Headache Express

I got a lot done today folks.  Finished my SSI training online, took my diving final test, made a couple cakes (took them to the test to cheer everyone up), turned in a final paper, worked, cleaned, and did two loads of dishes.

Tomorrow I have a lot to do as well, but with the following thought uppermost in my mind: THE SEMESTER IS OVER!!

I have an unpleasant headache now, which is preventing me from really enjoying the relief.  I took a hot shower, which helped.  May take some pills in a bit; I think it's been long enough since I had that beer with dinner.

The ingredients for bolos de saboia - flour, baking powder, sugar, eggs, and lemon.  That's it.  Unless you count butter or spray to grease the pans/parchment paper with.

I broke one egg yolk in the cup, and it's now in the fridge awaiting the omelet I'll make for breakfast, but other than that the only yolk that broke happened in the bowl, so I'm really very proud of myself.

The finished cakes!  Not quite like Mom's, but she has a standing mixer and it's easier for her to beat stuff up for longer.  Still pretty good and my classmates liked it a lot, but dang I have a lot of cake left!


My head is getting worse.  Time to find that ibuprofen.

The Grump List

GIS prof emailed me asking to drop off a hard copy of my final paper at his office.  I guess he likes writing on things while he grades?  I can do it tomorrow before my exam, but GRR!  I thought I was completely finished with that class!

Also, dive test tomorrow.  Only written, and I do know most of this stuff...only do I know it enough to get an 80% on the test?  I NEED this certification.

My apartment has been tidied again.  It's amazing how disgustingly messy it gets during exam season.  I'm also on a very weird eating kick because I ate an entire sleeve of jaffa cakes and I'm still 500 calories under my calorie limit for the day.  I should make a stir fry so I don't eat more junk.

I've sorted out all my dive gear.  My gear is in the bag under my bike table, and the uni's gear is in a laundry hamper I bought specifically for scuba stuff so I can take it to campus tomorrow.

Really, all I have left to do - other than study - is scrub the kitchen/bathroom and do my mending.  (Besides my thesis, of course.) Soo...studying it is.

I would still prefer to do nothing.

Cinco de Mayo...part one?

I guess it's technically May 5th, being 12:37 am here in the Central Time Zone.  I guess I'm feeling bloggish today!

Had my meeting, went to the shops on the way home (got an adult coloring book for $1 at the dollar store which I'm feeling a bit smug about), got home, grabbed an apple and went for my walk in the sunset.

It was a glorious walk, and at one point I even saw a cottontail rabbit!  I only just noticed it in the nick of time; was walking around a bend in the path and looked up just in time to see him rear up in alarm and then bounce away showing his adorable little cottontail.  It was the sweetest thing, and I find it a major pity that rabbits don't enjoy being cuddled, because if they did I would TOTALLY get a pet rabbit and snuggle it like crazy.

Got home and got straight back in the car and went to my friend's place to check on her cats.  One of them escaped as I was walking in with the empty watering jug (watering her plants too - it's too hot in Texas to let them go a week without water) so I chased her around for a bit and then trapped her in the laundry room (it's outside, like a utility closet sort of thing) where she hid behind the washer and growled when I peered over and talked to her.  I texted my friend who told me to leave food and water in the laundry room and leave the door cracked and she should run right inside in the morning.  Let's hope it's true!

Came home again and called mom for a little bit before microwaving leftovers for dinner.  Did some homework and then settled down to work on my novel for an hour or so.  Then I made my grandmother's aguardente com mel FINALLY after having the ingredients in my larder for a month.  It can cure over the summer and I'll crack it open come autumn, just in time for such a thing.

Ta-da!
Then I put the dishwasher on, took out the trash, tidied up and polished off a couple chores.  I've really gotten a lot done today.  Not enough, of course, but when is it ever enough?  Now I have the French windows open so cool air is flowing through my apartment and dispelling the warm honey smell, and I'm going to settle down with my new coloring book while I watch my murder mystery.

There are compensations, even in Texas.

May the Fourth Be With You

My "fourth" is pretty grumpy so far, and I have no idea why.  I got up at a reasonable hour, went to my friend's place (I'm looking after her cats while she's away) and did my homework there (figured no wifi = fewer distractions, even with cats present) before coming home, going for my walk, and then settling down to doing my accounts.  (That was bleh - that conference cost me a thousand bucks and I didn't get a penny from any of the grants I applied for!  It's going to take me months to pay that off.)

Then I had some cornbread muffins for lunch and got down to working at my nonprofit job.  This new assignment is giving me a migraine because although these reports are usually half bolded (bolded stuff you don't need to code) this one has ZERO bolded font, and there are dozens and dozens of tables which take forever to code.  I wanted to ZIP right though this, and nope.  Not happening.  Oy.

Finished with that for the day, and I'm going to leave for a meeting in a bit.  Then I'll check on my friend's cats, go for another walk (because I can) and then home to work on a final project that's due Monday.  I'd hoped to finish it before now, but I've been having a hell of a time focusing lately.  Maybe it's because the weather is just so GLORIOUS that all I want is to be running around outside on the bike trail I walk (it's almost exactly 2 miles from my door, roundtrip back to my door), which passes by a lovely stream and two playgrounds (usually overflowing with kids which makes me happy - I can't imagine a whole childhood spent indoors with videogames, blerg!) and has wildflowers and birds and is really one of the best parts of living here.  I wish I'd found it sooner!!

Once the semester is properly over (i.e. everything turned in and tests taken) I'm hoping to have more time for my work/my thesis/and the gym, as well as getting to relax a bit, mentally.  I am at least taking a bit more time for myself.  Tomorrow a farmer's market is having a grand opening and I'm going, and I'm also going to see the new Captain America: Civil War tomorrow night.  Fingers crossed that it'll be a good one!  The reviews have been fab, so I'm feeling optimistic.