School Work and a Peaceful Day
Having a lovely peaceful day at home alone. There is finally a break in the temperature, the AC is off, the door is open, and I'm sitting out on the screen porch with laptop, cats, and coffee. The cicadas are buzzing, the butterflies are flitting, the birds are chirping and flying, and the acrobatic squirrels never cease to entertain and amaze (and drive the cats crazy).
It's a little after noon and I'm finished with school work for the week - beating the prior record of 3 p.m. on Sunday. I'm amazed that I'm keeping up as well as I am with so much work AND finding the time to hang out with friends on a semi-regular basis too. Still need to work on getting more done during the week so I can have a whole weekend day at some point, but this is the last time I'm going to write that. I have a feeling that it is going to be something I can write every week until I graduate and I'm sure it would become tiresome. I actually have to get more done this week because if we didn't miss our window of opportunity, we're going to Annapolis next week to meet with a group we belong to. We'll have lunch there and then go sailing with them.
Getting ready to go into high gear on assignments and projects. We're ramping up for our final projects already and some assignments so far have been the planning elements for the final projects. This is different from the classes I've had before and it really works well for me. Sort of eases me into the idea of it and helps keep me focused on it instead of having to work the whole thing out when the class is almost over. This quarter finishes two days *after* my birthday. Really hoping to be done on my birthday. Then I have three weeks off before I get into the fall quarter. It will be my last three week break until spring 2013. After September I won't have more than a week off in between quarters again until I finish my MS. BS will be done September 2011 and my MS will be done sometime around March 2013. I figure if I can pull off this quarter, I can do anything. :)
We were supposed to have dinner with Debi and Erica last night, but they were out golfing all day and begged off because D had a headache. Worked out really well because Maura and Elizabeth ended up over two hours late. They were kayaking and took both cars up into Maryland. The dropped E's car off at the end point and went up to the starting point in M's car to put in. They were going to get to the end point and drive E's car back to get the van, except that E left her keys in the van at the starting point. M had to beg a ride from some people they ran into to go get the van and bring it back down to where E was waiting, locked out of her car. :-/
In the meantime, Rick and Carlos posted on facebook that they were going out to dinner. I invited myself and crashed their dinner with Gilbert and Matthew. Had a WONDERFUL time with them. Sweetest guys ever. Got there with R and C around seven. M and G showed up a little after 7:15. We went ahead and ordered because I had no idea when Maura would get there, but she managed to make it by around 8:00. We all sat around and talked until well after she finished her meal, and she had chips and salsa to hold her over while she waited, so it worked out.
One of the best things about last night? Matthew fixed the contacts on my phone (goofy, I know). I have the contacts icon and all it was showing was everyone's email address. I KNEW the numbers were in there somewhere because when someone in my contacts calls me the *phone knows* (shows up on caller ID)!!!!! He went into the menu for the contacts (DUH) and unchecked facebook and gmail as the display options and checked the phone number option (DOUBLE DUH). I further tweaked it by having it only show people who actually have phone numbers listed in their contact (TRIPLE DUH). So before last night, I could only call someone if I had already talked to them and had them in my call log. :-/ Now I have all my numbers handy again. :-D
Oh yeah, and Carlos brought us fresh tomatoes from his garden!!
Elizabeth and Maura are hiking the Blue Ridge today and we're supposed to meet Debi and Erica for dinner tonight to make up for yesterday. We'll see how that all goes. Waiting to see if we're going to get canceled on or if the adventurers end up taking longer than planned again. I'm good either way. I'm going to run down to the retail jungle (Potomac Mills) to exchange my shoes and try to find a replacement for the ones I broke and maybe grab a little lunch and/or look for a new outfit or two and then pick up salad stuff for lunch this week. Then back to work until it's time to go to dinner (or not). Actually thinking I might bag out on it this time. I'm enjoying the lazy day and don't really want to rush back and I'm also not in a rush to have to get dressed up. Maybe we can do something during the week when I'm already dressed up for work. :)
AND - didn't work out yesterday. I should do that today, which would really leave me pressed for time. I've worked out on my new F-63 Fighter Treadmill every day except for one since last Monday. So far so good.
It's a little after noon and I'm finished with school work for the week - beating the prior record of 3 p.m. on Sunday. I'm amazed that I'm keeping up as well as I am with so much work AND finding the time to hang out with friends on a semi-regular basis too. Still need to work on getting more done during the week so I can have a whole weekend day at some point, but this is the last time I'm going to write that. I have a feeling that it is going to be something I can write every week until I graduate and I'm sure it would become tiresome. I actually have to get more done this week because if we didn't miss our window of opportunity, we're going to Annapolis next week to meet with a group we belong to. We'll have lunch there and then go sailing with them.
Getting ready to go into high gear on assignments and projects. We're ramping up for our final projects already and some assignments so far have been the planning elements for the final projects. This is different from the classes I've had before and it really works well for me. Sort of eases me into the idea of it and helps keep me focused on it instead of having to work the whole thing out when the class is almost over. This quarter finishes two days *after* my birthday. Really hoping to be done on my birthday. Then I have three weeks off before I get into the fall quarter. It will be my last three week break until spring 2013. After September I won't have more than a week off in between quarters again until I finish my MS. BS will be done September 2011 and my MS will be done sometime around March 2013. I figure if I can pull off this quarter, I can do anything. :)
We were supposed to have dinner with Debi and Erica last night, but they were out golfing all day and begged off because D had a headache. Worked out really well because Maura and Elizabeth ended up over two hours late. They were kayaking and took both cars up into Maryland. The dropped E's car off at the end point and went up to the starting point in M's car to put in. They were going to get to the end point and drive E's car back to get the van, except that E left her keys in the van at the starting point. M had to beg a ride from some people they ran into to go get the van and bring it back down to where E was waiting, locked out of her car. :-/
In the meantime, Rick and Carlos posted on facebook that they were going out to dinner. I invited myself and crashed their dinner with Gilbert and Matthew. Had a WONDERFUL time with them. Sweetest guys ever. Got there with R and C around seven. M and G showed up a little after 7:15. We went ahead and ordered because I had no idea when Maura would get there, but she managed to make it by around 8:00. We all sat around and talked until well after she finished her meal, and she had chips and salsa to hold her over while she waited, so it worked out.
One of the best things about last night? Matthew fixed the contacts on my phone (goofy, I know). I have the contacts icon and all it was showing was everyone's email address. I KNEW the numbers were in there somewhere because when someone in my contacts calls me the *phone knows* (shows up on caller ID)!!!!! He went into the menu for the contacts (DUH) and unchecked facebook and gmail as the display options and checked the phone number option (DOUBLE DUH). I further tweaked it by having it only show people who actually have phone numbers listed in their contact (TRIPLE DUH). So before last night, I could only call someone if I had already talked to them and had them in my call log. :-/ Now I have all my numbers handy again. :-D
Oh yeah, and Carlos brought us fresh tomatoes from his garden!!
Elizabeth and Maura are hiking the Blue Ridge today and we're supposed to meet Debi and Erica for dinner tonight to make up for yesterday. We'll see how that all goes. Waiting to see if we're going to get canceled on or if the adventurers end up taking longer than planned again. I'm good either way. I'm going to run down to the retail jungle (Potomac Mills) to exchange my shoes and try to find a replacement for the ones I broke and maybe grab a little lunch and/or look for a new outfit or two and then pick up salad stuff for lunch this week. Then back to work until it's time to go to dinner (or not). Actually thinking I might bag out on it this time. I'm enjoying the lazy day and don't really want to rush back and I'm also not in a rush to have to get dressed up. Maybe we can do something during the week when I'm already dressed up for work. :)
AND - didn't work out yesterday. I should do that today, which would really leave me pressed for time. I've worked out on my new F-63 Fighter Treadmill every day except for one since last Monday. So far so good.