Happy Thanksgiving

On Wednesday at work I was planning to head out early, but instead because my boss FINALLY got back to us after a week of silence we had to stay late putting together ridiculous videos so he can finally figure out what the hell we do in the lab (should he already know? yes, definitely, and the fact that he doesn't says a lot about the lab).

Went home, ate taco ring with the family, and then watched HP 7.1 with them.

Thursday was Thanksgiving, got up, we all went on a family walk which was a lot of fun. We took Addy and Belle and Addy finally learned how to walk on the leash. It was so cute, I just wish I hadn't forgotten my camera. Got home, ate turkey dinner, and then we all took a nap in the family room. Got up, ate dessert (delicious) and then we all went to go see Breaking Dawn. In my opinion, that book did not need to be split up into two movies and the first "part" went ridiculously slow. Later that night we all watched HP 7.2. It was quite the movie-ful couple of days.

Friday was slow and lazy and didn't really do much, other than completely avoiding Black Friday shopping.

On Saturday I met Jackie for lunch at Chipotle (delicious) then went home and watched The Dutchess with Megan (good movie). Finally got my stuff packed up and drove home. I called the parents on the drive and found out they went to Culver's for dinner after I left. So jealous! After I got back to the Cities, Nathan and I went to eat at Noodles. So a really healthy weekend for me. Afterwards we watched Paranormal Activity, and holy crap is that movie terrifying.

On Sunday we went to breakfast/lunch at Fat Nat's Eggs. It was pretty good. Went home, went to Target and bought tons of stuff including a 6' tree for $10. Wrote my lab report, tried to go to bed, and could not sleep for the life of me.

Work sucked today. That's about it.

I'll be under the bridge...

So I've got some more updating to do...

I have been discreetly looking at alternative employment opportunities (ie applying for a new job) and even had 2 interviews at the U of MN (one I didn't get, the other is still undecided). I've been doing this not because I dislike my current job (or the nice salary that goes with it) but because my boss currently hates our lab and is doing what he can to make us miserable. Including refusing to communicate with my coworker about her Masters thesis (which he's supposed to be a committee member for) and basically telling us everything we do and say is idiotic and 'not scientifically based.' Like anything he says is... but I digress.

This week at work we got an odd request from our sister lab in Arizona. Basically it was to take our entire equipment inventory, put it in an excel, and send it to them (complete with model number, serial number, purchase date/price, and where the funding for it came from). There is really no logical reason they would need this information, but we didn't think too much about it.

Until of course the immediate supervisor down there (Miguel, plays a similar role to what Joe does up here) talked to Katie on the phone and informed her that 1. he was quitting and would be leaving around the holidays and 2. our money is running out and the big boss for some reason decided to not resubmit the grant. Not because it wasn't done or because it would be difficult. Just because. Meaning that our lab up here will be out of funds by March. Meaning that we will be out of jobs in March.

As much as I've wanted to leave anyway, I wanted it to be by my choice. No pressure to find a new job, plus the added bonus of being able to quit and leave them stuck there with no way to get shit done without me (or my coworker, who was going to try to leave when I did).

The weirdest thing is that we had to hear about this from AZ. So my coworker confronted Joe about it, and he knew but he remains optimistic that our boss will get his head out of his ass and plan to submit in July and pray for "gap funding" to cover us between March and July.

So the moral of this story is that, come March, I may be jobless...

In other news, I went to eat at Parkway Pizza last night with Vicki, Sybylla, and Sybylla's friend Monkey. Went and got Addy afterwards to bring to Sybylla's house where we watched Tangled and The Incredibles (and the kitten of course). A fun night, despite the crazy first snow making the roads treacherous...

Fail Kat

Yep, I suck.

So I'll fill you all in on the past THREE AND A HALF MONTHS.

I haven't been this bad at updating since I was writing in a diary.

August:

Things and stuff, it's been awhile so cut me some slack!

Near the end of August (22nd ish?), Vicki, Sybylla, and I went camping up in WI near Lake Superior. It was beautiful, but cold. We went on some short hikes, took tons of pictures, ate s'mores and pie iron pizzas, and overall had a pretty good time. Afterwards we drove a little north of Duluth along the lake to stop and take some pictures there as well. It was a fun trip.

The most important thing that happened to me in August was finally moving into an apartment - it's an adorable studio right on Lake Street, within blocks of Target, Arby's, McDonald's, and a Hennepin County Library. I acquired furniture for said apartment (namely a twin-sized fold out loveseat, a small dining table and 2 chairs, a rolling wooden cart, some small bookshelves, and my dad's old lazy boy recliner). The majority of the aforementioned furniture was purchased in Rochester at the Charter House sale and delivered to me the day after my birthday by my parents via the BOAT. Yep, pretty hick. Megan came to help with the move as well as Jackie, and we all went out to eat at Fat Lorenzo's (delicious).

September:

In September I started my Introductory Physics class at the U of MN, meaning that every week (Tues-Thurs) I have to drive to the light rail, take that up to the Metrodome, where I then get on a bus that takes me to campus. The entire commute usually takes around 30 minutes if I time it right. That's each way of course. At first it was all fun and exciting and I met up with Sara a few times, opened a savings and a checking account at TCF (yay free sweatshirt), etc. Now, however, the commute is just a hassle.

Back to September! Celebrated Nathan's birthday with a bonfire (we celebrated mine earlier at Olive Garden - YUM).

I also started getting lonely at my apartment, which is strange because it wasn't like I interacted all that much with Jordan, or even Harley, at my old place. But the idea of adopting a pet (preferably a dog) was becoming irresistible. Finally I talked to my new "landlords" (a company owns my building) and learned that, despite what the caretaker had told me when I toured the place, no dogs allowed, only cats. That bummed me out for a little while until I finally realized that 1) I don't spend enough time at home to take good care of a dog + no yard or anything and 2) I like cats! Trust me, the second one was harder to come to terms with, but I finally realized that it depends on the cats and my prejudice against them really held no merit. So I started kitten-shopping on Petfinder.com...

October:

I also decided to do a little test run, since as far as I know I'm technically allergic to cats. Since I haven't had much of a problem with Nathan's 2 cats, I decided to see if I really could live with them in my tiny little apartment. So when Nathan went on his all-expenses-paid "work" trip to California I offered to watch his cats at my place. Other than the fact that my "bedroom" has no way to lock out a playful cat, it was going well, so on October 2 I arranged and met with a foster mom (at Secondhand Hounds) to meet an adorable little kitten. Sybylla went with me for moral support, and we both fell in love with her. So I started going through the paperwork to make it official.

I returned the cats to Nathan's, then on Friday I drove Sybylla, Monkey, and myself down to Mystic Lake Casino/hotel where we spent the night swimming, eating at the buffet, and playing bingo in celebration of Sybylla's 25th birthday. We stayed up late in our room building a puzzle (no lie) then slept. Headed out the next morning, ate at a Sonic, met Monkey's giant black dog 'Sirius' (who plays dead when you make a slashing motion and say "avada kedavra" - hilarious!), and then I headed out to pick up my new kitten.

Brought her straight to Nathan's house where there was a bonfire party for Chris' birthday. Everyone admired the kitten (who was wearing the cone of shame due to having been spayed only a few days previously) and she contented herself riding on my shoulder or sitting on my lap purring. Nathan's cats didn't care for her though...

Can't really remember what else happened in October, other than carving pumpkins with Nathan and Chris, spending Halloween at their house (only 1 trick-or-treater = lots of candy for me!), finally naming the kitten (Adelaide, Addy for short), taking her to the vet for the sniffles, driving to ND to visit Nathan's family (I brought Addy), and that's about it.

November (so far):

Well I finally made it to the correct month! It only took me 35 minutes...

So far this month nothing really exciting has happened. Took a horrible Physics test on Thursday. Thing is, it wasn't that hard, we just didn't get enough time! As in, in our class of 100, only one person finished before the time limit. That's bad.

After that though I went to Target and bought the final book in the Eragon series. It wasn't the page turner I was expecting it to be and I didn't even finish it until Sunday night. I drove home from Target and had just enough time to do a little tidying before Megan showed up. She stayed the night and then went to an interview in Chanhassen the next morning. I made her watch Kill Bill for the first time and she liked it - of course!

After her interview we met up at the Mall of America (it was Veteran's Day so I had the day off from work). Wandered and chatted and split a pretzel and then discovered the Disney store. I ended up buying a Lion King mug (50% off!). Parted ways and I went home to read more. Then I went to Nathan's, ate dinner, and then we went to meet up with Chris and Kyle to see Immortals. It was okay, lots of gore and pretty half naked men (think 300) but the plot was kind of terrible.

On Saturday I went with Nathan to a Border Collie Rescue of MN adoption event, where we played with puppies and met his new foster dog. He had been fostering a chunky girl named Mylie but she was recently adopted. Now he's fostering a little boy named Chance. Drove home, and headed straight over to my library (been there every weekend except one since moving to my apartment - I've read a lot of new books on my commutes to and from campus!). They were having a book sale so I came home with 6 new books for $3. Score. Waited around and read/napped until I had to go pick up Sara. Picked her up and drove to Target where we bought wedding gifts for our cousin Travis and his fiancee Heather. Then came home, watched some TV while she did homework, and then we put in Harry Potter 7.2 (newly purchased from Target). Sara also made cookies and a chocolate cake (the cake was to bring to the shower the next day).

On Sunday we got up early, got ready, ate Eggos, and were out the door by 9:20am. I drove to Mankato where we met up with extended family for Heather's bridal shower. Only played 2 silly games (I was not very good at them), ate good food, and hung out with family. Eventually the party was over so I drove us both back to Minneapolis.

Monday was boring, today is Tuesday, which means I'm all caught up!

Thank goodness...