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...

Canada

When I was 12 (the summer right before turning 13) I went on my first ever trip to Canada to go fishing with my dad, my grandpa, my uncles, and 2 of my male cousins as well as my great uncle. While I remember very little from this first trip, it began a tradition of me being the only girl spending a week in NW Ontario fishing with the boys. While the trip didn't happen for me every summer (I skipped a summer where I instead went to Spain and France, and another summer was skipped by all due to scheduling conflicts, etc and so on) it was common enough that I just sort of took it for granted.

Flash forward to today: I just got back from another week in Canada, and realized that it has been 4 years since my last trip! 4 years! That's the summer before I went to Australia, before I even started keeping an online journal. This is kind of crazy for me.

I also won't be able to go next year either if my plans to have a big awesome European adventure pan out (and I hope they do). But that also makes me sad because it really is an amazing vacation.

So lets get to the details of the trip. This year I went with my dad, grandpa, uncle Craig, uncle John and his sons Ryan (17) and Griffin (14), and my uncle Brad and his sons Ian (12) and Owen (10). On Friday July 29th I worked the morning, got home around 1pm, and had about 5 minutes before my dad and Brad and a couple of the boys picked me up. I had a lovely lunch of combos and diet mountain dew in the back of the packed van and entertained myself reading my Kindle during the ride to Hinckley, where we stopped at the casino to eat at the buffet and let grandpa get his slots on. Then continued on to International Falls and then Fort Frances, ON. Here we stopped at the motel for the night.

On Saturday morning we continued the drive up to ~Perrault Falls on Lake Wabaskang. We arrived at the dock and waited to get picked up by the boats from our camp (Peffley's). We had stayed here before (when I was like 13-14) but it was under different ownership at the time. We moved in to our cabins (Brad, John, and the boys were in Cabin 4 and the rest of us were in Cabin 3). After we got settled and got our poles set up and ate a quick lunch we got out on the water. Griffin rode in the boat with my dad and I and we got skunked that afternoon/night. It sucked because the first night we didn't catch a fish (dad might've caught one but I don't remember that clearly). Sunday it was just my dad and I (I think) and we did a bit better, catching a stringer full of walleye.

On Monday I fished with Grandpa and I ran the boat, dropped the anchor when needed, retied his line when it broke off, took off his fish, etc and so on and finally appreciated how much work my dad does for our boat (granted I tie my own line, deal with my fish, and can handle the anchor, but still). Even with all that work we both managed to outfish the rest of the boats out there. Tuesday I started the day with Grandpa again, but when the night rolled around it was just my dad and I again.

On Wednesday my dad and I and Brad and Ian went to Lost Lake - a 3/4 mile hike through woods (on a very narrow deer trail) carrying our gear to a couple of boats with a 3 and a 4 horsepower motor (small). It was an okay day - my dad and I caught a bunch of walleye and Ian caught a nice 30" northern pike (decently big) but it wasn't really the giant trophy walleye and northern we went there to catch. It was a good day though - we had a nice lunch on a rock and even saw a couple of loons dancing on the water (some sort of mating or territorial display).

Thursday we all (except Grandpa and Craig) took the boats up to a portage over a waterfall to a waterway over to Wine Lake. The boats were hauled over on rollers and we all just drifted down the water casting for northern. Ian was with dad and I and we were the first boat going down the way and definitely caught the most fish. It was really fun seeing the fish go for the lures and we also saw a couple of otters in the water. A bit before lunch time some dark clouds rolled in out of nowhere, complete with rain and thunder/lightning. We all motored back to the dock and took shelter under some trees while the storm blew over us. Unfortunately no one had any rain gear other than a couple of emergency ponchos so we all got rather wet. After the storm we ate our packed lunch while trying to dry off and then got back in the boats to catch more fish. We motored down to a bigger lake opening but didn't really catch much there so eventually we went back to the area we were hammering them at right around the corner from the docks. Our boat at the end of the day pulled in 42 fish (17 for Ian, 13 for dad, and 12 for me). It was definitely a good day. We went out again later that night and caught more fish (I think).

On Friday we had a pretty slow start to the morning and finally got out on the lake. This time Ryan went with my dad and I and we were all going out fishing for perch (we had filled our limit on walleye, came close to the limit of northern, and basically only needed more perch - we'd never fill the limit on those though because you can take back 50 perch per person, vs 2 walleye and 2 northern). We went over to a spot marked on our map as a good perch spot and anchored down in the weeds and used an underwater camera to look for the perch (pretty cool). We didn't find any in the first spot and I finally convinced my dad to go closer in to shore. We headed inward and at one point my dad wanted to stop but I made him keep going for awhile until I had a "gut feeling" that we were in the right place. We dropped anchor, put our slip bobbers out, and immediately started reeling them in. We dropped the camera down there and saw tons of perch just swimming around. We had such good luck there that the other 3 boats from our group came and joined us, crowding around the spot. We all caught a bunch of perch and ended up keeping 33 that were 8.5" or bigger (which is big for a perch). It was a very good day. Unfortunately we had to turn the boats in by 5pm so that was the last of the fishing. We had a nice steak dinner and played a cribbage tournament (grandpa and I won!) and packed up our stuff.

On Saturday we woke up early, eating whatever leftover food we could scrounge up (mac 'n cheese for me), packed up anything that needed to still be packed up, cleaned up around the cabins a bit, and then hauled our stuff down to the docks. We were told to have our stuff down by 7:30am ready to head out by 8, so we were ready and stood down there taking last pictures and watching a pelican out on the lake and a crawfish right next to the dock. Eventually another group joined us down there, a group who was supposed to be heading out after us. But when they got down there the worker there started loading their stuff into the boat! They got loaded first, taken back first, and dropped off all before us who were supposed to go first and were ready way beforehand. I got so ticked I had to go back up to the cabin and hang out there with the camp dog (Sienna - adorable) and the boys. But eventually we got dropped off back at the vans, loaded up, and got back on the road. We stopped at a few gift stores but I didn't really find anything I liked other than a really cheap lame pin and eventually some post cards. Long drive, stopped at a Subway/DQ to eat lunch, kept driving. Eventually we made it to my place where I got out and said farewell to the guys. I took my stuff in and then went to go pick up my rats from my coworker who was nice enough to watch them for me while I was gone.

The rest of the weekend, such as it was, was not very exciting. I realized that I had left my wallet in the van so I drove down to Cannon Falls on Sunday to meet my parents and pick it up, along with 2 VHS tapes worth of Shark Week episodes and a VCR to watch them on - Thanks Gramma! We met at the DQ there - 2 blizzards in 2 days is A-Okay with me! Later that night I went and hung out with Nathan, Chris, and Nathan's brothers Brian and Kevin.

Then of course today, being Monday, I had to go back to the dreaded workplace. It's always so difficult going back to work after a nice vacation. I didn't sleep well the night before so I had a very tired semi-queasy day at work, but I got through it. Tomorrow will be even more trying - we have a lot of things to get done and I'm not feeling all that much better. I did take a nap tonight that was supposed to last an hour and ended up lasting 2. When my alarm went off to wake me up I was initially convinced that it was 8am and it was time to get up and get ready for work. I was very relieved to finally realize that it was 8pm and I was just napping.

Anyway, not much else to report. Tomorrow I'm going to go see Bridesmaids again (at a cheap theater) which should be pretty fun. Jordan (roommate) is going on a weeklong vacation in Alaska next week, and I'm going camping with Vicki and Sybylla the 20-21st. The following weekend I'm hoping to go to the Renaissance Festival (with Nathan and his dog Jackie, and Belle if I can manage to sneak her in) and then of course the weekend/ during the week after that is my birthday and when I move in to my new apartment. During all this I have to finish my genetics, hopefully woman up and take the dang GRE, and possibly get some volunteer action in. It's going to be a busy August, let's see how well I keep this updated.

Wish me luck!

Here I go again

I'm posting! And it's only been a bit over a week!

It's kind of funny because I was thinking of things to do and I was like well I could update my blog and part of me was like no way I just updated like yesterday, so I checked and it was last Monday!

So here I am, being good and posting again!

Wow I typed the above and then got distracted watching The Office and now I don't want to write anymore, but I will because I'm dedicated!

On Tuesday I don't know what I did. Went to work (solo again), went home, blah blah blah

On Wednesday after work I ate leftover Dominos, changed, and drove up to Broadway Pizza in Robbinsdale to meet up with Amanda (ex-coworker), Sara, Amy, and Sara's friend (Abby??). We played bingo (everyone won except Amanda and I) and had a great time hanging out, dobbing, and just catching up.

On Thursday after work I again got ready right away after work and headed out to pick up a set of bookshelves from a woman off craigslist. For some reason traffic was ridiculous and I ended up there about 15 minutes late (luckily the woman I was meeting was ~20 minutes late so I didn't keep her waiting), bought her bookshelves (they're nice and small and thin - like book deep which is nice), stuffed them in my trunk, and raced back into traffic. I drove down to Khan's Mongolian BBQ to meet Catie, Sybylla, Vicki, and Meredythe for Catie's birthday dinner. It was really interesting (but good!) food (especially the sesame buns) and we also had a lot of catching up to do. There was some crazy Japanese game show playing on the TVs (Vicki loved that) and again just ate and talked.

Friday I was lazy and mostly just read the 5th book in the Song of Ice and Fire series (the tv series A Game of Thrones is based on this book series). I did that for quite a bit of Saturday too. Later though I stopped by the Cardinal to say hi to the guys running the karaoke show there and then headed out to Plymouth to meet Chris and Nathan to see Captain America. It was actually better than I expected. Sunday was another lazy day, mostly spent reading. I also made brownies, which were delicious. Oh and I crocheted 2 tiny harnesses that fit my rats (and they haven't been able to get out of them from what I've seen!). I might try to take them outside one of these days.

Monday (yesterday) I had a full day at work (ie worked solid while I was there and even stayed late). When I got home I basically spent the entire evening reading the 5th book.

Today was another full day at work, although I managed to get out on time. I also rode my bike to work - it's finally not pouring down rain or sweltering hot, although tomorrow it might storm. Realized that I haven't found anyone to watch my rats while I'm in Canada (I leave Friday) and when I mentioned it to Nathan he didn't sound very willing to watch them for me again. When I told my coworker Katie she immediately offered! I hadn't even considered her but now it seems like she'll be the babysitter. Got home, and again started reading. Cooked my last leftover taco, continued reading. Then I decided that I would finish the chapter I was on and then go do something else but when I got to the end of the chapter, the next was entitled "Epilogue." I had finished the book without even realizing I was close. So I read the epilogue and then felt lost. What to do now? I finally got off my butt, did my next genetics lesson, started some laundry, and of course decided to update my blog.

For the rest of the week I'll be eating soup (trying to get rid of all the groceries I have without buying new stuff), cleaning random things (trying to keep my room clean in case Jordan ever shows it - btw there's a craigslist ad out at http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/hnp/roo/2513714228.html, yep that's my room!), buying more rat food so Katie doesn't have to worry about running out, and hopefully packing up and getting ready to go to Canada.

My family (dad, grandpa, uncles, and male cousins) are heading to my parent's house Thursday night and then on Friday morning they're heading up (picking me up on the way) and will be in Canada by Friday evening.

Now Conan's on and I think I need to switch my laundry, so it's goodbye for now!

Catching up again

So I'm going to be flying by the seat of my pants here for some of this but for the rest I'm consulting my calendar and working from there.

I left off (not including SF of course) after getting home from visiting Kristin in Green Bay - holy crud that was awhile ago.

Well the following Friday (May 20) I drove home to Rochester to hang out with Sara and Belle (parents were gone somewhere...) and helped her run the garage sale. We made a killing - I think like $40 each but I don't really remember. Sara abandoned me to run it by myself around 11:30 (I think) and I could hardly close up because the customers just kept coming!

The next weekend (yea okay I'm going to be skipping a lot) I took my second genetics test on Saturday (94%, I'll take it!) and then had to work on Sunday. That was Memorial Day weekend, and Katie and I had to go in and work on Monday as well.

This was around the time that work started getting terrible - working at all hours, weekends and late evenings, and getting absolutely NO appreciation or gratitude or even recognition for how above-and-beyond we were going. Ugh... can't really get into it though, it's kind of still going on but not nearly as bad as it was.

I got nothing now until SF. Although I didn't talk about Wednesday June 8, which is when I worked a half day (starting at 6:30 am) until I hopped on the Lightrail to the airport. Waited there, ate Burger King, then got on my flight to SF. I slept and read the whole time, as well as staring out the window at the snow-capped Rockies (took some pics on my phone). Once I arrived I took the BART (Bay Area Regional Transit?) to downtown SF where I met up with Jackie. I'm pretty sure we just headed to her place and chilled that night, but I don't really remember.

After I got back I turned up my apartment searching and went and saw probably 6 or 7 places. I started with one off Lake street by the Target, and it turns out that my first was the best! There were some in better areas, but small or with funny smells, or others that were nicer and bigger but just too far away or too pricey, so eventually I just bit the bullet and signed a lease starting September 1. I'm really excited about it, and will get back to this excitement after I finish catching up!

On Wednesday June 22nd I went to a Bootcamp class at Anytime fitness. It was intense, and I was dead by the end of it. Other than that however, my working out has pretty much come to a complete halt. I was all into it for awhile but now... it's just hard to get back into it. Even now I'm thinking I should go work out tonight but I feel too full from dinner and it's ridiculously hot out... but I digress...

On Saturday the 25th I went with Nathan to one of his friend's wedding reception downtown at the Millenium hotel. It was fancy - delicious dinner, but not really that thrilling. I did get a rubber ducky out of the deal though (it looks like a monkey!).

On Monday I took the day off from work and Vicki, Sybylla, and I went to Valleyfair! It was a bit cloudy/stormy looking which meant that all the lines were really short! We rode tons of rides, then headed out to my car to grab some lunch, then back in and rode the antique car ride (lame but fun) and then I noticed my keys/wallet were missing! I freaked, ran out and checked at my car and checked with the lost and found and no luck. I thought I might have locked it into my trunk but I wasn't sure. We decided to just keep enjoying the day there and try not to worry about it (easier for them than me). We went and watched the IMAX show, and then I ran back to the lost and found to see if there was any news and lo and behold! Someone had turned it in to a park employee. I was SOOO happy! Anyway, a day of fun was had by all. I came home with a picture of the 3 of us being goofy on the Wild Thing (Sybylla got a matching keychain).

On Tuesday June 28th my family all came up after work and we all went to a Twins game together to celebrate Fathers Day (it wasn't that day but it was our present to dad). We also celebrated our parent's anniversary which was that day. We ate tons of good food and watched the Twins beat the LA Dodgers. It was a fun game.

The weekend of the 4th of July I did very little, other than hanging out at Nathan's and eating hot dogs and marshmallows/smores around a fire at his place. The following weekend I also did very little other than going through my room and super cleaning it. I did go out with some friends on Friday night to Hudson, WI. Otherwise it was all really intense cleaning and packing up things I wouldn't be using for the next 2 months.

On Tuesday the 12th, Sybylla and I went to see Thor for a second time at the Riverview (we saw it together once in real theaters). It was good. Then on Thursday the 14th I played kickball (as I did most every Thursday) and we were short (only 5 girls and 5 guys so we all played the whole game) and we kicked ass - I scored 2 runs. Afterward I ran home, showered, changed, and took Sybylla to the Mall of America where we got in line to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 in 3D for the midnight showing. The line was long and there were some crazy characters waiting with us but it was a great time. We got sweet HP 3D glasses and enjoyed some popcorn and just had a fun movie experience. Once I started crying I'm not sure I stopped (at one point Sybylla looked over and asked if I was crying - I was and my response was "shut up *sniffle*"). Got home around 3am and headed to bed, but couldn't sleep because I kept going over the movie in my head. It was pretty good for a movie, but there were some extra unnecessary corny parts and it didn't follow the book as well as the first part did.

Woke up on Friday ~10:45am. Got up, got ready, and drove down to Rochester in a complete downpour for the majority of the drive. And some crazy people were driving without their lights on, making them nearly impossible to see until you were right on top of them. Made it home, and walked in to a house completely empty except for Belle. She was so excited to see me she had a little piddle accident on the floor. Called my mom and she told me to drive the Jeep down to the Charter house (where she works) because they were having a garage sale and there was some great stuff down there I should look at (for my new apartment). I drove it down there (again more pouring rain), parked, and got soaked walking the block over to the building. When I got there she showed me this great loveseat with a pull out twin size bed in it! I loved it, so we put it on the list of things to buy and kept looking. I also found a nice dining table with 2 chairs and a wooden cart (extra counter space) and my sister found a dresser and we got it all for just $20. We fit all of it but the couch into the Jeep and drove home and my dad found a friend with a van and went and picked up the couch. When we got home the rain finally slowed down and ended so mom and I took Belle out to the park. There were giant puddles of water and a field was flooded so we played fetch with her there and she had a blast running through the water. Friday night we went out to eat at Mr. Pizza (so good) and then home to watch TV. Sara's friend Emily came over and those two made 2 kinds of cookies and a cake - they were baking until 1am.

On Saturday I got up, ate some toast, and then mom and I moved the couch outside and scrubbed it down with soapy water and the scrub brushes we use to wash cars. We scrubbed it with soap, then water, then sucked off the water with a shop vac and set it in the driveway to dry in the sun. Then I went inside and washed the chairs, cart, and table. Filthy water by the end of it but I felt good for doing it. Finally it was time to do what I originally came down to Rochester to do: help dad get fishing stuff ready for my trip to Canada. We went through tons of fishing stuff and got very organized. Eventually I had to go so I drove back up to the Cities.

On Sunday I had to work, so I got up and went in ~9am. I got there and a maintenance guy walked up to me and started telling me about how the temperature warning went off in an animal room in the barrier (he couldn't go in) and if I could check and see if there were animals in there. Of course there were so I ended up having to move all these rats to another room and that ordeal took about 45 minutes. Sigh, then I had to do behavior by myself on a group of 24 animals and then X-ray them all... it was a long day for being a weekend work day. Later I actually started doing some genetics homework a week and a half early! But I didn't finish it so... not that great.

Today I went in to work, did DWB all morning as well as getting stuff ready to ship down to our sister lab in AZ, ate lunch, shipped the package, analyzed the DWB all afternoon, and then had to dose mice with their treatments. Because we have such a huge group (24 animals) and my coworker was in Milwaukee today, I didn't get out until 5:45pm. So another long day. Got home, and I was feeling way too lazy, so instead of eating the leftover tacos (that I made this weekend) or leftover noodles and marinara (also made this weekend) I decided to order Dominos. I watched TV and ate pizza and did absolutely nothing else (other than writing in this for the past few hours).

There are probably a bunch of things I've forgotten to mention, emotional ups and downs, etc and so on but hey if I don't remember it it probably wasn't that important right?

So now I'm all caught up but will I do it again? Only time will tell!

San Francisco

Forgive me readers for I have sinned, it has been two months since my last update.

I'll spare you all the excuses I have ready to explain why I haven't been posting but the simple truth is that I was lazy, and then it got to the point where it has been so long that the shear amount of events I'd have to update on prevented me from even attempting it.

So while I have many things to share, I'm going to just focus on my trip to San Francisco, CA, and perhaps I will get back to the rest later (but don't count on it!).

June 9, 2011

I got up around 9:30am SF time and walked over to Alamo Square and back. The square is a park next to the famous "Painted Ladies" - houses in SF. It's also the park seen in the opening credits of "Full House" where the Tanner family is having their picnic. I got back to Jackie's house, put on some longer pants and a coat, and headed to downtown SF. I got off at the Embarcadero stop and walked over to a Taco Bell for food. I then wandered over to the clocktower/ferry building near the water. There was a big open area so I sat down in the sun, ate my tacos, and browsed through Jackie's walking tours book.

After my delicious lunch, I got up and started walking down Embarcadero road and made it all the way down to Pier 39. I decided to go full on tourist and went into the Aquarium of the Bay - there were some really neat underwater walkthroughs as well as other fish in tanks (pretty jellyfish). I also saw the sea lions that hang out there, went into the Hard Rock Cafe, and went into some random souvenir shops. Eventually I walked to meet Jackie at her work downtown. We hung out at her office for a little while and then walked to the post office so she could mail a package for work. We then went over to the Walgreens to get some sunscreen for me (I was already sunburnt at this point). She then took me over to a place called Yoppi's - where we had some delicious build-your-own frozen yogurt (red velvet cake flavored and so yummy!). We wandered around downtown with our treats and walked up to a walkway above the street level (pretty cool) and found some seats and ate and chatted for a bit.

Afterwards we headed over to Chinatown and followed one of the walking tours from Jackie's book (but we did it backwards, making it somewhat confusing at times). We wandered through colorful shops, lanterns hanging in the streets, went down Waverly street (which used to be full of prostitution), and even found a little fortune cookie factory down in an alley (thanks to the guidebook). We walked in and got free cookies and got to watch the woman make them. We also bought bags of cookies there, including some with "adult" fortunes. We also went into a kite store, and saw the Donaldina house - dedicated to Donaldina Cameron, who saved many underage Chinese prostitutes. We ended our walking tour of Chinatown at the gates and then walked over to Union Square, where we sat and discussed our plans for the rest of the night.

We walked over to the food emporium at Westfield mall and ate some food (turkey burger and fries, yum). We then headed over to the Metreon and saw a private Apple party going on in Yerba Buena garden (we chatted to some security guards who said we could hop the hedge and they wouldn't stop us). We had already bought tickets to see Pirates of the Caribbean 4 though so we couldn't do it. We watched the movie and then rode Muni (the public transit system in SF) back to her place. We got there and found her roomies were a bit drunk and funny, but we were tired and headed to bed.

June 10, 2011

We woke up around 10 am, showered, ate eggs and toast, and got ready to go. We ran to the above ground train/trolley thing and rode to Pier 33 to catch the ferry to Alcatraz. Once on the island, we listened to one of the park rangers give a little speech and then headed inside a building to watch an informational video about the history of the island. It went from being a military fort to a prison to a site of US Indian activism and is now of course a tourist trap/National Park. We then headed up to the prison to take an audio tour, which was very interesting. There were 2 major escape attempts from the prison, one was potentially successful (the men who disappeared were never seen again, after they tunneled their way out with spoons). We then walked around outside the prison and then waited for the ferry to take us back to SF. While waiting, we inadvertently sat on a bench in the designated smoking section and were joined by a woman who decided to smoke right next to us.

Once we got back to SF we walked back over to Pier 39 and wandered for a bit. We decided to stop for some food at a restaurant called Wipeout (I had fish and chips and a tasty margarita). After lunch we walked over to some more souvenir stores, watched a street performer and then the sea lions again, and then headed down towards the Fisherman's Wharf. On the way we passed a guy who was offering a 1 hour cruise under the Golden Gate Bridge and around Alcatraz for $15. We hemmed and hawed about it for awhile but finally decided to be spontaneous and go for it! We climbed onto the little boat and sat/stood on the edge with the salt spray in our faces. On the way out there we saw a sea lion in the water whacking a fish around to break it apart to eat it and seagulls going nuts around it. We went under the Golden Gate Bridge (really awesome) and the nice captain took pictures of us. The boat then went around Alcatraz Island. We walked through the cockpit to get to the right side of the boat to take pictures of the island and of course my camera died! Luckily my phone takes pretty decent pics, so it wasn't a total loss. Not to mention I tend to take too many pictures anyway...

We made it back to shore and then walked over to Ghiradelli Square. We got some free samples (delicious), looked in some more shops, then back for another free sample. I bought a bag of overstocked chocolates, we took some pictures, and then walked over to catch a bus home. We had a long wait for the transfer bus unfortunately, the estimated time of arrival kept jumping up. Eventually we headed over to a little pizza shop nearby and I got a slice of pizza while we waited. By the time I finished the pizza the bus finally arrived and we took it back to Jackie's. Once there we stayed up just long enough to plan our trip to the redwoods the next day and then crashed.

June 11, 2011

We woke up around 9am, showered, got ready, and took Muni to the ferry building. We walked around the farmer's market going on there and got some bread and cheese samples, used the ATM, and eventually got on the ferry to Sausalito. We sat up front outside on the ferry. It was very windy and a bit chilly but a good view (we saw another sea lion tossing around a fish). We landed at Sausalito, walked around along the shops (after checking out the visitor's center), got some saltwater taffy (yum!), and then walked over to a sandwich place and got some sandwiches and a Diet Mountain Dew. We took our lunches over to a park near the water and sat on the grass and ate.

We then headed over to the Muir Woods shuttle drop off and waited there. The shuttle ended up being 25 minutes late, but it got there eventually. We rode on a very windy (that's a lot of switchbacks, not a strong breeze) road to Muir woods. Once we got there we went into the visitor center there and I bought a pin and a poster that I just fell in love with (it's a print of a painting of the redwoods... very pretty). We found out there that the longer trail was closed due to a fallen tree across the trail. So we headed out and wandered along the short 1 mile loop. There were tons of huge trees, lots of people, and we even saw a fearless deer grazing along the side of the trail, jump the path, and continue on the other side. We then went into the gift shop, then waited in the line for the shuttle back to Sausalito. The line was extremely long and we barely made it onto the shuttle (on which we had to stand for the majority of the crazy ride back). We finally got to sit down when some people got off at Marin City.

Made it back to Sausalito, and got in another line for the ferry back to SF. On this trip we sat inside the ferry on some nice cushioned seats. We got back to the ferry building, Jackie got some coffee, and then headed back to Jackie's place with a stop for tacos on the way. I took a short nap and then chatted with Katie and her friend Michelle before we got all gussied up (hah) and heading out on the town.

We walked over to the Castro (the super gay friendly district) and went to Toadies Hall (a gay bar, full of dancing, Madonna, and Lady Gaga). We then walked an extremely long way (or so it seemed) to Mission and the Elixir bar (where we met up with Muy, Jackie's friend). Jackie also randomly ran into an old friend of hers from St. Olaf. We hung out there for a bit and then headed over to Casanova, took a restroom break, hung out on couches and stared at the pictures of naked chicks, and then back to Elixir. We finally headed back towards Jackie's place and stopped at a bar just around the corner (formerly BOC "Bar on Church"). We sat at that bar, drank, and met two guys (one recently lived in Germany, was in New Zealand, and I chatted more to him). Then we got kicked out of the bar (closing time) and went home. Jackie was desperate for tortillas at this point and we finally went to bed.

June 12, 2011

Woke up late this morning (~11am) then showered, and went and grabbed pizza at Cybelle's and walked over to Duboce Park (a dog park) and sat on the grass in the sun and ate. We then caught a train to Powell and discovered the cable car route was messed up so we ended up taking a shuttle to the next place for a cable car ride. We caught the cable car to Ghiradelli Square and the drivers were all flirting with Jackie. We had a crazy fun ride hanging off the edge of the Powell & Hyde car. It went through neighborhoods, past the top of Lombard street (criss cross street), and let us off at Ghiradelli Square.

We stopped in for another sample (of course), and then began the incredibly steep walk back up to Lombard Street. We took pictures there and then walked down alongside the famous street and too more pictures from the bottom. We then walked through North Beach (the Italian district), walked through some art fair at a park, and stopped for some gelato. We continued to downtown where we caught the train towards the real beach on the ocean.

Once we arrived at the end of the line we got off, walked down to the beach, took off our shoes, and walked in the sand. We walked north along the shore, saw a fisherman catch a fish and bury it in the sand, there were some dedicated surfers out in the water (it was chilly), people flying kites on the beach, dead crab parts strewn about, and cute dogs playing in the sand. We stopped and sat in the sand for awhile just enjoying the scenery and the people watching. Eventually we turned and walked back (this time we spotted a live crab sitting in the water).

We got back to where we entered the beach and sat down in the sand again for while. Then we headed back to the train and took it all the way downtown and then hopped a bus back to North Beach. We wandered around and looked at menus at different Italian restaurants and ended up eating outside under a heater at Calzones (al fresco dining, I had delicious lasagna). The food came out really fast, but there was only one bread roll to share between us. We debated getting dessert there, but eventually decided to head across the street to Caffe Greco and got a cannoli to share + we each got our own dessert. We sat at a corner near the window and scared a guy away accidentally with our exuberance. After we ate as much as we could, we took the leftovers to go and headed out. I took a picture of the Stinking Rose (garlic restaurant my coworker told me about) and met some sailors who invited us to hang out with them. We were tempted but declined (we were pretty tired at this point). We were waiting for the bus for awhile when we realized we were on the wrong side of the road, and Jackie was going a little crazy (getting some nice looks from passersby) :). We finally decided to just walk to the train and took that home. Once we got back I packed up my stuff and went to bed.

June 13, 2011

Woke up, took BART to the airport, and flew back to Minneapolis. Unfortunately my flight ended up delayed for about 2 hours due to our pilot not being there. Otherwise it was relatively uneventful.

Well that update took a long time, and considering I had most of it already written up from notes I took on the trip, updating the rest of the past 2 months is going to take even longer.

But since I have to go in to work tomorrow (Sunday) I'm going to end this here and hopefully come back to it later. Maybe even add some pictures! Who knows?