blast from the past

I had a very pleasant surprise a couple days ago - I got an email out of the blue from a long lost friend. Well, he was more of a friend of Lance's to be technical about it, but I'd consider him one of mine too. He's all grow-ed up now and even a father. Its funny to remember back to those years when we hung out, it seems like a lifetime ago. Makes me think about some of the others I hung out with back then and wonder what they are up to. Only a couple of them have withstood the test of time and are still really close friends, unfortunately so many have moved away and we've lost touch. Whenever we start to reminisce and talk about 'back then' I can't help but remember Lori, the cat, and the cupboard. That is a story I will always remember and chuckle at...ahhh, Lori :)

On the school front, I have another test coming up on Tuesday. This weekend will be all about studing, woohoo. Freaking trig, it is almost over though. I just keep thinking of it in baby steps. They've released the schedules for Summer and Fall already, so I'm browsing and thinking of my upcoming classes. My goal is to obviously get this degree done and out of the way as quickly as possible, but I keep getting distracted by all those interesting courses that I would love to take yet have nothing to do with my chosen path.

Now on to the kitties that have lately been referred to as 'those cats'. The gray one is just continually naughty. To his credit, he hasn't eaten any fish since the Betta incident of '07. He has started a new little habit though...he's always had this weird fascination with water. I've always thought cats hated anything to do with water, unless it was in their designated kitty water bowl. This one however, comes running anytime he hears you turn on a faucet! His new habit is following me into the bathroom, jumping up into the sink, and staring at me until I turn the faucet on for him. Once the water starts running, he is happy as a clam - drinking out of it, batting at it, trying to catch it. Then, after a couple minutes of this, he'll stare at me again but with an added purr. I flip the drain plug (because that's what he's trained me to do) and he proceeds to splash in the little puddle. He'll let out another purr-meow when the puddle has reached a sufficient size and I turn off the water and let him have his fun in the sink.

The black one we now know is the official sock stealer. I had blamed Henry for the longest time because it seemed the logical choice. But it is George. We still wake up to socks scattered around the house, and come home to more socks scattered around. I have caught George in the act finally. One night I was sitting up in the den on the computer when I heard George meowing and crying like they do when they've caught a mouse. I went downstairs to see what he had, and it turns out he'd caught a sock. He was circling it and meowing at it. What is especially odd about this is that George leaves Lance's socks completely alone - he only goes after mine! Another thing I always thought about cats was that they were color blind. But George makes me think otherwise because my socks are mostly polka-dotted, striped, argyle, super fun colors and that seems to be what draws him to them. The few brown or black socks that I do have are never brought up from the basement as kill. He must take his time browsing through the laundry basket for just the right sock, lol.

These cats are by far the strangest cats I have ever had...

I did good!

I meant to write about this as soon as it happened, but I get distracted. I had my first test in my Algebra course this last week. I studied and studied and even recruited some assistance using my calculator from one of those teenagers. I was certain it was broken as I had entered in what I was supposed to but each time I hit that stupid 'graph' button I would get an error. 5 seconds in the hands of Callie and waalaa, there's my graph. Turns out it wasn't broken at all, I had just inadvertently entered some weird numbers on a different screen. Calculators these days are advanced...

Anyway, I got an 86% on my test - woohoo! I felt I had done pretty well, knew there were a couple questions I was confused on, but overall felt good. Only 4 more tests to go, hopefully I can keep it up. I've got this math course to finish and then the next one to check off is Calculus. I can then consider my relationship with math over.

Van Halen IS cool!

I've always heard my husband say this and go on and on about Eddie Van Halen being the shit on guitar, but it was one of those things that went in one ear and out the other. I just was never much of a fan, sure I knew the main songs - but I was a bit under the curve for when they were popular. Lance though, was a teen and I can picture him doing the air guitar thing...

Anyway, through no fault of my own, I ended up at the concert. We had great seats, on the floor, right up front - like I've told others, I could see their sweat!! The weather here was awful and 2 friends that had planned to go with him couldn't, so diddly do and I stepped up and went instead. It was really kinda funny, she and I had just been saying the weekend before that neither of us really liked them and so were just fine not going along. I have to admit though, I'm totally glad I got Russ's seat - they rocked! I was way surprised at how great they sounded. The drummer dude was pretty freaky looking, but both Eddie and David looked awesome and they were both into going shirtless. I found myself watching David Lee Roth thinking, wow, Teri went to the VMAs with him....that's so cool! And I can totally picture it :) Our friend Teri mentioned that awhile ago like it was no big deal and so I didn't really think it was. But after having seen them, I'm thinking I need to ask her some more details about that.

So, moral here is - turns out everyone was right, they rock!

lyrics that I just spit out cracker to

I was just working away, doing some strange formatting in Excel, munching on a cracker when a Tom Waits song came on. (not unusual considering my obsession) I had to stop for a minute and listen, I then spit out a little cracker....its that funny!

Thanks, uh... You know uh, this is weird uh...
Most of us have dogs, allright? (applause)
I don't know if it's a local thing where I live, or if it's everywhere, and I'm checking it with you because uh, I don't get in the area that often and I'm just checking to see if...
There's a new kind of a dog treat. And uh (where I live) and they're available in the pet store and for the longest time I just thought that it was some kind of a prank. Or uh...
I wasn't really sure what it was, until I read the label on the back and it said "Bull Penis" (laughter).
I was a little shocked! I know you can get just about ANYTHING in this world.
You can get a whale's pancreas if you'd want one! I can get you one! (laughter)
But com'on, a bull's penis! How busy they were their whole lives.
And they throw it to a dog, like that, for a snack! (laughter)
Now, are they available here in the Los Angeles area? They are, aren't they?
Doesn't that make you a little weazy?
Makes you wanna live a long time.
And on the back, on the bottom it said: "100% natural"!
I mean... that's the part that really got me. And it said: "A Real Meat Snack".
There's just no dignity in that. Uh, anyway...
The other thing is that they're 36 inches long! (laughter).
They're so long they had to cut them into bite-size portions.
And then they take two of them and braid them together.
I know, I know! I never want it done. But uh...
This is a song written for Gregory Peck for his dating my mom...
That's a lie!

**this is a live recording of Dog Treat

College take two

College as a 'grown up' is WAY different than college as a teenager. Since I'm working at a University now, I may as well go ahead and finish my degree so that's what I'm doing. I started with a couple courses that were just web-based, so no actual going to class, rather just doing the work and turning it in online. This semester was my first back in the classroom class. Its an advanced algebra/trig and since I haven't had any math class in like 15 years, whoa. I look to be the only non-traditional student in my class, and that's okay. In fact, one of my new friends thought I was one of them and was surprised to hear I wasn't! That's pretty cool, lol.

Now I know one of the reasons why I partied so hard and well as a kid in college - it was to escape the crazy difficultness of school work! One day after a mind-numbing lecture session and feeling like I didn't know what the heck the professor was talking about, I was driving home thinking...I wanna do shots. I'm pretty sure I haven't done shots since before I got married and I'm pretty sure I couldn't handle a night out like I used to. So, I'll just have to buck up and go through school sober this time :)

It is funny though, talking with these teenagers - priorities are so different for them and listening to what boy didn't call, which party to go to that night, and what is THE best outfit to wear just makes me laugh inside. It makes me remember back to when I was a teenager with all the angst and the drama and holy cow, I'm so glad of where I am now. College was alot of fun for me, but I like my life now much more. Call me old, but I like having a husband, a house, responsibilities, being in jammies after suppertime.. In fact, I have it made - I come home after a day of work and then school and Lance has got supper ready for me, couldn't ask for more!

Franklin's manhood

Franklin is no longer a boy...he got THE surgery yesterday. As a mastiff, it is better to wait until they are full grown before having the neuter done unlike all the other dog breeds. At 15 months and ~190lbs we figure he ought to be full grown, so in he went. I was, of course, nervous and had to have Lance drop him off because I always hate saying goodbye and leaving him at the vet even though I know they love him there. His surgery was scheduled for 9am and about 11am I got a call telling me everything had gone just fine and he was waking up, doing well. The woman was very kind on the phone and talked about how very sweet he was and that because he is so big, they didn't have any crates to hold him! So they put him in an exam room with the door open and a baby gate so he could see everything. I neglected to tell her he eats baby gates....

A few hours later I got another call from the vet. This time she was giggling and said that Franklin was snoring, snoring so loud that the entire building could hear him. She held the phone out for me to hear, and yep, he was snoring. I had to chuckle and tell her that yep, he snores...he snores loud. In fact, the more comfy he gets, the louder he snores. So I can only imagine how 'comfy' he is being drugged up!!

He got the pampered treatment while he was there, I have no doubt. Who doesn't like a person-sized, snoring, drooling dog?? They also told me that for his overnight stay he was going to get one of the spa-rooms in the resort section, again because the vet-side didn't have large enough crates for him. So he got to spend the night in a big bedroom with a heated floor, tv, snuggy bed and window. Yes, he is spoiled.

I think Eleanor wasn't overly concerned about where Franklin had gone last night. She did seem to look for him a couple times, but for the most part I think she was happy to see it was back to just her. She got special alone time with us like before he came along, wonder what she'll think tonight when he comes back home. LOL

First time caucusing

I've never been one to be overly involved in politics. But since we live in Iowa and Iowa is all about a caucus we both decided we would participate this year. What an experience! I was completely surprised by the turnout, the school library we were all crowded into was just packed. Two hours later and all the vote counts were final and we got what we wanted, Obama way in front of the Hillary. It was really something to be a part of it and to see everyone show their support for who they truly believed in. I surprised myself by flipping on the news as soon as we got home to watch the rest of the results roll in.

Go Obama! :)