so, i made reading week plans.  i thought originally i was going to be going to the caribbean, because my friends and i were trying to organize a group trip, but then my friends turned out to be losers and vicki ditched me for the climbing trip (to kentucky in february to climb on ice.  whee.)  so i'm going to iceland.  yes.  artic circle, whoo!  i just got my bookings arranged the other day (though i probably won't ever try to book a flight+hotel package through expedia ever again.  seriously, know when the flights are sold out so you can stop offering them to people!)  and now i have a flight and a hotel in iceland, and i just need to start booking things to do.  there's a website that runs a lot of excursions around reykjavik, so i'll probably do some things from there.  yay, adventure!

speaking of, i went downtown today so i could get out of the house.  and as i was walking around, i saw that the army surplus store was having a sale on polar gear!  so i got a nice waterproof rain jacket and a couple of sweaters all for about 40% off.  and a pair of tights to wear under my jeans so my legs don't get cold.  and at wal-mart the other day, i got some wool socks and thermal gloves (and a pair of wool/fleece mittens that say "canada" on them, and are surprisingly warm) and a bathing suit.  because, hello, blue lagoon in iceland?  basically a giant, natural mineral bath in geothermically heated water?  yeah.

it is absolutely freezing here right now.  3 degrees.  ugh.

ugh.  nasty weather today.  rain, wind, and it was 40 degrees, too!  in january!  whatever, kingston...

my catapault is finished!


(look!  so shiny and new...)


(a brave troop of desktop legionaries prepares for a siege...)




(the desktop legionaries march alongside their war machine)



the varnish is a little blotchy, but that never turns out right, for some reason, and it still looks nice.  and it actually fires, so i can pitch little paper balls indiscriminately!  the kit came with some wooden balls, but i don't think firing those at people would be very safe.  and there are only five.

so anyway.  i got to feel like i accomplished something this weekend, and i could move my computer back to my desk from my bed (because i was building the catapault on my desk, so there wasn't room for my computer).  and now i have a fun toy too!

feeling kind of run-down and tired today.  hope i'm not getting sick...ewww.  but i made spinach burgers for dinner tonight, so those should be nice and healthy.  well, they have spinach in them anyway.  my eyes hurt too.  maybe i'll feel better tomorrow.

mmmmm...early to bed tonight...

we got a new stove today.  it was really weird, because i worked a midnight last night, so when i got home from my classes, i got in bed for my customary nap with a warm cat.  and when i woke up from my nap, a new stove had appeared.  which was great, because our old stove was garbage.  burnt-out top coil, overheating bottom coil, dirty and old, etc.  so we sent in a maintenance order and i guess they thought they needed to replace it or something.  so yay for new, bright, shiny, clean, functioning stove.

and i still have a greek test tomorrow.  drat.  at least he narrowed down what he wanted us to study in class this week.  so we have to learn only a fraction of what we thought we did, which is always good.  so we only have to learn the six principal parts of 57 verbs instead of a billion.  and they're all mostly regular, so yay to that.  it's mostly just remembering how the spelling goes (because certain letters change to other ones based on stem and tense ending, yeah, it's that kind of language) and where the accents are.  not as big a problem.  and i got a lot of work done on it while i was working this week.  and i am dangling the promise of top gear videos on youtube before myself to get the work done.

button is very sleepy lately.  but he always wants to find someone to sleep either on or next to.  so he won't sleep on my bed, or in his box, but he will sleep in the middle of my floor.  when i was napping on the couch today after work and before class, he slept almost right on my face.  weird cat.

must learn principal parts...gah

ugh, majorly neglected blog.

well, first off, happy new year.  this year we finally got to go on one of the lake dinner cruises, since before now, i haven't been 21, so i couldn't get on any of the boats.  so we got all dressed up and everything.  vicki came down to chicago to vist, so she stayed for a couple days before and after new years.  i like it when out-of-towners come to visit, because it gives me an excuse to go and see all my favorite museums again.  so we went to the field museum and saw dinosaurs, and to the museum of science and industry and saw science, and downtown with the intention of oce skating at millenium park, but it was freezing and would have taken us an hour to get rental skates, so we bailed and went shopping instead.  and went out for new year's of course.  and then vicki left and mom and dad and i went to see eddie izzard live at the uited center.  woot.  i'm still determined that eddie izzard quotes will be my cool detector.  if i reference an eddie izzard bit, and someone gets it, they're cool.  yeah.

anyway.  the reason i've been neglecting my blog (other than i've been sitting on the couch at home doing not much of anything blogworthy save playing with my cat and virgil (who apparently misses button a lot, since he was staying at home with me over the break and is now gone...poor virgil.  traveling with button was fun, though, especially when the drowsy-fying medication i gave him wore off and he started trying to tunnel our of his carrier and shedding all over me and the backseat of vicki's car...), is that i've been busy getting my grad school stuff together to start sending in my applications.  you know, i thought i was done with all this application stuff, and now i have to write an application essay all over again and make up a cv too.  grr.  in addition to studying for my greek midterm, which is at the end of this week.  although in class today, he did specify it would be on principal parts only, and only those that we studied this previous term, not the ones from last year.  yay.  so 've been reciting principal parts to myself and writing them out in my notebook until my eyes cross.  whee, memorization.

so anyway.  i've been busy.  and now i'm at work, too.  yay making money.  it's weird, according to the schedule, i'm only working tuesdays and thursdays, either graveyards or eveneings, for the next three weeks (with the exception of one saturday).  weird.

and i got my new camera.  trouble is, it's so big and fancy and expensive that i'm afraid to use it.  and i kind of don't know how.  maybe i could track down a photo beginner's class around kingston somewhere.  or just teach myself online.  whichever.

oh, classes, i guess.  well, my italian class has about ten people, and i had to buy a completely new book (yay.  also, i had to buy a book that has a hundred pages, which cost $60.  used!  if it had been new i would have had to pay $75!  for a used, hundred page paperback!).  my classics course with professor falkner wil have lots of pretty maps and pictures to look at (because she uses powerpoint, which dr. bevan last term did not), and latin is swiftly shaping up to be insufferably boring for a while.  you know, we're upper-years, we;re not supposed to be completely bogged down in grammar, we're supposed to be able to take some liberties and make some jumps on our own.  but according to dr. kavanagh, you don't know something unless you say it out loud in class.  i know what a deponent verb is, i know that they look passive but they're translated as active, and i know how to parse a verb.  please don't tell me i'm wrong when i say that its 3rd person singular present active subjunctive, because i didn't say "deponent", because deponent is not a mood.  you can't say something is 3rd person singular present deponent subjunctive.  allow to me that i have made the mental leap from "deponent" to "passive form, active meaning" and then to "parse it as active".  i have been doing this for a while, you don't need to phrase the questions to try and catch people out on itty-bitty grammar things.  whew.  this is why i hate changing teachers midway through the year.  anyway, i haven't had religious studies yet, but i will tomorrow.  then we'll see what i need $150 worth of books in that class for.

mmph.  must study more greek.  i suppose it's good that the computer at the wally desk has no speakers, because otherwise i'd probably be watching top gear clips on youtube.  rarg.

Every Who down in Whoville liked Christmas a lot,
But the Grinch, who lived just north of Whoville, did NOT!
The Grinch hated Christmas, the whole Christmas season!
Now, please don't ask why, no-one quite knows the reason.
It could be his head wasn't screwed on just right,
It could be, perhaps, that his shoes were too tight,
But I think the most likely reason of all
May have been that his heart was two sizes too small.

But whatever the reason, his heart or his shoes
He stood there on Christmas Eve, hating the Whos.
Staring down from his cave with a sour, Grinchy frown,
At the warm, lighted windows below in their town.
For he knew every Who down in Whoville beneath
Was busy now, hanging a mistletoe wreath.
"And they're hanging their stockings!" he snarled with a sneer,
"Tomorrow is Christmas!  It's practically here!"
Then he growled, with his Grinch fingers nervously drumming,
"I must find a way to stop Christmas from coming!"

For, tomorrow he knew, all the Who girls and boys
Would wake bright and early.  They'd rush for their toys!
And then!  Oh, the noise!  Oh, the noise, noise, noise, noise!
That's one thing he hated!  The noise, noise, noise, NOISE!
Then the Whos, young and old, would sit down to a feast.
And they'd feast.  And they'd feast.  And they'd feast, feast, feast, FEAST!
They would feast on Who pudding, and rare Who roast beast,
Which was something the Grinch couldn't stand in the least!
And then, they'd do something he liked least of all,
Every Who down in Whoville, the tall and the small,
Would stand close together, with Christmas bells ringing,
They'd stand hand in hand, and the Whos would start singing!
And they'd sing.  And they'd sing.  And they'd sing, sing, sing, SING!
And the more the Grinch thought of this Who Christmas sing,
The more the Grinch thought, "I must stop this whole thing!
Why, for fifty-three years, I've put up with it now!
I must stop this Christmas from coming!  But how?"

Then he got an idea.  An awful idea.
The Grinch got a wonderful, awful idea!
"I know just what to do!"  The Grinch laughed in is throat,
And he made a quick Santy Claus hat and a coat.
And he chuckled, and clucked, "What a great Grinchy trick!
With this coat and this hat, I look just like Saint Nick!"
"All I need is a reindeer..."  The Grinch looked around.
But, since reindeer are scarce, there were none to be found.
Did that stop the Grinch?  No, the Grinch simply said,
"If I can't find a reindeer, I'll make one instead!"
So he called his dog Max.  Then he took some red thread
And he tied a big horn on the top of his head.
Then he loaded some bags and some old empty sacks
On a ramshackle sleigh, and he hitched up old Max.
Then the Grinch said "Giddap!"  And the sleigh started down
Toward the homes where the Whos lay a-snooze in their town.

All the windows were dark.  Quiet snow filled the air.
All the Whos were dreaming sweet dreams without care
When he came to the first little house on the square.
"This is stop number one!" the old Grinchy Claus hissed,
And he climbed to the roof, empty bags in his fist.
Then he slid down the chimney.  A rather tight pinch,
But if Santa could do it, then so could the Grinch.
He got stuck only once, for a moment or two,
Then he stuck his head out of the fireplace flue
Where the little Who stockings all hung in a row.
"These stockings" he grinned, "are the first things to go!"
Then he slithered and slunk, with a smile most unpleasant,
Around the whole room, and he took every present!
Pop guns and bicycles, roller skates, drums,
Checkerboards, tricycles, popcorn, and plums!
And he stuffed them in bags.  Then the Grinch, very nimbly,
Stuffed all the bags, one by one, up the chimbly!
Then he slunk to the icebox.  He took the Whos' feast!
He took the Who pudding, he took the roast beast!
He cleaned out the icebox as quick as a flash,
Why, that Grinch even took the last can of Who hash!

Then he stuffed all the food up the chimney with glee.
"And now" grinned the Grinch, "I will stuff up the tree!"
And the Grinch grabbed the tree, and he started to shove,
When he heard a small sound like the coo of a dove.
He turned around fast, and he saw a small Who,
Little Cindy-Lou Who, who was not more than two.
The Grinch had bee caught by this tiny Who daughter
Who'd got out of bed for a cold cup of water.
She stared at the Grinch and said "Santy Claus, why?
Why are you taking our Christmas tree?  Why?"
But, you know, that Grinch was so smart and so slick,
He thought up a lie, and he thought it up quick.
"Why, my sweet little tot" the fake Santy Claus lied,
"There's a light on this tree that won't light on one side.
So I'm taking it home to my workshop, my dear,
I'll fix it up there, then I'll bring it back here."
And his fib fooled the child.  Then he patted her head
And he got her a drink, and he sent her to bed.
And when Cindy-Lou Who went to bed with her cup,
He went to the chimney and he stuffed the tree up!

Then the last thing he took was the log from their fire.
Then he went up the chimney himself, the old liar.
On their walls he left nothing but hooks and some wire.
And the one speck of food that he left in the house,
Was a crumb that was even too small for a mouse!

Then he did the same thing to the other Whos' houses,
Leaving crumbs much to small for the other Whos' mouses.

It was quarter past dawn, all the Whos still a-bed,
All the Whos still a-snooze, when he packed up his sled.
Packed it up with their presents, the ribbons, the wrappings,
The tags and the tinsel, the trimmings, the trappings.
Three thousand feet up, up the side of Mount Crumpit
he rode with his load to the tip-top to dump it!
"Pooh-pooh to the Whos!" he was Grinchishly humming.
"They're finding out now that no Christmas is coming!
They're just waking up!  I know just what they'll do,
Their mouths will hang open a minute or two,
Then the Whos down in Whoville will all cry BOO-HOO!
That's a noise", grinned the Grinch, "That I simply must hear!"
So he paused, and the Grinch put a hand to his ear.
And he did hear a sound rising over the snow.
It started in low, then it started to grow...

But the sound wasn't sad.  Why, this sound sounded merry!
It couldn't be so!  But it was merry!  Very!
He stared down at Whoville, the Grinch popped his eyes,
Then he shook.  What he saw was a shocking surprise.
Every Who down in Whoville, the tall and the small,
Were singing!  Without any presents at all!
He hadn't stopped Christmas from coming!  It came!
Somehow or other, it came just the same!

And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow,
Stood puzzling and puzzling.  "How could it be so?
It came without ribbons, it came without tags
It came without packages, boxes or bags!"
And he puzzled and puzzled till his puzzler was sore,
Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before,
"Maybe Christmas" he thought "doesn't come from a store,
Maybe Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more!"

And what happened then?  Well, in Whoville they say
That the Grinch's small heart grew three sizes that day!
And the minute his heart didn't feel quite so tight,
He whizzed with his load through the bright morning light
And he brought back the toys, and the food for the feast,
And he, he himself, the Grinch, carved the roast beast!

Merry Christmas...



 

i never seem to update anymore. guess my life is boring.

i made dinner tonight, for the first time in a couple of months. couple of chicken breasts, a can of diced tomatoes, balsamic vinegar, some rice...chicken with tomato sauce and rice with garlic butter. it was yummy.

one of vicki's friends was visiting this weekend, so we went out on friday. that was fun, seeing as i haven't been out in a while. and i got to sleep in pretty much all weekend. woo. it's going to make it hard to get up for class this week, though...oh well.

and it turns out that queen's won the ontario university athletics championship yesterday, so there was a lot of partying going on last night. yay football.

coming up on the last few weeks of class. so that'll be fun. i have to start work on my final paper for 321, so i'll be picking up books tomorrow. but my topic is interesting, and hopefully fun to write about. i got some good results from my five-page paper, so we'll se how this one goes.

i entered some of my photos in a couple of online contests. i've been fiddling around with my photo-editing software, and i turned out some pretty good stuff. so we'll see if anyone likes them.

i hate having to work midnights on mondays...arrg.

ok, we're gonna play a game.  pick one of the following animals:

1.) ant
2.) rhino
3.) platypus
4.) gila monster

got it?  ok, now pick a number between 1 and 8

ok?  now pick a second one.

cool?  now pick a third one.

ok, now take that third number and read the corresponding haiku below.

1.) The sweet life can be
     The most restrictive in truth.
     Best to avoid it.

2.) Milk is vital now.
     Calcium makes strong bones.
     You will need those soon.

3.) When in Rome, you see,
      Italian is quite useful.
      Invest in classes. 

4.) Being understood
     Will be more difficult if
     You are not psychic.

5.) Without seeming too
     Forward, make a decision
     Regarding that person.

6.) If under duress
     Remember: though your hands are
     Tied, your legs are free.

7.) If you find yourself,
     Please contact the media.
     They've missed you lately.

8.) Realizing that
     Nothing lasts is the first step
     Toward permanence.

whee.  i survived my two midnight shifts in a row.  but tonight i'm going to sleep.  woot.