Day 273

Here's a shot of what I had left from the new hot curlers when I arrived at school this morning. Maybe I do need to investigate the use of hairspray, Krista... yuck.

Day 272

Haven't gotten this guy off the shelf in YEARS, but today the electronic versions were failing me... plus, I'm old enough that I still enjoy words that are actually printed every once in a while. :)

Day 271

Today, we threw a baby shower for a couple in the math department, Misun and Injo. Here's a peek at the food table before we started:


And somehow, yours truly got nominated to serve the cake... clearly these people have never seen me around food before!


(Fortunately, none of it landed on the floor, and most of the pieces were even served upright!)

Day 270

So... I was supposed to wake up at 6:00 this morning, get to school between 7:15 and 7:30, work all morning, and get a bunch of dissertation stuff sent off to the appropriate people before lunchtime. At 7:42, Patrick startled me awake because he realized we'd overslept by over an hour and a half! Oops! I didn't have any appointments or anything this morning, but it's virtually impossible to park near my building after 8:30 or so, which meant I was in a real rush. I pulled out of the driveway at 8:12, but I had to take this with me:


So today, I did my makeup while I checked my email. I'm sure it looked weird. Fortunately, Michelle is the only one who saw. I managed to get most of my stuff done this morning, anyway, but it sure throws off your day to start with a shot of adrenaline like that! :)

Day 269

After church today, Patrick and I had lunch with my friend Krista, her husband Jeff, and their kids. We had a great time getting to catch up a bit, and of course, we got some great pictures. :) Here's me and Krista with Abi and Eli:


Then, Abi wanted to take one of me and Krista (and Eli) - and she did a great job! See?


Maybe next time we'll convince the husbands to join us for a picture... :)

Day 268

Last weekend, I finally broke down and bought new hot curlers since my hair clearly was not responding well to my older (smaller) curlers. They arrived yesterday, and I used them for the first time today. While I didn't exactly get big bouncy curls, I did get some body in my hair that did not look terrible as it relaxed... so basically it was a win. :) I'm going to keep experimenting, but I think these are a keeper:

Day 267

I'm working on a teaching philosophy statement for my job applications, and today I realized I needed to find all my old teaching evaluations (10 semesters' worth at OU). On first cull, here's the pile I came up with:


Fortunately, it only took me a few more minutes to go through this pile and weed out precisely which papers were evaluations:

Good thing, too, because this second pile was plenty heavy on the way out to my car!

Day 266

Here's a close-up of the shirt I wore today. For some reason, I love this shirt. It doesn't fit particularly well (too big). It used to belong to my mom ages ago, but I have no particular memories of it from that. I guess I've just always loved the colors of it. I don't wear it very often because I can't figure out how to make it look professional, but it always makes me happy just to see it in my closet! :)

Day 265

Day 265! Only 100 more days left! To help us celebrate, I give you what was left of the cupcakes Michelle brought me yesterday... that is, before I got into them after dinner tonight. :)


There's a really awesome cupcake carrier that they came in, but since I haven't managed to wash it yet, I figured that wasn't the most appealing picture. :)

Day 264

Today was a crazy day - I submitted my IRB form (yay!), met a key researcher in my field (yay again!), got some awesome cupcakes from my officemate for the 2-month-anniversary of my birthday (super yay!), and administered a business calculus exam. Before the exam, Rachel and I headed over to Campus Corner to eat dinner. We ended up at a place called the T.E.A. Cafe (T.E.A. = The East Asian), where Rachel got a milk tea with tapioca in it. It looked really cool and came with a HUGE straw:


They also let you build your own dish. My pick tonight was chicken, a brown garlic sauce, broccoli, carrots, snowpeas, and brown rice (not pictured). The sauce was Rachel's recommendation, and it was good! Thanks for a great dinner idea, Rachel!

Day 263

YUM - Dirty rice for dinner tonight! Thanks, Zatarain's!

Day 262

My husband is awesome - he drove us back from Arkansas today, he helped with some of the housework, he took me to dinner (and dessert), and he agreed to be tonight's blog picture!

Yeah, we were totally talking when the flash went off. Oh well. :)

Day 261

Yay for my mom! She's going to work on fixing my purple top for me! Thanks, Mom!

Day 260

I attempted to hot-curl my hair this morning. Here's what I had left as soon as I got to my office:


It reminds me of a sign that hangs in my hairdresser's shop: "Your hair was put on your head to remind you that you can't control everything." Amen. :)

Day 259

I got my hair cut this morning... not sure if you'll be able to tell from these pictures, but it has more layers and movement (supposedly). Keep in mind that I walked back to my office after the appointment, so the Oklahoma wind had its way with my hair.



Now on to more serious matters. Leaving the building yesterday, Candace and I saw this sign:


At first, I thought this was both funny and a bit sad. It could be taken as facetious, but it if it's serious, it's a sad look at our educational system. Then, I realized this is a play on a similar religious statement where "a scientist" is replaced with "God" or "The Bible" - and it made me even sadder. I sincerely hope this was not intended as a mockery of faith, but I guess I'll never know for sure. I also hope it doesn't negatively impact anyone else who sees it.

Day 258

A couple of months ago, I heard a radio DJ talk about how he and his wife make a big batch of waffles and freeze them, then heat them individually for their kids in the mornings. I thought, "I could do that. In fact, I could do that with the leftover blueberries in my freezer and make blueberry pancakes." So, I bought some wheat pancake mix (didn't even know it existed) and whipped up a big batch of blueberry pancakes. However, this week I have had trouble with the heating process. Yesterday, I discovered that the toaster oven doesn't get the centers warm without over-toasting the outsides. Today, I discovered that toaster + microwave still doesn't reach the desired temperature and consistency. Furthermore, I'm not sure I like homemade blueberry pancakes. I think I might have done better to use blueberry muffin mix as the base. At any rate, here are today's pancakes (pre-syrup, naturally). I'll have to keep improving on the details.

Day 257

Patrick had more softball games tonight, and it was such a nice night that I decided to go ahead and stay for the 9:00 game when I had only planned on seeing the 7:00 game. (I might regret that decision tomorrow, but I had a good time. :) ) Here's the team warming up for the second game. They just looked so "baseball camp-y" that I had to get a picture:


Can you find Patrick? Also, between games, we watched another team (who we played last week and apparently found hilarious). This team has a policy, if you will, that if someone strikes out, they have to wear a pink sparkly skirt until the next person strikes out. There was some controversy tonight about whether they would be allowed to actually wear the skirt on the field, but once it was resolved, the rightful recipient was SO proud of himself. Patrick was bold enough to go into the team's dugout and get a close-up shot.


The NWC team is looking for something to top this antic... stay tuned to see if something "better" materializes in the weeks to come!

Day 256

Impromptu picture moment in the office this morning since the three of us all showed up wearing a dress or skirt!

Day 255

I love Monet. :) My college roommate Stacey got me this poster, and it hangs in our guest room now. (Sorry for the flash.) My grandmother also liked Impressionist painters, and I think that makes this type of art even more special to me. :)

Day 254

Photos of my computer screen have not turned out so well in the past, so tonight I captured my screen electronically instead of using a camera. Welcome to rememberthemilk.com. This website is amazing. You can put your to-do lists in here (categorized by various parts of your life, if you want), enter due dates, whether the task repeats, estimate how long the task will take, etc. You can also share task lists with other people (so I can share Patrick's honey-do list with him as I think of things - excellent!). Since I have a TON of irons in the fire right now, this thing is doing a good job (at least so far) of keeping me focused this semester. Plus, its mascot is a cow. Basically, I had no option but to like this thing. :) Thanks to Patrick for introducing me!

And, on a more serious note, thanks to all those who risk their lives or have given their lives defending our freedom. On this anniversary of 9/11/01, let us all remember their sacrifice, pray for their families, and thank those we know who serve our cities, states, and nation daily. We remember.

Day 253

Apparently I have a blue fetish. It's ironic, because as a child, I hated blue. I drove my Nana crazy while coloring one day because I refused to use the blue crayons, even for things that are traditionally blue. In my defense, I should say that I am no longer opposed to any particular color group; it's just that the blue option typically looks most appealing to me. :) When I look at all the bags I brought home from school today, it appears that perhaps things have gotten a bit monochromatic...

Day 252

Even after a full day of rain yesterday, our stupid sprinklers (which of course we don't control) came on this morning. We have two in our backyard at the corners of the patio. One of them is reasonably well-behaved:


(Maybe you can't see it in the picture, but it is indeed sprinkling.) The other one, however, apparently has issues with the back door... and the kitchen window... and the entire back side of the house, including me standing in the doorway. :-P

Yeah, I got wet. Good thing I was still in my pj's!

Day 251

Yesterday, this mysterious campus-mail envelope arrived for me in the department office.


This box was inside it. Look familiar? It's a duplicate to the box I was so excited about a few days ago. The original box contained my very first business cards! :) This box contained an accidental duplication of my business card order. I was worried I'd get charged a second time (or that my department would be charged for it), so I called to investigate. The woman I spoke with was very nice, and she said it was their mistake and I should keep them (no charge). Bonus!

Day 250

Tonight began fall softball for Patrick. Instead of playing church league, he's playing in an open league with some of his friends and colleagues from the National Weather Center. On my way to the first game, I caught this beautiful sunset:



Then, I forgot to get a shot of Patrick playing because I was organizing the T-shirt box. (More about the T-shirts later.) So, I caught him stretching his shoulder between games instead:

Day 249

How I spent a large portion of the afternoon / evening:

I was working on a teaching philosophy statement as part of the upcoming job application process. Notice a few things: 1. I'm under a vent, and I'm usually cold anyway, so some sort of full-body covering is essential. 2. I have my feet propped up. The right foot is better (but not totally well), and in the recovery process, my left knee has gotten cranky. 3. Back support. Essential when you've been sitting with your feet straight out all weekend. 4. Two drinks. One water, one sugar-free strawberry-orange-banana flavored drink. Must hydrate; must stay awake. 5. You can't see it in this picture, but there's a mess on the floor / table between the camera and me. It's the stuff I've been working on / with this weekend. I feel bad for Patrick, who has to live with it all. :) Happy Labor Day! Goodbye, Summer... come again soon!

Day 248

Can anyone guess what's in the box? I'm super-excited about it!!! (But, it is a bit nerdy...)

No fair guessing if you already know!

Day 247

In honor of the first day of college football season (at least if you're a Razorback or Sooner fan), we had "football food" today. I put cookies in the oven just before lunch:

Then, there was the pre-game chips and salsa snack:

And then, I did another George Foreman grill hamburger for dinner. (The green beans were an attempt to offset everything else I'd eaten today. :) )

Happy Gameday, Wooooooo Pig Sooie, and Boomer Sooner!

Day 246

The daily struggle in our house isn't for the remote control or the toilet seat - it's for these guys:


(By the way - I took this shot lying on the living room floor. I'm so tired that it was super fun. :) )

Day 245

SO excited about what arrived yesterday (and what I got to use for the first time today):


My new backpack!!! I spent a couple of weeks researching, debating, pricing, etc. (and then went with a site with free return shipping, just in case). Patrick and Candace were incredibly patient with me while I showed them numerous backpacks, asked endless questions, and dragged them through the process with me. But hey, I had the last backpack for 9 years, and change is scary! I even left the tags on this guy today in case I realized while going through my day that it wasn't going to work. I think it's going to work. :)

Day 244

Isn't it hard to believe that 1) It's already September, and 2) This blog is 2/3 of the way finished? Crazy!

Yesterday, I noticed that the OU volleyball team was playing UCA tonight. Yes, you read that right. Little 'ole UCA, my alma mater, was venturing into the Big 12 (or however many teams it is now). So, since I was wanting to go to a volleyball match before I left OU, I figured this was just the one! My good friend and sporting-event-buddy Candace came with me. She even (accidentally) wore purple today! Here we are before the match began:


And of course, I was sporting my UCA shirt, which I dug out of a storage bin for just this purpose:


We left during the 3rd set because OU was up 2-0, and it looked like they were going to put it away in the 3rd. Apparently, they didn't, because the OU sports website says that OU won the match 3-1, not 3-0! Drama! Anyway, it was a good effort by the Sugar Bears, and it was fun to see a bit of UCA purple again!