emma the freakshow

One of the highlights of a trip to Bakersfield is getting to see my mother's dog Emma. She is as adorable and slightly ill-behaved as always. This afternoon my mother was spreading grass seed on the lawns in the backyard using this cool wheelbarrow thing that spews the seeds out the bottom in a circular motion. For reasons that are totally unclear to all of us, Emma loves these grass seeds. She sticks her nose right in the wheelbarrow and eats as much of it as she can until we stop her. Then when we start spreading the seeds, she runs along the side of the spreader and tries to catch the seeds in her mouth.

why i haven't posted pictures recently

Rebel claims that she's boycotting my blog until I post pictures of my "new" apartment (of course, she also claims that when we lived together I used to sit around in nothing but my bath towel for hours on end, and clearly I would never do something like that, so do we really believe her?). In an effort to woo her back, I just took a bunch of pictures of my apartment using my sister-in-law's camera, which is the only camera that I currently possess (my old one was stolen in Ghana, as you may recall). I realized just now that my dear sis did not give me the cord that hooks the camera to the computer, so I can't upload the pictures. Sorry Rebel. I tried. (And I can post pictures this weekend when I go home to Bakersfield.)

I have the mood lighting going on in my apartment right now, which means a "fire" (aka Duraflame log) in the fireplace and all the candles lit. Candle and fire light are neat when you have wood floors, because the floors are shiny and reflect the flickering light. This is the first time I've ever had wood floors, and the first time I've ever had a fireplace (excluding the house I grew up in, which always had a fireplace, and has had a few rooms with wood floors since I was in college). This is also the first apartment I've had with a bay window, which is noteworthy because bay windows were one of those things that I always wanted when I was a kid.

Anyway, I'll post pictures of all of these things as soon as I can.

airport

I'm early for my 11:15 flight back to Oakland, so I'm taking advantage of PDX's free wi-fi. It's weird that I'm going to be at work in a few hours. I'm debating whether or not to drop my bag off at home or to go straight to work from the airport. I suppose I'll see how long it takes me to get to the MacArthur BART station (that's where I would transfer to the Pittsburg/Bay Point line, which goes to Rockridge) and decide then whether I have enough time to go home. Technically as long as I get to work by a little before four I'll be fine, but I'd prefer to be there by three at the latest (which shouldn't be a big problem because my flight lands at 12:55 and I'm not checking any luggage).

I had a great time in Portland this weekend, and although DWE couldn't make it back up here, he is coming back to the Bay today (in fact, his flight may be coming into Oakland around the same time mine is). I'm getting kind of spoiled with him being home so much (and when he's not home I just jaunt off on a fun trip, of course).

When I started this blog entry it seemed like maybe I had something interesting to say, but apparently not. I guess I should go get in the security line.

new computer

I finally got a new computer. Yay! It is an HP laptop, and it's shiny and black and silver.

The reason I bought it today (other than the fact that I really needed it) is that I am in Portland right now. I decided on Thursday to take a spontaneous trip up here, and I found a really cheap ticket, so I got on a flight on Friday afternoon. The weather here is absolutely gorgeous, and of course it's wonderful to see my friends. (I also came up here to try to take care of DWE, who has been really sick, but he had one of his many work emergencies and had to go to D.C. at the last minute.)

Anyway, there's no sales tax in Oregon, so I saved about $50 on my $600 laptop.

I'm being antisocial, so no more blogging for now, but hopefully I will be back to posting regularly.

my sad little world without internet

So this whole thing where I don't have internet at my apartment is kind of a drag. When E was staying with me, I was able to use his computer to get online, and now DWE is here, and I'm using his. I don't want to get DSL because I don't want a phone line, but I don't think my apartment is hooked up for cable, either. And even if I did have internet, my computer keeps doing that thing where it randomly shuts down all the time, so it's only semi-usable at this point. Really what I need is a new computer, but it will take me a couple months to save up enough money. In the mean time, I check my email and pay bills and stuff at work, and I just neglect other things like reading peoples blogs or updating this one. Sorry about that.

DWE has been in town for a few days, and we are having a nice time together. Right now he is at the grocery store buying ingredients to make me french toast. Isn't he cute?

I had a good week at work, but I'm bummed out because I had to give up one of my students. Basically, students are put in MEP (Math Empowerment Program) because they are getting lower than a B- in their math class, or because there is some other reason to think that they need extra math support. One of my students is doing really well in Geometry, and she's really bright and sweet, and I love working with her. But since she is doing so well, and since it appears that she has the ability to continue to do well without my support, she doesn't actually need to be in an MEP class, so now she's not my student anymore. I'll miss her, and I'll miss the gratification of having at least one student that seemed to retain everything I taught her, but it's also kind of exciting to get a new student.