Weekend of WoW
so first, let me just say that my birthday celebrations on Friday were just wonderful. It was pretty much an ad-hoc thing, after spending an annoying, cold and windy day on the lake collecting image data that didn't help my research at all I decided to try going to the GSA wine social. I had no idea that grad students actually, you know... DID stuff. It was packed... seriously, I had to move sideways and even then I could only inch along a bit at a time. It was so loud too. All in all not really my scene at all but it was oddly not that bad because I ended up running into a lot of people I knew.
After that I had movie and popcorn night at my place with some peoples. Coach Emily was back in town so I had Katie cohere her into coming over, along with Teresa, Claire and Jason, for a showing of Bubble Boy. Brandon and Carl were there too of course but the whole Bubble Boy story didn't directly involve them so I just kind of tacked them on at the end like that. It was the first time I've seen it and let me just say... it was amazing. For those of you not familiar with the Bubble Boy story Jason bares a striking resemblance to Jake Gyllenhal and when I brought this up to Emily at one morning practice (in order to postpone doing a set of course) she replied that the only (or first, I forget) movie she saw with him was Bubble Boy, and she agreed about the resemblance and started calling him Bubble Boy to his face. So naturally I bought the movie some time later and finally got around to opening it and having a showing on Friday. Anyway, definitely a favorite, even if Claire didn't like it. Speaking of Claire, she got me the most thoughtful of gifts. One was a framed picture of our famous handoff in Food Lion (Katie, can I get the original from you, I need to print out a high quality version) AND... an apple slicer. It is worth noting that every time in the past few months (and there have been more than a few times) that I have made apple pie or some other apple-esq dessert I thought to myself, "I really should get an apple slicer" but never actually did because I always concluded that while it would make things simpler it wasn't necessarily worth the extra couple of dollars. Needless to say I am quite pleased that Claire solved that dilemma for me and now I can have the convenience of an apple slicer without the burden of paying for one myself.
While I'm on the subject of presents I should point out that equally thoughtful gifts were presented by Kyle and Teresa who gave me a venus fly trap and bottle of Pinot Noir, respectively. The cards that went along with it were quite enjoyable too. Then of course we shouldn't forget the checks from Sharon and the Grandparents as well as the traditional bank transfer from mother.
All in all, a very very good day.
In other news I finally broke down and on Thursday installed World of Warcraft with a 10 day free trial. I crated a Night Elf druid character and quickly discovered how addictive that game is. I spent most of Thursday night and most of the weekend getting up to level 13 and bringing my herbalism and alchemy professions up to 100 and 75, respectively. It's just so... endless. I understand how people can drop out of school because of it. Not that I'm saying I'm in any danger of that, I think, after the initial obsession I am able to keep the playing at a reasonable level. In fact I haven't logged in a single time today and probably won't tomorrow either, and IF I do then it will only be for a little bit since I will be busy with other stuff until the evening.
I think there is nothing too horrible about it as long as I can keep the playing time to a reasonable level. I ask that those around me please let me know if I start to fall into the South Park setting. If that is the case, you know what to do...
Anyway, I made up for the totally non productive (yet fun) weekend by being extra productive today (at least at home, I did almost nothing at work). After my class, which was a grueling 2 hours 45 minutes from 4 until 6:45pm I came home and made a delicious dinner with Brandon watched some Daily Show, cleaned up the kitchen, did laundry and made whole wheat bread dough which will rise over night and turn into bread tomorrow evening. Now it is far later than I intended it to be when I went to bed but I am going to still make a strong attempt at getting up early enough to go swimming tomorrow morning, though it is going to be especially challenging to switch back to that early schedule after a few very late nights and mornings.
Until next time...
After that I had movie and popcorn night at my place with some peoples. Coach Emily was back in town so I had Katie cohere her into coming over, along with Teresa, Claire and Jason, for a showing of Bubble Boy. Brandon and Carl were there too of course but the whole Bubble Boy story didn't directly involve them so I just kind of tacked them on at the end like that. It was the first time I've seen it and let me just say... it was amazing. For those of you not familiar with the Bubble Boy story Jason bares a striking resemblance to Jake Gyllenhal and when I brought this up to Emily at one morning practice (in order to postpone doing a set of course) she replied that the only (or first, I forget) movie she saw with him was Bubble Boy, and she agreed about the resemblance and started calling him Bubble Boy to his face. So naturally I bought the movie some time later and finally got around to opening it and having a showing on Friday. Anyway, definitely a favorite, even if Claire didn't like it. Speaking of Claire, she got me the most thoughtful of gifts. One was a framed picture of our famous handoff in Food Lion (Katie, can I get the original from you, I need to print out a high quality version) AND... an apple slicer. It is worth noting that every time in the past few months (and there have been more than a few times) that I have made apple pie or some other apple-esq dessert I thought to myself, "I really should get an apple slicer" but never actually did because I always concluded that while it would make things simpler it wasn't necessarily worth the extra couple of dollars. Needless to say I am quite pleased that Claire solved that dilemma for me and now I can have the convenience of an apple slicer without the burden of paying for one myself.
While I'm on the subject of presents I should point out that equally thoughtful gifts were presented by Kyle and Teresa who gave me a venus fly trap and bottle of Pinot Noir, respectively. The cards that went along with it were quite enjoyable too. Then of course we shouldn't forget the checks from Sharon and the Grandparents as well as the traditional bank transfer from mother.
All in all, a very very good day.
In other news I finally broke down and on Thursday installed World of Warcraft with a 10 day free trial. I crated a Night Elf druid character and quickly discovered how addictive that game is. I spent most of Thursday night and most of the weekend getting up to level 13 and bringing my herbalism and alchemy professions up to 100 and 75, respectively. It's just so... endless. I understand how people can drop out of school because of it. Not that I'm saying I'm in any danger of that, I think, after the initial obsession I am able to keep the playing at a reasonable level. In fact I haven't logged in a single time today and probably won't tomorrow either, and IF I do then it will only be for a little bit since I will be busy with other stuff until the evening.
I think there is nothing too horrible about it as long as I can keep the playing time to a reasonable level. I ask that those around me please let me know if I start to fall into the South Park setting. If that is the case, you know what to do...
Anyway, I made up for the totally non productive (yet fun) weekend by being extra productive today (at least at home, I did almost nothing at work). After my class, which was a grueling 2 hours 45 minutes from 4 until 6:45pm I came home and made a delicious dinner with Brandon watched some Daily Show, cleaned up the kitchen, did laundry and made whole wheat bread dough which will rise over night and turn into bread tomorrow evening. Now it is far later than I intended it to be when I went to bed but I am going to still make a strong attempt at getting up early enough to go swimming tomorrow morning, though it is going to be especially challenging to switch back to that early schedule after a few very late nights and mornings.
Until next time...