Family Visit

Just got back home last night from spending nearly a week in Oklahoma. I went down to visit my mom and see my brother and sister-in-law as they were driving through on their move to VA. Neal has been stationed there at Langley AFB. I got to meet my new niece Alice for the first time. She is only 6 weeks old! (And incredibly adorable). Blixie and I road tripped it down there, and she was very good in the car. We made the trip in about 12 hours.

We had a good time, Mom and I did some shopping and Blixie got to play with other dogs! I also took Mom out to dinner at the Texas Roadhouse as an early birthday/late mother's day treat. I really enjoyed the time I got to spend with her. I also took the time to make a batch of my Dad's onion garlic bread while I was down there. Mom found an old copy of Dad's Onion Garlic Bread recipe while I was there, and I made 3 loaves. I let it rise too long and it turned out pretty heavy, but tasty nonetheless.

Wedding planning is about ready to go into full swing as I have one week left before classes start for the summer. I've got a dress fitting in two weeks, and I've got to get ideas for flowers, cake, and music in gear. I've also got to finalize the wedding registries and start addressing the envelopes for the invitations. The bachelorette party planning has sort of been taken over by Michal, and we'll be celebrating in Minneapolis. I'm excited!

Spring classes went well, I got good reviews overall from my students. Signed my contract for another year, job stability is good.

Travel Plan Headaches

I want to do something unusual for my bachelorette party, but the more I look at trips the more expensive and extravagant going anywhere seems. It is starting to look really inviting to just head to Minneapolis, get a nice suite room somewhere downtown, and run around up there having a good (less expensive) time.

Ideas we had tossed around included going to Vegas, Chicago, and tonight the girls and I talked about checking out a Disneyland trip. I just don't know what I want to do, other than possibly going dancing, staying somewhere nice, and being with the girls. A couple of them have suggested going for a spa day somewhere, which could be fun. I just don't know yet what I'm up for, and I need to book tickets soon. I will try to call the local travel agent's office this week to see what they might have in the line of packages.

In other news, John and I will be heading up to Chuck and Michal's this weekend for games and Chuck's homebrewed beer. Blixi will be staying at Gramma Yost's.
Speaking of Blix, she's been rather well behaved lately, though kind of barky. She went with me to Hutchinson to help clean out the basement at the house last weekend with Pam, Joe, and Emily. I'm excited to see how the remodel of the basement turns out!

I've been really busy with work, tests and review and dissection. My student's microbe identification lab projects turned out very well, the pamphlets were impressive.

Assessment day is tomorrow, a full day of meetings. I wish I could say I was looking forward to it more, but getting there at 8:30am and coming home at 9pm is not my idea of a great day. Makes the rest of the week look easier though.

Cadaver information here:
I opened up the abdominal cavity today and removed the heart for preservation. While opening the abdomen I found these neat looking mesh cones down in the inguinal area. When I asked the surgical tech instructor what that might have come from, she told me the guy had an inguinal hernia that was treated. He had also had triple bypass surgery and an appendectomy. I haven't determined whether he has his gall bladder, but I haven't found the little green thing yet after a cursory investigation. So, similar to last year with much less anatomical oddity.

Niece!

I am a new auntie! Neal and called last night and let me know that Alice Helena was born yesterday, 8lbs 6oz via Caesarian section. And, she's a cutie...

Mom and baby are doing fine, though mom is understandably tired and in a bit of pain. They will be going home this weekend.

Irish Soup for St. Paddy's

Lots of good things happening lately.

Two weekends ago John and I went to the cities to work on our wedding registries. We're still not done figuring out what we want, so I'm not releasing our information yet. We went out with my friend Maren for the weekend, and she was an invaluable resource. It was a blast!

Last week was Spring Break, and I went to Fargo to work on wedding invitations with Leah. After 3 days of hard work, my thumb going numb from using a pattern punch on cardstock, and 4-5 movies at Rita's apartment, we finally got the invitations done. They are gorgeous! 87 handmade cards are sitting in my room. I need to remember to go down to the post office to get universal stamps.

John went to Hutchinson this weekend to work with his mom and brother on the basement of her house. His car isn't working so he took mine, and so I was at home for the weekend with Blixi. I worked on various craft projects and played with my new Wacom tablet. (I didn't get one for Christmas, so I got one for myself.)

After John got home yesterday I made a list and went grocery shopping. I decided to spend the evening cooking, and put together four different soups which will hopefully last us for the week.
I made:
-Zatarain's Gumbo with Sausage (Yeah, it's out of the box) I put it over rice. Yum!
-Golden Potato and Leek: Buttery and delicious, also easy!
-Fresh Tomato and Bleu Cheese: I roasted the tomatoes, simmered them with other veggies and seasonings, and then pureed them with milk and cheese. I froze this one.
-Irish Hamhock and Vegetables: Never tried cooking a hamhock before, made the whole thing from scratch today, stock and all. It has onion, carrot, cabbage, rutabaga, lentils, and barley in it. I didn't realize I'd be making an Irish soup on St. Paddy's until this afternoon, but I like it. John and I will try it tonight. I should have run to get bread this afternoon from the Backerei.

Tomorrow, back to school. Two days this week and then Easter Break until next Tuesday.
Also, my brother and sister-in-law are expecting on Tuesday next week... my niece is going to be here soon! I'm so excited to be an auntie:)

BockFest

Last weekend was BockFest in New Ulm. We had 9 people (ourselves included) at our apartment, and a good time was had by all, I think. I went on a whirlwind cleaning spree of the apartment, and we took tons of stuff down to the basement. We started on Friday night late, when everyone arrived, and went to the bakery the next morning to get delicious danish, coffeecake, and rolls. We went to the brewery around 11am, got in no problem, grabbed some bock beer and a brat, and then we hiked for 2-3 hours in the snow looking for the bocks. When we got back to the brewery it was PACKED! Record turnout this year. It really started to get cold after 3pm, so we headed back to the apartment, and then we went out for Mexican food.

When we got back home we played some Guitar Hero, sat around and had some more beer and snacks until late in the evening, and several guests passed the glass boot of beer around the apartment.

I was feeling a little under the weather, so I went to bed early, but the rest of the group stayed up until around 3am.

In other news, Blixi is doing well, though she is having a hard time being cooped up in the apartment so much with the cold weather outside. It has been difficult to take her out on walks because of windchill and ice. Yesterday she chewed a hole in part of the seat of the couch, which is a symptom of her frustration.

I joined Anytime Fitness last week, and I went on Monday and Tuesday this week. I managed to ride the stationary bike for 35 minutes while CSI was on:) I plan to go again tonight. No time last night, I was on campus until 9:30 putting the finishing touches on a test I gave to my students this morning, and making sure that it was printed out. Now I am grading said test.

All told, life is treating me well. My biggest concerns at the moment are getting the headlight on my car changed, doing some minimal upkeep of our clean apartment, and making sure that I do my laundry this weekend. John has a jury trial which will probably last until Monday, so I am reasonably certain that we will be home for at least part of this weekend.

Start of a New Year

I've been very busy lately, getting ready for classes and for the Yost family Christmas this weekend. We put it off because most of us were out of state for the holiday. I have been shopping after Christmas sales all week trying to get ready, and I have a bunch of goodies to snack on ready to take tomorrow with us to Mama Yost's for the day.

My first day back teaching classes was yesterday. My students are great this semester, I am really looking forward to working with them.

I had a great time over the holiday. I visited my family at Mom's in Oklahoma, where I saw my Grandpa, brother, and sister-in-law. I also saw Mom's nice new house, and did a ton of shopping. I got Mario Galaxy for the Wii (which I took with me to visit) and my brother and I dominated it until I had to come home. I have since beaten MUCH more of the game, and gained the ability for Mario to fly yesterday.

New Year's was also a lot of fun. John and I went to Gibbon, MN to hang out with my friend Michele and her husband Michael. We went to the local (tiny) bowling alley and bowled until midnight. They had a nice buffet at the alley and wine as the ball dropped. None of us are stellar bowlers, so although none of us got really high scores, a good time was had by all.

I went through my closet last week and sorted out all kinds of clothes that I either don't fit into anymore or don't wear. I had done this before, a few years ago, but didn't manage to take the clothes from that venture anywhere. I ended up taking 6 bags of clothes and a half bag of shoes to donate, and my room is no longer overflowing with clothes... it actually seems manageable.

I'm sure a lot more has happened, but I can't think of it all right now, and I have a bunch of things left to do before tomorrow. I hope everyone is well!

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.