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Posts Tagged ‘finals’

Friday Fun! (Sarah Silverman)

April 30, 2010 3 comments

Hello my lovely readers!  Sorry there was no Friday Fun post last week.  I had the day off and was staying as far away from the computer as possible.  🙂

Last weekend I got to meet Sarah Silverman!  She was in town for her book tour for The Bedwetter.  She read a portion of the book featuring her father’s hilarious voice mails to her.  This was followed by a Q+A session that I’m pretty sure nobody in the audience was aware was going to happen.  It took us a bit to come up with semi-good questions.  Among the things I learned:

  • She doesn’t drink. (Say what?!)
  • Her feelings were hurt by the whole TED fiasco, and her presentation for it is still unavailable online.
  • She originally mocked twitter, but now loves it as a “message in a bottle” feature for her life.
  • The only topic she personally has boundaries for is making “fat women” the butt of jokes.  She said that “America as a society has this idea that fat women don’t deserve to be loved or happy, and I just think that’s really wrong, so I don’t go there, but other comedians have the right to do what they want to do.”  Classy lady.
  • She wants to adopt a mentally challenged kid, but she doesn’t want to feel guilty for dying and leaving a mentally challenged adult with no one to care for him/her, so she decided she should adopt a mentally challenged child with a terminal illness. Lolz.

After the reading was the book signing.  There were probably around 150 people in line.  She was sweet, but a lot more demure in person than I was expecting.  I suspect she’s got the classic case of a shy person who comes alive when performing.  She was nice to everyone, and I’m pleased to say I came away still glad to be a fan.

Also last weekend I dropped off my bike to be repaired and now it is all shiny and awesome!  I was shocked to ride it and discover the gears are supposed to be smooth, not difficult to cope with.  I’m hoping to start biking my commute soon.  I just need to practice the route on a non-work day to get the hang of it.

As for grad school, my final projects for the semester are done!  Now I just have to attend one more class session for each of my classes, and then I am home free with two months of vacation. Oh happy day!

What have you guys been up to in the last two weeks?  Anything exciting or awesome?

Happy weekends!

Friday Fun! (Finals, New Neighbor)

April 16, 2010 2 comments

Hello my lovely readers!  I’m smack dab in the middle of finals period, which for some bizarre reason consists of two group projects and two presentations (one solo, one group) this year.  I gave my solo presentation this week.  It was a database teach; I really enjoy those!  Oh, heck, I just enjoy a bunch of people listening to me talk.  It makes me all warm and glowy inside.  Anyway, the two group projects mean that I can’t procrastinate this time around like I normally do.  My team-mate for my face-to-face class is awesome, though, and she and I are motivating each other via GoogleDocs.

Over in my apartment, the painting guy came to check out the massive wall stains from the leak.  He says it’s still too wet to fix, and it’ll be another 3 to 4 weeks before repainting, so my apartment still looks like Big Bird’s blood was smeared up and down the wall.  In related news, my new neighbor moved in yesterday.  She’s my age, has cats, and isn’t married.  Even if we don’t wind up friends, that’s still a major step up from the we-got-married-and-immediately-turned-grouchy-and-started-acting-old folks who used to live under me.  My tomato seedlings are actually starting to look plant-like now, the herbs are all fluffy and adorable, and the peppers finally sprouted! I would show you guys pics, but I don’t have a good digital cameras so taking and uploading pics is mind-bogglingly frustrating.

I get a three day weekend this weekend since Monday is Patriot’s Day.  I know that’s not a holiday you get off in most of the US, but here in Boston it’s also the marathon day, so if you work nearish the marathon route, you get it off.  Yay!  Happy weekends everyone!

Friday Fun! (Merry Chrismukkah!)

December 18, 2009 4 comments

What a busy week it’s been!  Full of good and bad stress.  Thankfully mostly the good kind.  Unfortunately stress of any kind can make me act kinda wonky, so…..sorry about that.

Over the weekend I visited my family in Vermont.  My nephew is 2 and has reached the “why” stage of development.  My brother and sister-in-law have grown a bit tired of it, but I gotta say I thoroughly enjoyed answering all of his “why’s” to the fullest extent.  Of course, I only was around him for a portion of 2 days, lol.  My aunt and uncle (who my dad lives with) were very hospitable, and I drank much wine.  My dad gave me housewarming money which was fairly promptly used to buy a toaster and a rice cooker.  They haven’t arrived yet, but they’re bright red and appear to be entirely awesome.

Monday was my presentation of my final team project for this semester of grad school, which means I am officially on winter break! Yayyyyyy!!!  I already got my grades, and they were both just fine and dandy.

This week I hosted a Chrismukkah gathering for my group of lesbian friends (I call them “The Lesbians,” and yes they are just fine with that.  In fact, they kinda love it).  I had my first attempt at making latkes.  I used the vegan sweet potato latke recipe from this month’s issue of Vegetarian Times magazine.  I was doubtful that substituting pureed sweet potato for egg would work, but by golly it did.  The latkes tasted great, although I need to work on figuring out the appropriate cooking time.  There aren’t the helpful bubbles that you get with regular pancakes, so a few got a bit, erm, burnt.  We lit the menorah (and I am proud to say that I can now sing the prayer), and we watched Claymation Christmas.  If you have never seen Claymation Christmas I hereby order you to go find it on Youtube.  It is quite trippy.  The Lesbians surprised me by giving me a crock pot!  This means you may be hearing about my vegetarian crock pot cooking adventures in the future.

You guys were totally going to get an adorable picture of my kitty snuggled up in wrapping paper, but I didn’t get a chance to download them to my computer.  I swear these Friday posts will have pictures eventually.

I hope everyone’s holidays are going well.  Try to enjoy and stay stress-free!

Friday Fun! (On Thursday)

December 10, 2009 4 comments

You guys get Friday Fun a day early this week, since I’m taking a three day weekend to visit my family in Vermont–father, brother, nephew, sister-in-law, grandmother, aunt, and uncle.  I didn’t go up for Thanksgiving, since I had to work the day after, and Christmas is out of the question since that’s pretty much exactly when my very pregnant sister-in-law is due.  So, we decided to do a visit mid-December and a visit mid-January instead.  I like it.  It means I get to skip lots of the holiday traffic.

Last Saturday was the first time I’ve washed my laundry in machines since June.  Now, don’t think I’ve been wearing dirty clothes; I haven’t.  I don’t have a washer/dryer at my apartment, and the nearest laundromat is a solid 1.25 miles away, so I’ve been handwashing everything.  Yes, including towels.  Well a couple of weeks ago, my drying rack broke (we’re fairly certain the kitty broke it), and I hadn’t had time to pick up a new one, so my laundry pile was enormous.  Thus on Saturday I decided it was necessary to use machines if I was ever going to catch up, and guys can I just say, holy crap I’d forgotten what fabric softened clothes and towels feel like.  *sighs*  I don’t mind the upper body workout of handwashing, but my god I miss the fabric softener.

Also this weekend I officially became addicted to Lost.  I’d almost finished the first season, which I was enjoying but not loving.  But I decided to watch the season finale and start the second season anyway.  Omg, the second season.   I wound up having a mini-marathon, and I am now determined to catch up before the new season starts in February.  The only other shows I’ve ever enjoyed this much are Buffy and True Blood, and I have to say that I think True Blood comes slightly behind Lost.  I know; I can hear you gasping now.  I am so into it; I even do the yelling at the screen thing. (Please remember I’m only in the second season, so no spoilery comments puhleeze!)

I wrapped all the presents I’ve bought so far, and they are now camped out under the tree.  I’m almost completely done with my Chrismukkah shopping.  I need to pick up a couple of little things, a present for my grandmother, and something for the kitty (yes I buy my pets Chrismukkah presents).  Also a few presents I bought online haven’t arrived yet, and I need to bake cookies.  It all sounds so busy, but it’s all stuff I enjoy doing, so I don’t mind.

I had really meant to get a book review up this week for the next Dark Tower book, but I still have about 50 pages to go, so it looks like you’ll have to wait for that until next week.  It has been a very busy week with finals and life and all that, so I’m not too surprised I haven’t quite finished it.

Next week I’m giving my final presentation in class with my teammate, and then I’ll officially be on winter vacation!  I’m also having some friends over for a Chrismukkah gathering, and other holiday activities.  As long as I survive the visit home, it should be a pretty awesome week.