It's official, I got a B in Physics lecture and an A- in the lab, so I am FOREVER DONE WITH PHYSICS!!!!! WOOOOoooooo!
To keep all my dear readers occupied till I get another real post together, here's a link to some FABULOUS stories. Well, they're fabulous if you like reading about equine antics.
http://theliteraryhorse.wordpress.com/mr-chips/mr-chips-the-stories/
I really think Dax needs a Shetland pony :-)
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Monday, May 16, 2011
So I....
....aced the final. Considering that's 36% of my grade, I don't think I'll be taking Physics again, even with the 3rd midterm fail. :-)
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Back in the land of the living!
Woohoo! So I'm riding high on being done with Physics, whether I manage the C to pass or end up having to take it again. I keep saying I either aced the final or failed it miserably :-) But I think it's leaning towards the ace side of that feeling b/c the undergrad I know who was also taking the class thought the final was easy like I did. I busted my heiny (side note: why isn't heiny in my spell check? It speaks italian but not euphemisms for butt? Do I have this thing set to high-brow or something??!?) studying and prepping and felt confident that I understood the concepts and questions. The big issue for me with the exams was having to rush/not reading questions carefully enough. When I'm already nervous and know I've got to work quickly to finish, it's easy to gloss over details like remembering to switch the direction of a predicted magnetic field b/c and electron has a negative charge...blah blah blah. Basically, when my nerves are up, my attention to detail craps out. I'm hoping my over-prepartion will counter act that effect for the final, and that I rocked the final enough to counter act the third exam fail. The lecture and lab are considered separate courses, and both are graded on curves, so we'll see where I fall in the undergrad pool. And we'll see how long I can put off looking at my grades to keep enjoying the feeling of just being done ;-)
Let's see, in other news, hubby has accepted the job offer previously mentioned. They didn't want to play the haggle game, but seeing as no other offers were forthcoming, we figured it was a place for him to start. Accepting the position doesn't mean he can't keep his eyes and ears open for other opportunities. He's got a quitting day at the old job and a starting day with the new one, with 3.5 weeks between. *grumble* I'm only taking 9 days off between b/c there's so much going on in lab and I needed to start with the beginning of a summer session at VT. The hubby's first day will be July 1st and my first day in my new lab will be July 5th. Which means.....
WE FRICKIN' NEED TO FIND A PLACE TO LIVE!!!!!
The nester/planner side of me (which I keep trying to suppress) is shrieking, jumping up and down and pointing at a calendar. Ok, so we've got a pre-approval letter for a mortgage, and an agent that we like has been contacted in B'burg, and houses have been looked at online. We're trying to get a bunch of house tours lined up for next weekend. Why not this weekend you may ask? Well, I've got a nursing gig in Richmond - the moms had a bionic knee installed so she can kick even more a$$, and I'm here making sure she doesn't try barefoot water skiing before the sutures heal. And shuttling bits of giant cookie with frosting to her.....it helps with the healing, and don't you say otherwise.
Back to the housing situation. So we've found a couple of promising places online, but if our previous dalliance with house-hunting taught us anything, it's that every place looks different in person. Usually worse. I think with the right lighting, a wide angle lens and a bit of blur, real-estate agents can make a yurt look like the Biltmore. That being said, hubs and I aren't exactly picky.....as in, if it doesn't have contact paper for counter tops in the kitchen, we'll be thrilled :-) On top of the house-hunting moving forward, hubs also just found a super-cute rental available that is pet friendly, so we'll probably look into that as well.
Why would we still be considering a rental you may be wondering?? Or not. But I'm going to tell you anyway. We're pretty much stuck with renting SOMEWHERE for two months when we first get to B'burg. In order to have the full, official mortgage qualifications go through, they will need two months worth of pay stubs as proof of employment/income. And darn if those banks aren't bright enough to realize we aren't commuting from B'burg to C'ville to continue working at UVa. The plan is, if we find a place we really like and want to buy, to negotiate a rent-to-own arrangement for a few months so we can get those pesky stubs, then apply for the mortgage, making the paperwork WAY easier. Considering the housing market, if we agree to earnest money, have a loan pre-approval and pay rent and all, I think we stand a reasonable chance of negotiating this kind of thing. But, first things first....FIND A HOUSE!!!
And maybe start packing. Ugh.
Let's see, in other news, hubby has accepted the job offer previously mentioned. They didn't want to play the haggle game, but seeing as no other offers were forthcoming, we figured it was a place for him to start. Accepting the position doesn't mean he can't keep his eyes and ears open for other opportunities. He's got a quitting day at the old job and a starting day with the new one, with 3.5 weeks between. *grumble* I'm only taking 9 days off between b/c there's so much going on in lab and I needed to start with the beginning of a summer session at VT. The hubby's first day will be July 1st and my first day in my new lab will be July 5th. Which means.....
WE FRICKIN' NEED TO FIND A PLACE TO LIVE!!!!!
The nester/planner side of me (which I keep trying to suppress) is shrieking, jumping up and down and pointing at a calendar. Ok, so we've got a pre-approval letter for a mortgage, and an agent that we like has been contacted in B'burg, and houses have been looked at online. We're trying to get a bunch of house tours lined up for next weekend. Why not this weekend you may ask? Well, I've got a nursing gig in Richmond - the moms had a bionic knee installed so she can kick even more a$$, and I'm here making sure she doesn't try barefoot water skiing before the sutures heal. And shuttling bits of giant cookie with frosting to her.....it helps with the healing, and don't you say otherwise.
Back to the housing situation. So we've found a couple of promising places online, but if our previous dalliance with house-hunting taught us anything, it's that every place looks different in person. Usually worse. I think with the right lighting, a wide angle lens and a bit of blur, real-estate agents can make a yurt look like the Biltmore. That being said, hubs and I aren't exactly picky.....as in, if it doesn't have contact paper for counter tops in the kitchen, we'll be thrilled :-) On top of the house-hunting moving forward, hubs also just found a super-cute rental available that is pet friendly, so we'll probably look into that as well.
Why would we still be considering a rental you may be wondering?? Or not. But I'm going to tell you anyway. We're pretty much stuck with renting SOMEWHERE for two months when we first get to B'burg. In order to have the full, official mortgage qualifications go through, they will need two months worth of pay stubs as proof of employment/income. And darn if those banks aren't bright enough to realize we aren't commuting from B'burg to C'ville to continue working at UVa. The plan is, if we find a place we really like and want to buy, to negotiate a rent-to-own arrangement for a few months so we can get those pesky stubs, then apply for the mortgage, making the paperwork WAY easier. Considering the housing market, if we agree to earnest money, have a loan pre-approval and pay rent and all, I think we stand a reasonable chance of negotiating this kind of thing. But, first things first....FIND A HOUSE!!!
And maybe start packing. Ugh.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Will return to regular schedule after Thursday.
Thursday, from 2pm to 5pm I will be flexing my mental muscle to it's limits......that's just sad to consider. Actually, not my brain's limits, but more like the limits of my attention, interest in physics, and motivation to do crap that is hard and not fun at all. *Sigh*
Is it worse to feel stupid or lazy? I'm not sure.
Anyway, on a happier note:
Happy belated Mother's day to all the wonderful Moms in my life - both the actual and the spiritual ones!!
More this weekend....
Is it worse to feel stupid or lazy? I'm not sure.
Anyway, on a happier note:
Happy belated Mother's day to all the wonderful Moms in my life - both the actual and the spiritual ones!!
More this weekend....
Monday, May 2, 2011
All style, no sub....
Well, hope everybody enjoys the new blog-look! Spring is fully sprung 'round here and I'd thought I'd share the love. Also I'd like to point out the new "follow by email" gadget to the right ------>
Can't say I've tried it (seems weird to "follow" one's own blog) but I'm hoping it simplifies things for those of you who are interested. Also, I've heard from a little birdie (*cough* sister *sniff*) that it's hard to leave comments after posts. All I can say is that I have enabled the anonymous commenting option, so folks should be able to leave comments without having to sign up for anything. That being said, I'm sure that blogger (the free program I'm using to do this) would prefer that you have some sort of account and probably asks you to sign in by some method - just keep looking for that anonymous comment option/button, realizing it won't be the first option that is presented. Beyond that, I'm afraid I'm not much help b/c I'm pretty sure that blogger "looks" slightly different depending on which web browser you're using.
Business aside, there are a few things going on (har-dee-har-har):
1. Hubby got a job offer!!! So I'm not the only one who thinks he's brilliant, hard-working, honest as the day is long and has a cute tush. Well, I might be the only one who thinks that last part, but whatever. Of course we're both excited, but not surprisingly the offer wasn't for the income he had hoped....thus begins salary negotiations. Salary negotiation is such a foreign concept for us coming from academia that we didn't remember that he's supposed to counter-offer at first! He did call them back with a counter just this past Friday, so we'll see what they say. He's being modest about his experience and conservative due to the economy, so I have high hopes the company will agree to the counter offer. I also think he should have pushed for more, but I'm not the one doing the negotiation (and I do have all the wifey bias of thinking he's worth more than his weight in gold.....I mean, c'mon!! The man does dishes so I can work on my physics homework then helps me with the algebra when I get stuck! Who wouldn't want him!??!?)
2. Physics/Hell is drawing to a close! But the pressure is on. So I kind of dropped the ball on my third exam....as in, like, left my brain somewhere somewhere under the desk at home. *sigh* I can over-analyze the situation and why I did poorly all I want, but what it comes down to is that all that's left is cumulative final worth 36% of my grade. So from now until May 12th, it's one last push to conquer my math and motivation demons. I'm sure you'll hear more about this :-)
3. Working on pre-qualification for a mortgage....happily there are still specialized first-time home buyer options out there. Once we have the pre-qual in hand, it'll be coordinating with an agent to check out as many houses in B'Burg as we can in one day. We want to minimize the trips with gas being so frickin' expensive. Pre-qual should be figured out early this week, so we might be looking at houses as early as this Friday. I wish I could say I'm thrilled to be buying our first home but....well, I honestly feel backed into it by the lack of rental options, and I'm totally dreading all the paperwork and surprise expenses and obnoxious owners who change their minds 20 times and....you get the idea. Being an adult and realizing the implications of these big decisions sucks the excitement out of it for me.
Don't worry, I still get excited about some stuff. Stuff like free cookies at a seminar, and new episodes of "Glee". And I definitely get excited when nature decides to throw a little surprise into the mindless task of lawn-mowing:
Morels, baby!! For the first time the five years of renting in the same house, we've had a bumper crop of morels - all over the yard! These things are about $25 per pound at the foof-stores in Charlottesville. Hubby and I briefly considered selling our crop, but that passed pretty quickly :-) First dish I made was a chicken scaloppine with a sautéed morel-vermouth-tarragon-cream sauce. (Random side note - spellcheck just blew my mind and corrected my phonic butchering of scaloppine....my spellcheck speaks Italian. Who knew?) Anyway, with lots left over we decided to dry the remaining morels. Boy was that depressing! Know what two pounds of fresh morels looks like dried?? A handful of bad-looking prunes is what. We have one 2/3 full ziploc baggie in the freezer (extra precaution) for all our dried morels. NOT that I'm complaining, but it was a bit of a surprise to realize how much of a morel is made up of, well, just water. Anyway, I'm happily soliciting any morel recipe suggestions from you guys - feel free to share!
Well, it's quite past my bedtime now. I shouldn't start the week sleep deprived, but it's hard to let relaxing Sundays go :-) Hope everyone had a lovely weekend!
ps- furries are all great. Dax is a fattie and not getting ridden enough, but otherwise fine.
Can't say I've tried it (seems weird to "follow" one's own blog) but I'm hoping it simplifies things for those of you who are interested. Also, I've heard from a little birdie (*cough* sister *sniff*) that it's hard to leave comments after posts. All I can say is that I have enabled the anonymous commenting option, so folks should be able to leave comments without having to sign up for anything. That being said, I'm sure that blogger (the free program I'm using to do this) would prefer that you have some sort of account and probably asks you to sign in by some method - just keep looking for that anonymous comment option/button, realizing it won't be the first option that is presented. Beyond that, I'm afraid I'm not much help b/c I'm pretty sure that blogger "looks" slightly different depending on which web browser you're using.
Business aside, there are a few things going on (har-dee-har-har):
1. Hubby got a job offer!!! So I'm not the only one who thinks he's brilliant, hard-working, honest as the day is long and has a cute tush. Well, I might be the only one who thinks that last part, but whatever. Of course we're both excited, but not surprisingly the offer wasn't for the income he had hoped....thus begins salary negotiations. Salary negotiation is such a foreign concept for us coming from academia that we didn't remember that he's supposed to counter-offer at first! He did call them back with a counter just this past Friday, so we'll see what they say. He's being modest about his experience and conservative due to the economy, so I have high hopes the company will agree to the counter offer. I also think he should have pushed for more, but I'm not the one doing the negotiation (and I do have all the wifey bias of thinking he's worth more than his weight in gold.....I mean, c'mon!! The man does dishes so I can work on my physics homework then helps me with the algebra when I get stuck! Who wouldn't want him!??!?)
2. Physics/Hell is drawing to a close! But the pressure is on. So I kind of dropped the ball on my third exam....as in, like, left my brain somewhere somewhere under the desk at home. *sigh* I can over-analyze the situation and why I did poorly all I want, but what it comes down to is that all that's left is cumulative final worth 36% of my grade. So from now until May 12th, it's one last push to conquer my math and motivation demons. I'm sure you'll hear more about this :-)
3. Working on pre-qualification for a mortgage....happily there are still specialized first-time home buyer options out there. Once we have the pre-qual in hand, it'll be coordinating with an agent to check out as many houses in B'Burg as we can in one day. We want to minimize the trips with gas being so frickin' expensive. Pre-qual should be figured out early this week, so we might be looking at houses as early as this Friday. I wish I could say I'm thrilled to be buying our first home but....well, I honestly feel backed into it by the lack of rental options, and I'm totally dreading all the paperwork and surprise expenses and obnoxious owners who change their minds 20 times and....you get the idea. Being an adult and realizing the implications of these big decisions sucks the excitement out of it for me.
Don't worry, I still get excited about some stuff. Stuff like free cookies at a seminar, and new episodes of "Glee". And I definitely get excited when nature decides to throw a little surprise into the mindless task of lawn-mowing:
Well, it's quite past my bedtime now. I shouldn't start the week sleep deprived, but it's hard to let relaxing Sundays go :-) Hope everyone had a lovely weekend!
ps- furries are all great. Dax is a fattie and not getting ridden enough, but otherwise fine.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Time does fly....
Well.
Not sure anyone is still reading, but what the hey. I'm getting a backlog of pictures to post, but one of these days, I swear!!
So other than dealing with stink-bug infestations (invasive species, really gross: http://ento.psu.edu/extension/factsheets/brown-marmorated-stink-bug) life has been movin' along. Update on this year's big changes:
1. School: I've found a lab to join to do my PhD. Met with the professor on one trip to B-burg, then the rest of the lab on another. Basically they're doing work I find interesting (and high quality), are really nice people and seem to like me (apparently a bit nuts too). Next step: figure out credit transferring, what classes I've got to take in the fall, and then nail down a specific start date. The transition is scheduled for the end of June/beginning of July. However that really depends on....
2. HOUSING!! ugh. Hubby and I have discovered that the rental market is slim-pickin's in Blacksburg. We'd rather not end up in a funky appt in undergrad-land. Been there, done that. So we're back to the "to buy or not to by" question. That's a topic for a post all of it's own, honestly. There are so many financial and career factors that play into it, it's hard to know where to start. However, we are looking into the possibility of buying a house rather than renting. Shoot, with the economy and screwed up, housing in shambles, we have no idea what loan (if anything) we'd qualify for. Don't worry, hubby is super-cautious/conservative when it comes to finances, and I whole-heartedly support him (until I want to buy a new saddle for Dax and then he's just a tight-wad!!).
3. Hubby job - he had an interview that went very well, and we'll probably hear by the beginning of next week. It's with a biotech firm, so still doing bench-work but his impression is that the different atmosphere of industry might suit him. Cross your fingers and toes and eyes and.....
4. Found a home for Dax :-) Great barn, nice, professional manager, reasonable rates and...get this....it's 5mins off of Main Street. I. Love. Blacksburg. More on the barn later...
Sorry to make this so short after such a long absence. Probably won't get back on til after my third physics midterm this Thursday. Have I mentioned THIS CLASS IS KILLING ME??!?
Two weeks of classes left.
One midterm, one final.
All that stands between me and sanity.
Not sure anyone is still reading, but what the hey. I'm getting a backlog of pictures to post, but one of these days, I swear!!
So other than dealing with stink-bug infestations (invasive species, really gross: http://ento.psu.edu/extension/factsheets/brown-marmorated-stink-bug) life has been movin' along. Update on this year's big changes:
1. School: I've found a lab to join to do my PhD. Met with the professor on one trip to B-burg, then the rest of the lab on another. Basically they're doing work I find interesting (and high quality), are really nice people and seem to like me (apparently a bit nuts too). Next step: figure out credit transferring, what classes I've got to take in the fall, and then nail down a specific start date. The transition is scheduled for the end of June/beginning of July. However that really depends on....
2. HOUSING!! ugh. Hubby and I have discovered that the rental market is slim-pickin's in Blacksburg. We'd rather not end up in a funky appt in undergrad-land. Been there, done that. So we're back to the "to buy or not to by" question. That's a topic for a post all of it's own, honestly. There are so many financial and career factors that play into it, it's hard to know where to start. However, we are looking into the possibility of buying a house rather than renting. Shoot, with the economy and screwed up, housing in shambles, we have no idea what loan (if anything) we'd qualify for. Don't worry, hubby is super-cautious/conservative when it comes to finances, and I whole-heartedly support him (until I want to buy a new saddle for Dax and then he's just a tight-wad!!).
3. Hubby job - he had an interview that went very well, and we'll probably hear by the beginning of next week. It's with a biotech firm, so still doing bench-work but his impression is that the different atmosphere of industry might suit him. Cross your fingers and toes and eyes and.....
4. Found a home for Dax :-) Great barn, nice, professional manager, reasonable rates and...get this....it's 5mins off of Main Street. I. Love. Blacksburg. More on the barn later...
Sorry to make this so short after such a long absence. Probably won't get back on til after my third physics midterm this Thursday. Have I mentioned THIS CLASS IS KILLING ME??!?
Two weeks of classes left.
One midterm, one final.
All that stands between me and sanity.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
BACK IN BUSINESS!!
I RODE DAX ON SUNDAY AND SHE WAS GREAT!!!!
She's been trotting around so much on her own and looking completely sound that I decided it was time. Sunday was warm, sunny and calm ( = calm pony) so she got brushed down and saddled up. As a precaution I decided to lunge her first, just in case there were any bucks that needed to be worked out (again for the non-horsey, lunging = very long leash, horse goes in circles around person).
(Side note: it's spring and Dax is still young enough to get freakin' HYPER when the weather warms up. She's had many a spazz out moment lately, running, rearing and bucking around her field. And on the end of her lead rope. With the farrier on the other end. *sigh*)
Lunging went something like this:
Dax: Uh, why are we going back in the field? You strapped that saddle to me, don't you want to ride??
Me: I just want to see how you move and make sure you remember you're supposed to listen to me, how a saddle feels, etc.
Dax: Seriously? How stupid do you think I am?!? Oh, um, that's a whip. Right...I remember that...okeee. Circling left.
Me: Thank you. That's very nice.
Dax: Tossing head - THIS IS STUPID! Let's do something fun - I can hear people over at Mint Springs...I bet someone would scratch my ears! See, I know what I'm doing. Circles are boooooring.....
Me: Yeah, circles are boring.
Dax: See!! C'mon, let's go!! (walks up and give me a little nudge)
So I caved and jumped on. She made a bee-line for the park, ears perked and legs swinging (we even trotted a few steps). She was happy just to people watch and walk along, and get a few pets from interested kids. Up the road, through the field, along the dam and a brief trail loop (where she crossed two bridges and was careful with her feet around tree roots). Her reward was once again to stop and eat seaweed at the spillway, where we were hissed at by some nervous-but-hilariously-brave canadian geese. Back home she got brushed off, two cookies and her grazing muzzle back on. She hung her head over the gate as I put everything away with a look that clearly said "That's all?!??"
For now, that's all - all I needed to make my entire weekend beautiful.
She's been trotting around so much on her own and looking completely sound that I decided it was time. Sunday was warm, sunny and calm ( = calm pony) so she got brushed down and saddled up. As a precaution I decided to lunge her first, just in case there were any bucks that needed to be worked out (again for the non-horsey, lunging = very long leash, horse goes in circles around person).
(Side note: it's spring and Dax is still young enough to get freakin' HYPER when the weather warms up. She's had many a spazz out moment lately, running, rearing and bucking around her field. And on the end of her lead rope. With the farrier on the other end. *sigh*)
Lunging went something like this:
Dax: Uh, why are we going back in the field? You strapped that saddle to me, don't you want to ride??
Me: I just want to see how you move and make sure you remember you're supposed to listen to me, how a saddle feels, etc.
Dax: Seriously? How stupid do you think I am?!? Oh, um, that's a whip. Right...I remember that...okeee. Circling left.
Me: Thank you. That's very nice.
Dax: Tossing head - THIS IS STUPID! Let's do something fun - I can hear people over at Mint Springs...I bet someone would scratch my ears! See, I know what I'm doing. Circles are boooooring.....
Me: Yeah, circles are boring.
Dax: See!! C'mon, let's go!! (walks up and give me a little nudge)
So I caved and jumped on. She made a bee-line for the park, ears perked and legs swinging (we even trotted a few steps). She was happy just to people watch and walk along, and get a few pets from interested kids. Up the road, through the field, along the dam and a brief trail loop (where she crossed two bridges and was careful with her feet around tree roots). Her reward was once again to stop and eat seaweed at the spillway, where we were hissed at by some nervous-but-hilariously-brave canadian geese. Back home she got brushed off, two cookies and her grazing muzzle back on. She hung her head over the gate as I put everything away with a look that clearly said "That's all?!??"
For now, that's all - all I needed to make my entire weekend beautiful.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)