Christmas Pictures!

I hope everyone had a good Christmas. I did. I got some clothes, CDs, movies, an iTunes gift card, hair ties, Christmas socks, and a bunch of chocolate.

It went by too fast, though. The entire Christmas season has flown by at a remarkably fast pace. I am sure this is partly due to the fact that Thanksgiving was so late and partly because I was in school until halfway through December.

I went shopping the day after Christmas and got some good sales. I got Taylor Swift’s new CD on sale as well as a bunch of clothes.

Benny had a good Christmas, too. We got him a stuffed squirrel (an inside joke because Benny picked up a dead squirrel out of a pile of leaves a few months ago) and a few different kinds of treats. Here are a few pictures of him opening his stocking!

Latkes and Bacon

For as long as I can remember, it has been a tradition of my family to have bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwiches on Christmas Eve.  I actually don’t like bacon, so I just put cheese on mine.  But everyone else eats them.

The other day, my mom decided she would make latkes (potato pancakes) for Hanukkah.  We usually have them for dinner one night during Hanukkah.  Her original plan was to have them last night, but that didn’t work out.  I was working until 5 (and I was going to buy the potatoes and onions to make the latkes) and my bro had to be somewhere at 6.  So, the timing didn’t work.

Then we came up with the idea to have them tonight, on Christmas Eve, along with the BLT sandwiches.  It’s a rather funny combination of foods.  Bacon is definitely not kosher.  So, we’re having Jewish food along with bacon.  Maybe it’ll become a new tradition.  It would certainly fit our mix of religions.

Snow Day

Mother Nature blessed us with about six inches of snow last Friday.  It started snowing in the late morning, although my siblings did have a snow day.  They got an anticipatory snow day.  I thought it was a good idea.  My mom went grocery shopping and was hoping to get back home before the snow started.  That didn’t happen and she got stuck on a hill on the way home.

The roads were horrible.  The plows couldn’t keep up with it and they didn’t plow around my house until late in the day.  I was supposed to work at 1pm.  I called and told them I’d be late due to the crappy roads, but they told me just to not bother coming in at all.  So I got a snow day, too!

Then we got another few inches yesterday.  I hope this is a sign of what the winter will bring.  I want more snow like this!  I could do without the -20 wind chill factor, though.

Here are some pics I took on Friday.  They’re not that great because I was holding Benny’s leash at the same time, but they do show how snowy it was.

This is the bottom of our driveway and the street.  There was over a foot at the bottom of the driveway.

And here’s a video of Benny because videos capture his love of snow so much better than pics do.  He was dragging me all over the yard.

All right, that didn’t work.  I’ll just give you the link.

Benny in the Blizzard

Happy Hanukkah!

Tonight is the first night of Hanukkah.  We lit the menorah and my mom gave us each a bag of Hanukkah gelt and $1.

Today at work one of the customers who went through my line wished me a Happy Hanukkah, which was cool.  I didn’t know him so I doubt he knew that I celebrate Hanukkah, but I thought it was nice.  Most people just say ‘Happy Holidays’ or occasionally, ‘Merry Christmas.’  So, whether you celebrate it or not, Happy Hanukkah everyone!

Thirteen Songs On My Playlist (TT#3)

For this week’s Thursday Thirteen, I shall set my iTunes to shuffle and post the names of the first thirteen songs that come up.

1.  Stay on the Line- Jared Campbell

2.  Mary’s Song- Taylor Swift

3.  Love Is A Beautiful Thing- Phil Vassar

4.  Papa Loved Mama- Garth Brooks

5.  The River- Garth Brooks

6.  Little Bit Of Life- Craig Morgan

7.  Find Your Grail- Spamalot Soundtrack

8.  Where Is Your Heart- Kelly Clarkson

9.  Christmastime At School- Gred and Forge

10.  Angels We Have Heard on High- Josh Groban

11.  Tied Together With A Smile- Taylor Swift

12.  Don’t Waste It- Jared Campbell

13.  His Name Is Lancelot- Spamalot Soundtrack

Never Get a Christmas Tree After an Ice Storm

Last week’s ice storm blessed my siblings with an early release on Thursday and a snow day on Friday.  I was thoroughly disappointed that the storm brought us a mere 2 or 3 inches of snow, when forecasters originally called for a foot.  Instead we got a quarter inch of ice followed by a pathetic two inches of snow.  So much for the first big snow storm of the year.

On Saturday, we decided to go get our Christmas tree.  We always go chop down our own.  Half the fun is picking it out and chopping it down and bringing it home.  I was quite excited because there was actual snow on the ground this year.  Usually we get the tree in the rain or mud.

However, we did not think about the fact that the ice had not yet melted.  The ground was an ice rink.  The trees were covered as well.  We could not find a single tree that was not coated in a thick layer of ice.  Eventually, we found a satisfactory tree and chopped it down.  The thing was extremely heavy due to the amount of ice on it.

When we got home, we realized that if we put it in the house right away, it would melt all over the floor.  So we set it up in the garage with a tiny space heater to try and melt the ice.

Unfortunately, the heater did not do much to decrease the ice on the tree.  After a few hours, my dad just decided to bring it inside.  The trunk was frozen solid and he had to use a hair dryer to warm it up in order to put it in the stand.  He set it up and it wasn’t until it was inside that we realized exactly how much ice was left on the branches.   We also realized that it was quite crooked.   Of course, the ice immediately started melting into the carpet, which brought back fond memories of The Fish Tank Saga.

The carpet was quickly becoming saturated in water, which made my parents very glad they hadn’t replaced it along with the upstairs carpet over the summer.  They also worried if this would cause them to have to replace the carpet after Christmas.

My sister and I began to pull ice off of the tree while my bro used the shop vac to suck the water out of the carpet.  We also vacuumed the actual tree, which was hysterical.   We spent about an hour doing that and it helped.  We pulled a bucket and a half of ice off of the tree, which was most of the ice.

After that, the tree was still wet so we could put the lights on and decorate it.  My dad decided to let it sit in the kitchen all night to dry and completely thaw out, while the family room carpet dried.

After all that work, we were able to decorate it Sunday night.  It’s smaller than most of the trees we get, so it’s quite crammed with ornaments and we had a lot leftover, which we put on a fake tree in the basement.   Here’s the formerly frozen tree in all its decorated glory.  It’s still not straight, either.

Notice the lack of ornaments on the lower branches.  That’s because of our resident Mischief Maker.

Thirteen Things I Like About the End of Finals Week (TT#2)

To balance out last week’s Thursday Thirteen, Thirteen Things I Hate About Finals Week, I shall now blog about thirteen things I like about the end of finals week.  I took my last final yesterday, so finals are over.

1.  The end of the semester.  (Obvious, I know, but true).

2.  No more studying.

3.  No more homework.

4.  The freedom to forget the 37 formulas I frantically memorized prior to Wednesday’s statistics exam.

5.  Getting to see Benny.

6.  Getting to see my family.

7.  Working.  Yeah, not normally something people enjoy, but I need money.

8.  Getting and decorating the Christmas tree.

9.  No more dining hall food for a month and a half.

10.  Sleeping in.

11.  Christmas being 2 weeks away.

12.  Having an immense amount of free time on my hands, which will enable me to really get started writing my third fan fic about Albus Potter.

13.  We’re that much closer to having Bush out of office.

And this week, I’m actually going to stop at 13.

34 Formulas

I counted the number of formulas I have to memorize for my statistics final on Wednesday.  I estimated it was around 20.  I was way off.  If I had the formulas memorized, I could probably tell you the error of my guess.  I have 34 formulas that I have to know for my final.

34!  That is thoroughly insane.  I do not see the point in memorizing that many formulas.  When in my life, if I ever have to use statistics, will I be unable to look up said formulas in a book or online?  Plus, even if I manage to memorize them all in time, I will surely forget them within 24 hours of taking the test.

They’re all variations on each other, too.  They all have the same principal, just slightly different variables and ways of arranging them.  This makes it incredibly difficult to tell which one to use when.

Statistics is a walk in the park compared to Calculus.  Calculus was the bane of my existence last semester and the statistics class I’m taking is practically a joke compared to it.  It’s just the formulas that get me.  34 to memorize in 2 days.

Let It Snow!

It has been snowing since the wee hours of the morning.  As of now, we have 3 or 4 inches!  It’s the first big snow of the season.  We’ve had an inch or so here and there since the beginning of November, but nothing big.

It’s incredibly windy, too.  Good day to stay inside and surf the web, er, study…  I just hope we have snow next Saturday when we get our Christmas tree!  It’s a whole lot more fun to get a tree in the snow than in the mud.

Thirteen Things I Hate About Finals Week (TT#1)

This is my first foray into Thursday Thirteen I can’t guarantee that I’ll do it every Thursday, but today I managed to think of an idea.  So, here are thirteen things I hate about finals week, which is next week.

1.  Devoting a weekend to studying (obvious, but true).

2.  8 am final.  Enough said.  There is a reason I do not schedule classes before 9:30.

3.  Two finals in a row.  Yes, there is a half hour in between, but that is not nearly enough time to cram in extra studying and obtain sustenance that I was unable to get before the aforementioned 8 am final.

4.  Writing papers.  Why do all the professors have papers due around finals?  Aren’t they aware that we are already swamped with studying?

5.  Re-memorization of previously forgotten statistics formulas.  I have no less than 20 formulas that I need to memorize for my stats final.  I’ve had them all memorized at one point during the semester, just not at the same time.

6.  Distractions.  These usually come in the form of Christmas movies on TV.  They make it incredibly hard to study.

7.  Tedious extra credit that provides one with a mere point or two.  If I am going to spend two hours working on an extra credit paper, I would like more than two points for it.

8.  Reading the books I should have been reading throughout the semester.  My computer science quizzes have always been online, which means they are open-book, open-Google, pretty much open-everything.  The final is not open anything.  Thus, I have to crack open the text book that has been collecting dust on my desk.

9.  NaNoWriMo is over.  All right, it’s not directly related to finals week, but NaNo was an excellent distraction from studying that I no longer have.  And yes, I do appreciate a distraction every once in a while.

10.  Selling back books.  You purchase a $200 text book at the beginning of the semester.  If you’re lucky, you’ll get $50 for it.  Chances are, it will have gone to a new edition and the book store will not take it.

11.  Classes where the professor teaches new material right up until the end.  Some professors review for the last couple classes.  Others cancel class knowing that their students would rather be studying.  Then there are the ones who teach new material on the last day and tell you it will be on the final.

12.  Packing.  When I am not studying this weekend, I will be packing to go home.  I just know I am going to forget something and I will have to live without it until I return in January, due to the fact that the dorms will be locked.

13.  Pre-leaving laundry.  Laundry is always an irritating task in my dorm, but I am sure everyone is going to need the washing machine early next week, which is when I will need it as well.  Chances are, I will do my laundry at midnight while cramming for the 8 am final.

14.  Papers that are worth a quarter of your grade.  My final essay for English class is worth a quarter of my grade.  I currently have a horrible grade in that class and desperately need above a 90 on that essay, but the chances of getting a grade that high are slim.  I’m trying to write it exactly how she wants, but it is proving to be difficult.

15.  Knowing that freedom is only moments away.  In a week I will be done.  Completely and totally done with the semester.  But right now, it seems incredibly far away.  It’s so close yet I cannot grasp the freedom.  Thinking about it only makes the time creep by even slower.