Song of the Day

I'm wondering, if you read that story too?
And if we both might
be having
the same
imaginary conversation

Four
three
two
one
I'm letting you go

I
will
let
go
if you will let go

-Ben Folds, Cologne

Laughs from the Past

Before I left Indiana, I pell-mell packed things that were (are) still at my Mom's house and not with me at college. Apparently I brought some old journals here to Baltimore with me. When I say old, I mean from when I was 8/9 years old. This is just absolute gold. Here are some excerpt from my school journal. I remember we had to often write about what we did the previous day or answer prompts that were on the blackboard.

9/11/00
To clean our room, make our beds, do our jobs, and do our homework.
I don't like to clean our room, do our jobs, and doing homework.
They're not fun.

9/25/00
I would go to the year 1. I want to because I want to see what life was like with the dinosaurs and what it's like to be the only person around.

1/4/01
Had a friend spend the night
Opened my new present- shirt
Liked the holidays
I went to a ballet
Dreamed
Ate a christmas dinner
Yelled at my sister

2/21/01
I'm good at piano. I'm good at Spelling. I'm good at school.

4/30/01
Slept in
Ate spaggetie
Told my sister to leave me alone
Used the computer
Read a book
Drew a picture
Ate pizza
Yelled at someone

So, what can we take away from this? Well, first of all I really like acronyms, despite saying I was good at Spelling, I clearly was not, and also that I yell at my sister a lot (we did yell a lot, didn't we Bekah?)
:)

Quote of the Day

We just got a new voice/message/video calling system at work, and I was testing it out with a coworker.

Quote of the Day

Seriously.... Try it.

me: dude

  lay your hand on some surface

  with your pinky on the table

  so that your thumb is closest to the ceiling

  make sense?

19:47 Elaine: yea

 me: now reverse it, so pinky is closest to ceiling

  and your whole thumb is on table

  it's a bit weird position

  then look at your fingers

  don't they look like aliens

  or just weird

  like, wiggle your pinky

19:48 Elaine: wuuut

 me: did any of that make sense

 Elaine: yes!

  that was weird

  it doesnt look right

 me: for real

19:49 i thought maybe there was something in the air here and i was going crazy looking at my fingers

 Elaine: lol

  i'm surprised you even noticed it

  but yea

19:50 it's weird... even with my hand in the air it looks normal

  then on the table it's freaky

 me: exactly  - Elaine and I ponder the complexities of the human hand

A Day (Week) in the Life (of Jo Taylor)

OK, so that Beatles reference was a stretch. I tried.

Last Tuesday- I rescued a stray lost kitten that was playing in the street (it's busy too!) and its owner retrieved it. Hung out with my gimpy friend who had ankle surgery.

Wednesday- Went to work as normal. Went home as normal. I was going to pick up some friends to go contra dancing (yay!). Drove 2 blocks from my apartment and whilst being the first car to cross the intersection during the green light promptly got slammed into by another driver who ran a red light. (yes yes I'm fine) Outrageous chaos ensued. When other people are in traumatic/stressful situations I am usually pretty good at remaining calm and rational. Apparently not so when reversed. A very long and annoying story short: other driver claimed HE had a green light, insurance companies duke it out, get in contact with witness to the accident, backpedal and offer me some money. My poor Oldsmobile was totaled.

Let's all just give a moment of silence for that trooper. Drove me the Indiana-Baltimore trip THREE times and never once complained. Anyway, I am of course getting reimbursed for the value of the car, but now I'm just annoyed that I have to go through the process of getting another car. I was going to get one soon anyway, but wanted to save up enough money to buy a nice one.

Sigh.

But wait, it doesn't end there. Friday- I donate blood. Guys, I don't think you understand how momentous an occasion this is for me. I am absolutely terrified of giving blood. Like, really irrationally afraid. Vaccines are bad enough. BUT EXTRACTING 10% OF MY LIFE SOURCE? Uh-uh. Well, I was really curious to see if I could do it (I kept being reassured it wasn't as bad as I was making it out). Well, OK, it turns out it wasn't as bad as I was making it out, but it was still not pleasant. I got a bit nauseous during it but then felt much better after having some juice and resting. My officemate Heather and I did it together, so we headed back up to the office. So yeah, well, no one told me that resting for 5 minutes was an insufficient time to become able to walk up TWO flights of stairs. I want it on the record that I never passed out, contrary to my coworkers who saw fit to coddle me embarrassingly afterwards. I WAS conscious the whole time, just momentarily deaf with blurry eyesight. At least I know to take the elevator now.

BUT WAIT GUYS it gets better. Enter Hurricane Sandy. That's all I need to say. And also that I was totally unprepared for what a hurricane is like. It's windy and rainy and cold and scary because there are at least a dozen trees within sight of the window in my bedroom. Work has been closed for the past 2 days but tomorrow we're back at it. A lot of folks lost power (luckily I didn't) but it's not half as bad as what happened further north. Maryland, and Baltimore, missed the worst of the storm while New Jersey and NYC got slammed.

So yeah, that's my terribly exciting life! Paperwork and hurricanes and blood donations oh my!

Weathering out Hurricane Sandy (pun intended)

Jo's Guide to Hurricane Preparation:

- Stock up on kitty litter (worse comes to worse maybe I can use the litterbox too)
- Have car totaled in previous week to assure no trees/power lines fall on it
- Fill up every water bottle in the house
- Buy all the Hurricane Food Essentials such as canned peas, chips and dip, cranberries, and alcohol
- Do laundry in case you're stuck inside for a while
- Watch every natural disaster movie available to get in the spirit

Quote of the Day (WARNING nerd jokes)

12:53 me: my supply of fudge striped cookies is dwindling

  THAT'S what i need to stock up on for the hurricane

 Roberto: hahaha

  i'm buying stuff to make hurricanes today.

 me: yessss

 Roberto: light rum, dark rum, pineapple juice, orange juice.

12:54 me: my friend is a meteorologist and he went to the weather version of AAS and they gave everybody there free hurricanes

 Roberto: nice.

12:55 we need to come up with some kind of astronomy drink.

  like the dark matter shot or something.

12:57 me: yeah, and everyone will always ask each other and the bartender, what is this made of?

  they'll just shrug and say WIMPs?

12:58 Roberto: hahahaha

  machos

12:59 WIMPS = whiskey……melon, patron

 me: hahahahahaha

  legit lol'ing right now

13:00 Roberto: whiskey, ice, melon juice, patron

 me: that actually sounds a bit unpleasant

- Talking about the upcoming Hurricane Sandy due to hit the mid-Atlantic soon.

Quote of the Day

Roberto: so you up to anything?

23:32 me: not much

  was reading for a bit. hangin out with the cat

  you know

  big stuff

23:35 you?

 Roberto: nothing exciting. grocery shopping, cleaning.

23:36 me: preparing for the bone chiseling.

23:37 Roberto: yeah.

  thanks for that.

 me: just doing my duty as your friend

  your pragmatic friend haha

23:39 Roberto: when are you donating blood again? have you seen the size of those needles?

 me: hahahaha

  touche  - My friend is having ankle surgery. I am donating blood for the first time ever.

City Life

I'm sitting on my fire escape. I like to sit at the top of my fire escape, on the roof of my row home. I could walk across the roofs and fire escapes of a dozen row homes since they are really one large seamless building broken up into homes and one-floor apartments. I like to sit on my fire escape and gaze up at the 10-15 stars I can see near the heart of Baltimore.

I hear a rustling near the bottom of the fire escape. Too soft to be a person. Rustling in the alleyway = rats. I think, "Can rats climb stairs? Wow I hope not, because they could climb the stairs of my fire escape and be at my back door. They could be clawing at my door and windows from the fire escape." I sit and hope that rats can't climb stairs. I look down and there is no rat. Phew.

I hear a rustling 3 floors below me in the alley that runs behind the large seamless row of row homes. This time, without looking I know it's rats. I look anyway- yes, it's a rat. It scurries out from under my neighbor's car that is parked in the alleyway. It runs across the alley to a dumpster that is overfilling with trash. They pick up the trash on Mondays so it's overfilling by Sunday.

I look back up to the sky again.

A few minutes later, a man steps out into the alley from the large seamless row of shops/restaurants that occupies the side of the alley parallel to the large seamless row of row homes. He empties a mopping bucket. The alley is slightly at an incline- the dirty water runs all the way down the alley. It makes sense now; I have noticed how where the middle of the alleyway street meets is turned an odd shade of pale orange. It must be bleached? by the frequent dumping of cleaning materials in the mopping buckets.

Some time later I hear the caw-ing of a large flock of crows. I hope that maybe they are ravens (I don't really the difference between the two) because of Baltimore's history with ravens (think Edgar Allen Poe).

I sit in relative silence (there is humming of heaters, some quiet honking in the background). Then I hear rustling again, this time at a different dumpster. Rats? I think. I look down.

I see a rat skitter. skitter. skitter. up three steps of a stairwell across the alleyway from my fire escape.

Quote of the Day

Matt: How is your tarantula? Please tell me it is doing better

me: DUDE. I was really scared so the first thing I did when I got home is look at her- she was in a different spot! I tapped the cage a lot but she didn't move. Later I came back and she was in a different place again. She is clearly alive, maybe recovering from molting so won't respond to my polite taps. It is rather tedious to shed your exoskeleton.

Matt: I know that when I have to do it I tend to lounge around for the next couple of days.

- Conversation between myself and friend Matt

(A few days ago Zelda the tarantula molted. I was mortified when I came home from work and saw TWO tarantulas. While this is very cool that she shed her exoskeleton, this morning she was sprawled out very oddly and I tapped on the glass to see if she was ok. She did not move. I tapped harder. Still nothing. I told some of my coworkers about earlier how I was nervous she was dying/ill.)

On a happier note

I made a website for work.

You can see all my lovely coworkers and their... interesting photos here.

My website is here. SO PROFESSIONAL EH?

FYI

How to annoy Jo:

- Tell me all about your mundane problems then act all insecure about them and expect me to care
- Say you don't like cats
- Ignore my attempts to talk to you
- Ignore my attempts to tell you why I'm in a bad mood
- Give me stupid one-word answers
- Don't answer my repeated calls
- Call Indiana a fly-over state (I know it is, just don't say it in front of me)
- Say that Italians didn't invent pizza

Quote of the Day

me: what is he studying exactly?meteorology still??? Weatherology?

11:32 an analysis of the movie Twister?

 Elaine: haha... i think it's technically earth/atmospheric science

  basically Twisterology

 me: hahaha

11:33 "and in this scene we see Bill Paxton's character going through a transition from dichotomy of the two women in his life to a state of infatuation for Helen Hunt"

11:34 "in the background an F5 tornado rages from the ionochromostratosphere into the warm front collision path of a dual-toned shelf cloud"

11:37 Elaine: hahahahaha

  this should be how all meteorology papers are published  -conversation between Elaine and myself about meteorology journal papers

Biscuits To Die For

I found a photocopied recipe while cleaning up some stuff in my bookshelf today: "Just like Red Lobster's cheese garlic biscuits". I am going to a party/bonfire tonight so thought I may make them. I'm not sure where the recipe came from- I probably copied it from a newspaper clipping recipe my mom had.

The recipe is very easy and good, but I think it can be improved. Here is my (BETTER) version:

- 2 cups biscuit baking mix
- 2/3 cup milk
- 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese (the sharper the better, you can grate your own or buy it shredded)
- 1 or 2 TB melted margarine/butter
- 1/4 tsp. garlic powder

- Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
- Stir baking mix, milk and cheese until combined. Then beat vigorously with wooden spoon for about 30 seconds.
- Drop dough onto ungreased baking sheet. Bake ~10 minutes or until golden brown.
- Meanwhile, stir together melted butter and garlic powder. Brush over biscuits as soon as they are done.
- ENJOY cheesy garlic deliciousness!

This recipe only makes about 9/10 biscuits (the original recipe quotes it as 10-12 which is definitely not true). Double or triple for lots of biscuit love. :)

Various Updates

Ok, I'm going to preface this whole thing with the fact that I AM SEEING RUSH TOMORROW, EVERYONE. I've seen them twice before and am just as giddy this time too. Not only are they my favorite all time band ever, they are absolutely amazing live performers. I'm going with a few of my coworkers (I know I'm working at the right place). I'll stop while I'm ahead and just say that I'm immensely excited to go.

So, where have I been? I would say busy, but also unmotivated. Work is going great and I'm really happy in Baltimore. I've just been assigned to an instrument team for the spectrographs on Hubble, COS+STIS. I'm looking forward to starting my work with that. Besides work though, I have been lots of obnoxious adult things like setting up health insurance, car insurance, car repairs, furniture shopping, and RETIREMENT planning! I've made some really fun and diverse friends at work too- there is one of every kind of person at a company of 500+ employees! It makes for a great selection of friends :)

Last Saturday a few friends and I went on a winery trail on the eastern shore of MD. PS- that means eastern shore of the bay, not the ocean! We went to 4 different wineries, and 1 was alright, 2 were downright bad, and 1 was excellent. Maryland does not have a good reputation with wines- maybe it's the climate or soil, but let's just say they're not known for the wines (beer though, yes!). The real winner of the trip was a visit to the Sandbar, a bar on the shore of bay, in a borderline trashy but definitely redneck part of the state. A woman at the last winery we visited suggested we visit there. We got to sit on the edge of the water drinking mojitos and listening to a so-so cover band. On the way home we got drive across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge while a beautiful lightning storm lit up the distance. Not a bad day.

Sunday some people and I went to the MD State Fair. I've never even been to the IN state fair, so I'm not sure how it compares. It was fun though- we got fried food and rode some rides so I'm calling it a success. Mostly we went to show a new postdoc from England what America is all about- fried snickers and livestock.

Thursday I went laser tagging with people from work and, let me say- IT. WAS. SO. FUN. I've been laser tagging before and this was on a whole different level. Maybe because I'm not 8 years old anymore, or my aim has improved, or that I now take sniping more seriously. Regardless, it was the most fun I've had in a while. 

Last night a group of people celebrated said English woman's birthday by taking her out on town. It was a ton of fun! Tomorrow I go to Bristow, VA (just outside DC) for the Rush concert!!!

Poem(s) of the Day

The Oft-Repeated Dream 

She had no saying dark enough  
For the dark pine that kept 
Forever trying the window latch 
Of the room where they slept. 

The tireless but ineffectual hands  
That with every futile pass 
Made the great tree seem as a little bird 
Before the mystery of glass! 

It never had been inside the room,  
And only one of the two 
Was afraid in an oft-repeated dream 
Of what the tree might do. 
- Robert Frost, 1921


I'm nobody! Who are you?

I'm nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there's a pair of us — don't tell!
They'd banish us, you know.

How dreary to be somebody!
How public, like a frog
To tell your name the livelong day
To an admiring bog!
- Emily Dickinson

:)

I'm really tired, and should be going to sleep, but instead I'm going through a large number of photos I've left in a black hole folder called "To Sort".

Feeling a little bit homesick, and thinking of my family... Love them lots! :)

Love you momma!

Niece Lilly, being herself.

This is what happens when I try and get a photo of these two...

Hahahaha

Just Daniel.

Sarah and sleepy C :)

Snaaaake

Fearless little Bella!

Little sis

heehee, I love this photo of Leah!

My grandmother

Bekah and massive Indy

Smiley C

Niece Charlie playing under the piano!

I LOVE SCIENCE!!!!!!

Ugh, guys, I just "watched" the landing of the new Mars rover, Curiosity, and I'm so stoked about science that I can't sleep. Listen, I'm an astronomer and have faith in NASa, but even in the back of my head I was worried something would go wrong with this landing. There were so many stages that had to be done perfectly and with perfect timing that even one small wrench in the plan would turn a multi-billion dollar rover into a piece of expensive trash on the red planet.

WELL IT WORKED!!!!! NASA just decelerated, parachuted, used rockets to brake, lowered the rover with nylon cords from a SKY CRANE, and then had the propulsion system sever the cords and FLY AWAY. Things went as flawlessly as could be and Curiosity landed safely on Mars and began sending back images almost instantly!!! Here is an image of the rover's shadow:

And below is a schematic of the landing sequence (which you've probably heard all about, a dozen times by now) but STILL. Look at that and tell me that you aren't excited by science, that exploring the cosmos isn't a worthy cause, and that NASA isn't doing the most incredibly inspiring job ever with its 0.1% of the US budget!!!!

STORAGE CRISIS

I promise I'll get to more substantial stuff soon (like moving and starting my new career, little things like that), but I need your help, people of the internet.

I just moved into my new apartment (pictures soon, once it looks civilized!), and it's in a great location, big rooms, hardwood floors, FIRE ESCAPE, but the one thing it is desperately lacking is storage.

There are 2 closets in the whole place, one in my bedroom that will barely fit my clothes, and another in the living room, where I'll be keeping some seasonal stuff, vacuum, etc. The problem is that I'm left with a lot of loose odds and ends that were previously kept holed up in closets. Things like folders of papers, class notes, a guitar, rocks from AZ... you get the picture.

What do I do with this stuff?! There is space to store it, but it would just be thrown in the corner for all to see. Any suggestions?

And, the biggest problem of all, I think, is the kitchen. It's a big area, but there are only a few cabinets above and below the sink. I currently have them filled up with my dishes and pots and pans. There is a large pegboard on the wall from the last tenant (maybe 3'x3') where I'll hang my mugs and maybe some pots or anything that can be put on a hook.

But there is almost ZERO counterspace! Only a couple square feet. I have a small fold-out table set up now with my microwave and coffeemaker, but I have a box full of previous pantry items and nowhere to store it now! Spices, baking things, mixer, crockpot, etc... What do I do with this stuff??!! :(

I've seen carts with wheels on them that people use for kitchen storage... anything else you can think of? I am not opposed at all to building things either (but don't know how far I'll get with a $30 toolset). My friend Steven has a cool spice rack on the wall he built, which is sort of inspiring me to take some initiative for something similar.

If you have any advice, suggestions, or commiserations please leave a comment!

Amazing Photos

Similar can be seen by clicking here.

Man on Wire

Last night I hung out with an old friend and some new friends, and we watched a Sundance film called Man on Wire. My friend Nate introduced it by saying it was "a documentary about a tightrope walker", and that it was "riveting". I had a hard time believing any documentary could be riveting, but we watched it nonetheless.

All I have to say is it was riveting, and that you must see this movie. It details the life of Phillipe Petit, who had an impossible dream to walk a highwire across the twin World Trade Centers in 1974. The story impacts you in a way that simultaneously makes you feel totally insignificant and unaccomplished, as well as completely in awe of the beauty of human inspiration.

The cinematography was superb, the soundtrack fantastic, and the storyline was told in a very capturing way. Wikipedia says "Film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 100% of the 150 reviews they have collected have been positive. It is currently the best reviewed movie on the website." It won the Academy Award for Best Documentary. I highly recommend this movie!

Poem of the Day

Two blog posts in one day?! Outrageous! Both of them of no substance, too.

I have always admired and loved the poetry of E.E.Cummings. This is one of his most well-known poems, not as radical in style as most, but still characteristic.

-----------------------------------------------

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

-i carry your heart with me, E.E. Cummings

Nobody

Recently I'm finding myself in the situation of having to say lots of goodbyes to good friends. I've had a lot to think about, and a lot of time to do it while driving to and from Baltimore. I listened to The Battle for Everything on the way back, which I haven't done in several years. I've always loved the beginning of this song.

Take off your shoes
Take off your self
Take off your rented mental health
Take off your raincoat, settle down
Take off your nightmare and your frown
There is a place for you to go
To see another ringer in a rock show
Take my pretense for a time
Cause I wanna say to you

I'm nobody
Without you, buddy
You, buddy
My long-lost friend

-Five for Fighting

Life Goes On No Matter What

I'm moving to an unfamiliar city in a few weeks, to be employed in an actual career-oriented employment, and am unabashedly anxious...

But I have the best friends and family in the world and will have them for the rest of my life!

Core Dump

I've neglected this blog yet again. Here is an undetailed list of my recent activities through the passage of photos. Click on pictures for larger images!

I got pie'd for the physics club's annual Pie a Professor fundraiser where we auction the chance to pie a professor in the face. My lab professor did this... At least I was raising money for the club. :P

I went to IU's Little 500 bike race for the first time. It's an IU tradition that I thought I should see once before graduating!

I went observing for 5 nights in March, at Kitt Peak in my second home, Arizona! There was more snow than I had seen the whole winter in Indiana :P

I saw some beautiful sunsets up there, and we were open 4/5 nights, closed one due to high winds!

Look at those mountain layers!!!!

I brought my sister's SLR camera with me and took some nice photos of the pristine skies up there at 7000ft! The photo above is the dome of my telescope for 3 nights, the 2.1m. The other 2 nights I was at the 0.9m telescope.

The bright city lights light up the 4m dome across the mountain top. 

 

I graduated!!!! Elaine and I on graduation day, behind our home away from homes, Swain West, the physics & astronomy building. 

 My best friend Naomi graduated from Purdue! :)

I got an SLR camera for graduation! It's a Canon Rebel T2i and I love it. I use it mainly to take photos of cats, but occasionally photograph people too, I guess. That's a picture of my sister's cat, Chips (I think?)

Sister's cat Fish (I think?)

My baby, Moka Latte!

Moka being cute.

I made lemon meringue for my good friend Jesse's birthday. I was nervous I would ruin it but it turned out DELICIOUS. I got the recipe from allrecipes, can be found here.

My good friend, Nick, came to visit Indiana from Arizona, and him and his girlfriend (and my fellow astronomy major at IU!) Teresa visited me for a day. All three of us were in the REU in Flagstaff together, and now they are most disgustingly cute couple ever!

My little sister, Lizzy, graduated from high school! 

I went to Baltimore for an interview with Space Telescope Science Institute... I GOT THAT JOB! :)

In the words of my favorite band, Rush, and their song Prime Mover:

From the point of ignition
To the final drive
The point of the journey
Is not to arrive--
Anything can happen!

In the Words of Jerry Seinfeld...

Sometimes things just even out...

I'M EMPLOYED!!!!!!

I got a job with Space Telescope Science Institute as a research and instrumentation analyst, and will be living in Baltimore! That's all I know, since I don't have time to coordinate anything else. Check back later :)

In the meantime, Mom and I are off to Italia- time to put this Italian minor to good use!!!!

The Sieve and the Sand

Seeing as my blog name pays homage to him, I thought I should share this sad but inevitable news that Ray Bradbury has died.

I am about to read his book Martian Chronicles.

Quote of the Day

me: There's a place called kokomo

  that's where we wanna go

17:30  Elaine: ehhh no you don't

me: not that kokomo

17:34 Elaine: unless your idea of a vacation is checkin out abandoned factories!

 me: hahahaha

17:35 Fun times in Kokomo today!!!

 Elaine: hahaha

17:36 me: Here's the place where there used to be industry

 Elaine: that train's carrying jobs out of kokomo!
-Chatting about Kokomo, IN (for reference watch this video, mild language but the humor is worth it)

Eek!

I just printed off a few copies of my resume to bring to my interview Wednesday. I've been sitting here nervously popping pistachios for the past 5 minutes, thinking about what I'll say. (Seriously, you'd be amazed how many pistachios you can eat in 5 minutes).

PS- I have several hours to kill while in Baltimore, so if you know of anywhere I should go (I'm thinking the harbor?) let me know :)  

Prime Mover

I know people say "No, really, I love [insert band]", but you don't get it, I really love Rush.

This is probably the greatest group of musicians that has ever picked up guitars and drum sticks. SERIOUSLY.

AZ Hankerin'

Arizona stole my heart.

It's not that I don't like Indiana- I do! (And I like green foliage and vegetation!) But I love having crazy outdoors adventures, exploring the beautiful outdoors and seeing the wonder that nature has to offer. In Arizona you are only a stone's throw from the Grand Canyon, mountains, deserts, cacti, canyons and more.

Flagstaff was such an ideal place to live that it seemed fake. I hope to visit sometime in the future :)

Being an astronomer, it is inevitable that I return (frequently) to my second state. Here's to a dry heat!

My Unjustified Lazy Day

Today, instead of going to work (which I'm not getting paid for yet, so have little incentive to actually work 8 hours a day), I drove 1.5 hours to the dentist, sat in a chair for an hour, drove 1.5 hours back to Bloomington, ate lunch, played with Moka, watched 4 episodes of Numb3rs (that's ~3 hours), made 3 friendship bracelets, and it's just now 6:30pm.

Hooray summer and semi-unemployment!

Isn't she moving it the wrong way??? We moved ours right to left!