Hangin' in There

so it seems it's been awhile since my last post, and some of you may be wondering whether i have fallen off the face of the planet. well, i haven't. i refrained from doing anything crazy like becoming one of those nutty recluses who lives deep in the forest and avoids people and the "real world" on account of some bad experiences, tempted though i might have been. it's a little hard to find a stand of trees large enough to facilitate forest-dwelling recluses inside the city limits, anyway. i've become something of an apartment-dwelling recluse instead. i've spent much of the past week cooped up in here, filling my brain with knowledge of the environmental factors that contribute to the bioavailability of heavy metals and other toxicants and the various methods by which such pollutants move into and about various organisms and playing with different statistical methods to analyze my already overanalyzed data... and thursday afternoon i spent a good three hours using a dichotomous key to identify fish about the size of my thumbnail. that was a pain in the ass. 5 species down, 55 to go. and i get to spend the better part of the coming week cramming freshwater ecology facts into my head.

but then, on wednesday, after spending most of the day studying for my freshwater ecology exam on thursday, the most blessed event will occur... the official start of the NHL season. chad will of course want to watch the carolina/tampa bay game, and i will of course want to watch the philly/rangers game... and since it's his birthday, i'll have to let him watch the lightning game while i sacrifice (part of) the flyers game during that one little timeframe at 8:00 when tivo is recording two programs (the new show on the wb [related] and veronica mars on upn - that's a really good show. you should give it a try if you haven't already), during which we will only have the one tv in the bedroom on which to watch only one hockey game which i guess will have to be the tampa game. 's ok. i don't hate tampa... and i really do want to see them raise their stanley cup banner (which will be shown on OLN before the philly game). but at 9:00, after our shows are over, i should be able to turn the satellite back to the flyers game just in time to catch the end. not much of a sacrifice, eh?

before these games begin, chad will be spending most of wednesday playing the new NHL 2K6 game that i got him for his birthday. he hardly ever uses vacation days, so why not use one on his birthday, right?

so, until wednesday, i will have it to look forward to. for now, there is much work to be done.