Congrats to "Kinky"

wow. i'm a little in shock. i have just read that the ice pilots main enforcer, bill kinkel, scored a hat trick in houston last night. and he didn't have one single penalty minute. again, wow. he scored the same amount of goals he's had with pensacola in 30 games in just his 4th game with the aeros. all i can say is "wow." and he admits freely that scoring goals is not his job. his job is to get in the way and protect our [or the aeros'] guys. still, i hope they don't decide that maybe bill kinkel can be turned into a scoring machine, after all, and keep him. wait, they can't keep him now, can they? what about that whole final roster thing? we'll get him back, right? sure we will. anyway, congrats, bill. maybe we'll see a few more kinkel goals in pensacola?

Personal Hell

that's what traffic today was. a hell opened up just for me. because, out of all the days of the week, that damn chemical tanker just had to turn over on a road that i need to drive on to get to the sea lab...today, the one day out of the week that i have class at DISL. it couldn't wait just one day to cause a gigantoid chemical spill that evacuated tillman's corner, closed rangeline road, and led to huge traffic jams on government blvd. so, i had to go way the hell out of my way to get to class this afternoon. it's a good thing i left a little earlier than usual (and i usually leave in enough time to be at DISL 15 min before class starts). i got to class 2 min before it started - just enough time to pee and grab my seat. i was going 12 mph in a 50 mph zone on government for nearly 20 minutes. and i had to drive on a larger section of government than usual b/c i couldn't make my usual turn onto rangeline rd...damn chemical spill. they didn't even say which chemical it was. i'd like to know. anyway, i had to take bellingrath rd. to laurendine (couldn't take bellingrath all the way to hwy 188 b/c there's a section of the road missing close to 188) and continue on my way to dauphin island. it sucked. and i had to take the same route home...back through all the crappy traffic and two dozen cops directing us impatient, driving-stupid mobilians through the traffic lights. but this time i was going 25 mph in the 50 mph zone. so my 40-45 min drive took more than an hour today. damn traffic. i hate bad traffic...which is kind of funny, since i live in mobile...airport blvd is an everyday sort of hell for me. which is why i avoid it at all costs.

oh, and on top of the shit-tastic traffic situation, i find out there is a 50-50 chance that i'll have a 6 hour physical oceanography class on april 13. that WOMPS (to steal a word from the kiddie show Recess). we missed last week's class, which i was happy about. but two people in the class will be out of town for a conference next friday, the scheduled make-up day. so we need a new make-up day. and our make-up time revolves around the seminar course that takes place at DISL on friday mornings - they have class every other week. dr. v. teaches that class. i'm going to grovel at his feet and try to get him not to have class on april 15, so i don't have to go through another personal hell - a full day of physical oceanography. i can barely survive it 3 hours at a time. let's see how effective my powers of persuasion are.

Another Obligation

yesterday i foolishly volunteered to bake brownies and cookies for Discovery Day at the sea lab on saturday. should be a good time for all...sea lab tours, 15% discount for everyone in the estuarium gift shop and discount admission to tour the aquarium itself. lots of activities for the little ones - games, a dunking booth, food (including my yet-to-be-baked marbled brownies and chocolate-macadamia-peanut butter cookies). the event will be held from 10-2 on saturday at the estuarium/dauphin island sea lab, if anyone is interested. but i'm not going to be there. which is why i'm baking. matt (GSO president) sent out an email yesterday saying that if people don't sign up for something (selling stuff, running games, getting dunked, baking) he's going to assign positions for everyone. not cool. so i volunteered to bake things. i think that chad and i are headed back to flomaton this weekend (he's installing security cameras at his parents' house and needs to get his wires in place before the repair peeps get the new roof on). hurricane repairs are finally being made on the in-laws' house - $27,000 worth of them, to be exact. basically, half their house has to be rebuilt - new sheet rock, new window, new rafters, brick repairs, whole new roof, etc. my mom finally got her new roof last week. and she doesn't like it.

but anyway, i digress. i really thought the discovery day thing was next weekend and that i would be baking like a madwoman next thursday/friday. but no. i'll be baking and individually wrapping my creations tomorrow and dropping them off at DISL on friday before heading back to mobile in time for the 4 pm seminar on chemical ecology being hosted by the bio and chemistry depts at USA. actually, if chad is planning to go to flomaton on friday, i might not even go to the seminar...he's supposed to get off work early since he's worked kind of late the past couple of days. anyway, the doing stuff at his 'rents house is one reason we may not go witness the pilots' vendetta against damn texas on friday. i'd personally like to see a little revenge for the loss on sunday. and if we take out last night's loss to the damn ice gators on texas too, then so be it.

anyway, i've still got to do a ton of stuff for my discussion-leading stint on monday...like read the papers i picked out, gather info, put together a power point presentation. basically, i haven't done one single thing on it. and i probably won't start on it until tomorrow. so i guess i'm off to wal-mart to buy baking supplies (which i will get reimbursed for), then i'll be reading papers before heading DISL for physical oceanography this afternoon. oh, busy day.

Procrastination Catches Up

i think that all of my blatant procrastination is starting to catch up with me. i've put so many things off that they're starting to pile up...as usual. it's not like i'm not accustomed to these things. i don't do anything until i have a huge pile of stuff waiting to be done within a few days. yesterday, i was forced to finally finish my biometry assignment...fortunately, lindsey made that rather easy for me. she asked mccreadie all of our joint questions and told me what he said. oh, speaking of lindsey, she's such a goof. there was cake in the biology dept office yesterday, as it was dr. nelson's b-day (he's lindsey's advisor), so of course i went before class to have cake (even though i am no longer an official part of the bio dept...). lindsey was standing, talking to me and the bio secretary, judy. and she was hugging some papers she was putting off grading to her chest with a pen pressed against the end of her nose...judy said, "don't stick it..." and before she could say "up your nose" lindsey had a pen hanging from her nose. gross...but grade-school funny. i laughed, judy laughed, lindsey laughed, lindsey removed the pen from her nose, and i went to class.

anyway, back to the subject at hand, today i must start and complete the physical oceanography homework that has been waiting for me since before spring break...that will not be easy. nuts. that stupid homework will take up my entire afternoon. i really should have started it earlier. i'll probably just work on it long enough to put something on paper and not bother to email dr. park with all of my inevitable questions. i'll take a not-quite-par grade on this assignment and do better on the next one. one not-so-good homework grade shouldn't jeopardize my A...even though the homework is 30% of the final grade in that class...nuts. but he's pretty lenient in grading the homework.

and then, later in the week...read the papers i chose to assign for geological oceanography, gather more information on sediment-organism interactions, and prepare to lead the discussion on monday. hopefully, i'll get lucky like charlie did yesterday. the discussion went off on a tangent (larry, an engineer rather than a biologist like the rest of us, asked about the basics of evolution). so we spent the discussion portion of class talking about how things evolve and coevolution between a predator and its prey. charlie hardly had to do anything, and we barely talked about his topic. it was a good discussion, though. hopefully people will be just as talkative next week.

ok, enough talk of the demise of procrastination. the shower beckons. but first, i'll leave you to ponder a quote i heard while watching a rerun of Animal Planet's The Most Extreme last night:

"Elephants in must are like college students on spring break - sex-crazed, aggressive, and smell really, really bad."

~Animal Planet's The Most Extreme "Stinkers" episode

Happy Easter to All

this has been the longest weekend ever. but it's been good. now i am very tired. and the pilots are tied 3-3 against damn texas. what's wrong with them? they've done so well this weekend. nuts. vince is hurt. corey n. has gone to the locker room...equipment issue, not injury. ok. anyway, the game last night: excellent. congrats to the pilots on the division title - their first ever. spent the night at my grandmother's house last night - so of course i sneezed uncontrollably for a while before succumbing to the benadryl-induced haze that at least made the sneezing stop. the first words sammi said to me this morning: "you look awful." thanks, kid. and today: more sneezing. more benadryl. more sleepiness. maybe that's why i feel so tired right now. damn pollen. i actually did some homework today, though. that was good. then, huge dinner (ham, mashed potatoes, salad, peas, sweet potatoes, cupcake later on), hiding easter eggs, hunting for easter eggs, searching for one last egg for about 10 minutes before realizing that sammi had fed it to the dog and the elusive egg was mid-digestion. now: must do laundry. *sigh* just want sleep. very busy weekend. with my family. i love them, but too much time with them will drive a person crazy. anyway, happy easter, everyone.

HA HA HA

*laughs hysterically* i just noticed that florida got beat by victoria tonight...in regulation. that is so awesome! so, who plays crappy teams all season and that's why they're on top? hmm? let's see their fans bitch about this. i say, who can't even take the last place team when they've been so hot lately? can we say the everblades? ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha....i could go on all night.

Day with my hubby

this might seem odd, but chad and i do not spend that many days together. just us. today, we had a good day - together. he was off work for good friday, and i don't have any friday classes (i probably should've been doing constructive things, but i'd rather goof off with chad). we went to sears and best buy, drooled over tv's we can't afford...bought some more blank dvd's ($19.99 for a pack of 50 - sweet) and Deuce Bigalow Male Gigolo (that was totally my decision - i think that movie is hilarious) at best buy. i went for a walk in the park with deva while chad visited the driving range. then, chad and i went and played miniature golf (he beat me - he's been practicing) and had dinner at steak and shake. yummy. overall, a nice, relaxing day. last night we just sort of vegged out and watched movies (first, The Grudge - i didn't like the ending - then Open Water - chad didn't like the ending; i knew what happened already since i'd read the real story in a dive magazine a few months ago). tomorrow, it's off to flomaton to visit the parents and stay for easter. and let's not forget the pilots game. i hope it's a good one. i didn't listen to the game tonight, but from the looks of the score i should have. 4 points for defenseman dominic d'amour and 3 points for *jacquo*. we kicked augusta's ass 8-1. sweet. that's the way the score should have turned out on tuesday night against victoria, but the pilots just weren't there for the first couple of periods. maybe we'll get a repeat of tonight's game tomorrow. only with freddy in goal for deva ;) i hope her car troubles are better so she can make it to the game. and a note for nessa - i finished Animal Husbandry and loved it...you'll get it back tomorrow night. and i'm well into Her - and also loving it.

Spiffy New Boat

i learned today that the sea lab is receiving its new boat this week. now, i have known about this new vessel for quite some time...it was built for DISL. i'm excited that it's finally getting here. when monty sent out the message that the new boat is arriving this week, he also sent a photo. it's quite nice. much nicer than the verrill (aka the vomit comet - a phrase used by a prof's wife; i have never gotten sick on the verrill, or any other boat, for that matter). but the verrill does have the prestige of having lived at woods hole oceanographic institute before being transferred to DISL.

check out the new boat. so awesome. and appropriately named after e.o. wilson, a pillar of the modern scientific community.

now, compare that to the r.v./a.e. verrill. the new boat is a little smaller, but who cares? it's new, and speedy. something the verrill definitely is not.

The Science of Relationships

so, i was busily reading laura zigman's Animal Husbandry, and i just had to take a break and share an insight. there is a quote at the beginning of each chapter, and i started really thinking about this one:

"The female chooses not the male which is most attractive to her but the one which is the least distasteful."

~Charles Darwin (a very smart man), The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex (which doesn't refer to sex, like the act of sex, but the concept of sexual selection, i.e., picky females and horny males that'll pretty much attack any chick that crosses their path)

this is a very insightful quote. i, and i think most females will agree with me, think that most men have a pretty screwed up way of thinking. and the more i learn (from my husband) how guys really think, the less i like them. chad is really into the show Cheaters...and judging by the commercials aired during the show, a lot of men share his taste. anyway, when i watch the show, i always ask why the cheating bastard featured (sometimes, the cheaters are women...but mostly they're men) didn't just break it off with his significant other if he didn't want to be with her anymore. and chad always tells me that a guy will not break up with a girl if he doesn't have to...especially if she's still sleeping with him. or, he just wants to have someone else lined up before quitting an established relationship, even when he is truly out of love and sick of his current girl. not cool. i wouldn't do that. if i don't want to be with a guy, i'm not going to cheat on him. i'm going to dump him and then find someone else, not the other way around. i know, i know. it's not only guys who think this way...it's just seems like typical guy thinking.

so chad has a theory about women and relationships. he says that when they're young, girls want a bad boy - someone who is cool, aloof, and probably not that into her. the typical high school relationship. but when they get older, or grow up if you will, girls realize that the bad boy thing will never develop into anything and want someone a little steadier, a little safer - a good guy. however, some girls don't realize that they don't want the bad boy until they've married him, then they're stuck. chad tells me i am a freak - i skipped the bad boy phase and went straight for the good guy. really, i think i was into my share of bad boys, i just never attempted a serious relationship with any of them. i learn fast - bad boys are bad news.

now, let's think about chad's theory in relation to the darwin quote. so, before a girl is thinking ahead, she wants what is attractive to her - the bad boy. no relation to the darwin theory. but, when a girl is thinking about her future, she realizes that the bad boy is no good. he won't make a good life partner. he won't make a good father. he probably can't even take care of himself. so she turns to a steadier, safer man - the good guy. but what exactly is a good guy? someone with a steady job, good personality, protective instincts, who won't run off and jump every hot girl who comes along? actually, yes. but do we know these things about a guy when we first meet him? nope. so really, what are women looking for in a man, according to chad and darwin? we don't really like the workings of the male mind. we may like they way they look - some eye candy is always nice, but looks cannot make a relationship. there will always be something that drives us crazy. no one is perfect. the perfect man does not exist. once you accept that there will always be something distasteful about any man, you realize that darwin is absolutely correct. females choose the least distasteful, not the most attractive, male. because women are often attracted to men for all the wrong reasons.

the inherent pickiness of women compared to men is biological. the same in almost every species. females invest more time and energy in children than men do, therefore they are pickier when it comes to choosing potential fathers than males are in spreading their seed. natural selection has made us this way. without it, we couldn't have survived as a species. we women can't help the way we are. and neither can men. but once they've committed, they should honor that commitment. it's hard to find a man with a brain that can overcome his biological programming, and that unfortunately causes women a lot of grief. so keep searching ladies, i swear there are good guys out there...and remember darwin. don't look for the most attractive male. instead, think about all of a guys qualities and choose the least distasteful package you can find. you'll be happier that way, i swear.

Free Day

so, i have a free day today, and the weather is absolutely gorgeous...70 degrees right now, mid-70's predicted this afternoon. the sun is shining. and what am i doing with said free time? sitting in the damn library doing actual work. yuck. but not for long. the library's catalog is being uncooperative, so while i was able to look up lots of good stuff (and some of was online, so i downloaded it), i cannot seem to physically locate most of the journals in the library. and it's all because they stopped just putting the journals in alphabetical order. since the online catalog is down, i can't look up the call numbers for the journals or the three books i need. why does this always happen to me? when i motivate myself to do real work with an otherwise free day, something happens to the library's network, and my attempts at being productive are thwarted. i guess this means i should just give up and go hang out by the pool to soak up a little sun.

higgins's defense got postponed, so i don't even have to go that this afternoon. since we'd already cancelled class today, and higgins's defense didn't get postponed until yesterday afternoon, dr. park opted to go with the plan we set up last week, which is good because i haven't done the homework. why would i? i have an entire week to put it off. and i wasn't going to do it last night...hockey game.

so, the last 12 minutes of last night's game were good...the rest of the time, the pilots totally sucked. then, when there were ~12 min left in the game, they seemed to say, "hey, we're losing to the last place team, here. crap. that'll make us look bad. i guess we'd better get back in this thing." and they started to play like the team i know and love. and beat victoria 3-1. but i was pissed for the first two periods because they were off in la-la land and not worried about playing hockey. and they took so many bad penalties in the 2nd, it was pathetic. i told chad i wondered if they were trying to see how many guys they could fit in the sin bin at once...kind of like a clown car...

after the game, deva left a message on my cell to tell me that the cops and news people we'd seen in the park earlier were there because a creepy guy had come out of the woods and tried to abduct a group of teenage girls. damn crime in mobile. it's getting a little too close to home. i walk in that park all the time...it's right across from my apartment complex. i'm supposed to live in the relatively safe part of town...i'm not supposed to have to worry about creepy guys jumping out of the woods or serial rapists. but the crime is spreading and taking over the whole damn city. at least i already carry my cell and some pepper spray (this heavy-duty stuff that chad's dad gets - he works at holman prison in atmore, so they have the stuff you can't get in a store) with me when i go out alone...i feel prepared to defend myself if necessary. i'm fairly confident in my ability to kick some random guy's ass if he tries anything. but doesn't it suck that i have to think this way?

so, i can't do work...i think i'll skip out of the library and head for the pool.

Eventful...but not productive

that's how i would describe this morning's biometry class. we spent half the class going over notes we've already been through...and i didn't pay any more attention this time than i did the first. if possible, i paid even less attention today. i made lindsey giggle with doodles in my notes. here, you can see how my class notes look, too (some of them, anyway). maybe they'll make you giggle. today's topic: principle component analysis (i'm told it's very useful).


the armless man is saying, "i am a PC, and i explain the variability 100%!" in case you were wondering. so, the doodles do have something to do with the class. hmm...the armless guy doesn't have a neck, either. oh well. anyway, while lindsey and i were busy giggling away (probably not the best thing to do when you sit in the front row), mccreadie was trying to explain something about principle components to claire, and he was looking for a good analogy. so he asked me and lindsey to stand up...then charlie, then claire and andy. and he explained how we could be analyzed as principle components...lindsey and i were linked b/c we're both chicas, and we both have dark hair...of course, we giggled and linked arms when he said we were linked. claire and andy were linked b/c they both have light hair (mccreadie said blond, but andy's not really blond), but they're not as well linked b/c claire is a chica and andy is not (mccreadie thinks...giggle again). charlie was an outlier...he has dark hair...he could've been linked w/ lindsey and me. anyway, standing up in class definitely kills the falling asleep vibe. so that was a bit of amusement. i can't remember whether that was before or after the fire alarm went off...yes, even more excitement in biometry. so, everyone gets up and prepares to leave...i say screw the whole "leave your things, and get out" thing and rescue my lime green liz claiborne purse (how could i not? i love the thing...and my hockey tickets are in there - if they live in my purse, i can't leave them at home). lindsey does the same. so we're almost out the door when...false alarm. go back to your seats, people, you will not burn to death today.

like i said, an eventful class, but, as you can tell from the state of my notes, not so productive. i don't think i learned a damn thing...except that "if you have your assignments thursday, turn them in. if not, keep working on them." how's that for a deadline? at this rate, i could put that assignment off forever...except i promised lindsey i'd look at problem 4. nuts. i guess i'll have to do it.

Laziness Prevails

no, i do not have to wash last night's dishes by hand. hooray! laziness wins again. if you couldn't guess, my new dishwasher was installed today. it's so much nicer than the old one. and now i'm incredibly glad that i opted to be lazy last night and just leave the dinner dishes in the sink instead of being proactive and washing them. so now i can just put 'em in the dishwasher and turn the knob to "wash." good stuff.

so, i told myself earlier that i would start on my biometry assignment this afternoon. yeah, that didn't quite happen. but, as i discovered in class this morning, at least 4 other people haven't started either, so i don't feel bad about procrastinating. doug (geological oceanography prof) apparently had a bad spring break, so he chose not to give us a lecture today. can we say "yay"? yes, i believe we can. so, my 3-hour class turned into a 1-hour open discussion with no lecture to follow. sweet. and when i got home, the maintenance guys (who showed up about 10 minutes before i left for class) had finished installing my sweet new dishwasher. hmm...i probably should have paid a visit to the library this afternoon, seeing as how i found out today that i am assigning the readings for the discussion in geological oceanography next week and not the week after, as i had originally thought. yuck. that means i have to sift through tons of crap before finding 3 suitable papers. then, week after next, i have to lead the discussion. but after i find the papers, putting together the power point presentation shouldn't be too bad...i've done tons of those, and the setting is pretty casual. no need to be nervous.

with all this laziness, i almost feel like i haven't done anything at all today. but i did go and work out with my unexpected free time...it gave me a chance to read some more in the book i'm reading now (christopher pike's The Blind Mirror, his first new book in 5 years and one of his few adult books). that's one advantage a treadmill has over walking through the park - i can read on a treadmill. if i did that while walking in the park, i'd either run over a kid or get squished by a car. i want to finish The Blind Mirror soon so i can start on the books vanessa lent me over the weekend. they sound highly amusing. but with all my recreational reading, i'm not doing a whole lot of work and class-related reading, which is what i should be doing. oh well. i don't have physical oceanography on wednesday, so i'll spend a couple of hours in the library before higgins's defense. yeah, sounds like a plan.

Back to the Real World

ahh...back to useful things this week. spring break is over. not that i really went anywhere or did anything especially out of the ordinary, but it was nice not having classes for a week. i did go to destin with deva, and vanessa came over on saturday. we had a nice time at dauphin island...i gave her a little tour (not that there's a lot to see on the island...), we ate at the sand trap (yummy), went to the estuarium (fun critters - i impressed vanessa with my fish knowledge), hung out at the beach for a while. then, back in mobile, chad joined us for dinner at fazoli's and a showing of the ring 2 (the ending is much better in this one than the first). overall, it was a nice, relaxing week. but now i have to read a couple of articles before class this morning and start on my biometry assignment after class this afternoon. at least there's no physical oceanography this week...we get a break this week so we can go to john higgins's dissertation defense. should be interesting. his project was on jellyfish.

maybe the maintenance people will bring my new dishwasher today. for those of you who don't know, my dishwasher crapped out on me last week...with a load of dishes in it, which i was then forced to wash by hand (well, it was either that or have my kitchen piled up with dishes for a week or so...). it sucked. so i have been reduced to hand-washing dishes, something i haven't done in, like, three years. yes, i realize what a great time-wasting tragedy this is.

ok, gotta go do useful things...

SUNSHINE!!!

even though it's still a chilly (to me, at least) 55 degrees, the *sun* is shining...a great improvement on the gray morning we've been having. i've been cleaning my apartment so vanessa doesn't have to see what a huge slob i really am tomorrow, and now the sun has come out. yay. sunshine always puts me in a better mood. now, it just needs to warm up, and it'll be perfect. i'm so ready for summer. yes, even though it will be miserably hot and sticky, and you can't go outside for more than a few minutes without a bottle of water handy, and forget keeping your hair nice, i am looking forward to summer. i won't have classes. i will be o'brien's TA for marine biology. i'll get to go to port st. joe and collect some seagrass. i'll actually get to do some lab work. ahh, sounds divine. the sunburns (which i can't seem to avoid no matter how many times i reapply the sunscreen), the nasty mud, the saltwater, the funny tan lines, the hours upon hours in the lab...ok, maybe that's not your idea of fun, but i'm one of those freaks who really enjoys these things. i'm very prepared to see my car sandy for 4 months, which i also can't seem to avoid. oh, maybe never vacuuming it has something to do with that. the only thing that could make summer better is hockey. too bad the season ends in the spring. but anyway, i just thought i'd share my good mood with everyone...and maybe some of you are looking forward to warm weather as much as i am.

Something Good about Seminars

free food. that's always nice...and it's incentive for people to go and listen to a talk. i'm at DISL, and nancy just came in my office to remind me about the seminar, and she said she was on her way to pick up snacks. :) for snacks. i'm not even hungry...what a shame. but i won't turn down a free cookie...and a soda. or maybe i'll just have water. hmm...

i just downloaded some of the articles this pennings guy wrote...he's the one giving the seminar. i haven't read the articles, mind you, but they are on my comp and that's something. i'm taking advantage of the ethernet connection (which is much faster than my dial-up connection at home for downloading random files) here to do some research and download some articles...and a song or two on iTunes.

i ran into kevan on my way in here...he's a sweetie. maybe he'll be around on saturday when vanessa comes down here with me? hmm...ideas forming...perhaps i should give her the "grand tour" of the sea lab when we come to the estuarium. the nerdiest of the bunch are bound to be around, even on a saturday...

oops, almost seminar time. i better head over to galathea and claim my snack food.

Cold, Cold Go Away

...and don't come back, ever. i swear, this is the worst spring break weather ever (well, for someone who lives in the south, anyway). it's been rainy all week. and if it's not rainy, it's cold. grr. well, monday was nice in destin...but it was rainy in mobile when we left and cold that night when we came back. it's not rainy today, but it's gray and cold. it's, like, 48 degrees right now. how am i supposed to go to the beach in that, huh? and it's only gonna get about 10 degrees warmer all day. yuck. and it's gonna be cloudy and gray all day. i hate gray days. oh well. it's supposed to be nice tomorrow and saturday, i think. so maybe the week won't be a total loss. it won't be if vanessa comes over this weekend and we go hang out at the beach, go see robots, go eat at the sand trap (restaurant at dauphin island - i haven't been there in a while)...

i have to go to DISL today...wish it was warm so i could go before the seminar and hang out at the beach. dr. v. wanted me to talk to the guy who's giving the seminar afterward. but i'm not sure what to say to this guy. maybe dr. v. will be there to coach me.

anyway, i guess i'm off to visit the exercise room next to the pool. ahh, the pool, wish i were visiting it instead...i usually like to walk around the park across from my apartment complex, but it's too cold and windy to walk outside. so, alas, i am reduced to indoor exercising. oh well, at least i can read on a treadmill...that's kind of hard when there's the danger of running into things or tripping over things...or people...or getting smooshed by cars.

Destin Photo Album

a couple of you have expressed interest in my photos from the trip i took to destin with deva, so i have created a photo album with all the pics i took. you can view the album at http://photos.yahoo.com/latinamarie1. it has lots of random beach photos, a couple from the hard rock cafe, more wyland wall photos...so take a look and enjoy!

I'm in Love...

this is my new liz claiborne purse. i love it. i love that it is green...i've been feeling very green lately. just ask deva...i had to get her to not let me buy anything green yesterday. after i'd bought lots of green stuff...green was like a latina-magnet yesterday. deva and i went outlet shopping in destin yesterday, and i found this little gem at the liz claiborne outlet...for $35. much better than original $60 price tag. i was also looking for a small makeup bag to keep in my purse, which this lovely bag came equipped with, taking care of that little item on my shopping list. not that i really had a shopping list...just a bunch of stuff i saw and said, "i must have you. you're comin' with me."

anyway, we had a great girls' day...lots of good shopping. lunch at the hard rock cafe after a trip to the boat sales and storage place that wyland painted...it's very impressive. see?

it's so big...very awesome. the entire building is painted. good stuff. anyway, lunch at the hard rock...then, more great shopping at destin commons, which was a new experience for us since we were both a little drunk from the hard rock hurricanes we consumed with lunch. they're very tasty, btw. i didn't buy anything green at the commons. but i did buy lots of stuff...then, a trip to the wyland gallery, where deva and i admired lots of good art that we'll never be able to afford. and i bought a coffee mug, not like i need another coffee mug. and after the wyland gallery...the beach, of course. the water was cold. the sand was nice. i played like a little kid...and i found a tiny bulldozer.

i left it at the beach, though. let some little kid come and take it home.

like i said, it was a great day.

comment bug squashed

consider this bug squashed. somehow, my commenting settings got changed to "members only." i swear i did not do this. but i changed it back, and anyone who wants to post a comment on my blog can now do so.

all talked out

after a pretty talkative, opinion-generating week, i haven't had a lot to say this weekend. it was pretty uneventful...went to mom's house, hung out with my little sis. played horse (and then we made it camel after lots of giggling when we got h-o and h-o-r), went to the park and got followed around by panting ducks (yes, i said panting, like a dog...too bad we didn't bring bread or anything). played on the swings, which i haven't done in such a long time. it was fun...sort of like a temporary return to kiddie-land.

ahhh...spring break. going to destin for lots of good shopping with deva tomorrow. a nice day trip. maybe we'll swing by the beach for a bit, even if it's just to take a walk. it'll be good times.

oh, i can't forget...i didn't listen to the game last night, but i was quite happy to hear that the pilots beat charlotte in a shootout to clinch a playoff spot. :)

one last thing...i've been having commenting issues with blogger and i hear that some of you guys have, too, so if my peeps still have probs commenting on my blog let me know. my issues with commenting on other blogs seem to be resolved, though.