bizefingers

Here it is ladies,...

I have been let in on one of the mysteries of the life of the male of our species.
I have it on good authority that the reason there is so much pee surrounding a toilet frequently used by stand-up kinda guys is because they are practicing their spelling. That's right, you heard me... they miss the bowl because they are writing words in the water.


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I seem to have lost my 'fun'... AND... I really hate it when I misplace my 'fun' because my 'fun' really seems to be good at the hiding part of the Hide-and-go-Seek game -- and I suck at the seeking part. I am almost sure that it has inadvertantly been filed away along with every other blasted thing that was on the floor last week. (Oh! Maybe it got shoved out into the garage in the maddening chaos of cleaning!)

Friend A said I need to get a Play Station 2 and some games -- and not for the kidlets... no, they have not lost their 'fun' -- just me.

Ok... well 'fun-less' me has to go study for a grammar points test | read a 26-page article | write a response to 26-page article | read Paradise Lost | read a piece by Chekov (hmmm - this list could be the source of the fun-sucking black-hole in my life)... oh joy. I guess I will have to put finding my 'fun' on my to-do list. (OOOO! Maybe it is under my dd's bed!)
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I seem to be in a daze these days -- ever since finding my floor. (My carpet is white, well technically light beige!). I open the door; step in; step out; do the double take on the house numbers. Yep! This is the right place, the key fit. Wow. I just feel more creative now, which is apparently no indication of being a skilled writer (*and YES I am whining... I didn't like my grade on my Milton test *and NO we will NOT talk about it!).

I finished my first-ever Power Point creation (I know, Dr. Morgan, but we were assigned the project...). That was a time-intensive experience. I was surprised at how much the web site design class that I am taken showed up in the design decisions we made for each slide of the presentation. We will be presenting our materials tomorrow in Professional Writing class.

Sometimes I find it strangely interesting how the classes that I am taking in a semester seem to compliment each other. I had just finished a project for website design that required me to reorganize one of my own essays to fit a website. I needed to edit about 50% of the text out of the original piece and then reword much of it to fit a more general audience. Then I needed to decide how to break the text into sections that would make up the pages of the site.

Now, this current project in my Professional Writing class was almost the same assignment, only this time a collaborative effort. My team consisted of three people. We needed to take a highly technical paper and rewrite it to fit a high school-aged audience, which involved downsizing the word count significantly. Then we needed to create a visual presentation and we chose the Power Point style. So, again I found myself involved in deciding how to break the text up into sections that would be acceptable to our audience. (Pretty weird how similar these assignments were).
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I don't really have much to say but, often times I have noticed that some of my other classmates have admitted to sitting down to the computer without having a particular focus for their entries and end up rambling about some pretty interesting stuff. So, that being said -- and adding the disclaimer -- that I am not promising that this will be an interesting post in the end, I thought I would try to do a stream-of-conscious type of post.

Ready?

Here we go...
Oh... wait... I need to get dinner for ds. brb (Be Right Back) [*elapsed time: 5 minutes]

That was quick and easy... spaghettios to the rescue.

Feeding my kids has been relatively easy for me since becoming a college student. The necessity for me to be able to produce quick dinners has led to me resorting to some very traditional college fare; ramen noodles, frozen pizzas, mac n cheese, spaghettios, etc. These are all being welcomed with adventurous arms by my kidlets who have been eating mostly from-scratch meals up until this new stage in our lives which includes having my evenings devoted to homework.

They have adapted well to other situations too. There are days when they have had to come to school with me either because they are sick (but not too sick to be out and about) or because their school has a day off when mine doesn't. Consequently they are developing a greater understanding of what their mother is going through and are much more sympathetic when I tell them that I am going into my cave (bedroom) to study. I am really proud of them. They are usually very quiet when I take them into a classroom with me. They have even sat through THREE mid-term tests and THREE finals without incident. I credit their behavior to their experience in sitting through many a church service.

They are also becoming wonderful team members in running this home. This weekend they sat side-by-side with me and worked on cleaning up the clutter. [I may note here that "Don't Touch Anything" Season is officially and FINALLY over!!] We are now able to see the carpet to vacuum it. Additionally, we were able to clean other parts of our home too. I credit their dedication to this project to my wonderful man!

I love to have a moderately (no use in setting unattainable expectations) clean house. Having things in order really does wonders for reducing the stress of life. I was able to fully concentrate on homework today and really felt like I could give it 100% of my attention. I also enjoyed doing my aerobic workout today. Something I have not been able to do because of the lack of floor space. Having some kind of exercise routine has also proven to be a great stress reducer in my life. I wish that I could join these ladies as they embark on a fitness routine that intrigues me. I haven't ever tried this activity but it does interest me as something I would like to try sometime.

Well, I am done. How did I do?
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I love being a hockey mom

BUT

only 2 weeks to go!! Yeah (big sigh)



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I'm gonna be...

drum-roll please...

any guesses?

A fireman

A Policeman

A Doctor

A Cowboy

Well -- You're all wrong...

According to ds --

When he grows up, he's gonna be

FAT

It seems that he has become alarmed at the rate by which he is eating me out of house and home and all of a sudden is concerned that he might develop a weight problem. After reassuring him that it was perfectly normal for a growing, nearly-eight-year-old, hockey player to eat his mother's pantry bare in a matter of two days, he was back to his normal easy-going self.

Not fifteen minutes later, who was asking for a snack?

I guess I better not refer to him as my air-fern any more. (Gone are the days when I was stumped as to how he was staying alive on the meager amount of food he would consume).

Oh... and for the record -- just so you don't think I am making this up -- last week, for his dinner, ds ate half (6 slices) of the largest pepperoni pizza Papa Murphy sells.
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In the side bar I have added a section called "my work".
These links will lead you to some of the online writing projects that I have completed so far.

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Can you believe this is actually homework...?...
Well -- not exactly -- but I do read all of the other blogs that my classmates are keeping and I found this test on one of them. This is my result.



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So, it is now Tuesday...

Friday night I drove to Deer River - picked up friend A and we went to Duluth.

Saturday - shopped all day in Duluth with friend A. What a good time. It is so nice to be able to spend as much time as you want mulling over each little shop. We ate a fabulous dinner at Grandma's Bar and Grill but not before warming ourselves with a Cosmopolitan. mMMm.

I bought:
3 cook books
4 novels
1 pair of eye glass frames... lenses will come later
t-shirt
movies
computer games
legos
bionicles
a martini shaker
2 martini glasses (for making homemade Cosmopolitans)

Sunday - I was supposed to do homework. I slept.

Monday - 'OOO-ed & AAAH-ed' over my first ever Valentine's Day flowers-from-boyfriend delivery!! (Complete with mushy sentiment on the card!)
Being President's Day there was no gradeschool so kidlets went to school with me. I am really proud of them. They sat really quietly in my Milton class while all the rest of us took our Part 2 - essay portion of the test.

Tuesday - presented my repurposing project. Had lunch with friend A. Worked at library. Picked kidlets up from school.

There... now you are Ketch-ed UP!
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Hey! Just for fun -- Take this test --

I did -- You can see my results in the sidebar.
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I found this ... Just in time for Valentine's Day... not sure if it is scientifically sound advice but sure was fun reading.
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Here's what's been keeping me up late at night.
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After the last two posts I am starting to think that I have not caught up on my sleep and may need to go to bed early tonight. Can I go to bed before my kids? or is there a MOTYA (Mother-of-the-year-award) rule about not tucking kidlets in>..hmmm. Having never made it past the initial pre-requesite (giving birth) I am unfamiliar with basic MOTYA standards.

Yah know that I am just kidding - right... of course I can't go to bed before my kids... their planning a coup d'etat... I must stay up and listen through the walls so I can sabotage their plans.
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Hmmm~

I was just sitting at my computer and posting that last entry despite the ruckus coming from the outer sanctum of my room. Finally, I could not gather enough concentration to finish writing my story and asked the kidlets to either be more quiet or shut their door. (I distinctly remember saying their door). The click of a door latching brought peace. But, now that I have finished my little "love fest to self" story I turn to look and realize that instead of shutting their door the little darlings have shut my door and are currently enjoying free reign of the rest of the house.

UH OH... I think that they may be planning a coup d'etat. It's 2 against one... wait! I can drive! and I have all the money!... and oh yeah I can cook ... what am I worried about? Now, next year when dd can cook and legally stay home alone... maybe then I will have to worry.
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Okay... first, let me set the scene.

A conversation with Friend A centered around the topic of surprises and namely, how - when you are single - you don't really get surprise gifts. I had once heard about a single man who missed getting surprise gifts and devised an ingenious way to simulate this. He would shop several of his favorite catalogs and pick out items that he would like. He would then write (on a slip of paper) the item number and any size or color information if needed along with the phone number of the catalog. These slips of paper would then be kept in a jar. When he wanted a gift he would draw out a slip, hand it to his secretary with his credit card and in a few weeks a surprise package would arrive.

Later that evening same friend and I were on the phone and rejoicing in the wonderful invention of coffee makers with timers (!! WOOHOO !!) - she is now the proud owner of a new one - life is good for her in the mornings... that is IF she remembers to prep the thing the night before. (So much depends on the operator doing their part...)

Now to the point of this diatribe and how it relates to the title ~

The next morning I woke up dog-tired after having spent several very late nights finishing some large homework assignments. I had totaled 8 hours of sleep in 3 days. And - to make the morning struggle for consciousness even more challenging - I had forgotten to "PREP" the wonderful coffee maker plus timer that sits faithfully on my kitchen counter. Well, things were never going to get better without coffee and coffee wasn't going to make itself - so - I dragged myself out of bed and stumbled down the hall, eyes half open (or shut depending on if you are a glass-half-empty kind of person). My hand is stretching out to grab the empty carafe and that is when I saw a MIRACLE! There was a full pot of coffee ready to go! Evidently, I had anticipated my need sometime the day before and then completely spaced out about it. I thought about the single man buying himself gifts and realized I had just surprised myself... Anyway - it was a good thing - maybe you just had to be there...
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So, I have not been posting here but I have been hard at work on other projects. I have cut a few links to some of the pieces that I have been working on.

This first link is to my semester-long project in the blog class. I will be building a wiki site related to Movie Reviews. I am really excited to see how this project will come together.

This next link takes you to a response I wrote about a critique of the handbook we are using in this class.

And finally, a link to a collaborative work wherein we tried to really answer the question; "What is a Blog?".

Hopefully, you will visit these pages and see what I have been up to...

Oh yeah, the sleep over was fabulous. We saw "Catch That Kid" . For my take on the movie - stay tuned for my wiki project to be online later this week.
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I'm feeling much better now. In fact so much so that I will be braving a sleep-over for dd this weekend. Two giggly girls will certainly add some sparkle to my weekend.

I finished most of my homework but, just like the snow in Minnesota... just when you think you've shoveled enough to buy yourself a break in the action...more dumps from the angels in heaven... or in this case the professors in Hagg-Sauer [pronounced; hag-sour] (that is the name of the building where virtually all of my education will take place - sometimes affectionately referred to as; Hog-Sewer).

I will be writing up my proposal for a project in this blog class that could turn out to be really fun. I will let you in on the plan as soon as I get the approval of my instructor.

That it for now...
More later.


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I feel like $#it... that's it and that is the reason for no post today.

I did add the following items to my medicine cabinet for all of you virtual snoopers:
Dayquil
Nyquil
Tylenol PM
Multi-Symptom Tylenol Cold Convenience Pack (totally cool idea to put both the meds you need into a set you can buy).

I have too much homework right now to be drugged up so I am plugging through on sheer will power.

Off to read more -
Milton
Professional and Technical Writing*

and to write -
2 project proposals
1 in-class presentation*
1 essay*

* All due tomorrow... so tata for now or as Tigger would say
T-T-F-N
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I have, in my medicine cabinet, the following items:

Robitussin DM
Walmart's children's grape flavored cough and sore throat medicine
Walmart's children's grape flavored night time medicine
Triaminic cough and sore throat (also grape flavored)
2-sample sized bottles of Triaminic Night time cough and cold medicine (again! grape flavored)
Children's Kaopectate (this time in Cherry!)
Triaminic soft chews for cough and sore throat - in ... grape
Triaminic vapor patch (cherry SCENTED)
prescription cream - can't even remember what this is for...hmm.
children's Motrin (one bottle grape... one bottle orange)
Excedrin
generic Ibuprofen
Extra strength Tylenol
Benadryl cream
Triple Antibiotic ointment
Pain-Aid
large eye-dropper (for dispensing oral medications)
5 - plastic dispensing cups... you know the ones that come with all the above-mentioned liquid medications.
Dinosaur bandaids
Active Brights... bandaids
a thermometer
a pill splitter

but what I don't have...
Oh! wait...
what is this I see...?
ONE individual Aleve cold and sinus?
Can it be true...
YES!!

Ok - Dr. Morgan I will see you in class after all.
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I woke up this morning washed over with a fresh wave of freedom. These waves crash over me at unexpected moments (since September 26) and reinvigorate the realization that I am liberated.
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Finally!
We are above zero again! WEEE!

That means that when I go outside:

I don't have to have my full snow suit on just to stay warm (the only part of me that shows are my eyeballs... ::sidebar:: did you know that the water in your eyeballs can freeze! ::/sidebar::.

I can breath without having the oxygen in my lungs freezing on its way down - this kind of feels like the oxygen is actually being vacuumed out of your lungs.

I don't have to plan 30 minutes ahead of schedule to warm up the car.

But* according to the weather report this balmy, tropical surge will be short lived as we are to be plunging below zero sometime early this week.




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Check it out... I love the new look of this blog site... one which I visit at least 2 times/day.
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Remember way-back-when; back when there was such a thing as a busy tone on the phone - before call waiting all but made that annoying sound obsolete.

Ah... the good ole days...

Well, that is what I feel like I have been doing to my blog readers... sorry for the lack of posts but I have been:
Reading -
homework assignments that include:
Faust - all 102 pages of part I
Milton - Lycidas
Candide
Rebecca Blood
Classmates' blogs
Professional and Technical Communications
Writing papers for other classes
Doing Laundry
Filing paperwork (still - so ds is still playing "Don't Touch Anything")

*And*
most recently -
fussing over my new "beauty" mark that is throbbing to the left of my upper lip!
Argh! At my age I should not have to deal with pubescent annoyances like acne! There should be a rule! If I were running the world, there would be a rule... "Thou shalt never have to deal with acne problems beyond the age of (*thinking*)... say... yah know... NO ONE should have to deal with acne problems... there... new rule:: Thou shalt never have to be pestered with acne problems. ::
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