Happy Halloween

"Sometimes when I feel like killing someone, I do a little trick to calm myself down. I'll go over to the persons house and ring the doorbell. When the person comes to the door, I'm gone, but you know what I've left on the porch? A jack-o-lantern with a knife stuck in the side of it's head with a note that says "You." After that I usually feel a lot better, and no harm done."

I'm loving the time change. While I am and will continue to always be confused about gaining or losing an hour of sleep until I actually have to wake up for work, I'm pleased to learn I get to sleep in a bit more now. Or actually, I get to wake up the same point and workout without feeling like a drugged monkey. Which is definitely a plus, since I think I've eaten my weight in candy these last three days.

The people on my parking lot park like morons. But I suppose its not their fault since we don't have lines to park between, but still, these inefficiencies bug the hell out of me. I drive my car maybe once a week, if that. So my car is stationary most of the time. I park perfectly normally, in line with everyone else. By the end of the week, it looks like I have completely parked like a moron and am taking up 2 spaces at a right angle to everyone else. And I didn't move the car! I come home at a moderately late hour.. 2am.. and I have to park on the street. Bah. I want reserved spacing. I want everyone to think before they park.

I've been downloading this great series from the mid-nineties that I absolutely fell in love with at the time. They had a season before being canceled, and I am trying to get the whole thing before beginning to watch. I have this bad habit of watching the entire thing nonstop into the wee hours. Good thing I've got a week off from school due to fall break.

I spent the majority of Sunday with Jake and his entourage... from the morning call asking me what time it was, to an afternoon filled with ball bearings, older and less expensive springs, pounding off tires, changing tires to ones with even less tread (??), oil changes, dirty jeans, washing, drying, waxing... all the while with a very sad puppy that just wanted to play stick... even though the tumor on his neck exploded the previous night. Ick. (You didn't click that link, did you?) Too much information?

I guess I'm good for something. Whether it be catching up the gang on the current political mess in Washington, to using brute force to bang (loudly) on rims in the dark (in a residential neighborhood) under a 2,081 pound red echo hatchback on a flimsy jack, driving crazily down the thruway with 5 people in the car, to sneaking in 3 loads of laundry, or even playing fetch with the dog and losing the freaking frisbee TWICE in each of the neighbor's lawns, I found something to bide my time. :) What next?

Priceless:

"You said she was ugly." - Rachael
"I did not. I said she had a horse face." - Jake

You know what is funny about quoting people and capturing things on film, now? It's usually followed by a "Don't put that in your blog." Heh.

We ended up eating at this great mexican restaurant in Farmington. The reviews put it in league of Cinco de Mayo in Buffalo, and while hard to believe, it ended up being just as good. While not busy at all, the food came out quick, the waiter supremely punctual and competent and the food tasted fantastic, extremely authentic. Even had the cheese sauce that everyone loves so heartily. After stuffing myself silly on that, tortilla chips and a helping of fried ice cream, I think I'll avoid food for awhile.

Oh wait. Halloween. Arg! At least I'll be in class when everyone will be walking road cones. And avoiding the candy. Except the pie I have sitting my fridge. Mmmm... pie. PIE. Arrghh. PIIIIIEEEE. (insert bad zombie impression here)

Happy Halloween everyone. Enjoy the warm air and scare a few kids.

Katie's Halloween Party

my attempt at being a pirate

Don't laugh. I didn't put much effort into my costume, and by the looks of everyone else at this party tonight, they put in A LOT of effort. Or at least bought expensive costumes. But after Bill Maher yelled at adults dressing up for Halloween, I guess I didn't want to go all out.

But my adventure included stopping at FOUR stores today in search of constume ideas and assistance. I did manage to find a great store with 75% off on their collection, except, each package was missing pieces! I didn't want to have to buy 3 separate costumes just to have all the pieces. Kind of defeats the purpose of 75% off. You mean 75% missing...!

The party was a smashing success. A lot of people showed up, and most dressed up. I was one of the first ones there, and one of the last to leave. Katie put me in charge of getting a picture of everyone at the party, and I succeeded, even if I annoyed a couple random people. "You sure like taking pictures." Erm, hey, 60 people = 60 pictures. Get over it. ;) Kate from work showed up in her girl scout uniform, and Katie from work was Cruella Devile, which she designed herself. Fantastic costume, too. Amazing. But unfortunately another pirate showed up, with the complete set.. including a hook and the boots! Outdone! Pushaw! Arrrgghh.. matey! A duel to the death! And he was republican! To thee plank!

Carrie from class ended up calling me around 1 and asking if I was still there. She showed up with her boyfriend as Wilma and Fred Flinstone. She made the costumes herself. Such talented people. I showed up dressed in white dress pants with a navy blue sweater, a pink bandana, earring and eye patch. I looked less like a pirate and more like someone who just had eye surgery and a head wound. Seriously! But the food was great, the party was rocking, they raised a ton of money for the cancer society, and everyone I talked to had fun. Plus they played my kind of music on the dancefloor. I got a couple good dancemoves in before heading home for the night. Luckily, I didn't need a taxi like 90% of those in attendance.

Two of the best costumes of the night:

Burger King King - and no, I didn't stutter. This guy bought the mask from the BK, and made the rest of the costume himself. It was great. He kept prancing around like a fairy in his tights and king robe. He even freaked out a cab driver after chasing him down the street. Hands down greatest costume ever.

Ghostbusters Trio - these guys were great. They had the full constume set, the power backpacks, guns, and even a trapdoor ghost catcher shoebox they kept throwing out onto the floor and zapping people. "Don't cross the streams!" Who ya gonna call??

Fun stuff. So glad I went. And the pictures came out great!

Maize Maze and the evils of chilly nights

The maze can be summed up in one word: cold. After risking life and limb on the drive there, we all got into maze-mode. We had 10 people, so we split into two groups. I still had no idea what I was supposed to do at this thing, so like the rest of my team, we just followed Jake into this gigantic field (carved in the shape of chicken little). The goal: to get out. Interesting.

But along the way you could gather clues, map parts, soda, puzzle pieces and corn. All of which helped you discovered the way out. Chasing to keep up with Jake is no easy task, but all four of us managed to do it. Our flag carrier (who we'll lovingly refer to at A) broke the flag from the get go and had to juryrig it along the way by tying a bit to her hat. And the other member of our team named B really didn't seem to know what we were doing either. But dammit, we did it fast.

And we made it out in just under 45 minutes, which is a feat like no other. This field was huge, and the exit ended up being in sector 11. We were lucky to stumble across it, because our competing team took another hour to finish the maze. The reason? They never found 11. Muhaha. Well, that could have been us. But I suppose it was warmed inside the field.. without the wind. But seriously, the coldest night of the season.. and it's the night we go out. I don't bitch about the cold often, but sheesh.



While the five of us attempted our best to stay warm out in the cold, we waited.. and waited.. and then ate some crappy celery chips.. and waited some more. Every time we'd call the other team, they'd refuse to give us the details of their hunt.. unfair advantage or some crud. I think they crisscrossed the entire maze 15 times by the time they were done. They even saw us several times.

They finally got out, made fun of them for their stupidity, we visited some goats (feeding them large tree branches?), took some pictures in front of wooden cutouts of pilgrims and indians?, and sped home to spend the next five hours warming up, or at least trying. I ended up wearing 2 layers for the rest of the night. So cold! I can't tell you enough. Was it cold you ask? ;)

But Jake and I rented Land of the Dead from Hollywood Video and ended up staying up really late watching zombie movies. You can always count on a good (???) zombie movie to chear you up. "Grrrrr! Brains! BRAINS! Greeerrrrr!" Fun stuff, and I especially enjoyed sleeping in until 11am this morning. Warmth! So much to do... including homework. Bah. Why can't Friday night last forever?

Corn Maze? Mass Mailing? Diet Coke? Oh my!

It's been a very busy couple of days. A couple highs, a couple lows.. the end result being I'm very tired. But alas, there is more to do.

So I've learned that CompUSA has a service now that could possibly retrieve data from a broken hard drive. I'm going to pop on over there this weekend to see what it's all about. It'd be great if they could help without my having to ship my drive halfway across the country.

My exam last night was laughable. See, the practice problems he gave us to study for the exam were 25 in number.. and took about 6 hours to do start to finish. He also had us read several papers and half of a book/novel for this exam. The end result? The exam was 3 questions in length, had nothing to do with the papers or novel, and actually was quite easy! I'm not sure if I should be happy or upset. I wasted a lot of time studying for this exam.

I've learned my lesson.. don't drink 2 liters of diet coke before bed. It gives you strange dreams and you wake up like 6 times. During one of my fits with consciousness, my neighbor is sitting out on my patio talking to himself. I'm starting to get paranoid. What the hell is he doing at 3am in the freezing cold? I need better blinds.

I had an interesting discussion with Sheila the other night... about emotions and friendships. I'm not an emotional guy (or as Sheila agreed.. I have 2 emotions.. happy and tired), so I don't really identify with people going through emotional trauma or sadness. It's a fact. While I would do anything I can if someone asked for my help, I'm not one to go out of my way to fix problems I have no way to identify with. She agreed, and told me to forget it. I am who I am.

Tomorrow is Katie's Halloween Party. I need to find something to dress up as. I could go as a pirate.. and attach a finch to my shoulder (I do have 10 of them now... finches.. not shoulders) or I could go as a MySpace profile... you know, blinking lights, hard to read text, annoying music, and random pictures of symbols and people that are confusing and give people headaches. But that might be too difficult. Either way, I am looking forward to it. Though Katie was shocked I was going to come... Erm, ok.

Tonight a bunch of us are going to a corn maze in Masedon. I have no idea what to expect. I've never done it before and Jake isn't being too descriptive:

If you wish to join me and hundreds of other wonderful people in hiding among overgrown crops to scare small children, please arrive at 6:30 PM. Come drunk! I already am!

I guess I'll manage. Plus I get to meet some more of his coworkers.. I enjoyed that last time!

Next week I have a day-long seminar at MCC to work on web development and accessibility. I have the worst track record when it comes to accessible webpages, and that's especially bad, since I work in a department with students with special needs. Whoops! But I'll learn my lesson on Wednesday, just before I have another fun meeting with the Deans.

Today wasn't good. While it was great navigating the sidewalks with the bike and two apple pies, and eating them with coworkers on two floors over a great lunch from an Italian place [minus the hair in my calzone and a weird hard thing in the crust], it turned for the worse later in the day. I was all elated when I completed a large project involving 509 faculty members, but disappointed to learn I caused some headaches in another of our colleges. Whoops! Now I get to explain to my boss my mistake. Chalk it up to him being sick. :) I asked for help! Oh well, I guess I'll add it to my list from yesterday. Off to an adventure inside a corn field. Wish me luck.

A tomfool in every way...

The last couple weeks have plagued me with stupid little things. Dumb mistakes that are annoying, absurd and just absentminded. Why, oh why, is this happening to me, I keep asking. I know why, I'm just a moron.

1. I have this obsession with shaking my drinks, prolly because the mixes I buy required lots of shaking. I have my little nalgene bottle, fill 'her up, and shake. Shake shake shake. Except, I shake even after it's mixed. I pick it up instinctively, shook it, and it spilled all over the place... walls, shirt, desk, monitor. Moron.
2. I am late to work on Tuesday, speeding as fast as I can, I pull into the campus, make a turn, and poof, I have forgotten my dress clothes for the day. Ugh. Back I go, back to my apartment, making me even more late.
3. I love candles. I have about a dozen strewn about my apartment. I light them at night, turn off all the lights, and enjoy the ambiance. When relighting them the other night, I realize the one candle was so hot it melted a bit of the television. Sigh. Last night, I pick up the remote to my DVR, and it's been melted as well. Ugh.
4. Today, I drop a bottle of soda and catch it in midair, hurray, except, it exploded all over me, the hall, paperwork, the floor. Nice.
5. I'm on my way to study at Simon. I'm all motivated, all pepped up. Except I'm sitting down to read and I realize I left all my books and notes back home. What the hell?
6. I routinely have to pick up after my cat. She likes to wear my clothing while I'm gone, so I find socks and shirts strewn about. When picking them up one day, a really nice shirt gets caught under my closet door and is ripped in half. Sigh. The same goes for my kingsize comforter. A nice new hole, ala my cat.
7. I'm working on my bike last week, determined to fix it and get back to normal. Except it's freakin' cold out and damp. And dark. So I work on it inside. Except, now I have 4 dots of black grease on my semi-new carpet. Ugh.
8. When trying to fix my wayward hard drive, a slight buzzing noise has migrated to completely nothingness now that I've accidentily DROPPED the thing on the floor. Moron.

I can't win. Is it too late to go back to bed?

Finch Kabob & Erupted Turmoil

I guess I should start talking more about controversial things. Sheesh. I talked about religion on Saturday and now I'm getting all these visitors looking for information on the amish and mennonites. While I don't have specifics on either (since I am neither), I do have life experiences. The one big kicker about both sects is that anyone that marries outside the religion is ousted and shunned. Fun stuff. Any of you wish you could be ousted from your family?

So, in glorious and typical Luke fashion, after I purchased that hard drive from staples, I found it cheaper online (actually, when I found the link for the blog last post, I found it cheaper online) and ended up buying a second 200 gigger. So I'll return this one and save over $30. Hey, when it'll cost me $700 to get my data restored, you better believe I'm going to try to save $30. It arrived about an hour ago at work, oddly enough. That was quick shipping, especially since I bought the 7-10 day ground service on Monday night.

Laura is back, hopefully safe and sound. When I spoke to her parents, they had expressed worry that her flight would be delayed and she'd arrive home a day late. It looks like she got in late yesterday, so I'll have to catch up with her. She had to fly through Florida, otherwise known as Wilma's Trashcan.

The newest collection of baby birds have emerged from their nest, four of them to be exact. While the 4 former children watch in awe and jealousy from their nearby cage, the new babies are beginning the process of hyperventilating whenever I get near, even tho I neither look like a cat nor hungry for bird meat. They won't ever learn. "Aaaahh! Flap, run, fly, go!" Fun stuff, and it never ends. Since I have their light on a timer (yes, I spoil my birds), it's funny when it goes off at 11:30pm. You hear them singing, flying around, talking to each other non-stop... click, and the lights off. Silence. "What just happened?" Okay, fine, maybe I find humor in everything.

I have a midterm in my Operations class tomorrow. And it's not going to be pretty. While it's open book, he laughs when he says it. You really can't know the material simply by having the book or notes on you. We also have to run scripts in Excel on our laptops, so I'm not looking forward to another timed exam. The class is challenging, for sure. Plus I have to read this really corny novel/book from the 80s. I started it today. Way to go, me.

My boss is ill and will remain ill for the next week. My other boss has me writing scripts faster and more complex than she's ever had me do. I guess my issues with under utilization are coming to an end. I have two fairly fun meetings scheduled for next week(ish). One to present my program so far and to move forward on the project, and the other to plan and create a new project for a completely separate issue. It's funny to be working on these projects now. Three years ago, I took all of what the UR did academically for granted... I just knew stuff worked. Now I am involved in making it work and making it work better. It's definitely a different perspective, especially when you read about it in other people's blogs.

That's all for now. I'm looking forward to the end result of the Plume investigation tomorrow, putting together my new hard drive tonight, and studying my brains out for the exam tomorrow evening. Plus, making a new southern recipe I found.

Miloria? Mularita? Mucharito? ... Meliora!

Justin: Its nifty, I uploaded Jesus.

Jake: And I wasn't looking at you, I was looking at that thing on your face.

I barely was able to motivate myself to get dressed, ready and out the door for the inauguration lunch buffet on campus. But the food was by far the best food I've ever had on campus, and I've had 7 years of experiences here. But it was funny explaining to the old people that they were actually putting raw tuna onto their salads and then watching their eyes widen as they regretted the decision and not knowing where to scrap it off.

Since the demise of my hard drive last week, I've decided to gradually restore everything I had on the old drive.. as a sort of challenge. While obviously there are things that will never be replaced, I have given hundreds of pictures out to friends from occasions from the past several years. I suppose they'll have to return the favor as they burn me CDs of their collections and send them back my way. Funnily enough, I just sent 5 CDs of pictures out to CindyV in CA last week. Send 'em back! But since my home internet connection oddly enough sped up, I can redownload a lot of the lost shows I had saved in little time and can find the rest of the lost data on backup CDs and whatnot.

So I stopped by Staples and bought a brand new 200gig hard drive, luckily enough, on sale. Also bought some media to get myself back into the 'backup' mode I used to be in every month. When my replacement case arrives from ebay in a couple days, the adventure will begin again. I stopped by the grocery store for a quick errand and ended up coming home with 2 weeks worth of groceries. I have no self control. ;) But I've been adventurous enough to try several new dishes that I absolutely love. I made jambalaya the other night and had leftovers to last a couple meals. And then I tried Teriyaki Noodles with Chicken last night. This food is fantastic. I need to keep on this food exploration binge. And I love this southern food. It's great. Next you know, I'll be eating grits in the mornings. And then eating at Waffle House.. ;)

A coworker gave me one of her recipe books. She apparently has over 200 from all parts of the world. I told her I wanted to learn more about herbs and spices, and perhaps even start an herb garden (at work, since the cat would eat them at home). So she gave me this great cookbook on herbs and spices, so I'm going to take a stab at that in the next month. I think it'd be neat to snip fresh cilantro or lemon verbana and cook with it right away.

The actual inauguration was an uplifting and happy event. The new president gave a wonderful speech, UR gave out a million honorary degrees, lots of clapping, lots of music (?? was it music?), before I headed home for the evening. My sister brought over a bunch of her friends, and Alex with his new laptop, in need of computer advice and assistance. Apparently, the guy that sold Alex this laptop couldn't undo (or recall?) a password he put on the BIOS, so the computer doesn't even boot up. I tried as a may, but was unable (twice in a week now, ladies and gentleman) to fix a computer. I guess I'm losing my touch.

It seems I truly will be unable to carve my dear pumpkin with a group of friends this year. Jake and Rach are both busy all this week and Halloween is coming up shortly. I guess I can make a night of it, shove the cat into the lantern, and watch a scary movie or two. Who knows, it might even be fun.

My E-Z Pass is tracking me?

wave! I know those people!

I never stopped moving from the get go Saturday. I got a disembodied voice calling me at way-too-early-in-the-morning telling me she expected to arrive within the hour, which meant I had to drag my sleepy butt into gear. First on our agenda was the breakfast with the President, which went really well. We got a great seat, sat with the Cowans, enjoyed a healthy and filling breakfast (except I got a cup of apple syrup?) and was thoroughly impressed by the new head hauncho.

Mom and I went to this talk about privacy and the state of our civil rights in the Palestra for the next hour. I enjoyed it, but something told me mom was really skeptical. They spoke about how technology is furthering 'their' ability to track us and get a complete picture of us to sell us crap. Such as: ezpass usage, wegmans card, credit cards, you name it.. you leave a footprint that can be collected and put together to tell some marketer or the government exactly where you are, what you're doing and how to sell you the stuff you want. While I'm not worried about it, they did touch on issues I am worried about.. such as the Patriot Act and the secret courts the government has to arrest and detain American citizens indefinitely without due process.

Yesterday I was fortunate enough to get a couple meal passes from the Meliora folks for driving a golf cart around, so we used them to get a fantastic meal from the 'Pit'. Seating was horrid, so we ended up eating our meal on the steps in the corner while watching the traffic of people come and go. We even helped a couple lost souls as they looked at a map and tried to locate the Dinosaur BBQ downtown. I was more than happy to oblige.

I had a revealing conversation with my mother about her views on religion and hypocrites. I was completely astounded by how much we have in common. She told me about how over the years she has come to the conclusion that people of every religion really turn their back on their beliefs and say and actually do quite the opposite of what is and what they preach. It's grounded her and driven her to avoid it and keep it out of her children's lives. She remembers asking herself if she had made a mistake by not raising us Catholic (which I resoundly shook my head) and whether we were better people for it (yes yes). ;) It was satisfying to learn this. We discussed at length our neighbors at her house... one family is Amish and one family is Mennonite. These are both fundamental sects of Christianity and to watch both of them raise their families (one with 17 children and the other with 9 starving children) and see how their religion has affected their lives is eye-opening, for sure.

We stopped by my office for a little respite before we headed to the Palestra again for a terrific speech by Chris Matthews from MSNBC. I remember watching this guy all through college. He's hard hitting and an excellent journalist. He spoke of his time growing up in the peace core and in Washington, DC. He spoke of current politics. Of current turmoils for the president and his staffers and friends, most notably here, here, here, here and here. But we're not rooting for the fall of Republicans, right? ;) Chris was hard hitting and gave many predictions for 2008 that Hillary and Giuliani would be the end result of the primaries, and this would be the election of our lifetimes. Let's hope so. Mom was most surprised (since she is a Bush supporter) by the fact that Bush had to watch a DVD of the New Orleans disaster 4 days after it happened to "catch up" since he didn't watch or read any of the news while he was on vacacation.

Two hot lattes later, we enjoyed a calming afternoon of classical music by the Wind Symphony, and then went through several exhibits in the library on World War II, the 75th anniversary of the River Campus, and finally 155 years of UR Presidents. But the kicker of the evening was the Rochester Revue, a night of student performances on the Residential Quad (in the freezing rainy cold). Food was great, but 2.5 hours of performances later, we retreated to the car. I really enjoyed the performances by the Yellowjackets, Vocal Point, and ADITI. They get better every year, and I've been watching them for six years now. :)

I got bad news about stuff from home. My aunt's horse died last week, which is horrible. My mother gave her horse away last year, and that was an ordeal, but my aunt's horse was a big part of her life. It's so sad. I doubt it was old age, but then again, there never is a reason for people to die, so why a horse?

Sunday is full of fun at UR again. The President is inaugurated Sunday. Can't miss that, eh?

Golf Carts & Meliora Weekend

I solved this exceptionally difficult programming problem this morning before my golf cart (or as my away message said.. gold cart) excursion, which got me all pepped up and ready for a fun filled day of freezing my butt off. My shift went from noon to six. A bunch of my coworkers (Katie, pictured above) all were doing shifts as well, and we had a great day of it. It's incredibly gratifying to meet so many people that graduated from here 30, 40, 50 and even 60 years ago. It's astounding.

I was asked to seek out and explore the food room, in all its infamy. Seeing how I've been in there several years in a row without issue, I was happy to oblige and bring out food and drink for all that asked. They keep the room quite stocked too. Dozens of different kinds of drinks, 20 different candy bars and chips selections, subs, sandwhiches.. you name it, they have it for the Meliora staff workers. I think I stopped in there 5 times during the day for drinks and candy. Hey, can ya blame me?

And boy was it freezing cold! If you think you've been cold before.. try spending six HOURS in it and then asking me how cold it was. I couldn't feel my hands for a half hour after it was all said and done, and I still ran my hands under cold water... but I wouldn't have traded it for nothing. I actually stayed until well after my shift ended.. just to help out. A big shindig on campus tonight.. receptions and dinners... and I was all too happy to cart those in need to their destinations. Plus I got to wheel two squeeling gleeful little girls and their mother across campus. All too exciting, I tell ya.

I met a Trustee of the University. He had a Carribean accent, was all to happy to see me, and was very friendly and thankful. Apparently he was late to a meeting. He didn't seem all too knowledgeable of the campus, but I guess that's what you get when you have business leaders on the Board of Trustees.

I did make one small mistake. Over the radio came misdirections... 'take these people from the chapel to the tent' which I did. Unfortunately, they weren't going there... and I ended up leaving behind a guy that was quite old.. and quite confused when he couldn't find his party. I did end up locating him in the tent and dragging him off the the Messenger room. Oops! I guess I should always double check before dropping and driving off. ;)

I did get to run into (well, not literally) Rod and Candance, Laura's parents from DC. I first saw them knocking on a window inside Rush Rhees library to get my attention, and then a little later I picked them up. They were all too happy to see me and me see them. They enjoyed the little sight seeing tour I gave them, before standing for a picture (since I lost all my photos, right?).

I also had the pleasure of two protest related events today. First, around 2, I was driving along and a bunch of people asked me where 612 was. Seeing how I worked there while I was a student, I pointed it out... a half mile down the road. They asked if I could drop them off, so, hey, why not. Well, I found out they were headed there for a protest. Which is pretty funny, seeing how they don't work at UR. Erm? Okay. And later, a large union protest outside the President's office happened down the road by the Chapel, which again, was a fun sight to see, seeing how we had to cart elderly alumni through the crowds. Fun stuff.

It's been on long and crazy day. A lot of fun too. Next time: hat and gloves. Fool me once, right? But now, a fun and crazy Friday night. Don't ask.. don't tell. ;)

Holding my breathe until...

Both Tuesday and Thursday went exceptionally well, besides the whole 'life crashing to an end with hard drive failure' thing. ;) Life moves on. I'll prolly end up changing the whole way I handle TV downloads due to this fiasco. Oh well, I'm past it.

I finally got my bike fixed. The guys at the bike shop were of little help, but I ended up buying the tire and tube I needed (well, good enough) and got it on my bike, pumped up (without any bums) and back in working order in just a couple hours. I also installed the new part onto my elliptical machine and gave the thing a whirl. Thirty minutes goes by a hellava lot faster than I remember.

I've separated the birds. The mother, named lovingly 'Cindy', has been attacking her children, and since the store doesn't want them, they need to be kept apart. Unfortunately the cage I have available is half the size for twice the number of birds. So they spend most of their time falling and running into each other. Fun stuff in the Langslow apartment at 7am.

Exams are coming up for my class already. It's hard to believe that next week is already mid-term, but hey, thats what you get for taking accelerated quarters. Well, not you. Me. Though I have homework due tonight that I really have no idea how to do because I missed last week's class due to DC.

Yesterday a couple of us (coworkers) went to Paola's Burrito Place for lunch. I haven't been in awhile, and wanted to reclaim some memories from my trip to Mexico.. so I ordered some pork mexican tacos. While they were good, they weren't anything in comparison. Unfortunate. I guess I'll just have to go back to Mexico. Though in the mean time, I'll stick to my beef burrito from now on. Eeek, has it come to this? Blogging about food?

I wonder how Laura's honeymoon is going for her. I think about her every day on my way to work. Imagining all the fun stuff they must be doing. The warm weather (unlike the 49 degree weather here in Rochester) and the cool breazes. Ugh. Now I wanna go. White sandy beaches... just what I need.

Tomorrow is Golf Cart driving all day for Meliora Weekend, then mom is coming up in the evening and spending all day at UR with me on Saturday, then Corn Maze on Saturday night, and hanging out with Jake on Sunday. Looking forward to a couple days off, and a lot of excitement over the weekend.

The day the music died...

To say I am disappointed is putting it mildly. I am not angry. I am not upset. But I have this overwhelming feeling of shame for the event that transpired last night. Imagine this: Over 4,000 pictures totaling 5 gigs spanning 8 years, 110 gigs of TV shows, 20 gigs of music from 6 years, hundreds of programs collected over the years and a library of multimedia that has been evolving over the last decade. All gone. Or at least I think it's all gone. My external hard drive died.

I was doing nothing out of the ordinary, nothing special, nothing to predict the incoming bombshell that would hit me. I had downloaded 7 TV shows over the previous 2 days, and was moving them onto my external drive for storage and eventual viewage. Clink. Clank. The drive went offline. Then I spent the next 3 hours trying to see whether or not the unit had died, the case had died or something along the lines of both cases. Nothing I did proved either. I started investigating possible ways of recovery if the unit does end up being unusable.. and came across a couple HD recovery companies. Their price: $200 for evaluation, plus $600 - $2500 to recover the data, depending on the damage. Sigh.

The music.. TV shows.. even the programs are all replaceable. This is why I'm not upset. But the fact that I lost 8 years of pictures... strikes me as a strong lesson to learn. Now I get to go through my hundreds of CDs I have in storage to find any kind of backups I may or may not have taken. I have a vague memory of backing up my pictures last year.. but then again, it could be I remember wanting to back them up. We'll see what happens in the coming days. I've ordered a new external drive case and am stopping by Office Depot to buy a new hard drive. Let's begin again and see how far I get. And if I can't find backups, I may consider shelling out hundreds of a HD repair operation.

Crisis Averted, Next?

let's make a memory

Nobody else has this problem, I know. I'll be talking to someone and they'll say "yeah, read it in your blog" or at least I'll be talking to them and I know they read it already, but they'll still ask me questions I know they know. It pops the air out of any enthusiasm I had for the topic. Or I'll have told the same story to four people already and am tired of telling it, so I'll just refer people back. I love to talk, I love to share stories, and when everyone moved away or it was turning that direction.. I turned here to the blogosphere.

This elliptical part that broke on me finally arrived while I was in DC... almost a month after the machine broke in the first place. I was worried it wouldn't be delivered since I was away, but my neighbor was good enough to sign for it. I had told him the part is only about 5 inches tall/wide, so the box shouldn't be too bad. Well, apparently I lied. The box was the length of the machine (5 foot) and a foot tall/wide. Oops. Plus, they sent me another whole elliptical machine! So I got 2 boxes in all. One which weighed 10 pounds and one that weighs at least 80. What the hell? The company royally screwed up, but they only charged me for the single part. I've already gotten 3 offers to BUY my used elliptical. It's funny.

Yesterday I immediately had at least 4 tasks to do during the day, plus about 6 other minor things that came my way in the morning that went on my calendar. I ended up having to work through lunch and pushing things off with people until later this week. I had to schedule 4 meetings for later this week with people and have 2 crises in the 2 departments I do extra work for. And these of course happened to me while I was on vacation. This week already feels crowded and too busy, and it just started. But crisis averted on one, but still working on the 2nd. Luckily I get paid $50 an hour for the 2nd. ;)

Class last night was semi-stressful. Last week I met and did homework at SPOT for my Marketing class, and we ended up doing 1/2 the homework, and gave the other half to the remaining 2 team members to do on their own. Well, they never got back to us about whether they had finished it or not, and all day Monday we had emails going back and forth about nervousness. This wasn't a small part of the homework and it takes a good 2-3 hours to do, so we had run out of options if they hadn't done it. Class started and we didn't have the last bit of the homework in hand to turn in. Carrie went to the computer lab and found David half crying over his computer terminal trying fervoursly to finish the writeup. Poor guy, having a rough patch with his girlfriend.. but common! this is 30% of our grade for the year. While all was well in the end, I don't think we're going to approach the next homework with that same zeal.

Don't Ask Jeeves

no birdie, that's dirty water

So you head over to Ask Jeeves and ask them what ya need, right? "Luke needs" is fairly straight foreward, I would think. Here are my results:

Luke Needs Adoption - Erm, okay. So I live alone. I'm fairly self-sufficient, I only need to be checked on once every day or so, and sometimes I run out of food, but this means nothing, honest!
Luke needs to get out and have more fun! - Jeeves, who are you to give me advice on having fun?
Luke needs someone he can count on for good - Well, I cannot argue with you on this point, but I have several people I trust my life with, so hey, I have someone! two someones!
Luke needs a Yoda - Star Wars... *shudder* No, thank god the movies are over, cause I'm sick of the force.
Luke needs a little break - How sweet. Thank you so much. After yesterday being a 8 - 9 day, I just want to sleep for the next 4 days.
Luke needs glasses - HEY! No, no. Bad enough I wear contacts. I look hideous with glasses.
Luke needs Exercise - WHAT!? Give me a break! My damned elliptical broke.. and NOT because I was too heavy! It's got a 250lb weight limit and I'm not even near that! Shut up.

So Jeeves is now on my do not call list. Jerk.

Off to St. Lucia we go!

Oh wait, no. I'm not going. But then again, I wouldn't want to fly 7 hours either. :)

Yesterday we all met up at Laura's place for brunch after hanging out with Linda in the morning. Munching on cheesits "Get your own box!" and forcing Jake to clean up, we made our way along Braddock and Van Dorn to find Laura's apartment. Amazing how I know the roads already around there and can play the role of navigator without looking at a map.

The entire family came out, including a couple others, to say goodbye and head to airports. Jake and I got there just as most everyone was leaving, so we got to briefly say hello [and goodbye], eat some yummy food and poof, they were gone. Thankfully, Jake and I stayed for another 3 hours, hung out with Laura and Luke, exchanged photos from the last 3 days and just relaxed. But the road beckoned and we got going around 3:30.

The drive back was uneventful. We didn't stop but once or twice for a drink or the bathroom, so in all, the drive took about 6 1/2 hours. Excellent time. Jake continually prodded me for details of my innermost thoughts, which I rewarded him a bit here and there. Mostly clarification on the "love versus marriage" and "monogomy versus love" statements that Uno brought up during the wedding reception. Luckily, after explaining it all, he agrees with me. We hardly disagree. But anyway, he's funny. I enjoy listening to him talk about his life, even if sometimes I cannot identify with his problems.

The Distillery was great last night. Half-price pizza and appetizer specials, home brewed beer and 4 cups of water later, Jake and I split for the first time in 4 days, perhaps for at least a couple weeks. But then again, we do have episodes of Survivor to catch up on, and this weekend we're prolly getting together to cut up our pumpkins. Maybe a corn maze? Not sure. Busy week ahead. My calendar has already filled up several days with just meetings. Sigh.

Hello to Doug from Stanford, CA.. who somehow found my blog without me giving him the address. *waves*

Laura's Fairy-Tale Wedding

luke, cindy a, jake, doug

What an amazing day. I just got back to Linda's place, a million hours later. We all got going from Laura's place pretty early and headed to the hotel, bagels and donuts in hand, to get hair done, makeup applied and tuxified for the ceremony at noon thirty. It was great getting ready with the girls, they're a little more crazy than when I got ready with the guys at Jake's wedding. Plus, it only took the guys minutes to get ready. ;)

Such a beautiful day, gorgeous even. Sun was out, warm breeze, barely any cloud cover, but just enough.. pictures turned out wonderfully, Laura looked stunning and everyone was so happy. The actual ceremony was one of the nicest I've ever been to.. Laura did a great job with it, plus standing with the bridesmaids prompted several questions afterward. "Was there a missing bridesmaid?" and "Did you stand on the wrong side?" Heh. Hey hey now, step back.

<~~~ Luke & Cathy, with Jake's eyeball

The hotel staff was funny. They did a marvelous job making amends and fixing small issues that came up, plus when they didn't remember about the receiving line, we got to sneak to the reception hall through the backhalls and service elevators of the hotel. We actually walked through the kitchen where they were making the plates for the dinner! And it was so great to meet everyone in Luke and Laura's lives. And a bunch knew of me! It was great to hear people say "We've heard so many wonderful things about you!" and Luke's mom even hugged me and said how wonderful it was to finally meet me.

You cannot believe this reception hall. It reminded me of being up in the clouds. The ceilings were so high, there was a bright fall theme, the windows were beautiful and the the way the room was laid out, it just felt warm and comforting. This was by far the best wedding I've ever even seen, let alone been in. So many people, so many friendly people, and meeting up with Kerri, Cathy, Doug, Jake and Cindy was wonderful. I have a wonderful circle of friends. Mingling in the foyer, eating up appetizers and making great conversation, open bar (the ONLY kind of bar to be had at a wedding) we eventually were seated for dinner. And how nice it is to be served first!

I hate to keep raving and pepping up the food, but wow! Everyone loved everything. And Jake even had a vegeplate! He was happy, I was happy, everyone was happy. There were even canisters of M&Ms with Laura and Luke's name on them with the date. The wedding had a fall theme, so we had yellow and orange rose pedals and leaves and browns and yellows. I think Fall is now my official favorite time of year.. simply because it was perfect. It couldn't been better. It feels great to be happy. Well, happier! And if there is one thing you can count on, it's all my friends dancing up a storm on the dancefloor. Brings back memories of Junior and Senior nights in college, but hey! we had a great time, and I amazed everyone with my electric slide. (ha!) I even had Cousin Marion come up to me and tell me I had quite the moves (I attribute them all to Kiersten!) Plus taking videos of Jake getting down with it was challenging, but rewarding.

My tux was great, I looked stunning and everyone else the same. The bridesmaids had wonderfully matching, but still unique, dresses and the guys all looked of 19th century royalty. But getting out of the clothes afterward was even better. The girls all had wrangled feet and my feet, while dashing, also hurt. A bunch of us hung out in the honeymoon suite (without the couple) while I changed and got my stuff together, and then headed out to the Holiday Inn where Doug and Uno were staying.


laura and luke, the newlyweds

I think we freaked out Doug. And he got a lesson about my blog, but not from me. Jake and Uno did an entertaining job explaining him the complexities and intricacies of the entire process. Plus I hear it was involved in plenty of conversation between several other guests. Funny tho, except Uno kept telling everyone its boring. ;) Oh well, it is what it is. But Doug got a little taste of the conversations we all have about life and love, because he was pretty wide-eyed for the rest of the night. Heh. Sorry Doug!

But all of us, including the wedding party on both sides and several honored guests, all headed into Old Towne Alexandria to hang out at this really cool Scottish bar next to Murphy's.. and only say Scottish because the bartender had this great accent and kept calling me 'mate'! Or maybe he was Australian... but either way, it was great. Plus the drunk couple at the bar kept asking me to buy them drinks. It was a fine fine end to a wonderful day. A terrific evening out. After getting Coldstone and heading back to the Holiday Inn, we ended our evening watching bad midnight TV and eventually limping our way back to Lindas at 1.

Today is our horrendous drive home, after a quick brunch with the newlyweds, to exchange photos and hugs, and kisses for a wonderful honeymoon in St. Lucia.

Too many, regardless.. blown up or dirty..

jake and his mini fiat 500

An all day exploration and caching trip into Washington, DC, you say? No way! Well, yes. But something about hiding small black boxes all around the nation's capital makes what we're doing a LITTLE bit sketchy, but luckily none of it was near the monuments.

Let me first start out by saying how wonderful a host Linda is. You can't believe how she bends over backwards helping us out and making sure we feel comfortable. She even gave us our own set of keys for the weekend. She's awesome, no doubt about it.

A couple of the first caches were easy and to the point. In a park, under a bench. Behind a dumpers. Near a tree. Under a lamp-post cover, under some wood. Easy. Simply. The only delay? Walking a mile to each cache since they'd be in public parks where parking was utterly difficult to find. But you cannot believe how beautiful Georgetown is. The homes are all townhouses where we were and they had cute little porches and little backyards. I'd move right in... if I had $2,000 a month to blow on rent. :)

We found this really prissy central park (unmanicured) section of the city, along Massachusetts Avenue that had deer and bugs and really expensive homes. We of course drove far too fast through it and scared several walkers, but it was amazing to find the 'country' in the middle of Washington.

We ended up at this river in the middle of the city... along this 'park path' that turned out to be more of a cow path for drug dealers and random teenagers having sex. While we'd normally be all into that, we had a mission.. and it turns out the cache we were looking for wasn't even close to where we were.. even if the used condoms were a dead giveaway. But, hey, like I always say, it's not about the condoms prize/cache/food/movie.. it's about the people. And hanging out with Jake was an excellent way to spend a Friday.

But then he wanted to find out 5th and 6th cache, which was getting dangerously close to the rehearsal dinner time. We ended up behind the South African embassy, in this backwater woods within earshot of the Hungarian ambassador's residence and richy mcrich's million dollar estate. And who knew 'cache is near two fallen trees' would be so confusing since we found 3 sets of 2 fallen trees within 30 feet of the cache location. But we had a first.. we were the first people to find this cache. Normally we're in the 30s or higher, so this was nice. Jake left behind a crappy CD and we moved on.

Unfortunately DC rush hour traffic was horrible, and the fact that we didn't really know how to get back to Linda's apartment, we relied on our GPS waypoint we luckily set before leaving earlier in the day. We did make it back, but not in time to make it ON TIME to the rehearsal at the hotel. But luckily Laura was really late too (but hey, she can do whatever she damned well please) and I only needed to know to escort a couple grandparents anyway.

But damn.. Laura's family sure knows how to throw a rehearsal dinner. I wish I had more room for it, but I couldn't even everything they had to offer. The chicken Marcela was to die for and there was a chocolate fountain to boot! Hey now. And meeting up with Kiersten and meeting the other Laura was a ton of fun. Plus Luke made all the beer (since their 2nd bedroom is a distillery) and we had a bunch of fun opening up our gifts and catching up on the 2 years its been since I've seen everyone.

It feels so great to have so much fun.

But wait, the evening didn't end yet. The girls (which includes me luckily enough) decided to thrown Laura her own Bacherlorette party at her place, which went extremely well and we had a ton of fun. Unfortunately Luke and Jake (best man) crashed it in the middle, but it didn't stop us from enjoying the moment. Oh, and the moments and memories to never tell. Well, to tell in person. Blogs may not be the best places to talk about public teacher's personal lives. ;)

DC on the mind

We ended up stopping for two more caches that night. One was at the old Sodom one-room schoolhouse outside Lewisburg, PA and the other was at a covered bridge down the road a little more. The covered bridge was really cool, and apparently it is the oldest one in the nation. It took forever to find that cache and we didn't get on the road again until 8:30.

We ended up stopping at an all night diner and tried to relax and stretch our legs. Jake got breakfast and I had the biggest bowl of chile I've ever seen. Rachael called us.. and was a bit surprised to learn we were still in PA almost 8 hours after we had left Rochester. Heh. We're caching along the way. It makes the trip seem less of a drive. Really.

But we rolled into Washington, DC around 12ish in the morning. My computer had died about 5 minutes before we needed it one last time for directions (since we had taken a quicker route) and I ended up having to call my sister for last minute directions. We found Linda's place without any issue at all. Not sure what we're going to do today, but we've got our $20 metro passes and adventure on our minds. Wish us luck.

Corning + Caching + Rain = :(

caching in corning, ny

I have such a horrible memory. After trying to get things together last night before all my errands, I ended up forgetting a couple major coupons for the store I was heading to. And I'm not talking about $1 off or buy one get one free. It's more like $40 off or $5 off. Sigh, and I didn't realize it until I was already in the store. This blew my timeline off, as I had to return home, grab the coupons, pack for my homework meetup, and then return to the store and paw through hard-to-find materials to find what I was looking for. Fun stuff.

But at least working at the Spot was productive. Even though it was hot as hell in there. Carrie and Mustafa had already gotten a problem done since I was late, and we worked for a couple more hours before giving up for the night. Busy busy day, and I hadn't even packed for DC yet.

But I did manage to get everything packed and ready to go in an hour after leaving work early. Being without a bike sucks tho, so Sunday is my fixem day for that, once and for all. Jake arrived at one, chased the cat for a while "Kitty.. love me!" as she ran screeching for her life. We're on the road now. We passed the PA border about 20 minutes ago.

Jake printed out a bunch of caches for our trip down. We decided to try one of them in Corning, NY. A multicache.. which means you find a clue and then follow it to the next part. We ended up parking and walking. The GPS said we were within 2/10ths of a mile. Over traintracks, under a bridge (getting wet) and along a nature path: "Two guys, arriving in a small red car, walking into the woods with umbrellas and a purse like contraption (camera)... hmmm, what do you think the construction workers think?"

We ended up down this wet winding nature path along a river. Unfortunately we got to the end and we were still a tenth of a mile away. Across the river. "Swim! Get our your trunks." Uhh, no. We found our way to the park on the other side of the river.. after painfully sitting behind a school bus after it dropped off six dozen children in the span of 10 minutes. We found the cache.. under sticks.. in a park.. in the middle of nowhere. We're wet.. my ankle hurts like hell.. and we're back on the road. Hmm, six more hours. Yay. See you soon Linda!

Hmm, bike accident. And let it be done.

I don't exactly have the best news to report in regard to my bike tire. I failed in my mission. After I left work, I walked my bike home and took the tire off and ripped out the tube. It seems the hole formed on the actual inside of the tube near the rim. So it's not like I ran over something. However, taking the tube out was horrible and I developed a layer of grease on my hands and jeans. I went and bought a bike tire at the store. Easy enough to find and pretty cheap too, so I guess that was one bit of good news.

Returning back in the dark, I set out to insert the tube into the tire and get it all set up again. It was horrible. Grease everywhere, under my nails, on my arms. Ripped skin. Sore knuckles. I got about 75% the way through it and I smelled burnt rubber. Eh? What is this? I burned a hole in the rube trying to put it in. A hole. In my new tube. After it was almost all the way in. Sigh. But hey, what's a hole when it's a self-sealing tube and I have super-glue and a spare (ruined) tube on hand? Tried. Glued. Glued again. Put the tire in, head to the Hess gas station, and sit in the rain pumping up your lone back tire in hopes of no leak. And it leaked. A slow hiss.

So then this weird guy walks over to me. It's late, it's dark, it's raining. "Can you help me get on the bus?" "Sorry, no money." "Please." "I have absolutely no money." I lied. Leave me alone guy. "I need to get home. I have to get home." "Hey buddy. You have issues. I have issues. You want on the bus. I'm trying to fix my bike tire at 11pm in the rain. Leave me alone." He left. Glued again. No hiss. Success! Filled it full, with high hopes I returned home and promptly put the tire in its proper place.

Sadly, a hiss developed.. in a new location. Plus this tire is so beaten that parts of the tube are sticking out along the side. Sigh. I can't win. What to do? Buy a new tube AND tire? Buy a new bike (which my model is 35% off this week)? Give up altogether, I suppose.

So I drove to work today. If the front gate parking attendant asks.. I do NOT work here. I do NOT take classes here. I am an alumni visiting the campus. And no, I'm not trying to sell you something. And parking in Library Lot. "What's the blood, grease and bone chips on your hand, sir?" you may ask? Hmm, bike accident. And let it be done.

Tonight is shopping (for a new tire? or a new bike?) and homework at The Spot with Carrie and John. Jake and I are leaving for Washington, DC on Thursday at 1. Plans have been made. Snacks have been bought. Counting down the hours (28). Now just to get the grease out of my nails.

Pop! Fizz... crap.

my shoes?

Now this is cool... "A souped-up VW Touareg, designed by Stanford University, zipped through the course in six hours and 53 minutes Sunday, using only its computer brain and sensors to navigate rough and twisting desert and mountain trails." Now when can I get one of these to bring me to work?

Speaking of getting to work.. my rear bike tire blew out this morning on the way to work, so not only was I late but I had to walk the bike some 14 minutes.. and I have to walk it home tonight. I might just buy a new bike tonight on my errands run. The whole thing is creaky and noisy and the left brake doesn't work... so this bike can become spare parts (to add to the collection of bike parts already stored at my mother's).

Last night we had this guest speaker in my marketing class from the hospital. She brought this huge lecture with her and spoke for about 2 hours.. except she couldn't get through much of her slides because people kept interrupting her. I guess its expected since its a class, but man, they were asking the oddest questions. Comparing health care to selling coca-cola? Talking about nurse recruitment? Telling her that the marketing should be more informative about everything when in fact the hospital advertises more about 'feeling good' and 'community' than 'we do boob jobs, hip replacements and reconstructive surgeries on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and we can get ya in and out in 3 hours or less'. I guess I was just bored, but none of the questions had anything to do with her lecture.

Jake and I are trying to figure out when we're leaving for DC in the next couple of days. While we're going to be there by Friday, the exact day and time of our departure is unknown as of yet. "Have you decided what day/time you'd like to go down there? " I ask. "Yes, let's leave tonight at 4 PM." Today is Tuesday. *shakes head* But we're thinking of caching too at a couple places. When else would we be able to cache outside our home area, ya know?

Sadly enough, I am out of food. I haven't gotten groceries in exactly 3 weeks and 2 days, and I'm down to frozen carrots and the two pieces of bread I made into a sandwich today. Don't get me wrong, I love carrots, but the cat is getting annoyed and the birds are starting to eat each other. I've been so darn busy with school every night the past couple weeks that by the time I have 10 minutes free, I just want to nap. But tonight.. I sell the birds. I buy groceries. And I may buy a new bike. Exciting, I know.

Avoiding the Wrath (of the Ages?)

dream on, dream big

"You get a certain benefit from getting a bargain, over and above the financial benefit there's a psychological benefit," Perner said. "There are a variety of reasons why people may feel that -- one is the thrill of beating the system. Another is demonstrating the skill of being able to find good bargains." So this explains me. ;)

Had a lot of fun on Saturday night with Sorah and her friends. (including a guy named Merlin? who introduced himself as a wizard) Stopped for chinese food, watched several hours of comedy at a tiny club in Geneva and drove off as the ragtag group went in search of lost car keys, and the like. The comedy was funny, a lot better than I've seen at Comix Cafe, thankfully. It was quite surprising, seeing how Geneva has about 4 people in residence. And I almost went to University there. Found a place to stay for the night.. hung out with Katie who hogged entirely too much of the bed... and met up with my family in the late morning. Sleeping in late.. I miss you so much.

My mother just received her new cell phone, so we spent a couple hours setting it up, getting Verizon to set the account up correctly, and also starting the port process for her land line. Unfortunately, no customer service rep ever knows what they're doing, so we ended up either getting hung up on or hanging up on.. about 7 times before we were done. Morons. But now mom has a better phone than I do and free internet through it as well

I took a bunch of pictures of the wet landscape at her house. Pictured above was one of a dozen gardens she has set up. Everything is great in the fall, and this weather has me outright giddy. Give me a cold rain any day of the week. Pile on the blankets, open a window and drink cocoa is my motto. Ooh.. cocoa, sounds good to me.

Was invited for dinner at Deb's, so I headed there late Sunday and enjoyed a rousing evening of jokes and laughs that didn't end until I forced myself to leave around 6:30. Molly made to unfortunate mistake of sharing the fact that she has a friend that has made some questionable decisions in his life. So we got to listen to a 15 minute lecture of immorality. This eventually morphed into a discussion about how God is bringing the wrath of the ages onto the planet due to our hate and negativity. Eyeroll. Asked for my opinion? I lied. I'm not one to ask about morality and doing the right thing.

I, unfortunately, had homework to do at Simon at 8... which ended up taking until midnight. Talk about annoying. My group consists of two chinese-american students (who reminded me for no reason that they were born here) that talk way to fast and are too hard to understand. But now I understand why I'll be making the big bucks once I get my MBA. This problem they had us do was so expansive and so complicated that it took us 2 hours just to wrap our heads around it.. and there were 3 of us! But we got it and I never want to see them again. ;) And they're PhD students in their 5th year! They said they hated the class. Funny, I think it's interesting.

So maybe this whole Simon thing will be easier than I thought. Short week this week, seeing how I am taking Friday off for Laura's wedding stuff. Counting down the days. Down to 5?

And the leg says.. 2 inches of rain by dawn..

A couple highs.. a couple lows.

Highs:

Had a nice lunch with a couple coworkers on Thursday at Schalers and was offered free food on Friday for lunch from a leftover faculty meeting. Apparently the secretaries order 30 sandwhiches too much. Saw "The Cave" and "The Island" on Friday night. Both movies were poorly written and kind of sloppy, but at least one was funny and the other a bit scary. And now I have more baby birds. But the pet store won't take the adults yet, so now I have 6 adults and a nest full of babies screaming for food. And the adults are learning to sing.. badly.

Lows:

I flooded my bathroom floor the other night, by accidentily leaving the water running the sink to fill up a jug to water plants. I came back (an hour later) to the floor covered in water and part of my carpet soaked. What the hell? At least I watered some plants. Everything is dry now. How could I have done that? Plus my leg STILL aches. A friend thinks my leg was predicting the rain that came. Nice. If I wanted a sixth sense, I would NOT have chosen one that aches so much I can't walk on it. Good thing is.. now that the rain is gone, it feels slightly better. ;)

Oh, the joys of life. Tonight I'm headed to a comedy club and dinner. Not too much going on, except homework and driving. Fun stuff. But I love this cold damp weather. Yes, I'm crazy.

It's hot, I'm sore and it hurts to breathe... bah!

happy october

Bits of good news.

The part for my elliptical is on its way. Turns out they were able to only need to send me a small piece for less than $30. This is much better news than the $60 they wanted to charge last week. But it turns out my elliptical is older than a year after all.. not the 'brand new' label the sellers told me earlier this year. It was new so much as they never used it, apparently.

Stupid health vaccinations form was waived... so I don't have to go through that mess with my doctor nor any stupid processing fee. I knew they'd have my records from my undergraduate work. Good ol' UR.. keeping every last piece of paperwork from all time.

Got my official score results from the GMAT. Apparently I got a perfect on both essays. Not bad seeing how I joked how utterly funny the different levels were for the exam. Rated out of 6, a 0 was "you didn't type anything, you moron" to a 1 being "just repeated the question or randomly typed to the screen" with 3 being "you are basically on target but lack direction" and a 6 being "you should write a novel" Seriously, the example essays sounded like they were written and edited by PhD students. I don't know how I scored perfectly. *smile*

Sorry to complain about my aches and pains.. but I did something to my right leg because its killing me. I've been hiding a limp all day. It hurts so bad I can hardly walk on it. It feels like I kicked a concrete wall or something. It hurts when I'm sitting, standing, walking or kicking small children. Hmm, maybe that's it. And pain reliever isn't helping. Plus I woke up with the beginnings of a sore throat. I popped some zinc and vitamin c. Let's hope my weekend isn't ruined by the scours of the changing seasons.

This weekend I have little to no plans. Saturday morning and Sunday evening are both reserved as Simon homework days. Since its group work, I'll actually do the homework more than 3 hours before its due. But my group wants to meet several times. The professor said the homework would take 4 hours. Let's hope it gets done in 4 hours.

Saturday night I'm headed back to Geneva to hang out with Sorah and some of her friends. Apparently there is a comedy/comic/dinner place in Geneva around where I used to live. Meeting up for dinner and a fun time. I think I'll also take the opportunity to hang out with my mother than night. I know she'd enjoy it. I haven't been home home in about 4 months.

Laura's wedding is a little over a week away. It's hard to imagine the day has finally come. I remember her getting engaged back in December of last year.. how excited she was and me for her. I remember her putting up her 100 days counter.. which is now 9 days away. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone again, and strangely enough I am looking forward to the 7 hour drive (5.5 the way Jake drives) with him. Should be an adventure.

Jake wants to geocache after work tomorrow. Plus watch Survivor. He wanted to watch it tonight but he doesn't remember that I have class on Thursday nights. I don't know how much actual search time we will be able to get tomorrow night, but maybe my boss will let me out a little early. He has a bum foot and maybe can sympathize with my leg issue. :)

And don't laugh, but I trimmed up my hair tonight. Was getting sick of the length and being utterly unable to do anything with it (like I have much to work with anyway). So I trimmed it up.. a little too much. Might have to shave it all off for Laura's wedding... dunno yet. Bah, I have to read 6 chapters of a novel for my class next week.. plus a bunch of marketing homework. Who's great idea was it to attend a business school again??

Oh, I added a couple new people to the right side of the page: misty, sorah, miah Visit them and their mind-altering myspace pages. O.o

Bang bang! You're scaring the cat!

don't forget the monkey

The last couple of days have been painfully uneventful. I've just been going through the motions, going to class and doing my work. Avoiding annoying people. Avoiding talking to people. Just doing it to get it done.

I was called an 'effin moron' today as I rode my bike down the sidewalk. Not that I did anything wrong, but apparently the heavyset bald man felt that the sidewalk was his and only his. I even went around him, cause he didn't hear me due to his ipod earbuds blocking my shouts. Keep singing, bud.

My elliptical is over a year old, so alas, I am unable to get the replacement parts for free. So it'll be another week before I get the part which is required. I miss working out. Once you get out of the habit, it's hard to get back in. Plus I've been working through lunch every day of the last week, so I'm hardly getting any activity outside of my bike ride every day.

I am already exhausted from this week and it just started. Class three nights this week is wearing my patience thinly. If I could stay right after work, it would be fine, but these 1/2 classes that start at 7:10 are annoying. Luckily this is the last week, but not before a 4 hour class on Thursday. Plus I keep forgetting my name card. And I haven't found a team to work in. Sigh.

Did you get to see the live Will and Grace episode last week? My god, it was hilarious. They kept laughing at each other's jokes, which slowed down dialogue and the audience loved it, which slowed them down even further. I was laughing out loud, prolly to the dismay of my neighbors. TV hasn't really been good lately. Some of these new shoes are flunking out and several of my favorites are now on fall hiatus. I guess this is good. Plus Rome is almost done. Ceasar is getting closer and closer to death. ;)

A bunch of annoying this little quirks lately: my credit card company is merging into another, so now my number is changing.. annoying for all the websites I have the card under, someone's check bounced that I deposited into my account which charges me a fee... Simon requires a fee and a health form filled out by my doctor for immunization shots even tho I filed this same form at the time of my undergraduate schooling at the SAME school, this stupid part for my elliptical machine, my bike is falling apart from overuse, they're doing work on my apartment roof with adds noise and has removed 3 parking spaces from my already full lot, my car needs new tires.. ugh.. see what I'm talking about. Bah. Annoying, yes. Impossible, no.

And what's with all the bikers lately? Tonight while walking to my car, about 50 motorcycles drove down Wilson in front of the chapel. Huh? And the other night, my group almost got run down by about 25 midnight bikers on East Ave. I'm all for bikes. I adore bikers. But not in huge mobs.

At least I made a bunch of people laugh today. Went to a meeting with a bunch of stupid people today, annoying people, people with too many demands and not enough stakeholding power. Bah. Too much work, not enough reward.

At least I'm happy. :)

Goodbye Sheila :( Hello new week...!

Jake told me a joke tonight. "What's brown and sticky?" Give up? "A stick." Complex, huh? Laugh.

Tonight there was quite the commotion outside my apartment. Five cop cars and a guy without pants being led away in handcuffs. Did we need five cars for that?

Sheila made it back to Bing safe and sound. I dropped her off at the infamous greyhound bus station this morning, kissed her goodbye and shed a tear. She's so wonderful. Hope to see her soon again. But now I get to enjoy the music she left behind for weeks and weeks to come. "Postal Service - Give Up" has been rockin and I've been listening to the music nonstop since Friday night.

I was able to spend most of the day alone, catching up on work, homework, and dubbing episodes of Lost for Nola. I left her hanging midway through last season, so I made her 3 VCR tapes full of new episodes. Dubbing is exhausting, especially since there is no fast way to transfer the files from the computer to tape. :
Jake, Rachael and Lindsay picked me up for dinner at Pizza Hut tonight. Had a great time. It's turning out to be quite the habit we're forming. And I think I am growing on Lindsay. I think she's even forgiven me for that offhanded comment I made months ago about her maturity level (which wasn't, but she took as, an insult). They discussed mostly Christmas presents for each other, months ahead of my even considering Christmas. Of course Jake told me in no uncertain terms that I am not to give him a present. "If you give me something, I will throw it away. And if you give me something good, I will throw it away and take it out of the trash when you're not looking." Good enough.

We finally caught up on the last two weeks of Survivor tonight, commenting along the way on the people competiting this round. "A fishmonger? Does that mean she's a lesbian?" Nice Jake. Well, I'm not sure what a fishmonger is. And he took his time ripping through several magazines worth of Maxim. I'm not renewing my subscription, so I guess I'll never see him again. He did invite me to play board games with him at his other friend's house Seth. While my suspicion o-meter is rising, I'll try it out. As long as we're not role playing.. I'm game for board games. But if figurines come out, I'm headed for the door!

I had an amazing weekend. Hung out with a lot of cool people. Exhausted beyond belief. Ready for bed.

Mmmmm dim sum...

apple picking

Sheila and I copied and burned a bunch of Alison's good CDs (good in relation to my own music) and I'm now thoroughly enjoying albums 'Hopes and Fears' 'Iron and Wine' 'Plans' and 'Postal Service' Amazing stuff, enjoying it immensely. Especially since 98PXY is doing 'rip it up' all weekend long.

Sheila went off and did her thing with Dan in the morning and Nola arrived at my place shortly after. We headed out to Whittier Farms to do some apple and pumpkin picking, and really enjoyed the nice weather (while it lasts). Every other time I've gone, it's always been raining or cold, so it's a stark change, for sure. It was pretty busy there, especially with all the families and kids running around. Nola and I gathered this huge bag of apples and picked out pumpkins (mine big and round, Nola's small and.. roundish?) and sped on our way after getting some cider for the road. ;)

It was pretty much a day of eating. Leftover chips and salsa (and bean dip) from last night's party.. fresh pumpkin pie from the morning.. leftover Aja noodle food.. Mmm.. Jake had called earlier in the day and had pepped up my hopes for going caching, but it turned out Rach and him needed to work on their bathroom a bit more. That thing is turning into their black cloud. So after trying to explain geocaching to Sheila and Nola: "So.. it's like we're WALKING??" and "Yay Nola, let's go walking with Luke!" I gave up and we napped until dinner (after a quick trip to the neighborhood liquor store for mudslide and amoretto sours). Heh.

Nola and I played the role of chauffeur for the evening and carted 4 of Sheila's former hallmates to Dim Sum at Golden Port. It took forever to even get a table.. but they finally seated us in this back room of the Sushi hut. After Sheila told stories of weed and blunts.. the people around us left and we had the whole room to ourselves. Nice. But all was not lost, the food was fantastic as always and I got to taste something new! Wheat Glutten. Now, you're wondering.. what is it? I really can't tell ya.. it's really neat. Like tofu, but chewy.

==RANT==
Alas, the bill came and the art of divying up what we owed began. While I kept out of it (prolly to my own demise) I ended up paying $10 more than everyone else since I was the last to pay on the check. I know.. they're college students.. and they're poor.. and... well, they're rude! These two guys ate sushi and fried squid AND 2 fish dim sums.. and wanted to pay $5 less than everyone else. Ohh.. big surprise when I asked them for more money. "Who? What? Why do you need more money? Isn't $2 enough for our entire $50 meal?" ;) Bah. Stop Luke, stop right now. *whistle*
==END RANT==

But I did get to enjoy the evening and Jake relenting(ly?) agreed to see Serenity with me at Tinseltown. I picked him and Rach up at 10 and watched the movie in a near-empty theatre. You'd think a Saturday night would be busier.. or maybe because it's not a popular movie? Hey! It got a 80% on rotten tomatoes... and ask Jake.. the movie was great! 2 hours of nonstop fun. I so hope they come out with the next movie. I... just love this series. Damn Fox. Damn them and their greedy hands. But they ended up killing to beloved main characters. What the hell?

So tired, gotta sleep.

Put the lime in the coconut...

desert gear, apparently

We did not awake until well after 11. So unlike me. Felt good tho. We skipped right to lunch, scouring up leftover pizza and other fun odds and ends. We packed it up and were on our way back to Rochacha by 1. Except for the horrible backup of traffic in Syracuse, it was quite uneventful and free of phone calls and looks of disgust.

I got my measurements done at Men's Warehouse today. I'm going to have to squeeze into a size 16 dress shoe since they don't have my size. Fit ok, I'll just have to hobble down the aisle at the wedding. I heard CindyV isn't coming to the wedding. If that's true, thats a big disappointment. I was looking forward to seeing her again.

A bunch of us met up at Aja Noodle for dinner. Traffic was awful and I of course was late, but a couple changes since the last time I ate there.. 1.. they now wear shirts that say "Ahjah" to help those that don't know how to pronounce their name, and they have a new menu with new options. I don't like how my rice bowl is served on a plate... "rice plate" doesn't seem as fun. I made a point in telling the waitress this.

We went to Raquella's apartment on Alexander St, above the Old Toade. A ton of fun. Their place is newly remodeled, has this great view of the city and all new furnishings and a beautiful hardwood floor. Simply amazing. If I had to move, I'd move there. Plus they are in walking distance to everything.. which we went to Kevin's art show on East Ave at RoCo. He does fascinating work.. several pieces I'd love to own, but Sheila says he doesn't give up his work, even for money. Shucks, and I thought I could buy myself some culture, right?

Sheila and I stopped for midnight margaritas as the Distillery tonight. We learned 2 very important lessons... one, they make one helluva strawberry margarita.. and two.. get the sour lime one FIRST and the sweet one last.. otherwise.. you'll wanna puke! Well, that's all folks, had a geat time. Tomorrow is Nola and more of Sheila (plus Dim Sum and other fun stuff). Safe trip to CT Alison! So much driving, I'm surprised you're still sane!