Anna Nicole Simth Gone

I just read that Anna Nicole Smith died. That is really sad. I had been following her a little through the Entertainment News with her whole paternity suit. I hope that they are able to figure out who the real father is and then everyone will be able to get some peace.

Grey's

Woo hoo, tonight Grey's Anatomy is on. I <3 that show. I have watched it since the very first episode came on. I remember watching it on my couch in my apartment in North Carolina. It looks like it's going to be a good episode tonight ;D

The cutest kitty

Anonymous Opinion directed me to a contest the Delaware News Journal is putting on. They are starting a Cutest Cat Contest. I could not resist entering Milo into the contest. The only problem is that I have a million pictures of Milo. Jeff and I are having a hard time narrowing it down to the one we want to submit. So we figured that we would let you guys pick the picture we will submit to the contest. These are the pictures we are thinking about. Which picture do you like the best?

Picture #1 Picture #2 Picture #3 Picture #4 or Picture #5.

The Super Bowl

The Super Bowl came and went so quickly. I was rooting for the Bears :( Oh well. Jeff and I had a quiet night eating junk food. Just what the night should be like. My favorite part of the game was the pre-game show. I really liked the two marching bands dressed up as the two teams. Yes, I'm a big band geek. The whole Cirque du Soleil part was neat too. Overall, I was disappointed in the commercials. There were some that were funny, but not amazing. I would have to say that my favorite one was the Budweiser ad with the crabs. That was pretty cute. The lions one with the doritos wasn't bad either. The one ad with the robot who put screws in cars and then lost his job made me really sad. That wasn't a funny commercial, but it was a good one. In the end I fell asleep before the game was over. Busy weekend mixed with a boring Super Bowl. I hope next years is more exciting. Or at least has the Redskins in it :D

New Manga

Today Jeff and I went to a bookstore that sells manga/sci-fi type stuff. It's a really neat book store with all kinds of stuff. While I was there I started looking at the new girly manga that had just come in. I used to read His and Her Circumstances but I got bored with the story line. I have bounced around a little bit since then trying to find a new manga to read. Today I picked up Red String. So far it seems really good. I already read through the first book. What is also cool about the Red String is that the author has a website where she updates the Red String comic three days a week. So I can continue to read the story line and not to have to shell out $10 for each book. That is very cool. Though, if it is really good I may buy them anyways.

Easter is coming

Easter is only two months away. How can I tell? I found many varieties of Cadbury Eggs at the grocery store. Yum! Before I met Jeff, this is how I celebrated Easter. Oddly enough, one of my Jewish friends introduced me to them.

Sleepy kitty

I added some cute pictures of Milo sleeping in a sunbeam and on my lap over on his blog.

Yea for the weekend

Woo hoo we made it to the weekend. I love not having to work for a day or two and being able to sleep in. This weekend will probably be busy though. We have a winter banquet to go to tonight. I think part of today will be spent getting "girlified" and ready. I hope we have a good time. Then tomorrow is the Super Bowl! I do like watching football, but I'm not a huge fan. I'm going to be rooting for the Bears just because you can say "Da Bears!" :D My favorite part of the superbowl is all the great commercials so I'm really looking forward to that.

In other exciting news I got accepted into my first blogroll the Blogging Chicks Blogroll. So yea for that.

TGIF and Happy Ground Hog's Day

Happy Ground Hog's Day and Happy Friday to everyone. Punxsutawney Phil didn't see his shadow so spring is coming. Woo hoo, I don't like the freezing cold. We didn't get the huge snow/ice mess that the weather forecasters were predicting. We barely got a dusting. I guess thats good a thing for my drive into work. Looks like today is going to be a busy day.

TGIF

Sad day in gaming land

I have played an online massive multi-player game called Fairyland on and off since I was in graduate school. It is a really cute game and was actually the first online mmorpg I had ever played. I met a lot of cool people online. However, just this week they announced that the company that runs the game is shutting it down. I had quit playing a while ago so this isn't as huge of a thing to me as it is to others, but it's still sad. There is another version of the game running, but it is based in Europe. I had previously played the Malaysian version and then the U.S version which is now shutting down. I just recently started playing a new game called Trickster whenever I get a free moment to fill the void. One great thing about Trickster is it's free ;)

Peanut butter wars

It's amazing the things you learn about each other once you are married. I found out that Jeff prefers smooth peanut butter and hates chunky peanut butter. I prefer the chunky version. Why do I bother to mention any of this? I have been wanting a peanut butter and banana sandwich for the longest time. Another thing Jeff thinks is gross LOL. I finally went to the store and bought some peanut butter so I could make this wonderful delicious sandwich :D An what kind of peanut butter did I buy? Smooth just so Jeff could share in the fun. Aren't I a nice person? :D

I'm back

I decided to give my blogger another shot again. This way Jeff isn't the only one that can post about new Milo pictures ;)

We are currently under a "Winter Weather Advisory". According to The Weather Channel we could get anywhere from an inch to three inches with freezing rain mixed in tonight and through rush hour tomorrow. Great. While I love snow, I hate having to drive in it. Tomorrow I work the morning shift of course. I really hope it's not bad driving at all or it's so bad I don't have to drive. We will see. Maybe I should wear my pjs backwards or something.

Tired

Milo decided that midnight, 2am, 3am, 4am, and 5am were times that he wanted to play. Therefore Jeff and I didn't get much sleep last night. He would sit on my pillow and rub against my hand until I woke up, sit on Jeff's back, climb up on his night side table, and jump on and off our bed. I am not happy. We will be digging out our squirt guns and trying to tire him out before bed. We will also continue to move his litter box out of our room. It's almost to the door now. Thank goodness today is a day where I work the afternoon shift. Gah. I'm trying to be fair, I know he's a cat and playing in night is his nature, but bleh.

Ok I have to leave this entry on a good note. Today's PVP comic really fits with me.

Kitty time

Woo hoo. This morning I got through to the kitty lady who had left a message on our answering machine a few days ago. She said we were approved to get our kitty! She gave me some information on what food to give him and stuff to do at the vet. Then she said she would have to talk to the foster home he was living in to see when they could bring him to Petsmart. The lady at the foster home called while I was at work. Thankfully Jeff had the day off and was able to talk to her. We are going to bring home our kitty today!! Yea!! I'm excited. Jeff and I already feel more positive about bringing him home than we did with Meg. I think thats a good sign. We also finally came up with a name for him, Milo. Milo is Liv Tyler's son (we were watching a show on E! about daughers of rock stars) and an orange tabby in Milo and Otis the movie. I didn't know that he was an orange tabby in the movie. I guess it really fits him since he's an orange tabby as well ;)

Kitty names

As Jeff posted we are trying to think of a cute cat name for our new cat. I have been looking at names of cats that have been in movies and television in the past. Here are a few great links I have found of cats in the media.

Famous Cats

Wikipedia's list of fictional cats

Some other cat names I have been thinking of are Napoleon, Jack, Roary, and Eddie.

Possible kitty parents

Yes, as the title reads we may be kitty parents by next weekend. As I posted in my last entry, a cat would fit into our life style better than a dog at this moment. That doesn't mean we won't get a dog sometime later down the line.

We spent this weekend going to various places that have cats for adoption. Our first stop was a Petsmart near our place that was pretty disappointing. They had a small number of cats and most of them already had people who had put in paperwork to adopt them. There was only one left and on its tag it said the cat was shy and slow to warm up. This reminded us a lot of Meg and we decided against that cat.

Next we went to the SPCA. I really don't like this place. I mean I'm glad it's there to help cats and dogs, but it makes me really sad everytime I go in there. All of those animals in cages, some of them crying, wondering how much time they have left to be adopted. I really hated watching some people dropping their animals off at the pound. Made me wonder what had happened and why they couldn't keep them. Because we went on a saturday, a rainy saturday no less they were packed. So we had to wait a long time. We should have gotten there earlier, but oh well. So we had a lot of time to observe.

We did like one cat there that we wanted to learn more about, but it took forever to find anyone to help us. Thats another thing about the spca I don't like. They have so many animals that many of them, especially cats, just have a number and no little tag telling you about them. You have to ask someone who usually only knows limited information about them. We finally found someone to help us with about 20 minutes of visiting time left. She opened the cage for us and we got to hold the cat. It was a very sweet cat, purred when we pet him and such. She said he was a stray, didn't really know if it was a boy or a girl or how old he was. She said he had an upper respiratory infection and was on medication for two weeks. That made me nervous. She said that it was just something cats get easily and after he took all the medication he would be fine. Still I wasn't sure. I wanted to visit with him see how he acted, but they were so busy the lady only let us hold him for a minute and then asked if we wanted him or not. She didn't have time to let us visit and decide. We decided to wait. At least we got to donate the big dog carrier my parents have had forever. They gave it to us when we got Meg. Ever since then, it has been sitting in our living room. I'm glad we could give it to them and possibly help save an animals life.

After the SPCA we went to a Petco and they had a dissapointingly small amount of cats and no one was even there to help us. It just said if you are interested in one of the cats fax in your application. Bleh.

Sunday, after going to church with Jeff and Jon, we went to a PetSmart nearby. We have been to this one before when we were just looking and I remembered that it was bigger than the one nearer to us. We went in and they did have more cats. Yea and they had tags telling us about their personalities, even better. We first liked one from the Humane Society but there was no one there to help us. There was another group there who was showing cats to be adopted who had many people there. So we started looking at their cats. I held one, but it didn't seem to be that interested in being held. I then asked if they had any cats that were lap cats. She brought one out that was more of a lap cat, but not exactly what I was looking for. The last one cat she showd us we really liked. I held him and he sat in my lap and pushed his head against my arm so that I would pet him more and pay attention to him. We filled out the adoption application for him and gave it to the woman. She said that we should hear back by this weekend. When I know that we will get him I will write more about him. Hopefully we will. I think we will be good kitty parents, but I am a little nervous. I haven't had a cat in forever. I had one as a child, a pure white cat that was a little moody. I'm not surprised I'm nervous though, I'm always like this right before something new. Once I get into it I'll calm down and see that everything will be fine. I just hope he will fit into our family and we won't have to have another Meg experience.

Meow

Thanks to Anonymous Opinion and her comment on my puppy fever entry, Jeff and I have been thinking about getting a cat. Thanks Anonymous :D We are both dog people, though I did have a cat growing up. However, I don't think a dog would fit into our way of life at the moment. Jeff works full time and although I work part time my hours are not always consistent. Getting a cat would fit more into our lifestyle. Cats can be left alone more, you don't have to go home to let a cat out, it can just go in its litter box, you don't walk a cat (though I wouldn't mind walking a dog), and they don't need a backyard. Part me of me wonders if I would be giving anything up in getting a cat rather than a dog, but I don't think I would. Yes dogs need you more and you can take them to parks and stuff, but, cats can show love too. They snuggle and purr and can play too. I think eventually we will also get a dog, but for now a cat would fit into our lifestyle more.

Since Jeff hasn't had much experience with cats we are thinking of going to visit one of the cat shelters in the area this weekend. My friend at work said this is how she went home with two cats LOL. I just want Jeff to be able to spend some time with a cat, to see how they act, and see that they are good pets too. Who knows if we will bring one home or not, though I wouldn't be opposed to doing just that :)

Step by step

This past weekend I bought a pedometer for $6 at target. I spend most of my day at work on my feet running around from place to place so I thought it would be interesting to see how much I really do walk at work. I haven't quite mastered where I should be attaching it to my pants though. You are supposed to take 10,000 steps a day. That isn't if your exercising, thats just the amount of steps you should take in a day. According to the pedometer, I do infact walk a lot though. The pedometer has said that I have reached 10,000 steps twice this week already. Right now it says 11,268. It makes me want to do things to make the number go up. I guess this is a good exercise technique, making me want to walk more.

Abu Dhabi

Before I got my current job, when I was vigorusly job hunting, I signed up to a lot of job websites that would send me email updates. I still get those emails, I haven't bothered to unsubscribe to them. Who knows what you will find in one of them. This morning I got an email from Higher Education Jobs. As I scrolled down the listing a few of the posts were for the The Petroleum Institute in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. I don't think I will be even looking at that one. LOL, I don't think Jeff would enjoy me being that far away either.

Iron Chef Amybear

Yesterday's chicken was good, but nothing spectacular. Today I tried the recipe from a card I found by the fish department in my groccery store. It sounded interesting so I thought why not. Boy am I glad I did. Jeff and I made it for dinner tonight and I could not believe that we made it. I was very proud of us. Below is a picture of the meal and the recipe.

Balsamic Tuna

4 tuna steaks
2 plum tomatoes, diced
1 tbsp. olive oil
2 tbsp. orangle marmalade
1/2 sweet onion, diced
4 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
1 clove garlic, minced

1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Place steaks into a baking dish sprayed with nonstick cooking spray. Bake for 6 to 8 minutes or until fish flakes easily with a fork.

2. Meanwhile, heat oil in skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic and cook one minute. Add tomatoes. Stir in marmalade and vinegar.

3. Serve salsa over tuna. Serves 4.

To give credit where credit is due the card is from Try-Foods Intl, Inc.

Closed beta testing

I have been playing a mmorpg game called Fairyland for a couple of years now. I have tried almost of all of the classes and have taken numerous breaks. I think I have taken my last break from the game now. I got my character to the second character class and I'm annoyed with the game. Time to try something new. I've tried to get into other online games, but I never really got into them. I've tried World of Warcraft, Conquer Online, and a bunch of others I can't think of at the moment.

Today while I was bored I started looking through a site that has a list of all of the online mmorpg sites out there. I found a thread talking about a new game that sounded interesting, called Pirate King Online. I clicked on the link and it seems like my sort of game (I like the cutesy games). After yelling at the registration screen to work for over an hour I finally signed up for an account. Since I signed up through the mmorpg site I got an activitation code to go with my registration. Because of this code I was accepted as a closed beta tester. Yea me. Closed beta doesn't start till September 8th though. So until then I will be trying to figure out their character system to figure out what I want to be.

Cooking

I've been looking for a new hobby lately. One idea that I came up with is cooking. I've decided to try to make more dinners from scratch. Most of the dinners I have been buying are things that are fresh but premade, such as a piece of raw seasoned fish that just needs to be put in the oven. I think I am a pretty good cook, I just rarely put the time into making dinners from scratch. I'm not sure if this hobby will last or not, but it may be fun while it lasts. I'm sure Jeff will enjoy the benefits either way. Last night I went through some of the cookbooks we had and found a handful of recipes that sounded good that I may make through out the next few weeks. Tonight I am going to make Teryiaki chicken. Hopefully it will be good.

4400

The third season finale of the 4400 was on last night. I have watched this show since the very first episode. Jeff and I used to watch some of the episodes over the phone together when we were still long distance. The show has waned in some of the episodes, but over all it is still a great show.

If you have never seen the show before let me try to sum it up. Scientists discover that there is a giant comet heading towards earth and might distroy the earth. Instead of destryoing it, the comet creates a big flash in the forest. From the flash people of all ages and walks of life who were missing or were presumed dead reappear the exact same age they disappeared. Later we discover they all have different abilities such as healing, predicting the future, etc. The whole series is based on finding out where they went, the different peoples abilities, if they are going to use them for good or evil, the 4400 vs the government and non 4400's, and who is going to prevail in the future. It is a really good show.

I didn't get to watch the season finale last night because the Emmy's were on. I did tape it though. I just watched it this afternoon after work and it was a very good episode. I can't wait for next season. According to their website, there will be a next season too :) It will start in the summer of 2007. I can't believe I have to wait until next summer to see what happens. Though it is neat to think about where I will be in life when the next season starts.

Fly Lady

I have heard of the Fly Lady website for a while now. I have heard of people on the net who have been doing her program and have really liked it. I found her website again today through hitting the random button on blogger. I read through her website today and I am thinking about possibly trying it. For those who have never heard of the Fly Lady its basically a website to help you organize your life and get rid of the clutter. The woman in charge of the site sends you many emails through out the week with instructions on cleaning all areas of your house, setting routines and goals, while not overdoing it. Some of her activities I'm pretty sure I wouldn't do such as keeping a notebook with my daily schedules, inspirational quotes and such. But I may use her instructions on focusing on one part of your home and cleaning it so that it eventually becomes second nature. I am not sure if I will stick with it or not, but as Jeff said, "anything that can help you to be less messy and be organized can't be all bad."

Puppy Fever

I got bored today and started browsing the many dog adoption sites I have bookmarked. I'm not sure if this was a good idea or not. When Jeff and I first started to look for a dog we were focused on Shelties or Shetland Sheepdogs. While we were looking there were some available, but they were all far away in different states. Today, I found two in Delaware. Made me want to go out and rescue them right away. Jeff being the logical side of this relationship calmed me down a bit thankfully. We have decided that we want to wait until we have more room, when we buy a house or a townhome. Though I am sure I will try to challenge that as the days pass. But for right now I agree with him. That doesn't stop her from being totally adorable though.

New Digs

As you can see I changed my template again. Though I doubt many of you saw my old one LOL. I have a screen shot saved if anyone wants to see it. It was a very cute goldfish cracker template, but it was very loud and big for my tastes. This template is a lot more cutesy and pastel, which is nice. The only thing that bothers me a bit is that the picture is so big that you almost have to scroll down to get to the entry. I'm sure I'll get used to it though.

Finally Done

I am very happy to announce that last night I finally finished all of our wedding thank you notes. They all have been recieved or are ready to go out with the mail today. Thank goodness. Yes, we have been married for almost three months, but thats what you get when you invite 140 people to your wedding. They are done! Woot.

Puppies

Jeff and I have been researching dogs lately. Ok, maybe I'm the one doing most of the researching. I would really like to get a dog, but there are a few things stopping us. One thing that is stopping us is our experience with Meg. Meg was a sweet dog, but not the one for us. We do not want to have to give up another dog. That was not fun. In addition, I work part time, but my hours are not always constant. It's hard to think about getting a dog when you won't be there half the day to train it or to take it out. School is starting soon so my hours are going to change. I should find out this week. I'm hoping that these hours will match up with Jeff's in that we would be able to care for a dog, but I'm not sure they will.

I have been looking at different breeds to see what would be good for us and our needs. Right now we are looking for a medium sized breed, can be left alone for periods of time, and is ok with one main walk a day with additional smaller ones. So far we have been looking at beagles and cavalier king charles spaniels. I haven't committed myself to a breed 100%. Jeff and I have also not decided on if we want to get a puppy so we can train it ourselves and not have to deal with the things that a random person has trained them to do or if we want to get a dog that is one or two years old so that they are somewhat trained and aren't as needy as a puppy.

In addition, I know that you need to have some free time (at least a week or two) when your not working to be with a new dog, to train it, and to have the dog get used to it's surroundings. When are we going to have the time to do this? I have no idea. We both work all week, and most holidays are only one week and are packed with visiting families. So I'm not sure. I really would like to get a dog, but before we do I want to figure out which breed is the best for us and make sure we will have some time to train it and be with it every day.

It's not time yet

I work in an educational setting with children. I found out today that there is only four weeks until some of the kids go back to school. Damn. The summer is flying by. Today while at the groccery store I walked through the seasonal isle. What did I see? Orange boxes with spiders all over them filled with candy corn. It's not Halloween! Halloween isn't for three months. School hasn't even started yet. Oh well, they always start things early like putting out christmas stuff before thanksgiving.

Interesting view

While driving home from work today, I saw this turn left infront of me. It was massive. I guess someone in the area is having a good time. It was driving slow so I passed it easily and didn't get a chance to see which direction it ended up going.

Testing one, two, three

This entry is just a test to see if it will line up correctly in my new layout. I really hope it does, because I can't figure out why its leaving such a big space.

Lego My Wedding

I found this lego wedding cake while looking at wedding pictures. This must have taken a lot of time.

Tuxedo Search

I thought this site might be helpful for Jeff in choosing what sort of tuxedo he likes and what sort of styles and accesories are out there.

Bulk everything

I know it's a little weird to have this post follow my last post about weddings, but I found this interesting. I heard that Costco sold wedding invitations. I went to their site to see if they had any that I liked. When I got to their site I looked for the weddings tab, but while looking I discovered a different tab for urns and caskets. I wonder if you buy them in bulk.

Engraving wedding bands

Here is a list of things you can engrave inside of your ring (credit goes to 'readings & poems' bio from www.theknot.com. Most of them are sweet and some of them are really funny.

1. You are the reason
2.All my love, All my life
3. his name on yours... your name on his
4. I love you to infinite and beyond
5. your wedding date
6. date of courtship
7.A Deal's a deal
8.this is forever
9.my sun, moon, and stars
10.forever..." engraved in yours and then in his "...and ever and ever
11. Heaven Has Smiled" with our wedding date
12.I will love you forever & our wedding date
13.One Heart, One Love
14.Put it back on
15."SHMILY" (See how much I love you.)
16.Believe
17. forever & a day
18.Always my love
19.my life, my inspiration
20.My one, my only, for always
21.(MINE)The only one for me is you (HIS)And you for me
22.Mine says "always always" and his says "promise promise"
23.with love" and the date
24.These are the days
25. Ani l'dodi v'dodi li = "I am my beloved's" on his and "my beloved is mine" (hebrew& english)
26.LU4L = love you for life
27.Semper Fi" which means "Always Faithful"
28.un amour, pour toujours," which means "one love, for always," in French
29.My first, my last, my everything" into his ring
30.more than you know
31."para siempre" Which means "for always
32."Forever My Sunshine
33.love you, always and all ways
34.That way, from left hand to right, our engravings read "Forever and Always...And Eternity."
35."I love you infinity..plus 1!
36.Life's a Beach"
37.Come what May
38. A special bible reading ex 1 Cor 13
39.Lover you
40."143". It means "I love you" Count each word seperately
41."anam cara" which in Irish means "friend of my soul"
42.Wherever you are, I am
43.I love you with all that I am
44.Until the end of time

Funny

I know my sense of humor is out there and sometimes childish, but there is one show on Mtv or sometimes Mtv 2 that cracks me up every time I watch it. It's called the Andy Milonakis show. Here is a link to his Mtv page. Am I the only one out there that enjoys him?

World of Warcraft

I used to play a Mmorpg called Fairyland. This was my very first mmorpg. I played this game for about two to three years. After playing for that long I was ready for a break. At first I was just going to stop playing mmorpg's for a while because they are addicting and it's hard to stop and accomplish the things you need to finish in the real world. So for a couple of weeks I didn't play any mmorpgs. However, I started thinking about trying a new game. One of the more popular games out there, either Everquest or World of Warcraft. I decided on Wow because Jeff wanted to play as well, I found it at Walmart on sale, and you could play for a month free which would let me decide if I wanted to p2p or not. So I bought it.

It's really hard to adjust to this new game and new style of play. Fairyland was so different. In fairyland you walk around on a blank map. As you walk around the monsters pop up on your screen and you fight them. No one can steal your monster and they are not walking around like you. In addition building your character is different. In fairyland you add statistics to your character every time you level. So if I was an AOL I would add 40 con and then add to my int and dex. On Wow you get stats when you level, but I have no idea how that fits into things. Can you control how you build your character? I have tried reading some guides, but they just leave me confused. So I guess I'll have to keep playing and see what I can figure out.

New Template

While surfing the net I came across a site of cute templates that reminded me that I had a blogger. I picked my favorite one and set out on my test blog to make it work on my blogger. This is no small feat since the site is in spanish. Though I did take three years of high school Spanish. After fiddling with it some I learned that the way the person made the layout meant I couldn't do what I wanted without doing some heavy duty work on it. Since it is getting late and my show is almost on I decided to scrap it for a different one. Boo. If your interested this is the layout I was originally going to use originally. I also thought about using this cute sheep one as well, but I thought it was too out there. So I chose this one. I think its cute and I like that the blogger line at the top doesn't mess up the layout. However, I think there is too much white (later I will try to figure out how to add more color) and I don't like how the actual text of the entry starts so low. I'll get used to it though.

Anyways, I may be back to posting in blogger for a little bit. Who knows how long that will last. Anyways, I hope everyone has a great holiday.

Napoleon Dynamite

You are Kip Dynamite and you love technology.


Which Napoleon Dynamite character are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Ben & Jerry's

BROWNIE BATTER! You scored 77% SWEET, 51% CHUNKY, and 59% UNIQUE!

brownie batter ice cream with a rich brownie batter swirl Mmmm....you are a very sweet mix indeed! You are warm, loving, and caring to all those around you, but you're not boring in the least! You have a wild streak and a creative, unique streak, too. You are a great friend, an interesting person, and you know how to have fun without ending up crouching over a toilet bowl. Nice!

My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 70% on SWEET You scored higher than 11% on CHUNKY You scored higher than 29% on UNIQUE

Link: The Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Flavor Test written by weered1 on Ok Cupid

The true me

The True You

You want your girlfriend or boyfriend to be more relaxed, calm, and composed.

With respect to money, you spend as little as possible.

You think good luck depends on maintaining good relationships with others.

The hidden side of your personality tends to be satisfied to care for things with a minimal amount of effort.

You are tend to think about others' feelings a lot, perhaps because you are so eager to be liked.

When it comes to finding a romantic partner, you base your search on information from your friends.

Who's the True You?

Movies

My break has been pretty good so far. I almost had a job, but in the end decided not to take it because it wanted me to drive a lot and teach at night on the weekends. Jeff came down this past weekend for a day just to hang out and to meet my aunt and uncle. We went to the mall because I had a gift certificate to spend. I ended up spending it all on starting my new dvd collection. I bought Moulin Rouge, Contact, Shrek, and I bought Princess Bride for Jeff. Not bad at all.

Not much going on the wedding planning, but I did buy my dress. It is in the process of being shipped to me as is my thesis.

Job hunting

So it's been a while since I have last written in here. I think it has to do partly with not ever getting comments. Though you really shouldn't write just to get comments. But I still am going to try installing haloscan to see if that helps anything.

Today has been pretty quiet. I did do a little job hunting today, which was good. I haven't done it in a while. I applied for two jobs from two different companies. It makes me feel good to apply to different companies because many of the jobs I have applied to in the past are all in the same company. If the one company doesn't like me there still are other companies that I applied too that might. Both of the jobs have aspects that are cool, but also have aspects that make me a little nervous. One is in philly and it seems like I would have to qualify to work on each project and the other one is in Plymouth Meeting. This job seems cool, and pays well, but I'm not sure about all the writing. So we shall see. My fingers are crossed.

Feliz Cumpleanos

Happy Birthday to me!

Proof

They are real!

Sushi pillows

Are you addicted to sushi as much as I am? If you are check out this site where you can buy your own sushi pillow!

Published

Woot. I wrote a journal article with my assistantship professor last year and it was accepted with revisions to a journal in the field. I have been checking the website over and over again (its an online issue of the journal) and it was never put it up. It's finally up and I'm now published!

Japanese Name

Your Japanese Name Is...

Mamiko Nomiya

What's your Japanese Name?

I DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just got home from my second meeting with the assistant dean of the graduate school. He briefly flipped through my thesis, only looking at a few things. He mentioned that my new headings looked pretty *G* and then said congradulations your done!!!! WOOT!! I gave him my signature form to sign and unfortunately he noticed two things. My margins were off by a tiny bit (he actually did measure them with a ruler) and I got the title of the dean of grad school wrong. However, he said, "I'm in a good mood and you got this far so I'm not going to make you fix it." YEA!!! So he signed my forms and I was off! All I have to do is go to kinkos and print out my thesis on the nice paper, put them in envelopes and deliver them to the library bounding place. Then gotta get the library lady to sign my form and then give it to the registrar! No more editing, expand this crap or messing with page numbers. I am DONE!!! Graduation here I come ;D

Happy Birthday Jeff!

Happy Birthday Jeff! I hope you have a wonderful birthday. I wish I was able to spend it with you, but soon I will be done and we will be local. Don't forget that since I am not able to be with you today, you get to celebrate your birthday again with me ;) I love you.

Cookies continued

Here is a comic strip that mentions the Cookie Monster Controversy that I mentioned in my last entry.

Cookies are sometimes foods

Yahoo has a story about how they are changing things over at Sesame Street. They are reporting that the Cookie Monster is learning about healthy eating and now instead of singing the C is for cookie song he sings a song called "A Cookie Is a Sometimes Food". This change is to help in the sky rocketing rates of childhood obesity. I agree that this is important to combat, but changing the Cookie Monster?

Waiting

Today is the day of waiting. Im getting things done that I need to get done, but I feel like I am just sitting on my butt all day. I got up really early so that I could get to Kinkos by 8am so that I could pick up the copy of my thesis for my dept chair. Then walked back to my building and got my advisor to sign my sheet. She freaked me out by saying I may need to go back to Kinkos to fix something. I then sat around for 45min waiting for my other committee member to sign my sheet. Thankfully she said I didn't have to fix the thing my advisor wanted. Then I sat in the computer lab doing busy work and reading stupid websites for 2.5 hours. Got bored of the comp lab, so watched the kids playing for a bit, and then decided to try my last committee member a little early. Luckily she was there so I got her to sign them and then ran back to my departments office. Of course I missed the secretary, she was out for lunch. Why do I always need to do something in the office when I know she will be out to lunch? So here I am, back in the computer lab wasting more time until 12:45-1ish where I can finally turn in my thesis to my dept chair and go home for a bit. We are supposed to have a honor society meeting tonight, but we will see if I go. I need a nap.

Revisions part one

The first set of revisions is complete. They mainly were grammatical errors. However, I am expecting more substance revisions in my next set of revisions since my next set will come from a professor in my department. I guess I will find out when she gets them to me. The good thing is that my committee member could tell all the work I put into it after my first defense. All that work was not in vain. Now if I can just make my last deadline without having to wait for anyone else.

Litte reprieve

Today I got an unexpected reprieve. I wasn't planning on going in to campus till around 12pm so I have been watching tv and the coverage on the Pope. I went to go check the weather and my email right before I was going to get ready to go and I found an email from my committee member who I was going to get my first set of revisions from. She won't be able to get them to me till tomorrow which is fine. I wasn't going to get the other set till tomorrow anyways. So today I have one more day off from doing thesis work. This is good because I had a hard time going to sleep last night partly because of day lights savings time and partly because my new drink of choice, diet sunkist, has caffiene and I drank it too close to bedtime. I think today will be a day of cleaning. My apartment really needs it. I also need to return my movies to blockbuster and turn in a paper to my apartment office.

Also I wanted to pat myself on the back. At the beginning of the semester I was really worried about my grant writing class. I had never taken any courses on it and it is an Internet course which means I can't get the same feedback I normally would. However, things have been going well. Last night I sent in my progress report for this week and this is the response I got, "Thank you. Well done, as I've come to expect."

Relief

On thursday I pulled everything together I could to finish and then friday I scrambled to get it all set up. In two days I managed to finish the rest of my revisions, to set up a time and place for my defense, to make a cover letter with all my revisions listed since they wouldn't get much time to read it ahead of time, to finish my power point presentation, to run over to kinkos to get my thesis and to distribute them to my committee members. Let's just say that yesterday was busy.

I finally defended again friday from 3-3:45. I was nervous. While I was reading my notes to them I had thoughts about what would happen if I didn't pass this time, but I pushed them away and just kept going. They asked me to leave the room so they could discuss and I got nervous. This is the time in the last defense when I knew things weren't going right. It didn't make it any better that they talked for a long time. I just paced the hallways. Turns out they were talking about something totally off topic. Anyways, my advisor opened the door and she said congradulations, you passed! LOL, the first thing out of my mouth was, "Oh thank god." LOL Thank goodness.

It hasn't really sunk in that I passed that part. I still have a lot of stuff to catch up on. But I do feel a bit lighter and calmer. Like I do have a lot of stuff to get done but I can do it at my pace, and I don't have to freak out about it, because it's not as hard as my thesis. Whats left for my thesis? Well I need to figure out how many copies of pretty paper I need to buy for my committee members to sign that will go into my binded copy of my thesis. On monday and tuesday I will get the last bit of their revisions. I have to fix those quickly (hopefully there won't be too much) and then I have to print out one more copy for my dept chair to read. After she is done, I will make all her revisions and then I have to print out a certain amount (not sure yet) on pretty paper and have it bound and sent to the graduate school by April 14 so I can graduate. Woo hoo. Graduation here I come :D

Grad School Barbie

GRADUATE SCHOOL BARBIE (tm)
Graduate School Barbie comes in two forms: Delusional Master's Barbie (tm) and Ph.D. Masochist Barbie (tm). Every Graduate School Barbie comes with these fun filled features guaranteed to delight and entertain for hours:
* Grad School Barbie comes out of the box with a big grin on her face that turns into a frown after 2 weeks or her first advisor meeting (whichever comes first).
* Adorable black circles under her delightfully bloodshot eyes.
* Comes with two outfits: a grubby pair of blue jeans and 5 year old gap T-shirt, and a floppy pair of gray sweatpants with a matching "Go Screw Yourself" T-shirt.
* Grad School Barbie talks! Just press the button on her left hand and hear her say such upbeat grad school phrases like, "Yes, Professor, It'll be done by tomorrow" "I'd love to write it all over again" and "Why didn't I just get a job, I could have been making $40,000 a year by now if I had just started working with a Bachelor's. But noooooo, I wish somebody would drop a bomb on the school so that I'd have an excuse to stop working on my degree that's sucking every last drop of life force out of my withered and degraded excuse for a soul..." (9 V lithium batteries sold separately)
* Grad School Barbie is anatomically correct to teach kids about the exciting changes that come with pursuing a higher education. Removable panels on Barbie's head and torso allow you to watch as her cerebellum fries to a crispy brown, her heart race 150 beats per minute, and her stomach lining gradually dissolve into nothing. Deluxe Barbie comes with specially designed eye ducts. Just add a little water, and watch Grad School Barbie burst into tears at random intervals. Fun for the whole family!
Other accessories include:
* Grad School Barbie's Fun Fridge (tm) Well stocked with microwave popcorn, Coca-Cola, Healthy Choice Bologna (99% fat free!), and small bottle of Mattel Brand Rum (tm).
* Grad School Barbie's Medicine Cabinet. Comes in Fabulous pink and contains Barbie sized bottles of Advil, St. Johns Wort, Zantac, and your choice of three fun anti-anxiety drugs! (Barbie Medicine Cabinet not available without a prescription)
* Grad School Barbie's Computer Workstation. Comes with miniature obsolete PC (pink of course), rickety desk, and over a dozen miniature Mountain Dew cans to decorate your workstation with (Mountain Dew deposit not included in price, tech support sold separately)
And Grad School Barbie is not alone! Order now and you'll get two of Barbie's
great friends!
GRADUATE ADVISOR KEN: Barbie's mentor and advisor in her quest for increased education and decreased self esteem. Grad Advisor Ken (tm) comes with a supply of red pens and a permanent frown. Press the button to hear Grad Advisor Ken deliver such wisdom to Barbie as "I need an update on your progress" "I don't think you'll be ready to graduate yet" and "This is no where near ready for publication." Buy 3 or more dolls, and you can have Barbie's Thesis Committee!(Palm Pilot and tenure sold separately.)
REAL JOB SKIPPER: When Barbie needs to talk, she knows that she can always count on her good friend Real Job Skipper (tm), who got a job after getting her bachelor degree. Press the button to hear Real Job Skipper say, "Sometimes I wish I went for my masters degree" and "Work is so hard! I had to work a half an hour of overtime!" Real Job Skipper's Work Wardrobe and Savings account sold separately. WARNING: Do not place Grad Student Barbie and Real Job Skipper too close to each other, as there have been several mysterious cases of children leaving the room and coming back to find Barbie's hands mysteriously fused to Skipper's throat.

So true

Night Owl

I'm a weird person. All day today I have been hammering and hawing about working on my thesis. I manage to get some work done in the morning and a little in the afternoon, but besides that I have not been in the mood to work on the revisions. However, after watching tv for a bit in bed at 11:30pm I get the urge to work on my thesis. Why now? Why when I am supposed to be going to bed do I feel like working on my thesis? I guess any time that I actually feel like working on my thesis is a good thing, but I just wish it would happen during the day as well.

The revisions are going pretty well I think. I have a clear picture of what I need to do before my second defense (bleh) which is looking like will happen April 4th. Hopefully they will like it. If not, I'm not sure what I'm going to do.

D-Day

Today is D-day. The day that I defend my masters thesis. Should I be worried I'm not that nervous? I have thought about this day for a while and I'm glad its finally here so I can get it over with. At 3pm I will know if I passed or failed. Im sure I'm going to pass. What I'm wondering about is how many revisions I'm going to get. I'm hoping that since I had sooooooo many revisions before I turned it in that I will only have a small amount to fix. That would be wonderful. I just hope I can answer all their questions and they don't think it sucks. I will be defending from 1-3pm so if anyone feels like sending me some good thoughts feel free!

Also, I know it's goofy, but I keep checking the comic PhD in hopes that the character Mike Slackenerny defends today too. He is supposed to defend his thesis this week as well. Not sure when this week though.

Stuck in two worlds

I am very fortunate. I have a lot of great things happening in my life right now. I am very thankful that I have what I have when others are struggling. However, that doesn't mean I don't worry and have my own problems. Right now I feel like I am stuck in two worlds. I have all these great things coming up soon yet all I can do is think about them. I am a person who craves stability, likes to know exactly what is going to happen and that things will be ok. I know in the end everything will be ok, but I am not liking this process. I feel that yea I can think about the wedding, getting a job, moving to Delaware yet I can't really do anything about any of it at the moment and that makes me nervous. It's hard when you live in a totally different state and need to do everything by phone or on the net. How I have to schedule myself to be in the same place with family and Jeff to check things out which takes longer which doesn't assure us that we will get the dates we want. I just want at least one thing to come through so I can start planning and feeling better about it. In six months everything will be great I'm sure, but now Im getting nervy. Yes, I am a worry wart. I just want to know where I am going and how things are going to work out.

What tree did you fall from?

I found a cute quiz on a different journal site and thought the results were pretty accurate. There are a few of course that don't fit for Jeff and I. I don't hold great animosity and Jeff is very good at forgiving. Here are my results:

Poplar Tree (Uncertainty) -- looks very decorative, talented, not very self-confident, extremely courageous if necessary, needs goodwill and pleasant surroundings, very choosy, often lonely, great animosity, great artistic nature, good organizer, tends to lean toward philosophy, reliable in any situation, takes partnership seriously.

Here are Jeff's results:

Rowan Tree (Sensitivity)) -- full of charm, cheerful, gifted without egoism, likes to draw attention, loves life, motion, unrest, and even complications, is both dependent and independent, good taste, extremely generous, artistic, passionate, emotional, good company, does not forgive.

Ready to graduate

It's now spring break. Woo hoo. Thank goodness. I needed a mega break after the hours I put in before it. I was trying to get my thesis into my committee by the 7th while my advisor kept giving me more and more revisions. I hope that because my advisor gave me so many it will be harder for my committee to find things to comment on. Probably not likely though. I just want to be done.

So for spring break I am up visiting Jeff for the week which is nice. The only thing that stinks is that he has to work, but oh well. It's nice to be in his apartment and to be there when he comes home from work. Makes me feel all domestic like.

Right now I should be working on a few things for school, but I'm just not in the mood. I'm feeling a bit lazy at the moment. I really burnt myself out that last month before spring break so I'm trying to get myself back to normal by the time I go back.

The real world

I just applied for my first job as an individual with a masters degree. It would be really awesome to get this job because its a "real" job, prestigious, and is in the city that Jeff lives. However, I can't help but wonder. Could I really do this job? Am I kidding myself applying for something like this? Who knows what will come from this, but I sucked it up and applied. The worst they can say is no.

Hurray for good deals

To break the monotony of working on my computer doing thesis work and work for classes and then taking a break on the computer I decided to go to EB Games today after I was at campus. They had this promotion going where if you bought two used games you could get one free. I picked through their used ps1 games and tried to find three I liked. It seems like they have a million copies of a few games, and barely any of others. There were a lot of repeat names, but I had never heard of the games, so I guess I can't really say anything. Anyways, I ended up buying Sim City 2000 for $9.99, Spyro the Year of the Dragon for $5.99 and Crash Bandicoot Warped for free. I like free. I have played a few of the Sims games on the computer so I'm not expecting it to be that different. May be cool. I have the first Spyro game. I believe Jeff bought it for me way back when. Its a cute game and I love turning the sheep into lamb chops. I have never played Crash Bandicoot, but the name sounds familiar. I think Jeff had it as a demo or something and liked it. I am thinking one of the characters is a racoon or something, but who knows. So yea for good deals :)

Back to reality

As Jeff wrote about in his blog we got engaged this weekend. He really got me good. I was expecting him on friday, but he showed up on my door step thursday night. It was a great surprise and we had a really great visit. Im sad that it ended, but unfortunately both of us have to get back to reality. For Jeff, back to work, and I have to meet my thesis deadline. Only a little more and I'm finally done.

But, back to our visit. It was nice just spending time together. Not even doing anything really exciting. Long distance sucks and I can't wait till that part of our relationship is over. I keep telling myself only two more visits and then we won't have any more painful goodbyes. Two more. I can handle that. So what did we do? We watched a lot of movies, had quality time together, I took him to some of my favorite restaurants around town, we bought cd's together at best buy and did some other random shopping, took turns talking to members of each others families, we cooked together, and just talked. An over all good visit.

I have been thinking about what I want to do with my free time recently. I had been playing an online mmorpg as I'm sure I mentioned. However, I'm bored with it and I don't intend to pay $15 every month for it. I had been looking for a new game to play or a new craft or something to take up. However, I think I'm going to focus on wedding planning, because we are getting married ;) Right now I don't know much at all about planning a wedding and it's kind of scary thinking about everything we will need to do. So I'm going to buy a few books and bridal magazines, read on the net and talk to some people an see if I can figure it all out. It shouldn't be too hard once I figure out the main things. I also like the fact that it will enable me to plan my own wedding, with Jeff of course, and not have to rely on anyone else telling me what I have to do. Though I'm sure I'll get some of that from family members, but oh well. That is life.

Valentines Day Gift

What should you give your valentine for valentines day? According to a psychotherapist you should give your valentine a kiss. It's actually pretty intereting though I think a little biased.

Honk if you think I'm cool

Thanks to A Small Victory and Jeff for aiding me in my search for other things to do besides work on my thesis. I have to admit that site is pretty fun to play with. What do you think of my designs?

Online job hunting

I don't know if its just me or the search engines I'm using, but its defintley interesting. I am signed up for eRecruiting through the University of Delaware and CareerBuilder after seeing their commercials a million times during the Super Bowl. LOL one successful commercial. I have only done a small amount of job searching through eRecruiting. However, when I did look I kept finding odd jobs that didn't fit. Like when I searched for children and research or research and psychology I would get pharmaceutical or computer programmer jobs. How does this fit??? This is also happening with CareerBuilder. I signed up last night in the middle of the Super Bowl. Yea, I'm a nerd, but anyways. I signed up last night and this morning I have already gotten two emails from two companies totally unrelated to anything in my field at all. I have a feeling its because I selected some option for companies outside of my field or companies that hire other people, like head hunters or temp agencies or something. I think after I do some more data entry I'm going to look around my preferences and see if I can figure out what I did sign up for so that my email box will not be stuffed with weird jobs that I would never apply for. LOL could you imagine me working at a company that deals with identity theft?

The last major crunch

Normally in this situation I would be freaking out a bit, though maybe I will as I get a bit closer. Anyways, I'm under a deadline once again. But this deadline is different. This deadline is the last major deadline that I will have in grad school - i.e. my thesis. I am just finishing entering in all the data into the computer. Hopefully I will be done with that by wednesday. Then on wednesday I will run my analysis with my advisor and then I have to have my results and discussion sections written along with all the revisions needed from my first comittee meeting by March 1st. Ouch. That gives me what? 3 weeks or so to do everything. I don't know why I'm not more nervous. Maybe because I know deep down that I will get it done one way or another. Everything always does. But after this major crunch I will have at least a draft or more of the entire thesis. After that its just lots of revisions and chart making and lots of time spent at kinkos. Yes, I still will have to crunch at the end to get my Grant Writing Proposal written but that class doesn't really matter much in the scheme of things. I'll do what I can, but I'm not going to bust ass trying to make it perfect like my thesis. My thesis is much more important. So in a way its a nice feeling. After I get past this hurdle I will only have a few smaller things to work on and then I will be done. I will be able to wear my cap and gown, get hooded, and finally graduate.

I'm not evil

How evil are you?

Aww, I wanted to be at least a little bit evil. LOL oh well :)

Random observations

Recently I have observed some interesting things on campus. Yesterday morning on the bus to campus two people who did not know each other at all on the bus struck up a friendship because both of them had that new nintendo thingy. I have no idea what the name of it is, but its the small one that just came out that sorta looks like a game boy. They sent each other their game data, an for the short time they were on the bus they played together. I had no idea they were that popular. I guess I am out of the technology loop.

This afternoon I got to class a little early. When I came in this one girl was talking about some surgery she had and swelling. I was like huh?? Turns out she was talking about how she had lyposuction on many parts of her body after she had her son (she's around my age) and is really thinking about going back for more. She was all gung ho about lyposuction and was trying to convince this other girl in my class to get it too. Then all of a sudden another girl in my class said she had had it before an what a great thing it is. Meanwhile, my professor is listening an shaking her head with many of my classmates thinking what is wrong with you people.

Speaking of my professor, I have to quote something she said today. She cracks me up. We were talking about make believe characters in the media today to use for play therapy toys. One person brought up Sponge Bob. That brought up the whole news story going around about that guy thinking that he is gay. Then this other guy in my class said that the guy accusing Sponge Bob believes that family values and diversity are just code words for homosexuality. Don't quote me on that, he said something like that, I don't remember his exact words. Anyways, my professor then responded to the guy accusing Sponge Bob by saying "My code words for your an asshole is your allowed to have your own opinion."

Also a little side note. In tonight's episode of American Idol they were in Orlando, Florida. They held their auditions at the big convention center on International Dr. that was right across the street from the hotel I had my convention in in November. I actually went in there the first day when I was trying to find the right place. Pretty cool. I kept wishing they would show what was around the convention center but they didn't.

Research

Today I was amazingly motivated to work on my thesis. I think it was because I knew I would have to be writing my results and other sections soon and I haven't finished my theory and lit review sections yet. I actually found a lot of good primary sources which has been the hardest thing for me this whole process. Anyways, just as I was about to go to bed I checked Piled Higher and Deeper which is one of my favorite online comics. I suggest you go read some of their comics if you are in graduate school and have never seen them. The most recent comic really struck a cord with me and made me laugh. So for any other graduate students out there struggling with research I'm going to quote Phd's latest comic.

One graduate student sitting at her computer says, "I hate research"
Her friend replies, "Yea, well life is tough and then you graduate. Get used to it."

LOL. There is an end in sight. Only three months and one week left. Technically I should have most of my thesis written by the end of feb so only one to one and a half hard core months left.

Beginnings and endings

This semester will have a lot of endings. This is my last semester of graduate school and boy am I ready to be done. Tomorrow are my last two days of data collection for my thesis! YEA!!!!! I have had enough of getting up at 7am. Of course the first day I don't have to do data collection I have a meeting, but at least its not as early as I would have been there.

Tomorrow I'm hoping is another beginning. On thursday I sent in my form to the Univ of Delaware Career Services. I'm not sure if other schools do it this way but if your alumni you can use their eRecruiting site for six months for $25. Yea it sucks that I have to pay, but in the long run I'm hoping it will be worth it. If your not familiar eRecruiting is a website where you post your resume and you can apply for jobs and potential employeers in the area can find you. I did sign up for the one down here, but its all jobs down here. An when I graduate I am not staying here, so that doesn't work. Anyways, I sent it in on thursday so I'm hoping they will have it bright an early Monday morning so they can set me up and I can access the site. My goal is to have a job or be close to having a job by the end of the semester. When I graduated from undergrad it took me six months before I was employed. I do not want to do that again. So in a way I'm a little bit nervous about what I'm going to find when I log into the site for the first time, but also excited. Who knows, some great company may want to pay me a good salary and I would be able to be local with Jeff. All great things that I will have in the future. The future is looking pretty good, getting engaged pretty soon, hopefully getting a kick ass job, being local with Jeff, being done with graduate school and having my masters. All good things. So lets hope the career services people are on the ball an get me hooked in tomorrow.

The nose knows

I haven't blogged in a while. Its probably because I have been getting up at 7am for the past week to collect data for my thesis and have been bombarded with other school work. It's finally starting to slow down and I can see the light, thank goodness. So I figured now was a good time to blog. Things have become less stressful with my thesis, but I'm now majorly behind on my assistantship. I guess Ill be getting caught up next month. My grant writing class is a pain in my butt. I don't know much about the process and all the correct jargon so this has been an experience for me. I think I'm finally getting it though which is good. Hope it stays that way.

On tuesday we had a program that I had been working on putting together for some time now. It was a program for undergrad's who are interested in going to grad school, but aren't sure how to begin the process. I worried about it enough over the whole process and I am really glad it's over now. It actually went pretty good. We had a lot of good information, lots of good professors from different areas, and even some good snacks. The only problem was that we barely had any undergrads. We had maybe five in the beginning, three or so in the middle and then I don't think any more came in after that. Most of the people that came were fellow grad students that I hadn't seen in months. I think grad students have a sixth sense or something. Whenever there is free food we know where to go. At our little program we had pretzles, oreo cookies, some other type of cookie, two types of cheese slices, grapes, and soda. When we left I got to take home a 2 liter bottle of diet coke. Score :)

So anyways, as I type this I'm sitting at my computer procrastinating once again. I have already been to campus and observed and created a spreadsheet in SPSS. So now I am home with little things to do like find articles for my advisor, yet I'm not. I feel like either taking a nap or playing my mmorpg. Gotta hold off for at least a bit longer. Maybe I'll try cleaning the apartment a bit. Whenever I get stressed or have little time I tend to throw things everywhere and my space tends to get pretty messy. I know what I'll be doing this weekend.

The snow dance

Last night I saw my first snow of the season. We got snow here over break, but I wasn't here so for me it doesn't count. We got a dusting on cars and grassy surfaces, but nothing really on the roads. Farther north though they got a lot of ice and lots of parents could not get their kids from school so many children spent the night at school. When I woke up there was a ticker on the tv with many schools closed, but when I looked out the window almost all the snow had melted. Guess its a big viewing range. As I went about my business today it actually felt warm for a change which I was happy about. Everything has melted. However, tonight we are under another winter weather advisory. Its supposed to start around 10pm-12am and we are supposed to get about 1-2 inches of snow. Not much of anything. However, I am in the south so its a bigger deal here. Then saturday night into sunday we are supposed to have another storm, but this storm is supposed to be heavier. I haven't heard any predictions yet though.

Anyways, I can't help but hope for a snow day. What would I do if I had one? Probably stay in my apartment where its nice an warm, do some homework, an play my mmorpg on the net. Nothing really that exciting. I guess its a mentality. Whenever you can get of doing work because of snow its always exciting. I just hope we don't get ice. I absolutely hate ice. So I may try wearing my pjs backwards tonight and hope for snow even though that will put me behind in my data collection. So we will see what happens.

Dr. Ruth and PBS

While getting stuff done around my apartment today I left the tv on PBS since I don't like to watch soap operas and I don't feel like watching the news. At this time of the day everything on PBS is kid's programming. I was watching Between the Lions and while passing by the tv I heard Dr. Ruth's name and the character's talking to her. I was like huh? Is that the same Dr. Ruth I have heard of that is a sex therapist or whatever she does? I quickly went to the screen and yup, it was her. She was part of the show talking to the lions. I wasn't watching that closely so I can't say for sure what they were doing, but I find that weird. Why is Dr. Ruth on a children's show?

Video-recording equipment = pain in my butt

This week has defintley been interesting. It was supposed to be my training week for my coders in my thesis. How many coders have I trained? Zip. Though I am meeting witih two today. Though, I'm not sure if I'm going to actually train them. Why?

At the beginning of my thesis I said I was going to use videorecording equipment to tape areas of a classroom. First problem was I couldn't see all of one area which means I will be missing data. Second, the tape I made had all audio on one area and all video on the other. Then while trying to tape again on a different day the monitor kept shutting off while I was taping. I don't know if that affected what I was taping or not, I didn't even bother to look. My advisor came up with the idea of getting a small camcorder and just taping the things I need myself in the classroom. That means standing there for an hour every day taping these areas. I'm not sure I want to do this. So basically I am very frustrated with my thesis. Partly because all the technology isn't working and partly because I feel like I made it suck because I didn't prepare enough.

So my idea has been to scrap all the technology and just go back to the basics. Pure observational research. The problem there is that I lose being able to record the duration. I also loose most of my coders, because it means they have to be there in the morning and they all have wacky schedules. Though two of them wouldn't have been able to do much anyways. I just wish I could sit down and do it all myself, but I know I can't because inter-rater reliability. I also have to nail down exactly how I am going to do do the observational research. I can tell my advisor is a bit leary about this. I'm not sure if she is just leary or kinda annoyed that I gave up in the middle of doing it this way. But at this point it would be easier for me. Yes, I lose the duration, yes its harder to find coders, but doing it this way means I can sit in the booth, code the data, and then have it. I won't have to sit through ten hours of videotape. I won't have to figure out when my coders schedules are and schedule coding meetings around them. I will be able to see all of one area that I couldn't before. I just want to do the dumb thesis. An because I am figuring these things out now, almost at the end of my training week and I don't have everything ironed out I'm getting a bit nervous. I want to just start the thesis on tuesday and get it done. Yet, if this keeps up I'm going to be behind schedule in data collection. I just need a good coder or two and to get approval from my advisor. I wish I could tell if she was just annoyed at the situation or what. I think she wanted me to stick with the video-taping thing, but Ive just had enough. *throws up hands in the air* So I guess we will see what happens.

Credits +1

Today was better than yesterday, but I'm still not sure how my thesis is going to work out next week. I got up around 9am after sleeping in which was wonderful. I did have another funky dream though. I finished the document I had been working on and read a few things for my online class. Then it was off to my play therapy class.

The class is pretty cool. The teacher seems really nice and so do the people in my class. Its weird not knowing anyone though when everyone else seems to know each other. Im sure that will change soon enough. One mega cool thing was that they are going to change the class from 2 credits to 3, which means I can drop the one credit independent study research course I had signed up for. Kick ass! I don't need any more classes, I'm very happy to be able to drop it. For an ice breaker we all got huge sheets of paper and then we had to pair up. One person would lie down on the paper while their partner would trace their outline. I'm sure you've done this before. Anyways, after that we got to color it in any way we wanted and then we had to create a time line of our life somewhere in it or on our outline. After that we taped them all around the room and we had to explain them to the class. So far the class sounds pretty cool. I like play therapy as a tool and how it works, but I don't think I would be able to do it for a living. Play therapy is all about getting to the emotions that people have trouble expressing. While that is good I like to work on more of the developmental side rather than the feelings side. Less pathology. Still a cool class though.

After class I worked on my online class more and met with my advisor to figure out how to fix my thesis. I need to find a way to make sure the cameras capture the whole area. I may use a tripod if I can get the department to let me use one. Or I may just say screw it all and find a way to do it with no videos and just do it all with observational research. I would love to do it that way. Doing it that way would mean I wouldn't have to deal with any coders and I wouldn't have to sit through ten hours of video tape. So I just have to figure out how in the heck to do that. I should really go to bed now since Im planning on getting up at 7am again tomorrow, but maybe Ill read a little more about observational research. Yea, I know big fun.

I don't like getting up early

I am really not a morning person. I prefer to sleep in. Yet today I made myself get up at 7am (yuck!) so that I would be ready and on campus by 8:30am. Today I decided to go to campus that early to practice using the cameras in the classroom and videotaping everything for my thesis data collection that starts next week. Boy am I glad I did that. Why? Because everything went wrong. I taped for an hour using two video cameras with two different vcrs. I got some great shots on the first camera. On the second one I realized it wouldn't go where I wanted too. So we will have to figure that out. Then later when I went to watch the tape I made this morning the great video I had wasn't there. The first vcr only recorded audio. Gah! Then the camera that barely showed the area I wanted recorded all video and no audio. I was not happy. At least I figured it out now and they can see if they can fix it by the time I really start next week. Hopefully it will be fixed by then. *fingers crossed*

I'm not going to try getting up early again till wednesday. Have to give them a chance to fix things. Plus I have to recover from getting up at 7am. By 2pm I was getting really tired. I know that many people get up every day at that time. However, I don't. Im a grad student and sleeping in is one of my favorite things :)

Two movies

I try to go to Blockbuster during the weekends to get a good movie to watch and get away from school work for a while. Whenever I get into the semester though I tend to get swamped with work and tend to not get to go to Blockbuster as much as I'd like. So I decided to go to Blockbuster this weekend before all the work started coming in. I rented two movies: Anchorman and Napolion Dynamite. I was expecting great things from both of them. I had heard good things from people about them. However, I have to say I was disappointed by both of them. I don't know if I was just not in the right mood or not, but I found both of them dumb an a bit weird. Napolion Dynamite was weird and a bit sad. Though the end was a little sweet. I was ready for Anchorman to be over half way through it. I thought about shutting it off but I didn't. I stuck it through and eh. I can see why some people like it, but it wasn't my type of movie. Oh well. Hopefully Ill have next week to try again. I want to see Wimbleton and that movie where the two guys go to White Castle. Mmmm white castle.

Medium

Last night while flipping through the channels I found that nbc was reairing the first episode of the new show Medium. Being bored and since I caught it at the beginning I decided to watch it. I am really impresed with it. Maybe its because I like that type of show, but I thought it was really good. For anyone who doesn't know, the main story line is that its about this woman who was going to school to be a lawyer. However, she keeps having these dreams about dead people talking to her. She seems to know how crimes occured when everyone else can't figure it out with just scientific evidence. I am defintley going to try to catch the next episode. Monday nights on nbc at 10pm!

Play therapy materials

I downloaded the syllabus off the internet for my play therapy course on friday. While reading it I found a list of materials we are supposed to get together by the second week of class. Just reading it has gotten me really excited to start this class. What materials do I need to buy?

White paper, colored construction paper, blunt scissors, a box of crayons, markers, clear tape, and a clean new pair of white socks.

I can't wait. Also, according to the syllabus there are no exams! Kicky beans. Just a short paper thats just a critique of five articles and a presentation. I just hope that the class lives up to my expectations! I'll find out on Tuesday.

Goodbye Boomhower?

I came back to town over vacation thinking my area of the aparment complex seemed very empty. I figured it was just because I was back from vacation a little early and not everyone was back yet. Its a little bit fuller now with cars, but I have noticed one thing. I think Boomhower is gone. Who is Boomhower? Let me explain. I live on the top level of a two story apartment complex. There are four apartments on my level. There are two apartments at the far end and then there is my apartment and one directly next to my door. That is Boomhower's apartment. He always seemed nice enough. He wasn't always in his apartment, but when he was you could tell. When he was home he was loud. I think part of that is that my apartment walls are pretty thin. My next door neighbor can hear when my alarm goes off in the morning. But anyways, he was always playing music or something. He also always had people coming in and out of his place. People coming up the stairs and down the stairs, talking right infront of my apartment. He and his friends would also occasionally smoke infront of my apartment, which I really hated. All of these reasons combined are the reason why I have stopped opening my front windows.

Anyways, back to the present. Why do I think he's gone? Well I noticed his floor mat is gone. Also he had written on his door the initials of an emo band he is really into. That has been scrubbed off the door. So I don't know for sure, but I think he may be really gone. This thought makes me happy. I will have to talk to my other neighbor on the other side next time I see him. He seems to know all the gossip about everyone in our little part of the complex. Who knows, maybe someone cool will move in next door or even better maybe the apartment will stay vacant for the rest of the semester an Ill have some peace an quiet.

I heart Hardee's

Saturday nights are the night that I normally go out to eat or bring something in for dinner. I try to be good during the week eating wise so that Saturday night I can eat whatever I want for a whole meal. Even though I have eaten a lot over the holidays like everyone else I decided to go to my local Hardee's for dinner tonight. I got a cheese thickburger, curly fries, and a chocolate milkshake. What can I say? All very yummy. I have a Sonic, a Burger King, and a McDonalds all within two minutes of my apartment. Yet, I have not been to any of them in months. I only go to Hardee's. It's my favorite fast food place. No, I have never gotten there monster thickburger, just thinking about it makes me gain ten pounds. Though I would like to get it sometime with Jeff an split it just to see what the big fuss is about. Too bad Hardee's are really hard to find now days. I'm gonna have a major craving once I'm done with school and I move up north. Anyways, the moral of this entry is if you see a Hardee's go in and have a thickburger. You won't regret it.

First long night

So I'm back at school. I think I mentioned that in my last post. If I didn't, I'm back at school, lol. The nights are usually the quietest. Last night wasn't too bad because I was tired from driving four and a half hours and staying up too late. But now that I'm some what rested, bored of playing my game, and knowing that Jeff won't be online to talk too till Sunday, I'm realizing I'm ready to graduate and move to Jeff.

Today was pretty productive actually. Im coming off of a really good vacation so I'm feeling like I can get things done. I hope that stays. I got up today, met with my advisor, made an important list for my thesis, made a huge amount of copies at Kinkos and then went home and sent out a massive amount of emails. Hopefully they will all work out. Tomorrow, I have to go in again, but this time it will be a little bit later in the day. Today was really quiet on campus and sort of nice. Tomorrow is the first day of classes so I'm sure it will be more crowded. However, most people don't schedule Friday classes so we will see. I basically just have to get some papers ready and make sure my list is ok. Then I can go home for the weekend. I should work on the first part of my thesis more but eh. I know the second part will be easier to write but the first part still needs to get done.

Have I mentioned that I can't wait till Janurary is over? Once this month is over I will have carried out my thesis plan and will just have to play with my numbers and report what I found. I can't wait. Though I do have to admit that I am looking forward to one of my classes. Its about Play Therapy in the eyes of social work. Sounds really cool so far. I have always wanted to take a course on Play Therapy. Who knows, maybe it will help me figure out what I want to do with myself when I graduate. Speaking of that, I need to fix my resume so I can send it out to get on eRecruiting again. My dream is that some great company will find me on eRecruiting, love me and my resume, and offer me tons of money so I can live very close to Jeff and not have to worry about a thing. Ah, dreams. Though it would be really nice not to have to worry about finding a job after I graduate.

Alright, back to the brain drain of my mmorpg. I started a new character for a new challenge. We will see how that turns out.

To go or not to go

I like vacations and like anyone else I am not ready to go back. Classes start on friday, but I don't have anything until the next tuesday class wise. However, I do need to get back into town to get things ready for my thesis before the semester starts. So I have to go in earlier. I was thinking leaving today or tomorrow. All through our trip home (which we did not get in till around 9pmish, bleh) I was trying to decide if I was going to leave today or tomorrow. I emailed my advisor last night when I got in to see when she would be able to meet. She did email back quickly (thank goodness, I love people who email you back so quick) and said she couldn't meet till thursday at the earliest. Which means I can drive home tomorrow. Woot. I could techinically drive home today, but I just woke up and I don't have any of my winter stuff packed so that gives me some time to repack, go to the bank and do other things to get ready to go. The only crappy thing about leaving tomorrow is that its supposed to be raining as I leave. They said yesterday on the weather that it was supposed to rain today not tomorrow. I checked the weather back at school and its not supposed to rain so hopefully it will only rain for a small amount of time as I leave my home town. I love the weather back home too, 70s an high 60s! Yea for the south! Ok, so I guess I should get off the net now an be productive. Maybe Ill even have some time to do some thesis work that I of course did not do over vacation. Heh, knowing me probably not ;)

Going back to reality

Tonight is the last night we have here in sunny florida. I am not ready to go back into reality when I have to worry about deadlines and such. January will be a busy month for me with collecting and coding all of my data for my thesis, but as everything, it will get done.

I had a really good visit here. I love the warm weather and hate the cold. I got a new pair of flip flops to replace the ones that I broke this past fall too. I got to show Jeff all of the fun things to do in florida such as the boat ride to look at aligators, the special needs birds, and my favorite restaurant here. It was also nice to be able to spend that much time with him in one visit.

One of the more exciting things happened tonight actually. We went to see National Treasure in the afternoon, which Jeff will post that he didn't think was too bad. Hah, told you so :) After that we went to a restaurant for dinner which was pretty yummy. Around dessert time the topic turned to future plans and such and Jeff mentioned that his parents said I could live with them if I needed somewhere to stay before I had housing. Then my mother started asking questions about if we were official or not. *side note* Jeff had bought me a really pretty cubic zerconia (sp?) ring that looks like a real engagement ring that I have been wearing on my left hand. If anyone back at school asks me about it I will tell them that its the ring before the real one. I think that also prompted my mother. She wanted to know if we were offical. I said not really yet cause he hadn't asked for real an he hadn't asked my dad yet so right there in the middle of the restaurant Jeff told me to go get some food an then asked my dad. My mother and I of course got all emotional an such in the middle of the restaurant. I'm sure people thought we were nuts. Thats ok though. My grandma was caught mid mouthful an was totally shocked. She was like "I had no idea that was coming then and I was in the middle of eating ice cream!" So we are that much closer to becoming really official. Good job jeffy.

So off to the cold we go tomorrow. We will be dropping Jeff off at the closer airport tomorrow around noon an then I fly out around dinner time. I hope this new year is a great one. Its turning out to be so far.

Home made lipgloss

On sunday when I was procrastinating working on my thesis I started watching the PBS telethon when they broadcast all their really good shows an try to get people to call in and give them money. Since I was watching on a sunday morning it was kids shows. There was one in particular that was really cool though. It taught children how to make really neat things out of household products, really quick and cheap. Yea, I know I'm a giant kid in an adults body :) They made a lot of really awesome stuff, but the one thing that really stood out for me is their homemade lip gloss. How cool is that! I love going into Claires and looking at all the different flavors and kinds of lipgloss they have. I usually never buy them, though I did by a twinkie flavored one once. Anyways, I decided to give it a try. On the telethon they wanted you to buy all their stuff but I managed to find the recipe online.

Today I went to the groccery store to get everything I needed which wasn't much. I didn't have any small containers to put them in so I bought a few of those, even though they are still big. If I make more Im going to see what Michaels has. The only other thing I got was shortening. Yea I know lol. Making it was pretty easy, though a bit messy. The shortening was really sticky and the kool-aid I used turned my fingers red which turned everything in my sink red. Took a few washings to get it out lol. Making it went really quick but the clean up was messy. Next, I put it in the freezer for two hours, and voila, fruit punch lipgloss. I tried it and its pretty nice too :) I wonder how it compares to the real stuff. Feels and looks real to me!

Cheerwine Fairy

I am the cheerwine fairy. I am bringing up two cases of cheerwine soda and two cases of cheerwine ice cream when I go visit Jeff on friday. Its nice to be able to make two people happy that easily though. Enjoy, and Jeff, I expect a taste of the ice cream :)

I hate original sources

So, I'm working on my thesis. At least trying too. Gah. I wrote the theory section and it has lots of good information included. However, I have to find the main parts cited by the actual theorist I am writing about. The annoying thing is I have three theorists in my paper. I've tried the internet and found many people saying what I want to say in their own words and people who have the orginial source work I need but its cited in their work and most of it doesn't have the citations I need so I can't use it. Gah! I feel like I want to throw my thesis out the window and stomp on it. I know I should probably go to the library an see if I can find anything, but I'm just feeling really lazy. It's the end of the semester and I don't want to have to go over to the library. I should probably take a break and come back to this, but I feel like I keep putting it off already. I emailed a friend of mine who is also writing her thesis. However, she is already way ahead of me. She has already collected her data an is cleaning her data right now, getting ready for data anaylsis. I so wish I was at that point already. Anyways, we will see what she says. Its just nice to talk to someone who is going through the same thing. I should really take a break. Maybe I should go finish my holiday shopping.

New template

Yes, I changed the template on my blog. Its nice and simple. A little boring but I will fix that. It was driving me nuts that you had to scroll down to read my posts so I picked one where you didn't have to do that. I know there is a problem with the previous posts and archives link, but my tummy is growling and I think Im going to go eat first. I have a feeling it's something to do with the sitemeter thingy. Who knows. Time to eat.

The semester is almost over

Woo hoo. The end is in sight. Thank goodness. This semester was full of independent studies where I could push things back in order to work on my thesis or in my case procrastinate a bit. Not fun. I am looking forward to having real classes next semester, but then again, I'm also a little scared because I won't be able to push things back when I have something major to finish in my thesis. I'll get through it one way or another. An then after the end of the spring semester I will be done! Wahoo! The end of next semester will be a great one for many reasons, I'll be done with graduate school and my thesis, Ill turn 26, I will be engaged by then, and I hopefully will have a job prospect so I can move up an be local with Jeff. All great things on my end. Now I just have to get to that point.

So most of what I have been up too in the last couple months has been thesis work. I just finished my committee meeting and now Im working to get the forms in so I can start actually doing my thesis at the beginning of next semester. All of my independent study work is done and turned in and my last day for my assistantship was yesterday. So now all I have left is all of the revisions on my thesis. Bleh. An of course right now I'm not in the mood to work on it. Its probably because I just went to a meeting where they fed us free pizza so I'm probably in a carb haze. Since I am not doing anything with my thesis I figured I would post here. I don't really have that much to say. I just write about me and whats going on in my life. Sometimes I think about writing like Jeff does, about current events or whatever. Maybe Ill give it a try. Even though I'm sure that there is not anyone reading this blog because I have not given it the attention it needs. Is there anything that you would want me to post about or would want to know about?

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving. I also wanted to send a special Happy Thanksgiving out to Jeff the man that I love. I wouldn't know what to do if you weren't in my life. Thank you for being you and being there for me. I can't wait to see you again.

See I did it publicly too, so we are even :D

I'm still here

Seems like forever since I've written in here. I've been meaning to do it but just never got around to it. Jeff mentioned I should write in here again so this is for you :) Not that anyone really reads me but I can pretend.

At the moment I have the american music awards on in the background. I'm slowly losing interest as you can see I'm typing on here instead of watching. Fantasia, the winner of American Idol this year, was just singing a song from her new album. I didn't think it was very good, but what do I know about popular music. Though I do like Clay Aiken and Josh Groban. I have been thinking about getting a Josh Groban CD but I don't play the CD's I own now nearly enough to justify it.

So whats new with me? Not that much. I've been continuing to work on my thesis. Im getting closer though. I am almost done with my first two chapters and I have scheduled my thesis committee meeting for Dec 7. On tuesday I leave for my first national conference in my field which should be fun. I will be presenting a paper I wrote with a professor of mine. I hope to be able to find a little time to fit in some Disney while I'm there. LOL bet you can't guess where I'm going. When I get back its thanksgiving break and then two weeks later its the end of the semester, which is crazy. Break should be very nice, Jeff is coming down with me after christmas to stay with my grandma and my family. He's never been down there so Im excited about having him there and showing him everything.

Next semester should be fun. I will have some real classes compared to the independent studies I have this semester. Classes that don't have set deadlines can be dangerous. You can get way more work then you intended and you can end up having a lot to do at the last minute. It will be nice to be in a class again with some people. Maybe Ill meet some cool new people since all of my classes next semester are outside of my department. An after this semester I'm done, which is unbelievable. I will have my MS an everything will be good. I can't believe I am almost done. Though I am ready. I'm ready to be done with school and papers, to make some real money, and to move to be local with Jeff. Enough of long distance.

Well I think I've covered everything thats been happening so far. Well besides the mmorpg I play. Im currently deciding if I want to continue playing or not. I need a real hobby.