i am making hanukkah candles for mike's mom as her hanukkah gift tonight. hopefully i won't goof them up; i have to make 44 of them. i have to go out today and get a hanukkah gift for mike, as well. (i'm not saying what, on the off chance that he happens to look at this before he gets his present). the stores will be horrible today, but...oh well. c'est la vie.

well...i suppose i ought to go get dressed so i can get my shopping in before work.

...i hate the mall...

SNOW! i love almost nothing like i love the first snow of the year. especially when it dumps a fluffy, cheerful, just-wet-enough-to-pelt-a-snowball-at-mike-this-morning (who? me? never) 8 inches on me. wheee!

as a side note...and the logical benefit of this would be what? remember, i said *logical*.

sheesh. the world frightens me. BUT: i made *beeyootiful* mini quishes today. absolutely lovely. i also made artichoke heart and spinach dip, and kielbasa chunks wrapped in croissant dough. i'm going to be the Appetizer Goddess tomorrow (i'm also bringing brie and crusty bread, and the requisite tortillas and salsa).

i also was extremely productive in the christmas-present making department (oh, wouldn't you all like to know...well, too bad. buahahahahahah!). and i made myself some beeswax peppermint lip balm.

how hard is it to screen baggage? ummm...pretty darn hard, actually. go see how *you* do.

:D

my modeling project has been driving me crazy. insane. up the friggin' wall. i'm trying to build a mathematical model and flow diagram of the phosphorus concentration over time of a pond subjected to runoff from a series of out-of-date septic systems.

anywhoo...my professor just checked out my model and graphs, and gave me a high five! i have reasonable numbers as results!

**i am a happy camper**

ack! all of a sudden, there's only about a week and a half left of classes! where did this semester go? i have so much work to do, and a pitifully small amount of time in which to do it...on a better note, that means christmas is getting closer and closer. in fact...christmas is exactly ONE MONTH away! yee-haw! patagonia's getting closer, too, which means i need to get my arse in gear and get my vaccinations and what-not. i'm so excited about going, but i'm going to miss mike so much... : /

at any rate... happy thanksgiving everybody :)

so why is it that when i'm x-raying animals at work, i am required to wear:

a) a badge that registers the amount of radiation that i'm exposed to over the course of a month
b) a lead smock (that covers said badge)
c) a lead neck cuff to protect my thyroid gland, and
d) lead gloves

but...there is nothing covering my face and head. ??? god forbid any of that radiation hit my pinky finger...but my brain? eh, apparently that's ok. eyes? hell, you've got two, right?

i got the warmest, cutest winter hat today. my ears are absolutely in love with it. i also got lots of stuff to make christmas goodies with (i love christmas. i love it so, so much). whee!

and, on a slightly more productive note, i found lots of sources for my paper on the effects of polychlorinated biphenyls (pcb's) on breast cancer.

this is very, very bizarre...

things i love:
~that chester, upon returning home from the hospital, became The World's Sweetest and Most Loveable Cat
~that i went to the casino last night with one quarter (yes, only one...i'm stingy) and came home with 50 quarters (i'm an easy to please gambler w/ a very short attention span...i may never win a thousand dollars, but i'll never lose a thousand, either).

things i don't love:
~that i feel like absolute crap today and didn't get to go to the museum of natural history b/c of it
~that i am completely unmotivated to do schoolwork
~that every time i do laundry, it seems like i immediately have to do laundry again

chester comes home today! hooray. i miss his little furry kitten body all scrunched up under my chin while i sleep.

today is also the day that Harry Potter comes out in theaters, so if you see lisa, tell her not to wet her pants :) i hope i can stay awake through the movie tonight...we're not going until 10:30 pm. and i've been so tired lately...

why i hate david letterman:
1) having that many commercials in the span of an hour is OBSCENE.
2) he's just annoying.
3) he sticks his musical guests on at the way end of the show and doesn't even talk to them. (maybe all late night talk shows are like this, but i don't watch them all that often). at any rate, i love that pearl jam was on last night, and will be on again tonight, but he could at least *talk* to them.


off to class....

humph. i just went to pearljamnetwork.com, and it's been shut down. as of today. what a bummer...

new pearl jam info link: the sky i scrape

everyone who has not yet bought the new pearl jam album needs go out and do that asap. yay pearl jam! this album rocks.

today is The Day for poor little chester...he's being neutered and declawed (ouch!). i had almost changed my mind about doing it, but then i came home the other day and was greeted to cat blood smeared all over the wall. not even half as pleasant as it sounds. so, say goodbye to your cute little tootsies (well, a third of them at least...). i'm working tonight, so i'll probably be there before he even wakes up from anethesia...but i'm still worried about him. i'm such a mush sometimes.

Riot Act comes out tomorrow!!!

...have i mentioned how much i love pearl jam? i am beyond excited about this. almost as excited as lisa is that Harry Potter comes out on friday :)

morty got our tickets for patagonia yesterday. i'm so excited...

*finally* managed to finish registering for next semster's classes today...i'm taking:

* GIS
* Natural Resouces Seminar
* Animal Science Seminar
* Physics 121Q (ick...)
* Lab Animal Science (i get to spay and neuter rats!)
* Soil & Water Management and Engineering

that's 16 credits and *four* lab classes. yikes. that might change, but we'll see.

adios :)

been a while...

mike and i ventured out to the krispy kreme in newington yesterday. holy mass consumption of donuts, batman. there was a 40 minute wait that actually started outside the building, not to mention a traffic cop whose sole purpose it was to direct traffic in the parking lot. it was insane. but very, very tasty, i must say.

went running today for the first time in waaaay too long. i walked a lot :) (hey, that's still exercise!).

i've been playing with the layout of this for a few weeks. it's a lot easier to update than my general website, so i think i'm going to go ahead and make this sort of an adendum to the main site. for daily stuff. pictures, links, etc etc won't be here, just mindless chatter :)

grandparent news...

nana is recovering from her stroke, slowly beginning to be able to move around (w/ the aid of a walker)...good news is, she's well enough to make fun of far far's pants. (far far being my grandfather; it's swedish for "father's father").

on a not as optimistic note, they've found another mass near grandpa's spine. so that means more chemo, and i'm not sure what else at this point. i guess i should look at it as being wonderful that's he's survived over a year since we first discovered the cancer, but i don't really know how to look at it...

back from peurto rico to be greeted with yet another sniper shooting. this is insane. the whole world is insane...

on a happier note...san juan was sunny and beautiful and we had a wonderful time. our room had a balcony with an ocean view, so we could lay in bed and listen to the waves crashing up onto the rocks. unbelievable. needless to say, i was pretty confused throughout the bar mitzvah services (since they were conducted in 95% hebrew), but i met a lot of people and spent some nice quality time with mike, so it was all good. i miss palm trees. i miss the ocean. i miss the warm. i miss the lack of snipers...

off to glue myself fruitlessly to cnn...

have you ever seen one of those huge 18-wheelers cruising down the highway with a house on the flatbed? not overly huge houses, but still...they're houses. well, i saw one last night in the median of the highway. not the truck, just the house. sort of crumpled up on one side. i guess it must have slid off the truck or something...at any rate, i'm sure it ruined someone's day.

we are leaving for puerto rico bright and early in the morning. at least, i think that's what you call 4 am. maybe it's dark and early. at any rate, it's four days straight that i don't have to work :)

hasta luego!

garrr....so, i went over to the registrar's office and got a handy dandy little printout of my schedule to bring over the financial aid to prove that i'm a full time student. really, i am. as i'm standing in line at financial aid perusing said handy dandy printout, i notice that it says that i am a journalism major in the college of literal arts and sciences. really, i'm not. i've got 2 majors, neither one of which is journalism. i came here as a freshman, 5 years ago now, as a journalism major...but i switched to a primary major in natural resources management and engineering and a secondary in animal science. i have not been a journalism major for about 4 years now. so, i head back on over to the registrar, where i am informed that i have to head over to the college of ag and natural resources b/c i was never "officially" switched. which is funny, since both of my academic advisors are in the college of ag and natural resources, and i made dean's list for CANR last semester. but fine, okay, it's not "official". so now, it's off to the college of ag (does everyone remember that it's raining today?), where i am told that oh no, i most certainly am a natural resources and animal science major, and do i have the paper that says i'm a journalism major? (no, i had to give it to financial aid so they don't make me sign over my first born child with a blood oath). so apparently, everyone just wasted my time and that one piece of paper was a strange, incongruous, mysterious, unreplicable glitch. which i don't buy. i have this fear now that when i go to graduate in may, someone's going to tell me "you can't graduate, you didn't fulfill your journalism requirements."

i want a big alcoholic beverage. and i can't have one (well, first off, b/c i'm at school and have to head off to work shortly) because i'm trying to make a few pudge rolls disappear before puerto rico...

blah...i hate rainy days. i have to battle the registrar's and financial aid offices today over whether i'm a 3/4 time student (which i'm not) and only get an eensy weensy bit of my financial aid money, or a full time student (which i am) and get all of it. you'd think they could just type my name in the computer, say "oh, she has 12 credits. that's full-time", and give my money, but nooo. so today, i must traipse around in the rain. ah well.

good things: [mike found his wallet] [today is friday] [i don't have my remote sensing class today] [it is most definately sweater weather] [dad might get to come home today/shortly thereafter]

time to get ready for school...