Life Tilt

I might not be Tonks, but you can always tell when I'm veering into life tilt by my hair.  It usually drastically changes after I storm into my salon and utter the magic words: "I'm bored; just do something different!"

So, I got it cut shorter, with it actually being a little shorter in the back than the front, and dyed it brown.  I like the color - it makes my eyes more noticeable.  I'm still working on how to style the cut.  Will try to post a picture soon.

Off to Chicago in a few hours for the annual APSA conference.  Jillim and I are going to stalk our favorite poli sci celebrities.

Thought of the day

"If sex were a genre of music, Jette Kelly might be the John Lennon,
Madonna and Etta James of the style all rolled into one. The
27-year-old songstress has the song-writing prowess, sex appeal and
voice to back both of them up." - via DCist

Just read that as the first sentence of a review.  I didn't even need to read the rest of the review to know I wanted to hear that album.  And it is pretty good.

And speaking of the man, I've been listening to a lot of John Lennon recently.  If you haven't heard it yet, go download Corinne Bailey Rae's version of "I'm Losing You."  Now that's some sexy music.  (Regina Spektor's cover of Real Love from the same album is also good, but not nearly as sexy.  Same album as Green Day's Working Class Hero cover, btw). 

Board Games yay!

Played monopoly and trivial pursuit last night and won both (well actually Nelly and I chopped Monopoly) - yay!  Billy and I were getting some easy questions in TP, but we screwed up a few things that should have been easy too.  Hooray for board games!

As I get older

As I get older, the "wow I'm old" moments keep adding up (yeah, I know I'm only 28).  The most recent one was last night at a party I went to.  Beer pong was being played ON THE LIVING ROOM TABLE and my first thought was not: "wow, this will be fun" but "they're going to ruin the floor!"  My second thought was "OK, what the heck is wrong with me.  My inner monologue sounds like someone's mom."  Then I thought - "Hey, they're playing it wrong! The first time I played this game was.....ELEVEN YEARS AGO?!?!?!?!?!?"  *SIGH*

Fall 2007 Stalker Schedule

School starts Wednesday.  Here is my schedule for this semester:

M:    Maximum Likelihood Estimation 12:30-3:15
T:    My day off
W:   Intro to American Govt lecture 1-1:50
       My office hours 2-3
       State and Local Politics 3:30-6:15
Th:  Political Communication 12:30-3:15
F:     Intro to American Govt sections TBD, hopefully 12-2:50

A Few Pics from Vegas

At a bar before we hit Pollyesters.

Dinner at Craftsteak - yummy.

Me, Mircalla, and Lisa

Before hitting the town.

End of Summer Photo Dump

Check out my facebook account for more photos as well. 

Cruise photos - Early July - Fort Lauderdale, FL; Ocho Rios, Jamaica; Georgetown, Grand Cayman





Jeff in our cabin

Our steward made a different towel animal for us every night when we came back from the casino.

Our ship, Enchantment of the Seas anchored in Grand Cayman

Boat Trip photos - August - Bellingham, WA; Sucia Island, WA; Nanaimo, BC; Powell River, BC; Cortes Island, BC; Port Neville, BC; Port McNeill, BC; Port Hardy, BC; Vancouver, BC.

Mine and Jeff's cabin.  Yes it is very small.

The master cabin - much larger.

fishing equipment

Mom in the galley.  Our cabin is down the stairs to the left.

Moon over the harbor at Sucia Island.

Mt. Baker in the distance.

Jeff at the wheel upstairs.

Going through the narrows at Cortes Island.

Seaplane

Look at the wake she puts out!

Shooting the rapids at Devil's Hole.  This whirlpool is probably a good 5 feet across.  Good thing we came in at the right time tide-wise or we could have been in trouble.

We also saw seals, otters, and eagles.

Me and Mom at the Port McNeill marina

Mom, me, and the world's largest burl. 

Intrade and political wagering

As we get closer to the 2008 presidential nominations and elections, discussion of politics at various social gatherings increases.  We've even started talking about it at some poker games recently.

Jeff and I regularly bet on election outcomes.  And recently Gary Carson reminded me about Intrade on his Math and Poker blog.  Intrade is basically a financial market for predictions.  One of the primary categories of predictions, especially this time of year, is politics.  Check out the most recent politics market moves newsletter here. 

New Take on Audiobooks

Just got back from Vegas - had a good trip.  I was flying on a red eye on the way back and stopped into Borders at the Las Vegas airport to pick up some reading material - it is always hard for me to sleep on planes.  I discovered these new audiobooks instead.

What a great idea - they are small and come with headphones just in case you don't have any with you.  Better yet they are reusable since they have replaceable batteries.  Most of them are unabridged.  I bought this one - very neat.

Bleachy swimming pool in basement

So Jeff is out of town and I have to work 7 days/week from 3-11 plus a 30+ minute commute.  I can't call in sick and there is no one to cover my shift.

What better time for our basement plumbing to get all f-ed up!

A few months ago, someone in our house who shall remain nameless, but is not me, stopped up our basement toilet.  No worries, thought I.  This is certainly not the first time the toilet has been stopped up.  So I got the plunger and thought I solved it.  Until a few hours later I noticed a bad smell coming from the bathroom.  Suffice it to say the toilet somehow backed up into the shower.  Um - yuck.

Rather than call a plumber, it was fixed with a bottle of Drano.  Huzzah!

So a few days ago we get back from vacation and I notice the downstairs toilet is stopped up again.  I stupidly think nothing of it.

Until today when I attempt to take a shower in the basement bathroom and realize that it is not draining.  Shower attempt aborted.

Drano to the rescue again!  Except the Drano doesn't work...

So I go upstairs to shower because I am running late for work.  Did I mention that I also had a load of white towels in the washer?  So after I take my shower I realize I left some work stuff in the basement and run down to get it.  Umm - why is there soapy, bleachy water all over the floor?  Oh look, all the water from the laundry and my shower has backed up into the shower and the drain in the floor by the furnace.  Lovely.

At this point I pray it doesn't get any worse, shut off the laundry, and run off to work.

I come home around 11:30pm.  It's not exactly worse, but there is still a ton of water on the floor.

2 rolls of paper towels, 1 whole box of Scott rags in a box, and every towel in the house later, there is no water on my floor.  I make sure the dehumidifier is on and call it a night.  The plumber is supposed to come in the morning - before I have to go to work.

The vinyl tile on the bathroom floor is gonna have to be redone, I'm probably going to have to buy some new towels, and one of my favorite shirts fell victim to bleach stains.  But I guess it could have been worse.

I really hope the plumber can fix everything before work!

Time to get serious again

In college I was very happy with my weight - especially when I came back from London.  After getting out of college, moving out to the burbs, not having a free gym, and not walking everywhere anymore, I gained a lot of weight.  A few years ago, I lost almost all of that weight doing Weight Watchers and working out a lot - I was only 30 pounds away from my goal at that point - my college weight.

Then I quit work where my weight watchers group and my gym were located, and started school full-time again.  I'm a stress eater and ended up gaining about 15 pounds in the past year.

Well, I've decided to get serious about losing it again.  I have 40 pounds I'd like to lose and I have to get serious after taking the past year off of dieting and going to the gym.  Today was my first day officially tracking points again.  It is hard to eat healthy when you are unable to leave work even to get food and you work from 3-11 pm, but I did it.  I ate my points for the day...and I'm not starving.  Now I remember why Weight Watchers works.  I actually think I can do this during the school year too. 

One of the things they tell you to do in WW is to let people know that you are on plan.  It helps keep you honest.  So here I am, pointing it out to the world again.  I'm doing this and I'm going to be successful.  I know I can do this - heck I lost more than 40 pounds the last time.  :)

This is one of the stupidest things ever...

Apparently Harrah's continues to make bad decisions.