Done with week 1

First week of school is done...it was kind of short. Class on Tuesday was supposed to be from 11:30 to 5:30, but we were out at 4. Wednesday night went from 6pm to 8:30 pm. And today was supposed to be 11:30 to 5:30, but we were done at 1:30. So it went pretty fast. First quiz is on Tuesday. My plan is to study most of the day tomorrow because this weekend is the big Book Sale at Magnusson Park and I have to be there Friday night, Saturday 9-1 and Sunday 11-4. Ugh. Then I have to work Monday for several hours too. So it doesn't look like I'll have a lot of time to study for Tuesday's quiz, but the classes were so short and we didn't go over that much, so I think I'll be okay.

It's cool being back into the school thing again. I think I'm the oldest person in my class though :-). This class is so different than when I took my prerequisites. Half the people in those classes didn't care how they did, but I can already tell this class is going to be really competitive. Not that we have to compete anymore...we're already in the program. I'll just do my best.

School Days

My last day at work was yesterday....so now I'm just going to be working at the library a few hours a week, but mostly concentrating on school. I was supposed to start on Monday night, but got an email from the director of the program the other day and it appears the Monday night class has been switched to Wednesday night, so school schedule for the first 6 weeks is Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. I'll work at the library on Mondays and Fridays I guess. I finally got my last textbook yesterday, so now I'm all set. Time to get my mind back into studying and homework :-)

The Wheel turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend

For those of you that know my reading habits, you are probably aware that I have spent the last...oh, 15 years or so... reading and rereading The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. The series is up to 11 books in total now, 11 of probably some of the most enjoyable books I have ever read (book 10 was never one of my favorites, but still infinitely better than a lot of stuff I've read). The last book came out in 2005, and the next (last?) book in the series was due to come out in 2009.

Alas, yesterday the WoT community lost Mr. Jordan. He died after a battle with a rare disease, Amyloidosis. Still working on his newest book right up until the end.

My cousin Robert gets the credit for introducing me to the Wheel of Time. I can remember his exact words..."hey, have you ever read this book called The Eye of the World?" I picked it up at the library a couple of days later, and I was totally hooked. I think Jordan was on his third book by then, because I remember that I devoured the first three books back to back over a series of almost-no-sleep nights. At that time he was still putting out a book every 12-15 months or so, and each one was purchased with great anticipation and ended much too soon after it was started. While the series was still "manageable" I used to reread the entire series a month or so before a new book was scheduled to drop so I could be fresh and and ready for the story to continue.

Jason and I had the pleasure of meeting him in King of Prussia a few years back at a book signing for the 9th book. I schlepped the first 8 books of his with me, bought the 9th there, and he signed every one of them. It's the first and only time I've waited in line to meet anyone, and he was gracious and accomodating and more than willing to talk to those of us that hung around after, wide-eyed fantasy book geeks in the presence of The One, our Dragon.

So today I am sad, and spending some time at Robert Jordan's blog, reading over 1000 comments from fans on his passing. Then I am going to start the series over again tonight, and I will read each page slowly with the knowledge that this is probably goodbye, and I will thank Robert Jordan at the end for 15 years of delight.

Lesson Learned

Yeah.....don't order food samples to be sent to your home address when:

A) you have a mail slot in the door instead of a mail box outside and
B) you have dogs who are home alone when the mail comes

Although your dogs may try to convince you otherwise, this particular combination = no sample and lots of ripped up packaging when you get home. The only good part of this story is that I keep thinking how the dogs must have been absolutely ecstatic at food coming in through the door, and it makes me laugh.

Less than successful

Jay and I decided to take the dogs and go do some geocaching today, since it was such a beatiful day outside. We found four caches located within walking distance of the house, so we set out for our first geocaching outing since we got to Seattle.

The first cache we had to skip because there was some guy and his dog hanging around the cache location and we couldn't search very secretly. We headed off to the second one, at the Roosevelt Pea Patch. No luck here either, and it wasn't a great idea to have the beagles in other people's garden patches anyway. So on to the third....

This one was located in the upper level parking lot over Whole Foods. But we still couldn't find it! You would think that a parking lot wouldn't have a lot of places to hide a cache, but we must be way out of practice, because we couldn't locate anything. We met another geocacher here who noticed us searching bushes and asked if we were by chance looking for a cache. We talked to her for a little while about caches in the area, and shared our coordinates for the four we were hunting that day with her. Then we gave up on this one, and decided to head for the fourth.

Well, the geocaching gods definitely were not on our side today, because we couldn't locate this one either....it was somewhere in a big field next to the highway support wall, but we could not find any trace of it, and by now we were getting kind of upset. We never had such a hard time geocaching before, and these were all supposed to be pretty easy! We headed home very dejected. By the time we got back we had been out for over 2 hours, and had walked 3.5 miles, and the dogs were ready for a drink and a lie-down.

We decided to head back to the first one by ourselves, because it's pretty close to the house and we felt we could find it better without the dogs along. HA! We couldn't find that one either, and we really tried. So it was a very less than successful geocaching day. But it was beautiful weather and we enjoyed being outside and seeing more of the neighborhood.

So cute it hurts

Not much going on this week. Kelsey's getting back into the school routine, and I'm into my last two weeks of work before school starts for me. Although I don't have much to write about, I do have a ridiculously cute picture to share:




Awww..yeah, you're welcome.

Happy Labor Day Weekend

I hope everyone is doing something fun this weekend. Here in Seattle we're taking it slow and easy. Kelsey and her friend Ayla went to Bumbershoot yesterday. They got there really early, like an hour and a half before the gates opened at 11, so they could make sure to get Mainstage passes to see Panic!At The Disco at 10 pm. And then they hung out at the Mainstage all day. Kelsey said highlights included Crowded House, The Shins, Gymclass Heroes and a local Seattle band Schoolyard Heroes. She had a really good time, but had nothing to eat all day and barely had anything to drink. She drank like a camel when she got home last night.

Meanwhile, Jay and I took the dogs for a walk around Greenlake, then he played Bioshock for the rest of the day while I lazed around watching movies and napping. We're hoping to be a bit more active today. Hoping. It remains to be seen.

Kris is having a big family picnic at her house, and I wish we could there. I guess we'll make some hot dogs here and pretend.