Monthly Archives: October 2009

My final group project is due this morning. Which means I’m still up. Talk about cutting it close. I just called a teammate to wake her up to finish editing. This is the last long night with a paper, classmates on the phone, and a big ol’ pot of coffee. I may as well enjoy it.

ZZzzzz…

Last night, I went to crotchety-bichon-and-loveable-goldendoodle’s house to work on our final group project. Even though I had prepared a PB&J, I asked the hostess when dinner was to be served because, of course, I want yummy Indian food, not PB&J! Her mom made the most amazing dish of spicy peas and lentils. An hour after, I tried another dish, then another. I think I spent more time eating than actual work! Everything was made from scratch, vegetarian, and delicious! I’ll have to drop by to poke my head in her refrigerator more often.

I’m starting to know her dogs’ personalities better now. Sheru-the-Crotchety doesn’t like to be touched, but he likes company. As I was sitting on the couch next to his bed, he hopped out of his bed and went to Ranu-the-Loveable’s bed which happened to be closer to me. Then a minute later, he came up to me and hopped on the couch and laid there next to me. No touching though. Ranu-the-Loveable wants attention from everybody. She randomly lays her nose on your lap or licks your feet and otherwise sticks her body just at arms reach so you can pet her. Eventually, she tires out and lays under the table where we’re working and doesn’t even move when we poke her or try to bug her, she’s so laid back. I’ve offered to take both of these dogs (she wants to keep them together) if she ever moves back to India. Yes – even the mean one. I’m sure they’re both equally delicious.

Do you notice anything unusual about the photo above? See how the cork is perfectly intact with no hole drilled in the middle of it? I thought like vodka, I could put any alcoholic beverage in the freezer and it would not freeze. Not true! Evidently, vodka has a colder freezing temperature than wine so it won’t freeze in a regular home freezer. But I learned wine can because when I forgot the bottle in the freezer, the cork popped out. Thank goodness it didn’t crack the bottle in the freezer. That would’ve been a messy clean-up.

Today was prime autumn foliage viewing up in the mountains. My mom prepared a picnic and we drove to Skyline Drive to see the colorful treetops. Because the best viewing happens only for a few weekends, traffic was packed. Normally they charge an entrance fee to the national park but in order to keep the cars moving, they just kept directing traffic through. We drove up and stopped at a few of the look out points. Whenever I tried to use the timer to get a shot of the three of us, folks would volunteer to take a picture for us. One guy held the camera at a high angle to make it appear like you were looking down the mountain. Very clever technique, I’ll remember that for next time!

You would not believe how many fancy cameras and humongous lenses were out there today. Everywhere you turned was a dSLR. Maybe part of it is because I have been hunting for a dSLR camera this past week so today I was taking note of the Canons and Nikons all around. We didn’t stay too long, maybe an hour or so because we just didn’t feel like negotiating the roads with so much congestion.

This morning they ran out of seats on the bus so I stood. Then suddenly I felt like I was about to pass out (dizzy, weak). I asked the guy sitting by me if I could take his seat because I felt faint. Then I did that whole put my head between my knees thing. People were probably thinking I had the swine bug. What bad timing to look ill. At least I didn’t puke like that lady the other week. I’m guessing it was because I was overheating or the air was too stuffy.

I’ve overslept two mornings this week because my alarm clock wasn’t working right. Last week, my space heater tripped the circuit breaker and I had to reset my alarm clock. Since then, it had been malfunctioning, not setting off in the mornings.

On Thursday, I woke up at 6:28 and somehow caught my bus at 6:35. Amazingly, I got to work fully clothed. This morning, I woke up at 7:30 when I had originally planned to have been out the door by 7:00! Thankfully, since everyone was late, including the professor, it worked out nicely.

So just now, I went to see what was wrong with my alarm clock. Turns out I set the clock wrong. The alarm’s AM/PM was correct but the clock’s AM/PM was flipped. No wonder this week, coming home from work, I’d hear my radio going off.

This rainy Saturday was my last day of school forever. I thought I’d be more engaged in our last lecture, but no, I was still flipping through the slides and antsing to get out. After class, my friends and I took some photos together and hugged goodbye. It’s not the last time we’ll see each other because we’ve already made plans to go out, but it’s the last time we’ll see each other at school. Then, I went shopping with a classmate. Every time she and I have class together, we mark the last class with a shopping trip to the mall. I’m going to miss all of this.

Rough week. The weather got super cold and the rain makes everything just so dreary and dark. Remember the coffee I quit, sorta? Well, I’m all over it again. Anyway, I’m going to have to think of a plan b with this walking home from the bus stop business. It takes me about 10 minutes to walk home and call me a pansy, but that’s just 10 minutes too long in 40 degree weather, forget 30 degrees. Will I survive this Winter??? Dun-dun-duuunnn! I know one thing though. This Winter, I am not skimping on the heat. It’s sheer misery to me and I’ve decided to indulge myself this year. Ha, listen to me… turning on the heat is an “indulgence.” Someone please knock some sense into me.

It’s been a while since I’ve paid any nevermind to the flowers around the house.

October 11 – 10:17 AM

October 11 – 2:55 PM

October 11 – 10:49 PM

October 12 – 9:21 AM

After class today, I dropped by the Mall to check out the annual Solar Decathlon, a design competition for homes powered by the Sun. The showcase on the Mall featured solar powered homes from 20 different universities. The competitors are rated on comfort (humidity, temperature), engineering (innovation, functionality, reliability, efficiency), energy meter (produce as much energy as you use), hot water systems, lighting design, market viability. architecture, and communications (presentation via websites and public display).

My favorite part of the displays were the outdoor gardens. Many planted herbs and vegetables. The one pictured here is Virginia Tech’s water garden. I suspect there’s a purpose beyond aesthetics for having the deck pond but I didn’t go in for the guided tour. Being the local school, their line was probably the longest, wrapping around the house.

As of today, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign is winning. Because of the long lines, I only went into the Illinois one. Pictured is the kitchen inside. I imagine it can only comfortably house up to two people because there’s only one queen sized bed.

There was also a display that discussed energy consumption in a home and ways to save energy such as using triple pane windows and argon gas in between the panes. I learned cooking with a microwave saves a significant amount of energy compared to conventional stovetop or oven cooking. Also, dryers use a lot of energy too. That’s why all the houses had clothes lines on their decks in addition to washer/dryers.

Prior years that I went to this event, it was on weekdays during lunch hour where there were no crowds, but I don’t recall ever entering a house, so this was pretty eye-opening. The Illinois one was about the size of a trailer. I half expected them to show me that the bed could flip up into the wall or something.