Updates on Life :)

Hi everyone!! So first and foremost... before I forget... congrats to John for passing his dissertation defense (YAY!!) and getting the heck out of this freezing cold weather. :) He and Amanda are on their way to sunny California... the bums... where he is going to start making the "big bucks" in industry... smart cookie, that one. :) LOL Anyway, a big congrats to them... although John... where are the rest of the Clark Griswold blog entries?? I wanted to hear about your adventures driving through miles and miles of corn fields!! :)

So moving on... I'm so bored right now. I should be prepping for my Genetics class this week. I have to write a lecture on gene mutation and repair... and then I get to discuss the genetics of cancer. Part of me thinks that if I can't give that lecture without notes then I should give back the PhD. Of course, the info the book has on the genetics of cancer sucks, basically. So I'm going to have to figure out how I'm going to give that lecture... I mean, Lord knows I could discuss it for a while... but I can't go TOO far off the book or else the students will freak out that they have nothing to reference my notes with. (You know... the two students in my class of 40 that actually have cracked open the book?!?!) :) But I figured that it was a much better use of my time to write a blog than work on my prep. :)

So let's see... what's new?? This weekend Mark and I went to Iowa to see the Iowa-NIU game. Wow does Iowa suck this year. I mean, I've observed as much in the games I've seen on TV. We've certainly gotten lucky a few times... but yeah. This is definitely more of a "building" year even though no one wants to admit it. We'll still make it to a bowl game... but I doubt we'll go to anything nearly as nice as the games we've played in. I just hope they go somewhere warm. :) But yeah... it was fun... a bit cold out there... and they certainly made the game interesting and looked like they were going to hand it to Northern. But they pulled it out in the end. Then we went to visit with Katie and Brad and little Andrew (who is just the cutest) and that was tons of fun. Probably more fun than the game!! :) So yeah... it was nice to just hang out for a bit again. I only wish we could have stayed longer. If we ever do that again, we're going to stay overnight. The whole driving back and forth in one day just sucked.

Sunday was a pretty typical day for us... church, then quite a boring Bears game to watch. But that's okay... I like those games!! :) Then Mark had his b-ball game... he is playing in a rec league with some of the other guys from church. I know he really enjoys it... the sucky thing is that they wanted to play in C league which is the lowest level just because they know they're not that good. Well, only 2 other teams signed up for C league, so they ended up switching to B league so that they could play. So now they're playing, but the competition is much harder. They lost by a slaughter rule yesterday afternoon... I guess the final score was something in the 70s to something in the 40s. At the beginning, we were worried that they weren't even going to score... it was that bad. Then they got into a bit of a groove and that was better. But yeah... hopefully they'll at least get a few wins this season... hopefully. :)

What else?? Oh... I bought a new laptop this weekend. Mark found a coupon (on one of his many techie sites) that was 30% off all laptops over $1300. But it had to be in conjunction with an employee purchase plan. I think I would have been eligible because Iowa has a contract with Dell and I get to use it for the rest of my life since alumni get to have the same deals. But just in case, we used his connection through his company. So yeah... we basically loaded up the laptop that I wanted with everything (Mark is jealous of my computer... which tells me it must be good) and ended up getting almost $600 in discounts by the time it was all done. YAY!! So I spent just over $1000 for a $1700 laptop. I'm pretty happy with that. :) Mark told me that as soon as I get it he will set it all up for me. Since I'm sure that I could set up my own computer since I've done it many times before, I'm pretty sure that is Mark language for "I want to try the machine out myself so I'm going to claim that I need to do this stuff." :) Of course he'll deny that to his dying day... but we all know the truth. :) We've been watching the computer prices for a while now since my computer at home is just ancient. But I was waiting for the best deal... we assumed it would be around Christmas time, but when he saw this coupon, he was just like... this is the best deal you will ever see, so you need to take it. So that's what I did. I didn't want to risk them NOT running the same deal at Christmas, ya know?? And I'm all set up to get a free upgrade to the new Windows OS when it comes out next year... so that's all good to go. :)

What else?? I got my wedding dress yesterday... actually picked it up from the store. It's getting hemmed next weekend, but I just wanted to have it in my possession for now. It's beautiful and I love it... and of course it needs to get massively hemmed. Unfortunately, it's also going to have to get taken in. It fits great in the waist but is too big right at the top. So if I hold my breath and suck in, the dress could start falling down. And THAT is obviously not good!!! So as long as they just take it in at the top, that will be fine. But I KNOW that that is going to cost a fortune... so that sucks. The thing is, if I went a size down then I would probably have been able to get into it, but I doubt I'd be able to breathe. So it's like... be comfortable, able to breathe, but take it in a ton, or no alterations and no breathing. :P

So Mark got to work at his home office today in Westchester. Needless to say, he loved his 45 minute commute in "bad" traffic and then he got out of work early!! So he stopped by and paid me a visit at 3... got to meet a couple other faculty members in my department. And then he went home. I'm sure he's home by now... the bum. :) Oh well... I can't say too much since he normally drives the crappy commute.

Oh!! I knew I had stories for you!!! So this weekend I have tried to take myself out three times. So the "best" story happened on Saturday. We were in Iowa, just leaving from dinner with Katie and Brad and I go to open my car door and at the same moment I sneezed and ended up hitting my head on the opening door... Insert laughter here, I know. I seriously did a number to myself, too. When we got to Katie's I had to get an ice pack because I already had a bump right at the top of my forehead. I have a slight red line still... and it hurts whenever I put pressure on it (which sucks when you sleep on your stomach like I do... I keep waking myself up every time I put my head on the pillow on that side!!). I am quite worried that I'm going to have a black and blue mark soon... and won't that be fun to teach with!! So yeah... fun times with that!! So then last night we were grilling and I went to light the grill (because of course the ignitor thing didn't work... those buttons are so useless) and when it finally caught, the flame flew up (very strange) and almost set me on fire. THAT was scary. The end of a few strands of my hair got "singed" I guess you could say... they didn't look burnt... but they curled up and boy could you smell that burning hair smell... all those sulfur bonds breaking. From that moment on, I was just like... Mark, you're in charge of grilling for the rest of the night!! My final accident was this morning... I burnt my finger on the waffle iron. That was just dumb. I was trying to lift the waffle out and accidentally hit the hot iron... stupid. So I have a nice little burn mark on my finger. Woo hoo!! Seriously... I think that I should just lock myself in my room the week before the wedding... at this rate, I'm going to kill myself before I get married!! LOL

So that was for all of your comic amusement.

Otherwise, not too much to report... it's a slow time on the student front. They've gotten their exams back. One student had their mommy call and complain about their grade... save me. Seriously... my p's rarely even knew when I had exams!! I mean, they'd find out my grades at the end of the semester... and if it happened to come up in conversation once in a while. But I sure as heck didn't run home to mommy when I got a bad grade and I would have DIED if she had ever called my professor!! Of course, my mom would have just told me that I obviously wasn't prepared and I'd have to fix that for next time... you know, putting responsibility on the STUDENT!! What a shocking idea, I know. But of course it was our fault that that student failed... even though many students in the class got 98's. I am pretty sure that this was the same student who skipped my class the day before the exam because she "didn't want to get confused" with new material that wasn't going to be on this exam. This student then came into my office the next week and was like... "I missed class last week, so can you explain DNA replication to me?" I was just like... you skipped class last week... and NO, I won't re-teach my lecture!! Geez, people!! Get a clue!!! Since when is this acceptable?? The fact that they ask makes me think that their previous teachers have let them get away with this crap. Seriously... unbelievable. These are the joys of teaching... :)

Anyway... on that note, I'm going to get off my butt for now and maybe do something productive. Maybe... :) I hope you are all having a good Monday and I will talk to you later!!

I'm baaack :)

Hi everyone... sorry about the delay in writing... last week was mid-terms so I spent the week before writing exams and last week giving and grading exams. I'm handing the last of the exams back today, so hopefully that will give me a bit of peace and quiet... at least for a couple days. Last week I was here at 8am basically every day because there were always students making appointments to see me... frantic about their grades. It was nuts. Between my phone ringing, e-mails, and students just coming in, I barely had a moment to myself!! So yeah... it's nice to have an empty office again. :)

So let's see... what has happened since I last wrote? Ummm... I don't know. I'm sure there has been tons of stuff, I'm just brain dead and can't seem to think of it!!! :) The wedding is basically all planned. We got our invitations this weekend... although there was a bit of a goof-up. On our response cards, they typed in to respond by July 1, 2006. Oops!! Considering that July of 2006 already passed, that's really not helpful. So we had to get those sent back and re-done. That was when I was glad that we went through Hallmark to order the invites so that I didn't have to deal with customer service myself. :) What else? We also booked our honeymoon this weekend... we're going on a 7-day cruise to the Caribbean... leaving the day after the wedding. YAY!! I'm excited, to say the least. We got a great deal on our airfare ($198 round trip to Miami!!) so that was a nice surprise. :) What else?? My dress is already in and I got my shoes yesterday so I'm going to get it altered next weekend. The lady was really hesitant to alter it since the wedding date was so far away... I was like... sweetie, I'm not talking about the waist right now... I need the height altered. LOL I'm just like... yeah, I KNOW I'm not growing any taller (unfortunately) so this is where it is. When she realized I just wanted height she was like... oh, okay. I'm just sitting there going... I don't want to wait until May and then have to fight with everyone and their mother to get an appointment to get a fitting!! So that is done... for now. :)

What else? This weekend Mark and I are going to Iowa to see the Iowa-NIU game. While I'm excited to go to Iowa and especially to see Katie, I'm NOT excited to wake up and be out of the house by 6:30 on Saturday morning. LOL Also, after a humiliating loss to Indiana, I'm a bit worried about Iowa playing NIU. Mark better not get bragging rights on this game!! But yeah... I'm sure that once I get there I will be happy and excited... but right now I'm thinking about my lack of sleep. :) It's apparently a "black out" day so everyone is supposed to wear black. I was just like... yeah, I'm going to be wearing my gray sweatshirt because it's the warmest Iowa clothing I own... and if I'm wearing black it's because my coat is black and I'm trying to stop from freezing to death!!! LOL Not that I'm not a die hard Iowa fan... but yeah... my warmth comes before wearing the appropriate color for the game. :) I'm not a crazy undergrad willing to go to the game in just a t-shirt and jeans! LOL The forecast for Saturday - partly cloudy and a high of 47. AWESOME!!! But I'm not going to complain... it could be snowing. I just wish it was closer to 60 rather than 40. :P Oh well...

By the way.. for all of you California people reading this... it has already snowed once this month here in good ol' Illinois. And it was snowing last night when I left school also... although that was really a bit more like frozen rain and not quite snow. Still a pain though, let me tell you. And no, I don't want to hear that it's 70 degrees there (or anywhere south of here). :)

Speaking of Cali, I may be going to a conference in the LA area next spring. I'm trying to figure out the logistics of it right now... the conference starts over the weekend so the current "plan" is to have Mark fly out with me on Friday afternoon/evening and then stay until Sunday. He'd fly back Sunday afternoon and I would stay through Tuesday for the conference. They have a few sessions going on on Saturday, but the conference starts in earnest on Sunday morning. So I figured that I could show him around LA (from what I know!) on Saturday and he could see where I grew up, etc. and hopefully meet a couple friends. Of course, this is all still up in the air. But since my travel expenses will be covered through the college travel funds we'd just have to pay for his airfare. So yeah... I just have to talk to Kent to figure out what I need to do to officially "apply" for the money (although it's a given that everyone who applies gets money) and then I can register and start planning the trip. So yeah... that is that.

Otherwise, not too much to report... I should get going for now. Need to look over my notes before I go warp some young minds... I hope you are all doing well. Stay warm!! :)

Teacher perks and such...

So is it "unethical" that I requested a free copy of a book (as a teacher) that I really just want to replace a book I used to have?? So here's the story... when I was at Augie and took Anatomy I had to buy an Atlas of Anatomy text by Frank Netter. And I loved this book... it had the best diagrams and was by far one of the best textbooks I ever used. Okay, fine. So I get to grad school and they used that book as well as another one in the cadaver lab. Well, since I had a good copy of the book, there was no way I was bringing it into cadaver lab, so we were just going to use it to study outside of class. Well, that lasted for the first day of class. Before you go into cadaver lab, you leave all of you books and such outside of the room since you obviously don't want to get anything that may be on the floor, etc. on your stuff. Well, some idiot student in my class had a water bottle that they decided to just haphazardly lean on my bag. Of course the bottle leaked and ended up soaking my bag and everything in it, including my book. So that was the end of the book. So I ended up bringing it into the lab since it was already water damaged. I figured that at least we could pry the pages apart in there and if anything else got on it, it was no loss at that point. But that also meant that I lost my book... because once it goes into a cadaver lab, it does NOT come out. So that was the end of my book that I loved because some idiot didn't know how to place his/her water bottle. So I have always wanted another copy but I wasn't going to pay the $90 again for it. So I just went online to the publisher's site and ordered a desk/exam copy for myself now that I'm a teacher and have the e-mail and mailing address to back it up. And it's being sent to me next week. But is that bad?? Personally, I figure that I paid for my book once already, so it's not THAT bad. And eventually down the road I'm sure that I'll be teaching some anatomy courses in which I will be using that book since I think it's the best. But yeah... that's really just me rationalizing. :) In the end, we all know that these publishers are making crap loads of money off of books. And Lord knows that I have paid my dues and gotten nailed buying books for years... so I'm getting a little payback right now.

Anyway... just wondering what you all thought about that... :)

In other news... wedding planning is going well. We hope to have a DJ and wedding invitations picked out this weekend. That will just leave meeting with our potential photographer to make sure we're a-okay with that and me doing the rest of the work (flowers, favors, sending out invites, etc.). So yeah, we're basically almost done. All of those people who have to be drama queens and complain that it takes SOOOOO much time to plan a wedding. Yeah... that's just BS. They just want to be martyrs. I could have had this done sooner if I wasn't behind in school work and trying to keep up with that! LOL

Okay... I'm off for now... three day weekend this weekend because of Columbus Day... YAY!! My exciting plans... getting an oil change and new tires on my car. And then writing exams for the rest of the day. Wahoo!! I really know how to live it up on my day off, don't I?? :)