A Weekend

Friday was Anna's birthday, so I ditched the Haven to have dinner at Mom & Dad's. First, I went home to pack for the weekend though--no sense in going home Friday just to come back Saturday, after all. I didn't get my stuff back upstairs from the living room though, so I'll have to do that tonight.

I got to Mom & Dad's, then we did birthday stuff like having dinner (breakfast stuff) and Anna opening her presents. She got a pretty nice haul, and I can't remember it all, so I'm not going to list any of it except for the Halo 2 Multiplayer Map.

Saturday morning, I had a doctor's appointment at 9, so I woke up around 8. I went to the doctor, and she said that it was probably just a really bad sprain, but I should get an x-ray just in case. She also said that, if it is just a sprain, then I should keep doing what I'd been doing to help it heal--with more walking on it now--plus take 600mg of Ibuprofen twice a day even if it doesn't hurt much, since Ibuprofen is an anti-inflammatory medication and will help keep the swelling down. That's one $20 co-pay down the drain.

So, I went to the FMH center at Rose Hill (off of Oppossumtown Pike) and got my x-ray--another $30 co-pay down the drain. That was my last $50, which I was hoping to spend on a haircut and about $30-worth of essentials like food (I don't need much at the moment, and can get by on what I have, but would've liked to get some variety). Oh well.

The radiologist was going to call the doctor (who would then call me) within a couple of hours if they found any abnormalities--read: fractures--in my x-rays, so since I didn't get a phone call all day Saturday, I figure it's not broken. Thank goodness.

Not much else happened the rest of Saturday, but yesterday I woke up around 10 or so and Anna and I watched some TV before she, Kayla and I went with Kimba to her volleyball game. Every Sunday afternoon, Kimba plays volleyball at the old armory downtown with some friends from high school and such.

As we were getting ready to leave, Kimba says to me, "After victory ice cream, we're going to Master Cuts to get you a haircut, which I'm paying for." I had already been planning on getting a haircut eventually, but since it wasn't a priority and I'd just spent my last $50 the day before, I figured it would be at least another week (I get paid this Friday) before I got that haircut.

She was all like, "It is too a priority," and made me get the haircut yesterday anyway--and even bought me some Paul Mitchell shampoo and conditioner, which is expensive stuff, especially when you consider that I haven't even come close to running out of the last shampoo and conditioner I bought yet. I'm not going to just stop using my current stuff--that would be wasteful--but once I run out, I'll use the Paul Mitchell stuff. I don't know if I'll be able to afford to buy more of it after that's gone though--brand-name salon products are insanely priced!

I'm currently using the Dove Go Fresh Therapy Cool Moisture Shampoo (25.4 fl. oz. Cucumber & Green Tea Scent--$7.99) and the Dove Go Fresh Therapy Cool Moisture Conditioner (same amount, also in Cucumber & Green Tea Scent--also $7.99). The Paul Mitchell stuff Kimba got for me was the Lavender Mint Moisturizing stuff (10.14 fl. oz. each of the shampoo and conditioner), and they cost Kimba something like $12 or $13 each! That's almost twice as much cost for less than half the product! It's ridiculous! I can barely afford to buy shampoo and conditioner at the rates (volume and price) I do right now, so I like to get as much as I can in one bottle, and it lasts longer.

Don't get me wrong--I like the haircut a lot, so I'm not complaining about that, and I'm grateful to Kimba for paying for the haircut and the shampoo/conditioner. I just don't think it's necessary to buy such overly-expensive shampoo and conditioner when there are probably generic brands (or at least less-expensive name brands) that would do the job just as well.

I don't know how to find those inexpensive yet effective brands, which is why I've been switching brands after every bottle to try and undo the damage that one does with the next while I try to find a good one--it's a vicious cycle. The people at salons are definitely not going to recommend any such products like that though. It's their job to sell the expensive stuff that's in their inventory, not recommend stuff that customers can buy elsewhere for half the cost and twice the volume.

Anyway, enough about hair care. I shall now briefly summarize my plan for the next few days.

Today I will be going to the allergist after work for my shots, and then I will go home and clean up the mess I made in the living room, since stairs are now nowhere near the problem they were a week ago, and I can confidently say that the extra weight of whatever I need to carry won't hurt any more than if I weren't carrying it.

Then, I will probably either read, watch TV (or a movie), or possibly do some writing while I do some laundry.

Tomorrow, I will go to the Haven after work (yay, school's out!) and have Gene catch me up on the Friday night D&D game, since I've missed the last two sessions. If I haven't done my laundry by the time I get home from the Haven tomorrow, I will do it then.

I have no idea what I'm going to do from Wednesday on, other than the usual stuff.

Ankle Update . . . Among Other Things

When my dad got to my house on Friday, he made me pack up to go to my parents' house. I had to crabwalk all the way up the stairs to my bedroom, get my clothes bag and my laptop case, as well as my backpack (to carry my research materials in), pack some clothes (I ended up forgetting my hairbrush), and then go back downstairs to get the computer and the books.

Dad got back before I was even finished with the clothes. So he helped me carry a couple of the bags back downstairs, and I packed those too. Then we went to my parents' house.

I didn't actually do anything with the astronomy paper on Friday evening. Instead, Anna, Kayla and I started watching season 4 of Red vs. Blue, and then Kayla fell asleep and she was going to watch Star Wars with Dad anyway, so we stopped RvB for the time being.

Saturday, I woke up extra late, then when I got up to go to the bathroom (I was on the crutches) Kimba was already in there, so I had to wait. For some reason, I started to feel like I was going to pass out. Luckily, I didn't before I actually got into the bathroom, but I did spend quite a few minutes with my eyes closed and my head leaning on the bathroom sink area. After that, I went into the living room as quickly as I could (I've never had to use crutches before, so using them properly and quickly took some getting used to) and flopped on the couch. That was around 9:30am.

I didn't fully get up again until around noon or so. Everybody was nice about getting things for me like food and the ice pack, which I wouldn't have been able to carry with the crutches.

Sometime in the evening, Jason, Kayla and Anna decided to play some games, but I had to write my paper. So they played Electronic Banking Monopoly while I wrote my paper on quasars. I'll post it in the same place I'm going to post my school newspaper articles later.

I think we might've played some video games after that, but I can't remember very clearly. I know we at least did some video game bowling and played Halo 2 sometime this weekend.

Sunday was pretty uneventful. More games and stuff. Anna and I watched Gilmore Girls on the projector for a while before everybody got home from church, then I think we finished up the Star Wars movies.

Monday, Anna took me to work, and then Dad picked me up so we could both get our allergy shots. Then he took me back to their house, and Anna, Kayla and I finished watching Red vs. Blue season 4. Only one more season to go!

I got home around 10:30-ish on Monday night, and basically just read the book I'd borrowed from Sister G.

Yesterday, I drove myself to work; it was uncomfortable, but nowhere near as painful as it was on Friday. After work, I went to take my astronomy final, and turned in my paper and night sky observations. The final was a cinch.

When I came home, I finished the book while I started my laundry (after dragging the basket from my room as I scooted downstairs) and then tried to watch the shows I'd recorded on my laptop. But alas, apparently my laptop is not able to read DVDs that I've recorded myself. So I had to go back upstairs and watch them on my TV. That wasn't too bad; all I had to bring were my pillows and the DVD.

I watched the Bones from May 5th, the Smallville from May 8th, and the Numb3rs from May 9th. When I went to delete that Bones episode, I accidentally deleted the second Robin Hood episode I'd taped, so there will be no watching it "just to see if it's really as bad as it seemed the first time."

Before I left the house on Friday, I'd forgotten to set the DirecTV box to autotune to Fox for Monday's Bones episode, so I dragged my carcass (and my pillows, as well as the DragonLance Chronicles novels) downstairs again and found this past Monday's episode on Sidereel. I finally finished watching it around 2:30 this morning, so I am officially caught up on all of my shows.

SPOILER WARNING!!!!!

But holy crap, Booth got shot at the end of the episode! There were no previews on the Sidereel video, so I tried to find the trailer video online for next week's episode (it's the season finale on the 19th). I didn't find any trailer videos, but I did find spoiler pictures in which Booth is up and about, seemingly without trouble from the bullet wound, so I breathed a sigh of relief.

END SPOILER WARNING

Now, here I am typing this up, and I have almost nothing else to say. After work, I'll probably watch a movie before reading some more. I might even fold my laundry, even though I won't be taking it upstairs until after my foot is feeling good enough to actually walk up and down the stairs. The swelling went down considerably yesterday, but it actually hurts slightly more now than it did when it was all puffy. I think the swelling must have helped to dull the pain or something.

I also have bruises on my foot that aren't really in the places that my foot hurts. One of them is on the complete opposite side of my foot, on the instep side of my heel. The other is on the outside of my foot, and runs from my heel to the ball of my foot, just below my ankle. The truly tender part of my foot--the part that actually hurts--is my ankle itself, and the only bruise there is just above the actual bone and slightly heel-ward. The top of my foot on the outside is also a bit tender (although not much at all), and has some light-greenish bruising on it. Maybe I'll post some pictures later.

OWWIE!

Sister M's (one of my visiting teachers) sister, Sister G is having a yard sale this weekend. The first half was today from 8-1. She invited other people from church to sell stuff at her yard sale at her farm in Keymar. I thought that would be a good idea, considering how many books I'm trying to get rid of, so I got some other odds and ends together and asked if I could come sells stuff with her. She said it would be good to have company, so I got the day off work and planned to go.

This morning, when I was getting my last bin of stuff in the car (along with a few other things that wouldn't fit--I had three bins) I had just gotten to the bottom of the grassy hill out front (I wasn't about to lug those bins down the back deck stairs) when I twisted my ankle between it and the sidewalk by the curb. OUCH!

I sat on that bin and had a good cry--about 5-10 minutes' worth--then I got back up and carefully gathered the other stuff, then put it and the bin in the car. Then I hobbled over to the driver's side and made my way to Keymar. Driving a stick with an injured clutch foot was an uncomfortable (but not really excruciating) experience. I got there okay, and Sister G. was so nice, she went back and forth from the house to the garage where she was having the sale and got me ice and water and stuff. She even lent me a cane.

After a while, we went inside, because it was cold and damp and nobody was really coming, so we did a puzzle and watched out the window for cars to come.

Around noon, a couple of her friends came for lunch--she'd invited me to stay for the meal when she let me come to the sale. We had brisket, cucumber, tomatoes, potato salad and broccoli coleslaw. It was all very yummy.

When I was full, I decided it was time to go. The sale was over for the day by then, so it was all good. The only money I'd made was $1.25, because Sister G. bought my extra planisphere and my spare compass.

When I got home, I came in the front door, and literally crawled up the stairs to the second floor. There, I got some ice (the last three cubes), and tried to sit at my desk to finish researching and writing my paper, but even putting the piano bench underneath the desk was uncomfortable.

So I called my parents' house to see if anyone was home who had a car and could drive it. Dad was, so I asked if he could come to my house and get my keys and bank card, then fill up the gas tank and buy me some of those re-freezable ice packs. After that, I lugged all of my reference materials, my left shoe (since I'd taken it off as soon as I got in the house), some water, the cane, my purse, my keys, my phone, a novel and my laptop downstairs so that I could answer the doorbell if it rings as well as finish my Astronomy paper.

Thinking

I think I might have to drop out of the Wednesday night Vampire game. There are various reasons, which I will explain below, but what they all come down to is: I don't have enough time right now--either to familiarize myself with the rules of the game, or to participate in this particular chronicle.

For one thing, those of us playing the game never know if that week's session will go until 8pm or until 10pm. I don't like to stay out too late on weeknights, so that I can at least try to get things done at home and/or relax before I have to go to sleep for work in the morning, but if I'm at the Haven until 10pm, then there isn't much I can do after that. Even after school's out and I've found somewhere to live after June 30, this fact alone could be a deal-breaker.

Then there's the fact that finals are coming up in 2½ weeks. I'll have to at least read my notes again. Not to mention, I haven't finished my night sky observations yet.

Looking for a house and/or new job takes up a lot of time too. And the stress is awful.

When I first started playing the Vampire game, I wasn't all that prepared. I just saw Dan making up his character with a few of the Vampire books sitting on the table around him and asked if I could join in the game. Carl said it was okay, so I started making up my character. He read a bunch of things out of the book about the game, and talked about each of the clans and the traditions and stuff, but I was only able to half-listen, since I was trying to get my character created quickly so we could start the game. I missed most of what he said.

I think what I might do is drop out of this particular Vampire game, then when their adventure is over, if they start a new one after all the stress is over (either with the same characters or new ones), I might join in then. I figure by the time their current chronicle is finished, I'll have had time to read through the rulebook (and maybe a few of the options that I have in PDF format), so I'll understand the game better, and therefore be at least a little better at it.

Thoughts?

Almost the Weekend . . .

This week has gone by so slowly, it's insane.

Monday was boring but busy. Tuesday was okay. Yesterday was slow until work was over, then the Vampire game went by at a reasonable pace. I managed to do a bit more than I did two weeks ago (sit there and look confused), but I'm still not quite up on the taboos and traditions and things.

It's not because I can't play RPGs, I know that. I've played D&D now for a month and a half or so, and I've gotten worlds better at that than I am at Vampire right now. The thing is, I actually understand how to play my D&D characters. Some of the characters I've created before aren't human, but I can at least understand their values and such--that's what the alignment system is for.

With Vampire, they have a Nature (how they really are on the inside) and a Demeanor (what they show to the world about themselves), and they really are monsters--they might want to protect humans and/or use them as tools in their machinations, but all the time there's this beast inside of them saying to hurt them and drink their blood. There really is no difference between player characters and non-player characters except for the fact that the GM runs all of the NPCs. Even another PC from the Camarilla could happily kill your character, to say nothing of the NPCs or the Sabbot (if you're playing as Camarilla).

Nerd-to-Norm Explanation: The Camarilla believe that humans should be protected, and enforce the Masquerade (the tradition among vampires that says humans should not know about vampires). They keep self control on their inner beasts, and act as human as they possibly can, using humans to their advantage--as tools. The Sabbot, on the other hand, believe that humans are food and should be ruled over by the superior vampires, so they do their utmost to reject their humanity and have no interest in the Masquerade. In other words, both groups are bad guys, but the Camarilla are more like corrupt, "good" monsters, while the Sabbot are honest monsters. (Not bad for just having had it explained to me in terms I could understand last night, huh?)

That might be true of some D&D groups if you've got widely different alignments in the same group of PCs, but DMs usually make sure that the characters will at least get along unless the game they're running calls for in-fighting or a diverse range of alignments. With this Vampire game, there's constant backstabbing. It's kind of confusing, and makes me wonder if I chose the right Nature (conniver) for my somewhat new role-playing abilities. Maybe I should have chosen a Nature closer to the Demeanor I chose (bon vivant), but then it would've been kind of silly to add in all of those skills relating to subterfuge, and I'd have to re-write the part of my character's history involving spying for the U.S. government during the Sputnik frenzy in the '50s.

I'm hoping I'll be better able to role-play Vampires after I've had a chance to read through the rulebook thoroughly, instead of just skimming and/or researching specific things when I need to know them right away. There won't be a session next Wednesday, since Carl (the GM) has to work late that night, so I'll have extra time to do my "homework."

Anyway, enough about Vampire. Tonight is class again, and we're actually having a lab for the first time since before mid-terms . . . w00t! The teacher was behind on a couple of lectures, so we'd been skipping labs to catch up, which means we haven't been getting out of class as early as we usually do on Thursdays. That will change tonight.

Fun, Disappointments, and an Accomplishment

Thursday night turned out to be another lecture, because we were a chapter behind on lectures. We're still a chapter behind though, because Tuesday was supposed to be a double-chapter lecture too, and it seems the teacher didn't notice. Before and after class, I worked on a drawing of my D&D character, Laina (see left).

She didn't turn out quite like I pictured her, and I had trouble with a few of the proportions (her boobs look weird, and her hair's too big) but overall, I'm pleased with the drawing. Especially since it's the only full-length drawing I've ever completed--I've only ever drawn from the shoulders up before.

Yesterday was really slow, until work was done. I went to the Haven, showed off my drawing, then after a bit of talking (and after I'd renewed my membership) we had our D&D session. My character got enough experience points at the end to get to third level. Since I'd already done the research on what I wanted to do with that the weekend before, I just went through and changed the character stats accordingly.

After the game, it was pouring! I didn't know it was supposed to rain when I left work, so I didn't bring my umbrella with me. So Bart gave me a ride to my car (thanks, Bart!), then I had to do some grocery shopping.

I woke up this morning, and did some figuring. . . . It turns out that the grocery shopping overdrew me last night. So I can't 1) make a donation to Autism Speaks, or 2) buy some arrows for Jason. I was really hoping to at least be able to do the second one, but it's just not going to work.

Anna called me at 8:15 this morning, which kind of annoyed me since I'd set my cell phone to wake me up at 8:30, but that's beside the point. The reason she called is that none of the three of us (Anna, Kimba or I) got enough donations even to get tee shirts at the Autism Walk today. You have to get $100 in donations for a tee shirt, but I only made $25, and the other two got similarly small donations as well.

Also, Anna has a test today at noon which she was planning on skipping, then making up after the walk, but she wouldn't have gotten to take it with her classmates and it would've been completely short answer, instead of however the test was originally. Anna said it was up to me whether or not we went to the walk today, so I said I didn't mind not going. I mean, I like walking, so it wouldn't have been a problem if we actually went, but since I didn't get to make a donation of my own, we won't be getting tee shirts (they're neat shirts, don't laugh!), and Anna has that test, I figured it would be best not to go. Maybe next year I'll have a little more notice, and Anna won't be having a test and we'll be able to get more donations.

As for the dilemma with Jason's present . . .

Well, I have half-a-dozen arrows that I bought months ago for my own bow. They're custom-cut and made out of either fiber glass or carbon (I can't remember which), and cost me about $60. I've only used these arrows about three times since I bought them, so I'm basically wasting money just having them sit there in the quiver on my wall.

So, I will offer my arrows to Jason, and if they work with his bow (I think he has a recurve), then he can keep them. If they don't work with his bow, then I might just give him mine (a compound) since I have not used it in ages, and have dad loosen it up with his alan wrench drill bit, since I can't do it manually with an actual alan wrench--it's too tight, and the wrench tends to want to bend and break.

Yay, Friday!

Last night we ended up having a lecture instead of a lab, but the teacher is going to give us all full credit for the lab anyway. Yay for free grades!

Tonight's D&D again. Just waiting for work to be over so that I can go over to the Haven.

I'm bored.

I wish . . .

. . . there was a bathroom at the Haven.

I went there last night to hang out, and stayed until closing time, playing Vampire: The Masquerade. That was fun, even though I was kind of clueless. The last time (which was also the first time) I'd played was back in high school, when Kelly E. and Chris M. invited me over to Kelly's house to join their game. We got through character creation and half of a session before my dad called and said it was time for me to go home. So I really didn't have much experience with the game last night.

One of the other players has been playing the game for years and years though, so she helped me some by making her character ask my character for help contacting the primogen.

I had "purchased" a snack with my Haven store credit around 7:30 or 8, because I was starting to get a bit woozy. By 8:30, I seriously had to pee. Earlier in the day, I had been talking to one of my co-workers who is also a member at the Haven, and he told me that there was no bathroom, to which I replied that I usually didn't have a problem with that.

It seems I jinxed myself. By closing time (10pm) I could barely hold it. I walked the three blocks back to my car as steadily yet quickly as I dared, drove home as quick as I could safely, then got inside, only to find that the toilet in the half-bath wasn't working properly (the flusher wasn't flushing--I'll have to see if I can fix that when I get home today). So I went up to my bathroom on the third floor.

After that was taken care of, I surfed the 'net for an hour or so, looking for blank character sheets to copy my character information on. I found the first page in a PDF, plus two different character generators for keeping track on a computer while playing. I also looked up the core rulebook online, and found new & used copies at Amazon for $7-10 plus shipping. I might get a copy later, and that will definitely help me be less clueless while playing.

Tonight is lab night for my astronomy class, so I probably will be home by 9pm at the latest--labs are easy.

Well, I did it.

Friday the 21st was another D&D night, and my character got enough experience to move up to 2nd level. Yay!

On Saturday the 22nd, I managed to finish Mansfield Park. By 11:00pm, I was finished with the article for the Commuter, as well as a neat little sidebar I thought up to go with it.

I went over to Mom & Dad's house after that, and Anna and I watched some TV before we fell asleep.

Sunday, Kayla wasn't there (she was spending 10 days with her family in Alabama), so we didn't watch any Buffy or Angel. Instead, I read The Jane Austen Book Club, which I borrowed from Anna. I was kind of on a Jane Austen kick the whole weekend, despite having just finished all six of her novels--I just wanted more! And Anna wouldn't watch any of the movies (she has Pride and Prejudice times two, Sense and Sensibility, and Emma).

Tuesday was our mid-term for Astronomy. Most of the questions were multiple choice (and therefore extremely cinchy), then there were four short answer questions. The whole test was pretty easy--the only question I wasn't entirely sure about was the last one.

Wednesday, I went over to the Haven and did some reading about the fictional place that the game I've been playing on Friday nights is set in. While I was reading, someone put a movie on the projector called The Gamers. I didn't catch very much of it, but it looked like a cheesy college project. What little I caught of it was funny though. After that movie, someone put in one from 1960 that had Angela Lansbury and the lady who played the mom in Mary Poppins in it. I can't remember the title.

There was no class yesterday, because of the mid-term on Tuesday, and Kayla came back, so I went to Mom & Dad's for dinner. We had tacos--Kayla's favorite. When I got home around 10:30-ish, I watched last night's Smallville, then one more episode of MacGyver. I'm somewhere in season 2 now.

Tonight is another D&D session, and I got paid today. Yay money!

Yay TV!

The DirecTV guys didn't show up until almost 8pm last night, but they did get there. They also hooked up the dish to Stacie's and my receivers. We now have "cable" TV in our rooms. Finally.

The list of channels was somewhat confusing (there were multiple numbers for channels of the same name) so I went through and picked out my favorites and made my very own reference sheet, with all of my favorites sorted three different ways: by number, by name, and by call sign.

I checked out The Haven on Monday after work, although I only stayed a few minutes because I had to do laundry. It's a pretty cosy setup, and I liked what I saw, so I'm definitely going to go back as often as I can.

I'm also going to upgrade my membership starting next month. The $10 per month is the Standard Gaming membership (one-day guest membership is $5, with the first visit per month free), but I want a Crafting membership as well, because I want to be able to use the forge and get to sign up for some of the crafting classes a month before everyone else. The Crafting membership is $25 per month.

Right now, I'm not experienced enough with role-playing games in general to be a Game Master, but when I am, I'll want a GM membership too. By itself, the GM membership is $25. If I combine the GM and the Crafting memberships, I'll only have to pay $10 more, for a total of $35 per month (instead of $50).

Since I had to wait for the DirecTV guys to come and leave last night (nobody else was home), I was about an hour late for class. Luckily, they were still there, and Bryson (one of my classmates--he always types up his notes due to poor handwriting) was able to e-mail me the notes I'd missed. I'll copy them into my notebook when I get home from work.

I also found out last night that we won't be having class tomorrow, so combined with Spring Break next week, I won't have to go to class again until the 25th. Sweet! That means more Haven time for Darcy!

I can't go tonight, because Anna asked me to help her with her homework tonight, but I was already planning to go on Friday anyway, since they're having a free How to Play D&D 3.5 class that evening. So I'll get to go two days in a row--three, if I can afford to take the $25 Leather book binding class on Saturday (I get paid on Friday, and have to pay bills and buy groceries, but other than that I should have enough, I hope).

Let's Go . . .

Monday evening was good. I went straight from work back to Mom & Dad's house. When I got there, Anna was just getting in the car, so she took me to her work and we sent a fax that I needed to send, but my Dad's fax machine wouldn't work for.

Once we got back, we watched three episodes each of Buffy and Angel, including "The Body, Forever," and "Intervention." I can't remember the titles of the Angel episodes we watched, but they were the corresponding episodes from those three points in the second season.

I got home around midnight, then crashed.

Tuesday, I went to work, then came home and started my laundry. I got the first load washed and dried, and the second load was going in the dryer (third load in the wash) before I had to leave for class. After class, I finished the laundry while reading.

Speaking of reading, I finished Persuasion yesterday, and started Pride and Prejudice this morning. Since I've seen two different film versions of this book, I suspsect that I'll have an easier time discerning emotions, despite the very-formal language, since I already know what's going on.

After work yesterday, I took my kite across the street to the church parking lot. It was a very nice day for it, and I wanted to fly my kite before it got dark. I got the kite to fly to the end of its string, and stayed out until my hands got too cold. Then I went about the rest of my at-home stuff. I managed to get caught up on my fanfic reading, and took down some notes on Persuasion, as well as doing a little more research for the article I'm going to write about these books.

Anna and Kayla came over for a while, and Anna and I played a bunch of music. I taught her the first few bars of "Robinton's First Whistle Tune" on my recorder, and then we played various instruments, ending in me playing the piano (mostly one-handed) while we both sang a bit. She also tried my trumpet and my (broken) clarinet, and I played some guitar and trumpet too.

Before I went to sleep last night, I finished watching the first season of Duck Tails--finally. Now, I just have seven seasons of MacGyver to get through, and I'll be all caught up on my DVD-watching.

Tonight the sub-contractor for the DirecTV is supposed to come over. I've been checking WeatherBug constantly the past couple days, just to make sure there won't be any wind gusts this evening--I want to be able to watch TV (and not just movies and serieses on DVD) darn it!

I may be late for class tonight, if the sub-contractor stays later than 7:30. I'll have to leave by 7:30 to be on time for class, and I suspect I won't be able to leave an hour early and read in the foyer (or on a bench in the hallway) like I usually do, since I might have to wait for the guy to leave. If Amit's not home, Jenn won't want to be alone with the guy, and if neither of them are home, then I'll have to be there anyway. If both of them are home, I still want to be there, for anti-confusion purposes.

It's a good thing it's just a lab tonight. I can get it done pretty quickly, even if I'm a little late for class. If the guy stays past 9:00 (which isn't really likely) however, I'll probably just have to e-mail the teacher and get the lab from him on Tuesday or something. But it probably won't come to that.

Another Weekend at the Parents' House

I spent the weekend at Mom & Dad's again. This time, from Friday evening to Monday morning. It was mostly fun.

Anna bought a new version of Monopoly at Wal-Mart. It was the Electronic Banking Edition. No paper money, just use credit-type cards in the machine provided.

There are no magnetic strips, just one or two indicator bumps on the side that goes into the machine. Depending on how many bumps and where they are on the card, the machine can tell which player is paying/receiving money. It's really cool, and the game goes much faster for it too.

On Thursday, I asked one of my classmates if he had the notes from last Tuesday's lecture. He said yeah, and asked if I wanted him to e-mail them to me. I told him that would be great, and gave him my FCC e-mail address.

He sent the e-mail a minute or two after the teacher started class (I know, because he told me to check my e-mail), but it's been four days now, and it still hasn't shown up in my Gmail inbox--I have message forwarding from FCC to Gmail. I think he may have misspelled my FCC address or something, so tomorrow night I'm going to give him my Gmail address instead, and hope it comes through this time.

Oh, thank goodness.

I got an e-mail from my Astronomy teacher a little bit ago. He says I can make up the quiz during the lab tonight. I've done the two labs we've had so far pretty quickly, so I can definitely do both before class ends tonight.

The Absent-Minded Astronomy Student

I got home from work on Tuesday, still thinking about all the crap I'd had to deal with at work. I had the responsibility for the royalties stuff basically foisted on me when the previous person decided to go back to school full-time, and I don't really know what I'm doing most of the time, so when problems crop up (as they have been doing frequently the last few weeks), I don't really know how to fix them, but I have to try anyway--possibly screwing things up even more in the process.

Anyway, I got home, and needed to unwind. So I checked my e-mail and went upstairs to read. I was almost finished with Temeraire, and I wanted to be able to start a new book Wednesday morning. I finished the book around 9:15. I looked at the clock, and something struck me as odd.

Then I remembered--it was Tuesday! I should have been in class an hour and a half before that! And to top it off, we had a quiz on Tuesday. The teacher usually lets us out early (class is supposed to end at 10:20) if he's finished with the lecture and whatever else needs to get done, so I wasn't sure I would be able to get to class before everybody left, even though I'm only a ten-minute drive away.

Panicking, I sent an e-mail to the teacher, explaining my absent-mindedness (I hadn't even realized it was Tuesday, much less time to go to class), and practically begging to be allowed to make up the quiz. I'm hoping I get a reply before class tonight though, because I'm not sure he won't be going over the quiz tonight. If he does, I'll just have to take the zero. I can't remember how many points each quiz is out of the 1,000 for the semester, but I hope it's not a letter-grade's worth if I'm not allowed to make it up. I've also set my phone to alert me when it's time to leave for school on Tuesdays and Thursdays now.

This whole situation irks me, because I'm usually so good with getting to class on time (in fact, I'm usually early, so that I can sit in the hallway to read for a while).

I started a new book yesterday called The Briar King by Greg Keyes. It's one of two books by him given to me by one of my visiting teachers (Temeraire was also a gift from her). So far, it's very intriguing, and also somewhat confusing. At first, I had trouble figuring out what the heck was going on (for longer than usual), but now that I'm almost halfway through it's easier to follow.

It's interesting though--the maps included look like the northeast quadrant of the United States, from the bottom tip of Virginia, up to the tip of Lake Michigan or so, but with a lot of distortion, and only water south of Virginia. I keep having to look at the maps again as I read, so that I know what places they're talking about. The names of people and places are kind of weird too.

No Studying This Weekend!

I called FCC yesterday to see if school had been cancelled on Tuesday due to the weather. It hadn't, but it had closed at noon! I wouldn't have had class even if I hadn't been at the election.

When I got to class last night, the teacher said that he was just going to give everybody 35/35's for the lab we were supposed to do (so as not to screw up his grading), and go over the lecture from Tuesday instead. I sat for most of the class just listening, since I'd already taken notes on chapter four. But as soon as he got to chapter five, I started taking notes.

Last night's class went for the full time, because people had lots of questions--some related to the material, some not. I didn't mind though; it was fun.

Our DSL modem came yesterday, finally. And this morning when I checked my e-mail, I saw that our DSL service is ready to be hooked up, four days early! That is one of the first things I am going to do when I get home after work today--set up the internet.

Hectic Week

Lately, I've decided that I want all of the episodes of Phil of the Future, so I've been coordinating and figuring. I have an Excel spreadsheet of all the episodes, when they're showing next, what tape I'm keeping them on, and what timestamp I should look for on the tape.

Once I've got 4-5 episodes that are supposed to be all in a row, I'm going to use Kayla's (one of my roommates) VCR/DVD-R machine (with her permission, of course) to copy them in the right order onto one of the blank DVDs I bought last weekend. Once that's done, I'm going to copy the episodes onto my 160GB harddrive so that I can share them.

Smallville is a re-run this week, so I can also tape Zenon: The Zequel and put that on a DVD too, along with Kim Possible: So the Drama, and A Valentine Carol (with Emma Caulfield from Buffy the Vampire Slayer--if it's not as messed-up as I think it is on the tape). The Lizzie Maguire Movie is showing tomorrow, so I'm going to tape that too.

I went to the Earth Space and Science lab on Tuesday with the Relief Society. We saw the planetarium show called The Cowboy Astronomer. It was pretty fun.