"Oh the angst of it all!"

"Look - he has a mullet!"

"Mister Bones should do a youtube video - look at his face. Look at him! You're not looking - hey, this is perfect angst back here, look."

"Where did they come up with the name U2?"



"Oh God, he's got long hair!"

"His hair is prettier than yours, honey."

"You gonna write that one - his hair is prettier than yours?"

"Gee, you know, if they just put Johnny Depp in one of their videos they'd be perfect."

The local cops aren't down with the whole keeping within a small area while investigating thing. So, they're looking into something a block or two over, and this apparently requires flashing lights in front of my house. And also a circling, flashing, helicopter. The helicopter is the reason I'm not drifting peacefully off to sleep right now - the circular pattern of the noise level is driving me sort of nuts.

I've decided taking math might be more fun than taking random unconnected electives to meet my course minimum. In view of that, I started reviewing single variable calculus today. I know it and I'm good at it, but I haven't done any real math for about a year and a half, so I am definitely rusty. Picking it back up with multivariable calculus in the fall would be something fun to look forward to, so hopefully I will be able to stick with the schedule I've set for myself.

Today Mister Bones and I went on an expedition to find abandoned red cricket balls. Unfortunately, the expedition was resoundingly unsuccessful. I later found out that our lack of success was probably because I was mistaken about when the cricket league meets. They play Sunday mornings, not Saturday mornings. We'll try again tomorrow.

Okay, now there are multiple sirens and at least one car alarm going off. This is getting irritating. It is especially irritating in light of the fact that if I want breakfast tomorrow, I have to be up for seven fifteen mass. Seven fifteen in the morning, not at night. I have four hours, and it looks like I probably won't sleep until after mass and after breakfast at whatever Taqueria we're going to.

IE can't render worth crap. I know this. And yet, I did not fully anticipate it. I finally thought today to check how the new GUAS website looked in IE, and it was really bad. I had to change the font back from courier to times new roman, which I hate. I might compromise with perpetua, but I don't know if that will work. For now it stays tnr. It was a little bit traumatizing, especially because the site looked so good in Opera. To make up for the trauma, I give you one photo from the album I made the other day of Mister Bones playing with the starfish toy L--- gave him. Speaking of Mister Bones, he still is strange about feet. Today he woke up, saw my feet, and walked very quickly out of the room. Our only theory is that maybe, before he ended up at the shelter and before we adopted him, in between being starved and kept in a tiny cage he may have been kicked. He isn't weird about his own feet anymore - now my parents play this game with him where they tickle the fur that sticks out between the pads on the bottoms of his feet. Somehow, watching South Park just now reminded me that I need to check how the GUAS website shows up in Firefox...

That's what it says in the spot where my fourth grade should be - just NR. NR = Not Reported. This sort of worries me - that was the one where I got an extension, and then went over the extension a little bit. On the other hand, my professor never emailed me to tell me something was wrong. I also know that professors are generally expected to have a seventy two hour turn around on final grades. For a test, this seems okay. But for fifteen to twenty essays, which are themselves fifteen to twenty pages, this seems unfair. Three days to read and grade 225 to 400 pages seems like it would take a herculean effort. And that's just for one class, not multiple classes. In this class, the essay is half of our grade. Three days seems a little aspirational, at the least.

I didn't feel like raising GUAS from the ashes today either. Last night I was watching television because I couldn't stand to look at my computer screen any longer. I spent about nine or ten hours yesterday working on the website and the listproc. Unlike some people who are silly heads who live in Bronxian stomping grounds, I actually like the new site better, and not just because I made it. It has fewer colours and photos, but in my mind that adds up to visually and aesthetically simpler, and therefore more desirable. Take that Joe! Just kidding. I agree that the last site was quite good. For this one, we have no choice but to use a template, and the template is not very customizable. I expect that this is to make it simpler for people who don't build websites, and even out the playing ground for all the professors, departments, organizations, etc. THe only real customization I can do besides the header is with html in the text, and by embedding photos and videos. Even the photos can't be hosted on the site though - the only way it works is by putting them on a flickr stream and using the code. That's strange, but okay. I might just set up a flickr stream for the organization to make it simpler.

The first photo is of Mister Bones helping with the dishes. Mostly he helps by getting in the way or by licking plates as they're loaded into the dishwasher. He looks confused and sad here, because I had just thrown out food instead of giving it to him. Mister Bones doesn't believe in the concept of food going bad, and therefore not being suitable for eating. The second photo is of Mister Bones helping me blog. As you can see, he helps me blog by sitting on my bed and touching my nose with his nose. He slept all day today, until my parents pulled into the driveway in their hippie car, and then he woke up and ran to the front door to meet them when they came in. This morning we made more progress with chomping and dragging. After a round of chomp chomp I showed him how to chomp on my dad's arm and then drag my dad towards me. Then he did it all by himself. Yay for progress! Much like Mister Bones, I also slept all day. I think the sleep deprivation from finals has caught up to me, and I've run out of adrenaline. That's fine - after I sleep it off I'll feel better and return to a normal schedule. Today was a day of being a bum, and it was great. Now I'm going to go continue reading Brooklyn Follies by Paul Auster. I bought it months ago, but was too busy with school to start it until I got on the plane home.

Yes, I totally just stole Joe's blog post title. I did that because now that I'm back in Texas, I, much like Joe, am being a bum. This mostly involves watching 30 Rock and taking naps with Mister Bones. He still does that thing where he stretches out and uses a pillow for his head. Sometimes he flops his ears over his eyes.

Last night I finally saw Hot Fuzz - it was not at all what I expected. Actually, it was better than I expected.

I met J-- for dinner Saturday night after cleaning up my room as much as possible without a vacuum. We had end of semester Wisey's in the LXR Underground. Technically the LXR Underground may be the Neville's common room, but it's difficult to tell. It is totally awesome though. We went to N---'s Rocky Horror party, which was very much the type of party N--- might throw. J-- and I were falling asleep and had places to be early in the morning, though, so we left early.

I totally didn't miss my plane, although I did have to repack my suitcase in the middle of the airport. It was over the weight limit, which is stupid when you consider that I was still taking the same amount of stuff, just in two bags. Although, it isn't stupid when you consider that at some point, someone has to be able to lift that bag. I could lift it though.

Right now Mister Bones is having a dream, and he's barking in his sleep. Except not really, because it sounds more like a broken squeaky toy sound, but they're clearly supposed to be barks.

My shoulders do not fit in airplane seats. This is very uncomfortable.
The baby carrots and kit kat bar almost made up for it. (Hint: not really)

Before watching Hot Fuzz last night, we had to do mothers day things. These really just consisted of eating dinner outside. Dinner, by the way, was amazing, as it was totally the first real food I've eaten since easter. Negro Modelo, chocolate dipped strawberries, and steaks were involved.

I thought Mister Bones' cookies might have been crushed on the airline, but they weren't. I didn't realize until I took them out of my bag to show my father that they had garlic powder in them as well as peanut butter. So Mister Bones got a garlic powder peanut butter cookie, and then got to go around and lick everyone with his garlic powder peanut butter breath. Good stuff.

Assorted extras:
noone knows what happened to Mister Bones' volleyball
I got my third grade back, out of four - it is better than I thought it would be!
I saw K----, at church, briefly, in between the airport and home
my cat hates you
we have new cable - with BBCAmerica
later I will write a post about how I know my parents are hippies