Long weekend...what did we do with it?

All this free time on a three day weekend and I couldn't really tell you what we did. Nothing too exciting...no BBQs, no hanging out in someone's backyard to celebrate the kick-off of summer. But I will recount it for you anyway in thrilling detail because...we thought blogging would be a good idea. Definitely did some sleeping in on Saturday, after the long day of closing happened on Friday. We did our weekly grocery shopping (not at the Farmers Market this time) and as far as we can tell we finally watched the Grey's season finale - which was awesome. Sunday we woke up even later and made brunch. Dan is usually in charge of the pancakes, and I take the bacon and eggs. This week, we had chocolate raspberry pancakes, which were phenomenal - it was a good experiment. After brunch, we decided to maybe actually work on some of the DIY projects we've been saying we're going to do, so we broke out the paint and painted some picture frames to put up some old-time postcards of DC that I found in an antique store. And then we painted some paintings. The backstory on this is that my second year of grad school, we opened a new student center, and so the organization I was in (Graduate Student Senate) got a brand new office. It was pretty barren. Our very creative VP went out, bought some blank canvasses and some paint and printed off some abstract posters that we copied from and voila - art for our new office walls. So, we're basically doing the same thing here. While we did buy a gorgeous photo in Monterrey, and Dan has some great art from Cuba that we framed and hung, we have some big blank spaces we need to fill. The paintings we did Sunday were minis, working up to the big canvasses. They'll be up by the time many of you visit in September and the rule is no laughing. Also, while we painted I think we watched no less than 8 episodes of the West Wing (season 1). Seriously. Today, we took a walk and I talked to my mom and Dan bought some books and we rented a movie (Rendition with Jake Gyllenhaal and Reese Witherspoon - has anyone seen it?) and yeah, we're incredibly boring. In more exciting news, however, summer should be a good time. My mom will be out to visit in early June, and then Dan and I will be travelling to Ohio for a wedding. I think in early July I will be home visiting (maybe possibly...more definite plans to come). Near the end of July, my work will start gearing up again, August will be exhausting and then in September almost everyone I love will be out here. So, I know things will be moving along. Also, I highly recommend the book Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. Really, really good. End of most boring post ever. Meghan - will you be in Oxford on June 15? HAPPY BIRTHDAY LAURA!!

Best day of the year.

Halls = closed. Students = gone. KK = drinking a glass of wine with the other RDs.

Kristi Yamaguchi is awesome.

Sorry if you actually cared about Dancing with the Stars and missed the finale, but Kristi won. I'm excited. I've got two days left of the semester before all the students are gone, I can hardly believe it but I've been crazy busy trying to get everything ready for closing. In two days, I will be back to write late night posts about nothing to keep all of you busy at work. The next few months are going to be awesome though - more on that later :) Everyone read Missy's actual important blog for the Washington Post: http://blog.washingtonpost.com/mystics-insider/

Things to know

**Down to the final three celebrities on Dancing With the Stars...I'm pretty excited about it. Yes I know it's kind of lame but, I love ballroom dancing and I'm not ashamed.

**Meghan asked if I was now a *Chicago Bears* fan, I think because of the "Go Bears" sign in my office window (see picture in previous post) and the answer is no but I am a Cal Bears fan :) The California Golden Bears in fact. I don't think I could ever get excited about a professional team besides the Steelers. Also, my family would disown me.

**It was 86 degrees here today. Tomorrow is supposed 94. Ninety freakin four. I'm pretty excited.

**Dan and I watched a documentary called "The King of Kong" the other night, which is about the two men who are constantly competing with each other to be the world Donkey Kong champion. And I thought it would be interesting, but wow did I get emotionally involved! Throughout the movie, they paint one of the guys as a huge jackass and I totally ate it up. By the end, I was really upset! Damn you Billy Mitchell!

**I miss The Daily Show. Mental note to tape that more often.



This is my dad and Grandma overlooking a river in Florida. My dad is posing like he's in a Captain Morgan ad. Classy.

The May edition of 12 on the 12th

Two months in a row that I've remembered. I should totally get an award. Or a sticker on some sort of chart somewhere. (I prefer scratch-n-sniff, just fyi.)

Anyway, here's my day in photos. There are multiple cat photos, I apologize.

10:41 AM - I'm just leaving the house for work (I work until almost 8 PM on Mondays, don't judge me!) And the cats are wrestling. This is quite the action shot.





12:42 PM - On my way out of the office for a meeting. This is my office. Note the ridiculous volume of stuff on my desk.




12:42 PM - I thought you would get a kick out of the fact that I get paid to make charts and such out of things like Carebears.




6:19 PM - This is some of my Hall Association giving away root beer floats to the residents to celebrate their last day of classes (which was today)




7:03 PM - And here are some of the fantastically wonderful staff mentors I've been working with in my class. Today was our last day, just time for students to turn in their papers. Koko (the other instructor) and I would never have gotten through class without them.




7:14 PM - And here is said stack of papers. Guess what I'm doing this weekend!




About 7:45 PM - View from one of my buildings on the 8th floor fire escape. Why yes, that is the view of the Golden Gate Bridge at sunset. And yes, we are ridiculously lucky.




About 7:46 PM -Dan and I thinking we're clever taking pictures of our shadows.





Shortly after the shadow picture - This is what my unit looks like. 6 buildings, courtyard, etc. You may remember a very similar view from my summer blog when I was an intern out here.



About 9:15 PM - The stuffed mushrooms Dan made to go with dinner. They're baby portabellas (local, from the farmers market), stuffed with feta and tomatoes. Yum. I know, they kind of look like little creatures with big red eyes. But you know what? They're TASTY little creatures with red eyes.





10:35 PM - Lily independently decides to climb into the office trashcan. Adorable.



11:15 PM - Andddddddd they're out.

Superbly Berkeley

Yesterday was a wonderful full day of embracing the Berkeley lifestyle. We only set out to take a walk and get some food, but it turned into an exploration filled with local produce, public services, and the good old random park festival. Oh, did I mention that we must have walked nearly 4 miles around Berkeley to enjoy all these fun things. Who needs a car. OK, so we actually did purposefully want to make it to the farmer's market. There are 3 each week in Berkeley, you think we could make it to at least one. And we did! The last time, we went to the all organic farmer's market and basically stuffed ourselves with giant peaches. Yum! It isn't peach season, but strawberry season instead. Again, yum! There's pretty much everything you could want: the local butcher shop meats, local dairy cheeses and butter, fresh veggies, hand made breads and pastas. Hungry yet? So we bought strawberries, and mushrooms, and locally made challah bread. So right next to the farmer's market is the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Park which is even cooler than it sounds because it has a rock climbing wall sized for babies. It's one of those fun things for kids I wish I could play with. (Not like I can't go use the big boy rock climbing wall.) You know what I'm talking about. Well on this day, there was an interesting looking festival with booths full of fantastical things. By interesting and fantastical, I mean it was a Pagan Festival. Not really our scene, but stumbling through trying not to stare was fun. The children running around with brooms, while their moms who were wearing fairy wings all chatted was...interesting. So continuing our walk, we came across the Berkeley Public Library. Who owns a library card these days? I do. Actually it's in her name, but whatever. Our library is actually really nice, who knew! She's basically trying to find as many inexpensive ways to get books as possible. I count about 7 different ways thus far. As for me, I get to read a lot more now since I commute on the metro... ahem BART. Kristin is excited about using me as her book pick-up and drop-off, since my walk to the BART station takes me right past the library. Anyway, we left the library and then went to do he rest of our grocery shopping that we can't do at a farmer's market. So, we went to Whole Foods. Milk in recycled glass bottles, organic everything, buying in bulk, etc. Good times. Then we walked on home. It really was quite a Berkeley day. And with that, maybe I'll finally post about work too. 2 posts in a day... I dunno, that might be pushing it. Miss you all!

Haircut documentation

This is me with some of my staff from this year, and this is me with my short hair, which I love.

On another note, it will soon be Dan's turn to update, but make sure he tells you about our ultra Berkeley day today :)

Quick updates to the work complaints

Apparently, I like to update late at night. Something to check off the to do list before bed you know. **When I mentioned physical threats in my last post about work, I just want to clarify that I was not receiving threats, but a student in my building was and I have to mediate the situation. Lucky me. Anyway, my mom was concerned. **Yes, Laura we will be updating the food blog soon. I got a little discouraged there for awhile, but I'm starting to get reinspired. **Tonight was my last late night of work for the year! No more staff meetings, hall association meetings or classes! Woot. **Guess what? Kevin is alive and doing well. I don't know if other people have talked to him recently, but I hadn't and yeah, he's A-OK. [This bit about not hearing from him in awhile is ironic coming from me, no?] **Good news from New Jersey: A MATCH HAS BEEN FOUND IN MARLTON! In February of 2007 we [my family from New Jersey - my aunt, uncle and cousin] formed a group of family and friends that wanted to make a difference in someone's life. We called our group and our mission "MARROW for MICHAEL". The goal was to register people in the National Marrow Donor Program in the hope that we could find a donor match for Michael or for someone like him needing a marrow transplant to perhaps save their life. The odds of matching someone needing a transplant are incredibly high, but on April 19, 2007 the more than 500 people who turned out at Cherokee High School and volunteered to be tested and add their names to the registry lowered those odds to something attainable. And finally, a success story! Dan Schules, a 24 year old police officer and former classmate of Michael's, was found to be a perfect match for a 16 year old boy from New York who has been waiting for a transplant. Dan completed the final part of the donation procedure on May 5, 2008 and now a desperate 16 year old and his family have a new lease on life.

More congratulations in order!

Congratulations to Kelley and Mike on the new additions to their family! Dan and I are so happy for you both, and your twins on the way!