i bought a tent!! i'm so excited!

it's a kelty gunnison 2, and it has two doors and two vestibules, and only weighs a little over 5 lbs. i can't wait for it to come so i can set it up and play in it :)

i swear, i'm not a slacker.

really, i'm not. i've just been super busy lately. i know that's a lousy excuse, because everyone's always busy, but it's all i've got. i've been working on getting my research project off the ground, and it's looking like everything could be up and running within a month's time. and that's really, really exciting. i ordered all the pipe and connectors that we're going to need to route the roof runoff to the wetland today, and that should all come in next wednesday. digging and laying the pipe will probably be the following week, and then it's just a matter of getting all the data collection equipment set up and working (oh, and, uh...teaching me how to use it all. minor detail). sooo...it's looking good.

in totally non-school-related news: my little brother's band has a real live GIG next monday! their band (dysthymia) is going to be playing at the webster underground in hartford next monday (6/21) at 6:00 pm. they're only playing 3 songs, but still...very cool. most people's first gigs are at much less cool places than the webster. so yay, rob!

that's all for tonight...i promise, i'll try to be better about updates. i swear, i'm not a slacker. not really.

oooh, look what i got!

mike got me a lovely green iPod mini for our 3 year anniversary. it's even engraved:

Krista Leigh
Love Mike

the only problem is that it requires windows 2000, and i run windows 98. not only that, when i tried to put windows 2000 on my computer, there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth and cranky threats that doing so may result in the sudden and complete death of my computer. it's not a very cooperative hunk of plastic. so...i'm getting a new computer :)! i've got some money saved up, and it's been something that i've been saying that i want to do for a while now, so i'm going to do it. all for the sake of my lovely green iPod, which is sitting sadly at home begging to be filled with fun songs to run to. i'll keep you posted as the computer saga unfolds.

trying to enable comments on my blog...it's not working :P

just got back from texas last night...

mike and i spent the last 10 days bumming around texas, hanging out with my cousin liz and her husband, steve. we had a great time...camped on the beach at mustang island, walked around downtown austin (saw the bats at the congress street bridge), did the riverwalk in san antonio, saw the alamo, did some hiking at enchanted rock, hamilton pool, and the westcave preserve. we also saw a couple of movies (Van Helsing and Troy)while we were down there at the alamo drafthouse cinema, which was really cool (why do we have nothing like this in CT?), and had dinner with some friends i had met through a crafty/cooking/decorating/etc web board i've posted on for years. all in all a very good trip. i'll post pictures over on my homepage some time this week, i promise.

my rude awakening upon arrival home: gas here is now over $2 a gallon for low grade. arghh!! hopefully prices won't go up too much more, although i have a feeling that they will since it's not even technically summer yet, and gas is always more expensive in the summer. oh well. what can you do?

i tuned my guitar tonight.

i haven't touched my guitar in ages. i haven't played it in longer; really, in years. not that i was ever really any good. but i always wanted to be. i'd still love to be. there's something about being able to play an instrument, to sit down and create music, that i always wanted to be able to grasp. i used to play around with it a lot; pick out melodies and strum occasional chords, but i was never what anyone would call good. i don't really know what inspired me this evening...but it was satisfying to still be able to at least tune the darned thing, to hum out the octave switch between the E's and alternately tighten and loosen the strings between until everything blended nicely. it's good to know i haven't gone completely tone deaf since i've stopped singing. really singing, i mean. i sing plenty in my car. but it's not the same. i'm afraid my muscial ability is going to atrophy and waste away on me ;)

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eeyuck! gah! why do people do things like this to themselves? aieeee! can't.....look.....away......ack!

go huskies! uconn's women winning last night made uconn the first school in division one history to have both the men and women as NCAA champs in the same year. which means lots of excited people on campus. it also means a stunning lack of campus newspapers in my building, because everyone has snatched them up. which means no crossword puzzle for us grad students to do while we eat our lunch. but that's okay. as lisa put it in her celebratory email: "storrs connecticut is the basketball capital of the world!"

(read more)

rain, rain, go away, come again another day...

:P

i know, i know...april showers bring may flowers. but i want sunshine! meh. this weather makes me sleepy. i feel like i could just curl up and take a nap at any given moment. i need sunshine and flowers poking up out of the ground and tiny little leaf buds popping up on the trees. but what do i get? rain. rain, and a chance of snow on monday. snow! people! i already wore a skirt! it cannot snow!

*grumble grumble*

i saw a dog die today.

not that this is anything unusual...as unpleasant as it may be, i see a lot of people's pets die. it's part of my job. the bizarre thing about this is that i saw this dog die twice.

a woman showed up for her appointment this evening with contessa, her little cocker spaniel who had been acting very lethargic and shakey. i went out into the waiting room to get her, and saw that contessa, who was lying on the floor with her head slightly lifted, had left a large puddle of urine. i ducked in back to grab a towel to lift her up with since she was wet. when i got back to the waiting room (literally seconds later), contessa was flat out on her side. the owner appeared unalarmed, but it was apparent to me that the dog was glassy eyed and not breathing. it had literally walked into our waiting room, laid down, and died.

i scooped up the dog and brought her in to the doctor, who listened for a hearbeat, but found none. she checked for ocular reflex, and found none. she listened again with the stethoscope...and there was a faint, erratic heartbeat. and then contessa started to breathe. and then, contessa sat BOLT UPRIGHT. as amazing as this unaided return from death was, it was apparent that the dog was shocky and in poor condition. we rushed her in back to begin stabilizing her, but as we were putting in her catheter, contessa began breathing laboriously. we put her on oxygen, but almost immediately, contessa died. again. this time, for good. i can honestly say that this was the first time i ever saw a dog, or anything, for that matter, die twice. Not fade a little and then come back, but honest-to-goodness lack of breathing, lack of heartbeat, completely limp, flat-out die...and then start breathing again. the body, human or otherwise, never ceases to amaze me.

Came across this on the blogger site today: a blog devoted to poems written entirely from snippets from spam emails. Aside from being a very clever concept, the poems are actually pretty darn well put together. Apparently spam does have some modicum of worth. Who knew?

hoo-hah! i ran 5 miles this morning! i am en fuego! well, to elaborate, i didn't run the *entire* 5 miles, but i ran most of it. had to take a few little walk-breaks here and there (cold air+lungs=eek, i can't breathe!), but in any event, i am still en fuego. and i am loving my new running pants, which are very very comfy and well worth the $40 i spent on them. my long running pants are very comfy as well, but the new ones are nicer for slightly warmer weather. stop laughing. yes, i consider this slightly warmer weather. so what if it was 27 degrees this morning? it was sunny. and besides, it's warmer when you're excercising. so there.

found this link today--it has video files for all of the saturday night live "jeopardy!" skits. frickin' hilarious. 4/15/00 cracks me up every time ("i know kung fu." "for the last time, no you don't."). any whoo, enjoy :)

oooh, by the way, the sticker-maker i mentioned on february 11th is now mine, all mine! [thanks dad :)]. much sticker making will ensue.

"if women are supposed to be less rational and more emotional at the beginning of our menstrual cycle, when the female hormone is at its lowest level, then why isn't it logical to say that, in those few days, women behave the most like the way men behave all month long?" --gloria steinam

*snicker*

in loving memory of my nana

small world...i was just upstairs looking for the departmental secretary, and i ran into a girl that i went to high school with. she was a few years ahead of me, and had done her undergrad here at UConn, but i hadn't seen her in quite a while. it turns out that she decided to come back for grad school, and our departments share a building. she mentioned that she was going to have a "welcome back" party for a guy that we'd both been friends with in high school who is coming back from florida, and that now that she knows where to find me, she wants me to come. so that should be nice, seeing a bunch of old familiar faces. neat-o.

oooh...
this, my friends, is a sticker maker. and i want it.

i'm enthralled. you can stick anything you want through the little machine and turn it into a sticker. well, not anything you want, but any image small enough to fit. there are some larger versions, including this one which can also laminate, but at $9.99 i think this happy little yellow guy is a steal. someday, when i'm rich and famous, it will be mine.

oh yes, it will be mine.

yay! i went running today, after cruelly neglecting my sneakers for lord knows how long. i've been sick the past few days, and it was cold and windy, but man did it feel good to be outside being active. i definately need to schedule running in at least three days a week and get back in the habit of getting out there. it makes me feel ever so much less sloth-like :)

this is the dress that i might be wearing for erika's wedding...isn't it lurvely? she wants danielle (matron of honor) and i (maid of honor) to wear strapless dresses, and i really like this one a lot. it's pretty and fun. it's not definately "the dress" yet (i don't think), but in any event, it'll be something like that. i've never been in a wedding party before (well, almost, but we won't go there ;) ). i can't wait to see what erika picks out for her dress.

weddings are so fun :D