lil miss sunshine

the fun never ends. last weekend visiting tulsa was fabulous. i saw old friends from high school, hung out at caz's, got to see most of the family, and then raced back home in time to get ready for school monday morning. school this week has been great. i started my senior year and it shows; many of the classes have culminating papers and i started a class that has as part of its purpose to prepare me for my senior thesis. however, i love it all. none of my classes is dull this semester and each of my instructors is smart, engaging, and seem very capable of helping me learn.
i spent a wonderful weekend hanging out with larissa, going on a date with joshua, and even doing a little homework. the rest of this rainy weekend will be spent doing laundry, reading, and starting on christmas crafts. oh, and i meet a sweet woman at michael's while shopping for knitting needles. she teaches a class on sock knitting which i plan to take next month. i am feeling on top of the world today.
the rain has kept the weather cool and i have felt more up to getting things done. yesterday larissa and i made apple butter; just like my grandma used to make. today i am going to try to come up with recipes using carrots to get rid of the seemingly endless supply in the fridge.
i leave on this statement: everyone must go see lil miss sunshine, if you have not already. i laughed so hard i annoyed the guy next to me with my screeching howls. i can not say enough great things about this movie. if it is not playing in your town, buy it when it comes out on dvd.

are we there yet?

i have not posted in a few days, not because nothing is going on but there has been no time. this weekend was a blur, school started yesterday, work is backed up already, and i need to do the laundry. i will try to spend a little time catching up soon as i have fun stuff to share from this weekend.

ugly day

today was a pisser. mom called at 8:30 to tell me the computer would not turn on; i diagnosed it as a bad power supply and tried to roll over. failing at that i got up to begin my day of work. for some reason i was not able to focus and ended up surfing the internet for a few hours. at about 11 i finally decided to work but found i could not log into the website i needed to work with. so i left to deal with getting a new cell phone for our sales guy. there is nothing that makes you feel more raped than buying a cell phone and plan. with that accomplished i headed back to the office to deliver the phone. the office was a black hole and i was stuck there for the next 5 hours. in order to amuse ourselves we logged into joshua's computer and changed his wallpaper to the logo of our competitor. for some reason he did not notice for a few hours. it is no fun unless the jokee gets mad. finally i made it back home to the stack of paperwork i had to manage before i left the house at noon. tomorrow has to be better.
ps the cat is missing

last week free

happiness continues this week. i have made an absolute mess of my office but that comes with getting used to the space. they are learning to get along without me in the main office and have started sending emails or calling when they need help. i may actually get this together this semester and be a very calm girl. on that note, i heard that one of my professors is very tough and to punctuate that he has already sent the syllabi (two classes with him) and as soon as they let him on a plane back from england he will be sending more info over. i went to school today to pick up the rest of my books so i can get ahead of the game. the books look good so let us hope the classes are fun as well.
i am going home this weekend for one last hurrah before getting crazy busy again. plans have already been made to hang out with friends from high school and my lil sis is coming along. good times, good people. the only drag is that i must go over to the rent house and spray for spiders; they are not able to do that for themselves. and she wants to paint the master blue. i am not sure she saw the perfectly white house; blue? over my dead body. i worked really hard on that place and i want it to stay perfect.

defcon pics

as usual i was being a dork at defcon and decided a self portrait was needed. amazingly enough my camera comes with a self portrait feature. there are apparently enough of us dorks out there to warrant a special setting. i look like my mother in this photo. luckily you can not see the four missing teeth because i conveniently did not smile. joshua looks smashing as usual.

yeah, i am a nerd

by the way...i got a 4.0 for the summer semester.

happy days are here again

larrisa stopped by to return some books she borrowed and sat to chat with me for a few. after she asked how things were (did she really or did i just start ranting?) i went into my usual about how busy/stressed/tired/overworked i am. while i was spouting the same ole i started to get sick of hear myself complain again. so then i told her some of the good things that have been going on. i am getting caught up at work; already purchased my school books and have done a little reading; the laundry is almost finished and the dishwasher is humming its last load; my house is pretty clean and the bills are paid (almost!). it made me feel better just telling her those things. somehow my load seemed lifted and i could see the light. before she left we decided to plan a knitting/crochet group at the local coffee shop so that we can meet other, likeminded (and helpful) people to work on projects with. i have yet to finish my blanket for my mother but i decided to start on a simple shoulder bag for me in the meantime.
life is pretty good today. i worked hard loading and unloading donated imacs to refurbish for a native american after school program (see info).
I hope this look on the bright side feeling lasts. I am baking bread for the boys at work and i do not want to suddenly go into a depressing binge and eat the entire two loaves.

all your base are belong to us

i have been working in the office all week and now feel like i am a true geek.
chown -r us/base
i want to learn a bit more so i can be a better translate for the norms.

hack the planet

so, i attended my first defcon and it was everything i expected. there were geeks wearing black shirts with bionary code messages. joshua taught me how to say 'all your base are belong to us' in unix but i forgot. i decided not to participate in the scavanger hunt even though i could get an automatic 60 points by showing my boobs and letting a team member tag them in permenant marker. the team who drug a 5 foot platform around the contest area exclaiming, 'arg, i am a pirate and i am walking the plank' ended up winning that contest. joshua had a great time but did not end up winning in the bot competition (he would have but the leds stopped working and the university of utah sent an entire class). i was proud of him because he worked hard on his entry. he has decided to win next year so he can claim the coveted black badge. it turns out that computer people are easy to spot, even in vegas. i mostly hung out and watched, caught a few seminars, and made friends with the attendees. a good time was had by all.

vegas baby!

i wait for the plane to open up to let me on board and then it is vegas baby! for some reason i allowed joshua to talk me into going to defcon this year. he said it would be like a vacation. i am not a big gambler and there is something about the desert that makes me think i may not be thrilled with the weather. and yet here i wait in kci for a plane heading to tulsa of all places. who knew that in order to get to vegas from kci one would need to jaunt thru tulsa international airport. i really want to know what international flights are actually going out of tulsa. maybe they were just too cheap to get a name. a lot of airports have nice names.

yea homework!

this post is called avoiding homework. i have one last class tonight for which i am supposed to have a review of a book we read. i am almost finished with the book but frankly do not care to write the review. i think i am burned on school for a bit. we are leaving for defcon in the am and i am not packed. i still need to clean the kitchen and finish some laundry. yet here i sit not doing my homework. i have been fairly successful at avoiding work as well. the only thing besides reading i have done in the past few days has to do with the rent house in tulsa. our new tenants are moving in so i finally had to get everything scheduled. the reading has not been so bad, mostly. we have three books for this class and two of them are very enjoyable; the third is an instant sleeping pill. i guess i will get back at it. do not be surprises if you see another post today. i am really through with the school shit.

just say no

the recovery process is going fine. i long to eat but other than that i am ok. when i talk air rushes out the newly formed spaces and i sound even worse. the lisping with the braces was bad enough. for some reason i can not get the memory out of my head of the nice dentist/doctor prying the teeth from my mouth. i originally was going to take care of myself so i told them local only, no general, so i could drive myself home. they give you the shots like they are going to fill a cavity and then they yank the teeth out. for some i felt the pressure, others just came out. she gave me one stitch for each missing tooth. and yes, they hurt. i had to take the hydrocodone before class and have joshua drive me. then i explained to the nice professor that i was stoned and could not give my prsentation tonight. i wonder if i will get points off for that?