Stuff

I need to rescan this, but this will do for now. I had to scan it in two pieces and smoosh it together in Photoshop, so there may still be a seem. I think the strange swirly things are there because the paper wasn't totally flat because I didn't want to tear it out of the book. Think I'll tear it out anyway and rescan it some time this week. First time I've really sat down and drawn anything months. Not too rusty, but I still screwed it up the shading around the middle by thinking it might be a good idea to throw a little charcole in there as well. Not doing that again.

"Suffocating"

exercise is the devil

So Brandon some how talked me into going to spinning class AND abs class with him today, in addition to our friday evening yoga. I did. I will probably wish I were dead starting tomorrow afternoon and then all of sunday. I didn't push myself to the max spinning because I knew that would be a very bad plan. My legs are strong but are not accustomed to that kind of work out. As it is I know they will likely be agony for the next two days.
Abs class was difficult as is expected. The instructor is so cute though, and she keeps me pumped, even through the burning. They have these things here called BOSUs which are like half an excecise ball with a base. They are sturdier than a ball obviously, but the things that you can do with them are way more intense and painful, but increadibly effective. I HATE them!!

Killed half an hour between abs and yoga by going to the new bookstore and looking around. I could get stuck in bookstores for hours. I made the mistake a few weeks back of trying to take a pitstop in Barnes and Noble, but the people waiting for me in my car called to remind me they were there... yeah, next time going by myself!

Yoga was normal, but I was too tired for most of it to really get into it. The instructor, Bonnie, had done the two previous classes with Brandon and me, so she was tired as well, though not as bad as me since she's in better shape. I was very glad not to have a double dose of abs today.

Anyway, I could have fallen asleep at 8, but I still have to let my pizza digest. Yeah, that's right, I ordered a large hawaiian pizza after my 4 1/2 hours of working out, what of it? I like eating back all the calories I burned off.

Boy and I going to sleep well tonight!

LOST

Well it's official: all my shows for this season are over.
I just finished the LOST two hour season finale cliff hanger. Veeeerrrrr exciting. I can hardly wait for next season, except I don't know exactly when I'll get to watch it! Maurice may be able to download the episodes, but I don't know how soon they'll be out!

I'm such a geek for freaking out about this, but I get very attached to me shows. It's a weakness, I admit it. I have many. But LOST and Nip/Tuck will be the only ones that I won't be able to wait to catch up on later. Ah... guilty pleasures on cable tv...

Spring weather

The weather has been insane lately. Eburg is getting uncharacteristic amounts of rain, and when it rains here, it pours. Not like Seattle where it's always dreary and like 'oh I think I'll rain, oh no, just kidding.' Where else in the world do you have like 50 different words to describe the kind of rain we get there? Seattle (hell, all of the Pacific Northwest) rain is nothing but a tease and an irritation.

Last week there were record highs all week long which was making the snow in the mountains melt too fast, causing flooding in some places. It was 90 and over everyday. In contrast to last monday, yesterday was about 25 degrees cooler and raining.

It poured yesterday soaking things that are normally well sheltered. It was crazy. It rained just as hard friday, except friday was warm. It was so nice... I went out and stood it it. I love the rain when it's warm. When Seattle gets rain like that, it usually only lasts for a few minutes tops, but it practically monsooned for twenty minutes. I even went outside and scrubbed off the bug guts that had been baking on my windshield all week. It was grand. I haven't run around in rain that nice and warm since I was 18.

I'm now excited for monsoon season in Japan next spring. I'm sure it will grow old after about three days, but hey, I can be happy about the warm buckets falling from the sky for those three days, right?

Well, pouring yet again. I'm glad my last class was cancelled today. Saved me from having to bike home in this stuff.

PS: Lookit at what Maurice did. It's so cute!! Pretty good, ne?

Here ends the random post.

My allergies will be the death of me. Ugh....

In other news, eburg is having record highs and it was 96 today. I was able to run around in skirts. I do love the heat. Feels and smells a bit like Palm Springs. Lovely.

Looooong weekend

Well Brandon and I decided to get out of Dodge and left Eburg thurs evening, giving us a lovely three day weekend at home. My original reason for going home was my friend Brittany's 21st birthday party, but as usual I managed to find lots of other things to do.

Mom took my shopping in Seattle on friday to look for a dress for the wedding. Not a wedding dress, since it'll be so small, and it would be pretty silly to get a full blown gown for just a small ceremony outside. It'll be casual and relaxed, and so I was looking for something street length, springy, and something I could wear again. We went all over the city and after not finding even one thing that tweaked my interest, we caught the ferry back so we could finish out the day trying out luck in Silverdale. We had a good time in the city though. It's been a long time since we got to spend so much time together.

Got out to Silverdale and didn't have luck at the bridal place so decided to look in the mall. Ran in to Maurice's long-time friend John (featured in one of Maurice's posts a few weeks back, was living in the Phillipines for the last 9 months or so). I hadn't even known he was back in the country yet.

Found a lovely dress finally. Funny enough, I had seen the same dress in the city but hadn't bothered to take it off the rack because it was in the petite section, and I am not a petite. However, I decided to give it a try and it's pretty much perfect. I'm very pleased.

Saturday we had Maurice's parents over. My mum had met them briefly once before, but not my dad. I was nervous because my dad can say some stupid things some times, but it went really well. I love them and couldn't have picked better in-laws if I'd had the option to do so. I know our moms will be friends, and though our dads won't be hanging out most likely, they will be just fine when they are together. That was a weight off my shoulders.
After that I went to Brittany's birthday and spent half the night dodging the cigarette smoke with one of my friends and her baby.

Today was glorious weather and I busted out my new spring dress. Brandon and I headed back to Eburg and were pleased to be greated with 80 degree weather. WOo HOOO! Good weather from here on out, baby.

Hmm

Well now that Reese helped me make this thing all snappy and pretty, maybe I should actually write in it...

What's new... Midterms over, lots of projects still left to do (language and gender paper and presentation, primate conservation paper, paper for poli sci, and yet another paper...).

Trucking away with my Japanese. It's hard, but I'm trying not to get too frustrated or disheartened. Fortunately I have some friends over here who can help me as well, and that's always nice. My friend Keith helped me with my pathetic sentence translations last night. Got a lot of 'oooh so close, but...' and then he'd rewrite the sentence only using one or two of my original words. Well, I'm learning slowly but surely. Not doing too bad either, considering I'm doing it on my own with very little real guidance.

I am also not really feeling my yoga class tonight, which is weird 'cause that's my favorite part of the week. I'm tired dammit! I think I'll sorely miss this class though when I'm in Japan. It's so much easier to keep on top of excercise when you have other people to do it with on a regular schedule. Sigh...

Oh, I'm going to try adding a picture. Haven't done that here yet.


Hmmm, seems to have worked. That's my brother Joel playing with our dog Bear. They love to chase each other around the house. It's very cute.