Merry Christmas, Everyone!

It has been so incredibly busy the last few days...I had something I was going to post, but I didn't get around to doing it before I forgot what it was. It's gone now. Maybe it'll return.

Anyway, Craig took the job of ripping all the insulation out of the basement while I put my efforts to baking three batches of speedbumps. For those who don't know, speedbumps are the traditional Christmas cookie for my dad's side of the family. They were originally called something like rum-butter logs or nutmeg logs, something along those lines. Grandma always used to make a ton of them for Christmas and keep them chilled in the garage. One year it got particularly cold in said garage, and when my uncle Steve went to eat a cookie and found it frozen rock-solid, he said, "Damn, these things are like speed bumps!" It stuck.

So I started the project by getting completely distracted by an OCD moment: I was just going to wipe the counter - I swear! - and somehow ended up cleaning and reorganizing most of the kitchen. Then, and only then, did I turn my attention to the cookies. As for those, I made them way too big and still came out with about 130 of them. I'm not worried. They'll get eaten. I've already made some inroads myself, and then I took some to Craig's aunt Prudy's house today and they were a hit.

I still haven't remembered what else I was going to say. It's been a whirlwind of cleaning, baking, organizing, moving shit around, fighting with the cats...and, of course, watching poker every night. Hey, you have to have something to relax to!

Right now, however, I shouldn't be relaxing but packing for the trip. Craig and mom and I are going to upstate New York tomorrow morning to see the aforementioned group of asylum should-be inmates known as my dad's family. Honestly, I really can't complain - they are fun. They're fun because they're so damn nuts. So I'm going to stop rambling and go do something useful. Maybe.

The Hunt, Day Three...and Wednesday Weirdness

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Job-Hunting Begins Again

I finally had a nice relaxing weekend, for the first time in months. It was great to be able to just sleep and veg for two whole days (even though we did sleep through the gun show - oops). Today I got out and began the obnoxious process of job-hunting again. I hate job-hunting, especially the way things are right now with the economy. All I've been hearing is, "We're not hiring right now, but I'll give you an application."

I just have to stay optimistic...there must be a job around here somewhere (that's better than Pride). I just have to find it. So far today I've applied to the Monkey Bar, Bertucci's, Rafters, The Pub, Applebee's, and Chili's. As much as I've hated food service jobs in the past, I want to get back into a job where I get tips as well as a paycheck.

Moving Day

It's finally over. I did it. I completed the Semester from Hell. Murphy's law applied many times more than normal to this term, as nearly everything that could have gone wrong did, but it's finally over. Despite the ice storm, I moved all my stuff out of the dorm this week, and I'm back in Deerfield.

I went to a crafting party at Snaric's house on Thursday night, which was quiet and a load of fun. There were five of us, Snaric, me, Sam, Susanne, and Jill, and we were all working on something different. There was mulled cider along with various other beverages and snackies (I made crackle, i.e., crack. It has been renamed because it is so addictive).

My grades have yet to come in, but honestly, I'm not that worried. (I also hope I didn't jinx myself by saying that.) I know I have As in Visual Basic and Midrange Systems, since Matt let me out of the final exams for both classes. I never actually saw a number for my grade in Chemistry, but I did well on exams and got all the in-class points, so I should be fine. As for Data Structures, Elvis gave us a printout of our grades a couple of weeks ago, and I worked out that if I got a hundred on the last assignment, I needed a 90 on the final to make an A. However, when my assignment came back, I had gotten a 130, and I feel like I did really well on the final, so...we shall see. Either way, I also asked him to write a letter of reference to the comp sci department at UMass.

And now to go unpack all my stuff from the car...

Finals and the WWW

I got out the VB exam with a 97 average (but did agree to go visit Matt today anyway). I've got mugs of candy and tea and a box of coffee to deliver to various professors and my advisor. I picked up an extra shift at work this morning in a desperate attempt to have money before Christmas. The Data Structures exam becomes available at 1pm today...got to have the car to the shop at 2 o'clock this afternoon...Matt's office at 3. I really hope Autex mean what they say about the inspection being a half hour, because that's all I've got!

For my chem professor, I got a plain white mug and wrote on it in Sharpie: "Caffeine: 1,3,7-trimethylzanthate". I figured it was pretty safe to assume that a professor would drink coffee, or at least heavily caffeinated tea. Most of them do.

Anyway, on top of the above-mentioned, some part of me seems to have decided that sleep is a useless endeavour and should not be attempted. It drives me crazy lying there in the dark staring at the ceiling, especially when I'm actually tired. I think it's because of finals week; Craig says I did the same thing last year, although personally I don't remember that. Hopefully it will disappear come Friday, when it's all over.

On a note of accomplishments, I finished the new version of the website for The Everyday Epicure this morning! Minimal fighting with Dreamweaver was involved, which is an accomplishment in itself, as anyone who's ever done web design knows. It's still a mystery to me how supposedly "unformatted" text appears on a full page as an inch-and-a-half wide column and stretches the page to a couple of feet in length...and all this because I had the balls to hit the Italicize key. Microsoft is such a mystery some days. Oh wait, ALL days.

Next project: finish sites for Northeast Two-Way Comm and N1PMA.org, and then for my own business. Yeah, priorities. They're a pain.

Finals Week

Halfway through finals week already! I boxed up some stuff I'm not going to need and took it down to Deerfield yesterday, since I don't have any actual exams until Thursday. Remarkably, my room doesn't look that much more empty...I hate how that happens. I feel like I was so productive with my picking up boxes and running errands and packing and getting stuff moved, and I come back here to find it looks pretty much like it did yesterday morning. Just a few less books and a few less dishes.

Not a whole lot that's of interest to report today. I got my email address for UMass, so I'm going through the irritating process of trying to find every place on the web that I put my KSC address and change them all. For those of you who want it, please leave a comment or email me and I'll get you my new one. I just don't want to post it because I want to be sure that it's actual humans that are getting it, and not spam-bots.

Stumbled across something amusing a few minutes ago: Why it's better to date geeks! So true. Which is, of course, why it's so funny, like all good comedy. Speaking of comedy, check out George Carlin on airplanes, part 1 and part 2.

End of Classes

I am all done with classes! I've just got finals left to go, and another week of work. I already got out of my Midrange Systems final because my average in the class was 100, and I have a meeting with Matt on Monday to see if I can do the same for Visual Basic. The Data Structures final is take-home and we've got twenty-four hours to do it. The only "sit-down-and-have-an-exam" final I've got (provided I get out of VB) is Chemistry, and I'm not worried about that one.

For the most part the other girls in my suite have been pretty good this semester, but last night was apparently too tempting a party night to be considerate. Twenty-four-hour quiet hours start tonight, which means no noise and no guests at any time for any reason. They said they were getting ready to go out to a party, which is no problem, but it took them three hours, a lot of noise, loud music, and pre-party booze. At 11:30 I finally went out and shut their door, telling them I needed to be at work at 7:30 in the morning.

Cat said, "Oh, we're leaving in just a sec." Yeah, sure. Half an hour later they finally went shrieking out the door and disappeared...and came back at 2am and repeated the whole thing. I almost had to get up again and tell them to shut it. The result: I'm dysfunctionally exhausted this morning, and it's not my fault. Argh. I'm glad I won't have to worry about dorms anymore after next week.