Longest Commute Ever

Aren't these pretty flowers? They were left on our porch from KHA! That was back over Thanksgiving though- I just wanted a picture to put on the entry so it wouldn't look so boring :)
Oh man Oh man, last entry I was talking about train drama and boy do I have some train drama.. On Monday I went the train station and there was a message on the little board that it was experiecing mechanical problems and was running about 40 minutes late. No problem, I have my laptop, theres internet in the station- I will do work. So I put on my headphones and start working on my take home final. Current time: 5:03.
Around 40 minutes later I pack up, take off my headphones and start to over hear conversations that the train is cancelled. I verify this with the station attendent. Boooo!!! This is especially bad because our train is the only that goes past Sacramento. Current time: 5:45.
The next train will be arriving at 6 and the bus to Roseville will leave at 6:50 from Sac. I get to Sacramento around 6:30 and sit around and pick my nose until the bus comes. I get on the bus. Current time: 6:50.
They make an announcement that "We are splitting up the busses since there are so many people and those going to Roseville should get on the other bus. Unless you have a bike then stay here. Both busses are going to Roseville." I swear I heard this announcement and no further clarification announcements. So the bus finally leaves. Current time 7:00.
Lalala we ride along until we get to around Roseville and I notice that we have passed the usual exit. Don't freak out, maybe they are taking a different exit. We pass 65 (the far edge of Roseville) and I start to freak out. So the bus arrives in Rocklin. Current time 7:40.
By this time I am pissed. They cancelled my train, made me wait for this stupid bus, then gave incorrect instructions for which bus to go on. So, I get off the bus in Rocklin and ask the driver about whether we are actually going to Roseville eventually. He just ignores me. I wanted to just hit him. Even though the whole situation probably had nothing to do with him. Anyway, I call Derrick, he comes to get me. Current time 8:00.
We give another person who had a bike and stayed on the wrong bus a ride home and finally make it home. Current time: 8:20.
Do you know what 8:20 minus 5:03 equals? WAY to long to get from Davis to Roseville.

AAAnyway, I am done with classes for the quarter! Feels weird. I don't feel especially excited yet. Maybe I need grades to feel done. We head back to NC on Tuesday!!! I am so excited! I hope I still want to come back to CA after break ;) 

WOW!

What an insane two weeks! I haven't worked this hard on class work since undergrad :P Lets see what kind of interesting things I have to report..
1. On Tuesday the train hit a car (before it got to my station) so it was delayed over an hour. No one died though so that was good. If someone was killed the train would be been delayed like 6 hours so I've heard. I could ride my bike home faster than that.
2. On Wednesday the train hit some bikes (no people riding them) when we were almost home which caused the most of the power to go out on the train and a delay of about 20 minutes.
Lots of train drama!
3. Tonight is the KHA Christmas party! Derrick is picking me up at the Sac train station since it party is in downtown Sac. Should be interesting...
4. My mom (via myself) bought me a new NCSU red Kitchen Aid mixer for Christmas. It is awesome! I made chocolate chip and cashew cookies! I also have this recipe for adding prune puree to chocolate chip cookies to make them healthier. I might give it a try. The ones I made this time were the good ole fashioned Toll House though! Yummmmm!
5. Its the weekend!!
6. Today is the last week of classes and I have two things to complete before I am officially done: a take home final for cell wall class and a project to finish for renewable bioprocessing. The final shouldn't be too hard, but time consuming because they are essay type questions. For the project I have just a tiny bit of MATLAB to do and a paragraph of the paper to write up. Then I'm going to sleep for about 2 days straight and head to NC!
Woot!

Thanksgiving 2006

Well Napa Valley was beautiful! Here is a picture of us in the vineyard of the winery where we stayed, Ballacci. There are lots more pics online. We got to the area Thursday around noon and drove around looking for stuff to do until around 2pm. We found a nature preserve where we walked around for a few minutes. We found a lot of wineries but they were all closed for Thanksgiving. Anyway, Emily and Mark called to say that they had arrived at the house so we went there to meet them around 2pm. We unloaded our stuff, met Marks family and then headed out to explore the vineyard. It was so pretty- all the leaves were changing but there was still green grass on the ground. After our walk we watched football until time for the wine tasting to begin. After wine tasting we relaxed for a while until time for dinner. Dinner was awesome - it was from Whole Foods. After dinner we played poker- the real ESPN way, not the make-it-up-as-you-go way that we usually play. The instruction was courtesy of Marks brother, Gabe. After poker we went out and looked at the stars! There were more than I have probably ever seen before! I think we even saw the Milky Way. I have no idea but thats what Marks dad said anyway :) In the morning we went to a couple wineries- Robert Skinsky (or something like that), which is organic and small, but fun because you get food with your wine tasting, and Mondavi, which is huge and really pretty. We didn't taste there because it was like $30. After that we went to lunch at a really yummy place that I already forgot the name of and then headed to Davis with Emily and Mark. We wandered around downtown for an hour or two, music and bike shops mainly. They had to get back to Palo Alto so we headed back home to Roseville as well. And thats the end! It was definitely the most scenic Thanksgiving I've had but weird to be away from a lot of my family. It was great to see Emily though!! I got to see her engagement rock :) and catch up on life a little bit. OH- I am going to be in Raleigh from Dec 19-22nd so if you want to see me send me an email/call me and we will plan something :) 

Countdown to Turkey!

So lets see.. whats new with us?
1. One week until Thanksgiving fun in Napa with eemily! yay!!
2. Might not be doing ATP for research..
3. We got Lawrence of Arabia from Netflix. I thought it was going to be horrible and boring based solely on the fact that it is 3 hours and 47 minutes long. But we watch about 1.5 hours last night and I am into it. Its a tiny bit slow but they are treking accross the desert- that is not speedy business.
4. Did I mention its almost Thanksgiving?
5. The rain is starting.. I wouldn't really call it rain though.. more just a drizzle. I need a rain coat.
6. I have won the battle with the bunnies! I have a fortress of fencing and netting around my garden that seems to be working. The rain is nice in that it means that I don't have to water my garden but it also means that grass (and other weeds) grow like crazy!! I have put down mulch in an attempt to suffocate it.. I have a feeling it won't make much difference. Hopefully my veggies will grow in spite of the infestation.
7. That is all.

If you are going to San Francisco

I can't remember whether I mentioned it already, but we went to San Francisco last Sunday for the day. Its so pretty there!! We didn't really do much but walk around. We walked along the bay near fishermans wharf, up to see the crooked street whose name has currently escaped me. We went to the Girarhdeli place 3 times :) They give you free samples when you walk in so we went twice for free samples and once for a brownie fudgie sundae. Mmmmm.. :) Lombard! thats the name of the crooked street. Anyway, heres a picture of me with the bridge! We came in on the Bay Bridge and out on the Golden Gate. You only have to pay toll coming into the city apparently. Overall, a good trip! Hopefully we will get back to see more stuff soon! Next time maybe we will wear some flowers in our hair ;)

It rained!

Yesterday I learned an important lesson: if you ride your bike after it rains your rear will get wet; you should cover your bike seat with a plastic bag so that it won't soak up water.
This morning I learned that I don't know how to change the tube on my bike ( I do in theory but not in reality) but luckily other nice people on the train do!
Aaanyway, I am very glad its Friday! This has been crazy-everything-is-due-soon-week. I am actually supposed to be writing a paper right this minute but I decided to get warmed up on my blog first ;)
Well, thats about all the interesting stuff to say! Happy weekend!

Can I go home yet?

Man, what a morning! I rode my bike to the train this morning and everything was going well... Then on my last turn of the route theres was a small puddle in the little dent that runs across the road. I went through it standing up (so the water doesn't stripe me) like I do every morning but this time I somehow lost control and completely fell over. The people driving behind me stopped to make sure I was OK. Very embarrassing and very painful! Both my knees are scraped and one is a little purple. I can walk though so I don't think anything is broken or torn which is good. And of course today is the day that Derrick is taking the PE so he's completely unreachable. I'm hoping that he will be able to come get me from the train station this afternoon so I don't have to ride with a bum knee. Its so nice to have Derrick home!
AAanyway, I have wasted the whole morning messing around on the internet so I guess I should try to do some work!

Silly rabbits

Exciting things for today:
- Derrick comes home tonight!!!
- I ate a Twix!
- I am (sort of) caught up on school work!
- Its my moms birthday! Happy birthday mommy!
- Animals are eating all my veggies from my garden! Stupid rabbits!! I will have to cover them better.. the veggies, not the rabbits
- Its time to go catch the train!

So Busy!

Things are so busy!
Quick update:
- Derrick is coming home tomorrow night!! yay!!!
- Emily is engaged!!
- We might be going to Napa Valley for Turkey day!
- At least part of my research is going to be about measuring ATP in anaerobic digestion to monitor cell viability
Yay! Time for class..

Case of the Crazies

Another Friday has come! This week was weird, lots of ups and downs. Yesterday I had an attack of the crazies! I just completely freaked out when Derrick told me he was going to stay a few days longer in AZ. I think the feeling that everything is new and unfamiliar combined with the fact that I feel like I am all alone got bigger than I could control. I wrote Derrick these horrible mean emails and cried in the bathroom. It was great. Then I realized that I was freaking out and needed to clear my head so went running for a bit and prepared my garden for planting. That helped me clear the crazies and remember that I am not alone, not ever! God is always with me and he is always familiar and good. So anyway, I survived my case of the crazies! Yay!

I have been reading, finished this morning actually, The Da Vince Code. I know, I’m kinda behind the times but at first I wasn’t even going to read it because I had heard all this bad stuff, that it was lying about church stuff. But I figured I should be in the loop so that if someone asks me about it I will know what I am up against. Anyway, there are all kinds of lies in that book. I tried to skim those parts and get the info I need to keep up with the plot- which was very intriguing by the way! Codes and mystery, action and adventure!

So thats the excitement of my week! Plans for the weekend include gardening, trying out a new church in Davis (maybe) and cleaning! I am too hip for my own good..

PS- I changed the look- What do you think? Also, I got rid of all the pictures and put them here

Friday!

I survived my first full week of classes! Oh my goodness I have never done so much reading and discussing! I was (and still am) a little worried because I am not usually much of a discusser but so far it has been OK. I am not the MOST silent one in the room ;)

I somehow managed to hurt my neck/back on Monday. I think the shock of riding with a heavy bag on my back and then sitting on the train for an hour messed me up. Luckily I have been able to take the car to the train which cuts down a lot on my bike time.

Overall, the week has been good, a bit overwhelming, but I think that will pass as I get adjusted to all the newness in life right now. I decided that I need make some friends and meet some people besides Derrick so I am going to ride with the triathlon team tomorrow morning!

Happy Weekend!

School has started!

Finally!! I am sooo excited! My research is most likely going to be about using rumen bacteria in anaerobic digestion of poop to make methane (and maybe some hydrogen?). Anyway, its going to be engineering, its going to be microbiology, its going to be fabulous ;) We’ll see if I’m still saying that in a couple years :) My classes are going to be interesting as well- I’m taking a renewable bioprocessing class, plant cell walls and research methods for engineers or something like that. One good thing is that I don’t have class on Friday so if I don’t have anything else to do on campus I can stay home and work. Looks like they are going to be a lot of reading and writing/discussing etc. which will be good since I will have 2 hours every day on the train to do just that ;)

I have an office (shared) that has 3 windows! a big change from Weaver which only had like 3 windows in the whole building. I got a new messenger bag to carry my stuff and a hefty bike lock so I am all ready to be a commuter :P I am not the only crazy person who bike/train commutes to Davis. There is a lady to commutes from Auburn (one stop east of roseville) and I think a guy, I’ve only seen him a couple times so I’m not sure if he’s a regular or not.
I am also going to rent a garden plot on campus! For the fall I’m gonig to try to grow brocolli, spinach and maybe peas.. you have to ’shell’ them and I’m not exactly overflowing with spare time to shell peas. I’m not completely sure that I’m overflowing with time to keep a garden but I’m going to give it a shot.

Well, thats about it. If I get time I may try to make the pictures just links so the page doesn’t take 5 years to load… aanyway, everyone (assuming people read this..?) keep me updated on whats going on in NC and otherwise!

I am a Californian!

Well at least according to my drivers license and tags I am :) but then my name is Kelly Caldwell on my drivers license. Sometime in the last 2.5 years we lost the ‘certified’ copy of our marriage license (we just have a photocopy) so they won’t put my updated name on my license until I get one thats sealed or stamped or whatever. I spent basically 3 hours getting everything done.

I am very ready for school to start. Its nice to relax but I am getting antsy! and a little bored and lonely since Derrick is at work all day. It will be here soon enough though.

Sunday night we had dinner with 2 of Derricks coworkers and families. They are both Mormons, but dinner wasn’t weird or anything. I have been doing some research though just in case :)

btw, sorry about the horrendously long loading time of this page. All the pictures take a while..

Pictures!!

Ok, there are pictures in the posts now so if you already read the story go back and look at the pictures!! They are much more interesting than my rambling :)

This is only around 90 of the almost 500 pics we took so let me know if you want to see more of something!

Initial Impressions

Sorry for the delay on pictures.. my hard drive decided that it wanted to die yesterday so I am waiting on Dell to send me a new one. Luckily my pictures are still saved on my camera!I would have been sick if I had lost them.

I am enjoying our apartment and the area! The apartment is pretty and quiet- and full of kids! It seems like the whole city of Roseville has kids or is pregnant. Its fun to have them running around the neighborhood- much better than rude, loud college-age people. There is a key to everything at our apartment- the gate, the pool, the garage, the business center- I feel important with so many keys! Also, the yellow lights are really fast- and there is a $386 (random number!?) fine for running red lights. I think we are not going to get internet since there are computers at the apt center and internet is like $60/mo. and so far we don’t get any channels on our TV w/o cable service.. hopefully when we plug in the VCR we will at least get a few! Otherwise our apartment will be completely free of media influence ;) — which could be a good thing.

I looked into getting my CA drivers license and tags today.. the DMV takes appointments, of which there were none til next tuesday, and you have to bring every piece of documentation known to man. I guess its good for preventing random people from getting licenses and stuff, but kinda annoying too!

Day 10 - Sunday - In Conclusion

In the morning, Derrick called Melissa and she said she would call when she had some free time to come by. We went back to AutoZone to try to find the tool that we needed. Melissa called while we were there so we met her back at Derricks work. She installed the spark plugs and the car started!! She said we should let it run for a while before we moved it and then restart it to take it off the trailer. So we did and it worked and we were happy!

We went back to the apt and unloaded most of the boxes and smaller furniture. One of Derrick’s coworkers, Eric (Derrick and Eric hehe) offered to help us but he couldn’t come until 2pm so we went and got some lunch at Quizno’s mmmmm.

Eric came and they had everything up in like 30 minutes. After the truck was empty we went and picked back up the trailer and returned both to the Penske place. We then went to COSTCO for food and TARGET for a shower curtain so that we could eat dinner and bathe ;) We did both of those things and then went to bed.

So all of our stuff is in the apartment but most of it is crowded in the living room. So theres still lots of unpacking but the hard part in definitely done. Overall it was an awesome trip- thanks to all those that prayed for us and please continue to do so- we still have a lot of adjusting to do and stuff to figure out.

Day 9 - Saturday - Welcome to CA!

We crossed Nevada and stopped for lunch in Reno.

We made it to Roseville around 4:30pm, right on schedule! The plan was to drop off the trailer at Derricks work place since parking at our new apt is kinda tight and its easier to unpack without the trailer on the back. The first step was to take the car off the trailer. Derrick in and turned the key and much to our surprise the engine turned but wouldn't start! This was most definitely NOT in the plan.

So our first solution was to put higher octane gas in the car- maybe it needed that extra boost after its long journey. That didn't work. By this time it is after five and we have to meet the apartment people by 6 so we head over there to sign our lease, which had 30 pages!?

After signing our lives away we head back over the Derricks work and call AAA. They come and the lady, Melissa, says that she thinks we need new spark plugs- the changes in altitude, humidity, etc encountered accross the country caused them to burn out, or whatever spark plugs do when they stop working. Melissa says that if we buy some spark plugs she will install them for us tomorrow. Melissa also has a mullet :)

We find an AutoZone, buy some spark plugs and head over to the apartment to unpack and hopefully uncover Derricks tools so he can try to install the spark plugs. We find the tools but we don't have the right thing of course. By this time it is midnight so we take the bed upstairs to the apt and go to bed.

Day 8 - Friday - Mt. Washburn

On Friday we hiked up a mountain, quite literally. We started at 8000-something and hiked up to 10000 something ft above sea level in 3 miles. Mt. Washburn in one of the highest peaks in Yellowstone so you can pretty much see the whole park from the top. The view was awesome but my legs and rear end are still recovering :)

When we finally got down to the bottom a crowd had gathered in the parking lot- there was a bear up the hill across the street.

He was just snoozing away as all these people were trying to snap pictures and see what he was up to. According to one of the guys in the crowd it was a 800 lb grizzly. eek!

After our morning exercise we headed outta town.

We went through SLC and saw the Mormon temple, I think. We went through Salt Lake City where we saw an awesome sunset over the Lake and stopped in Elko, NV to sleep.

Day 7 - Thursday - Yellowstone

We spent most of the morning seeing Old Faithful and the other geysers around there.In the afternoon we went to see the and other hot springs.

The mudpots were really cool. They are formed when the hot water underground melts the rock and turns it into clay- which looks like 'mud'. They bubble and spew and smell really bad- like sulphur. They are also very acidic- the bacteria that live them convert the hydrogen sulfate (I think) that smells really bad to sulphuric acid.

We also stopped by the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone which was spectacular. The canyon was formed by the Yellowstone River.

That night we stayed at the Lake Hotel which is, who would have guessed, on Lake Yellowstone! Our room had an awesome view. It is the oldest lodging place in Yellowstone and the lake is the biggest above 7000ft.

The hotel had a restaraunt in it but it would have been at least $50 for us to eat there so we opted to walk down the road to the Lodge Cafeteria. We had trout (from the lake!) and mac and cheese and corn. It was yummy and much cheaper and we are all about cheap. ;)

Day 6 - Wednesday - Arrive Yellowstone!

We headed up into Montana along I-90 to avoid the high mountains to the east of Yellowstone and came into the park via the north entrance. We saw Mammoth hot springs and a few other things that evening.

We got a hotel in West Yellowstone, Montana and ate dinner at ... some place with bears in the name- a local place. I got a salad- probably my only vegetable since our trip started... Lets just say I was little plugged up. Aaanyway, the meal was good :)

Day 5 - Tuesday - Badlands and Rushmore

We woke up bright and early to a yummy breakfast and set off for Badlands, SD.

The pictures do a much better job of explaining this place so you will have to wait for those, but even the pictures don't completely do it justice.

After Badlands, we headed down to Mt. Rushmore. I was a little worried that our truck wouldn't make it up the mountain, but it did! Mt. Rushmore was awesome. We had a great tour guide who told us the history and made you think some about the significance of each of the presidents in Mt. Rushmore.

After Rushmore, we stopped in Wall, SD to visit the infamous Wall drug store where we got "Ridin' the West" t-shirts then crossed into Wyoming and stopped in Sheridan for the night.

Day 4 - Monday - South Dakota

We left Kansas City and headed up towards South Dakota. We snuck over into Kansas just to say we had.

Welcome to Kansas!

Kansas Countryside

Welcome back to Missouri ;)

Derrick was bored while riding :)

Welcome to Iowa!

Some kind of production plant I assume? It was neat looking so I took a picture :)

Nebraska.. the good life!

Nebraska Countryside- reminds me of the Windows XP desktop.

Welcome to South Dakota!

We stopped for gas in South Dakota where they had 10% ethanol blend gas which was very exciting for me :)

Lots of Sunflowers!

Snakes!? Where!?

South Dakota Countryside!

South Dakota Sunset

We stopped at the visitors center on our way into SD and found info for a Bed and Breakfast right on the way. It was only about 8 miles off the highway, but it took about 30 minutes to go those eight miles since the road was gravel and through the middle of nowhere. I was amazed at how much nothing there is up there. It is beautiful though. The b&b owners turn out to be Christians which was cool. I was sad that we didn't have more time to spend there.

Day 3 - Sunday - St. Louis

We resumed our journey around 8:30 am. We drove through Nashville, TN and up to St. Louis.

We were going to try to visit the arch but never found a parking place for our monstrous vehicle. I got some good pictures as we were driving by, but we got lost and ended up in what looked like a kinda sketchy part of town. We were also low on gas so that made it even more fun ;)

We found our way out of town eventually and to a gas station. From there we continued to Kansas City where we stayed the night.

Day 2 - Saturday - Pack the Truck, again

We woke up at the insanely early time of 5am and started our journey. It is at this time that Derrick (and eventually I) decided that this truck is way to big and we are not comfortable driving it. We also had about 6 ft of extra space in the back. We met Derrick's parents in Greensboro for breakfast as planned and we called to see if the Penske place in Gboro had a smaller truck- they did!

Sooo we drove over there with Derrick's wonderful family to take all of our stuff out of one truck and put it in another. It didn't take as long as I thought it would and it turned out to be the best thing- especially when driving through the mountains out west!

We made it to Knoxville, TN and stayed in a way overpriced hotel room. Apparently the University of TN had a football game and everyone and there brother was in town to see it. The room we got was about the last thing available in town. We did find time to buzz Derrick's hair :) no more flat top- Yay!!

Day 1 - Friday - Pack Up the Truck

Derrick worked and I finished packing until around noon. Then I went and picked him up and we went to pick up our Penske truck and trailer. We got it home, but it was really big.. perhaps too big- more on that later. We start loading as the rain was stopping, but noticed that there was water leaking from the top. Derrick went to exchange the truck which took another hour or so. I went to run some last minute errands. On my way home I noticed that my car was running really hot so I pull over and it just so happens that my dad (who came to help us move) had some anti-freeze. He brought it and we poured almost all of it into my car. Apparently I have a very slow anti-freeze leak.

Aaanyway, everyone got back to the apartment and loaded all big stuff into the truck. Derrick and I finished the smaller stuff and by that time it was around midnight so we slept on the floor of our empty apartment.

We made it!!

We arrive Saturday afternoon in Roseville, CA! We had some pretty interesting adventures so I am going to go through day by day and tell you all about them I will post pictures whenever we get internet in our apartment (now I am in the ‘business center’) since all my pics are on my laptop.

Less than 48 Hours

Wow, I can’t believe that we leave in 2 days! We’re pretty much done packing.. just a few odds and ends things left. Hopefully Ernesto will be gone by Friday afternoon so that we don’t have to load the truck in the rain. I wouldn’t mind the rain except that our stuff would get all wet and then sit closed up for a week. Well, thats about all the news.. let us know if you want to help us Friday

WOo HOo!

I have lots of announcements!!

1. Derrick is home!! We survived 3 weeks apart!

2. Derrick’s car is SOLD! A highschool guy bought it as his first car- he was so excited that he locked his key in the car within 6 hours of owning it I guess they got into it because the spare was with Derrick in CA.
3. Derrick found us an apartment! Email me if you want our new address. I will hopefully be sending out little post cards.. but it may not happen in the midst of all the other things we have to do… like pack.

4. We will be heading out Labor Day weekend.. either Friday or Saturday. So if anyone is free let me know and we will LET you come over and carry things down two flights of stairs! Aren’t we nice?

5. My sister and I are having a yard sale on the 26th. I have a computer, dining table, lots of clothes, violin, and other odds and ends to sell. If anyones interested let me know and I’ll give you the address or you can buy it before the yard sale.
I think thats about it. Our apartment is an absolute wreck. Even worse than usual if thats possible. Yay! The End.

Monday you come too soon!

This weekend just completely flew by. It was fun though! On Sunday I went to the beach in Wilmington in the morning and then drove home and went to the pool with the girls. Amanda didn’t show but I half expected that- she is not known for her reliability We ‘grilled’ burgers on the george foreman after the pool- yummy!

New Old Bike!

I am the proud new owner of a Free Spirit Brittany bicycle! It was only(?) $55! I’m not really sure if I got ripped off or not but it was the cheapest non-mountain bike that I could find. Plus it should be an great commuter bike- fenders to keep (most of) the mud/gunk off me, a rack to carry stuff on, a more comfy seat, smooth tires and its blue!

As you can probably tell I’m slightly excited. I am almost one week down, 2 weeks to go of Derrick being gone! I’m going to Wilmington in until Sunday afternoon when the gals are coming over for a pool party!

I heard a cool thing on Klove the other day, Sunday actually. It was the guy from Rivers of the World and he was telling a story about how there were these kids working on houses and a government official asked them weren’t they tired!? The little boy replied “My God gives me endless strength!” WoW! That was especially poignant (is that how you spell it?) since I was freaking out about how I was EVER going to survive 3 weeks without Derrick. So I claimed it- God will give me endless strength! And so far he has provided as promised I still would rather Derrick be here or me be there but we are surviving joyfully. Praise God.

Monday Monday..

If dogs can grin Toro was definitly grinning yesterday after our walk/run in Umstead. He had his little tongue out grinning up at me like "Aunt Kelly, that was FUN!"

aanyway, today is monday. it is 10am and I have already messed up my clothes. This morning I was carrying my what I thought to be empty smoothie cup into work and dribbled it on my lunch bag. No big deal, I'll just rinse it off. I noticed later that I somehow managed to get it down the front of my WHITE capris as well.. Oh well, the color matches my shirt almost perfectly!

One Month til Blastoff!

Its exciting and scary to think that in about a month we will be leaving NC for the west coast! I have been thinking about the things that I will miss (besides people) and here is what I've come up with:
* When the air is so humid and hot that it can't help but explode into a afternoon thunderstorm. The smell as the mist rises up from the hot asphalt as the temperature is temporarily cooled by the pouring rain.
* The beach!! According to annonymous sources west coast beaches are cold and rocky :(

Thats all I have so far..
I guess to go along with that I should make a list of things I am looking forward to in CA:
* Low humidity
* Public Transportation
* Being with driving distance of San Francisco, Wine Country, Lake Tahoe and probably other places that I don't even know about yet :)

Transportation Issues

What is it about rain that makes people forget how to drive? Its like the raindrops swell up the impatient part of the brain causing it to overtake the part that knows how to drive. This morning I saw a car in the straight lanethat decided he wanted to turn left.. so he did. Luckily the people around him still had part of their driving brain intact so they didn’t hit him (or her), but I was dumbfounded. I admit, my impatient portion does tend to swell in slow rainy day traffic but I have never let it get so out of control that it disabled my ability to drive. I am really looking forward to the time when I will no longer have to drive myself to work/school. Hurray for public transportation and bike friendly cities!

ASABE Conference

I got back last night (or maybe this morning?) from the ASABE International Conference in Portland, OR. It was overall a good time, but I was exhausted!

I got there Sunday afternoon and took the train to our hotel where and I met up with everyone, well, everyone that was staying in the Days Inn. We went to Nordstroms cafe to get some food and wandered around downtown, took a nap and then went to dinner at Rock Bottom. By this time I was pretty much in a state of exhausted delerium, but it was still fun :)

Monday we got up and went to the first day of the conference. The sessions were all pretty interesting. There were so many to choose from that you could just switch to something different if you got bored. That night we went to Henry’s for dinner. It was very dark ;) but yummy. I had leftovers that I ended up giving away to a homeless guy, which there are apparently lots of in Portland.

Tuesday morning we went to more presentations and then my poster presentation session was that afternoon. It happened to be in the same room as the renewable energy panel discussion so that made the fact that hardly anyone came to my poster less boring :) I got to reconnect with some Davis people so that was cool too. That night we went to Pizza Shmizza for dinner, then to the book store, then to an Irish pub (where I left my wallet causing a momentary panick, but the wonderful Justin Spangler picked it up so it was all good) and then to the American Cowgirl bar which turned out to be way more fun than I expected.

Wednesday morning I kinda dozed through some final presentations and a dreadfully long awards ceremony. Then Paige and I decided it was time to go shopping :) We wandered around for a while looking for the REI and eventually found after asking several people ;) Then we went to the mall for some dinner and more shopping- I got some shirts, tanks and a jean jacket! All on sale of course. I switched hotels because everyone else at mine was already gone and stayed with Paige at the way-nicer-than-the-DaysInn-they-give-you-free-cookies-Double Tree Inn! Jackie had been going on and on about the cookies at the Double Tree and I dare say that she is right, they are heavenly.

I got up and took some pictures around town and headed to the airport. The flight home was uneventful minus some heavy turbulence.

Overall, a good trip :) I learned stuff, met lots of cool new people and got to hang out with the cool people I already know :) There are pictures on my flickr site if you are interested.

Happy MLK Day!

I went to school this morning.. there were all of 3 other people in the building. I stayed for about four hours and did thermo calculations. woo hoo! Now I am goofing off until time to go get my oil changed. Speaking of which, I FINALLY got my car back last week! Everything works and she is beautiful ;)

Christmas was good. Derrick and I traveled for most of the two weeks we were off. We went to the Biltmore House Thursday-before-Christmas night. It was really fun. The house was decorated and lit up for Christmas and we got to go to the gardens and winery the next morning. The gardens were pretty much dead except for the pansies but there were no crowds ;) The winery was fun too. They had wine tasting and a tour of the facilities.

After Biltmore we went to Asheboro until Christmas morning when we left for Wilmington. We stayed in Wilmington until Thursday morning. It was great to see all the family and relax some. Thursday we traveled back to Raleigh, stayed the night and went back to Asheboro to go hiking at Morrow Mountain on Friday. That was really fun. We hiked up a couple mountains :) Saturday afternoon we headed back to Raleigh and stayed there :) It was a lot of driving, but worth it.

But vacations over now- time to get back to work! I think we have finally come up with a system that will heat the water like we want it to. Its completely separate from what we started with, but it works so thats all I care :) I should be able to start doing runs this week! woo hoo!

I still have no idea what we're doing after I graduate. I have unofficial offers from UF and UC Riverside and haven't heard from UC Davis and TAMU. So we'll see. My preference out of all of those is UC Davis so hopefully they will let me in and give me some mula :)

Well, I guess thats about it. Time to enjoy the rest of the holiday!