Grad School.... Again

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Start new job, work both jobs for two months (only two weeks left!), AND start grad school again? I have never denied being an overachiever...

So, yes (!), I am in grad school again. And this time around is great! Good cohort of fellow students. Fascinating material (organizational behavior/development, which gives me enough science to apply to the workplace that I'm pretty happy). Only one evening a week (vs. all day Saturdays). Mind you, that evening is brutal. The teacher promises to let us out by 9:30 every evening, and hasn't yet let us before 10:10pm. I'm useless by 9:25, so can't be held responsible for what I say after that time. Then I get home and am too tired to sleep, so don't usually nod off until after midnight, then have to try to be up by 6:30 the next morning, which is a huge challenge.

Nevertheless, I shall prevail. 11 classes left this semester, then 4+ weeks off before we start again. It's just 22 or 23 months, then I'll be DONE with school that better prepares me for the workplace, and will just take the odd class in painting, drawing, writing, ancient history, etc.

I'm supposed to be writing a case analysis right now, but -- dang it! -- can't find my text book or notes. I wonder if I left them at work (but why?)? So, watching Nigella Lawson cooking an incredible feast (something with rice noodles, lime juice, peppers, shrimp, scallions, a whee bit fish sauce, YUM, now I'm dying for Vietnamese food) while doing a little housecleaning on this blog.

Latest TV flips and flops

A new Fall TV season is perfect entertainment for the over committed lupus challenged individual (prone, passive, background entertainment). Some of the good, the bad and the ugly:

Big Bang Theory: So bad I didn't last five minutes.

Heroes: Great!!! In fact, I'm going to watch the same episode again!

The Bionic Woman: Pretty disappointing, but I'll watch it at least once more. BTW, did they just import the Battlestar Galactica cast or what?

House: Good, ridiculous fun -- I'm still hooked.

Private Practice: One of the worst spinoffs of an equally bad show I've ever sat all the way through. I have a love/hate relationship with Grey's Anatomy, which is really just a poorly written soap, but keep finding myself watching it. I'm erasing this one from my DVR schedule though. Not one original idea or take on an old idea.

Journeyman: It was OK, not incredible, but not terrible. I'll give it another try. Smacked of The Time Traveller's Wife, without the lyricism, romance or soul.

Chuck: Fun!

CSI: I haven't watched it in a few years, but gave it another go, with this DVR thing. I was a bit shocked to see the weight the lead gained, but was happy to see that he's still the lead and even in a romance (because you know that unless you're lean as a whippet, you're doomed to dying alone on the wonderful world of TV).

Ugly Betty: Y'know, this is a fun show, clever, self-deprecating, celebrating the normal Joe's and Jane's of the world. But I can take it or leave it. I enjoyed it, but the world wouldn't end if I didn't watch it again.

My Name Is Earl: Clever, sweet, smart, etc. Yay for a great comedy!

The Office: Ditto!

Wow, it seems like I watch an awful lot of TV, doesn't it? I keep trying to watch the sitcoms that others talk about, but I really hate them. I wish laugh tracks were banned -- that's a nail in the coffin for any show for me.

So, enjoying some new shows, but no worries, most will be cancelled in a few months (if that long), given America's short attention span. We'll see how many more reality and game shows they can cram in.

Brenda weather!!!

Chilly, rainy, windy (not today though), overcast. In short, my kinda weather. Got the down comforter out. Accidentally made the best roast beef of my life (cooked at too high temp, now I know!). Burned a lot of music and audiobooks. Watched TV and movies. Quality time with my fuzzies. Got some smelly stuff from Pier One (on sale!). Chores. Reading for school. Didn't do any work Friday night or yesterday, for which I'll pay, but YAY. Now, need to do some. Watching Clint Eastwood's "Flag of our Fathers," which makes me think of and miss my grandpa (he served in the Philippines). Did some family research last night (YAY, missed that!!!).

It smells so wonderful outside. Nice crisp chill Autumn air with the hint of ocean and woods from the Santa Cruz mountains. I love Fall so much -- love the apples and the pumpkins and the crisp leaves and the fireplaces and that chill and sweaters and hot cocoa and homemade bread and the new TV season and earlier nights and Halloween and Thanksgiving and kitties who smell like Fall from sitting in the windows and the end of another Summer and rain and the wind chittering leaves across the ground and ... you get the picture.

Happy Fall!!!

Movies and Reading (or Listening)

I'm not even halfway through my latest audiobook, but LOVE it, so have to recommend to all, The Time Traveller's Wife. However, I'm pretty upset that my iPod's "part 1" is actually "part 2," so I've been listening to the last half of the book. AND, this isn't the first time this has happened to me. I don't think I'm an utter idiot (maybe just a partial idiot), but something's going on with my iPod and audible.com downloads.

Darn it!

Makes me kind of feel like I opened my Christmas presents early. I don't even peak at the end of my books!

Ah well.

So, some movies and TV I've watched (kinda) while working at home or studying:

Dr. Who (I know, I know): this week's and last week's episodes were pretty great! I'm talking about the 2007 version. Whether you love or hate the Doctor, I have to recommend this year's season, which you can watch on SciFi or BBC America.

Torchwood: BBC America, Dr. Who spin-off, kind of campy, totally sci fi/geeky, but fun.

Eureka: OK, OK, so I'm a geek! I didn't get this show until this year, and now I really love it. Comedy and sci fi for geeks w/too high of IQ's.

Carnivale: HBO. It's too bad that this show only lasted two years. I watched it when it first started, and now I'm recording episodes to watch on weekends. Imagine a Passion Play a la Twin Peaks, and you're getting warm. Good vs. Evil. The Dust Bowl in the Depression. Carnies and freak shows.

Flushed Away: HBO. Computer animation by Aardman (the good makers of Wallace and Gromit). I had zero expectations and actually enjoyed this. Lots of British humor. Great cast of voices. Definitely worthwhile if you're an Aardman fan.

Highlander: The Source: Turned off after 10 minutes (which was about five minutes too long).

Otherwise, just trying to maintain sanity while working in two positions, not entirely successfully in either, but as of today, one month left of this transition, and I also increase my effort to 3 days/week in my new position. Oy.

Possums....

Tragedy over the weekend in the back yard menagerie! I was very shaken up on Sunday. My back yard is such a menagerie of the Santa Cruz Mountain woods. I'm used to birds of every variety, squirrels galore, the occasional skunk, and am just glad that the continuing mountain lion sightings don't include my back yard!

I put a small trash can on my patio to soak a week ago Monday, and promptly forgot about it. I hadn't spent any time outside the rest of the week, being so busy at work. After a morning of errands, I saw an empty bird feeder (I had three full ones on Monday), so went outside, and immediately stopped in shock when I was hit with the reek of death, realized I was standing in a cloud of flies, and the trash can had a pair of beady scared eyes staring up at me from the bottom.

Oh my gosh! My first though was "rat," and my immediately following thought was "possum!"

There in my trash can was one thoroughly dead possum and then another still alive, maybe barely, undoubtedly its mate.

I was so upset that my own thoughtlessness killed an animal and may have killed another. I just ran back in the house, grabbed my thick gardening gloves, ran back out, got a shovel and started scooching (is that the spelling?) the can over to the garden area, thinking if I tipped it far enough, the little guy or gal could escape. I slowly tipped it over on its side and went back in to breathe fresh air and give it a little room. About 10 minutes later, I came back out, and peered in -- the poor thing was curled into a tight ball BEHIND the corpse of its mate. I can't imagine the horrors that this poor little thing went through.

SO, I slowly tipped up the bottom with the shovel, keeping my distance in case it got scared and start biting. Last thing I need is rabies. Finally, once the body came out, it was free and stumbled/tottered several feet away. It was a mess. Possums aren't generally that sleek and glossy, but it was wet and icky and looked like the flies had been biting it all over. I put out some water and cat food (didn't know what else a scared and starving possum might eat) at the end of the yard, where it was headed, but after several false starts, it managed the climb the fence and I haven't seen it since.

I've always liked possums -- they're all over this area, and have never done anything to hurt or annoy me. I just feel awful that I set up a trap, even unknowingly, resulting in the death of one little possum. If God cries over every sparrow, I'm sure He shed a few tears with me as I breathed a few words over its body before carrying it off to its unglorious final resting place in the dumpster.......

Laboring or Lack of Labor over Labor Day Weekend

I actually planned to do very little over my three days off, and so far have largely held to that. It's too HOT to do much at all! I finally gave in today after a week of heat, and installed my window a/c today. By the time I was done, I was drenched in sweat and rather sore (that sucker weighs >100 lbs). But I'm very very comfortable now! If I had my camera handy, I'd take a pic of Molly with a HUGE smile, curled up on the foot of our bed (after all, it's not MY bed with two cats around), which is a nice change from unsmiling miserable puddle kitty Molly from this morning in our non a/c house.

Heat and me just don't mix. I have weird and itchy heat rashes all over (and it's only the high 90's). I wanted to work in the back yard today, but just couldn't bring myself to go out there. Heat + lupus don't mix, and heat + lupus + the kind of stress I've been living definitely don't mix.

So, taking it easy this weekend.

Movies I've watched:

• "Star Wars IV," which I once knew as Stars Wars I (how times change) -- it would have held up over time had Lucas not had to put a lot of computer animation in.
• "The Queen," good move, superb acting by Helen Mirren, who is a goddess. A little hard to reconcile her role as the Queen thinking back to her role in The Thief, the Cook, his Wife, and her Lover.
• "Glory Road," which I highly recommend after not thinking I'd like it very much at all. Great basketball flick, but also just plain old great movie.
• "The Guardian," totally derivative, but still worth a watch. Just like every other "kid makes good in the military" movie.
• "The Departed." Wow. Don't have a lot more to say about this intense movie. Matt Damon has made some interesting acting choices in his life, and not all have paid off, but this one -- I think -- did. And as much as I don't want to like Leonardo diCaprio (not sure why), he is an incredible actor. I highly recommend this, but it's intense and not for the weak of heart.

Happy long weekend to all!