Thanks Dr. Wu...

Proctoring an exam again today. It's so fun. By fun I mean boring. Watching students think (and sometimes sweat) is about is thrilling as watching your lawn grow.

Kate visited this weekend to play rugby (Go Saints!--2-0 for the day!) and while she was here I learned that she loves when I make lists of things. Apparently that's when I'm at my funniest. I can't disagree but lists have to be organic (not pesticide free but flowing from a naturally creative place). I'm going to try to force a bit of inspiration here and make lists about my weekend.

People I saw this weekend (warming up here...don't expect much):

--Mom (came through Thursday which in college is the weekend with Al and Dad for Al's college visit-a-palooza)

--Dad (see Mom)

--Aly (see Mom. She was the reason for the road trip so we hope she's be included. Could make for an awkward college visit if you don't bring the kid...)

--Kate (came and stayed with me Friday for rugby-palooza on Saturday)

--Amanda (came with Kate...and by that I mean Kate came with her or whoever has a car)

--Hallie (see Amanda/Kate)

--Neesha (sp? See Amanda/Kate/Hallie)

--Andrew (Came up Friday just because he's a big shot engineer and he can do that. Stayed on my couch Friday night)

--Work Friend Of Andrew Who's Name Escapes Me Just Now (She came with Andrew and also slept on my [other] couch)

--Jen (Came up for the Texas game and is now back in Houston gloating about how we OWN Texas)

--Ben (Also here for the came... came up with Jen)

As you can see my weekend was crammed with fun people, a good sign for a weekend. Bad sign for my productivity but that's not really the point.

Reason this weekend was awesome:

--I saw all the aforementioned people for at least an hour each (most of them considerably more)

--We own Texas. If not in the Legal sense of the word then in the Pride sense of the word.

--I ate Korean food with Emily and Andrew. Pusan may be nestled deep within the armpit of Junction City but it is a shining beacon of velvet-painting-clad goodness.

--The BC Saints beat both K-State and Nebraska's rugby teams. Best of all I kind of knew it was happening while I watched. I'm catching on to this rugby thing...

--I won a Wildcats Forever travel mug on Big XII Friday. I love travel mugs. Especially such nice, purple, large ones.

--I found $20 on the ground in Aggieville. It was filthy as it had been run over by a car but it spent the same as if it was crisp and new. Free Early Edition breakfast for me!

--I had Early Edition for breakfast/lunch with Scarlett. It was delicious.They really know how to rock some Banana-Nut pancakes.

As a result of all this awesomeness my week will probably be hell because I have a SIM project due Friday and I just feel like I'm never going to finish it. I blame not working on it all weekend but honestly... I probably wouldn't be much farther ahead at this point anyway. If anyone out there knows anything about ARENA (I'm using version 13) and more specifically transporters and their relation to MOVE blocks, feel free to shoot me an e-mail explaining the finer points of AGV's.

It's come to that point in the semester when I'm pining for Thanksgiving break like children pine for cake. I want it NOOOOOOOW. So thus begins the countdown to Thanksgiving and other awesome things:

End of Project 3 (SIM): 4 days

Thanksgiving break: 11 days

Christmas break (END OF THE SEMESTER FROM HELL): 33 days

I think I can hang on that long. I think...

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!

Holy AWOL Batman

So I've been effectively ignoring this sucker for a while. My bad. It's not like I have such a whirlwind lifestyle that I can't update, in fact it's more the opposite. I am doing nothing worth talking about and then when I do I am busy doing that thing and can't tell you about it. I also usually forget to tell any good stories after the fact. Blogging may not be my calling...

Things I think that might be worth mentioning (sorry if I'm wrong):

Robbie got an office... mine! We are now office mates! It's gonna be awesome. By awesome I mean we'll get nothing done. Oh well. It'll be fun.

I learned a new recipe: eggplant bruschetta... it's amazing. Like life changing. I had never really eaten much eggplant so I was just feeling adventurous and it turned out phenomenally. If you want to have your life changed please see one of my new fave food blogs: smittenkitchen.com specifically http://smittenkitchen.com/2010/08/eggplant-salad-toasts/print/ . Hang on to your butts people. It's gonna blow your mind. Also see http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/11/mustard-roasted-potatoes/ if there's anything left of your brain... these will polish it off.

I visited Kyle at the end of August for a wedding and I have now been to Power and Light! It's pretty fun... basically an upscale version of Aggieville. Good times.

This past weekend we put a tally in the win column for the Wildcats... always a good time. I had forgotten how much I missed gameday... tailgating before hand, standing in the sun while I get burnt to a crisp, cheering for the cats and telling the refs how to do their job... ahh... so glad it's fall again.

Last night we went to watch Fiddler on the Roof...on the roof of Fiedler Hall. Yea. I know. A laptop, a projector, and 70 ft. of extension cord require an epic venue. Mission accomplished.

So all in all it's been a semi-eventful couple weeks. Hope you don't feel cheated by not getting this info live. Trust me...it wouldn't have been much more interesting in multiple installments.