Finals: Day 2...summary

Day's Stats

Finals: 0 (ish...take home requires attention)

Hrs. of sleep: 8 (ish... it's a Christmas miracle)

I basically spent my day working on my take home final for Advanced Econ. 9:30 to approximately 4 (except for lunch... I nuked soup and made a grilled cheese for those concerned about my nutrition during this difficult time). Put a good dent in it. Should be able to wrap it up tomorrow. This evening was all about SIM with Ed. I worry our model is too simple but then I remember it's possibly because our class models were SO CRAZY. Whatever. We've committed. It'll be fine.

Next maneuver: Go to bed. Again at a decent hour...unless Conan gets good. Finals week sucks but somehow I'm working in more sleep... how does that happen?

Tomorrow's plan: Get to school by 9ish and just start annihilating that econ final. Go team!

Finals Day 1.5

Captain's log--Star date: 12/13/2010 00:08 central time

Current coordinates: Durland Hall

Status: Groggy

I managed a nap this evening after dinner and cleaning the kitchen (it was bad and I had to clean it before the health department found out). It was supposed to be for 20 minutes but because I'm tired and our microwave clock is way wrong I miss-set my alarm and overslept (a whole hour nap!) and left Ed to fend (simulate) for himself. Woops. Good news, he forgave me.

Tomorrow's agenda: 9am begin Advanced Econ take-home final in earnest. Work until 2 or 3 when Ed and I begin working on SIM. Eat at some point... fill all spare time with Econ Final. Try not to fall asleep on my computer.

Next maneuver: go home and go to bed at a decent time. Tomorrow should be good.

Not dead yet!

So I know I don't ever update and that makes Mom sad (sorry Mom) but I honestly spend most of my time being busy with REALLY boring things (read: Simulation). Since last I wrote not a whole lot of new and exciting things have happened...

This past weekend was homecoming and we had a home football game. Naturally that's the weekend we chose to do our IIE tailgate (IIE==Institute of Industrial Engineers...our professional society. I'm the Chapter Developement co-chair this year...). I was in charge of this event. Our president kept bugging me about if she could help (she didn't really want to but she had to look supportive) and honestly I didn't have much to delegate. Everything was gangbusters (what the heck are those anyway?) up until the morning of (we made breakfast burritos the night before and I rounded up all the stuff we'd need and had it staged in my living-room ready for pick-up promptly at 7:30 the next day!).

The morning of rolls around and Aaron overslept (the kid who was providing the vehicle and the ride for me and all my stuff). Not a huge deal but I realize I can't find the parking permit. Shoot. Well we finally get up there with 10 minutes to spare before this thing is supposed to kick off. Not bad. But we go to the gate to explain our parking pass issue and they give us the runaround for 25 minutes about not being on "the list" before finally admitting that there is no list and we never stood a chance. Buttholes. Whatever. We're late and we're not where we're supposed to be but we'll make it work. No one will die at this point.

We get over to the student lot and set up and get our crock pots going (to heat our breakfast burritos) only to find out that the emergency batteries (to jump your car) we brought can't handle the amperage (or voltage I can't recall how it works exactly) required to run a crock pot (who knew those things were such power sucks...) for more than 15 seconds. It's finally clear that this will NOT work so we have punted at this point and have Aaron's girlfriend Erin (yea...I know...) calling her sister to get a grill. God bless Erin and her sister because they provided us a way to serve our stupid (and yet quite tasty) breakfast burritos. Love her.

So at this point it's like 1/2 way through the event and things are finally good. Better late than never.

I get into the football game with all my IE's and Jordan (who acquired her dad's parking permit) tells me she just found the permit that started all this...in her pocket. Damn. Well no use crying over spilled milk I guess...

That night was "Halloween" (the "" are because it's really the day before but since it's a Saturday it counts). I was a "White Lie" (dressed in white with little notes on myself that said things like "You're a good dancer" and "He'll realize it was a mistake to dump you! He'll be back!") and I went out with Kyle a Capone era gangster. I saw Ed "Professor Plum" Zuiss, Brant "Mayhem" (from the Allstate commercials) Roney, Jordan "Bever" Bever, and also ran into a "Ceiling Fan" (white t-shirt with "Go Ceiling!" and "Ceiling is #1" written on it), and several Chilean Miners--one mid rescue (complete with the hoisting cage thing...)! It was a good night out. I bonded with "Ceiling Fan" guy over the difficulty people had at figuring us out. I got his without help but I didn't have anyone get me... Ha!

As for the rest of my life... well it's back to the grind this week. I made some drawings in my notes today in class (I take notes in OneNote and this class is BORING...so naturally playing with the "Draw" options is necessary.)

Yep...these are it. I know you're impressed.

SIM is about to rear it's ugly head once more... so I'll be gone a while. But this weekend Kate will be visiting to play Rugby and I just found out that Thursday I'll see the rest of the fam as they travel to watch Al try out for some sweet volleyball teams. Go girlfriend! I shall be persevering through the week with those bright spots as my guiding lights! :) Sometimes I wax poetic (wax? what does that mean... where did that come from...? Whatever... I didn't make it up).

See you...when I see you!

The news as of late

I have had what I thought was some ornery allergies for about two weeks now and it's just getting to the point where I'm tired of trying to ride it out. I want off this ride immediately. I'm going to Lafene this afternoon for a consult to see if we can nip this thing in the bud. Here's hopin'.

I'm writing to you dear reader (Mom) from the OR 1 exam that I am proctoring today. Mom, you must give several tests a month between all the subjects you teach; you must get a lot done while those kiddies are sweating away over their spelling words. This is really boring because I didn't come prepared with anything to occupy me so I'm aimlessly surfing the internet. And writing about it. On the upside Dr. Wu paid for my lunch for springing this on me last minute and let Robbie come along (but since we have to be quiet this doesn't do me much good in the entertainment department).

Also, Mom, you would be so proud of me. I played softball last night with Stacey's fiance's team (because they needed some more ladies to fill out the roster) and I was actually kind of a productive person! I played catcher which people always say is good for someone who doesn't really know anything. I have always thought that it seemed like a scary place to stand--next to someone swinging a metal stick while someone throws a "soft" (not soft at all) ball at you. But I did ok. I got less scared each inning and by the end only a couple rolled by me. This is quite the feat for me. I also hit the ball every time I was at bat. Not well but I got to first base and since I was immediately before the slugger of the team that meant I made it home all but once (he made me go on LONG sprints...). Anyway I'm sort of beaming with pride at having been helpful.

Oh and I made that chicken taco pizza on Saturday. I shared it with Robbie and Ed and they both tell me it was pretty tasty (I thought so too but I can't taste anything really with these "allergies" so I rely on others to confirm). Here's how it goes:

Crust dough: Go to thepioneerwoman.com and find the pizza dough recipe. Make it (at least a day in advance)

Make some chicken. I used two frozen chicken breasts, thawed and marinaded for about 30 minutes in some tequila and lime juice (the kind in the plastic lime)--about a shot of each I'm estimating... Then I just put it in a skillet until it was cooked. Nothing fancy. I had to add a little lime juice in the middle because things were looking a little dry. Do what you want.

Once you have the dough spread out, spoon on

3/4 (ish) of a can of sauce (I used a spicy tomato sauce I found in the Mexican food isle of Dillons. Robbie would have went with salsa. Do what you think is right.)

3/4 (ish) of a can of black beans

1 med-small green pepper (or a large on if you really like green peppers...or none if you don't)

1/2 a small onion (again if you really love onion do more...or leave it out...whatever)

2 frozen chicken breasts, shredded up (or cubed if you like it that way I guess)

1 bag of Mexian cheese (you can do it P-Hut style and put 1/2 the cheese on under the veggies and 1/2 of it on top of the chicken... if you want) unless you really love cheese then you can put more.

Clearly pizza leaves a lot of room for interpretation so go with your gut. Mine was good but I'll probably change it up a bit next time just to keep things interesting.

Nothing else has really happened since I last touched base (we are ignoring the Nebraska massacre of Thursday because it is too painful to recount). We SIM happened but no one wants to hear about that.

So in closing, I'd like to offer a special shout out to my parents, Ed and Anita. On this day in 1986(if I did the math right) they tied the knot-- Happy Anniversary! I hope you get to do something fun! Love you guys!

Behold!

I know you're asking yourself: "Self? What IS that?" The answer, dear reader (Mom), is Bubble Tea! It's a little weird but in all the right ways... Mine (left) is taro root with black tea (also milk and tapioca pearls--the black things at the bottom) and Ed's (right) is red bean with black tea (and milk and tapioca pearls). Mine tasted like cookies & cream to be honest which isn't what you'd think looking at this purple-y drink. It was yummy to be sure. Ed and I went to get these at the Chinese Grocery that opened up in Aggieville recently. It was a fun little field trip/experiment that we plan on repeating. there were plenty of nifty food items (none of whose labels were in English) and even a box of fresh (alive on Tuesday) crabs! It was a magical journey and I found things that one day I'll need to buy when I get ambitious and try to make fun Asian food that I like. Who knows when that will actually be...

Also before our field trip, I made Ed and I PW's favorite pizza: eggplant and tomato (produce courtesy of the farmer's market...mmmm)! It was pretty good but I think I have a few tweaks for next time planned. I still have 1/2 the dough I made (don't be impressed, it's SUPER easy) so I get to make my experimental pizza soon. I decided on chicken taco pizza. I'll let you know how it goes (and if it's good how to make it yourself!).

All in all it's been a really good food day. :)

Apparently I'm broke

So what happened this week... huh... not that much really. School, grading, some hanging out with friends. Nothing huge. Oh I signed up for Mint.com this week. Apparently the fact that there is any money in my accounts is basically a miracle. Like a serious, write-to-the-pope-to-get-this-validated act of God. Mint is basically budgeting and money managing software online. It reads your bank account and categorizes your spending. It sets budgets based on your spending habits and shows you at the end of the week how you're doing. It seems as though I've had no concept of my spending up to this point. Hopefully we'll get that under control.

Wednesday I had a birthday dinner at Olive garden with a group of my people. Leslie, Kristin, Stacey (and Mike), Carrie, Scarlett, Emily, Robbie, Brant, Jeff, and Ed all came. I felt so loved! :) It's always fun to sit down with you're people to break bread.

Speaking of hanging out with your people, we decided on a new Friday ritual--Friday FroYo at 5! There's a new self serve place called The Orange Leaf and it's awesome! Go check it out online (you can see a local perspective at thescoopmanhattan.com) and then promptly go there to experience it! This week we followed up our desert with dinner (just Robbie, Scarlett, Sarah, Ed and myself) at Pat's and then Robbie, Ed and I spent a night in (as opposed to spending money out and about) watching that old classic film, Mystery Men.

Today I mentored for a GROW event (because of the aforementioned lack of cash flow) in spite of having a weird vertigo type feel all day. I bucked it up and toughed it out and it got better enough to go to Emily's for a chilly dinner (which was spectacular to say the least). I still feel just a little wonkey but I think I'll survive. Hopefully I'll shake it enough to be productive tomorrow.

Oh and finally the highlights of Chicago! Enjoy!

The big city lights... as seen from the Hancock Building.

My drink at the Hancock Building-- so pretty!

Free hat at the Sox game in honor of 1/2 way to St. Patty's day!

Dinner at the Sox game--as good as(or better than) it looks!

Postin' up at the bean in Millennium park. Possibly favorite part of Chicago.

See? I rock the Sr. Pics at the bean...

Crew at that classy silver bean again...

Adam walks on water sometimes... whatev.

In the new viewing boxes that hang out over Chicago in the Sears (Willis?) Tower. I am breaking ground in the field of fake Sr. pics here people. Check me out!

And that red thing... I forget what it's called. We checked it out though. Also very cool. :)

There are more up on the Facebook and even more on SnapFish. These are just the ones that struck my fancy enough to make it into the blog...