A Spectrum

Check out these and others here

OK, I only picked out the weird ones. Try not to think less of me. And I love my friends and hope you think this funny and not embarassing.

To B and L from A:

Hi Buds! Happy Birthday to me. Today is my Birthday and I'm 15 yrs old! OH, I guess you already knew that. Duh to me...Guess what! I saw P in the Mall on Saturday about 4:45. (Right before me and K went to se Mr. Hollands Opus). He asked me why I wasn't with you guys. At first I thought that you all went and did something without me. Then I remembered that you were at the contest. Stupid P! Hello!.....I am scared of tornadoes...

To P from L: P, My mom saw this arm wrestling contest at the Town Tavern and asked me if I wanted to enter since I beat 3 guys. Want to come + watch?

To L from B and V: 10 Things V & B like about L 1. Very, very loyal 2. Beatles and Star Wars bud 3. Cuddly + loveable 4. Good Hugs 5. cool buffalo! 6. Manages to juggle a million things at once 7. Doesn't make fun of us for our bad singing, even though she has a fab voice 8. Great Smile 9. Movie Lover! 10. Knows the Lord (we saved the best for last!) Love, n hugs, B + V

To B and L from V: Dear B + L, (but not T) I miss you so much! My life in Spanish Will never be the same again. I am counting the seconds between our next meeting at lunch with vehemence (Not only 'cuz' I miss you but because I want food)...

To L from V: L, Wow 5 min. of silence God has heard my prayer. Everyone has been so loud in typing to day we are being punished...Some of the people in here are so annoying! B knows who. Yuck theres a combo of gum + corrections tape in my locker. eww...Bye Bye Fry Guy, V

Random scrap of paper: L- A person who doesn't wear shoes on his feet does not get corns + a person who wears shoes does not have dirty feet so all you people wear one shoe (Like this quote, V?) V- As long as there's not snow on the ground! L- That's true! Tell Ashley to ask God to do it for her. V- Okay, Ashley ask God to do it for her.

To B from L: Hey B, You are to weird you were cracking up in Biology. Right now you are flirting with JF. I sure hope not. Say it's not so! Good! P's mad. Oh well. He thinks I'm going to do something really bad to get revenge on him. We'll have to think of something good. Pretty boring over here. Test was pretty easy. Brandon looked some of them up for us. Everybody over here is nice. Erin gave me 2 gobstoppers + Becca gave me a piece of gum. Then Brandon gives me answers...Bye, L

To L from B and A: Dear L, B- We're at the Super Siter thing. It's lunch time. A-I never wrote a letter to you on a satruday before....B- Miss Holmes intitials are MH same as Mental Hospital. Coincidence I think not....

Tom, if it is possible, takes worse pictures than me. They are all blurry. Anyway, here are all my high school friends and their kiddies at Carolyn's 2nd birthday celebration. Back row: Me (with no kiddie), Brandy and Bethany, Becca and Jaydon.
Front Row: Angie and Trevor, Becca's two big kids, Micah and Chloe, and then Val and Carolyn, the birthday girl. Hopefully, one of my friends got a better picture than we did and will share although Tom took Brandy's pictures too. Sorry Brandy. Anyway, we had a blast. Even though, Tom fell asleep at one point, we still had a blast. Family updates, baby talk, reminiscing about high school, yellow legs, Steph's hair, Pierre the dummy, etc.

Anyway, we left around 11:15, took Becca and Jaydon home, grabbed a couple of things at my parents and headed home. Tom was driving. He was tired but we stopped at a rest stop on 74 so I could drive. Less than two minutes after I started driving, I get pulled over. Only, the 2nd time ever and on the same road too. Last time they "said" I was going 81 in a 65, but I know I wasn't going over 71. I didn't know at that time you could ask to see the radar gun, anyway, I just got a warning. This time, I knew I wasn't going too fast, at the most 70. They clocked me going 68, seriously, 68???? The cop was definately new, because he was more nervous than I was. I wasn't really that nervous because I knew I hadn't done anything. I usually get more nervous when I just pass a cop than I was last night. I was suprised at how relaxed I was. Apparently, they had been following us for a while, they said we were swerving a little and that it was "suspicious" that we only stopped for a short time at the rest stop. If Tom was swerving, it wasn't very much because I know we didn't hit the rumble strip. Anyway, Tom says I saved him from a ticket since they pulled me over instead of him. ;) Whatever, so a one hour drive took over two and we didn't get home until like 1:20 a.m. and then Tom had to get up 3.5 hours later and go to work. Poor husband.

The crazy ice storm this weekend knocked out our power for about 10 hours and our cable (TV and Internet) for 3 days. It stunk not have TV and internet over the weekend. I felt lost and blind and I missed the Oscars, but I heard they were boring so no loss really. Just outside on our road heading out of town there are about two dozen poles down. The road is closed. I will see if I can get a picture tomorrow. Grr. But on the bright side I am no longer unemployed. I have a temporary job back at NIU but that doesn't start until the middle of March. Right about the time we will probably be moving, good timing huh.

I really didn't think I was actually going to write this post, but then I discovered two brand new episodes today. I was quite excited, but I am unemployed and have nothing else to be excited about. A hilarious show, quite crude sometimes, but full of lovable, idiotic characters. It started in 1994 and the two episodes I just found were aired this past Christmas. However, there aren't 13 seasons of episodes out there. There are relatively few actually. I don't understand British television. Anyway, the show focuses on a female Vicar, Geraldine Granger, and her parishioners in a small country village. A great mix of religion, goofiness, and crudeness (maybe it's a British thing). The show's signature is the joke at the end of each episode (see example below, ok it took me hours to get that to come up, argh). This one is fairly tame, but mostly it is how the character of Alice reacts to the joke.

In addition, there is a new show slated for the fall season on Fox that is based on The Vicar of Dibley. It will be called The Minister of Divine and will star Kristie Alley, but I don't see how they can even come close to the original.

Isn't rather odd that both Lost and Grey's Anatomy have a Dr. Shepherd and a Dr. Burke? Lost has Jack Shepherd and Juliet Burke, while Grey's has Derek Shepherd and Preston Burke. Spoiler Alert: By the way, they totally can not kill off Meredith. The show is named after her. Although, I did enjoy Denny's and Dylan, the bomb guy's, reappearances.

I have found a new love. And soon my love will be over, well, not really over. But there is only one more disk of unseen episodes that Blockbuster can send me, and then no more.

Firefly is...well..odd, but wonderfully odd. It is a space western, which I think is what doomed it to only one season. I don't even recall seeing advertising for it, but it was apparently on when I was planning my wedding so... Anyway, what is great about it is the writing. I am a huge fan of excellent writing. Plus, the characters, I love interesting characters. So the backgroud is secondary, a show could be about baggage handlers in the year 2100, but if it has good writing, I would probably like it. (Unfortuately, they tried this, seriously, Matthew Perry was signed to this show, LAX 2100, and was almost prevented from doing Friends because of it).

The other intersting thing about this show is that the fans it did happen gather when it was on were so adament about the show, the creator made a feature film, Serenity (2005). I watched this before I watched the series. The movie is good but the series is better. And even now, almost four years after the series was on, there are still fans trying to get the show back or have another film made. Another cool thing, is that they show the series now on the SciFi channel and Firefly has now become the highest rated show ever on SciFi.

Anyway, if you haven't seen it, I recommend it. I beleive my next post will be I love The Vicar of Dibley. ;)

If I get a house,... No, no.... When I get a house, the first thing I am going to buy, furniture-wise, is a new couch. Right now, if you sit in the middle of our couch and someone else sits on either end, you are about two feet lower than them. I swear. It's ridiculous. And if you try to sit on one of the ends, it's impossible to stay there. You automatically get pulled to the vortex of terror which is the middle. My brother would call it "the Glacier Effect" as he once had a mattress with the same peculiar properties. Alas, no house, no couch, no comfort... yet.

Upcoming Movies:

Fanboys (August 2007): Four extreme "Star Wars" fans and childhood friends from the Midwest drive across America to Skywalker Ranch in order to sneak a peak at the yet unreleased "Episode 1: Phantom Menace" as one last hoorah for their dying friend. Along the way they run afoul at a Star Trek convention and have it out with the Trekkies.

OK, can this movie be anything but perfect? ;) Score, I just found the trailer as I was writing this. I seriously cried during it, because it's funny not because it's sad. Well, maybe it's a little sad.



This makes me think back to when I saw Phantom Menace for the first time. It was at the Sandburg Mall theater in Galesburg, IL. It was the midnight showing May 18, 1999. I was about to graduate high school. I remember waiting outside the theater. I think we got there around 10:30. It was myself, Tom, my brother, and my dad. I blame 8th grade Kyle for why dad had to come. ;) Nah, it wasn't bad. Plus, my friend Brandy and her 8th grade sister, Amanda. (I think she came). Also, other Star Wars geeks from school including Justin Funk, Eli and Justin Boone, that I remember. It seemed like we took up a whole row ourselves. I remember the local radio station was there and there were a few people dressed up. But, upon subsequent midnight showings, this one was rather tame or lame, take your pick. I have found that I really enjoy going to midnight or first showing because those audiences always react the best and get all the jokes and connections. I often find myself thinking in later showings "why aren't these audiences laughing in all the right places?!?" I saw Phantom Menace 3 times in total. At one showing, Tom and I afterwards got silly stringed and so did the poor old people getting in the car next to us. We still owe Brandy, Val, and Phil for that. Watch out. Later, I saw both Episodes 2 and 3 at midnight showings and at least 3 times. Episode 2 was even with Tom, my brother, Brandy and Shane at this point, and Amanda (I think, again). Episode 3, I know I saw with my friends Tina and Rachel, and Tom. I remember at this showing the people in front of us brought a laptop and were watching the previous movies on it. Ok, that's enough Star Wars nostalgia for now.

I encourage everyone reading this to go out and rent this movie. I have seen much of this information presented before, however, the movie presents it for the layman. Nothing too overly scientific here. An excellent discussion of what they call "a climate crisis." I tend to agree. Please click on the widget in the right hand content and pledge to see this movie.

I know a politician, Al Gore, made this movie. I tend to despise politics and try to stay away. However, this issue is not really political, it extends way beyond that. You owe it to yourself and your children to see this movie. Ohh, I sound so radical. ;)

courtesy of my brother

The high pitch whirring of the drill. The puff of dust emanating from my mouth with pieces of my teeth now floating about in the air. The right side of my face is drooping and I giggle with my half smile. Such was my trip to the dentist.

I have been quite anxious about this trip recalling my last and only cavity. It was the worse pain I have experienced. Now, not having undergone the miracle of childbirth yet, I won't presume to go on about the pain I experienced. Suffice it to say, I was not looking forward to today. However, it was not bad at all really. I barely felt a thing.

I am now supremely convinced that my previous dentist has never heard of a little thing called Novocaine. God bless it. And God Bless Epidurals. Amen.

Super Bowl XLI, here we come. Sweet.

My in-laws, Tom, and I went to the show last Saturday. It exceeded my expectations. It was an excellent production, a good mix of dancing, talking, video, a local dance competition, Joey McIntyre wearing John Deere suspenders, Joey McIntyre singing. Plus, the music was LIVE, oh that makes a huge difference. The only taped music they used was for the local competition pre-show. The stars danced some, the professionals danced some. They did some dance numbers from the show plus new ones. There were group dances and pair dances. From our seats we could see everything suprisingly well. It was so fun to see the dances that I remember from the TV show, Lisa Rinna's Jive, Joey Lawrence and Edyta dancing to Singing in the Rain, Drew Lachey and Cheryl Burke's Paso Doble to Thriller, and of course Drew and Cheryl's Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy free dance. That was awesome to see. What a fun night.

This is great!

NASA, in a housecleaning exercise, threw out their plans for the Saturn 5 rocket, the one that sent humans to the moon.

Courtney Cox was in the movie Masters of the Universe starring He-man.

The Chicago Bears started out as the Decatur Stanleys.

Gravity is actually the warping of spacetime.

Thomas Midgley, who invented tetra-ethyl lead which was added to gasoline and employed in various other ways but because of the toxicity of lead was eventually largely discontinued, also invented cloroflouocarbons (CFC's), those pesky things that punched a hole in the ozone layer. Two for two.

How cool does this look? Check it out.

Your results:
You are Superman

Superman 75% Spider-Man 65% Robin 60% Supergirl 57% Hulk 50% Wonder Woman 47% The Flash 45% Green Lantern 45% Catwoman 35% Iron Man 30% Batman 20%

You are mild-mannered, good, strong and you love to help others.

Went to my friends house to visit. Her son Micah could not quite get my name right, so he called me Dory. Her son Micah could not quite get my name right, so he called me Dory. Hmm, seems to fit.

A new study out claims left-handers tend to think quicker than right-handers because they have better connections between their two brain hemispheres. Thus they tend to do better at computer games and sports.

Well I don't know about the sports thing. Although I was always amazed at how well I could catch fly balls in softball given that I have horrible depth perception because of my crazy eyes. (They're crossed by the way).

However the computer game thing I can attest to. My whole family is left-handed, with writing at least. And if you ever watch my brother, my mom, and I play Jeopardy on the computer, it gets dangerous. ;)

Yet the most dangerous game in our house has to be spoons. One of my mom's kitchen tables met its doom during a game of spoons. Even with plastic spoons its dangerours, they tend to have better aerodynamics than metal spoons. Use your imagination.

I have been to two weddings recently, one was my second cousin's and the other my oldest friend's. Oddly enough they were both in Iowa. My oldest friend was married in Des Moines at the Botanical Garden which made for a lovely evening wedding. It was great to see her. I rarely get to. My second cousin was married in Bettendorf but the highlight of her wedding was that they had all their special dances choregraphed. It was so cute. Plus the bride and groom danced to the same song Tom and I did at our wedding. Good times.

Given that they were both evening weddings with receptions in dark halls, my wedding picture curse lives on. I didn't even get one of my second cousin and her groom but they did give us as our favor a CD with Christmas songs. Very unique.

Arr, maties! Well, not really. I took my Mom to the see the new Broadway musical The Pirate Queen in it's World Premiere run at the Cadillac Palace in Chicago. Basically, they test it out somewhere to work out the kinks before it goes to Broadway. It was really good. It follows the story of Grace O'Malley, an Irish "pirate" and cheiftan. It was created by the same gentlemen that produced Les Miserables and Miss Siagon with the Irish dance team behind Riverdance. The music was great. There wasn't really any stand out song, maybe one love song. It was also really hard to understand them when they were singing. I hate that. I don't if it was the sound or if that's just the nature of the beast. The scenery was great, though, and the dancing. I've never been a big fan of that kind of dancing, maybe because I never really seen it live. (Remember, it scares the bejebees out of Chandlier, "His legs flail about as if independent from his body." Well, Michael Flatley anyway). However, I almost wish there was more of the dancing. It kind of came in spurts. But the story was excellent and based upon a true one apparently, kind of cool. Plus, they sing a couple of times in Gaelic. It would be so awesome to learn an almost dead language like that.

Also, in the tradition of Lauren's Tidbits over on my other Blog (Check it out), here's my random connection to the musical. The actress who played Grace O'Malley, Stephanie J. Block, starred opposite Hugh Jackman in the musical The Boy from Oz. It was directed by one of my Dad's High School classmates whose Mom lives next to my Grandparents and she and my Grandma helped me learn how to knit. Random.

My favorite fall festivity, the Spoon River Drive, was the first two weekends in October. It was so nice that I went twice (well, technically, three times, but that didn't rhyme). The first weekend was planned. Trisha came down with me that time. My Mom, myself, Trisha, and one of my Mom's teacher friends, went to London Mills and Farmington. I didn't bring any money because I told myself I wasn't going to buy anything. I think I spent more money than I haven ever spent before. ;) Grr. But I did get this really cool chest of drawers that I am going to use to hold my piano music (someday, when I have a house or more than my current two rooms). Because I bought this on Saturday, Mom and I went back to pick it up on Sunday. Then Tom and I came back the next weekend and Mom and I were bored after church and went back again, mainly for the food. Plus, it was less crowded.

Trisha and I got in the Hot Tub Friday night of the first weekend. It was so relaxing. However, a coyote started howling at one point and she didn't believe me that it was a coyote. Then Saturday night we went to the Rodeffer's and played this crazy strategy game. It was like Age of Empires in board game form. I should find out what that's called. I bet Kyle would like it and subsequently, kick my butt at it.

That second weekend we also celebrated my mom's birthday. We went to Club 41, man, I miss those onion rings. My dad got her a pony, a red 1967 Mustang. Lucky duck. My present is dicussed in Part 3.

Ah, here we are at last. My life update post.

My Grandma Beryle passed away on Septemeber 13. I have no idea how to follow that. I was in DeKalb away from Tom that Wednesday. That sucked. It was a long weekend. It was good to see all the family. Most I hadn't seen in quite a long time, so long that I don't think I could have told you who half of them were. I hadn't seen Kyle since Memorial Day, somehow I knew who he was. I even learned something. My Grandpa would pick my Grandma up in his airplane for their dates. How fun.

Things I've been thinking about that are totally Grandma and Grandpa:

*Hello, Buffalo
*Sewing with Grandma, yet I totally can't sew
*Spaghetti should be served with Pepsi
*Rotary phones are fun
*Golf Carts. Never let Kyle drive the golf cart. He ran over my mom's flowers, hit a huge willow tree, and backed into the gas pump. However, he always counters with the fact that I ran over the dog. Which I counter with I was on the road, the dog ran in front of the cart, and I was sitting on Grandpa's lap.
*My broken elbow, I fell onto an upturned stool that my Grandpa used to carry me around on
*Plane rides
*Waiting for Kyle to be born. I wanted to name him Mark.
*7 point pitch, I think Kyle and I annoyed the heck out of my Grandparent's friends.
*The gravestone in the basement, seriously
*The pump organ
*Ground level squirrel nests
*Playing school and Barbies, I so ruined collector's Barbies
*Mr. Rodgers
*The car fire
*Huge family get togethers with music,accordians, and chiclets
*Sunday school
*Pinning a glass of water to the ceiling
*Slide shows
*Lutefisk, icky

OH MY GOSH! I love 'em. They sooo should not have won that game. Zero offensive scores for Rex Grossman, Arizona Quarterback Matt Lienart did everything right and then Rackers blew the field goal that would have won it for them. CRAZY!!!! It's 11:17 and I am so not tired.

Now if only Northern would get their act together, my football universe would be complete.

Here's the baby blanket I made for my friend Erin. As you can see it turned out rather big for a baby blanket. Oh well. I love the colors.

I had only ever seen the last 42 seconds of this before. It's much better with the last five minutes. Great football fun.

The marching band refused to yield...

Maybe someday I'll write this post...

This is no ordinary tornado. This is a fire tornado. They are created when extreme heat from the fire causes such a strong updraft that the wind replacing the air at the surface creates a tornado. How awesome.

(This photo was taken by a L.A. newspaper photographer covering the wildfires).

After lunch yesterday, I witnessed a volcano. Well, a demonstration of the power of a volcano using liquid nitrogen. Hee, hee, explosions. Anyway, a geology class was getting the demostration, so I watched from the sidelines. It sounded like a gunshot and then shot this pink colored water about 30 feet in the air. I can only imagine that is was pink because they were trying to make it look like lava. I don't know. Crazy geoolgists.

Well, here are a couple pictures of our messy/slowly but surely getting organized apartment.

Front door to living room/kitchen to hall with bathroom to bedroom. Very basic.

Complete with unfinished puzzle on our table, freshly made rice krispie treats on the counter, and Tom lazing about on the couch.

Home sweet home for 5.5 months, give or take.

Friday was a great day. A Mexican Chipotle restaurant just opened and gave away free burritos and soft drinks all day. My co-worker Rick and I walked over there and only waited about a half hour which I think is pretty good considering it's a college town. The burrito was huge and yummy. Also, a new Marathon gas station opened up and started having a price war with the BP across the street. So I filled up for $2.27 a gallon before driving back to Iowa to see Tom.

Free lunch - $0, Cheap gas - $2.27/gallon, Getting to see my husband - priceless.

Well, we are all squeezed in to our tiny apartment. There's still lots to unload though and I am not there to do it, so guess what? Big suprise, it probably won't get done. Out of the entire day today, Tom informed me that he unpacked some clothes. Hmm, a little too much time watching our new crazy cable tv package. Darn, Mediacom for giving us so much crap for free. I really enjoyed having just bare minimum cable...Honestly, network tv is fine for me. Of course, that's as long as I have movies to watch. Anyway, rambling...

The community we live is so cute and so much more affordable. It makes me not want to move again, but I seriously doubt that is in the cards. Hopefully I will have some pictures next week but it was raining a lot and there are boxes everywhere.

I also got real excited about the possibility of seeing my Huskies play the University of Iowa in October since I would be fairly close, but alas one of my oldest friends is getting married that day in Des Moines. Darn it, Breanne, why can't you schedule your wedding around my football needs? ;)

Still no word on when Tom starts his job. There is some stupid hold up with the physical they made him get. Really, who cares about the fact that he hurt his back in 8th grade. C'mon. The poor people in Galesburg are trying to find his old records. Dumb. Hopefully, they'll figure it out soon, he is really antsy.

All the college kids are back to school here. I liked it so much better when the lab was quiet and free of weird people. I swear I have been like a beacon to strange people lately with no sense of proper social boundaries. Plus, my friend Katie is leaving Thursday. It's going to be a long month. No one to take me golfing anymore on our lunch breaks. Ok, we really only went once. But we took a two hour lunch break and only got in three holes. How sad are we. I think I shot a 20 and lost 2 balls. ;)

Logging out of Day 1 of being a transient.

Aliens in Geneseo? How Bizzare.

Hmm.... I really don't have anything profound to say. Let's see, I am quater of a century old...eh, been done.

Actually, today has been kind of blah and closer to a bad day than a good one. I am alone. Tom is a school/work until 6 and Trisha is at home getting ready for her sister's wedding tommorow. We still have no place to live and no jobs, but I might get to keep my current job a little longer... (*weak* yeah). Ach, poor sad Lauren... I need to just get a grip.

Let's see happy things...
I get to eat sweet corn tonight and Japanese tomorrow (JMK Nippon in Rockford)

ASIDE Tom has never been to JMK Nippon. I am not sure how that is possible as I have been at least 4 times. Ach, poor sad Tom... oh, not again ASIDE ENDED

Tom might let me open my present tonight. I think I know what it is but it's been killing me because it has been sitting in the hall for a few days in the box it was delivered in. He couldn't even hide it for a while. No, just let it sit out and torture me...

I have gotten a few phone calls today. That's been cool. The only people who ever call me are Tom ,at least once a day, and my parents every once in a while.

My piano... I love my piano. It so nice to have one after six years of not having one in my living space. I am attempting songs I would never have dreamed of attempting before. I can mostly play Clair de Lune now and I am working on Beethoven's Sonata Pathetique 1st Movement which is very hard, but I love.

Well, I think I will go play me some piano, video games and maybe watch the rest of Tristan and Isolde. Happy Bday to me.

In 21 days we have no place to live and no income...
the first image that comes to mind is the chickens panicking in Chicken Run!

(Also, why does panic become panicking, instead of paniccing? Crazy English language.)

Well, the pretzel is on the floor right now. I am not sure if someone will pick it up or step on it and smash it to smithereens.

What is happening on Garfield? Jon Arbuckle gets a kiss. I supposed after 20 years it's about freaking time!!!

Apparently, Eva Longoria. I don't know if that makes much sense. It also listed Shirley Temple, that I can buy. But that's what I get for having no decent pictures of me and taking one this morning when I am barely awake. Check out who else I look like. Very interesting.

Here is a prime example. This is the best picture I have of Jason and Laura from their wedding, pretty sad. Jason was really sick. What an awful time to be sick. But here's a couple more of Tom being goofy. Now these I think are good photos. However, the subject leaves something to be desired.

Check out these ten private islands for sale. I personally like #9, a private island on the beautiful Kankakee River. !?! Are you serious? Why would anyone find that glamourous?

This week I was questioned by a federal investigator from the Department of Defense. Scary.

My cryptic statement of the day...

I may soon become a Pretzel.

I went to Lake Geneva, WI with my mom this past weekend. Very fun, relaxing. No crazy stories to report besides getting lost a few times. I did get my very first pedicure and massage at the resort's spa. They were lovely, except the horrible bed at the resort pretty much negated the relaxing effects of the massage. We went on a boat tour and learned about some of the amazing mansions on the lake. There is a ton owned by the Wrigley family. We played mini golf, and got ice cream , and went swimming. Good times.

I finally have my other blog in a form I really like. Plus, I finally have it updated. Enjoy.

Movie Mania

COMPUTER ISSUES + FULL TIME INTERNSHIP = FEW POSTS

The most random thing just happened. I ran into my mom's college roommate in the 2nd floor bathroom of my building. Somehow there's a foreign language class in Davis that she's taking for her PhD. How Bizarre.

Although, I do plan on seeing Cars the movie this weekend, this post is not about that. I had to drive Trisha's Ford Explorer to work today because our car is getting its front end fixed after Tom hit a raccoon and knocked off part of the bumper. Let me tell you, Trisha's car does not like me. It took me three times to get it started this morning. Then the engine was making this weird hissing sound so I turned it off and a little bit of smoke proceeded to come out of the hood with this lovely burnt smell. I started it up again with the hiss and took off because I needed to go. Then at the first stop sign I come to I notice that while I am stopped the engine starts revving every 2 seconds and the volt gauge goes wacko. It was a fun drive. Then on the way back, it pretty much did the same thing. So when Tom comes home he takes a look and finds that SIX separate hoses have come off. He raves about how this is not possible and that someone is sabotaging her car. I am not sure how I even made it to work and back. Apparently these six hoses aren't entirely crucial but they do mess with the fuel pressure. He was able to put all but one back on (somehow we can't find the last one!). Hopefully, tomorrow will be a better drive and with any luck I won't end up in a blazing ball of fire.

Big Idea is making The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: A Veggietales Movie and Universal Pictures is distributing. It's catagorized as being in production on Universal's website and I couldn't find anything about it on Big Idea's site. The pirates are my favorite. Aye, aye Captain Crunch. Hee he he he he.

In the past week I've been over to Seth and Crissy's house twice, both times for a party.

Party Uno.
The first was last friday for Crissy's birthday. It was the most bizarre party ever. Now, granted I had a wonderful time. But let me just relay some of the events of the night. It started off normal with introductions of other attendees, talking about what they had done to the house and eating dinner. However, after dinner our entertainment consisted of throwing a tennis ball back and forth over the top of their house. It took me a few tries but I finally managed to succeed once before we inevitably lost the ball. However, our friend Samanatha was unable to throw it over but managaed to somehow throw it straight at Seth who was grilling which resulted in a large "GONG" as the tennis ball bounced of the top of the grill he was holding. It was hilarious. This game also resulted in a great quote by Seth to Jacob who at the time was trying to catch the ball after it flew over the house. "Jake, that was one step away from a frolic." (Hmm, maybe that is not as funny if it's not in person). Anyway, the next game involved throwing the balloons which were decorating the house around until they popped, I did not participate in this but it took about 20 minutes of the party. Then we were outside again playing a normal game of bags and trying to light a fire. However, the fire was lit in part using table legs so the top of the table was free to amuse us as neccessary and of course did. The guys took turns standing on it, carrying and spinning each other around. Finally, before we left we played a great game of Scene it, also fairly normal, except my team lost. Oh well. It was really close and the other team had a similar crazed movie fan like me.

Party Dos.
The second party revolved around the season finale of Lost. This party was originally going to be at our place, but they have HD so why not. Seth and Crissy hadn't been watching the show like the other eight people there, but I think they are not sufficiently hooked. It was such a great episode that answered a suprising number of questions. My favorite part was Sayhid, Jin, and Sun finding the large foot statue with four toes. Plus there were some great storms coming through during the show which added to the mood and let us run outside during the commercials to watch the amazing lightning (They live in the country). I was with other storm lovers!!! Of course, what Lost party would be complete without some Dharma Intiative Chili. Now at your local grocer.

Check out my new movie mania blog. Now under "links." It will probably go through several variations before I land somewhere. Enjoy.

A goose hissed at me the other day. During my breaks at work, I walk to the East Lagoon on Campus to enjoy the nice weather which I don't usually get to enjoy on campus normally. The lagoon is populated with ducks, geese, birds, etc. The geese families have these adorable goslings. It's so fun to watch them swim in a line with the Mom and Dad guarding the ends. But apparantly as my coworker Katie and I were walking to the island yesterday one goose thought we were a little too close to her goslings and hissed at us. It was rather funny to think that my first ever animal attack could come from a goose.



The job is going fairly well. I enjoy Davis Hall in the summer, much more relaxed. I've been named team leader which means I get to boss around the other students, all undergraduates. However, one of them has a personality that just doesn't mesh with mine and I could really use some prayer on how to respond to him. Other than that I really enjoy the work even if it is boring some of the time and I like the challenge of being the lead on the project, the creative opportunities, and that my computer is the only one with headphones. Yahoo radio is such a blessing.

My friend Jamie sent this to me. I laughed heartily. ;)

Not that you need another post to confirm I am a geek, but here it is anyway. I am one of the 10,000 finalists of The DaVinci Code Quest on Google. I finished their 24 puzzles and now am qualified to compete in the final challege where you can win some pretty awesome stuff valued at about $130,000!!! A trip for four to New York, London, Paris, and Rome, and a bunch of Sony Electronics like a laptop, a large flat screen tv, a walkman, digital camera, etc... Not that I have any chance of winning but it will be fun anyway. Plus as a finalist, I received a limited edition cryptex in the mail. (You can ooo and ahhh at my picures below). Plus, a congratualtory message from Sir Ian McKellen. Ah, Gandalf... Anyway, Make that my number two piece of free movie souveniers. My first was 3 pieces of actual film from the Lord of the Rings for going to Trilogy Tuesday. Who knows what else will I be able to obtain in the future? Mwah ha ha.

The monkeys behind Lost are some darn good typers. I am so hooked, it's ridiculous. Now they have a companion book Bad Twin(which I will read soon), a commercial for the fictional Hanso Foundation that aired during the show, plus (so far) three websites, an interactive game, and print ads. How crazy.

The Hanso Foundation

Oceanic Airlines

SubLYMONal

Friday, April 21: Tom graduted from UTI from the auto/diesel/industrial programs with perfect attendence, 3 Student of the Course awards, and a nomination for Alpha Beta Kappa (some honors thing). YEA! Happiness.

Monday, April 24: Tom is laid off from his job with Chicago International Trucking. Bummer. Temporary? Permanent? Who knows?

Friday, April 28: Tom gets his job back with Firestone.

Monday, May 1: I secure full time work for the summer with NIU working on a GIS project for a municipality. I get to work 10 hour days Monday throught Thursday 7:30-5:30 but hey I get Fridays off. (Unfortunatly, this is really all I know about the job. I don't even know what town/city it is. And the project manager isn't sure what's going on either. Typical. Maybe it will be like the beginning of my assistantship and I will get paid for doing nothing... doutbtful...)

Wednesday, May 3, 11:00 a.m.: I defend my thesis with a 30 minute oral presentation in front of my 3 member committee. They offer helpful suggestions/comments and try to delay going to their faculty meeting at noon. I was so thankful that they were all laid back. It helped calm my nerves.

Saturday, May 13, 9:00 a.m.: I walk for my graduation. Plus, I get to wear a hood.

Sunday, May 14: PARTY!

Monday, May 15: Tom starts school with International Trucking, 10:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. which means he can work for about 2.5 hours each morning and Saturdays. My summer job starts.

Mid-August: My job ends and I technically graduate. Tom's other school ends. BIG OLD FAT QUESTION MARK. Isn't life fun? (Who knows, I'll probably end up in Idaho. Actually, Idaho has fairly low gas prices, hmmm...)

I recently visited the Museum of Natural History here in my town. Who would have thought, right? Anyway, I guess some benefactor donated all of his "stuffed animals" from various hunting trips and safaris. So the musuem is mostly just these animals. They apparently have the largest African Elephant in the states. (They had to cut out part of the ceiling and raise it up in order to fit him in.) Anyway, while myself, Tom, and my Mom were visiting, there was a birthday party who were about to be subjected to a creepy crawler show so we joined too. We got to see geckos, scorpians, tarantulas, snakes, etc. So of course, that means, I got to hold them. I was quite suprised I did it, but I successfully held a trantula and a corn snake. Tom left when the tarantula came out. (He mumbled something about a "phone call.")

I wish I knew how to cook. I won't even tell you the two meals I had today, but they were both of my husbands choosing (mostly) and if you know my husband you know how he eats and what he likes. However, last night we went to a barbecue at a friend's house and whenever we go there it just proves how completely inept I am. The food was excellent and all really healthy. We had carrot sticks, celery, and cucumber slices to munch on while they were grilling. Then, they grilled asparagus, these huge portabello mushrooms, onions, scallops, zucchini, etc. Then for dessert fresh pineapple and papaya. My first experience with papaya, very interesting texture. The time before that they made this spicy grilled pork stuff that tasted really good, but was way too spicy for me to eat too much. (They found out later that the recipe called for 4 chilies and they put in 4 CANS of chilies, I am surprised I was able to eat the little I did, Wow). When I do try to cook something, I am very anal about following the recipe exactly which results in either Trisha making fun of me or Tom complaining that I put something in it that he didn't like. Anyway, bad cooker, out.

Random Lines from my Thesis:

Not only do the golfers face sand and water hazards, they also face the more serious hazard of lightning from thunderstorms.
("Watch out for that bunker on #11, Harry.....Um, Harry, darn it, that's the third time this year. He always ends up looking like a cross between Albert Einstein and Christopher Lloyd. Where's the on-site defibrilator? Maybe by the time he comes to, this confounded rain will have stopped.")

Positive lightning also produces the highest directly measured lightning currents of approximately 300 kA.
("Hi Kids, I'm Volty the lightning bolt! Remember, when God closes a door, he opens a window! YAY!)

It was designed by Scottish architect Alister Makenzie.
(What in blazes does this have to do with lightning??)

A parametric method based on a multivariate normal distribution was used to derive the discriminant function. The individual within-group covariance matrices were used to calculate the measure of the squared distances.
(I really have no idea what that even means.)

Friendly fight for freezer food fasinates female and facilitates funny fotographic fallout.

Here are some pictures of the trip the my dad, my brother, and I took to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. They have one of the last two surviving uboats from WWII. It was really cool. Plus, we got to go down in a coal mine and to a farm. Ya, I know, Kyle and I fought over who would get to sit in the combine. Pretty sad...

There is a teaser site up for Spiderman 3. Not much on it yet, though.

If you haven't seen the commercials on TBS for their upcoming premiere of Lord of the Rings. Check them out. I particularly enjoy the one called "Frodo."

Wow, only one week with my new cluster map tracking my visitors, and I have someone from outside the U.S. that checked out my blog. Sweet. Although, I doubt the person from India really found it that interesting. I think the map is way better than a counter and feeds my need for geographic information. Besides people in Illinois, Indiana, and Washington (hasn't shown up yet), I don't know of anyone else who reads my blog. Hope they find it mildly amusing.

HALLELUJAH!!!!

My comprehensive exams are over with. Four and a half brutal hours of my life, I hopefully never have to relive again, except maybe during childbirth. On the plus side, I found out during my first of three essays that I only have to pass two out of the three. Score!

Although, one of my professors did make a funny. He started his question by saying, "Now that you are a world renowned lightning expert and governments are clamoring over you..." hee hee.

My friends at small group showed me this and I can't help but laugh...

Wednesday Night

8:38 p.m. Trisha: Do you want to run to Michael's with me? We have 20 minutes to get there before it closes. Me: OK, let's go.

8:40 p.m. We leave house. Trisha does three circles in the hallway and before she can figure out which light switch to turn off. We exit in her car.

8:41:30 p.m. Me: Let's take the back roads so we can go faster.

8:45 p.m. Trisha: Woah, I almost went straight there even when the road curved. I thought the telephone pole was the road continuing on. We would have launched 6 feet in the air and cut that pole clean in half. Ha.

8:50 p.m. We thankfully arrive at Michael's.

8:55 p.m. Exchange "Gothic" colored yarn for "Barrington" colored yarn. (Somehow both are purple).

8:58 p.m. Run to Old Navy storefront. Darn, closes at 9.

9:00 p.m. Waiting at stoplight by Caribou Coffee. Trisha: Coffee sound really good right now. If there was a turn lane right here... Me: Let's just Baja over the curb.

9:01 p.m. We turn right, then turn right, then turn right again and into Caribou Coffee.

9:02 p.m. Me: Score, they're open til 10.

9:02:15 p.m. Meet Sam, Jordan, and Brandon. Lots of "Heys" are exchanged.

9:04 p.m. We order two Turtle Mochas. Trisha's has espresso. I opt for Hot Chocolate.

9:06 p.m. Chat with Brandon about how he pays rent at Caribou Coffee, how I met my husband, and how his parents met in 7th grade in gym. They were paired together for square dancing because they were the shortest two in the class. Sam, Trisha, and I: Aww.

9:10 p.m. We get our "coffees." Jordan: Sit down for a second. Trisha: We need to get back, Tom should be home now. Me: Ah, we can stay for a second.

9:40 p.m. We exit Caribou Coffee full of caffeine and sugar.

9:50 p.m. Arrive home. Trisha and I part ways.

4:00 a.m. Unbeknownst to both of us, we are both just heading to bed. I read a 359 page book from cover to cover while Trisha played on the internet and branded herself with Caribou Coffee logo.

Office objects:

There is a set of 9-point deer antlers on the floor next to me. (Tom-1, Bambi-0)

Five jars of Play-doh. (One is still in cylinder form untouched)

A pair of thunderstix. (In case I get hungry (See post from October 5, 2004))

One Frisbee, one baseball, one tiny squishee football. (Football is a recent acquisition of unknown origins)

Close to 50 Navy Seals books, 7 meteorology books, 4 Get Fuzzy books, The Chronicles of Narnia, and The Shooter's Bible. (hmm, no real Bible)

Three pictures of myself and Tom.

Two 2006 Star Wars poster calendars. (Because I figured one wasn't enough.)

And one Bob and Larry unsharpened pencil.

Take a listen to my Yahoo radio station! (if you dare, mwa ha ha, just kidding). From Smetena to Sting, lots of soundtracks and the occasional rock ballad. Happy Listening.

(Check it out under links.)

This is HI-larious if your a fan of the Simpsons. It's a live action version of the opening sequence.

In my class last night, our lecturer was a pedoligist which is someone who studies soils and soil processes. Anyway, he made a joke that no, he was not a pedofile and that his family always thought he was a pediatrist. It made me laugh and got me thinking as to why in the world do all those have a similar root?? Crazy english language.

No moving in 2006. (Although, I really have nothing to complain about, I bow down to Val the moving queen). Anyway, Tom within five days of sending out his resumes landed a job. (I can only pretend that my own job search will be that easy, Ha, ya right). So Tom starts a job with an International Trucking Dealership on Monday in Geneva which means we get to stay in Sycamore at least one more year. (So that they'll pay for his training this summer). But at least now I have a sense of where I can look for a job where as we thought we wouldn't know where we would end up until July. Score.

Alas, I was rooting for the Seahawks. Mostly, I didn't care who won, but they were the underdogs, they didn't beat the colts, and their quaterback wasn't Ben Rothlisburger (Former Miami of Ohio quaterback who beat my Huskies.)

However, this was one Super Bowl that actually had a large amount of funny commercials. So much so that it was really hard to pick out a favorite. But here it is anyway. Enjoy.

They are making Prince Caspian for a 2007 release. And why wouldn't they, The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe is so far the 28th most watched movie ever. (What a random statistic.)