happy birthday erika!!

busy busy busy! the semester is humming along full-tilt, as always seems to happen. i've got my conference coming up in a few weeks which i'm working on my presentation for (eek! presenting my data!), then i get to spend a weekend with dana, then it's november, then it's thanksgiving (and i get to see dana again!! hi dana! i love you!), and once thanksgiving break is over, there's only 2 weeks left in the semester. and that means that, hopefully, i am DONE WITH CLASSES. i cannot convey to you how happy that prospect makes me. and, i stop collecting my data in december and start working on my thesis...which means i am almost done with school. good grief.

i got in the mail yesterday my copy of dan's book, and i'm *loving* it. i would highly highly recommend it. i think at the rate i'm going i'll be done with it by friday, so i'll post a better review then, but for now, i can say that it's very well written and engaging and creative. so be a cool kid and buy it. :D

alrighty...back to work. just wanted to get an update in here.

yesterday, jim and i saw a unicorn cow.

no, really.

went to the big e, ate a lot of food (though less than normal, admittedly...we got a late start), then went and saw a kick-ass "half plugged" Stand show in wilbraham mass. i attempted to work this morning, then pretty much said "eh...no." and putzed around all day. we had a great fall weekend...today was cloudy but nice and cool, and yesterday was absolutely gorgeous. i'm hoping we keep with the cooled-down trend, i'm ready to bust out the autumn clothes.

nothing much to say, so i won't blather on...

i handed in my lit review today! granted, it was only a rough draft, and i'm sure it'll get edited to within an inch of its life and i'll be pretty much starting from scratch come monday, but for the weekend...it's handed in, and i don't have to think about it. huzzah!

it was an eventful week in world of klutz girl! on wednesday, i slipped on a rock and fell into a lake (luckily my elbow broke my fall...), garnering myself a lovely ground beef-esque elbow, and big ol' bruise on my hip, and some back pain. then today, i got sucked up to my calf in a bog and almost lost my shoe. then i horrified the shoppers of the north windham walmart by going to buy bandaids (for my ground beef elbow) *covered* in bog mud. covered. my feet were black. i got several disgusted looks. (hey! i needed bandaids! and i didn't go near the food....for pete's sake).

tomorrow jim and i are going to the big e, then going to see stand (again). will my international contingency PLEASE assure me that you know what wetlands are? because when i tried to explain to these fine irish lads what i do, i got "what's a wetland?". and i was sad. i think i'm going to have to make some sort of "this is what i do" page to refer people to...anyway, should be a fun weekend. hope you all enjoy(ed) yours as well.

oh my god. you can get old school oregon trail online. i am so disproportionately excited about this it's not even funny.

ahoy, mateys! 'tis national talk like a pirate day!

arrrr!

yesterday was the girls' trip the the yarn store. i got ~$80 worth of really, REALLY nice yarn for $50. I am a happy, happy camper. christmas presents, here i come! i'm so excited about all of the fun things i'm going to make, and i can't blab about them b/c i don't want to ruin any surprises. but...wheeee! dana already knows that i'm going to make him these fabulous mittens, so i don't have to worry about ruining that surprise ;).

had sushi with abbie and adam and lisa last night, then we all went to bidwell for beer and dairy queen for blizzards (sushi, beer, blizzards...we are a very cultured lot). fyi: the key lime blizzard rates an "eh" on a scale of "blech!" to "yum!", which is somewhere in the middle. not necessarily worth repeating. lisa spent the night and we went to breakfast at nita's which was very very tastey (thank you dana for introducing me to that place, we split a crepe and it was fantastic). and now i'm home and i think i'm going to go play with my new yarn. later gators.

i am completely hopped up on coffee right now. as in, bouncing on my exercise ball-slash-desk chair, humming loudly to myself, talking to the cat as though he might answer me. but damnit, i WILL have a draft of my lit review done by friday!

*bounce bounce bounce*

pictures from erin and enoch's wedding.

i am such a useless human being right after dana leaves.

today was absolutely gorgeous, and the only time i stepped outside at all was to bring dana to the airport at 5 am. then i came back home, got back in bed, and slept until ten. then i sat on my arse all day working on Christmas Project #1 and reading the cool new book that jim got me for my birthday (thanks jim!) and trying to figure out crochet patterns. i should have gotten outside, and i definitely should have worked on my lit review, but i was just too bummed out to get off the couch. blah.

had a wonderful last few days...dana surprised me with a dozen red roses and an incredibly beautiful sapphire and diamond bracelet while we were at the rehearsal dinner for enoch and erin's wedding at this really nice restaurant, and friday was the wedding itself which was lovely. got to meet a lot of dana's friends that i hadn't met yet, which was great and they were all very nice people. and my man was hands down the most handsome guy to ever put on a tux. so there ;). aside from my feet being in incredible pain from wearing super high stiletto heels two nights in a row, i'd say it all went well. and now i'm tired and i have to go back to the real world tomorrow, so i'm going to shower and go to bed. g'night all.

pictures from offroading with justin, and also some shots from the labor day picnic (complete with go-carts!).

you can get free, legal live music downloads at archive.org. they're recordings of concerts, so sound quality is not necessarily guarenteed, but there are reviews to help you decipher that information. i've had really good luck so far, and am happily listening to a recording of a guster show in RI on june 25th. thanks to the guy whose name i don't know who recommended this site to justin and i while we were off-roading yesterday.

now that's some funny sh*t.

and happy birthday, ray. you're old. and in five days...you'll still be five days older than me. ha ha!

yeah, yeah, i know. i'm sorry. *hides head*

still working on my lit review, which seems so impossible and cumbersome and just ugh that i'm fairly certain that it is killing my brain. slowly. otherwise, classes seem like they're going to be interesting, which is always helpful in making the semester slightly less suck-like.

glorious long weekend coming up, which is even more glorious because it only really occurred to me at around 4:30 this afternoon that not only is it a long weekend, but that today was, in fact, friday. don't ask. it just seemed kinda mondayish. tomorrow i'm the fabulous pinch-hitting vet tech, after which i will come home and make buckets and loads of potato salad, and maybe some cookies. maybe a lot of cookies. who knows. which reminds me that i forgot to re-borrow april's ginormous le crueset, and it will take me roughly forever to boil five pounds of potatoes. but that's okay. i will perservere. then on sunday i'm going 4-wheeling with justin. whee! (check out his jeep pictures...we're going *real* 4-wheeling!). then crashing at april and mark's most likely, and back to justin's for a picnic on monday (after april and i go into the office for a while and work like diligent little grad students of course...and stop by col's to feed bootsy rodent slayer). hooray for long weekends!

and double hooray for dana being here on wednesday! only for a few days, and they're all pretty much booked solid (again), but that's okay. and he'll be here on my birthday, so that's even better. *and* i get to see him in a tux at the wedding we're going to, which is even more better (*fans self*). the wedding for which i purchased an $80 dress for $12.49. that's right. $12.49. too bad i hate shopping, b/c apparently i'm pretty good at it. and i was still out of the mall in under 45 minutes, so that's not too bad i'd say.

so, recap: classes good, weekend good, hottie boyfriend in a tux good, and i'm a mad bargain speed shopper. i think this ridiculously long post makes up for my recent shoddy posting habits. so there.

(as a post script...i had the intention of writing about the hurricane, but i just can't do it. it makes me cry, and nothing i have to say seems relevant or meaningful. this site and this site are two good places to go if you want to donate money to the victims. it seems like so little, but i just don't know what else to do. if any of you are looking for loved ones in the stricken areas, wiki has some good links and tips for finding people. my heart goes out to all of you...)

tomorrow, the freshmen come back.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

stealing this idea from CTG over at pinkrunningshoes [who just had a baby! aieeeee! congratulations (again)!]...

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

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

happy birthday to my mom!

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

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

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

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

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

groundhog stew, mark my words.

from both squirrel and eck...

holy busy week, batman! and the one coming up isn't much better. i found out last week that an abstract that i submitted to a wetlands-related conference got accepted, and so i will be presenting my research at a conference this fall! exciting and scary, too.

i started working on my mom's birthday present...i'm making her jewelry, because she always says that she likes mine, and was coveting one bracelet in particular. i haven't gotten in the beads yet for that piece, but i did make another bracelet and a pair of earrings that you can see over in the crafty section of everygrainofsand.org.

gearing up for the next semester to start, and buckling down to get at least a chunk taken out of my lit review before classes start. i'm taking fluvial geomorphology and aquatic plant biology, and while i was really, really, REALLY looking forward to being done with classes come december, it looks like i'll be taking one more come spring. which is a long story, but it's not because i need the credits. anywho.

tomorrow is august. that means summer is almost over. so i hope you're all out there enjoying every speck of summerness that you can.

oh yes, and CONGRATULATIONS to my stud of a boyfriend for winning his poker tournament last night! you rock, dana! ;)

crazy busy day at work, but i just wanted to quickly post the link to the pictures from dana's visit. i know the image links to the larger versions of the images aren't working properly right now; i'll fix that tonight when i get home probably...

on hiatus 'til 7/26...

...'cuz my man's in town :D!!

~*~*~*my brother's band's website!!*~*~*~

pimp/

go buy a cd! they're only $5.00, and they rock!

/pimp

dana's coming tomorrow!!!! :D

i am enormously excited. hugely. astronomically! hopefully the humidity breaks tonight (there's a severe thunderstorm watch in effect for tonight, with "brief street flooding rain and or damaging wind gusts". and lotsa lightening. fun!). it's in the low 90's and nastily humid right now. as matt might say, this weather is "the suck".

i've discovered how the wasps are getting in my apartment. i just don't know what to do about it, other than shut the offending window, which in this weather (did i mention i don't have ac?) is a huge sacrifice to make. but i did it, because there's a wasp crawling around on my screen right now--brought to my attention by my super bee-slaying cat, chester. he's the bomb-diggity. yes, i just said "bomb-diggity." shush.

aieeeeee!!!!

it is currently 8:16 pm. that means that dana will be here in roughly 51 hours :D (and dana! by the time you read this it will be even less!). i'm pretty much worthless in terms of getting work done. i've got my field work tomorrow, then i might leave campus a little early so i can drive to manchester and sort out a tax thing that needs sorting. and wednesday i'm leaving around 3pm (uh...at the latest ;) ) to help dana's mom bring her cat (which is *so* ending up in the house by the end of the winter!) to the vet. i spent today searching for journal articles about ammonia levels in pigeon and european starling excrement. yes, this somehow relates to my thesis. don't ask. i have a feeling that's about as much desk work as i'm going to be good for this week...

80's song lyric test, sent to me by brooke...i got a 149.5!

here are my answers...no cheating!

today i:
-mowed my wetland with my badass field and brush mower
-hid from a very large bee in my office (no, really. hid.)
-did pilates
-gave blood
-ate scallops and steak
-got hesitant permission to refer to large fish as "pigs" from my boyfriend. i think he's only allowing this because he loves me.
-played with a midget cat
-had a long phone conversation with brookie
not a bad friday, overall.

tah dah!

i have completed my first crocheted sock!! i started the second one at craft night yesterday, but i've only got the cuff done so far. i'm pretty happy with how the first one turned out...it's a bit, uh, 'quirky' (see other pics here and here), but it's okay and it fits. i figure if the second one is loads better, i'll rip out the first one and make a better one for the pair.
it feels like a friday and it's not. and that's just wrong. here i am, all excited that it's sunny out and it's the weekend and i don't really have any concrete plans for saturday...and it's not. it's thursday. bleh. but you can't really blame me for trying to get the week to go by faster, because dana's flying in on wednesday and i haven't seen him since the beginning of june (is it odd that i write about you in third person when i know you're reading this anyway? ;) ). we're going camping in upstate ny, and i'm going to learn how to fly fish (oooh, can i say "i'm gonna go catch a pig!"?) and we're going to hang with lisa and chad, and i can't wait. i think i might go set up my tent in my living room under the premise of "airing it out", when really, i just like to sit in it ;). maybe chester and i can 'camp out' tonight...

i'm going to teach you all something neat. mostly i'm going to teach it to you because i'm fairly certain that knowing it makes me a dork, and if you all know it, too, you can't make fun of me. i let this little skill slip to april recently, and now she makes me do it at random times. if you all know how to do it yourselves, there's no need to make me do it for you. so here you go:

The Skill: singing the quadratic formula to the tune of Pop Goes the Weasle

*clears throat*

"X equals negative B
plus or minus square root
B squared minus 4 A C
all over 2 A"

Or...

x = [-b + SQRT(b^2 - 4(a*c))] / (2*a)
x = [-b - SQRT(b^2 - 4(a*c))] / (2*a)

get your geek on, impress your friends ;)

i went through this thing a few months ago where i was exhausted all the time. had bloodwork done, it all came back normal, and eventually i seemed to work myself out of it. well, whatever it is, it's back. no matter how much i sleep, it doesn't feel like enough. i'm tired all the time, even after sleeping *more* than enough the night before. it's not a matter of feeling sleepy; my entire body feels flat-out exhausted. and i don't like it.

*grumble grumble*

the baby brigade

deanna and georges are having a baby!!!!! they're due october 2nd. i wish they weren't living in switzerland so i could feel all the little baby kicks! aieeee!!

this makes three people (that i know directly, anyway) who are pregnant right now. sandra, nikky, and dee. not to mention all the friends of friends who are pregnant. so i'm saying right now: y'all keep your baby dust far away. far, far away. you can bring me your bellys to pat and your babies to squeeze, but you keep that baby dust to yourselves.

now i have more baby crafts to make :D

the sock

so, april's teaching me how to crochet socks. sock attempt numero uno is going alright, i suppose, though the yarn i'm using is a bit too bulky for optimum sockness (but so pretty!), and my intense dislike for following the rules (and thereby counting my stitches) makes reducing a wee bit trickier than it ought to be. BUT: it fits on my foot, and with a little fixer-upper-ing at the ankle ribbing, i think it'll make a pretty cozy pair of slippers/extremely cold weather socks. here's a few pictures, courtesy of ms. april...

(yes, those are my toes. and yes, i'm a fairly tall girl. and no, i don't find it hard to balance. and yes, someone actually asked me that once.)

this website has come to my attention from multiple sources recently, and after checking it out, i understand why. the premise: people send in anonymous postcards with their deepest, darkest secrets. some are funny, some are relatable, most are...heartbreaking. it's an incredible view at the monsters under everyone's beds, the secret lives that the people you pass on the street every day are living. very thought provoking and touching and sad.

i feel like doing this has automatically solidified my craft geekiness. thanks a lot, april ;)


You are Mohair.
You are a warm and fuzzy type who works well with
others, doing your share without being too
weighty. You can be stubborn and absolutely
refuse to change your position once it is set,
but that's okay since you are good at covering
up your mistakes.


What kind of yarn are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

i just want to take a second to direct you all to this story that ran in the Connecticut Post yesterday. this is my friend dan, who spent the greater part of the past year battling hodgkins lymphoma. through everything, he kept the biting sarcasm and sense of humor that make dan dan and make us all love him. i'm in awe of what he's gone through and how he's handled it all.

on october 15th, there's going to be an american cancer society relay for life event in windham, at the ECSU campus baseball facility. anyone who's interested in participating, please let me know--i'm looking to organize a team. you all have plenty of time to get the weekend free, so no excuses! i want the biggest, ass-kickingest, fundraisingest team they've ever seen! hoo-ah! who's with me?

i am a bad, bad blogger...for shame! i was being all good about posting, and then whammo! i drop out of sight. a recap of the past two weeks...

saw my friend dan last weekend, who i hadn't seen since last fall before he started his chemo (which he is now done with, yay hooray!). had some kick-ass sushi, told bad jokes, watched tombstone. it was good to see dan; it was the first time we'd hung out since mike and i broke up, and i'm am very happy to say that it wasn't awkward at all. yay for good friends...

my little baby brother graduated high school last night. graduated. high school. egad! when on earth did that happen?

official and concrete plans for dana's next visit! the ticket is bought, let the countdown begin ;) (uh, that'd be three weeks and five days). i can't wait!

i submitted an abstract for a wetlands conference in october, so if it gets accepted, i'll be doing a presentation on my research for a whole buttload of people. scary scary! but exciting, too...

okay, i'm beat. i don't know what's up with me the past few days, but i'm incredibly tired. so i'm going to bed. i promise i'll try to be better about the updates...

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 :)