kinda looks like i'm checking my pulse. not sure why. anyway, i finished my forty(eight) page paper today. yay for being done with last semester! onto the final pieces of this semester....

These stones were given to me by the gamesmith of that awesome workshop I wrote about a few days ago. (he does another workshop called "stick and stones, the original game bag") I was kind of exhausted and stressed, and unfortunately not in a playing mood, so I ended up alphabetizing and re-ordering all of his number and letter sets... and just generally making myself useful during the workshop, and he was grateful, so he gave me a nice present. I was really psyched. Anyway, Ben seems to have made them into a pretty little rock garden-y thing on our tv stand.

In other news, my friend M came over today and I wrote 40 pages of my 40 page paper. Unfortunately, it's still not done, but it's a lot closer than it was yesterday! It was all made possible by my AMAZING husband Ben, who worked the program I was supposed to work today (and probably will tomorrow too) so that I could get writing done. I'm so lucky.

I took this picture out the window, which is why it looks weird. I had just noticed how much it looked like people had melted onto all of the flat surfaces on campus (because it was SO HOT today - 90!!!). Soon after I took this picture, I finished a paper and then did my second presentation of the day. This presentation was hopefully a little different from any presentation I'll ever do again, because it was done in a room with no windows, on a 90 degree day, with the heat BLASTING. I kid you not. That room is broken. I seriously almost passed out. It was like Bikram. Holy poop. After my presentation, we moved to a breezy room with no heat on, where it sounded like there were ghosts. Interesting day.

I had an urge for a burger while Ben was in his class, and he had a meeting with a prof afterwards, so I figured I had some time to go to the supermarket and buy some beef before he got out, and then I could pick him up right at class (rather than having to walk to the car with all his stuff plus guitar today). So.... I went to the supermarket and meanwhile, he went to look for me in my study room, which was right down the hallway from his class. It turned out that his prof's computer didn't work with the projector, so they used his computer, and he didn't have his power cord, so it was running out of batteries and he needed his computer to meet with his prof after class. So, he texted me and asked for my power cord, and I rushed out to the supermarket and back to the building and got him his cord, saving the day! (well, not really, I'm not even sure he ended up needing it) 

Then at home, made awesome burgers with blue cheese, and made some blue cheese dressing for salad too. The bread in the picture is actually huge, in addition to the burger being fairly small (but it does look bizarre, doesn't it?) and the sweet potato fries were shared between both of us. The red wine was all mine! (well, I only drank a few sips and poured the rest out, but it would have been mine if I had wanted it...)

Ready to leave for the cafe to do work, and noticed that my husband seemed to have been looking at or fixing something on my ipod, so I walked over and it turned out that he was playing some kind of crazy game. Who knew that I had games?

Wrote two papers in the gazebo at R's house on the lake today. What an amazingly beautiful day!!!

Here's R in her dad's golf cart bringing cushions for the chairs. 

I decided to go home once I finished my papers, but these two ladies were still going strong.

I must say, I think I cooked an excellent dinner tonight. Veggies with Mae Ploy sweet chilli sauce, brown rice, potstickers, and ben made grilled pineapple. Yum.

We had a work doing sleepover at R's house, where I managed to finish the most annoying paper I had left over from last semester.R shows off her feet, while hiding her toe nails.

Strawberries and "fluid" that I made for dessert. They were remarkably good, especially when eaten with fat free angel food cake and fat free cool whip.

Wow. This is truly the only picture I took on this day.

Ben: Guess what I have!

F (turns around and looks at ben across the room): A FACE!

Well, yes, but that's not what he was referring to. This is the two dorky boys talking about what Ben was really referring to -- his advisor's dissertation.

Someone's hiding something!

Ted E. Bear didn't get nearly as much work done as I did today, but maybe it was because he was stuck at my desk chair because his legs are too short to get off of it.

Fastest cleanup ever. The staff at the camp loved that we were there to help.

As a service crew member, I was lucky enough to be assigned to a couple of my top choice workshops. 

This was a joint effort between myself and very cool guy (though I did all the drawing)-- It was supposed to represent the roles we play in our jobs and then we thought about the ways that we can change programs to be more diverse and inclusive through the roles we play. Notice that I accidently put the heart above the arms, so my partner, R, called it a goiter heart, and I had to redesign the arms to make it make sense. Also - notice the brown pants. There's a story that goes with that. Something about a pirate and poop.

This was an awesome game we played at an awesome gamesmith's workshop. 70 people out of the 300ish who were at the conference showed up for this workshop. There were probably 8-9 other options to go to at the same time. So yea. He's good. For those of you who do challenge course-y stuff and didn't see this, that ball was launched from a bullring, and that's the director of FOP squatting with a basket on her back, seconds from catching the ball in it. It was pretty awesome.

Best Conference Registration Ever. 

(happy to spend it with SS again, but even happier that we weren't wet and freezing like last year.)

conference housing. i think we stole someone else's room :-O

i really liked this guy's bag.

m probably hadn't realized until today that she was meant to be a grad student in outdoor ed. time to switch programs!

so, today there was free lunch for graduate students in one of the dining halls if you got tickets. i picked up tickets for ben and i in the morning, and when he and his classmates got there around 1 in the afternoon, there were no tickets left, but they ended up letting us all in for free anyway. eating in a dining hall is a unique phenomenon, which i had forgotten about, but it all came back... 

anyway, during the course of lunch, someone was telling a story. as i understand it, someone had come up to a friend of ours, who is a masters student in exercise science (i think?) and told her not to let any of "those outdoor ed people" into the computer lab or something. she was informed that she'd be able to tell who they were when she saw them. apparently the guy didn't know that she was engaged to one of them... 

so, sitting at lunch, we started to identify the things that make them look like they are getting graduate degrees in outdoor ed (brands of fleeces, pants, etc.) i noticed one thing that was true of all of them and not of me. sunglasses on their heads. each and every one of them.

we watched a movie today that was recommended by a friend -- whole new thing. interesting. anyway, i wanted to show you our crazy cool set up where ben's computer monitor serves as our bedroom tv!!!

this is me yawning. i really didn't think that i wore the same shirt two days in a row, but the last picture is dated 4/10 and this is dated 4/11, so i think i'm just going to have to trust my computer more than my memory.

this was my reaction to having spent two days straight cooking and not writing. also, this day consisted of a lot of sleeping.

I hosted a Passover Seder for some folks, including my multicultural counseling class. When Ben and I were packing the car, this happened. I was bringing an extra crock pot to keep food hot in during class. It was an old one that had a top that it seems was randomly chosen and didn't fit perfectly. It fell off the empty crock pot right next to the car.  Totally fun. We picked up the pieces, left it in the kitchen, and continued with our night, which was lovely. 

this morning, i woke up, went food shopping with my mom and sister, and then cooked until it was time for our seder.

we were joined by my cousin, J, and her baby A. A got scared of ben, probably 'cause his face looked so mad! but she got happy again when she discovered matzoh!

ben and i had dinner at redhook with my mom and sister. ben and i drank these.

cuddling.

Immediately after running, at my desk and ready to get back to writing...

6 hours later, 2 papers handed in today, still in my running clothes at my desk, but now with a glass of merlot...

Ben and I both wore Simple shoes this morning.

This is me, rockin out at the cafe (mostly trying as hard as i can to ignore the weird conversation going on next to us and get work done). 

i was sick and slept literally all day, sometimes with glasses on, sometimes without.

all work and no play makes janine something something.... go crazy?!? don't mind if i do!

i have a desk now! (april fools!) no, really, i do. and i know how to sit at it and do work!