Adventure!

Yesterday we went on an adventure. You see, we had to prove that Texas is not in a recession. We were supposed to go to Port Aransas with some friends this weekend, but stuff happened, and we didn't. Which is actually ok, because it turned out that a storm came through and it's been cold and rainy. I mean, I think it's gorgeous and would have had fun running on the beach, but the other people we planned to go with are from warmer places and would have been frozen.

Where did we go, then? To the outlet malls! There are two giant outlet malls right next to each other in San Marcos (45 miles away.) There is basically nothing else near them. A road runs between them, and if you look one way, there is the freeway with a gas station on the other side of it. The other direction has.... nothing. Nothing, nothing, as far as the eye can see. Kinda cool, really. Well, as we arrived, the car decided it wanted to be very hot. Dan turned the car off immediately, and we pushed it into a parking space. We were worried since the coolant low light had come on a couple of times. But it always went away, so we meant to feed it more coolant, but forgot. We let it cool down and went off to do our shopping for like 8 hours, planning to get coolant later, and then had dinner because we were hungry.

We came back to the car at 10:30, dropped off our left-overs, and went to the gas station. We bought a stupid gallon of coolant for $15. Walked back to car, started pouring in, tank was filling up, got it full, Dan stopped. We watched it slowly go down a little, and figured it was going into the engine. Then it started to go down faster, and Dan was worried that it had gotten so low. And it continued, so I asked, "are you sure it's not just pissing that all onto the ground?" Yes, yes it was in fact. Green anti-freeze, all over the ground. (Sorry animals and water supply, we didn't mean it!) Well, the basic point is that we got home 3 hours later after a tow truck came to get us. So we got to buy nice things from the stores and help them out and then we got to give the nice tow truck guy some work to get it to a place where we can help out other people. We had the car taken to a repair shop that we've been to before, where the people were really nice. Only down side is that they're not open at all on the weekends. Monday we shall find out what they can tell us about it.

Let's be positive here! Look how cute my new Austin-weight jacket is!

Is it a short trench coat? No! Is it a sweater? No! Well, sort of. It's a heavy-weight jersey knit cut like a trench coat. I think it's super cool.

Why? Why?????

Why must the verb phrase rule for Indonesian be so elusive? Does it exist? Is it complex? Or am I complicating it? Why can't it reveal itself to me so that I may go to bed and dream the dreams of one who has finished her work? That's all I ask of it.

Amazing ads

I sometimes see ads in the sidebar that clearly need an editor. There was a really good one for eHarmony, but I forget why now. What just reminded me? Blue Diamond ad, like the nut brand. "Curve hunger now" I clicked to "learn more." Didn't explain to me why they used "curve hunger" 3 times. They did use "curb calorie intake" once, though.... clicked another "learn more" still no sign of why here, guys. Why are we curving our hunger? Is it a catchy idea? Are we moving it toward better things? Or is someone really just not paying attention to the words?....................

Old Clothes

I meant to write this a while ago when I wore it. What did I wear? My eighth grade graduation dress. To work.

First, it's not anything fancy or frilly or lacy. Just a simple black dress with spaghetti straps. Originally it had a sort of string short-sleeve almost-sweater - you know, when they tie thread together and it looked cool like 11 years ago when I wore it. I don't think it's macrame, but maybe. I kept wearing it for a long time. I actually cut off a few inches once and then hemmed it on the way to a dance at one point. It even still has that hem - dark green thread and all. Not a bad job, eh? The sweater thing died years ago, but I kept the dress. So one day when I didn't know what to wear, I grabbed the dress to try it on. Looked fine! I threw a light sweater over it (to wear inside because the buildings on campus are permanently COLD) and it looked even better! So I went with it and when lunch time rolled around, I went to eat with Dan. He said it looked really good without me asking or anything.

It's pretty funny, because I'm sure I didn't wear it for a few years. But it fits alright now. And then this morning I stumbled across the pants of my genie costume from fifth grade. Well, I had to try it on! Very slowly and carefully, I managed to pull it up over my butt and snap it around my waist. I know it was made to go around my hips, but it's still fun to know that I can put it on at all. I'd take a picture, but the super cool body-suit style top my mom made to go with it (she made the whole thing, of course) isn't here. I think I gave it to someone when it got too small. It was all gold on top, with skin-tone fabric over the middle to make it look more "I Dream of Jeannie" style and the bottom was the same gold. The body-suit style made it so my underwear didn't show. It was very cool.

I don't think I have any other old clothes to fit into. Well, maybe my t-shirt from 5th grade camp (complete with tweety bird and all) but that's not really for wearing, just for having. Though maybe I gave that away, too...

Here's one I know Nan will like

I love the the wii fit, but I do hate that it uses BMI. I hate anything that uses BMI, really. But when I start to say that, I feel like I come across more as a looney who might start doubting the moon landing or something because it's so widely accepted. But if you just think about it, how on earth can someone's height and weight alone tell you whether they're in shape? Well, I'm not the only one who thinks so, and now I have more ways to explain. If you listen, it's 4 1/2 minutes, and the written article is slightly different:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106268439

Also, I added a trailer for Flow to the water post, below, because I still haven't found a streaming version. Check your local library!

More on water

I'm not the only one! I'm not crazy! Here's some nasty stuff about what is happening to fish, frogs, and people. Demasculinization. Crazy high rates of intersex. These are not good things. What's even better? You don't have to read it! Just watch for like 5 minutes. http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/232640/july-01-2009/nicholas-kristof

If you've got a whole hour, the PBS Frontline episode is here: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/poisonedwaters/

And THEN, if you want to know about water in general, and never want to buy another bottle of water, then you should watch FLOW. I can't find a good streaming site for it right now, but I'll find it sometime. Here's the trailer for you: http://www.apple.com/trailers/independent/flow/

Crazy weekend

Yesterday we went to Schlitterbahn - supposedly one of America's best waterparks (maybe the world's, too.) It was fun, but I am not a line-lover. We did lots of rides and tubes and I didn't even get sunburned! We spent the whole day there, which was easy because they let you bring in whatever food you want. Then everybody throws their stuff on a table and goes to enjoy the water. Nobody seemed to touch our stuff at all. I suppose it's partly because EVERYONE does it. I bet if you had fancy-lookin stuff sitting out it might get messed with, though. I'm sure I could tell you loads more about it some time, but I don't feel terribly up to it.

Well, what's wrong with me? I somehow got an ear infection in both ears. It started before the water park, but I only went to the doctor today (hooray for big cities and large medical groups that have something open on Sunday!!!) One ear started to bug me Wednesday night, but I didn't think much of it. It got progressively worse, and I checked with a nurse on Friday afternoon to see if a water park would be bad, and from how I explained it, she didn't think so. Worse still today, with yucky feelings all over, and now I have antibiotics to get rid of it. I am so happy to have insurance.

On another positive note, there was rhubarb at the grocery store today!!!!!!! We were in the veggie section, and Dan gasped or something, and I turned around to see those beautiful red stalks! I've never bought it before, because so many people at home grow it in the backyard, but even at $3 a pound it seemed well worth it to get an integral part of summer. Of course, we also picked up a thing of strawberries to make us a nice little pie. Yay, summer!

Water follow-up

I grossed out V and she didn't even see the documentary! My basic thought is, if these things are hard to get out, even though the levels are low, why make them higher where we can help it? I still use regular shower cleaner and dish soap, but I use better laundry detergent, toilet cleaner, and general surface cleaner.

Here's a short article: http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/dec2008/2008-12-09-093.asp

And here are some key excerpts:

Testing sites include the White River in Indiana; Elm Fork Trinity River in Texas; Potomac River in Maryland; Neuse River in North Carolina; Chattahoochee River in Georgia; Running Gutter Brook in Massachusetts; Clackamas River in Oregon; Truckee River in Nevada; and Cache La Poudre in Colorado.

"Recent scientific advances have given USGS scientists the analytical tools to detect a variety of contaminants in the environment at low concentrations; often 100 to 1,000 times lower than drinking-water standards and other human-health benchmarks," he explained.

More than 75 percent of source water and treated water samples in this study contained five or more chemicals.

"The common occurrence of chemical mixtures means that the total combined toxicity may be greater than that of any single contaminant present," the USGS said in a statement accompanying the report.

"Most of the man-made chemicals assessed in the USGS study are unregulated in drinking water and not required to be monitored or removed," says Tom Jacobus, general manager of the Washington Aqueduct, which provides drinking water for one million people in the District of Columbia, Arlington County, Virginia, and the City of Falls Church, Virginia.

This study did not look at pharmaceuticals or hormones nor did it examine the implications of the findings to ecosystems or aquatic health.

Baking soda

Complete this sentence: I have used baking soda to.....





Think of one yet?



One more chance....





Ok, so maybe you said "make cookies" or "do a kiddie science experiment" maybe even "scrub something" or "brush my teeth." When we were little, my mom used baking soda for loads of things. I always figured it was b/c it is cheap. Baking soda in the laundry, especially diapers. Baking soda to clean the tub. And, yes, sometimes baking soda for tooth-brushing.

The other day, though, I started finding new uses. The sink the bathroom was draining slowly again, and I wanted to fix it without going out to buy more dumb drano. So I looked up home-made drain cleaners, and what did I find? Baking soda and vinegar! Yep, the science experiment from above. Pour soda in (like a lot, enough to block the drain if it's not already blocked) and then pour in a similar amount of vinegar. The fizzy bubbles supposedly clean the drain for you. It's certainly not as clean as drano, but it's also nicer to touch, smell, and easier on the water supply. We watched this freaky documentary about water, and part of it was how much certain chemicals stay in water. Disgusting. Seriously disturbing. All kinds of cleaners and medicines that are washed down the drain or peed out by people or just flushed down the toilet. And they can't be taken out, really, and then all the animals and fish ingest them, so we get them back that way, and then they are in the water supply we drink, too. Bottled water isn't safer generally, because it's mostly just city water. Sometimes less filtered than from your tap!

Ok, another fun baking soda use: washing your hair. Yep, crazy, I know. I was looking for a way to get rid of chlorine build-up, because we go swimming pretty often, and lots of people recommended using part or all baking soda to wash your hair. I tried to look up if it's safe for hair, and after finding anecdotal evidence I wouldn't go bald, I decided to try it once. I lathered up my hair, then sprinkled in about 2 Tbs of baking soda, mixed it around, and rinsed really well. My hair looks better and is really soft, so it at least wasn't bad right off! Ok, it's almost my bed time!

***Note: Baking soda in your hair is also supposed to lighten up some colors of dye. In addition, no one should do anything I do without checking it for him/herself because I really don't know if it's a very smart thing sometimes.***

So cool!

I haven't really seen a big thunderstorm since I was a little kid in Kansas. Which means I don't really remember it. Tonight, Texas decided to fix that for me. It was SOOOOOOOOOOOOO cool! Lots of lights and bangs and wind and rain! We went out to the balcony when we could see it a little ways off, and could feel the wind hit us a minute or so before the clouds and rain made it. We stood out there and Dan used me as a shield so that he could enjoy the rain just in his face a little, and not drenching his hair and body. Yep, that was me getting drenched. Not constantly, just every time the wind really blew.

One of the coolest parts was when the storm was right above us. We had moved inside by then. The lightening was mainly jumping in the clouds, so I wasn't afraid of getting hit. Dan had gone to the front door and I was sitting in front of the gigantic windows in the bedroom. There was a super bright flash followed immediately by a boom so loud that it set off several car alarms in the parking lot.

We should have taken some pictures. What were we thinking??

Summer!

Well, what can I say?

1 - it's hot here. Today it was *only* 88. And it's humid. I don't appreciate it. The only positive is that it gives me a reason to buy cute summery clothes that I never really needed in Tacoma. But then I remember how much said clothes cost, and it's not really a positive after all.

2 - I'm working 30 hrs/week. It's sometimes fun, sometimes boring, I just need to remember to get more sleep.

3 - Rhubarb is not common in Texas. Did I already tell you that? I even asked the lady at the Safeway bakery if they do rhubarb pie. I got a really weird look and a "no." My magazine has a reallllllllly tasty-looking raspberry rhubarb pie. I would do strawberry, but still. Can't. No rhubarb. I haven't even seen it in stores, though I'm not sure I'd trust it here, anyway.

4 - I am hungry. So with that, after feeling a little better for updating, I will go get me some food.

Wet

It was SOOOOOOOO cool. While we were in REI today, it started POURING. Like, I don't think I've ever seen anything like it. As in, I wouldn't be surprised if that's what a monsoon is like (but monsoons should be longer.) In fact, I'll try to see how much rain we got for you...

Ok, lame, so far all I can find is a forecast "rainfall totals will be up to one half inch." I've seen what one half inch is. One half inch is not pouring down enough to absolutely drench people and create RIVERS out of parking lots and make it impossible to see from the access road on one side of the freeway to the other side of the freeway. I found a site that updates at midnight, so I guess I'll have to let you know tomorrow. **Update** Local paper's site says that the rain was hit or miss, but in one area there was pea-sized hail (yep, that was us) and in that area there was 3 inches of rain. Average May rainfall here? Barely over 5 inches.

Well, we decided to leave the safety of REI, even though four or five groups of people were waiting safely under the awning and ran for the car only to find that we were now parked in a river. Yes, a raging river of rain water, splashing up around my ankes and making me glad that I had worn a skirt. Almost. Opening the doors was scary, I thought we might drown the seats. Then, slowly, carefully, wipers on high and hazard lights blinking, we made our way the 3ish blocks to Costco. That road is next to the freeway and we really seriously could not see a lot of the stuff we know is on the other side. It was cool. Then we waited in the parking lot, thinking it might let up, as we watched one or two adventurous cars creep out of the parking lot, hazard lights all around.

We got bored in the car pretty quickly. We tried to call Dan's family to share our fun disaster, but no sadly there was no answer. I had forgotten my phone, so really we had nothing left to do. Thinking we were already wet, in a decent parking space, and not in danger of melting, we decided to make a run for it. More water splashing around the ankles, and that was avoiding the deep spots. Me - scared that my sandals would lose traction and see if they could make me any more wet. Dan - scared his flipflops were going to be washed away in the torrent.

We arrive at the door to see and I am suddenly aware of a large crowd - probably around 50 people - standing there, waiting to see if the rain will let up and looking at us like we must REALLY want something if we got out of the car. (Note: Austin people seem deterred from outdoor activities by the rain in general. Galoshes come out on campus when there are gray clouds. Did you know they make adult pink galoshes?) I get inside and away from the extra eyes and immediate danger to note how wet I am. Soaked. Drowned rat. Drowned rat wearing a sopping t-shirt and white skirt. Luckily, there are front and back pockets, so I had some extra fabric helping me out. And freezing. Goosebumps and shivering and wondering why they don't have one of those heater dish/fans out.

Dan to the rescue! Go dry off in the bathroom. Yes, good plan. Lots of priceless looks on the way, but well worth it. Dry off arms, legs, feet, squeeze out hair (I swear to you I could even squeeze water out of my hair, I was that drenched from a total of less than 60 seconds.) Rub paper towels on clothes, get rid of extra water. Wander store somewhat aimlessly, get the few things we need, and finally the rain is only sprinkling and we can leave to go home, change clothes, and be warm. YAY!

Mulberries!!

I was just reading another blog and, after reading a description of mulberries and looking up a picture, I think that's what I named dirt berries last year at the fruit stand. Why dirt berries? Some of you may remember. Well, the guys told me to taste them. I, being less cautious than Dan, tasted some. They didn't taste like a whole lot, and were kind of gritty. The random guy there who spoke French better was like "you see how it's gritty? It's because they are harvested off the ground once they fall from the tree." Or something like that, go back in the posts if you want a better quote. So they were dirt berries. And I was horribly disgusted. I don't want dirt berries from any country, but it seemed even worse knowing what condition fruit being sold might normally be in. Apparently they taste good when straight off a tree -- even a tree watered with toilet water.

I'm alive!

Hello, world! I am, in fact, still alive here in Texas. And it actually feels a lot like May to me! Not Austin May, or even Ellensburg May, but good ol' western Washington May. It rained almost the whole day on Saturday. And then it was cool that night. And yesterday, Sunday, the high? 74, I think. Compared to 94 on Wed. or Thurs. I'm serious. Today it's supposed to be 80. How absolutely lovely. (If you're wondering, no, I'm sure this won't last, so I'm going around with windows open wearing long sleeves and warmer pants while I can!)

So what have I been up to? I finished my finals Friday. That was nice to finish. Really, that's about it. And what did I get to do to celebrate having everything in? Why, proctor a test, of course! The makeup final for the first year courses was from 7-10 on Friday night, so I got to stand there and watch people do that. Yay. or not. I did get to start cleaning our apartment more, too. I sort of let everything else go while feverishly trying to finish big ugly papers. Dan's a good cleaner, but with being gone 11 hours a day, and trying to sleep for about 7 hours a night, he doesn't have time to thoroughly clean up after both of us. And somehow I still make a mess when glued to the computer! It's crazy.

Yay!

Where have I been?? Telling myself That I needed to work on stuff, not sit around and write things on the computer. And since I have 35 pages due in the next 7 days, this will be short. I just got some very good news, though. I gots me a summer job! Hooray! I'll be working in the study abroad office on campus :) Pretty great fit, if I do say so myself!

Ok, 5 pages down....

Oh, HAIL no!

I generally don't mind Texas weather. It's certainly weird. It can be 85 one day and 50 the next, only to head back to 80 again. I got used to eastern Washington weather with 25-degree swings every summer night, but you knew that the next day you would be back to 95 and could dress appropriately

We had the tail end of a storm with tornado potential on Wednesday. Down here it was mostly rain, thunder, lightening and hail. Real hail. Like the kind I haven't seen since... well, probably since Kansas, but I don't remember that. Dan collected some for me because I wasn't quite home yet. It is 1-3 inches in diameter. Yep, like bigger than a golf ball. Like bigger than a tennis ball, some. Like window-smashing big.
Our friends got their window smashed while driving (no, that's not it, that's just to give you an idea.) At least two cars in our half of the complex had front or back windows broken. We thought that we had gotten away with 20 or so small dents in the hood and trunk (seems like the roof is stronger) but we were very sadly mistaken. Yesterday we noticed that one must have hit the very top edge of the windshield and so we missed it the first time! But it had taken the day and a half to spread its nasty little cracks down to where they are certainly visible now. Will have to be replaced, I'm sure. SOOOOOOOOOOOOO sad. I like our hail at home better, thanks!

Spring Break! Woooooo!

Yep, I am officially on spring break. Yay! No classes to go to! Nothing to turn in! Of course, I do still have homework that needs to be done, and I'd really like to get started on the 2 final projects so that I don't get overwhelmed at the end of the semester quite so much. the last couple of weeks, I have been studying more for tests. No fun. I had a midterm on Wednesday, and one of my classes has 4 small tests throughout the semester. I also started private tutoring with an undergrad. It's actually a lot of fun. The hard thing about it is that languages build on themselves sooo much that this girl is trying to work on 4th-semester stuff when she doesn't remember the 1st-semester rules.

Last night we went downtown with a couple of friends. It's actually the first time we've been out at night downtown since we got here. We went to a free show that eventually had a lot of bands, but we only saw 3. They were... ok. The first one kept playing songs that were 45 seconds long. And not that good. The second band was better, but you couldn't understand the vocals. The third one took literally 45+ minutes to set up and then sucked. Dan named them the "Superfluous Keyboards." There were 4 on stage for a 5 person band. They had some issues getting things hooked up, too because they kept asking the sound guy to change the balance. So, we left and walked down to famous 6th street and wandered a bit and ran into two people that our friends knew and they talked for a while and we all got pizza. We didn't end up going into any bars, though, because by the time the pizza was done, it was midnight and our friends (who drove) had to be up at like 8 this morning. Dan did get a shoulder in the chest from some short retard who thought he was cool for running into people - I'm guessing he was trying to start a fight. Well... I do believe that's all.

Cut 1 lb of stomach fat A DAY by...

Yep, that was an ad I just saw. As if they 1 lb a week wasn't enough of a stretch for a particular body area in a generic statement. I think the one rule is this: Each day, mess with your scale by one pound. Or each day, cut off a chunk of your stomach? Because I've seen weird displays showing 1 lb of fat. And that's a whole lot. But, hey, if it works, I can be stomach-free in less than a month!

State parks

State (and national) parks are cool. You go there maybe for a day, maybe camping for a few days, and you hang out and it's nice and all. And to go there just for the day is free, right? If you're in Washington, yes, correct. There are some really popular city parks that make you pay, and boat launching often has a fee, but not regular people at state parks.

You've probably guessed that this isn't true in Texas. Want to go on a hike? Oh, they're all in county and state parks. And it's $3-5 per person. LAME. I know that it's not really that much, that upkeep does cost something, etc, etc, but what's with the sales tax if it doesn't pay for parks? If I want to go drive an hour each way to be able to walk around some foresty hills, I don't want to pay $10 once I get there.

Sales tax in Austin is 8.25% (6.25 for state). In Seattle, it's 8.8% (6.5 for state) (an extra .5% in bars and restaurants for the stupid stadium - didn't know that.) The state can up theirs a bit, and I will go to parks more and be happier.

"I could use this!"

I doubt I could number the times that I've said to myself "I could use this!" and then proceeded to buy whatever semi-useless thing that I found. Usually these purchases are cheap and/or cute and get put in a drawer or a closet and forgotten.

Two of these, though, have ended up being used on my desk, years later. I don't even know when, but I bought one of those supposedly air-tight jars (glass, rubber ring around the top, and a stiff wire closing mechanism) and I would bet I bought it at a dollar store to hold candy because that sounds like me. Now it's my change jar, because it looks cute and I needed a place for change.

Another is a little "Page-Up" thing (you're supposed to stick a sheet of paper in it and it holds it up right while you type or something) I bought my first year of college because someone else had one and it was cute and I had more money from financial aid than I knew how to spend. (Don't worry, some got saved.) Well, I am now working on a powerpoint and my desk is a bit messy, so instead of cleaning it up, I grabbed my little page-up and it works! And then I went to go tell you about it instead of working on the powerpoint.... so I guess I didn't really save any time....

Learn something, people!

I thought that the complaints in the news about the "family planning as part of the stimulus package" had gone away, and I decided not to blog about it. However, I heard about it again yesterday, so here we go.

Yes, family planning is a form of economic stimulus. One of the more long-range forms, but that doesn't mean that's all it's good for. It may seem unbelievable to some, but I have heard people say that birth control costs too much, so they don't use it. And then? Yep, some get pregnant. If they didn't have the money for birth control, they probably didn't for insurance or pre-natal visits or and hospital stays. Never mind another mouth to feed, another body to clothe. So, at least for the pregnancy, they get state help.

I don't think it's wrong for people to get pregnant, I don't think it's wrong for people to have families, I know that some people don't want to use birth control at all; I just think that this is easily one possible way to boost the economy. Why am I so sure of this? Tunisia. An interesting article is here: http://www.mongabay.com/external/tunisia_population.htm We could see it - parents with 8 siblings had only 2 kids. This is normal, not exceptional. I didn't quiz everyone I met on their siblings, but it seems they didn't mention more than 2. And the result? One of the strongest (or the strongest, according to some) economies in the region. They didn't start that way. Birth control isn't forced on anyone - it's just easily available for all who are interested. Our economy doesn't have as much room to grow as theirs did, but it's still beyond belief to say it's just a "spending measure" and not a type of stimulus.

Yay for us

A little bit after we got here, our complex was bought by another management company. We were unsure what to think at first, but then they sent out letters talking about doing loads of upgrades and adding the word "luxury" to the complex name and talking about all of these upgrades they had planned. Scary, no? We (supposedly) got in on a deal on our apartment, so our rent was (again, supposedly) $75 under what they normally charge for our place, and we weren't excited about the idea of paying that much more when we need to renew our lease, so the "luxury" part was really not welcome.

*However* after we waited and waited for more news, I finally went in to talk to the people, and it sounds like it will actually be cool! The lady I talked to said that the current rent for new people in the floorplan we're in is what we're paying (hence all the "supposedly"s above) and they're not going to force us to move into a re-done place, though we will have the option. Yay for not having to move!!!!!!!! We really like living 15 min from downtown by car, but also on 2 handy bus lines and feeling like you're far away with the tree/deer view, while being able to drive 2 min (literally) to buy groceries.

Some of the changes they announced before are actually taking shape, too. They resurfaced the pool on our side, which has been gross and coming off since before we got here, and they are making us a bigger exercise room! The current one is jammed with one treadmill, one bike, two stair-steppers, and one crappy old dirty weight machine. The new one is replacing the laundry room (all the apts here have w/d included, so I never got why it was there anyway) which is much bigger and happens to be about 30 seconds from us. Again, yay! They have already taken out the machines and started remodeling - I peaked at it the other day while checking mail and it definitely looks promising. So all is well once more.

Lucky me! (and stupid cilantro)

So we got our TA assignments at the beginning of the week, and........ I don't have to go to campus Monday or Friday! Yay! I'll still be go for talks and workshops, etc but it won't be required every week. Now don't go thinking that I'll have loads of free time - I will still need to be reading for all my TWTh classes those days, which should keep me plenty busy.

How could cilantro be stupid? Easily. I read a couple of things online "I don't know why people say growing cilantro is hard" "I think cilantro should be included in herb kits" "Cilantro is easy, as long as you XYZ." But I am going to agree with the "growing cilantro is hard" crowd. I'm not sure if I drowned them or the soil got too hot (apparently if it gets to 75, the plants try to go to seed - which for little starts just means die) but most of mine are dead. *sigh* It's ok in a way, because I planted waaaay too many of them, but it's still frustrating. Luckily, two new starts came up just as half of the guys died, so I have two new ones as well as a few that look like they might hold on. Also, cilantro is the cheapest herb to just buy - 50 cents for a bunch so big I always end up tossing some out - so at least it's not my basil that decided to croak.

Discovering new music

Since I left for college, I haven't listened to radio. Well, I take that back - I listen to French radio and NPR. But not regular music radio. I didn't like the radio in Ellensburg and I don't like all the ads now. I started to feel old. One of those people who know and like music from "way back when" but nothing new.

A couple of weeks ago, somebody at Dan's work introduced him to Pandora radio. I don't mind giving them advertising, because it's free and there are *very* few ads. I think like one an hour. Anyway, the site is pandora.com and the cool thing is that you can choose a radio station by genre, or you can enter an artist/song title and it will play other music like that. Similarities are decided by the instruments used, tempo, vocals, and other things that I forget. It's really cool because if you can think of one type of song you like, they will give you lots more that are sort of like it. If they play a song you don't like, you just give it a thumbs down and they will quit playing it and move to a new song. My only complaint this far is that most of the French artists I like aren't on there. But there is enough free music that I may be able to get over that.

School bus

I thought my days of school bus riding were over. I last rode the bus in high school, my senior year for some bowling stuff, and my junior year for the typical get-home-from-school needs. I take the city bus to campus now, but last semester with a class at 8 AM two days a week I was on the bus with a mix of half-asleep students and people headed to work downtown. The other days I didn't have to be there til 1, so it was a mostly empty bus.

This semester my first class is at 11. I was walking to the bus and saw another obvious student ahead. As I got closer, two more were coming from another direction. At the stop, there were probably eight of us. All very student-y looking. We get on the bus, and again, all students. Seriously. All young people, looking refreshed but not exactly excited, most wearing earbuds or on a cell phone and all with bags on the seats next to them.

The stop after ours is at a park & ride where at least 15 more students piled on, filling up the seats and requiring some people to actually sit next to someone else. There were even two guys who were late and really ran to catch the bus. After a few more stops, we got to campus where nearly everyone piled off. I get off the bus at the second-to-last campus stop, and looked back to see that there were only 4 people left. It was so weird.

Just nothing

It's amazing how little there is to add when you don't have to go to school or work. That will all change on Tuesday, though, so I am making most of it right now.

Tonight we are going to a movie theater to likely hang out with scifi nerds. If there's anything worth telling, I'll let you know.

My Colorfix experience

Well, I decided that my hair color was no good. I mean, it wasn't so bad, I just didn't like the pinkish tint to it and didn't want to wait for the semi-permanent dye to fade more. I found out online that there are several products that claim to fix your hair after dying it and, after way too much reading, settled on Colorfix.

So, what's this stuff do? The box says it shrinks hair dye molecules so that they rinse away. It also claims it will remove hair color no matter how long it's been on your hair, though it won't get rid of some non-permanent dyes. (I did my research on this part, too - it is reportedly good on the ones I use.) The hundreds of reviews I found, mostly on folica.com, were very good. Some people had great results just from getting out the dye - that it brought their hair back to a natural color. Since it takes out the dye, it takes your hair to the lightest color, and can turn orange-y because of the lightening. Apparently not all of the dye washes away with the colorfix, so for some people it darkens back up.

On Monday I went to the store, got a box of the stuff, and put it on my head. It definitely has sulfur in it, so the smell isn't so great, but I would say it was well worth the result! It got rid of all the red tint and left a dark blonde that is close to my natural color, but a little lighter and warmer (probably due to the peroxide in the dye I used) and it is really cool! So now I have an even hair color once more and whenever I decide to dye it next, I will have a clean canvas to work with.

We've got some sprouts!

One of Dan's little peat seed-starter things sprouted first, so I wanted to wait til mine had too to say anything. Right now, I have at least a few sprouts from all 4 of my seed types, and Dan has 3 pots that have sprouted (I don't know if they're all the same plant, or if it's both of his kinds.) The seed packages said that his would take longer, I think, so I'm not worried about his.

So far so good, it seems. We planted too many seeds, so we'll have to thin out the weaker looking ones in the next week or two, but it is cool. My basil started first, and there is definitely most of that, followed by the oregano and (I think!) chives. The cilantro just has a couple of little starts, but they just showed up yesterday, so I give them time. Even if more don't sprout, it will be ok since I may have as many as I really need in my little window box anyway.

Grow some b...rains

My interesting sort-of natural-looking reddish brown dye job has decided to fade on me. Yes, it was a temporary dye, but they usually go permanent in my hair, so this has been a surprise. It faded right out of my roots (the whole reason for using the dye!) within two weeks, so I've got my lovely ash showing underneath the red, so it makes the red look pink and the ash look even more grey.

Naturally, I began thinking about re-dying. I went to the Loreal site because I've used Feria before, and it's pretty good and I wanted to check out their full line of colors so that I would know how picky to be about Target's selection. Well, I found out that they have a color remover! I looked up some reviews, and apparently Loreal's is bleach-based, but there are others that are not! They remove built-up color from your hair to give you a fresh start when you want to re-dye. While I've taken a few long breaks from dying (like the whole time I was in Tunisia) all of the dying I've done has left the ends darker, and it's always annoying.

While looking up reviews about these (ColorOops and ColorFix) I found a girl's blog. She might be a nice girl. But the title of her blog made me want to puke. "Benisten." Not so odd. Til you see the subtitle "Ben and Kristen". NOOOOOOO! Fine, whatever, she may still have a valid review of the product. She did, and it was helpful, and I'm glad I read it. Some of the other things she said... more or less "I grew my hair out for the wedding, but then I wanted to cut it like Victoria Beckham, but Ben said I couldn't, so I just got it chopped to my collarbone." Ack! Please, woman! Either be honest that you weren't sure about what length, or quit letting your boy run your life. To make it worse, there was a comment that said something like "I know what you mean, I really want to dye my hair and cut it, but [insert dumb boy name] won't let me, so I'm just going to keep working on him and wait."

What??????? What's he going to do? Kick you out? If so, dye your hair and leave the bastard! The blog was from a young-looking girl, too, I'd say mid/late 20s. Maybe they read Twilight and buy into the female-too-weak-without-a-man bit. Charlotte Doyle wouldn't put up with such nonsense. Or Cam Jansen (they're still making books about her!) Or Hermione. (Those are all purposely characters from books I would expect girls younger than current Twilight readers to read.) Maybe one day the world will be a better place...

Lazy people!

I have wanted an indoor herb garden for quite some time. My mom used to have chives and something else in a window box at our house, and it was cool. Plus, I figured out somewhere along the way that fresh herbs taste different. Dan looked for some for me for my birthday, but had no luck (not really surprising, I guess, but come on, people!) He looked again for Christmas, and they had some goofy looking kits. There have been plants on and off at the grocery stores, but they don't always have what I would want, and they're like $4 a pot and the pots are ugly so I'd just have to buy a new one... you get the idea.

Well............ I called Home Depot today and they just got in their seeds! After playing two really good sets of tennis (yes, I lost spectacularly, but there were a couple games where I had Dan scared) we went to Home Depot and got seeds. Basil, oregano, cilantro, and chives for the herb garden and cherry tomatoes and jalapenos because Dan thought they looked cool, and we thought they might maybe grow in pots since we have no garden space. I also got a window box and seed-starting potting soil. Dan got a peet seed-starting kit with its own mini-greenhouse lid for the jalapeno and tomato.

We planted them all, and now must begin the waiting process. 7-10 days for mine to sprout, supposedly, longer for his. But why did I call people lazy? I was looking up tips for indoor herb gardens (lighting, watering) and I found some helpful stuff. You don't *need* a south-facing window (good, we don't have one), a fluorescent light is pretty good for herbs (also good, we do have that), I found a few tips for growing them better (trim often, even if you don't need the stuff), and even for keeping it going year-round (re-seed every month or so for the kinds that stop growing - I haven't figured out what that means yet exactly).

I saw a link in my searching to an HGTV section on indoor herb gardens. It seemed like a good place to look, so I opened it up. http://www.hgtv.com/decorating/indoor-herb-gardens/index.html What did I find? Nothing really helpful, I assure you. How do they want you to start your herb garden? From plants from the grocery store! Lazy asses. And they tell you to put the info tag from your store box into your new little pot so you will know what herb it is. Umm... really? If you are GROWING herbs, maybe you can't tell basil from chives at first glance, but the point is that it's yours! You can pinch off a bit and smell it. Should clear up any confusion quickly, right?

I will let you know when/if my little herbs sprout.

L'appartement

I realized that we never posted the pictures of our apartment that we took so that people could see where we live. We didn't take any when the place was empty because our batteries were dead (it was a sad, sad time. We also missed the "welcome to Texas" sign on the way here.)

Anyway, here you go! First is the living room facing the door.

Next is the living room, facing the TV. Dan was playing Mario Kart.
Here we have looking from the door towards the kitchen (with bar-type counter) and my "office" area that the floor plan calls a dining room.
This is a deer that Dan took a picture of from the balcony.
And another one.

So now you know that we are not living in a cardboard box. I hope you are happy!

Up waaaay too early

So this morning we woke up at 5:40. Why so crazy? We took Dan's mom and sis to the airport to head back home :( We had a lot of fun with them here. We went down to the capitol, out to several restaurants, to a very large mall, and just wandering around our neighborhood as well. (There's a nature preserve that basically our backyard, so that's not as boring as it could be other places.)

I will say, though, that seeing sunrise on New Year's Eve morning is *not* my idea of fun. Especially after going to bed around 1:30. We came back from the airport and slept some more. Maybe that will help us stay up til midnight tonight.

Hooray for fun stuff!

I got lots of way cool stuff for Christmas. Too much to list, because I keep forgetting parts of it. Thanks V for the gift card, Fred for the cool shirt, and Tiny for the tiger cub and cookie mix!

Last night, at midnight, we went to pick up Dan's mom & sister from the airport. They will be here until New Year's Eve, and we have been having fun. This morning, we had tasty breakfast and then went for a walk on the trails behind our apartment complex. We ended up going over 2 miles, so not bad. After that, we had a late lunch: dessert first at home - homemade cheesecake topped with raspberry and caramel, and then lunch at Chuy's, a tex-mex restaurant that a lot of people in my department have talked about, but we had never been. It was really good, and not expensive at all. 4 stuffed people with 3 iced teas for under $40!

Then we went to a big mall to be part of some after-Christmas shopping. I was happy to find a pair of Gap corduroys for $21 and Dan got some cute work clothes so that he can have more variety. I am extremely tired, though, so that is all you get for now.

Happy Christmas Eve Eve!

Yay! It's cold outside, there are presents under the tree, and Dan and I are both free to laze about in whatever manner we please. Or go wherever we please whenever we feel like it. We might go to Target later. Play some Wii. Read some books. Admire my pretty mini tree and lights and snowflake window clings (no real snow here, of course) and the lovely presents beneath the tree.

I'll go get started now.

Whatever to do?

My last final was on Monday. Which means I haven't *had* to do anything since then. I've cleaned, cooked, cleaned some more, read, watched TV and movies, finished Christmas shopping and played games. Ok. So that's one week down. What do I do with the other 4 looming ahead of me? I think I will need to make a list so that I don't start wandering in circles and being confused at not having things due or places to be.

This is the first real break I've had in about 2 years. That was when I was working at Central and had 10 days off around Christmas/New Years. Then I worked until 2 weeks before we left for Tunisia, and that wasn't a break - that was just rushing to get things ready to go. We went to France for 2 weeks, but that didn't feel like a break as much because we were SOOOOOOO glad to get out of Tunisia for a while. And when we got home, I was trying to do things like start finding an apartment in Austin and all that.

Dan's mom and sister are coming for a week (yay!) so I won't need to plan stuff for that time. I do have an empty scrapbook. And loads of scraps from Tunisia and France and Malta to put into said book. And I need to make a photobook for France. I got a "free" (just paid $9 shipping) little one that I used for Malta, and it is really nice looking. I'm not patient enough to pick pictures to print *and* scraps to go with them *and* pretty papers *and* fancy stickers or other decorations *and* then assemble it all myself with appropriate glue in some sort of eye-pleasing manner. So I will have a book with very nice pictures. And another with stuff put onto pages so that it can be looked at if one were so crazy as to wish to look. I think that will have to do, my friends. Unless I really do get bored, anyway.

Useless observation of the day

Sometimes, getting the real brand does matter. I'm all for saving money and getting the same thing at a better price, but at times you just can't.

When I was little, I remember once Mom got fake Cheerios in a BIG bag. We voted they tasted like dog food. Mom did not believe us until she tried them. They were unbelievably awful. Not that we never got cereal in a bag again, I actually liked Magic Stars, but we never got that particular kind again.

In high school, someone bought me the store version of my favorite shampoo. I don't think it even had the first-use-seems-so-great like most shampoos. It made me hair feel tangly and a bit greasy. Even the purchaser said that my hair did not look very good.

Today, I am eating Frosted Mini Wheats. The real kind. A couple weeks ago, I bought some cheap-o brand ones, and they seemed a little stale from the beginning. Got soggy fast, frosting not crunchy once wet with milk. In fact, this morning I considered not eating the real brand of my once-favorite cereal at all. But then I decided I didn't want the gigantic Costco thing of it to get gross. How wonderful! This is why I like this cereal. Crisp. Crunchy. Enough frosting. Not soggy and stale. I approve.

Interesting way to start the day

Somebody called me this morning not long after 8, and I ignored it. I don't *have* to be up at any certain time today, people! Then they called again, so I got up to get.

"Um, hi, I just found this cell phone at (cross streets not far from here) and I called a number and I guess it was his mom all the way in Washington and she told me to call this number. I just wanted to get it back to who it belongs to." This is all from an older man's voice.

(Me, stunned, still not really awake) "Thank you, it's my husband's cell phone, sounds like he dropped it on the way to the bus this morning."

"Are you here in Austin? (me: yes) If you want to come get it, I live in (name) complex, it's at (#) Jollyville and I'm in (#)."

(Not really sure what I said here, but I was fumbling around looking for clothes, so it probably didn't make much sense. After a minute I realized I didn't need to keep him on the phone so I said I'd be there once I found my coat.)

So I hop in the car, and turn on Jollyville towards the bus stop only to realize I'm headed the wrong way. I pull into a shop's parking lot, turn around, head back up the street and quickly see the complex the guy said, which I have passed many time and should have remembered where it was. I turn in, and right as I figure out which building is his, he comes out with Dan's phone. "Is this the phone?" (quite an odd question I thought, since he was just calling me from it.)

"Yeah, it matches mine." I hold mine up. "Thank you so much, really, you have no idea."

"Well, I just thought it looked expensive, so I knew it had to be returned."

"Thank you, seriously, I really appreciate it." (see, I sound like a dork even when half-asleep and confused.)

So, that's my fun and excitement for the day!

Finals = OVER

It's so wonderful and amazing to feel free and like I have time again! Who'd have thought it possible! Now I can watch movies, play games, clean things, put pictures into a book, write people thank-yous for birthday presents and all those other things I'm forgetting that I didn't do in the last two months.

I'm not sure when grades come out, but I'm not too worried. I didn't know the grammatical function of different subordinating clauses, but I don't think you do off the top of your head either, or at least not how to recognize them in French, so I'm not going to think about it anymore.

Not so bad.

I took my how-to-be-a-good-French-teacher final this morning. I think it went ok. There was one that sort of threw me. "Explain why the sentence below would be confusing for an Anglophone learner of french and give a context in which it would be correct." Ok, I can definitely say why it's confusing, because I am not sure why it's using that tense.... I get the basic idea of when you can use it like that, does that count? I made up some lame context, maybe it would work. Who knows? I sure don't. Now I am trying to draw a syntax tree without looking at my notes. Good fun.

First final in 34 hours

So, I just finally finished taking notes for my final on Friday. Only 23 pages. I had already read it all, but waiting til the end to take notes forces me to go back over the whole thing. I hope this'll give my arm time to recover before I take the test because for the last test in this class I was writing for the whole hour and 15 minutes nearly without stopping at all. Intense, I tell you!

A ma place

One of my favorite French songs is stuck in my head, so I am sharing it. The title is "A ma place" and it's a duet by Zazie and Axel Bauer. The title means "in my place" (like "what would you do if you were me?" or "in my shoes") Someone else's description of it follows, as well as a link to the video, and then the translation in English.

"I like the nostalgic message: two people that obviously love each other that feel the growing need to be their genuine selves while at the same time fearing that the other will no longer love them if they are. It really moves me how they are both unconsciously saying the same thing and yet neither has the guts to say it directly to the other." And then at the end they break through and can really be together.

http://mx.youtube.com/watch?v=IB-HdMudR3o&feature=related (no, don't know why YouTube insists my computer is in Mexico. It knows Dan's is here.)

"A ma place" english translation (by me - notes are numbered in parentheses and explained at the bottom)
Man:
In my place would she be stronger than a man
At the end of these dead ends where she abandons me?
Live through hell, die in combat,
Do I have to go so far to please her?
Could I make it?
Is it possible to be forgiven?
Is it possible to be loved?
For what we are?

Woman:
Does he sometimes put himself in my place?
When my wings get damaged
And my islands drown (1)
I bend under the weight
Bend under the weight
Of this half of a woman
That he wants me to be
I can play the beauty, but not sleep in the woods (2)
I can be the queen, but not the king's shadow
Do I have to give in?
Do I have to bleed?
For him to love me too
For what I am?

W: Could he do what it takes?
M: Would she do for me
W: Open the door a little?
M: Wouldn't it just be a step?
W: Could he do more
M: A little more effort
W: A gesture? a step?
M: A step towards me

Both:
I don't expect you to stay the same
I don't expect you to understand me
Only love me for what I am

Man:
Does she sometimes put herself in my place?
What do I have to do for her to see me?
Live through hell, die in combat
Do you want to make me something I'm not?
I can try to make the effort to face things
But silence is dead and yours freezes me
My soul mate, look for the problem (3)
The more my blood drains the more scared you are

M: Do I have to teach you?
W: I don't ask anything
M: The troubled waters where I linger
W: Where you go and where you come from
M: Do you really have to know
W: Everything you're hiding
M: Everything deep inside of me?
W: Deep inside of you

Both:
I don't expect you to stay the same
I don't expect you to understand me
Only love me for what I am
Only love me
For what I am

When I doubt
When I fall
And when the road is too long
When sometimes I am not
What you expect me to be
What do you want to do about it?
What would you have done in my place?

1 - There may be some sort of cultural reference I'm missing here, not sure.
2 - In French this is an obvious reference to Sleeping Beauty
3 - The original I used doesn't have a comma here, making it super ambiguous in English. He may be saying he is looking for the problem, or that she already is, or that she always does.

Two down!

Just sent my teaching portfolio files to my prof. Will take the hard copy to campus tomorrow and then I will *only* need to study for two tests. Two very scary tests....... I'm going to bed.

One down!

I just sent my final version of the paper. So now just the portfolio and two finals left. The bibliography didn't end up being quite so bad as I thought. I think I formatted the electronic ones incorrectly, but I don't mind. I wasn't using MLA or APA style (I'm supposed to use LSA, but as far as I can find, they only have one page and it doesn't even mention online sources or journal databases.)

Oh, and I better go get dressed for the dept. end-of-semester party because I have to get the bus in 30 min!

blaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah

I have one thing to turn in Monday, one thing to turn in Tuesday (that I'd like to have done by Monday so that I don't have to go to campus twice), a final on Friday, and a final on Monday the 15th. And, as you might have guessed, I REALLY do not feel like finishing the two things that are due first. One of them is a paper that is mostly done, so I know it's particularly lame to not want to finish it. The thing is, the parts I need to add are the parts that I am not really sure of.

And then there's re-doing the bibliography. Apparently, every time I cite a source that is citing someone else, I have to add them both into my bibliography. In other words, even though I don't have the book in front of me and never have, I get to try to find all of the information necessary to create a citation. Name, date, publisher, title, and place published. Name and date are given by my book, so that's ok. What's not so ok is trying to find titles, publishers, and publishing cities of books from the 1600s. Enough whining for now, back to work...

French MySpace and Z'Tejas

I am working on a project for one of my classes. I have to use an authentic document to help students practice the vocab and grammar from a chapter - this one is about peoples' personalities as the main focus of the chapter is adjectives. For the web activity, I already had students check out online personal ads and look for someone they would want to hang out with or whatever. At the end of the chapter, there is a section about stereotypes. So for this one, I decided to grab some good MySpace profiles (as in, ones that actually had some information and adjectives). Early college students still use MySpace, right? Or at least they know it exists? I think so... I never used it. I know more people are on Facebook, but you can't just search random people.

It's funny to see all of the favorite movies and TV shows listed on MySpace, even the French ones. Some are very clearly American - LOST, Dr. House (isn't it just House in the US?), Grey's Anatomy, Charmed, Les Simpson. Others have French names - Les experts (CSI), FBI portés disparus (Without a Trace), Les frères Scott (One Tree Hill). Sometimes the things that get picked up are embarassing, but I suppose Americans really do watch them. At least they created their own nanny 911 show instead of using ours, like they do in the Emirates. The music sections tend to have a little bit of French along with Beyonce, Linkin Park, Offspring, etc.

On a different note, we decided to not make lunch today and instead went to Z Tejas. There's one at Bellevue Square, and I've wanted to go for a couple of years, but it's not terrible convenient to go there and it always seemed like it would be expensive. At least for lunch, it really wasn't. And the menu had enough interesting, slightly-unusual things on it to make it worth going. Feel free to check it out - www.ztejas.com. But the only people who read this near one are those in the Sound area. Maybe one day I will be willing to pay $8 for a regular ham & cheese sandwich with fries, but for now I refuse to go to a place that only has that kind of thing. I had a very tasty seafood enchilada and ate some of Dan's chicken/lettuce/bean/cheese/avocado/pumpkin seed salad. It was cool.

And did you know it's important to tip here??? Ok, background: in my dear state, waiters and waitresses have the same basic minimum wage as everyone else. So, as a broke college student, I do not feel the need to tip much, if at all, unless I actually get good service. Well, here (and in loads of other states!) anyone in a job that regularly gets tips has a lower minimum wage. $2.13 an hour. Are the prices any lower to make up for the added tipping need? Nope. Ridiculous, I tell you! (Note: I just looked it up, and apparently the employer is required to make up the difference if an employee's wages+tips is less than the regular federal minimum - $6.55. Still pathetic! $8.07 is much more reasonable.)

My pretty watch!

For my birthday I got a watch, but it didn't fit right, and I took it back. The other watches were either too expensive (I needed one because my last one was lost, after all. I can't be sure its replacement won't suffer the same fate one day) or ugly or also didn't fit. I did try on a very pretty Skagen watch. It had a black face and instead of numbers, it had 12 clear Swarovski crystals. It was also very flat, especially considering that the face was only about an inch in diameter. Then I saw that it, too, cost more than I wanted to pay, so I left.

When I got home, I hopped online to see what other pretty watches might be out there. And I found that Amazon carries Skagen watches. I didn't see all the same ones as Macy's, but there is still a good selection as well as...... a slightly less flat version of the one I loved in the store! And for less than half the price, who can complain about that?

Isn't it pretty? I know, pictures never show the sparkle, so you'll just have to imagine it. Or next time you're at Macy's, go past the watch counter and see how pretty it is for yourselves. Thanks again, Wendy :)

Only one week left...

One week of classes! So, for me, that means 2 actual class days, though I'll be on campus 4 days next week because of TA stuff. I can't really complain. It seems really cool until I stop to think that that means I've got two finals coming up soon and have to finish my portfolio and final paper (different classes) very soon as well.

But right now I don't have anything horribly pressing to do. I can sit here and type and say nothing, because there is no rush. **AND** Dan is at a job interview! Hooray!!!!!

I may be needed...

Shortly after writing my earlier post today, I went to go talk to the professor of the course for which I have been insanely working on a paper. Well, apparently my hard work showed, because he said it was good for a first paper, gave me some formatting tips, and had even corrected my French in fewer places than I expected! (I have little hope of ever intuitively knowing the gender of nouns.)

To celebrate (and because I don't have to go to campus Monday or Wednesday, which will give me an extra 10 hours or so) I haven't done any school work this afternoon. Instead, I have been doing more important things, like finding pecan pie recipes and taking Dan to a new grocery store.

One of the things I do when I have time (and, I admit, when I don't have time) is look up tasty recipes, and try to find ones that fit a lot of categories - not too hard, not too time-involved, not too expensive, not too many things I don't already have, and relatively healthy. As you may guess, I often end up winging it. Today I ended up on this guy's food blog (http://www.cookingforengineers.com/) and remembered an issue I have over and over. Nobody tells people on a budget how to make edible things without taking forever.

I have a friend who is living on-campus, but without access to cafeteria food for a reasonable price. And has no idea how to cook. I was going to get her a cookbook meant for college students, but then I started to look at them. "College" cookbooks that include things like lamb and shrimp a little too often for me. Here's one of the most recently published ones, and you can see the table of contents: http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/1580088260/ref=sib_dp_pop_toc?ie=UTF8&p=S007#reader-link Sorry, I'm just not convinced! That's not a college cookbook, that's a 'i'm young and hip' cookbook. Instead, I've been sending her tips and recipes (Tiny's typical ramen additions were very much appreciated.)

You've probably figured where this is going. And you're going to tell me "Um, hello idiot girl, you don't even have enough time to talk to us on a regular basis!" Yes, I know. But that's the beauty of the internet and blogging! I can post a bunch of stuff when I have the time/inclination, and tell it to post over time so that I can look like I am always at it! Besides, I've got a start because of the things I've sent my friend, and the many recipes I've saved over time. Plus, it's much easier to throw a recipe onto a page than to try and write about what I'm doing when I don't even want to think about all the things I'm doing/supposed to be doing.

I even looked at other food blogs. There's one girl who started a healthy cheap college food blog in 2007, but only made 7 posts. And she used things like smoked salmon and quorn and miso and wouldn't eat bagels because of the calorie content. Honey, that's not healthy and cheap, that's obsessive and things most real people don't eat often, if at all. Otherwise, the blogs are all older people with more time or more money or both, so the recipes are more involved. I know this is jumping waaaaaaaaaaaaay ahead, but what if people <> actually read it??? Then I could get ads or something, too, and make a dollar or two a month off it.

I wouldn't put my crazy plan into action until after finals, but what do you think? Too crazy? Just the right crazy? Or perfect?

Hi

Yes, I am still alive. I think. I could be wrong. I've been working on so much stuff for classes that it's hard to tell. Even when I try to sleep, I wake up thinking that I am supposed to be doing something else. I have hope that this will end soon. There are so many things I've been meaning to do, but this ridiculous thing called "homework" got in the way.

Ahhhhhhhhhh

Yesterday I went out in a t-shirt without being the least bit cold and rolled down the windows in the car when we went to take back my ill-fitting watch. Right now it's 65, overcast, with a light breeze and the smell of rain coming in the window next to me. Very nice.