notice of hobo-blogging

I'm off on my family vacation! Hurrah! I will be enjoying the delights of a remote cabin on an island with some family and friends. Hopefully the next two weeks will feature lots of sunshine, a couple of fun thunderstorms, an adventure or two, and lots of books that have been sitting neglected on my shelf. I'll come back with stories.

Thanks for the hugs.

i need a hug.

anyone missing their skivvies?

I was recovering my flip flops from the dark recesses of Under the Car Seat, when I noticed with my Super CSI Skills a piece of clothing lodged down there. I pulled it out to find . . . a pair of boxer shorts.

Now, for those of you who are new or just don't know me very well, it is Highly Unusual (to say the least) to find men's undergarments in my car. Trust me.

They are blue and green striped. Size large. If these unmentionables might belong to you let me know.

mmm... soy

I ate my very first Luna Bar today. I was feeling rebellious against food for some reason (heat, stress of presenting, general rebellious nature), so a Lovely Roommate gave me one to eat for lunch. I read the back, and came across something interesting. Insoluble fiber.

What is this?

It doesn't sound good at all.

It reminds me of a physics problem. INSOLUBLE FIBER. You INSOLUBLED THE FIBER. F-.

And then I picture Fiber Particles of Steel floating around my stomach.

Or forming a gang with the Pantothenic Acid, Ferrous Fumarate, and Pyridoxine and are currently dancing around (When you're a jet, you're a jet all the way), smoking compulsively, and tagging my internal organs.

i love technology

You know when you have One Final Presentation to finish up the semester, and you work on it... oh say, yesterday. You save it to your network folder and your flash drive just to be safe. Then, hypothetically, the next morning you work on it some more. You're almost done, and really excited about it. You compulsively save it to both places again.

Then, for no apparent reason, your network folder disappears.

And your flash drive opens the presentation from yesterday.

So all the work you did today disappeared from the Face of the Technologically Defunct Planet.

I am trying really hard to be calm and not cry and pound my fists against the computer screen.

Monday Already

Well, after a blissful and entirely unproductive weekend from an academic standpoint, I find myself at 10:55 a.m. still in my pajamas not working.

We had a triple-digited-temperature weekend, which really isn't so bad as long as you don't have to be outside a lot. AND if your housemate takes you up to her lake cabin on Saturday morning, and you can lay out in the sunshine and jump in a lake every 20 minutes or so. It was lovely. We came home and the Redhead and I cleaned the house for our Shakespeare Festivities. We did Taming of the Shrew this time, which was not-quite-as-fun as Lear, but still a kick. The lot of us aspiring thesbians then went out to watch Say Anything outside a local coffeeshop. I watched it in jr. high or early high school. I appreciated it much more now.

I spent a substantial portion of yesterday at church, falling in love with Lily. Lily prays. I mean capital P Prays. Stuff like, "Dear Jesus, thank you for this day and for saving us. Thank you for loving us too. Help us learn about you and love you good. In Jesus' name. Amen." None of the other kids volunteer to pray. Lily is 4 years old. Doesn't get much better than that. We went to lunch with the speaker, who's a church planter currently in Madrid. He tried to talk us all into moving to Madrid. I'm thinking about it. I never thought I would move back to Spain, but he's got me thinking. That may have to be another post.

The afternoon, evening, and wee hours were then spent up at a river floating, swimming, climbing, and star-gazing. The river was lazy. I was lazy. The stars were as bright as I've ever seen, and sometimes they decided to run across the sky. It was exquisite.

Today I have to research and prepare the Big Project for summer term. It's due tomorrow. Haven't started. And it's now 11:07. Still in my pajamas.

skunked.

Ellyn and I were talking in our room last night when we heard rustling outside our window. We turned off the lights and looked out. Sure enough, two (or three, I'm not entirely sure) little skunks were prancing around our backyard.



They scurried around and scratched the dirt for food, then, for no apparent reason, barreled into each other headfirst. We closed the window.

on a side note

If you get a Happy Meal at McDonalds, you just may find an inflatable pirate sword inside. These provide hours of entertainment, as we discovered last night. We were hitting each other, hacking off limbs and heads, for a long time. Then our roommate's little brother came over and we played pirate some more.

He was Hunk-of-Metal Man, so we couldn't actually chop off his legs. He told me I was a Hunk-of-Mud, so technically I didn't have limbs to lose. Later I turned into a Cheeto, and got eaten. Not my idea. Or fault. It was great fun.

Gazpach-O-Rama

It's been a little on the warm side here, and there's nothing as satisfying on a hot day than a cupful of gazpacho. Unfortunately, it's a little labor-intensive. This time around, I decided to document said labor. This may make for a more PBS-esque blog than the Wild Entertainment you're used to, so consider yourself warned.

Step One: Peel, seed, and chop lots of veggies. Peeling tomatoes is one of my favorite things. It's a lot like peeling off sunburn.


Step dos: Blend it. Blend it. Twist it. Bop it.
Yes, that is a piece of bread.



Step three: Clean up the Enormous Mess.



But then you get to eat it. Mmmm... tomato bliss.

O for Directional Competence!

So, Ellyn and I drove home from a friend’s house last night at about 9:30. It was still twilight, and we could see the almost-full moon setting over the hill. Now, this friend lives near us. It’s easy to get to and from his house. There are no complicated twists, turns, or tricky bits.

We definitely got lost.

Somehow we ended up on a deserted, poorly lit, dirt road going down toward the river. Luckily for us, it twisted around and we ended up driving on a more familiar road. In the wrong direction, yes, but at least we knew where we were. This is a pretty normal situation for me. I am completely and utterly lost when it comes to directions. I need explicit directions (turn right on this street, left on this street after this landmark), and lots of practice before I can find my way anywhere. I am not a stupid person; I just can’t seem to go a week without getting lost. Even if I’m just trying to get home.

How did this happen?

I have become the student that I dread to have in class.

In technology class today, my group met in the back of the classroom. We were supposed to write a list of questions about poppers. Instead, we played with them and giggled. We shot them at each other, made jokes about teacher glares, and somehow a "kick me" sign ended up on someone's back. I missed all the directions entirely.

Yes, we're adults between the ages of 22 and 28.

I can't decide if this happened because we're immature, understimulated, or overstimulated.