Sunday again

Woah...it's Sunday already???  Where do these days come from??

This past week was rough, but the next two weeks are going to be WAY rougher.  I have 9 hours of class, I usually spend 15-20 hours on homework/studying, 20 hours on my job, and Monday-Thursday next week and the week after I'm going to have scuba class 4 hours day as well.  And on Tuesday I have a midterm and Wednesday a half-hour presentation...oy.

I spent Friday in a whirlwind - went to campus early, scanned for six hours, went to the Society for Underwater Technology's inaugural meeting of the semester, then went home, changed, and went on a date.  Got home, crawled into bed and stayed there til noon the next day.

Went to campus around 2:30, stayed for several hours working on my presentation, and then since it was raining and lightening badly John gave me (and my bike) a ride home, and I spent the rest of the night watching football and writing fiction.

Today I was good and got up at 9:30, went grocery shopping, came home and roasted a chicken (it was on sale for 77 cents a pound so the whole chicken was $3.50) which will form a large portion of my meals for this upcoming week.  Realized I needed foil and batteries so I rushed out to Wal Mart and got them as well as a pack of 100 disposable forks, which should keep me going for 3 months at least.  I must remember to put the batteries in my bike lights (they've been turning off after about 60 seconds and Rachel recommended I try new batteries, and it was the only thing I could think of too) so I can bike home at 10:30 tomorrow night without getting killed or ticketed.

I'm baking bread right now.  I think beefaroni and canned peaches for lunch, yogurt and fruit packs for snack, and cheese sandwiches for "dinner" will keep me alive at school, and I have all that nice cold chicken for dinner when I get home late at night.  The bread smells incredible and I will have to exercise considerable restraint to not eat both loaves at once.

I was going to go to campus today to work on my presentation more, but the sky was so threatening and I felt so coughy I didn't, and of course it didn't rain, and I'm just praying it doesn't rain tomorrow morning when I go in early to work on my presentation or tomorrow evening when I'm biking home.  Been trying to cram facts from 611 in my brain for my Tuesday midterm.  I have all the lectures recorded on my phone and I'm going to try and put them on my MP3 player and listen to them while I'm scanning tomorrow.

Okay time to get back to work.  Man, I can't wait for Friday after next!!!

Ugh

Today has been a pain in the ass.  Literally even - my tailbones are NOT yet used to biking 3.2 miles a day and settling on my bike morning and afternoon is not quite comfortable.

Overslept this morning, got everything wrong trying to get ready, got to campus well over an hour after I intended to get there, barely got any studying done before eating and having class.  Class was fun at least, and then things took a turn for the worse again when I went to the library and first the microfilm scanners were so slow they pretty much didn't work.  I timed by my phone, it literally refused to refresh and show the film for over ten minutes.  So I switched to the only other working scanner computer, and that one was, if possible, even worse. I turned it off, turned it on, and then it wouldn't even let me log in. I went downstairs and asked for help from the library help desk, and the guy was nice, but ultimately not super helpful.  I called the computing help desk and they asked me to try a few things and said it was definitely the computer, and they'd put in a work order.  I went back to Dr. Hamilton's lab and he said to just keep on them and hope the scanners get fixed soon, and since there was nothing else to do, I went home.

I have a midterm on Tuesday (GAH) and a big presentation on Wednesday (double GAH) and I'm starting SCUBA lessons on Monday which are 4 hours a day on top of everything else (TRIPLE GAH), so this weekend is going to be a pain and cramjammed with work.

And I have these online training things to do, which I should do tonight, since I'm sure I won't have time later.  I just had a cucumber salad and my parsley is soaking for chickpea salad so I should rinse, pick and chop it so I can eat it.

Sneeze, sniffle, cough

I'm definitely getting sick.  Earache, headache, sweating and freezing alternately, mucous and coughing.  I picked a relatively good time to get sick (assuming it's a 3 day cold) since I turned in my first projects and the next one isn't due for a few weeks, and I only have class tomorrow and work tomorrow and Friday.  Of course I have a lot of research to do for my presentation next Wednesday but that's relatively easy on a sick person, as it involves lots of sitting still.

I'm exhausted.  Haven't been sleeping well (finding it hard to sleep at night and sooo tempting to stay asleep in the morning) and I was damned lucky today because my alarms didn't go off and I woke up anyway, even if it was later than I was intended.

Class was tough today, and my presentation was ok, although it was embarrassing how much trouble I had with the French translations, when Mara didn't seem to have nearly as much of a problem.  For instance there was one word that would ONLY translate as root, no matter which of the sentences I typed in, no matter what I clicked on trying to find options...so I was saying this, but that it clearly supported the mast, and Dr Pulak said, "oh yes, that's the mast step" so that was highly embarrassing.  Also, as I was walking up to the front he said this was one of his favorite shipwrecks and I involuntarily said, "Oh God" (I hope he didn't hear me) because my first presentation wasn't great because I tried SO hard to make it different from his hourlong lecture on the same ships so I wouldn't bore the pants off him and everyone else, and then this one I retranslated the articles like three times and still couldn't figure parts out, so I was afraid of letting him down again.  But he seemed to like it, and nodded and was quite pleased with the extra research I put into the rigging (that research was a blessing because it was in English!! I see now what a trial it is to be unilingual in this profession, and need to improve my German, reconstitute my Portuguese and see if I can acquire competence in any others in all that free time I have) so I'm hoping that will weigh in my favor.

At least there are now a couple of French words I don't think I could forget if I tried - carene (there's an accent on the first e) which means hull, coque which means hull (I tried to see if there was a difference between the two but couldn't find anything), virure which means strake, and barrot, which means beam.  I also had one hell of a time trying to translate surbarrot, so I did sur by itself and got a list of twelve words, so when I talked about them in my presentation saying it could mean "above" "across" "over" or other things so it was some kind of beam or framing anyway, and Dr Pulak kindly explained that here it meant overbeam and they were used to keep the ship's integrity since there was a huge hatch in which to place storage and the lack of beams there would weaken the ship too much for oceanic crossings.  (I swear that was not in the article, or if it was, Google Translate and I need to have a little talk.)

You can see why it's imperative for me to learn (re-learn...) other languages.

As further evidence that I am 100% insane and should probably be locked up, I decided to do my 616 final project (basically extensive line drawings and drafts of ships of our choice) on the VOC (Dutch East India Company) ships, and my 615 final paper on the reasons for the decline for the VOC in the late 18th century.  Of course, in one way it's very sensible to research both projects on "the same" subject, but I did just suffer through a project in French and now I'm doing a gigantic project in which some of my resources will quite likely be Dutch and just as difficult to translate.

I got home and had the last of my bread and bacon and onion spread for dinner, had a lovely nap, and then finished Sense and Sensibility (I have made a resolution to only read stuff I haven't read before during the week to help improve myself), which made me feel marginally better about my "love life" (or lack thereof).  Pride and Prejudice is next - it's a collection of Jane Austen's most popular works - so I think I'll switch to Frankenstein next because I don't know if I can stand another 6 hours reading of misunderstood intentions and thwarted love right away.

Still not tired, even though I had a cup of noodles to soothe my throat and chest, so I might just snuggle up and watch models get slaughtered on Law and Order SVU instead of going to bed right away.  I have decided to be utterly delinquent and EAT LUNCH AT HOME before going to campus for class and work instead of going in early to research.  The warning signs my body is giving me are just too much for me to overlook (I remember getting bronchitis 3 times in 2 1/2 years in California for ignoring my symptoms) and I'm going to try and lie still a little more, even if I do have to read while doing it.

Bike Diaries

It turns out I still remember how to ride a bike, but my center of gravity has changed since I was 15 and stopped biking due to a knee injury, so I wobble frequently, especially when I remove a hand from the handlebars to wave or otherwise signal at cars.  Also, it turns out my butt has completely forgotten how to ride a bike and it now hurts a lot.  I texted Mom and asked her to put in my cushy bike seat cushion from my old bike into the next box she sends me.

I did get to school much faster, even if it's uphill most of the way.  Getting home was lovely, being mostly downhill - except my butt, as stated above, was very unhappy.

Yesterday I made bread with the last of my flour.  I need to practice more, because I'm having a tough time shaping the dough correctly.  Must buy more flour next week.  So I managed time to get the bread out of the oven and cooling 20 minutes before the bacon-onion stuff was ready, so I grated the cheddar while stirring occasionally and settled down to one of the most satisfying home-cooked, from-scratch, family-recipe meals I've had a in a LONG time.

Then I got back to work.

Today I went in early, finished project 2, worked, came home, passed out, tried to do project 3 and realized I missed a very necessary measurement so I'm going in early tomorrow to do it.  So I've been translating French and it's all done (I hope) and now I just have to get my presentation together.  Boiling water for a cup of noodles now, so I can have something warm for my throat before I go to bed.  I figured out that the cup noodles (different brand but they can't be that different) at Sam's Club are a whole cent more expensive per cup than at HEB!  Haha!  I'll keep getting them at HEB, mostly because I have nowhere to store 24 cups of cup of noodles.  I'll probably get the Sam's Club one when I've bought that electric kettle and keep them all on my nice shelf at work.

Anyway my eyes are exhausted and I really should work on that project some more, so I'll end here.  What a week!

Somehow, it's Sunday

I don't know how.  I've worked my ass off this week.  Went in early four days (Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri) and stayed late four days (Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri) this week, and went in on Saturday.  Have to go in early tomorrow to finish drafting Project 2 (I stopped on Saturday when I finished everything I knew how to do, being unwilling to risk massive erasures of everything I painstakingly got right after literally HOURS of effort) and  learn how to calculate Project 3.  Going to work on my presentation today too, but after an appalling Vikings loss (see reaction here:Carla The Viking ) I'm more than unwilling to settle down to work just this minute.

I don't get paid til the first (I am praying nothing is wrong with my direct deposit form and it goes through on the 1st asap!), and I have literally had to call and ask for more money three times this week.  It's getting me down bigtime.  I did a new budget and I have about $200 each month that's not for anything else, which is good, but still not a lot.  So basically, if I want any fiscal security I need a fellowship, to publish a book, or both.  I'm guessing both is what it'll take.  If any literary agents are reading this, I've got two finished manuscripts and am working on literally a dozen more every moment of "free" time I have, so please, contact me!

I realized this morning my first midterm is on Halloween.  I have to start studying immediately, since for two weeks I'm going to be spending 16 hours a week (on top of everything I do already) in scuba class...oh, Graduate School Gods, I beg of you, smile upon me!

I've been trying so hard to circumvent circumstances and find a good, healthy way to eat without a real fridge or a working freezer, and I am not doing well.  Today I spent $19 at Sam's Club and $22 at HEB, which is good, and almost exactly what I'll be spending when I can buy my own groceries (I've budgeted $40 a week), but it's so damn difficult when I can't buy 18-22 chicken thighs in a packet at Sam's and keep them in the freezer and defrost them one or two at a time when I need them!  This week I got 5 pork uh...steaks?  They don't have bones.  Anyway, whatever they're called, my plan is to marinate them in barbecue and each evening to take one out of the baggie and broil it per the directions on the label, and eat it with a baked potato, a baked beet, or some chickpea salad.  Lunches are the worst - once I can buy an electric kettle and have cup noodles for lunch it will be SO much easier and cheaper - so I bought one of the GIGANTIC tins of pineapple and will bring a little sandwich box of pineapple to school each day, along with one of the tiny gala apples and a nutrigrain strawberry bar and a microcup of beefaroni.  When my long days come with scuba class, I don't know what I'll do, but right now I'm hazily thinking I'll bring a baggie with a cup of cereal and eat that right before class and try to stay alive until 10 pm when class ends and I can bike home.  BIKE!  Oh, what a glorious feeling!  My commute will shrink and life will be MUCH easier...from a travel perspective anyway.

I also got bacon and have a lot of onions from last week, and will first bake some bread, and then make my bacon-onion spread and I'm just praying I can make two, three meals out of that, because that with the five pork steak things will be a whole week's meals, and if I can use them and my two cans of chili to eat until I get paid and then go shopping at literally midnight (I hope HEB is open then...might have to go very early Wednesday morning) for the next week.  Unless I just go on Sunday and buy a $3 pack of bratwurst and live on that, pineapple, and the 5 lb bag of potatoes I have until Thursday...we'll see.

I'm in too bad a mood to make bread right now.  I've just started my second beer, and maybe once that's done I'll be able to get some cooking done.

I also looked up mini freezers and the cheapest one I could find was $150 from Amazon.  Not happening.

I do have six beautiful apples (not from the bag of mini galas I take to school) and I'm torn between eating them fresh and turning them into apples n' onions.  I've also been sneakily considering adding bacon to apples n' onions, which I think would just be the bomb dot com, but that'll have to wait until I'm paid and can splurge on occasion, in case it's a failure.  My most recent attempt at acorn squash was a failure (guess you can't substitute butter with olive oil in all occasions), so I'm going to mash a potato, add the acorn squash to it, and pepper heavily to make it edible.  No wasting food in this joint!

Today I looked long and hard at the turkey necks (four medium-big ones for $4-6), chicken hearts ($1.50 a packet), and chicken gizzards ($1.80 a pack) and have been thinking about soup.  If I can get carrots from Sam's (they're ungodly expensive at HEB) turkey neck or chicken part soup might be both affordable and delicious.  But I think I'd want a turkey thigh (which runs to $6) or a chicken thigh (which you can't really buy singly) as well, so that would be much less affordable.  They had some nice butternuts, and I'm thinking one day I'll have to buy a big one and make my slow-and-low cooked butternut soup and have that be my dinner for awhile.

Oh well.  Cooking dilemmas aside, at least I have loving, supportive parents.  I've heard some horror stories recently, which makes me very grateful for my family, even if we aren't billionaires and I can't swan through life with Manolos or Louboutins.

Best Mommy Ever Update

So, a few times before I have posted about how I have the best mom in the world.  Today I get a text from my mom that she put more $$ in my account so I can get a bike (having read my blog post about not getting a bike because of my surprise cable/internet bill).  So I go buy a bike (very involved process when your 4G does not work IN the store, and you have to go outside to call home to ask their opinion), and between it, the warranty, the U-lock, and the lights I bought (helmet and pump will have to wait), I spent so much I had to call and ask if they could put more $$ in so I can buy groceries tomorrow.  And they agreed without blinking an eyelash.  SO, best parental units ever.

I also made a budget today.  If I stick to it, I should be able to afford a bigscreen tv by February, depending on how much I spend at Christmas.  lol

Yes, it is a guy's bike.  No, I don't give a you-know-what.  The girls' bikes were either cruisers (with bad reviews), $180+, or kinda flimsy.  This is a solid bike that will be a pain in the ass to haul up the stairs every day, but will support me (I hope!!) as I ride to and from campus and the gym every day.  Oh, the gym!  I can't wait!

So Much for Planning

Last night Mom called to make sure I was okay since they hadn't heard from me in such a long time.  It was good to talk to her, and she gave me some $$ so I could buy a bike this weekend.  Today I got home from campus and there was a $90 cable/internet bill.  So much for the bike!

Today has been a long day.  Went in early, stayed late.  I managed to get one of my French articles translated, but I simply can't find the second one anywhere which is freaking me out bigtime...I did find an extra article (in English!!) so that's something.

Have to go in early again tomorrow. Will probably stay late too.  Freaking out pretty badly about Projects 2-3.  Project 1 I think I've gotten squared away correctly.  This Wednesday after all my Projects are turned in and my presentation presented I'm going to go home, and lie on the couch and do NOTHING harder than watching a movie or taking a nap.  I'm going to need it!

Work is going well.  Scanning went very smoothly today, although I was distracted by two noisy boys at the next computer (have I ever mentioned how much I HATE people using the computers with microfilm scanners when they're not scanning microfilm?!?!) who were talking all sorts of nonsense (loudly).  When I went up to the computers they were all full, so I asked politely if I could use one of them (each of them is marked to ask people to "give priority" to those who are using microfilm) and they just looked at me and said, "I don't know what you're talking about" and the girl at the third computer said, "I'll get up, I just started so it'll be easy for me to move" (heaven bless her!) so I sat down and started working.  I was almost done when another girl came up and asked if she could use a microfilm scanner and I said she could use mine if she didn't mind waiting for my scans to finish downloading (the computers are so slow it takes half an hour to load a gig of scans onto a flash drive) and the guy spoke up and asked what microfilm was.  Apparently he had no idea it existed and once she explained to him he thought "losers" did it in their basements!  I had such a hard time keeping my mouth shut. 

Two especially funny things from today: I found Henry Huggins and Hugh Murray both emigrated to Jamaica in 1888!  Henry Huggins, of course, is from Beverly Cleary's Henry and Ribsy books, and Hugh Murray is a character from  L. M. Montgomery's Emily of New Moon trilogy.  I took a picture of Hugh Murray's name for Mom, I think it'll give her a laugh.  I suppose when finding things like that cheers me up that's a good thing.  Life has been pretty stressful lately.  Going to be on campus all day tomorrow and probably a chunk of Saturday.  I'm just praying I get to stay home Sunday. 

Time to get back to my shipwreck.  I need to go to bed...after I do the dishes, brush my teeth, apply moisturizer to my cracking skin...how does anyone "do it all"??!!

Out of Shape

Mentally AND physically.

I feel bad I haven't called my parents lately.  But I have so much work I just don't have time to talk and late afternoon early evening is when I focus best...maybe I can make time tomorrow.

Another long day today - up at 7:30, shower, eat, go to class.  Had my 9 am - 12 pm drafting class today, then I stayed later, had a quick lunch, and went to the library to do some scanning before my 2 pm - 5 pm class and gave my first presentation.  I felt shaky and stupid and awful, but I think (on sober reflection) that I did ok.  It was REALLY hard making the presentation interesting when the prof had literally gone over EVERYTHING before. 
Then I did some more  drafting, and got it wrong so I erased the wrong part and came home.  I walked in the door, dumped my stuff on the couch, and turned on the oven to start baking the potato.  Of course once it was in the oven I managed to change and unpack my backpack and do some work - mostly downloading scans and things.  Ate dinner, and got some work done, and then remembered I'm 17 days behind in updating and backdating all my stuff so I stopped to do that.  Just one file left now, but it's my photo file, it'll be about 40 minutes, if I'm lucky!

So I did my situp routine, and a 10 minute yoga routine (the old break in my wrist really doesn't enjoy my new yoga attempts, nor does my left knee...) and now I'm trying to decide whether to be a) good and work some more b) bad and work on my novels c) bad and try some calisthenics or d) bad and snooze on the couch until midnight.

Right now, I'm leaning towards B.  I'm going in early to draft some more tomorrow, and if I can stand it, I'll stay late too.  Same goes for Friday, although Friday is an opera get-together and Saturday night I have a date so that'll cut into some prime homework hours.  But I MUST have some mental relaxation/stimulation that isn't from work or school.  Or the next time you'll hear from me I'll be writing a blog called, "A Dozen Sherds Short of a Pot and in a Nice Padded Room for Repairs."

Tuesday Night

Well, Tuesday night is half-price (aka $2) pint night at Carney's, and guess where I'm not?  That's right, Carney's.

I was a very good girl today.  I dragged my butt out of bed, got to campus two hours early, started drafting Project Two (the scale is going to drive me to drinking if anything is GRRR), took a lunch break, went to class, then worked for well over four hours on finishing that reel I've been scanning for over a week now.  I must have spent at least 12-14 hours on that damn thing and there are about 20 more.  That agonized scream you heard?  It was my eyes.

Then I came home, made dinner, and worked on my presentation until 10.  Took a half hour break, and worked on it until 11, and loaded it on my flash drive and emailed it to myself.  Number #1 of grad school: BACK UP EVERYTHING.  BACK UP YOUR BACKUPS.  BACK UP YOUR BACKUP BACKUPS.  Trust no one, and most of all, no flash drive!

Now I'm "relaxing" and my dishes are done, my backpack packed (except for my netbook which is charging), my lunch is already packed and water bottle filled, and my entire outfit for tomorrow laid out.  All I have to do tomorrow is wake up, shower, and eat, and I can pretty much go straight out the door.

Being a good girl is such a load of crap.  What's a bigger load of crap is how crappy I'd feel if I hadn't worked my ass off all day and had gone out to Carney's.  Having a conscience...well let's just say it's inconvenient at times.

Time to lie on the couch and watch Friends to wind down before bed.

The First Semester is the Worst

(At least that's what all the third-years keep telling me.)

Dragged myself out of bed at 7:30 this morning after a highly disturbed night and managed to get to campus at 8:55 (it's a half-hour walk, and I had to shower first for anyone who thinks this constituted laziness), only to find out that the radiation certification didn't start until 10 am.  GAH.  Went into my office and tried to go through some of the Jamaica scans, even though I wanted to curl up under my desk and sleep right there on the unswept floor.

The training was fun and interesting, thank goodness, and the new Bruker we have is seriously awesome.  We can even order custom filters!!  My mind about exploded with the fascinating possibilities there...I do love science.  Training was done at about 12:30 and Dr. Hamilton took us out to lunch and I had a delicious chicken gyro...the hummus was a mistake, I should've gone with fries lol.  Got back around 2 and I did more Jamaica stuff until three when I went to the drafting lab and worked on Project 1 until SIX THIRTY which was when I finally finished.  I'm going to try and go in early tomorrow and get some input on it from Felipe and then start Project 2, since Projects 1-3 are due next Wednesday.  GAH!!  But Sam - one of Felipe's grad assistants - assures me the first semester is the worst and says I should really take Rigging 101 when I get a chance because you learn so much.  I'll consider it, but GAH for sure!

Tonight I've been trying to get some stuff for my Wednesday presentation done but I'm so sleepy I can barely sit upright.  Wondering if I should have a cup of noodles and then curl up in bed and see if I actually wake up at 7 and can get some work done then...no, I should really do the dishes and plod away at this presentation.  I would say I can't wait til Saturday, but I'm quite sure I'll have to spend a good chunk of it in the ship lab drafting, so...hooray whatever night I get a decent night's sleep!

Sunday "Funday"

Har har.  It's so much fun.  This weekend has kicked my ass.  Friday I got to campus early and did some reading/scanning in the NAP library, then worked for six hours scanning microfilm (and I STILL didn't finish the roll I've been working on), then went into the lab and drafted a ship that's due next week and it's so not good.  And there's a second project due next week too and I'm getting massive heebie jeebies because I'm having such a hard time grasping exactly what I need to do and how to do it.

I got home 7ish and had a short nap (believe me, it was necessary) before making dinner and being bad and reading fiction all evening.

Saturday I slept in (once again, highly necessary) then showered and went to campus and did some more frantic scanning and research for about two hours before heading home to watch the Aggies lose a heartbreaker in the last minute or two.  I tried to get more work done, but despite a nap I had a hard time pulling myself together and ended up getting a pint of ice cream for dinner and watching Poirots all night (I love you Amazon Prime.  So much.)

Today I got up early (well...9 am...which is early for a Sunday!), went grocery shopping, came home and watched the Vikings' game (another heartbreaking loss you can read about here: carlatheviking.blogspot.com) before getting back to work.  I did take a break to read a little of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (once again, thank you Amazon Prime and your lending library...I wish I could get more than one book every two weeks though), and that eased my pain a little.  Then I did my laundry and ate dinner and now I'm taking a little break before getting back to that ghastly presentation.  Why am I in grad school?  I sympathize thoroughly with Phil Gordon who said, "For a time I wished I'd stayed home and gotten married!"

I don't know how I'm ever going to talk for thirty minutes about Khufu's Barge and the Lisht timbers (well, I can, there's a boatload [see what I did there??] of information about them) and sound interesting and well-educated at the same time.  At least I get a powerpoint, it'll help me over the worst of it...I hope.

All this is not helped by whatever sickness it is I've contracted.  Faint, underlying headaches, a sore chest full of phlegm, a cough, a stuffy nose (worst in the morning), and sore ears are NOT making my life easier.  I've had four of those cup o noodles so far this weekend in an attempt to soothe my sore throat and I've even put my bread in a tupperware (French toast is all I'll be able to do with it now) so that I'm not tempted to eat it and make things worse.

If it weren't so hot in my apartment and bananas didn't ripen so quickly I would've gotten more than 4, but they do ripen so quickly and I have to eat them so fast to avoid the nasty brown spots it's foolish to get more than four even if they are nice and easy on my throat.  The minifridge situation is getting more acute.  Every week I'm stretched to the limits of my budget to buy enough food for the week (getting stuff to eat on campus is just making it tougher too) and I never get to buy those little things I need - oregano, thyme, basil, extra olive oil, soy sauce, etc etc.  Anyone feel like sharing the winning lotto numbers with me?  I'd love to pay all my debts, repay my parents, and move to a decent apartment without suffering from the $340 fee to break my lease.  I mean, if you have $4,000,000, $340 isn't going to bother you much, is it?

Oh well, enough stalling.  Maybe I'll magically finish this sucker in half an hour so I can go to bed with a book and still get up at 7:30 and get to campus in time for the Bruker lectures...and maybe they'll finish early and I can get some drafting in with Felipe to help me - or even Nathan or Mara because they really seem to be getting the gist of of it.  Lucky them!

Cockroaches

I hate them.  I really, really hate those ghastly scuttling suckers.  Today I'm sitting at my kitchen table, typing away and minding my own business when a half-grown one scuttles down my wall...I managed to hit it with my rolled up yoga mat so it fell to the floor.  After some yelling and thwacking with the yoga mat I killed it, got about seven sheets of kitchen paper and got it into the trash.  Then I sat to think about how the heck it could've gotten into my apartment since my door seems to be pretty tight.  I realized that since I've been opening my window to air out the cooking smell, that's probably how it got in.  So now I'm just going to open my bedroom window because it has a screen in it and keep my fan on to keep my apartment smelling nice.

But I've seen quite a few in the streets, and it's kinda creepy.  I remember seeing the Floridian ones in the garden a lot, but in the street?  These ones are much darker too, almost evil looking.  I really, really hate cockroaches.

I made bread!!

 

I made bread all by myself today!  I've never done it alone before so I was pretty nervous about it.

 

But it not only CUTS just fine - 

- it also tastes good too!  I think next time I need to add a little more salt...but that's ok.  I'm pretty proud I produced good bread on my first solo attempt!!