One more thing

I forgot to add this to my last post...

I've had to send my camera in 3 times to get it fixed for the same problem! After the 4th time, they call it a lemon and return your money to go towards a new camera of your choice. So I had to send it in a 4th time yesterday, but until I get verification from the camera people that it's a lemon, I don't get the money. To get me through the holidays with a camera, Best Buy gave me a "loner camera" which is an open item SONY digital camera. It's pretty cool. Last night was the first time in 3 months that I had a camera that worked for more than a few hours. I took tons of pictures and videos of my beautiful kitties!!!

Here's a few for your enjoyment. hahahaha...

beautiful Elfie

Joey!

Elfie!

A blonde moment and crazy holiday shoppers!

Let's see, I have so much to talk about and I don't even know where to start. I'll start with a very "blonde moment" by me this week. So I was in Best Buy shopping for my friend Michelle earlier this week. I had already picked out a couple movies for her and then I was on the phone with my other friend Katie while I was trying to pick out an Xbox game for Michelle. I picked up this one game and held onto it for awhile, then I called Nathan to have him look up video game reviews for me online. I decided I didn't want to get the 1st game I picked out and ended up buying Spiderman 2 instead. So, when I got home, I was showing Nathan all of the gifts I purchased that day and when I got to the Best Buy bag, I was surprised to find that I had bought both Xbox games! How stupid! I remember thinking to myself that the total seemed high when the lady rang up my total. I mean, I must have just totally been out of my mind to not even know that I bought something until I got home!

Anyway, I did most of my shopping earlier in the week and had to do a few last minute things yesterday and today. You must beware of some holiday shoppers; all common courtesy rules must not apply to Christmas time. I was in Michaels yesterday and it wasn't even busy in the store, but I had a struggle getting to the checkout lane because there were two people with carts blocking the way while they were looking in the bargain bins in the front of the store. So, I kindly said excuse me and they let me pass (one of them was a man). Then just as I am two steps from the open register, the man I had just passed shoves his cart in front of me and holds up his finger to say, "This will just take a second." He immediately pulls out this bag with previously purchased items and is asking the register lady all off these questions about return policies and such. It took him like three minutes, which I can deal with, but it just boggles my mind how he couldn't just get in line like a normal person and had to shove his cart in front of me! There were several other incidents of stuff like this that I won't bore you with, and I'm sure you've experienced similar things.

I had dinner with Katie and Michelle on Wednesday at BW3's. We opened presents and ate dinner and it was fun per usual. They bought me a bunch of camping stuff and I can't wait to go camping this summer! I felt funny opening a pruning double cut saw with scabbard in the middle of the bar, like I was breaking the law or something.

I'm excited for the next week. Me and Nathan are going home tomorrow night to spend Christmas Eve with his family. Then spending Christmas morning and afternoon with my family.

I bought my mom a fondue maker for Christmas, and she already knows that she is getting it. We'll be using it Christmas morning.

And now a quote from How to Shit in the Woods (one of Katie's gifts to me):

"In days of old

When knights were bold

And toilets weren't invented,

They left their load

Along the road

And walked off so contented."

-A childhood ditty; author unknown

Merry Christmas!!!

Jeans

I'm hanging out at my friends' apt right now. Good times...

I love hooded sweatshirts. They are so cozy. I tend to wear the same one everyday. Especially during finals...I wore the same hooded sweatshirt at least 14 days in a row. The same goes for a worn in pair of jeans. I worn the same pair of jeans for about 3 weeks durning finals time. PEACE!

Discretization

Does anyone know how to discretize a continuous system? Neither do I. But I need to know by tomorrow. I've been studying for my vibrations final forever! When it's done tomorrow I will finish up some of my research stuff and then my break starts!

I can't wait to go Christmas shopping, and I'm excited to spend some much needed time with family and friends.

So, I made a huge pot of coffee this morning, and I'm just starting to feel it's effects...it made me want to write a blog entry. Right now I'm listening to The Shins. I have two of their cd's (I think that's all they have), and they are awesome! I just bought the new Kanye West cd a few days ago, and I love that too. His first cd was really awesome! I think his new one sounds a little more melancholy.

I found a new online game that is so much fun...Zep's Dreamland ...I think my friend Michelle would really like to waste time at work playing this. The tutorial for it is really annoying, but necessary to learn how to play it.

Sometimes I wonder why you don't need to be 21 to drink coffee, because it often makes a person really jittery and you shouldn't drive a car or operate machinery while under the influence.

My cats have starring problems. I will be studying and I feel a hole burning through my forehead, then I look and see a cat staring at me from across the room! It creeps me out.

A picture, as promised

Aren't we cute?

Goodwill Formal

Last night, Nathan and I went to a Goodwill Formal in Novi, hosted by two of Nate's friends from class. This is a party where everyone goes to Goodwill or Salvation Army or some kind of value village store, and buys a formal outfit to wear to the party. Supposedly this type of theme party is sweeping the nation. I wore this really gaudy green sweater/pleather dress that was long-sleeved and went to my ankles. Nate thought I looked like Shelly Long when she was Diane in Cheers. I felt like a weirdo in this dress, but when I arrived at the party I quickly realized that I fit right in. It was such a strange feeling, like I was in some kind of time warp between the 50's and 80's. The music was also dated pre-90's. There was one thing they had at this party that is the same across all eras...food and alcohol! Needless to say, I had a great time and met a lot of new people. I will definitely post pictures when I get them developed.

One of the girls that lived at the apartment had a spotted/leopard gecko. It was so awesome! I found a picture on the internet of what it looked like...

She let me hold it for a long time. Its tiny little claws gripped onto my arm to hold on and walk around. He was so friendly and cute. I think I might need to host a Goodwill party of my own someday.

Blackshift

One of my favorite pastimes (or time wasters) is playing online games. Here are my three favorite in no particular order...

Blackshift: Very addicting, and I think it has like 109 levels? I don't remember, but I beat them all. The download is free btw.

Grow Cube: Involves strategy and some kind of memory. Takes some time to solve. There are three different versions that are all very cool.

Super Granny: In this game you are a granny that rescues her kitties and brings them to safety. Yes, that's why I like this game. I think non-cat lovers would like it too. This game is from Shockwave.com where you can download a free trial that you can play for one hour. If you want to beat all 100 levels you need to buy a membership for Shockwave. They also came out with Super Granny 2 with 170 levels!

By the way, Shockwave.com has lots of fun puzzle-type games.

ENJOY

Sparty's

So I just got a small coffe from Sparty's cafe. I knew that before long I would have to post about my love for coffee. And it's only my 3rd entry! Anyway I love coffee. Straight up regular black. I don't like putting cream in it, or sugar. I just simply love the taste of coffee. I always remember my dad drinking coffee when I was little and I loved the smell, I think I used to take sips of his too. I really didn't start drinking it until I started college. Sometimes I enjoy the Hazelnut or Vanilla nut variety. Or maybe with a little rum in it. How can a drink with no calories have such a VIBRANT, awesome flavor!!! That, to me, is so cool...

Hand and Foot

So, since I started this blog, which was only a few days ago, I've realized how boring my life is right now. I'm only speaking in an eventful sense, I usually only do things with others on the weekend, and the week is filled with studying for my classes, working on my research, watching TV, hanging out with Nathan, and playing with my kitties. In other words, though my life is exciting to me, it's probably not very interesting to others most of the time. I have to say, that the highlight of my day is when Nathan comes home. One, because I love seeing him since he's gone most of the day, and two, because the only other human contact I have is during my 50 minute class everyday.

Those who know me, know that I'm somewhat of a home-body. I don't mind staying inside and playing games and surfing the web and watching TV. That's where my friends have helped me over the years, getting me to go outside and play in the snow when we lived in the dorms, or getting me to go camping several times over the summer. These are usually never ideas of my own, but I'm so happy that they have these awesome ideas! I love partaking in these events. Nathan helps me too, by suggesting we invite so-and-so up for the night, or go hang out at so-and-so's house.

Anyway, I'm excited for this weekend, Nate's parents are meeting us and Lindsay at Stout's Irish Pub in Brighton on Friday for his birthday. This place has the best French onion soup around, they also make good margaritas and have a wide variety of beers. On Sunday, my parents are coming up to go to church with me and Nathan and going out to eat for his birthday afterward.

Speaking of margaritas earlier, Ed (Nate's friend from high school) and Kara (Ed's wife) came up on hung out with us on Saturday. It was great fun. We made margarita's (the original green ones) in my smoothie machine. They turned out awesome, which I wasn't expecting. I think I'll make them more often. When we get together with Ed and Kara we always play this card game called Hand and Foot. It is so much fun, however, every time we've played this game, me and Kara are partners and we haven't won yet! We've probably played about 6 times. It sucks, we need to get a win!!!

I gotta get back to my research...

Golden Ticket

So, me and my friends took Big Daddy home last night. I was saying how I'd probably get a ticket on my car because I was still parked at a meter over night. The driver, I guess you could call him "big daddy", then explains to me, "Oh, if you get a ticket it would only be $15, believe me I live in East Lansing and I've had many tickets, I should know." So I'm like, "Cool!" Then I get to my car this morning and my ticket was $30! That guy had no clue.

There was also something very weird on my windshield. It was either barf or coke. All I know, is it was frozen and it was gross looking. I had to defrost it and use my wipers before I could drive. I don't understand people sometimes. Who would walk by and barf on my car, or pour coke on my windshield. Now that I think about...it had to have been barf. It had to have a somewhat thick consistency to cover my windshield and have time to freeze....unless....maybe it was a slurpee?

After my car warmed up I drove over to Bruegger Bagel and was happy they were open at 7:30am. It was the one time I was glad that they have strange hours. Open by 7am closed by 3pm. Usually I show up at like 4:00 wanting a bagel, only to find that they are closed already! Anyway, I my opinion they have the best bagels around. My favorite is the Rosemary Olive Oil one. Yum Yum. I got an orange juice to go with it. Awesome!

By the way, hair beards are the best thing since creamed corn...