Today is Tuesday

That means that there are 4 more days until the quarter is essentially over!! That also means that I have four days to finish 2 papers, 2 presentations and a final exam. The only thing I am really worried about is the microbiology exam. I have had a hard time learning everything for each test so the idea of having to stuff 3 tests worth of stuff into my brain at once makes me slightly anxious.

The fact that the timing belt on the car is cracked also makes me slightly anxious. I don't have time to deal with it until next week so hopefully it will hold on until then!

My garden is almost ready for planting! I finished clearing out the area this weekend. Things left to do include: fixing/finishing the fence, creating raised beds and working in the mulch/compost. My cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers are almost ready for planting. I started some greens, herbs and marigolds this weekend so hopefully they will be ready in a couple weeks too.

This morning on the train I was thinking about the differences between NC and CA and the main one I thought about is the sky. The sky out here seems so much bigger. You look out and its like you can see forever. Almost every sunrise and sunset that I have seem is breathtaking. This is probably because of terrain. I grew up at the beach and its pretty flat but but nothing like here- I can look east or west from the valley and see flat nothingness, flat nothingness -- MOUNTAINS! That is when there isn't a smoggy haze. .
I was also thinking about how in 2 weeks I will never have to ride the train again. All I will have to do is get out of bed and ride my bike 5 minutes! Thats 1 hr and 15 minutes less of a commute than I have now :)

Panic Attack!

Tuesday afternoon I went by our soon-to-be new apartment office to pick up applications. The lady that I had been working with wasn't there so I just asked the girl who was there for an application. They asked me about which apartment, so I told them, and then she said that she thought that one had been rented out that afternoon. I can feel the panic and rage start to surge through my body... she says doesn't really know anything more and the usual lady will call me in the morning. The morning?!? Thats feels like 3 years from now!!
So I call Derrick and he starts freaking out too. This was the day that I overslept so I had the whole drive home to think over the situation. I tried to keep calm and tell myself that if it didn't work out, we would find somewhere else. That would work for about 30 seconds and then I would get mad again. Needless to say it was a long night for Derrick and I...
The next morning I get to school around 8am as usual but the office doesn't open until 9:30 so I wait around until about 9:45. I'm about to call when an email pops into my inbox. Its from the apartment lady. She tells me that the apartment HAS been rented out but only until March 21st. So we can move in on March 23rd- which is actually better since our current lease doesn't end until the 31st. Turns out that there is a visiting scholar who needed a place for about a month so they gave it to them for the month. whew! Panic attack for nothing!!
On a different note, I got a 68.5 on my microbiology test. That seems discouraging at first but the average was 60 and the highest grade was 73 or something like that. So I was pretty excited about my 68 :)

Long Weekend!

Hurray for presidents day- a much needed day to catch up on things! Here are some pictures- the top ones are our new apartment!! in Davis!! that we move into in less than a month!! Needless to say I am excited. Last week the train just didn't come two mornings and then this morning I overslept and missed it completely so I had to drive. I am feeling very done with the train. I am counting down until March 15.
The bottom left are the flowers Derrick got me from Valentines :) And the bottom right are my sprouting seeds! The really tall ones are cucumber and the smaller ones are tomatoes. I also have peppers but they haven't sprouted yet.
This weekend we went skiing with Emily and Mark. It was fun! Saturday we went cross country skiing at Royal Gorge- it was fun but a lot like work :) Sunday we went downhill skiing at Sugar Bowl. I went down some intermediate slopes.. with the bruises to prove it :P Overall a very fun but exhausting weekend. Luckily I had yesterday off.
My computer is fixed, finally! yay! I had two tests on Friday- Microbiology and biotech. The MB one was really hard- pretty sure I made up answers for at least 2 questions. The biotech wasn't bad.. or maybe I was just too tired to care. We will find out later in the week! Well, time to get back to the real world!

Sleepy Time!

Aye aye aye! That is all I have to say about that.
Announcements!
1. My computer has been sent off to Dell to get fixed. The internet card was bad (shock!?)!
2. Derrick will be home in about an hour :)
3. I left my keys in Davis Wenesday night.. I like to keep things interesting..
4. I am exhausted! So much work and things to keep up with in my brain!
5. Yay for the weekend!!

Welcome to the Quarter of Death!

I am taking 4 classes this quarter. I am not dead yet but it is quite probable that I will be before its over ;) Three of the four have big projects so right now I'm not completely drowning but when everything starts coming due I think I will be going crazy.
Despite my crazy class schedule I had time today to go work at the garden for the afternoon! We had a general 'workday' to earn some hours (In order to not lose your deposit on your garden plot you have to work a certain number of community hours) and then I worked a little in my own garden. My attempt at a winter crop failed miserably. I grew a half eaten cabbage, rosemary- which I'm not sure actually grew so much as didn't die, and lots and lots of grass!! However I was inspired today by other gardeners so I made a first attempt at battling the grass (pulled up and mulched over it). I am considering planting an apple tree. We are allowed to plant trees, with permission/dissusion with the garden director, and I don't think we have an apple tree yet.
This evening I am reinstalling windows (again) trying to fix my internet card driver issues. Hopefully this will work. It has been so incredibly frustrating calling Dell and having them tell me to do the same things I've already done 500 times but I think this might actually work. Keep your fingers crossed!!

Yay!!

We finally got our new dresser! Its so pretty! and nice to have a place to put our clothes besides on the floor ;) This weekend has been very productive! Yesterday I cleaned and cleaned and made a yummy dinner (citrus and black pepper chicken) and sugar cookies! I got some cookie cutters from Williams-Sonoma where you make the cookies and then put them together to make 3-D trees, snowman, sled and reindeer! You are supposed to use a gingerbread cookie recipe but I decided to try it with the sugar cookies. It didn't work- they swell so much that they don't fit together right. Oh well! They are still yummy!
I went for a bike ride this morning. It was so nice to ride my road bike! Its so much faster than my commuter bike. It was soo cold out - I had snot everywhere!! ;) Today I have a lot of reading to do .. I also need to clean the bathroom- my least favorite housecleaning activity.
Well happy weekend everyone!

Merry Christmas!!

And a Happy New Year!! We had a great trip to NC. We got to Raleigh around 7pm on the 19th. Emily graduated all day on Wednesday. I am so proud of her! She has a job and everything! I also went to dinner with Virginia, Joanna and Gina at Mama Fus Wed. night and hung out with Katie Friday afternoon. It was so good to see everyone!!
Friday night I got our rental car and drove to Asheboro where Derrick had been all week. We hung out with Derricks family until Christmas morning. We also went to see The Pursuit of Happyness. It was really good- inspiring and depressing at the same time!
Christmas morning we headed to Wilmington and met my parents at the big family thing at my great aunts. That was nice- lots of family! Friday afternoon was my dads family thing and Saturday was Emily's graduation/engagement party. In between Christmas and the parties we ate, slept and geocached! My dad has a GPS thing for his boat so we used it to geocache and now we are totally addicted to it.. except that we don't have a GPS thingy... My dad gave us an old on to borrow but we may try to just ghetto it and look it up in googlemaps and guess ;)
New Years Eve we celebrated our 3rd(!!) anniversary by going to Bluewater for some expensively delicious seafood! After that my mom coerced us into going to some family friends to visit. We didn't really feel like going, but it ended up being pretty fun.
New Years Day we drove back to Raleigh and I headed back to CA. The flight was long.. the plane stopped in Chicago but since I was going through to Sac on the same plane they wouldn't let me get off. Between Chicago and Sac we had to stop in Salt Lake City because a little girl was having seizures! It was kinda scary and annoying at the same time. By the time we got to Sacramento I had been on the same plane for about 8.5 hours and was very antsy! ;) I finally made it back to the apt around 4:30. THE END!