A Wandering WeyrCat...

I've allowed myself to get back into Halloween. For some reason, though it's my favorite holiday, for the past few years I haven't decorated or celebrated other than through our department group Halloween costume.This year I picked up some lights (half hung one of them) and bought a haunted gingerbread house kit (still unbuilt). I did put good work into the costume(s). The group theme was Superheroes/Villains. We get dressed up, take a group picture, and attend the university's Fall Family Festival as a group. They have free food, rides and games for kids, and usually stuff like face-painting, caricatures, and free university-themed swag. I'd originally planned on going as Kim Possible (from the cartoon of the same name)... but... Always on the lookout for a good trenchcoat, I finally found an affordable ladies London Fog that fits (and even still has the flannel liner)! So, a pair of black-feathered wings from the Halloween store, and a bloodies up white-button-u...

Thank you EVERYONE that wished me a happy birthday yesterday. I tried to at least LIKE all the posts and reply to the messages. I had a final exam yesterday, and have been studying for others! (About to take a GIS final, actually).

May through August was unbelievably busy for me. I'll try to catch up. In that time I: Graduated. Flew to Kansas to be with my family for a short, emotional time. Flew back to start a whirlwind internship I will never forget. Drove across country to Arizona to see friends and family. Drove BACK across country just in time to start my masters program. And I am catching up on schoolwork, while catching up on everything else. Dear family and friends, I thank you for your patience. To hold you over (some more) here's Bill Nye, boxing for science!

I found a "Goals" page from New Years 2004. As I write this, that day was ten years, four months, and 26 days ago. It's interesting to see how goals change over time. Or, in this case, how they don't. My goals in life (circa Jan01-2004): Get a Biology degree. Get a teaching degree (post-secondary). Learn to fire a handgun. Get back into shape. Running, hang, crunches. Spend some weekends with friends. Sleep a regular schedule. Smile. In May 2014 I graduate with a Bachelors of Science in Biology Education: a teaching degree specializing in Biology.  Check.  In 2007 I did relearn how to fire a handgun.   Check. I am running again. In fact, a couple years ago I ran an 8 mile (plus obstacles) course called the Super Spartan. I run 2-3 times a week, and my average is 3 miles. I'm slowing getting farther and faster.  Check. Weekends I spend either at home with my husband (whom I had not met at the time of the origin...

I got A's in both Geology and 'Environment and Society', which, in addition to my 3 A's from the beginning of summer, give me a 4.0 semester for five classes! I was exempted from my Environment Final (because I got 102% on the first midterm, 110% on the second, and 100% on both my papers). I didn't know they could do that, but I'm certainly happy about it! EDIT UPDATE  : I got a letter from the university telling me I earned President's Honor List  for my 4.0! WOOHOO! I'm registered for Fall, and that will be the end of my curriculum. I'll graduate when I finish the 6-Month independent teaching in Spring! I'm currently studying for my last teaching certification, the Biology 6-12. I took the pretest and got a 70% on it (pre-studying) and 70% is the lowest passing percentage. I take the exam in a couple weeks and plan to knock it out of the park. Future plans: Study and pass the GRE during Fall. Apply to Master's program at end of Cu...

I got a little behind in posting, due to the nature of summer college courses. On those, I did get A's in all three (yay!). I'm already onto the next half of my summer courses. Only two grades, but three courses (yay conjoined labs!). The first chunk of June was brutal. TLDR? Here's the summary, with the brutality after the break.  June was harsh. I got bullied in public, Mom was in the hospital, Rook cut her foot open and needed constant maintenance, Shane was at drill for two week. I did catch up on some  Star Trek  movies, some reading, ran three times a week, ran all of a 5k trail run. Yea. Take that crappy month. I'm awesome.

I woke up #30. Hubby made French toast, took me to a #pettingzoo, got me a perfect cake & spumoni, made hash & eggs for dinner. #love Bonus: Petting Zoo!

New fridge! French toast! Great Memories! Car (but no) repair. Homework. Homemade phillies! Busy day was busy. 8H2O 0.7mi :(

SO BUSY! Ok, this year might be a "once a month" year! I'm taking 18 credits (that's six classes) so I'm REALLY busy. My life is consumed with that shelf of books in the photo (and the two I added in because they're digital or weren't present). One of the books I had to read for school was Longitude by Dava Sobel. Absolutely loved it. Story of John Harrison, the man who solved "the longitude problem" by designing a non-spring wound pocketwatch immune to the elements at sea, all while being hounded and harassed by astronomers. It's a riveting book and I really recommend it. I plan on stealing time to read a book by the same author on Galileo . If you get really curious what I've been up to, I have a "teaching blog" now that I update for school every Sunday. Currently the articles are works I did for my Intro to Ed class last semester, but I think next week might be when this semesters posts start going up. Mainly informa...

SO. Hubby goes away to drill once a week and I get BORED. Bored bored bored. Sure, I get more homework done than usual, but I'm bored. SO. I've invented a new tradition for myself. Shane hates opera and classical music (though he is kind enough to go when dragged) so when he's gone I'm going to treat myself to a show! This month, the local college orchestra is putting on a performance I'd love to see! For the next two months I have two operas on DVD at the library scheduled to be held for me on the drill dates. I'd love to do another "Live at the MET in HD" but this way I can save my pennies and attend the opera in owl socks. WEE! FAU Symphony Orchestra My inaugural "Culture Drill" was a success! FAU Symphony Orchestra presented "Sabre Dance! Armenian, Austrian, & German Masterworks", with selections by Beethoven, Hayden, and a suite of dances from the ballet Gayane by Khachaturian. You know one of those dances: Sabre ...

Week in review: Monday (22) my wallet was stolen. Made police report, contacted professor in class it went missing in, emailed whole class offering the cash (19$) in the wallet as a reward if they just returned the plastic. Military spouse cards are a pain in the butt to get replaced around here. About half an hour on the phone with card companies to get them turned off and resent. Dinner was a pity party complete with ice cream and baked mac and cheese. Tuesday (23): High school observation was a nightmare. They had a sub with zero classroom management skills. I'm not allowed to intervene so I basically just watched three 1.5 hour classes of students walk all over this guy. If nothing else it was a great example of what not to do. Very tired by end of day. Spent 60$ reordering all the essential plastics from my wallet. Studied some, moped most of it. Discover 5k I wanted to at least walk was sold out. BOOOOOOOOOOO. Wednesday (24): Before class the professor emails me to ...

This week has been very self-revealing. Firstly, I'm looking more at my public persona. As I get farther into my teaching courses I'm coming to terms the fact that, while I never really worried about keeping private life private, students and parents and even the school districts may "Google" me. I remember reading about a teacher who had a private photo of herself holding a Solo cup; she was forced out of her job for the photo even though the most inappropriate thing about the photo was her duck face. When looking for that article to link here I found yet another article of a teacher forced out of her job due to private photos of her holding wine glasses while on vacation! (1) While I've always held to my own adage of "if you don't want your grandmother to see it, don't post it" glasses of adult beverages don't fall under that category. I've prided myself on having a blog that's accurate over the years so I kept all the quizzes an...

This blog turned out a little longer than usual, mostly because of Curiosity. This is really the second half of the "Summer" post, which started with our trip to see friends in Miami !     We've let Diablo II dungeon crawl it's way back into our day (but it never really left our hearts)! In Fitness:     We've started a walking habit: 3.1 roundtrip (or 2.5 with the dog). Hoping to find a nice breakfast/lunch place near the midpoint and go once a week!     I've hit the next stop on my Hobbit Walk! Taking much longer without fitness classes, must work something out... Started the NerdFitness 6 Week Challenge for Aug-Sep. Not doing so hot: why'd I start a fitness challenge that included the one week I have of actual vacation? Because that's when it officially started. I won't do as well as I hoped, but I can certainly make good on most of it! Going out to eat so much has really put me behind! In the world:

In school: I got a 54% (108/200) on my Chem2 final. Average was 98/200. I got a B (3.0) in the class. Officially have an A in the Lab. Husband graduated with his Bachelor's in Science of Mathematics, Summa Cum Laude. He chose not to walk. Seriously, it's $200 for the garb, and no one would be able to go anyway! From Nursing to Teaching:     I'm now studying for my teaching program's entrance exam; it's on the 15th! Wish me luck! I have officially put in the paperwork to switch my major (you may remember I was kicked back onto the waiting list for the Nursing program last year). I'd decided to be a nurse a few years back for the wrong reasons: yes, there's job security in being able to find a job where-ever my military husband ended up, there would also be good pay, an interesting and challenging work environment, and I'd be helping people! All these things I want, but I'd honestly decided to be a nurse because I didn't know what ...

I had my birthday right as Finals started, so I'm a little late in posting. Husband took me out to The Cheesecake Factory, my first time, and it was fantastic. The dark brown bread is to die for, the chicken cashew salad is delicious, and the cheesecake... need I say it? Yes, yes, I must: Ah-mazing. He got a great shot of me beginning to devour the chocolate banana shake. MUWAHAHAHA! Too old for silliness I'm not. I don't want to gloat about gifts too much, but I would like to point out the awesome owl earrings my mom sent me (wearing them in the photo). Husband got me a fantastic camera. This camera has some ridiculous zoom, and I was able to get a dragonfly 25 feet off the ground.... You can see the veins in its wing. I take it pretty much everywhere now! I upload the photos to my DeviantArt ( http://weyrcat.deviantart.com/gallery/ ) because it lets me keep the size and quality to a greater extent than Picasa. The Dragonfly: Dragonfly 120424 by ~ WeyrCa...

Welcome to Sunday, when I avoid studying at work by collecting what's been on my brain this week and shoving it into the internet in one cohesive bloggy time-capsule! The highlight is a woodpecker. THE woodpecker. The one I kept getting awful blurry photos of last year because he wouldn't sit still. Then, magic of all magics, THERE WERE TWO. Two woodpeckers.  I'm so excited... and I just can't hide it... dan dan daaaaan.....No really. I'm pretty gleeful about this. :) There've been scrub jays all over today too, but they don't sit still very long and I've an older camera. The kind that still has a 1GB XD card. For casual uses it's a darn trooper. In actually life updates there is little: I register for classes tomorrow and will hopefully get what I'm planning on. We're coming to the end of the semester and it's getting busy again, but it's nothing that some ice cream can't fix. And NO. I didn't see Hunger Games . ...

This past week has actually been rather adventurous for Husband and I. We went downtown, TWICE! Mar10 was the Irish Fest. We presume they wanted to do it the weekend before St. Patrick's day to avoid competition with bars and their green beer celebrations (which probably start EARLY in the day.) We got to hear some bands form Ireland and perused mostly mass-produced goods that are probably only "Irish" to Americans, but it was still neat. It was kind of small, but the food was great. Husband had corned beef and cabbage (of course) and several pints of a dunkel. I indulged in some battered cod and fries and some red wine. Husband bought me two beautiful new dresses. I don't really have any casual dresses and had been shopping around for some. They look like they're made by the same company (read: mass produced so they all look like they're made by the same company) as the beautiful dress he got me in Charleston before our first anniversary. I love them! S...

WHEW! What a day.. Week? Went back to court to try to wrap up an old landlord issue; was moderately successful: should get our security deposit back (finally) and hopefully never see them again! Evil diet is evil. We sorely need it though. Allowing myself one Dark-chocolate raspberry popsicle a day. They're Weight Watchers, 85 cals, and I eat them when NOT dieting. Feels like cheating but I'm not = win. Been pretty domestic too... baked banana bread , some light sweeping, sewed a button on some pants... OH. And I hurt my knee again. I ran yesterday. Kinda. After about half a mile my right knee (the one I borked on the Spartan run) was screaming and I wanted to stop. I didn't. A mile and a half later I limped into the car and for most of the day I had to lock my knee out to get around. It was fairly agonizing. Not being over-the-top either: when I bent my knee, I instantly had to fight back tears. When that occurs in the middle of campus it's pretty embarrassing....

It's still a pretty good day. Though smiling about it kind of hurts. -On the way to school Hubby and I watched a sloooooow one-manned vehicle get nicked by an unmarked car for driving in the carpool lane (YES!) Talk about satisfying. We cheered the rest of the way there.  -While sleepy in chem I wrote all the notes by hand instead of referring to his printed notes (that he encourages us to bring.) I think the act of writing it helps me learn it, so I felt better about the material today. -My German professorin decided she wanted all of us to take home and redo the homework we were turning in that day, because she wants it in complete sentences. While this may seem kind of crappy, I'd forgotten mine in my German folder at home. -The chem TA I went to see said my pre-lab and flow chart were good, and hinted at where I could/should make it better. She did tell me to put in less detail on the flow chart, but the things she mentioned removing are actually vital, so I'l...