Blixi at Christmas

I was looking online today and there are a couple of ideas that I have for the pupster for anyone who wants to indulge her for Christmas... and that's all of us, right? Ha.
She has really been chewing on things lately! She has been destroying plush toys, so I'm not purchasing more of them for her currently.

Orka dog toys
Kong Extreme goodie ship (large or mini)
While You are Gone DVD or CDs for dogs
Zukes minis dog treats (all flavors)
Sweaters measured for 12-14 inches (S or M depending on make)
Greenies Teenies
Anything that squeaks!

When John came home today he told me that he had been to visit my Flickr page and couldn't believe how much Blixi has grown. I really need to get the photos I have of her onto the page, but with my laptop defunct it makes it a little hard. I don't want to install my camera software on my work computer.

I'm going to miss my pup over Christmas while I'm visiting family. John is going to take her to visit Mama Yost for the holiday, so I'm sure she will have a great first Christmas.

End of Semester Update

Just finished all my grade entries. 11:30ish pm. Time to crash.

Grade entry did NOT go off without a hitch, I'm certain I'm going to be aggravated by the process of trying to correct some of my uploaded grades tomorrow.

On the up-side, John and I went bowling last night with Michele and Michael. Lots of fun, much harder IRL than on the Wii. John also got to go to Red Lobster for the first time, though he keeps reiterating to me that he prefers the 'all you can eat crab nite' at the casino in Redwood Falls.

Wednesday I will be flying to Oklahoma to visit with Mom. That means tomorrow I will inevitably be washing laundry and getting ready to go, so that I can drop my car off at Maren's Tuesday night.

Dearly Departed Laptop

My laptop has finally booted its last I think. It has started to do this thing when I plug it in where it starts the power supply and fan, and then it tries to boot, it fails, and then it starts over. I can't get it past that.

So, I'm looking at MacBooks. I am ardently against getting a Vista machine, and I don't want another desktop. I've also added a tablet to my Christmas list that will go with the new laptop. Now I just have to save up a bit of cash for it.

I gave my first final of the semester today. Being that I have several students who needed to take them early for one reason or another, I feel like I am a little bit ahead on getting my tests done ahead of time. I have to set up two Jeopardy games this weekend for my review classes on Tuesday though, so that will be a little time consuming, writing some simple questions. The students are excited for it though.

End of the Semester Hurry Up!

It's that time of year again, when my classes are coming to a crashing halt culminating in Final exams and Christmas break. My microbiology class has 8 chapters or so left to go, and 3 class sessions in which to try to delve into parts of them, and my anatomy class is right on schedule, like clockwork. Homework is pouring in, students are asking for 'extra credit opportunities' of which I have none, and labs are getting both interesting and complex to manage. I feel like I have no time.

John and I had a great time in California. My reunion was a little disappointing, though it really wasn't anyone's fault. Seeing the grandparents was nice, staying with Neal and Liz was wonderful, and we got to visit Dad and Ed as well. I got to take John to Stearn's Wharf in Santa Barbara, we skipped through Solvang, I showed him all the places I lived in Lompoc, and I got to guide him through the tidepools at Jalama Beach. We had burgers out there too. Jalama was decidedly the highlight of my trip, John even found some sand dollars. All our flights were on time, and we got a really cool rental car... a Honda Civic Hybrid, complete with GPS that talked to us. We only reserved a compact, so we were pretty excited! We'll have to go again and do more touristy activities next time. I want to take John to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, up to the redwoods, and he wants to go to the Winchester house in San Jose.

Cadaver Lab Details here:
This week we chiseled through the vertebral column to take out the spinal cord and we used a stryker saw on the cranium to take out the brain. I got to show my students where all of the cranial nerves go, some of them actually assisted with the dissection, and they are really doing a top notch job of finding the structures in the brain. Now that I have 3.5 brains in lab, I may not have to dissect the nervous system next year. I don't really enjoy the dissection of this part of the anatomy, though some of the students really get excited about having the opportunity to do it, which may keep me doing it each year. We will also be suturing up the back of the cadaver next week, I invited the surgical technology students to come on Wednesday, there is a ton of work to do. Then I get to start all over again on the front.

New and Different

I have nothing scheduled to do today. It is kind of disorienting. We've been cleaning the apartment, playing with the dog, and watching the Discovery Channel. I think we're going to have chili for dinner tonight. John went on wikipedia and looked up different types of chilis, and we're going to put it on macaroni, Cincinnatti style tonight.

We're taking off for California on Wednesday next week, and I'm excited. We're flying into LAX, renting a car, and driving to my grandparent's for Thanksgiving. On Friday we'll take off for Lompoc, where I'll get to show John where I grew up. I'm really hoping that I can take him to the beach as well. Saturday is going to be my 10 year high school reunion, and we'll be going home on Monday. Blixi will be staying with Mama Yost while we're gone.

Then I have to make sure that I can finish all of the material that I need to for my classes before finals Dec 12-14. It's really going to be a struggle in microbiology, but anatomy will be fine. I'm very much enjoying the microbiology lab that I'm teaching, and the students will be completing tests to identify their bacteria when we get back from Thanksgiving break.

I'm Too Nice (according to me, not my students)

I had two makeup tests today from my anatomy exam on Tuesday. One had a scheduled appointment and took it, the other presented a story of how she wouldn't be here for it and tried to push it off another day, and so I relented and allowed it. Then I find out when the one comes in to take the test that the other is down in the commons studying for tomorrow, NOT in fact out at an appointment or something. She also mentioned that the other student "just didn't feel prepared" for the exam. This is cheating, stealing time to study to try to get a better grade, when other students did not have the same opportunity, and I'm kind of steamed.

Now, I'm debating with myself on what is best to do in the situation. Should I beef up the test as it is, change diagrams etc? Should I go to the text and pull out a test that I wouldn't normally use (this would be mean because I don't go into the depth that the text does on all of its questions)? Should I just drop her test a letter grade for each day she postponed it? Steamed, I am steamed. Then I think to myself, if the student hasn't studied enough to feel ready for the test, and she has test anxiety, is it really going to help her to have extra time?

I guess it's a lesson for me.

Busy busy busy...

I've been working hard this last week. I gave a test today, I've been preparing micro students for a test next week, and I did a ton of laundry. Added to the mix, John and I went to St Cloud this weekend to visit with friends and play games. I took Blixi out trick-or-treating on Halloween, and she stayed with Grandma Yost for the weekend.

I got Guitar Hero III for my wii, and have been playing it. I want a new faceplate/finish for my guitar, but they haven't released them yet.

Went and voted on the local school referendum with John tonight. It really seems ridiculous that individual cities all over the state are having to raise property taxes just to keep the teachers employed, but that is what is happening. Our governor won't raise state taxes to pay for anything, let alone education.

I've been having funny headaches lately, but after really taking fluids today they went away. I'm hoping they stay that way.

Dress Shopping Adventures

Wedding dress shopping is a serious endeavor. I spent the day today looking at gowns online, trying to figure out what to do for bridesmaid dresses, and rethinking my color choice. On top of that I had 3 phone meetings with folks at work, and a massive headache. I think I'm going to make a list of ladies I'd like to bounce wedding dress ideas off of and send out a few links to see if I can narrow down my selection of dresses. One of the dresses I'm looking at is gorgeous, and it fit really well, but it's $800... I don't know if I really want to spend that much.

I was also looking on Minneapolis Craig's List for reception decorations. Found a few things to show John when he gets a spare minute.


I thought taking Blixi for a walk would help with the headache, but it didn't. She's been pretty well-behaved today but has been biting me for attention. I clipped her nails and she fought with me, but now she seems a little more compliant. It's been much warmer today than it was over the weekend, up over 55.

I got the plane tickets for our trip to California over Thanksgiving last night. We're going to fly in and out of LAX, and have a rental car while we are there, leaving on Wednesday and coming home on Monday. The tickets were almost $100 cheaper for Monday. Now I just have to cross my fingers and hope that the wildfires die down before we have to do any driving out there or we could have some really nasty detours. I'm looking forward to going though.

Saturday Events

Went to Hutchinson this morning and had a nice time with Pam looking at wedding dresses. We also checked out the new Mexican place in town, it was pretty tasty.

This evening I have been making the clam chowder I didn't get a chance to complete last weekend. So far it's really looking good, though I might have been biased by a martini...

Blixi is doing great. She seems to be very happy having the two of us home, she's been much better behaved. Adorable, my grandma sent me a little pink coat for her, along with a bunch of treats... very spoiled!

John and I are missing Valleycon in Fargo this weekend, it was just too much driving and we have so much going on... but I feel bad that I had to miss it. We'll be heading to the Saint Cloud Game Day next weekend though, that Chuck puts on.

Pretty mundane, but I've got laundry to do tomorrow. Copious amounts of laundry... almost enough to make me cry.

Advising Day

I've been advising students on what classes they need to take all day. It's actually been kind of fun having them come in, relay style, to have me register them. I've got about 30 minutes now of free time before the parade begins again. My coworkers were nice enough to go in on a pizza today so none of us had to leave campus to get food for lunch, and I'm currently feasting on a handful of Hot Tamales in order to 'keep the sugar rush going'...

I went up to the nursing department and picked up an accu-chek lancet pen for tomorrow's microbiology lab. We're going to type my students' blood, which means I have to make them bleed. I figured that using blunt lancets and stabbing them manually last year was a little harsh, so I collaborated with people who know what they are doing this year and got better equipment. Still, I can tell people I've been stabbing my students and getting away with it.

We had our first real cadaver labs yesterday for A&P, and my students were incredibly well behaved/respectful as well as very interested in the structures we were looking at. It is a promising sign!

I made an avatar on SecondLife to do some research for my boss on the viability of teaching online classes through the service. I don't think my little Dell laptop is up to the 3D rendering task of having my avatar move through the world, it was quite frustrating trying to get it to work, but then again I might just have to get used to it. I was never into stuff like Everquest or anything, so I might just have a learning curve.

Email Change

I have changed my main email to my gmail account, wrinde at gmail dot com, because hotmail has really been a pain lately. Went about changing it with all of my important monthly emails this morning. I also use my yahoo email very regularly if you have that one, but I don't give that one out to companies so that I don't have much spam email there.

Christmas List, Other Happenings

Decided that I would add a Christmas list here for family to see, and sent out a mass email to family and friends telling them the blog is here to see.

John is making a 'deep dish apple pie' tonight with crust that Leah left us, and the crust is not crisping up. It smells a little like it's burning, but it's still kind of gooey which is puzzling.

This week is advising week at school, I had to contact all of my advisees and try to make appointments to see them and get them registered for classes. I've heard from 7/10 of them today and I consider that a personal victory.

Called Grams in southern Cali this morning to make sure that she was safe from the wildfires, and she assures me that she and Grandpa and Duffy (the dog) are fine, though they are evacuating animals from the SD Wild Animal Park which is about 30 minutes away from their home. As we are planning to head there for Thanksgiving, I must say I've been a bit worried.

Shopping Weekend

Went up to St Cloud to go shopping with Michal this weekend. Old Navy has some really good sales this week, and I got some really good deals on work clothes at New York and Company. John went to the cabin and had a boys weekend, Saturday was nice out but yesterday was awful. The guys are working to try to find a weekend that works each month to have a get together, but at the moment I can't find any that work.

Blixi has been acting strangely since we got home yesterday. She hasn't eaten today, she's sleeping a lot, and when she went for a run down the hallway outside the apartment she took a tumble down the stairs. She seems to be doing fine afterwards, running around when I throw things for her, and she climbed back up the stairs , but I'm a little concerned.

I'm looking into getting plane tickets for John and I to fly to California for Thanksgiving, then I need to get myself a ticket to go to Oklahoma for Christmas for myself.

I've got a ton of stuff to do this week, no slowing down... Still feeling tired and sort of stressed.

Other Bacterial Nightmares

I found out today that sometime over the last week someone who has been in the lab turned my incubator up to the highest temperature it would go, frying all the microbes and destroying valuable agar. I don't think I need to say I'm upset, but I am going to anyway. The test tube racks inside were so hot I practically burned myself. The huge plates I had the students prepare last week for their antibiograms were dry, I'm just glad I kept my stocks in the refrigerator... I don't know whether to look to the guys who are working on the plumbing in the lab room, though I think I scared them away from touching any of the lab equipment by telling them which bacteria we were working with, or one of the chemistry labs where Dr. Moore has students in there twice a week, some of which are high schoolers.

Blixi has got cabin fever. It seems like it has been raining here for 2 weeks. I took her out for a walk in the rain last weekend, but otherwise days have been few and far between that she has been outdoors. She chewed up a CD today and got into a bunch of other things that she really shouldn't have access to. She chewed my printer cable yesterday too... thank goodness I haven't been using it.

John replaced a bunch of electronic equipment that got fried by a lightning strike last week today. He's currently hooking it up, so we'll have wireless internet again. We've been having to directly wire to the modem because our router went out, along with our home phone, answering machine, the power supply on John's computer, and the other printer. We also got some pretty kickin' surge protectors to go with the new stuff. John also found out today that other buildings up and down the street had electronic problems as well.

I am planning to go to St Cloud to do a little shopping with Michal this weekend. May stop at the cabin on the way up. Gotta go to bed, I'm bushed and I have to leave for class tomorrow at 7am so that I can set up the lab exam for my micro students. Blargh.

Odd Dream

I dreamt last night that my microbiology students started lab without me and were trying to feed the bacteria with stuff that looked like fish food. I had to stop them and explain where the colonies were getting their food from and why sprinkling food on the agar with their hands was a bad thing...

Giving 3 tests this week and having homework due in the other class is making this sort of a long week.

Weekend activities

John and I decided to stay home this weekend. I spent the day today crocheting, playing Zelda on the wii, gave Blixi a bath, and cleaning around the house. John and I went grocery shopping and got tons of food. I made beef curry tonight, from a lamb and spinach curry recipe. It's not easy to find lamb around here, and I'm not entirely sure I'd know how to cook it properly, so we just changed up the meat. We also got ingredients for cornbread, clam chowder, breakfast tomorrow of sausage and eggs, and brats and kraut for the crock pot. I'm going to make my first shot at making clam chowder from scratch tomorrow.

Had to get Blixi a new collar. She got her ID tags caught in the bottom of a bookshelf last night and was choking as she was trying to get free. I ended up cutting her other collar to get her out, so she needed a new one. One more reason not to have her running loose around the house while we're at work. She and I were both terrified.

I've got 3 tests scheduled next week in my classes. I feel kind of bad for my single student who is in all 4 courses I teach, she's getting hit with all of them. 2 of them are lab practicals, which means they will have to perform lab techniques and identify specimens and structures. The other exam is a unit exam for micro. I finished writing it on Thursday, so I had a bit less to work on this weekend.

It's been really nice not to have to have been anywhere today.

New Toys and Other Randomness

Today I got a package from Daigger lab supplies. I got a stainless steel cell spreader (it's huge... the dean asked me if we were spreading 'elephant cells') and a UV lamp. It always feels like I'm opening presents when packages like that come to the school... we were playing with chlorophyll chromatography with the UV lamp already today.

I updated a micro test for use next week and a quiz for my anatomy lecture today. Not exciting, but necessary and I now don't have to worry about it this weekend. I've got enough grading to do anyway!

Bill took me out for lunch today at the Mexican place near campus. We talked about astrobiology, the discovery of PCR, and the merits of living in an apartment above a downtown business. We live above a bar in New Ulm, and since the smoking ban in MN came on 10/1 they put a screen porch in behind the bar near where I park, which hasn't become annoying yet, but I'm full of anticipation for it to begin. Otherwise I love living downtown...

Blixi is doing great, though she doesn't like us being gone all day. Finally her suture is healing. As of last night we have no real plans for the weekend which seems really odd. Gotta check and see if I can get a cheap radio for the lab, look into replacing our router that got fried during a lightning strike... and I forgot to bring my crochet to school today so I will not be working on my project while I teach my students tonight. Hopefully they remember to come...

Short week

Since I had Monday and Tuesday off, my students are fitting all of their questions for the week in today apparently. Everyone is asking me questions about what is supposed to be on the lab quiz for the week, and though I've given them plenty of notes they are still trying to figure out what I am likely to ask... they're somewhat anxious about the amount of material we've been covering, and we'll be going over more tonight.

In more exciting news I spent 4 hours dissecting in the lab today and our new cadaver is in no way similar to the one we had last year. (Warning: cadaver lab details ahead... No more other news today.)

We keep finding places in his muscles that are either severely atrophied and for a lack of a better term mushy and disconnected. Also, while cleaning up his upper leg we found that he has really tiny femoral arteries and veins and also a very small sciatic nerve. I was thinking that the spots, which look like severe hematoma, were bedsores for a while, but now I'm not sure. Definitely something to do with blood in the tissue with discoloration of the connective tissue and destruction of the muscle. It just falls apart. I haven't found any burst blood vessels, but that doesn't mean there aren't any. It is frustrating in that I'm finding it hard to find good representations of several muscles on the body (like the deltoid and semitendinosus), but interesting in that I want to try to find out what would cause it.

That's all for today. Gotta go teach, then getting home late after my 6-8pm class.

Oktoberfest Weekend

Overall, this weekend was a success! We had a TON of good food, lots to talk about, and I went to St Cloud with my friends for Monday so that I could go shopping. The pup is doing much better after her long stay in the vet's kennel, and is currently attacking my ankles trying to get me to play with her. John picked her up on Friday and she stayed with Gramma Yost for the weekend.

This weekend we cooked garlic mashed potatoes, beer brats, and beer cheese fondue for Friday night, ladies (Leah, Michal, and I) each making a crock pot. Worked out well! Dan brought a keg of hard cider, John picked up a pony keg of firebrick, and we had a total of 12 people show. People were remarking that it was a 'small' gathering, which was kind of funny.

On Saturday we had apple pancakes for breakfast (freshly picked), and we had a light lunch of cheeses, crackers, braunschweiger dip and summer sausage. Ben brought some HUGE heirloom tomatoes from his garden and we fixed those up with balsamic vinegar and mozzarella also. Wonderful stuff.

Dinner is always the main affair for the weekend, and we ladies pulled it off again this year, cooking almost all day on Saturday. The menfolk played croquet and other games outside. Red cabbage, sauerkraut, german potato salad, garlic cheese spaetzle, acorn squash, and beef and beer stew were all on the buffet this year. We had some leftovers, but I'm chalking that up to the smaller group. After dinner, Leah treated us to honey cookies, black forest cake, pecan pie and pumpkin pie. Everyone ate waaaay too much.

Chuck made vendetta eggs for breakfast on Sunday, which is always a crowd-pleaser. Everyone snacked on leftovers throughout the day, we played croquet on the front lawn and had a few glasses of cider during the afternoon. I left earlier than some, and so I hear they kind of overdid it on the booze after the ladies took off...

Also in attendance, not yet mentioned, were Adam, Nate, Lewis, Al, Dagan, Ben's dogs Arthur and Desmond. I'm sure there will be some pictures (both delicious and bawdy) on my Flickr page eventually. We will definitely do this again next year!

Crochet

Today I am teaching again. Yesterday was a long day, tiring.

I got all of my bacteria cultured yesterday, and incubating. Tomorrow's micro lab is going to be exciting. I also have 'bendy bones' to show my A&P students today, took some chicken bones and put them in vinegar to dissolve their calcified matrix and leave behind the collagen. Fun!
I also get a new refrigerator for my lab, possibly tomorrow.

After my class this evening I will be teaching crochet to any students who show up. I do it for free and then they get volunteer hours towards graduation if they complete blankets for children undergoing surgery or other treatment in the Fairmont hospital. I'm hoping that I have more students this year than last year, I had to cancel a few evenings last year as I had no students show up... we will see, I've had a lot of people asking me about it.

I have to go grocery shopping for Oktoberfest tonight. I put it off far too long, and now I'll be going at 8pm, after I get home from school. I've printed off my shopping list though, so at least I feel organized about it. Dan's getting a keg of cider for the weekend too, which should be very tasty!

I'm ready to take a nap. Maybe I can hide out in my office under my desk for a while...

Upsetting

I came home last night to find that John had taken Blixi's collar off and let her run around the house. In short, she had pulled out her staples while he wasn't looking, so I had to call the vet as an emergency again and have it redone last night. They are keeping her for 3 days. I was very upset with John last night, and I couldn't help but feel that I'm somehow supposed to be taking better care of her. I did talk to John, and we agreed we need to communicate better on what the puppy needs.

Then I talked to my mom, and she said that they should never have used just tissue adhesive on such a young and active puppy, they should have done something stronger from the get-go. It makes me feel better. I called this morning to see how she was doing after her anesthesia, and she is 'fine, just a sweetie' according to the vet assistant.

I'm still glad I cancelled dissection for today, I have a lot of grading to do, though I may go in to work and do it. I feel a little strange being at home without her.

New Lab Assistant

I hired a lab assistant today to help me with the cadaver! Her name is Kay, (same as my mom) and she is really a nice girl. She is a nursing student here at the college, and she is doing tutoring for my A&P class. It really takes a weight off of my mind knowing that I have someone who I can count on to help me this semester.

In other news, I am eating ramen for lunch at work with John's old hot pot. Yum:)

I found out that our lab has no gas last week, and since we're getting a new lab room put in upstairs we thought that the plumbers had turned the gas in the pipes off. Today I asked more thoroughly about it and they discovered that it is just that our propane tank is empty. D'oh! Gotta get that filled, teaching microbiology lab has been sort of hard without flame... I need it to reconstitute my pathogen samples (AKA growing disease organisms in lab).

Blixi got spayed on Friday and things have been a bit complicated over the weekend. I brought her home on Saturday, and they used tissue adhesive to close her suture. She had licked it and jumped around the house enough that by Sunday morning I thought it had split open enough to be hazardous, so I called in the vet for an emergency check. They resealed it and gave us an Elizabethan collar. She looks like a satellite dish, and she's been sort of mopey. She's not fighting it though. Then yesterday the adhesive was coming apart again, so I took her back in and they had to anesthetize her and they put in staples. I can tell that they hurt, poor pup. She's still in pretty good spirits though.

Spent a lot of time yesterday working on stuff for Oktoberfest coming up this weekend. Spent around $68 on meat for all the meals. I love to cook for this party, lots of German food and beer and good times with our friends before the cabin is shut down for the winter. It's too bad that Blixi won't be feeling better by then enough to run around with us, she'd have a blast. Going to have to leave her at Gramma Yost's.

Feeling Geeky Already

Also, I chose this background for my blog for 2 reasons...

I don't know enough about web design to make my own,

and...

I thought the border reminded me vaguely of Spirulina algae.

First Post

Here's a brief synopsis of my life today:
It's a Monday, and that means I don't have to go to Fairmont to teach today. I have a full load this semester, including lectures and labs for Anatomy & Physiology and Medical Microbiology.
I spend hours Tue and Wed dissecting our cadaver, I offer students volunteer hours to help move them towards graduation, and I LOVE my job.

John, my sweetie, is at work. He asked me to marry him this summer, and we're planning to have the reception and ceremony next year in August at the family cabin north of Hutchinson. He is the most wonderful man and also aggravating to no end... our 7 year anniversary will be in Nov.

Blixi is my puppy, a Cairn Terrier. I wish I had half her energy, she is constantly bouncing around our apartment. She is the other light of my life, always able to make me smile.

We live in New Ulm, MN, a lovely little German town in a river valley, in the aforementioned tiny apartment. I'm originally from California, and so moving to the midwest and learning to deal with the seasons has been quite an adventure. I have lots of great friends, and I'm looking forward to keeping this Blog so I can remember more things that I like, dislike, find interesting, and do from day to day. I've never been able to keep a diary before, so we'll see if this works.