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 :)