Today I earned my maintenance merit badge for fixing my bike. For a while there, I was thinking that trying to fix my bike 3 miles away from my dorm when I know nothing about bikes was a very very bad idea, particularly when the pedals wouldn't move backwards OR forwards, but then I pulled on the chain a little more and pushed some gear thang and now it rides like a dream!

Today was a good day. I woke up early, which was somewhat painful, ate some grub, then hauled Katie and Aimee with me to pick up Cody and go to the mall. After an hour at the mall, we drove to Lakewood, on Lake Whatcom, and lay in the sun on the dock for an hour and a half, then rented a kayak and a canoe and paddled around for half an hour. Dinner preceded a glorious nap, then we walked to Haggen to buy ice cream, and watched Fight Club whilst eating our delectable frozen dairy product

What an exciting day for Kaeldra.com! A site overhaul and the launch of my new photoblog, Kaeldra's Camera (which I haven't decided how frequently to update yet.) If you find any problems, let me know at kaeldra [at] gmail [dot] com.

It was 85 degrees in Bellingham today! So I went for a hike. Either my timer is screwed up or I'm getting in better shape because I reached my turnaround point faster than I usually do. Inspired, I wanted to go further, but it was 6 o'clock, so I needed to turn around to get back to campus by 6:45, when the dining hall closes.

Yesterday, Megan went to a "anything but clothes party" wearing trash bags and duct tape.

Today I had a group meeting at 5:30, and we finished after dinner was closed, so I had to go buy some teriyaki. Then I came back in time to go to Aimee's choir concert, which was surprisingly good considering I usually hate choir. I tried to take Katie, Aimee, and Michelle to Mallard's for some delectable frozen dairy product, but they closed 15 minutes before we got there and would only sell us pints of ice cream. So we wound up scarfing pints of ice cream. I won't argue. ;D

Today I drafted "the considerate suitemate act of 2005" stipulating that Megan cannot leave hair appliances on in the bathroom, fill our sink with her junk, and that she has to take her junk out of the bathroom or else clean it herself. Punishment for failure to do any of this is buying us ice cream and we get to use her expensive shampoo and hide her hair stuff. ;D

Today I went to the library to read, figuring that if I wasn't at home I would concentrate better. I plunked myself down on a sofa in the sunlight, read 10 pages, and woke up an hour and a half later. Shrug.

At breakfast, I had a horrific realization--my skin is nearly the same color as our lunch trays!!!!

I went for a hike to an absolutely beautiful place today. I think I'll go back tomorrow, or maybe it'll be my next Thursday hike.

I just got back from a Jason Webley concert. It was pretty good, but I sat too far away. Now I'm off to STAR WARS!!! with my reclusive suitemate.

I accomplished absolutely nothing academic today. It was awesome! I worked a ton on the new layout for kaeldra.com, hopefully you'll like it as much as I do.

I just decided to go for a hike, when suddenly thunder sounded and it started to bucket. The karma must not be flowing. But I like thunder!

Oh man, I hate group projects.

Exciting news...Kaeldra.com is due for a facelift, probably some time within the next week! I figure if I write it here, people will pester me, and it'll actually happen.

Pictures!!!!!

Tennant Lake

Whidbey Island Field Trip

Because yesterday was Michelle's birthday, all the girls and I went down to Everett, where she lives, to her birthday party. We got there just as she was riding off on a motorcycle to get a new tap for her keg, and we didn't know anyone so we just sat around avoiding eye contact until she got back. Then we started talking to people when she got back, and I had a surprisingly good time.

Today I didn't want to get up at all, but I did so I could study bio and make it to breakfast.

Yesterday Aimee and I went to Tennant Lake, which was a really cool marshy area with a boardwalk leading through the semi-lake/semi-forest. A birdwatcher came up to us and explained that if we heard a sound like a giant bubble popping, then we were lucky enough to hear the Western Bittern. She wasn't crazy, we heard it, and it did sound like a popping bubble.

Today I went on my field trip down to Whidby Island, where we failed at finding evidence of a prairie, though we got to go on a nice coastal stroll and saw a golden eagle and an endangered species of Indian Paintbrush. In the afternoon, we went to Padilla Bay and rooted through the mud looking for worms and cockels and snails. There are 8000 acres of mud there. Damn, that's a lot of mud. I can't get the stench of it off my hands.

Today I got carded for trying to buy soda. The checker asked me for my ID, which I thought was strange, then she said, "You're not 21 until..." I kind of cocked my head at her and said, "But I'm not buying any alcohol..." My sodas were in glass bottles, so she thought it was beer.

I went and picked up the car today, getting completely lost downtown for a while. Fortunately, I knew that every time I go downtown I get lost at least once, so I brought a map!

Yesterday we had a lab that I anticipated being particularly hellish, but it turned out to be not that bad. We put fish in a flask and figured out how much they breathed, and put mice in a bottle underwater to figure out how much they breathed. One mouse (not ours) kept running around in circles; three were trying to run on the wheel at once, but they were going opposite directions, so they kept making the wheel go upside down and then they'd freak out. The lab was a definite flashback to chem--we had to titrate something. I HATE titrations.

I had a two hour in-class essay exam today for history, and when I got out I couldn't stop shaking my hand to try to get the cramp out. Because everyone else seems to be done with midterms, no one came in to work tonight, thankfully freeing me to work on my lab report that I should have written last week but left until the last minute.

This weekend was:
Kingdom of Heaven (new Orlando Bloom movie, enjoyable)
Phantom of the Opera (weird, weird!)
sleeping a lot (early to bed, late to rise)
studying for tomorrow's history midterm (why didn't I take Spanish?!)
shopping with Megan and Katie
dinner at Megan's grandparents' house (plenty o' seafood)

I was stuck behind some slowpokes walking to a lecture by some Kennedy or another tonight, so I listened in on their conversation, the gist of which was that the pinky finger has no use. And, thinking about it, the only uses I can come up with are playing instruments and looking refined/silly by lifting your pinky when you drink tea.

The lecture I went to was by Robert F. Kennedy Jr, who's an environmental lawyer. When I got there, I didn't have anyone to sit by, but I ran into one of my Resident Advisors from last year and sat with her. She's very energetic and loquatious, and she told me all about an insane camper she had to tend to in the kitchen. Note to self: never, ever, EVER, work at Boy Scout Camp.

When I called the tow truck to come get me, I was expecting an hour wait at least, but the guy showed up 8 minutes later. Now that's what I call fast service.

Oh my goodness! My car has been acting up and desperately needs fixing, so I had to find a car place and make an appointment. I found a place semi-walking distance that won an environmental award--good enough for me. They asked me what the problem was, and my response was, "It's smelling bad and making funny noises," which may as well have been, "I am a helpless female, take advantage of my lack of car knowledge and credit card."

Last night, I fell asleep with all the lights on at around 9:45, and was out pretty cold until Megan went to bed at 4:30. Then I woke up, decided to set my alarm for 5:30, went back to sleep, woke up around 5:20 and changed my alarm to 6:30, which I then slept through until my backup alarm went off. In any case, the point of this is not that I am weird and woke up before my 5:30 alarm, but that there were probably 20 or 30 different varieties of birds singing when I woke up at 5:30, including seagulls, something that sounded like a parrot, robins, and lots of LBBs (little brown birds).

It's funny all the memories an ice cream cone can bring up. Today at dinner, I was craving dessert, but nothing looked good, so I had ice cream--lemon sorbet. It reminded me of Arete, of one night when I played my clarinet in front of Mozart's home and then we went for gelato. It reminded me of the Renaissance Faire, because we always get these fruit-flavored ice creams that come inside the skin of the fruit. It reminded me of going to film night in the park, because we would almost always get gelato afterwards.

Then, as I was coming out of the dining hall, I snuck up on a squirrel and scared the shit out of it. They do call me the Squirrel Spanker....