had dinner at the flagstaff brewing company. then we drove up to the lowell observatory and looked at jupiter through the huge clark telescope. saturday morning, we got up early and drove up to the grand canyon, which was enormous and beautiful and breathtaking. dana covered my eyes and led me right up to the edge before he'd let me open them, which was an awesome way to see it for the first time. then we bbq'd with some of dana's friends saturday night, and i left bright and early sunday morning (boo!). you can see pictures here. (and yes, jim, there was a capybara at the the san diego zoo; i just didn't get a picture of it).

greetings from sunny arizona! this is krista the sunburned lobster-girl, checking in to say hola and give a quick update...

spent the weekend in california with friends of dana's and their two CUTE little boys; hung out on the beach and had a really great time. we got back last night, and today i'm at work with dana trying not to get in the way. it's pretty hot here, but bearable since it's not humid at all (there's something to that whole "it's not the heat, it's the humidity" thing...). though it's barely been over 100 degrees since i got here, and i don't think lack of humidity can save 112 degrees from being anything but hellacious [this is clearly all in Fahrenheit, for all you non U.S.-ers out there ;)]. anyway...having a really great time and enjoying getting to spend some quality time with dana. i'll check back in and have pictures when i get home :)

busy busy busy!

first off: happy birthday dad! my dad is 52 today. everybody do the happy birthday dad dance!

done dancing? okay. whew have i got a busy week! tomorrow i have to go to the wetland to collect my samples, and jack (my advisor) is coming along to see how i do what i do. then i'm going to the airport to pick up my grandma (yay!) and bring her to my parents' house, where i'll hang out for a while. then i'll come home and clean my tornado-hit apartment and pack. wednesday i have to drive down to jordan cove to collect samples, then come back and do a buttload of lab work. then wednesday night is craft night at sandra's, and i'm going to finish my quilt. i'll probably have to pack more when i get home. thursday i have class, then i'm heading back down to my parents for the night so my dad can bring me to the airport friday morning, because i'm going to arizona to see dana for 10 whole days!!! and by the way, the weather forecast for tempe, az looks like this:

The forecast for friday looks like this:

a smidge hotter than i'm used to, but that's okay, because i get to spend 10 whole days with dana :). so obviously, i won't be posting. but i promise i'll have lots and lots of pictures when i get back!

today was sad...i helped lisa pack up her moving van. tomorrow she leaves for lake placid. i am going to miss my babycakes so. much. i cried the whole way home. my little jeep is going to have to learn the drive to upstate ny from here...

forgot to mention this...after all the turmoil and strife, i wound up with a B+ in stats (who rocked a 94.5 on the final? me! i did!), and an A- in remote sensing. hooray...and now, a bit of a reprieve until the end of august...

may 16th. my little brother is 18 years old today.

my "little" brother, who's over 6 feet tall. my "little" brother, who is graduating high school in month. my "little" brother, who is going to nyc next weekend with his band because they got studio time and are going to make an honest-to-goodness cd. yikes. somwhere along the line, rob grew up. and *fast*. i won't say that it feels like it was just yesterday that he was born, because that's silly. i was six years old when he was born, and that feels like a million years ago. but that's on the krista-scale. on the rob-scale...i don't know. maybe he should be 12. i'll even say that 15 seems reasonable. but 18? i got engaged when i was 18. yeah, i was too young, and that's why i'm not married right now...but still. i feel like he shouldn't be there yet. and i guess in a way it makes me examine my age a little more closely. i don't want to fall into the cliche of "oh my god, i'm getting old"; generally, the thought of turning 25 in a few months doesn't phase me at all. and since most of my friends are already 25 or several years past it, i feel silly feeling like this is sort of a benchmark year...even if i "did" feel old, most of the people i know would laugh me out of the room for saying so (notice how i'm not naming names? you know who you are ;). may the bravest of you leave a comment...). anyway...i'm rambling now. i guess the point i'm getting toward is holy crow does time fly, and i hope that i can at least look back when i catch my breath and feel like i've *done* something. i hope all of us can.

cheers, and happy birthday to my little brother...

having seen this, i can die amused. while the picture itself is worth a thousand words, i think it's the caption that really does it for me.

that's one righteous mullet, you squishy little redneck, you. who's a rock star? that's right. you are.

thanks, matt...

weekend: fantastic :). dana got to meet more of my friends and spend some time with my family (yay!), and he loved his birthday presents (yay!). i was a little worried that i wouldn't get the flies tied in time, but two guys from my office took pity on me and showed me how on friday, so i managed to get a few done, plus the ones they tied while teaching me that they donated. short trips like this are such a tease...i have such a wonderful time with him that they seem to fly by even faster than their already-short duration. but i'll be out there in two and a half weeks, so it's all good. and hey--it's already been five months, so who's to say that the next year won't fly right by?

check out the web page for pictures from this weekend, plus some more chester shots...

happy birthday, dana :)

chester's here!

i brought chester home last night, and he adjusted so quickly that it was almost like he'd never not lived here :). as soon as he saw me yesterday he started chirping and meowing at me, and he's been exploring every nook and cranny of the apartment. i can't even begin to tell you how much i missed having a warm little cat body curled up next to me at night. i live near a fire department, and the alarm freaks him out a little bit, but otherwise he's a pretty happy, purring, rolling-around-with-his-catnip-mouse little guy. yay!

dana's birthday present (well, half of it, anyway) came in the mail today, and it's very cool...i'd tell you all about it, but i know he reads this and i don't want to spoil the surprise. you were hoping i would, weren't you dana? ha! no dice. you'll see in a few days :D

finished my stats exam (40 pages long!) today, and Lisa's coming over in a few to partake of a few much deserved beers. that's all for now...later gators!

i have *so much* going on this week! holy crow! i've got a presentation for my advanced remote sensing class on wednesday (and two assignments to do and a portfolio of maps to create before then), chester is coming on wednesday (!!!!!), my stats final is due friday (ugh), and dana's flying in on saturday(!!!!!). *and* saturday morning is the masters/phd graduation, so i'm going to go to that and cheer and rah rah for lisa and connie and erik and mark and mike. then sunday is mother's day, and monday is dana's birthday (and the day he heads back to AZ :P ). *and* for the next two weeks, i'm working a few shifts squeezed in at the animal hospital b/c they're short staffed. did i mention that i'm on the verge of losing my mind? but it's all good, because come this weekend i'm going to have a snuggly wonderful kitty and an incredibly awesome hottie boyfriend here in my apartment.

life is good :)

blatantly stolen from april...

Your Linguistic Profile:

50% General American English

40% Yankee

5% Dixie

5% Upper Midwestern

0% Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

ahahahahaha! *wipes tears*

what? oh, like you wouldn't have bought it, too. please.

happy earth day!

so, as i'm writing this, it's not technically earth day (april 22nd) yet. but i'm not getting up early enough to do it before i go to school tomorrow, so let's just pretend. a few things you can do today to raise your awareness:

~find out how big your ecological footprint is
~learn about ways to help prevent non point source pollution
~find out how to help keep our watersheds clean and healthy
~find some native plants to plant in your garden
~get informed about pollution in your area...search the National Priorities List to find priority spots among the known releases or threatened releases of hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants throughout the united states and its territories

go outside, take a walk, breathe some fresh air, recycle a bottle, plant a tree, pick up some trash...get out there and do *something* today!

bacon bandages. you can thank jim for those :)

i planted dahlias in pretty pots on my porch on friday! unfortunately, they don't seem to be doing very well. i knew there was a pretty good chance that i'd kill them, but i didn't think they'd be dead when i woke up the next morning. and yet, there they were, all wilty and sad on saturday morning. i thought maybe it had gotten too cold out, so i brought them in and put them by a sunny window, but the downhill slide seems to have accelerated too quickly. i think i have massacred the flowers. :(

today was the college of agriculture and natural resources "battle of the majors" (natural resources management and engineering, animal science, landscape architecture, and plant science). it was a big field-day type event with tug of war, an egg toss, a milk chugging contest, and things in that general vein. here are some pictures of team NRME Grads...we had a lot of fun and did really well in some of the events, so it was a good day. and then, of course, i went inside and did work for a few hours, which was not fun but was productive. which is good. overall, it was a lovely weekend despite my black thumb of death wreaking havoc on innocent fauna. *sigh*

pictures of the new jeep here, here, and here!

i have tinted windows. i'm ghetto. :D

goodbye blue jeep, hello green jeep...

today i sold my shiny blue wrangler and got my new (to me, anyway) shiny green wrangler. it's a 2000, dark green with half doors and a tan soft top...and it's stick. which makes me feel even more "rugged" than i already was, per the farm services guys at uconn. it's in really great shape, low miles, and i got a pretty great price on it b/c the dealer selling it wanted to buy my jeep pretty badly. and, best of all, it's mine. mine mine mine. no cosigner, no co-owner, just plain mine. and that feels really, really good.

i'll post pictures tomorrow :)

~*~*Welcome to the world, Tristan Benjamin Renshaw!*~*~

my friends chris and jody had their baby boy this evening (April 4th)! i am SO EXCITED to meet this baby :)

everybody say 'hi baby tristan'!

okay, okay, i just posted like an hour ago. whatever. i had to post this for all of the old school 'oregon trail' fans out there. and april, this one is for you :)
[see all the shirts here]

i am so ready for spring. we had a few teaser days; mid to high 50's and sunny...but i want real live spring. sunshine and flowers and flip flops. flip flops are my shoe weakness. generally, i don't care so much about shoes. september through march/april (april this year...), i basically wear my lace-up boots, which are the exact same lace-up boots that i've had for the past 4 years, b/c i wear them until they die and then re-buy the exact same pair. but come spring, i am the flip flop queen. i have a flip flop for every occasion. no, really. i do. it's sick. i have green flips and black flips and brown flips. i have suede flips and corduroy flips and straw flips and cloth flips. i have thin soled flips, thick soled flips, and wedge flips that make me supah dupah tall [side note to dana: not taller than you, don't worry ;)]. it's craziness. and now, i see that old navy has made april third (tomorrow) the First Official Day of Flip Flops. so, you know, i *have* to wear them. it's an official day, for crying out loud. not only that, but apparently, they're also conducting a flip flop model search. you fill out a form and send them a picture of your feet, and they decide who's feet are most "flip flop worthy." psh. my feet are *so* flip flop worthy (stop with the short toe jokes! stop it!). you never know; it could be my life's calling. i'd be the most over-educated flip flop model east of the mississippi, i can tell you that much. and west, for that matter.

currently laughing my butt off at engrish.com...this, this and this are a few of my favorites so far...

i hate when my batteries go exploring.

busy, fun weekend...my sister got married on saturday! the weather was sunny, the service was beautiful, and everything went off without a hitch. even i, a confirmed non-dancer, danced the night away and had a blast. good times.

don't have much time to update right now, and i'm afraid the rest of the week will be more of the same. i'm swamped with school work and need to be a bit of a hermit for a little while. i'll try to be reasonable about updates though, i promise...

yay for grown-up underoos! these, in particular...("can't you just see her in that outfit? WHOO!"). ahahahaha!

i crack myself up sometimes. it's a good thing, really.

i have found jesus. he drives a hatch back. i didn't follow him, though...he got off a different exit.

oh, and in case anyone was curious...the monkey name went for $650K. i hope they don't name it something lame...

that's just not nice. not nice at all. :P

man, the downside of anticipation is that once you finally get to the thing you've been anticipating, it inevitably flies by and then *poof*...it's gone. i have been seriously bumming all day. :P

on the up side, i had a *fantastic* weekend, could not have been better, aside from bringing dana back to the airport at which point i cried like a big ol' goober. i've never missed someone so much. and rob's band tied for runners up in the battle of the bands (they was robbed!). the band that came in first played well, but their singer bit. rob's band was better. hush up, i'm not biased. okay, i am. but they were.

on an unrelated note, i have decided to create a drink for jim called "the irritated irishman." any suggestions?

:)

it's friday, it's friday! *does happy friday dance*

picking up dana at the airport at 7 tonight, then headed to see rob's band compete in a "battle of the bands." rock on. yay for boyfriends flying all the way across the country, even if it's not even for 48 hours! ;)

this itty bitty cheeseburger made me think of april and her love of all things miniature... :)

update: current going price for the monkey name is 65K!

i stumbled across this the other day...how incredibly, incredibly bizarre. apparently, you can "buy stock" in my blog...and even stranger, somebody actually has. i'm flabbergasted. i've never heard of such a thing. this, combined with me actually checking my counter statistics yesterday, has led me to conclude that at least a handful of people are actually reading my blog. and some of them actually ended up here somehow other than me actually giving them the link, because i'm pretty sure that i don't know anyone in germany or italy (guten tag! buon giorno!). not to downplay the aussie and canadian hits, but i'm pretty sure i know how you guys got here ;).

in any event, if i've been boring the crap out of y'all, i apologize. i'll try to be more interesting ;).

apparently, if you are filthy filthy rich, you can name a monkey. not just one monkey, but a whole new just-discovered species of monkey. i feel the need to point that out, b/c i was introduced to this topic by one of the professors coming into the graduate office and saying, with no explanation/introduction, "okay, i think we'll need to pool our money, but we may have a shot at naming a monkey." i assumed he meant one, singular monkey, but no: it's a whole darn species. of course, when he said this, no one had bid yet...considering that bids are currently at $12K, i think that chances of a department-wide monkey naming are pretty slim.

what would *you* name a monkey?

jim sent me this link...is it mean? yeah, probably. but it's also a really really good idea. cracked me up, anyway...

this made me feel horribly unread

from glitches: "Instructions:
- Bold those you've read
- Italicize started-but-never-finished
- Add three of your own
- Post to your journal


1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
click here to continue...

this is adorable...not quite adorable enough for me to drop $15 to subscribe because i'm, well, broke. but adorable nonetheless. i love the old school idea of actually writing letters, and since the necessity of speed doesn't always make it practicle, i like the option of being able to at least make your e-mails seem a little bit more personal than times new roman or arial on a white background. (not that i'm knocking arial on a white background...obviously...).

this makes me want to learn how to cross-stitch. i kind of already decided that once i finish my quilt, i'm going to try to get a better handle on crocheting, but the the thought of bestowing gifts such as the above on people is really, really tempting...plus, i could finally make ray that pillow i've been telling him for, oh, three years now that i'd make ("sure, i'm an agent of satan, but my duties are largely ceremonial"). and i could still surprise him with it because i'm fairly confident that he doesn't read my blog. and if he does...well, hi ray, and forget that you just read that :)

good for a half hour or so of entertainment: the TerraServer USA website, where you can type in your (or any) address and call up an aerial photograph of your 'hood. or the 'hood of whomever you might be stalking ;).

*snort*

the blizzard of '05...tried to go out snow driving today, and all the darn roads were plowed. well, almost--ray was able to steer me toward one nice unplowed (albeit short :P) road. after making me wear a bucket on my head at sears. but that's another story.

not much of a blizzard when all the darn roads are plowed. ah well...the winter is still young, right?

it's an engine block. it's a coffee table. it's a wine rack.

it's damn cool, is what it is!

this is silly. people, they are charging you $30 for a half of a sock with the bottom stitched shut. okay, okay, a pack of half-socks. but still. seriously, if you're reading this, send me socks and i'll make 'em for half the price. less, actually. for all the time it would take me, you could just send me a nice thank you note and we'd be square. and since i'm feeling the sewing bug today (already made two pillowcases), i might just go and prove the ease with which one of these bad boys can be whipped up right now...

[edited to let you know that it took me less than 20 minutes to find a sock, make the iPod cover, take the pictures, upload them, and create that page.]

i think that this is an excellent alternative for april to use if her laser isn't working properly by the time she has to leave for new mexico...

what do you think, april? :D

it's cold. i know that in the grand new england scheme of things, it's not technically *that* cold, but...when it feels like negative 11 F out, it's hard to remind youself of that sometimes. my face turned numb just walking from the jeep to my office this morning.

however, on the bright side, they are predicting lots o' snow this weekend...i haven't seen any forcasted accumulations, but i keep hearing people refer to it as a nor'easter and saying that we might get a foot of snow. and that would be *so* much fun to drive in :D. so, cross your fingers and do some sort of snow chant for me so i can have some fun in the jeep this weekend...

dopey? me? okay...maybe a little.

okay, okay. a lot.

:D

finally got myself registered for two classes (what? classes only start tomorrow! it's not *that* last minute). not my fault i was the only person to sign up for advanced soil chem, and had to find a replacement course last minute...

i'm a smidge nervous about TA-ing this semester, but i think it'll go well. i'm really excited about the class; it's one i enjoyed a lot as an undergrad, and i think the guy who's teaching it this semester is putting a really interesting and relevant spin on it. so...it should be fun.

let's just hope i don't suck :P.

ahahahahahahha! *wipes tears from eyes.*

nipular magic. that's friggin' hysterical.

**amazon took this down...which is too bad, b/c it was hilarious. i'll see if i can find more info about it and repost...**

it's sunday. it's sunday and i have to go the lab and count e.coli colonies on bacteria plates. half of me says "meh. it's sunday. i don't wanna go to school," but the other half really wants to know what's going on on those plates, so...if you're curious later, drop me a line and i'll give you the grand tally.

my life, it's just so darn exciting ;)

**UPDATE**
okay, not that many of you really wanted one. okay, okay, i know no one cares. just humor me.

water coming into wetland: loads of e.coli.
water coming out: none!

stop looking at me like that. it's cool. it is.

whoo hoo! i have *comments* now! (thanks blogger help people!)

so, uh...leave one!

i'm not sure what i find to be more odd: the fact that this even exists, or that fact that it's actually *sold out*.

*shakes head*

but these... these, i can get on board with :)

always looking for new music to listen to, and i've stumbled across/been directed to several websites to perpetuate that lately. one of the most visually appealing is musicplasma.com, an engine that lets you input musicians that you enjoy and get back an interactive, color coded by "likeness" map of similar/similarly inspired musicians. very cool. go try it and find some new music to inspire yourself with :)

i'm itching to go somewhere. which is completely unrealistic and out of the question right now...but not this summer. the plan: maine. acadia. baxter. katahdin. hiking and camping and not thinking about anything else.

who's with me?

the neatest idea i've seen in a while: Google SMS. you can actually text message queries to google, and get responses right to your phone. and it doesn't cost extra or anything...it's the same as sending a regular text message.

neato mosquito!

happy 2005 everyone, and happy 30th anniversary mom and dad!

merry two days after christmas, everyone...i know i've not been around much as of late, but those of you who know me know that things have not been exactly swell lately. christmas was a nice distraction for me, though.

that bright blue thingamabobber is my new leatherman juice CS4 multitool that my parents...err, santa got for me. i've already used it to hang a light from my ceiling and put together a ridiculously heavy bookshelf, so it was definately a great gift. i hope everyone hade a safe and happy holidays, and will have fun and be safe on new years. more later...

goodbye, bellarina...

let me just preface this by saying that belle was the best. dog. ever. she came from the humane society at 3 months old, all giant ears and puppy kisses. a german shepherd/great pyrenees mix, she grew to be one of the biggest lap dogs you could imagine. smart, joyful, attentive, sweet, friendly, protective...she was everything anyone could possibly want in a dog.

last thursday, belle became suddenly and extremely sick--what turned out to be an acute onset of immune-mediated hemolytic anemia. basically, this means that her white blood cells started attacking her red blood cells, limiting the amount of oxygen available to her organs. she had a blood transfusion on friday night, and despite every effort and what i know must have been a fierce fight on her part, she continued to decline. my parents made the difficult but compassionate decision to put her down on sunday afternoon. belle was only 6 years old; she would have been 7 at the end of the month.

i will miss so many things about bella...the way she bounced up and down like she was on a trampoline, the way she gazed at people, the way she loved to go for rides, the way she loved to give kisses and be pet...even her klepto tendencies of stealing toys and groceries from the neighbors :). she was sweet and good and i hope that everyone gets to have a puppy as wonderful as her in their life at some point.

i love you so much, belle-face bear...

click here to see more pictures of belle

!!don't forget to vote tomorrow!!

i don't care who you vote for (okay, that's not entirely true), just get out there and vote. polls are open from 6am to 8pm, so you have no excuse. don't make me come over there and go jukido on your punk ass. oh yeah. you know i will.

a bear votes

i love peanuts specials. there's something so integral to the holiday season (whichever holiday season it may be) about them...i always feel like it must really officially be/almost be a certain time of year based on its respective charlie brown cartoon.

i bought the most ridiculous boots to wear for halloween. they are black and high-heeled and they come up over my knees. but they were $20, so what the heck. and i can always wear them with pants or long skirts the rest of the year, right? okay, probably not. but for $20, eh, so what. hopefully they'll look rockin' with my spiffy black wings. there may or may not be pictures next week to support or refute that. you'll have to check my website next week to see.

i am exhausted. i'm going to go crash on my couch and read national geographic. 'cause that's what the cool kids do. later gators.

i am loving this fall weather...

it's leaves-changing, sweater-wearing, makes me want to bake type weather. i've made two batches of chai-spiced honey cakes since the weekend. yum. i'm wearing a red woolly sweater. cozy. outside my window all the leaves are red and gold, and the sun is sunshiney. lovely. all i need now is some hot chocolate. coffee, i have. hot chocolate, i do not. phooey.

so it appears that the red sox are going to the world series. good for them (sorry dad!). don't get me wrong, i'm a yankees fan, but man, how can you not feel bad for the red sox every now and again? i wish the yankees had won, but the red sox played a better game last night, so that's just the way it is. i'll root for them in the world series...winning will mean more to them than it would have meant to new york anyway. my dad is writing me out of his will right now, i'm sure of it.

i noticed on my hit counter that people actually do bother to come and check this site out, so i figure i owe it to them to update every now an again :). but now i must get back to work. adios, muchachos. go have some hot chocolate.

so in case you hadn't noticed, i barely have time to breathe lately, let alone update my blog & website. this semester is killer in terms of work load. i'm taking 2 classes (groundwater hydrology and modeling of small watersheds), and growing ever-closer to completing the set-up of my wetland. all of the pipe is currently laid, and the majority of my data-collecting equipment is set up. it's really just down to odds and ends at this point (i ought to be able to finish this week), then i can start collecting real data. yee-ha! unfortunately, because school sucks up so much of my time, i had to give my notice at the vet...that was a terribly, awful decision to have to make. i love my job, i love my boss and co-workers...but it's just too much, especially considering that i'm fully funded by uconn and making enough money that i don't technically *need* a second job. besides, mike and i were starting to each forget what the other looked like, we get to spend time together so infrequently. yeah, i know we live together...that's what makes it even more pathetic. so hopefully, this will ease up on a little bit on the stress in my life. wednesday is my last afternoon as a vet tech...gah.

let's see...i got a sewing machine for my birthday, so i've been playing around with that the past week. i made pillowcases this morning, and i've also made a little sack for my ipod and all its accoutrements (i also got an arm band for it for my birthday, and an attachment that lets me tune a radio station to my ipod...very cool).

that's all for now...i'm teaching (eep!) my advisor's wetlands class tomorrow, so i have to go prepare and make sure i don't look like an idiot...

having issues with the pictures on my blog...please excuse any messiness you may come across while i'm fixing this problem.



thank you muchly :)

i'm so glad i found this website. what a brilliant idea...send $10 to some total and complete stranger, and they'll make arrangements for the people of the future to time travel back and get you. fantastic. technology: it boggles the mind. truly, it does.

every grain of sand...equals all the stars and everyone



that's a lyric from a pearl jam song, and the inspiration for the domain name i recently bought, evergrainofsand.org. it's the same site that i had over on angelfire, only now it's at it's own address and is being hosted by dreamhost, which i'm very happy with so far.


in other news...classes start up again on the 30th, so the summer is officially dwindling down to a close. meh. this summer left a bit to be desired--i don't feel as though i got outside nearly as much as i would have liked. i'd like to start making up for it, but my schedule isn't looking too cooperative. one positive thing about the end of the summer is that lisa is coming home soon (she's been out in wyoming since the end of may). she, abbie and i have reached a serious deficit in girls' nights. another thing to make up for come fall...


anywho, must go check on my cakelets (! so cute !) before they burn... :)

this is cracking me up today...

my bad day
 
okay.  friday was bad.  there is potential for this to be a long, drawn out story, but i will spare you and provide you with the "highlights," as they were. 
 

while moving my six sections of 13-ft long pipe out of the building in which they were being stored so that they could be moved up the wetland, i broke a window.
 
upon arriving at the wetland with the pipe, i realize that i don't have enough pipe length.  at first i think that this is because i suck at math and figured out the wrong length using the scale off the plan.  after a bit of measuring i realize that my math is fine; the scale on the plan is wrong.  i go the the hardware store and purchase more pipe. 
 
after hours of digging with a back hoe looking for a pipe junction that is buried 7 feet below the ground, we realize that, once again, the plan is wrong.  the junction is nowhere near where it is drawn on the plan. 
 
we refill the large, 7-ft deep original hole and re-dig a new large, 7-ft deep hole.  yet again, no pipe junction.  this time, someone comes up in a truck and tells us that our hole is too deep and we need to re-fill and get out of there or we'll get fined.  fantastic.  still no pipe junction.

 
i'm thrilled, really.  my masters research is yet again put on hold b/c someone who should have had access to all of the original plans for when the pipe was first laid made me a plan without looking at those original plans.  which gives me, quite frankly, crap to work with.  i could have had a four year old crayon-draw me something more useful.  gahhh!!!
 
on a brighter note, today i'm going to help april and mark paint their new house.  i love painting :).

err...yeah.  it's been about a month. 
 
school is busy busy, going well...tomorrow we install the piping for my wetland, to route all of the roof water down to it.  pretty exciting, since that means i'll actually have data and samples and all that jazz soon.  ish.  also exciting--i found out today that i'll be TA-ing a class in the spring, which gets me full-time funding for the academic year (i'm currently half-time).  more money is always good, and TA-ing ought to look nice on a resume i suppose.  the guy teaching the class is also a friend (a PhD student in my department), so that helps. 
 
in suckier news, all of my cd's were stolen out of the jeep last week.  stinky, but what can you do?  i'm not even sure where/when it happened, which is even more frustrating.  someone suggested that i make a list of all of the cd's that i can think of that were stolen, so i'm doing that and adding on as i think of more.  if you've got any of them and would like to lend them to me so i can burn copies (i mean, listen to them nostalgically without illegally manipulating them in any way, shape, or form),  i'd be much obliged. 
 
i 'spose that's all for now...

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 ;)

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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.