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

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

my sister got engaged! my sister got engaged!

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

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

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

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

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

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

and that's all for now...

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

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

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

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

on a mission for don...

know anyone named don? make him read this.

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

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

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

what a gloomy gloomy day :P

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

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

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

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

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

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

no, i haven't died.

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

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

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

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

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

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

goodnight, you moonlight ladies...

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

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

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

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

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

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

dirrrrty bunnies



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

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

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

cats that hate you.

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

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

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

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

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