Been Awhile

I thought I had posted since that last post, but I guess not. Anyway, now for the update on my life.

I went to the doctor to see what the problem with my back was (It's been hurting constantly for 2 years--I thought I pulled a muscle) and it turns out that I have spina bidia in the last vertebrate on my spine. (If you don't know what that is, go on google and look it up.) So the doctor put me on some very helpful medicine and I went for a cat scan last night. (I've had shooting pain down my leg, so they did a cat scan to see if some plates in my back were out of place)

Me and Beau have been dating for over a year! Woohoo! Last week was our one-year.

And the froggies are still visiting me.

November 5, 2005

Riiiiiibbit!

Every night when I try to water the flowers in my window (Balsam, if you must know), I can never open it for all the frogs out there. Tonight I have four of them on the glass; I don't want to scare them away (Tree frogs are irresistible, I love them) so I walk all the way around the house to water a few pots. Man, those frogs had better love me. I did all that in an effort not to scare them.  Here's a picture of them

Also, Homecoming was last weekend! My first Homecoming dance, it was a blast. I went with my boyfriend Beau (*waves frantically* Hi Beau!) and two friends, Rob and Clarissa. Fun fun fun in the sun sun sun. Err...fluorescent lights. Here's some pictures from that.

And last but not least, here's Abu! He's become the new spokes-squirrel for this domain.

October 11, 2005

Lucky

The Lady brought me the grey squirrel Sunday. Lucky, the baby squirrel died. That was about 2 weeks ago and even though I don't blame myself, I still think about him a lot every day. I see his little, energetic face and feel depressed.

I hate doing his site.

Homecoming is next weekend and I am about to flip out.

I hate decisions!

September 30, 2005

The Lady brought me the grey squirrel Sunday.

Flying Squirrel Katrina?

Yep, that's right. I believe that Abu will be meeting a new friend, a baby flying squirrel named Katrina. A friend of a friend found a nest of babies after the hurricane (2 of 3 died), and she's giving it to me because I've taken care of many orphaned flyers. This will be the 4th baby and the 8th one in total. I hope it's a girl....it would be the first baby girl I've gotten to take care of, and if it's a guy then I'll have to release it or give it away because they'll fight (at least, that's what Tom, Abu and Catnip did). Also, if it's a girl then I can keep the name of Katrina. :-)

I'm so excited about getting a new baby! I react the same way most people would if they were having a REAL baby.....hmm.

September 3, 2005

Hurricane Katrina

Well, the storm is over and our power is back. The two days without power were so freaking hot. At least we had cold water to take cold showers.

The destruction in New Orleans and Pascagoula is horrible, and we're maybe 60 miles away and we still got a good dose of it. We spent 2 days raking up all the debris....there was a thick layer a foot and a half deep of limbs, leaves and random other things.

Dad went to work today, but came back because of the gas crisis.....people can't get the gas they need because it's expensive and there aren't a lot of stations open, and a lot of people's gas is getting siphoned off. He came home to keep from getting robbed of his precious gasoline.

We have a bunch of rental property on one street a few miles away, and 2 of the houses aren't being rented right now (Long story, but basically, when my dad retires, my mom is going to sell all the houses at once for a huge profit, so she doesn't really care about getting into a long term rental situation if she's going to put them up for sale in less than 6 months). My brother in law's sister in law's parents' house was destroyed (Jen's parents, if that makes any sense to you), so we're letting them stay in one of the houses for free. Both their homes, their residence and their vacation home, were destroyed by the storm. It's kind of cool, we're getting out all the beds from the attic, and I feel like we're doing a really good thing.

My mom volunteers at a donation shop (in affiliation with Catholic Social Services) and is starting an Ebay account for the shop. They get a lot of nice clothing in at the shop that they don't have room for, so she's going to sell 5 article lots, and make a lot of money for the disaster victims.

We won't be back in school for a week or so, and that means all the missed days have to be made up over the Christmas holidays, ugh.

September 1, 2005

Amazing

Suddenly, A trip to Europe is an possible option.

August 24, 2005

Ouchy

We had assembly today....And now my hiney hurts from sitting sideways on those stupid bleachers.

I hate the people in my Algebra II class. They are so horrible to our teacher, who really is a nice person. She's just not aggressive enough. If she told them to sit down and shut up, they might, but she just pauses and waits for them to stop.....

...but they don't. It might sound crazy but every time they act....so cruel...like that to her, it's like I can feel it too.

Lately, my stomach has been rejecting everything I eat, even these pretzel sticks I'm eating now.

August 22, 2005

Finally!

Catherine has left to go back to school, meaning that most of her crap is out of my room. There is still a chair, a box of stuff, and lots of clothing left, but she promised me that she would get them in a few weeks when she came back for the weekend.

August 21, 2005

Pain

Mom was moving the overstuffed chair out of the way, and in the process, ripped her toe nail off. It's the 6th time. There was blood everywhere (even on my socks) and the nail is sticking straight up. It probably will stop growing back after while.

Oh yeah, first day back at school. :-(

August 17, 2005

Abu is sick

Abu, my flying squirrel, is sick. This happened one other time, when he was a baby. His back legs get stiff, and he becomes very clumsy.....so I feed him vitamins. I should have been feeding him the vitamins daily, but I rain out a year or two ago and forgot to buy more.

He's getting better now!

August 14, 2005

I'm still Alive, I Promise

It's been a long time since I've messed with this site lately because I've been so busy, which, added to the fact that someone in my family deleted ALL of my files, made it easy for my domain to fall into disuse.

California was great. I had a lot of interesting experiences over there: I rode the mechanical bull (37 seconds baby!!!), went to Golden Gate Park with all it's wonders (the huge greenhouse with tropical plants was really cool), played lots of bocce (bought-shee---Italian lawn bowling) with my sister, her husband, and their league, and generally just hung out and relaxed. A guy tried to sell me mushrooms, and my sister got me hooked on Starbucks too. There's a Starbucks on every street corner over there, in every mall, in every airport. Geeze, talk about too much of a good thing.

So a few weeks after my California escapade, I went to band camp. We traveled away to our band director's old Alma Mater, because it's very band-oriented school and he has lots of connections up there. Well, lemme tell ya, band camp was exhausting. We were pulling 14 hour days, and I was whipped at the end. You might not think that marching is tiring, but if you do it properly and learn all the sets, then it is. It's more like being on your feet all day that hurts. We were blessed, because it rained a lot, cooling off the place and making it bearable.

School stars next week and I am not liking that. I haven't finished my 2 summer reading books. The first, Lord of the Flies, is very short and I'm reading that now. I also must read Day of Infamy, and it's starting out rather boring. Just the way it's written...the very factual, sequence of events type thing. It's all about what happened at 3:00, the 4:00, then 5:00.....just too dry for me.

I'm trying to research the progress that's been made up to this point in the field of plant genetics. More like, plant reproduction: like hybrids and methods of. It's very difficult to find that much compiled info on the web. There's a lot of current things that they're researching and discovering now, but I'm trying to find out which hybrids have been created thus far, and how distant two plants can be related before they can't cross breed. It really all varies, so you can't say that they have to be of the same genus, or family, or whatever. Another problem is that a lot of times, hybrids are sterile (even in animals: Mules and Zonkies), so you must take cuttings or make graftings of the created hybrid, which I can do, but some plants are harder to make cuttings of, especially woody-stemmed plants. I can make cuttings of begonias and have a 100% success rate, but making a cutting of a Rose of Sharon bush is only about 40% reliable. If I make hybrids, then it needs to be of a plant that's easy to propagate (begonias, impatiens, tomatoes), or else it can't be wide spread. I'm also trying to figure out how to create stripes or spots on flowers from various crossings, and I also would like to figure out how to cross different vegetables and fruits: for instance, nectarines have already been created, and they are a cross between plums and peaches. It would be very interesting to create crosses from different vegetables like that.

But again, it's very hard to find everything you need to know, even with today's internet. To find things that the scientific world takes for granted because it's knowledge a few years old is very difficult. It might take me a year or two before I really understand what's been accomplished so far. And most searches I'm run so far come up with things about the plant genome and ways that they're altering the genes manually...I don't have the proper means to do what they're doing. I want to know about physically dealing with the plants, not messing with the genes.

Yeah, I know I'm boring, but I think this stuff is fascinating. I might be able to make a career in it too, because the field of plant (and animal) genetics if ever growing.

August 9, 2005

Look what I found!

I found a gorgeous ring yesterday while I was cleaning my room. (I clean when I get mad, I eat chocolate when I'm depressed. Obviously that makes sense.)

June 28, 2005

Bad Mood

I'm leaving in 3 days and I cannot wait to get out of this freaking house.

My parents piss me off and my family treats me like crap.

June 27, 2005

Emmy's Birthday

Yesterday I went to my niece Emily's birthday party in 'Nawlins. She turned 3. Pretty great party....it was at her aunt's and uncle's house on Ben's side--Pam and Todd. I got to meet everyone on Ben's side of the family better. I mean, I know that side of the family by face (they all look similar) but I got to talk to a few. Even Eric, the oldest one who's supposed to be a crazy liberal professor at Michigan, was a nice guy. We (meaning me, my dad, Eric and my sister Sarah) talked about philosophy and general things like that. I think the whole staying away from politics was a good thing, because we are very adamant Conservatives, while apparently Eric is the same way about being Liberal. Flying fur or a brawl would probably have ensued if we began a discussion like that. Or maybe we would have just had our say and then stayed away from each other after that. :-P

I kind of hate it when you're talking to about 10 different people and they all try and guess what your age is, which kid you are, what school you're at...

"Oh, so are you the one at Notre Dame?"

"No...I still have 2 years left in high school."

"Oh, so how old are you?"

"16."

"So how is school?"

STOP ASKING ME ABOUT SCHOOL. I HATE SCHOOL, IT DRIVES ME NUTS. YOU ARE DRIVING ME NUTS. AND I DO NOT CARE THAT YOUR NEPHEW IS 16 EITHER.

But of course I was polite. I said that without yelling ;-)

And Ben has so many sibling.....7 to be exact (plus their spouses and kids)....that they all took their turn asking me the same stupid questions. If you can't think of anything more engaging then freaking school then just smile and walk away. Even the youngest sibling, Mike, whom I thought I might have the more in common with since he's closer to my age and plays the trombone, asked the same stupid questions. Gosh dangit, you are a creative family, you can think of better conversation material than that.

Cough.....

There was a definite theme to the birthday party.

Dora.

Dora.

Dora.

Did I mention Dora?

Emily got about 6 things that were Dora themed....After the first 2, it wasn't as much of a surprise....when she saw Dora's face on the box, she simple said, "Oh! Another Dora thing!" There was also one of those picture boards with the faces cut out so people could stick their faces in as the people....Can't remember what those things are called....anyway, there was, you guessed it, a Dora and monkey one at the party. I'll get Ben to send me the pics of it and put it on here when I get a chance.

Man, I want Pam and Todd's Ms. Pacman. That game is freaking addicting. They have a freaking Ms. Pacman in their living room, how cool is that?

Overall, the party was great. The cherries were great too. Ma, do I LOVE cherries.

I'm reading Ender's Game for the fifth time. It is a great book, I wish there were more books like it. I love that type of sci-fi stuff that makes you wish you were there. Or makes me wish I was there. I need some new reading material.

Cali in....3 days? I am so nervous.

June 27, 2005

Mrs. C, Mr. S and My toe

We went to Mrs. C's house down the street to pick up a bunch of hanging plants and random other things because she's moving.

Mr. Sanders is sanding my room's ceilings now, and we took all the furniture out so there would be less dust to clean up. My tall dresser was blocking the door to this room. Squeeze squeeze squeeze! It's a Rapier thing. (a photographer.....he says that to make you get closer in a picture....whatever)

My toe is still a mass of purple-pain.

I did a bunch of yard work yesterday, and I'm pleased with how the front yard looks. I still need to water it a bit and power wash the side walk. And rearrange the flowers around the mailbox because the petunias are looking dry and the zinnias have gotten huge on one side.

My upper abs hurt. I strained and strained them with our cool roller wheel thing. It's like doing a combo of pushups and balancing exercises. I can only do about 12 at a time.

Um, well, yeah, that's all.

6 days till Cali!

June 24, 2005

Shkiny marink a dink a dink a sckiny marink a doo!

Let's see. What's new in my life?

I think I broke my pinkie toe.

I was jogging to the water spigot to turn the hose off (which I was using because the washing machine was spewing water all over and we had to use the shop vac to clean it up, and I had to clean the vac up) and I totally hooked my toe on the concrete slab that the AC sits on. I always do that. I think I must walk funny because I am always hooking my pinkie toes on random pieces of furniture: the couch, the recliner, the doorway, the concrete slab, etc.  Perhaps this explains why my toes are so deformed looking. So yeah, my toe is no purple.

Mr. Sanders, the guy we regularly hire to do random handyman-like jobs, has been working on our ceilings for the past 3 days. We had blown ceilings. Now they are smooth and white. He had to take the pebbles down, paint, and then sand. So far all the rooms are finished except mine and my brothers: He has to sand ours.

No more bookstore work for awhile. I think that's a good thing.

I felt really crappy because we had band practice today and I was a few minutes late. I was late because Catherine, with whom I ride, doesn't get off work until 5, and then she had to eat dinner, so I cut it short by a few minutes. I hate the way certain band members act, in my opinion, very hoity toity that some people don't arrive 15 minutes early to practice as they do. I can understand simply reminding everyone to arrive on time. One of the same people who was getting on my nerves for that was making excuses for friends during leadership camp who, for also unstoppable reasons, couldn't even show up. At least I was there.

But I have no reason to really complain. I was in fact late, but I guess that doesn't stop the harsh feelings I have.

I also feel like kicking myself every time I think of last weekend.

Canoeing trip, right? Wrong. It's this weekend. So Beau travels to far away CCS to come to the canoeing trip which wasn't happening, and then later shows up for youth group, which also doesn't happen. Man oh man. Do I feel horrible.

June 23, 2005

The usual fun and excitement

Yesterday my sister Marian and her family came into town. Mia and Emily are getting so big. I'm glad that they're here. (and glad that the AC is finally fixed.)

Tomorrow I'm going canoeing with my youth group. Beau's coming too, so it should be great fun.

12 days till Cali!

June 18, 2005

Hot as a mother chucker

The AC is broken---there's a problem with the relay in the outside unit....so it's my job to stay home from work and wait for the AC man to come fix it. Oh God. The AC man was supposed to be here at 1....it's 2 now....it's the hottest part of the day. The temp is about 92 with 100% humidity. It's the same temp in here as it is outside, except that there's no air stirring in here but outside there's an occasional breeze.

I'm turning the AC down to about 50 to make up for lost time....that is, if the AC man every gets here. My regiment to keep from overhearing:

-Stand in front of the little fans we have running

-Stand outside and hope for a breeze.

-Open the freezer.

-Open the fridge.

-Repeat.

Ahhhhh my shirt is sticking to me and my hair is crazy-frizzy. Ok, anyway. *think happy thoughts*

Do I detect rain? Holy moly! Maybe we can open all the windows and catch a summer's cool rain.

I would take a trip to the neighborhood pool if it weren't for the fact that I have to stay here and wait for the AC man. C'mon, AC man! You're my hero!

I changed the background song AGAIN. I like so many songs and I want to pick the best. I think I'm going to upload about a dozen songs and have a little song menu at the bottom. This song is Kyle's "happy song." Other than that, I don't know the real name of it. This site's band theme? The Format.

June 14, 2005

Yay

Went to youth group last night.....Christina brought her pug. I hate that dog. That is the dumbest dog I have ever met.

I'm off to Cali in 17 days!! Christina (my sister) has been telling me about some things she wants to do with me, one of which is horseback riding. I can't wait!

June 13, 2005

Summa-time

Summer is finally here, what will I do with myself?

Drum major try-outs were today and I did terribly.

May 27, 2005

RIP

Ricky died yesterday at about 2:00 in the afternoon. God rest his soul.

May 26, 2005

Boooooom

Ricky's in ICU, I have my first exam tomorrow (Bio--I got in it in the bag) and I am going on a diet/exercise program.

May 23, 3005

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