brrrrrrr

It is incredibly cold.

Its currently 11 degrees here, with a windchill of 10 below. The high -- 19 degrees, with a wind chill of 3. Granted, I shouldn't be complaining. It was in the 50s until, oh, 3 week ago. And I could be in Madison or Ann Arbor, where the wind chill is another 10 degrees lower......and that's not going to happen.

So Mom, I think you'll be happy -- I've officially deleted the job/HR sites of Michigan and Wisconsin from my favorite places and will no longer be considering jobs in the upper-middle portion of the country, as appearently I am a huge pussy about the cold. (Also, side note, thank goodness for treadmills, or I wouldn't be getting any cardio exercise for quite some time, seeing as we're not forecast to break freezing until at least Friday).

Lets blame it on the 5 years I spent in Texas. Wind chills in the 40s don't even make the map!

(Also, side note #2: I just noticed the wind chill in central IL is 20 below. Moments like this I thank the heavens that I left my plant job -- I don't even want to think about spending the day working around the stills or --eek-- loadout (which was right on the river) in this kind of cold.)

I rock

For the second time in as many weeks, I've given myself a (very mild) black eye.

Last week, I held (something close to) crow pose for about 15 seconds and was busy congradulating myself when suddenly, plop, my face was on my mat. I really don't remember falling. I do remember landing though, because I hit my nose square on. It was sore for days. My eyes tend to be puffy anyway, especially if I haven't gotten my beauty rest, so I didn't notice the mild brusing -- on both sides -- till a classmate asked me what happenned the next day.

And this morning, as I was reaching for my water bottle, the bar on the Smith machine decided to pop out right in front of me and smack me in the face. These things have minds of their own, I swear. So I have a little abrasion under one eye and its a little swollen. Nothing serious, although I did warn my mom so she doesn't freak out when I see her Saturday like she did last year when I turned up to Easter (or sometime around then, I forget) with a legit, although not overly swollen, black eye.

I'm amazing.

I am SOOOOO excited

I just ran downstairs to tell a coworker about this and I think she thought for a second I had a serious emergency.

I found this today---

www.mapmyrun.com

Its AWESOME. A new google-earth integration. You can put on the hybrid map and trace out a trail in a park or similar point by point. Much cooler than the clip-on-free-from-the-health-insurance-vendor pedometer (that I'm not sure is so accurate anyway). Of course, this will be much more useful when I make it off the treadmill and outside again, but that will require some nicer/warmer weather and longer lasting sunshine!

Oh. Seriously, nothing can be more exciting today.

brrrr

Ok, so its really not THAT cold outside.

But in comparision to the "winter" we've been having....we might as well be in Alaska. While I HATE the cold for the most part, I'm excited for two reasons (as my office has been hearing me discuss pretty much all month):
1) I would like to go snowboarding sometime this winter. And since I'm a poor graduate student, it needs to be on the east coast. Hence, we need the cold to allow for snow (or snow making).

(Now for the more exciting point)
2) I shut my window last night for the first time since that bizarrely cold day in December, before it hit 65 around Christmas. While I do like having fresh air and all, I don't like being forced to have it because the heat in my building is set at approximately 90. Seriously, with the window closed I can sit around in my skivvies when its 40 degrees out. Such a waste. I'd complain, but technically the place is a condo, so even if the heating costs drop, only my landlord might reap the benefits.

Also:
Stinks to live in the ice-covered parts...especially when you're in the south and a freeze is news, much less actual ice...
Really though, the most disturbing part about this article for me is that the strawberry crop may be damaged...sigh...

friday amusement.

Despite a fairly disappointing premier, this is pretty amusing. I can't get it to link into here, so scroll down to Lizzy.

Also, in response to Bush's new military announcement:

tact

The federal government never ceases to amaze me, in both its effectiveness and ability to control the news media. For instance, I doubt this would ever make the news on any American held station, even the more "liberal" ones.

"The letters were sent to more than 5,100 Army officers listed as recently having left the military. But this figure included about 75 officers killed in action and about 200 wounded in action."

How appalling. How horrifying that must be for the families. It angers me that more money is spent on "defense" than education annually, and yet the military cannot even keep track of their personnel well enough to not try to reenlist the dead.

Update: Amusing video, good point. Thanks Val.

I made another pie

Its also pretty. Lattice work. Though not as pretty as the one I made for Clifton Christmas a couple of weeks ago. I cheated this time and made the lattice strips fat...mostly because I was starving and needed to get it into the oven (what a lame excuse). But its for work people tonight anyway, so I guess as long as it tastes good, noone will mind. Here's my best-pie-to-date (from the CC event):

Amazing and captivating, I know.

Maybe despite my recent success in graduate school I should consider opening a bakery.

Or not. I can't see myself getting up at 4 am for work, at least not on a regular basis.