West Coast Represent

I'm back from my wonderful time spent in California with the Russell's. That was my last "hurrah" before it's time to get back to the real world of... WORK! I'm very excited to start working again, as I've said before ;)

Cali was nice. We had a lot of down time, which was fine by me. Beaches and pools took up most of our time. We did have a fun time at the Angels game last night, with tickets courtesy of John. It was fun to go to a new stadium and take the train there. It was sort of a hassle because I left my phone on the train on the way back (AHHHH!!) but luckily I realized it soon enough so I was able to pick it up this morning in San Diego. That's what train drinking does to you.

The drive home today was long, hot, and my book on CD (Firefly Lane) was putting me to sleep. I tried to pull over to shut my eyes for a few minutes (probably not the safest idea) in a gas station parking lot but after about 30 seconds I was sweating and suffocating from the heat. I decided to get out of the car, use the restroom, and get a Wild Cherry Pepsi. Not delicious, especially since I could taste the cup. Soda has been pretty much eliminated from my diet, but I wanted something naughty since I was by myself. Hehe! I was excited to see my boys and be sweaty in my hot house. The Russell's froze me out with their AC!

Jonathan was going to take me to our neighborhood restaurant, Amano's, for dinner. We pulled up and they were closed! We decided to go to Cibo instead, which was nice. Crowded and noisy, but we had a nice time. I opted for dessert instead of wine (Nutella + bananas, hello!!) and we ended up taking the equivalent of a full pizza home. It's nice to go out to dinner once in a while but we really like cooking a staying in. Although I'll probably be pizza-ed out since our book club meeting for The Help is this week at La Bocca. I did score a sweet coupon to use there, however. We'll have to decide what our next book will be. So many options!

Currently I'm watching J play Madden 08 (what year is it?!) and sweating. Really. I'm excited to sleep in my bed and do some more relaxing tomorrow. The end of summer is near... working a few days this week and then one more week before it's time to go back! And hopefully it starts cooling down. Where's the monsoons? I live for rain and thunderstorms!

Must catch up on magazines. Obviously my mind is all over the place.

P.S. I posted some pics from vacay on Facebook, as well as my photo blog http://picturexthis.wordpress.com.

Home on the Ranage

Gooooood morning!

I'm fueling up on breakfast right now because I took a run this morning. I was hoping to avoid the sun but in order to do that I would've had to wake up at 5, which didn't sound fun. Instead I opted for 7:30 and 90 degrees. Besides literally dripping with sweat the whole time, the last few minutes on my way home were TOUGH!

It's nice to be home from our vacation. As much as I love traveling, I love coming home even more. I missed the doggies and my bed. We did have a good time and it was nice to show Jonathan parts of my childhood. I took him around to some houses I lived in in Wisconsin (I lived in a LOT!) and reminisce about the days there.

In Chetek, we partook in a ton of eating and drinking, hence the running I'm doing. We went to the street dance which we were very disappointed with. It was small and you had to pay to get through a fence so we stood outside the fence for a few minutes. There were a lot of boat rides and bar visits, which we were not able to do when we were younger, of course :) The house we stayed in was great and it was nice being with family!

In Milwaukee, we went to a Brewer's game with my dad and step-mom. It was my first time at Miller Park! My dad drove us around the lakefront afterwards where I got to see the house that I always claimed when we drove past it. Still looks the same! We also went to Bastille Days downtown. We probably should've waited to eat until we got there because there were so many food options. We had a few beers and watched the start of the run and called it a night. On Friday we went to the museum, which is one of my favorite places. Phoenix has nothing to even compare to it. Not much has changed inside that museum!

On Wednesday I will be going to San Diego to visit Katy (so far, that's the plan!). The week after that, J has to go back to work :( I won't be going till August 2nd. I feel bad since he only has a few days off before going back. Such is life!

It's time for coffee. Some time today I need to get an oil change and that's my big plan for the day :) I hope everyone is enjoying their summers!

Life Up North

One of my favorite memories of growing up in Wisconsin was traveling up north to Chetek and my great-grandma's lake home. I was pretty young, so some of my memories may be jumbled, but these are events that stick out the most and I think they all include my cousin, Nicole:

• going to the Miss Chetek pageant at the local high school
• going to Ben Franklin with my aunt and cousin to purchase fake flowers and everything needed to have our own beauty pageant 
• taking the canoe out and "accidentally" flipping it over in the middle of the lake (family was not happy)
• calling my cousin porcupine legs because she shaved her legs (obviously not that well) and we had to sleep together and her legs rubbed up on mine
• going to the street dance and digging for money in a pile of sawdust
• watching the church lady on Saturday Night Live
• watching the men butcher the fish they caught that would later be our dinner
• betting that our family couldn't tell the difference between Nicole and I's handwriting...they told us to spell "guess" and I spelled "geuss". Fail. 
• picking green beans at the neighbor lady's house
• visiting the cemetery with my grandma and placing flowers on deserted graves

Ahh, good times. I reminisce because we will be there on Saturday. Not the same house but the same small town. I think back now about how much you take for granted when you are a child. What we would give to still have that property in our family, right on the lake! We'll be in a newer cabin and will still get to do all of the fun lake stuff. I wonder if I'll remember any landmarks there and how much it has changed. Now we can go out with the adults and experience what they did when we were wee ones :) I'll update with fun pictures on my photo blog http://picturexthis.wordpress.com (hopefully if the technology is available!). Most of all I'm excited to cool off! Have you walked outside today? Ick! It's 101 degrees, humid, and not even 11:00 a.m. 

I must clean the house for our house/dog sitter. Enjoy your day!

Fur Mommy and Daddy

On Sunday I went to an orientation for the Arizona Humane Society. Since the AHS and I are Facebook friends (haha) I knew that they were in desperate need for foster homes for their kiddos. I thought I would go see how we could help. Since we can't really get any more pets until we have a giant house with oodles of land, we could at least help out with some animals that needed it. The duration will be from a few days to a few weeks. If we happen to get an animal of a deployed service person, it could be far longer than that.  We signed up for kittens/cats and puppies/dogs (no ferrets or mice allowed!). They may be injured, too young, under-socialized, or may need to gain some weight (not hard to do in this house!). Once we get back from vacation, we are ready and open for foster parenting!

I'm a huge lover of the Humane Society and an advocate of adopting your animals from there. Considering we got both of our babies from the AHS, I know there are cute, lovable, forever pets there! Do not support those mall pet stores and even breeders! And get your pets spayed and neutered!

That is all. 

Anyways, today I sure wish I was at Warped Tour! Well sort of. There's really one band I want to see badly enough to endure the god awful heat for and I don't really have anyone to go with (people work, ya know?). Hopefully they are touring this fall!!

I'm getting excited for our vacation to Wisconsin on Friday. Ready for water, boats, thunderstorms, cool weather, etc. And of course to see family :) You know what else I'm excited about...babies and weddings! All over the place! 

Forgive me, I've had Starbucks today. First time in a while. 

Taking a break from my chromatography lab! I had to come up with a better way to run the experiment since I'm obviously smarter than the chemistry department heads:) It's running much more smoothly. Now I'm just waiting for my solvent to rise to the top. Wow, exciting! The anticipation is killing me!

I am about 1/2 way through my summer school. I just keep telling myself, "It's only 4 weeks!" Today I did some rearranging of my schedule for summer II and fall. Basically the BIO 202 class I was enrolled in for Summer II was a CO-requisite, which I knew already, but I don't really need it yet so I am taking it in the fall now. Summer classes are very demanding and I'm stressing enoug with two, and I would have 3 this summer. I am keeping my math class (last thing I need before I apply) and finishing off chemistry. July is a very busy month with 2 trips planned (wedding and bachelorette party) so I don't want that extra stress when it is not needed. Now in the fall I'll have 202 and microbiology, M-Th 10-12:45 I think so I will have a good amount of in between time. It will work out better that way and J will be a lot less annoyed with me probably :)  I am doing pretty well in 201 so far. It definitely takes a lot of outside studying time but I'm learning a lot very quickly! 

In other related news, this week is busy! I have an info session for the Banner Health program, which I HOPE so badly I will get accepted to. I also am taking the NET on Friday. I'm not very worried about it, yet I want to make sure I do well, not just get a passing grade. The only thing that could potentially work against me is the timing! Very anxious to get that over with. 

In other unrelated news, I will be in Vegas for Blink 182 and MCS (OMG!) the day before the bachelorette party and I am super super super excited. And I have to find a dress to wear to my step-brothers wedding. It'll be outside in Madison (humid!) so I don't want anything too fancy but nice and comfortable. 

Well I think my solvent is rising. After this is done I am off to do some last minute studying for my lecture and lab test tomorrow for BIO 201. 

Toodaloo,

E.