This week I took mini classes on Flash and Illustrator and have been tackling a drawing I started this summer full force, plus my new camera (with a working LCD screen yay!) came, so I should have some new artwork soon!

Yesterday I walked down to the Bellingham library, which isn't very far, but I of course got lost despite looking at a map before I left (next time I'll grab it) and felt very stupid and somewhat cold wandering around the industrial district of Bellingham in the rain wearing a fake kilt and a beret.

I have now finished my first two tests of the quarter--went ok except I made a stupid mistake on my biostat test, which I am still kicking myself for.

Over the weekend I had photos from EcoQuest printed out and am going to make a photo album-exciting! Except I have to have it done by Thursday because I'm supposed to bring it to the International Fair booth I'm helping out at.

I had Aimee, Katie, and Michelle over for dinner and made a feast, including poundcake and strawberries for dessert. Then I went and played pool with Ryan for an hour, temporarily forgetting about my mound of dishes. I was soon reminded.

Yesterday I walked home from school for the first time--it only took 15 minutes, so maybe I'll try doing that more often instead of waiting ten minutes for the bus that takes fifteen minutes.

Aimee and I went for a bike ride on the Interurban trail today--I used Michelle's bike, which has toe clips. I've never ridden with toe clips before, and, being one of the world's worst bike riders, had some issues. Most of the interurban trail is like a fire road, but there's a section of the trail that goes through the forest and is narrow, totally muddy, and rocky and rooty. Aimee and I kept getting on, riding 50 feet, then reaching an obstacle we couldn't ride over. Eventually we went back to the road and skipped the forest section. We eventually made it to Teddy Bear Cove, stashed our bikes on the side of the trail, and went down to the bay. It was very high tide, so we didn't get to see any cool starfish etc.

Tonight I was cooking for probably 3 hours--I made greek yogurt sauce for gyros, chopped vegetables for stir fry, prepared for my big dinner party (ok not really) tomorrow, and baked a poundcake. I wanted to share it with my housemates tonight, but they wouldn't let me cut into it since really I baked it for tomorrow. I felt bad though because it smelled really good and I knew they wanted some.

Last night I discovered there was a leak in my room as I heard a faint dripping noise splashing onto my mirror. The storm outside was raging pretty hard, so I don't think the leak will be a problem again.

Check out this gorgeous photo of the Orion Nebula--the zoomable view is fun, though then you can't see the whole thing at once.

I found out that Katie Boothe is in one of my classes this quarter, and she lives probably 5 houses away from me.

I haven't yet decided whether having a pilates ball as a chair is proving good or bad. On the one hand, it's good to roll back on and stretch my back; on the other hand, I get so into bouncing along to my music that the screen looks shaky and it's hard to type.

I just went to see Brokeback Mountain, which was, as expected, very sad.

Today as I was driving on the freeway, I noticed the guy next to me only had his parking lights on, yet it was dark out. Just as I was swearing at him for being an idiot, the unmarked highway patrol behind him put on his siren to pull the guy over. I like seeing justice being served.

Emperor Penguins!

Ryan and I went on a Mt Baker Highway Adventure.

Tonight I:

chopped vegetables in preparation for future meals
hung out with Ryan who I played in jazz band with 2 years ago
folded my laundry
and watched the Transporter 2.

Time for bed!

I overcame my soreness today to take a walk on the interurban trail.


What the hell kind of dog is this?




Little does this squirrel know my alternate alter-ego: the Squirrel Spanker!

My housemates have decided I am the culinary one of the bunch, and are trying to talk me into cooking for all of us.

This morning I was having a strange dream where I was staring at a jukebox and trying to get it to work, but it kept making this super annoying, insistent beeping. Then I realized that my alarm was going off, so I had to get up. I've been sleeping through my alarm lately and not even remembering that it went off, and now maybe I realize how.

Oh dear lord I am going to be so sore tomorrow! My jujitsu teacher teaches us moves for the first 40 minutes of class, then the last 20 minutes we rrrrrumble. The three other girls in the class didn't show today, and I think all the guys felt awkward asking if I wanted to wrestle, but the teacher didn't mind. I've decided I like wrestling, from the 10 minutes I have ever done.

Oh, and I'm never going to try to kill 5 hours at school again.

My replacement wacom tablet came!!!!

A photo of my house:

It has cute swirls over the window, though it's hard to see them in this picture because of the dead-looking tree.

I ran into Joe Spring today, who was recently in the Southern Hemisphere too--Australia mainly, but a little bit in NZ and Fiji. Regarding his week in New Zealand, he sang me the All Black's haka (opening game chant). He agreed that Nadi sucked and described his adventures on the Yasawa islands, where I was planning to go. Apparently he tried dog. Didn't say what it tasted like though.

Speaking of running, I went to the gym today, where I ran for 10 minutes then quit before my goal of 15 because my knee was randomly hurting. Probably random muscles around the knee though. Then I ran into Corinne, who I used to play capture the flag with. Oh the good ol days.

So, I'm just sitting around killing 5 hours because I'm too lazy to catch the bus home and then come back at 7 for work. It turns out I'm working in Fairhaven again--boo... All I do there is sit looking hopeful for a while, then give up after half an hour. Last spring, working 4 hours a week the whole quarter, I only conferenced with 2 people. Pathetic! Well, at least I'll be eased back in...

I had my first jujitsu class, during which I proved to be basically inept at tripping my partner, and then at the end wrestled with the teacher, which was (as you might have guessed) difficult and extremely tiring. But fun! We'll see how it goes Thursday.

I got my hair cut.


We passed lots of trucks on the way to B'ham.


My room--before...


After!


Before...


After!

Here are some pretty pictures of the Grand Canyon: http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0601/feature3/gallery1.html

I wonder what will happen if Sharon dies?

I magically found a place to stay the first day I arrived in Bellingham! Today classes start, and I thought that I had a lot of stuff to do so I came to campus 2 hours early but only had half an hour's worth of things to accomplish. So I've been playing on teh internet.

After my one class of the day I am going to tackle my room, which is currently piled with all my shit. Thankfully the girls I'm now living with were kind enough to help me carry my bed and desk upstairs to my room. The room was too trashed to even think about, so I slept on the incredibly comfortable sofa at Michelle, Aimee, and Katie's house and got a glorious 10 hours of sleep.

Happy new year!

I am sitting with Robin in the lovely Timbers Inn in Eugene, OR, using the wireless internet they provide, after having driven 11 hours today, also involving chain/snow action.

Pictures from Monterey


First we went to see elephant seals at Ano Nuevo.


Then we went to Monterey, where we went on a bike ride and to the aquarium.