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Check out the first piece to my new office/bedroom, to be at least partially unveiled on Sunday (fingers crossed).  Beautiful, no?

My new chair*

*A special thanks goes to Dan who picked this up at Ikea for me on his short trip to Cincinnati.  He’s so nice.

Now that Dan and I share one car, this is the routine I have every time I get in the car:

1) Pull seat forward.

2) Adjust rear view mirror.

3) Turn off bass speaker under driver’s seat (an add on that Dan got).

4) Turn off CD 101 or other rock station. Turn on NPR.

5) Put away cords left lying on the floor.

6) Ah, my car again.

Of course, here’s Dan’s routine:

1) Push seat back.

2) Adjust rear view mirror.

3) Turn on bass speaker under driver’s seat.

4) Turn off NPR.  Turn on good music.

5) Pull out cords and plug all gadgets in.

6) “Ah, my car again.”

Such a tragic life we lead. 

It’s 10pm and Dan has been at a fighting game tournament since 1:30pm.  Ben and I went to visit him around 4:30, but I think we were cramping his style.  He texted me about an hour ago that he won one out of three, but the two he lost were close.  There goes the mansion in the hills and a weekend in Paris.

Check out that scene at this place (click the link for a video):

StreetFighter Tournament

Now he’s watching the doubles tournament and I’m on call for a ride home.  Luckily, I found the first season of thirtysomething on Netflix and am enjoying remembering what 1987 felt like.  Gotta love the shoulder pads and pleated pants.

Yesterday, Dan and I celebrated Valentine’s Day.  Dan had made secret reservations at a place called dragonfly neo-v, which is an all vegan gourmet restaurant just a few blocks from our house (which I had been wanting to go to FOREVER).  Before we left, we exchanged gifts.  Dan was his usual lovey-dovey self and got me 2GB of RAM!  Swoon!  No, really, I love my practical husband.  I really did need it and my computer is so much faster now!

Aww. RAM.

I got Dan some iTunes cards.  He was excited about them, even thought it doesn’t show in this picture.

Aww. Ain't he cute?

Knowing that the RAM might not be that romantic, he also had some flowers hidden.  He’s so smart.

Yay, gerber daisies!

Dinner was so delicious and the restaurant was adorable!  I had pistachio-crusted portabellas and macaroni and cheese.  Dan got the vegan pizza.  Plus, we had awesome appetizers and bread with hummus.  We were stuffed, but we still left room for some ice cream at home!

Then this morning, we got up and had breakfast at Northstar.  It was a great weekend!  Now, Dan’s off to Salt Lake City for the week.  Booo.

I got up and ran this morning.  Then, I got a haircut.  It had been almost four months and I thought my hairdresser might be disgusted with me, but she seemed pleasant enough.  I don’t know why I always put off getting my hair cut.  I think it might be because I think it takes too long, or maybe it’s because I think it’s kind of expensive, or maybe I just don’t care that much.  Either way, my hair felt so much nicer after having the grizzly ends chopped.  Ahh.

Afterward, I went grocery shopping and then Dan’s family dropped by to pick up our old TV.  Dan got a new one and his sister bought the (still perfectly good, ahem) “old” one.  I guess I lost that battle.  I spent the evening watching Dan calibrate the TV (well, I guess I was technically reading for class, but I looked up every now and then).  He’s the only person I know that has this calibration device that suctions to the TV and checks the levels of red, blue, and geek, I mean green.  To me, the process was tedious and incredibly dull.  Dan, on the other hand, worked intently for a few hours.  Do I need to tell you again that I have the best geek ever?

P.S. The week you give up watching TV is not the best week to get a new one. 

Yesterday was a lot of school work with a tiny break for my Ed Tech group meeting.  In the evening, Dan went to Gameworks with Ben, Matt, and Jim (Matt’s Dad), where he apparently won 36 matches in a row at Street Fighter.  Word on the street is that he trained in Japan.  Someone told him, “It’s been an honor.”  Oh, I can’t stop laughing.  I married the best geek ever!

Anyway, while Dan was on his streak, I was reading a book for my Politics of Curriculum class and in the book, the author mentioned DH Lawrence, and for some bizarre reason I remembered that at some point, I had bought a collection of his works, and at that moment, I also thought, “Maybe I should read them!”  (in my spare time, right?).  So, I went to the bookshelf to grab the fat text and in the first few pages was a bookmark I haven’t seen for about ten years.  In fact, I don’t think I remembered it existed until just then.  On one side was a note from my Honors Pre-Calc/Agebra II teacher in high school:

In case you can’t read it, it says:

Dear Laurie,

You have been a pleasure to teach this year.  You are a Bright individual with such a happy and outgoing personality.  Thanks for adding much to the classroom.  I hope you have many good memories to take with you as you leave!  Best of Luck to you, Laurie!

Congratulations!
Mrs. Weil

Aside from the weird capitalization, I’m not going to lie, it made me cry a little.  I was such a crazy, carefree, immature, happy person in high school and I remember this class in particular.  I was usually decently good at math, so I didn’t study much for the first quiz.  When I got the quiz back, I got a C and I about DIED.  I was so nervous to have anything but an A.  So, from then on, I paid intense attention and participated like a maniac.  No kidding, I would flail my arm in the air to answer every question because I needed to understand.  Once I did “get it,” I had great fun trying to get a better score than our Italian exchange student who sat next to me and would taunt me with a 97% to my 96%.  He was learning in a second language, the punk!  We had a party at the end of the year and Mrs. Weil brought in party hats and snacks and I just loved it.  I loved that class, but I had no recollection of this bookmark, and it made me feel really good to find it.  Especially at a moment like this in my career as a student-plus.  Oftentimes I get so serious in class that I forget to laugh and enjoy it.  I get so worried about not appearing to know what I’m talking about that I can lose my sense of humor.  I need to lighten up.

On the other side of the bookmark is “A Student’s Prayer” (I went to Catholic school, in case you didn’t know):

I like the last stanza the best:

Let me always keep on learning,
Even when the class is done;
May I use my knowledge wisely,
So it works for everyone.

Okay, so I haven’t use Pre-Calc to help anyone, but Amen!

Dan left for Arizona, again.  He was gone all of last week and will be gone all of this week.  Not that I have tons of time to talk or whatever, but I like Dan’s presence and the house is much lonelier without him around.  Maybe I’ll get a bit of work done.  We’ll see.  Before he left today, we decided to have lunch at the North Market and afterward, I got Jeni’s.  They have a new rootbeer flavor that is creamy like a rootbeer float!  Two thumbs up.

Today, Dan finished his third custom made joystick.  This one was made for Benny-boo and boy is it nice!  Check it out.

Nice models too.

Dan’s working on his fourth masterpiece now.  The anticipation is killing me.

My Fall Guy

Dan and I took our annual Fall trip to hike at Clifton Gorge today.  It was crisp and beautiful and we enjoyed every minute of it.  After the hike, we stopped to get pumpkins, apples and even a squash.  I’m very serious about the squash selection process.

I didn't get that one.

After that, we went to Young’s Dairy Farm, got some burgers (they have a black bean burger now!) and ice cream.  The perfect fall day.  There are more pictures under the piictures tab (including a leaf as big as my head!).

Well, I got A LOT done today and I am feeling kinda groovy.  I slept in until 8, read, wrote my Foucault reflection, finished and submitted a paper for a journal, outlined my presentation for this Thursday (big conference!) and then read for another class.  Phew.  I need to get WAY ahead this week because next weekend is my best friend in the wide world, Marcy’s, wedding.  I am the maid of honor and I fully intend on relaxing and enjoying myself the ENTIRE weekend.  No work, just fun.

Speaking of fun, after all that work, Dan and I went to see The Informant.  It was a good movie.  You should see it.  I’m pretty tired.  Night!