They should make cocoa frosted flakes and bring in Tony the Tiger's PMS-y sister Tonya to market it.

You scored as Sloth. Sloth 75% Pride 44% Gluttony 44% Greed 38% Lust 38% Wrath 31% Envy 25% Seven deadly sins created with QuizFarm.com

Gah! Chicken herpes!

Well, they've cancelled classes for the rest of the day due to some alleged thunderstorms that have yet to show up (2 hours late, *tsk tsk*). But I'm not gonna complain. Just gives me an extra two weeks to finish my lab report, and almost as long to finish a Concept and Form assignment.
Congrats to the Madison Academic Lady Mustangs for getting to the state tournament. Very impressive, I might have to make the trip to Murfreesboro Saturday if they advance to the finals.
Ummmmmmm ... So how about USJ? Man, it's like all the bad karma they've been building up is manifesting itself this year. If you have no clue what I'm talking about, pay a visit to the Jackson Sun archives.
And, um ... Spring Break in 27 hours! Woot!

There are children in Hungary who would've taken that pop-tart.

So it's the week before spring break *little dance* and I've had the requisite pre-spring break meltdown. Actually, I foresee another one in the near future, probably tomorrow night or Tuesday morning. Or at least a case of sleep-deprivation. Why did I put off doing my research paper? Why?
*shrug*
We'll see how this goes ...
*poke*

Nerding out!

So ...
Dennis let me play some World of Warcraft the other day and I'm getting a copy of the game after studio.
It sucks you in.
There is no escape.
So instead of obsessively checking email, blogs, and facebook, I can run around beating stuff with sticks and going on quests.
My life is just sounding more and more exciting by the minute ...

And yes, my room always looks like this.

The family came for a visit earlier today. Basically walked around campus, grabbed some food at the Union, and went to the studio for a little bit. Then back to the dorm to chill out for a little bit while I copied some recipes. They had to leave early to make it back to Jackson before the weather gets too bad.
Anyway.
Spring break is in three weeks. :D
Woo.
Right. So I'm gonna go grocery shopping in a little while. Have fun.

Blimey

Woo and yay! I got a 94 on my physics test. :D I could get an A in this class ...
Right. So yesterday I went to the Sanderson with Dennis to learn how to play racquetball. Mostly I just ran around trying not to get hit and sucking at the game. My butt muscles are sore now.
This week I'm determined to eat as little chicken as possible. Only chicken things I have are a couple of frozen chicken cordon bleu and a can of chicken noodle soup. I wanted seafood. New England clam chowder, tuna, and shrimp are all on this week's menu. It's a cooking week. Baking a strawberry cake for tomorrow, chocolate chip/chunk cookies for Dennis. Made cornbread over the weekend (yum!) as well as cheese potato soup. Dennis cooked what was possibly the best pork I've ever eaten and red potatoes Saturday (during our "snowstorm").
I'll let you guys know how the shrimp goes. I found a recipe and it sounds REALLY good ... lightly fried shrimp in gravy, seasoned with garlic powder, salt, and black pepper, served over white rice *drool*.
So basically this was a food post.
Toodles!

What's an orgasm?

*sigh*
Thursday. I had no motivation this morning until half an hour before I left for English. And I've been working on my lab report since I got back from there. Minus time for lunch.
So Valentine's Day is less than a week away. I can't play the "Most Depressing Day of the Year" card because I've at least got a guy who might do something romantic-ish, but he's still not my "boyfriend," technically. No guarantee of anything. Which could potentially make the day more horrible. Evil Hallmark holiday.
But compared to some, I've got it made. Dennis and I might have broken up, but at least there was no infidelity involved. Or if there was, he's really good at covering it up. But we'll assume the best, 'k?
Bla bla bla ... off to Concept and Form. Blargh.

Whoa! You're not dead!

Thursday, 2 February 2006.
6:30 - Wake up. Get something to eat and finish two essays. Shower optional, if time allows.
9:15 - Depart for English. *thunder* Great ...
9:20 - Wet, cold, soggy trudge across the Drill Field.
9:30-10:30 - English test.
10:38 - Change out of wet clothes, into dry pajamas. Gather cooking utensils and head to the kitchen. Cheese potato soup!
1:00 - Half-hearted attempt at completing Tuesday's Concept and Form assignment.
2:50 - Depart for C and F. Observe trail of rose petals going past my door.
3:00-4:00 - Concept and Form. Herb wore three outfits (one on top of the other) and we watched part of a video about modern representations of Christ.
4:45 - Go to lab.
6:45 - Meet Dennis to go shopping for cough drops and whatever the heck he's getting. He had a list of what kinds of cough drops would get someone high the fastest.
7:40 - Wendy's.
8:28 - Physics study session at Giles. Notice betta floating on his side at the top of his tank.
9:45 - Field trip to get a Limeade for Carey.
11:20 - Call it a night. Discover resurrected betta. Freak out a little. Wonder where I've left my sunglasses.
11:35 - Remember that I left them in the car.

WTF, mate?

Random post.
Dennis was in an unusually good mood yesterday. Why? He bought a bunch of kitchen implements the other day, for one thing. The orange smoothies might have given him an extra boost, too. Seriously, the man was bubbly. No yelling at traffic or anything.
Just need to keep him from doing something that'll mess up the good mood. There's the tricky part.

And did anyone else hear what Zach and Sarah named their cat? Pookie! Funfun. :)

Sorry, I'm delirious.

I survived rural Alabama.
The first night, after looking at ritzy outdoor toilets, a bird watching tower, and a church, we arrived at this bar and grill in Faunsdale. Faunsdale is not politically correct. Rebel flags hanging everywhere in this place, and a parking sign that was "Confederate Only." Finas had a few things to say about that...
It amazes me sometimes that the cheapest thing on a menu is $8 and it takes - I kid you not - over an hour to get the thing to your table. Cheeseburger, man. Cheeseburger.
We were so hungry we stole crackers from another table and divided them up. Savored the crackers, even. And all of the conversation centered around food, which helped not at all. Amanda was nice enough to let us have her leftover fries. They disappeared in less than 15 seconds.
By the time we finally got our food and ate, it was something like 10:30 and most of us were ready to crash. So we did.

Applause for karma.

Follow-up on my mini-rant in Miki's blog the other day.
Punishment has been dealt by myself (I made Dennis push the shopping cart while I looked for spiffy cooking implements and foodstuffs) and by a reigning force in the nerd universe - the tech guys who run maintenance on online video game servers. No World of Warcraft yesterday. Mwahahaha!
Yeah, I guess I wasn't hard enough on him. But thanks to the uber-nerds, I think he kinda got the point. What am I saying? He's male. He's gonna screw up. Hopefully he'll get really good at making up for his mistakes.

Salivation ensued.

Okay, well. I'm no longer freaking out. Got some important tasks finished already, and I'm looking forward to dinner at Old Venice with Dennis and the Blasphemous Bible Gang (and guests).
Let me brag on Chef Man's skills. I've had the pleasure of eating TWO dishes a la Dennis this week. Italian chicken breast with potatoes neopolitan one night, and diced chicken, andouille sausage, red and yellow peppers, and moro oranges in a combination of sauces. The yellow peppers picked up a lot of the sweet flavor from the oranges. My tongue was having an orgasm, I believe. Add a little goat cheese for a creamy texture. *drool*
So yeah, if anyone hasn't read the really really long Bay St. Louis post, it's below the jaguar thing.
I think it is now time to read or check out something for English.

Mental glitches at the beginning of the semester are bad. Very bad.

Hey people.
So, it's the third day of class and I'm (hopefully) getting over a meltdown. Basically, my computer isn't working properly in some areas, and I've been trying every method known to the technologically deficient to fix it.
Even iTunes crapped out on me. That was the final straw.
But I have that back now. However, Word probably isn't working now, so I'll have to reinstall it. Bleh. If that doesn't solve most of my problems, I'm going to curl up in a tiny ball in the corner and rock back and forth for a few days.
The computer problems seemed to spill over into other areas. First, I couldn't find my keys (they were in my black bag), then I went shopping for some ingredients to this insane but tasty meal Dennis cooked last night. There was only one bottle of soy sauce in the entire store, as far as I can tell. And he also asked for Andouille sausage. I could find the peppers, thankfully. That freaking sausage was well above my eye level, and there were maybe three packages of them amid the Jimmy Dean breakfast sausage.
So yeah, stressful day. Spending an hour looking for three things at Kroger is probably not the best way to end it. Grr.
I'm gonna make some hot chocolate now. Then go to physics. And then maybe go find a tranquilizer.

I saw this, and it made me think of you, Jenn.

Post-Bay St. Louis update below. :)

The Jaguar Spirit You scored 65% Creativity, 49% Compassion, 55% Strength, and 58% Intelligence!

You are a Jaguar Spirit. You move like a predator, and enjoy the night. You are agile and graceful, and have amazing night vision. You tend to be solitary, but sometimes get along with one or two others. Jaguars are very wild spirits with strong wills. Don't forget my two other spiritual tests: Sitakaliism Test Paganism Test, my political test: The Liberal Test, and my Biology Test

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 46% on Creativity You scored higher than 24% on Compassion You scored higher than 74% on Strength You scored higher than 55% on Intelligence

Link: The Spirit Animal Test written by sitakali on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

...And then we were able to get the fifteen-foot-long boat out of the tree.

Hello to everyone in civilized places.
I'm back in Starkville after a week of picking through rubble and hauling timbers that date back to the 1860s. It's nice to be clean again and not have to worry about gnats, broken glass, and rusty hardware. Or the possibility of encountering leaking sewage or rotting flesh.
The first couple of days we went back to the tents sore, tired, and eaten by insects that are usually only active in the spring. Unfortunately, Meaghan and I hadn't brought flip flops for the showers, and none were available at what was left of the closest Wal-Mart. So we got in my car, met Dennis and one of his cousins at the Diamondhead exit, and drove to Gulfport.
How random is this? In the deli section, somebody asks "Is your name Meredith?" I'm tired and a little paranoid, because I don't know who this woman is who's speaking. Turns out it was my sister's friend's mom. How she knew who I am, I have no idea. Then we turn down the beer aisle (I'm pushing the cart, just so I can lean against it whenever we stop) and run into her again. Thanks, Dennis, now my sister's friend's mom thinks we were going to get drunk or something.
But anyway, we drove back in Zombie mode (and almost took out some nut who was standing in the middle of the road), got our showers and crashed out.
The second day we were joined by an arborist named Kyle. She had been staying with some friends in the area, but decided after getting stuck in a traffic jam that it would be easier to pitch a tent in a clearing on the site than to drive back and forth every day.
Wednesday. More work, less fatigue and soreness. Good thing, because Dennis took me to dinner in Gulfport. Tasty, tasty. We got a piece of cheesecake to share and took it back to his house. Watched some Scrubs, met the dogs, said hi to the parents.
However, there is another down side to living on the coast besides hurricanes. Fog. Freakishly thick fog. I wound up sleeping in his sister's room. Too dangerous to drive down the partially nonexistant roads in Bay and Waveland in that stuff, plus I'd feel bad sending him home in that mess.
And then the President came into town Thursday. Took up nearly two hours of our work time, made us late for lunch, and held us up again as we were trying to get back to the site.
The Secret Service guys were waaaaaaaay more amusing than they should be. We watched them search under an uprooted tree and in every one of the porta-potties. Right after they went further down the road, a FedEx truck drives up and drops of a delivery (presumably for the construction company working nearby. One cardboard box, one metal cube. The metal cube sat there. Whenever a worker was coming across the road, one of his buddies would say "Hey! Bring that over here, would ya?" Every one just looked at it and gave the "Heck no, I'm not that dumb" face. Had it been a bomb, I would've been screwed.
But yeah, the motorcade rolled through, and I got all the hooplah on video.
Almost got run over by one of the big black SUVs.
Then came the middle-aged people from North Carolina. How they had so much energy at 10 p.m. after a 13 hour drive, I don't know. Started making more noise than I've ever heard. And the tents amplify everything. Hair dryers. Bad.
Who would've thought a college kid would be trying to shut up a bunch of old people?
The kicker was the guy who decided to be a rooster the next morning.
Quiet hours were 8 p.m. to 7 a.m., by the way.
Got to the site (rain, eww) and we were greeted with the unmistakable smell of decomposition. Option one: exposed sewage. Option two: dead animal. Option three: dead person. And it was concentrated in the corner where we needed to work that day. Of course Ellis (a local who helped coordinate with Heritage Conservation Network) had to tell us a story of a friend who found a human leg when she was allowed to enter her home.
The locals were really nice to us, too. One guy was baking bread that day, and he brought us a loaf. :) Nobody was nearly as thrilled with the presidential tour. Ahh, and we had some press exposure, too. I'm stock footage for a New Orleans news station, and a potential story picture for the Atlanta Journal Constitution. One other news crew, too, but I don't remember which one ...
So yeah, we got a lot accomplished, but the amount of material still untouched could take another month to sort. Between the lumber, furniture, photographs, Nazi paraphanalia, roofing materials, hardware, glass, and whatever was making the decomposition smell, the next few salvage groups have their work cut out for them.
But now it is time for sleep. Good night.

It's a rocket ship!

Good morning, all you lovely people who are back at school. I made it to the coast (yay). Saw Dennis for a few minutes yesterday. Anyway, I'm right on the beach, which only means that there is nothing standing for a few miles except a few very old, twisted trees. There are several volunteer groups lodging here at the I Care Village. Pictures forthcoming. Sometime. Most likely when I get back to State because I'm on one of the Foundation's computers.
Yep, woke up this morning to what I'm assuming was a helicoptor or a plane. But now it's off to breakfast. Work starts at 8:30.

Toothpaste, underwear, comb, work boots ... yeah, I think I'm ready to go!

Still packing. I've gotta pick up some puncture-resistant boots tonight or tomorrow and make sure to grab my hammer from my room Saturday. Plus I think I'm getting a tool belt. Ooooooooooooooh. It's been a very butchy holiday season for me. If I didn't like guys so much, I'd swear I'm turning into a lesbian.
Anyhoo, I'll try to take some pictures while I'm down there. I'll also try not to die or get maimed or abducted. All that fun stuff.
And it seems I'll be staying in a big tent with all the other volunteers at the entrance of Buccaneer State Park. Pretty close to the beach. Fortunately the temperature isn't supposed to go lower than the mid-forties.
Toodles.

Doesn't everybody want Cinderella on a stick?

Recovering from this weekend. I got a definite "yes" from my parents about Bay St. Louis. :D Just need to fax my registration form tomorrow and get confirmation. I'll be gone Friday night if everything goes smoothly there.
So anyway ...
I'll post some pics on Facebook eventually. Too lazy to do it now.
Yeah ... I think I'm gonna go put something in a box.

Incest was imported from Europe.

Greetings, lovely readers.
Behold! I have ventured to Milan and I didn't get eaten! Hung out with Miki all afternoon and into the evening. Did all sorts of fun stuff like make pancakes and play with Nobe and watch Family Guy and try some Swedish fish. It's candy. Cherry flavored.
Yesh.
Then we sushi-ed with her parents and went to Memoirs of a Geisha. If God played the cello, His name would be Yo Yo Ma. I rather liked the movie. Beautifully done. It's presented almost as ceremonially as a geisha dance. Kinda delicate, but it holds your attention. Hard to describe.
So anyway, party weekend coming up. *grin*
Hopefully next weekend I'll be somewhere in Mississippi on my way to an architectural preservation workshop in Bay St. Louis. That's about ten minutes outside Diamondhead. ;)
And no, I'm not going just to be near Dennis. That's just an added perk. :)

The quizzes return!

Cary Grant You scored 58% Bad Boy, 74% Classy-Cool, 68% Witty-Charming, and 34% Comic-Musical!

The epitome of wit, charm, good looks, and classy moves, your leading man is CARY GRANT. Ok, so maybe I'm a little bit partial to Cary Grant, but LOOK at him! All he has to do is smile and I'm swooning! He's funny, clever; a catch no matter how you put it. True, he can be devious at times, but usually that's just when he's trying to steal the girl away from the less deserving man who's got her. You'd be hard-pressed to find a girl who wouldn't give in to his charms sooner or later anyway. If you're a guy and you classify as Cary Grant, then you're definitely my type of guy!

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 77% on Bad Boy You scored higher than 94% on Classy-Suave You scored higher than 75% on Witty-Charming You scored higher than 20% on Comic-Musical

Link: The Who's Your Leading Man Test written by spasafrass on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test