SIC 'EM BEARS!!

Baylor is headed to the big 12 championship! Big upset Thursday when they beat Kansas (#1 seed) and we (Chad and I) felt doom coming playing UT tonight. but they won!!!! so exciting.

sorry, UT-ers. ;)

lots of 101 checks...

1.  lose 15 pounds, 5 pounds at a time.

this check is well on it's way.  I started calorie counting on Thursday and have lost 3 pounds thus far.  I believe I will be at 5 pounds by the end of the week.  I'm not sure how much I really want to lose total, but I think going down a size would be nice, so we'll aim for a 6 rather than an 8.  I really don't care to be honest, as long as I finally feel good about myself.  I also haven't even had time to exercise yet so that could help, too.

17.  try a new restaurant every other month.

on Friday, we had a date night (#44!) at Pinocchio's, a new Italian place nearby.  It was very good (I hoarded my calories all day and saved 1000 out of my allowed 1350 for dinner...I didn't need them all though!), I tried a new wine (#41!) - Hob Nob chard.  I thought it was good.

25.  do 10 random acts of kindness.

helped an old lady with her groceries at whole foods last week.  

35.  recycle regularly for at least 6 months.

this has been going steady for 3 months, looking good!

84.  make some new girl friends.

not wanting to replace people here, just trying.  I have about 95% guy friends, ladies are good too.  I have made a couple at school so I think this is going well!  I've also gotten closer to one of my cousins who hasn't been around much growing up.

I think that is some solid progress!  In other news, Kate at elefantitas alegres is doing a giveaway for an adorable bikini bag, and I want in on that action!  so check it out if you're interested.

MIA and random thoughts

I've been MIA lately.  Sorry about that.  This week I had a huge paper to finish for tomorrow, and a test - first of the semester actually...grad school is weird.  Got a couple more big ass projects to do for next week over the weekend and then spring break.  This semester is really flying by.  

Anywho, random thoughts today:

• tomorrow we shall have a date night.  Italian food and a movie is on the agenda.  Suggestions for a good movie?
• writing a paper about induced seismicity seemed like a good idea at the time, but it quickly was not.  I don't want to read or write another word about this malarkey.
• I'm developing an obsession with House.  it's been a long time coming.
• I feared running out of gas today on my way home from teaching labs.  lesson learned: my "distance to empty" thing stops calculating when you are under 30 miles.  will NOT do that and drive home anxiously with the radio turned off and no AC again.
• I started doing a semi-combo of WW and just general calorie counting today.  I hope for great success - otherwise I might resort to cutting off a limb.  Anyway, it went well today and I found this cool iphone app that lets you put in foods and subtract exercise calories.  it makes it kinda fun.  I also enjoy meal planning.  I am a nerd.
• I would do anything for love  john krasinski.  watching the office reminds me of this.

yes, please.  sorry chad.

i am officially a gold digger...

...because I got the internship at a gold mine in nevada! I sent my resume, got picked for an interview about a week ago, and the HR peeps picked me out of the group of interviewees! score. they also pay for my housing and transportation. I plan to invest in cargo pants that I can fill with gold samples each evening, and then waddle back to my hotel room. lovely.





I'm that tiny speck in the bottom of the pit. WEEEE!

hello, wednesday.

so I realized I made no blog-a-licious posts about the inauguration yesterday.  I don't feel the need to get all political on anybody, especially since 90% of the people (that I know of) that read my blog are not guilty anyway, but I'll say this - to all the people out there who are insistent on Obama eventually causing Earth to implode: even if you didn't vote for him and you don't necessarily agree with his politics, he is your new president.  The very least you can do is give the guy a chance to do some good and hope for the best.  Take a deep breath, people.  Besides all that, I am pretty optimistic about the next four years.

moving on.  I started grad school on tuesday...ore deposit geochemistry, advanced isotopic hydrogeology, and environmental geology are my classes this semester.  there are 3, count 'em, 3 people in my isotope hydro class...including me.  there are 6 guys + me (one is a chemical engineer...why??)in my ore geochem class, which is taught by my thesis advisor.  my environmental class is supposed to be a capstone course for undergrad seniors, but I am taking it for fun because we didn't have it at baylor and I am pretty interested in such things.  it's a lot of review of a lot of things I have already done 100 times though, so it shouldn't be very demanding.  I start teaching intro labs next week, which is sort of intimidating, but sort of exciting because I get to lead field trips, which is exciting to my nerdy self for no apparent reason.

other exciting nerd news:  I may be doing an internship this summer at a gold mine company in Nevada.  they pay room & board or whatever and over $20 an hour.  I don't know for sure yet because it really depends on the schedule and the exact compensation, but I'm working on it.

other than that, my life is pretty boring.  I went running for the first time in probably a month last night, and my right hip is now yelling at me for it.  

comedy/make you doubt humanity moment of the day: dlisted article

weekend update.

so, 101 progress:

15.  try a new recipe once a month.

saturday night we had a little soiree with some friends here and my mom and I made these delicious concoctions that I have no name for.  they are very simple:  take a green pepper chopped into reasonable appetizer sized pieces (I suppose you could use any, but I liked the flavor with these), spray with a little olive oil and salt and pepper, crumble some feta cheese on each piece, and then sprinkle some sliced kalamata olives on top of the feta cheese.  grill (or bake) until the peppers are softened.  OMG.  amazing.  they tasted nothing like I expected them to, and they were gone in about 2 minutes.

41.  try a new wine every month.

I tried Black Opal shiraz this month.  I was not such a fan - if you like dry red wines, you would probably be impressed by it, but it was a little too much for me.  It had a good flavor, but it was not quite what I like.  I did use it to make some marinara for my baked eggplant parmesan, and it was a nice touch there, though!

32.  keep my car clean - especially if I get a new one!

check.  I have had the car for almost a month and it has been kept thoroughly pristine.  I scrubbed it down last week, and there is no trash piling up inside.  victory, so far.

64.  clean out my closet and donate/consign what i can.

I did this right before we moved back to Colorado, and I did it again when we got here.  I have a cargo area full of clothes to take to the consignment shop.

75.  get my parents to switch lightbulbs.

by this, I mean from traditional ones to the energy efficient spiral ones.  well, turns out they had pretty much done most of the household bulbs on their own!  success.

78.  register for practical wedding gifts - and at least one splurge.

we registered last tuesday.  it was fun but really pretty exhausting.  I would say our splurge was the Dyson we registered for.  my parents have had one for a few years and I love it - so I must have one.  I really wanted the pink breast cancer one they came out with, but I will settle for the allergen one we registered for.  I was also excited for the free gift we got from crate & barrel - they give you a crystal heart bowl when you register there.

confessions:

- I start grad school on tuesday.  I know I should probably be excited or something, but I am really just dreading more school.  plus, I am not all that psyched about my schedule right now (it is still sort of in limbo though...so that might change).  I know that it should go by really fast due to the fact the 3.5 years of undergrad pretty much flew by, and theoretically I should only be in my master's program for 1.5 years, but I really, truly, with every fiber of my being hate school.  I want the advanced degree, but I hate the process.

- I have not heard from my doctor since my ovarian ultrasound.  I am not sure if this is good or bad, but either way I do not like being in limbo.  

- I am not sure if I know how to be a teacher, so I don't know how this TA position thing is going to go.  ack.

- chad jacked up my favorite (of our 2) guitar controller for guitar hero being a drunken fool on saturday, and I want to punch him.  okay, maybe not the violence, but I am ticked.

checks, rants, raves, christmas, and a new year.

Happy new year, everyone!  I hope you all have had a wonderful holiday season, and wish everyone the best this year.

I haven't updated in a little while, but that's because we were so busy getting everything taken care of to move, and then getting settled in Colorado.  We're done now, and we seem to have made it in one piece.  Chad starts grad school on the 13th, and I start on the 20th.  

On to Christmas!  I love Christmas.  My present to myself was basically my new car (I shouldn't have!).  Chad got me Guitar Hero III and a new guitar, which I love much better than the one that came with World Tour.  It's much more responsive/less noisy.  

Chad also got me a giant jar of my favorite Yankee Candle, the mistletoe scent.  I have no idea what mistletoe is supposed to smell like, but this smells like a wonderful, piney dream.  He also got me the Wall-e DVD.  I LOVE this movie.  I have a slight obsession.

My aunt got us a Wii Fit, which is ridiculously fun.  I love the hula-hooping, ski jump, and step aerobics.  I highly recommend it!

My parents also got us both some clothes and some nice boots.  Question for you fashionista-types: what color tights would you wear with a gray sweater dress?  My mom picked out an adorable sweater dress from Macy's, and bought some gray textured vera wang tights to wear with it, but this seems like way too much gray to me, and I don't really know which color would be better.  Any thoughts?

Moving on to some checks: #17 is in progress.  This is hard for me because I am one of those people who fears change and am terrified to try new foods.  Last Monday, we were driving around Denver running errands, and Chad decides he simply must have food from some hole-in-the-wall Mexican place we drove by.  My stomach said no, but whatever.  It ended up actually being very delicious - I would definitely eat there again.  They had fabulous salsa, which is really my only requirement in life.  

#35 is also in progress - our trash service picks up recyclables as well, so its quite easy.  I feel really good about it!  

#42 is in high gear.  It's much easier to do here, where the tap water is actually delicious, and not painful to drink.  I have been chugging it since we got here, and hopefully it will do me some good!

A rant:  in October, we found a place up here that we absolutely loved for our wedding.  I checked with the coordinator several times about the date still being available, etc. and she assured me we had a hold on the date and we would be alerted if anyone expressed interest in our date.  Well, last week, we went up to the venue to tour it and we were right, we loved it.  So we contact the coordinator to book, and she says the date is booked.  Excuse me?  We have it in writing from her saying we have a hold.  She says that it is a big misunderstanding, she thought we had a hold on the date, but she was wrong, and she was new at the time so she wasn't sure how to handle it, etc.  but she can offer us another date at a discount because of the confusion.  WTF?  I am so annoyed.  We still love the venue, but I am too upset with them to use their facility now...how do I know you will get it right this time?  Will we order chicken and beef and get served fish and veal?  I want to smack someone.

So now we are on the look for a new venue.  We have found a couple we really like, we just need to go visit them.  But really, UGH.  I am over wedding planning.

graduation!

i'm officially done! diploma in hand. here are some pictures from chad's and my graduation.

#10!

10.  finish my bachelor of science.

My last professor FINALLY posted our grades from our final, which was approximately eleventy-two days ago.  I am good to go!  I wasn't really worried about my grade, but you never wanna jinx yourself...haha.  I ended up with 3 A's, and my calculus II grade, which although I was impressed with considering my complete lack of advanced math skills, am not particularly proud of.  I am, however, particularly proud of the A I received in hydrogeology - not an easy class.  I graduate on Saturday, and Chad will get to make fun of my honor cords - which are admittedly dorky.

My parents, Chad, and my good friends Mikey O. and James will be there.  Exxxxciting!  I feel so grown up.  I will post pictures after!  

(I still await 2/3 finance offers for my car...come on people, i'm impatient, and have a need to shop around.)

done!

so today i took my last undergrad final.  exciting!  chad graduates tomorrow, and i graduate the 20th.  and then a new chapter of our lives begins :)

and we've just returned home from a celebratory happy hour.  i hope everyone has a fabulous weekend.

#91. and life.

so let's see.  

#91.  no fast food for a month...and try to keep it going.

this goal was actually ridiculously easy.  i don't eat that much fast food anyway, and usually only if i am in a HUGE hurry.  so i just didn't.  it was tempting sometimes, especially because it is chad's best friend when he gets off work late at night.  but i have become victorious.  so now, i just try to keep it going through finals, which could prove tough...but i have faith!

on to life.

i successfully defended my thesis!  woo.  (i meant to blog about this after it happened on december 2, but i was completely swamped last week.  yikes.)  anywho, it went very well.  the dean asked to keep my research - and wants me to present it at a conference in february - and my advisor was happy.  so yay!  now i just wait for my hardback copy of my published research.

saturday, we went to austin to see jim gaffigan record his new comedy central special.  look for us on tv!  we were pretty close to the front row.  the show was awesome, we never stopped laughing.  if you haven't heard his stand up, i highly recommend checking it out, there is a lot of it on youtube.  we went down to austin earlier in the day, sold some furniture to a knottie, ate dinner at p.f. chang's (one of my favorites), and headed over to the show.  good times.

finals are this week.  i can actually breathe a sigh of relief after my calculus II test on friday, which went infinitely better than i expected (thank you, big man in the sky - i almost fainted when i turned the paper over).  i actually only have 2 finals, calculus and greek.  i had my self defense class final yesterday, but it doesn't really count as a final.  most of my time will be going towards calculus...happy thoughts, please :)

hope everyone has a great week, especially you finals-takers!   

woooo!

i have officially been accepted to graduate school. (deep breath). i feel old. as long as i don't accept an offer from the other school i applied to (their deadline is dec. 1), i will officially be a colorado state ram (cue SNL "you win again, ram!"). good thing the colors are the same as baylor, or i would be in a corner somewhere rocking back and forth. i am not friends with change. haha.

and not just accepted, but also offered a TA position for a lab or professor assistant for $1400/month, and full tuition! i am sooo happy.

icing on the cake: the professor i have been working with has research projects in alaska. free trips to alaska please! i would like to see russia from my tent.

this of course also means that i am well on my way to a few of my goals, namely:
4. get a new car - obviously, no one was going to sell me a car when i had no job secured. check!
10. finish my bachelor of science - merely a month and 2 calculus II exams away.
11. earn my master's - being accepted into a master's program has significantly increased the probability of this happening.

and most of my other goals that involve buying things, because you need money to make purchases.