Taking it handy

This birthday weekend has been really amazing. I am currently blogging
from a hammock in the shade near the river. Yesterday my dear friend
Dana hosted the lovliest of birthday bbqs. All the Irish girls from my
department were there along with several college friends of mine. John
manned the grill (as men do!) and made really awesome burgers! After
the party a bunch of us spent some time at 9 Irish Brothers. The owner
is hilarious! He really made it fun! So now I'm up at the river in a
hammock half napping...half blogging...definitely relaxing!

So big news for anyone in Dublin! I'm coming back!!! I'll only be
there one night though. Sept. 4th. Maybe it will work out to see some
of you friendly knitters out there!

School starts up again tomorrow. Last week was nice. Well, sort of
nice. I had orientation all week, so I didn't have to work very hard.
That will all change tomorrow. It's going to be long days from here on
out. The routine will be nice I suppose.

Too bad this isn't a resort! I need more iced tea.

--
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One toe away...

I started socks for my brother for Christmas. They didn't get done for Christmas by any means. I didn't really work on them for several months after Christmas, and now they are almost...so very close to done. I totally finished one today. Grafted the toe and the whole nine yards. Now I'm just hoping I Have enough yards of yarn left to finish the second sock! It's going to be close, but I think it can be done! Martin tried them on last night though and they're going to fit really well! They'll be done for his birthday, but won't be his birthday present. I will be celebrating three holidays with him though on Tuesday. Christmas, Father's Day, and his birthday! Very exciting!

photo to follow!

Only one more week of intro stat. This week will includes lots of studying I hope. There's a lot to review before the final exam on Friday. Yikes! I better finish my homework before I get too excited about the exam!

Sitting in the window...

Today is the first day I've had to breath in a while and I'm enjoying it to the fullest! Today is just a beautiful day! Not too hot and wonderfully sunny! The new grad student, Bethany, started the other day and she's a lovely addition to our lab group. We sat outside by the fountain and read for a while. She's a super cute farm girl from west-central Illinois. Now I'm happy sitting in the window at Grey House watching the world go by. It's so nice here! The free refills might be dangerous!

Tonight is So You Think You Can Dance night!!!!!!! There are a bunch of us crazy girls who are way too into the show! Last week was controversial. Comfort is a hip-hop dancer who got voted off the previous week. Jessica got to stay, but then she had broken ribs, so she dropped out and Comfort came back. THEN, Kherigan had a bad night and got voted off and Comfort got to stay. It was a real pity! So this week Comfort better get voted off or I'm gonna be really annoyed. At this point the guys are all pretty awesome, so it's hard to see any of them go. Will is my favorite and if you saw him with his shirt off, you'd know why! Sigh. He's dreamy! Even dreamier than that electrician in Dublin! After all, Will can dance!

Birthday Week

It's birthday week in our house. My big brother's birthday is today,
mom's birthday is Friday and Martin's birthday is next Tuesday. Very
exciting!

Every Wednesday, we have a lab meeting. Lately we've been brain
storming for my current project. Today is going to be different. I'm
giving a presentation to propose a new study that we can do later. I'm
a little nervous since I don't know what to expect. Should be
interesting.

Given that I have this presentation, I probably shouldn't have gone
knitting last night, but I did. Just needed the mental break and I'm
glad we went. Martin's socks are nearly done! Ok, not really. They're
about 75% done though. He needs to try them on. I really don't want
them to be too small! That would be horrible!!! I'd say there's a
small chance I can get them done this weekend. It's only a very small
chance though. So no one should go getting hopes up!!

--
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Cheap and Free!

I'm quickly becoming a true PhD student! Saving money being one of the key things. In our department supposedly we all get enough funding to live. I'm thinking they should say we get enough funding to exsist! To really live, one must have the funds to go out with friends on the weekend, to buy a pair of Tevas on sale for $15 and to buy an occasional magazine. Not to mention pay for gas and random things like behavior therapy for oddly aggressive wheaten terriers. That said, part of truely living as a grad student involves the continuing quest for cheap and free! Free brunch yesterday meant testing 4 types of french toast and several egg casseroles for Mrs. Mayfield who is designing new breakfast ideas for day cares. Note: french toast made with orange juice was not a good thing. Cheap morning coffee means a slight detour to Beering Hall on my way back from stat class. There, is the holy grail of vending machines. I can get a so-so mocha or a pretty good cappucino for 75 cents! Bad coffee in the HTM cafe is $1.25. That's 50 cents towards I can put towards living! Anyone want to go find a gum ball machine with me?

Happy Birthday Harriet!

Today is my dear friend Harriet's birthday! I hope you have a wonderful day! Wish I could be there to help celebrate!

Fried Crispy!

Well, multiple applications of SPF 45 is no match for 5 hours at the
water park on a clear sunny day. Unlike the horrible sunburns of my
youth, some parts of my body were spared. Still, I'm in a wee bit of
pain. My little sister seemed to have a blast though, so I suppose it
was worth it. Maybe. Thankfully I mostly sleep on my side!

Last night I watered the back garden and then forgot to turn off the
hose! Oops! Mom called and distracted me, so I'm blaming her!

Knitting group is always a riot. In some ways, I'd love to write about
all the personalities, but anyone who attends any knitting group
already knows. It's safe to say our knitting group fits the norm! I
really enjoy going. Almost skipped tonight, but I'm glad I didn't.
It's good therapy!

Tomorrow's a new day. Hopefully some of my red will fade to brown by then.

--
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Something beautiful!

For those of you who have never used SAS, this may seem trivial. For those of you who have suffered through the initial learning of SAS code, this is a beautiful thing. In fact I'm doing a little SAS dance in my chair! Woohoo!

Here is the code I used to get this.

title 'educational data for 78 seventh-grade students';
data students;
input obs gpa iq gender concept;
datalines;
1 7.94 111 2 67
2 8.292 107 2 43
3 4.643 100 2 52
4 7.47 107 2 66
5 8.882 114 1 58
6 7.585 115 2 51
7 7.65 111 2 71
8 2.412 97 2 51
9 6 100 1 49
10 8.833 112 2 51
11 7.47 104 1 35
12 5.528 89 1 54
13 7.167 104 2 54
14 7.571 102 1 64
15 4.7 91 1 56
16 8.167 114 1 69
17 7.822 114 1 55
18 7.598 103 1 65
19 4 106 2 40
20 6.231 105 1 66
21 7.643 113 2 55
22 1.76 109 2 20
24 6.419 108 1 56
26 9.648 113 2 68
27 10.7 130 1 69
28 10.58 128 2 70
29 9.429 128 2 80
30 8 118 2 53
31 9.585 113 2 65
32 9.571 120 1 67
33 8.998 132 1 62
34 8.333 111 1 39
35 8.175 124 2 71
36 8 127 2 59
37 9.333 128 1 60
38 9.5 136 2 64
39 9.167 106 2 71
40 10.14 118 1 72
41 9.999 119 1 54
43 10.76 123 2 64
44 9.763 124 2 58
45 9.41 126 2 70
46 9.167 116 2 72
47 9.348 127 2 70
48 8.167 119 2 47
50 3.647 97 2 52
51 3.408 86 1 46
52 3.936 102 2 66
53 7.167 110 2 67
54 7.647 120 2 63
55 0.53 103 2 53
56 6.173 115 2 67
57 7.295 93 2 61
58 7.295 72 1 54
59 8.938 111 1 60
60 7.882 103 1 60
61 8.353 123 2 63
62 5.062 79 2 30
63 8.175 119 2 54
64 8.235 110 2 66
65 7.588 110 2 44
68 7.647 107 2 49
69 5.237 74 1 44
71 7.825 105 2 67
72 7.333 112 1 64
74 9.167 105 2 73
76 7.996 110 2 59
77 8.714 107 1 37
78 7.833 103 1 63
79 4.885 77 2 36
80 7.998 98 1 64
83 3.82 90 2 42
84 5.936 96 1 28
85 9 112 1 60
86 9.5 112 1 70
87 6.057 114 2 51
88 6.057 93 1 21
89 6.938 106 2 56
;
run;
PROC SORT data=students out=nsort;
by gender;
RUN;
PROC BOXPLOT data=nsort;
plot gpa * gender /boxstyle=schematic;
RUN;

Can I get an honorary computer science degree for this? Maybe not, but seriously this is my biggest acheivement of the day. I can think of about a million things I'd rather acheive today, but whatever...I'll take it.

What a day!

Today I got to hang out with my little sister. I signed up to be a big
sister through Big Brothers Big Sisters. If there are any guys reading
this...you should go sign up to be a big brother! Now! So anyway, my
little sister just turned 8. I've never really known an 8 year old.
It's all new and exciting. She still little in ways, like last week we
got ice cream cones and hers was down to her elbows, all over her face
and half of it dripped on the table. She's wants to be cool like her
13 year old sister though. So she talks like a teenager. It's
hilarious! Today we went to Columbian Park Zoo. That was kind of a
bust. I'm not sure they even had animals. So I suggested we go play
Putt-Putt (crazy golf for you Irish folks). She stopped in her tracks,
held up her finger and said, "ok, but first I think we need ice
cream!" How can I argue with that? Well, except that I've seen her eat
ice cream and know that it's a major ordeal in the clean up
department! We ended up with snow cones. Hers was blue...so were her
lips and tongue! She's great! We're going to have lots of adventures.

--
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Time to get serious...

I have been a horrible blogger lately. Exciting things are happening! Last Thursday I hit the road before the sun was up and drove all the way to Knoxville by myself. It was fabulous. I visited my dear friends, the Burkholders. We went camping in the Smokey Mountains and Friday morning we all went climbing! Even the kids! Talk about a fantastic trip! Friday night I got to chill out with my Euro-travel buddy, John in Louisville. Getting home was...well...frustrating. Between a speeding ticket (I was seriously NOT speeding...I just didn't know I was still in a construction zone) and all the major roads and interstates being flooded, it was quite an adventure. Got home all the same though.

Monday was my first day of school. Yeah! The research project is going well. My first day was 10.5 hours, but yesterday was a normal day. Well, not exactly. I had to be on campus by 7am. Today I don't have any research-related responsibilities which is nice. My statistics homework is nearly done! Good thing since it's due tomorrow! I have a meeting with Dr. Boushey in a few minutes. Hopefully some of my lingering questions will be answered!

Martin's socks are still a work in progress. Sock one is about 2/3 done. I don't know if I can do the other sock strait away. Might have to work on a sweater for a while. I'd much rather knit sweaters than socks! Of course, someday...some sweet day...I'd like to knit my self a pair! My next sweater pattern comes from the summer Interweaves Knits magazine; the Apres Surf Hoodie. Won't that be fabulous in cashmere? I have 51% cashmere 49% wool in a neutral color. I think it will be perfect for that sweater. The pattern has several concepts I'm not familiar with though, so I might go crazy. Step one: provisional cast on. How hard can it be, right?

Ok...meeting time!

So close...

My sweater will be done as soon as I finish sewing up the side seam, tucking in the loose threads and then sewing on the buttons. As little as there is to do, you'd think I would have found the time to finish it up in the last day or two, but I haven't. Maybe tomorrow!

Tonight I'm going to a fancy dinner. My hair has been looking pretty scraggly the last week or so, but I've been putting off getting it cut. This dinner seemed like a good excuse for a little sprucing up, so I went to the salon yesterday. I even splurged on a manicure! It was heavenly! My hair is a little shorter this time...a little longer than chin length. I was hoping it would curl like it did last time, but it didn't. Oh well. I'll be wearing my favorite little black dress and shoes which both miraculously survived the flood! The only thing is, I don't have the perfect wrap. It's a real pity! So I suppose my next big project, after I finish my brother's Christmas socks, will be to knit a lacy wrap.

Only three weeks till school starts. I think I have everything ready. I looked up the text book I'll need and it was rediculously priced as usual. Over $100 new and $87 if I bought it used. I had a moment of brilliance and looked up the text on amazon.com and found it new for less than $10! With shipping it was $12! Talk about a bargain! I'll be learning SPSS (statistics program for social sciences) all over again. I don't know that I really learned it when I was in Ireland. Basically I just learned how to set up a data sheet and run simple stats. Nothing intricate though. I have a feeling this time I'll know it like the back of my hand!

Enough rambling for now!

Gone amuck...

Last ngiht Lacy and I headed over to Barnes & Noble for a chat and we brought yarn and sticks. She worked on a chrochet hat and I was able to finished all the actual knitting on my sweater. I hemmed the first sleeve and sewed it in. Here's the thing...I totally don't understand the pattern. First of all, I started from the center of the shoulder and worked down towards the front and then towards the back. Seemed like the best way to make sure it was centered. Well, except that the sleeve doesn't exactly fit between the markers placed. Dang it! So then, if I had gotten all that right...which I didn't...there would be about an inch and a half or so of raw edging under my armpit. That reduces the bulk, but it's still not very pretty. To make matters worse, when I got home, I realized that I managed to pick up a stitch on the back when I was tacking down the button placket. I gently pulled and tugged and found the right strnig to snip. WRONG. I know damn well that you never ever cut anything when you're knitting. So now I clipped the stitch in the back and I have to figure out how to manipulate the situation so I don't end up with a flippin hole in my sweater. I was so pissed. Still am actually! Pisses me off even more that the pattern - which was sooooooo detailed in the beginning ended up soooooooooooooooo not detailed in the end. I hate it when people do that. It happens all the time. On the simple stuff like joining in the round, they all remind you not to twist your stitches. Who doesn't know you'll end up with a freakin mobius if you twist your stitches? But by the end of a simple sweater pattern, the designer figures any idiot can place the sleeves in a sweater. Maybe any idiot can and I'm lower than an idiot. Guess I'll have to humble myself and go to the yarn store for help. I hate asking for help.

Wait! I forgot!

I forgot to tell about my new dishes!!! I have some super cute summer dishes that are brown and yellow and have black eyed susan flowers on them. Perfect for summer! I only have the plates and maybe the dessert plates. Well, the other day I was walking past Jan's Alley and she had some in the window! There was a sugar bowl, butter keeper and plates on the table. I just thought it was funny to see them. Didn't really think about buying them. I'll be darned if mom didn't buy the entire set! The entire set of dishes, serving bowls, etc. All for a whopping $15!!! Can you believe it? They're a bit retro and although I think they're adorable I can see why most people might not want brown and golden yellow dishes. Still, mom and I were still surprised at the bargain bin pricing. So there you go...more dishes for me! Let me remind you that I have no furniture and I'm homeless, but I have something like 8 entire sets of dishes. I might start renting them out. Dinner party anyone?

Another sweater nearly done...

I'm so close to being done with my summer sweater! Should it even be called a sweater? I don't know? It's more like a golf shirt minus the collar. Anyway, it's almost done! I have to knit 4 more rows on the neck band, sew in the sleaves and then sew up the sides. Well, and hem it. Still, it's kind of almost done!

Our knitting group might be famous today. Haven't seen the paper yet, but a journalist (Laura Anthrop) came to take pictures the other night. I looked like a grub, but that's ok. Annie and Anja looked adorable (as always). There's a new lady who just moved here from raliegh. I hope she gets her picture in the paper! She's only lived here for about three weeks and it would be so cool if she would tell her friends that she's already been in the paper! I should have grabbed the paper on the way to work.

Today is just gross weather wise. It's cold and humid and just gross. I'd much rather be at home snuggled up watching movies and drinking coffee. Instead I'll be filing documents most of the day. Not my favorite thing to do, but then again it's better than working at McDonalds! I only have one more month of freedom before I start my voluntary slavery in the world of PhD. I'll have statistics every morning at 8:40am. That alone isn't much to look forward to! After that I'll spend the day running a lab-based experiment. It's a component of the bigger picture of the research project. Basically we'll be feeding people and then...lucky me...we'll take 24 hour urine collection and...even luckier me...I'll be analyzing the urine to see what nutrients were excreted and assume the rest of the nutrients were absorbed and used by the body. What a way to spend a summer, eh? Of course there's more to it than that, but I Don't know how much I'm allowed to tell and how much is a secret.

I'll post a picture of my sweater later today!

Things that are making this road trip great...

1. Good tunes
2. Sunshine
3. Blow Pops

All I need is a lottery ticket!

Long time...

It's not that I don't have anything to write about, I've just been
lazy. My job is oddly exhausting. The highlight of every day is going
to the courthouse and the post office. Not only do I get a bit of
fresh air, that least little bit of activity gets the blood moving
again. In the office I do normal office things...make copies, write
letters, talk to crazy people on the phone. Yesterday one of our
clients was particularly rude to me on the phone. It's extra annoying
because this client is probably about my age and already getting
divorced. She's probably tired of the ordeal and since I'm her
attorney's secretary - she feels like I'm someone she can boss around
and treat like dirt. Well, she's wrong! Lesson to the world...don't
treat secretaries like dirt! It's a bad idea!

Last night was fun. Lacy and I went shopping and she got some super
cute clothes at Target. We ate at McAllister's Deli. They have really
good sweet tea. It was the perfect evening to eat outside and sip iced
tea. Not to mention the perfect evening to celebrate Lacy's birthday!
After I got home, Baxter thought it was perfect timing for a walk. It
wasn't! A storm was threatening! Micah was already down town, so the
beast and I met him and we all strolled around the Levee Plaza area.
None of us seemed to mind the rain till there was the biggest thunder
and crack of lightening! We nearly passed out! By the time we got back
down town, we were soaked! Still, I liked being out in the warm spring
rain.

Today is full of little excitements. The attorney I work for is taking
us out to lunch and tonight is Village Fest! All kinds of fun!

Just things here and there...

Life has been fairly entertaining recently. I'm working for a lawyer as a secretary. Can't say I want to be a secretary for the rest of my life, but it's not too bad. It's been relaxed while the lawyer was on spring break. She'll be back tomorrow and I suspect things will be kicked up a notch.

I'm moving out of the guest bed (fondly referred to as my homeless shelter) and up to my old bedroom. I had to do quite a bit of cleaning and organizing before I could really settle in up there. The goal is to live at home for as long as possible. I figure every month that I live at home I save nearly $600 and although my Purdue assistantship is adequate, it is not extravegant. Money saved is a good good thing. My dad has been working on the plumbing in my bathroom. Pretty much everything up there was leaking. The faucets and the toilet ran and the shower leaks or something. Obviously I'm not plumbing expert! I love mom, but our morning schedules aren't meshing very well. She gets the bathroom first since she leaves the house first. If she's out of the bathroom by 7:30, I can get to work on time without any problems. This doesn't happen too often, so then I have to rush around and have been late a few times. It'll be so nice for us to have separate bathrooms. Plus, I still get free internet upstairs! Thank you Holiday Inn!

Tomorrow is knitting group at Barnes & Nobles. I'm half way done with a summer sweater from Knit Simple magazine. I guess technically it's called the Scallop Edge Pullover. Whatever. If you want to see a picture, click here. I'm knitting the plane yellow one, but mine will be red. Last week at the group, there were only 5 of us and 3 of us were Schaps. The other two were employees who had the night off. I guess they started the group. Annie won't be there this week, so I'm curious to see who shows up tomorrow

Wednesday starts some serious excitement. The Lafayette Police Department Citizens Academy! Mom and I are going. She did one in West Lafayette and had a blast! I don't know what all we get to learn here, but in W. Lafayette she was taught how to preserve a crime scene, gun safety, how to drive a police car really fast and stuff like that. I'm super excited!

That's all for now. Better finish up my lunch and get back to work.

National Nutrition Month is here and almost gone...

You might not know it, but March is National Nutrition Month. Very exciting, I know. But what is exciting is that the Western Indiana District Dietetic Association had their annual breakfast at Baja Peninsula. Talk about amazing food! I can't wait to go back. Their breakfast menu is to die for! The restaurant is a wee bit out of the way for most folks since it's on the way west side of town, but it's not really any further away than all the mediocre dining facilities on the way east side of town. I give it 5 stars! Lafayette has so many great restaurants that aren't chains, but people hardly think to go to them. I'm on a pseudo silent campaign to limit my chain dining experiences. Surely I can get a gang of people to do the same!

The other great thing about the National Nutrition Month breakfast is that I got to touch base with Dr. Boushey. As soon as I formally accept the offer, she can start registering me for classes for the summer. She's not been so bright about her conversations with me. She keeps telling me how busy I'm going to be and how much I'm going to have to do. I think she said "You're just going to be busy up to your eye balls all the time!" And she said it with such glee. Seems like maybe she should save those comments for AFTER I turn in my acceptance and I'm officially her slave! Ha ha ha! Today I got the nicest email from Dr. Fleet. He's basically the director of graduate studies and to get a personal email from him made my day! Despite the fact that I'm going to be busy up to my eye balls, I'm really looking forward to doing my PhD.

Big news. Martin and Annie got a puppy! Her name is Karenin or some spelling variation of that. I've already botched the spelling once today. I know it's not Caranan! Ha! Anyway, the puppy is half rhodesian ridge back and half black lab and 100% beautiful! It's like their little family is complete now! I love it! I can't wait until Karenin, Albert and Baxter can get together for play time. That should be hilarious.

It's all coming together...

The first week home was a wee bit discouraging. Happy as I was to be home I was dying to hear from Purdue about the PhD stuff and I couldn't find a car to buy either. But so many happy things happened! Thursday I got a package from my sock pal! She knit me gorgeous rusty orange socks! They're so cool. Plus everything else she sent was super cheerful. (I'll post about everything later so I can give her justice!) Then, on Friday I drove a sweet rental car up to Chicago and got to hang out with AnnLaura and Aurelio in Chicago for the day. We had a blast. Aurelio loved the Art Institute. Every time he saw a boat in a painting he'd say "row row row" and there were animal noises for dogs and cows. Plus we got to swing through Filene's Basement and Old Navy. Felt so good to be down town again! My friend Jenny and her husband Mike met me and John on Saturday for a crazy fun St. Paddy's day celebration. It was such a fun weekend!

It gets better!

Monday I dropped in Hodson's Bay to see if there are any adventure seeking people to climb with or learn to mountain bike with or something like that. As it turns out there's someone who works there who I can climb with at the store. The wall there is kind of tiny, but at least I can climb a bit for fun. There's a club at Purdue and they car-pool to Climb Time in Indy every week. Woohoo for that! Should I ever end up with a bike, I can go mountain biking with people from Hodson's Bay too. Things are looking up!

Wait, even more happened on Monday!

I got my acceptance letter from Purdue! I'm in! I got a research assistantship and a stipend that will be enough to live on. I'll be a poor graduate student, but it's going to be great. (Please, just let me be gleeful for a little while! I'll mope about the rough life of a grad student enough later!)

And better...

Today I started my job! I'm really making good use of my degrees and working as a secretary/PA. Today I helped fix computer problems, fixed the shredder machine and did loads of filing. (The other PA doesn't like to file.) There were fun things to do to like walk a few letters to other offices down town. It would have been perfect if the sun had been shining, but it wasn't. Oh well...can't win 'em all! I can walk to work and if I walk fast, I can get from our back door to the office door in 7 minutes.

And even better...

I got a new car!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's a 2004, Hyundai Elantra. It's really shiny black with ghetto blaster tinted windows. Have to say, the windows make me laugh. It's nice though. I'm so lucky to have gotten such a nice car. Even Baxter was excited! When I came home I told him we had a new car to ride in and he ran outside, jumped up at the fence, gave the car a good look and then he went into ecstatic happy dog mode...tail wagging, tongue hanging out, you know the look. We drove over to Martin and Annie's which turned out great. Got to eat dinner together and take a wee trip to Von's and Cafe Vienna.

So now life feels a lot better. I'm so relieved to know about the Purdue situation and I'm so glad I don't have to be pouring over over-priced cars that have 115,000 miles on autotrader.com. And one of these days I might even get a pay check!

Home of the Free Refills...

Since I've been home, I've been out to eat a lot. In Ireland there are times when you want a really big Coke. Not a dinky little 10 oz Coke...a BIG coke. Here in the States, that's not much of a problem. You can get a 32oz coke for $1 or sometimes even less. Restaurants are a whole new ball game. I missed free refills while I was gone, but now I'm not so sure. At most restaurants you get a giant glass of coke and they refill it over and over and over again. Looking around in the restaurants, I couldn't help but wonder what would happen if there were a charge for each refill. What if the government decided that it's a health risk to provide nearly 2 liters of Coke to each customer at each meal. Isn't it ridiculous to think that any person can unknowingly drink 2 liters of soda at a meal. I'm guilty of doing it myself. Ok, 2 liters might be a stretch, but it's more than one liter. Now I'm just grossed out by it.

So other than being grossed out by the amount of coke we drink with dinner in the States, I've been busy with all kinds of things. Car shopping. Ugh. I never knew it would be so hard to find a car! Part of the problem is the limited budget. With another $1000 I might have an easier time. It's a good lesson in patients. My sister got an awesome mini-van that was within her insurance budget. It's even better than her old van. So basically I'm trying to find a real bargain and unfortunately I haven't found it yet!

My mom made an appointment with a realtor for me. Ha! Think she's trying to tell me something? I'm not sure she wants me at home for very long. I really liked one of the houses and would buy it if only I had an income! I do have a job though. I'll be working for a lawyer downtown. Having a job within walking distance is exciting. Especially given the current lack of automobile! The lawyer is a friend of my mom's and she should be great to work for. She'll let me work as much or as little as I want. It's the perfect job for right now really.

It's absolutely beautiful out today. Baxter and I took a super long walk in the sunshine. We were both happy as clams! Tomorrow I get to go to the Indianapolis Zoo with the Burkholder kids. What could be better than a trip to the zoo on a sunny spring day?!?! I think spring might be here to stay. I looked at the 10 day forecast and the highs stay around 45-50 F (7-11 C). I hope it's sandal weather soon! That's my favorite time of year!