Library, Christmas survey, and catching up

Recently, I've been under the weather a bit so it seems like everything is taking a little longer. The Mr. and I recently sold a car and we'll hopefully be bringing a new one this weekend.

I also had a pretty big exam this morning so I've been at the library quite a bit, and the Mr. went on a work trip this week and was gone from Sunday till Tuesday.  I swear we haven't had a normal, non-busy week in a long time.  I REALLY am looking forward to a Thanksgiving break next week.

Unrelated to either of those, I stepped on a piece of glass yesterday in the kitchen. It was very unexpected. It bled a surprising amount, but my foot is just fine. Lesson learned: sweep the kitchen a little better!

ALSO! I'm doing a Christmas Survey! I copied it Em at Then Along Came the Boy. You should check her blog out!

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?  Hot chocolate, with marshmallows!

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Wraps them.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white?  Colored lights are the way to go. White lights are only for ceilings!

4. Do you hang mistletoe? Nope.

5. When do you put your decorations up? Any time after Thanksgiving is acceptable.

colorful books at the library!

6. What is your favorite holiday dish? Homemade fudge! Also those molassess cookies and the crinkle cookies. I’d have to agree with em here: Mom makes them all the best! I also like roasted yams with marshmallows. Yum.

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child? Getting a real puppy, after two years of “stuffed animal” puppies! (It was difficult to convince me that a stuffed animal “counted” as a “real dog”. )

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? What are you trying to say???

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Yes.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? Right now I only have a handful of ornaments, but I’d prefer to have lights, garland, beads, and anything pretty.

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? Love it on the weekends, hate it when I have to travel somewhere far in a blizzard.

12. Can you ice skate? Yep; it’s been awhile though!

13. Do you remember your favorite gift?  Oh gosh- Well, it’s pretty hard to have a better present than a puppy!

my second edit on those BRIGHT books. :)

14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Relaxing with family/friends, taking a break from the usual daily “hustle and bustle”

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert?  See the answer to #6.

16. What is your favorite Holiday tradition? Eating the answers to #6. :)

17. What tops your tree? I have nothing for the top of the tree, right now. A star is usually nice, though.

18. Which do you prefer, giving or receiving? Giving. This year I seem to be behind in that realm!

19. Candy Canes: Yum or Yuck? Yum!

20. Favorite Christmas show? A Christmas Story

21. Saddest Christmas Song?  No time for sad Christmas songs!

22. What is your favorite Christmas song?  Carol of the Bells, on the piano

First exam of the semester

I have a test tomorrow that I'm studying for, so here is my brief update for Internetland! Wish me luck!

Knowledge is power and flowers are pretty!

The theme for 'Prompt Me' this week is school, which is appropriate for me since I went back to classes this week.

It's been an interesting few days of school so far, which has included a few, erm, snags...along the way.

• I drive to campus, and haven't quite figured my way around yet. But I have managed to find decent parking. If I got to campus a whole lot later, though, I'm thinking the spots would be filled up.
• My classes are tiny compared to what I'm accustomed to: 7 others in one class and 20-30 in the other.
• Long story, here: not necessarily that interesting!! {You've been warned!!} SO, this weekend we stocked up on what was left in the water aisle at the grocery store. I'm not a huge fan of drinking bottled water, so I've been trying to drink them to get rid of them faster.  Between classes I figured it would be nice to eat lunch outside and study. I om-nom-nommed on my apples and green soup, and, lo and bohold, I BECAME THIRSTY. Silly me, I reached for the water in my bag, twisting the lid to open it and... IT FIZZED ALL OVER. All over what? It fizzed all over the bench I was sitting on. My super expensive textbook. My shirt. My pants. AWESOME- I did not know it was carbonated/sparkling water, and was not overjoyed by the minor explosion. Luckily, the bottle of water was not pointed at my face, which I later read on the bottle that it should be opened away from one's face. **plays the "The More You Know" sound** \endstory
• After the water bottle incident and drying out, I tried to look for a new area to sit which didn't involve so many wasps and bees flying around. I headed for a library nearby, and opened the first door. Then I opened a second door.....aaaaaaand, I'm pretty sure I set some sort of alarm off with lots of flashing lights and sirens. So I didn't wait around to figure it out, and just decided to go back the way I came from. Awesome story, right? That is where the Urkel soundclip (below) comes in.
Did I do that?
• Unlike every other physics class I (or the Mr.) have ever been in, we do not get to use formula sheets on quizzes or exams. Calculators probably aren't allowed, either, I bet. Maybe we'll be each be granted an abacus for the second test if we all do really poorly on the first test. har har har.
• My drive back from school was alarmingly fast. I'm hoping I wasn't evading the law in some awesome high-speed chase that I wasn't aware of, but it concerned me based on the way the earlier part of my day had gone.

________________________________________________________

Switching gears away from school, the theme for 'Picture Perfect' this week is plants!

I took this pic in my sister's yard (hey, em!!) when she was explaining my camera settings to me. I really haven't messed around with much on my camera and so she was helping me learn about the 99% the camera's features that I've been neglecting to use. I think this was my favorite picture of this plant, and I used the 'vibrant' setting.

This picture was taken while visiting the sister's local free zoo + conservatory. I like her picture a whole lot better here since you can see reflections, shadows, depth etc. way better. My camera didn't do too bad of a job fwiw, but I can definitely see the role that camera quality plays in making a nice composition. 

Another pretty flower in the conservatory. :)

  

Less than expected can occasionally be a good thing

So, I expected more out of the "hurricane/tropical storm" (based on all the hype from the media) that went through the area.  I expected huge power outages, no water, hail damage, etc. Fortunately for us, the power only flickered on and off a few times, the water supply remained unchanged, and there wasn't any hail. It most certainly downpoured from Saturday night through most of Sunday, and it was pretttttty windy. It didn't seem much worse than other rain/snow storms I've been in. I know some streets near rivers and creeks around here have become flooded, but I think it's staying localized to those areas. Not sure about wind damage, though, since I haven't been out and about yet.

Tomorrow will be my first day of classes and I'll be taking Medicinal Chemistry/Pharmacology and Physics II.

On an unrelated note, something reminded me of the Skunk River Navy and I found a picture with the rest of the SRN here. {I'm wearing the teal T-shirt!!} I remember having fun, picking up the trash from our designated length of river. (I thought about posting the actual picture on the blog, but I'm not quite sure how online photo sharing works, so I figured I could just link to it).

Not sure what reminded me of that...maybe the start of the fall semester, and all the rain from the past few days? Those are my bits of random thoughts for now.

 I hope everyone is having a calm Monday

It's been a long week already & Chex Mix

Ooooh boy...it's been a long week already, and it's only Tuesday. I miss having a regular schedule...already...again!!! No work/class/volunteering for me right now, but I'm working on fixing that! 

I'm catching up and doing more tasks that I had to delay while in summer session since I finally have "free time". I haven't updated my passport since the name change, so I had to pay $110 to "renew" my passport book, along with fees for new passport pictures, which went something like this:

I would have gone for something even half as nice as the 'acceptable'. Though I did not get a mullet-esque haircut,  I did, however, have to tuck my hair behind my ears (so they can see my ears). I was also supposed to smile without showing teeth, which I am terrible at. Also, my eyebrows decided to go crazy at the moment the dude took the picture, so I'm sure my new passport book will be absolutely stellar!!

If I get my passport book back in time, the Mr. and I might be going to Montreal in September.  Hopefully it doesn't take too long to get back. *fingers crossed*

Besides passport paperwork, I've obviously been spending a lot of time looking at graduate/medical programs and their corresponding tests/deadlines/etc. (MCAT, PCAT, GRE, etc.). In conjunction with that, I have been trying to study the job markets by spending a bunch of time over at the Bureau of Labor Statistics with the Occupational Outlook Handbook. Exciting, right?

Aaand, to increase the fun factor, I've also updated my resume to include my most recent college coursework and GPA. With that, I've applied to a few jobs, but- *le sigh* -none of them have anything to do with biology. It can't really hurt to get my resume out there, so that's what I'm doing when I take a break from school searching. I wouldn't mind getting my foot in the door with a company that would pay for most any Master's/PhD , so that is definitely on my radar, too.

If you've read this far, you deserve to look at a picture of some Chex Mix that I made awhile back. Yes I am changing the subject, and yes it was delicious to eat. =]

It was almost full when I made it, but I didn't remember to take a picture right away.

I think we need more Chex Mix...Stat!

I > Organic Chemistry II

Hey everyone! I'm excited. 

Why, you ask? 

If school was a game, I won at playing "organic chemistry II"!! YAY!

I got an 'A' in the class. Onwards and upwards. :)

Monday, Monday

The weekend flew by, and here it is... Monday, again!  Geez-- It was Monday just a week ago! {har har har} 

The weekend was nice and we spent as much of it outside as we could. While it was rainy, we bought and played a new card game called Zombie Fluxx. It's pretty fun. We played that and another card game (Munchkin) this weekend, too. Has anyone else played either of them before?

 They're easy to learn...and that's coming from ME. So...yeah. Well, I guess maybe only RACK-O is easier, but I've never found anyone who's ever played that game outside of family members. I ask around, too...so I'm pretty accustomed to the blank stares. Maybe I need to expose more people to RACK-O...

from Google Image search

In other news...

• I got an A- in Human Anatomy in Physiology I, so I'm pretty stoked since I ACED the final (75 multiple choice, and 7 or so short answers). I'm looking forward to whenever I can take part II since we didn't get to the cranial nerves . yay. :)
• I got 80% on my first organic chemistry II test, which is better than I thought I'd do since my answer manual barely came in time for me to study with it. So, 80% isn't stellar, but we can drop the lowest of the four regular tests. (So 3 tests account for 60% of the grade, and the final accounts for 40% of the overall grade.)

I think in every single college class I've taken, my first test score is the worst. So, if it gets better from 80% and I can drop that score, it will probably turn out alright. The next exam is this Thursday, so I'll probably be MIA from the blogosphere until then.

Alright, well...take care, everyone! I'm off to SMARTIFY myself. :)

Of course...

...the day I'm waiting for a package to arrive (that we "2-day Express" shipped through FedEx), I have seen a FedEx truck drive by once and a UPS truck drive by THREE times!! I've gotten excited each time a truck has passed by.  However, the excitement really isn't warranted...

from Goole Image search

Once I get my Organic Chemistry answer manual I'll have plenty of practice problems to correct on my own, and see how I'm doing. Ya know...since I really can't gauge myself without the right answers for comparison.

I've made it to 3 lectures, so far. There are 19 days of class (since we won't have class on July 4th), and the last day is the final. So, with a total of 18 lectures, I am {rounding up!} about 17% done with the lectures. {Not that I'm counting or anything!}

Just a quiz for myself - nothing interesting here!

Yep - so I'm studying and figured out how to make a quiz, and don't have anywhere else to paste this HTML code. So for now, it gets to sit on my blog. If you want to take my test for me, you can learn this stuff, and take my test for me on Friday. :P Have some nice short answers ready, too. This is only a small part of the material. Lots to review yet!

Instructions: Click the answer button to see the correct answer.

1. What is the largest portion of the brain by mass?
   1. the cerebellum
      
   2. the cerebrum
      
   3. the limbic system
      
   4. the mesencephalon
   
   Answerb
2. What does the corpus callosum do?
   1. communicates between the two cerebral hemispheres
      
   2. sensory relay center
      
   3. coordinates movement
      
   4. aids in the maintaining the circadian rhythm
   
   Answera
   

Hail

The Mr. had gotten off work, and after a quick jaunt over to the grocery store, we were planning on going to the pool since it was pretty close to 100* at 5:00 pm yesterday.  Our plans were foiled, even though we already had our suits on, as big raindrops began to fall. :( 

It hailed two times, each for about five minutes or so.  It rained a LOT and it was fairly windy, but there wasn't any damage to the cars.. I should have reached for my camera, but didn't know where it was yesterday.

It had been hot and sunny all day long, and the online forecast showed nothing besides clear skies. This storm must have been a "blip" on the radar that went unnoticed. I'm really glad we didn't go to the pool because we would have been pelted with marble-sized ice chunks!  {I'm kind of wondering if the people who were already at the pool got hit by hail or not...it happened pretty quick!} 

Other than that, the Mr. has been very helpful with supper-making and cleanup while I cram in some more study time so I'm very thankful to him for that. One pop-quiz was yesterday, and another quiz is tomorrow.  This class is going fast...3 weeks in and I'm 75% done, holy cow!

Week in Review!

PHEW!! We survived the week...it was a busy one.  I pretty much studied for my anatomy and physiology mid-term non-stop.  I think it really paid off, though, so I'm glad everything I studied was on the test. Nothing caught me off-guard, so I'd say I was well prepared.

After my mid-term, the Mr. and I went to a mechanic to get the his car's air conditioner working again. Less sweating in the car- yay!  We've also been out and about, spending time at the pool, reading, and spotting some lovely flowers along the way.  Other than my class being half done, not much else has been new this week.  Now it's time for relaxing!

The clouds were threatening, but it didn't rain.

 pink and yellow flowers

white and pink flowers

This is my favorite photo of the week- blue lupine, which attracts an endangered butterfly.

First day of class

So, today was my first day of Human Anatomy and Physiology I class.  It was nice being back in a classroom, but the class is a little long.  The class lasts for three hours, and I think we'll get to take breaks.  I just checked to count and saw that I had nine pages of notes.  I haven't done that much handwriting in quite awhile...hopefully I can read it later for studying!

Of course, the teacher messed something up with the book that we're supposed to have for class, so it's not at the bookstore like it should be.  I'll probably try to order it online, and pay for speedy shipping. Since it's a four week class, every day of class is "equivalent" to one week of a "regular" school week.  For that reason, I really hope it doesn't take too long for my book to get here since our first quiz is Friday. 

I definitely don't think I'm the only one going back for individual classes.  One other person is getting their pharmacy degree and is required to take this class, as well.  Everything we covered today, I've already heard a million times so I don't think it will be too tough.  I've had comparative anatomy and physiology of cats, dogs, cows, goats, sheep, horses, chickens, and pigs...but no humans. It's all pretty similar...well, except for the chickens. Birds are w-e-i-r-d, anatomically speaking. 

I took some pictures of campus for everyone to see...this first picture is approaching campus.

 All the buildings are really tall, with overhangs between buildings so students don't have to get wet if it's raining outside.

Here's another picture of the same thing, just edited a different way.  I think the top picture makes it look dirty and creepy, but the bottom one makes it look a lot nicer and softer.

 Here's one of the small grassy areas for hanging out.   

The photo on the left is the original, but I thought it looked too boring so I made it more exciting.  This is the carillon on campus.  It seems like the campus was designed by someone who wanted to get as much cement as possible in a small area.  It definitely lacks the aesthetics and warmth of my alma mater!!!

 This is the bottom of the super-tall carillon.  Apparently students can dip their feet in the water to cool off when it's hot, or something, but that sounds really gross to me.  The fountain in the center isn't turned on, and I think there were about five other huge fountains that I passed on my way to class.