I found myself today in the throes of planning out activities for the rest of the year. What began as a fairly innocent conversation between Calvin and I ended up with me making reservations to go to Whistler Blackcomb in Vancouver, for Christmas. This will be Calvin and Marie's first White Christmas ever. And my first one in a very long time. The suck part about planning this far in advance is the WAIT. Ah, well. I have time to research air fares that are somewhat less than $500 a pop.

Then, since my boss wanted me to confirm the rest of my available vacation days, I scheduled a camping trip in July (back to Big Lake again) and a possible something-or-other over Labor Day weekend - maybe to San Diego to see the kids or something.

And lo, there are now groovy things to look forward to.

Including a couple of concerts - Def Leppard and Brian Adams together in June, and Judas Priest and Queensryche together in July. Neither are, "Oh my God, we HAVE to go" type deals, but rather, "Huh. That could be decent" type deals.

My desire to travel has always been very present, but is now making itself known in a more external way. Recently I went completely map-crazy. I've always loved maps - I would pour over them for hours when I was little, planning out routes to wherever it is I wanted to go. Now my cubicle is covered with them. The previously-existing maps of Park City Utah and San Francisco California have been up for years. Now I have added a map of Maui, a map of the US, and a map of Maine. Coming in the mail is a map of the world (Rand McNalley's website is like crack). After Christmas I shall have the Whistler Blackcomb trail map to add. Somewhere. Wall space is becoming limited.

I covet the New Concise World Atlas by Oxford University Press.

Talk about cutting a sharp edge off the end of this entry - I have to go log into a teleconference now. More later!

Posted by Laura at 3:35 PM | Permalink | Comments

- Green Rider by Kristen Britain (fluffy fantasy)

- First Rider's Call by Kristen Britain (more fluffy fantasy)

- The Spirit Ring by Lois McMaster Bujold (I LOVE her Miles series)

- Holy Blood/Holy Grail by Michael Baigent et al. (A non-fictional interpretation of theories similar to those mentioned in The DaVinci Code.)

- Standing Next to History: An agent's life inside the Secret Service by Joseph Petro (this guy's life sounds fascinating)

- River Town - Two years on the Yangtze by Peter Hessler (I'm writing a paper for class on the Yangtze River and the Three Gorges Dam)

- Before the Deluge - The vanishing world of the Yangtze's Three Gorges by Deirdre Chetham (ditto to the above, though they both sound like interesting books rather than "required reading")

- A Year in the Maine Woods by Bernd Heinrich (about what the title says, and I'm getting ready for some homesickness)

- The Black Jewels Trilogy by Anne Bishop (Three! Three! Three books in one!)

- Middlemarch by George Eliot (it's pretty much understood that everyone needs to read this sometime in their life)

More than enough to keep me occupied for a long time, and yet I keep placing orders with Amazon. Plus there's school. June sees the start of the next semester - English 102 and Business Accounting 301. Both of which, rumors among the students tell, are suck classes with stickler teachers. And I have the aforementioned paper to finish before June 17th to get credit for the weekend intensive I did on the Pacific Rim. Which was very interesting, by the way. I always enjoy cultural classes.

Posted by Laura at 8:52 PM | Permalink | Comments

Can someone please explain to me why it is that the US Mint found it necessary to put an anatomically correct buffalo on the back of the new US nickel?

Squick.

Posted by Laura at 10:04 AM | Permalink | Comments

If anybody out there is looking for an apartment (and I know a couple of you who are!), this website is pretty darned cool. It combines the listings on CraigList with Google Maps to show you right where the listings are located. You can even sort by location and price range.

Works for Canada too! (I'm just sayin', Amanda...)

Posted by Laura at 5:21 PM | Permalink | Comments

The coming up to speed-ness of the new job is coming along. Funny, after I stopped doing the training and did the actual hands-on stuff, I started learning a whole lot faster. Ask me again my opinion of on the job training.

Everyone is exceptionally nice, considering I ask a random person a random question on the average of every fifteen minutes. Nobody has growled at me (out loud) yet. We do a lot of team building and team lunches and team meetings and team oriented stuff. We're all about the teaming. Management seems to be overly concerned that we all get along - a residual of how the group used to be (apparently) before all the changeover happened in the last six months. Now there are all-new people (the most senior person has been there for nine months) and, apparently, an all-new attitude.

So. I work along without noticing the lunch hour, and I work after I get home, just for a "few minutes", just to "check". Apparently, the honeymoon phase has not yet ended.

School is a necessary evil. I got full marks on my mid-term for Human Resources, which made me happy. Next is to write up the interview I conducted with an HR person, and I'll be damned if I know how to turn an interview into a term paper. I'm free this coming weekend, but next weekend I'm back to school Saturday and Sunday to finish up my studies on the Pacific Rim. There's a geography test (Taiwan, China, Japan, Hong Kong) on Saturday, and a short-answer essay test on Sunday. A research paper is due in mid-June, and I think I'm going to write about the archaeology and history that is being destroyed as a result of the building of the Three Gorge Dam.

I start English 102 (I can't BELIEVE I can't test out of this) and Accounting 301 in the first week of June. Hi, my name is Laura and I've been neglecting my journal. I like personally-motivated writing much better than assigned writing. Though I did prove to myself a couple of weeks ago that I can hammer out an eleven page research paper, complete with no less than ten references, in four hours. And get an A on it.

Okay, enough of the bragging.

Michael and Lilly went back home a week ago Monday, and the house immediately seemed too big and too quiet. We mostly just hung around the house while they were here. We went to dinner a couple of times, and the girls and I went on a shopping trip, but other than that it was mostly movie watching and baby-wrangling. Lilly learned how to make her mom's lumpia and pansit, which she treated us to (and how great was it to have someone else cook in my kitchen and serve up dinner for a change?).

I took a whole bunch of pictures, which shouldn't shock anyone.



Okay, I'm off. Penn and Teller are on TV explaining their theory of the Kennedy assassination. No, really, they are.

Posted by Laura at 9:31 PM | Permalink | Comments

Me: at home, folding laundry and watching TV.
Marie: at work, telemarketing her pretty little head off.

Marie: Dreams - Van Halen came on and I thought
of you guys. Love you!

Laura: aww! love you back!

Marie: Im gunna keep on loving youuuu
cause its the only thing I wanna dooo
I dont wanna sleep I just wanna keep
on loving youuu..!
OH MY GOD IM SO BORED IM SINGING.

Laura: life. dont talk to me about life.

Posted by Laura at 7:48 PM | Permalink | Comments

Kewl.

Posted by Laura at 12:18 PM | Permalink | Comments

10 necessities for a successful weekend class:

1. Track pants, a T-shirt, and flip flops.

2. Singing to the "50 First Dates" soundtrack in the truck.

3. A stop at Einstein Bros. for the best Chopped Garlic bagel in the world, and a stop next door to it at the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf for the most amazing Cafe Mocha I've ever had.

4. Arranging chairs in such a way as to be in a lounged position capable of sustaining fidget-free comfort for hours.

5. A farmer's market in the plaza across the street.

6. Brunchie's Restaurant, creater of the Most Awesome BLT, right down the sidewalk. Which provides for a lovely little walk on a bright sunny day.

7. A kind instructor who tells stories while everyone eats.

8. A Heavenly Cookie (tm) break at 2:00. Or maybe 1:00. I'll see how long I hold out.

9. Lilac lotion, which the rest of the students (sans the three guys) wanted to use, until the classroom smelled like a garden.

10. A wireless internet connection.

Posted by Laura at 12:15 PM | Permalink | Comments

The professor is Chinese.

"If you do not keep up your reading, and you ask question students in class already know, you will lose your face."

Posted by Laura at 5:40 PM | Permalink | Comments

I'm in the weekend intensive I mentioned previously, tonight until 10:00, tomorrow 8-5, and Sunday 8-5. I was quite gleeful to discover that this campus has wireless net access. Joy and happiness. I hope Calvin e-mails me back.

Posted by Laura at 5:32 PM | Permalink | Comments

From dooce:

"He doesn’t even want to be near me when he sleeps at night, but that might have something to do with that one time he wouldn’t stop licking his empty ball pockets and I opened the window to throw him out of it."

Posted by Laura at 10:35 AM | Permalink | Comments