Monday, December 31, 2007

2007 Year in Review



It is time for the much awaited year in review for


As I reflected upon 2007, I realized that nothing much happened most of the time. However, I want to fill in an event for every month, so I may borrow stories from the news and just change the names around so I can pretend I was involved in the story.

In general I am happy to say I did not work for scam of a school ITT this year. I’ll be devoting a post to that experience in 2008, but in summary don’t even consider associating yourself with the school, be it as a recruiter, administrator, instructor, or student.

January – Probably my most traumatic month, my hard drive died. Let me back up a little. I didn’t use the old clunker all that much, instead opting to use one of Will’s computers (despite that my using it wasn’t an option in his list, but I can’t help that is was an option in my list). And, well, I guess I used it too much because the power cord/adapter stopped working (for the second time). While I waited for the newly ordered cord to arrive in the mail, I was forced to use my laptop with a non-functioning screen and a fan whose sound pressure was that of jet engine’s. Because of the lack of a screen I had to hook it up to a desktop screen, further forcing me to remain stationary as I worked in my cold, dark dungeon (office) in the basement. (Okay, enough complaining, I must have your sympathies by now.) Well, long story short, my hard drive decided to croak as I was working on a program due the next day. At the same time Will was racing against a deadline on a paper, so his computer was out of the question, and the power to his other computer still had not arrived. I ended up helping another classmate with his assignment in exchange for the use of his computer. I finished my assignment and made a new friend.

February – I won the lottery! Actually, I didn’t quite, I just beat some really low odds. I was on my blog obsessing over its ghettoness when I decided to hit the ‘Next Blog’ link that is in the upper left hand corner. I often check other blogs out to get ideas or to just plain steal their ideas. Well, the “next blog” was that of a college roommate and good friend I lost contact with and hadn’t seen in 11 or so years! So after shaking for about a half hour, I wrote the totally awesome Sariah, aka S-dawg, to say ‘long time no see’. Even then, I found out my email went into the spam folder. I beat the spam odds too. I am that good!

March – I won $20 in Blackjack. A married couple that I teach wanted to experience an American casino, and trying to be the best damn teacher I can be, we took a trip down to the Muckleshoot Native American casino. The environment was pretty depressing, so we only played a few games before they wanted to leave, but every game I touched I won, with a profit of $20 (that will probably be the most I ever win, so I felt I should mention in my YIR). I promised them that Vegas was not like Muckleshoot. Vegas hides the desperation and despair of its regulars with simulated cities and eras and artificial lights.

April – I have no idea what happened this month. I even looked back at my old posts for that month and found nothing meaningful. I enjoyed life in April.

May – I got what I hope is my last speeding ticket. I’m bitter about every ticket I have received. I will admit that I was guilty of every infraction, but I dislike the sting operation type ticketing. I don’t get my tickets going 100, which I have done, nor dangerously weaving in and out of traffic, which I haven’t done but have seen. I get my tickets where cars and pedestrians are sparse or non-existent; it’s just me, open road, and some cop hiding behind the bushes.

June – I got my second visitor, the one and only Sarah. It was towards the end of the month, but it still occurred in June so I’m counting it! In my almost 2 years of being in Seattle, I only had 1 other visit from my friend Mari. Everyone else comes up to visit Will, no love for the Caredog. Seeing the Sarah was great and I will return the visit with a trip to Ireland. I WILL be there Sarah

July – I got married! July 5. Although, I have no idea who Carrie Lewis is. I also don’t know why this is my shortest review.

August – Mariner Month. I attended a lot of games this month, much more than I have attended in a month for the Angels in Anaheim. However most of the games I went to were Mariner v. Angels, so that should count for something. The best game was on Mariner Monday, where the Angels kicked some Mariner a$$, ha ha. My apologies to the B-man though, the guy I went with. He’s a good Mariner fan, but I think he got booed along with me because of my Angels paraphernalia. I’ll make it up to you next season B-man.

September – I became another year older. The birthday bash was fun. I can’t say I remember much of it anymore. I was told I sang happy birthday in French to my fellow Virgo friend Janani and I still have the receipt for 5 popsicles I bought around 2 in the morning. Popsicles?

October – I started school in September, but October was the darkest month. The material in one of my courses was so novel and tough that despite my starting my assignments as early as possible, I usually finished them with only an hour or 2 to spare. In retrospect, the mental anguish was useful, as I am now well prepared for the prerequisite class I skipped, but I hated life at the time.

November – I managed to escape Seattle for a weekend for the sunshine of the California shore. Sure, I only saw the sun from my window most of the time, but I have learned to appreciate any exposure I can get to the rare golden orb.

December – I successfully completed my first quarter at the UW! My sleep cycle is still recovering.

What does 2008 have in store? We shall see…

Monday, December 24, 2007

Merry Christmas



Copying everyone else, I have posted a picture of our Christmas tree. As you can see ours is not even in the same plantae division as a proper Christmas tree, but we had to improvise. Neither of us are Christmas tree type people, I grew up with a fake one and Will sometimes didn't even have one, so a tree was pretty low on the holiday to-do list. Also, do you see those Christmas lights in the background? That is pretty much the full extent of our Christmas decor. Next year you'll decorate, Carrie, next year.

The cat in the background in none other than Donny, our food lovin' kitty. I had a hard time getting him to look at me. He knows his name, but being a cat, he only responds when it suits him. I finally got him to look at me by saying "food".

This isn't much of a Christmas post, but Merry Christmas anyway. I'll post my year in review as my final post of 2007. Also, now that I have some time, my OCD is back in action! Look for revisions and perhaps some order and organization to my posts. The rambling and ranting will remain however.

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Sushi Attempt 11

I left the photography up to the photographer in my tiny little family, but I made the mistake of not feeding him first. He was way more interested in me hurrying up then allowing me to properly place my "art", or even pick out the pieces that are worth photographing. He just took a quick pic of what I had on the plate thus far, grrrr. My apologies to those in the art of sushi, as I think I am breaking the rule of not displaying your rejects, never mind that I am breaking another rule by not using a mat.
Although, out of respect, I am not going post the full plate pic, it really is too ugly, rather I just cropped a few pieces out. Still lacking in the art department, but I'm going to ignore the little voice that is telling me not to put any pictures up.

Salmon Roll w/Avocado



BFF's Philly Roll (My first try at it at the Salmon/Cream Cheese combo) and Seared Salmon Roll


And just so you don't think your computer screwed up and didn't load photo2, that is what photo2 looks like. Note to self: learn to photo edit in spare time.

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Update 12.07

As of today I am officialy done with my quarter! Hopefully the next few quarters won't be as much of a brain shocker. I'm all about prerequisites now.

The big question now is did anything else happen in my life besides school and whining about my difficult class?

My answer to that is not really, but I'll come up with something...

My soccer team went 1-??-1 this season. Yeah, I lost count of the games we lost. We're hoping for a better season this winter. As for me, I am no longer playing the beloved right defensive position I played as I youngster. I'm now usually the center midfielder. It's hard for me to let go of the control freakiness that made me a good defender, so I still spend a lot of time in the defensive line, and then I run my heart out to catch up to the offensive line when we get control of the ball. It's a good workout, but probably not best for the team to have an exhausted center. Sorry team, I'll get over it the defense obsession soon. Will has yet to attend a game. He's a fair weather spectator, and well, Seattle isn't exactly known for fair weather, but when he does attend, pictures there will be.

I postponed my reception type thingy, which was to be held in November. After spending my first week of school chained to my computer, I concluded that any partying would be eclipsed by my obsession over whatever program I was working on. Date of reception type thingy TBA. However, we still had tickets to California in November, so we flew to Burbank and stayed in Carpenteria instead. The main theme of me in front of the computer remained the same despite the change of location, but I occasionally rewarded my self with a nice run on the beach. I got out once to Santa Barbara to see our old friend Hector. Below are the high quality pictures of the occasion:

















And in family news, there will be a new addition in June, and it is NOT coming from me. My brother Brian and his wife are expecting child #3. With Carl's 6, Brian's 2, and Will's sister's 2, I'm a busy girl this Christmas, but I'm not complaining.

Now, for a preview of the exciting topic of my next post...




Above is how it should be done. Check the blog out Sunday for how I do it.

Friday, December 07, 2007

I Have Returned

Click on the pic for
some dancing action!

I am done!!! Well, not quite yet. I still have a final to take next week, and I need to clean up some of the code I just completed...then it's a done deal. I'm just hoping the electricity doesn't go out in some freak accident and that I don't lose what semblance I have of self discipline, by going to sleep when I really ought to 'clean up'.

This was a quarter like none other. I enrolled in the social life exterminating course without one of the prerequisites and concurrently with the other prerequisite, for reasons unknown to even me. I shall now return to the life I once knew 3 months ago.

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

A Confession


If you heard about the recent floods in the Northwest, then I'm going to let you in on a little secret...I caused the flooding. I finished one of my assignments way ahead of schedule, thereby disrupting the balance of the universe. My sincerest apologies.