Friday, April 28, 2006

Of Travels and Finals . . .

As mentioned previously, I'm headed to Bloomington. JK & I couldn't find a decent campground that allowed alcohol (& you KNOW one of the fun things about camping is being able to chill out w/a 6-pack around a campfire), and there's a high chance of rain, so we decided to grab a hotel room instead & partake of the nightlife in town. Not sure how much of a joke that will be, but it IS a college town, so I have hope. Saturday, we'll probably check out the zoo, maybe hike a trail in the state park if the weather's nice.

I had my Financial Management final last night -- I'm pretty sure that it's impossible for me to NOT get an "A" in that class, woot!

My next class, Business Economics, starts in about a week & a half. I think. Might want to check that out. Hmm.

Oh well. I have NO motivation to do anything work-related, but am trudging through data entry with the help of my new iPod. Did I mention that it rocks? Probably so, but I'll say it again. It rocks.

Later!

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Wednesday Update

Well, if J can do "half-assed Wednesday" posts, the least I can do is throw you something -- though I don't have a ton of excitement to share right now.

I've been mega-social the last few days -- Friday I went out for a few hours w/some Zoo folks, Saturday I went out with C & M for dinner & pool. Sunday I slept late. Monday I did the happy-hour thing with some guys from work, and Tuesday night had dinner w/another friend from the Zoo. That's like four times as much socializing as I normally do. I actually have plans to do the happy-hour thing again next week -- it's kinda nice to have some folks to chill out with after a hectic day @ work.

I'm going to Bloomington, or thereabouts, this weekend. My friend JK from Northland called & said "I want to get out of Milwaukee this weekend, let's do something." After establishing that I wasn't driving 6 hours up there, and he wasn't driving 6 hours down here, we decided to meet in the middle, maybe go camping.

My major excitement for the week: I bought an iPod nano. It SERIOUSLY rocks. 'nuf said.

Okay, I have a new book calling my name (Deception Point, by Dan Brown), so I'm outta here -- take care!

Saturday, April 22, 2006

Saturday Randomness

First things first: HAPPY EARTH DAY!!!!!

Okay, I'm at work. By working today, I was able to have last Monday off (to come home from NC) without using vacation time. It just means that I'll be sitting here in boredom till 3pm today. Joy.

Let's see, something you might enjoy:

I never knew court transcripts could be so entertaining, but if you share my interest in the whole evolution/ID "controversy" (which I fondly like to refer to as "Creationists trying to repackage a religious idea and teach it to unsuspecting youth under the guise of science"), you may enjoy reading the transcripts of the Dover, PA court case - the one where the School Board made teachers read a "disclaimer" about Evolution - which can be found here. This actually helped renew my hope in the future of science education, because before the court could even make a ruling, the voters had ousted all members of the Board who supported the "disclaimer." Power to the people!

My final exam in Financial Management is Thursday. For the Midterm, we were allowed one 8.5" x 11" piece of paper, front & back, on which to copy formulas, examples, etc. to assist us on the test. Okay, understandable, I'm not a big fan of memorizing random formulas; in fact, in my Chem class in college, we were allowed a 3"x5" index card for each test -- but only ONE, so as the semester progressed, you either wrote smaller or left off the stuff you knew. Back to Financial Mgmt -- my GRAD LEVEL course -- we are now allowed TWO 8.5" x 11" sheets, front & back, for the Final. Come on, people! Good grief, isn't that a bit much? So, I'm taking my "page" from the midterm, shrinking it to 33%, and therefore getting almost two blank pages to write notes covering the last 6 chapters of material. And forget actually writing notes, I'm just copying & shrinking the PowerPoint slides from the review we did in class (because the midterm review was almost EXACTLY the same as the test, just with different numbers). I anticipate NOT stressing over this Final too very much.

Next class on my path to an MBA: Business Economics.

I still have not unpacked from my trip. All clothes in my suitcase smell of cigarettes, thanks B, so I'll be taking them & the rest of my wardrobe to the laundromat tonight.

5 hours left . . .

Monday, April 17, 2006

Trip Pics

Well, I'm back -- the trip was great, flights were a piece of cake, and it was awesome to see B again -- especially since he's scheduled to head to the desert sometime next month. Speaking of, here are some pics of the aforementioned best friend:
This is the look I get upon announcing that I'm getting my camera out...
This is from downtown Raleigh...

This is as close to a smile as I got out of him...

Standing in his doorway, obviously thrilled that I'm still snapping pictures...

And, perhaps the most disturbing (especially for those of you who know him), B in uniform this morning as we said goodbye...


More later, I'm off to veg out in front of the TV.

Thursday, April 13, 2006

T-minus 24 hours . . .

It's early.

Today is my "lucky" day of working the 6am-2:30pm shift at work. The upside to this is the "leaving at 2:30" part, which will give me time to go home & finish packing before class.

That's right, I said "finish packing," yay!

By this time tomorrow, I'll be patiently (or impatiently, probably), waiting for AwesomeStepdad to come pick me up & take me to the airport. My flight leaves at 9:30 CST, and I couldn't be more excited! Well, I could, but my head might explode, so I'm trying to keep it in check.

The house is straightened, Mom will be checking on the feathered kids while I'm gone, all I need to do after work today is complete the packing process, go to class, and then try to get some sleep before beginning my adventure. Don't worry, I'll take pictures.

Have a great weekend!

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Reading List

Okay, Okay, I stole this from Jess. At least it prompted me to go buy a new book!

Meme instructions: Look at the list of books below. Bold the ones you've read, italicize the ones you might read, cross out the ones you won't, place an asterisk* after the ones on your book shelf, and place (parentheses) around the ones you've never even heard of.

The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown* << the aforementioned new book
The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy - Douglas Adams**** all FIVE books plus the extra “short story!
The Great Gatsby - F.Scott Fitzgerald
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
(The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger)
(His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman)
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - J. K. Rowling*
Life of Pi - Yann Martel*
Animal Farm: A Fairy Story - George Orwell*
Catch-22 - Joseph Heller* (started it . . . )
The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien*
(The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon)
Lord of the Flies - William Golding
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen (does watching the movie count?)
1984 - George Orwell
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - J. K. Rowling*
One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
(The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini)
The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegut*
(The Secret History - Donna Tartt)
Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - C. S. Lewis
(Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides)
(Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell)
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
(Atonement - Ian McEwan)
(The Shadow Of The Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon)
The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway
(The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood)
(The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath)
Dune - Frank Herbert


Plus Jess’s add-ons:
Sense & Sensibility - Jane Austen
(Mrs. Mike - Benedict & Nancy Freedman)
(My Sister's Keeper - Jodi Piccoult)
The Illiad - Homer
(The Things They Carried - Tim O'Brien)
The Girls Guide to Hunting & Fishing - Melissa Banks
In Cold Blood - Truman Capote
(Age of Iron - JM Coetzee)
(Existentialism and Human Emotions - Jean-Paul Sartre)

And now, some from my own list (consider them bold & with a *):
Einstein’s Dreams – Alan Lightman
Contact – Carl Sagan
A Tale of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
A Short History of Nearly Everything – Bill Bryson
The Tao of Pooh – Benjamin Hoff
Marley & Me – John Grogan
Swim Naked, Defy Gravity & 99 Other Essential Things To Accomplish Before Turning 30 - Colleen Rush
Wild Thoughts from Wild Places – David Quammen

Saturday, April 08, 2006

In the Last 10 Days . . .

A brief summary of what's been going on:

Last weekend started at 2:30pm on Friday; because I had worked the early shift at my grown-up job. I went home, took a nap, then went out with some friends. My plan was to have a diet coke, hang out a bit, & go home rather early, because I had to be at the Zoo at 8am Saturday . . . but when we got to the bar, W was ordering "another round" & the evening continued like that. We played pool (as much as I've played in the last month, you'd think I'd be improving more than I am), enjoyed random bar food (mmmm, pizza & waffle fries), & hung out; then I went home.

Saturday, I worked a Girl Scout program from 8am-330pm, then went out with some of my coworkers to the Cheesecake Factory ; then rushed back to work an overnight. Upon our return we found that the building we work in had NO WORKING RESTROOMS due to a sewer issue. Yipe -- 180 people and no bathrooms? Luckily, the emergency plumber-guys were on the scene, & had everything back to normal by 8pm. The program went really well, except for this awful group of mothers (their scouts were fine, the adults were terrible) who talked through the programs, weren't happy with ANYTHING, and then gave us negative reviews on their evaluations AND wanted a partial refund -- the nerve! Note: if you hadn't been TALKING through the whole class, you might have actually noticed that it is FAR above a "poor" rating! If I were my boss, my response would be thus: "The other groups who were with you seemed to truly enjoy & learn from the programs, in fact, you are the only group who's ever reviewed these instructors in a negative light. In addition, we offered to address your main issues, but you refused. In light of this, we are unable to offer you a refund." That's the PC me -- the real me is thinking of adding, "We will understand if you choose not to return in the future, in fact, please don't" Oh well.

After spending 26 hours at the zoo (with only the Cheesecake excursion as a break), I went home & slept till 7pm Sunday. Oh, and I got a really good sunburn. Good meaning red, painful, and noticeable. Since I'm working today (Saturday), I got a day off this week, so I took Monday & slept late, then straightened the house.

Thursday, I had my Finance Midterm. I've decided that the main problem with having the first two hours of class time alloted for the midterm (& then having class afterwards) is that I had to find a way to entertain myself for AN HOUR AND A HALF when I finished the test in 30 minutes. Oh well, I did homework. Joy.

As I was leaving work yesterday, Mom called. Grandpa had apparently become unresponsive, and didn't recognize Grandma. The hospital's first thought was that he'd had a stroke. I rushed to join Mom & Grams at the hospital, Gramps was asleep. They took him for a CT scan, which didn't show anything major. When they brought him back, he recognized us & even smiled at me trying to be my normal goofy self. Ending up unable to do the things he wants to do would be the worst thing possible for Gramps, but not being recognized to the man you've been married to for 51 years (their anniversary was Thursday, by the way) had to be horrible for Grams. BUT, we remain positive. Please continue to send good thoughts!

I got my tax refund today. Imagine my suprise when I saw the amount deposited to my account was $480 more than I'd expected! I checked the IRS website (which was actually very helpful), turns out I'd made a calculation error & they'd caught & corrected it for me -- WHOO HOO!

In less than a week, I'll be in NC (see last post) -- I'm going tonight to buy at least one new pair of shorts (because all mine are TOO BIG!), in hopes that the weather will be nice!

Have a great weekend, everyone!