Crafts and why doing it yourself is funny

For those of you who live in a house where DIY is loved, if not wisely, but too well then you should check this out... it's pretty funny... And hits wayyyy too close to home.
Also, as I roamed the internet (translation: spent way too much time on a crafting forum) I found people who do a very silly thing. They not only dress their pets in clothing but they MAKE the clothing themselves!!! So that the clothing fits well and matches their pets' colouring! WHY???? I made the mistake of thinking that pet related crafts would be things like dog bones, toys, and cheap beds, obviously not realizing that about 80% or more was CLOTHES for PETS!!! Eeeek! Madness. You should see it for yourself... HERE!
School is keeping life busy. Love to all!
(And the duck story... Thanks T.A.E.! How crazy would it be to open your fridge and have a duck jump out? But I ask you, did they really have to name the duck "Perky"???? )

Livin', lovin', skatin'

The cat is marauding through the house like a crazed creature. If you heard any high pitched screams/squeals at this time today it was me trying not to let the cat kill me, first in the middle of the stairs then at the top of the stairs and finally entering my bedroom. Her attack maneuvers are deft and premeditated, or I assume so since she nearly won and has the kind of time it would take to plan a massacre on any scale necessary. Also, she loves men. She was sucking up to Skronky today; This proves that she is out to kill me and steal not only my electric blanket but also Skronky! Not sure I'm up to outsmarting such a determined little grey cat but I will do my best, this I do vow... ("We who are about to shamefully surrender to a feline combatant salute you!" Isn't that how the Roman gladiators started their battles??)
Went ice skating with Skronky, Dork, and Em this evening, which rendered me bone-tired. I'm about to fall into bed. I was the only one of us to fall (gracefully of course) to the icy floor which I attribute to a tiny skate-wearing child who had tried to end his skate time misery by tripping me thereby getting me to squash him and nearly succeeded. I slid over and crashed solo thus avoiding a child-slaughter charge by way of squashing. Zamboni!
Enjoyed a lovely family evening yesterday with some of the aunts, uncles, and cousins over (of course including Em and Skronky in the mix) to eat yummy food, play Apples to Apples and pool. Oh and the canine pack congregated at our house to further roam the backyard and living rooms at will (3 shelties and a Havanese make up our furry troop). Isn't family great? Happy weekend ya'll!

Where would you find a tumbleweed in the city...

On my drive home from class this afternoon there were three tumbleweeds in the highway median! Tumbleweeds! In the median! This isn't a spaghetti western here folks, it's the real deal, so why do we have tumbleweeds??? (Mum and I have concluded that when ice melts it turns into, you guessed it, tumbleweeds. That is THE only plausible explanation.)
During a class lecture recently the guest speaker had a slide show with the phrase, "For every yes answer there is a thousand no's." Exactly like that on the first slide. This is a speaker who has multiple degrees both in the science arena and in philosophy. He didn't seem to realize there was anything wrong with that sentence. And he also kindly included several other very obvious grammatical and punctuation errors as well as many redundant questions to entertain us. Needless to say that was my fave class of the week...
At our Kappa Psi meeting today I accidentally volunteered for something. One would think I would have learned my lesson by now but Noooooo....
Hope everyone has a lovely weekend!

ice cream on a stick makes me happy

I don't feel horribly entertaining this evening, probably because my head knows I should be studying but my feet are dragging since that doesn't sound like fun. Besides, I had school stuff from 8:30am to 4pm so I feel, well, entitled to slack for a moment. Site visit at a local hospital went well this afternoon. I didn't get to actually do anything but sitting there quietly while listening and watching is probably just as good as anything I suppose. Mum and I got a mixed variety box of ice cream on a stick at the grocery store. You really have no idea what you're missing but I'll assure you it's divine. As for comments on a previous post; Yes, I do love the Monty Python boys but I so very much wasn't expecting eels on a hovercraft as a comment (much as no one expects the Spanish Inquisition) thus I dumbly was confused. The thing about saying the wrong words is that A) I don't notice it, and B) Sometimes orange gibbon bucket and plastic. Also, our local news stations... ah well I think I covered how I feel about that so thank you for agreeing. Such encouragement leads me to believe my ascent to the throne of power will be soon, of course, and very little contradicted. Or maybe I'm just glad someone finally responded with a comment thus, thank you! And now to reclaim the sleep that the short poweroutage cost me early this morning... Love to all and Happy middle of the week!

School, Party, News Rant

Golly this last week did a strange dance of super fast and excruciatingly slow so it's hard to tell where each day ended and the next began.

The roads were icy but everyone I know made it through the week with little incident (Dork slid and bruised his tire but he and Dad were able to fix it so I assume it wasn't horrible) and the worst road I've encountered each day has been the street on which I live! School was the usual. Went over syllabi followed by starting the first lecture or two of each class. My "favorite" frustrating class is back with a vengeance this semester to harass me; I can't even begin to tell you all of the things having to do with such that irk me since it would take a very long time and neither of us should waste life like that, eh? Just think a little happy thought for me if you would, to help me get through that class without going crazy.
I'd almost forgotten what a weekend with homework was like. Thank goodness that problem is fixed. Anyone want to help me study my exciting, thrilling drug cards?
My pharm class had a little party Friday night downtown to help everyone get to know each other since not all in the class socialize together outside of school. Julie put it together then promptly got sick enough that she couldn't make it so I got to share some of the limelight for planning something truly wonderful for which I did hardly anything to help. (I guess my only honest claim to fame is knowing all of my eighty-some-odd classmates' names, which is so terribly helpful somehow?) We had a great time with only a couple of our darlings going overboard, so to speak, but as far as I know everyone made it home safely. There were probably a few headaches the next morning but also some fun pictures so it all evens out to a great time that needs repeating (hopefully during nicer weather so our comrades in Tulsa can join in for once! We invited them all down but due to weather none could make it.)
Mum updated her blog - go check it out!
Rant time - A new complaint of mine: our local news stations are more and more showing "human interest" stories that ARE NOT news and wasting time that could be spent on REAL news that we actually ought to hear about. I don't need to know that your helicopter crew saved a deer's life by blowing it off of a frozen pond. Yay for you but why is that news that needs to be covered at all, much less covered more than a dozen times over several days? There's a funny video on YouTube that your station manager happens to think is hilarious? Big deal, I can go there and see it myself if I'm into that sort of thing. You're holding onto a disappointment from your past that is very loosely tied to a current story and feel the need to tell us all about it since obviously we're your adoring public. Crikey, get over yourself! I don't care if you run 4o+ miles a week, weren't born in New York, didn't win a rodeo beauty pageant, don't like your kids being home a whole week longer, what your lame personal input on some issue is, or if you fixed pasta for your family's dinner last night. I really, really am just tuning in for the NEWS, not your life's story or to watch witty banter between you and the weatherman (who really needs a new hair stylist). Please, get back to the real issues so I can get done with you sooner in favor of return to my reruns of Food Network Challenges. Argh.
Well, I'm just ranted out. Hope everyone has a lovely week, avoids human interest stories, and drives safely!
Oh and having a hovercraft full of eels is, though exciting, probably not conducive to using said hovercraft -so best of luck! I have heard eel soup is delicious; you might consider trying it.

PreSemester Jitterbug

I can't believe break is almost over! Tomorrow I go back to days of classes and site visits, exams and assignments. Where did that full month of break go?
Right now I'm working on laundry and getting reorganized for school. I always underestimate how much work I put into getting organized each semester; You'd think I would get it set and leave it all neat but somehow I have a way of undoing my own organization quicker than a cyclone...
I finally settled on names for my fishy friends: Heifer and Sundance! Thank you to those who endured my machinations about such a minute detail and for the lovely suggestions. The swimmers are right now enjoying their hourly pacing up and down the side of the tank, neurotic little fishes that they are. The cat took about 10 hours to discover them that first day and the minute she did, she really did! She wanted to sit next to them (I'm sure that's all she wanted to do, right?) and got very perturbed at me for not letting her play with the pretty swimmy things. I put masking tape rolled on the surface of the table next to the tank so the next time she got up there she was very confused and not a little miffed. I don't think she's figured out anywhere else to sit to terrorize them so she just lurks on the floor, shooting me mean looks now and then.
Speaking of which, last night I was sitting on the couch talking to Skronky on the phone when all of the sudden, out of the blue and without any warning, the cat jumped up on the back of the couch and bit me on the back of my head right next to my ponytail! Then she perched at the far edge of the back of the couch looking at me like, "What? You got a problem with me? What then??" So I pushed her off (it's only about two foot to the ground) only for her to rebound two minutes later to the same place, this time purring like she just got the best meal of her life. I swear she must be psycho or something. Or maybe she's just gettting old and nuts? Whichever, blessings on all those who live with a crazy attack cat!
It's still very, very cold outside and there's ice everywhere. I think it sleeted here all day Friday, most of Saturday, and part of Sunday. I'm so glad we haven't lost power! With all this ice that's a definite possibility; It's happened before and I'm sure it will again. The dogs are enjoying this weather, silly things, since they like eating the ice! Due to the icky weather making the roads slick I haven't left the house since Friday when I went with Dad to pick Dork up at school (they got to leave early since the weather was looking bad even before noon). I can hardly wait to test the roads tomorrow for school...
Before this weather front started I got to hang out with some friends from undergrad on Tuesday. Had a good time; I'd missed getting to laugh at stupid stuff with Julia. Too bad there wasn't a Food Challenge on the telly!
I did some baking yesterday while Mum made a chicken pot pie; peanut butter cookies, cherry turnovers, and (not baked) toffee fudge. (By the end of those I was pretty much all out of creative power.) The things I call turnovers I guess are really just fruit filled pie crust pockets but isn't turnover a much shorter name? And they *could* be turned over...
Well, I suppose it's time to get back to organizing. Hope you all have a lovely week and enjoy your MLK Jr. Day off of work (if you are so lucky)!

A Cold + Some Fish

I am still alive! I survived my first cold attack of 2007. [We're assuming it was a cold since it's not allergy weather and I didn't really have any symptoms that pointed to, oh say, the plague. (Or plaque!)]
So I spent most of this last week (from Saturday to Friday, literally) puttering around the house, taking meds according to a schedule, sleeping very often, occasionally helping with home improvement projects about as much as a zombie can, and not wearing any makeup, contacts, or matching clothing. Grandmum came by sometime mid-week and declared that I looked very pale. To which I had to chuckle to myself since, duh, I am very pale. I suppose she just hasn't seen me without makeup in years, plus the glasses I hardly ever wear in public, compounded by the fact that I had *just* woken up when she arrived (ie the doorbell woke me up!). Yay for such complimentary observations!
Skronky and I went to get my Christmas fish today! They're two very cute Harlequin Rasboras! He had gotten me a little aquarium for Christmas with a certificate to the aquarium/fish place to get some swimmers after the "bowl" was ready for them (it's not really a bowl, rather more squarish? Not sure how to describe but bowl is much quicker to type) so we finally picked them out today. They're currently in my room enjoying their new home (I assume since they've not been very vocal about it), swimming around very prettily. Skronky, having been given the authority to name one of them, chose "Heifer" so I now have the task of choosing a name for the other one. Mum suggested "Helga" but I think they might both be boys so that might not be quite fitting... Any suggestions? (Others that I've thought of include: Cowboy, Boomer, Hoss, Sundance... Please help?)
Well, hope ya'll are enjoying life and living it to the fullest! Shoot me a comment with your fish name suggestion, please, and I'll let ya know what I picked later this week!