Orienteering...

So I went orienteering this Saturday. It was my first go at it-- Husband does it fairly regularly, so he dragged me along not-so-unwillingly.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the term, orienteering is basically running (in my case, walking, huffing, puffing, crawling, and trudging) through the woods with a map and a compass. The map shows a series of "Control points" which you have to go to in order. At the point, you punch a card with a pin puncher that makes a series of tiny pin-sized holes in the correct square of the punch card. More advanced courses use a nifty little electronic thumb pad.

Mostly due to my husband's insistence that the easiest course, White, was "for little kids", I was running the next easiest course, yellow. Again, I'm using the term "running" quite loosely.

As far as the actual map reading and locating skills went, I did fine. Didn't get lost, and only had a small amount of trouble finding one point.

As far as the physical skills required to walk 3-4 miles through woods that seem to predominately consist of steep hills... well, I wasn't quite prepared. I discovered this as I was clinging to the edge of a gully, frantically trying to scramble up as my fingers and feet slipped through the mud and grass.

I made it, though. Covered in mud, wheezing like an asthmatic octogenarian, and swearing that I was going to kill my husband, I came up over the last hill and enjoyed a leisurely (flat) walk to the last two control points.

The results haven't been posted yet, but I'm fairly certain that I placed first in my category owing to the fact that I was the only one in my category. If there was another 19-35 year old female running the yellow course, well, I didn't get first. I can just about guarantee that.

All in all, it was fun. I should probably be in much, much better shape, but I survived and finished, so that should be something at least. There's another meet in two weeks, but it's larger. The suggestion was made that perhaps I should run a white course this time around. I'm not arguing. Read More......

Something New to Love

Just arrived from our Netflix Queue: United States of Tara.
A half-hour showtime comedy about a woman with dissociative disorder, her family, and her three (later four) alternative selves. I'm crazy about the theme song; unfortunately, the whole song isn't available for download. The song is, incidentally, by Tim DeLaughter of Polyphonic Spree.

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New Toys are Lots of Fun!

As a part of my (late) Christmas present (to myself, I suppose) I received yesterday via UPS the Clarisonic Classic Skin Care Brush.





If you haven't heard of it, it looks something like this:

Actually, it looks exactly like this. It should be noted, however, that although the picture shows the charger being wet, you aren't supposed to get the charger wet. The brush, however, is completely waterproof.

First impressions: First of all, it's an adorable pink color. Secondly, I like the way it feels on my face, but you have to be careful-- press too hard and you feel it start to irritate your skin.

After the fact, be careful what products you put on your face. Chances are, it's only on rare occasions that your face has been as clean as this sucker gets it. From personal experience, my face got rather red and irritated after application of an acne cream and moisturizer. That's pretty common when using new products, so I didn't worry about it-- I took a Benadryl (just in case I was allergic to something in the cleanser) and went to bed. When I woke up, the redness was gone.

So, to summarize.... it gets my face really, really, squeaky clean, but be careful with the first few uses, as you're likely to experience some irritation as a result of using a new product and getting old products more in contact with your skin than they ever have been before.

Plus, it's adorable. Did I mention that?

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Procrastination is probably a Sin...

Yes, yes, it has been a long time. Between finals, the holidays, a death in the family, and getting ready for the beginning of school, writing in the blog took pretty much last place.

A few notes today, to get back into the habit.

If you're a fan of British television, I'd like to recommend Father Ted and Fawlty Towers. They're both hilarious TV shows. The former revolves around a trio of Irish Catholic priests on a small island off the coast of Western Ireland. The latter is about a hotel owner constantly facing troubles from his guests, terrifying wife, and the rest of the staff.

On the video game front, the husband very much recommends Left 4 Dead 2, Silent Hill--Homecoming, and Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2. I recommend Katamari Forever, which has a strange, acid-trippy quality that keeps you entertained (enthralled? addicted?), despite the fact that it's kind of a kid's game.

I got home this week and got back to work in the kitchen in an attempt to cook foods that weren't completely unhealthy and disgusting.

Among other things this week, we've eaten Chicken Tikka Masala (which, I'm sorry to say, I made from a jar. Next time I'll make it from scratch and post the recipe.), Hummus-- homemade, from a recipe I found on the Food Network website (Rachel Ray), and Pita-- another recipe I found on the Food Network website, although I don't remember who's recipe.

We also had artichokes-- Husband's first time to try them out-- and Waffles-- our first time to try out our new waffle maker.

I also made homemade Challah bread-- yeah, I braided the dough and everything-- and a bread mix called "European Cheese and Herb" or some such. It was all right, but next time I'm going to put some Asiago cheese into the mix before the bread maker gets to work.

As for classes, I've dropped Hazardous Waste owing to our school's changed graduation requirements, so I'm only taking 12 hours this semester. That means only 3 hours per day, so it's kind of nice to have a chance to get things done during the day. At the moment, however, it seems like there's way too much to be done and very little time in which to do it. We'll see how the rest of the semester progresses... Read More......

Another two weeks, another post...

I've been busy working the past couple of weeks, but I suppose that's no excuse for not posting. My fish tank is fairly algae-covered, so I think I perhaps need to go and purchase a pleco to get rid of it. I hope my betta, Dutch, doesn't freak out about him.

K's bridal shower is next week, and I'm busy getting stuff ready. I need to make a shopping list and plan what I'm going to cook when.

It's been a long few weeks. I love my family, but I feel like its way past time to be at home with my husband. I don't like being separated, and it makes it worse to know that he's struggling, too.

True Blood Season 2 starts on June 14, and I'm so excited. I really want Season 1, but I don't have it yet. I think maybe I'll ask for it for my b-day.

I've been reading this new series of books, the Pschic Eye Mysteries by Victoria Laurie. Now, I'm not claiming they're high literature or anything, but they entertain me and I'm enjoying them. Sorta like Charlaine Harris's books. She also wrote a ghost hunter series that I'm going to read as well. That's the nice thing about summer-- I can read books that don't have the word "Law" or "Legal" in them. Read More......

My New Toy

Since I've been using my sister's spare phone for the last two months, I decided it was time to get something new (and pretty.) I got this from radio shack for an incredible $30 for extending my AT&T contract. It's touch screen, with a 2.0 Megapixel camera that I haven't really had a chance to test out yet, but which looks pretty good. Next is to find a way to get hubby one of these, the Samsung Rugby a837. It's built to military specifications, which is great considering he has to do things like wade through thigh-high mud and take measurements from 100 feet up on an oil refining tower. Although I'm not sure even that phone would survive a 100 foot fall. All of the testing, though, says it could survive a helluvalot. Which is good for someone with a habit of breaking phones. Plus he's been working his butt off to get me through law school at an awful job and he deserves a treat. Read More......

Money Mojito

Yet another thing I like: Mint. No, not the herb-- although it is certainly aromatic and refreshing. Mint.com, a free personal finance website. These people should really pay me plugging them. But since they're making my finances all neat and arranged, for free, I guess a little free advertising won't hurt me. Here's how it works: Basically, you create a free account on their secured site. You put in all of your financial information-- credit cards, bank accounts, loans, property, etc etc etc.... and it accesses those accounts and creates a list of your expenses, broken down by category.

It helps you see where your money is going, create and stick to a budget, etc... and it has pretty pie charts! In addition, it gives you useful pieces of information like: "Hey, Law student! You are $51k in the hole!" and "Your two cars together are barely worth more than the balance on your credit cards! HAH HAH HAH."
...Although I suppose if you have more money, the news will be better.


On a completely different note, I have a personal vendetta against a certain "mechanic" who didn't bother to test the brakes on a certain fourteen-year-old vehicle when inspecting the car for the state inspection sticker. Just because they squeak doesn't mean they aren't really, really, really good brakes. I should know, I paid a lot of money to have them fixed less than six months ago.

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Obsession...

Scotch-Brite sponges are pretty close to the best thing in the world. I use them for everything-- nasty stuck-on cheese, cleaning baking potatoes, and scrubbing our cracked, peeling porcelain sink or the cracked, peeling top of our tiny, tiny gas stove. (have I mentioned we live in a tenemant?) I'm thinking of dedicating one to spot-cleaning the linoleum (that covers the floor of every single room in our tenament apartment. However, I'm wondering if I'm actually organized enough to keep five or six separate unlabeled sponges with separate uses. Sharpies don't work very well on sponges, after all.

In case anyone is wondering, there are actually things I like that are not boring sponges, but I can't very well be expected to provide a complete catalog three days in, can I?

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